#but it works in universe too because its in character for that peter to be self deprecating

[simptasia]

i have no special attachment to the andrew garfield spiderman movies but i watched the clips of his spidey in no way home (i have no desire to like actually watch the movie) and it gave me a fond fuzzy feeling

like, the andrew version peter parker is a delightful lad

#i got like emotional. like welling up. and i thought to myself ''oh shit what the hell are the tobey clips gonna do to me??'' #i cried #so yeah i just watched clips on youtube. im not like into the mcu #so i got from that movie what i wanted. watched clips of the villians too #also also i found tobey peter praising andrew peter to be very touching. i really like that they did that #its like a meta thing about how andrew's peter hasn't been as appreciated #but it works in universe too because its in character for that peter to be self deprecating #and it works with tobey's peter being such a ray of sunshine so yeah #anyways i think the amazing spiderman movies are like Okay. but the peter parker contained within is great #andrew garfield is a great actor and you can feel the love he has for the character #so im glad this movie is making people think of him again #and im also enjoying the high res gifs of him. because now that andrew is older im finding him like proper attractive #sometimes faces work better with more years on 'em

[angelltheninth]

Feeling angsty so could you do Spiderverse characters with the “Don’t you ever do that again!” prompt? Could be either side saying it.

Angst! Everyone could use more am I right?

Pairing: Peter B. Parker, Miles Morales, Gwen Stacy, Miguel O'Hara, Hobie Brown, Pavitr Prabhakar x Reader

Tags: angst, hurt/comfort, worry, injury, superhero work, late night talks, fear of loss, soothing kisses, crying

A/N: We need to keep things nice and balanced between the fluff, smut and angst.

5. “Don’t you ever do that again!”

Peter doesn't take as many risks as he used to before you were married. He still gives it his all, of course he does, but he's not reckless when he fights. There does tend to be an ocassion where he will act like that still, come home with injuries, a bloody nose and such but he tries to keep those to a minimum to not worry you. He faces your wrath for those before, and he would rather fight a hundread more enemies then make you sad, angry and scared for him.

Miles already knows to be careful when doing hero work but he is also a bit of a show off. He makes it a habit to visit you after and one night he shows up in a pretty bad state, unable to go home. You call his parents and make up an excuse that he fell asleep during movie night, all the while he's groaning with an ice pack on his ribs. While laughing about a joke he made his ribs hurt even more so you have to kiss him to make him stop, and to comfort yourself. While his injuries will heal he needs to promise to be more careful, one Spider-man already died in this universe, and your boyfriend won't be next.

Gwen lost someone imortant because she wasn't paying enough attention. You bet she gets pissed off when she sees you jumping head first into danger. But she doesn't just yell, she starts crying while patching up your injuries because she can't handle the thought of losing you. It ends with you being the one who is holding her in your lap, kissing her cheeks with bruised lips telling her how she's your inspiration for doing what you do, you don't regret it and a few injuries, big or small, won't stop you from being her best partner.

Miguel downplays his own injuries but goes off when he sees you put yourself in danger. He's a big guy, he heals pretty fast too but you, fully human and so damn hardheaded. How can he not tell you to take it easy from time to time. You laying in bed with a fever from a venom that you took instead of him. Venom, something that's already in his blood, reckless as hell. Every kiss that he gives you is like the last, his hands fast as they check you for injuries but really gentle, like you'll break in his hands.

Hobie hums a song while you patch his injuries trying to soothe you, his fingers tapping on the bed, foot moving along with his hums. Not a single note back? Why are you so upset? His life isn't in danger or anything, he' ll be fine. Or you can kiss it better, that's an option. Anything, just cry okay? He's proud of the work he's doing, risks are part of it, but its worth it to make a better, safer world for the two of you, and everyone else of course.

Pavitr has a hard time keeping his groans of pain to himself but he doesn't wanna worry you any more then he already has. He wraps his arms around you and pulls you to his side, whispering that he's gonna be okay eventually. Until then he will take it easy so don't yell at him again, he knows he should have been more careful but at times his body moves on his own without thinking. Kinda like when he kisses you, only more painful.

#peter b parker x reader #miles morales x reader #gwen stacy x reader #miguel o'hara x reader #hobie brown x reader #pavitr prabhakar x reader #spiderman x reader #spiderverse x reader #spiderverse imagine #spiderverse headcanon #spiderverse angst #marvel x reader #marvel x you #marvel imagine #marvel headcanons #marvel angst #peter b parker angst #miles morales angst #gwen stacy angst #miguel o'hara angst #hobie brown angst #pavitr prabhakar angst #x reader

[spiderpussinc]

You know your post about divorced Peter got me thinking. A lot. Then I realized that I, in fact, never thought about this much because from the beginning I just stay in my lane rather than judging people for divorcing Peter again. I think I am really too old to care that much about what people write especially if it end up limiting other out of moral obligation.

Basically it's dumb and you're right

Ur the most normal for this. Its incredibly fucking silly discourse to me bc Peter Parker *has* been divorced for pretty much two decades now. (Not even just divorced - the marriage was ERASED out of canon. they are just ex bf/gf.) MJ has her own share of past and present different partners! There are multiple universes where she is either *canonically* a lesbian, or implied to be coming to terms with it. Peter had countless girlfriends/hookups in the meantime! I think what gets me the most is how confidently wrong a lot of these assumptions are; I keep seeing this weird "one-and-only, first and last, soulmates.." thing applied to Peter and MJ and its like...

1. Peter dated multiple people before her AND after her; Gwen wasn't the first either, but for a long time, Gwen *WAS* the biggest regret of his life and they were meant to get married. Gwen was the one based on stan lee's wife, the closest thing to a planned soulmate; and she dies bc it's not meant to be. Not ever. There is no predetermined true spider-man love interest, you're just talking about some of the adaptations you've seen. This is one of the most debated superhero writing convos of all time LOL even Marvel editorial internally disagrees on this - everyone has their favorite. That's the point!

2. Divorce is based and awesome and maybe I'm just getting old but when a marriage doesn't work **having a child** certainly isn't the thing that's going to save it. I know how that one goes! Be prepared to crash even harder once the baby glow passes and the complex shit kicks right back in! To be honest it'd be even more realistic if it crashed again post-mayday, or if MJ divorced him bc she was already pregnant and wanted to do something better with her life instead of playing second fiddle to spider-man forever or being in peril to motivate his character arc.

But the thing that does annoy me is how entitled some ppl have become. Siding with actual homophobic redditors and posting up under gay fanart with the most annoying 'umm. hes married? the sanctity of marriage???' comments. who fuckin care. It's comics. It's all fanfic. Even the published stuff. Stream:

#spiderdads #petermiguel #asks #my spider stuff #peter b parker #miguel ohara #miguel o'hara #peter parker #marvel comics #atsv #spiderman 2099 #spiderman #across the spiderverse #spider man: across the spider verse #meta tag #post edited as of aug 09 for clarity since im not reading asm 2023 nor need to for this point

[bloodpen-to-paper]

Spider-man: Across the Spider-Verse Trailer Thoughts

Can I just start this post off by saying that I am totally normal? Over this movie? Perfectly reasonable in my level of hype and mentally well in every way? Mhm, trust me. Anyway, onto the blurbs!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Seems Miles is at his teenage rebellion stage

-Miles' teacher telling him he's not doing too well in Spanish in front of his Puerto Rican mother is an ouch (in that it's hilarious, but not for him. Sorry Miles)

-Seems there's gonna be a rift between Miles and his parents now that he's Spider-Man full time and very much keeping it secret from them; maybe this movie is where they find out?

-Across the Spider Verse seems to also have a core theme of Miles going against the grain and doing things his way, forging his own individual path for how he wants to do Spider-Man. Looking forward to seeing a more grown up Miles that is able to go further into his self-exploration now that he's reaching older teen/young adulthood.

-I think Gwen and Miles might get together this movie which... eh. Alright. No hate to the ship, but the first movie felt very platonic save for Miles liking her cause she's a pretty girl, and rip to cishet society but that ain't enough to sell me on a relationship. Maybe they'll get some development in this movie? Until possibly that I'm just gonna enjoy them as friends personally

-Apparently Oscar Isaac voices Miguel... Doctor Strange was not kidding when he said the multiverse got screwed in NWH

-Here we have Jessica Drew, Marvel's first (continuous) Spider-Woman! She looks awesome, and based on how often she appeared in the trailer, I'm assuming she will play a key role.

-I also suspect she will help push the narrative around ATSV's theme of parenthood, with Miles having issues with his own, and Peter becoming a father.

-Regarding the race change for Jessica, I earlier referred to her as the first "continuous" Spider-Woman, because she was the first woman to notably don the spidey title. However, the first official Spider-Woman was actually a one-off character named Valerie the Librarian. Originally, Valerie had no powers; she instead went around as a non-super helping Peter Parker's Spidey in any way she could. Spider Verse has always been by black people for black people, so it doesn't surprise me that they (allegedly) are honing back to Valerie, a black woman and the first official Spider-Woman, to base Jessica's appearance on. Goes to show the creators did their homework, which I'm pleased to see.

She is so beautiful ma'am please take my hand in marriage; also, she's pregnant! She is literally hero-ing while pregnant, which I've realized is not something we really see like... ever. Granted, because its dangerous, but Spider Verse has always made strides to give more diverse female representation, and a pregnant spidey mirroring pregnant working women seems to be next on their list. Happy to see it!

-We got Miguel O'Hara! Admittedly I'm not the most familiar with him, but one doesn't traverse Marvel comic fandom without having heard of this guy. Based on what I'm seeing in the trailer, he looks like a very fun character and I'm excited to know more

-"Don't even get me started on Doctor Strange and the little nerd back on Earth-199999." I am... so normal about the acknowledgment of the MCU in Spiderverse. The multiverse really is converging, which on a meta sense is something I absolutely love so I am very excited to see where the Marvel universe heads.

-Also people have been saying Feige stated the MCU was Earth-616 and Spider Verse went against that, which they're happy about, so if someone could fill me in on what happens in Earth-616 I'd appreciate it!

Peter's back! And he has a spider baby! From what I've seen this is Mayday Parker, daughter of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, and she does indeed get her father's spider abilities in the comics. Perhaps we'll see more of her in the future?...👀

Stab me, it would hurt less.

(Looks like Gwen's backstory is being explored more, which is a hooray moment, but its exploring her trauma, which is less hooray.)

And of course... the meme, made multiversal. (Is that fucking PS5 Spiderman)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That's about it, very excited for this movie, also afraid, but mostly excited! See y'all when it drops!

#reaction blurbs #marvel #marvel studios #spider-man: across the spider-verse #across the spiderverse #atsv #into the spider verse #miles morales #gwen stacey #peter parker #may parker #miguel o'hara #jessica drew #valerie the librarian

[anonymouscatloaf]

"You know, he's the yin to my yang. He completes me."

So the funny part about Dan repeatedly calling Perry the yin to Doof's yang (besides the fact that he can just freestyle some Greek tragedy level bullshit about Doof & Perry's relationship on the fly for Radio Disney or an episode commentary track) is that at face value you might also be like, okay but why is Doof the "yang" (light) and Perry the "yin" (dark)?

I didn't say good vs evil because that's not what yin and yang are about. As a concept it's one of those terms from another language that have variable meanings in English depending on who's using it and why, but its most enduring interpretation - with the disclaimer that I am not a philosopher, just someone who is far too invested in overthinking relationships in a kid's cartoon - is the idea that they are opposing but complementary forces of the energy that the universe operates on.

It's a balance. According to Lao-Tzu, "everything is embedded in yin and embraces yang; through [vital energy] it reaches [harmony]". Two sides of the same coin, sun and moon, my other half - you get the idea. It's not hard to see why Perry and Doof are complementary but opposite; one can't exist without the other: Perry all but gives up evil when Doof has that brief dalliance with Peter; Perry has exactly two POV songs in the entire show and both of them relate to Doof, one of which explicitly states "[his] life, it seems, is empty" without Doof's scheming and he "gave [Perry's] life heroic cause"; and he straight up has no idea what to do with his life and makes the saddest platypus sound ever when Doof bans thwarting as Tri-Governor in LDOS.

On the other hand, Doof is a lot easier to see - partly because he actually talks (though Perry is actually one of the most facially expressive characters in the show - by necessity - though I digress). He's overt about his affections and very clingy (a result of childhood trauma and abuse/neglect by his parents) because Perry's his only real friend. He all but begs Perry to thwart him in that whale episode, he became really upset when Perry seemed to be helping him in the episode with the Dull-and-Boring-inator but was just using him to fix the problem with Phineas and Ferb, and he can't bear to leave Perry behind in Road to Danville, just to list a few sillier examples off the top of my head. Really, the entire B plot could be used as evidence.

(There's also the fun dynamic of Perry being an animal that has human-level sentience, and Doof being a human that was raised by animals - ocelots - during some of his formative years.)

So they're irrevocably intertwined. One of the most important characters in each other's life, according to Dan from SDCC 2015. The LDOS ending song even puts Perry smack dab in the middle of the Doofenshmirtz family with Heinz, Vanessa, and Norm - two other characters deeply wrapped up with Perry as a result of Doof himself. I mean, look at them:

Yeah, this was an excuse to make you look at one of my favorite scenes and witness Perry's hopelessly fond smile, not sorry.

Anyway, back to yin-yang. They were originally ascribed to just "day" and "night", and eventually came to also mean "movement" (because you work during the day), and "rest" (because you sleep at night). In terms of qi, they embody heaven and earth, and in the collection of essays of the Huainanzi, "yang is generated from yin and yin is generated from yang [...] sometimes there is life, sometimes there is death, that brings the myriad things to completion". Technical details of Chinese philosophy aside (which I'm sure exactly nobody is considering when they call someone the yin to their yang - it's really just the "you complete me" part), the words themselves also have various opposing definitions: positive/negative, active/passive, sun/moon, overt/covert, etc etc etc you get the idea.

In terms of their relationship, Doof has the more active role. He's one who makes the crazy inators and plots elaborate traps and monologues everyday; Perry usually just reacts to that accordingly. Doof play-acts at a lofty, larger-than-life "evil", while Perry keeps him grounded ("you are my rock" and "having you around just makes me feel, you know, safer"). Perry isn't necessarily a wholly passive character, but also, like, a lot of his plot is just Shit Happens and Perry Has to Deal With It. Doof is overt about his "evil" schemes and can't stand even white lies. Perry spends his entire life hiding aspects of himself and keeping secrets from his loved ones, and he has a whole song in CATU about being an unrecognized hero. One of these characters is living in the "dark" more than the other...

Doof is overflowing with emotions - most of them negative, but also love: so much so that his daughter feels smothered, because a lot of that love (while borne of good intentions) is misguided, and Doof fails to actually listen to her; it takes a few rocky starts (helped along by Perry himself) before they get to the point where Vanessa considers her dad a "misunderstood genius" and convinces him to give up evil. On the other hand, Perry keeps his cards close to his chest - it's not that he doesn't know how to emote (he clearly adores his boys in ATSD and he apparently is happy to hang out with Doof as a friend outside of his job enough that he has a whole wallet of photos of them just goofing off together), he doesn't because of necessity. He's better than anyone at separating his work life (fighting evil) from his pet life (pretending to be a mindless animal) from his personal life (how much he loves his family, watching his silly dramatic soaps, having a petty streak and sassing Monogram a bit, is genuine friends with Doof).

As a result, he is full of emotions he rarely gets to express - around the Flynn-Fletchers specifically, because Doof does know he's sentient, which is another reason I think they click. Doof gets the single-minded attention he never had; Perry gets the treatment as an equal he never had. They both gain a friendship, and a new sort of family. There's a part of their life imbalanced when the other isn't present.

The yin and the yang. They complete each other.

#phineas and ferb #perry the platypus #heinz doofenshmirtz #pnf #cat talks #this is why they are the most compelling characters/relationship in the show to me #the higher stakes of the B plot are fun and all but the characters are still what really get me #this ain't about the ship but like they're very queercoded too if you wanna go there #ii just think their characters are FASCINATING how they play off each other #how important they are to each other #anyway i have several exams coming up so obviously i wrote this instead

[traincat]

Totally sincere post but I hope now that The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) is streaming on Netflix in the US, Spider-Man fans who haven't seen it yet and who maybe came into Spider-Man through the other movies will give it a try, regardless of whether or not No Way Home awoke any interest in Andrew Garfield's portrayal of the character in them. I think especially if you came into Spider-Man through the MCU, it's worth watching, because where the MCU is built on the concept of this shared universe where different characters regularly walk into each other's movies and where its Spider-Man came of age in a world where superheroes were a well-known phenomenon, TASM Peter is defined by being on his own and by being alone. Not only is he the only costumed vigilante figure in his universe, he's alone in his non-costumed life, too, and there's great pain taken in showing you that, from the disappearance of his parents to the way he initially moves friendless through his school. TASM shows you an incredibly nuanced Peter, who is angry and alone and has no road map for how to be a costumed vigilante, and I think that's a really interesting contrast to how the MCU works to link to everything up and interconnect everything -- the idea of this one figure all alone in the city who is capable of these acts, and how he steps into that role, and how lonely and exhilarating that is as a concept.

Also because I'm me I'm going to mention that Andrew Garfield, a Jewish actor, was incredibly open and candid about recognizing the Jewish subtext of Spider-Man and how he brought that to his performance, so there's that extra layer of nuance there that makes his performance, to me as a Jewish viewer, much more grounded and emotional and real.

#peter parker #marvel comics #tasm #andrew garfield #spiderman #jewish peter parker

[heraartaxis]

OH MY GOSH

ACROSS THE SPIDERVERSE??

WHAT A MOVIE YOU GUYS, I LAUGHED I CRIED AND CHEERED AND THEN LEFT HANGING (talking about the cliffhanger alright ??)

The movie opening with Gwen being mad and riddled with guilt and trauma. I like how her room was color graded it’s quiet interesting

The whole sequence whilst fighting Miguel was so good, that train scene hell yeah he thought about it ahahaha and Spiderbyte sending him back kinda felt good you know.

Miles’s parents having a convo with Gwen was so not expected towards the end, I really didn’t think it would go well.

Guys Ben Riley!! Aka voiced by Andy it was so awesome to see that I wonder if he’ll turn into CHASM because he was having trouble in the beginning we saw.

ALSO PROWLER?? Dude that’s so cool like Donald wasn’t animated and MCU spideys that’s cool. Also venom universe hello?? Also Lego uni was hilarious.

But now the queries, Gwen won’t be able to travel throughout the multiverse because her watch won’t work right and Hobie gave his to her then how on earth will he be stabilized??

Also I was so pissed when Jessica didn’t take Gwen’s side but she was monitoring her like where is was headed to. I wonder if she’ll snitch.

And the villain Spot, did not expect bagel would have so much meaning ahaha!! Well he’s turning malicious kind of I wonder what would happen as in the comics he’s not much of a threat.

The Indian Spider-Man?? Hilarious and so good the animations the vibe and how the animators studied the traditional martial arts ‘kalaripayattu’ for his fight sequence is beyond my imagination.

I reckon if we watch this movie numerous times we would be shocked by its little easter eggs for sure.

Also you know how I clocked something was wrong when Miles traveled back?? His mom looked quiet a bit older if that makes any sense like wrinkles were there and the character shape was kinda different and I chalked it up to my imagination but oh boy was I wrong. THE GAME VERSION MILES LIKE HELLO AND HE IS THE PROWLER AND UNCLE AARON IS IN CAHOOTS WITH HIS DEALINGS OH BROTHER. I’m thinking that Earth-42 Miles might try to bring (our) Miles’s father to this this universe but that seems too predictable. I wonder what they have in store for us.

BUT THE BAND GETTING BACK TOGETHER?? PETER, GWEN, PENNI, SPIDER HAM, NOIR!! With PAVITR, SPIDERBYTE AND HOBIE?? That’s so awesome dude. OUR SPIDERBAND EXPANDED.

#marvel mcu #marvel #mcu #spider man across the spiderverse spoilers #spider man across the spider verse #spider man 2099 #miles morales #penni parker #jessica drew #peter parker #noir #pavitr prabhakar #spider gwen #spider punk #hobie brown #miguel o'hara #spot #hailee steinfeld #gwen stacy #shameik moore #oscar issac #ben riley #andy samberg #marvel studios #sony pictures #across the spiderverse #atsv #prowler #scarlet spider #spiderbyte

[moondust-writes]

"In every other universe, Gwen Stacy falls for Spider-Man" "And in every other universe, it doesn't end well"

I've seen only one oneshot (amazing work btw, here's the link to the Ao3 post) dabbling in unrequited love, which personally is surprising with Gwen/Miles being the canon endgame it seems (i have not seen any of the movies yet sob)

And I'm here to propose this: Spider Gwen is not meant to be Miles' Gwen Stacy, she's from another Earth entirely and she already lost her Peter- not to mention how she's the spider-person of her Earth All I'm saying is a fic or collection centered around moments where a gender non-specified/gender neutral reader (so anyone can see themself in this) is the 'Gwen Stacy' to Miles' Spider-Man It can end in say, a villain arc from a hurt reader (maybe stumbling upon and becoming the 'Prowler' of Miles' Earth in place of him), a death similar to Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man's MJ, etc etc. It's a golden opportunity for angst and to emphasize the "in every other universe it doesn't end well"

Could be a "realization but its too late" scenario too Because to me, a Gwen Stacy from another Earth being THE 'Gwen Stacy' for Miles in the context of the quote does not make sense

I mentioned I watched none of the movies, as if I had, I probably would wind up writing this myself. Who knows. But since I don't and I don't have a grasp on any of the characters, I am putting this idea out there for anyone to use (I would also be more than willing to beta read)

#moon speaks #prompt #spider-man x reader #miles morales x reader #spiderverse x reader #atsv x reader #itsv x reader

[sineala]

Superheroes and Aging

Meta time! I was asked (on Patreon) to write meta about how Tony Stark might deal with feelings about aging and being surrounded by The Youth. I am reposting it here.

I have to say this has also been on my mind a lot. I will say it's a weird thing growing up being into comics and being a fan of the teenage X-Men because obviously they were the most relatable and then being as old as all the adult superheroes and now being older than all the adult superheroes, who have all been basically the same age for decades as the rest of us move on past them. At least they finally aged up the original crop of teenage heroes and have been replacing them with new ones.

So the thing about superheroes in Marvel Comics, as you probably know, is that they pretty much don't age. Initially, this wasn't really a thing Marvel worried about. It was the sixties and they'd made comics cool and profitable again and kids loved them and I'm pretty sure they weren't thinking that sixty years later people (grown adults, even!) would still be reading and loving and expanding on the universe they made. Because I think if that had been the case they'd have, say, fewer villains that really sound like someone thought of them in about thirty seconds at 5 pm on a Friday and then went home. Big Wheel, a guy who has a... big wheel. Swarm, a guy (I mean, he's not really... human) who is actually a group of bees. Nazi bees. Paste-Pot Pete. You know what I mean.

Anyway, at first Marvel heroes aged, because why wouldn't they? Despite what you would guess if you only watched adaptations, it only took, I think, a couple years for Peter Parker to grow up and leave high school. The original X-Men all stopped being teenagers. Time moved on. Then after about ten years Marvel figured out it was going to be a problem if their beloved heroes were too old to be superheroes and they more or less halted the aging process. And that's how we get the Marvel Sliding Timescale. Broadly stated, the Sliding Timescale is essentially "don't worry about it." Everything you are reading right now happens right now, the beginning (the FF getting their powers) happened about ten or fifteen years ago (I think right now it's closer to 15 and we're at four RL years = one comics year), and everything else that has ever happened in 616 -- because Marvel also doesn't believe in line-wide reboots -- is wedged in somewhere in the time between. As real time passes, the sliding timescale slides events closer and closer together because more events have now happened.

So the effect of this is that heroes don't age. I think this is actually most notable with child characters -- like, ask yourself how old Franklin and Valeria Richards are. Or don't. I think Dani Cage has been a toddler for about fifteen years now. So the founding Avengers started off in their early 20s, are now in their mid-30s, and are going to continue being in their mid-30s for the foreseeable future because Marvel doesn't want its heroes being over 40. I think there have been a couple IM issues where Tony has had "significant" birthdays that they carefully avoided putting a number on -- I think one was Bendis, and I know he had a surprise party in the Gillen issue with the adoption reveal. I want to say that maybe there was also a Fraction one? I'm not sure.

The time references have occasionally been lampshaded -- the most recent Iron Man issue as I write this (#6) has Tony asserting that he doesn't remember things by what year they happened in, but rather by what armor he had at the time. He goes on to tell a story of something that happened while he wore the Silver Centurion armor, throwing in an aside that the shoulder pads were fashionable then -- and, out of the armor, he is given his usual stylish perm; the artist has definitely been inspired by Bob Layton's later Iron Man work -- which for me has the disconcerting effect of making it sound like this is somehow taking place in the 80s and also not in the 80s at the same time. Because now they've invented an extra time for shoulder pads and perms to be fashionable and it's approximately 2015. Time is fake. No, actually. It is.

And building on that, I think the effect of that is that mostly they don't seem to have characters like Tony dealing with aging. He doesn't really seem to worry about it, probably because there can't be any narrative payoff if he's simply never allowed to age. (Steve gets it even more weirdly, because a lot of times fandom assumes the serum is just going to halt or slow aging -- as it does in people like Natasha who have serum variants -- but then in universes where significant time actually passes, like House of M, Steve is visibly older, and he definitely is meant to have the serum. Or Bullet Points, where Steve, minus the serum, is actually dealing with aging as he comes out of retirement for one last mission. Which kills him, because it turns out he probably was too old to do this safely. But then in 616 we're expected to believe that Steve can lose the serum and also be mostly combat-ready at age 95. Aaanyway.)

So what if Tony did worry about getting older? Based on how he interacts with the kids these days, I think mostly his worry actually wouldn't involve other people.

For all that intelligence in Marvel seems to be a single invariant and quantifiable statistic that can be accurately measured (which isn't the case in reality but work with me here) and that Tony is a genius but not The Smartest Genius in the Universe, he doesn't ever seem to display any ill will toward anyone ranking higher than him on the list -- say, Reed -- and he is in fact definitely willing to take on the younger geniuses, like Riri, as proteges, and he seems happy to mentor them. He doesn't seem to feel at all threatened by the idea that some of these people are definitely smarter than him -- say, Moon Girl -- and will someday succeed him. Or at least will if Marvel ever lets them age out, which again seems unlikely. Theoretically he also ought to be drawing on a lot more lived experience than Riri that he can use to advise her, but one of the bizarre things that Cantwell's run has left us with is Tony believing that giving the Mandarin's Rings to Riri to study with zero oversight is absolutely the right thing to do; Rhodey congratulates him on his great decision-making. I guess we'll see how that turns out.

(This is in contrast to a character like Doctor Doom, who clearly can't stand the idea that Reed might ever be smarter than him.)

Given that Tony is a character who often has execrable self-esteem, it actually seems a little odd that it doesn't bother him that he isn't the smartest, but it really doesn't seem to. He seems fine with that. He's enough of a genius to do what he needs to do, I guess, and that's good enough for him. Even in Cantwell's run, which was, uh, not a run I would call particularly in-character for Tony in many ways, the thing he decides to do with the Power Cosmic is make everyone in New York as smart as he is. I think this was a fairly poor storyline for a large number of reasons, but I think it does actually show that he has good intentions, in a sense -- he wants everyone else to benefit from the intelligence he has, the same way they can benefit from his philanthropy. He wants to give people the advantages he has. So he seems like someone who wouldn't resent the up-and-coming heroes and geniuses; he seems like he'd be honestly happy that there would be more people out there on his level.

I think, really, as long as he knows he's good to go, he knows he's good enough to do the things he wants to do -- even if sometimes he just hates himself as a human being -- and he probably looks around at all the kids and knows they have to train them up, because even if they're going to be good they're not as good as he currently is, just because they don't have the benefits of years of experience. I mean, maybe they could have some kind of superhero Registration or something. The joke he made to Steve at the end of Empyre wasn't entirely wrong.

(I feel like I should probably also read Young Avengers, for more on how the Avengers deal with The Youth, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.)

Since Tony often blames himself for, well, everything he can possibly blame himself for, including the deaths of people he feels he should have been able to save, I feel like his worries about aging would probably involve his ability to continually successfully be a superhero. We haven't really seen much of this worry since his Extremis/Bleeding Edge days but there was definitely a period of time where his main concern seemed to be the ability to compete with the people he's fighting -- and this seems like it might be where he's heading again in his confrontation with Feilong, who, I should point out, does actually attempt to make fun of him for being old. Tony doesn't seem to take it personally, but he does seem very upset that he's not on Feilong's level, technologically. So I think the thing that would bother Tony wouldn't be the idea that he couldn't keep up with the heroes, but rather that he couldn't keep up with the villains.

So, yeah, that's my take.

#posts i actually wrote

[a-door-to-somewhere]

Ok watched spiderverse 2 again here's some thoughts in no particular order (spoilers and long post ahead):

- peter b is reading a book called "how to talk to kids" at the very end. Presumably because may can't speak yet and Gwen and Miles were zapped away I choose to believe he was reading this so he can go talk to Miguel LMAO

- I fucken love the way spot, after he powers up, move around via just like... sliding around in the air basically with his bad posture like he's hung from strings like a puppet

- when gwen is drumming at the opening and when spot gets zapped both are intercut with frames from later in the movie and also later in the future. I'm guessing spot got a glimpse of canon events but when Gwen was doing her intro it was phrased like a retrospective- but unlike most intros it didn't have a shot of a new spiderman comic being thrown on the pile. So when was she doing this retrospective? I hc she'll pick back up at the end of the third movie

- someone needs to make procreate brush packs for each universe/character PLEASE

- ok the "watercolor" effect being a mood ring is incredible but I havent seen anyone talking about the sort of abstract animation?? It almost reminds me of like experimental film from the impressionist/dada/supremetism eras, you can see it synced to the drum in the intro and also in some of the backgrounds during her big speech

- also during the Guggemheim fight when the Renaissance Vulture was like "you call this art?" And Gwen was like "well we're talking about it aren't we" YOU'RE SO RIGHT GWEN I AM KISSING YOU ON THE LIPS

- the shaky 1st pov cam when Gwen's dad sneaks up on her both times reminded me of when Miles accidentally watched kingpin kill perfect Peter? Idk if it was exactly the same I'd have to go back and rewatch but UGH it really gets that Gwen's dad has two sides too and the cop side isn't really human almost, lurking in the shadows, silhouetted

- also Gwen's dad just being a shit cop, giving her mixed instructions, raising a weapon at an unarmed person who is trying to communicate, firing warning shots, yelling the Miranda rights over her which is not how its supposed to be given

- contrast that with Jeff who literally never pointed a weapon at anyone and went charging after spot with his bare hands, is casual with his spiderman. I mean even when Jeff was talking about Miles not capturing Spot correctly it was lighthearted and joking, he's actively not going by the book, he's keeping the squad off of Spiderman's back, he apparently talks to spiderman about his family troubles???

- have I mentioned I LOVE MUSICAL MOTIFS????? Seriously they’re always good (fuck Wagner everyone knows Toby Fox invented the leitmotif) I mean everyone noticed the horror style Prowler stinger but even more characters got some: Gwen got a Little Rock theme with a guitar lick that echoes the ‘spi-der-man, spi-der-man’ song, Miguel’s distorted synth whine, the interesting mouth and bells percussion that Pav gets (good job Hollywood avoiding the exotic Asian pentatonic lick for once), at the end when the 42 prowler reveal slowly changed the prowler stinger into a human scream???? There’s probably more but I’d have to go back and watch it again again lmao

- I really love how Miguel is kinda goofy. He’s aloof and over serious but he makes mistakes and shows other emotions despite his best efforts. His flaws are shown off in his very first interaction, with his unwillingness to ask for help despite the fact that he knows he needs it. He’s frustrated. He’s got group object leader energy. It makes it so much more lovable that he’s susceptible to quips and he also gets knocked down and messes up and shows up and has his quirks that everyone puts up with. THATS how you make an interesting, relatable, lovable antagonist. Perhaps it worked too well LMAO

- I am an Oscar isaac simp I gotta go rewatch moon knight

- when miles was swinging around with gwen he passed a truck called "redex" bc gwen rejected him lmao

- theres an 8 clearly visible in the background of earth 42? Wacc

- the Spread Your Wings, Man scene focusing on the plastic wrap on top of the Alchemax flowing in the wind like it’s an ocean?/??? I really hope they call back to that imagery later because it clearly means something and I need to know what

- I’ve got an inkling of something that specifically revealing one’s spider-dentity to a loved one is some kind of anti-canon event, like maybe it’s the thing that fixes the destabilization? I mean we’ve seen that it’s ok if loved ones figure it out themselves (or if they then die, like uncle Aaron) like it’s a clear theme that miles keeps trying to tell his parents, and then Gwen tells her dad, which causes him to quit the force, thereby averting the canon event of him dying indirectly??? Also, it’s implied that the MJ of 1610 sold out Perfect Peter Parker to Fisk, leading to his death, ALSO also, gayatri probably figured out Pav’s identity right before HIS world destabilized??? Idk lmao

- I hope spiderbite/Margo and Jess get proper intros I can’t wait

- the background spider hockey girl has my heart, I couldn’t stop looking at her during the chase scene

- God I need to watch moon knight again

- when mj moved into mays room to greet them she lifted a picture frame back up as she moved in the door? What's up with that???

- not Spanish originally starting as a too-relatable joke that Miles gets a B in despite his mother speaking Spanish at home as well, not living up to his expectations, and then 42!Miles presumably speaks more/better Spanish due to being closer to his mom because his dad died???

- not miles aceing ap physics and ap studio AT THE SAME TIME in his SOPHOMORE YEAR free my boy from grounding he’s done nothing wrong

- btsv’s main villain is gonna be the sat I’m telling you

- most importantly: what was up with the Comic Code Authority’s seal being shown after the studio logos at the beginning??

Did that happen in the first one??? Why would it be there??? The cca has obviously been defunct since before superhero movies were really a thing. Famously, the cca seriously censored a ton of content, causing Marvel to be unable to portray darker stories involving drugs and other more mature themes, which they wanted to do with many superheroes including Spidey??? Is the Spider Society secretly the cca, censoring storylines that they think shouldn’t be portrayed, including darker timelines like 42? There was also issues with the convoluted Spider-Man comic lines going through unsatisfying ‘resets’ to keep Spider-Man relatable, without evolving the character into anything too far away from the OG Spider-Man, ie young, relationship issues with MJ, nerdy, tragedies etc. this is the detail that had me wondering the most because it was so clearly displayed right at the beginning, and the cca was generally a shameful part of comic book history in which publishers submitted to satanic moral panic. Like, not really something that reads as a cute little callback to an era of comics like he use of Ben day dots or misaligned printing or the onomatopoeias??

#across the universe #spiderman atsv #across the spider verse spoilers #spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman into the spiderverse #spiderman #into the spider verse #spider verse #into the spiderverse #spoilers #across the spiderverse #miles morales #gwen stacy #gwen stacy atsv #jeff davis #rio morales #peter parker #peter b parker #baby mayday #may parker #mayday parker #Jess atsv #miguel o'hara #miguel spiderverse #spider gwen #spider woman #hobie spiderverse #hobie brown #spider punk #pavitr prabhakar

[dcartcorner]

It's a very busy weekend over here, so I don't have a lot of time to do art! Instead, please accept this little fic based on the ghost!Peter and witch!Simon art. It's still a work in progress! And standard disclaimer writing is not my forte! -holds up peter and simon and elias- i just think they're neat. Apologies for any errors ^^

(Edit: Can be found on Ao3 as well)

Something Wicked (WIP) Characters: Simon Fairchild, Peter Lukas (more to come, including Elias Bouchard) Ship: None for now, but eventual FoggySkies (potential Simon/Peter/Elias? Who knows!) Warnings: none

There was a house in the middle of the woods. It was an old thing, with vines crawling up and over its walls and its arches, nestled between the tall, gloomy pines. It was entirely out of place, and yet looked like it could not have possibly belonged anywhere else. It was abandoned and had been abandoned for a long time - so said the nearby townsfolk who knew of it as a local legend - and saw as little sunlight as it did travellers. Peter knew of this house because it was where he lived, insomuch as ghosts lived anywhere at all. 

His ship, he recalled, had crashed along the rocky shores not too far away, and he’d wandered unknowingly into the woods, searching for help. He was not sure when, precisely, he realized he was dead. But it wasn’t as shocking as it perhaps should have been. 

Though, if pressed for a precise moment it became apparent to him he was no longer counted amongst the strictly living, he might have said it was when he came to the house and raised his hand to knock on the dark oak door, and his knuckles passed straight through, followed by his hand, and his wrist. He was not sure what he thought he should have felt, but he had to admit that a not-insignificant part of him felt relieved. No more people, no more eyes watching him, no more need for social niceties and exhausting daily interactions. It was peaceful, and, well, there was nothing he could rightly do about it in the end. So, he decided he would enjoy the solitary afterlife, and that would be that. 

After determining as much, he went inside, looking for nothing in particular, and he explored what he resolved would be his new home. 

He had not expected to find another body in it. But there it was, lying on a settee in what would have reasonably been considered a solarium if not for the dense covering of trees that smothered the windows above and all around. Peter paused and watched the unmoving body. A small figure, and old in appearance. Age must have claimed him. Peter suspected that other people might have felt sorry for this person if they found him like that, but Peter considered him quite lucky in his demise. It seemed peaceful enough, at least, and lonely. Peter stepped nearer, taking a closer look, and as he looked he wondered what the difference was - between passing over entirely or lingering on as a ghost. What made it so that this man rested there with no spirit, and he was left wandering the woods? That was, he supposed, one of the great questions of the universe. 

The answer to this question, however, would come to him very shortly after that thought crossed his mind, as he was watching the face of this stranger. Suddenly, the stranger opened his eyes. 

Peter reeled backwards. He watched as the man blinked a few times, as if waking from a daydream. 

“Oh,” the man said when sky blue eyes turned to Peter. “Hello.”

Peter froze.

“Now, now. No need to be shy,” the man said, sitting up with a huff and rolling his wrists. They cracked. “You are in my house, after all. I have to imagine it’s to see me. Don’t get many visitors otherwise. I’m not entirely sure why.” A chuckle. “But there you have it.” Still, Peter said nothing. “Well, if you’d like the short of it: no, there is nothing I can do for your condition. Dead is dead, isn’t it. Well, except for when it’s not. But you are dead. Dead, dead. The sort of dead that can’t be fixed.  Terribly sorry.”

And that was how Peter met Simon Fairchild. Which was to say, against his will.

Then again, he supposed that was how he’d met most people in his life.

The man stood up and adjusted one of his cuffs. “Do feel free to stay as long as you’d like. Ghosts make for good guests. Less trouble than werewolves, let me tell you. After the last time I said to myself, I said, ‘Simon, no more taking in strays. You’re too busy for that.’” He sighed amenably. “Never take my own advice, it seems. 

“You can see me?” Peter asked, because he did not know how else to contribute to the conversation the man - Simon - seemed insistent on having. 

“Oh, yes,” replied Simon, moving past Peter to a globe bar. “You spend long enough Looking, you end up seeing quite a bit.”

“And… you can hear me?” Peter asked.

Simon looked over his shoulder at Peter. “Oh, yes. You spend long enough Listening, you end up-”

“I… understand,” Peter said, holding up his hand to stop him. 

Simon smiled, and turned back to his task of pouring himself a drink. “I’d offer you one, but it wouldn’t do you much good. One of the very great misfortunes of ghostliness. So, what’s your name? How did you turn up in my neck of the woods?” There was a pull in Simon’s words. Something… compelling, which gave Peter pause, for he’d felt such a thing a long time ago. Perhaps that was why he was able to ignore the question. 

“Are you a witch?” he asked instead, for that was what his mother had been, and she’d often used that same sort of compelling way of speaking to get her way in the house, and those were unhappy times.

Simon paused and slowly glanced over at Peter, smile faltering in surprise. Then a huff of breath that sounded like a chuckle. “That’s what they call me over in Scrimshaw, at least,” he said, “amongst other things.” He lifted the drink - something golden and dark - to his lips and watched Peter with eyes through which the sky seemed to fall. “Doesn’t much stop them from demanding potion and poultice and miracle cure-alls whenever I drop by.” He put on a voice and went on, “‘Look there, a witch for the fire!’ they say. ‘Oh but first, kind witch, mightn’t you help me with this rash? Come for tea, I’ll tell you all about it.’” He sighed in a long-suffering sort of way and resumed his normal tone, saying, “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it.”

It didn’t, but Peter did not say as much. 

“So, must I ask you again for your name?” Simon inquired. 

“Depends on what you want it for,” Peter replied. 

“My, my, but you are a quick one, aren’t you?” Simon said. As he did, there was a ruckus and a great, black raven flew into the solarium from a doorway behind Peter, and landed itself atop a crooked perch. It looked down at Simon with a glassy eye that reminded Peter of volcanic stone. Simon ignored it. “Close encounter with a witch before?”

“My mother,” Peter supplied. 

Simon clicked his tongue. “Ah,” he said. “Very sorry. Well, you have my word, it’s for nothing more than satiating my own curiosity.”

That seemed well and good, and so he said, “Peter Lukas. Captain… Peter Lukas. Of the Tundra.”

“Captain,” Simon repeated with what Peter thought might have been a hint of delight in his voice. “Not very often I get to meet a captain. How wonderful. That was your wreck on the northern shore, then? Horrible disaster. One has to wonder how something so dreadful came to be.”

“There was a fog,” Peter said. He looked up at the raven. It did not seem to notice him in the same way that Simon noticed him.

Simon’s smile vanished. “A fog,” he repeated, and he was silent for a long moment, thinking about something. “I see…”

Peter took this silence as a mark against his character, and so he frowned, brows furrowing together, as he said. “It was unnatural. Fog like that, not the best sailor in the world could have found their way out of it.”

Simon blinked slowly. “Ah, no. No, no, you mustn’t think I’m slandering you.  The fog is quite… unique, in these parts. Has a will of its own, you might say. I dare say there was nothing you nor any soul upon your ship could have done to prevent the outcome.”

“Hm.” Peter was satisfied enough with that. 

Simon put his drink down. The raven quwork-ed. “I do hate to cut this introduction short,” he said, and he seemed… wary. Though of what, Peter couldn’t say. The mention of the fog seemed to have soured his mood. “But there’s a… house call, I should make.” The smile flickered across Simon’s face again. “Make yourself at home. I’m sure you’ll need some time to become… acquainted with your new situation.” He began to move towards the door with a speed Peter would not have expected of someone of Simon’s age. “Happy haunting.” And with that, he was gone. 

Peter stood in the solarium for a good long while, watching where Simon had left before he turned his gaze about the room and to the trees outside, watching the mists dancing through the pines. And, with nothing else to do but wander, so he went, and began to learn the halls of the house in the woods. All things considered, it was hardly the worst sort of afterlife. 

#tma #the mangus archives #fanfic #wip #peter lukas #simon fairchild #ghost!peter #witch!simon

[daniwib]

Hiiii 💕💕💕

For the fic never have I ever:

1) have you ever written anything about buddie and sleeping (like an insomnia fic, nightmares, cuddling and falling asleep, etc)?

2) have you ever written anything about buddie and chronic pain?

3.) have you ever written anything about buddie and hurt/comfort? What about angst?

4) have you ever written any sort of buddie AU?

-❤️🪐

Hey, hii!

(Me, holy shit, someone actually sent me an ask? Stay cool, stay cool, it’s cool everyone!)

(Also me, oh shit, I did not realise that this means I have to remember what I’ve written. Hmm. This may have been a mistake, I have the worst memory, I really do. Goes and checks out own ao3 profile for the answers…)

Ok here we go.

Nightmares. Oh hey look at that! I’ve actually got a fic with the word in its title, who knew! A spell for nightmares & fractured hearts is a short and fluffy lil fic about Buck helping Chris heal after the tsunami, and then Chris (and Eddie) helping Buck do the same. And because I’m allergic to fluff, I followed it up with part 2 in that series being long, whumpy and angsty. As for falling asleep, cuddling or insomnia, I can’t find anything in my quick search but I think I’ve written all of those in several of my fics, just not as a major part of the plot, more as part of the comfort part after the hurt usually.

Similar answer for chronic pain, I think? I’ve referenced it here and there in various fics but haven’t written on just about that. It’s a little bit too close to home for me, my dad has had 3 hip replacements (first because of major injury as a firefighter when I was 10, he fell through 3 floors in a burning building) so having lived with someone experiencing it, it doesn’t really appeal to me to write.

Buddie and hurt/comfort – um. Pretty much every single one of my Buddie fics?! I filtered my works with that tag and got 30 hits, so…. Here’s one I’m posting right now that I’m kinda proud of Pictures of You, in which Abuela dies post season 6, Eddie hurts and Buck comforts.

Buddie and angst – refer to above answer lol. If I had to choose a favourite, I think I’d choose empty, broken, lonely, hoping, my beloved presumed dead fic where Buck and Christopher are thought to have perished when Buck’s apartment building burns down and Eddie goes through several chapters of angst. It’s unrelenting really, poor guy. 4. Buddie AU – again, I’ve got several depending on your definition.

If you want a truly Alternate Universe, try I Once Was Lost. It’s a Peter Pan fusion where Buck is Peter, Eddie is Wendy Darling and almost all of the other characters feature in Neverland too. It covers from their childhood up until the end of season 5 and I have a particular soft spot in my heart for it.

If you prefer Canon Divergence, try There Walks Darkness. It’s basically What If Maddie didn’t kill Doug and he was arrested instead – and was one of the prisoners who took Buck and Eddie hostage in season 5? It features a lot of hurt Buck, Buck whump, worried Eddie and the 118, some of my favourite tropes to write.

And lastly, if you prefer supernatural AU, try Returned for a shorter read, which perhaps unsurprisingly is based on the movie and tv show… Returned.

Which reminds me of another supernatural AU that I can’t believe I forgot because I adore it! Trust Me, Darlin’ is my first collab, with the lovely @hella-cious! It's a Supernatural / 911 crossover in which Buck runs into an old hook up (Dean Winchester ofc) at a scene in LA and is promptly kidnapped before the 118’s eyes. Lots of angst and whump in this one and while there is Buck/Dean because lets face it, those two are far too hot not to ship together, it ends in Buddie (and Destiel too, for SPN fans!)

So, wow. There you go. This was a lot longer than I expected it to be but then I’ve never done one of these before. Thanks for being my first ask @steadfastsaturnsrings !!

#ask game #never have I ever #fanfic writing game #911 #buddie #supernatural #SPN #destiel #Peter Pan #Wendy Darling #evan buckley #eddie diaz #9-1-1 #911 abc #whump #angst #hurt/comfort #fanfiction #9-1-1 fanfiction

[shaymcsudonim]

Fuck it

Rambling Essay on Sir Pentious and Alastor as Narrative Foils 

Okay so, as a Christian myself, I like to apply the Jack Saint Test when analyzing stories about heaven, hell, and the afterlife. 

The original version of Mr. Saint’s test goes thus: whenever a story involves talking animals, it is either a story about animals, a thinly veiled story about humans, or a work that sends mixed messages and muddies its metaphors.  

For example, Shark Tale is a story about people. If all the characters were replaced with humans, the story would still make sense, as an odd couple buddy film about lying to the mafia (possibly a cannibal mafia, but I’ve seen weirder).  

Whereas something like Bambi would be difficult to transpose onto humans without a number of questions being raised. Such as why a hunter is killing a human mother, why the kid matures to an adult over the course of a single year, etc.  

And I’d say that the Land Before Time movies sent mixed messages and confused the hell out of me as a child. Anything where both the predators and prey were sapient and morally neutral freaked me out, tbh. 

Anyway, the religious version of the Jack Saint Test would be phrased thus: stories which involve heaven, hell, and the afterlife are either stories about Religion, stories about Morality, or stories using a particular Aesthetic. 

The Chronicles of Narnia are stories about Religion, specifically Christianity, complete with Lion Jesus and Bird Satan. Even if C.S. Lewis was using allegory, he was trying to convey information that was true in his worldview. 

The Good Place is a story about Morality. It doesn’t care in the slightest about what the afterlife might actually look like, or even if one exists. It merely uses the framework as a method for taking the audience along for a philosophic ride about the true nature of good and evil. 

Mairimashita! Iruma Kun is a story which uses religion as an aesthetic. It uses hell as a backdrop for an isekai story about making a found family out of demons. Superb, 10/10 would cry again. Not much to do with real-world religion, but it has some interesting notes on xeno-psychology, specifically on how morality might develop in sapient extremophiles.  

Hazbin Hotel straddles the line between Aesthetics and Morality. Specifically about judgment, punishment, and redemption, taking place in heaven and hell as conceived by pop culture. 

So yeah, St Peter as a blond white guy, demons being able to buy and sell souls like in Faust, or redemption being something possible to earn—none of those bother me, because this is clearly a story about the way that humans judge other humans in our mortal lives. It’s a modern myth, and a character-driven one at that. 

That being said, I am certainly grateful that they seem to be taking the veggietales route, and are trying to avoid depicting Furry Jesus, or God the Furry. It is an interesting detail that though ‘God’ and ‘Jesus Christ’ are used as expletives in-universe, Charlie mentions neither in her opening monologue in episode 1, she even avoids mentioning God by saying that the angels worship ‘good.’ 

Honestly, there might not be a God in this universe, and that would be a fascinating choice from a worldbuilding perspective. Although they might simply be going with the ‘clockwork creator’ route, since the angels were the ones who created Adam, Eve, and Lillith. 

Jesus not being mentioned in a story about redemption is kind of weird. Obviously, Charlie is the Christ-figure of the story. Or Anti-Christ figure as the case may be. But if the crucifixion happened, why is forgiveness a foreign concept to the angels? If it didn’t, why is ‘Jesus Christ’ a swear in universe? Is it a myth? A plot hole? 

As I said, the Doylist explanation is very obviously that they’re trying to avoid stirring up too much controversy (in the first season, at least). But considering the Watsonian one is a fascinating thought exercise. (“In 10,000 years you’re the first to change this town”? If there was a resurrection, it did nothing to change hell? I will just throw that thought into the corner and ignore it). 

Anyway, moving on from what the story didn’t say, what it did have to say is fascinating. 

Other people have already pointed out that comparing Hazbin Hotel to Helluva Boss, the Sinners seem to sink deeper into evil than the Hellborn, comparing Rosie to Beelzebub, Valentino to Asmodeus, and Alastor to Lucifer. 

And yeah, that’s a fair point. The angels and demons mostly just seem to be Normal Guys, doing their best. They have the expectation of living possibly forever unless killed, so they seem to place a greater value on stability of personality (most of them, at least). Whereas many of the humans died at the rock bottom of a self-destructive spiral and then continued to dig themselves deeper as demons. 

But the two characters I find most fascinating to compare are Alastor and Sir Pentious. I was not expecting those two to be foils, and was delighted at the contrast. 

I’m Ace myself, and I’m very used to the less ‘fuckable’ characters getting shoved into ‘redemption equals death,’ so I was feeling pretty cynical when Pentious’ ship got vaporized. Especially when Alastor had already survived.  

And then I thought, ‘wait, there was no narrative need for both of them to face death going up against Adam, not unless the story was making a point about it.’  

And then I started noticing more similarities. 

Even in the pilot, the two of them clashed, with Alastor considering Sir Pentious to be beneath his notice until the other demon ripped his coat. 

In terms of similarities, both are ambitious, with Alastor desiring power and freedom, and Pentious longing for recognition and accomplishment.  

Both make deals in pursuit of power. Alastor gathering the souls of those with less power than he has, and Pentious spying for Vox and building war machines for conquest. 

Their strengths and weaknesses, however, are different. Alastor is cold and competent, but allergic to trust and sincerity. Pentious is creative and sincere, though hot-blooded and pompous. 

Now, the series is far from over, but in the first season at least, it was humility that saved Pentious and pride that damned Alastor. 

Pentious is a buffoon. He’s not charismatic, at least not at first, but he’s not afraid to put his whole heart into anything he’s doing. He fails as a spy, fails as a paramour, fails as a hero. But he didn’t fail as a friend. 

 Alastor succeeds at infiltrating the Hotel and gaining Charlie’s regard, as well as a very literal favor from Hell’s Princess. He succeeds as an overlord. He succeeds in surviving his fight with Adam. 

But he failed to redeem himself. 

Now, don’t get me wrong, “I acknowledge that you are my friends, but I won’t die for you,” is huge progress. If Alastor didn’t want to be redeemed, he should have killed Charlie before she adopted him. She will never give up on him now, and Alastor is already as good as doomed.  

...saved, I meant saved.  

Ahem. 

But—see, here’s the thing. 

Alastor was so CLOSE. 

Alastor the manipulator, the dealmaker, hedged his bets and took steps towards obtaining what he wants more than anything else right now: freedom and power. That’s what all his scheming and plotting is aiming for.  

But he’s only working towards it. He doesn’t have anything to show for it yet. 

Sir Pentious, pure of heart, dumb of ass, gave his life for his friends, the ultimate act of love. (“Greater love hath no man than this: that he give up his life for his friends.”) 

And do you know what Sir Pentious has now? 

Power and Freedom.  

He’s quite possibly a Seraph, so he might even be third in heaven’s hierarchy? Certainly, Emily was thrilled to meet him, and the more sincere heaven-born and the heaven-bound humans will no doubt flock to support him in any efforts he makes to save his friends. 

(I wouldn’t be shocked if the egg boys have been spawning as stupid but well-intentioned cherubs for years now, so he might very well have friends already. If nothing else, I’m hoping that Dazzle makes it to heaven.) 

It’s just, after I had already separated this story from Christianity in my head, it hits me with a quite literal version of, “He who seeks to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Not that Pentious literally died for Jesus, but “whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done for me.” Emotionally, it resonates the same.) 

So yeah, Hazbin Hotel sometimes blends Aesthetic, Morality, and Religion, somewhat muddying the metaphorical water in the process. 

But mostly, it’s still a character-driven myth. 

And I’m looking forward to season 2. 

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel spoilers #spoilers #long post

[initiumseries]

Across the Spiderverse Review

Okay! I will preface this saying, I want to see it a second time because there was SO MUCH STUFF, and it was beautiful and amazing and I just think there was so much detail in all of it that I need another watch so I can absorb what I missed in this pass. That being said, this will mostly be a stream of consciousness kind of thing but I will try to keep it into pros and cons. Naturally, there are **SPOILERS** here.

I’m going to start with cons because there were so few and I want to end on a good note. 

Con #1: We start with Gwen’s story. I came to see Miles Morales. The last movie we spent a lot of time with Peter too, and I just don’t like that Mile’s really interesting story is split between these secondary, less interesting, white characters. Miles is going through this huge crisis of identity, and I’m wasting time sitting here watching Gwen lamenting her own issues, only for her to turn around and betray Miles the way she did? Pass. I’m not interested in Gwen’s interiority, I don’t care how much she’s struggling with trying to do the right thing or whatever. This is Miles’ story. Let me get into Miles’ interiority. I felt like most of the time we were watching Miles instead of getting into Miles’ head, and going through those rollercoaster of emotions with him, and watching him struggle. Gwen gets a voice over about herself, her life, her best friend Peter, a LOT about Peter and a little of her friendship with Miles, Miles’ voice over is weighed down by his feelings about Gwen and rehashing what we already know. Like, a whole sketchbook full of Gwen? Really? Ugh. 

Now onto the pros: 

Art Pros: This movie is fucking beautiful.  

I LOVE that every universe has its own design style, and I LOVED how they made sure every web slinger had his own way of slanging them webs. Such amazing detail. I saw a storyboarder on twitter talking about how his approach with Gwen, since the note was that she be more like a ballerina, was having Gwen swing like a gymnast and use banned gymnastic moves in her webslinging. LOVE. 

I found out from a friend that Miles is animated on 2s and Miguel is animated on 1s and some other characters animated on 3s and 4s and that means nothing to you if you aren’t in animation, but again, the care and detail? Miguel being animated on 1s means his movements will be sharp, precise, piercing and fast. Which sums up his personality (barring the unhinged element). Miles being animated on 2s, how we normally would animate classically, means exactly that. I just think that’s SO WONDERFUL. *full geek out mode* 

I’m OBSESSED with the fact that you can see Spot’s construction lines?? 

I geeked out SO HARD when I saw these because it’s SO cool and fun, and construction lines are something you usually hide, so to include it I was like...oh this is ART art. 

This kind of animation???? 

The bowed legs, the reach in and wiggle?!?! The wiggle!?!??! THIS children, is what we call character animation. 

His hand just...flopping off the shelf? The impact of his weight as he leans on the shelf? GUYS. GUUUUUYSSSSS. 

These are small details but oh my god do they elevate a scene. These animators deserve ALL the awards. 

Hobie. Now Hobie...he’s gonna be in both story and art. Because omfg. 

When I found out he needed a hidden secret rig underneath his actual rig, before I saw the movie, I was like...why on EARTH would you do that? And then I saw the movie and was like...oh. YEAH. Sometimes you do that. And the results? Fucking phenomenal. Hobie said he was inconsistent and his style kept changing. BRILLIANT STUFF. 

 I love a tasteful meme jokey joke. 

Okay! I have to cut myself off, onto story pros: 

I love that Mile’s crisis of identity isn’t just rooted in his being spiderman and Miles. His mother being APPALLED he has a B in spanish, and then trying to talk to him in spanish and not just spanglish was such a nice additional layer to everything else going on with him. I love that when he finally works up the courage to tell his mother he’s Spiderman, he’s in the wrong universe (which I’ll get to). 

Miles wanting SO badly to be a part of something, and then finding out there’s a whole universe of spider folks, and just the successive disappointments in Gwen as he found out more information was good. I also like that because he wants so badly to be involved, he’s not being critical, and it’s Hobie who keeps trying to help him gain some perspective despite him being jealous over stupid Gwen. 

I love that Hobie says, I hate the AM and the PM (I did NOT catch that the first time! Hahaha brilliant). Him stealing throughout the fight over the collider? Then seeing the pay off later with Gwen? AMAZING. Him quitting when shit hits the fan? Perfect. Hobie is a fave.

THIS moment. 

The fact that when Miles finally figures out that Miguel means for him to let his canon event of his father dying go through without interruption, and decides he doesn’t actually want to be a part of this new crew, it’s Hobie’s advice and Spider Byte’s  choosing to not stop the machine, that helps him. After the serious disappointment of the white people around him, it’s Black people he just meets that step up to the plate to support him, young Black people on top of it. That wasn’t an accident and is a very typical experience. I am already shipping him and Spider Byte and i NEED that to be a thing in the final movie. 

I actually really like the idea that Miguel is a villain. He’s so rigid in his thinking, and so myopic, he refuses to see there’s any other way to do things. So while he thinks he’s the good guy, and is leading the good guys, he’s leading them astray, and I think it really speaks to how sometimes you can live long enough to see yourself become a villain and have to stay constantly vigilant and interrogate yourself a lot and not be closed to a new way of doing things, like Miles. MAN did that fight scene where he rips Miles to shreds about being an anomaly HURT. So good. 

Miles’ father struggling to relate to him, only for us to realize that he has a bigger impact on Miles than we think, especially with the way it seems like Miles is pushing him away. But then, we meet, fucking PROWLER MILES?!?! SO. FUCKING. GOOD. 

I noticed right away, when Prowler!Miles started talking and the way he rolled his Rs, even how he’s wearing his hair. With his father gone, Miles’ mother’s influence on him culturally is very clear. Not a bad thing, just a beautiful detail. His uncle’s influence on him leads him to be the prowler, where his dad kept him on the straight and narrow. I LOVE THAT. I love the possibility that Miles meeting himself in this other universe could solidify for him that saving his father is the right thing to do, the necessary thing to do. Or it could shake his confidence. I guess we’ll find out. 

Miles being sent to another universe was SO FUN. They’re very clear this machine uses your DNA to send you where you belong!! Why did it send him there? The theory that it’s because the spider that bit him was from another universe and that it altered his DNA so he ends up here, and I think that’s a salient theory and I love that idea. I think it’s so perfect and thorough. 

I loved that there were so many little moments in this movie that were subtle, but making a clear, progressive statement. This movie was so CLEARLY made by artists, for artists, but also for fans, for the average movie goer, and people who just like good stories. To be able to fold all that in together is amazing and fantastic, and there’s more I’d like to say but this post is already really long and I’ll be seeing it again and will be gushing about it then too. But if you haven’t seen it, or are on the fence, SEE THIS DAMN MOVIE. 

1500/10

#across the spiderverse #miles morales #hobie brown #pavitr prabhakar #fantastic movie

[what-gs-watching]

“There is only room for one God in this lab and it's not yours."

Welp, my city has decided that it forgot how weather works, and we’re snowed in and there’s a frozen pipe in my goddamn basement and I finished an interview loop for a company last week so I’m just sitting here trapped in my house and waiting desperately for any news on if they might hire me and it’s not going amazing SO, 

It’s time for a FRINGE BINGE. 

I saw a post a week or two ago that Fringe might be leaving Max at the end of the month, and I couldn’t let it go without a rewatch. It’s one of the reasons I started playing “What G’s Watching” with my husband - he’d seen it when it first came out and I thought maybe he’d remember some of it and could understand my rambling, because you need some kind of background to truly grasp what the eff is happening in Fringe. He didn’t. But that didn’t stop me from becoming completely obsessed. 

Even when I’m not rewatching, sometimes I’ll yell “PREVIOUSLY ON FRINGE” when the show I’m actually enjoying does a recap. I don’t know why it’s stuck in my brain, but it doesn’t matter, I love it.

Here’s the thing about Fringe: it’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s like X-Files on acid (or Walter’s Brown Bettty?). The science is ridiculous and honestly it’s difficult to follow the lore sometimes, especially the first time through it. But it’s weirdly captivating and it tugs at your heart strings, which doesn’t make any sense.

Basically, FBI agent Olivia Dunham gets sucked into a special division that investigates weird occurrences that seem to have to do with ‘fringe science’, and she ends up enlisting Peter Bishop and his genius scientist father, Walter Bishop (who’d spent almost twenty years in a mental institution) to help her get to the bottom of what the eff is going on.

AND THEN THINGS GET CRAZY. 

They pump so much backstory into this show. There’s monsters of the week, sure, but every single character has a whole damn room full of skeletons and it was so much fun trying to puzzle all of that shit out the first time. In my rewatch so far, I’m picking up a ton of little random clues and I’m loving it. It’s clear that J. J. Abrams had some IDEAS. 

Also, I’ve never watched Lost, (and I never will, I put my foot down on that)  but I can confidently say this is the better J. J. Abrams show. The ending doesn’t make you ridiculously angry you watched the whole thing. So there’s that. 

Honestly, there’s too much I love about this show. The whole alternate universe plotline for one, which creates some of my favorite moments. But it’s mainly about Peter and Walter. At its core, this stupid show is about their father son relationship, and how far people are willing to go  to protect their family. Which is weird, but also perfect. 

Before the mental institution, Walter was a little bit of a sociopath, pursuing scientific enhancements, consequences be damned. He was a shit person. He ran tests on children, he fucked with the fabric of the universe. No fucks given, that man. But the Walter we get for most of the show is just…oddly charming. Quirky in his brilliance, instead of calculating. And it’s FUNNY and endearing. 

Olivia brings in another agent to help corral Walter in his resurrected lab beneath Harvard, Astrid, and he spends most of the series calling her anything but. “Astro”, “Astrix”, etc. It’s not malicious, he just can’t hold the information, as much as he appreciates the work she does with him. Like, how does that turn out to just be kind of cute? 

Some of my favorite made-up words are from Walter.  “Vagenda”, for one. Which is ‘vagina agenda’ obviously. As in, “Peter fell for her vagenda”, which had me rolling. Even if it came about during a storyline that made me absolutely FURIOUS, but in the best of ways. (There was a lot of time wherein I was yelling at my husband about how much I hated “Fauxlivia” and her vagenda, but honestly I don’t want to spoil it because the twists and turns this show takes are so wonderful, they should be experienced with absolutely no background.)

The whole thing with Walter is that he’s atoning for the sins of his past, even if he doesn’t really realize it at first, and it’s just, really comforting. His entire arc is compelling and satisfying, even if it leaves you a crying mess. 

Also, Peter Bishop is forever my perfect New England boyfriend. At first I’m not sure who they wanted him to be exactly, but eventually he smoothed out into just an earnest, genius, gorgeous man trying to do the right thing and get past all of the hurt Walter caused him. They put him in devastatingly handsome peacoats and he saves the day and he’s sweet to Olivia and I just spend most of the time swooning. That smile, gang.

Is it because I fell in love with Pacey Witter as a young girl during Dawson’s Creek’s heyday? 98% yes. I will always love Joshua Jackson and Pacey was done dirty for a while. And come to think of it, Peter was too. It’s his thing, apparently. 

I do  realize Olivia is supposed to be the main character probably, but she gets me to my two favorite guys so I guess she’s fine. Anna Torv is wonderful, she plays Dunham really well (which I imagine was grueling given some of the storylines) but the Bishops are the stars of the show. I just want to squeeze both of them.

The crazy thing is there are some episodes that will destroy you emotionally. The white tulip? Jesus. That one just came up in my rewatch, and it was still a punch in the face the second time. There’s one where Walter gets lost in Chinatown, I had to literally mute it because it’s gut wrenching. Even with the silliness and the science that makes you roll your eyes, they make you look at things you don’t want to, and it can hurt. I love/hate that so much. 

And look, I understand that the moral of the show is that science and technology can be dangerous and we shouldn’t let it get away from us because it could eventually cause the downfall of everything, but that’s not what I’m here for. I’m always here for the relationships. And the ridiculous ways we can get people to die. And the outlandish scifi. If you wanna remind me of things that I don’t want to think about in between that, I guess it’s okay, because it makes no sense, but when I think of Fringe, it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy. It’s not a warm and fuzzy show, but it is for me. 

I started watching it because it was a complete series that had a purposeful ending and I needed something, but it turned into a lot more than that. I’m jealous of people who can see it for the first time. It’s just so…special. In weird and wonderful ways. There will never be another character quite like Walter Bishop. Or a truly realized tv universe as outlandish. They swung for the fences, and it really landed; vagenda, the observers, Walternate, and all. 

Let Walter charm the shit out of you, you won’t be disappointed.

#what g's watching #fringe #peter bishop #walter bishop #joshua jackson #olivia dunham

[henrysglock]

Pulling @krokodilsredimudil'stags from this post

OKAY THIS IS SOMETHING IVE BEEN CHEWING ON FOR A LONG TIME!!

Now, I don't have a full "analysis", but I've got a web of things I've noticed.

Let's start by looking at an Observer (September pictured here):

Bald, grey suit, darker tie. They can both see and move within past, present, and future. They exist outside of time, a new branch of humanity from an alternate future. They're guardians of the timeline, making alterations to ensure that specific ends are reached.

Now, there's a certain character this sounds a whole lot like, who we've discussed before in the context of Vecna/001: Dr. Osterman/Dr. Manhattan.

He can also see past, present, and future all at once, and he can manipulate the universe to get his desired ends.

Particularly, though, what connects him to Vecna/001:

Dr. Manhattan's theme, Prophecies by Phillip Glass, which comes from the documentary Koyaanisqatsi, plays over young Henry/Edward's introduction in 4.07.

As Dr. Osterman becomes a blue, super-powered, pseudo-God "Dr. Manhattan"...so, too, does 001 when he becomes Vecna:

The 001 -> Vecna transformation sequence is beat-for-beat the same as Dr. Osterman's transformation into Dr. Manhattan:

So this all already puts Vecna tangentially into the realm of Observers.

But what makes this paralleling interesting is this:

That man is not Jamie Bower. Period. The man we're told becomes Vecna is not Jamie Bower.

For reference...here's Jamie Bower under similar lighting/injury:

Proto-Vecna? Not the same (as I've detailed here and here).

He may not look like Jamie, but he does look like Modine/Brenner:

(as I've detailed here)

Meaning if we hand-wave and mumble a little to tie Brenner and Vecna together, we get a true Dr. Manhattan-type character. A doctor who fucked around and found out and ended up a fucked up blue pseudo-God.

Which becomes even more interesting when we consider that, from a certain point pre-Gate, Brenner does not change outfits. He always wears a dark grey suit and a darker tie...just like an Observer.

(This exact costuming detail has been driving me batty because it makes it impossible to put Brenner's scenes in chronological order. He's always wearing the same thing, meaning I have to rely on the outfits of those around him to try and piece it together, which is...insanity-inducing)

This becomes even more interesting when we consider that William Bell had plans to create a brand new universe out of the decimation of the existing two and act as the God of that universe.

Which, initially that makes you go:

"Okay, that's a 001 thing"

Except...

However, he does so with just a shit ton of chess references, much akin to how Henry describes Brenner in NINA:

While also being heavily Brenner paralleled in shot choices and character design:

And here's Bell's New Universe plus its inhabitants, as compared to demodogs:

However, after having his plans thwarted, Bell then pairs up with the Observers, selling the Fringe team out to them in Season 5, which leads them into the final timeline reset.

We also know, from season 5 of Fringe, that "normal" humans can become observers by co-opting their technology:

(peep the Bowie reference)

And we have a Brenner who is a) in direct connection with William Bell and the cortexiphan trials and b) is not located by the end of Fringe.

So like...I have nothing but questions, honestly! I wonder if Brenner is somehow tied to that Brenner, and if he has Observer-like abilities the way Peter does when he co-opts the Observers' technology. Our Brenner predates cortexiphan, and he predates Walter/Bell's discovery of the alternate timelines...

So who's to say he's not tied to Fringe's Brenner? Our Brenner is known for his LSD trials in pursuit of pushing the limits of human ability.

I mean, the Duffers even go so far as to say that Brenner was looking for Henry to show him "other worlds about how our universe works".

That's textbook Fringe. That's textbook Bell and Bishop. Were Stranger Things to be something of an offshoot, Brenner would be in exactly the same line of work as Bell and Bishop. Hell, Richard Brenner in ST could very well be meant to be tied to Fringe's Brenner. We just don't know, and we won't until Season 5.

I just... [REDACTED] Brenner, William Bell, Walter Bishop, Peter "Test Subject 01" Bishop, Olivia "Subject 13" Dunham, Henry Dunham, Henrietta Bishop, Ella and Eddie Blake (named for his grandfather, Eddie Dunham). Martin Brenner, Richard Brenner, Peter Ballard, Peter Owens, William Byers, William Hargrove, Henry/Edward "001" Creel, El "011" [REDACTED], Eddie Munson...etc., etc. into eternity.

Bell, Bishop, Brenner.

Anyway, I do have a working graphic for this web of connections, though:

#martin brenner #william bell #henry/vecna/001 #timeline theory #stranger things #fringe x stranger things