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rappaccini · 26 days

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been thinking on how peter's had a lot of love interests over the years, but only six of them most consistently stick around and impact his character. and how the big six model works for other spider-love stories too.

so peter's big six are as follows:

liz allan: the one-sided superficial first crush on a girl with more social capital that ultimately goes nowhere

betty brant: the first girlfriend with whom he eventually returns to being just friends, who ends up with his friend

gwen stacy: the first love, who's his intellectual equal in the classroom and of a background he aspires to, who dislikes his alter ego, who dies

mj watson: the true love, who's his equal socially, who knows and accepts his alter ego

felicia hardy: the problematic situationship with a vigilante who isn't a good influence on him, who only cares about the alter ego

cindy moon*: the forced spidermarriage with another spider-person the universe insists he's the 'soulmate' of

[*YES, cindy hasn't been shipped with peter since the mess that was her introduction and it'll hopefully stay that way. but she makes the cut because she's a very memorable character with a very distinct dynamic with peter that's being replicated already-- particularly with miles and gwen: "look, male and female spider-people! let's force them to kiss and call them soulmates!"]

i could go into a lot more detail, like how they tend to appear in pairs, the progression seems tied to peter’s age, and the overall romantic arc seems to be about peter finding someone who can love both sides of him. but those specifics are subject to change, probably more indicative of the publishing climate (people didn't used to hate love triangles; marvel used to let their characters grow up) and honestly keeping it this vague makes the model more flexible.

at any rate, these characters are far from the only girls peter's had tension, relationships or hookups with, but these are the ones who have the most memorable personalities and the most distinct dynamics with him that have lasting impact on his stories.

tied to their staying power, the first five are also the ones who are adapted the most: if you're writing a peter-spider-man story, you're probably choosing his love interest(s) from this list. and the list tends to be condensed down even more from these six (how many times have you seen peter's love interests advertised as betty-gwen-mj-felicia, or gwen-mj-felicia, or gwen-and-mj?) with each woman standing out and contrasting well against each other.

and the six— not the specific love interests, but their attributes and story functions— should be used more for other spider-people. if nothing else because it means each character can have a convenient shortlist of love interests to reference and return to, instead of a constantly-growing stack of quick relationships that never get to deepen or evolve.

miles

i mentioned this here, but miles's supporting cast is at its strongest when it creates original characters for him to interact with, fills them with elements of classic spider-man characters and their stories, and remixes those stories in a unique way.

so his love interests, at their best, are original characters whose qualities combine and reimagine the big six's.

for example:

katie bishop: liz allan (superficial interest in the first girl he crushes on in canon) x betty brant (first relationship).

lana baumgartner: cindy moon (fellow superhero) x mj watson (dysfunctional family background; from his world)

kamala khan: betty brant (remaining friends) x liz allan (unreciprocated crush) x cindy moon (fellow superhero).

gwen stacy (65): gwen stacy (...) x cindy moon (forced spidermarriage) x liz allan (superficial attraction based on a need to gain status through a relationship with her)

barbara rodriguez: gwen stacy (classmate who's naive to his alter ego) x betty brant (goes on to date his friend).

tiana toomes: felicia (initially problematic vigilante) x mj (the true love who balances him out).

... though there are six listed, honestly i think miles' love interest roster isn't complete yet, and there are one or two more slots left to fill.

anyway, some notes of interest:

miles inverts the 2:1 civilian to superhuman ratio of peter's love interests (marvel seems to be moving away from the civilian love interest in general... and miles seems to want a partner who can come with him on adventures)

he's still in high school, yet has had a lot of love interests (which speaks to how characters age a lot slower than they used to... and how miles isn't as much of a loser as peter was at his age. he's less sexist, smoother, and more social, and therefore girls actually like him back).

instead of sorting the love interests based on when he met them, sort them based on why he's drawn to them: katie and barbara are his classmates. gwen and kamala are prominent heroes in their own right who he keeps getting pr-relationshipped with. lana and tiana are vigilantes from troubled backgrounds who he can influence for the better. two love interests for his civilian side, two for his hero side, two that can bring out both by helping miles remember why he's a hero in the first place-- because of the person he is under the mask-- and influencing him to stay true to that person.

he hasn't had a fridged/tragic love interest, intellectual equal, or been in a toxic dynamic yet in the comics (but he has in the games with phin mason)... raneem rashad, anyone?

anyway at this point, miles is still in high school and has had plenty of love interests. and he's a young enough character that we're just gonna have to see who lasts as more contenders are introduced.

if i had to guess,

kamala will stick around because she and miles are the two biggest New Generation Legacy Heroes and the pr shipping writes itself. but because she's too big a character in her own right and far from his corner of the marvel universe half the time, she might not be a constant adaptation. she'd either be watered down, or it would pull too much focus to explain her presence unless it's specifically a team-up or group story. and even if she does show up, we know it's a given they won't end up together.

gwen (unfortunately) will stick around because of spiderverse synergy (free her). but because she's also got too much going on, has her own world and has Gwen Stacy Baggage attached, she’s too difficult to fit into his stories without completely compromising her character to force her into the girlfriend role. and like kamala, being his love interest holds her back. she should hopefully not be a constant adaptation either. assuming it's remembered that she's her own protagonist and not just Miles's Girlfriend.

tiana (hopefully!) will stick around and make it to the endgame because she's That Great, she's too unique to be confused for another character, she's got a memorable design and backstory, and she isn't popular enough to steal his spotlight.

barbara might survive... or we'll just get a series of civilian visions academy gfs in her image (like insomniac's hailey cooper). she's easy to adapt, but also easy to forget.

lana might last, but if she's readapted, she'll likely step into katie's role as the initial white visions gf (... maybe the only visions gf; sorry barbara), and maybe kamala's in adaptations where ms marvel being in miles's supporting cast would be too distracting but they still want that superhero-flirtation-to-friendship story. it's a tossup.

katie's probably going to fade away. she has too little impact and is too easy to confuse with kate bishop, hawkeye. no big loss.

... and we're probably due one more major love interest category: a tragically villainous tech-powered girl of color, like phin or raneem.

hopefully canon starts to standardize his love interests soon, because if he keeps getting new ones, all of them become easier to forget… which means the worst relationship with the best exposure, gwiles, will rise to the top simply because she's the one that made it to the movies.

as for gwen...

even more complicated.

her character's even newer than miles's, and her romantic history is largely defined by having other people (men. and em jay.) push their desires on her, rather than gwen exploring her own. she's had a lot of false starts, and a lot of obviously queer tension with other women that marvel refuses to act on, but canonically she's barely dated at all and isn't particularly motivated by romance.

gwen also sits between peter and miles in terms of love interest originality: it makes sense for gwen to initially interact with alternate versions of peter's supporting cast, because that's gwen's supporting cast too... but like miles, she should still have unique dynamics with her love interests because she's not peter. and since she's gwen-65, she should eventually branch out to relationships with characters 616-gwen never would have met or gotten close to.

so no, gwen should not end up with earth-65's em jay ~because every spider has their mj~. that idea implies that mj is drawn to peter's spider-powers instead of peter as a person, and that she'd have fallen for anyone who had them. it invalidates the uniqueness of peter and mj's romance, and of gwen-65 herself (and any spider-person you're trying to shove an mj at to check a box). gwen deserves a love story that's totally new and all hers. no peter, no miles, no castoff love interest of peter or miles, no alternate version of a peter/miles love interest. give her someone new.

anyway so far i think we can make a case for maybe three or four of hers.

peter parker*: liz allan x gwen stacy. except in this case, he's the one with the superficial one-sided crush on her and he's the one who ends up dead.

miles morales (1610)*: cindy moon, the forced divine spidermarriage. with a bit of liz allan, for the superficiality of it all.

harry osborn: primarily betty brant (the high school sweetheart she never got to have who ultimately stays friends with her), with elements of felicia (a former vigilante) and mj (understands and accepts the alter ego)

em jay watson: yes she's an mj, but honestly? she's the gwen stacy (the first love out of high school in the same career path who hates gwen's hero alter ego) with elements of felicia hardy (she's the toxic relationship) and betty brant (going on to date one of gwen's friends)

[*gwen doesn't reciprocate their feelings, but at this point peter and miles' links to gwen are so inescapable it's a given that romantic tension will define their dynamics for the forseeable future in the comics. and anytime spider-gwen is adapted, she's gonna have to deal with this shit from at least one of them. mentally i'm lumping them together because these fuckers are The Same.]

she has a few major slots left to fill... but gwen's situation isn't quite like miles and peter's (aside from having a different personality and story, she's queer and female), so they're gonna differ.

gwen can't be in a relationship with someone on 65 who doesn't know her secret identity because it's already public there. unless there's a status quo reset that gives gwen her privacy back, she dates someone on earth-616, or we retcon her a high school boyfriend from her early spider-woman days. which makes her unique from peter and miles.

she hasn't seriously dated anyone who's only interested in her famous alter ego yet either. which, given ghost-spider's celebrity status on earth-65, should be an eventuality... johnny-65 or felicia-65, anyone?

gwen-65 was never a science-oriented person, doesn't share peter and miles' humanities-or-stem postgrad conflict, and already committed to music. so a science-minded love interest would result in a different dynamic because gwen wouldn't be their intellectual equal. which could be interesting.

... but if we reframe gwen's postgrad conflict to be 'musician or professional superhero'... dating another full-time vigilante is the logical next step. how about kitty-65? or, what about spider-punk, who's both?

(... and if it's '65 or 616'.... well. maybe dating another superhero who isn't peter or miles on 616 could work too...... so, cindy moon, kaine or anya corazon?)

she hasn't met or begun a relationship with her true love yet. if she even has one. who knows, she could turn out to be ace.

... and since this has to be stated somewhere, it's all but obvious at this point that gwen's queer. she needs to have both male and female love interests.

being in the closet, pressured into comphet and sucked into imbalanced relationships where she'd be the subservient partner (usually to a man) are currently what defines gwen's romantic life, and the roadblocks stopping her from moving on. so before she gets any further, she's gonna have to resolve those issues first. which is gonna take a while, because of spiderverse synergy and marvel's reluctance to let her be queer and leave the male gaze.

at this point gwen's love interests can be paired too. and like peter and miles, it's reflective of her romantic arc (evolving from an object of someone else's desire to a subject who chases her own), which is related to her personal one (a girl fighting for equality and autonomy in a universe that wants to keep those things from her). it's about gwen's level of agency and reciprocity in the dynamic:

she begins with virtually no say in her relationships, being shoved into forced romances with more popular and powerful male characters that trap gwen in the male gaze and take her away from her world (peter and miles).

and starts to deepen her relationships with people she's sincerely attracted to [who are also her world's versions of peter's supporting cast] but can't be with because of extenuating circumstances related to gwen being a superhero and them being unable to keep up with her (harry and em jay).

logically, the next threshold should be overcoming those circumstances to actually have lasting romantic relationships with people who are her equals. and the love interests should be characters unconnected to peter parker, miles morales, or their supporting casts. something new.

and then maybe we'll find out if gwen's genuinely not interested in romance, or if she was so traumatized that she didn't realize she could be in a healthy relationship and like it.

if it's the latter, then she'd better get actual closure with harry and em jay, where she can actually be in relationships with them, since she's barely dated harry and hasn't even gotten together with em jay, or at least acknowledge why they didn't work out.

and then give her 3-4ish major male and female love interests to compensate for the toxic and one-sided relationships she's had so far. most of her experience being that is too depressing.

#spider gwen meta #peter parker #miles morales #gwen stacy

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notwiselybuttoowell · 1 year

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The residents of the Swiss canton of Valais are used to seeing their mountainsides covered with snow in winter and edelweiss flowers in summer. But as global heating intensifies, they are increasingly finding an invasive species colonising the slopes: cacti.

Authorities say cactus species belonging to the genus Opuntia, or prickly pears, are proliferating in parts of Valais, encroaching on natural reserves and posing a biodiversity threat.

“A lover of dry and hot climates, this invasive and non-native plant is not welcome in the perimeter of prairies and dry pastures of national importance,” the municipality of Fully in the Rhone valley said in a press release announcing the uprooting campaign in late 2022.

Opuntia species and similar cacti have also proliferated in some of the hills around the capital of Valais, in Sion, where estimates suggest Opuntia plants now make up 23-30% of the low vegetation cover. Their presence has also been reported in neighbouring Alpine regions, including Ticino and Grisons in Switzerland, and the Aosta valley and Valtellina in Italy.

“In some parts of Valais, we estimate that the cacti can occupy one-third of the available surface,” says Yann Triponez, a biologist who works in the canton of Valais’ nature protection service. He says Opuntia have been present in Valais at least since the late 18th century, when it was imported from North America.

But authorities believe that a warmer climate in the Alps, allowing for longer vegetation periods, and the diminishing snow cover might be creating the ideal conditions for them to spread.

“These species bear -10C or -15C without any problem,” says Peter Oliver Baumgartner, a retired geology professor with a longstanding side interest in botany who has been commissioned by the canton to study and write a report on the plants. “But they want to be in a dry place and don’t like snow cover.”

Snow is becoming rarer at lower altitudes, even in the Alps. According to Meteo Swiss, the number of snow days under 800 metres of altitude in Switzerland has halved since 1970. A recent study published in Nature Climate Change said snow covers the Alps for about a month less than historical averages and called the situation “unprecedented in the last six centuries.”

Temperatures across the range have been rising twice as fast as the global average, and average temperatures in Switzerland are already 2.4C warmer than 1871-1900 averages. “If you look at climate change reports,” Baumgartner says, “the curves for Switzerland are almost as steep as for the Arctic.”

Nine species have spread on sunny, south-facing slopes below 700 metres of altitude, where they compete with endemic and sometimes threatened species. “Valais is one of the biodiversity hotspots in Switzerland,” says Triponez. “We have about 3,000 species of plants in Switzerland, and some 2,200 are in Valais.”

He says authorities are worried by the cacti’s spread to natural reserves and protected areas. “When you have these cacti, nothing else grows,” says Triponez. “Each pad covers the soil and prevents other plants from growing through.”

Baumgartner says that only four of the nine Opuntia species in Valais represent a threat to local ecosystems, particularly in areas with acid or neutral soils, which account for one-third of the valley’s south-facing slopes.

#alps #alpine plants #invasive species #prickly pear #cactus #cacti and desert plants #global warming #climate change #europe #Switzerland

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