#frank endings beginnings icons

[jesuis-melodrama]

My Favourite Reasons For Why the Great War Started

1. Revolutionary Justice in an Unequal Caste-System Society.

I adore the IDW comics, it's the second Transformers media I consumed after the franchised Michael Bay films, and let me tell you – I was not expecting all these heavy explorations into bot psyche, romance, societal injustice, and redemption. Really, it seriously surprised me, I never expected to see actual canonical romance in the Transformers universe, it always struck me as the type of medium to focus on action first.

So – thank you, James Roberts and Alex Milne.

There's so many characters and arcs I could talk about – Cyclonus and Tailgate and Whirl; Chromedome and Rewind; poor poor Shockwave; whatever's going on with Prowl; Starscream, Bumblebee, and Windblade attempting to scrape Cybertron back together; that one time Rodimus and Megatron's charisma was so awe-inspiring, it made personality parasites explode – but I want to focus on how the Great War began in IDW.

It's the first media to suggest Megatron not as a power-hungry tyrant, but formerly as a member of Cybertron's suppressed working class forced to labour due to the alt-mode he was born with. Sick of and unwilling to accept the subjugation imposed upon him and fellow mechs like him, Megatron rises from miner to gladiator who eventually becomes powerful enough to seize power as a revolutionary and then ascends to the image of the all-mighty Lord Megatron that is synonymous with his name.

Optimus, on the other hand, had somewhat humble beginnings as a strict but fair and righteous police captain named Orion Pax struggling to provide justice in a society deeply embedded with corruption.

Although both Megatron and Optimus sought to revolutionise Cybertron into a world where all bots are equal and uninhibited from potential and free will by their alt-modes, they had very different ideologies and motivations on how and why to reach this goal. Megatron, especially, loses his way and path eventually, and continued his slaughter not for the means to an end, but because he began to crave the "pleasure" from the act.

Optimus didn't escape unscathed from tragic ramifications either: the mantle of leadership as the war dragged on for thousands of millennia weighed heavily upon him, so much that his later psyche in the comics could be described as suicidal.

But whatever that infects these two old bots in the future, young Megatron and Optimus were, in some strange way, allies, out of mutual respect and acknowledgement of the other if nothing else.

The war was initiated and continued by them, because they both believed in a better Cybertron, and millions of years later, thousands of atrocities after, unspeakable acts of war crimes, the Great War ended with both of them remembering what they were fighting for in the first place.

IDW's concept that Megatron was a gladiator turned revolutionary and Orion Pax became Optimus Prime who was inspired by Megatron's words made its way to the Transformers: Prime animated series, allowing this universe's rendition of the two titans to be voiced by Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, the legends themselves.

2. Lord Prime and Lord High Protector

Whatever contentions (of the many) that may be had with Michael Bay's re-imagining of this iconic franchise; you've gotta admit: the designs were cool.

Bay gave us Megatron's ram-head helmet, the astonishing CGI transformations, and the adorable Bumblebee design that has since become a classic of the character.

And according to Chris McFeely's video on the Great War, apparently, Bay's Transformers is the first Transformers media to introduce the idea that Megatron and Optimus had personal pre-war relations, some intimate form of brotherhood and camaraderie, while other adaptations at this point only alluded to their connection as rival leaders who rose to power at roughly the same time.

Bay took it a step further; Megatron isn't simply an opportunistic warlord making a grab for power, he was once a legitimate ruler holding an equal throne besides Optimus.

That's right, Bay crafted the title of Lord High Protector, a Cybertronian ruler of high status with authority over military affairs, ruling in tandem with the Lord Prime, Optimus, who was in charge of more civilian and spiritual duties.

It's interesting, this idea, because it implies far more depth to Optimus and Megatron's history, they must have been ruling together for quite some time before Megatron fastened his greedy claws on the All Spark.

I, for one, am curious in a series that explores how they ruled Cybertron together and how exactly this fracture came to be.

3. Megatron Dunks on a Dock Worker for the Fun of It

The classics of the classics, the first Transformers show to place the universe on the map: the archetypal G1 cartoon series that featured wacky shenanigans such as battling dinosaurs on a remote island or Soundwave and his Cassettes dancing with teenagers at a local gymnasium party.

G1 followed a very traditional hero-vs-villain formula, inspired by the Cold War tension at the time of airing and writing; there was no personal connections or noble aspirations for an equal society – Megatron was simply a campy, formidable scoundrel who yearned for power and Optimus Prime was the honourable, paternal everyday hero who rose to be the leader of the force resisting him and his army (at this point, Prime wasn't even a title, it was just Optimus' last name!).

Optimus Prime still had a previous form of Orion Pax, a dock worker rather than a police officer or an archivist, and Megatron was once an admired figure of Orion's, whose parasocial adoration was disintegrated when Megatron blew up Orion's workplace, critically injuring him and girlfriend, Ariel (soon to be Elita-1), and de-activating best friend, Dion. From the ashes of destruction, reconstructed by Alpha Trion, Orion became the battle-masked, audial-finned, red and blue paragon of justice that shouldered the burden of command in the war against Megatron and his evil Deceptions.

#transformers #idw #bayverse #prime #g1 #optimus prime #orion pax #megatron #analysis

[uwmspeccoll]

Steamy Saturday

The novel that dares to tell the truth about a perverse love.

Theirs was a love no man could share!

Draga yielded her long-legged girlishness to unnatural embraces. . . . it was an ecstasy such as Draga had never known.

Her lips were tender and clinging as she pressed them to Jo's voluptuous flesh. . . .

She was on the brink of total perversion. . . . Draga's only hope now was -- a man!

Oh, the steaminess of it all!! Carol Emory's pulp novel Queer Affair was published in New York as a Beacon Book, an imprint of Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp., in 1957, and even by today's standards, the sexual frankness of the novel is pretty steamy. Unfortunately, because it's the 1950s, a fully-realized lesbian relationship will not stand. At least one of the partners has to be off her nut (in this case, Jo), while in the end male heroes come to the rescue.

The story centers around up-and-coming dancer Draga Hamilton who is introduced to celebrity sculptor Jo Stanhope by Draga's lawyer Gilbert Young who is desperately in love with Jo. Jo, however, has other ideas, as she seduces the vulnerable Draga and they begin a torrid love affair, which, as already stated, is quite frankly narrated. Draga is head-over-heels, until of course her old flame Ronnie Marsh shows up on the scene and ruins everything for Jo.

In the end, the whole sordid love quadrangle literally devolves into a barely-suppressed S&M encounter. Jo takes her revenge on Draga's infidelity by grabbing a bullwhip that is inexplicably hung on the wall and beats Draga almost senseless with it. The whipping, however, sends both into a building sexual frenzy until both Gilbert and Ronnie come bursting through the door. Ronnie whisks Draga out of harm's way (at least as he perceives it), and Gilbert gives Jo a taste of her own whipping medicine, to which both react with this memorable passage:

Jo Stanhope looked up at him with misted eyes. "Oh, Gilbert -- you've done something for me. You've rescued me. Why, it--it was --" "Never mind," Gilbert said. "And you won't find it so bad being married to me. After all, I'm sort of womanish, you know."

Meanwhile, Draga is recovering in Ronnie's soothing arms, to which she responds, "Move over a little, sweetheart . . . I want to sit in your lap." THE END. Ugh!!

Despite Queer Affair being mentioned in several texts on early lesbian pulp novels, we could find nothing on the author Carol Emory, who we suspect is possibly a man. Nevertheless, the author makes sure early on that the reader knows Emery has done their homework on lesbianism:

Gilbert had warned her that the sculptress was a lesbian, but at the time the fact had seemed to her irrelevant. Love between women was not altogether a new and startling idea to Draga. She had read many books on the subject, including those by Radclyffe Hall and Diana Fredericks.

Appropriately, Barbara Grier, in her iconic The Lesbian in Literature, gives Queer Affair a rating of A for having "a major lesbian component but not sympathetically portrayed." While we may not know who Carol Emory is, we do know that the butch/femme cover art is by Frank Uppwall and was first painted for another pulp novel, Gutter Star by Dorine B. Clark, published in 1954, and then reissued for the cover of Queer Affair three years later.

View more posts on lesbian romance fiction.

View more LGBTQ+ posts.

View other pulp fiction posts.

#Steamy Saturday #pulp fiction #romance novels #romance fiction #lesbians #lesbian romance fiction #lesbian romance novels #lesbian pulp fiction #LGBTQ+ #Carol Emery #Queer Affair #Beacon Books #Beacon Book #Universal Publishing and Distributing Corp. #Frank Uppwall #cover art #cover painting #homosexuality #UWM LGBT Collection

[daresplaining]

Mike Murdock's Sunglasses: On Character Design and Autonomy

I've written a little in the past about character design in regards to the translation of zany alter ego 1960s Mike Murdock into slightly-more-grounded, at least 85% more real 21st century Mike Murdock. Specifically, I talked with artist Phil Noto about Mike's outfits in Daredevil #606-612, and analyzed the clothing choices made by the creative team in the 2020 Annual. However, one specific detail that I find interesting in Mike's transformation from Matt's hyperactive id to his own autonomous person that I haven't really written about yet is his sunglasses-- when he wears them, when he stops, and how this shift may or may not align with his journey.

Matt: "Let's see now-- I'll just muss up the mop, to give myself that carefree tousled look! A fella like Mike wouldn't be caught dead with a simple Ivy-League hair comb! And, I'll have to give my specs a coffee break for a while, as I cover my sightless eyes in a more colorful way-- If the attorney-at-law business ever gets slow, I might just decide to open a school of method acting! Yessir! Stanislavsky had nothing on me! Now, all I've gotta do is change my personality! I figure a clown like Mike Murdock is sure to be on all the time!" Daredevil vol. 1 #26 by Stan Lee, Gene Colan, Frank Giacoia, and Artie Simek

Matt and his dark glasses were inseparable in the 60s-- literally, to the point that he even apparently wore them under his Daredevil mask (fortunately, he doesn't do that anymore). The clear hesitance of DD artists in this period to draw their blind protagonist's uncovered eyes is likely one of the reasons that when it came time for Matt to invent himself a fake sighted twin, the sunglasses stayed on. This has not always been the case. In the years since, Matt has taken on several sighted identities in which he does not wear glasses at all-- notably, con artist Jack Batlin in the 90s. Of the two approaches, the former makes slightly more in-universe sense. As someone with no vision at all, who was blinded in a physically damaging accident, logic suggests that Matt's eyes would look different from those of a sighted person-- most likely due to chemical burns/scarring, but at the very least from things like a lack of eye contact. Thus, the choice for Matt to simply switch up his style of shades for the Mike look, rather than taking the risk of foregoing them entirely, feels logical (even if it doesn't always match up with the way Matt's eyes are actually depicted, but that's a topic for another post).

As it turned out, the oversized, colorful shades ended up tying perfectly into the loudness of the rest of "Mike's" outfits, becoming a memorable staple of the look that Matt crafted for his fake twin-- a look that was as distant from the classic Matt Murdock suit and tie (and simple, dignified shades) as he could manage. These shades were iconically, undeniably Mike's. However, they were still born from the use of sunglasses as a visual shorthand for-- and Matt's in-character response to-- his blindness. A Daredevil reader in 1968 might have looked at ol' Loudmouth Mike and asked the question: If this guy were a real person, independent of Matt, with his own backstory and reasons for dressing the way he does-- would he still choose to wear dark glasses?

Mike: "Well, as I live and breathe! You're Daredevil, right? Friend of my brother, if I don't miss my guess. Real pleasure to meet you at last." Daredevil vol. 5 #606 by Charles Soule, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles ("As I live and breathe" is such a funny thing for him to say in this scene.)

Enter: Fragment-Boy Mike, and the beginnings of an answer.

When it came to transforming the concept of Mike Murdock into a fully realized character of his own -- not to mention pulling him out of the 1960s and into the 2010s-- some core Mike Murdock elements were dropped by the creative team, both for the sake of streamlining the narrative and in order to match the tone of the contemporary comic. Fragment Mike is no longer Daredevil's alter ego; in fact, he claims in his first appearance in Daredevil #606 that he has never even met DD before. Gone are the loud clothes, the primary colors, the waistcoats, the fedora with the feather in it. Curiously, all that remains of his original Look(TM)...is the sunglasses.

Foggy: "That is...correct. How did you...?" Mike: "Because I ain't him. I'm me. And now, Foggy...you need to call my brother." Daredevil vol. 5 #608 by Charles Soule, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles

Fragment Mike existed in a kind of limbo that neither he, nor Matt, nor even his "creator" Reader really understood-- a tortuous state of both being and non-being, in which he believed himself to be real and then had his worldview shattered by learning that no one else saw him that way. Mike claimed his autonomy and fought for his right to live throughout that story arc, but the simple truth was that he was born out of Matt-- specifically, out of Matt's case files, from which Reader accidentally spawned him-- and the memories he possessed of being anyone/anything else were false. He was nothing but a twisted, reanimated echo of an identity his brother had created, dark glasses included; Matt but not Matt, physically separate but still bound to his brother.

Mike: "I'm Matt Murdock's twin brother, but...but I'm not. I've got some fake memories. I'm like a shell of a thing...but inside...I can tell I didn't live through anything...and I think...I think it's driving me crazy." Daredevil vol. 6 Annual #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Manuel Garcia, Le Beau Underwood, Chris Mooneyham, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles

But! Fragment Mike, just like Matt, maybe because of Matt, is a fighter. He does not take being fake lying down. Through some Norn Stone magic, our fragment became a Real Boy, with real memories of a real backstory. And if we take a look through that backstory, we finally receive an answer to that 1968 DD fan's hypothetical question, because...

Daredevil vol. 6 Annual #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Manuel Garcia, Le Beau Underwood, Chris Mooneyham, Rachelle Rosenberg, and Clayton Cowles

The moment Mike Murdock becomes a real person, the sunglasses vanish.

Look back through Daredevil volume 6. Once he is officially, cosmically real, the only time we ever see Mike wearing dark glasses is when he is dressed up as Matt (ohhh, the poetry of it all!). He is wearing them, standing in Matt's apartment, when he dies in Matt's place-- fated, in the end, to never entirely escape his brother's gravitational pull-- but what matters is that the sunglasses tied Mike to his origins as his twin in a costume, and the loss of them indicates fully and utterly that Mike has broken away and become his own person. We even get this fascinating scene at the beginning of volume 7:

Matt: "...It was Matt. He came back from rehab, went to his apartment... I don't know what the #$@% Fisk was thinking, but I know they've got history and... Ah, Butch. He killed my brother." Daredevil vol. 7 #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Marco Checchetto, Matthew Wilson, and Clayton Cowles

This is Matt Murdock, in the year 2022, once more pretending to be Mike...post-Norn Stone reality rewrite. And this time? No sunglasses. In fact, Matt claims that the key to a foolproof Mike Murdock disguise is in the eyes: "Not just making sure they faced the right direction...but that no matter what, he had kindness in them..."

Do I love Mike Murdock wearing smarmy shades? Of course I do. But I love a good piece-of-clothing-as-allegory just as much, and I love peeling back the layers of identity to discover who Mike really is when he is not his brother.

#Mike-ing like I've never Miked before here... #Daredevil #Matt Murdock #Mike Murdock #Mike Murdockalypse #Adventures in Continuity #ID in alt text

[disasterbijamietartt]

I’ll need a few days to really process the last episode, so don’t expect any meta until the weekend.

But I wanted to write a post about why I believe in the writers and why I think that … this sounds so arrogant and delusional, but that my predictions here* are roughly what will happen and queer folks can stay hopeful.

(*tl;dr: Essentially that Colin will be the inspiration for main characters to address their queerness, Ted Lasso spent two seasons straightbaiting its entire audience and this season will end queer as fuck)

When I started watching Ted Lasso I thought it would be a fun, but silly little sports comedy, but very soon it got obvious how the show featured heavier themes and that they didn’t follow the expected script. Like, when Rebecca tells Ted the truth, you’d normally get some drama and rising conflict – but we got instant forgiveness.

And it got soon obvious we’d get a love triangle with Jamie, Keeley and Roy and – as someone who knows how the script goes – my first assumption was, that Roy x Keeley will be endgame (which was sad, since I adored Jamie x Keeley from the beginning, but I digress).

But some of the things that usually put me off love triangles were missing: there was no prolonged unnecessary drama after Roy learned that Keeley hooked up with Jamie the night before, Jamie and Roy didn’t fight over who would “get” Keeley (even though Roy’s jealousy sure was one reason for the tension between him and Jamie, but it wasn’t the only one), Jamie didn’t try to actively win Keeley back throughout the second season, he didn’t try to sabotage their relationship, even though he still loved her. The rocky parts in Roy’s and Keeley’s relationship weren’t related to Jamie at all, on the contrary, Jamie kind of unintentionally fixed their problems.

So, when they diverge so much from the expected, should I really still assume they’ll end the show with the thing everyone expects to happen? (like, in classic romance structure, Roy and Keeley now had their third act break-up, that always happens before the happily ever after … but as Phil said in an interview, they’re situation is a lot more complex than you’ll usually get.)

So, anyway, Ted Lasso was playing with expectations from the beginning. You’d expect Ted x Rebecca and Roy x Keeley endgame cause that is how the classic narrative works but the show subverted classic structure in the first season. So why should we assume that they just stick to the classic script now?

Also the theme song:

“Yeah, might be all that you get,

Yeah, I guess this might well be it“

I always thought, for an optimistic show like Ted Lasso this was a kinda sober beginning. But if you look at this with a queer eye … Cishet people are so used to seeing their happy endings playing out, so that is what they’ll expect to get. Until the last couple years, queer people barely got any stories with happy endings, so you didn’t exactly grow up with the expectation you’ll get a happy ending.

So you just had to take what you got.

But on the other hand the song has this hopeful bit about trying and not giving up. And … okay, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, but, idk, it just feels like it would fit as the theme song for an ultimately hella queer show?

And there are a lot of allusions to “The Wizard of Oz”, starting with the title of the first episode, Ted being the “Man from Kansas” aka Dorothy – googling I found this post pointing out a lot parallels in the second season, so it is not just me being delusional again.

For context: The movie was released 1939. Between 1934 and 1968 due to the Hays Code people couldn’t be shown as being explicitly queer in movies in the US, so writers started to queercode characters to still indicate queerness. And there is of course queercoding in “The Wizard of Oz” just like Ted Lasso and the movie as a whole resonated a lot with queer audiences, making Judy Garland a Gay Icon (see here). 

Both the movie and L. Frank Baumans novels have a lot of queer subtext (like, there is even kind of a trans character in the novels?). "Friend of Dorothy” was a way gay men referred to each other at a time, where they couldn’t just openly ask about someone’s orientation.

Fun Fact: The movies title song “Over the Rainbow” soon became a queer anthem and people wondered whether it inspired the rainbow flag. But the creator, Gilbert Baker, said he was inspired by,

wait for it,

“She’s a Rainbow” by the Rolling Stones (see here).

Rings a bell?

The episode “Rainbow”?

Roy returning as a coach to Richmond?

Also: Jamie comparing the team to the Rolling Stones? Himself to Mick Jagger and Roy to Keith Richards, who both wrote the song?

And, looking at episode titles some more: The color "Lavender" is so queer it has it's own LGTBQ-section on Wikipedia. Also the bisexual pride flag, where the colours overlap to form lavender? There was probably some other reason I forgot that the episode where Jamie returned was called like the queerest color ever, but still …

WHAT A BUNCH OF CURIOUS COINCIDENCES!

Oh God, the more I look, the queerer everything gets! I think I could go on some more, but I need to get breakfast and then some work done.

#my meta #ted lasso speculations #jamie x roy #roy x jamie #ted x trent #tedtrent #tedependent #colin hughes #jamie x keeley x roy #this doesn't reference any ship but might be relevant soo #if I'm wrong I delete my tumblr #and burn something down #kidding I'll just never trust a tv show ever again #ted lasso meta #queer coding #ted lasso

[gnarlystarships]

@taznovembercelebration I got the card "playlist"!

I put entirely too much time and effort into this and probably could spend days more on it but I have to force myself to just release it now LOL. Thank you so much @ghostslazy for letting me use your picture for the icon! I am not brave enough to make a picture of my own yet lol.

The playlist is meant to be chronological to Barry and Lup's romance, so it starts happy, and then gets a little sad, and then gets happy again!

I explain my reasoning for the songs under the cut here, if anyone is interested!

1. I’m a Believer - The Monkees This is just the general realizing they’re falling in love song.

2. Words - F. R. David Their concert where they found it easier to “start the conversation” by playing music together

3. Something That I Want - Grace Potter Lup leading Barry away to finally actually talk

4. Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash Just meant to represent their time being happy together during the stolen century! I originally had a lot of songs here but I whittled it down to this one only lol.

5. The Way - Fastball This is meant to represent their lich ceremony. This was them officially deciding to be together forever no matter what. “It's always summer, they'll never get cold, they'll never get hungry, they'll never get old and gray” In any other circumstance a human and an elf falling in love would be a tragedy but they had so much time together and they decided to never let it end. This is the most important song on the playlist to me.

6. Somewhere Only We Know - Keane My first instinct was to place this earlier in the playlist, to be a part of “Hey Barry, do you want to go and talk somewhere?” but there is a melancholic tone to this song that just doesn’t fit with that. Particularly the end, when it says “This can’t be the end of everything.” I think this better fits Lup’s misery at the end of the stolen century when they distributed the grand relics. I think this is about more than just Lup and Barry, but about Lup’s love for the others in general and about her “Back soon.” note before disappearing.

7. Wildfires - Mariachi El Bronx This song encompasses many things. It’s about Barry and Taako desperately looking for Lup after she disappears. It’s about Lup getting herself killed and trapped. It’s about Barry having Taako kill him when their memories started to be erased. In general, it’s about the misery and drama that happened in that time period.

8. Could Never Be Heaven - Brand New Barry misery era lol

9. Dedicated To the One I Love - The Mamas & The Papas Lup trapped in the umbrastaff

10. Vanilla Twilight - Owl City Somewhat the same sentiment as the previous song, but I think more from Barry's POV as he tries to be productive in solving what Lucretia is doing, and wishing Lup was with him

11. Foxglove - Murder by Death Barry in the final stretch when we first met him in Here There Be Gerblins and while he haunted the THB throughout the campaign. I take the beginning of the song about burning to be when he couldn't quite remember what the passion he was feeling was while in his first human body that we met; and the end about the cool drink of water to be when his newest body being innoculated, and also him finally being reunited with Lup.

12. First Day of My Life - Bright Eyes The first feelings of relief with finally being reunited.

13. Past Lives - BØRNS Another song about being reunited, but I think with more passion and confidence than when Barry first became sort of cognizant and Lup recovered from being freed.

14. Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now - Starship They're back together now and they're fucking unstoppable! They're gonna save the world!

15. I Melt With You - Modern English Another song about saving the world together, but to be frank this is here to calm down the energy just a little bit from the previous song lmfao.

16. High On a Rocky Ledge - Moondog Sort of represents the bargaining with Kravitz. I’m not sure if my vision is understandable here but most important is that last line “If you've the yen to pluck, then pluck us both; for we who have lived as one wish to die as one.”

17. Forever in Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond Does this need an explanation? They’re together forever happily ever after. I think they did okay, forever in blue jeans, babe <3

Bonus notes:

The original playlist I had of just songs that generally remind me of Blupjeans has over 40 songs so it caused me great agony to narrow it down this much but I did my best. I saw that post recently about how a really solid playlist shouldn't be that long and took it to heart lol. But god it hurt everytime I deleted one for realsies

I removed various songs that were way off base for the general genres represented here and also ones that just did not match the vibe.

Anyways if you actually read all of that ummmmmmm. I love you. Blupjeans forever..........

#You guys have no idea how much effort I put into this stupid playlist 💀 #taz november celebration #taz #taz balance #ograt

[sarahivess]

WARNING: LONG RANT AND EXPLANATION

I feel like I have to stand up for myself now when I’ve seen the way some of the people in this fandom have been spreading rumors about me on Twitter.

I’m going to take this from the beginning.

//

In November, I was kinda new on Twitter. I remember seeing a tweet in my feed, it said “Let Robin say lesbian in season 5” and to me, who lives in Sweden, the word lesbian isn’t a very “bad” word. It’s actually a very common and normal word here, and we have a bunch of movies and tv-shows when lesbian girls and women simply say: I’m lesbian! So to me, I had NO IDEA that in the US, it’s seen as a “bad” word and that’s why the fans wanted her to verbally say it. I totally get that now, but I wasn’t aware back then. Silly me then made a comment, because a very cute and funny little moment popped up in my head and I felt like: AH I need to write this. It was something along with:

“Or gay, because imagine how cute it would be if Will came out as gay, and Robin would say “I’m gay too”, and then a stunned Dustin (or someone) would say “Okay, so while we’re at it - does anyone else want to come out of the closet?” And then Mike slowly raises his hand.”

I didn’t think much more about it, and the next time I logged into Twitter I had gotten like 50 qrts with: LOADS of death threats, gifs with people murdering people, people calling me lesbophobe, people mocking my grammar, my age, people saying weird things to me about Will etc. I was in such shock, I deleted the tweet right away and had a panic attack. What the hell just happened? How did that made me a lesbophobe? I’m bisexual myself, and I LOVE lesbians. I have also a bunch of wlw ships that I love. But all that shit just because I didn’t know that the word lesbian was very uncommon for americans to say in American media and how they wanted to change that.

Anyways, I deactivated my Twitter because all these horrible rumors about me triggered my suicidal thoughts (I suffer from depression), I made a new one and people figured me out right away so I changed alias and pfp/header but people still figured out it was me.

I blocked every single toxic person I came across, a few months passed and one day I was on Twitter again. This time, it was about an analysis of a scene in Stranger Things. Me and an iconic Byler here on tumblr were analysing the scene when everyone says goodbye at the end of season 3. First, Mike looked uncomfortable af when El kissed him, and later on he looked uncomfortable when she was close to him, hugging and touching and making a forehead touch. In one of the gifs, to ME it looked like the hand movement from El was kinda harsh when they made that forehead touch and I just couldn’t understand how people thought it was cute. It was a personal opinion and just a harmless analysis. Both me and this other person were also saying “Nothing against El though, she’s a kid, but I guess if the roles were reversed - if Mike would be the one to kiss El with her not kissing back, with open eyes, looking uncomfortable and shocked, I guess people would have accused him for SA or something. Not that we did, but we know that it would look a lot more bad if Mike was the one who kissed her and not vice versa simply because of the statistics. WE NEVER ACCUSED EL FOR SA. We both love her and she’s my favorite female character in the show. I just don’t like the SHIP Mlvn and I didn’t get how people thought that scene was cute. It was simply an analysis, nothing more. Not an accusation. Not a hate post. That post had over 200 likes and LOADS of reblogs with people who thought the same. But still only me and my friend were attacked. That also lead to ANOTHER accusation: of me being antisemitic. Why?

In year 2006, I first started my YouTube channel. I was very interested in learning how to edit, so thanks to tutorials I learned by myself how to edit. I was 14 years old when I read Anne Frank’s diary for the first time and I saw so much of myself in her. I also loved the way she described her relationship with Peter in the diary, so I watched “Anne Frank: The Whole Story” from 2001 and thanks to my family I could get that movie on my computer so I could make tribute videos of her since she inspired me so much, to never give up on my dreams and to ALWAYS follow my heart and believe that every person is truly good at heart. I made my own trailer for the movie, because there was none to be found on YouTube. My edits became very popular for being back in 2007, and soon loads of people found them. 90% was so happy I made these tributes, that I let the memory of her and all the people who tragically was murdered by the nazi’s back in the 30/40’s live on. But there was also a bunch of REAL antisemitics who called Anne a bunch of horrible stuff in the comments, people who claimed the holocaust never happened etc and I was defending her and the other victims for dear life. I was so proud of my edits, like I said: I was 14 years old and she was my biggest inspiration. My parents also watched these and they didn’t think they were problematic in any way so of course I trusted them and their moral.

And yes, I also made two tribute edits of her and Peter (I didn’t even knew about the term “shipping” back then) but this person on Twitter said I was making “ship edits” about Anne Frank. I have made all of my old videos private now, mostly because of the bad quality but also because of this person who now made me embarrassed of them instead. I wouldn’t make these edits today. Here’s a glimpse of one of them:

Is this antisemitic in any way?

Anyways, because of this person + a lot of others, this made me and my friend to eventually deactivate our tumblr accounts. I hade SO much going on in my personal life back then too, so this was just too much. They found out things about my family situation and that made me freak out, I was threatening them with the cops just because they were attacking and stalking me and my family on a personal level. They were harassing me on TikTok. On DM. On Twitter. People were leaving me and I felt like shit. Luckily there was a bunch who still were standing by my side through all of this and I am SO grateful for you all. Never forget that, you guys made me come back here.

Also, now when one of my tweets became popular on Twitter, of COURSE these people found me and started spreading these rumors again. I found that out from some of my friends here, sending me ss.

I just can’t fucking believe these people. All because of a silly little tweet which ended up in a total DISASTER.

End of rant. I hope at lease some of you understand.

#angelwithnightmares #byler blog #priv rants

[yourfriendmonki]

On The State of Comic Books

Comic books should be way bigger than they are. Not the characters or the stories mind you, but the actual medium of comic books. While Manga and Manwha are arguably the most popular they've ever been, American comics are lackluster by comparison. Specifically the two giants of the comic industry (Marvel and DC).

Marvel and DC comics have been on a downward slope recently, events aren't as exciting, and new characters are introduced only to immediately be either forgotten about or used so often the novelty wears off (Looking at you, batman who laughs). There's also this issue of characters who were made to carry on a legacy that they'll never inherit. All of this on top of the confusing timeline, no solid entry point to the story, and the fact that timeline resets have become more and more common.

The way to fix this (in my opinion) is one more reset of the timeline, redo the origin stories and whatnot, and then LET THE STORY PROGRESS. Let characters age, let them die (permanently), and let new heroes rise into the roles they were meant for. Instead of resetting the timeline to explain Spiderman's origin story to the new generation, just let someone else be Spiderman. Let Peter Parker take some time off, get his life together, and let Miles be Spiderman. for the next ten years. Then once Miles gets older, he gets a protege and we see Miles fill the Mentorship role with the next generation's Spiderman (Maybe a young Miguel O'hara?). This idea can be applied to numerous characters within comic books.

Now I understand that this is a pretty radical change to the comic book landscape, but I think it will work. Any of the old people salty that they have to say goodbye to their hero have at least ten years' worth of story to engage with, on top of gettting to see an actual character grow and change with a solid beginning, middle, and end. The new generation doesn't have to sort through opinions online of where to start if they want to get into Green Lantern, and they get their own identity instead of continually having to live around their parent's media icons.

Allowing time to move forward in comics will eliminate some of the major issues within the medium. One of the biggest issues is character age, as time continues certain characters defined by events in the real world become harder and harder to adapt. This is seen specifically in Marvel Comics because their solution to the timeline is that everything in Marvel Comics has happened over ten years and they're just sliding the dates to fit.

The Punisher used to be a Vietnam War Veteran and that played into his disillusionment with the system and into his tactics for crime-fighting (brutal efficient murder), as the timeline progressed The Punisher became a Gulf War veteran, then an Iraq War veteran, and now he's a veteran of the fictional Siancong War. Changing what war Frank Castle participated in changed the context of his crusade. Being a Vietnam Veteran puts Frank Castle at a time when Veterans were despised, chemical warfare was used regularly, and The Government had just been exposed for the liars they were. These are real-life events that Veterans could relate to. Instead of introducing a new Punisher Character to tackle the effects of the Iraq war and reckon with the lies the US government told there, they decided to use the same character to go through the same thing. Making a new character gives you the freedom to explore the way that the same types of incidents affect different people.

The sliding timeline obviously isn't going to fix the massive issues present within the medium, but I believe it's a perfect foundation for major positive changes.

#comics #comic books #opinion #marvel #dc comics #mcu #dcu #dceu #dc universe #spiderman #the punisher #miles morales #peter parker #frank castle #batman #superman

[hannahwashington]

ALSO IM JUST NOTICING YOUR HEADER IMAGE. I LOVE IT SO MUCH gundham danganronpa and crash bandicoot (is that his name im sorry) real. also btw feel free to talk abt th emountain experience bc i dont think i ever asked yet

YES HIS NAME IS CRASH BANDICOOT ive honestly BEEN waiting for someone to comment on my header it is one of my favourite images ever (thanks @horatios-mom). it's like a sequel to the era when i had lesbian crash bandicoot as my icon. i'm only through the prologue of sdr2 but i have been obsessed with gundham for Years,. i barely know the guy but i love him. i will Know More Soon. and trust i will be So mentally ill about him and also the series. i already Am i am just waiting to finish the games to post about them.

anyway MOUNTAIN EXPERIENCE. OH BOY. where to begin.

let me take you back to a time when a wide-eyed 17 year old Archie got traumatised by a mountain. sit back, relax, and follow along my recounting of an experience i found so horrible, i had to vent by projecting onto my favourite blorbos at the time. Don't worry, I am more than comfortable with sharing this story, and with hindsight know exactly where to direct my anger with what happened.

It's March 2020. I'm in my second-last year of high school. every year my school takes the people in this specific grade to a leadership camp to teach a variety of skills and stuff to prepare them for the next year, when they will be school leaders basically. this leadership camp happens to culminate in a hike up the Drakensberg, where we sleep overnight, then come back down and go back home.

To be Quite frank. I was Very Excited for this trip. the more school-related activities not so much, but getting the chance to hang out with my classmates outside of school and the hike were what excited me. I'm not the most fit person, but i loooove me a good nature walk.

So it's a few days before the hike. they take us out to a bunch of activities and it's pretty fun. we did an adventure park thing and i was in the middle of a massive tarzan fixation so when i went on a giant rope swing i did his iconic yell. there were ziplines. once when i went down a line i forgot to brake and SMACKED into the mattress on the tree. so that was fun. here's the thing though. they made us walk everywhere. and these weren't easy strolls, they were hikes in and of themselves. i can't speak for anyone else, but the days leading up to the hike were PAINFUL. my feet were so fucking sore and we hadn't even gone near the mountain yet.

Then they hit us with the "yeah we're pushing back the hike by a day because it's gonna be pissing buckets tomorrow." which, duh, of course it's gonna be pissing buckets, it's the drakensberg, it's kinda known for that. but also, that means another day of walking, another day of worsening the condition of my feet. i felt like sam from death stranding when you let him walk barefoot everywhere. it's around here where you might start recognising elements from the fic snippets i posted, by the way.

so the next day like the absolute ass he is, the headmaster (who joined us for. some reason) made us hike up a mini-mountain to 'prepare us' or something. he was a horrible person for completely unrelated reasons and this logic is totally and completely backwards. anyway, after THAT nightmare, we went tubing down a nearby river. this WAS fun. i went down the river multiple times even though my feet hurt like shit. i had to get my fleeting joy somewhere during this trip-turned-nightmare. everyone had fun except this one girl who was not lucky at all. at the end of the river there's a small drop and 99% of the time when you get there you fall out of your tube. she was one of these people, and was really unlucky as she ended up cutting her foot on a rock. she had to be pulled out of the river by a few of the boys.

now then you would THINK she would go home because of this. kind of a bad idea to hike up a mountain with a cut up foot. but no, like the madwoman she is, she decides to pull through. i respect her so much for it.

Anyway, next day comes, my feet are basically throbbing so bad it's like my heart practically lived in them, not even to mention the soreness in my legs. again - i was NOT fit. i was so nervous i could barely eat breakfast. i tried to twist it into something positive by being like "tehe i'm going up a mountain like my favourite teenaged blorbs" but it really was Not helping. sooooo we get to the foot of the mountain and get ready to go. a couple of girls left and missed the hike because they had a netball tournament or something. to this day i wonder if they realise Just how lucky they got.

This is the part i remember most vividly. the Worst part. we set off on our mountain adventure, and i repeat this mantra: keep pace with the person in front of you. which goes great for all of two minutes until like a whole five days of walking absolutely nonsensical distances catches up to me and i slow down and down and down until everyone has passed me and oops! i've stopped completely. my legs are Begging to be put out of their misery and i am Rooted To The Spot. to cut a long ass panic attack short eventually someone comes back to pick me back up and Get Me Up This Stupid Mountain. it wasn't sam unfortunately, it was the drama teacher, but he was a pretty cool person and probably most comforting adult there, so perfect to deal with me in that moment.

he tells me about setting little goals for myself, like finding a specific rock and making my way to it. break the whole hike down into thousands of little baby steps. this way, i actually started to make progress, little by little, until we break the tree line. i can't remember if this moment was in the snippets i posted, but i look up and see the rest of my classmates above me, and when they notice us they start whooping and cheering and singing break my stride (which is kinda the theme song of the trip, ngl). i was still kinda in hysterics so i yelled at them to shut up. looking back, i appreciate it so so much. anyways, the drama teacher and i carry on with our baby steps.

when i've calmed down enough i start talking. i can't remember if he told me to talk to get my mind off of things or if i started on my own, but in any case i just start talking. i know specifically i brought up treasure planet - my all time favourite movie - and he told me he hadn't heard of it. another fanfic snippet moment here: i did, in fact, rant to him about midsommar. i remember specifically talking about the daylight horror aspect and how the black bars could've been white instead to emphasise just how bright and sunny the film is. also at some point we passed random people on the road who didn't speak english and for some reason, to this day i still have no idea why, the drama teacher told me that he thinks those dudes were drug smugglers and using the trail to get drugs over the border. anyways.

eventually, after so, so long, we make it to the top. not the end of the hike, far from it, but the vertical climb is over. you see, this specific trail has like two hours of a horrible vertical climb, but after that, it's a basically-flat trail. not that that would make it any easier but anyway, i thought that the worst was over. from our position we could see the rest of the group, who were all resting by a fork in the path - a significant landmark. eventually we catch up to everyone, and if my fic is to be trusted, everyone started clapping and cheering and singing again, this time 500 miles (hardy har). this is one of the only details in the fic where i can't tell whether i made it up or if it's actually based on what happened. when i sat down, guess what, legs wanted to shrivel up and die, what else is new, but what really struck me was that Literally Everyone Was In The Same Position. some were crying. some were staring into space with cold, dead eyes. Nobody was having a good time. how foot-cut girl was even still here was what shocked me the most. again, CUT IN HER FOOT, it was PRETTY SUBSTANTIALLY SIZED. even so she did Not look good.

drama teacher had gone to talk to all the other adults about our (my and the injured girl's) predicament. we were in No position to carry on with the hike. (i'd argue nobody was but i digress). it was a full-blown argument from what i remember, and when the adults tried to talk to us they kept on interrupting each other. one kept trying to offer a way down, but another teacher (who championed this leadership camp btw, to put this into perspective) was Adamant we continue and simply sleep at the closer campsite.

You can probably guess what ended up happening.

The break just honestly made me feel Worse about moving, and my mentality obviously wasn't the best, and i sorta just really started missing home at this point, but i had to keep going. since it was flat this time i could actually keep some sort of pace, though head leadership camp teacher complained whenever i slowed down too much (actual villain of the story in hindsight). eventually we make it to one of the campsites.

Here's how the camps worked. every year the group split into two - boys and girls - and rotated each year on who went to each of the two campsites. one camp was by a river, the other by a cave. so, one year the boys would go to the cave and the girls to the river, and the next year they would switch. this year the girls were supposed to go to the cave. guess what. it's the further camspite - a good extra... i dunno, hour of walking? obviously injured girl and i couldnt do that. issue is, you need a tent to camp riverside - we obviously didnt have one. however someone, an actual god among men brought an extra tent with him. i never spoke to that kid. but he made it so we didn't have to suffer as much. so i hold a sort of affection for him.

so, the group splits and we finally, FINALLY get our chance to rest. properly. let me tell you, river water has never and i mean NEVER felt so good. i think i spent like a solid hour soaking my feet. the boys - who. somehow had energy after all THAT - made a dam out of rocks. one guy was taking pictures. i never took my own pictures of the mountain, even though the view was beautiful. i was in too much pain to care. i took a Single picture related to the hike itself, and i'll share that at the end of this thrilling tale. that evening after dinner, i snacked morosely and watched at least half of happy death day on my phone. maybe an episode of unbreakable kimmy schmidt, though i don't now for sure about that one. injured girl and i shared that extra tent.

oh yeah, and guess what. it ended up pissing buckets during the night. shocker.

anyway the next day comes and the walk back is worse. one of the other teachers decides to use 'tough love' on me - which was basically yelling at me and failing really badly at being encouraging. honestly would have preferred being tossed off the mountain instead because it just made me Very Distressed but anyway. what was nice was that this time for the walk injured girl and i were at the front of the line setting the pace. and also two of the boys, two absolute GENTLEMEN were walking with us and leading us. you know me, i'm a lesbian, but god i could've kissed them for what they did for us. (i did not but you get my point).

surprisingly the vertical climb down was the easiest part. the really, really vertical part anyway - which was mostly near the top. so easy that a few boys raced ahead of the group... and ended up taking a wrong turn and getting lost. more on them later. when we dipped into the treeline it felt like we were so close yet so far, SO close to ending this suffering, but every single turn without the tar road in sight made me fall deeper and deeper into despair. i think i literally yelled out "MERCY!" at some point. anyway when we did finally get to the road i started crying as we made our way back to the bus that would take us home.

everyone started taking showers, blessed, cold showers at the public bathrooms, and washing myself of the whole experience felt Wonderful. except it wasn't quite done insulting me just yet.

So. the day before we put our suitcases in the bus that would take us home. what they neglected to tell us was that we needed Everything we'd need for that day and the following day on our person. which means they wouldn't be taking our bags out of the bus, not even if we REALLY needed something. i didn't have my flip flops on me. i had put the shoes i had hiked in away (and also they were like sopping wet which is disgusting). it was hot as fuck and the parking lot outside was all gravel. i had to walk in that barefoot.

insult to injury.

i got myself ice cream. tried not to cry. we all had to wait for like half an hour as the lost boys made their way back to us (i can't remember if a teacher had to go back onto the path to find them or not). borrowed drama teacher's flip flops which were hilariously oversized. and then, literally RIGHT as everyone was boarding the bus to leave. i whip out my phone and grab the one and only picture i have related to the hike itself.

it was a long drive back to my home province. i put on some music, cuddled my pillow and tried to sleep. i mostly just tried not to sob. out of pain, relief, anguish - whatever. since it was a long drive, we stopped at a strip mall that's a really common sort of stopping station for people doing drives like this, such as to use the bathroom. another school happened to be pulled up as we stopped by here, and a girl gave me the filthiest, most judgmental look i have EVER seen because i was barefoot. i honestly don't blame her.

it was dark by the time we got back to the school. i did, in fact, cry when i saw my family. the very next day - no exaggeration, i'm 99% sure it was the VERY next day - it was announced that schools would be closing and the country would be going into lockdown due to covid. which means i got to spend the next, like, two weeks recovering instead of thinking about school. i think one of the days after i got back i watched interstellar. i was on a bit of a sci-fi kick. it was okay.

here's that picture i took outside the bus before we left for home.

people Did see me take this. a couple of my classmates made jokes about how they relate and at least one gave me a high five.

anyway, that's the story of my Mountain Experience™. again, more than comfortable sharing this story as i think it's quite important with understanding me and we know who to blame for putting us through this. i've had chats with other alumni who came before me and they had their Own nightmarish experiences with this camp, which makes me wonder how it continued being a thing for so long.

#ask #queerkearney #answered #my writing #biographical this time :) #kiddo's mountain experience #mutuals :)

[fandomfluffandfuck]

p much every mainline-connected marvel videogame or those outsourced cartoons end up being mediocre anyways but i get annoyed how bucky's always either not in the IP-ed games or everyone has such superficial personalities and character adaptations that they never have him interact with steve much or in any meaningful way, which is weird bc why even use the IP at that point?

anyways, im just wondering when marvel's gonna see all the critical acclaim bill and frank got from that show and realize that audiences will clap for even a crumb of old men soulmates. its easy money to just sprinkle it into everything that has their IP, those videogames, cartoons, comics, shows, movies. money on the table idk why they still don't take it

(This seems to be related to a prior discussion. Was this sent to the wrong blog by chance? I get what you're saying, but also, I can see how it might be unrelated, too.)

I feel that it is fair to be annoyed. If you're consuming the content with knowing the background of past Marvel conent, I get how it can be disappointing. It's gone downhill as they begin to care more obviously about money than the characters themselves.

I don't really know anything about what is happening in Marvel because I don't look at basically any current Marvel content because... well, a lot of reasons, but among them are those out-of-character changes to no-homo Steve and Bucky's relationship you mentioned. I mean, I am thrilled for Sam getting to be Cap. It's a long time coming to have a person of color in that iconic role. But. Just. I'm not expecting great things from Marvel itself because they don't even fucking let their actors do their fucking jobs! Mackie will be great because he's great. But, there's only so many strings to pull on when you hardly know the script.

And as for why they don't even give us crumbs of stevebucky content...

It's about the 🤌🏻homophobia🤌🏻

Like, sure, Marvel would get more money from stucky fans (and likely from queer people generally because we're starved for queer representation in mainstream media), but then they'd lose money from all the conservative, homophobic people and all the people who care about not pissing off (or "offending") those conservative, homophobic people. So. There's no way they'd ever do that 🙃

*long sigh, because, what is it to be a fan of Bucky and Steve but to be a Marvel hater?*

#asks #anti-marvel

[corhore]

Aight I’ve been seeing many people say She-Hulk was breaking the fourth wall before Deadpool and thats true, but they also add in that she’s been doing it since the beginning of her comic debut. 

I’m sorry hombre’s, but thats not true. As the internets #1 She-Hulk fan I shall explain. 

So when She-Hulk first debut she was a lack for a better term a literal copy of Bruce. Her first comic cover is even a reference to Hulk #1

Even though Jen was more coherent and more in control of her Hulk form than Bruce she still was essentially a savage rage monster like him. 

And she stayed that way up until the book ended. I gotta be honest my dudes if Jen stayed this way she would've been dropped into limbo and forgotten fast. It was a below average book and take on Jen. 

It wasn’t until the infamous John Byrne got a hold of her and created Sensational She-Hulk. 

This is the book (one that everyone should read btw) everyone references when they talk about Shulkie breaking that fourth wall. Now John Byrne isn’t exactly the most liked guy in the comic community, but like him or not he did to Shulkie what Frank Miller did to Daredevil. 

He re-invented her to what she is today and why she became a loved character and ultimately why she’s getting a show. 

Now here’s the real kicker. Other than some other appearances in other books after Sensational She-Hulk ended so did Jen’s fourth wall breaking. 

Yes you heard me right. Jen hasn’t broken the fourth wall that much in the last 25 years. I can count all the times she has since the 2000s on one hand. The thing is Marvel doesn’t need or want her to anymore. Deadpool unfortunately has stolen all her thunder. Marvel for whatever reason doesn’t feel the need to make her break that dreaded wall anymore. 

Even though we had a few characters in recent memory to have also broken the fourth wall it like Gwenpool and Squirrel Girl Marvel feels that Jen fits better with being the Sassy Lawyer type rather than the goofy sassy 4th wall breaker. Something that I disagree with of course. 

So why does everyone associate She-Hulk with breaking the fourth wall? Well thats because Sensational She-Hulk is so iconic it transcends status quo’s. Its a character defining book. Hell even When Mariko Tamaki was writing grey savage She-Hulk she even wrote her breaking the fourth wall cus even the writer of I am Not Starfire had good taste in She-Hulk media.

So inconclusion:

She-Hulk has broken the fourth wall before Deadpool.

She hasn’t always been doing it.

She doesn’t do it anymore.

Marvel should absolute have her break the fourth wall again. 

And I want her to crush my head with her thighs. 

#she-hulk #marvel #Marvel Comics

[mountains-on-mountains]

unholyverse book jacket sketch :]

some info on the symbolism/design is under the cut! i based gerard (back) and frank (front) on different depictions of jesus and i included as many little details as i could in there! i really love christian and religious imagery if you can’t tell haha. 12+ years of catholic education and this is what i’m using it for. i’m sure god would be proud.

gerard:

- i based him off the common depiction of christ with a lamb, representing the parable of the lost sheep (not to be confused with the lamb of god imagery, which is also jesus and sheep).

- this parable/story is about a shepherd (jesus) leaving his flock of 99 sheep to find the one lost sheep, representing god helping to find lost souls or whatever. in the context of the passage, it’s a story more about redemption and god being forgiving than it is about god saving your soul. there’s an emphasis on celebration when the lamb is returned to the flock.

- he’s also holding the shepherd’s staff/crook, to cement that parable/depiction. and he’s wearing the traditional robes of christ.

- i drew him with a halo of rays versus a circular halo because usually saints that have been beatified but not fully canonized as saints yet are depicted with this kind of halo. i did this to contrast with frank, who has the cruciform halo of the passion and post-passion christ. it’s supposed to make gee look more alive versus frank being more dead.

frank:

- frank is depicted in the “man of sorrows” version of christ, where he’s really showing off his wounds.

- he obviously has a cloth around his waist, but aside from that, no clothes, to represent his vulnerability and humiliation.

- in this drawing i emphasized that the holes are in his wrists and not hands because that’s the fic, but most art shows the holes in the palms of the hands. and of course there’s the lance in the side.

- i also gave him the cruciform halo (halo with a cross in it) that’s used for the passion and post-passion jesus to show that he died on the cross and came back, et cetera.

- the alpha and omega symbols to either side of his head represent how god is the beginning and ending of all things.

-the writing is vertical, like on a lot of eastern orthodox icons.

#my chem #mcr #my chemical romance #unholyverse #uhv #gerard way #frank iero #frerard

[lavila27]

Elvis: The Musical- a review by Lauren Avila

It would seem that the public has a renewed Burnin’ Love for Elvis Presley, without an end in sight. Between the recent Netflix premiere of “Agent Elvis,” Baz Luhrmann’s Oscar-nominated film “Elvis,” and ongoing tourism at Graceland, there is an unquenchable thirst for the King of Rock n’ Roll. Now there is a new way to enjoy the legend and his music. Elvis: The Musical made its West Coast premiere this month and has enjoyed a completely sold out run! The bad news is that the curtain will come down in California very soon. However, this same version will be making its Australian debut later this year! 

I managed to get a ticket to a daytime performance where, even in the middle of the day, people flocked to the East Sonora Theater to see Elvis in the building. This show tells the rise of the “kid that changed the world.” Playing the man, the myth, and the legend was Taylor Rodriguez. This was not the first time walking a mile in the blue suede shoes for this performer though. According to his credits, he “has had the honor of performing in many musical productions including the Million Dollar Quartet where he starred as Elvis Presley. In 2017 he was named One of the Top 5 Elvis Tribute Artist in the world. In June of 2019, he was crowned the 2019 Tupelo Elvis Festival Champion. Recently, Taylor Rodriguez was named The 2019 Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Champion by Elvis Presley Enterprises (EPE).” As you might expect from an introduction like that, Taylor really captures the voice and the moves of Elvis. 

The story begins with a nervous Elvis, waiting to go onstage for his career-changing, 68’ Comeback Special. He faces his younger self, in the form of an adorable 11-year old actor named Asher Berg. Kid Elvis asks him, “What are you doing?” In the midst of this self-reflection, the audience embarks on a journey throughout the life of both young Elvis and Elvis, the icon. The show was comprised of a very strong supporting cast! Personally, I’ve seen Broadway shows, touring companies, regional productions, and community theater. I have found that many times the supporting cast can make or break a show. In this case, they truly contributed to an entertaining afternoon. Major standouts include Christopher Michael, Elizabeth Harlen, Olivia Marie Jones, Sage Spiker, Taylor Tveten, and Dedrick Weathersby. They had the kind of stage presence that made you pay attention to them. Perhaps it was a million watt smile, the passion of a southern Reverend, the excitement of a radio DJ in the 50’s, the corniness of a tv announcer in the 60’s, or even a lovestruck Priscilla. 

The book comes from Sean Cercone and David Abbinanti who were wise enough to include all the major players in Elvis’ life, the hits you want to hear, and lines that make you think and feel. I really enjoyed the Jersey Boys-like template that many shows tend to follow these days. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? There were poignant moments of heartbreak, light-hearted points of humor that sparked genuine laughter, and even audience interaction that only an Elvis show could truly justify. 

Spoiler warning: My favorite parts included the build up to “That’s Alright,” the interaction of Elvis with the front row during his appearance on The Frank Sinatra Show, the compilation of Elvis making his movies, and all the scenes of Kid Elvis and Adult Elvis. 

Considering that this show was put on by a local theater company, I was impressed by the visuals. The set was a modest bi-level stage, encompassed by a Vegas-like semi-circle opening. Vinyl records were mounted to the walls on either side of the stage too. The stage’s projection screen added an immersive element, from spinning records to playing background for Elvis’s movies.The band was present onstage throughout, very convenient since they also doubled as Elvis’ actual bandmates. Unfortunately, power outage problems did occur several times but once again I must commend these professionals for not missing a beat. Strange things are, in fact, happening every day!

I must conclude by highlighting Taylor’s performance. Both his speaking and singing voice were very similar to the hip-swinging musician we all know and love. He accompanied himself on guitar. He pulled off all the moves that history has tied to Elvis. He convinced the audience enough of his character that the women were swooning over him by the time he was interacting with (and kissing) them. 

All that said, I will say that the show itself may need to be shook up a bit before hitting the stage again. My biggest problem is that there were hardly any solutions for each storyline and character introduced. If you’re looking for trouble, you may find it in the structure of this show. I came out of it feeling like I was missing something. I believe though, with all the potential that Elvis: The Musical has, it can be a hit. Check out this preview below:

#Elvis #elvis presley #Elvis the Musical #taylor rodriguez #agent elvis #baz luhrmann elvis #sierra rep #sonora ca #all shook up #blue suede shoes #burning love #Can't Help Falling In Love #heartbreak hotel #hound dog #jailhouse rock #love me tender #that's all right #viva las vegas #Graceland #tupelo #jukebox musical

[eve-pie]

Welcome My Neighbor's first neighbor! And my first welcome home OC!

"Hi hi hi hi hi! Oh let me patch that up for ya!"

Patches bashful is very prominent to welcome my neighbor the show focuses around her and her neighbors antics although she's very shy patches can sound enthusiastic if she's comfortable enough

According to recovered illustrated material Patches has purple horns hidden underneath her hair she hates showing them and doesn't like talking about them it's only shown in her Halloween costume

Patches is a ragdoll that was modified to operate like a puppet she had no mechanics her ears were already very floppy and her tail was Cotten that was sown on

The bow she wears was a gift from Sally starlet herself when first coming to the neighborhood as a gift for at least attempting to get over her nervousness

Patches is normally seen around howdy throughout the shows run sometimes even following around barnaby

The icons on her sweater are each representing the actual neighbors of home!

Bowtie- Frank

Envelope- Eddie

Horn- Julie

Feather- Poppy

Popmodour Apple- Wally

Caterpillar- Howdy

Sun- Sally

Ball- Barnaby

Patches is the main character of welcome my neighbor and the first new neighbor inside welcome home

Patches balances both her shyness and confidence she is shy almost all the time however given a minute or show she'll start to become more confident

Her dialogue in the both of the shows has patches repeating the same word more than once (an example is in the beginning of the post) it's definitely not a stutter she doesn't do that

Patches sweater wasn't originally Rainbow colored it was very different however near the end of the episode it was changed to rainbow matching up to Barnaby and Wally it's believed that Patches sweater was removable on her puppet along with her bell

It's implied in the original welcome home that howdy and barnaby would more often than not try to win Patches affection it's unclear her status of relationship with the two however barnaby and Howdy are still best pals

#patches bashful #oc art #welcome home oc #Welcome My Neighbor #ibs paint x #okay look a get it I don't post much of welcome my neighbor #i know know I'm trying to balance my Cuphead au and Welcome my Neighbor #Patches by the way is my first welcome home character #I'm only saying Patches is in a love triangle with howdy and barnaby #is because this is the 1960s in what world do you believe they would support polyamory #gotta commit to the homophobic themes

[your-averagewriter]

I promise.

Summary: Things have gotten too much for (y/n) and she decides to take it further but it doesn't go to plan. (Danger Days era).

This is a depressing fic, I wrote it as a comfort fic for myself to do with attempting suicide and I thought it might be able to help other people as well.

Warnings: Suicide, allusion to overdose, depression.

Word count: 1.4K

-

-

My breathing is heavy, it’s the only thing I can hear other than my thumping heart and the sound of my tears dripping onto the floor. I stare at the cabinet as I begin to stand up. Stepping hesitantly towards the cabinet I feel a strike of euphoria. It’s not like the thought of dying hasn’t entered my mind before but now it seems like a desirable outcome.

I reach my hand to the cabinet and curl my fingers around the handle. Feeling the cold metal against my hand I pull back slightly but continue and pull open the door. A variety of pills and drugs are revealed and I’m bombarded with choices. I grab an orange container and recognise it immediately. My anti-depressants.

They haven’t worked, they never do. I take them off the shelf and place them on the counter returning to the cabinet. I rifle through the bottles of pills and settle on a few based on my guess at the most lethal in an overdose.

I place them all on the counter and stare at them. After a few seconds of staring at the bottles, I grab a scrappy piece of paper and pen. I start writing but the pen doesn’t work. I sigh before trudging up the stairs to my room to find a pen. Once I do I return to the kitchen preparing myself for the words I’m about to write. I sit down on the floor, paper and pen in hand, and begin to write a list of names.

“Dear Gerard, Mikey, Frank and Ray,” I say out loud to myself whilst copying it down. “I love you all very much and that’s why I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you how bad things have gotten. I’m sorry for any pain this will cause you.” 

I wipe my tears from my face with my elbow.

“I’m really sorry but this was the only solution, the only outcome fit for the situation. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough, I’m sorry I couldn’t keep going. And to my parents, I’m sorry for all the pain my actions will cause you.”

I have to pause for a second to steady my breathing to continue. Who knew writing a suicide note would be so hard.

“I hope none of you blame yourselves for my actions. I won’t be able to sleep knowing you blame yourselves. I hope you can all move on from me and eventually forget about me.” 

Content with the letter so far I decide to write a section for my fiance.

“Dear Gerard, I hope you know I love you with all of my being, I would give you the world if I could but now all I can do is leave you this letter. A thank you letter, really. Thank you for being the best lover I could wish for, thank you for being my best friend and bandmate. I don’t want you to blame yourself, I want you to live a long happy life which will have to be without me. I’m sorry I’m missing our wedding, I wish I could’ve seen you one more time before I left this world. Love you all, (y/n).” 

I end the letter, overwhelmed by how much I had to say. Now for the easy part: taking the pills.

I lean my head back against the cupboard door, I place my letter on the floor next to me and bring down the bottles of pills from the counter. 

I open the first bottle of pills throwing the lid on the floor not hearing the door open. 

“Goodbye,” I whisper before seeing Gerard’s iconic red hair by the doorway. I lift it up to my mouth hurriedly as I see him running towards me shouting for Frank to get in here.

He’s screaming at me to stop whilst I tip the pills into my mouth, none actually get into my mouth though as he pulls my hand away, taking the bottle off of me. Frank runs to me not far behind Gerard and holds onto me as I yell and grab for the pills.

“No! No! Give it back!” I yell tears streaming down my face. “Please! Please, give it back!” I yell as I see him pour the pills down the sink along with the other three bottles I had prepared.

“No! No, no, no! Stop it!” I yell struggling as Frank holds my arms behind my back.

“Mikey! Ray!” Frank yells holding me back as we both hear the door slam closed.

They both run in as Gerard throws the last empty bottle in the bin.

“No!” I shout as I can feel my tears sticking to my face. “Please, please.” I beg quieter this time as Ray stands in shock and Mikey reaches for the letter I wrote. 

Gerard crouches in front of me tears brimming his eyes. He stays still for a minute the only sound being the sound of me crying. He kneels down and leans forward engulfing me in a hug. I feel Frank loosen his grip and Gerard’s tightens. 

“Why would you do that?” I say quietly as I remain sat on the floor in surprise. 

Silence engulfs the house as everyone stands behind me and Gerard on the floor.

We all stay that way for a good minute or at least until I had calmed down.

Finally I rest my head on Gerard’s shoulder and wrap my arms around him.

“I’m sorry.” I whisper to him now crying for a different reason. 

“Please,” He starts quietly, head tucked behind my shoulder. “Never do that again, please.” He says a defeated undertone to his voice. 

“I don’t want to feel this way anymore.” I say with a trembling voice. 

“What way?” Ray asks.

“Like everyone in the world is against you including your own body and mind.”

“What about us?” Frank says sounding slightly hurt.

“I’m sorry.” I say wiping my eyes pulling away from Gerard.

“I think you should see a doctor.” Gerard suggests quietly.

“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea,” I say struggling not to cry whilst I look at my fiance.

“Do you mind if I go clean my face?” I say after a while. 

They all look very sceptical.

“One of you can come with me if you’d like?” I offer sadly and it ends up being me and Mikey.

I trudge up the stairs Mikey close behind and we make it to the bathroom. He closes the door as I walk in.

“You really scared us.” He says gently.

“I’m so sorry. I really am and I know that’s probably hard to believe but I am so sorry. I love all of you so much.” I step towards him and hug him, he hugs back just as hard. 

“I thought we were going to lose you.” He says voice breaking slightly. “Please don’t do that again, I don’t know what I’d do let alone what my brother would do.”

I wash my face and we go back downstairs. I’m greeted with three concerned faces. 

“Can we talk about it in the morning?” I say tired and not prepared to talk about all my deepest thoughts and feelings. Gerard shows a small, sad smile before taking his hands from his pockets.

“Yeah,” He pauses. “You guys are welcome to stay.” His face says the opposite.

“It’s fine, we’ll see you guys tomorrow.” Frank walks over to me and hugs me. The other two follow suit doing the same.

They shut the door behind them and Gerard an I walk in silence to our landing.

“I can sleep in the spare room if you want.” I say thinking he probably won’t want to see me, he’s probably disgusted by my actions, I know I am.

“Come on.” He says and places his arm around my waist pulling me with him.

We both get changed into pajamas and get into the bed. I turn around to face him.

“I’m so sor-” I start to apologise with tears in my eyes.

“You don’t need to, I’ve been there, I know what it’s like. I’m sorry you felt like you couldn’t tell me. I love you and we’re getting married next year, it’s important you know you can tell me about anything. I’m sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t.”

Tear brim my eyes as I shuffle closer and wrap my arms around him.

“Just promise me you’ll talk to me in the future.” He looks at me, fear and love both mixed in his eyes. He holds out his pinky finger.

“I promise,” I say looping our fingers together and kissing him gently.

-

AN: Writing this made me really sad but I found it really comforting. I hope you enjoyed reading my angsty creation.

Also sorry I haven't posted anything in a while.

Would you guys like more My Chemical Romance fics or other band fics? Just request if you do.

#mcr #fanfiction #fanfic #x yn #x reader #mcr gerard #my chemical romance merch #my chemical romance fanfic #my chemical romance fanfiction #gerard way #gerard way x reader #mikey way #frank iero #ray toro #comfort fic #angst #oneshot #angst with a happy ending #mcr x reader #mcr x yn #gerard way x yn #danger days #suicide #emo bands #party poison

[thelastyetfabolousmidwestmadman]

Frank Darabont's The Walking Dead

Season 2 would be completely different. It was supposed to be more action packed with Rick killing a massive number of zombies at some point and would have more accurately adapted Miles Behind Us and Safe Behind Bars with the addition of a few original arcs in the early episodes like the conclusion of the Vatos storyline and T-Dogs infection being a major story point in the beginning. Frank wanted to get more shots in Atlanta so perhaps a couple episodes there, 3-4 episodes of the Barn, and Sophia (Madison Lintz) would live since her death was caused by Darabont's leaving along with Dale and Shane's. The Lori/Rick/Shane love triangle would become a major story arc but presumedly better written. Tyreese and Michonne would appear along with the Greene's and Shane's character would be explored throughout this season. Andrea would come under Shane's influence and Rick would also reach his first breaking point.

Season 3 would adapt the Governor arc differently then in the show taking up a full season instead of four and a half. The character would have been more like his comic counterpart and many of the shocking acts shown in the comic would seen or implied in the show.

As for the rest of the series, things get more complicated as even less is known about most of Frank Darabont's and the original cast's since the first season but there are a few major ones that I think are interesting or at least unique.

Darabont intended a eight season run with him planning to create a general outline for what he intended for the series with Robert Kirkman telling him the ending as well as future plotlines. However there were already signs that he didn't intend to entirely follow the comics, apparently intending to go on and off the comic at different points, going back and forth into canon comic material depending on Frank's own original ideas as he intended to add a couple new major plotpoints.

For starters, the Walker's wouldn't be just props, they'd be smart and fast and constantly evolving with the Walkers resorting to cannibalism when starving and eventually forming communities. Now I know that sounds stupid at first but there's no such thing as bad ideas just bad execution. The series would also have a episode per season that was a anthology, examining the lives of Walkers featured in the show before they got bit. Darabont would also push the envelope each season by adding new zombies that were particularly disturbing and grotesque to become iconic of the show. The show would have also had various celebrities cameoing as Walkers.

The Wildfire Virus, it's origin, a vaccine, a cure, and whether there is still structure of government would be a major plotpoint throughout the series, making the show a sci fi horror like the Andromeda Strain.

Dale was supposed to live until comic death and Andrea would have become the strong confident badass she is in the comic and marry Dale. She and Rick would not be a couple and Darabont implied he wanted Glenn to survive as well.

More famous actors would play iconic characters.

Merle would be a recurring threat throughout the series.

There would be homages and references to famous horror or zombie movies throughout the series.

#the walking dead #frank darabont #robert kirkman #rick grimes #lori grimes #glenn rhee #andrea twd #t dog #carol peletier #sophia peletier #shane walsh #tyreese #michonne #the governor

[fancoloredglasses]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Making it fun to yell at the movie since 1975), Part 2

[All images are owned by 20th Century Fox Disney....wait, really?! Anyway, please don't sue, kill, eat, or...whatever they did to everyone at the end...me]

WARNING: This review is NSFW, as it deals with sexual themes. You’ve been warned.

Are you OK with this? Good, then let’s continue.

This review is going to be done slightly different than most, even the one that was essentially a musical in that I will be going over the songs after the clips (as most of the plot is driven through them) and will be including audience partici…

SAY IT!

…pation lines (at least the ones I do) on occasion. These will be done in chat font (as shown above).

(Word of warning, despite whatever I may say at the movie, it’s not intended to be mean-spirited. I’m just going along with the show)

PREVIOUSLY ON...

Brad Majors...

ASSHOLE!

...and his girlfriend Janet Weiss...

SLUT!

...have just become engaged. However, following a wrong turn and a flat tire, the happy couple hike to a desolate castle where they hope someone can help them.

Now, on with the show!

Upon reaching the door, Brad rings the bell, sure that they’ll have a phone they can use (Castles don’t have phones, asshole!) Eventually the door opens, revealing…

Riff Raff (played by O’Brien), who (after commenting on their appearance) lets them in, announcing that they’re just in time for a celebration. As Riff Raff leads them into the house, they meet…

…Magenta (played by Quinn, as I mentioned earlier), who is Riff Raff’s sister (and you’ll see why that’s a bit of an issue later)

As the clock chimes, a rock beat announces the beginning of the most iconic song of the movie!

(Quick note, the next several minutes are pretty much one song transitioning to the next)

(Thanks to WhispersFromTheGrave)

The one in the gold sequins is Columbia (played by Campbell). As for the rest of the party-goers (AKA the Transylvanians), don’t get too attached, as they’ll be gone in the next 20 minutes, never to be seen again.

From here we transition to the next song, starting with Brad saying something stupid.

(Thanks to Angelo De Lutiis)

...and meet the star/antagonist of our story, Dr. Frank-N-Furter (played by Tim Curry)

True to his word, Frank’s staff (Riff, Magenta, and Columbia) remove the cause of Brad and Janet’s shivering.

Unfortunately, they don’t give Brad and Janet anything to wear instead! The staff eventually lead Brad and Janet to Frank’s lab.

Upon their arrival, Frank flirts with Brad and Janet before announces that he’s about to create life (Rocky Horror is very loosely based on Frankenstein, if the Good Doctor was a sex-crazed cross-dresser)

Upon the success of Frank’s experiment, his creation (Rocky, played by Peter Himwood who, according to later articles, had no clue what he was getting into with the role and left acting immediately after) begins to sing (sorta; his voice was dubbed over in post-production)

(Thanks to THIRDPROJECT)

(Quick note: in the stage production, Rocky actually has a speaking part, but all Himwood does is lip sync and look pretty. I guess O’Brien didn’t trust his acting or singing)

Frank eventually catches up with and scolds Rocky. However, Frank can’t stay mad with him (at least not until he sleeps with him) He then gets praises from Riff and Magenta, but Columbia seems a bit jealous, so he asks Brad and Janet their opinion of Rocky.

…just one BIG one!

This makes Frank so upset that he breaks into song.

(Thanks to catwomanandharley)

Then from the deep freeze comes a biker named Eddie (played by Meat Loaf)

(Thanks to Graylandertagger)

[Quick note: The reason Eddie’s forehead is bleeding is due to Frank removing half of his brain for Rocky)

After Frank’s done picking on Eddie, he goes back to Rocky. After quickly buttering Rocky up, Frank finishes his song.

(Thanks to Danieligena)

What perversions await Brad and Janet, and will they ever get to use the phone?

Castles don't have phones, asshole!

Tune in for part 3 and find out!

#rocky horror picture show #tim curry #barry bostwick #susan sarandon #richard o'brien #meat loaf #musicals #audience participation #lgbtqiia+ #Fan Colored Glasses