#the objects that i Think have powers unrelated to their object are:

[bacchuschucklefuck]

[simp4katsuki]

Headcanon that even though Toshinori is weak, he’s fast. That razor sharp gaze never slowed, his reflexes haven’t dulled with age or illness.

Everyone forgets this, of course. How could they not? He’s a different person nowadays, even though he really, actually isn’t. people know that he’s All Might, but they look at him and honestly see a completely unrelated person. He’s separate. He’s not the same.

So it’s only natural that sometimes they kind of, sorta, almost forget. Forget that he was the strongest hero of his time, that he could and did change the weather with only a swing of his powerful fist. That his mere existence kept crime and violence at a historical low, ushering in the longest era of peace since quirks dawned.

Oh sometimes though, sometimes, they’ll get a reminder. Bakugou will throw a pen at the back of his head in class when the man is turned around lecturing and Toshinori, without pausing for breath, without even a hitch in his perfect script, will snatch it out of the air and have it hurdling back even faster and so, so much harder before they know what happened. The class notices, and takes turns testing it on occasion. They forget the least of all, and Midoriya, he never does.

He’s sturdy, too. Toshinori may pay a higher tribute to a willow tree than his own youth nowadays, but he doesn’t get knocked on the ground. It’s something in his unbreakable stance, how he still holds himself like a 300 lb immovable object, like he forgets that his body has changed. The other teachers see this and realize that in his prime, All Might wasn’t always standing due to strength, but sheer insurmountable skill.

I like to think that rarely, during administrative meetings, Toshinori will begin speaking in his thundering voice like a leader again, slipping into that persona when he needs to be firm, and the other pros will go cold with the reminder. Subconsciously they will bend their opinions under that voice, instinctually following it like they did in times past.

Kind hearted, cold blooded Toshinori Yagi.

[wizzard890]

is your objection to mists of avalon because marion zimmer bradley was a monster, or is it just the book itself? (i haven't read it since i was a teenager, and for whatever reason the warlord chronicles made more of an impression on me when it came to modern arthurian retellings-- idk if that's better or worse)

Oh, I hated the book well before Marion Zimmer Bradley was revealed to be a detestable sex criminal, for reasons entirely unrelated to her real-world crimes.

However, some Mists of Avalon specific crimes include:

Writing a book that is not so much a story as a tedious polemic about how yonic egalitarian ~Celtic~ paganism was destroyed by the brutal militant power of Christianity and the penis, an idea that was both stupid and deeply academically dated by the time of Mists of Avalon's publication.

Her characterization of Guinevere, which is to this day the most misogynistic portrayal I have ever seen, including 14th century and Victorian depictions.

I use "characterization" lightly, since most of the people in this book are dull mouthpieces for ideologies, or a meager assembly of one to two personality traits, especially the men. (Morgaine is the most special princess of all, so she sometimes gets up to three personality traits!)

The male characters are paper dolls, which is an issue when you're re-telling the Arthurian saga. When you're doing a feminist retelling of the Arthurian saga it's actually an even worse issue, because:

She isn't a creative enough writer to take liberties with plot (something this book has in very short supply), so she's stuck with the framework of the legends, which usually involve women attempting to trick or compete for the male characters. Unfortunately, as perviously stated, the male characters are not good, so you're left with a bunch of women backbiting and fighting and risking it all for some interchangeable dipshit, which doesn't reflect well on them. For a book that's all about how women belong to some sacred and beautiful vagina sisterhood, the female characters in this book sure spend a lot of time hating one another for being prettier than them.

It's too long. It's two hundred and thirty six pages longer than Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall, widely praised as one of the best books of the 21st century. We simply do not require all that, Marion.

Saint Patrick catches the stray of all time here; he's ported over to England for some reason, becomes Arthur's personal confessor, and boy he just hates women! The worst, those women!

Needless changing of people's names. Lancelet? Come on.

The reduction of early Christianity (and medieval Christianity) to basically whatever your personal childhood priest/pastor said that bothered you is an absolute epidemic in genre writing, and it's all over this book. The poster child for "he would not say that" but "he" is a bunch of monks on Lindisfarne.

This isn't a cardinal sin, but if a story is all about the tides of Goddess-blessed pagan freedom and ~sexuality~, then the sex scenes should be good, right? Like, these are thematically load-bearing, they need to hit. In a turn of events that everyone saw coming if they've read this far, Mists of Avalon is a "big, meaty phallus" sort of book.

That's not all, but I'm tired of thinking about this dumb story now and frankly it's a crime that Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere have a three-way in this book, and it neither fixes everything or makes anything worse. Mists of Avalon: a radical reimagining that never meets a novel idea it won't squander.

[thewertsearch]

TT: Are you saying that I will succeed in the mission to destroy the sun? […] You seem rather keen on acquiring a fortune from me considering you are the one with the crystal ball. […] I myself do not care to be an oracle. But I can graciously supply you with one. […] An eager consort has brought you one of my seeds. It appears you have amassed followers who wish to please you. How fortuitous.

If each cueball is a 'seed', then each cueball can probably be developed into an instance of Scratch.

I have a horrible feeling that our Scratched session is going to feature a cueball-headed doggy - which, admittedly, is still a step up from the cueball-headed Cal.

It will accurately answer any question a curious girl can pose. Provided she can see through the surface to read its reply. […] TT: Is that possible? […] Given your title and all the tools of prognostication at your disposal, it seems to me I should be the one asking you the questions. TT: How can I see through it? It seems you weren't listening, so I will state this again in the form of a question. Don't you think I should be asking the questions from now on? […] Don't you think a clever person should be able to acquire information from someone who only asks questions? […] TT: Ok, so what you mean is I should continue humoring your leading questions until you happen to ask certain rhetorical questions that contain information I need.

Really, there's not much else you can do. He's going to steamroll the conversation either way, so you may as well just fuck around.

How does a Seer see? […] TT: With a crystal ball? TT: I already considered that. I don't think I can get the focus of the ball to "zoom in" tight enough on the cue ball's enclosure to read the answers.

Damn, and it was a good idea, too.

Jade has an affinity for Space, and could probably do better, but you're choosing not to involve your friends in any of your machinations. After all, they might try and stop you.

Vriska, famously, can see into these cueballs - or, at least, she could when she had her eyepatch. Convincing her to help would be a challenge, but Rose has been talking up her powers of persuasion lately. Time to put your money where your mouth is, Lalonde!

TT: Should I use magic? Do you believe in magic? TT: Magic is real. TT: I've been using it. Are you sure? TT: Use whatever word you want to describe it. I have magic wands, they are very powerful, and they allow me to be magic. Your questions are silly.

Silly, and a little strange, too. Rose's wands clearly have supernatural abilities, but they're not any more supernatural than the rest of her alchemy gear. They certainly appear more magical, because their supernatural effects have a magical aesthetic - but everything else is magic, too!

Like, come on. Everyone’s been flying around the Medium with rocket-powered devices that never malfunction, burn their passengers, or run out of fuel. What’s that, if not magic? Dave literally made a Frostblade, and it doesn’t stop being magical just because there’s a jpeg of Snoop Dogg on it. You could argue that some of these objects are channeling the kids' own Aspect abilities, but most of them have powers completely unrelated to the element their Player wields.

Hell, we don't even need to point to Sburb to prove magic exists. Aradia was a freakin' necromancer!

[velteris]

I’ve seen a fair amount of posts complaining about this arc in Frieren and… we are all entitled to our own opinions etc which is why I will be launching into a Defense of Frieren’s Exam Arc :) Keeping it manga spoiler free since it seems like most of these complaints are from anime-only viewers.

For me the main draw of this arc is the world building. We’ve spent all this time with Frieren and Fern as our main perspectives on magic. Because it’s Frieren, the magics we’ve been hearing about have mostly been a little silly and sweet. But now we’re finding out that 1) “mage” is largely still a combat designation, and 2) Frieren and Fern are actually incredibly jack-of-all-trades when it comes to their magic repertoire. The “magic is visualisation” part is starting to be really leant into and we’re seeing more humans as well who seem to specialise in one magic (steel flowers, rocks, clones, ice and water…) It’s cool!! It’s objectively cool! I love being able to see this range that we wouldn’t have had otherwise! Also it’s fucking fantastic to see how much of a BEAST Fern really is when compared to other human mages. And she doesn’t even seem that aware of it.

Coupled with that is being able to see different people’s philosophies toward magic. I think a lot of viewers are kind of down about the sudden huge influx of side characters who they don’t really care about. But these philosophies—Land’s maximum wait-and-watch, Wirbel and Ubel’s vastly different approaches to killing—keep expanding the world and highlighting Frieren and Fern’s own perspectives. It’s soooo good seeing them react to situations not of their own making and people not of their own kind.

We get to see human society that isn’t a village in the middle of nowhere! We get to see Frieren being forced to socialise! We get to see Fern away from her emotional support elf! We get to see how society has changed since the demon king was defeated! I love that Himmel and co ushered in an era of peace, which it is, and yet the world is still full of conflicts. Truly the story continues after the hero is finished.

To address a few specific complaints I’ve seen brought up:

Frieren isn’t about all these nonstop shounen fights.

Agreed! Which is why it’s cool as hell that Frieren’s main badass shounen strategy is “sit very still for 10 hours”. That aside? There actually hasn’t been much actual fighting. You could probably count up the minutes in which actual spells are being cast and it’ll be something like 2 minutes max in the latest ep20. And that’s because it’s not about who beats who, it’s about the philosophies, the worldbuilding, the ways of thinking about magic. This is not a power-measuring contest, much as Genau would like to make it. And the random lucky draw-ness of the Stilles only plays further into that. It is possible to pass this exam without coming into conflict with others, and certainly without battles to the death. It hasn’t ever been about the shounen fights.

The good part of the show was about the delicate melancholy and that’s totally missing here.

I agree that it’s one of the strong points. But the thing with the melancholy is that it only works when juxtaposed against other moments. A story that’s composed of a bunch of unlinked wistful slice-of-life episodes will eventually fall apart because it has no momentum, no driving force. And ten years to Ende is too long to go without at least some conflict. Also, again, ten-hour bird meditation session?

Anyway, there’s melancholy, but how sad it would be if there was nothing but introspection and wistfulness. Frieren is bringing the memories of Himmel forward with her into the future. That means she has to be moving forward, forging new relationships with unrelated people, going into situations that she hasn’t been in before. A Frieren stuck in the past would be against the themes of the show, of remembering and yet moving on.

Why should I care about them spending ages trying to catch a bird?

You don’t like Stille? 🐤 fweet?

Actually I care lots about this funky thing. Indestructible and goes supersonic fast. That’s fucking hilarious. Bird that simply cannot be contained. Genau is a dick for setting up this kind of exam when, Your Honour, my client Stille does not deserve to be imprisoned.

Too many irrelevant side characters who it’s hard to care about, and they’re gonna be thrown away at the end anyway.

Again, it’s the worldbuilding. And also, mild spoilers for stuff that won’t be covered in the anime, but at least one of these side characters does come back and we get more delicious main character development as a result. Though frankly many of these characters are deeply compelling and interesting to me so I don’t rly get this complaint. Give me more Lawine.

Where’s Himmel? What do these exams have to do with the hero party? Frieren is good because of the links to the past.

Frieren is good because of the links to the past, which affect how Frieren responds to the present. The whole point of Frieren is that Frieren’s life continues. And through her new experiences, she comes to understand and reconnect to the emotions she didn’t realise she felt about her past. I don’t care what Himmel would think of the mage exams, I care what Frieren thinks of them now. And the answer is that she doesn’t really give a damn but she’s in here anyway because Fern strongarmed her into it, and then she was forced to adopt two more kids along the way, and all of that is something she never would have done if she was still hermiting in the Central Lands. Somehow we are still getting Himmel flashbacks anyway? So? He’s still haunting the narrative guys. Just because Frieren isn’t saying “that’s what Hero Himmel would do” out loud in these circumstances doesn’t mean his ghost isn’t here.

Even so, Frieren clearly recognises the name Serie. Do not fear. There is going to be more about links to the past.

I miss Stark.

Fair enough. It’s okay, he’s just on vacation rn. Having an appy juice.

It’s taking too long. The arc is too slow.

It’s only been three episodes… I’ve seen people going “it’s already been three episodes!” but what? Really? Is that considered an excessive amount of time now?? Given the amount of story covered I think it’s quite reasonable? There’s still 8 episodes to go in which we cover the remaining exam stages. Have some patience like Frieren. The payoffs are being set up; they’ll resolve before the end of the mage exam arc. In the meantime, let’s enjoy theorising about the soft magic system and hollering for full auto Fern.

[whimsicalwritingsandmore]

Want You Back | ateez x reader

Pairing: werewolf!ot8!ateez x werewolf!reader

Genre: fluff mostly, romance, poly, a little angst?

Warnings for this chapter: fighting, mention of a sharp object.

Word Count: 1550 words

a/n: yeah, I couldn't wait to share this! I'm lowkey worried I'm being too repetitive in the chapters; I don't think I am when I re-read previous ones but ✨overthinking.✨ so I'll always be grateful for your feedback, and I hope you enjoy! <3

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Chapter 8

Hongjoong flew across the room.

You know when someone is beyond infuriated and enraged, but they maintain an unmoved and unflustered disposition? That was Jisung at the moment. Despite the boiling rage that simmered and seethed inside him, Jisung displayed a calm and undisturbed expression, almost like a statue, and that could never be a good thing. Undeterred by Chan’s urges to stop him, Jisung tossed and hurled Hongjoong around while Yunho and Yeosang attempted to rescue their leader…so they could deal with him themselves.

"Is it fun to mess with someone's feelings? I don't think it is. Maybe you need a really good wake up call, coffee clearly can't help. Don't worry, this won't hurt much...at least for me." Jisung casually stated.

Jeongin lodged himself by the door because he wanted a good view of Jisung in action. Meanwhile, San and Jongho struggled to restrain Seonghwa and Mingi from pummeling Hongjoong, and Wooyoung was torn between cheering for Jisung and helping Yunho and Yeosang.

But then he realized there were enough people to handle the situation and Hongjoong deserved it, so he slipped out of the café and went searching for you. 

Wooyoung was furiously livid but at the same time, he was wretchedly heartbroken. He couldn't believe Hongjoong would ever do something like that and it was eating him alive that he didn't realize sooner. Wooyoung liked to give the benefit of the doubt to people. So, when Hongjoong coaxed him into hanging out with Lila, it was mainly due to the former's reasoning being that Lila was on her own and they should make her feel welcome.

But you also felt alone too and as Wooyoung recalled every time he essentially stood you up and listened to Hongjoong, he could feel his heart crack little by little, the pain being unbearable and unrelenting. He felt like he was slowly losing his mind, the aching feeling over the idea of losing you completely because of his foolishness, was burning like a fever and consuming all of his thoughts. It was like a hurricane, ripping through him with no mercy.

Wooyoung refused to entertain that thought and pushed it away as far away as he could. He was going to fix things on his part, and if you would have him, he would stay here in the human realm with you. He did not mind giving up his status, position and responsibilities. Rather, he preferred to help you with the café. He didn't care for the power and ranking being an alpha brought, he cared about you, and his alpha wanted you, forever and for more. 

Just like the first time he met you.

It was nearing the Christmas season, and Wooyoung convinced Yeosang to venture out to see the activities that were taking place in the main town. However, the latter found the weather to be much too dreary and cold for his liking, so he plopped himself on a bench and sent Wooyoung for a coffee. 

Wooyoung scoured every tent until he stumbled upon yours. Along with Seonghwa, the two of you planned to hand out complimentary coffee and tea for the cold weather alongside some biscuits. When he approached and met you face to face, his heart began to do somersaults and he could feel himself burning up in the cold weather. There was a connection between the two of you that united each other’s hearts. You were graceful, humorous and so pretty, the kind of beauty that radiates from within. As the two of your hands grazed one another and the familiar sparks erupted, it was like every single puzzle piece fit perfectly where it belonged.

And as the other boys came in together, it became clear that the puzzle was complete. 

Wooyoung had no idea where he was going till he saw you standing near a lake. Just like the first time he saw you, you were still charming and enchanting from afar. In an entire big city with so many scenic views, all he could see was you and he rushed to you with no time to waste.

In the meantime, you stood at the lakebed ferociously irate and riotously bitter. You could feel the flashes of irritation and raw rage thrumming through your veins. Your mood sharply decreased and soured like a lemon after the confrontation and in the moment, you wanted to do nothing more and just fiercely smack Hongjoong.

How did it end up like this? 

And was it even going to get better? You had a bad feeling it wouldn’t.

"Y/N! Y/N!" Wooyoung hollered.

Surprised, you blinked in confusion and turned to see Wooyoung hurriedly sprinting towards you.

"Wooyoung? How did you find me?”

"I just wandered around and saw you from across the street."

“You can’t just wander Wooyoung,” you chastised, “You need to be careful out here.”

Wooyoung felt that similar feeling he always felt when you reprimanded him. It felt like home again, when none of this happened.

He stood in front of you and got a good look at your expression. Despite your rigid form, your face was streaked with dry tears. He could imagine all the emotions you were currently processing. All because of them.

He then fell to his knees as he bawled.

"Please don't leave me." he then whimpered.

"Wooyoung..."

"I'm ready to give it all up for you, Y/N. I'll do whatever you need me to. My life means nothing without you in it. Please, please give me a chance."

Wooyoung couldn’t bear to lose you. He silently hoped things would get better from here, but just like you, he too had a bad feeling that loomed in the air.

"Get up Wooyoung." You spoke softly.

How is this going to go? It wasn’t just two of you, there were nine of you. One, who had already dug himself deeper and deeper in a hole, slashed a bond that was meant to be so divine and seraphic. But what about the others? They were willing to repent and atone for their actions. But…was it enough? Was there any possibility of going back to how things were before?

And Hongjoong, how do you just forget all he said and did?

It’s not like you could meet again for the first time.

You assisted Wooyoung from the ground and cupped his face to wipe away the stray tears. However, you felt it again, that bad feeling and suddenly, from your peripheral you noticed a looming figure coming towards the both of you with a sharp object in hand. Noticing the blade in full view as it neared closer, you pushed Wooyoung out of the way and tried to block it. The miscreant stumbled forward, reeling from the block and swung blindly in your direction. Despite the pounding blood in your ears, you outstretched your arm to grab the perpetrator’s wrist, only to have the blade gnash your hand and then feel a sharp sensation in your side.

Wooyoung counterattacked and managed to rip the blade out of his hand before plunging into the culprit. 

You collapsed to the ground, shaking as the pain seared through your body. In your blurred vision, you saw Wooyoung’s silhouette rush towards you, bawling your name like his life depended on it. 

The blade was coated with an extract from the deadly nightshade - crushed belladonna and nerium.

You didn't know what else happened, everything around you became indistinct and all you could remember was just Wooyoung's cries and a slight apparition of Minho before it all went black.

In the meantime, the others felt it. Your bond went desolate again. But unlike last time, this time there was no lingering presence. They couldn’t feel you whatsoever as a blackhole took over instantly.

Chan’s phone snapped everyone out of their trance. Jisung felt the shift in Chan’s aura, and as he zeroed in on Chan’s call from Minho, he knew it wasn’t good. That's the only reason why Jisung let Hongjoong go. Minho spoke loudly amidst the screams from Wooyoung and Chan felt his blood turn cold. 

No, no, no.

This can’t be happening.

“What’s going on?” Seonghwa asked, “Is Y/N okay?”

When Chan spluttered out what happened, an avalanche of pain crashed over them without warning. There was now a profound emptiness in each of them, even Hongjoong, threatening to swallow them whole. Their spirits felt like it was sinking like a stone in water and misery tried to seep in and envelop them like a wet blanket, heavy and smothering.

“We need to go now.” Chan firmly stated.

Each of them bolted out behind Chan leaving Hongjoong and Jisung behind.

Jisung looked at Hongjoong, and saw the grief washing over him but also realization. 

“I had told Mingi I was wary of him, but you? I don’t like you one bit. We’re not done here but if that look in your eyes means anything, then you know you better get to it. All of this is your fault, if you only had a backbone to stand up to your mother. But mark my words Hongjoong, if anything happens to Y/N, I’m coming after your whole family.”

Jisung muttered a spell in Hongjoong’s direction and left Hongjoong to himself and his grief.

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Taglist:

@eastleighsblog @sehun096rainbow @greensnakeglobep @satsuri3su @zonked-times @sugarrush-blush @lomons @explorewithd @chatsgotmytongue @scarfac3 @popcatx0 @angrynightnight @sannieluvrr @idfkeddieishot @alicia-dpa @park-simphwa @puppyminnnie @mysticfire0435 @sundayysunshine @chngbnwf @dementedaly @thunderous-wolf @itsmeregan

a/n: hello again! just wanted to let new readers know, if you're interested in being part of the taglist, you can send me a private message or in the ask me anything! It'll be easier for me to see! if I missed your message, please PM me and I'll add you in asap! thank you! <3

[guiltygearconfessions]

hi! im a registered nurse with a background in critical care

my confession is that after recently getting into guilty gear, i was surprised to find that i didn’t connect much with faust and his character. i like him, and he’s quite babygirl! my brain just doesnt rotate him in the microwave yknow

as it happens, bedman and delilah are my favorites! i think they’re both objectively neat, and i love their relationship. it’s funny because i connect with their storyline as a professional more than. The Medical Character lmao.

i think its bc over the time i’ve spent as a nurse thus far, i’ve met many folks in a similar position to the neumanns. asleep. can’t move. can’t communicate verbally or nonverbally. it sometimes makes me sad that i’ve been entrusted with smth as important as their health, but i don’t get to have conversations with those folks, and i don’t get to know what they’re like as people.

i think because of that, it’s really nice to see characters who are depicted that way in fiction and Also Have Magic Powers and Kick Ass and Have Nothing But Long Ass Conversations and refuse to be pitied.

i’ve never been this kind of position myself, but i’ve worked with many who have, or at least hovered in the periphery, so my experience is semi-informed, but still limited where it truly matters.

idk if it was intentional on the part of the writers, but it’s nice to see a depiction of comatose folks in fiction that are as vibrant and powerful as i know the ones in real life are. :-)

unrelated but i also think its wild that a catholic juggalo emotionally manipulated him into killing a bunch of people. Like damn thats crazy

-

[rose-tea-and-strawberries]

The Musings Of A Devoted Serpent

Jamil thinks about what you mean to him

Warning: I write reader as female

Word Count: 1.6k+

Masterlist

When Jamil opens the door to his bedroom and finds you on his bed, he has to ask himself if he was dreaming. The sight of you reclining against the headboard with a book in hand, your form illuminated by the golden glow of his overhead lanterns made you appear so ethereal, so angelic that he had to wonder if the heat had gotten to him and he was witnessing a mirage.

You look so peaceful, so at ease with the way you were engrossed with your novel with the way the sides of your lips quirked upwards the way they always did whenever you get to a part you particularly liked. He hates to get in the way of your happiness, but the weariness of a day of running after Kalim, a day where he spent the majority of it away from you, crashes into him and the urge craving to have you against him was to powerful to quell even if he wanted to - not that he would ever want to.

So he silently strides up to you, plucks your book out of your hands, and engulfs you in his arms, his body lying over yours and his head resting on your shoulder. He breathes in your calming scent as you gasp in surprise, “Jamil?!”

“Hello, my diamond,” he greets, lifting his head and sitting up so that he can see your face in all its beauty. He ended up straddling you, with both of his knees on either side of your hips and a hand cupping your face with his thumb stroking your cheek, “it’s been so long.”

“I saw you at lunch,” you pointed out, lightly giggling at the unhidden longing that was present in his whining. He lets out a deep, pleased hum when you lean into his touch and nuzzle your face into his palm.

“The time we spent was nowhere near enough,” he sighs, “with the laundry list of duties I had to take care of, I only had the thought of you to get me through the day.”

“You were thinking of me?” You smile, a pale pink blush blooms on your cheeks as you tilt your head in confusion.

“Of course I do,” he states, “you are the place my mind goes to when I'm trying to seek relief.”

“Jamil!” you whisper-yell, your eyes wide open as you gawk at him, your face growing hotter and redder as you weakly slap his shoulder, “you can’t just say stuff like that without warning!”

Oh, how he adored you. You were the only person who would even think about treating him like this. Who would let him get as close to you as this.

Whenever you find yourself wrapped up in the coils of the viper, you are never once fearful of his fangs, of the way he could very easily have you at his mercy. The students of Scarabia, who are far more powerful than you in terms of magical ability, still spend their days walking on eggshells around him. Yes, they do treat him amiably and are always willing to offer their assistance or a smile, but there is still that underlying trepidation - that whisper of a threat that roams the halls that he could strip them of their wills yet again if he so pleases - that makes them unable to meet his eyes. Yet you, otherworldly yet unmagical you, you had quite possibly been one of the handful who bared the brunt of his overblot, who only had your wits to protect you during his unrelenting attacks and objectively came out looking the worst at the end of it, with scrapes, bruises and blood marring skin that should only be treated with the softest of touches - and yet you always looked him in the eyes during every conversation. Never once did he ever sense even a sliver of fear when he’s around you, nor did he discern any hesitation in your behaviour. 

Not that you didn’t have your own secrets. He was certain that, as genuine as you are with your words and actions, you have a side to you that you keep hidden - and he swore to be worthy enough for you to reveal it, for you to think of him deserving enough to carry your heart the same way he handed you his. And reveal it you did. The day you showed him your true heart - the inner turmoil you kept locked up and safely hidden from everyone, the anguish you felt at having been stripped from your home, friends and family and the terrifying uncertainty of the future - was the day his love for you bloomed into complete and unyielding devotion. He’d do anything for you. He’d walk through burning coals and scorching sands if it would make you smile.

It’s times like this when he feels his perfectly crafted self-control slip - when that neutral mask of uninterested stoicism cascades down like rushing water, leaving only his true, unapologetic self bare to you and you only. He’s never felt more powerful when he has you in his arms. When the girl who is the object of desire of the entire school willingly comes to him and trusts him and blesses him. He’s seen countless others trail after you, doing everything in their power to earn your affection but your eyes only look at him, your love only belongs to him. Whilst it’s true that you do hand out genuine, heartfelt praise to anyone and everyone as naturally as you do breathing, he’s the only one who receives such sweet words with adoring hugs and kisses  (except Grim - but it’s universal knowledge that you consider that troublesome feline your son so he bears no ill feelings about that. For now). You’ve given him strength, passion and power like nothing ever has, and a reason to look forward to the future instead of relying on his unattainable daydreams of freely travelling the world.

“How strange you are, prefect,” Jamil muses, “normally I cannot bear having my things taken from me. Yet you come in and shamelessly steal my heart and instead of trying to get it back, I find myself on my knees begging you to take more and more of me, until you own so much of me that no one can call you one person and me another.

“Jamil, stop saying such nonsense,” you tell him, your face a heated scarlet, as you ducked your head and lovingly muttering ‘silver-tongued serpent’ under your breath.

“What nonsense do you speak of, my diamond?” he smirks, not allowing you to hide that face he loved so much. He holds your chin and guides it back upwards so that he can take in your ruffled visage and drink the vision of your breathtaking countenance like a man who had been deprived of water days. As smooth as he was on the outside, he was internally bursting with laughter at how adorably flustered you were and preening at how all of these expressions were reserved for him and him alone, “every word I speak to you is the truth. You are the only one who I only speak the truth to.”

And wasn’t that just another truth. Everyone else who he has curried the favour of has been a victim to his meaningless flattery. They were charmed by the flowers of his words, completely naive to the serpent under them. But he could never be untruthful to you. Not only because would you be able to distinguish his hollow praise - 

(“It’s easy to tell,” you once said to him, “the difference between when something tells you pretty words because they want to make you happy or because you being happy is the only emotion they can bare to see on you.”)

- but also because the idea of lying to you, of manipulating you like he did to those before you, feels so foreign and wrong. Even his automatic reaction of “I’m fine” whenever someone asks him how he is makes him feel a modicum of guilt when you give him that amused smile and raised eyebrow of ‘you and I both know that I don’t believe you’.

Sorcerer, give him strength. He loves you so deeply he has no idea what to do. Logically, he should at least be slightly unnerved by the fact that you have so much power over him but all he can feel is utter bliss and total euphoria.

And he revels in it.

“Would you like to receive another truth, my diamond?,” he leans closer to you, his words an alluring whisper, “there was a time when I cursed the sun for shining so brightly every morning and waking me up to remind of the miserable existence I was cursed with but now all I feel for it is pity knowing that no matter how bright it shines nor how much warmth it gives to sustain life, it’s supposed ‘magnificence’ could never compare to the smiles I receive from you. Not it nor any other star in the sky. You’ve enslaved my heart, my mind, body and soul and have chained me up in shackles I could never want to escape from.”

Your only reply is to push yourself forwards so that your lips press perfectly into his. He immediately wraps a steady hand around the back of your neck and pushes himself deeper, cradling your cheek with his other hand just so that he can get as close to you as possible, every involuntary sound you make hypnotising him and making him hungrier for more. When he starts to press kisses down the slope of your neck, you realise that you would not be getting back to your book any time soon. 

And later, after having persuaded you to spend the night in his room, he caresses your sleeping face, admiring the designs that adorn your body that were created by moonlight dancing through the patterns of his wooden mashrabiya windows. And it is there where he presses his lips to your forehead and whispers thanks to the universe for giving him the only master he would happily serve.

[themainspoon]

One thing I haven't seen anybody else mention about Dr. Hillary Cass's whole "transition success should be judged by employment success, getting 'out of the house', marriage, and sex life, not happiness" thing is that it's a textbook example of biopower and biopolitical discourse. And I think it's important to be able to take apart what she's doing. Cass is not breaking new ground in the field of transphobia here, she's parroting some of the beliefs that have been causing issues for trans people for decades now. She's doing biopolitics.

This is Foucault theory so I'm giving a very abridged version here: Biopower is power over bodies. As Foucault writes in Vol 1 of the History of Sexuality: Power is no longer about having ultimate dominion over death, but instead about being able to control life itself. In Biopower, power has more than just the threat of death, it has access to our bodies and lives as well. When combined with the concept of the medical gaze, it can be said that medicine is no longer a body of techniques for curing illnesses, but is now an institution with the ability to define "health" and "normality".

In biopolitics, the body becomes a political object, and various technologies, political strategies, and diciplinary techniques operate upon bodies through various institutions in order to shape them and integrate them into society. Ultimately, what is defined as the healthy and valuable body is seen as necessary for the society/nation to thrive. The ideal body is the body of the "ideal citizen", one who fits definitions of "normality".

Within biopower, the purpose of trans healthcare is not to affirm gender or improve the lives of trans individuals. Instead, it is to create "healthy", "productive", "docile", and "normative" bodies that adhere with both the gender binary and understandings of the ideal citizen.

The criteria that Cass states that she thinks the success of transition should be judged by (employment, social involvement, and ability and willingness to participate within heteronormative relationship dynamics) is a list of things expected of "ideal citizens".

In the view of individuals like Cass, who funtion within biomedical discourses, transition isn't about allowing trans people to modify their bodies in ways that bring them joy, better embody their identities, and/or that allow them to feel more like themselves. Transition is instead purely about correcting percived dysfunction, to allow those percived by them as dysfunctional men and women to be transformed into normative, unproblematic, binary adhering, and productive women and men. Options like being non-binary, or using this transition technology to change your body in ways that do not align with medical understandings of binary transition, are seen as invalid, as they create disruption and non-normativity as opposed to 'curing' or 'treating' those things.

Therefore, for people like Cass it only makes sense that the success of transition would be judged by the ability of trans people to adhere to dominant gender norms, productivity, and overall normallity, as opposed to things unrelated to understandings of what "the ideal citizen" is. Y'know, things like happiness, joy, the ability to feel like oneself, etc.

One last point, and this is partially speculation on my part: But I think this is why the fact that trans people face discrimination that makes things like remaining employed and being in healthy relationships much more difficult is ignored by people like Cass. These forms of discrimination are seen as the result of the individuals failure to properly perform and embody "normality". Transphobia is therefore not percived as the fault of a patriarchal cisheteronormative society and culture, but instead a failure of the trans individual and the practice of medical transition.

If it wasn't clear, I think Dr Cass is a hack and that the discourses that inform her positions on trans health issues are not only incorrect, but also act to perpetuate bigotry and social inequality. Fuck Dr Cass, Trans Liberation Now.

[oh-there-she-goes]

Batman #145 (preview)

It infuriates me how Zdarsky kept having his Joker refer to Zur en Arrh as the real you or the true Batman. I understand there are many ways to write a character such as Joker, but to have him regard the OG Batman, who in part made him, as a second best to Zur, whom he had only met twice in his entire career, is so...jarring.

I sure damn hope Zdarsky was still cooking and intentionally having Joker spouting nonsense to mess with Batman here because God forbid if Joker was truly being sincere, it would taint all the history between him and Batman in the past decades, turning their dynamics lukewarm if not deploringly lackluster.

And why would Joker care to break the like of Zur in the first place? As formidable as he may, what's so sacred about Zur that needs defiling?

His swift execution of justice? Disproportionate uses of violence? Or his unadulterated brutality? Were these the qualities that left the Joker so enamoured?

One may say it's only natural that Joker would want to unleash his chaos upon Zur, who thinks himself a personification of control and order. But even considering his extreme measures, Zur has never stood against Joker at his core in the ways that Batman has.

In a world where nothing matters, Batman swoops in and fights him by trying to give meaning to everything. And he saves Joker, too, because he believes all lives are worth saving. And that's why Joker is determined to break him. He needs Batman to be wrong.

But what about Zur? Zur is just another man in power. He's dangerously competent, but he upholds no sanctimonious codes. They fight because they have different goals, but there's nothing inherently personal. Joker would not mourn the loss of Zur, and Zur would never feel the weight of guilt from refusing to let his monster bleed to death.

Then again, it might simply be my fault that I lack media literacy. Perhaps it has been Zdarsky's intention all along that Joker was lying. Maybe Joker elevating Zur to such esteem was just a part of his plan to push Bruce to ascension?

On a not-so-unrelated note, as there are many references to Scott Snyder's work in this run, I can't help chewing on how Zdarsky and Snyder differ in their interpretations of Joker.

While Snyder's Joker made it clear that he only cared about Batman and not Bruce, he had never wished for Batman to forgo his humanity.

The most Joker demanded of Batman was to get rid of the family that burdened him (which, funnily enough, Zur agreed). But his resentment stemmed from loneliness and jealousy.

In his heart of hearts, Joker knew they could continue their dance because Batman let it be so, hence the belief that his feelings towards Batman were reciprocated.

Joker even came to admit at one point that he no longer wanted to see Batman broken. What he wanted was for neither of them to win.

The Batman Who Laughs #4 (2019)

And unless something akin to 'Last Knight on Earth' happened, I see this as their dynamic in later years until either (or both) of them perished (which is unlikely to be soon as they both refused to let the other die).

Therefore, this Joker would never want Zur to enter the picture as it had been shown time and time again that when met with the more brutal, more...radical Batman(s), he always chose to side with the Batman who stayed humane.

Like when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object, Joker is in love with Batman who refuses to change.

Batman: Last Knight on Earth #3 (2019)

The True Batman, for him, was the Batman who could withstand any test Joker and the world threw at him and remained the same.

Well..., who would like to keep dancing with a man who wouldn't dive from the top of the building after you anyway?

Still, I want so bad to be wrong about Zdarsky. I hope he has plans for them more than he lets on. (T w T)

[breathlesswordsbloodyknees]

On Maiar forms and "nullification"

Okay, I’m staying home to ease the stress of waiting for the result of Baby’s First HR Report and don’t want to think about it, so have some more meta. Expanding on these posts, part one and part two.

A deeper interpretation on this quote from Ósanwe-kenta, Vinyar Tengwar #39: “they(Maiar) became wedded to the forms of their evil deeds, and if these bodies were taken from them or destroyed, they were nullified until they had rebuilt a semblance of their former habitations.”

“they became wedded to the forms of their evil deeds": This, I kind of struggle with. I don't think it's a simple as they do evil deeds, they get stuck in their forms. But I also don't think it's as easy as they enjoy their form and their deeds so much that they're "wedded".  Some secret third thing. Interesting word choice there though. (sauron’s underlying “give me your troth" vibe every time he talks about the Rings echoes here imo but i have absolute brain rot about these two)

"and if these bodies were taken from them or destroyed" This for me is Jack Lowden Sauron in Forodwaith, the one that gets betrayed by Adar, kitten ears and all (I gotta find that tweet). He's literally at the height of his power (for that age, though Lowden Sauron plays it with a air of uncertainty, the shot of him taking a breath and looking up at the crown after he kneels) and he gets cast down from great heights. 

"they were nullified" I think you could take this a few different ways, but my theory is that Lowden Sauron's prideful evil overlord vibe is broken by his downfall and he slithers into the form of a low man. It's bed-rotting, really, wrapping yourself in a tattered blanket while you try to ignore the world and your mistakes. 

And there’s textual evidence for Sauron having repented after Morgoth’s fall. It’s referenced insubstantially in the Silmarillion, as a “some say” type story. Sauron “repents in fear” “lingers on Middle-earth” “beginning with fair motives”.

This concept is expanded on and solidified more in Letter 131, where Tolkien is trying to get the SIlmarillion published alongside lotr. He more or less says because of Mairon’s origin, Maia of light and beauty and perfection, Sauron was capable of loving or understanding other individual beings. But this was “correspondingly weaker” than his evil schemes, becoming “the sole object of his will, and an end, the End, itself” (“I see the end, Celebrimbor. So clearly. I have seen it from the moment I awoke. But his end…It was different than mine.” he spits out like he’s willing it to be true)

“until they had rebuilt a semblance of their former habitations.” So in a less-than-forgiving-for-the-nuances view, it’s Tolkien saying they’re evil and they’re gonna keep being evil. Rebuilding his former habitations to me has been Sauron’s steps in S2. What he did to Celebrimor, to Mirdania. Manipulation, cold calculation, violence. All he's ever know under Morgoth, dominance and submission, unrelenting. Old habits die hard.

And what he did to Galadriel. I have a lot of thoughts on how the fight in the finale played out. She’s a formidable warrior, Commander of the Northern Armies, giving it her all, she’s skilled. But he’s an ancient spiritual being, having been awoken since before the breaking of the First Silence. He’s eerily silent, parrying her grunts of effort with ease, doing his sick moves with the crown. He's smooth glass on a lake, but he's having fun. At least until she rebukes him, “The door is shut.” 

Then, his composure slips. She has denied him. His blows are vicious now, personal. He’s exerting as much effort as she is. (he fucking growls I stgggg) He’s attacking now, not just playing around, culminating in a brute yell as he strikes for her neck. His expression when she cuts his cheekbone, rage has taken over. (You cut Mairon? You cut his perfect cheek? Stabbing for Galadriel! Blood bond for 1000 years!!) 

And the stabbing. (i’m still gnawing on every bit of that scene, it’s what finally made me pick up the show) The stalwart defiance bleeds from her face, her eyes flutter, then are drawn to the crown inside her. The moment stretches between them, the music goes quiet. She knows, has known, that he’s evil. She’s seen the bodies, has seen the ruin, has sworn her oath. She's no silly schoolgirl. But in all his overlording terror, she never really thought…never really thought deep down that he would hurt her, at least not like this. 

And from his face, searching her eyes almost frantically, neither did he. 

One more step away from Halbrand, from Mairon. One more step back to Sauron, to Gorthaur. 

But then he twists the crown (that shouldn’t be as hot to me as it is) and at her gasp, his eyes widen, he exhales. There’s a greedy glint of fascination in his eyes, a slight upturn of the lips. Almost like he’s lost himself in playing her pain "like a harp", exquisite beauty for him to revel in. This is it, for me. He’s rebuilding a semblance of his former habitations, he’s back on the path to evil. It's his "fine, make me your villain" moment. I'll be the monster you think I am. (i think we’ll see some straying though. a girl can hope)

[remotepixel]

Hi, can you write something about the readers of the meta-human, whose ability allows you to avoid the actions of any platonic yandere, be it the Avengers or Bucky. Maybe the reader blows up everything around when one of them approaches, or hurts himself with his ability, thinking that this will make them leave, but the opposite is true. I especially like the idea of having an extremely painful reader who is already injured quite often, but the ability causes pain too. You choose the character yourself, but I'd prefer Bucky and Steve.

Hi, thank you for requesting! I stucky with just Bucky and Steve for this <3

Tw: Yanderes themes + non-detailed mentions of SH (^^)

You being easily injured already sets off alarm bells in their head, and it’s probably the reason they became obsessive in the first place.

-Steve is very aware of how it feels to be injured most of the time, after all he spent his years being beaten up in alleyways, and he wouldn’t call it fun.

-He wouldn't like the idea of you being sent out missions.

-It’s bad enough with your sheer (and frankly shockingly) bad luck with collecting bruises just at the tower.

-Sending you out into an active fighting zone will only allow worse to happen.

He thinks you’re being exploited, used, by the others for your powers.

-The fact they’re willingly sending you out, knowing the pain it causes, because it helps them?

-He’s constantly bringing it up in meetings, arguing against your involvement.

-He may even threaten to leave the team himself if they don’t take it seriously enough.

Bucky would try to appeal to you more when trying to get you off the team.

-He doesn’t know the others well enough to fight with them like Steve, but he has very similar thoughts about the situation.

-When a mission is coming up, he’ll try his best to hide it from you by taking up most of your time, asking you to explain some new modern technology to him (even if he already knows).

-If you brush him off, he’ll become more overbearing about it, flat out telling you ‘no’ and that you’re not going.

-He doesn’t like you being mad at him, but he he can deal with it if it means you aren’t coming back hurt and exhausted.

Their persistence, even if some of it is valid, pushes you further away from them - to the point you try everything you can to convivence them to leave.

Destruction is something they can deal with.

-Sure, they obviously preferred if you didn’t (since it means they now have to replace it despite being broke) but it’s only materialistic objects at the end of the day (Steve is desperately trying to justify everything you do).

-They’d probably give you a not very stern warning but overall try to give you just a bit more space.

-They’d act more like tired parents with a misbehaving toddler than view it as an actual threat.

On the other hand, hurting yourself is not.

-If they think you’re doing this for reasons unrelated to them (because they couldn’t face the truth and blamed it on something else), they’d ignore any complaints from you and drag you to therapy.

-You’ll be kicked off the team, watched more closely, banned from using your powers (not that can really stop you completely), etc, etc.

-They’d have some sort of daily check-up where they try to force you into talking about your feelings and learn better copying mechanisms.

If they become aware of how you’re doing this because you want them to leave, they’d be conflicted.

-They obviously don’t like that you jumped to this idea and it really makes them re-think their actions for a while.

-But, you were being harmed before this as well - were they really supposed to do nothing?

They’d turn this into a reason to become even more suffocating.

-They’re set on helping you, whether you want it or not, and this just proves you to them you need someone to look out for you.

-If you’re willing to go to such extents now, how do they know you won’t again?

You obviously don’t understand the full extent of your powers - the painful consequences and ways people could manipulate them - but, don't worry, they'll make sure you never have to <3

I know SH is a sensitive topic regardless of context and I tried not to overstep any boundaries when writing this. However, if there is any issues here in how it was portrayed, please feel free to message me <3

[c-is-for-circinate]

MCU Rewatch #3: THOR (2011)

General Impressions: I'm allowed to like this one for reasons unrelated to objective quality! I'm also allowed to dislike it for same!

Thor does a good job at a bunch of things. It manages to really succinctly outline what Asgard's deal is, who the major players are, and how this complete fantasy world works, while remaining in the context of a two-hour movie that mostly doesn't even take place there. It's very funny in places! It's not at all a deep movie, but it's entertaining and fantastical and that's fun. This is -- and was! -- the perfect movie to watch in a cold movie theater during a hot summer, munching popcorn and explosions, and that's a perfectly valid thing to be.

Anyway, for me the best parts and the worst parts of this movie were the same, ie Loki. We'll get there -- he was by far the most complex part of this really quite simple film, and that has its plusses and minuses!

All in all, there's nothing wrong with a simple film, and for the most part that's what I'll say about Thor: it was a simple film with good fight scenes, and nothing much was wrong with it.

OH. Except the sound balancing/editing. That was absolutely criminal and whoever was in charge of sound design for this movie should be shot, not just for their crimes here but for the many years of emulation to come.

The Hero: Like the movie, simple but endearing, with a genuine heart.

Thor is definitely not as compelling as Tony Stark, but he's likeable, and his emotional arc is definitely both present and the most genuine part of this movie. In a lot of ways, what we see here is that Thor is a big kid. He makes decisions without thinking about consequences. He does not bother to try and read a room. He's arrogant in a way that reflects his position, but he's also arrogant in a way that suggests he hasn't considered his position -- having his powers, hammer, and home taken away from him is a shock because he's never thought about the fact that he had them in the first place. Getting sent to Earth is more or less a boy being grounded by his father to try and teach him responsibility. Thor is almost a coming-of-age movie, except that it never quite feels like Thor actually gets there -- he's better, by the end, but not quite a man standing on his own two feet just yet. Breaking the Bifrost is a sacrifice on his part, not a decision carrying the weight of the responsibilities Thor will have as an adult and future king.

That said, I really enjoyed the sincerity of his confusion and grief over being told Odin was dead. He's a hurt little kid, asking his brother if please, can I go home. The scene with Selvig in the bar is one of the best in the movie, with Thor admitting vulnerability and doubt and regret over how he left things with his father. (And again, telling that all of these are feelings about his dad, with a man old enough to be a dad/granddad, and that's the energy Thor needs to lean on right now -- Selvig, not Jane, gets Thor's emotional breakthrough moments, because Thor is a tall handsome child who hasn't grown past needing a parent.)

Also, I vaguely remember some fan back-and-forth about whether Thor is kind of dumb, or very smart but trolling, or very smart and just ignorant of local customs. Upon rewatch, Thor may or may not be smart, but he doesn't particularly care. He does shit on Earth because he doesn't care enough to pay attention to whether it's appropriate. Nobody else is smashing coffee mugs, and the diner is totally lacking in raucous celebratory energy, but Thor wants to be raucous and celebrate, so he's going to do so whether it's appropriate or not. Doesn't matter that he's been driven around in cars his whole time on Earth, he doesn't spend thirty seconds to think about what might be appropriate travel, he's going to make assumptions. This is more of that self-centered teenager logic, where he doesn't bother to try and think about the existence of points of view outside his own.

The Villain: If I end up having Loki Feels by the end of this marathon I'm going to stab something. I refuse.

Anyway, Loki was the most complex part of this really quite simple film, which has good and bad sides! I can and will be objective about how well/poorly that complexity was rendered, but sitting here thirteen years after this movie came out, I can admit it: I really fucking hate the Evil Adopted Kid trope. It's a shitty trope and I don't like it, for personal reasons, and that is always going to color my experience with Loki in any movie where he shows up

That aside, Loki's actual motivations and plans in this movie were baffling and kind of a mess. The problem is that Loki is a complex character, with a lot of doubts, full of love and jealousy and insecurity and pride, but we very rarely get to see him from the inside. It feels like the movie was really invested in surprising people with the end twist of Loki killing Laufey in front of Odin, revealing that actually he was on Asgard's side all along! and does not hate his family! So therefore, for the movie before that, we had to be witness to everyone else's doubts about him and only seeing his actions from the outside, to keep that a surprise. I can see how it'd be effective on a first watch, when the suspense of 'what is this guy going to do and what side is he on?' can pull a viewer through the movie. On a rewatch, knowing what Loki's ultimate deal is, it just feels confusing and inconsistent. What exactly was your plan for when your dad woke up, Loki? Did you actually intend to leave Thor on Earth forever? Were you or were you not actually hoping to kill your brother? What the fuck was your endgame here?

I think there is probably a very interesting story here where Loki's plans seem muddled because he's muddled, awash with emotions and doubts and the inner conflict between love of his brother, twisting jealousy, the objective truth that Thor would be a terrible king, and the fact that Loki, like Thor, is also still very much a grown-up kid. He's making dumb decisions by the seat of his pants and his motivations are contradictory and messy. That tracks, with what we see, but we don't get to see that because this movie is too invested in its twist and its simplicity. Allowing Loki the time and space to be this complicated would steal the entire show from his simpler, genuine brother, and because the movie itself wanted to be simple and straightforward, there wasn't room to hold the layers of its complicated villain. No wonder the Tumblr girlies went wild for him.

The Ensemble: Weak romantic lead with an A+ comic sidekick, hobbled by needing to run two casts at once.

I think this is where we really see Thor suffer from the problem of having to establish two casts at the same time. The New Mexico side of the equation, Jane and Selvig and Darcy, simply doesn't get time for character development. We know next to nothing about Jane, except that she cares about her research and once dated a doctor. Why this research? How did she get into it? How long has she been in New Mexico? What university does she even work for??? It's true that we don't get a lot of details about, say, Pepper's backstory, but it doesn't matter because we understand from the very beginning how she fits into her life and also Tony's life. Jane is a brief three-day whirlwind in Thor's existence, and that's not enough time for him or us to understand who she is or why we should love her. It feels like the movie went through the motions of having a Lady Love Interest, and it doesn't work out great.

Darcy and Selvig actually fare better, simply because there's less need for them to be more than they are. All we know about Darcy is that she's a polisci major who's working a summer internship way outside of her field, but we don't need to know more -- she's there to be fucking hilarious and indeed she is. Selvig is there to help facilitate Jane's choices and Thor's emotional development, and he does his job well.

The Asgardians have a similar problem. Thor's four friends are basically interchangeable (Sif's only notable distinction being that she's a girl). Thor's mom...shows up? We get the impression that there's more going on with Odin than we've seen, but I wonder if some of that is just me remembering Ragnarok -- either way, given that Odin is literally in a coma for 3/4 of this movie, it doesn't mean much. Heimdall probably has more characterization than anyone else in Asgard other than Loki, and that is...not a lot.

It's a lot of just not very much, across the board.

The Franchise: We're already seeing the formula start to get built and tested in the moviemaking labs.

It's fascinating watching Thor on screen directly after two back-to-back movies of Tony Stark, because Thor has some of Tony's same growth arc with none of his fascinating complexity. On the surface they've got the same vague sketched outline: careless, self-involved privileged prettyboy must learn to think outside himself and care for others to become a hero. Thor takes that plotline in a very different direction, which means the movie doesn't feel same-y, but a more cynical viewer might wish to speculate about what boardroom or producer's office suggested that the writing team follow that.

I think Thor actually does better about wasting time trying to set up the future of the franchise. We don't spend a ton of time on Coulson and Hawkeye here -- if we watched this movie with no idea who they were or that they were here to set up anything at all, they'd function fine as Generic Government People (with an inexplicable thing for archery). I think the place where the setting-up hits worst, actually, might be with Loki: he needs to be complex and sympathetic enough to be interesting as the main villain of Avengers, but we can't resolve anything about him before that. (Not sure how far they'd planned the plot of Avengers at this point in the production run, but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd already called him as their bad guy.)

Thinking about the big thematic MCU premise of a superhero world without secret identities -- the choice of Thor as our next hero in the franchise, somebody who neither has nor needed a secret identity to begin with, is clever there. They're not going back on the freedom from overworked secret identity bullshit that they've promised, but they're also not stuck making a second movie about the lack of them, which would just end up looking like a retread of IM2. The secrets we do find here are all kept by SHIELD, which is clearly trying to keep superhero stuff in, and just as clearly is not managing it. (Loki also has a secret identity, with his discovery of his Jotunn heritage...hmm, much to think about there for the future.)

We pretty much lose all themes around the military-industrial complex here, and the movie is probably the better for it, considering what a hash IM2 made of the subject.

VERDICT: A breezy, light 6/10

Thor is in every respect a perfectly fine movie. It's simple, it's straightforward, it manages to do a bunch of things and establish a brand new fantasy setting without actually putting much depth into any of them.

I suspect that, as I get further on in this franchise, 'perfectly fine and no great flaws' is going to be the verdict on a lot of these movies, and I'm going to start dropping my number rating lower and lower every time something shows up that's simply fine. For now, with the context of only IM1 and 2, 'does light summer adventure flick competently with some sincerity and doesn't fuck it up' feels like an improvement over IM2's messiness, so that's where I'm rating it.

Except for the sound design. Anyone who thinks their battle sequences need sound effects roughly 800% of a standard dialogue scene should be forced to watch their own movies with the sound on a pair of unremovable headphones set to a flat however-loud-it-needs-to-be-to-hear-people-talking. Perhaps, after the deafness ensues, they will change fucking careers.

[magicalgirlmascot]

Which of the Toa Hagah and Turaga Metru have entries on Pouks’s Wall of Shame? (Some of the Turaga are also currently placing bets on which of the Toa Mata will end up on there first. Lewa’s currently the hot favourite but Onewa has a good feeling about Pohatu. Unrelated of course to the fact that Onewa keeps suggesting to him that the Metru Nui Zoo is a nice place for a date).

Onewa and Krahka are the obvious ones. "Extra elephant" has become Pouks's personal slang for Toa (etc) related zoo shenanigans because of the time Onewa took Krahka to the zoo and she immediately ran off to join the elephants, scaring the hell out of the zoo staff when they realized there was one more elephant than they were expecting. "Every day," Pouks will say, bone-tired and world-weary, "every day there's some kind of extra elephant."

As you've suggested, Nokama is up there for accidentally starting an elephant philosophical disagreement with her translation powers when she was still a Toa (on a school trip maybe), and Whenua and Nuju for "scaring the rodents" by scaring them. I think Matau is on it for seeing how many things he could turn himself into before he got caught (the answer was four). Honestly it's probably only Vakama who's the only Metru not on the wall of shame yet, and that's more because he hasn't really been to the zoo. Someday Matau will drag him and Nokama there for a date and let's be honest he will almost certainly find a way up there.

Of the Hagah, Kualus is up there a few times, but mostly as affectionate colleague heckling. He had a placement there for a little while and wasn't...great at his animal control powers yet. Kualus loves all birds except swans.

Norik is also on there, which he objects to since his crime wasn't even Toa-related. He just spent several hours pretending to work at the zoo and giving unsanctioned tours of the various reptile exhibits.

[tobiasdrake]

We go from the best fight in the X-Men filmography thus far straight to Charles Xavier sitting in a room, looking into the camera and explaining the plot. Okay guys. XD

One of the main jobs this film has is to bridge First Class, which became more or less a reboot, with the original trilogy. So they can go in new directions and do different things with the characters without outright saying, "The original movies up through Origins: Wolverine aren't canon anymore, sorry."

Days of Future Past is what's commonly referred to as a soft reboot, where continuity gets to start over from scratch but with an explanation offered in-universe that connects it to the previous continuity.

Time travel and multiverse shenanigans are often the go-to for carrying out soft reboots. The Chris Pine Star Trek films, for instance, take place in an alternate timeline created when Spock and a bad guy traveled back in time and messed up the series canon.

The Marvel multiverse is basically designed to allow Marvel writers to make continuity-free re-imaginings of the Marvel universe and then go "That one is Universe 42069, it has its own canon somewhere out there in the multiverse unrelated to the mainline comics."

DOFP intends to do that for the Foxverse, liberating the cast of the newer X-films from the shackles of the old canon and letting them spin out in a new direction.

But before we can do that, Charlie Boy needs to explain the plot that will get us there.

Magneto chimes in to explain Mystique's powers, like Bobby and Kitty don't already know her. XD

Actually, come to think of it, Kitty only formally became one of the X-Men in Last Stand, the movie that took Mystique's powers away. And Bobby wasn't really an X-Men X-Man until that same movie, despite being present for the whole trilogy. They actually might not know who Mystique is.

Huh. Objection retracted.

Then again, Colossus recognizes her. And he was no more involved in X-Men Stuff than Kitty was.

Xavier goes on to assert that he, too, has watched First Class and thought it was pretty sweet. Don't let the face of Patrick Stewart fool you; Despite this personal history having never come up in the original trilogy, it is still an important part of the two characters' relationships with one another.

As an artistic note, I love how she shapeshifts into a human form when he says, "I knew her as Raven." A subtle call-out to their conflict from First Class - or, at least, what it was supposed to be in First Class even though the film doesn't convey it well.

We're told, in the film, that Xavier never appreciated her natural mutant self and preferred that she try to pass as human. They kinda botched their attempts to show it, but it was the clear intent. In a subtle reference to it here, when Magneto talks about her we see her in her true form, but when Xavier reminisces on how fondly he remembers her, she shifts into her human guise.

These two men both fondly remember Mystique, but they have very different memories of who she was.

(Where is she, anyway? Did the Sentinels get her? Is she still mutant-cured?)

Yeah, Xavier's good at that. Remember that time he was losing a tense negotiation with Magneto and Jean so he just started throwing punches, basically forfeiting the argument and pushing Jean into Magneto's arms as hard as humanly possible? Not so different from what happened with Mystique when you think about it.

Xavier offers a sanctuary for mutants on the run from the dangers of the world, and that's great. But his powers of persuasion leave much to be desired.

Logan gets all sad and grimly reports that Mystique killed again after that. Bit of a weird moment. Like, it's performed as if he's referencing the death of another character that was important to him. Something we would instantly recognize and be like, "Oh, fuck, my heartstrings."

I have no idea who that might be, though. He didn't even know her in her youth to be sad about who she became. One time she beat him up and then he stabbed her, and then another time she tried to trick him into having sex with her under false pretenses. That is the entire extent of their relationship.

Why are you so sad about Mystique killing people, Logan? Who did she ever kill that could be haunting you like this? Don't you have enough ghosts already? Do you really need to borrow Charlie's?

The Sentinels are using Mystique's powers to acquire Sunspot's heat powers and Colossus's steel plating and Iceman's cryokinesis.

Meanwhile, poor Mystique can't do any of that. It sucks when people steal your powers and then get whole new abilities you didn't possess out of them.

You know, you'd think in the decades she was hanging out with Magneto, the two of them would have done something about this. Did the fact that humans captured her and performed invasive experiments to steal her powers just... slip Mystique's mind?

"Less than 50 years." My dude, that is a long-ass time to be working on one project. XD These things were in production hell for half a century.

Xavier's like, "When Mystique killed Trask, it convinced the world that they needed his program. And then the humans stayed mad about it for FIFTY YEARS."

FIFTY YEARS. Two generations later, it was still just Trask that they were mad about. Nothing else that happened in that time, nothing in the entire original X-Men trilogy, ever moved the needle one way or the other. It was always about Trask. They were very slowly building the Sentinels the entire time and nothing else mattered.

Senator Kelly's entire anti-mutant career was pointless because humanity already had made up its mind to kill mutants with Sentinels. Trask is the one and only bullet point of history that matters. XD

I understand why this is so janky. Stopping the assassination of Trask is meant to be the emotional goal of the film. We have to stop Mystique from becoming a murderer, because that sets her down the road to being evil.

But "We have to stop her from killing the man making Genocide Machines" wouldn't be a compelling narrative on its own. Because. Like. Fuck that guy. Mystique did nothing wrong.

So the assassination also needs to be the apocalyptic cornerstone around which the fate of the universe revolves. Killing Trask has to directly cause the creation of the Sentinels, but the film also wants to be set in the 70's and has to account for the fact that none of this was a thing in the original trilogy.

So. The humans just. Stayed mad about Trask for fifty fucking years while working on the slowest weapons development project in the history of the arms race. Which has the knock-on effect of meaning that none of the mutant-human relations stuff from the original trilogy mattered, 'cause the humans were building the Sentinels behind the scenes that whole time.

That is an incredibly bleak revision. @_@

Nobody tell Charles, but if there was enough hatred towards mutants to sustain a fifty-year grudge over Trask's death, it wasn't really about Trask's death.

[fjorests-of-wildemount]

Fearne didn't *need* the shard. She was curious about it and terrified of becoming Dark Fearne but there was no part of her or her story that needed it. She was badass and unique already; she may have been engineered as a Ruidusborn but this was unrelated to anything put in her path by that.

*Ashton* needed someone to take the shard, and frankly, it didn't matter who. The part of the Empress that lived in them needed its counterpart; the situation thrust on Ashton by their parents brought them here.

For Fearne the shard was foreign, this object and power she'd never considered, and yeah, she immediately thought she didn't want that. She doesn't have Imogen's ambition or Laudna's trauma, both of whom were the loudest voices pushing her to take the shard. And to be clear, if Fearne really didn't want it, she still could've said no. But some little part of her was what Fearne always is: *curious*. And so she took it, embraced it, endured all of that to see what happens.

For Ashton, it could've been any of the others who took it, that didn't matter. The fact that they happened to have a fire druid bestie whose existing powers would mesh well with the Fire to his Empress Earth was coincidence. He was forced into this as a child against his will, wrong and broken and feeling like a part was missing. The missing part wasn't Rau'shan, not really, but the dormant shard of Ka'mort within them. Fearne didn't complete them, Ashton completed themself.

I'm interested to see where this goes with them because I don't think it's as straightforward as it seems. And I'm especially intrigued to see what happens when two primordial essences get close to the imprisoned Predathos.