#''marvel meta field notes

[genderascendant]

I posted 16,987 times in 2022

That's 3,846 more posts than 2021!

192 posts created (1%)

16,795 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@nonbineraryitinerary

@angry-purple-ace

@manforsale

@stunfisk-uses-attract

@blackbeardskneebrace

I tagged 6,786 of my posts in 2022

#ofmd - 2,329 posts

#art - 1,193 posts

#blackbonnet - 629 posts

#ofmd meta - 313 posts

#wwdits - 278 posts

#locked tomb - 176 posts

#mine - 165 posts

#taika waititi - 153 posts

#about me - 151 posts

#hannibal - 124 posts

Longest Tag: 124 characters

#💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

taika is soooo real for not watching any marvel movies or reading any comics or doing any research for his marvel movie at all

186 notes - Posted July 10, 2022

#4

i think rewatching hannibal should be in the dsm

202 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

#3

I LOVE THEM

294 notes - Posted April 21, 2022

#2

✨ofmd fic rec list✨

Here it is, the list absolutely no one one of my friends all of you have been waiting for: my our flag means death fic recs!! Now, I mostly like AUs and long-ish fics and am ambivalent about smut, so that's what most of this list is; but I put a couple of very special post-canon fics at the beginning, and shorter or one-shot fics at the end. My absolute favorites are marked with 🌸. Enjoy! 💖

post-canon-ish

🌸 Chiaroscuro by @menaceanon - WIP, 22k, T - gratuitous Mary and Ed get to be buds content. Their friendship and bonding is so so sweet, and especially since Jenkins said Mary probably won't make a return...... enjoy it here!!

Uncle Ed by StormySeaWitch - WIP, 21k, T - twin narratives about Ed adopting the kiddos, and one I actually like even more: Stede and co. slowly plotting and executing a takeover of the English naval ship that rescued them:') It's great Stede competence and killing-with-kindness content

Wayfaring by @justkeeptrekkin - 35k, E - Unbelievable masterpiece where Stede and Ed have to make up on the deserted island they're stranded on. The exploration of EMOTIONS. The ROMANTICISM, the SCENES. I have no words, you just have to read it

🌸 the only proof the field existed by @nonagethimus - 22k, M - Also a masterpiece. Part 1 is a searing character study of Ed and Lucius, and part 2 is a perfect reunion. Screaming and crying and throwing up.

AUs

🌸 it's what isn't in the name by tciddaemina - 41k, M - the entire Season 1 rewritten as a daemon AU. Absolutely love the characterization here and it feels so real, i came out feeling like i had an entire extra version of the season in my brain.

it's a beautiful night, we're looking for something dumb to do by lacecat - WIP, 33k, M - Stede opens a gastropub. Ed owns the dive bar down the street. An accidental murder leads to... them getting married the day they meet so they can't be made to testify against each other. It's SO well plotted and sweet and funny that so far, it's my only reread.

🌸 Ship in a Bottle by @neverwaswise - WIP, 14k, NR - HRRRNGH i am so obsessed with this one. Lighthouse keeper Stede, literal kraken Ed. The characterization is INCREDIBLE and i absolutely LIVE and am FERAL for this Little Mermaidy version of Ed. THE SWEETNESS!!!!! Shutting up now!

Bark and Bite by @amuseoffyre - WIP, 32k, M - the vampire/werewolf AU of my DREAMS. Season 1 rewritten with vampire!ed and werewolf!stede, of course. It's incredibly silly and sweet, and I love how they work the au into the canon. An update always brightens my day!!

🌸 this tired world could change by @sassygwaine - 95k, E - FERAL I SAY. Stede is a depressed office worker at his dad's company, Ed is a mechanic and ex-enforcer for the mob. The way their relationship is written and grows is.......... so, so beautiful, I can't even. There's a sequel coming!!

We were the winds -writing our names in the sky- by sapphos_gh0st - WIP, 37k, T - What if Ed and Stede met as teenagers? Impossibly sweet and fluffy, literally soothes my soul. Boys finding the love and sweetness and care they DESERVE *clenches fist*

🌸 Once Upon a Summer in San Francisco by samwise - WIP, 95k, M - This fic has me in a fucking chokehold. I am rabid about it, obsessed. 1970s AU, Ed is a drug dealer with a record store front, and meets Stede at a music festival. Their lives and their world feel so real and lived-in, which makes their love story that much more compelling. Excellent and often HYSTERICAL prose, especially from Lucius, and I want to live in Stede's gay commune-house with the crew SO badly.

Our Flag Means Rock by @captain-athos - 22k, M - This one has really taken up residence in my brain! 1960s pirate radio AU, and the author really knows and cares about music history. Made me go listen to the Beach Boys!

This Could Be Love by @zombee - 16k, E - Ed is an ex-professional skier who meets Stede at a hotel conference... and fake dating AND only-one-bed ensue! I particularly love their take on DESPERATELY horny Ed

shorter AUs and whatnot

you'll marry a music man by @soft-october-night - 7k, T - "Poor man's Elton John" Stede covers one of Ed's songs! Soooo sweet and funny

in the margins by @weatheredlaw - 3k, T - Ed and Stede find each other over and over, in every life. This one is so healing, kind of ties the whole idea of reading AUs together, and is especially nice after watching Everything Everywhere All At Once

a small adventure by @sassygwaine - 4k, T - Dungeons and Dragons podcasting AU! Their exchange about tabaxis is probably going to stick in my head forever!!

Dealt a Soft Hand by @mintly - 12k, M - ACCIDENTAL DRUNKEN VEGAS WEDDING, and also Ed is a professional gambler. Funny and sweet

🌸 Washington Square Park Dog Run for Larger Dogs by @fortinbrasftw - 6k, T - Ed and Stede meet at the dog park, and later, Izzy and James Flint meet at the dog park. Hilarious, perfect characterization. I've never seen Black Sails and it did not impact my IMMENSE enjoyment of these fics at all.

that's all for now! got recommendations? reblog or reply! 💖

366 notes - Posted July 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i love you fanfiction i love you fanart i love you character/ship playlists i love you gifsets i love you meta writers i love you shitposters i love you transformative works i love you everyone who feels for a piece of media so deeply that it inspires you to transform it into something new and your own and share it with the world

1,814 notes - Posted July 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #LOL LOL i cant believe my longest tag was a shit ton of hearts and not. yknow. some nonsense rambling #or keysmash #TO MY TOP BLOGS HIIII<333 #mine

[marsmonks]

Unveiling the Marvel of Mars Monks: Your Ultimate Guide to Online Product Reviews

In the vast realm of the internet, where knowledge and information flow ceaselessly, one website has emerged as the beacon of wisdom for those seeking guidance in their online shopping endeavors - Mars Monks. The purpose of this article is to delve into the essence of Mars Monks, providing an in-depth look at how this blogging website has taken the online product review world by storm, and how it can serve as the ultimate destination for consumers and enthusiasts alike.

The Birth of Mars Monks Mars Monks is not just another run-of-the-mill review site. It is an epitome of meticulousness and dedication, striving to offer a comprehensive, unbiased, and highly informative space for online product reviews. Founded by a group of tech-savvy and discerning individuals, Mars Monks has etched its name in the digital realm through unwavering commitment to quality content and insightful reviews.

A Plethora of Product Categories One of the hallmarks of Mars Monks is the vast spectrum of product categories it covers. From the latest gadgets and gizmos to the trendiest fashion and beauty items, this platform leaves no stone unturned. Whether you're a tech enthusiast hunting for the best smartphone, a fitness freak in search of top-notch workout gear, or a foodie exploring kitchen appliances, Mars Monks has something for everyone.

Unbiased Reviews at Their Best At Mars Monks, we understand the significance of impartiality when it comes to product reviews. Each review is meticulously crafted, with hands-on testing and in-depth research to ensure that readers receive nothing but the truth. Our team of expert reviewers spends countless hours evaluating products, so you can make informed decisions without the fear of biased opinions.

A Community of Discerning Shoppers Mars Monks isn't just about the reviews; it's also a community of like-minded individuals. Our comment sections serve as a platform for users to share their experiences, ask questions, and offer their perspectives. This thriving community is a testament to the trust and reliability Mars Monks has built among its readers.

The Power of SEO in Mars Monks Understanding the power of SEO is crucial in today's digital landscape. Mars Monks excels in optimizing its content to ensure that the right audience can discover our valuable reviews. We employ a combination of targeted keywords, meta descriptions, and on-page optimization techniques to enhance our visibility on search engines.

Outranking the Competition While we don't delve into the intricacies of SEO, it's worth noting that, as experts in the field, we ensure our content is finely tuned to outrank our competitors. We are committed to delivering top-quality content that not only educates but also ranks high on search engine results pages. Our content isn't just about words; it's about providing you with the best insights, and that's why it ranks so well.

Expert Recommendations We are aware that the internet is awash with product recommendations, but at Mars Monks, our recommendations are based on extensive research, expert opinions, and user feedback. Our team of experts sifts through the vast sea of online products, cherry-picking only the best for our readers. Rest assured, if it's recommended on Mars Monks, it's worth considering.

A Final Word Mars Monks isn't just a website; it's a gateway to well-informed choices. Our commitment to offering unbiased, expert, and insightful product reviews has earned us a dedicated following. As you navigate the world of online shopping, consider Mars Monks your trusted companion.

[hotelszz]

Best and Worst Hotel Booking Sites for 2023

BREATHTAKING VIEWS! A LUXURY WELLNESS & SPA RESORT IN CABO SAN LUCASAt Vista Find Hotels for 18+ Encantada, arriving at yourhome away from home means unwinding in luxurious surroundings and soaking up every moment of sun and fun with friends and family. Each meal, and every activity, create another unforgettable visit to your Los Cabos home resort, or residence. It can mean marveling at every color or sensation while enjoying every carefully curated corner, and it can mean experiencing new cultures and traditions in an elegant, yet welcoming ambiance.

Surrounded by the Pacific Ocean with unobstructed views of Land’s End, Vista Encantada’s luxurious suites provide an exclusive and tranquil retreat for owners and guests seeking to recharge and indulge in a place that helps disconnect and then reconnect to what really matters. Awaken your senses through impeccable hospitality, remarkable epicurean experiences, and our world-class spa, and create unforgettable and cherished memories in both comfort and luxury. With an optional All In gourmet indulgence experience option you can relax and enjoy a wide variety of culinary options both on and off-site, to satisfy even the most discerning of palates. Relax and let the team help with all of the details while you enjoy your home away from home!

Three types of hotel search engines

First, it helps to understand the playing field. There are basically three types of websites we use to find hotels: OTAs (online travel agencies); the hotels’ own websites, which may offer deals OTAs can’t match (and you should always double-check yourself before booking); and aggregators, or meta-search engines, which don’t actually handle reservations—they trawl both OTAs and hotel sites to return a compendium of results, then send you to your choice for booking.

We tested both OTAs and the aggregators that search them. Why include smaller OTAs at all when there are aggregators that check them? Well, some aggregators aren’t nearly as good as they should be at combing through those booking engines. In fact, in our latest survey, the site that found the most hotels was actually an OTA, and not an aggregator that supposedly canvasses it. You’d think their results would be at least as good—but we found they weren’t.

Warning: Many aggregators will discover a number of booking sites that have amazingly low prices—but often sketchy track records. Whenever you find a result for a company you’ve never heard of, do a quick search for its name and the words “review” or “scam,” and also check out its reputation on the Better Business Bureau (BBB.org) before giving them your money.

As a side note, membership sometimes has its privileges, at least at some OTA sites where signing in can often net you 4% to 6% in savings. Aggregator member savings are more sporadically available, and on the order of just 1% to 2%. We used the plain “non-member” rates for all our tests.

How We Determined our Ranking

We threw 60 room reservation scenarios at the major sites to determine which found the cheapest rates and the most options.

To start, we tallied the number of choices each contender could rustle up in seven major tourist cities: Orlando, New Orleans, San Francisco, Rome, London, Bangkok, and Buenos Aires.

Then, for each city, we searched for the lowest rates each site could find at four specific downtown hotels in varying price ranges for a mid-week, shoulder-season stay three months out. By avoiding high-season or holiday spikes as well as last-minute discounts, we aimed for the most normal base prices.

We awarded points for finding the lowest rates on a given hotel—and subtracted points for returning higher prices than other sites—in a complicated weighted system designed to see which site would save you the most money consistently.

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Okay last one for the night because I am really tired and very ready for bed but I’ve gotta get in my Avengers commentary because I have to start off tomorrow on a clean slate and ready to go. Thus, here we are.

1. In lieu of only post Infinity War MCU canon, Loki’s rhetoric at the very beginning of The Avengers sounds a fucking lot like Maw’s. In the initial scenes when he’s fresh off the Tesseract Express his words and way of speaking sound nothing like his own. Even comparing his speeches at the outset of the movie versus the one he makes in Stuttgart, the tones and focuses of them are very different. (IE the first speech focuses on the “powers at be” versus the Stuttgart speech focusing on Loki’s personal opinions of humanity which are more and more developed throughout the film.) But it struck me that these first scenes are precisely on-cue for someone tortured and brainwashed by, say, The Black Order. 2. Given I literally just watched the first Captain America yesterday, I find Cap’s “old fashioned” comment about the stars and stripes on his uniform to be both sad and interesting. Especially given the context that comparatively Cap hasn’t been “up” for very long, one particular comment made to him by Schmidt literally moments before he went into the ice stands out. Schmidt says that through the Tesseract he glimpsed the future, and that there were no flags. In the America and world Steve wakes up to, compared to the world of the 1940s that claim of Schmidt’s could very suddenly appear to be true, which would be understandably uncomfortable for someone like Steve who is usually determined and quick on his feet but at such a staggering disadvantage because of the gap between his mindset and that of his contemporaries which are more varied than he necessarily knows how to quantify right at the outset. Watching his progress throughout the MCU in light of that is interesting, but that one moment of introspection about the utility of the “stars and stripes” is a uniquely postmodern comment coming from a pre-modern/modern man. 3. Okay so this intrigues me now that we have the Guardians and pretty much the entire universe in play in the MCU, but what “greater worlds,” exactly, was the Tesseract supposed to unveil? True the Tesseract is the space stone and verifiably can open portals to everywhere and anywhere in the universe, but Loki specifically makes the claim that the Tesseract can open up access to “greater worlds,” and I’m honestly still not entirely sure what precise reference this was supposed to be making. Because Thanos barely might have arguably needed the Tesseract to get to the planet the Soul Stone was on, but even so that’s a connection that still somehow feels like a stretch. So my question is, what if they meaning the Black Order or Thanos or possibly even Loki needed the Tesseract to get at something else? Somewhere else? Then again, this particular slip might just be Whedon’s doing and not necessarily be reflective of the culmination of the MCU up to this point so IDK. 4. I’m not going to lie, I’ve found it fascinating from day one that The Avengers very openly plays with godhood, to the point that I’m genuinely not sure if they’re reifying it in the MCU or tinkering with it. I mean obviously in the later movies this theme is less stressed because the tinkering patently takes precedence, but it’s still cool to me that there are both scripted and visual imagery that tie in multicultural interpretations of godhood. Fury mentions the burial rites of the Pharaohs within the first ten minutes of the film, Loki commits a human sacrifice on a Babylonian bull altar straight from Gilgamesh era in Stuttgart, Cap makes a comment about how his singular god does and does not dress after Natasha herself labels Thor and Loki as gods, and Fury unashamedly labels Thor as a god when they release the Tesseract to his custody. And while a bit ham-fisted, the correlation between theism and the bleeding-edge demand to acknowledge the reality of the universe is still pretty neat guys. 5. The old man in Stuttgart because no FUCK. If any of y’all think that my Germanist ass won’t get misty-eyed and choked-up during this scene, you’re wrong. 6. Okay so I’ll premise this by saying that I haven’t cross-checked the official script because frankly... yeah frankly I don’t want to be wrong and I really can’t hear anything but what I believe to be my interpretation of the line even though I know what the other fan alternatives have been. But when Thor and Loki are arguing on the mountaintop, when Loki says that he, “Was and should be ---,” my hearing of it instead of having been “Was and should be king,” is “Was and should be killed.” And while I’ll bow to whatever official record claims otherwise, I like my hearing better so there. (Also... there’s zero hint of Hiddleston’s palate producing a “g” sound in that sentence but I’ll put my inner linguist away and leave it at that.) 7. In light of that scene, though, when Loki and Thor are arguing is one of the first moments when Loki actually sounds like himself after the Stuttgart scene? Prior to that point the only times we see Loki is when he’s marshaling his human troops and getting policed by those lording over him. In all of those initial scenes Loki feels... very un-Loki to me. Not because Loki isn’t a bastard (hint: he is), but because his motivations and justifications are vague and not seemingly personally motivated, which is what Loki is to a fault. Post-Stuttgart, however, and the personal element seems to return for him because of some reason or another. (IE I have theories but you can read your own into it.) 8. Let it never be said that Thor is a dull bulb. Yeah it’s still sort of unclear how Thor got to Earth (though nothing is unclear about why Thor is pissed), but Thor does walk in with more than enough information to be frankly a little surprising. Bless Heimdall and all that, but seriously the fact that Thor knows about the Chitauri but doesn’t know other things casts an interesting focus on what he was told by Odin and Heimdall before going. Most importantly, though, even from conversing with Loki for a few minutes, Thor is attentive enough to pick up on some of what Loki isn’t saying. Such as, just who showed Loki how to use the Tesseract and all the things Loki claims to be motivated by. Equally interestingly, Loki specifically refuses to answer that question. 9. I feel bad for Fury for sleeping in a den of vipers for so long - though I do like the build-up from the first Avengers into the following issues with HYDRA corruption - but in ways more important to the immediate issue in the first Avengers, Fury might be a shady bitch but he is not an idiot. Because while everyone else was having pissing contests and not trusting one another, Fury was not trusting the person that deserved to be trusted the least, which isn’t just good leadership, but is good spycraft. 10. As established later in the MCU, it’s exceedingly clever that even in the first Avengers there are scenes when even without a “wielder” present, the Mind Stone - as-yet unidentified as such in the MCU - can be seen manipulating those in its vicinity such as in the lab where the biggest catfight in the history of the MCU breaks out. I mean. Until CA:CW... 11. Steve Rogers, poor cinnamon roll, unexpectedly served at dinner instead of breakfast, who cracks jokes about technology he really isn’t that bad at as “seeming to run on some kind of electricity.” Bless. Though really that internal console, while doing complicated shit, is definitely not any more or less visually complicated than the interior of a radio relay which Steve definitely dealt with in his day but kudos for the humor bb, A+. 12. Still one of the strongest and most harrowing lines ever said in the MCU in my opinion: “We are NOT soldiers.” Know why? Because they aren’t. Hell, the only ones among them that are soldiers - and some by slim and emergency-driven margins - are Steve, Bucky, Rhodey, and Sam. The rest of them are brilliant, gifted, and tortured civilians trying to do the right thing. And to Tony Stark above all else, that means something. That means that they didn’t get training to deal with this shit. They didn’t choose for this to be their lives, necessarily. And above all, they don’t deserve to die. And even though Tony knows Coulson is a SHIELD agent, Tony still considers him a person before a disposable “soldier.” 13. Mother-fucking Marvel give me an entire series devoted to my Hawk Guy I need him. You have so much to work with and yet you’re so good at squandering him. I hate it. 14. In light of how bad NYC got fucked up, it’s honestly no wonder Jessica Jones has a drinking problem because I would too even without the personal loss, experimentation, and emotional maladjustment. 15. IN WHAT FUCKING POST-9/11 WORLD DO BUSINESS BUILDINGS NOT HAVE VERY STRICT EVACUATION PLANS. SERIOUSLY. I am a little mad that there are morons ogling out of office building windows when frankly that shit wouldn’t fly. Even on fucking 9/11 that shit didn’t fly and if you think NYC is less paranoid because 9/11 was a decade prior to this movie coming out, you’re wrong. Everyone remembers, and city evacuation ordinances will sure as hell never forget either. Come on Marvel. 16. As a point of interest my grandmother - who also went to see The Avengers with me when it was in theaters but not at the midnight showing like my mom - was 84 at the time and still sat through the whole thing with a bucket full of popcorn to herself, and her favorite moment to this day is when the Hulk tosses Loki around like a rag doll. She’s 90 now, and the Hulk is still her favorite character. 17. Mother-Fuckin Nick Fury will cock-block your nuclear strike with a bazooka because he thinks you’re that dumb. Do not test Nick Fury’s willingness to be Extra (TM) . You will lose. 18. Real talk, though, I’m really curious about whether the Chitauri actually are a hive mind race or, is it their technology that runs of a hive mind link? Because the armor at least on the giant toothy space whale monstrosities does not look organic - it looks implanted. The Chitauri foot soldiers also seem to have a unique biologically based interface with their weapons, armor, and technology in general, which begs the question of whether their biometric matrix is just somehow more inclined toward shared-existence technologies, or whether they self-engineered themselves into a corner by relying on said technologies too much. Seriously guys I have questions and why won’t Marvel give me answers. 19. As a final send-off, this is the first time Tony has ever driven an Acura in the MCU and I refuse to believe it’s not because of the Avengers “A” aesthetic. Tony is canonically an Audi man. Fight me on this.

Okay I’m seriously done for now it’s 1 AM and I need to sleep I have 4 more movies to get through tomorrow. I’ll be up and around and at my shit again in the morn.∞

#''the doctor is out #''marvel meta field notes #''MMFN

[redrobin-detective]

Deku being an famous online fanfiction writer and class 1A is a group of die hard fans

Izuku has been writing meta and fic almost since he first learned to write, by the time he reaches high school, he is well experienced and well known at the craft. His blog has thousands of followers were he dumps astute analysises and well crafted fics about heroes and hero society. If he drops off a bit after he enters high school, well his followers understand.

As he learns and grows at Yuuei, he gains a better understanding of his classmates and teachers and shows his love through writing. It starts off simple, quirk analysis of the public figures of yuuei, stories have OCs with gravity quirks, that talk with their hands, who have bad relations with their pro hero parents. He writes some of the first Eraserhead fanfiction and those in the know marvel at the thoughtful analysis and speculation on personality not knowing he gets to see the man up close and in person. The more popular certain students become, the more emboldened Izuku is to write about them.

Its Kaminari who first discovers the blog, a self proclaimed meme king and frequent social media user, he finds an author who has uncanny insight into Yuuei, most of the information isn’t sensitive but the author captures the feel and personality of students and pros so well. He comments on his official chargebolt blog about the accuracy and it explodes. Izuku nearly falls over dead when he logs on the next morning and sees his username plastered over fan sites, speculating onto his identity.

The students are on the lookout but they never look Midoriya’s way, he’s too cute, too shy; definitely not one to write a 40k fic detailing Endeavor’s failings as a hero and a person. Bakugou, had known Deku his whole damn life and is well aware of his online premise sits back for a change to watch the fireworks (its not like he’s jealous Deku’s blog is bigger than his own, he’s not invested in his theories like some kind of nerd). Pretty soon, all of the hero course is following the blog that just gets them. Izuku hastily backtracks and deletes anything compromising and the few pity posts he’d made late at night when his depression and anxiety were running high. He tries to stop before he gets caught but creativity always needs an outlet and he cannot resist.

They’re living in the dorms when it comes out. “You’re that blogger everyone talks about, ribbit,” Tsuyu says one night during a movie marathon. Izuku twitches so hard the popcorn in his lap falls to the ground. “the latest story talked about Ochako and I working with Ryuuku, it mentioned an application of my quirk you mentioned in training last week. I haven’t had the chance to use it in the field so it had to come from you.” Heights Alliance descends into chaos.

“You always write me as the comic relief,” Kaminari cries, “and that scathing review of my sports festival performance almost made me cry!”

“You hardly ever write about meeeeeeeee,” Hagakure whines, “what am I, invisible?”

“Midoriya this is a flagrant misuse of your position as a student of Yuuei and a breach of your classmates privacy and potentially their safety,” Iida lectures, “that said I do appreciated your heated defense of Tensei against Stain fans.”

“Oh! Oh! I know, you should do a villain Au with us!” Ashido claps. “Villain AUs are so popular these days, reverse us with the League and be sure to call me Alien Queen!”

Aizawa shuffles out of his room to see what the commotion is about and is unsurprised to find his problem child right in the middle of it all. Honestly, he’d warned the boy of the dangers of running a public blog. He was getting fanmail  sent to the school because of the brat overhyping his abilities. Izuku apologies and says he’ll stop but in the end, he never does.

Pro Hero Deku, one of the most beloved, popular heroes in the country, doesn’t have much of a social media presence beyond his official accounts. “I’m just too busy,” he says with an awkward little smile, “being a hero is a full time job.” But a certain blog started out of loneliness in middle school is still active, still producing new stories, new theories, new critiques and suggestions for the ever changing hero society. It’s his most closely guarded secret, second only to One For All, and one of the few bits of normality he has managed to keep in his chaotic new life. He says he’ll give it up one of these days but never finds himself able to. So if Deku uses a turn of phrase from a popular blog or notes something found in a popular text post, no one takes it too seriously. Because the one thing the public knows about Deku is that is a fan, just like us. 

#deku is a big nerd boy and i love him #lanelacy

[stevishabitat]

Welcome to My Habitat

I'm an Xennial of the Oregon Trail Generation. Parent to one human kiddo and who knows how many cats at this point. We live in a multigenerational neurodiverse household.

What kind of posts can you expect?

This blog ranges all over from fandoms to current events, parenting, social justice issues, etc. I'm not the world's greatest tagger, so if any of the following might cause you distress or discomfort, this might not be the blog for you.

Fandoms:

Animaniacs

Animorphs

Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel

Carnival Row

Daredevil (Marvel Series)

Doctor Who / Torchwood

The Dresden Files (Books)

Echo (Marvel Series)

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (Marvel Series)

The Flash (DC Series)

Firefly

Good Omens (Book & Series)

Hawkeye (Marvel Series)

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman

Loki (Marvel Series)

The Lord of the Rings (Books & Movies)

Pirates of the Caribbean

POSE

Prodigal Son

Raising Dion

Runaways

Star Trek (particularly TNG, DS9, Voyager, Discovery, Picard, SNW)

Possible content warnings:

There may be adult content in some of the fanworks.

Some of the gifs, metas, and fanfic may use strong language.

Some of the original creators are problematic (see: JK Rowling, Joss Whedon, Steven Moffat, Gareth Roberts, Rick Berman, etc). I've chosen not to fully disengage from the fandoms, but I don't hold back from posting about some of the crappy things the creators have done/said, and how their biases have affected their work and the fandom.

I try not to post disturbing images or videos, but there will be times that I post descriptions of upsetting events in the past and present that affect marginalized people groups.

Topics:

Neurodiversity -Autism/ADHD

Anti-Racism

Intersectional Feminism

LGBTQIA+ / Queer Community

Parenting/Education/Children's Rights

Soccer/Football

Chronic Illness/Invisible and Visible Disabilities

I sometimes have theme days, mostly to keep my drafts and queue from overflowing, and to keep things tidy and relatively balanced between serious stuff and fun stuff.

Monday - Alternating: Good Omens / Other Neil Gaiman or Terry Pratchett works, and Daredevil (Netflix version, comics, and whatever comes next...)

Tuesday - Intersectional Feminist topics, LGBTQIA topics, Neurodiversity/Disability topics, Parenting/Education/Children's Rights topics

Wednesday - Doctor Who / Torchwood

Thursday - Anti-Racism topics, Intersectional Feminist topics, Social Justice topics, Current Events/Politics, COVID-19

Friday - Fandom free-for-all, Football/Soccer, memes and internet nonsense

Saturday - Self-care, encouragement, health and wellness, recipes, art, history, science... Also: Cats.

Sunday - Spirituality, quotes/poetry, Environmental issues, mutual aid and donation opportunities, nature photography & art

Pile of Good Things:

I also post personal photos and notes under the tag #Pile of Good Things. This is my photo journal that helps me with depression, anxiety, and general stress of life. It includes photos from my own life, nothing fancy, I'm no great photographer. It just helps me remember the good moments. There will be pics and mentions of my kiddo (but no full-face shots). So if you find mentions of parenting and children difficult, you may want to block that tag.

I'm not able to do image IDs, but I'm always super happy to reblog versions of posts that others have added IDs to. Feel free to tag me if you write an ID for something I've posted!

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DISCLAIMER:

J*W*'s work was (and continues to be) important in my life, but I no longer want to support or listen to him, provide any financial support to any of his projects, or promote his opinions.

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I support these organizations that are doing amazing work in the fields of supporting abuse survivors and workers in film and TV.

National Domestic Violence Hotline -  1-800-799-7233

Since 1996, the National Domestic Violence Hotline has been the vital link to safety for women, men, children and families affected by domestic violence. With the help of our dedicated advocates and staff, we respond to calls 24/7, 365 days a year.

National Network to End Domestic Violence

The National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV) was founded more than 25 years ago to be the leading voice for survivors of domestic violence and their allies. NNEDV was formed in 1990 when a small group of domestic violence victim advocates came together to promote federal legislation related to domestic violence.

MeToo Movement

The ‘me too’ movement supports survivors of sexual violence and their allies by connecting survivors to resources, offering community organizing resources, pursuing a ‘me too’ policy platform, and working with researchers to add to the field and chart our way forward. We believe that the movement begins with connecting survivors to resources for healing, justice, action and leadership.

Motion Picture & Television Fund

The Motion Picture & Television Fund’s mission is to protect and preserve the health and quality of life of those who devote so much of their lives to the industry. MPTF offers a variety of services that can provide emotional and financial relief to industry members and their families during times of need. Whether the hardship is personal or the result of an entertainment industry-wide event, MPTF is here when you need us most.

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DISCLAIMER:

J*K*R's work was (and continues to be) important in my life, but I no longer want to support or listen to her, provide any financial support to any of her projects, or promote her opinions.

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I support these organizations that are doing amazing work around the world for marginalized - particularly trans - communities:

Mermaids has been supporting transgender, nonbinary and gender-diverse children, young people, and their families since 1995.

Gendered Intelligence, established in 2008, is a registered charity that exists to increase understandings of gender diversity and improve trans people’s quality of life.

GiveOut is an award-winning charity growing giving to support the global struggle for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) human rights.

Fandom Forward turns fans into heroes. We use the power of story and popular culture to make activism accessible and sustainable. Through experiential training and real life campaigns, we develop compassionate, skillful leaders who learn to approach our world’s problems with joy, creativity, and commitment to equity.

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DISCLAIMER:

"Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" was (and continues to be) important in my life, but I no longer want to support Dean Cain, or provide any financial support to any of his projects, or promote his opinions.

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I support these organizations that are doing amazing work supporting LGBTQIA+ youth:

The Trevor Project

A national 24-hour, toll free confidential suicide hotline for LGBTQ youth. Help us continue to save young LGBTQ lives. Life-saving Volunteers. Crisis Support. LGBTQ Community.

PFLAG

PFLAG is the first and largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, their parents and families, and allies.

Fandom Forward

Fandom Forward is an international 501c3 nonprofit that turns fans into heroes. We're harnessing the power of pop culture to make activism more accessible and sustainable.

[queen-of-meows]

Timeless review

Spoilers below !

Timeless takes over right after the end of Kang the Conqueror vol 5.

My opinion on this new mini-series hasn't changed since the previous one, it's still very good.

The biggest strenght of Timeless is a change of narrator. While Kang was a brilliant unreliatable narrator, this new issue introduces a new first person narrator : Dr Petrov.

Dr Petrov is an eminant scholar specialized in the history of super-villains. He became famous for his book about Doom, earning repect from the man himself. Kang being Kang, his jealousy pushes him to take Petrov on a field trip to show him who is the best.

The first part of the comic follows Kang and his new human companion in what looks like a twisted version of Doctor Who. Kang bumbles around the universe, bragging and challenging himself aimlessly. The dialogues are minimal and most of the text is Petrov's inner thoughts and works as a psychological analysis. While it is not necessary to read the previous mini-series, knowing this particular Kang's past helps completing Petrov's observations. This Kang is a hedonist who prefers fun adventures to real conquest. He's obsessed with challenges and victory and will gladly help local population if it brings him admiration. He loves humanity as a specie, while removing himself from it. He's a terrifying brute who wrestle bare hands with wild animals for the adrenaline, but he's also an intelligent man who loves an intellectual conversation. Soon, Petrov starts seeing him as a companion, almost a friend.

Then, the Timequake happens and Petrov has to face the reality behind Kang's pleasant company. It's not the man's thirst for violence and blood that horrifies Petrov, but his cold indifference to the fate of his own minions. To him, individuals are nothing but disposable objects, Petrov included.

Finally, the climax involves a confrontation with a variant of Reed Richards who has impersonated Doom to save his timeline, but lost his sanity after fusing with the Time and Reality stones. While this overpowered Richards is about to kill Kang, Petrov intervenes and stabs him to death with a spear. Follows a rather emotional sequences, as Petrov learned in their earlier adventures that Kang will kill any person who helps him out of pride. While asked why he did this, Petrov denies helping out of sympathy, but as a calculation. The universe doesn't need him, but it needs Kang. To his surprise, Kang tries to save the appearances and pretends it was all a plan, him distracting Richards while Petrov stabbed him.

In the end, Petrov returns to his century and ponders over his improbable friendship with Kang.

Just like the previous Kang centered series, this comic manages to show glimpses of vulnerability in the infamous super-villain, but never minimizes his ruthlessness. Kang is a villain you can empathize with, but never truely sympathize. And Petrov works wonderfully well as a self insert, almost delivering a meta commentary on the reader's relationship with Kang. His clinical observation turn into fear and disgust, but he never manages to dismiss completely the humanity behind the monster.

On a more negative note, however, this new project announcing the next crossover event might not be as beginner friendly as other Marvel series, and I had to read online reviews to understand most of the character cameos and references.

#marvel timeless #comic books #review

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press: Elizabeth Olsen’s 20/21 Vision

The Marvel star takes us inside her transformation to a new kind of hero

GALLERY LINKS

Studio Photoshoots > 2021 > Session 002

Magazine Scans > 2021 > Grazia

  GRAZIA: Elizabeth Olsen is a trooper. We are in a field in Surrey on the outskirts of the Marvel studios; it’s a biting minus one and she is standing in a Chanel broderie anglaise sundress and increasingly soggy UGG boots. Her feline cheekbones face skywards, but Olsen is slowly sinking into the mud, trilling out high notes to keep herself warm (possibly distracted) and of course with spirits high. “It was the wind I think, that was worse than the sideways rain,” she jokes as we trundle back to the soundstage hangar that we are using as a studio. It’s the kind of moment that could go viral on Instagram, that is, if Olsen were on social media. Yet one of the biggest stars of our current cultural moment is completely offline – and that surprising fact might just be the least interesting thing about her. If anything, it is a sign of how Olsen has come into her own as a confident, decisive star with the power to create her own universe.

On the cusp of her 32nd birthday, Olsen is fastidious and professional, yes, but also bright, engaging, creative, and collaborative. Born and raised in the California sunshine, she is surprisingly at ease in the blustery conditions that deluge the English countryside in late January – or, it’s that she’s very good at acting. “It was one of the ugliest days of this winter – just hilarious – but I knew we wanted the shot,” the 31-year-old actress says.

Since October, Olsen’s been living in the leafy British countryside with her “man-guy-partner,” musician Robbie Arnett, just a short drive to the Surrey compound where Doctor Strange is being filmed. It’s a closed set, masked in secrecy as much as the socially distanced masked crew dotted all over the 200-acre studio. “It feels right being in a small city right now,” she says.

Indeed, Olsen is a modern-day Renaissance woman. Learned and dedicated to her craft, she studied at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, with a semester at the Moscow Art Theatre School studying Stanislavski. (Surely, no matter how much of a genius the Russian theatre master was, he never could have conceived of the Marvel universe.)

Approached with the concept of WandaVision, “I thought it was perfect for television, and a very original idea that made me excited,” Olsen says. Also, she was happy she would get to work with Bettany again: “He’s very precise, like me.”

In many ways, WandaVision is a love letter to the first American television heyday. Olsen, who stayed up late watching Nick at Nite reruns as a child, says it’s a bit of a homecoming in that way. “I was a very hammy, performative child,” she explains. “So, I do think I got to live out some sort of childhood dream doing the show.”

“The highlight was really getting to tell a story about these superhero individuals told in different decades of American sitcoms, trying to match the tone of those sitcoms in order to help orate the story,” she says. “But keep it playful and fun.” Little did she know just how much we’d need that.

Half-filmed pre-pandemic in Atlanta and half post-pandemic in LA – with a six-month hiatus in-between “until all the unions figured out to work safely” – WandaVision was released almost a year into the pandemic. In many ways, it is an artifact of its time: centered upon a yearning for the simplicity of earlier days, yet shot through with the creeping realization that such days may never return, and perhaps never existed to begin with.

Indeed, the weekly story of suburban superheroes Wanda and Vision has played out like a parable of our times: Wanda living in her chosen bubble, her trauma resonating in the world we find ourselves in today. Olsen appreciates a good metaphor, but feels people may be projecting a bit much. “I see Wanda as a victim of extreme trauma, who does not understand how to process it,” she explains. “She has been a human experiment.” (Not to belabor the point, but haven’t we all?)

Being summoned by Marvel is like being called to a parallel universe for an actor: thrilling, yes, but not without a tinge of terror and a dash of the unknown. Six years in, though, it’s become like family in some ways. As a member of two dynasties – Olsen and Marvel – family is key to Olsen. She checks in on her mom (who still lives in California) and, like many American daughters, is researching which vaccine mom should get.

The performative gene runs strong through her family, of course – and no, we don’t mean her sisters. Olsen’s mom was a ballerina. Still, when she first started auditioning, Olsen took special care to carve her own path – one far from Full House. “Nepotism is a thing and I’m very aware of it,” she says. “And of course, I’ve always wanted to do it alone.” She did just that, her acting credentials consistently rising as her sister’s cemented their fashion kudos. Olsen bears a noticeable resemblance to her fashion-designer older sisters and her sartorial DNA is similarly low-key. She loves The Row (of course) and NYC label Khaite’s denim and cashmere.

For Olsen, her day job is like playing dress-up. This time around, she walked away from WandaVision with the girdle worn underneath her 50s wedding dress, laughing, “I mean, to have a custom undergarment like that, I felt like it was necessary!” Her WandaVision co-star, Kathryn Hahn, also became her shopping cohort when filming.

“She’s dangerous!” Olsen says. “She has the most exquisite, minimal but expensive taste.” It was Hahn who led Olsen to the independent boutique where she found the belted Julia Jentzsch trench that she wore to our shoot.

At the rail of samples compiled by the stylist, Olsen gravitates towards a spacious linen boilersuit and longline cashmere cardigan. Has she always been a tomboy, I ask? “I think I felt uncomfortable being a child being told they were pretty,” she says of her early auditions at age 10, adding that her love of ballet and musical theater could leave her “feeling exposed” at a young age.

Speaking of over-exposure, Olsen is distinctly offline in a time when so many are defined by their social media presence. Among celebrities and regular digital citizens, the perfect balance of online and off is up for debate, but Olsen is clear: social media saturation is a choice for all of us, and everyone needs to draw their own boundaries.

“It has to be a personal decision, right?” she begins. “So, my opinion has nothing to do with what anyone else does or doesn’t do with it.” Her own journey began when she momentarily dabbled with Instagram (since deleted), while filming Ingrid Goes West, director Matt Spicer’s frightening and funny debut feature about a social stalker, co-starring Aubrey Plaza.

Up until that time, she says, “I had never touched it before. I thought, ‘This is an interesting social experiment for myself, to see if it is a good source to talk about charities or a good source to talk about small projects, or to share something goofier about myself.’ But I think at the end of the day, what I discovered was one, I’m really bad at creating a perceived identity!”

“I didn’t find it very organic to who I am as a person,” she continues. “I found some joy in putting up silly videos, but I think the main reason I stopped – not I think, I know the main reason why I stopped – was because of the organization in my brain.”

“Lots of horrible things happen all the time. Or, lots of great things happen all the time. Whether it’s something terrifying, like a natural disaster or a school shooting or a death, there are so many things that happen, and I love processing information. I love reading articles. I love listening to podcasts. I love communicating about things that are happening in the world to people around me. And what I don’t love is that my brain organization was saying, ‘Should I post about this?’ That seemed very unhealthy ….”

“And to then contribute to these platitudes that I don’t really love, you have to subscribe to two different ways of thinking,” she says. “So, I didn’t like that, and there was a lot of it that was just bothering me for my own sake of what value systems I have.”

That’s not to say that there’s any inherent value system – pro or con – in using Instagram. Olsen is clear that like any other method of expression, it’s up to the individual to use it as they see fit. “I do see a use of it and how you can use it well for work,” she says. “But I don’t think that I would like to use that tool to promote myself.”

She’s private for a millennial yes, but not prim. On the photoshoot, lockdown experiences were shared, and Olsen recounted her (hilarious) first at-home bikini wax: banishing her husband upstairs “for an extended chat with his therapist,” her trusted waxer on speed dial, and microwave set to ping! (Yes, Olsen is a trooper, as I mentioned.)

We catch up over Zoom a week later, her hair once again pulled up in a casual topknot, her cashmere turtleneck simmering in a dark claret, and her entire being suffused with covetable understatement. She chats buoyantly against an unexpected backdrop of pirate ship wallpaper in the playroom of a house she shares with Arnett, who proposed with an emerald and diamond ring in 2019.

“We first started to try to make it the gym, but it was so cramped,” she says of the jolly space. The home gym was instead awarded a larger room, where Olsen loves to maintain a varied fitness regime – running, yoga, dancing, more – though after all the intense Marvel filming, she jokes, “maybe it’s time to give up on my body?!” Being comic book fit does sound grueling or “time-consuming fun” as she anoints the “strenuous physical demands.”

Like most of us, she is longing for the spring, but she still takes a regular constitutional walk in a nearby Richmond park, whatever the weather. “The deer are incredible; every time I see them I feel alive,” she says. “We have been lucky to have nature around us in lockdown.” It’s a marked difference from her paparazzi-populated home in the Hills. “They know our walks, where we get coffee, work-out…,” she trails off.

Her haven in Los Angeles is her backyard, complete with a mid-century swimming pool and an edible garden. “It’s crazy the blackberries grow like weeds! I love watching a kid’s first reaction to an edible garden,” she gushes That has been the part of the pandemic travel restrictions she’s found hardest: missing her friend’s children growing up, and others who have been born this past year that she’s yet to meet. They will no doubt all be treated to her homemade blackberry sorbet on her return stateside.

Yet, her time on British soil will likely be prolonged, with a prospective indie commencing filming here when Doctor Strange wraps. Prompted for more detail, her firm charm kicks in. “I can’t jinx it!” she insists. Still, she will share that she’s heavily involved in the creative, and that funding smaller productions in the current climate has been a challenge.

Through it all, Olsen has remained determined and calm. “I feel patience is my superpower. But my weakness also,” she says. “I feel like it gets tested more than others who don’t have a lot of patience. If someone learns you’re easygoing or that you’re relaxed, sometimes it gets taken advantage of.” While she waits for the green light on that film, she is busy producing a new children’s cartoon with Arnett, “about loving and caring for our world,” and has also written a children’s book about to be published by Random House, all while the demands of Marvel life continue to surround her.

Indeed, Olsen is a superhero for the modern age: Multi-hyphenate, but fiercely devoted to the craft that she loves; instantly recognizable, yet thoughtfully protective of her private life; a woman with style, substance, success, and deep rewarding relationships with those around her; focused on a vision of a better world for us all.

Press: Elizabeth Olsen’s 20/21 Vision was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

#Elizabeth Olsen #WandaVision #Avengers #Scarlet Witch #Wanda Maximoff #Sorry For Your Loss #Avengers Infinity War #Avengers Age of Ultron #Captain America Civil War #Ingrid Goes West #Godzilla

[quipsnquivers]

14. What is the most annoying fact or trait or fanon that is attached to your muse and bothers you?

So I'm gonna do this with Clint because to be quite honest, I don't engage with fanon enough to have one on Kate. (This is also Marvel's fault too, btw, 616 and otherwise.)

There is a very serious difference between Clint being a disaster bi that acts dumb and Clint being straight up incompetent. As far as I can tell, Fraction was the only one to get it right (and whoever did Freefall, though I have my gripes about that too just like the Fraction run), and most people interpret that take as Clint performing at his peak because that's the best narrative writing he's had. Which is.... Entirely missing the point. You have a circus carnie that taught himself past a high school education who can calculate the trajectory of the sun 1000 years ago and makes his own arrows that low key put Tony's inventiveness to shame, but I see him, IN THE FIELD, not understand how a fucking plane works. The runs where Clint is genuinely struggling are him being depressed and vulnerable and needing to rest in a world that won't let him, it's what made him relatable in the Fraction run. Anybody with depression will tell you they feel like they're underperforming during bad episodes. That includes mentally and physically. Tack on what I can't think of as anything but ADHD for Clint on top of it, and you get somebody that has a lot of range between his best and worst, but I guarantee you he's not at his worst when he's Avenging or spying.

The most vivid example I can think of for this is when the Evergreen got stuck in the Suez Canal, somebody wrote a fic where Clint did it out of pure incompetence while Bucky laughed at him. And look, I get it. The urge to make Clint comic relief is undeniable because he's good at it. But he's so deceptively good at it that I think people forget it's an act. His creed is essentially to notice everything and pretend to see nothing. Clint's resourcefulness and competence is the reason he's on a team with gods and super soldiers and billionaires when he could be at home with his wife. It is not something that he takes lightly and it's why the Fraction run can be so genuinely painful as a legacy because it's the only context people have when he's been outplaying universal threats like the Grandmaster and fighting whole teams of metas singlehandedly since the 1960's.

Side note to this, btw, I genuinely fucking hate that one of the most respected and long term Avengers is apparently hated by most of the community in recent years. If I see one more "ugh, it's Hawkeye" panel, I'm gonna slap somebody in the head

Tl;dr, if Clint isn't shown to be capable enough to handle a mission, have the skills for his job, be able to count on something besides his fingers, and gets shit on by his friends, I'll unkudos your fic.

#sorry if this is scatterbrained I am running around at work

[bnhaclaimedmysoul]

✧･ﾟ:  floofvember d11  :･ﾟ✧

stargazing

character: dabi

genre: fluff

note: here’s dabi for ya. i’ve been writing dabi content so much, but i can’t not???? i love my baby. but enjoy this piece! ♡

–– medusa.

dabi

being on the run wasn’t exactly the easiest. having to be affiliated with the league of villains, a growing group of malicious entities under a so-called ‘cause’, meant having to move from one place to another. your new normal ranged from the rigid, dusty floor of abandoned buildings to the rare luxury of cheap motel beds. comfort was a rarity given that the lone spaces you and your group would occupy were rock solid, giving your neck and back frequent pains. although comfort was sparse, you were provided warmth in the form of a certain villain’s presence. his embrace during the wee hours of the dark when everyone else had gotten shuteye was the closest you had to comfort as his body had radiated warmth and affection that he showed only to you.

it was only recently when the league had finally gotten their big shot at achieving their grand title upon forming a union with the meta liberation army, which granted access to long awaited opulence. it was fresh beds, new clothes to wear, actual food and an overwhelming amount of money, which was a whole upgrade from what the league had lived with for the past few months. the sense of safety was assuring nonetheless, but it somehow managed to make you miss what you once had. yes, it was everything you wished for, but what you had in the present could never make up for the adventure you had on the run. it was the late nights where you and dabi bonded– hopping from one bar to the other, snatching at pockets as a challenge to find the best steal, running from the damned authorities, and your personal favorite, watching faint twinkles from under the midnight sky. all this you missed, which lead you to your current plan.

“just where are you dragging me to, doll?” the dark haired villain questions for the umpteenth time that night, dragging his feet as you lead him along the tall grass. you flash a glare, brows furrowed at his insistent questioning. “i already told you, it’s a surprise.” he only shrugs, gaze directing elsewhere to further analyze just where you were taking him.

the november breeze was cooler, the wintry atmosphere adding to your need to reach the awaited location to snuggle up against your personal source of heat. and although his hands were laced with yours, it wasn’t quite enough to keep you warm. just a few more steps, you tell yourself as you squeeze his hand. it had been a long walk in the field of tall grass littered with the tiniest of flowers, but the two of you had finally arrived at the foot of a hill. thankfully, the hill you had chosen prior wasn’t steep, making it easy for the apathetic villain by your side. you tug him along as you stride up in an effort to reach the very top, where a lone blanket laid out for the two of you. “is this it?” he motions to the familiar blanket against the land, recognizing it as the blanket he thought he had lost a few weeks ago. you hum, making your way over to one side of the large cloth to sit down.

“i know you’ve been missing the outdoors and doing stuff like this after hours, so i thought i’d do a little something for the both of us.” this brings a small simper to form on dabi’s lips, slightly stretching the metal punctured by the lower region of his visage. “look at you, being cute and shit. do you like me or something?” he teases, causing you to roll your eyes and stick your tongue out at his usual antics. your lover settles beside your frame, one arm supporting his position while the other snakes around your waist to pull you closer. finally enveloped into warmth, you lean your head under his chin. this gives him the chance to slowly set himself down against the blanket, switching the position to a much comfortable one with you resting on the arm that curled about your frame.

both of your gazes are set heavenward, delighting in the view of the constellations scattered across the deep blue of the night’s veil. he listens intently as you point out the patterns laid out in the sky, watching as you outlined the formation of draco, scorpius, and andromeda. although he didn’t quite understand constellations as they “all looked the same”, he couldn’t help but adore your delight towards the shine outlined in the sky. soon enough, silence had fallen upon the both of you as it was a moment of admiration in two forms. it was the way you marveled at the millions of luminous beams, finding peace at the simple form of escape you shared with your lover. the other form of admiration was through the way dabi’s slender digits gently raked through your tresses, bathing in the view right by him. it was your eyes that he had paid attention to– his own form of stargazing for heavenly bodies could never compare to the beam laced within your irises.

“the stars are pretty tonight, aren’t they?”

“yeah... they are.”

#dabi #dabi x reader #dabi fluff #dabi scenarios #dabi headcanons #bnha x reader #bnha headcanons #bnha fluff #bnha scenarios #mha x reader #mha headcanons #mha fluff #mha scenarios #that's some cliché crap right there #bear with me that ending was so cheesy

[clarasimone]

Iain Glen in HENRY IV, part 1: in 3 hours 50 minutes, and counting...

On BBC Radio 3, Sunday April 26, 19H30 UK time (available to all on the BBC’s website if you listen to the play live)

Yesterday, in my teaser interview with @pnienor​, our resident Bard expert singled out a specific scene in which the King stands out: “...the exchange with Hal in Act 3, scene 2, I think, is where you find out just how good he is at keeping his crown and why. You want Hal to emulate him after this and he does.” ... Sooooo wanting to investigate this a bit further, I went into the text which will enable Iain Glen to shine and, lo and behold, I found yet more meta-theatrical resonances to enjoy! 

During Henry’s lengthy (!!) impassioned address to his son, at one point he explains how he won the admiration of his people through modesty. While the previous King pranced around like some red carpet hungry star (my image ;-), his shying away from the public eye made his rare appearances all the more glorious and commanded respect. 

Reminds you of anyone? 

I CANNOT wait to hear Iain Glen say (and please also note the Jorah-ish reference to banishment!):

If I had been so publicly visible, so overly familiar to people, so freely accessible, so cheap and available to the common hordes, then public opinion (which helped me get the crown) would have stayed loyal to King Richard. I would have stayed a banished man, with no reputation and no promise of success. But because I was so rarely seen in public, people were amazed by me when I did appear; they acted as if I were a comet. Men would tell their children, “That’s him!” Others would ask, “Where? Which one’s Bolingbroke?” I was more gracious than heaven; I acted so modestly that I won the allegiance of their hearts, and the shouts and salutes of their mouths. They even did so when the King himself was present.This is how I kept myself fresh and new. I was like a priest’s ceremonial vestments: rarely seen, but admired. I appeared seldomly, but marvelously, like a feast made all the more impressive by its rarity. Now, ridiculous King Richard pranced about with vapid clowns and superficial wits, quickly lit and just as quickly burnt out. He degraded himself, mingling his royal self with those skipping fools.

(...) They didn’t look with a special gaze, as they do at the sun when it shines only rarely.

**********************************************************************

Oh Ser, we do look upon you as the Sun :-) And you have indeed succeeded in keeping yourself fresh and new throughout your long and distinguished career, one which is entering its harvest season. Long live the King!

edit by @favor757​ 

Below the dot-dot-dot, the original text of Act 3, scene 2 (I’m still not sure how much this BBC 3 production will have modernized it)

Act 3, scene 2 - London. The palace.

Enter KING HENRY IV, PRINCE HENRY, and others

KING HENRY IV

Exeunt Lords

PRINCE HENRY

So please your majesty, I would I could Quit all offences with as clear excuse As well as I am doubtless I can purge Myself of many I am charged withal: Yet such extenuation let me beg, As, in reproof of many tales devised, which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear, By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers, I may, for some things true, wherein my youth Hath faulty wander'd and irregular, Find pardon on my true submission.

KING HENRY IV

God pardon thee! yet let me wonder, Harry, At thy affections, which do hold a wing Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors. Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost. Which by thy younger brother is supplied, And art almost an alien to the hearts Of all the court and princes of my blood: The hope and expectation of thy time Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man Prophetically doth forethink thy fall. Had I so lavish of my presence been, So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men, So stale and cheap to vulgar company, Opinion, that did help me to the crown, Had still kept loyal to possession And left me in reputeless banishment, A fellow of no mark nor likelihood. By being seldom seen, I could not stir But like a comet I was wonder'd at; That men would tell their children 'This is he;' Others would say 'Where, which is Bolingbroke?' And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, And dress'd myself in such humility That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts, Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths, Even in the presence of the crowned king. Thus did I keep my person fresh and new; My presence, like a robe pontifical, Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state, Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast And won by rareness such solemnity. The skipping king, he ambled up and down With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits, Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state, Mingled his royalty with capering fools, Had his great name profaned with their scorns And gave his countenance, against his name, To laugh at gibing boys and stand the push Of every beardless vain comparative, Grew a companion to the common streets, Enfeoff'd himself to popularity; That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes, They surfeited with honey and began To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little More than a little is by much too much. So when he had occasion to be seen, He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes As, sick and blunted with community, Afford no extraordinary gaze, Such as is bent on sun-like majesty When it shines seldom in admiring eyes; But rather drowzed and hung their eyelids down, Slept in his face and render'd such aspect As cloudy men use to their adversaries, Being with his presence glutted, gorged and full. And in that very line, Harry, standest thou; For thou has lost thy princely privilege With vile participation: not an eye But is a-weary of thy common sight, Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more; Which now doth that I would not have it do, Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

PRINCE HENRY

I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord, Be more myself.

KING HENRY IV

For all the world As thou art to this hour was Richard then When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh, And even as I was then is Percy now. Now, by my sceptre and my soul to boot, He hath more worthy interest to the state Than thou the shadow of succession; For of no right, nor colour like to right, He doth fill fields with harness in the realm, Turns head against the lion's armed jaws, And, being no more in debt to years than thou, Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on To bloody battles and to bruising arms. What never-dying honour hath he got Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds, Whose hot incursions and great name in arms Holds from all soldiers chief majority And military title capital Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Christ: Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling clothes, This infant warrior, in his enterprises Discomfited great Douglas, ta'en him once, Enlarged him and made a friend of him, To fill the mouth of deep defiance up And shake the peace and safety of our throne. And what say you to this? Percy, Northumberland, The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, Mortimer, Capitulate against us and are up. But wherefore do I tell these news to thee? Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes, Which art my near'st and dearest enemy? Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear, Base inclination and the start of spleen To fight against me under Percy's pay, To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns, To show how much thou art degenerate.

PRINCE HENRY

Do not think so; you shall not find it so: And God forgive them that so much have sway'd Your majesty's good thoughts away from me! I will redeem all this on Percy's head And in the closing of some glorious day Be bold to tell you that I am your son; When I will wear a garment all of blood And stain my favours in a bloody mask, Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with it: And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights, That this same child of honour and renown, This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight, And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet. For every honour sitting on his helm, Would they were multitudes, and on my head My shames redoubled! for the time will come, That I shall make this northern youth exchange His glorious deeds for my indignities. Percy is but my factor, good my lord, To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf; And I will call him to so strict account, That he shall render every glory up, Yea, even the slightest worship of his time, Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart. This, in the name of God, I promise here: The which if He be pleased I shall perform, I do beseech your majesty may salve The long-grown wounds of my intemperance: If not, the end of life cancels all bands; And I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.

KING HENRY IV

A hundred thousand rebels die in this: Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.

#Iain Glen #henry IV #BBC 3

[another-bedeviled-murdock]

1, 5, and 25?

Howdy!! Thank you for the ask, I'll put the answers under a read more for ~neatness~

1) Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Right now it's mostly my self indulgent WIP that's a crossover of Billions on Showtime and Marvel's Daredevil based on what started as a joke that Bryan and Wesley are twins (theyre played by the same actor). My vehicle for this is I have Matt a twin named Abigail.

Progress is good on it, I'd say! Since just the daydream notes on it are well over 50k atm (don't look at me lmao)

I think the thing I love most about it is simply diving into the Meta of it all. What physical supplements and adaptations would mutants need? How do the two universes intersect? (surprisingly well is the answer in that one lmao). And of course, just the absolute self indulgent SOFTNESS of it tbh. The addition of Abigail allows for new avenues for healing and closure for Matt, for interesting interactions with Wesley, and just overall as a positive (mostly) role in the story! Did that sound weird? I hope not lmao.

5) What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

To be honest, it's sort of caught between Abigail, who is my own character and as such absorbs pieces of me as is inevitable, and Bryan, who I already related to (but both of them are MUCH cooler than me I promise).

Abby I relate to bc they have so much going on, it's a time of change for them, but also because they picked up some of my habits in the process of fleshing them out. They stress cook and show their love through food, and they're kinda silly to be honest, but they're tough. They're a fun character to write.

Bryan obviously isn't my original character, but I find him fascinating and would LOVE to be his friend. He's a fucking nerd and really enjoys what he eats and is a Super Nice Guy. (He keeps emergency deodorant in his office in case people need it. How nice is that.). Especially since when you dive into it, his interest all seem vaguely out of left field and he's almost contrary when you least expect it but really SHOULD have (he can be a Bitch when he wants to be, which is almost exclusively to The Obscenely Rich or The Asshole Rich, so like. Mood)

So to (finally) answer the question, I suppose I simply relate to the characters I can pick their brains the most lmao. I'm kinda funky in my thought processes and really like to get in depth with thought processes, so I relate the most to characters with a lot going on (😑) since I can do that with them. But I also relate to them both bc they're an interesting mix of Things I Am, and Things I'd Like To Be. Does that make sense?

25) What part of writing is the most fun?

Well, I kinda said it in the previous two questions, but I like diving into the lore and the world building and the intricate introspection! I think it's partially because I find human emotion so vastly complex and dazzling and vaguely confusing but I really like to put the work in on fleshing out the how and the why of characters emotions.

Like how do they deal with grief? How do they show worry? What emotion do they not know how to handle? How do they offer comfort or react to being comforted? It's so fascinating to me to try and build an entire person out of scraps and thought, you know?

And similarly, I really like setting out clear rules for how the world should work, probing the limits and testing what holds water and what doesn't. For instance, what kind of diet changes would the twins need for their powers? If they're operating on a higher level of physical stress and performance, than it stands to reason they would need to eat differently to back that up, you know?

I think the other part that's most fun is deciding what to add simply because you want to. Like, I love the world building, but it also super satisfying to say "This Happens Because I Want It To" you know?

Thank you so much for the ask, anon! I had a pleasant bitch of a time trying to figure out how to formulate answers 🤣!

I had fun with it though 😊!

If anyone would like to ask about a different WIP, you can also do that! Just specify it's not about A&B and I'll know what you mean 😆

#Atticus Answers #personal #gentle reminder that the askbox is always open to u all (⌒▽⌒)! #thanks again nonnie!

[f4liveblogarchives]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 #201

Tues Aug 27 2019 [12:08 AM] Wack'd: So this is the last regular issue of 1978 [12:08 AM] Wack'd: There's also an annual. And also last year's annual because there's literally no room in 1977 or 1978 for it to have happened, so Marvel Wiki shoved it here [12:10 AM] Wack'd: We opened with us still being in Latveria! Okay, sure [12:10 AM] Wack'd: Definitely the outfit of a man who's planning on putting together some meaningful democratic elections

[12:11 AM] maxwellelvis: That hat looks familiar... [12:11 AM] Wack'd: But he confirms he is. He's real happy that political parties are forming and that there's "fighting and endless squabbling" because it means progress is happening [12:12 AM] Wack'd: Political parties never result in anything bad happening, ever, especially when they hate each other's guts [12:12 AM] Umbramatic: yes [12:12 AM] maxwellelvis: SupercalifragalisticexpielaWACKY! [12:13 AM] Wack'd: So the team returns to the Baxter Building, mostly because it's the only place in NY they can put the Pogo Plane [12:13 AM] Wack'd: Reed is still kinda iffy on reforming the team, which naturally everyone rolls their eyes at [12:14 AM] Wack'd: Collins is there to greet them! Good old Collins [12:15 AM] Wack'd: Even though the Four are a damn nuisance there's literally no one who wants to rent the Four's old headquarters, for fear of supervillain attacks, so he offers to let them back in..."for, ahem, a raise in the basic rent, of course, to make up for my losses" [12:15 AM] maxwellelvis: Yer a peach, Collins [12:15 AM] Wack'd: Ben is like "actually, fuck you, we want the rent lowered, a promise that the heat will stay on, and a promise of no solicitors" [12:16 AM] Wack'd: Collins...doesn't really have a choice unless he wants to keep losing money on like a sixth of the building [12:17 AM] maxwellelvis: Y'know, I think I'd take Mr. Ditkovich as my landlord over Collins. [12:17 AM] maxwellelvis: How about you guys? [12:17 AM] Wack'd: And so within the day contractors are on the scene to get the Four back in working order [12:17 AM] Wack'd: Just, uh, regular ol' contractors, apparently! Who are a little baffled by Reed's talk of "ion displacer cables" and "Negative Zone locking mechanisms" [12:18 AM] Wack'd: But they're doing their best [12:20 AM] Wack'd: Johnny maybe you're not having any luck on the dating scene lately because you're a misogynist

[12:21 AM] maxwellelvis: Frommage? Sue, I think you've been swindled. [12:21 AM] Wack'd: She means From Mage. It's a magic dress [12:21 AM] Wack'd: It's actually really impressive Johnny managed to set it on fire [12:22 AM] Wack'd: Hey hey! A good ol' fashioned Baxter cutaway. I've missed these.

[12:23 AM] Wack'd: And, for the first time, an acknowledgment that the building has two other walls on which rooms can be constructed [12:23 AM] maxwellelvis: Interesting that Ben's quarters are marked "when he's staying at the building" [12:23 AM] maxwellelvis: and also "Room X" [12:24 AM] maxwellelvis: Bet we're going in there soon. [12:24 AM] Wack'd: Ben and Alicia are living together, presumably. [12:24 AM] Wack'd: In siiiiiiin [12:24 AM] maxwellelvis: If it's good enough for Sweet Aunt Petunia, it's good enough for them, I guess. [12:24 AM] Wack'd: So, uh [12:24 AM] Wack'd: Franklin is now ten years old, assuming time is still moving [12:25 AM] maxwellelvis: You'd think that it is, and yet... [12:25 AM] Wack'd: He still has a crib. And a door that opens directly into his parents room [12:25 AM] Bocaj: Room X FROM OUTER SPACE [12:25 AM] Wack'd: But I think my favorite detail is--and I'll admit there's maybe no way to avoid this problem--there's a rocket launch pad right next to Franklin's room [12:26 AM] Bocaj: Amazing [12:26 AM] Wack'd: That kid is gonna have some sleepless nights [12:26 AM] maxwellelvis: Maybe that's how Comic Book Time gets you. It creeps in, in small doses at first, until you have something like that staring you in the face. [12:26 AM] Wack'd: I mean probably that makes a fuckton of noise wherever you put it but Franklin needs ten hours a night! He's a growing boy! [12:26 AM] Wack'd: Right next to his room is by far the worst option! [12:27 AM] Wack'd: Also, hey. No place for Agatha. So I guess we're done with her being a live-in nanny [12:27 AM] Wack'd: In fairness Franklin is back to having the regular presence of two parents. In theory [12:28 AM] Wack'd: So back to the story [12:29 AM] maxwellelvis: She might be living down the way at Avengers Mansion. [12:29 AM] Wack'd: Reed, the police exist to oppress minorities. And other superheroes...are probably fine, relatively, that's a good point. NYC is fucking packed

[12:30 AM] Wack'd: Anyway Reed is attacked by "Microbe 201-B" and now I want to see them try and shoehorn the issue number into every story somehow [12:31 AM] Wack'd: 201-B has grown a lot and escaped its test tube, baffling Reed [12:31 AM] Wack'd: This is probably why you don't hire normal contractors to set up a superscience lab [12:32 AM] Wack'd: Anyway 201-B eats Reed. Bye Reed [12:32 AM] maxwellelvis: Oh no, it's the Intruder! Everyone run! [12:33 AM] Wack'd: Ben and Sue are also attacked [12:33 AM] Wack'd: Ben by his own superscience exercise equipment and Sue by lasers and then a water main break [12:35 AM] Wack'd: Sue, honey, you spent 20 issues divorced and another ten with the team splitting up and got basically no character development. Being away from the team does not guarantee you an interesting arc

[12:36 AM] Wack'd: Johnny is also attacked. But also these are his thoughts so something big is coming, maybe, possibly.

[12:36 AM] Wack'd: Johnny is attacked by fire extinguisher foam because of course he is [12:37 AM] Wack'd: But he manages to escape by flying outside the building and manages to rescue Ben and Sue [12:37 AM] Wack'd: Sue who, I'll remind you, was attacked by a burst pipe [12:37 AM] Wack'd: And is unconscious in a pool of water when they find her [12:38 AM] Wack'd: Reed has escaped from being ate off-panel and is now instructing Johnny to go shut down the main power core [12:39 AM] Wack'd: Johnny is immediately taken out by some gas traps because obviously the main power core is booby-trapped, c'mon [12:40 AM] Wack'd: So Sue goes in after him and manages to stop all the traps with her force field. There's a sequence code to turn off the main power core that if you get it wrong it explodes, because sure [12:40 AM] Wack'd: The obvious solution is to put in the wrong code on purpose and then contain the explosion with a force field so she does that [12:40 AM] Bocaj: This is why you more carefully choose contractors [12:41 AM] Wack'd: If that's the moral of the issue I will be mildly shocked [12:41 AM] Wack'd: I totally believe any given Marvel writer would have a bad experience getting their home fixed and then write a mean-spirited story about it [12:42 AM] Wack'd: So Reed goes over the computer and finds no problems but is gonna call Tony Stark to look them over [12:42 AM] Bocaj: I like the guy but Tony Stark is the last person you should call about a computer malfunction [12:42 AM] Wack'd: Tony Stark: the best at knowing when machines have turned evil [12:42 AM] Bocaj: His whole life is a computer malfunction [12:43 AM] Bocaj: You'd think it would give him expertise but consider also that it keeps happening and never stops from happening [12:43 AM] Wack'd:

[12:43 AM] Wack'd: A few things to note here: [12:44 AM] Wack'd: 1. Yes, those were Ben's exact words. Which means Ben was making fun of "with great power comes great responsibility" like half a year before it was a thing. [12:44 AM] Wack'd: Anyone who doesn't like when Marvel gets self-deprecating or too meta can shove it [12:45 AM] Wack'd: 2. This is still a hilariously simple rationale for getting the team back together, especially since it has nothing to do with why the team split up and only addresses concerns that were first raised this very issue [12:46 AM] Wack'd: 3. Steve Martin was presumably real big in 1978 [12:46 AM] maxwellelvis: He was, actually [12:47 AM] Wack'd: 4. "The Osmond family" is still a metanym for wholesome togetherness. I don't think I need to tell any of you that's not gonna last very long, which is fine, because the Four aren't a very "wholesome togetherness" kinda group anyway [12:47 AM] Bocaj: They get more wholesomeishesque as time goes on [12:48 AM] Bocaj: At least they have a very dangerous edge in the early stuff [12:48 AM] maxwellelvis: The late 1970's is exactly when Steve Martin was at his peak, at least strictly as a comedian [12:48 AM] Wack'd: It's weird when rosy memories of a thing retroactively whitewash their sharper edges. Happened with Jiminy Cricket and Kermit the Frog something fierce [12:49 AM] maxwellelvis: Oh yeah, I remember Jiminy Cricket being surprisingly horny. [12:49 AM] Bocaj: wut [12:49 AM] Wack'd: He's also kind of a snarky asshole, too [12:49 AM] maxwellelvis: Especially to that rotten Lampwick kid. [12:49 AM] Wack'd: Most of his moralizing at Pinocchio takes the form of yelling or lectures or just making fun of him [12:50 AM] maxwellelvis: He HATED that boy. Not Pinocchio, Lampwick. [12:50 AM] Wack'd: Anyway I think the Four are mostly wholesome by comparison? Like Bart Simpson. They're never gonna be flawless role models but as time goes on and you can depict more bad stuff they slowly slide towards the acceptable end of edginess [12:51 AM] Wack'd: Like, they're closer to Mickey Mouse than Deadpool but mostly because Deadpool is waaaaay out in the deep end [12:51 AM] KarkatTheDalek: Bart isn't that wholesome [12:51 AM] Wack'd: Yeah but compared to. I dunno. Stewie Griffin. Which is a real comparison Family Guy spent like an hour making that one time. Also Cartman which is something South Park also got into [12:51 AM] maxwellelvis: He isn't the iconoclast he was in 1989 anymore either, Karkat [12:52 AM] Wack'd: Edgy cartoons love making fun of how mundane Bart's troublemaking is [12:52 AM] KarkatTheDalek: That is true [12:52 AM] Bocaj: It has the same energy as Spawn declaring that "Only SISSIES change their costumes in a phone booth" [12:53 AM] Bocaj: It immediately fills me with disdain towards the property trying to be so edgy in comparison [12:53 AM] KarkatTheDalek: But I do recall an episode where they were at the dentist, and Bart saw Skinner loopy on the laughing gas, so he went in, pretended to be the dentist, then practically beat the shit out of him before pointing the x-ray machine directly at his balls [12:53 AM] Wack'd: We're getting off track [12:53 AM] KarkatTheDalek: Probably, yes

#1978 #Marv Wolfman #Keith Pollard #The Main Book

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Also, Me, 2 minutes into the first Iron Man: Already crying over Tony Stark.∞

#''the doctor is out #legit guys IM were the first comics I read as a wee lass and more than two decades later I still love IM most of all #regardless of how much I have grown to love this idiot sorcerer in the two years I've been writing him #''marvel meta field notes #''MMFN

[ad1thi]

the significance of james rhodes

or why he doesn’t deserve to be slept on an essay by me

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based on the recent james rhodes appreciation, but ultimately influenced by this post

--

i told y’all i would write an essay right??

--

Under the hierarchy established by the United States Military Forces, applicable to the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force, the rank of Colonel is the most senior field grade military officer rank. It classifies as an O-6 pay grade, and is one of the most respected military roles, requiring a minimum of 22 years of service (in which 3 must be a Lieutenant Colonel) in order to qualify for promotion. 

In it’s most crude terms, a Colonel of ANY military divison (Air Force, Army or Marine Corps) is automatically the highest ranking field officer. 

Colonels are also famously responsible major significant changes in both wartime and peacetime, and go onto to be some of the most decorated military servants. Notable examples of Colonels include: President Roosevelt, Colonel Jack Jacobs, Colonel Aldrin and Colonel McSally 

Directly superseding the rank of Colonel is the rank of Brigadier General, an O-7 rank of generals who’re chosen from a suggested list given to POTUS and then, the Senate. 

Simply put, the rank of Colonel is one of the most significant roles in the US military.

In this essay I will discuss how the implication of this rank on the character James Rhodes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and why his military ranking is significantly more important than that of more celebrated military affiliated characters such as Captain Steve Rogers, Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes and Pararescue Samuel Wilson

This essay in no way aims to diminish said characters, or pit these characters against James Rhodes, but to simply highlight the apparent disparity in the representation of their respective rankings and importance, both within canon and fanon

James Rhodes is first introduced to us in the pivotal origin film Iron Man 1, where he is addressed as a Lt.Col. This means that, cumulatively, James Rhodes has already served for a minimum of 15 years. He is an alumni of MIT (where he famously met and befriended protagonist Tony Stark), and also the official military liaison between the USAF and Stark Industries. It can be reasonably assumed that Rhodes joined the military straight out of MIT, meaning that his entire adult life, or a significant part of it, has been the USAF. 

This is important because there is a proven difference between civilian reasoning and military reasoning, and evidence that continued exposure to military professionalism changes the way one thinks, making civilian life extremely harrowing on a person built for military.  In one of his very first scenes, during the infamous i will be shutting down all weapons production press conference, Rhodes is visibly uncomfortable and upset by the decision made by his bestfriend.

Unless Tony, who is a civilian and to whom any death is significant, James is more likely accustomed to casualties over the years of his service and therefore is not likely to have been affected by the deaths of the soldiers in the way Tony was. The clearest example of this is that while Rhodes extensively searched for Tony, there seemed to be no significant desire to exact vengeance for the death of the foot soldiers like Tony so clearly shows throughout the film. From the time of the kidnapping to the penultimate end of the film, Tony Stark, a civilian, is bent on fixing his wrongs and making up for the deaths caused, while James is torn between following protocol and watching out for his hair-brained bestfriend. 

This is a very important distinction because it is worth considering how the movie may have played out differently had James been in the cave instead of Tony. One of the defining moments in Tony’s life is Yinsen’s sacrifice. However, given his military background, it is hard to argue that James would’ve made the same decisions Tony made (shutting down weapons production, building Iron Man and using it to destroy illegal weapon shipments). The more likely outcome is that James would’ve reported the infraction to his immediate superior, and taken steps to stop the illegal weapons trade; but one is hard-pressed to see a scenario where James shuts down weapons production. 

In fact, within the entire film, the only scene in which James breaks protocol is when Tony identifies himself as the UFO that the Air Force is currently gunning down. 

Right from the origin film, James Rhodes is established a significant character with his own opinions, thought processes and reasoning, and is not simply a side character or the protagonist’s yes man. 

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This of course doesn’t mean that james is the military’s yes man

James Rhodes is a black colonel in the USAF. He has fought various prejudices and discrimination to reach where he is.

In Iron Man 2, James Rhodes is introduced, and has with him, a comprehensive study on the pros and cons of the Iron Man armour (and the pros and cons of it being in Tony’s hand)

Select paragraphs demonstrate the weaknesses of the Iron Man armour and the man who wields it, but James is visibly upset about this unilateral pinpointing of his study as opposed to a comprehensive study, something he make abundantly clear

Unlike most military, James also doesn’t hackle Tony and demand that he mass produce the suits for military consumption (though he does try to reason with Tony, its clear that he won’t push the issue) and only requisitions one after the birthday party incident; in which James is shown to be increasingly worried about Tony’s mental state and tries on multiple occasions to show support before ultimately making the decision that Tony cannot be trusted with the suit.

James in a later scene is also seen to be arguing with his superior officer about allowing anyone but him pilot the suit, and also about allowing Justin Hammer modify it in any way. He is overly critical of the weapons presented by Hammer, which could be attributed to his time at MIT or his continued exposure to tech mogul Tony Stark.  

In Iron Man 3, we see that James Rhodes has since been promoted to Colonel (potentially, in part, due to his efforts in Iron Man 2); meaning he has now served a minimum of 22 years. The armour that he requisitioned from Tony has been rebranded and given a new paint job (which can possibly by interpreted as the military’s way of recreating the iconic Captan America persona); and James is conducting various solo missions that compliment Tony’s initial purpose of the armour. 

It is important to note that despite the existence of the Avengers, headlined by non other than WW2 legend Steve Rogers, James’ allegiance is still towards the US Military. Despite all its faults, James very clearly believes in what the US Military stands for. James is also extremely protective towards the proprietary amour, whether because of the advantage it presents to the USAF or out of respect to his bestfriend’s intellect is unclear, but the sentiment is the same- James, like Tony, doesn’t trust the Iron Man armour in the hands of another (this is also seen in IM2, when he insists on being the sole pilot).

James then makes a cameo in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he is seen joining the team, possibly replacing Tony Stark (who, after the events of the film, chooses to retire)

Here is where things get muddled up

Steve Rogers, while being an extremely shrewd and talented strategist, has cumulatively accrued 4 years of service in the US Army, and is an 0-3 ranked Captain. His rank is extremely inferior to James’ Colonel- and has also not been an active member of the military for a significant amount of time.

Granted, he was frozen for most of that, but the fact remains that after his brief stint as an Avenger, he then joins SHIELD as a quasi-spy, and doesn’t return to the military. Steve’s rank as leader of the Avengers in the 2012 film made sense since, among the 6 of them, he was the only one with any military experience and quite frankly, any experience as a soldier in a warzone.

But Steve is ignorant to many real time tensions, the politics and power plays between various military decisions and simply hasn’t been around the current military structure long enough to justify his rank as leader, and is especially not of the correct rank to give order to Colonel James Rhodes

In an extremely real life scenario, the Avengers are a specialised branch of military. It genuinely does not matter that they aren’t officially affiliated to the military, and that they operate outside the purview of any official special forces; as far as any other country is concerned- the Avengers are an extremely violate nuclear warhead about to blow.

The politics and diplomacy involved in negotiating Avenger-intervention is something that reasonably, only Tony Stark or James Rhodes, and possibly, Natasha Romanoff, could handle. The distinct lack of regard for sovereignty and single-minded focus on one’s narrow goals that Steve inherited in WW2 is perfectly shown in the Lagos incident.

During WW2, there was mass carnage, and Europe as a whole was a battlefield. The world’s biggest powers were at war, and things like borders scarcely mattered. Soldiers in WW2 were highly unlikely to know when they were crossing the border from France to Germany, or Germany to Belgium, and even if they did, it didn’t matter. It was a time of war. Sovereignty wasn’t really on anyone’s mind. 

But the world has drastically changed since WW2.

National sovereignty is one of the most sacred things in the global community, and as harsh as it is, multiple countries use national sovereignty and diplomatic immunity to escape with various human rights infractions. 

With the current politic climate, and especially, the military and political power that the United States wields, there is no circumstance in which it would be okay for Steve Rogers to take a team of extremely skilled and sometimes, meta- humans; wearing a suit with the american flag; and exact his version of justice.

Collateral damage is simply not okay.

As stated earlier, for better or for worse, the Avengers are viewed as an extension of the already expansive US military power. For them to completely ignore international borders and treaties and operate in Lagos, especially given that certain members of the team (wendy bitchimoff) have powers of untold proportions and no true grasp over them.

In contrast, it is in the personal opinion of the author that had James been leading the Avengers, he would’ve navigated the diplomatic waters much more smoothly, possibly arranged action in tandem with Nigeria instead of just showing up in Lagos, and the entire incident would’ve been much smoother.

It is also important to note that the Avengers were in Lagos at full force not on official Avengers business, but rather, following a personal investigation by Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson. In a more realistic scenario, the Avengers would’ve liaised with Nigerian officials and not have been in Lagos at all.

While there is sufficient consideration given to the fact that Brock Rumlow was a HYDRA agent and targeting a biological weapon, he and his team were ultimately, human, and the force of the full Avengers rota seems excessive (and likely the reason there were so many collateral casualties and damages)

The final and probably the most important part of James’ arc; is his stance on the Accords. 

Again, it must be emphasised, that he is a military career man.

Order and hierarchy and assignments passed down the chain of command is a concept that makes the most sense to him.

He is extremely used to joining units, reporting to a supervising officer, walking into the line of fire simply because he was told to do so. The Accords, in its most simplest terms, was aiming at developing a chain of command for the Avengers.

This is extremely important because there is a popular stance that James simply followed the Accords because he was Tony’s yes man. But if one looks at James through the entire of the marvel cinematic universe; his character has never once shied away from stating what he believed was right; and is usually the most level headed and diplomatic character.

Thus, it is extremely confusing that the mcu as a whole tends to largely ignore his authoritative status (except for Tony, who regularly defers to James, but that can be attributed to their friendship) and it is quite honestly criminal that various directors and producers have overlooked the potential of this character; and also blatantly ignored the very existent hierarchy that exists within career military men and women.

As any active or retired military personnel will tell you, within the US Military Forces, rank is everything. It was cute when STeve was 5 foot nothing and disregarded orders, but after 10 years and 23 or so films, one would hope he’d show some character development. 

In conclusion, Colonel James Rhodes is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in terms of his military prowess, his intellect, his ability to navigate the War Machine armour, the connections he’s developed during the course of his career, the loyalty he’s inspired in his cadets, and his sheer presence

and he does not deserve to be slept on

--

thank you for reading hope you enjoyed!!

#james rhodes #pro james rhodes #james rhodes defence squad #james rhode deserves better squad #yall need to stop sleeping on james rhodes #anti wanda #anti wanda maximoff #but no other character #like honestly #this is just discourse on the blatant disregard of how rhodey is treated in the mcu #like #show some damn respect to the military #honestly #tony stark #sam wilson #bucky barnes #us military #us air force #colonel james rhodes #is a bamf #in this essay i will - #adi analyses #adi rants #character rants #movie rants #my writing

[myfriendpokey]

easy like sunday morning

I know it sounds funny but I just can't stand the pain.. Given the volume of critical writing on difficult games in recent years isn't it time to talk about some easy ones?  Everybody loves talking about, 'Sekiro', but no-one ever talks about, 'Felix The Cat (NES) (1992)', a delightful game with many levels that stands out in my childhood memory as being one of the very few games I was ever able to complete within the Xtravision rental window. In these notes I try to lay down a preliminary basis for felix the cat studies.[1]

1. Firstly what is easiness, is it a quality or the absence of a quality, of a texture? I'd like to focus here specifically NOT on games which deliberately avoid the idea of 'challenge' altogether (Proteus, etc) but instead on games where challenge is both theoretically present and totally perfunctory, where it's both possible to die, and just easier not to.

2. And the strange sense of waste that this creates - the waste in having something and not needing it, of having some productive capacity lie fallow. The dream is to always have both an affordance and something to flex it on, in perfect sync. There are situations where exercising some affordance might give a bad outcome (use sword on king to increase crime meter etc) but in general the universe is set up so that your acting, your being, your bodily striving has a useful and productive effect on the world at large – we hope, ha ha ha. We have no reason to doubt that we use our affordances, rather than that our affordances are using us. In an easy game this relationship becomes more uncanny - we get a sense of how an affordance can be baggage, a kind of painful excess of productive energy that comes with a vague, felt obligation to use it all up in some manner. The machine speaks through us just as much as if we were playing any bullet hell - but it does so less through an overload of stimulus than through lack of it, through opening a space, which the ambient noise of the body then rushes to fill. The aimless, stupid twitching of our flesh as it burns off all the energy which is socially and economically surplus to requirements is directed and made visible, jumping back and forth onscreen in the mocking form of a smiling platform cat, a form of automatic writing.

3. I'd actually like to avoid making a moral or political case for easy games as having some intrinsic social value (that they resist the 'investment' of skill mastery, that they undercut feelings of power and control, or that they indeed actually represent a new form of meta-difficulty in testing your ability to reject false measurements of success and artificial scarcity and that therefore playing Goldeneye with infinite ammo cheats on is praxis or something.[2]) These might be useful qualities at some moment or another - but I think they also show the strange, magic-eye effect, of trying to write about easiness in itself, writing about absence without just converting it into another kind of presence (I'm sure I have failed multiple times and will fail multiple more). So easiness in videogames is constantly at risk of becoming just a different kind of difficulty, or some form of symbolic content - rather than the lack of such difficulty, or the lack of such content... In the context of videogames, a new media form busily involved with stockpiling content and meanings and symbolism and justification of all kinds, in trying to fill itself up and out, the idea of their emptiness is somehow quite threatening.[3]

4. Difficulty in games tends to be framed as a challenge to the primacy of the self, or as an estrangement, something that pushes you out of your comfort zone. It wakes you up, makes you more alert. Easiness by comparison is a sop to the self - indulgent, a narrowing of horizons. Easiness is mainstream, difficulty is avant-garde - and discussions of difficulty in games tend to draw a lot upon comparisons to older avant-garde art or literature. I'm in favour of avant-garde videogames but i think part of claiming that tradition should be a willingness to critique it, too. For example, difficult games are some of the most popular ones to stream - are these challenging the self? To an extent they allow the performance of the self, as manifested in angry outbursts, "reacting" in some characteristic manner, individuating oneself through accomplishment or distinctive playstyle, demonstrating personal qualities such as persistence and strength of will, very little of which could be said to come through in your average Felix The Cat longplay. And while Marvel movies and longrunning tv shows are seldom difficult in the same way as experimental art they do at least tend to gesture at the idea and feeling of a certain difficulty, an emotional strenuousness, a conflict to overcome. We don't just get a whole movie of Spiderman trying on 100 different hats. Some kind of difficulty is prized in both cultures, with the difference being that of location and degree. The idea of the modernist shock, the abrupt estrangement that jolts the (presumably bourgeois, etc) viewer out of their habitual comfort zone, sits awkwardly against comparatively more recent concepts like Naomi Klein's idea of the “shock doctrine” or Paul Virilio's writings on the bombarded, exhausted viewer - or indeed with that most modern form: the hot take, the truly gratuitous and combative opinion, tossed at the unsuspecting for the sake of wreaking minor carnage. The succession of shocks here don't so much disturb the self as confirm it as a thing apart, defined in negative against the tumult outside and valued as a refuge from that outside. Maybe we take it to the gym now and then, we test it out upon some pre-selected object of difficulty to keep it in shape, but afterwards the gate goes down and the wall goes up. I don't think difficulty is bad or illegitimate but if psychic reconfiguration is the goal then how about a modernist slackening instead? In the vein of Stein, Pessoa, Walser, Musil - "the game without qualities". Lured into roaming outside of its protective carapace the brain starts to dissolve, sprawl, melt into gloop, be devoured by ants.

5. Experience of playing an easy game: there’s no pushback, there's no skill check , a string of easy victories lead you forward without realising, or leads a part of you forward, there's no moment where you have to pull yourself together and decide just how much more of your time you wanna spend on this thing, a chirpy character onscreen is declaiming "GREAT!" and "SUBURB!" as you shoot pellets at more enemies, whatever aimless drive or impulse you flicked toward this thing to test it has not yet slowed down or returned, it's like dropping a pebble down a well, and waiting for the sound, and waiting forever - and then there's a plop! and whatever the process was, it's finished, you blink, try to remember what you were doing, wander off, still adjusting to the light.

6. The history of aesthetics is that of converting new kinds of necessity into new kinds of virtue [4]. Difficulty is a virtue in videogames, but it started out as a necessity, as well - as a prefab form handed down from the old mechanical amusements, a way to aestheticise (and commercialise) material resistance at a time when material resistance was almost all that videogames had to offer[5]. As certain kinds of difficulty emerge as objects of attention a reversal takes place: instead of difficulty being a way to engage with videogames, videogames become a way to engage with a certain kind of difficulty. Difficulty becomes a sign that unites a diffuse and heterogenuous field of garish electronic debris into a single medium and an aesthetic – this becomes part of what videogames *are*, and persists even when the original reasons for that difficulty become less and less present, and as 'difficulty' comes to exist mainly as a set of inherited structures and modes of representation (health bar, life counter etc). To make something that looks like a videogame in every way but has no difficulty is in a way to re-historicise it, to cut the thread which holds all the parts together - now the game collapses into a set of disembodied effects, sounds, gestures, machinery, which exist not so much as the expression of an aesthetic as an expression of the material history behind that aesthetic. The easy game is not a game but a kind of game-byproduct, an industrial accident that gives clue to the inner workings of the machine.

7. The mysterious purgatory that is the solved or near-solved state of a videogame, aimless and uncanny, an image of fulfilled desire: maybe not your desire, but somebody's, or some part of you. Think of playing with cheat codes: a few minutes ago you might have been desperate to get BLUE SWORD [RARE], now you can't get rid of the things. A routine complaint in popular longform games is that people just end up getting too much money and not having enough endless pits to dump it all into (thorstein veblen real??). And this is a known thing and trite to even remark upon and usually the point where the discussion turns into pop-psychology liturgy of how the human brain is "broken" and "hard-wired" to need new challenges and etc. I don't care, I'd like to spend more time within this twilight area, to construct as diligent and thorough a map of its empty rooms and blockages and tiny, shifting, hypersubtle moments of enjoyment or deep melancholy as the one we  already have for Diablo clones and similar. I think here of stuff like EJ Gold's games which claim to depict (indeed, allow you to perform rituals within) the bardo realms waiting after this world, where you roll around endless corridors collecting icons to accumulate money and charisma for your next life, and where for some reason there's a button to fire out pellets despite there being no enemies to kill. Videogames are depressingly, predictably excellent at producing new manifestations of inferno; I think, for the same reasons, that they could produce some very interesting paradises as well.

Is Felix The Cat a good game? Or is it in fact the only game, and also i'm dead and my spirit has been trapped inside of it? I hope the above comments make my feelings known. All i can do from here is recommend you watch Docfuture's Sonic Easy Mode video, and contemplate the world that could have been.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-ef8SD9gUg

[1] Just imagine it - instead of endless essays on "how completing, not completing, not playing VIDEOGAME made me a better person, worse person, more divorced person delete as appropriate" we would instead get endless essays on "how playing VIDEOGAME left me more or less the same person, I suppose, I don't really remember. But I did like the beach level".

[2] Having said this I of course realise that this is totally inevitable and look forward to BABYMODECORE, the videogame movement for people who always instinctively pick the lowest difficulty setting and want to reclaim such powerful formative experiences as beating up on the test dummy character in Tekken (and being scared that one day he'd glitch out and hunt me down instead)

[3] I wonder if part of the hatred for "asset flips" that they just replicate the shape of a videogame without filling it up with justificatory content, abstracting it somehow.

[4] Mangled from a line in F. Jameson's "Marxism and Form"

[5] Like early digital forms of old mechanical arm wrestling machines and punching bags - which slowly became part of that mysterious stock repository of ancestral videogame dream imagery, the minigame collection.

#felix the cat #easy games #commodores 64