#first reactions

[duckies27]

*16 minutes into OUAW*

So Gideon and Kremy are really just in love right away? Slay kings

#once upon a witchlight #ouaw #first listen #first reactions

[daisiesonafield-blog]

Late Night Talking music video - Immediate reaction:

All eyes are on Harry's bed and who he's with. It starts with him alone reaching for his person but they're gone, "things haven't been quite the same", he keeps searching for them, their things seem to be in the room but they're not there, so he dives into his bed and there we see all his past lovers, or rather perceived lovers, as his bed is the main stage. Everyone he's with is in his bed too. Some are friends, heck, he's even marrying a nb couple! He goes to plays, dinners, around London with his music friends - but still they're all in his bed and all eyes are on him. We see him holding hands with his male date, we see stills of him cuddling with a series of women, men, nb folk in various beds. He's pillow fighting them. It's all a bit dream-like, like it's a memory or something imagined.

Yet, no matter who he is with, they're in his bed and everyone is watching.

It ends with him alone in his bed again, falling through the clouds, back down to, presumably, his empty bed where his partner has gone away, and he's missing them. (they'll be back)

#late night talking mv #late night talking mv analysis #first reactions #late night talking analysis #jul 13 2022 #jul 2022 #corrected

[biblioflyer]

Star Trek Wars and Responsible Allegory

The ending for Strange New Worlds season premiere has me setting yellow alert. Mild spoilers follow.

I trust the writers and showrunners of Strange New Worlds.

I trust them to maintain a fundamentally optimistic worldview while not shying away from the impact of what the characters are experiencing. M’Benga and Chapel illustrated that beautifully.

Strange New Worlds is an easier watch than Picard, and that is to be expected. As I’ve passionately argued, Picard is a show about damaged people bereft of resources and facing hard moral dilemmas. Star Trek the Next Generation and Strange New Worlds are about the elite, handpicked for their gifts, provided every advantage, and with the best ship in the fleet insulating from the consequences of poorly calculated risks.

Neither is a better concept! Although even with an open heart, Picard is not an easy show to watch. I love Strange New Worlds for its ability to go down smoothly without feeling stupid. I’m unbelievably burnt out on hopeless suffering and bleak universes that defy attempts to improve them.

Which is why the implications of a Gorn war story alarm me so much.

My ethics call me to be pro-Ukraine but anti war propaganda.

Do you follow that nuance?

I’ll unpack it.

If the Ukraine War is something the Strange New Worlds production feels it needs to acknowledge in some fashion and allegorize, then using the take on the Gorn we’ve seen to date speaks to the soul scorching atrocities of the Russian invasion force, but little else about this conflict.

The likely Gorn motive of expansion for expansion’s sake is not an inaccurate parallel to Russia but it is superficial. It's comfort food for those of us rooting for the speedy removal of Russia’s occupation and horrified by the carnage wrought, but frankly Star Trek doesn’t need to be that ham fisted. It has a history of treating war as more than a spectator sport and seeking a deeper, richer understanding of the origins of conflict.

The Gorn, thus far, are entirely lacking in the sort of dimensionality and nuance that would make them compelling villains or hold a mirror up to our world to seek more profound truths. They’re the sort of villains to consume war as content, not understand war.

For all the slings and arrows directed at Discovery, something it did right with its Klingon War arc is show how actually it's not entirely about cynical, material motives like those of us who see the machinations of greedy oligarchs behind society’s ills would prefer to think is generally the rule. 

T’Kuvma’s supremacist ideology, contempt for other cultures, and “fear” of assimilation and loss of identity is familiar to students of the intellectual rationalizations of Russia’s invasion. That’s not coincidental. T’Kuvma was rather clearly meant to stand in for various strains of ultranationalism and ethnonationalism circulating at the time. 

T’Kuvma is reminiscent of Orban, Trump, Johnson etc. because the advisers whispering in their ears were themselves inspired by if not directly, then by very few degrees of remove, by Alexander Dugin and other architects of the Dark Enlightenment values that gave Putin the labels and rationales to crush both political threats to his regime and people he found aesthetically repugnant. These same Dark Enlightenment values create the permission structure for invasions, annexations, and the systematic murder of Ukrainian public intellectuals, civil leaders, and other cultural figures.

Now of course other Klingon House Leaders, oligarchs if you will, flock to T’Kuvma’s banner for their own cynical reasons, but much of our current reality is difficult to explain using an entirely cynical, materialist framework. If only because it's hard to imagine how the most outrageously successful (for Russia) invasion would have been a profitable enterprise without a myopic degree of cultural supremacism and complete disregard for the idea that this invasion might fail utterly to achieve any goal that would shore up and enrich the Russian economy, demography, or even just enrich the already extravagantly wealthy.

In the Dominion War, we find the Founders, themselves consumed by a supremacist and xenophobic worldview, using Jem’Hadar and Cardassians alike as phaser fodder with the casual attitude of Skynet deploying a wave of Terminators. 

At one point DS9 even manages to humanize the Jem’Hadar. Outmatched and Ketracel White starved survivors recognizing the futility of their assault on a prepared Starfleet position, but unwilling or unable to shake off their conditioning to choose surrender. Even the betrayal of this band’s Vorta is reminiscent of accusations that Wagner was leaking intelligence on the Russian army in exchange for lighter treatment from Ukrainian forces.

Meanwhile, Damar portrays the horror of recognizing an ally is intentionally wasting the lives of your people for a cause that seemed worthy in the beginning, but has been exposed as inevitably bringing greater ruin not glory. Damar drowns his grief in kanar because he can’t see a way out. His own cultural heritage has left him without much of a tangible idea of a different society to hope for and fight for. Eventually though, he realizes if he doesn’t do something the humiliation of losing a war will be just the beginning of the horrors visited upon the Cardassian people.

Damar is many characters. He’s the separatist who realized his “liberator” cares nothing for him except as a prop to rationalize the war and will sell his life cheaply once his part in the narrative is no longer interesting. Damar is the homegrown resistance to the war in Russia we scan the news desperately searching for.

The Gorn of Strange New Worlds can allegorize the depravity of the Russian invasion, but it would be a caricature in every other respect. Good allegory shouldn’t simply inspire us, it should inspire dissent and righteous rebellion were it to leak across digital iron curtains. If Star Trek is to dabble in propaganda, then it should not just be about great victories on the battlefield, it should describe a better future.

Sorry George, there are not heroes on both sides, but there are victims. Yet the Gorn really don’t seem like they can be victims unless Strange New Worlds is preparing to show us a different side of them. Maybe we’ll see some Gorn convicts used as phaser fodder or sympathizers who thought they were purchasing freedom with their loyalty but have found themselves instead press ganged with bottom of the barrel equipment in hand.

#star trek #star trek ethics #propaganda #allegory #war stories #Strange New Worlds #Strange New Worlds spoilers #spoilers #first reactions #Gorn #Dominion War #Klingon War

[tennelleflowers]

#pokemon #pokémon scarvio #first reactions

[thedaytheworldburned]

‘Sugar Rush Ride’ First Reactions

Jokes on you. You thought that this sex-repulsed ace would hate the sexualization in this song, didn’t you? But I actually love it. And I love it for the key reason that this is sexualization in kpop/media in general that is used in the right way. It is not being used because the presumed straight female consumer of kpop is presumed horny for handsome dudes *ahem, ATEEZ in Deja Vu, ahem*, but to advance the storyline and to serve a narrative and character development purpose. I still dislike the fact that it is sexualized, but I LOVE that it is sexualized for the right reasons and in the right ways. 

But leaving aside my concerns with the sexualization of media and kpop, let’s look at ‘Sugar Rush Ride.’

I was actually kind of relived to see that this was a normal-length MV. Than again, TXT’s long MVs have only ever been bsides.

We’re opening on a storm - when was the last time we saw a storm? Well, in a main MV, it was ‘Frost,’ where Taehyun hung from a tree in the centre of a storm. To me at least, storms are also associated with ‘Eternally.’ This fits with ideas I got later in the MV of ‘Sugar Rush Ride’ being from a similar era to ‘Frost,’ when the boys rediscover the island but don’t know how to correctly use or respect it. 

And of course, we’re back on Magic Island. A great choice of setting, since it continues on from The Chaos Chapter in ‘Frost’ and also connects to the heartbreak storyline from ‘Good Boy Gone Bad’ since the island in this MV is portrayed like a Garden of Eden - wonderful, but full of temptation, sin, and illusion/duality. 

This first view of the island, which would be associated with the above themes of the Garden of Eden, which are hugely prevalent around the world but especially in English-speaking cultures, frame the rest of the MV and how we see it and the lyrics + choreo of the song.

The boys wake up on this island. Notice the train in the background - which is probably the method of transport they used to get to the island. Only it’s no longer a magical thing - it’s dilapidated and being swallowed by the water.

Water is of course a symbol that can be used to represent transport, illusions, and the duality of paradise/temptation and danger. It has been used in all of these ways in TXT’s storyline. 

I’d also like to note that, while we see the boys playing on the beach together, we do not see Kai in this innocent setting. 

Youthfulness and Magic Island - very TXT and HYBE ideas. But of course, the clouds and hills in the background have a duality, where they right now are beautiful, but could become threatening and dangerous.

Also, while we saw Magic Island as a plain for Gfriend and BTS, we’ve only ever seen it in TXT’s storyline as a forest, which is interesting. Although I’m unsure if this was purposeful or not, and what it is supposed to mean. Especially since Gfriend, who were heavily connected to TXT, have disbanded.

Well, first of all, I love blonde Soobin with blue eyes. 

Second, we see all of the members covered in these vines. They further emphasise the Garden of Eden imagery, which has always been associated with Magic Island but is increased here. They also suggest that the boys are being overtaken by temptation and evil, and that the island is reclaiming them. Remember that in the story of Eden, Adam and Eve were happy being naked, and that they only felt the need to cover themselves up after they had sinned - thus, the leaves that they cover themselves with are seen as a symbol of sin, and also of sexuality as they become aware of each other as sexual objects and desire each other in impure ways.

All of which is, as I doubt I need to tell you, related to the toxic relationship that TXT have been suffering through.

Well, at least they’re still in tune with the island and attracting animals. Another image from the Garden of Eden, where animals bowed to Adam and Eve. Also, it’s interesting that Kai is shown with a gecko - an animal associated with lizards, and, by proxy, snakes.... 

Any evil Kai fans around?

Also, it changes colour, which adds to the magical feeling. 

I know he’s just crawling over to the flower, but PUMA, anyone?

And the flower gives him a flashback of whatever is going on here. I can only assume that the dark liquid, whether blood, alcohol or otherwise, is a representation of past sin and temptation. 

Again, as in ‘Frost,’ it seems that they don’t remember anything, really.

We had Kai with a gecko, Soobin with a praying mantis. Which follows with some theories that suggest he is evil, since a praying mantis will literally wait patiently for its prey before pouncing.

No, I have no clue what the two flowers that have been shown are. If anyone knows, please let me know. 

The only related conversation I have seen is this review of the song which discusses the pretty flowers as being secretly devious and taking the boys to a place of euphoria and temptation. It’s a great review that I recommend reading, but keep in mind that it doesn’t relate the song and MV to the storyline. While it talks about the flowers and ‘sugar’ as a metaphor for drugs (a very valid and possibly true conclusion), I feel that it is more likely to refer to the high of being in the honeymoon phase of a relationship. The toxic side of drugs also applies to this relationship - since it is toxic under the surface. They also mention TXT not being able to discuss drugs because of Korean censorship - this doesn’t seem to be the case, as they have used drugs as a metaphor before for this relationship and even explicitly mentioned them in LOVESONG.

I really like the shot of hair on someone’s arm standing up. It suggests a state of heightened emotions/senses, which, in the context of the song and lyrics, are probably euphoria and sensuality, but may under the surface be a subconscious fear that the boys feel. 

We’re getting a lot of very sensual and possibly sexual shots of the members, but I really like this one. The others just express the desire and temptation they feel and fit the concept of the song, but this one additionally suggests extreme vulnerability, and possibly even light bondage and bdsm imagery, which has previously been seen in TXT’s stuff in relation to this relationship. There’s a reason the place other than the neck that vampires go for is the wrist. 

Yes, u glitter, Kai. 

I like this glitter choice since it suggests sugar, pollen (from the flowers which corrupt them), and could even be reminiscent of magic and frost. It also shows how they are being completely taken over. And, of course, it looks really pretty. 

Why do these shots of Taehyun running remind me of Twilight? 

Maybe it was intentional, since Twilight has some underlying themes of temptation????

Anyway, I assume that he’s trying to escape, since the running is more hasty and fearful than if he was supposed to be chasing something. And, of course, he looks behind himself as if he is looking for something.

Here is our third member-animal pairing, with Gyu and the butterflies. 

And we all know butterflies - butterfly effect, purity and disaster, illusions, etc. They were literally highlighted in the intro of ‘Frost.’

Yeah he’s high on something, that’s for sure. 

I love it.

Evidence that Taehyun is high x2.

I really shouldn’t, but I find Gyu being chased by the butterflies so funny. Either way, it suggests that fate and nature have turned their back on him at least, if not the other members.

Can we get another round of Kai being manipulated/abused/controlled by the members?

And the same with Taehyun, who has the unfortunate duality of being controlled/kidnapped and also flying.

And everyone is reaching. Soobin is depressed and Gyu is being harassed by butterflies. How wonderful. 

Well, when I say ‘everyone’ is reaching, I really only mean Gyu is reaching out of the cave and into this other cave that looks like the one he was in in ‘Frost,’ and that Soobin is reaching into the puddle/pool for goodness knows what reason. 

And we are in a pseudo-version of Magic Island. It looks a little bit like the highly stylized version of Magic Island that BTS were in during ‘Stay Gold.’

Hmm yes.

And we’re sleeping again.

This kind of move in the choreo represents the fruit of temptation which they are faced with. It’s commonly used in similar situations and songs with similar themes, like in StayC’s ‘Beautiful Monster.’

And Taehyun is being associated with whatever this animal is - an eagle? It looks like feathers. 

This also fits his curse of having a magical eye. 

Yes I do love sad Taehyun under a sad tree.

Now Gyu too gets to be high.

A scene which reminds me very much of ‘Nap of a star’ and ‘Frost,’ with all the sinister vibes of ‘CYSM.’

Psychedelic slime?!?!?!?!!

I have two possibilities for who is in the water, given that I can’t see anything on my screen - Soobin, who has been next to the water the whole time, or Taehyun, who has previously been seen in this position when he was flying. 

Either way, Taehyun lands finally.

They don’t have a train any more to get away from the island, but they do have a tiny boat.

I guess it’s the effort that counts.

And we get another shot of Kai seemingly for no reason staying back from the members and watching us - more evil Kai for us?

Either way, there he is. And it’s also the end of this MV.

Choreo and Lyrics

I really love the choreo so far. It really emphasizes the idea of being tempted and consumed by love, sin, sensuality, and so on. Especially things that I mentioned earlier, like the forbidden fruit being dangled over their heads, of Kai and Taehyun being dragged and controlled by the members. It also has great moments like Yeonjun being supported by the other members only for them to... eat out his heart? I’m not sure what it is. 

This is also a very clean and satisfying choreo. Of course, I dislike the sexualization, but as I said earlier, it suits the concept so is good.

As far as the lyrics go, they’re pretty much what I’d expect. Very similar to LOVESONG - a preface to ‘Good Boy Gone Bad’, where they enter a seemingly perfect and joyous relationship which turns out to be toxic underneath.

So where would I put it, looking at the storyline?

I think, as an MV, it goes after ‘Frost’ - they are on the island and seeing what I can only assume is the aftereffects of ‘Frost,’ with flashbacks, the butterflies attacking Gyu, and the lack of ice. As far as lyrics, I feel they fit before ‘LOVESONG,’ showing the beginning of the relationship. This gives us a nice progression of Blue Hour (distant crush) - Sugar Rush Ride (bliss and joy) - LOVESONG (Self-sacrifice and codependency) - LOSER=LOVER (codependency and self-destruction) - ‘Good Boy Gone Bad’ (pain and aftermath). Or maybe I’m just looking for patterns where there are none. As expected from a human....

Fun fact; finding patterns where there are none is an expected and regular function of the human brain and is called ‘patternicity’ in psychology. This is why experiments and the experimental method exist - to discourage patterncity.

Anyway...

My Brother’s theories.

I said I’d bring them, and I did. He was able to watch it before me, so I gave strict instructions to look for anything that might be of value. And here’s what he came up with (with my thoughts in brackets);

The beach is like the one from Chronicles of Narnia (I mean, yeah, and that was probably an inspiration for Magic Island)

They’re back on Magic Island and the clearing they’re in looks like the one they set on fire (big facts)

They took too much of something - definite themes of greed and destruction which are also evident in the lyrics (true)

Yeonjun pretends to bite an apple in the choreo (another key point to remember)

The three MVs I’d associate it with off the top of my head are; Darling (SEVENTEEN), Fever (ENHYPEN), and Blood Sweat and Tears (BTS) (that’s fair)

And he notes that these MVs all have a dream-like state, but they’re different - in Darling it’s positive and happy before the sinister realisation that they don’t have shadows, in Fever, the dream is negative and they don’t want to be there. In Blood Sweat and Tears, the members are explicitly at fault for whatever has happened - it’s very garden of eden and fall of man. (sure)

I don’t think their powers appeared at all (I think there were hints to Gyu’s plant powers in the webtoon and Taehyun’s power, but yes, they were absent at least explicitly)

The beach looks like the one Gyu saw in the chest in Frost (fair)

And the shot of the eagle’s eye which turns into either Soobin or Taehyun (it was Taehyun since his hair was pink)

And he is excited to see where TXT will go and what others think - is it a good or a bad dream (good with a sinister real life)? Are they at fault or not (it’s a bit of both)? Is it the cat (yes)? Is the cat a physical manifestation of sin (yes)? Is the Magic Island trying to kill them, or wholesome (a good question and probably a bit of both)?

Overall, good effort, I think!

Conclusions

Not a long MV - which is both sad and a relief. 

Funky funky.

Yeonjun doesn’t get an animal? Maybe he gets to be a flower - or a snail since he was covered in slime.

I was quite shocked to see the train in the water, especially since I didn’t notice it the first time through, or even when I was taking the screenshots - only when I actually started writing about the screenshot I’d taken did I notice.

Either way, I am delighted that they returned to their concept-switching image and have shown us that they aren’t just rooted in punk rock for forever. It gives me some hope (although not a lot) for HYBE’s future management of TXT.

#txt #tomorrow x together #sugar rush ride #moa #mv analysis #first reactions #tnc #the name chapter #temptation #the name chapter: temptation

[mommys-titties]

So my dad started watching Chainsaw man yesterday and uhhh...

Dad: "So, Makima treats him like a dog? At least he's being taken care of."

I'm sitting there trying not to spoil anything like: 😰

#Chainsaw man #Csm #first reactions

[mud-muffin]

This is totally how it all happened 💗

#starfire #koriander #alien princess #teen titans #dcu #fanart #mud art #realized i never posted this #she looks so anime #ok so first i just wanted a reaction image of robin seeing star for the first time and suddenly there was a whole comic #another day another grey hair for bruce

[sylkhi]

“You already left kudos here” and the passive agressive “ :) ” like okay??? Yeah and so what about it? What if I want to leave 2 more? Or 5???

#ao3 #literally so embarrassing #you don’t need to remind me that I’m rereading the same 5 fanfics and giving them the exact same reaction I gave them on my first read #what you could do instead is let me give the kudos please please PLEASE #anyway yeah

[iguessthisisanewobsession]

Jason Kicks down Dick’s apartment door with a duffle bag in hand: turns out it’s not going to work out with Danny.

Dick about to enjoy some Chinese: oh no I thought you were really into him.

Jason, sitting down with a huff: I am but it’s just not going to work out.

Dick: what happened jason?

Jason: I fucked up that’s what.

Jason: he kissed me.

Jason: and afterwards, I panicked

Jason: and, just exclaimed “golly!”

Dick, trying to not keep a straight face:…

Jason: I exclaimed it very loudly..

Dick: oh jason-

Jason clutching a pillow: I can’t step foot into crime alley again Dick, I’m going to have to burn my bridges, start over-

Dick, lightly chuckling: it’s not that bad-!

Jason, into the pillow: just put me back into my casket!!

#dp x dc #writing prompt #danny fenton #jason todd #dc x dp #shipping #dead on main #jason is dying of embarrasment #don’t worry Danny found it cute #not a lot dating chances when you run an gang #just though #it would be funny #if jason’s first reaction to being kissed was just #golly

[gerardsbl00d]

“*F-Slur*!”

“Hi, Honey ;)”

THEY ATE HIM UP JUST LIKE THAT

#i love that that was his first reaction #my chemical romance #my chemical fucking romance #mcr #my chem #gerard way #frank iero #mikey way #ray toro #gee way

[hollywoodhandle]

First Reactions For ‘Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania’ Are Officially Out!

The first reactions for #AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania are officially out! #Kang #AntMan #Quantumania Check out the first reactions to the movie below:

Together, with Hope’s parents Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), the family finds themselves exploring the Quantum Realm, interacting with strange new creatures and embarking on an adventure that will push them beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. Check out NOW the First Reactions for the movie below: ‘ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA’ was a…

View On WordPress

#ant man #ant man and the wasp quantumania #ant man and the wasp review #first reactions #marvel studios #movies #quantumania

[cutetanuki-chan]

not the quite exact scene as in the book but Gideon realizing what she has to do while bone shield cracking up

#wanted to draw Cam too doing a live slug reaction but perspective changed a lot from what I've planned at first #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth #gideon the ninth spoilers #gideon nav #harrowhark nonagesimus #griddlehark #art

[lotus-pear]

god i love skk sm i wish gay ppl were real :(

#LOTUS DRAWING ACTUAL POSES AND NOT JUST BUSTS??? WOAH #i swear i actually know anatomy and stuff i just never draw it bc it's too much effort #going to bed <<<<< staying up until two thirty to draw your otp #ALSO.. for those of you who know i'm rewatching bsd w my friend whose never seen it before.. we finally got to ep9 #and she IMMEDIATELY clocked in on skk's toxic exes energy😭😭 #also she calls chuuya childe bc hes a ginger and his first reaction to seeing dazai was “fight me >:)” #she was like “omgg..hes part of the evil organization🤭 and has beef w the protag (he wants to fuck them😏) *giggles* wait. TARTAGLIA😨😨‼️” #I WAS TRYING SO HARD NOT TO SCREAM.. I COULDNT LET HER KNOW HOW DISTRAUGHT I WAS HEARING THAT FOR THE TENTH TIME #anyway we finished s1 and chuuya's her fav character so far let's see if she can learn his actual name and stop calling him childe😭😭 #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #bsd #dazai osamu #osamu dazai #chuuya nakahara #nakahara chuuya #soukoku #skk #lotus draws

[biblioflyer]

A Marvelsous Film: Review & Analysis

I wound up being enormously pleased with The Marvels. Much of what I had on my wishlist for a Captain Marvel sequel was satisfied.

Three core things I had in mind for the character were transitioning away organically from the “cold” and traumatized Kree super soldier, to be presented with a challenge that couldn’t be dealt with simply by punching her way through it, and to be more firmly embedded into the MCU as a leader and team player.

A Problem That Can’t be Punched Until it Goes Away

As I’ve discussed previously, Carol has the Superman problem. Which is how do you tell a story about someone who is functionally invulnerable in a convincing way? 

The Marvels solves that problem by making Carol’s power something of a liability and giving her a couple of teammates, including one very enthusiastic but in over her head teenage sidekick. It also presents Carol with the classic Marvel superhero growing pains: superpowers don’t come with superwisdom.

I think it was a nice balancing act to acknowledge that time had passed so naturally Captain Marvel should not be precisely the same person she was when she first broke free of her Kree conditioning. However, a complete personality reversal would be confusing and jarring for audiences even if it would make sense.

The film also had to address where Carol had been all this time, including multiple instances of the world being in grave danger. So it solved the personality issue and the timeline concerns with one answer: overwork through guilt.

Carol used her newfound powers impulsively and it all went horribly wrong. There’s something of a parallel there to explore as well. When freed of their subordination to the Supreme Intelligence, the Kree also found themselves not really knowing what to do with their freedom and using violence to resolve social tensions because that’s what they’d been conditioned to do.

Now the temptation might arise to ask the question, “Well what did Carol think was going to happen?”

Keep in mind that Carol was abducted by space aliens in the 90s. A time of innocence and naive optimism about geopolitics. A time when it was a lot easier to blame sociopathic tyrants for the problems of their societies and Carol was presumably busy in space trying to find a new home for the Skrulls, getting into political marriages, and rescuing space kittens from space trees while the United States was accumulating the many, many years of painful experience with what comes next after a tyrant is deposed with no realistic plan for rebuilding.

Turns out the experience of being under a tyrant leaves a mark on a society that doesn’t resolve itself in a day. It can also be somewhat problematic to be processing that trauma and learning how to exercise personal autonomy without automatically feeling existentially threatened by someone who is exercising their autonomy while there’s a bunch of unaccounted for weapons floating around in your previously highly militarized society.

There’s a little bit of Francis Fukuyama in Carol Danvers. But only a little. Unlike Fukuyama, Carol realizes her mistake and is desperate to find a way to fix it, rather than refusing to admit her instincts might have been a bit off.

I’d like to think there’s a not so subtle bit of symbolism in the resolution to the Kree arc too. Using overwhelming force without wisdom perpetuates suffering and violence. However, with vast power also comes the ability to create and heal rather than merely destroy. Utilizing power in this way does require compassion and imagination. 

Compassion is key because the Kree had long ago stopped being a credible threat to Carol, at least until one of them got magic bangles. Recognizing this isn’t straightforward though! 

When people react poorly to you wherever you happen to be, it definitely seems threatening! So one might imagine it was a challenge for Carol to stop acting reflexively, and start thinking about longer-term solutions than simply punching her way through yet another Kree platoon and another and another.

Coming Out of My Cage and Doing Just Fine

That was probably the stuff most worth spending a lot of words on. The rest is just scattered stuff I appreciated.

Since I was just on the subject of breaking cycles of violence, let's talk about the Asgardians welcoming the Skrulls for a moment.

Talk about a heel-to-hero turn. Under Odin in prehistory, Asgard was a brutal conqueror with Hela as its weapon of mass destruction. In the modern era, it seemed to have adopted a posture of guarantor of security for at least the Nine Realms, a responsibility Loki 1.0 was not overly attentive to.

Post Ragnarok, what we’ve learned between Love and Thunder and now The Marvels is that the remnant of Asgard appears to be a refuge for interstellar and interdimensional diasporas. No doubt in a Post-Secret Invasion world with its apparent Skrull pogrom, this may wind up being a bit contentious.

I do hope we get a scene of King Valkyrie delivering some Leonidas-style dialogue along the lines of “come and take them” except, y’know, this time in service to protecting refugees instead of not even slightly veiled Western chauvinism. At least in 300. Although even the history of the Persian War is complicated by some Greek city-states fighting alongside the Persians, I digress.

No doubt ships aplenty were launched by Valkyrie's tenderness towards Carol. Perhaps a small bit of consolation for the fans after Jane Foster x Valkyrie didn’t happen and then further complicated by Foster being a little dead.

Shipping ain’t really my scene, but this is one I could definitely nod along with on account of how well the characters and their histories mesh. It does make one wonder if Valkyrie was one of those unnamed people who were part of Carol’s crew prior to The Marvels. It's fun to think about at least. We know Valkyrie wasn’t blipped so she could have spent some time running around as Asgard’s representative helping Carol put out fires. It's a bit harder to imagine Scrapper 142 era Valkyrie and Captain Marvel getting along quite so well and it's implied (explicitly stated even?) that Sakaar is extremely difficult to leave, although that too is not beyond consideration.

Never Meet Your Heroes, Unless You’re a Relentless Cinnamon Bun

Cards on the table, I’ve never been a big fan of the YA genre as literature, TV, or movies. Even when I was a teen / young adult, I found stuff that was explicitly oriented towards that audience and heavily featured characters in that demographic to be almost unwatchable by virtue of just how much the genre relies on “relatable” themes like love triangles, profound awkwardness, and other teen story “cliches.” I’m not saying I was too cool for these things to reflect my own reality, if anything it was my own awkwardness that made it challenging to watch or read about these themes and still does up to a point.

Kamala Khan did win me over in the Ms. Marvel series in spite of a bit of curmudgeonly skepticism going in. Yes, it did cringe family drama and super cringe romantic triangle cliches, but with enough warmth and charisma that it disarmed me.

So I was definitely anticipating what it would be like when Kamala Khan actually got to meet her idol. And it did not disappoint!

It didn’t disappoint in the sense that Iman Vellani continued to embody the hysterical starstruck superfan magnificently (and kudos to her and her snark about Filoni calling the MCU Earth 616.) 

Yet when called for, the character was able to set aside fandom and embrace (literally) her idol not as a specimen of perfection, but as a flawed, insecure human being who kind of needed someone to see her for a whole person rather than The Annihilator or a glowing weapon to use against Earth’s enemies. Which feels like an allegory for the real-life fandom’s relationship with the characters and creative processes involved in the MCU.

This, when taken along with working through the uncomfortable reunion with Monica, serves to complete the next phase of Carol’s arc begun in Captain Marvel. I had a suspicion that this would be the case: that Carol being forced to rely on others would break through the trust issues and reserve. It’s absolutely a trope but it's not a bad trope when well executed.

My only real complaint with this aspect of the story is that it felt like Rambeau didn’t have all that many scenes to herself. Vellani is a natural scene-stealer and that is in a sense what Ms. Marvel is there for: to be the comic relief that wouldn’t be a natural fit for Monica or Carol and to keep the story from becoming too much of a downer.

A curmudgeonly opinion might say that Ms. Marvel’s relentless bubbliness steps all over the emotional labor that is owed to repair the relationship between Monica and Carol, but just the same I can see an alternate cut where the film just becomes too angsty. 

So I’m glad in the end that Carol and Monica are reasonable people able to take responsibility, in Carol’s case, and recognize that there’s a person who is carrying literally astronomical burdens with all too human shoulders, in Monica’s case but also mirroring to some degree Kamala. In the end, it seems like Kamala and Monica wind up with a better relationship with Carol for having recognized that Captain Marvel, symbol, has limitations that are invisible when one is only seeing the raw power at her command.

The Child Soldier Elephant in the Room

Remember when I said the YA genre makes me uncomfortable most of the time? Young Avengers, conceptually, is one of those times.

I’m cautiously optimistic though. There has been some self-awareness demonstrated throughout the MCU that teen superheroes are a bit of an ethical conundrum. On a meta level - the Doylist perspective if you will, teen superheroes are all about wish fulfillment. The desire of everyone at every age but especially as a teen / young adult is fierce to feel empowered to Make a Difference. 

Disempowerment wounds every soul but no soul feels it as acutely as the young who haven’t built up scar tissue and cynicism accumulated through the frustration and disappointment of trying to grab hold of complex systems with a lot of inertia and bend them to your will.

So far be it from me to poo poo the idea that young adults should be denied their inspiration and wish fulfillment stories. Star Trek after all is, when it's at its best, wish fulfillment for intellectually curious humanist adults and I reserve the right to raise hell every time cynicism and pessimism intrude on my dopamine supply!

Narratively though, I do think it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge the moral complexities of child superheroes.

So far, there has been a relatively decent attempt to walk the tightrope. To try to meet the needs of the narrative while not putting too thick of a whitewash on the realities.

Intriguingly enough, in Spider-Man Far From Home, it's the villain who points out the obvious: it's not fair for Peter to be carrying the weight of the responsibility “Fury” (Talos) is placing on him.

Clint also repeatedly tries to keep Kate Bishop from getting roped any further into his problems using similar arguments, but also out of an understandable desire to keep his failures and problems from being someone else’s to clean up.

So what does this have to do with The Marvels?

Spoiler alert! The mid-credits scene is an amusing callback to Nick Fury’s visit to Tony Stark at the end of Iron Man to talk about the Avengers Initiative. To be frank, knowing what I know about Iman Vellani, if you told me she wrote this scene herself, I’d believe you.

Anyway, she ambushes Kate Bishop to pitch her, with barely restrained enthusiasm, about forming a team of “child” superheroes. Kate wryly observes that she’s 23 but she gets the point and seems receptive.

So my idea to try to keep this from going too off the rails would be for the Young Avengers to be more of a training cadre to help young “enhanced” to master their abilities rather than an active superhero team. They would naturally find themselves in a situation where the “adult” superheroes are unavailable to solve a problem in a timely manner.

Kind of like the conceit that Charles Xavier’s School for the Gifted is in fact a school and not a training ground for child soldiers, Young Avengers rightfully should not feature the likes of Nick Fury intentionally sending the Young Avengers into harm’s way except as a last resort.

Having said that, I am now looking forward to it in a way I really wasn’t before because I now feel that Iman Vellani absolutely can carry a film, especially with strong personalities like Hailee Steinfeld to play off of. I’m still crossing my fingers for Kid Loki to make an appearance too.

#Captain Marvel #The Marvels #The Marvels spoilers #The Marvels review #The Marvels analysis #carol danvers #Miss Marvel #kamala khan #iman vellani #brie larson #photon #monica rambeau #teyonah parris #young avengers #kate bishop #hailee steinfeld #marvel cinematic universe #first reactions

[vaxxman]

Could I request Medic having The Mom Grip on Scout’s shoulder after the speedy moron almost let a mercenary secret slip while they weee getting groceries?

Three Europeans and two Americans walk into a grocery store in New Mexico.

I hope this is the right meme.

More silliness below.

This comic is the antithesis of the "wtf is a kilometre" joke.

The faces they make when they can't quite identify the type of brown bread in the bread aisle.

You don't know how [insert nationality here] you are until you go overseas and things are different.

Spy obviously has no problems with pretending to know how much a gallon of milk is, he just peeks into his conversion chart notes, pretending it's his shopping list.

I want to think Heavy is completely fine with having to readjust to a new unit system, he just eyeballs most practical things anyways by holding them up and mumbling about how they approximately weigh like a chicken or his kettle bell etc. He's always been living in practical ignorant bliss.

Medic has a peer reviewed meltdown the first time he realises there's no uniformity in "a cup of ____" because every object has different densities. He's diligent about memorising the conversion rates for ounces, pounds, the most common things etc., and recovers ok. He goes through the same stages of grief rage when he finds out about distances and lengths.

Just remember four inches are 10.16 cm and pray no one asks you to specify anything bigger than inches.

Everyone does a mental victory lap when they manage to guess how much Celsius the weather is because they keep forgetting it's Celsius*5/9+32=Fahrenheit, Engineer reminds them patiently.

The true victories are the correct temperature guesses we've made along the way.

One time, a friend asked me if I actually knew how much a tablespoon of flour was in gramms to convince me that metric users also make use of volume based units without thinking about them. But little did she know a heaped spoonful of 405 flour is about 15g and a level tablespoon is 10g.

They claim Oolong just tastes better when it's boiled to 80°C exactly with a Bunsen burner.

You only asked for one scene but somehow I came up with a bunch of other things. This post was drawn across 2 months so the artstyle is all over the place. Thanks for your ask!

#team fortress 2 #tf2 #tf2 medic #tf2 scout #tf2 spy #tf2 heavy #tf2 soldier #Medic's reaction to a stick of butter is 100% based on my own reaction after reading an American recipe for the first time #Like I didn't know butter in America came in this normed stick-form I genuinely thought it was some arbitrary unit like ??? A Stick?? #As in I didn't know if the recipe required the butter to be in this specific shape; like sometimes you have to add butter in shaves or molt #no biggie lemme whittle away at my butter block until it's shaped like a stick? And then I learnt it was the portions that butter comes in #Cut me some slack; I'm used to recipes using eggs as the scale-up ingredient; not butter #I also learnt that medical labels is where metric units are mostly encountered simply because medicine is international #But that is the main reason why I think Medic would not realise he'd have to deal with imperial units until he goes grocery shopping #The man's just been ignoring the “oz” information right below everything he's ever used; out of sight out of mind #I want to think Engi is the most normal person about the entire metric-imperial-units thing he just does some mental arithmetic and done #King just learned système international d'unités during one of his 11 phds; it's not unrealistic

[lillybean730]

HE ESCAPED THE METRO!!!!!!!!

I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU KING <3

#splatoon 3 #side order #side order spoilers #iso padre #that video is my genuine first reaction to him btw