rdj the (whitewashed) electric boogaloo
This is a reminder to everyone who's excited about RDJ's casting as Doctor Doom that this casting is whitewashing. Victor Von Doom is a Romani character and has been a Romani character since his introduction in the 1960s. (Fantastic Four Annual #2 [1964]) Not only that, but his Roma identity and the persecution he and his family faced due to it is integral to his character, it is what forms his identity. (Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker) Even if on the off chance this casting is meant to not be Victor but instead be some variant of Tony or whomever else becoming Doctor Doom, it is damaging to the character to rob him of that important cultural background. Doctor Doom does not exist without that history. Fans have been pushing hard to cast Doom as a Romani actor for years, especially since the MCU has whitewashed other Romani characters. (Wanda, Pietro, etc) This casting is not a celebration moment, it's fucking heartbreaking that the MCU repeatedly ignores the important and nuanced cultural backstories of characters.
I know I can't change anybody's mind on whether or not you want to be excited about RDJ's return to the MCU. But I do think at the very least you should be mad that the MCU is baiting us all and destroying nuanced and interesting characters for the sake of self-referential easter eggs and nostalgia bait. Because that's what it is. Feel how you'd like to feel about RDJ's return, but personally, this is soul-sucking. I had such a deep love for the MCU as a teenager, it was obviously something incredibly formative to me, especially Tony Stark. This isn't recreating what I fell in love with the MCU for. This is turning a well-planned and artistic storyline of adaptations into cheap cash grabs and fan service. Because, I think we're past the point of being able to call the MCU an adaptation of anything. They can use existing characters' names and powers, but to say they're being properly adapted is laughable.
This is not an adaptation of Doctor Doom. This is RDJ the Electric Boogaloo because Marvel's fear of losing the interest of dedicated MCU fans overrides their willingness to tell stories that are genuine to the characters. I don't know what there is to be excited about that. The MCU has lost its authenticity and aside from a few projects, feels heartless. Every movie is a copy of a copy. This announcement isn't something celebratory, it feels like a death knell of a cinematic universe that's so desperate to cling to relevancy it's resorting to nostalgia for a character/actor who hasn't even been dead for a decade. We're not getting anything new, we're just rinsing and repeating the same song and dance.
I get it. I love Tony Stark, his death destroyed me and I to this day, rue the ending he got in Endgame. It misunderstood his arc and it robbed him of a satisfying conclusion. But the solution to that isn't dragging the corpse out of the grave five years later to whitewash an existing character with rich and interesting nuance, just to forcibly tie his existence in the MCU to Tony. Whether he is a variant or not. Why would you want someone else's fave's legacy to be destroyed simply so your fave's legacy can go on? Hell, if we were really all so hellbent on the return of RDJ and/or Tony to the MCU, we have the multiverse for a reason. There were other ways to do it that didn't whitewash and ruin someone else. This just. Isn't something to be happy about.
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(if you havent seen dmeon slayer s3 or read the mange this has spoilers)
okay no but look-
who tf. gave genya a sword an told him to go to final selection
It's stated that Genya calmed down and mellowed out after getting Gyomei to train him. ALSO he got mega buff between when we see him at final selection and when he see him next like yeah he obviously had a growth spurt but the point is he went from scrawny to brawny. He was also a giant asshole at final selection so like. Genya 100% only got trained by gyomei after passing final selection.
Which MEANS either someone ELSE sent a kid that cant use breathing to final selection with a sword OR he got himself there. I dont believe anyone wouldve willingly sent him given how important breathing is to the demon slayer corp
also. The only trainers we really see are hashira or former hashira. Im SO convinced there are other that we don't see given that not every water breather couldve been taught by Urokodaki but it still makes sense that these teachers are retired professional demon slayers that lived long enough to be no longer in active service even if they aren't hashira
which leaves us with options:
OPTION 1:
genya tried to learn breathing from a cultivator/some other demon slayer, failed, stole a nichirin sword and probably shook the poor sod down to get info on the when and where for final selection
OPTION 1a
When the person who tried to teach breathing to Genya refused to continue after finding out he cant Breathe Right, said teacher was too strong for genya to really do anything about it (see: they're teaching him and it seems likely that the teachers of demon slayer tend to be upper ranked at least) Genya fucked off and assaulted some weak random demon slayer to steal a sword from and get info
Or, you know, something along these lines because he had to get a nichirin sword and infomraiton from somewhere, and Im doubtful it was willingly given to him since he like. cant fucking breathe.
HOWEVER
when we see him at the end of final selection, he's like. mega obsessed with the sword thing. like. super. like yes these are special swords but here's the thing everyone there already has one of the special swords, just not one of their own.
It kinda maybe implies that Genya. Doesnt have a special sword. So.
OPTION TWO:
Genya has been roughing it with a regular ass sword for seven days and given that he can't Breathe his primary form of defense would've been step one: cut the demons arm off. step two: monch. step three: beat the demon to within an inch of its life with demon enhanced brute strength until he can get away or force it die in the sun.
In which case Genya was not likely to be doing much direct demon slaying during those seven days.
(even if he HAD a nichirin sword theres no guarantee that without breathing he wouldve been strong enough or skilful enough to use it to kill all the demons he ran across but given how obsessed and intense he is with getting his hands on a nichirin blade and how much not one single person would want him to go to final selection, i honestly think he had just some random sword. It would explain why he's so desperate to get one, other than being generally unhinged. Anyway-)
While everyone else was roughing it, surviving and slaying demons in the night, Genyas experience of the final selection exam was somewhere between a survival challenge and an all you can eat buffet, with not a lot of demon slaying involved.
can u imagine being part of his cohort and running across some dude that needs you to cut off this demons head thats missing a suspicious amount of its body bc he doesnt have a nichirin sword for some fucking reason. also he has really, really, fucked up eyeballs.
can you imagine watching one of your fellow exam participants use a sword only to defend himslef bc its a functionally useless offense only to attack by eating the fucking demons.
can you imagine seeing him at one point, looking a certain way bc hes been eating a demon and then seeing him again later looking human. or looking like a different demon. or both.
can u imagine struggling to feed yourself during these seven days and this man is having a straight up feast. and also couldnt be assed to show up with a sword for demonslaying to the exam for fucking demon slaying
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Recommending my favourite LGBTQIA+ books for Pride Month :)
The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi
Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo.
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart.
The Violent Delights by Micah Nemerever
Not My Problem by Ciara Smyth
Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfield
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling
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Okay one (1) person said yes so like let’s talk about how joker specifically dislikes Duke for his role as the signal (as in the symbol of the signal pushing Bruce forward refusing to let him stop or hold him to lower standards etc.) and used him as a placeholder for baby Bruce in his wayne murder recreation that Duke got AWAY from and now dukes the signal parading around Gotham and tbh if I were a writer that’d be enough for me but it’s like. Genuinely the easiest tragic ending we could have for Duke. Like the ‘bad ending’ au or villain aus with Duke as joker junior (if isolated to Gotham and away from gnomon) just make SENSE! Like a lot of the justification for tim Jj outside the animated series is that he’s what got Bruce away from the edge when he was about to fall into jokers hands and kill (major over exaggeration to ME but. Whatever) but imo I feel like Duke would piss joker off worse bc Duke won’t even allow Bruce to get to that point ever. To me Duke should ALWAYS be ready to hold Bruce accountable, even to his detriment (you know how all the kids mirror different aspects of Bruce and at the ‘start’ of their relationships it’s cool bc he’s fw it but later on it gets flipped on him OR they actively resent it or both? I think Duke should absolutely be the responsibility mirror, the part of Bruce that doesn’t tolerate other heroes fucking around or giving up or being half assed, and I absolutely think Duke should flip it back onto Bruce AND resent it with his Interpersonal relationships. And ofc they all do this to an extent (partly bc god forbid someone writes a bat comic where the bat isn’t the only competent person ever) but I think Duke should specifically should be the kind who wouldn’t let Bruce (or himself) rest. You CHOSE to be Batman you CHOSE not to get a day off you CHOSE to push yourself as hard as you can stop slacking. (Yes this should have a negative impact with his relationships w/everyone else and it should cause friction with CASS SPECIFICALLY! Diff post for diff time) Sorry that’s so off topic I think this would Píss joker off bc remember he’s not just trying to get Batman to kill; he wants Batman to FAIL! And that’s in all his duties and responsibilities to his city so I think a physical manifestation of why he CANT and isn’t allowed to? Ugh. Anyways I think joker doing his best to snuff the light out of the city? To prove there’s worst things than death? To show Batman that his signal won’t always be there? C’mon…..CMONN
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