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sassydefendorflower · 1 year

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what is your opinion on the CoS movie

It is, most certainly, a movie.

No, but for real... The CoS movie is a very interesting piece of content, that's for sure.

There is a lot that can be rightfully critiqued: the writing is rushed, due to the studio pushing an entire seasons worth of plot into one movie, and that is visible in much of the characters' arcs. Roy Mustang just repeats his 03 arc but in under two hours, and Winry seems to mostly just be there because Ed needs automail. Threads are left hanging, and historical choices were made...

Look, I'm neither Jewish nor Roma, so I cannot speak for the portrayal of ether Alternate!Bradley or Noah, but I will give CoS the benefit of the doubt of being produced in 2005 and trying its best. It is still something that made me uncomfortable while watching, but some of that I think is worth examining under a personal lens and not a general one.

(and honestly... Noah telling Ed that Roma simply means People? That seems significant considering movies made in 2023 still use the G slur)

As I said - much of the plot is all over the place.

But.

And it is a noteworthy BUT... there are some aspects of it that I really enjoy.

Al's character design: CoS makes it painfully obvious that something is very wrong with Al and I love it. Ed is in Munich having the worst depression known to man, meanwhile Al cosplays as the older brother he forgot, basing his entire personality NOT ON HIS OWN MEMORIES but on the stories strangers have told him about the brother who died for him. INSANE BEHAVIOR. He even creates his own soul-bound armor, just so he can wander the lands as the Fullmetal Alchemist once did. 10/10 character writing choice.

Ed's entire... thing: I love Ed's depression mood - caught between delusion and reality, a shitty friend, and a desperate soul. Sometimes it is as simple as a depressed anime boy with long hair and alcoholism - sometimes I am allowed to be simple.

The historical details: while I haven't forgiven CoS for forcing me to see Anime Hitler, there is a surprising eye for detail in CoS when it comes to 1920s Weimarer Republik. Of course, space rocketry wasn't actually a thing in Germany back then, but many of the smaller details are actually very accurate - especially considering this being a time period Hollywood loves to mess up. The Bierhalle was actually a meeting place of the early version of the NSDAP, and they did organize their coup from there on the 9th November of 1923. It was actually the height of inflation back then, and people DID actually burn money because it lost value quicker than they could spent it on firewood. Alfons makes references to the Dolchstoßlegende which was a real, wide-spread piece of propaganda about the communists being at fault for Germany loosing the first world war. People in the background of shots being antisemitic, racist, xenophobic AND ableist. People with disabilities begging in the big cities, which Munich was.

All of this is historically accurate - hell, even the existence of the Thule Society is based on some fact... aka the fact that the NSDAP and Hitler especially were utterly convinced they could harness supernatural powers to gain the upper hand and reach their goals.

And probably the most controversial one: Hughes being a member of the NSDAP, and helping in the Bierhallen Coup actually makes sense considering his characterization and I think it is an interesting but sensible choice for the alternate version of Maes Hughes. Not because he is inherently a Nazi, but because Maes Hughes is a follower and even in the main universe, if Roy hadn't decided to change the country... Maes Hughes on his own would never have questioned their fascist military dictatorship. So, in a world in which he doesn't have a Roy to act as a wake up call... it makes only sense that he would follow a man who made millions fall in love with him.

(this feels like a weirdly serious answer to a silly question, but I hope I could offer some insight anyway - and thank you for indulging me <3 )

#fma #fullmetal alchemist #cos #conquerer of shamballa #edward elric #alphonse elric #maes hughes #ww2 #nazi mention #fma meta #ww2 fiction #ask and answers #anon #thank you anon <3 #this is like... just my opinion

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captainlordauditor · 1 year

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16, DC, Let the world burn

you can’t understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

where do i START

Bruno Redondo's art. He can't balance tone or arrange a page

anything Marv Wolfman has done, ever, with the possible exception of very small parts of his Nightwing run

more specifically though, I absolutely do not understand the appeal of his Kori characterization. I just don't. I think it's shallow and bad.

I also don't understand the appeal of cartoon Kori. Lowkey a lot of her writing feels kinda ableist to me

very large chunks of reboot Nightwing characterization tbqh?

Barry Allen, just as a concept

Nolanverse

Super effeminate Dick Grayson, I just don't get where it comes from I don't see it in the text at all

birdflash and supersons are objectively not the two white guys standing next to each other phenomenon, but they absolutely feel that way to me. The majority of arguments I've seen for birdflash are also arguments for pretty much any Titans ship. I also really resent the way it's just ASSUMED that you ship birdflash. I really don't and I'm tired of it being everywhere

on a much less antagonistic note, dick and roy just feel incredibly Bro coded to me, not romantic at all. I've seen maybe one panel that made me think "okay, I sort of understand it".

DC Bombshells. It's terrible at handling every Jewish character who's on the page for more than 5 minutes

Cass staying on Batgirl. Black Bat was badly handled but I really would like to see her grow beyond Batgirl, and if it's into Batman then I need to see her learning the investigative skills she doesn't have

goyische Bruce and more particularly goysiche Thomas Wayne. Thomas Wayne is nice jewish boy coded :(

no capes AUs. Everyone is so different without powers and double identities that's basically just an original romance novel.

#asks #answers #detective comics comics #rainbowfoxes

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fancyfade · 2 years

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Invisibly disabled characters? Multiple with mental illnesses. Batman and like, three Robins suffer depression. (Erased in Dick's case.) Roy's an addict. Joey and Rose...well, their disabilities were also erased. It's like WB and Dan Didio don't like disabled people. (I hate to paraphrase Kanye in 2022, but there you go.) Toss in paint-by-numbers characterization and, yeah. Some of this isn't new; I maintain that DC spent the late 90s wallpapering her being a compassionate foil to Waller.

look NGL, I do agree that DC has some canonically invisibly disabled characters. Joey is mute, you mentioned Roy being an addict, Rose has 1 eye...

but I don't really count characters who are frequently headcannoned as mentally ill, but not stated to be so in text, as invisible disability rep. even if the headcanons are getting something from somewhere, like this character is clearly traumatized and exhibiting symptoms of PTSD... if the writers don't commit to it, it's hard to tell how much is intentional VS reader extrapolation, and people ALWAYS are way more ready to diagnose their faves which is fine -- i have more headcanons about my faves too -- but that's also the fans putting in the work, not the writers.

So Bruce isn't invisibly disabled rep, Dick isn't (anymore), Tim isn't, whichever Robins you were thinking of... Tim's depression was not really medical and more related in a response to a temporary situation. Dick's depression did not get erased if it's just a fan-headcanon. his traumatic brain injury did (was the depression like? associated with that? IDK I didn't read the Ric arc)

anyway sorry if this comes off as harsh, I just do sometimes think that fans get so wrapped up in our headcanons that we forget what is actually canon. like I think that Damian, Babs, and Cass are all autistic, but Cass is the only one who has been treated as clearly neurodivergent by the text, and IIRC word of god said she was neurodivergent in rebirth, even though there are things Damian and Babs do that read as very autistic (and in Damian's case, very 'kid with C-PTSD') to me. So a writer writing him differently is boring, and I hate it, but it's not really ableist or erasing a disability, and it is not a good idea to conflate fan-headcanons no longer having as much of a potential-base due to the characters being written differently with erasure of canonically disabled characters.

#idk if that made sense #ableism #dc comics

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heroesriseandfall · 2 years

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Intro

Hey, I’m Nico, they/them. This is where I dump comics + superhero stuff. My main/art blog is @themeaningofweird. My AO3 is here. I have a long, untagged queue. Feel free to copy my image descriptions!

Big Batfam + Teen Titans + YJ fan, but I like to dabble all over. Always reading more comics. I tag me talking with heroesriseandfall. I use the tag undescribed for images without descriptions. Here’s a random post & guide to my “bonds” tags. Other fun tags include funny business, dc continuity, and dcu geography.

Chronological reading project: in 2011-era with a focus on the Batkids, also reading Kon-El, Bart Allen, Koriand’r, Jackson Hyde, Roy Harper, etc.

I try to tag spoilers (feel free to ask for something to be tagged) but I may sometimes forget. If you actually hate any of the Batfamily, we probably won’t get along, but this is definitely a place of character & writing critical analysis, including discussing how canon Bruce has often been abusive and subverting that characterization. Also: no incest on this blog, including adoptive.

This blog is inclusive of marginalized peoples and exclusive towards bigots. You are welcome to let me know if I have done something harmful toward a marginalized group. I’d rather know than continue hurting people. If you try pulling ableist, anti-LGBTQ+, racist, or antisemitic bull anywhere near me, you will be blocked. That is your warning.

#about me #heroesriseandfall

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thejakeformerlyknownasprince · 4 years

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I have seen many, MANY discussions/debates about ca:cw and I have never seen anyone mentioning that Rhodey's injury was a metaphor. How did you get that idea?

Short answer: I’ve actually read a lot on the subject. I’m teaching a media studies class right now called “What Can Superheroes Tell Us About Psychology?” (because that’s the kind of shit you can get away with at giant universities) and hoo boy are superhero narratives More Ableist Than Average. Anywhoo, a few of those readings:

I’m quoting hard from the chapter “Hyper-Normative Heroes, Othered Villains: Differential Treatment of Disability in Marvel” in a book on disability studies because it’s free. A relevant passage:

“These metaphorical portrayals all fail to engage with disability as a social category and as an individual identity, thereby ignoring its context… Nick Fury’s missing eye does not change his aim with distance weapons (e.g. Captain Marvel) or piloting software. Instead, it recurs in the films largely in metaphorical lines such as Fury’s commenting on the death of a friend with ‘I just lost my one good eye’… One character in Avengers even questions the lack of accessibility in Fury’s multi-monitor computer console, and Fury’s assistant simply answers that he must turn his head more often to compensate. The franchise thereby emphasizes that Fury’s missing eye is only a metaphor for his discernment and ability to see details that others have missed, rather than a truly integrated part of his character or even an accurate portrayal of that disability.

“8. This treatment of disability as metaphor persists throughout the MCU. In Captain America: Civil War, superhero War Machine incurs a permanent spinal injury while fighting on behalf of his best friend Iron Man. Later on, rival superhero Hawkeye… ‘You gotta watch your back with this guy. There’s a chance he’s gonna break it.’ The film then equips War Machine with a fantastical prosthesis that essentially nullifies his disabled experience through giving him the same range of motion as his non-disabled [abled] teammates, entirely without side effects or need for maintenance. The MCU films thus present disability as a metaphor for inner morality and characterization. War Machine has few experiences of being a disabled man through his spinal injury, but is instead emotionally ‘disabled’ by the damage to his social standing he has incurred through his friendship with Iron Man… The MCU thereby offers no critique of ableism or inaccessibility, instead continuing to localize disability as a problem with the body and the individual.”

Death, Disability, and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond by José Alaniz is also a fantastic resource, and you can buy it for money here or hopefully find it at a library if you have no money. A few of the relevant points from his book:

Superhero stories often treat disability as a “problem” that must be “solved” through in essence nullifying the disabled experience of the character(s) through superpowers that run directly counter to the disabilities and/or fantasy “cures,” e.g.

Daredevil is blind BUT navigates the world in a way similar to sighted people due to his “radar sense,” meaning that he doesn’t get to have a lot of the lived experiences of blind individuals

Don Blake is mobility impaired and uses a cane BUT his cane transforms into mjolnir and imbues him with the power of Thor, meaning that he spends most of the story moving like a nondisabled person

Hawkeye is hard of hearing sometimes in some of the comics, BUT he often gets magical cochlear implants from Tony Stark that cause him to stop being hard of hearing

Characters that are disabled and remain disabled tend to be villains whose villainy is either implied or stated to come directly from their bitterness over being disabled, e.g.

Doctor Doom hates that he’s scarred by an explosion so much that he wants to take over the world to get revenge on the Fantastic Four

The Lizard only transforms himself because he ignores all scientific and ethical boundaries in his desperation to stop being disabled

Doctor Poison is described by herself and other characters as a “monster” for failing to (unlike Wonder Woman) conform to White Western conceptualizations of female beauty

Characters like The Thing, She-Hulk, and Bizarro have the potential for some really interesting disability narratives. However, the same publication pressures that prevent permanent injury or death to the characters also prevent the inclusion of “serious” “real-world” issues like discrimination unless it’s metaphorical (e.g. anti-mutant fearmongering as a metaphor for anti-AIDS prejudice).

The Big Damn Foundational Text on the intersection of disability studies and media studies is Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the Dependencies of Discourse by David T. Mitchell and Sharon L. Snyder, and you can pay money for it here but it’s also available at a lot of libraries. Anyway, a couple of relevant points from that book include:

Disability portrayals abound in literature going back to pretty much the dawn of history, but most of those portrayals suck ass because:

Most disabilities are treated as metaphors rather than demographic characteristics, which means that the disabled character doesn’t get connected to other people with disabilities (including those in the real world) and offers no commentary on ableism — if Richard III’s spinal misalignment is just a metaphor for him being “twisted” inside, it doesn’t allow readers with spinal misalignment to identify with him

Disabled characters tend to exist to teach lessons to nondisabled characters rather than having their own journeys — Tiny Tim isn’t a person in A Christmas Carol, he’s an object lesson for Scrooge

Many disabled characters either get “fixed” so that they look outwardly “normal,” or their “ugliness” is used to make concrete the abstract “ugliness” of their personalities

Disability is treated as a “problem” that demands an explanation – Captain Ahab’s prosthetic leg and Joker’s facial scarring are treated as automatically demanding the question “why are you like this?,” even though no one would ever ask the same thing of their nondisabled co-characters

Authors’ implicit ableism tends to come out in their horror of disability, such as when they portray disabled characters preferring death to disability, going to extreme lengths to avoid or nullify disability, and/or declaring themselves “worthless” or “burdensome” in light of disability

Discomfort with disability — another form of implicit ableism – also comes out when disabled characters are overwhelmingly “killed or cured,” meaning that they don’t get to end their stories as living individuals who are still, in practice, disabled

ANYWAY, that’s a long-winded way of saying that I also haven’t seen any critics specifically talk about Rhodey’s disability as a metaphor first and a part of the character second, but that that doesn’t mean the shoe don’t fit. When someone asks about the Accords in Infinity War, Rhodey also says he supported them but then “I’m pretty sure I paid for that,” and gestures at his own paralyzed legs. He also also says in Endgame “I wasn’t always like this… but we work with what we’ve got” when talking to Nebula, BOTH about the fact that he’s disabled and about the fact that half the universe is dead and they’re all struggling to cope with that fact. It keeps getting used as a metaphor and keeps NOT getting used as a part of his identity. LET THE MAN TALK TO SOME OTHER DISABLED VETERANS FOR TWO SECONDS, FOR FUCK’S SAKE.

A couple of other (free!) readings that talk about that general problem of “we love superheroes and we hate ableism, now what?” even if they don’t mention Rhodey specifically:

“Reevaluating the Supercrip” by Sami Schalk connects media portrayals of the paralympics to media portrayals of Captain America and the Doom Patrol. (I swear to god it makes sense in context.)

“Seven Roads to Justice for Superheroes and Humans” by Mikhail Lyubansky gets into the glaring (for me, anyway) question of “why the fuck are sci fi psychologists all so evil and useless?” by explaining why Harley Quinn must be evil for Batman to be a vigilante.

“Superhero Comics as Moral Pornography” by David A. Pizarro and Roy Baumeister (again, I swear it makes sense if you read it) discusses the evolutionary tendency to judge people based on disabilities and why it’s so popular in superhero stories specifically.

Anyway, you probably weren’t looking for an entire annotated bibliography in response to that question, but I’ve never been one to use five words when 500 would suffice.

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