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leoruby-draws · 4 days ago

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Next up is Owen Mercer aka Boomerang Jr, son of Captain Boomerang and the speedster of the TrWh Outlaw team! Get ready for another long post you guys, god my hands are hurting this week arrughhh.

Owen's a fun character to draw and has a fun personality in general. He's more angsty and dark in the comics but since Digger finds out about him early on, Owen's much more happy in this au. Digger and Owen have a fantastic father-son relationship and Owen really looks up to him. Digger is so happy he found Owen but is kinda frantic on how to raise him, being a villain isn't the best job for a dad. Not sure what age Digger discovers him, maybe 10 or so?

That mini version of Digger's outfit is what Owen would've worn if he was discovered even younger (he's 4-6 in that doodle), preteen Owen would've found that outfit a bit too silly for his tastes tho.

Honestly I'm not sure if Owen even lives with him, since Digger is a rogue and probably in jail more often than not, Owen might still be in foster care. I don't remember if Owen was shown to be adopted in the comics, he was already shown to be an adult. Btw, concerning Owen's age*, I'm slightly lowering his age to better fit with Jason's age group (he's 12 to Jason's 10). He, along with Jack Moore, are the oldest of the team, too bad Owen doesn't care about acting his age!

While Owen loves hanging out with his father, he also likes to hang out with the Flash aka Barry Allen. Barry has been mentoring Owen on and off (much to Wally's dismay) and has been slowly pushing him towards heroism. He's knows Owen's got a good heart and see's that he has the potential to access the speedforce. Owen's a character that's caught between two worlds, rogue and hero. Does he want to follow in his father's footsteps or go follow Barry?

What a conundrum, but this is a problem he had in the comics. His struggle to figure what to do with his life. Actually, I think I heard somewhere he was actually created with the intent to replace Wally as the Flash but they dropped that plot point, leaving him adrift in the comics. Let me know if that's wrong tho!

Captain Cold aka Leonard Snart isn't helping matters as you can see in that vague threat up there, I'd like to better define that relationship between those two but I'd need to read more comics with Leonard to do that.

Here I have Owen with some of his friends and his dad. I said in my last post with Rankorr, that he and Owen's friendship is a nod towards the famous Green Lantern/Flash partnership. Owen's always trying to get Jack to loosen up and have fun, Jack sometimes finds this annoying but is slowly letting Owen in his life. You can see up there Owen giving Jason a ride someplace, bet Jason wishes he took the bus lol.

You can see Owen gushing over Para Dice, his canonical girlfriend from Rebirth. Owen at some point meets her in Australia and has an instant crush on her. Para is a rather mysterious girl, but has taken a liken to Owen as well. Still too young for a proper romance tho, plus Owen would need to sharpen up his speed skills if he wants to make this LDR work.

There's Digger training Owen in the art of the boomerang, rogue or hero, any son of Cap. Boomerang will be a learn to toss a good boomerang!

Another drawing of these two, aren't they adorable?

Here's Owen bother poor Lisa Snart aka Golden Glider. Owen can be a little insensitive, tho he's never actually malicious in intent (usually). Always thought it was weird that Lisa was considered a candidate for Owen's mother, she didn't seem old enough for that (Owen was like early twenties). Anyways Lisa thinks he's an annoying little twerp...

...and not the only one. Here's Owen bothering poor Jesse. Also you can see I messed up on her shirt design, wasn't really thinking about what I was drawing I guess. I do that sometimes lol.

On the nature of Owen's and Jason's relationship, they seem to quite like each other. Neither of them had many friends before the team, and find easy camaraderie in having simple boyish fun together, which is something they kinda needed in life. You'll sometimes see them making complex plans for the next prank (Lori is invited as well).

In team dynamics, Jason can find Owen tendency to not take fights seriously kinda annoying. While Owen can sometimes disregard Jason's leadership (should Jason be leader that day I mean) due to him being younger. Friction isn't common between them though, perhaps because they got a lot in common.

From being caught between opposing morality, difficulty in finding a niche in the DC comics, even in trying to discover who their mothers are. Its can be validating to know people who understand what your going through.

Little more focus on Owen's relations, I said that Barry has been trying to steer Owen towards good but I also think that Barry just thinks that Owen is just a fun little guy in general. I'd think they get along pretty well, Wally looks so pissed tho. There was this one comic where Hal had Wally as a sidekick for a day and Barry was pretty jealous. Guess the reverse is happening here. Wally's a favored target for Owen's pranks, so this whole situation is just very annoying to him.

Here's Digger introducing Owen to the rogues, Leonard looks befuddled at all this (Digger got a girl preggo? crazy).

Wanted to have Digger and Owen watch cartoons together, so I looked up Australian cartoons, found something called Bluey. Apparently it's super popular, even adults like it. So I found some free cartoons on youtube and yeah. It really is that good. Look it up if you want to see some fun, relaxing cartoons with smart writing!

To finish off this mass of words, here's Owen being a goofball with Eddie and Jason. I'm slowly finding that Owen's got a pretty fun dynamic with most anyone I draw him with. So that's been fun.

All this and I still haven't gone into Meloni and Bart, but it's best if I leave that for later. Anyways, hoped you like all that!

*About Owen's age, the comics never specified what his age actually was. All I know he's in his twenties but still younger than Dick's age group. Young enough to be unsure of his place in the world, but old enough that his 'relationship' with Kara to be weird. I guess it'd be less weird in my au with a smaller age gap, but that's still not happening.

#DC Comics #Owen Mercer #Captain Boomerang #George Digger Harkness #Barry Allen #Leonard Snart #Para Dice #John Moore #Rankorr #Lisa Snart #Jesse Chambers #Jason Todd #Eddie Bloomberg #my art #Training Wheels au

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cherrylng · 2 months ago

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Matt Bellamy Interview - Muse [ROCKIN'ON (September 2000)]

"The ideal is to keep pushing forward and go on and on and on and on and die in the end….. What I want to do is act out that ideal."

The new generation of guitar band supernovas, Muse, have finally broken through in their home country of the UK. We caught up with Matt Bellamy just before Summer Sonic to find out more about the hyper nuclear explosion he is about to cause on stage. Interview by Erika Yamashita

Matt Bellamy is 22 years old. On the day of the interview, he had not returned from Glastonbury for a long time. When he finally got back, he got into a big fight with his sweetheart, who had been with him since he was 15, over whether he was going to Wimbledon or not. After all that, a phone call came into our waiting mobile phone, saying "We've broken up", which was not even an excuse (Of course, after this interview, he went to Wimbledon in his girlfriend's car). A genius boy is still a boy.

If a genius is born of talent plus environment, he is a very good test case indeed. A boring hometown, a complicated family environment thrown in at the delicate age of mid-teens. He was placed in a situation where there was nothing else to do but music, and his special qualities, which he could master as soon as he was given a musical instrument, blossomed most fortunately. The problem is the ‘riskiness’ of Muse's live shows, which lightly involve the superhuman technique cultivated in this way.

Every time I saw them on stage, I started to wonder if they were okay. Unnormal hyper-energy, passion, adrenaline - there's just not enough to say. He looks like he has a ticking time bomb in his breast pocket and is running into unlimited chaos. There, an explosion of life is always waiting, willing to stab the world in the back and destroy itself.

However, within Matt Bellamy lives the will to objectify such extreme conditions of life. He becomes possessed by the role as he plays it, and yet there is no fail-safe on the bomb in his chest that he returns to in the end, leaving a shell behind. The chaos which he dives into is always a flashpoint. And then, with a bang, he rises in an unknown place, leaving behind a shadow that flutters over the cliff and disappears before our eyelids. Another one is gone. And here I am.

A strange, almost split-second, instinctive balance. Is it his character, his theatrical training, or the blood of his mother, a medium? Or perhaps we are looking at a 21st-century artist who is called upon to survive.

"It's not that we think we're the best or anything, but I just don't see any bands playing this kind of rock in the UK at the moment."

The stage at Glastonbury was also incredible. The ending was like you, Chris and Dominic rolling around in a three-way and trying to smash a drum kit, what were you thinking at that moment? 「(laughs) No, I was struggling to get out of the way when they got on top of me. So I kicked the equipment over. I wasn't trying to break anything, I just decided not to break any more stuff. Well, that was the moment at the end of the show when the three of us got closer, or something like that.」

Closer, huh (laughs). Anyway, Muse went from being an unknown band at Glastonbury last year to becoming such a big name in the space of a few years. How do you feel about it? 「But I don't really feel that way. People don't stop us on the street and think we're famous. We're just starting out. People often talk about how well-known we are in interviews, but we don't see ourselves on TV or in magazines, so we don't really know.」

You guys originally got noticed at the CMJ festival in the US, which led to your signing with Maverick. Then came France, Germany, and Australia, followed by the very late recognition in your home country of the UK How did you feel about this? 「Yes, it's true that the British were late in that respect, and we were the last to be signed. But the record is the biggest seller in the UK. We were the first to have an album go gold. So we were slow to jump on board, but once we did, we were quick. We ended up being the most successful in the UK. I think the reason we didn't catch on right away is because it was a time in the UK when record companies weren't interested in guitar bands. They tended to focus on idols and R&B groups.」

The arrival of Muse has allowed British guitar rock to assert itself with pride, and has also created the ground for a revival in the young guitar band scene. In your eyes, do you see rivals to yourselves in the current scene? 「No, that's the problem. It's not that we think we're the best or anything, it's just that I don't see any bands doing this kind of rock. We seem to be the only ones in the Top 40 with this kind of music. Then there's Travis and Stereophonics, but they're not really new anymore, are they? They're on their second album. And then there's…… Coldplay are a great band, but they're not what you'd call rock! I wouldn't say they're our rivals because their music is completely different. I have no doubt they're going to be big, but I think it's a different audience.」

Do you feel like you're more in your element when you tour the US with bands like the Chilli Peppers and the Foo Fighters? 「UK bands have had a hard time in the States over the last couple of years. This is the downside of Britpop. Oasis and Blur sold really well in their home countries and then brought it to America, but they needed a slightly special audience in America. In other words, people who thought Britain was a really eccentric and cool place and would wear Union Jack T-shirts and stuff like that. We had a problem with people expecting that from a British band. But when we played with the Foo Fighters, I thought we had finally met a real American audience. Our music is more global than British, and that tour was really good for us. We got the chance to play to 20,000 people who only listen to American rock night after night. Other UK bands still don't get that chance.」

That's quite an energetic touring pace, isn't it? I saw your ‘room introduction’ in Select magazine, and it looked like a deserted room with a bunch of chairs and musical instruments placed in a corner, and it looked like the owner might not be coming back (laughs). 「Hahahaha…… I don't actually live there anymore. I lived there for a year until last January, but I was on tour a lot and rarely came back, so I decided to leave. I used to work as a decorator and painter before the band became famous, so when I had more time I thought I'd do some work on it and make it a better home. The bed was still there for now, so I thought I'd put a few more things in there, so I took this photo. That's the closest I can get to being at home now, but I'm never at home at all (laughs).」

How many days have you actually been at home this year? 「Hahahaha…… About two weeks in total.」

There is a lot of concern out there that you are on the verge of burnout. Not long ago, there was a news report in the British press of you saying that, "If we keep going at this pace, we're going to burn out". 「I'm sorry about that, but it's not true at all. I was on a student radio show in America and I jokingly blurted out that "touring is hell and I'm burnt out". I was exhausted from all the small venues and all the travelling from the tour at that time, and the interviewer said, "You look tired", so I just said it in response. We just happened to be in that situation at the time, we weren't burnt out. But the radio interview went on the internet and the NME printed it proudly in their papers. It was like we were issuing an official declaration to the British press.」

The UK press is doing a great job as usual. 「Hahaha. Well, it doesn't matter. We're fine over here and it's obvious when you see us keep playing like this.」

"The gig was over and I was lying on the floor, motionless behind the amps. I stayed like that until the lights came on and everyone left, and it felt really good."

It's been ten months since "Showbiz" was first released to the world, and in that time you've already come a long way. How do you feel about that album now, looking back on it yourself? 「Basically, I still like it. I think it shows what we were like back then. The only regret I have is that the mixing could have been a bit better in places. But it doesn't matter, I was a different person then and I'm a different person now. When the album first came out, we were compared to Radiohead a lot, but as people got to know our live sound and who we actually are and who we are as a band, that stopped happening.」

Yes. By the way, I've been wanting to ask you something for a while. Your father was also a band member, so you must have been familiar with the industry from a long time ago, and I thought that's why you were so determined to make it big at such a young age. But when you decided to become a professional musician, your father wasn't around at all, let alone being a confidant? 「That's right. That's one of the things I'm starting to see…… My parents divorced when I was 13, and that's when I started playing guitar. I've recently started to wonder if that might have something to do with my father's disappearance. Before that, I wasn't that into music. I was just doing it for fun. But then my father left and it was just me and my mother, and then my mother left too, so I lived with my grandmother, from 14 to…… to 18, I think. That's when I really started playing music.」

Why do you think that was? 「I don't know, but when I'm playing music…… For me, music makes me forget everything else - everything that I don't like. Living like this every day now, I don't feel like I went through something terrible in the past. I don't think it was hard, either. But I think the reason I've managed to get by is because of music. Especially when my parents split up and neither of them were around anymore, I was able to get through it because of music.」

About the power of music. At the London Astoria show on June 7th, you seemed to lose your temper completely and rolled over with your guitar in your hand, right under the tube-shaped lights at the back of the stage. How is it that the climaxes of your shows, like at Glastonbury, are so unusual? You get to an extreme orgasmic state while you're playing, and you're like, ‘Kill! Kill! Kill me!’? 「Hahahahaha…… Ahaha…… No, recently, I've been thinking about it. I don't know if it's possible to make it happen, but I'd like to do a gig with a curtain at the back of the stage. The three of us have been soaring to the top, and even though there's a limit to how high we can go (laughs), sometimes I feel like that when I'm playing a gig…… It's hard to describe, but when I'm playing music I'm totally liberated and almost become a different persona. I think it's really boring to just stand there and wave and leave after a gig. The ideal gig is one that goes on and on and on and on, and in the end you die hahaha. But I don't really want to die (laughs), so what I want to do is to act it out. You know, like a one-act play. I become the destruction of everything, and in the end I disappear. And only the curtain remains. That's the way I want to end it」

And like only silence remained? 「Yes, yes. If we release many albums, we will be able to do many different kinds of shows, but the music we are doing now always has a climax waiting for us. If we start playing more quiet songs, I think it would be possible to play those songs at the end of the show and have a mellow ending, but for now. The way we ended the second day in Astoria, that was the first time we've done something like that. I was lying on the floor under the light tube, behind the guitar amp, not moving. I stayed there until the lights came on and everyone left the building. It felt really good, you know. I was starting to feel like I was falling down little by little and that it was really over. A lot of times during a gig you get so high from all the noise that you just can't get it down. But when you're sitting on the floor like that, you gradually come out of it. I can leave it on the stage. When I wait until all the audience is gone too, I really feel like everything is leaving me and disappearing.」

I see. So you die and are reborn every time. 「(laughs) That's right. I want to do an ending that conveys that.」

By the way, Muse's music, especially your guitar and vocals, is full of a sense of urgency, as if you are squeezing the world to death. It's like a sense of ‘I want to somehow make this world the way I want it to be’. What do you think? 「Hmmm…… I can't say I know what to say. Sometimes it's hard for me to look at things objectively. I think it can be read in various ways, it could have something to do with the way I was brought up as a child, it could be something that comes out of my inner darkness and chaos, it could be something that touches my subconscious and triggers a reaction in my brain that leads me to some kind of creative activity. But…… I've noticed recently that after a few months of making an album, I'm really good at explaining things. Why did I make this album, why did I write these songs? But in the last couple of months I've started concentrating on writing songs again and I don't know why I'm doing it at all, again. I can't explain my motives when I talk about the songs, but a few months ago I could say it very clearly and precisely. I'm back to confusion now. I'm starting to doubt that even my old songs were really made for the reasons I thought they were. From February to May this year I was undeniably confident about why I was doing what I was doing. Writing music itself is the most simple thing ever, I can't explain it, but it's a certain ‘feeling’. It's just a very simple desire to get the ‘feeling’ inside me out there. It doesn't matter if someone else is listening or not, it just spreads and fills the room with that feeling, that's all. It's only when it takes the form of an album that I start thinking about this and that. But I can't do that now. Sorry.」

No, I think that's right, when you're making something. By the way, do you consider yourself a guitarist, singer, or songwriter first and foremost? 「…… (thinks for a moment)) …… I don't know, I think I'm a songwriter first and foremost. I mean, I'm more of a music maker or a composer. That's what I want to be. I've passed the best stage of playing every instrument I've ever picked up. When I first started piano lessons, I improved a lot and by the time I was about 13 I was a very good pianist. All I played were pieces I'd composed myself. Of course, it was based on something I heard by ear, but I didn't really know it, so I just pieced it together. I realised that as soon as I learnt one instrument, I tended to move on to another. That's why I started playing the guitar. By the time I was 16 or 17, I was probably technically a better classical guitarist than I am now. Well, I play differently now. Then, at around 17, I let go of the guitar and concentrated on getting better at singing. It's the same with other instruments, but I seem to learn the basics very quickly. Then I decide if I want to improve further or not. Maybe it doesn't matter what kind of instrument you play, the instrument itself is a way of venturing out.」

Great guitarists often put their inability to express themselves in words into their instruments. But you put an excessive amount of energy into your guitar and vocals, like 300% when you add them together. That's rather rare, isn't it? 「Ahahaha, yeah, well, I'd like to. Ideally, I'd like to be like Jimi Hendrix. He sang a lot, and at that level, I don't think you're aware of how you're playing anymore. When you sing and play, it's almost automatic because you can't focus on your fingertips, and it's more expressive. The emotions that come out when I'm singing just flow straight out of my fingers. When I play guitar on stage, it's not the notes or chords that come to my mind, it's the emotion of the song itself. I really forget what I'm playing.」

"I remember very clearly that when I was 14, I thought that music was all I had. Well, I feel like I'm slowly starting to understand why my life is the way it is."

That's something only you can say, of course. So, the highly anticipated second album. You've written a lot of new material, but is it going to be a very different type of material? 「Yes. In terms of the method, it's the same as the first album, and each song is polished based on a live performance. For example, ‘Muscle Museum’, ‘Sunburn’ and ‘Falling Down’, we practised them live and then changed the instruments and arrangements on the recordings, and they turned out completely different. In the same way, the new songs we're playing live at this stage might not sound so different from the old ones. We're playing the same instruments and using the same techniques as before. When we go into the studio, we listen back to them and try different ways of doing things. I mean, that's when the song is really finished. Anyway, I can say here and now that some of the songs will be heavier than before. I don't know if heavy is misleading…… There are a couple of numbers where the guitars feature more than on the first one. But if I say that, people will expect it to be another heavy guitar album, won't they? Yes, there are some powerful, heavy and hard guitar-driven songs. But on the other hand, I think there are a couple of acoustic-oriented numbers on there too. With very old instruments. You know, bone percussion like they use in voodoo. And some Spanish guitars. So some of the songs will be very organic, very raw and sad. It's like taking the piano out of ‘Sunburn’, if you know what I mean. ‘Sunburn’, ‘Showbiz’, ‘Hate This And I Love You’, those are the songs that came towards the end of the first album, and I think it shows that the trend of our songs is shifting.」

Oh, I see. So it's safe to assume that the material for the new record is already in place? 「Yeah, we've got most of the songs. We've just started thinking about what sound we want to make and what instruments we want to use. With the first album we wanted to have variety throughout, and to create development within the songs, and we're going in that direction again this time. There's a lot of variety, and the direction of the variety is all over the place. It's hard to explain (laughs)…… But I'm sure it's going to be something that's very Muse.」

So the question is, when do you start recording (laughs)? 「Hmm, after the summer festival tour is over. We'll make a demo in September. Then we'll decide on a producer.」

Do you have any idea who you're going to choose? 「John Leckie wants to do another one, but I think it will probably be someone else. He's a great producer and a pleasure to work with, but I'm afraid to work with the same producer twice. And then I'm afraid that I'll be afraid to leave that person next time. So I'd like to take this opportunity to try someone new. I'm thinking of having a producer from Boston do a couple of songs, but if it's really up to me, I'd like to use a different person for each song. I don't know if that's possible. It might cost too much money. Anyway, we'll record a full record in November. And the first single in January or February next year.」

That's a good pace. By the way, regarding the content of the songs, you've said for some time that you want to deal with themes that go beyond personal anguish in the future. How do you feel about that? 「Well, there are a few…… To be clear, two songs, that's what I've done. That's something you can do when you're with someone else and you feel really connected to them. For example, with my mother, I recently had a long talk and found out a lot of things. She showed me some old photos and I started to understand more about who she was when she was younger. She had a lot going on in her life, and I thought that she must have had a difficult time when she was young, so I wrote a song about that. The other song is from the point of view of a young girl. She's always flicking through fashion magazines, comparing herself to other women who look like models and lamenting that she's not like them*. And she thinks how empty that is. That's what I'm putting myself in her shoes to sing about.」

Wow, that's exciting. Is this a very conscious process? Do you still find yourself saying, ‘Oh, I'm talking about myself again’? 「(laughs) Yeah, quite a lot. But the really good songs just come out on their own, without me even thinking about it. Like, I don't even know what I'm talking about. But I made a conscious effort to write songs that don't just rant and rave like that (laughs). It's the first time I've made a song that wasn't random. I won't know if it's a success or a failure until it's finished.」

You mentioned your mother, was she a medium? 「Yes, she was. It was a long time ago though.」

I wonder if the reason you often talk about the separation of technology and spirituality has something to do with this background. For example, when you were a child, did it feel very natural for you to come into contact with the world through spirits and the like? 「Hmmm… I don't know. I don't really understand it myself, but I'm interested. These things are speculation and nothing is factual…… It's true that when I was a child, my mother was a medium. That means she speaks the language of the dead. That kind of thing was very close to me. I was around 8 or 9, and my brother was around 13, and he was really into it. But when I was 13 or 14, my mother stopped. My father left, and that's when my mother stopped doing it too. And I remember very clearly that when I was 14, I thought that music was the only thing for me. Well, I'm slowly starting to understand why my life is the way it is……」

Yeah. By the way, you just turned 22 the other day. How did you spend your birthday? 「Oh, I was in London and took a day off. An old friend who I hadn't seen for months came out to London and stayed at my place. I was about to go on tour the next day, so I had a day off. I bought a Go-Ped. You know, a scooter with an engine. We rode around London on it, it was fun.」

Matt on a scooter. I can picture it in my mind (laughs). Lastly, what does the word ‘hope’ remind you of now? 「Hope. Hope is, you know…… Hmmm…… First of all, you're trapped in a cave or something like that. That's fine. That's the normal state of affairs. But hope is when you see a little hole all the way up there, and you see the sky, and the sun, and there's light. It's just a ray of light shining on your face. But it doesn't reach there. That's my image of hope.」

It's not here now, but I know it's there. Is that what it feels like? 「Yeah, yeah.」

Translator's Note: The article perfectly describes Matt as it is. "A genius boy is still a boy" indeed LMAO

* The song that Matt referred to later came to be known as 'Screenager' and appeared on the second album, Origin of Symmetry. As for the song that Matt talked about wanting to write to be based on his mum, I don't know what that is. If anyone knows, do let me know!

Do support me on my Ko-fi!

#Matt Bellamy #Muse #Muse band #Showbiz era #smol meerkat #my scan #translation #interview #ROCKIN'ON #ROCKIN'ON September 2000

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blueskybehindtheclouds · 2 months ago

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15, 16, 21, and 28 for the soft ask game 😁

Also, how are you doing?

Hey, sorry this took so long, i just realized some of these questions are actually pretty difficult, but here you are! This is a long one, sorry in advance hahah

15. Comfort food?

Any kind of pasta with any kind of tomato-based sauce i would say, i absolutely love italian food

(although if we were talking about stuff that’s not technically cathegorized as food as well then i would totally say chocolate

16. What’s something you want to create soon?

I’ve been wanting to knit something, because it would be nice to have something to do with my hands when like watching a movie or sitting in class, so I’ve started making a sweater for my sister!

Also, I’ve had this painting stuck in my head for a while that i would like to transfer from my mind and onto a canvas, but i can never seem to get it done😭 procrastination, my archnemesis

I have a lot of ideas for both original works and fanfics as well, but same problem as the one above, they are currently just a lot of notes. So we’ll see if the procrastination gets the best of me or not

21. Tea, coffee or hot cocoa?

This one is really hard. I don’t really know, I mean, all of them are a huge comfort to me, even though I’ve kind of become caffeine-intolerant if that’s a thing, but i still drink it anyway and get the consequenses lol. But tea is great when it rains. And cocoa is nostalgic and feels like home. I mean, i guess it depends on the day and my mood

28. What are you proudest of?

This one is also pretty hard. I guess one thing is that I’m not really scared of spiders (though if i moved to Australia i’m guessing that would change real quick)

I’m proud of my musical talents, and of all the instruments i play

But it’s kind of funny because one of the things i’m most proud of is my gigantic hoard of knowledge about zelda games and lore from the games, having played all the games and recognizing all the soundtracks from the different ones. My problem is that this knowledge is literally useless in the ‘real world’, which is actually kind of tragic

Also, I’m good, thanks for asking! School has just started again and university is kicking my ass already, but if you ignore that then life’s great lol

Hope you’re doing good as well! Thanks for the ask<3

#social tag #ask game

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cars3s · 3 months ago

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do you even understand how bad it is to turn the brutal and violent spanish colonization of south america into a father/child dynamic?

dude, i am half mexican, I know a lot about the history of Spain and Latin America (I am a student of Hispanic Literature/Linguistics) I've been in the Hetalia fandom for 8 years in spanish speaking side of the fandom.

English colonization was brutal as well (i mean, all European colonization in the Global South) however in Hetalia we still have England and several countries that represent its ex-colonies (Australia, the United States, Canada and even India and more) also the same happens with Portugal that has coexisted with Macau and the most recent example was with the introduction of Indonesia, which he had certain vignettes with Netherlands. But why would there be a problem with Spain and showing his relationship with his ex-colonies? I understand that Himaruya has never really been very interested in world history beyond the Western perspective.

I've been in the Hetalia latino fandom for more than 8 years, mainly Spanish speaking, and you should explore the "Latin Hetalia" hashtag here on tumblr or on FanFiction.net/Ao3 and there's so much fan-made material, mainly from people from Latin American countries that wanted representation of their countries in Hetalia, often making amazing OCs (I seriously love the design they did of Argentina, tqm Martín Hernández) and this whole fandom of PEOPLE FROM LATIN AMERICA made their own fanfics, OCs of their own story with representatives of their countries and often within this material they included Antonio/ Spain.

Hetalia has dealt with much more controversial topics in a comical way, I mean the protagonists literally ARE the axis powers in World War II, but we understand that this is A HISTORICAL PARODY, not the reality, so believe me that the Latin American fandom has been creating their fanfics/their videos/fanarts of our countries for years BECAUSE WE WANT REPRESENTATION OF OUR HISTORY and also because we love Hetalia, so believe me, we would not be offended if they mentioned more the historical relationship we had with Spain and all the content we have created in the fandom shows it.

My main point is with England, he can have this "pseudo fraternal/paternal-half awkward-half "affectionate-half son/father/big brother"" relationship with America, Australia, Canada, India, etc. Even France with Canada, Netherlands in some fanarts with Indonesia, China with Japan... Why not Spain? In the end this is what many people from the Latino fandom have done or created AND WANT (the people who mainly "should be offended")

Anyway, this is just a sample of the lack of representation of Latin America in Hetalia and that's it.

#aph spain #hetalia #antonio fernandez carriedo #hetalia headcanons #hws spain #and you should study more Latin American history away from the Anglocentric perspective please #hws Spain #sorry for the rant #Things that people in the Latino fandom haven't said or that we've already resigned ourselves to #let the people have headcanons darling;)#latin hetalia

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marimayscarlett · 8 months ago

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I think Hugo and Richard need to work together.

Hi my dear 🤍 and thank you for throwing yet another opportunity in my direction to talk about my main and my side-obession in one post 👀

Please hold the line, I need to process my immense love for men venturing out into fruity/feminine fashion, I'll be right with you 😀

Ok, now that's better 👌🏼

I think so too! And maybe they would get along well. You will laugh, but my delusional mind immediately draws some similarities between them (eventhough they have pretty different characters) - most likely just because they're both artists and I have a thing for them, but still.

Both Richard and Hugo were determined to become an artist from an early age on - Richard telling others as a child that he'll become a rockstar when he grows up, Hugo stepped foot out of school and went straight into acting school without looking back. While both being immensely successful in their respective careers - Richard having world wide success with Rammstein and is filling stadiums year after year now, Hugo quite literally hopping from one modern classic to the next (Lord of the Rings, Matrix, The Hobbit, V for Vendetta, Priscilla and more), both make indications that they kind of prefere the quieter/more simpler surroundings. Richard emphasizing several times how he would like to do a more toned down stage performance to give the music more space (I have an ask about it here), Hugo prefering smaller sets more than the immense big ones like LotR and Matrix and finds a lot of joy in theater acting (more raw and direct than movies). Both really live for their familys - in the linked interview Hugo mentiones he would gladly give his career up for his family and rather stays in Australia than to move closer to Hollywood (which he isn't a big fan of anyway), Richard moving back to Berlin to ensure a proper surrounding for the upbringing of his child as well as gathers his loved ones around him a lot.

And especially, both are extremely passionate about their work and can get quite intense about it, and while watching and reading interviews, you can immediately recognize their drive and passion. Which ultimatively is one of the things I absolutely love in people the most, and draws me to them most of the time 😊

And they are kind of a tiny bit connected! 'Du hast' was included on the soundtrack of the first Matrix movie (only on CD, not in the movie itself) in which Hugo played the infamous role of Agent Smith.

In a parallel universe, like in a 'Richard ventures out as a producer and cinema-lover into the world of movies'-AU (producing a movie, writing music for it, etc.), maybe they really could work together 😅 And Hugo once mentioned that he really likes Berlin due to the vast amount of different theaters the city has to offer 😊

Oh, and some more compelling arguments in my eyes regarding silly similarities (mentioning them just because i can):

Both have no problem dressing up in women's clothing and seemingly find a LOT of joy in it (like you already shown so beautifully in your ask 🙏🏼):

Both also have absolutely no problem going all in when it comes to kissing their male counterparts:

And both have an ass that won't quit, this is beside the point but still:

(gif sources: x, x)

All in all, thank you for coming to my delusional TED Talk about the several connections between my two favourites I made up in my unhinged little mind 🤝🏼

#ask #a long post. yet again. which most likely nobody will read but i have so much fun writing my silly little brains out on here #thank you so much for enabling me YET AGAIN #SORRY DEAR MUTUALS i will not shut up about these two in the near future #richard kruspe #Rammstein #hugo weaving

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jurakan · 7 months ago

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For some reason I cannot find a way to search through your posts, so I have no way of fact-checking this, but I would think that by now you've done at least one fun fact on the Emu War in Australia, correct? And even if you have, I'd love to read up on one of my favorite historical events of all time :D

So I don't have a search feature, as I mostly rely on tags (posts about the Emu War are in the Australia tag), and I haven't talked about the Emu War for a Fun Fact it seems! So! Today You Learned about the Emu War!

In the years after World War I, veterans in Australia were given large pieces of land so that they could become farmers. Australian government figured it had to do something with all of that land, after all. Then the Great Depression happened, and things were rough, were the government promising assistance that never came.

And then, in September of 1932, there was a historic drought in Australia. And emus? They migrate. That's a thing they do. And fleeing drought conditions, they found huge chunks of land with a butt-ton of wheat, and water for irrigation. Free food? Free drink? Well of course the emus thought it would be a great thing to just hang out in those places. All, y'know, 20,000 of them.

Twenty thousand emus what the fudge

Some of these veterans went to Minister of Defence (because Australians, like Brits, can't spell 'Defense') George Pearce, who agreed that they should deploy machine guns on these overgrown pigeons. This was a silly move, but some suspect that it was meant to cool tensions between government and soldiers, and make it look like the government cared about what happened to its veterans. Or maybe Pearce genuinely thought shooting up emus was a good idea, I don't know.

In any case, the Emu War began in October of 1932. Or rather, that's when it was sort of declared. The first "battle" was to be at the beginning of November, but it was delayed a day due to rain.

Ridiculousness ensued.

See, the first "battle" involved trying to lure the birds into an ambush, which didn't quite work because their flocks split up. The first round of fire wasn't effective, but eventually they did kill some emus. Two days later, on November 4, a flock of some one thousand emus was spotted, cornered, and fired upon--the soldiers managed to kill 12.

TWELVE.

OUT OF A THOUSAND.

Hoo boy.

The "campaign" continued for a while but ultimately led to not that many emus being killed. The press was having a field day with this, and military leaders noted that emus are surprisingly maneuverable, even when wounded. One officer even compared the emus to Zulu warriors.

On November 8, the Australian forces withdrew. However, the emu problem remained, so on November 12, Pearce approved more attacks. And in this round, it was actually effective; the soldiers managed to actually kill quite a few hundred emus, and the government considered this a success, though as you can imagine there are tons of people who have a problem with the government lending machine guns to kill wildlife, especially once news of this hit the UK, but... yeah. Despite what people say, the second phase of the Emu War was actually sort of successful?

But did anyone really win?

Anyway, they started putting up fences to keep the emus out, and in the 50's the Australian government approved more ammunition in case the farmers needed it.

Also, there's apparently an action comedy movie adaptation in the works written by John Cleese.

#Fun Fact Friday #Today You Learned #Emu War #Australia #history #war

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charlesandmartine · 23 days ago

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Saturday 19th October 2024

Another beautiful day. The sun was up, Martine was in the pool, I went for a run in as much shade that was available, members of last night's bird song chorus had gone to do the sort of thing they do on Saturdays; God is in his heaven and all's right with the world. After the toaster had pinged we made plans for the day.

Plans are made of mice and men, so they were slightly skimpy. We needed hats for the main outback section of our trip. Funnily enough up here at the top end where the midday sun is directly overhead casting a little stumpy symmetrical puddle of a shadow around your feet, they don't seem too fussed about a hat. By comparison, you step out in Sydney and the population seems obliged to shout advice to you vis-a-vis wearing one. There they are paranoid about the whole slip slap slop culture. Here it's more 'hey we're adults here make yer mind up mate about wearing whatever ya like'. We also bought a plunger (cafetiere) in a General Stores, and a lightweight pair if very expensive shorts!

Anyway, we bought matching kangaroo leather hats and besides looking complete wallies we also look like tourists. Bought some more wine as well.

Now buying alcohol is not quite as simple here as it is at home. Being over 18 is the conventional qualification which oddly nobody has challenged. The next bit is alien to us; they scan an ID, in our case a driving license. This is to check you haven't been banned from buying alcohol. Drink is a big problem here in the top end mainly, and they don't specifically say this, among the indigenous folk of which there are quite a few. (Must keep an eye on how much SB we drink in case we get a ban). The Aboriginal Population of Darwin is about 3%, and the traditional owners of the land are the Larrakia (saltwater people). We love Darwin because it is a real mix of tourists, locals and aboriginals. The town has a really nice feel about it. After the desecration the 1974 cyclone made of the town, the politicians took the 800m $ and promised they would rebuild and build a better Darwin than they had before. I think they managed that quite well. It is a small but vibrant town which appears to be thriving. It does have problems; the problems manifested all over Australia, what do you do with the indigenous folk. We sat in the 4 Pines bar on Mitchell getting a couple of Croc Pale Ale pints passed the tonsils. Sitting on the stools facing the road we people watched. Rather like the Trueman Show the same people were passing us first one way then the next. Barefooted Aboriginals were ejected from the shop opposite the bar, and a truck with Larrakia Patrol emblazoned along its length drove up and down. It was a meat wagon with a cage welded to the rear. It is their land, but they are merely tolerated within it.

Loved the beer, but returned to the beauty of our balcony to watch a re-run of the sunset.

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ilovescaredysquirrel2 · 9 months ago

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The problem with Disney right now...

I know I usually state my opinion on movies I see recently and give reviews but sometimes I give my opinion on movies that are going to come out soon. So, I heard about the unnecessary sequels for Moana and Inside Out, which are great movies but they don't need sequels. In all honesty, after seeing what they did with Wish, I think Disney should take a break on making animated movies for a while! Not forever, just for a short time.

Okay, so I think we all can tell that they used A.I on Wish. It's not the animation and stuff, it's just the story! I even think the songs were written by real people, it's purely the story that feels A.I generated. Watch them use A.I on Moana 2, Inside Out 2, and Frozen 3... oh gosh that would break my heart to se them ruin the sequels with A.I. I don't consider myself a Disney fan, in fact, even as a kid I wasn't a Disney-movie kid, but I did have a Frozen phase back in the day. Every kid had a Frozen phase. Inside Out is okay but it was kind of emotional, but the first Moana was really good. The thing is, Frozen is based off the Snow Queen while Moana and Inside Out aren't based off any fairytales and are Disney's own original ideas for once. Plus, I think they're only making these sequels because their original ideas like StrangeWorld and Wish are failing so they're proffiting off live action remakes and making sequels of already existing characters because they're desperate. They're just so greedy and can't stand to see the competitors, who are smaller animation companies, beat them!

I'm mostly boycotting Disney (and have been ever since I saw Zootopia) but I'll watch Disney movies pirated on free websites like Actvid and Moviesjoy. The only thing I like from 2024 Disney is Kiff! LITERALLY KIFF! KIFF! Of all things, I never thought KIFF would be the only thing that's stopping me from abandoning Disney all together. I don't use Disney plus but the website I watch Kiff on doesn't have the recent episodes and I refuse to get Disney plus. Disney should focus on stuff like Kiff and Phineas & Ferb anyway. The only good show they got on Disney channel now is Bluey and Bluey is NOT EVEN DISNEY! Bluey is an Australian show and should be seen as that, instead of having the greediest corporation in the world act like they own an Aussie show that they didn't have anything to do with. Bluey should be on PBS kids or something, not greedy Disney! Who agrees? I'm American, but If I was in Australia I'd be so mad at Disney. Disney literally censored episodes, removed episodes, and stopped the writers from throwing in a Bible reference... when they weren't even making the show! If I was in charge, Disney Channel/Disney Junior would have shows like Jungle Junction, Phineas & Ferb, Bear in the Big Blue House, Good Luck Charlie, Suite life of Zack & Cody on Deck,... ect. Basically I'd bring back everything except JESSIE because it was racist (R.I.P to Cameron Boyce tho, he wasn't a bad guy he was just on a bad show).

Anyway, Disney is on my last nerve rn, and if it wasn't for Kiff I'd hate it all together. I still do hate Disney but the only thing that keeps me from wanting it to go away is Kiff. If you haven't heard of Kiff, it's a recent show by Disney, about an orange squirrel who's really energetic (and no, she's NOTHING like Scaredy Squirrel). As far as movies go, I know for sure that I will never see another Disney movie in theaters and I encourage you too, as well. They'll end up on Actvid or Moviesjoy before they even end up on Disney plus anyway, because Disey is popular and people care enough to record it off some hidden camera in theaters. I'm not saying you have to follow in my footsteps and boycott Disney, I'm just telling you on how I do it. Like, the day they come out in theaters is the same day they end up on free websites. Plus, you don't have to waste your money if the movie is going to be bad, like how Wish ended up being bad.

So yeah, please share your thoughts! If you're a Disney fan, I'm sorry. You have to know that they've been really shady recently (they always have been shady but particularly now).

#my thoughts #my thoughts on disney #disney hater #kiff #kiff chatterley #kiff is the only good thing from Disney rn

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thebibliomancer · 1 year ago

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Essential Avengers: West Coast Avengers #44: BETTER A WIDOW...

May, 1989

VisionQuest continues

Vision forgot to put his skin on today...

And Hank Pym's 'I'm not like the other superheroes' jumpsuit is awfully maroon today.

Anyway.

Last times on West Coast Avengers: John Byrne took over the book and a bunch of things changed between issues. Tigra, Wasp, and Dr Pym rejoined the team.

Then, a fake-Ultron attacked and Vision was kidnapped and unpersoned while the West Coast Avengers were distracted.

Mockingbird showed up to Explain It All and took the Avengers to the secret Vigilance base where Vision had been taken due to fears he'd try to take over the world again.

Only the West Coast Avengers arrived Too Late. And Wanda found her husband disassembled, his parts strewn everywhere. It'd be way too much gore for comics if he weren't a robot.

Even this splash page is kinda too much, even with robot bits.

My boy! Look how they massacred my boy!

;_;

The various scientist who were just taking Vision apart are very concerned that Scarlet Witch and probably the Avengers are here instead of somewhere else being distracted.

And Wanda is not sympathetic. In fact, she's as angry as someone would be if they found their spouse turned into a pile of anatomy.

Mockingbird, who has still more exposition to exposition, explains this was the end goal of the kidnap Vision scheme. To erase Vision along with any top secret data he may have picked up when he was the internet for a hot minute.

Wonder Man shows up with project head Cameron Brock under arm and tells him to exposition more.

And since Vision has already been taken apart, Brock has no problem spilling the beans.

Vigilance is not a KGB operation but they are involved running the detention cells, which is why Mockingbird thought it was a KGB operation.

Brock reveals, he's not KGB and he's not SHIELD either. He's CANADIAN.

DUN DUN DUNNNN

Wonder Man jokes about the concept of Canadian spies, showing that he has never heard of Wolverine. He then jokes about Australia, because he's going for all the hits.

Brock goes 'well actually my deputy chief is Australian.'

And he explains that Vigilance is actually a truly worldwide joint venture. Almost every security network on Earth sent a representative.

The Americans, the British, the French, the Russians, etc etc.

The kind of global cooperation almost unheard of -- all to specifically fuck up Vision.

Brock reiterates what he told Mockingbird. As long as Vision wasn't on the Avengers, everybody was willing to grit their teeth and let bygones be whatevers. But as soon as he rejoined (because Hawkeye was a sad sack who couldn't keep together a team), all the intelligence agencies put aside their differences to fuck up Vision.

Global peace, just like Vision wanted when he took over the internet. What ironies.

Wanda claims that Vision can be put back together. He is a robotty robot so clearly they just reassemble him and good as new.

Hank Pym shows up just to say nuh uh.

This is a theme in this issue. People showing up in the nick of time to say nuh uh.

Even though Hank is an expert in robotics despite being a biochemist and even though he's more familiar with Vision's systems than almost anyone, he's skeptical that humpty dumpty can be put back together again.

If Vision's brain was erased like Mockingbird said, Hank has no idea how to deal with that.

Wanda says that they can just borrow some brain patterns from Wonder Man again and use the backup memory file that Vision kept in the Avengers' computers.

Again, with this idea that Vision's brain is a computer that can be uploaded to external storage. I feel like that's at odds with how Vision has been portrayed in the past.

But it doesn't matter.

Vigilance wiped the Avengers' computer systems with a virus. Both the East and West Coast teams. There's no back-up.

(This is where John Byrne put in a backdoor, as some writers do when writing something that may be contentious. In this case, his backdoor to get out of this was that there's a copy of Vision's brain in the Titan supercomputer ISAAC. From the time that Vision linked with ISAAC.)

(John Byrne also uses the idea that Vision's brain can just be backed up as evidence that Vision isn't a real boy and is just an overly sophisticated appliance. The idea that he introduced. Sigh.)

With all the problems on the table, Hank says lets ignore the fact that Vision's unique personality is probably gone forever, erased by magnets or whatever. Just putting all the pieces back together is going to be hard enough.

Heck, the Vision was built from the base of the original Human Torch, the most sophisticated android ever created. That might be beyond Hank's level of skill!

And then Wasp shows up and goes nuh uh!

Not about Hank not being able to do it but about the thing he said about the robot Human Torch.

The shocking prisoner she found in the detention level that was so shocking it had to wait until this issue to reveal?

It's Phineas Horton, allegedly!

He supposedly died in Vision's backstory but we're about to take a big dump on that.

Vigilance wanted an expert in Vision's systems so they tried to find associates of Phineas Horton that might have worked with him on the Human Torch.

Instead they found the actual dude. Just casually not dead.

Hank is like okay weird that Vision thought this guy was dead but he could have been mistaken. Either way, hot damn, the exact expert we needed is right at hand!

And Dr Phineas Horton says nuh uh. He's already here so he didn't pop in just to say it but he's complementing Wasp's earlier nuh uh.

He's definitely the real Dr Phineas Horton (this man will later be retconned to be an imposter, womp womp, retcon tennis) and he doesn't recognize Vision's systems at all.

Vision is definitely not Horton's creation.

DUN DUN DUNNNNN

Elsewhere, Hawkeye didn't get the memo about waiting just outside the lab to pop in and nuh uh things so he's wandering around the backlot of the Vigilance base.

And I say backlot because aside from the main areas that Mockingbird saw and the stuff related to disassembling Vision and holding people prisoner, this entire base is just a mock-up. Just enough actually functional stuff to fool Mockingbird into thinking it was a fully operational secret SHIELD facility.

Hawkeye also wonders how the Vigilance team was able to capture Vision, which I also am wondering.

But he hears Tigra growling and follows the sound to find her having cornered a couple of Vigilance guys.

Vigilance Person: "You're Hawkeye! Help us!" Another Vigilance Person: "For god's sake... stop her!!"

Hawkeye calls Tigra's name which makes her swing her attention from nameless asshole 1 and 2 to pounce at Hawkeye.

I guess one of her uncontrollable cat instincts is to kill birds.

(Despite the narrative caption promising that all kinds of horrible injury is about to happen to Hawkeye, he's fine when we next see him and Tigra. Typical sensationalism, tsk tsk.)

For some ding dang reason, the narrative cuts to Absolom College in Texas where some shadowy collegiate figures are trying to choose a suitable subject from a list of mutants.

Forty-one candidates are rejected before Scarlet Witch is chosen for whatever this is all about.

If you're curious and have trouble with the tiny headshots, here's how the judging sorts out:

No: Angel, Avalanche, Blob, Caliban, Callisto, Cannonball, Cyclops, Destiny, Firestar, Forge, Iceman, Karma, Multiple Man, Magma, Malice, Mandrill, Marvel Girl, Mastermind, Mesmero, Mystique, Nekra, Nightcrawler, and Pyro.

Too powerful: Apocalypse, Magneto, and Rachael Phoenix.

Too weak: Banshee, Black Tom Cassidy. This category is reserved for the Cassidys, I guess.

Too unstable: Beast, Cloak, Dagger, Legion, Quicksilver.

Dead: Colossus, Cypher, Dazzler, Havok, and Rogue.

No longer viable: Magik, because she retconned herself back to a young girl in Inferno, or something.

Unverified: Sabra, Sabretooth.

This was hard because the marvel wiki didn't have them all. I had to go looking other places and at one point just pull up a list of Marvel mutants and check everything that fell between certain letters. Because, thankfully, this is alphabetized.

What's funny about the dead category is that Cypher is the only one who is actually dead. Everyone else just faked their deaths and moved to Australia.

Back at the plot, some paramedics take Dr Phineas Horton away for treatment. Because he was an old man and Vigilance was keeping him in a KGB-type detention cell. He's not in a great state.

Wanda asks Hank why Dr Phineas Horton IF THATS HIS REAL NAME (lol, its not, retroactively) would say that Vision isn't his work when we all know that Vision was repurposed from the body of the robot Human Torch.

Hank has no idea but he's also distracted by the police coming up and asking what they should do with the Vigilance dudes that the West Coast Avengers captured.

And Hank says 'fuck if I know, let them go, ain't no law'

Specifically, since Vigilance was every intelligence agency working together specifically to fuck Vision, they all have government approval and nothing they did is wrong. And/or have diplomatic immunity because they're from Canada or whatever.

Project head Cameron Brock smugs about how Hank figured out how untouchable they all are.

Wasp is like uh geez are you sure, Hank? They kidnapped Vision and reduced him to piles of bits. And Hank says they sure did but we can't do anything about it. We didn't know we were fighting the law but the law won. Can't fight city hall. Best they can do is call Agent Sikorsky, the Avengers' government liaison, and whine about it.

Hawkeye and Tigra rejoin the group, having missed the plot, and Hawkeye covers for Tigra by downplaying the incident as Tigra getting "a little carried away."

Since the West Coast Avengers can't do anything except take Vision's various components home and try to put him back together, Hank proposes they do just that. Just leave Vigilance and go home to pick up the pieces.

Scarlet Witch has one thing she wants to do first.

And she blows the Vigilance base the fuck up.

Good thing everyone was already outside.

I'm not through this arc yet. I'm not even through the issue yet. But I looked at marvel wiki and Vigilance only has two appearances. This issue and the previous issue.

So I'm going to maybe jump the gun a little and talk about why, however things play out from here on, this story is going to be unsatisfying.

I don't like that the Avengers just have to shrug and accept that the government(s) killed Vision and there's nothing they can do about it.

It's a lot like how many spider-fans are still pissed about One More Day. It's not just about the marriage. Spider-Man made a bum deal with the devil and he's never going to get to redeem himself as things stand.

Sometimes cruel things just happen and there's no recourse except to pick up the pieces and try to live your life. But the superhero genre tends to be more active than that. Situations can be punched. There's always someone that can be punched.

If the Implied President of the United States is behind an evil plot to use a mutant powered UFO to take over the country, you don't shrug and decide he's too big to fight. If you're Captain America, you chase him to the Oval Office and unmask him. For one, particularly bizarre, example.

I don't know that it would make a better story if the Avengers COULD fight Vigilance in some way but it would feel less empty.

This whole thing feels less like a story and more writer fiat. Just like starting the team with Tigra and Wasp and Dr Pym back so Byrne doesn't have to do the legwork to get the team where he wants it.

An evil governments conspiracy kidnaps Vision and takes him apart so he can be rebuilt in Byrne's preferred way, everyone stands around talk talk talking about how this change is totally irreversible and the Avengers also can't do anything to the people that did it. And then Vigilance fucks off to never be heard from again.

There's more legwork done but only enough to get the change on paper. Because having Vision change like he is going to (spoilers: Vision is not going to be a pile of parts forever) and have it happen between issues is too much for the audience to buy.

Also on topic, also spoilers: this is going to lead to one of the big OH NO WANDA HAS GONE CRAZY stories which was apparently the only research Brian Michael Bendis did before Disassembled. And it may not be a good story but it may have been a better story if Evil Crazy Wanda had gone after Vigilance. Instead of what she does do. Which is apparently try to have sex with Wonder Man.

Byrne is going to ragequit the book at some point so I'm not sure how much of that is his fault. But what a blatantly obvious plot point to leave on the table.

Anyway. That's my feelings about VisionQuest. Before we even see how it falls out. It's a drastic change jammed into the book without respecting the audience enough to make it a good story.

You know when a writer really wants to write to a certain conclusion and has to expend walls of text assuring the reader that this is clearly the only way this could possibly go down? That's what this all feels like.

So that rant having been ranted, let's move onto the beginning of another dumb plot point.

When the West Coast Avengers arrive back at the West Coast Avengers Compound, they discover a distress signal has been activated from the guest house - where Wanda and Vision have been living.

Understandably, Wanda assumes the worst. That Vigilance has come after her children too, she runs to the guest house.

The racist governess Miss Bach tries to tell Wanda that babies Tommy and Billy vanished into thin air after she put them into the bath. But when Wanda runs into the bathroom in a panic, she sees that her two babies are happily splashing around in the tub.

... Add John Byrne onto the list of artists that just can't draw a baby to save his life.

Miss Bach insists that she looked everywhere for the twins but Wanda assumes that the governess was playing a sick prank.

So she fires her ass, right on the spot.

Miss Bach appeals to Wasp that she was telling the truth. But Wasp can't tell Wanda not to fire her own personal staff. She at least promises Miss Bach that she'll get the proper severance pay.

Then we time skip two days later, where Wanda is sitting outside Hank Pym's lab while Hank tries to reassemble Vision.

It's apparently not as hard as Hank feared, just tedious. Each piece has only one place it can properly go so its just a matter of trying to find the proper place for hundreds of thousands of pieces.

Wanda wishes that they could contact the Real Professor Horton not that lying fake. Y'know, the real dead guy who died in Vision's backstory.

Scarlet Witch: "If that central fact was now to become untrue... everything we think we know about the Vision would become equally suspect."

Wonder Man says he wasn't around at the time but he loves poking holes in the Celestial Madonna Saga. That's his Thing now. So given what he's heard, he thinks Vision's backstory is sketchy if only because they heard it with the help of Immortus, who is a sketchy, manipulative man.

But then there's a loud WUMP as well as CRASH CLANG tinkle! THUD! from within the lab.

Hank sealed the lab behind a bunch of airlocked doors to prevent contamination to Vision's kibbles 'n bits and it'll take three minutes to open them all.

Or.

Wonder Man just forces them all open.

And then a robot hand shoots out of the lab and shoves Wonder Man to the floor.

Ohhhhhh! It's just Vision! He wandered off without putting on his pants or his skin!

Wanda caresses Vision's bare skull, begging him to say he recognizes her.

Terminator Vision backhands her.

Boo. Boo to you, skinless Vision.

Wonder Man grapples Vision, saying he's going to put him down for a nice nap until they can finish fixing him. But he's hesitant to use his FULL POWER on his brother so skinless Vision tosses him across the room.

Elsewhere in the building, Hawkeye is sitting around thinking about how weird Tigra has been.

What we missed off-panel is that he just used a gas arrow when she pounced at him, knocking her out until she calmed the fuck down.

That narrative caption promising horrible violence really lied.

After coming back from the Vigilance base, Tigra has been hiding away in her bungalow.

Hawkeye isn't sure why he promised to cover for her but WHOOPS INCOMING A-PLOT.

He hears the ruckus going on in the lab and hustles down to see skinless Vision hoisting Wonder Man around.

Hawkeye shoots a constrictor arrow at the rampaging synthezoid but Vision just flexes his way free.

Wonder Man tells Wanda she's got to use her bullshit win-button powers to win because brute force isn't working and that's all he knows.

Wanda refuses to use her powers against Vision because she's worried that she doesn't have precise enough control of her hexes and that she might make him blow up.

She DID blow up a building a couple days ago. But she was really mad at that building.

And while Wanda is paralyzed, refusing to help, Vision picks up Hawkeye and shakes him upside down.

Its pretty funny.

I will say that it does make sense that Wanda would be hesitant to use her powers on the robo-man she loves. Its similar to how Wonder Man is pulling his punches.

But I do note that Wanda has been pretty useless this entire story. She was hypnotized to be unable to fight Fake-Ultron. Not sure why that was actually necessary but it was the explanation. And now she's not able to participate in the fight against skinless Vision.

She did blow up a building though.

I also have to say that Skinless Vision is a pretty intimidating antagonist.

His arm shooting out of the smokey lab to grab Wonder Man. Striking Scarlet Witch with no trace of emotion. Staggering around in the shadows as he moves on the collapsed Wanda. The way he tosses around Wonder Man and Hawkeye using just his robot strength, not his density powers. His robot noises being more audible without his skin in the way. Just the way he looks like a flayed corpse.

I gotta give props where props is earned because otherwise this post is going to be just bitter. And props, skinless Vision is alarming.

Anyway. Back to the plot. Where Scarlet Witch refuses to help.

Wonder Man: "You've got to take that chance, Wanda! Trust that your power won't permanently harm someone you love! But do it now! Before he kills Hawkeye -- or me!" Scarlet Witch: "No! No! Forgive me! I can't! I just can't!!" Dr Pym: "That's all right, Wanda..."

Hey, thank goodness for Hank Pym.

And that answers how Vigilance kidnapped Vision.

The device Hank has is a neutralizer that Vigilance used to shut Vision off for kidnapping reasons.

All the ruckus Wanda and Wonder Man heard in the lab was Hank reactivating Vision and then Vision smashing stuff up because when he's activated without his brain functioning, he defaults to defensive actions.

Hank only just regained consciousness and shut Vision back down.

SO THATS ALL EXPLAINED.

Skinless Vision is more of Brainless Vision. Head empty, no thoughts, just lashing out.

Hawkeye decides that this is his cue to call Washington and yell at Avengers liaison Sikorski.

Hawkeye: "Look, Sikorski, I don't care if I woke you out of your death bed! I want to know what you paper-pushers are gonna do about the Vision!" Sikorski: "Do? You seem to be missing the point, archer. We've already done it. The Vision has been rendered harmless. He presents no further threat to the security of this nation... Or any other, for that matter. You Avengers are now at liberty to reprogram him to suit whatever function you wish."

Wow. What an asshole.

He's still better than Henry Peter Gyrich but only because Gyrich would have said the same things and been 1000% smug about it.

God I hate Gyrich.

I'm glad Abigail Brand shoved him out of an airlock.

Anyway. Implication seems to be that Sikorski was In On It or at least was told after the fact and agreed 'yeah, excellent decisions all around.'

Vision isn't a dude. He was a malfunctioning appliance that had to be reset to factory settings so he could get back to Fighting Crime Or Whatever.

Hank argues that a) the Avengers can't just reprogram Vision that easily, b) the Vision they knew has effectively been killed by death of personality, and c) even putting aside all that, this is going to fuck up Wanda.

Which Sikorski acknowledges and says he regrets. That specific point.

What an asshole.

Anyway, as long as the Avengers called him to yell at him, Sikorski has some information he should have told them earlier but I guess he forgot or he's just shit at his job.

On top of killing Vision, the government has also decided that the West Coast Avengers and Vision need direct government oversight and have sent someone to take over the team. And the West Coast Avengers either accept this or the government cracks down on their future activities.

OKAY HAVE FUN WITH THE NEW GUY BYYYYYYE

And judging by the silhouette, it seems like the new guy is an old guy. A guy they can all get along with.

But silhouettes often lie in comics and this is the opposite of all that. A new guy that none of them can get along with.

When the government issued an ultimatum our way or the highway to Captain America and he quit and became the Captain, the government gave the Captain America name, costume, and shield to John Walker.

But recently, you may have noticed that good ol' Steve Rogers is back in his old costume and name and shield. Well, the government gave Cap's the Captain outfit to John Walker and dubbed him U.S.Agent.

And by editorial mandate governmental order, he's joining the West Coast Avengers.

Yeah, actually, it was editorial mandate.

According to John Byrne, editor Gruenwald, who created John Walker, insisted that Byrne put him in the West Coast Avengers book.

A captain-esque guy on every team!

John Byrne, who rankles at any degree of editorial meddling, had him written in as being forced on the team by an uncaring asshole higher power so he can annoy everyone on the team and not fit in.

John Byrne is not subtle sometimes.

Buuuuut. Like I said with the Worst Roster. A team having friction is very often more interesting. And there's a kind of poetic irony to Hawkeye having been the asshole constantly butting heads with Captain America getting his own Brand X Captain America to be the asshole to butt heads with him.

It rhymes.

So VisionQuest continues for another issue but AS OF RIGHT NOW I have to say it takes a sharp dip in quality after the first issue.

The first issue really jumped into things with a newish team suddenly assaulted by a Fake Ultron and having Vision stolen right out from under them.

Issues 2 and 3 are in full justification and retcon mode so it all bogs down into walls of text and explaining how this sequence of events is the only sequence of events.

I'm actually excited to see U.S.Agent here to shake things up and be a pebble in the team's shoe right when they're already going through the identity death of a beloved teammate.

Just please. Fewer walls of text.

Follow @essential-avengers for all these posts but only all these posts. Like, reblog, and comment perhaps.

#avengers #essential avengers #west coast avengers #Vigilance #Hawkeye #Hank Pym #Dr Pym #Scarlet Witch #the Vision #Wonder Man #the Wasp #Tigra #Mockingbird #Phineas Horton #mysterious shadowy college project #the government is a dick but what else is new #last page new team member

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megpie71 · 6 months ago

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Appropriate Surnames, and Aggravating People

I'll be honest enough to admit this article got me good and riled up, mainly because of a lot of what it doesn't say. I will also say their surname is very appropriate (as someone who has recently finished re-reading "Pride and Prejudice" for the nth time). So, rant incoming...

The first thing to note is when well-to-do upper-middle-class Americans start talking about "population", they're generally talking about race. Overpopulation means "there are too many brown people"; underpopulation means "there are not enough white people". This is definitely the case with the Collinses, and the various people who are involved in their "cause". They are proudly conservative right-wing Americans, which means their response to the whole issue of "underpopulation" (as stated previously, "not enough white people") is to urge people like them to breed more and replace the population. Great Replacement thesis, anyone?

I can see why the Collinses put themselves forward as mouthpieces for their movement. To put it bluntly, they're fools and cranks, and they're that particular variety of well-off fool and crank who believes all they have to do is get the rockets off the ground, rather than worry about where they land ('"That's not my department" says Werner von Braun'). They have set off boldly down the road - fixing the potholes they cause is someone else's job. They're also of that particular brand of data-driven fool from the US Tech sector who believes very strongly in the inevitable logic of "the right thing" making its own case. It is notable the one area of data this particular type of data-driven fool never pays attention to is historical data - they borrow from the solipsistic logic of the objectivists and the libertarians there, essentially deciding "history starts today" and refusing to look at what the problems with their solutions (often of the sub-type "simple, cheap and wrong") have been the last few hundred times people have tried them.

What they're describing is the classic upper-middle-class breeding program - people who are wealthy enough to afford children should be having as many of them as possible, people who are too poor to afford children should be breeding so their children can be adopted / fostered by the wealthy upper-middle-classes as an act of charity, and well-to-do white autistic people should definitely be trying to out-breed the neurotypical masses because autism is its own superpower (just look at Elon Musk!).

Sidebar: I am particularly annoyed about the highly-autistic side of this, because quite frankly it is very much a case of "if you have enough money to throw at it, nothing is a disability" - the people who are busy proclaiming autism as a superpower are usually people who were diagnosed young, didn't have particularly severe autism to start with, had all the therapy in the world thrown at them from a very young age, and who have enough money, status, and familial support to be able to set up their lives to work around the constraints their autism places on them. They are able to arrange their worlds to suit them. Nice for them. If you aren't able to arrange the world to work around the constraints of your autism (for example, if you're working class, where you're basically given the options of conform or die) then yes, the same level of autism does become a disability. I'm saying this as a "high-functioning" person who has what's called "category 2" autism here in Australia - even with a good strong social safety net, at least fifty percent of the reason I went to the trouble of getting a diagnosis is so I could get the supports I need, rather than having to struggle all the time and argue uphill against disinterested systems in order to even get my needs recognised.

Anyway, reading about the Collinses is an exercise in the peculiar type of frustration which comes from having to deal with the sort of conservative thinker who doesn't want to see beyond the end of their own arms, and who works very hard to avoid doing so. Mr Collins doesn't believe in funding maternity leave - "The “number one pronatalist policy position,” he tells me, is for governments to make it easier for women to work from home and have flexible hours. The Collinses believe in childcare, but not maternity leave" - which would be fine, except that a lot of the jobs women do (outside Silicon Valley, where they are mentally still resident, even if they're physically living in Pennsylvania) aren't ones which could be done from home. For example: care work - childcare, disability care, elder care, nursing care; teaching; most service jobs - all of these aren't things you can do from home. (Effectively, they're willing to pay for a woman who works in childcare to go to work and care for someone else's children after they've given birth, but they aren't willing to pay for her to have time off to care for her own. It takes a very special type of data-driven thinking to come up with that one).

“Within and between countries, the less money somebody has, the more kids they have. This is a very well-studied phenomenon,”

Yes, it is. The main reason a lot of people in poorer families in poorer countries have lots of kids is because they also have high childhood mortality - you have seven kids in the hope that two will survive to breeding age, and you hope for sons (and expose the daughters) because sons can bring in wealth, while daughters cost money in dowry. In places like the USA, where the social safety net is atrocious, where pregnancy care and post-pregnancy care are expensive, and where sex education consists of "abstinence only", poorer families have larger families for one very straightforward reason: they don't have any options for how not to do so within the income they have.

"Eugenics is state-sponsored selective breeding to influence the dominance of certain genes, he argues. What he and Simone are doing is polygenics, using technology to give parents the choice over which traits they value most."

'It's not eugenics when we're the ones doing it', in other words. It's not eugenics when the government isn't involved.

Mr Collins is, in fact, wrong here. Eugenics, as a philosophy about human breeding, came out of the interpretations of Darwin's work on natural selection done by Darwin's half-cousin, Francis Galton, however it was predated by countless societies where a crude version of population control and santization of the breeding pool was performed by exposing disabled infants (or excess infants from families too poor to support them) to the elements, drowning them in a nearby river, burning them alive in the fire and all the various other means by which infanticide was enacted. Galton, who was a proper Victorian gentleman complete with country estate and so on, was aware of the work being done with selective breeding during the era in order to increase the size of cattle, sheep, pigs etc in order to feed a growing population and felt that this work could also be beneficially applied to humans, to weed out things like hereditary diseases, weakness, and "feeble-mindedness" from the human gene pool. He communicated these ideas to a large number of his like-minded colleagues, via articles such as "Hereditary Talent and Character" and books like "Hereditary Genius" and they gave these ideas the label of "eugenics" (from the Greek term for "good breeding stock") rather than the more blunt Anglo-Saxon of "selective breeding" because snob value (and also good advertising). One of the core ideas behind eugenic thinking can be boiled down to: "the wealthier you are, the better your genes must be".

There is a wealth of social science research out there which proves it's not just the genes, it's all the other little advantages wealth brings with it which work as a cosmic thumb on the scales in favour of the "inevitable" success of the scions of the wealthy. But again, this data and this science isn't of interest to the sort of "data driven" person that Mr and Mrs Collins embody. Funny that.

To be honest, I'm looking forward to the "fifteen years later" follow-up article to this one - because I suspect at least one of the Collins children is going to come right out and say "I was raised in a cult".

#sometimes you have to rant

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razieltwelve · 1 year ago

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As An Aside

I have always found it ridiculous that governments like to report the average wage instead of the median wage.

The two are not the same. In fact, the presence of outliers (of which there are many) results in significant differences.

In 2021, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said that the average yearly wage (pre-tax) was around $90,000. Great, right? Or maybe not. The median yearly wage for that same period was around $63,000. That’s a difference of roughly $27,000, and those two figures paint very different pictures.

The average makes you think that many Australians are earning close to six figures. The median tells you that half are earning less than $63,000. When the discrepancy between the average and the median is this large, I see no reason to use the average other than to obfuscate.

In a similar vein, I find the reporting of only the raw GDP (Gross Domestic Product) while telling everyone that things aren’t that bad to be abhorrent. The raw GDP of a country is largely irrelevant when it comes to how good or bad things are for people. What you want to look at is GDP per capita (i.e., per person) and how that compares to previous years.

Australia’s government has loudly proclaimed that things aren’t that bad. GDP is still growing! But what they haven’t talked about is that we may very well see a GDP per capita recession within the next year. In other words, if GDP is the pie, then the pie has gotten bigger. But how much of the pie each person gets has gotten smaller. In other words, no, things are not peachy for everybody.

What really gets me is that Australia somehow has some of the highest natural gas prices in the world despite being a next exporter of gas. This in turn has led to apocalyptic increases in energy prices along the east coast that are absolutely going to cause real suffering amongst people, particularly those of lower economic means because their budgets are already severely stressed due to inflation, rising interest rates, and housing costs.

This speaks to systematic and repeated failure at the state and federal level because a net exporter of a natural resource should not be paying higher prices for that resource than the people it’s exporting it too. Previous governments have given companies in the eastern states the ability to export natural gas without having to sufficient reserves to control domestic prices. So of course what do they do? Sell as much of it overseas as they can, which screws over the price in the eastern states of Australia as well. That this is allowed is lunacy. Whoever decided not to mandate a decent level of reserves for domestic use to keep prices low was an idiot. Yes, the gas companies make more money, and you can tax them for that, but the rest of the economy suffers. Every single person and business who relies on energy (because electricity is usually generated with natural gas) ends up paying more.

More to the point, with many countries facing enormous inflationary pressures, increasing energy prices only add to the problem. It’s easy for reserve banks and governments to say to people “don’t ask for a wage increase or inflation will get worse” but at a certain point people no longer care. If renting or owning a home costs more, and keeping the lights or heating on costs more, and buying food costs more, and putting petrol in the tank costs more, people are rightfully going to ask “how the hell do I pay for all of these increase?”. People will ask why companies aren’t doing their part to lower inflation and are instead profiteering.

We saw this in Britain where repeated attempts to control inflation largely failed, and people basically went “screw it” and pushed for wage increases anyway because with inflation continuing to rise, they had no choice. Without increased wages, they couldn’t survive.

It’s really a multi-level failure in policy. Central banks have the equivalent of a hammer (interest rates), but controlling inflation cannot be done with interest rates alone. Too many federal governments (Australia’s amongst them) have simply thrown up their hands and said that controlling inflation is impossible for anyone but the central bank (i.e., the Reserve Bank). But governments have a critical role in managing inflation because they operate the legislative levers that can help to control supply and demand in critical areas like housing, energy, and basic consumption (e.g., food). They can - and must - assist the central bank because monetary policy in the form of interest rates is toothless without legislative support that addresses key areas of the economy.

For fuck’s sake, this shit is so obvious that the government has to know, but it’s politically expedient to do nothing and let the Reserve Bank (in Australia’s case) take the heat because actually doing something might require being unpopular for a while.

Also, I should point out the absolute futility of trying to cool down demand in the housing sector by building 30,000 homes over the next five years... while also bringing in more than a million migrants. Now, I am a migrant myself. I have nothing against migration when it is properly handled. But do the math. If housing is an issue right now (and the rental situation in many parts of Australia has basically become Mad Max) what do you think is going to happen if you continue to bring in more people than you can build houses for?

You get a housing crisis. You get places where rental prices can increase by upward of 25% in a single year. And this just drives inflation higher and higher because people need more money just to keep a roof over their heads.

The saddest thing (and honestly it would be funny if it wasn’t real life) is that some idiot in the government is going to look at the skyrocketing housing prices and conclude that all is well. After all, look at how much Australian’s are worth! Yeah. If you count the skyrocketing house prices as part of net worth, maybe the net worth of Australian’s as a whole will increase, but you’re creating an absolutely miserable situation for everyone else.

#musings

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