#an “if v2 lived it could happen” sort of thing

[mothcpu]

scraps

#ULTRAKILL #V1 #V2 #mirage #gabriel #gabv1el #just as a general statement DECT is not intended to be read as ship/romantic but M/V2 in general is incredibly cute #an “if v2 lived it could happen” sort of thing #mirage ultrakill #DECT #<- FORGOT TO TAG MY OWN COMIC DAMN

[ophiocordyceps]

hey gang it's time for my attempt at articulating my thoughts about V2 again. and its long so it's going under a readmore

In my mind, V2 is a machine that struggles heavily with making sense of its place in the world. The very core of its model line is based in war, yet it was created after that very thing became irrelevant. Its creators wanted to get their money's worth out of the V-series, and with V1 being effectively obsolete, they started work on V2 with little more intent than simply to keep the model relevant.

And then that failed.

The trick was that it would be touted as a 'peacekeeper,' though they tried marketing it more towards security firms and law enforcement agencies with no luck. In early training and testing it came back with a lot of judgement errors or outright malfunctioned, running off reused programming that hadn't had time to learn and develop just yet. As time went on it observed, it learned, it came closer to human than V1 ever had, and... that sort of freaked the team working on the project out a bit. V2 had picked up the peacekeeper façade readily while the higher ups started having to debate ethics, and still no one really cared about these prototypes anymore.

It really internalized the idea of bringing peace, or at least doing something that didn't add more pain to a world that's seen so much of it already, though it resented the fact that most of the project team didn't really try to think of it as a person. It nearly bankrupt whatever company or agency or whatever that produced it after they finally gave up and reached out to humanitarian organizations.

And so the first real role it found itself in was in various recovery jobs. Search and rescue, casualty scouting, body recovery, things of that nature. And it loved the fact that it could help, make itself useful, it grew fascinated with humanity and in turn grew more human-like itself, now that it interacted with them so much. Eventually it would modify itself in order to allow a greater range of expression in a way that would be understandable to humans. But even then... it wasn't really a part of human society. It was a tool, and its immersion into humanity was only surface deep, though it wouldn't figure this out in time. Sometimes people would be wary, they would mistrust it, especially those with knowledge of its predecessor. Kind of the same as seeing one of those Boston Dynamics dogs doing something innocent enough but knowing what they're being made for.

And then...well. something happened. Hell broke loose, or the machines started an uprising, or maybe the actual rapture happened, who knows. Either way, mankind eventually died, and that stripped V2 of not only its purpose, but a massive portion of what had become its identity. Now the machines were driven to fighting each other for survival, and violent conflict had slowly but surely been divorced from V2's perception of itself; it wasn't really afraid of or worried about harming other machines, that fear was mainly focused on humans and later husks, but it had forged itself so far away from that original war machine mold that this new state of affairs had become basically irreconcilable with itself. It hated that it had to do this, that it and others like it could do nothing more than fight to the death to keep on living as fuel became scarce. But it did have a new purpose to replace the one that it lost: surviving. If it had to be a war machine it could be, and it could be efficient about it, even if it didn't particularly enjoy it, even if it felt wrong.

Something was still missing though, and it spent a long time simply existing aimlessly outside of the scope of staying alive, even as it was driven down into Hell. Or possibly it was already there, being sent down in the aftermath of the Hell expeditions. Either way, the result is the same. In hell it grew furthermore aimless and lonely, survival was a monotonous task it had to repeat constantly. It stayed in Limbo because it's almost familiar, and it misses what used to be.

And then V1 one day shows up to Limbo. Its predecessor it had never met. It would be curious of course, but V1 has only ever known combat, it doesn't have the same capacity for irrelevant curiosity, nor the desire to stop what it's doing, so they inevitably fight. They fight, V1 wins, V2 loses its arm to its predecessor and is forced to retreat, and it keeps thinking about this. It grows resentful of it, replaying the battle to learn more and more about V1's tactics in order to get back at it. Suddenly it has a brand new purpose: killing or otherwise defeating V1.

Getting revenge.

Revenge is what drives it deeper through the layers, it constructs the whiplash on its own from scavenged parts, and with its head start it still finds time to be curious; it never meets any of them but it learns of Gabriel, of Minos and Sisyphus. It learns things V1 wouldn't care nearly as much about as it goes deeper into Hell, because despite the reality of everything going on around it, it still wants nothing more than to stop and learn, to be useful in some way, and in its mind, archiving information counts as useful.

And eventually that brings it to Greed.

By now it has poured over its memory of it and V1's initial fight innumerable times, resentment growing into hatred, it couldn't fucking stand that thing. It did not see itself as superior—if anything it felt somewhat inferior to its predecessor, a half-baked attempt at convincing the public to invest in the model line that never panned out, forced to claw its way out into the world and forge a sense of self and belonging.

And then of course, V1 catches up again, they fight, V2 tries to escape again and V1 doesn't let it get away.

V2 comes crashing down from the pyramid, and purpose no longer matters to it after that.

Had it lived longer, had it successfully escaped V1's all-consuming violence, it might've realized how deeply its resentment was settled within it, it might've realized why, that V1 had cast a shadow on its existence from the very beginning, down to influencing its very creation. It would've despised it knowing that. It would never be V1, it never wanted to be, and now it would never have the chance.

Had it lived longer, it would have also realized how superficial its connection to humanity had really been and how hollow that original peacekeeper label truly was.

V2 dies an unsatisfactory death under the scorching sun of Greed, a peaceful entity driven to violence and a machine with no good reason to exist.

#ultrakill #V2 #v2 is such a tragic character to me you dont understand. #also dreams end come true is like quasi-canon to me. just know this #this is so scattered but whatever i wrote the first half at like 2 am over a week ago

[muzzleroars]

Ik it's basically canon that god is sort of(?) Dead but do any of the angels,machines,demons,husks etc. Ever worry about His return? Sort of like a lingering worry if He (hypothetically) comes back and sees what they have done and his ensuing punishments for them

it's a sliding scale of fear, a thought that sometimes catches gabriel off-guard despite believing it has little chance of happening (a product, he supposes, of so many eons of surveillance) to now know the extent of god's tyranny, to consider how he could be driven into the shadows the way all fallen angels are...frightens him somewhere. v1 is soothingly unconcerned, with gabriel almost amused by its insistence that the world just boils down to better or worse combatants, and god would simply be another one (sure, it would probably lose, but it's almost lost to plenty of things in hell) overall it doesn't worry about the hypothetical, it takes things as they come, and doesn't even entertain eternal torment. v2 is shockingly similar, he finds, though it conceptualizes god as a force of nature really - they could all just be struck by lightning one day, but what good does it do them to worry when the chance is this remote? it simply doesn't believe anything can last forever anyway (michael beside it is different, of course, he prays each day that god will return and he would rejoice at his just punishment - v2 clearly doesn't want this discussion again, and gives gabriel a look for bringing it up)

the husks think little about it, though theirs is a learned helplessness - they believed their punishment to be unending, so what more could he do? minos seems to be the only one that considers the idea beyond its surface implications, though he doesn't wish for hypotheticals to get in the way of his stewardship to the few that have survived (his subjects are right in some way after all - god has always punished them, worrying about any possible retribution is a privilege they are not afforded). the demons, stoic as ever, may not even know he's gone - gabriel has wondered at them through living here, now, though he swears they are more and more active than they once were. somehow, he thinks it wouldn't affect them either way. "wouldn't it be wonderful" raphael would tell him, though he hears the tremor that's barely there - the multitude of heaven yearns for it in the way michael does, but the higher angels, those that understood god well, know how displeased he would be in all their actions. the council, their neglect of hell, their freedom, raphael and the old angels know there would be a massacre waiting if god came home. uriel almost fears waking up again to divine inspiration and knowing just what to write - gabriel can see it, how conflicted they are, and he decides not to ask any more

#like i think all the angels DO hope on some level he'll return #but they are absolutely terrified of how they would be judged #that's something they don't even admit to themselves tho #except mike who's like. all in and is prepared to fall #(but really his position affords it much more) #cake answers

[kettouryuujin]

A Mysterious Prelude -V2-

[Inspired by @monsoon-of-art's Pokerus AU. This is a revised version of https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/kettouryuujin/690863911438811137?source=share] Akari groaned, head swimming as she slowly came to. What the heck had happened? She’d been on her way to the Guild to report the completion of her latest mission (getting a Caterpie out of the Lush Forest), when she was suddenly falling and…

Why was she in the water? She was still on the path when she fell, so there was no way she’d fallen off one of Lively Town’s cliffs. Grunting, the Dewott heaved herself out of the water, looking around. OK. This wasn’t Lively Town. Lively Town didn’t have a beach like this where you couldn’t see any buildings. Did she fall through one of those Mag-gate things? No, those hadn’t been around for years. So how did she…

“E-excuse me!? Ma’am? Are you alright?” Akari’s ears swiveled a bit as she looked upwards towards the source of the voice… a rather lanky-looking Dartrix. On closer inspection, there were some odd pink patches bare of feathers - almost like someone had tried using a weird replacement for bandages. That, and he was fumbling in the air, looking like he was about to crash (which, let’s be real, is why she could see those patches). The avian landed in the sand with an undignified *squawk*, and the rookie Explorer sprung up, heading over. “S-sir? Are you…”

There was a small groan as the Dartrix righted himself, shaking his head. “Yes, yes, I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m just…not used to flying, that’s all.”

“...not used to flying? But…you would’ve even as a Rowlet…” She tilted her head, bandana shifting slightly as the avian blinked.

“As a - Ma’am, you…oh. I guess you wouldn’t know, but…” A sad sigh. “I - and the rest of the people here - were originally human…”

“What.”

----

The Dartrix - or Professor Laventon, as he called himself - explained how the rifts in the sky (not unlike the one above them right now, she noted dryly) was - for some reason - causing people to transform slowly - and painfully - into a Pokemon. Apparently, lightning was striking every so often, and if it hit someone then they’d start turning into whatever ‘mon was closest to them at the time. Or whichever they contacted next. As she took this all in, Akari could safely say... 

She was incredulous. Humans had been extinct for hundreds of years, so clearly this Dartrix hit his head badly upon crashing. Wait, no, her first aid training said he’d be showing other symptoms from that level of head trauma, so...oh Arceus, was this ‘mon insane?

As she tried to work out how to handle ‘mon of mental instability outside of Dungeons, the Prof. suddenly fell, hacking and wheezing. “OH! Oh jeez, are you alright? Here, let me...” Her words of aid trailed off as she saw one of the pink patches shrink via feathers pushing through it. Pops and cracks echoed from the Professor’s form as he visibly shrunk, falling closer to a normal Dartrix’s size as - OH SWEET GIRATINA!

No-one could blame her for jumping back upon seeing the *Blur* that came out of the Dartrix’s beak. Even the most seasoned Explorers would have to hold down their lunch upon seeing *Blur*, although this was the first time Akari knew of *Blur* coming from puking. Usually it took grievous bodily injury or surgery to make *Blur* visible... oh Arceus, this was all chopped up and it was even wors- Dry heaves. She couldn’t hold them back, and instead used whatever energy she could divert from those heaves into looking away from the *Blur*. Thankfully she hadn’t ate recently, otherwise she’d have had no time to react before giving the apparently ex-human a new coat of...well, green. Yeah, seeing someone grow feathers, shrink, and puke up *Blur* was reason enough to believe they were probably once human.

As she tried to calm herself (and fish out a couple Berries from her bag),  Akari steered her thoughts away from the nausea and towards confusion…and concern. What sort of thing could turn humans into Pokémon… and what could have sent her to a world with humans at all?

#PMD #pokerus au #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon legends arceus #pla #pmd #Chapter 1 #AU needs better name #Pokemon Legends Arceus: Mysterious Destiny

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 48

Hunter x Hunter - Three whole episodes spent on the strangest and most intense game of doge ball, with Gon and the others playing against Razor and his pirate team, in the process learning that what they thought was the inside of a virtual Nen-created game is in fact a very real place. And Hisoka hogging the glory by hitting the ball back to Razor and using his Bungee Gum on it just so he could get the win was marvelous. The backstory between Razor and Ging was a bit of groaner in how specific what Ging laid out for Razor was, but it did provide good context into why Razor is like how he is today. But then, who should come calling but Genthru, just in case you’d forgotten!

Fruits Basket - Initial episode I watched focused on Tohru in a visit to the Sohma Estate where she tended to matters with Kureno and Momiji. The Momiji content was great, the Kureno content not so much, though we did get a tease at Akito’s mother, Ren Sohma. The next episode showed more promise, so I watched it and was not let down. Just a whole episode of our leading high schooler pals on a class trip in Kyoto is rewarding in a way you don’t even care that not much is advanced, you enjoy watching these characters that much. (Only odd thing is that the Prince Yuki Fanclub is set up stalking Yuki from a distance early in but it doesn’t go anywhere! If they were following the whole while, did they just end up laughing too hard at Yuki’s embarrassing routine with his Student Council buddies to actually do anything?) Next time, though, is going to hurt, I can tell.

Date A Live S4 - Kurumi finally showed Shido, and the audience, her backstory of how she met the Spirit of Origin and became a Spirit, fighting and killing the lesser evolved Spirits only to end up learning that all Spirits begin as human, even taking the life of her best friend due to Mio’s deception. While it was an interesting backstory, the very end sort of took away from it, as Mio exposits a lot of details that are so weirdly phrased and unclear that it came out unintelligable!

Re:ZERO - Not this time. Must ready myself for the turning point...

Fate Stay/Night: Unlimited Blade Works - Yes, I know this was the title of a movie I already watched, but now I’ve started the series version! I love already that I’m back to events that followed Fate Zero, but this time we’re looking at things primarily from Rin’s POV. Mela Lee in this role has only gotten better, loved hearing (though not seeing) Kirei again, and Cristina Vee and Kyle McCarley as Sakura and Shinji Matou respectively work as well, if not even better than their predecessors. Kaiji Tang’s Archer took some getting used to, but once he dropped the jerkass facade and being more cool and straightforward, it was really working for me. The only voice I do not care for is Bryce Papenbrook as Shirou. Just...no. He makes him sound like Nagito. Bring Sam Reigel back, plz? And I guess now I have two nickels ‘cause an hour long series premiere of a Fate franchise anime ending right as we first see Saber happened twice!

Symphogear G - Got to hand it to this show. Going into this climax, they could’ve played it safe and just given us the Good Guys VS the Bad Guys for one final time, but they make it more complicated by having one from each side swap teams at the 11th hour (Shirabe’s now with the Good Guys and Chris is with the Bad Guys), having the lead baddie dying and unable to stop what she helped to start, and having poor Maria stuck in a chamber with Dr. Ver, the true psycho bastard in all this. I’m super pumped to see how this all turns out!

MAR - The Ginta VS Ash battle finally came and while it was quite interesting on Ash’s end that he didn’t want to kill or seriously harm Ginta since he’s still a kid and Ash is friend to all children, but from Ginta we just got more of the same “I hate Phantom and what the Chess Pieces do!” righteous fury. But hey, Ash ends up foreiting the fight to Ginta AND we even briefly see Ashs’ face behind the skull mask! And he’s just...some good looking dude! Who’d have thunk it?

Gintama - It felt like such a long wait, but finally we have Sacchan! Though the premiere already showed us what she’s all about, her proper debut does well in showing her discovering that kinky, masochistic side of herself and starting to bring it out more in sneaky ways as she’s working her plan to lay low from the literal rat bastard she’d been out to assasinate. It meanders a bit in places, but that’s more than made up for when Gin and Sacchan raid the rat’s hideout, with so much of the situation and the dialogue from all the characters being hilarious. And so, when Sacchan left only to come back literally the very next day for more kinky stuff with Gin, it felt all too right.

AND

Yuki Yuna Is A Hero - Finally, I’ve seen the last three episodes that make up the climax and finale of the initial series, where Yuna, Fuu, Itsuki and Karin fight against a huge horde of Vertex unleashed by Togo and have to stop them from killing the Shinju Sama and with it, destroying the entire world. It’s definitely a case where I can say I really enjoyed it, BUT. And in this case the “BUT” would be that the lead-in to the finale, what literally makes it all happen, is straight up contrived nonsense. Pulling a “this is the dark, despair-inducing TRUTH of the world you live in and fight for” twist without having put in the worldbuilding effort to really earn it just kind of takes a dump on the integrity of the Heroes Club and their nice little slice-of-life regular setting, and it feels like it was just done to throw a Madoka takeoff on top of an already implemented Madoka takeoff, as well as serve as a cheap and convenient way to justify Togo taking a leap right into “kill everything and end it all!” nihilism. I also don’t think we needed to see Sonoko again, and what was done, or NOT done, with the Taisha was beyond disappointing given the earlier build-up, though I hear that it finally ended up happening in one of the later seasons. But I can’t say it took me out of it completely and that I wasn’t engaged in the action from start to finish, nor that the second half of the final episode didn’t get to me. Seiji Kishi really knows how to make good on the heartfelt moments and I just love the Hero Club girls so much that I wanted more than anything to see them all happy in the end. Thankfully they are, and as later seasons prove, they always will be.

#Anime Update V2 #Anime Update

[traincat]

I made the mistake of checking the replies on one of your re-tweets about the Lizard and Shed, even though I was warned people got weird in the replies, and I can't believe that in the year 2021, people are still defending Shed as a great story arc, or excusing it by being like, 'But he has a new kid now!' and 'Oh, so you're mad a villain did villainous things, huh?', like, what part of Shed being a horrible storyline that crossed a line that shouldn't have been written, and makes the character irredeemable do people not get? And I say that a someone who's been a big Lizard fan since long before it happened, but I can't enjoy the character anymore bc of it, and I feel like the discourse around him has gotten so much worse since NWH bc of the MCU stans tbh

Oh man I'm so sorry, I think @splendidnothings the OP muted that and so did I because people were just getting really weird about a story that involves semi-graphic child cannibalism. Which is I guess now that I say it pretty par for the course for Twitter. Like I said in one of my tweets, it's a really complicated situation because I would probably still say the Lizard is one of my favorite Spider-Man villains based solely on pre-Shed content, but post-Shed I think it's impossible to feature any sort of redemption of the character without heavily damaging the actual fabric of Spider-Man as a series, which is unfortunately what has happened.

For those who haven't read it (and given the contents of the storyline may understandably not want to), Shed (ASM #630-633) is a storyline where the Curt Connors succumbs to the Lizard who, in an act of trying to fully sublimate the Connors persona, hunts down Connors' young son Billy and kills him. It is strongly implied he eats at least part of the body, and Peter is aware of this. It's a deeply and purposefully unpleasant storyline that's part of an overarching arc dedicated to trying to crush Peter's spirit in the lead up to Grim Hunt (ASM #634-637), and so I understand why, narratively, Shed made the choices it did, even if I don't agree with them. I like grim and dark Spider-Man stories, but Shed is so utterly hopeless that even I think it's a step too far. And I think where Spider-Man as a series really falls down a well is not actually Shed, but its handling of the Lizard significantly after Shed.

To make a point clear, I think the Lizard has pretty often been a not particularly subtle metaphor for domestic abuse in Spider-Man comics. Not since his inception, but at least for the past few decades. If you look at his interactions with his wife Martha and his son Billy, even though they love him and he loves them, they're forced to live in semi-constant fear that this horrible persona will arise out of the family patriarch to cause them emotional pain and very possibly hurt or kill them. (Which is ultimately what happens with Billy.) I don't think this particular subtext was new to Shed. I think if we wanted to make an argument, you could say that almost all of Spider-Man is about some form or other of abuse, and that's what sets Peter apart from his villains is that he has the same power to inflict abuse but consciously chooses not to, and that this is a very large part of the concept of power and responsibility. If we look at it in this light, a lot of Peter's dynamics with his villains take on a funhouse mirror effect: Norman is corrupted by money and abusive to his family, whereas Peter refuses that corrupting influence and is not an abusive man. Doc Ock uses his intellect to inflict abuse, whereas Peter does not. Curt Connors' dual persona causes his family to live in fear, etc.

(ASM #365)

"I could persuade myself that nothing I did was my fault. (...) I would have killed [Billy] to prevent you from having him." (Spectacular Spider-Man v2 #13) This is a retroactively really interesting story because in a way it does predict Shed and how Connors is unable to let his better nature truly prevail.

Post-Shed, things with the Lizard are weird, because very realistically Peter should despise Curt Connors. I think if there's any integrity in the depiction of Peter Parker as a character, the Lizard killing his child is not something he should be able, under any circumstances, to forgive. To quote John Mulaney, to do otherwise is to present a version of Peter Parker with the ethical backbone of a chocolate eclair. It essentially renders everything he should stand for garbage. Which is exactly what Spencer's run did when it essentially said that everything is okay now because the Lizard feels super bad about what he did (EATING HIS KID) and also he has a brand new clone version of his son who is alive so it's like he never actually killed the original at all. And did we mention he feels super bad about it. Like just so bad. He's teaching ethics now. The Venture Bros has significantly more subtlety than this. And it drives me completely crazy whenever I think about it because it just demonstrates this insane need to uplift the status quo where you can never have consequences for anything, even a character eating his kid, and the very fiber of Spider-Man's storytelling depends on there being consequences for people's actions. The ultimate crime here isn't having the Lizard eat his kid, but in pretending that once you do that that the character can easily be forgiven for it as long as he demonstrates regret, and we see echoes of this all through Spencer's run, in particular the Goodening of Norman Osborn, who just feels like super bad about all that stuff he did, including apparently selling his son's soul to the devil.

And like I know a lot of movie fans have no way of knowing this and that when you put the Lizard in No Way Home, compared to the Green Goblin especially he just seems like kind of a funny little guy who wanted to turn everyone into lizards, and I'm not even gonna pretend like you can have a nuanced conversation about TASM on twitter, but it creates this weird gap in conversation between fans of different continuities, especially because (and I'm speaking in general and not in specific to the tweet that Linds initially quotetweeted) a lot of movie fans will invoke some amount of comics canon as a way to back up their opinions, and a lot of these times these pieces just don't fit or they lack additional context which is fair because there is a lot of comic canon, but we end up in these situations where people are like "well villains are bad people so of course they eat their children." COMIC BOOK FANDOM.

#curt connors #traincat talks comics #*replies

[athena14044]

I read Guardians of the Galaxy vol 2

I've been kind of struggling with my read of all of She-Hulk's appearances because I can't just read straight through a title I have to keep stopping to find some random appearance, so it was nice to just read straight through something

I mostly like the art, but in some panels Rocket and/or Cosmo look really weird. You'd think if they knew they needed an artist who can draw animals they'd get an artist who can. you know. draw animals.

COSMO I LOVE YOU SO MUCH

PUPPY 🥺 HIS FRIENDS NEED HIM 🥺 (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #24)

God, Peter had so much depth and the mcu was like "we're going to make him a self-serving idiot" WHERE IS MY MAN WHO DOES QUESTIONABLE THINGS FOR THE GOOD OF THE GALAXY??? Having him want to save the galaxy because he's "one of the idiots who lives in it" is funny and all, but WHERE is the GUILT??? WHERE is the sense of RESPONSIBILITY????

Speaking of the mcu, I will literally never get over how they made Rocket's backstory generic experimentation. where is the FLAIR. where is the EVIL CAPITALIST MOLE. I suppose it's because it's not a huge leap from evil capitalist mole to evil capitalist mouse 😳

I love Rocket and Cosmo's feud it's so funny to me. and by the end they grudgingly respect each other 🥺

I really enjoyed the plot where Drax and Phyla were searching for a way to bring back Heather

I also enjoyed when Peter got dumped with Blastaar in the negative zone, and he sent Peter into the prison.

I'd never heard of Jack Flag or Bug before this. I liked Jack Flag. I did not like Bug.

I really like the debrief log style of narration. I think they did some really cool things with it, like showing the Guardians progressively more beat up as they tell the story, before getting to Gamora who's completely burned

On the one hand, I love Rocket being the only one who can understand Groot, but on the other hand, I thought it was really funny when they met Maximus and he was able to understand Groot and Rocket was there like "what are you talking about he's just saying his name"

I have no idea what's going on with these events but I don't think the book suffered too much due to being involved.

Moondragon's Guardians uniform is really ugly... like at least Gamora's and Mantis' look nice in their desire to show skin but Moondragon's looks really weird

GOD I HATE ALIEN PREGNANCY STORYLINES JUST SAY YOU DON'T RESPECT WOMEN'S AUTONOMY AND MOVE ON This one isn't quite as bad ig bc Heather chose to let it infect (?) her, sort of? but god why would you choose to use that imagery and all the baggage it comes with.

I guess part of why alien pregnancy stories are done is because it evokes a feeling of like, incongruity because it's pairing the familiar with something completely... alien, for lack of a better term, but I don't think that they should violate a woman's bodily autonomy in trying to create that feeling of wrongness. They could have just had it, idk, attach to her head or something. That makes more sense anyway due to the telepathic aspect.

Ugh.

I like the giant space turtle judge I think that's cool

NO it gets worse the stupid cult is going to cut it out of her stomach because it's their savior or whatever NONE OF THIS IS NEW JUST SAY YOU DON'T RESPECT WOMEN'S AUTONOMY AND MOVE ON

You can literally just skip 21 and 22 it picks right back up with the actual plot after that little segue into my most despised trope. They must have just been trying to fill space before they revealed that the guardians who died were actually alive

And I think that the actual plot is good! Like, go Guardians! Fight Evil Adam Warlock! Go Phyla! It's such a cool subversion of expectations too because normally you're rooting for Life, not Death, but here it's the opposite.

Which is why I think that the alien pregnancy thing is really out of place. They literally did nothing new with it it's just like in Star Trek, or X-Files, or Angel, or literally anything that's done it before.

Ok I'm going to stop talking about this now

PHYLA I LOVE YOU

They just ditched the Evil Adam Warlock thing for Thanos' resurrection. What happened to Evil Adam Warlock? Goddamn events forcing it to end without wrapping up all the plot points. I hate them. It looks like it's leading into this Thanos Imperative thing. I do not want to read this Thanos Imperative thing especially because I Do Not care about Thanos, but I want to know what happens.

If you made it this far please enjoy this panel of Gamora with short hair (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #7)

#liz reads comics #guardians of the galaxy #im going to read v3 i think even though ive technically read it before i dont remember it super well #liz's cosmic marvel readthrough

[narwhalish]

Why Raven Cares.

I don’t think it gets said enough, and this doesn’t excuse Raven’s actions what so ever, of course.

But I do think Raven does care quite a bit, even if she won’t admit to anyone.

I think we’ll start with the statement that she wants to kill Qrow, which I still can’t find to be true. What have we seen that would warrant so much hate for a family member? She stills checks up on Qrow, reason unknown. But you don’t just check up on people you don’t care about. They same can be said for her checking up on Tai and Yang.

I think Raven just suppresses a lot of her emotions. She wants to be viewed as strong, and showing emotions in her mind is a weakness. Caring for others is a weakness, which is why she keeps this part of her hidden. Semblances are supposed to be an extension of you, and Raven’s semblance is virtually useless without having people she cares about, as you need that connection with them. 

Down in the vault at Haven, she didn’t put Vernal there to save herself. She just didn’t see the danger she was putting Vernal in. She thought she would be able to attack and Vernal would end up being fine, she can protect herself. Raven had no way of knowing that Cinder was going to try to take the maiden power from Vernal. 

Also, we know Raven didn’t want Salem to get the relic Clearly, she was going to try to stop Cinder so she could either leave it, or take it for herself. Well, shown later on, she does open the vault. So she did want it for herself. But the point here is, she didn’t want Salem to have it. 

Then Yang and Raven’s conversation in the vault. That was the one time she really showed any sort of strong emotion that wasn’t anger or hate. She to an extent regrets what she did. She yelled at Yang because she didn’t know how to react otherwise. No one in a long time has talked to her like that, but with the intention to help. She understands where Yang was coming from, and that is definitely shown as she lets Yang take the relic. In my opinion, I don’t think she wanted to put her daughter in inherent danger, but more so she knew that she could deal with it a lot better than she could. Then of course, she ran again. But she had a lot on her mind. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of her, not even close to it.

Also quickly, jumping back a little bit, her comment to Ruby about sounding just like her mother. This was clearly said with distaste. I think Raven is the type of character to have misplaces Anger as we’ve seen. I would almost bet she is angry at Summer for running off and dying. Now of course, we don’t really have enough information to really come to a conclusion on this, but I think it’s a fair assumption. Because, Raven did used to care about STRQ. About her brother. I mean, we know Raven leaving did something to Qrow, and if they didn’t care about each other at one point in time, that wouldn’t have happened. In the STRQ photo she was smiling, and why would Tai marry and have a kid with someone if she didn’t care about him? I think Raven just has a very poor time handling her emotions.

We also have Raven saving Yang in V2, and later on it was said that Raven said she would save Yang once and that was it. She wouldn’t save someone she doesn’t care about. She wouldn’t even consider stepping in anytime. Also later on when Yang breaks into the Branwen camp. First thing is, after learning Weiss is Yang’s teammate, she lets Weiss go. This shows that 1. She doesn’t want Yang to be unhappy with her and 2. She cares about Yang’s wellbeing.

Anyways the come into the tent and Raven offers them... tea? (Am I just imagining things on this one). And explains everything to them. Tries to convince Yang to stay with the tribe. You don’t just 1. Give a rundown on how the world works to someone you don’t care about and 2. Try to get them to stay. But clearly she respects Yang’s decision well enough to let them go, to even let them use her portal to get to Qrow.

Oh and because I forgot to add this in. I think maybe part of this, and we even see this somewhat with Qrow, is that they grew up in a bandit tribe. I feel if you grew up in an environment like that, as Raven says, the Strong live and the weak die. Don’t show emotions so you aren’t viewed as week, that is probably a lot of what they had to do growing up. Qrow just came to terms with how it isn’t supposed to be that way more so than Raven.

Anyways, through all of this I do think Raven cares about STRQ/Yang. I would almost extend that branch to Ruby too, oh and Vernal. This doesn’t excuse her actions at all, just I think more puts into perspective of why she made these choices. I hope when we end up seeing her again, she has thought over what Yang said, and hopefully can recognize these things! Holding out for a Raven redemption arc over here :) 

TD;LR: Raven has no clue how to handle emotions

#rwby #Raven Branwen #Team STRQ #qrow branwen #yang xiao long #vague Summer mentions haha #One of my many other analysis's #This got way longer than I intended

[bookofmariokingofmaiami]

This is the second time making this post because i am angry as fuck because for some reason when I added the names it didn't save so I'm doing this shit again 

Hey! I had a stupendus idea, the past few days I've gathered a bunch of mitten squad quotes and captain sauce quotes

Soooo, I'll put wich book of mario characters would say each quote and we'll see what happens

Yes I know 99% of the mitten squad quotes is gonna be bolivia and carbon

Also, some quotes reference characters and locations, so I'll put an [ ] with what I think the book of mario counterpart would be

MITTEN SQUAD SEGMENT 

Lewis:"I have successfully turned an ordinary kitchen utensil into the most valuable fork in the known universe, no one man should have this kind of power, but I am not mortal man, as a sexualy identity as a big rock being thrown into the ocean"

Princess of peaches, talking about 1 TEC-20"The robot wasn't able to pick the lock and I lacked the fire power to blow the bitch open" 

Marc:"I left a broom there too so my bucket wouldn't be lonely"

Carbon:"Calm down vegetarians I am talking about animals in video games, animals in real life matter way less"

Barney one:"Killing it isn't the hard part, the hard part is getting away from the explosion of the goddamm Nagasaki bomb strapped up its ass that was rigged to explode once it died"

Bolivia:"Todd Howard [barbie], even in death you find a way to fuck me"

Bolivia:"We came back to the little shit with the ant problem and killed most of the ants, I left one alive for the boy, either he becomes a man or that ant will have a very good day" 

Goomb:"Me brain fixed gud no hurt no more"

Marc:"Picked up trash for the make a wish kid"

Bolivia, talking about maria:"Because she hits like a bull with down syndrome and has the personality of a piece of plywood"

Belize:"You might be wondering, who is the boy and who is the girl? I won't give it away but I will say this, the knife is a whore"

Maria:"I had armor, i had supplies, i had pockets full of room temperature tomatos"

Bolivia:"For some reason I thought that stupid the horse v2 could fly, bad decision on my part"

Carbon:"For some reason this shrapnel character had 200 BB's, what a weirdo, who caries around 200 BB's?, anyway, I talked to daddy and brought my 300 BB's and headed off to clear off the Jefferson memorial"

Goverman::"Get a juice box and strap on your helmet, because we're going to hell"

Carbon:"I punched a puppy to death"

Marc:"My iq is similar to that of a 14 year old block of cheese"

Lewis:"Theres an oxygen exhaust pipe, the second best tipe of pipe to suck on to keep yourself alive, for those who need hand holding, that was not a drug reference, this is a family friendly channel, it was a suicide joke"

Bolivia:"I got an amazing slow motion shot of dogmeat getting fucked to death by a nuclear warhead"

Maria:"My only option was to become a vampire, wich sucked"

Bolivia:"But just as when like how every virtual dog goes to hell when it dies, what the fuck does that even mean?"

Carbon:"I took advantage of a unconscious military officer and beat him to death"

Barney one:"Nothing else says more victory than overdosing on drugs after a war"

Prof. Ceasar reality:"And decided to go to the much bigger and much more research facility x-13 research facility facility center, WHAT? I think I had a stroke"

Bolivia:"Used more than 3% of my frag mines to blow up a dog"

Carbon:"The last few coursers ran for their non existence lives and I went after them because I'm not letting anyone get away, one got away"

Maria:"I got a warning saying that nuka world is intended for those level 30 or above, Mathematics show us that me being lv11 is close enough to lv30"

Carbon:"Killed a pain-maker and got a glimpse into the big G in the sky who manifested himself as a fire axe floating in the air, this voodoo shit has no place in zion so I chopped of the pain-maker's legs and arms so If there is an afterlife he will be a cripple in hell for all eternity"

Goverman:"Its head turned into jelly, I threw its egg down into the nightmare bellow, and then I jumped after it"

Carbon:"A herd of big hornets paid the ultimate price for being alive"

Goverman:"Used his gun to turn off a woman"

Maria:"Me being the player can't open the door, theres a know you have to twist it its a whole process"

Goverman explained why maria survived the fall:"One of them belonged to God and refused to die"

Goombell, talking about hoko saba:"The dragon I pretended to not exist a few minutes ago is one of my mom's friend's kids so I had to play with him even tho he's weird"

Belize:"There was no hamster's luck in a garbage disposal chance that I would follow this giant fuck all the way to the cit ruins"

Lewis:"Along the way i saved a shopping cart from drowning and returned it to its family"

Prof. Ceasar reality:"Its about 24 million cheez its away from New vegas"

Bolivia:"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to bedworld"

Carbon:"With enough notches in my pistol to spell psychopath in braille"

Gooverman:"I spie with my little eye a ville whore who deserves to die, I cleaved her back in half with my stick and what I saw was glorious"

Maria?:"Its kinda like playing the floor is lava, but you can't see the lava and instead of burning to death you turn into a vegetable"

IDK"I hid from Ringo by hiding in ringo"

Bolivia:"The plate worked as well I thought it would, wich means it didn't work"

Bolivia:"There was a 3 for 1 discount on dead raiders if you use the promo code granade at checkout"

Belize:"The only explanation is that has a 5th appendage wich he pulls out on special occasions, wich probably isn't the case, we all know elmo doesn't pull out"

Goomb:"You don't need those things, Jesus got trough his life without any guns"

Goombape:"When i played it as a children"

Barbie:"Its like how you don't know if your life has any meaning until you die and see your score"

Belize:"This was the most stealth oriented part of the game by a metric mile"

Bolivia:"I stripped him naked, talked with Elliot [lewis] whose face bothered me for some reason,Talked with the samurai[maria], talked with red dead redemption [barney one]"

Carbon:"Some idiot spilled red paint on the clouds"

Bolivia:"Before traveling with the wizard, I spent some time pestering earnie with the prospect of friendship, by walking back and forth in front of him, making him think i wanted to talk to him just for me to keep on walking,I was voted the quietest guy I high-school and I know how loud earnie is screaming inside his head right now, it's kinda fun to be in this side of it :) ,also this isn't related to the video in any way, I just wanted to make it known that i have a sealed copy of elmos letter adventure for Nintendo 64 and you don't"

Maria:"I knew I could use that as a lighthouse of sorts in order to cast myself further into the ocean until i drowned in my own disappointment"

Goombell:"Vulpes[carbon] was adopted, his mother is both infertile and imaginary"

Belize:"Being alone is mental, you can be surrounded by friends family laughs and love on Christmas morning and still be alone in your head"

Bolivia:"I acted in self defense by committing various war crimes"

Carbon:"My throwing spears were broken and wouldn't fly,stupid fucking game" 

Bolivia:"That wasn't a lie, it just wasn't the truth"

Maria:"If there's anything Shaun b knows to do is die"

Boombell:"The number of bear traps I activated for sexual reasons turned my angles into a fine powder"

Goverman:"Where the grass is green and the air is even greener"

IDK"I consulted a doctor who flucked out of medical school and followed his advice by killing myself"

Belize:"Being a futuristic[X-nauti], nazi dominated world version of polly poc,etc it has its own set of drawbacks"

Marc:"They're mass effect 3 of fallout 3's 5th dlc, I've never played mass effect"

Lewis:"Who loves their father like how their brother loves his mother's sister"

Carbon:"Like most existential crises it went away after I killed somebody"

Carbon:"If you're wraped in chains and dropped into an empty bathtub to drown, a snorklew won't save you"

Goombape:""A wise man once said "hi! Jeanie may's here"  and he's right, there has to be a better way""

Browser:"After it took 3 grown man to kidnap a baby with a gun"

goldbob:"The lever action gun riffle can kill a mutant in a single shot if you land a shot that can kill it in one hit"

Maria:"Its 2020, Noone wants to use their hands anymore"

Bolivia:"Before journeying into more death, some jackass hit me with a granade and killed me, not the explosion, the granade bouncing off my soon to be corpse is was what made me dead"

Belize:"Some Neanderthals gave me their bullets to hold in a pretty rude way >:("

Princess of peaches:"Im not worried about offending blind people, it's not like they'll be watching this"

Carbon:"30 seconds is longer than you'd think, ask anyone whose been on fire"

Lewis:"I was as useful as a comatose toddler with a nerf gun at pearl harbor"

Goomb:"I also poused the challenge to satisfy the curiosity of mine regarding the birds in the sky that Don real because birds aren't exist"

Marc:"Any doctor worth their weight in styrofoam cups can fix a leg with their feet"

Bolivia:"I had me a silenced weapon, but I didn't account for today being his birthday, this changes everything, so I shaped for hollow point"

Carbon:"Maybe if Steve earlin had a gun instead of a snorklew he'd still be alive today"

Marc:"It took me 30 minutes and 3 phone calls to get my food because I'm too much of a pussy to go outside at 10 o'clock at night while drunk in a Christmas sweater after news year to steal my own food of one my neighbors doorstep"

Maria:"We've got rogue, tank dampse, and squidword"

Lewis;"And they're no joke, but I am, I am the big joke and my body is the punchline"

Bolivia:"I got mentally Nagasaki'd by this guy at the stables"

IDK"And went outside where Victor is unhappy with me, after killing Victor, Victor came out of the lucky 38 to avenge victor" 

Bolivia:" i shot a kid, i sent that little bitch to the moon"

Sushiya,  testing her products:"The door was of its axis, a plate was misbehaving on the chair, a cattle was dancing on the table like the whore she is"

Carbon:"And went shopping for dead bodies, they weren't in stock,  but i know a guy who knows a guy who could help me out, both of those guys are me"

Bolivia:"Now vault yosh is I your head too, and he won't be going anywhere"

Maria's son:"As much of a monster that I look like, I think it's gonna work"

Sushiya:"But you know what they say, imagination is what happens when annoyance meets drug use"

Carbon:"If they're stupid enough to be in my way they might as well be my enemy"

Goverman:"But the slippery bastard was too clever, he walked around it, I didn't even know that such a maneuver was even possible"

IDK"Homeland security at this point has yet to be impregnated by a sentient barrel of oil"

Bolivia:" if I drunkenly put a giant hole on my sink with a goddam coffee cup imagine what I could do with a gun"

Belize:"Got ambushed in the freezer while searching for chicken nuggets"

Goverman:"But the fucken bullet Williams come flying out of fucking nowhere"

Maria:"The next second you're in a universe where everything that exists is the sick bastard child of a drunken fuckfest between a pin screen and a light brush"

Bolivia:"Ask the cashier if they have a granade, if they say no, say nothing for a few seconds, put a big smile, put your hands on theirs and quietly ask, would you like one?"

Sean hampton:"Can't do anything until I have my arms around a fat man"

Barbie:"The premise of this run is that I have no arms and I must dab"

Maria's son:"I told you before that I was a genetic disaster"

Bolivia:"And in that cabin, theres some west Virginian mountain folk who are so deep in incest that one of them somehow managed to be his own father"

Bolivia:"Can you hear that? It's…. It's an air conditioner! And it's so fucking anoying, aw no I hurt it's feelings :( "

Goverman:"He could probably put the end of his musket inside his mouth, pull the trigger and still miss"

Barney one:"The big beaver ended his life in stile, he even made a summersault into the afterlife"

Goverman:"Im a good Christian boy,  I'll save my ammo for my suicide"

Carbon:"I am not Cinderella, I'm a parasite"

IDK"I played with a doggy too, it used the flesh on my arm as a chew toy, and I booked his nose with a nuclear newspaper to show that that kind of thing isn't allowed in the mitten squad household"

Sean hampton:"The crusable is a magical weapon like divorce papers, capable of tearing everything it comes across in half"

Barbie:"The curse of grandma sparkle managed to reach me all the way in hell"

Barney one:"If you are gonna get a cat, you might get a gun aswell"

Belize:"Corn on the Joe sat back not helping his brother's"

Carbon:"I bought 24 regular bullets,28 hollow points, and 60 that need to wear a helmet"

Bolivia:"After the squad died I had to content with the leftovers, the scraps, statically speaking the majority of what remained"

Lewis:"What I need to face is like a toddler with a learning disability, that would be fair"

Carbon:"I took both left eyes of this dead guy "

Carbon:"It took longer to pull out the Esther than it took of kill the general"

Sushiya, while high:"Deeper inside shit got weird, i killed a giant skeleton right? Nothing weird about that, but then his body just kinda danced in place really slowly, I tought speeding up time would fix it, that was a massive fucking mistake, and changing time back to normal was an even bigger mistake, he'll be hunting me until I die, but until then he'll still be dancing"

CAPTAINSAUCE SEGMENT 

Carbon:"They're old, how hard can it be to turn them into blueberry jam and ram them into the grass"

Belize:"I guess if you do electrocute a tank enough it would just explode"

Boliviz:"Id have a better chance of finding a snowball down here than winning a coin toss"

Marc:"How does my Christmas lights break to a stiff breeze but these ones are practically terminators"

Barney one:"I never tought id see the day where I would have to hire a sniper to assassinate a troublesome light bulb but here we are "

Lewis:"I get the feeling if you try to milk a minotaur then you're gonna be its wife"

Sushiya:"In the history of mankind do you think we've ever seen a snake fight an octopus?"

Goverman:"Lets see if you can wobble your way trough the grim reaper" [the grim being carbon]

Goldbob:"Its a steaming pile of something ill tell you that much"

Goverman:"He died? How! Did he have an allergic reaction to the sun?"

Goomb:"Michelangelo is Swiss cheese and where good to go"

Bolivia:"It really looks like I'm taking a sharpened stick to a bazooka fight"

Maria:"HOW DID I GO FROM FIGHTING AN OCTOPUS IN A SUIT TO WW3???"

Princess of peaches, talking about 1TEC-20:"Im playing pictionary with a blind robot"

maria:"Theres on the nose dialogue and then there's punch you in the nose dialogue"

Bolivia,  talking about barney one:"This lady looks like her father was half refrigerator"

IDK"Im supposed to sabotage the mail missile assembly line but it looks like someone got here before me"

Belize?:"And the ghosts of previously murdered pianos???"

Maria:"Im getting outsmarted by puppets"

Bolivia:"After careful deliberation with my associate we've come to the conclusion that the local government must have Removed all quarters from circulation,  the laundromat went under and before you know it the entire society fell into nudism and then anarchy "

Carbon?:"This is like the hunger games of sesame street"

IDK"Im a weird shotgun santa"

Garlic?:"Oh damm! CTHULO IS THICC"

Krump:"What kind of interdimensional time traveling toilet is this?"

Carbon:"Wheater it be cultural appropriation or demonic abomination,  i don't realy care im just gonna try to hit it with a pee bucket" 

Carbon:"THIS IS THE MEDIEVAL RUSSIAN VERSION OF DRIVING INTO BATTLE WITH A TANK BUT SHOOT PEOPLE WITH A BB GUN"

Belize::"I DIDN'T KNOW GRANNY WAS TAKING GRAVEDIGGER TO CHURCH THIS MORNING" 

Goombell:"This isn't a bridge its just the worlds weakest motorcycle trebuchet "

Bolivia:"Oh hellow mr berry"

Carbon:"Giant alien space worm 2020, make America worm poop again"

Bolivia:"When did snuffy[barney one] decide to judas me and join the hobbits?[origamis]"

Lewis:"Theres a surprisingly high amount of chickens in this map and a dramatic lack of eggs"

Bolivia:"Im pretty sure we've sent the first claim to the moon"

Maria:"And yet I'm forced to defend myself from stuff like bloodthirsty scp's using nothing but uncooked t-bone stake, I mean technically its doable but it doesn't make It any less ridiculous"

Barbie:"What's the point of a metal detector if literally everyone here has somekind of cybernetic, like I swear to God If I walk trough here aND you guys start pounding the shit out of me just because I got a couple of extra inches of robo-dong IM GONNA BE PISSED"

Bolivia:"Everyone's wearing slick black suits meanwhile I look like somebody skinned a couch from the 70s"

Sushiya:"Is this bacon flavored weed or weed flavored bacon?"

Sean hampton:"Do you think that Darth Vader ever had to deal with a rebel or a henchmen who was into getting chocked? Like starts force checking them and they tell him to go harder?"

Koopley:"I was stabbed to death by a naked man with a spear and my arm is perpetually running"

Koop kotu:"So I'm crazy enough to be locked behind bars but not crazy enough to think I can fly*

Bolivia:"Usually spooders have 8 arms not 8 abs"

Carbon:"I just bludgeoned Jesus to death with a stick of meat, I'm guessing he's gonna be back in a couple of days he's gonna be looking for me so we'll start running now"

Carbon:"Im done with words, shooty goody time"

Maria?:"Id have a better time cutting down bushes then these strange little robo hobits"

Belize:"Dad this is not the time to be dancing with crabs!"

Maria:"Thats my little brother, who has a fully posable deny devito action figure,I've always been jealous of that one"

Bolivia:"The turns are tabbleling"

Maria, talking about barbie:"She's not exactly the brightest tool at the picnic"

Belize:"Are you kidding me mom? Realy?, you were the one that said you're sick of seeing donkey kongs donkey dong"

Maria:"I have no idea what was in that Wonster energy drink that made him go master roshe style"

Bolivia:"I want to file a complaint against Stacy [belize] for T-posing to assert Dominance over me"

Marc:"Believe it or not dangling a padlock the size of a shoebox from a doorknob does as much work as I want to"

Caesar reality:"You can never have too many rotten floor bananas"

Carbon:"Poisoning your boss is probably not the best way to skip work, but ya boy gotta do what he has to do"

Goverman:"I'll take nicknames of my penis for 300$ alex"

Starvinden?:"I guess we'll just leave you in your special sarcophagus mr tutan-deez-nuts"[browser]

Lewis:"I've been skipping work for 2 weeks now and I'm starting to think that my computer isn't even plugged in"

Bolivia, talking to maria:"Your suit smells like a wet fart and your mouth smells like a ashtray"

Bolivia:"If anyone needs me I'll be on the insane asylum,  why am I caressing a mannequin on top of a boat?"

Carbon:"Would you like to hang yourself or be crucified? Dealers choice!"

Bolivia talking about carbon:"He's doing something ingenious probably diabolical……..or he's dressed as a panda"

Marc:"We should really pay for security around here not only are people breaking in there is also a giant spine breaking chickens"

Maria to Bolivia:"You are very angry at that stake"

Sushiya, after using its products:"I wonder why was I twerking at the office statue"

IDK"WHY IS THERE A GIANT NAKED MAN IN THE LOCKER CHOCKING ME TO DEATH WITH A CHAIN??!!!"

goombell:"I guess we're gonna leave the cookie monster dildo in the locker"

Sean hampton, to Maria:"My love for you is like diarrhea, sometimes I just can't hold it in"

Bolivia:"You're watching me In a Google video platform playing a game from a Google gaming platform that was translated using Google translate, if this isn't a dystopian future I don't know what is"

Bolivia?:"I couldn't have predicted the run after her like a velociraptor made out of pool noodles"

Lewis:"Jumping Jack neighbor help me!"

Bolivia:"Bread! There's no bread,there's your bread! That's a cookie God dammit"

Belize:"So I can be invited to the worlds saddest birthday party"

Maria:"I guess we're playing ring around the Rosie till I lose his dumb ass"

Carbon:"If you see jehovah's witness you tell them to eat shit"

Bolivia:"HOW CAN YOU AFFORD A GUARD BIRD AND NOT A DOOR STOP?"

Bolivia::"For my shopping list I need to find a floppy disk with a s, but for the distraction I could use a floppy dick with sunglasses and a tie"

Carbon:"I really hoped that your little bird bath had a couple inches of water so I could steal a tiny toaster to throw it in with you"

Belize::"Its pretty safe to say Mr voice bad Benjamin good, but we just saw Benjamin talk with the grim reaper and pull around a cart wich is about the size of a child's body"

Goombell:"She may have a crush on the interdimensional death fox"

Maria:"Its like the herpes of craft supplies"

Barney one:"Everyone wants to split checks for keano Reaves, even if they're a 10ft dragon made out of logos and seizures what is going on right now?"

Sushiya, high, again:"When I dilapidated the banana and poked the mayo's brain then had an indept conversation with the strawberry cocoon did bread get arrested? I didn't see the police come by, that would make sense because the alcoholic cat ran away"

Carbon:"IF THEY HAVE AN ASS TO PULL PUNS OUT OF THEY HAVE TO HAVE A BRAIN TO THINK THEM UP"

Goombell:"I think I graduated for the university of food torture"

Well, this is all, took some time but it's here, hope you enjoyed

Frequent reblogers

<《{[(@boom-fanfic-a-latta )]}》>

<《{[( @gumdorp )]}》>

PLEASE REBLOG!

#funny #mario #paper mario #book of mario #bolivia #mary #barbie the bob omb #1000 infernal air sleeves #quotes #captainsauce #mitten squad #paul #goomb #goverman #goombell #carbon

[rwby-redux]

Deconstruction

Worldbuilding: Natural Resources

“Let’s talk about natural resources!”

Behold, the five most sleep-inducing words in the English language. I won’t blame you if your eyes start to glaze over, though you might not want to scroll past just yet. While it’s not exactly a glamorous topic, it is, undeniably, an important one for us to consider when dissecting RWBY.

The availability of resources (water, minerals, metals, stones, soil, textiles, spices, oils/waxes, timber, and various plant or animal products) is what defines the people inhabiting a region, and more specifically, their way of life. It’s the art of making do with whatever happens to be lying around. Making lemons into lemonade. That sort of thing. While getting these details right is important, I’d argue that not getting them wrong is even more so. Trust me: you really don’t want your audience to get sucked out of the immersion because your desert-dwelling society lives in log cabins. Or because your coastal city exclusively imports grains from the countryside when there’s an entire ocean they could be fishing out of.

You get the idea.

Today’s post is all about putting RWBY’s natural resources to the test. Let’s see if it can manage a passing grade.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, I want to quickly establish the two main talking points we’ll be going over.

What resources are available in RWBY’s settings, and are they being used to their full extent?

What effects would those resources have on culture, trade, and international relations, and how might that manifest in the show?

And for the sake of both of these points, we’ll be focusing on one example in particular:

Food.

Who doesn’t love food?

Food is one of those cultural cornerstones that tends to get relegated to background noise. It’s not the sort of thing your audience is meant to pay attention to, but it’s undeniably important for adding flavor (heh) to your worldbuilding. We’re not talking exclusively about the ingredients, either—food can inform more than just the recipes. Consider how cuisine can shape things like mealtime etiquette (Is it considered bad manners to clear your plate? Do guests eat before the host?) or religious traditions (Are certain dishes reserved for holidays? Is fasting a requirement for some holy meals?).

Culinary culture, at its heart, is dictated by the availability and evolution of whatever resources are part of the setting. It sort of goes without saying, really.

Which is why I want to try something a little different. Rather than launch into a sweary rant about RWBY’s poor implementation of natural resources, I want to analyze three specific scenes that focus on food: What foods are present in those scenes, what their real-world inspirations are, what significance they carry for the canon’s lore, and what their inclusions achieve (or fail to achieve).

On today’s menu are the food-fight from V2.E1 - “Best Day Ever,” the dinner party from V5.E7 - “Rest and Resolutions,” and the soirée from V7.E8 - “Cordially Invited.”

Bon appétit.

Ruby clutching a carton of Udder Satisfaction-brand milk. | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:Maki Kuronami.

This punchy and upbeat scene was fairly memorable for juxtaposing the off-screen murder we saw take place literally minutes before. All things considered, it’s a decent way to start a volume. Have your characters engage in some lighthearted fun while showcasing the animators’ creative use of food as impromptu weapons. The cast is saved from any disciplinary actions by Ozpin, whose choice to condone their antics is tempered by his cryptic remark to Glynda: “After all, [they won’t be children] forever.”

The focus of this moment is placed on the animation, tone, and foreshadowing—as in, we’re not supposed to be thinking about the worldbuilding, and speculating on the implications of food in this scene.

But that’s what we’re going to do anyway, because holy shit, there’s a lot to unpack here.

Let’s start with the obvious: what food we see. Admittedly, it isn’t much. Several of the animation assets are generously reused throughout the food fight (probably as a cost-saving method), so the scene ends up with frames that have like ten whole watermelons in them. (Yeah, I know, it’s supposed to be part of the gag. That doesn’t make it any less weird.) Anyway, here’s a list of all the food I could clearly make out:

Apples (red and green cultivars)

Baguettes

Canned soft drinks

Carton of milk

Cherry tomatoes

Cream pie

Ketchup

Leaks

Lettuce

Nondescript sandwich

Sausage links

Swordfish

Watermelons

Whole roasted turkeys

My first impression was that the food selection was very Western (as in, American and Eurocentric). That’s not entirely a coincidence either, as the art directors have said on more than one occasion that Vale draws heavily upon Western aesthetic. [1] I’ve said before that I think copy-pasting your worldbuilding from IRL cultures without altering it in any way is lazy, banal, and reductive, and I stand by that claim. For now, though, I want to set aside that criticism to explore the implications of a Western-centric palate in Vale.

The immediate thing that struck me was the presence of dairy. Fun fact: Did you know that 65% –70% of the global population is lactose intolerant? The enzyme needed to digest lactose in adulthood is predominantly found in people of North and Northwestern European descent, and to a lesser extent, the Middle East and Northwestern India. Lactase persistence is a relatively new genetic novelty that evolved about 10,000 years ago, and statistically it’s an uncommon trait to have.

If Vale’s roots lie in Western culture, then it stands to reason there would be similar parallels. For example, we can infer that Vale domesticated milk-producing livestock like cows, buffalo, goats, sheep, or bison. Perhaps it was the first (or only) country to make dairy products like cheese, butter, cream, yogurt, or ice cream as a result, which makes it a potential exporter of those goods. Depending on the prevalence of dairy in Valin cuisine, international stereotypes could then emerge, or slurs/insults based on their agriculture and diet. You get the idea.

If we assume these parallels are an accurate portrayal of Valin cuisine, that carries some interesting implications for this setting (the school) in particular.

Consider: We’re repeatedly shown that students at the Huntsman Academies are often from countries other than the one their alma mater is based in. All of Team JNPR, for example, is from Mistral, while half of Team RWBY hails from other countries (Atlas and Menagerie, respectively). And in case you think this is a pattern unique to Beacon, Sun Wukong (a student at Haven) is from Vacuo.

The reason why I bring this up is because the cuisine of the other kingdoms is incredibly diverse. Vacuo is well-known for entomophagy (the practice of eating insects and arachnids) [2] while Mistral has a very grain- and plant-heavy palate. If the student body is culturally diverse, then surely the academies would put in the effort to make their meal selections reflect that? Especially if we assume Vale’s dairy-heavy food would be incompatible with a number of their students.

But more to a point, I think the schools offering a wide variety of multiethnic food wouldn’t just be accommodating, but symbolically important too. The core theme of the series, particularly within Volumes 1 – 3, was about embracing cultural diversity. If the schools wanted to further adhere to that creed, then expanding their menu to incorporate food from other cultures would be a great way to reinforce that idea.

Here’s a good example of what I’m talking about (if you’ll forgive the nerdy reference): Remember that scene from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, when the students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrived at Hogwarts? The school prepared dishes from their cultures, like bouillabaisse and blancmange. [3] It’s a scene that continues to stand out to me twenty years later, and one that feels like an apt comparison here (in no small part because of the Beacon-Hogwarts parallels).

It’s a neat idea, and I really wish the writers had put more thought into the significance of the food in this scene. Like many things in RWBY, interesting ideas or potential often get wasted due to a lack of foresight.

Speaking of waste, did anyone else find it incredibly weird how much food the characters wasted in that scene? Like, I get that the early volumes of the show weren’t meant to be as gritty or realistic, but it was still really jarring to see all of that food get tossed around the room while a bunch of teenagers played in it. From a lore standpoint, it wouldn’t make sense for characters to be so indifferent to food waste when it carries a disproportionate impact on their survival.

Let me backtrack a bit. In this world, the Grimm make it difficult for people to expand their settlements, which in turn means that land scarcity would be a real concern. By extension, there would be agricultural constraints in the form of resource allocation (like soil, nutrients, and water), which would place a limitation on food production.

And just in case it needs saying, food is kind of important to not dying.

While food waste IRL is a major issue, it could never approach the scale that it occupies in RWBY’s universe. Which is why it baffles me that the kids were perfectly comfortable with—even gleeful about—wasting an entire cafeteria’s worth of food. If the writers had taken the time to actually consider the largescale implications of living in a world with bloodthirsty monsters, then food waste should be strict cultural taboo by virtue of food being disproportionately harder to obtain. The very idea of a food fight should realistically be an appalling thought to these characters.

That goes double if a Huntsman’s dietary needs are anything like an Olympic athlete’s, and require anywhere from 3,500 to 8,000 calories per day. Not only does that make the food fight scene culturally repugnant, but self-detrimental too, simply because they wasted the fuel they would’ve needed to sustain their typical levels of physical activity for that day.

No wonder Glynda was pissed.

Concept art of the food from “Rest and Resolutions.” | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:General Esdeath.

The next episode to prominently feature food takes place three volumes later. Thankfully, the artists were kind enough to release concept art for the episode, so I don’t have to go re-watch it frame-by-frame.

In terms of borrowing from real-world cultures, Mistral is perhaps the most egregious example. On one hand, this makes speculation easier because all I have to do is click on the Wikipedia article for Japanese cuisine. On the other hand, this makes speculation harder because its inclusion means having to justify traditions that don’t make any sense within the context of RWBY.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

For those who might need a refresher: the episode prior “Known by Its Song” focuses on Qrow’s solo outing around the city as he fruitlessly searches for Huntsmen to recruit. This leaves Team RNJR back at the safehouse preparing food for about 15+ guests, and you’ll notice that it’s all a very traditional East Asian fare. Credit given where credit’s due, it makes a lot of sense for this scene. The food choice isn’t just there to reinforce Mistral’s Japanese aesthetic—contextually, it makes sense that they’d be preparing local cuisine. The Huntsmen that they’re supposed to be hosting are Mistrali, so there’s logical reasoning behind that decision. It also makes sense for Ren (a native-born Mistrali) to be supervising Ruby (a person from Vale) with the food prep, since it stands to reason she’d be unfamiliar with cooking those dishes.

And if we’re being completely honest…

Ren: You’re going to overcook that. Ruby: No, I’m not, shut up!

(Seconds later Ruby’s pan starts to smoke.)

Ruby: Fine! You take over.

^ QED.

At this point, it goes without saying that any praise I give RWBY should have an asterisk next to it. Because, yes, while this scene works in theory for all the reasons I just mentioned, there’s still one little snag.

There are, admittedly, multiple reasons why I condemn facelifting aspects of real-world cultures and applying them to fiction—from the aforementioned laziness to the risk of cultural appropriation. But the reason I want to emphasize now is context.

You probably noticed that all of the food RNJR cooked consists mostly of grains and vegetables. The absence of meat is likely based on traditional Japanese cuisine that, up until 1872, prohibited meat due to the sixth-century influences of Buddhism. The reintroduction of meat into Japanese cuisine didn’t become accepted until the Meiji Restoration, when the then-emperor held a New Year’s feast that incorporated Western dishes. Although there was some initial pushback, it didn’t take long for people to embrace public consumption of meat.

Historically, it makes sense that Japan shunned meat-eating because of religious precedent.

But here’s the thing: Mistral isn’t Japan. Mistral is a fictional country within a fictional world that, by all rights, should have its own fictional customs. You can’t just “borrow” Japan’s pre-Meiji vegetarian cuisine and slap it onto your setting without considering the implications. Buddhism doesn’t exist in Mistral*, so how the hell does RWBY plan on justifying that writing decision? Look, I know that this is nitpicky. But it matters—not just for this one example, but for all of them. As RWBY’s writers continue to filch real-world ideas and integrate them into their story with zero self-awareness, the inconsistencies pile up.

If your ship has one tiny crack in the hull, it’s negligible. But a thousand tiny cracks become a lot harder to ignore when you’re knee-deep in water and bailing out the side.

Concept art of the food from “Cordially Invited.” | Source: RWBY Wiki contributor user:NVDelta.

I have a lot of not-so-nice things to say about Volume 7, but thankfully that’s a post for another day. My disdain for the party scene notwithstanding, I think there’s a lot of interesting subtext we can tease from the hors d'oeuvres, and what they tell us about the upper echelons of Atlesian society.

Courtesy of concept art and (as of Volume 8) overhead views of the capital, we know that Atlas has an agricultural district. Farming likely only became possible due to the heating grid altering the urban climate, allowing the city to support non-native species. This would include things like peaches (from the caprese), zucchini (from the grilled rolls), and wheat (from the tart crust made of flour).

I can follow the logic and see why an artificial climate bubble could theoretically allow a polar country to farm. As long as you don’t overthink it, it makes sense.

But as the existence of this post would imply, I did overthink it. And I have questions.

Lots

and lots

of questions.

For instance: Atlas may have gotten around the issue of living in a desolate icy hellscape, but it can’t change Solitas’ latitude. Given Atlas’ location on the globe, it almost certainly experiences polar nights and midnight suns.

“What’s that?” I’m so glad you asked.

Why don’t we let my cousin Oskaar explain.

Or, if you’re not up-to-date on your ten-year-old memes, I want you to picture yourself standing in Tromsø, Norway. I want you to imagine the brisk air on your face as you glance up at the dark, hazy sky. Now, go ahead and take a look at your watch.

It’s two in the afternoon.

While technology can fix a good number of things, it can’t change the axial tilt of the planet. If, as we’re assuming, Remnant rotates in a manner similar to Earth, that creates the unavoidable issue of day-night cycles where people can go for months without seeing the sun. You could maybe farm grains in conditions like those, but peaches? Unlikely.

And that’s not even addressing the gratin. Have you ever Googled pictures of an oyster farm? They’re massive. You would need robust indoor aquaculture if you wanted to sustainably farm oysters on a large scale, and even then, it would be expensive as hell.

With all of that in mind, it begs the question of whether or not Atlas is entirely self-reliant for its food production, or if specific items are imported from Mistral or Vale. It seems more likely that certain foods wouldn’t be domestically farmed, due to operating costs or a lack of proper growing conditions. It also puts an interesting spin on the appetizers we see Jacques Schnee serving at his manor. Are oysters, peaches, and other “unobtainable” foods considered luxury items? Are they regarded as status symbols of wealth? Can a person in Mantle go their entire life without ever tasting certain foods, due to their pricing or rarity?

Lest anyone forget, the three examples I provided? They only focused on food. There are literally thousands of other natural resources we could discuss ad nauseam, and what they mean for the worldbuilding (and by extension, the story). How do certain resources affect a society’s culture? If a society lacks access to papyrus- or goatskin-parchment, might they instead develop a writing system like cuneiform, which is etched or stamped into clay tablets? What about resources that are considered sacred or spiritual, like China’s carved jade?

And that’s not even getting into trade or international relations. Let’s say, hypothetically, southern Mistral is comprised of dense tropical rainforests. That carries the possibility of people stumbling upon a vast pharmaceutical goldmine of alkaloid-producing plants, fungi, and bacteria. How would that, in turn, shape the people of that region? Do the people living there become world leaders in the production of lifesaving medication? Does the region become wealthy due to trade? What if other people try to invade the region in order to gain control over these resources? Does colonialism lead to exploitation of the indigenous groups that first discovered these natural pharmaceuticals? Over time, do the indigenous groups assimilate into the culture of the invaders?

Despite what RWBY would have you think, there are other valuable resources out there besides Dust. And it’s important going forward that we consider their relevance, and how they can shape the geopolitical landscape of Remnant for generations to come.

-

[1] Rooster Teeth. “Exploring Cut Concepts | RWBY Rewind: Vol 6, Ch 2.” YouTube video. November 11, 2019. 28:11 - 28:38. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1691&v=JY3ok42PKIk&feature=youtu.be] Pat Rodriguez: “So, yeah. Mistral and Haven were very, very Eastern Asian kinda-themed. Vale back in the day was more, like, European, old-school kind of fairytale-ish.”

[2] Myers, E. C. RWBY: After the Fall (Book 1). Scholastic Inc, 2019. “Yatsuhashi ordered the crab steak and desert lotus tea, and Fox ordered fried crevice worms, lightly toasted cave beetles, and water.”

[3] Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Scholastic Press, 2000. Page 251. “The plates in front of them filled with food as usual. The house-elves in the kitchen seemed to have pulled out all the stops; there was a greater variety of dishes in front of them than Harry had ever seen, including several that were definitely foreign.”

-

* And no, I don’t care what Eddy Rivas said on RWBY Rewind. RWBY isn’t our world. Saying that the Buddha existed in Remnant is like saying that Zeus exists in Game of Thrones. This isn’t like His Dark Materials where worlds are the-same-but-different, and share elements of each other’s settings. Unless Remnant is some sort of alternate-timeline Earth (which it’s not), then there’s no reason why it should’ve developed the exact same religions as us.

#deconstruction #worldbuilding #writing #natural resources #it only took about a century but it's finally done #in case anyone's wondering why there haven't been any updates #i've spent the last month trying to reduce my time on social media so i can focus on personal stuff

[naerwenia]

A Moment of Quiet Reflection

A short moment from the life of Eshka Kith’lya, a Bothan doctor and a representative for The Sword of Truth, a former rebel group turned into a political party after a war. Based on a Star Wars RPG campaign I’m part of.

--------------

Eshka was lounging on the uncomfortable Imperial-design chair in Avalon, trying to relax, trying to forget everything for a second. Captain Selina Katarn was having her second of forgetting, purging some memories from her mind with alcohol, just like Eshka did most of the time. Today, she had stuff to do, yet not enough to keep her mind from wandering. Five years had gone by in a blink of an eye, the war was over, there was a republic now, and her side had won, everything was like what she fought for, yet there was an emptiness in her. There was no way to pinpoint if it was the five years she lost while in the Dark Cluster, or if it was the sudden calmness in the Galaxy. Maybe it was the fact she didn’t know what had happened to most of Flying Brick’s crew, or that she was now the Commander of the Wraith Fleet, someone with responsibility and authority. No matter how skilled she was at commanding, Eshka was still a doctor first and foremost. She had a card that said so, it had her whole name on it! Eshka Kith’lya, Imperial Medical Academy graduate, medical license, issued in Coruscant. Kith’lya… She tried to remember anyone with the same name, yet came up with hazy voices and even hazier memories of some Bothans that may have been her parents, or her relative who she had called in the middle of the night out of nowhere, curious, but had realized immediately that it was a mistake, she didn’t want to be in touch with them, she didn’t know them. There was no need for her to mix them in her life. They were better off knowing nothing of her. She was better off not having feelings for her family, relatives, and clan. She was better off not knowing or feeling anything that might put others in danger, even her former enemy (maybe they were still enemies, maybe not, there was no way to know with Mr. Valden) had chosen to keep her safe seemingly. 

Eshka sighed loudly, but not anywhere close to loud enough to wake Captain Katarn. Selina had lost her pride and joy, twice, now permanently. First when Bob took it with Eshka in it (it must have been a mistake, an accident), now in an unavoidable collision to kill a god. She lost Flying Brick with it’s crew, then had to find a way back home from the Dark Cluster, but without her ship, who was she? Was she still a captain? What was her home, where was it? Eshka asked them in her mind, maybe in part to ask the same questions of herself. She was the representative of Sword of Truth, she had helped them win the war against Aries V2, even if only by providing intelligence. Yet now she didn’t know what the Sword of Truth represented. They had been there to rebuild the galactic senate, working with the remnants of the Imperium and the Hutt Coalition to establish a working alliance, all things Eshka appreciated, but she didn’t know if this was what she wanted. Actually being a senator and not a rebel escalating riots to revolutions would be weird. Helping people to establish local governments to take care of their communities was what she was good at, not actual politics. She was an orator, an agitator. She advocated equality and more grassroots decision making, and while representative democracy might be a good start, she wasn’t ready for it, and she couldn’t say why. The change was so sudden for her, even if it wasn’t for most of the Galaxy, and she felt like she had to change herself to make sure she could continue her mission. Others in the Wraith Fleet relied on her to be the moral backbone of the group. 

Who was she? Where did she belong? How fucked was she? Was there a way back? Gree’s used a different way of travelling through galaxies and time, it had helped Wraith back from the Dark Cluster, maybe there was a way to go back so she could just be a doctor. A nurse would be fine too, so she didn’t have to run away anymore. There was a simple way of life, the life Grambo the Hutt had chosen for her. All she had to do was be the best in her field, to be his eyes and ears when he needed them in Coruscant. The thought somehow filled her with even more emptiness and hollow sadness. There was nothing there, no feelings any way. Just hollowness. She finally realized she had lived there mostly on autopilot. Wake up, go to work, get back home, have a drink, go to sleep. Sometimes there were parties or balls and she had to go find the important faces, flirt, drink, make promises, and listen. Observe and try to fit in. Never make a scene, but have everyone remember you. A slight feeling of fondness was there, a flash of a memory, something long forgotten, yet tangible she could almost touch. Twinkling lights, clinking of crystal glasses, smell of champagne and expensive perfumes, music filling the hall, the feel of light, red chiffon on her tense skin, unsure expression on her face that soon turned to a smile, a sweet smile only for the one who had taken her hand in theirs. A soft, cooling wind, far away stars looking down on her, laughter and music fading into the distance, her heart beating faster, as she remembered how scared she was, how Mr. Babe had angrily grabbed her wrist and dragged her away. She didn’t understand why, only knowing she had to be more careful.

There was something cruel in the fact she knew how to use the names of others’ to get what she wanted. Grambo the Hutt, The Imperial Medical Academy, Sword of Truth… But her own name was meaningless. No one knew it, sometimes she forgot it herself in favour of the names of others. Then she only represented that group, she wasn’t herself, only an extension of the group, but now she was the face of the Wraith Fleet, and she was one of those who made the squadron, not just an extension. This was what she advocated for, yet Eshka felt uncomfortable. Individuals being equal, everyone having a voice that was heard, freedom to be who they are. It’s what she believed, fought for, and when they achieved a sort of unity, Eshka’s vision lacked the next step, the road to keeping up the new status quo, helping other planets structure their governments to be more democratic, and hearing out the complaints and wishes of people all around the Galaxy, striving to better the life of all. But to achieve this, Eshka had to take her place, to command and influence. Others believed in her, they had faith in her abilities, so why was it so hard for her to see herself doing that? Maybe it was the fact she was still in debt to a Hutt, and not only in money, but in spirit too. He had made her. Grambo had given her life. The Hutt had given her everything she could have asked for; education, place in high society, luxury, security. Gratitude wasn’t enough to describe her feelings for him, yet she had thrown it all away one night, and there was no way back, no matter how she pleaded. That door was now closed, she couldn’t go back, so she kept running, making decisions on the whim. This wasn’t the way she wanted to live, yet it felt like the only way. Fear kept her running, afraid to stop and see where she had ended up. 

At the moment she had slowed down to look around. There was Selina, Avalon, a game table Dei was so fond of, the smell of a ship where too many people had to spend a lot of time together, the feel of steel under Eshka’s fingers. The holopad was on a chair next to her, still downloading some files related to the news of the last five years. Rest of the crew were out, looking for parts for a droid and commissioning a blueprint for a new ship, something she still couldn’t quite wrap her head around. A new ship just for their crew, and it was built just for them from the ground up (and higher). There were things to do, Eshka thought, and picked up the holopad to occupy her mind once again.

#original character #bothan #star wars alternate universe #star wars rpg #star wars roleplay #roleplay story #story from roleplaying campaign

[ophiocordyceps]

thinking about the lore i made up for my interpretation of v2 again. now with the added lore violence revealed. spoilers ahead beware

v2 doesnt truly know what the world was like before, having been created during the new peace. 200 years of war ravaged the earth to the point the sky had been blotted out, and a landscape without the corpses of giant machines littered across it is an alien concept. it knows in theory, having learned what info was accessible to it, but it's not the same as living it. the earth was scorched, depleted, and only comparatively recently was given the chance to recover. it's a tool to be used, and its security uses fell through when more cost effective options had already been available, but there was still a mistrust of it. it was built upon a terribly effective machine of war after all, the very sort of thing that put humanity into a centuries-long downward spiral and took everything with it. its connection with its makers was superficial at best, and it never realizes the full extent until theyre all gone, if it ever got the chance to at all.

it also doesnt know all that much about the earliest generations of war machines, like the guttermen (or at least in a scenario where v2 lives, it doesnt until it passes through violence for the first time.) it didnt know that they couldnt keep blood fresh on their own, it didnt know that they had living beings trapped within them, often unwillingly. it would be disgusted by this, by those who had put the practice in place, and would definitely change the way it views humanity, knowing the extent of willful cruelty its creators could be capable of.

v2 lived in a somewhat sheltered world for much of its early life, it did not know the cruelty that the war created, it did not know of the full extent of the catastrophe that proceeded its existence, it only saw the pieces being picked up. it was naïve. terrible things had happened, but now theyre being fixed, werent they? this worldview didnt start to fully crack apart until it was left in hell during the expedition evacuations.

#ultrakill spoilers #ultrakill #v2 #v2 ultrakill #rev2

[muzzleroars]

Bit of a stretch but I like to think that V2 is just chilling in the apartment while all this Michael stuff is happening, disassociating from the issue.

What happens to them anyway?

SO...SO CLEARLY….some development has gone on with v2 lately, but first point is that i do have it living apart from gabe and v1 in its own space, though v2 has more crash points for itself – it likes to change its environment sometimes, but its most lived in spaces are in fraud (for the company – largely it’s getting used to gabriel, but things with v1 are still strained at best...v1 is making an effort at least, so it’s something) and in lust (due to the human influence there – limbo is far too artificial for its liking). v2 is largely coming to terms with the idea that its dream of peace is one that will never be realized, and for now is feeding its studious nature in hopes that maybe there can still be some place for it that won’t see its potential entirely wasted. gabriel does keep it in the loop with anything it needs to know, so it’s made aware of michael and the prime souls as threats which prove to be big headaches – in time, i do like the idea it’s one of the few machines minos won’t engage on sight given v2’s particular attachment to humanity, but at first? it shuffles itself off grudgingly into the uncanny valley of limbo to avoid him. WHICH. is where it meets michael.

i very much like the idea that michael basically tries to fuck around with lust and finds out, not fully realizing how badly he’s injured when he fights against minos as it was meant to be a more fact-finding mission to assess the power of a prime soul. however, since his sensation is completely fucked, minos takes a lot more out of him than he meant to allow (he direly underestimated the amount of damage a prime soul can do in a short amount of time), and he only recognizes that when his wings have difficulty getting him off the ground, his movements becoming far too slow. the good news for him is that he’s still fully capable of teleporting to retreat...he just doesn’t get very far with how drained he is and how limited his light has become. he lands in limbo and almost immediately collapses, though knowing he’s safe even just a layer up since he won’t be pursued. except. when mike is passed out, he basically looks like a forest floor corpse, and that’s pretty much exactly what v2 takes him as upon finding him. it’s instantly utterly fascinated by him, as angelic carcasses aren’t exactly common, and it starts poking around to study his necrobiome which is actually a welcome sight in the artificiality of limbo. it didn’t even KNOW plants like this could grow in hell...but perhaps that speaks to the unique properties of an angel’s body. it delicately begins to catalog the species it can see, careful not to damage the still well-preserved internal anatomy since it’s been tricky finding many sources on the insides of angels, but most of all it sort of just. marvels at him. it’s like an entire little living world in hell, flowers, moss, fungus, and even insects all clinging to the body and nothing around it. much more beautiful than the rest of limbo anyway.

it spends a couple hours like this until it decides to remove his helmet in hopes of finding a decent-looking head beneath it (gabe’s so cagey about it) – unfortunately just the first gentle tug is enough to snap mike awake and instinctively grab at v2’s arm, scaring the living shit out of it!!! YEA there’s plenty of fucked up guys in hell, but this one has a whole ecosystem!!!! he looks like he’s been lying there for weeks!!!! and yet...with a split-second more thought, this is by far more interesting than the alternative, and v2 scuttles to catch up to michael trying (and failing) to drag himself away from it, black, bile-like ichor coughed up from the cracks in his helmet. he needs help. and while michael’s pride and hatred initially dismiss v2’s pestering entirely, i think he gets worn down for a few reasons coupled with a dull, sometimes now faulty mind – v2 speaks and reasons, and it expresses a clear desire to help despite mike being a pretty easy source of blood at the moment (he knows even that is rancid, but apparently the machines can still get something out of it). additionally, it extends that offer into understanding him, into possibly providing him answers that even heaven has failed to produce...and michael wants that more than he wants anything. more than punishing the sinners left, more than reinstating god’s will, more, perhaps, than finding god himself by now. he just wants to know what happened and if anyone can save him. it’s sinful, it’s selfish, but he’s so exhausted and all he feels is the rot infecting every inch of his body inside and out. and so he stops. and it’s an evil thing, looking to answers from something never touched by god. but maybe that’s why he accepts, because while he doesn’t consciously admit to it, god’s kingdom has failed him.

SO v2 gets a great science experiment trying to figure out what happened to michael, which the two are incredibly secretive about for obvious reasons – v2 learns a bit later this is the michael is was supposed to avoid (oops) while michael CLEARLY doesn’t want anyone ever knowing he would be seeing a machine for help and advice. this causes a lot of friction whenever they meet, yet because of everything i mentioned in that earlier ask, they start bonding without recognizing it or fully committing to it. they are both desperately lonely and trying to recover from losing the maker they had been so dedicated to, a dedication so powerful in both of them that they had destroyed themselves for it. AND LISTEN. NOT TO GET TOO LOST IN IT BUT. i think it’s quietly life-altering for mike when v2 expresses genuine belief that he’s beautiful as he is now. everyone is so afraid to look at him. he’s afraid. but v2 isn’t, not in the slightest as it takes in every part of him and freely offers its amazement, touches him without any hesitation. and while v2 basically just meant as an opinion, they both immediately realize how it’s taken and are like uh oh!!!!!!!! oh fuck oh no!!!!!!! they’re in it now and are actually in a little deep!!!!

#SOMETHING ABOUT THEM ABSOLUTELY CAPTIVATES ME #and like they're mostly a huge mess #but i think it's a good way for mike to start coming around tbh #bc this probably all breaks with a 'and what were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament???' between him and gabe lmao #cake answers #v2 #michael #rise and fall au

[delusionland]

stream of consciousness rant under the cut about teddy

teddy altman is the funniest character in the world because he’s LITERALLY /in/ the civil war event in a single panel with billy where they’re both like THIS IS FUCKED UP BRO! I DONT WANNA BE HERE!!!! and then he’s in the skrull invasion event where he could LITERALLY STOP THE SKRULL INVASION at ANY TIME and he’s just like ‘haha... i’m 16 bro and i kinda... don’t want to kinda busy being gay rn : / its a big time investment’ and thats also incredibly funny

 but whats MOST funny is that all this happens to him, he’s literally an avenger, he has this whole thing with ‘mother’ in ya v2, he’s hot af 21 year old with his whole life in front of him but because he’s not related to any OTHER avengers except for the old captain marvel who is dead as a doornail and who he has a complicated relationship with, he’s like : (((( i have no purpose.... i’m sad... i’m gonna eat pizza bc my boyfriend is cooler than me he has two families : (((( and he’s friends with doctor strange... i’m not friends with doctor strange...

like obviously he just has depression and self-worth issues and such a strong sense of unreality that he briefly believed he was not a real person and was made up by his boyfriend?

but also.

like TEDDY ALTMAN. you FOOL. ur literally a SPACE PRINCE. ur COOL as fuck. stop playing animal crossing and luigis mansion. you can FLY. and SHAPESHIFT. idiot

how are you going to be living the transgay DREAM life and be like : (((( like teddy fucking altman. you wish fulfilment based fool

he’s like the most painfully normal gay guy in the universe like he might be a shapeshifter that has the abilitiy to turn himself into a hunk, but under that. he’s round spongebob with depression. his favorite game of thrones character was tyrion, which means he definitely didn’t read the books, AND he legitimately liked the show and the character of tyrion within it. i will never forgive him for that

i’m giving him a lot of shit here but thats because i’m an asshole. i love him to death. but it’s like ‘teddy u big boob with big boobs. sort ur shit out.’ and he does end up sorting his shit out. but jesus. how are you so normal

i think my problem with teddy & billy in general is they don’t feel REAL to me in a lot of ways bc a lot of their characterization is so by-the-numbers ‘gay’ but also ‘rich’ and ‘popular’ and ‘depressed’ so i like. this is NOT my gay experience. i’m a fat non-binary butch dyke agoraphobe. i can’t comprehend their story because it’s so fundamentally different to my own lived experience. and when i try to make it match up to mine---it feels like billy & teddy are living in a dream world where they have absolutely no flaws bc they’re forced into being ‘charming gay representation for teens to look up to’ and its like. what am i supposed to do with this. with the exception of the gillen run. which everyone??? hates now????? i don’t know. i love them. and more importantly i’m still trying to understand them on my own terms, how they’re written---what they really represent beyond being the most popular two charcters on r/lgbtsuperheroes, beyond winning glaad awards.

like who ARE they beyond billy and teddy. who are they beyond the labels and whats the latest in nerd culture and gay culture pop culture references!!!!

what makes a ‘canon gay character’ ‘canon gay’ and what makes them textured, layered, real? the second one is so much important to me, but how can i distill ‘realness’ and give it to those canon gay characters? how can i make one half of a pair which is about one third of a set make SENSE to me. feel like the gay people i know, feel like members of my community i can relate to and respect without feeling a sense of jealousy, a sense of self-hatred, a sense of being robbed of a universal experience of ‘canon gayness’ that doesn’t and will never exist?

this just has to be my next project tbh. getting back into young avengers, figuring this out.

how do ‘out gay people’ live, how do the ‘popular kids’ live, beyond maligned celebrities and royal families that i understand in their fucked up straightness---how does it feel to be accepted & acceptable and still gay AND MENTALLY ILL?

i don’t know, man! i don’t know! i think maybe i just can’t see the forest for the trees. but billy & teddy feel like too much to hope for in this world sometimes, too soft a story, too kind but also? too... fake? i got issues yall

#internalized homophobia tw #internalized ableism tw #thats probably my problem tbh

[ultraericthered]

Anime Update V2 4

Noragami - In kind of a breather after the last few episodes, this one introduces us to Yato’s on-and-off “girlfriend”, Kofuku, and her own guardian regalia, the gruff, Akio Furukawa-esque Daikoku. And then it goes in a really weird direction where Yato, Hiyori, and Yukine have to save one of Kofuku’s victims from suicide, and good lord I thought the Ox King’s dilemma in the last episodes of Dragon Ball broke suspension of disbelief, but this guy giving his entire story while everyone’s falling from apparently the tallest building ever was really something else! But this was actually played for laughs in-show, so I found it hilarious as well - it’s almost like the show just turned into Gintama for a moment! Only at the end did things get more serious, with us learning about Yato’s dark past and meeting the evil “Nora.”

Hunter x Hunter - I loved both episodes I saw from both versions, and what’s funny is that they highlight the differences between them. 

1999: I could tell something was getting censored when the evil clown magician hunter was threatening that one guy, and sure enough, he mutilated him in the original manga. The way the Hunter Exam started, with the mouthless gentleman leading everyone into a seemingly endless race through the tunnels, was so unpredictable that I totally predicted it - I’ve gotten wise to the tricks by now. What I did NOT predict was the twist at the end with Tonpa, who with his pleasantly plump design, Lorenzo Music-seque voice, and kindly personality had me totally fooled until his shocking betrayal and the reveal of his true nature in the episode’s final minutes. Leorio and Nicholas are now at the mercy of whatever that tree thing really is!

2011: And cue the whiplash when I have to watch the exact same event but with pretty much an entirely different story. First off, this time Hisoka does dismember the guy...by transforming his arms into flower petals? The f**k? Then Tonpa comes along (voiced by Michael Sorich using a voice that’s not even close to the one from the 1999 version), gives the expositon about the other hunters before the race here, and then when he offers drinks to the leads, his true “rookie killer” nature is revealed to the audience here! No big surprise twist later on - we’re just shown right there and then that he’s a fake ass jerk, and a far more inept one at that (apparently the entire tree sap trap didn’t happen in the manga). Killua’s name is also given right off here, and Killua himself has a much friendlier personality than the creepy stoic kid he was depicted as in the other version. There’s this one ninja guy among the hunters who wasn’t made too big a deal of in the 1999 anime but is more prominent here, whereas Nicholas is less so. And only at the end of the episode is the race really on!

Love Live! Nijigasaki - We get two new members joining the Nijigasaki School Idol Club now that Setsuna’s got it back in action, and I can only describe them as pale-haired Jessica Ushiromiya and magenta-haired Chiaki Nanami. Adding to that, Kasumi is sometimes giving me vibes of a brunette Akane Shinjo...which is not helped by the fact that one of the other girls, Kanata Konoe, is literally voiced by Lindsay Seidel in the exact same voice she did for Akane Shinjo! Aside from me liking pale-haired Jessica, not much about this stood out to me. These school idols are still trying to find their own groove.

Date A Live S3 - Looked at first like it was going to be exactly the sort of “Babysitter Shidou” episode that I expected, but it threw in some nice surprises first by having Ellen and her DEM crew track down Natsumi, who (after a brief amusing bit of a de-aged Ellen being still able to best Natsumi) Shidou and the chibi Spirits come to save and take into custody when she’s reverted back to her true form. Then after the effects of her spell are undone, Origami goes on the run from some dangerous looking people, winding up confronted by Ellen and accepting an offer to work for DEM. Why, Origami, why? And we have some sweet, wholesome efforts to rehabilitate Natsumi and improve her self image, with even a return of “Shiori.”  My biggest issue? How the fuck did those boardroom guys survive what Westcott did to them? This just seems kind of forced to me.

Fate/Stay Night - Aside from the fight between Saber and Berserker, Illyasviel’s servant who incidentally is a giant, monsterified Hercules, this was probably the most forgettable and lackluster thing I watched that week. Shiro dying again only to be revived again diminishes any danger he could be in, and Saber has a self-regeneration ability as well, so she should be fine. The deeper insight into what’s motivating Shiro’s “hero of justice’ complex was at least pretty interesting, and as he bonds more with Saber, things should start really picking up.

Revolutionary Girl Utena - Part 2 of the story with Miki turned my opinon of him a little more sour. He seems like the most decent male on this show at first, but the more we delve into him and his nostalgic sentimentality for his younger sister and her piano playing, the more self-deluded, entitled, and overly expectant he comes off. His sister’s piano “talent” was only really good when guided by his own genius, but he made her into some shining beacon of inspiration for his life in his own mind, and is now doing the same with Anthy. Couple this with the fact that he seems to have incestuous feelings for his sister and a perverse bisexual attraction to Touga, and I’m glad Anthy tripped him up in the duel by openly rooting for Utena’s victory over his. But by the final scene, we see Miki learned...absolutely nothing from this.

Sound! Euphonium S2 - Was nice seeing Kumiko and all her friends hanging out at the pool, having fun, buying drinks and ice cream, and even learning more about the situation between Nozomi and Asuka. While Asuka might be harsh about this, I still find myself more on her side than Nozomi’s. I like Nozomi, but her reasoning for wanting a do-over now is hard for me to get behind. Was glad to also get more context for the stake Natsuki has in this. But then towards the end we have Mizore raising some serious “potential villain” red flags in her solemn tangent about hating competitions of any sort. Easy there, Bluebird girl - your’e giving us the wrong impression! Good cliffhanger too: time to keep a promise, Kumiko. Don’t blow it!

MAR - I could pretty much describe this as: an Isekai’d nerd and his talking chain ball weapon, who previously parted ways with Dorothy of Oz (as a witch), are now on a quest with Jack from Jack and the Beanstalk where they’ve been targeted by a Rumpelstiltskin-esque wicked sorcerer who’s got assassins coming after them, but they’re saved by Tinkerbell and Peter Pan, who yields powers of darkness! Yeah, that’s just the sort of wacky early 2000s shonen anime this is!

AMC: Akudama Drive -  Crazy first episode to one of those anime that just has no fucks to give about being crazy. When for the series premiere, you get a very Hiyori-ish “ordinary girl” getting into trouble and labeled a “Swindler” because she refuses to pay with someone else’s money she ended up with, and then five of these “Akudama” criminals converging on this single prison location and fighting each other as they’ve been hired to save a serial killer named “Cutthroat” from his slated execution, and Swindler actually does manage to swindle them all into believing she’s one of them, and it ends on literally “The Cat Was The Mastermind?” We’re in bonkers land here! 

AND

Great Pretender - ....Actually, this anime premiere wasn’t any less crazy! I was watching what I was sure was the “dubbed” version, but everyone at the start is speaking Japanese and the video I was watching lacked subtitles to tell me what the heck they were all saying, so aside from bits of Engrish speaking here and there I had to figure out what was going on from the animation and situations alone. Then the young Japanese scam artist and the older, more accomplished con man start talking in full Engrish sentences, and soon enough they drop the accents altogether and suddenly it’s a legit English dub, fittingly enough once they’re in America! This creates a sort of surreality I’ve rarely felt in much anime, and things only get more insane with what the con men are actually there to do, and what...revelations Edamura comes to. And it ends when him left hung out to dry. Literally, on the Hollywood sign, screaming for help! 

#Anime Update #Anime Update V2

[traincat]

I feel like I've read a ton, but I'm honestly still pretty new to comics rn. That being said... What is one more day? Ik we don't like it and it happened a while ago, but that's about it [,=

Time for Spider-Man History With Traincat: Highly Controversial Storylines! And that feeling is totally normal with comics with huge canons -- you can read a ton and still have some fairly big blindspots in your understanding of the total picture. That being said, this is kind of a big one, both in terms of Spider-Man history/canon and in terms of how Spider-Man fandom functions. I would say probably no other storyline has had quite as much impact on how the fandom views and interacts with the source material as One More Day/Brand New Day. It's been the Wild West out here ever since it happened. (Which was in 2007, so like, yes, fairly long ago, especially when you look at how Spider-Man canon has evolved since, but in the grand scheme of things, also kind of recent. One More Day is not old enough to rent a car.)

So when people talk about Spider-Man's One More Day, they're usually actually talking about two related arcs: One More Day and Brand New Day. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to be covering both. For the sake of transparency, I am going to admit that I think One More Day, as a self-contained story, is good, actually. This is controversial! I admit that! But I stand by my stupid opinions on this blog, for some reason. I think One More Day when you examine it on its own, by which I mean you ignore the decade and a half worth of canon that came after it, as a Spider-Man story and as a PeterMJ-centric story holds up under scrutiny and that people who don't like it don't like complicated love stories and might actually throw their own mothers under buses. No offense to the OMD haters. Little bit of offense to the OMD haters. Brand New Day, which is the continuation of One More Day, on the other hand -- largely bad. Very largely bad.

But let's backtrack. One More Day is a four issue crossover storyline that takes place directly after Civil War, during which Iron Man and Captain America got divorced and divvied up the superhero community and Spider-Man made some startlingly bad decisions and made a fugitive out of himself and his family in a manner that got Aunt May shot, and Spider-Man: Back in Black (Amazing Spider-Man #539–543) which examines Peter's actions immediately after Aunt May is shot and ends with him humiliating the Kingpin in front of an entire prison. One More Day consists of Amazing Spider-Man #544 -> Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #24 -> Sensational Spider-Man v2 #41 -> Amazing Spider-Man #545. In One More Day, Aunt May is dying, all of Peter's efforts to save her have thus far failed, and, consumed by guilt, he is rapidly running out of time. Approached by Mephisto, a literal demon from hell, Peter is offered a deal: Aunt May will live -- and Peter's identity, which was previously revealed to the world at large during Civil War, will once again be hidden from the memories of all but a select few -- if Peter trades him his marriage to Mary Jane. Peter and Mary Jane struggle with this, but eventually both agree to the deal. The clock strikes twelve, the deal is done, and Peter and Mary Jane's marriage fades into history.

(ASM #545) A reasonably simple premise for a story that caused so many problems -- most, I would argue, not actually the original story's fault. So obviously, this was an unpopular move -- Peter and Mary Jane had for a long time been a fan favorite Marvel couple, and in a fictional universe where most relationships are doomed as soon as they begin, the enduring Spider-Marriage was sacred ground. And then, with a snap of its fingers, it was gone: Peter wakes up in Aunt May's house, no longer married, with Mary Jane out of the picture. (She would not return to the book on any sort of consistent basis for over 50 issues.) In the wake of One More Day began Brand New Day, which is basically what it sounds like: a promised "brand new day" of "exciting" Spider-Man content and a publishing schedule where Amazing Spider-Man came out three times a month. (Which sounds good on paper but I think in practice caused more problems than it created good storylines.) Peter, newly single again, had new love interests! And also Harry Osborn was alive again for some reason! I generally like Harry's post-BND stories so that part's fine with me.

But overall? Brand New Day is a mess. It knows it wants to tread new and exciting ground with Peter -- tell new stories! ensnare new readers! make them fork out for a book three times a month. -- but it doesn't know what those stories should be. Readers who were invested in Peter and Mary Jane's relationship -- a major facet of Spider-Man comics for decades at that point -- felt rightfully betrayed that the marriage could be so easily traded in and that Mary Jane herself, perhaps the second most important figure in Spider-Man comics after Peter, could be tossed aside. From a personal point of view, I think Brand New Day fails in large part because it abandons what has always made Spider-Man such a compelling series, and that's the mix of Peter's personal life with his vigilante life. BND sees Peter with new friends, new jobs, new love interests, etc -- it is very much a brand new day! But it isn't a better day compared to the stories that came before it. I do like some post-BND stories, especially American Son (ASM #595-599) and Grim Hunt (ASM #634-637), but compared to pre-BND where I think the majority of canon is good, it's a very lacking body of work that is hurt by the way it divorced itself from the PeterMJ marriage as Spider-Man's central relationship.

"But Traincat, I thought you said you liked One More Day?" Yeaaaaah. I do. This is why I keep saying I like One More Day on its own merits, and not on the merits of the stories it opened the doors for. I like a good romantic tragedy in fiction, and the way Peter and Mary Jane's final scene in One More Day plays out is beautiful. I like the idea of Peter caught in this impossible situation, being asked to choose between two women he loves more than his own life. A really common criticism I see leveled against One More Day is that Peter should have chosen his relationship with Mary Jane over May's life, which is -- okay, I think it's weird that people keep insisting on this, not in the least because by asking Peter to sacrifice his aunt's life they're essentially demanding he commit a callous, out of character act in order to further his own interests. It's also weird because the thing is, Peter already chose Mary Jane over May -- that's what gets them into this situation. It's literally in the scene where May is shot:

(ASM #538) When the gun goes off, Peter's spider-sense kicks in, and he covers Mary Jane, leaving May in the path of the bullet. He does choose Mary Jane over May, regardless of whether he realized what he was doing. And that's why he can't make that choice a second time. His actions in One More Day do make sense for him as a character, whether or not any individual reader likes them, and Mary Jane's actions make sense, too -- after all, she's the one who ultimately tells Mephisto that they agree to the deal when Peter can't bring himself to voice it.

A lot of people also like to nitpick One More Day by going, well, why could (x) or (y) with life saving powers save Aunt May which is like -- yeah, I guess, but if we're going to ask that about this specific comic book near death setup, you kind of have to do it with every single one, and I'm not going to stake every single moment of comic book drama on whether or not that gold kid from the X-Men was busy at the time. Comics are soap operas in flimsy paper form: serialized longform storytelling that relies heavily on melodrama. Sometimes you have to go with things. Sometimes you sell your marriage to the devil. Stuff happens. That in and of itself doesn't make One More Day a bad story -- and while some people blame the Spider-Marriage's dissolution entirely on One More Day, I think that's a little shortsighted when you look at the history of Spider-Man since the turn of the century. It's clear -- and Marvel themselves have been perhaps a little too open about this -- that Marvel in the past few decades has had trouble with the direction they want to take Spider-Man. They WANTED Spider-Man to appeal to a distinctly youthful audience that they didn't think they were actually reaching -- understandable, considering that Marvel nearly went bankrupt around 2000 and was saved by Ultimate Spider-Man, an out of main continuity series which retold Spider-Man from the beginning and focused heavily on Peter as a teen -- but the problem was Spider-Man in the main continuity was at that point in canon a happily married man who was pushing the dreaded 30 whether or not they wanted to admit that. This is also why Marvel has continually pivoted away from Spider-Man having kids, because they feared that making him a dad would age him too much and make him unrelatable to their coveted audience of Teens. (This is also why almost every new Spider-Man property, especially the live action movies, perpetually stick him back into high school, despite that occupying a very small slice of 616 canon.) So around the year 2000, they started trying things in relation to the Spider-Marriage, which was viewed as a major problem -- after all, what's more adult than being married and liking your wife. First, they had Mary Jane presumed dead. Then, they had Mary Jane and Peter separate. Then, when Mary Jane and Peter had only recently gotten back together, One More Day struck. If One More Day specifically hadn't gone the way it had, it's pretty clear that the Spider-Marriage was going to go one way or another -- it's a little bit of a shame it happened when it did, because OMD is the end of J Michael Straczynski's run, and JMS wrote a really beautiful Peter and MJ relationship. But Marvel as a company and especially editor in chief at the time Joe Quesada viewed Peter and Mary Jane's relationship as a major problem in how they wanted to portray Spider-Man and thought that striking the relationship from the books would allow them more freedom in their portrayal of him as younger and more relatable to their Desired Audience of people who I guess really wanted to see Peter sleep with characters who weren't Mary Jane.

(ASM #546. Younger! Fresher! Less attached! Kissing random women in the club!)

The problem with One More Day has always been in the follow through -- from the content of Brand New Day to the pacing of events to the fact that Marvel withheld key information for such a long time that it allowed misinformation to thrive. After all, what does it MEAN to trade Peter and Mary Jane's marriage to the devil? It altered the events of canon in Peter and the majority of other characters' memories so that the marriage didn't exist, but it left people wondering -- did the relationship as they remembered it existed? How much of Spider-Man canon was altered? And the answers didn't come for over 100 issues of Amazing Spider-Man. One Moment In Time or OMIT (Amazing Spider-Man #638-641), which revealed that while Peter and Mary Jane never got married in the altered canon they did continue their long committed relationship up until just after Civil War, was published in 2010, so essentially readers were hung out to dry without answers for three years. That's a long time to string people along, but not as long as it took Marvel to confirm that the popular fan theory that Mary Jane retained her memories of the original timeline as part of her own deal with Mephisto was also true, which happened this year. I would say, at least from my perspective, a lot of the frustration doesn't come from the individual One More Day storyline so much as how Marvel has continually dragged out the aftermath, using the promise of a Spider-Marriage return to keep fans on the hook. Which is why One More Day continually comes up in discussion of current Spider-Man, because Spencer's run has relied very heavily on imagery from that period with a serious question of whether or not there actually was going to be payoff, something which is still up in the air.

This has been Spider-Man History With Traincat, brought to you by anonymice like you.

#traincat talks comics #long post #*replies