sorry for the vent, but nothing annoys me more than people who don't read the comics because they claim they don't want to read inconsistent characterization. Just say you're too attached to the fandom versions of the characters! You don't want to find out what they are actually like!! Being inconsistent with what you like is not the same as being inconsistent!
Because, at the end of the day, these people don't know if the stories are inconsistent because they don't actually know the characters, they haven't read the context, and they don't know how the events in the story came to be. These characters have been around for decades. They've "done" almost everything under the sun. If someone's only heard a laundry list of things they've done (usually told by a pretty biased 3rd party, myself included) then of course the actions are going to sound inconsistent. The connecting tissue of how they got from point A to point B is the entire point of a story.
I think this urks me so much because it’s always couched in this haughty, "it's impossible to read all of the comics and they’re not good enough to try" language, which for one thing, is just such a dismissive attitude of something they claim to love. But the other thing is that, so often, these people love to talk or write about specific comic events. If all they're writing about is the batfam going for a day at Disneyland, then yeah, they don't need to read anything. But if they're specifically writing a fic to address, like...Tim and Jason's fight at Titans Tower, or Bruce's return from the timestream, especially in a “fix-it” framing, and they can't be bothered to read the *40 pages of pictures where that happens*....what is this manufactured outrage? Are they just trying to be angry about something that never happened? Are they so obsessed with the canon being wrong that they can't give the thing they're mad at a chance to be right?
76 notes
·
View notes
On GEN V...
First, I have to say that though I watch The Boys, for me the skewering of power, and it being always corrupt/corruptable, especially when corporate was smudged a bit by all the white dudes being centered by the narrative and fandom, and certain expected patterns in that.
...i.e. Butcher and Soldier Boy and Homelander...ALL being stanned while all being terrible people. -Mother's Milk and Frenchie being side kicks (the Black man and the "foreigner") and the silent but deadly Asian girl... You get it.
I hate that this is the case, but even when meant to subvert, this tends to happen.
So, it's interesting that they leaned in harder and made it MORE obvious this time, by literally blowing up the Golden White Guy (played by Swartzanegger's son, no less) at the end of the pilot episode and playing a Black woman's gaze as the entry point into this angle on the world.
...We saw how that went with Star Trek: Discovery. Those used to the Dursley 37 birthday presents treatment were and still are REAL mad.
I hate to say it, especially given how unusually well this show is rendering the insecurities and challenges of this time for young adults, but some people we like are not gonna make it through this season... And it won't be pretty when they go (holds a halo of protection over Emma & Jordan).
...But Marie, a.k.a. the audience's gaze? is safe.
That said, Marie is *also* written like the usually centered white dude, just like Micheal Burnham before her. Her arc is "the hero's journey." She stumbles, but ultimately she will measure up to the highest potential (one of, if not the most powerful hero) even she can't see yet...
TW for this section... for self-harm/eating disorders etc...
The powers being spot-on metaphors for the struggles and insecurities of young people is a nice writing choice.
Marie's puberty/power advent literally killed her parents and alienated her sister. So, of course, she can't truly see the potential. There's ritualistic self-loathing in both her cutting and Emma's vomiting to use their powers and that is mostly imposter syndrome for both....Both of them are SO MUCH more powerful than they think, but are held back by parental baggage.
...Andre too, though instead of self-harm it's being lazy about his power development, to subconsciously detach his own personhood from his father trying to live through him.
Jordan Li is bigender but is most comfortable presenting "femme", which may also have to do with detaching from their parents' preferences in gender presentation for them.
They want a super-powered son. But the only times Li presents that way is when they feel they absolutely *have to* or actively need to do something and only can, in that form.
"Relaxed" or default Jordan is femme.
So, while I see people wishing Li would have been femme Li in that first kiss, it makes sense that they would shift, given the baggage and male presentation preference pressure they grew up with.
They shifted back to "default" Li once they were relaxed...i.e. afterglow slumber... An interesting inferred detail is that Li was born presenting male. That is likely a big reason why their parents are that attached to a masc gender presentation.
Now Cate's arc, just like the Golden Boy Luke is actively subverting an element of expected whiteness. Her power is to compel people with touch. It's white women's tears as a superpower, which is IMO, the most clever power social metaphor in this franchise.
Cate's moral compass is the strongest of the superheroes we've seen in the entire Boys universe so far. She's got those actual Karen powers, but she's the anti-Karen.
She avoids using her power non-consensually in ways that cause permanent harm and even consensually in ways that may help, and given her entry point (similar to Marie, but w/o closure), it makes sense.
--This is all the more tragic if she's being used in the way I suspect...given her nightmare/flashback in those opening eps. to having been in "The Woods" (I think it's either she or whoever the puppet show person is in Sam's episodes, that is the reason for the blackouts).
She's a Pusher, and much like Andy in Stephen King's Firestarter it takes a heavy toll on the brain...
She's probably not gonna make it through this season, yall.
Anyway, all this to say... I am intrigued by this show. And fully invested in these characters. And I like it better than The Boys because it's leaning harder into alienating the elements it's satirizing...
The Boys fans are still into the aspects of the show The Boys' narrative is skewering, but Gen V is saying much louder, this is not about you.
18 notes
·
View notes