where are all the comic old boys yammering about respecting the history and origins and keeping characters as they were originally intended to be, or are those arguments only for when people want to make heroes black, female, or lgbt?
To be fair you’re not seeing many men on tumblr be up in arms, but the reddit community is beyond pissed. They’re rightfully calling this a character assassination and a cheap gimmick to try and shock people into buying the run.
damn, you know Marvel’s fucked up real bad if tumblr and reddit are in agreement on something
1. Well done for shitting all over anybody that has ever believed in Captain America.
2. Because Steve Rogers is a symbol of hope, freedom, justice, equality, and kindness.
3. Captain America was literally created by two Jewish men as a symbol of hope against Hitler, and now you’re telling me he’s a nazi?!
4. Say it again for the people in the back: CAPTAIN AMERICA DESERVES BETTER, SHOCK VALUE DOES NOT EQUAL GOOD STORYTELLING!
5. No matter what their comics say, it’s our job to plant ourselves like trees beside the river of truth and tell them ‘No, you move’.
6. Because the hero that stood up for the oppressed just became the oppressor.
7. High-key hoping that this was a spelling error and that he meant ‘Hail Hydration’ drink plenty of water and look after yourselves kids.
8. Because Steve Rogers deserved better on his 75th anniversary.
9. Because the little guy from Brooklyn that was too dumb to not run away from a fight deserved better.
10. Because Coulson didn’t spend years completing his Vintage Captain America Card Collection for his childhood hero to be a nazi.
11. Bucky Barnes did not go through hell just to hear that his best friend has been working with the people that tortured him and used him as a weapon unwillingly.
12. No gonna lie I didn’t think it was possible to mess up this badly but Marvel always manages to surprise me, only not usually in a bad way.
13. Because apparently nothing says Happy 75th Anniversary better than nazism.
14. What next T’Challa is secretly a member of the KKK?
15. Not a good soldier but a GOOD MAN, you hear me Marvel?? A GOOD MAN!!
16. You either die a hero or live long enough to see douchebag writers turn you into everything you’ve ever stood against.
17. Because Cap didn’t get iced for this shit.
18. What about Chris Evans? How do you think he feels? Oh, that’s right!
(Anon who's super into the Vader Survives Mustafar thing again) Wow holy shit hi I'm so sorry I'll get out of your inbox any minute now I swear, but EMPRESS AMIDALA wow, just. Yes. Sign me the fuck up. Oh wow that means Luke and Leia would be raised as the children of the Empress and the only surviving Force user in the galaxy Y E S. It's fine, I'm fine, you're great. *crawls into dark hole*
(why would you EVER, friend, why would you leave my inbox, THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I WANT)
Actually Vader wouldn’t be the only surviving Force-user–the only surviving SITH Force-user, maybe, but not every Jedi actually died with Order 66 and Vader would literally ignore their entire existences unless Padmé said something, which obviously she would NOT. At ALL. At most she would say “no sweetie it’s fine they’re not a threat like this” and then go hyperventilate in the bathroom while Vader is distracted playing with the babies. He’s teaching them how to float their toys. It would be the sweetest, purest thing Padmé has ever seen in her LIFE if he weren’t doing it while wearing the robe he’d sworn loyalty to Darth Sidious in.
Padmé has no idea how to destroy a dictatorship from the INSIDE. Fuck knows she didn’t succeed in STOPPING it from the inside; even standing at the top, how is she supposed to take it APART?? The Empire didn’t happen in a vacuum. It wasn’t just one man, no matter how much that one man was responsible for.
She couldn’t even stop Anakin from turning into Vader. She thinks she can change a whole GALAXY when she couldn’t even convince the man she loved to live? She thinks she can change ANYTHING, wearing Empress Amidala’s robes, raising Prince Luke and Princess Leia Amidala? With her beloved husband and his people all dead in her name and by his own hand, and Darth Vader as her consort?
She doesn’t. Not at all.
But she’s going to have to, so–so.
So it’s time to get back to it, Padmé tells herself, and then breathes out slowly, puts on just enough makeup to remind herself how to wear her mask, and goes back out to sit on the couch and watch Vader and the children play on the floor. They’re doing very well with the toys, and Vader is very proud.
Padmé paints on a smile, and digs her nails into the meat of her palms.
okay but imagine if wade made it into an mcu movie and removed the lower part of his mask so clint could understand like he does in the comics and tries fingerspelling something at some point and clint is like “sorry man i never learned sign language” and wade just is so confused and pulls out a hawkeye comic and rifles through it and just looks up like “those motherfuckers”
It’s Tuesday. Steve Rogers #1 comes out tomorrow. We only have a short opportunity to kill sales. And make no mistake, killing sales is the ONLY WAY Marvel will listen. Please encourage people to NOT buy the comic this week. Please encourage people to pull it from their pull list. Or, if it was on your pull list, to not buy it. Force the stores to have a blacklog. I normally don’t like to do anything that will hurt the LCS; I’m willing to make an expectation with this.
And MOST of all, please tweet @nickspencer and @Marvel on twitter with your disgust. (I’ve been using #CapIsNotHydra unless someone can think of something better.) They need to know this blatant disregard for Captain America’s Jewish creators and their intentions for the character is unacceptable and not something we will support.
moral complexity is one thing but if you can’t write an interesting good guy without making him a bad guy, that’s not because good guys are inherently boring
hey since I just told a friend this and they found it helpful: if you’re having hallucinations and are having trouble distinguishing what’s real and what’s not, use your phone’s camera and take a picture of the thing you might be hallucinating. cameras don’t hallucinate.
hey maybe reblog this for other neurodivergent people to see please?
i really enjoyed how at no point in this film, did Tony actually look scared of Steve, at no point did he look worried that he wouldn’t make it out of this fight. Until, Tony blew off Bucky’s arm. And then Steve was gone, he went off, he was erratic, he was full fury and rage, and Tony? Tony looked fucking terrified. Tony looked like he was realising that this is what Steve was talking about when he said Tony hadn’t seen his dark side yet. This was his dark side, and his dark side comes in the form of an unwavering devotion to protecting Bucky Barnes.
Growing up, how many times do you think Bucky took/gave a beating to protect Steve? How many of those fights do you think Steve started? Tony knew Steve was willing to die to protect Bucky, but it never crossed his mind until that moment, Steve might kill for Bucky. Well, Tony should trust Steve now that he’s seen his dark side.
I’ve been thinking about this all day, and like, I don’t think Tony really knew, until this moment, just how much Bucky meant to Steve. Like I think he thought that the way Steve felt for Bucky was in some way comparable to what he’d found with the Avengers. Like when he says “You’re going to turn Barnes over and you’re going to come with us, because it’s us” and the whole “He’s my friend” “So was I” like, Tony really doesn’t seem to fully grasp just how deep the bond between Steve and Bucky is until that moment, there’s no way to compare it to anything Steve has with anyone else. Like it’s literally in that moment where he’s having to analyse Steve’s fight pattern for some way to fight back, that he realises there was no way he was ever going to win this, not when Steve has something to fight for now, something he believes in with everything that he is, something that really means something to him. Steve loves Bucky so completely that it actually terrified Tony the lengths he would go to for him.
“
Tony knew Steve was willing to die to protect Bucky, but it never crossed his mind until that moment, Steve might kill for Bucky.”
I write. I swear to God. I actually love writing fanfic. BUT, and here’s the catch, I have a ton of trouble coming up with short fic ideas. Short anything ideas, really. The most memorable example is that one time I decided to write how I thought someone being able to see the future would pan out, just a few pages of character study, dicking around with super powers, nothing fancy. Smash cut to a year and a half later, I’m wrapping up my 350 page novel and staring dismally at my 200 additional pages of worldbuilding. And it’s always like that, it gets so out of hand.
SO. My solution to that is this. If you have a craving for a specific pairing that you know I ship, shoot me a prompt and I’ll throw together a short fic for you and post it. I’m trying to unwind after finals, so it’ll be good for me, and you’ll get fic, so it’ll be good for you.
Hit me up.
This is your reminder that I’m bored and open for prompts.
Actually, this is a comment that they made Steve Rogers HYDRA in the most recent comic and I’m incredibly upset about it, so send me prompts so I have something else to think about.
Captain America was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby to be a symbol of freedom, hope, equality and kindness.
Captain America was created to be a pillar of justice and compassion and courage and empathy.
Captain America was created to be someone who would always stand up for what was right.
Captain America is traditionally considered one of the truest heroes in the Marvel Universe.
Captain America, Steve Rogers, became Captain America because of how kind, courageous, and compassionate he was.
Captain America was created by TWO JEWISH MEN DURING WORLD WAR II, as someone who would ALWAYS STAND UP FOR THE LITTLE GUY.
THE FIRST ISSUE OF CAPTAIN AMERICA FEATURED HIM PUNCHING HITLER ON THE COVER.
TO MAKE CAPTAIN AMERICA HYDRA IS DISGUSTING AND I REFUSE TO BELIEVE IT AND I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT AS CANON. I SUGGEST YOU, OR ANYONE WHO READS COMICS OR HAS THE SLIGHTEST BIT OF CARE FOR THE CHARACTER OF CAPTAIN AMERICA, DOES THE SAME.
THIS IS HORRIBLE.
WHAT THEY’RE DOING IS NOT ONLY COMPLETELY INSENSITIVE BUT DISGRACEFUL, DISRESPECTFUL, COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY INAPPROPRIATE, AND HONESTLY DOWNRIGHT DISGUSTING.
Its so offensive and so, so inappropriate. Doing this? Is practically shitting on the memory of Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. And I am completely, and utterly offended. Stop this. Boycott this. Keep blogging, sharing, tweeting, do whatever is in your power to #SaveCaptainAmerica and #SayNoToHydraCap
Whatever it is you have to do, do it. Joe wouldn’t of wanted this. Jack wouldn’t of wanted this.
We need to plant ourselves like trees on the river of truth, and tell the whole world, “No, you move.”
Deadpool: brings a teenager with superpowers to help him in a fight
Tumblr: DEADPOOL!!. I love the interactions between negasonic teenage warhead and deadpool. Omg so cute. *billions of fanart*
Tony Stark: Literally does the same thing when his friends abandon him. Sends him home as soon as he sees a probability that he’d get hurt.
Tumblr: tony stark is a villian ™. I can’t believe he used peter as a child soldier :) :)
Look, okay, people giving Tony shit for recruiting Peter to be a “child soldier omg TRAUMA AND DANGER” is dumb, yeah–no one actually WANTED to hurt anyone else in that fight and on top of that the kid literally comes with his own personal panic button AND is strong enough to arm-wrestle the super-soldier with the METAL DEATH-ARM and win–but this is definitely an example of false equivalence, because COLOSSUS EXISTS.
Colossus knows what Negasonic Teenage Warhead is doing. Colossus is doing this WITH Negasonic Teenage Warhead. He’s her trainer and her teacher and he brings her along–he could totally have made the call to leave her at home while he helped Deadpool himself and she would’ve STAYED home and listened to death metal and eaten all his favorite snacks, probably, but she also had zero compunctions about coming along and kicking ass in the name of “yeah this is kinda our bad on the dude getting away, huh”.
May Parker, on the other hand, does not know where Peter is. Tony not only lied to her, he told PETER to lie to her. Like, yes, the peril is much lower in this situation than in Negasonic’s, but Tony still blackmailed and bribed a kid who’d already said “no” to rope him into fighting his fight–a kid whose personal philosophy of “with great power comes great NEED TO NOT JUST FUCKING SIT ON MY ASS AND LET GOOD PEOPLE GET FUCKING MURDERED” does not even SLIGHTLY jive with the Accords. Peter Parker would NEVER willingly sign that thing. Peter Parker knows DAMN WELL what happens when you ignore the problem and pretend it’s not your business.
(Also, like, unless I’m forgetting a throwaway line somewhere, we don’t actually know how old Negasonic Teenage Warhead is–she could easily be eighteen or nineteen and still using that name–but we DEFINITELY know Peter Parker is still a minor and he seems to be intended to be around fifteen or sixteen. So he’s not only less trained, less experienced, and less powerful than her, he’s also less developed and less mature. Seriously, a four-year age difference is a LIFETIME at that age.)
So, therefore, Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s long-term mentor who she has a stable working relationship with takes her along to clean up a mess they’re partially responsible for and help a dude with whom they had a pre-existing relationship save his innocent and uninvolved ex, a woman who has nothing to do with any of this at all and is gonna maybe die if they fuck this up. Meanwhile, Peter Parker’s random rich-and-powerful stranger lies to his aunt, blackmails him when he tries to say no, and then distracts him with shiny new toys to get him to clean up an in-house mess the AVENGERS are responsible for and help him arrest a guy who literally everyone in actual positions of legal authority in the movie straight-up laughs about the idea of giving a trial to–WHILE ALSO BRINGING ALONG BLACK PANTHER, who, I love you, T’Challa, but you are the only cat in this fight who is trying to actually MURDER someone, at this point in the movie you are still planning to kill a man in cold blood because you THINK he killed your dad. And, again: trial? What trial??
Like–tl;dr, but long story semi-short, Deadpool is trying to save an innocent person and kill literal superhuman SLAVERS with basically zero resources/backup and recruits two people with training and experience and an actual permission slip, and Tony has half the Avengers and all of Stark Enterprises and 117 governments on his side, but threatens a six-months-into-superpowers teenager into working for dudes who have already made it clear they would execute an untried man and want to arrest a bunch of people who have saved the world MULTIPLE times without even hearing them out on why they’re so vehemently against the Accords or even CONSULTING them when first DRAFTING the damn things. Like, that is the thing that is canonically happening here. That is the situation.
Also, Tony Stark is actually styled as a hero who believes he’s doing this for the greater good and is working with legal approval, restraint, and oversight. Deadpool’s goals are all personal and/or selfish and he has already spent his entire R-rated movie murdering people with extreme prejudice and refusing to answer to anyone. They should REALLY be held to different standards there, morally and narratively speaking, and yet Deadpool’s story STILL treats the involved teenager with more respect and agency than Civil War’s does Peter, while also not pretending she is a fully mature adult prepared to take on other super-powered people with zero formal training and about as much prep time as it takes to fabricate a spider costume in a super-scientist’s lab.
SO I CAN SEE WHY PEOPLE GET A LITTLE CHUFFED BY THIS STORY CHOICE, HONESTLY.
Since my damn state just hopped on the fucking bandwagon against the new law protecting the right of a trans individual to use their preferred bathroom, I want to make a quick announcement.
To any trans, genderfluid, nonbinary, or agender followers, I want you to be aware that I believe in your personhood and your right to a personal identity and everything that is implicit in that, including your right to marry whom you like, your right to be safe on the street and in your home, your right to be treated well by a medical professional and by any other authorities you encounter, and your right to use a goddamn bathroom. If anybody argues with you on the subject, feel free to visualize me (or my icon) beating the ever-loving shit out of them.
High five, you’re awesome, and everyone who doesn’t believe it is worse off.
I’m pleased to be represented by Godzilla, but we need more than one ace character, even if he is the size of 500 non-ace characters.
Hate to be that person, but that screenshot is from Godzilla ‘99. The Godzilla in that film is a mutated, pregnant female lizard looking for a place to lay her eggs, which happens to be New York. Now, I know aces can have sex, and Japanese Godzilla is, as far as I know, pretty asexual, but maybe that one (‘99) is a better example of single mothers having badass representation.
Okay, but the ‘99 Godzilla is able to reproduce without help from another one. Asexuals get a lot of really distasteful jokes about ‘reproducing asexually.’ That Godzilla is a solid tongue-in-cheek joke. I mean, yes, the other Godzillas also work and I 100% support representing asexuals as nuclear-energy-breathing creatures of great and awesome power, and representing single mothers as world-conquering beings both terrifying and excellent in nature, but…yeah.
Oh, I didn’t remember that. I guess she’s now an asexual single mother with nuclear fire breath. I can definitely get behind that.
Not in front of; that’d be deadly. Nuclear fire breath and all.
ok but has anyone considered… stormtrooper memes. stormtroopers with injokes. stormtroopers quietly passing along little nudges and references while they’re standing guard or patrolling endless hallways. hux pausing halfway through a speech, suspiciously— he just heard a very tiny, staticy giggle. like,
(standing in front of blank wall or empty box) nothing to see here, move along
let’s just put that in the back pocket for now mmkay
*eats ration bar* mm mmm tastes like [dead comrade]
you can’t be mean to me on my birthday
*force chokes a problem*
(between heavy darth vader wheezes) i’m not mad, i’m just disappointed.
(when something falls over) rebel scum!
*points at large machine* mom
it’s party time (everyone stands perfectly still for at least a minute)
(when friend come into the room) you’re surplus to requirements
they put a worm in him
*picks up thing that is not a phaser* pew pew
i’m matt the radar technician
millennium falcon as a code for “mother fucker”
Sending troopers new to the unit on an ruffleluff hunt
spreading the rumor that Hoth is secretly the main base because that’s the only place their uniforms make sense as camo
tagging other trooper’s helmets with mysterious substances when they’re not looking
radioing sanitation to ‘come take out this trash’ when dragging another trooper
there’s coffee and doughnuts in the breakroom
*does something dangerous* eat me ass first
healthy habits start at home
well, as we all know, [lie]
*gives someone a pinecone* (very difficult to pull off)
i can’t go out dressed like THIS!
my morale is so [genital adjective] right now.
does anyone need to stormpooper before we go
fun is illegal
*puts foot in small box* i live here now
doubletime sleeping
*points at captain phasma* mom
*humming Vader’s theme tune when someone’s in trouble*
Jedi are a myth
Kylo Ren is a myth
*explaining damage* It got KRed. (Kylo Renned)
KRUBAR Kylo Renned Beyond All Recall/Recognition/Repair
Calling helmets faces (a relic from the clone days)
Backtalking superior officers “begging to be spaced”
Kylo Ren is having a moment as an acceptable excuse for deviating a patrol route
General Hux is in a good mood as an acceptable excuse for deviating a patrol route
And Captain Phasma is smiling at us under that helmet (synonymous with “bullshit”)
Finn accidentally slipping into stormtrooper memes while with the Resistance and getting some odd looks.
Finn trying to explain to them why their Force-using manchild deadly enemy destroying property in a rage is funny and getting some more odd looks.
Finn feeling a little knot in his gut when he realizes he’s never going to be able to tell these jokes again. How’s he even going to connect to these people enough to make them laugh when they’re all scared shitless? How’s he going to carry his entire squad around in his head when he can’t even speak their language anymore?
Meanwhile Rey’s standing there squinting suspiciously at a pinecone.
Okay but Rebels who see Finn being upset and making a concerted effort to figure out meme culture. Rey and Jessika talking it out while Jessika is teaching Rey the cultural miscellany of Resistance and pilot culture.
Rey being the first one to get it, because she synergizes what Jessika’s telling her and what Finn’s explaining and realizes, this is all communication around communication, the key point is shared understanding, and then she starts making her own, with Jessika, and Finn picks it up, and soon the whole base is in on this bastardized mix of stormtrooper meme and purely Resistance meme and a ridiculous combination of the two.
And then they interact with stormtroopers and something goes on in the background on the First Order side and a Resistance soldier asks, “Is Kylo Ren having a moment?” and there’s muffled laughter and an absence of blasterfire from the stormtroopers.
Pretty soon there’s a whole code that stormtroopers and resistance soldiers can use to communicate. “Nothing to see here, move along” means “I’m ignoring you on purpose, don’t shoot me,” and “I’m KR’d” means “I want out, please capture me.”
From the Rebel side, “Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi” becomes “throw me a bone here” in either direction to ask for a favor; “That’s no moon” means “you’re walking into a trap here/we’ve got a secret weapon you won’t like.”
Okay, I was expecting someone to pick this up, but damn, this is even better than I hoped.
I’m pleased to be represented by Godzilla, but we need more than one ace character, even if he is the size of 500 non-ace characters.
Hate to be that person, but that screenshot is from Godzilla ‘99. The Godzilla in that film is a mutated, pregnant female lizard looking for a place to lay her eggs, which happens to be New York. Now, I know aces can have sex, and Japanese Godzilla is, as far as I know, pretty asexual, but maybe that one (‘99) is a better example of single mothers having badass representation.
Okay, but the ‘99 Godzilla is able to reproduce without help from another one. Asexuals get a lot of really distasteful jokes about ‘reproducing asexually.’ That Godzilla is a solid tongue-in-cheek joke. I mean, yes, the other Godzillas also work and I 100% support representing asexuals as nuclear-energy-breathing creatures of great and awesome power, and representing single mothers as world-conquering beings both terrifying and excellent in nature, but…yeah.
“Someday I will kill the man who wrote keep the home fires burning—they play it in the hottest weather, too.”—
Siegfried Sassoon in a letter to musicologist Edward Dent, 1915
Remember when I blogged this? So I just found out who wrote “Keep the Homes Fires Burning.”
Ivor Novello.
With whom Sassoon had an affair in 1924. (via larazontally)
I’d say Sassoon clearly can’t hold a grudge, but the first time he met Ivor Novello he DID flat-out ignore him in petty spite because he hated that song so much. Clearly he got over it though. (via outoflullabies)
Not gonna lie, REALLY into the one where Vader survives Mustafar and Padme does what needs to be done to save her children ('Kill him for me, then' wow that is SO MUCH MY JAM) and honestly even if you never write another word for that 'verse, thank you so fucking much for that, that is EVERYTHING I am here for.
yeah no I was literally already going “wow I hope someone sends me an ask about that AU where Obi-Wan’s life sucks even worse than usual so I have an excuse to talk about Padmé/Vader as a ship, I REALLY DO”, trust me, buddy, you tied your wagon to the right star here, you REALLY did.
Because Vader went and killed Palpatine for Padmé, right? SPECIFICALLY for her. Like, he OFFERED, originally, but when he actually goes and DOES it, it’s because she tells him to do it and he is immediately like “anything for you, angel!!” and then not only does it, but does it and DECLARES HER EMPRESS.
You know. The person who all the clones answer to. The person HE answers to. THAT empress.
There are only ever two Sith, okay, and because there are only ever two Sith there have to ALWAYS be two Sith. Vader killed the apprentice, so he became the apprentice, and then Vader killed the master, so therefore he should be the Master, and should be attempting to pluck Ahsoka off some backwater planet all “I HAVE SO MUCH TO TEACH YOU, APPRENTICE”.
Except instead he goes back to where he left Padmé and is like “??!? WHERE IS” and then proceeds to chase her down, and the moment she finds out he’s the survivor she puts on a smile and opens her arms to him and reels him RIGHT in.
Sith apprentices kill Sith masters to BECOME Sith masters, but Anakin did not actually care about being a Sith master–he wanted to be a JEDI master, yeah, but Jedi masters are one of many and still answer to the Order, and it’s a very different thing. And really, what Anakin ACTUALLY wanted was always just Padmé and Luke and Leia (and Obi-Wan, of course Obi-Wan, but–well, three for four is better than canon got him, so yeah). So Vader killed Anakin and got (nearly) everything Anakin wanted, and Vader killed Palpatine and got everything HE wanted, and he is therefore ENTIRELY CONTENT with what he has and would quite happily go along with anyone who’d let him keep it.
And he killed Palpatine in Padmé’s name. In EmpressAmidala’s name.
So yeah. Vader is definitely not the master in this scenario.
I keep seeing a lot of posts about how Steve was in the wrong in CACW because while Tony had a plan, Steve didn’t offer any alternative to it, he was just like NOPE. The thing is though, something that immediately struck me when I watched the movie was the timing of everything. Ross and Tony bring Steve and the others the Accords THREE DAYS before they are to be signed. Those Accords were not drafted, approved and supported by 117 countries in a week. This was 100% intentional. This is also very, very common in American politics. When politicians want to pass a bill they don’t want people to look at closely, they schedule votes at weird times or when a large # of people are away from the Hill (Capital Hill). So you get these 11th hour bills that are hundreds of pages long that no one has had a chance to read, ask questions about, or negotiate on about changes. These bills are stuffed with completely unrelated stuff that gets passed as well because the whole thing has to be signed off on/approved. It’s called “pork barreling.” Those are the questions Steve tries to bring up to the group. When he’s like ‘what happens when…?’ And Tony brushes aside his concerns like ‘oh, I’m sure we’ll get to make changes later when everything dies down.’ But Steve is like what are we agreeing to NOW though? And practically as soon as they are given the “generous” 3 day warning, Peggy dies. Steve flies off to London and everything goes to hell. What time is there to propose or discuss an alternative plan??
The timing was 100% intentional to make sure the Avengers would be subject to the Accords as written–no matter what was lurking on the bottom of page 440 in fine print. Steve is 100% right to be suspicious. This is one of the dirty tricks of American politics that Steve would be totally aware of. And sure, maybe there’s a chance that everything was above board, reasonable, and so on, but you would NEVER sign a thing like that w/o actually checking/reading it. that would be foolish. I mean, did we forget that Project Insight was authorized and approved by The World Council? I guarantee you that Steve hasn’t. I absolutely believe that Steve would have been willing to talk everything out, negotiate, listen to everyone’s pov, and really consider everything carefully…but there’s no time given to do that. It’s all last minute, non-negotiable, and shady. Steve is a master tactician, natural leader, and a reasonable, thoughtful person who is a Big Picture thinker. It’s weird that people just assume he rejects the Accords because he’s being childish or something. That’s not Steve Rogers at all.
THIS. THIS. ALL OF THIS.
Steve was not being unreasonable or being “I DO WHAT I WANT BECAUSE CAPTAIN AMERICA FUCK YEAH” or incidentally “selfish.”
a. All of the points that op makes above - YES. ABSOLUTELY. There was no attempt at a “can we review this and think this over?” and “can we reach a reasonable compromise?” Because nope, the Avengers are presented with a “hey 117 countries ‘agreed’ to this and we better sign because we kinda fucked up in Lagos and this comes on the heels of fucking up in Sokovia (even if Sokovia is technically on the heads of Tony Stark with Bruce Banner and Wanda Maximoff in supporting roles).”
b. Friendly reminder - Steve is pushed to make those drastic choices because Sharon Carter warns him that the order for Bucky Barnes is shoot to kill. Not capture, not question, no further trial or investigation - even in a world where there is available technology to mimic a person’s appearance or with the knowledge that Bucky was savagely tortured and brainwashed and robbed of choice and agency.
And as long as we’re on the subject: Steve is clearly right to be paranoid about what might have been in the Accords. We see that he’s possibly the only person actively trying to read through them, in the initial scene where the Avengers are arguing about them, but he’s obviously not making very good progress because the Accords are like an inch and a half of what I expect is very small print. And once the Accords are signed off on by half the Avengers, we see:
a. The ‘shoot to kill’ order on Bucky Barnes, a prisoner of war who has been tortured and brainwashed for 70 years. They are aware of this, okay, because they know who the Winter Soldier is, which means that a large portion of his files were part of the SHIELDRA dump that Natasha executes. They’re not hunting down a dude who’s been intentionally committing assassinations and terrorist acts, they’re after a guy in need of medical treatment and more therapy than he could possibly ever receive, even in a super soldier’s lifetime. They know his situation, and, honestly, if I were Steve, I’d be feeling pretty goddamn immovable on the subject of Bucky’s execution too. I’m not a lawyer or shit, but I’m actually not even sure Bucky’s legally done anything wrong–I think there are caveats for ‘post-brainwashing and torture’ events. I mean, if you do a terrible thing at gunpoint, that’s considered a mitigating circumstance, surely 70 years of mad scientists tinkering with your brain qualifies. Shit, even if he had blown up the consulate, you would need to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’d been acting under his own will, not under HYDRA’s forced compliance, in order to justify a ‘shoot on sight’ command.
b. Total rejection of the right to trial. Steve even explicitly asks for a lawyer for Bucky, and is shot down out of hand. Now, like I said, I’m not a lawyer, but I can tell you that the Geneva convention guarantees the right to a fair trial, with a defense lawyer and everything, to everyone. The fucking Nazi Party got trials, okay, and that means that something in the Accords allowed the UN to bypass that requirement, not only for Bucky (who is, yes, the Winter Soldier), but also for the entirety of Team Cap, which included a war veteran (Sam), a loyal SHIELD agent (Clint), and a girl barely out of her teens (Wanda). They do not get trials before getting sent to the Raft, they just get locked up, and there’s every indication that no one outside the Avengers and the UN even knows what happened to them. Y’know what total loss of right to trial prior to imprisonment probably looks like to a dude who survived World War II? Nothing nice, I’ll tell you that.
c. As long as we’re on the subject, the Accords clearly gave the UN the right to treat any enhanced person they deemed as ‘exceptionally dangerous’ terribly. Wanda is placed under comprehensive house arrest, and then she’s tossed in a prison and a straitjacket. When we see her in the Raft, she barely looks cogent, might’ve been drugged, etc. I mean, if I was trying to subdue a vastly powerful telekinetic and psychic, I might go for heavy sedatives as my solution of choice. They don’t even look like they’ve gotten medical treatment for their injuries–Clint’s face is still a mess. That’s not approved treatment of prisoners, ever.
d. Disregard for the need to investigate a terrorist act resulting in the death of a ruler on foreign soil. I don’t care if you have a picture of the ‘perpetrator,’ you should still be doing an investigation.
I’m sure I could think of other stuff.
TL;DR: Steve’s concerns about the Accords pan out, probably in exactly the ways he was most afraid of. Being able to amend a document later doesn’t mean that you’re not subject to it now, and being subject to the Accords is clearly a problem.
At 11 o’clock at night, you moved across the train car to sit far too close to two girls about half your age so you could interrupt our conversation to tell us how pretty we are. We said thank you, have a good night, and went back to our conversation.
You interrupted us a second time to say that you didn’t want to bother us, but we needed to hear it, how pretty we are. We said cool, thanks, have a good night, and went back to our conversation.
You interrupted us a third time to say you wouldn’t say anything else, you didn’t want to bother us, you just had to let us know. We said have a good night, and went back to our conversation.
This seemed to perplex you. You came all that way across a train car to bestow upon us this life altering knowledge - the fact we were pretty - and all you got was a polite thank you? You grumbled about gratitude, about how you better not end up on facebook, were we putting you on facebook? Why was my friend looking at her phone? Was she putting you on facebook? All you’d done was tell us we were pretty.
At this point, my friend says, “Sir, we’re trying to have a conversation. Please don’t be disrespectful.”
This was when you got angry. Disrespectful? YOU? For taking the time out of your day to tell us we were pretty? Did we know we were pretty?
“Yes, we knew,” says my friend.
Well, that was the last straw. How dare we know we were pretty! Sure, you were allowed to tell us we were pretty, but we weren’t allowed to think it independently, without your permission! And if we had somehow already known - perhaps some other strange man had informed us earlier in the day - we certainly weren’t allowed to SAY it! Where did we get off, having confidence in ourselves? You wanted us to know we were pretty, sure, but only as a reward for good behavior. We were pretty when you gifted it upon us with your words, and not a moment before! You raged for a minute about how horrible we were for saying we thought we were pretty, how awful we turned out to be.
I took a page out of your book and interrupted you. “Sir, you said you wouldn’t say anything else, and then you kept talking,” I said. “You complimented us, we said thank you, and we don’t owe you anything else. It’s late, you’re a stranger, and I don’t want to talk to you. We’ve tried to disengage multiple times but you keep bothering us.”
At this point, our train pulled into the next stop. My friend suggested we leave, so we got up and went to the door.
Seeing your last chance, you lashed out with the killing blow. “I was wrong!” you shouted at us as we left, “You’re ugly! You’re both REALLY UGLY!”
Fortunately, since our worth as human beings is in no way dependent upon how physically attractive you find us, my friend and I were unharmed and continued on with our night. She walked home; I switched to the next train car and sat down.
So, strange man, I know you’re confused. I don’t know if you’ll think about anything I said to you, but I hope you do learn this: when you give someone something - a gift, a compliment, whatever - with stringent stipulations about how they respond to it, you are not giving anything. You are setting a trap. It is not as nice as you think it is.
But you’ll be happy to know that when I sat down in the next car, a strange man several seats over called, “Hey, pretty girl. Nice guitar. How was your concert?”
“Thanks. Good,” I said, then looked away and put on my headphones, the universal sign for ‘I’d like to be left alone.’
“Wow. Fine. Whatever. Fucking bitch,” he said.
Fucking creepers. May I ask how feminism or anything similar would actually have prevented this from happening? This ya already socially unacceptable.
Men - because to be clear, I called them ‘strange men’ because they were strangers to me, not because there was anything abnormal about them - act this way because they are raised in a culture that lets them believe their time and opinions are more important than the time and opinions of women, and that as a consequence, they are owed women’s attention. They are socialized to believe women should be grateful to them for their attention, and that they are being denied something rightfully theirs when women are not.
Raising someone with feminism, the idea that all sexes/genders are equals and thus no party is beholden to or more important than another, would have prevented this by not allowing men to grow up expecting ‘rights’ that are not actually theirs. You say this is socially unacceptable, but there were 20+ people on that train who actively watched us being harassed and did not say a word. It is socially unacceptable, but this kind of thing happens to me and many other women multiple times a week, with often more traumatic results.
So, yes, I believe more feminism would prevent sexist moments like this. Also, water is wet, the atmosphere is 78% nitrogen, and cheese is addictive.
REBLOGGING FOR THE FUCKING COMMENTARY
“when you give someone something - a gift, a compliment, whatever - with stringent stipulations about how they respond to it, you are not giving anything. You are setting a trap. It is not as nice as you think it is.”
I don’t care about how much you agree with a post, if it’s made by a nazi, a terf, a racist or anything gross- don’t fucking reblog it.
Also, if you see someone otherwise really cool reblogging something with a gross source, let them know. Sometimes a person has no idea what the OP’s beliefs are and will gladly delete the post once they find out.
I always welcome it when people tell me that I’ve reblogged something by someone creepy. I’d rather know and take it down than unknowingly support creepy awful people.
I think the most plausible The Force Awakens headcanon I’ve ever run into is that the galactic media started holding Ben up as the face of the nascent New Jedi Order from a very young age, and everything that’s happened since then is basically the equivalent of a former child star meltdown.
Just, you know, instead of getting drunk and trashing his hotel room, he shivs his dad and blows up the sun, because Skywalkers never do anything small.
you know when you read a piece of writing so effortless, so graceful and unpretentious that you are both a) thrilled to the point that you have to put it down and walk in a quick circle to make it last longer but also b) PHYSICALLY INCAPACITATED with snarling jealousy and rage
Youre looking for short writing prompts right? What about a character making a meal or something? I think I saw marvel in the tags so, uh, what about Steve cooking/figuring out how to work a microwave, since they were apparently made after ww2..?
All right all right all right, Steve with cooking implements, I am very here for this. We’re going to assume that, somewhere between the movies, the Avengers DID actually cohabitate in the Tower, because I’m having trouble letting go of that part of comic canon. This is probably right after the first movie, before Ultron and Winter Soldier. Unfortunately that means no Sam, which I am sad about, fortunately that means I am not within my rights to wallow in the pain that is Bucky Barnes. And awaaaaaay we go.
“All right, and that button does what again?” Steve asked, frowning.
Tony huffed a sigh and drummed his fingers against the counter, agitated. “C’mon, Cap, we’ve done this like twelve times, how do you not have this yet?”
I still think Parker and Hardison is one of the cutest couples ever created on screen. In lots of tv shows and movies, there’s the cliche that everyone knows the characters love each other…except the characters themselves. It works pretty well, which is why it happens so often.
But what works better with Parker and Hardison is exactly what the show did. Everyone does know that they care dearly for one another and eventually love one other INCLUDING Parker and Hardison.
Parker just wasn’t ready to give that part of herself to him. She was still discovering herself and the new feelings she was feeling. The fact that Hardison knew exactly how she felt and waited for her without pushing her while still letting her know he was interested was honestly beautiful and very developed of them as characters.
So while doing some pirate research for the play I’m writing I stumbled upon one of the most amazing things I’ve ever read. In the 5th century A.D. there was a Scandinavian princess called Alwilda who’s father tried to set her up to marry Alf, the Prince of Denmark. Alwilda wasn’t cool with this so she and some female companions dressed as men, stole a ship, and sailed away. Eventually they met a company of pirates who were in need of a new captain and they were so captivated by her that they elected her as their new leader. Her crew became so infamous that Prince Alf was sent out to stop them. When their ships met he took Alwilda prisoner and she was so impressed by Alf’s skill that she agreed to marry him after all and eventually became the Queen of Denmark.
I stopped caring whether this was factually accurate about halfway through because it’s completely AWESOME.
Medievalist here for triumphant fact-checking: this story is, if not true, at least true according to the history of the Danes (Gesta Danorum) written in the 12th century by Saxo Grammaticus. You can read his account of Alwilda’s story in the original Latin here, or in English translation here. Highlights include:
She exchanged woman’s for man’s attire, and, no longer the most modest of maidens, began the life of a warlike rover. Enrolling in her service many maidens who were of the same mind, she happened to come to a spot where a band of rovers were lamenting the death of their captain, who had been lost in war; they made her their rover captain.
I love the implication that there were lots of Danish maidens just WAITING for the opportunity of a life of piracy…
En Anglais, on ne dit pas “quatre vingt dix neuf”, on dit “ninety nine” qu'on pourrait traduire comme “Hurr durr, regardez mois, j'ai un système de numérotation fonctionnel” et je crois que c'est magnifique.
