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bluegekk0 · 4 months

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39 and 40 for the ask game?

this is a bit long so under a read more it goes. also i'm sorry if it's all over the place and incoherent, or if misunderstand the questions. it's almost 2am and i'm very tired after christmas eve hahah

39. How easy is it for them to ignore flaws in other people?

fpk - well, he had a whole marriage that didn't work out in big part because he ignored wl's flaws. he has a tendency to do that, he always sees his own flaws as far worse so he'll often twist every scenario into somehow being his fault. he's gotten a little bit better at that over time, he realized that he should've stood up for himself far earlier and maybe he would avoid a lot of suffering, so now he's making an effort to actually take those flaws into consideration. doesn't mean that he stopped putting himself down, unfortunately he still does that very frequently, but at least he's trying to get better

grimm - he's very aware of others flaws, and he never forgets when someone wrongs him as a result of those flaws. that being said, when it comes to relationships with those close to him, he twists that awareness into something positive. despite his own hardships, he's probably the closest the family has to a therapist - his prior knowledge of others' flaws allows him to help them overcome them, at least to the best of his ability (he has no training, but it's still better than nothing). but if it's someone he dislikes? yeah he'll find a way to turn those flaws against them

hornet - she's similar to grimm in this regard, she's quick to notice flaws in other people, and will often use that to her advantage. in her case, it's more rooted in survival than pettiness, you have to be aware of your surrounding and your potential opponents if you want to make it, so the knowledge of others' flaws is crucial. unfortunately, she also tends to use those flaws as fuel whenever she's furious and wants to take a jab at someone with a particularly cruel remark. when her relationship with fpk was still a bit rocky, she'd very often point out his many failures, just to snap at him in anger whenever she found him irritating. she regrets it to this day, she still remembers his pained expression and the fact that she never apologized for it. she does hold back more these days, and tends to keep the knowledge of those flaws to herself, though she's not as merciful towards strangers

holly - they very much ignore other people's flaws most of the time. they spent most of their life idolizing their father and only learned and accepted his flaws after they reunited, and unfortunately they are just forgiving towards the other family members or their friends. they're definitely very similar to fpk in this area, if they were put in a similar situation as fpk in his marriage to wl, they would very likely let the other control them just like fpk did. it does have its upsides, though. whenever the flaws aren't anything actually harmful, that forgiveness on their part is very welcome. they don't judge others, they're very understanding, and if there is a need, they will also be supportive in any attempts at improving those flaws

zote - he's always on the lookout for others's flaws so that he can act superior to them. in reality, it's very much a deflection of many of his own flaws, but he'll never admit it. he's the type to mock people for their missteps and even things they can't control, and he definitely deserves a smack in the back of his head whenever he does that. good thing he now has hornet and holly to let him know when he's stepping over the line, even if the former occasionally throws in similarly cruel comments of her own

lewk - very similar to the ask about trust. since he's young, he's not as perceptive of flaws in others, though his empathy-related ability he develops with age does allow him to read others' feelings more effectively - and consequently, it may help him detect certain flaws. for instance, he would definitely be able to tell that fpk constantly doubts himself thanks to all of his self-loathing thoughts, and while lewk can't read what he's thinking, the anxiety that follows would allow him to connect the dots. though again, this is definitely something he gets better at with age. at the current point in the au, he hasn't developed that ability enough to actually use it effectively just yet

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40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

fpk - his own flaws is pretty much everything he sees. whenever something bad happens, even if it's not because of him, he always assumes it's somehow his fault. he'll find flaws in himself that probably don't even exist, as his confidence is completely in shambles and he has to re-learn how to appreciate himself. he definitely needs someone like grimm who would remind him that he's not all flaws and that there are still good qualities about him

grimm - he's aware of them, but he likes to pretend they don't exist. unlike fpk, he's very confident, and that tends to overshadow his flaws. his ego also gives him the idea that he's above the mortals, even if he does have a fondness for them. so if you asked him, he'd say he's flawless. that being said, while he maintains a similar attitude when interacting with strangers or those who don't know him personally, he's much more mindful of his flaws whenever he's with his family. they bring a much softer side of him to the light, one that almost makes him seem like a different person. he knows he can be too confident and dismissive of others, so if fpk makes it clear to him that he should stop, he absolutely will. in a way, he puts himself on a leash, and in those moments he pays extra attention to his traits that can be perceived as flaws. his obsession with fpk is arguably a flaw on its own, but i think this one he's willing to ignore

hornet - she tries to push them away, she sees them as weakness and she can't allow that. she gets very angry whenever someone points them out, though deep down she does take a note and tries to improve. but she'd rather chew on glass than admit it to whoever mentioned that flaw. she wouldn't want them to see her as weak, and if that someone is grimm, she definitely wouldn't want to give him the satisfaction haha

holly - they're very sensitive of their own flaws, their upbringing required them to maintain a perfect image of an emotionless, thoughtless vessel, so they avoided any misstep so that they wouldn't accidentally sabotage the plan. and it's something that sticks with them to this day. while they may be forgiving of others' flaws, they always watch out for those of their own. and if someone points out a flaw of theirs, they will do everything they can to correct it. so while they're similar to fpk in the way that they always keep their flaws in mind, they don't have the same tendency to get overwhelmed by self-loathing thoughts and instead work towards improving themselves. not to say fpk doesn't try, but holly is definitely much better at it

zote - he's flawless, obviously. or at least that's what he'll tell you. he's the best knight, he's the smartest, the most handsome and the most skilled. in reality, he's anything but any of those things. it's difficult to say if he's convinced himself enough to forget about that, since he'll always twist the situation into something that's perceived in his favor. perhaps somewhere deep down he is aware that he's not perfect. after all, he does put a hint of effort into not being as mean towards holly and the rest of the family, so clearly there has to be some self-awareness in there

lewk - well, he's young, so he's very prone to doing what the adults tell him is right. i'm not sure if he even comprehends what could be considered a flaw, but i suppose his ability to listen to advice and learn from mistakes means that he does at least understand the difference between good and bad. so i think it's a matter of time before he can sit down and figure out his own strengths and flaws

#again really sorry if this is nonsensical #i'm exhausted haha #ask stuff #feral pk au

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traincat · 5 years

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I know you've already sort of discussed this but could you please explain the marvel 2 in 1 ending... what I'm getting is that the gist of it is that Reed and Sue are just like 'lol whoops I guess we sorta forgot about u'... which is really kinda anticlimactic and abrupt. Did I read it wrong or something? All that build up and angst just for it to go down the drain... is there something more to it that I'm missing that you know of?

I can explain it, but the answer’s not going to satisfy you, because it doesn’t satisfy me. Long story short: there were implications there was something more to the story than Marvel Two-In-One’s final two issues said, but Fantastic Four hasn’t followed up on that like, at all, and shows no signs that they’re going to anytime soon.

In the interests of putting all of the pieces together, I’m going to lay out everything that happened between the cancellation of the Fantastic Four title and now, because there are a lot of fuzzy periods. The Fantastic Four disappeared from the Marvel universe and from the shelves back in 2015, following Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars event. In Secret Wars, the multiverse has been destroyed and cobbled back together into Battleworld, a realm where Doctor Doom rules as god king, with Sue as his wife, Ben transformed into a huge wall, and Johnny as Battleworld’s artificial sun. It’s a real fractured fairy tale. At the end of Secret Wars, Reed defeats Doom and reunites his family. Using Franklin’s mutant ability to create entire universes and the Molecule Man’s powers, Reed, Sue, and the children of the Future Foundation set out to recreate the multiverse. Ben and Johnny are sent back to their own Earth with comment that “their stories aren’t done yet.” Doom is also sent back with his scarred face restored.

The cancellation of the Fantastic Four at this point heralds the first time Marvel had been without a Fantastic Four book on the shelves since 1961. We know – partially because it was painfully obvious, and partially because Jonathan Hickman spilled the beans – that the Fantastic Four comics were cancelled because of a film rights dispute; aka, Marvel Studios and Disney didn’t have the film rights, and Ike Perlmutter threw a fit about it. Instead of doing their best to put out a good book that would draw in comics audiences, Marvel instead cancelled Fantastic Four, citing low readership. Marvel has denied this, but the truth is pretty obvious, especially with how the Fantastic Four’s return to comics just so happened to coincide exactly with when it became extremely clear that the Disney-Fox merger was going through. So right from the start we had this very inorganic reason as to why the Fantastic Four were hung up. Reed, Sue, and the kids were retired out of universe under the excuse that they were rebuilding the multiverse – which, to be fair, does work as a pretty good excuse. Johnny and Ben, on the hand, were kept in-universe and distributed to other properties, probably because of Ben – who, let’s be honest, is the most popular of the Fantastic Four and the moneymaker here – and because it made more sense to keep Johnny and Ben than just Ben.

Immediately post-Secret Wars, there was an eight month (iirc) timeskip in the main Marvel universe, meaning that books that picked up after the events of Secret Wars picked up significantly after it; we see very little of the Secret Wars fallout. Here’s what we do know concerning the Fantastic Four: Reed, Sue, and the kids were largely believed to be dead, although Johnny in particular initially refused to believe that. Sometime during this timeskip, Johnny and Ben had some kind of fight. We don’t know what it was about. Honestly, at this point, we’re unlikely to ever know what it was about. Whatever it was, it was bad enough that Ben and Johnny severed all communication and Ben left the planet to join the Guardians of the Galaxy. What followed was the longest separation between Ben and Johnny that we’ve ever seen in canon. Johnny and Ben are famous for squabbling, but their fights rarely last longer than a few days at most; they’re extremely close, to the point that when Ben was presumed dead, Johnny’s coping mechanism mirrored Ben’s long time love and current wife Alicia’s. This post-Secret Wars separation between them lasted longer than when Ben thought Johnny had gotten together with said longtime love Alicia (it was a Skrull in disguise, but nobody would know that for like 80 issues). This separation between them is completely unprecedented, and like I said, we have no idea what caused it.

This scene from Infamous Iron Man #9 is the closest I’ve gotten to determining a root of the fight – note Johnny says “my family”, all handily bolded for emphasis. Not “our family”, “my family.” Ben is the only member of the Fantastic Four not related by either marriage or blood to any of the others, which has been a very occasional sore spot in the past. But even this scene doesn’t quite make sense – it’s hard to imagine Ben and Johnny having a months long separation over this alone, and to make matters more confusing, before Infamous Iron Man #9, Johnny had tried to get in contact with Ben only to be rebuffed. In Infamous Iron Man #9, Ben gets in contact with Johnny only for Johnny to practically run away from him. Already the new dynamic here feels like it needed more attention in the narrative than it actually got.

I think part of the problem with this whole return of the Fantastic Four storyline – the actual return especially, but even the lead-up – is that it was never established what was keeping Reed and Sue from coming back. On top of that, if they had the power to send Johnny and Ben back, why weren’t they able to send them back with some sort of memory or guarantee that Reed, Sue, and the kids were okay? It would have been very easy to say “well, a supervillain did it!” You know, the easiest comic book plot excuse of all time. But they didn’t do that. And that creates a problem when it’s a well-established fact that Johnny in particular tends to fall into a deep depression and displays signs of self-harm when the team isn’t together. (Fantastic Four #191-193, Robinson’s Fantastic Four run, Ben’s death in Waid’s run.) Which is exactly what happened this time, too, both during the timeskip and in the lead-up to Marvel Two-In-One (2017).

Marvel Two-In-One (2017) was essentially the test run for the return of the Fantastic Four. The original Two-In-One was to Ben Grimm what Marvel Team Up was to Peter Parker: essentially a team up book that revolved around one character. So it made sense to relaunch it starring Ben and Johnny. In Two-In-One, Ben discovers Johnny at the end of his rope, pulling life-threatening stunts in his grief and depression, and, willed a multidimensional travel device by Reed, decides to – to the best of his knowledge at the time – lie to Johnny and say that Reed and Sue might still be alive. Learning that they’re both losing their powers and will continue to do so unless they’re reunited with Reed and Sue, as their powers depend on the four of them being in the same universe (an interesting concept, though not one we’ve seen before), Ben and Johnny set off, with a worryingly helpful Doctor Doom on their heels, on a multiversal roadtrip to find their family – one Ben thinks will fail from the start because, as far as he knows, Reed and Sue are dead. It’s a really good concept, and a great concept that starts to fall apart as soon as the notion that Reed and Sue aren’t dead starts to float to the surface. In Two-In-One #9, stranded powerless with Ben in the desert in another universe and facing death, Sue appears to Johnny.

(Marvel Two-In-One #10) This brief contact is apparently enough to reignite Ben and Johnny’s powers to full strength. Sue says that her and Reed’s powers were gone, which does seem to track with the plot – except Johnny and Ben lost their powers over a prolonged period of time, not all at once. If Reed had realized he and Sue were losing their powers, he should have come to that conclusion far before this point in time. You can say the times don’t add up because different universes (which the “you haven’t met the Zaklons yet” line would seem to imply), but with no explanation about how Sue was able to contact Johnny – however briefly – at this point, it does make it seem like Reed and Sue could’ve made contact with Ben and Johnny at any point… and simply chose, for whatever reason, not to. Which is, ultimately, the story Two-In-One goes with.

(Marvel Two-In-One #11) In the very next issue, Reed’s reasoning for why they didn’t take Ben and Johnny with them is that… they would’ve been bored by the science aspect of it all. Which is, I’m going to go ahead say, very out of character and not in the spirit of the Fantastic Four. They’re explorers, and they explore together. This seems like a weirdly brusque excuse to write off the absence so they can get back to the status quo as quickly as possible, using Reed’s science-obsessed image to make him the fall guy. Additionally, in this issue (which I have to say, I overall like – I wrote a whole Doom/Reed fic based off of it), Reed also offers another reason why the world had to believe he and Sue were dead:

In Marvel Two-In-One #11, Reed and Ben visit an alternate universe Doom who exists in a universe where his own Reed is dead. This Doom is a pretty okay dude at the moment – in fact, he and Reed had become, through Reed’s private multiversal travel, close friends. Using this (pretty flawed) logic of “Reed dead = Doom good??”, Reed deduced that if his own Doom thought Reed was dead, he… too would be good? Look, I don’t hate this. I’m a big Doom/Reed fan and the whole thing is pretty shippy and it also depends on Reed having an enormous attachment to Doom and an enormous desire for his own Doom to be like this other Doom, who is his friend. But as far as “why did Reed and Sue stay away as long as they did” explanations go, “Reed was kind of bonkers in love with Doom” is not the direction I expected things to go. Besides, it doesn’t really work, and it doesn’t really work for one big reason: Fantastic Four (2018) #1, the actual return of the Fantastic Four, was published before this, and Fantastic Four (2018) #1 implies a hugely different story.

Fantastic Four (2018) #1 sees Johnny and Ben returned to their home universe after the events of Marvel Two-In-One #10. The reader has no idea how they got there or what they’ve been doing since they got back, or even how long it’s been since they’ve been back. Despite the Sue sighting, at the very end of the issue, Johnny becomes convinced all over again that Reed and Sue are dead, up until…

(Fantastic Four v6 #1) The staging here is important – Reed and Sue’s battle-ripped uniforms, and the cryptic lines between them, like Sue’s “what you plan to do… seems impossible.” This is compounded by dialogue between Franklin and Val in the next Fantastic Four issue:

“You think you can boost that signal enough… to reach Earth?” “Home? I’m good, but there’s no way I’m that good.” This would definitely seem to imply that, for some reason, Reed, Sue, and the kids can’t contact their home universe, or Ben and Johnny at all. I’m admittedly biased in favor of this version: the more time went by without Reed and Sue contacting Johnny and Ben and leaving them on their own, the more obvious it became that this was the best solution, to create some comic book reason why Reed and Sue simply couldn’t return home. But Fantastic Four (2018) #3 and #4 never really explore this more, and the subject gets dropped altogether, which makes for a very unsatisfying read. The Fantastic Four simply return home together and, some frankly too quickly brushed off anger and resentment from Johnny in Marvel Two-in-One’s closing issue aside, this gets swept under the rug in favor of the Fantastic Four just being back now! Hurrah! Pay no attention to the film rights hungry Mouse behind the curtain!

If I wanted to, I could make the explanations presented in Fantastic Four (2018) and Marvel Two-in-One (2017) mesh – Reed has massive guilt issues stemming back to the accident that granted the Fantastic Four his powers. He has a bad habit of taking responsibility that isn’t necessarily his, and of not being 100% truthful in situations because he feels it’s for the best for everyone. (The massive amount of time he takes to reveal his powers are failing during Fraction’s Fantastic Four run, or in the two instances during Waid’s run where Reed uses cruel words to distract both Ben and Sue from his plans to sacrifice himself for them.) Reed might have chosen to take the blame on himself – come up with a story he knows will anger Ben, say that he thought he and Johnny would have been bored, because he felt it was somehow easier than admitting that he and Sue found themselves in some kind of situation where they simply couldn’t get back, and couldn’t contact Ben or Johnny. It’s a way of taking 100% of the blame on himself, which would be a very Reed thing to do. But that would be me doing the book’s work for it; this is absolutely not established within the actual canon as of the time of my writing this.

Honestly, I don’t think we’re likely to see this explored more any time imminently – the Fantastic Four were banished from the stands because of film rights. They came back because for three years dedicated fans asked where the Fantastic Four were, yes, but also because of those same film rights. Now that they’re back, there seems to be this huge rush to pretend it never happened: the Four are back together, and that’s that. It’s very unsatisfying, but it’s clear Marvel cared more about pushing the Fantastic Four back together as quickly as possible than writing a coherent, satisfying story that put together all the pieces of their in-universe disappearance.

#foil-in-a-thunderstorm #*replies #traincat talks comics #long post/

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mx-mystic · 6 years

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RWBY Volume 5 Chapter 4

Honestly, as a psych student, this episode is really good. I'll even separate it into categories and put it under a readmore for spoilers/length.

Tl;dr from a fan's perspective: the Yang fight was badass, the Semblance Talk was really insightful and makes me think that Yang may have more control over her damage thing (ie not having to get hit first) because she's changed as a character so much, and the ending was actually the cutest thing in this show besides Zwei!

Yang's fight:She's so calm and collected! And graceful! I'm proud of her progress for having new strategies besides "hit it til it stops moving"! (Sidenote: the Wild West/RVB remix of Armed & Ready is the best) That's really all there is to say about that.

Training: They really flipped the whole "male character knocks female character down and feels bad when she starts tearing up. female character then smiles, revealing that this was her intention, and knocks him out" thing. Ruby just kept it up like it was just another fight. No trickery or anything. That being said, Oz really must like being in a tiny body again cuz the smile on his face when he headbutts her is actually kinda adorable? Also, being your own teacher is impossible IRL, so imagine what it's like for Oz to try to train Oscar and vice versa. They're not just Oscar's own mental notes, so it must be really distracting for him hearing a voice giving him advice mid-fight! So, since Oz has been doing this for who knows how long, he's obviously built up some good tactics (giving tips before a fight not during and teaching through experience probably apply here) and I'd like to know more about what he's learned through the years of having this "curse".

Also fighting is really hard and exhausting, even if you've been lifting heavy stuff on a farm every day for years. It's a different set of muscles and RT knows that.

Semblance Stuff: It seems to me a Semblance is like a thing you stumble upon when you need it. Ren needed to hide his emotions from Grimm, who are only attracted to negative emotions. Ruby needed to be faster for training. Nora...explained it herself (Also the Thursday thing was real subtle RT. Nice one.) That makes the Glyphs being hereditary make a lot of sense. "What power do we give the family who has everything? The ability to make more things!" Anyways, Ruby diffusing what Jaune was about to say about himself ("I can't do anything.") and instead substituting a kinder option that made him feel less alone made me happier just to watch! You can see on their faces that look of "I might not be there yet, but look at this guy! He's not there yet either, but he's still really good! We can both work on it and get stronger!" Also, I like that Ren said "a common philosophy" and then a few of the sides Fan-Theorists have taken in regards for what Semblance is.

Raven and Yang: Raven does actually seem proud of Yang at the beginning! Even through the sarcasm, the look she has at the beginning gives it away. She knew someone was showing up, but didn't know it was going to be Yang. Yang's arm shaking... my guess is she saw the mask, the sword, and the colours and was reminded of Adam. She's been hoping her daughter would come to her at some point, but when she finds out why she's really there, she feels so betrayed! I wonder how many times family has done that to her before... Though the "Family. Only coming around when they need something." line sounds a little...Ironic? Hypocritical? Anyways, Yang has really become a master tactician! Saving time and the Remnant equivalent of gasoline by going to mom instead of driving around an entire continent? Avoiding fights as much as possible to conserve ammo? Controlling her anger to make an example of one of the goons? Is this even the same Yang?? I also wonder what Raven knows about Oz. I get why she doesn't want her going with Qrow, with the whole Semblance thing, but Oz? I wonder what he did... And she really does miss having family, no matter what she says. The end gives it away. She's the closest she's probably ever gotten to begging for Yang to stay with the...clan? Tribe? She does put safety before anything, though, which I can respect.

Weiss and Yang: Now this is the part I’m super interested in, psychologically speaking. I also feel like I need to say some of these things due to many calling it ‘ship bait’ or ‘shoehorning stuff in’. And if that is the case, which I’m not sure it is, I’m actually kinda proud of RT for going against three very popular ships (Bumblebee/by, White Rose/Ice Flower, and Monochrome/Checkmate)

It makes so much sense that they meet first! I mean, obviously the Raven thing, but they were both the most distraught about being away from the rest of their team, after all. Ruby has JNR, Qrow, and Oz, Blake has her family and Sun... The only people who were kind to Weiss and Yang were Klein and the guy driving the airship and Tai and his occasional teacher guests respectively. Other than that, they've been effectively alone and traveling in dangerous conditions for the past however long and, while there can be kind people on long journeys, it's pretty safe to say that they're pretty few and far-between. Yang also, as we've gathered from this episode, hasn't been getting the letters Ruby was sending and Weiss almost definitely had no contact with anyone she actually cared for besides Winter who isn't exactly into being the Poster Woman for Sympathy/Empathy. They had basically one person that they left to search for everyone else and may have found one or two people along their journey that were kind to them. They've been on practically parallel journeys (leaving their fathers to search for their sisters in an unforgiving environment and getting mixed up with the exact same crowd) so before you start complaining that the ending is 100% purely for the fans and shipping and whatever, take where they've been and what they've been through into account. I get it, 'they used that same music with the Renora reveal', and 'the way they're hugging definitely isn't how people without crushes on each other hug' but still. Don't get me wrong, I'm 100% onboard that ship if RT decides that's the one that'll set sail, but humans are complex creatures with complex emotions. If you were to be forcibly cut off from civilization and friends you'd been through so many life-changing experiences with for an undisclosed amount of time (probably upwards of 8 months based on the events of V4) and made to feel like a prisoner and criminal, you'd probably hug the first one of your friends you come across like that, too.

#mine #long post #word heavy #RWBY #ask to tag #there may be some mistakes sorry #but i've read it like 3 times and any editing I could do now is hidden by my brain saying stop reading this same thing gdi i'm sick of it #i loved this episode tho

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