#like the absolute worst version of his character possible

[azaharinflames]

At this point, I can't help but wonder—was Eddie’s character intentionally written this way, or did it just accidentally turn out like this? Watching today’s episode made me realize again why I’ve never been able to relate to Buddie. They don’t even function as good friends—how could they possibly be a romantic pairing? It makes no sense.

Ever since the tsunami episode, when Eddie left Buck in charge of Christopher even though Buck was injured, I started questioning whether Eddie was even a good friend. But today’s episode pushed me to reconsider whether Eddie is a friend to Buck at all. If one of my friends treated me the way Eddie treats Buck, I would’ve cut ties a long time ago.

Remember that line about Buck’s parents? “They’re good people, but they’re not good parents.” I think the same applies to Eddie. He might not be a bad person, but that doesn’t make him a good friend. And he definitely can’t be a romantic partner—not for Buck. At least from Buck’s perspective, Eddie is toxic.

Even in fanfiction—whether it’s Buddie or Buck/Tommy—Eddie is often written as a supportive, loyal friend. But that version of Eddie only exists in fiction. The Eddie on the show is not a good friend. In many ways, today’s episode completely killed off whatever last bits of fondness I had left for him.

And it reminded me why I was so excited about Buck and Tommy when he first appeared. While I like Lou even more now, I still remember how much I appreciated Tommy’s care for Buck, how he kept coming back for Buck. Sure, Tommy made some dumb choices, but he always came back—for Buck.

If you want to argue for a romantic relationship, then at the very least, you need to care for the other person. Whether this was intentional or not, today’s Eddie was absolutely the worst.

Putting Buddie aside, Eddie doesn’t seem like someone who could be in a relationship with any woman without hurting her. What Eddie truly needs is self-reflection and therapy. Romance should come after that.

This. All of this.

Eddie has exhibited today some behaviors he’s had for a long time (not the more extreme bits, but the refusal of seeing the other person’s viewpoint, or his refusal to actually apologized), so it could be that he’s just written to be this way. But either way, i wasn’t expecting it to be this bad.

[cressidagrey]

I am taking deep breathes to cap myself. This chapter was sweet like candy. And I live candy. I love you.

Verstappen off season baby. It's perfect. I want to laugh and make jokes about the boys finally getting what they deserve but I am too happy about the pregnancy news and the lion plush to care.

But Jos and Emilie were so on brand I loved it. (I have to admit, the way you write Jos in this fic has made me want a Jos Verstappen fic now for some reason.)

But everyone coming to defend Belle against Charles? Magnificent. The one yelling over text being Oscar? Poetic justice. It's always the quiet ones.

I am laughing so hard that the brother thought she was on trouble. Like what? She got kidnapped? Hilarious. But also a valid fear if it wasn't their fault she went radio silent.

Lorenzo going to her apartment and then at her job to ask about her and they both tell him she's not there anymore? Beautiful. He deserves to run around like a headless chicken. He deserves to fear the worst. He deserves to suffer.

They all do.

But I am way to giddy about the pregnancy to care. Are we getting close to the big reveal? I can barely contain myself.

Also Lando X Emilie can absolutely be a spinoff. We can call it 'black cat'. If you ever wanted.

A question about possible future fics. You said that the new Charles fic is mostly a standalone with possible future added ones. But are you planning on writing something new and long after white Horse? And if so what drivers are you thinking about? (Surprisingly I consider Jos also an option for some reason now. - the reason being you made him into a fun yet realistic character.) I wasn't at for at an Oscar fan. Not in a way that would have me read fics about him but your writing in Mysterious Mrs piastry and the McLaren dating one made me love him. I think you can take any driver and make them an absolute lovable character.

As always you are the highlight of a difficult day. (Difficult in a good way though.)

I’m so glad you loved the chapter — your joy is infectious, and honestly, “sweet like candy” is the highest compliment.

The image of Oscar absolutely snapping in defense of Belle while Jos and Emilie remain peak themselves is just chef’s kiss to me too — and your reaction to Lorenzo running around like a headless chicken? DELICIOUS.

Also, the fact that you’re even entertaining the idea of a Jos Verstappen fic because of how he’s written here??? That is truly wild 😭

And thank you for the thoughtful question about future projects! I have a lot of ideas!

So, I have:

A half written fic for Max, which would be an one shot and came from me thinking what if the wag of one of the drivers doesn't actually fit the beauty ideals of this sport? it's kinda like The mysterious Mrs Piastri, but the Max version 😂 And he's unhinged about his wife.

I sat through 2 hours of a Dax Shephard podcast because of a George Russell x Toto Wolff's daughter idea I have. I think I deserve a medal for that, because that guy is annoying as anything 😂

More in the Mysterious Mrs Piastri Universe will also be coming.

[bespectacledbun]

also I watched TLM 2023 while on my flight back from singapore and the entire time during #That library scene where Eric is explaining about the different countries all I could think about was how THAT was the kind of Silvio that deserved the spotlight in his main route

[magical-reid]

The Bucky Barnes Cake Conspiracy

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x (implied) Avenger!Reader

Word Count: 800

Summary: When Wanda convinces you and Natasha to do the “Hear Me Out” cake trend, you think it’s just harmless fun. That is, until every single one of your picks is a different version of Bucky Barnes, the entire Tower gets involved, and Bucky himself finds out in the most humiliating way possible—via Wanda’s viral video.

It started as a joke.

A harmless, ridiculous joke.

And then it spiraled into something much, much worse.

“I’m just saying,” Wanda said, shoving her phone in your face as the three of you wandered through the grocery store, “we should do it.”

Natasha glanced at the screen. “Oh, the ‘Hear Me Out’ cake trend? That’s dumb.”

“Exactly!” Wanda grinned. “Which makes it perfect for us.”

You furrowed your brows, watching the TikTok she’d pulled up. The trend was simple: buy a plain cake, decorate it with pictures of celebrities or characters you found attractive, and then justify your crush by sticking ‘Hear Me Out’ in the middle.

It was stupid. But also hilarious.

“I’m in,” you said.

Natasha groaned. “Fine. But I’m not helping if this turns into another Tower-wide disaster.”

Wanda hummed, already making a beeline for the bakery aisle. “Oh, it definitely will.”

Back at the Tower, you sat cross-legged on the kitchen counter as Wanda set up her phone. The cake—a plain white-frosted one you’d grabbed from the store—sat in the center of the table, looking all innocent. It had no idea it was about to be used for nonsense.

“Okay,” Wanda said, grinning. “Time to put down our picks.”

Natasha went first. She taped a photo of Keanu Reeves onto a skewer and stuck it into the cake. Classic. No one would question it.

Then Wanda went. Pedro Pascal. Another solid choice.

And then you—

“Y/N,” Natasha deadpanned. “Are you serious?”

You hesitated, mid-skewer placement. “…What?”

Wanda started cackling.

Because instead of picking three different people like a normal person, you had, without realizing it, picked three different versions of Bucky Barnes.

One was a picture of him in his tactical gear, scowling like he was about to murder someone (hot). Another was of him in a hoodie and jeans, looking all soft and domestic (also hot). And the third? The one that really sealed your fate?

It was a close-up of his metal arm.

You winced. “Okay. I see how this looks—”

“This looks like a confession,” Wanda said gleefully, already zooming in on your picks.

“Oh my God,” Natasha muttered, running a hand down her face.

“I panicked!” you hissed. “I wasn’t thinking—I just grabbed the first ones that looked good!”

Wanda was shaking with laughter. “Oh, babe. This isn’t panic. This is obsession.”

You groaned, dropping your head onto the counter. “I hate you both.”

The video went up on Wanda’s account that night.

─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ───

By the next morning, it had one million views.

And the Tower was in absolute chaos.

Clint greeted you at breakfast with a slow, knowing grin. “So,” he said, spreading cream cheese onto his bagel, “should we start calling you Mrs. Barnes, or—?”

You threw a banana at his head.

Sam nearly fell off the couch laughing when he saw the video. “You put the metal arm?” he wheezed. “Oh, you’re down bad.”

Steve, who had clearly been dragged into this nonsense against his will, just gave you a long, unimpressed look over his coffee. “You could’ve just told him, you know.”

Tony, of course, had the most Tony reaction possible. “This is the most effort I’ve ever seen someone put into a crush. If I had known Bucky was your type, I would’ve set up an HR department just to make this more scandalous.”

You wanted the Earth to swallow you whole.

But the worst part?

Bucky.

Because by some miracle, he hadn’t seen the video yet.

Which meant you were living on borrowed time.

It happened later that night.

You were curled up on the couch, pretending to read a book but mostly trying to avoid eye contact with the entire human population, when Bucky strolled into the common room.

“Hey, doll.”

Your stomach flipped. “Hey.”

He sat next to you, arms stretched out over the back of the couch, his face unreadable. For a brief, fleeting moment, you thought—maybe he doesn’t know.

And then—

“So,” he said, far too casually. “You like my arm that much, huh?”

Your entire body locked up.

Your soul left your body.

Your mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

“I—what—who—?”

Bucky chuckled. “I saw the video.”

You shut your eyes. “Kill me.”

He hummed, like he was thinking about it. “Nah. ‘Cause then who’s gonna take me on that date you clearly want?”

You choked. “What—”

Bucky turned to face you fully, that infuriating smirk tugging at his lips. “If you wanted me so bad, sweetheart, you could’ve just asked.”

Your entire brain short-circuited. “I—That’s—You—”

Bucky leaned in, voice low. “Next time, maybe write my number on the cake instead.”

You exhaled sharply, heart hammering. “Are you—Are you flirting with me?”

His grin widened. “You tell me.”

You stared at him. Then at the door. Then back at him.

Finally, you sighed, rubbing your temples. “Fine. But if we go on a date, I’m making Wanda pay for it.”

Bucky laughed, eyes warm. “Deal.”

[kyshosmd]

BAD DOG — stanley snyder x top!male!reader

sypnosis: in which stanley snyder, prodigy marksman, is down bad for his general.

cw: general!reader, reader is bigger than stanley for plot purposes, age gap, kind of obsessed and perverted stanley, stanley acts like a nymphomaniac cause i said so, nasty degradation but not too bad, a bit too smutty for dr stone fandom tho. this is before the petrification incident happened, more perverted thoughts than plot

author's note: i warned you btw! this is totally self-indulgent. i can't write for shit. since stanley's an obsessed freak why not channel this into a fic yay !! whored stanley snyder out woo hoo! who cares if it's ooc, all smuts are kinda ooc. you never know what might happen when you bend a character over cause that has never happened btw <3

Stanley Snyder had always been a little bit... wrong. Not in a tragic, misunderstood way— in a "this guy would absolutely jack off to a voicemail you left him by accident" kinda way.

At twenty-four, Stanley was already a full-blown cautionary tale. He was an unhinged sharpshooter, attack dog and whole menace to society, the sniper prodigy who could kill a man at two miles and look pretty doing it. Cigarette perpetually dangling from his pretty lips, purple lipstick always just a little bit smudged, amber eyes gleaming with the kind of feral intensity that made people nervous. He walked around like he was one bad day away from blowing something up.

And you, General Y/N, were the poor bastard who accidentally turned his psychosexual mess of a brain into the Sistine Chapel of daddy issues.

You didn’t even have to try. A pat on the shoulder. Or a rough "Good work, Snyder."— and Stanley's suddenly so damn hard.

Every little scrap of validation you threw his way got hoarded like some deranged dragon hoarding praise instead of gold.

Stanley didn’t want to date you. He wanted to worship you. He wanted to be your fucked-up little trophy soldier, sitting at your boots, begging for scraps of attention like a mutt you forgot to neuter.

When you barked orders or even rudely growled something like "Move your ass, Snyder," he damn near came on the spot. So desperate he'd chew through concrete if you told him to. God forbid you actually praised him in front of the others — he’d spend the whole night hard as a rock, grinding into his mattress like a filthy little pervert, choking on miserable need to hear you say it again, and again, and again.

In the dark, in the silence, cigarette smoke curling around his twitching fingers, he’d press his hand between his thighs and would pretend it was your hand. Would pretend he wasn’t three brain cells and a bottle of whiskey away from breaking into your office and licking the inside of your kevlar vest just to feel close to you.

It was pathetic. It was disgusting. But...it was kind of everything he ever wanted.

Stanley Snyder probably wasn't in love. This was probably obsession. Obviously you weren't aware of your subordinate's freakfest.

It started with good intentions.

You, seasoned silver-fox general and occasional bringer of mercy, had decided to treat the younger soldiers to a night off — a little "Congrats on not dying this week" reward. Simple. Harmless. Just a few drinks, a little music, some cheap-ass bar food. Nothing could have possibly go wrong.

Unless, of course, you were Stanley Snyder.

Stanley had zero chill on a normal day. Tonight, he was five shots deep, emotionally unstable, and laser-focused on you like a guided missile made of daddy issues and desperate horniness.

He posted up at the bar first, looking cool— cocky even —cigarette tucked behind one ear, jacket slung over one shoulder. He looked... devastatingly good. And he knew it.

Because the moment he spotted you — slouched against the wall in plain clothes, drink in hand, muscles straining under the lazy fall of your jacket — Stanley decided, right then and there, that he was gonna be the worst version of himself for you.

He stumbled over, grinning way too wide, drink sloshing in his hand, and planted himself against your side like he belonged there. Pressed full-body against you, casual as a cat rubbing its head on its owner’s shin.

"Gen'rul," he slurred, his drawl sticky-sweet and loaded with all kinds of filthy implications, "you always look this good, or'm I just too drunk t'function?"

You blinked down at him, a little thrown off — because you were used to people being into you, sure — But Stanley Snyder? Stanley Snyder, golden boy, deadliest marksman alive, face like a fallen angel Stanley? The same Stanley who acted too cool for literally everything was now pressing his cheek against your chest like he was seconds from purring?

Yeah. You didn’t expect that. Not even a little bit. After all, you had no idea what was brewing in that filthy mind of his for the last few days.

"Y'know," Stanley mumbled against your shirt, voice all low and ragged, "ain't just 'cause you're my boss. I mean, it helps, yeah, but — fuck, you're stupid hot. Should be illegal."

You grabbed his wrist before it could slip even lower, but he just whined under his breath — honest-to-god whined — and looked up at you with eyes so glassy and adoring it was almost tragic.

And he wasn’t stopping. Oh, no. If anything, the resistance made him worse.

Stanley's hips shifted against yours, grinding subtle and slow, the alcohol making him sloppy and shameless. His hand trembled against your chest like he was dying to tear your clothes off with his teeth, if only you'd let him.

"C'mon, boss," he pleaded, voice cracking sweet and pitiful, "lemme be good for ya. Lemme — fuck, lemme make you feel good. I'll do anything — anything you want — I'm good with my hands, swear it, I—"

His mouth just kept running, a messy stream of filth and begging, like he didn’t even care who heard.

"Sir please," he whined, tilting his head back until you could see the flushed, vulnerable stretch of his throat. "Spit in my mouth, tie me up, ruin me — fuck, please, just lemme—"

You stared down at him, stunned into silence. Because holy shit.

You knew Stanley was weird. You knew he had issues. But this? This was... This was totally next level.

And maybe it was the liquor talking. Maybe it was the way his body molded to yours like he belonged there. Or maybe it was the way he looked up at you— like you were God, salvation, and damnation all wrapped in one— that made you think, Maybe... just maybe... he deserves a little reward.

You leaned down, voice dark and low right against his ear,

"Get on your knees, soldier."

And Stanley collapsed. Dropped so fast it was like he'd been waiting for you to say it his entire goddamn life.

Big, bloodshot eyes staring up at you with absolute worship, hands trembling on your thighs, lips parted on a breathless, "Y-Yes, sir..."

you lost whatever scrap of mercy you had left.

You dragged him out of the bar without a word, your hand tight around the back of his neck, steering him like a misbehaving mutt. Stanley stumbled after you, half-drunk, eyes wild, lipstick smudged down to his chin, and looking so goddamn happy about being manhandled you thought he might actually start drooling.

You didn’t stop until you found the back alley — dark, half-hidden by the noise and neon haze of the bar. Just private enough, and just filthy enough.

You slammed him up against the wall with a grunt, and Stanley whimpered, grabbing fistfuls of your jacket like he couldn't stand not being plastered against you.

"S-Sir—" he gasped, and God, the way he looked at you — glassy-eyed, flushed, mouth open like he was starving — You could’ve done anything to him. Anything.

Instead, you leaned in, your voice a low growl against his ear, "Look at you. Fucking pathetic."

Stanley shivered, hips jerking like your words alone could make him come undone.

"N-Not pathetic, sir," he breathed, but even as he said it, he was pawing at you desperately, grinding his slim hips against your thigh like a bitch in heat. "J-Just wanna be good f'you..."

"Yeah? This what good boys do? Get drunk and act like little whores?"

You yanked his belt open with a rough snap, and Stanley moaned — an honest-to-god whine, high and needy, his knees buckling slightly.

"Slut," you hissed, palming him hard enough to make him sob. "You’re fucking useless like this. Look at you. Can’t even stand up straight, can you?"

"I-I’m sorry, sir—!" he gasped, hips twitching helplessly, eyes squeezed shut like he was about to cry from how good it felt already. "’M tryin', I swear—"

"Trying what? To embarrass yourself?"

You shoved him back against the wall again and unzipped your own pants— and Stanley’s entire body twitched, breath hitching when he caught sight of what you were packing. His hands fumbled at your waistband like he was desperate to help, desperate to serve, desperate to be ruined.

When you finally pushed into him, hard and fast — too fast, too much — Stanley choked on a sob, clutching your arms like he was gonna fall apart right there.

"S-Shit, sir— it’s— it’s t-too big— fuck," he hiccupped, legs trembling, trying so hard to take it even when he was visibly overwhelmed. You gave him no mercy. Not an inch.

You railed into him— rough, relentless, every thrust pushing pathetic little whimpers and "I'm sorry, sir!"s out of him like a prayer.

His lipstick was completely ruined, smeared down his chin, and tears were starting to slip from the corners of his pretty amber eyes — but he still arched his back, still sobbed "Yes, sir!" every time you barked an order into his ear.

At one point, when you spit harshly onto his tongue — just to see if he'd take it — Stanley fucking moaned like you’d given him the meaning of life. He swallowed it down without hesitation, breathless and desperate, begging, "More, sir—please—"

"You’re disgusting," you snarled against his throat, biting hard enough to leave bruises. "Fuckin’ sick little thing. You love this, don’t you? Love getting used like the whore you are?"

"Y-Yes, sir!" Stanley cried, hips jerking uselessly against yours. "Love it—love you—need you—please don't stop—"

He was babbling, barely coherent, tears smearing black down his flushed cheeks, clawing at your back like you were the only thing tethering him to Earth. Completely fucking broken.

And when he finally came — ruined, sobbing, breathless — it was with your name falling off his lips like a desperate prayer, his whole body wracked with trembling, twitchy aftershocks. He looked like a debauched whore more than a respected soldier covered in tears, bruises and not a surprise— cum stains all over him.

Guess you didn't mind taking care of him for a while.

[wilteddreamsofbaldursgate]

I’m a fierce believer and defender of Smooth Brain Astarion (affectionate).

I love that, if left to his own devices, he ends up dead in a ditch. I love that this pasty menace of an elf is a walking disaster. I love that his brain produces one coherent thought per day, only to have it backfire on him later on. I love that his first choice in freedom is to unapologetically be the worst version of himself. Because it makes sense. 

That’s what abuse and trauma do to your brain—they fuck with it. 

And in Astarion’s defence, the man didn’t have to use his brain for nearly 200 years—it’s probably the very thing that kept him as alive as he can be; to survive 200 years of pure shit. 

And what use is his brain when his days and nights are dictated by someone else for as long as he can remember? When he has no say in what clothes he wears. When he doesn’t get to choose what or when to eat. When his body and mind aren’t his own, distorted by torture and hunger and self-loathing, forced to obey his vampiric master. Why use his brain when his survival depends exclusively on his abuser’s whims? 

Astarion could’ve come up with the most brilliant plan possible to escape Cazador or save a mark from their doom, but he never stood a chance of succeeding—which doesn’t mean that he didn’t get punished for trying (or even thinking about it) anyway.

Existing under Cazador was a game he couldn’t win, so why bother playing? 

And it’s only by chance that Astarion’s autonomy is returned to him literally overnight. It’s only natural that he’s overwhelmed by his newfound freedom. How is he expected to make sound decisions when he can’t even recall a time when he could do and say as he pleased? 

Of course Astarion is a walking disaster when he finds himself on that beach after the Nautiloid crash—and he’s fully aware of that! That’s why it’s so crucial for him to get on the player’s/other companion’s good side.

He’s self-aware enough to be so insecure about himself that he would rather trust a stranger’s capabilities than his own. 

Being a catastrophe of a person is part of Astarion’s character journey. Not only does he have to reclaim his personhood, he has to learn how to depend on his own brain again and I think that's such a painfully beautiful, important message Baldur’s Gate 3 sends. 

Because healing isn’t pretty. Nor is it easy.

You’re not alright the moment you’re free of whatever horrors you had to live through—and that’s ok! There’s time and room for you to adjust. 

And the moment Astarion feels more or less safe within his new environment, when he’s fed and treated like a person worthy of respect and consideration, his insights, skills and perception are crucial assets to the group.

Astarion knows his art and literature, and although his little remarks are unhinged at times, he's genuinely witty. Even his objections are, considering the circumstances, absolutely legitimate.

Personally, I love seeing Smooth Brain Astarion become more and more secure in his judgement the more Tav/other companions trust and support him.

Astarion is smart, his brain’s just been stewed for nearly 200 years.

[endearing-dalliance]

Just like Piltover, Arcane's beauty hides its fundamental problems. Its ableist, antisemetic, acephobic, classist, and worst of all, it doesn't initially seem that way.

Firstly, I want to say that this post and my problem with all of this is due to the real-life references, biases, and viewpoints of the team people who created the show, made the design decisions, wrote the scripts, and continue to defend what many have pointed out are genuine problems in their stories and characters. This nothing to do with the VAs, individual animators, supporting crew, or even the characters themselves. I'm genuinely heartbroken for all those people who proudly worked on the show, did their parts beautifully, supported the viewers, and are met with a fanbase disappointed, hurt, and angry about something completely out of their control.

I wrote up a different post about Piltover vs Zaun in the original lore and how that version is such a different situation than we we got.

Despite everything they did to make the Arcane undercity/Zaun this horrible place, they keep referencing the positives of LoL Zaun (an equal and respected society) and attributing them to Arcane Zaun. All of this is straight from the AoA:

"When you look closely, Piltover and Zaun are not entirely dissimilar" (y'all literally designed them as polar opposites)

Zaun is a refuge for outcasts who don't have a home, and there is the thrilling sense that anything is possible. So pretty much the exact opposite of what Vi was trying to show Cait?

In Piltover everything is heavily regulated; Zaun is wild and more pure meritocracy. "its is not completely lawless, though there are some issues with the mob." That's certainly one way to put it.

Zaunites "make magic out of nothing. nothing is precious, everything can be recycled and be reworked to make it better" I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that people can't afford to replace things when they break. Nope. Completely plausible reasoning. No real life parallel at all.

One example of innovation is a jeweler from Zaun who makes unique gothic work. Not only did they never showed us this side of the undercity, I maintain NOBODY in Piltover is putting on a gas mask to go jewelry shopping in a slum.

"Even though they were oppressed, they can innovate in ways Topside can't. Like well let's take this freedom we have because they don't care about us, and use it to find beauty and innovation. That's where Ekko's little conclave came in." Did they forget the literal orphans he rescued from those "shady streets"? What were they free from, their parents? Cause Piltover's enforcers seem to kill a lot of those despite "not caring". This is straight from Ekko's LoL lore where he spent his days being a kid running around with the Lost Children and inventing for fun. Arcane Ekko got Misfit Toys as an intro song. The Firelights were called a gang. These are not happy, healthy kids enjoying their world. They're vigilantes taking care of other kids who have nobody else.

"Ekko emerged as one of the unlikely heroes of the show, rising to meet tough, sometimes heartwrenching challenges, and becoming a charismatic and beloved leader" His LoL lore is that of a self-educated genius described as "The Hero of Zaun's Youth". Beloved pretty firmly established already. Also charismatic...are we really not past the point where its not supposed to be a shock that a black guy can be articulate?

Sevika's arm is specifically described as "flamboyant", which was the same word used to describe Piltover's augments

This gave me the vibe that they were trying to glorify or romanticize Zaunites' suffering and environment, but on further reflection I think that's giving them way too much credit. Christian's reply below makes it pretty clear he doesn't understand his own story, and Alex's indicates they weren't even trying to tell it and are surprised by this interpretation. Because to them, the Zaunites were the bad guys all along.

(Cool cool name one team member who has personal experience with living in under an oppressive ruling class that is either ignores their suffering or actively worsens it. I'll wait.)

Also, I think its very telling that a cocreator admits to having difficulty distinguishing between a group of systemically abused people fighting for their right to live on their own terms and people breaking the law because want power and influence and money. I don't think Peaky Blinders and the French and American Revolution (among others) are really compatible stories.

"It was an impossible pipe dream if you ask me." Well then. All the nations that successfully rose up and freed themselves from their oppressive overlords were just flukes I guess. Also I'm not sure how they managed to figure out the alien invasion lack of relatability and not realize that's basically what they ended up with. Also, the fact that they keep framing it as a civil war rather than a revolutionary one is mindbogglingly out of touch.

So they were trying to comment on the two party system, but also the point wasn't to comment on the real world. They wanted to show the widening wealth gap in a "fun way", but also that's not what they were shooting for. Over and over we've heard about how the show is about duality, the struggle of Jinx and Vi and the struggle of the two cities. If they didn't want to comment on the real world, didn't know enough about politics to even realize what they were doing or what message they sent, DON'T MAKE A $250 MILLION STORY ABOUT IT. Thanks to their contributions, we now have a story about two girls brutally traumatized by their environment enveloped in a pro-oppressor, forgive your abusers theme. Well I aint forgiving any of this.

I get the idea of "show, not tell", but some things do need to be explicitly told. Oppression is objectively wrong no matter who the oppressed are should not be left up to interpretation. Its not the viewers' job to piece together that Zaun's problems are ultimately caused by Piltover, especially since what they are shown is that death of a child makes the world a better place. Not once in 18 episodes do they ever explicitly condemn Piltover. Not once did they validate Zaun's right to independence. We got "forgiveness" (forgiving your abusers? great message) and "finding your way back to each other" (which none of the duos actually did. They're all "dead"). And my personal favorite, the important lesson that asexual people do not have happy, healthy, nonplatonic relationships, so TAKE THAT JAYVIK SHIPPERS.

Since they ended Arcane with a reference to a Japanese proverb, in the spirit of duality I'm ending with a quote by someone who actually has personal experience on the subject:

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor."- Desmond Tutu

[shysublimecoffee]

Marinette receiving the Ladybug mantle was an absolute mistake. I watched the special, and honestly, gurl is doing the most—and for what? A guy? One dude, and she’s ready to throw her common sense out the window. Like, how has Hawkmoth/Gabriel not used his own son more often as leverage against her by now? That’s villainy 101, and he’s just sitting on it. Like for the amount of times I've seen this show rag on ChatNoir because of his weakness in romance when that Ladybug biggest weakness not CN lol.

At this point, I don’t even care about what Marinette’s going through. Whatever emotional investment I had in her? Long gone. She’s out here spinning lies on top of lies, desperately trying to hold together her crumbling Adrien-obsessed empire, and for what? She lost. Game over.

Now, if this were a story about a girl slowly getting corrupted, spiraling into villainy, and intentionally written as a downfall arc? No problem. That would’ve been a compelling narrative with a real lesson for kids about the consequences of obsession and dishonesty. But nope, instead we’re stuck with this mess where her choices make it harder and harder to root for her.

Marinette's speech at the press conference—“Ladybug holds the truth, she holds the truth” —had me scratching my head cause it sound more like a villain then a hero. Like, did the writers forget she’s supposed to have hero-like qualities? She’s meant to be the messenger, the symbol of hope, the hero. But how often does she actually display that in her own show?

Lately, it feels like being Ladybug is more of an obligatory chore for her than something that brings her real joy or fulfillment. Isn’t the whole point of magical girls to inspire, to help others, and to grow through their journey? Where’s the sense of accomplishment, the spark, the joy of making a difference? It’s like they’ve stripped her of everything that should make her role uplifting and meaningful.

I've seen here and there about how MC was never meant to come off that way or the writers are trying to make her more complex or how dare you do you dislike complex female characters or the most used it was never her intention to come off that way it was a mistake.

I want you to picture this without the music just dialogue cause i'm going to be clearcut about this.

Ladybug went to an orphaned, grieving child—one who had been locked away in solitary confinement, surrounded by nothing but white walls and being sensory deprived—and lied to him about his father being a hero. Let that sink in. Gabriel, who systematically abused his own son, was painted as a noble martyr by Ladybug.

Adrien, a kid who was finally starting to question his father’s authority, even beginning to tear down the oppressive image of the man who controlled and hurt him, is now trapped in an even tighter mental cage. After all, if Paris sees his father as a hero, a savior, how could he possibly feel justified in blaming or resenting the man? Gabriel is now a martyr in the eyes of the world, and Adrien is left to wrestle with guilt and shame for ever having cruel thoughts about someone everyone else idolizes.

Ladybug’s decision to perpetuate this lie doesn’t just protect Gabriel’s image—it messes with Adrien’s already fragile mind. Instead of helping him heal or giving him the freedom to process the truth, she’s reinforced the very chains Gabriel used to control him. It’s not heroic; it’s delusional and harmful, all in the name of preserving some twisted version of peace in her head.

You want me to feel pity for a girl who I'm sorry if I sound harsh to yall at the end of the day just want to keep the peace to fill her delusions that everything is going to work out in her part at the end when really she's just the worst type of coward there is when it comes to confrontations lmao. Accountability? She avoids them like they’re some kind of plague. It’s almost impressive how someone can masquerade as a hero while being utterly incapable of facing the hard truths. Lmao, sure, let’s all pity her.

Honestly, in the earlier seasons, at least Marinette seemed to feel bad about her mistakes. Now? She’s only gotten worse. I headcanon that receiving the Ladybug mantle or becoming the Guardian inflated her ego, giving her a power trip. With no proper mentor to hold her accountable and everyone automatically deferring to her leadership, who’s left to challenge her? Well maybe CN if he has the guts to do so but he'd rather cower into his shell lol.

In hindsight, I don’t think Marinette should’ve become Ladybug—not because she lacks the capability, but because the role itself seems to have worsened her as a person. Instead of growing into the hero I though she was meant to be, she’s devolved, losing some of the humility and self-awareness she had at the start of the series.

Let’s be real—we’re in Season 6 now, and we all know the writers aren’t going to make Marinette face any real consequences. The whole universe bends over backward to accommodate her. If you’ve seen Season 5, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

That said, I’ll give credit where it’s due: the special was fun. Yes, despite all my ranting, I actually enjoyed it because it was funny in its own way.

At this point, though, I’m only sticking around for Adrien and Lila. Honestly? I’m rooting for Lila to be the one to drop the truth bomb and expose everything. It would be chef’s kiss poetic if she ended up being the one to set things straight. Lmao.

P.s For anyone who thinks there is a dilemma to be had about the whole thing its really not lol rip the bandaid off.

It reeks of a megalomaniac in the making, making her come off like a gaslighting psychopath. Ironically, it reminds me of Gabriel—especially with the way he used similar wording. Honestly, are we sure Marinette isn’t Gabriel’s true daughter? Because the parallels are man.

I’m genuinely angry that she is the one everyone feels sorry for, and it’s only because the show is stuck in her perspective. If we spent even a fraction of the screen time on Adrien’s pain, it would make for a far more compelling story. It’s infuriating. Marinette isn’t some helpless sheep/damsel victim here—no one forced her into this role at gunpoint. She made her choices, knowingly and willingly. How dare she act like the weight of the world was thrust upon her without her consent? When she very much messed with a grieving kid here?

And yet, Adrien’s pain—real, tangible, and far more tragic—is constantly sidelined. He’s an orphan, being lied to by nearly everyone around him, adults and teens alike, and his suffering is treated as a subplot to Marinette’s endless drama. Why should the audience feel more for her than for the boy who’s lost everything? Why is his pain has to be centered to her??

This isn't a small mistake this has far reaching consequences if the show had the balls to do it to lie to the entire world over a man who terrorized on people fear.

If Adrien ever became a villain, I wouldn’t blame him. In fact, I’d understand and give him the free ticket to go ahead and cataclysm and burned the world .

[anyacad0]

I am a huge high cloud quintet enjoyer so it may surprise you to learn that I absolutely hate the quest “Clouds Leave No Trace”.

let me explain. I will admit that a lot of it stems from my issues with Jingliu as a character. I appreciate that she’s meant to be cold and detached, but what bothers me is that although she says considers herself to be a sinner alongside Yingxing and Dan Feng, she constantly acts like she’s better than them, criticising them, acting as if their choice was an easy one while hers wasn’t. Her humility feels incredibly insincere, and she becomes very difficult to empathise with as a result.

then there’s the quest itself. I split it into three parts.

one: redundant infodumping

For the first part of the quest, Jingliu, Dan Heng and Yanqing travel to different parts of the Luofu so Jingliu can bid farewell to her past home. It’s basically a plot device for her to drop some lore about Yingxing and Baiheng, which is fine on its own, but the problem is, none of the information she gives is new. All of it was stuff we could already figure out from character stories and other in-game text.

the second issue with this part of the quest is Dan Heng’s presence, or rather, lack of it. Considering he’s the main character tying the quintet subplot into the main story, you’d think he’d be important to the quest focussed on them. But he’s just… there. He says and does pretty much nothing. You could cut him from the whole quest and it wouldn’t be any different.

In fact, Dan Heng also suffers greatly from the timing of the quest. If we look at the voice lines for IL, it’s obvious that he’s a snapshot of Dan Heng shortly after this quest, since he knows Blade is the one who made Cloudpiercer. Ichor Of Two Dragons also seems to take place at the end of this quest. This is an issue because both release in version 1.3, making the quest which takes place in version 1.4 feel like a regression in his character development when actually the story was for some reason out of order.

part 2: Dan Feng gets mischaracterised to hell and back

This is the worst part of the quest by far. Jingliu does her self-righteous monologue and nails the coffin shut by giving the most biased description possible of the Sedition.

she first says that Dan Feng was trying to revive Baiheng. Dan Heng’s and Jingliu’s character stories reveal that this is probably not the case, and that his actual goal was to create another high elder,

she also says that the reason Dan Feng did what he did was selfishness and an inability to accept Baiheng’s death. She fails to mention the fact that the Xianzhou treated him like a convenient weapon instead of an actual person, that he hated how many innocent people died in the war between Aeons, that his people were going extinct because of said war, that he hated how he gave the Xianzhou the power to cause so much death, that he had probably attempted less dramatic rebellions in his past lives to no avail, that the high elder succession was incredibly screwed up and he didn’t want to have to pass that burden on to his next incarnation (granted that lasts part’s only implicit). Not to mention that she didn’t actually bear witness to any of the events she described, only the aftermath.

part 3: Blade monologue

This is the only redeeming quality of the entire quest

he acknowledges that Dan Feng and Yingxing weren’t simply upset with Baiheng’s death, but with the unfairness of everything in general

he expresses genuine regret

and the way he looks up to Jingliu after she tortured him is the only time where that story genuinely presents her as someone who’s done terrible things, showing how she managed to break Blade so badly that he feels thankful for it

in conclusion, do not play this quest if you want to actually understand Dan Feng as a character

[klara-v-klyare]

The difference between two Logans

Just some thoughts

Kinda thinking that other Wolverine movies (X-men included) were mostly focused on showing that despite Logan being a mutant with healing factor and sharp claws, he still wasn't indestructible, still found enemies who were stronger, who could cause his body some sort of damage.

Like first attack we see in the X-men makes him unconscious for hours. All his interactions with Magneto don't make him any good. His first set of bone claws is broken in the Origins. The Wolverine movie is all about slowing his regeneration and making him struggle, his adamantium claws are destroyed. I'm not even talking about Logan where he literally is poisoned, weakened and dies in the end.

They were showing him more human like. Like this great hero character with unique powers, but still having his flaws and licking his wounds to which any other person can relate.

In contrast, the Worst Wolverine is really indestructible and that's his sore spot. He is obviously stronger, spitting bullets like candies, not blinking at being stabbed, deals with Sabertooth with one blow, gets through Deadpools unit as through butter, has enough mental power to resist Cassandra's invasion to his mind, he breaks the metal door and survives TimeRipper.

This Logan is animal like, feral, following his rage. He is the killing machine that made the whole world turn against him. The only mutant those humans, who managed to murder the entire X-men, couldn't compete with and got slaughtered by.

And that's his tragic story. That what makes him all alone wishing for impossible death. Like yeah, sure, he is a Wolverine variant, but he is absolutely opposite of what we used to see before.

I get why Hugh Jackman was excited to explore this version and even suggested the Worst Wolverine narrative. His internal conflict with his healing powers being at the maximum is so different, so he has nothing to lose since he has already lost it all and nothing can break him.

Very nice of them to give him a family in the end. The possibility for this ultimate indestructible killing machine to experience friendship, love and domestic life. Good for him.

[maxwell-grant]

Any thoughts on Namor? I was going to ask about whether he counts as villain, but given that part of Namor's whole Thing is wrapped around the fact that he hops back and forth over that line all the time, I'm not sure it's a question that can be answered.

He was made king before he was even born; it was something that he didn’t have a choice in, it was destiny. - Ryan Coogler

"HE IS THE PENDULUM THAT SWINGS BETWEEN THE POLARITIES OF DEVIANT AND ETERNAL, X-51. HIS IS THE SECOND FACE OF MAN." - Earth X #0

I've spoken before on Namor and his Weird Tales pulp horror debut story, and I can't really get into how I feel about Namor as an F4 villain without giving thoughts on Namor himself. The short version is I think Namor rules, and in a better world, Bill Everett would be better remembered as a foundational creative force for the entirety of the Marvel Universe, just based on the creation of Namor. I think he's the Rosetta Stone by which the core of the Marvel Universe is first seen and is subsequently translated and reiterated, and I think it's also extremely self-evident why he got so many revivals and why he gets to stick around in ways guys like Jim Hammond and Ka-Zar didn't.

Not just for the history of Marvel but for the comic book superhero as a concept, he is tremendously significant as well as very compelling, and in the context of Lee-Kirby F4, in large part because he already ruled as a character beforehand, he makes for a really dynamic villain/anti-hero/force of nature who consistently made for some of their most fun stories. The problem here is that the influence of said villain run ended up affecting Namor for the worse in ways that seriously drag him down as a character, to the point he is very consistently at his absolute worst and most limited whenever he has to share a story with them. He's FAR from the worst Fantastic Four villain, not even close, but I can't think of a character I'd like to see lees as a F4 villain than him. It truly pains me to say I'd sooner have another Blastaar or Psycho-Man F4 story than a Namor F4 story, and to get into why we have to talk about Namor's history.

See, as much as I like discovering and doing pop culture paleonthology, I'm generally not in favor of propping up characters mainly through what historical importance or possible influence they had, because that, on it's own, just doesn't make an interesting character, and in fact usually marks a character as having failed to retain relevance or popularity, when all that matters about them can only be spoken about via the past tense and not what they do or mean now (Wonder Woman, and her inarguable decline of popularity, is unfortunately a relevant example of this). I think it's often one of the sadder ways to try and prop up any old character you like, and I bring this up mainly for context's sake.

I don't think this is truly applicable to Namor - his historical significance has always taken a backseat to his mercurial alliances and troubled personality and that other thing and all that's usually defined him since the 60s up to his modern appearences, and it's certainly not the thing most writers use him for anyway, for better or worse. But in his case, it is absolutely necessary to bring up because of how significant it was to his comeback, and to understand why I argue Namor is one of the most important characters for the Marvel Universe as a project and shared story. In the Sub-Mariner, introduced as an "Ultra-Man of the Deep", we have one of the first and most significant responses to Superman.

(Excerpt taken from Bill Everett: Fire & Water)

Timely's big innovation, which was to serve the embryonic Marvel well and help to distinguish it from DC, was to come down from Olympus and give voice to the elements themselves by personifying the forces of nature as heroes.

Prince Namor of Atlantis, the Sub-Mariner, was the creation of seventeen-year-old Bill Everett. Superman sometimes flouted the law, but decent people had nothing to fear from the essentially upstanding Man of Steel. Prince Namor was different: This half-human terrorist was prepared to inundate the just and unjust alike as he rode on whaleback at the foaming apocalyptic crest of the devastating mega-tsunami that he unleashed on New York in his first adventure.

Namor was the face of JD insolence, awaiting rock 'n' roll, Marlon Brando, and James Dean to ratify his power. Driven by passions and brief allegiances, Namor faced the entire world with a fuck-you snarl, committing acts of high anarchy on a scale undreamed of by terrorists in the real world. There was no shortage of sea stories, tales of Atlantis, storms, piracy, dynastic succession, and imperial vengeance from which to draw inspiration for Namor's fertile new fantasy playground. - Supergods, by Grant Morrison

Even all the way back in 1939 in his murderous beginnings, Namor already felt like a Marvel character in every way that matters, the forerunner to all the tools Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko would use to revolutionize the superhero. Bill Everett just doesn't get enough credit for how profoundly he beat everyone to the punch, all the Wolverines and Hulks and Venoms and Magnetos, descendants of Marvel's primordial super menace. Everett would eventually look back on these early Namor stories as too raw and unpolished, describing them as mostly the ventings of an angry young man, and sure enough the Sub-Mariner would quickly team up with the Torch and join the fight against the Nazis and transition into superheroics proper. But even as Namor gained solo titles, even as he became more of a household name, that unpredictability and edge to the character still remained. Namor was always a character of intriguing extremes and an irreconcilable duality, from his birth in-universe as well as out of it, up to everything that would define him for the following 80+ years.

When Everett is happy, Namor will save kids whose yacht sunk and cooperate with police while receiving accolades from the public as if he’s freakin’ Superman. When Everett is pissed about something, Namor will contemplate stealing world-destroying weapons from the villains so he can wipe out the human race himself! Sometimes Namor will be perfectly friendly initially, but be falsely blamed by humans, join up with the villains, then turn his back on them at the last minute.

Just like the gods of Greece, Namor can be mankind’s friend in some stories, in others; he can be its worst enemy over something petty. Everett may not have thought much of it, but he was doing something unique among superhero comics: Creating a character that the reader is fascinated by not so much because of the question of what others will do to him, but because of what he’ll do to others, and because watching Namor rage at the humans allows the reader (and his creator) to blow off some steam of their (his) own - Outofthequicksand

And speaking of said duality, it's also important to highlight the extent to which Namor was indeed, from day one, coded as biracial and placed in opposition to the "white race", particularly in his earliest comics that openly placed him at war with "the white man". I'll defer here to the resident Namor expert @imperiuswrecked, who has covered this aspect of Namor more extensively. This will come into relevance later.

It's important to establish the history and significance that Namor had prior to the 60s, that he was Marvel's first star character (Captain America has a much, much spottier track record until his proper comeback) but one without a consistent title to be in, because it's that very same history and significance that caused him to be brought back and remain an inviolate mainstay of the universe from the moment there was a universe for him to live in and return to. When Timely becomes Marvel, when the Fantastic Four revolutionize the superhero and begin the building blocks of the new shared universe, Namor can enter right out of the gate to add history and intrigue and turmoil to this new universe.

DC’s heroes were authoritarian in character and concept. They were authority figures, whether formally or informally. They were solidly in favor of established authority. Marvel’s heroes, however, were the opposites of DC’s characters. They rejected consensus and conformity. They were usually alienated from society and felt themselves to be men and women apart. They were the products of tragic beginnings, but unlike DC’s characters, the Marvel superheroes were never allowed to forget the tragedies that birthed them. They had uneasy relationships with the public, who often turned on them. They had uneasy relationships with the forces of authority.

Even Marvel’s villains were granted two dimensions, leaving them villainous but flawed in recognizable and understandable ways. Marvel’s heroes, villains, and stories were often ambiguous, and ambiguity was an entirely new concept in superhero comics - The Evolution of the Costumed Avenger, by Jess Nevins

Marvel can now repurpose it's old comics and it's oldest icon for texture in the new ones - we can discover that the Fantastic Four are entering a world that already beheld the Sub-Mariner, "the world's most unusual character", and forgot about him, that saw the mighty war hero enter a hypnotized slumber and, once awakened, find himself in the world of the atom bomb and the destruction it wrought upon his old life and people. Now, all the might of the former superheroic Namor is turned against "humanity", and with him an endless oceanic bestiary under his command, and a mandate to reconnect with what's left of his people and let nothing in the world get in his way.

And thus Namor takes on a newfound role - on top of being their first continuity deep cut, he is now the complicated/sympathetic/nuanced baddie who can become an ally, the first ambiguous villain of Marvel. The first of it's villains who displays a capacity to become an ally or reform, soon to be followed by the likes of Hawkeye, Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and Black Widow. And the moment a bigger menace enters the scene via Doctor Doom, the new greatest villain of their world, Namor can now be an opposing force of conflicting alliances and loyalties, assisting Doom and turning against him on the same story.

For the rest of the Lee-Kirby run, he will go on to become arguably the 2nd greatest Fantastic Four villain of the time, one reserved for special occasions in the same way Doom is, but one who demands entirely different considerations writing-wise because he is, fundamentally, not a true monster or villain, just an opposing force of mercurial allegiances but unwavering commitment. Traits that in the past made him a game-changing but inconsistent hero, here make him into a unique but difficult villain, one who unfortunately often does fall into routine as he is simply not built for the kind of long-term commitment to direct antagonism that Doom or the others are. But at his best in the Lee-Kirby run, he is incredibly fun to read about.

I simply do not get tired ever of all the weird animals and monsters and contraptions and underwater set pieces that Namor as a villain in this era brings with him in every appearence, he appeals really strongly to the ocean nerd in me and the palenthology nerd also, because Kirby absolutely was cracking open the picture books for reference, I was not expecting a Dunkleosteus and a Xenacanthus to show up when I started this run. I was so happy to find them in here, and wait you mean to tell me that Namor was piloting a fucking Mosasaurus??? Why isn't he doing that more often??? There is just a consistently enjoyable unpredictability to Namor's arsenal in this era, whether it's the monsters he summons or him pulling new weird powers related to sea creatures. Him having "the powers of all creatures who live beneath the sea" is one of those typically over-the-top early Marvel developments (like the Lizard having the powers of all the lizards on Earth) that I DEARLY miss and wish would come back, because they promise infinitely wilder possibilites than anyone's ever taken advantage of.

With the Marvel Universe underway and his newfound role, Namor now exists in a dual-role: He grows away from being a full-time Fantastic Four villain and rejoins his kingdom and ostensibly returns to something akin to his original role, but the world has now changed and changed Namor with it. Away from Everett's hands and from Lee-Kirby's vision, there are now significant competing ideas of The Sub-Mariner, and the following decades will be defined by this push and pull. He reattains a solo title, but only sporadically. He joins the Defenders, a team with fellow self-contained weirdos who defy superhero convention, and go on adventures to map out the weird corners of Marvel. He retroactively forms the Invaders, defining the vision of 1940s Marvel with Cap and Hammond, and his flooding of New York would go on to become a formative catastrophe in the history of this world. Subsequent Fantastic Four writers will drag him back again and again to diminishing results, he fights the Avengers and joins the Avengers, he gets pulled into the X-Men orbit because of his mutant connections, and when the 2000s mega-arc initiates, he is tapped to join the Illuminati, where he now must adjust to the rest of the Marvel Universe playing in his pool and worse, fucking in it.

As the Illuminati forms, as events like Civil War and Secret Invasion and Dark Reign proceed to twist and darken the universe and all of it's heroes, as the Marvel Universe starts to reckon more and more with it's nature as The Bastardverse it has always fundamentally been, the primordial bastard must step in to respond accordingly. When representatives of the world convene in the shadows to steer it, Namor has to be invited, even if only to clash against them. When the mutants go to war with the Avengers and attain godhood, they bring him in, so he can be goaded into going on a rampage and do what they all were always going to do. And when the Illuminati has to turn truly monstrous for the sake of saving the multiverse, when it's time for Reed Richards and T'challa to drown their doubts and principles and commit to monstrosity for the sake of saving their worlds, there they must bring in Namor again, because he has been doing it longer than any of them. Because amidst everyone else grappling with moral complications and tough choices, he is the only one who is perfectly fine with who he is and what he's doing and what needs to be done. His new job is to give these people a license, and the warning that comes with it.

He gives the Illuminati a license to be villainous in the name of a greater good (surely, they can never be worse than Namor, they all think), and he warns them of the path this will inevitably lead to. He gives them a warning about how justified the Hulk will be when he comes after them all. He gives the Phoenix Five a license to drop the Miracleman act and go to war, and the early shot that warns them all of what's to come next. He gives T'Challa a license to be the monster he needs to be to save the world, and when that fails, avenge his people by taking him down. He gives the Cabal a license to pick up where the Illuminati left off and, to his horror, show Namor what real shameless monstrosity looks like, and at the end of everything, he's there to help T'Challa in his last stand, putting everything aside to distract Doom even at the cost of his own life.

And as a result of his antagonistic dynamic towards Black Panther and Wakanda culminating in this arc, Namor's deal became significantly informed by his status as a pseudo-Black Panther villain, and thus we, at last, reach the latest and most significant development regarding Namor: his role in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Ryan Coogler and Tenoch Huerta to me granted the character an emotional context here that clarifies everything he is, and all that shapes his thought. He’s not angry at the surface world and its clownshit in abstract. It’s not just the anger of a distant warrior-king of the oceans. It’s the anger of the colonized, of the Othered.

What Ryan Coogler and Tenoch Huerta did is give him specificity. He’s not just a broad-strokes figure in White hands, for White writers to write as an archetypal broad-strokes morally murky angry bastard guy. No, there’s a specific history to this guy, there’s a cultural specificity and context to his very existence.

I like this Namor a lot. The character finally makes an emotional sense, to me. I understand him. I relate to his rage, as I'm sure plenty of people do. - Ryan Coogler’s Namor and Specificity

Namor in Wakanda Forever has been touted as a complete reinvention of the character, which isn't quite true: while many of the Mesoamerican traits and specific signifiers are indeed new, and certainly do a LOT to recontextualize and breathe new life into every facet of his character, Wakanda Forever Namor is less a reinvention of Namor as much as it is a synthesis of Namor. It is all the prior Namors we have discussed here unified and blended into one: He is the avenging villain/troubled anti-hero who has incredibly justified reasons to wage war on humanity for the sake of his people, he is the emburdened child king of a wronged underground civilization, he is the noble but troubled romantic figure who swings between monster and savior on a dime, he is the fun over-the-top supervillain with an endless supply of underwater trickery who will go on a rampage if he feels spurned or betrayed, he is the folk demigod who floods the great noble city in a life-shattering calamity, and he is the righteous bastard here to stake his ground on these new political backstabbing games that superheroes engage with now, dragged away from his kingdom and people so he can play the primordial shadow the righteous bastard anti-heroes of new must defeat or work with and, at minimum, recognize within themselves.

And he is, at last and once more, the righteous fury of The Other. He is no longer just coded as a POC character or implied to be, and he can now fully resume his original aims. He can now once again be at war against "the white man", against the colonial forces that have ravaged his home and people, and this no longer has to be subtext. He can fully embody a power fantasy of retribution against your oppressors without having to be allegorical about it, but because he is no longer alone in being such, he can now clash against and be in dialogue with another character who also represents such a power fantasy. He can bestow upon Shuri the hunting license to be like Killmonger, but he is no mere oppressor, and even if he himself deserves vengeance, he is what he is to protect something greater than himself, and for the sake of their people, they must sacrifice even their own vendettas. He warns that they must hang together, or be hanged separately.

And so Namor achieved this new form, and funny enough, one that ties him into the greatest legacy of the Fantastic Four. Where as he was once the 2nd or 3rd greatest/most popular Fantastic Four villain, he is now the 2nd or 3rd greatest/most popular Black Panther villain. Outside of these specific stories that can afford him a clear arc to work with, does he work as a reocurring Black Panther villain? No, not really. But he was T'Challa's most personal enemy on the biggest story either of them were ever a part of up until that point, and then his MCU debut that revitalized and redefined the character happened with him as the villain in the Black Panther sequel, so he's undeniably already there. Although as much as I throughly loved Wakanda Forever and what it did with Namor, I have absolutely zero desire to see him come back for anything unless it's the same team at the helm (I am not optimistic and indifferent towards Avengers: Doomsday for a variety of self-evident reasons, and unfortunately he is one of them).

Yes I was supposed to be talking about Namor as a Fantastic Four villain, guess it's time to ruin the fun and shoot the elephant in the room: In the context of Lee-Kirby F4, I actually think Namor and Sue's thing is mostly fine. Not good, but fine, for what it is at the time. I think there's a lot of things that I give Lee-Kirby F4 a pass for that I otherwise wouldn't on other comics and not simply because of goodwill, but because even a lot of it's problematic / outdated elements I think are useful signifiers, interesting points of contrast and discussion, or thematically relevant for the time period and what F4's aims were, although that's certainly not a blanket pass for everthing (there are good reasons why nobody has bothered to textually address how misogynistic Reed was to Sue in that era). Namor and Sue's thing, from day one, existed in the service of an exoticized "romance with the alien monster/foreigner" pulp trope that was already outdated and problematic then, but doing a 60s superhero/sci-fi take on the pulp tropes and cliches that Lee and Kirby grew up reading about was central to the whole thing, Sue's complicated feelings about Namor made it a shlocky pseudo love triangle instead of a one-sided creep obsession, the kid-friendly tone meant that things hardly ever got too uncomfortable or like actual assault (although still a little too close).

Fantastic Four was built atop their prior experience with monster comics and romance comics, a monster romance was kind of inevitable, and when Reed and Sue properly got together and married, while Namor's subsequent appearences still brought it up, it would get gradually phased out as the Sub-Mariner drifted more into uneasy ally/heroic status. That, in itself, should have been the end of it, but evidently it was not. Every decade, someone decides to reiterate this plotline, and every decade, it reflects worse on them. On Sue, it was a misogynistic reputation as someone who deep down wanted to cheat on Reed, it was being known as a character who had nothing exciting going on with her life besides the horny fishman, and on Namor's end, it's a pop culture reputation as a sleaze and a womanizer and a creep who revolves around his obsession with a married woman who does not want him. That was the thing Namor was and is known for, the main joke of every pastiche, and unfortunately it seems like not even Wakanda Forever was able to change that in the long run. I'm not sure what could, at this point.

I'm gonna be upfront here, part of the problem is that Sue Storm has always gotten the short end of the stick, and as a result has always been considerably less developed than the other 3. In the Lee-Kirby F4 era, unfortunately is is true that Namor was the only thing Sue had going on until she and Reed got married, and then the marriage was the only thing she had going on. Her lack of foundation is the original sin of Lee-Kirby F4, and things only got worse for her when said foundation was later provided by John Byrne, a putrid man who left everything he ever touched toxic for generations after to deal with. To this day, Sue Storm functionally does not have a foundation the way the other 3 have, and that's why the default with her still exists defined around either Reed, or Namor. Even Hickman couldn't think of much of anything for Sue to do other than to beat up Namor and get involved with Atlantean politics, on the one part of the book she got to have her own adventures. It's a problem that goes beyond whatever tiresome shtick she and Namor have, and it drags them both down.

And it's not like Namor playing the heel is a bad thing, that's been inseparable to his deal since day one. But it was already lame enough in the comics when he was a cool compelling versatile character constantly reduced to a shlocky trope or a creep. It's infinitely worse now that Marvel has, in the wake of Wakanda Forever, a clear interest in acknowledging Namor as not-white, in making him more explicitly indigenous or latino, in having him exist as a principled rival/enemy within the Black Panther side of the world. I think having him be that, and doing the Sue thing, is just a complete fucking misfire on every level, just an unthinkably bad idea to combine the two, taking the allegorical exotic pulp racism of the 60s dynamic and doing it without the allegory / feeding into extremely dangerous and bigoted stereotypes against indigenous and latino men, really just shooting out the character's knees and making him too detestable for anyone to even want to see him be anything but a prop to be knocked down. I'm certainly not saying I want him and Sue to be magically chaste friends (although, again, that is a dynamic Namor can have just fine with other characters), I just don't think there's any redeeming this even if he goes back to looking like a white Dwayne Johnson. I think the best case scenario is him never interacting with the Fantastic Four again or at least until they figure out what they want out of him.

So yes, I think Namor absolutely does count as a villain - he is not just a villain, but being a villain, being able to play the villain and play the hero in varying measures, is a core part of what he is and does. Namor is a character that I think will probably never be particularly or especially popular again for similar reasons as to why some of the pulp characters I talk about or Captain Marvel or, shit even the Fantastic Four, face difficulties in that regard - their deal has been replicated endlessly and absorbed into what everyone else around them does, and even if they remain unique and dynamic characters, their cultural import and significance will never truly translate to them being a thing most non-comics people have reasons to know or care about. But even if Namor will never be a particularly important character for the Marvel Universe on an ongoing basis, I do think he is an extremely important character for understanding the Marvel Universe and how it works. Even past whatever he means for Marvel - in many ways, I'd still argue he is The Marvel Superman - the purer, more primal or powerful strain of what the others are trying to be and do.

Whether he is hero or villain, whether he leads the charge or takes a backseat, whether he is right or wrong, he is The Guy. The universe comes from him and around him, if not in-universe then outside of it. The universe is shaped like him. He comes to tear down the order of things and brawl with whoever tries to stop him, to meet brothers in arms and war against new enemies and guide his monstrous children to their futures. The DC heroes aspire to be like Superman, the man from the stars who wants others to rise and meet him there, while the Marvel heroes deny the Namor within them, the man from the depths who beckons them to the abyss where he lives. Because the truth of the Marvel Universe is not joining hands in the sun as the people of tomorrow, it's the avenging sons and children without love flooding New York City and fighting each other atop the ruins.

Rather than slap a symbol on an altruistic strongman’s chest, like so many other characters in Superman’s wake, Everett eschewed those impulses, pulling instead from legend and literature to craft a unique character. In an odd way, this gives Namor and Superman a deeper kinship than his caped imitators, as the Last Son of Krypton was also inspired by mythos, literature, and, some theorize, profound personal heartbreak.

Superman is the immigrant who never knew his destroyed homeland, and fights so that his new homeland does not suffer the same fate, while the Sub-Mariner is the product of two races, and cannot find peace within himself until his peoples find peace with each other

It is appropriate Superman came from another star; he is a kind of unsullied messiah. Namor, however, is a demigod, fully in tune with his sometimes visceral passions, and fully aware that sometimes that leads to trouble. But he is alive, and this is his nature.

a bastard son, a half-breed prince his underwater race never fully trusted, and a super-powered anomaly the human race always feared, leaving Namor forever at odds with both worlds. He has all the power and uses it for vengeance – although sometimes, reluctantly, for a common cause, as well.

Fighting between self-interest and emotional nobility, he is a reflection of us. - The Brilliance of Bill Everett’s Sub-Mariner, Marvel’s Superman

[pjo-tvs-version]

I know that no one asked but I just wanted to add my two cents to the current pjo era we are having right now...

First off, I love Rick and the books he has written but honestly tsast and wottg aren't some of his best works. That's not the problem because yeah not all books can be amazing but the problem is that they are his most recent ones. Cotg was better than these 2 but it too had it's drawbacks. Now I have this thing where if I like something then however bad it it, I try to make myself enjoy it. It's like a coping mechanism- delusion. But with wottg, I actually sat back and thought. Since when did I take a week to finish a pjo book? I am the person who finished Hoo in like less than a week and I took a week to finish wottg which took me aback. The characters were very oc. Grover was perhaps the only character close to his actual well character. I don't usually nitpick but like I had said in a post earlier, continuity and callbacks in a book series are what make them extremely enjoyable and small textual errors are like pricking needles to me.

My main issue was Annabeth and then Percy. Look in know in this fandom there are many Annabeth antis and that's fine, I accept that. But now the worst part is that what they have said about Annabeth is to some extent true in this current Annabeth version we have. Look Leah is great and I love her with all my heart but Rick please don't mingle both of them together. Let show cannon be separate and book cannon to itself. Let Annabeth in wottg be her book character like please. She has friends? Great! The main thing we know about her friends are that they think Percy isn't GOOD ENOUGH for her? Awful! She is the mom friend? Okay(though I personally believe it should be Grover but fine if people are okay with it this is just a personal opinion guys)! BUT that should not make Percy 'alley boy.'

This brings me to the second part. We love Percy and love his humor. Well I recently reread the Battle of the Labyrinth (don't ask why I don't know I just had the sudden urge to read it). He isn't very confident and does underestimate himself often but it wasn't taken this FAR. Every single next line was describing how Percy sucks at everything while Annabeth is here in all her perfect glory and believe it or not this is coming from me, who loves Annabeth. I love Percabeth because it's a balance. They balance off each other soo well. They both comfort each other. They both know that they are smart. They both know that the other person has flaws. But in wottg it's just downright annoying because the dynamic is just "ooh look my gf is soo amazing, totally flawless with no error and here is me who sucks at any and every thing possible." This isn't the Percy we know nor Annabeth nor Percabeth.

LET ANNABETH BE IMPERFECT! AND PLEASE GIVE PERCY THERAPY because he needs it. For the next book Rick please just hire a better editor because I am not going into the MISTAKES in these books. You can hire me if you want because I swear I can do a better job than your editor. Seriously literally any pjo fan would do a better job. Wottg felt like maybe the second draft of the work which required maybe 3 more drafts to be published. It felt like an unchecked fanfiction and believe me that I have seen better fanfictions on AO3. The pjo fandom is an extremely loyal fanbase which is an extremely cool thing. But the problem here is that people like me even though I didn't really enjoy wottg, I would still hope for a better sequel because gaaahhhh optimism. I am actually wary of the sequel to tsast but that's for another post.

Whew! Talking so negatively about something was a new experience for me because I absolutely love pjo and will always keep it close to my heart. Rick please for the sake of advertisement please don't publish uncooked gibberish because it actually breaks my heart too see the hate and for once I understand it. Anyway, wottg wasn't all that bad. To balance out this post, I'll make one on the portions I liked because there were a few moments that were worth reading. Extremely sorry for the scattered thoughts and the rant but thank you and have a great day everyone !

[stompanieart]

i keep seeing rolan age... not discourse, just nice discussions, going around. and i don't disagree with any of it (rolan is just ambiguous enough as a character that you can assign him any sort of characteristic and easily justify it), but i am genuinely shocked at the amount of people--who are in their 20s lmao--saying that he can't possibly be 30+ because he's too immature/not wise enough/makes too many poor decisions, and like, babes. i need you all to understand two things:

1. being in your 30s is great, cannot recommend it highly enough

2. being in your 30s does not imbue you with maturity/grace/knowledge

going through tough shit at 31 made me into the absolute worst, most immature version of myself. like, i'm thirty-fucking-five now and still recovering from what a stupid asshole i was. i know/have known people who i wouldn't consider grown until they'd hit at least 40.

all that to say, i can very easily see rolan as 30, or even my age, because yes, he is dumb, and a dick, and lodged firmly in his own asshole, and he doesn't care. that, to me, is what you get in your 30s. you just stop caring what people think. tell rolan lorroakan's a piece of shit in the grove? doesn't phase him. pointedly ask him if he has anything to say to you after you save cal and lia? straight up admits he was a prick and apologizes (and gives you money that he needs way more than you???). go to kill lorroakan? rolan eats a big ol slice of humble pie and looks right at you when he says he knows what good leadership looks like. part of that is his arc, but come on. think of you when you were 26 or whatever. would you have been that collected and gracious and eloquent at the literal lowest point of your life? i certainly would not have been.

ANYWAY like i said rolan is very vaguely written and i love that people can come up with basically any headcanon about him and have it work, that's so much fun, muah muah never stop dreaming

[fafodill]

A few thoughts on writing about Snape's relation with intimacy

I've been discussing Snape's psyche with @marvel-snape-writes lately, and I feel like sharing my little thoughts with ya'll. Maybe nothing new under the sun, only my personal analysis of the way his mind would works with potential partners and why he's such a tricky (and fascinating) character to explore.

Of course there's a lot of room for exploration depending on which 'type' of Snape you like (some enjoy the cold and composed dark daddy version of Alan Rickman)(and I enjoy it as well from time to time), but here I'm mostly focusing on my interpretation of book!Snape, the messed up one.

First, he's a very private person who thrives on independence. He's been by himself most of his life, part necessity, part deliberate. Truth is, he's been fine by himself, mostly. He's safe this way. Yes he's lonely, but he self-soothe or tells himself he doesn't care/doesn't need it. Besides, when you stay by yourself for a very long time, the loneliness and frustration are always there but as it is part of your normal state, you don't name them or notice them anymore. He almost never thinks about it and if he does, he quickly busies himself with work to drown it out.

If he was to start having an affair... Engaging with someone is already dangerous for him because it makes him aware of his inner aches. And he knows it's dangerous because you indulge once, then twice, then you get drunk on it and you don't want to stop. So just with the sex part he's already torn between hunger and restraint. But he needs control. He's obsessed with it, it's his way of taking back his power after having been abused for years, and in his mind, a bit of sexual release isn't worth giving up his 'peace of mind'.

So if he indulges (considering it's book!Snape, who must not have had a lot of occasions to engage in sexual relationships since being 21, working at Hogwarts as the youngest overworked depressed Professor ever), it might be very fleeting. He's wary of it and maybe quite uncomfortable anyway because despite his pride, he's definitely a bit clumsy about it.

There's also the possibility that he's actively depriving himself and isn't in touch with his libido at all (I like this theory a lot, I could say so much about it).

Then you have the emotional aspect, which is the worst. Because accepting that he might want someone is horrifying. It means there's a part of him that still wants to desire and love and it goes against everything he's been telling himself for literal decades. And he's a master Occlument so he can shove down his feelings - that's one of his big coping mechanism. If it's clawing its way to the surface, rippling through the calm waters despite his best effort, of course he'll see those feelings as a threat, so he'll want to retreat or sabotage the budding relationship right away.

Then what if the other person wants him ? Horrifying too. How do you know they're sincere ? (quick answer : he can use Legilimency)(even better if they tell him to and give consent). How can he be sure he won't have his heart ripped out of his chest again ? Then there's his self-esteem : doing limbo in hell. How can he believe that he can be what they want when he's been told all of his formative years that he was ugly and then that he was the most unpleasant ? (he knows he's both of these things, but his perception is also skewed by the limboing self-esteem, making it worse).

How can he know he'll be able to give them what they might want/deserve when he knows he's fucked up as shit ? Answer : he absolutely doesn't believe he can. He believes he's a bad person and a fuck-up, so his first reflex would be again to deflect and sabotage. Partly to "spare" the other person (how generous), but also spare himself for confirming his own beliefs because it would sting too much. If he doesn't right away, he'll unconsciously try to sabotage it in the beginning of the relationship as well (and the partner should be ready for that). Because for him, it's obvious he can't be a normal person and give a normal relationship to someone, so that person will at the very least be disappointed and leave when they realize he's not what they want. And honestly, he'd prefer to stay alone and spare himself the inevitable than being alone again after maybe experiencing something nice that would be ripped from him again.

His friendship/love with Lily was exactly that : he cared for her so deeply but she distanced herself (before the insult), and I don't think he ever fully understood she did that because they were fundamentally not meant to remain together and just grew apart and that it wasn't all his fault.

The problem with Severus is, he's hurting all the time. And he can't afford to put himself in emotionally dangerous situations on top of it, Intimacy (sex+relationship) is incredibly challenging for him. He doesn't trust anyone. He can't afford it.

Here you go, that was my rambling about this. I just exploring his mind and study the character. I'd be delighted to hear your thoughts !

[maxdibert]

so glad there are other people with common sense about snape- all these marauder fans make me feel like i’m insane and have seen a completely different version of media than them…where do they get their ridiculous ideas from?

and they say things like “they didn’t assault him! they didn’t strip him naked!”…in the uk pants mean underwear they didn’t take his trousers off in front of people (which is still disgusting if it was just that) but they took his underwear off in front of other people without consent, that’s SA… can a person imagine that being done to them? wouldn’t you hate those people? i’ve been SA’d and more multiple times by different people and i hate them and i will never ever have grace for them

when people are fans of those characters without acknowledgement of their actions (rarely seen a snape fan who doesn’t acknowledge all his actions) i wonder about how they can ignore blatant information and fact

Honestly, there are people who actually have the nerve to deny that they stripped him down to his underwear. People who say that in their translation or dialect “pants” means trousers and not underwear, so for them it doesn’t count. And it’s like — girl, I don’t care if in your country they translated the book like absolute crap because the publisher couldn’t be bothered to hire someone who actually finished their degree. What matters isn’t what you understand, it’s what the original text says. And in the original text, it explicitly says they left him in his underwear.

And stripping someone down to their underwear in public while asphyxiating them is abuse, and it’s sexualized abuse. And I don’t give a damn if in your cultural context ‘sexual abuse’ only means rape, because countless international organizations — sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and legal experts — have made it very clear that sexual abuse covers a wide spectrum. Reducing it solely to rape is irresponsible as hell because it silences and erases so many victims whose abuse didn’t escalate to the worst possible act but absolutely started on that path.

So yeah, I couldn’t care less about these people’s opinions because what they’re doing is denying basic recognition rights to victims just because they don’t like a fictional character and have a weird attachment to defending another one who’s objectively a piece of shit. And to me, they’re not just immature idiots — they’re absolute garbage.

[incorrect-green-lantern-quotes]

Hal used to be a huge Star Wars fan. One of his earliest memories was watching A New Hope with his dad and holding his breath as Luke flew through the trench to blow up the Death Star. Of course, the starfighters and space dogfights were his favorite parts, but he enjoyed the melodrama of the Skywalker family too. And after Martin's death, Hal could relate to Luke's desire to live up to his father's legacy.

Then Parallax happened, and that effectively ruined Star Wars for Hal. Because even after learning that he'd been possessed by a fear demon, the fall of Anakin Skywalker just felt too familiar. The first time he watched Revenge of the Sith, Hal couldn't sit through the whole movie. When Anakin cut off Mace Windu's hand, Hal had to run to the bathroom. He barely made it there in time to throw up into the toilet, his mind replaying the moment when he'd chopped off Boodikka's hand to take her ring.

Unfortunately for Hal, most of the other Earth Lanterns were Star Wars fans too. So of course they noticed when he tended to avoid that topic, especially the prequel trilogy. There were several awkward times when Kyle, Simon, or Jessica would quote prequel memes, then realize Hal was there and quickly change the subject. At least it didn't happen too often, since there was rarely occasion for Earth's Green Lanterns to spend time together.

That changed when they adopted Keli and decided to live together on Earth. At the time, the Star Wars issue wasn't even something Hal had considered. But then Keli started watching the Clone Wars cartoon- he was absolutely flabbergasted to learn that they made a kid's show about war- and the problem became impossible to ignore. Because Keli absolutely loved the show and would often chatter about the characters.

Her favorite was Ahsoka, but Anakin was a close second, and boy wasn't that a kicker. Because while the movie version of Anakin Skywalker was moody and whiny, the Clone Wars version that Keli kept going on about reminded Hal far too much of himself, and just how far a Hero With No Fear could fall.

Then Keli called him "Skyguy" and it had taken every ounce of his will to not snap at her. Because it wasn't her fault that Hal had issues, that he saw way too much of himself in a fictional character in the worst way possible. But what the hell was he supposed to do?

Jo's suggestion of reading fanfiction was so out of left field that Hal had thought it was a joke at first. But then she explained the concept of AUs and sent him a link to a fic on Tales of Our Own where Anakin didn't die in Episode VI and instead helped Luke rebuild the Jedi Order. Hal was still skeptical, but decided to give it a go.

He was very glad he did. Hal was surprised by just how much depth the story gave to Anakin by making him earn his atonement. It struck directly at the core of what made Hal so deeply uncomfortable about the prequels, that Vader's fall reminded him so much of his own, yet there had been no struggle for redemption like Hal had experienced post-Parallax. Reading a version of Star Wars where Anakin instead proved to himself and everyone else that he still had the capacity to do good... well, it may not be canon to the movies but Hal thought it was more true to who Anakin Skywalker was supposed to be.

Jo had cackled when Hal told her that, and then made him sit through a full viewing of the prequel trilogy. It was actually bearable, and he found for the first time in years that he could just turn his brain off and enjoy the space wizards dueling with laser swords.