“His actions are so polarized. He can do great things (stay behind on the arc, finding the bunker, rallying everyone after Clarke's list, general insight) as well as terrible things (no explanation needed).
Definitely not someone who you would want to discount or brush off in all situations. I'd say you should always listen to his advice just make sure to be weary of it.
His most dangerous trait is his sense of purpose. He always feels like he was put in situations for a reason and won't listen to any contradictory advice once he gets something set in his head.” -jtdemaw
Was discussing Natasha’s character with @becominganoven and they brought up the point that often her storyline centers around providing emotional labor to the male protagonists.
What stands out about Winter Soldier is that when she tries to do this (e.g. setting Steve up), Steve doesn’t want it. Instead, his biggest demand is that she’s open with him and a friend. Then it’s Steve who later provides the emotional support (e.g. when he walks in to find her upset at Sam’s house).
Because that was such a big part of what we loved about her and her relationships in Winter Soldier, it felt like a betrayal when she returned to this role with Bruce. Because the relationship has a lot of potential. Natasha’s making a choice and opening up to the people around her. Natasha and Bruce are great mirrors for one another. Take being unable to have children for example (even though how Whedon handled it was pretty tone deaf): In Avengers, it’s one of the first things we learn about Bruce (”I don’t always get what I want” while touching the cradle).
But the thing is the narrative never rewards her for it-- nor explains why it doesn’t. Bruce never says you’re not a monster and the film itself never provides external validation. And this is after one of the first scenes we see with her is her saying: "My [worthiness] is not a question I need answered.”
And it would have only taken one or two lines to accomplish.
Edit. @littlemsfox also brought up a great point that as a general rule films and television shows -- like real life -- don’t reward women for that role or offer an explanation. So, when you’re looking at Natasha’s arc it’s not going to be obvious that’s what’s happening.
Warning: all the spoilers for Teen Wolf. All of them. Trigger warning: some discussion of suicide and sexual assault. Length warning: this is literally a 10,000 word essay about Teen Wolf because I...
Despite the title, Teen Wolf isn’t just a fantasy-action show about werewolves in high school: it is also an increasingly sophisticated dialogue on gender, masculinity, family, love and the cyclical nature of violence – and if any of that sounds like news to you, then I’d strongly suggest that you haven’t been paying attention.
The idea of a redemption arcs for abusive characters – which, arguably, describes the entire plot of Twilight and its counterpart 50 Shades of Grey – makes sense to me as a fantasy, because it allows the writer (and, often, their self-insert protagonist in their story) a semblance of control. Here’s the formula: there will be a villain, seemingly irredeemable in his actions, until a pure, sweet heroine comes along who redeems him. “He’s evil, yes – but he learns how to be good, for me,” she justifies. And she’s right and they live happily ever after and nothing bad happens and he never goes back to being an irredeemable abuser again. Blue skies! Birds singing!
This is almost the plotline of Jessica Jones – but then the show takes the trope and throws it on its head.
Yes, There Is A Kilgrave Fandom — And Here’s Why I’m Not Condemning It
...today’s hero is tomorrow’s tyrant. Meaning the hero, being the agent of change, becomes what can be called “hold fast”, ie they cling to what they’ve created. The boon they’ve bestowed on their world – they love it so much that they lose their flexibility, they lose their adaptability. We’ve seen that so often in corporations, in all sorts of institutions – never mind nations – that people will hold on to what they’ve built. Yesterday’s revolutionary becomes tomorrow’s tyrant. It’s a very common story. So, part of me thinks that [Furiosa] would make a much better fist of it, another part thinks that if things went horribly wrong she’d have to be a bit of a tyrant herself.
George Miller: ‘The last thing I wanted to do was another Mad Max movie’
She said that she felt there was a growing group of fans who love the characters and love MOMENTS of stories, but don’t read the actual comics ever. She said that they will buy a CHARACTER X t-shirt in a heartbeat, but don’t own any graphic novels. They will reblog a scene they like from a comic, but never go to an actual comics shop to get that same book.
Simone makes it clear that she doesn’t judge how fans interact with stories:
I’m just curious about the phenomenon. I am not someone who judges people for HOW they like these stories and characters. If you like ARROW or AGENTS OF SHIELD and that’s how you embrace these characters, that’s fine with me, it’s perfectly valid.
But specifically, is there such a thing as a “Tumblr comics fan?” And if so, how does someone like that differ from any other comics fan?
Gail Simone Wants to Know if People Think There’s a Difference Between Comics Fans and “Tumblr Fans”
Well she's been turned in to a tool of destruction for the universal bad guy, and I can imagine a tiny little idealistic part of her brain telling her that she is not evil, but made to do evil things. I think in the situation the only way to reconcile that is to see things in black and white ("I am white, painted black"), even if she is so very in the grey. And I think that is why, when she decides to break away from those evil deeds, she runs as fast as she can towards that shining white.
Some structures feel ancient; others are new and sleek. Some have even been abandoned despite being more advanced than earth.
Older technology appears alongside newer technology. Peter has to hit the device he uses as a visual GPS(?) in the ruins a few times for it to work and even then it has a shaky video quality not unlike an old VHS tape. By contrast, Xandar’s holograms of the city display in real time and have clear pictures. You especially see this reflected in the differences between ships (e.g. Peter’s is sleek and flashy like Xandar’s architecture while Ronan’s feels ancient and traditional).
What’s left unsaid
The scale of the galaxy is emphasized by what isn’t shown. Knowhere comes off like a small frontier border town, with all the lawlessness that implies. When added to the brief glimpses of other worlds we’ve been given (e.g. Morag, Xandar), we can’t help but wonder what an older, more established intergalactic city outside of Asgard might look like. Frontier town implies the existence of a central metropolis somewhere, and there is a ton of room for creativity between the two design extremes of Ronan’s dark, monolithic ship and Xandar’s bright, “futuristic” architecture.
Focusing on a mining community implies a lot: intergalactic trade, much bigger cities/worlds where resources are delivered, regulations because the trade of certain resources is illegal (iirc), and the inability to realistically police everything.
There seems to be an implication that a lot of the universe is unexplored from things like the vast mountain ranges, aerial shots of uninhabited areas, and interest that the Celestial’s Head washing up in the galaxy (not unlike a whale or natural disaster) generates for the team.
More powerful threats being out there are touched on not only through the Celestial Head (what could be powerful enough to decapitate it?) but mentioned in passing by the Collector.
Diversity & Racial/Class Conflict
So far the majority of locations we’ve seen in Space (Asgard, Jotunheim, Vanaheim) have been homogeneous. The only real diversity has been from the band of Marauders Thor and company deal with on Vanaheim and in Asgard’s prison (not particularly flattering). So, the sheer number of differing races in each scene and group really stand out.
There are strong suggestions of imperialism/colonialism by the Kree, Asgardians, and other intergalactic empires. Ronan’s ship is manned by non-Kree aliens. Brings up questions like: did the Kree genetically engineer specific Kree sub-species for specific jobs a la Infinity? Were they not Kree because Ronan was working outside of the Kree and their wishes? What is the extent of Kree imperialism (is it similar to Asgard’s or does it stretch further)? etc.
A class system is implied by the presence of the dealer on Xandar who markets to the upperclass and his conflict with/obvious disdain for Yondu. In the dealer’s eyes, Yondu’s interest in the crystal figure reduces this valuable collector item to a bauble by the very nature of his lower class (“I can’t tell if he’s being serious”).
Many individuals from these races (Kree) or older, powerful individuals (Collector) employ the lower class/ certain races to do their dirty work. This gives viewers a sense that racial/class conflicts have occurred in the past and the balance of power is constantly shifting and in danger of tipping one way or another.
Nova Corps’ presence indicates the partial dissolution of this power or at least a vigilant force against it. The universe isn’t wholly tipped in the favor of the powerful, indicated by Dey’s relationship to someone with visually similar cues to that of the Collector’s slave girl.
Both Knowhere and Xandar have distinctly different cultures implied from characters’ accents, mannerisms, clothing, occupations, and relationships to the characters around them. Knowhere comes off as industrial with a patchwork of immigrant culture (it’s dirty and aged with a seedy bar) while Xandar (clean and sleek) seems like a place of cultural assimilation and its characters are presented as largely upper and middle class.
