#maybe i'll be surprised

[illprotectyou-hearteyes]

So, the opening line of MI2 is: "Well, Dimitri, every search for a hero must begin with something every hero requires: a villain."

It's not a line I've given much thought to, what with it hardly being a strikingly original observation.

But giving it a moment, the line makes me think about how much more complex the MI series' approach to that dichotomy is than 'Good Guy vs Bad Guy'. It's far more 'a guy fighting for his humanity vs an institution that seeks to subsume him into their oppressive functions.' Ethan didn't rise from the ashes to combat an Evil Overlord or even an Evil Organization which he attacks from the outside. Dude wants a dog and a family and house, but he is trapped within an organization that leaves no options besides being complicit with its abuses or fighting like hell to subvert both it and the threat it launches him at.

That's why the villains I find most compelling in the series are ones like Jim Phelps and Solomon Lane—even Sean Ambrose in a few select moments—who contrast with Ethan specifically in how they navigate the moral death-trap that is the IMF or similar organizations. (Don't get me wrong, Owen Davion is a top-tier villain when it comes to building a sense of threat and cruelty, but by MI standards I don't find him the most thematically compelling. If I'm going for analysis, I'm more likely to dig into Musgrave and Brassel).

Still, to return to the opening line of MI2: it doesn't refer to the 'creation of a hero', but rather the 'search for a hero'. And, well, I suppose the IMF as an organization is, in its way, always on the search for heroes. But however unintentionally, it finds them not through identifying external villains to toss agents at and see who sticks. It finds and forges them through being the jailor who traps individuals inside it, and villain who will break and turn them within it unless they find the heroism to fight.

And for all its theatrics which these days tend play as rather more funny than cool, for all that its aesthetics make it easy to dismiss, that dynamic is fully present in MI2—more present even, I'd argue, (at least at this point in my rewatches), than in MI3 or MI4.

And personally, I find that dynamic really compelling, not to mention relatable. After all, I suspect it's a rare privilege among us everyday folks to find an individual nemesis against whom to sharpen our skills and wits and moral fiber. But living within systems of oppression we cannot escape, within which complacency and obedience tips all too readily into complicity with horrors, against which we learn to stand in whatever small or large ways we find capacity for even when we cannot find the means to transform it—well, my friends and I know a thing or two about that.

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

already said it to allie privately but there's nothing worse than when you're watch the next season of a show and the male and female leads are both dating different people they arguably have much better chemistry with but you already know by the end of the season the leads are definitely going to dump those people in favor of dating each other again jfndsfjkdnfkjs

[repmet]

@rwrbsource & @rwrbmovie’s rwrb appreciation month bingo: favourite scene

I'll break the sound barrier for you.

[fadelsburger]

THE HEART KILLERS (2024-2025) เขาจ้างให้ผมจีบนักฆ่า dir. Jojo Tichakorn Phukhaotong

[sysig]

Rainbows (Patreon)

[xuxudio]

Please, won't you tear me open wide?

[petricorah]

lee from the tea shop boutta get it (wip) [id in alt]

edit: completed illustration here

[edwinspaynes]

All of the art we have for the journal so far, compiled in one convenient location! I'm a little bit confused since the Kickstarter says there are 12 arts, and they say there's only one more to go (making 11 in total), but hey! These are the ones we've got.

(Update: edited to add the Clary & Sebastian one that I forgot the first time)

[inorheona]

slowly making my way thru the second campaign

[spacebar2]

(Characters, not content creators. I don't support William Gold/Wilbur Soot.)

I missed watercolor. Ough.

[gracefireheart]

Idk I just wanted to sketch Medic but as a partial demon or something

[no-brain-just-akutagawa]

when he could almost taste the most expensive french wine but his least favourite anemic turned out not to be dead after all

[ID: An edited "Disappointed man" meme. Instead of the man's face, there's Chuuya looking down with a mix of disappointment and annoyance. End ID]

[vickyt-mv]

quick lon'qu for his birthday 🗡️🗡️

[tosteur-gluteal]

Again, gouache painting I made to relax

[demaparbat-hp]

In "For the Spirits", will Zuko eventually tell Katara he met her mother?

Oh! I was hoping someone would ask me this!

You see, Zuko actually [REDACTED] that he [REDACTED], but that happens after [REDACTED] in Chapter [REDACTED]. Of course, [REDACTED] didn't expect [REDACTED] to [REDACTED], and I don't think [REDACTED] ever really [REDACTED].

That's one of my favorite scenes!