#both matt and peter have really specific opinions on killing

[doverstar]

A handful of people have requested I expand on my epiphany that the Tenth Doctor is the Doctor lineup’s equivalent of Enamored Smurf, so here I go if you care to waste some time-

Lots of Doctor/Rose fans like to say Ten was born out of love, specifically for Rose. He is tailor-made for her; we saw that. Even in the novelized version of The Christmas Invasion, Rose suspects that the Doctor’s new face has picked up a few of her mannerisms. I want to say, firstly, that I’m not sure that it’s technically canon that Ten was made for Rose, or that if you asked the writers, they’d say that his tenth regeneration was born out of love for her. I actually can’t find anything in my limited research where that’s canon – it’s fan speculation, but it seems to be true and that’s the short version of why I think Ten is the Enamored Smurf of the Doctors. But of course I’m me so this will take longer than that.

I’ll start with this factoid – Ten has kissed every one of his official companions. That says something. Bupbupbup wait, I know, that was Cassandra on New Earth, it was just a genetic transfer on the moon, he needed a shock to eradicate the poison in 1926, etc. Okay, I know he has good reasons behind each kiss, but it says something that David Tennant’s Doctor is the Doctor that the show felt most comfortable - how do I say this kindly - auctioning off romantically. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, Tom Baker’s, even Peter Davison’s before him – there was a much different sort of conduct with them, just in my opinion. I don’t know if the audience at the time or the writers at the time would have been quite so free with the Doctor’s romantic potential. With Tennant’s Doctor, it’s just. Everyone. All the time. Astrid, Christina, Madame de Pompadour, Joan Redfern, Queen Elizabeth. Look, Ten is not the first Doctor to be kissing companions or even almost-companions, but he’s the one that seems to do it most often, especially in the 2005 revival (and here we exclude Matt Smith’s Doctor because he came afterward and Moffat was at the helm and Moffat cannot write a male protagonist who doesn’t kiss or get kissed by every young woman breathing near him). What I’m communicating here is that there is something about the Tenth Doctor that is, by nature, very romantic. He is romance-inclined. And most fans take that to be a direct result of the way he was brought into existence. The Doctor’s ninth incarnation was killed by absorbing the Time Vortex, and the only way he could survive that process was to regenerate. How did he absorb it? He pulled it out of Rose Tyler to save her life, after she absorbed it to save his. How did he pull it out of her? He kissed her! Could he have done it in a different way? *noise in my throat for I-don’t-know* Probably. Maybe he could’ve hooked her up to something in the Tardis, or used the sickbay or even tried the Zero Room. But he didn’t; he kissed her, and it’s canon in both RTD’s words and the words of the cast and other writers that Nine kissed Rose because he wanted to kiss Rose, and because he wanted to save Rose, and he was happy to give his life for hers – and that these actions were done out of love. Romantic love explicitly, as well as the self-sacrificial type of real, true, lasting love. That was agape stuff right there. Be still my heart hooooo boy-

So Nine is dying because he sacrificed that incarnation of himself to save Rose, because he loved her. And when he changed, when he regenerated, he changed into this younger-looking, Londony puppy dog man with hair Rose obviously likes and with a clear inclination toward romance. From the first, he’s a dashing hero with ego and brains.

Suddenly the Doctor is not the war-torn, forty-something-looking Northerner that takes a tiny bit to warm up to people and doesn’t seem to think much of himself. Suddenly, the Doctor likes to wink and click his tongue, give crooked smiles and really-tight hugs, and boy does he love physical touch. The tenth is obnoxiously flirtatious, and, appearance-wise, he’s just as grin-heavy and charismatic as the men we’ve seen Rose prefer in past episodes. If we go with the long-running theory that regeneration, while definitely 80% uncontrollable, can be at least a little influenced by cause of death and the emotional inclination of the Gallifreyan who is regenerating, then the most logical explanation is what?

He is ‘born out of love’. The Tenth Doctor is almost literally fizzing with passion. Look at him. Go look at him. Is he not hand-stitched to be roguish and attractive and fun and amiable and watch out, ladies-

(Mr. Tennant you are a fabulous actor and you do the show credit and you are this generation’s Tom Baker and you are more than your eyebrows, sir, please forgive me, we love you-) Even when he is being weird, he is being charming. Even when Martha does not know why he’s throwing away his shoes, even when she has concrete proof that he is another species and not human, she still swoons when he kisses her or smiles at her or looks in her direction. (Mad Martha, charity Martha, you deserve much better!) When River calls him ‘pretty boy’, even Donna’s affirmation comes out a bit quick, and there is no chance of that relationship ever being romantic. Astrid only has to meet his eyes one time and she’s a goner. Do not get me started on Madame de Pompadour-

The Tenth Doctor is a total Casanova. He exists in a state of romantic potential, because when the Doctor changed his face into that face, it was after saving – and finally embracing – this human girl that he is objectively, canonically in love with. He is Enamored Smurf. Now, that’s actually a huge problem. Because an alien man engineered to love one person is a lovely thing -  as long as he can love that person. But the issue is that he’s a Time Lord. He can’t love the Earth girl practically the way he would like to, the way that’s best. He can’t settle down with her, he can’t even marry her. He knows that. He will outlive her. So he can’t ever say I-love-you because that’s commitment, and he can’t commit to Rose because it would be dangerous and unfair, especially to her. It wouldn’t (in his opinion) lead to a happy ending for both of them, but I already beat this horse to the deadest death, he’s buried over there, shhh-

Okay. So what does he do with all that love? While he’s with Rose, it’s mostly fine. He can show her all the time that he’s absolutely gone for her without ever saying it. “Oh, she knows.” “Does it need saying?” I mean. If the constant hand-holding and hugging and disarming smiles (ah, The Stone Rose, how are you today my beloved-) didn’t say it, the REALLY INTENSE BROWN EYES BURNING HOLES IN HER FACE will say it just fine.

Only this incarnation of the Doctor isn’t just romantically-inclined. He’s also got the biggest freaking ego I have ever seen on that man, don’t look at me Six, avoid eye contact Three- He’s full of passion, as aforementioned. Everything is – wait for it – at a ten. Where are you going, come back here-

So if he’s full of passion, that means everything he feels is at its peak. When he’s angry, he’s furious. When he’s sad, he’s miserable. When he’s confused, it’s a thousand whats before we get to a proper line of dialogue. When he’s happy it’s the best smile in the universe. And when he’s in love? Do not get in the line of fire (and by that I mean the big-brown-eye-contact) or you will be struck down in your prime. The issue with being the Doctor and being born out of love, full of passion, but unable to settle down with the object of that love? The issue is that it all goes other places, too. It’s not just for Rose. The Doctor as a character has forever been, in a sense, in love with the universe. In love with the human race in particular (not romantically, yikes, but you get it). If ever there were a species he’d be most inclined to fall for romantically, it’s going to be a human being. We saw it before Rose, we’ll probably see it after Rose, though not at the same level because – well, different relationships are different relationships.

And this Doctor has a huge ego. He loves attention. He loves praise. He even loves being adored. He knows darn well Martha fancied him the whole time and he still kept her close to him, and then bragged about it to Donna later. He finds the fact that he enchanted and snogged Madame de Pompadour delightful, and funny, even though he met her first as a child and hi, he has two very-mortal human beings already traveling with him on that clockwork spaceship who he should probably not leave to be disassembled for five and a half hours. One of which is supposedly the person he is in love with and who loves him back. But I digress; that episode in particular is another horse to beat at another time. Not Arthur. A different horse. He seems to pass out attraction and affection easily, and really take pride in that, which, if I were Rose, would be incredibly unnerving when he’s so affectionate toward you but he is also flirty and loose with basically every other woman he meets as well. Hear me, Rose is not entitled to reciprocation – neither is the Doctor, actually – but it does demonstrate surprising carelessness on his part after Nine’s clear, unwavering preference and devotion toward Rose. It’s obvious they care so much about each other, it’s obviously love, but of course she wanted him to say it out loud. He gives her reason to doubt that she’s in any way special to him. But because she’s Rose, of course she decided to stay with him because he needs someone, because she loves him, regardless of how thoughtless he can sometimes be about how he may be affecting her.

(I don’t like that about Ten, personally. I don’t like the ego, or the rampant flirting, but I really dislike that carelessness. And I understand the difficulties and the complications and the layers to that romantic relationship, to Doctor/Rose, and I get that it makes for good television drama, but also – sometimes you just wanna shake him. Either say you love her, or say very clearly that it will never work out and you are refusing to commit. You can have all the best intentions in the world because you love her, but if you’re not clear with her, it’s just making things harder for her on days when you are winking at and holding hands with someone else. I can make a separate post about how I have a very bittersweet opinion on Ten and would not like to travel with him, but…eh.)

Anyway. This post is longer than I wanted. The point I am trying to make is that he is the Doctor who is, yes, the most inclined toward romance, Enamored Smurf, but also that that is not always a good thing. Being born out of love and being full of passion can be a very dangerous thing. He is not just the most inclined toward romance – he is also the Doctor who is the most inclined toward villainy. Get behind me, Moffat, no Eleven is not-

As the Doctor with the most passion, born out of love, when I say that when he’s angry he’s furious, I am talking Time Lord Victorious furious. He is at times the most imposing version of the Doctor. In fact, there’s an entire alternate multimedia canon dedicated to the idea that the Tenth Doctor specifically could one day be a villain, after making a thousand small decisions that surface-wise don’t seem so bad, but that eventually snowball into one big, bad decision. And suddenly he thinks he’s a god and we have to root against him. And that’s just one drawback. The other drawback is plainly seen after Doomsday and Journey’s End – the Tenth Doctor cannot handle losing Rose. He’s completely ruined without her. He changed every single cell in his body with an eye toward loving her, and when she is gone, it probably feels like an enormous chunk of himself is missing. It probably feels like everything is tilting sideways, just a little bit, all the time. And the fact that he lost her and never explicitly told her how he felt? He has no idea what to do with himself. He goes from bad to worse. First of all, it’s made very clear that he is okay with dying when Rose is gone. We saw that in Turn Left. He was never trying to survive anything he ever did. He was saving other people, but he would have died several times over and had zero desire for self-preservation. The man practically begged the Daleks to kill him in Manhattan, and he would have drowned (in misery and river water) if Donna hadn’t been there to tell him “You can stop now!”

He has Martha and that helps, but she leaves. He has Donna and that helps, but she has to go too. He had Rose again, just for a second, but he can’t keep her this time, and that’s the last straw. He just snaps. Then it’s all bitterness, it’s all anger, it’s all ego. And it’s all at a ten, because what is he when he’s born out of love and the woman he loves is gone? What does he do with all that passion and pain? I’ll tell you what he does. He becomes the worst, most dejected maniac in the universe. He goes from wishing he could die to stubbornly refusing to die. And when it is time to die, he tries to be sure the last human face he sees is Rose’s face.

Actually the more I’m talking about it, the more I’m thinking Ten is the saddest Doctor. At least his other incarnations tried to die as heroes. At least they didn’t get to the point where they could look at Wilfred Mott, a global treasure, and say “not remotely important”. He’s Enamored Smurf, but he can’t do what he was sort of made to do. He can’t be with Rose. He can love her by giving her the chance for a happy ending, and he can love her by showing her the universe, and he can love her by giving his life for her, but he can’t keep her. He has to be without her. He can’t settle down (why do you think John Smith was so quick to fall in love and want a future with Nurse Redfern while being unable to stop dreaming of Rose, unable to stop dreaming she kept walking away?). If there was any version of the Doctor that wanted to be human in order to be with someone he loved, it would be Ten. Because he’s born out of love. And he just can’t escape that. Like this really beautiful, wonderful plant that gets moved out of the sun and is unable to reach water, so all its fruit goes sour. He’s miserable. Oh look I made myself sad-

#tenth doctor #10th doctor #doverstar's thoughts #ten #10 #david tennant #billie piper #timepetals #rose tyler #rose #doctor who #dw #dr who #10rose #tenrose #doctorrose #doctor/rose #the doctor #rtd #rtd era #long post #text post #opinion piece #tragedy thy name is enamored smurf

[momentofmemory]

fictober - day twenty

Prompt #20: “You could talk about it, you know.”

Fandom: Marvel Cinematic Universe - Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Netflix Marvel (Daredevil)

Warnings: Religious Imagery

Characters: Peter Parker & Matt Murdock, Quentin Beck (mentioned)

Words: 2177

Author’s Note: set immediately post the spider-man: far from home mid credits scene (so, spoilers). this is a stand alone, but assumes peter & matt have met before and so could live in the same universe as my day 16 fill.

>>Heartbeats on Pier 81

Peter’s face is broadcasted over all of New York, and losing his secret must feel a lot like dying to his mind because Peter sees his life flash before his eyes. Unlike death—and he would know—it’s not the past that he sees, but all the futures he’d hoped for disappearing.

He doesn’t remember much of what happens next. MJ tells him to run, so he does; Happy texts him that May is safe, so she is; a man throws a rotten tomato at his face, so he swings higher. He keeps swinging, as fast and as high as he can, until he leaves Queens and its familiarity behind. He doesn’t stop until he reaches the edge of Hell’s Kitchen, and only then because when he drops onto Pier 81 he runs out of buildings to leap on.

Peter walks all the way to the end, anyway, then hops over the chain rope fence that separates the walking area from the edge. With nowhere further to go, Peter slumps down and lets his legs trail over the side, greyish water snapping at his feet.

The pier’s not in the shape it once was, thanks to the Blip. The wood creaks ominously under the force of the river’s tides, chains hang limply on the deck instead of around cargo or attached to moored boats, and warehouse-sized shipping containers sit in various stages of rust and disrepair. The important feature in Peter’s mind, however, is that there’s no one around.

He hasn’t had a chance to install Karen in his new suit yet, so it’s quiet as he checks his phone and discovers seventy-three missed calls, one of which is from the New York Times, and a notification informing him that #SpideyParker is trending on Twitter.

Peter looks out over the Hudson and drops his phone into his lap without unlocking it. After a moment, he pulls his mask off and breathes in the unique smell of algae, salt, and diesel oil that only a river running through New York can create.

The tide is high, so the river is flowing out to the north. In a couple of hours the tide will lower and start flowing south, and then a few hours after that, back to the north again. The Hudson’s weird like that: consistent only in that you know it will change.

Peter’s always identified with it in that respect.

He’s not sure how long he stares at the water, thinking about everything and nothing, but it’s still not quite dusk when a lithe shadow drops down behind him. His Peter Tingle doesn’t so much as fizzle, so he doesn’t bother turning around or reaching for his mask.

Not that the last part matters anymore.

It’s probably not healthy, but after Mysterio he’s started relying on sight less and less, so he knows who his visitor is from the sound alone.

“I didn’t know it was legal for Daredevil to be out in the daytime,” he says, the crinkle of leather in Matt’s costume instantly recognizable. “There goes the internet conspiracy that you’re actually a vampire.”

Daredevil hums noncommittally, then lowers himself to the ground beside Peter.

“Spider-Man’s in Hell’s Kitchen, so it seems like a lot of theories are being broken today.” He drops one leg over the edge, bending the other in front of him and resting his elbow against it. “Thought I’d join in on the fun.”

“If you’re looking for fun, you could definitely do better.”

“True, but I’m guessing you can’t.” Matt hesitates. “If you want, I thought you could… Talk. About it.”

Peter leans his head back against a wooden post and closes his eyes. “You know?”

“I’m blind, not deaf.”

It’s stupid, because he knows the news is everywhere by now, but hearing it from another super hero makes it feel so impossibly real.

Matt shifts beside him. “Even if I were both, though, Foggy contacted me the second the broadcast went live. He’s pretty determined we’re going to be your legal team.”

Peter huffs out a laugh, running his hands through his hair. “Isn’t that a conflict of interest?”

“His best friend’s a lawyer that spends his nights bloodying his fists on criminals’ faces. I think our firm crossed that line long before you came along.” Matt tilts his head, probably listening to something seven blocks away or something, then carefully takes off his own mask. “But legally speaking, no. None of us have any reason to oppose your case. If anything, you could argue I have a vested interest.”

“Oh.” Peter bites his lip. “Even after…”

He trails off, looking at Matt’s face. He’s seen it before, of course, during the many times he dragged Ned down to the firm to get help with civics homework, but there’s something different about seeing him fully suited up without mask.

It feels honest, somehow—like all of him is on display, but in a good way.

Peter’s own exposure doesn’t feel so good.

He doesn’t know if Matt can tell he’s been staring, but the other man clears his throat. “After what, Peter?”

There are so many things Peter could say about what he means by after. The all-consuming terror he feels for the safety of his family and friends, now that his identity is exposed. How he’d thought he finally had his life back together, only for it to be ripped away so completely and utterly he no longer knows whether he can even go home anymore. The way people looked at him with naked fear or unbridled anger, and how he’s so afraid he’ll never be their Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man ever again. That he never asked for it, but he technically really does have access to a billion dollar surveillance network, and it’s probably super illegal and wildly unethical.

But it’s Daredevil he’s talking to, not May or Ned or Happy or even Tony, so he says the one thing that’s been eating away at him for days: the one thing only another vigilante could understand.

“I killed him.”

The words feel disgusting sliding out of his mouth, like his throat and lungs are coated in tar instead of air.

“I didn’t mean to,” he adds, suddenly desperate to let Matt know he didn’t, he didn’t, “but the drones were firing everywhere and I had to stop them, and I—I wasn’t paying attention to where the blasts were going as long as they weren’t hitting me.”

He chokes off, unable to continue. He’s terrified to look at Matt’s face now, afraid of the horror he’ll see.

But Matt just turns the Daredevil mask over in his hands, fingers running almost reverently across the seams. “I think it would be helpful if you started over from the beginning.”

It feels like sucking mud out of his chest at first, but slowly Peter reveals everything that had happened in Europe: Nick Fury showing up in his hotel room, the glasses and Stark’s legacy, the mind screw he’d gone through in Berlin. The train, the fight in London, the fake story Mysterio had created—the one he’d told to Peter, and then the one he’d told to Times Square. Quentin Beck’s body lying on the bridge, pupils constricted and lungs frozen and heart silent.

“…I can’t even bring myself be sad that he’s gone,” Peter finishes, staring into the lens of the mask in his hands so he doesn’t have to look at Matt. “I just feel guilty it had to be me.”

Daredevil doesn’t say anything at first, and Peter thinks he might drown in shame.

Finally, the other man clears his throat.

“As a lawyer,” Matt says, placing his mask on the pier between them, “I can say unquestionably that what you’re describing would be considered self-defense in a court of law. Any jury worth its salt would clear you of charges in under an hour.”

Peter swallows. “And as a fellow vigilante?”

Matt turns his head towards the river, tongue darting out briefly as if to taste it. “Did I ever tell you about the time I threw myself into the Hudson?”

Peter blinks at the apparent non sequitur. “You went in there willingly?”

Matt snorts. “Not exactly. It was early in my career, before I even had a suit. It was the first time I took on Fisk.”

Peter stills—Matt didn’t usually like talking about anything to do with the ex-mob boss.

“I was… angry. Stupid,” Matt says. “Fisk killed someone I cared about, but I wasn’t really interested in justice. I just wanted something to punch. So I tore through a bunch of his men until I found one that knew something; got directions to a pier where he might be at. Pier 81.”

Peter starts in surprise, and suddenly the abandoned shipping containers he’d passed seemed to have a lot more weight to them.

“It was a trap, of course.” Matt’s fingers ghost across his lower abdomen, so lightly Peter thinks he doesn’t even realize he’s doing it.

“And that’s when you jumped in the river?”

“No.” A sigh, and Matt’s hand drifts back down to the wooden slats. “No, that’s when I killed Nobu.”

Peter—Peter doesn’t understand.

Everyone in the New York super hero circle knows that Daredevil doesn’t kill, and Spider-Man more than most. It’s the one thing Matt’s warned him about constantly; always telling him to be wary of his strength and his temper, of the immense importance of giving someone a second chance, and that no matter how evil a person may seem, there’s still a spark of hope in there that he has no right to stamp out.

It’s one of the reasons Peter looks up to Matt so much, despite his brutality, because it’s a mindset none of the other vigilantes or even Avengers share.

“No—no who?” he says, voice strangled.

“Nobu. Nobu Yoshioka.” Matt ran his teeth over his lower lip. “He was a member of Murakami’s faction of the Hand. He also had a kyoketsu-shoge that he was very good at using. …I should probably be dead because of it.”

Peter pales, thinking of all the scars he’d seen on Matt’s torso in the past. He doesn’t like where this is going. “…Why aren’t you?”

“It was a lot like what happened with you and Mysterio, actually.” Peter flinches and looks down at his hands, red in the light of the sunset. “We were fighting; well, at that point I was mostly just trying to survive. I deflected one of his blades without paying attention to where it would ricochet, and it shattered a lamp above him. The sparks caught his robes on fire.”

A shudder runs through Peter, equal parts sympathy and horror. “You couldn’t have known.”

“No, I couldn’t have,” Matt agrees. “I also found out later that he came back to life, making it a moot point.”

Peter’s stomach attempts to turn itself inside out at the thought of having to face Mysterio again, but Matt seems to notice his discomfort.

“Don’t worry. My priest says I can’t recommend that method as a standard way of finding absolution.”

Peter offers him a shaky laugh, and Matt continues.

“I didn’t murder Nobu by any legal definition that night,” he says, “but I went into the situation with a lot of hate, and with the intention of killing someone else. I think that made me more of a murderer than any physical action I could’ve taken.”

He turns towards Peter, his eyes staring vacantly just over Peter’s shoulder. “I don’t think that’s a sin you’re carrying.”

Peter bites his lip, wanting to believe him but unsure how. “But I didn’t try to save him.”

“Clinton Church has confession hours right about now if you’re seeking penance.” There’s a smirk in Matt’s voice, and Peter can’t help but roll his eyes at the man’s persistence. “But if not…”

Peter looks up expectantly.

“If not, then I would ask you this: why don’t you want to kill?”

“Because that’s not my call.” Peter doesn’t have to think about it. “And because I think there’s always the possibility of redemption, for anyone.”

“Anyone, huh?” Matt tilts his head, then smiles. “Your heartbeat is steady.”

Peter frowns, then his mouth widens into an oh.

Anyone means him, too.

Peter pulls his legs up and rests his head on his knees. “Is using your human lie detector skills to make a point really all that ethical?”

“Foggy’s not here to stop me, so yes.” Matt picks his mask up. “But I don’t need it to prove your heart’s in the right place.”

Peter stares at him, expression suddenly so fishlike he’d blend right in with the Hudson.

Then he rapidly yanks his own mask over his face to hide the blush creeping up his neck. He coughs and blinks as the eye lenses readjust to the fading light. “Is that uh, is that your advice as a lawyer or as a vigilante?”

Matt laughs and shakes his head, sliding his mask into place. He stands and offers Peter his hand.

“It’s as a friend.”

#fictober19 #peter parker fic #daredevil fic #mcu fanfic #ffh spoilers #peter parker #matt murdock #tw: religious themes #both matt and peter have really specific opinions on killing #so this was fun to explore #memsfic

[dilfdoctordoom]

👀 give me all your thoughts I know you have them

Bette Kane

How I feel about this character: She is my everything. I love nobody as much as I love her. I am at all times thinking about Bette Kane

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Dawn, Hank, Charley, Barbara, Helena, Artemis, Donna & I think she & Luke Fox dated for a little bit in high school before deciding to be just friends

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Gar!!! Her & Gar are best friends & they shouldn’t be romantic

My unpopular opinion about this character: Don’t know if she’s known enough to have any unpopular opinions, but bitchy Bette Kane should be brought back. They defanged her a lot & I don’t like it, let her be the worst it was really funny

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I really wish that in the N52 Batwoman series, the Kate&Bette dynamic was changed so while Kate had all her military training & was older, Bette had more vigilante experience & they had to learn to work together & learn from each other

my OTP: Hank/Dawn/Bette has a special place in my heart, I’m an eternal sucker for ArtyBette, but when it comes down to it... Bettenelli is simply superior

my cross over ship: *looking pointedly at my drafts* well gee I guess I think her & Danny Rand would have a fun dynamic. Also, Betty Brant for that good ole hero/reporter dynamic

a headcanon fact: she’s bisexual, she is, it’s a fact

Danny Rand

How I feel about this character: I’ve only recently gotten into Iron Fist comics but listen. LISTEN. He’s the love of my life, okay? Got it? I would die for this dumbass idiot disaster man

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Luke, Luke&Jess, Misty, Brenda because I thought they were just funny, Matt, I read a surprisingly good Peter fic so hm. Something there

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Colleen. I know they’re the main romance of the Netflix series, I know they had a thing for a little bit in the comics, but shut up, she’s his exhausted best friend

My unpopular opinion about this character: He’s not annoying. After Netflix, I think that’s an unpopular opinion

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish his TV show didn’t suck balls. I wish that The Living Weapon wasn’t canon (but Pei & Brenda stick around). I wish Marvel would pull the trigger & admit that he & Luke are in love

my OTP: Danny/Misty because they’re cute okay shut up Danny really loves her!!! & obviously Jess/Luke/Danny but in that specific order. Jess & Danny are both dating Luke but they aren’t dating each other, they’re just bffs

my cross over ship: The one mentioned above but also, in whatever universe where DC & Marvel are co-existing, I think he had a fling with Oliver Queen before Ollie went to the island

a headcanon fact: He’s Asian-American. Fuck Marvel

Felicia Hardy

How I feel about this character: My mean wife. I would let her murder me without any hesitation she’s so pretty

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Peter, MJ & Cindy. Matt is allowed but only if it’s a disaster. Danny Rand has a crush on her which she thinks is adorable

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Johnny!!!! They’re funny little shits & they should be allowed to get in more hijinks together. All the Marvel Divas, I like Felicia having friends

My unpopular opinion about this character: Plot twist assholes she was in love with Peter Parker the entire goddamn time re: everyone who keeps trying to insist that Felicia has only ever loved Spider-Man. Shut up, they’re the same goddamn person & Felicia loves him 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish Dan Slott had never come anywhere near her

my OTP: PeterFelicia is cute, okay. SilkCat is where it’s at though. Cindy & Felicia... soulmates

my cross over ship: Jessica Cruz or Dick Grayson because she likes dorks but only if they’re pretty

a headcanon fact: I was gonna put that she’s bi, but that is canon & Marvel has just ignored it so. Hm. Dan Slott never happened to her, this lady was never the queen pin of crime

MJ Watson

How I feel about this character: I love her so much... angel... sweetie... darling...

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Peter, Felicia & Gwen, some goddamn respect

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Harry

My unpopular opinion about this character: All opinions about MJ are inherently unpopular (as she would want) but Marvel should stop moving her away from the arts re: her being a reporter in PS4, that weird nightclub thing, etc. I’d say TAMJ was a step in the right direction except I hate that book so :/

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she was still married to Peter. Also, that she’d get her own MJ-As-Spider-Woman AU. Or MJ as a superhero in general

my OTP: GwenMJ & PeterMJ & especially PeterGwenMJ

my cross over ship: MJ Waston date Koriand’r challenge

a headcanon fact: She is not straight. Or cis, for that matter

Peter Parker

How I feel about this character: Look at the little bastard man off to do his little bastard things... will he make good choices? No! Will I continue to support him regardless? Yes!

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Okay, here we go, damn: Johnny, MJ, Gwen, Harry, Flash, Ned in the MCU shut up we all know why it isn’t popular (see: racism), he’s definitely at least made out with Bobby, more that I can’t think of right now, Felicia Hardy

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Matt Murdock. No, shut up, their friendship is important to me specifically, they just love each other a lot, okay? And it’s unconditional &nstupid & they’re dumb & I love them. Jessica Jones, too, because I think the idea of her having a crush on him in high school & local hoe Peter Parker not noticing is funny

My unpopular opinion about this character: The only consistently good Spider-Man series in the past, like, decade is FNSM

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: In a very specific thing, I wish that Peter had picked up the phone & called Matt in the Sins Rising arc because Daredevil was such an important part of that original arc & I dunno, it just doesn’t work & it would’ve been really interesting to put Matt back in the role he played in the original story especially with where Matt is in her own series, ya know?

my OTP: SpideyTorch & PeterMJ

my cross over ship: okay, concept here: Kyle Rayner & Peter Parker

a headcanon fact: bider-man, bider-man, does whatever a bi spider can...

Elektra Natchios

How I feel about this character: Murder wife, has never done anything wrong in her entire life

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Matt & Nat

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Logan!!! They’re best friends

My unpopular opinion about this character: @ Daredevil tv series fans please just say you’re racist & leave

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she never met Frank Castle. I wish she had female friends for a change

my OTP: Nat/Elektra. Love Matt but he & Elektra aren’t endgame even though it kills me violently to admit that

my cross over ship: Talia Al Ghul. I will not elaborate

a headcanon fact: aside from the obvious ‘she’s bi’, I think Elektra has a dog

Matt Murdock

How I feel about this character: Himbo idiot love of my life make a good decision I love you

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Elektra, Foggy, Danny, Luke, Kirsten & Mila

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Peter (see: above), Luke, Nat, Jessica, I think it’s very funny when you put him in the same room as Moon Knight & Felicia

My unpopular opinion about this character: He’s disabled, you idiots, that actually does affect his day-to-day life

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish he’d go to therapy, no, Matthew, confession does not count

my OTP: Matt/Elektra, Matt/Foggy & Matt/Kirsten

my cross over ship: I wanna say Hal Jordan... specifically after the Spectre I think that’d be funny, if Hal just casually drops that literal, actual god was basically his boss for a while

a headcanon fact: he gets mistaken for Scott Summers a lot

[heroes-trash]

personality + powers (theory)

far as i know / have heard, there are 4 possible explanations as to why a person has the power that they have.

the first two are almost the same, really: random chance and genetic inheritance. why they’re the same? because the chance of inheriting (not to mention, expressing!) the exact same traits one of your parents had is pretty low irl as well. much higher is the chance to have something similar, but not rarely are children rather different from both of their parents.

the other two are the ones the show propagates, and while they’re not at all alike, they’re still intertwined: convenience and personality.

the convenience theory is brought up by Daphne in the scene where she, Matt and Ando debate what’ll happen if Ando receives the serum - Daphne is convinced it’ll give him something he needs, citing it’s what happened to her and claiming it also describes Matt’s situation. but the way she says it... it could also make a rather good case for a personality-based theory, and that’s also the one i see most often in fandom.

which is why under the cut, i will go through every single powered character on the show (who we know a reasonable much about) and do a quick analysis of how well each of the latter theories fits them ^^

credited-as main characters:

Peter: personality-based seems more likely, as he is a very giving/empathetic person, and he wants to be extraordinary

Claire: if her ability had activated in Meredith’s burning home, i’d have argued for convenience, but a simple cut in her palm (however deep).... nah. neither seems to apply much here in fact

Hiro: personality-based maybe, because of all his heroic dreams

Matt: Daphne claimed he’d ‘always’ worried was others thought of him, so you can kind of argue personality... but mostly i suppose convenience, in his job as well as possibly generally because of his dyslexia (although he was adamant about not using it to his advantage that way)

Mohinder: one could argue convenience if you consider the fact that some guys tried to rob him when he was still dozing after the injection, and the first thing he did was defend himself against them... but you can defend yourself with many abilities. i once read that his ability amplified him because he’d always ‘had more in him’, and while cheesy, maybe that’s true? so personality-based for him i’d wager

Nathan: his ‘high ambitions’ are basically a running gag at this point, and the comics never fail to overstate how much he’d always loved flying - hell, even the show hints at it. so personality-based for him for sure

Sylar: while we can’t be certain when exactly he activated (at the latest eclipse, or even in his early childhood?), it’s undeniable he is fascinated with complex things. personality-based again

Angela: her powers have often been convenient, but also pretty hit-and-miss; especially at the start, fatally so. and unless you make the stretch to her taking responsibility (= being farsighted) young, i don’t really see personality-based either, so neither seems to really apply

Micah: we first see him use his power to help his family, but he surely had it before - he seemed confident with it already at that point. he’s smart, and very interested in electronics; though we can’t know for sure which came first (see Sylar), personality-based is likely here too

D.L.: arguably a good example for convenience, as he (according to some deleted scenes, anyway) first manifested when he was desperate to get out of prison 

Isaac: as apparently you don’t need to be able to paint to be a precog painter (see Peter’s stick figures), i don’t see how either much applies here...

Elle: again neither looks very likely, unless you stretch personality-based to electrifying-slash-prickly (and she activated at nine so ,,,)

Monica: she’s ambitious and wants to be more successful than her family before her, and support them and herself - so is that convenience or personality, now? i’d argue convenience, because nothing in her suggests she specifically wants to copy other people

Samuel: frankly we don’t know enough of him to argue for either, but it’s definitely not convenience-based because he literally activated before he was born (much like Nathan and Malina), sooo

Ando: funnily enough, although Daphne argued so hard for convenience, i’d say it’s a personality-based case for him - he is the devoted friend, the designated sidekick in the best way. or is that convenience again after all... bit of both maybe

Niki: i’m not quite sure about convenience here honestly, as we don’t really see her first first time of using her ability (Jessica threatening her (their?) father was an early one, but the first?? no, how would she even know?) - and it’s even kinda implied in the comics that the triplets all started expressing theirs as teenagers or even younger - but the strength of an abuse survivor....... yeah i’d go with personality-based

Maya: she’s a bit whiny and occasionally bitter sure, but there’s nothing in her personality to suggest she wants to commit mass murder every time she’s upset. it’s not even convenient, really [well it was in Exodus but ,,,] so [for the timeline we wound up getting] i’d argue neither

Adam: what i couldn’t claim for Claire, absolutely applies to him - his ability literally saved his life upon first manifesting, so convenience here for sure. (although he’s pretty persevering, in a very weasle-y way...)

Tracy: again with the comics implying the triplets activated as teens / even kids!!! but discounting that.... personality-based, i guess? what with her ice-cold career-orientated attitude... sure there’s some convenience in the mix, but there are a lot more convenient ways of getting rid of a journalist than killing him, so :’D

other relevant characters, introduced in S1:

René: convenience is straight out of the window here, considering his primary ability activating got his people killed/abused, and his secondary ability activating killed those oppressors (which only on first glance sounds good) - but personality-based? i’m not sure either... he’s an unsuspecting little fellow, but that’s not quite enough... and he uses his ability to fight against ability abuse he experienced as a kid, but i’m still not sure. thoughts? i’ll tentatively say neither...

Molly: neither really fits, far as we know

Charlie: she has a strong interest in learning and we can at least assume that didn’t just start when she discovered she was good at it - so i’d say personality-based

Claude: i’d tentatively argue for convenience, as he isn’t exactly the most subtle fellow... and has been obscuring his identity even before he started working for the Company (!!), so he’s likely running from smth, for which his ability is definitely very useful

Sanjog: we absolutely don’t know enough about him to argue for either, although he does seem to embrace his ability, so maybe he wanted something like this....?? really all speculation though

Charles: he seems like an empathetic, kind man - so telepathy isn’t the biggest stretch for personality-based. it is however some stretch, so how about convenience? well; we do see him using it to stop (well...pause) racist regulations and police brutality......

Linderman: very classic case of convenience-based, as the first time he activated, he healed his dying mother

Ted: neither in my opinion - his ability isn’t even slightly convenient for him, and he is stubborn not unstable far as we at all know

Hana: possibly neither, possibly a bit of both, as she is a descendant of fighters and a spy herself - but then that’s too wide a field, a lot of abilities could help with that... i say neither

Eden: convenience, as she first used it to escape her oppressive home

Paulette: we don’t really know enough about her to argue for either

Meredith: neither seems quite likely - her ability hasn’t exactly brought her much luck, and she has a strong character but not exactly fiery enough to quite play into that cliché, either

Kaito: very likely personality-based, as his ability plays right into his career ambitions (in fact pretty much was what made him so successful so fast)

Candice: something both, something in-between, maybe? she dreamed herself away, and dreamt of punishing her bullies, and she could do both with this ability

other relevant characters, introduced in later seasons:

West: he enjoys being special, but apart from that, there is no real evidence that can be used to argue for either

Alejandro: [if you even assume he has an ability, i personally have some Doubts] probably personality-based, as he is Maya’s other half one way or another

Bob: his ability is objectively convenient, but i’m still not sure an argument can be made for either, as too little (= nothing) is known about his childhood, and neither about his character except ambitious/controlling and kind of a loser when it comes to relationships (divorced and often the fifth (or seventh) wheel when younger)

Maury: another case of too little information for either - he seems to submit to strength/authority rather easily, and only ever committed petty crime, so one can’t argue for criminal mastermind either

Doyle: i don’t think there’s been any information on how he activated (correct me if i’m wrong), and while he does use his ability to compensate for being unsuccessful in forming,, Any kinds of relationships, i still wouldn’t say it’s necessarily personality-based (and something this broad definitely doesn’t qualify as convenience)

Alice: her ability isn’t exactly what you’d call convenient :’D and personality-based would probably be something more fairytale-esque for her, so that’s out as well

Alex: he’s a swimmer, so a bit in-between i suppose (we once more don’t know enough to argue semantics)

Samson: we definitely don’t know enough about him or what he was like before activating (is this ‘putting animals/people to sleep’ thing even part of his primary ability, or does is that just his preferred hunting tool like telekinesis is for his son?)

Luke: we don’t know how he first activated, but maybe personality-based works if you stretch it to ‘destructive teen’...?

'Baron Samedi’: both seem plausible if he’s always dreamed of ‘making it big’ (in his way), which i think we can safely assume, but once more we don’t know nearly enough about his childhood, and technically there’s a lot of ability that are good for demonstrating strenght... maybe he first activated in a firefight (with the Tonton Macoute?).........?? but that’s pure speculation

Arthur: he has always been ruthless and controlling, and never for a minute believed that people with abilities should stick together by default - being able to take them away from others to strengthen himself fully plays into his personality imo

Ishi: apart from apparently being a nurturing, sweet mother, we know little of her... i’d tentatively argue for personality-based, but who knows how she activated?? too little information, again

Daphne: convenience for sure, there’s a reasons she made a case for that

Knox: general question - is ‘circumstances X grew up in’ still convenience or personality already?

Jesse: same as Knox pretty much, we can’t know

Flint: i’d carefully say unstable temperament -> personality

Scott: again a bit of a what-came-first question: he wanted to be ‘’better’’, but did he always want that or did that only come from past failures and the resulting fear for the future? we don’t know because we barely know him

James Martin: i’ll stick my neck out for personality-based, that he’d longed to be somebody else, somebody significant for a while even before activating (i mean - why else impersonate others instead of just improving himself?)

Emma: mostly convenience-based, but as she has a general affinity for music and soft things... in-between, maybe?

Edgar: IF he was indeed the commitment-averse guy Lydia described, i’d say personality-based, but i’m honestly torn about that and don’t have any other significant things, so i won’t speak a final verdict

Rebecca: convenience for sure, for hiding and revenge

Lydia: assuming here she indeed activated young, this is another difficult one - maybe she was always empathetic, maybe not??

Joseph: his ability sure is convenient, but it’s absolutely unclear whether other people perceived him as pleasant/trustworthy because he made them feel that way (literally) or whether that links back to his true character. he seems like a responsible guy overall, but that doesn’t get you to either side of the coin, only an in-between

now i left out some of the most obviously inherited ones / ones that at least have a heritable component. those are, in short: Peter(-Arthur), Matt(-Maury), Sylar(-Samson), (Maya-Alejandro?), Ted(-Mindy), Meredith(-Flint), and the Bowman family

and i also left out Reborn, which works a lot more with heritable abilities, but this post is really long enough already :’D

so, final summary (regarding convenience vs personality):

convenience-based: 11

personality-based: 15

both/in-between: 4

neither: 12

too little information: 14

which makes for a pretty even split that lets one argue for whatever they prefer, honestly XD still hope this was enlightening/interesting to read, and looking forward to all of your opinions!!

#nbc heroes #primatech #heroes theories #do you disagree with any of my verdicts? (or do you have any questions? i know i referenced the comics a lot) #(i had to otherwise 'too little information' would've been like;; half ?? lmao)

[mavrustheunskooled]

Why is Bare: A Pop Opera not as super popular as Dear Evan Hansen or Be More Chill? The fandom loves LGBT rep (which Bare has) and the songs are amazing and I think B:APO is actually superior to both of those. Thoughts? I mean the musical fandom tends to try to find LGBT characters even when they aren't stated, so why do you think Bare is not as popular?

this is a very interesting question and I am hopefully going to do it justice by analyzing Fandom, Musical Writing, and Many Other Things I’m Super Passionate About

the short: many factors and a lot of luck

the unnecessarily long: 

(opening disclaimer: I love dear evan hansen and be more chill, and I’m not upset that they’re popular musicals because I feel that they’re popular for a reason. anything that sounds like an insult in the following response isn’t such because I truly enjoy both of those musicals a lot) 

(another disclaimer: spoilers for bare, DEH, and BMC, also mentions of homophobia) 

on paper, bare seems like the exact sort of musical that would be popular. bare the musical (cursed as it is) has a cast of super popular actors like Barrett Wilbert Weed, Gerard Canonico, Taylor Trensch, Alice Lee, Alex Wyse, a high quality bootleg exists of the 2013 LA cast, it’s got LGBT+ rep, complex women characters… and yet it’s got a tiny fan base. Why? 

first let’s look at why dear evan hansen and be more chill are popular. I’m more well versed in bmc, so let’s look at its history (disclaimer: I’m estimating dates but this is roughly the timeline) 

the original bmc run was in 2015 I believe. they recorded a soundtrack, everything was fine, and they closed. in 2017, people began discovering the soundtrack in hoards. specifically, they were discovering one song: Michael in the bathroom. that’s even how I learned about the show- I heard that song and had to look up the rest of the soundtrack. and in February of 2019, they’ll start previews on broadway because the fandom was revived 

why this song? I think a ton of fame comes from talent, yes, but also from luck. I think bmc was lucky that Michael in the bathroom, a great song, was discovered as the great song that it is. I also think the fame came because that song is super relatable. as someone with pretty bad anxiety, that song really touched me because I’ve definitely spent parties hiding in the bathroom and avoiding everyone and wishing I was dead because I’m so overwhelmed with anxiety. it’s relatable, so people flocked to it. 

this made me pause to think “what is bare’s hook song” my first thought was a quiet night at home if we want a song in the same vein as MITB, but that song isn’t as hype as MITB (and fandoms don’t care about fem characters as much as it cares about masc characters). my next thought was are you there because I think it’s a bop and a relatable “pls someone help” kind of song, but I don’t know which song everyone could relate to as much as everyone could relate to MITB 

and speaking of relatable content- that’s where the DEH connection comes in. dear evan hansen is similarly relatable, although it takes that to an extreme given what Evan does as a result of his anxiety. Michael and Evan are relatable characters, even if you don’t condone everything they do (and if you condone everything Evan does, we have much to talk about)

but doesn’t bare have relatable characters?? absolutely !! there’s Peter, a closeted gay kid who wants to come out, and Jason, someone who acts tough but is secretly very insecure, and Nadia, with her body image issues, and Ivy, who people won’t take seriously because they’ve decided they already know her, and so many other complex characters. so why are they left behind? 

let’s look at bare’s history: 

bare was originally written in the 90s (I want to say 1999, but I could be wrong) the performance most people consider the quintessential bare performance was in 2004 with Michael Arden, John Hill, Jenna Leigh Green, etc. 

if you compare this to DEH and BMC, the first issue is clear. DEH was hugely popular around 2016. BMC began to grow in popularity in 2017. these are very, very new shows. 20 years doesn’t sound like a lot, but in our current age where time seems to pass so quickly which each new fad, bare seems like an older musical, and a lot of people aren’t the biggest fan of older musicals. and they don’t have to be !! but it’s a personal preference of some people that could affect how they view bare as a potential musical to be a fan of 

in terms of the music of bare, it’s definitely catchy, but it’s not like a pop song. (again, no shade at DEH and BMC because those aren’t jukebox musicals or anything). bare is simply not as easy to listen to as DEH and BMC are in my opinion (and it’s not the most complicated thing ever either, but holy cow its lyrics are smart and I have to throw that in here) 

now let’s look at reasons why people may not want to watch bare. while it is great that it has canon gay characters, compelling women characters, and is very cleverly written it also has issues that can be turn-offs to people. this includes: 

-bury your gays

-gay-guy-cheats-on-boyfriend-with-girl trope 

-gay-guy-gets-outed trope 

-and potentially other homophobic tropes

I’m not shaming bare for perpetuating these tropes because it was written 20 years ago, and lgbt+ people are allowed to enjoy media in spite of its perpetuation of negative tropes, but for some people these things are enough to turn them away. and I don’t blame them! I watched bare the musical before I watched bare a pop opera, and when Jason I died I closed out of YouTube without finishing the show because I was so Sick of bury your gays. 

I am aware that there are reasons Jason died at the end of bare (they’re making a statement about how homophobia kills, particularly how homophobic religious people can have an awful affect on young religious gay people), but there comes a time when “reasons for a gay character to die” is just too much. sometimes, you just want the gay character to live, and I completely respect that notion because I felt the exact same way when I watched bare the musical. I remember when I first watched bare the musical I wrote a thread about how as a Romeo and Juliet adaptation, bare follows some things closely (like death at the end) while avoiding other extremes (Romeo running off to another country) and I thus felt the death was unnecessary. if someone else feels similarly about being sick of gay characters dying, they have every right to not want to watch bare 

that’s enough on why someone might not want to watch bare. let’s get back to bare vs DEH and BMC 

I also think a big aspect of fandoms is shipping. the fetishization of MLM (and consequently ignoring fem characters completely, along with focusing solely on white men for their shipping and ignoring men of color) is a huge problem in fandoms that I could talk about forever, but for the sake of this response, I’ll keep it a bit shorter 

DEH and BMC profit heavily off of shipping in terms of gaining popularity. people love Evan x Connor (and other ships but that’s the main one I see), and people love Jeremy x Michael (and others). so why then do people not care about bare, a show with a canon relationship between 2 basic white men, which is their ultimate goal? 

I think people like the idea of these mlm ships more than canon content. if there’s canon, it’s harder for them to make a variety of ships because it feels like everything else has to rotate around the canon without touching it (which is where the bare fandom gets Matt x Lucas because they’re the closest they have to 2 basic men- I can write my criticism of them another time though) 

I’ve also seen posts saying that things with canon lgbt+ characters sometimes have smaller fandoms because there is no need for lgbt+ theorizing- it’s right there, and if you want lgbt+ content, watch the thing. I don’t necessarily agree with this for myself (I’ll reblog every pilgrim’s hands gifset I see) but I can definitely see how other people might think this way 

failing to hype up stuff with lgbt+ characters can have a negative impact. BMC is the prime example of how a show can be revived by its passionate fan base. if people aren’t talking about bare, it’s not going to spread like other shows do 

this is kind of all over the place but anyway- I want to talk about characters more. one thing DEH and BMC have are great, complex characters that are very easy to boil down to a fandom’s favorite stereotypes. I am absolutely not saying DEH and BMC have simple characters because I think all of them have layers; however, fandoms do love to go “this is precious cinnamon roll who can do no wrong and this is evil awful terrible irredeemable person” and it’s a bit difficult to do that with bare. 

you can say Peter is your perfect son, but he does try to force Jason out before he’s ready. you can say Ivy is the evil seductress trying to tear apart your gay babies, but I will physically fight you. there aren’t any black-and-white good or bad bare characters (except Father Flynn- hate him), which doesn’t fit in line with the way fandoms function. sweeping generalizations about the current state of society based on the internet are exhausting and bad, but we do live in an age where everything must either be perfect or evil, and you can’t do that with bare. no one “did nothing wrong uwu” and that’s what fandoms Want 

(note: they will excuse wrong actions, such as everything wrong Connor Murphy has ever done, if the character is played by a mildly attractive guy they want to ship with another mildly attractive guy) 

another point that I don’t have fully fleshed out thoughts on enough to devote too much time to is the integration of parents into the shows. in both DEH and BMC, the parents get redemption arcs. in bare, Claire does say she love Peter at the end, but she’s much less of a sympathetic character than Mr. Heere or Heidi (that’s her name right- Evan’s mom) or the Murphys. when I was younger, I wasn’t allowed to watch anything that painted parents, or adults in general, in a negative light, but maybe that’s not a universal experience 

this is getting way too long and it probably has more thought put into it than what was necessary, so I’ll try to close this quickly 

I think, first off, that DEH and BMC completely deserve the hype that they have received. they’ve got compelling stories, interesting characters, and fantastic soundtracks. I also think that luck factors heavily into them getting what they deserve. there are plenty of great shows, like bare and the boy who danced on air and spies are forever and probably more that I’m not thinking of, that have great music and characters and story that, out of sheer chance, don’t get the chance they should have been given. there is no bulleted list someone can follow and at the end they’ll be on broadway with an armful of tonys; is the luck of the draw, and bare has not been afforded that chance 

I’ll end with some reasons why anyone who happened to read this but might not be a bare fan should listen to or watch bare: 

- it is an amazingly clever show; every time I watch it or listen to it, I realize another moment of foreshadowing or a line I originally brushed off was actually very significant or there’s another recurring motif/theme in the music 

- it’s full of bops (go listen to you and I or are you there or portrait of a girl) 

- canon gay characters in a canon gay relationship 

- 3 dimensional fem characters that actively criticize stereotypes 

- it’s about a religious gay boy who grapples with his religion and his sexuality and how those two things can coexist 

- it is Very Very Good

in conclusion: bare is very good and deserves attention xx

#this is all over the place but I tried #idk if this is what you wanted but it's what you got ldkfjdlsjfk #I Love analyzing stuff like this- this is my dream ask ldkfjlskf #ask #bluejaye91 #bare a pop opera #dear evan hansen #be more chill #it's after 5 tags that stuff doesn't show up in main tags right? #bc I'm tagging for myself and not for everyone but who knows if everyone will see it anyway ldkjfdlf #rambles

[quintessence-sentimentalist]

Caleb, Peter, the Oracle/Himerish and Yan Lin for the ask game.

Alright, after a VERY unexpected hiatus (for which I wholeheartedly apologize), I’m finally back with responses to the ask game I reblogged with the expectation of answering much sooner.

Answers below the cut, with the exception of favorite photo (I just didn’t have the time to search through both comics and cartoon to find the best ones).

Caleb

• favorite thing about them: 

I guess the fact that he pulls off Badass Normal pretty well, surrounded by all of these powerful women. He can still hold his own in a fight, and managed to coordinate a successful rebellion in a world long under tyrannical rule. Also, can’t forget the literal dream-guy aspect of his initial comics characterization.

• least favorite thing about them: 

On the animated series side, I really dislike the toxic masculinity and sexism fueling his characterization, which was especially prominent in season 1 (and thankfully waned as the series went on). Which I guess is also my problem with him in the comics, except that trait came out of the blue well into his time in the series and served the sole purpose of breaking up his relationship.

• favorite line: 

I do like the first romantic scene between Caleb and Cornelia, so I’ll go with his speech there. 

• brOTP: 

Listen, “D is for Dangerous” is one of my favorite episodes of the animated series, so Caleb and Matt is always a favorite relationship. He also has a fun relationship with the girls in season 1 (when he’s not being all “Ugh, girls”), and I do like his comic partnership with Vathek.

• OTP:

I don’t really ship them actively, but Cornelia and Caleb have a fun dynamic in the animated series, and the initial concept of them in the comics is really sweet.

• nOTP:

I’m not a fan of Elyon/Caleb for a number of reasons, and with the way CxC ended in the comics, I just don’t see there being a good way for them to get back together later on, so I really don’t ship Caleb with anyone after about issue #20. 

• random headcanon: 

Well, my knee-jerk reaction here is that cartoon-verse Caleb would find one unusual—by his peer group and personal characterization’s standards—hobby and be amazing at it and honestly enjoy it. Like in “Divide and Conquer” we got natural snowboarder Caleb because the sport had a Meridian counterpart, for a hot second he played a guitar on the school roof, and then “D is for Dangerous” was rife with his inability to understand Earth teenager things. So based on all of that, I’m thinking he’d somehow latch onto some activity that’s quiet and leisurely—because the guy needs it, he’s basically been raised in and for battle since conception—but still involves some skill and concentration. Something that can help him take his mind off things but also be productive, allowing him to create something fun and useful.

Basically, this is my roundabout way of saying that I had the mental image of Caleb taking up knitting and being great at it, maybe making the girls shawls and scarves for Guardian business in colder climates (because Kandrakar knows that the uniforms don’t offer optimal coverage). There’s just something comforting about the repetition to stitching, where he can either tune out to everything or focus on something else while his hands still work the needles without interruption. It makes even war rooms for the latest universal threat less of a stressor for him, and oh no I think I’m attached to this concept that started as a stray thought based on one of my own hobbies.

• unpopular opinion: 

Mm, maybe just the fact that he’s not my favorite love interest in either media, even when on his best behavior? In terms of ship-related stuff, I most frequently see CxC as the popular canon pairing, and while I’m glad to see the love for them (means that this series overall is getting the love it deserves!), I’m personally just neutral and can’t really muster up any strong feelings. I pretty sure that’s just a ME thing, because many a time I’ve just been chill with major canon pairings, not really caring either way, while I’ll positively be clutching my heart and wanting to cry over my tiny canoe of a minor or even wildly non-canon pairing. So I’m totally down with and supportive of Caleb/CxC fans, even if I don’t feel what they do as potently.

• song i associate with them:

I feel like I use this song for every “enduring fight against evil” situation, but I’m still going to go with “The Good Guys” by the Elms (and of course, I can’t find a YouTube link for it…). I just feel like it captures the weariness of leading a rebellion against an oppressive superpower—especially in the days before the Guardians’ involvement—and the fact that Caleb is just a guy fighting without any powers. “When all you got is a single shot/You do the best job that you can/’Cause it’s a long road for a simple man.”

Peter

• favorite thing about them:

Look, he’s just a really great guy all-around. Best older brother, caring boyfriend, good friend, and the coolest dude who’s simultaneously a complete dork.

• least favorite thing about them:

I’m just going to go with the fact that he really doesn’t have any character in his short time in the animated series except to be a) Taranee’s brother (without really seeing anything with their relationship) and b) Caleb’s short-lived romantic foil for Cornelia.

• favorite line:

Not so much a line as a particular scene that sticks in my head as an iconic Peter moment, and it’s just this one comic image of him balancing on a kitchen chair like it’s a surfboard, excited that Taranee got accepted for the Redstone exchange program because it’s a “surfer’s paradise.” Like he’s super proud of his little sister for her achievements, but he’s also very much a surfer dude dork who’s going to geek out over some choice waves and get yelled at by his mom for standing on the furniture.

• brOTP:

He is the BEST big brother to Taranee, so of course that has to be my top choice.

• OTP:

Peter/Cornelia deserve so much more love than what I’ve given them in the past, they’re precious.

• nOTP:

I don’t really have one, at least not a specific one? PxC is the only thing I know in terms of Peter shipping.

• random headcanon:

In the instance where he finds out about the Guardians, I imagine he’d be like the Team Mom (or Best Boyfriend, in Cornelia’s case). Much like his sister, he’s not going to be pleased with the Council and what they put the Guardians through—really, if you throw Judge Cook in here too the three of them would probably put the entire establishment on trial and win. But in the meantime, until definitive change can be made, Peter devotes his time to making sure the girls are taken care of and maintaining a proper balance between their two lives. He’s probably there with cookies and hot chocolate and fuzzy blankets after every rough mission, letting the Guardians finish the initial debrief before ushering them to a mandatory movie night or something to decompress. Date nights with Cornelia invoke a firm no-Guardian-business clause, where all conversation is on everything but and any lingering concerns are checked at the door, where they can remain for a few hours.

It’s just… this is Peter’s sister and girlfriend and their best friends, and it’s in his nature to be a very chill, caring dude. If pre-New Power Matt was ecstatic about providing support by running interference while the girls are away on mission, then I imagine Peter would be the go-to guy for emotional support after a battle.

• unpopular opinion: 

Mmm, just as a stray thought, I guess I’d have liked to see more of him in the animated series? Not sure if that’d be unpopular, but given the fact that CxC have something of a better relationship there than in the comics and Peter was pretty much introduced into that canon for the sole purpose of a love triangle, I thought it might be. So yeah, I’d have liked to see cartoon Peter some more—give me the good brotherly moments with Taranee, and I’d be curious to see a platonic friendship with Cornelia (and maybe even Caleb) assuming endgame CxC.

• song i associate with them: 

Because I’m such a cheeseball, we’re going with an era-appropriate selection in “Catch Your Wave” by the Click Five, a song I still unabashedly love nearly 15 years later (and consider criminally underrated compared to the popularity of “Just the Girl”). Chosen partly because of the ‘00s feel and partly because Peter is a surfer, and frankly I think he’d be enough of a cheeseball to sing this one for Cornelia.

The Oracle/Himerish

• favorite thing about them: 

I do enjoy that the “Trial of the Oracle” arc humanized him a bit. I feel like it’s not often that you get to see such a higher-power character be brought down a bit and not only reveal their more normal past, but have them return to it for a time. It was an interesting change of perspective, both as a reader and for Himerish himself. 

• least favorite thing about them: 

Probably everything related to the “these are young teenagers fighting your battles and enduring what will almost certainly be lasting psychological trauma (given the prior generation, where, FYI, one of them killed another and you just kind of locked her away and let two of the distraught survivors be banned from your sky fortress for eternity because they dared question your judgement in expression of their trauma from losing two best friends to this madness), and you’re still going with this, huh, Himerish?” situation. We’re not going to delve into that any more because we will be here for a while.

• favorite line: 

Oh, I can’t remember which arc it’s from (the end of Book of Elements, maybe?), but there’s this one sequence where Himerish and Yan Lin are simultaneously (yet separately) getting ready for a celebration and having a bit of fun with it, and Himerish jokingly looks at his reflection and says, “Maybe I’ll get a haircut!” I’m just laughing thinking about it, so we’re going with it.

• brOTP: 

I mean, Himerish and Tibor (and Yan Lin) is the ultimate Kandrakar BROTP. Himerish also had a much more human relationship with the Guardians and Orube with the fourth arc, which I appreciated.

• OTP: 

Uh, frankly not something I’ve thought of for him, so we’re going to pass.

• nOTP: 

Again, not something I’ve considered, but I guess I’d say Oracle ships with the Guardians are not my thing? 

• random headcanon: 

Oh, he definitely kept that outfit with the baseball hat and the Cupid t-shirt. Both Tibor and Endarno almost had an aneurysm the first time he wore it to a Council meeting.

• unpopular opinion: 

Ehn, well I guess I’ll go with the fact that even after Trial of the Oracle he’s still not one of my favorites. The arc definitely humanized him, a fact for which I’m grateful, but I’m still not huge into Kandrakar overall.

• song i associate with them: 

You know, for someone who massively associates songs with characters and/or stories, this one was a really tough one. But I was trawling my music library and stumbled on Rascal Flatts’s “I’m Movin’ On” and it just slammed into me.

Now I know I largely don’t recognize the arcs post-Ragorlang, partially because I don’t know them well (having only read them once) and partially because what I do remember was bad, but I still have this lingering image of Himerish’s final page in the series, where he just quietly walks away and disappears from Kandrakar. I don’t remember the context of this in the slightest—like I can’t remember if it was his choice to leave (unlike during Trial of the Oracle) or if he was being called into question again—but I do just remember this silent sendoff, and seeing this song made me think of this scene. From the title alone, it’s very much a bittersweet goodbye kind of song and I’ve loved it for that purpose, which I think it serves perfectly here. Particularly the line “I never dreamed home would end up where I don’t belong”—for so long, Himerish had been synonymous with the position of Oracle and Kandrakar itself, yet as Trial of the Oracle showed us, he led a very different life prior to taking the title. The fact that he’s leaving (presumably by choice, because that’s the way my memory is leaning at the moment) just reads to me as him no longer feeling like he fits within the infinity of Kandrakar—the place that once encompassed the whole of his being—and knowing that it’s time to be moving on.

Yan Lin

• favorite thing about them: 

She’s just the ultimate grandma. So very sweet and supportive to her granddaughter and her friends, and always the one to dispense wisdom. Also, she’s one of the few characters—if not the only—where I honestly can’t decide if I love her comic or animated counterpart more. They’re very different characters—comics Yan Lin is traditionally wise and kindhearted, while cartoon Yannie is the kind that will teach you an important lesson and then make some sort of witty comment and/or break out her old tennis racket that she found in the attic—but still so great.

• least favorite thing about them:

Hmm, maybe just how she had to watch one friend go power-mad, another get murdered by the first, and two get exiled forever from Kandrakar for saying this isn’t right, and yet she has no apparent fears or concerns about her granddaughter serving as a Guardian and running the same risks, amongst others? I get that Yan Lin would be proud at the very beginning because by the time the Nerissa arc happens everything was well out of the creators’ hands and thus nothing could be foreshadowed, but you’d still think that there’d be some level of terror once Nerissa awakens. 

• favorite line: 

Just because it’s in my head, I’m going with the aforementioned tennis racket bit from the cartoon. After she gives Hay Lin the map and Hay Lin questions if it’s because they’ve matured enough in their powers to handle the burden: “Nah, it was in the attic. I couldn’t find it. Found my old tennis racket too. [swings racket] FORE!!!”

• brOTP: 

Honestly, I love Yan Lin as the honorary grandma for all of the girls. I’ll also say BROTP to C.h.y.k.n. (pre-everything awful, obviously), and Caleb and Yan Lin’s cartoon relationship, especially in season 1, is pretty fun too.

• OTP: 

Well the animated series paired Yan Lin (or at least her Altermere) with Zacharias Lyndon, so I guess I’ll go with that. 

• nOTP: 

Don’t really have anything specific in mind?

• random headcanon: 

Not really a headcanon, but I have to wonder what younger Yan Lin—particularly the animated one—was like with her (presumed) late husband. I mean, the woman was a literal force of nature in her youth and is uniquely wise in her prime, so what was the love story between her and Grandpa Lin? Was it more of an opposites-attract sort of thing—solid bedrock to her whirlwind—or was it more like-to-like?

Given Chen’s overprotectiveness in the animated series, my thought is he was the rational child of two eccentric spirits.

• unpopular opinion: 

Granted, I don’t remember these arcs well at all to judge the execution, so this is based more on the concept: I’m not super into the Oracle Yan Lin idea. Not as a testament to her ability to do the job or anything, but it just doesn’t work for me with her character. While she’s had apparent faith in the Council and Himerish all along—even after Nerissa’s betrayal and Cassidy’s murder, the breaking point for both Kadma and Halinor—Yan Lin will always put her granddaughter’s safety first and foremost, as much as she can given the dangers of Guardianship. She’s gone out of her way and behind the Council’s back to get crucial messages to Hay Lin, and even smuggled the key to the Crown of Light to Will while Elyon was being held prisoner under Phobos-as-Endarno’s—AKA the new Oracle—rule. For as much as she outwardly believes in the laws of Kandrakar and the power of the Oracle, Yan Lin is not afraid to quietly go rogue and do what she knows is right.

That last point could arguably be a positive to Oracle Yan Lin—Kandrakar knows that plenty of modifications could be made to Kandrakar’s policies (i.e. the dangers of Guardianship)—except for the fact that Yan Lin’s stealth aid almost always comes as a last-minute, dire situation save. It’s not a preemptive way to diffuse the situation (which you’d think she’d want to do, given how maybe both Nerissa and Cassidy could have been saved if the Council had intervened sooner and with a better plan) when she comes to Hay Lin with the analogy about the oak and the rush, but a survival tip for when Will attacks the girls. Similarly, Yan Lin only gets the fragment of Elyon’s power to Will when she knows Phobos is hot on her tail and will take her out of the picture in mere moments. The fact that she only interferes when desperate times call could speak to her trust in the girls to handle things on their own, but it doesn’t bode as well for future change to the burdens of Guardianship that she could viably make as Oracle. Plus, the fact that her granddaughter is a serving Guardian almost certainly clouds Yan Lin’s actions—would she take similar actions even if it wasn’t Hay Lin’s life on the line?

And we’re going to stop there because that’s getting into different territory than I intended, but the short of it is I’m not into the concept of Oracle Yan Lin and much prefer her as the devoted Council member who’ll still sneak behind the laws of Kandrakar to protect her girls.

• song i associate with them: 

First thing that came to mind was “Cassiopeia” by Sara Bareilles. Normally I’d say this is more of a Hay Lin song, just in terms of the star imagery and whimsical sound, but what sold me is the first line: “Come in close now, it’s time to tell a story.” And isn’t that the epitome of Yan Lin’s character! The revelation of the girls’ Guardianship, the Four Dragons—all of them start as stories that Yan Lin tells. So I guess it could still work as a Hay Lin song too, just within the frame of it as a story told by her grandmother.

#quintessential asks #thanks for asking! #and so sorry for the long delay!

[doctorbluesmanreturns]

Essay on my opinion about shock humor and gore in animation under the cut, please note that everything stated in this post is my own point of view and that I’m not setting myself up as an authority who thinks that his word is somehow what everyone should think (*cough* Nostalgia Critic *cough*) but this is a topic which I have thought about for a bit so I wanted to write about it and get my own views straightened out. 

Basing your whole career on shock humor is a bad idea. It gets boring after the first time and generally you need to have more types of humor at your disposal to be able to have a well-rounded career in comedy. It’s the equivalent of jump scares in horror--they can be done well and used to great effect, but only if your film isn’t just “Jump Scare--the Movie!” 

In animation aimed at adults, shock humor ABOUNDS, and there’s a stereotype that it has to do the joke of having a character get seriously injured and have it be really gory. This is something that is especially prevalent in things that have come out since the 2000s, with the idea being that in order to push the envelope of what’s acceptable on TV, we have to show more gore than ever before, and the whole underlying joke of this is:

“haha, cartoon man bleed!”

The basis of this joke is simple: since classic cartoon characters don’t usually get seriously injured (see Who Framed Roger Rabbit where the fact that the Dip can dissolve toons where nothing else could harm them is a major plot point), reversing the idea and having actually realistic harm come to them is somewhat funny because it’s unexpected.

The problem is that animation has expanded to the point where death and violence are a major part of them anyway depending on the film (look at something like The Lion King or Into the Spiderverse), and that people have done this same “joke” so many times that all of the shock value has disappeared and it’s boring. 

But let’s look at classic cartoon violence for a moment and see why that works and why it’s funny, before looking at how some adult-oriented shows treat violence. 

When most people think of cartoon violence they think of Looney Tunes, the series that perfected the convention. In the world of Looney Tunes, there are several rules about violence that are more-or-less consistent throughout:

1) Only the character who INSTIGATED the violence gets injured. In the Wabbit Season/Duck Season shorts, Daffy is specifically trying to get Elmer to shoot Bugs because it’s actually Duck Season (cue a ton of fake Rabbit Season signs placed all over by Daffy). Everyone has experienced something like this at some point in their life, someone going out of their way to hurt them in some way, so it’s cathartic to see Daffy try so hard to hurt Bugs only to fall into his own trap and get shot OVER AND OVER AGAIN WITHOUT LEARNING.

2) The injuries are almost never serious or life-threatening. Daffy gets shot a lot but all that results from that is his feathers are blasted off and his bill pushed into a different position on his head (and in one memorable instance, his entire head got blown upside-down somehow). This is because for the majority of human beings, seeing blood gushing everywhere isn’t funny, it’s disturbing, so while we want Daffy to get his deserved comeuppance, we also want to see it happen in a way that is more humiliating than harmful, to paraphrase Chuck Jones (who should know). Occasionally characters are killed in massive explosions but this is usually presented as an ironic twist at the end of a cartoon (the audience finally applauds Daffy after he blows himself up, but as his ghost rising towards Heaven laments, “I can only do it once!”) and they’re back to wreak havoc once more in the next one.

The problem with the “haha cartoon man bleed!” joke is that it destroys everything that makes classic cartoon violence funny in favor of shock humor. The characters who are hurt AREN’T bad people getting their comeuppance and their injuries AREN’T comparatively mild enough that even when they are the villain it’s not funny to watch. And then they just wipe away the consequences in the next scene anyway so there was no real point to maiming the character that gruesomely if you’re not going to own it and have them be dead for at least the rest of the episode.

While this specifically is what people are usually riffing off of when they have blood and gore in their cartoons, not all shows aimed at adults do this, and there are different ways to approach violence that go beyond “haha cartoon man bleed!” that more content creators should make note of.

1) In The Simpsons, some violence is cartoonish and consequence free (Homer strangling Bart for instance, or Sideshow Bob’s numerous run-ins with rakes, cacti, and other various items familiar to Wile E Coyote), while others are serious (Mr. Burns ended up in the hospital after being shot, Homer was in a coma after being blown up and also thought that he could die after eating incorrectly prepared sushi), but that tends to be based more around the tone of the event in question, so it’s flexible enough to give the writers some leeway. And in the Treehouse of Horror annual Halloween specials, the joke isn’t just that the characters are dying but that this goes against all of the rules of the world of The Simpsons and therefore the excesses that they go to are ludicrous.  

2) In South Park, the tone is generally more like real life than The Simpsons, with fantastical elements stuck in for good measure (Trey Parker and Matt Stone having been inspired by urban legends surrounding the titular community that they heard while growing up). Seemingly belying this though is the running gag of Kenny’s deaths in every episode, something which Parker and Stone later abandoned because it got too tedious to try to come up with funny new ways to kill him. It was later retconned into his parents being cursed by Cthulhu so that every time he dies, not only is he reborn but everyone’s memories of him dying before are wiped clean. What Parker and Stone are good at with South Park is in using shock humor as social commentary--their whole movie is about their view of the quixotic nature of censorship and how parents will blame the creators of content not made for children when their kids see it rather than being good parents and being a part of their children’s lives, and this carries over into their treatment of violence. While their creative decisions aren’t ones that I agree with most of the time, I can still see that they are actually putting thought and care into their work, something that absolutely can’t be said for everyone in the adult animation industry.

Which leads us to

3) Family Guy and the rest of Seth MacFarlane’s oeuvre. Family Guy is what happens when you take the Treehouse of Horror segments and divorce them of the context that This Is Not Normal, and add in South Park’s shock humor as social commentary without the social commentary. The result is something where one of the primary jokes is “haha cartoon man bleed!” when the tone is more like a weird heightened reality and therefore it doesn’t “land” as that sort of joke except in the fact that it’s animated. Peter Griffin and the rest are so very clearly not “cartoons” in the way that Daffy Duck or Wile E Coyote are, so it’s basically like if you had a live-action film where people kept getting grievously injured but also erased the consequences of that for the next shot. This is the apogee of lazy writing on par with MacFarlane’s other stock joke, “haha animal and baby talk!!!” 

4) In The Venture Bros., we’re basically treated to a live-action show that is animated, and violent death is a HUGE part of every single episode since the premise is “adventure series with kid sidekicks but done with real world rules”. The joke is that if people acted like characters from those old books and shows did in real life, they’re either incredibly stupid or violent psychopaths. It’s still shock humor, and it’s usually not particularly well done beyond “BLOOD!!!!!” but it still beats out Family Guy because the joke isn’t just “haha cartoon man bleed!” but rather a social commentary about our world. (The fact that their view of the world is EXTREMELY nihilistic is a topic for another day.) 

5) Similarly, the “lore” of the game Team Fortress 2 has a ton of violence but differently than The Venture Bros., where morality is only found in the naive title characters and even then it’s more a product of them being too stupid to have a different worldview, most of the main characters of TF2 aren’t actually evil. They just happen to have the job of Blowing Things Up and Killing Enemies, and the comics even make it clear that in their world, there’s a difference between having that job and being an evil person. They’re also the only franchise on this list who actually do jokes featuring gore that go beyond the fact that it happened and are more akin to the “splatstick” style of Peter Jackson’s early films, which whether or not that’s something you can stomach gives them a point for more creativity. 

All this is a very long way to say that people involved with the cartoon industry need to realize that expecting the joke of extreme violence to be funny in and of itself is both a bad strategy and is making it so any hacks can write a show without putting any thought into it and it gets approved because that’s what shows “do”. And creators need to realize that just because South Park or The Simpsons did something, you can’t just copy them while getting rid of the context that actually made the jokes land and expect to have something good. 

[briangroth27]

Marvel’s Defenders Season 1 Review

Full Spoilers…

Marvel’s Defenders was enjoyable and is definitely worth watching, but I’m not sure it did all it could have. The chemistry between Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Jessica Jones (Kristen Ritter), and Luke Cage (Mike Colter) worked very well, but Iron Fist (Finn Jones) was the weak link. He had a few good moments, but Defenders still couldn’t redeem him for me. I was impressed by the inclusion of nearly every major supporting character from the four previous Netflix series, even if they weren’t used to their fullest potential.  The Hand didn’t reach the heights I was hoping as the ultimate bad guys in the Netflix corner of the MCU (so far), but I was genuinely entertained and feel that their arc has come to a mostly satisfying conclusion.

Matt Murdock/Daredevil Matt’s one of my favorite comic characters and I’ve loved Charlie Cox’s interpretation of the character over three seasons now. I was surprised to find him retired from superheroics, but it was great to see him relating to and comforting a recently paralyzed teen (Gabe White) in his opening scenes; I’d definitely like more glimpses at how Matt’s powers and his blindness shape his worldview, so things like this—a way to save a kid without being Daredevil—are very cool. So much of Matt’s arc over the course of his series has been about how best to be a hero and what the line between hero and villain even is, so it was nice to see him mulling over whether he’d done the right thing in stepping down as Daredevil.  When he did finally return to the suit, it was awesome! Murdock was hands-down the best fighter in the show, which hurt the credibility of these other martial arts masters a bit. His flippy and highly acrobatic style is always fun to watch, and Defenders was no exception. Matt’s casual parkour to travel the city (and evade Jessica) got a good workout here and I hope it pops up even more in Season 3, as that’s a comic book element I wish they’d show more of in Daredevil. Elektra (Elodie Yung) was the only character who matched his fighting prowess—Colleen (Jessica Henwick) was close, but didn’t get to do as much hand-to-hand as the others—and Iron Fist and the Hand looked lackluster in comparison.

Speaking of Elektra, I loved how dedicated (and possibly deluded) Matt was into thinking he could save her. Executive Producer Marco Ramirez said he felt Matt believed Elektra was a problem he had to deal with himself and I get that, but I think that drive could’ve had bigger implications for the team. It threatens to destabilize them at one point, but when Matt figures out Elektra’s been in his apartment, he lies about what he’s found to Jessica (almost directly after promising her he won’t keep anything back) and he’s never caught. I understand why he wouldn’t come clean—he was the only one who thought she could be redeemed and Stick was liable to have her killed like the last Black Sky (Bonale Fambrini)—and I wish he hadn’t lied, but if they were going to include that action it should’ve had a consequence.

While Luke informed Danny of his white privilege, I thought Matt’s was more striking. Matt was found at the scene of a homicide covered in blood—the cops even took his shirt to test it—yet the idea that he could be involved in Stick’s (Scott Glenn) death didn’t even occur to anyone at the precinct. At first I brushed this off as “who would suspect the blind guy?” but Misty (Simone Missick) didn’t have a reason to think Luke was a killer either and he was still under suspicion. Just because Matt was Luke and Jessica’s lawyer, he must be innocent? The cops barely questioned him about what happened. When he breaks out of the police station with them later, the cops assume he’s been kidnapped?

I loved that so many story threads from Daredevil wrapped up here; it felt like an unofficial Season 3. Not only did we finally find out what the Hand wanted with that specific plot of land, but we learned what wall Stick was referencing in Daredevil Season 1 and what the pit from Season 2 was for. I also liked that Matt’s past with Stick and his old mentor’s way of doing things got in the way of rejoining the war. That was a smart, organic way of giving Matt pause about joining up instead of just being bull-headed (even though he was that too; as Cox pointed out about Season 2—and was just as true here, part of Matt’s arc was learning to ask for help). Murdock feeling nervous about unmasking in front of the others was a great moment of vulnerability for him; even if it was partially about protecting his loved ones, I think it also connected back to his lack of certainty about suiting up again. Taking the scarf off meant declaring that he was Daredevil. I do wish they’d taken a moment for Matt to confront Stick about Nobu’s (Peter Shinkoda) death: one of the very few issues I had with Season 2 was that he threw Nobu off a building and never said whether he knew he could survive the fall or not. If he didn’t, then he definitely tried to kill Nobu, which could’ve been a reason for his retirement (he’d failed at being an upstanding hero, even if Stick was the one who actually finished Nobu off). That’s something that could’ve brought more context to where we found him at the start of Defenders. That said, the rest of his arc was great and I loved that it concluded with Matt saying he was glad Luke and Jessica were with him before they went into the pit at Midland Circle.

I’m glad they didn’t leave any question about whether Matt survived or not and that they’ve already confirmed Daredevil Season 3! I’m excited to meet Maggie Murdock and to see how they handle Born Again, which seems to be where they’re headed; I don’t want to see Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) dragged through the mud like in the comic, though. Whatever the next story is, I hope that after upping the challenges from gangsters to undead ninjas, Matt gets to face off with supervillains next!

Jessica Jones While Matt and Danny’s arcs segued into the miniseries’ plot most cleanly, I was impressed Jessica and Luke’s investigations brought them into the Hand hijinks just as naturally. In fact, the confluence of these four heroes at Midland Circle felt more natural than an outside force recruiting random superpeople to join the Avengers. I liked how thorough Jessica was with her investigation into the Hand’s building and that they took the time to show it. It would’ve been easy, particularly in a condensed miniseries, to just have her show up and explain the work she’d done, so showing it was a great bit of characterization instead.

While Jessica’s general disdain for heroics can be fun—particularly when interacting with Matt and Danny—it is beginning to become one-note. She isn’t new to these powers and even if she doesn’t want to dress up in a costume (or even want her abilities), I’d like to see her at least more willing to help people, even if it’s just to pay her bills. If nothing else, her powers make her job easier than it would be for most people, so why hate them so much? Speaking of her powers, they absolutely need to determine some limits to what she can and can’t do; vaguely strong and maybe able to fly isn’t good enough. Still, Ritter found a good balance between her disdain for her powers and being overwhelmed at all the magic going on without coming off as coldly unwilling to help. I do think they could’ve dug into her discomfort with magic and resurrections by bringing up Purple Man at least for a moment. It would’ve been great to force her to confront the idea of resurrections with the possibility—however remote—of Killgrave also coming back and what that would mean for her. If snapping his neck herself wasn’t enough, could she ever find peace? Particularly since David Tennant is back in some form in Season 2, this would’ve been a great moment to tease that she’s still dealing with lingering doubts about her success in getting rid of her abuser.

I loved that there wasn’t much (if any) angst between Jessica and Luke once they met for the first time since Jones’ first season. They’d both moved on and that growth was fine by me. I didn’t like the implication of Jessica asking Luke out for coffee (even if I can’t quite remember if it had the connotation in her show that it did in Luke Cage), so I was glad he shot her down. I know they’re married in the comics, but just being friends works for the MCU in my opinion. If she’s going to have a relationship with a superhero, I really liked her interactions with Matt here. They had some really fun banter, so I’d be open to seeing where they might go. Perhaps Jessica and Matt could strike up a romantic/heroic partnership like he did with Black Widow in the comics. They worked well together when they visited the Raymond home and it was nice to see Jessica connect with Lexi Raymond (Chloe Levine) through what she’d learned about Matt’s dad, showing she understood him as well.

Regardless of who she ends up with (not that she needs to end up with anyone), I’m glad Jessica’s arc took her to a place where she could open up again. Starting to experience and engage with the wider world of powers was a cool metaphor for getting back into the business of living her life as well. It would’ve been good to see how Malcolm (Eka Darville) fits into her detective agency a bit more, though. That’s not where she was yet, but we could’ve gotten some tease about how they’d work together at the end. On the other hand, Trish’s (Rachael Taylor) radio talk show reporting on the earthquakes in New York felt like a classic superhero/journalist connection for Jessica and I hope they play that up in Season 2. If she could act as an early warning source of information for Jessica, it’d be great! I’m also very ready for Jessica to face an enemy who isn’t Killgrave; she was perfectly out of her element with the Hand and I’m eager to see her face completely new challenges in her second season!

Luke Cage Luke was a big surprise for me when I watched his series; I knew almost nothing about his character and came out of his first season a huge fan. Colter portrayed him as something of a soulful Captain America just trying to do right by his neighborhood and it was perfect (I’d love for him and Steve to meet and just hang out some day!). I was surprised Defenders got him out of prison right away and I liked that fresh start. I thought his past crimes would continue looming over him, so it was a pleasant surprise to see him out so soon and an even better one to see that he’d truly moved on from his past. Of all of the heroes, Luke seems to have put his demons behind him completely at the start of this miniseries; with his time served, his personal history is settled. 

I love Luke and Claire (Rosario Dawson) together and their post-prison sex session was a long time coming! I’m glad they wasted no time and I hope this relationship grows a lot in Luke’s second season. Also wasting no time was Misty Knight, who immediately got Luke back into the business of crime fighting (by the way, I like that Luke is effortlessly able to remain friends with not one but two of his exes). I love that he’s still so dedicated to his community and his personal bonds with the people within it are perfect, not only for his character but as a contrast to how the other heroes interact with the civilians around them. Matt may connect with people as Murdock, but Daredevil is meant to be scary and stealthy. Luke seems like he’d stop and talk about life with someone he’d just saved (assuming the villain was down), and continue checking in for weeks after the rescue. That’s not something we normally see from heroes and it’s something I’d love to see more of. His concern over both Cole (J. Mallory McCree) because of his job working for the Hand and Cole’s mom Dolores (Debbi Morgan) because of her family’s tragedies were excellent, even if he couldn’t save the day.

I would’ve loved to see Luke take down Sowande (Babs Olusanmokun), but his reappearance with the Hand leader in tow was still a great moment. I do think his hopefulness could’ve been tested by Sowande and the Hand’s apparent ability to completely demoralize their enemy; that’s a failing of the Hand’s characterization here and a missed opportunity to test for chinks in Luke’s armor. I enjoyed that Luke remained the most moral of the heroes, not wanting to blow up a building, and I wonder if that moment in particular was partially because he knew how easily the system can turn against you even if you’re doing the right thing. That said, I think he (if not Matt too) should’ve had a problem with leaving the Hand ninjas to die in the explosion; they agreed no one would get hurt and that seemed to go out the window once the bombs were activated. Regardless, his morality and sense of calm played well off of Matt’s obsessive crusade, Jessica’s apathy, and Danny’s unrefined enthusiasm. In fact, the scenes of Luke bonding with Danny, informing him of his white male privilege, and commiserating about how much gaining their superpowers hurt were the one area I saw a glimmer of hope for Rand. I don’t need them to team up here like in the comics by any means—Luke has a vibrant and fertile corner of the MCU without needing Danny to make it more interesting—but it’s good to know that if they do become best friends like in the comics, Luke can pull some likability out of Danny.

I think they definitely need to work on creating distinctive fighting styles for both Luke and Jessica. Both of them seemed to just barrel through ninjas and throw them around, but they could be doing more (though “barreling through” could work as Luke’s preferred style, since he doesn’t have to worry about gunshots or getting hit). On a story level, I’d really like to see Luke move faster into helping people in addition to getting involved with one person at a time. I wish they would’ve ended the season with him opening up his hero for hire business, possibly in the old barbershop. Misty started the season prodding him to become more of a helper and I would’ve liked to see how he decided to do that in a bookend scene at the end of the miniseries.

Danny Rand/Iron Fist I don’t want to keep harping on Rand—who looks for things to hate?—but even with his slight improvement here, he’s still the weak link of the Netflix MCU. While they smartly ignored the contradictory bits of his mythos (how can he defeat the Hand if he’s not allowed to leave K’un-Lun and why didn’t he know his greatest enemies still existed?), he still came off as brash and green (not in terms of his super-suit, though; he apparently still can’t have that). Danny trained to be one of the world’s greatest warriors for 15 years and there’s no excuse for him to still appear so fresh-faced. Even if they wanted to play a “training isn’t the same thing as war” arc with him, he’s been written as being so inept that it seems like he wasn’t trained at all. I’ve read that the idea behind Danny in this miniseries was to look up to the others as experienced heroes he could trust and seek out a partnership with them, but that didn’t really come through. Sure he’s enthusiastic about a team-up, but as soon as Danny doesn’t get his way, he’s off to do some stupid thing. I will say that while the other Defenders get to take verbal shots at him, Finn Jones played Danny in a way that didn’t feel like he couldn’t take their barbs; a definite improvement over his temper tantrums in his first season. And again, his bonding scenes with Luke were the most relaxed and natural Jones has felt in the role, so I’m glad they found the touchstone of that bond.

Defenders does undo a few of the questionable aspects of Iron Fist, though. Claire not calling Matt in for help against the Hand made a bit more sense now that we know he was retired, even if I’m convinced Matt would’ve suited up to help her anyway. The Hand not using the creepy-cool ninjas from Daredevil’s second season in Iron Fist’s first also makes sense if Elektra got the last of the resurrection substance (though where the undead ninjas went during Iron Fist remains a question. Even if Danny didn’t know much about the Hand, at least Defenders opened with him and Colleen running around hitting the Hand’s bases. This miniseries also finally made use of Danny’s white privilege after his own series ignored it; nothing against Jones, but casting a white actor added nothing to his character there, despite the internet’s insistence that he stay a white guy like in the comics. I liked that while Jessica had to do actual detective work to find Midland Circle, Danny was able to stroll into his company and ask someone else to look it up for him. This could’ve been played up more—and like I said earlier, Matt’s privilege was a much bigger example that seems to have flown under the radar—but I’m glad they finally touched on it and hope for more in Danny’s next season.

As many problems as they solved (at least partially), however, there were still some questions. How does Danny still know so little about his arch-enemies that they need Stick to provide all the exposition on the Hand? I wish Stick and the Chaste had appeared in Iron Fist to connect the dots a little better, but Danny being so clueless makes no sense. His fight choreography was still at the level of his first season, which made him immediately pale in comparison to Matt’s even though he’s supposed to be the much more experienced fighter. Danny bouncing off Luke looked silly more than anything; I was as annoyed with him as Luke looked. I wish the miniseries had ended with Danny getting his costume instead of the track suit-looking outfit he was wearing; it even looks like Matt’s from Daredevil Season 1, only in green and yellow, which would’ve been a perfect way for him to honor Matt’s request that they continue protecting the city. Now that the Hand is gone, I’m somewhat interested in seeing if defending Hell’s Kitchen is enough of a purpose to fulfill Danny, but he’s seemed so lost as it is that I’m not convinced it’ll feel very different.

Claire Temple I’ve really enjoyed Rosario Dawson’s Claire evolving over the course of five previous seasons! Her meetings with each hero felt completely organic and her appearances in each show are always a highlight. Since she’d gotten involved with each of the heroes so naturally, it didn’t feel contrived that Luke would get in a fight with someone else she knew; it just felt like another thread coming together like it was supposed to. I really liked that Colleen pointed out Claire is the foundation of this team of heroes and her reaction to that affirmation was great. While Luke is a steady source of hope, Claire is a great breath of fresh air and a perfect, practical wake-up call to these heroes.

That said, while Claire got the most screentime out of the supporting cast members (perhaps besides Colleen), I’m surprised she didn’t have more to do. As natural as facilitating the introductions was, it felt like she stepped away after that. When she’d appear in the individual series (minus Jessica Jones), she became an integral part as soon as she was involved in the action and I was hoping for more of that here. True she was involved in the final assault on Midland Circle, but nothing she did there had to be done by her specifically. I’m definitely interested to see what role she plays in the future of the Netflix MCU. Will she just remain their “Night Nurse,” patching them up and giving them advice? Or does she have a greater destiny? I don’t need or really want her to become a superhero herself (though she did take to combat pretty naturally in Iron Fist), but I would’ve liked an indication of where she’s going now. It’d be cool if they came up with a completely new role for her that wasn’t a now-common trope like the central information hub or something.

Allies Along with Claire, Colleen Wing was my favorite aspect of Iron Fist. Willingly being part of the Hand and then finding out just how evil they were was a fantastic arc and her reveal as a member was the biggest shock in the series for me. It was great to see her back for this and I’m glad she was right in the thick of the action almost the whole way through. However, I wish her history with the Hand had been more relevant to the events of Defenders. True, she finally got even with Bakuto (Ramon Rodriguez) and I was glad to see that, but what about all the Hand operatives she trained? Her righteous fury at being used and lied to was great, but a moment to consider the criminals she’d primed for service would’ve been better. How many secret ninjas are out there doing harm because she trained them? Even better, instead of facing Bakuto again and reaching the same resolution they did in their battle in Iron Fist, what if Colleen had been faced with her former pupils?

I really dug Misty Knight in Luke Cage and I was happy to see her here. Reaching out to Luke to get him to contribute more was a nice beat, but I would’ve liked less skepticism about the vigilantes from her. She walked a tightrope over the need for vigilantes vs. the rule of law before, and it seemed like the end of Luke’s first season felt like she was opening up to the idea of vigilantism, even wearing her comic book outfit. If I’m remembering that correctly, she’s the only character who felt like she took a major step back at the start of Defenders. Others have pointed out the significant mention that she’s in a Rand-owned hospital after getting her arm cut off, so it’ll probably be a Rand-developed cyborg arm that she gets. I’m interested to see how that goes with this version of Misty. I’d also like to know if she’ll face any consequences in the fallout from Midland Circle. While the Defenders seem to have gotten off without any trouble, she’s a cop and helped them. Will there be repercussions that lead her to life as a vigilante?

I like Scott Glenn’s Stick and have truly enjoyed his antagonistic mentor/fatherly relationship with Matt, but by Defenders I was ready to see him go. It just felt right for him to pass the torch on to the next generation in this war or, more fittingly, for the war’s last soldier to go out helping to end it. Cutting his own arm off to escape Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) and Elektra was badass (even if his severed arm was less than convincing) and I was impressed by how capable he still was even after losing the hand and who knows how much blood! His no-nonsense attitude played well against the Defenders, even if it drove them away at times (true to their characters). I chuckled at him low-key wanting to kill Danny when the others were trying to convince Rand to lay low and I was pleased the writers actually let him try to do it. My distaste for Iron Fist aside, it wouldn’t have felt right if the Defenders were able to talk him down from trying to solve the problem the only way he knows how; just like the first Black Sky we met, Stick felt he had to kill Danny. It was also cool that Stick figured out a new weakness of Luke’s with his knockout gas; going forward, I hope the Luke Cage writers continue to explore other ways of attacking him besides bullets. It was tragic Matt didn’t make it back in time to say anything to Stick when he died; I would’ve liked one last bit of resolution to their disagreements, but sometimes you don’t get that in life.

It was good (and a little surprising) to see so many of the supporting characters show up here. That said, I wish there was more for them to do, even if it was just cool that they got time to interact with each other (something I wasn’t expecting at all). Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen fared the best, with their concern over Matt becoming Daredevil again giving them some good material to dig into. It would’ve been nice to see more about how Karen felt about Matt being Daredevil since she only found out in the last moments of the Season 2 finale, but their talks here felt right. I liked that she was annoyed that his Daredevil life interrupted hers by making her a target again. Thinking about it now, I hope Matt’s presumed death isn’t what pushes Karen back into whatever darkness has been hinted at in her past, which could tie into her arc in Born Again. Foggy giving Matt his suit felt like a big step for him and I’m definitely interested to see how he handles Matt’s “death.” Trish and Malcolm’s attempts to get Jessica back into the world were good, but they didn’t really work (her camaraderie with the Defenders did), so I would’ve enjoyed them having some effect on the outcome of the series or our main characters. Maybe Trish knowing what went down at Midland Circle could’ve twisted the police’s arm into covering it up and letting the Defenders go, under threat of her show revealing there was a massive infrastructure takeover by the Hand (that she’d have proof of in this scenario) and the PD were completely powerless—and maybe even infiltrated by—to stop. That would’ve connected nicely to her bosses cutting off the call to her show about the earthquakes not being normal early on in the miniseries.

Alexandra Reid I thought Alexandra was a great leader of the Hand and I wish she hadn’t died. Even if she had to go, I think we should’ve known her (and the Hand’s) further plans beyond eternal life and returning to K’un-Lun. I’m bored of businesspeople as villains, but the Hand’s corporate front felt thin enough that she didn’t really resemble one to me too much. Alexandra seemed more like an independently wealthy individual who expected her power to allow her to continue with her routine, no matter how many people she had to crush along the way. She was likable and an imposing villain with unexpected depth from her motherly relationship with Elektra, but ultimately I thought she’d be a bigger threat or have a larger plan than her own survival. While personal and relatable, I originally didn’t feel that type of plan needed four heroes to stop, but as I’ll discuss later, it may be the perfect evil scheme for the Defenders. I didn’t think she’d physically fight the heroes, but I would’ve liked to see a bigger confrontation between them. I liked that she was somewhat amused by the Defenders standing up to her and I would’ve enjoyed seeing her fully unleashed against them (why was Gao the only one with a special power?), even if just once. Her wardrobe was definitely distinctive and felt appropriately of another era, as was Weaver’s air of superiority that effused from her in nearly every scene. I also really liked that none of the Hand leaders were tired of immortality; that’s a tired trope and, even if all they wanted was to maintain the status quo, it was cool to see immortals who didn’t want to stop living. 

Elektra Natchios I loved Elektra’s arc in this series, from confused “blank slate” Black Sky to Hand assassin to master of her own destiny. Though her resurrection and training scenes were solid, I wish we’d learned more about what the Black Sky was exactly and why she was different from the other undead Hand ninjas. I’m assuming it means that she was supposed to be resurrected as a complete blank slate rather than one who can regain her memory completely (in addition to being able to take down the Iron Fist), but we should’ve gotten some clarification on that point. Still, Yung did a great job of slowly investigating and recapturing flashes of her former life! I also loved her mother/daughter relationship with Alexandra; it was just “off” enough to work really well. I didn’t see her killing Alexandra coming at all! I read that Marco Ramirez said the intention of that moment was for Elektra to take hold of her life and determine who she was for herself. I’d say that worked—and I realized later that she also killed her other mentor, Stick, which is a nice signifier that she won’t be returning to either of her lives—I just wish we’d seen what she wanted with leadership of the Hand. Apparently she wanted to stay immortal too, but did she have any other plans? Was she going to lead the Hand in a new direction? If so, what was it and were the other leaders only helping her to get their hands on the substance? If she was just going to keep things the same, then killing Alexandra loses a bit of impact (at least plotwise, because the emotional statement of the action is definitely there), I think.

If Elektra was the one to drag Matt out of the pit, then I’m definitely excited to see them meet again sometime in the future. Despite saying the fight with Matt and leadership of the Hand was what she wanted, if she saved him then he wasn’t completely wrong about her. I’d definitely be interested in seeing who she chooses to become now and how she gets there. Perhaps there’s still hope for her after all…

The Hand I liked Alexandra, Elektra, Gao (Wai Ching Ho), and Sowande quite a bit. The supernatural element the Hand brought to the MCU worked well for me, even in the grounded Defenders corner, and I liked them as a step up from gangsters. However, I do feel they’ve run their course and don’t need to see them in this form again; the next level of bad guys should be supervillains. It would’ve been nice if each of the Hand’s Fingers had their own individual goals and plans for their renewed immortality, but I understand why such limited screentime would keep them (mostly) united in their purpose. Though Gao rapidly became one of my favorite MCU villains, if she survived the destruction of the tower I’m not sure where she goes after this. Perhaps a Gao who’s lost everything would be an interesting adversary. I totally missed that her drugs in Daredevil’s first season were made from powdered dragon bones; it was cool she was able to diversify herself and that was a clever way to tie things together. I don’t need to see her again immediately, but I wouldn’t be opposed to her popping up sometime later. Sowande employing neighborhood kids to clean up Hand business was a cool operation and a neat way to tie in Luke Cage. I hadn’t considered that they’d need a clean-up crew and thought that was a smart way to flesh out their support structure. However, I was sorry to see Sowande die so easily: he had excellent presence and it felt like he deserved more. I don’t find Bakuto imposing, so he didn’t leave much impact on me here; his battle with Colleen felt like a retread of Iron Fist. The Hand seemed like enough of a threat before he was revealed to be alive and it didn’t seem like they got more dangerous with him around. Murakami (Yutaka Takeuchi) was similarly underwhelming and didn’t seem like a fitting step up from Nobu. He was billed as some great warrior—Nobu’s boss, even—but it felt like he was consistently taken down first whenever he fought. Any character can be redeemed, but it doesn’t seem like there was enough to his character to justify a return (and that’s if the debris didn’t decapitate him).

I wish every Finger of the Hand had a supernatural specialty; that would’ve provided the heroes with a wider range of threats than a constant onslaught of ninjas. Gao’s telekinesis was cool, but why didn’t the others develop some sort of power? Perhaps Sowande’s could’ve been the ability to increase paranoia and fear in those around him, just like the people who’d captured him in his story were afraid of the Hand barricade around their base. He could’ve been the MCU version of Mr. Fear, perhaps. If that had been the case, while it would’ve been a little too similar to Avengers and Loki’s scepter, at least a Danny whose fears and paranoia had been spiked wouldn’t have looked like an idiot for trying to fight the others when they just wanted him to lay low. An enemy with a power like that would’ve also been a great, distinct challenge from the physical threats the team faced as well as a way to look at the heroes’ deepest fears. Regardless of having power or not, Sowande’s story was truly imposing, so I wish we’d seen it come to fruition in some manner. Alexandra pointed out that they didn’t even try to rescue him and while I thought that was a funny acceptance of how that plot petered out, I was left to wonder why they didn’t try.

I’m not the first to say it, but I wish the Hand had attacked the police station everyone’s loved ones were staying in, forcing the Defenders to rush to save them. I really wish Sowande’s threat against the heroes’ friends had come to fruition even while they were in police custody; the Hand’s attempt to rescue him could have easily been kidnapping everyone the heroes cared about and offering a trade (as well as a way for his story to come true for our heroes). Misty, Colleen, Claire, Trish, and Karen protecting Foggy and Malcolm while holding off the Hand as best they could until help arrived could’ve been a great, tense sequence! In terms of character, it could’ve acted as a callback to Karen killing Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore) and potentially needing to take Hand lives to protect the people she cared about could’ve given us an idea of where her opinion on Punisher’s methods had landed. Trish dipping back into Nuke’s (Wil Traval) super-drugs—maybe she’d kept a few because she didn’t feel safe—would’ve been another cool callback and potentially a hint towards her heroic Hellcat persona. An attack also would’ve been a smarter use of Colleen’s past with the Hand—since she’d know their methods and plans of attack (and even individual ninjas!)—than Bakuto trying to recruit her again was. It would’ve paid off Claire’s self-defense training as well. A decimated police force would’ve taken the cops out of the Midland Circle bombing scene too, answering a few questions about why they were so willing to cover it up. They could’ve also played with the Hand agents who’d infiltrated New York’s infrastructure here, with some of the cops turning on the heroes’ friends and threatening them from inside the station as well. Aside from upping the stakes dramatically, that would’ve helped push Misty towards vigilantism even more.

I wish Alexandra would’ve utilized the secret Hand agents positioned throughout New York to manipulate the city against the Defenders. Unless they were the masked cannon fodder ninjas (and if they were, what happened to the undead ones Matt couldn’t sense?), where were they? Part of this wish is me thinking a more immediate doomsday plot than the city falling due to excavating the dragon bones would’ve upped the stakes in the final battle. Elaboration on what the Hand wanted after securing their immortality and returning to K’un-Lun once more (and what Elektra was going to do differently as leader) would’ve helped in that area too. However, writing this review led me to realize that the real doomsday threat was nothing changing. I think, in addition to wanting to go back to K’un-Lun, the Hand were looking to maintain the status quo, because it gives them their power. If that’s the case, I think it’s kind of impressive that they are so unconcerned with time that they’ll spend all this effort to infiltrate New York’s infrastructure just to secure their plan to destroy it in the excavation of the dragon bones; the city itself doesn’t matter at all, it’s their lives. And once New York is gone, they’ll just move on to the next city and infiltrate it to feed their power.

And really, what better enemy for heroes who represent the downtrodden is there than the system itself? The hidden Hand agents would’ve been the perfect way to dramatize the status quo being held in stasis by Alexandra and Co., so I think not utilizing them was the biggest misstep of the show. True, Winter Soldier and Agents of SHIELD already played this card with Hydra, but Iron Fist introduced a similar situation and it should’ve been utilized instead of ignored. Given the Defenders are civilians, the impact of the upper class keeping the lower classes down would’ve been much more relevant than the similar reveal in the lives of super-spies. For one thing, they could’ve personally threatened the heroes’ lives: Luke could’ve faced getting sent back to jail, the suspicion around Jessica over John Raymond’s murder could’ve become a full-blown frame, Matt could’ve been threatened with being disbarred, and Danny could’ve faced losing his seat on the Rand board of directors (which would’ve erased a fair chunk of his privilege). All of these factors could’ve pushed the heroes to their limits as they struggled with how far they’d go to preserve the lives they’d built, and what they’d do if those lives fell apart. This miniseries should’ve been an all-out war between the Defenders and the Hand’s operatives so that they could ultimately clear the deck—and the city—of Hand agents. At first, I didn’t think Defenders felt as relevant as the individual series have—Daredevil dealt with gentrification, Jessica Jones with sexism and abuse, and Luke Cage with racial inequality and injustice—and making the Hand’s larger goal of maintaining the status quo clearer would’ve been a solid way to make the show feel more timely. Those in power trying to retain their control over the system and the Defenders—just so they could extend their own lives at the cost of millions of innocent civilians, no less—would’ve perfectly contrasted with Elektra’s attempt to define herself and the heroes’ attempt to cast off that power and forge new lives for themselves.

General Notes Ultimately, I liked Defenders and I can’t wait for more, but it felt too short. It mostly worked as one 8-hour story, but I wish they’d had another five episodes to flesh things out more. The miniseries did a great job of introducing each main character and providing enough information that viewers could’ve missed any of the previous series and not felt lost, while at the same time not feeling repetitive for those of us who’ve seen everything. The establishing bits we got of the heroes felt fresh because they were at least half-steps into their new lives rather than retreads of their entire history. I liked that Marvel TV head Jeph Loeb had each of the individual series’ creators go over the Defenders scripts to make sure their characters were consistent with what they were doing outside the miniseries. It’s nice to know the heroes’ main series are the driving force behind this corner of the MCU, not the crossovers or universe-wide plots.

I liked S.J. Clarkson’s direction in the first two episodes; everyone was filmed through gates and other obscuring scenery, giving the impression that they were physically walled off from each other. The color palettes for each character also helped sell the idea that they all came from different corners of the world (and Twitter commenters pointed out that their colors converge in the sign for the Chinese restaurant where they have their first real conversation!). I wish Avengers had leaned more into the disparate tones and textures of each hero’s background like Defenders did, rather than going for a glossy one-size-fits-all feel. The more contrast in each character’s background, the better the clash will be when they finally meet. At the same time, Clarkson included transitions like one character flipping up a hoodie while the next flips theirs down; that was a neat way to transition between storylines that subconsciously builds to the team-up. Likewise, John Paseno’s score blended each hero’s music quite well. The one musical moment I wasn’t a big fan of was the Wu Tang Clan used over the climactic fight; used anywhere else in the series, it would’ve been fine, but it didn’t give the epic impression that fight should’ve had. I wish they’d gone with an orchestral Defenders theme for that moment. I also loved the opening titles: they brought back the cityscape idea from Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage that made Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem feel like characters unto themselves. Depicting New York in each hero’s color was another great way to display their differences while emphasizing that they all had a common stake in this city.

Moments like Foggy getting Luke out of prison and Luke and Danny running into each other on a case were really natural, simple connections between shows. When Foggy was told to keep Jones out of Hogarth’s (Carrie-Anne Moss) firm’s business, the handoff to Matt—who then became Jessica’s lawyer—was smooth and part of a nice, continual build of connections before the team finally converged on Midland Circle. The Defenders’ casual conversation in the Chinese restaurant worked really well to bond them into a single unit, even if Danny remained the odd one out. It’s probably more a function of the plot than his character, since Jones’ ribs at Daredevil’s costume aren’t much different from everyone discounting Rand’s experience with the supernatural, but it felt like Matt, Luke, and Jessica formed a stronger bond with each other than they did with Danny. He’s also removed from the team, so the rest of them have more time to bond without him. I wish the Hand had utilized more of the supernatural—that’s the one area Defenders seemed to back off from when blending tones early on—and it probably would’ve helped Danny come into the team’s good graces faster if they could see examples of the supernatural happening around them. It also could’ve made him the team’s supernatural expert, giving him a specific role to play besides “brash new guy.” Otherwise, the series blended the tones of its forebears very well.

As much as the miniseries seemed to back off of the supernatural outside of resurrections and the Iron Fist, I loved that there was an actual, literal dragon skeleton under the city! I assume the dragons were buried, domed over, and had cities built on top of them to obscure their locations, but it would’ve been nice to get confirmation of that. An extensive excavation of the dragon skeleton as the cause of New York’s “fall” wasn’t at all what I was expecting, but I didn’t mind it. Perhaps there should’ve been a more epic cause of the city’s destruction than a sink hole, like the monks of K’un-Lun had blessed the cities to stand eternally over the dragons and if the dome were breached the city would be cursed by its imminent destruction or something. Still, in hindsight I think the normal, logical result of removing the dragon’s skeleton is a little underwhelming, but not disappointing.

The Netflix series have an issue with connecting to the larger MCU, but there’s one area that I think really should’ve been touched on here. As I saw pointed out in an IGN comment section, Luke, Jessica, and Danny should’ve had to sign the Sokovia Accords as part of the Midland Circle cover-up. I liked that breaking the law was a legitimate concern for these street level, civilian heroes, and slapping them with the Accords would’ve been a good way to re-emphasize that status. It would’ve been particularly clever if even after the Hand’s hidden agents were routed from their positions throughout the city, the heroes still had to sign the Accords because of a different status quo. Once Matt returns, his unregistered status could add increasing pressure to Daredevil as he goes forward, while the others could be forced to operate within the constraints of the Accords.

All in all, Marvel’s Defenders is definitely worth watching, even if it falls short of the epic final confrontation with the Hand it could’ve been. Even so, there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s solidly good. The heroes’ bond—particularly between Matt, Luke, and Jessica (with hints of good material between Luke and Danny to be mined in the future)—was the show’s biggest strength and always a lot of fun. Defenders doesn’t function like a standalone crossover and that’s a great thing: the heroes come out of this changed and I can’t wait to see where they go as their shows continue! Until then, if you’re not following the show’s Twitter accounts I highly suggest it; they’re written in-character and they interact with each other, busting each other’s chops just like on the show!

 I’m definitely ready for another Defenders miniseries!

#marvel #defenders #daredevil #matt murdock #charlie cox #jessica jones #kristen ritter #luke cage #mike colter #the hand #alexandra reid #elektra natchios #elodie yung #stick #scott glenn #claire temple #rosario dawson #madame gao #wai ching ho

[crimsonrevolt]

Congratulations Rado you’ve been accepted to Crimson Revolt as Remus Lupin!

↳ please refer to our character checklist

It was so difficult to choose between our two applications for Remus, given that they were both so well-written and fleshed out. However, what struck us was how much thought you gave Remus, how much you’d analyzed his character and how he might have reacted to things and all his various nuances. Fleshing out his childhood, his youth, his time at Hogwarts, and diving past that into him now. It was fascinating to read your perspective on a character so loved, and we’re sure you’ll do an amazing job bringing him to life for us here! (And we’re really excited to see you on the dash again!) *your faceclaim change has been accepted

application beneath the cut

OOC INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

Ro/Rado, 18, he/him, GMT +3. I’m your resident potato lover and character hoarder.

ACTIVITY

5-10! Activity really depends on my school things and life overall but I should be around on a daily basis.

TRIGGERS

*removed for privacy

HOW DID YOU FIND US?

I was here for like six months so I GUESS THERE’S THAT LOL. I love you all.

WHAT HARRY POTTER CHARACTER DO YOU IDENTIFY WITH MOST?

Ron Weasley. Please, do not get me started on why I relate to Ron so much, he is an actual cinnamon who I fell in love with as soon as he were introduced in the first book. I identify with the way he behaves, the way he speaks and the things he experiences, EVERYTHING and I want to wrap him in blankets and love him eternally, yes pls.

ANYTHING ELSE?

I LOVE YOU, ALRIGHT, BYE. Enjoy reading!

IN CHARACTER

DESIRED CHARACTER

Remus John Lupin

Remus, originating from Latin, means Unknown. People always questioned that meaning, should it occur to them, because how could a boy like Remus be so unknown – what was unknown about him? Each and every student in Hogwarts used to know him the way he was, he wasn’t foreign – the smart Gryffindor Prefect, the boy with the book stuck in his nose and a patient temper which didn’t really peak to aggression often. He was considered predictable, a charted territory. But was he really? So many people claimed how much they knew Remus John Lupin when in reality they didn’t. Hell, even he himself didn’t know himself fully. It wasn’t only because of his lycanthropy, though that was a big part of it – how could one know himself when there was a second creature living in him, uncontrollable and separate from his true self? Perhaps if Remus remained unknown it would be safer for everyone.

FACE CLAIM

Seo Kang Joon ! Alt FCs: Nico Tortorella, Matt Hitt, Rami Malek

REASON FOR CHOSEN CHARACTER

Oh my GOD, where do I start? Alright, I chose Remus Lupin because of the many nuances there are to him.  I guess that is the main reason for which I’m fascinated by him because with his lycanthropy condition, his character traits become very much balanced when it comes to flaws and virtues and I think that this is super interesting! Remus Lupin is my definition of a person who has been through TOO much shit from start to end and still remained good, righteous, level-headed. His childhood lasted for about four years before he was slapped to the face with an unbearable curse and for someone to live such a long life only to lose it just at the door of happiness and in a cause so selfless fascinates me to no end.

One of the main reasons I chose Remus for was because of the Marauders. I have always believed that if it weren’t for them, he would not be the same Remus that we see in canon or in my interpretation. As a small child, Remus was very cheerful and very much open to the world around him. His parents gave him enough love and support even if he couldn’t even realize what the world truly was like. In my opinion, Remus was a child who grew so much faster and so much harder than the rest of the children, not only because of the bite, but also because of the psychological trauma settled in his brain if not for eternity. All the monthly pain, torture, depression, weakness; the constant migrations from town to town because it was too hard to keep up with rumors in his native town; all the fear that had settled in his mind, that nobody loved him – it took a toll. So, from this happy child he became a closed person who feared life instead of enjoying it.

Many people helped him – his family, healers, wizards and witches who were willing to help free of cost, alas nothing could ease the pain settled in his heart. When he went to Hogwarts, he believed that despite Dumbeldore’s help he would never be able to have a life. Remus saw the laughing in the common room; the chatter and the happy dancing in the Great Hall; the normal lives everyone led – yet he was a monster stuck in a human body ready to burst out. So, when James, Sirius and later, Peter came around he started forgetting about the entire infection step by step. It took the boy years to overcome this fear of life and in my mind, the Marauders helped him enjoy life rather than fight against it. From the fact that they were so supportive that they became animagi to the incredible plans of keeping his secret a secret – Remus opened his shell and through the course of his Hogwarts experience was able to make the Marauders and his own skills define who he was, not his condition.

I think that with Remus, there is an incredibly complicated arch that we can see in terms of development – he began as a normal half-blood who then got crushed underneath the fists of a predator. Then he continued going down, down, and down, struggling to breathe under all of his childish yet adult emotions and pain until he saw the light in the tunnel and he was able to reach that light and grasp for dear life. In canon, we see that the future takes that light away and smashes it again with ups and downs that lead to his demise. In no way do I think that his life arch is happy; but I do think that it would’ve been worse if it weren’t for the Marauders.

I believe that Remus also has a specific arch when it comes to his development as a person when it comes to my interpretation – he starts off as a happy baby, then progresses downwards to somewhat of an intense depression, and up until the first wizarding war we can see his character opening and becoming more outwards instead of inwards ( maybe not too much, but it still is something ). He started to socialize, he started to see the world not as something he had to protect himself from but something he should celebrate. Then gradually, he loses his friends and he becomes more mature with victims of the war and the atrocities he had to witness – thus leading us to canon Remus who is one of my most favorite figures in the HP verse not because of his despair but because of his painful maturity, one that came with so much losses.

My interpretation of the eighteen years old Remus shows us the character in a light that I think the fandom neglects and overlooks. My Remus is a young adult who believes in the light at the end of the tunnel – because he had grasped it once and he can do it again. The war is cruel and there are victims and he hates it but he is also very active in the movement of the Order of the Phoenix. He is reasonable, levelheaded and not as impulsive as Sirius or James but definitely not reserved, shy and awkward. My Lupin likes to have fun and tries not to make his lycanthropy define him. Despite that, when frustrated he is also aggressive, a trait which I believe comes from the werewolf curse running in his veins but that’s something very rare for him to show. It usually comes in waves of frustration or sadness and an extremely low amount of people are truly able to help him through it. Regardless, he is kind and selfless, an epitome of what a good person should be in such trying times..

That’s why I chose Remus – I want to peak in all these nuances and reasons of why he is who he is.

PREFERRED SHIPS // CHARACTER SEXUALITY // GENDER & PRONOUNS

Remus identifies as a bisexual and uses he/him pronouns. He lost his virginity in the late years of his stay at Hogwarts. Lupin is a hopeless romantic and very much believes in the one true love, if not too much. He doesn’t really do flings and has not ( yet ) experimented with the same gender but knows for a fact he’s attracted to females and males. When it comes to romance he usually takes an initiative after he knows the person well enough and is sure that something might spark from it, going into it with one in mind. Chemistry works for him and anyone who wants a serious relationship with him!

CREATE ONE (OR MORE!) OF THE FOLLOWING FOR YOUR CHARACTER:

- AESTHETIC - ( x )

- MOCKBLOG - ( x )

- PINTEREST BOARD -  ( x )

- EXPAND ON THE TRAITS

+ Reasonable – based on or using good judgment and therefore fair and practical; Remus has always been the conscience of the Marauders. Usually tackling on the plans and participating in the pranks which didn’t had the potential to kill him, or worse, face him with McGonagall, Lupin always tried to find the reason behind everything and made his decisions based on his good judgement. Unlike the impulsive pranksters among his friends, he often thought for more than just the impact of his actions; he also considered the repercussions. + Strong – Remus was strong, not only physically but also mentally. For fourteen years he has been enduring the transformation from a human to a wolf and those primal instincts kept him fit and in shape. Mentally, Lupin has always shown calmness in frightening or stressful situations, thus showing a certain amount of levelheadedness and calmness. - Aggressive – When confused to no end or extremely sad, Remus tends to outburst. He blames the wolf inside him for that but he would never know if it was going to be the same if it weren’t for the beast. Very few people are able to get him out of his temporary rage, the Marauders being just a few to name, but during these outbursts he didn’t lose his mind entirely. It’s just how his body deals with these particular kinds of emotions – it prefers to scream them out loud instead of keeping them in.

-A FEW HEADCANONS

1. Remus has a small library of leather-bound books in the flat where he lives. The space is small thus only his favorite books stay on the shelves of the wooden holder. Some of his favorite reads are muggle fairy tales and children’s stories. Sometimes, he reads those before going to bed with the intention of perhaps dreaming about them and forgetting about his inner demons.

2. Lupin has a shelf filled with polaroid pictures of him and the Marauders. Some of them feature some of their other friends too but all kinds of adventures were captured on the tiny pieces of photographic material. From their cliff climbs to their campfires and road trips; from his twelfth birthday to his eighteenth; from this one time when they tried to feed Severus Snape a hair loss potion to the time when they popped the loudest fireworks around the castle at two in the morning right before the exam day in fifth grade. His big journal from Hogwarts is also sitting there but hidden behind the rest of the books.

3. When Remus was younger and still in Hogwarts, his boggart was the full moon. When he had faced one in his third year, the creature transformed into a still puddle of water that contained the reflection of the celestial body, his eyes instantly hurting from its sight by instinct. If Lupin was to encounter the creature now, however, he would see the Marauders being taken away from him by different means – perhaps it would be Sirius going back to his family and being turned to one of the Pureblooded supremasist or James being killed or Peter resenting him for who he was – a monster. Ironically, after the First War ends his Boggart becomes true in one way or another. Either way, the Marauders are broken apart and only left a memory, so his biggest fear becomes the puddle of still water containing the reflection of the siren moon.

4.  Remus’ favorites include Pixie Puffs cereal, chocolate, peach juice, history books, the colors brown and dark red, Lupinus flowers ( ironically ). His best classes were Transfiguration and Charms while Potions were his worst nightmare.

5.  Remus’ relationship with the Marauders is the one thing he is most afraid of losing. With each and every one of them he holds a special connection, as a group and as different individuals. James always brightens his day with warmhearted jokes and firey heart, Sirius always motivates him to be who he is despite his lycanthropy. However, Peter Pettigrew was the Marauder Remus felt the closest to. Silent and a bit aloof, Wormtail has always been the quiet listener who would listen to his confused mind and offer back advice. As a whole, the Marauders are so much more than just an ordinary group of friends. They are what keeps him sane ever since their first days together until now – through the pranks, the experiences and their relentless bravery of helping a monster out and fleshing into a human worth living.

6. When his father had taken him to the pets shop at Diagon Alley, Remus really wanted a cat. He had always wanted a ginger one that he could love and take care for. Upon entering the little wooden shop, however, all the cats and kittens started hissing at him in fear or aggression so Remus ended up with a Tawny Owl instead.

7. When Remus was packing for his first year at Hogwarts he tried to keep most of the items reminding him of his old life – one filled with pain, nightmares of wolves and Fenrir Greyback and insomnia – behind. He only kept a leather bracelet which still stands on his right hand gifted to him by his father.

-A FEW POTENTIAL PLOT POINTS

1. I would love to explore the relationship between the Marauders in the heated moments of the boiling war. I think in such trying times people let out their true nature out more often than not and with Remus, who has his instincts peaking during stress, it’d be fun to see how the Marauders help him when he’s confused, sad, troubled or anything in between. I’ve always loved the bond between the four boys and their chemistry is definitely something worth exploring.

2. I want to have Remus open up when it comes to his romantic side. He is not exactly reserved when it comes to that but he doesn’t open up as easily. Even if the Marauders make him feel a little bit less self-conscious because of his lycanthropy, he still is a hopeless romantic who limits himself because he doesn’t want to be disappointed. Very few are the constants in his life and he doesn’t want to hurt others just because of the monster residing in him and the things that come with it.

3. We know that in canon, Remus’ life is quite unfortunate after the First Wizarding War. Two of his best friends are dead ( or so he believes ) and the other has suspicions and bears hatred against him. He is left with no one, including his father who he chooses not to bother with his gloomy attitude. I want to discover and perhaps weave on my own the reasons and the build ups that lead to this future life. I know that this RP is semi-AU but I am still eager to explore these little details and chain reactions.

IN CHARACTER QUESTIONNAIRE

♔ If you were able to invent one spell, potion, or charm, what would it do, what would you use it for or how would you use it? Feel free to name it:

The answer came to him in an instinct, his mouth opening to say it before he bit his tongue. “Uhm, anything that would prevent Sirius’ biggest fear becoming true – hair loss. I swear, this is literally all he whines about and I’m sick of it already so please, let’s just invent something for that. We could add something extra in it too, like a good scent of motorcycles of leather jacket, I dunno.” He laughed, thinking of the impossible to create cure for lycanthropia. Oh, what would he give to revert this beast inside him. But then he wondered, would his bond with these three boys be as strong as it is now if it weren’t for his condition? Nobody knew, not even Remus himself.

♔ You have to venture deep into the Forbidden Forest one night. Pick one other character and one object (muggle or magical), besides your wand, that you’d want with you:

“For that one, I’ll probably get someone who wouldn’t want to chase after unicorns and gigantic Acromantulas all the time. Peter’s my best option because there is no way in hell that James and Sirius wouldn’t want to have a ride on their back or whatever. You can’t imagine the lengths they’d go to for some adrenaline. I’m telling you, it’s crazy.” He laughed, pursing his lips while thinking of something to take with him besides his wand. “The eleven years old me would take a book or a dozen of Honeydukes cakes. The eighteen years old me would take something to drink because why not?”

♔ What kinds of decisions are the most difficult for you to make?

Remus furrowed his eyebrows, answering in hesitance. “I-” he paused, thinking about it for some good seconds. “I suppose decisions on life and death. You know, if I am in a situation where I have to kill someone or something I would think twice. Thrice, maybe even four times. It might cost me my life but that’s a life there. It’s hard for me to kill.” Remus took a deep breath, not even fathoming what or how many corpses he would’ve left behind if it wasn’t for the Marauders. “It’s stupidly malicious to take a life just because you have a sick fascination of murdering. It’s…” Lupin looked away, clenching his jaw and exhaling softly, “Can we not talk about it, please?”

♔ What is one thing you would never want said about you?

“I guess that I’m careless. Which I don’t see happening anytime soon because, you know, I care too much about too many things.” He smiled faintly, warm eyes weaving a story too untrue. In reality, Remus was most afraid of being called a beast. A monster like Fenrir Greyback, a destroyer of lives. A killer. But oh, how could he voice that? How could he tell people that he was not this animal who lived to kill and hunt when each month he was reminded of this?

WRITING SAMPLE

SAMPLE NUMBER ONE ;; excerpts from Remus’ journal.

1971, October

A month after Dumbledore’s advice to begin a diary or a journal or whatever I finally got to do it. You know, being in a new school is kind of scary. It’s like the monsters under my bed which are obviously not there but now dad’s not here to… you know, look over me. Anyways, do I introduce myself here? I’m Remus… Remus Lupin and I’m sorted into the cool red house. People here are very… cheerful and I am… well, I’m me. It’s also kind of intimidating here but I think I’ll manage somehow with the help of the… professors around to you know, keep me in track if I start doing something stupid. It’d be a pity to get expelled so fast because of issues with behavior or something like that. What else do I say? Oh, the library is… neat and there are a couple of classmates who seem to be really nice. I doubt they wanna hang around with me too much though. Frankly, I’m scared to initiate anything by myself, really. *the page continues and finishes with random doodles and lines that begin with a thick jet black color to an inkless trail embedded into the page*

1974, February

I have to study but… I’ve got something on my mind which I can’t get out since my last… trip. Usually, the three days after I get back from… home, are the hardest. You know, it’s just that thing inside that makes you… homesick ( not really ) and… anyways, you know the thing I’m talking about, I’m just avoiding eavesdropping here. What I wanted to tell you was that… you see, ever since my childhood, I’ve never seen hope in the form of something. I read a book once, it was fiction but still, it was revolving around the concept of hope and how one could become happier if their heart were filled with it. Yet, never have I ever experienced the feeling of having my heart peaking with hope. Three days ago though, I saw it. I felt it. Those three boys, I swear, are the entire reason why I’m writing these pages here sanely. These pages would’ve been stained with inner thoughts that would never get out, experiences that would never play out if it weren’t for them. They… they give me hope in my trying times and the world isn’t so grey and negative with them in it. I think it’s too late to say that but I think… I think despite all the tragedies in my life, perhaps they are the thing I need to cling onto to survive… all of this.

1976, May

Do you remember that time when I told you I was the one hatching and developing the more dangerous and reckless plans together with Prongs, Padfoot and Wormtail instead of actually participating in them? You know, when I told you that I acted like their… bodyguard ( Sirius, if you ever find, read and laugh at this, I swear I will not talk to you for a month ), protecting them from teachers and stuff? Well, guess what responsible Lupin did today. He became the wanted DEAD student of the castle. So, we have that exam on Transfiguration and I had studied for it last week. All I needed to do was reread my notes and everything went neatly settled into my brain and ready to pour out of it on a list of parchment. However, just as I was preparing to get in bed, Prongs smashed the door of our dorm room, accompanied by Wormtail, which is the biggest surprise if you ask me, carrying fireworks and other explosives in a bag hanging on his shoulder. The moment I saw them I remembered that I felt a wave of regret but ‘one could not just sleep when James Potter was persuading him’. Long story short, the four of us were awake until three A.M. and hiding under the cloak for around two hours to avoid Filch only to fire up everything in the sky around and inside the castle and ruin everyone’s sleep. It was… look, I’d say unresponsible and definitely foolish, immature and nasty towards our friends and… not that big of a friends but it was fun. Maybe it worked nicely against my stress levels? And, you know, other things. Anyways, when one thinks it’s too good to be ruined by something so insignificant, it turns out McGonagall, a person who I very much respect if I may add, found something on the very same floor where the impact had happened. Yes, my wand. My. Damn. Wand.

Conclusion: This is why I don’t do such pranks.

And, P.S., I got lower on the exam than anticipated. Thanks Prongs, I certainly do not owe you one.

P.S. 2: For the first time it was Wormtail who got us out ( or at least tried to ) of this sticky situation and not me. Oh, how the tables have turned.

1977, late November

I… Today was not my proudest day. But sometimes, you see, a person can just have that much of a certain something and just… well, snap? See, you’d think that after seven years of living under a roof with someone, despite the different houses, bullying would stop at a certain point. I listened to Padfoot when these Pureblood kids tried to get on my nerves or tried to crumble me down and I never seemed to execute his advices well enough. They always got to me. They laughed about my barely visible scars and about my books. About my high grades, and Prefect status and the Marauders kept saying it was because they were jealous. So today a boy from Snape’s house, again, bit me with words and actions. He straight up forced my huge Charms essay up in the air and burned it to a crisp. I don’t know what got into me and I don’t know if it’s because of the wolf inside of me ( the word wolf was scratched, invisible under all the ink ) but I… I just punched the guy. I didn’t even flick my wand I just did it. All I saw in that moment was red and do you know when do I usually see red? When the usual thing happens, when I widen my gaze and lose myself. I immediately felt regret after it but Wormtail was fast enough to get me out of there while also carrying threats of whatnot on his back for me. I’m afraid that maybe my other self is taking the best of me and ripping it apart.

PARA SAMPLE TWO ;; inspired by the nightmare event, a piece in which Remus contemplates about his own visions and the inability to help his friends despite his incredible selflessness ( this is how a reply would look like )

It felt like his mind was a big screen with the nightmarish pictures put on a constant loop. It just kept repeating and his head hurt even days after everything had been over. Remus’ scalp hurt from all the hair pulling, throat sore from the screams that were left unheard in his closed flat and his eyes red, accompanied by the dark circles under them. Instead of the simple curtains hanging in front of his window or his white door he saw claws, blood, pine wood trees with pinned bodies on them – the bodies of his friends. Each time another tree was revealed, the body switched – from the Marauders to Lily, to Dorcas or Amos or Marlene and Mary. The visions were disgusting and terrifying, his stomach only churning each time he shot his eyes open and saw that it was over. That the dream was over.

He groaned loudly as he got up from the bed with a slight aching in his neck from all the violent snaps form left to right. The nightmares weren’t leaving his dreams after the horrifying experience and it felt too real even when it was not anymore. Remus hadn’t visited any of his friends for these past seventy-three hours and quite frankly, he didn’t have the strength. A transformation to a werewolf was painful beyond recognition but that nightmare couldn’t even be compared to his monthly pain. They left a deeper scar compared to all of the ones covering his hands and legs – they left a scar on his psyche.

But today was different. It took Remus a total of three minutes to realize what he was doing was wrong. His entire life he’s been a victim trying to live past his tragedy and the very same people who had once helped him and continue to do so were now hurting. Perhaps it was easier for him to look past the pain and leave it for when he was falling into the world of dreams again – but now the roles needed to reverse. He had to help his loved ones.

After fixing himself up to look at least presentable, he decided to do everything step by step. With a gentle pop he arrived at Peter’s doorstep, the door painfully reminding him of the one guarding his own flat – a piece of hardwood that turned into a pine tree form his dreams with a hung corpse on it – but he shook his head and instead knocked on it, mouths opening but words lost. “Wo-” he paused, noticing how voiceless he is from the three days spent in silence, “Wormtail. It’s me.” Remus was laconic, “Moony. Are you-” another crack reminding of a thunder slicing the night sky, “Are you there? Are-… are you alright?”

The door opened silently and Peter’s eyes peeked warily behind it. With a certain tilt of his head, the big lump that had formed in Remus’ chest instantly fell to the ground as his hands helped opening the door and pulled the other boy into a firm hug. No words had to be spoken. Peter wasn’t okay, neither was Remus. But, perhaps now, Lupin said to himself, he could be the hope in Wormtail’s eyes just like his friends were for him back in those faithful and lone school days.

#remus lupin #hp rp #lsrpg #marauders era rp #harry potter rp #accepted app