#i feel like I barely represented any Asian characters but that's bc most of my favorite Asian characters are either mutants or Kamala

[beta-adjacent]

i humbly volunteer to listen to you speak for hours about it *sits listening like that one spiderverse meme*

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO FIRST ASK EVER!!!!!!!!! >:D Strap in, motherfucker, because I don't know when I'm getting this chance again, I'm going to be summarizing a lot, and I'm going to do it within 30 minutes because if I don't, it'll end up in my drafts for literally a week.

Ok so!! I don't actually know how much you know about the franchise, but Zombies (probably known as 'Z-O-M-B-I-E-S' but that's way too tedious to write more than once) is a very basic, "new age", "anti-ism" story that tries to say like, "we all should love each other!" but ends up Actually saying "every racial ideology you've ever held onto is going to be reinforced!" Here are some brief things that show this:

Zombies in general! Much like Zootopia, Zombies argue zombies AKA our minority are genuine threats who eat brains. There is a biological, predatory difference between them. Also, they use Electroshock Therapy as treatment and it Works and No One Questions It Morally Until I Think Movie 3??????

Zed, our main character who is an ostracized zombie, is only given worth when he himself exploits his electroshock treatment so he can be a football star (CLASSIC myth that if you work hard enough, you'll make it, but probably as an entertainer). And then in following movies, he is given an impossible standard as The Representative of All Zombies Ever; he runs for president even when other characters (COUGH COUGH FUCKING ELIZA WTF DISNEY YOU COWARDS) are FAR MORE capable AND persuasive

Eliza, another zombie, representing the "violent, angry revolutionaries" of the ostracized group. She is shut down time and time again because violence or force doesn't work. Which. Ok, I don't like violence either, but you're riding upon the context of fucking racial tension IRL, Disney.

Bonzo. A zombie named Bonzo. I love him bc he's a multi-lingual king but also you called him FUCKING BONZO STOP PLEASE

ADDISON. I hate this character so much as-is in the franchise because she tries again and again and again to "belong" because she has white hair. But???? It literally just looks like regular human hair so????? ALSO WHITE HAIR WAS REALLY IN FOR GEN Z. And she does this to not only the zombies but the wolves and the aliens. MOST IMPORTANTLY she represents white privilege, that oppressor guilt (specifically that kind that still makes it about the oppressor somehow instead of just. Supporting the oppressed). And she is praised EVERY FUCKING TIME for it. There are no consequences for her actions.

Movie 2, Yes I am grouping this entire thing into one cluster even though it deserves an entire Powerpoint and then some. Tl;dr the werewolves who were the original inhabitants of Seabrooke (ok so the indigenous people) want to take their land back (a little on the nose Disney) so the newly acclimated zombies try to teach them to succeed in the environment. Any of the messages in these movies are like... not good (like movie 1 was teach your children to be better but also exploit the minority, movie 2 is we should all share the land AKA you can get your piece back but Only Your One Piece Motherfucker), but the execution of movie 2 is particularly bad because I ARGUE! The zombies have the duality of Asian Americans with the model minority versus yellow threat. They are still absolutely feared but they have "proven" themselves so they are the "ideal" minority to look up to, but also Because of their proven worth, the oppressors feel threatened. But also, movie 2 has the best music in that 1) they have the meme wolf songs and 2) . ALSO ADDISON HAS VERY UGLY WIGS IN THIS MOVIE

Movie 3, I barely remember, which is ironic bc I watched it the most recently! Very forgettable; I think it took a more action-y approach bc it knew it fucked up. It had its first nonbinary actor so... that's cool? We learn that Addison's grandma loved Addison (her grandaughter) more than her own daughter which.... fucking What. Justice for Addison's mom hello?? OH AND THE ALPHA WEREWOLF WILLA AND ASPEN THE ENBY ALIEN ARE IN LOVE THAT'S CANON. Anyways hopefully you get the idea that this movie was made to respond to the backlash of the first 2 movies and make it "actually diverse" with a "wholesome simple" message

Now listen. I have 5 minutes left. And with this last five minutes (really 3 because I'm writing the tags/editing in the last 2) I'm going to entrust you with the most valuable bullshit hc I've ever created SPECIFICALLY for my ideal write of the franchize.....

Addison has autism.

STOP I KNOW LISTEN!! IF SHE *WANTS* TO BE FUCKING DIFFERENT THEN WE SHOULDN"T RELY ON THIS FUCKING ALIEN SHIT. OR WE JUST MAKE THE ALIEN SHIT BETTER THAN WHITE HAIR. I KNOW THE IMPLICATION OF HER BEING AN ALIEN AND BEING AUTISTIC IS BAD BUT I LOVE THE IDEA THAT THE ALIENS ARE NEUROTYPICAL TOO AND SHE HAS JUST HAD TO MASK ALL HER LIFE. Addison SHOULD learn that doing everything her parents want is not fucking ideal and getting a boyfriend should not be the extent of those attempts!!! And she Needs to understand that being the white fucking savior for all these monsters gains her no fucking sympathy. Also, if she was autistic-coded in the original Disney franchize because of the alien shit, Disney would so not be afraid to do it; they'd say autistics are akin to otherwordly creatures negatively (THEY SHOULDN"T BUT YOU KNOW THEY FUCKING WOULD WITH THIS TRACK RECORD)

#I AM POSTING THIS WITHOUT DOUBLE CHECKIN I WILL REPLY TO MYSELF FIX MISTAKES #BUT THAT'LL PROBABLY BE IN DAY S (MULTIPLE) bc HOLY SHIT I AHVEN"T WRITTEN THIS HARD SINCE AP LANG #I'm trying So hard to read this back to edit rn but I can't see the words anymore; this really Is like AP lang :( #but i still had a LOT of fun doing this; thank you for asking #“I could talk about this for hours” “ok please do!” “ok!” *forces myself to talk about it in literally less than an hour* #fuck um yea so descendants would have to be another thing. I tried writing essays/powerpoints for it already but shit wasn't sticking so :/ #I wanted to make a PPT for this too for you but I realized I'd be jumping the gun on all points bc I was too excited anyways #I hope there wasn't too much context missing for you to get the main points? #disney zombies #Also marry me for asking this /p /j

[scarlet--wiccan]

I'm making up Avengers formations on my mind and other than the realization that there are TOO MANY AMERICAN, NEW YORK BASED HEROES in Marvel Comics, I also realized that... I forgot what I was going to say, it took me ages to come back to this ask (I left the phone). Anyways, I started to think about the Adventures universe where Storm, instead of Thor, and Giant-Girl (Janet) are on the main team and I was left thinking: what kind of relationship / dynamic would Storm, who was briefly associated with the team on the main universe through her relationship with T'Challa, have with Janet and Wanda if they were ever to be on the same team? And then I started to think, which other non-Americans and characters of color would you want to hang out with Wanda. Like, now that Echo bonded with the Phoenix Force, I think: what kind of dynamic would they have? And then there's Moon Knight, Blade, T'Challa, Shang-Chi. So many other characters, so much potential for interesting dynamics.

You don't really have to rush to answer this ask or answer at all. Just wanted to share a bit of positivity on your askbox. :D

I thought I could come up with an interesting answer by making a list of every character of color that has ever been a member of the Avengers. Unfortunately, after weeding out mutants, dead people, and anyone that's depowered or otherwise occupied, the list ended up being pretty small-- and some of those characters were people that I just don't have any particular interest in playing off of Wanda. So that wasn't helpful! I think the shortlist was about thirteen characters, and most of them were American.

I'm not very familiar with Moon Knight, but I understand that he's pretty mystical and is tied to mythological settings, ancient gods, and all that. I love seeing Wanda operate in that space, and I think they'd click on certain things-- like having an overbearing, somewhat sinister god breathing down your neck, or bouts of offensively written mental health disorders.

I bet that Wanda and Maya would get along well. Wanda has some interesting experience with the Phoenix, and even though I found the order-vs.-chaos concept from AvX to be kind of forced, you could probably do something cool with the idea that Wanda's magic can counter the Phoenix Force. As an ally, she could help Maya safely practice and explore her new power. We've also seen in Star, and even Jean Grey, that Wanda sees her own struggles reflected in people who have had great and terrible power thrust upon them, and she's strongly motivated to help those people whenever possible. I think she would be one to support and advocate for Maya, all the way.

Wanda's got some cool magic friends, like Elizabeth Twoyoungmen and Alice Gulliver. There are also some interesting characters from Doctor Strange (2016) such as Xandra Xu and Médico Místico. Obviously, her boyfriend Jericho is top of the list. There's also, you know, Doom. They have a lot of baggage and animosity, but I also think they'd work really well as reluctant allies. Victor, Wanda, and Pietro actually have very similar backgrounds, even among Marvel's Roma characters, so I think that the correct writer could mine a lot of great character work out of putting those three in a room again.

I really love seeing Wanda and Monica as friends. They don't have a whole lot in common, in terms of life experiences, but I do think they would have gravitated towards each other during their earlier days in the Avengers. There have been times where they were the only the only women of color in the room, and they also have a common tongue-- they both speak French! I really, really like the image of Wanda, Pietro, Monica and Jericho holding a full conversation in French. Anyhow, I want more Mon/Wanda friendship always.

I would like to see Wanda team up with Mantis again. You could probably find cool ways to use Mantis's psychic abilities, particularly the astral projection, in conjunction with magic. They have some very interesting shared history -- they had a double wedding together, had children around the same time, suffered very similar losses and heartbreak, and now they both have kids who are space royalty. As far as I'm aware, they haven't spent any time together in decades, but if there's ever another Celestial Madonna-related story like Empyre, I want to see them reunite and be cool tough-mom duo.

Oh, and I'd also be very interested in seeing Wanda meet America. I know that America's whole backstory is in flux right now-- and I'm very frustrated by this, so I'm choosing to ignore it for now. I'd be curious to know what role Wanda plays in the mythology of the Utopian Parallel.

Those are just some ideas that popped into my head. If you're looking for a team roster, I would throw Wanda, Pietro, Mon, and Jer together with Maya, Miguel Santos, and Adam Brashear. These characters are mostly in the same age range and have some amount of established history, with varied, but overlapping abilities. Throw America in as a wild card and call it a day. Oh, and Blade. Witches and vampires, you know?

#i feel like I barely represented any Asian characters but that's bc most of my favorite Asian characters are either mutants or Kamala