#willthewon

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Hey so I think about John Constantine a lot because who doesn't, but lately I've just been thinking about how like, he's often portrayed as like, really competent when it come to magic and I'm just over here like No!! hes a dumbass! he doesn't know what hes doing! sure hes smart at times and he has studied, but typically hes not just doing intricate rituals and casting spells, instead hes relying on other people and his wits, not magic. anyways i have feelings

Honestly and after much thought and soul searching (I don’t have a life) I’ve come to what should’ve been a really obvious conclusion: it’s because if he’s on a team he has to serve a narrative function. Like if you put John on a team he has to be adding something to it, and esp if it’s a team put together by someone else (i mean it would have to be – John’s not going around looking to be involved in anything where he has to be around reliably and do things for other people) it looks bad for the team-maker to have picked john if he’s like, incompetent.

And I don’t think John is really incompetent, i just think the point of John in hellblazer is, he’s selfish and self interested and as good as he needs to be but no more. Hellblazer usually just handwaves it as ‘i did a thing and it worked kinda’, bc Hellblazer is my kind of magic universe that gives no fucks. But he’s good enough at survival and sometimes that means saving the world (seeing as he lives in it) and everything else is just, him bumbling along and bumping into spooky shit (and also never being fully willing to remove himself from the spooky shit life, even when he knows it’s going to ruin his relationships). 

But that’s the sort of personal exploration/commentary that makes sense for a book that’s just about John & his mess. LoT/JLD care less about that -- they just need A Magic User -- and it looks weird if they pick a magic user who’s shit at it, it wouldn’t make any sense, so instead, he’s Good At Magic But A Jerk (who just needs A Team to fix him). And like he is, but as a trope (Competent Man Who’s A Jerk) it’s a little less interesting to me. 

Of course now a lot of the media that should be just John focused (more recent John Constantine-central comics, even the show to a degree) have kind of bought into the idea of him being like, good at stuff and an active character, bc again, that’s a more accessible and traditional narrative. They make him have like actual goals (saving his soul, seeing his mom again, etc) when that wasn’t as much of a thing in Hellblazer. Like the guilt over Astra and even his mother was a thing, but a thing in the way of ‘a reason for John to wallow in how shit he is (and consider leaving Magic behind)’ and not ‘a motive for John to go out into the world and try to take care of supernatural threats.’ 

I mean at least in the show it took some pushing -- having Chas be part of that push, bc he is more goal oriented [and in the comics too, btw: not so much about the magic stuff but about, i’m going to get a job and a wife and a child and be as different as possible from my mother kind of way] was a choice I liked, but in general I always had some trouble with the Manny stuff in terms of ‘here’s your chance to redeem yourself for Astra’ being a goal post John was theoretically working towards. Like he fought against it with some regularity at least, but idk, it was one of my problems with the whole concept of Constantine (2014), which was aggressively network American TV in its framing, with too much focus on ‘oh but look we showed him smoking!!! and being a dick!!!!’ instead of like, thought about why stuff like the smoking and the dickishness and the bisexuality mattered in the comics.

Like the closest the show got to understanding John’s relationship with magic was the bit with Papa Midnite where he was like ‘you use bits and pieces of a million magical traditions with no respect or understanding for them,’ which really highlighted the weird colonial/appropriative nature of John’s magic, but even that seemed to have few if any consequences for john, so :/

[johndapugluva]

@willthewon said i should draw a crab so i did

[thevalesofanduin]

is out there

url aesthetic || @willthewon

[starlitsecrets]

I was tagged by @pearsonsjackThank you!

Rule #1: Tag 9 people you want to get to know better @thingsonvcr @kylezy @willthewon @effyeah-fangirl @living-on-melancholy-hill @vulcankirkspock (don’t feel like you have to do it though :) )

Rule #2: bold the true statements:

I am 5'7 or taller

I wear glasses

I have at least one tattoo

I have at least one piercing

I have blonde hair

My abs are somewhat defined

I have or had braces

I love meeting new people

People tell me I’m funny

Helping people with their problems is a big priority to me

I enjoy physical challenges

I enjoy mental challenges

I’m playfully rude to people I know well

I started to say something ironically, now I can’t stop saying it

There is something I would change about my personality

I can play an instrument

I can sing well

I can do 30 push-ups without stopping

I’m a fast runner

I can draw well

I have a good memory

I’m good at doing Maths in my head

I can hold my breath underwater for over a minute

I have beaten at least two people in an arm wrestle

I know how to cook at least three meals from scratch

I can throw a punch

I enjoy sports

I have learned a new song in the past week

I’ve gone running at least once a week in summer

I work out at least once a week

I have drawn something in the last month

I enjoy writing

I have done martial arts

I have had my first kiss

I have had alcohol

I have scored a winning goal in sports

I have watched an entire season of a TV show in one sitting

I have been to an overnight event

I have been in a taxi

I have been in a hospital/er in the past year

I have beaten a video game in one day

I have visited another country

I have been to one of my favourite band’s concerts

I have at least one person I consider a best friend

I live close to my school

My parents are still together

I have at least one sibling

I live in the US

There is snow right now where I live

I have hung out with friends in the past month

I have a smartphone

I have at least 15 CDs

I share my room with somebody

I have a crush on a celebrity

I have a crush on someone I know

I have been in at least three relationships

I have asked someone out or admitted my feelings to them

I get crushes easily

I have had a crush for over a year

I have been in a relationship for more than a year

I have had feelings for a friend

I have break danced

I know a person called Jamie

I have had a teacher with a last name hard to pronounce

I have dyed my hair

I am listening to a song on repeat right now

I have punched someone in the past week

I have known someone who has gone to jail

I have broken a bone

I have eaten a waffle today

I know what to do with my life

I speak at least 2 languages

I have made a new friend in the last year

[incorrectxfiles]

i just went through your entire blog start to finish...whoops

lmao thanks!!

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I was talking to my dad about John Constantine once (i talk about him to anyone who has ears honestly) and i just called him John, so my dad jokingly tells me 'Thats Mr. Constantine to you' and idk i just find that funny

i love this because either John would hate it or be mortifyingly embarrassed or both if someone called Mr. Constantine. 

I picture either a little kid who has been left alone with him, or like a snooty hotel manager who’s there to question him about the bill he hasn’t paid, or a demon who’s just fucking him for some reason. 

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9 Questions Tag

I was tagged by @willthewon!   

Rules: Answer the 9 questions then tag 9 people you want to get to know better.

Relationship status: Sad?

Favourite colour: Jewel tones -- wine red, deep purple, dark blues & greens

Top* Three Ships:

1. John/Chas

2. Billy Brennan/Alan Grant

3.  Goodnight Robicheaux/Billy Rocks

(*based on how excited I get about new content in the tag, more than how much I like the ship in its ideal form -- which is why finnpoe, which I adore WHEN IT’S GOOD, is not included, as 95% of stuff in the tag makes me want to die)

Lipstick or chapstick: depends on the situation? I hate having chapped lips so I’m always putting on some kind of lip moisturizer (I prefer the eos balls to chapstick tho) but I also like a little color. However, I am an almost 30 year old woman who doesn’t know what actually does constitute a good color on her, so the quest for The Perfect (job & life appropriate) Lipstick continues.

Last song you listened to: "House”, by Patrick Wolf. I uh.............love it a lot. It’s got ridiculously charming (to me) literary references AND ties into my current fantasy of A House In the Country (literally I spent....one weekend in upstate New York and decided that’s The Dream), plus I associate it with a ship that i didn’t list on the top three ship list b/c it’s embarrassing and most of the fic for it is ehhhhhhhhhhh but anyway the song is all swoony and romantic. 

Currently reading: Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution. 

Last movie you watched: Lady Bird! I liked it a lot -- reminded me of that weird high school period where my mom and I loaaaathed each other, tbh.  

I’m tagging: no one b/c i never know who to do