moon-andstardust

[moon-andstardust]

Thor. (Thor 1)

Thor is a brother. A prince. King. Lover. Fighter. Avenger. His identity is wrapped so tightly around these fragments that if he lets go, he’ll fall to pieces. But he’s fragmented because he shattered. And he shattered because of what happened in Thor: God of Thunder. 

Thor’s arc in the first movie, I believe, centers around the idea of consequences. It’s not falling in love with Jane, it’s not Asgard, not someone slapping him over the head. It’s the fact that his choices suddenly have weight and meaning. 

Thor gets banished for slaughtering Jotun unprovoked. 

Thor’s relationship with Jane, Darcy, and Erik is poor because he’s treating them like crap. 

Thor fails to capture his hammer because he’s not worthy. (To whatever standard Odin has set.) 

Thor, as he’s told, is the catalyst of his father’s death. 

There’s this moment in this scene when you can watch his face go from earnest to oh. That was me. I did that. Me. Not you. ME.

Thor is the prince of Asgard, which is basically an empire of nine worlds. He is used to having diplomatic immunity. He could do no wrong. With that ripped out away from him, Thor doesn’t talk. He shuts down, and settles inside himself, thinking. 

Not reacting. Thinking. 

Thor isn’t an idiot. He’s impulsive, there’s a difference. His first reaction is violence, because he was raised in a society where slapping your enemies over the head brutally was just something that was done. As much as I love Frigga, when Thor was banished, in the deleted scene, she didn’t go to Odin so tell him oh my gosh, our son killed all these Jotuns, why didn’t we teach him better? She complains that Odin’s punishment was too harsh. 

Thor has never been told to stretch this much, and had it stick before. And Loki does it. He does it in a way that’s a little cruel, and cold, but he tells Thor to stop being such an idiot. 

And Thor, miracle of miracles, actually listens. 

This is not a story of Thor becoming worthy. This is the story of Thor realizing where his priorities need to be. It’s the story of him growing up. 

And this is where we get to my final point. I think that almost none of this–none of it–would have sunk deeply into Thor’s psyche if Loki didn’t fall of the Bifrost when they fought. 

Look at them. Loki is dangling. Thor is being held onto by his foot. 

And Thor doesn’t care. 

Because the only thing he’s focused on is his little brother. Hanging there. Dying. His best friend that just tried to kill all the Jotuns. His confidante that just disowned him. His biggest supporter that fought him. And Thor doesn’t understand. He doesn’t understand. He doesn’t know what Loki uncovered at that point.

This is just his brother who is going to die if he doesn’t do anything. 

And then Loki addresses his last words to their father. Not him. Their father. And Odin rejects him. It always struck me that Thor sees Loki’s face close off and then immediately knows what Loki is going to do. He’s not surprised, he’s not shocked. He knows. Loki lets go, and Thor can’t catch him.

Thor can fly. Odin didn’t let him go until Loki was beyond any chance of recovery, and Thor blamed himself. He’s solemn after Loki’s death. He rejects his parents’ and friends’ comfort. He goes to Heimdall to start looking out for Jane, because he is not going to let someone else he cares about slip beyond his reach. 

Thor’s consequence for his actions in Thor 1 was his brother. And that nearly killed him. Thor 1 was never, never about becoming worthy. At least, not for Thor.

“How is he?”

“He mourns for his brother.” 

[moon-andstardust]

do you ever think about how sometimes it just... takes one random message? and suddenly you find yourself with a best friend or in constant conversation with someone who lives on the other side of the world but is just as much of a freak as you are or maybe you find yourself in love with someone without a last name but with so much kindness and affection in their words and presence. crazy how life and love and friendship just happen

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''Doesn't know what it's like to receive love''

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I don't know if anyone's already done this one, but I just stumbled on this earlier today. It's a really quick video, just a little over 7 minutes long, but they touch on the heart of the matter really well. Just to throw a few quotes from this out there -

"it's a public humiliation. It felt as if the writers were exacting some form of revenge on these characters"

"...and taking all the things that made them exciting and interesting to...let's just make them really stupid and incompetent and eclipse them with their counterparts that are obviously going to be better than them"

"it was such a farce to take this man who is supposed to be this god and completely turn him into this joke"

"Loki was introduced as this really formidable force and now he's just this dancing monkey - he's no threat at all"

“it’s good that there are more roles for women, but it’s not good when those roles actually create a false perception of what it really means to be a woman – what I mean is so many Marvel superhero women are so perfect that it’s impossible to connect with them”

She goes on to explain things so well, how these new female counterparts (she mentions Sylvie specifically) have no hero's journey because they're already perfect, they already have the power, there's nothing for them to learn, nothing to be taught because they know everything, and if anybody doubts that then it must come from a place of malice. Bingo. She nailed it.

Anyway, just thought I'd put this out there as food for thought.

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Words cannot express how much I find radiosilence hilarious, but drawings can

First comic in like 2 years wow

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it’s also fucked up that fat people literally fear going to the doctor for anything because they know the first thing out of their dr’s mouth no matter what their ailment is, is gonna be “lose weight lol” broken leg? lose weight. rash? lose weight. whooping cough? lose weight binch!!!!! like we get it. but can you just write my prescription you bitch so i can go eat a salad and not call you again until im about to die of the plague????

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one way broadcast am i right

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Jack Frost ~ Burning Cold ❄️ Uplifting films like RotG have become my routine late night distractions and I fell in love with this film all over again. After researching the enchanting picture books by Bill Joyce, my uncultured self got wondering who his illustrator was, then realized he is ALSO the illustrator. What an absolute icon. I just had to do some fanart. Thank you Bill for creating such a beautifully nostalgic world! 

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i’m gay but i’m always gonna choose the well developed straight ship over the 2 bland and incompatible white dudes that have 500,000 fanfics written about them. you guys just hate women.

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‼️🇵🇸 An activist, who destroyed multiple engine parts of the jets Israel uses, has been released!

🔸 Source: pal_action

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A PALESTINIAN CITIZEN AND HIS DOG FROM GAZA RAISES THE VICTORY SIGN FROM INSIDE HIS DESTROYED HOME. X

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hey what if when stolas gives blitzø the box, at first he thinks he's like proposing and actually gets a little hyped about it, but then he opens the box and sees the crystal and stolas explains about ending the deal, and blitzø is so heartbroken he throws the line about playing with his feelings. what if i die.

[moon-andstardust]

Millie said it's MY turn in the self-hatred hallucination

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This is a sort of response to a post I've seen floating around, drawing parallels between the chains in Blitz’s trip that bind him to Stolas and the chains that bind Husk, Angel, and Fizz to Alastor, Valentino, and Mammon respectively. I'm not commenting on that post directly bc I avoid Discourse (tm) at all costs for the sake of my health, and I don’t want to get drawn into an unproductive argument that will mess with my anxiety for a week. I'm not trying to start a fight, just get my thoughts out on why I feel that comparison is inaccurate, and hopefully provide some helpful context and nuance.

So! Let's start with a few disclaimers! First of all, I'm not going to debate the moral purity of any of these characters. I just don't think it's an interesting or valuable critique. On a related note, I am not trying to excuse any of their behavior. I'm happy to admit that my favorite characters in this show have hurt people and are sometimes total assholes. Stolas treated Blitz very poorly at the beginning of their relationship, frequently pushed or even ignored boundaries, and was just kind of a dick about things. My objection to a direct comparison between Stolas and the other characters mentioned above isn't because I think Stolas hasn't done anything wrong; I just think that saying they're similar without further clarification or commentary ignores the nuance of the situation.

Read on below the cut, it's gonna be another long one folks!

Let's start by examining the "agreements" forged by Val, Mammon, and Alastor. I think it's important to note that, in their cases, the person they got to sign their contract could have been anyone. Husk and Angel could have been any sinners, Fizz could have been any imp. They aren't interested in them as people; they were only using them to gain more power for themselves. The only thing that matters to them is, "What can you do for me?" Angel and Fizz quite clearly become cogs in the machine of Val and Mammon's businesses, and Alastor only thinks of Husk as a tool to be leveraged in specific situations to further his own mysterious goals. Each of them has demonstrated to their subjugates that they own them, body and soul. They have signed legally and spiritually binding contracts that essentially surrender their autonomy to a more powerful demon.

Stolas and Blitz’s agreement is... not that. In the most literal sense, they don’t appear to have made any sort of binding deal. They just made a verbal agreement, which I sincerely doubt has anywhere near the force of a signed soul contract. Additionally, Stolas did not ask for and does not seem to want that sort of total control over Blitz. He very clearly does not view this as any sort of power exchange (which may actually be part of the issue, since it leaves him blind to Blitz’s discomfort with their class difference), he sees it as "favors for favors." While this agreement is inherently unbalanced due to Stolas's status, it's worth noting that they’re both putting something on the line here. The other three risk practically nothing (if the person bound to them fails they can always get a new one), but Stolas IS taking on a real risk by letting Blitz access the living world illegally using his book. Again, that doesn't make his actions right, and probably helped him to justify them, but it does set their relationship apart from the others.

In my opinion, some of Stolas's greatest flaws are his thoughtlessness and his ability to justify his own actions to himself. This manifests in the fact that he clearly doesn't see the ways in which their relationship is hurting Blitz. He convinced himself that this was just an equal exchange, and a continuation of the dynamic Blitz established in their first encounter as adults: "I fuck you, and you give me the book". As he becomes more aware of his feelings for Blitz, though (stay tuned for a deeper analysis of this progression later), he also begins to realize that Blitz isn't happy with this relationship. And this, as @masonshmason pointed out, is the central fact that separates Stolas and Blitz from the other relationships. Stolas did not realize- or chose to ignore- how he was hurting Blitz. Once he came to terms with it, though, he understood that he had to make things right. He specifically says this in "Just Look My Way"; "I will try to make amends/ For making you means to an end". None of the others could say this, because in their case, that was the POINT. Angel, Fizz, and Husk were ALWAYS a means to an end, intentionally trapped for that purpose.

We also need to talk about the CONTEXT of the scenes in which the chain imagery appears. For both Angel and Husk, the chain is at least semi-literal, a physical (and perhaps supernatural) manifestation of the way their souls are bound to an overlord. In "Two Minutes Notice," Fizz purposely CHOOSES to represent his relationship to Mammon as chains around his wrists. However, Blitz's scene is part of a drug trip after being forcibly dosed with hallucinogens. It does not exist in any literal sense, nor is it a representation of Blitz’s conscious, literal thoughts. What it DOES do is showcase Blitz’s deepest fears and his greatest flaws through symbolism and metaphor. Blitz is not literally afraid of being forced to wear a clown costume; he is afraid he'll never escape his past traumas or Fizz's shadow. THIS is the context in which Blitz sees himself being chained by Stolas: a bad trip all about his fear of intimacy and vulnerability.

Stolas appears in this trip as someone elevated high above him, something he's climbing towards, reaching for, even though it means being chained to him. It's directly preceded by his ex girlfriend and his former best friend berating him for how he pushes people away even though he hates being alone. Then Stolas directly asks him, "Are you afraid to love people, Blitzy?" Furthermore, the WAY in which he is framed is alluring, slightly hazy, golden and tempting. It couldn’t be further from the ugly, slime-covered past he's fleeing. It's a new start, a chance for something better that seems too good to be true. This trip is all about Blitz’s inability to be vulnerable with another person. The chain around his neck is a representation of the fact that, by getting closer to Stolas, he's giving Stolas the power to hurt him emotionally.

And man, there's a part of him that wants to give Stolas that power. At this critical moment, he's not baring his teeth in defiance or anger. He's blushing, just slightly, and he looks... nervous. Blitz's instinct, when things get too real, is to cut and run. Hurt them before they can hurt you. Abandon them before they have the chance to leave you. It’s how he tanked his relationship with Verosika. This is a manifestation of what might happen if he stays. This is the sort of trouble he can't fight his way out of.

This is the emotional climax of the scene. There are so many ways they could have gone with this if they wanted to represent Blitz being chained and trapped by his agreement with Stolas. If that was the fear--if that was the POINT--they could have had the chains wrap around him until he couldn't move, or glow white hot and burn into his skin, or a million other more direct metaphors. But the chains aren't the thing that hurts him. It's the feathers: the thing that's left behind after Stolas abandons him, sing-songing "you're going to die alone" right alongside two other people who he loved and who now want nothing to do with him.

Finally, let's look at Blitz’s reaction to this scene. It's a moment of revelation for him, in which he realizes he's pushing everyone away and starts to make an effort to change. It's why he's a bit more open with Moxxie in the next scene. The trip sequence ALSO inspires him to get closer to Stolas, indicating that the trip didn’t make him realize "I'm trapped and I need to get out of this" in the same way Fizz did. Rather, he realizes that he doesn't want Stolas to leave him like everyone else, and he wants to start feeling out what it would be like to deepen the connection between them. As I've mentioned in other posts, their kiss at the end of "truth seekers" represents a level of intimacy that we haven't seen before; it's teasing, affectionate, shows Blitz’s interest in making Stolas happy, and takes place in front of M&M, who have repeatedly teased him about their relationship before.

In summary, while the image of chains may have been invoked in all four of these relationships, they don’t necessarily mean the same thing across the board. Blitz and Stolas's relationship differs substantially from the others in its dynamic, and the context of their scene also sets it apart. It's important to look into the details and the nuance of their relationship to interpret what's going on under layers of trauma and unreliable narration.