#well considering a whole part of the first movie was him basically being whumped by slowly becoming metal— I’md say whumpable | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ashintheairlikesnow · 4 years

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Exactly What You Need: Owen

To the Anon who won the “guess the post-apocalyptic New Zealand kids’ show Owen Grant had a guest star role on”: Here is your requested drabble! Owen Grant, the night he ordered Kauri.

CW: Owen is a fucking creep. Implied/referenced assault/abuse with younger!Vincent Shield, manipulate/abusive thoughts, dehumanization. Owen Grant is a dark man and people triggered by abuser thoughts regarding rape/assault should please heed that and stay safe

Tagging: @maybeawhumpblog, @pepperonyscience, @haro-whumps, @18-toe-beans, @burtlederp, @finder-of-rings,

It started with the hair, and the eyes.

Originally, he hadn’t really thought about Vince, exactly - he was just… he was just kind of lonely, and he’d been scrolling the Whumpees-R-Us site, thinking about how it seemed like basically everyone with a name worth knowing and a good stock portfolio had one of the Box Boys or Box Babes now.

And it might be nice to have someone around here to talk to. It’s not like he could talk to the fucking Roomba.

The condo was gorgeous, and he went out to lunch a few times a week with Nicole and some of the former costars and everything that he’d kept in touch with, went to conventions, even wrote an introduction for a book on the dark side of child acting that was pretty well received. He went to the gym three days a week, he watched a bunch of Youtubers that updated pretty regularly. Owen kept himself busy, basically, and none of it stopped him from being really. fucking. lonely.

His mother had called one night after he’d been drinking for two or three hours straight, slowly killing a bottle of gin and a bag of limes while sending increasingly drunken text messages to no one in particular.

He and his mother still talked two or three nights a week. He was probably the only former child actor he knew who still had a really close relationship with his mom… or at least as close as your relationship can be when you’re lying to her about fucking everything about yourself.

She knew anyway. She’d been the one to help him cover it all up with Vince, what happened, why they never spoke again. She knew - but her constituents were bigoted assholes and in the part of the country Carlotta Grant set her sights on, you have to play to the bigoted asshole or you don’t get elected.

His mom was the biggest bitch he knew, but she wasn’t a bigot, exactly. Just happy to roll over for them for the sake of her Senate career. It would kill her ambitions if too much about Former Child Star Owen Grant got into the news, so Owen lied to everybody and everybody pretended to believe him. He’d been lying about it since he was still acting, it’s not like it was that hard to just… keep lying, right?

Even if he’d sort of hoped quitting acting - getting away from Vince and what happened - making his own life out here away from everyone… he’d sort of hoped he could stop lying, then. But nope. Mom got all political and Owen kept on lying.

He’d fucking hate her for it, if he didn’t love her so much.

In any case, she’d called and Owen had been trashed and it… well. The whole time he’d had the Whumpees-R-Us site up, looking through options, scrolling past faces that weren’t right. Or they almost were. But they weren’t the one he wanted.

“Mom, I just want someone here who cares about me,” Owen had said, heavily, into the phone. He knew his words had gone slightly slurred, and he waited for her derision - his mother was the queen of it, after all, of cutting you apart with words alone. “Listen to this - a Whumpees-R-Us nonproductive pet can arrive with any skillset you require or phys, physical combination of- shit, sorry, Mom, I’m drunk-”

“Yes. I can quite tell you are. Don’t be ridiculous, Owen, you’re not getting one.”

“I’m a grown-ass man, Mom, and I say I am.”

“Would you at least order a girl?”

There it is, Owen thought. Carlotta Grant didn’t care if her only child bought a living human person, just if it fit the version her constituents wanted to see.

He took incredible pleasure is pausing long enough to take another long sip of lime and gin before he answered, “Oh, it’ll definitely be a boy.”

“Owen…” Carlotta sighed, heavily. “Darling. We talked about this.”

“No, you talked about it. At great length, no matter how often I asked you to stop. I want a boy and I’ll have one. Here’s a compromise, Mom - what if I don’t let it leave? I’ll keep it in here with me, they can train it to not be able to even walk out the door without me.”

“Owen…”

“Take it or leave it, Mom.”

Carlotta went quiet again, for much longer this time. Then she finally said, “Fine. Owen… I know that my decision was difficult for you-”

“All of your decisions are difficult for me, Mom.”

“Your decisions haven’t exactly been easy for me, either. Vincent Shield could still cause trouble for me, if he ever chooses to air what you did to him publicly.”

“He won’t. We told him I’d stay away from him if he kept it hush-hush, and he did. He won’t say anything to anyone, Mom. You can trust him. I couldn’t, but you can. It doesn’t help his career either, you know, if they find out about him.” Owen felt his throat catch, had to swallow hard against the tears.

“Right. We don’t need them find out about your latent sadism, either, but I suppose I must put my trust in the career aspirations of Vincent Shield. Get whatever you want, Owen, but I had better not see it step one foot outside of that condominium if it makes it into the news.”

They spoke for a while longer, about nothing and relatives and people who had recently died or pissed his mother off, senate bills she was worried about and Owen’s latest project bankrolling a documentary exposing a monopolizing pharmaceutical giant, and the whole time Owen’s mind wasn’t on the conversation at all, but on Vincent fucking Shield.

They’d been inseparable. They’d made promises to each other. Then Owen had fucked one tiny little thing up - just the one thing, and it hadn’t even been that bad, what he’d done, and Vincent had probably liked it anyway - and Vincent had left and never came back.

He glanced down at his empty glass with a bit of ice that still clinked, and then up at the Whumpees-R-Us website. Create a completely customized option for minimal surcharges and receive the perfect pet of your dreams.

He poured more gin, added another twist of lime. “You know what my perfect fucking pet is?” He asked no one in particular. The Roomba beeped softly under the couch in its docking station. “Vincent Shield’s my perfect fucking pet. Make him feel pretty fucking sorry for what he did. They don’t have anyone on here who even looks like him…”

Then his blurry, bleary eyes caught a line at the bottom of the pictured Box Boy options. This does not represent the totality of what Whumpees-R-Us can provide. Send us your requirements and we will dedicate ourselves to fulfilling your every need, with an added surcharge.

So he clicked on the custom order form for Box Boys, watching it load, blinking at how fucking huge the page was. And it started with a simple box that asked what kind of pet you were searching for.

Owen very nearly wrote I’m so fucking lonely.

Instead, he settled for Companion.

The screen blinked and new options appeared. Platonic, Romantic, Domestic, or Combination?

Owen snorted. Platonic. He wasn’t some fucking sicko, he was just looking for someone to bring some life into this place. But… maybe it was just that he was drunk, or maybe it went deeper than that. In any case, a thought came to mind. He pictured wide blue eyes in a face that used to be pale, now tanned on all the movie posters. Thought of those eyes full of tears, for him. Then… then he thought of what it might be like if those eyes weren’t full of tears, but something else.

The thing Vincent had owed him, and had never been able - or willing - to give.

Then he unclicked his previous decision, and chose Combination.

We will return to detailed specifics of your [Combination] requirements in a later section. For now, please list physical requirements for your Box Boy.

Owen swallowed, looked up the photo of the movie poster for Dimmer Switch, with 20-year-old Vincent Shield and 17-year-old Owen Grant in action poses against a dark background and a glowing light. Vincent’s face was clearly visible - soft and slightly sweet-looking, wide blue eyes, curly black hair. Long limbs and kind of a slim body type, not as muscled-up as he was now.

Not that Owen kept up with his career or what he looked like now, or anything.

He started with the hair, and the eyes. At first it felt wrong, like he was trying to build a Frankenstein’s monster for himself, but it was all perfectly legal and if it was really wrong, why were so many people buying them now?

No, this was fine.

Owen was fine.

He was going to bring Vincent Shield home, and once Vince came back here, he was never, ever going to be able to leave.

He checked every box, wrote down details. At the bottom of the physical requirements section there was a spot to upload photo references, and he added the movie poster, some other pictures from magazine interviews from back then, he and Vince together in a few of them. Shots of Vince with the mop of curly hair and a bright wide smile, flashing whitened teeth. Shots of Vince with his arm around Owen, the both of them grinning for the photographer.

It took nearly two hours to finish, and by the end of it he’d stopped being drunk or maybe he was drunker than ever, but he’d entered a place of perfect clarity about his decision. He was about to spend a lot of money on this boy.

It was going to be perfect.

In the final box for any added comments not covered by the questionnaire, Owen Grant typed, Make it so he can never, ever leave me without fear. Make it so he wants my touch more than anything else in the world. Make it so he would lose his mind before he’d lose me. I want him to be sweet, and kind of a soft person. I want him to put up with anything I do to him.

He paused, considering, and then added one more thing.

I want him to love me.

Then he pressed SUBMIT, made himself drink a glass of water, and passed out in his bed.

When he woke up the next morning, the Roomba was in the middle of a cleaning routine and his phone was ringing. He squinted at a number he didn’t know, but decided to answer it on kind of a whim. His number was private and only a few people had it - if someone was calling he didn’t know, it was probably one of his mom’s staff members. “Hello?”

“May I speak with Mr. Owen Grant?” A warm, melodic voice spoke on the other end of the line.

“Ah, this is Owen Grant.”

“This is Karen Renford, Client Satisfaction Director at Whumpees-R-Us. We received your request for a custom order last night and I’ve just had time to review it. There is… an exceptional amount of specialization in this order form, Mr. Grant.”

“I… I know. Shit. Oh, sorry.”

“No apologies required. I indulge in a bit of profanity myself on occasion.”

“The, the order form… was it too much?”

Too much to hope for, that Vince’s blue eyes could be all for him. Too much to dream, that he could fix all his old mistakes. Too much, to think he could keep someone here when Vince had run so far, so fast, and made it impossible to get close again.

“Not at all. We are aware of your… connections, Mr. Grant. We would love to work with you on this request, and hope you would let your influential mother know how excited we were to be given this opportunity to truly prove the merits of our methods.”

Owen tried not to audibly snort.

“We already have a suitable candidate in mind who is most of the way through his basic training, although there have been a few… hiccups.”

“Hiccups?”

“Ah, it’s all part of the process.” She did not quite laugh, but there was a lilt to her voice that suggested she wanted to. “645898 is a sweet soul at heart, once you take apart the rest of him. I think he’ll be perfect for what you need.”

“So why the phone call?”

“It is customary for the company to directly contact clients of your… discerning and exacting taste. Considering the costs associated with so many specialized requests-”

“I am more than able to pay the amount owed, Ms. Renford.”

“Oh, we know that. This isn’t about money at all, Mr. Grant. Whumpees-R-Us is dedicated to client satisfaction, and it’s my job to look at this form, speak directly with you, and ensure that you receive exactly what you need.”

“So you can make him… want to stay here? Not able to leave?”

“Can we make him ‘love’ you, as you requested on your form?” Her voice held no mockery, no hint of judgement. “Mr. Grant, your request is considerable, but I believe we can ensure that your boy won’t ever be able to take a step out the front door without you by his side. We can make sure those big blue eyes are focused entirely on you, no matter what you do to him.”

Owen’s free hand clenched slowly into a fist, and something twisted and untwisted inside of him.

Vince’s eyes, all on me. No matter what I do.

“That sounds perfect,” Owen breathed out, shifting in the bed. “I want him to think I’m safe. That I’m the safest thing in the whole world.”

No matter how much I hurt him.

#whump #box boy #box boy multiverse #owen grant is a nice guy #pet whump #dehumanization #erase to control #intimate whumper #creepy whumper #tw: abusive language

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datleggy · 5 years

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a list of every anime i love/recommend, accumulated over the last 10+ years

1. NATSUME YUUJINCHOU

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

The main character is a teenage boy named Natsume, whose parents died when he was too young to remember them properly. He’s passed around random relatives homes, but because he can see yokai (spirits), he’s ostracized by classmates and his foster families (ALL HIS CHILDHOOD FLASHBACKS ARE SO FUCKING SAD) and eventually very distant relatives (an older couple who never had kids of their own and have so much goddamn love to give D:!!!) take Natsume in, and the story basically starts from there.

It’s a very heart-warming story following Natsume’s new life in this new town, accepting his ability to see yokai, forging new relationships in the form of friends and family, and even with the yokai themselves.

This is honestly probably my favorite anime/manga period, because it’s so sad but so cathartic and you watch as the main character grows and learns to trust those around him, and finally gets the unconditional love he’s always deserved, not to MENTION THE FACT THAT THEY DO A WHOLE EP WHERE NATSUME IS TURNED BACK INTO A LITTLE KID AND IT IS SOOOO GOOD OMG

Plus for those of you who enjoy whump, this show has a decent amount of it. Mainly emotional whump, but also some episodes where Natsume is injured or sick--as well as I believe one where his companion (the chubby cat on his shoulder who’s actually a pretty badass yokai) gets shot with an arrow and is down for the count.

10/10 would and have watched again.

2. KODOCHA NO OMOCHA

SUMMARY/REVIEW: The main character is a sixth grader named Sana. She’s a gifted actress on a t.v. show everyone likes and she’s silly and fun, very intuitive and surprisingly empathetic for a child.

Her main problem is in school, where Akito, who she deems the leader of her class’ wolf pack of rowdy rude boys, lets them terrorize not just the teacher, but all the girls in class, as well.

I don’t really want to give a lot away, so I’ll just state the obvious. This anime/manga is shoujo, which means that it does focus on a romantic relationship throughout the series. Mainly the one between Sana and Akito. Sana is absolutely oblivious about her own feelings, while Akito is a stubborn little shit.

I remember watching this at like, age 12 maybe? And I really enjoyed it because (although I do enjoy your typical silly doesn’t take itself too seriously slice of life shoujo) this particular anime, while super funny and light hearted at times, was also really dramatic and even kinda dark, which was surprising considering the characters ages and the general kid-friendly vibe (especially the opening for the anime).

3. DETECTIVE CONAN

SUMMARY/REVIEW: Our main character is initially Shinichi Kudo, teenage detective, who’s on a date with childhood sweetheart Ran (whose father also happens to a detective but like....not a good one lmao), when his nosy ass self decides to go and check out some shady business and gets “poisoned”.

The poison he’s given is intended to kill him, but what it actually does is turn him back into a child. And now, as Conan Edogawa, (who’s 7 but like....we just supposed to believe all these cops and detectives on the force are cool with a seven year old wee lil babe on these really gruesome ass crime scenes??? lmaoooo) we follow him on his adventures as he solves crimes and tries to solve the biggest mystery of all, his own!

I absolutely LOVE this anime/manga, even though I’ll be honest, there is SO MUCH FILLER, but I like the characters enough that I really don’t mind. The show is at least 900+ episodes in at this point, and there are a total of 26 movies so far, last time I checked.

Also, the show is a whump fangirls’ dream come true. The main character is thrown out of windows, balconies, shot at, and in one occasion actually shot, he’s had broken bones, sprains, almost been blown up or drowned/burned, been sick, and oh, his occasional transformations from child to teenager are incredibly painful.

This show is probably at fault for my love of whump, since it was one of my first animes at like, age 9. smh.

4. THE DEVIL IS A PART-TIMER!

REVIEW:

I’m not even going to summarize this one. The title does it for me. This is truly one of the funniest animes I’ve ever seen. Motherfuckin Satan works at a McDonalds part time and it is the BEST.

Technically I would count this show as a kind of harem, but only because there are like three main girl characters after the overlord Satan himself. I usually dislike harem type animes but the way this is done is sooooo good I couldn’t resist.

I would watch a million filler episodes of Satan trying to solve problems at his minimum wage job tbh. I love every single character, I love the plot, I love everything about this anime! In terms of comedy (with the occasional plot driven serious moments) this is IT bro.

5. BLACK BUTLER

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

The main character is Ciel Phantomhive (roughly 14 years old). His parents are killed, his house is burned to ashes, and he’s kidnapped (around age 9 or 10 I believe) and abused. During this abuse Ciel calls upon a demon to free him and help him get revenge on those who harmed the Phantomhive household, which is where Sebastian, one “hell of a good butler” comes in.

We then follow Ciel and Sebastian on their path of vengeance, and along the way we meet Ciel’s human servants, three very clumsy and seemingly bad at their given tasks characters (i love them all), and some of his extended relatives and connections.

My favorite thing about Black Butler is the art, both in the anime and manga. Everything is so detailed and pretty!

The characters are interesting, the plot is dark but they manage to make most of the series overall pretty light-hearted and funny in general. Though of course there are chapters/parts of the series that get really grim (which duh, the whole thing focuses on revenge so...)

I have to say, the arc I enjoyed the most has to be the movie, Black Butler: Book Of the Atlantic. It is beautifully drawn and sooooooo entertaining.

6. INUYASHA

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

Our main characters are Inuyasha, a half-demon, who’s been in a sort of spiritually binding coma for the last few decades, and fourteen year old Kagome, who falls into an old well in her family’s shrine and finds herself being transported into another time period.

Together, she and Inuyasha travel across the lands in the feudal era to find the scattered shards of the shikon jewel, a powerful jewel which grants anyone who possesses it ultimate power.

I was too young to stay up and watch Inuyasha on adult swim, so my mom would tape the show on a VCR for me to watch the next day after school--yes, I’m old old. lmaoooo I ADORE this show.

It’s so good! It’s got everything! A tortured lil half-demon with a sad past who’s stubborn and rude but got a good heart! A fierce and equally as stubborn main protagonist, who’s whole ass family knows exactly where she goes off to??? and are supportive af????? like???? her mama packs her and her squad of demon/exorcist/demon hunter pals bentos?!?! lmao i love it.

The characters are awesome and funny and likable as all heck, and of course they all have their sad backstory, but like, unlike some animes (lookin at YOU Naruto) they don’t go mega overboard on it, at least not without some plot behind the episode.

7. YU YU HAKUSHO

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

Before I even start in on the summary, ya’ll should watch this soley bc of the cute ass 90′s style animation alone. LOOK AT ALL THAT SHINY HAIR!

ANYWAY. Main character is teenage hooligan and overall cutie pie Yusuke! He gets struck by a car and fucking DIES in the first episode after shoving a little boy out of the way, only to end up in the spirit world where the head honcho up there (who looks like a wee baby) tells him “Oh shit, didn’t expect you to like, actually do anything self-sacrificing EVER so like, you’re not on our list of people who were supposed to die today...”

And uh, I don’t wanna give anything away, so I’m just gonna say that if you haven’t seen this anime yet, you definitely should! It’s hilarious and dramatic, the fight scenes are very well done, all the side characters, who eventually become main characters are a blessing (specifically Hiei, who’ve I’ve had a crush on since I was 12) and the ending is a satisfying one, which you can’t really say for a lot of media.

8. CHRONO CRUSADE

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

I still get weepy when I think of this anime, so all I’ll say is it’s about a badass demon slaying nurse and her demon companion and some very tragic shit.

It’s a great anime overall, especially if you like crying yourself to sleep at night :)

9. GHOST HUNT

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

The main character is high school student Mai, who is hired by Naru, the head of a Shibuya psychic research, and together, with a group of questionable exorcists/psychics, they encounter paranormal phenomenons and some outright scary shit.

I’m not really a fan of the horror genre tbh but I do like mystery, and the series deals with that quite a bit. They deal with each case for several episodes so nothing feels too rushed.

The series is really fun in a creepy, wtf is that way. I recommend the manga, only because it’s more detailed in terms of plot than the anime.

10. ASSASSINATION CLASSROOM

SUMMARY/REVIEW:

I didn’t really make this list in any particular order but if I had to say, Assassination Classroom and Natsume Yuujinchou probably tie for BEST ANIME PERIOD!

This anime is about a weird ass “alien” creature, no one knows where it came from or why tf it’s here on earth, all they know is that in one year it’s threatened to blow the world up.

His only request to the government is that they let him become a teacher for Class E, the worst class of Kunugigaoka Junior High School, and he will stay put, so that they can attempt an assassination on him during this one year period.

AND LISTEN! I am a shallow hoe, so I literally never would have read this manga or watched the series had I not been roaming Barnes and Noble one day with my S.O. and picked it up to read as a JOKE!

I was hooked after the first chapter and I am soooooooo glad I picked this manga up, bc it is absolutely not the type I would normally go for, cover art wise. I finally, after many many years, learned not to judge a book by its cover bc LORD this anime is so goddamn good, you don’t understand! Like, I’ve watched it so many times and still laugh at the same parts, cry at the same parts, am proud af at the same parts! like, this anime is an instant classic and should definitely be more popular than it is.

assassination classroom and natsume yuujinchou????? MASTERPIECES!

#anime i can't imagine life without #natsume yuujinchou #assassination classroom #inuyasha #black butler #detective conan #whump #chrono crusade #ghost hunt #yu yu hakusho #the devil is a part-timer #kodocha #long post is long

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lady-of-the-spirit · 3 years

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Fanfic writer ask meme! E, J, M, N, O, S, T, and W?

E: What character do you identify with most? Is there a certain fic of yours that captures these qualities particularly well?

Lowkey Archie Andrews, not because I’m as stupid or impulsive as he is (I love him but it’s true), but just because he feels very passionately about things, he wants to do good and help people however he can, and it seems like a lot of the time he’s pushing down his hurt to keep moving forward. And sometimes I do that too. I appreciate and can relate to his desire to do good and help the people he loves even when he has no idea how to do it. I think my fic Rotten Work shows the “pushing down his hurt” part of him pretty well, while my fic Sweet Peas for Sweet Pea shows the sweeter, loving side of him well.

Also Din Djarin and Eric from Santa Clarita Diet, because even though Din is on the opposite scale of being a threat (he’s a 10 and Eric and I are like a 2 at most), we’re all so very socially awkward. Unfortunately I haven’t written a fic for either of them that shows this side.

J: What’s your favorite fanfic trope? Have you written it?

I feel like hurt/comfort/whump is an obvious one, but yes I have written this. Comfort fics where the only plot is for characters to turn to one character and be like “Hey this canon thing that happened to you was traumatic are you okay?” and actually deal with it are great. I have written this too.

Honestly probably Role Swap AUs. I feel like this is another obvious one, considering that I have the tag ‘role swap aus are the best aus’ but it’s TRUE. And yes, I have written this - the Doctor-Companion swap AU obviously, but I also wrote a role swap AU for the movie Princess Mononoke a few years ago. That’s what started my obsession. I kind of put it on hiatus and haven’t updated it in a few years but I still love it.

I also love soulmate AUs of any kind and also the “Five plus one things” fic, but I’ve never written either of these things.

M: What’s the weirdest AU scenario you’ve ever come up with? Did it turn into a story?

I once came up with an AU for the show Friends where Rachel ended up going to the opera with Emily instead of ditching her, and Rachel realized she was bi and she and Emily ended up together. I had a whole plan for it, too! If the motivation ever struck me I would write it now.

I also once came up with a Shrek AU for my character Kris and Wanda Maximoff. Wanda was the “Shrek” character (Pietro too), Kris was the “Fiona” character.

There’s also that Zeddison Santa Clarita Diet AU I made a post about lol

N: Any fic ideas brewing that you’d care to share?

Three Good Omens fic ideas: 1) Horsepeople struggling to raise Adam, 2) Frannie is in a car crash and Famine flips out, and 3) Pollution is critically injured and the Horsepeople bring them to Aziraphale and Crowley.

Another Mandalorian imagine.

Another fic for A Christmas Prince focusing on Simon and Melissa. (They’re cute and I like them.)

A Power Rangers fic with my OC Rose.

Another Ben and Ryoko fic, maybe with this one Mal and the others meeting her too.

Indiana Jones AU-ish kind of fic where it’s the first movie but he has a wife (my OC) and they kick ass together and are basically Rick and Evie from The Mummy except they’re assholes.

O: What are your thoughts on people writing fanfic of your fanfic?

I LOVE IT. It’s happened about twice now for my Doctor-Companion role swap AU and both times I was like “Oh! My! Gosh!” It’s amazing.

S: How do you feel about fan art inspired by your writing?

I love it. I would name my first born child after anyone who made me some.

T: Any fanfic tropes you can’t stand?

Alpha/Omega AUs. Dom/Sub AUs. Hurt no comfort. Porn without plot. Character bashing (unless I’m in a very specific mood). Major character death.

W: What is your favorite pairing to write? Favorite pairing to read?

I think my favourite pairing to write is probably the one I’ve written for most often, which is Sweet Pea/Archie from Riverdale. They have such a fun mix of personalities - Sweet Pea is rough and angry, Archie is rough and sweet, they’re stupid AF but are very passionate and care about things a lot. Although I haven’t done a lot for them, it’s a fun dynamic to write!

My favourite pairing to read is definitely Donna and Ten. Platonic or romantic, either one is fine for me. They’re both just a one-braincell duo and Donna calling Ten out the fuck out while also caring about him a lot is my favourite thing. Anything they get themselves into is guaranteed to be hilarious, sad, or BOTH and it’s always wonderful.

#disneyfan50 #ask

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traincat · 5 years

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I’m honestly super excited over the prospect of a very well done f4 movie and like idk... seeing merch everywhere I look? But I’m mildly terrified of the fandom becoming huge. Bc huge attracts the crazy lol (I.e. m*u fandom) Since you are my official unofficial Queen of The Fantastic Four and have been rocking them forever... do you have any thoughts on this?

I guess my feelings on the subject right now boil down to “resigned.” I’m not thrilled about the whole Disney-Fox acquisitions deal from a big picture perspective and honestly as much as I love the Fantastic Four, I’m not comfortable viewing getting what’ll probably be a competently made, possibly fandom popular Fantastic Four movie as anywhere near an even trade for Disney’s global media takeover. It’s kind of like going “yeah Nestle’s chocolate syrup explosion contaminated 80% of the reservoirs but hey, more chocolate milk.” But whatever, the deal went through, and at least this means I don’t have to worry about execs throwing a fit about film rights and banishing my favorite team from the stands for years again. I’m not saying I won’t be excited later when more concrete plans for a Fantastic Four live action piece are in play, but right now there’s nothing concrete on the table as far as has been revealed to fans and I’m feeling pretty bleak about the consequences for the industry on the whole. But basically a Fantastic Four movie is one of the only properties left that would make me excited about seeing an MCU movie in theaters again. Is it going to be well done? I think that depends on some things.

Okay, I think an MCU Fantastic Four movie would be far more competently done then its predecessors, although that’s not exactly a high bar to clear. The MCU has a formula and that formula works very well for them, and I can’t see them breaking it for the Fantastic Four because it probably would actually be a fairly good fit for them. I think it is very suspicious that Captain Marvel is the only MCU movie receiving a lot of criticism for the MCU being formulaic in nature, because well -- they have been for a long time. It’s just that this is a formula that most audiences like, so nobody thought to complain about it until the lady movie, I guess. But yeah: formulaic. Big time. But this is one of those cases where I think it could work -- give a Fantastic Four movie a snappy script with some good jokes, a fun color palate, a found family theme, and plenty of bought reviews from critics (sorry, I don’t like Disney and I don’t like Disney’s well-documented practices) and I think an MCU Fantastic Four movie could really be a hit. Also, a well-written Johnny Storm would provide plenty of room for one of the MCU’s Egregious Car Scenes, considering Johnny’s a prodigy with automechanics, a car aficionado, and occasionally a professional racecar car. That being said: I am apprehensive about the Fantastic Four in the MCU, albeit mainly from a content perspective.

First off, I hope they let the Fantastic Four be the Fantastic Four and don’t shackle them to another established MCU property, like Spider-Man was. This is already difficult because, well, in a lot of ways, Avengers (2012), the movie that cemented the Avengers as the MCU’s premier superhero team, is a Fantastic Four movie with the Avengers MCU origin pasted on, and I mean this two ways. First, huge amounts of the plot elements featured in Avengers (2012) were lifted straight from an Ultimate Fantastic Four arc called God War (Ultimate Fantastic Four #33-38). How huge? God War features Thanos, Ronan the Accuser, alien whale spaceships, a similar mindcontrol plot to the Hawkeye and Black Widow one but featuring Ben and Johnny, the cosmic cube, and a character who is literally named Tesseract. It’s not an exact duplicate of the plot, but the similarities are heavy enough that I don’t think that can be ignored. The second is that the emotional heft and the consequences of Avengers (2012) -- a hostile alien presence threatens to destroy New York and then the whole world, a small group of heroes emerging victorious and getting thrust into center of things, greater awareness of super-threats and threats from outerspace -- is to the MCU exactly what the Galactus Trilogy (Fantastic Four #48-50) was to 616. So you couldn’t do an adaptation of the Galactus Trilogy now that would have the same heft and gravitas, not in the same way, and the only way they could position the Fantastic Four as the central group of superheroes is if Endgame does what everyone keeps whispering about and really does kill the majority of the Avengers -- which wouldn’t be great for a new Fantastic Four, actually, because it would incite fan hostility against them. Like you said: bigger fandoms, more problems. So either the MCU likely loses their role as the Beyonce of superheroes in the world’s eye, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I DO think the in-universe fame is a big part of the Fantastic Four formula, or you start off the track with a bunch of fans already mad at them. (This is all speculation, mind. I have no idea what the mouse has planned. I’m just spitballing a couple years worth of frustration over MCU Fantastic Four takes.)

All that being said -- the idea of there being a bigger fandom for the Fantastic Four and the MCU bringing in more fans for the Fantastic Four, while it would have it drawbacks because all bigger fandoms have drawbacks (so do smaller fandoms, too), also would have some perks. A lot of people who initially got into the MCU later got into comics, and I would love there to be more Fantastic Four comic fans and more content creators for Fantastic Four fandom. I think Johnny Storm has all the potential to be a total fandom darling, if the cards are played right and they stick to his comics personality, especially his 60s comics portrayal. If the MCU cuts the borderline misogynistic horndog playboy schtick popularized by Chris Evans’ performance in the 2005/07 movies and goes along with the wavy-haired boybander levels of nonthreatening pretty boy team baby and frequent fainter of the comics? The fic. Think of the fic. I love Spideytorch, but I wish there was more Johnny-centric fic in fandom. He’s made for whump. (Granted, people will probably just make him Peter Parker’s conveniently located cardboard cutout boyfriend more, but that already happens, so I’m resigned.)

I don’t know. I’ll probably be more invested, either positively or negatively, as we learn more about what the actual MCU plans for the Fantastic Four are. But the above are my thoughts for right now. I’m still not happy about this deal in terms of having more a creative selection of movies in the future, and in the interests of Disney not owning everything.

#*replies #traincat talks comics #Anonymous

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