The constant comparison between PHM and Iron Lung makes a great case study in genre techniques. How a difference in genre shapes two trajectories which start off with a similar initial premise. (Stars dying, guy forced to be in thing meant to find solution, someone having to take him there, alien encounter, etc etc.)
So you can have a story idea or premise but the genre you pick for it matters because it will affect the overall outcome of the structure, plot, character arcs, and so on.
Genre is sorta like the dyed water to a rose seed of an idea, you can have the same seed come out with different vibes based on the dye you pick. (Granted the admittedly faulty analogy implies the changes are merely cosmetic, but you get the sort of idea)
I guess a better analogy would be like what you feed Eevee in Pokémon when you want to evolve it. You get wildly different outcomes with similar backbones when you pry inside.
These are the comments I made on @staying-elive's post about Bucky fans' fixation on Bucky's suffering/ past trauma, even expressing disappointment that there wasn't a Winter Soldier movie. Because I need validation, I wanted to see if anyone had thoughts about this post. Disclaimer: This whole thing was just a stream of thought, and I was tired.
They want Bucky to suffer; they lost Loki, and despite acting like Tony was evil, I know they latched on to his angst content. Perhaps this has been mentioned before: this is their version of feeling oppressed, in a way, and how they position themselves among the marginalized. If the stand-in is comfortable enough to make or allow jokes about their history or vulnerability, it shows growth and healing. They don't want to heal and take accountability. When some of those fans insisted that Bucky represents every disabled or mentally ill person, it was illuminating.
To the fans, Bucky's trauma is similar to theirs. Hurt people can "get away" with a lot. That's why they all laughed at the posts about Sam's trauma because his is based in reality. His hurt is echoed in many, and it will never be them. They won't do what he does, even though it's possible. They would rather connect to an impossible hurt because it makes them feel unique. Yet, they found others just like them, so it was validating. Except they don't like Isaiah Bradley because he is the version of Bucky that speaks the truth. What happened with Bucky is more likely to actually occur with Sam than with the white man. Bucky fans want to join the Olympics of oppression and win gold. Or maybe I am totally wrong.
Oh, wait, I'm not done. They want the rhythm but not the blues. When Isaiah talked about the events that led to his imprisonment, the Tuskegee Airmen were brought up. Unlike Bucky's story, the only plausible part is "Hydra" because they were nazis. Isaiah's story is grounded in realism. The Tuskegee Airmen were the closest unit to the Howling Commandos in both accomplishments and aura. Isaiah's heroism is more likely to be real. (This thought led into this next part: why Marvel fans wanted Bucky to have the shield).
If we ever wanted to have real-life depictions of what Captain America's values of justice, integrity, hope, and freedom are, we have them, and some of the Marvel community hate that the examples don't look like them. Honestly, out of all of the Marvel heroes, the black man and woman should represent American justice, truth, compassion, resilience, and hope. MLK Jr, Fred Hampton, Angela Davis, Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, I can go on. Which is why a lot of the Bucky fans turn Sam into the bad guy; his principles are based on principles many activists support. The large torturous amount of suffering and lack of autonomy to the liberator, healing truth seeker Bucky, fans say, represent that Bucky can not fathom the stark truth. They are not the tortured poets. They want the glory but not the work.
It's why the pearl-clutching over taboo topics in books or fanfics bothered me. We shape media, not the other way around. Taboo topics will always have a heightened awareness of feeling wrong, enough for the majority of readers to not feel comfortable relating. We will gravitate to what is acceptable and go from there. I think the "it's not that serious" type of media is where we get the truth. If we are going into the MCU with our brains turned off, then we are moving on instincts. And our subconscious and unconscious mind drives our instincts. And people are telling on themselves without realizing it.
We swim in these warm waters
ignoring the storm twisting above us
and we won’t notice when the waves get
just a bit too choppy to survive
Hold your breath for as long as you
Maybe we’ll get lucky one last time
Dreamers gotta dream
or something like that
It happened in a flash
as the airbag broke your nose
the seat belt breaks a rib
In the instance of a car crash
we jump for joy that we’re alive
that little thing we always take for granted
and your heart is beating out of it’s chest
as the siren’s of the ambulance gets closer and closer
He roasted marshmallows
in the blaze of his own home
what good is doing anything at this paint
wood crackles and cries and creaks
and he goes on eating smores
Some will call it shock
But I call it having an agenda
Once he lost it all, he can claim he’s finally free
In other news, Vah Ruta is finally out of the repair shop. Dorephan tried to give me the Lightscale trident again but I slapped it out of his hands and told him to give me something else.
Sidon will be giving me a hearty handshake but that will be changing in the next major version once I teach him how to hug.
Still over here developing my two OC's that won't see the light of day for another 3 months or so. Muzu still doesn't have a girlfriend but I plan on hooking him up. Can't say I never did anything nice around here.
and i imagine grief as the animal expanding in our house like breaths taken in the absence of thought during a day frozen in my lungs as if i were a traffic light suffocated by sudden bouts of snow while all you see is the fading burn of orange blinking into red.
lil bit of a rant/ramble: (tw: eating disorder? ish?)
I feel so weird talking about this cus no one knows this about me?? not really?? but i kinda have ed related habits and stuff (hesitant to say I actually have an ed bc im not diagnosed and i have a healthy-ish BMI)
i don't eat enough and i know that, but my bmi is good an i always feel better that way and like. yeah. not good. its why i quit tumblr back when i was a minor
and yeah. anyway. im basically posting about this now bc im dming some people and i like to send (sfw!) teasy pictures, and afterwards they always tell me im cute/pretty (which, like, tysm!!! im so glad yall find me pretty aaah?) and i always try to dismiss it to the point where its a Thing™ and it felt kinda weird for me cus it feels like im fishing
so basically, if youre still readings this (which, like, wow) what i mean to say is hi! ily! i have issues, im not fishing, my brain just doesn't like my body, but im trying to get better! :)
(edit: my ler friends, im not quite as skinny as i look in my photos! i take pics lying down bc a: i like my blanket as the background and b: it stretches me belly out a bit so you can't see my muffin top. just thought i'd add!)
