#an actually engaging and interesting superhero show

[breathetoseethetruth]

Still pissed that Netflix took Jupiter's Legacy and 1899 from me.

#jupiter's legacy #1899 netflix #an actually engaging and interesting superhero show #and a truly intellectually stimulating original by the DARK creators #and yet...

[evilminji]

"DO BETTER!" Says Now Televised Fanboy

He, Dash Baxter is a Phan-Stan!! It's kinda his thing. See, he's a fancy ass talk show host now. Married Paulie, moved out of Amity, actually DID something with his life. His parents? Did not approve. Long n short of it? He got kicked out.

Paulie's parents were PISSED.

Retaliated by giving him all the help he needed getting EVERY scholarship he qualified for. He went to a really nice college. Missed his girlfriend like mad. But she was off in Metropolis, terrifying weaker men. Conquering the fashion scene.

And SOMEHOW? Thanks to that long talk he had with Phantom (*incoherent fanboy gibbering noises* SO COOL!) he's worked to be... more of a LEADER, you know? Less of an asshole. Cause he's popular. People copy him. He can't be an asshole.

So, somehow, when he's punching out some try-hard that thinks he's hot shit for bullying a Nerd? He and the nerd get talking, right? Cause the guy got his glasses completely fucked up. And it's what Phantom would do.

But GET THIS? Guy's never HEARD of Phantom! Is super curious, cause he runs a small time Hero's show on the web. And, Dude? Is it your LUCKY DAY! Cause you just met THE number 1 fan of Phantom, hands down!! He makes his VERY spirited case, about why Phantom is THE best Hero to ever have lived. And this guy?

Entranced.

In AWE.

Just straight up BEGS him to join his show. Cause apparently? He was BORN for it. Which? Yeah. He HAS been giving speechs to the team for YEARS now. And Talking at fan meet ups. Leading fan meet ups. Hosting parties... actually, now that he thinks about it? He DOES do a lot of public speaking? Huh.

But still, he's about to say "no", when?

Dude mentions? He'll get to talk about Phantom.

SOLD!

It. Blows. Up. Absolutely EVERYONE is in love with his pretty face, hot bod, and STRONG opinions. But they ALSO have no idea who Phantom is! Paulie! This is CRIMINAL! Horrifying! What is going ON!?

Some bullshit information black out, apparently. At least according to her... friendly Nemesis? The Goth Dweeb. Who's engaged, apparently? So good for her. Unsurprisingly, it's too the OTHER Dweebs, but still. Bout time she started planning to drag them to a court house. She's the only one with any spine in that group! If she waited for THEM to propose?

Not even as Ghosts, man.

They'd get distracted by shiny nerd shit and whimp out.

Still... a world where NO ONE knows how Awesome, Phantom is? Not on HIS watch!

So he works it in. To every segment. It becomes "his thing". Oh? Super man saved a kitten from a tree? Cute. Well PHANTOM saved a bus full of Ghost Puppies from a shady, rouge, Goverment agency. Do BETTER, Superman!

The Flash, who is a cheap knock-off and stole his name, took down an Ice Villian? Adorable! PHANTOM stopped a Rouge WINTER SPIRIT with the help of YETI WARRIORS then assisted in giving FREE medical care for anyone who needed it! Here's a picture of him making GHOST ICE SNOWMEN for small children! Do BETTER, Knock-off!

What's THAT you say? Wonder Woman fought a GOD in down town paris?

Excellent work Wonder Woman. Flawless as always. But YOU, god-boy, are a disappointment! All that power! And WHAT do you use it for? Are you even supposed to BE here?? PHANTOM uses his power to HELP people! Is awesome and knows TONS of better gods! You're just salty you didn't make the cut!

DO BETTER!

And obviously? No one believes him. There's no record of this "Phantom" guy. The pictures look fantastical and vaguely glitchy/glowy. Not quite right. They GOTTA be photo shopped. Manipulated somehow. But? As a shtick? A fake "perfect Superhero" is kinda funny and unique.

And it's one hell of Fake Hero!

A Dead Champion? Who fights gods and monsters? Rouge agencies? Sassy and tragic? With a mysterious past? Pretty cool! There's even an Offical Comic from some guy that went to the same high-school as Baxter!

Of course, as Baxter get more and more popular? The "meme" hero, Phantom, get more well known? People get more interested in where Dash grew up. You know, just a bored Google. Maybe see if the hero was based off a local legend or something. But... huh...

The Town website?

Weirdly? Sanitized.

Like... like aggressively sanitized. All smooth edges and no details. Very "move along, citizen". Ha ha... it's part of the joke right? They get it! They'll just look up local restaurants or som-....

Wait...

Hey, guuuuys?

Are you finding ANYTHING?

And! Nothing. And I do mean NOTHING! Triggers the "oh? Secrets???" Instincts of a Hacker, like finding a hard blank wall of "KEEP OUT". Especially when it's somewhere it rightfully shouldn't BE.

All it would take? Is ONE person, of decent skills and an account on Certain Forums, getting bored enough to Google the Dude On The TV(TM)? For the GIW's lil walls to come crashing down. Because yeah, you can stop ONE hacker. Even two. Probably five or six.

But how about thousands?

Hundreds of thousands?

From every time zone. Competing. Just to see what you HAVE and don't want them to see. Maybe they do something with it, maybe they don't. But fuck it, you're being RUDE and now they're CURIOUS. And THEN? Oh. Oh holy shit.

Not a meme.

Very real.

Not a joke.

The walls come crumbling down, down, down. Ripped apart by hundreds of hands. Emails sent to every sort of agency. The JLU line inundated with emergency tips. Not a joke. Not A Joke. Holy Shit, IT WASN'T A JOKE!

Phantom is REAL!

And there, on TV, stands the Man. The signal FINALLY breaching containment. Fighting off the invading God of the week. Built like statue, hair like an aurora borealis of white fire held almost delicately in place by a CROWN of ice, a suit made of void and starlight. Inhuman. Beyond human.

Here to help.

A laugh that crackles like ice and the snap of winter, rolls through the air like coming storms, rich and somehow warm. A smile that bares teeth, yet turns so KIND when he looks upon humanity, as though we are precious and worth fighting for. A living star.

A... a once living star.

And in the center of it all? Wearing his BESPOKE, custome made, Number 1 Phan full body outfit? That's right. Dash Baxter. Ha! You fuckers doubted him! Behold his blorbo and WEEP, ya fuckin casuals! The BESTEST of boys! The FINEST of Heros! Superman? Could NEVER.

And now? The weather!

@babbling-babull @nerdpoe @the-witchhunter @ailithnight @hypewinter @hdgnj @mutable-manifestation

#dpxdc #dp x dc #dc x dp #dcxdp #dc x dp prompt #dash baxter #dash on tv #Dash Phan AU

[bestanimatedmovie]

Choose your favorite!

Vote in the other polls!

What fans say:

The Lorax:

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:

It had a very big impact on meme culture. And a really catchy soundtrack. Plus it has the silly sexy green man. What more could you want from a film.*

The Once-ler and the let it die song. This movie is glorious.

It is legit the mother of all great animated movies nowadays. From Mitchells vs the machines to the new mutant mayhem movie! The plot is so good and you can really see character development from almost all of the characters, plus the designs are BANGER.

THE MUSIC?? TOP FUCKING TIER. THE CASUAL DIVERSITY? IT ALSO HAS LITERALLY THE BEST SHOT IN CINEMATIC HISTORY (Miles rising after taking his leap of faith)

BRO THE ANIMATION IS SO SICK. The amount of sheer effort put into this movie is insane. The character growth was so amazing to watch and such a great movie to analyze. Best scenes are obviously the leap of faith. Actually gorgeous. And also the scene where aunt May sees Peter b after her Peter died. Her “you look tired, Peter” is just so heartfelt

Where the hell do I even start. The visuals are incredible and the plot is engaging. Every scene is perfect.

This film has EVERYTHING. Humor, action, inspirational scenes, kickass music, absolutely killer animation, an art style that is an homage to comic books, loveable characters, a talking pig, DR OLIVIA OCTAVIUS, I could go on

This is the best superhero movie ever made, the leap of faith is one of the best movie scenes of ever

The animation style is better than all the others, and makes the movie funnier too! The representation is also good, and the romantic storyline isn't too prevalent in the movie. Probably the best animation Marvel has made. My favorite scene is when the villains show up to Aunt May's house -- its my favorite fight scene!

I’m sure this movie’s been submitted already because it’s arguably the greatest animated film of all time. I have a personal connection to it because I saw it in theaters on opening night with my late father, and we both loved it and I still do. The animation is revolutionary and it’s one of the only 3 movies that make me cry.

gsksvbsvsbsvs I love everything about it, I love the animations, the story, the soundtrack also the style of animation AAAAAA its so beautiful its art it belongs in a museum i get goosebumps everytime I rewatch it

It’s just so good. All the characters are amazing and I love Miles dad. It’s hilarious and sparked my love for spider-man. It’s such a sweet movie about finding yourslef and has such a powerful message. I totally recommend it so I’m not adding spoilers, but like. Ohhhh, it’s so good.

Interesting villains, well-developed character arcs, a fresh take on Spider-Man, unique use of animation, funny, good use of multiverse that adds to the nature of the story being told, complicated character dynamics

It's the best animated movie because A: it takes one of the most well known comic characters of all time, kills him off in the first few minutes, and then shows you every cooler version of him. B: Has a large amount of representation in its main cast, considering that they're all versions of Spiderman, and that requires a white guy by default. C: everything in it is so well done I can't pick a favorite scene, but the most iconic is the jump off the skyscraper window.

The animation is incredible, the movie has so much story and heart, and there’s a perfect balance between humor and seriousness. And the soundtrack slaps

This is probably the best animated film I've ever seen. The animation is definitely the highlight, the way they blend comic book art styles and 3D animation is an absolute joy to look at and is so overwhelmingly creative, every frame of this movie is gorgeous. The impact this had on the industry is undeniable, as we start to see more and more movies getting more creative with their animation styles. It's not just the animation though. All of the characters are entertaining, all of the jokes land and the story is really well done. It leaves me blown away every time I watch it.

This movie kind of changed the western animation industry from the ground up. Apart from being expertly written, funny, and heartfelt, it is also stellarly animated, with a unique visual style that takes direct inspiration from the comic books it adapts and mixes 2d- and 3d-animation in a way and to a degree that hadn't really been seen before in western mainstream. Its critical and monetary success paved the way for mainstream 3d animation to open up to new and excitingly stylised movies that were like a breath of fresh air between the generic Pixar-style animation that had been the largely unchanged norm in the industry since Toy Story circa twenty years earlier**. ITSV divides the screen like panels on a comic page, it uses dots and lines for shading and gradients, doesn't shy away from lowering framerates for stylisation, and makes liberal use of onomatopoeia, both to comedic and dramatic impact. Impact frames and SFX are often hand-drawn and stunningly colourful, and even the simple dialogue scenes astonish with an expressiveness and realism in their depiction of emotions that makes me rewatch a two-second scene of Miles laughing fifteen times in a row. My favourite scene has to be the What's Up Danger scene, the emotional climax of the movie. Set to an absolute banger of a song, it is the moment the entire film has been building up to. I won't spoil anything plot-wise in case you somehow haven't seen this movie, but both from an emotional and a visual standpoint it is Fucking Dope. Conclusion: Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse is my favourite movie of all time and I could talk about it for hours. If you haven't seen it, go watch it. Thank you.

Have you SEEN the Whats Up Danger/rising and falling scene? it's a work of art that makes me fall in love with storytelling all over again whenever I see it. Also the impact that it's had on animated film is absolutely being felt at current, if incrementally. Incredible film.

It has an amazing art style based on comics and mixed up due to genre differences. It's really fun and the characters are great, even the side ones. The story line is great and I love Miles and his family.

*Mod note: errr, quite a lot more than memes and music actually

**Mod note: amen

#The Lorax #Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse #best animated movie #round 2 #tournament poll #tumblr's favorite

[two-white-butterflies]

this feeling flows both ways | m33

Description: Twitter's reaction to the relationship. Y/N and Tony Stark feud. Max has newfound fame.

part two of do i wanna know?

Pairing: max verstappen/nepo-baby!reader

starkfamilysupremacy: 'this fact is disputed' i'm sobbing 😭 - ironmanisbatman: he had to call elon up

steverogerssupremacy: i love their relationship

maxverstappen1: A little rest before the Austrian GP. #OrangeArmy

890 comments 912,128 likes

y/n_stark: the y/n effect is real - maxverstappen1: 😇💪🏽

tony: Stark Industry's New Venture '16

129 comments 294,290 likes

eattherichfoundation: sick and tired of seeing billionaires 🤮

bombasticsideeye12: The entire campaign sucks lol

oneinsertgal55: see if he actually helped the poor instead of staying a billionaire i'd actually support him but like

y/n_stark: beautiful! 🥰

comments have been restricted.

MAX VERSTAPPEN REVEALS INTERESTING DINNER WITH TONY STARK. by racecar1 interviews.

Max Verstappen: I mean honestly at first, I was a little nervous. I don't talk to superheroes everyday. It was a little adorable at first, according to my sweet girlfriend. I couldn't stop asking [Mr. Stark] about the Battle in New York and of course, his superhero co-workers. But then it sorta moved to more difficult parts, I felt like a superhero fighting a villain in that moment - but of course Tony is not a villain. He's a nice guy. Oh gosh, I've said too much.

Interviewer: Was there ever some threatening? Because a lot of people in social media joke about the billionaire being protective of his only child.

Max Verstappen: No, not at all. [laughs] that's all I'm allowed to say.

y/nfans

from "i'll bring her home at 6 sir!" to "she calls me daddy too"

82 comments 9,294 likes

y/n_stark: THIS IS LEGIT

vivlorien6: Max Chadstappen 🥶

archiemenon: Pretty sure that he EATS the rich 🥶

y/n_stark: NO BCS WHAT IS THIS 😭 Pls don't turn my bf into one of those sigma alpha males 🙏🏻 (will delete later, ruins my feed.)

823 comments 45,692 likes

LandoNorris: Don't show me your attitude, if I show mine...you might forget yours 😏 - y/n_stark: this one is actually better -- y/n_stark: MY ACCOUNT WILL BE A MAX VERSTAPPEN MEME PAGE FOR THE NEXT 24 HRS.

y/n_stark: pov ur my dad after making his first suit

89 comments 258,129 likes

maxverstappen1: my heart

tony: pov ur my dad after making me* - y/n_stark: bro had to put oil in his body for his parts to work

user99: SHE'S CORNY UR HONOR

y/n_stark: yes to today, yes to yesterday, and yes to tomorrow. tagged: maxverstappen1

928 comments 456,293 likes

Charles_Leclerc: Congratulations!

maxverstappen1: Mrs. Verstappen soon 🧡💙 - y/n_stark: yes to that too 💗

tony: congratulations are in order! 🥂

maxverstappen1: I'd like to hang out with you, all my life. 💗

0 comments 1,283,120 likes

comments are restricted.

Y/N STARK REVEALS STUNNING ENGAGEMENT RING: TONY STARK'S REACTION.

Y/N Stark: Max is a very traditional man. He pays for everything. He's a willing provider. When it came to our engagement, he asked my dad if he was allowed to propose. I wasn't in the room when he asked.

Tony Stark: He was cute with his European accent. He didn't have to work to have my approval. He asked and I gave it.

Y/N Stark: You didn't ask him if his intentions were pure?

Tony Stark: I believe that I should be asking you, but - we had a serious talk about marriage and Max is a good guy. He'll keep her safe and feed her through the long winter.

Y/N Stark: Gosh, another game of thrones quote.

Tony Stark: Comes with the name.

#max verstappen #max verstappen fic #max verstappen x you #max verstappen x female reader #f1 fics #f1 #f1 imagine #max verstappen x reader #f1 fanfic

[lttleghost]

The Thematic Relevance of Jesse Pinkman as an Egg 🏳️‍⚧️

(I wrote this analysis awhile back and wanted to make a fresh post to update it!)

While not intentional, there is a lot in Breaking Bad that supports reading Jesse as an egg. This reading of Jesse has a lot of thematic and narrative relevance and also doesn't create any conflicts with the canon material. Jesse being someone who hasn’t realized he’s not actually a man yet could quite literally be canon.

This analysis is heavily based around parallels between Jesse’s character development and what Breaking Bad thematically associates with gender. It’s also heavily interconnected with the show's overarching theme of change, and also, at least for our two main characters of Walt and Jesse, the revealing of true self. There’s plenty of evidence that each of them already had the traits we see them with at the end of Breaking Bad. Jesse being this very kind and compassionate young adult and Walt being this egotistical monster.

But I would consider Walt's self-deception to be more shallow than Jesse’s self deception. While Walt did end up in a lifestyle that was opposed to who he truly was, he consciously knew what he wanted to some extent, whereas Jesse fully convinced himself that he was a different person than the one he truly is because he never really got the chance to actually figure out much about himself. 

There are a lot of examples of Jesse’s disconnected sense of self throughout the show, but the first one that comes to mind has to do with his superhero OCs-

EDIT: YO! if you find video essays more engaging than reading a bunch of text, this analysis now also comes in video form [link]

I think that Jane’s observation that all of them looked like Jesse was, in fact, correct. I wouldn’t consider him doing this as a conscious decision but I feel that he almost admits it. After initially denying that his OCs looked like him and after Jane affectionately teases him he ends up saying to her “like you never wanted a superpower.” And while you could interpret this as just a response to her teasing, I’m convinced that there’s an additional layer to it. Especially because when Jane leaves to check the door, there's a moment where Jesse looks at the sketchbook with his drawings and it seems like he’s considering something, and I’d bet you anything that what he’s thinking about is whether or not he had actually drawn himself and this is REALLY interesting since-

Jesse is a criminal right? And while superheroes themselves are technically criminals as well, as vigilante justice isn’t actually legal, they’re still typically known to be ‘crime fighters’, and Jesse describes his characters as being such. So with his OCs subconsciously being depictions of himself and them being superheroes (crime fighters) and his current life as a criminal, you get the image of someone who doesn’t know who he is or what he wants deep down. 

There’s no way that Jesse’s current delinquent lifestyle was his truly… preferred path. It’s much more likely it was the only thing he thought he could do successfully. It’s evidently been the one thing he’s made a decent living off of. He has no support from his parents, and doesn’t seem like he has had it since he was a highschooler. Jesse is shown to have no support outside of the drug trade. Most of his personal skills and interests are artistic or honestly domestic in a world that assigns more value to academics and he’s a highschool graduate who doesn’t have any job experience. 

I also believe Jesse is very aggressively ADHD coded, and the combination of having virtually no support, struggling with addiction, and having undiagnosed and improperly self medicated ADHD would make slogging through any “respectable” job that he has access to, or any job that his parents might encourage him to do, unbearable.

So the drug trade was his best bet, Jesse even views cooking meth as a form of art, something that he’s passionate about.

I can’t in good faith ignore that doing something that is... generally frowned upon, didn’t factor into what Jesse chose to do on some level, as society and the structures that it’s built on failed him and there’s an inherent sense of rebellion that often forms in a person when they’re failed like that. Granted, superheroes also tend to often contain some commentary on societies failings as well. Jesse just couldn’t actually be a real-life superhero. So with the few benefits it had in practice compared to any other job, Jesse played into the rest of the role of a criminal, and convinced himself that the aspects of it that conflicted with his personality... didn’t, probably without even noticing.

Even more to this disconnect; When Jane asks “and that’s a superpower?” in response to Jesse explaining Backwardo’s powers Jesse responds with “come on, I was a kid when I drew these, it was like four years ago.” And Jesse is 24 years old in that scene, meaning that he would’ve been 20 when he drew these characters, and when I first wrote this analysis I was wondering whether or not Jesse had gotten involved with the drug trade other than buying drugs by that time, but there wasn’t really anything I could confirm any theories with. 

But now I've got the Better Call Saul episode “Waterworks” where Jesse has his second cameo, where he is in fact, 20, and in that cameo Jesse accompanying Emilio, a person we know is his partner in cooking meth, to Saul’s office makes me certain he’s in it by that point. And I just have to wonder if Jesse’s superheroes were almost a… subconscious vent, a manifestation of how being a criminal in the specific way Jesse is, is not what he wants. Something that suggests that Jesse’s actual identity and his current view of his identity don’t line up.

Another thing to point out about the cameo that could be seen as additional evidence of Jesse’s discomfort with being more than just a customer of the drug trade is that he was hanging out outside of Saul’s office, and until Kim gave him one he didn't have a cigarette, so he wasn’t out there to smoke. And while there could be other explanations to why he was outside on his own, I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to say, other than just his general skepticism of Saul, he was just not particularly jazzed to be where he was at that moment and not comfortable going inside.

So relating all of this to gender; that narrative of convincing yourself that you are the person that you’re supposed to be for your best chance of survival instead of being able to truly be yourself already works pretty strongly as an allegory for being trans. But to add onto that even more, thematically Breaking Bad associates “manhood” with the drug trade in one way or another, and paralleling how Jesse realizes he doesn’t fit into the drug trade like he thought he did with how he might not be a cis man like he thought he was makes for a really solid queer reading.

The whole show is pretty explicitly about toxic masculinity. Obviously in real life masculinity and manhood do not have to be toxic, and in Breaking Bad’s original intended story Jesse is a cis man who ends up not fitting into those toxic ideas of manhood. 

Things that the rest of the male cast don’t blink at or at least have more mild reactions to, just tear Jesse apart. He’s also targeted at least a couple of times for having emotional vulnerability that is considered to be “not manly”. It’s much easier to point out the differences between him and the male cast than it is to point out similarities between them and this just gets more pronounced the longer the show goes on. He doesn’t really have any positive ties to being a man and I don’t think we can say we ever see Jesse actually reclaim his own sense of manhood. And I think that lack of reclamation gives even more legitimacy to the reading that, along with leaving the drug trade and all of its toxic masculinity bullshit behind, maybe Jesse just leaves behind being a man altogether, and maybe it was something that wasn’t really ever a true part of him, just like his life as a criminal.

Even at the start of the series Jesse’s attempts at hyper-masculinity come off as really goofy and performative. In episode one  Krazy-8 mentions that Emilio thinks that Jesse might’ve ratted on him Jesse first has a much more genuine response of “that’s bullshit” which makes sense with his strong character trait of being loyal, but then he goes to say “I should kick his punk ass for even thinking that.” and it just sounds like fake bravado to me. There’s no way Jesse actually thinks he stands a chance against Emilio since Jesse has a body type that resembles a small bird and there's no way he has that little self awareness. He's just playing out a script that wasnt even well thought through, and while some of his other performances of masculinity don’t come across as that fake, there aren’t many that feel like they actually come from Jesse himself, they just feel like something that he just thinks he should do.

And while not every experience with men Jesse has is negative, there always seems to be some distance between him and the men he does have good relationships with. Jesse forms a parent-child type relationship with Mike that is healthier than any other he’s had up to that point other than probably his aunt, but there’s a part of Jesse that Mike never seems to fully get. When Jesse doesn’t want Lydia to be killed Mike says that 'this woman deserves to die as much as any man' and I think he misses that Jesse just still isn’t that keen on killing people even with everything he’s gotten involved with. Even if there are some acts of violence and even some people’s deaths he is fine with and thinks are justified, Jesse never fully adapts to “the job” the way Mike does, and Mike is just not quite able to understand that, or at least not why.

Jesse and his friends have a distance between them as well. Though they’re arguably not as entrenched in toxic masculinity as any of the other prominent men in the show are, and aren’t nearly as involved in the violence of dealing drugs despite being in the trade. Yet still Jesse’s interactions with them most of the time feel different and more withdrawn than their interactions with each other. Like Jesse really wants their presence and company and wants to fit in but there ends up being something that he can’t connect with alongside them, and this also gets more prominent as the show progresses. There’s parts where Jesse seems to be withholding how badly his “high rank” in the drug trade is affecting him when Pete and Badger seem to sort of idolize him for it and want in on it. I think Jesse sort of considers saying something to them about it, but he hesitates and doesn’t. He repeatedly doesn’t confide in them even though, while his friends do perform some facets of hyper-masculinity, they don’t really seem to target or reject vulnerability in the way most of the other men in Breaking Bad do. And Jesse’s distance from even the more harmless side of the male cast makes it feel like it’s not just the toxic masculinity that he’s disconnected from.

Jesse’s relationships with women even further separate him from the men of the show. His romantic relationships with Jane and Andrea read much more as relationships between equals, compared to Walt and Skyler or Hank and Marie. While Jesse does throw the “nice job wearing the pants in the family” insult at Walt in episode two of the first season, after Skyler almost caught him moving Emilio’s body, in Jesse’s own relationships he never actually tries to take control and doesn’t have any problem with Jane honestly being the person making more active choices for the both of them in their relationship, which Walt comments on by throwing that same “nice job wearing the pants” insult back at Jesse.

Another interesting thing found within Jesse’s relationship with Jane that ties them to specific gender roles happens after Jane doesn’t really introduce him to her father. Jesse asks about it and after a bit this Jane ends up saying “What am I supposed to say? Hey dad, meet the stoner guy who lives next door and by the way I’m sleeping with him?” and Jesse replies “Is that all you think you’re doing?”

It’s been pretty common for “the guy” to be considered as the one who sees a relationship as just being sex and “the girl” to see it as being romantic, and this is a very very dumb aspect of traditional western gender roles that this scene even has to subvert, but I think in the context of Breaking Bad’s dealings with gender roles the fact that Jesse is put in the role much more typically associated with women could be viewed as significant. And this significance can be extended to the show’s most prominent dynamic, dealing with the relationship between abusive men and women, Jesse is a victim. I’m not implying men can’t be victims of other men's abuse, but it does make Jesse easier to associate with women in the story, and while the narrative association comes from a negative place, the negativity is directed towards men. But the connection it forms between Jesse and women is a sense of camaraderie and even comfort, at least on Jesse’s side.

and with those connections with women I’d say the most accurate egg interpretation of Jesse is that she’s specifically transfeminine in some way.

I think in this analysis its important to specifically examine Jesse's journey with gender questioning as I think it follows the rest of the ups and downs in her learning more about herself in the resr of her character arc. My personal interpretation of Jesse is that she is a non medically transitioning nonbinary transfem person. The not medically transitioning bit is largely because I enjoy bringing attention to the existence of no-med no-op trans people and to push the point that not seeking medical transition doesnt make a person any less trans, though I do feel that since Jesse's relationship with gender is focused on the societal side of gender roles that don't really relate to physical form that it's a reasonable interpretation that she may not medically transition. I think she uses he/him and she/her pronouns, and is maybe a futch lesbian. I’m saying all of this because it'll be the lens through which I’ll be talking about Jesse’s journey with questioning his gender and how that progresses during the timeline of Breaking Bad. However I don’t claim this to be the only version of transfem Jesse that works with my analysis, or that it's necessarily better than any others that do work. I’ll also be mentioning concepts of “offscreen” additional scenes. That being said, if you’re someone who likes to stick 100% to the text given to us, the “offscreen” scenes aren’t exactly necessary for this interpretation to work as a part of the existing story as the general emotions behind them still stand.

I don’t picture Jesse as having any definable Gender (™) experiences when he was younger other than just a general sense of not belonging, though gender wouldn’t be the only thing playing into that. But as Jesse got older and struggled more, he started to purposefully play the part of what he saw as “a man” to survive in the only role that he thought he could. I see the thought “I wish I didn’t have to be a man” crossing his mind every so often though. I think he just deals with his place in the world for awhile, but after Walt enters the scene and Jesse experiences shit he really didn’t bargain for because of his old teacher, someone who is settling into a personification of toxic masculinity, Jesse’s frustration with being a man becomes more prominent and harder to ignore internally. 

In my opinion Jane is the person that helped him start to solidify what exactly those thoughts were indicating. Her approach to relationships would be considered not traditionally cishet, and so is the way she presents herself in general, so I think Jane has some sort of knowledge about the complexities of gender, if she isn't actually queer herself in some way.

And she’s one of the only people we see Jesse truly, truly open up to and so I think at some point later in their relationship Jesse might actually say something about wishing she wasn’t a man around Jane, and I can see Jane saying that Jesse doesn't have to be a man if she doesn't want to be.

But then Jane dies, and I think as a result of that and the lesson Jesse learned from rehab “I’m the bad guy” he goes into just total repression mode. Embodying this new belief Jesse very much dips into the hyper-masculine behavior of the drug trade, he is much more concerned with money beyond paying bills and having nice things, and he plans to do the one thing in the entire show that makes me truly angry at him because of this whole thing, attempting to sell drugs to the rehab group. I don’t think he would’ve ever thought of doing something like that before. He’s trying very hard to be something that’s even further from his actual nature than we’ve seen up until this point.

Part of Jesse’s grief over losing Jane, a person who he confided in probably more than anyone else at that point, was to just completely close up, even to himself. Forget all of those parts of himself that resisted the rougher aspects of the drug trade he was getting dragged into and definitely forget about wondering if he really is a man or not.

At least until meeting Andrea and Brock, which snaps him out of that “I’m the bad guy” mindset, but by that time I think just, too much starts to happen for Jesse to have much time to question her gender. I wouldn’t consider her to be as actively repressing any sort of “I wish I wasn’t a man” thoughts but the amount of turmoil and danger that she’s in, just really really doesn’t lend itself to that sort of gender introspection as much. 

I’ve got some additional thoughts on Jesse’s journey with gender that are more headcanons than actual analysis of the show so I didn’t include them in the text above. But I still really wanted to share because I like them and think that they really add to the analysis, so here they are;

I mentioned that I don’t think that Jesse had any particularly notable moments that might’ve suggested that she was trans when she was younger other than feeling out of place, but maybe he did have some interest in playing with “girls stuff” and her parents discouraged it because as we know they’re the shitty type of people who value their child being “normal” at the price of that child’s happiness, but I can also see her being one of those kids who just didn’t even grasp the differences between boys and girls stuff for a longer time than others, or I can even see Jesse’s last connection to the "male" side of gender being from when she was a little boy, before he was aware of the concept of what being a man was, and that it would be expected of her.

But later, in his adulthood, after the idea and pressures of "manhood" became very present in his life, one of the more certain instances of gender questioning I picture Jesse having is at some point while hanging out with Badger, Pete and Combo, Jesse screws around and puts on a dress. And he's like “haha I look like such a queer don’t I?” but is internally thinking something more along the lines of “ I will die before I tell anyone how this makes me feel” (that being that it makes him feel happy). 

And then, as we enter into the timeline of the show itself; when Jane first tells Jesse that he doesn’t have to be a man if he doesn’t want to, I don’t actually think that Jesse would be receptive of it at first. I think it’s more likely that he’d decide he suddenly doesn’t want to have this discussion anymore and change the subject. Jesse would still have the misconception that you need to medically transition or at least be required to fit some sort of ‘criteria’ to be trans, instead of just identifying as a different gender than your assigned sex, and I think that would play some role in his not wanting to talk about possibly being trans. And even more because, while he could opt out of telling anyone that he’s trans, Jesse’s in a world in general that isn’t trans-friendly, but the drug trade he’s in specifically is very lgbtq-phobic. Jesse himself is definitely gonna have some internalized transphobia, we’ve seen his homophobia, and I definitely read that as a result of his environment rather than actual hatred considering at Jesse’s true core he’s a pretty caring person. But there are definitely people in the drug trade who would be violently homophobic and transphobic, and Jesse would know that, and would probably perceive even realizing that he is trans to be a threat to his safety. But, later on, further into her relationship with Jane I think she’d open up, even if only to Jane.

And that’s what I like to focus on the most with this analysis, all of the happiness and freedom and healing that Jesse gets to feel detaching himself from manhood, something that honestly contributed so much to every part of his suffering. And god does this girl deserve some happiness.

Then when for the most part too much is going on for Jesse to consider whether or not he’s trans, I still sometimes think of a situation where Jesse might’ve suggested? Her gender questioning to Mike, and while I don’t think Mike’s personal reaction would be technically negative, I think he’d tell Jesse to ‘please not share that with anyone else kid’. Which would be discouraging to Jesse, and she’d quickly backtrack, some because of the reaction on its own but also because he really already knows that it’d be stupid to say anything to anyone else, but it’s not until Jesse’s really free from the drug trade that she can finally crack that egg. I really like to think about the comfort and relief Jesse would get to feel no longer having to try and be a man, cause she finally realizes that she isn’t one.

#breaking bad #jesse pinkman #jesse breaking bad #trans jesse pinkman #queer analysis #breaking bad analysis #brba #jesse brba #this is my girlfriend don't touch him #meat.txt #this is a shortened and edited bit of my video essay script #i just like.... HAD to update my inital text analysis while im working on figuring out how to successfully record my video #cause the old one is so jumbled and stufff #or it feels jumbled to me now at least

[jessicas-pi]

Y'all said you wanted to know my new idea, so. Hear me out on this. Cracky fun-filled Rebels Superhero AU highkey based on the 1966 Batman show.

*narrator guy voice* At stately Syndulla Manor, home of millionaire Hera Syndulla and her youthful ward Ezra Bridger-

So yeah, Hera is a millionaire who does superhero work under the alias "Spectre." She has an invisible car called the Ghost (but Ezra always calls it the Ghostmobile.) Ezra is her adopted kid and sidekick. I'm thinking his superhero alter ego has a cat theme, just because. Maybe he goes by "Stray" or "Alley Cat" or something.

Now, enter Kanan!

Kanan also does superhero work, calling himself "Phantom." He, too, has a sidekick: Sabine! (I'm not sure if I want Sabine to go by "Nightowl" (referencing her Nite Owl helmet) or "Starbird.") Like Hera, Sabine is also pretty rich, but she tries to escape her life as the daughter of a famous politician by moonlighting as a superhero. She also refuses to be called Kanan's sidekick because she "works alone" (only she keeps showing up whenever he's investigating a crime because She's Lonely and he has Dad Vibes.)

Ahsoka is the "commisioner gordon" character, and she's in contact with all the heroes and often calls them both in for cases, but she also uses an alias (Fulcrum) so that the villains can't trace back to her and use her to get to the heroes. Zeb works at the police department and he's the one most often assigned to go work with the superheroes.

Hera and Ezra know each others' identities, since they're adopted family, but none of them know any other secret identities. Which leads to some pretty crazy shenanigans, because:

Hera and Kanan are engaged.

Spectre and Phantom are amiable coworkers.

Phantom very vocally admires Hera around Spectre.

Ezra is deeply suspicious of Phantom because he thinks Kanan is THE COOLEST and NOBODY ELSE should be acting all interested in Hera, especially if they don't even KNOW HER. SHE'S ENGAGED, BACK OFF BUDDY!

Ezra and Kanan have a great father-son relationship. The only strain is that Ezra will not shut up about how much Phantom annoys him.

Sabine and Ezra go to the same fancy school and they're best friends.

Ezra has the world's biggest crush on Nightowl/Starbird. Naturally, he confides in his best friend about it---minus the part where he's a superhero interacting with her regularly---completely unaware that she is Nightowl/Starbird.

Sabine thinks it's hilarious. (After all, it's just a celebrity crush---Ezra has never even met her as her superhero identity---and by the time he finds out her identity, he'll toooootally be over it! ...won't he?)

The only person to have everything figured out is Hera's butler Okadiah. He Is Amused.

So, yeah. Secret identity shenanigans.

Also, just funny stuff in general. There's lots of hilarious villains-of-the-week, among them such ridiculous characters as Commander Meiloorun. (Yes, Commander Meiloorun is an actual villain-of-the-week character here.) And the ridiculous costumes, too, obviously. I might have to draw them sooner or later.

Anyway, I've kinda expended my thoughts on this so far... yeah soooo that's all i have! (but stay tuned in case i do draw some art for it because i definitely might.)

#to the ghostmobile! AU #(yes. that is what i am naming it.) #(i have no better ideas.) #jessica's random thoughts #star wars #star wars rebels #kanera #sabezra

[ponett]

could i bother you for your general opinion on venture bros, having watched it recently? i've been interested in it and know it has devoted fans, but most of the fans i see have been so for a long time- and i haven't been sure if the less-than-stellar aspects of it would be worth tolerating as someone with no pre-existing nostalgia for it. you're very good at offering nuanced thoughts, so i thought i'd ask. thanks!

i ended up loving the show, but it definitely has a lot of jokes in earlier seasons that haven't aged well, as is the case for basically any adult comedy series from the '00s. racial stereotypes that are probably intending to mock the racial stereotypes in the jungle adventure shows they're parodying but don't always hit the mark, jokes where characters speculate about whether or not dr. girlfriend is trans because of her voice, a minor recurring character who's a parody of the thing who's an extremely crude ableist stereotype (and also for a stretch of multiple seasons it feels like they had a quota to say the R slur at least once an episode), the pedophilia jokes with sergeant hatred, etc.

the thing is, like i said, it's kind of just what i expect for a comedy series from the '00s? obviously there was shit like south park, and the early seasons of always sunny loved to try and push the envelope, but even TV-14 network sitcoms like scrubs or the office had these sorts of issues. it's there, and you should be braced for it if you're gonna watch the show, but it feels like it revels in "politically incorrect" shock humor WAY less than a lot of concurrent comedy central and adult swim shit did. it's worlds apart from something like drawn together, which is just unwatchable. and most importantly it isn't trying to drive home some sort of insufferable libertarian moral, unlike south park. it just has some jokes i roll my eyes at

thankfully, as the show went on a lot of this was toned down and/or phased out entirely. but even in the front half of the show there were consistently tons of jokes that hit the mark for me, and i found the gradual shift towards more dramatic storytelling (without sacrificing the humor) really, really engaging. henchman 21 gets singled out as a character with an incredible arc, but i also loved seeing hank and dean go from being bumbling hardy boys parodies whose irrelevance was always the butt of the joke to being characters i actually cared about. and if you like superhero stuff at all, their take on organized supervillainy where it's effectively a union job where you're assigned an arch nemesis to torment is a lot of fun. the show just really gets how fun it is to follow the daily lives of over-the-top supervillains

there are a lot of comedy shows from that era i just can't go back to, but watching the venture bros. for the first time in 2023 i had a really good time

#anon #ask

[abarbaricyalp]

do you have any advice for a new writer trying to post on ao3 I want my stories to be noticed (also thanks for not leaving -- so many writers are gone now)

*Looks at my recent hits counts* I'm not sure I'm the best reference for this 😅

I think there are two aspects to getting engagement on fan works:

1: There is the actual work you put into posting your fics. This includes tags, cross posting, and self promotion.

Tags: Make sure you are tagging what is relevant to your fic. AO3 doesn't run on an algorithm, so the way people find your fics is primarily through searches. There is an excellent post on tumblr somewhere that discusses how to accurately tag your work, and I highly suggest starting there! (Post here) Also when tagging, I would suggest considering what YOU would search if you were looking for a fic like this. Quite often, I've found that the tag I was looking for isn't on AO3 yet. Don't be afraid to type in the specific trope or AU you are writing. Look at other tags to get a feel for the structure of the tag, but other than that, have fun.

Also, it may seem counterintuitive, but don't over-tag, by which I mean tagging a bunch of tropes or characters or ships that aren't in your story. It's a fast way to have people disregard your fic instantly, or even mute your name on AO3. Especially in smaller fandoms, I totally get the desire to tag a bigger ship, but it just makes more trouble for you in the long run.

Similarly, on tumblr, keep tags tight. I tend to only tag ship, character (name and superhero name), show/ movie, franchise, and the challenge I'm answering if I am. I know other people tag the actors of the characters. I don't because I know when I go into an actor's tag, I don't want to see fic (of their characters or them either) but that's entirely up to you. But don't tag characters or shows etc that have nothing to do with your fic. This is just courtesy in fandom spaces.

Cross-posting: I admit, I can be kind of bad about cross-posting, but I do find that it helps drive engagement when I do buckle down and get it done. Cross-posting is publishing or promoting a fic on multiple platforms. For instance, I use AO3 AND tumblr. On tumblr fic posts,I link to the AO3 (if there is one, I'm pretty bad about publishing shorter things on here only) And when I publish the fic on AO3, I'm supposed to be linking back to my tumblr. This helps more people see your fic and it grows your community when people are able to follow you on various platforms and spread your fic and kudos around. If you have fan accounts elsewhere and you're comfortable with it, feel free to promote there as well. Also check any discord or group servers you may be on for rules about promoting or channels meant exactly for that.

Self-promoting: this is pretty similar to the above. Because AO3 doesn't have an algorithm, it's kind of up to you to keep interest alive in your fics, especially if you want eyes on it for the first several days afterwards. I know it feels embarrassing to reblog your own fic posts all the time, but it's impossible to tell who may have seen or not seen that you posted a new fic. I don't have any set times for this, personally. I try to catch what I consider active times on tumblr, but that's entirely subjective. It's just trial and error, really. Secondly, don't be embarrassed to recommend your own fics (I'm kind of bad at this) If someone is looking for recs on a specific trope or AU and you know you have just the fic, tell them! Unfortunately, you have to be your own biggest cheerleader when it comes to your own art because no one knows and loves it as much as you do. It feels awkward and I know I get embarrassed if people aren't reccing my fics on their own, but you really are your biggest advocate. Fandom is kind of a popularity contest sometimes 🤷‍♀️ Hype your own self up

2: Now that the technical stuff is done, let's move on to the community aspect of fic posting. (This is not really what you asked for, but i think it's more important sometimes than the actual tags and AO3 procedures) Curating a community and making friends is HUGE as far as readership goes. Especially in smaller fandoms (I assume this is about Sambucky fics/fandom) community is everything. Being a name people recognize and trust is important to regular readership.

Building community: don't be afraid to interact with other writers on this platform or others! The Sambucky fandom has this delightful habit of playfully creating headcanons and ficlets based off of text posts. The Daily Sambucky Fluff Diary project is so much fun and so interactive. I have honestly never been in such a fun, supportive group as the sambucky writers on tumblr. I highly suggest playing in this sandbox and getting familiar with other writers. We hype each other up all the time.

Understanding the rules of play: this is kind of an addendum, but the sambucky fandom is rightfully protective over Sam and his portrayal in fics, as well as Bucky. Reading fics, community interaction posts, and even the rules laid out in various challenges (like the bingos that are hosted at various times) will really help you get a sense of how to respectfully tell stories with Sam and Bucky without being racist, ableist, or disregarding to these characters. Quite often Sam (and Bucky, and especially Sambucky) is only there to prop up other characters. This is something the fandom will (again, rightfully) push back on and avoid. I highly suggest looking at the rules that are laid out in the Sambucky Library's bingo rounds to get an idea of the sandbox rules.

Engagement: the sambucky fandom is small, so we don't really have big organized events like Bangs or Reverse Bangs. However, we do have lots of fun, smaller challenges, namely the bingos! There is also Samtember, the Anniversary Challenge (I don't think that's what we called it) and various prompt week challenges, including an AU week (and we like birthdays here). I highly suggest following @ sambuckylibrary to keep apprised of challenges and prompts. Filling out these prompts when you can and want is a great way to break into the fandom and get engagement with your fics. They are all very low stakes and the reward is new fics, friends, and interaction!

I would also suggest joining a discord server, if that is something you're interested in. (I personally am not in any, but that's because I don't like making new accounts on things, not because I don't want to be part of the fun) This is a great place to interact with other fans, promote your fics, get new recs, and generally reap the fun of fandom in a more condensed space, rather than the entirety of AO3 or tumblr.

One last thing to keep in mind: you've already pointed out that fan fic/art/engagement is decreased in our fandom. This will be reflected in your hits/kudos/comments, especially if you're coming from a bigger fandom. Don't let this discourage you. In fact, I really suggest not looking at stats as much as possible. The wealth of engagement in this fandom will be seen in your relationships and interactions with other fans, not in skyrocketing numbers. Allegedly, Cap4 and Thunderbolts come out in 2025 and our guys look to have an episode in the next season of What-If, but without new content, interest will lag and numerical engagement with it. Just keep this in mind as you begin/ continue your journey into the fandom.

That's a lot of words to say: tag properly, make friends, and have fun ❤️🤍💙❤️🩶🖤🪽🐺

#sambucky #writing #i answer things

[yellowocaballero]

hi please talk about jaime more i am equal parts afraid and excited for his new show

Jaime stan since 2009 reporting for duty sir.

Jaime is the best Spider-Man story we've had in a very long time. I'm including Spider-Man in this. In 2006 it was pretty abnormal to have such a simple story: about a normal kid, who is a very good kid and just wants to do his best, accidentally getting in way over his head and deciding to make the best of a bad situation by helping people and trying to keep his head above water. Jaime's life dream is to become a dentist. His family is highly engaged in his superhero life. Jaime was wholesome without feeling wholesome, and a really exceptional guy while still feeling like an average teen.

Jaime actually did Into The Spider-Verse before ITSV did ITSV: it told a Spider-Man story about a kid struggling to live up to a legacy. About living up to a dead legend, trying to puzzle out his life and make him proud, and how to engage with his life and message. Except I think it did something even more interesting than what ITSV did with Miles.

Because the legacy was that of a loser.

Ted Kord's a joke. Out of universe, he was placed in joke comic after joke comic (Justice League International was exceptional and prided itself on being 100% loser). In universe, nobody took him seriously. How can you take a member of the JLI seriously? The superhero community knew Ted was competent, but they didn't really admire him and they didn't actually like him. He was another annoying supergenius without any superpowers. He never even got the scarab to work. What was Ted Kord's legacy, what legacy was Jaime trying to live up to?

Well, people loved Ted. That's all.

Ted had somebody who, if JLI had been written in 2023 instead of 1980, would have been his husband. He had his husband's family. He had the Justice League International, a misfit team of losers who were losers together. He was insanely smart and very kind and super weird. He had absolutely zero reason to be a hero whatsoever, but he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie and was too weird to live and too rare to die.

What kind of legacy is that? How do you live up to that? Jaime is the kind of superhero who would rather live up to the legacy of a kind man who is loved than a famous man who is revered. The people who loved Ted feature prominently in Jaime's own comic, and the JLI revival where they met Jaime was super emotional. And the Booster Gold comic where he met Jaime made me cry. Jaime's scarab is built to be an ultra death kill murder machine, and Jaime's job is to make it kind. Jaime wanted to leave a legacy of kindness too, and that was how he discovered what kind of Blue Beetle he wanted to be. He never once gave a shit about the rest of it. His life dream is to be a dentist.

Jaime's story has a lot of lasting appeal, because I think he's the kind of hero who fits in with the sensibilities of people today: just a swell lad. But I'm also a Ted Kord fan, and I always really loved the respect and reverence that Jaime always gave Ted: not as somebody who only knew him theoretically or knew the idea of him, but as somebody who was so loved, that he people who loved him showed up at Jaime's door to help him too.

Anyway Jaime's story is SO BASIC that the movie's good/bad is going to hinge entirely 100% of execution so it's impossible to tell right now, I'm holding out judgment. I'm guessing banal and forgettable. Hopefully charming, like Shazam. I am a massive fucking Shazam stan he is the funniest character on God's green earth.

#blue beetle #jaime reyes #ted kord #ppl dont write a good shazam #they dont understand that shazam is what the average 10 year old thinks #would be the coolest possible situation for a 10yo to be in #that in reality would be weirdly awful #but shazam isn't about reality. shazam is about sunshine sparkle. #my asks #my writing

[insextras]

Imagine a krakoan podcast

~ Exodus and Apocalypse are on (for some reason) and they barely say anything the entire time. It's a short episode.

~ The X-terminators are on. Allison tries to take it seriously. Laura is only halfway interested and would honestly rather be doing something else. Tabby and Jubilee keep fooling around with each other and won't stop interrupting. At some point, they kiss "for the fans". Tabby blows her own mic up and part of the table. Luckily, it's krakoa so it grows back. By the end of the episode, half the room is charred and smoking. It's a fan favorite episode.

~ Shaw is on one episode. He spends nearly the entire time sipping brandy and talking business (some of it unethical). Unusually well received episode.

~ Generation X (90's) reunites for an episode. Monet acts like she doesn't want to be there. She's lying and Paige can tell. Angelo and Everett are carrying the conversation. Jubilee won't stop talking. Jono sits watching it all. It's a nice little high school reunion.

~ The O5 comes together. Unfortunately, Hank couldn't be there. They reminisce about their teenage shenanigans. They wonder what things would have been like were they not brought together. They express grief over the challenges they've faced and the trauma of being a mutant, but also celebrate all the good that came from it as well. They make plans to hang out some time. Kinda somber but overall good vibes on this one.

~ Deadpool is on. How did he get here? No one knows. He's already here though, so let's hear what he has to say. He rambles, bouncing from topic to topic with seemingly no end in sight. Occasionally, he'll drop an almost conspiracy theory level fun fact in the conversation. "Hey, did you know that weapon x is one of a handful of top-secret super soldier programs started by the US? And that a bunch of superheroes are superheroes because of it? And that they're still doing experiments like the one that made me like this?" He removes his mask. "It's like one big freaky web of lies!" How does he know that? No one knows. No one's inclined to believe him anyway. In fact, all anyone DOES know is that this episode will probably be thrown out.

~ Selene is on the show. She claims to want to build a fanbase. She probably just wants people to eat. She spends the whole episode explaining the occult and trying to recruit people. She isn't allowed back but the episode is highly rated amongst the audience (particularly female viewers).

~ The New Mutants are on. Everyone shows up, save for Amara. Doug was there but had to leave for council duties. Illyana won't take her feet off the table. She also has a half-finished jar of what is probably coffee. Dani warns her to slow down on that stuff, but Illyana shrugs her off. They look back on their days of fighting demons occasionally and watching TV shows together. They joke on Magneto's sleeveless purple onesie from when he was their headmaster. Rahne says she kinda liked it. None of them believe her and they all laugh. Berto keeps getting in the camera to check himself out. Dani yells at him to sit down. When he finally decides to sit, he jumps in Sam's lap. Sam, of course, plays along and clutches Berto tighter while he dramatically throws his arms round Sam's neck. The ladies find their silliness hysterical. Highly rated episode and people want them back.

~ It's X-Factor this time around. Lorna, Terry, Jamie, and Guido show up. Lorna and Terry are actually trying to engage and have conversation. Guido keeps turning everything into a joke. Either that or telling a story about "this one time". Jamie is irritated he keeps doing it. Despite that, Lorna and Terry try to stay on topic. At some point, Guido asks Jamie if he would ever fuck one of his dupes. Jamie declines (though he's had this thought before) saying that he's not gay so he wouldn't. Guido counters asking if sex with yourself is gay sex or just masturbation. This debate continues for at least 30 mins. In the end it's revealed that Jamie (prime) was never there, just one of his dupes. To everyone's surprise, the people want Guido back for another one.

#exodus #apocalypse #dazzler #wolverine #talon #boom boom #jubilee #x terminators #xterminators #sebastian shaw #monet st croix #husk #skin #synch #chamber #jean grey #cyclops #angel #iceman #deadpool #selene gallio #mirage #cypher #wolfsbane #cannonball #sunspot #magik #polaris #xmen #x men

[longitudinalwaveme]

I know Cold is protective of his sister and actually killed Chillblaine for killing his sister. So how would Cold handle it if his sister was killed because she went after someone and their loved ones and that person basically defended themselves? If that person went to Cold asking for help do you think Cold would help?

If Cold decided he wanted revenge over Lisa’s death would the other Rogues support him?🧐

This is a very interesting question, and I think it depends on a couple of variables.

Who is the person? If it's a superhero, like the Flash, he would probably seek revenge, since I would expect him to believe that the superhero should have been able to protect themselves or their family without killing his sister. If not, why are they a superhero? That being said, if it was a big-name superhero, I doubt he would kill them, because that would bring the Justice League down on his head. Similarly, if the person in question was a supervillain, then he's definitely seeking revenge and would probably try to kill them. If it's a regular civilian, I think he would probably be less likely to seek revenge, but I doubt he would help anyone who had killed his sister for any reason.

Were children involved? If children are involved, especially if they're young, he'd be a lot less likely to seek revenge, even for Lisa. He'll do a lot for his little sister, but I do think he'd be frustrated with her if she was trying to attack children, and that he might even think that on some level she might have had it coming if she went after them (although he'd be very unlikely to admit this to himself).

Why was Lisa going after the person in question? If it was a revenge attack on her part, he's more likely to want revenge (since he would therefore view her attack on them as more-or-less justified as they had wronged her in some way). If they were a target of opportunity (e.g., someone she attacked as a distraction for a larger plan), then he'd be less likely to want revenge as it would be more difficult for him to justify her actions.

Was Roscoe involved? If he was, Len would be a lot less likely to seek revenge on the person who was attacked, since he hates Roscoe basically on principle at this point. If anything, Len might actually go after Roscoe in that situation, as he would blame Roscoe for putting Lisa in the position to be killed.

As for whether the Rogues would help him get revenge on the person, it depends on both the situational factors mentioned above and on which Rogue we're talking about.

Pied Piper would never support him in that sort of situation, especially after he reforms.

Heat Wave would be very unlikely to help him with revenge in this scenario. Attacking a superhero is one thing, going after their loved ones is another.

The first Trickster, James Jesse, would also probably not support him in a revenge attack against someone who acted in self-defense. There's very little fun to be had in a bloody revenge scheme.

The first Mirror Master, Sam Scudder, might help Captain Cold find the person, but I don't know if he'd be invested enough to actually help in the attack. He'd probably just take Cold where he wanted to go and then sit back and watch how things played out from there---unless it was a superhero or supervillain, in which case he's definitely joining in so that he can show off.

The Weather Wizard would probably be on board with helping Cold out. Len's his friend, and he's generally quite hostile to anyone who harms another Rogue.

Captain Boomerang Sr. (Digger) would 100% be on board with finding and killing the person. Not because he cares about revenge necessarily; he just likes fighting people. The only exception would be if the person who killed Lisa was a superhero or supervillain of sufficient power to make him fear that he would die if he engaged them.

Captain Boomerang Jr. (Owen) would probably not help Captain Cold get revenge on someone who was defending themselves and their family. He's not a stranger to seeking revenge, but I doubt he'd be in favor of it in this case.

The second Trickster, Axel Walker, would support Captain Cold. He definitely wouldn't care about the revenge aspect of things, but he likes to look tough and cause trouble, and hunting down the person who killed Lisa would help him achieve both goals.

The second Mirror Master, Evan McCulloch, would probably support Cold's vendetta and take an active role in hunting down whoever had killed Lisa---with one caveat. If children were involved, and Cold was seeking revenge anyway, I suspect that Evan would turn on him quickly. Evan is very protective of children, and wouldn't be on board with killing someone who was likewise protecting them.

And then there's the Top. He's going to want to seek revenge himself, so he would be in support of Captain Cold in the sense that he would agree that they needed to hunt down whoever killed Lisa, but I could also see the two of them getting into a fight over who had the right to kill the person in question, or even each of them blaming the other in addition to the person who had actually killed her for her death. It's not impossible that they would team up to find whoever had killed her, but it seems a lot more likely that they would be individually hunting the person down.

#flash rogues #flash comics #captain cold #golden glider

[artbyblastweave]

I've seen a lot of crossovers featuring superheroes from other IPs getting zorped into the Boysverse and setting the local cape scene straight... but nah, what *I* wanna see is what happens if you take a superVILLAIN from a non-parody IP and drop them in there - I'm talking like SILVER AGE BATMAN villain-wackiness here. Can you imagine the pure HELL they'd raise putting the screws to the Boysverse's poor excuses for heroes to try and find even ONE good cape to make a proper nemesis rivalry with?

So one interesting idea advanced by the comic- and one of the comic's several contradictory approaches to how the balance of power worked within the setting- was that Vought didn't have the supe population completely buttoned down, and thus traditional silver-age supervillains like this did sometimes pop up. And consequently a major part of Homelander's added-value to the company was that the exact second these supervillains started causing any serious disruption, he could just fly in and kill them instantly, and then the PR guys would spin up a comic about the battle that painted it as a much more drawn-out affair in which the villain's own powers or gadgetry always ended up backfiring and giving them a disney-villain death despite Homelander's noble attempts to save them from themselves. ( I believe that the sequence in which he casually butchers a Falling-down style gunman was the analogous dynamic in the show; meant to imply that the balance of power, and thus the danger, is firmly in the hands of the supposed heroes.)

You could dump, say, Megamind into The Boys, but if he survived and thrived, it would look.... basically like the back half of Megamind, actually, where he realizes he's up against a homicidal lunatic who is in no way abiding by his preferred rules of engagement or treating the conflict as a game. Which isn't to say he'd lose, or that he wouldn't look stylish while fighting The Seven, but it would be a mistake to assume that he wouldn't have to work for it, or that he wouldn't need to take the situation extremely seriously in order to survive. He wouldn't be able to find a nemesis, true, but basically for the same reason Punisher doesn't have a nemesis; he wouldn't be fighting the kinds of fights that are particularly conducive to a rematch.

#megamind #the boys #asks #superheroes #thoughts #meta #homelander

[thewhizzyhead]

wait no pero legit here's the thing about the rise of the darlentina shippers okay and why i consider it so groundbreaking in so many ways. first of all, it's philippine mainstream media and gay shit on mainstream media almost never happens here so to actually see people, fans and actors and producers alike, clamor for the narda x regina or darlentina dynamic here - despite it being a fan-pairing and despite the fact that both are in this love-triangle dynamic with the main cop lead- is absolutely insane. SECOND OF ALL, because of the darlentina dynamic and the many, many edits on social media platforms everywhere, abs cbn (aka the studio airing the darna reboot) was able to finally bring back massive social media attention on their teleseryes. and here's the thing about filipino teleseryes: most gen z's stuck on the internet don't give a shit about them anymore because who would give a shit over recycled tropes, cliches, and plotlines that, more often that not, revolve around super straight couples with the same old dynamics and same old heteronormative shit? so, for sapphic filipino twitter to actually give a shit about a teleserye again because of new and actually well-written and well-performed dynamics between the hero and her archnemesis? that is, once again, absolutely insane - so insane that we actually managed to loop in the rest of international sapphic twitter as well. WE ACTUALLY FOUND SOMETHING INTERESTING AND ENGAGING AND REVOLUTIONARY TO WATCH ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA AGAIN AND AS A RESULT, FILIPINO TELESERYE TITLES ARE BACK AGAIN ON THE TRENDING PAGES. WE GIVE A SHIT NOW BECAUSE WE FOUND SOMETHING WORTH CARING ABOUT. but this also means that we also find stuff worth criticizing in the show and in Filipino Teleserye writing in general - and holy shit there are a lot: copaganda especially considering the sociopolitical climate here what with cop shittiness, men-centric writing, cheesy lines, forced romantic pairings, the SUPERHERO SHOW focusing on thE COPS instead of tHE SUPERHERO, the "women empowerment" failing the fucking bechdel test, bland writing that focuses only on the "kilig" factor, inconsistent characterization to the point that narda cites the cop love interest as her inspiration instead of, like, HER FUCKING MOM - THE ONLY OTHER "DARNA" SHE KNOWS, yea you get the point. These issues and more have always been issues in Filipino teleseryes though and we've grown so used to them that we no longer give a fuck anymore. but, because of how much potential the Darna reboot holds - even outside of the Darlentina thing - and because of how incredibly tired we are of shitty, shitty, writing in Philippine television, we continue to make the show trend not just with our love for Jane De Leon and Janella Salvador but with our critiques of the show. Keep in mind, we've been staying away from teleseryes for quite a long while now because of the same old shit and now that another local show has managed to get our attention to the point that we are actively advocating for better writing speaks volumes! so, when you guys see the darlentina thing trend not just on twitter but in other platforms as well, remember that this isn't just a matter of us wanting good gay representation on Philippine mainstream media. this is a matter of us finally wanting good stories back on teleseryes because we fully well know that us Filipinos deserve so much better than the same rehashed and backward plotlines.

#apologies for the very long ramble i just have a lot of Thoughts especially after the most recent mess of an episode #like we deserve better shows and we won't be afraid to make that known #especially when the fucking show is using the most famous superheroine in the philippines #TO BOOST THE PERCEPTION OF PHILIPPINE COPS #ESPECIALLY GIVEN THE CONTEXT OF HOW SHITTY COPS ARE HERE #THAT EVEN REGINA - YES A CHARACTER IN THE FUCKING SHOW - POINTS THAT OUT #so yea anyways today's episode was very stressy #darna #darna 2022 #darlentina #abs cbn #philippines #jane de leon #janella salvador #narda custodio #regina vanguardia

[olderthannetfic]

I've stopped wearing merch for most fandoms in public, or expressing interest with strangers irl because I'm scared that people will call me out for being a pro-sh*pper or engaging with problematic content. ¶

Like, I'm never going to understand every bit of nuance to every show ever. Some antis will dub an entire piece of media problematic because one voice actor was charged with SA ten years after the show came out. Am I supposed to know that [x] character is a racist stereotype against [y] group, just like, intrinsically? ¶

It's so tiring to try and keep up with all this nuance that I've just gone back to hiding the fact that I engage in anything more specific than "superhero comics" where I can just pretend that the problematic material didn't happen in my canon. It's like it's 2008 again and I wouldn't admit to reading fanfic if you held a gun to my head.¶

There was like a good 3-5 years for me where I could drag my friends by their ankles into fandom and hand them notebooks filled with my early fics, and now I can't even play "Paint it Black" in the car without my passenger telling me that it's problematic to cast a woman of color as a bully archetype. ¶

I'm certainly no fandom elder, I'm in my early 20s, but it feels like once Twitter became a fandom space, it was all downhill from there. And I can't help but feel like this purity culture does more harm than good by removing all the nuance and making everyone that much more susceptible to propaganda. And it's obnoxious that I got those 3-5 good years and saw what fandom could be like before it was ruined.¶

Ant/s have controlled the narrative and branded themselves as these bastions of "good fandom" and anyone who disagrees with them is an irl pedophile or something. Purity culture is exactly the reason ff.net has fallen in the eyes of a lot of us. ¶

As a fandom elder, maybe you've seen this happen? I've been tempted to block mutuals for posting anti-AO3 takes even though we're good friends in specific fandoms. I have actually slowly dropped contact with real life friends for their takes when I moved to college and stopped seeing them every day. It's just.... So exhausting. I just wanna read my 30th hurt/comfort fic in a row in peace, ya know? ¶

~🧰

--

This isn't something I ever experienced. When I was your age, the reactionary stupidity was of a different flavor. (We were still young, excitable dumbasses and everyone picked up a new and passionate conviction freshman year of college, but they were different passionate convictions.)

I absolutely drop people for being antis the same as I would drop them for being a racist or opposing abortion access or otherwise having disgraceful political stances I don't want in my space.

Twitter has done a lot of harm, but I also think some of this is a problem of being out of step with people one's own age. That gets much better as you get older and people have friend groups with a much wider age spread and/or people one's own age grow in different directions.

[bossferatu]

the characterization in this episode was off the charts.

we saw a lot of how each of the party views violence, what lines they have in regards to that.

to Rey it is a release. His beast is like a visceral itch under his skin, and so far we've only seen it scratched by violence. As much as he doesn't seem the typical Gangrel, his impulsive tendency to violence is about as aligned with his clan as he ever gets.

What's interesting about this is how he CANNOT handle the consequences of his violence. He can't deal with the aftermath of satisfying his basest urges. We saw this with Shaun (Sean?) and how he now mistrusts Fuego, despite how eagerly and without hesitation he satisfied his hunger.

Rey hasn't yet comes to terms with the violence he so craves, and he puts no forethought into what the consequences to his actions might be.

to Fuego it is power over a situation. We've seen before how she envies Rey's physical strength. She sees that as power. As ability to impose her will over others, much like her ability to Mesmerize.

She still sees herself as a superhero, as someone good, someone defending her home. She thinks she is right, that her choices and wants are more noble or better than others. But that's not why she does it, that's just her own excuse to herself. From what I've seen, she uses her 'morality' as an excuse to exert power without feeling bad. She hates being called a 'landlord' but doesn't hesitate to use Lingering Kiss on Shye, essentially getting them addicted to her kiss, just so she can keep feeding.

She doesn't think of consequences, only reacting according to her righteous impulse. She is classic Ventrue, seeking to push her power on others. She, unlike most Ventrue, seeks to protect what's important to her, but that doesn't make what she does good.

Fuego is one of the most complex vampires I've ever seen, and endlessly compelling, but she isn't a hero. She's ignorant to what danger she's constantly putting herself and all those closest to her in. And that makes her incredibly interesting and possibly my favorite character of this chronicle.

Serif is a little more difficult to gauge, from this episode, but it's clear to see that she has clear boundaries. She hasn't directly engaged in much violence this chronicle, standing by while the others take the more physical approach.

however, what we do get to see from her is her boundaries when it comes to ghouls. We already knew she was sensitive about the admittedly incredibly morally (dark) grey area in which ghouls operate. She doesn't seem to care much whether or not the coterie kills one of the security guards, but the second Rey wants to use his Vitae to save the other, she has a big reaction.

something that this implies, to me, is that she's not particularly concerned with the morality of it, or she wouldn't be, if not for her personal experience with ghouls. When Angela expresses contentment with her life, her choice, and with Isaac as her 'employer', Serif is upset. In fact, she's the same level of upset as she is when Rey gives the security guard NO CHOICE. This, to me shows that it's just the principle, the existence of ghouls which upsets her, not the actual morality of the situation surrounding creating one.

like Fuego, she uses morality to justify her own impulse and reactions, not the other way around. As much as she likes to believe it is a moral code that rules her actions, she is using it as an excuse.

this is not to say that these two are not some of the most (seemingly) moral kindred we will likely see. They both contain great capacity for kindness and humanity, but they are not as morally pure as they'd like to think.

to Isaac, I think it's clear that violence is a means to an end. He's pragmatic to a fault, and wouldn't needlessly endanger him and his in order to enact violence. He's the most reasonable of the group in that aspect thus far, and that's unsurprising, considering the situation he finds himself in.

he knows what dangers lurk for Kindred, and as a Tzimisce in Anarch territory very close to the Camarilla, he's in an even more precarious position than any of the other members of the Coterie. It occurs to me that while he's mentioned Shrecknet and how humans took it down, the others have no idea what danger the Second Inquisition poses. They haven't even really been informed about the Masquerade and WHY it exists.

he is now affiliated with this Coterie, partially in charge of the area they're in, and will be held EXTREMELY responsible for any breaks in the Masquerade. Already distrusted by the Anarchs, Isaac has no room for messy violence, even if it happened to be in his nature.

unlike the others, it doesn't seem like he's ruled by impulse, nor by morality. He is logical and pragmatic, or so he seems so far. It makes perfect sense that he should be furious or annoyed at the rest of the Coterie. He's the only one who understands the gravity of the situation in its fullness (or so it seems). And now, he has to clean up a big mess.

we'll see in future episodes, but here are my two cents about what the violence in this episode tells us about our new lil baby coterie. I for one was surprised that the shoe dropped so early, though I shouldn't have been, the tension has been piling up so quickly.

#a ventrue and a tzimisce walk into an underground parking lot #one of them mesmerizes and kills a security guard on the fly #the other cleans up the mess #it's not who you think #ny by night #new york by night #vtm #tzimisce #ventrue #gangrel #ravnos #vampire the masquerade #thank you Jason Carl and Co for the meal #ny by night spoilers

[neikikardartv]

Watchmen (2019)

Alternate History Roundtable

 What is the koinos kosmos (common world) and mutually assumed knowledge the series shares with viewers? 

The show Watchmen (2019) is set in the universe of the comic with the same name but takes place 30 years later. The “koinos kosmos” is that due to having the superhero abilities of Dr. Manhattan the US was able to win the Vietnam War in one month and Nixon instead of being impeached became very popular and amends the constitution to allow presidents to run for more than two terms. He then remains president until the late 80s when Robert Redford was elected president. The show starts in 2019 and Robert Redford is still president. He is very liberal and has passed The Victims of Racial Violence Legislation which grants a lifetime of tax exemptions for victims and descendents of racial justice in America, known as “Redfordations”. This and his other liberal policies have led to more white supremacist backlash against these victims and a white supremacist group known as The Seventh Cavalry is at large in Tulsa, Oklahoma where the show takes place. The history of the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 is central to the plot.   

How does the series depict cultural hybridity through the altered history’s role in reflecting and reshaping cultural assumptions? 

In the beginning of the first episode cultural hybridity occurs when the main character is showing her son’s class how to create a Vietnamese dish she learned how to make while living there. What starts out seeming just like any normal presentation in our world changes when the teacher asks her if she was born before or after Vietnam was made a state? In the background of this shot there is also a poster that states “Four Important Presidents” with Robert Redford and Nixon being the top two.

The setting of an elementary school classroom is a great place to demonstrate the cultural hybridity as the cultural changes from the altered historical timeline are subtly showcased through the educational set design and questions asked. 

How does the series depict the power of understanding world-creation? 

A sacred “text” that is seminal to world creation in Watchmen similar to “Grasshopper'' in The Man in the High Castle, is the lore of the superhuman “Minuteman group” that was the originator of the events that led to Dr. Manhattan and the altered history of the Vietnam War. The influence of them is implemented in the show as a recurring motif via a made for TV special that dramatizes the story of the Minuteman through propaganda. Segments of the special are shown in the series via the TV or the audio serving as a narration for scenes of the present day masked vigilantes. Similar to TMITHC the world-creation being shown through the visual media demonstrates that “[w]what we understand to be ‘real’ or what ‘truly’ happened is determined by what and how we see, read, and hear”(212).

In what ways do formulations of the past, present, and future engage with prospective realities of what might have been and what might be in the series’ alerted history? ​​

The series focus on how the altered history impacts race relations in America is interesting because there are many different ways the show could have explored the previous Watchmen universe events on the future of that reality. By focusing on the Tulsa Race Riots, an event that occurred before Watchmen’s timeline got altered, the show is anchored with something canon in both of our realities. This makes the fictional white supremacy plotline of the show all the more real as it has roots in actual events. While the show is not meant to take place in the future, the altered world is still very “rooted in the present of its time of creation”. The show aired in 2019 fresh off of Republic president Trump where open displays of white supremacy took place often with things like “The Unite the Right” Rally. By focusing still on white supremacy in a universe where an extremely liberal president has been in place since the 70s the show demonstrates that racism is still a systemic part of the present and history of the US no matter the historical changes and liberal policies that have been enacted since the timeline changed.  

How do multiple realities or contemplations of multiple realities merge with questions of authenticity? 

Similar to TMITHC Watchmen also deals with, ‘“a litany of duplicities” within the reality that merge with questions of authenticity. In the first episode we meet the chief of police that is in charge of the task force against the white supremacist group​ The Seventh Cavalry.  The episode ends with him being found violently hung from a tree. While he and the main character who also works for the police (named Angela played by Regina King) were very close, someone at the murder scene calls into question the chief of police’s nature. Angela then investigates him and finds a Seventh Cavalry Klan hoodie in his closet.  This uncertainty and lack of authenticity within people who seemed on the right side initially flips the new reality of the world even more. Making it hard to know who is really who they say they are, and who the bad guys and villains really are. If even the chief of police who openly is against racism is secretly a white supremacist in this world that has a more liberal facade, then the authenticity of the cause and what people claim to champion is all called into question. @theuncannyprofessoro

#oxyspeculativetv