I noticed something when the last episode aired and I reread ReDestro’s explanation of how Quirks directly affect someone’s personality.
That seems to be true on the surface, especially when we look at the hero students. Uraraka is bubbly and high-spirited, Bakugou is angry and explosive, Kirishima is grounded and steady, Todoroki is calm and neutral, etc. etc. I can note a few exceptions, like Amajiki and Sato. The heroes themselves are also some prime examples; Yamada is naturally loud and talkative, Nezu is secretive and strategic, Rock Lock is very set in his own mindset, Fat Gum is ready for anything life throws at him, Endeavor is abrasive and irritable, and Hawks is fun-loving and airy.
But then you get into the people whose personality HAS to revolve around their Quirk in order for them to use it, such as La Brava falling in love fast and hard, Toga being excited about blood and gore, and Trumpet being charismatic and well-spoken. Those facets of their personality come from their Quirks, yes, but in a way that seems to subvert the rest of their natural personality. La Brava, despite falling in love quickly, is shown to be an introvert and a loner beyond the person she’s in love with. Toga, despite loving blood, also adores traditionally cute things and likes to help her friends. Trumpet, despite being great at giving rousing speeches, ultimately defers to ReDestro and makes no moves to be any sort of leader beyond the role he’s been assigned.
Then we have the people who this rule doesn’t apply to at all. Such as Dabi, who is cold and collected when, by ReDestro’s theory, he should be just as hot-headed if not more so than Bakugou. Twice, who is loyal to a fault and makes friends easily, despite his Quirk working best with just himself. Compress, who is dramatic and showy, and definitely never makes himself small.
And then there’s Tomura. Tomura, who claims that all he wants is to destroy, all he can do is destroy… And then crafts his League into a family. Who built himself an army through destruction, who claims that something is wrong with society and it needs to be destroyed—and then rebuilt anew. Tomura gives the illusion of being rooted in his Quirk, but that’s more of society and All For One’s doing than anything true to his core personality. Tomura is polite and caring and hopeful, and the parts of him that are abrasive and violent were built and cultivated by All For One.
Someone similar to Tomura in this way is Shinsou.
According to ReDestro’s theory, Shinsou should be a villain. The nature of Shinsou’s Quirk is deceptive and controlling, and therefore Shinsou must be too, right? He must want to control people and he must be a chronic liar.
But neither of those things are true. Shinsou is able to trick people into responding to him, sure, but that’s a skill he no doubt had to build up overtime. That part of his personality that matches his Quirk was built not by his Quirk, but by society’s expectations of him, just like Tomura. And not only does Shinsou not want to control people—he wants to help them. He works well with others, appreciates his teammates and defers to their judgement. He wants to save people.
So, in conclusion, this could very well go for the rest of society as well.
The only reason people’s Quirks seem directly correlated to their personality is because this society judges people and shapes them based on their Quirks. A prime example of this is Aoyama, who was originally Quirkless, and yet when given a power that shines and twinkles, turns into someone that is far removed from Midoriya’s personality. Someone that fits the Quirk he’s been given.
The people who don’t fit that way of thinking are outcasts, like Dabi and Twice and Compress (and, surprisingly, Shirakumo Oboro also fits in this list). Toga is fascinated by blood because of Quirk, sure, but without her parents calling her a freak and presumably starving her to the point of madness, Toga would still be someone who defies what her Quirk makes her out to be.
So no, I don’t think it’s inherent. People in this universe only align with their Quirks because their society hasn’t let them be anything else.
Oh, I actually have kind of a theory half-expanding on & half-contradicting this if I may share. I posit that quirks can affect personalities in ways other than simply being reflected in them: and that is that they may develop a personality that calls for the quirk’s use.
Take Dabi: who’s got a fire quirk with an upper-limit surpassing anyone else in the series, but at the cost of damaging himself to reach that upper limit. So personality-wise; he’s cold, yes, but he’s also one to find a cause worth dying for and promptly start incrementally burning himself for it. Because if he wasn’t willing to do that, he wouldn’t burn at all.
And then there’s Twice, who’s gets lonely easily and drawn to people. And Mr. Compress, who developed his phantom-thief personality and some sticky fingers to go with it.
And then there’s Tomura, who’s driven to destroy as we all know; but that drive is rooted in as much righteousness as it is in hatred. Shigaraki’s destruction is directed at the unfair status quo, the urge to destroy the present to wipe the slate clean. So he connects to people, and whenever he does he sees how they were treated unfairly too, and that drives him to destroy more. The more he builds a family around him, that more he has to destroy to make room for them in a world that kicked them out.
A lot of what you said about personalities that need to revolve around their quirks would naturally overlap greatly here-in fact I’m mainly just expanding on the concept and it’s scope. Could explain some of the contradictions you see in those types though: Like Toga, who correlates love to becoming someone and wishes to express love by consuming blood, quite literally feeding her quirk of transforming into the people she consumes the blood of and becoming more like them the more she loves them. This results in an overall personality rooted in gore, empathy, and love, all tied into each other.
This could also possibly explain why those personality-quirk relationships exist more in villains while quirk-reflecting personalities are found more among heroes. People like Mic, Bakugou, & Ochako wouldn’t overtly feel an urge to use their quirks because they’d sate any such urge in their careers; thus their quirks would pop-up in personality as simple tics like a loud voice or explosive manurism. Meanwhile; civilians who don’t have the freedom to use their quirks suppress that urge. And if they fail to do so, they become villains and use their quirks for their own purpose; and that purpose naturally ties into their personality one way or another.
(Not entirely sure where Shinsou falls into this though. Maybe he is an exception and proves Redestro’s overall theory just a bit bubkis as you said.)
My personal theory for this is that quirks often effect neurotransmitters and brain function (as most effects on the body will in some way effect the brain).
For example, if Toga gets massive hits of dopamine from drinking blood, her brain is going to want to continue to, and therefore she begins to hyperfixate on it despite the rest of her personality. Increase/high dopamine has also been linked to mood disorders like schizophrenia and bipolar and is the main problem in substance abuse disorder beyond the substance that’s being abused (not saying she has either, more meaning that high amounts of the stuff is really not great for the brain)
If quirks effect brain function, it links up to far more complex behavior then someone being explosive and unstable because of their quirk.
I don’t really have more great examples of this off the top of my head (I have bunch written down, it just takes forever to explain and’s hard to remember).
But yeah, basically the brain often shows up with conflicting relations based on chemicals (aka ADHD, the “stimulation” disorder is caused by a dopamine depressant in the brain) and what seems to influence someones personality more is the level of instability their quirk has/would cuase their mental health.
Toga, as mentioned before, is one example, but another is Bakugou (and the running fan theory about him having increased adrenaline), or Shigaraki (and his compulsive/childish/delusional behavior). There quirks are not stable (either emotionally, as for Toga hurting animals at a young age is a massive warning sign for every violent crime risk under the sun, or chemically, as for Bakugou you really do not wnat to be sweating nitrogylcerin, or reactively as Tomura’s quirk is literally just destroying everything he touches) and the people who have them are equally not. The stability aspect is the most interesting thing for me, as the rest of the LOV is honestly along those same lines (same with almost every other villain we meet in MHA). Their quirks aren’t stable and therefore neither are their mental states regardless of how strong/dangerous their quirk is.
Reading this thread reminded me of these mha vigilantes panels. While I usually take everything afo says with a grain of salt, he does make a lot sense of what truly makes a “villain” in their universe. (Afterall, he’s #1 villain maker according to Hori)
It’s essentially a term used to describe anyone who’s in balance between their quirk and mental state.
Y’ever read something and have understanding that has eluded you interminably suddenly stop, curl up, and snuggle neatly into a fold in your brain because a new way way opened to it?
taking the threshold of adulthood as 18, you are likely to spend at least 52 years as a fully grown adult
at the age of 30 you have lived less than one quarter of your adult life (12/52 years)
'middle age' is typically considered to be between 45-65
it is extremely common to switch careers, start new relationships, emigrate, go to college for the first or second time, or make other life-changing decisions in middle age
it's wild that I even have to spell it out, but older adults (60+) still have social lives and hobbies and interests.
you can still date when you get old. you can still fuck. you can still learn new skills, fashionable, be competitive. you can still gossip, you can still travel, you can still read. you can still transition. you can still come out.
young doesn't mean peaked. you're inexperienced in your 20s! you're still learning and practicing! you're developing social skills and muscle memory that will last decades!
there are a million things to do in the world, and they don't vanish overnight because an imaginary number gets too big
the objectively correct way for bnha to have gone was Spinner as protag. I'm not biased. It's just the truth.
So I have an AU where Spinner is the Ninth OFA Protagonist. Here is my initial post and idea. Here is snippets from it in my draft and scrapes collection.
And here is more:
-
[When the other Heroes and police are disinterested in learning about the Villains as people, Shuuichi starts his own investigation. That means he swallows the bad taste in his mouth and goes to ask Hawks for the research he had on the League.]
“Don’t bother with the mother,” Hawks tells him. “She killed herself after Kamino. The father is in Iwate. Well— that’s where I found him five months ago. Might have moved, though, cuz, you know,” Hawks shrugs, raising his eyebrows in mock surprise, “the whole collapsed state situation.”
[…]
Toga Himiko. Specialized Quirk Counseling from age 3 to 8.
Shuuichi remembers quirk counseling. It was just the school’s general one, the session at the beginning of every school year in elementary school, but… He hated those agonizing 45 minutes when he was shuffled into a room with a woman who looked at him and found something wrong with every inch of his body.
You don’t need special shoes. Just file down the claws on your feet. File down the claws on your hands too. Too bad we can’t do anything about that hair… When you’re at school, don’t lick your eyes. Don’t eat bugs. Oh, you don’t do that? Well, just remember it. Don’t frown. It makes your face look… rude.
And the most important rule of all, don’t touch anyone.
Flipping through the report, Shuuichi skims each page. Regulating appearance (facial)… to learn appropriate expressions of affection… cognition/behavioral modification: utilize system of rewards and punishments…
He stops several pages in, attention caught by a sentence circled with red ink.
H. said father told her she was ‘not human’ again - !!! Call child welfare? Reason: Discipline, in response to problem behavior. Talked with parents - avoid using harsh language.
Shuuichi stares at the words until they are no longer recognizable as words. Just strange lines on paper, no meaning, an indecipherable alien code. Something only a lunatic can read and understand and agree with.
[...]
“She’s not an evil psychopath.” Those two days he spent at the hideout, Toga called him ‘Shuuichi-kun’. When he snapped at her to stop, she giggled a little, but switched to using ‘Spinner-kun’. She asked him about Uraraka, wanted to know if she was doing good at school, if she hadn’t been too upset at losing in the Sports Festival semi-finals (and wasn’t she brave? And cute? All battered and bleeding from her nose—).
Ask him, and Shuuichi will not hesitate to admit that he thinks Toga Himiko is weird. But no more than the weirder of the UA kids. He even wants to say she seems to be less of a brat than some of them too, but it’s really only Bakugou and Monoma that come to mind.
Which actually does prove his point. If her own parents hadn’t yelled in her face that they didn’t want her… if the counselor had gone ahead and called the welfare office…
“She’s not a bad person,” Shuuichi says.
Hawks says nothing, only rubbing his chin in thought.
It’s proof of a cruel universe, Shuuichi thinks, that anyone else he says this to, everyone he has said this to, they’d kick him out of the room. They’d want him to get psychologically evaluated. The one person who would take that statement and actually let it sit in their mind? Hawks, who tried what Shuuichi was doing and failed in the most gruesome way possible. The Bad Ending right in front of Shuuichi as he’s trying to find any other ending.
“She’s not a bad person,” Hawks repeats. “Sure. We’ll go with that. You’ve come up with a plan for stopping her yet?”
“She—” Shuuichi clenches his jaw, like if he bites down hard enough, the pressure will force his idea to become comprehensive and articulate. “Toga Himiko was trying to talk to Uraraka and Asui. She wanted to talk. About…” He grasps for the points he tried to pull out of Uraraka’s confused report of Toga’s incoherent questions. “…consequences, or whatever. If we could just get her to come back and talk— discuss what she wants, make a deal, something we can both agree to…”
“Are we talking about reasonable requests here? Or does anything go?” Hawks asks. “If she’s asking to bathe in blood, I don’t think that’s gonna fly…”
Shuuichi slams a hand onto the table. “I’m serious here!”
“Hey, easy,” Hawks puts his hands up. “So am I. It’s a serious question. Let’s say we want her to surrender, we’re willing to make a concession or two. Fine, okay.” His eyes flicker to meet Shuuichi’s gaze directly. “But there’s a limit to what Heroes can allow, you know, and still call themselves Heroes.”
Sometimes, Hawks brings up moments he had with Tokoyami, often the times when the kid tries out being mysterious or cryptically wise, but ends up being adorable (Hawks’ word). Wedging unexpected words into sentences to hint at— something; being vague to mask and enhance something totally ordinary. Kids, amirite?
When Hawks does it, Shuuichi wants to shake him. That Hawks does not use ‘we’ when he talks about Heroes and limits does not escape Shuuichi’s notice. Whether it was on purpose or not, whatever it says about how Hawks sees himself - Shuuichi can’t give a crap. He wants to tell Hawks that he doesn’t get to exclude himself from the group, whatever the reason. So he was a spy and assassin and the HSPC’s attack dog, and he did unheroic things. He’s still a Hero, ranking Number 2 in the public eye. Nagant revealed to Shuuichi that regular Heroes are only able to stand and smile because the HPSC had her lined up corpses underneath their feet. If Hawks was an essential gear that made the engine run, he’s part of the whole machine. And the machine is all too happy to get Shuuichi to kill Shigaraki as well.
He doesn’t say it, though, because honestly, Shuuichi wishes he could do just that - stop calling himself a Hero. Lately, he has been thinking of himself as the last ditch anti-AFO plan. He’s the just vessel for One For All. He’s the guy who found Excalibur on the ground instead of properly pulling it out from the stone.
He’s not a Hero, but he’s still a Hero. So he’s here.
“What did Bubaigawara ask for?” Shuuichi asks instead.
Bubaigawara Jin, who could smoke through his mask. Who protested when Hikiishi– Magne scrunched up her nose at that and asked him to go outside, but immediately dunked his cigarette into his glass of beer. Who then loudly told everyone smoking was bad, so keep those lungs healthy. Bubaigawara did everything he was told by anyone in the League, eager to prove to his new boss and co-workers that he was useful. Everything except–
Showing Shuuichi that phone picture of the kids, even though Shigaraki had forbidden any contact or information. It was before the night of the raid, when everyone allowed themselves to be friendly because they thought Shuuichi was going to take Shigaraki’s offer and join the League, but the kindness of his help existed; was real.
Out of everyone in the League, Shuuichi would’ve picked Bubaigawara out to be the one most easy to convince to surrender. His pre-League crimes were just a string of robberies for the means to pursue the good life. Dabi might have manipulated the footage, but Bubaigawara undeniably had tears in his eyes, desperate to run back to his comrades. He cared about people; that trait hadn’t been totally exhausted yet.
When Hawks’ expression stays the usual blasé, but his eyes mildly take on that steady soldier gaze, Shuuichi feels a pseudo-Danger Sense spike through his mind. He was a decent guy, Hawks had said. I think he really was a good person.
Before Hawks can say anything, Shuuichi gets his accusation out first. “You said you talked to him.”
“That’s ‘cause I did–”
“You said you gave him the chance to surrender.” Shuuichi can feel his claws piercing into the sofa leather underneath him. “You said you told him you’ll help him. You got him to trust you and you offered him an out, you were going to help him, and he said no. Then you had no choice when Dabi attacked and he ran, he was going to use his quirk, so you–” Shuuichi swallows. “You killed him.”
“...I had to, at the time. There was no other option.” Hawks looks somber and sincere, and it might have convinced Shuuichi if Hawks would just drop that fucking look in his eyes. “But I liked Bubaigawara–.”
“I don’t care if you liked him!” Shuuichi seethes. “You liked him, I liked him, his multiple personalities liked him! It doesn’t matter. This isn’t about liking. You said you talked to him. Did you?”
And suddenly, it’s full soldier mode.
“I talked to him,” Hawks says, much more curt. “I said I didn’t want to fight him. I asked him to come quietly. I said I’ll help him start over after his sentence.”
“Was that what he wanted? Was that the ‘reasonable request’?”
The pause before he replies is the real answer, even as Hawks says, “It’s more than what I am ever supposed to do.”
“You didn’t ask,” Shuuichi translates for him. “Why are you even here? For a good laugh? Dumbass wants to talk to the Villains and, what? You want to see–”
“Bubaigawara said he’d trade his soul for the League’s happiness.” Hawks says. Shuuichi twitches at the voice that’s without the usual Fukuoka accent and with not a single variation in tone. “He was too loyal. He would’ve done anything they told him to do. What Bubaigawara Jin wanted was for the League to be happy.”
With exaggerated movements, Hawks glances at him, then looks over the papers on the table, all the files on each member of the League, files Hawks himself put together. “Do you see the problem, Iguchi? There was no deal to be made there. It was impossible, even before taking into account that this is the League.”
He was a decent guy, Hawks said. I think he really was a good person. He was a decent guy. I think he really was a good person. He was–
The words play in a loop in Shuuichi’s head. It overwhelms everything else, stopping him from having to go forward and follow the cascade of connections. He would let this go on infinitely, if the words didn’t also bring with them a distant but increasingly encroaching grief.
Bubaigawara, who showed him how the kids were doing, against his boss’ orders, and Shuuichi can still remember that moment when he saw the picture of Bakugou and Tokoyami, tied up but looking enraged (Bakugou) and exasperated (Tokoyami), undoubtedly alive and literally kicking. The moment fear unclenched its icy hold on his heart; the immensity of relief numbing him, having pushed out of his body every other sensation. He just barely remembers glimpsing a thumbs up at the corner of his vision and hearing ‘now stop being naughty’ from far, far away.
What did Bubaigawara want? For the League to be happy. For people he cared about to be happy. A completely reasonable request, now unreasonable. A most basic and common and straight up corny thing, happiness, made impossible through distortions that Shuuichi knows must have existed to twist Bubaigawara’s life into a wreck, but he cannot see them nor understand what and how and why. He cannot right them, no matter how much he wants to.
“You liked him, and you killed him,” Shuuichi says. “You liked him, because at heart he’s a good person, actually a good person, and you killed him.”
“Iguchi–”
“If you really did like him,” Shuuichi says. “If you really did think he was a good person, you would’ve tried every single thing you could’ve done to not kill him. To not let him die.” A dizzying rage burst from his chest. “You would’ve saved him. That’s the fucking job.”
[...]
For all that Shuuichi is unsympathetic to Hawks’ quiet angsting about his dirty hands and wings, he recognizes that it really comes from a place of fear. It comes from the future, the one where he ends up killing Shigaraki and then it’s his turn to be forced to live with his dirty self. Though if he’s lucky, he dies of old age at 35 and takes One For All with him. Plus, he has his tried and true method of withdrawing from life. He spent fifteen years emptying himself of all thought and emotions and life; what’s another fifteen?
It’s tempting to retreat back to old habits. It’s easy to do. Shuuichi can give up and stop thinking about any of this. He listens to his order and follows the war plan to go kill Toga, kill Shigaraki, kill All For One. He has permission, he has all of Japan and the world backing him up. He’ll finally be doing his job: defeating bad guys and protecting good people.
He won’t be just somebody, he’ll be the Hero that slayed the Demon Lord. His greatest fantasy come to life.
[...]
“So the League has to die because this world has thrown them to the wolves? They gotta die because they see no future for themselves in this world, but wanting to live, they’ve decided to make a new one? You know that’s who they really are. You knew that was who Bubaigawara truly was.” Shuuichi is now all but yelling. “They aren’t monsters. They’re not evil. They’re just people. Just because they— It shouldn’t matter what they’ve done. They’re people. And Heroes save people, don't they!?”
Hawks’ eyes are hard. The look of a parent watching a child throw a tantrum and refusing to budge. “Iguchi. How about you consider this. The people back in your hometown - they aren’t monsters; probably aren’t bad people either. Not usually. Not to their friends and family—”
By the time Shuuichi’s head’s clear enough, he already had Hawks by the collar and pinned to the wall. Hawks looks neither surprised nor offended about this. He allowed this. Shuuichi wants to punch him.
“What are you trying to say?” Shuuichi’s claws pierce through Hawks’ jacket. “Bastard, what are you trying to say? Don’t you dare…”
“I dare you to consider it, Iguchi.”
“You think I haven’t done that?!” Shuuichi yells. “You think I’ve never tried? I’ve thought about it. I’ve thought about it for years. I know it already! I’ve made myself accept it. I know! I know they’re…”
But he can’t say it out loud. He doesn’t want to. He refuses to. The truth that’s a lie. Shuuichi won’t tell that lie.
“If you had it your way,” Hawks says, even and nearly soft. “You would call every one of them criminals. You would want them punished. You still hold that grudge. Maybe you’ve even thought about taking revenge on the worst of them… haven’t you?”
Shuuichi doesn’t answer.
Of course he had. Who wouldn’t, if you were powerless and fearful and angry. When you’re small, all you wanted was for them to stop, to leave you alone. Once you’re old enough to grasp the difference between life and death, and the knowledge that this was something you can affect, you realize, you can stop this forever.
Hawks continues. “What makes them so different from the League that you think the League should be allowed mercy, forgiveness, but not those villagers? That you’ll save Shigaraki, but not your classmates, your village?”
“Save them?” Shuuichi echos. “Save them? Save them from what?”
“What else? From their hatred.”
Shuuichi can’t think. Too many thoughts, too many emotions. He doesn’t want to think. He has no answer.
Hawks brings his hands to Shuuichi’s own, untangling his claws from the collar. “The League must be stopped, Iguchi.”
“I know that,” Shuuichi says. Automatic. A phrase spoken so often it’s worn out; empty. As is his next word. But–
Hawks doesn’t let him reach it. “They have to be stopped because they’re dangerous. They’re killers. They’ve killed so many people already, and they’re about to kill a horrific number more.” Then he pushes Shuuichi away.
“…The people of your hometown, whatever they did, it was wrong. It was not justified. You didn’t deserve the treatment you got. But they’re not killers. They haven’t killed anyone. And they weren’t planning for people to die.”
No, they weren't.
They didn’t, because the world had moved past saying people like Shuuichi should be drowned at birth. The world had overcome that desire years ago and stopped considering it a reasonable opinion. Who cares that the last massacre was only 30 years ago, when Shuuichi’s parents were alive, middle school students who walked quickly to and from school, careful not to stay outside any longer then they had to but still knowing that won’t protect them from being attacked on someone’s moody whim and left to die in the dirt? Who cares that half of those who did the advocating for purges got to pass away in old age on a soft bed? Because those kinds of people are no longer a threat. The children they raised aren’t killers, have never set fire to homes or stabbed a pitchfork through someone. And the children those children raised would never even consider that, because they knew it would be too extreme, too much - too inconvenient to them. They don’t want anyone to die.
They only made Shuuichi wish he was dead. Wish he hadn’t been born. Sometimes Shuuichi even wished that whenever they opened their mouth or thought up a silly prank, they would stop and instead just pick up a bat and beat the shit out of him, because then the hurt he felt would be physical, visible on his body as undeniable evidence, as a most truthful witness with the most vivid memory, the damage calculable and convertible to consequences. And maybe when the broken bones heal and the bruises fade, the pain would go with it, instead of burrowing into his heart and staying in that hollowed space.
(He was naive back then. That the scars would only mark him as victim and not as potential danger - because what scars did not hurt? What scars did not become a reminder of pain and injustice and the seeds of resentment? Until he saw what was underneath Shoji’s mask, he hadn’t realize–)
His heart is ragged with holes.
One of Hawks’ numerous abilities is apparently mind-reading, because he gently told Shuuichi, “You’re still alive.”
Am I? Shuuichi wants to ask.
But he is. That is true. Shuuichi survived. He had enough strength to not succumb; he had enough cowardice to stay. Whichever it was, they didn’t manage to kill him. They’re not murderers, not like the League. And even if he did end up dead…
What’s worse? Destruction in an instant, or destruction spread over the years, eroding the control he had over his life and moving his arm to point the knife at himself? Destruction attributable to one person, a tangible individual being, and easy to lock away; or destruction that everyone partakes in, that saturates the very air? They all breathe it in and exhale it out, the damage spread so evenly no one was innocent, but neither were they guilty in any real way, solid and mattering. When calling for someone to take responsibility, there is no one to answer. Blood on their hands but only specks, and if everyone has to have that drop of blood on their hands, then that’s just a normal part of life.
(There’s blood on him too.)
Bugs in his school lunches; face pushed into mud - lizards crawl on the ground. His classmates giggled and teased each other. Their bullying was an exotic vacation - Oh my god, you’re so mean! - (They knew it was wrong to do, they knew) - a thrill to try out. Pesticides sprayed at him, farming hoes brandished - no pests on my land. All those adults with disgust in their eyes, then dancing amusement when he had to comply.
(And then everyone else - eyes darting away, lips pressed into a thin line, silence for a shield - ignore it, just ignore it. A lecture, a lesson. You can handle it. You have to accept it. It will make you stronger.)
But it wasn’t like they did anything truly horrible. They knew not to cross that boundary (though sometimes—just a foot over the line, but always taken back quickly - they would never go that far). It’s not like they held him down and forced salt into his eyes and down his throat. It’s not like they caged and starved him. They didn’t hurt him like their grandfathers would’ve. He’s alive, because they aren’t bad people.
They are good people.
They laughed and loved and worked hard and wanted only happy lives. A whole community. Good people.
For so long, Shuuichi had wanted to see evidence of their evil, to know they were cruel and sadistic and hurt everyone they came into contact with. He wanted so badly for them to be sociopaths and manipulative toxic ghouls, and one day, surely, they would see comeuppance, and justice would arrive, because otherwise, anything otherwise—
—it would mean a good person thought he deserved his hurt.
A good person didn’t care about him. A good person can hurt him and still consider themselves kind and compassionate. In them was no divergence from good behavior - it was their normal and mundane. And so it had to be his normal too.
If they’re good, and they felt his suffering was okay; if they’re good and they tormented him and ignored him, and they go on to have happy lives because they are good people, then what does that make him?
In this world, good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. This is the world he’s fighting to preserve. Most of it has done nothing that would deserve destruction and death. They truly haven’t. Not guilty. Free to go. Return things back to what they were before.
[...]
Hawks says, “We’ll change things after this.”
A change out of fear. A grudging change that was not optional, because the consequences of their society’s failures were no longer tolerable or ignorable. A change that put no blame on themselves, seen as a concession to the disagreeable elements of society to placate them, to tame them. Years later, when the change has saturated the culture, history will not remember this as a concession. It will remember this as a historical success, a change people chose to progress, to become a better world.
The League won’t get to be a part of this. They are never to experience even a second of that better world they forced everyone to create, never to experience a normal that didn’t hurt. They should’ve swallow down their pain and make do. They should’ve accepted the way the world was. If they had wanted things to change, they should’ve done it in a better way. Support the Heroes that do so much good at their expense. Make nice with the people that emptied their heart. Let everyone else have that golden peace, even as their own peace shrivels up and crumbles.
Because good things happen to good people; and bad things happen to bad people.
i know we're all sick of self-care being a marketing tactic now, but i don't think a lot of us have any other concept of self-care beyond what companies have tried to sell us, so i thought i'd share my favorite self-care hand out
brought to you by how mad i just got at a Target ad
Now THAT’S a self care resource! If you’ve gotten distracted by capitalism’s appropriation of “self-care” and watering the meaning down to nothing this is a super helpful guide to cut through the bullshit.
Also From Microsoft’s own FAQ: "Note that Recall does not perform content moderation. It will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers. 🤡
I’m curious since I’ve seen people give him the most random names, from Alfred Fucking Jones to names that are actually plausible like Alfred Franklin Jones.
So, if you want, let me know what does the F. stand for in your opinion
Personally I’m into puritan names like “Fight the Good Faith of Faith” or “Flying from Fornication.” Though I also like the headcanon that he changes it whatever he feels like. Have all F-middle names.
I never really got around to finishing this piece from a longer series about the American Civil War because my interests steered a bit away from purely American history. Alfred is writing to Arthur after the Trent Affair and the resulting Lyons-Seward treaty that took the US and UK nearly from being in a state of war over the possible British acknowledgement of the Confederacy to the British and American navies formally working to end the Atlantic slave trade and informally support the Union's blockade of the south's maritime trade. Idk if anyone remembers it, but it takes place after a piece I wrote where Matt holds Clara Barton and several Union doctors at the end of a rifle to keep them from hacking Alfred's leg off. Also, Alfred's in really bad shape and actually misses Arthur so that is why the tone is muuuuuch different than it usually is between them and also I based it off actual letters in my archive at work when I had to put together a collection of them, and human suffering rips my heart out through my ribs even 160 years later :')
Virginia
1862
Dear Father,
Yes, I meant to write father. This note is penned in a trembling hand, but it will be at my behest that Matthew delivers it to you. It will be my last before I meet with Death again, and I find myself filled with a strange heartsickness and gratitude. Thank you, Father, for releasing Matthew from his services to you. I do not know in what spirit you did so, but I am grateful. He has been a great comfort to me these past days and has endeavoured with the devil's determination to keep me alive. He may have told you about his actions at Antietam on my behalf, but I know he did not tell you of the credit to you he is nor the courage with which he conducted himself. There is no better brother nor a better son god could have divined for our providence in his wisdom. I say all this not merely out of praise for him, though he always deserves as much, but to urge you to heed the words he will speak to you at my bidding and the requests he will make.
As I said, this is my last letter to you. I have been struck by a piece of shell and find my left shoulder horribly mangled, and I know death is inevitable and that it will not be a brief absence from the world. I am writing to you because I know you would be delighted to hear from your dying son. I hope it is a relieved delight and not a satisfied one because I think of my deaths as a boy again and again. And of the lessons you once had so much patience for. I am fragile; death is near, and I will die very far from home, Father. I am home, this is my own country, but it rejects me as this life will soon enough and so I am far from it.
This is why I write to you now, beyond just the strange sickness in my heart that seems little to do with my wounds. Matthew will write to you as well, at my request, with more detail and perhaps even more than that when he next sees you. He will, at least, give you the particulars of this death. I will send along some goods dry and sundry for you and our family. Matthew has clipped a lock of my hair for you and has collected my cufflinks and rings for Aunt Brighid, for she has been a mother to me these past years. He is to purchase Birds of America and any other Audobon he can find for your youngest, as I have been told they apparently longed for a copy of their own. Across my country, the sons of my republic fall and their families mourn. I do not want to go unmourned by my own family, as temporary as it may be and as little as we desire those ties. Please, allow me these gifts and what affection you have left for me in your heart if you need to deny what I ask next.
The land beneath my feet is alien to me. It is a place in Virginia, and it rejects me. I am, at this moment, only the Union. The place I was born, where you proudly first beheld me on a beach at the mouth of the James River, rejects me. There is no replacement for me yet. God, and your judgement willing, that will not change. If I must beg you for my life, father, I will. If there is any love of me in your chest, do not acknowledge the Confederacy. My life is slipping from my fingers, and if I cannot have the comfort I knew as a boy from you, please allow me to keep the gift of my life. You know as much as I do that the cause for which I have fought and died is just if there be any justice under God's eye. Please, Father, for the sake of any love you bore me, keep your hand on my shoulder and do not guide me into my grave. Even if it is only because I am the devil you know, stay your hand in your acknowledgement of the Confederacy and steer me from my permanent rest. We have made such progress these past months, and I do not wish to see our family's blood shed for any reason.
Matthew will also make my appeals. I beg you to listen. I beg you to listen and that this letter bids my shockingly fond and long farewell, Father. May we meet again in this life, by your doing and your love of me matched only by the boyhood fondness I have of you still. With faith and great filial love, I wish you good health and good bye as I meet this end.
It can be difficult to find certain Hetalia episodes, so I’ve compiled every Hetalia episode (sub and dub) into a Google Drive, alongside navigation docs for easy searching. Every episode is on here, including the movie and OVAs for both sub and dub. Happy watching :)
you can click on this button once daily to help palestine and support other causes in the middle east for free. it takes literally 5 seconds and could help save lives so please take the time to click and share this link.
TAKING A CLOSER LOOK AT THE JEDI ORDER IN STAR WARS CANON, PART IV [A Meta/Reference Guide on AO3]
Aka, SO WHAT DO THE JEDI SAY AND DO IN THE ACTUAL CANON? This is the third part in my series of Jedi Culture and Teachings in Canon, where I have officially crossed the 100k after four years of working on this project, everyone congratulate me! And also send me prayers and strength because I still have something like two dozen novels to comb through and probably half a hundred more comics.
So what's the point of all this? Well, first of all, I enjoy doing it, it's surprisingly fun to collate all of these citations! But it's also meant as a reference guide for if you want write meta about the themes and actions of the Jedi in the narrative or if you want some ideas for what's in the canon for wordbuilding so you can write fic or build further on what's already there! Do what you want with it, babes, I put all this together so you don't have to dig through 500 different pieces of Star Wars to find out if they tell you whether or not Jedi younglings have ever tried to toast a block of cheese with a lightsaber. (Spoiler alert: They absolutely did try it and it was a disaster and I love every one of those hellion younglings.)
This is a guide to pretty much anything I could think of as relevant to the Jedi--worldbuilding on how the Force feels to use, descriptions of the Jedi Temple, any school classes the Jedi had, attitudes towards the Jedi from the public, why the Jedi decide to join any given conflict, all the swear words they use, anything I could get my hands on regarding Jedi healing--all of it is put into these guides and this is another 25k+ of reference for you to nerd out about if you want.
The guide is broken down into seven sections as before:
How the Force Works
Jedi Culture & Philosophy & Teachings
Jedi As a People
Psychic Space Wizards Doing Psychic Space Wizard Things
So I was inspired by this post to watch the first Civil War trailer, and I was intrigued, for the trailer seemed to promise a much better movie than what we actually got. Therefore, I decided to compare stuff in that trailer to stuff in the finished movie, and what I found was very revealing. For Civil War, despite the title, is very much not a Captain America movie: and this trailer provides some insights into how it came to be so. It offers multiple insights into what we were robbed of, and how exactly the movie was maliciously turned against Steve and his friends. Indeed, the sheer extent to which the movie has been twisted is truly enraging. This is going to be rather long, so get ready:
The first thing that is shown in the trailer is the scene of Steve, Bucky, and Sam in the warehouse after Bucky wakes up. Steve asks pleadingly, "Buck, do you remember me?" And after Bucky gives his response, Steve is shown with an expression of pure relief and joy and hope. This is in sharp contrast to what we got in the actual movie. In the actual movie, Steve asks almost accusingly, "Which Bucky am I talking to?": and his expression after Bucky's answer is significantly muted. It is clear that the change here was done to both downplay Steve and Bucky's relationship, and try to make Bucky less sympathetic. First of all, Steve went from "Buck" to "Bucky" which while still a nickname is much less familiar. Second of all, the change in question is quite telling. The original question—"Do you remember me?"—is very eager and hopeful, and indicates a clear trust that Bucky is not dangerous. The new question, on the other hand—"Which Bucky am I talking to?"—is much more resigned, and implies that there is a good chance that Bucky is dangerous and not in control of himself.
There is another difference between the two clips that is quite noteworthy. In the trailer, right after Steve says "Buck," there is a pause, and a nicely centered, well-lit shot of Bucky looking attentively at Steve is shown before he continues. In the finished movie, however, Bucky is not shown until Steve finishes his question: and the shot of Bucky is noticeably darker, and he is crammed into the side of the frame, and unlike the trailer his face is turned away from the camera and obscured by his hair. This was clearly done to try to make Bucky seem more dangerous, and prevent the audience from trusting him.
The trailer conversation continues as follows:
Steve: You're a wanted man.
Bucky: I don't do that anymore.
Steve: Well the people who think you did are coming right now. And they're not planning on taking you alive.
Once again, this is in sharp contrast to the conversation in the finished movie:
Sam: Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?
Bucky: What did I do?
Steve: Enough.
Bucky: Oh, God, I knew this would happen. Everything Hydra put inside me is still there. All he had to do was say the godd—n words.
It's clear that the change here was once again to make Bucky less sympathetic. Intriguingly, based on the trailer, it seems like the words might originally have been less of a factor, and Bucky ended up in the warehouse for a different reason. But besides that, the conversation is also much more compassionate. Bucky was given a chance to explicitly say, "I don't do that anymore," confirming that he has thoroughly rejected what Hydra tried to make him into, and Steve's subsequent response—"the people who think you did are coming right now,"—emphasizes Bucky's innocence and the fact that he is being targeted and endangered for something he didn't do. This is not brought up in conversation in the finished movie, however. Bucky is not allowed to bring up the fact that he's not the Winter Soldier anymore, and the fact that he is being wrongfully hunted is ignored as well. Instead Sam immediately asks, "Just like that, we're supposed to be cool?"—as if Bucky had done something wrong when he was literally just mind controlled—and when Steve tells Bucky that he did "Enough," which emphasizes Bucky's guilt rather than his innocence, Bucky responds, "Everything Hydra put inside me is still there," which clearly implies that he has not in fact changed at all from his Winter Soldier days.
But what's really interesting is that dialogue that is very similar to the warehouse conversation actually does appear in the finished movie, just in a different place: in the apartment in Bucharest. Here is that conversation, with Sam's comments removed for clarity:
Steve: You know me?
Bucky: You're Steve. I read about you in a museum.
Steve: I know you're nervous. And you have plenty of reason to be. But you're lying.
Bucky: I wasn't in Vienna. I don't do that anymore.
Steve: Well the people who think you did are coming here now. And they're not planning on taking you alive.
This indicates a substantial reshuffling of scenes, because much of that dialogue was clearly intended to be in the warehouse; we have several clear shots of Steve in the warehouse speaking those lines. Also, Steve's line changes from "coming right now" to "coming here now" which implies that in the first instance, the pursuers didn't know their location, and if they were in the warehouse that would make sense. So this doesn't seem to be just a case of the trailer being intentionally misleading. And, just as with the changes to the warehouse conversation, these changes afforded the movie a chance to downplay Steve and Bucky's relationship and cast doubt on Bucky. For example, Steve's earnest "Buck, do you remember me?" has been changed to just a flat, quick "You know me?" The question has been altered to make it much less personal, and to deemphasize their history. Also, Bucky being allowed to say that he's not the Winter Soldier anymore is now moved to before the events of the warehouse, so that once the words become a factor the movie can continue to insinuate that he's dangerous. In addition, while Steve is still allowed to draw some measure of attention to Bucky's innocence, Bucky immediately responds to the revelation that he's being wrongfully attacked with "That's smart. Good strategy," so that his attackers receive a measure of validation also. It certainly did not seem like he was going to respond thus in the warehouse; if he had, it would have been an abrupt and jarring change of tone. The clear and concerted attempt to slander Bucky, and Steve by proxy for believing in him, is quite heinous.
The next thing that does not appear in the finished movie comes a little bit later. There is a clip where Bucky is shown for a second before a car passes him and then he disappears—the background is clearly Bucharest—and then it cuts to Steve looking out a window in Lagos. Given the discrepancy of location, as well as the fact that Lagos came before Bucharest, this might just have been the trailer being intentionally misleading. After all, following The Winter Soldier many people wanted to see more of Steve and Bucky's relationship, and Marvel knew of this: but since with everything else that went on in Civil War there wasn't much time for that, they might have put some quick extra footage in the trailer to lure people in.
However, it is also equally possible that this was something that actually was supposed to be in the movie but then got cut. After all, based on the warehouse dialogue, some scenes did get reshuffled: and later in the trailer we are shown Steve jumping off a truck to get a boost into the building instead of being lifted up by Wanda, and there are more assailants when he gets in the building, and there does not appear to be any gas. In addition, unlike the second trailer we are not given any hints of Rumlow's explosion, so it's possible that Lagos was not originally meant to be the inciting incident for the Accords, and that it did actually originally come after Steve saw Bucky in Bucharest. And indeed, the footage the trailer gives of Steve looking out that window never appeared in the final film; he is clearly looking out the window quite yearningly, not in the cool and collected manner of someone gathering information for a mission. So either Lagos was a scene that got moved in the reshuffling, or that footage was shot with the sole intention of tricking people into thinking Civil War would feature more of Steve and Bucky's relationship.
The next difference can be seen in a bit of audio. Natasha says, "I know how much Bucky means to you," unlike in the movie where she says, "I know how much Barnes means to you." And this appears to have been a change that was made fairly late in the game: in the movie, Scarlett Johansson pauses briefly before saying "Barnes" indicating that this was not what she was used to saying. Such a change once again intentionally serves to try to distance the audience from Bucky, and make them care about him less. So we're seeing a clear pattern here.
The next change is significantly more alarming. While Natasha is saying, "Stay out of this one. Please," a shot of Steve standing where he went after he found out about Peggy's death is shown. Now, there are two things this could mean: either 1) Marvel knew that people wanted to see more of Steve and Bucky’s relationship in Civil War, but since the end product didn’t have much to offer they put an unrelated scene in the trailer to trick people, or 2) that scene actually was originally intended to be about Bucky, and Peggy’s funeral was something that was added later. It's hard to tell which one it could be. Again, it is possible that this was done with the express intention of tricking people. However, again, it is also possible that this was something that got changed. Steve looks much more clearly upset in the movie than the trailer: and it's entirely possible that Steve's message on the phone was supposed to be something about Bucky, and Peggy's funeral was something that ended up replacing this. After all, it's not like Peggy's funeral had much impact on the plot; its main purpose appeared to be to both remind people that Steve was supposed to have had a romance with Peggy, and to set up his romance with Sharon. (And none of this was hinted at in the trailer.) Stucky shippers have long speculated that the Staron romance in Civil War was fueled by gay panic, and it appears that they might have been right. Whatever the situation was, however, such shenanigans are truly despicable and disgusting.
(Shortly afterwards, in response to an argument Tony made about the Accords, Steve is heard saying "That's not the way I see it," and this is immediately followed by Tony saying "Sometimes I want to punch you in your perfect teeth." I don’t think this was intentional, but such an exchange perfectly sums up how Tony acts for pretty much the entire movie.)
Soon afterward is another interesting change. Footage from the scene in Bucharest where the police in the helicopter shoot at T’Challa and Bucky is shown, but then instead of T’Challa and Bucky, the target appears to be Steve. The clip that is supplied here is clearly from the portion of the movie that includes Bucky meeting Zemo and Bucky's subsequent escape, based on the clothes Steve is wearing, as well as the fact that it looks like Steve is in front of the damaged helicopter. It looks like the helicopter is hanging off the launch pad with the front end sticking up, and there is a bullet hole in the front window. Now, this is quite distinctly not from the finished movie; the helicopter is not pierced by bullets in the film, and it is never seen hanging in such a position. However, more footage from the finished movie is shown immediately afterward; Steve is shown pushing himself up after a bunch of excitement, and the helicopter is behind him on its side. Given this, I'm not sure why the other clip was in there. For even then it doesn’t seem like they were planning on using it, and it is very different from what happens in the movie, with the biggest difference being that Steve and Bucky are alone on the roof. I guess maybe they wanted to make it seem more like Hydra might be involved somehow, because that would make it somewhat more of a sequel to The Winter Soldier than the actual movie was, and a sequel to The Winter Soldier was what people were expecting. So again, either Civil War really was originally going to be more of a Captain America movie, or that footage was shot with the sole intent of deception.
Shortly afterward there is another interesting clip. It is very brief, but there is a shot of Bucky running with a terrified expression on his face, followed by a spray of bullets on the ground, presumably what he is running from. This was seemingly supposed to be part of the Bucharest chase sequence. Once again, however, it does not appear in the finished movie. We are actually given very few shots of Bucky's face throughout the finished chase sequence, and in all but one of these he looks determined rather than afraid. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but considering all the other Bucky slander the movie ended up having, it does not feel like this was done with good intentions. Bucky is apparently not allowed to feel fear—he can only be determined or startled—because if he was allowed to be afraid, more people in the audience might realize that he has feelings too, that he wasn't having a very good time of it either, and the wrongness of the situation might be emphasized. All of which is stuff Civil War was apparently allergic to, in its quest to treat him like dangerous damaged goods. It seems like once again this was a thing to show Bucky's side of the story that was purposely taken away.
Following this there are two more indications that Lagos might have originally been substantially different. One is the fact that, shortly after Steve’s “We fight,” line is heard, a few clips of Natasha’s scenes in Lagos are shown. This sort of implies that she was going to help him with the aforementioned fight. Again, this might have just been the trailer being misleading: but since there were already several scenes that indicated that Natasha was going to be opposed to Steve for some portion of the movie—Steve asking her, “Are you going to arrest me?”, her line, “you know what’s about to happen, do you really want to punch your way out of this?” and the fact that she was not in Team Cap’s charge—it’s not like the fact that she wasn’t with Steve for a large part of the movie was going to be a surprise. The trick here would just be making people believe that at some point she was going to rejoin Steve and fight with him, instead of turning on Team Iron Man at the last minute and then disappearing from the movie shortly afterward. But if it wasn’t a trick, maybe Lagos actually was originally supposed to come later in the movie, and she was going to be reunited with Steve for that.
The other possible indication is the fact that another bit of deleted footage is shown. Steve is seen running and then an explosion goes off, and based on the background he is in the spot where in the movie he gets blown out of the building by Rumlow: but that does not happen in the trailer, the brunt of the explosion misses him and he is able to keep running. (And him getting blown out of the building is shown in the second trailer.) This is a further implication that Lagos might originally have been different. I guess if it was, the question is whether at the time of the trailer's release they were still intending to use that footage, or if they had already decided not to but showed it anyway.
The final change is the fact that footage from a deleted scene (that we have access to) shows up in the trailer. Now, bits of deleted scenes being featured in trailers is not unheard of, and the clip itself doesn’t really show much; all it shows is Natasha on top of a storage container watching an explosion. However, comparing that clip with deleted clips from other trailers is quite revealing. In the second Iron Man 2 trailer, for example, two clips from deleted scenes are shown; one from the deleted opening where Pepper kisses Tony’s helmet, and one from the deleted scene where Tony is with Natasha at the party. It is not surprising that these scenes got cut, though, because the ideas these clips’ scenes conveyed were also expressed elsewhere. We got plenty of other Tony and Pepper interactions that showed their dynamic, and the same is the case with Tony and Natasha. However, in the scene the clip in the Civil War trailer is from, Natasha sees how violent the rest of Team Iron Man is being and becomes upset; presumably, seeing this pointless violence is why she later switched sides. But in the movie, no similar indications are given for her change of heart. In the movie it’s framed like she was fully intending to stop Steve, but then realized at the last second that she couldn’t and let him go. So while Iron Man 2 got rid of clips that were fairly redundant, Civil War got rid of a clip that would have supplied valuable information. And the lack of that valuable information appears to be an intentional effort to stifle Team Cap's side of the story, and prevent Team Iron Man from looking bad.
That is all the changes there are, but there is one other thing. One of the last things shown in the trailer is the "He's my friend/So was I," exchange. This is also what is said in the movie: but the fact that the trailer so prominently featured Steve and Bucky's relationship helps highlight just how ridiculous that exchange is. I wonder if that is another reason why Bucky and Steve's relationship was so carefully downplayed.
Now, again, considering that this is just a trailer, it is hard to tell how much of the stuff that was shown was originally supposed to be in the movie, and how much of it was the trailer being purposely misleading. After all, trailers are deceitful all the time, and the second trailer was also cut in deceptive ways. However, unlike the first trailer it does not show anything that is substantially different from the finished movie: so considering the abundance of unused footage in the first trailer, there very well might have been significant changes made after that trailer's release. Indeed, this film was supposed to be a sequel to The Winter Soldier before it became Iron Man 4, so it might have originally been less of a clown show. A sequel to The Winter Soldier is certainly what most people were expecting. It’s just hard to tell whether there had originally been more of an effort to make one, or whether the trailer was just stringing people along.
In conclusion, looking at the differences between the first Civil War trailer and the actual movie is quite revealing. The Russos said in the director's commentary that in making the film, the hardest thing for them to do was "to balance the characters, and constantly recalibrate, through the writing, through the acting, through editorial, to make sure you could walk out of the movie, and really be conflicted,”: and even with the few changes the first trailer gives us insight into, it is clear that this involved arranging things to purposely minimize Steve and Bucky's relationship, curtailing Bucky's role in the movie and making him look as unfavorable as possible, and deleting things that would either make Team Iron Man look bad or make Team Cap more sympathetic. Civil War was billed as a Captain America film, but considering how deliberately the movie was turned against him and his friends, it is quite clear how untrue that is.
Truly, it is exceedingly tragic that the third Captain America movie was turned into the Iron Man 4 mess it ended up being, when it should have been a continuation of everything that was set up in The Winter Soldier. And based on the fact that the first trailer seemed to promise those things, as well as the fact that even the second trailer was cut to make it look like Bucky would have a bigger role and Natasha would reunite with Steve (though Sam was largely left out), the makers of Civil War knew exactly where they were falling short. But unfortunately, they made no efforts to repair such deficiencies, and even now we are still waiting for Cap 3.
I think you might be right. And I'd like to ad a little thing that makes Civil War even more an Iron man 4 film, instead of Captain America.
The film spends an enormous amount of time explaining TONY'S reasons, how TONY is reacting to things. Why does Tony want oversight? He feels guilty for Sokovia. We SEE him being confronted about it. Why is Steve so reluctant at accepting the accords? We are only PARTIALLY told. Told. In convincing someone, this makes the difference: a verbal argument is a lot less convincing than an actual experience. But they decided to show us the victims of Sokovia, not those who would have died because of INSIGHT. Or the nuke on New York back in Avengers 1.
The result? A lot of people perceived Steve as selfish and arrogant because he refuses to listen to everyone else even when they are doing what is best.
We were shown why Tony was pro accords. To know why Steve was against them, we had to have seen all the previous movies.
And since I am here, you know another scene that got cut? The one of the 'party' after Peggy's funeral, where we learn Steve WAS RETIRING. He only goes directly against the UN when it's clear they are trying to kill Bucky, regardless. So, we have a scene which might have been useful to Steve's character development? Let's cut that, shall we? It's not like it is a Captain America movie.
We are not even shown how Team Cap made it to the airport, or how they recruited Scott. We are told. Again. But we are shown Tony, clearly hurt, recruiting Peter. And, again, he has a chance to explain his side. By this time, most people have already half forgot what Steve's argument was. Why? Because he only TOLD it once.
(Wich makes sense. To Steve everything stopped being about the accords the second he learned about the 5 super soldiers, and that got priority. )
For the whole film, we see Tony's narrative, not Steve's. The only time Steve is treated like the main character is during Peggy's funeral. And, as I said, a big part of that got cut. Tony has plenty of screen time alone, or where the rest of the Avengers are out of camera (from when he presents BARF, outside of the hospital Rhodey is in, to when he receives the phone), this way the focus is on him.
Steve... Steve never has moments like this. He is always with another Avenger. Always. It's like for the whole film we see him as his "I'm working" persona, even near his friends. Which means, it's harder to empathize with him. There is no scene with Steve that can be the equivalent of the one in Winter Soldier when we see Steve Rogers outrunning Sam; where he goes to the VA; where he visits Peggy: they are little scenes, but they remind you who the main character is, they give you little bits of who he is outside of what it's happening, who he is as a person.
Wow, I had never thought about it like that before, but you're right! We were directly shown why Tony was pro-Accords, but to know why Steve was against them, we had to have seen all the previous movies. The most obvious reason Steve would be opposed to them was all of his experiences in The Winter Soldier, but despite the fact that Civil War was literally supposed to be that movie's sequel, such a connection was never pointed out. Indeed, during the extremely one-sided Accords debate, Rhodey even directly said, "This is the United Nations we're talking about. It's not the World Security Council, it's not SHIELD, it's not Hydra," as if to specifically try to dispel any such connection, as if the UN trying to gain control of enhanced individuals was not at all suspicious despite the fairly recent Hydra infiltration of SHIELD.
The fact that no one was allowed to point out at any point that all of the situations Ross showed, including Sokovia, would have turned out worse if the Avengers had done nothing, was indeed very frustrating. And it is particularly frustrating that all the people Steve and his friends saved by stopping Project Insight were never mentioned, and that the only time Project Insight was brought up was to show civilians presumably being killed by the helicarriers falling. This is another clear example of Civil War deliberately ignoring the movie it is supposed to be a sequel to. I take issue with this supposed example of civilian casualties, however, because the helicarriers were in the air for some time, and it took them a while to fall: so any civilians that might have been in the area would have had plenty of time to get away. And considering that the first bit of footage shown was of people running when the helicarriers were nowhere near them, the suggestion that people would have just been standing there the whole time the helicarriers were airborne and then destroying each other is even more ridiculous.
It’s pretty clear why the nuke from The Avengers was ignored, though. Aside from the fact that it showed an instance where listening to the government would have caused more civilian casualties, which would have been problematic to the movie which was trying to act like the Accords were a good thing, Tony was literally the one who almost died preventing the bomb from killing everyone else. Like, he shouldn’t have been okay with any of the examples on Ross’s propaganda-presentation, but including the Battle of New York would be especially insulting to him in particular, as it completely ignored the fact that his sacrifice was a large part of the reason the damage was contained to what it was. So since Tony had to be completely behind the Accords, that incident was forgotten.
You also make a good point that while we were shown things about Tony and Team Iron Man, we were mostly just told things about Steve and Team Cap. It is definitely very interesting that we were robbed of explicit confirmation that Steve was trying to retire. Honestly though, I'm not particularly upset that this got cut, as the Accords are heinous enough that Steve should have been actively working against them from the start, rather than trying to ignore them and do what the UN wanted first. But in any case, if nothing else, leaving that scene in would have helped counteract some of the movie's attempted demonization of Steve.
What's funny about Tony recruiting Peter though is that showing that was actually detrimental to the movie's goals, for Peter clearly showed himself to be aligned with Team Cap. He literally said, "When you can do the things that I can, but you don't. . .and then the bad things happen. . .they happen because of you." The Accords would make helping others hard for him, however, as he would have to operate with the constant fear of being locked up. (Not to mention, the required revelation of his identity would be quite a problem for him.) In order to have him on Team Iron Man, we were shown that Tony had to not only lie to and blackmail him, but also keep him completely in the dark. This definitely does not help the movie with its goal of trying to insist that Tony (and by extension Team Iron Man) had a point.
But you're right, we got an entire scene of seeing Tony with Peter (which, somehow, a lot of people saw as them bonding, despite how clearly manipulative Tony was being), whereas we were only told what Team Cap did.
And you are certainly right that pretty much the entire film is from Tony's perspective. The lack of Steve-focused scenes was definitely sorely felt, and he was allowed to have very few moments to himself. Saying that for the whole film Steve was in his "I'm working" persona is a great way to put it.
Although I personally think there are three instances where Steve is treated like a main character: in addition to the funeral, his reunion with Bucky and his conversation with Bucky on the Quinjet are also times he was given substantial focus. But even in these moments, it's still clear that this is not Steve' s movie. In the first two instances the plot quickly intrudes, and the third is extremely short and not given room to breathe.
Indeed, the frequent passing-over of Steve-centric scenes in favor of ones for Tony got to the point where Tony ended up having more lines and only one minute less screen time than Steve. And the minimal focus on Steve was completely on purpose, for the Russos admitted (in an interview that has since been deleted) that they intentionally trimmed Team Cap's scenes and dialogue. This was clearly done because the creative team of Civil War wanted to make it a choose your side movie even though Team Cap was clearly in the right, so the only way they could achieve that was to silence Steve and his friends, and make them as unsympathetic as possible. Indeed, that is why a lot of people perceived Steve as selfish and arrogant, for the movie made a concerted effort to frame him that way, and gave him minimal opportunity to defend himself. Such bias would be wrong at any time, but the fact that this happened in what was supposed to be a Captain America movie is particularly disgusting.
Thus, the fact that we were shown Tony's motivations at length, while Steve's were for the most part ignored, is definitely a major issue that the film has. Unfortunately, however, because the film ended up being actively biased against Steve, the problem goes deeper than that, so simply having more focus on Steve would not entirely fix it.
See, the film put a lot of focus on Steve's relationship with Bucky. Now, originally, this was done because Civil War was ostensibly Cap 3, even though it ended up being Iron Man 4: but since Marvel had to pretend the movie was what they called it, and Steve's relationship with Bucky played a major role in The Winter Soldier, focusing on it again in Civil War helped maintain the appearance that Civil War was The Winter Soldier's sequel (even though it very clearly wasn't, and in fact entirely ignored the events of The Winter Soldier save for a few brief mentions).
However, once the creative team of Civil War realized that Team Cap was completely in the right and so they would need to be undermined for more people to support Team Iron Man, the focus on Steve and Bucky's relationship was given an additional purpose: to attempt to cast doubt on the validity of Steve's opposition to the Accords. From having Sam and Natasha try to dissuade Steve from rescuing Bucky even though neither of them should be against it, to framing Steve like a bad guy for preventing Bucky from being murdered for something he didn't do, to having Tony try to bribe Steve to sign the Accords with Bucky's safety, to having Bucky say "I don't know if I'm worth all this Steve" in the Quinjet even though the battle that had just been fought had very little to do with him, a concerted effort was made to make it seem like Steve was only opposing the Accords because he was blinded by his love for Bucky, and not because he actually had issues with the Accords. Now, we were still given hints that that was not the case; Steve expressed his problems with the Accords before Bucky ever entered the picture, after all, and Tony's attempted bribe didn't work, which it surely would have if Bucky was Steve's only concern. But because there was already a lot of focus on their relationship from the original reason, as well as because Team Cap was not given much opportunity to explain or defend their position, many people were fooled by this misleading framing.
That is why simply focusing on Steve more would not have fixed the Tony favoritism, for the movie had already been too thoroughly turned against Steve. So if Steve had been allowed to have more screentime, it probably would just have been used to continue trying to convince the audience that Steve would have signed the Accords if not for Bucky, even though that is not even close to the case.
So yeah, Civil War is quite decidedly not a Captain America movie. It really is embarrassing that the first trailer for Civil War did a better job of showing Steve's thoughts and feelings than the actual movie did. The movie as depicted in the first trailer would probably still have had issues, but it would have been an improvement over what we actually got. And it truly is a shame that the actual Captain America 3 that had been planned was dropped in favor of Civil War in the first place, especially since Civil War actually ended up being an anti-Captain-America movie given all the bias it had against Steve. The original project would have been so much better.
I don't think Nemik's "Try" is an attack or rebuttal of Yoda's "Do or do not, there is no try", because both statements are in response to two different situations. One addresses the skills of the person, and the other addresses the outcome of the action on the greater whole.
Nemik challenges the learned helplessness of people living under oppression and the perceived futility of rebellion. He claims that even small acts of rebellion are meaningful, because they add up to a larger whole. He says "try" even when you don't know if what you do matters, because you need to be able to believe that others are doing the same.
Yoda (and the Jedi) is concerned with conviction. It is about giving up or failing because you can't commit to a decision you've made. It is about individual doubt of skill. He says "do not try" because you have to believe that you yourself are capable of doing it.
Both are about belief: one in yourself, and one in others.
Yoda and Nemik would have loved talking to each other I think.
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