#there always seemed to be a sentiment that pink was an inherently cruel person and that she didn’t care about anything before earth?

[comixandco]

i think something people forget about pink diamond is that she had compassion for life long before she went to earth

the pebbles assume steven is pink not because of his gem or aura but just because he says ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ to them, a basic common courtesy that nobody else has given them in thousands of years

in steven’s pink visions, blue is yelling at pink about the little bugs she let loose on homeworld. when one of them is found in her cell, she is quick to check it’s okay before helping it out of the room. even before encountering humans she valued organic life.

even the garden, the setting of pink’s cruellest moment, is proof of her care for organic life. Unlike every other part of homeworld, the garden is teeming with plant-life, which was kept healthy enough that it continued to grow even after pink abandoned it. the only other homeworld structure that tends to organic life is the human zoo. who’s to say the garden wasn’t another attempt by the other diamonds to placate pink after she expressed concern for the life on one of their colonies? or maybe pink picked the plants herself from the many different colonies she visited and grew them there.

pink wasn’t perfect. she had a bad habit of acting on her emotions and impulses without considering the consequences of her actions, and she hurt a lot of people because of it. but she considered all life precious and worth protecting, it just wasn’t until she had a colony of her own that she fully understood that the expansion of homeworld was intrinsically linked to the destruction of life, and the moment she realised that is the moment she stood against it.

#steven universe #su pink diamond #this post is almost 5 years too late lol #like padparadscha by the time my thoughts have found their way from my brain to my mouth the moment is long gone #but a hot take is a hot take even if it’s been in a slow cooker #i just think people are sleeping on the pebbles and the scene with the little rainbow catipillar #there always seemed to be a sentiment that pink was an inherently cruel person and that she didn’t care about anything before earth? #and that her care for life was either superficial or out of left field #but something my brain keeps rotating round is that she was always like this she always cared for other life forms but never took them #seriously. she always cared about them but never really paid close attention to how they were. and it was something she learnt off of the #other diamonds who treated her exactly the same as she treated everybody else. they loved her but they didn’t understand her and they #never made an effort to change that. and they never thought about how their actions made her feel or whether she was responding to their #own outbursts and emotions. and she never considered how her actions would make other people feel. #she didn’t think how her screaming would hurt volleyball until it happened. she didn’t consider how all-encompassing her orders to spinel #and pearl and potentially garnet were. she didn’t think about how spinel would be hurt by being left behind and quite frankly i do think #she completely forgot spinel existed once she became preoccupied with saving earth which is horrible but also makes total sense for her #character who from creation was taught that other gems were worth less than her and that they existed only to serve her or her fellow #diamonds; and as somebody who was used to the concept of being left behind and abandoned whenever the people she cared about got bored #or annoyed with her. it hurts but it’s a part of life to her. what she didn’t consider js that her words are law and she left spinel with #no free-will. she left pearl physically unable to share important information and solve the problems she left behind. #and she doesn’t consider how her death will make others feel - she doesn’t think the diamonds will care that she dies but they do and they #murder all of her friends except for two. she thinks the crystal gems will be fine without her if she says goodbye to become steven but #they aren’t and a good portion of the show is about the gems grief and how it creates an unstable environment for steven to grow up in #consistently pink diamond was taught her feelings didn’t matter and was made to feel nobody cared about her if they weren’t compelled to #and that compiled with the privileged position she was formed into made her an insecure spoiled brat who had no comprehension that her #choices could hurt people around her #did she ever even consider that the diamonds were grieving her? or did she think it was just another action of violence to exert control? #i don’t think i’ll ever be over pink diamond #funnily enough steven has a similar problem e.g. sadie’s talent show and when connie was upset he gave himself up to homeworld #but that’s a discussion for when i’m not at tag limit lol

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1964

The X-Men, those wacky mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel the tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 3 - 8) - by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Fantastic Four 28

The X-Men’s sophomore year basically serves as a recruitment drive for  Professor Xavier and Magneto: both our heroes and those nefarious villains try to recruit various mutants (The Blob, Namor, Unus the Untouchable), all with absolutely no success.

We also meet Magneto’s home team, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. (Later on, they would drop the ‘evil’, because why would Magneto call himself evil? He believes he’s doing the right thing.) The Brotherhood consists of:

An acrobatic toady;

A white-haired speedster whose entire personality is that he loves his sister;

A fashion victim with nebulously defined disaster powers;

A creepy, sexist illusionist, who is by far the most useful on this squad. He is literally the only reason Magneto briefly conquers a country.

i, too, enjoy towers of mashed potatoes (X-Men 4)

Magneto is fleshed out more: he still remains fabulously extra, but he develops an obsession with owning strongholds and/or land. In this year alone, he owns one island (1), one manor (1) and one asteroid (1). He also briefly takes over the nation of Santo Marco. Magneto also does some astral projection, because magnets can... do... that? (Just go with it.)

he is just so ridiculous <3 (X-Men 7)

magnetic intensity indeed. like toad and rogue, I would fall in love with magneto in a heartbeat (X-Men 5)

While the Toad’s and Mastermind’s loyalty to Magneto is never questioned, Pietro and Wanda, meanwhile, show plenty of reluctance in following the mutant despot. They even help the X-Men once or twice, but ultimately remain loyal to Magneto because he saved Wanda from an angry mob. (The mob is traditionalist rather than racist: They want to burn her because she is a witch, not because she’s a mutant. So it’s fine.) 

However, this year does mark the first appearance of anti-mutants sentiments: a crowd attacks Hank after he saves some kid from a water tower, simply because they suspect he’s a mutant. I always thought it was Claremont who introduced this theme, but apparently, he merely expanded on something Lee started. It also introduces the conflict between Xavier’s views and Magneto’s: the hippie professor believes in peaceful coexistence, the flamboyant villain in the dominance of homo superior.

they were so mean, Warren, they even took my glasses! (X-Men 8)

It’s also the first example of Professor X opening up his home to a villain in an attempt to reform them. The Blob, petty and churlish, refuses, but I have to admit I would read the fuck out of a What If? where the Blob accepts Charles’ offer.

This year also lays a lot ground for the X-Men themselves, fleshing them out. Hank becomes loquacious and smart, Warren reaches peak himbo and Bobby establishes himself as the jokester. Scott, meanwhile, becomes a lot more emo, tormented by his uncontrollable powers and his love for Jean. She also loves him, but neither of them actually does anything about it. In other character development, Jean straightens her hair.

in 2021, I aspire to have the same confidence as Warren goddamn Worthington entering a fucking room (X-Men 4)

Meanwhile, Charles is apparently also crushing hard on Miss Grey. (Which is fortunately dropped and mostly forgotten about, because ick.) That, combined with the fact that almost every male character notes how sexy either Jean or Wanda is, really does show how badly all of this aged. I haven’t really read old Fantastic Four or the Avengers, but I do hope Sue and the Wasp have a trifle more personality than this.

don’t fret, Jean, the only competition you have to worry about is Magneto (X-Men 6)

But! Charles does other weird stuff too! In a shocking display of extreme teaching methods, Professor X pretends to have lost his powers so the X-Men can prove themselves against the Brotherhood in space. Cyclops nearly dies, but despite that, Professor X graduates his X-Men! He then leaves and puts Cyclops in charge. Solid leadership skills all around.

this is just adorable (X-Men 7) 

Oh yeah, the X-Men also fight Namor and the Fantastic Four, and Iceman starts his bromance with the Human Torch. For those keeping track in the future: this is the point where the young X-Men are time-abducted for their All-New X-Men capers. (X-Men #8, to be exact.) Bobby also has an unhealthy obsession with eating icecream.

it’s 1964, do you know where your teen-age mutant hoodlums are? (X-Men 4)

Must reads: X-Men #3, the introduction of the Blob, and X-Men #4, the introduction of the Brotherhood. The rest are all variations on the same themes and... not that great. 

Didn’t you take Art History? This era is characterized by cheesy, cheesy writing and the kind of art that seems better suited to a Disney comic than a superhero epic. Stan Lee tends to overexplain everything we see in the art. Despite Kirby’s style not really being my cup of tea, he does effective work and some of his spreads are actually gorgeous. Check this out.

so… daddy longlegs is not a mutant? (X-Men 3)

Best new character: The Blob. Hear me out.  He is a different kind of villain than most of the villains introduced in this era: he is petty and small-minded, rather than megalomaniacal and dramatic, which makes for a nice change of pace. Then there’s the fact that he looks grotesque and that even the X-Men, who should know better, mock him and body-shame him. (Nice going, calling him ‘fatso’ while he probably even couldn’t lose weight if he tried, because, you know, it’s his mutant power). He is like a foil to the Thing: mean and selfish where the Thing tries to be heroic and rise above his circumstances. The Blob is an unhappy man who does unhappy things; some authors have realized that he’s more than just a fat joke: there’s something inherently cruel about his mutant power.

then again, Fred does call Jean a cute tomato, so maybe he deserves everything the X-Men throw at him (X-Men 3)

Most audacious retcon: Nobody seems to have a grasp on how strong Professor X and Marvel Girl are. One issue, Jean can toss around a crowd of women, the next, she can’t pick up Hank.  Charles seems to be just as strong as the plot demands. 

Ugliest Costume: The Scarlet Witch. Pink and red? O honey, no.

wanda, what is that headpiece (X-Men 4)

#x-men #abridged x-men #x-men abridged #stan lee #jack kirby #magneto #erik lensherr #professor x #charles xavier #cyclops #scott summers #marvel girl #jean grey #angel #warren worthington iii #iceman #bobby drake #beast #henry mccoy #toad #mortimer toynbee #quicksilver #pietro maximoff #scarlet witch #wanda maximoff #mastermind #jason wyngarde #blob #fred dukes #namor the sub mariner