we're not kids anymore.
Aqua Utopia|海の底で記憶を紡ぐ

JVL
Game of Thrones Daily

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shark vs the universe
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❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
Three Goblin Art

@theartofmadeline
Jules of Nature

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JBB: An Artblog!
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
Cosimo Galluzzi
RMH
noise dept.
Cosmic Funnies
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@kmarttelescope13
#needthat
my love for you was like an open wound
yucky and gross 😖
- i've been practicing my poetry if you think i should blaze this one let me know
me: you literally have a disorder. this is symptoms
me: no perhaps my soul is rotten
Babe that last essay gave me a raging thinker I'm gonna have to go muse off right now
fuck baby ur so hot i wanna do the dishes with u and make u hot tea when ur sick
There's a place just down the street where they chop off angel's wings and fry them in oil. You should try some. Oh, the angels? Yeah they're regular people now. Simultaneously their freedom of flight is ripped away from them violently and yet at the same time they are granted freedom from the yoke of divine subservience so it's bitter sweet for them or some gay shit like that. Anyways the wings are really good.
my uncle was somewhat of a rascal. we were hanging out on the roof of his barn when i was ten, and we saw some shooting stars. he told me they were angels carrying messages from god. then he handed me his old hunting rifle and taught me how to nick one out of the sky, even when it was travelling all fast like that, and how to triangulate its location — taking me out in his rusty truck down dirt roads, unerring and unceasing, until we saw that gleaming lantern. he pocketed the note from god and took me down to a pinboard where he was working on deciphering the language with his friend who was a linguistics major but got kicked out of grad school. after they shook hands, they held on for just a bit too long and i started wondering why my aunt doesn’t live with my uncle anymore, but then my uncle took me back up stairs and taught me how to fry the angel up real nice, halo and all. it was tasty
I have very strong sense of self because I never belonged anywhere
Cupid missed
this poem is about being nonbinary.
trying to make like semi-realistic jon sims fanart has me looking at pictures of wounds like why am i googling what a healed throat slit looks like the feds are going to find me
jonathan sims 🤝 riz gukgak
asexual characters with monsters that represent their fears of being alone, left behind, and hated by their friends
Blue Beetle and El Paso
I would be lying if I said that I was not disappointed by the canonical home of Jaime Reyes being changed both in the movie and in recent comics. However, I would also be lying if I said that I absolutely detested the movie for whatever reason. I enjoyed the movie for what it was and what it meant to the Hispanic and Latinx communities. It is a huge deal, and I think it was done well. Going back to my original point, it is hard to be disappointed when it feels as though I am not missing out on much when Blue Beetle's relationship with El Paso was never done true justice anyway.
The West Texan Mexican-American experience is hard to fully encapsulate into one solid thought or idea. I can confidently say that the approach DC had in most iterations of the comics, cartoons, recent movie, and other forms of media always toned the experience down and made it a duller aspect of his story. I can not recall even a single time when El Paso was brought up or portrayed in a way that was recognizable to an El Pasoan across any of the aforementioned media. It always felt disconnected and out of touch, but I still held it close to my heart because it was something alluding to home.
In a way, I am happy that Blue Beetle is now from the fictional (emphasis on that) Palmera City, because it reiterates that heroes can only be super in Hollywood when they are superficially placed in a cookie-cutter big and flashy city. All I really have to say to that is, good for them. They did what they needed to in order to reach a wider audience. I am sure that the payoff for the corporate powerhouses at the end was worth it even at the cost of individuality. Come to think of it, my mind cannot really conjure up any mainstream superheroes that operate in any desert long term. Any time spent in the less "glamorous" parts of the Southwest is almost always smaller plot-driving settings that act as a stepping stone for bigger heroes and not as a home.
Anyway, all of this is to say that I understand why they did what they did with the setting. I even still happen to think the entire production team did a great job, but that does not stop me from wondering what could have been at any point in Blue Beetle's recent history if someone had used the beauty, culture, and complexity found uniquely in Sun City far more productively. There was so much more potential than the oftentimes vague and noncommittal nods given to the setting. It just was not utilized to its fullest potential, and if that would have been a continuous theme, then I am glad that they are no longer working with it.
Shifting to something less ranty, I absolutely suck at drawing. I am a STEM person through and through, but that did not stop me from visualizing all of the things I would have loved to have seen portrayed in a Blue Beetle story while experiencing being a teenager in El Paso. He was my absolute favorite superhero because he was one that I saw every single day in my hometown, and there were several things I felt he would have enjoyed doing.
For example, we have a ton of high schools. If I had to narrow down the ones I think Jaime Reyes would have attended, I would probably say my top three picks would be: El Paso High School, Bowie High School, or Austin High School. An interesting custom that schools in El Paso have is placing the first initial of a myriad of our high schools on the mountains. They are huge and visible, as well as a testament to our school spirit and pride. The Top 10 percent of most of our graduating classes wear different colored gowns at graduation than the rest of their peers, which is something I was told was not a common occurrence in most other states.
Homecoming is a huge deal, and people will buy, make, or sell Mums and corsages. It is kind of difficult to explain to people from around the states who may not be entirely familiar with what it is, but it is an old Texan tradition that is typically shared between sweethearts (dates) on the last day of Homecoming spirit week. It is something that a lot of people go all out for, and plenty of pictures exist on the internet of the various ways that they can be customized. I always thought it would be cool to see what Jaime Reyes would do for his Mum.
Prom is pretty much Prom wherever you are in the States for the most part, and ours are held at some great venues in the city, so there is not much more to say about that part of the high school experience. As far as colleges go, some of the most popular for teenagers at El Paso high schools to apply to are UTEP, EPCC, TTU, Texas A&M, and any of the other UTs (UT Austin, UT Dallas, and UT San Antonio to name a few). There are even several private universities like Rice, Baylor, and Trinity to name a few more. Hell, a lot of us even go to schools like NMSU in what is essentially our sister city of Las Cruces, there is also UNM, ASU, U of A, and CU. There are so many different choices for universities that are realistic and in the general area that Jaime absolutely could have chosen to apply to and attend. I think that seeing him initially as a Junior or Senior in an El Paso high school, and subsequently watching his transition into a college student in the city or elsewhere while grappling with his powers and responsibilities as Blue Beetle would have been so fascinating.
As far as places that it would have been nice to see him interact with at some point, it would be easier to just give a general list of my favorites. I wish that the following places could have been incorporated into the Blue Beetle story at some point long past: Chico's Tacos, Franklin Mountains State Park, Transmountain Road, Downtown, The Plaza Theater, Cielo Vista, The Fountains at Farah, Sunland Park, the Outlet Shoppes, Rosa's Cantina, Southwest University Park, Don Haskins Center, Concordia Cemetery, Scenic Drive-Overlook, the El Paso Star, Hueco Tanks, San Jacinto Plaza, St. Patrick Cathedral, any farmer's market or swap meet, any of our museums (Art, History, Archeology, Border Patrol, Science, Chamizal), the Coliseum, Ardovino's, Orange Cow, Burrito House, Bowie Bakery, Lucy's Cafe, any of our dulcerias, as well as literally any of our regional and national recreational chains. Obviously, there is so much more, but all of what I listed could have definitely been used for something whether it be a fight with a villain of the week, or opportunities to flesh out Jaime's character more socially and individually. That, and it tickles my funny bone to imagine the Teen Titans trying something like Chico's Tacos for the first time.
Unrelated, Jaime would totally listen to Khalid.
Naturally, there are so many other locations in surrounding cities and states that easily could have been used as well for any plot points that would have added even more Southwestern charm. I mean, part of New Mexico's tourism schtick is literally aliens (Roswell), and the scarab is in fact an alien now. However, for the purposes of this, I focused on El Paso. That is really all I have to say about all of this, if you stayed for my entire rant I appreciate it. If not, I totally understand, and I really just wanted to put my thoughts out into the world and write this love letter to my home city.
I love that Blue Beetle is now further into the general public's eye, and that his character means something for the entire extended community. He now has room to change, grow, and evolve from what he was before in a way that is far more defined by the expectations for a mainstream hero. Even if the El Pasoan Jaime Reyes can only exist truly in my mind, it is an okay price to pay for a narrative that touches my heart specifically. I am most certainly not a writer, so I hope that the next time we have a hero from El Paso, some of my city's charm can truly be done justice. After all, the only person who can characterize an El Pasoan correctly is an El Pasoan.
THIS!!! El Paso has such great locations for battle scenes and such unique culture. I would've LOVED to see Blue Beetle flying around downtown or going to Bowie. Just IMAGINE a shot of Jaime as Blue Beetle looking down over Scenic Point... it would've been iconic.
I'm really disappointed that Jaime couldn't be from El Paso. I agree with the point about fictional cities being more marketable, but Peter Parker still gets to be from New York, you know? Also, taking El Paso out of the story made people from EP less likely to see it. I enjoyed Blue Beetle a lot, I thought it was funny and charming, but I think keeping Jaime in El Paso would make him a lot more relatable for the target audience. Granted, that would mean that the whole finding-an-alien-and-getting-superpowers thing would feel a lot more out of place, but I think the advanced technology could still work if it was El Paso in the future.
Even Kord industries makes sense. Several big companies have headquarters or big facilities on the West side. The islands are a little more difficult to work into a rewrite, but it's not impossible. There are tons of ghost towns, huge mountains, and miles of open desert that could have secret bases.
I also think the unique politics of El Paso and its location on the border would make it a very interesting location for a superhero. The border is an obvious source of conflict, and the economics of the West side vs. the East side are also an interesting thing to explore. I know that's most likely too deep and controversial for a DC movie, but with the right writers and enough time, it could be a truly great and authentic story.
I can't speak to what happens in the comics, as I haven't read them, so maybe they do everything I suggested here and it was bad. I'm not sure. But when adapting comics into movies, corporations generally play fast and loose with the comic lore, so nothing is above being changed.
Also, I totally agree that Jaime listens to Khalid.
I was really, really disappointed that Jaime wasn't from El Paso. I'm glad that the movie got made and that he's more mainstream, and I'm very glad that the Reyes family's story is able to be told on such a large scale. It sucks that El Paso lost one of our biggest cultural exports and that we can't step into the spotlight, but in the end, I think having a Blue Beetle movie at all is remarkable, and I'd take this movie over one that portrayed El Paso badly any day. I agree that an accurate El Pasoan Jaime Reyes can only be written by an El Pasoan. Banger post 10/10 💪
"Fire Tim" so what if that was it for me
been listening to The Magnus Archives and it's my hyperfixation now sorry!!!! it's time for me to be annoying about it!!!!