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shirkers2018dirsanditan · 9 months

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i feel like, especially in the midst of the double strike, it is important when we talk about big blockbusters, and certainly franchise centerpieces (or premieres, like barbie for the mattel cinematic universe), not to act like the director, writers, and cast are disposable. but particularly the directors. because while, for example, greta gerwig needed mattel’s ok to make a film with their IP, they also needed her (and her co-writer, noah baumbach). when marvel spends out the ass to get auteurs like ryan coogler for black panther or when DC courts indie darling cathy yan (who was indeed undercut in the end by warner bros), or even when marvel sticks with the russo brothers for the avengers movies and lionsgate with john wick director chad stahelski for all the sequels…….it’s not because it doesn’t matter who’s directing lol. these movies are not guaranteed to succeed. a look at the recent flop era of pixar (and of marvel!) illustrates that pretty clearly. deviating from a formula, or going with an unproven rando, is a recipe for disaster.

films need talent with a vision to succeed. yes, mattel was also going to spend out the ass to promote barbie. its a blockbuster, that’s always the case. but if the movie sucked and flopped, that would be the end of that. having a director with a vision, a voice, an authorial intent, and a proven track record is fundamental. the fact that studios cannot make these films themselves is WHY actors and writers are striking and part of the argument they’re making. i find it to be callous and silly to suggest otherwise, but i’ve seen a lot of that. it is a symbiotic relationship, albeit one in which the balance of power is firmly on one side.

#see: cathy yan and birds of prey #but they needed her voice and her style in that film #and maybe if they hadn’t interfered so much maybe it would’ve done better🤷🏾‍♀️#but if you think black panther would have been even a fraction as successful without coogler at the helm you are mistaken lol #not to mention #these studios want to reach certain audiences #film loving demographics that will do free PR for films they want to see #these people like auteurs #i added barbie to my watchlist in 2019 or whenever that was BECAUSE i saw gerwig and baumbach were attached #i was literally on greta gerwig’s letterboxd page looking at the films under her ‘directed by’ and adding them to my watchlist lol

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esther-dot · 1 year

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Going by GRRM's logic if princesses can't marry someone lowborn bc it's unrealistic, as he was consulted on this likely new Kit's project, wouldn't it be contradictory if Jon (as he's not a bastard) ends up with a random or Val as many have been speculating?

Well, I think we’re gonna have to keep in mind that this sequel is taking place in the Game of Thrones cinematic universe, not ASOIAF which makes it pretty hard to say what can/can’t happen.

And this show isn’t merely in GoT-verse, it’s a direct follow-up and the problem there is that what s7-8 didn't make nonsensical, they left unclear. In s7 I thought it would have made more sense for Jon to have suggested a marriage alliance with Dany (or Tyrion or Davos, our darling matchmakers), but instead D&D had him bend the knee and then had the advisors talk about marriage in s8 when it was totally pointless? Like, Dany had the North, she could use marriage to peacefully bring another region into the fold. So, at that point the logic wasn’t really present and if Kit was influenced by that, where the relationships are distinct from the political situation, I’m not sure that Martin would be able to course correct this until it makes sense with his opinion.

And, more to the point of your question, the confusion in which D&D left everyone means we don’t even know if Jon is still known as Ned’s bastard or if the news of his parentage got out? Varys found out about Jon and attempted to send that information elsewhere, but I don't know that he succeeded? It may only be the Starks, Tyrion, and Sam who know about it, and since D&D didn't include Robb's will, Jon isn't a legitimized Stark either. Of course, D&D did have him riding around on a dragon, so the Northerners might put two-and-two together in the sequel, it all depends on which story Kit wants to tell. The show could open with his parentage being common knowledge, or the show could take place entirely removed from the Northern Lords and be about Jon and the FF where Jon’s parents don’t matter / the political stuff isn’t a consideration.

Now, even if his parentage isn’t known, as a former king, if we’re thinking about the politics, Jon 100% cannot have kids or it would be a threat to Sansa’s reign. Does Kit think that? Idk! And, even if it isn’t common knowledge, since he knows he was the heir to the Iron Throne, you’d think that would make him hesitate as well or his kids/grandkids might be used against the realm. Does Kit think that? Idk! I also don’t know how much Martin will push to make any of this reasonable. I believe he gives notes on scripts, I don’t know that he gets to give an emphatic no to any developments? And even if they all wanted to bring it closer to ASOIAF because of those developments in GoT, they may be screwed.

As in, in the books it’s possible Jon refuses to be legitimized a Stark or crowned king which means he would have the freedom to marry/have kids without it being a threat to Sansa/her kids after the dust settles. If that’s Martin’s endgame, he might allow it even though in GoT, not only is Jon a legitimate Targ, he was also KitN. So yeah, I would agree with you that marrying a rando doesn’t quite work in that world, but then again, Jon has no political position, so maybe they’ll decide it doesn’t matter? Martin can’t walk back what D&D did, and maybe he’ll be happy with something let’s a little less offensive than s7-8. And they are really leaning into Jon being a Snow for the show (title, Kit made some comments...), so it’s hard to say.

Going back to the confusion in s8 tho, not only do we not know who knows what about Jon’s ancestry, we ended the show not even knowing if Jon was in the Watch/leading it, or if Bran was telling him he was free to go live with the FF which is, to some, what the closing shot indicated. I had one impression, the next day when I got online I saw fans and critics alike all coming to different conclusions, in the months that followed Kit said Jon was with the FF, one of the D’s said he was still in the Watch. I believe different things posted by HBO gave different impressions...It was a mess.

However, Kit’s recent comments made it sound like Jon is at the Wall, and if he’s in the Watch, the question of marriage would be off the table. He could still have an affair, even a kid (insert my previously stated objections), but unless Sansa or Bran (we don’t even know how the North being free impacts things with the Watch) pardons him, he’s not going to be marrying officially even if we do ignore the concerns about him being a former king. I mean, I say that, but I suppose now that the Others are defeated maybe the rules will change/the Watch will evolve? Idk!

Ignoring all the political stuff, Kit’s recent comments in which he made a connection between Cat and his romantic partners in a very negative way made me think he wouldn’t want Jon with a similar woman in his sequel, as the goal seems to be getting Jon healed and happy. That surprised me, and it did make me wonder where Jon’s next love interest would be coming from and doubt that it would be Val when it seemed likely before. While Val isn’t a fighter the same way Ygritte was, she still holds the traditional FF beliefs, she’s already talked about killing a kid and threatened to geld men, she even delivered the “You know nothing, Jon Snow” line once which Kit hates. Obviously they could rewrite her personality, but based on what Kit was saying...I’m not sure that Kit would read her scenes and choose her as the love interest.

All of that being said, in the books Stannis intends to legitimize Jon and marry him to Val,because he perceived Val as a princess, making her a viable prospect. Jon attempts to explain that Stannis is misunderstanding the FF by calling her such, and we know that he’s right so this really isn’t a great plan. But, Martin did include a character planning to marry Jon and Val for certain political ends which I believe was the point of the quote about the princess not being able to marry a stable boy. Highborn people marry other highborns because it’s about benefiting the family/doing something for a specific advantage/accumulating wealth or power or solidifying peace etc, so depending on which scenario they start with, I suppose Kit & Co. could try to run with that? As in, they could take the idea of Jon and a woman of the FF marrying to try to help the two cultures coexist? At the behest of Bran and Sansa who first pardon Jon an then offer him his own lands? A lot of us thought the idea of the FF going back beyond the Wall was odd, so maybe they’re thinking about going with a settling the Gift idea and this could be included with that.

I suppose I just don’t know what the limits are for the writers and none of the cast or Martin himself have criticized s7-8, so it’s really hard to know what to think!

#dot chat #jon show #< tag to filter

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ao3feed-ship-clintcoulson · 2 months

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Help finding fic

Help finding fic https://ift.tt/5Ecf0hx by cece13 It’s a Clint Barton-centric Ella Enchanted AU. More detailed plot points listed in “story” but essentially Clint is minding his own business as a freelance assassin when some SHIELD rando gets him with a handwavy science drug that makes Clint have to obey all his and his SHIELD superior’s orders—and he can’t let anyone suspect the truth either. Cue years of indentured servitude until Phil Coulson eventually puts clues together (including a snide remark from Loki about mind control) and figures out that Clint literally HAS to obey orders. I read this multiple times over the years but can’t find any trace of it now! It was pretty long, maybe ~80k ish words? Hoping someone else remembers and can point me toward it! Words: 972, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Clint Barton Relationships: Clint Barton/Phil Coulson

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #clintcoulson #phlint #bowtie

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marybatson · 1 year

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the dc cinematic universe rly should’ve started w rando heroes in their own rag tag type group and had the jl preexisting already. bc not to be biased but everybody knows the jl but before those marvel avengers movies I don’t think anybody rly knew abt the avengers.. like u didn’t rly neeeed to begin w supes bc I feel like that’s universal knowledge atp. building a living breathing universe around these iconic chars by developing chars that are lesser known is a much better tactic. But wat do I know.

#a small jla teamup that’s all legacies and dealing w legacy prob #lems r sooo much more interesting even to begin with #wait I mean jsa there djjd #even having. static the movie?! I thought u guys looooved nostalgia money there u go #also never have a flash solo movie ever unless it’s a family one like 😭

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ao3feed-irondadspiderson · 2 years

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https://archiveofourown.org/works/41919918

certain kind of fool by frogboyfrog when peter gets a note in his locker one day from a "secret admirer," he's enthralled by the prospect of having his first boyfriend. mj and need aren't so convinced- maybe it's the weird smiley face they left next to their snapchat, or the lack of identifying information. either way, peter's been on a high from the dead silence he's been receiving from flash, and this is just what he needs. “i mean- i’ve never been asked out before. it seems… innocent.” peter replied. “that doesn’t mean you have to settle for some anonymous rando.” ned said, frowning, as they turned the corner. “maybe I’m tired of being a sixteen year old loser virgin at this point, ned.” he clasped at his chest dramatically. “hey, you’re talking to a fellow sixteen year old loser virgin.” Words: 1146, Chapters: 1/2, Language: English Series: Part 18 of my father’s son Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Marvel, Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen, M/M Characters: Peter Parker, Michelle Jones, Ned Leeds, Tony Stark, May Parker (Spider-Man), Flash Thompson Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Michelle Jones & Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker/Original Male Character(s), Kinda - Relationship Additional Tags: Bullying, Bully Flash Thompson, High School, Secret Admirer, Bisexual Male Character, Bisexual Peter Parker, Awkward Crush, Secret Crush, Homophobia, Internalized Homophobia, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #iron dad and spider son #spider son #iron dad #peter parker #tony stark

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noodlesandtoons · 2 years

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Listen if shadow isn’t allowed to say “DAMN” in the third movie it’s an automatic 0/10.

LET THE ALIEN CHILDREN SAY FUCK!

#You can tell that in both of these movies they wanted the characters to curse #What if the 3rd movie does get a PG-13 rating like Ninja Turtles did?#the possibilities are endless #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonic cinematic universe #sonic movie 2 #sonic movie verse #sonic movie spoilers #sonic 2 spoilers #sonic movie #my rando text post

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sothischickshe · 5 years

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I love Sam Jackson and cobie smulders with all of my tiny heart and I'm so glad the mcu is utilising them, but I could honestly take or leave most of the rest of far from home. The script was soooo clunkily dialogue heavy, the plot leaned sooo heavily on dumb mistakes n villain gambits n while the illusion visuals were amazing a lot of the other cgi looked really clunky (maybe designed for viewing in 3d which I didn't)

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mecharose · 1 year

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fairy pickpocket that doesn't steal any of your money. just your true name off your driver's license

#rando cinematic universe #:)#fairies

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starshipsofstarlord · 3 years

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Omg thank you so much for writing my request for tom :) Can I ask for a part two where you try not to read the comments, but end up doing so, and most are good, so it's fine. Until you post a picture of you on your account, and tom's fans start calling you names, and tom's so tired of all that happening that he posts on his account a whole paragraph about how his personal life it's no one's business?

Posted

This is part two, find the first part here

Summary | previously Tom had accidentally posted a picture of the two of you, exposing your relationship. And so, you decide to purposely do the same on your Instagram, though the response is much different than what his post had received.

Warnings | hate comments, some angst, swear and demeaning words

Quick link to my masterlist, if you’re interested in reading more of my crap 😬

Tom was asleep beside you, his head tucked into the crook of your neck, you were able to feel his gentle, slumbering breathing against your skin, and it caused goose bumps to prickle upon the outer layer of your flesh.

The two of you had vastly fallen asleep upon the couch, and your phone was on the coffee table, and to say that you were itchy to reach for it was an understatement. There would be comments on the picture that Tom accidentally put online, and you were hungry to see them, whilst simultaneously nervous.

Tom was a big actor, known for his presence in the marvel cinematic universe upon many other projects, and some of his fans, whilst proven during Comic-Con panels, were borderline crazy. They’d snap if they even so much as saw something that they didn’t like, and this time, you would be on the receiving end of it.

Being motionlessly captured, with your face on show, was certain to bring much attention. You too were within the acting department, but there had been no correlation between the pair of you until now, most of the world weren’t even aware that you knew each other. And not to mention, your span of reaching an audience was smaller, although, certainly not non existent.

You had reprised fame during your appearance on Modern Family, as the friendly neighbour of Phil and Claire, and a classmate of their eldest daughter, and not to mention Luke was crushing hard on the character you played, though, with that said, your character laughed his efforts off due to the age difference, yet still found his pining weird and often uncomfortable.

Another role that you were becoming known for was your character in Netflix’s Irregulars, where you met Harrison Osterfield, Tom’s best friend. Through filming the show, you were introduced to the Spider-Man actor, and the pair of you had hit it off almost instantly, if you didn’t include Tom keeping his amorous distance, wary just in case there was something going on between you and your mutual friend. To his relief, there wasn’t.

And thus, when he received that confirmation, he was far more forward, yet respectful at the same time with his intentions. That was how you had ended up here, as he half used you as a pillow, his arms wrapped around his ribs, and his soft peaceful snores filling the void in the air.

Stretching your arm at its furthest length, your fingertips wrestled with the side of your phone, padding it closer to yourself, so that you could slide it across the small living room table, and closer to yourself. You were victorious in your efforts, and so on you unlocked your screen, going to your camera app, and leaning sideways so that you could snap a few pictures of your predicament with your loving and sweet boyfriend.

Looking at the images that you had captured, a smile arose upon your face; you truly did love this man, and you wanted the whole world to know how much you adored him. You wanted them to see that you cared about him, and that he was in good hands with you, to cool off any of his fans that were processing their hurt feelings for seeing Tom with another woman, show him that he was getting the love that he deserved.

Extreme courage coursed through your veins, focusing within your fingertips as you opened insta, gulping as you readied to post the image. There was no editing required, it was perfect just like him. And so, the caption was something to think about, you didn’t want to make it too obvious that you were dating as the online community already assumed, the priority was to show them that you cared about him.

‘He’s taking a nap, and crushing my hip a little, but I don’t mind 😌’ you typed, your finger hovering over the post button as you chewed your lip. It was easy to press your digit down, and so, taking a breath, you did just that, encouraged by the previous and kind comments on Tom’s earlier post.

Within a matter of minutes, your phone was blowing up, and you were too tempted not to glance at the growing comment section. There were various accounts, some supporting your confidence to show such a domestic version of yourself with Tom, you assumed that they were your followers, and the ones that weren’t so light hearted were those that intently watched anything on the media that involved Tom.

‘He’s too good looking for her, she should be dating someone within her league. Tom is clearly taking pity on this hoe.’

‘Aw look at him, and ew, look at the state of her. He could do sm better 😔’

‘Why doesn’t she look like his exes, they were hot af, and now he’s with some rando that is after his fame and money. Maybe she should just take better roles if she wants to get noticed so bad.’

Your eyes kept reeling through the intentionally hateful words that continued to come through beneath the image. Tears began to fall from your eyes as you tried to stifle the movements and the sound of your gentle sobbing, as to not wake Tom. Quickly, your fingers raced through the social media, and you, knowing that there would still be presence of the image somewhere online, you deleted it, muting notifications and shuffled back into Tom.

The man stirred, tugging you closer by your waist, pressing a kiss to your locks as he awoke. He noticed however the way that you refused to face him, and so he rolled you over with a gentle grip on your shoulder, frowning when he saw the recognisable redness beneath your eyes, and the sad expression floating within your eyes.

“Princess, what’s going on?” He wiped his thumb beneath your bottom lashes, collecting your tears as he worriedly looked down at you. His brown eyes searched every inch of your face for an idea, but found nothing but your broken hearted expression.

“It’s nothing Tommy.” You tried and failed to convince the man, wincing half heartedly as he sat back on his thighs, gripping your hips so that he could pull you up with him, giving him a clearer view of your face. It was clear that he did not believe you, and he hummed, trying to make you give in. Eventually, after much concerned staring, you gave in, slumping your shoulders as you tucked your arms around the back of his neck. “I posted a picture of us, the response wasn’t great.”

Instantly, Tom’s brows uplifted, surprised by your action, though he had a strong inkling of a feeling that the reaction that you had earned was not complimentary. These were not tears of joy, instead they were stricken rivers of anguish and insecurity running down the length of your face.

“Let me see.” He spoke, softly to you, but his intents towards defending you strong. You shook your head lightly, tracing circles upon his knees as you gulped, flickering your guilty gaze up to his watchful eyes.

“I deleted it. I just couldn’t deal with knowing that the longer that it was up, the more hate would be directed at me. I’m sorry.” Tom grasped your face by your tense jaw, his fingers stroking your chin as he sadly stared at you.

“Never be sorry. Now send me the picture you used so that I can give everyone a piece of my mind.” Reaching for your phone, you sent the image to him, and in a second his device pinged, revealing that it had successfully sent to him.

“Cute.” He described the picture, his hands furiously typing away on his phone, his constant unsettling of his rabidly moving fingers drawing anxiousness from you. “And some.” Tom finally breathed, closing his phone as you went to his account, checking what he had posted publicly.

‘This may concern some people, who keep sticking their noses in where it does not involve them. I appreciate you all, the support, the love, everything. But one thing that I do not stand for is people coming at my girlfriend just because they don’t approve of our relationship. If you check mate, I never asked for your opinion, I love y/n, and some online hate, that needs to stop otherwise you are not someone I want to be calling themselves a fan of me, needs to stop. It makes no one happy or feel healthy with spreading such toxicity around the internet, if you don’t like something, then keep your blood mouths shut, this has nothing to do with you, it is just me and my girlfriend. I’d think you’d want me to be happy, because I want the same for all of you, so can people please give my partner some respect, she’s done nothing wrong but bravely chose to reach out to you all, and she had that spat back in her face. It’s not on, and I want this to stop now.’

“Tom...” you were shocked by the paragraph, it came across as aggressive, and very over protective. His action, that could affect how he was cried by people that put him on a pedestal, and that made you feel guilty that he had reached out to them in such a way.

“It’s okay baby, I’d do anything for you, and you know that. No one messes with my girl.” He put his arm around your shoulders as he pulled you close placing a kiss upon your forehead. Not only was he your boyfriend, but he was your protector, your knight on a shining cell phone.

#tom holland x reader #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #tom holland x y/n #tom holland x you #tom holland reader insert #tom x reader #tom imagine #marvel actors x reader #mcu actors x reader #imagines #imagine #xreader

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ultimatemilvesbracket · 1 year

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TESTIMONIALS

"outfit always slays. terrible mother. physically abuses the physical manifestation of her soul. killed god."

"that time i broke all my toes yelling at the tv hoping the lesbians would bang? that was bette and some rando"

#ultimate milves bracket #marisa coulter #mrs coulter #his dark materials #hdm #masriel #bette porter #the l word #the l word generation q #tumblr bracket #tumblr tournament #tumblr polls

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radfem-gossip · 3 years

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"what if instead of whining the rest of us don't organize a lynch mod over some rando you actually post receipts hm? most of us don't even know who tf that is and it would be infinitely more helpful to warn other radfems about what shes doing WITH PROOF than cry like a baby because not everyone knows every single piece of lore of the terfblr cinematic universe from memory"

these receipts have been posted many times and you are all either too dumb or too lazy.

ari jokes about mutilating women's genitals, wanted to use someone's suicide to manipulate spooky-rad-lukaa, talks about fetishes and graphic sex acts with minors ("roz" was underage at the time), publicly advocates for eugenics and the eradication of disabled people, thinks chronic illnesses are good because you can make money from selling medication, has a trap and femboy fetish, drinks human blood, and jokes about ddlg (an inherently abusive kink) if the abused submissives are women she doesn't like.

can you stop being obtuse now?

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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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Do you have any opinion on the Wold Newton universe or more generally the attempts to create a coherent universe based on massive crossover of victorian and/or pulp fictions ?

Fair warning to any and all of you who follow my blog and might think to yourselves "Wow, I want a Pulp Hero Cinematic Universe!". You don't. What you want is for these characters to thrive again and maybe kick ass together after reestablishing themselves as cool and popular and interesting characters in the pop culture eye, and I want that too, I've been working on ideas for years to try and bring some of that to reality, it's part of the whole point of this blog in the first place, and I must stress: Nothing, and I repeat, nothing, is going to put these characters six feet under faster than a botched attempt to follow in the MCU's footsteps. You don't want to watch these characters suffocate under the strain of a cinematic universe. I didn't like watching it happen with Marvel to begin with, as much as that clearly worked out for them.

If DC could only just barely catch up to the MCU's shadow and only started to thrive when they took a diametrically opposite approach, if the Monsterverse, despite the fact that it's characters were already in a cinematic universe together, only just barely limps on due to the popularity of it's central players, the pulp heroes don't have a chance in hell if they try and play by those rules. The Shadow and Doc Savage and Green Hornet can survive failed reboots, but not every character's got that kind of safety net, not every author can afford to take the risks necessary to commit to these properties, and some characters take a lot longer to crawl out of graves than others.

So with that said, let's talk about the WNU.

When I first started doing research on pulp heroes in general I spent a very long time going through all of the Wold Newton pages I could find, and I have a lot of them saved in case the websites get taken down one way or another. I still consult them frequently and I still consider them a pretty invaluable resource for anyone who wants to get acquainted with pulp characters, even if it must be prefaced that the WNU is basically fanfiction.

The Wold Newton Universe was a massive shared fanfiction universe before we had a proper name for this kind of thing and I do find it a little disheartening that, despite it predating or influencing works like LOEG and Incognito and Planetary, and how several current authors either got started writing articles for it or even professed their love of it, it's a currently dead project. I guess it ultimately wasn't supposed to even last as long as it did anyway, and much like the characters it's based on, it ultimately doesn't really die so much as it just lives on differently.

The big problem I have with the mainline WNU is, besides not liking Phillip Jose Farmer's writing, that much of it is basically crack fanfiction built on very, very flimsy family connections as an excuse to tie characters together, and already I think the premise that somehow, all of these characters are related, all of them are part of a special family tree connected by meteor-irradiated blood, to be extremely weak. A lot of the writing in many of the WNU pages is just not good and not workable, and it's hard to fault it as such considering this is fanfic, it's written by enthusiastic fans and not professional writers (although some of these people are, the Lofficiers have no excuse). But the great thing about the WNU is that, because it's a shared project with no ownership, everyone gets to play around and rewrite canon at will and bring their own angle to it.

There's WNU pages that are very hardline against the inclusion of superheroes, others don't have that restriction at all. There's WNU fan pages focusing exclusively on monsters and horror. Jess Nevins wrote a ton of pages digging out the really obscure characters only he knows about. There's Cool French Comics which is focused heavily on the European side of things, which is also where I discovered The Grey Claw's existence, and Tales of the Shadowmen is based a lot on these. I know for a fact that there used to be at least a couple of pages focusing on anime although the Wayback Machine doesn't have most of them archived. It's not so much a single shared universe or timeline so much as it's several, outright dozens, of them depending on who's writing the pages, and they were all free to either incorporate theories made by other authors or purposefully rewrite them. It’s a freedom afforded by the fact that these are non-profit fanfics, and the fact that over half of the characters in these webpages are public domain or in copyright purgatory to begin with.

Unlike with DC, who's got a hodgepodge of concepts that logically shouldn't work together but are still held together by the consistent ideal of the superhero and the Justice League and whatnot, and Marvel, who was a continuous crossover soap opera right from the start, the Pulp Heroes don't live in the same worlds, don't live in the same time periods, many of them weren't designed to do so, don't have a sliding timescale or rebooting timeline to keep them perpetually on the same level, they don't exist under unified copyright, don't operate by the same rules, and are less built to sacrifice their individuality and settings for the sake of costumed punch-ups with a bunch of randos. Superheroes are able to exist together by operating under a very strongly defined notion of what a superhero is and does, and if the Pulp Heroes had anything of the sort, I wouldn't have to make a chart in the first place trying to create a coherent explanation as to what defines them.

Before the MCU could sell people on the Avengers, it first had to sell them on all of it's other team players first, it needed to do the groundwork and rework all of it's existing characters to make sure they could reasonably be crammed on screen together. From the start, their universe was dictated by the need to have these characters team up. Be honest: Do you think this is gonna work for the Pulp Heroes? Characters whose greatest selling point, whose most enduring and unique traits, are the ways in which they are not like other heroes? Characters that currently struggle for newfound popularity because of the common notion that they are just superheroes, except old and racist and outdated. Do you think these characters aren't better off instead dispelling these preconceptions to rebel against the superhero dominance and thrive in different areas? The secret of their success in the first place was the ways in which they weren't like the Victorian Heroes that preceded them, and guess what, now they are on the same boat.

The concept is not unworkable, it's not impossible, some good stories have resulted out of mashing the icons big and small together, hell I have several Pulp Hero universe concepts I'm working on. But I must stress the need of approaching this from a different perspective. And that perspective starts with doing the groundwork on what works and what doesn't for them.

The only genuinely successful pulp hero universes to an extent I've seen were those that were built from the ground up based on an idea that these characters were supposed to interact and work together, or at least share a history together. The strongest one I've seen would definitely be The Chimera Brigade, because it's not preoccupied with mashing icons together but instead telling a story informed by the history of these characters, informed by it's central point: Namely, what does a pulp/superhero history look like from a French perspective. It's biggest names are used only sparingly, it's got a ton of original characters to make the world feel more seamless and real, it takes the routes less traveled to make the story stand more on it's own feet and not just based on the characters it's intended to reference. And in doing so, it's also allowed several of it's characters to thrive individually as well as collectively.

In that regard, I think the greatest thing the WNU has is that it provides a skeleton to work with. It provides not just one but several ideas of what you can do with these characters past their respective stories, either in personal canons, crossovers with other properties or even existing in shared universes. The ideas are there either for existing characters or original creations. What you do with those ideas is up to you.

#replies tag #pulp heroes #pulp fiction #crossover #the chimera brigade #wold newton universe #phillip jose farmer

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