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#no but seriously this is a really big issue

sammysdewysensitiveeyes · 3 days

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My Morph primer

Since X-Men 97 is drawing in a lot of new fans with varied levels of experience with the original animated series or the comics, I figured I could give a write-up of who Morph is, where they come from, and why you don’t see them in any of the movies or other media. This is also an excuse for me to write about an obsessive fave, seriously, they are all over my blog. I'm not necessarily an "authority," but I've watched TAS and read the comics, which are the basis for this write-up.

Who is Morph?

"Wolverine! Fall back!"

Morph is a shapeshifting mutant who was added to the X-Men team in the original X-Men: The Animated Series as a redshirt/sacrificial lamb, to be killed off For Real in order to show that the stakes are really high. Originally it was actually going to be Thunderbird, a short-lived X-Man who died in the comics just a few issues after he was introduced, and has remained dead for decades. But creators realized that killing off the only Native American character on a mostly white team was a bad look, and went with Morph instead. Morph proved surprisingly popular with (mostly child) viewers, and was brought back in the 2nd season as a result. Morph in TAS was originally presented as male using male pronouns, but I’m gonna use they/them for the character since they are nonbinary in X-Men 97.

(Btw, even Morph's TAS costume shows their redshirt nature, as they are basically wearing a variant of the standard X-Men uniform that different groups have worn, with the Original Five (Angel, Jean, Cyclops, Beast and Iceman) and the New Mutants all wearing something similar. There was a time in the 90's when all the X-Men were wearing this uniform to try to give them a team look, but thankfully that didn't last, the individualized looks are much better. Morph's amazing disappearing reappearing jacket are the only personalized touch in their uniform, and I hope X-Men 97 gives them a costume upgrade after everyone gets used to the new look.)

Morph doesn’t appear in many episodes of TAS, but here are the definitive ones:

Season 1:

Night of the Sentinels Parts 1 and 2: Morph seems to be an established part of the team, a wise-cracking shapeshifter who is so naively overconfident about their mission that they’ve practically got a target painted on their back. When the mission goes wrong, Morph pushes Wolverine out of the way of Sentinel lasers, and gets blasted all to hell. Morph’s supposed death (which was meant at the time to be a real death) is sensed by both Jean and Xavier. Cyclops orders a retreat because the team is getting their asses kicked, abandoning both the (dead) Morph and (alive but injured) Beast, who spends the rest of the season in jail. Morph is quickly forgotten as a character, BUT the impact of their death is felt throughout the season. We get Wolverine yelling “This one’s for you, Morph!” while slicing up a Sentinel, and Cyclops in the finale insisting, “I’m not leaving anyone behind! Not this time!”

Season 2:

Till Death Do Us Part, Parts 1 and 2: Morph returns as a villain, but a sympathetic, brainwashed villain under the control of season Big Bad Mr. Sinister. Sinister is an evil scientist who likes to fuck around with mutant genetics and is especially obsessed with getting Scott and Jean to fuck, because their child will supposedly be an extremely genetically superior mutant. After Morph’s “death,” they were taken by Sinister, who revived them and implanted a control device into Morph’s brain that he uses to literally torture Morph into compliance. Morph seems to have a kind of split personality, which Sinister exacerbates and encourages, shifting between a haggard-looking Evil Morph who wants revenge on the X-Men for abandoning them and cracks jokes while attacking the team, and a normal-looking Good Morph, who doesn’t want to hurt their friends, and is generally scared and confused and having a Bad Time. If you are wondering about Morph turning into that version of themselves with dark circles around their eyes in X-Men 97 “Fire Made Flesh,” it was a reference back to this:

Evil Morph lookin' reeeeeaal creepy.

Morph uses their shape-shifting trickery to fake marry Scott and Jean (as the priest), impersonate Xavier and turn the team against each other, until Wolverine identifies them by scent. The team then chases Morph to Sinister’s lair, where he’s captured a honey-mooning Scott and Jean. Morph has been struggling with the brainwashing the entire time, and breaks free long enough to attack Sinister, then runs off away from everyone.

Whatever It Takes: Wolverine, who has declared the Morph is “the only one who could ever make him laugh,” chases Morph down to Brazil in an attempt to drag them back to the team. Morph, still fighting their dark side and flipping back and forth between the two personalities, taunts Wolverine in Jean’s form, fights him, and eventually gains enough control to tell Logan to back off. (“I have to get through this by myself!”)

Fighting your friend in an abandoned mine shaft, a totally normal thing to do.

Wolverine reluctantly lets them go. This the B-plot, the main plot of the episode features Storm and Rogue confronting the Shadow King in Africa, and is also really good.

Reunion Parts 1 and 2: Morph leaves a message for Wolverine stating that he wants to return to the team, in what seems like an obvious set-up for a trap. Wolverine, Jean and Cyclops go to retrieve them, and find that yes, it is a trap. Morph attmpts to warn the group to leave, but they are jumped by Sinister and the Nasty Boys, and the fight ends with Jean being taken, and Morph (still struggling against Sinister’s control), going semi-willingly. The whole team winds up at Sinister’s base in the Savage Land and there are a lot of good character moments, like Gambit telling Rogue he loves her. Morph spends the whole time still fighting against the brainwashing, but throws it off completely at the end (with Xavier’s help) and turns on Sinister, helping Scott and Jean defeat him. Morph is then Put on a Bus to Muir Island so that the writers wouldn’t have to deal with the character but could hold them in reserve to use later. Xavier comments that he can remove Sinister’s mind-control chip from Morph’s brain, but that “removing the psychic damage will take longer.” So the answer to “Where’s Morph?” in later seasons will always be “Recovering on Muir Island, probably hanging out with Moira and Banshee.”

If you are a Morph fan, Season 2 is THE Morph season, they get a great character arc that fleshes them out, and establishes their close relationship with Wolverine. I’m glad they didn’t toss out Morph in X-Men 97, both because I like the character, and because Morph’s entire arc in Season 2 was about their struggle to come back to the team, and constantly reaffirms that Morph is one of them, and that they belong with the X-Men. Also, I know Tumblr love an angsty, suffering blorbo, and good God does Morph suffer in Season 2.

(Someone is having a Bad Time).

Season 4:

Courage: After getting only a couple of non-speaking background cameos in Season 3, this is Morph’s comeback episode in Season 4. Morph believes that they are fully recovered and ready to rejoin the X-Men, while both Moira and Xavier seem to think they are not ready, and warn them to slow down a little. Morph tries to jump back into their old role, makes jokes, and goes on a mission with Wolverine, but is clearly still dealing with PTSD and completely freezes up when Sentinels attack the mansion and kidnap Xavier. Morph is left at the mansion while the X-Men go to rescue Xavier, but follows them anyway, and manages to play an instrumental role in stopping the Sentinels and saving Xavier. Despite this, Morph decides that they are not ready to return and cannot be relied upon in battle (because the writers didn’t want to deal with using the character on the team), and goes back to Muir Island. It’s a standard “character fucks up at the start of the episode but saves the day in the end” superhero cartoon story, and I was a little disappointed that the episode focused entirely on Morph’s “near death trauma” from the Sentinels and not the much worse “brainwashed and tortured by Sinister to the point of developing a second personality” issue. The closest we get to addressing that is Morph pointedly walking up to Cyclops with “Scott…been a long time….” which sounds like a way of saying “We’re cool now, bro, I promise I won’t try to kill you.” Still, we get some great Morph and Wolverine moments, and Morph kicks a lot of ass at the end. After Morph spends most of the series either dead or suffering, I don’t mind an episode where they get to kick ass. This episode also establishes that Morph was suffering from serious nightmares for awhile, so consider that a canon excuse to put that in your angsty fanfic.

(Morph also gets a non-speaking cameo in Beyond Good and Evil Part 1, sitting next to Jubilee at Scott and Jean’s second wedding. I think it’s sweet that they were invited, but can also imagine Scott putting them in the front row just to ensure that there are no more “fake priest” shenanigans. “Let’s put Morph where I can see him….just in case.”)

Season 5:

Graduation Day: After Xavier is attacked, Morph returns to help calm mutants world-wide by impersonating Xavier and making a public call for peace. Morph doesn’t do much in the episode, but they get an individualized goodbye from Xavier while he is addressing the team one by one, and it is clear at the end that Morph is officially back with the team. In other words, the writers could give Morph a happy ending of coming back since the show was ending and they didn’t have to deal with it going forward. Thankfully, the X-Men 97 writers were happy to pick up that ball and continue running with it, and I love what they’ve done with Morph so far!

Were there shippy vibes between Morph and Wolverine in the original series?

I dunno friend, watch “Whatever it Takes,” and “Courage,” and you tell me. Morph shifting into Jean to taunt Wolverine definitely gives me vibes of “There’s something going on there.”

Is Morph in the comics?

(Note – I’m using he/him for all comics versions of Morph because those versions all apparently ID as male.)

The answer is yes, sort of.

Changeling:

Morph was loosely based on an obscure, long dead shape-shifting mutant from the X-Men’s original 60’s run. Changeling was a villain with a tacky costume who acted very much like a standard 60’s comic book villain, associated with a terrorist group called Factor Three. Look at this fucking dude:

At the end of the Factor Three arc, it turns out that Factor Three’s leader, Mutant Master, is an alien who wants to destroy ALL life on Earth to make way for his own people, and the mutants in the group turn on him and help the X-Men. Changeling is the first one to question Mutant Master’s motives, and that’s probably the only interesting thing he does in the whole story. Several issues later, Xavier supposedly dies while helping defeat a villain named Grotesk and save the world. This story is retconned near the end of the run, when Xavier is revealed to be alive, and explains that the dead “Xavier” was actually Changeling. Changeling had discovered that he was terminally ill, and came to Xavier seeking redemption. Xavier asked Changeling to temporarily take his place as Xavier while he shut himself up in the basement to prepare to stop an alien invasion (and no, the X-Men were not informed of this, besides Jean, and yes, that is really fucked up). So Changeling became a reformed villain and honorary X-Man who went out in a heroic sacrifice, and was almost never mentioned again. (Even now Changeling appears to still be dead in the comics, even though the current storyline has allowed ALL the dead mutants to come back. Even Thunderbird is back.)

Changeling was greatly reworked to become Morph, totally changing his personality and origins. The only similarities are the shapeshifting powers and physical appearance. You can see how this guy:

Became this not-actually-a-guy:

Or even this version:

X-Men 97 Morph got a real glow-up to their human form.

Of course, they also share the trait of being a sacrificial lamb plot device, and X-Men TAS creators were originally going to call the character “Changeling,” but changed the name to Morph because DC’s Beast Boy was called Changeling at the time.

Age of Apocalypse Morph:

In the 90’s, there was a cross-over event over all the X-Books called the Age of Apocalypse, in which a time-traveller (Xavier’s son Legion, long story) murdered Xavier in the past before Xavier formed the X-Men, and created a dystopian alternate reality in which Apocalypse had taken over and Magneto led the X-Men. This was a kind of what-if event that let writers have fun with switching up character relationships, turning good guys bad and bad guys good, and of course, killing a lot of characters off. The event only lasted about four issues before it was all undone and we returned to the main Marvel universe, so they could really go wild. In the AoA book Astonishing X-Men, Magneto’s team includes a character called Morph, a versatile shapeshifter with a pasty white made-of-clay look, and a jovial, upbeat personality that is clearly based on TAS Morph. (This change to character design is where X-Men 97 Morph’s white, featureless appearance comes from).

Just a silly little guy!

AoA Morph is also stated in the book to have been formerly Changeling, before undergoing a name-change and attitude adjustment, making him an AU variant. He explains to Sunfire at one point that he never takes anything seriously because fuck it, he’s probably gonna die anyway, he may as well die with a smile on his face. AoA Morph is pretty cool, he does great shapeshifting tricks, and has some depth and heart beneath the obnoxious jokes.

Exiles Morph:

After Age of Apocalypse, the fan-favorite character Blink (like Morph, another alternate version of a short-lived character in the main comics timeline) gets pulled out of the AoA timeline and placed on a team of time-displaced X-Men. This team, all coming from alternate realities and including some other minor neglected characters (like versions of Thunderbird and Mimic), is tasked with hopping through realities, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that the next leap will be their leap home. The team also includes a version of Morph, who is so similar to AoA Morph that Blink mistakes him initially for her old teammate. This is another AU variant of Changeling who was never Changeling, but instead was recruited into the New Mutants (a bit of an age retcon for the character, as 60’s Changeling seemed much older, while Exiles Morph is clearly much younger.) Exiles Morph was a popular hero in his reality, served as both an X-Man and an Avenger, and is an incredibly powerful shapeshifter. He also winds up being a long-running mainstay of the Exiles team, so this is really the book to read for Morph content. Exiles also fleshes out the character’s past, stating that he was born as a shapeshifting blob with X-gene already activated, and only assumed a human appearance to fit in with peers. He also lost his mother to cancer at an early age, and his obnoxious jokey personality was partially a reaction to that, an attempt to both cheer up and get some attention from his grieving father. Exiles Morph is a great character, my only complaint is that he is a bit of a sex pest, constantly making “jokes” that border on sexual harassment of his female teammates. I don’t think he’s meant to actually be a creep, he never actually does anything, and when the teammate he has a crush on reveals that she is a lesbian, he steps back and acts as a supportive friend. I think Exiles Morph just suffers from late 90’s early 2000 writing where the funny jokey character has to be all “LOL, Boobies!” all the time, just so we know he’s straight. (Funny, given how not-straight X-Men 97 Morph seems to be.)

The Other Morph: Benjamin Deeds:

Brian Michael Bendis, in his Uncanny X-Men run, introduced a new character named Benjamin Deeds who could shapeshift, and looked suspiciously similar to a teenage version of Changeling/TAS Morph. His personality was different, though (more of a sulky teen trying to deal with being a mutant than a funny guy), and the nature of his powers is different. Benjamin has what is described as “chameleon-like” shapeshifting, taking on the physical characteristics of people when he gets close to them rather than fully shifting forms. He also exudes a chemical that makes people automatically like and trust him. Emma suggests the codename “Morph,” and although Benjamin doesn’t like it, it becomes his official codename going forward. I don’t think Ben actually has any real connection to Changeling or TAS Morph, he seems more like a legacy character or winking homage, like Pyro II (Simon Lasker, who inexplicably has the same powers and looks almost exactly like original Pyro, St. John Alledyce). He’s fun character and a cute lil’ guy, though.

There are people who call TAS Morph an “original character” completely invented for the cartoon, and I don’t think they’re entirely wrong. Morph is VERY different from Changeling, But to me, it makes the most sense to consider TAS Morph another AU variant of Changeling, given all the influence back and forth between the comics and the cartoon. Morph was based on Changeling, and Morph’s popularity led to AU versions of Changeling in the comics with TAS Morph’s personality literally named “Morph,” and now X-Men 97 Morph has been redesigned to match AoA/Exiles Morph’s appearance. They are variations of the same person. And it’s not exactly the first time that a comics character has been drastically reworked in an adaptation – I’m looking at you, First Class Mystique and Evolution’s “Lance Alvers.” I wonder if people would still be calling Morph an “original character” if they’d kept the name “Changeling,” since keeping the name seems to be all it takes at times. Still, TAS Morph is kind of right on the border between OC and “adapted from the comics,” and even I tend to include them in groups of “created for the cartoon” characters like Firestar, Spyke and X-23.

Why is Morph tagged as “Kevin Sydney/Sidney”?

Because that is the character’s name, more or less. TAS Morph didn’t have a “real name” in 92, because Changeling didn’t (similarly, Rogue also didn’t have a real name because the character hadn’t been given one in the comics.) In Age of Apocalypse, characters called Morph “Sydney” or “Syd,” and Morph even referred to himself that way in a thought-balloons, but the Exiles writer apparently decided, “Nah, it’s a last name,” and officially named Morph “Kevin Sydney.” The name stuck, and the 2004 Marvel “Book of the Dead” gave Changeling that name in the entry on him. Morph’s name has never been given in the cartoon, but it’s probably safe to assume that their official “human name” is Kevin Sydney, just like TAS Rogue is probably Anna Marie (her official name in the comics.) Interestingly, even in Exiles, the book where the name originated, Morph always goes by “Morph” and never “Kevin.” Maybe Home Alone ruined the name for him. I tend to use the Kevin Sydney tags on Tumblr and A03 to differentiate from other uses of the “morph” tag. In particular, Tumblr has a lot of body modification fetish posts tagged as “morph,” and no offense to the fetishists, you all keep doing what you are doing, but that’s not the content I’m looking for. I’m sure the fetish people are probably a bit annoyed at their own tag filling up with an X-Men character, but hey, it’s their name.

How old is Morph? How long were they with the team and when did they join? Is the featureless white face their “real form”? What’s their history with Wolverine?

I don’t have answers here because we don’t know. There’s a lot we don’t know about TAS Morph, and the origins of their comics counterparts don’t really translate well into cartoon continuity. Like I can’t imagine TAS Morph ever having been a willing member of Factor Three.

Personally, I tend to assume that Morph was with the team for awhile before their “death,” given that they have an established “old friend” relationship with Wolverine and know the team extremely well. I also tend to assume that TAS Morph is a similar age to the other young adults on the team like Scott and Jean. They sometimes look older in the original series, because they were based on Changeling (who also looks older), but the voice acting and general personality of the character seem younger, plus Wolverine calls them “kid”a couple of times. And it seems like their “human form” may not be their “real face” anyway, given that they’ve now defaulted to the white blank-face look. The white blank-face look IS the real form for Exiles (and presumably AoA) Morph, so the same is probably true for TAS Morph and Changeling. But this is all just my own headcanon and speculation, based on what I’ve seen in the original cartoon and the comics. You are all free to come up with your own headcanons fleshing out the character, I’ve already seen great stuff in fanfic out there!

Edit: Actually, I thought of a bit more:

How does Morph shift their clothing? Does Morph even wear clothes? How can they create accessories like Psylocke's swords?

Honestly, I dunno, this is Rule of Cool and Morph as a vehicle for character cameos in affect here. I will say that, in the comics, many characters with shapeshifter-type powers, like Wolfsbane, wear costumes made of unstable molecules that shift with their bodies, the same may be true of Morph. Exiles Morph, when commenting on his female teammates' skimpy costumes, at one point jokes that he "wears even less," so he may just be literally making clothing out of his own body. Although I would think that would get cold, or painful with no protection against the elements.

I assume that Morph does form accessories like Psylocke's swords out of their own body, which also presumably means they can't drop them. I wonder if it would hurt Morph if one of the swords broke? Exile Morph regularly turns his own body into accessories that he can hold (but not separate from his form), so presumably X-Men 97 Morph is doing the same. This is a step-up from TAS Morph, who never did that. Exiles Morph seems to be able to turn their body into whatever they want.

Does Morph copy the powers of other mutants?

Morph seems to be able to mimic only the physical-based powers of other mutants, under the shapeshifter logic of changing their body to give themselves larger muscles, claws, etc. So Angel's wings, but not Cyclops' eye beams. Nightcrawler's tail but not teleportation. In X-Men 97, Morph takes a couple of shots from X-Cutioner after shifting into Colossus, so apparently they can do the whole metal skin thing. But in TAS, when Morph turns into Wolverine, their claws are not adamantium and Wolverine easily slices through them.

I would add that Exiles Morph is also extremely durable, and can literally be ripped to pieces and shapeshift himself back together. This doesn't seem to be the case of "died from Sentinel lasers" TAS Morph, but maybe they just aren't there with their power levels yet. Exiles Morph IS especially susceptible to burns or laser blasts, and almost dies when Hyperion hits him with a beam at close range.

That’s it, hopefully this is helpful for people completely new to the character who got into X-Men 97. Mostly I just love writing about Morph. I encourage you to go back and watch the original series, or at least the Morph episodes. It’s a good show, if a bit 90’s corny, and will let you fully appreciate X-Men 97 (which has been, so far, an absolute banger of a series). Presumably we’ll see more character development of Morph as the show continues, which will maybe answer some of these questions.

#morph #kevin sydney #morph x-men

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eclipse15 · 2 days

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A big part of integration is realizing that life outside of imagination is safe.

When we were kids we had little to no safety. My mom was so depressed she emotionally neglected me. I was bullied and groomed at school. I was sex trafficked when outside of the house. There really was no safety…except for in the mind.

I have, in the past, identified with what many would call an “IRL”. I didn’t know that was the term so I thankfully never got into that community, but I pretty much was one. I was Sans, I was my OCs, I was Frisk. I still do that. It helped me escape the horrors reality brought.

But as much as it helped me survive it also hurt my life. I couldn’t make any decisions outside of cued ones for a long time because I was so out of it I would drift through life, just walking laps around school and sitting in the hallways. Or not going to school at all since I was so stuck in my head I wouldn’t be able to leave my house.

I would also never take my harm or abuse seriously because I genuinely believed it was a character’s backstory. I’m not being emotionally abused by this person but (character) is. It got to the point I would have imaginary family and friends with imaginary conflicts completely independent from my actual life.

It’s been hard for me to recognize this as a problem as I’ve gotten so comfortable not being fully lucid. However when it became known to me that I had a dissociative issue, I slowly started to realize this amount of dullness in my life wasn’t okay.

I’m now acknowledging my derealization and using it to recognize when I’m dealing with stress or trauma, whether it’s already happened or not. Confronting my problems as a real person has not been easy, but in doing so we’ve begun what we’ve wanted since realizing our dissociation is a disorder: integration.

I can’t tell you how distressing yet heavenly integration is at the same time, and that’s not what this post is about anyways. This post exists because I hope by sharing this somebody will realize that it’s not only possible to be dissociated in this way but also possible to fight it. Because you can. You can heal.

Sorry if this was a bit all over the place. Hope this helped.

#⭐️#did alter #did osdd #osddid #polyfragmented #polyfrag #polyfrag system #actually mentally ill #endos dni #healing #trauma healing #ptsd #ptsd recovery

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theshadowrealmitself · 8 months

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Still thinking about Spiderpeople (and people connected to those Spiderpeople) from the universes where it seems an awful lot like they’re the only heroes landing in a universe where it’s one of the Spiderpeople who’s surrounded by other heroes like the Avengers and the Fantastic 4, etc

And obviously because of this they’re gonna be extra careful about secret identities because of all the extra heroes who aren’t Spidey hanging around, and I’m just thinking about the Prowler (Aaron) trying to figure out if he’s alive or even existing in this universe while trying not to give away too much so he’s just like “who’s the coolest bald man you know?”

And Spidey’s like “oh!! I know exactly who you want!! follow me!!”

He brings them to Nick Fury.

Later on they run into what’s obviously a variant of Miles, who the other Spidey of that universe didn’t bring up because Miles isn’t known as “Spiderman” in that universe (maybe it’s like “arachnikid,” or it’s Prowler!Miles, or maybe he’s just going through a phase where he’s trying out a new hero name each week, etc)

So Aaron’s like “oh great, I can definitely ask him, but again I gotta be discrete because of all these extra heroes around” so he asks him in the exact same way he asked the other Spidey (“who’s the coolest bald man you know?”)

Miles also brings them to Nick Fury.

(Yes his uncle is still alive, yes the other Aaron is absolutely gonna tell on him)

Also! Because there’s so much emphasis on the other heroes handling “big stuff”, I like to imagine they all keep trying to insert themselves into the situation because it’s a multiverse situation which falls under “their jurisdiction” and Spidey’s just like “??? they’re all Spiderpeople tho, this is my thing, go away, shoo”

#this is being scheduled in case I don’t come back #I mean like in case I’m gone for more than a few days #taking some time off the internet #either this is a healthy break or I’m isolating myself. not fully sure.#hopefully I come back mentally better #and not. like. worse because it was actually a ‘bad isolation’ thing.#so yeah we’ll see #it’s gonna feel weird not posting everyday #should I make a post before taking a break? …nah I don’t think it’ll be a big deal #(<- famous last words but seriously I’ll be fine)#I’ll probably be back once they finish figuring out my financial aid stuff so I don’t have to keep stressing over it #they’re having issues accepting my ward of the court letter it’s hella stressful #I don’t really *need* to schedule a post but I hardly ever use the scheduling function #so I’m using the excuse <3 #scheduling for the dead hours as a fun gift for the people who will still be up at that time #Spiderman #spiderwoman #spidermen #spiderwomen #spiderpeople #peter parker #just cause he’s my default spidey #miles morales #aaron davis #the prowler #nick fury #Spider-Man #spider man

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dragonanne · 4 months

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Tagged by @secretwriterstudentjaune

1) Three non-romantic duos: Hmmm...brotps I adore would be Jack and Daniel (SG-1), Sam and Daniel (SG-1), and Lune and Matsen (Jade Torch -- is it cheating to use my own book??? xD) If that's cheating, then Sam and Frodo (LotR).

2) A ship that might surprise others: I kinda ship Link x Mipha from BOTW. I like Zelda x Link too, but something about Link x Mipha is just so sweet and tragic. I like that they knew each other for a lot longer than Zelda and Link knew each other.

Let's be real. I don't have a lot of crazy ships. Although, in SG-1, I do ship Vala x Tomin (but I also like Vala x Daniel).

3) Last Song: Shackleton by Adam Young

4) Last Film: My parents and I watched Hitched for the Holidays last night. Very funny romcom with Joey Lawrence. It's a Hallmark movie from 2012, so just before they all got so unbelievably cookie cutter/copy+paste with their plots.

5) Currently reading: Operation Grendel by Daniel Schwabauer

6) Currently watching: The X-Files. I'm nearing the end of season 1. I've never seen it before, and I'm loving it!

7) Currently consuming: Coffee

8) currently craving: idk. I don't have a strong craving for anything right now.

Tagging @aceofstars16 @quiescentdragon @ryeillustrates @accidental-spice @jenniferbrincho (if any of y'all have already done it or already been tagged, my bad--my memory stinks 😅)

#i am in a massive stargate phase right now #i almost put john and rodney as the third brotp but i wanted to include something non stargate #and seriously. i am enjoying the x-files SO MUCH!!!!!!!!#the alien episodes are my favorite and i wish there were more of those and fewer of the ghost/spirit ones #but oh well #and can i say? mulder and scully's dynamic is perfection #not just how they trust each other or tease each other but how they physically behave with one another #the acting choices seem very deliberate #mulder wears his heart on his sleeve and i am living for that #and he's big on touch. not in a creepy way at all #but he's constantly putting his hand on her shoulder or gently placing his hand on her back to steer her #so much of it is 100% unnecessary for the scene so it feels like very deliberate acting choice regarding the character #and it doesn't phase scully a bit #even in the first few episodes when they've only known each other a few months or less she has no issue with how familiar mulder acts #again. i need to emphasize---it never comes across as creepy just really cute and tender #i really really like how she is SO TINY compared to him and i think his physicality and protectiveness is emphasized by that #but at the same time he knows she's fully capable #he seems protective of her but not in a demeaning way. not overprotective. just lots of chivalry and honor #that's something that seems totally lost in media today: men who want to protect women just because that's what they should be doing #and women who let them #too many women get bent out of shape when men try to be gentlemen #women have tried to wipe out chivalry and then they turn around and complain about toxic masculinity 🙄#but mulder is a wonderful gentleman and i love watching him and scully #tagged #sorry for going off in the tags but i've been wanting to rave about this stuff for a few days now xD

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unforth · 1 month

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Revelation: my whole life, when I've responded to sarcasm seriously, people have been like "uh...why you so serious... I was being sarcastic..." and it makes me insane because like... duh? Why am I not allowed to respond to sarcasm seriously? Why does it have to be treated as hOw DiD yOu MiSs ThAt I wAs KiDdInG? Basically: why is it framed as me failing when I absolutely knew it was sarcasm?

Anyway, this just happened with my wife (no shade, it's very rare with her as compared to like, my uncle, and I told her it made me uncomfortable, we're good, it was just the spur to the revelation) and I think I've realized why it happens and why it bothers me so much.

It's always framed as me missing something, but it's not.

I knew they were being sarcastic, and I chose to respond seriously.

THEY failed to interpret MY response.

Or: damn boy (genderneutral) sorry my Yes, And game is just SO FUCKIN SUPERIOR yall should work on recognizing deadpan. Skill issue.

#unforth rambles #ive always blamed myself for this like i was missing a social cue for making it clear that i was riffing #or that i was choosing to answer seriously instead of laughing or whatever the fuck they expected me to do instead of what i did #my uncle used to frequently make me feel like shit about this to the point that i just stopped acknolwedging his sarcasm at all #but having the exchange with my wife who its usually not an issue with #helped me recognizr that what really happened just now was #she made a joke and i made a bid to yes and that joke #because also i would be fine with a pink roof actually #and she just completely missed the big #er the bid #this has never been my skill issue #it is the skill issue of the other person #im feeling extremely vindicated right now for the lifetime of people whove made me feel like shit over this common type of exchange #next time someone does this to me imma just stare them down and say skill issue and let them figure out wtf i mean 🤣

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burr-ell · 1 year

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i don't get Hopes fans' insistence that Claude was fixed by a white woman/man (Byleth) and that he’s better when he's used as a prop for a separate white woman (smellygard). Like they of course don't put it like that but that's deadass what they're saying when they attribute all of Claude’s positive character traits to Byleth and when they cheer so hard for Claude ruining his dreams in the service of a violent imperialist.

Claude and Byleth are better (and straight up GREAT) as equals who help each other grow closer to others and not "well Claude was completely evil until Byleth made him good" and he's DEFINITELY better as an antagonistic force against smellygard than a dumb yesman. like sorry to the Claude "fans" that want him to just be a dumb violent brown boy who only gets fixed by the good white characters but he's an amazing and good person all by himself 🚶

as a disclaimer, as a white woman i won't put words in the mouths of fans of color who like hopes!claude—and many do! but many also don't, at least in part for the reasons you mention, and anything i have to say on the topic will be echoing them. (@butwhatifidothis, for example, who's talked a lot about this specifically from this angle.)

i can understand the argument that byleth influenced claude to grow emotionally closer to people and his trust in her allowed him to break down the walls he would have kept up otherwise. but i think it's more than a little bit silly to attribute hopes!claude's behavior entirely to the absence of byleth. because we have canon proof of what claude looks like without byleth, and it's called "fire emblem three houses", a game in which claude a) doesn't try to take over anything even when given some good opportunities to do so and b) never even considers siding with edelgard. even "well claude didn't have the year at garreg mach" still falls flat when you consider that claude was already a clever and curious person before garreg mach, traits that are, by all accounts, largely absent in his motivations in three hopes.

hopes!claude only works as a tragedy, and even then i find it hard to believe. (and of course, having the series' first POC lord be the Tragic One in a fanservice game, compared to his two white counterparts who make off like kings by comparison, is pretty gross no matter how you slice it.) of the many traits canon claude has, "stupid enough to believe he can help edelgard conquer a continent and then starscream her" is not one of them. it's literally just edelgard's (equally stupid, but at least in-character) canon alliance with the slithers, believing she can turn around and destroy them after depleting her own resources bringing any potential allies she might have had to ruin, but with a golden deer coat of paint. i think that, as a golden deer fan, i can be forgiven for not finding that very appealing, even as an AU, and i'm certainly not paying sixty bucks for it.

seriously, Warriors + three houses could easily have just been another fanservice-y romp like the original, where the 3h characters get to interact with past canon characters and they're all friends and go on adventures together, yay!! but they didn't. they went the most financially foolish route possible and it's not at all surprising that fans weren't interested.

#'we thought this story would really touch people's hearts :)' ah yes found family engaged in a war of conquest. my favorite.#fe3h discourse #crit tag #seriously they couldn't make a serious 3h warriors story that ended happily bc it retroactively makes their bestselling game pointless #so why not just make a goofy dumb fanservice story??#bc sure it would retread the original warriors but you could bring in other main characters who weren't in the original #(characters who were locked out because of possible sequel bait. oops.)#like. fix some of the issues with original FEW's gameplay bring in ike roy and the twins + 3h characters and the og warriors cast #throw em all in a big tribute to the series and boom. done. it wouldn't sell like hotcakes but it would probably make decent money #instead they did this and the sales nosedived after the first week and kept dropping #sowwy bout it koei guess you'll have to simp for imperialist crab-chan on your own time

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hella1975 · 2 years

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wait hold on a ursa takes both zuko and azula away fic??? idk how anyone hasn’t done this concept but hella you’ve tapped into a concept that has to be explored at this point! making it zukka is also just the norm around here too.

ah im glad you like the sound of it! i refuse to believe im the first to think of that idea bc i dont think ive ever had an original thought but there's definitely a lack of ursa exploration in the fandom. the thing with this wip is that it's going to be so ginormous and so multi-faceted that it's actually really hard to explain the plot of? like ursa takes zuko and azula with her but ursa is so damaged by what she's been through and is too busy prioritising survival to be loving anymore and their life on the run is so brutal that zuko and azula - still only 9 and 11 years old which is a big reason of why their relationship is able to heal, bc they're still so young - really lean on each other to cope. initially it's a survival thing, but they grow to just genuinely get on well with and care deeply about each other. and one way they do that is that zuko starts telling azula stories! like the two of them become huge avatar nerds bc of these stories and actually i might just give you a snippet bc this is rlly hard to explain LMAO

Neither of them had any idea how to just be nice to each other, but Zuko wanted to be nice. He wanted Azula to be safe. He wanted to protect her. She was his little sister. She always had been, and she needed him. Now, more than ever.

“You know, Mother used to tell me about our great-grandfather.” Zuko said quietly into the shadows, a whisper to ensure Ursa, always so quick to anger these days, didn’t wake up. “You know he was Avatar Roku?”

For a while, it was painfully silent, to the point Zuko was certain Azula wouldn't respond. Then; “Of course I know. Some of us actually paid attention in our lessons.” Azula sniped, but she sounded a little too cutting, in a way she only sounded when she was unsure. She didn’t like it when she didn’t know what Zuko was leading to.

Zuko turned to face her direction, the cheap blanket scratching his chin and not covering all of his body. At eleven-years-old, Zuko was finally starting to grow into himself.

They were in a town on the outskirts of the Earth Kingdom, barely a speck on the map, and currently, their names were Riku and Aoi. Ursa has been very clear; her children were to never use their birthnames, no matter how alone they thought they were. They were living in a cottage with half a roof, their mother funding the rent by sewing patches onto dresses for a seamstress. She was barely in the house, but Zuko knew even when they left in a few day’s time – as they never stayed in one place longer than a week or two – he would still barely see Ursa. He wondered if she knew how reclusive she’d become.

“She told me stories about all the Avatars. I always wished she’d tell you them too.” Zuko said a little sadly. “I never understood why she didn’t.”

This silence was different, and they both knew Zuko wasn’t just talking about the stories.

“Tell me.” Azula breathed, so quiet Zuko almost missed it.

“The stories?” Zuko asked in surprise. He had been waiting for Azula to cut him down, to tell him to go away like she used to. But...

He realised maybe Azula wanted to be nice too. Maybe she was tired of being looked at like a monster by the people supposed to love her.

Maybe she was just a nine-year-old girl who needed a bedtime story every now and then.

“Yes, Zuko.” Azula hissed, and his name was so shocking it was like a curse. “The stories. Tell me about the Avatars.”

So, Zuko did.

“Water, earth, fire, air.” Zuko whispered, remembering how Mother told it. In the shadows, Azula’s eyes burned gold. “Long ago, the four nations lived together, but everything changed when the Fire Nation, the superior nation, began to share its wealth. The Hundred Year War began, and the only person able to stand in the Fire Nation’s way was the Avatar, master of all four elements. But when the world called for him, he fled...”

It became a tradition, after that. Zuko would lie beside his sister on the nights neither of them could sleep, and after an entire day of hiding himself, he’d turn to Azula and just talk. In Kyoshi Island, he told her of Avatar Kyoshi murdering Chin the Great. In Makapu village, he told her of Avatar Roku – Great-Grandfather Roku – battling a volcano. And in the Western Air Temple, he told her of the Avatar who never was.

“He’s out there somewhere, though.” Zuko uttered wondrously. “One-hundred-and-twelve, the last airbender. Can you imagine it?”

“You’re in your head too much.” Azula sighed. She always pretended not to care, but as the months dragged on, she allowed herself more. First, it was in her asking for a specific story. Then sometimes, she’d slip up and laugh. In the fragments of these nights handed over to ancient legends, as scraps of lies left behind in their wake with every new roof they found themselves beneath, Azula was more herself than ever. She could be, in front of her big brother. That was something she learned.

They learned other things, too. They learned that the Earth Kingdom was starving, that the Fire Nation was hated, that people weren’t rebelling; they were suffering. The story changed. When Zuko saw technological advancements that bewildered him in the Northern Air Temple, he stopped saying that the Fire Nation was the superior nation. When he saw children with burn scars and amputated limbs, he changed ‘began to share its wealth’ to ‘attacked.’ When the stories he told his little sister of the Avatar turned into a lifeline, a speck of hope in a world of ashes, ‘fled’ became ‘vanished.’

Zuko learned that a war was a war, that his father was not a hero by any means, that they got out just in time.

And it was hard, but the two had their own rebellions. Zuko and Azula didn’t get on in Caldera, but out here with a string of fake identities behind them and a death sentence at the end of it, they only had each other. Their mother was a wound, their father was a blade, and they were, through it all, still just kids. They leaned on each other in the places they used to bruise. Azula took the softness she tortured her brother over and began to protect it. Zuko took the coldness in his sister he used to despise and chased it away. When Azula drew the curtains and hid in cupboards to hold a flame in her palm and just breathe, Zuko made sure Ursa didn’t catch her. When Zuko lay beside Azula and talked to her until she finally fell asleep, Azula didn't push him away.

Azula, he whispered, and it was a promise that she could still be who she wanted to be.

Zuko, she breathed back, and it was a recognition that, through it all, she still saw him.

#the relevance of these avatar stories is that azula has heard them since she was nine years old #like it's a real theme in the fic that azula adapts to their life on the run a LOT easier than zuko and it's because she's #just the right side of too young when they run away that she forgets a lot of what life was like in the fire nation #her personality IS this new life whereas zuko still remembers a lot of their old life and is very haunted by it all #and hates all the lies and having to deny who he really is #and one thing azula builds her personality around - bc of her age - is the avatar thanks to these stories #she seriously hero-worships the avatar which is relevant bc two years after they ran away #zuko gets caught by soldiers and brought back to ozai... when he is thirteen... same age he was in the canon agni kai....#and ozai burns him same as canon to try get info bc ozai has a VENDETTA against ursa now and is determined to drag them all back #but zuko is actually really clever and LIES and says he has something better for ozai: he knows where the avatar is #so ozai sends zuko off at 13 to bring him the avatar! same as canon! and he sends iroh bc iroh has been clever and stayed ozai's ally #this whole time while working quietly with the white lotus to try and get ursa and the kids back #so ozai trusts him and sends him with zuko to spy on him effectively #so their three years together looking for the avatar is basically the exact same as in canon down to iroh trying to get through to zuko #AND MEANWHILE azula wants to find zuko but she doesnt know how until she hears that the avatar is back #her hero is alive and out there and if anyone can find her brother it'll be the avatar #so she joins the gaang! and zuko follows them and azula leaves him little clues and zuko puts off capturing aang bc he needs to get azula!#but they dont acc all unite until ba sing se and how do they do that? bc zuko starts blue spiriting and he meets sokka #so yeah. it's complicated. there's also a revolution in ba sing se that zukka started SKJHGKSJH it's all a mess #but we get protective big brother zuko and badass sokka and azula mummy issues exploration it's all so fun #ask #also i dont like the writing of this extract bc i wrote it literal YEARS ago like i started this wip before i did my fucking a-levels #so if the writing seems shitty that's my business

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bravewolfvesperia · 2 months

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/ so I've been thinking about how to handle Transgressor Yuri in terms of his canon, and like... I really can't do much with it. I'm probably just going to toss what existed as far as my muse goes because like... after the tree was destroyed we:

A: had no confirmation it was Yuri who did it or if he was just there at the time (i.e. could have been trying to stop someone from doing it)

B: had no confirmation on why he did it if he did (and how long it'd be before we even saw him again or if he or Lloyd's group would have run into Kanata's group) and why he would be working with Kasque unless he knew something Milla somehow didn't in this context (i.e. Milla having the wrong idea about the trees and what they're there for/what they do). that or he was doing it because he was in a situation of being forced to do it for some reason (bc basically I can't see him just being on Kasque's side because he agrees with her, and without further context I'm stuck)

I guess it really depends what the manga does as far as the trees go at this point, because the manga has skipped so much content and is literally making chapters 5-7+9 happen simultaneously and it's honestly a mess. they've skipped crossover related stuff too (without putting in replacements), which the trees were relative both to Kasque and crossover content, hence why I don't know what they'll end up doing with them and if I should wait for them to get there and cover that stuff.

they've already added in the whole "explosion we're gonna blame on you guys" thing despite Sonia not even existing in the manga as of yet if she will be, so I really have no idea what's being kept and what's not (because at this point they've already tossed a slew of non crossover content out the window - if I sound bitter it's because I am LOL).

that said if they do get to the trees and keep them and have a replacement for Yuri (which I'm doubting they will at this point), I'll probably be able to figure out what to do with him better. if they ignore that aspect since it's partially tied to Milla (and Lloyd's side story and evidently Lloyd's group's main story), I'm probably just gonna yeet it for my muse because there's literally nothing I can do with the information we had before the game shut down. most unfortunately too, that was the legit last fucking thing that happened before the story was canceled.

#{ bravewolf mun }#/ like seriously is it too much to ask of them to actually give a shit abt this cast and story #the manga is a shell of what the game was and that's not even including the legacy chars #the manga is like... okay on its own but when compared to the game it's just #kinda a disappointment to me. I know they wanted to go the cheapest possible route #to continue the story but... if they'd made it an anime ppl would've bought it #if they made it a crossover too ppl would've LOVED it. I just wish they didn't half ass #this manga so badly bc I keep seeing ppl say it's doing poorly #and like yeah no fucking wonder. it's hardly what the game was and what people loved it for #but ofc if this manga also fails and gets canceled they prob won't pick the title back up #deeming it two failures when rly it wasn't a failure in the game bc that was... a WHOLE other issue for why it ''failed''#anyway yeah I'm salty and I want the game back that had such a deep rich story #with loads of lore and things HAPPENING around the WORLD #not just with our main cast. so many Talesy things and they were like little secluded versions #all happening around the world while Kanata is having his journey #Yuri probably would've been a semi big part based on how they introduced him #unless they wanted to go the ''it's not actually Yuri'' route bc normal Yuri appeared in a single event lol #but him and Milla seemed like they'd be influential in the story and I'm really bummed they both got tossed like that /

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torgawl · 4 months

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a bit obsessed with the idea of kusakabe dying as a form of sacrifice to specifically protect/save somebody else. it's consistent enough with the theme of the past generation achieving no meaningful feats against significant threats but it's also ironic enough that someone without a technique and who claims their philosophy is primarily self-sacrificial - although he tends to stay from his own ideals in critical moments, proving he's not only brave when necessary but he does have a sense of responsabilty and guilt - ultimately redeems themselves through death resulting in the achievement of something his colleagues have failed to do. not that i'm wishing for him to die, i hope he doesn't. but it would also make a clear-cut distinction between him and a character like mei mei, who narratively serves a very similar purpose (besides her being a foil to nanami). to have someone be awarded by their selfishness just for it to not be worth much within a world and system that runs and sustains itself due to the sorcerer's labour power, whose only means of subsistence is to sell themselves away. a class of people who is doomed no matter what path they choose to take, as long as they do not break free from their duties and as long as the system doesn't collapse. a death that could serve as a symbol of punishment towards solidarity and altruism but a win for revolution.

#okay gege came for me when i said i didn't like kusakabe and now i'm thinking so much about him and his purpose in the story #why would he go against his own ideal and what is his purpose besides introducing questions like 'is self sacrifice noble?' you know?#so that got me thinking about him dying or suffering a big loss and how that would consolidate his character in my eyes #unless his purpose is completely different and i'm just deeply misreading the situation #if his purpose is to simply highlight personal choices and free will vs his generation's dogma #then i suppose him dying could serve no purpose but i'm not finding that side of the coin very straightforward or totally compelling #but again i feel like i'm failing to read him so maybe it is skill issue #anyway obsessed with kusakabe today awkkajwkaj feeling personally attacked by this twisted chain of events #gege really came for my ass after i was vocal about my kusakabe hate (which i feel like is dead at this point rip 🕊️)#which by the way is so mean. god forbid a bisexual do anything 😔 why can't i be a hater man?#also don't take this post seriously it's more about my mediocre reading of his character and my headcanons/wishes than a theory #i'm not trying to imply he will die or that there is narrative purpose in that #just that it makes sense in my brain if that's the case and the plan gege has for his character #but also he's literally the info dumpster gege probably wouldn't kill him because who will explain things to us 😂#he's like our amateur narrator i bet that gives him total plot armour #ps. maybe this is just my zero braincells moment #i just hate that i don't get it like i want to understand why he exists #but i'm aware that maybe this is a me thing and maybe everyone else just get it #and that makes me feel like that meme #let me iiiinnnn #okay bye

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