#and go on heroically presented killing sprees

[peacereturnedtothevalley]

remembering a thought I had back when I was listening to hieron, which was like “wow none of these guys have secret super tragic backstories they’re just causing their own very bad problems on screen in front of me”

Which applies to most of the pcs across seasons I think. I just think it’s neat

does anyone have a deep dark sad past in fatt in this nature bc I can’t remember any

#mostly I was reminiscing about old fatt things and also the number of dead wife backstories in other contemporary(?) aps #specifically the dead wife (gay) reveal on that other show happening the same day blue j came out #or like #the other guy on that other show who’s whole family died tragically when he was a child or something #is it just in the nature of dnd to have untethered orphaned sad person so they have reasons to go find a group of other similar people #and go on heroically presented killing sprees #much to think about

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review: Totally Killer (2023)

Totally Killer (2023)

Rated R for bloody violence, language, sexual material, and teen drug/alcohol use

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2023/10/review-totally-killer-2023.html>

Score: 3 out of 5

Totally Killer is a film where you can see the marks of Happy Death Day written all over it. That movie, which has grown in my estimation over the years, set a template for a kind of horror-comedy that Blumhouse has since come to specialize in, one that combines a slasher movie storyline with a big, high-concept hook straight out of a classic retro comedy (in Happy Death Day's case, it was Groundhog Day). In this case, director Nahnatchka Khan and writers David Matalon, Sasha Perl-Raver, and Jen D'Angelo not only put a slasher twist on the basic plot of Back to the Future and the Bill & Ted films, they went the extra mile and set large parts of the film in the '80s as well, having its modern-day protagonist confounded by the values of the decade as much as Marty McFly was by the '50s. The result is a film I enjoyed, but wanted to like more than I actually did given the wild ride that the trailers promised. On one hand, it nailed the comedy side of the equation and had a cool-looking killer, a great co-lead performance by Olivia Holt as an '80s mean girl, and a story that seemed to be going in some interesting directions, but on the other, the horror side was fairly rote, it held back on some of the ideas it leaned towards, and its leading lady Kiernan Shipka didn't do much to elevate the material. Ultimately, I'd sooner rewatch The Final Girls as a film that did a superficially similar story more effectively, but I can't deny that there's still a lot to like about this one, and I don't regret having watched it.

The film starts on Halloween in 2023, thirty-six years after Pam Hughes survived a killing spree where three of her friends were murdered by the "Sweet Sixteen Killer", a masked murderer who stabbed each of his victims sixteen times on their sixteenth birthdays in late October. Now, Pam is a soccer mom with a teenage daughter named (what else?) Jamie -- and tonight, she herself gets murdered by the Sweet Sixteen Killer, who was never caught and seems to have come back to finish the job. Jamie, distraught over her mother's death, suddenly receives two leads, first from a local true crime podcaster named Chris who tells her that Pam had received a note from the killer reading "you're next, one day" that she had kept secret, and second from her best friend Amelia, a science whiz who's trying to enter the science fair with a time machine that her mother Lauren designed but which she can't get to work. Thanks to some accidental intervention by the killer, Jamie somehow manages to figure out how to make the machine work, and gets sent back in time to 1987 on the day of the first murder. With a heads-up from the killer, she sets out to not only solve her mother's murder in the present, but also save her mother's friends in the past.

The comedy side of the film was clearly where Khan and the writers were most invested in the material. A lot of humor is mined from Jamie's reactions to not only how different the adults in her life were when they were her age, but also how the '80s were a very different time when it came to everything from politics to permissiveness, and not necessarily for the better, a rather appropriate perspective to take given how much of the film's plot concerns Jamie realizing just how much of a bitch her mother was back when she was her age. And on that note, Olivia Holt as young Pam was this film's heart and soul, not only looking like a perfect dead ringer for a young Julie Bowen (who plays her grown-up self) but understanding the assignment and feeling like nothing less than a more mean-spirited (if still heroic) version of the characters that her idol Molly Ringwald plays. Whenever Holt was on screen, which was fortunately often, this movie sparkled to life. The supporting cast, too, served as capable accomplices for Holt, whether it's their job to act frightened or make you laugh, and occasionally do both at the same time. (One kill in particular late in the film stands as one of the funniest "comedy" deaths I've ever seen.) The horror side of the film was a fairly boilerplate whodunit slasher that would be familiar to anyone who's seen Scream (a film that this one namedrops) or any of the films that followed in its wake. However, it was elevated by a killer whose look alone was creepy, wearing a Max Headroom-inspired mask that feels right at home in this movie's darkly comic sendup of the '80s and giving a twisted sort of edge to him. It may have just been aesthetics rather than substance, but those aesthetics were really damn cool, and given how much this movie is powered by a love of the visual and sonic landscape of '80s pop culture, it was exactly what the movie needed.

It was fortunate that this movie had Holt and its totally killer (sorry) style propelling it, because there were otherwise a lot of weak links here -- and unfortunately, they were some big ones. For starters, while I liked Kiernan Shipka on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, I found myself very disappointed with her performance here, a problem given that she was supposed to be the main character. She acquitted herself well enough with the scares and as the "straight man" to the humor, but this film was built around Jamie's relationship with her mother, and while Holt carried her side of that story well enough, Shipka fell flat and couldn't get me interested in the character. What's more, the writing missed some very interesting and incisive directions that it could've gone in, tying Jamie's shock at her mother's awful behavior as a teenager to the jokes poking fun at the political incorrectness of the '80s and using both to craft a broader theme about how our memories of the past are all too often colored by selective nostalgia that glosses over the uncomfortable sides of the things we love. It's a dramatic throughline that was practically right there, waiting to be tapped, and yet the film barely even seems to think about how two of its primary elements might connect to one another. Finally, the reveal of the killer's identity was telegraphed almost from the moment we're introduced to one particular character, and the film did nothing to play around with it, resulting in a flat, uninteresting villain with a motive that's been done many times before and often better.

The Bottom Line

Totally Killer is goofy to a fault, seeming to actively avoid finding any deeper meaning in what it's saying in favor of delivering a sugar rush of '80s nostalgia. On that front, it delivered exactly what it set out to, a mix of retro aesthetics, lots of funny jokes, and a performance by Olivia Holt that ought to be a stepping stone to bigger and better things. If you wanna have some fun, check it out, though I do wish it got a bit meatier than it wound up being.

#totally killer #2023 #2023 movies #horror #horror movies #comedy #comedy movies #horror comedy #olivia holt #kiernan shipka #slasher #slasher movies #time travel #julie bowen #liana liberato #lochlyn munro #randall park

[johannepetereric]

Fuck you if you don’t like Shang-Chi—Live Reaction

Shang-Chi drives an epic red car just to be a bellhopper XD

Asshole thinks Gangnam Style is an insult XD

YOOOOOOOO, Shang-Chi’s mom taught him how to fight before he got to America! And he just kicked the ass of our first baddie like cray-cray! And it’s a reveal! 

Not ANOTHER disabled villain 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

I just LOVE that there’s a Twitch streamer on the bus for da realism/comedy XD

Poor bus driver :(

KATY IS CHEKHOV’S CAR PARKER!!!

“WHAT SIGNAL?!” SHE SAID IT! SHE SAID WHAT WE’RE ALL THINKING!!!

I don’t think they have the money for TWO plane tickets!

Wait, no, it was the evil Dad who taught him to kick ass.

“I was taught every possible way to kill a man” But he doesn’t. He’s too kind-hearted for that.

OMG MY SECOND PLANE SCENE IN A ROW!! AND MORE COMEDY OUT OF IT!!!

So Shang-Chi went to America to escape his father.

Katy, “Shang-Chi” is the slant g, almost silent, and the chi sounds even and sch-like, and the “Shang” is also pronounced like “Shahng”. I think. One Choir and French class each isn’t exactly a great resume for Internet Linguistics. 

THE FUCKING ABOMINATION VS WONG!!!

I guess this is where Wong comes from.

“Now take your shirt off” *cue Careless Whisper*

Why is Xu Xaoling presented like Darth Vader? 

Xu Xaoling and Katy have Lingering Sexual Tension.

I LOVE the comedic timing in Shang-Chi!

Katy’s name is apparently Ruiwen but she can’t pronounce Shang-Chi

OMG SHANG-CHI’S DAD GREW UP WITH THE KIDS, TOO! AND PLAYED DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION WITH THEM!!!

Renwu?

Wait, the mom’s name is just “Li”? 

OMG SHE’S ACTUALLY A GHOST!!!

Yung Li?

SHANG-CHI GETS A HYPE-ASS RED COSTUME AS PROTECTOR OF THE DARK GATE!!!

THAT’S IT! I recognize Xu Xiaoling’s colors from Cassandra Cain, Orphan and Batgirl!

XU XIAOLING IMMEDIATELY GETS A COOL ROPE WEAPON!!!

The captions say the amputated good is called Razor Fist, the name graffitied onto Trevor’s car. Is there something going on there?👀👀👀

Shang-Chi watched his Mom get murdered.

And a few days later watched his Dad go on a killing spree. 

I’m LIVING fir the color contrast between the Dad’s blue armor and the Ten Rings vs. Ta Lo’s red robes.

The special effects and CGI and the writers all the art teams all need big raises for this masterpiece!

I love the emotional storytelling!

SHANG-CHI CAN RIDE A FUCKING DRAGON!!!

TREVOR LITERALLY PLAYED DEAD!! HE CAN SLOW DOWN HIS EVERYTHING TO COME ACROSS AS DEAD!!

SHANG-CHI LITERALLY JUST CAUGHT THE TEN RINGS AND FLUNG THEM IN A CIRCLE AND DOEN AND NOW THEY’RE FLOATING RED/ORANGE WILL O’ THE WISPS!!

THE TEN RINGS CHOSE SHANG-SCHONAS HE’S COMBINING TA LO’S TEACHINGS TO WIELD THEM!!

His name’s Wenwu.

FATHER SON TEAM UP SGAINST THE MOTHERFUCKING FIVE-WINGED DRAGON!!

RENWU’S AURA IS RAINBOW AND HE’S GONNA FUCKING HEROIC SACRIFICE!!

WHEN THE TEN RINGS TOUCHED SHANG-CHI, THEY TURNED ORANGE INSTEAD OF BLUE

OH MY GOSH THEY MEMORIALIZE THE DEAD BY RUNNING CHINESE LANTERN ACROSS THE RIVER!!! AND SHANG-CHI ROWED ONE FOR WENWU!!

WONG JUST SHOWED UP ON POINT LIKE IN SHE-HULK!!

#shang chi and the legend of the ten rings

[reginrokkr]

Putting under cut some spoiler-related talk, so proceed with caution if you don't want to be spoiled about the Dirge of Bilqis world quest!

The ending of this last quest did make me think of something and this is probably going to be an unpopular opinion, but the Traveler, even if they aren't doing shit actively as their Abyss twin counterpart is, isn't nothing short of a calamitous being in Teyvat. There is this one quote of one of the Black Knight Serpents we encounter in the Chasm in order to get these orbs that eventually let us reach to a closed room:

「…Companion of that tyrant, “fate”, the traveler known as “calamity”…」

                                                                               —Edgetho, Breaker of the Oath of Silence.

And in all fairness, while at the time I had no idea why this quote was thrown randomly at the Traveler, I'm starting to understand now even though there was a clue even further in the past than when this happened.

We have this person that is known as a hero because of their deeds in every nation, but deep down it's very obvious that this is done for the sake of having us, as the player, feel important and as part of the story. In my honest opinion this removes part of the relevance of other characters that can partake in the problem-solving of their own nation just as fine.

Now, let's take a moment to build a hypothetical case: we remove the Traveler from all these "heroic" deeds and think of them as being each of the respective nation characters' deeds instead. If we take that out of the equation, while the Traveler displayed an interesting ability which is purifying (that was never again touched on), there is nothing relevant. But there is if we consider that we as the Traveler went on a killing spree of that one last clan of Inazuma by the face and then went on to defeat Ferigees, who was protecting the Eternal Oasis and preventing it from falling.

We know that time eventually would make it fall either way, but in doing what we did we precipitated that which... in my eyes it's far from being okay if we're to think about all the sacrifices it took to be able to accomplish that. Let's think about the forbidden knowledge for which the Scarlet King sacrificed himself in order to stall the calamity that was. About Greater Lord Rhukkadevata who was spent after helping out and lost a great deal of her strength. About the people who died at the time and all the way to the present because of the Eleazar.

By this I don't mean to criticize Jeht because it was because of her we accompanied her in this journey, but something I'm missing in this game is this thing about "hey, how about we don't in case xyz happens", maybe something akin to Life is Strange. All decisions carry consequences and in this case, it was the precipitation of making this Eternal Oasis fall. Something tells me that it won't be the last thing we'll see of this kind happening as it already happened once in the past, but man does this make you consider how some things better stay the same without being touched. By an outlander at that that presumably isn't from this world which might make things even worse because at the closest opportunity they'll leave and with that they'll leave behind what they've done without affecting their lives.

#◟༺✦༻◞ what lays behind the mantle of faux stars ┊ooc.┊ #in all fairness I didn't think much of it #when the clan moment happened in Inazuma #even though it was really 'wtf we just killed off a clan #for the funsies of it' #but this mission here was an eye-opener to what happened there #and in Inazuma #and I really don't like it

[akaraboonline]

Who is the Dallas mall shooter, Mauricio Garcia?

Mauricio Garcia has been named as the culprit in the tragic mall shooting that took place on Saturday in Allen, Texas that left eight people dead and numerous others injured. Fox News Digital's records reveal that Garcia, 33, is from Dallas, Texas. The suspect's age, residence, and vehicle all match the descriptions provided by law officials. About 30 miles south of the shooting at the Allen Premium Outlets in Dallas, Garcia's last known destination was a motel. Records obtained by Fox News Digital show that Garcia is associated with an email address with the subject line "deathdestructionandlove." According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Mauricio Garcia served in the U.S. Army before being discharged due to mental health issues. The mall incident was described by the governor as a "unspeakable tragedy." Later, he took part in a local vigil held in memory of the deaths. "Texas will be with you every step of the way as this community heals," he declared. According to records received, Christian Garcia, the suspect's brother, has a number of criminal histories, including home invasion and public intoxication. His address is indicated as being Mauricio's. According to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press under the condition of anonymity, federal investigators are looking into whether Mauricio Garcia was inspired by white supremacist or neo-Nazi views, but they did not go into further detail. The government representative stated that the probe was still in its early stages. According to the source, federal agents were looking into social media profiles allegedly used by Garcia to express support for extreme viewpoints. Garcia also wore a patch on his chest that read "RWDS"—a putative abbreviation for the far-right group "Right Wing Death Squad," according to the source. According to the source, federal investigators have reportedly questioned Garcia's family members and associates about his political views. According to KHOU, multiple FBI agents arrived to a residence in Dallas' Northeast Patrol district while several Dallas Police officers stood outside. The home is where the alleged shooter, who is in his 30s, lives with his parents, according to numerous sources who spoke with the site. According to KHOU, the agents were reportedly conversing with family members present in the house. The family reportedly asked for a translation. On Sunday morning, FBI agents worked alongside police to examine the suspect's house, where he, according to neighbors, has lived for many years. Additionally, neighbors informed WFAA that he was frequently observed leaving and entering the house wearing an outfit that implied a security position. Neighbors said that despite the numerous sightings, the man and his gray Dodge Charger have both gone missing quite a bit lately. Additionally, neighbors told KHOU they had no recollection of any police action or issues at the house. Despite noticing some odd and silent actions, they did note how quiet he was. At around 3:30 pm local time, the shooter started his spree, and security cameras captured him getting out of what appeared to be a gray Dodge Charger. At the mall, a policeman heard the gunshots and ran in that direction. The shooter was then killed by the cop after they engaged. Six victims were pronounced dead at the site, while two more passed away from their wounds while being transported to the hospital or afterwards. As of Sunday morning, three of the attack's victims were still in serious condition and seven individuals were still hurt. "We are saddened by the senseless tragedy that occurred today and appalled by the ongoing violence in our nation. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and everyone else impacted by this horrific act. The heroic acts of the police officer and the assistance of all first responders are appreciated, the Simon Property Group said in a statement. Allen Premium Outlets are owned by the group. After being hit by ransomware on Wednesday, Dallas Police reported that its computers were still down on Saturday. FBI Dallas confirmed to Fox News Digital that it is collaborating on the investigation with the Allen police, the ATF, the Texas DPS, and the Texas Rangers. According to Texas DPS, the agencies were coordinating with folks who were at the mall at the time of the incident to recover any potentially lost personal items.   Read the full article

[inbarfink]

A lot of fans talk about how the Weird Route in Deltarune Chapter 2 feels even more “off” than the Murder Route in Undertale. And I think a big factor of this is a relative lack of consequences.

When you go down the Murder Route in Undertale, the game does basically whatever it can to punish you for it. A lot of the game’s charm and joy is replaced by an overbearingly creepy tone, the game’s iconic music is distorted and slowed-down, all the characters treat you like the despicable spree killer you are, and then they die horribly at your hands, the fights that aren’t one-hit-kills are absurdly hard and the whole thing ends on a massive downer that rips away your chance at getting a happy ending. Ever.

And some of this stuff is present in the Weird Route of Deltarune Chapter 2: the music is twisted and you do lose a lot of puzzles and side-gags and a lot of the fun tone, and you do get a few harder fights but….. a lot of the specifically narrative punishments are notably absence.

You don’t gain a reputation as an irredeemable killer nobody likes. The only people who know what you have done are Kris (who can’t speak against you and might even feel kinda culpable), Noelle (who has been emotionally manipulated into being your loyal killing machine), Spamton (who was willingly encouraging the horrors of the Route and doesn’t really have the moral high ground) and Berdly (who is fucking dead). Ralsei, Susie, Queen, Lancer and so on are completely oblivious to what has transpired and save for some subtle feeling that something isn’t quite right - so they still treat you as their good friend and a hero.

Even after being ‘locked’ into the Route by turning Berdly into frozen chicken, you can start sparing enemies in the Mansion. The Castle Town Epilogue doesn’t treat it any different than a regular run where you Lost a couple of Cyber City enemies. And where the hard bosses in Undertale where designed to emphasis the idea that they’re brave heroes and you’re a despicable villain… the main boss of the Weird Route is Spamton, who, again, does not have the moral high ground in this situation. Berdly is the closest thing to a heroic boss to stand against you, and he’s not quite in the same league as Sans or Undyne the Undying.

There is no True Hero that comes to stop you, only a backstabbing opportunist and a kid way over his head. You have fashioned two teens into tools for your murderous will and neither of them really become a threat to you. No one looks at you with the hatred and disgust worthy of the horrible deeds you have done.

You have become above consequences and that just feels deeply wrong.

And it’s not even a matter of fairness or justice, really. The Ultimate Punishment in Undertale screws over the other characters a lot more than it screws you over. I mean, they’re the ones who are gonna get murdered. But even so, even the fact that something bad does happens to you makes it feel less Wrong, less Off, than the Weird Route.

#deltarune #deltarune spoilers #weird route #Undertale #deltarune meta #Undertale meta

[itsclydebitches]

Why is Jaune supposed character journey (they loved to throw that word around in the commentary) lead to him making a difficult decision and going through with it but Ironwood is condemned for the same thing? It depends on how they tackle it in volume 9 but based on how they spoke in the commentary they may be more sympathetic and empathetic to Jaune's situation than they were with Ironwood's.

I have absolutely no doubt that they will be more sympathetic. Is Ironwood leaving Mantle behind a good thing? No. Is Jaune killing Penny a good thing? No. But one scenario is treated as an actual necessity and therefore it's heroic that the character took the hard action (Jaune) while the other is presented as not necessary and therefore evil that the character tried to take that action anyway (Ironwood), even though I personally think the implications of each situation are reversed. The story has done work since Volume 5, when the Relics were introduced, to set up the importance of keeping them safe, has spent since Volume 3 setting up the importance of keeping the Maidens safe, and has just spent the entirety of the office scene establishing that Salem is a force to be reckoned with (infiltrating the office through Cinder, taking out their patrols, coming out of Watts' bag) and the heroes, as of right now, don’t have the forces needed to withstand her (everyone is exhausted), or a way to beat her personally. The show does a LOT of work to establish that this is a no-win scenario, especially since Team RWBY are unable to come up with a counter plan, thereby justifying Ironwood’s choice by process of elimination. Jaune’s situation? Very little justification, if any at all. Penny, who has had a human body for all of ten minutes, has decided she’s a lost cause and orders the healer not to do the very thing he’s primed and ready for: save her. I buy into Ironwood’s tough decision far, far more than I do Jaune’s because there we saw both plentiful and persuasive evidence for his position, but the show wants me to believe that Jaune’s choice was the inevitable one. Therefore, we should feel sad for what he ‘had’ to do and compliment the bravery it took to go through with it. Ironwood doesn’t get that because RWBY had a Volume 8 in the works where a) he becomes the “genocidal general” and b) the group sits around until Ruby suddenly realizes they can use the Staff. Yes, they eventually fix things (destroy Atlas...) and save everyone ("everyone"...) but only by means of the plot needing them to get a move on. We don’t actually see them struggling and working across two days to hit on the perfect solution they condemned Ironwood for not thinking up in a split second.

The divide between Jaune and Ironwood—beyond just the fact that one is now an established hero of the tale while the other is a dead villain who went on a murder spree—also comes about due to how we read Ironwood’s plan. Not just in terms of its supposed (or not) necessity, but just its overall, potential worth. Me? I think it’s a solid, temporary idea for a situation where, as established, no one can come up with anything better. Yet it’s been nearly two years since “Gravity” aired and I’m still seeing plenty of, “Can’t believe Ironwood wanted to live in space” takes. The community-wide framing of his plan as both morally gray and downright idiotic feeds into the overall idea that he’s just a Bad Man making Bad Choices because he’s Evil Like That. Even though, in the actual canon, there’s little if anything to support these extreme takes. For me, this scene was very much that temporary Hail Mary in a then hopeless-seeming situation. If I were to boil down the problem with a very silly comparison:

Ironwood, out in some forest: Omg the deadly wolves are coming here?? Shit. We can’t fight them. We can’t risk them destroying our resources. Quick, grab everyone we have and get them up into the trees. Maybe the wolves won’t reach us there. Can wolves climb trees? I don’t know, but it’s worth a shot given that we’ll definitely die if we stay here.

Fandom: Um, what about the camp?

Ironwood: I’m afraid they’re on their own. We don’t have the time or the resources to go back for them. I can’t save everyone, but I can try to save the people here with us now, as well as these precious supplies. This is a morally gray decision, but as leader—

Fandom: Get a load of this guy, trying to live in a tree.

Ironwood: ...what?

Fandom: I mean, how are you going to get food up there? What are you doing to do when the branches we sit on inevitably break? Wow, I can’t believe you’re stupid enough to think that living in a tree is a good solution.

Ironwood: I’m not talking about living in a tree, I’m talking about climbing the tree for now so that the wolves on the ground don’t eat us. I don’t know what we’ll do after that, but at least we’ll still be alive to plan it out!

Fandom: Abandoning all those people to get eaten by wolves, just so your precious, rich elite can live in trees.

Ironwood: How did the rich come into this? I’m taking everyone currently in our party right now, rich or poor—

Fandom: And you know what the worst part is? By trying to save these people from immediate death by wolves you’re dooming all of Earth to this wolf problem. Can’t believe Ironwood’s plan involves abandoning an entire planet.

Ironwood: What are you talking about?

The fandom has taken a plan Ironwood was forced to come up with in literal seconds, after fighting Watts, after destroying his arm, after facing Salem, after finding out that a decent chunk of his allies betrayed him, after learning that his patrols were gone, the heat was out, his men are exhausted, and not only are they comparing it unfavorably to Team RWBY’s non-existent plan—it’s GREAT that they want to save everyone, but heroes need a way to actually accomplish that. I have a lot more to say about how the office exchange is structured so that Team RWBY never has to provide a counter-argument to the points the Ace Ops raise—but also assuming any number of wild things to make that plan look even worse. Ironwood isn’t a fallible hero grabbing at the first semi-hopeful way of keeping everyone he has on hand alive for the immediate future (as well as ensuring the war doesn’t end here and now), he’s a villain specifically taking rich people to live in the clouds forever while Remnant burns, while also being a stupid villain who doesn’t realize they’ll all die up there anyway. Something something, yay karma. And if this warping of the story was confined solely to the fandom, that’s frustrating, but at least easy to separate from the canon. RT, however, embraced Ironwood’s villainy without the skill needed to pull it off in the tail end of Volume 7/Volume 8, resulting in moments like Winter ignoring her own culpability and claiming that Ironwood “squeezed Mantle until it broke.” The show warps previous events as much as the fandom does (which, you know, really helps to explain why this trend is so prevalent in the community. If the canon does it and you get used to watching it happen, why wouldn’t we expect fans to repeat that behavior?)

Same warping is happening with Jaune, only this time in reverse. I’ve seen anything and everything thrown out to justify Jaune killing Penny because the fandom recognizes that we’re not supposed to question his decision. He’s the hero. So obviously some justification exists, we just need to headcanon it up and repeat it enough that it becomes community fact. The exact placement of the wound proves it was impossible to survive (ignore how that’s never been important in RWBY before). Jaune simply didn’t have time to heal while a fight was going on (ignore that he has an entire conversation with Penny while Weiss distracts Cinder). Even if he had tried to heal her, it wouldn’t have been enough to heal her completely (ignore that Jaune might have been able to get her out of immediate death danger, even if she’s still injured). Jaune specifically had to deal with this because everyone else fell (ignore that the writers have complete control over who falls when). Jaune deserves all the sympathy for ‘having’ to kill his good friend Penny (ignore that they don’t have an established relationship). Everything is twisted in Jaune’s favor because Jaune is the established hero. Everything is twisted against Ironwood because Ironwood was a villain in the making. The labels the writers attach to their characters mean more than the actions the characters take on screen and how much they are or are not justified with canonical content. This is a very hyperbolic example, but it serves to make my point: Ruby could straight up murder someone like Ironwood murdered the councilman and both the show and the fandom would scramble to come up with a reason why that murder was actually necessary, heroic, or both. Because it’s no longer about what choices the group makes. They can steal, keep Ozpin’s secrets, tell more lies, take headshots on allies, beat others unconscious, make ridiculous choices leading to a friend’s death, endanger 2/3rds of a Kingdom, ignore their missing teammates, sit out major battles while people die, slit a friend’s throat… and everything is justified. Because they’re heroes. Anyone else? Such morally gray, or outright horrific actions are indicative of a changing nature. You're no longer a hero after what you've chosen to do. Or not do. The story recognizes that going down such roads means that maybe your label changes too… that just doesn’t apply to RWBYJNORQ. Jaune’s actions are heroic by default because he’s Jaune.

So yeah, I’m personally 100% expecting him to get a whole slew of sympathy next Volume. If things are written relatively well, we might get an initial scene where Ruby is angry, but then she’ll quickly realize that she’s just grieving and she was never really angry at Jaune. Yang will reiterate that they did the best they could and there’s no possible way things could have turned out better. Blake might make a nonsensical comparison to defending herself against Adam and being forced to take a life. If we’re really lucky (non sarcastic phrase there), Weiss will point out that if he hadn’t distracted Cinder with Penny’s death, she likely would have been killed—which is one of the few defendable points in all this, even though Jaune never took that action specifically to save Weiss. It was an unintentional, but very good byproduct.

I can’t imagine any version of RWBY where Jaune is condemned for his choice like Ironwood was for his Mantle choice. I literally can't imagine them leveling the same looks of disgust after he says, "I had to" like they did when Ironwood went, "We have to." And that's not just because he's one of the heroes, but also because he's specifically Jaune Arc. From Yang being worried about him after he attacked Oscar, to the celebration of his foolish airship plan, to Ren announcing how amazing it is that he doesn't feel fear, the show doesn't seem interested in the idea of Jaune being anything other than that hero that others, including his peers, look up to. Outside of the occasional, combat ineptitude used for comedy, Jaune is a character who is never wrong in a group that's also never wrong. A double-whammy, if you will. Why would the show suddenly switch gears and establish that the group has a right to be furious and disgusted, just like they were furious and disgusted with Ironwood? As always, RWBY might one day prove me wrong (please lol), but right now we’ve got too much material wrapped around that “Characters labeled as heroes are intrinsically always good and characters labeled villains are intrinsically always bad” to get my hopes up.

#rwde #rwby #mymetas

[chiseler]

Public Enemy Number 1, No. 1

It was unexpected and unlikely at the time, and would be completely unthinkable today, but on April 7th, 1923, the venerable and dusty New York Times ran an editorial which opened:

Something Almost Heroical

It is getting very difficult to keep in mind the fact that Gerald Chapman is a thoroughly bad man, whose right place is in jail. The difficulty arises from the fact that in his battle with the law he shows qualities—courage, persistence, ingenuity and skill—which it is impossible not to admire. The result is that unless one is careful, one finds one’s self hoping that he isn’t caught...

Sadly, at least to those millions of Americans who’d found in Chapman a new folk hero, he was indeed caught and, worse, sentenced to the gallows. Even H.L. Mencken, in a 1926 American Mercury essay in which he unwaveringly defended the death penalty, had to pause and offer a tip of the hat to Chapman as a unique and admirable individual, a man of grace and character who’d undertaken his chosen profession with a splash of real style. He stops short of suggesting Chapman be spared the noose, but does quietly mourn the loss of such a charming rarity.

Chapman was a bank robber, burglar, bootlegger, safecracker and con man who spent two-thirds of his life either in stir or on the lam. He was also a darling of the press who became the first legitimate celebrity outlaw of the twentieth century, paving the way for the likes of John Dillinger, Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and Pretty Boy Floyd.

In the summer of 1887, Gerald Chapman was born George Chartres either in Brooklyn or on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (the details are a little sketchy). Like so many other youngsters in that particular time and place, he began practicing the criminal arts early, and pulled his first stint in jail when he was fourteen. From that point, he would spend most of his formative years in assorted jails and prisons around New York State.

In 1908, while serving a term for bank robbery in Sing-Sing, a 21-year-old Chapman was transferred to the more experimental Auburn State Prison, where he would essentially begin his graduate studies with the stylish bank robber, counterfeiter and con man George “Dutch” Anderson.

Born Ivan Dahl von Teler, Dutch Anderson came from a wealthy and respectable Danish family. He grew up knowing all the finer things in life, and attended universities in Heidelberg and the States, though he eventually dropped out of school in order, just for the thrill of it it seems, to pursue a life of crime. By the time he met chapman in Auburn, he was a seasoned professional who could sense in the unpolished street tough a youngster with smarts and a lot of potential. He would, in essence, play Henry Higgins to Chapman’s Eliza Doolittle, but in, y’know, criminal terms.

Of all the lessons Anderson taught Chapman at Auburn, the one that had the most impact on the fledgling crime boss was very simple. If Chapman could pass himself off as an educated, respectable and erudite gentleman of the highest order, it would help deflect any suspicion should some John Q. Public be looking to put the finger on a wanted criminal. Who would ever suspect some well-dressed, well-spoken gent of pulling off a cheap smash-and-grab?

Chapman took the advice to heart, and began reading voraciously to better help pull off that “educated” shtick. He also, with Anderson’s help, learned how to carry and present himself as a proper gentleman. To top it all off, he cultivated a British accent.

Both men were paroled in 1919, and promptly put Anderson’s teachings into practice. Noting that the passage of the 18th Amendment earlier that year offered a golden opportunity, they set up a bootlegging empire that operated out of New York, Florida and Ohio.

Another Auburn alumnus, seasoned wheel man Charles Loeber joined up with Chapman and Anderson in 1921. With Chapman posing as a wealthy British oil magnate, Anderson acting as his business partner, and getaway driver Loeber playing their chauffeur, the trio, along with overseeing their growing bootlegging operation, began pulling armed robberies and con jobs around New York.

Easily adjusting to his new role as Wealthy British Aristocrat, Chapman dressed to the nines and moved into a swank apartment in the swank Gramercy Park section of Manhattan, charming his neighbors with his impeccable manners and British accent. He became a familiar face at the city’s finest restaurants and nightclubs, as all the while he, Anderson and Loeber were plotting a big score.

After closely studying its route and schedule for several weeks, on October 24th, 1921, the trio used two cars to block  off Leonard Street in Tribeca, forcing a US Post Office truck to stop. They pulled their guns, pistol-whipped the driver, and got away with $2.5 million in cash, bonds and jewelry. It was to date the biggest heist in U.S. history.

The cops didn’t have a thing to go on, leaving the trio free to move their operation upstate for a spell, where they continued to pull bank jobs, though on a much smaller scale.

Chapman’s luck ran out eight months later, however, when he offered to sell a batch of Argentine gold notes pilfered during the Leonard Street heist to a stock broker, unaware the stock broker was actually an undercover postal inspector. 

He was taken into custody on July 3rd, 1922, and brought to police headquarters in Manhattan for questioning. His stature in the public imagination began to grow that afternoon, when The Count of Gramercy Park (as he would be dubbed in the press) made a break for it an escaped his interrogators. Chapman’s freedom lasted only a few minutes, however, as he was nabbed before he was able to find his way out of the building.

Anderson was arrested not long afterward, and both were found guilty of the postal truck heist and sentenced to twenty-five years in the federal pen in Atlanta.

In early March, 1923, Chapman—who had apparently picked up a few more skills along the way—escaped from the Atlanta prison, knocking out the power supply as he fled. Three days later in Eastern Georgia, he was shot four times as he attempted to evade a posse of 200 well-armed cops and locals. The wounds were not life threatening, so Chapman was returned to Atlanta General Hospital to recover before being slapped with a few new charges.

A week later, his bullet wounds sufficiently healed, Chapman escaped from the hospital, but was quickly recaptured and returned to his old cell.

After keeping a close watch on him for at least two or three days, on March 27th a couple guards were either dozing or taking a bathroom break, and Chapman escaped again, this time making a clean break of it.

It was during this stretch on the lam that Chapman’s legend really took hold, with newspapers—including the Times—building the myth of a new Jesse James. Along with “The Count of Gramercy Park,” various newspapers also dubbed him  “The Gentleman Bandit” and “Gentleman Gerald.” Most notably, however, after being added to the feds’ 10 Most Wanted List, one clever reporter tagged Chapman “Public Enemy Number One.” It was the first time the phrase had been used, and in short order law enforcement agencies at every level would co-opt it as their own.

Nine months after Chapman escaped from Atlanta, Anderson followed suit, clearing the prison walls on December 30th. It’s assumed the old partners in crime teamed up yet again, but even if they didn’t, it hardly mattered. Without a shred of evidence, cops in half a dozen states accused Chapman and Anderson of pulling off every unsolved armed robbery on the books. Meanwhile, Chapman’s status only grew in the public consciousness. After all, he hadn’t hurt anybody—all he did was steal money, which he did in a gentlemanly way.

All that changed in October of 1924.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Chapman had been on a bit of a crime spree in Connecticut with a new associate, another rich kid turned bad named Walter Shean. As the pair was holding up a department store in New Britain on October 12th, they were surprised by five local police officers who burst in, guns drawn. In the brief shoot out that ensued, Chapman shot and killed Officer James Skelly before escaping. 

The remaining cops arrested Shean, who, likely in order to avoid the gallows, quickly fingered Chapman as the triggerman. The funny thing is, though, that the cops didn’t believe him, and they didn’t believe him because they couldn’t imagine Public Enemy Number One bothering to spend any time in a dusty little burg like New Britain, Connecticut. And even if he had, there’s no way he could hang around town without being noticed. But in time other corroborating evidence materialized, and they put out an APB for Chapman.

Chapman, meanwhile, made his way to Muncie, Indiana, where he hid out on the farm of a man named Ben Hance for the next three months.

Apparently tired of sheltering a wanted fugitive who’d overstayed his welcome, on January 18th, 1925  Hance went to the cops and told them exactly where they could find Chapman.

When cops showed up at the farm, Chapman pulled a gun and began firing, but didn’t hit a thing. He was taken into custody and returned to Atlanta, where he still had most of that 25-year sentence waiting for him.

Now, historical accounts begin to diverge wildly here, at least as far as the timeline is concerned, but I’ll do my best to keep things straight.

Although the federal charges in Atlanta took precedence, Connecticut was understandably eager to try Chapman on capital murder charges, so in March of 1925 he was extradited to the Connecticut State Prison to await trial.

The trial got underway the last week of March, amid a courtroom packed with journalists from across the country and hundreds of citizens squeezing and craning to catch even a fleeting glimpse of the notorious Count of Gramercy Park.  

Over the course of the six-day trial, both ben Hance and Walter Shean testified against Chapman, and a ballistics expert reported the bullets which killed Officer Skelly matched Chapman’s gun.

Chapman, in his own defense, insisted he’d never seen Hance or Shean before in his life. He also insisted he’d never stepped foot in New Britain. Most curiously, he claimed he wasn’t even this “Gerald Chapman” everyone kept talking about, that some terrible mix-up had occurred.

The jury apparently found Chapman’s claims that he was not, in fact, Gerald Chapman less than convincing, and on April 4th, 1925, after deliberating eleven hours, returned a guilty verdict, sentencing him to death by hanging.

Upon hearing the verdict, Chapman reportedly turned to his attorney and quipped, “Death itself isn’t dreadful, but hanging seems an awkward way of ending the adventure.”  

As the appeals process began and until the very end, Chapman proclaimed his innocence, declaring repeatedly that what he wanted was “justice, not mercy.” The appeals made their way up to the Supreme Court, but were rejected one after another. 

His lawyers, in a last ditch effort, argued Chapman was bound by Law to complete his sentence in Atlanta before he could be hanged. That would give them at least 23 years leeway to start working on a new round of appeals.

Word of the ploy reached Attorney General Harlan F. Stone, who mentioned it to President Calvin Coolidge. After some careful deliberation, Coolidge granted Chapman a pardon.

Well, sort of anyway—he pardoned Chapman for the Postal truck heist, which ended his term in Atlanta and freed up Connecticut to hang him whenever they pleased, the sooner the better.

Think about it. Coolidge and Attorney General Stone were fully aware how dangerous it was, especially during Prohibition, to have this celebrity outlaw grabbing all the headlines—I mean, you can’t have the press and the general public cheering on a bootlegger, bank robber and cop killer if you’re trying to maintain law and order, now can you? Better to eliminate him as quickly as possible.

On April 6th, 1926, a year after the verdict was handed down, Chapman was delivered to the Connecticut State Prison’s death house, where he was confronted with an unholy contraption known as the Upright Jerker.

As the name implies, the Upright Jerker was the flip side to the traditional gallows. It was, in fact, a barbaric and notoriously unreliable Rube Goldberg device. Instead of a six-foot drop through a trap door, the condemned man had the noose placed around his neck as he stood on the ground. Then several counterweights looped through a pulley were dropped from the top of the scaffolding, jerking him into the air. The argument, of course, was the sudden jerk skyward would snap the prisoner’s neck, resulting in an instantaneous death. Things, however, rarely worked as planned, and more often than not the condemned was left struggling and strangling to death for several minutes.

Although there is no record of how well the Upright Jerker did or didn’t work in Chapman’s case, by the end of the day America’s first Public Enemy Number one was dead, though the improbable novel Gerald Chapman had crafted around himself wasn’t quite over yet.

Now, depending on who’s doing the telling, either three months after Chapman was convicted (August of 1925) or eight months after he was executed (December of 1926) , Ben Hance and his wife were driving just outside out Muncie when they were forced off the road by another car. Two men—Dutch Anderson and Charlie “One Arm” Wolfe, emerged from the car and unloaded their .45s into the Hances. Anderson and Wolfe quickly split the scene, with both men going their separate ways.

Although both Hance and his wife were killed, some stories have it that Hance remained alive long enough to tell responding officers it was Dutch Anderson who had exacted  retribution for Hance’s ratting out Chapman. Other stories have it Hance was already dead when cops arrived, but everyone simply jumped to the same logical conclusion. Walfe was taken into custody not long afterward and confirmed the story, and the hunt was on for Anderson.

Hoping to maintain a low profile and stay at least three or four steps ahead of the law, Anderson drifted around the Midwest for the next few months. Instead of robbing banks or setting up elaborate scams, he simply began passing counterfeit $20 bills. As seasoned a professional as he was, however, he made two mistakes. First, it had been a pretty sloppy counterfeit job, and the bills weren’t terribly convincing to anyone who was paying attention. And second, he spent a little too much time hitting stores in Muskegon, Michigan’s business district.

After word started to get around that someone was spreading funny money around the area, one sharp-eyed shopkeeper gave Anderson’s description to a passing beat cop, Charlie Hammond, who spotted a man fitting the description a few minutes later.

After trying to bluff his way out of Hammond’s sidewalk interrogation without much success, Anderson turned and ran, but made the mistake of ducking down a dead end alleyway. Hammond followed, and in the ensuing shootout, Hammond took a bullet to the lower belly, and Anderson was shot through the heart. Both men died.

Despite Coolidge’s best efforts to nip in in the bud, within five years, an American public long weary of Prohibition and now being battered by the Great Depression on top of it, were rooting for a new generation of bank robbers and bootleggers, and the high-class derring-do of Gerald Chapman, Public Enemy Number One, was largely forgotten.

by Jim Knipfel

[multiverseforger]

Ross grew up in a military environment with both his father and paternal grandfather in the military.[4]

Ross is the Air Force general in charge of Bruce Banner's gamma bomb project. His daughter, Betty, takes a liking to the young scientist, deepening Ross' dislike for the "weakling". After Banner's transformation into the Hulk, Ross spends years chasing the monster, becoming obsessed enough to commit treason by allying himself with the Leader, MODOK, and the Abomination[5] to destroy the Hulk. Dismissed from the military, he shows up at Betty and Bruce's wedding with a gun and shoots Rick Jones. He is recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Clay Quartermain to merge with the electric creature Zzzax, a process that gives Ross superpowers but also makes him mentally unstable. He is later restored to human form but retains some residual energy-generating powers.[6]

Finally, the Nevermind, a mutant who drains people of their life energy, attacks Gamma Base in search of a strong host, in this case the Hulk. After witnessing Banner and Rick Jones (who was the Hulk at that time) heroically engaging the mutant, Ross realizes that he has been wrong about the Hulk being a mindless monster. He saves his daughter by allowing the mutant to latch on him and discharging the energy resources he retained from Zzzax. Giving his blessing to Bruce and Betty, he dies in his daughter's arms.[7]

Ross' body is later stolen by the Leader, who uses the powers of one of his followers to resurrect Ross. He turns him into a mindless replacement for his fallen soldier Redeemer. Ross is eventually recovered and revived by agents of the alien Troyjan and returns to the Air Force. He later comes up with a more cost-effective method of confronting the Hulk when he is in his childlike stage: active non-resistance. He and his men simply do not fire on or engage the Hulk in any way. The Hulk, confused, does not smash and leaps away.[volume & issue needed]

Ross would make friends with Banner, but when Betty is seemingly killed due to what both Ross and Banner believed to have been Banner's gamma-irradiated DNA interacting with hers, he once more pursues the Hulk with a vendetta.[volume & issue needed]

Around this time, General Ryker takes over the pursuit of the Hulk. Ross is indirectly involved, observing when Ryker mentally tortures Banner to try to figure out how the Hulk works. The Hulk escapes from Ryker's control and, after several adventures, is lost in space.[volume & issue needed]

After the Hulk returns from exile and initiates "World War Hulk", General Ross, now a full general, makes his own return, electing to bring the fight to his nemesis once more after the Hulk beats Iron Man. After a failed assault on the Hulk, Ross and his men are captured and placed in chains under the watch of Hulk's Warbound, the army he has brought back from space. The Hulk is eventually defeated via satellite weapons that revert him to human form.[8]

Military branchEdit

Ross' military affiliation has been inconsistently portrayed in the comics. Many early Hulk stories depicted Ross as an Army general trying to capture or destroy the Hulk with a U.S. Army battalion called the "Hulkbusters". However, he is also frequently seen in an Air Force uniform, as in his first appearance in Incredible Hulk #1. Stories about his service during World War II portray him as an Army officer in the U.S. Army Air Corps, as the Air Force was not a separate branch of the Armed Forces until September 18, 1947. In a November 2010 Q&A column, then-Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada clarified that Ross is a member of the U.S. Air Force and that inconsistencies in his uniform can be explained via the artistic license with which artists attempt to present a more dramatic-looking uniform, and that Ross may be a part of a special unit of the U.S. Air Force, or the Marvel Universe's version of it, which has its own unique dress code.[9]

The Army continuity is also followed in various Hulk adaptations, such as in the 1966 and 1996–1998 cartoon versions of the Hulk, the 2003 Ang Lee movie Hulk in which he is portrayed by Sam Elliott, and in the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk, in which he is portrayed by William Hurt. The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Hulk 2004 issue officially indicates Ross to be a three-star lieutenant general in the U.S. Air Force.

Red HulkEdit



Red Hulk as seen on the cover of Hulk vol. 2 #1 (January 2008). Art by Ed McGuinness.

Red Hulk (also known as Rulk[10] or The IncREDible Hulk) was introduced in 2008 in Hulk #1.[11] The Red Hulk was created to be an uninhibited, tactically intelligent adversary to the Hulk.[12][13] Although Kenneth Johnson, the creator of the 1970s TV series The Incredible Hulk, had suggested a red Hulk for that adaptation decades earlier,[14] Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada proposed the idea for the comics to debut a red version of the character whose human identity was a secret.[15] Initially, Red Hulk's identity was unknown both to the characters in the story[16] and to the reading audience.[17]

The opening story arc of the Hulk series that premiered in 2008 established that the Red Hulk is very aggressive, as he murders the Hulk adversaries Wendigo and Abomination; destroys the Helicarrier of the spy organization S.H.I.E.L.D.; defeats several Marvel heroes; and, after causing an earthquake in San Francisco, is finally defeated by the combined efforts of the Hulk and Thor. In a subsequent storyline, the Collector places the character with other villains on a team called the Offenders, an evil version of the Defenders, in a bid to prevent the original Hulk from reuniting with Jarella.[18] In that story Red Hulk siphons the Power Cosmic from the Silver Surfer, seemingly killing him, steals his board along with Terrax' cosmic axe, and uses the power to go on a killing spree, killing Namor, Tiger Shark, Dr. Strange, Baron Mordo, the Grandmaster, Terrax, a time-displaced Hulk, and Psycho Man. However, when Red Hulk reveals this to Galactus, Galactus swiftly takes back the Power Cosmic from him. Subsequently, almost everyone he killed is brought back to life with no memory of the event.[19]

The Red Hulk was created as part of a Super Soldier program by persons including Doc Samson,[20] and the criminal think tank Intelligencia,[21] headed by MODOK.[22] The 2009 "Code Red" story arc[16] also made allusions to Red Hulk's real identity, and introduced a Red She-Hulk character, when Domino identifies Red Hulk before his transformation.[23]

In the 2010 storyline "Fall of the Hulks: Gamma", Red Hulk is related in flashback to have killed General Ross at the behest of Bruce Banner, with whom he has formed an alliance.[24] However, the 2010 "World War Hulks" storyline reveals that Red Hulk is Thunderbolt Ross himself, the Red She-Hulk his daughter Betty, and that the Ross who was "killed" was a Life Model Decoy used to convince the world that he had died. Red Hulk then thwarts the Intelligencia's plan to take over the United States with a Life Model Decoy of Glenn Talbot by destroying the Talbot LMD and attempts to take over the country himself.[8] He is thwarted by a restored Hulk, who beats Red Hulk mostly due to Red Hulk's exhaustion from overheating. Hulk tells Red Hulk that it was his idea to fake Ross' death and that he can never again resume that identity. After imprisoning Red Hulk in the Gamma Base, Banner makes arrangements with Steve Rogers for Red Hulk to join the Avengers.[25][26]

After Steve Rogers recruits Red Hulk, Red Hulk manages to stop Intelligencia's failsafe plan "Scorched Earth". Although Banner had claimed that he removed Red Hulk's energy-draining ability from him because it was killing Red Hulk, Red Hulk is shown to still possess this ability.[27] After the events of the Scorched Earth program, Red Hulk is paired up with a Life Model Decoy named Annie. Red Hulk is occasionally assaulted by Ross' former protégé General Reginald Fortean, a scientist given superhuman mutations by MODOK named Zero/One, and the Indian serial killer Black Fog .[28]

Red Hulk plays a vital role in the Infinity Gem crisis of the "Heroic Age" storyline.[29] During the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Red Hulk attempts unsuccessfully to stop the Thing (in the form of Angrir, Breaker of Souls) from destroying the Avengers Tower,[30] as MODOK Superior and Black Fog converge on both combatants during the fight. Angrir dispatches Red Hulk by knocking him out of the city and into Vermont.[31]

As part of the 2012 Marvel NOW! relaunch, Red Hulk leads a non-government sponsored version of the Thunderbolts.[3] This incarnation is a strike team that cleans up the messes left by Ross' military career, but the team later decides on a new arrangement in which the team will do one mission for Ross, then a mission for a random member.[citation needed]

After Hulk takes away the powers of Rick Jones, Skaar and Betty Ross, Ross starts monitoring Hulk's movements. This leads to a battle in which Doc Green subdues Red Hulk and injects him with a formula that reverts him to Ross. The Army is alerted to the confrontation. When they arrive, the Army arrests Ross for deserting his country.[32]

The 2016 "Civil War II" storyline reveals that Thunderbolt Ross is incarcerated in a classified military prison.[33]

In 2018's Free Comic Book Day Captain America issue indicates that Ross is no longer incarcerated.[34] Subsequently, in that year's Captain America #1, it is revealed that Ross was paroled for helping a resistance cell during the "Secret Empire" storyline and appointed head of the investigation into the attack.[35] However, he was later killed, and Captain America was framed for his murder.[

[iblameowls]

I held off watching Endgame because a few women I know I hated it. I didn’t go in spoiler-free and wasn’t expecting much, so I wouldn’t say I was disappointed by it, but apart from a few shining moments, I wasn’t really impressed or moved by it. I was entertained by the basic plot and the action sequences, but it lacked a satisfying story.

As much I would love to have seen more of the vanished and new Avengers on screen, I appreciate the impact of waiting until the end to bring them back all at once. And I get that it was meant to be about the OG Avengers and tie back to that first movie, but that movie is already dated with it’s lack of women and POC, and Endgame suffered for it. And don’t get me started on how LGTBQ characters continue to remain absent. Also the impact that the vanished had on the heroes and on the world should have been more present throughout.  

Thor’s story line was awful. Making a joke out of addiction and fat-shaming for the comic relief was gross and his big moment wasn’t about the vanished, but missing his mommy? Valkyrie could have played more of a role. They should have kept Loki alive to have a full circle arc between the two brothers. Instead, they had to hammer in (pun intended) the cliche of a male character making selfish and bad choices who is eventually reformed when a woman who makes good choices is killed or sacrifices herself because of the man’s bad choices. Male writers think it’s a compliment when they write women as being “morally better”, but all it does is turn women into idealized abstracts whose only purpose is to serve the male character’s story and reinforce the idea that women are selfish anytime they remotely prioritize their own happiness. We need to stop defining heroic women as those who are willing to sacrifice themselves to make men better human beings.

And speaking of sacrificing female characters for the bad choices of men, the Nat and Hawkeye plot was stupid. He should have faced consequences for his vigilante serial killer spree. She should have survived and deserved an ending that rewarded her for making the right choices. If they kept Loki alive, they could have done it with Thor and Loki and Loki sacrificing himself, which would have been a much more meaningful call back to the original movie and better demise than he got in infinity war.

Captain America and Iron Man’s stories were fine I guess, but not much growth. Both ended up in the exact same place emotionally and as heroes as they were at the beginning of their first movies.

Hulk and Nebula were the only ones who had good story arcs that added to the plot and grew as characters.

What annoys me the most is that while Thanos was defeated in the end and they brought everyone back, they never addressed why Thanos was wrong about his over population theory as the cause of poverty, hunger, war and climate issues, when in fact those horrors are caused by a few villainous men like him hoarding power and wealth. People are not the plague, Thanos is, and that was never really addressed in a satisfying way. Thanos had to be defeated simply to bring their friends back and was left at that.

[dragonbabezee]

Fictional Crush Series No.6

Are we going further back into the 80's? Yes, we are, and deeper into my admiration of James Cameron as a talented populist storyteller, but that's a subject for another post. We are also returning to the beautiful face and haunting acting of Michael Beihn.

Let me set the scene:

It was 1991, summertime, and my family were staying at a motel in a beach resort town. I was thirteen, deeply hormonal, deeply romantic, deeply teenaged, and just like, deep, man. I was emo before the word emo was coined, and both a worry and a torment to my parents. The motel room had a tiny 21 inch TV with dodgy reception, and after dinner one night the whole family gathered around it on dining chairs to watch the movie that the tv station had been advertising all week: Terminator! Until this point we kids had been deemed too young to watch this scary and violent movie, but after lapping up Aliens, I guess our parents decided we were ready.

I was so ready. I was ready for Kyle Reece.

Woah! Is this a good guy or a bad guy? (BTW, I hope you have seen the movie, and if you haven't, you should, as I'm about to get spoilers on this 35 year old flick)

The introduction and presentation of Kyle Reece is deliberately ambiguous and misleading. He is one of two dangerous looking characters that show up naked inside invisible spheres heralded by lightning. One of the first things we see him do is steal the pants off a homeless guy. He then breaks into a shop and steals more clothes and a gun while evading the police. He is not acting in established heroic ways. Of course, the other naked guy kills some punks for their clothes and then goes on a systematic murder spree, killing all the Sarah Conners in town, so Kyle may look less dangerous in comparison, but at this point it's not known if these two are working towards the same goal or not.

The first impression our main character Sarah has of Kyle, is that he's a murderous stalker on her trail, and she hides in a discotheque in an attempt to hide. To her, he looks like a psychotic killer, and when he takes out his shotgun, she thinks it's to kill her. And even the audience isn't sure who's side he's on at that point. But he's there to take down the Terminator, the true villain of the movie. After the nightclub shoot out, Kyle utters this deeply ambiguous line that was to become one of the most iconic in cinema history:

But as Sarah, and the audience get to know Kyle, she realises he is the good guy. Maybe not the most mentally balanced, nor happy of men, but intense and desperate and dedicated to protecting Sarah.

He's also resourceful and brave, and never had a girlfriend, grew up in a war against robots, and volunteered for a one way trip to the past to save her. Sarah is a sucker for a sad story, and after their first date making pipebombs together in a motel room, she can't stop her heart or her hands from reaching out to squeeze him.

I can't blame her.

The love scene that comes next is the cheesiest in James Cameron's directing career (yes, more cheesy than steaming car sex in the hold of the Titanic or weird braid-plugging sex in Avatar) but it serves its purpose of uniting the two for the rest of their very short time together. That's right! Kyle Reece's sad tale has to get even sadder!

Kyle Reece was too good for this world, so James Cameron had the Terminator kill him in line of duty, protecting Sarah.

This is film would normally be described as an action thriller, but to me it was a gothic romance. Kyle Reece was the most beautiful tragic figure I had ever encountered, and I was IN LOVE. I'm not sure if this is where my preference for deeply angsty drama came from, or if the roots of that go back even further (maybe to when I read Lord of the Rings as a nine year old?) but it was a definite swing in that direction.

Oh, man, it still hurts. Hurts so good!

RIP Kyle

#fictional crush #fictional crush series #Terminator #kyle reece #teenaged feels #my heart #michael biehn

[austencello]

Lost Canary - Arrow Music Notes 7x18

Laurel fights within herself and the other ladies to determine whether she will return down the villain path or continue to fight for redemption.  Sara Lance returns and Dinah explains the purpose of the Canary network in the flash-forwards.

There were 4 different Canary themes (out of 6) present in this episode.  A lot of dive into!

Black Siren and the Canary

Black Siren’s theme was introduced as a villain theme in the Flash (2x22 “Black Siren in Central City”) first in celeste (a keyboard that sounds like bells...think Harry Potter) and then flute with high violins.  She also has a low string pattern that accompanies it.  This theme first appeared in 5x10 of Arrow as she revealed herself as Laurel’s doppelgänger from Earth 2 and not the Laurel they knew.  “Laurel, not Laurel.”  The themes for both Laurels are almost the same until the last note: While Earth 1 Laurel ended with a whole step, Earth 2 Laurel ended on a minor 3rd or Augmented 2nd, both going up.  This leaves it unresolved and dissonant, twisting what was heroic into something a little more sinister, fitting for a villainous doppleganer: taking the heroic Canary theme from our Laurel and twisting it for the murderous one from Earth 2.  Black Siren’s theme has one unusual aspect from the other Canary themes, however.  It has two parts: the one going up (based on the original Laurel) and then repeating almost the same notes with it going down at the end (still staying with 5 notes, a necessary part of any Canary theme).  

As she reappears at the end of Season 5 and the beginning of Season 6, this theme appears a lot as she attacks the team with Prometheus and Cayden James. However, as she appears to have second thoughts with Diaz and Quentin believes there is hope, the villain theme ceases to appear, making a brief/cut-off version as she was about to scream at the Silencer in 7x04. 

Things take a turn in this episode as she turns back to being Black Siren and what she believes is her true self after she is exposed working with Diaz.  After appearing in her Black Siren outfit accompanied by pseudo rock/techno music and fighting, looking for the villain Shadowfax, the Canary symbol is used for the title with her theme (the first part) in the flute and horn.  This combination of instruments is used a lot for all the Canary themes - heroic and birdlike, giving a little hint for the rest of the episode.

The high violin version plays the first half of her theme as she reunites with Shadowthief, wanting to go on a crime spree together.  The theme is punctuated with stops and accents with accompanying drum kit (callback to the earlier rock/techno feel) as Laurel asks if she is still good with locks. As they attack the “dry cleaner”, the horns plays her whole theme with her entrance.

As they go on their next job, they are interrupted by Dinah and Sara.  As Sara appears with a version of original Laurel’s electronic cry, her Canary theme and the original Canary theme (”Canary” 2x03) plays in the flute. Laurel makes a little comment about her supposed to be on a little space ship while the horn plays a bit of the Legends theme in the background as a fun little nod. This Canary theme plays again as they fight, this time in an electronic sound matching more of sounds that occur with Legends. It also matches the fact that several Canaries are fighting in the same scene, not limited to just one. Near the end, Laurel uses her cry to burst a light and then declares for them to stay away from her as she walks away.  As she does so, the electronic instrument plays the first half of her theme, fitting with the tone of their altercation. The electric guitar aspect of the rock/techno music from the opening returns as Felicity and Dinah are almost blown up later on, seeming to cement that Siren is firmly on the villain path.

However, Sara comes to realize that if Laurel really wanted to kill them, she wouldn’t have left so much time with the bomb.  As she processes some of this, flute begins to play and she leaves to find Laurel at Quentin’s grave. This instrument returns with a variation of Sara’s canary theme as Sara owns up to her sins, sharing that the only way she could head down the redemption path from being assassin was to return home and face the things she had done.  This variation begins with the same opening 5th and has 5 notes but stays in major, getting rid of the dissonance used in almost every Canary theme. It is the sound of a realized hero, a woman who has found redemption and became a hero through a long journey.  This plays over violins and cellos, a combination often used for Lance sister conversations but again not quite the same, alluding to the past but making it clear that they are not actually sisters.  Laurel says it is too late “this is who I am” as the flute plays her Black Siren theme (the first half).

As Laurel and Shadowthief try to steal a weapon, Black Siren’s theme is played for the last time as a villain theme in the flute and strings. Sara reappears to stop her as her Canary theme plays in the horn. 

After the epic showdown, they reconvene in the bunker to celebrate and Felicity gives Laurel the original Black Canary costume. As does so, an altered version of Sara’s Canary theme plays, being in major instead of slightly dissonant. This exact version was used after Laurel’s death, being declared a hero both at her funeral “Laurel is the Black Canary” (4x19) and then when her statue was erected in 5x01.  In many ways, this is the theme for the legend that Laurel became, becoming bigger after death in the ways a saint often becomes. To use this in passing down her dream of continuing the Black Canary on to this Laurel, who is seeking to earn her redemption by facing her sins in Earth 2 seems a percent sendoff.

In the Flashforwards, Mia is saved by the Black Canary, revealed to be Laurel.  The first 5 notes so close to being a heroic theme and then changed to be a villain theme is now used for a hero, played in both horn and the flute like the title card at the beginning. The melody is unchanged as it is still the same person but now she is the Black Canary instead of Black Siren, part of a larger Canary network.  

Birds of Justice - the Canaries

Two new versions of the Canary theme appeared in this episode that are very much connected: one for the future and for the present. Both start like the original Canary theme with a 5th going up, a similar rhythm, and each part is made up of 5 notes.  These two are also connected by going down a minor third (essentially playing a minor triad for you music nerds) but it is the last two notes that change.

The first that plays is in the flash-forwards as Dinah explains to Mia why she set up the Canary network, a support system for woman with the bravery and sacrifice of these women who always get back up again. The theme has two parts of 5 notes (like Black Siren’s) and like all the Canary themes, includes a little dissonance. The first grouping takes the same notes as Dinah’s Canary theme and plays them in a different order. It first plays in solo French horn as she shows Mia the Canary pin and then low strings.  As this theme plays and expands, the harmonies give it a heroic epic quality supported by timpani rolls.  It is a theme of working together as a team, women having each other’s backs.  The music turns minor as Mia rejects being a Canary.

Meanwhile, in the present day, Felicity is determined to stop Laurel from becoming a murderous villain again and tells her that she believes in her, asking Laurel what she wants to be. Then the second new Canary theme plays as she tells Laurel that she will have to use the new weapon on her but is not getting out the way as Sara and Dinah join her. In a similar fashion to the flash-forwards, the theme plays in low strings, violins and horns, is made out of two parts of 5 notes, and definitely imitates both Sara’s and Laurel’s Canary theme while being slightly different in one or two intervals.  It is a combinations of all the Canary themes as these women come together.   This version has a drum beat going on underneath both to raise the stakes and give intensity.  It is the harmonies that are very similar to the flash-forward melody, connecting those two together.  As they fight, a final variation plays mixing this newest one with Sara’s/original Canary theme in violins and electronics with more punctuation and stops in between each notes to fit with the fighting. The horns play the new team Canary theme as they walk away as the “Birds of Justice.”  It is a great music sequence.

As they meet up in the bunker to celebrate, Felicity gives Dinah a new electronic cry based on the previous Laurel’s device (that Sara had used in this episode.) As she does so, the new team Birds/Canary theme plays in the horn. This also connects the present to the future as she will be the leader of the Canaries and it is this day that is her inspiration for a network and a team of women.

In the end of the episode, Mia is rescued by Laurel and her group of Canaries, having been contacted by Laurel.  Watching Mia’s back because that is what the Canaries do and then Laurel admonishes/encourages Mia that she has a long way to prove herself a hero and to not screw it up.  The flash-forward Canary theme plays in the strings during this moment and then ends with a variation of Mia’s Blackstar theme in the strings as she watches them leave.

Felicity and Olicity - belief and hope

Felicity’s instrument is harp and that appeared several times throughout the episode as she seeks to bring hope and help both Oliver and Laurel. At the beginning of the episode, she found some resources for Oliver regarding Emiko’s mother’s killer. As violins alternate between two notes, a harp plays occasionally as they discuss this.  The piano (Oliver’s instrument) plays his hero themes as he believes that Emiko was not lying about her mother being murdered. The piano switches to the beginning of the Olicity theme “The One I love” (2x23) as he asks her to take it easy for him because of the precious cargo.  This is the 3rd time that the beginning of this theme has been used for sweet pregnancy moments, giving just a little hint of their love theme in their care and excitement for their baby.  Then the music mixes piano, fun strings (often for fun cute scenes of Felicity) and hints of high waterglasses/electronics mixing their various elements together as they have a sweet domestic moment together.

Later on, after Laurel tried to “blow them up” Dinah and Felicity have a discussion on whether Laurel had actually changed.  Felicity argued that it was through the team’s support that helped Dinah change and was disappointed when it appeared Laurel had not changed after all.  The harp accompanied the majority of this scene for Felicity’s heart and belief in the fact that Laurel needed that friendship and support maybe even more than anyone realized. What makes it even poignant is that it is the same motif used for Laurel and Lance’s relationship (the flute part - “Working together but alone” 1x02).  While in later seasons, it was used primarily for Quentin’s grief, in the first season it was used as Laurel explained her job to fight for what was right, to help Thea because she reminded them of Sara (1x12), as well as looking for Sara (1x18).  There was a belief in family and helping each other through their grief and loss.  Here, Dinah is reminded again of the loss she endured at the hands of Laurel and that she ultimately is unredeemable, making it hard to get past that death in the same way that Lance had trouble forgiving the Queens for Sara.  Felicity and Laurel 1 were more compassionate, trying to see the good past the bad, giving second changes.

Harp returns at the end when Laurel, Dinah and Felicity celebrate with champagne and Felicity hopes things will go back to normal.  However Laurel shares her plans. Felicity’s belief and hope inspired Laurel as did Sara’s talk about facing her past as she decides to return to Earth 2, walking the hard path of working towards redemption.

Felicity returns home to a sleepy Oliver and after recounting the day, piano, hammered dulcimer and major strings play as they relax together.  This is their soundscape of being home and happy together from “Domestic Life” (4x01) to now.

Extra Notes:

- The music for the Longbow Hunters returned (bell-like electronic) as Oliver and John interrogated one of them in this episode.

- You may have noticed that I am a little behind on music reviews.  Between Easter and upcoming orchestra concerts and other stuff, it has been quite a busy few weeks.  I was hoping I would be able to catch up but my guess is that I will just be behind for the rest of the season.  Ah well! Enjoy the stroll back into memory lane.

@jorahandal @academyofshipping @ah-maa-zing @smoakmonster @herskirtsarentthatshort @dmichellewrites @almondblossomme @green-arrows-of-karamel @scu11y22 @mel-loves-all

#arrow music notes #arrow 7x18 #black siren #black canary #sara lance #felicity smoak #the canaries #blake neely #nathaniel blume

[thebicanary]

seriously big spoilers, don’t read on if you haven’t seen or don’t want to know about endgame

i’m pleased with endgame, i really loved it and i didn’t realise that is apparently an unpopular opinion until i got onto old tungle dot com here. everyone i know who was also at a midnight launch was happy with it, people came out of it extremely satisfied so... idk. but here’s why i loved it:

- it was funny. and i have issues with the comedy and comedic timing of a lot of marvel movies not giving time for dramatic moments to fucking breathe before going into a joke or a wise crack but both infinity war and endgame balanced the comedy and drama well imo

- let’s not lie to ourselves, it was complete fanservice for a good chunk of the movie. but it was the best kind of fanservice. there were so many moments people fucking CHEERED AND CLAPPED in the cinema when i saw it, like cap wielding mjolnir against thanos, when the avengers and the armies of wakanda and so many systems thanos destroyed came to help fuck him up, on your left, pepper in the rescue armour, the mcu ladies gathering for a big showdown while carol is transporting the stones etc.

- tony’s death is utterly heartbreaking, especially in light of him and pepper having a child and tony trying to forge a life with a family in the wake of the snap. but it was a satisfying and fitting end for his time in the mcu. this all began with iron man in 2008, this all began with tony and rdj, it would not have felt right for anyone else to defeat thanos in the end, and i think we all knew defeating thanos would require the sacrifice or a life or two. most expected it to be steve, but tony fits better imo. his decision to use the stones to save the world while knowing his body would not be physically capable of handling it was heroic, and heartbreaking, and he got a beautiful send off. It was a great way of honoring tony and rdj’s contributions to the franchise and i was sobbing.

- i’m actually glad carol was not the big weapon to be used to defeat thanos in the movie like was teased in promo material. the fact that the majority of fighting against thanos was from the big three original tentpoles of the mcu (tony, steve, thor) working together was exhilarating, satisfying, and ultimately how it should have gone. i also like that they’ve established carol as not just a defender of earth - that the snap affected many other planets and she is choosing to help all of them as best she can, not just earth. she only properly comes back to earth when thanos arrives with his army to help with the fight. would i have liked more of her present after enjoying her so much in her solo outing? yeah, but this was the end of 22 movies, a lot of characters deserved and needed time, and she is the newest addition. it’s fair that she didn’t get too much focus when this was essentially a love letter and goodbye to characters who have been around in the mcu (NOT THE COMICS, OK. YOU GOTTA TREAT THE MCU AS OBJECTIVELY SEPARATE BECAUSE A LOT OF PEOPLE ARE WATCHING THESE MOVIES WITH LITTLE TO NO COMIC KNOWLEDGE, THEY’RE ATTACHED TO THE MCU, NOT NECESSARILY MARVEL COMICS). also the new haircut is big sexy and i hope they keep it.

- BIG UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: i liked steve’s ending, fucking sue me. people saying he abandoned bucky, bucky clearly knew he as at least CONSIDERING remaining in the past, if he had not outright told bucky that was his plan. steve choosing to retire from the fight makes sense for his arc. people hating him for going back and not doing anything with hydra/shield/bucky/etc. did not pay attention to the (admittedly flimsy) laws of time travel established. steve could not go back and change their pasts to directly affect the present, it would simply create an alternate timeline. THIS IS WHY THEY HAD TO DO A SECOND SNAP IN THE FIRST PLACE. STOPPING THANOS FROM DOING THE ORIGINAL SNAP WOULD NOT CHANGE ANYTHING IN THE TIMELINE THEY RETURNED TO, BECAUSE IT WOULD JUST BE A BRANCH FROM THAT MOMENT. the whole reason the stones had to go back in the first place was so those extra timelines weren’t created. it’s not hard to theorise and imagine steve actually did save bucky and stop hydra if you want to, but by the laws established in the movie, it would not directly impact the timeline of the already established movies. feel free to imagine that old steve was from another timeline where he did all that - but he unfortunately can’t save the bucky standing next to sam and bruce there. him going back to live out the rest of his life in peace with the woman he loves does not erase what he has done in all previous movies. it gives him a fucking break and allows him to do one thing for himself and his happiness that largely has little consequence, and means we get to see an end to steve as cap without him dying. i’m ignoring the icky sharon situation simply because it hasn’t been acknowledged anyway since civil war and it wasn’t properly built up to before then anyway so fuck it. and peggy gets to be happy too - whether she would have been happy or not without steve, does it really matter? there’s a timeline where she gets to be happy with him like she did want at least at one point, so fuck it.

- on that note as well the ancient one didn’t say changing the past would doom the alternate timelines, she said taking the time stone from them would doom them in that timeline, because they wouldn’t have the time stone anymore, it would never be given to strange and he would never be able to defeat dormammu. which is WHY. THE AVENGERS WERE GONNA TAKE ALL THE STONES BACK TO THOSE POINTS IN TIME, SO THAT THINGS CONTINUE ON THE COURSE THEY ORIGINALLY DID

- as with anything involving this much time travel PLOTHOLES ABOUND but i can largely ignore them just for the fun the movie had with it, and i don’t care enough to really see them resolved. nebula killed her past self but is still around? the thanos dusted at the end is actually past thanos as are all his lackies and so won’t be around to create infinity war which is required for endgame to happen? fuck it, i guess it’s just another branching timeline. idc, love karen gillan as nebula can’t wait to see her as a permanent gotg. thanos getting dusted was a nice satisfying fu. loki just up and disappeared with the space stone when they failed to get it from the avengers point in time (LITERALLY Y’ALL TWISTING YOUR NICKERS ABOUT STEVE AND IGNORING THAT THIS WOULD ERASE LOKI BEING THERE FOR DARK WORLD BECAUSE HE WOULDN’T BE THERE FOR THOR TO TAKE HIM HOME, AND SUBSEQUENTLY THEN NOT BE THERE FOR RAGNAROK.) but again, this is a movie that is largely serving as fan service/a love letter, so i’m electing to ignore it. this is a superhero movie, for gods sake, i don’t need it to make sense 100% of the time. we don’t question a lot of the other rules this universe has established in the past, and also in this movie (like y’all they just up and survived thanos bombing the avengers compound til it was dust. CLINT SURVIVED THAT. HE’S A HUMAN HE HAS NO SUPERSUIT OR POWERS. HE SHOULD’VE DIED. BUT AGAIN. DO YOU GIVE A FUCK THAT THAT IS IGNORED? NO. BUT YOU WANNA GET PISSED ABOUT STEVE GETTING A HAPPY ENDING).

- clint finally having plot relevance and a good storyline in an avengers movie hell yes. he opens the movie and it’s a great way to frame just how fucked the world was thanks to thanos after infinity war. his decision to go on a killing spree is kinda understandable - thanos’ snap didn’t differentiate between good and bad, he’s bitter that his entire family was wiped out but asshole murderers and drug dealers still exist? it’s an approach to vigilantism that i enjoy unpicking in superhero stuff, it’s why i like heroes like red hood.

- it’s a shame nat had to die, and that her and gamora won’t be coming back from the soul stone sacrifices (unless they pull a “actually they got brought back too” thing later. star lord was running a search for gamora at the end after all). but makes sense narratively that she was the one to go rather than clint. he had his family, it would just be one more depressing thing to have his family come back with him not there and nat the one to break it. seeing her go is sad, for a character that largely unfortunately hasn’t got much focus or (well written) development in the avengers movies, but it was a fitting end to her whole “wanting to wipe the red from her ledger” deal, and her and clint’s friendship was beautiful.

- i love hulk!bruce. i love bruce embracing the hulk, not being afraid of him, or his nature as the hulk anymore. it was a nice way to end his arc too.

- ‘nother unpopular opinion, i don’t hate how thor’s arc went either. i would love him to be the leader of asgard, and maybe that can be his future. i’m disappointed it’s not him now, but i think it’s a reaction to the unexpected popularity ragnarok got, and as a consequence that his mcu character got where previously his solo outings had been considered some of the weaker instalments. there’s not much big superhero action to be had in him ruling new asgard, but the potential for another thor outing, or a stint with the guardians, offers more chance for marvel to rake in some more millions with his popularity. doesn’t mean he can’t become ruler of asgard later, and i hope that will be his fate eventuality. but it also nicely rounds out the core three passing down legacies - steve leaves his legacy as captain america with sam, tony leaves his legacy as iron man with the ironfam and peter, thor leaves his legacy as ruler of asgard with valkyrie. we know peter continues on as spidey in his next movie, rhodey will likely at least have a supporting role in future avengers stuff/other heroes’ movies going forward, sam will likely be captain america in the sam/bucky tv show, and valkyrie was a popular side character with potential for stuff going forward (that rumoured lady sif show could be about new asgard or involve valkyrie in some form?). thor probably got the least out of the core three, but i think it’s because they now want to keep the potential for more thor in the future.

- the final fight was epic, and it put into context the line up for the future of the mcu we have and how exciting it is (spidey, captain marvel, black panther, doctor strange (never thought i’d say that but infinity war and endgame really made me like him and the mystic arts element of the mcu more), potential legacy characters like sam, rhodey/pepper, valkyrie, wanda, because i don’t think her story is done yet, the guardians, scott and hope).

- the final credits with the original 6 avengers getting special sliders with the actors signatures was a real nice touch i got goosebumps.

- it was a good way to wipe the slate semi-clean for a next generation of the mcu, without completely killing off and erasing all that came before. the mcu isn’t like comics where it can just perpetually exist in an undefined era where characters don’t age for years on end, there do need to be definitive ends to some of these characters and their arcs unless you just wanna recast them every 5 years so they can remain ageless.

#endgame spoilers below the cut #just my general thoughts that i wanna just shoot out there #really don't read if you don't want to be spoiled #endgame spoilers #spoilers #avengers spoilers #this is pro endgame btw lol i know y'all gonna hate that but #not all my thoughts because i wanna rewatch it again so my brain can actually retain the info #but i enjoyed it! idc #and this isn't in a 'the last 5 minutes left me on a high at 3am so i forgot about the things i didn't like until later' like with tlj #there was no sinking moment of disappointment for me ONCE during this movie #whereas for like the first 1 and a half hours of tlj that's all i felt

[journeysintowebcomics]

Girl Genius Liveblog #178

UPDATE 178: So Much Time Has Passed

Last time Agatha managed to outsmart Tweedle and ran away. Violetta and Krosp are with her, so right now it’s three intruders in a fort belonging to Tweedle. I don’t think they even know where in the world they’re at right now, it’s going to be difficult to escape. Let’s continue.

Agatha and friends aren’t the only ones who have been sneaking around. Somewhere else in this fort, an old man is berating the Smoke Knights about their failure at finding Tweedle. Nobody who’s currently present here has even seen him, and he has killed many Smoke Knights already. Well, to be fair, those who did see him are now dead, and therefore are even bigger of a failure than these ones that are alive.

Congratulations, old man! Here’s Tweedle, now everyone in the room has seen him. Tweedle doesn’t appreciate Agatha’s stubbornness and now wants to capture her again, which is why he’s here now. He demands the Smoke Knights to help him. The old man demands them to kill Tweedle immediately, and gets stabbed. Guess that means Tweedle is in charge of the Smoke Knights in this building now. This is Violetta’s shining moment, she’ll be a big help in avoiding capture.

Now that the opponent’s forces have been shown and defined, the scene changes to Agatha and pals talking about what they can do. During these three days, Violetta and Krosp managed to determine the location of where they are right now.

Only a hundred kilometers? Hm...well that’s not too far away. It’ll take a long while to reach if you walk there, and doing that in the cold is dangerous and certainly be more of a hassle than it’d usually be, but it’s not an impossible feat by any means. That’s closest than I expected, really.

All that snow is something Agatha is surprised about. At first she thinks they’re high on a mountain, but then determines it’s also because of the season. It’s winter, meaning there’s been a time jump. Perhaps a side effect of using that portal. Agatha wonders if it has been six months, but Krosp has other news.

Two and half years? That’s a ludicrous amount of time! No wonder everyone was so surprised to see Tweedle and Agatha, and were all ‘we thought you were lost!’ It has been years, of course they would be surprised if suddenly they appeared.

Also, it makes sense something happened in Mechanisburg during the last two years and half. That’s more than enough time for anything to happen. Heck, the entire world and society could have been reshaped by now. What has Gil been doing all this time? Is the Baron okay after activating whatever that thing was at Mechanisburg? Is Tarvek okay or did he horribly die like Tweedle predicted? Did Higgs and Zeetha elopes to Switzerland or something? So many questions that need answer.

The portal they had passed through was supposed to be instantaneous, but whatever the Baron did to Mechanisburg with that device of his messed things up. Hmmm...you know, it sounds like despite the time that has passed, the Baron did something very big and game-changing right when Agatha and everyone else left. Whether that’s the big event in Mechanisburg or not remains to be seen. I’d say there’s like 50% chance it is.

Krosp tried to find out what happened to Mechanisburg, but although he could walk around without anyone paying much attention because, you know, he’s a cat, his shenanigans also interrupted them when they tried to talk about Mechanisburg, every single time.

Damn it, Krosp, haha! I like how they didn’t even question the presence of a random cat around here.

Agatha wonders two of the four things I was wondering just a moment ago, and decides they can’t stay in here while Mechanisburg is in trouble. She demands to be taken to the hanger Violetta saw. Hmm...Violetta said mechas came from there, that hangar will be like a playground for Agatha. She’ll be able to make something to get quickly over there

Sneaking around takes time, and Agatha doesn’t like that. She’s in a hurry to do MAD SCIENCE. Given how many foes are crawling around here, Violetat insists they shouldn’t hurry and put themselves in danger. So of course, this jinxes them, they’re immediately caught by an enemy Smoke Knight.

SUDDENLY WEREWOLF

Because things aren’t difficult enough for them, you see! Honestly, it’ll be a feat to get out of this place alive! Luckily, this particular werewolf attacked and pretty much killed the Smoke Knight, giving them the chance to run away.

It’s called a sparkhound, and they’re bred to hunt sparks. It’s a good thing Othar is too, hm, heroic and good-natured to even consider using such a brutal method to capture and get rid of sparks. Tweedle bred these ones, his specialty seems to be creatures. He used to make singing bears, now he makes canine monsters and who knows what else. I’d say his expertise extends to biology in general, judging by what he did to Agatha.

He cares more about his Storm King title, and for that he needs to hunt the traitors! Agatha and the rest are second on the priority list. They better take advantage of that for as long as possible.

Speaking of Tweedle and his quest to assert dominance, he continues killing his family. Might makes right! Traitors must die! The guy he trapped right now...if it wasn’t because it’s impossible I’d think it’s the same guy who welcome Tweedle and got stabbed like thirty seconds later. Once Tweedle demands to know who the person on top of the treachery pyramid is, this person seems to arrive. Nice, I wonder if this family member will survive for more than a minute. Xerxsephnia, it seems to be.

Xerxsephina. Leaving aside the fact there’s a typo either on the past page or in this title, I really like this name.

I also like her design. So! Xerxsephina. Are you going to be an important character? Because I sure hope so, I already like her! And I like her even more when she laughs creepily, and somehow Tweedle reacts with seemingly sincere joy. Looks like despite everything, there’s someone he truly likes, and the feeling is mutual.

The reason why Tweedle was going on a murder spree is because he thought someone was trying to take the throne of the Storm King from him. I have a faint hope it was Tarvek, hopes that are dashed when Xerxesphine reveals that’s true. There’s no Storm King. In fact, there won’t be any. Things sure changed in the last two years and half!

...okay! Not what I expected! This means the replacement for the Storm King thing will be Gil. Everything Tarvek did, everything Tweedle did, it’s all for naught because Gil somehow managed to get this family to work with him. If I had to guess, I’d say Wulfenbach knowing about the Knights of Jove intervening may be the reason. Hard to be stealthy and pull strings behind the scene when your enemy knows about you.

Also, nobody tell Tarvek Gil kinda managed to destroy his dream. Well, not really, because I’m sure Tarvek would somehow get the title, but I’m not sure how useful it’d be now.

Tweedle doesn’t like the news, they were working to take everything from Wulfenbach and his ilk, yet now they’re working with them. Those who supported the Storm King plan seem to be dead, and everyone else who is alive is reaching agreements with the Baron’s side. Maybe the reason why they were intent in killing Tweedle was so he wouldn’t swoop in and ruin everything.

...huh? Okay, I can kind of understand the part about there being no more Storm King plans, but no empire at all? Then who’s in charge? Did everything dissolve and now everyone is taking what they can, being at war with each other? Because seriously, the empire may have been in trouble two years ago, but I didn’t think it would just crumble down like that! Just what happened? I hope there will be details!

Good point to end the scene. I’ll stop for now.

Next time: in five updates

#girl genius #girl genius liveblog #webcomics #liveblog #webcomic liveblog

[tremendouspeachduck]

Besides the regular stuff

and could they be talking about education issues or problems?

Maybe she's thinking about  .  .  . something substantial.

Of course, he's so sexy and appealing she’s thinking.  Maybe I should turn up the heat.

Could they be interested in . . .  EDUCATION? - such a difficult subject, right?

In 1998, a high school junior named Eric Harris from Colorado wanted to put on a performance, something for the world to remember him by. A little more than a year later, Eric and his best friend Dylan Klebold would place bombs all over their school — bombs large enough to collapse large chunks of the building and to kill the majority of the 2,000 students inside — and then wait outside with semi-automatic weapons to gun down any survivors before ending their own lives. “It’ll be like the LA riots, the Oklahoma bombing, WWII, Vietnam, Duke and Doom all mixed together,” Eric wrote in his journal. “Maybe we will even start a little rebellion or revolution to fuck things up as much as we can. I want to leave a lasting impression on the world.” Eric was a psychopath, but he was also smart. Despite what media outlets would later claim, Eric Harris was not the victim of bullying any more than other students, he was not a goth or a member of the “Trench Coat Mafia.” Eric was a straight-A student. He read Nietzsche and Hemingway for fun. He had friends and girlfriends. He was charming and funny and had a disarming smile.

But Eric also understood people. And because he understood people, he changed everything. By 1999, there had already been a series of school shootings across the United States. But Eric wasn’t interested in those. They were small-time jobs, amateur hour. Eric was far more interested in Timothy McVeigh’s bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 and injured 600. Eric wanted to top that. But he didn’t just want to top the body count, he wanted to top the notoriety, the fame, the horror. He wanted to terrorize people and he understood that his best weapon was not the guns he secretly purchased or the bombs he built in his basement — it was television. He would not kill jocks or preps, he would kill indiscriminately, because that’s what caused the most fear and got the most attention. He wouldn’t just blow up the school, but he’d blow up the parking lot, the police cars and the firefighters and the journalists who rushed to the scene. He would, quite literally, go out with a bang, the shockwaves of which, carried by mass media and the internet, would reverberate through the world for decades. On April 20th, Eric and Dylan arrived at Columbine High School and opened fire on teachers, students, administrators, janitors and police officers. Eric’s largest bombs failed to detonate and bring the building down as he had hoped, but that did not prevent the ensuing carnage that would last for almost an hour, leaving 15 dead and 24 wounded.

As chaos engulfed the school in Colorado, it would quickly fan out across the country, commanding more or less 24-hour television coverage for weeks on end. The drama would be replayed endlessly — bloodied and crippled students climbing out of the library window, the heroic coach who lost his life saving dozens of kids. And then there would be the questions and the speculation. Why? First, it was goth culture and Marilyn Manson. Then it was bullying. Then it was being social loners and outcasts. All of the explanations were later discovered to be untrue. The event truly seemed inexplicable. And because it was inexplicable the media and the viewers couldn’t let it go. Books were written. Memorials were built and ceremonies filled out. Eric Harris got his death wish: “Columbine” was a household name.

Recently, a student named Elliot Rodger from Santa Barbara City College killed six and injured 13, the latest in a long series of school shootings that are all but becoming a normal part of American tradition. As usual, the killer left a cache of material behind to explain his intentions and milk as much publicity for his personal grievances as possible. This time, the focus was on women, and how they wouldn’t have sex with him.

Like they always do, the media have descended to explain away the madness. And like a Rorschach Test, each outlet had its own pet cause primed and ready to be read into the situation. Gun control advocates used the event as an opportunity to campaign for stricter gun control, despite the fact that Rodger bought his guns legally and easily passed the background checks. Mental health advocates used it as an opportunity to urge better mental health care, despite the fact that Rodger had a small army of therapists and social workers working with him for practically his entire life.

First, come and get the USA history and more NOW, before it’s not taught, erased from the net and books or before it’s tweeked, tampered-with or getting the waterdown disturbing version.  

What is Melania doing to help our kids?

Time to lighten up - see video -

Feminists used it as an opportunity to promote awareness for violence against women, despite the fact that Rodger killed indiscriminately and the majority of the victims turned out to be men. Social justice advocates used it as an opportunity to rail against white male entitlement, despite the fact that Rodger was mixed race and a significant number of school shooters have also been minorities (Two examples: Seung-Hui Cho and Kimveer Gill). All of these issues are legitimate and deserve a conversation. But they are not the singular cause. They’re not the point.

However, the Fed. Govt. is not in charge - you are. There are many home school options available.   Or go to curriculum meetings at your child’s school.

If you want some curriculum changes what do you do besides go to the PTA, get group together and approach the principal?  You seek help from:   Parent Revolution, Education Reform Now, and Stand for Children.

What kind of parent are you?

Elliot Rodger was a member of a number of sites, email lists, and Facebook groups. And all of these authors and dating coaches — some of them legitimately decent men, others shady marketers — are all frantically trying to cover their tracks as best as possible. But this “witch hunt” we go through every time a school shooting happens is a total ruse. Elliot Rodger didn’t become a killer because he was a misogynist; he became a misogynist because he was a killer. Just like Eric Harris didn’t become a killer because he loved violent video games; he loved violent video games because he was a killer. Just like Adam Lanza didn’t become a killer because he loved guns; he loved guns because he was a killer. Every school shooting incident comes in the same dreary package: an angry, politically-charged rant, shrink-wrapped around a core of mental illness and neglect. These shooters leave behind journals, videos, diagrams, manifestos, and treatises. They broadcast their plans and intentions to their friends and family. They email news outlets minutes before they start firing. They write down their plans and make checklists so that others may follow in their footsteps. They go on angry rants against materialism, hedonism, the government, mass media, women, and sometimes even the people close to them.

Trophy Wife prose, not poetry

And each time, as a culture, we work ourselves into a frenzy debating the angry exterior message, while ignoring the interior life and context of each killer. We miss the point entirely. Reality Check According to the FBI, mass shootings (defined as shooting events that kill at least four people) occur on average every two weeks in the United States. Yes, every two weeks. Yet we rarely, if ever, hear about most of them. The reason is that these shootings are easily explainable. In most mass shootings, the crimes occur at a private location and the victims are people close and well-known to the shooter — family members, neighbors, friends. Many of them are attributable to gang violence or illicit criminal activities. Others are a crime of passion. School shootings only account for 4% of all mass shootings and yet they dominate the news media and get the entire country talking about them for weeks on end. There are a few reasons for this: They occur in everyday public locations which are supposed to be safe. The victims are targeted and killed at random.

You missed the March, 2018 update: 

The victims are innocent bystanders and often children. The killers leave behind large amounts of material about themselves for the media to share. The perpetrator and victims are generally upper-middle class, white, and privileged. These shooters know what they are doing. They’re not “crazy.” They don’t just “snap.” Most of them spend months or years planning their massacres. Elliot Rodger had apparently been planning his shooting for over a year. You don’t just show up with a 140-page manifesto and a large stockpile of weapons one day. You work at it for a long time. And you plan not only the violence but the presentation for the audience, the performance — what they will see from you, what they will hear from you, the reasons why, the message. It’s all very conscious and deliberate. And it works. Their killing sprees are specifically targeted to generate the most fear and uncertainty from the public, because the more fear and uncertainty they generate, the more attention they get. They then use all of the attention as a platform to promote themselves or whatever complaints they may have against society. It’s the Columbine formula. It works. And as Eric Harris pointed out in his journal, it’s not about the guns. It’s about the television. The films. The fame. The revolution. If this sounds like a familiar strategy, that’s because it is. Mass Shootings as Non-Political Terrorism

Parents ATTENTION – build this for your daughter 

For a country that is so single-mindedly obsessed with terrorism, it’s jaw-dropping that almost nobody recognizes that school shooters use the exact same strategies to disseminate fear and their twisted agendas throughout society. Terrorists use violence and mass media coverage to promote political or religious beliefs; school shooters use violence and mass media coverage to promote their personal grievances and glorification. When viewed in this way, our responses to the school shooters look juvenile in comparison. Can you imagine arguing over whether misogyny made Osama Bin Laden plan September 11th? Or whether video games caused Dhokhar Tsarnaev to plant bombs at the Boston Marathon? Or whether heavy music inspired Timothy McVeigh to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City? You would be laughed at. And in fact, when anyone goes as far as to suggest that Islam causes terrorism, they are immediately and rightfully scolded for it. Yet when it comes to school shootings, these types of discussions are not only tolerated, but engaged in willfully. It’s not that we should respond to school shootings the same way we respond to terrorist attacks. It’s that we already do. We just don’t realize it.

  What are the 10 best states for K-12 ed?  Are you ready to move?

If you can’t move, then do you prefer charter or voucher choices?  Transportation to/from should also be considered, right?  What about low income before/after school meals, tutoring or sports activities?  Perhaps charter, voucher or public choices should be contingent on anti-gang, low-income after school participation, right?  No participation = no school = mandatory work program in Sudan or Uganda.  I’d like to see some corporate, ball player and entertainer money come forward to fund before & after school meals/tutoring/sports.

I’d also like to see some funding go fornutrition parenting and school meal classes:

When Elliot’s creepy YouTube videos went public, declaring vengeance upon every college girl that wouldn’t sleep with him, every woman who had ever heard a guy mutter something similar suddenly felt a chill run up her spine. And that chill caused the video to be posted and reposted, sending more chills up more women’s spines until it had spread across the country. My guess is that’s exactly what Elliot would have wanted. And we’ve seen this viral dissemination over and over again. After every school shooting episode, writings and videos of the killers get passed around on the internet. Television specials show and reshow the footage. Books are written. Experts are hired. Rinse and repeat. Last year, I wrote that terrorism works because it takes advantages of psychological inefficiencies in our brains: we pay a disproportionate amount of attention to threatening events and we always overestimate how likely it is for a random event to happen to us. School shootings transfix us by leveraging the exact same inefficiencies in our minds. And once they’ve dominated this mindspace, we can’t seem to shake them out of it.

Common Core is no longer mandatory for Fed money.  States can now choose and let’s not forget about STEM career prep.  

Next subject is about college loans.  Predatory lending is any lending practice that imposes unfair or abusive loan terms on a borrower. It is also any practice that convinces a borrower to accept unfair terms through deceptive, coercive, exploitative or unscrupulous actions for a loan that a borrower doesn’t need, doesn’t want or can’t afford.

If the terms are unfair or abusive then seek another loan, right?  How can a college loan officer be deceptive, coercive, exploitative or unscrupulous?  Maybe someone has a recording of such, who knows?

Yet, for some reason, while we seem to imagine potential terrorists everywhere — in airport lines, at stadium gates, in subway cars — we never see the school shooters coming. We’re always caught by surprise. Hiding in Plain Sight When we think of terrorists, we think of some alien “other” — the bearded, turbaned man hiding in some cave on the other side of the world. Because he’s so distant and different, we let him eat at our imagination — he could be anywhere, ready to strike at any moment, hiding in behind every bush, planting a bomb on every bus or plane. We clog our airports and blast warnings through our public buildings for some imagined bogeyman who is never actually present. By contrast, we fail to spot shooter after shooter because they are so close to us and so much like us. We miss them because they are our neighbors, our classmates, our friends or even our family members. They are right in front of our noses and we ignore them for a whole host of trivial reasons. Maybe they’re too weird, or awkward, or they’re a loser. We don’t want to talk to them. We put our blinders on and pretend that they’re not miserable, we pretend that they didn’t just have that awkward outburst, we pretend they didn’t just make a joke about killing their own parents.

Pipeline info       more pipeline info

In writing, in the loan paperwork do you see any lies or anything to mislead a borrower?  The lender must be protected from students trying to pull a fast one, right?  No lenders = no future loans for students.  Betsy Devos, Sec of Ed, is fighting for our students to have loans to use to finance their college costs.  A very good fight, right?

College costs are high, so it’s no game or time filler.  The potential student must be serious and have the desire and ability to finish, right?  Most people old and young know that any loan has rules and risks, right?  

Signing without reading and understanding is at your peril, right?  If you are a student what should you look at?  

Eric Harris’ friends later said that he would often “joke” about blowing up the school and murdering classmates. Even after they discovered he was building bombs in his basement, they never put two-and-two together. They just couldn’t believe it. Not Eric. Not the guy they had played video games with and toilet papered girls’ houses with. Meanwhile, the wrong sarcastic word at the airport and you can be held in jail for days. An FBI study on school shooters found school shootings are never a result of a crazy person “snapping.” Most shooters do have serious mental health or emotional issues, but they all plan their attacks months or even years in advance. And as they plan, they almost always “leak” information about the attack beforehand, sometimes intentionally, and sometimes in incredibly obvious ways.

Are there any debt elimination scams?  

Some qualify whereby most fees can be paid through scholarships, grants or military service benefits, right?  If yourgrades suck, can you get a scholarship?

Are students aware of jobs for the future - dealing with the robot issue?

Many students get Fed. loans, grants or military benefits and most colleges/univ get Fed help.  Perhaps it’s time to  eliminate Fed loans or help, if the campuses are not safe for conservative speakers and still turn the eye at life/death hazing practices. Are parents aware of the current harm education is perpetrating on the youth?

Both Harris and Rodger had the police called on them multiple times due to suspicious behavior. Both of them had a history of strange and violent outbursts towards friends and those close to them. Both put their intentions and their angry rants up on the web for everyone to see. Elliot Rodger wrote and re-wrote his plan out, sometimes including murdering his family members and stealing their car. He wrote that if someone had just searched his room, it would have all come apart, he would have been found out. Eric Harris wrote almost the exact same thing 15 years earlier. Seung-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter who killed 32 people, turned in paper after paper that depicted gruesome killings and gun violence. He had a history of mental health issues and had been reported to the campus police four times for aggressive and antisocial behavior, particularly towards women. One of his professors went so far as to tell the board that she would rather resign than teach another class with him in it.

Adam Lanza, the Sandy Hook shooter, also had a history of mental illness and inappropriate anti-social behavior. And he too, began sharing his intentions online through forum posts and audio. Lanza had paranoid delusions about mass media and the government, and began to argue that school shootings were justified as a form of protest or revolt. People humored him and ignored him. No one realized he had a small armory of semi-automatic weapons in his house. Then there are those who are simply ignored. Dylan Klebold was suicidally depressed for over two years. He fantasized and wrote about killing himself liberally. Despite getting into trouble with the law, turning in school assignments that glorified murder and suicide and failing most of his classes senior year, his parents and friends claimed that they had no idea something was amiss.

If people insist on living on islands or near beaches, then the hurricane is a constant fear, right?  What would a hurricane proof house look like? Perhaps it’s time to have the conversation about Fed help to public schools K-12 to be contnigent on ROTC and a business subject or job readiness program.  What is your opinion? 

The above katana homeis unique, right?

what about his one?     what about a velvet blue sofa?

George Sodini, a middle-aged Pennsylvania man who shot up an aerobics class full of women, wrote in his journal that since he spent the past 20 years of his life alone and miserable, there was no reason to think that the next 20 wouldn’t be lonely and miserable as well. His mother had been emotionally abusive. His father hadn’t had a meaningful conversation with him in over 30 years. Simply put: he had nothing to live for. So why not take some revenge on your way out? Gun control gets the headlines. Mental health care gets the headlines. Violence and video games and misogyny and internet forums and atheism — the list is endless at this point. Here’s what doesn’t get the headlines: Empathy. Listening to those around you. Even if you don’t like them very much. We have come to live in a culture where it’s taboo or unacceptable to simply check in with people emotionally and offer some empathy and understanding. I’m not saying this would magically fix all gun violence. I’m just saying that all of these things — the lack of gun laws, the lack of health care, the inability to have basic conversations with friends and neighbors about what’s going on with them, these are all extensions of a callous and self-absorbed culture that lacks any real empathy.

Despite being relevant and important discussions, the glamorous headlines are ultimately distractions — they just feed into the carnage and the attention and the fame the killer desired. They are distractions from what is right in front of you and me and the victims of tomorrow’s shooting: people who need help. And while we’re all fighting over whose pet cause is more right and more true and more noble, there’s likely another young man out there, maybe suicidally depressed, maybe paranoid and delusional, maybe a psychopath, and he’s researching guns and bombs and mapping out schools and recording videos and thinking every day about the anger and hate he feels for this world. And no one is paying attention to him.

Are parents teaching kids to be responsible? 

Betsy Devos is also promoting the rewriting of college harassment proceedings.  They call on schools to conduct objective investigations and provide “prompt and equitable” resolutions. And, for the first time, the administration explicitly says that just as an institution’s treatment of a complainant could constitute sex discrimination, so would the treatment of the accused.  Under the new rules, schools would be held to a new standard for determining whether they took the proper steps to address the allegations. It sounds as though the proposed rules will go a long way towards restoring meaningful due process protections to the campus justice system, which will benefit both accusers and the accused.  What do you think?

What is rape? 

THIS IS MY CALL TO ACTION - schools need huge changes **   many do not believe adaptation in teaching environments will be sufficient to teach new skills at the scale that is necessary to help workers keep abreast of the tech changes that will upend millions of jobs. 

  Vote GOP and help make advancement easy and smooth!

#sexy #alluring #mysterious #fun #appealing #youth #politics #dirty politics #relationship #dating #education

[comicalmomentum]

Berserk: Depature to the Front, Engagement, Casca, Prepared for Death

I’m going to kind of skim over this a bit bc a lot of it is not that interesting. Huge fight things, and completely undermining Casca in a character in every possible way.

This basically sums up the tone of the whole comic lol.

This guy manages to say all of that while swinging his spear.

And he has like... shonen anime lengthy move descriptions as well.

Sadly that amusing stuff soon gives way to a whole lot of gratuitous sexual violence. I feel like the writing’s taken a huge step back towards the shallow edgelordiness of the early comics.

The exposition of how Casca feels about Griffith, and a bit of character development for Griffith himself in backstory, is probably the most interesting part. However... there’s a bunch of stuff I’m going to talk about below the cut because, eesh.

In the present day (or, closer to present, still backstory for the opening), Casca is unable to fight properly because... she’s PMSing. Yeesh. Male writers, eh. Guts saves her in a suitably manly way, they fall off a cliff, and we get some naked hurt-comfort that calls back to Casca caring for Guts after Griffiths stabbed him.

I had an interesting discussion with Jackie about he undermining of Casca. Jackie felt that they were trying for something more interesting like, dealing with sometimes like... you just can’t win. But in practice it comes out as like, heroic manly Guts must protect this pathetic woman from rape and death, lol womenamirite? Guts expresses a bunch of misogynist tripe and it’s not really addressed; Casca, who initially was drawn very similar to Berserk, is now tiny and dainty compared to Mr Muscles, constantly drawn in weak poses with like, her knees together.

This cover kind of exemplifies the problem:

Guts: manly, broad-shouldered, square. Casca: leaning seductively on her sword, tiny compared to him, etc. etc. It’s disappointing.

And the result? You get commenters bringing readings like this:

Obviously this guy is a piece of shit, but I find it uncomfortable that I can’t really confidently say he’s misreading the narrative presented to us. Guts never seems to be anything but rewarded for his ‘manly manliness’, getting endless opportunities to show off his ability to commit violence.

I appreciated it when I thought Guts’s bloodthirstiness was going to have like, honest consequences; now it’s just back to Look At The Cool Violent Man and that’s just boring.

Anyway, in the process of defending Casca (and also because he just really likes violence), Guts takes on like a hundred dudes led by that guy up there. They threaten all sorts of awful things, the underlings let greed overwhelm their fear, and Guts cuts them all down; we watch blow by gruesome blow.

For all the ‘dark fantasy’ aspects, there’s definitely a sense that like,outside of Griffith’s possible dark intentions and Guts’s frequent killing sprees, the protagonists really are a separate kind of person from the gross lascivious dudes they’re constantly fighting. Like, since I’m drawing comparisons to Drakengard, there’s never any sense of moral doubt; the violence is extreme but it doesn’t seem to say anything. Guts’s opponents never hesitate, never show even the tiniest thread of a sympathetic trait, and the bloodsplatter seems to be more there for titillation than because there’s anything to say with all this violence.

I draw comparisons with Drakengard, but Drakengard was less about like, how manly and tough its protagonist is, and more about how war is horrifying and traumatising and morally compromises all who fight it. Drakengard was bleak in a way Berserk doesn’t seem to want to be. In Berserk, it seems like there is no problem Guts cannot solve with bold ultraviolence; in Drakengard and especially Nier, that violence is instead tragic, both sides are at least somewhat sympathetic (well, not so much in original Drakengard), and its consequences are (rather clumsily) explored.

Berserk just seems to want to wallow in filth at the moment, and the meticulously rendered fight scenes swamp whatever it might be building towards. I hope that changes, and soon...

Anyway, now the elephant in the room...

Huge content warning for: sexual violence, sexual violence, csa, sexual violence, fucking hell there’s a lot of sexual violence

We get a backstory for Griffith, revealing that he did sex work for a gay pedophile lord to help raise his army and build his ‘dream’ (what the fuck is it with “dark fantasy” and that horrific ‘gay pedophile’ trope? this is like the second time Berserk has included it, I also think of the original Nier though it was handled slightly better there, and of course Drakengard’s fucking protagonist character...). We also get backstory for Casca, revealing that Griffith saved her from being raped by giving her a sword to murder the lord who attempted to rape her.

I had an interesting conversation about this with @baeddel​. She felt that like, although the actual portrayal is gratuitous and horrible, their characterisation as a bunch of CSA survivors (now like, all the main cast) is well handled. I can see that, but the comic seems to be reaching for rape as a cheap plot device (and, disturbingly, an opportunity to draw Casca’s boobs) horrifically often.

Like... it’s just, endless rape. Just about every fight, Casca gets at least verbally threatened with rape. As she runs for help, soldiers attempt to rape her. Being a woman or child in the Berserk universe is just, endless rape. And it’s... not saying anything worthwhile or speaking to survivors or anything; it feels disturbingly like it’s titillation.

A number of comments on the page suggest that in later issues, the author gets less terrible at writing women and less reliant on rape as a plot device. That can’t happen soon enough.

#brsrk