#terrible time to be attempting to start a relationship lbr

[jicklet]

haha yay..... I'm so happy for you guys :')

[bthump]

thank you so much for you posts on guts assaulting casca bc quite frankly... the way the fandom frames it rather lead me to overlook it and have an uncomplicated relationship with him, all the while hating what griffith did during the eclipse. (in your opinion, what makes the fandom like this?)

Thank you for sending this, I'm really happy my posts inspired you to rethink your initial takeaway from Berserk and the fandom! lol I hope that didn't ruin the experience for you or make you dislike a character you used to love or anything though, imo the way both the Eclipse and Guts assaulting Casca are written reflects more on the writing than on Guts or Griffith as characters.

Man though there are so many reasons for this imo.

I mean for starters, there's the fact that certain takes kind of have a chokehold on fandom, like the classic "Griffith was an evil unfeeling sociopath all along and here's a nonsensical explanation for every single one of his actions that seems to demonstrate otherwise" lol. I avoid the rest of fandom as much as I can and I still see a lot of instances where someone will, say, go to the Berserk reddit or Skull Knight like, "hey I don't understand xyz moment, if Griffith doesn't care why did this happen?" and get the rote "because he's a control freak who couldn't stand seeing his friends living their own lives" answer, or whatever lol. These fans shut down discussion as often as they can and most fans just accept those answers because they don't care enough to think about it themselves, or they don't have the tools to analyse the story and come to their own conclusions because critical thinking is a learned skill that many people were never really taught.

So along with Griffith being evil all along, you have fans who might be like, "hey, it's kinda fucked up that Guts tried to rape Casca right, maybe I don't want them to get together," and get responses like "no you see he was possessed at the time, it's not his fault it was the beast of darkness who is a random evil malicious entity and not a symbolic representation of Guts' dark side at all."

As for why fans are so eager to come up with these explanations and believe them, I mean to be fair for a lot of people it's just easier to enjoy a story if the protagonist is likeable and sympathetic and not an attempted rapist lol. I can understand the urge to downplay Guts' actions there or find an alternative explanation for them, because to do otherwise would reduce their enjoyment of the story. I think this urge can be very bad when it leads to people using actual rape apologist rhetoric, like "Guts stopped before he got his dick in so it's not that bad and he should be forgiven" or whatever, but when it leads to arguing that he was actually possessed then it's like... whatever lol. You're wrong, you're misunderstanding the story entirely, but at least you're happy I guess, good for you. (yk assuming they're not being an asshole to other fans who disagree, which lbr is a pretty unlikely assumption in this fandom, but you know what I mean.)

That said there are a lot of terrible Berserk fans out there who make it pretty obvious that their bad takes are rooted in offensive misogynist and homophobic beliefs. I mean a common nickname for Griffith in this fandom involves a homophobic slur, so that should tell you the kind of people I'm talking about here. Those are the ones who I very much think hate Griffith from the start because he's got serious gay vibes, and go out of their way to find reasons to justify their hate and ignore every nuance in his character arc, while excusing Guts at every possible turn because he's the manly "hetero" protagonist they wanna be.

And yk, there are just a lot of people in general who don't like moral greys, who don't like nuance in fiction, and who want to flatten as much as they can to "good" or "bad." So Guts is "good" and therefore every bad thing he does has to be explained away and ignored. Griffith is "bad" so every good thing he does also has to be explained away and ignored.

BUT to be fair and well-rounded here, it's not all the fault of fandom. The story itself makes it easy to do this. I mean the eclipse rape was 2 chapters long, it took away Casca as a character for 20 years, it made the protagonist very angry, it was commiteed by a demon who has pointedly shown no remorse, and it was basically used as motivation for a whole revenge plot.

Conversely Guts assaulting Casca was a few pages, most of which was shown in symbolic imagery in Guts' head, Guts feels bad about it, and - and this is something I absolutely hate about Berserk lol - it's had zero negative consequences, at least so far, and several positive results. It's the inciting incident for Guts realizing he needs a babysitter and has to work on being less shitty, and Casca was already afraid of him so that didn't even change for the worse. Guts sexually assaulting Casca literally had a positive impact on the narrative. This makes it a lot easier to downplay how utterly shitty it was, and this is a major problem with the story.

And like the story itself doesn't condemn Guts for the assault very harshly despite being very clear about Guts being the one responsible. This is another thing that can create cognitive dissonance for fans and require explaining away - the attempted rape was a Bad Thing but since the story itself kind of downplays it that must mean that Guts isn't actually at fault, because if he was surely it would be a whole big thing, and not one scene that has never been brought up again.

So yeah, idk, basically I think there are a bunch of reasons for the fanbase's reactions to Guts and Griffith sexually assaulting Casca, and some of them are understandable and some of them are shitty. Thanks for the ask!

[zumpietoo]

Long post because I’m piggybacking on you and Petels: The points made by you and P are the truth and I would agree wholeheartedly that a lot of is not only what’s happening on the show and the writing, but the actors portraying them as well and their choices. Yes the writing is beyond awful and is the show and the storylines suck but it is more than ghag.

Lili has made it clear she doesn’t want BH and I’m not sure what she truly believes would come of that. She made points in a interview and then proceeded to showcase a friendship with KJ as if they were always close to promote this. Which she still does. Not to mention her antics outside of the show where she brings in personal people to address how much the fictional pairing is terrible because it’s the ex boyfriend playing her love interest.

And like P said Cole hasn’t made any lines in the sand regarding his feelings on who his character should date. He also still shows up and seems to put in an effort, I can’t really say the same for anyone else working on this show honestly.

This is why even though I’m 99% sure there’s a BH endgame, I’m more now, “no thanks, I don’t want it”, I do want to see BA crash and burn but honestly don’t want a BH endgame anymore. The show can’t erase what they’ve done and no matter how many times or words they attempt to spin it “nothingness”, “no label, just hooking up”, it’s like they forgot their entire show and what they’ve written just because they wanted this plot line.

And it doesn’t happen that the BTS choices certain individuals have made and to turn off their fan base and basically invalidate what everyone tells us to do “separate the character and the actor”, well if the cast doesn’t want to don that, why should I?

Amazing submission, so many thanks for that and I agree.....unless we get some true remorse and grovelling from Betty (and, LBR, Douchie).....followed by Betty actually getting some help and doing some work in it....I don’t want it either...

And the “nothingness/just hooking up/no labels”......is just fully inapplicable here:

Because, again, it negates their “deep friendship”

It’s selfish and stupid. And they both even realice that. So the writers going there is simply the writers echoing the rationalization

It does have significant consequences. Them previously even considering it and kissing ended both their relationships with people they’re supposedly still in love with/again, is beyond selfish.

It remains, the writers are basically now admitting, “cause the script said so/we wanted this”, but remain cowards who can’t.

And then have actors who keep further fucking the dog with it.

Only way out, besides “it was a dream” is for Betty to confide about it and even say, “no, it was awful and I said I always wanted it, but I really didn’t. Just like I hate dating my boss, but I feel like these things are expected of me/I keep playing into it. And I don’t know why I’m doing this. I didn’t know why I camgirled...”

That would be a good starting point

[isthatacalzone]

i have this whole theory that klaus is one of the only (living) hargreeves kids who actually made an attempt to process the abuse that good old reggie put them through as children, and a LOT of it comes from the fact he’s been in rehab multiple times. klaus talks like he’s been through some pretty intense therapy that’s actually made a difference to him, and IN THIS ESSAY I WILL PROVE IT (or uh, try to) so buckle up kids cause it’s gonna be a long one

(continued below because when i say essay i mean essay)

stay with me here for a bit: klaus seems to be the only one of the siblings who actively and regularly acknowledges how much of an abusive prick their father was. think about how everyone reacts when it comes to him:

luther spent the most time with their father, was so close to him that he never got the space and time to realise just how much of a monster he truly was. it also means luther inherited a lot of their father’s traits (i’m just saying, the dude found out that he had been lied to maybe two days before everything happened with vanya and allison, of course he’s going to react the way he does when pogo tells him all about how dangerous vanya’s powers are. no one else’s opinion ever mattered before, he’s not gonna learn how to listen first in two goddamn days) and ONLY JUST started to understand that their father was a fucking monster

diego is just angry. angry at the way their father treated him (and i think it’s mostly about him, and maybe grace), angry that he was never good enough to be number one, that he could never curry the same favour with him like luther could, that he was made to feel weak all his life. why do you think he still goes out and fights crime? sure, it’s all he’s ever known, but i wouldn’t be surprised if a part of him was still trying to prove to dear old dad that he was fast enough, brave enough, strong enough to save lives (”saving lives, baby”) or yknow, fuck it, the world??

allison deferred any resentment she felt and got validation through stardom. she filled every hole she had with whatever she felt like she wanted because she knew she could get it. i dunno if allison’s actually processed what reginald put her through, because really we don’t know much about how he taught her, but we know what it made her become, and it took losing her husband and her daughter to make her realise just how terrible she’s been her whole life. interestingly, it doesn’t seem like she ever blames reginald for this, only herself, and is trying to be better because of that. perhaps allison doesn’t realise just how much of an influence he had on making her who she is? 

five is interesting. he had the least amount of time with dad as That Fateful Day took place when he was thirteen, but at that point the seeds of distrust had already been sewn. would five have tried to jump to the future so prematurely if his father hadn’t basically goaded him? daddy hargreeves pretty obviously bolstered five’s ego (”hey five cheated!” “he adapted!”) but had no idea how to reign him in, humble him so that he’d WANT to learn more. reginald was all about power and control. he LOVED pushing the kids to get them to be as powerful as they could be, but it had to happen at HIS pace. five probably never considered how much fucking up his father did in just that period of time, because most of his goddamn trauma came from finding his siblings dead in the wreckage of his home in the midst of the goddamn apocalypse, and then proceeded to LIVE THERE on his own for forty five goddamn years. of course he doesn’t think it matters (”who cares if dad messed us up?” uh, i do five, i do), with him there’s always been something else far more important to care about, but he never got the chance to grow the hell up and understand his emotions. five may technically be 58 but his physical body better represents his emotional age, lbr.

(i’m not actually gonna talk about ben here because i think he’s probably the most emotionally mature out of all of them and i’m 99% sure that’s because he’s been dead for like a decade)

and vanya. vanya literally in the second episode says “i used to see someone” (which is such a loaded line like, “used to”, why not anymore? for how long did she see this mythical therapist?) but if anything’s true about vanya it’s that she never processed the trauma, she just shut down. she never got over the way her father isolated her from everyone (which, as we all know, had WAAAY more layers than we ever could have seen coming from the first few episodes), never got over the fact she was always the outsider from her siblings. she has no relationships, doesn’t push herself or strive for anything because she doesn’t think she’s worth it. it takes one guy with a couple well placed lines to get her to fall in love because that’s all she ever wanted. and even though allison (god BLESS her heart) tries so fucking hard to get through to her, there’s too many years worth of eyerolls, dismissive glances, and “go away vanya”s for her to really start to trust her. if vanya had legitimately taken the time to understand her trauma properly, i feel like she would also have been able to understand that daddy dearest fucked the rest of them up in equal measure. 

all of that leads me onto my main point: klaus. the thing that really stood out for me whenever klaus talked about their father was how he always held him accountable for all the bullshit that he put not just klaus, but ALL of them through (”he was always in here, planning his next torment”). sure, there’s hatred there, and anger just like diego, but klaus talks about the abuse with an element of compassion for himself and his siblings that his siblings do not seem to have. he’s the only one who actively refers to him as a monster (”thank christ he’s not our real father so we couldn’t inherit those cold, dead eyes!!”), and actually seems to want to hold him accountable. i turn you toward the beautiful scene in the day that was when he talks to daddy hargreeves as an example:

klaus starts the conversation pretty irreverent “i was beside myself with grief!” at which point reginald calls him out, “you were poisoning yourself” (the only thing reggie gets any points for in this conversation is seeming vaguely sad that klaus is an addict, but even then... it’s his fault... soooooo)

klaus comes to play at this point. “oh right, well, yeah, you had nothing to do with it. locking me in a mausoleum with corpses when i was 13? no, you’re right, it’s irrelevant.” i’m gonna come back to this, because it’s a big part of the inspiration for this post.

reggie spends a lot of the rest of this conversation defending himself. “you children like to blame everything on me”, to which klaus immediately replies, “well, you were a sadistic prick, not to mention the world’s worst father”

at every opportunity he calls his father out on his behaviour. reggie starts goading him for being afraid of his power (which, yknow, screw you reggie) and klaus immediately rebuttals with “y’know i suggest you get down off your high horse there, dear papa. you never had our best interests at heart, look at your precious number one. luther found all the unopened letters he’d sent you. he knows that you sent him up to the moon for nothing.” i love this line, because not only do we see that klaus has this deep understanding of how his father screwed him up, he’s outright calling dear old papa out for the shit he pulled on his siblings too.

 reggie pauses here, and for a moment seems legitimately remorseful (which, if you watch the scene, completely catches klaus of guard. god, i love robert sheehan he plays this whole thing to perfection), saying “yes, that was foolish of me”, before continuing, “i should have burned it all.”

at which point klaus laughs. “that’s your takeaway?” he says, somehow still astounded that his father could surprise him with how little he cared after all this time. “oh wow, yeah of course it is.”

also please note that reginald gets much more forceful with moving klaus’ head around in order to shave the other side of his face at this point which i could write a whole other post about but that’s for another day because this essay is already too goddamn long

anyway, astonishingly reginald at this point asks “is he okay?” to which klaus rightly responds, “do you care?”, which first of all, stab me in the heart right now, but also speaks to something true in all of them: they all wanted their father to love them, and klaus is actively trying to find SOMETHING to redeem him by, something that would stop him being such a monster in his mind. well, maybe not redeem, but understand.

reggie pulls his usual excuse “it was to prepare you, all of you, for something bigger than yourselves” (which is a HUGE LINE BY THE WAY OH MY GOD) “you never understood that” (yh uhhh whose fault is that dingbat)

klaus takes control of the shave at this point, grabbing his father’s hand as a tear slips down his face (seriously you guys, the power play in this scene it’s fucking masterful and also it’s legitimately making me cry thinking about it) and manages to choke out, “we were just kids. little kids”. 

i really think klaus is desperately trying to get his father to admit he should have been better to them. he really has nothing to lose at this point, he’s just looking for closure. and in a way he gets it, but not the way he wants as reginald replies “you were never just kids. you were meant to save the world.”

(i think that might be the first moment in his whole life that klaus truly understands his father)

what’s my point? imagine any of the other siblings in this scene. imagine luther in this scene. how quickly do you think reginald would have been able to shut down any of luther’s questions? diego would have just tried to fight him; no way he ever would have listened to anything he had to say. i can’t even imagine how allison would have talked to him. five wouldn’t give two shits about getting to know their father again, he’d just want answers. and vanya? actually yknow what him talking to vanya could be very interesting but i digress. 

i honestly believe klaus is the only one who had the emotional maturity to be able to navigate talking to their father, the only one who could call him out on his shitty ass behaviour but still come better to understanding him on a truly compassionate level. he cries when he realises his father killed himself so they’d all get back together. would any of the rest of them manage to move past their feelings of hatred for papa hargreeves and actually understand - not only understand, but empathise - with him while still maintaining that they deserved better?

i really believe that comes straight from all the years in and out of rehab. sure, rehab didn’t actually help klaus get clean - i don’t know what rehab or therapy could help you deal with dead people constantly demanding your attention all the time - but my understanding (and this is where i am happy to be corrected as i have no personal experience with this at all) is that a big part of rehab is therapy. heck, in the flashback scenes when we see when all the siblings are reading vanya’s book, he’s literally sitting in group therapy. klaus has WAAAY more practice in actually talking about his feelings and i don’t care how resistant to it he might have been, you go in and out of those spaces for long enough, something will stick. (nb: as i’m writing this, yknow who he reminds me of? gary king. if you haven’t seen the world’s end, please watch it, i think you’ll understand what i mean.)

this is not to say klaus is in any way perfect. he’s still as flawed and fucked up as the rest of them, but in terms of actually understanding his trauma? he’s strides ahead of the rest of them. 

[sternenteile]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm.

tagged by:  @battleshell​  ;  we all care blue, u do, i do, we all do tagging:  holy shit my whole dash because exorbitantly long memes are the BEST. i aint even sarcastic when i say that, i love this kind of shit. u GOTTA do it.

my muse is:  canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. [ he is in two fandoms, in fact. he is both a fan-favorite from super mario rpg, the very first in the line of mario rpgs we’ve gotten over the years, and a pretty popular smash bros. request. he even got a mii costume in 4 and a spirit in ultimate as a result of the love. he’s very beloved, to the point that i’d, even as a geno fan myself, deem him a bit overrated. why? b/c where is all the love for all the other smrpg characters!!! they are all good. i love them all. ]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [ i mean ?? i’ve met and seen many people who have/had crushes on geno so ??????? but i don’t think it’s like. that. ghfskjhgsg??? ]

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [ oh yes, he is undeniably very strong, both in personality and in battle. he is often seen as the level-headed straight man of the party in smrpg (which, in the case of my geno, is... semi-applicable LMAO), a star spirit with unwavering bravery and confidence. his in-battle stats are also pretty crazy, favoring geno as a glass cannon and enemy sweeper. he is also the only character in the game to have a move that will insta-kill any enemy besides bosses. well, and exor. idk why exor, but there ya go. needless to say, pretty much everyone in the fandom agrees that geno is a powerful mfer. why wouldn’t a literal, living star be? ]

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. [ as i mentioned before, there is no shortage of him being underrated in the fanbase. i’d even say he’s a little overrated. some people treat smrpg as ‘that game with geno in it’ rather than everything else it has going for it. i love star boye as much as the next gal, but pls appreciate smrpg as a whole. it’s such a vibrant game with a colorful world of characters to love. ]

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO. [ he is actually, completely central to the plot. the subtitle of smrpg is legend of the seven stars, which directly relates to geno’s core mission: to find the seven star pieces and restore star road. the rest of the gang had different ambitions, but they all ended up banding together over geno’s objective. one could argue he mostly is the exposition-granter and could be replaced with anyone else, but i feel he’s irreplaceable. smrpg would be so different without him, like it or not. ]

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [ i wouldn’t say he is the protagonist, obviously, as that is very much mario’s spot. that being said, he is a pretty obvious deuteragonist for smrpg, given how much the plot revolves around him. he’s relevant to mario, for sure, as well as peach, mallow, and bowser. he’s relevant to many characters beyond them. he represents the fight for everyone’s wishes to be able to come true. he’s, uh... very relevant rofl. ]

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. [ the star spirits are somewhat known in the mario universe as entities capable of granting wishes, kinda like fabled gods with a tinge more evidence and reality to them. geno himself isn’t a known name, not like the seven star spirits of star haven, but his people are decently known. he, however, is not. ]

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ he is basically the epitome of ‘good’ until you overthink star society like i do lol. not all wishes can be granted, what constitutes as a ‘good wish’ is subjective, why some good wishes still can’t be granted anyway, etc. it puts him more towards neutral good with a dash of lawful and an undercurrent of chaotic, given his rebellion against his superiors. ]

How strictly do you follow canon?  —  i mean, it isn’t hard to be strict to mario canon when there isn’t that much of a foundation to work with anyway lol. it’s all rather simplistic until you get into the nitty gritty of it ??? that said, geno is built on a lot of headcanon. like, a lot a lot. star society and its rules for star spirits of his kind, his relationship with rosalina (a matronly figure), his relationship with the seven star spirits, the fleshing-out of his basic personality traits shown in smrpg, etc.? headcanon upon headcanon.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  a star possessing the form of a children’s toy, like toy story but with more cosmic pew-pew. a chill and sassy guy still learning the ways of how earth (and other planets) work on a more intimate level, meaning there will be lots of adorkable moments as this curious one makes discoveries. sometimes attempts to innovate with what he learns to be ‘ahead of the curve’, leading to interesting results. (he likes to sip bubble tea, but replace the tapioca pearls with star bits. good result. mopping a counter-top because it would be ‘more efficient’? not-so-good result, got him lots of stares.) straight outta the 90′s, so be ready some of that rad 90′s slang and know-how from back in the day. (what do u mean they’re bringing back dunkaroos? that’d mean they stOPPED MAKING THEM?!?) very intrigued with new technology, became stuck to his smartphone upon discovering them, fell into the time-sink that is animal videos on youtube. he’s humble and likes to relax, have a good time, and relax w/ the squad. video games, netflix binges, the whole nine yards, he’s gotchu. he is a hell of a fighter and loves to fight, as well. help him push his abilities, and he’ll help you with yours.  likes being a little shit for fun, only to an extent (harmless moments of impishness, not serious, hurtful pranks). has a sense of humor that is easy to tickle, even with stupid dad jokes and classic puns. the brother-friend that will fire lasers at ur enemies for u. likes to play violin. cute. super cutie. v. tiny in his star form. almost five whole feet of sparkly, twinkly fun. likes super soakers.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  despite intrigue to learn more about the world around him, there is only so much that he does know. societal norms are often beyond him, and there are just so, so many earth hobbies he is not aware of. without handing him a bone, it makes him a little more limited than someone who’s more savvy. he is prime slice-of-life material, but that may also make things rather dull in an rp without an extra twist to spice things up. (thankfully, his being a total SNOT sometimes helps with that.) in canon and strictly in canon, geno doesn’t really have much personality, something that this geno has plenty more fleshed out. a good chunk of fandom finds him to be incredibly boring and droll, to which i personally disagree, as there are little things in smrpg that hint towards him having more to explore.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  funnily enough, seeing smash bros. fandom railing on geno fans + hyping him up all at the same time made me revisit smrpg after having only played it as a teenager. i expected geno to be a boring slate of nothing like fandom often portrays him, but i found that i was terribly wrong. with a newfound perspective on him, noting little details that defied my expectations for this li’l guy, i decided to give him a geno whirl and see what kind of expansion i could do with his character. the amount of lore i came up with him and started wondering about piled on and on and on, and i realized that he had so much more potential than what nintendo and square properly tapped into. (some of it is also a matter of being timely, though, meaning later mario materials such as rosalina, star haven, etc.) i wanted to flex out that potential and see how much i could fill this little doll up with, and lo and behold, i rp him today with extensive amounts of development poured into him with love. to put it simply, there was so much untapped potential that i wanted to share with the world, to show geno the love and in-depth exploration that he deserved, to show that he was more than what he was given.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  chattering about mario lore with pals, whether it relates to geno or not, reading, watching shows or videos that remind me of him, learning more about cosmology and the universe we live in (and boy, i’ve learned a lot of neat stuff!), revisiting my childhood (the 90′s) since it’s very geno-appropriate, drawing The Boye, literally anything to do with playing, watching, or doing ANYTHING with smrpg/paper mario 64/smg1&2, and probs a lot more. i’ve got a lot of fuel in me for this guy lol.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ on one hand, of course i hope that i do! on the other hand, i mean... nintendo and square don’t do jack for him, so i think almost anyone can do him more justice than they have, lbr. it’s... not hard... :’) ]

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO / SORT OF? [ ok i gotta just copy-paste what blue said in her response because my god, she nailed it: “you know when you have a concept and in your own mind you can see it clearly, without fuzziness or confusion, but you can’t seem to put it clearly into words without it turning into an essay because you need to connect all the other points that’s in the single concept you envisioned? yea.” basically, this but in spades, because i have a huge amount of headcanon and lore that i’ve either not gotten around to writing about yet or am purposefully staving off (wink wink). i have written a lot for him, though! it’s just... comparatively so little to what all i’ve thought up over-time. ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO [ not! often! enough!!! ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO [ all i know is fine dining, breathing, and adorkable starman. ]

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / SORT OF? [ funny enough, i’m pretty damn confident in my portrayal, albeit still very modest. i mean, i am at least confident that i give depth to a character that had so little, and i feel like geno is just... real. (not literally ofc i mean like, he FEELS realistic.) he’s got character perks, character flaws, strengths, weaknesses, personal issues, ongoing obstacles, relatable themes where appropriate, interests, knowledge (or lack thereof), daily routines... i could go on. if nothing else, i at least feel good about trying to make geno feel less like some exposition character and more like a person. considering he wants to achieve personhood that most of his kind never gets to find, it’s oddly poetic lmao. ]

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. [ eehhhhh. i mean, i guess it’s fiiiIIINE, but i often feel like i lack a certain pizzazz, something that’ll keep people interested and intrigued with what i write, giving enough material for them to adequately bounce back. on the same token, i like to babble with my prose, so i often worry about going on and on and on way too much. stale, quantity over quality, substance-less writing is what i fuss over the most. ;; ]

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. / SORTA. [ sensitive to empathy and other peoples’ emotions, yes. i’m an insanely empathetic person, and i have a lot of love to give. that said, with only few exceptions, i have a pretty iron-clad skin. sometimes, i daresay it’s to the point that i often misjudge what other people can take, and i feel i can end up being too harsh and forward. that being said, it is also a good thing at times. harsh or not, if i feel a certain way about something, i make that shit known and i make it known as loud as it necessarily should be. i don’t beat around the bush; rather, if i have a beef, i will make that beef known. consequently, if i have love to give, you damn well better be ready to swim in a pool of hearts and your favorite kind of cookie (if applicable). ]

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  as long as it isn’t complaints with lack of substance/reasoning, yes! even if i may not always agree and may take things with a grain of salt, i am insanely receptive to criticism, even over the pickiest things. it’s something i’ve grown used to due to prior rp venues being particularly harsh. i will never throw a fit or act like a child if there is something i could do better with geno. in fact, there always will be! i’m not perfect, and i love to hear about ways i can improve and do better. it’s paramount in a hobby like this.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  LET’S-A FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  sure, i’d love to know! it can make for some neat conversation!! c:

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  that’s a’ight. i’m sure there are things about my geno that won’t resonate with everyone, especially given he’s a very sentimental character for old fogies like me lol. as long as there is no disrespect thrown this way, it’s all good. this stuff is subjective, after all.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  oh, a lot of people really hate geno lol, but i’m guessing this means personal portrayal only. in such a case, i would be curious as to why, admittedly, but i acknowledge that i am not owed anyone’s reasoning. if they really, absolutely hate my geno, then it’s their prerogative, whether they want to give a reason why or not. again, it’s all good unless immaturity and disrespect rears its head. i won’t tolerate that and will ignore any such behavior.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  sure, it happens to the best of us!

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  i’d like to think that i am! i’ve often had people tell me that i’m very nice and mature, but of course, i have no right to say how i come off to other people. that is not in my territory to judge, only theirs. that being said, it’s not easy to upset me or anger me, and i’m more often willing to listen and pal around than not. i’m the living embodiment of (shrug). i am just (shrug).

[shirtlesssammy]

6x13: Unforgiven

Then:

Good news? Sam’s got his soul back. Bad news? The walls are starting the crumble around it.

Now:

One Year Ago:

Bristol, Rhode Island

Sam Winchester, the soulless killing machine, goes around shooting things while the camera stays focused on his grandfather, a look of distress plastered on his face.The job done, with Sam sporting only a minor flesh wound, they quickly make their exit from town. The local law enforcement pulls them over before they can get very far though. Oh, they’re federal agents, but the sheriff doesn’t like the blood oozing from Sam’s arm and wants to haul them downtown. One: Sam in a Carhartt again is delightful. Two: Soulless Sam is just the most fun.

Sam laughs and starts to walk away from the cop, and before the cop can pull a gun on him, Sam beats the living shit out of him. (I mean, Sam’s still fun even if he’s a fucking psychopath.) “Do you think there are calmer ways we could have handled that?” Samuel ponders. “Do we care? Let’s go.” And they take off, leaving the cop unconscious in the middle of the road.

Present Day:

Sam and Dean are in random motel #3534. Dean’s got nothing on the Mother of All thing when Sam gets coordinates from an unknown source. The coordinates are for Bristol, Rhode Island, where three women have disappeared in the past week. Dean’s reluctant to check it out but Sam convinces him.

The boys arrive in Bristol (“Where Memories Are Made” lolololololol.) and Sam almost immediately starts having flashbacks. At a local nautical themed restaurant, they catch up on the case. Dean heads to the “Poop Deck”, when Sam is approached by a couple who thinks he’s “Agent Roark”. Uhoh. The woman, Debbie, asks if he’s back in town because the disappearances have started again. He goes along with it all and agrees (I mean, he is after all). She then asks where his partner is, and Dean interrupts and says “sex rehab.” Oh, if only Samuel was around to not enjoy your humor, Dean.

Debbie and her husband, Don, take off, but not before Debbie leaves a lingering touch on Sam’s shoulder. Hmm. Sam has another memory, this one of him and Debbie going at it pretty hot and heavy in the restaurant bathroom. Uhoh. The exchange did not go unnoticed by Dean. Sam admits that he thinks he and Samuel worked a case in this town. Dean shows him a picture from the restaurant wall with Sam in the background.

Dean wants to skip town. “You never use the same crapper twice.” (Dean could be a poet.)

Sam insists they need to stay and work the case. Dean relents.

Dean follows up on the victims. He starts by interviewing a roommate. Apparently one of the victims, Nicole, had previously meet Agent Roark. A neighbor in the apartment building was a victim the previous year. In fact he came by a few times. Dean’s spidey sense is vibrating. Apparently Agent Roark and Nicole’s non-relationship was loud and athletic.

Sam, meanwhile, heads to the sheriff’s office, but can’t even get in the door before the cop he accosted last year finds him and draws his gun on him. Uhoh. Sam flashes back to that night. UHOH. Sam gets thrown in the clink. (And called “dumb as a sack of hair” lol) The cop knows he’s not a federal agent and he wants to know where the bodies are.

Later that night, a woman walks into the dark cell area and demands that Sam tell her what happened to her husband. This woman knows Sam’s name, and what he does. Sam has a mega-flashback to when he and Samuel told the sheriff and this woman, his wife, their real story. The sheriff disappeared though, along with the two hunters. Sam tells her that he has no memory of his time here before. Why would he be back if he did? The woman believes him and tells him her name is Brenna Dobbs. She opens his cell door so he can find some answers.

We finally reach the truly nightmarish part of the episode. Debbie is at home enjoying her boxed wine when she runs out of said boxed wine (THE HORROR, but lbr, there’s another glass of wine in there if she just takes the bladder out of the box)

so she heads to her basement to find more. Something grabs her leg on the stairs and she stumbles to the floor. The camera (and monster) closes in on her as she screams.

Dean meets up with Sam again and fills him in on the missing person info he’s collected. They hear there’s another missing person over the police radio. Dean heads out alone after insisting that Sam stay hidden. A command Sam isn’t about to listen to.

After checking out the latest in the case, Dean calls and leaves a voicemail with his brother. He found a connection to the missing women. “They all banged the same dude. You.” This is a trap for Sam.

For Whatever Reason Dean is a Cute Bean All Hunched Over On His Phone Science:

Brenna comes home to find Sam in her house. She tells him that Debbie is missing and wants answers. Sam doesn’t have them, and he needs her help.

Sam flashes back to working the case with Samuel again and this time they’re sitting down and having a beer with Brenna and her husband. They end up talking about Sam’s relationship with Samuel. Soulless Sam rather smugly announces that he has a business-only relationship with Samuel. “Family just slows you down.” Nice, man.

When Sam snaps out of his flashback, Brenna hands over the case files for her husband. Cue more flashbacks!

Sam remembers Samuel concluding that they’re dealing with a monster called an arachne. Sam figures out that the arachne is hiding out in a local park, and that the monster seems to have a type - men in their thirties. He formulates a plan to lure it out. I’m sure it’ll be a nice, gentle plan where nobody gets hurt!

Back in the present, Sam listens to Dean’s voicemail while he leaves Brenna’s house. As he listens to it, he notices some cobweb blowing in the wind off the side of the front porch. Did he just finish talking to a….black widow? Dun dun DUN. While Sam checks out the webbing, we get a shot of him in arachnid vision.

At the place they’re crashing, Sam fills Dean in on the case and his spotty returning memories. Dean’s generally pissed to hear that Sam’s remembering ANYTHING from before. As far as he’s concerned, the next step down memory lane is a one way bus trip to Hell Boulevard. Dean insists that they blow town and call up another hunter but Sam puts his foot down. He’s got a soul now. That, paired with a terrible feeling that he was part of something awful, makes him want to stay. MAN it is such a relief to get caring Sam back - even if he really needs to just GTFO.

Together they make a murder wall, pinning up maps and pictures and looping yarn and THEORIES are flying it’s wild, guys. Sam looks at the evidence and flashes back AGAIN. Sam remembers using Brenna’s husband Roy as a lure for the arachne. Samuel was uncomfortable about it but Sam has zero patience for Samuel’s reticence. Roy was the right age and type for the spider-critter they’re tracking. How else are they going to find its lair?

In the flashback, the arachne gets the drop on Roy and drags him off before they can do anything. Soulless Sam isn’t worried - he turned on the GPS on Roy’s phone so he can track his phone to the spidey lair. “You’re about as cold as they come,” Samuel notes, which is a real damn statement coming from Samuel.

They track Roy to a barn covered in Halloween cobwebs. There are bodies under the webbing - bodies EVERYWHERE. Only they’re not bodies. They’re still alive and gasping under the webbing.

They find Roy right when the arachne, a woman, attacks. Sam slices off her head. Hooray! They saved the day!

Only...Sam looks at all the victims. They’re poisoned by a spider-monster and swiftly dying (according to his non-existent medical examination of them). It’s better to kill them all and put them out of their misery, Sam concludes. RECORD SCRATCH! Honestly, guys, I am guilty of thinking of soulless Sam as a dick, but not particularly murderous. I...forgot about this episode entirely. Sam remorselessly kills all the victims one by one. (Samuel - who HAS a soul - also isn’t winning any popularity contests with me because he just stands there.)

When Sam returns from this flashback, he tells Dean that he remembers everything now. And it ain’t good, sunflowers.

Brenna wakes in the night to an intruder in her home. It’s Roy! But it’s Roy transformed into an arachne. Sam happens to call her to check in (handwave handwave) and realizes that she’s in trouble. They head to Brenna’s house.

There are lights on in the shed and Brenna’s hiding in a corner. “What you did to Roy?” she asks Sam, “Is it true?” Cue Roy jumping in and attacking the Winchesters.

Before you know it, they’re tied up in cobwebs while Roy stalks in front of them. He reveals that the arachne was breeding, capturing mates and transforming them. Getting shot in the head had no effect on him because he had become….SPIDER MAN. (Without all the badass powers.)

It was Roy who tried to lure Sam back to town so he could avenge his own attempted murder. As added frosting on his revenge cake, all the women who went missing are now spider women and scattered throughout the country. “You killed one monster, you made so many more. Congratulations.” Roy ponders the timeless monster question: to kill Sam or turn him?

Dean breaks free before that existential question can be answered. Brenna slices Sam free and Sam kills Roy.

Later, Sam drops Brenna off at home and apologizes. Too little, too late, bby. She stalks inside and slams the door. I mean, same girl. Sam and Dean return to the place they’re squatting in. Sam’s dejected. Dean tries to bolster him up, telling him that none of the terrible things he did was him.

Sam’s not buying the “everything’s gonna be okay” line. And in just a moment, Dean isn’t either. Sam collapses and as he gasps on the floor, we get a glimpse of what’s in Sam’s head. It’s hell fire and Sam’s burning up.

__________________________________________________________________

Chicken Quotes for the Soul:

You got mysterious coordinates from a mysterious Mr. "X," leading to a mysterious town? That doesn't throw up red flags to you?

She just cougar-eyed you.

“You never use the same crapper twice.” “Everyone uses the same crapper twice.”

What? The boxed stuff doesn’t get better with age, Don.

What is this, "Days of Our Lives"? You're telling me you have some sort of amnesia?

Roy’s just some redshirt to you?

You love to say "I told you so."

You killed one monster, you made so many more. Congratulations.

__________________________________________________________________

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[ultimate-miles]

Spider-Men II (2017) - Or, the comic book that shouldn’t exist

Spider-Men II is a meandering, unfocused mess of lukewarm ideas with no pay-off, that dabbles in colorism and whitewashing.

Somewhere around the “Venom Wars” and the “Spider-Man no More” arc, there was a sharp decline in the quality of writing for Ultimate Comics Spider-Man. At the crux of it was the death of Miles Morales’ mother ��� Rio Morales – and the emotional bullying of a kid who wanted nothing to do with superheroing following the death of his mother, but was battered into thinking otherwise by the female clone of Peter Parker (Jessica Drew), Gwen Stacy, and his friend, Ganke Lee. 

If “Venom Wars” was the signal that things were going south in the writing department, the death kneel for Miles Morales’ storyline truly began with the story arc “Spider-Man No More”, which was lead directly into a discombobulated series of story arcs that preluded and finalized the death of the Ultimate Universe.

Since then, Bendis’ take on the character – who had a fairly solid start (from Issues #1-19 of UCSM) – declined in a way that I can only describe as a writer simply losing interest in their pet project and disregarding how he handled the character from thereon out. There was no emotional investment in Miles’ day-to-day life, his family unit, friends, and etc. like there was for Ultimate Peter Parker. Ultimate Spider-Man was, as far as Marvel comic title goes, was fully realized story. But, if we’re being honest, Bendis also didn’t have to do a lot of thinking for Peter’s stories because they were often retreads of plots written fifty-sixty years before his time at Marvel.

With Miles Morales, Bendis, was, to some degree, flying blind and more or less had an open field of possibly and stories to play out. He could’ve created a legit mythology for Miles. Yet, when you boil it down, if Miles wasn’t being thrown into a “Blockbuster Event” meant to boost title sales then he was often standing in the shadow of some version of Peter Parker or Peter Parker’s family members in his own title. Simply put: Miles could not be Spider-Man in the same way Denzel Washington’s The Equalizer couldn’t Jason Bourne the hell out of bad guys without the say so of a white authority. Every time Miles’ story circles back to Peter Parker, the limitations of Bendis’ imagination with his Black Male Superhero was clear.

I don’t think anything encapsulates this more than the unwarranted sequel to Ultimate Marvel’s 2012 miniseries, Spider-Men: Spider-Men II – released in 2017 with about the same amount of issues to its name (five).

Spider-Men saw a then-brand new Spider-Man, a thirteen year old Miles Morales – encounter the 616 Universe version of Peter Parker, who accidentally ends up the 1610 Universe after some convenient circumstances involving the 616 version of Mysterio and a dimension hopping device.

Similar to Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1-5 and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #13-14, and Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man #1-7, Spider-Men #1-5 runs Miles through the third consecutive gambit of getting “The Blessing™” of someone connected to Peter Parker, or Peter Parker himself. Spider-Men is more or less about how an adult Peter Parker deals with the fact someone much younger than himself (when he started doing what he was doing) was playing the role of Spider-Man following the death of teenaged version of himself (1610 Peter Parker), and eventually accepting that. It was a fun crossover that saw Miles work alongside someone he admired, and most importantly, didn’t lose sight of its tone and who the story was about in the end (Miles).

Spider-Men II, unfortunately, does the exact same thing, but now there’s no Brand New Car Smell, the question of how Peter Parker would react to a kiddy Spider-Man has been answered and Miles has been friggin blessed, officially, four friggin times, by Peter Parker and his unit in every way you can think of.

 Whitewashing your Protagonist is a Bad Idea™

The crux of Spider-Men II is to answer the question that Miles Morales asked: “I wonder if there’s a me in your universe?” The original Spider-Men ended with 616 Peter Parker searching – online – for the existence of a Miles Morales in his universe and being “shocked” by the answer. Knowing in advance that the series was only five issues long meant that the answer Bendis would provide – almost five years after the original Spider-Men – would be both underwhelming and rushed with no satisfactory resolution to rest on.

The bread-and-butter of a comic book character is their ability to become relatively different characters or offshoots from the one that was the origin point. Marvel’s brand revolves around allowing writers to reinterpret established characters into someone radically different, or just update them for younger audiences. Sometimes this works for good, other times for bad. Anna Paquin’s Rogue isn’t 616 Rogue, 1610 Rogue isn’t X-Men Evolution’s Rogue, and so on and so forth.

Where the reinterpretation of a character becomes an issue is when it begins to erase a marginalized identity. It would be common sense among anyone with enough sensitively and the ability to look beyond themselves to know: You don’t reinterpret a Black character – like Virgil Hawkins or Ororo Munroe – into a white or non-Black character, you don’t reinterpret an LGBT character – like Renee Montoya or John Constantine – into a Heterosexual character, you don’t reinterpret a female character into a male character. White or male or female characters? Most of the time their fair game – with reservation (Heathers is a perfect example) – there’s usually nothing remarkable or unique about those characters because they’re representative of the norm, the thing people have been socialized to sympathize and empathize with.

Unfortunately, Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli are white, so they have neither sensitivity nor the ability to look beyond themselves. Spider-Men II confirms that, yes, there is a 616 Miles Morales. But, he’s a criminal who makes friends with Wilson Fisk (the Kingpin), and is so light-skinned there is no resemblance to his Black counterpart. He’s just the ambiguously brown stereotype. To brazenly imply that Miles Morales was, as a lot of folk were saying when the title was being published, “Sammy Sosa’ed”, is to imply that the story was tackling the subject of learned self-hatred, self-harm, and anti-Blackness and that somehow figured into 616 Miles’ narrative. Instead, this just atypical comic book racism played straight.

There’s little reason to even sympathize with 616 Miles Morales, and the point of sympathy is merely watching him cry over a woman named Barbra Rodriguez, a gallery curator, then use his criminal enterprise, namely the hired hand Taskmaster (which counts like a DC Comics reject tbh) facilitate a means for him to travel to another dimension to be with another Barbra – who presumably hasn’t met that universal equivalent of Miles Morales. For lack of a better word, 616 Miles Morales is probably the version of Miles Morales Bendis would’ve executed if he hadn’t killed Peter Parker (lbr). He’s a terrible character and a particularly woeful answer to a question better left hanging in the air.  

There is no “Mary Jane Watson” for Miles Morales

Bendis’ attempts to provide Miles a love life has been – on all accounts – incredibly bad and unsurprisingly limited to white women. Jason Reynolds might be the only writer to tackle Miles Morales to even remotely consider that Miles’ dating pool might be predominantly Black – but, he’s also the only Black writer to tackle the character, so therein lay the problem. 

One of the biggest issues with trying to shack Miles up with a girlfriend is that his character has never been allowed to mature. Where Peter Parker (in the 616 universe, anyhow) was allowed to graduate High School and go to College before he started any serious romantic relationships (Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane) or flirtations (Felicia Hardy) and was, therefore an adult where more adult situations could occur, Miles is a teenage boy who’s mind arguably would change like the four winds about girls, but this is never reflected or explored in his title.

Add to the fact that there were no longstanding female characters in his mythology, no one Bendis planned on introducing was going to work. Then there’s the fact that most readers were probably rooting for Miles and Ganke Lee to hook up as opposed to dropping a female character on him – because they liked their dynamic and most were content to compare their relationship to Peter/Mary Jane anyway. But Marvel was gonna pull the trigger on that in the same way neither Miles or Miguel O’Hara will ever get their big media break in something that isn’t a animated film (Into the Spider-Verse), or television series usurped from them (Spider-Man Unlimited).

Early issues of Ultimate Comics Spider-Man (namely issues #12 and #19) preluded the character who would later become Ultimate Kate Bishop – Katie Bishop. Katie Bishop would play a supporting role as a then fourteen year old Miles’ girlfriend – a year after the death of Rio Morales – from issue #23 of UCSM until the end of Miles Morales: The Ultimate Spider-Man (which was only thirteen issues long). But, the persisting issue with Katie Bishop is that – unlike Mary Jane Watson (in almost any iteration of Peter Parker’s story) – she was never given any proper build-up or development as someone who would be important to Miles’ arc before the romancing starts.

She’s just dropped into the middle of his story, and audience is supposed to accept it. Then, Bendis and co. ultimately decide the only way to make this character interesting is make her the daughter of Neo-Nazi and a Neo-Nazi herself who follows the Ultimate version of Hydra. Instead of building any kind of goodwill with the reader, Bendis poisons the well altogether and sabotages the character and this was way before the bullshit he, Nick Spencer, and other writers would pull that would lead to creation of Nazi Captain America (el-oh-fucking-el).

The second attempt to give Miles a love interest was in the misfire series All-New Ultimates, wherein a fourteen year old Miles began flirting with the idea of messing around with, for all intents and purposes, a grown-ass woman named Diamondback – highlighting one of the major issues with why Miles and Romance subplots never work out. Following Miles’ move to the 616 universe, Bendis and whoever was responsible for the Spider-Gwen title tried to establish an Instant Oatmeal romance between a eighteen year old Gwen Stacy and a now fifteen/sixteen year old Miles Morales that was both misguided (Bendis really tried to justify it with the line “I’ll be seventeen in a month!” fuckin’ creep), gross and flat-out boring.

Bendis, has, summarily struck out two times in his lack of effort to create a version of “Mary Jane Watson” for Miles Morales. One was underdeveloped (Kate), the other was outright creepy and his living out the fantasy of fucking Gwen Stacy. Michel Fife’s (the writer of All-New Ultimates) creepy and halfhearted attempt to give Miles a “Black Cat” equivalent unilaterally failed with the end of the title itself. Spider-Men II, unfortunately, is Bendis’ third and final miss in the pursuit of Miles Morales’ love life and it’s a big part of why – outside of the whitewashing – Spider-Man II fails as a story.

Bendis attempts to posit that – for every universe that has a Miles Morales, there is a woman named Barbra Rodriguez that he will ultimately fall in love with. 616 Miles Morales’ entire narrative motivation – which renders 1610 Miles Morales’ side of the story completely irrelevant and void – in Spider-Man II is to escape to another universe where there is a Barbra Rodriguez, because his version of Barbra Rodriguez has died. But in the same universe (616) there’s a younger 616 Barbra Rodriguez that just shows up for no reason for 1610 Miles to swoon over. It’s so groan inducing.

Like Ultimate Kate Bishop, as an idea, Barbra Rodriguez isn’t a bad one per se. The issue is, like Ultimate Kate Bishop, that Barbra Rodriguez is dropped into the lap of the reader and expected be swallowed wholesale. In a series of panels illustrated by a perpetually bored Sara Pichelli (who’s interpretation of Miles has become, honestly, more and more ape-like than anything resembling the stellar character design she and David Marquez started out with, but only Marquez remained faithful to before his departure from Miles’ story) in something that resembles the image of the conceited little girl from Monster House selling Halloween candy to a neighborhood she doesn’t live in, the reading audience is meant to believe Miles falls in love with Barbra.

Barbra Rodriguez is a painfully unwritten and boring character to the point where I don’t think you can call her a character – just a prop for a half-baked romance subplot that doesn’t involve the version of Miles Morales readers have picked the book up for. As a character, she brings nothing to the table, as a prop she’s not even interesting. Bendis tries to pull the Star Crossed Lovers Xena-level Soulmates position without ever earning it and as a result Barbra is forgettable. Maybe if he actually introduced her in his last outing for Miles instead of creating a walking stereotype of a grandmother, this might’ve worked better. As it is, Barbra Rodriguez is a last minute thought the story itself fails to capitalize on for anything other than manpain.

Miles Morales isn’t Peter Parker, so naturally, he will never have a Mary Jane Watson. Not even on a metaphorical level, or for the sake of comparison. I honestly think that the only character, if it had to be a woman and not Ganke Lee, that would’ve worked, would probably be Bombshell (Lana Baumgartner). She’s the only female character within his age group he’s actually interacted with and established a genuine relationship. 

616 Peter Parker is an Asshole

Peter Parker’s interaction with a then thirteen year old Miles Morales was a fairly fun read. I liked the idea of Peter indirectly promoting himself to temporary mentor because he’s a grown man overly worried about the fact that someone far younger he was superheroing and largely in the memory of even younger version of himself – who he can’t quite deal with being dead (because it’s him). It was cute. The rationale behind Peter’s actions made sense, and it didn’t overstay its welcome.

Peter in Spider-Men II is a jerk for almost no reason. Because the narrative begins in medias res, with Miles and Peter arguing about how they got tied upside down, the reader spends a great deal of their time wondering why the hell Peter is being so antagonistic with Miles – to the point where he bluntly tells Miles that his being Spider-Man was a “mistake”.

Spider-Men II does not really answer this question – but instead spends the bulk of its first two issues being evasive about the issue altogether (because issues #3 and #4 are dedicated to 616 Miles Morales and his relationships with Barbra and Kingpin, with issue #5 “wrapping” things up for 616 Miles). Recapping that Peter Parker searched and presumably found Miles Morales in his universe before the implosion of the UM, Spider-Men II then has Peter pretending to help Miles locate the 616 version of himself, going as far enlisting the help of Jessica Jones – who summarily tells them there are no traces of a Miles Morales equivalent to even be worried about.

Because the reader is either meant to believe or knows that Peter is lying or being dishonest with Miles, a lot of their dynamic is artificial. Whatever Bendis managed to capture with the first crossover event between the two characters has vanished altogether. A lot of the time Peter Parker – who I keep forgetting is basically a diet soda version of Tony Stark, right down to wearing an armored suit with a glowing symbol and owning his own billion dollar franchise (Parker Industries) – comes off as condescending and a spandex wearing asshole. An asshole operates on the belief that he has the right and authority to tell a now fifteen year old Miles Morales when and when he can’t be Spider-Man.

Even weirder, instead of shutting that nonsense down, Miles takes it on the chin is more less like, “aww, gee, I guess you’re right, I’ll go be depressed now” even as Peter offers him a half-hearted apology and Miles can only say “well, you said it”. It’s the equivalent of Cyclops telling Storm she can’t be the leader of the X-Men, but without the holy retribution of Cyclops being smote with lightning. Like, I spend a grand bulk of this series – which doesn’t even legitimately resolve or explore the fraught dynamic between the two – wishing Peter Parker would fall into a hole and die. Peter Parker’s character in this title is downright insufferable. I miss John Romita Jr. and that other guy’s Peter Parker, but I hear he died in the Civil War. 

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES

Behind all the mess that is the core of Spider-Men II, there was a fairly interesting idea to explore. Bendis really could’ve focused on how the two Miles Morales dealt with existing in the same space. He could’ve dealt with how Miles was coping with having his mother back, and living in a universe that was not his own – and how the death of the Ultimate Marvel universe affected him.

If he had established Barbra Rodriguez before this miniseries, he could’ve actually dedicated the time barely spent on her to simply furthering the relationship that should’ve started way before this story.

As it stands? 1610 Miles Morales and his exploits are more or less an afterthought to the core of the story itself. Peter Parker is a billionaire asshole throughout most of the plot and honestly not even required to tell the story. You can remove him from any and all plot points involving the “who is 616 Miles Morales?”, Jessica Jones, and the conflicts with Taskmaster, and nothing would change. He is irrelevant.

There’s too much time spent on the whitewashed version of Miles Morales – something that both hinders and illustrates just how far gone Bendis’ writing for Miles has diminished since 2013. 616 Miles Morales wasn’t a bad idea, but the execution of the character is fairly horrendous and racist.

Almost no one talked about Spider-Men II when it was released, almost in the same way there was barely an eye bated when the confusingly branded Spider-Man title (Miles’s 616 outing) was released in 2016 (beyond the “who cares if I’m Black?” bullshit). Everyone was talking about Spider-Men and Ultimate Comics Spider-Man when they were released, a lot of people liked it, some didn’t, but it was rather an indicator of its quality. The almost unilateral silence even Miles Morales fans visited upon Spider-Man and Spider-Men II rather speaks volumes of how bad it got.

I don’t recommend this to anyone who is a Miles Morales fan. You’re better off pretending Spider-Men never got a sequel.

[chxronica]

Weeds Are Flowers Too ( Once You Get To Know Them ) - VIII

⌯ Rating ⌯ Mature ⌯ ⌯ Word Count ⌯ 2580 ⌯ ⌯ Summary ⌯ Cheryl and Toni talk bout the previous nights confession ⌯ ⌯ A/N ⌯ im as surprised as u r lbr ⌯ ⌯ im too lazy to link the other chapters an its 4 am so ao3 ⌯

Once again Cheryl woke up with a pounding headache and a hangover, the only difference being the fact that she couldn’t remember much of the night. After dancing with Veronica and seeing Toni, it’s pretty much a blank slate. Which means hopefully she didn’t do anything stupid in the time that she couldn’t remember, yet knowing her she always managed to do something stupid when she got blackout drunk. Hence why she was quick to roll over and make sure that there was no one in her bed this time around.

A small sigh of relief left the redhead girl when she knew that no one was in her bed and that no one was in her house. She rolled back onto her back, staring up at the white ceiling as she thought. She was trying to remember the most about the previous night but none of it was coming back to her, the thing that was coming back to her though was sleep. Clearly, she had an eventful night if she was still tired, but there was no sleep as her phone went off.

A groan escaped her parted lips as she reached for the phone, not even looking at the contact name she denied the call. But there was another one right after that so she knew that it was the young girl she had taken under her wing. “What Dani?” She said, a small tone of annoyance in her voice as she spoke to her. In all honesty, their relationship had always been a little bit on the younger and older sister side, so this wasn’t abnormal for them. “You said I could work today and you’re not here.” At her words, she realized that it was both Sunday and that she was running late. She knew very well that by the time she was ready to go she was going to miss some of the usual old ladies that came every Sunday morning. So with a soft sigh, she was probably about to do one of the more regrettable things she going to do all day, mostly because she didn’t fully trust the young girl to run her shop. 

“You can open up today.”

“Yay, love you!” “Love you too Dani.” She mumbled before hanging up on the girl, rolling over in bed and putting a pillow of her head. If she was being honest, Cheryl could easily fall back to sleep but she had no intention of doing that because Dani running the store meant bad things. So she dramatically rolled out her bed with a small groan, making her way to the bathroom so that she could shower and not show up smelling like alcohol.

Once she was showered and dressed she made he way to the kitchen to find something to eat before she had to face a long day of working with a hangover. Unable to find anything she let out a frustrated groan, adding grocery shopping to the list of things she had to do that day. So she grabbed her keys and decided that she could make a stop at Starbucks and be a few more minutes late to the start of her usual Sunday morning.

There was nothing that Cheryl hated more than being late, besides imbeciles, still if she was going to be late she would at least come to work fed. It was pointless to be running late and not eat, an extra ten minutes wasn’t going to kill her. Granted she was about two hours late, but that just made the ten minutes seem like a lot less time compared to if she was fifteen minutes late.

So, once she had food she found her way to the shop, her head still pounding as an excited Dani ran over to her and gave her a hug. She was happy to see the younger girl, but her headache had different feelings about the excited greeting that she had been given. Still, she gave the excitable girl a hug back, using one hand as to make sure that her coffee wasn’t spilled on the floor–– that was the last thing that she needed right about now.

With a hum she pulled away, examining her shop to make sure that there was no damage to be found to both the structure and the delicate flowers that sat on the shelves. Satisfied with finding nothing wrong she started walking back to her office, letting her heels click on the tile as she walked away. “Maybe I should let you open up more often, you didn’t do a terrible job.” She teased lightly as she set her things down.

Once she was back out in the main part of the shop she went to check on the cash to make sure that it was all set, only to find a blushing Riley sitting behind the counter with an apron on. “Oh hello Riley, you making yourself at home?” A questioning eyebrow raised at the girl as she waited for an answer, looking over at her little sister too as a smirk played on her features.

“I was bored and I wanted something to do- Wait! I don’t mean do as in sex, I mean do as in keep me company! Flowers are nice and all but you can’t have a conversation with them, plus they aren’t as cute as Riley is.” There was a bright blush on Dani’s cheeks as she rambled to the older redhead, not sure what to do about the whole thing. It was cute and it reminded Cheryl of the numerous times she had re-explained herself when she was in college, mostly when she was talking to the hot professor that taught her business class.

So, Cheryl only gave her a small smirk before going to grab her own apron to throw over her body. “What I’m hearing is Riley is looking for a no-pay job?” She said, continuing to tease the two of them as she made a mental note to offer the other girl a job. Paying her wouldn’t be a problem, the only reason that Cheryl was generally the only one who worked there that she didn’t need to extra hands. Still she was willing to make room for those that she cared about.

“No!” Riley exclaimed, standing up to her full height of 5’9”, which was granted taller than the other redhead in the room. “I mean, I would love pay.” The girl gave her a big grin, always being a happy and energetic person. She was a hot-shot sports player so it kind of went with everything really well, actually everything about Riley was a little too put together but Cheryl never thought much of it–– That would change within the next few months though.

Still, Cheryl gave her a smile back but before she could reply there was a ring the bell that told them that a customer had just walked in. All three pair of eyes go to the person at the door, and of course, it’s the one person that the eldest redhead tried so hard to avoid when she could. Which is why the smile that had been on her features had fallen so that her face was almost completely rid of any emotions. “How can I help you?”

There was an easy smirk on Toni’s features, which annoyed Cheryl because she looked so smug but also so hot at the same time and it left her as one ball of confusion. “Can I talk to you? In private.” She threw in a wink as she ended her sentence, mostly for the entertainment of the two teenagers who were shoving Cheryl towards the door without much hesitation.

“Go take a walk, we can man- or should I say, woman?- the shop for another twenty minutes, we’ve done okay so far.” Despite the fact that Dani seemed to be trying to convince to Cheryl, she was really just hoping that if she talked enough that her boss wouldn’t try and protest against the going. “Plus the fresh air will do the hangover wonders even if you don’t want to admit it and going on a walk will be great cardio- that you need because you skipped Sunday morning yoga.”

Cheryl didn’t attempt to protest as she listened to the younger girl talk, only shaking her head in response to be shoved out of the door of her own flower shop. “You better not burn down my place in the twenty minutes this walk takes.” She gives them a stern look before rolling her eyes at the smug look that remained on the face of the tattoo artist. “Stop looking so smug, I don’t even want to talk you.”

This got a nice chuckle out of the shorter girl as they began there walk down the quiet street where they both worked. It wasn’t the fanciest place in the city but it was definitely on the more upscale side of things, which is why Cheryl wondered how there was a tattoo shop that had found its way next to her simple flower shop.

“If you didn’t want to talk to me then why did you agree to leave your shop so easily?” The tattoo artist is quick to challenge, raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow in the direction of the redhead. Yeah, she could not tease her but she liked how flustered she could make the girl and how fast she could do it. The previous night had left her blushing and now she felt like she needed to make up for that. So, she was going to tease Cheryl and try her hardest to make her blush.

Her tactic worked, of course, worked and the redhead’s face was quick to match her hair. “Well, you see, uhhhh, the cardio is really good for me and Dani was right, I did skip my morning yoga and you know, fresh air can really cure a hangover.” Turning into a sputtering mess she tried her best to come up with any excuse for the walk that wasn’t she wanted to talk to the girl who was walking beside her.

“Mhmm, whatever you say, Blossom.” The doubt was clear in Toni’s tone as she spoke, her step easily falling in line with the girl she was walking by. After the previous night, she knew how the girl felt for her but she also wanted to see if she felt the same way for her when she was sober. The difference in sobriety could really affect the way that a person felt towards another human being. “So you’re nursing a hangover, do you remember anything from last night?”

The smirk that remained on Toni’s features turned to a concerned look as she asked her the question though, which sent a warm wave through Cheryl’s body. It was the idea that Toni cared enough to ask that left her cheeks an even brighter red than they previously were. “Oh uh, not really. I haven’t tried to remember yet.” She gave her a sheepish smile as she decided to not think back on the night before.

It was those words that made a small frown form on Toni’s features, only for a brief moment before it was out of sight and replaced with a teasing smirk. She could live with the fact that the feelings were nothing more than acting on drunk impulsive, but she hated that she got her hopes up for something. “Damn, Cheryl Blossom must not mess around when it comes to clubbing.” Her voice was light, hiding the slight twinge of sadness that she felt.

“We should part here, I just remembered I have an appointment. Call me if you remember our run in from last night.” With a wink, the tattoo artist turned on her heel and started her walk back to the tattoo shop. It was that moment that the previous night's memories came flooding into her brain, now that she was actually thinking past the pounding headache that was the byproduct of the night.

It took her through the start of it all and eventually ended with being dropped off by the girl who was currently walking away from her. There was a small tingling feeling in her lips as she remembered the previous kiss and the kiss before that. A lot happened the previous night and she knew she was going to have to face it eventually, but her brain didn’t want to focus on that.

Yet, her body seemed to have a mind of its own as she moved to grab onto Toni’s wrist and pull her back for a kiss. It was in public and if anyone she knew saw her she was going to have to deal with that, but she didn’t feel herself pull away as she kissed the tattoo artist. Her mind was screaming about how she shouldn’t be doing this but her body had control as her hands found the other girl’s cheeks.

The redhead essentially melted into the kiss that she started, not actually having enough confidence to continue being the aggressor through the whole kiss. Which was probably why she was the first one to pull away, her cheeks the reddest they had ever been and her breathing deep. “Woah, uh that was amazing.” Her voice is quiet before shes processed everything and is pulling away from the girl, an even darker blush forming on her pale cheeks- this time though, there was a slight tint to the other girl’s cheeks.

“I’m sorry, that was completely inappropriate of me and I have to go do things.” She stumbled over her words as she looked over at Toni, quickly moving past her in the direction of her flower shop.

“Things?” The tattoo artist called out after her, her eyebrow raised in curiosity but it didn’t hide her confusion for the situation. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, but she found herself watching the redhead retreat from her once again. As much as she wanted to help her come to terms with her sexuality, it was a lot more work than she thought it was going to be and she has no idea if she’ll be able to help her.

“I’m a busy woman, I’ll call you tonight.” And with that Cheryl was fleeing from the scene and was back to the flower shop in record time. She made a mental note to stop by the tattoo shop after work, knowing she was going to have to face Toni but also knowing that she could put it off for just a little bit later. What she couldn’t put off though was the bombarding of questions that came from the teenage girls who had been waiting for her in the shop.

She was quick to deflect all the questions as she put on her apron, giving different jobs for the two girls to do to keep them occupied. There were only a few hours before she was closing up the shop, which meant that there were only a few hours for her to prepare to see Toni. Yeah, she theoretically could see the girl unprepared but at the same time, she knew that was already going to leave her being too much of a flustered mess to function. For now though, she can daydream about what she wishes could be the outcome of the visit she is to make to Toni later that day.

[dailygreenlantern]

Help, I just got caught up on New 52 and Rebirth comics and I am just now learning that Guy & Kyle’s friendship basically got deleted from continuity and now I’m sad forever! Excuse me DC, that was my emotional support bromance.

Mate!! Don’t even get me started! I swear I have ranted to various friends about this, and still do to this day. 

Specifically, with an issue of HAL JORDAN AND THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS where something happens, and kyle saves Guy. 

And then Guy says something along the lines of “If you keep this up, by the end of it Kyle, I may let you buy me a beer” 

...........

..................

LIKE!!! BITCH!!!!! THEY LITERALLY OWNED A GODDAMN BAR TOGETHER !!! THAT THEY MOVED OUT INTO SPACE TO GET STARTED TOGETHER! 

the sheer audacity of that line!! haunts me to this day!! and just yeah in general i hated how much they retconned their entire friendship (/relationship however you wanna look at it) 

the best thing about REBIRTH to me, for the most part, was that they seemed to get back to a lot of the good Shit tm that NEW52 attempted to erase. i was so annoyed that they didnt keep going well with it and do the same for guy and kyle :(

NEW52 is just... oof. at all times lbr. but i did enjoy some of hals solo run there for a while but what they did to guys character was terrible from what i heard and lots of other stuff but yeah. 

Look!! We’ll always have GLC V2 BUDDY!!! They can never take that away from us friend!!

[romcomathon2016]

Fever Pitch (USA, 2005)

Happy April, Romcomathon readers! In honor of the official start of baseball season, we bring you Fever Pitch, one of our personal faaaaves. #fenway opening day is thursday! #let’s go red sox

Predictions: Native Bostonians + romcom aficionados = obviously we don't need to MAKE PREDICTIONS ABOUT THIS MOVIE. This film is our destiny, and if you don't know what we're talking about, you should (first watch the movie and then) read about its making on Wikipedia, and how that coincided with THE MAKING OF BASEBALL HISTORY!!!! (This was before the 2004 Red Sox began betraying us left and right with their political tweets. A simpler time.)

Plot: Jimmy Fallon is a math teacher and, more importantly, a lifelong Red Sox fan. Is "fan" even the word? The Red Sox are this man's religion. Meanwhile, Drew Barrymore's religion is work. They meet one day when he brings some students to visit her office -- she does something math-related -- and start dating, despite Drew Barrymore having some reservations. (Apparently, teachers aren't successful enough?? Also, her friends are convinced he will turn out to be a psycho or something, because he is 30 and not yet married.)

Things more or less go swimmingly. Jimmy Fallon is very nervous to reveal to Drew Barrymore his love of the Red Sox, but she takes it in stride, even though his love of the Red Sox is, lbr, weird. He essentially lives in a Red Sox gift shop, and she is somehow able to casually joke about this and not run out screaming in horror. Apparently, she is appreciative of the fact that he's passionate about something, and is glad that he'll have something to do while she's working all the time, because she works all the time. Sure, sure. A match made in heaven! But then, baseball season actually begins.

For a while, they do a good job of balancing their relationship and their competing needs, and Drew Barrymore manages to accommodate the Red Sox schedule while making all their social plans. Eventually, however, this wears on her a bit, and she begins to wonder where Jimmy Fallon's priorities really are. After a series of incidents, they break up.

Everyone is sad. Jimmy Fallon makes an attempt to win Drew Barrymore back, but she a) does not believe that his priorities have really changed and b) is just too sad, you guys. So sad. So heartbroken. More on this later. Jimmy Fallon, desperate to ~make a change in his life, decides that there's nothing left to do but sell his season tickets to prove his love. SEASON TICKETS TO THE RED SOX, GUYS. And they're really good seats. Like, REALLY good seats. He must really love Drew Barrymore. MAN. Drew Barrymore finds out about this from her friends and, touched/horrified, rushes to stop him. Unfortunately, she cannot call him on the telephone like a normal person, because Jimmy Fallon doesn't have a cell phone (?!?!). Thus, she is forced to GO TO FENWAY and run across the field, in a truly absurd yet delightful scene, and they reunite in front of thousands of Red Sox fans and a handful of security guys.

Also, the Red Sox win the World Series, ending an 86-year drought. #IMPORTANT

Best Scene: Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore genuinely have a lovely, normal-feeling relationship for a lot of this movie. They have charming scenes together in the park, charming scenes together at their homes, and charming scenes together at Fenway. We enjoy all of these charming scenes. Special shout-out to them dancing to "Sweet Caroline."

Worst Scene: Ummmm. When Jimmy Fallon arrives to pick Drew Barrymore up for their first date, she is unfortunately vomiting all over the place. It's actually a quite charming and funny series of scenes that follows, but sigh. Always vomit. All the time. This is one of Kat's favorite movies (she went through a Drew Barrymore ~phase), and yet it is blighted by vomit.

Best Line: Most of this movie is pretty well-written, charming, funny, etc. Hard to choose! But one of our personal favorites is maybe when Jimmy Fallon is in the park, listing for Drew Barrymore all the things he likes about her, and mentions how sometimes she talks out of the side of her mouth, "like an adorable stroke victim." This is so specific to Drew Barrymore that we have always wondered at what point in the process this line was written.

Worst Line: "Ben, I just got so hurt. Really hurt. And sometimes...when that happens -- something inside just shuts off." -- Drew Barrymore, in the doorway of her apartment, when Jimmy Fallon is trying (and failing) to win her back. So...much. Just terrible. It's funny, this line isn't actually that bad, in the grand scheme of romcoms, but for some reason it really sticks with us. Perhaps it's just so awful compared to the rest of the movie?? Whenever we are talking about Worst Lines or cringing about uncomfortable, over-the-top things people have said in films, this line always comes up.

Highlights of the Watching Experience: Remember that period of time when Drew Barrymore was in, oh, every romcom known to man? An excellent period. At some point (probably during/post- Kat’s aforementioned ~phase), we watched every single one of these films, and this is DEFINITELY the one in which she has the best hair. Until the late 2000s, her hair was not utilized well in the majority of her body of work. But she looks great in Fever Pitch! Also, Alex does not understand why so many people are determined to have Gatsby-themed birthday parties. Like...do they not know how that book ends?

How Many POC in the Film: LOL. Jimmy Fallon maybe has one or two friends of color, but they do not speak. Well, it's Boston. Sounds about right. :|

Alternate Scenes: This film is perfect, except for that one line. Kat can even live with the vomit situation, which is saying something. We'd also be interested in a spinoff film about Drew Barrymore's assistant, who seems to be an excellent assistant.

Was the Poster Better or Worse than the Film: Worse. The poster is, like, fine, although it does make it seem like maybe this movie is about Jimmy Fallon's...baseball aspirations?? and his supportive lady friend, Drew Barrymore. We would almost certainly watch that film, but we might find it hard to believe that Jimmy Fallon is a professional ballplayer...

Score: 8.5 out of 10 Green Monster smooches. It's so nice these two weirdos found each other.

Ranking: 8, out of the 130 movies we have now watched.

[singingwordwright]

Physical intimacy and disparate portrayals of it

This post was inspired by some discussion over on @lemonoclefox 's blog about the whole ongoing issue with the way Malec's physicality is handled. I didn't want to word-vomit all over their post, but I have been writing on the subject in recent weeks and I wanted to check in now that we've got another episode, and also because the post-ep analysis for 3x02 got really ugly in some corners of the fandom.

It made me start questioning my approach to the subject and asking myself whether I'd done enough to be positive in my breakdown of Malec, to make it clear how much GOOD I find in the Malec relationship, or do I focus too much on what needs improvement?

It's totally possible that I do; I tend to assume anyone who follows me already knows how much I love them and how wonderful I think they are, so it just goes without saying. But my words aren't only read by the people who follow me or know how I feel about Malec, and that is something I need to be more mindful of.

It's probably the same for many of us. I think there is a natural human tendency when there's a lot of something good to overlook that and focus on what needs improvement.

I also think in online communities today there is a tendency to not discuss things in good faith, to immediately assume the worst of people whose points we disagree with and to reflexively polarize farther than we might have otherwise gone. So if someone finds a flaw in something you don't, or if they express their position badly, or whatever, not only are they wholly, unequivocally wrong, but they're a terrible person for thinking that.

It's just ugly and we really should all be doing better, myself absolutely included.

This gets long from here on out, so I'm going to put it under a cut:

I’ve been mulling over and meta’ing on this issue for over a year now. My thoughts and feelings on it have evolved a number of times—as they should. And my inability to put into words the issue I’m seeing has become something of a personal hobgoblin; I haven’t been saying it right and I have a desperate need to say it right.

Part of that is because my brain tends to latch onto things mathematically, almost obsessively so. To point where I actually suspect that, had I been born 15 or 20 years later, I might have fallen somewhere on the autism spectrum. I seize hold of patterns and trends very early in their development and can’t let go of them. If I can quantify something, it feels more real, more concrete. It makes it easier for me to try to communicate what I’m seeing, because surely if I point out the pattern I’m picking up, everyone else will too, right?

Well, no. Because there’s a lot about a subject like this that can’t be quantified, and attempting to do so leaves you at risk of missing the forest for the trees. I really haven’t done myself any favors in this regard, firing off my metas without first making a concerted effort to step back from that instinct and try to look at the whole picture instead of just the patterns I was perceiving and a few examples that make them clear to me.

So I feel like I’m blindfolded and batting at a piñata. I keep swinging glancing blows at the point I’m trying to make, which concerns the work that remains to be done in the way Malec is filmed and packaged by the showrunners and whoever is behind such decisions. My gut tells me there’s an important issue here that needs addressing, or at least conscious awareness and monitoring, but I never entirely succeed in expressing it.

Breaking Down The Concepts:

(Here I go with that mathematical thinking already)

I think for the sake of clarity, there are three facets or elements of the Malec’s intimacy which need to be delineated. Because the conflating and muddying of these concepts under the umbrella term “intimacy” is what is leading to a lot of the polarized claims that are floating around, such as the idea that Malec act like roommates or don’t display any intimacy, both of which are total nonsense.

The three elements are:

Emotional intimacy

Casual intimacy (i.e. non-sexual touching, displays of physical comfort with each other)

Sexual intimacy (or the suggestion thereof)

Now, these elements of the Malec relationship are not all equal, nor should they be treated as such.

The breakdown of how much weight you put on one versus the others is, of course, a personal, subjective thing. For myself—and keeping in mind this is a TV show and the majority of the relationship development is going to and should happen in ways that can visually be demonstrated on-screen—I’d rate emotional intimacy at and non-sexual physical intimacy much higher than sexual intimacy. However, particularly because this is a new relationship, I also feel like it’s a relationship at a stage where things tend to be more weighed on the physical side than it would be for a more established relationship. There’s a reason for that, one which I will get into later.

However, YMMV

Now, I would hope we can all agree that Malec has emotional intimacy down in spades.

If you don’t agree, I’m sorry, but we’re clearly not watching the same show and maybe you should page back out of this meta.

Seriously, they’re killing that particular game, in a way that is groundbreaking for television. It’s beautiful and breathtaking and so, so very important. That’s crucial to acknowledge, because it’s getting overlooked in a lot of the more hyperbolic discourse on this subject (and conversely, some people are focusing on it to the exclusion of the other, valid issues which are being raised.)

Physical Intimacy—non-sexual vs. sexual

The issue of physical intimacy specifically is two-pronged. One half of it is about the casual, intimacy-establishing touches that one tends to see in a new relationship. The other half of it is about the handling of Malec as a sexually-involved couple.

Those aren’t the same thing, though they can and should overlap to some extent. The problem is a lot of people have been conflating those two issues. It’s easy to do, but they are separate.

So, discussions have been boiling down to arguments that basically go:

Person A: “Malec are getting short-changed, they never touch!” Person B: “Nuh-uh, they touched each other’s faces last episode! You just want to see them bone on screen!”

Both sides are right and wrong, and they’re both arguing different things. Person A is talking about sexual intimacy, Person B is talking about non-sexual physical intimacy.

There is a problem (or at least a potential one) with the way sexual intimacy is being demonstrated for Malec, particularly when compared/contrasted with other (heterosexual) couples on the show. So Person A has a valid point, it’s just getting lost in hyperbole.

Person B also has a valid point. It took a while to get there, but now the show is doing very well with regard to non-sexual moments of physical intimacy (at least as long as those moments are kept rated-G). But Person B is also engaging in that lack of good-faith thinking and missing the point Person A is trying to make because they’re too busy assuming the worst of Person A’s motives.

It’s all really messy. I’ve made that error myself a time or two, and now I’m making an effort to keep these issues more distinct in my head, and to define them clearly for the purposes of this meta.

Where it gets even messier is the overlap between the two forms of physical intimacy.

Because if, as Person A is claiming, the show is short-changing Malec in terms of sexual intimacy, the probable cause for that a homophobic inclination to regard LGBT content as more illicit by default than het content. That then can bleed over into restricting what kind of non-sexual physical intimacy they showcase.

It’s a double standard. It’s like the issue with male versus female orgasms in movies. A movie that shows (non-explicitly) a man receiving oral sex and having an orgasm might get a PG-13 rating, but a movie that shows a woman receiving oral sex and having a orgasm gets rated NC-17. The situation is the same, but for some reason it’s perceived as dirtier in the latter case.

So, if the default assumption is that a touch or situation that would be rated PG for a het couple is rated R for a queer couple, then the tendency is going to be to restrict your queer couple to touches that would be strictly rated G if they happened between a het couple. Instead of, for example, hugs and nuzzling, you get hand-holding and bro-pats. And while hand-holding and bro-pats are terrific and valid, the lack of hugs and nuzzling eventually becomes rather pointed. It’s a symptom of a problem.

So it’s not reasonable to point to the plethora of rated G touching and declare that those touches mean the show doesn’t have a problem with the way it regards and portrays queer sexuality.

But it’s also not reasonable to point to the absence of PG or PG-13 touching and claim that the lack thereof invalidates the beauty of all the rated G touching. Nor is it reasonable to claim that it means Malec act like roommates instead of a romantically-involved couple.

What’s my stake in this:

I came into this fandom from the world of LGBT-romance publishing. And back when that genre was first really getting off the ground with small presses and self-published authors releasing (lbr mostly m/m) queer romance novels, a lot of the books had content warnings for scenes of gay male sexuality. Content warnings that no one would ever have thought of slapping on the cover of a het romance novel. It was extremely glaring and made it very clear that many people considered queer sex more controversial than straight sex.

It was a convention that was challenged, rightfully so. It was challenged often and with great feeling, especially as the genre became populated less with straight women writing about gay sex because it was hot and fun, and more by queer people looking for representation and reflections of themselves.

We challenged the idea that queer sex needed warnings, as though it were dangerous or offensive, especially in books that should be normalizing the existence of queer characters and their sex lives.

So that notion, that queer sex is more illicit than straight sex, that our culture feels compelled to handle it differently, is a conversation I’m very used to having. (It’s possible maybe I’m so used to having it that I’m on alert for it even when I shouldn’t be.)

It was a conversation this fandom started having after 2x07 aired.

Another part of my interest in this issue is that I’m a storyteller; always have been, always will be. My first instinct is always going to be to analyze the way a story is being told and assess what it working and what isn’t.

I’m extremely attuned to minor immersive details (see the things I wrote above about how my brain functions.) As a storyteller, I believe those are the things that really sell something on a human level in a show about the supernatural.

*puts on my “I studied a lot of biology/A&P at one point in my checkered past” hat*

See, there’s a biological reason why new couples in the “honeymoon” phase of a relationship tend to be very touchy-feely. It’s called oxytocin, which is sometimes referred to as the “love hormone.” It’s a hormone that plays a part in emotional bonding. It causes uterine contractions in childbirth; people with uteruses are flooded with it upon giving birth. It triggers the let-down reflex when a nursing person’s milk starts flowing. It’s the reason why infants tend not to thrive when they’re not touched much. A surge of it is released when someone has an orgasm, and is theorized to be the reason why people sometimes make emotional declarations during and after sex that it turns out they don’t mean the next day.

But smaller amounts of it are released upon just about any physical contact, particularly skin-to-skin contact. A backrub. A caress. Hugging. Cuddling. Those touches tend to be really important aspects to building a new relationship. They generate the hormone that really does a lot to cement pair-bonding. (That’s not universal, of course; some people are very touch-averse and bond in other ways, but we have no evidence that Magnus and Alec have that sort of aversion, though that would be an interesting concept to explore in fanon or fic at some point.)

So the scarcity of physical intimacy beyond the most chaste and restrained of touching can (and maybe does) strain the realism or immersion of the way Malec is shown.

On a more personal, subjective note, literally the only time I can ever see my own experience with romantic relationships reflected in the way relationships are shown on television is when a couple is explored during the “honeymoon” phase, where Malec is now. I’m asexual, but not aromantic. And the one time I don’t feel largely touch-averse is during the bonding phase of a new relationship. So it’s really quite important to me, loving Malec as I do, that this aspect of their relationship resonate.

I know that the “lack of good-faith discourse” thing has us all assuming that prurience is what drives anyone’s interest in any discussion that touches upon Malec’s physicality, but that’s not really the case, at least not for me. It matters personally on multiple levels to me, and a desire to see Malec have sex isn’t even on the list.

With that out of the way, let’s move into the show itself.

The 2x07 Debacle and the questions it raised:

In the wake of 2x07, I really felt like I was the only person who was not throwing a huge fit over the lack of a sex scene. I wasn’t thrilled with the way the episode had gone, but it was another case where the fandom was losing its mind and being way too hyperbolic, enough so that I just recoiled from it, and I wanted everyone to calm the fuck down. (see also my rant about how the fandom’s reaction to 2x07 led us to a place where Cassandra Clare felt comfortable stating that Alec raped Magnus.)

The reason I wasn’t really furious about not getting a sex scene in 2x07 was because I felt like the show hadn’t really put in the legwork to establish Malec emotionally yet. As I mentioned above, I place more weight on emotional intimacy, and that was where I felt the story needed to be for them at that time.

Along with all my other guessing and hypothesizing about why things played out the way they did, I meta’ed at length about the timing of the season, and the fact that there really wasn’t a good place later in the season 2 narrative to put an episode where Malec made that decision to have sex and had that moment. Because any point in the story arc where Malec had the downtime to consider it, they were dealing with things like Magnus’s trauma in the wake of 2x12.

The whole season needed to be structured better, because 2x07 was just ham-handed. They had to address whether or not Malec were a sexually active couple before the sex question became an elephant in the room, detracting from all the other stuff that was going on in the narrative. 2x07 was the last time they would have breathing room to address the issue, but it was just so clumsily executed, and Ben Bray was so obviously a terrible director to choose for that episode because his discomfort with Malec and their sexuality couldn’t have been more obvious in the way it was filmed.

Why didn’t they just...wait until somewhere in the span of 2x16-2x18 for Malec to have sex? After all, according to my timeline, 2x18 happens around three weeks after 2x07. Less than four weeks after Malec’s first date. It would have been the perfect time in their relationship to raise the sex question, instead of rushing to squeeze it in before everything went to hell at the end of season 2a.

But then it becomes a question of where would they work in the “Alec choosing obedience to the Clave/Clave paternalism over honesty” plotline. Because that is a critically important plotline for Malec. That discussion needed to happen. And if it happened earlier in season 2, Malec perhaps wouldn’t have been well-established enough emotionally to withstand it and the break-up would have been much uglier. IDK I’d have to go through and pick apart their whole arc to figure out a good place for that issue to arise that would allow for pushing back the sex decision, but it’s not really germane right now.

My point is, imagine if in 2x07, Magnus had said he didn’t want to rush things...so they had stopped? The question of sex had been addressed, they decided to wait, and then they kept dating and took it slow.

Golly, wouldn’t that have been a lovely approach?

Anyway, after 2x07, I was willing to wait and hope, instead of immediately condemning the show for the disparate handling of straight vs. queer sexuality. There just wasn’t enough evidence at the time to declare it a problem, or so I felt.

Despite my faith, throughout season 2B, I started to get a little worried. The time for Malec to be making big displays of passion wasn’t right because of where the story was and the impact it was having on the characters emotionally.

Regardless of sexuality, however, Malec absolutely were not touching and kissing each other in a way that felt true (to me, of course, YMMV) for couple at that stage of their relationship. The scarcity of those touchy-feely, oxytocin-generating, relationship-building-block moments between Malec really kept snagging at my brain. (please refer to the “What’s My Stake In this” section above.)

Part of it is because I felt like the 2x07 conversation was still very much “on hold.” The jury was still out, and I was waiting and viewing with caution to see if my hope and faith would be validated when the show made good on the promise of Malec. I was hyper-aware of how they were being portrayed in all physical regards, both sexual and casual.

Did 2x18 Fix Anything?

Anyway, 2x18 almost supported my faith, that wait-and-hope approach I took after 2x07. But it made me even more wary in a way that I had a lot of trouble putting into words for a very long time.

2x18 concerned me because it sort of felt like checkboxes were being ticked. Like the showrunners were saying, “we’re giving the fans what they want, and once we’ve done that, our job is done and they have no reason to complain that Malec is being given short-shrift.”

And it just...really doesn’t work that way. It’s not a one-and-done thing; it’s an ongoing process. So the question became: was 2x18 the sign of a lesson learned, or was it simply throwing the people who were unhappy with 2x07 a bone so they’d shut up and go away? And were we, as a fandom, going to allow the showrunners to be complacent on their handling of this subject?

I could be totally wrong. I’m as susceptible as anyone to the tendency to assume the worst motives. It could be I have baggage lingering from fandoms where the showrunners were much less responsive to the fans, but I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop.

At what point does “viewing with caution” become “hysterical overreaction?”

The jury is still out on that, too.

So in the wake of 2x20, I was honestly on high alert. Because it was just so glaring to me, the disparity between the way the Clace kisses in 2x19 and 2x20 were filmed, and the way Malec’s kiss at the end of 2x20 was filmed. The lighting, the camera angles and distance, the lingering and so forth. Clace were filmed as though the camera couldn’t get close enough, couldn’t draw the audience in enough, and Malec were filmed as though they wanted to get as far away from that moment as they could as quickly as possible.

So, I wrote a meta at the time about it and did a truly terrible job of expressing the point I was trying to make. I was using the kisses as a stand-in for the disparate handling of queer sexuality versus straight sexuality, but I got absorbed in the fact that I had the ability to visually demonstrate the point I was making. I went into super-detail-oriented, hyper-analytical mode. I thought I could illustrate my point in terms of inches of distance between bodies, in terms of camera angles used and lumens of lighting and feet of distance from the camera to the couple. I frankly lost sight of how-to-nuance. As I said before, I missed the forest for the trees and I don’t feel like I really succeeded in posing the question I was trying to pose.

The question I wanted (and failed) to ask was this:

Is Shadowhunters going to be one of those shows where the queer pairing is only perceived as “okay” (by whoever makes the decision of what is or isn’t acceptable on the show) as long as they’re the “safe” gays who don’t remind us too often or too obviously that they have icky gay sex?

In other words, were the Shadowhunters showrunners going to be like the authors and publishers that felt queer sexuality needed special warnings and careful handling in a way that straight sexuality doesn’t?

Moving into Season Three

I think there’s a tendency to get a little perplexed here with how much progress the show should have made. Some people say it’s only been 5 episodes since 2x18; therefore we don’t have enough evidence to say whether or not 2x18 is proof of a lesson learned or just a big but ultimately meaningless gesture.

They’re right; five episodes really isn’t very much and certainly a more laid-back outlook is completely valid.

But the showrunners had an entire hiatus to mull this over, and three of those five episodes were written after that hiatus. In fact, IIRC, two writing/production hiatuses passed between the airing (and resultant backlash) of 2x07 and the beginning of season three.

(see what I’m doing here? I’ve again lapsed into mathematical thinking without even intending to do so. I’m counting days and breaking things down into subjective vs. objective time passed like it’s some damn relativity exercise.)

My point is, it’s not unreasonable to say the showrunners have had enough time to internalize those lessons and if they’re not demonstrating that they’ve done so, then that’s an indication of a problem, or a potential problem.

That’s a valid approach, as well.

So, again, this is totally an issue of YMMV.

If people choose to not worry about it now, that’s great, as long as they recognize the validity of the people who do.

And if people choose to express concern about it, that’s also great as long as they don’t attempt to invalidate the things that the show is doing right and well with regard to how Malec is being portrayed.

There has been tremendous improvement on one side of the two-pronged issue of physical intimacy, I will say that. The show has gotten much better about Malec having those sort of intimate, casual touches that you see in the early stages of a new relationship. I’m rather quite satisfied on that front.

But there’s maybe not as much improvement as there could be. They’re still keeping moments of physical contact rated-G when maybe it would really be okay for them to be rated-PG. That begs the question of how much of that is being done because two men touching feels more risque by default than it would if they were a man and woman.

Honestly, in 3x03 after Maryse left, would it have been so hard for Magnus to slip his arm around Alec’s waist and give him a squeeze before wandering off the clear the table? The face caress was lovely, but the shoulder pat was sort of weak.

That’s totally nitpicky, I know. I’m using it as an example, not saying it’s something that actually bothers me. Because earlier in the episode we had that lovely bit of Magnus caressing Alec’s arm and holding his hands in front of Izzy, so I don’t care.

There’s definitely been improvement, but there’s still room for more, that’s all I’m saying.

But that’s the problem with this whole discussion, isn’t it? The second you say “X is an issue” someone will pipe up with “but Y negates that claim” and then the discussion misses the emerging trends and patterns and just becomes about one-upping whoever you disagree with on some isolated detail divorced from the issue as a whole.

An exception to a pattern does not negate the existence of the pattern.

The other half of the two-pronged issue of physical intimacy is the way Malec’s sexuality is treated and whether it’s being handled with kid gloves in a way that straight sexuality is not.

And in that regard, there are signs give me cause for concern (again, YMMV.)

Here’s an example to compare and contrast:

Clary walks into Jace’s room in her underwear; they’re both mostly naked, she straddles him and they roll around on the bed making out.

Alec walks into Magnus’s room in his underwear; they’re both mostly clothed, Alec sniffs his shampoo and they don’t even touch, even though they’re home alone together in a moment where touching would be entirely appropriate

Please note: that’s not to discount or attempt to invalidate how lovely the Malec scene we got in the episode is. It really was sweet and delightful and many wonderful things.

And there is also differing context that means that these are two very different scenes establishing two very different things; namely that Clace are in a very dangerous place in a relationship that actually lacks a lot of emotional intimacy, and Malec are in a very comfortable place in a relationship with tons of emotional intimacy.

But the point remains that there is a very clear disparity between the way the two relationships are portrayed in terms of sexual or sexually-suggestive moments.

There simply IS.

Let’s hypothesize for a moment that the context had been identical. Malec are in a good place, Clace are in a good place. Malec are enjoying a relaxed morning moment having just woken up together, getting ready for the day. Clace are doing the same.

How do you think the Clace scene would have played out in that context? I mean, really? Would they have been mostly dressed? Would they have not touched at all? Would the suggestion that they had showered together have been limited to a small smile after one character told the other that they liked taking showers?

No, of course not. If the context had been identical, Clace would have been far more sexually suggestive. They would have been mostly naked; one of them would have probably still been wet and dripping, wrapped in a towel. There would have been kisses and making out.

Now, it’s easy to look at that one example and say it doesn’t count because it’s only one example, but the problem is, there is a clear and traceable pattern of this happening. Collectively, when you take the Malec moments into consideration, the times when they are allowed to be physically demonstrative with each other (particularly moments where it would be entirely appropriate for them to be rated PG or even PG-13) are extremely limited, particularly in comparison to het moments of similar context.

This goes beyond moments of actual touching. It also goes into moments where even the suggestion that they are a sexually involved couple is entirely appropriate. With a very limited number of exceptions, those moments are conspicuously absent for Malec.

Let’s consider the Clace training scene in 3x01. There is moment when Jace thrusts his sword between her legs. Wow. That is REALLY not subtle phallic imagery there.

(The etymology of the word “vagina” is literally “sheath or scabbard.” The phallic implications of sword imagery are extremely well-established. Hell, I remember when I was in high school, doing a play where my character was supposed to hand a male character a sword and I was supposed to make it as suggestive as possible because this was the symbol of him becoming a man and when he refuses it, I was to let it swing down and droop like a penis going flaccid. This is not a new idea.)

So, raise your hand if you think Malec’s training scene would ever have such a blatant shot of one of them is actually symbolically penetrating the other. Anyone? Anyone?

And I wouldn’t want it to, because honestly that shot was really quite crass and tacky and sort of objectifying of Clary, but the fact that such a moment made it past the censors for a het couple when you know for an absolute fact that it would never have done so with a queer couple is extremely telling.

And that isn’t to say that what we do get with Malec isn’t lovely, because it very much is, it SO is, and that needs to be appreciated and valued and praised.

It also isn’t to say that I personally need or even want Malec portrayed the way Clace are; they’re unique and special and wonderful and that’s a very good thing.

It’s still early days to declare that the showrunners learned nothing from the 2x07/2x18 debacle. But I still feel like I’m in “wait and see” mode and at some point you have to decide that you’re done waiting and seeing and declare it a problem.

Regardless of where you draw that line, the fact still is that show scrubs the suggestion of sexuality from Malec’s moments the way it doesn’t with Clace’s (or with a lot of other straight pairings we’ve seen.)

This happens to the extent of short-changing Malec on casually intimate touches to some degree, as though even those may be too suggestive.

The show sanitizes Malec. As though Malec is dirty and needs sanitizing. As though even just a Malec kiss needs to be kept artificially chaste in a way that a Clace kiss wouldn’t.

The issue isn’t just how Malec is portrayed, it’s the disparity in how they’re portrayed versus how a heterosexual couple would be portrayed in a similar context.

And if this pattern continues, then yes, it’s a very. big. problem indeed.

For now, I continue to wait and see.

[aphgermanyheadcanons]

Gerkor headcanons~? I I know we discussed them at length on messenger, but I never get tired of hearing about them. I'm In too deep...

ur in luck my friend bc im churning out new ones just for u B)

to cover all bases, i think they’d find a whole lot of camaraderie in both of their needs to get things done n be seen as legitimate. they prbly started out respecting each other n while things mightve been a bit awks at first, i bet they’d develop a gr9 friendship n later, relationship given time

both of them hate showing that they’re stressed but they’ve honestly just reached a point where they’ll try to hide it for .2 seconds from each other then fail n laugh cry together bc of the amount of goddamn paperwork there is to do

they’re both?? horrible at showing affection but rlly good at randomly whipping out some painful (bc they’re awkward dorks save them) attempt at expressing just How Much the other means to them n soo will usually just end up laughing in the middle of it

s’ok tho bc he can usually work up enough confidence in the moment to just plant a kiss on ludwig’s cheek n go into an apology abt how he’s sorry he’s not good w words (tho ludwig will assure him he is bc soo can write beautifully when he wants to) but then ludwig will just pull him in for a real kiss bc listen they’re Adults they’re Allowed to

when they try to outdrink each other it’s Terrible and Messy but also ends in them both sprawled out over each other in a Heap of Limbs babbling abt how much they lov each other gosh

soo is the only one who can get ludwig to actually dance- n i don’t mean slow dance i mean dance- without him being tipsy first n it turns out they actually have a gr9 time esp soo bc lbr seeing lud smilin n lettin loose is?? better than christmas

they like to go biking together on clear days!! they’ll go to the local bakery or smth n find a bench by the river n enjoy the view along w their food

on rainy nights when there’s nothing particularly exciting to do they’ll order take out n curl up on the couch n watch sappy k dramas or put on piano music n soo will read out loud for them both to enjoy

soo Attempts to dress ludwig up in korean styles n he has convinced ludwig to let him do his makeup once or twice. ludwig liked having soo fuss over him during that pseudo makeover more than he cares to admit

they both have terrible sweet tooths n sometimes one of them will sneak in smth sweet to eat while they work n they’ll both end up finishing the entire bag/package/whichever. it always ends in laughter bc “didn’t u say you’d only have one?” “as if you’re one to talk!”

they also do have rlly good deep convos abt stuff that come v naturally once they’re started bc they share a lot of the same worries

i lov these bois. they’re gonna get thru this all together ;; ty mystic for sending

[wingheadshellhead]

So I just read Jonathan Hickman's Avgers, Vol. 1: Avengers World which has that scene about how "it started with two men; one was life and one was death" in reference to Steve and Tony. What really confuses me and kind of makes me angry is why Tony is death? I don't really understand what it's referencing or what he's done to be Death. Like merchant of death and all that I get. But he's past his history now right? Even poetically in an avengers comic why is he still death? Wondering if you know?

i mean,,,,,,, i know fandom was briefly up in arms about this (not really but it was a Thing ppl were mildly salty about) but hickman never specifies who he’s referring to here. (the placement of the captions means nothing lmao, it’s literally just positioned in standard left-to-right reading order.) and actually, many ppl in fandom have taken that exact ambiguity and spun it on its head in edits and fics and especially re: mcu after ca: cw to cast steve as death, and tony as life as an interesting subversion of popular understanding of that quote where 616 tony = death, 616 steve = life. 

hickman’s writing style is very much about intense concept ideas and the big picture, he goes HARD on metaphors that make for great quotes and oneliners taken out of context but doesn’t often attempt to explain or further clarify what they mean. as someone who’s read most of his original comic east of west over at image, i can tell you it’s Classic Hickman to throw out that kind of dramatic ass statement and leave it up in the air as to who’s who just because it was memorable, it sounded fucking good, and it’s going to stick in people’s heads long after they’ve finished reading. and it definitely works bc this one ticks all three boxes.

personally, i don’t think hickman specifically intended one of them to be Life personified or Death personified; that’s hyperbolic even for hickman’s level of drama. and with steve and tony, at least, i think he knows full well that he’s dealing with Humans at the end of the day and not metaphorical embodiments of things. 

so what i think about the quote, specifically: 

1. it’s more useful as an axiomatic representation of tony and steve as polarising forces then as a literal statement where both correlate exactly to life or death; this is the unstoppable force meets immovable object facet of their relationship. 

hickman’s vol. 5 was very much about exploring and interrogating this part of steve and tony’s dynamic and driving it to its very limits. while i don’t know that i was totally satisfied with vol. 5 as an avengers comic bc i like seeing my kids get along and not constantly trying to murder each other, hickman definitely Gets steve and tony. he Gets their dynamic and the drama and tragedy that can come from such an important, intense and deeply profound relationship that’s grounded in so much history and personal stakes and emotions. tony and steve being best friends for over a decade and such important figures in each other’s lives will never negate the fact that they have very different ethical alignments and moral philosophies. and for two people who are absolutely compelled by those things in everything they do, going head to head with someone that happens to land at the polar opposite of them on the spectrum is always going to go down like… well… y’know. civil wars. universes dying. just bc that’s literally how much marvel has invested in them lol.

but i respect people / characters who respect themselves too much to bend just bc someone they love, or people they love, wants them to. i respect characters that will stand their ground and stick to their convictions even though it’d be easier not to, esp. when they’re risking someone they love. and conversely, just because steve and tony can’t agree on everything doesn’t mean their relationship suddenly becomes null and void. they’re too vastly similar but also different people who’d sooner die then stop fighting for the thing(s) they believe need to be fought for; this is something they know in their bones about each other, they know each other too well to expect anything less from the other person.

2. they can both be both. and this is Literal given that steve’s last act in the final moments of the 616 universe ‘as we knew it’ (bc there’s some debate – spoiler alert? – that the all-new all-different universe that marvel is currently set in is not 616 but a completely different universe and the 616 that existed before is legitimately just dead) was to take one of tony’s suits and try to murder him. granted, the ‘tony’ that was tony in the final moments of the 616 universe ‘as we knew it’ was also Not Really Tony, and i fully believe that the influences of Superior Tony were still lingering and tainting his overall Tonyness. in that instance, if you were going to be very simplistic and reductionist abt your interpretation of the quote, steve was definitely death. but Again, they are Both Both. tony spent (spends lbr) pretty much all his time in vol. 5 prophesizing death and destruction like 616′s very own cassandra; as Not Really Tony / still sorta superior iron man he pilots the godkiller to massacre an entire alien race from invading and destroying earth; building bombs, and being fully behind the plan to kill other planets to save earth-616.

you’re right that 616 doesn’t bring up his past as often as mcu does anymore because it’s considered literal ancient history (as in bronze age 60′s history that’s been written to death, although i’m of the opinion any good tony stark writer Can and Will find a way to write his past into modern relevance). tony’s narrative and the nature of his character, however, (sb driven by guilt and accountability and the knowledge that he’s alive bc of the sacrifice of a man who died to save him – i.e. yinsen) will always inevitably feature death, his history, and his subsequent transformation. talking about 616 and specfiically tony’s actions and choices in hickmanvengers doesn’t really help my point but to talk about tony + death in general, regardless of the universe, ‘death’ also doesn’t have to be the BadTM concept it’s usually thought of as. mcu tony canonically refers to himself as a phoenix, and the Afghanistan / Vietnamistan incident is metaphorically a ‘death’ for tony stark the charcter and his rebirth as Iron Man, the Golden Avenger. in any universe, tony’s hero narrative hinges on that rebirth and transformation as a symbol of his capacity for heroism and Goodness, of taking his ugly past and former ignorance and mistakes and transforming it into something wholly and purely driven by bravery and sacrifice. 

i mean, yes, sure, if ppl are going to sit there and only take the label at face-value: death = bad / awful / terrible / only referring to his past as a weapons manufacturer and merchant of death, then yes, that would be a shitty interpretation to swallow as a tony fan. but seeing as how comics is a medium that’s built on constantly evolving and changing characters / worlds / entire universes, death as ‘rebirth’ is a very justifiable and canonically valid reading of tony. 616 tony has died multiple times, literally and figuratively, and every time he’s rebuilt himself bigger and better and stronger. the connotations of death within hickman’s own narrative and world-building is heavily linked to metamorphosis and resurrection. the final act of his avengers run and the centrepiece of the secret war event ended with the revival of the 616 universe. not to get too philosophical and existential here but death isn’t even really an End in the comics medium bc nobody and nothing ever permanently ‘dies’; it’s not possible to associate the concept with a definitive ‘end’, which makes most of the negative imagery surrounding ‘one was death’ redundant. i’m all for intrepretations of ‘death’ that are closely interlinked, if not entirely hand-in-hand, with ideas of rebirth, rebuilding, evolution, etc.

anyway, avengers world is great and i fucking love it so even if i haven’t swayed your opinion, i wouldn’t let the quote override your enjoyment of the overall comic. which, i hope you do enjoy, bc the happiness doesn’t last in hickmanvengers. buckle in for the long haul my guy.

[a-beast-of-prey]

CRACK "SHIP" TIME: K' and Elliot/Cipher jfc (use the term ship very loosely here ofc)

{{[Talk! About! That! ……Ship?]

{{They probably lost a bet or something and that’s why they’re like this in the first place lmao.}}

who is more likely to hurt the other? Both are equally likely and nine times out of ten, it’s intentional. This relationship(????) is built on spite and the need to irritate the shit out of each other, calling it now.




who is emotionally stronger? They’re both really bad, lbr. K’ has the better façade/functions without breaking down as frequently, though.




who is physically stronger? K’, without question lol.




who is more likely to break a bone? K’ fights and gets into dangerous situations more, so probably him. Otherwise, they’re about equal.




who knows best what to say to upset the other? Both. Once they start figuring things out about each other, their jabs only get nastier and more accurate.




who is most likely to apologise first after an argument? Neither. Not vocally or so overtly, anyways. Kinda like: “here. Have a coffee or [insert food of choice].” So. With peace offerings, basically.




who treats who’s wounds more often? About equally likely? Or unlikely. K’ would treat more fork wounds and self-harm stuff in general than anything tbh, if Cipher lets him anywhere near her, and he’s like: “bih what le actual fucc.” He also does first aid on himself, by himself, more frequently. So Ciph might find him passed out in the bathroom with the (wonky and all-round shitty) stitching half done and be like: “????? Dude wtf we were talking normally not even ten minutes ago, how the frick frack paddy whack did you manage to hide that shit so well????” And then finishes it off for him. Not because she cares, …… really, but because she doesn’t want Alex dealing with some dead lanky fuk in the trailer’s bathroom.




who is in constant need of comfort? Both. Neither act on it tho. May sometimes attempt to offer awkward comfort if the other breaks down in tears.




who gets more jealous? Neither, I don’t think?




who’s most likely to walk out on the other? Both and at the first chance they get probably lmfao. 👋 Bye binch. Good riddance.




who will propose? Neither. Ciph jokingly did once while eating some ring-shaped food or another and K’ looked her dead in the eye and slapped the bag of burger rings/packet of onion rings/etc out of her hands like a cat. “No. Just no.”




who has the most difficult parents? Seeing as Ciph no longer maintains contact with hers? Neither.




who initiates hand-holding when they’re out in public? Neither will touch each other with a ten foot pole in public lol.




who comes up for the other all the time? Neither. K’ has a motorbike tho, so he’d be slightly more likely to go out and pay Ciph a visit if he (hypothetically ofc) wanted to. They randomly run into each other in public more than anything.




who hogs the blankets? It’s tug o’ war time. K’ usually wins because he’s stronger… unless Cipher uses underhanded tactics (sackwhack, jam a finger in his nose or eye, etc) - which of course she does - and manages to yank the blanket away while K’ is curled up and cursing up a storm. Ciph often points out that he doesn’t even need the blanket because he’s perpetually warm as shit. Usually in annoyance after he’s kicked it off in his sleep.




who gets more sad? K’ is - quote unquote - Emo as shit.




who is better at cheering the other up? They’re both terrible at it. End of story.




who’s the one that playfully slaps the other all the time after they make silly jokes? After the millionth bad joke or shitty pun, K’ threatens to punch her. Her shoulder is perpetually covered in bruises. … Still worth it.




who is more streetwise? K’, but Cipher knows all the best dumpsters to dive in. And all the houses with the choicest laundry pods to cr o m p c h on.




who is more wise? Wise machine broke; these kids dumb as shit.




who’s the shyest? Cipher’s a goblin and probably doesn’t give a shit about this romo stuff. And K’ is in a near-constant state of irritation in her presence. So? Neither.




who boasts about the other more? Neither. They refer to each other in increasingly degrading and hilarious ways, if they deign to talk about each other at all.




who sits on who’s lap? Cipher when she craves death. When K’ sits on her, it’s after he’s knocked her flat on her back or she’s laying down. She bitches about his ass being bony and wriggles and slaps at him until he eventually gets off and stops crushing her.

[kelasparmak]

Odo and Garak for the situations ask?

Fake dating/marrieds: there are two options. one is that odo is excruciatingly uncomfortable and people start taking garak aside to give him unwanted relationship advice for his fake marriage, or they slip odo cards with a divorce lawyer’s name on. garak finds this hilarious at first but, because it’s garak and he is a vain vain man, quickly becomes appalled at how everyone assumes odo has fallen out of love with him and he’ll be left heartbroken. maybe he’s moved on to greener pastures, guys, didja think of that?alternatively, and maybe less likely, garak is for once determined to properly be a good friend to odo, who in fairness has always been a good friend to him, and not do anything that might push his boundaries. odo on the other hand is a noir detective in his heart of hearts and immediately gets super into the roleplay/disguise element, and is surprisingly good at playing the part (because playing the part is what odo has been pressured to do for as long as he’s been conscious and self-aware).either way, it’s not what people expect it to be, and it’s sort of hilarious.

Bodyswap: odo uses his security codes to turn up the temperature in his room, breaks it, and causes environmental problems. o’brien gets pissed off with him, then figures out why and is sympathetic, and then goes right back to pissed off because garak has turned into goo to get into places he shouldn’t and hear things he shouldn’t, and o’brien just found him in his goddamn alamo replica.

Telepathy:  ANGST. angst happens. probably they bond over having daddy issues, but resolutely pretend not to be able to hear each other’s thoughts because they are stubborn pieces of shit who Don’t Do Sadness.

OH NO only one bed at the hotel: odo doesn’t use a bed so this is maybe not an issue. if it’s during the humanoid!odo time though, i can see a cuddling-for-warmth scenario arising. only they refuse to call it cuddling and come up with completely absurd periphrastic overcomplicated bullshit to make it sound like Serious Stuff that was unavoidable and doesn’t mean they’re friends or anything.

Accidental time-travel: oh jeez. i mean, probably the awkward bisexual disaster that is teenage garak turns up, right? that is generally the best use of time travel. no matter who he runs into he develops a crush, because it’s practically asit!canon that that is garak’s whole thing at that age. just crushing on everyone in the entire goddamn galaxy.alternatively, an au of ‘things past’, in which odo’s unresolved guilt about the things he did/allowed while an unwitting/uninformed semi-collaborator is actually addressed. if anyone’s in a position to talk to him frankly about Doing What You Gotta and not feeling worse about it than you have to, it’s sisko and garak. sisko, because he’s a good person and a bit of a martyr, might make odo feel worse, though he’s self-aware and empathetic enough not to do it as much as he could. garak, i imagine, could find the words to make odo feel more okay with what he’s done (if only because he knows that garak wouldn’t just say these things to make him feel better, though actually that’s 100% what garak is doing).

Their first kiss: hmmmmmm. can kinda see it happening near the end of ‘the die is cast’, just after they escape the trap laid by the founder, both of them very confused and not totally okay with what’s going on. but that’s not going to have been a great first kiss, so maybe… okay, a few options:a) they hang out a lot while garak’s in jail, because i don’t remember if it was ever clarified but if garak was in jail on ds9 that is potentially horrific, the holding cells we see on the show are tiny and have no privacy; hopefully a longer-term cell would be nicer but either way leaving that aside it’d mean he was spending a lot of time with odo. if he was in jail on a different station, which would prbably mke more sense, i like to think odo would still visit him pretty often, maybe even more than julian because i think odo ‘gets’ him more but relates to the lying etc less, which makes it easier for him to sympathise than julian, who empathises a lot but pretends he doesn’t and wishes that he didn’t. anyway they get really close over that time and when garak gets out they have excruciatingly awkward small talk and then a ‘uhh, hey, so… how ya feel bout… touching mouths…’ and then they smooch.b) also sad: when garak and kira realise odo’s dying just after they all leave for cardassia prime. everyone’s poly and that’s not an issue. odo is dying and that is an issue.c) they discuss odo’s awful romance/smut novels and the terrible descriptions therein, and it quicly comes up that odo’s never really kissed anyone before, so garak offers to help him get some experience, fully expecting it to be taken as a joke (as intended!), but odo’s like ‘yeah actually i do need some practice? this is one of those solid things?’ and……. the obvious fanfic ensues.d) the episodes ‘my way’ and ‘our man bashir’ mesh perfectly into one episode where they are both nerds in tuxedos who make out in an early/mid-20th century themed holosuite.

Meeting the parents: this has happened on one side already. i like to think that garak would be very very cutting to dr mora, with no reservations about how he has to be nice to odo’s ‘dad’ and not cause problems in their already fraught relationship. also probably sabotage several little things to make sure that his stay on ds9 is awful, though nothing that’d actually damage him. probably. maybe a lot of ‘accidental’ electric shocks from ‘accidental’ wiring faults, though. turnabout’s fair play.

Moving in together: odo puts his bucket in garak’s room. garak tucks several blankets and a space heater under the desk in odo’s office. DOMESTIC AS FUCK.

A crossover of my choice: oh boy. okay, let’s take some creative license here, cause this is sort of more of an au, but… white collar. odo as the dedicated  and sort of boring-seeming cop with a strong sense of justice and commitment to law & order, but who in his heart believes that people really can be redeemed, and also kind of grudgingly admires criminals like master forger & art thief garak, who is so fucking talented and creative and twisty-mindedly a genius, and who seemingly by coincidence takes care not to put anyone’s wellbeing on the line if they’re just trying to make a living and haven’t done anything to deserve it. together, they solve crimes (and drink a lot of wine).

An au of my choice: again, i have such a fondness for the white collar au i was just talking about, though i don’t think i’d really considered it in any depth before just now, other than ‘oh hey, this neal guy reminds me of garak, and if he’s garak then i guess this superficially by-the-book but secretly-a-loose-cannon cop is probably odo’. i love this au now.but because that wasn’t exactly a crossover i feel like i’ve gotta be really strict and come up with a canonverse au for this one. so, either:a) dominion!odo au, where odo rejoins the link willingly the first time he meets them back in ‘the search’, and for the rest of the series is a semi-enemy who genuinely believes the founders can impose order on chaotic and harmful forces like cardassian expansionism and prevent atrocities like those that that happened on bajor from happening again. this brings him into conflict with the regular ds9 crew, obviously, though those conflicts never come to violence because both odo and the rest of the ds9 crew realise that the other has good intentions and they don’t want to hurt each other because they’re friends. garak has no such qualms - anything that might jeopardise cardassian interests, no matter how well-intentioned (and no matter how badly-intentioned he thinks the current cardassian government might be), is fuckin’ going down. this could be a very long fic with a lot of drama where everything turns out okay, or it could be a short one where, lbr, garak fucking dies because he tried to kill an entire planet of near-invulnerable shapeshifters, again.or b) deep dish nine, the One True AU in every niner’s heart. my initial thinking is that this hypothetical fic would relate to odo being involved in an ongoing attempt to shut down a drug operation in the neighbourhood, which he did not realise that that odd but strangely easy to talk to tailor who lives in the basement was involved with. either he talks to garak (who has probs already been talking to julian about this whole Drug Problem Sitch) and convinces him to help with the sting, or he doesn’t find out until the middle of a raid or something. again, this one could end well or it could end badly. i like to think it ends well.

If you like, another trope/scenario of your choice: i mentioned it earlier but it’s canon that odo reads a lot of terrible smut (despite being probably ace, which perhaps surprisingly is not an uncommon combination, even though it’s not an intuitive one at all). and it’s semi-canon (thanks, andy) that garak is a hopeless romantic, a bisexual disaster, kind of kinky, and (full canon now) v into reading as a form of escapism. so, their breakfasts together definitely end up being a second replimat-book-club for garak, only in this one they might pretend it’s Highbrow Literature but genuinely all they discuss is like, bad housewife erotica. they know it’s garbage but they also both unironically love it. (quark overhears more than he wants to but like hell is he telling them that since breakfast time is quiet he can overhear certain frequencies if he’s near the exit of his bar - which he is, more often than he needs to be these days. he’s not suicidal enough to try blackmailing either odo or garak without a damn good reason, but having some material on them doesn’t hurt).

[saunterfics]

picture this: dadsona jumping in craig's shower after a workout 👀👀👀

(I’m gonna answer the asks I’ve gotten these past two weeks in this post so it’ll be under the read more. I apologize I’m terrible at responding bc I always think I want to respond with more specific things to requests but maybe I shouldn’t keep hoarding asks…)

Craig would be so surprised lbr. But if you’re implying shower sex, then yes. Somehow instead of smexy I can only think of…angst…? Like 1) Craig might actually be annoyed bc he’s always so busy and he has a lot of work and stuff to get to after a shower so like, please, don’t? or 2) he does indulge in you and damn that was HOT but then he realizes he spent too much time there and starts to criticize himself for leaving River alone for too long, etc and blames himself for not being disciplined enough now that he allows himself to relax and actually be with you…? He’s someone who probably thinks too much bc he’s trying to set the bar so high and seriously. He needs to chill. 

Anon said: Will you write more Ddadds fanfics? Maybe something dirty, rough, fast with Robert? Or include some kinks, like chocking (with your hands) or rimming with any other character? 

Yes…maybe? I should? I just got really busy and haven’t been playing the game and then started losing the inspiration? I also usually browse tumblr on my phone, which doesn’t have blacklisting, so I’ve been avoiding it tbh because I am into Craig and also Robert, and tbh I like consuming content about Robert more, but I’d noticed quite the increase of Joseph/Robert stuff in there and I’m really not comfortable with that pairing so I’d rather not chance seeing it. Idk, the extent of my distaste for that kinda hit me all at once so…sigh. It just also feels very fetish-y too so that really nags at me. 

Anyways. Choking? Seriously? Hell yeah. Holy shit. I’m not into rimming myself, and I’m just indifferent to it so I don’t think I have the abilities to make it good. And something rough, fast, and dirty with Robert will most likely be when Dadsona is just “a tad” tipsy and he’s riling Robert on with dirty talk and esp calling him “daddy” and Robert just growls and holds you down but you’re just smirking up at him and continue to tempt him and he just. Can’t fucking handle you Jesus fucking Christ. (I also like someone’s hc I saw a while back about how Robert doesn’t actually enjoy sex all that much seeing as if you ever have sex with him he just chucks you out the window and all) so I like the thought that Robert slowly gets into sex more because he’s into you and it’s fun and Robert likes games and he quite likes the control play that you guys get into. 

Anon said: Concept – Robert getting hella excited to show dadsona his whole knife collection and the story behind each one ,,, what do you think

I think it’s cool…? But I personally would be more like “uh okay” tbh (I’m not a good partner to have let me tell you straight)…I’m not creative so I can’t think of what the cool stories would be behind his knives? Especially if there isn’t much to go off of on why he has them? I also don’t understand the notion of collecting things so…i’m sorry. 

Anon said: SO EXCITED FOR MORE KNIFE DAD, the first time dom robert stuff was super hot and endearing but i am so ready for FEELINGS, i can’t even tell you. (also don’t worry about the roseph requests, your writing should be for you first and foremost ❤︎)

I’M SORRY IF I’VE DISAPPOINTED YOU IN NOT PRODUCING MORE KNIFE DAD IN A WHILE. Anyways, thank you?? First time Dom!Robert will always be super cute in my heart. I had a lot of feels earlier this month but then it kinda got…knocked down several levels because of the Roseph stuff and how uncomfortable it made me? Like, it came as a shock with how much it affected me. I’m still kinda shocked, to be honest. So thank you for understanding that I want to avoid that. 

Anon said: I literally need an crave more Robert with a daddy kink

Lol same. Sorry, but I don’t really have inspiration for it right now? Unless you can give me a more specific scenario?

Brooo, im so glad u made that post abt roseph, some1 had to fckin say it 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

;n; It’s good to know that some people feel the same way. I really don’t like abusive relationships especially under the guise of hot hot BDSM (there’s a reason why I specifically say that I do not write hate!sex, which is a distinction from rough or angry sex). It’s also intriguing to me that most of the people I know who identify as male similarly want to indulge in Dadsona/one of the dads instead of pairing the dads together. I mean, I can’t say much because I try not to interact with the Roseph shippers, and I don’t really look into the other dads, but it’s another reason why it feels fetish-y to me bc why is Roseph hot…? I don’t really want the answer to that I’m just rambling bc someone is on my perspective. 

Anon said: i respect and understand your interpretation, but i personally feel like joseph/robert (roseph) are heavily implied to be exes? like, joseph kind of breaks robert’s heart because minor spoilers: there isn’t really a happy ending with joseph’s route - it always ends with him running away and using mary for an excuse. actually, something quite interesting happens if you date robert twice before going on joseph’s third date - a confrontation of sorts.

Thanks…? Sorry if I’m curt in my reply, but are you trying to voice your opinion in this discussion, or is this a justification on why you ship Roseph…? Because I’m taking it the latter way, and my response will be under that impression. The immediate response I had was, “So what?” because I did express that I don’t like certain implications that Robert was still involved with Joseph, etc. in addition to separate issues that I have with the fact that there’s no way Joseph/Robert can be in a healthy relationship whatsoever, unless I make Joseph a more mature man (than he canonically is, given that he leaves Dadsona in the end regardless, in his route). The fact that they’re implied to be exes means nothing other than add to the fact that Robert is emotionally wounded on many levels, and that he has so much to heal from. It only makes me sad, because this man already seems to be the type who is hard to open his heart, so then you’re telling me that he did open his heart to Joseph, only to have it broken terribly with the lame excuse of “I love you, but I don’t have the balls to leave my wife, whom I have a deteriorating romantic relationship with and that we are not attempting to repair” which implies “you’re still only second place to me, at most.” Not to mention the implications of what it would mean if Robert was previously involved with Joseph, and still is best buds with Mary? Was he still best buds with Mary when he cheated with her spouse? So you’re saying that it’s possible that Mary doesn’t know any of this, and Robert is hiding something this big from her? How much of a burden is that on his shoulders? (Although tbh, I’m more inclined to believe that Mary knows all this shit - she’s not a moron, she’s quite the intuitive woman - and she bonded with Robert over the fact that Joseph is a shit and really, I don’t think she and Joseph are in love anymore. They definitely still care, but the “in love” aspect of romance, that’s not there anymore. But the fact that there are also fan content that depicts that Mary knows and just kinda glosses over the issue by not reacting makes me uncomfortable, as well.) So basically, even if Joseph and Robert are exes, that doesn’t change anything imo. It only solidifies my belief that Joseph needs to man the fuck up and deal (and the fact that I think the game writers really failed in, in terms of representing the complexities of a relationship. They seemed to be on the right track, and then it turned to shit with the only excuse I’ve heard being “why would you want to be a homewrecker” and that’s not valid given that they gave Joseph a route). But anyways, about Joseph, that’s what it means to be an adult - relationships are complicated and there’s no black and white. You’ve got to work with that and keep moving.