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#but it's a story and i'm pretty sure it involves us so. idk nothing wrong with wanting to know what's our involvement if we had any
three--rings · 1 year
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thought of a story that I haven't told that tumblr may enjoy.
So I majored in psychology in undergrad, right, and when you take psych classes they almost always require you to do a certain number of hours of being an experimental research subject, right, because professors have to publish and need someone they can force into their studies without paying, right?
And like that's fine if it's 4 hours for one class, but when you're doing an entire psych major in two years like I did, that's a LOT of hours of research studies.
And we all dreamt of getting in those fun social psych experiments where they fuck with your head, right? And not the ones where they make you sit in front of a laptop and do math for an hour. (They made me DO MATH Y'ALL. "This is an experiment in how well you learn under certain conditions." Conclusion: you suck at this.)
Anyway, you'd get funny things like one time I turned up on campus on a freaking SATURDAY for a study and sat around in a courtyard with like 30 other people while nothing happened and all of us talking about like "hey, uh, do you think THIS is the study? Like to see if we leave?" But no, just no one turned up for us and we didn't get our freaking hours.
But one time I DID end up in one of those freaky social psych studies. So to be fair, I had insider knowledge, because again, psych major. So I signed up intentionally to my social psych profs study. Hoping at least it wouldn't be math.
And I arrive and am greeted by...the TA for my social psych class wearing a fat suit.
It's like IDK April or something and Texas and 80+ degrees and she's in a long skirt and a sweatshirt. And also she's MY TA. I recognize her. I even say "Oh, hi!" like I would when seeing someone I know on campus. And she greets me like she vaguely recognizes me. But, normally she is not approximately 280-300lbs.
So, I'm, like REALLY REALLY sure it's a fat suit. Like....99.5% sure.
But not 100%.
And so what the FUCK do you SAY to THAT? Well, obviously you don't say FUCKING SHIT. You pretend nothing is fucking weird, right? Because the very, very small chance that you are WRONG and this isn't a normally thin girl in a fatsuit but a real person who is shaped like that is still...NOMINALLY THERE and OMG what if you comment on it and you're WRONG?
So I get ushered into this little room and shown a bunch of pictures of people and asked to rate them on various things like competency and attractiveness, this is normal social psych survey stuff, except I'm SURE the experiment is does the person in the room with you and their appearance change your ratings.
And the whole time I'm distracted as FUCK, cause I'm just sitting there thinking "am I wrong and this isn't my TA somehow? no, no, pretty much ALMOST certain I'm right...etc." And "why would anyone be wearing a sweatshirt in this weather/building if they WEREN'T wearing a fatsuit?"
But MAYBE the point of the experiment is "will this person call out an obvious fake fat person?" And should I do so or not? Is this social pressure to conform and not speak the truth I know? Should I say something? I, uh, may have had an unknown and untreated anxiety disorder at this point in my life so, yeah I'm LOSING MY MIND and probably acting like a FREAK.
So anyway, eventually I decide okay, obviously you can't say anything because yeah...but you will be debriefed once this is over and you'll FIND OUT THE TRUTH. You won't have this lingering doubt in your mind when this is over because they will debrief you.
If you don't know human research, debriefing is when, after all the experiment data collection is over, they inform the subject of what the topic of the research was and explain any tricks or deception or anything to them. (We played distracting music to see how you did on the test...) If there was any potential distress involved it should be dealt with by examiners, etc. Usually in practice you are handed a slip of paper that explains the purpose of the study and what you did.
Usually you don't care and barely read it. But I was dying to be debriefed. I wanted her to be like "yeah I am wearing a fatsuit" and me to be like "lol, yeah I know, cause like, I know you right?" And if the secret purpose of the experiment was actually "will you say something" then I will be told that and get to explain why I didn't.
Like sometimes debrief also involves follow-up questions that helps determine why you gave responses you did or whether you should actually have your data thrown out for some outlier reason (like the person faking being fat is my fucking TA).
So we get done with all the questions and leave the small room. And we're in the antechamber and the TA is like "okay, cool, thanks bye" and directs me to the door. And doesn't hand me a debrief slip or mention debriefing AT ALL.
And now I'm fucking SPOOKED. It's a TRICK and they want you to SAY SOMETHING and you're going to try to leave without saying anything and they will then stop you and debrief you. So I wait, for like...several seconds, waiting for her to remember debrief and just get stared at so I go "oh okay" and like stutter-step my way to the door of the office and like open it and turn back and she's already gone, and so I like, step out into the quad and am like "what. the. fuck."
And I literally stand there like "should I go back in and ask to be debriefed?" Literally I knew enough to know that THIS IS THE PURPOSE OF DEBRIEFING to not leave subjects wondering about shit like this and not leave them with nagging doubts and questions.
And the only really mysterious experiment of my life just failed to debrief me.
But of course I don't do anything but walk slowly away.
And it's now 20+ years later and I never did find anything out. Except you can DAMN well bet I confirmed at my next class that 1) yeah that was TOTALLY my fucking TA, I was right and 2) NO she was actually really slim.
So I'm sure it was about how a fatsuit (or *cough* sorry "attractiveness") of an interviewer changes responses to surveys. But I'm STILL mad I wasn't debriefed because it's fucking annoying and violates HRB standards and I could have gotten them in serious trouble over that by reporting it. And also my data should have been thrown out.
Also this is why you shouldn't trust psychology studies because the subject pool is SHITTY AS FUCK. "Psychology is the study of the average American college sophomore" as one of my profs quipped and then didn't change his method of getting subjects.
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vinxwatches · 4 months
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watching good omen season 1
ep 1 pilot
haven't seen a lot of it, mostly that people like it, that it's made by people people really like and that it's gay (or at least people make it gay) so you know, good pick for me. and i just watched to animations/animatics on youtube with bad endings and bad endings fuck me up, so hopefully this is happier. intro is a fucking banger. also god has a fem voice? nice. accurate skin colour for the earliest humans. not surprised, but appreciated. making fun of theology and great banter? i love it.
ominous picnic basket. oh... actually quite biblically fitting it seems. i REALLY hope they don't expect me to remember these names too well. many of the characters seem fun though.
of course the american politician says bs like "a regular y chromosome son". which i'm sure has not been tested as you 1: don't know the gender yet. 2: phenotype does not denote genotype.
i wonder who and how they'll figure out who has the wrong baby. "i don't recall what horror of history we had a lunch over, but i do recall what we had." the BEST dynamic.
will they even figure out they got the wrong one? ok, i know that working with an actual 5 year old would be a nightmare... but that kid is like 12.
well done making both heaven and hell look like shit. do you want grime overpopulating or empty, liminal, office spaces?
brilliant end of episode 1.
ep 2 the book
damn the forces of hell are so bloody rude and evil. and so many quick jokes.
question: what are the 4 horsemen of the apocalypse supposed to be in christianity? both biblically and in modern belief? they are separate from devils and angels.
i love a witch that also uses an ipad in her rituals.
"sorry, right number" seriously the humour in this show is so brilliant. i really hope the story is able to match it.
ep 3 hard times
a black knight shrugging is way too funny. i love these two. just two old friends helping each other out, it's just that that's diametrically opposing one another. the angel doing some tempting, the demon some miracles. and upper management doesn't care.
awh, they are just so cute together.
excuse me you are playing intro now? 28 minutes in? that's not an intro. that's a bloody intermission!
they really succeed at making heaving seem so extremely bad. extremely wide shot or extreme close-up. it's so incredibly uncomfortable.
the prime minister has a nice flat chested fucker in his bed.... good for him if he's not cheating.
"mend it all"/"end it all" whispers. really neat.
ep 4 saturday morning funtime
of course he was condemned for nothing more then asking questions.
ah, they got rid of pestilence to replace them with pollution. it's a good change, but feels pretty pre 2020.
oh no, i find his death so sad. he had a love, why kill him? i know the apocalypse is coming but still.
i still really hope that the presidents son turns out to be trans to just break the things he said at the start. then again it wouldn't really work as it's not the kids he said it about. idk, i guess i hope of screen son turns out to be trans to spite the person that'll never know... yea i'm holding out hope for something that doesn't matter.
azi being send to heaving is SO bad. his bookshop possibly burning down is emotionally worse. it was going to be the last episode of the day. but i started watching because i couldn't deal with bad endings, so i guess i'll have to watch one more.
ep 5 the doomsday option
Azi going full rogue (finally).
man that's the most obvious cold reading ever.
the guard reads a neil gaymen book. cute.
sir... your car is... more then a little on fire.
ep 6 the very last day of the rest of their lives
are we doing a flash back episode for the last episode of the season?
oh, please let him rebuild the car just like i want the bookshop rebuild?
the way to defeat the end of the world is to believe and stand (and i hope work) for a world that wouldn't end. a bit on the nose but very nice.
and of course with Terry Pratched being involved death is not to be defeated, just not hastened along.
a kid not doing the one thing they were supposed to do.... there's a trans/gay message in there. also That's Just What Kids Do! you wanted an 11 year old to do what they were told? that's the first part of the problem.
for a TV series that's a pretty good satan. oh that is SO clever. kind of time fucking, but not really so long as you never introduce time travel so it's only true from now on. oh, is it a nicer ending then i though? YES IT IS! \o/
it "ends" as it starts: with a garden and an apple. ok, make it more explicit why don't you.
oh, you subtle bastards. i love it. other scene's now make more sense too, oh how i love it.
ok, yea it makes sense people go wild over this as it's really bloody great.
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silviakundera · 2 months
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Ok I'm trying Legend of Fuyao again. This time perhaps I will triumph! I left off like 2 years ago on ep 26 or so.
Refreshing my memory by skating thru ep 16
oh look, it's sidekick bro I never cared about. Pretty sure his role in the narrative is to be a drag on FL. And fighter guy! He's much more useful.
This period is where I previously began losing my patience with the show. A lot of story time and 16 episodes had passed and I wanted to see FL taking center stage, being a powerful threat. I wanted her to be saving her love interest approx as much as he was saving her. The opening in ep 16 is right back to a situation where I want to see FL beating ass and not Wuji to show up to save the day. Scram, future boyfriend! Ladies are FIGHTING. 🙅
(past me may not have known exactly what I wanted but the answer was A Journey to Love)
It was the whiplash - Oh cool, she's fighting alongside him! ...and then he's knocking her out to be his pawn again :/
But rewatching now, I think I was in the wrong mood. I am older & wiser! I can be patient. I have been promised a battle couple and Fuyao being awesome. I can wait. 😇
Watching the prime minister character be manipulated is entertaining. Fuyao is handling situation pretty well, actually. "The Earth Abdorbing Bell is back to its rightful owner. I've also found Xiaoqi. Why do I need to stay here?" THANK YOU for asking this very pertinent question, protagonist! Her rationale to stay.... doesn't make much sense, unfortunately. Because the narrative (er, the servants) requires it!
"Rest assured? I have been in this office for thirty seven years and I've never had a restful day." idk Mr Prime Minister, maybe u need a new job.
Ok, sneak out and leaving a fake corpse. Not a terrible plan. I especially like the part where u set the mansion on fire.
Prime Minister's foster son is so good looking he's making everyone else in this drama look bad. I like his sullen murder son vibes. Very Hao Du of Long Ballad. MDL says he's basically done nothing since. He was the ML in a 2020 drama that never aired. 💀
I really don't get Wuji. Why is he even involving Fuyao in things. I don't believe he has any romantic feelings at this point. If u can control this nation but can't control her, then... why? I suppose we have to go with ✨fate✨.
Dragon scale armor! Makes me think of the dark tale behind such garb in c-novel Heart Protection.
Why was the doctor randomly lurking around the PM mansion in this dark with a face mask? eh, a man's gotta have hobbies.
Ep 17
So Doctor had a secret mission, ran into Fuyao burning shit down out of happenstance. and now he's dragging her along. I vaguely recall this.
So. Many. Robes. Curtains. Twirling. the twirling I caaaaaaaan't AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hope I wasn't expected to find any of that sexy. It was extra and hilarious as hell, though. I 100% understand why FL is so done with this dude and ready to go home.
Actually, one moment had real dramatic tension and sexual tension for me. The scene where the prime minister shows up with his soliders and ML is sitting on the bed, acting unbothered, and she's hiding under the blanket. Then slides her hand out and sighs to complete the act. 👌 👌
Then things get INTERESTING as they embark on misc mission things in secret tunnels.
She's like holy shit exploitative royals are trash.
And he's all.... well if I'm Like That would you still be hanging here with me. She sidesteps the question (as she should, since he has all the power). But then, could YOU give me what I want? And he seems intrigued, I presume because then he has something over her.. It feels like a TEMPTATION MOMENT.
Fuyao: nah j/k I'll get whatever I need myself
@dangermousie mentioned to me that Fuyao is very complete in herself. That's really intriguing to me, considering how so many of the characters seem tormented & controlled/restrained by a need to live up to a legacy or another person's expectations.
that CGI magic hamster tho
Totally forgot the reveal of them being ~fated enemies is this early. So she is supposed to break the seals and go to five kingdoms to do it. But he has a mission to STOP the girl w the 5 colored stone. Now he has a character & plot reason to keep tabs on her! ✔ (actually he has those reasons to simply KILL her lmao but protagonist halo, sorry my friend)
Love that she's not a sucker and won't agree to a bet where she has to be an obedient servant if she loses. Just take reasonable requests. But I wish she didn't just take him at his word that he's the one who can help her break her seal. He's a lying liar who lies!
I like that he's a bit uncertain/dubious about the legend that this girl will Bring About The End. Because that certainly sounds wild. Especially since he met her and she seems pretty normal.
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lavenderpanic · 5 months
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Your disclaimer does not mean anything when this is what you put in your writing:
Starvation is not a punishment in kink. Even someone who doesn’t know about kink knows that. Or isnt “educated” as you said. Food restriction and weight is not part of kink.
That is not what somnophilia is, because he did not consent.
Bucky was sixteen (underage) and Brock didn’t know. Is that his fault?
And the club let underage Bucky inside which is not how kink clubs work.
A quote from a chapter. “Bucky shrugs. “Technically an acronym, but sure. Honestly, Brock and I kind of do our own thing, so I really don’t know if either of us would call it that, but that’s… the general term, I suppose. I had this… this period of a few months, I guess, a few years ago, when I was super anxious and withdrawn and… I just wasn’t in a good headspace. I kinda felt attracted to the thought of dominance and submission and all that because it felt like a safe way to cope with my anxiety, and I met Brock at a club and… and it’s just been us since then. Nobody’s ever understood me like he does. A lot of people look at me like I’m crazy or weird, but Brock never thought that. It’s like… a balanced scale, kinda. He’s my counterweight, just as strong in the opposite direction.” This is not what kink is and it is not why poeple get into kink. This is false information and does not represent the community.
He has a safe word but Brock does not listen to it. Bucky should know that this is not how safe words work.
There are so many examples. You are corellating abuse and kink and that is dangerous for people who are actually in the community. Being abused does not excuse you.
I've been staring at this for like an hour and I just... like I'm genuinely at a loss for words. This is so incredibly weird. Like, I feel so weird right now, this is so creepy. I don't even think I know my fic well enough to pull fucking examples like this out of my ass why the fuck are you so weirdly obsessed??
Food restriction can 100% be a part of a TPE. Again, I've got weird and mixed-up feelings about it, but it isn't like... absurdly uncommon. But also, like... Bucky has anorexia. Brock knows this. Brock is abusing him. Brock is not like... conforming to BDSM rules or practices or whatever. I really don't know what you aren't understanding about this. I'm not saying that food restriction = abuse or what Brock is doing = a normal part of BDSM.
The fic is tagged "non-consensual somnophilia." It is not tagged "somnophilia." I don't even use that word in-text, I'm pretty sure. AGAIN, I feel weird about somnophilia, but if that's part of your dynamic and it's consensual WHATEVER IDCCCCC I'M OBVIOUSLY NOT TALKING ABOUT YOUUUUU.
Brock knows Bucky is underage before they do anything together sexually. He also coerces Bucky the first time they meet, regardless of his age. Yup, it's Brock's fault.
Clubs will let in people who are 18. This is a fact. Like I said in the fic, they mark that Bucky is <21 and can't drink. He has a fake ID which says he is 18.
That quote is actually inspired by my own experience, and I know I'm not the only person who felt that way. I don't claim to represent every person involved in the community. I never have. This is one person's story. You can't just make a blanket statement like "this isn't why people get into kink" because you're just fucking wrong.
Bucky knows this isn't how safewords work. He is abused and assaulted. He is being abused. He is being manipulated. You said you were older than me but your reading comprehension skills are like kindergarten level.
Nothing I have written is dangerous for any community (idk except maybe abusers?) and I have absolutely no clue why you would think so. I'm not claiming to represent an entire community. I am sharing my experience. I am writing one person's story. Fact of the matter is, there are many people involved in kink who take advantage of people who are new to kink because they can be so easy to manipulate and coerce and push past their boundaries. If you're saying I'm wrong, then you're either so fucking dumb I'm genuinely concerned for your wellbeing, or you're a predator or someone who excuses them. YOUUUU are the one sharing gross misinformation.
Go fuck yourself, genuinely. I'm blocking you and every other account you make and I'm not giving you my attention anymore. I have actual real-life problems and I really don't have the mental capacity at the moment to deal with shit like this. This is the one true safe space I still have in my life. I can't imagine how fucking miserable and alone you have to be to spend your fucking time making anonymous fucking accounts and antagonizing someone trying to bring awareness to victims of DV?? What the actual fuck is your deal? Go get a fucking job or volunteer or get a hobby you miserable piece of shit.
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blacktrickle · 8 months
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Sorry in advance for dumping my thoughts on you but I’ve always got many thoughts on the roles that seem to have been assigned to Alex and Miles by the fandom. Idk it just seems like people see Alex as the more effeminate of the two and therefore they feel like he needs to be the “woman” in the pairing, aka the bottom. To me this just feels stereotypical and narrow-minded about real life relationship dynamics. (Also Miles is the one who literally wore eyeliner/makeup for his gigs in the last so surely he has some ‘feminine’ traits just as much? It’s not one or the other with either of them, they’re super versatile. )
Alex’s characterisation seems to often be just boxed in as the constant damsel in distress or docile, submissive bottom which just gives you so little to work with. I remember reading fics where Alex is the top and reading the comments only to be met with someone saying about how ridiculous it is and Alex would never be able to top which is just such an odd take because just look at that complete control freak of a man ;)
I feel like it’s pretty common for real life couples to switch roles and I wish the fandom wanted to explore that more. For me there’s so much potential for a lot of power dynamics (not in the usual way of Miles being a dom) in the pairing but people don’t want to stray from the already unspoken accepted roles.
I’m at the point where I find myself clicking out of a lot of newer Milex fics when I can tell it’s just the exact same dynamic over and over again. (I know I’m in the minority and most people here enjoy that so I’m absolutely not bemoaning the people that put their hard work out there for free!) I’d love some variety because there is SO MUCH to work with there! It’s exactly why I adore sitf so much and I cannot wait for more. I like that they both switch throughout and they’re not tied down to certain characteristics the entire time because I feel like that’s much more realistic for real life.
I’ve actually had a lot of fun filling the void myself by writing some fics for personal consumption (definitely no way I’d want to put those out to the world lol) but I just wonder if it really is just me who wants to read bottom miles haha
no need to apologize. these are common and valid criticisms in media and fandom alike. it's convoluted! i've only been involved in the milex fandom for a short while, so i'll mostly respond in a general sense first, then wrap back around.
all of this is just my opinion. i know how people like to tussle haha.
as readers and consumers of amateur and fanfiction, we should always try to bear in mind that there are many writers of these stories (especially with queer pairings) who are exploring some parts of their own identity with a creative outlet. while one person's "effeminate" construction might very well be due some deeper consideration, another's might be a more thoughtful or purposeful exploration of gender (whatever that means). just as well, a writer could just want to write an effeminate character. (specific to alex, i can totally see why that is. he certainly has mannerisms that lend to these kinds of depictions. your concern that it doesn't seem to be the same for miles makes me knock my head as well? perhaps people are more likely to flesh alex out first, then deal with miles later, and miles ends up taking on a more masculine archetype? idk.)
anyway, there's nothing inherently wrong with these things, right? sexual diversity should be welcomed. the 'problem' i think you are getting at is, again, a common one, where one dynamic or depiction is of overwhelming majority, while the other is scarce, and it might be because of some normative thinking that all of us are guilty of in some form or another.
i guess i'm saying that media critique can be and is valid on a grand scale, while on an individual basis, it is difficult to navigate when you don't outright know an author's intention, experience, identity, etc..
think of it like karaoke. you don't boo someone for sounding bad at karaoke. you might give your friend a side-eye if the person on the mic doesn't hit the right note haha, but you're all there for an outlet, whatever that might be. (now, if someone starts using slurs and or being outright hateful and acting a fool, then you should boo with your whole heart. haha. this is how i feel about people leaving distasteful comments about sexual dynamics. grow up and get off somewhere else then. fucking christ.)
in fandom and fanfiction, i take the same approach. i read what appeals to me and try to vocally uplift and encourage those who are writing in a corner which doesn't have as many readers! just the same, if there is something i am not a fan of, i just go about my day. don't yuck someone's yum, as the old saying goes.
as for the milex fandom and collection of fanficition... this is probably one of the more diverse fandoms i've personally experienced, given how small and who our "main characters" are. i was lurking for a long while and consuming a lot, and while there are many similarities in their portrayals, i find more unique twists and turns in both their characterizations and narratives per ten fics than i have in other fandoms. that may not seem like a lot, but when you have such a small fandom, it is a big blessing. (not to mention having so many good writers in a small fandom. whew.) as a queer black kinkster lady, i've generally been pleased with how things work around here.
as it were, in regard to your initial concern, i agree. there could absolutely be more bottom!miles as well as other explorations of romantic relationships, and i hope that anyone who reads any of this conversation who has been thinking about writing a more niche piece is encouraged. you'll have readers! i can promise you that.
xx
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dykefaggotry · 4 months
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This is an odd question but it relates to the porn thing. Some people I trust a lot to have good opinions have pointed out that kinks are oftentimes being essentialized by pro porn activists, when the kinks people have often mirror the popular porn categories we know. They also said that they mourn the fact that people often act like vanilla sex is being handled as something „lesser“ than kinky sex. I noticed this, too. I got confronted with porn when I was 12, drew gay porn on Twitter for a long time and noticed that there’s a lot of minors seeking out hardcore stuff that I only discovered when I was in my 20s. I kinda feel like a lot of us fandom artists unknowingly shaped these young kids and their understanding of sexuality, sometimes probably negatively. Do you think nsfw artists kinda added fuel to the fire? I can’t help but feel incredibly guilty.
throwing this under a read more just bc it got pretty long fasdfasdf
hmmm i feel like this is a pretty complex topic? but first of all i do wanna say you shouldn't feel incredibly guilty i don't think. as long as you weren't trying to expose minors to your content, i don't think you have anything to feel guilty about. minors are Going to find nsfw content one way or another and the best we can do is just make sure we are putting up 18+ warnings/screening who interacts with and follows our nsfw content, and promoting safe sex/bdsm practices for all ages. minors absolutely should Not be involved in bdsm imo, but it's better that accurate and safe info is available than not for those that choose to participate despite warnings (& this is assuming minors doing this w other minors btw it's a whooole other conversation w them "participating" w adults)
as for nsfw/fandom artists and how that relates to like. actual porn. i feel like the Biggest problem w porn (bdsm and otherwise) is the exploitation of the actors. when it comes to fanart/fanfic, there Is impact, but not nearly as large as real porn by real human actors. so while it's the responsibility of fandom nsfw creators to make sure they're doing their best to a) bar minors from their content and b) promote safe practices, i don't think you should feel Guilty and Bad for producing bdsm fan content
this is maybe getting a lil personal and is like... just my story/take and i'm sure there's other people who feel differently but. idk how old you are and we might be the same age/you might be younger bc everyone has different experiences and exposure to the internet, but i was definitely one of the kids in this case. i started seeking out nsfw fan content around middle school (stumbled on it accidentally earlier) and encountered some very very hardcore stuff young. but it's like... hm. w fanart/fanfic there's only so much realism that goes into it ykwim? and obviously acted out porn isn't "realistic" either, but they are still bound by the limits of the human body in a way fan content isn't. and that might seem like it would make fan content "more" harmful than not, but tbh i feel like it's the opposite? bc like in my case, i didn't start seeking out acted out porn until i was in my late teens and THAT'S when issues cropped up. too personal to really talk about tbh. but there's a huge huge difference, i think, psychologically, between seeing fanart of characters engaging in hardcore kink that may not even physically be possible (see: monsterfucking, size difference to an unrealistic level, omegaverse, etc) and seeing actual living breathing human beings engaging in it. there's nothing inherently wrong w either, but it's the latter that our brain constantly does the "okay more" thing with
like this is. ENTIRELY anecdotal and i really don't know if anyone's done any specific studies on it (the only studies i can think of are more about simulated c/p which is. a whooooole different story). but as far as i've seen in fandom nsfw/bdsm spaces, people kind of. find their kinks and limits and stick to them. they don't really feel the urge to press those boundaries and while sometimes they might stumble on smth more hardcore that they wind up being interested in, there doesn't seem to be that psychological push for More and Harder. on the flipside, there's been studies done about acted out porn that when viewing these things there's a point where the thing you were viewing gets old and boring and you want something New and Interesting and Harder. which is where problems come in bc oftentimes these "harder" things are like. not feasible for the human body and incredibly harmful to the actors who are usually not following safe bdsm rules and etiquette. bc safe bdsm does not Allow for these things that are like actually and permanently hurting people. like there are Horror stories abt what some porn performers go through physically bc of unsafe scenes. or in even worse cases, "more" and "harder" translates to illegal/incredibly immoral (c/p, zoo, etc). which for obvious reasons is incredibly physically and mentally harmful to the victims involved.
this got so long i'm sorry fasdfasdf but
tl;dr: i think while certainly there's an Impact on ppl from fan content, it's nowhere near as profound as the one from acted out porn. there are no people getting hurt or putting themselves in danger they do not want to be in, it's just drawn images/words on a screen. and while it sucks that people are viewing "vanilla" sex as lame/not enough, i feel like this is mostly down to acted out porn just based on anecdotal evidence. the Most we can do is just make sure we are offering as safe a space as we can that does not encourage minors to interact w it, but being mindful of the fact that they probably will anyway and provide safe resources for everyone knowing that
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joy-crimes · 1 year
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I will say as someone who watched through all of HGS, it is 100% not as bad as the majority make it out to be. The worst thing I can say about it is that it's pretty average, and there's definitely some quality issues - but honestly those only pop up every now and then, and while you're in the middle of watching an episode you'll hardly notice them. Plus there were a lot of production issues the team had to deal with, so I'm more willing to be lenient with that. Definitely issues with pacing and plot and other stuff, but nothing really uncommon for the first season of any show. Really it's mostly a basic shojou romp that's trying to be more but hasn't quite landed there. I do think there needs to be some more diversity in general, but what queer rep there is is actually done pretty well all things considered! It seems that most of the backlash started from the fact that it was released on Crunchyroll specifically, and all the anime obsessed Reddit-bros in the userbase collectively dogpiled on it for daring to be a Western-made "anime" that emphasized female leads and queer rep. And from the actual queer community it seems like most criticizing said rep haven't actually watched the show, and are convinced that it's inherently bad representation it has when really it's just kind of boring?? If that makes sense anyways
Sorry to ramble on btw! But TLDR: HGS was mostly in the wrong place at the wrong time, and it completely fucked over any chance it had of reaching a real audience instead of being under exactly the right circumstances to become the punching bag of a lot of different communities for a while. As a show it's a solid 6/10 by the end, nothing really fantastic but has a lot of promise, and probably could have realized that with more time, budget, and some pushes in the right direction.
P.S. also omg I completely forgot about that but yeah it fucking sucks that K*te L*ith worked on it. But from what I heard she only played a small part in production? Idk, I'll have to fact check that
I think there's something to be said about the scarcity and quality of queer-led art, and to that end, series like HGS aren't given a chance to succeed. I have only watched the opening of the first episode so I genuinely can't speak to the series' quality, but it seems like there are bits and pieces of this series that GENUINELY connected with queer people, and that means something.
But herein lies the issue. KL has had a massive amount of consistent evidence against her past bigoted behavior, in private AND in public, and uses marginalized voices to boost her own. It would be one thing if there was some plausible deniability regarding her full involvement, but the reason i KNEW KL worked on it is specifically because her name is on the title card of the show after the opening.
According to Wikipedia, KL has a writing credit on 6 out of 12 episodes, and 2/3 of those episodes list her as the SOLE writing credit. As much as I'm sure this show had good intentions and a lot of love put into it, there's only a small shred of plausible deniability one can consider when evaluating her involvement.
I'm not saying it's not unfortunate, but seeing her name on it IMMEDIATELY left a bad taste in my mouth, and turned me off to the series instantaneously. I feel bad because there are probably a ton of queer voices that worked hard to make HGS what it was, but at the end of the day, there are some things I can't ignore in my personal evaluation of stuff like this, both as a person who genuinely wants to uplift good and meaningful art, AND as a viewer who likes watching pretty colors and gay people on a screen.
So yeah, i guess im skipping this one to make a long story short
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shakapuffin · 1 year
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Review of Alert 1x09 “Brianna” and 1x10 “Max
okay everyone… we made it! it’s been about 8 weeks but we got through all of season 1, 10 episodes, of Alert! Here are my opinions from last nights 2 hour season/series(?) finale! this might be a long one btw! if you haven’t seen the last episode then i’d skip this review. Spoilers ahead!
- okay so to start off we got the Brianna case, honestly, i thought it was kinda weird. like it was realistic up to a certain point, i mean ya there are crazy people out there but still. that whole thing was just a bit far-fetched for me, the wife wanting to kill brianna, like come on! i thought mike took an interesting lead in this case since Nikki and Jason were tied up with the keith case.
- i gotta say ever since the last episode where we found out that the body in the lake wasn’t “keith” i was pretty sure they were gonna go along with keith actually being keith. obviously, i had hoped for the opposite and that’s exactly what we got! in 1x09 i really believed keith for a while, his case made sense, mostly except for a few questions here and there. i think i knew something was up when the rest of the boys that Beth kidnapped were homeless, it wouldn’t make sense for keith to be kidnapped by her. i’ll give the show that, i was surprised they actually went through and decided to not have keith be keith, i feel like we all knew it in the back of our minds, but i’m happy the show didn’t play safe.
- mike was right about nikki and jason getting in trouble or having the case put on the back burner because of their personal involvement and honestly if everything worked out, that could’ve cost them the case. but then when nikki gets taken, mike tells jason to use any means necessary. so where does mike lie? he seems to bend the rules for himself/the people he cares about but not for others. interesting character flaw that should be delved into more.
-I wasn't a huge fan when Nikki got kidnapped. Like what did that add to the story, ya the main character just got taken, it'll bring in more views but that whole plot line added nothing. Mistake me if I'm wrong but max could've gotten out on his own without Nikki but he just didn't? she literally was instructing him on how to escape from a few feet away, she did nothing. Also Nikki could've very easily escaped after max left, she didn't have to stay to check on Beth's dead son, didn't she already know that he was dead? correct me if I'm wrong tho, I might be misremembering. idk it was just a bit too extra for me but it was a good way for the show to bring in views,
- I feel like there was too much happening in the last 10-20 mins. First of all, Keith got taken again! have they learned nothing! I mean ya, the biological mom probably would've kidnapped him someday anyway. Also, at first, I thought he was just getting kidnapped again but that would be too perfect. Did anyone else notice that there was no amber alert for Keith when he got kidnapped that second time? A bit odd, they had the incense plate, they easily could've put some sort of alert out there. the whole entire missing persons unit was in that house.
-how did everyone feel about the very ending with Keith actually being Lucas and faking the whole time? Like, I feel like we all knew that wasn't the real Keith but it all happened too fast. I wanted a bit longer with that, also how did he get away from the bio mother for so long without her calling the police on him or just forcibly going in and telling Nikki and Jason the truth?
-I do like how we now know that Keith isn't actually Keith. It just wouldn't make any sense if they left it as it was in the previous episode with Keith being their son. However, I didn't like how they just killed him, I feel like if they left him alive, there could've been much more conflict as well as possible storylines for next season (if they get renewed). maybe they could've dealt with him in their lives to get away from the abuse from his birth mother or just go more into depth on everything. I feel like it was just a cop-out on actually going deeper into that situation. they just killed him instead. I will say, I liked how they showed all of the pieces being put together by Lucas while he was living with Nikki and Jason and how he became Keith. idk, how do you all feel about it?
-I actually liked the pacing of the finale until the very end. That being said, we got nothing! Nothing! There was no long tender moment that really went into depth on how Nikki and Jason felt, ya we got that scene on the couch but come on, I thought they were gonna get back together for sure, that doesn't count. I wanted a scene where they just talked; the kid who they thought was their son not only revealed that he has been lying to them for months but also just died in front of them and nothing?! no dramatic reaction!? at least Nikki shed some tears but absolutely nothing after that. but really Jason? nothing? this is one of the main problems with this show, it lacks tender, slow, quiet moments that the audience desperately needs. we need to see and experience scenes with an emotional impact. We also needed a closure scene, not with the whole team, but with Nikki and Jason who seemed completely fine after the entire incident and even moved on? also, it basically just confirmed that their real son is dead at the bottom of the lake and we don't know how they feel about it. idk that just didn't sit right with me, I wanted more at the end! more real-life emotions please.
-poor Sidney... poor poor Sidney. she tried telling her parents so many times, but her feelings were put to the side. there wasn't even an apology from Jason nor Nikki. I didn't like how she had maybe 10 lines in the whole 2 hour finale, that was her supposed brother, she deserved to be heard or have some sort of emotional reaction. I felt bad for Fivel Stewart. Nothing for nor from her, I bet she wanted more character development but we got nada. We don't even know how she feels that he died! She lived across the hall from that kid for weeks if not months and she's supposedly fine by the end of the episode. they messed up her storyline.
-that season finale felt an awful lot like a series finale to me. did anyone else feel that way? most, if not all, of the storylines were closed by the end of the season. there are a few stragglers like June (what the actual hell happened to her? did she fall off the face of the earth because there hasn't even been one freaking mention about her! is she still alive? what?), and kemi's whole kidnapping/father storyline (which I'll assume they'll happily dive into if there's another season). but idk it almost feels like a miniseries, there was no cliffhanger at the end like most other tv shows. that doesn't bring much hope for a season 2, sorry to say. and then to have a 2 hour season finale might be a send-off for good, idk? like I've never seen a tv show season finale with this many finished storylines when they're supposedly hoping for another season. the viewers/ratings weren't horrible for Fox but compared to the rest of television on Monday nights, it's not very impressive, but then again it's Fox. I read that the finale got around 2.4 million viewers which is high for this show, but less than the premiere, it was better than how it performed week to week tho.
-I guess we'll have to see if there's another season. a part of me hopes there's another season and a part of me doesn't want one. I want to see Scott on my television every week, I felt so spoiled watching Scott on tv every week again since we haven't seen him in so long. But then again, the entire show itself is just bad... sorry it's just bad; the writing, and some of the acting most notably. I really want to see Scott in something good that has creative value and integrity because he's so much better than this show. after reading a lot of the reviews, I determined that most people tuned in and stayed for Scott, they thought he was the best thing about the show, which I agree with. That being said, a lot of hard work from not only the actors but also from all of the behind-the-scenes crew was put into this show.
anyways, I've rambled on long enough lol! those are my opinions about the finale. here's a little recap; I'm happy it ended with Keith not being Keith but I didn't like the Lucas death, it would've been interesting with him still in the mix. Good pacing until the end, we needed tender emotional moments. I give it a B-, maybe a B if I'm feeling generous lol!
Well, it's been an interesting 8 weeks, to say the least, sad to not be reviewing episodes anymore... what will I rant about now? haha. maybe we'll get a season 2, maybe not? I hate to say but hopefully not. we'll find out at the Fox upfronts in May.
let me know what y'all think, I'm really interested to see if people liked the ending and what they would change about it. Until next time...
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interlagosed · 2 years
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Hi hibs, Ive been wanting to get into writing alot recently, and just wanted to know how you Got started. Your work is literally iconic
Hello!!! I'm so glad you want to get into writing! I'm not sure if you want to know how I got into writing period, or how I got into writing fanfic. I'm going to assume the former :) (also thank you for the compliment!!!)
TLDR, I started writing because my mother invested in my ability to express myself. I kept writing because I couldn't live without it. If you want to start writing, you need to maintain discipline (actually write), write because you want to not because you feel like you have to (from the heart!!), and engage with other written works (reflect as you read).
I've been writing for as long as I can remember. Honestly! I was a voracious reader as a child. My mother was a massive proponent of my reading habit, and she basically gave me book after book to devour. I also watched a lot of cartoons, so I had a massive imagination from a young age. I also, uh, was a maladaptive daydreamer. There were a lot of stressors in my life and in retrospect I have realized that I was a really, really anxious child, so fiction and fantasy offered me a world to escape into. As a result, I think I really did start with writing fanfiction. I used characters from stories and cartoons I loved and created stories in my head involving them and myself!! I was a little self-insert baby LMAO but I don't think there's anything wrong with that! Especially when you're a child, you're your own point of reference, right, necessarily? So I used to put myself in my own stories, whether acting them out on my own with my imaginary friends or drawing art and comics or writing things. (I also really enjoyed converting fictional characters to Islam as a child AKLJGKLAJGLKA fun fact!)
When I got older (like 6 or 7), I asked my mom for writing prompts. I took any opportunity I could to write. This is around the time I think I got into writing non-fiction as well! I LOVED writing persuasive essays (also on prompts my mother would give me, or as part of homework I got for my English or social studies classes). She also really emphasized the importance of reading widely, and I think that's a huge reason my vocabulary expanded as much as it did. She never really stopped me from reading books, no matter the genre, which...in retrospect, maybe not great, LOL, but it did mean I was getting exposed to complex writing and advanced vocabulary very young. She would give me long words and tell me to make shorter words from the letters, buy me tons of logic puzzle books, crosswords, etc, and she actively fended off other adults who were concerned that I was spending too much time on my hobbies and not enough time, idk, doing sports. I really appreciate how much she protected me from other people. She always had complete and utter faith that I would turn out just fine, and that my hobbies (writing, reading, painting, arguing lol) were going to be a huge reason why. Also, she pretty much read everything I read too, so we were able to actually talk about the books I was reading! I think this was huge tbh.
I fell off the writing train for several years, largely because I was suddenly surrounded by people who didn't think my ideas were interesting or complex or worth exploring. I was told my writing was too flowery (I now think that person was just jealous TBH.....), that I wasn't imaginative or novel enough, that I should just stick to writing poetry. So I convinced myself I was a persuasive writer and poet, but nothing beyond that. And there's nothing wrong with that!
Throughout, though, fanfic kept reeling me back in. I was 10? when I wrote and published my first fanfic (GENDERBENDED BEYBLADE), and I wrote on and off ever since - sometimes to publish, but mostly just for myself. Whenever I was dissatisfied or emotional over a book/piece of fiction, I'd let myself write fanfic to process it. I also had original characters that I created with some friends that we would roleplay through and I really do think that helped me understand how to create distinct characters who react to different stimuli in different ways. This is so important!!! And I think the early 2010/2011 tumblr landscape that offered OC tag games REALLY helped with this too. And again, none of this writing was really going anywhere...which was also really key. I was writing to my own satisfaction, no one else's, and I found that I was really critical. Throughout, I was still reading books. So my understanding of what good writing was changed and developed. It never stayed stagnant - and yet there were books I kept coming back to, no matter my age! What was compelling about them? That also really helped me figure out what timelessness in writing might look like.
But I still didn't see myself as a creative writer. I was a poet and an academic writer. Maybe an essayist. But I certainly didn't have the imagination to write original plot. I had been told that enough times my certain people. I believed it. When I wrote fanfiction, it was porn without plot. I could write smut. Really well, too! But that's not the same thing as being a creative writer (this is what I thought - it's not true at all).
It wasn't until March 2021 that I started regularly writing fanfiction to be published again. But it wasn't until late last year, when I started working on Carlando fanfiction, that I actually realized that I might really be a creative writer with the capacity to come up with plot. And now I'm really pissed off because who the fuck was anyone else to say that I wasn't, or that anyone else isn't, a creative writer? Writing is a muscle! No one is born a runner. No one is born an athlete. Some people are predisposed to certain activities and maybe are more naturally talented, but talent atrophies! Talent is useless without discipline! And you don't have to be a childhood savant to be good at something! You can start writing at 4, 11, 18, 25, 32, 40, it doesn't matter, so long as you are disciplined and curious and open-minded and dedicated to the craft, so long as you do it for YOURSELF first and foremost because it's something you enjoy and something that makes your heart happy even when it's difficult, because if you don't write it, you'll always feel like something is missing, because if you don't write it, it doesn't matter who else does: because you didn't write something when you wanted to write it.
Writing is a muscle you exercise. Writing is also an internal compulsion. And it is also an interactive process. If you want to start writing, you need to be able to do all three things:
Be disciplined in writing (not that you need to write a certain way or be organized in a certain way, just that you need to be able to write! period! no matter what! set goals and try your best to meet them! this will help SO much later on)
When you write something, write it because you NEED to, not because other people have told you you should write it or because you want to get views (that's important and it'll come later, but not early on!). Good writing really does come for the heart. It's very obvious when you read writing that isn't heart-felt. And it feels worse when you write something you don't want to write.
Engage with other works. I'm not saying you need to take a pencil to everything you read (though you can and it doesn't hurt lol) but really, reflect as you read! Why did this work? Why didn't it work? What might have made it better? How did it make you feel? And then incorporate all those lessons in your own writing!
Sorry. Wow. This got very autobiographical. And super long. I do not have a degree in English or creative writing. I'm a political scientist and proto-lawyer by training lol.....but I hope this helps anyway!
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fictionfixations · 2 years
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Writing From Experience except i get really personal
so.
ive met the concept of.. writing based off of experiences or things youve done
like uh, theres this fic im reading where theres two camp counselors in a summer camp
and the writer went to summer camp
ww
I could try? i dunno its an idea, but I have fuckin 4+ docs of unfinished works and oneshots that I still gotta do but I dont have the motivation????
but the thing is is that nothing ive done is book worthy- it is not chobblesome
I mean, I dont do anything.. I play games all day and stay inside???
Uh. I've been to a wedding but it was boring and I don't remember what happened
I've gone out of state before and plan to go out of country (except I've been procrastinating for years) but I dont remember anything about it
I mean. I've been in foster care before ? People write a lot of foster care stories and like.. I mean I somewhat remember what it was like, but it was only for a few days and I only went to one home before eventually coming back to my actual home with my parents n stuff ? it was kinda a situation that I actually didn't understand or comprehend because I was pretty young but now I kind of do? It was kinda a little more serious then I thought as little kid me..? (uh.. the police got involved and it was a huge fucking mess. I got to be in a police car tho and they bought me mcdonalds so that was fun.)
There wasn't.. anything interesting that happened there. It would be boring. Bro so many foster care fics are about the teen and I'm just sat here with my POV of the child u-u
i mean though... sure.. children are kinda dumb, i wont sugarcoat it
itd probably get annoying fast
uhm. the only other thing i guess would be interesting is.. well nothing really, its just that I have a shit load of trauma packed into me that would make a bad and very triggering fic
TW: Mention of gr00ming, miNOr aaAaAAA mention of the act of kermit sewer slide sobs
um. it doesnt really affect me anymore because I've just kinda gotten used to it, but so. grooming. woo pair that with manipulation
hold on let me just find a character and traumatize the fuck out of them haha wooo does that count as dead dove do not eat? if i .. do a really dark fic where a character goes through ..what i did, except i just overdramatize it a little bit and exaggerate a lot to the best of my ability (i still have DMs of that time lmao but I don't think I can ever get used to those, it kinda makes me very uncomfortable.)
would it even be readable? I dont fucking know
The thing is is that everyone thinks that minor/minor sexually is fucking wrong
and I'd agree
but then I can't really ventfic lmao imagine I get hate for doing minor/minor even though its a fucking ventfic where I project onto characters -
lMAOOOO also probably really cursed
but then so id have to do it to an adult.. ?
bro which fandoms am i in that have a toxic relationship that i can write?
like nONe
unless i made one up??
bro sobs
actually i think the guilt tripping ive gone through has been done before in a disc duo but its like 'but arent we friends' or some shit like that in somewhere?? idk
would you guys be okay if i did a ship fic? i dont i cant do OCs man
but i dont know if ill even do it its just thought.
bro the toxic thing that comes to mind is dream and wilbur because dream being a manipulative piece of shit while wilbur is one of like the only characters i can and am comfortable writing the POV of besides the MINORS and then theres hermitcraft with its really healthy community sobs
i dont think wilburs boundaries are even comfortable with nsfw??
bro i dont even know if i can write anything sexual, ive never done it before
id probably write it as anonymous but not dream and wilbur?? id ont fucking know
how do i ventfic if i dont have a people
i mean jschlatt and quackity- is that pumpkin duo? id ont fucking know
they're... toxic..?? ive never written either jschlatt or quackity but you know the deal, jschlatt would probably be the user and quackity the victim.
oh fuck why can i just imagine it i can see it. (why does it work?)
fuck
agh
im.. probably going to have to reference back to the DMs to remember how things went and trigger the shit out of myself
my mental health boutta go to shit haha
anyway im gonna just... if i ever write it i'll try to put it on anonymous
i dont know
my first anonymous fic woo. and kinda trauma dump ig
i dont wanna be shamed for like
i dunno.
beIng a SLUT hAHAH -
oh i think i reached uncomfortable territory for me.
i think though that
it would probably be a dead dove
honestly thinking about it
trying to write minor on minor makes me feel sick
thats funny
guess adult on adult it is .
thats not really any better
also i dont know quackity or jschlatts boundaries sobs
do i just not do sexual shit? i dont fucking know
nevermind their boundaries arent really comfortable with that sobs
quackitys fine with fanfic but jschlatt i dont think it issss ??? GUYS HOW DO I DO VENTFIC WITHOUT INTRUDING ON A BOUNDARY
and i just
bro theres like no other character im comfortable with writing
do i really want to say 'fuck it' and just do it anyway? well no not really???
how do i find characters i can project onto but not ocs because i cant do that (ocs wont help me, honestly the thought is just worse in my head aaAa)
sobs.
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idk if you've already answered this, but considering you critique of the Loki series (valid af 😩), what direction would you have wanted the series to go in? How would have wanted them to explore Loki as a character (rather than sidelining him the whole time 😒)?
Much love ❤️
I would have wanted the very first part of Mobius' session with him to be exactly the same but instead of degrading into gaslighting and emotional abuse, I would have wanted them to allow Loki to express himself, for him to finally say out loud "I didn't want to do it, he messed with my head, I was terrified but nobody would have listened to me". Then maybe Mobius acknowledging he had seen that part of the tape, perhaps showing an image or two, but also talking about Loki not being entirely mind-controlled. I say that because while Marvel confirmed the influence of the Mind Stone he wasn't entirely mind controlled like Bucky, and I think it would make for a more interesting story if he had some form of agency.
Then after that ep2 can still be about them finding the variant and developing the relationship between Loki and Mobius. Since the abuse in ep1 wouldn't have happened the story could have showed them getting closer (as friends, I mean), instead of Pompeii they could have gone to Jotunheim where Loki would be ruling the place in all his blue and huge Jotun glory. TVA Loki would see there's nothing wrong with being a Jotun but he'd still be reluctant to accept it, it's the perfect excuse to talk about his heritage - and Jotunheim's history too while we're at it, and they should have shown what REALLY happened the day Odin took Loki and the Casket because I'm pretty sure that whole story he told in the first Thor movie was a lie.
If I go ep by ep this will get long so, in short, I would have wanted them to talk about NYC and how he felt about it (and Thanos' involvement!), his heritage and his position in his family as the scapegoat, they could have used Sylvie as a mirror: they could bond over their position in the family, that chat in the train could be him slipping he's adopted but she doesn't know so she has a mental breakdown and Loki remembers how much it hurt him so he has to comfort her and... dunno, they bond over that? They talk about Odin never being there for them, about how much they had always wanted approval, etc.
Then the last two eps it should have been them meeting with the other variants in the Void and all of them working together as a team, showing off their magic, and Mobius using the tempad to get them out of there (oh and President Loki is MCU Loki, they should have given us a whole damn conversation between President and TVA Loki, imagine that!).
Basically, all the time travel and the multiverse and the timelines bla bla should have stayed secondary to the story, used them only to further Loki's characterization (facing his past, acknowledging the abuse he had been put through, seeing how capable he is and how worthy he had always been by meeting with other variants and embracing his heritage, being surrounded by people who treat him well and appreciate him, some of the variants standing up to defend him from whatever villains would arise, etc).
So yeah, this got long and I'm not a writer but that's what I would have done: kept him as the main focus with the only purpose of furthering his character and his story. I'm not sure how good this is but hey... I try lol
Oh and lots of love to you too, honey 🤗
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emmys-grimoire · 3 years
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Lesson 56 analysis + 57 predictions
I was right and wrong! Nothing unusual.
The Belphie-Diavolo arc continues and we go to meet up with Diavolo, only to discover it wasn't him who paged us, but his captor. We go to confront the captor who threatens us with a gun and Diavolo seems pretty carefree and oblivious about the man's true intent until he freaks out and attempts to shoot Belphie. MC can use their magic to protect him, but he informs us that bullet don't harm him anyway. A lightbulb seems to finally go off in Diavolo's head and he realizes what is happening, and he transforms and seems adamant about punishing the assailant. Belphie learns how much Diavolo cares about him and goes all tsundere-y throughout the rest of the lesson.
The big thing that happens is the Diavolo background bits and his confession + kiss. I anticipate there was much squeeing, but it was pretty standard confession fare. I have a harder time getting into it because we didn't really have any big bonding moment with him prior to him apparently falling for us.
But whatever. There are some interesting bits to comb through!
Raphael: Misunderstood?
We find out in the beginning of this lesson that Belphegor has a much higher opinion of Raphael than the rest of the brothers, that seems to have stemmed from Raphael once saving him when he got lost in the forest back in the Celestial Realm.
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Up until this point, all associations with Raphael have been negative. This gives us some background on why he might be irritable and snide all the time, because Michael is also noted to be a sadist by Simeon, who enjoys making harsh demands of his underlings. He might be a hint resentful and taking it out on the brothers? That might be multiplied if Michael clearly goes easier on them due to favoritism in spite of all their troublemaking. I think that'd kind of make sense.
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They like to put emphasis on how secretly malevolent the Seraphim are -- that they're duplicitously evil. Not sure how much they're actually trying to hide it, though? It sounds like Raphael was pretty upfront about how he felt about everything.
Diavolo's Flaws
We find out that Diavolo is actually aware of his penchant for using his royal status to get those around him to do what he wants. We also find out that his mother died giving birth to him, and his father was very strict in raising him. He was sheltered, and not allowed to speak with anyone outside of the castle.
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Getting Tywin Lannister vibes. Diavolo isn't sure whether or not his father hates him for being responsible for his beloved wife's death.
In spite of being sheltered from the outside world, Diavolo still manages to meet Barbatos, which I think confirms that Barbatos was not always in their service. I was wrong that Barbatos's employment was connected to his father's machinations, though: it was Diavolo who twisted his arm into it, because Diavolo desperately wanted a friend and became enamored with the stories of the outside world that Barbatos told him.
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Diavolo threatened to abdicate his throne if Barbatos didn't stay. Which is actually... kind of an asshole move? I imagine he refused for a reason, and Diavolo taking the throne was apparently very important to his father (and probably the Devildom as a whole if the succession would be muddled).
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I don't think at this point Barbatos minds, but I wouldn't blame him if he initially did resent Diavolo.
Diavolo has demonstrated he has the ability to sense lies and he's a good judge of character, so him being unable to ascertain whether or not his father or Barbatos really likes him seems noteworthy. I think Barbatos is the best fake smiler among them, but he's been at Diavolo's side the longest.
He has a surprising amount of insecurities when it comes to his closest relationships, but I'm afraid a lot of it is his own fault: if he hadn't extorted Barbatos and instead Barbatos entered his service of his own free will, he probably wouldn't need to second guess the butler's intentions. Additionally, if he didn't demand Lucifer make a vow in exchange for his sister's life, there's a chance that maybe it'd be easier for Lucifer to open up and get closer to him like a friend naturally would.
And then maybe he wouldn't have spent most of season 2 worrying over how Lucifer may respond to bad news!
But he's growing out of it. Sort of. I'd be wary of him trying to strongarm MC into a decision they may not necessarily want to make, though, even now. Maybe especially now given his apparent attachment to them.
Barbatos scheming
Barbatos is being schemey!
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I have a feeling this involves the information Luke relayed to him about a potential rift growing between Michael and Simeon. I would not be surprised if Barbatos has actually peered into the future and knows what Michael might be planning, and he's positioning himself to counter it.
I was hoping hard mode or the subnode would shed more light on what this conversation entailed, but nope, it was just more fluff. I doubt they were just discussing dinner, though.
Predictions
This lesson was more Diavolo-centric than I expected but that's hardly unwelcome. Like expected, it was a good fluffy lesson in spite of the, uh, grim background.
The brothers behaved for once and didn't intrude upon our bonding experience with Diavolo and Belphegor.
We didn't actually receive a star for this trial, which is... odd. Maybe we'll receive it in the beginning of the following lesson, or perhaps this romp wasn't a trial? It'd be the first one that wasn't. I'll be really surprised if they go for another twofer and don't give Lucifer his own special arc.
I was expecting to be rewarded our star and having the lesson end on a cliffhanger but it feels like the next lesson will be the beginning of the final arc. Outside of Barbatos's potential maneuvering, we weren't given any further information on what Michael may be planning.
If Season 2's format is any indicator, the next lesson is when everything suddenly hits the fan. I sense another sudden exposition dump on the horizon.
They did mention going to yet another space-themed park but that sounds like it'd be too... samey. Also not a place that sounds like it'd be Lucifer's cup of tea.
I'd be willing to bet Barbatos will play a part in the finale and by extension so will time travel (again), but other than that I got nothing. If Michael is aware of Barbatos's powers -- and he may very well be -- maybe he'll be the one who manages one hell of a Xanatos Gambit and try to turn it to his advantage. I'd be surprised if he wasn't similarly prepared, particularly if he's plotted and meddled with Devildom affairs in the past.
But I'm not even entirely sure what he really wants yet, and that drives everything.
The most straightforward motivation would be getting the brothers back, but he must know they would never willingly go back presently and we're not even entirely sure daddy would want them back. I theorized that he might be trying to get MC to turn the demon brothers back to their angel selves but there really hasn't been much progress shown in that regard.
I do expect our meddling in the flashbacks will have some unforeseen consequences which Michael alluded to, but I still don't know exactly what and I'm not entirely convinced that they will actually be to his benefit.
He might want to change the past, prevent whatever triggered Lucifer to start hating their father and/or stop him from meeting Diavolo and growing more and more doubtful about the Celestial Realm's intent... but he already had that opportunity when MC went back in time, and he would have to find a way to manipulate Barbatos into getting him to that specific point in time. If he's in league with Solomon, he could feasibly do that via the pact but...
Are we really betting on a villainous Michael-Solomon tag team? idk man
And Barbatos can just eliminate that timeline fork with a snap of his fingers, like he did before.
I guess I'm finding out along with you guys. Again!
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iamanartichoke · 2 years
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Maybe I'm being overly optimistic, but I don't see the Thor trailer having a huge effect on the Loki fandom since we know he's not in it. Or maybe you mean with the Thor fandom, in which case I got nothing, lol.
Well, there's a lot of potential, imho, for the trailer to stir up old wank, yknow? I mean, I can pretty much see several different ways the fandom could implode, and that's by -
a) Ragnarok stans reacting to the trailer with excitement all over the place, praise for Taika, etc (potentially wanky bc they ain't above "gloating" about how they're getting everything they want from the Thor franchise, I saw it when Thor 4 was first announced to be happening and that Taika was coming back; people feeling their feels is fine but I see the potential for some obnoxious reactions, too) + content creators flooding tumblr with gifs
b) Ragnarok antis seeing said excitement, gifs, content, etc and being reminded that they are not getting everything they want from the Thor franchise (again, which is fine, but potentially wanky due to the overall dynamics surrounding negativity being expressed in this fandom)
c) The rest of us, who are neither stans nor antis, trying to navigate between the two groups while also feeling some kind of way about how the trailer and the new movie is bittersweet at best bc while we may vary on how we feel about Loki not being in this film (personally, I am glad for it, as I don't care for Taika's handling of Loki and also, after the series, Loki's story isn't really in the right place where his involvement would make sense [but maybe it could happen though, idk]), his absence will be impossible to ignore and thus some of us will be lamenting about how much we miss Thor and Loki's dynamic, their interactions, and all of the unexplored potential between them (like what will their reunion look like, are they ever going to talk about what went wrong between them during Thor 1, how will Thor react to a variant version of Loki while "his Loki" is dead, how will Loki react to a Thor that has been so utterly altered by time and tragedy when the Thor Loki remembers is Avengers-era and basically as dead as Loki Prime, can we finally see them fucking HUG, etc) while confronting the heart-sinking, tangible reminder that we won't be getting any of that in this movie, and that has nothing to do with whether it turns out to be good or not. All of which are things that can and likely will be posted about (potentially wanky bc this is tumblr and, well.).
(I say "we," but C is me. I am C. Very much a "bitches be like ____, I'm bitches" thing going on here.)
So I mean, yeah, maybe the trailer won't have a huge effect on the Loki fandom (I'd like for it not to, bc I'm pretty sure this site is giving me an ulcer), but that might be a tad too optimistic to hope for.
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haleigh-sloth · 3 years
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So I saw that All Might is heading after AFO Shigaraki and people think Shigaraki will kill him. I really hope that doesn't happen cause I fear this will change Deku's determination to try and help Shigaraki.
What I think will happen is Afo using Shigaraki's body may kill All Might but not before All Might tries to talk to real Shigaraki and thereby revealing some things to Shig (I'm guessing he knows what's going on even though he's inside his own mind) This will stir something in Shig making him question things even more. Also will make Deku even more determined to defeat AFO and save Shig.
I also saw that Aizawa is planning to take revenge on Shigaraki. I hope he doesn't get in the way of things. But I only see random pieces of the Manga cause I'm not keeping up with it. It just stresses me too much. But I was curious your thoughts on this. After you finish Naruto do you plan on Boruto ? Have a lovely day. 🌸🌹🤗
SOOOOO I think everything surrounding All Might's death is actually super a mystery right now. I think it's too early to really tell but I get the feeling that he's gonna go out and try to shoulder the burden alone (big mistake) as a sort of atonement for putting it on Midoriya (but it's the opposite of what he should do but--you know, plot). I think whatever choice he makes during his next appearance is going to be the choice that leads him to the path of his death. Right now I think he's gonna go look for Shigaraki himself, but it's too soon to tell.
I'm still skeptical that Shigaraki himself will kill AM because we literally know nothing about what Shigaraki is doing right now. I'm seriously betting that he's marinating in AFO juice again and out of commission. If I'm right, then I'm not sure how he'd be the one to kill AM. However it's always possible that something else is going on. Regardless of that though, even if Shigaraki does kill AM--that will not change his fate. Midoriya is still gonna save him. All that will change is that it adds stakes to Midoriya's decision to save Shigaraki, like it'll add something for him to lose. Right now he hasn't told anyone about his plan so nobody has tried to counter him or talk him out of it yet, there's no conflict surrounding his choice right now. Especially because right now it's just a choice he's said, not an action he's taken. No real stakes right now. But Shigaraki killing AM is something that has pretty much been set up from the beginning and predicted by many people, while still predicting his salvation by Midoriya.
Another thing I think is possible is Shigaraki kills AM while under possession of AFO. The reason I think this is likely is because it would be the "easy" way out of challenging Midoriya. Like that challenge is there, but not really since AFO is truly to blame. What I'm waiting to see from Horikoshi is if he makes it harder to redeem Shigaraki in the narrative (by harder I mean actually challenge the main character) or if he plans to have Midoriya just go straight in to save him, without any reserves about it. Typically, there'd be stakes involved like losing something dear to you, or putting very personal grudges aside. Midoriya has grudges against Shigaraki, but nothing personal enough to consider it a real challenge to Midoriya.
I personally expect Hori to kinda take it easy and not really challenge the MC because *looks at story so far* and make it to where Midoriya's choice is unwavering and he never lets up. But I could be wrong and he could throw some speed bumps into the story line and I would totally be okay with that. Regardless though, Shigaraki WILL be saved. The Shounen manga protagonist proclaimed it to be his next goal, so by god it's gonna happen no matter what.
On Aizawa-- I'll keep it brief because I talked about it here, but I think he's gonna be convinced by Kurogiri to help save Shigaraki. I don't think he'll get in the way, I think it'll be opposite. He'll help.
AND I FINISHED NARUTO AHHH I LOVED IT SO MUCH. Aaaaand Idk about Boruto. I need to read reviews on it and see, because I'm always skeptical of sequels. I see that the OG cast DOES play a role in it and that is kind of what makes me want to read it, but I'm gonna need to wait and see what people say about it first before I dive in. Right now I'm on cloud 9 from finishing a 700 chapter manga lol. I truly loved Naruto so much and it's officially one of my top 5 favorites of all time. Let the Funko Pop figure purchasing BEGIN
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Hey you've probably touched on this in the past but I'm new here, so if it's okay and you feel like it would you mind explaining how do you think it could be possible for Louis to be forced to pretend he is a father of a child (that we actually know and can recognise, not just as a rumor or something like that) as a pr strategy? I'm not trying to say it's impossible, I genuinely have no idea how the pr world works and this just sounds pretty extreme and weird, especially involving a minor and all.
I've personally always thought Louis was probably high/drunk (or maybe not, just seems more plausible to me idk and we know he wasn't in the best place at the time) and had a one night stand with this girl he was meant to be seen with for publicity, she got pregnant but he didn't want to do anything about it or like be involved but once word "got out" to the management (umbrella term i use to mean whoever it is that's handling this sorts of things, maybe pr team? idk) they decided to exploit it and make use of it as a strategy to cover up something else or put him in his place (assuming he had said/done something to irritate them or smth) or even just to bring attention to him/the band no matter what kind of attention they would be getting (although i have to say for a boy band targeted mostly towards teen or even pre-teens the image of the party boy getting high and getting random girls pregnant doesn't sound like something they would want to purposefully go after, but once again, I'm not from expert)
and at that point Briana wanted her slice of the cake and the money and the attention, so he got stuck with all this, but since the kid was born he has tried to be part of his life, if intermittently (also, we don't Really know how frequently he actually goes to LA, and we don't have any idea about any phone/video calls, so like they could be in contact every day or once a year yk)
I do realise this sound a bit headcanony but tbh so have all the other theories I've seen going around... I also realise it's pointless to lose much brain power over this kinda questions we probably won't ever have answers for lol but I still like to share opinions and im curious to see what others think!
You in particular, just cause i always find your takes super interesting and I tend to agree to what you have to say on most stuff, so yeah I'd be curious to know what you think!
Have a nice day x (and sorry for the super long message, I totally get it if you don't have time to go through this or to answer)
Don't apologise anon - I love long messages. I'm going to take this in two parts.
First of all there's nothing wrong with believing that Louis is the father and if that makes most sense to you go forth with it. I agree with your point that there's lots we don't know about the current situation and it could work for everyone involved. But I'll explain why the specific story you're telling doesn't explain anything to me.
You say we know that Louis wasn't in a particularly good place at the time - I'm not sure we do. I mean he'd been doing very intense work for a very long time and I'm sure there were costs, but I don't think there's any particular reason to think that April/May 2015 were bad for Louis.
As I've emphasised before there is hardly any time for any of what you describe to have happened. It might be an explanation if the pregnancy had been announced months later. But Louis wouldn't know how he felt about getting someone pregnant less than two weeks after he'd had it confirmed that he was the father. To suggest that he could possibly have settled in 'don't want anything to do with it' misses that dealing with an unplanned pregnancy is a process that you expect to take time.
I think you're explanation also seems to put causation in the wrong place. If Louis' the father he's in this situation because he's the father. Not because of anything Briana or his team did. If Louis' a father, the core of that hasn't been changed by anything we've seen.
But also I don't think this answers any questions. It's basically the classic undermotivated villain problem. 1DHQ went public in a very short time frame because reasons. It won't help them make money, it won't make their work easier, but they're not just doing it, but turning on a dime to do it. It's not impossible, but there has to be a much more deeply weird explanation than Louis irritated someone.
************
At the beginning you asked this: How do you think it could be possible for Louis to be forced to pretend he is a father of a child (that we actually know and can recognise, not just as a rumor or something like that) as a pr strategy?
And I'll try to answer it, but that's not really what I believe.
I believe that the most insightful comment about the situation came from Karl Marx when he said: "Louis Tomlinson makes his own history, but he doesn't make in circumstances of his own choosing".
If I think of the worst situations people I know have got into with work and imagine some outsider said 'well were they forced to do [thing that was really damaging/they really hated]' - the answer would be 'it's more complicated than that'. Work is iterative - and situations develop over time and there are lots of forces operating on people.
There are still huge questions, but I find it useful to think about things as a series of decisions, not something that was fully formed. Working backwards, it seems reasonably clear to me that from April 2016 absolutely no force from anyone would be needed to maintain the situation. It would be very difficult to change it without outting Louis and he also had a strong need for family privacy.
Likewise I think from August-December 2015 'force' isn't a very good way of understanding what would have happened. People often do things that aren't ideal, because they're better than any other option.
To me there are really only two areas of question - the first is the announcement, and the second is the aftermath of the birth. And I wouldn't suggest I had an explanation in either case, but I do have areas of explanation.
1D was in crisis for all of 2015 and I suspect those crises overlapped in curious and unexplained ways. But one thread of crisis was that Harry and Louis' closet was not holding. There were respectful and curious podcasts, people with profile were discussing the possibility openly. Louis talking about his birthday near led to outting him. At the same time Eleanor left (I assume because she wanted to, but maybe it was unsustainable for other reason). Louis hadn't suddenly become more convincing at heterosexuality. Then the new beard became pregnant. I don't think this is sufficient explanation, but I think combined with probably six different things I don't know. I can see how 'have a story that it's Louis, we can always deny it', was an option that gained concensus. (It's important to understand how the situation snowballed over time, and that people only ever agreed to it one step at a time).
I think the situation with the birth is much more mystifying, but I've made peace with not knowing, because we have no idea what Louis was hoping 2016 was going to look like. We don't know what his plans or intentions were. We only know that his 2016 ended up looking catastrophically, entirely different from what he'd hoped.
That's where I come from. There are lots of holes, and it's perfectly reasonable that other people think differently. People have different experiences and weight things in a range of ways.
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bamfdaddio · 3 years
Text
X-Men Abridged: 1978
The X-Men, those take-me-to-the-ballgame mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!
(X-Men 109 - 116) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Tony Dezuniga
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Yes, the plan here is to toss Kurt at Magneto and yes, it’s objectively the best panel of 1978. (X-Men 113)
If the X-Men were a tv-show, the Phoenix mending the M’Kraan Crystal would probably have been the finale of season 1 of X-Men: the New Generation. Now that we’ve had this big finish, Claremont takes his time to sow new plot seeds and navigate his team of merry mutants in new directions. Compared to 1977, 1978 is a lot more laid back, with smaller arcs and more character moments.
Take the first two issues of the year, for example. The victorious X-Men come home from their space capers and for a moment, all is well. Ororo is a plant mommy, Kurt is a grade-A cutey and Jean comes out to her parents as the Phoenix. (Intrigued? Read more here.) And, because Moira going back home to Scotland, the X-Men say goodbye to her through… a baseball game! (Which, I guess if you’re comic book character bound by the comic book code, is the next best thing to just getting drunk together.)
It’s all very straight-edge wholesome.
Lilandra is very absent: I’m assuming she is sleeping off the space jetlag somewhere. idk
Sure, there’s still a few action-packed B-plots: a fight scene is mandatory in a comic book, after all. Weapon Alpha tries to claim Wolverine in the name of the Canadian government and some nobody named Warhawk sneaks into the mansion as a phone repairman to rig the Danger Room into a Death Trap.
(Look, you have a danger room. Why are you calling phone repairmen? During breakfast, did Charles go around the table, asking anyone if they wanted to fix the phone and everyone was like “nnnnnno, I am le tired”.)
Anyway, how would you unwind after a baseball game? Scott has an awesome idea! (I'm betting Scott would have embraced the Comics Code.)
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This is the one issue not drawn by John Byrne this year. Dezuniga does a fine enough job, but Jean using her powers looks like she’s barfing psy-energy all over the place. (X-Men 110)
Warhawk traps the rest of the X-Men in the Danger Room. Wolverine gets a moment to shine as the team’s rogue, finally getting a win after getting knocked on his ass lately. Also, Kurt calls Warhawk Krieghabicht. (Hee.) Jean, meanwhile, is startled because despite her phenomenal powers, she was taken out so easily. She makes the formal choice to rejoin the X-Men.
And the next time we see them… THE X-MEN HAVE VANISHED? (yes, i know this sentence contradicts itself, shut up)
We find Beast at a circus in Texas, investigating their disappearance while on a sabbatical from the Avengers. See, Lorna called him because Havok was kidnapped in Scotland and the X-Men did not pick up, so she called good ole Hank McCoy. We know Charles is honeymooning with Lilandra, so where are the X-Men?
Cerebro leads Hank to a circus and, dude, for someone who’s supposed to be a genius, you draw the conclusion that these are the brainwashed X-Men way too slowly.
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I by no means wish to belittle Storm’s situation, but Wolverine is in equally skimpy clothing while chained the fuck up, Beast. Can’t spare a little sympathy for him? (X-Men 111)
Beast continues being the worst detective mutantkind has ever known: even Jean, who’s currently a cigarette smoking trapeze artist named Miz Destiny, barely convinces him that these are the X-Men. When Beast finally confronts the Ring Leader, it turns out to be… Mesmero!
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This pose: appropriate for a super villain or suitable for a Harlequin novel cover? Especially with all this talk about enthralling? (X-Men 112)
Apparently Mesmero doesn’t give a fuck that half these X-Men aren’t the same X-Men that fought him before. Revenge is a dish best served cold and to the wrong table, apparently. Beast fighting ole Messy causes Wolverine to spring free from his hypnotic influence. Wolvie proceeds to slap Jean out of it (literally) and they free the rest of the X-Men. But when they come and confront Mesmero in his little circus wagon, their villain is knocked out…
By Magneto.
dun dun DUN
Magneto proceeds to kidnap them, like this:
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Magneto, who has no patience for narrative baggage, also yeets out Mesmero over the Andes, no big deal (X-Men 112)
Just like Mesmero, Magneto wants misplaced revenge. Instead of exacting vengeance on Charles, Moira and the Defenders involved in (literally) infantilizing him - no, seriously, he was a baby - Magneto comes for these All-New X-Men. (Look, logic has never been one of Magneto’s super powers.)
He takes the X-Men to his secret base below the South Pole, tucked away under a literal volcano. (He really should be on the tourist board for Amazing Antarctica, this is his third base there.) The X-Men, after they have safely landed, attack him, but they are tossed around like rag dolls, falling one by one - even the Phoenix.
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Jean does have the right idea, though: it’s my theory that the key to defeating Magneto is being equally dramatic and hammy. (X-Men 112)
Somewhere on a cruise ship, Charles loses contact with the X-Men and proceeds to do absolutely nothing about it. Damn, but Elizabeth Taylor Lilandra must have some pretty choice moves in bed.
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YOU COULD TRY FINDING OUT, CHARLES. (X-Men 113)
When the X-Men wake up, they're bound by Nanny, a robotic… uh, nanny! And Magneto unveils his revenge: he has scrambled the X-Men’s brains: they are fully conscious, but are trapped, powerlessly in their bodies, which won’t follow the instructions of their brains. It’s as if they’re the minds of adults, trapped in the bodies of infants - just like Magneto was. (He does not succumb to an evil laughter, but he’s definitely drifting into Evil Overlord territory.)
Look, a lot of this is very silly. Magneto hasn’t really been codified by Claremont yet: he’s still very much the sixties super villain and he doesn’t have his Holocaust-past yet. His motivations don’t make much sense: it’s never made clear why he needs the base, for example, or why he doesn’t just kill the X-Men. And yet, he seems more menacing than he used to be. Might be because these X-Men actually have a hard time beating him.
A lot of this era works like that. There’s the occasionally very silly trappings of a superhero comic, but there’s also glimmers of exceptional writing. Take the following scene, for example, which I’ll just include in its entirety, because fuck it. Storm is trying to break free, on the flimsy premise that she was a highly advanced baby who had the motor skills of a toddler. (I’ve met babies. They basically eat, sleep and poop. They can’t really do this.) And yet? This scene kind of works.
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Like, the fact that this scene works despite the fact that Magneto thought to give his Nanny-robot a sixties copper bob-cut and a aluminium French maid headpiece is a testament to effective writing. (Also to Magneto’s attention to detail.) (X-Men 113)
No worries, Storm succeeds the second time she attempts this.
Together, the now free team manages to almost defeat Magneto, but Phoenix grows a little too zealous, destroying precious machinery. It proves to be their undoing: the roof to the base cracks open, letting lava in. Things grow dire and Magneto gets the nope out of there.
The lava turns on the heat and the team gets split up. Phoenix escapes together with Beast, and they both collapse into the freezing snow in the Arctic. A helicopter saves them, but what about the rest of the team? Are they dead?!
They’re dead enough for Professor X, and I really have questions about the effectiveness of Cerebro. After a brief mourning period, Beast rejoins the Avengers. But what really happened to the X-Men? Well, they fled into the Savage Land!
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So, are we getting a sexy costume change with every new locale and/or story arc? What is this, Charmed? (X-Men 114)
The Savage Land plot is… kind of messy and confusing? First, Storm is attacked by Sauron (yay!) and he even hypnotizes Wolverine and uses his love for Jean against him (ew!), but as soon as Karl Lykos gains control again (boo!), he explains how he
Did not fall to his death;
Is suppressing his pterodactyl side (ain’t we all);
allied himself with the Savage Landers.
Then Ka-Zar, Marvel´s discount!Tarzan, explains how someone named Zaladane transformed a hapless innocent into Garruk, the Petrified Man, who is some sort of… living god? Who stopped some sort of interdimensional invasion by mending some sort of… portal rift? And then he set up shop in the swamp and built some sort of futuristic city? And he wants to enslave all of the natives of the Savage Land? And he built his city on the geothermal fissure that heats the Savage Land, so now the jungle is being choked out by snowy tundra?
Such a mess. And I know Zaladane gets important later, but, ugh, the socio-political tensions in the Savage Land is generally not what I’m here for.
One of the few Savage Land scenes I do like is also messy, but the emotional kind of messy. See, the X-Men on their part believe Jean and Hank are dead, and Scott takes it rather… lightly? When Storm confronts him about it, he confesses he does not mourn Jean as much as he thought he would, as if she were a different woman ever since they crash-landed the shuttle. Storm rejects this confession, always solidly in Jean’s camp, and basically tells Scott to man up. Scott has a point: Jean has changed and it’s not like people have fallen out of love for less, but there’s something to be said for Storm’s firm “for better or for worse”-argument. The scene ends unresolved, and I like that.
Anyway, there’s some X-Men fighting dinos and flying lizards, so there’s at least that. Oh, and Colossus develops a suddenly intense bond with a Savage Lander with a mohawk, which is a detail that becomes important later. Another significant detail?
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There’s a lot of weight to that snikt, bub. (X-Men 116)
The implication is that Wolverine simply kills the guy in cold-blood. It’s a little weird that both Storm and Kurt are so okay with this, especially because Storm tries to save Garruk later. This, however, also marks an important direction in which they’re taking Wolverine, becoming the most ruthless of the X-Men.
In the end, Cyclops blasts the foundations of the citadel to smithereens, solving everyone’s problems and putting a neat bow on this tangled plotline. Also, all of a sudden? The X-Men are monthly again! (yay!) And they’ve upgraded from All-New, All-Different to Uncanny on the cover, though the name of the comic won’t officially change until issue 142.
Best new character: Like Hell I’m giving this to Weapon Alpha! So instead, it’s going to the two stylish, mohawked ladies who “show the island” to Piotr. (Again. They’ll be relevant later. Sort of.)
What to read: X-Men 109, for the denouement of the Phoenix Saga (or the first part thereof). The rest is rather inconsequential.
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