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professorspork · 3 years

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Hot take, perhaps, but if/when Penny 3.0 happens I don't think she should have Floating Array, etherial or otherwise. It's just too bound up with her self-image as a Weapon instead of a Person. If Penny gets a sword, it needs to be a sword she can put down.

This is-- a fascinating take! I’m not sure I agree with it, but I think there’s some meaty ideas here worth unpacking. And I do think we agree on the fundamental premise (i.e. Penny’s autonomy needs to be foregrounded above all).

You assert that Penny’s current problem is that she sees herself as a Weapon and not a Person, and I don’t think that’s exactly the case.

One of the things I admire most about Penny is is that when people try and tell her who (or, insultingly, what) she is, she quietly but assertively refutes them. Though early on her conviction in her own personhood was somewhat shaky, when her friends encouraged her she took it to heart. After Ruby “I Love You And Your Beautiful Soul” Rose told her that she was real and Winter “Everyone’s Feelings Are Valid Except For Mine” Schnee told her that her opinions mattered, she got-- really quite bullish about this. To illustrate:

Random citizen: It's Ironwood's robot! Robyn: [suspicious] Penny. Penny: I-- I didn't! [7.06, A Night Off]

Vine: I thought you were supposed to protect the people, not hurt them. Penny: I would never hurt anyone. Elm: Well Winter’s in critical condition, because of you. Harriet: And you repaid her by stealing the power that should have been hers. Penny: But taking the Maiden power was the only way to stop-- [8.03, Strings]

Cinder: You’re just a tool to be used! Penny: You do not know what you are talking about. ... Cinder: I don’t serve anyone. And you wouldn’t either, if you weren't built that way. Penny: That is not… I choose to fight for people who care about me. [8.05, Amity]

Which isn’t to say Penny isn’t prone to self-doubt, because she absolutely is, or that Penny doesn’t have a self-sacrifice streak a mile wide, because she absolutely does. But Penny wouldn’t have that reflexive, Janet-saying-“Not-a-girl”-style reaction to people telling her she’s nothing but a weapon unless she genuinely thought they were wrong. She’s not defensive, in these moments, even though she’s defending herself. She’s certain.

Maybe this is me splitting hairs with your argument, but I don’t think Penny’s issue is that she sees herself as a weapon. It’s that she sees herself as a hero. Not just a soldier, but THE soldier. The Protector of Mantle. She’s not Winter; she’s not most comfortable when she’s got orders she can hide behind so she can reassure herself she’s doing the right thing because someone else already did that math. She’s-- she’s Spider-Man. She feels a tremendous responsibility to save everyone she can, because that’s what you do. And yes that’s also, literally, what she was built for, so I can see where the argument is coming from, but I think it matters that the argument’s being made about someone from Remnant.

And on Remnant, your weapon is an extension of who you are.

We’ve never, as far as I can remember, seen anyone straight up switch their weapon. Ironwood made the nuke attachment for his pistols, but it’s still Due Process underneath. Maria only carries one of her two canes, now, but she didn’t make any design changes. Same with Yang and (lefty) Ember Celica. Jaune gave Crocea Mors substantial upgrades, but it’s fundamentally the same weapon; Blake chose to solder Gambol Shroud back together rather than replace it... and if anyone had an argument that using the same weapon might be too traumatic, it would be her. I mean, hell, the Messrs Oz have been using the same staff for millennia.

Weapons aren’t something you turn your back on. I don’t think it’s something that would occur to people. It would be like-- like turning off your Aura. That’s you.

Unless, of course, you’re Cinder.

Cinder gave up on Midnight after the Beacon arc, and we’ve never seen it since. She relies exclusively on Maiden weapons instead-- some of which she molds into forms quite similar to her old swords or bow, but still. She tossed it aside. This follows the logic of the show: Cinder discarded the weapons, and with them the person she used to be, when she found it all to be lacking. Instead, she embraces what she sees as a higher form of power.

I don’t think Penny would think of Floating Array that way; as a sign of her failure. Nor do I think she’d see it as the prophesy/burden your take implies.

Granted, Watts used a sword from Floating Array in order to get access to her code and install the virus; it ended up being the vector for a huge breach of autonomy and violation of consent. But so was Tyrian using Harbinger to murder Clover, and Qrow’s still using it.

And granted, Penny didn’t choose Floating Array in the same way most people chose or designed their own weapons. She was born with it; activated combat-ready. But then, that’s not so different from Jaune inheriting Crocea Mors, is it? It might not be what either of them would have selected or been most suited for if they’d had the chance to say for themselves at the start, but... well, we’re far from the start, now. And Penny does choose Floating Array, when it matters. When she conjures weapons in her new, self-created body, she instinctively reaches for what she knows, what’s familiar. Her father’s providence. So for me, the moment you’re alluding to... it’s already happened. The whole point of leveraging Ambrosius’ limitations in the way they did is that Penny is separated from the parts of her that can be weaponized-- she watches her synthetic body eat itself, consumed by its own self-destructive urges. It doesn’t get much more metaphor-made-literal than that!

What remains, then, is Penny. And Penny uses Floating Array.

If Penny comes back and doesn’t resume the Winter Maidenhood (which I think is... low on the list of options, given Winter’s desperation and the likelihood that Maiden transference shenanigans are going to be a part of the vehicle that allows Penny to return in the first place), then she won’t have a choice. Either because that will mean she’s back in a 3.0 robot body (in which case it’s the same lack of choice she always had; Pietro wouldn’t give her an unfamiliar weapon after all that) or because she’s a Regular Normal Flesh Gal now and unless her Semblance is telekinesis (which it may be!!! we don’t know!!!) a weapon like Floating Array just isn’t on the table. But all of that, as I’ve already laid out, has to contend with so many unknown factors. How she comes back, and in what form, and at which time.

If Penny does end up designing a wholly new weapon, to me that would signal total transformation, given the rules and themes of the world. And that... well, it depends on the execution, I suppose, but I think I’d find that a little alarming. That she’d choose to have so little of her old self in her new form. But on the other hand, maybe I’m dead wrong there! That could also be read as yet another gorgeous act of creation by the Maiden best suited to it; it could be Penny choosing to yes-and herself into doubling down on her identity. She could be SO MUCH of a person that she, and she alone, gets to make a new weapon for her new self. I’m not against any of that!

But even if that’s the case, I still think we’d see the hard light version of Floating Array again, especially if we have a Maidenbowl Redux. Even if I were to concede to your point that it’s too bound up in her self-image issues, that doesn’t imply to me that she’d have to move beyond it. If she’s to contend with herself, if she’s to decide she’s a person and not a weapon as you lay out, she’s going to put all of herself in the effort. As the speech goes, it’s a part of her. Even if it’s just a part, that’s still... a part. And this show has never been about severing yourself from your broken bits; it’s been about embracing them tenderly and letting them actually heal.

...also, Floating Array is *checks notes* cool.

#rwby #penny polendina #Anonymous

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aftgficrec · 3 years

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Hi Hi! All right with you? So happy that this is open! Thank you for all the hard work, guys, lots of love for you! So, I would like it very much if you would give me a compilation of supernatural andreil of any kind, or with powers and these superhero moves! Bonus if in the fic Andrew decides to protect Neil!

We have trawled through our posts and dug up as much of our previously recommended fics with supernatural/superpower elements as possible. We’ve probably missed something, but you can always check our supernatural or superheroes/superpowers tag for more.

This list by no means represents all there is to find out there (and let’s be grateful to those hard working authors who add daily to the aftg tag on ao3), but hopefully we’ve given you a good starting point.

As for a protective Andrew, the fics we’ve chosen to highlight in this post should fulfil that requirement. Enjoy the read! - S

Previous recommendations

supernatural elements:

supernatural/monster/spooky fics here

cryptids/adventurecore/supernatural here

horror/supernatural fics here

cryptidcore fics here

staff recs oct 2020 (Halloween/spookiness) here

autumnal/spooky fics here

Neil with wings and magic here

immortal Andreil here

immortal Neil/Andrew here

demon!Neil here

angels & demons here

werewolf aus here

vampire Neil here

vampire Andrew here

vampire aus here

shadowhunters aus here

daemon aus here

harry potter aus here, here and here

fairie aus here

fave fantasy fics here

magic/urban fantasy here

Neil as a fantasy creature here

Neil as a familiar here

Neil as a shapeshifter here

long fae aus here

Cursed! here

‘The Corpse Road’ here

‘The Ghost In You’ here

‘Abram Isn’t Dead’ here

‘F.O.X.E.S. Division’ here

‘A Hole In The World’ here

‘Who You Gonna Call?’ here

‘devil’s got us all in his pockets’ here

‘Spookies & Cream’ here

‘(don’t fear) the reaper’ here

‘The Monsters Under the Bed’ here

‘I just wanted to protect you’ here

‘The War Behind Your Face; And I’ll Express My Inner Rage’ here

‘Fang and Claw and Tooth and Nail’ here

‘Sunday in a Six-Day-War’ and ‘Bump in the Night’ here

‘Haunted: Not Clickbait’ here

‘the haunted walls of the wesninski house’ here

‘some ghosts are real enough (to be felt)’ here (since updated)

‘dangerous magics’ here

‘Not all that glitters is gold’ here

‘Since the beginning’ series here

‘Magesong’ here (now complete)

‘Raise Your Spirits’ and ‘cover me (the enchanted ink remix)’ here

‘Heartlines’ here

‘Under A Sea of Mist’ here

‘Blood On My Name’ and ‘Unbound’ here

‘Ghosts That We Knew’ here (now complete)

‘running with the wolves’ here

‘high up in the hills of california’ series here

‘great minds against themselves conspire’ here

‘Sent to Drain’ here

superheroes/superpowers:

superpowers AUs here

Foxes with superpowers here

more powered foxes here

My Hero Academia aus here

Spider-Man aus here

Sense8 aus here

‘The Darkest Hearts’ here

‘heaven and hell (were words to me)’ here

‘The Fall’ here

‘We could be heroes’ here

‘Andrew is Not Emused’ here

‘The 148’ here

Andrew as Neil’s protector:

band aid on a broken heart by thatsabitgay [Rated T, 8405 words, complete, 2020]

Neil casually kicked one of the dead bodies' arms out of the way and grimaced when the act caused him to stain his sneakers with blood. "Aw, shit. These were new as well."

Dagger glanced behind him at Neil from where he was crouched before another corpse. He was checking for a pulse, Neil presumed. "A tragedy. Quite possibly the worst thing that could have happened." His voice was as monotonous as ever.

tw: violence, tw: implied/referenced torture

The Problem with Flying by TheBashfulPoet [Rated G, 4798 words, complete, Aftg Exchange 2019]

Andrew has a problem and it starts and ends with Neil fucking Josten. At first, he was only annoying — always popping into Andrew’s life at the most inconvenient times and making it more complicated at every turn. Then he was amusing, a break from the mundane that were people and his daily life. But now, now he was just a problem — a problem Andrew was finding that he didn’t know how to handle or solve.

Or 3 times Andrew has to hide his secret identity from Neil + 1 time he didn't

tw: cartoon violence

Run for Cover by rorschachs [Rated T, 64549 words, complete 2019]

Part 1 of The Others AU

Neil thought that the most dangerous part of his new job would be his werewolf boss. Andrew Minyard seems determined to prove him wrong.

tw: canon-typical violence, tw: blood, tw: self harm, tw: implied/referenced torture

Every Time a Bell Rings by fuzzballsheltiepants [Rated M, 56704 words, complete, 2018]

Nathaniel has been lost since his mother died. According to the authorities, he died too, in the shootout that killed his father. In reality, he's been dragging himself along from town to town, sleeping on the streets, lacking even a name. He's not sure how he's been surviving, or if it's even worth it anymore.

Andrew has been stuck in the waiting room of the Afterlife, reading the same stupid pamphlets and listening to the same terrible music, ever since he was collateral damage in the car wreck that eliminated his mother. Until he gets a chance to take over the guardianship of one particularly difficult person and possibly earn his wings--if he can keep the idiot alive.

Basically, an It's a Wonderful Life AU featuring our favorite Foxes.

tw: depression, tw: suicide attempt, tw: temporary major character death

some more recent wips to enjoy:

Here With You by likearecord [Rated T, 9543 words, incomplete, last updated April 2021]

It turns out, there's no more imaginative torturer than your own mind.

Almost no one escapes on their own.

But how can you trust a stranger in hell?

In Andrew's defense, I don't know what this is either.

tw: implied/referenced abuse

North Star by justadreamfox [Rated T, 8371 words, incomplete, last updated April 2021]

The world as they knew it ended in ice and snow, sparing only the strong and clever. What's left has been forged through a bloody war for territory - shifter against shifter. The battles have mostly been fought, but they're not done yet - there are lingering threats to address and a New World to build.

But really, Andrew just wants more than a few stolen moments with Neil and time to figure out what this really means.

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seaswalllow · 3 years

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(warning for; implied violence and death, discussion of violence and death.)

athazagoraphobia

your name is nothing. you do not need a name. you have never needed a name, only the fear and the knife in your hand.

you’ve known fear. watched deer break their legs as they flee, and bray as the wolf pounces. watched shepherds tumble down cliffs, bears crash through frozen lakes into the icy depths.

death is your birthright. fear is your bread, and adrenaline your butter.

and then you blink, and you are watching a boy of 12 steadfastly avoid his own eyes in the mirror at midnight.

you smile. he does not see the way that the glass shudders and warps to match. you have seen empires crack under their own weight, and gorged yourself upon the last, desperate cries for help from sunken ships. yet something, something thrums under the skin of this little boy, oily and afraid, and you think that you will be sated indeed by the magic curling underneath.

come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly…

hello?

there’s plenty to see, and plenty to feast, by the by…

who’s there?

beware the strings, and beware the knife-

i’m not scared-

oh, bull-fucking-shit. i can hear your heartbeat from miles away.

who- who are you?

you. well, the you that you’re afraid to see in the mirror.

i’m not afraid-

oh, for fuck’s sake, don’t make us do this again. i don’t appear unless you’re afraid. and for whatever reason, your jackrabbit-y little heart decided to pound hard enough to let me know where to pop up. do you really think that you can lie to us about the one thing that’s summoned me?

us? are there-

you. and me. let me tell you, as your new shadow, you can’t lie to yourself any more than you can lie to me.

… i don’t want you as my shadow, what do you mean-

hah. sorry, kiddo, you don’t get a choice.

sleep tight, jackaboy. who knows; maybe on your first night, i won’t bite.

it’s as amusing the tenth time as it is the first time. leaning out of the mirror, you tap your knife on his shoulder. he yelps. he spins, and then he runs.

this is the first time that you are able to peel out of the mirror and into his shadow in time.

you don’t pay any attention to it, at first. the distance that you must keep ebbs and flows.

anti, stop, he pleads, stumbling over roots, leaping over fallen trunks as he delves further, and further into the forest. joy crackles through your veins, and the shadows at the edges of your vision resolve into crisp focus. you feel alive like you have never before.

what the fuck did you just call me?

i- anti, i couldn’t just keep calling you nothing-

you can’t stop smiling. joy sings through you, crisp and clean, sharper than the claws digging into your palm.

say that again.

..what?

anti?

what a stupid name.

you’ve caught him, as always. you will always catch him. but this time- this time you are marvelling at the oilslick rainbows playing through your shadows, the sharp breath in your lungs, the burn of the chase in your chest.

and then one day, when you catch him, you feel the steel of the blade as it presses into the back of his neck. you feel it in your hands, you feel a ghost of it on you.

being a shadow means just that: you’re disconnected. you can feed, you can see, you can touch, but you cannot be touched. for the better part of centuries, you have had only the velvet darkness to wrap around you, and that was that.

and along comes a boy of 14 with old magic, old fear carved into his bones, and with a name, he has done the impossible.

he’s made you.

you are never afraid. you are the fear.

there is fear, cold and familiar, coiling in your gut, reflecting off of bared teeth and a blade.

you drive him off, and then you sink down, into the shadows, onto an overgrown forest floor that prickles at you, and against a tree that digs into your back. splinters dig themselves deep under impossible skin, and you laugh until it sounds like you’re screaming. it burns.

it burns, it burns, and you love it, and you hate it.

you can’t let him see you like this. not now, not ever.

he sleeps better than he ever has that night. and you just watch.

(you will berate yourself for that, later. it will only prove his point, later, when you are older and angrier.)

but for now, you let the headiness of your giddy joy rush through you. it’s not as sweet as toddler’s; not as finely nuanced as an elder’s. but it will do, and when your jackrabbit tells you i’ve never seen you smile this wide, i’ve never seen it reach your eyes, it is the only thing that prevents you from following through with your threat of carving him into much less joyous pieces.

and then quite abruptly, the soap bubble pops.

he’s made you, and that means that he’s changed you. you take that knife-sharp paranoia, and shape it. hone it, until you can hold it just above the tender skin that pulses atop his jugular, in the pitch black night. you are not afraid; you are the fear, and you will use it as you can.

how did you do it?

how- how did i do what? anti, anti, put the knife away. you’ve never come this close, put it away.

how did you make that name? nobody’s made a name before.

did nobody think to?

why would they? fear doesn’t need a name. you don’t need words to feel your wheezing breath and the way that your hands go all icy numb in the way that you hate because you can’t move fast enough, and never will.

that sounds so lonely.

to you, maybe. solitude’s the worst, isn’t it? ‘cause there’s nothing left to be scared of except what you dream up in that thick little noggin of yours. who knows- it might be a monster with sharp teeth like mine, or it might be a slower death.

answer my question.

how did you do it?

i don’t know! i just did! i just- you’re everything i’m not. we’re not. so i-

so you named me anti and it fucking stuck. somehow. after decades upon centuries, a little boy made stupid by his fear rounds it out nice and even-

(here’s the secret: it’s not your first time.)

(here’s the secret: you will take that with you to whatever grave awaits an undying creature.)

so you clamp down on that knife-sharp paranoia and you pull it all back to yourself, feeling your edges swell and settle with something like relief.

don’t do it again, you spit at him, false heart hammering as hard as his own.

he does it again anyways. when you sneak into his dreams and watch his face twist like a funhouse mirror, he shouts for you to stop, all in that unfamiliar name.

he does it again, when you jump at him while his back is turned.

and again.

it’s not an unfamiliar name.

no, no, no.

he tries to reach a hand out to you. you eye it lazily at first, until he draws closer. the hesitant calm snaps something in your gut. you flinch, and leave it dripping.

what happens to you if there’s nothing left from him to feed on? what happens to you if there’s nothing left to be afraid of? routine breeds familiarity; familiarity breeds comfort. you are forged from everything he is not- this leaves no room for his soft edges and gentle smiles.

you feel calm, for the first time, and it sets your false heart jackrabbiting faster than it ever has before. so you bite, and you flee.

and then you have to fix the problem.

(there is a thick, ropy scar across your necks. he won’t stop flinching every time he sees you, in turn. it sits, warm and rotten, as it makes a home in your gut; you purr as you take your fill.)

(he flinches as he feels you curl up, warm and content, in the bleeding space under his heart. this makes you purr harder.)

(but you haven’t fixed the problem. his neck prickles as yours does. why didn’t it fix the problem?)

(this is the problem: your heart beats the same as his does. this is the problem: you want it to stop. this is the solution: the cold weight of your fear and your fury in your palm. this is the solution: if something is making you weak, you cut it out.)

and then something snaps in your guts as you lunge and he screams in your voice. and then you are burning and burning and burning-

and then there is nothing at all.

#timore #kit writes #jacksepticeye #antisepticeye #god i wouldnt have thought i'd be using those tags again #tw violence #tw implied violence #anyw i'm off to make dinner and prep for tonight

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benevolent-savage · 3 years

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this is what happens when u enable me lets go

(spoilers ahoy)

Firstly, here’s some somewhat miscellaneous reasons that don’t contribute to any sort of narrative analysis but are still parts of the character I like.

His boss fight is my favorite in the game thus far. It’s not super hard, but it isn’t super easy either, and I even managed to solo it on my Balance after a few practice rounds. Sufficiently challenging without feeling unfair.

His boss fight music. It is a bop and a half, go give it a listen, my soul ascends from my body a few centimeters every time I hear it start up.

His voice. I’m sure it’s processed at least a little but gotdamn his voice is so deep and spooky it startled me when I first heard it. Very curious who his actor is; I think he and Inyanga Whitestripes share the same one. Either way, very well voiced and acted.

His design is very good. It’s the perfect mix of innocuous but also spooky sorcerer fella who knows some shit. And I was afraid that the designers would try and make him like. Handsome? Under the hood? To try and make him more sympathetic? But they didn’t and I’m glad for it.

With those out of the way, the next thing to establish, I guess: I don’t interpret Old Cob to be the main villain of arc 3, nor do I interpret Raven as such. They’re definitely antagonists, but they’re not the ultimate problem; the ultimate problem is their divorce, and how they keep dragging people into their bs. It’s established the Aethyr is a physical manifestation of their anger towards each other, and as it thins, communication between them becomes possible, as Sparck puts it in this thinly veiled metaphor toward the start of Empyrea part 2.

But Cob’s still an antagonist and I love him so I’m gonna talk about that. Most of this is going to be talking about his motivations for doing what he does, since I don’t see him quite as the ‘likes to watch the world burn for the hell of it’ archetype that others might.

One of the reasons that drew me to his character is how legit his gripe is, when put in perspective. Old Cob- or Grandfather Spider, if you prefer- is not a mortal like the other antagonists of previous arcs, which establishes he has a different thought process right off the bat. This new universe was built on his suffering and he has a grudge against the ex wife who made it, so as a god, it makes some sense he’d try to destroy it and build one he would like better. He’s fully aware that what he is doing will hurt people but decidedly doesn’t care, and I appreciate that so much. He’s chaotic as fuck and he owns it, along with his superiority complex that’s as wide as the day is long.

Yet his reasoning is like. Weirdly understandable? Like, if my ex-whatever put me in jail for a lifetime sentence and stole my kidney to pay for a new house or something, I too would go apeshit and want my fuckin kidney back. That’s mostly how I interpret his situation. He’s not doing this for hell of it, he’s doing it because he wants to get back at his ex because he’s bitter and petty and for the most part he knows this but he feels justified in doing do because she ripped out his goddamn kidney- I mean heart, and he wants that back.

And then, even after all that, he and his magic are treated as if they’re inherently evil. While, sure, Shadow is a ‘dark magic’, its actual properties aren’t anything malicious by itself. It is described as “a magic that changes reality,” and that’s it. Incredibly exploitable and you should practice caution while handling it, but used correctly it is powerful and helpful; this is likely alluding to the backlash mechanic, where likes decrease the percent of damage you take, dislikes increase the percent, and I imagine the person meant to be the literal embodiment of the magic in question to be similar in nature: not inherently harmful and lashes out if he feels he’s been mistreated.

Going off that, I’m not sure he ever wanted the FirstWorld to be destroyed, and therefore believes his incarceration to be entirely unjust; he doesn’t deny that he instigated the fight between the Titans, but when it comes to being accused of its actual destruction, he gets angry.

...Okay the written text doesn’t really display how mad he got here, but he was like. Big Angy. Super offended. Honestly, a big part of why I love and analyze the hell out of his character comes from how his VA delivers his lines and his voice in general. If you haven’t heard it for some reason, I recommend looking it up. Anyway, here he’s basically saying he didn’t destroy the First World, and even if he did, he’s suffered enough punishment because of it, to my interpretation. The only one I remember blaming him for it is Raven; Bartleby was there, and I don’t recall him blaming anything other than the Titans for it. This is of course not accounting for the various changes made to the lore since he was introduced, but they could have easily thrown in a line like ‘And now Spider plans to destroy the Spiral the way he destroyed the FirstWorld!’ or something to make it clear it was done intentionally.

And this may very well be straying into headcanon territory here, but I think he holds positive relationships very closely to him, even if things went sour in the end; he clearly still has some remaining affection for the Titans, calling them ‘the children’ and being incredibly angry at Raven for forcing one of them to destroy his Heart.

When Rat loses in Polaris he shows up to praises his efforts and even comfort him, in his own weird way. He reprimanded Scorpion in Mirage, but it’s because Scorpion wasn’t doing what his dad asked him to and got his ass kicked as a result. As for Bat, every time they’re in the same room together he pays him some sort of compliment.

Bat claims that he and his brothers are meant to be his tools, and to some extent that’s true, but he also genuinely cares about them, and it’s really interesting to see a villain defect from the usual ‘not caring about anyone other than themselves’ and openly show affection for his kids while still managing to be an incredible asshole.

In line with this is his relationship with the Wizard. There is, of course, a foundation of manipulation to their dynamic, at least to some degree. I thoroughly believe that Spider was overshadowing Coleridge, at least partly, so our character could bust him out of prison.

And while this is happening, he regains some of his spent power and removes threats to it as well, namely Morganthe, using the Wizard’s help. In fact, I have very little doubt that he was at least partially responsible for her fall; his timing on that two-liner was too on the nose.

But even with that, I think he genuinely treasures the Wizard’s help and company, which is why he attempts on four different occasions to either sway them to his side, or warn them away from what he’s doing.

Boy, I want that vacation, but it’s your fault I’m here.

And then, of course, his relationship with Raven, something that is basically a summation of his character arc. Laden with baggage and tragic in concept, it is my belief that most of what he’s doing isn’t because he genuinely hates the Spiral or he wants to get back at her, but because he loved her and treasured their relationship; so upon her mistreating him, he lashed out at everything she’d made and detested it as a result. But only because he felt betrayed and hurt so he has to inflict that on other people because he is, as aforementioned, a petty and bitter old fuck.

Moving off that line of thinking, an admirable quality he possesses is how smart he is. This guy has so many wrinkles in his brain it must look like a raisin. Well, perhaps not ‘smart’ exactly, but how good he is at manipulating certain situations to his advantage. Like in Mirage; you just know that he was fully expecting Mellori to be there and fully planned to use her as a back up plan, or you could even argue that the whole debacle in Mirage was a ploy to get his hands on her, while having the added possible benefit of things actually working out.

Actually his scheme in Mirage was really interesting now that I think about it. His aim was to turn back time to when the FirstWorld was whole, further implying that he never wanted its destruction in the first place. It would also, of course, be a time where he had his Heart and would have the ability to avoid having it ripped out again. This would involve not having the Titans fight each other again, or at least not starting it and suffering the consequences. It would be everything he wanted to achieve knocked out in one go with minimal muss or fuss, compared to other methods. It’s probably a part of why he shows up personally to bargain with Eerkala and the Cabal, and why he directly intervenes in our Wizard’s efforts to stop him; it was too important to trust to any of his kids, so knowing Scorpion probably wouldn’t have been able to execute it anyway, he used his kid as a distraction for the most part.

I also like looking into the fact that his element, besides Shadow, is Storm, as opposed to pure Shadow or Death, as most major antagonists are. Storm is a school based on invention, experimentation and improvement. This is something that interests me for two reasons: one, the magic of major antagonists is always a part of their character, Malistaire the most blatantly, and two, because of this line he says in Mirage.

To my interpretation, this would imply that he sees the Spiral as something that could be improved. And as a god, he would of course find it his obligation to try and fix this flaw. When he made the barter with the Cabal, I don’t doubt he was being at least partially honest about restoring the FirstWorld; it would certainly fix the flaw it has in the context of stealing his internal organs, but he would also probably seek to improve it, make it more suited to Shadow or something.

Something else I find intriguing is how weirdly honest he is; I don’t recall him ever lying to us once, unless you count omitting certain facts as lying. But that’s absolutely something I can see him using against people, like “I didn’t lie to you, I just didn’t tell you, your fault for not asking ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ .” As said before, he;s really good at manipulating people and he weaponizes whatever he can; @that-wizard-oki made a really great post about how he uses conflicts- his fault or not- to his advantage, and does his own thing in the background without interruption, Mirage and Neumia probably being the best example of this, with Scorpion and the Cabal serving as distractions while he either carries out things himself or gives instructions.

To pull all of this together narratively, I think it’s important to consider this line from Mellori during one of their confrontations:

He feels powerless, so he puffs up his god status. He has little power to fight with, compared to before, so he mostly manipulates and creates back-up plans while causing conflicts to serve as distractions. His love hurt him, so he lashes out at others and drags them into his problems.

You may ask, “But Sam, these are all bad qualities, why should we like him because of this?” And I would respond “Because it makes him a complex and interesting antagonist.” The kind of character that executes his shitty actions in such a way that you can’t help but respect- even just for the level of dramatics put in to it- while also having a motive that makes you stop and consider that maybe he has a point but is very much handling the situation the wrong way.

Like, c’mon, he ticks so many villain boxes. Tragic backstory? Check. Blatant thespian who owns it? Check. Gets his hands dirty before the climax of the story? Check. Smart/ manipulative/ has back-up plans? Check. Understandable, strong motives? Check.

He’s got layers. Like onion. I felt like there was always something new to discover about him, and for that I can assert my opinion that he’s one of the best characters in Wizard101.

lmao if you read this far into my simp-for-shithead post congrats. feel free to shoot me more asks on the subject bc i cant write persuasive-essay-esque format anymore my brain is rotting. if you will excuse me, im off to listen to the chronoverge combat track for the 82937487734th time

#i get that a lot of people havent gotten far enough into the game to meet him but I ENCOURAGE U TO TRY BC HE'S A GOOD AND FUN CHARACTER OKAY #i need more cob content >:U #wizard101 #w101

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virovac · 3 years

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Nature of Ghouls

Lovecraftian Xenology #3: Ghouls [by Leila Hann Before continuing with Carter and the Pussycats, I'm going to be taking a closer look at the creatures that made their debut in "Pickman's Model" before receiving their official name here in "Dream-Quest." This is going to be a tricky one. Reading "Pickman's Model" in isolation gives you a very strong impression of the ghouls, what they are, and where they come from. However, reading it alongside the other, earlier Dreamlands tales - particularly "Celephais" and "The Festival" - one walks away with a completely different interpretation. As for their reappearance in "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," well. On one hand "Dream-Quest" does silly things with other stories' continuities and perhaps should be best ignored. On the other, in the case of the ghouls, "Dream-Quest" not only expands on them in much greater detail than their debut story ever did, but is also the source of their official name. As such, I'm going to be taking the continuity approach, and looking at the ghouls within the framework of the Dreamlands series as a whole. The funny thing about "Pickman's Model" is that while the narrator is probably reliable, he's mostly relaying information that he learned from Richard Pickman, who seems to be much less so. As I noted while reading that story, there's a very obvious disconnect between the actions that Pickman depicted the ghouls performing in his art - particularly the "Subway Accident" piece - and what they could have possibly really done. Throughout his presentation, Pickman comes across as very much a showman, trying to create fear and horror in his audience and reveling mean-spiritedly in his success. Then, there's the detail of him interacting with the ghoul who tried to walk in on him and the narrator in the same way that a circus animal-tamer would with an unruly beast; not at all what you'd expect from a man who's trying to talk down a sapient, malevolent, possibly transhuman demon. As such, I think we need to take Pickman's art with a hefty grain of salt when it comes to inferring things about his models. This is supported by the ghouls' appearance in "Dream-Quest." They are described as hideous, frightening, and generally unpleasant, but they don't seem to be all that dangerous (unlike the zoogs, who are said to be dangerous to MOST people besides Carter, the ghouls don't even get an aside to this effect). Other than their antisocial habit of eating bodies from cemeteries that the deceased's friends and families would probably rather stay in their coffins, they really don't seem so bad. As far as the stories have reliably communicated, the ghouls are thieves and desecrators, but not the murderers and causers of disaster and misfortune that Pickman would want us to believe in. In fact, everything about the ghouls, from their appearance to their diet to their penchant for tombstones, scary noises, and dark, underground spaces, says that they aren't a force of destruction so much as one of horror. And, looking at "Pickman's Model" from that angle, we can definitely see how Pickman was helping them grow stronger in their element. Camel Spiders and Harnessed Horrors There's an animal called a solifugid, also called a pseudoscorpion or a camel-spider, that came to the western public's attention some time ago. Its a scary-looking arachnid, and one that you could easily believe was deadly if you saw it. Solifugids are mostly nocturnal, and so when they're forced to venture out of their lairs during the day they prefer to stick to the shadows...including the shadows of people, which they will chase after for that purpose. They're fast enough to keep up with a running human, and the rubbing of their legs when they move creates a squealing noise that could easily be mistaken for an aggressive vocalization. They also are always on the lookout for soft fibers to line their nests with; they got the name "camel spider" by being seen climbing on the bodies of dead or sleeping camels to cut off bits of their hair. In some cultures, this association was so great that people came to believe that the solifugids had actually killed the camels themselves. Less commonly, solifugids will crawl up onto the head of a sleeping human for similar hair-stealing operations. More than one American soldier sleeping in a tent in Iraq or Saudi Arabia has been woken up by a six inch specimen crawling across their face to see it opening its deadly-looking mouthparts just below their hairline. The solifugid is also completely harmless. In fact, its one of the only members of the arachnid class to have no venom whatsoever. It can even be a beneficial creature to have around, as it preys heavily on other arachnids including spiders and scorpions that actually are dangerous. During the early to mid 2000's, there was a rash of hoaxes about solifugids growing to lobster-size, being venomous, and even using a fictitious numbing agent to paralyze sleeping humans so they can slowly disembowel them alive. Someone was finding a misanthropic delight in taking this creature, which seems to have been practically designed by nature for this purpose with its appearance and habits, and crafting it into an instrument of irrational fear. This fear didn't come from nowhere, mind. The legend of the camel-spider harnesses the very rational human fears of venomous insects and being threatened in your sleep. But it takes those abstract rational fears and uses them to prop up a concrete figurehead of horror that is, itself, irrational. I'm an amateur horror writer myself, and I fell in love with the solifugids the instant I learned about them. I even had the pleasure of meeting a few during my time in the Arava Desert. I don't think that my soft spot for these arthropods and my choice of genres is a coincidence. In the Dreamlands, the cruel realities of the universe seem to be embodied in the Outer Gods, and anthropomorphized in their soul and messenger Nyarlathotep. If the ghouls are, as Pickman's art implied, meant to be like the witches of Puritan superstition, responsible for everything that goes wrong for humanity at the whims of a universe beyond our control, then it would make sense for them to be minions of Nyarlathotep. It would have been the easiest thing in the world for Lovecraft to cast them as such in "Dream-Quest" if that was really his intent; the story already calls for Nyarlathotep's agents to appear in numerous scenes, and the ghouls could have been among them. But they aren't. Instead, Carter meets the ghouls back on Dreamlands Earth, in entirely friendly circumstances, with them as the loyal servants of Carter's (trans)human friend Pickman. The ghouls are creatures of the relatable and imaginative Gods of Earth, not the apathetic and inhuman Gods of Space. Rather than being a cause or manifestation of our problems, the ghouls might even be one of our defenses against them. The witch was created so that we would have some kind of enemy to hunt down and revenge ourselves on when we suffer a tragedy caused by impersonal forces of nature such as disease or weather. The boogeyman in the closet exists because the darkness it hides in is so much worse, and putting a FACE on the unknown lets us believe that we can deal with it in a form we understand. The ghouls are indeed connected to the nightmarish witch superstitions that Pickman referenced, but it is a metafictional connection: they are the legend of the witch and boogeyman, and an embodiment of the psychology that leads to the birth of those legends. They harness the rational fears of human powerlessness, victimhood, and mortality, and embody them as an irrational archetype-creature, and in this form - as Carter just demonstrated in the latest episode of "Dream-Quest" - our fears can be useful tools. Even if the purpose of that tool is just confronting other people with their fears for fun and (in the case of Lovecraft, King, etc) profit. At several points in both "Pickman's Model" and "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," Lovecraft described the ghouls as being "gargoyle-like." They even look a lot like Gothic gargoyles, with their doglike faces, hoofed feet, and (in the case of at least one or two specimens that Lovecraft described) devilish horns. The purpose of the gargoyles in the European cathedrals wasn't to honor or appease the Devil; it was to mock him, and thereby rob him of some of his power. Ghoul-Changelings and Pickman's Transformation Given that Earth's Dreamlands are shaped by metaphors and symbolism taken from the subconscious of human dreamers (at least in part), its hard to say what is and isn't "literally" true about its inhabitants. Unlike most Dreamlands creatures, however, the ghouls are quite active in the waking world as well if only for brief periods at a time. As such, there are some objective observations that can be made. 1) Ghouls inhabit a network of caves in the Dreamlands' deep underground that contains portals to various urban dungeons and necropoli in the waking world, particularly in the New England area where the dream-sorcerers may have interacted with or even deliberately summoned them. 2) Ghouls eat the corpses of humans and other sapient creatures that they recover from both the waking world and the Dreamlands, but seem to be less interested in live prey. They also collect old tombstones and grave-goods. 3) After they've finished eating, the ghouls toss the bones into the chasm beneath their cave complex, which over time has become positively covered in bones, and attracted giant worm scavengers. 4) Richard Upton Pickman turned into a ghoul. The former three points are fairly self explanatory. The fourth, however, raises a lot of questions. In Pickman's art, he portrayed ghouls exchanging their own young with human babies in the classic fairy changeling mould, with both the changelings and the stolen babies eventually becoming ghouls themselves. Pickman also portrayed a Puritan-era changeling that bore a great physical resemblance to himself. Some readers have taken this to mean that rather than simply being a descendant of the Native American dream-sorcerers like Carter, Pickman was the descendant of a ghoul changeling, and the character he depicted in that painting was one of his own ancestors. Others, that Pickman was himself just one of many changelings from throughout history, and that he identified himself with an earlier New England instance out of whimsy. However, I find it a bit conspicuous that while Carter identified the fully transformed ghoul-Pickman and specified that he had once been human, he never mentions the possibility of any of the other ghouls being the same. Thus, its possible that what happened to Pickman is actually unique, or at least very rare, and that the changeling scenario depicted in his art was purely symbolic of the horror-artist's role as a devil's advocate to the rest of humanity and an ambassador to the dark forces of the universe. Pickman's transformation. I'm inclined to believe that what caused Pickman's transformation was not him being a ghoul pup switched with a human at birth, but a product of him being both a) an almost obsessive devotee of horror, and b) a powerful dreamer with access to the Dreamlands, perhaps helped along in accessing them by some recovered magic from his oneiromancer ancestors just like Carter was. It could even be that rather than his art depicting something that had or could have already happened with the ghoul-transformation, Pickman's acts of imagining and drawing a transformation were what CREATED THE POSSIBILITY for such a transformation to actually happen. An idea of his was made real through the power of his dreaming, warping his own flesh into one of his ghouls in a similar - but more visceral - manner as Kyle being transformed into Kuranes. Another question about Pickman's transformation pertains to him having mostly forgotten how to speak English by the time Carter met him again in the Dreamlands. Did his transformation rob him of his English, or did he just forget it after spending so long in the Dreamlands interacting only with other ghouls? For that matter, how long HAD Pickman been a ghoul by the time Carter stumbled into the bone pit? Months? Years? Centuries? Time in the Dreamlands seems to work in arbitrary ways, as evidenced by how Carter can be timelooped in the waking world while living through consecutive centuries as an explorer in the Dreamlands. In "The Silver Key," we learned that the Dreamlands (or at least, Dreamlands related artifacts) can even send you BACK in time. Origins? Since time in the Dreamlands interacts in very unpredictable ways with the waking world's timeline, its very difficult to say when and where the ghouls first came into existence. Since Pickman's art is also of questionable waking world veracity, we can't really tell if the ghouls have actually been popping up in the New England witch tunnels since the 1700's, and - even if they have - they could have been born in the Dreamlands from an event that had not yet happened in the waking world's timeline and popped out of those tunnels earlier in history as we waking earthlings perceive it. Another interesting fact to point out here is that Randolph Carter, Dreamlands explorer extraordinaire, only knew about the ghouls BECAUSE he met Pickman during his waking life. Its possible that the ghouls are a manifestation of some core archetype within the human collective unconscious. The Horror, the Boogeyman, the terrifying friend to artists and writers who delight in confronting their fellow humans with humanity's frailties and fears. The creatures that appeared in the dreams of H.R. Giger and caused him to wake up in heart-stopping terror on so many different nights, and yet that he adopted and came to love. Even if his own fear of them never diminished, it became HIS fear, and they became HIS monsters, and he began to feel possessive of them and delight in sharing their terror with others who lacked his mastery over them. The creatures that appeared in the dreams of Stephen King and inspired him to turn the anxieties of the modern United States against it, while cackling about keeping the hearts of fictitious young children in his study. The creatures that haunted the dreams of H.P. Lovecraft, and inspired him to write stories like "Pickman's Model," delighting in his own ability to scare Weird Tales' readers just as Pickman delighted in scaring the narrator. There is a moment in "Pickman's Model" when the ghoul walks in on them and Pickman has to go make it leave, when PICKMAN HIMSELF is described as looking terrified. And yet, despite that, he was able to reassert control over the ghoul and command it to leave him alone until he wanted it to return. I suspect that if Pickman ever stopped being afraid of the ghouls himself, they would have abandoned him and sought a fresh artist to inspire. Such is the relationship between the horrorist and the monster. There is another possibility, though. And that is that rather than being a universal manifestation of horror that serve as muses to numerous masters of the craft, the ghouls are the specific nightmare-turned-minion of one specific master of horror. Kyle/Kuranes dreamed Celephais and its people into existence, and then abandoned the waking world entirely to rule them for all time. What might another instance of this look like, if the dreamer in question was less of a sensitive too-good-for-this-world melancholic, and more of an angry misanthrope with a fixation with his Salem ancestry and an almost monomaniacal obsession with showing us fear in a handful of grave-dust? Perhaps it was just Richard Upton Pickman who loved his own, personal, imaginary monsters so much. And, through the power of the Dreamlands, they were able to love him back.

So ghouls are a combination of guardians, Halloweentown, and irreverance of 4chan.

A more benevolent take than my past one.

#dreamlands #ghouls #lovecraft

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citrineghost · 3 years

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On ADHD, Being Dramatic, and Being Lazy

Gather round everyone. It’s time for our every-few-monthsly post on ADHD by your local ADHD ghost. In this episode, we’re talking about ADHD and how it relates to “being dramatic” and “being lazy.”

On Being Dramatic

No doubt a lot of you have been told you’re being dramatic over the years. I know I have. There are a lot of reasons one might be dramatic, but they’re rarely about the drama.

If I’m to guess the origin of the word dramatic, I’d guess it probably has something to do with over exaggerating your response for the drama. I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of people being dramatic - on tiktok and vine, on youtube... drama calls for dramaticism.

Do you want to know what isn’t dramatic? Genuine reactions. That’s right - genuine reactions, inherently, cannot be categorized as dramatic or hyperbolic. There is nothing about them that is being overdone with the intention of getting attention or entertaining other people. So, let’s talk a bit about how this conflation has hurt us as a community.

Growing up, everything I did was “dramatic.” Crying because I didn’t want to do more chores was dramatic. Having a panic attack because there was a spider in the room was dramatic. Freaking out because I needed people to stop touching me was dramatic. Getting angry when my mother made jokes about my sex life as a teen was dramatic (and apparently abusive, but that’s neither here nor there). Nothing I did that involved a noteworthy amount of emotion was anything, if not dramatic.

On Being Lazy

I know a lot of you have also been labeled as lazy over the years. “Lazy” is the diagnosis everyone loves to give to those who don’t do enough, in their eyes. If you “could have” done something and then “chose not to,” you’re lazy... right?

Growing up, I was lazy too. I was lazy for avoiding housework. I was lazy for not wanting to brush my teeth. I was lazy because I didn’t turn in my homework. I was lazy for staying in bed, on my computer, most of the day.

If I’d only just “applied myself,” or if I would just “put in the work,” then I would be respectable to the people around me. But, because I wasn’t “willing” to put in the time and effort, I was lazy.

Why Is Emotion Dramatic?

The short answer is: it’s not. The real question is, why do people seem to perceive emotion as being dramatic? These are real emotions, after all - real and genuine feelings that are being dismissed as playacting. There are a number of reasons.

Why Are We Lazy?

Again, the short answer is: most people aren’t. The question here is, why do people see others not doing something and assume it’s because they simply don’t want to put in the work? Why do they not seek out an explanation or consider other alternatives? There are a number of reasons for that too.

The Answer...

Editing to put a Read More here because it’s very long

(TW for each of these sections in their name)

1. Sexism

At its core, seeing emotional outbursts or responses as dramatic is inherently rooted in sexism. Whether you’re a boy or a girl, man or woman, if your emotions are being mocked, it’s almost definitely because of our world’s history of sexism and relating emotion to women, who are “illogical” and “just want attention.”

And “real men” work! They work hard! They work long hours! They put themselves into an early grave, with pride, by never sitting down to rest! For this very reason, women, housewives of decades past, were expected, after a long day of doing housework and caring for the children - things that are just as exhausting as a full time job - to dote on their husbands who had just returned from work expecting a hot meal and a beer to be ready for them. Her work is devalued. It wasn’t grueling or tiring or important. It was just “women’s work.” A wife who does all of the housework and child rearing and fails to provide a hot meal and a warm body to her husband is “lazy.”

This is further shown to affect men as well. We can see, as early as non-manual labor-based jobs existed, the men who took them were lesser. Men who work at computers are seen as nerds and geeks - weak. Men who work in universities, coming up with new solutions to our medical needs and discovering the mathematics we need for space travel and advanced technology - they’re weak too. They’re unimportant to society because they’re not willing to get their hands dirty. Those men who prefer artistry are called gay and seen as disposable. It is irrelevant to the conservative man that his artistic counterpart designs everything that fills his home and office - that without artists we would have nothing.

2. Racism and classism

You might be surprised, but racism and classism both have their hands in this as well. I’m talking full on systemic oppression. The ability for people in power to look down on those they see as beneath them for being emotional or passionate about a topic or incident is all about power. You can see a million examples of this today. POC are called dramatic or are implied to be blowing things out of proportion by conservative white people because they want equal rights and feel they’re being treated unfairly. Their emotions are dismissed as irrational and dramatic.

The cries of the poor, whether white or of color, are mocked. They have no reason to be having the emotions they’re having because they wouldn’t be in the position they’re in if they weren’t “lazy.” After all, only lazy people don’t have money. Only lazy people can’t get work. If they had just “applied themselves,” they would have an income, a home, and ample food on the table.

3. Ableism

And, last but not least, we have ableism. The neurotypical and abled people of the world, at large, cannot understand the experiences of the disabled, both emotionally(those with mental illnesses, disorders, and so on(whether or not certain disorders can be categorized as a disability in a just society is another topic entirely, but they are regarded that way, generally)) and physically.

If you have sensory overload, you are being irrational. It doesn’t matter to a NT if this is caused by an actually chemically different response in your brain. It doesn’t matter if it’s Real To You. To them, it doesn’t make sense, and so you deserve no compassion for your experience. Your emotional response is dramatic.

If you have executive dysfunction, you are simply choosing not to do your work. It doesn’t matter that there is an actual reason, buried in you somewhere, for why you have become Stuck. It doesn’t matter if you feel crippled by this aspect of your life. They see that you have neglected to do something they deem easy. Therefore, you are “lazy.”

ADHD and Being Dramatic

For those of us with ADHD, being called dramatic is a very familiar experience. After a while, we begin to internalize it. We must be dramatic, right? After all, so many different people have told us we are - and for good reason. We do tend to get overly emotional.

So the question is, why? Why do we get overly emotional? Why are our emotions so much different than those of our NT peers?

1. Lack of Emotional Regulation

A big part of ADHD, which is not yet a diagnostic criteria, is our emotional disregulation. ADHD, inherently, comes with some amount of disregulation in our emotions. We have a hard time controlling the emotions that we feel and managing the intensity of them. They may come across as overly intense, or they may seem subdued, both for reasons we can’t possibly figure out as individuals. This disregulation is entirely out of our control, happening at a neurological level. Our brain chemicals don’t work as they should. But, no matter how unregulated our emotions are, they are still real. We do still feel them, exactly as intensely as we think we do. Disregulated does not mean made up.

2. RSD

If you knew about RSD before, or you’ve read my last post on ADHD (under my tag adhdghost), which has gained some popularity, you already know what this means. For those who don’t, RSD is short for Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria. This condition plagues something like 99.9% of people with ADHD (while not being ADHD exclusive.) It comes with the lack of emotional regulation and means we have a reaction, that seems out of proportion (or “dramatic”), relative to the thing that caused it.

In short, RSD episodes can look like an entire breakdown, a very sudden loss of any self esteem or confidence, the feeling that you are certain someone now hates you or has secretly always hated you, and/or an immediate need to get rid of the thing that caused it. These episodes are caused by any kind of perceived failure or disappointment. They can be caused by someone whose opinion or relationship we value who gives us a slightly judgmental look, someone saying they don’t understand why we like the thing we’re interested in, or even not living up to our own expectations. These episodes frequently lead to emotional outburts, episodes, breakdowns, and tears. Naturally, all of this is “dramatic,” despite it being very real and painful for those experiencing it.

3. Combination with Other Things

Emotional disregulation can interact with other parts of our lives as well. For instance, I have a lot of phobias. My reactions to seeing or being around the things that terrify me can be even more intense than how most people react to their phobias. They can cause anxiety attacks, emotional breakdowns, and lasting fear for hours or days after. My recovery from these instances is hindered by my inability to regulate the feelings they caused.

Emotional disregulation can also interact with triggers, trauma, sensory problems, etc.

ADHD and Being Lazy

And of course, if you struggle with ADHD, you want to know, “Why am I so lazy?” The answer is: you’re not! Laziness is a made up word. Laziness was created to pass blame onto people who struggle to do things that more typical people can accomplish with ease.

So, what is the reason we struggle to do these seemingly simple tasks?

1. Executive Dysfunction

This is The Big One. Of all the things that can cause an inability to do things, executive dysfunction is the Achilles heel of ADHD. Because ADHD causes a difficulty with prioritizing, rewarding actions with no immediate reward, and creating a list of steps for us to take (something that comes naturally to NT people), we sometimes get “Stuck.”

This feeling of being stuck may look like us just having fun and avoiding our responsibilities. You may be Stuck right now, scrolling through tumblr mechanically even though you’ve been needing to pee for three hours. Naturally, you’ve been wanting to go to the bathroom... you just don’t know how.

To a NT, this sounds ridiculous. “Just get up and go?!” I’m sure you can imagine your parents saying, when they simply don’t understand. The truth is, tumblr can be a nightmare for executive function. It endlessly scrolls, giving you post after post. There’s no natural stopping point. You keep an eye out for a natural end to this activity, but it’s hard to find the right post to stop on. If you find those, “This is your sign to go to bed,” posts helpful - otherwise locked into the activity of scrolling regardless of whether you want to - you might be struggling with executive dysfunction.

This inability to “queue” our actions or prioritize what we need to do, and in what order, can wreak all kinds of havoc in our lives. You remember you didn’t really understand that equation the math teacher explained earlier. You know today’s homework is related to its use. Therefore, you cannot start your homework. There are a number of possible solutions floating around your head. Maybe the book will explain it better. Maybe your parents know how to do this and you could ask them. Maybe you could Google it. It’s possible the homework is about something else. But, if it is, what if you don’t understand that? Maybe you should ask your teacher before class?

Even though you have all of these solutions in your head, because you don’t know which solution is the best solution, you find yourself unable to do any of them. You show up to class with no homework and your teacher gives you a disappointed look. “I don’t understand why you don’t just apply yourself more. You’re a very smart student.” The remark brings you to holding back tears, because you want, with every fiber of your being, to apply yourself and make your teacher proud, but you simply don’t know how.

This is the destructive nature of executive dysfunction, and it is not something to be taken lightly.

2. Distraction

For those with ADHD, the inability to regulate external stimuli makes focusing incredibly hard. You wake up one morning and plan to start that English paper after breakfast. You go to get yourself some cereal. You’re out of milk. You decide to make toast instead. You burn your toast because you lost track of time for just 30 seconds. You go to throw it away, feeling an overwhelming amount of guilt over the two pieces of bread you wasted. The trash is overflowing. You decide to take it outside. It’s a really nice day out. Maybe you should take your dog for a walk. You haven’t taken her on a walk in a while and you’re just now feeling motivated to, so you should take advantage of that. You go to retrieve your dog and take her for a walk. When you bring her back in, you go to get her treats from the shelf in the laundry room. Oh yeah, you’d been meaning to do laundry. You go to get your laundry hamper from your room and notice there’s a bunch of laundry on the floor. You begin picking up the laundry from the floor. You may as well tidy up the other things on the floor as well. You finally get around to taking your laundry to the washer. You’re out of soap. Maybe you ought to make a run to the grocery store. You take ten minutes to find your keys and wallet and then head out to the grocery store. When you get there, you’ve forgotten what it was you needed. “Oh, right! I’m out of milk!” You go and retrieve milk. When you get to the checkout and the cashier rings you up, you suddenly remember you need laundry soap. Well, it’s too late now. You’ll have to do laundry tomorrow. You can’t risk the cashier giving you a tired look by asking them to wait. You go home and make some cereal. You can’t really write while you eat, so you open tumblr. you scroll through tumblr for a while. Your cereal gets soggy, you notice, disappointed. You see a tumblr post reminding you that you forgot to order something important online that you need to get here as soon as possible. The day continues in this way until you finally realize at 5pm that you never started your paper. “It’s so late now... I’ll just start it tomorrow morning,” you tell yourself. Rinse and repeat.

If you relate to this, you might want to consider researching ADHD a bit, because this is a very typical ADHD experience.

3. Hyperfixation and Hyperfocus

The last prominent reason why people with ADHD are seen as lazy has to do with a cycle in hyperfixation and hyperfocus.

If you don’t already know, hyperfixations are those interests you have that fill you with an overwhelming love and which take up an incredible amount of your time, energy, and brain space. These could be fandoms, hobbies, characters, games, or otherwise.

Hyperfocus, on the other hand, can be related to hyperfixations or things that aren’t hyperfixations. Hyperfocus is when you get “locked in” on a task and can’t seem to put it down. If you started this post not knowing how long it was and find yourself still raptly reading, completely ignoring the world around you, you may have hyperfocused on it. If you ever start cleaning and just can’t stop until the whole house is clean, despite your lack of regularly cleaning for over a month, you are hyperfocusing on cleaning. If you write a 20k word fic in one night, you are hyperfocusing.

Hyperfocusing can leave you completely unaware of the world around you, causing you to neglect your own basic needs, such as food, bathroom breaks, water, and social interaction.

Because people with ADHD are able to occasionally apply themselves to such an extreme degree, NT people don’t understand why ADHD people are unable to apply themselves to other things as well. The reason we can’t is because we do not regulate our hyperfocus. Hyperfocus comes from tasks that are giving us serotonin, to make up for our brains inability to give serotonin in the way it should - in the way NT brains do. Emptying the dishwasher just felt really good. The next thing you know, you’re filling it with more dishes and wiping off counters and sweeping the floor and, “oh god, it looks so nice what if I just-” and then you move on to the laundry and the living room and the bedroom and then somehow 6 hours have passed. You don’t know how it happened, but now your house is clean and you feel amazing... but also tired and hungry. So you go make some food and then pass out on the couch.

So, when NT people see this kind of laser focus, they demand to know why you couldn’t do that simple math assignment, or why you haven’t been returning their texts, or why you couldn’t apply the same level of energy and enthusiasm on that really boring geography project. They demand to know why you’re so “lazy” the rest of the time.

There’s also the element of hyperfixation. It is the ultimate distraction. Your parents tell you to do the dishes and you say you will. Suddenly, you’ve found a fanfiction about your hyperfixation and you can’t stop reading it. It’s 60k words long and it will take you all day, but you’ll find a break to do your chores somewhere in there, right?

Your mom is suddenly knocking on your door what feels like 5 minutes later, but it’s been an hour. She wants to know why you didn’t do the dishes yet. You’re upset at yourself, but you lash out at her, because you’re unable to regulate your emotions. “I’ll do it in a minute!” you say loudly from behind your door. She walks off, irritated. You ask yourself why you can’t just do it now. Why does it feel impossible to tear yourself away? Your hyperfixation is the ultimate creator of hyperfocus. It rules you.

Before you know it, it’s midnight. You’ve finished the fic. It was amazing. You realize with dread that you still haven’t done the dishes, so you sneak out to the kitchen, hoping your parents have gone to bed. They have, but you find the dishes have already been done by someone else. Suddenly, you’re holding back tears from the RSD episode this has triggered. You ruined everything. You disappointed your parents. You’re a lazy and terrible child and they deserve better.

The truth is, you’re none of those things. In fact, you’re struggling with one of the most difficult mental blocks someone can have. But to others, you’re just making excuses. To others, you should have been able to just do the dishes and then go back to reading. But you know it’s not that easy. But why?

It’s ADHD, Babey!

If this post is hitting hard in a way that feels like your life is being splayed out before you, you might just have ADHD.

The fact is you are not dramatic and you are not lazy. You are struggling with a lot of ADHD symptoms that are making functioning in a neurotypical world incredibly difficult. This world was designed by and for NT people. Your worth is not based in how you live up to their expectations.

If you think you might have ADHD, it might be time to ask your doctor about getting an ADHD evaluation. Please check out my last post (the one i mentioned is under my tag adhdghost) to get more information on RSD and on getting evaluated.

An Important Note

Many experiences and struggles caused by ADHD are also present in other disorders. For example, RSD can be seen frequently in autism as well as in anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Sensory overload, emotional disregulation, executive dysfunction, and so on, can all be present in things other than ADHD. If you want to know if you fit the criteria for ADHD, go check out the criteria on the ADDitude website, which is a great source for ADHD related information.

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dangan-happy · 3 years

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Hiro is secretly a sea urchin/ To anyone, preferably Kaito, Kokichi, and Twogami, but if they don't wanna answer that's okay. I've been doing horrible lately. Recently, I've discovered something really important about myself, and honestly, I'm glad I did, it solved a lot of doubts and questions about myself. But it's caused me a lot of anxiety. Let's just say I may or may not be something that my parents (especially my mom, whom I don't have the best relationship with.) pretty much despise. I've brought up the topic with that certain community a couple of times, and each time I do, they berate me. I'm terrified they'll do even worse when they find out, and something's coming up soon that might out me to them, and that's the last thing I want. I don't feel an ounce of security, not like I already did anyway, in my household anymore, and all I want to do is get out. I don't really know what to ask for here, maybe comfort and/or advice would be great. Thank you in advance :). -Spider Anon.

Hello Spider, I’m sorry to hear this. I can guess all of this has felt like a rollercoaster of emotions for you..

For one, discovering something about yourself is always a big thing! I want to say that I’m proud of you for that, truly. Being scared of it is just.. not good… at all. It’s truly sad to see people feel afraid of just being themselves, hopefully society changes for the better so this sort of situation stops being so common. It’s completely alright to be afraid, you shouldn’t feel shame in that, and asking for help from your peers isn’t bad either, hell, you’re doing it right now sending us this ask.

Even if it feels scary and it has your heart in your throat, things will be alright. Even if you don’t think they will, trying to not think negatively about it is for the best, try to relax. It will be hard but trying is better than doing nothing, so give it your all. I recommend speaking with someone working on the event about this, they’ll surely help you out in anything you might need. Best of luck, Spider.

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Hey it's no problem bro! You're Spider anon! You know I'm here for you man!! I totally want to answer and try to help you out! Yeah, sometimes self realizations are a double edged sword, I'm glad it cleared some things up for you, but I'm really sorry to hear you're not doing so good. Full disclosure, when you mentioned being something your parents aren't ok with, my mind went "Vampire", and I'm assuming that you're not some kind of cryptid (that would be cool though.)

Anyways, I think I get what you're implying, and it sucks to hear that your parents aren't cool with that kind of thing. Damn, you totally don't deserve to be berated! You're just getting treated all kinds of unfair! Oh damn, you might get outed? Crap, that's not good. Ok, the good news is that you know that there might be something coming, so that means you can kinda prepare for it, you know? See if there's anything you can do to stop yourself from getting outed. If you're not ready to come out, then that's fine! Being closeted gets such a bad name, but sometimes that closet is comfy, and it's totally ok to hang out in there until things are better for you. The biggest thing to do is to try and ensure your safety as much as possible. See if you can delay or stop the outing. The fact that you know what's coming can be a huge advantage for you, so use that as much as you can. Maybe reach out to other people around you who can support you or maybe help you out a little. You don't have to handle this alone, for every shitty community, there's a good one out there who will want to help you out.

And worst case scenario, if you do get outed, then you can still stay in the closet. Say something like you don't know why they said that, or that it was a mistake, or something like that. Protecting yourself is priority number one, ok? You're pretty dang tough spider anon, I've seen that so far. Whatever happens, you're gonna be able to handle it. You've proven to be super smart, and persistent, and you're just an overall awesome person. Whatever you figured out, that doesn't change who you are inside, and at the end of it all, no one can change who you are as a person, only you get to decide who you are, and from what I can tell, that's the super funky Spider anon who's lowkey one of my favorite askers. Keep doing whatever you spider can-on, you got this bro, believe in yourself!

Spider anon!! Hey I actually kinda missed you! Of course I'm gonna answer! Even if Kaito gets the stupid song in my head, which he did. But I'm still here for you no matter what, kay! Agreed, I'm glad you feel better with that discovery (God fucking dammit Kaito, I'm picturing a vampire too.) But yiiiiikes, I can confidently say that the thought of being outed/actually getting outed before you're ready is one of the scariest fucking things possible. I've said fuck like three times so far, I wonder if anyone's gonna stop me.

Going in for a fourth one, fuck the community that berated you. They don't get to say what's right or wrong about being yourself! That's just super gross and closeminded. I'm sorry that your parents are being disgusting about it too. You deserve so much more than people just despising you for no freaking reason. Kaito had the right idea believe it or not, try to stop it if you can, but I'm gonna give you some pro advice for if it happens, just in case. You ready? It is....Lie! I'm dead serious here.

If you do happen to get outed, try something like "Oh my god, I was joking when I said that, they took it seriously?!" Try to play it off as best you can. I call it playing the straight/cis/whatever else. If it's a matter of safety, I think that almost anything is fair game as a tool to protect yourself. As painful as it might be, maybe even lie about what you actually are, deny it in the public face. I know, it sucks, but your safety is the most important thing. You gotta survive for now, and you said you don't have a whole lot of security, so trying to build some up seems like a pretty solid idea. You're a real smart cookie Spider anon, that much is obvious, and you're so much more resourceful and generally just a better person than those around you.

You'll be able to get out someday, I promise. You might have to play the long game for now, but you have the skills to do that. Not to sound like Kaito, but believe in yourself. You're more capable than you think you are, and no matter what happens, you're valid. You're valid, you're a good person, and you're gonna be ok.

#danganronpa #danganronpa roleplay blog #ask #byakuya twogami #kaito momota #kokichi ouma #mod swaggle #mod kaito #mod kokichi

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disgruntleddemon · 4 years

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beginners guide to Razia’s shadow.

i remember i was rly confused going into Razia’s shadow. i couldn’t tell if it was a musical or just an album and when i did listen to the song i had to use wikpedia n stuff to figure out the plot. so here’s a little guide for anyone curious about Razia’s shadow!

to begin there is two versions of razia’s shadow. the album is the original. on of the people who worked on the album went on to make a play version that has a pretty different plot. i honestly don’t know much about the play version so i’ll only talk about the album today

the album’s story is split into two halves. the first half is about the creation of the world and a rebellious angel. it sets up a lot of the exposition for the second half.

the second half takes place 100 years after the first half. it’s about star crossed lovers in a very Romeo and Juliet esque story.

so the songs themselves can be a little hard to understand without extra knowledge. i’ve heard the cd version has a little booklet which probably goes over what you miss but as i listened to it on spotify and i’m sure others will too here's little summary of the plot of each song so you can understand what’s happening.

Genesis: this one is about O the scientist and his head Angel Ahrima creating the world. O is basically god, he made all the angels and had Ahrima help with world building. Ahrima views O as a father figure.

. the world’s name is never mentioned in the song but it’s Razia, hence the album title. the song ends with Ahrima bitter about how his talents were used. his temper cools though when he’s with Nidria. another angel he’s deeply in love with.

Missing Piece: this song is basically Ahrima confessing his love to Nidria and them getting together. like the previous song Ahrima complains about how he was meant for better greater things. Nidria agrees but encourages him to be patient.

life is looking up: Ahrima has a great idea that he’s sure will impress O the Scientist and get him the recognition he feels he deserves. he has blueprints for “the lamps”

now the lamps are never fully explained but i believe they’re implied to be the stars, moon, and sun.

Ahrima shows them to O. O is proud but not in the way Ahrima wants. the lamps are still built but they still don’t give Ahrima the recognition he desired. Ahrima feeling jealous and bitter storms of to the dark to cool down and think.

while there a little brown spider named Barayas perches on his shoulder.

spider and the lamps: in this song Barayas says he’s heard of Ahrima and is impressed with his skills.

he tells Ahrima that the angel is special but they still treat him like a kid. he encourages Ahrima to be more bitter and angry. he convinces Ahrima to tear the lamps to the grown in revenge for how he was treated.

the song ends with Ahrima doing just that. Toba the Tura is called to place judgment on him. i’ll go into more detail on Toba in the next song

Barayas is only mentioned in this song. i’m not sure why he wanted to mess stuff up. seeing as there’s a lot of like biblical themes in the first half i assume it’s a reference to the snake in adam and eve

Toba the Tura: Toba is one of many one off characters. he acts as a sort of judge/enforcer and has come to pass his judgment on Ahrima.

he starts of gentle. almost siding with Ahrima a little. he then goes into detail on how Ahrima tore down the lamps, scorching the earth, and destroying the angel’s homes.

Toba has a bit where he sings about Ahrima’s betrayal while Ahrima sings of being guilty and pleading to O.

Toba says Ahrima must stay in the dark while the other angels leave to the light. a massive mountain is put up to block them

the Oracle: this one introduces us to our 3rd one off character, Gargul the Oracle.

he, and the other angels, come to the dark to Tell Ahrima of a prophecy. the prophecy states that someone from the light and dark will fall in love with each other and reunite the world.

this song also has a little bit of Nidria and Adakaias singing together again so that’s cute.

intermission: this one just shows 100 years have past.

The Exit: there’s two brother princes in the dark. the youngest is named Adakias and the oldest Pallis. they both grew up listening to stories of the prophecy and such.

there’s another one off character here called Sangara. they’re only point in the song is to say Adakaias should be more like his brother. i believe they’re a servant of some kind.

anyways Pallis is very down to earth and responsible while Adakais has a big romantic streak. he believes he’s the chosen one in the prophecy and longs to go to the light

Pallis say’s that’s stupid, the prophecy isn’t real, and if he leaves he’ll hunt him down.

Adakias still leaves anyway. he goes to the light and falls for a princess there named Anhura.

True Love: this songs is basically just Adakais and Anhura confessing love to eachother

they sing about being in love, Adakias sings about not being able to reveal his past, then they decide to get married. the only problem is they have to face Anhura’s father.

The King: the newest one off character, King Malka, Anhura’s father.

Adakais and Anhura sing about wanting permission to be married and that Adakais isn’t after the crown. king Malka still says no.

they decide to Elope but before they can Anhura falls seriously ill.

he believes it’s caused by him being from the dark and decides to take her to a special doctor he knows of back in the dark. he convinces her to go without revealing his past.

Holy the Sea: at this point it’s important to note that there is some sort of body of water between the light and dark. i think someone said it was a river that eroded the top of the mountain?

anyways they have to cross it to get to the doctor. they meet two longshoremen brothers (you guessed it, one off)

Anhura is like passed out on the boat ride as the brothers talk to Adakias about the prophecy and that he’s a decedent of Ahrima. Adakias only becomes more convinced of his destiny

the song ends with the couple arriving at the doctors shack.

The Doctor: the doctor is here and he’s feral. he says he can cure Anhura but in return he demands the stay with him in his hut to fulfill his fantasies. Anhura argues and first but Adakias says to trust him and just do it.

the doctor cures her but they can do anything Pallis busts in.

The End and the Beginning: Pallis shows up and he’s pissed. he talks about following the couple and that Anhura could never love poor boys like them. (no i don’t know why he says their poor when they’re princes back home. maybe the dark is just rly poor or maybe he was lying)

Anhura and Adakias sing about how money doesn't matter and she loves him.

Pallis switches gears and reveals Adakias is from the dark. Adakias quickly patches things up with Anhura saying he meant to tell her sooner but that they’re still in love.

Pallis only get more annoyed and reveals Adakias is the reason Anhura gets sick and goes to stab her.

Adakias leaps in the way and gets stabbed instead.

Adakias forgives his brother as he dies and basically tells Anhura and Pallis to take care of the world for him.

his act of sacrifice reunites the two halves of the world.

after that the ending is purposely open ended leaving room for the listener to decide how it goes from there.

and there you have it! the last thing i’d like to talk about is the cannon art. it exists but for the most part people don’t use it so feel free to get creative with how you see the character!

anyways, that’s all i’ve got for now! feel free to add on if you have any more helpful information!

#razia's shadow #Razias shadow #long read #lond post #text #text post #guide #forgive durden #music

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dramionediscussion · 3 years

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This Crookshanks vs. Scabbers thing reminds me, that so often in HP related discussions, I find hard to make any definitive stance or firm judgements. Frequently, there just isn’t sufficient information about circumstances, or a perspective given is too limited or one-sided. Sometimes it’s also, that there truly isn’t a moral dimension to an issue as I can see it. Sometimes even moral, prosocial or at least normative behavior by every participant can sometimes lead to a tragedy, conflict or net loss to all involved, without anybody being truly “responsible” (it implying fault in this context. Not merely what or who originates some causal chain of events). Like looking at this Crookshank and Scabbers debate. I think, there’s two related but separated issues here. First is the incident and events leading up to it, or making it possible in the first place. Then Hermione’s and Ron’s reactions to the event.

I mean, how is this even supposed to work? Hogwart’s rules for familiars and pets in general seems quite dysfunctional and chaotic. Cohabitation in limited spaces, combined with the policy, which allows students bring all manners of animals, some of which are incompatible with each other in closed quarters. We see owls, cats, toads, rats, spiders and pygmy puffs in HP series, and apparently also ferrets and crows in CC. Any rules, guidelines and organizing seems to be reserved only to owls, which are separated from living quarters, which is lucky I suppose, considering that owls include all other types in their diet (though they still carry messages between inhabits inside the castle). To the rest, it’s survival of the fittest. To me it seems pure chance and happenstance of how events will turn out in those circumstances. A lot of everything is simple up to what kind of animals people happen to have and in what proximity to each other, e.g. imagine if Neville would’ve had a ferret or cat instead of a toad.

It’s not reasonable or fair to expect some kind of a spontaneous order or ideal solution to pop up in those conditions. Or even some reasonable compromise. I don’t see that either Hermione or Ron failed to perform some fair and comprehensible obligations and responsibilities all pet owners should adhere to. With so many moving parts and people in such a limited space, and very asymmetrical needs and risk for different pets. Expecting (young) people to coordinate that together, especially without any official rules, in otherwise strictly rule bound environment is catastrophe waiting to happen. It’s not like they have any hierarchy or power over each other either, and in a situation which is not governed by existing rules. Plus, there didn’t seem to be anybody with an actual authority (or interest) to mediate and mitigate disagreements between (nominally) equal parties, and ultimately settle the dispute between them.

Only way to maximize safety would’ve been caging animals (some of them, or all of them). But it is no way beneficial or neutral thing to do for any of them, so somebody’s pet is going to suffer only to accommodate somebody else’s benefit. It’s not a natural habitat of any animal, even if rats and toads adapt to that better than cats or ferrets, but there’s distress and limiting their natural potential and animal essence. In Ron’s case, that probably wouldn’t have worked in any case. I doubt it would’ve been possible to cage Scabbers / Wormtail, when Sirius Black was on his trail, or possibly even in if he wasn’t (there’s so many ways that could’ve played out. Maybe he would’ve avoided it fiercely by biting, running away and hiding. Or stop eating or starting to play dead in the cage, or break out from it. Whatever would’ve happen, I doubt it would’ve been possible to keep him in a cage without causing quite considerable and visible harm to him). I mean, even if it was a regular old rat, it would’ve been cruel, as it had been allowed to free-range for most of its life.

Containing Crookshanks to 3rd year girl’s dormitories would’ve probably caused similar problems. Low stimulus and lack of variation, would’ve probably cause boredom and depression to such an intelligent animal. Also, in practical terms, I doubt it would’ve worked out, because many others lived in same quarters. Thus he probably would’ve constantly got out, because people kept coming and going, and maybe left door open for a second too long, or forgot to keep the door shut all the times, etc. Once it’s out, it’s a major operation by many people to locate it in a huge castle like Hogwarts. Unless there’s a serious concern for his safety, you’d probably just had to wait until he returned on its own.

Neither of them are particularly neglectful or malicious. There isn’t clear-cut ideal course of actions for either. I suppose, they could’ve at least tried to work something out, even if there wasn’t any win-win solutions available. But there wasn’t a good way to determinate, which one of them should’ve budged or taken the hit. I don’t know, if even volunteering to take the hit would’ve been that altruistic, because it would been mainly their pets who would’ve suffered for it, and they themselves only indirectly. I don’t see there’s a moral transgression here. Perhaps they’ve should’ve been a bit more conciliatory towards each other, but I doubt that even that would’ve changed the ultimate outcome much. Both had legitimate and morally sound arguments, concerns and interests, which just happened to conflict in those circumstances. Happens all the time.

The fact that Crookshank didn’t eat Scabbers in the end, is almost incidental, because it could’ve easily happen, and distress and fear wasn’t uncalled, and the whole scenario was totally plausible. Given circumstances, probabilistically thinking it was the most likely outcome (compared that one’s pet rat is actually a murderer on the run), and one of the few even possible outcomes out there.

Their reactions are a bit similar. Ron is an instigator and aggressor initially, by blowing up on Hermione and accusing her viciously immediately. Though, it was his rat who’d disappeared without trace (eliminating the possibility that it would’ve been accidentally crushed by someone in their dorms), and Crookshanks being responsible is not the only the most likely, but one of the few possibilities there even were. Still, holding Hermione at fault is unfair, though that instinctual emotional outburst is hardly a major ethical crime. It’s not the high road or virtuous, or even honorable, but that’s pretty much it. Holding that against Hermione and the disloyalty and betrayal he shows at her during later that year is totally another matter (though it’s only tangentially related to Scabbers).

I can see why Hermione would be at the first defensive, as it’s equally natural reaction, when confronted by someone whose consumed by anger, and probably temporarily beyond rational discourse. I don’t think she should have even apologized at all, because I don’t see that she truly was at fault or did anything wrong. After all, an apology is also always an admission of guilt as well. There’s quite a lot of studies about this, but often they make things worse, and make people even more angry or vicious towards you, partly because of that. Not only you admit wrongdoing, but also out you as a moral defective, by doing something heinous in the first place.

Quite likely Ron would’ve been even more enraged, if she would’ve reflexively apologized. A person genuinely needs to be willing to accept an apology, and then move on. They definitely shouldn’t be dished out needlessly, casually or thoughtlessly (not including a common courtesy, like if bumping into someone. Those don’t carry moral weight, thus are phenomenologically different).

She should’ve been genuine sympathetic and being sorry for Ron’s loss and distress, if not during the initial fight, but at least at some point, even if she didn’t exactly cause it. However, she was never was, and she seemed to be more interested in being right and winning an argument (she sometimes has that cold and frankly thoughtless side, in which she seems to be far more interested in being “right” by some factual standards, disregarding empathy or social relations and circumstances she’s in).

----

Edit:

I agree with everything you said. It's very understandable for Ron to immediately get angry and to accuse Crookshanks of "killing" his pet. Its literally a cat and mouse chase! And its understandable for Hermione to be on the defensive. This incident happened in third year, so they are both 13-14 ish, children really. You really cannot expect children to act rationally and not emotionally. We as adults can see that they are both in the wrong. And I think as kids when we saw this play out or we read it, we had chosen our sides. I know for me personally I was on Hermione's side. I was all for Hermione defending herself and was just as smug as her when the truth was revealed! But now, I can see that they both are wrong and right at the same time.

You last take on Hermione though, she has always had this air of superiority, and you are right, sometimes she needs to be "right" and she doesn't care about anything else, even her friends feelings.

- Lisa

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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WandaVision: The Unanswered Questions From the Marvel Series

https://ift.tt/38r7iqE

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

After two months and nine episodes, WandaVision came to a close. One of the more unique projects to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the show mixed mystery and horror with sitcom pastiche and understandings of grief under the superhero umbrella. The first step in both Phase 4 and Disney+’s Marvel lineup came out a success and built towards future projects.

Then again, its mysterious nature worked against it at times. Figuring out answers on a weekly basis meant trying to stay one step ahead of the show and sometimes it got viewers going in the wrong direction. There was no Mephisto or X-Men or Fantastic Four. On one hand, you can say that people are getting angry about stuff that they were never promised, but there is a feeling that when combing over the details of the show, they did cause us to ask some questions that never quite had a satisfying answer.

After all, even Agnes’ joke story about being out of town due to her mother-in-law visiting proved to be an important detail down the line.

As we sit back and wait for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to pick up where our power couple left off, here are some lingering questions we’re left with from WandaVision.

What happened to the beekeeper?

The beekeeper was the first truly haunting moment of the series. Sure, “Stop it!” and the exploding radio were creepy in their own ways, but the idea of Wanda and Vision walking outside at night to find a lone beekeeper sneaking out of the sewer and quietly looking at them was outright nightmare fuel. It was a major instance of wondering what in God’s name was going on, and that’s even before Wanda simply noped out, hit rewind, and retconned the scene from happening.

We later discover that the beekeeper is SWORD Agent Franklin and his appearance is just Wanda’s reality making sense of a man in a hazmat suit. We see him crawling out of the sewer from his point of view, but then…nothing.

While the reveal of his identity doesn’t lead us to AIM henchmen or Swarm (star of Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), it does explain the nature of Wanda’s neighborhood. That still makes it weird that we never hear from him again.

Or do we? While it’s never made explicit on the show itself, supposedly the guy playing the ice cream man in the episode 5 intro is the same actor as Agent Franklin. Perhaps the beekeeper didn’t die, but was just assimilated into a happier role.

Who was in Witness Protection?

FBI Agent James Woo gets the story rolling by coming to Westview in search of someone in witness protection. The complete lack of anyone having any information or even memory of this person is what gets SWORD involved and Monica Rambeau sucked into Westview. In the end, the identity is just not important.

But it feels like it should be, right? Having Woo go from coast to coast to follow up on this person seems pretty major. You would think it would have come up here or there, but nope. If anything, I guess it just goes to show that Jimmy Woo is a true professional for keeping his trap shut.

Who is the aerospace engineer?

I can understand that throwing Evan Peters’ Quicksilver at us was a good way to distract us from everything Agnes was doing, but the aerospace engineer? Come on! That was definitely more deliberate than the witness protection and they know it.

Monica brings up a friend who is smart enough to get her to break into the Hex all over again. All that’s missing is a smile and wink to the camera. The writers gave us something so blatant that it would be ridiculous NOT to speculate who she was talking about. This had to be an important cameo leading to something major down the line. Would we get Reed Richards? Blue Marvel? Beast? Dr. Nemesis? NFL Superpro?

Even when Monica’s dream vehicle didn’t do the job, it was still believed that this aerospace engineer would still get a dramatic shout-out down the line or a post-credits scene. Nope. At most, this throwaway friend is like that scene in Thor when Erik Selvig was talking up his gamma scientist friend who went missing because of SHIELD.

What did the commercials really mean?

It isn’t hard to figure out that the commercials were based on Wanda’s trauma: the bomb that killed her parents, her time with Hydra, the events of Captain America: Civil War, and her inability to deal with her grief in a meaningful way that didn’t involve torturing and enslaving innocent people. While it isn’t really important to see how the sausage is made, I’m left wondering what the commercials actually were.

From the fourth episode, we do know that the commercials were part of the transmissions. Darcy was able to see the one for the watch, but was focused on something else. Otherwise, I’m sure she would have been wondering about the inclusion of the HYDRA logo. The way everyone in the SWORD collaboration just glossed over the commercials is rather weird.

One of the popular theories was that the man and woman featured in all the live-action commercials were going to be revealed as Wanda and Pietro’s parents. That turned out not to be true, so…were they also Westview citizens? That would be disturbing because to make sense of the commercial narratives and the sitcom narratives, that family would have to be forcefully separated from the rest of the town.

Did Agatha magic up the stop-motion commercial for Yo-Magic? Because that was about her too much to be something Wanda’s psyche came up with.

Is there more to “Fake Pietro” Ralph Bohner?

“Fietro” was the big red herring of the series. After all that wondering of whether he was the first true step in bringing mutants into the MCU or if he was literal Satan in disguise, we discovered he was Agnes’ hypnotized “husband” whose payoff was nothing more than a dick joke.

Then again, he was already called Peter in the Fox universe, so it’s not such a hard stretch to make him a Bohner.

Will The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Become a Victim of WandaVision’s Success?

By Kirsten Howard

Movies

A Tale of Two Pietros: Explaining the MCU X-Men Problem With a Mutant Speedster

By Gavin Jasper

Monica’s ability to see energy in its various forms allowed her to figure out that Agatha was controlling Ralph with a mystical necklace. Once she tore it off, Ralph immediately gave up and that was the last we saw of him. But what does that mean in terms of his powers?

I imagine Agatha gave him the speed powers so he could play the part of Pietro in order to get intel on Wanda’s magic. Just because she no longer controls him, does that mean he’s physically back to normal as well? Because, hey, he might not be the Quicksilver from the X-Men universe, but he could totally play the role of Quicksilver if Marvel ends up doing a cinematic version of the Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers.

Where did White Vision go?

Vision’s Soul fought Vision’s Body and after we got enough lasers and explosions, the two talked out their differences. Hex Vision convinced his pasty counterpart to stand down and did him the favor of unlocking his dormant memories (that he asked permission was such a nice touch). White Vision recalled everything from the moment of his creation to Thanos pulling out the Mind Stone. Accepting who he is, White Vision flew off and was never referenced again.

I supposed the real question to ask is when will we see him next? Obviously, he has a lot to think about. He’s an emotional husk with lots of data to work through. Does he love Wanda in this form? Can he still love Wanda in this form, knowing what she’s become? As someone who was pro-government oversight, how will it affect him knowing that the government outright betrayed his wishes and memory? Where does someone like White Vision go from here?

Maybe we’ll see him in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Perhaps, when a new Avengers movie finally happens, Vision will show himself again. Or if they go in the direction of Young Avengers, he could be the wise father to the sons he’s never met.

It would be pretty wild if White Vision relearned how to convey emotions by watching Simon Williams movies.

What are the twins, exactly?

“FOR THE CHILDREN!” is what the neighbors echoed like a brainwashed cult, culminating in Wanda’s very unusual pregnancy. It could have been Wanda’s subconscious telling her to have kids. It could have been Agatha testing out her ability to create life from nothing. It also may have been the children themselves.

We never did fully get a grasp on what Billy and Tommy were. Wanda had a very unnatural birth and, outside of being able to age themselves a couple times, the boys seemed fairly down to earth and good-natured, while also still capable of questioning Wanda’s reality. There was nothing ominous about them outside of the weird nature of their very existence.

When Wanda relaxed the Hex, they started to disappear. When she ended the Hex completely, they once again vanished. Simply saying that they were two kids Wanda conjured up out of thin air would have been an acceptable answer.

WandaVision: What Wanda’s Kids Mean for the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Gavin Jasper

Will The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Become a Victim of WandaVision’s Success?

By Kirsten Howard

Instead, when Wanda fully accepted what her reality was and that it had to end, she thanked her children for “choosing” her to be their mother. She was able to explain what Vision was in the grand scheme of things, but she remained silent when it came to those kids. They were an outside force that sought her out. That’s what her final conversation certainly implies.

The post-credits scene had her studying the Darkhold while being alerted to Billy and Tommy screaming for help. They still exist, in some form, somewhere. Their true nature probably won’t be better explained until the Doctor Strange sequel.

Speculation on this one is a pain in the ass because even the comics explanation is a whirlwind of confusion.

What really happened to Agatha Harkness?

Wanda doesn’t kill Agatha, but does punish her by forcing her to be stuck in the living Hell of portraying Agnes the nosey neighbor. It’s a harsh punishment, but her intent doesn’t jibe with Agatha’s post-Hex status. People know about her. Even if the last few in-universe episodes of WandaVision weren’t on the SWORD airwaves, she was still playing the role of final boss and having magic fights in the sky. The people of Westview saw that.

Wouldn’t this mean that she can’t just go back to her “nosy neighbor” role and that she’s likely destined for a cell? She’ll be lucky if the government isn’t doing experiments on her, which is extra messed up when you imagine her acting like Ned Flanders.

At least she’ll be kept subdued for when the Scarlet Witch needs her. Or maybe she too will join whatever Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers team we may see down the line.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Just give us more Kathryn Hahn, damn it!

The post WandaVision: The Unanswered Questions From the Marvel Series appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2OFQ8yB

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 4 years

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 18: MJ is lying to Peter but it definitely couldn’t be for his own sake

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This is something of a tangent on the last post, where I discussed why MJ would know better than to lie to Peter. However an angle I didn’t cover was the idea that she might be lying in order to protect Peter and his life interests in some way. Well today we’re going to tackle that very question.

This counterargument stems from the fact that MJ (obviously) wouldn’t want to see Peter come to harm and wouldn’t want to harm his chances in making more of his life. After all, Peter (circa AMJ #1) had only recently begun attending college again.

Informing him about Mysterio would likely prompt Peter to ride out to L.A. immediately and potentially jeopardise his academic career.

But this just doesn’t really hold up to scrutiny.

In part 16 I spoke a length about how MJ values the greater good above even her marriage to Peter. I demonstrated that since she values her marriage over her career it therefore means she values the greater good above her career.

Using the same logic it’s pretty obvious to deduce that MJ also values the greater good above Peter’s academic career.

In ASM #303 (covered in part 16) MJ was prepared to jeopardise or potentially give up her successful modelling career for the sake of her marriage. This was owed to Peter being offered a promising new job in Kansas.

However Peter turned the job down out of consideration for MJ and instead decided to go back to college (as he is in ASM v5) so he could get a job in NYC. Mary Jane doesn’t even try to protest against this.

I’m by no means suggesting MJ is being selfish here, but it does demonstrate that the value she places upon Peter’s career prospects (which his college education is an extension of) has it’s limits. She clearly values her marriage more than that in addition to her own career.

So if MJ’s priorities place Peter’s career below their marriage and their marriage below the greater good, by extension it means she actually doesn’t value Peter’s education above the greater good.

And so she wouldn’t avoid alerting Peter to the existence of potentially dangerous criminals simply because she doesn’t want to screw up his academic chances.

But if you want even more proof, remember ASM #286? MJ ultimately decides the risk to Peter’s life wasn’t as important as the innocent lives that could be saved. Are we seriously going to suggest MJ believes Peter’s career options are more important than his literal life?

Of course not. And let’s not forget that Peter has gone back to school four time by this point. I am unfamiliar with the American college education system, but that suggests to me that there is no limit on the number of times someone can stop and start their academic career. So even if MJ reluctantly has to kill Peter’s current chances in college, she knows that he could simply restart again. She also knows Peter would want it that way too.

Not to mention MJ could be honest with Peter without risking him riding down to L.A. to save the day.

Peter knows he can trust Mary Jane. She doesn’t have the ability to get him to agree with anything she wants. But nor is Peter going to be immovable on any topic that entails MJ somehow being in a dangerous situation. In Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #2 Peter is insistent that MJ leave New York in order for her to evade whomever had abducted Aunt May.

Whilst she reluctantly left, she soon returned despite what Peter wanted and continued to stick around in spite of him wanting her to leave again.

However he didn’t press the point a second time even though the situation hadn’t changed. There are various reasons as to why but the point is that Peter was able to accept that it was a reasonable decision even though he disliked it.

Later in ASM #536 following the public unveiling of his identity and his turning against the Super Human Registration Act, the Parker family find themselves on the run. Peter wants MJ and May to get as far away from him as possible, arguing it’d be safer and more efficient for him to operate on his own. Peter is however convinced by May and MJ’s arguments to the contrary.

Both examples demonstrate MJ being honest with Peter of being in direct danger but of her also convincing him to allow her to remain in that situation. Now for sure we could argue that these outcomes were ultimately the lesser of two evils from Peter’s POV. That what MJ wanted was actually ultimately safer over all.

However if somehow MJ had a solid argument for why her sticking around on the film set served the greater good or was ultimately better for her it’s far from impossible that Peter could be convinced to stay in NYC. Just spit balling here but she could argue that something very fishy is going on, Beck already tried something large scale recently and singling MJ out could mean he knows Peter’s identity As a result sending him to jail could risk exposing his identity and by extension endangering his friends and family. If MJ sticks around and Peter keeps a distance it puts her into a position to investigate and see what he knows.

I don’t know how much that idea holds up to scrutiny as I came up with it off the top of my head but it certainly makes a lot more sense than Mary Jane just straight up lying to Peter.

Even if hypothetically Peter just could never accept MJ being surrounded by criminals, she could simply promise him she would contact her various super hero associates. Or in fact ask him to do that on her behalf.

That’s not me suggesting MJ be passive or allow a man to sort out her problems for her either.

It’d be a strategic and diplomatic use of both her intimate knowledge of Peter’s psychology and her famous people skills. Having Peter on some level take an active role in helping/protecting her would make him feel in control in some way. Make him feel like he is living up to his responsibilities as a hero and as a partner and thus alleviate his urges to ride down and intervene personally.

Nowadays Peter isn’t opposed to this level of trust in his super hero friends. Even ignoring his years as an Avenger (which included living with them alongside MJ and May), Peter has called upon these people in the very recent past.

Throughout in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man volume 2 Peter called upon the aid of his super hero associates to help him during various crises. These included the Doctor Strange, Iron Man, the Human Torch and the wider Fantastic Four.

Another example can be found during the ‘Absolute Carnage’ event, which definitely occurred after MJ left for L.A. We know this because in ASM v5 #29 and issues #30-31 were tie-ins to the event.* The Avengers in fact appear briefly in issue #30.

In Absolute Carnage #2 Venom/Eddie Brock suggests that they call upon the help of the Avengers to deal with Carnage’s impending rampage. Peter asserts that it’s best if he do that.

He is shown doing exactly that in Absolute Carnage: Avengers #1 where he teams up with Captain America, Wolverine and Ben Grimm.

Additionally this team contacts Hawkeye on the West Coast to deal with Carnage’s minions over in San Francisco.

It’s important to note that Hawkeye was on the West Coast because he was a part of the West Coast branch of the Avengers. Their headquarters specifically being…in Los Angeles…where Mary Jane is making her movie.

Granted, it’s not the same part of Los Angeles because MJ is in Hollywood and the West Coast Avengers HQ is in Venice Boulevard. And a quick Google search reveals that to travel between the two locations on foot it’d take…under three hours…Yeah…

Basically nowadays Peter is absolutely not going to be opposed to calling upon the aid of other heroes to help him directly or indirectly so asking them to show up and lookout for the woman he loves wouldn’t be out of character. Especially when one considers that Hawkeye alone is probably out of Mysterio’s league considering the threats he’s survived. But Mary Jane’s personal friends Iron Man and Ironheart? Unless Beck specifically prepared for them he would be unlikely to get away, let alone hurt them.

Now look I’m not suggesting we apply every single facet of the Marvel Universe into our analyses because that’d be ridiculous. Every Spider-Man or related story would fall apart because he could simply resolve his problems by calling other heroes. It’s part of the suspension of disbelief that Spidey is the only person available to deal with whatever crisis is at hand.**

But these are all very recent stories that, happened in the main Spider-Man titles; or tie-ins directly to those titles. In the Avengers’ case they were his teammates for over a decade and were for a time outright his supporting cast. Mary Jane was a major supporting character in the solo titles of two separate Avengers characters and that fact was acknowledged within ASM itself.

Is the idea of calling upon these characters really not fair game in this hypothetical scenario of ours?

I’d say no.

Regardless the fact remains that in AM #1 Mary Jane cannot be lying to Peter for his own sake and has no other justifiable reason either. She would know better than to do that.

Next time we take a look at MJ’s skills and whether they actually could protect her and others from Mysterio or not.

*It’s not entirely clear when the events of AMJ #1 happen in relation to ASM v5 #30-31. They must happen after ASM v5 #29 and AMj #1 was published the very same day as ASM v5 #32; being referenced in that same issue.

To me this implies that AMJ #1 slots in just prior to ASM v5 #32, but in fairness it could occur just after ASM v5 #29.

However, the events from the story I’m discussing were published before AMJ #1. They would also happen so close to it no matter what that Peter’s characterization in the former is still a fair source to cite.

**Although it should be noted that it has often been common practice for Spider-Man stories to directly address exactly why other heroes aren’t available to help Spidey. A great example would be ASM #361, Peter’s first encounter with Carnage, where the F4 and Avengers are occupied forcing Peter to call upon the aid of Venom.

P.S. For some additional food for thought check out ASM #291. In the issue a Spider Slayer robot was on the loose but Peter reluctantly left it to the authorities because a crying Mary Jane called him up and asked for his help.

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#Spider-Man #Leah Williams #Amazing Mary Jane #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #Peter Parker #Quentin Beck #mysterio

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currentlyreadingmanga · 4 years

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Toilet-bound Hanako-kun Chapter 12: The 4pm Bookstacks (Part 2)

Previously: Yashiro and the suspicious girl (yes, I’m gonna keep calling her that until we learn her name) met for the first time. Her suspicion levels rose to even greater heights since she seems not only to know about Hanako (and the other mysteries) but also she seemed to imply that there’s possibly another little ghost boy going around? Which made me ask a lot questions last chapter, and apparently they will be answered in due time, so I won’t repeat those here. Anyway, following her advice, Yashiro and Kou ventured into the 4pm Bookstacks a.k,a. the fifth mystery of the school to hopefully learn more about Hanako. And Yashiro did find some details but the big terrifying butterfly monsters in that boundary made their little expedition come to an unexpected end. Thankfully, Hanako and...Tsuchigomori, yes, that was his name, appeared just in time to get rid of the two big butterfly Yashiro and Kou look-alikes. Tsuchigomori really wasn’t pleased with the state the kids left the bookstacks in sooo..... we’ll see what happens.

Now onto the next chapter!

Ohhhhh we’re starting with a colour page of the last portion of last chapter! It’s so gorgeous and btw one of the main things that caught my attention when I saw the anime screenshots was the art style and the colouring. And I gotta say, the manga really doesn’t dissapoint, it’s so beautiful.

Okay, so onto the actual chapter and....

I legit had to go check how the last chapter ended again because I thought I was forgetting something but no. It seems like we’re starting after a little timeskip and Tsuchigomori wants Yashiro to say something?

Ah, here’s narrator Yashiro again. And I just

There’s so much going on here. Hanako cheering with the fans, the little “shame” sign above her head, the “(working title)” gag, and omg the little radishes with the microphones pffft I can’t. This manga really is something else.

But yes, Yashiro is recapping what happened between the end of the last chapter and the start of this one.

Kou mentions that he can’t believe that one of their teacher’s is not actually human and yeah, finding out someone you interact with almost every day is actually a supernatural being must be quite a shock. huh? But! Tsuchigomori says that it’s more common than one would think

Huh. When he puts it like that, I can see his point. I mean, there must be an array of supernaturals that aren’t necessarily bound to a place and they might not want to live in hidding. If they can blend in with the humans and live semi-normal lives, then why not do it? Also, being able to influence your own rumors makes a lot of sense, that way you would be able to stop them if they got too out of hand. But also

................well, now that he’s said that, I’m 90% sure that one of them will end up being a supernatural. Because come on, it would make the plot more exciting.

Yashiro brings up a good point: that could be dangerous, but Hanako says that they shouldn’t worry since that’s what the mysteries are here for and I just

There’s something so funny about this panels. Like, the contrast between Hanako’s cheery disposition and Tsugochimori and Yako’s just overall “done” aura it’s just great.

It just keeps getting better pffffft Yeah, idk if that’s the best way to describe their group. “Emo spider” made me giggle more than it probably should have

............Yes, the leader thing is clearly true. And I talked about it during last chapter, but I really wonder if he’s the “boss” because he’s the most powerful one of the bunch and because his task is to take care of not only the random apparitions but also the mysteries themselves (like with what happened with Yako). Also jfc sometimes I forget how scary Hanako can get

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh we have a clearer picture of the mysteries!!! Okay so we have Hanako, Yako and Tsuchigomori highlighted since we have met them already. Then we have another three: I had noticed the girl and the mirror before but this confirms that they are two different mysteries; then there’s a clocked figure....that I know it’s facing away from us but my brain just keeps seeing it as a big bug that has huge bulging eyes and almost human teeth and I hate it. But this is just showing six right now, yes? There’s one missing? (EDIT: Oh, I think I see it now, there’s a separate silhouette between Yako and the bug man, right?)

But anyway!! the important point is here is that apparently they think there’s a traitor among them. And they think this traitor has tied their fate to a human and they’re using this human as a way to alter the rumors around the school. So the human would be the suspicious girl because we know that she’s been spreading rumors. And if that’s the case, then this possibility about the “other Hanako” being the traitor would also be high. Because, come on, the drama would unbelievable

Ohhhhhh that’s interesting. So the reason they think that one of the seven is behind this is because only a powerful supernatural would be able to change the rumors in a way that would actually affect another one of the seven mysteries. And I was right to a point: there meeting was indeed about the changes in the rumors.

...........oh. I mean, I guess that would get rid of the problem. But I really need to know what that would entail. Because it obviously isn’t permanent if he says it’s only “for a while”. Like, would it involve doing something like what they did with Yako? Because Hanako had said that she had to “return her number” or something of the sort when he fought her, right? And she has less power than she had before, too, right?

Ah, okay. The next page confirms that yes, that’s exactly the case. And because of that, Hanako’s idea is to destroy all of the mysteries’ yorishiros before they even have a chance of going berserk. And I can see the value in doing that but like, what if the “traitor” isn’t, for some reason, actually part of the seven? Wouldn’t that leave them vulnerable?

And I agree with Tsuchigomori (side note: my brain always autocorrects his name to “tsugochimori” and I have to make a conscious effort to actually type his name the correct way why is this so hard for me). It does seem like quite a rash plan to put into action, even if they can reappoint the mysteries later on. Then again, I understand why Hanako wants to avoid pissing Teru off because we know how that went and... yikes

Pffffft this face made me laugh so much, it reminds me of one of my favourite Tanjirou faces.

^this one

Also ngl my heart stopped for a second when he said “no” because I thought it would lead to a fight but then I scrolled down so thankfully that’s not the case.

.................. *looks up echinococcus*: any of a number of tapeworms of the genus Echinococcus whose larvae are parasitic in humans and domestic animals.

Omfg by e that’s harsh but also so nerdy. Yako’s response is both appropriate and incredibly over the top at the same time. I really like their dynamic so far

Ohhh okay. Tsuchigomori says that he’s a supernatural who craves knowledge, and if they’re gonna destroy his yorishiro and temporarily take away his boundry, then he wants information that would be valuable enough as compensation. And, okay, I now see what the beginning of the chapter was about.

Ah, he says that he will still let Yashiro destroy his Yorishiro even if they don’t tell him anything, but he says that if they don’t, then he will broadcast their most embarrassing secrets to the school. That.......that would do it, yeah, I completely understand why Yashiro was so willing to talk at the beginning. That would be a nightmare jfc

.............still kinda hot ngl

Btw I love that this is drawn as a fighting game, it’s so cute.

Yashiro gives it a shot but Tsuchigomori is not impressed.

(Side note but Hanako’s reaction just gives me life:

He doesn’t even try to hide his jelousy, does he?)

Omg he’s reading the one of the letters she “exchanged” with Teru and omfg Tsuchigomori stop she’s already dead

Okay now it’s Kou’s turn. Good luck, sweet child. It’s probably something really pure

...........Baby boy, bless him

Both of them are getting fired up and spitting out their secrets and they’re such small and dumb secrets, bless their little hearts

Ohhh and Kou is appealing to what’s probably their last resort: asking Hanako to spill any secret he might have (there are probably a lot of secrets, my instincs tell me Hanako’s secrets probably have secrets)

Oh? What’s this we have here? Those looks scream shared history. Well, I guess that Tsuchigomori could have read Hanako’s book since that’s part of his boundary. It would make sense for him to have read it. But idk, I feel like there’s something more to it that I can’t quite put my finger on. Like, why would he say “enough”? Because he’s read Yashiro’s book and he still wanted to know more. What makes Hanako different?

ಥ‿ಥ

and

ಥ‿ಥ ಥ‿ಥ ಥ‿ಥ

They’re so freaking cute I can’t deal with it omg Also look at Hanako’s surprised face! The NeneKou combo is too pure to resist

.......................................................of all the things I could have expected, this was not one of them. I- why is that so wholesome, though?? like, it’s really silly but also no one gave this child the right to be so freaking adorable (EDIT: also, is this gonna be relevant to the chapter title “donuts”? is Hanako gonna get some yummy donuts? I would honestly be okay with a chapter that centered around that. let the baby have his donuts)

“Are you both morons?” Yes, Tsuchigomori, they are. geez, I thought you had read their books, you should know by now. But also give them so leeway, they’re excited to learn more about their ghost friend. Like seriously

Look at them, they’re so happy together, even Hanako has what seems to be a genuine smile. And by that comment I’m guessing that Tsuchigomori noticed that, as well

Hmmm. Okay, two things: 1) so Tsuchigomori did read Hanako’s book and knows everything about his life 2) the fact that, knowing everything about him, he believed that Hanako wouldn’t want to create any new friendships AND the fact that this kinda implies imo that he hasn’t seen Hanako making that kinda gentle expression before is all just. really sad and it makes my heart hurt

Anyway, sad thoughts aside, spiderman here tells them their time is up because their secrets are so ridiculously dumb that they’re not worth discussing.

Why is he so fucking weird? and why do I kinda fucking love him already??

This man just keeps earning more and more points in my book

But yeah, he says that he’s not gonna broadcast their secrets since he was (kinda) joking and he did end up seeing something interesting after all. In the end, he agrees to take them to his yorishiro! Yaaay!

#toilet bound hanako kun #jibaku shounen hanako kun #jshk spoilers #tbhk #jshk #live blogging

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Ghost-Spider #1 Thoughts

Since I enjoyed the Spider-Geddon aftermath issue of Ghost Spider and because seeing Spider-Gwen meet Earth 616 Jackal intrigued me I decided to check out the current story arc and...um...oh dear...

So confession. I dropped Spider-Gwen’s title after reading the issue that debuted Earth 65 Kraven. The moment I saw him with his stupid Hipster look I was like ‘Noooooooooooooooope’.

So consequently I missed out on such gems as Gwenom and other great ideas I’m sure were inspired by variant covers.

What I’m saying is I’m out of the loop and therefore any analysis I might be able to provide isn’t going to be that great because I’m literally lacking in information.

That all being said I also maintain what Stan the Man said once upon a time, every comic is someone’s first. That goes for issue #1s moreso than others!

So we come to this title.

Was it good.

From where I’m standing...no not really.

Okay so first of all the art is lovely, it really is. And the scene where George’s surprise party goes very wrong was really well paced out by the art, which sold the comedy very well!

As for other positives...um...the story remembered to address the fact that Gwen can’t just show up to Earth 616 and go to school there. The idea that Iron Man established a scholarship for extra terrestrial and extra terrestrial people fixes that problem...but it opens up a boatload of questions.

Is Gwen and fellow students from other dimensions like her stealing student places from people based in Earth 616?

Wouldn’t education standards vary wildly across dimensions? After all a lot of times when it comes to education it’s less how well you did as much as where you went (or sadly who you know). I mean I know people from my university, which was no slouch, who got great grades but were passed over for jobs by people with less impressive grades but from more prestigious universities. Is a grade from Oxford or Yale on Earth 616 worth as much on the job market as it is on Earth 65? It may well be that on Earth 65 (which we know has a different history to Earth 616 and isn’t necessarily a reflection of OUR real life world) ESU is regarded as a lesser school that’s easy to pass.

Wouldn’t the subject of allowing aliens and other dimensional people to attend schools on Earth 616 open up a HUGE political debate regarding immigration? Provided it was known to the government of course and it Tony was hiding it from them then isn’t that super unethical?

What about the potential for disease and illnesses that could be brought over from a dimension with a starkly different germ history to Earth 616?

Do Gwen’s fellow students get to know she’s a foreign student from another dimension?

Are such things REALLy so common place blasé in the 616 universe? Surely the norm is to acknowledge that aliens and such things exist but to suspend disbelief to allow life to go on as normal, but if people are just actually reacting realistically to something like this doesn’t that break down the verisimilitude of the Marvel universe?

If Gwen is attending school with the legal name of Gwen Stacy and LOOKS like Gwen Stacy wouldn’t that raise a shitton of problems for her because she looks JUST LIKE A DEAD WOMAN! I mean Gwen’s clone at least changed her name. Is ESU really not going to have records of that time one of their students was murdered on a bridge? Gwen’s death was public knowledge the Green Goblin boasted about it on TV and Ben Urich wrote a book on it!

All of which is academic because even if Gwen earns a college education on Earth 616...how is that going to help her in the long run?

Think about it, she might be taught skills and stuff that she could then use in any jobs she adopts. But having skills is sadly only half the battle when it comes to getting a job. Of equal or possibly greater value is having the PROOF you have those skills. Someone can be a brilliant self-taught nuclear engineer. But if they’ve not got a college diploma to prove it they aren’t getting a job.

How is a diploma from Earth 616 going to mean anything besides a piece of paper on Earth 65. There wouldn’t be any records proving she attended ESU and even if Gwen tells them that she earned the degree in another universe they’d only have her word for it, faking a piece of paper saying you graduated is easy! Even if they did believe her no one in authority on Earth 65 has the power to verify how legit or qualified Earth 616’s ESU is. It could be an online course for all they know. Not to mention do the residents of Earth 65 even know that travel between parallel universes is even a thing?

I’m sure a lot of 616 citizens are probably vaguely aware of that but on Earth 65 that isn’t necessarily the case because they’ve not had a long history of Skrull invasions!

It’s all just so contrived to just have Gwen situated in Earth 616 because that would boost her sales in theory.

Creatively it causes problems too.

Let’s put aside how it means subplots and supporting characters are going to have to be divided between two universes where their collision will be difficult if not impossible.

Let’s even put aside how being a public figure in Earth 65 whilst she spends a huge chunk of her time in another universe entirely puts Gwen’s Dad (who’s human and at risk from heart attacks) at HUGE risk!

What is really gained creatively from having Gwen on Earth 616 where she can interact with like 616 Peter, 616 MJ, 616 Miles?

Fanservice. Sure. I mean that’s why I’m reading this.

But creatively speaking it is just...impoverishing for everyone.

Let’s first look at this from the POV of the 616 residents.

Miles gets to potentially date Gwen more easily now. This is a bad thing. Miles is already too similar to Peter and whilst this dynamic might work in the animated movies (which are themselves an AU to the comics) in an ongoing Miles story having him literally dating a version of Spider-Man’s girlfriend is reductive. Not to mention it might be a bad idea to have him date a fellow super in general, it undermines his normalcy and relative normalcy is important to Spider-Heroes. In this case it wouldn’t even be dating a hero, it’d be dating a hero from another universe!

For Mary Jane it also undermines her normalcy too as well as undermining the weight of Gwen’s death in her life because a version of Gwen, is alive and well and capable of regularly interacting with her.

The same holds true but a thousand times more for Peter. Unless you quarantine off this series as ‘Spider-Gwen continuity’ any time Peter feels mournful over Gwen now is going to feel rather hollow because you know he is regularly chatty with Spider-Gwen and literally helped her get into the same school as him!

That’s another bad thing about the comic by the way. Isn’t being on record as helping an other dimensional version of his dead girlfriend going to seriously put the spotlight on Peter in a big way? Does he even have the clout to help her get into ESU given how he’s only recently returned there himself? And what was with the dialogue implying he works there? When did that happen? He attends school there but he’s not got a job there last I checked??????????????

Also...isn’t Peter like seriously waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too chill about Gwen? Remember how in the 1970s Clone Saga (the story this comic actively references) he was seriously shaken up when Gwen’s clone appeared? Remember when he had varying degrees of similar reactions EVERY time one of Gwen’s clones showed up, including when Spider-Gwen was impersonating one of Gwen’s clones in Clone Conspiracy?

Now he’s face to face with a living breathing version of Gwen Stacy who is arguably more real than any of those clones and he’s all smiles and meh. He doesn’t even think about it in the other titles! Like dude if Spider-Man came face to face with a living Gwen Stacy that would dwell on his mind somewhat!

Now let’s consider this from Gwen’s POV.

What does she gain from interacting on Earth 616?

Well she gets to be comparatively more normal than on her own Earth where she is a celebrity. Okay cool...couldn’t you just get to the same ends by mindwiping her identity from people on Earth 65? I mean we already did this with Peter Parker why is the integrity of Spider-Gwen’s narrative more precious?

She gets to interact with Earth 616 Jackal...which is really more interesting from the Jackal’s POV because does she even know who the hell Miles Warren is? It doesn’t seem like it based on this issue. I mean that’s why I’m reading this arc right now. Because seeing Miles Warren react to a living Gwen Stacy is an interesting idea to me. But why move the main character in this direction to do something interesting with a villain. Not even one of her own villains either, another character’s villain. Oh but Earth 65 Jackal is also doing stuff. Why is he even evil in her universe she’s not dead? Was he in love with Peter in her universe?

This basically applies to every villain and supporting character Gwen could bump into on Earth 616. Norman, Harry, Jameson, Curt Connors, Jill Stacy, etc.

The most interesting characters she could interact with from her POV are Peter and Mary Jane. But with Mary Jane you have to think the mileage doesn’t go much further than “Wow you are much nicer than my Earth’s Em Jay (who’s name has apparently changed now) who’s a total diva b-word!”.

And with Peter...well this issue already basically dispelled the drama from that. She regards him as a older friend but not a peer, not her Peter and someone she can chat to and fight crime with sometimes. That’s it really. There was more emotion and drama derived from that Conway backup story where she met the Goblin Peter back in Spider-Verse.

Meanwhile her own supporting cast and villains are very much left in the lurch. I mean the Man-Wolf is getting released on her Earth and I’m just like ‘so what she’s not even there right now!”

And like Peter and Miles this torpedoes the idea of Gwen being relatively normal. Juggling normal life problems with superhero problems flies out of the window when you are commuting between dimensions, one of which you are famously dead and the other of which you are just famous.

What else is there to talk about.

So Gwen’s costume is apparently composed of spiders but is also a symbiote...um...weird. in fairness maybe that’s addressed in older issues.

What’s weirder was the random giant rat...what was that even about?????????????

The only other positive I have to say about this issue was that at least it wasn’t as pretentious and not as obnoxiously zany as Latour’s run.

Finally...what was up with that opening page saying Gwen got her powers a few months ago??????

You telling me Gwen got her powers in high school, became famous as Spider-Gwen, Peter got crazy and turned himself into a lizard before dying, Gwen changed her world view, a campaign to capture her happened, she went to college, THEN Spider-Verse happened, THEN everything in volume 1 happened, THEN everything in Secret Wars happened, THEN everything in volume 2, Clone Conspiracy and Web Warriors happened (including the Spider Women crossover), then everything in volume 3 including Spider-Geddon happened and all this shit happened...in under a year?

What the fuck was everyone on speed or something that’s ridiculous!

I’m gonna pick up the next few issues but if they’re more of the same I hope the Jackal story wraps up sooner rather than later.

#Ghost-Spider #Spider-Gwen #Gwen Stacy #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #George Stacy #Captain Stacy #Spider-Verse #Spider-Geddon #Em Jay #the jackal #jackal #Miles Warren #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson #mjwatsonedit

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mst3kproject · 5 years

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820: Space Mutiny

Well, I did one of MST3k’s John Phillip Law movies, so I might as well do the other. Ladies, Gentlemen, etc, I give you: Mother. Fucking. Space. Mutiny.

The Southern Sun is a generation starship on its way to colonize a new planet. Most of the people on board are okay with this, but there’s a faction, led by Commander Kalgan, who want to abandon the mission and land somewhere. Kalgan and his cronies are willing to do anything to get their way, including sabotage the ship and make a deal with some space pirates. Lucky the Southern Sun has Dave Ryder, a big dumb beefalo of a man who will roll, shoot, and scream the rebels into submission! Oh, yeah, and there’s some Yoga Witches in the cargo hold, I dunno what’s up with that, but the movie assures me they contributed.

MUZ has been called the Manos of the Sci-Fi Channel era, in that it’s incoherent and badly-photographed. This is a compelling argument, but for my own part I consider Space Mutiny the Manos of the Sci-Fi Channel era, in that it’s absolutely iconic. It’s the episode that comes to mind when people think of that period in the show. It gave rise to memes. It’s also very much the Starcrash of the Sci-Fi Channel era, in that it is absolute comedy gold in ways the film-makers never intended.

You could write a book on the many sparkling facets of this movie's sucktitude. As Mike and the bots repeatedly observed, Cisse Cameron is ten years older than the character she’s playing, and the ‘engine room’ shots are all in a factory somewhere with sunlight shining through the windows. As they famously never observed even once, all the spacecraft shots are stolen from Battlestar Galactica. The bridge is made of cardboard. Nobody’s costume fits – Ryder’s in particular sags at the ass, which is a shame because I bet his ass is terrific. The women wear outfits so tiny that one with extra-long hair looks like Lady Godiva from behind. The end credits song takes the best bits of every 80’s power ballad ever written and assembles them into something far less than the sum of its parts. You can hear the singer’s mullet.

The writing is nothing short of stunning in its badness. Battle sequences are a mess, with no idea what’s at stake in each area the mutineers are trying to capture. There are whole scenes in which nothing much is actually said – the most glaring example is probably the bit where Commander Santa tells Captain Sting ‘it would have to be somebody on this ship with something to gain from this’. The exchange tells us nothing we didn’t already know. MacPherson only shows up in the room where Miss Santa is being interrogated so that he can expose himself as a traitor. Kalgan uses ‘space-bitch’ as an insult, unironically, twice, and calls Ryder a ‘meddling fool’.

There are at least three places where something is set up and then disposed of without ever being paid off. Commander Santa’s daughter tells Ryder that they can call for help against the pirates and mutineers, but he says he figures Kalgan has already installed scramblers – so they don’t even try. That seems to me like a situation where can’t hurt, might help would be a good philosophy. There’s also the ‘countermeasures’ subplot, where we learn that MacPherson will have revealed all their defense plans to the mutineers… and then the whole subject is just dropped. The biggest dangling plot thread, however, is the Bellerians.

These are the Yoga Witches I mentioned. They show up wearing bathing suits and veils, rub themselves all over the walls and some of those plasma globes that were popular in the 80s and 90s, and I think they seduce some of the security personnel. One of them visits Commander Santa and tells him it’s time for action, and they murmur things about time being up for one or other of the mutiny leaders, but they never actually do anything. The first time I watched this, as the MST3K episode, years and years ago, I remember waiting and waiting for the Bellerians to do something cool and they never did. They are entirely decorative.

(They also made it impossible for me to take Avatar seriously. The exchange a superintelligent dandelion seed! – Man, they'll worship anything! will not leave my head the entire damn movie.)

I also have to ask: if Kalgan and his followers are not satisfied living on the Southern Sun, why don’t they just… leave? The ship is clearly still in an inhabited part of the galaxy. There are the pirates, there’s the idea of calling for help, and people do come and go. Professor Spooner was on board the ship at some point to be Miss Santa’s mentor, then he left, and now he’s coming back. The Bellerians arrive and are given a place to stay, and it’s implied that they will be on board for some time but not permanently. Ryder is new to the Southern Sun, and I think the nonsensical does that mean you won’t marry me? at the end is supposed to tell us that he’s leaving again and hoping to take Miss Santa with him. If Kalgan wants to go, he can… but the writers completely ignore this.

Yet for all that, Space Mutiny is actually quite engaging. It’s structured like a proper movie, alternating between action, mystery, and romance. Reb Brown as Ryder and Cisse Cameron as Miss Santa have decent chemistry – they actually met on this movie, fell in love, got married, and are still married to this day. Sometimes you can’t follow what’s going on in an individual scene, but you always know where you are in the story as a whole.

Miss Santa appears to be an attempt at a Strong Female Character(tm). She’s supposed to be a PhD, and she gets involved with the shooting and punching right alongside Ryder. I think the did you see my butt? scene is supposed to tell us that she’s in charge of her own sexuality (this might work better if the camera didn’t leer like a miserly tipper at a strip club), and when she’s taken hostage she’s able to almost rescue herself by the time Ryder comes for her. She also has a few hints of actual personality, in that she’s shown using her work in the greenhouse as a way to blow off steam, and she sulks a bit when she doesn’t get her way (well, that’s gratitude for you!).

Ryder is a much larger presence in the movie, both physically and in terms of screen time, but he has far less to him as a person. He’s brave and heroic and likes to yell and shoot at things, and that’s about it. I suppose, like Duke Barnum in Last of the Wild Horses, he’s supposed to be a man-shaped hole that the audience members can place themselves in. It works a bit better here, because Ryder is a handsome, muscular space pilot, which seems, at least to me, like a better fantasy life than ‘broke cowboy who interferes in other people’s problems’. There’s also the fact that Ryder has a reason to be involved in these events, since he, too, is trapped on the Southern Sun with the mutineers.

I guess Space Mutiny is probably trying to be about long-term versus short-term goals. The Southern Sun was built with a long-term goal in mind – find and colonize a new planet. The people on board mostly accept that they are just a stage in this process, and that the end result will benefit descendants they will never meet. The mutineers are focused on a short-term goal, settling on a planet somewhere and becoming rich and powerful. The movie doesn’t really delve into the consequences for everybody else on the ship if Kalgan wins, but we’re clearly meant to assume that the long-term goal entails more benefit to more people. That’s a good enough theme, I guess.

One thing the movie does go into, although probably by accident, is the nature of male versus female power. The men in this movie – Captain Santa, Ryder, and Kalgan – are proactive, giving orders, firing guns, and throwing punches. The women largely sit at desks and serve drinks, and those who attempt to take action are punished for it. Lieutenant Lamont tries to investigate the theft of explosives, and gets shot (we’re supposed to ignore the fact that she’s back at her console ten minutes later). Leah goes to help Ryder in the battle and is lectured for it. These are unacceptable forms of power for women to wield.

Acceptable female power is embodied in the Bellerians, who manipulate events subtly from behind the scenes. Unfortunately, they do it so subtly that I have no idea what, if anything, they actually contribute – which just makes it look like women can tell themselves they’re in charge but they’re not. They’re just hanging out while the men do all the real work.

I guess I should mention that there’s only one guy in this movie who isn’t white, and he’s hanging up in a freezer in his underpants. I could complain, but I’m tired.

What makes some bad movies entertaining and others insufferable? What is the difference between, say, Teenagers from Outer Space and Invasion of the Neptune Men, or The Giant Spider Invasion versus The Starfighters? Looking back across the gulf of around two hundred bad movies I’ve written about in the past three and a half years, I’m going to say it involves weaving your failures into a structure that might otherwise work. Fun bad movies have characters we can follow and a plot that makes some kind of sense – we know who Ryder and Miss Santa are, and we have some idea what they’re doing, so we’re not sitting and trying to puzzle that out instead of enjoying the floor polisher chase scenes. Once the movie has us in a place where we want to pay attention, it doesn’t really matter if the technicalities are up to snuff. This is where movies like Radar Secret Service fail, and where Space Mutiny almost succeeds.

#mst3k #reviews #space mutiny #80s #magic voice recommends

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ganymedesclock · 6 years

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My beef regarding female characters in an action series who use “seduction” as a means of getting things done can basically be summed up in three points.

The first is: seduction is not a valid strategy. Even if your femme fatale can count on the idea that the vast majority of her opponents are going to be specifically attracted to women, which, she... can’t, there’s no way she can guarantee that she’s everyone’s type, or that everyone will drop what they’re doing to ogle / assist a woman they’re attracted to. A tactic is not a useful tactic if it is rendered totally moot in the event of asexual people, those not attracted to women, happily married monogamous individuals, people who are just not really feelin’ the sexy right this second, anyone of particular ethical fiber, anyone of a cautious or calculating persuasion who thinks to be suspicious of one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to coercion, anyone who fights in a manner or environment that makes them unable to discern their opponent, anyone who’s difficult to distract in general, or anyone who fights fast and reflexively and will only realize their opponent is a pretty lady after they’ve thrown all their punches... and that’s not a complete list. Odds are good that the majority of situations any sort of actiony lady encounters are not situations she can seduce herself past.

Thing is, almost any female character who’s even implied to use any sort of seduction at any time is virtually always depicted investing heavily in her appearance to the detriment of practical armor and gear that’s going to get her past those statistic majority of situations she can’t flirt past.

And, yes, someone who’s more of an infiltrator, informant, or otherwise going to be flitting around social events rather than swinging from skyscrapers and kicking teeth in is going to find slightly more situations she can flirt past, but, even then, if a string of people get horribly compromised because a pretty blonde flirted with them, they’re going to cotton on fast.

The second problem is that if we’re presuming the femme fatale uses seduction during combat, the implication is that any red-blooded man can’t possibly control himself at the sight of a pretty young thing- and of course the vast, vast majority of her enemies are going to be red-blooded men.

In short, it’s a twofer to the idea that no matter how exceptional this one woman is, she’s just that- one woman, in a society where it’s so shocking and abnormal that she’s a competent woman because we all know women are docile coquettes that people will genuinely fail to defend themselves upon realizing she’s a woman, because that means she must be less dangerous.

And, also, the idea that a pretty lady in a push-up bra is an irresistible siren call that will force men to abandon logic (because we usually don’t see these seductive assassins winning over other women or NB people- it’s overwhelmingly heterosexual men) which leans towards the idea of rape culture. Especially because often, we see that no matter how flirtatious or competent she is, various male characters will find her attractive and get the upper hand on her anyway, which rapidly descends into deeply uncomfortable territory.

The third problem is if seduction is a useful combat advantage (which it isn’t), there is a glaring lack of male characters that use it.

This isn’t about impractical assassins in blatantly sexualized costumes are fine as long as there are just as many willowy, washboard-abs men in tight leather as there are women. This is about the message it sends if all your male action stars can “merely” get by with combat skills and overwhelmingly nonsexual charisma, while the only people dipping into- and heavily dipping into- this ‘potent combat advantage’ are women.

In short, it implies that all these male characters are better fighters than the women, who are forced to “cheat”- because a woman being attractive to the men around her is seen as something she’s doing as a malicious temptress to mock them. But in a context where the guys get the last laugh- because the seductress assassin is never the main character. She’s a supporting hero or a villain, and either way, at some point in the series, various male characters will get the better of her, thwart her ‘wiles’. Implicitly, spring the “trap” of her dangerous sexuality and get away having been kissed and fawned on but not summarily beheaded.

The vast majority of these characters are associated specifically with the black widow spider- at first glance, you might say nothing wrong with that, the female black widow is larger and more powerful than her male counterpart.

However, if that was merely the case, we’d expect to see femme fatales based on lionesses or hyenas with just as much prevalence. Off the top of my head I can think of three seductive killer characters based off black widows and not one based on either of those other animals. The closest I can think of is Harley Quinn who doesn’t have a hyena motif but keeps hyenas.

Why the black widow?

The female black widow doesn’t just indiscriminately tear around eating male spiders- at least, if that’s the case, it’s not what pop culture knows her for. She specifically eats her mate. It’s right there in the name. Hyenas and lionesses don’t do that.

It frames the widow-themed assassin firmly as a (largely, straight male) fantasy. Again, the guy gets the last laugh- even if he’s killed, this beautiful, powerful lady still had sex with him (though works may pull short of actually showing her having sex). She still needs to get far more physically intimate and far more undressed than any of her male co-stars do to achieve the same end results.

Especially because at the end of the day, it’s not about her sexuality- because if she solves problems by flirting, there’s a limited number of people she can sway to affect that problem and she’ll have to flirt no matter how much she potentially hates all of them. And if she can solve the problem purely by other skills... then there’s no reason those other skills shouldn’t receive top billing in her writing.

#writing ruminations #readmore

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