#marvel parallels and themes

[pendovah]

We are all lonely. I sometimes think that that is all that life is. We're just fighting not to be alone.

[age-of-moonknight]

“Blood Moon, Blood Brothers,” Phases of the Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2024), #4.

Writer: Tom Waltz; Pencilers and Inkers: Ken Lashley and Brian Level; Colorists: Dono Sanchez-Almara, Erick Arciniega, and Antonio Fabela; Letterer: Cory Petit

[52frogs]

Spider-Man (Raimi) | Mr. Brightside (The Killers)

[whencartoonsruletheworld]

candace flynn is THE most teenage girl character of all time. she is at level 100 anxiety 24/7. she shows her love for her brothers by trying to get them in trouble constantly. her neck is as long as her forearm. she features on a blues album after having an allergic reaction. she has a shrine to her boyfriend in her room. she can't live without her phone. she has a panic room in the basement. she plays 20 instruments that all start with the letter B. she read all of sherlock holmes in one night. she's seen their platypus running around as a secret agent more than once, assumed she was hallucinating each time, and moved on with her life while telling no one. she likes wrestling video games. she was rutabaga princess. she has a billion people to email memes to but when she's trying to think of friends she can only think of four people and one of them is her mom. most animals hate her except monkeys. she invented grilled cheese flavored ice cream. she pretended to be irish for a week. she's autistically obsessed with her universe's version of barney. she writes marvel fanfiction. she does parkour. there's an entire archive of her voice actress screaming just in case her voice ever gave out while recording. she sees her brothers build time machines and rollercoasters every day but doesn't believe in santa. when she starts scheming the wicked witch of the west theme starts playing in the background. she was elected queen of mars. she won a "mayor for the day" essay competition. there's a random person in town who's been avoiding her to the point she doesn't know he exists. she learned how to parallel park by driving a monster truck. she thinks the plural of moose is "meese." she tracks her mom with a GPS. she doesn't know her little brother's full name. she's scared of heights, spiders, and the number seven. when her boyfriend told her he'd call "soon" she started doing complex math to try and figure out when exactly that would be. her first thought upon seeing her royal doppelganger was to go to the laundromat and fill all the dryers with cheese. she earned 50 not-girl-scout patches in one day through sheer determination. she can run fast enough to catch up to moving cars. she can sense when ground is broken in the backyard and when people are judging her. one time she got her face caught in the sink. her brothers carved her into mount rushmore. every now and again a magical zebra appears, calls her kevin, and then disappears again. she killed 99% of an alien invasion with a t-shirt cannon. in an alternate universe she's leading a regime-destroying resistance at the age of 15. she's being accidentally gaslit every day of her life.

[nipuni]

Alright, time to share my opinions about Veilguard!! I have both criticism and praise so bear with me as I jump from one extreme to the other �� spoilers ahead of course!

The game has a very rough start with the dialogue being formulaic and rushed and the characters overexposing. It feels like a heavy handed attempt at summarizing all of previous games' lore for newcomers or in case you forgot but it's so overdone it feels coddling and trivializes a lot of previous events. Luckily this gets better once all of the introductions are out of the way, though the excessive hints and clarifications continue until the end sadly.

The locations are absolutely incredible and very diverse!! This is a highlight of the game for me. There is so much detail and care in every map and there are so many of them. My pc is struggling to reach medium settings and yet everything looks stunning. The verticality of the maps is so imposing and the graphics have a very dreamy quality that I love. I also enjoy the maze-like structure to the maps, it's more linear but makes everything look a bit more intentional. The color and light direction was amazing, all the visual development really!! it has to be one of the prettiest games I've ever played.

When I started I have to admit it did not feel like I was in Thedas and it all felt a bit theme-parky, if that makes sense. A lot of previously important and established world elements that made Thedas what it is were overlooked or made irrelevant. But the more I played the more it started to feel a bit more similar to Inquisition, for better or worse depending on what you feel about Inquisition. But!! this also feels like a selectively sanitized version of Thedas compared to previous games. In it's attempt to stay safe and uncontroversial in some aspects it loses a lot of substance and it changes the tone. The surface level politics, ignoring previously established major societal issues and a tell-don't-show approach makes the world seem more simple and shallow with no grey areas to explore. ( the humor also falls flat and out of place often too, and WHY is everyone always smirking, enough!! godlike beings are destroying the planet please this is not the time for Marvel banter aaaa )

The pacing at the start is a bit of a mess. It is so fast it felt like jumping from one world shattering discovery to the next with no time to process. The characters also seem to underreact to important information and major developments. It felt like the game was rushing me through all this to get to the part of the story it wanted to tell me while I was still wrapped in my shock blanket trying to catch my breath lmao. I really like all the key story points they touched upon, I just wish they dwelled more on them to give them more narrative weight. ( though blaming every bad thing to ever happen on the Elves was certainly..a choice )

I think the writing could have used more subtlety in the first half and more boldness in the second 😆 but I loved the thematic parallels between Rook and Solas and how every quest informs the main storyline. I do wish Rook was given more impossible choices and put in more difficult situations that forced them to lie or betray their own to better drive the point home though ( listen I just love a Trolley problem!! we need more of those, I'm the Trolley problem's number one fan!! ) I feel like they missed the chance to put Rook in Solas' role and be as vilified and hated for it as Solas was despite their best intentions which would make Rook's regrets stronger and in turn make their escape from the fade all the more impressive and give them a better understanding of Solas to either use against him or earn his respect. The line 'they called me the Dread Wolf, what will they call you when this is over' from the trailers was so good I was waiting for this!! But everyone just loves Rook no matter what!!

But I feel like I stated too many negative aspects in a row so moving on to some things I enjoyed!

The characters were very lovable to me. The romances weren't as long or impactful as I would have liked but I enjoyed all the companion quests. Emmrich is a delight and his quest is so wild and fun. I loved learning about Nevarra and I was awestruck by the Grand Necropolis. The mourn watch was so interesting, it showed a whole new side of Thedas' lore I knew nothing about! and I loved Manfred! Davrin is so charming, he became a favorite. I loved his quest too and learning more bits and pieces about the Dalish was great, I wish we got more. Seeing the Wardens through his quest also made me enjoy them a lot. Assan was very cute too and I'm glad he was treated as an animal and not turned into a goofy Disney sidekick too much lmao 😭 Lucanis is hilarious. The fantasy Spain/Italy was a bit silly and off at times but he is very sweet! and I love the Spite possession, that was so fun I'm glad they kept him that way! Bellara is adorable, her first backstory quest made me cry and I just love a nerd! I wish the second part of her story was written better however, and she sort of devolves into 'it's hard, I wish it was easy but it's hard' dialogues too often sadly. Anaris and the Forgotten Ones' portrayal was underwhelming and anticlimactic which was disappointing. Harding is also very cute and her Titan plotline was the most interesting to me, I bawled my eyes out in her quest!! I love the dwarven lore of this universe I'm so happy we got more of it!! ( she also fucking died in my playthrough?! I was devastated what the hell 😭 'whatever it takes' WEUEUGHHHG I'M SO SORRY) Neve was a slow burn for me because of my choices in game slowing that relationship down ( saving Treviso I mean, perdón amor 🙏 ) but I love detective novels and she is such a badass I ended up loving her. Taash was unexpected, I didn't think they would be so young. The coming of age story was sweet, though I found myself cringing a lot too at the handling of it I have to admit ( and the Lords of Fortune in general, and the Antaam...and que Qun..listen- kajshfgf ) but I also enjoyed learning more about the first expedition and the Qunari in general despite the messy writing and choices. I also loved Antoine and Evka! and Strife! And I haven't even read any of the novels they are in 😆 also Mila!!!! and her dad oh my god and Felassan haunting the narrative!! speaking of haunting, I would have loved for Cole to be in the lighthouse too I think it would have worked well 🤔 especially with the whole 'reading Solas' secret diary' thing the game had going on lmao

Everyone seems to get along except for a bit of friction that is quickly resolved at the start, which is hmm missed potential? I would have preferred more tension personally. I enjoy the drama! gives me more to work with and gives you a better grasp on everyone's personality by contrasting values. I think they wanted to speed run a found family trope for the new hero to establish some emotional stakes early on but it ended up making everyone seem like a group therapy session instead. The group meetings also have everyone either state the obvious or repeat the same opinion or conclusion to each other, I would have loved these meetings to have more bickering, have people get mad and storm out and also get to listen to different takes on a situation. Make Rook struggle more to take the reins and keep the team functional, learning how to be a leader.

Speaking of Rook! ( who in my case has a northern British accent that I loved so much 🥺) They seem to have a very established personality. I was expecting more of a blank slate but I'm lucky that the personality they went for kind of matches what I would normally choose in a first playthrough. Though the lack of range in the choices is irritating and takes away some replayability and role playing potential. Rook is very supportive and selfless, I wasn't expecting this tbh! But it all made my Rook turn into the team's weird supportive necromancer mom so it worked out in the end I guess lmao. I can't wait to draw her!!

I was so overwhelmed by the amount of information we got about Solas and his past!! I was expecting answers but not these many and not for them to be such an integral part of the plot!! The game feels like it's about him more than anything else. His arc is the best written out of all. He is mentioned in every conversation, he's the main advisor and the narrative foil, you get to talk to him often, you work for him and with him and go into his memories it all feels so surreal to me lmao I love him so I'm delighted ngl! but also making the other Evanuris so cartoonishly evil makes Solas into such an obvious choice of an ally, god of trickery or not, that it sort of takes the decision out of your hands and makes some dialogue options and companions' opinions seem almost nonsensical. I have no idea how this game would feel to someone who absolutely hates Solas' guts honestly. I suppose I will find out soon enough 😆

About Solas' story, I loved it! I somehow also feel that I knew it already, all the speculation and theories that Solavellan fans were crafting for years were so accurate that it was all very validating. Even the wildest ones! Solas as the Maker, the elves spirit origin, Mythal giving him a body, the war with the Titans, the origin of the Blight, Solas being on your side as advisor, I can go on, we knew!! Also I have to mention this I'm sorry but they made him look so hot!! unbelievable. And the bloodied teary eyed pathetic look in the end ouurghhh I'm cheering and clapping!!

The romance conclusion was so lovely 😭 the Loki and Sigyn ending we deserved to such a mythological epic!! and open ended enough for all of us to cook!! and we got to see him fight and transform into the Dread Wolf!! and whimper and cry!! and bleed and love!! that's all I ever wanted, incredible we were really spoiled what the hell I still can't believe it 😭 GDL acting was brilliant as usual! the visuals were also incredible and exactly what I had in mind when I imagined where the story may go, the eclipse, the giant wolf, the glowing eyes, the Elvhenan ruins, the statues, even the hair lmao it all aligned exactly to what I've been painting all these years but better I was thrilled 😭

Solas backstory with Mythal also offers players that didn't romance him a chance to see him act out of love and show a side they wouldn't be able to reach otherwise and I think it was smart! also very tragic and sheds more light into all of his choices and words and his relationship with Lavellan too and the parallels and reversals and uughh thoroughly enjoying the emotional distress 👌

Pleasing both the Solas lovers and haters at the same time was always going to be hard with him being such a polarizing character by design and the world states being so different but I think they did a good job! at least from my side of things.

I think my favorite part besides the Solas related stuff was the Blight. I loved how horrific and gross and threatening it was! I've always loved the concept of the Blights and I'm glad it was such a huge part of the story in this game. I also loved Treviso!! has to be the most beautiful city in Thedas ahhh and the Necropolis!! the gardens!! Vorgoth!!! Kal-Sharok!!! I can't believe we got to see it!! and a Titan!!! the giant floating face of Ghilan'nain in the clouds??? and the huge archdemons and dragons!! oh and that warden dragon trap in the shape of a griffon?? and the giant blight tendrils!! the siege at Weisshaupt was outstanding!! and the floating panopticon castle situation in Minrathous uughh there is so much I loved.

OH I also enjoyed the Varric arc even though I saw it coming since the trailer it was still played well and it was touching 🥺

The ending felt a bit jarring to me in tone though, a bit too cheerful considering...the horrors. Over half the continent destroyed and most of the problems Thedas had before the game are still there. Veil in place and all 😆

But I had fun!! I'm nitpicking really, the conclusion to Solas' story feels very satisfying to me which was my main worry so I'm happy. It is a good game!! with a sort of soft reboot feel to it and aimed at a younger audience which is probably what they were going for? You can sort of feel the struggle the team went through during production in the way the target audience seems unclear sadly. I also can't help feeling like this is an ending, so much was revealed and resolved!! but maybe I feel that way because that is what I felt after Shadowbringers / Endwalker in FFXIV once my favorite part of the story was wrapped? They can always pivot to a new continent and expand on the world and cultures we know almost nothing about, but that is always harder to sell so I have no clue where they will go from here 😵‍💫

Anyway I'm still processing a lot of stuff that I will probably talk (and draw) about later, this is already long enough!! for now I'll look up how to get the artbook because the art direction of this game is fantastic!! I would love to hear your thoughts too really, I'm curious about the experiences of players who made different choices and with different tastes to mine!!

[abarbaricyalp]

Since the original post about the line has been going around, I've been thinking about the "It's hard to find someone with shared life experience" line from Steve in The Winter Soldier.

Yes it sets up parallels between Steve and Bucky, whatever. I don't know that it was actually meant to do that. The viewer should understand without being told that Steve and Bucky have shared lived experience.

That scene has always struck me much more as establishing the relationship that Steve and SAM were going to have. The movie said Steve is searching for shared life experience and then plops Sam down in front of him like, okay, here!

(Reckless) Military man part of experimental technology? ✅️

Lost your best friend during a military mission right in front of you? ✅️

"All I had to do was hold on."

"It's like I was just up there to watch."

Displaced soldiers--out of time, out of service ✅️

Anti-authority 99% of the time ✅️

"The number of people giving me orders is down to...zero 😊"

"I'm not looking for forgiveness and I'm way past asking for permission."

(I mean, I could find these quotes all day)

Heart of gold and moral compass stronger than magnetic North? ✅️

"Not a perfect soldier, but a good man."

Fiercely loyal and natural born leader? ✅️

Specialized training used to protect people at great personal sacrifice? ✅️

"I do what he does, just slower."

Loss of family as affective but off-screen development? ✅️

Strong ties to one geographic location that shaped them? ✅️

"Home is home, y'know."

Sam's theme song is literally called Louisiana Hero

Ridiculous relationship with one James Bucky Barnes, who is understandably obsessed with each of them? ✅️

I mean, I just can't believe how tightly interwoven Steve and Sam's stories are. Of course Sam gets the shield. Of course he's Captain America. Of course he's Steve's best friend. THEY are each other's parallels. Sam is everything Captain America should be. He's everything Steve needed and wanted in a friend/partner/successor. I always think Sam was kind of the first breath of fresh air Steve got, the first time he felt less alone in the future. They're mirrors of each other. Someone they could reach recognize themselves in. It's such a beautiful relationship that Marvel should have done more with.

That line is always going to be a SamSteve line to me 🤷‍♀️

[ricstarweek2024]

Can you believe Rictor and Shatterstar’s relationship was made canon 15 years ago? Well, it’s true! So, what better way to commemorate this iconic moment than with all of us sharing our love for them with a whole week dedicated to them?

The RicStar Anniversary Week 2024 will be held June 21-27, 2024.

The purpose of this event is to celebrate 15 years since the first kiss between Rictor and Shatterstar which happened on the pages of X-Factor #45 on June 24, 2009, which not only was the first gay kiss between two superheroes in Marvel, but it also confirmed years of romantic subtext between the characters. It’s been 15 years of canon RicStar, a couple that paved the way for more couples and pre-established characters to come out in later years.

Prompts:

Subjects

DAY 1: Early years/ X-Force era       

DAY 2: Missing moments

DAY 3: Mexico road-trip/ Mojoworld

DAY 4: Free day (It’s the Anniversary day!)

DAY 5: Alternate Universe

DAY 6: Krakoa Era

DAY 7: Family/ Friends

Themes:

DAY 1: Neurodivergence

DAY 2: Sacrifice / Parallels

DAY 3: Powers

DAY 4: Soulmates

DAY 5: Music/ Movies

DAY 6: Hurt/ Comfort

DAY 7: Childhood

Rules:

There are two prompts per day – a subject and a theme, feel free to use only one or a combination of the prompts.

All kinds of fanwork are welcome, from fanfics, fanarts, fanedits, playlists, photography cosplay, and even baking! (I’ve made Ricstar cookies in the past), handcrafts or even if you just want to share your thoughts, headcanons, etc. that’s perfect too. Let’s all just share our love for this couple in whichever way we want and can.

Remember to use the #ricstarweek2024 hashtag so we can find your work. For Tumblr, you can also tag us @ricstarweek2024.

Please don't feel pressured to post something for every prompt or every day. The dates and prompts work just as a guide so if you can’t post the assigned day that’s fine, post it when you can.

Remember to tag any triggers. Additionally, for NSFW material on Tumblr, make sure to put it under the “read more” break and use the function of sensitive content warning for Twitter.

Let’s have an amazing week together!!

[dailycharacteroption]

Roleplay Ramblings: New Elements part 1

Intro

In the past not just Pathfinder, but even Dungeons and Dragons, there has been a baseline assumption that the four elements of western elementalism were the “true” elements of creation.

Sure, Pathfinder did have wood, metal, aether, and even void elementalists out there in the world, drawing upon not just the Chinese Wuxing, but also the expanded western elements and even Japanese Godai, respectively. However, these were generally considered not “true” elements since those that drew upon them do not call upon an elemental plane. Metal is just a group of themed spells and doesn’t even have independence from the earth element for kineticists, wood draws upon the First World, Aether draws upon both the ethereal and astral plane, and Void… well, we’re not really sure how that one works at all drawing not just from negative energy, but also concepts of stillness and serenity. All together, they represent unique ways to tap into magic… but they still are only elements in name.

…Or so we thought.

With the advent of Rage of the Elements, it became revealed that the elements of Metal and Wood were indeed real, but had been inaccessible for an unfathomable length of time due to the treachery of the Elemental Lords.

Fans of Pathfinder’s lore will recall that the four “evil” elemental lords of the familiar elements imprisoned their “good” counterparts inside magical gemstone artifacts, The Moaning Diamond, the Garnet Brand, the Untouchable Opal, and the Gasping Pearl. All in a bid of an alliance of power between the four as they ruled the planes.

However, doing so had an unusual side effect in that this imbalance of power actually literally unbalanced the planes on a cosmic scale, shunting both the planes of Metal and Wood out of alignment with the rest of the multiverse, seeming to vanish entirely as the borders of the planes they once rested between closed in with their new neighbors.

However, after the goodly elemental lords were freed one after the other, thanks in no small part by planeshopping members of the Pathfinder Society, the balanced was restored and the two planes have begun creeping back in, freed from their isolation as their residents and wonders marvel and are marveled in kind by the cosmos they have rejoined.

These two planes have elemental lords, genies, and elementals of their own, a whole ecology that parallels the other planes but also prove unique in their own right. Presumably, the two more destructive or antisocial of the elemental lords of metal and wood were not included in the original conspiracy due to their comparative lack of malevolence or thirst for power compared to their contemporaries, though that isn’t to say they don’t have their quirks.

To describe them briefly, (in preparation for further entries this week) the Plane of Metal is a place of change and creation, of forged form and function, of art and science, of creation, but also destruction, for while many wondrous things can be created from the harnessed metals and materials, they are also associated with destruction, not just for metal’s association with weapons, but also the fact that nothing that is created can last forever, and all metal succumbs to rust and corrosion eventually.

Meanwhile, the Plane of Wood is a place of cultivated order, for while it is a place of constant genesis and life, rarely if ever does it grow without some for of guidance, either directly from sapient beings or simply by the nature of the plane itself. It is a place of fractals, plants growing on plants growing on plants all the way down and all the way up to perceptual infinity. But it is also a garden where wonders are cultivated, harvested, and crafted, with many elemental beings being literally carved into shape from the living essence of the plane. Very different indeed is this plane when compared to the wild verdant nature of the First World.

These planes were introduced in Second Edition, and everything about them rules-wise has been written with that assumption… But maybe you prefer First Edition, and want to see how the return of these planes can be realized in that system? Well, that’s what we’re going to look at this week! Some things won’t need much work, but others will require a bit more, but we’ll explore it all the same. I hope you’re looking forward to it!

[crumb]

Some interesting things I found while doing some research on the origin of the name Ambrose: (If this has already been pointed out, apologies!)

I know the given name's meaning is more linked to god-like rather than immortality (although those concepts are definitely linked.) The theme of immortality is very relevant to Ambrose and Vincent. He encased dead and alive bodies in wax giving them an immortal second life.

But also, Saint Ambrose is the patron saint of bees, beekeepers, wax melters, and candlemakers, which is a more direct, but still very clever, reference by the writers.

Saint Ambrose's father describes him as having a 'honeyed tongue', which doesn't always have a positive meaning.

This sounds like Bo with his placating words, leading Wade and Carly around Ambrose with all his little excuses about that damned 15-inch fan belt.

"The twin brothers Gervase and Protase are considered the first martyrs of Milan as Saint Ambrose, guided by a vision, unearthed their remains in 386. The martyrs appeared to Saint Ambrose in an apparition."

Twin brothers, martyrs who would eventually be venerated as saints themselves, appeared to Saint Ambrose in a vision. This led to the discovery of their buried remains.

"...We found two men of marvelous stature, such as those of ancient days. All the bones were perfect, and there was much blood."

These parallels, coincidences—whatever you want to call it—are just very interesting.

[letstrekintospace]

Single Dad Mobius Theory!

Marvel released a mid-season promo today, and I'd like to voice my silly little theory. We see in the promo that Mobius works at his jet ski store, and lives in a suburban house with children's toys outside, but nobody else in the shot. Now, we aren't sure quite yet *where* his home is located. But the theory can still remain.

Now, we also know, reflecting back on the scene where Loki and Mobius have pie together, that Mobius is thankful for whoever brought him to the TVA.

This is where this gets interesting. Why would he be so thankful to be at the TVA after all that has happened with it? We see this as a recurrent theme with Mobius. Loki then quips about how he held NY hostage from Avengers 1 with his alien army.

Wouldn't it be quite interesting, if when Loki travels to the Mobius Variant timeline, he was a single/widowed father? Maybe his kids are no longer there? Or maybe they are and it's just him and them?

A really interesting parallel between the pie discussion and Mobius' life would be if Loki's attack on NY had something to do with Mobius' partner no longer being around. Thus, his constant reiteration of his life being better on the timeline with his newfound family may correlate with the sorrow he faced on the jet ski timeline, and he may only know it subconsciously.

Maybe this is also why Loki is so desperate to defend him, to reassure him, to make amends once he realizes the truth.

Or maybe this is way off. But it would be really cool to see this connection.

[pendovah]

little sister

[whetstonefires]

The thing about the Shazam! (Captain Marvel but they don't have the rights to call him that) movie is that overall it's pretty good? Even if I question the pacing choices made in terms of screentime breakdown for '14yo boys making mortifying life choices and humorously failing judgment calls' vs. 'character development wrt to literally anything else about this fairly large cast.'

It's hokey; it should be. It's got some decent themes and fun character bits and set up good solid hero/villain parallels to subvert.

But.

But it massively clotheslined itself with a major storytelling fuckup connected to the opening hook mystery, whose resolution is meant to be the emotional inflection point of the whole film.

Because the thing is, this movie chose to be slightly interesting in how it approached its 'family' themes. In a variation on 'family of choice' (since your foster family are in fact assigned by the government and Billy not having a choice about living with them only about trusting them is a major story element) it went for the more nuanced and kind of interestingly grimy take that the people who are actually in your life giving a shit about you matter, if you let them, and that you need to stop giving the people who failed to love you power over your happiness.

Which is not a bad premise at all! As messages for a movie about a kid being sent to a group home go, that's the most upbeat you could possibly get and still be tied to reality.

The Vasquez couple are written and played well in these terms too because they really, genuinely care, and are making so much effort, but as system graduates themselves they never had competent parenting modeled for them and god does it show.

And the mental health problems of the kids who got enough characterization to have them were similarly...realistic in a best-case-scenario sort of way.

But! Still with the but! Even though they pulled off a lot of this fairly touchy premise rather well, there's a crack in the foundation that makes the whole movie kind of collapse on a thematic level.

Because the movie (following the prologue introducing the villain's backstory) opens with a juicy emotional hook where small Billy is separated from his mother at a Christmas fair and never sees her again.

Cut to some years later, establishing status quo scene, he's a Troubled Youth rebelling against the system in an endless quest to find his mother and go home. He is committing minor felonies to get access to police information about women surnamed Batson so he can go to their houses because eventually one of them has to be his mom.

His case worker after he's picked up again refers to his mother as 'someone who clearly didn't want you,' which Billy rejects as bullshit, and he's valid! Because that is not what you say when you have actual information. That's a surmise. That's a sentence that says Child Protective Services and the police couldn't find her either.

Especially because you don't immediately chuck a kid into foster care because he's found unattended. Maybe you do that later, after a lengthy period of oversight, depending on his mom's reaction to having him returned and her race and socioeconomic status and apparent mental health and so forth. But you don't just not contact her, and you definitely don't refuse to tell the kid about the result once you have.

The only normal situation where an accessible record exists of a kid's original parentage but it's denied to the kid is in sealed adoptions, which are a formal procedure that clearly didn't happen here. There is every indication in this opening sequence that his mom was never found.

Which means she's a missing person. Either because they located the correct Billy Batson and his adult never came back to their house (which would suggest foul play or some other drama) or because despite being old enough to be in school and knowing his own name, no one could find evidence that Billy existed prior to turning up at that street carnival.

Which would constitute a very mysterious situation! What is he, from a cult? Another dimension? Did someone (in the social worker's proposed scenario, Billy's mom) erase all record of her kid somehow? Was magic involved?

So: the way we're introduced to this scenario, there's a legitimate weird mystery here that none of the adults in Billy's life care enough about to do anything but tell him to write it off, the way they have. That his missing person clearly did it on purpose.

Billy's being ridiculous because if what he's trying would work then he wouldn't need to do it; his social worker could have arranged a meeting years ago. So it's a useless self-destructive behavior he needs to let go. But he's valid, in that he's being very obviously failed by the system and is doing the only thing he can think of to try to address his situation for himself.

And then! The Big Reveal is that his mom has been living under her maiden name in the same city as him this whole time.

Which the Gamer Kid Who Turns Out In This Scene To Be A Hacker (he's about 10) learned by. Breaking into a federal database.

So he goes to her house and it turns out. She'd been a teen mother and her babydaddy walked out after marrying her, and her parents cut her off, and she was depressed and felt like a bad mother so. When she saw the cops had her kid, she just walked away. And she wants to believe he's been happy and better off without her.

And the emotional arc of the film rests on how Billy comes to terms with this. With the fact that his past will never take him back and he has to learn to find joy in himself and his present situation and his future.

Having let go of that idea, he's able to emotionally commit to his gaggle of foster siblings and realize that unlike the villain, who was obsessed with punishing the people who never loved or accepted him, or the wizard who was focused on finding The Perfectly Worthy Champion, what you needed to be good and not lost was to be part of a mutually supportive group, like the wizard Shazam was before he and his siblings were betrayed. And then they can be a superhero team, woo!

And that part is actually depicted fairly well, all things considered!

But the problem is that the audience, to vibe with this properly, has to roll with the revelation that Billy was wrong to cling to the mystery of his vanished, beloved mother and the fantasy of going home again.

We have to be willing to participate in the idea that the Resistant Child Subjected To Foster Care was in the wrong.

And he wasn't! He wasn't wrong! His understanding of the situation was flawed but it should not have been flawed in this manner.

Because this scenario as it's depicted doesn't make any sense. The cops do not just keep your kid without following up if you fail to collect him from the baggage claim. CPS does not fail to provide a kid with the readily available evidence that he's been voluntarily surrendered to them, when he keeps running off trying to go home.

Why would they do that, after all? Billy's misbehavior was a huge hassle for them. They gained nothing by denying him access to his mother and the information about her that was, you recall, sitting totally available in a government database that could be hacked by a random 10 year old asian-american orphan. They just...made their own lives harder for no reason, while extending the suffering of a child in their care.

If the cops tried to return him back when and she said 'no i left him with you on purpose please keep him' maybe she gets prosecuted for child abandonment and maybe not, but either way, billy would know about it.

But if the screenwriters had made it clear early on that this information had been offered to him and he'd chosen not to believe it, they couldn't get a proper Reveal at the end because it would just be Billy being unable to continue pretending something the audience had known not to believe all along.

And they couldn't cram a good reason for the scenario they'd set up into the space they'd accorded it.

So they were just like, it's fine, if we cram enough cliches into this space people will react to the familiarity and go 'ah yes i know this one' and go along with it, and not notice that this isn't an actual coherent reply to the question that was set up an hour ago and therefore is emotionally unsatisfying somehow.

Anyway this is an important storytelling guideline: if you put in a mystery to control either the actual plot or, even worse, the emotional storyline, that mystery and its resolution have to make internal sense.

If you pull the Real Situation out of your ass, and it's not a matter of red herrings or That One Fact you didn't have that makes all the rest fit together differently, but in fact no one involved could have figured this out and especially if the people who did say this in the first place had no good basis for it, but still get narratively awarded the Correct trophy in a way that contributes to the thematic climax so the audience has to care. Then that will not get good results. It will make it hard to deliver on your intended themes.

Some people will not notice or care! This is true! But a lot of people will, and you'll get enough of a better punch even with the other folks, if the setup and denouement fit together properly and don't require reaching, to matter.

And when people do notice at all, rather than their naturally flowing along with the climax you're steering toward and experiencing A Story, there will be a tendency to notice you standing there placing roadsigns toward the Intended Emotional Response, and call you a hack.

People call out plotholes way too vigorously sometimes, so I want to be clear: it's not the lack of supporting logic I mind. It's that the active presence of illogic, of what's presented as a chain but is broken along its length, means the central character arc intersects with the core theme in a noticeably forced way. Which is bad craftsmanship on a meaningful level.

There is a loss of cohesion where you cannot satisfactorily resolve how the scenario we were initially shown came to be superimposed over the revealed truth, because that relationship between elements is very important to making a 'revelation' storyline land, you know?

In this case it's particularly vexing to me because the last-minute asspull and its thematic weight reaches back around and at the last minute moves the whole movie thematically to the other side of the line wrt whether it's approaching Billy, our protagonist, as a subject with whom we're supposed to identify or an object whom we're supposed to observe.

It makes all the high-school-freshman-posing-as-adult gags retroactively less funny because we were now more explicitly laughing at him, and takes a lot of the depth out of the emotionally sincere moments.

Up to that point I had really appreciated how, despite wavering that way, Shazam! hadn't actually fallen to the MCU Spiderman temptation to dehumanize its protagonist. Which seems to arise out of this weird tendency I've noticed to assume the natural sentiment of adults toward adolescents is bemused contempt, and that therefore if they ask their audience of paying grownups to empathize too closely with a teen hero instead of setting him and his Immaturity up as a clown for our amusement, they'll get themselves banished to the Children's Fiction ghetto.

And, of course, if they'd been fully committed to one side or the other of 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to closely' or 'Billy is a protagonist the viewer relates to distantly,' they wouldn't have gotten snarled up about how much information to hand over when.

Committing to either option (giving us only as much information as Billy had and constructing a story that was solid from a being-Billy angle or giving us more information than Billy and operating confidently in the realm of dramatic irony) could have worked quite well. But because of the mixed signals and unstable narrative distance, they wound up with a distinctly weakened finale.

[age-of-moonknight]

“Let’s Dance,” Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #21.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Artist: Alessandro Cappuccio; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[katherinakaina]

It always baffled me why being 'preachy' is a bad thing for a story to be. And I don't mean just a list of rules, I mean an actual story but the one that wears its themes on its sleeve, the one that has a moral paragon character, the one that actually makes strong arguments in favor of its position. Many people like such stories when the theme speaks to them but even among those who would normally agree with it the most common critique is that the story is 'preachy'.

And... Alright, it is. Why is that a bad thing? Just calling a trope or a type of story by its name is not enough. You need to explain what's wrong with it. And i don't see a convincing argument here except that some people find it annoying.

And, okay, whatever. Most people would just move on at this point. Except I can't, because I need to understand. Because I fucking love preachy stories, those are my favorite. And in things I otherwise adore my main complaint is that they're not preachy enough, they're too vague. They make the themes easy to ignore or even miss completely. That's how you get 'the red pill' being coopted by fascists. That's how you get right wing fans of ASOIAF. And that's how you get most people preferring the Termite ending in Pathologic.

So I was thinking about it while casually rewatching 'Why are you so angry?' by @innuendostudios . And this video perfectly sums up what I think is going on here. Go watch it, it's short and excellent. In a nutshell, people feel strong irrational resentment when others do... for lack of a better term, virtue signaling in front of them. They are not necessarily trying to look better than you, they are just stating their position without being ashamed of it... as if... it's a good position worth having... and they seem to imply that you are a bad person for not sharing it... Are they judging you?

I think people react the same way to themes in stories. They just want to enjoy their escapism without trying to become a better person and that's how they approach all art. Not like a message but like entertainment. So if an author wants both success and getting their message out there the message has to be hidden, to exist as a euphemism, so only those who really want to see it can decode it. Strong moral arguments exist in modern media like queer coding. For us sickos to enjoy but not for the general audience.

I am fully opposed to that. Let them have their Marvel movies or whatever but we don't have to surrender to the same standard.

Subtlety is overrated.

Hiding your themes like it's something to be ashamed of is overrated.

It can only be a good strategy if luring in people who are not fully on board with your message to then convert them is your goal. But for that you'll have to reveal your true face sooner or later and not be frightened when a surprising number of right wing fans you acquired start catching up and expressing confusion. You will have to double down and not back down. Something large media companies aren't good at. But you can be!

Remember that the frontier of art is everywhere. And even the smallest act of speaking your truth pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The corporate need to make art palatable to the general audience is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Refusal to take sides requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Subtlety is brittle. Demand for neutrality is the mask of fear. Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these on the nose parallels and in your face pompous heroic monologues, this moments of speaking directly to the audience, will have flooded the banks of 'nuanced storytelling' and then there will be one too many. One single bold statement will break the siege.

Remember this. Preach.

[reason-with-the-underdog]

ningguang & kaveh are interesting foils

thinking about ningguang & kaveh, whose ambitions are literally encapsulated in grand architectural marvels of their own design

both bankrolled & were heavily involved in every step of the construction process

their buildings were destroyed due to choices they made

they chose to rebuild anyways

both care deeply about their impact on the future generations, of which their buildings are a key part of their intended legacy

but their buildings (jade chamber + palace of alcazarzaray) convey entirely different meanings/purposes

jade chamber is ningguang's office, where she conducts both her government and personal business work. it also affords her a birds eye view over all of liyue and figuratively serves as her throne atop the heavens.

she chose to sacrifice it to defeat osial & protect liyue harbor

that choice is made easier for her (but no less important) as ningguang knows that by doing so, she preserves liyue so that it can continue towards a more prosperous future (<- also shown in her being invested in children's education + welfare)

she's satisfied with liyue's current state & thus subsumes her personal ambition temporarily for the sake of liyue's continued progress. importantly, ningguang can and will guide liyue onwards and rebuild her beloved palace amongst the clouds as part of that process

meanwhile the palace of alcazarzaray is kaveh's "magnum opus"-- it represents the pinnacle of his aesthetic ideals in a time where the mainstream in sumeru did not value the arts

the palace's first destruction was at the hands of the withering (which kaveh takes personal responsibility for since he chose its location over a cliff) so its destruction isn't an active investment in continuing the status quo, like the jade chamber's was

the palace's loss represented the difficulty of pushing against the status quo (dori's commission was particularly enticing for kaveh as an incredibly rare opportunity to advocate for the arts at a time when the akademiya's official stance was to shut cultural activities down)

so while kaveh rebuilds the palace of alcazarzaray, much like ningguang rebuilt the jade chamber...

kaveh rebuilds the palace as a swan song-- he put everything he had into reconstruction as if it were his last message to a society that no longer recognised his values. he calls it a "magnum opus" (his greatest work, implying he may never do better, or that nothing else will come after)

ningguang's jade chamber is a monument to her ambition & her desire to shape the continuance of society thru leadership/oversight over liyue

kaveh's palace of alcazarzaray is a monument to his ambition & his desire to build something wonderful in defiance of what society valued

the temporary destruction of those ambitions-as-buildings affect them very differently as a result...

another lens to look at them is through their nation's AQs and themes

liyue's AQ was about humans taking control of their future governance...

while sumeru's AQ was about humans going too far with their pursuit of power/governance & crossing the line against the divine

both ningguang and kaveh are highly influential important people in their nations in positions of power to do great things for their nation and share their ideals/dreams with the public

but ningguang's story has her take charge of her nation and actively defend liyue in crisis

while kaveh is positioned more as an outsider to the akademiya government bureaucracy & as alhaitham asks in the AQ "Where were you when Sumeru needed you most?"

they have other parallels too (having a taste for luxury, being high income earners from their chosen profession, caring deeply for the development of children's education and welfare, having teasing & at-times combative relationships with their romantic partners)

LOOK I JUST REALLY WANT THEM TO MEET... IMAGINE IF KAVEH HAD AN ACTUAL GOOD PATRON INSTEAD OF DORI LORD SANGEMAH BAY

crossposted from twt

[casp1an-sea]

FANDOMS

if anyone actually reads all this, I’ll be impressed

Tv show themes through the years playlist

I colored the ones I cared most about in each section if none are colored it means I care about the things in that section equally.

Star Wars:

Original Trilogy 

Prequels 

I dont consider myself a sequels fan but I am obsessed with HUX and Kylux and basically anything first order

Rouge One

Star Wars Legends

Star wars Infinites

Star Wars as written by William Shakespeare 

Star Wars Clone Wars

The Bad Batch

Star Wars Rebels

Andor 

Mandolorian 

Obi-Wan Kenobi Series 

Star Wars Visions 

Tales of the Jedi 

Tales of the Empire

Anything Lego Star Wars 

THE ACOLYTE (may it rest in piece)

—————————————————————————

Marvel:

the movies (I’m not caught up yet) 

Falcon and the winter soldier 

Loki (not caught up) 

Wanda Vision

Avengers Assemble (literally so weird and silly) (not finished with season 5)

spider verse

Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies

Andrew Garfield, Spider-Man movies

—————————————————————————

Musicals/Plays:

Newsies

Bye Bye Biride

Christmas Carol

Wonka

Little mermaid

Shrek

Wizard of OZ

Anything goes

Sponge Bob

Beauty and the Beast

Guys and Dolls

Hamilton

Six

The guy who didn’t like musicals

twisted

ride the cyclone

Les Mis

The lighting thief (not finished)

into the woods

Kinda bat boy (HOLD ME BAT BOY TOUCH ME BAT BOY)

Gatsby

Romeo and Juliet

Macbeth

—————————————————————————

Games:

Zac McKraken and the Alien Mindbenders!!!! (Literally the best game)

Twisted Wonderland (read through book 6)

Ultimate Shark Simulator

Hogwarts Mystery (not caught up)

KOTOR (not caught up)

Star Wars Asault Team

Minecraft

Jedi Fallen Order (not finished)

—————————————————————————

Anime:

MHA (stopped watching mid season 4 only really care about Iida)

OHSHC

BSD

Angels of death 

Darling in the franxx (only really care about Goro)

Saki k (haven’t seen season 2)

—————————————————————————

Minecraft SMPs:

EVO

Dream SMP (not caught up)

Empires SMP

X Life 

After Life 

New Life 

Rats 

Pirates (not caught up) 

Trafic Light/Life Series (I only watch Jimmy, Joel, and Martin’s POVs)

—————————————————————————

2000s Kids shows:

MLP G3 and Friendship is Magic

Wild Kratts 

Octonauts 

TMNT 2012

Odd Squad 

imagination movers

Dinosaur Train

Lego Friends (The og version)

Monster High

Ever After High

Avatar the Last Air Bender 

Sofia the first

Elena of Avalore

dinosaur train

—————————————————————————

Weird Sci-fi and Fantasy Shows:

Doctor Who (only on the 4th Doctor) 

Read All About it 

H2O Just Add Water 

Wolf Blood 

Fragle Rock

Mako Mermaids (only watched season 1)

Alien Surfer Girls/Lightning Point

Thunder Stone 

Girl From Tomorrow 

Ocean Girl 

Sparticle Mystery 

Elephant Princess (featuring Liam Hemsworth) 

Eerie Indiana 

Girl’s World

House of Anubis 

A girl named Jo (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Blue Water High (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

The Prisoner 

Spell Binder 

Just Add Magic 

Maddigan’s Quest 

The Next Step (not sci-fi or Fantasy) 

Return to Jupiter 

Rocket’s Island 

Parallels

Silver Sun (not caught up) 

—————————————————————————

Disney Plus Telenovelas: 

Violeta 

Soy Luna 

Bia 

Intertwined 

O11CE

L-Pop

—————————————————————————

Misc fandoms and shows:

Harry Potter (not caught up, I do not support J.K. Rowling or read the books) 

The Tick (og cartoon version) 

Monk

The Outsiders (movie, book, and 90s Tv series) 

Alex Rider (the show not the books) 

Wild at Heart (never finished) 

White Collar 

National Treasure Edge of History 

The Lodge

Descendants 

Z-O-M-B-I-E-S

Gilligan’s Island

NCIS New Orleans

Hell of a Boss

Hazbin Hotel

Heart Stopper

OFMD (not caught up)

Julie and the Phantoms 

Disney in general 

Tinker bell

—————————————————————————

Book series: 

Percy Jackson (currently only read the lightning thief)

The Final Six 

Horizon 

Thea Sisters (when I was little) 

Chronicles of Narnia

Wizard of Oz

The black stallion

Series of unfortunate events

The Outsiders

The Waterfire Saga