#when i actually look quite a bit like david mazouz

[captainlordauditor]

Noah Schnapp, Moroccan Jew

Jerry Seinfeld, Syrian & Ashkenazi Jew

David Mazouz, Tunisian Israeli Jew

Oded Fehr, Ashkenazi Israeli

Ahed Tamimi, famously blonde Palestinian Arab

I remember that when everything was happening with Noah Schnapp, so many people were saying that ‘he’s a white coloniser!’ ‘he’s clearly European!’ and ‘how are we supposed to think he’s indigenous to the Middle East when he looks like that?!’ They were screaming so much about he couldn’t possibly be from the swana region due to being pale, despite the fact that… wait for it…

Noah Schnapp is a Moroccan Jew.

The exact the same thing happened with Jerry Seinfeld too, despite him being a Syrian Jew.

But what this tells me is that so many American and European leftists fundamentally do not understand what North Africans and Southwest Asians look like. They do not understand that many Middle Eastern groups are pale, many Middle Eastern groups share features with Europeans— I mean, the Middle East literally borders Europe, did you not expect us to have similarities? This stretches back to the ancient world too. We know that in Yehuda there were gingers, as shown by King David*. Iirc, studies on Rameses the second’s remains show that he most likely had an olive tanned complexion and reddish-blondish hair, similar to a European Mediterranean look— which makes total sense seeing as Egypt is literally a Mediterranean country as well

It’s not just Jews. Persians, Kurds, Assyrians, Copts, Amazigh, Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula**, all of these ethnic groups are incredibly diverse in their features, even without any significant genetic influence from other areas. You cannot just project American and European black and white concepts of race onto the Middle East and act as if that is reality. The world is not split into pale people in the north, brown people in the middle, and black people in the south, and if you genuinely believe that then you really need to look at some pictures of the groups that you’re claiming to be the defender of. Please. I’m so tired of this bullshit lol

*I know that the historical evidence for David is shaky at best and we’re not sure if he was real or not (I personally believe it’s a King Arthur sort of situation where there was a real person here that got turned into legend), what I’m trying to say is that if the Ivrim could have a figure like this who was ginger, then the Ivrim clearly had gingers. Nobody come for me please

**not adding other Arabs because there tends to be genetic mixes with other groups, and my point is about how even without distinct genetic markers from each other, middle easterners groups can turn out with a super intense variation in appearance, especially skin tone

[thompsborn]

Which cast do you picture in the Homeward Bound universe? Id assumed it was tom holland’s peter because harley doesn’t exist in the other spidermen’s movies but I also know you’re a Garfield-Spidey fan and that Harry Osborn and Gwen haven’t been MCU’d—just out of curiosity!!

okay hi this is the first of my current EIGHT unanswered hb asks omg. i'm !!!!! actually shaking with excitement about the fact that i'm about to get to ramble SO MUCH about hb holy shit. okay. okay.

so, obviously harley is based off ty simpkins, but i kind of?? like i mean, yes ty literally plays harley lmao, but also i picture him SLIGHTLY differently in my head. like how he looks in endgame i feel is a different vibe than how ty looks irl. i don't know if that makes any sense at all but i can't explain it, it's just like. he looks like ty but to the left. that's harley in my head. i cannot describe it any other way.

hb peter is 100% tom's peter because homeward bound is 100% canon compliant up to no way home (except for some headcanons such as peter having an uncle ben but uncle ben dying when peter was still really little in order to not fuck with the spidey home trilogy being peter's origin story - there are some other headcanons too that i can't remember off the top of my head, but i tried to make all of them align with mcu as much as possible as to not fuck with canon)

for harry and gwen it's not a spoiler for the most part except for one thing is kinda spoilery but not really? it reveals something about one of their characters that has not been established in the fic yet so just to be safe i'm gonna tag this w the spoiler tag and put it under the cut

okay so i'll start with harry

so there's a lot of variations with harry - sometimes he has brown hair, sometimes reddish hair, usually blue eyes, though i love the idea of him having green eyes because. i mean. duh.

i didn't really think of fan casts for him specifically in hb, i haven't really gone in depth with his appearance in any of the chapters, but @alwaysonlineau made the actor from love, simon, nick robinson, the icon for harry's account and now i kind of can't picture anyone else lmao. nick has hazel eyes which can look greenish at times so i'm here for it. also i loved his acting in jurassic world and in love, simon so i think he could pull off harry pretty damn well.

here's the picture of nick robinson that @alwaysonlineau used that i REALLY love because it definitely has harry energy to me:

also i love that nick was in jurassic world with ty lmao. the ages are off obviously, nick is 28 and literally played ty's older brother in that movie, but for the sake of a fan cast i think nick when he was early 20's looks very Harry Osborn to me. at least he feels very fitting for fanon harry.

if someone were to actually play harry in the mcu i don't know if he'd feel super fitting, i've seen people mention harrison osterfield for mcu harry which i could see. i also looked through a list of harry fan casts and david mazouz looks harry like to me a bit. charlie heaton was also listed which idk if he could pull harry off but looks-wise i could kind of see. asher angel. i know timothee chalamet's name has been tossed around a bunch and i mean i think he could do it but he doesn't look like harry to me lmao. they'd have to make his appearance work for it.

maybe charlie rowe, who i also saw listed as a fan cast. asa butterfield was on that list as well and i could see the mcu going that route too. but in homeward bound, i pretty much just envision nick.

as for gwen stacy!

so, i thought this before @alwaysonlineau came back, and i know i'm not the only one because i've seen quite a few posts on here and other sites saying the same thing, especially after across the spider-verse came out and gwen had the trans flag and coloring and such, but i really think that hunter schafer would be an INCREDIBLE gwen.

it hasn't been mentioned in the fic yet (mostly because i didn't think of this until i was already like halfway through the fic and then i didn't officially decide on it until across the spider-verse came out) but gwen is trans in homeward bound. it's gonna be made explicitly clear as soon as i can figure out a fitting reason for why it wouldn't have been mentioned so far - it feels as though, since the fic is peter's pov and he's never mentioned it, it should be that gwen hasn't told him so he doesn't know, which means finding out is going to have to be a thing. not like a huge thing but it's going to have to become a scene of some kind that establishes the fact that she's trans and then also addresses why she didn't tell him/any of them.

i haven't decided on how yet - it might be a super casual thing where she just never thought to mention it because it's just a part of who she is and she doesn't feel the need to tell people because she doesn't think it really matters (and also hunter schafer has stated that she passes as a cis woman i remember seeing an interview after euphoria season one where she was talking about it and how like yeah it's great to have trans inclusion and representation in euphoria but also she knows that she's white and passing and that's probably a big part of why she got the role, which basically i'm mentioning because if hunter were to play gwen then gwen would also be able to pass very easily as a cis woman as well). i might make it a bigger thing, like maybe she experienced something (some kind of transphobia) in the past that made her very wary about telling people and then by the time she wanted to tell them it had been a long time so she didn't know how, etc. etc. etc.

i'm queer but like i'm a cis lesbian not trans or nonbinary or anything, i do have multiple trans friends and i've seen a lot of posts and art and such about different lives and experiences trans people have had but i'm still cis, so if anyone who isn't cis has any input on what they'd like to see, please let me know. i don't want to approach the topic with a lack of sensitivity and i want to have trans rep in hb but if people want it to be a casual thing then that's what i'll do, if people want there to be more to her backstory then i'll do that instead.

but yeah, basically i can REALLY picture hunter as gwen, like some of her acting in euphoria i feel has some potential gwen energy to it (specific scenes, some displays of emotion that i could see gwen having, etc) but also this picture of hunter feels VERY gwen to me:

also also, obviously zendaya is rue in euphoria so her and hunter are friends and have great chemistry together and as a gwemj lover that means a lot to me pdfjg

another possibility i could see is emma meyers, aka enid from wednesday. i think she's a great acctress and could encompass gwen's energy pretty well too, but my first pick would be hunter!

long answer short:

in homeward bound, i picture harry to look like nick robinson and i picture gwen to look like hunter schafer.

[justgotham]

Alfred Pennyworth is about to learn one of the hardest lessons of parenting: letting go. In the Gotham Season 4 finale, the loyal butler left the city with Selina Kyle to oversee her recovery, while his charge Bruce Wayne stayed behind to stop Jeremiah once and for all. Though Alfred will be spending some time outside Gotham with Selina, don't count him out just yet; Gotham star Sean Pertwee promised his character will see some action in Season 5 -- but he may pay a major price for it.

During a set visit in October, Pertwee told CBR about Alfred's role now that Gotham has gone full "No Man's Land." He discussed Alfred's evolving relationship with Selina and how his character sees himself in her. He also teased a crucial fight that "actually has repercussions," a major moment between Alfred and Bruce and more.

CBR: At the end of last season, Bruce struck out on his own. How is Alfred coping with that?

Pertwee: Well, you know, no parent likes it and that's what he is, essentially. He's a parent, and a bit like every parent -- like I'm doing with my own son, who's called Alfred -- you've got to let them fly... It's a tightrope, dealing with a teenager. You've got to be there, you've got to give them parameters, but you also have to let them go. And after his behavior last season, I should have let him go. I should have chucked him off a building, really. Disgraceful! He's so mean to me. I love the fact that the liturgy of fans actually sort of piped up and stuck by Alfred and the support was so evident. It's like, "How do you deal with this guy? He's a nightmare! Bruce of Wall St., or whatever it is." Yeah, so, that's it. Yeah.

How does Alfred's relationship with Selina evolve?

A lot of people have asked that! It's quite interesting, because it was something that's -- John Stephens, I was talking to him about it last night because I've got a couple of quite big scenes with her coming up and I said, well, of course, you know, the thing is the reason why he's like that with [her] is because he sees himself in her, because he was a troubled child and ran with the gangs and everything in the East End of London before he joined the services and he has a very dark past and he sees a lot of himself in her and John Stephens said, "Interesting. I never knew that." [laughs]

So, this is the last season and we have to find a way to give our characters heartbeats and that's what's so clever about our show. When we're developing these characters, you don't leap in. They become the people by Season 5. Everyone has a propensity for violence and goodness and badness. That's what I love about the show. Everyone fails. Everyone's fallible, as was Alfred as a parent. I mean, his parenting skills were a nightmare to begin with but then he learned to love and the boy respected and loved him back. Then they had this very strange relationship and she was part of it. Otherwise, she'd be swimming with the fishes, I imagine. There must have been a reason -- because I said this to John -- I said there must be a reason why he put up with her. You know, she stabbed and kicked my friend out of a window! Stabbed people. Stole from us. Messed with him. Alfred doesn't take kindly to that, so I had to find a reason for it, and it's because he sees himself in her and he knows that he cares for her.

Alfred is truly a man of action. Does that continue in Season 5?

Yes. [laughs] That's all I can say! There's not as much, because -- as you know -- I've had some legendary altercations with people... the stunt guys Norman [Douglass] and Turner [Smith] have allowed me to do all my own fights, which I love to doing. My wife doesn't like it when I do them, because I come home black and blue and I don't bounce like I used to, but yeah, there's a massive one coming up, which actually has repercussions, and I can't say anymore.

Do you have a favorite moment or scene from Season 5?

No, I haven't shot it yet. I know what it is, and I can't wait. We've had very little alone time, and we always have that. Bruce and I, we have culmination scenes; when he discovers, like, "Thou shall not kill" and I say, "Say it again." Which is like the mantra for Batman, and that was an amazing moment for us, to say that, because David [Mazouz] being a huge Batman fan, it's a huge part of his character, and he gets there with Alfred, whereas Alfred has absolutely no worries about knocking someone off or killing somebody. So there's a couple of scenes coming that I'm really looking forward to and with the man, but they haven't happened yet, so that's all I can say.

[babybatcatandco]

Gotham Season 4B Trailer Breakdown

So I was going through the trailer frame by frame, as you do, and I have some thoughts/theories:

So Bruce is breaking the suit out again. I think it’s going to take place post-vision where he sees his Darkness™ personified. I’m really hoping he gets over this angsty stage and spends like three months apologizing to Alfred.

Further evidence of some kind of mind-whammy changing Bruce’s perspective. The speaking over this is Bruce explaining to Jim that he thinks he’s seen who he really is. I’ve been saying for a bit now that S4 is really laying the groundwork for who Bruce and Co. become later on, and I think this is a big moment. Also, it looks like they’ve got David in the same outfit as the earlier screenshot, so I’m willing to bet that this all takes place post-Bruce’s vision.

We’ve got Jim and Barbara in what I think is her club. There are some people dancing in the right of the next frame. The decor here looks similar to what I can remember the Artemis as looking, but I think we’ve seen enough of Barbara’s penchant for old-timey, almost art-deco furniture and fashion to assume that this is her club. Her outfit has a very similar vibe, very 1920′s flapper aesthetic. I’m willing to bet Jim is asking for her help with something he can’t get on his own, whether he’s outfoxed or he just needs her to do something illegal for him.

Jim and who looks to be Harper are at a crime scene here. We can’t tell much about the victim, but Jim’s holding an evidence bag and their face looks pretty torn up. I don’t want to go out on a limb and say Jerome yet, because from what I can tell he’s still in Arkham. I’m thinking this is the mystery Jim goes to Barbara about.

Jim’s threatening Sofia, and I have a feeling a good portion of 4b is going to be him trying to get her off his back. I see no immediate change in Sofia’s goals at the moment; I think she’ll be trying to consolidate her power in Gotham, which is what makes Jim going to Barbara so curious. I wonder if they’ll have a moment where he plays on her pride and asks if she’ll let someone lord over her or something in that vein.

We’ve got an enraged Lee on our hands here. The ‘Heavy Hitters’ poster on the wall, as well as just the set in general and the fact that Sofia’s walking into a room while Lee waits, tells me we’re in Lee’s territory in the Narrows. Sofia’s also got her gloating face on, and Lee’s very visibly upset and threatening her. I think the bad blood here is tied to Sofia gaining complete control over Gotham. I don’t know if she’s refusing to have other gangs around acting as viziers like we’ve seen before, so she wants Lee gone, or if Lee’s people love her too much, or Lee’s just being stubborn about something, but I think Sofia’s done something horrible. Knowing Lee and her weaknesses, Sofia’s probably done something cruel to the poor people in the Narrows and now Lee’s being a protective mama bear.

Jim and Lucius are exiting a store, you can’t quite tell here but it has a clown and the name KRANK on the window, so I’m thinking something Jerome-related. Jim’s obviously distressed though, as he’s reaching for his gun.

My baby girl is peering into a window here. The stairs look a little wooden to be a fire escape, but you tell by the window frame and that the curtain is closer to the camera that she’s on the outside. Very similar lighting/colour palette to the apartment we see her and Ivy in later, but then Gotham does love its shadowy grays.

A burning mask. Looks practically identical to Bruce’s but it’s white. I don’t know why but it’s giving me some Court of Owls vibes, but I doubt the two are related at all. White tends to be coded as the colour of innocence and purity, so it might be tied to Bruce’s vision/representative of him embracing his darkness.

The second screenshot is from a bit earlier, but they have very similar gold set design/GCPD officers running around, which you see a lot in this trailer. Some catastrophe is happening, no clue if it’s Ivy or Jerome related or someone else wreaking havoc. Bruce has a very ‘oh shit’ expression (props again to David Mazouz, he and Camren Bicondova are so talented at such a young age), so I wonder if he’s going to break out some vigilante justice and we’ll get to see proto-Batman and Jim interact.

THE KIDS ARE BACK TOGETHER AND MY HEART IS FILLED WITH JOY. Ahem, so, Selina’s asking Bruce for his help, and he’s looking pretty receptive. I really think whatever vision he goes through takes place very early in the season, if not the first episode. If he was still in Billionaire-Brat mode I don’t think he’d be as willing to hear Selina out (plus the tail end of 4A wasn’t very focused on him and his development, so I think to make up for it we’re going to get a lot from him right out of the gate. @the Gotham writers please have Selina be like ‘what the actual fuck’ when Bruce tells her Alfred’s gone.) Their posture is halfway between open and closed off; they’ve got their arms extended between them with ‘let’s make a deal’ fists, but they’re both leaning forward towards each other. Also, it sounds like they’re making up?

So this scene literally reduced me to incoherency (please tell me the first two shots are them giving each other the side-eye like ‘we’re gonna fuck shit up?’, ‘yeah we’re gonna fuck shit up’, boom, action scene) and I had to go back and rewatch it like a million times over, but the children are officially back to kicking ass and taking names together. I’m willing to bet this is what Selina needs help with, and the set makes me think that this is a fence, what with all the antiquated knick-knacks kicking around. Maybe Selina lost an important item, or someone stole from her, or this is related to an overarching plot we can’t see yet? Either way, my soul is healed. And if that ‘cup your jaw, hand dragging down your chest as I walk away’ move wasn’t the most BATCAT thing I have yet to see on this show. AND THEY’RE SMILING. Well Selina definitely is, Bruce looks a little more wistful, or kind of like ‘oh shit she’s getting under my skin again’.

We’re getting our first good look at Jerome and Oswald! It looks like Jerome’s built up his own little gang at Arkham, and he’s demanding Oswald make him laugh. The lighting/set looks pretty different in the last two screenshots, so I think it’s at a later date, but I could be wrong. Jerome’s costume is a bit altered though, his shirt is on and buttoned before. It looks like Jerome has got some kind of gladiatorial ring on the go here, and during their fight he’s got a hammer while Oswald is fighting bare-fisted. It looks as though Oswald wins, and the set-up makes me think it’s some kind of fight for respect or power. I’m excited to see what Jerome’s got going on this season, as he’s being played to perfection by Cameron Monaghan as per usual.

And we get to see Ivy! They’ve recast Maggie Geha, and I will miss her until the day I die. (Peyton List is a great actress though.) She’s looking pretty badass, the sweater seems like a callback to Clare Foley’s Ivy. It looks like she’s got her full-on powers nowadays, and the man it looks like she was feeding off of is wearing what seems to me like a GCPD uniform, might explain why Jim’s got an APB (basically a modern wanted poster) out for her. That bottle on the shelf to her left shows up later in the trailer, interestingly enough.

The decor of the apartment she’s breaking into gives me Barbara vibes, and it seems to have similar lighting as the earlier shot of Selina looking through that window, as well as when we see her and Ivy talk later. I have a feeling she’s looking for Selina/wants Selina to leave Tabby and Barbara to join her. And Ivy’s cracked at this point, the trailer description says she’s looking to make Gotham her green paradise, so I think Selina will have a ‘wtf no’ moment.

And here we find Selina’s ‘wtf no’ moment. I think she’ll go along with Ivy in the beginning out of fondness/nostalgia, but I think Ivy’s going to be on the kind of crazy kick Selina can’t condone. I think we’re really going to start seeing Selina’s moral greyness, and possibly the more altruistic, ‘good guy’ side of her. Knowing Ivy this is a part of her ‘kill all people who harm the ecosystem’ schtick.

Ed! He still looks decidedly un-Riddlerish. He’s delivering one of the funnier lines, “oh that is so Gotham.” I think that this is about whatever crime he came to Babs about, and now he’s there to talk to either Ed or Lee. Either that or he’s looking for their help to boot Sofia out of the criminal underworld.

Ivy and the girls at what looks like the nightclub. Babs is still wearing the same dress as when she was talking to Jim. These are two very differently placed shots though, the first isn’t a reaction, Selina’s standing in different places. Same dress, however, so the same night/thread of scenes. Ivy’s probably there either to ask for their help with her grand plan, or to retrieve Selina.  

Bruce is again, sadly, wearing a turtleneck and a blazer. Tragic. He looks like he’s giving a press conference or something though, and this shot flashes as Ivy says “you have no idea what’s really going on at your company, do you?” So there’s some business intrigue going on with Wayne Enterprises, and this is probably Bruce making a ballsy move or trying to assess what’s on the go.

Speaking of, here’s that discussion. I think whatever hidden motive Ivy’s got going on is tied to whatever what’s on the go with Wayne Enterprises. I also think that Ivy’s got some kind of weird superpower going on, and this is where Bruce gets mind-whammied with his vision. I can’t see another reason for her to kiss him, (which I lowkey feel kind of weird about as a sixteen-year-old? Like art is art, and I’m sure everyone consented and jazz, but I don’t know it gives me the creepy crawlies) unless she’s compelling him to do something for her/give her something/tell her information.

So these look pretty different from the other shots of Bruce’s vision, and I think they might be separate. I think at least one of them is Ivy-related, and I’d put my money on this one. We see Ra’s with his dagger, dressed pretty strangely. I think the second shot is Bruce being tugged into the vision, and Ra’s is doing the tugging because you can see that he’s wearing the same pair of black leather gloves in both shots, and they have a similar red, wispy outline. I think Bruce’s vision is going to have him confront killing Ra’s, and openly face his darker parts. I think Jim and Selina are going to play a big role there, as they’re two very morally gray characters and Jim reminds Bruce in the beginning of the trailer that he isn’t alone.

So Bruce’s vision is kind of divided into three, the first one with Ra’s, now this part where he’s standing in an alley and is pounced upon by the same dark, masked figure we see later. The lighting is similar enough between the second and last portions of the vision that I can see them being the same scene, with the transition probably happening as we see the figure jump on Bruce.

So here we have the bulk of Bruce’s vision, with the dark figure informing him that he is “the one you cannot escape, the one you cannot kill.” I don’t know if this is related to Ra’s (snide ‘you can’t kill me’ remark) or if it’s the metaphysical embodiment of the darker side of Bruce, or if it’s similar to the creepy old monk guy (whose name I headcanon as Dante, bc A) that’s just a cool name for a monk, and B) the actor plays President Dante on The 100) where Bruce is getting his mind manipulated again. Time will tell.

We’ve got Ivy and Lucius! She’s got a bottle of some green, glowy thing. Might’ve compelled Lucius to make it for her, might be stealing it, who knows. It looks very similar to a bottle back in her apartment:

They’re not entirely the same, the shape is a little different and the second one has naturally green glass, but I can’t see it being a throwaway detail. Maybe she’s run out of whatever the bottle contains so she needs Lucius to make her more.

It starts to devolve into a montage here, so we’ve got Oswald in a suit and top hat in what looks to be a party setting, and the wavey effect could either be for the montage or to show that it’s a hallucination, and I’m betting on the latter. I think Arkham is going to push him to the limits of his ‘sanity’ all over again. Arkham has always been Oswald’s lowest point, his ‘rock-bottom’.

We’ve got Ed here in his Riddler gear, and the decor/henchman in the back makes me think that this is Sofia’s place. Probably later on in the season, and it looks as though he’s been tortured maybe, what with the blood? It being all over his mouth like that makes me think of Jerome, so it might be connected to him and Oswald somehow.

Jim’s flat on his back in what looks to be a hospital or kitchen setting. Could be a chase, but the intensity/length of the shot makes me feel like he’s in a dire situation. The lighting and set look very similar to this shot of Sofia, as she says “you!” all menacingly. She could be talking to either Jim or someone else who’s attacking them both.

I think this is Lee either in a fight at her place, or just beating the shit out of someone there. The stairs/rest of the set tell us this is her club/fight ring, and she looks pissed as hell. I think it’s related to the earlier situation with Sofia, I can’t see her flying off the handle unless it’s a situation like that.

Harvey’s got his gun back, so I think he returns to the GCPD at some point in 4B. Can’t see it happening off the bat, but it looks like he’s infiltrating Arkham. I think it’ll be either midway through or at the finale of 4B when things with Jerome and Oswald start coming to a head.

So Barbara is spotting Ra’s in the crowd at her club. (Also this is how you can tell Gotham reuses extras bc that girl in the silver, sparkly dress walked in front of Babs and crew earlier in the trailer, but she’s dressed entirely differently so it has to be a new thread of scenes, despite Barbara’s penchant for dramatic costume changes.) Since Ra’s is very, very dead this has to be a hallucination, and I think it’s because Ra’s passed whatever he had been attempting to pass on to Bruce, on to Barbara at Blackgate. I don’t know how Gotham is going to play the Heir to the Demon’s Head thing here, but I’m excited to see what they come up with.

Oswald is out of Arkham, wearing a very warm coat that looks a little frosted over, and pointing a gun. Could have had a run-in with Victor, but you can tell this isn’t a hallucination because he’s wearing his prisoner uniform underneath the coat. Probably later on in 4B.

Ed is looking very unstable, and this is probably the moment where he transitions from Ed back to the Riddler. I’m thinking it’ll be somewhere around mid-way through 4B.

Ivy’s telling Selina here, “let’s make Gotham our bitch,” and the set/lighting looks very similar to when Ivy kicked that door in. I think this is where Selina lives with Tabitha/Barbara, and this is where Ivy tries to rope Selina in on her scheme, and Selina eventually watches her kill that man.

We’ve got Jim talking to who looks like Alfred, right as an explosion occurs. There are too many subplots being thrown around to pinpoint which one might have caused the explosion, but I’m more interested in Alfred and Jim’s conversation. Nine times out of ten if they’re communicating it’s about Bruce, so I think it might be about whatever shady shit is going down at Wayne Enterprises.

Jerome and Oswald again. I’d like to point out while we’re here that Jerome has really started taking on the physical aspects of the Joker, the smile, the gloves, the shoes. He’s asking Oswald to help him find the “crème de la crazy”, and it looks like it’s after their fight since they’re both a little bloodied up.

I really wish the lighting wasn’t like this?? Who is Ivy feeding on? The hair kind of looks like Alfred’s ngl, and I swear if she hurts my son I will pop through the screen and fight her. I’m really curious as to how they’re framing Ivy’s powers here though, it looks like she has full control over plants. 

So that was my ridiculously long analysis of the 4B trailer, it’s looking really great and I can’t wait to see where they take it all. I’ll probably elaborate on specific points in the future, especially when the season starts to pick up, or if I have any sudden epiphanies.

[gojaimas]

Chapter 35 Comment Replies

csgt: “Oh, I forgot to mention it in the past chapter, but I definitely got the feeling that Ben having a new normal watch and Gwen replacing the charm with a normal locket means the definitive end of the ‘hero’ part of their story”

Yeah, pretty much. They’re moving on to new stages in their lives as they grow up.

csgt: “So Lucy is now developing real feelings for both Ben and Gwen? Ohhh, that complicates things… Maybe she will find someone else and get over them? Even though now I’m seeing the chances of ‘Bwenucy’ happening raise a little (maybe 5 percent now instead of 1 percent?)”

Things are a little more complicated now. People have been noticing for a while that there is a chance of the story going in the Bwency direction, so this probably made it seem more likely to everyone. You’ll just have to see how it plays out over the rest of the year.

Davidscrazy234: “If this was made into a live action show, like Arrow and The Flash which cast person would u choose for Ben, Gwen, and Lucy?”

Ooh, there’s a fun question! Let’s see…

For Ben, I’d go with David Mazouz, AKA young Bruce Wayne in Gotham. The scenes where he’s partying and pretending to be a spoiled rich kid makes me think he could totally pull off Ben, plus beating the crap out of bad guys is right up his alley.

For Gwen, I’d say Sadie Sink, AKA Max from the second season of Stranger Things. I’ll admit it’s mostly because she’s a fierce redhead, but she seems talented enough to pull off a character who’s pretty much the exact opposite of Max as well.

And then for Lucy, I’d pick Elsie Fisher, AKA the voice of Agnes in the Despicable Me movies. She did a live action film with Bo Burnham recently too. She’s such a sweet girl and just seems like a constant ray of sunshine, I think she’d be perfect for Lucy.

These actors are 15-17 years old now, so I guess it could only work as a sequel to my story at this point, but they would’ve been perfect for it if the series had started like 4 or 5 years ago.

Guest: “I have a question- is Gwen shorter than Ben in this story? Otherwise she wouldn’t have been able to lean into his chest without having her butt stick out awkwardly.”

Haha, yes, Ben is the taller one now. Gwen used to be taller than him, but he hit his growth spurt and surpassed her, which I sort of eluded to a couple times in Year 3. I remember Ben Ten Thousand being really tall, so I figured this was how they would turn out. The drawing I did of them for the story image is a little closer to what I imagine their current relative heights are now.

Guest: “I’m like the track you’re heading with. Lucy was only featured in one episode in the original and she had so much potential, I always kept an eye out for her. Her characteristics stood out. The wedding when Ben danced with Gwen and then Lucy were really sweet moments. Came for a Bwen fanfic but I’m also in love with Lucy.”

You and me both, my friend. Lucy wasn’t even in the character list for Ben 10 fanfictions until I started this story. If nothing else comes from it, I hope people start to like her a bit more.

Jagcity: “Just a little side inquiry, it seems that Frank loves his daughter (or at least checks up on her) more than Natalie does; I guess Gwen’s mom is simply the stern and frowny type.”

Gwen’s dad is a softie, sort of a typical doting father. Her mom is much more strict, but she’s definitely the one who pushes her to succeed more, which Gwen is mature enough to be thankful for. Ben still finds Natalie mean and scary, and it confuses him that Gwen doesn’t seem to see her that way at all.

Guest: “that bathroom scene was the first time we’ve seen Lucy expressing her true intentions and emotions behind her cherrful happy go lucky mask and she seems to be conflicted… she cares for others which is why she wants Ben and Gwen to be there for each other but at the same, even though I can’t say she’s human, she’s got emotions. She’s just better at hiding it like Ben.”

We have seen her “mask” slip before, which I think is a good way to put it. Back in the summer of Year 2, she broke down because Joel and Camille were missing. That was an unrelated matter, but I hope it effectively foreshadowed how Lucy might not always be the cheerful, happy go lucky girl she appears to be.

Guest: “This was a really effective chapter and it only was that way because of the events and progression leading up to it.”

THANK YOU! Yes! Now you all know why I had to write a story the length of a Harry Potter book before reaching this point. I hope the payoff was worth the wait.

Guest: “I don’t know how to root for right now, it’s like Toradora all over again.”

I’m really glad you brought up Toradora, which is hands down one of the best romance anime out there. It wasn’t one of the biggest inspirations for my story (which would probably be Oreimo in addition to Little Moments), but I can definitely see the similarities.

Guest: “Since you mentioned you’re in college, what’re your aspirations and plans for the future? You’d do great as a author, writer for animes, characters and novels judging by what I’ve seen from you. You seem to have an interest in gaming so you could have a certain paths on that or just take it as a way to kill time. Whatever you’re gonna be in the future you sure as hell are gonna be successful”

Thank you for saying so! I actually graduated about a year ago, but I started writing this story while I was still in college. I’m currently working as an engineer at a medical device company. I have no real training or experience as an author, so I’ll probably just stick with fanfiction as a hobby for now. I’m also learning to draw in the anime art style, so maybe I’ll try making a fan manga at some point as well. In the past, I’ve competed in really low level Super Smash Bros and Magic the Gathering tournaments, but I couldn’t see myself making a career out of it. In about a year or two, I plan to decide if I wanna stick with what I’m doing or go back to school for a bit to transition into something else. I have a friend who got into the game design industry after he graduated, which is something I would love to do as well. Becoming a teacher is another option since I like working with kids and I used to tutor other students in math, science, and programming, plus my aunt is a middle school math teacher. I also have a friend who got into writing for television after he graduated. I was mostly joking, but I already made him promise that if he ever somehow makes it big and gets his own cartoon, he’ll let me voice the villain since I’m “basically already the villain in his life.” I know a lot of my readers are in college, so I just wanna say to all of you that life can be pretty cool after you graduate, and I hope you all do as well as my friends and I have.

Guest: “Do you think Joel is dead in the Last of Us Part 2”

I don’t think so. Wasn’t he in the trailer? Either way, I know I’m gonna play the shit out of that game the second it comes out.

Guest: “God. Been reading from December and this story’s at the TOP of the Ben 10 fanfic section, well deserved. Gosh bless”

Is it really? Awesome! Also, I thought it was funny how you start the comment with “God” and then switch to “Gosh bless” at the end. Lucy prefers “Glob” because she’s a fan of Adventure Time.

Guest: “‘Shut up and put your hands around me’ Gwen is such a tsundere lmao”

Haha, absolutely! I love tsunderes. Totally my type.

Guest: “Since you haven’t seen Alien Force... did you by any chance check out Omniverse since some flashbacks involve the friendship Gwen, Lucy and Ben.”

I only watched a few episodes of Omniverse. I even specifically sought out the episodes that had Lucy in them because I wanted more of her. The show didn’t really appeal to me, but I enjoyed the episodes I saw and the Lucy ones were helpful for crafting her character in my story.

Guest: “We all know Ben and Gwen are gonna end up together and you also mentioned you might write epilogue one shots would it be possible to also write a optionn B) alternative ending where Ben and Lucy got together or would that not fit with the course of the story you’re taking in? Just like how they did Amigami SS, in each 5 episodes, they pair the MC with a girl in alternative ways and timelines of course to see how it would’ve played out. I feel bad for Lucy to be left out and as much as I love Bwen as she does, wish she had her chance too.”

The Bwen ending and the Bwency ending are the only ones that are really on the table right now. I will say that the ending is one of those two options, but I am willing to write an alternate ending for the other one. It’s hard to imagine a Ben/Lucy ending that wouldn’t be completely soul-crushing for Gwen, but I might consider giving it a shot.

Guest: “‘Beeeeeeeen! You...you...You're doing it wrong!’ ‘Give it a rest Dweeb, I'm doing the best I can.’ ‘Ahhhhhhh...Ouch! Wrong hole, Doofus! Do you even know what you're doing down there!?’ ‘Maybe I should've just asked Lucy for help...’”

Hey! How did you get my manuscript for Year 5?? I mean, uh...get this filth out of my Christian Minecraft server.

Guest: “Just wondering, but is this a purely Bwen fic? It seems kinda sad that I read 200K words thinking that Lucy doesn't really stand a chance. I was wondering how much of a jump it would take for all three of them to get together but it doesn't really matter anyways since you already finished writing this work. I just found this piece about 3 days ago and I gotta say I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I look forward to reading what kind of ending you have in store for these characters.”

It’s not purely a Bwen fic. It was my intention for everyone to know Ben and Gwen were going to end up together from the start, but for it to be unclear at this point if Lucy will be involved with them as well. Some of my readers are more convinced it will happen than others, but like I said earlier, I am willing to write both endings. Only one of them is written right now though.

[davidmann95]

Since you've listed the preferences of the Superman actors, and also have done a FrankenBatman, can you do a similar worst to best list of the Batman actors in your opinion?

Skipping over Lewis Wilson and Robert Lowrey, as I haven’t seen the Batman film serials:

9. Dick Gautier

Adam West’s fill-in for a 1974 Equal Pay PSA, his impression is far from up to snuff, with not an iota of West’s hilariously sincere conviction.

8. Val Kilmer

I’m what might be called a Batman Forever apologist - as opposed to Batman and Robin, which requires no apologies - but Val Kilmer’s flat, passionless performance is certainly not one of the aspects I would leap to the defense of. I suppose he deserves some credit for being the last to wear an acceptable big-screen Batman costume for 21 years, but bleak as 1995-2016 was in that regard, no cowl is enough to cover up that he just wasn’t a very good Batman.

7. Bruce Thomas

The Onstar Batman may not have had a chance to make much of an impression in his 6 commercials - nor did he give any kind of impression that there was some kind of grand take on the character just waiting to show itself - but he did pretty well with what time he had, with some decent comic timing and a straight-faced attitude to fighting the Joker, Penguin, and Riddler that managed the tricky balancing act of showing a serious version of Batman who regardless still clearly enjoyed his job.

6. Michael Keaton

I’m not totally certain I ever fully bought Keaton as Batman - his greatest performance in superhero movies wouldn’t come until, of all things, his time as the Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming - but I still most certainly bought him as an unhinged trust fund millionaire who would beat the snot out of sword-wielding street punks and a sewer-dwelling Danny DeVito, and that goes a long way. Plus he casually backhanded that one guy so fantastically it’s been a cultural shorthand for how awesome Batman is ever since.

5. George Clooney

While he delivered maybe the 5th-best performance of the thoroughly amazing Batman and Robin, it was regardless a seriously underrated one. His Batman may not have quite found the line overall between serious and camp it seemed to be aiming for, but he still had a number of great individual moments under the cowl, he was a smooth as hell Bruce Wayne, and his work bouncing off Michael Gough’s Alfred and Chris O’Donnell as Robin was A+ all the way. If nothing else, his delivery of “She wants to kill you, Dick” was Oscar-worthy.

4. David Mazouz

From what fairly little I’ve seen, Gotham is an utterly bonkers and entertaining Batman show at its heart, but one utterly and irrevocably crippled by a delusional self-image of actually being about Jim Gordon and generic cop show bullshit, rather than baby Batman hanging out with baby Catwoman under the world’s crankiest babysitter in Alfred as supervillains ham it up at each other. Insomuch as there’s a soul to the thing though, it has to be Mazouz, who pulls off a solid performance of a Bruce Wayne who deep down is already very much Batman, but in spite of his willpower and conviction simply doesn’t yet have the skill, maturity or perspective as to how to apply himself yet, with all the frustration that brings as he figures it out a bit at a time. Seeing him confront his parents’ killer or hold strong in the face of Cameron Monaghan’s proto-Joker, it’s honestly difficult to believe he’s even operating in the same genre as most of his co-stars, much less the same actual program.

3. Ben Affleck

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice has a boatload of sins to be held accountable for, but the casting of Affleck as the caped crusader to fill Bale’s considerable shoes was not one of them. His Bruce Wayne is simultaneously genuinely charming while having *just* enough of an air of sleaze that he’d be believably overlooked, while his Batman…well, feels like Batman in a way no one else has quite matched, with the kind of visceral, focused intensity and righteous hate you’d expect from a guy who’s spent almost of a quarter of a century trying to fist-fight crime into submission, with an entire unseen history of allies lost and ground wars against brilliant, sociopathic crimelord-artists, while still showing the kind of sympathy in his rescue of Martha Kent and encounter with Deadshot in Suicide Squad to make clear there’s a soul underneath. While he hasn’t gotten a proper opportunity to strut his stuff yet - even the most generous interpretations of this version up to this point hold that he was *intentionally* being written entirely out of his character in his debut - if Matt Reeves and Chris Terrio bring it for The Batman, I could absolutely see him topping this list down the line (especially if they don’t try and fix what’s broken with that suit, the first palatable modern take on his uniform that only makes him look all the more like he stepped off the page).

2. Christian Bale

If Christian Bale committed a single sin in his tenure as Batman, it was that when he screamed “SWEAR TO ME!!!!!!” in that one crooked cops’ face before dropping him 10 stories, stopping him right above the ground, and then having him fall on his face, he was fully conscious that it was the hypest shit of all time, and mistakenly believed his Batman voice should be at that level of intensity all the time rather than the lighter degree of raspiness he went with in Begins. The voice aside though - I think it largely worked given it was meant to scare the shit out of muggers, though I’ll admit it really did get to be a bit much in Rises - he was tremendously better as both Bruce Wayne and especially Batman than he was ever really given credit for at the time. It’s not entirely surprising; he was surrounded by bold, charismatic figures being pushed to their limits and capital-A Acting, while the very nature of what he was doing meant keeping it a bit more emotionally reserved. But his Bruce Wayne was almost immaculate in his grand douchebaggery, his sparring with Alfred gave us some of those characters’ best scenes in their almost 75 year relationship, and his Batman was haunting, enraged, and unstoppable. I suspect he could have been pushed a bit farther though; while I entirely disagree with the notion of Christopher Nolan’s films being cold and emotionless, I feel like a lot of the time he was played a note or two low in terms of intensity when taking it further could have made him stand out much more, and made clearer his actions under the cowl were as much an extension of his personal rage as an act to frighten the superstitious and cowardly. Regardless, he can absolutely hold his head high as the definitive modern interpretation of the character to the world at large.

1. Adam West

With every Batman up above, there’s always at least one ‘but’. They were great except; he’d be perfect if not; so on and so forth. That is not the case with Adam West. The superheroes’ superhero, he was the ultimate straight man to a world of camp madness, whether refusing to throw a bomb in a lake when it’d endanger a group of ducklings, making leaps of deduction that held more in common with dadaist poetry than criminal psychology with a 100% success rate, or somehow summoning up the willpower to not stop Batmaning to go run off into the sunset with Julie Newmar’s impossibly gorgeous Catwoman. The epitome of Batman as father-figure, dedicated keeper of public order, and crimefighting savant - as well as a damn smooth Bruce Wayne - he leapt off the pages of the New Look-era titles and defined a platonic ideal of decent-hearted superheroism that carries weight to this day. More than any to succeed him to date, he was a perfect, hilarious embodiment of his time’s vision of Batman, taking it to a level that can truly be said to have redefined the character to an extent no one else to wear the cape has come close to matching.