#yes he’s a jewish marvel man

[johannestevans]

Woe, Boypussy Be Upon Ye: Transing Characters in Fanfic & Fanart

What’s the deal with envisioning your blorbos as transgender?

Originally published in Prism & Pen. Also on my Patreon.

It’s a meme, I made it. Here it is.

It’s been unbelievably positive for me as a trans dude, the change in approach to trans characters in fandom and subsequently in media in general, and I just wanted to write a bit about my experiences with the cultural shift and how positive it’s been for me personally.

What’s weird about people in fandom confidently, nay casually, writing characters as transgender and just having them be a regular dude with a pussy or a regular girl with a dick is that like… I remember when it wasn’t a thing.

Back in 2009, for example, which was a big time for fandom — Superwholock was running rampant, Star Trek (2009) had just gotten a new generation of fans into Trek — or even in 2012, when Les Misérables (2012) had dropped and gotten new people into Les Mis, or when the Hobbit had revamped a lot of interest in Tolkien’s books and the original Lord of the Rings films, not to mention The Hobbit itself, none of this even getting into the Marvel movies, like…

It just. It wasn’t a thing.

Sure, there were transgender characters around, characters that people wrote as trans, but I remember it so strongly as being very niche. It was deep, emotional work where people had to work to “justify” the emotional work they were doing, and even then, they couldn’t just say a character was trans and be chill about it. In order to justify a character being transgender, one had to put in mountains of evidence, or admit the trans perspective was a genderbend of sorts.

For me, I’m pretty sure the moment when things started to change was when I was reading and writing a lot of Loki-centred fanfiction, roundabout 2014–2017 — and the more permissive culture was very much borne of Loki being seen as an exception.

Loki, of the Marvel film and comics, is an alien secretly kidnapped and adopted into the Odinson family, and is known to change his body and appearance frequently, including changing his apparent gender or expression.

He was, in the comic canon (not to mention the original Norse mythologies) quite genderfluid, after all, so even if you didn’t refer to him as explicitly transgender, you could explore him as being some variety of genderfluid, nonbinary, or intersex — as an alien, as a Jötnar as opposed to being AEsir like Thor or Odin, as a god.

But then things changed a bit more.

Welcome to Night Vale, a weird narrative horror podcast, started in 2012, and one thing you could rely on from a lot of fanfics is that people might have weird or alien or otherwise not-not cisgender but not entirely cisgender genitals either. The Magnus Archives, also a narrative horror podcast, started in 2016, and when I got into the fandom in roundabout 2019, which is also when the new Good Omens TV show was due to release and there was a resurgence of interest in the book as well, I remember experiencing a sort of newfound thing where like…

I’d had a mental block around writing many trans characters, before — I could create my own characters who were trans, but a big part of me still felt like I wasn’t allowed to just make a canon character trans if they’d never been mentioned as being trans before or made explicitly trans.

What was it that stopped me?

My own dysphoria? Perhaps a little. Maybe some lacking self-confidence.

Most of all, it just felt as though I couldn’t justify it. I couldn’t justify seeing a cis man written by cis people in a cis show and saying, “Hey, no, he’s like me, actually” — even though I could easily do it about the same character being gay or Jewish or even chronically ill or disabled.

It was like there was a mental block inside me I just couldn’t get past.

I still had a lot of the old online cultural expectations stamped onto me, I think, even being an out trans man who knew many many other trans and intersex and nonbinary people of every gender imaginable in fandom.

I think for Welcome to Night Vale and then especially for The Magnus Archives, part of what made it so easy for people to write and envisage different characters as trans, the fact that there was such limited physical description of characters, the fact that you were attached to them by their voices alone, allowed people to envisage them in whatever way they liked.

In The Magnus Archives, most of the main characters are envisaged as trans in one way or another — Daisy Tonner particularly is explored with all flavours of butch dykey complexity, trans in whichever ways or directions are juiciest and most interesting. But for so many of the characters — from Jonathan Sims and Martin Blackwood to Sasha James and Tim Stoker to Elias Bouchard to Peter Lukas to any of the other Entities — there is no end to the characters people will explore or envisage as trans or nonbinary or just straight-up outside of gender or gender-weird.

No one has to justify a period character being trans with no problems. Loads of people write Izzy Hands or Stede Bonnet or Edward Teach, as being trans in Our Flag Means Death alongside the canonic nonbinary character Jim Jimenez. Any and all characters, trans or otherwise, are invited to participate in ye olde top surgery performed by Roach, the ship’s surgeon, or somehow get hold of ye olde hormones in whatever handwavy way necessary, and it’s cool and fine.

And what’s wonderful for me is the way I see the current approach to trans characters gleefully and delightedly applied to fandoms that are years if not decades old.

I see people write House MD fanfic now where they just go, right from the beginning, yeah this or that character is trans, and they’ve always been trans, and it’s chill. What if James Wilson was trans? It’d rock, that’s what. What if Greg House was trans? Yeah, he’d probably do his own T-shots under the table.

People write Spock as trans now, or guys from M*A*S*H, or Jean Valjean.

What if in the X-Files Dana Scully and Fox Mulder were T4T? Makes complete sense, and also, the idea fucks absolutely. They’re already so lesbian vibes for each other, it fits perfectly.

I wrote a silly little Tumblr post a few weeks ago envisioning Morticia and Gomez Addams as T4T, and it blew up immediately — I think about how if I’d made that most a decade ago it would have been met with crickets, if not a bit of scorn, and not just from transphobes, but just people who like me at that time hadn’t been able to relax and have fun with it.

That’s the real crux of the matter, the impact a lot of fandom has made on me and the way that trans characterisation is approached, the hunger I have for trans characterisation now — it’s the idea of being trans as joyful and delightful, as inherently fun and sexy, but also just as being something every day and normal. A detail you can include as casually in your interpretation of a canon character as any other headcanon.

There’s a beautiful freedom in it, and I’m so grateful to have been able to learn from and grow because of other trans people paving the way with their confident headcanons and delving into trans ideas in their fic.

It’s done wonders for me everywhere — not just in my fanfic, but most of all in the original works I pen now, each one of them featuring trans character after trans character.

#musings #fandom #fandom culture

[littleabriel-blog]

Why You Shouldn't Watch Loki S2

With Season 2 of that show making its debut tomorrow, I thought I would make one last ditch effort to convince people not to watch it. It's not just because it's a horrible show that makes a mockery of my favorite Marvel character. There are a lot of problematic elements that contribute to the long list of reasons why people should not give Disney their money or ratings.

I am imploring people, one last time: If you must hate-watch the season, pirate it. If you must watch with some lingering hope that the real Loki will somehow make an appearance (and based on the reviews I have seen, that seems very unlikely), pirate it. Please don't contribute to Disney's ratings. Disney isn't going to care if you're hate watching or if you are only watching it hoping to get a glimpse of the Trickster we all know and love. They only care about numbers, and high ratings might mean we'll get stuck with another season of this utter dreck.

That said, here are some reasons why you should rethink giving this show your views:

It glorifies abuse and torture

In this show we are treated to the sight of Mobius using torture as "therapy", emotionally beating Loki down to the point where he capitulates to the TVA's demands, punishing him for having a crush on someone else by sticking him in a room for hours (at least) with an illusionary Sif who kicks him in the balls and punches him on repeat while further hammering the whole "you'll always be alone, you don't deserve good things" message, and generally working for an organization that subjects Loki to mockery, bullying, sexual assault (being stripped without his consent--that scene wasn't hot. It wasn't sexy. It was horrifying and I really, really have to wonder about the mental state of anyone who is at all turned on by it. Think about it, if Loki were a woman who was being forcibly stripped, there would have been loads of hatemail filling up Disney's servers), and slavery.

That's even before we get into the atrocious way Sylvie treats him. I've gone into how she treats him many, many times, how she belittles, invalidates, silences, and oh yes tries to kill him for daring to ask her to reconsider killing HWR. If the roles were reversed and Loki treated Sylvie like that? You ladies who love the ship so much would be boycotting Disney. It's no less abuse just because it's a woman doing it to a man.

It glorifies fascism

The TVA is very much Nazi coded yet they are framed as heroes...well, except when they're picking on Sylvie of course, since she's all pure and good and can do no wrong (Mary Sue powers activate!) They torture a character who is very much Jewish coded, an effeminate man who is very much the Other in the home he grew up in.

And what the hell is this?

As a Jew, I find this image deeply, deeply disturbing. It's a fucking gas chamber, y'all. It. Is. A . Gas. Chamber.

I don't know how anyone can NOT see how problematic it is.

It has Jonathan Majors in it

I really don't give a flipping shit if they're "only" allegations or if they wrapped up filming before the allegations came out. People boycotted Flash for Ezra Miller doing basically the same thing, so I don't see why it should be any different with Majors.

But then I know from experience that some of you so-called feminists out there are only about protecting or believing women when it suits you. Can't have a little thing like not supporting a domestic abuser get in the way of your wish fulfillment self-insert fantasies of beating the crap out of Loki before fucking him.

The first season was written by a total creep, and that same creep is producing the second season

'Nuff said.

Selfcest/Incest

I don't want to hear how "selfcest doesn't exist", especially in a fictional universe where you have sorcerers, witches, men with super soldier serum running in their veins, magic plants that turn individuals into superstrong Cat People, and talking raccoons.

And even without the selfcest, that ship is a very problematic one, as I stated above, and have continued to talk about at length.

It's just plain awful

The plot is predictable, full of holes, and not even that original (it's cribbed directly from a script Waldron wrote that was so awful, even SyFy wouldn't produce it, plus see my post with the clip from Batman Returns). Loki is grossly OOC in it...seriously, there is not a single hint of the character I had grown to love from Thor 1, Avengers, and the Dark World. He's nerfed all to hell (an Asgardian god who can take on Thor easily is beaten up by human rednecks?), and he's lost all his cunning, wit, intelligence, and grace all in favor of turning him into a sophomoric slapstick clown and the butt of everyone's jokes. The newer characters are poorly mapped out and one dimensional.

It's just...bad.

So there, that's my last ditch attempt to convince people to boycott this piece of shit. I realize my pleas might be falling on deaf ears, much as Loki's pleas fell on Sylvie's, but I had to get it out there.

Other Loki show antis can add to this or elaborate if they want. I'm too tired to be too coherent right now.

#anti loki series #anti sylki #anti sylvie

[zablife]

Snowflakes on the Windowpane

Alfie Solomons x girlfriend reader

Summary: As you watch the snow fall lightly on the windowpane, Alfie can tell you want to venture outside to enjoy the beauty of the season. However, he does not share your enthusiasm for cold weather and tries without success to keep you and Cyril indoors. Will you be able to lure your grumpy bear of a man out to play in the snow?  

Author’s Note: Written for @raincoffeeandfandoms Secret Santa Event. Request was for Alfie fluff with no cheating. I decided to write about winter rather than Christmas since Alfie is Jewish. 

Warnings: language, reference to sex but nothing explicit, mention of injury (third party), fluff, tiny threat at the end (I promise it's playful and no harm intended)

The first snow of winter began during dinner and you squealed with delight when you saw it. Your mind instantly conjured fond childhood memories of snowball fights and sledding with your brothers. Even as an adult you could spend hours in the cold weather without feeling a chill.

You found the effect of the air invigorating and couldn’t help but chat animatedly about it’s benefits all throughout dinner much to Alfie’s chagrin. He nodded politely as you spoke, but you could tell he relished his warm meal and crackling fire. When he took you to bed that night, he found a way to steer your mind away from outdoor activities, ensuring all you desired was time in bed with him. As you fell asleep skin to skin, your thoughts remained on Alfie.

However, the next morning you couldn’t keep your eyes from the windows. A light snow was still falling outside, a bright white blanket covering everything as far as your eye could see. The beautiful pinks and oranges of the morning light were just dawning over the horizon, tiny crystals of snow catching the light and sparkling back at you. The quiet beauty of it beckoned to you as though you would be the first to discover it’s secrets.

Carefully opening the window next to the sofa, you lazily drew a small heart on the window sill and breathed in the fresh, crisp air. 

“What are you doing with the windows open? You’ll catch cold, dove,” Alfie said, coming to cover you with a blanket. 

“Alfie, look how beautiful it is! Have you ever seen anything like it?”

“Mmm, yes, I have. Even more breathtaking if you ask me,” he said, nuzzling his nose in your hair. You turned to kiss him, appreciative of the compliment. However, you knew he was trying to distract you from going outside. Alfie hated cold weather and would do anything to avoid it. His ideal winter day was staying curled up by the fire with a cup of tea and a good book. The problem was he wanted you right by his side.

“Alf, we always stay indoors when it snows. Please let’s go out while it’s lovely and fresh,” you begged him. 

Alfie furrowed his brow in disapproval. “Pet, you’re worse than Cyril! If we go out there, you won’t want to come back until I’ve got frostbite!”

“You’re exaggerating. One walk through the neighborhood won’t kill you!” you said and before he could protest further, you picked yourself up from the sofa and ran for the door. As you began layering on your coat and hat, you watched Alfie shuffle toward you dramatically holding his back.

“What is it now, darling?” you asked unsympathetically. 

“No, don’t worry. It’s just me sciatica playing up. You go on without me,” he said, waving his hand at you to leave him.

“That’s no excuse, old man!” you teased. “Here take your cane,” you offered, unwilling to let him get away so easily. 

“I know when you’re lying to me,” you reminded him. “You didn’t seem to have any problems last night in the bedroom,” you reminded him with a cheeky smile. 

“Well, that’s different innit?” he replied as he reluctantly grabbed his overcoat. “That was someplace I wanted to go,” he muttered.

You smacked him on his shoulder, “I heard that Alfie!”

Stepping outside you marveled at the dagger like icicles hanging from the roof. Your inner child was urging you to snap them off and you couldn’t resist, a gloved hand reaching for one overhead as the melting ice glistened in the morning sunlight. No sooner had your hand brushed it, Alfie called out to you. 

“No, no….leave it where it fucking is!” he scolded, smacking your hand away with his cane. “You go messin’ about with one and down they all go. I knew a lad at school who had a butchers at one of them bloody things and lost an eye.”

“Are you serious?” you gulped. He nodded at you solemnly.

You backed away slowly so as not to disturb the icicles or your boyfriend further. Opening the door for Cyril, you whistled for him to join you, anxious for more light hearted company. The pup came bounding down the front steps running to you and jumping with excitement. “At least someone appreciates the snow,” you remarked. 

As you watched Cyril take laps around you, you knew what was needed to brighten the mood. You reached down as though you were going to pet Cryil and stealthily made a few snowballs. Then as soon as Alfie’s back was turned, you pelted him between the shoulder blades with your expertly made weapon. As he spun around to find you, he cursed, “Fuckin’ hell!”

You snickered behind your gloved hand as he pointed a finger in your direction, “Y/n, you’re behaving like a child!”

“And you’re acting like my gran. Would you please relax and have a little fun?” you asked hitting him in the stomach with another snowball.

“Y/n, stop it!” he said, putting up a hand to defend himself against another snowball headed straight for his face. 

“I will not!” you squealed, dodging his grasp as he clutched at you. Pelting him once more with your final snowball you yelled, “Come on, defend yourself, Solomons!” as you broke out in a sprint, Alfie giving chase behind you.

You ducked behind a bush, quickly replenishing your supply. Then you carefully peeked out from your hiding spot long enough to see Alfie had found refuge squeezed behind a tree. He was fumbling to make a decent snowball as Cyril pawed at him excitedly thinking his owner was concealing a treat. Obscenities fell from his lips as he worked and you stifled more laughter.

With Alfie distracted, you advanced your position, tip toeing to the next bush before standing to launch another round. Catching sight of you suddenly, Alfie charged, throwing an enormous snowball at your shoulder. However, he tripped in the deep snow in the process, landing with a soft thud. A growl escaped his mouth as he pounded the earth with his fist and you rushed to him to be sure he was alright.

He took the opportunity to grab your lower legs. “Alfieeeee!” you cried as you felt yourself falling toward the ground. He cushioned your fall perfectly, letting out a slight wheeze as you landed on his torso, taking the breath from him. As you craned your neck to look up, you noticed a smirk playing on his lips and realized he was not only fine, but very pleased with himself having ended the game prematurely. You couldn’t be upset though, not when he smiled like that.

You sat up slowly, beginning to laugh at his antics. Alfie came to a sitting position and wrapped an arm around your shoulders, placing a kiss to the top of your head as you watched the snow fall around you. As the flurries increased several large snowflakes caught in your lashes and you attempted to blink them away.

The sight of them gave you an idea and you couldn’t resist standing to hold out your tongue and catch a few flakes.

“What's all this?” Alfie asked, coming to stand by your side with a puzzled look on his face.

“I’m tasting the delicious snow,” you replied happily.

Catching some in his hand to study it, Alfie watched it melt, replying, “It's only water, treacle."

“That’s where you’re wrong. Each snowfall tastes different,” you corrected him.

“And why is that?” he inquired.

“It’s different because of where you are and who you’re with. For example, right now I’m with you and I’m very very happy so the snow tastes exceptionally sweet today,” you said with a smile. You caught some on your tongue as you approached him, lacing a hand around his neck.

“Would you like to try some?” you asked softly. You watched the corners of his eyes crinkle in a knowing smile as he nodded, removing his hat so he could receive a kiss. You leaned in and pressed your frozen lips to his, feeling a tingle of warmth the moment his mouth gave way to your tongue. It didn’t matter how many times you kissed Alfie, the effect was always the same, your heart pounded with excitement and your limbs melted at his touch. You felt lightheaded with the euphoria of being close enough to feel his pulse and breath his scent. Being held in his arms was the closest feeling to heaven on earth you could possibly imagine. 

As you pulled away, you brushed your nose against his playfully, keeping the cloak of his body heat around yourself a moment longer. You glanced down to see snowflakes melting in his beard and reached up to touch them gently. 

He ran his large hands beneath your coat, squeezing your waist and massaging your hip bones with his thumbs suggestively. You wondered what he might say in the moment. It felt so utterly romantic. Watching his green eyes drink you in adoringly he whispered, “I can't feel my toes.” 

You rolled your eyes before huffing out, “Alfie, that was such a lovely moment and you ruined it. I’m going to fucking shoot you.” 

“Well could you take mercy on me and do it before I freeze to death?” he asked with a laugh. 

-------------------------------

Tag list:

@peakyswritings

@evita-shelby

@shelbydelrey

@alanadetigy

@wandawiccan60   

@severewobblerlightdragon

@lovemissyhoneybee

@theshelbyslimited

@kittycatcait219

@peakyrogers

@christinasyellowflowers

@notyour-valentine

@theshelbyclan

@books-livre

@solomons-finest-rum

@vir-tual

@raincoffeeandfandoms

@margaret-morriss-secrethideout

@moral-terpitude

@dreamlandcreations

@cillmequick

@l1-l4

@potter-solomons

@hecatemoon87

@inkwolvesandcoffee

@buttercup32sstuff

@there-goes-thefighter

#Peaky Blinders fanfic #Peaky Blinders imagine #Alfie Solomons fanfic #Alfie Solomons imagine #Alfie Solomons x you #Alfie Solomons x y/n #Alfie Solomons x reader

[hunkahulkaaburningfudge]

Hey, I’ve just seen this reddit post and thought you would be interested to see it! It’s quite the prediction of what the rest of the Marvel Studios projects will be leading up to Avengers 5 and beyond.

What do you think? I am probably also burnt out on Marvel projects, but I think I would be interested in most of this as long as it’s of a higher quality than Secret Invasion. 😅 I mean, I definitely would see this Young Avengers film for Kamala Khan… and I’m curious to see how Dr Strange is paired up with Clea. It’s just gotta be good, you know?

Also, I saw in a comment about the TV shows that save for Ironheart (which was filmed last year) all of those are going to be 9+ episodes long. Honestly, that just might be for the best — maybe they finally know what we want. 🤞

Doctor Strange 3 in 2027 😭 Looking at the list made me realize that I barely care about anything lol. I'm looking forward to some of them, but there's a lot in that list I'm not interested in.

Young Avengers...I don't know. I love them in the comics, but I'm not that interested in them in the MCU for some reason. I don't know if it's because of the lack of news about Hulkling, who should've been introduced in Secret Invasion or the Marvels, or a lack of faith in how they'll adapt the characters. I like MCU America, but that's not America Chavez. She's basically an entirely new character who's just America in name and powers, not personality. I have zero faith in their capability to accurately show Billy and Teddy's relationship if Teddy is even introduced. And it's wild if he isn't introduced; how can you have Wiccan without Hulkling? Plus, how are they going to deal with a Jewish boy (if the MCU doesn't erase that, too) having a mother who joined a Nazi terrorist group?

I'll be seated for Kamala (I'll always support South Asian characters), but the ages of the characters are so weird. Kate is 23, and she's supposedly a Young Avenger, but she’ll probably be like 25 by the time the movie comes out. Steve literally led the Avengers at 27. Plus, Peter was 16 when he became an Avenger.

Stephen and Clea have so much potential to be a great couple, but I'm scared that they'll mess it up because the MCU isn't great with romance. They already have family drama since Clea is Dormammu's niece, and the two entered the Dark Dimension at the end of DS: MOM. But I'm scared that they'll ignore that, like how they ignored the Mordo post-credit scene from DS 1. And they'd actually have to give a damn about Stephen instead of making Scarlet Witch ft Doctor Strange again.

I'm meh about Vision Quest right now, but I'll be the first one to watch it if they adapt Tom King's Vision comic for the show and introduce my funky robot daughter, Viv Vision. Vision (2015) is one of my favorite comics of all time.

Wonder Man...ugh. He's the worst, but Trevor Slattery is in it so at least it'll be funny. But he'll probably be very different in the MCU since he isn't connected to Wanda and Vision. He better stay away from Carol, too.

I honestly forgot Ironheart was coming out 😭 But yes, you're right. All of them have the potential to be great, but that's doubtful looking at their track record lately.

#ask

[couldntbedamned]

Goodbye Grey Sky, Hello Blue - 30

Summary: In an alternate universe where trains and zeppelins are still common forms of travel and the internet and cell phones exist, nineteen year old Peter Parker has few options left after he’s swindled out of his inheritance. Unable to pay for college, let alone keep the house left to him by his deceased aunt, he’s running out of time before he’s out on the streets. Desperate, Peter signs his life over to the Bureau of Civic Spousal Selections to take his chances as the selected husband of a complete stranger. After all, he only has to make it through a year and then he can choose to annul.

Dr. Stephen Strange has little interest in marriage, preferring to focus on his career. When his career is threatened by what a nosy board of directors considers a “lack of personal fulfillment and settling down,” he opts to select a spouse through the BCSS and chooses Peter Parker. The young man’s profile he’d briefly skimmed suggests intelligence and compatibility. It’s not ideal, but if after a year it’s not working out, he can always annul the marriage and send Peter on his way.

It’s a marriage neither truly wants, with sharp learning curves for both. It’s either going to be forever or it’s going to go down in flames.

Warnings/AO3 Tags: 18+ MINORS DNI, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - 1950s/Modern Fusion, Doctor Stephen Strange, Jewish Peter Parker, Peter Parker is an Adult, Marriage of Convenience, Marriage Contracts, Government Sanctioned Marriages, Domestic Discipline, Dubiously Consensual Spanking, Spanking, Aftercare, Mildly Dubious Consent, Dubious Morals, Dubious Ethics, Asshole Stephen Strange, Smartass Peter Parker, Passive Aggressive Canned Soup, Two Morons Trying to Try Their Best, Borrowing Characters

_______

Chapter 30

_______

They didn't go to Grand Orleans due to forecasts of bad weather, but they did drive the three hours to Upper Manhattan for an extended weekend.

Thursday afternoon found them checking into a fancy hotel. Stephen suggested they rest for a few hours in their room before going down to the Grand Salon for dinner. It didn't surprise Peter in the slightest that "resting" really meant sex and he enjoyed the novelty of being thoroughly debauched in a hotel room with a king bed and a stunning view of the city.

The Grand Salon was a marvel of crystal-like curtains and glowing chandeliers that complemented the rich wallpaper, lush velvet and silk seating. He'd never been in such an elegant, refined place. Everyone was dressed in fine clothes and for once, Peter felt like he belonged thanks to his tailored suit and the reading he'd done on etiquette and fine dining.

"Do you want to see the prices on the menu or would you like me to order for you?" Stephen asked once they were seated and he was handed the day's menu. "I think I have a fairly good idea of what you'll enjoy."

"Please," Peter said, relieved. There was no way their dinner would be anything other than outrageously expensive and he'd rather not have to worry about the cost.

Stephen ordered them both a Cardini salad, baked salmon with squash, spinach, and scallions in a rich beurre blanc, and glazed roasted carrots. He even ordered panna cotta for dessert. Everything was delicious and it was the most exquisite meal Peter had ever had.

"Well?" Stephen prompted as Peter finished his last bite of the vanilla custard topped with a blueberry compote and side of lavender ice cream.

"Rich people might be on to something, food-wise," he admitted. "Thank you."

"It's my pleasure."

Stephen replaced Peter's battered luggage with a new set during a trip to Gimbels the next morning.

"I already have luggage!" Peter protested.

"Yes, and it's falling apart," Stephen said, unimpressed. "You might keep in mind that the set you arrived with is, by your own admission, older than you. It was well used and has served its purpose."

Peter couldn't argue with that. Stephen's gift was a nice set and would no doubt last him for a decade or two.

Gimbels was only the tip of the ice burg. Stephen guided him into L.S. Ayres and he spent a few hours being measured and and given a selection of clothing better suited to warmer temperatures to try on. There was little point in protesting; he needed clothes for spring and summer and he'd put on a few inches of muscle in addition to a few pounds since the previous August - one of the benefits of having steady, nutritious meals for months on end.

And, he had to admit, Stephen's taste was impeccable. Peter looked so far removed from the gangly, underfed boy hailing from Midtown... but he also looked like himself.

"Thanks for all the clothes," Peter said while they ate lunch at the L.S. Ayres tea room. It was a nice place, clearly designed to keep shoppers from leaving the department store for lunch. He enjoyed watching the small group of men and women walking around modeling the latest fashions.

"You're welcome," Stephen said. "You can't exactly be running around Malibu in long-sleeves."

That evening, Stephen surprised him with attending a show in Upper Manhattan's famed theatre district. Peter had never seen such a spectacle but he thoroughly enjoyed the music, dancing, and clever humor of The Music Man.

"I've seen community plays before," Peter told Stephen that night after they returned to their hotel room. "But nothing like that! I think I liked it more than the movies I've seen!"

Saturday morning they decided to spend the day out. He enjoyed exploring a city he'd only been to as a young child and even when they passed near Columbia University, Peter's mood didn't drop. That wasn't his life anymore and the one he had now was turning out to be a good one.

They didn't go to another show on Saturday evening, but Stephen took him to see a movie where they ate hot buttered popcorn and washed it down with fountain sodas.

"You said you've seen movies before?" He asked as the taxi drove them back to their hotel.

Peter nodded. "There was a dollar theater at the very edge of Midtown - the farthest the street trolley would travel. Every movie they showed was a few years old and I only managed to see a few, but I liked them." He considered for a moment. "I prefer radio shows, though. I like having pictures of what everything looks like in my mind and not shown."

"I feel the same way," Stephen agreed.

On Sunday they lazed in bed and barely made the cut-off to order in-room breakfast. They took their time packing and checking out before Stephen drove them back home.

"Have you done this often?" Peter asked as they drove. "Just take off for a long weekend?"

"Maybe once or twice every other year," Stephen said. "I have the amount of vacation time I have banked for a reason. The few times I've been asked to assist in a surgery like the one last autumn I would stay and enjoy a day or two if the city was interesting."

"But you didn't last time. You came home as soon as you could."

Stephen briefly looked over at him. "I had a reason to want to be home."

Work was more or less peaceful now that everyone on the hospital's board had met Peter and observed the two of them together. They'd hosted another dinner for an important pair of donors to the hospital and Peter had them charmed before the appetizers (his famous walnut date bites with coconut whip and sweet potato stacks) were even touched. It almost seemed too good to be true.

It was.

One Wednesday morning a week before his trip with Peter to California, Reed Richards came to his office and asked to speak with him.

"How may I help you?" Stephen asked.

Reed sat. "I very much enjoyed meeting your husband."

He said nothing.

"He's a fine young man and so gifted. I don't want to sound as though I'm bragging but there aren't many people I can talk about oncology, feature scoring, and bio-markers with. Peter kept up without a pause."

"He's a smart young man," Stephen agreed.

"And I can't help but wonder if his potential is being squandered. He was chosen to write for Van Dyne," Reed continued. "If his theories proved true, he could have revolutionized wound care. Stephen, he needs to be in college, not playing house husband."

"What are you really getting at?" Stephen asked. He had an idea, of course, and he could feel his temper rising.

"Your year with the BCSS is up in August. Stephen, I really think the right thing for you to do would be to annul the marriage. Peter had such a bright future ahead of him and keeping him chained to you isn't fair to him. Like I've said, a young man like him should be in college and making his mark on the world."

"Get out."

"Stephen-"

"No. All this song and dance about how you and the others just want me to be happy and now that you've seen I am, you want it destroyed. I'm so sorry I didn't follow your groupthink and ignore a fellow doctor's egregious malpractice, but just because I actually have a code of ethics I follow doesn't mean you get to make my life miserable to assuage your own guilt. Get out."

Reluctantly, Reed left with a parting "At least consider it."

Stephen managed to keep from throwing something, but only just.

The rest of his day passed in a haze and worst of all was the sinking feeling in his stomach.

Richards, damn the man, was probably right.

Peter could tell something was wrong when Stephen came home.

Stephen didn't acknowledge his greeting but went upstairs to change. When he came down it was as if he were going through the motions of a pleasant meal and evening in. It stung a little, considering the effort Peter had put into making the beef Wellington. It was a new attempt, and he'd hoped for even a small amount of praise.

"Did something happen at work?" Peter asked after Stephen bit into a lemon bar.

"Just a colleague speaking out of turn," Stephen said finally. "I'm sorry I'm such poor company at the moment."

"Was it anyone I know?"

"Yes, but what that person said hardly merits repeating," Stephen said. "Don't trouble yourself with it."

"If you say so," Peter said.

"I do say so," Stephen said sharply. He closed his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry. Just... don't worry about it."

"Stephen... if I've done something wrong, you can tell me."

"Not everything is about you, Peter," Stephen said.

Peter could only stare as Stephen got up and went upstairs. He listened carefully and heard the door to Stephen's office close.

What on earth was going on?

Stephen hadn't been this much of an asshole in months.

Talking with Tony and Sharon helped, at least.

He finalized plans to visit along with Peter and after Tony had to leave for an important SI meeting, Sharon assured Stephen that he'd be able to meet with two of her former colleagues who had a stake in the Quentin Beck case.

"It's kind of funny, though, isn't?" she wondered aloud while they were nailing down details.

"What is?"

"That Peter grew up so poor but somehow had an inheritance to be swindled out of."

He'd wondered about that himself, but there never seemed to be a reason to confront Peter over it. As far as Peter was aware, Stephen knew nothing about Quentin Beck or what had driven him to sign his life over to the BCSS. He'd hoped that Peter would trust him enough to talk to him about it, but apparently Peter didn't think it was necessary.

"A question for the ages," Stephen said.

"Johnson sent me some details and it looks like Beck deposited a hundred and fifty thousand around the time he vanished from Midtown, New Amsterdam."

All things considered, it wasn't exactly a glowing inheritance. Enough to let Peter keep his house and attend college for four years, but after that? Hardly anything to write home about.

Stephen made more than that in a quarter.

It was no wonder Peter thought Stephen's habits were wasteful and still preferred to save money when buying food and household items.

"Is something else going on?" Sharon asked. "You sound different."

He sighed. One of the problems with having friends was that even if those friends weren't former spies and trained interrogators, eventually they'd know someone well enough to know when something was off.

"It's something better discussed in person," he hedged.

"You'd better plan on discussing it when you two get here, then," she warned. "Bottling things up isn't going to help anyone."

"Says the woman who kept secrets for a living," he shot back.

Sharon laughed. "Oh, that wasn't even the half of it! Listen, Tony's spawn is playing football with my internal organs so I'm going to go lie down. I'll talk to you later, alright?"

"Take care of yourself," he urged.

Peter was withdrawn that night and everything about his body language - and the fact that he was wearing pajamas - said "back off."

Hating that he'd hurt Peter, Stephen did back off and dressed for bed himself.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier this evening," Stephen said after he'd joined Peter in bed. "You didn't deserve to be spoken to that way."

"No, I didn't," Peter said finally, still not looking at him. "I'm your spouse, not your verbal whipping boy."

"I'm sorry I made you feel that way."

"I don't ask about your day or what's bothering you to be nosy. I ask because you shouldn't have to deal with it alone."

"That's something I'm still coming to terms with," Stephen said. "I've been alone for a very long time."

"You're not, now. I know I'm not much-"

Stephen pulled him close and kissed him. "You're everything. I'm sorry I haven't made you feel that way. I'm... I'm glad that I have you."

Peter returned the kiss, pushing Stephen onto his back. "You have me." He kissed him again, started unbuttoning Stephen's pajama shirt, and then began to kiss down. And down.

"Peter, you don't-"

Peter looked up, amused. "I know." He continued his attentions downward and Stephen lifted his hips so Peter could pull clothing off.

Few things could make his mind go blissfully blank. Peter's mouth around his cock was one of them.

After he'd cleaned them up and before he fell asleep, Stephen vaguely wondered if Peter had any notion of the amount of power he could wield over him.

Peter took a deep breath before knocking on the door.

The woman who answered smiled delightedly when she saw him. "Peter! How wonderful to see you!"

"I'm sorry to bother you on your day off, Sue," he said.

"Oh, not at all! I was just using the quiet to do some cleaning. Franklin and Valeria will just mess it up again when they return from day care, but needs must. What brings you by?"

"I was hoping you could pass on a message to Dr. Richards for me."

Sue nodded, still smiling. "Of course! What would you like for me to tell him?"

"I'd like for for him to keep his opinions on my marriage to himself. He might not approve of how I'm living my life but it's my life. Stephen is my selecting spouse and I don't like seeing him upset."

Her smile faltered just a bit and she closed her eyes, mouthing something that sounded like "that man". She didn't look surprised at all. "Of course, I'll tell him."

"I would really appreciate it," Peter said. "I'm sorry to have to even ask, but like I said, I don't like seeing Stephen upset."

She nodded. "I'm so sorry you've had to deal with this. Reed so often has very good intentions but his execution and inability to let things go can cause problems."

They exchanged a few minutes of small talk and then Peter returned home.

Hopefully, that would be the last of it.

_______

#couldntbedamned fic #spiderstrange #spideystrange #stephen strange x peter parker #peter parker x stephen strange #1950s modern fusion au #1950s au #read the fucking tags and warnings #no seriously read them #peter parker #stephen strange

[jellybeanium124]

watched eps 1 & 2 of season 5 of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" with my boyfriend and it suddenly struck me how wonderfully autistic this show is.

For one, there's Abe. And he's like... basically undeniably autistic. His rigidity speaks volumes, as well as his issues reading social cues. Abe is a man of structure and routine and tradition, and interrupting his little routines upsets him greatly. And just look at the scene in 5x01 when that woman places her hand on his thigh! He gets a whole mini subplot where he needs his coworker to tell him that's a sexual gesture explicitly for him to get it! And then look at how he copies that behavior to Rose when they're out at dinner!

I think the rest of the characters are much less autisitc coded, but the whole show is sort of just... autistic. The actors are often directed to speak their lines in this flat yet comedic way, and they often don't take things very seriously in a way I relate to. The way Moishe just announces the divorce at Thanksgiving like that. There's also 5x02 where Midge struggles excessively at her new job. Yes, she is a woman in a writer's room in 1961, but her confusion and serious struggles with figuring out the social rules was extremely relatable to me.

Yeah, it is a comedy, but not all comedies are quite like this. I also think there are other factors at play to the special vibes Maisel has, such as the late 50s/early 60s style factors and the fact that it's very, very Jewish.

#the marvelous mrs. maisel #marvelous mrs maisel #marvelous mrs. maisel #marvelous mrs. maisel spoilers #the marvelous mrs. maisel spoilers

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — How often do men think about the Roman Empire? It’s a question that’s been hard to avoid lately, after a woman on TikTok asked it of her husband and he answered immediately: “Every day.”

Since then, the hashtag #RomanEmpire has raked in millions of views across multiple social media platforms, with men admitting that, yes, they do think a lot about the Roman Empire. Some suggested it was the fascination with military conquest, others the appeal of gladiators (and the 2000 movie “Gladiator”) and still others a love of history. On the less savory side, some men seem drawn to the patriarchal nature of Roman society and the idea that Rome was the foundation of Western (read, “white”) civilization. 

Like a lot of cultural phenomena that flow from the strange, turbid waters of TikTok, the question soon spread beyond social media. And also like a lot of what catches on there, it can be easy to dismiss the whole thing — along with its peculiar, gendered valances, its memes and counter-memes — as a brief, hot-burning fever of the terminally online. 

Yet I have found myself pondering the question more than I would have expected. And the reason is that as with almost everything — at least in the eyes of Jews who are inclined to look, as I as a rabbi find myself to be — Jewish tradition has a lot to say about how often we should contemplate the world of caesars and praetorians. 

Probably the most obvious reason why a good Jew thinks often about the Roman Empire is, of course, historical trauma. In one way or another we recall the destruction of the Second Temple at the hands of the Roman emperor Hadrian — a national and spiritual disaster of the highest order — at weddings and in daily prayer, on Tisha B’Av and on Yom Kippur. We leave symbols of the destruction on the walls of our homes. Its memory deforms a large swath of our summer, robbing us of music, swimming pools, haircuts and joy.

For the ancient sages, all of this is rooted in thinking about the Roman Empire. Their thoughts turned to the empire often, and their thoughts were dark. They equated pre- and post-Christian Rome with Esau, Isaac’s wayward son, and they equated Esau with all that was evil and through the power of the literature they left behind they ensured that generations of Jews would do the same.

But, on a very basic level, it’s also worth remembering that the ancient rabbis — the progenitors of the Mishnah and the Talmud upon whose visionary creativity all subsequent Jewish history and religious culture is based — were deeply enmeshed in ancient Roman society. Though not quite citizens, they were acculturated and literate. They incorporated Roman traditions into a variety of Jewish practices, including how we light Hanukkah lights and how we experience the seder. 

Through a stroke of luck, history has preserved a marvelous epistolary exchange between the great Roman statesman Seneca and his father. In a letter, Seneca informs his old man that he has decided to become a vegetarian. His father, in his response, tells Seneca that this simply won’t do because as a vegetarian he would not be able to eat from the sacrifices to Zeus and consequently everyone would think he was a Jew. 

What is remarkable and important about this exchange is not his father’s Jew-hatred — the presence of casual antisemitism everywhere is wholly unremarkable, as every Jew knows — but rather that Seneca’s father’s admonition, even as it otherizes the Jews, belies the fact that the Jews of ancient Roman Palestine, the rabbis and their followers, appeared very Roman indeed. After all, if not for their bizarre abstention from eating Roman cult sacrifices, they looked just like Seneca! They were, to put it succinctly, toga- and sandal-wearing, lettuce-dipping, symposium-loving Romans.

So ironically, even as the main thrust of rabbinic tradition is starkly anti-Roman, the ancient rabbis were very much products of their times. They were about as Roman as I am American, which is to say almost but not quite and, in the end, it is the not-quite rather than the almost that is determinative. 

My view of the Roman Empire is informed by a frothing admixture of resentment, fear and admiration, a strange, Jewish brew that I inherited from my ancient ancestors. So how often do I think about the Roman Empire? I think about the Roman Empire all the time.

[alarajrogers]

Correct me if I'm wrong but In "journeyman of magnetism" Magneto implies that Gabrielle Haller claiming he wasn't Jewish but in fact Sinti to the UN was some sort of deliberate disinformation campaign or psyop as she knew full well he was Jewish in UXM 161.

In finding a Doylist explanation for 'the retcon' what led you there?

Yes. He's been obviously, blatantly Jewish since Claremont started establishing it -- non-practicing, but a lot of what he says makes no sense if he's Romany. So before that retcon was re-retconned, a whole lot of us were absolutely sure that the whole thing was wrong... and the entire "Magneto is Romany" identity thing came from Gabrielle Haller, who is an Israeli ambassador who survived the Holocaust. Throwing Magneto's Jewish identity under the bus to prevent a resurgence of antisemitism (similar to what we're seeing since the attacks on Gaza started) and protect Israel and Jews worldwide is exactly a thing I still believe she would do if necessary. (Rude to throw the Romany under that bus too, but in the world of Marvel, Dr. Doom is Romany; any extended harm that may come to the Romany people from being associated with a supervillain, has already happened, and Doom has made a big thing about his heritage and about protecting his people. Latveria is probably full of Romany people who migrated there because Doom wouldn't let them be treated like shit.)

Personally I am annoyed that they got rid of the name "Erik Lehnsherr" (which was never either a Jewish or Romany name -- it means "lord of the land" and neither group was allowed to own land -- but if it had to be one or the other it made more sense to me that it might have come from a gentile man marrying a Jewish woman, since Jewish identity is carried from the mother, at some point in the past.) They could have gotten rid of the Romany thing without getting rid of the name. "Max Eisenhardt" is just... it's one of those too-apropos Marvel names, given that Max and Magnus mean the same thing and Eisenhardt means "iron strong" or something like that. It's got the word "iron" in it, is the point. (Some people at the time claimed it meant "iron heart" but that's inaccurate, German heart is "herz"; hardt means something like "hardy, brave, strong" in names.)

But even if it was Magneto who set up the Erik Lehnsherr identity... Gabrielle would have known better. Romany didn't go to Israel, and in Israel, Magnus probably did practice Judaism, at least enough of it to not stand out.

Part of my entire problem with the removal of the Erik identity, aside from the fact that it had already been assigned to him in the movies by that time, was that in Age of Apocalypse, David Haller addresses him by that name. If he only used it for a brief time while he was hunting for Magda, and then ditched it to be "Magnus" when he went to Israel, why would David even know it? Also, Charles calls him that name. Charles has been inside his head, Charles has to know his real name. Does Magneto consider "Max Eisenhardt" a deadname? Why would he? He got rid of the name because he was wanted in the Soviet Union for murdering half the town of Vinnitsa, not because he wanted to reject the memory of his family. (Not then, anyway.)

[bedtimestoriesforbrokengirls]

This... Is BGNN

Things you might want to know, for Mar 29, 2023:

House of the Dragon Season 2 Will Be 2 Episodes Shorter Than Season 1 — Hm. In the context of cost-cutting and write-offs at Warner Brothers, this is kind of alarming. GoT was arguably drawn out more than it should have been, but HotD has rocketed through years of history already… I’m not sure anyone but the bean-counters benefit from an increased pace.

Reddit cracked down on revenge porn, creepshots with twofold spike in permabans

This Uncensored Chatbot Shows What Happens When AI Is Programmed To Disregard Human Decency — I feel like we need to stop calling these things “chatbots”. This stuff is to human conversation what Google was to Yahoo’s search index… a bigger, faster, friendlier way to search the exact same content-swamp. The only new thing here is that unlike every other search tool ever built, these things don’t automatically cite their sources —something Bing is working on, to their credit— and make it clear that you’re simply looking at a smartly arranged regurgitation of the unbridled web.

Man in Alabama steps out of car to watch cracks forming on ground — then bridge collapses (video)

The fantasy of Ted Lasso and the reality of Jason Sudeikis — GASP! Are you saying —hold on, I need a second to recover from the thought— that actors are not the characters they portray?!?!

Stop Using Celebrities to Talk About Age Gap Relationships — This is actually one of the more useful pieces I’ve seen on the subject in some time. There is a world of difference between Bradley Cooper and your weird uncle who hits on your friends when you bring them home for Thanksgiving… the former exists in a permanent state of constrained supply and unlimited demand, while the latter is desperate for any young ass he sees and still has candied yam stains on his shirt.

Disney Lays Off Ike Perlmutter, Chairman of Marvel Entertainment — About fucking time. That Trump-loving cretin is directly responsible for the semi-failure of ABC’s Agents of SHIELD and Inhumans, not to mention the lack of growth and innovation at Ye Olde Marvel Comics over the last twenty years. (Turns out trying to engineer a corporate coup at Disney was the line he couldn’t cross.) Good goddamned riddance, Ike.

Ex-Sims Dev Says Men Lie About How They Play Game Out Of Embarrassment — When I was a little boy watching Saturday morning cartoons, I would get uncomfortable and avert my eyes whenever Barbie or other “girly” ads appeared. Now imagine an entire generation of boys, twenty years younger, who never grew out of that…

Narcan is now FDA approved for over-the-counter distribution. Here's how to use it.

Remembering Euell Gibbons' Grape Nuts commercials — Those spots are certainly memorable to those of us Of A Certain Age, but I’m pretty sure almost none of us ever consumed the food they were trying to sell. Grape Nuts were nasty.

How Two Jewish Kids in 1930s Cleveland Altered the Course of American Pop Culture — I’ve read this story 100 times since I was a kid, and I never get tired of it.

How to test what an AI model can — and shouldn’t — do

Is TikTok Actually Creating More One-Hit Wonders? — I think the internet in general is doing that, not TikTok in particular.

Marvel at Penn & Teller's unique take on ye olde donut-on-the-ribbon magic trick (video)

How to End Bias and Taboos in Women’s Health Care — An important discussion to be had… I’ve had an up-close-and-personal look at how ill-equipped the medical profession can be when faced with women whose symptoms and consequences don’t track with the default male “norms”.

Asteroid City’s first trailer is the most Wes Anderson thing you’ll see today — Wes is a genius, whose work never ceases to delight even as it occasionally perplexes. And he infuses everything he touches with his aesthetic… unlike a Tarantino film, which always looks like whatever movie or genre Quentin is referencing at the time, all of Anderson’s movies look like Wes Anderson movies.

How Good Smile, a Major Toy Company, Kept 4chan Online

#news #Youtube

[asmoonlightthroughthepines]

8 Shows To Know Me

Thank you @maplefiasco for tagging me *months* ago 🙈 Do check her post for excellent shows recommendations!

If you see this post on your dash, please consider yourself (no-pressure) tagged, whether we’re in a follower, mutual or complete strangers situation :)

Coming up with "shows to know me" was more challenging that I thought? In the end I chose shows I have often rewatched and that never fail to cheer me up. In no particular order:

Remington Steele

This show is a delight and a half. For years growing up it was on channel 3 in France every summer, and every rewatch makes me feel like the happiest teenager. Expect RayBans and vintage cars, because this is 80s LA with an Old Hollywood, Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn inspiration. Unfortunately it's become impossible to find in Europe/France, and my entire family laments this fact on a monthly basis.

The Newsroom

If you get one thing out of this post, it’s to give The Newsroom a try. Not everyone loves Sorkin, in fact several of my friends hate this show, but I LOVE it. It’s chaotic. It’s fast. It’s idealistic. Everyone is a genius at their job and an idiot in their personal life. And the cast! Emily Mortimer, Jeff Daniels and Sam Waterston are superb! Olivia Munn and Thomas Sadoski are spectacular! Dev Patel and David Harbour are delightful! And the supporting cast - Jane Fonda! Chris Messina! Terry Crews! BJ Novak! Only this show would make me use so many adjectives and exclamation marks.

Hart of Dixie

This is my guilty pleasure, “won’t tell people about it because they’ll think I’m a basic bitch" show. It’s super cozy, the clothes are great, the dudes are hot, there’s a pet alligator called Burt Reynolds, the folksy-country soundtrack is fun, everyone is nice and walks around the WBros PLL and Gilmore Girls lot fake southern town with a pastry and home-baked pie in hand, and nothing really bad ever happens. Truly the happiest of basic bitch shows.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel

I ignored Mrs Maisel for years because I’m not a big stand up or 50s style person, but it turned out to be one of the shows that’s made me laugh the most in the history of shows. It’s funny, it’s warm and it does more for Jewish humour than most pieces of media (The Nanny is the exception) since Annie Hall’s Easter lunch scene. I didn’t care much for s4 (style really took over content for me) and s5 is.. well I just don’t know how they explain a lot of those choices there. But man, s1-2 is something I would (and will) happily rewatch on a regular basis.

Friends It’s not original, it's "90s diverse" but sue me. I’m old enough to have watched it with my siblings when it first came out (VHS, baby!) and it’ll never not feel cozy and fun. I won’t catch it on tv because ad breaks will reduce it to unfunny, memeable catchphrases, but every few years I’ll pop a couple of seasons in the dvd player (DVDs, baby!) and it’ll still make me laugh like it’s my first time watching it.

Arrested Development

Do I need to explain? Yes s4 was half good/half bad when it was released (and somehow made mostly bad when it was re-edited) and I pretend s5 doesn’t exist. But seasons 1-3 are the definition of perfect tv! And in case you didn’t know, Jason Bateman and Will Arnett host a podcast (along with Sean Hayes of Will and Grace) called Smartless; the episode with Tony Hale (Buster) as the guest had me in literal tears.

Chuck

There’s a scene where Chuck’s best friend Morgan says that he’s spent years devising a work system that allows him to do as little as possible at his job, and he’s not about to ruin that by accepting a promotion. My entire family quotes this on a regular basis. I have watched s1-3 at least half a dozen times and just typing that makes me want to watch it again. Love the music, the ridiculous spy adventures and the unhinged background characters. Also Chuck looks exactly like one of my high school best friends which makes it even funnier.

24

LOOK. I did not expect this show to take over my life the way it did, and tbh I don’t really have an 8th show that hits both “will rewatch this many times” and “makes me feel warm and happy”. So I went for the one that currently has 12 drafts sitting in my fic folder. It’s violent and ridiculous and is equally funny (see ridiculous) and angsty. It got me through the 2nd lockdown, on the edge of my seat while live texting all nearly ten seasons of it to friends. But watch s1-4 and tell me you’re normal about Tony x Michelle. I dare you.

#tumblr games #what almost made the list: alias/cougar town (it was my safe place for a few years! despite ccox’s botox)/the persuaders (the 70s show)

[luxshine]

Moon Knight Primer Part Seventeen (and final for now)

Moon Knight (2021) #1 - 11, Moon Knight Devil's Reign #1, Moon Knight Black, White and Blood #1

Prologue, Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, Part XIV, Part XV, Part XVI

And so, we reach the Mackay era, and the current status quo that is��� not precisely good.

Don’t get me wrong: Mackay had one hell of a challenge as Age of Khonshu left Moon Knight in a horrible place both as a character and in general standing in the Marvel Universe, and he’s doing what he can with that, doing some things very well and adding very interesting stuff to the mythos, while doing… not so great on others. But again, I have no idea if the problems come from his writing specifically (as it was the case with Bemis, Bendis, Ellis, Huston, Dixon and so on), or because there’s some sort of editorial mandate that reads that poor Moon Knight can’t catch a break no matter what and the Lemire run was an outlier.

There’s also the undeniable fact that Mackay has had terrible luck, timing wise. Whatever he wants to do with Moon Knight? He was interrupted right in the middle of it due to the horrid crossover of Devil’s Reign -where Kingpin outlaws superheroes AGAIN, because that has worked in the past for Marvel, right? Outlawing Vigilantes who are, by nature, Outlaws anyway, and then an inexplicable one year hiatus between issue 10 and 11 -which narrative wise happen literally one after the other, without any pause that would allow for Devil’s Reign to happen, which was in issue #8, not between #10 and #11, which ALSO allowed for the TV Series to drop, so that most people picking up the most current comic of Moon Knight after watching Oscar Isaac being awesome are going to be completely lost because there’s absolutely NO synergy or continuity between one and the other. And I don’t just mean the fact that Marc in the comics is still a white-passing jewish man, who up to issue #5 was a multimillionare on the levels of Tony Stark AGAIN because Steven Grant in this universe is a financial wizard. No, I mean we have again NO Egyptian gods as enemies, Khonshu is… well, we saw Age of Khonshu, and of course, no Layla.  In fact, I am not a hundred percent convinced that the twist we will see in issue #11 was not actually editorial mandated in order to start pushing Moon Knight to something closer to what we saw in the series, but we will talk about that when we get there.

So first, the status quo and the usual “Does anyone at Moon Knight’s editorial team has even cracked open a book about DiD write before 1975?” spiel.

We pick up right were Age of Khonshu left us, sorta.  And we’re going to try and keep this chronologically this time, as we have only 11 issues to go.

Marc is, once again, fronting pretty much exclusively. That is to say, in 11 issues? We haven’t seen a PEEP of Jake or Steven. Marc is also pretty much 24/7 in the Mr. Knight outfit -and here we understand what Oscar Isaac said in the making of: Yes, originally Marc was Mr. Knight, and well, someone else had to be Moon Knight and that had to be Steven due to the series’s constrictions. But as Oscar said… it always makes more sense for Steven to be Mr. Knight. EVEN MORE when Mr. Knight’s suit is, well, just a very well tailored suit. But I digress.

Oh, when I say 24/7? I mean it. I think I can count with one hand the number of times we actually see Marc without the mask in 11 issues. One panel by choice, three pages as Dr. Badr needed to take it off to mummify Marc and cure him from his wounds. The boy has lost the plot and is immersing himself in the Mr. Knight identity and we all know that can’t be healthy.

Anyway, he is now the Head Priest of Khonshu in the Midnight Mission, and yes, we’re going to discuss that title in a second considering I just said that Khonshu is, at the moment, in an Aasgardian prison because Marc Phoenix-punched him there and was thus re-branded as an heretic by the actual Cult of Khonshu. But well, we know Moon Knight writers tend to forget what happened in their own runs, let alone someone else’s. And Marlene and Diatrice are no longer in their lives because due to the previously mentioned Age of Khonshu, Marlene got spooked, took Diatrice to Europe and told the guys to lose her number AGAIN.

At the Mission, people can go and tell him their problems, like, say, gang related disappearances and so, and then he goes out at night and fixes them. He is now trying to keep to one specific neighborhood of NY, HIS area, so to speak, where he has painted his symbol on the streets as a sign that it’s safe for the travelers of the night (Despite being at odds with Khonshu? Marc still repeats his credo like gospel). The very first mission we see him take is to save four kids from a vampire MLM (Which is only mentioned in those two pages, and it’s so incredibly stupid that I wish they had more time on screen). He spares the kids even when they’re already turned, because they’re innocent and thus, not deserving of death and I like that because THIS is the Moon Knight we love: He kills those who deserve killing (the Vampires who turned the teens), he gives second chances to those who don’t deserve death (The kids).  He even offers one of them, Reese, a nurse student, a job at the Mission as his secretary and thus, he starts building a NEW support group which is always good.

In particular, I love Marc’s relationship with Reese because, as Marc tells her: She’s the only one who doesn’t try to fix him, which is an arc subject as we have three people in the 11 issues trying to “fix” Moon Knight: Dr. Sterman, his new psychiatrist; Dr. Badr, a follower of Khonshu; and the Zodiac, who comes back as the villain of the current arc. I will be talking about each here.

Dr. Andrea Sterman is treating Marc because it’s one of the conditions that T’challa put on his freedom after the Age of Khonshu’s fiasco. And yes, this means that yet again, the person who is in charge of helping Moon Knight with their mental health is actually being paid by a THIRD person who doesn’t have the Moon System’s best interests at heart. Dr. Sterman is not as bad as Dr. Emmet (But then again, you need to be REALLY bad to get to Dr. Emmet’s levels) but she is also incredibly damaging given that her to go solution is “repress your alters, and be a singlet… or at least pretend to be one”. Oh, and because she is on the Avenger’s payroll, we can imagine Marc -because well, again, Marc is the one who talks to her- has zero privacy with what he tells her which again, is not how therapy is supposed to work.

Dr. Sterman also seems to think that because Marc is Jewish, being the High Priest of Khonshu is a contradiction. Which is funny because Mackay is NOT jewish, so he’d be the last person who could decide if it’s a contradiction or not, and I’m going to go with “no” and “This gentile idiot is talking over the jewish community” because Bemis, who IS jewish, actually managed to make sure we’d get that yeah, the boys’ jewish faith is not at odds with Khonshu’s credo of justice -as long as we’re talking about Real Khonshu and not Fake!Shu and his quest for global domination/kill every person he dislikes.  By the way, DESPITE this happening mere weeks after Khonshu built pyramids around New York and had mummies and werewolves keeping the population under control, Dr. Sterman is skeptical that Khonshu a) Exists, and b) brought the boys back to life.  

I SERIOUSLY hate how this is a constant theme in a world where Thor can be seen walking around Times Square, Ares and Hercules were Avengers, and frigging Eternity has come down to visit Earth more than once.

For the first time, however, we get Marc’s OTHER deaths mentioned. The time he drowned, the time he had to make his whole headquarters explode around him and so, Dr. Sterman asks if Marc is actually capable of dying. (And yes, I am switching here to Marc because he was the one who died. Steven and Jake, very wisely, had noped out of those two arcs) and Marc replies that he doesn’t know.

Which, if touched again, can be an interesting subject: Is Moon Knight immortal because Khonshu will keep bringing them back, no matter how angry he is at his Fist at the moment? Is he immortal because the First resurrection had a warranty of “as long as you believe, you will always be brought back EVEN if you are at odds with Khonshu at the time”? Or is Moon Knight a secret mutant with the power of immortality and no one told Xavier when he was recruiting?

We will never know, because I bet that this will be forgotten by writers.

Marc relationship with Khonshu, as I mentioned before, is very strained due to Age of Khonshu. In fact, Marc claims that Khonshu is unworthy of his worship… but he will still perform his duties as high priest because of his debt to the god -the original resurrection- and he will always be his fist.

THAT makes less sense than “Jewish man worships an Egyptian god” if you ask me.

Oh, and Dr. Sterman also parrots Dr. Warsaw’s theory that Moon Knight’s brain got a bit modified by his direct contact with Khonshu, although thankfully she doesn’t blame the DiD on this, just points out that it might make treatment more complicated. This theory will keep getting confirmed, as Marc himself will say Khonshu “rebuilt” his brain differently, but at least now it’s not “DiD was caused by an alien touch and brain damage”. No, it’s just “he has Did and UNRELATED, also brain damage”.  Interestingly, Dr. Sterman admits that Marc doesn’t really need help with his DiD, and congratulates him a bit about how Jake and Steven only surface for “minutes at a time” -all of them obviously off panel because we can’t have our nice co-conscious system be happy.

Dr. Badr is he current physician of the Free Clinic near the Midnight Mission, who, as I said before, happens to be ALSO a follower of Khonshu and gets right into Marc’s face by calling him “A” Fist of Khonshu and not “The” Fist of Khonshu.  This is because Dr. Badr is the LEFT Fist of Khonshu, Hunter Moon, and considers his sacred duty to bring Moon Knight back to the “right” path of faith. Interestingly, he has a power similar to Duchamp’s long forgotten “Bloodline” power. That is to say, He has all the fighting knowledge from the previous fists of Khonshu, left and right, which makes me wonder why our boys never got that particular upgrade, even as Marc claims it was because his head was already too crowded for it, or the manual -not that it really helps Dr. Badr once Marc gets his bearings. THIS Marc is once again a former soldier, CIA agent, super spy trained and Merc who did very, very bad things, and he points out to Dr. Badr that he MAY know the moves of all the Fists before him, but Marc EARNED his own.

I have to say this is very interesting, as it picks up a BIT from way back when Randall Spector was running around trying to kill Moon Knight in order to take their place as Khonshu’s fist, without making Dr. Badr a villain. YES, he starts in the wrong side, trying to kill poor Reese just because she’s a vampire (for some unexplained reason, given that Vampires are morally neutral in Marvel, Dr. Badr insists they’re all evil and enemies of Khonshu. This is because HE got revived after being almost killed by vampires, so he has a bit of a bias. However, once again, he is kind of alone and the huge numbers of Moon Priests we saw in Age of Khonshu are nowhere to be seen.

Also, seeing Dr. Badr go from “I hate all vampires and Moon Knight is completely in the wrong” to “I can stand ONE, count it ONE Vampire, and ok, yes Moon Knight MAY outrank me in the Church of Khonshu”? Great writing. Seeing him change from Hunter Moon to DR. Moon when taking Mr. Knight’s place in the mission when needed? Hilarious. Him, a black man, calling Marc his “Brother” as they’re both followers of Khonshu (although I will admit, not a fan of Khonshu calling Hunter Moon “Son” so soon), great little detail. By the way, MacKay also can’t write doctors to save his life, because despite being one? Hunter Moon KILLS. Not just vampires, not just monsters. HE kills HUMANS.

Then there’s Soldier, a former Hydra agent who is trying to reform himself to take care of his mother. I adore Soldier because he is pretty much a younger Moon Knight without the Did or the superhero calling. He just realized that killing people for profit was not right and is trying HARD to clean up his act.  Who of course, gets blamed by the real villain for some of the worst parts of the arc, but I will go there later. (BTW, Both Dr. Badr and Soldier end up following Mr. Knight's fashion choices, Soldier fully cosplaying as Mr. Knight and I have to say, I LOVE the idea of "formal suit" becoming the new Hero fashion of the Marvel universe)

Tigra, Moon Knight’s old teammate and girlfriend, also comes back, both to be a friend and to spy him for T’Challa. In her defense and to her credit? She tells him about this in issue #11. In Marc’s credit? He always knew and didn’t care.

Then there’s The House of Shadows. I ADORE the House of Shadows. They’re a Living structure from Beyond Space and Time that wants to be lived in. But everyone keeps rejecting them because, well, they kind of eat people in the sense that they don’t let them out. And Marc, instead of fighting they? Once he knows what they are? Invites the House to become the new Midnight Mansion and they accept. Mackay still hasn’t done anything with them besides the original issue, but how cool is it that now villains CAN’T enter Moon Knight’s home without the home chewing them up?

Oh, and DESPITE his reputation? At least in the neighbor people like and respect Mr. Knight, and are thankful to him for his protection.

Zodiac is… weird. HE spends the first half of the series pretending to be “Terry”, another one of Moon Knight friends. Because he wants to destroy Moon Knight, prove that he’s fake, that he really doesn’t want to help the defenseless or follow Khonshu’s credo of protecting the travelers of the night. THIS Zodiac is obviously not Nick Fury’s long lost dead brother, the Zodiac who fought against Moon Knight way back in WAC, but more of a… violence fanboy? Because he really, REALLY wants Moon Knight to go back to his 2006 ways where he “cut people’s faces off”. I am SO tired of that one line since he only did it ONCE. It’s not as if people are harping about him trying to eat a rabid dolphin… which was far more recent than the Cutting of the face. He acts, sorry to say this, like all the people insisting that Jake in the series is a relentless killer who likes violence just for the sake of violence, who is only “Chained” by other people’s rules, and who is Moon Knight not really to help others, but because he WANTS to hurt others. The only difference is that here I can call Zodiac an Idiot because we have about… 211 issues proving him wrong.

Anyway, he’s so weird that now people seem to have forgotten the original Zodiac. Not even TIGRA remembers him and SHE fought HIM with Marc! (I mean, I forgive Marc for not remembering, yeah but its’ MARC)

Det. Flint returned for one issue, as he’s apparently now retired due to his connections with Moon Knight. In that same issue, Stained Glass Scarlet is now an immortal story who punishes evil. That was very, very interesting and I am sad it was a Hunter Moon case, not a Moon Knight one, and that of course, it got forgotten as soon as Devil’s Reign ended.

Then there’s Khonshu, who for the first time EVER, keeps answering his Sons’ prayers. BOTH Of them.  He is “still imprisoned” but both Marc and Dr. Badr’s faith can call his spirit to help them in battle. Dr. Badr does it freely, and Khonshu doesn’t seem to mind because Dr. Badr is his “loyal son and loyal fist”. When Marc does it… well, there’s a price to be paid and we’re still not told that price yet, but hey, issue #11 just came a week before I wrote this so… we will have to wait for more to know.

Then again, I ask what is the point of having Khonshu imprisoned in Aasgard if he can just pop up whenever they need him and fight ghosts directly or open portals into the othervoid to help Marc seemingly teleport from one side of the city to the other? Age of Khonshu is more and more pointless as I write, right?

Of course, as always, the worst part of this series is how the Boys’s mental condition is treated. As I pointed out, the whole run has had Marc fronting. Where are Steven and Jake? Issue two tells us this, and it’s very ironic they were printed and sold a year before the series because they’re literally trapped in two sarcophagus (and now there’s also an evil murderous janitor trapped there, but we can forget about him as he was just a one-shot villain sent by the Zodiac to “test” the waters”) in Marc’s mind -which he claims was rebuilt by Khonshu to be his weapon, because we’re still on THAT track and I do wonder if at some point Moon Knight will get powers again due to this because seriously, if we’re going to be all “He is no longer human”, I’d like for him to get some shiny tricks out of it. So yeah, Steven and Jake, who, remember, until Bemis was the frigging moral compass of the system, are out of the count and just like clockwork? Marc is doing some very, very questionable things that make everyone think that Moon Knight is insane, untrustworthy, and yadda-yadda we know the drill.

Marc also says that he wears the mask because when he wears the Mask, people don’t see him as Marc Spector. That Marc Spector is nothing, that who matters is the Fist of Khonshu, because being the Fist of Khonshu has cost him everything, but it’s all he has left, because if he isn’t Moon Knight, then he’s “just” Marc Spector, the man who ALWAYS makes the wrong choice and that’s why he thinks he developed DiD, to be anyone but him. And boy, yes, he needs a therapist that is not working for T’challa, because now he’s gone so to the deep end of depression that he is sleeping in his suit, in a literal sarcophagus, and his ring tone is Blue Moon and totally forgot that wonderful “We are Moon Knight and we’re never alone” of Lemire.  Especially since after he tells his therapists all about the mission and how the mask is part of his priest’s garments… he confesses to Tigra that the reason he wears the mask is so that he doesn’t have to see himself in the face. (BTW, that’s issue #4 and it’s the FIRST TIME in the run we actually see Marc’s face and he looks… far more bishoneny that he used to). Ironically, it’s when talking to Tigra when he admits that he went OFF the deep end, by killing some of his enemies (not that he, you know, actually DID. I checked, every single named villain he killed in 2006? Back alive now except for Black Spectre but I am not going to say he’s not coming back. He died full of nanites and that’s Comic Speak for “He’ll be back”), carving people’s faces with crescent moons, and yes, betraying the Avengers and helping Khonshu take over the world. Once again, cementing that all that? WAS MARC. Not Jake, the so called “violent” alter. MARC. Who really should realize that all those times he did all that stuff? He was repressing Steven and Jake.

Hell, he even goes back a bit to that as he buries Waxman, a sort of immortal villain who doesn’t need to breathe, alive for the crime of kidnapping Dr. Sternman under Zodiac’s orders. In front of THREE people, including Tigra who could, you know, just later call the Avengers and tell them “Oh, yeah, pick this guy up before he goes even more crazy” (meaning Waxman, who is a serial killer, not Moon Knight)

Someone get the boys a REAL therapist please but thank the gods that we’re back to Jake as one of the moral compasses and not the violent psycho Bemis wanted to make him be, because Jake Lockley would NEVER do that.

Mackay also decided that Steven Grant being a millionare was in the way -just as Steven himself was- and thus let one of The Zodiac minions, Stuart Clarke, blackmail him a little bit with the idea of losing the money. But even as Clarke gives all the money to the Zodiac? Marc doesn’t care. So he’s now “poor” again, but we all know that’s not going to last because Steven Grant, trapped or not, has so many secret bank accounts he’s probably forgotten a few. And we also know that there was a Spector corp that was also a multimillionare enterprise, and Steven probably was the accountant for Jake’s retirement fund so the guys will be ok especially as not 5 issues after the “we took all your money” scheme? Marc is still paying Reese for her job, still paying the Midnight Mission rent and STILL having all his toys. So the Zodiac probably only got, dunno, Steven Grant’s vacation money.

Issue #11 ends with Tigra and Marc ready to run through a mystical pathway opened by Khonshu so they can reach the Midnight Mission and fight Zodiac before Zodiac kills Reese and everyone in the neighbor to “Free” Moon Knight, Hunter Moon captured by Zodiac’s mercenaries after killing three of them, and Soldier… cosplaying as Mr. Knight to win some time before Mr. Knight acutally arrives. It is really cute.

So that’d be all of Moon Knight except… well, there’s Moon Knight’s Devil Reign #1 and Moon Knight: White, Black and Blood.

Moon Knight Devil’s Reign is SO BAD I couldn’t believe it was written by Mackay too. It takes EVERYTHING that the Bemis run did wrong regarding mental health and dialed it up to 11.

Long story short: Kingpin outlawed superheroes and put them all in jail. Marc let himself be caught because a woman asked him for help against her abusive ex, a super-villain called Man Mountain Marko, and the only way to get to him was to get in jail. Where he starts going back to “the wild dog days” because being locked with so much violence and evil is not good for his mental health. And then, when Marko claims he will kill his ex-wife and turn his daughter into a supervillain? HE TEARS MARKO’S EYES OFF.

And, once again? That’s MARC fronting. Not Jake. MARC.

Also, as much as I love manga (I mean, look at my art!) the cutesy bishonen style? REALLY doesn’t fit this story. And I am just showing you the cover and the interior page where Marc channels his inner Usagi Tsukino because the rest is... bad.

Finally, we have the three short stories in Moon Knight: Black, White and Blood, a short anthology of stories printed in well, Black, White and Red (I do hope it’s red ink and not like that old KISS comic, mixed with actual blood).

Despite the title? The stories are Mixed but not violent.

First one, Anubis Rex, is by Jonathan Hickman, drawn by the AMAZING Chris Bachalo, about a future where a girl named Bunny is the high priestess of Khonshu and leds “a” Moon Knight in a fight against futuristic beetles that  have the essence of Ra. It has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with OUR Moon Knight, but the art is so amazingly bizarre it’s worth it.

Second story, So White, Yet So Dark, is by Murewa Ayodele and Dotun Akande, and it is the most perfect story for Moon Knight and series’s fans. Because it’s a team up between Moon Knight and Spiderman, as they fight together to stop some thieves to get an Egyptian scarab that can control Anubis… because Spiderman needs Moon Knight to do him a favor.

The favor? Loaning him the Mr. Knight suit for a special occasion. And omg, the punchline of the last page? WORTH IT.

The last story is confusing, as it’s told backwards. Written by Marc Guggenheim and art by Jorge Fornes, it tells how Mr. Knight is protecting a woman who is going to testify against the mob. It’s weird due to how it’s told, as it seems to begin with Moon Knight dying. But he can’t die, and we still have the new ongoing so… he’ll be fine.

Still, the whole issue is worth it for So White, yet so Dark.

Anyway, with that, we’re done for now with ALL of Moon Knight comics.  Both White, Black and Red and the current series are ongoing, so as soon as we have a bit more to add, I will do so. In the meantime, I might, if you want, do single issue analysis of what is to come -just not tied to the primer. There are a couple of things I’ll later expand on in meta , mostly about how negative it is to try and keep writing Marc as a singlet, something very, very common in the comics, and the relationship of the boys to themselves and mental health in general, as well as some mythology, but as this was mostly for facts, I won’t add them here.

Thank you so much for joining me and I do hope that this primer is helpful to you all for fic, meta and remembering that Jake Lockley is not evil, nor a violent psychopath, Marc Spector can be an idiot, Steven Grant is an adorable himbo, and Khonshu is not always bad.

Oh, and that “I am Marc Spector. I am Steven Grant. I am Jake Lockley… and We’re Going to be okay. We’re going to live with who we are. We are Moon Knight.”

#Moon Knight primer #Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Marc Spector #Steven Grant #Jake Lockley #Dr. Badr #Hunter Moon #Khonshu

[raven-writes-fanfic]

Notes from The Tale of Prince Steven of Avalon

OKAY so I decided that instead of going back and editing this fic's notes and risking nobody seeing the relevant info that I desperately want to share, I'd stick it here! (I'm calling it the Ficcyclopedia™.) SO! If you have any interest at all in the inner workings of my brain in regards to this fic, it's all below the cut. 💜

In the first chapter, these are the relevant tidbits, neatly sorted because my OCD said to.

Places:

The original fairy tale takes place in Ireland, and I kept that the same, save for the name of the kingdom. Avalon is a play on the land Tír na nÓg, which is the mystical "otherworld" in Irish mythology. Avalon is just another name for "paradise" or afterlife, basically. I wanted something pronounceable, so this happened. It also is really fitting with Steve's character (both in this story and in MCU canon), in my opinion.

I basically decided to run with the whole "Bucky is probably Jewish" Fanon thing, and decided his mother was possibly (in my head most likely) from Poland. Thus, a lot of locations and names and things stemmed from Polish culture and mythology. So, bouncing off of the whole "Avalon-is-based-on-Irish-afterlife" thing, I named Bucky's homeland Verais (Vehr-eye) as the phonological equivalent of Wyraj, which is the afterlife in Polish mythology. And yes, it is spelled a little prettier than just phonetics, because I said so.

In conjunction with the Verais thing, I named the people there the Lechian people, which is for Lechia, an ancient name for Poland.

"The Land of Ice" is a pretty obvious (to me) way of saying Russia.

Gidra is Russian for Hydra. Do with that what you will. ;)

Names/Creatures:

The name Drew means "from druids" which is a play on the fact that in the original story of Conn-Eda, the prince's stepmother was the daughter of a druid. I wanted to include that little thing, even if it wasn't exactly the same.

His last name, Balcombe, means "person who casts an evil eye." It's also a surname that's common to the Isle of Man, which is the place I based Drew's homeland off of.

In the original fairy tale, the supernatural hound is called Samer. Samer means lots of different things in many languages, but my favorite was the Sanskrit for "air" or "wind." I turned it kind of Polish and gave the hound the name Zenon, which is derived from the Greek god Zeus. And Zeus, as we know, is the god of the skies or whatever. ;P This one is a bit more convoluted, but I think it still works.

Even though "Alkonost" seems like a made-up word, IT'S NOT!!! It's the English pronunciation of Алконост. The Alkonost is a woman-headed bird in Russian mythology. And the creature that Conn-Eda goes to see in the original fairy tale is a bird with the face of a human. This one took me ages to find, but I did it for you guys. :D (JK I really did it for me, but y'all benefit, so.) (Also, in chapter two, I made the Alkonost a man. I know it's not perfectly in line with the mythology, but it's really important to me that it be a guy, okay? You'll see why.)

Almaz is the English pronunciation of алмаз, which means "diamond." I wanted the stone Alexander gives Steve to be something precious, but also Russian, because reasons.

Movyatzekon is a semi-made-up word for talking horse, strung together from the words "talking" and "horse" in Polish.

In a related vein, the horse breed that I imagine Bucky is is called a Gypsy Vanner. I picked it because it has famously shaggy hair (and so does Bucky at certain points in Marvel canon!!). The very specific horse I envision for Bucky is in the moodboard above.

Misc. Stuff:

Mulct is an actual word!! It means "a fine, or compulsory payment." Basically, it's the punishment Steve gets for losing the challenge his stepfather gives him.

Variola is an ancient name for smallpox. I chose this as the disease Steve's dad dies from in the fairy tale because, canonically, he dies from mustard gas exposure. Mustard gas exposure can cause skin lesions that can mimic the look of smallpox.

And chapter two stuff, which is literally only places:

Steve and Bucky pass through a kingdom called Albion, which is a very ancient name for England (going back as far as 5th century B.C.E.). Guess where on the map I imagine it is? Yes, you're right. It's England. ;D

They also pass through a land called Veneti, which is named for an ancient west-Slavic tribe called Veneti. It's meant to be where Belarus is, roughly.

Chapter three stuff, which is one measly thing:

(in reference to the chapter title) Travail: painful or laborious effort

If you want to talk about where certain MCU characters come into play, you can always scream at me in whatever way you want! I am probably disproportionately excited about how I've managed to work in so many MCU characters in general, so it's a whole thing in my brain now.

And if you read all the way to the bottom of this long-ass post, thank you and I love you. I mean, I'll love y'all regardless of whether you read the post, but yeah. ✌🏻

#Raven rambles #The Tale of Prince Steven of Avalon #as seen on ao3 #you can click the moodboard to get to the story if you wanna #I feel like I am so fucking awkward for posting this ngl #but I'm doing it anyway #Stucky fic #my writing #fan fiction #I'll just go before I start rambling in the tags too

[lindsaywesker]

Good morning! I hope you slept well and feel rested? Currently sitting at my desk, in my study, attired only in my blue towelling robe, enjoying my first cuppa of the day. Welcome to the working week although, for those of you in the NHS, welcome to just another day!

Yes, you know what I’m going to say. Yes, I’m very predictable. I apologise but … what can I say? I had a brilliant weekend! Yes, my team lost 4-0 but, as a West Ham fan, I am used to it. Our signature song is ‘I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles’ and the lyric reads – I kid you not – “Fortune’s always hiding, I’ve looked everywhere, I’m forever blowing bubbles, pretty bubbles in the air.” In fact, in my house, there were glum faces everywhere! The Trouble and my son are both Man Yoo fans!

As my workload is so insane, I spent much of the weekend creating PowerPoint presentations. At 10.30 on Saturday night, while most of my friends were out shaking their money makers, I was behind my PC writing copy and designing slides. One day, I’ll be able to retire. One day.

On Sunday morning, I woke up at about 4.20 and couldn’t get back to sleep, so I watched ‘Match Of The Day’, had breakfast and began to work. The Mighty Josiah woke at around 7.00 and I toasted him his waffles.

As I had just dropped The Trouble to a friend in Northolt, I went to Sainsbury’s in Alperton. Never been there before. It’s a very big shop and, on a Sunday morning, a busy and noisy shop. I behaved like the typical male, no browsing, got what I needed and got the hell out!

Naturally, Josiah wanted to go to the park. Yes, it was bloody freezing! Everyone was wrapped-up warm but there were still kids that wanted to play. Come rain or shine, you know what kids are like, they want to run and climb and jump. Naturally, Josiah latched himself on to a pretty, mixed-race girl and she seemed more than happy to play whatever game Josiah wanted to play. He’s one of those kids that takes control, designs the game and writes the rules. His dad tells me that, on Valentine’s Day, little girls actually made cards, gave them to him and proclaimed themselves his girlfriend! Poor kid, he’s only eight!

Naturally, we all enjoy the exchange of information and, as we know, some of it can sometimes be quite salacious! The one thing that always worries me about a gossip is that you have no real idea how discreet they are. I mean, if they are gossiping about someone else to you, maybe they are gossiping about you to them? Some people enjoy gossip a little too much! Me? I am very discreet; I’m holding on to many secrets and they will die with me, so I really detest people that are indiscreet. If you share something with me, it remains between you and me, full stop.

Many thanks to everyone that listened to the show on Saturday afternoon, and many thanks to those that will listen to any part of it on Mixcloud. Executive Producer on The Letter M (Part Two) is the party girl herself, Barbara Jones.

Too Much Information Tuesday is back tomorrow. As you know some information is just too much!

Let me close today with a Jewish joke and this is why I love Jewish humour so much. A man tells a Rabbi, "I have a strong desire to live to eternity." "Get married," replies the Rabbi. "It's that simple?” says the man. “Would that allow me to live forever?" "Not really,” says the Rabbi, “but the desire will disappear."

Have a marvellous and momentous Monday. I love you all.

#mixcloud #mi soul #dj #music #new blog #lockdown #coronavirus #books #weekend #democracy #brexit #cronyism #election #radio

[mitchipedia]

📺 We watched the final two episodes of "Succession" last night, and I have thoughts. SPOILERS!

I’m seeing some talk that Tom isn’t the winner because he’s just Matsson’s puppet. But Tom is definitely the winner. All he ever cared about was the money, buying luxuries, and the appearance of power and he got all those things. He doesn’t care about the reality of power.

Tom will remain perfectly loyal to Matsson—until the moment Tom sees it as advantageous to throw his loyalty to someone else. Probably Matsson knows this, and sees Tom as a useful tool.

The same person who said Tom isn’t the winner also compared Tom dismissively to Gerri. That’s nuts. Gerri is one of the winners of “Succession.” She was Logan’s loyal consigliere and assassin for 30 years, and she cashed out big and walked away.

Justine Lupe, who played the high-end-callgirl-turned-wife Willa, also played Astrid Weissman, Midge’s sister-in-law on “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” Her role on “Maisel” is extremely different from Willa. On “Maisel,” she’s a the perfect midcentury upper-middle-class American housewife and mother, a shikse who converted to Judaism to marry a Jewish man and is now more Jewish than her Jewish family.

I love the video playing in Conner‘s apartment, and the kids’ faces as they watched it. We saw another side of Logan there, away from the kids and relaxed, affectionate and warm. Frank, Gerri, Karl and Jess were Logan’s real family, the people he loved and who loved him. Kendall, Roman and Shiv were not part of that family, and they knew it. Connor, on the other hand, was part of that family.

The entire four-year “Succession” story could have been told from Frank and Karl’s perspective, and it would be a very different story.

Why did Shiv vote the way she did? I don’t think we ever get a definitive answer in the show, but I think it was because in the end she just couldn’t stand to see Kendall win. According to discussion on Reddit, there’s a scene just before the vote when Kendall puts his feet up on Logan’s desk, and you see a look of disgust cross Shiv’s face. Neither Julie nor I saw that.

As the CEO’s wife, Shiv is in a better position as Kendall’s sister. But I don’t think she was calculating it through that far until after Tom was named CEO.

Of course, Tom isn’t the real successor. Matsson is the successor.

Roman is finally out, and he is relieved. He never wanted the responsibility. He just wanted to pretend to be a playboy and now he’s back to that.

A theme that emerged throughout “Succession” is that the people who appear to be in power—Tom, the President of the United States—are not the people in power. The real people in power are the people who pay those other people: the Logans and Matssons. In “Succession” we spend a lot of two seasons focused on a Presidential election in which one of the candidates is a neo-Nazi, and it turns out to be a minor plot point, not worth resolving in the finale. Because that election just didn’t matter in the universe of “Succession.”

Shiv is the sort of woman misogynist who sees herself as the exception. She is not the exception. She has become her mother, and married a man who literally sits in her father’s chair.

I love the rare sweet moment at the end of the show where Logan’s wives and mistresses all came together as this little supportive sorority. Marcia even takes Jess’s hand. They were all the women that Logan betrayed, and in the end they stood by each other. Although maybe not—in the universe of “Succession,” you never can assume love and decency is real.

Does Willa care about Connor after all? Or is she just in it for the money? Yes.

In the scene at the bar at the end, Roman orders Gerri’s favorite drink.

I don’t know if we actually enjoyed the final season of “Succession.” Watching it had become compulsive.

I kept expecting Roman’s dick pics to go viral on social media. They were Checkov’s dick pics, and they never were fired.

“Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong shares his view on where the characters go after the season finale: Tom isn’t just going to be an empty suit. He’s got a lot of hard work ahead of him. But he will never be anything other than Matsson’s dog.

Armstrong says Roman is back where he started; the whole multi-year arc was just a detour for him.

Armstrong: “Shiv is still in play … in a rather terrifying, frozen emotionally barren place.”

Also Armstrong: “For Kendall, this will never stop being the central event of his life, the central days of his life, central couple of years of his life… Maybe he could go on and start a company, or do a thing. But the chances of him achieving the sort of corporate status that his dad achieved are very low. And I think that will mark his whole life.”

Why does “Succession” get so much more journalism and social media love than “Yellowstone,” which has similar premises and themes and is far more popular among the viewing public? I think it’s because “Succession” centers on the media business and New York, and therefore has more appeal to journalists and the professional-managerial classes that dominate journalism and social media.

I’ve read that “Succession” is a blue show and “Yellowstone” is a red show, and there’s a lot of truth to that. But “Yellowstone” is more nuanced and ethically diverse and more broadly focused across class lines. Go figure.

In our house, we watch both “Succession” and “Yellowstone.”

The image is from The Onion

[sasukeanderenfan]

I see many people saying

Giancarlo Esposito

Play these character and my opinion on them

professor x yes that would be amazing

Doctor doom Nope ( I don’t get why people want him to play as doctor doom ) doctor doom is a Romani man that overthrew the king that oppressed his people. he’s pessimistic about the world because of the oppression he faced. Doctor doom race be Romani is important to his character.

Romani ethnicity that have been racialize and marglized

florida.florian

https://www.tiktok.com/@florida.florian?_t=8UhZfvPbFj0&_r=1

rromabarbie

https://www.tiktok.com/@rromabarbie?_t=8UhZhLSOsiE&_r=1

Magneto I’m ehh but still kind of leaning in no here why . Magneto is a Jewish holocaust survivor and magento Jewishness is important to his character

daniellesilverstone

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU39KBG/?k=1

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3pvob/?k=1

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3mTNN/?k=1

Rabbi comic

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3HBjS/?k=1

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3aBpV/?k=1

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3Qaej/?k=1

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https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3p2yg/?k=1

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRU3cS9v/?k=1

Oh but he be old the mcu introduced

time travel and quantum and. The multiverse universes I’m sure marvel can make it work somehow

#my opion #mcu #actor #professor x #magneto #doctor doom

[greensparty]

Movie Review - Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song / Thor: Love and Thunder

Got to review two films this week, one from Hollywood and one from Indiewood:

Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song

There have been several documentaries about the late great Leonard Cohen, including 2005′s Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man and 2019′s Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love, but now there’s a different type of doc about Cohen. Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song is about his 1984 song “Hallelujah”. Yes, the entire documentary is about this song!?! But before you wonder how much there is for a feature-length doc, it is very much a doc about Leonard Cohen because to understand the song and its many musical interpretations, you need to understand the singer / songwriter.

movie poster

Since Cohen’s death in 2016 at age 82, I have been lucky enough to review his posthumous Thanks for the Dance. His lyrics, his sound and most of all his amazing voice made him one of the great poets to emerge out of the 60s. I was never an expert on him, but after hearing his song “Everybody Knows” on the Pump Up The Volume soundtrack, he had my attention at a young age. I own his first few albums on vinyl and his double CD The Essential Leonard Cohen has accompanied me on many car trips. I was thrilled when I attended the Leonard Cohen exhibit at the Jewish Museum in NYC in 2019 and my relative cantor Gideon Zelermyer and his choir were featured in one of the multimedia portions (they appeared on Cohen’s final album You Want It Darker). While “Everybody Knows” is very meaningful for Gen-Xers because of Pump Up the Volume, “Hallelujah” might be his most iconic song.

Before directors Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine get into the 1984 song that appeared on Cohen’s album Various Positions, they get into his backstory. This does not pretend to be the most comprehensive documentary about Cohen, but it’s also not trying to be either. It is giving the viewer just enough context to understand the song and its release. The album was shelved by his record label in 1984 as they thought it wasn’t good. In the U.S. the album was released on a small indie label and barely made a dent. But over time, it was noteworthy musicians who were impressed with it. Bob Dylan covered the song live in 1988. In 1991, John Cale covered the song for the I’m Your Fan tribute album Hal Willner put together. In 1994, Jeff Buckley recorded a version for his one and only studio album Grace, which is possibly the most loved version of the song. Various other covers happened as well, but it was Cale’s version that appeared in Shrek that introduced it to a whole new audience. Since the 00s, it has become a staple of singing competition shows, where singers use the song to show their vocal range. 

I really dug this doc as it is more comprehensive about the song than it is about the artist. It is a bit long and for non-Cohen fans it might be For Fans Only. There was a point around two-thirds in where I thought the movie had made its final statement and was about to end, but then it kept going for about a half hour about Cohen’s career from the 00s onward and how the song became an important part of his live shows. From an editing standpoint, I felt it could’ve been more effective if they had Cohen’s last fifteen years or so and then showed the final statement about the song as the ending. But it certainly did a lot with the archival footage, interviews and live performance footage!

Sony Picture Classics has released Hallelujah in some markets and it opens in Boston on July 15: https://www.sonyclassics.com/film/hallelujah/

3.5 out of 5 stars

Thor: Love and Thunder

Thor is not exactly my favorite Marvel super hero, but he’s also not my least favorite either. I liked his first movie, 2011′s Thor. It was a good origin story. 2013′s Thor: The Dark World was fine. His appearances in all of the Avenger movies were fine too. But it was 2017′s Thor: Ragnarok from director Taika Waititi had a sense of zaniness to it that made it feel new and fresh. Since that film, Waititi has become the toast of the town, as a director / writer / producer / actor in film and television, including an episode of The Mandalorian. What really blew me away about him was 2019′s Jojo Rabbit, for which he won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. Waititi balanced so many heavy themes in a creative way in that WWII coming-of-age story. I included it in my Best Movies of the 2010s list. Now Waititi is returning to the MCU with Thor: Love and Thunder.

movie poster

Thor played by Chris Hemsworth has been hanging out with the Guardians of the Galaxy of late. But when his ex Jane Foster (the returning Natalie Portman) comes back as The Mighty Thor, they team up with Team Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) and Korg (voice of Waititi) to defeat Gorr the God Butcher (played by a gaunt and haunting Christian Bale), who has taken the children of Asgard. I’m leaving a lot of stuff out of this plot summary, but trying my best to avoid spoilers too.

With this movie there are plenty of sequences that are over-the-top, zany and kind of ridiculous. The Guns N’ Roses-heavy soundtrack (and the numerous references to the band throughout the film) only add to the over-the-top-ness of the action scenes. The genius in Guardians of the Galaxy is that it is about a team that has to save the universe, but they are sarcastic and it feels like its not taking itself too seriously. In this new Thor film, Waititi is trying to have his cake and eat it too, by being self-aware of how ridiculous it is at times, but being rather serious other times (i.e. one of the characters is dealing with stage four cancer). Sometimes that balance works, other times less so. Waititi is clearly referencing 80s action romances and he’s having a ball at it. It’s the creative moments like a small theater group in Asgard performing the story of Thor for the locals, where Waititi is elevating this to be more than just another MCU movie. The cast including Portman and Bale truly made this more it was on paper too. This is also an audience movie that is best seen on the big screen and with an enthusiastic audience. In the MCU, this is the best Thor movie so far, but it has some catching up to the ranks of Guardians of the Galaxy and the recent Spider-Man movies. 

For info on Thor: Love and Thunder: https://www.marvel.com/movies/thor-love-and-thunder

3.5 out of 5 stars

#hallelujah: leonard cohen a journey a song #daniel geller #dayna goldfine #documentary #Movie Reviews #thor: love and thunder #taika waititi #mcu #film geek