#plus it supports the theories that the way he acts now is a coping mechanism

[myebix]

consider! what if jax wound up in the digital circus when he was 14, and his avatar reflected that? there's so much potential here...

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press/Gallery: Elizabeth Olsen Is Ready to Lead the MCU

An ambitious new Disney+ series might just give the strongest Avenger the happy ending she deserves.

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Studio Photoshoots > 2021 > Session 001

  ELLE: We can’t keep meeting Elizabeth Olsen like this. By “this,” I mean in the throes of catastrophe or bereavement, or, to put it plainly, when she’s an emotional wreck. In the 2018 Facebook Watch drama Sorry For Your Loss, Olsen assumes the role of Leigh Shaw, a young widow grappling with the unexpected loss of her husband and all the painful nuisances that come with death: the unbearable waves of sadness, the clichéd condolences, a grief support group that runs out of donuts. At one point, Leigh says through a cracked voice, “I’m just mad all the time.” It’s hard not to draw parallels to Olsen’s other angry character. After all, “mad” is exactly how 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron introduced us to Wanda Maximoff.

Defined by tragedy since her Marvel debut, Wanda (aka the Scarlet Witch) is an orphan with telekinetic powers. When not saving the world, she spends most of her time onscreen grieving the deaths of her parents, twin brother, or lover. Wanda’s never been allowed to fully exist outside the confines of her grief and anger, but with the launch of WandaVision—Marvel’s foray into serialized content for streaming—she may just be getting the happy ending she deserves.

Partly inspired by The Vision comic book, which follows synthezoid superhero Vision and his family as they move to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the Disney+ series is an ode to the TV sitcoms we’ve come to love, with Wanda and Vision (Paul Bettany) basking in newlywed bliss—except Vision’s been very dead (killed twice, in fact) since the events of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. It’s unclear exactly how these starcrossed characters got to suburbia, but for now, it’s a delight to see the typically solemn duo sink their teeth into slapstick comedy.

“The show is like a blank slate for them,” Olsen tells me over Zoom, her light brown fringe a departure from Wanda’s red waves. The Scarlet Witch’s doleful glare is also long gone; in its place, Olsen’s eyes are wide with excitement. “Wanda and Vision’s journey to this point is a story of pure, innocent love and deep connection with another person,” she explains. “It was also very traumatizing. Tragedy has always been their story. In our show, we kind of wipe that clean and start fresh.”

But Wanda’s complicated past looms over WandaVision. Age of Ultron saw her and her twin brother, Pietro, initially opposing the Avengers (the siblings volunteered for a series of experiments with Hydra—a super evil organization within the MCU—after the deaths of their parents at the hands of Tony Stark’s Stark Industries) before switching sides to help save the Earth. The movie ends in victory for our superheroes, but yet another tragedy for Wanda when Pietro dies in battle. She finds comfort in the arms of Vision, an android created from the remains of Tony’s J.A.R.V.I.S. program, but even that bliss is short-lived. You see, Vision can only live with the help of the Mind Stone, which Mad Titan Thanos needs to take over the universe. In Infinity War, Vision asks Wanda to sacrifice him, and Wanda reluctantly agrees—but Thanos reverses time to gain control of the stone, killing the robot for a second time. Wanda’s pain is palpable: Imagine sacrificing the love of your life to save everyone else, just to watch him brought back to life and killed again—by the very villain you’re trying to defeat.

Though the thrill of playing a character with superhuman abilities is enticing for any actress, Olsen says it was Wanda’s internal battle with mental health that attracted her to the role in the first place. “[Joss Whedon] explained to me that Wanda Maximoff has always been this pillar of the struggle of mental health, from her pain and depression and traumatic experiences to how she completely alters the reality of the comics,” Olsen says of her early conversations with the Age of Ultron director. “The thing I held onto after reading the initial script was that she was not only powerful because of her abilities, but because of her emotions.”

In fact, MCU theorists would argue she’s one of, if not the, strongest Avenger. She can infiltrate the others’ minds to reveal their biggest fears (Age of Ultron). She can overpower Vision and send him plunging through several floors to break up a fight between warring superheroes (Avengers: Civil War). She can even bring Thanos to his knees, snapping his sword in half and forcibly removing his armor piece by piece (Infinity War).

Still, “they keep slapping her over the head with more grief,” Olsen quips.

As phase one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with the sound of clanging metal on May 2, 2008, phase four kicked off on January 15, 2021 with a kitschy 1950s sitcom theme: “She’s a magical gal in a small town locale / he’s a hubby who’s part machine / How will this duo fit in and pull through? Oh, by sharing a love / like you’ve never seen.”

With WandaVision, Marvel steers clear of the typical superhero trappings: no destructive battles at a Berlin airport or across the streets of New York City; no blonde-haired god time-traveling to other realms; no tree-like alien fight alongside a raccoon. Wandavision takes place after the events of Endgame in a fictional suburban town called Westview, and the biggest problem the newlyweds face in the show’s opening moments is creating a convincing backstory to get nosy neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) off their backs.

“They are just trying to fit in,” Olsen explains. “They’re trying to not be found out by their neighbors that they’re super-powered beings.” Now, if only we can figure out what the hell is actually going on. Olsen remains tight-lipped: “The reason it’s a sitcom shows itself later in the show,” she hints. “When Kevin [Feige] told me, it didn’t feel so bizarre. It felt like a great way to start our story.”

“With our show, you don’t know what the villain is, or if there is one at all.”

So, is Wanda stuck in the first stage of grief, denial? Has she altered reality as a coping mechanism for Vision’s death? Is she being held hostage by a terrorist organization (ahem, Hydra!)? One thing we do know is that someone is watching the couple and taking notes. At the end of episode 1, the camera pans out from a retro TV playing an episode of WandaVision (meta!) to show a hand jotting down notes. There’s a strange sword symbol on the notebook and a nearby control board, and in episode 2, the same sign appears on a toy helicopter lodged in the couple’s front yard. Later, when a mysterious beekeeper crawls out of the sewer on the couple’s street, the symbol is seen on the back of his suit. In its 20-plus movies, Marvel villains have always existed in plain sight. But with a new, less obvious darkness lurking at every turn, Wanda may have to return to her world-saving roots.

“Someone said to me when you watch any of these hero movies, you know when the villain’s about to show themselves, and you also have an idea of who the villain is,” Olsen says. “With our show, you don’t know what the villain is, or if there is one at all.” For now, WandaVision allows for glimmers of hope and optimism for Wanda and Vision, despite what darkness tries to threaten their happiness. “Wanda is trying to protect everything in her bubble, protect what she and Vision have and this experience,” Olsen says. “I think everything she does is in response to keeping things together.”

In addition to exploding the concept of the superhero onscreen, WandaVision toys with a different era of TV in each episode. The pilot takes viewers to the ‘50s with an episode filmed in front of a live studio audience, and Wanda dresses up in the quintessential housewife garb, not a hair out of place in her voluminous bob. By the time we click on episode 2, she trades in her apron and kitten heels for a more pared-down ‘60s look, while episode 3 gives a nod to the ‘70s, complete with a Brady Bunch-style staircase and a shag haircut for Vision.

While dressing up was the fun part, time-hopping through the eras required a lot of binge-watching old sitcoms to get the mannerisms down right. Olsen studied series like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Bewitched to “understand the tones of each era” and get a grasp of how Wanda and Vision should act as a couple. (One of her favorite TV pairings was Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle.) She was fascinated by the way female characters evolved through the decades: “You have to learn appropriate manners—what’s considered being polite or proper. That coincides with women’s voices changing,” she explains. “I enjoyed challenging myself to match the syntax and the lyricism. I live in a very chest-register kind of deep voice. I had to remember not to bring it up at certain moments.”

For so long, Wanda served as a supporting character to Marvel’s biggest names, and the formulaic mundanity of the major theatrical releases made it easy to get comfortable. WandaVision offered Olsen a much-needed challenge. “I’ve only been working for 10 years, but there is this feeling where you start to get comfortable,” she says. “WandaVision was the furthest thing from comfortable for me. It felt intimidating. The character is a completely different thing.”

And fans hoping for a little Marvel action won’t be disappointed. “We still live up to what Marvel does,” she promises. “We just tell the story in a completely different way. It’s a very emotional, female story and it’s a story they haven’t told yet for either of our characters.” Whatever your theory is, keep the cliché condolences to yourself. No one will be uttering, “Sorry for your loss” in Wanda’s world.

Press/Gallery: Elizabeth Olsen Is Ready to Lead the MCU was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

[minimitchell]

"i so often get the feeling callums reactions are understandable and acceptable because his mi is named' yes!!!!

I completely agree, plus Callum generally presents as the more acceptable mentally I'll person with reactions the audience can understand more easily even without a diagnosis.

I also think it's complicated by the fact that Ben's a criminal and generally less likeable than Callum, so people are like... why should I feel sorry for him, he hurts other people. Which... I don't think he should just get away with bad behaviour because of mental illness of course I don't!! But I do think there's a (uncomfortable) conversation to be had about his childhood, the environments he's been brought up in at home and in prison, trauma reactions, lack of family or professional support, cycles of violence etc and how all that influences the decisions he's made.

Anyway I hope you feel better soon 💓 I know the Ben vs Callum comments and arguments across eastenders stan socials have been really upsetting since Callum's PTSD was named, and I get that the comments about Ben in relation to that must be tough for you. It's really exposed a lot of biases and weird attitudes re diagnosed vs undiagnosed illness and acceptable vs unacceptable trauma. I think a few of us are sitting with this feeling uncomfortable with the way Ben was demonised because others saw the letters PTSD and jumped into Callum defense mode at the expense of other characters. I get defending Callum but the way they had to create a bad guy and invalidate others' feelings because Callum's the one with a diagnosis doesn't sit right with me at all.

i 100% agree with you here, anon. and you know i kinda get not being sympathetic towards ben if you don't like him anyway. like i'm not expecting ww or ds to look at him with a 'not mentally healthy' lens because they don't show that much understanding to characters they don't like. but it has really bothered me how some ben & ballum fans have been talking about either of them lately. this goes for callum showing (for once) not so fluffy, rose-tinted manifestations of his ptsd and ben showing exactly what his mi is doing to him and how it's making him act. and i'm not sure why this thing became such a ben vs callum debate (mostly over on twitter tbf) when we can easily just acknowledge they're both not entirely mentally healthy (if you're looking at it they have a lot of the same triggers and coping/distraction mechanisms which makes the whole 'callum is inherently better and more sympathetic' stance strange to me but that's another topic).

and it's exactly like you said, it showed a lot of bias about what some people view as acceptable manifestations of mi and not and that just didn't sit right with me lately idk. i know they aren't real people but it is hard not to internalize some things when there's post after post about how dumb ben is, how he's controlling (which ??) or how he overreacts to everything.

but i'm giving people the benefit of the doubt that they maybe just posted first reactions without really thinking of the reasons behind some actions from a standpoint of a person who is mentally ill. which is why i think it's good to read about theories or hc about ben having bpd for example and just reading up on that, you know. when i read them for the first time i also went 'huh. that explains so much actually' and i now view his actions and words a lot differently.

anyway i'm rambling but thank you for taking the time to send these. it means a lot.💕

[full-course-identity]

Give me your thoughts on uuuh Jake

wew boy

okay. gonna word dump this, and probably other interpretation asks, so I can get the words out there.

from my POV, there’s 3 types of canon Jake + 1 fanon vers + my personal interpretation. lemme explain what they are;

Book Jake, who I don’t have enough experience with bc I STILL haven’t finished the book… >_>;

2River Jake, who is kinda oblivious and very in-the-moment impulsive (not so bad he’s jumping place to place ADHD like Rich, but like, not considering that maybe dropping everything to seduce Madeline or Christine is a bad idea when he clearly really likes Chloe). these are debatably survival mechanisms bc of his family (and wealth, if you want to go into the “being rich actually traumatizes you and locks you into dissociation” theory–but to be fair, this is partially reliant on thinking Jake is Genuinely Rich. … well, not Rich as in… yeah); ignoring any pain he feels in favor of getting dicked down and forgetting about everything for a while. very “I’m not sad, I’m busy!!!!!” 

Bway (possibly the new canon general for all Jakes since it sounds like London’s is modeled after him but just… toned down), who is still oblivious, but towards other people’s emotions instead of himself; he’s manipulative, a little impulsive but a lot more malicious about it, and he knows exactly how hurt he is about his parents. this jake’s awareness of himself makes him act worse because he knows this is the only thing that seems to help and it’s basically the only thing he actually has control of. his wealthiness is undeniably present and Bad here because the reason taking what he wants and not caring that it hurts people is his main coping skill is pretty much only because he’s been allowed that privilege all his life. i tend to think this version of him should be done by a white cishet dude (despite jake’s actor on bway being genuinely FANTASTIC) bc being marginalized in a high school should’ve curved a lot of the “endless power and privilege” he gets for being rich (Not That One). 

[i… think this jake has ‘better’/more nuanced writing in BWay… but i don’t think it fits the musical nor is it the overall direction i think it should’ve gone. BMC feels best to me when there’s a heavier element of Dark Humor that briefly nods to a Larger and more Fucked Up world behind the bit we see in the musical. making it largely a twisted comedy, maybe even ramping that up further with more whiplash lines like jake’s “which means the house is empty, so that’s fun”]

Fanon Jake is… like most of the fanon characters in BMC, a bit… “bipolar” (like, radically shifting depending on the situation). the BMC fandom has been born with heavy engagement from minors in the current fascist climate of fandom as a whole. as a result, you have three general uses of jake that as “approved of” by somehow the exact same people despite being conflicting in a lot of ways. THIS IS NOT ME SHITTING ON FANON, i actually think most of this fandom is just a casual romp for most people and that shouldn’t be snatched away from them nor mocked nor treated like you HAVE to be logically consistent when this is just a fun hobby for most… but there are still trends i notice:

1: Jake the sweet bi disaster who loves their significant other and is just a little bit hopeless in their silliness and Down For Whatever-esque personality. this is often used for shippy pictures and memes and cute little oneshots, plus, of course, fluff.

2: Jake the tragic abuse victim who is extremely sad and has to learn to love again and has always been selfless, plus or minus a permanent disability post-fire. this is of course used for hurt/comfort, plus in combination kinda with michael in the bathroom-esque posts and tragic art, often also used as an example of the squip being the worst for jeremy or rich guilt trauma. also: aesthetic and moodboard posts.

3: the one I have the least good will towards: Jake the “why does everybody woobify mlm? You can’t portray him without flaws! queer boys aren’t your fetish!!!” with an attached, clunkily written reasons why he was an asshole that is also simultaneously watered down so you don’t think he’s a Monster bc then you’d be vilifying queer men (well, more like they’d feel bad about their cutesy-er ‘emotional support’ art and writing which is Totally Different from all the other cutesy emotional support art and writing). 

basically, Meta Trying To Make Jake Reasonably Flawed But Not Evil in this fandom is RARELY genuine–it’s more often than not moralistic hand-wringing made so that they can wash themselves of the guilt for actually enjoying something with a character they portray as mlm, or otherwise the guilt of enjoying anything romantic or sexual involving men or queer people period when we’re apparently not supposed to do that anymore, as decreed by the radfems infesting our spaces. 

and, well, or you’re an mlm writing this post, you’re probably young and still feeling extremely sensitive and scared about your identity. i once saw a very wise post by a trans person who had been trans for a long time, who said that when you first come out as trans (or queer in general, but especially trans people who are beginning social or physical transition and coming to terms with themselves) you are obvs on High Fucking Alert and so you’re insecure and scared of anything, ranging from “obvious transphobia” to “just trans people enjoying themselves and exploring transphobia in fiction or else their own sexuality”. again, this can relate to a lot of identities tbh, and as such young mlm either cis or trans can get very Itchy about people enjoying mlm content.

anyway.

wrapping it back around to me: i edit jake on a case by case basis (sometimes i even make him eviler or meaner based on what’s set up during Bway, he’s just not my usual go-to villain), but i tend to think of him as a tragic Mr. Peanutbutter-y sweetheart who kinda knows he feels like shit yet also knows that if he stops to assess it, it would make his life a lot harder in a time where he can’t afford that. his relationship with chloe is extremely toxic (chloe abuses him horribly, specifically), and so he tries to claw his way out of it only to be continually back in by chloe and her bullshit. 

this is why he doesn’t really get... well. he genuinely thought the thing with christine was going to be permanent; he wasn’t jerking her around, he thought he was over chloe and wanted a girl as cool and fun and genuinely nice as her. afterward he Gets It, and so feels Really Bad--at a time where he doesn’t have his house, his legs are broken (i don’t tend to put him in a perma-wheelchair), his parents have abandoned him, and he best friend is in the hospital. guilt crashes in on him from all sides, and he just has to... pretend it isn’t, even as he can no longer stop himself from thinking about it.

if i was to do a jake focused story, it’d probably be a dating sim where you play as him and watch his life change in conjunction with his attempts to find happiness again; you can either choose decisions that help him greatly or ruin his life so ver much... hmm. lets file that under hashtag “story ideas i’ll never use even though they could be great”

to wrap this up: i like jake. i don’t... really enjoy most of the written content (fanfic, meta, sometimes even the storylines on ask blogs) in this fandom about him or... really, most of the characters, which i feel bad about--i’d enjoy it more if it was every in conjunction with my usual Wants in a fic, which is, like. extreme angst.

BUT

i do still like jake, and i can super enjoy his portrayal in memes and visual art

he’s just not my total fave, but like, the reason he tends not to come up a lot in my content is more what i’m focusing on and why. i’d be happy to use him in stories if his presence fit.

as a bonus

here’s the ships i’m happy to use him for, generally: deere, michael/jake, brooke/jake, toxic chloe/jake, and of course, different ocs/jake

his identities/labels: cis, bisexual/romantic... tho sometimes i actually go for bisexual and aromantic! outside bway and eviler jakes, i’m good with him being any race, and even then it’s just a matter of suspending disbelief re: privilege theory. also, PTSD probably, and maybe generalized anxiety as a result. maaaaaybe autistic too? adhd would be a hard sell for me since he seems super put together in a way that’d be extremely difficult for every form of adhd, but i can see him being neurodivergent on the spectrum + like dyslexia maybe. oh, and i sorta-kinda think he may be color blind? but really i’d drop that at a moment’s notice if it’d be easier to write him without it lol.

his interests: one is more or less sports in general, tho i think that, unless he went straight for track or swimming or something Olympics (which he probably can’t do now...), that’s a high school or some college only focus for him. so, besides sports, i think he’d kinda like the satisfaction and steady growth of Collecting Rare Things That You Have To Look For, like cool rocks, bugs, etc. 

as for careers... some form of doctor something, maybe a businessman of some sort but he’d likely try to curve his power in that field as much as possible; he inherits his parents' assets and company or whatever, but he probably takes a backseat to that and only really has it out of a sense of ‘it’s my job as my parent’s kid to keep the company going--without engaging in the same awful legal issues they did--for as long as i can’. one of my fave jake-is-there stories, vanceypant’s spicy bis-focused fic 1999, has him owning a restaurant, and that was cool as hell.

also jake loves dogs. especially golden retrievers. yes.

[mychaosacademia-blog]

Hey so I noticed how you both really like Bakugou, but i dont understand him. All i can see is how rude he is, and i dont get how anyone can like someone so mean. So could one or both of you please help me understand? Please and thank you.

Hey! Thanks for the question and your interest! xxx

We were going to make a loooong analysis of Bakugou to explain our points anyway- it’s understandable that he can seem nothing more but rude to some people- so here it comes! 

Because really, there’s so much more to Bakugou than just a bully. I think the last episode (Deku vs Kacchan 2) proved it quite well, but there were already indications before. Bakugou has issues and those issues are not just behavioral. He seems to be in a really bad place mentally and nevertheless, he is growing, changing, slowly (very slowly but still) becoming a better person.

But let’s start at the beginningSomething felt off about Bakugou already there. I mean, he was supposed to be this bully, your typical asshole jock™, but at the same time, there was so much more to him. He is surprisingly (for this type of character) intelligent, and you can see it not only from the stats he got in the Official Character Book but also from his actions, how he fights, figures out things, learns quickly, and passes tests super well (I mean, he’s 3rd in the class on the written exams, after only Momo and Iida). Soon enough, we got even more dimensions to him - with the panic attacks/ otherwise extreme reactions he went through whenever he needed to accept help or felt like loosing. 

It all was still very vague and honestly, we’ve been just itching to get to know Bakugou’s family background and backstory, because we already found it interesting to make theories on why he can behave the way he does, why he can simultaneously seem to be just someone who’s mean and feels better than others, but on the other hand he’s so scared of the smallest inadequacy or failure. And we sort of got a response when we saw his mom.

This scene was probably supposed to be comical but in context of Bakugou’s previous behaviors, it was SO HURTFUL. I’m not just talking about the physical violence that was in place there (ALTHOUGH SMACKING YOUR CHILD ON THE HEAD EVERY MINUTE IS KINDA FUCKED UP, REALLY, REGARDLESS OF THEIR ATTITUDE)

But what really made it harsh, and showed where Bakugou’s issues might come from, was the words Mitsuki said.

“It’s your fault to begin with for being so weak”

“You’re causing everyone trouble”

“He’s a hopeless guy but please train him to be a good hero”

Woah, Mitsuki. Supportive much? She explains later that Bakugou’s problems supposedly come from the praise he got for shallow things as a child - but in our opinion, that’s just half of the story. The other half is lack of support + guilt tripping + being seen as lower that he got from those that supposedly should be closest: his family.

Quite an easy way down the path of trying to constantly win, overcome everything on his own, and be the best at all costs. Just, subconsciously, not to feel guilty for being weak, troublesome or needing help like his family conditioned him to.

Why is Bakugou mean and often hurts others? He might have just learned it from the role models he got in his family. Mind you, he’s still a child. Still growing and learning which models are worthy of replicating. And comparing his mom to his dad, he most certainly prefers to be like his mom, even unconsciously replicating her attitude. Still, he has boundaries, and he’ll never become a villain, as we already saw when he got kidnapped and from what Aizawa said. He wants to be on top, but his purpose isn’t to hurt others- it’s just to win.

Why he can’t accept help or lose, even in the slightest, ever? Because he was conditioned to see weakness and causing others trouble as highly negative things for which he gets brought down, guilt-tripped and smacked on the head.

Why does he have a particular problem with Deku? Because Deku is constantly trying to help him and instead of just accepting that Bakugou is better (even if he does admire him, a lot), he uses his image to better himself. In addition, he maintains this attitude even despite his natural obstacles of being quirkless (to Bakugou, it probably seems crazy strong and hence dangerous that someone can lose so much, be so “below” on the social ladder and still be that hopeful, without panicking or getting lost in guilt just constantly working to be better…), and eventually gets dangerously close to surpassing him and winning. All of this threatens Bakugou’s already-not-doing-that-well-despite-the-act-he-puts-up self-esteem to drop really really low. It scares him. And his coping mechanism against these panics is just getting to feel higher through first bullying, later fight, and now a proper rivalry. He needs to win to feel better, but even winning isn’t enough if it’s not perfect (like during the Sports Festival).

Now, the last episode was really beautiful and said most of these things out loud. We saw Bakugou guilt-tripping over All Might’s retirement, saying he felt weak and like a burden (NOTICE THE PARALLELS IN WHAT MITSUKI SAID ABOUT HIM, this family is really not affecting that boy well). We saw him say that he felt like Deku looked at him from above. We even got All Might outright stating that Bakugou has an inferiority complex. The process of looking into how Bakugou’s background and life affected his issues has come to an end - now he’s starting to grow and overcome these problems. Already by the end of the episode, we can see his attitude changed a bit. It’s beautiful, honestly.

Why do we like Bakugou? Well, the point of this whole analysis just now was to show that there is more to him than a bully, more than being rude just because yes. There are interesting theories to explore, psychology to mix in, everything has a reason and effect, plus there’s ongoing character development.

He’s not a role model or someone to admire. At least not yet and probably still not for a while. But disagreeing with Bakugou’s actions (such as bullying or his outbursts) doesn’t mean we are required to not like him as a character. 

Because the truth is, he is a damn well-written character. One of the better in the series, if you ask us. He has many dimensions - his issues are one thing, but he has also a great hilarious dynamic with his friend squad (Bakusquad), he can be funny, he can be smart, he can be heartbreaking, he can be heartwarming when we see him grow.