#so what kind of physical properties does he have? Why do people just like it among so many types of materials? In fact

[chengyouqing]

When it comes to PET Velcro Braided Sleeve, the first thing we think of is the shower nozzle, which is connected to a soft tube, and this tube is what we usually call PET Velcro Braided Sleeve. It is very important in our life. Has already occupied an important position, so what kind of physical properties does he have? Why do people just like it among so many types of materials? In fact, there are many reasons for this.

[yanderederee]

Hello, I saw your post talking about izana hitting her partner, which I agree with. But if his partner is someone who doesn't tolerate this, who has a lot of self-love and loves herself more than she loves him, then she decides to leave him the first time he touches her? Thanks and byee!! 😊

Hihi!~ I wasn’t sure if you were requesting I write some additional headcanons to go with this, so I just went with my gut~~ ˶ᵔᵕᵔ˶

Based on these headcanons:

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦꒷꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

If we’re still talking Yandere! Izana, then good luck. He has officially labeled you as property, and refuses your request to leave. A breakup was a mutual decision, right? So if he says no, then you’re not breaking up. If you’re insistent on leaving him, he’s not above scaring you; threatening to kill everyone close to you, arrange for anyone else you associate to take the fall for these murders… Yandere!Izana is especially cruel and might take even more extreme measures to keep you complacent(like drugging you/captivity…etc), if you continue to infuriate him further. Sorry bestie♡

If we’re talking canon Izana, honestly; If his s/o decides to leave him, while he’ll be royally pissed about it, he won’t fight you to stay with him; since he does kind of see people as tools. At least that’s what he’s convinced himself to believe. He doesn’t think he needs you. He has no use for you if you serve him no purpose, if you want to leave him, then he will try to convince himself that as a tool, you are replaceable. It’s only after not having you around for a few days will he realize how much he actually valued your companionship. Izana realizes once you’re gone that he didn’t want to be separated from you. He considers Shinichiro’s words to never hit girls. Izana thought it was stupid, he was unprejudiced in whom he hit—It was only fair. He began thinking maybe that was why he was “wrong”. It took a flabbergasted Kakucho to spell it out for him to realize, you shouldn’t hit the people you love. If you love them, you treat them well, and protect them from everyone, even yourself.

From there, Izana will do one of the two;

He’ll either return to reader within two weeks time, confessing— Very begrudgingly—that he realizes that he should not have hit you, and while he’s still learning to control his emotions and reactions, he promises you he will never hurt you (physically) again.

Or, Izana will leave you be. He has a lot of gang shit to deal with, and deep down he will know having someone he loves so close to him will either make him too soft for the horrors he must commit, or you will eventually be caught in the crossfire. Either way, he knows you’re better off without him. Even if it hurts him, he will do everything to distract himself from ever thinking about you again.

[redphlox]

Are you feeling about Touya? I can't imagine Horikoshi it would be way too cruel, especially since him and Shouto need to eat soba together.

Feeling hopeful. I know the general consensus in the Dabi fandom right now is fear and despondency but when I look at the overall picture of the story, Touya dying doesn't make any sense and there's a lot of setup for him to survive.

The random guard/whoever saying Touya is heading toward a slow death means nothing to me. Not when Ujiko, the brilliant (but evil) doctor who saved Touya from certain death on Sekoto Peak, was wrong about Dabi's body not surviving a month after he woke up from the coma. The core of Touya's character is literally about survival and determination, going above and beyond to exceed expectations to live and be seen. I also feel that there might be something within Touya that allows him to survive, which is how he has any fire resistance at all. He was crying actual real tears this chapter instead of blood, which hints that his body is healing. I've seen other people theorize that Shouto's Phosphor has healing properties, which is promising and more in line with the stories' themes and messages than Touya dying again.

Overall, the tone of the Todoroki family arc is positive and hopeful. Yes, Fuyumi quit her teaching position, but one of the students' parents helped her find another one. This means that not only does this one parent believe in her, but so does this new employer. And those kindergarteners that Shouto connected with during the remedial license Arc have been supporting him this entire time. These instances show that society is changing their attitude towards the relatives of those who commit crimes and are willing to accept the Todorokis back into society and are literally cheering for them. This doesn't change the fact that some people will definitely hate them, but it's not all doom and gloom. And the soba thing - what a way to connect to someone who was born to replace you! That's a deep connection right there, and that's good. The story has focused a lot on connections and how life-saving and important those can be. Dying would rip that connection and go against the themes

Also, I feel like the Todoroki family would be much more worried and emotionally wrecked if they thought Touya was actually dying. Endeavor keeps talking to Touya about the future and visiting him. Unless all of them are in denial about what is happening, then why would they torture themselves talking about something that can't happen? All these conversations they want to have etc etc. It would be cruel, and Horikoshi is a sensitive guy. I don't think he could write something like that, and it doesn't fit what he's written so far.

To go further than Touya, I wouldn't be surprised if we see Toga and Spinner also on their deathbeds currently too, tbh. I'm thinking that mysterious new character (who is Tenko, no doubt), saved by his regeneration quirk, may help them. There's set up for it via Kurogiri telling Shigaraki his friends are waiting for him, and not to mention Shigaraki's always been the hero of the lov. He might not have saved them emotionally like the hero kids did, but he can save them physically. I'm not sure how exactly it'll all happen but I think they will all be okay in the end.

I know some readers have a different, more critical/negative opinion than I do, and that's fine. Ever since Shigiraki died, I've been saying that it's going to get worse before it gets better and that we're not going to see a resolution to that soon, and that's all been happening. I hate this saying, but, it's not over till the fat lady sings. I'm just going to keep on reading. I keep telling my friends this over and over again but it's kind of like reading the last Harry Potter (author is dead to me) book and stopping/rage quitting when Harry is killed by Voldemort in the forest. Keep reading. The story is not over yet, and a lot can change for the better. Let Horikoshi tell his story.

[readypanda]

Indigo Park Spoilers (and very long post) ahead

Since Indigo Park is the newest fandom I've been dipping into, I figured I might as well make my own analysis for the game. The question I'll be discussing today is,

WHAT EVEN ARE THESE THINGS?

(sry for bad picture quality lol)

The thing I find interesting about these mascots (Molly, Lloyd, and what we've seen of Finley) that kind of sets them apart from other monsters in the mascot horror genre is...they almost seem like they're just animals. (I'll go over evidence for this in this post)

Think about it. In other mascot horror games, we've gotten:

animatronics possessed by dead children

employees/kids surgically(?) turned into toys

people mutated by a giant ink machine

animals/people who have had their DNA spliced with a mutagenic chemical

A little girl somehow turned into a monster (I think??)(really sorry Amanda I don't know what you are)

etc.

(I'm not up to date on all these properties and I know there's many more, so forgive me if my lore understanding is less than adequate. you know how it is with indie horror)

The important note about all these is that for the most part, these mascots are intelligent, or at least have the capability of intelligence. Almost everything on this list was at one point human, in fact.

So why do I think Indigo Park is any different? What leads me to believe they aren't intelligent? (at least, the animal versions of the characters that we run from in the game. Whether they are separate from the versions of the characters Rambley interacts with is something I'll touch on later)

I think the most obvious piece of evidence in regards to Molly and Lloyd (again, not much info on Finley yet) is how Lloyd acts. He doesn't talk at all, he just stalks the main character and attacks like an animal might (with the exception of a couple times he stands on two legs or props himself up here and there).

As for Molly, I hear you saying, "But she talks! We hear her speak!" And yes, dear reader, you are right. Molly does speak. This would disprove my argument of the mascots being purely animalistic, if it weren't for this kill screen.

Now, do we ever actually hear Molly say something that isn't a repetition or couldn't reasonably be a repetition? Has she said anything to prove her intelligence at all? (genuine question here because I haven't examined every one of her voice lines lol. If I'm wrong about this then whoopsie!)

Despite the past 250 words of speculation, though, whether they act just like animals isn't actually that important. We'll see more of them in later chapters anyway (or Lloyd and Finley at least) so that will likely prove or disprove this point with time.

The more interesting question is, what are they? Like, physically?

When Molly dies, we clearly see blood around her decapitated head. At the very least that rules out animatronics or something mechanical. In addition, in the audio of the hidden tape you get when you show Rambley one of the collectables, you can hear two staff members complaining about being replaced by "new mascots" right after they "got a new raccoon costume." This could mean a few different things, but it seems to imply that the mascots we see in this chapter are meant to be replacements for actors in suits (for meet and greets, promotion, shows, etc) and/or replacements for limited, expensive, and cumbersome animatronics. If this is true, we can also probably rule out them being human. Unless Indigo Park also had a secret human experimentation lab, which I wouldn't put past them.

I think it's too early to definitively state what these mascots are, but based on the evidence of above, I have a theory.

My personal theory is that these mascots are just animals who have been changed or mutated in some way to allow the park to have more "realistic" representations of the characters (also probably to cut down on the costs of paying a human employee). That would explain why they act the way they do and why they are so violent. They literally are just wild animals who have been warped to represent these cartoon characters.

Another important caveat to this theory is that, if this is true, then the mascots who attack us in the game are most likely NOT Rambley's "friends" as he knows them. That would explain why he doesn't call attention to Molly chasing us or Molly's dead body (with the exception of one very small reaction when he talks about the mascots). You would expect him to seem a little more upset if he thought that was his friend, but maybe on some level he knows it's not really her, just a representation of her.

That brings up another question, which is a can of worms I won't fully open here: Do Molly, Lloyd, and Finley have sentient "AI" equivalents like Rambley? If not, does Rambley know his friends aren't real? I'll let you decide.

Anyway, that just about closes my thoughts on this silly raccoon game. Thanks for letting me ramble on about it, and thanks for making it to the end of the post!

Lemme know about your own theories in regards to what these things are, or if there's any key evidence I missed. Kinda threw this together lol. Most of it will likely get disproven by future chapters but hey, thus is the price of theorizing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[inkwell-intermission]

haha hey. you should share your droog autism headcanons :]

ALRIGHTY: DROOG AUTISM HEADCANONS.

I've previously stated that my Droog has autism and I will elaborate below. He has sensory issues and sensitivities, difficulty emoting and recognizing his feelings (alexithymia), has difficulty socializing and connecting with others, and a very monotone speech pattern. He is also DEEPLY uncute about it and reacts to difficulties by removing himself from a situation or becoming agitated or aggressive- he has very little interested in adapting or overcoming anything.

There's more to it, but overall, he has "committed to the bit" in a sense. Oh, he doesn't make eye contact? Obviously it's because he doesn't believe you're worth his time to look at or the respect it would imply. He doesn't want to talk to someone? He's too cool to have a conversation- especially about anything outside of a narrow list of interests he's interested in chatting about. Won't eat at a new restaurant? He's a loyal regular at his usual places, and nothing could be better than them, so why bother, it's not because he can't imagine trying new foods that he hasn't already decided he likes, or new people who don't already understand his particular likes and dislikes- He might have to actually explain himself instead of simply knowing he's understood. He only wears very specific clothes and adheres closely to certain fashions? That's simply the best kind of clothes to wear, nothing else!

He has a lot of texture sensitivities that come through in his clothes and the fit of them. His clothing is all tailored a specific way, possibly not even the "best" way to fit him, but the only way he can tolerate. He has very specific requirements for the clothing he wears and the fabric used and he prefers to work with a specific tailor every time who knows exactly what he wants, and has no problems with all his demands and alterations. In this case I do mean Stitch, who does usually get paid, not lavishly, but paid.

He hates bright light, although he isn't unique in this, as a good amount of Dersites find it pretty insufferable. Loud environments can also make him… itchy. There's that joke about the "insert guy doing thing here" "don't worry he's stimming", and that's kind of Droog in a nutshell but with physical violence. Break something, hit someone, destroy property, whatever it is he can do. He likes bludgeoning best in hand-to-hand combat, compared to Slick's preference for blades- although his hitcher does fine as well. Droog simply doesn't want to bother with a knife or that kind of finesse- he just wants to beat someone as badly as possible as hard as possible until he feels better, and he does.

He's pretty sensitive to certain things including dust and other particles in the air and on surfaces and takes cleaning very seriously. He's a very lazy person who doesn't buy into the idea of doing things for others much of the time, so he won't clean anything he doesn't use or touch. He has a schedule for dry cleanings, laundry, dusting, and other things, and keeps to it out of habit. He despises spontaneity and earnestly plans out his day in advance, and may take any distractions from that plan badly and violently. Although he always has time to shirk paperwork or ignore something only half-important that Slick is trying to tell him.

Droog is capable of cooking, but rarely does, because he doesn't like to cook for anyone else, and is specific enough with instructions and recipes that it gets on everyone else's nerves to watch. At least he leaves the counter surfaces clean, even if he won't do the dishes afterwards. He doesn't eat that much, to be honest, compared to what he should be, and not exactly nutritiously. Most of his meals are very heavy, and he doesn't particularly go for vegetables, although he will eat them cooked. Anything crunchy kind of makes him twitchy because the noise draws attention and he doesn't like being seen eating. Or chewing. Or enjoying food. He usually wants his food with meat involved, regardless of the other contents, and is picky about seafood, but eats it. Notably, no crustaceans. But if he gets something caught in his teeth he will literally make Slick pull over so he can step inside somewhere to get it out under penalty of property or personal damages.

He's got very specific special interests- fabrics, men's fashion- women's fashion, although he doesn't talk about it much and doesn't like talking to women particularly (although he doesn't usually talk to anyone if he can help it), he knows too much about alcohol, the process of making alcohol, cigarettes, making your own cigarettes, interior decorating, and firearms. There may be a few others, but he's essentially very into stereotypical masculine things, for the most part.

He hates explaining anything. In a perfect world, everyone around him would simply understand exactly what he wants without needing to make eye contact with him or ask him questions in any way. He's very oriented around himself- yes he is selfish, a bit vain, and somewhat self-obsessed, but those are all far less relevant details- the way he views the world is simply through a very singular lens, and he's leaned into how easy it is for him to dissociate from his empathy and compassion. He hates overwhelming feelings, and if he indulges his emotions to a certain degree they can become overwhelming, and he cannot beat his own feelings to death unfortunately. So he doesn't do that. He keeps it all inside him somewhere buried under a rock and one day he will die and that'll take care of them.

He's a customer service nightmare. If you ask him questions about what he wants its like pulling teeth. But he can ask all the questions he wants. His flat tone makes it really hard to notice when he's asking a question instead of just stating a fact, and he treats both the same way, so he's a pain in the ass to navigate around. His saving grace is that he doesn't care about the temperaments of employees. The product quality is what matters to him- although if the electric lights are too loud in the store he might leave. Or break them.

He exclusively smokes cigarettes and drinks hard liquor and is hard pressed to drink beer or anything fruity, and he's never tried any other kind of recreational or illicit substance. This is a man who has never been high. The most he's ever done is a light trip during exile thanks to accidental mushroom ingestion with the rest of the crew and he didn't like it.

He was the most miserable man alive during exile, I will be very clear. His name was Detached Derelict. He hates sand, and hates wearing wrappings, there are too many places for debris to get in. He couldn't be as lazy as he liked, felt too exposed, had inconsistent access to food and a schedule- overall, it made him very irritable and prone to violent outbursts. Killing things for food was one of the only things that helped him feel any better. If he let himself think about it, he'd probably be thankful about how accommodating the crew was to him, in dealing with his cursing, pickiness and overall downer mood. He always was very fastidious with his hygiene and grooming himself. Also, despite his propensity towards violence and relative comfort in killing other carapacians he is entirely unwilling to engage in cannibalism and would be the most likely to refuse it even as a last resort, preferring to starve, which the other three would likely cave to and partake in- and that's not really a good thing as much as it is simply a hill he would literally die on for non-moral reasons of psychological discomfort and general food preferences!

His connection with Pickle Inspector is somewhat related to both of their autism as well, and he has a really psychosexual intense fixation on PI. Both of them are reclusive, resistant to interpersonal connections have very specific interests that they prioritize over all others, think in very "singular" mindsets through the lens of their own experiences, and are both intelligent and skilled in their own ways. Droog can see that in him and little shades of himself in him. In some ways they have special interests in one another. The biggest difference is that the way Droog's autism manifests and his particular special interests are more acceptable- such as hard liquor and firearms as a man, and he feels unable to dress in a way that isn't presentable, where PI has a harder time keeping up with his own personal hygiene in a way that makes him fit the social standard a bit less. In the end both are autistic and behave in ways that ostracize them from others, outside of their professions. Last think I'll add about him is his contamination-based issues. He hates being sick more than anything and will do almost anything to avoid it. He hates insects, household pests, mold and dirt, anything like that. He's been known to walk around with disinfectant and a lighter in an effort to execute any bugs that get into the hideout or anywhere else he can find. He only tolerates spiders and cobwebs, and it's barely, because of his patron, which is one. He hates to feel dirty or scratched up and will buff scratches out of his shell within hours of getting them. If clothing he wears is sullied with someone else's blood there's a good chance he'll have Stitch make him a new suit from scratch. The blood of anyone he's close to is also tolerated, specifically the Midnight Crew and PI's, but not the Felt or the Inspector's colleagues. To be honest though Stitch is so good at getting leprechaun blood out of clothing at this point it's really hard to tell it was ever there. Overall, a very consistent man. Consistently dressed, consistently irritable and violent, consistently groomed, etc. The picture is pretty clear.

note: Deadeye Detective is also autistic, but tolerates discomfort far better and reacts with less hostility, so much of what applies to Droog applies to him, but pulled back a few notches almost universally. second note: Also it might be more than autism that he has but I only have autism so I'm not speaking outside of that much he just copes with his autism really really intensely. Could be other things too though. would not be surprised

[midnightstargazer]

Not to defend the overall narrative surrounding house-elves, but probably the #1 reason I'm so sympathetic to Regulus is that he didn't make Kreacher drink the potion.

House-elves are the lowest of the low in Wizarding society, and virtually nobody questions or objects to the way that they're treated. The narrative wants us to believe the Blacks were kind to Kreacher, but what we're actually shown says otherwise: his living conditions leave a lot to be desired, he harms himself as punishment for disobedience or failure, and then of course there's the whole beheading thing. I don't blame Regulus for any of this, because he was a child and would've had no say in it. But I think it's important to understand, where house-elves are concerned, his family wasn't that different from the Malfoys.

And yet, while I know some people do interpret his actions in a very uncharitable way (he was just upset that his property was damaged, etc.), I think there are signs that there was more to it than that. Kreacher himself states that "Master Regulus always liked Kreacher" (DH ch. 10), which implies that from an early age he showed him kindness and affection. Regulus described Kreacher's task for Voldemort as an honor for both of them; how many wizards would even consider whether or not something was an honor for their house-elf? And, while it's suggested he loaned Kreacher to Voldemort willingly, I don't think it's a coincidence that he ordered him to come home afterwards. He might not have suspected the task would be a death trap, but he knew it would likely be illegal and possibly dangerous. I interpret the order as an intentional precaution.

The exact reasons why Regulus turned against Voldemort are very open to interpretation. It could be he believed that making a Horcrux was going too far. It could be, as Sirius suggested, that he got squeamish about the reality of what being a Death Eater involved. But I do think protectiveness towards Kreacher must have been at least part of his motivation.

Why? Because he drank the potion himself.

This isn't an accident, either. It's emphasized by the narrative: Harry initially assumes Regulus ordered Kreacher to drink it, only to be corrected. It's portrayed as a shocking twist, and for good reason.

For most wizards, especially ones with Regulus's background, making the elf drink the potion would be the obvious solution. Hermione is right when she says what Voldemort did isn't that far outside the norm. Slughorn, who is generally one of the more positively portrayed Slytherins, used a house-elf to test wine for poison. The Blacks' family tradition is, specifically, "beheading house-elves when they got too old to carry tea trays" (OotP ch. 4) - so, they don't just preserve them that way after their death, they kill them as soon as they are no longer useful. Brutal physical punishments seem to be common, and their enslavement is accepted as normal and right by literally every character except Hermione. Wizarding society as a whole does not value the lives or welfare of house-elves.

But in the cave, Regulus prioritizes Kreacher's safety above his own. He drinks the potion himself rather than ordering Kreacher to do it, and once they've got the locket, he tells Kreacher to leave him behind. Regulus could very likely have made it out of the cave alive if he had been willing to sacrifice Kreacher, but instead, he ensured that Kreacher would be the one to survive.

Despite everything he had ever been taught about house-elves and their place in society, despite openly holding blood purist beliefs, despite it meaning the all-important family name would die out, he put Kreacher first. He kept Kreacher safe at the cost of his own life.

[ttmamaa]

Saving yourself.

And why I plan on saving myself until marriage and I feel like a lot more women should save themselves or become celibate.

For one: God does everything and says everything for reason and for the well being of us. God knows that sex isn’t JUST sex it’s special and spiritual, your body is a temple and belongs to God, you were brought with price you shouldn’t just let anybody in it. Its dangerous and soul ties are very real. You ever feel sad and your spirit feels empty? We are meant to enjoy sex but with people we know we can fully trust and love, someone we’re meant to be with for life so when you have “casual sex” and there’s no love in it sooner or later you will feel it.

I truly believe women get NOTHING from casual. it’s not empowering. What’s so empowering about giving yourself to a man that has done nothing to get you? A lot of women talk about how they hardly even finish during sex so how exactly is that empowering? You’re doing exactly what these terrible worldly men want you to do, give them sex without having to work for it or wait For it.

The scripture: 1 Corinthians 6 16-20

“There's more to sex than mere skin on skin Sex is as much spiritual mystery as physical fact. As written in Scripture, "The two become one. Since we want to become spiritually one with the Master, we must not pursue the kind of sex that avoids commitment and intimacy, leaving us more lonely than ever- the kind of sex that can never "become one." There is a sense in which sexual sins are different from all others. In sexual sin we violate the sacredness of our own bodies, these bodies that were made for God-given and God-modeled love, for "becoming one" with another. Or didn't you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don't you see that you can't live however you please, vesgod squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.”

It seems like everyone is just looking for someone to love them and I truly just want the best for other women and I am telling y’all right now these men (except my brothers in Christ ofc, MEN OF GOD not Christian boys:) want NOTHING to do with us, in the sense of getting to know us, what we want in life, who we want to become, they want sex and to talk you when they’re bored and when they’re bored of You and your body they’re than ghosting you. I’m not saying this to be harsh or to be hateful I’m saying this because it’s the truth.

We as women need to leave men alone and get ourselves right with God and wait for our father to give us a man of God that actually wants us FOR US. NOT OUR BODY. Someone who’s not going to get bored with us in a month or so. It’s better to be patient and wait for God to send someone that he knows wants us for us.

The scripture: Song of Songs 3:5 Promise me, O women of Jerusalem by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right.”

Ladies please always be careful and keep yourselves safe. That’s all! :)

[divinekangaroo]

I clipped this from your post because it’s easier than trying to inaccurately summarize! But I was wondering what you think about this dynamic. Whether you see it as a core part of his characterization and what you think it says about him, or whether you see it as kind of a visual shorthand in the series that isn’t indicative of anything about his approach to sex? It seems to me to be very consistent over the years and I’m curious about your take.

Yeah I think the repetition/consistency in how they show this makes it a super deliberate and very core part of his character, at least in how I read it – wouldn’t be nearly as fascinated with the story if it wasn’t.

And I don’t think it’s an accidental visual shorthand because of that repetition. I remember reading somewhere CM said that in S6’s TxL hotel sex scene they actually filmed two full sex scenes, one on the sofa and one in the bed – but in the end they only showed the last few seconds in the bed focused on the faces, as better articulating the purpose of that scene. I think they are very particular about how and what they show about Tommy having sex.

The particularity does add to this sense of overly-performative sex (EVERY sex scene feels performative and slightly contrived to me, even Tommy with Grace, even him using passionate sex with Grace in S3 to distract her XD, even him drunkenly/passionately sealing the ‘transaction’ with Lizzie in S5’s My Property scene) but I think they manage to stay on the side of the line that it feels like Tommy being consciously performative/contrived, rather than feeling like I can see the director’s hand. It’s the same sense when looking at Tommy’s various desks: yes his desks absolutely reek of being a contrived stage, but it’s *Tommy* being conscious about setting the stage, not the set designers/directors.

My reading / what I think the sex says about his character:

his ‘thinking mind’ constantly tries to frame sex as a transaction because he sees himself/his labour/his work/doing killings/offering sex – basically any act of his body as the fundamentality/essentiality of labour – as a unit he can trade for something else he wants. There’s some kind of less thought-out complex/trauma background thing here, where he believes that his worth is only what he can bring in and do for the family – labour, killing, smarts, sex, whatever. Mostly that’s his intelligence/schemes/business smarts, or his ability to push through risk/stress for high stake outcomes (stretching to do things they won’t out of fear), but sometimes that’s also his body (if combined with intelligence - trade your goods smartly, not stupidly, for advantage worth more than the momentary loss of bodily boundaries).

his ‘unthinking mind’ does actually want sex physically because it feels good. Physical release/oxytocin/endorphins etc? libido? I assume this, because otherwise they just wouldn’t bother showing him seeking out prostitutes; he’s not doing that for ego because he was satisfied in S1 that people thought he wasn’t having sex even though he was. But he is also sort of scared of sex because it leads to an intimacy that he can be used or hurt through it, hence why he defaults to prostitutes (S1, S2, S4 - or even the Zelda fling/no possible relationship) when he’s most wounded. Could theorise this is due to actual sexual abuse, but seems more like it’s because he hurts so deeply every time he’s connected deeply with someone – he loved Greta and was broken when she died, he loved Grace and was broken when she died - so, this supports his transactional approach because transactions are conditional, negotiated up front, well defined and ‘safe,’ they can’t get intimate or personal. He can use the transactional approach to justify himself seeking sex, while at the same time netting him something which feels good.

But whatever’s in the middle of the above two, is actually madly desperate for personal connection and intimacy. Despite him trying to apply sex transactionally or as a feel-good-only thing, he falls into some kind of intimacy and connection with the people he has transactional sex with, so frequently it’s a definite pattern. (I could write absolute buckets about May right here)

Even when he tries to avoid intimacy/connection – prostitution - returning from war, he sticks with one prostitute and has a very intimate connection with her? All right that's not typical?? And between S3 and S4 when the family’s shunning him, instead of just being promiscuous and anonymous, instead he has a relatively small rotation of regular prostitutes, knowing their names by preference to anonymity? Even the scene we see where he insists on someone new that he doesn’t know, this sparks from Lizzie pushing him about family/intimacy/connection. I read that almost as a “look at me Lizzie I don’t NEED connection stop pushing me” in front of her to try to make a point (to her, who used to be his intimate sexual connection, in a way that hurts her too to put her in her place? to himself?), immediately followed by him handing Lizzie cash/emphasising transactional approaches.  And this is then followed by that absolutely hysterical fail of a sex scene with the ‘someone new’ prostitute, which I swear is filmed to show Tommy did not, in fact, have any sex, or if he did, it was so lame they didn’t even muss the bed.

Even S6 and the prostitute in America, it’s fascinating they make the effort of showing that having happened, but then focus so much on all the intimacy/connection in the phone call with Lizzie/kids. He needs sex but he's hungry for connection and made vulnerable by intimacy.

(And I could go on about the number of ‘woman on top’ scenes and why that particular position, or specifically the filming/dialogue with May which is one of the more fascinatingly filmed and verbalised transactional relationships because of her class, or why I think Lizzie, the actual prostitute, has the least amount of flesh/nudity showing at all from all his women while he's often MORE naked/exposed in their scenes -- I’ve only been able to watch properly the once through, but had so many thoughts on how they dealt with the framing/camerawork.)

But all up, it feels like it’s trying to show him as a character who performs sex to get something out of it that’s not sex (transaction/treats self as a fundamental labour unit of exchange), but still needing/wanting/enjoying sex (because otherwise why would he pay for prostitutes/why even put sex on the negotiating table men don't do this??), but also constantly he cannot shut down this tendency/urge of his to more softly want/need personal connection almost more than the sex.

It’s just not a common way to portray a guy ruthlessly heading a gang, and that’s why I think it’s so deliberate. They take the expected image of how a guy heading a gang would approach sex (prostitutes, seduction, sexual prowess etc) but it feels like they’ve turned that expected image/action well on its head (cares for prostitute/s, suffers the Mosley-threat and Diana-rape, sexual prowess is mostly in service of women, attempts to depersonalise himself to a unit of trade), and then they use camerawork and the pre-post conversations to show this intriguing drive for intimacy instead of sex.

I hope that’s answered the question? It’s tricky; some of these thoughts more suited to a conversation/branching dialogue than a single post or I get repetitive XD

Tangentially, there’s more thoughts too on how they weave prostitution through as a theme, or the way he’s often in conflict between those motivators of ‘transaction/physical/intimacy’ -- he trips himself up; he gets hurt by trying to lean into one or two of those, and forgetting the other/s, and can’t really ever get them in balance.

[transmutationisms]

Actually turns out I do have a more extensive response to ur thoughts on the addict, notably the point you made abt downers which is so well put. One of the things abt capitalism that lead to cycles of escapist addiction is that those addicts benefit the system because they become optimal consumers. They invigorate economically by consuming drugs as well as excess fueled by intoxication and then as consumers of rehab and detox drugs and programs and medications etc. I think there's something to be said about how Kendall, who due to his wealth has the option of the fantasies of luxury escapism available literally at all times doesn't then go down the pathway of constant numbing thru drugs, especially juxtaposed with rhe pals he makes in austerlitz whose poverty is linked to their types of drugs. Their communal drug use and comfortable social zone under the influence feels like something kendall envies in that moment but like, ultimately takes the wrong lessons from and rapidly distances himself from when it stops making him feel like the coolest guy in the room when roman shows up. That's something I think about a lot while watching the show, like how absurd all their striving feels to me when they have access to so many things capitalism had me "working" for ie luxury time and physical space/land/homes and property but how clear the show is about how many of those things have stopped mattering bc they're always accessible (like how gifts and presents are meaningless to logan). Connor might be the exception in some ways to actually valuing those benefits but he is often ready to let go of the "peace of mind" his ranch gives him in order to receive praise or proximity to power (like his behavior at the gala in s1)

yeah ABSOLUTELY. kendall's constant striving is ultimately so hollow because he already has access to material luxury and comfort. what he's striving for, then, is not so much pleasure as the unlimited ability to produce more pleasure, ie surplus value. he's insatiable in the way capital is insatiable, because capitalism is inherently and always expansionist. there's no finish line for kendall, which is why at the end of the day he can't just sit and enjoy getting high with the austerlitz guys. he always ends up moving back into that neoliberal corporation mode of operation, wherein the point is just to expand and optimise and exceed himself, ad infinitum. there's no way to satisfy that type of desire, hence the function of cocaine on the show as the business world's performance-enhancing drug and kendall's inability to control his usage of it.

i agree connor is an exception here, and stewy is too. both of them have a fundamental ability to enjoy the material fruits of wealth in a way that the other roys don't. this is why stewy is able to use coke, and quite a lot of it, without being pathologised or falling into the self-destructive spirals kendall does. connor's particular delusion here is, i think, related to running for president. he sees the attainment of political power as an end-goal; he wants to achieve sovereignty over others, but this type of project has a finish line built in that the financial expansion of capitalism does not. even a totalising grab for political power will theoretically, eventually, reach a state of complete control; on the other hand, the logic of capital has never produced 'all' possible value; the surplus can always be made bigger.

as a side note, this is why it's so irritating when people assume the austerlitz guys are, like, dangerous or preying on kendall lol. like first of all, insane transparent very telling assumptions to make about drug users who are poor. but second, they actually do have a function in the story and in the show's commentary on addiction, and it's not some kind of paranoid stranger danger reaganite psa fantasy. whatever lol

[muraenide]

One of the things I love about Jade is how he subtly follows a unique kind of "dominance hierarchy" that is common among animal social groups.

How he executes every order he's given without fail and never commits insubordination or betrays Azul or Octavinelle. Because Azul is his superior as a Housewarden, and as the dorm's Vice Housewarden, he must ensure the house flourishes and stays above its competitors or nemesis. He can and will put Floyd in his place when duty calls, and he is also not afraid to put Octavinelle students in their places if it is necessary in the situation or if it benefits the house.

An alpha to Jade is someone who takes up leadership and is not necessarily male or female. As far as Jade's concerned, he is never alpha and is a beta in most cases. Regardless of whether at home (in that case, his Father would be alpha), or at NRC, Jade is aware that he almost always takes up a second-in-command or adjacent kind of position, making him what the dominance hierarchy would call a beta. In Jade's usual categorization of the dominance hierarchy, he would often recognize an alpha and a beta (and first and second in command), and in Octavinelle's case, that alpha is Azul, and Jade himself is the beta. Everyone else is either sub-betas (Floyd), or just members of their social group (Octavinelle's students), whom Jade will not perceive as an outsider, but will simultaneously ensure they do not break any social rules within their group.

Following this train of thought, it's the reason why Jade never disobeys Azul, not because he can't, as he most certainly can, if he wants to, but because the dominance hierarchy is something that's genetically programmed into his blood. Jade is born to it. So as long as he recognizes Azul as the alpha in the group, you can be sure Jade will always be partial to him.

Of course, a falling out with Azul is not impossible and it will undoubtedly lead to the hierarchy collapsing as a whole. But that's a different story.

The fun part about this thought is that while Jade technically almost always takes up the role of a beta, he is absolutely capable of being an alpha even if he doesn't try. The alpha role of Jade is seen most obviously through the absence of his parents, Jade inherits the alpha role and acts like it. A handful of people in NRC might have grasped the trick to manipulate Floyd into a certain way to their convenience, but only Jade has ever managed to directly tell Floyd what to do with little to no verbal or physical manipulation. Jade might have been doing everything under Azul's orders in NRC, but even Azul has admitted that despite knowing each other since Kindergarten, certain things about Jade are still a mystery to him. Azul wouldn't dare to underestimate Jade just because they've known each other for a long time and worked closely to the hip. Because even though Jade plays his assigned submissive role scarily well, it's quite obvious that he could potentially dispose of the upper hierarchy if he doesn't want them above him. Jade is that kind of beta where the alpha tends to worry about who might suddenly decide to challenge their credibility and they'd have to fight to defend their property because the chances of them losing everything in a single, reckless gamble to Jade is unnervingly high. And while Jade generally does not care to want to be at the top of anything, it's better to be safe than sorry.

If anything, what I love about this is it absolutely proves once again how non-human Jade is. And maybe people who have always only seen him in his human form might be getting too comfortable believing he's human, or even part human, but that is not the case at all. Jade's pride as a merman has never once wavered since the stepped onto land.

[griseldabanks]

Desire, hate, and wound for Shard, from the not-so-nice oc asks.

-Rain

desire: What's one thing your OC wants more than anything in the world? Are they open with that desire? Why or why not? What would they do to fulfill it?

This is something I've been puzzling over lately, while trying to think through my characters' goals and how to use them to make the protagonist more proactive. For the most part, Shard is more reactive, reacting to issues that come his way rather than setting out to achieve some goal. But I think what he wants most in the world is peace and safety - for him, and for the people he loves. Ironically, that desire is what initially pushes him out of the safety of his hometown and out into the big, scary world. He realizes that his new dragon friend will probably be killed if he stays home, so they have to run away together.

As they continue on their journey and eventually join up with the Ambassadors, this desire for peace for himself and Shynael expands to include everyone. He realizes that everyone is scared. Everyone wants to live peacefully, but they're living on the brink of war, so when they feel their security is being threatened, they lash out against someone else's security. And Shard realizes that, if he's ever going to have the hope of living in a peaceful world where he doesn't have to keep looking over his shoulder, he's going to have to do something about it.

hate: What does your OC hate? Why? How do they act towards the object of their hatred?

Shard would say, "Hatred is against my religion."

But you know what the first answer was that came to my mind? The person he hates the most is himself. Anger and rage he has plenty of, but there aren't a whole lot of people that I would say he actually hates - at least not for more than a few minutes.

But himself? Oh, there is so much he hates about himself. Especially once that rage gets the best of him, and he finds himself saying and doing things he regrets as soon as the anger wears off. He always thought of himself as a kind, quiet peacemaker like the priest who raised him. He always thought the best thing to do with any anger he felt was to stuff it away, not think about it, and wait for it to dissipate. But due to the nature of his new life away from his usual safety nets and routines, confronted with the cruelty and anxiety of the world around him, suddenly he finds that anger exploding out of him...and onto others. He ends up hurting people. Seriously hurting people. What kind of person does that make him?

So yes, one of the main things Shard has to grapple with in his story is not only how to control the rage inside him so it doesn't hurt anyone, but also how to live with these two sides of himself - the one that wants to tear the world apart, and the one that wants everyone to live in peace.

wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

>:D You know me! I love my angst and I love my whump, so when I get a world and characters all of my own, you can bet I put them through The Trials.

As you can see from the previous question, Shard has some mental/emotional wounds, mostly self-inflicted, he has to deal with. At his lowest point, he teeters on the verge of ending it all.

But one of my favorite scenes, predictably, is a scene where Shard gets stabbed and nearly loses his life. I'm definitely going to have to tweak the circumstances, because the way it happened in the first draft just...doesn't work, on multiple levels. But I want to keep the scene itself in, because there's just too much delicious whump potential there! Shard's bleeding out, Shynael comes to his rescue, the poor baby goes in a panic to Vesper, who patches Shard up and nurses him back to health, which jump-starts their friendship. Originally, I had dragon blood have healing properties similar to phoenix tears in Harry Potter, but I haven't quite decided if I want to do that anymore (it would make dragons even harder to kill, for one thing). But if I do go that route, Shynael gets to donate his blood and then you get to dwell on how they really are brothers now that Shynael's blood runs in Shard's veins.

Not-So-Nice OC Ask Game

[eriexplosion]

Clone Wars - Clone Cadets

DOMINOES DOMINOES DOMINOES.

Bravery, valor, unity, the lifeblood of victory on the battlefield

This is very funny because I think they put this bit over a clip from Hidden Enemy which, no matter how you look at it, is certainly not an episode about unity.

Anyway there's a lot dropped into this opening including that all of the clones teachers were bounty hunters, surely a group of people well known for their patience and gentle handling of children. Also, "Bred to be perfect soldiers, these cadets must first be subjected to intense physical and mental training before heading off to war" is simply a sentence that gives me the heebiest of jeebies.

The different vibes the chronological order gives to the clones existence continues to be blatant though. Like I know I've pointed it out several times in these but like, it really is front loaded with some truly terrible content when it comes to clone mistreatment, and having Slick's episode lead into clones dropping every five seconds in the movie into this episode about their training from birth to almost inevitable battlefield death is just a lot. I CARE A LOT ABOUT CLONES AND I WANT SOMETHING BETTER FOR THEM DAMN IT.

MY CHILDREN ARE HERE THOUGH. And god but baby Echo is so stressed all the time. Nobody is in formation. They don't like their nickname. Everyone is shouting. They insist on calling Fives by his full CT number and it makes thank yous a very intensive process. Don't worry, if you think your team is difficult to keep track of now it won't be long until you find yourself with and even crazier one. The audacity of this simulation being The Citadel though given what happens. AUDACITY.

And 99 ;A; Treasure.

"YOU'VE NEVER EVEN MET A GIRL" remains one of the funniest throwaway lines in the show.

Baby Echo though has one (1) thought and it's WE NEED TO FOLLOW ORDERS, PLEASE DEAR GOD. And instead all they get is punched. Team Cohesion? Never heard of it.

Leave my man alone he's just fucking standing there why you gotta bring him into it? Anyway this line makes me really wonder why we haven't heard ANYTHING about 99 in TBB, like it just seems that in two seasons we should have gotten something about the guy that they're named after in two different ways.

Ma'am, I think that you've been here long enough to have noticed that Lama Su does not care about petty things like 'the rights of living beings.' Shaak Ti is one of my most Complicated Feelings Jedi, though, because she'll say things like this and later talk about Fives as property and kind of treat him like it too. (Permanently thinking about when Fives was trying to see what the hell they were doing to Tup and Shaak Ti closes the shutter on him without a word.)

I do think she sincerely feels empathy for the clone troopers but I'm not convinced that translates into '100% believes they are full human beings" just going by actions through the show. "You Jedi show too much compassion" sure but Lama Su thinks literally anything is too much compassion, it's not a high bar.

Every day I am caught in the conundrum of what's likely just writer inconsistency.

GOD THE ABSOLUTE AWKWARD SILENCE AFTER COLT ASKS HOW THE DOMINO SQUAD IS. RIP BOYS.

Still love that they named that poor bastard Droidbait. Do you think it puts a damper on things when Echo and Fives look back and remember their squad like you can be normal about mourning Hevy and Cutup but you try to memorialize Droidbait and shit gets awkward. You'll never believe what happened to their good friend. Droidbait.

It is interesting that leaving a man behind is an automatic fail only because every other thing we see with the clones is that the mission comes first and individual clones are expendable. But still, not the vibe they were going for with this episode so the rules change accordingly.

Bric is definitely on the list of most unlikable characters for his whole scene with Cutup. Fuck this guy throw him into the ocean. Complete counter to the sweet scene with 99 trying to encourage Hevy.

"Stop calling me that. We're just numbers 99. Just numbers." "Not to me. To me... you've always had a name."

LINES THAT MAKE ME WANT TO FUCKING SOB EVERY TIME. I absolutely adore 99 and we do not get enough time with him.

Do not like that Shaak Ti validates Bric's assholery by letting his actively trying to fuck over the cadets slide. Yes Jedi wisdom or whatever but genuinely fuck this guy.

And of course... the Hevy and 99 scene at the end. "We'll see each other again. How else am I supposed to get this back from you?" Agonizing. AGONIZING.

This is one of the episodes I think works much better in its original order. Watching it chronologically is interesting of course, but can't bring the unmatched brutality of seeing them try so hard for a victory knowing that in almost no time at all three of them are going to be dead anyway and that Hevy is never coming back for that medal. So yeah, not too far in and we've hit at least one that definitely works best as a flashback.

[clairelsonao3]

Characters Out of Context Tag

I have @j-1173 (whose post is here) to thank for this procrastination tactic today! The challenge is as follows:

Rules:

Include one character quote — of your choosing ⁠— from each chapter of your WIP (or as many chapters as you'd like)

Give absolutely no context, save for what's between two parts of an interrupted sentence, should that occur. You may mention who said it.

Have fun, no pressure!

I gave myself some additional rules: Since I'm up to 23 chapters of GSNBTR, there's no reason not to include one quote each from ALL the major primary and secondary characters up to this point, so I'm going to do that (it won't quite equal out to one per chapter, so the MCs will get a few extra ones!). And because I'm doing that, I'm going to try to choose quotes that kind of encapsulate the "essence" of each character, or at least who they were at that point in the story. Wish me luck!

Oh, and I'm not going to mention who says what because that makes it more like trivia. And if there's anything I love, it's trivia!

Ch. 1

“Is that any way to talk to me?”

Ch. 2

"What have you so-called ‘experienced slave handling professionals’ been doing to the poor kid?"

Ch. 3

"Now a guy can’t even have sex with his own property without some social justice warrior calling it rape?

Ch. 4

“And calculus, and physics, and engineering. If I were free, I’d be a certified nerd,” he said. “And probably rich, too. But who’s complaining?”

Ch. 5

"You can tell me, you know." 

Ch. 6

“Your back isn’t nearly as pretty as your face, boy.”

Ch. 7

“You’ve been quiet. Secretive.” She kept poking her rhythmically with one of her sculpted coral nail tips. “But inside, you’re glowing. I see it.” Poke poke poke. “So there’s no use denying it, sweetie. What’s his name?”

Ch. 8

"Thanks for the relationship advice, dickhead. Have you ever even seen a girl naked without having to hide behind a bush?"

Ch. 9

“Nobody does anything for me. Ever."

Ch. 10

“And why shouldn’t they?” he said. “I mean, what are we trying to do here, Keith? Disrupt slavery, right? You’ve been in the corporate world too long, that’s your problem. You don’t question things anymore."

Ch. 11

"He's not mine," she said. "He's his own."

Ch. 12

"You could never, ever let me down,” he assured her.

Ch. 13

"And by the way, if you’re looking at the master being away as an opportunity to get away with murder, forget it.”

Ch. 14

“I’ve always wanted to see the ocean. But he didn’t take me, so I’m stuck here with a shit ton of time on my hands, and you’re still in the hole from the last one.” 

Ch. 15

“You know who I’m talking about. You have to find him, Louisa,” she continued. “Immediately. Normally I would never betray the confidence of a slave who came to me like this, but I can’t reach him now."

Ch. 16

 “The stuff he said about you was really awful, Lou; I’m not telling you this to cause drama. I just wanted to warn you.” She glanced quickly at the boy again. “Both of you.” 

Ch. 17

“She learned, and grew, and changed. She had a pilgrim soul.”

Ch. 18

“You’re so wrong. If I could only give you one thing in this life, it would be to give you the chance to see yourself the way I see you. Now and always.”

Ch. 19

“And to never, ever give up on me.”

Ch. 20

"You know you seem to have a real problem telling the difference between people and things?”

Ch. 21

“And everything I said the other day, about not giving up? It all still applies. Nothing's changed. Whatever happens. We'll figure it out. We always do. ”

Ch. 22

“Well, it’s a perk, no doubt. She invites some of us here sometimes to hang out, and of course, for such a rich guy, Jake is pretty chill. I like his vibes.”

Ch. 23

“What’s he been telling you? I don’t trust him. He’s a snake.”

I don't think I forgot anyone, but there is one character missing. It's better to leave them out at this point for spoiler-avoiding reasons, though.

I'm gently tagging @tabswrites @mysticstarlightduck @whither-wander-whump in case they would like to participate in this!

[xtruss]

The Comic-Book Aesthetic Comes of Age in “Across the Spider-Verse”

The Spider-Man sequel might be the first superhero film to take full advantage of what comic-book art can achieve onscreen.

— By Stephanie Burt | June 14, 2023

Each of the Spiders in “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” brings not just an art style but a personality and a backstory.Art work by Aymeric Kevin / Courtesy Sony Pictures

The latest comic-book movie associated with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” certainly knows what kind of film it is. Most of the movie follows Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, two animated teen-aged Spider-People, but, for the sake of the fandom, live actors from live-action blockbusters make surprise cameos. Gwen quips at one point that Doctor Strange—last seen in the M.C.U.’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”—should not practice medicine. Miles’s high-school roommate references another audience favorite, “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), when he tells Miles, “I’m not your guy in the chair.” Inevitably, there is a meme-inspired scene of Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man. This is the kind of self-aware fan fodder that, in lesser films, might feel tired.

And yet “Across the Spider-Verse,” which came out on June 2nd, does something that no live-action superhero movie has done before—or can do. It leans hard into, and emulates onscreen, the storytelling devices and the visual flair that make comic books special. Even more than its predecessor, “Into the Spider-Verse” (2018), the film feels designed to show young people, many of whom were raised on superhero movies, why they might care about the comics that launched these characters. It does this so well that, at a time when some Marvel movies haven’t been doing so hot at the box office, “Across the Spider-Verse” has already raked in nearly four hundred million dollars. At 7 p.m. on a Wednesday night, with local schools still in session, my seventh grader and I found most of the seats in our suburban multiplex full.

The first scene in the movie reintroduces us to Miles’s long-distance best friend, Gwen Stacy of Earth-65, a.k.a. Spider-Gwen (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld). Her world looks painterly, as if rendered by brushes and pastels; she often appears in Expressionist shades of blue and pink. That’s how the rest of the film will roll: each Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, or Spider-Villain, and each new Earth on which they live, has its own eye-popping art style. Miles (voiced by Shameik Moore), a Black Puerto Rican physics star who draws in all his notebooks, inhabits a world that evokes hip-hop album covers and graffiti. Miguel O’Hara, or Spider-Man 2099, comes with clean lines, techno details, and RoboCop vibes. Spider-Byte appears as a glowing avatar like the nineteen-eighties film “Tron.” Pavitr Prabhakar, a.k.a. Spider-Man India, swings through his home city of Mumbattan, all tropical colors and curvy architecture. (When characters move between dimensions, they pass through a portal made of hexagons—a basic geometric unit of Hollywood animation.)

Almost all of these characters existed in comic books before they hit the screen, and, crucially, all of them have what the scholar Hillary Chute identifies as the core property of comics: they look like somebody chose to draw them. They bear the mark of their creators’ hands. The Spot, a villain who sets the movie’s main plot in motion, looks like a blank page splattered with ink; each of his splotches opens up a little wormhole, in the same way that the pen stroke of a comic can open up another world. The animators of the film owe a lot to Marvel’s comic artists: the credits thank a “Black Panther” illustrator, Brian Stelfreeze; a co-creator of Miguel O’Hara, Rick Leonardi; and the nineteen-eighties titan Bill Sienkiewicz. All three have contributed to the making of “Across the Spider-Verse.”

The film’s version of Miguel O’Hara (voiced by Oscar Isaac) behaves like a stern, bad Spider-Dad. He resolves to stop Miles from disrupting something called a Canon Event—a plot development so important that it has to happen in every parallel world, lest the entire universe be at risk. “You break enough canons,” Miguel warns, “and we could lose everything.” He sounds almost like a Marvel Comics editor, telling writers that they can’t go too far. (One writer, Grant Morrison, called their longest project at Marvel “more like a prison than a playground.”) In the tradition of print comics, the film offers explanatory notes in 2-D colored boxes; some of them, in an homage to the comics of the nineteen-seventies, are even signed “--Ed.,” for editor.

Like all the best teen superhero comics, “Across the Spider-Verse” hints, or more than hints, at real-life dual identities. The colors that tend to accompany Gwen, blue and pink, are the colors of the transgender flag. A poster in her bedroom says “protect trans kids,” and her father, a police officer who initially has no idea that she is Spider-Gwen, sports a trans-flag pin on his uniform. Gwen tells Miles that her parents “only know half of who I am.” She also wears her hair in an asymmetrical undercut—which, my seventh grader told me, is often a sign of trans or nonbinary identity among Gen Z. (It should not be confused with a half-and-half, my seventh grader added.)

Miles and Gwen both have well-intentioned cops for dads, who try hard but can’t seem to stop enforcing rules. In one scene, Miles tells his father, “Men of your generation ignore their mental health too long.” In part for this reason, Miles and Gwen feel the kind of solidarity that young people can share only with one another. When they finally get some tender alone time above a twilit Brooklyn, Gwen asks Miles, “How many people can you talk to about this stuff?” He tells her, “You don’t even know.” That’s what happens when trans people meet one another, too—something that the Internet pointed out right away. (This isn’t the sole Spider-Man film to be interpreted as an L.G.B.T.Q.+ allegory; some viewers saw Tom Holland’s Spidey as transmasculine, too.)

“Across the Spider-Verse” is a sequel, but it’s arguably the first superhero film to take such full advantage of what comic-book art can achieve. At the Guggenheim Museum, Gwen has to fight a version of an old Spidey villain, the Vulture, who looks, in her words, like a “big flying turkey from the Renaissance.” He’s drawn in the style of ink on parchment, with the scratchy, busy lines you’d expect from a goose-quill pen. He’s not just from another Earth but from a different artistic universe. Elsewhere, several Spider-People chase Miles across the body of a rocket and up what appears to be a space elevator. Theoretically, C.G.I. could help live actors imitate some of these stunts—but not in such colors, and not with such dynamism and glee. In another sequence, Miles races a moving subway train while he fights a pangolin-esque villain, who rolls up in an armored ball. In a live-action film, the scene would cost a ton and still look cheesy. With animation this artful, it’s all part of the fun.

Comics are at their core a visual medium. “Everyone’s first response to your work will be to the visual aspect,” Brian Michael Bendis, the co-creator of Miles Morales, wrote, in his 2014 book about creating comics, “Words for Pictures.” In a comic, the script has to serve the art, which in turn has to serve the characters. And this script does. Each of the Spiders brings not just an art style but a personality and a backstory: tragedy for Miguel, teen heartbreak for Gwen, dad jokes for Peter B. Parker, that lovable sad sack from “Into the Spider-Verse.” (There’s even a Spider-Baby.) Each character and each gadget—one is called a Go-Home Machine—says something about generational change. Today’s kids may feel that they can’t live up to adult expectations and still be themselves. Where, if anywhere, can they find heroes?

Maybe Gen Z could find them in superhero comics, but it’s not clear that they’re reading many. The best-selling U.S. single-issue comic book of all time remains “X-Men No. 1,” published in 1991, which moved more than eight million units; in the past ten years, the best-selling superhero comics have tallied half a million instead. “The captive audiences of the pandemic era are out doing other things,” the comics journalist Heidi MacDonald wrote this year. When Zoomers read comics, it’s often via online platforms such as Tapas and Webtoon, which span genres from high fantasy to romance, or else in all-ages, slice-of-life graphic novels. (“Guts,” by Raina Telgemeier, was America’s most-purchased book—not comic book, book—one week in September, 2019.) “Across the Spider-Verse” could help to boost printed comics. Marvel has leaned hard on movies to promote Spider- titles, including the made-for-mobile online comic “Spider-Verse Unlimited.” Viewers who want to read stories that look like the Spider-Verse might also check out recent issues of “New Mutants,” by Vita Ayala and Rod Reis, in which feelings are more important than fisticuffs, and the expressive art fits the strong emotions.

“Across the Spider-Verse” is full of astonishing action, but a quiet scene midway through, when Miles and Gwen finally get a moment together above Brooklyn, might be the most affecting in the film. It lets viewers—including my rapt seventh grader—contemplate what young people want from one another, what they can never get from adults. Perhaps it’s a budding romance. Perhaps it’s trans bonding. These moments set up the conflict that comes later, when Miguel O’Hara tells Miles what he must do for the multiverse, and Miles, facing a superhero-level trolley problem, just says no. And the whole thing takes place, beautifully, with Brooklyn inverted: Miles and Gwen, using their tenderness, and also their powers, conduct the whole conversation upside down. ♦

[winns-stuff]

The issue with Persephone's sexualization is that 1) it's so forced and 2) it adds nothing to her character. Yes, women with Persephone's height can be curvy and yes women can like wearing revealing clothes, but RS can't go one chapter without focusing on Persephone's cleavage or butt. Sometimes she will just be sitting or leaning over and RS makes sure that the reader's eyes are directed to her boobs. It really feels like RS wants to make sure the viewer knows Persephone is supposed to be hot. And this add nothing to her characterization because RS never explains why Persephone would be into certain styles of clothing that draw so much attention to her body. Does she feel pressured to wear certain outfits to appear older, does she like the style, does it help her self-esteem to wear certain outfits? The fact that a lot of her outfits aren't even picked by her doesn't help. Like, what was the point of her black dress during the Kronos fight? What did it tell us about Dread Queen Persephone aside from the fact that she has big boobs?

I completely agree with you, the sexualization of Persephone is unnecessary and it’s quite sad that RS believes that to show off hot characters you have to sexualize them. If a character is hot, they’re hot you shouldn’t have to put in this extra work to exploit their bodies. Besides, being attracted to someone isn’t always a physical thing which I absolutely hate the way that Hades and Persephone’s whole relationship is based off of them being physically attracted to each other. Yes, I know that “Persephone does nice things for him!!” argument is there but to be honest with you… Persephone doesn’t actually do nice things for Hades? Like she just says the bare minimum and he worships the ground she walks on. Which is weird because he has a support team of his own and people who are nice to him, so it’s not like he’s never been shown kindness or anything because he has. But Persephone has never shown genuine acts of kindness towards Hades, she’s never done anything nice for him just because she wants to, she’s never respected his wishes, she’s never thought about his feelings towards situations, all she does is just use him really and it’s hard to read at times.

But back to physical attraction. You don’t always have to fall for them for their looks, and true love shouldn’t be so superficial to the point where you’re both using each other for your bodies it’s just a very tasteless sort of romance thing that many romance comics suffer from. There’s a lot of times a person falls for someone for their personality, they probably think it lights up the room. Or what they did for them in the past/present, helping each other and sticking by each other’s sides even when they’re in a rough spot. Being devoted to each other in a way that no other person would be, there’s a difference between being obsessed and devoted and it’s night and day, think of Gomez and Morticia (yes this is an excuse to talk about them) they’re both devoted to each other and stable in their relationship, they love and support each other and they’re always there for one another. That’s devotion to a person, equally sharing your time and experience even sometimes emotions with that person and supporting them. What Hades is doing is absolute obsession, he’s lusting after Persephone and caving into the smallest things she does and it feels like he can’t stand being away from Persephone for even one second. It’s unhealthy because it doesn’t feel like he just loves her a lot, it feels like he thinks she’s his property. There’s a difference.

Sadly though many people think it’s hot and they’ll continue to think overly obsessive people are neat and they’ll continue to mistake it for love. Which I genuinely hate because I used to think that too, I enjoyed the thought of someone being obsessed with me because I felt like that equates to that person wanting me and only having eyes for me. But soon when I got a little older I realized I don’t want someone obsessing over me like that, I just wanted someone who was willing to love and stick by me and accept me for who I was. I’m sure a lot of young girls feel like that when they’re fawning over stalkers and romanticized obsessive guys and such, I don’t even blame them since LO is a prime example at how media always romanticizes someone’s obsession with someone else. It’s not romantic or true love and I’m tired of Lore Olympus marking it that way.

[whoserandomnessisitanyway]

Again with the Sentimonsters...

Ok, again. Adrien and Kagami aren’t sentimonsters -although, Felix might be.

Honestly, I have no idea where this idea that Kagami is a sentimonster came from all of the sudden. Yes, Felix stares at Kagami’s ring in a suspicious way,  but once again, I think the writers were doing this to stoke fan interest and discourse, but that there’s an obvious explanation that no one is discussing. Regardless of whether or not Felix is a sentimonster, when he sees Kagami’s ring with her family name on it, it makes him realize that she is controlled and symbolically marked as the “property” of her family, the same way he clearly feels he and Adrien are the “property” of their families. He doesn’t make Kagami disappear because he knows Adrien cares about her, but also because he knows that she has been controlled by her family, and he sympathizes with that. The same way it’s become clear in “Emotion” that Felix also sympathizes with how Adrien has been controlled and wants to “free him”, Felix just wants to “free” Kagami in the same way.

On Kagami’s side of things, she follows the rules and whims of her family because of her culture, but also because she feels pressured to be perfect and to be a representative of her family -just like Adrien- this is something they bonded over when they first got together. Plus, I think there’s hints here that Kagami and Felix will wind up together. Kagami is clearly physically attracted to Adrien, but she wants him to be assertive, not submissive or indecisive -which Felix clearly is. She even says as much in “Emotion”, when she notes that he’s observing how she wishes he could’ve when they were together.

I still just refuse to believe/ can’t understand how they would retcon Adrien to be a sentimonster. It totally strips him of any agency and still doesn’t make sense that Gabriel wouldn’t know he was Cat Noir and wouldn’t be able to control him. I stand by my assertion earlier that Adrien obeys his father because he either fears him or desperately wants to please him -but it’s impossible because we’ve seen how Adrien behaves as Cat Noir, which is a real, valid, and as inseparable part of him as the other pieces we see when he’s not behind a mask. Felix is so similar to Gabriel, that a part of me feels like he is modeled after Gabriel, insofar as he could be a sentimonster. I also have no explanation why Felix seemed to call the sentimonsters in “Strike Back” brothers (in one of the dubs? I can’t remember which, in the English dub he just says “I’m sorry”) when Ladybug hurls them through the portal into the sun, or why he calls the Moon sister in “Emotion”. If he’s not a sentimonster, then he might be apologizing to Ladybug for stealing the miraculous because he’s only doing what he needs to do to get control of the Peacock mircaulous.

However, that all being said, I still don’t get how either of them could be sentimonsters when everyone involved remembers and agrees that Adrien and Felix had childhoods. What I mean is that if Emilie only created Felix a year ago (following Amelie’s husbands death), and she fell into a coma because of using the broken miraculous to create Felix, then why does Adrien remember them having fun as a child? Also, we know that Gabriel is arrogant; so if both Adrien and Felix are sentimonsters, why would he have admitted that Felix was able to trick him into thinking he was Adrien when they were children (in “Felix”)? And Gabriel says this when he’s alone, so it’s not like he’s trying to keep up the illusion for anyone else that Adrien and Felix had childhoods when they didn’t.

But if sentimonsters can grow and age like normal people (and therefore Felix did have an actual childhood), then what did Emilie do a year ago to cause herself to fall into a coma in the first place if it wasn’t creating a sentimonster (aka Felix or Adrien)?

Like, at the end of the day, I see why people want to believe the sentimonster theories, there is something kind of compelling to the concept of a nonhuman construct that operates like a human but is unclear on how much freedom they have. But that’s also why the only one that makes any kind of sense and doesn’t somehow cheapen the characters/ their archs/ or their stories would be if Felix alone (or also Amelie?) is a sentimonster.