this post is like 8 years old. but. man. people on tumblr could really just post a panel out of context and a dozen people will lap it up like cattle out of a sense of faux-activism, lol
this panel is from avengers disassembled aka "the one where wanda goes crazy" –– for the context of this scene itself is that wanda manipulating members of the avengers and making them go crazy. In this particular instance, Wanda uses chaos magic to make Tony believe he was drunk.
well, captain america: civil war turns 10. which means it’s been 10 years since the MCU fandom’s brain completely broke and lost the ability to talk about fictional characters normally forever.
media literacy? nuance? good faith arguments and discussions about characters? nope, sorry, megan — you like the fictional character of Tony Stark/Steve Rogers which now means you support [INSERT RIGHT-WING POLITICAL CAUSE] and you’re now Literally Hitler forever. /s
What I thought I'd get for Captain America 3: Steve and Bucky revenge tour against remnants of Hydra and Bucky healing and reclaiming himself.
What I ended up getting for Captain America 3: Tony Stark's guilt complex having international consequences for millions who weren't at fault, and Bucky being re-victimized.
What reportedly happened is the writer was threatening to cut him entirely until he complained to Keven Feige. Who by turn forced them to give Tony a bigger role.
I have no idea why people keep spreading this myth around, and I have no idea where they keep getting it from but that’s not what happened.
From Producer Nate Moore:
“… So we were developing Captain America 3 and we were [doing] really good. Winter Soldier worked, people were back in, they’re interested, and we were talking about a movie, and we knew we had to resolve, obviously, the Winter Soldier storyline. We wanted Cap and Bucky to ultimately reunite. And the plot that we… And we knew we wanted to use Zemo. What a great character. You know, he’s obviously a classic Cap villain. And we were building the movie around a MacGuffin around the Madbomb, which, the Madbomb goes off and causes normal people to start fighting each other. It’s honestly a little similar to what I think they did in Kingsman.”
“And it was cool, and it was grounded, and it was political, and whatever, and [Feige] was like, ‘That’s not a big enough idea, guys.’ And we’re like, ‘Let us write a draft, we’ll prove it to you.’ [Feige:] ‘Okay, prove it to me.’ As we’re getting done with it… he pulls me into his office and he said, ‘You know, I think we should try to do Civil War.’ And I was like, ‘Kevin, we don’t have half the stuff that’s in Civil War. We don’t have the New Warriors, we don’t have… Here’s all the reasons why we can’t do it.’ And he’s like, ‘Go home, read it, let’s talk about it.’ So I went home that night, read it… I re-read it, ’cause I had read it before and I was like, ‘Yeah, look we don’t have the Negative Zone prison…’ There were so many things that we didn’t have.”
“And he’s like, ‘Okay, okay.’ And so I went to the writer’s room with Markus, McFeely, and Joe, and Anthony, and Kevin peeked his head in and he goes, ‘So, stop with the Madbomb, you guys are doing Civil War.’ And I was like, ‘Ah, fuck.’ And Joe was like, ‘Yes! Civil War? Awesome!’ And then we had to figure out how to do Civil War. But he was like, ’There wasn’t a big enough idea that would get audiences excited and we did it. Look, It was scary and when you’re throwing out a whole thing and starting new, it’s always a bit weird, but he was right. He was right. We were still able to pay off the Bucky storyline. We still figured out how to use Zemo. But the central conceit of the movie was something that audiences would gravitate towards and they did.”
The decision for Cap 3 to be a Civil War adaptation was decided entirely by Feige — there was never any plans for any HYDRA comeback story, Zemo was always the main antagonist — I don’t like CACW either, but at least do your research or at least cite your sources properly, lol
Like wow, it really just took telltale nostalgia and most of the costs of the production into Critical Role cast and Aaron Paul AND LET'S NOT FORGET throwing you into a romance with someone you might not even like damn you might even hate bro like ☠️☠️☠️
i'm sorry that the game wasn't a dating sim. ig???
At some point you can’t really blame the game anymore when it’s obvious that it’s Going For Something with its story and characters and you as the player just refuse to go along with it over some bad faith arbitrary reason
Oh no, that's my problem; Dispatch its a dating sim where your only two options are woman with TERRIBLE boundaries that REALLY shouldn't be a manager if that's the case or literal walking HR violation, which mind you, Invisigal feels the most PUSHED towards YOU making her entire arc be the be all, end all when it comes to redemption.
hoo boy that’s a whole lotta tags that I don’t feel like answering one by one but. like.
Dislike for Visi, yeah sure I can understand — but Blazer? Really? Mandy’s worst crime is being socially awkward and being unable to read proper social cues, lol
But I digress. You don’t necessarily HAVE to romance Visi for her to be redeemed, lol — I was able to romance Blazer without having indulge Visi romantically, like that’s an option. The prevailing narrative that the game forces you into anything is eyerolling to say the least.
"the writers couldn’t get Joss Wheadon's dick out of their mouths"
Look I don’t like Whedonesque dialogue either but it’s important for me that you realize Whedon did not invent snarky dialogue and/or characters, lol — literally every writer was doing it during and before the 90s lmao
I highly doubt that anybody at AdHoc are big Whedon fans, I might be wrong — but still, that feels like a massive assumption brought on by an intentional bad faith reading than, like, a concrete assumption
"dispatch is a bunch of sexual fantasies string together by the pretense that its a story about redemption"
You don't need to answer the tags one by one because you're treating a vent post (that was left untagged from the main fandom for a reason btw,) and treating it like a debate. 💀💀💀
Anyways, good for you! Or bad, I guess. Because I still think Dispatch sucks BALLS. Specially Invisigal.
Like wow, it really just took telltale nostalgia and most of the costs of the production into Critical Role cast and Aaron Paul AND LET'S NOT FORGET throwing you into a romance with someone you might not even like damn you might even hate bro like ☠️☠️☠️
i'm sorry that the game wasn't a dating sim. ig???
At some point you can’t really blame the game anymore when it’s obvious that it’s Going For Something with its story and characters and you as the player just refuse to go along with it over some bad faith arbitrary reason
Oh no, that's my problem; Dispatch its a dating sim where your only two options are woman with TERRIBLE boundaries that REALLY shouldn't be a manager if that's the case or literal walking HR violation, which mind you, Invisigal feels the most PUSHED towards YOU making her entire arc be the be all, end all when it comes to redemption.
hoo boy that’s a whole lotta tags that I don’t feel like answering one by one but. like.
Dislike for Visi, yeah sure I can understand — but Blazer? Really? Mandy’s worst crime is being socially awkward and being unable to read proper social cues, lol
But I digress. You don’t necessarily HAVE to romance Visi for her to be redeemed, lol — I was able to romance Blazer without having indulge Visi romantically, like that’s an option. The prevailing narrative that the game forces you into anything is eyerolling to say the least.
"the writers couldn’t get Joss Wheadon's dick out of their mouths"
Look I don’t like Whedonesque dialogue either but it’s important for me that you realize Whedon did not invent snarky dialogue and/or characters, lol — literally every writer was doing it during and before the 90s lmao
I highly doubt that anybody at AdHoc are big Whedon fans, I might be wrong — but still, that feels like a massive assumption brought on by an intentional bad faith reading than, like, a concrete assumption
"dispatch is a bunch of sexual fantasies string together by the pretense that its a story about redemption"
Delighted to learn Stuckies are so far under Feige’s skin he needs to shell out millions for Evans to come back and loudly affirm how heterosexual Steve Rogers is
No notes, Kev, wish you a very heated hockey dreams this Christmas
i did not like steve's ending in endgame either. nor do i got anything against people who ship stucky either -- i will probably not watch doomsday because it just seems extremely tedious and seems like to be shaping up to be capeshit's rise of skywalker. but.
i do not believe for a second that kevin feige cares that much what a bunch of mlm shippers on the internet that much, i doubt he even knows that stuckies EXIST, if he does -- their existence barely phases him.
but if you genuinely think that acting like evans coming back in doomsday is anything more than a sign of desperation of trying to get people's butts back in seats after the dismal reception to phases 4/5 then there's no hope for you. lol.
Like wow, it really just took telltale nostalgia and most of the costs of the production into Critical Role cast and Aaron Paul AND LET'S NOT FORGET throwing you into a romance with someone you might not even like damn you might even hate bro like ☠️☠️☠️
i'm sorry that the game wasn't a dating sim. ig???
At some point you can’t really blame the game anymore when it’s obvious that it’s Going For Something with its story and characters and you as the player just refuse to go along with it over some bad faith arbitrary reason
ion even fw dispatch like that, but i have no idea why every critique i've seen of it thus far is the most 2016 steven universe fandom discourse bullshit ever of people engaging its story and characters in bad faith and that's it.
I can understand people not liking Invisigal or Blonde Blazer –– they're fully entitled to their own opinions, what I have a problem with –– however, are people who clearly do not know what they're talking about at all and are more often than not pissy that the writing isn't what THEY think it is, that isn't characters always doing the right thing 90% of the time and are always be 100% wholesome, tension-less conflict-less blorbos like
another thing that pisses me off are how inconsistent everybody is about certain characters.
Flambae is a serial arsonist whose probably indirectly responsible for the deaths of dozens of people but people treat him and Robert as like a peak yaoi relationship but Invisigal whose impulsive mess with self-worth issues and a temper means that she’s the second coming of Jeffrey Epstein because of the locker room scene — a scene that was not framed positively like at all within the game itself but the way people talk about it you’d think the Dispatch devs were all hooping and hollering over it lol
god. man. i genuinely hate what Tumblr does to fandoms because 9/10 it almost always ruins fandom discussion one way or another
ion even fw dispatch like that, but i have no idea why every critique i've seen of it thus far is the most 2016 steven universe fandom discourse bullshit ever of people engaging its story and characters in bad faith and that's it.
I can understand people not liking Invisigal or Blonde Blazer –– they're fully entitled to their own opinions, what I have a problem with –– however, are people who clearly do not know what they're talking about at all and are more often than not pissy that the writing isn't what THEY think it is, that isn't characters always doing the right thing 90% of the time and are always be 100% wholesome, tension-less conflict-less blorbos like
tbh kinda sad seeing people defend the SA gal and refusing to acknowledge the bad parts of her character
sure she could’ve been complex and all that but honestly? She’s a very simple character
edgy bitch who sexually harasses people because it helps some weirdos flick their bean
FUCKING EXACTLY THANK YOU👏👏
And your last point really got me thinking actually; we often think of how many female characters throughout the years have had character depth and quality sacrificed for the sake of the male gaze. And for that I would just like to say, women and queers and otherwise none typical cishet men are not immune for falling for this shit too!!
Dispatch (and even Arcane too, and other shows I’m sure) are both huge perpetrators of working within some kind of queer gaze, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Or maybe rather its just that modern day conventional attraction now expands to include more queer appearing people.
Idk this kinda turned into a messy unsprawled yap lol but I enjoyed exploring the ideas! Thank you for the ask!
I saw someone talk about how people wanting more complex female characters but they couldn’t even handle invisigal
and not to throw shade or anything but she is not a complex character
she might be “morally grey” but a woman thinking with her non existent dick is not a complex woman
if anything she’s simplified for the sake of the romance options
it would be great if she WAS a complex character with multiple goals and motivations driving her such as tempering her darker side with her new found goal of redemption but nope she sexually harasses people cause funny and horny
I don’t play video games like that and even if I did and wanted to I sure as hell couldn’t afford it right now. You are not gonna say I need to play a storybased game that is mostly watching to get it, dude. That doesn’t make sense. And once more to my main point, not accessible to everyone. Don’t like what me and likeminded people have to say? That’s fine, block and move on 🥱
"I don’t play video games like that and even if I did and wanted to I sure as hell couldn’t afford it right now. You are not gonna say I need to play a storybased game that is mostly watching to get it, dude"
Uh, yes, you do? That's what "engaging with art" is. You can't exactly base your critique of a game solely from seeing another person play it and that's it.
You have to, like, properly engage with it and shit.
"Don’t like what me and my moot have to say? That’s fine, block and move on 🥱"
I feel like you shouldn't be on a public forum like Tumblr if the concept of someone disagreeing with you + trying to engage with you in good faith bothers you.
tbh kinda sad seeing people defend the SA gal and refusing to acknowledge the bad parts of her character
sure she could’ve been complex and all that but honestly? She’s a very simple character
edgy bitch who sexually harasses people because it helps some weirdos flick their bean
FUCKING EXACTLY THANK YOU👏👏
And your last point really got me thinking actually; we often think of how many female characters throughout the years have had character depth and quality sacrificed for the sake of the male gaze. And for that I would just like to say, women and queers and otherwise none typical cishet men are not immune for falling for this shit too!!
Dispatch (and even Arcane too, and other shows I’m sure) are both huge perpetrators of working within some kind of queer gaze, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Or maybe rather its just that modern day conventional attraction now expands to include more queer appearing people.
Idk this kinda turned into a messy unsprawled yap lol but I enjoyed exploring the ideas! Thank you for the ask!
I saw someone talk about how people wanting more complex female characters but they couldn’t even handle invisigal
and not to throw shade or anything but she is not a complex character
she might be “morally grey” but a woman thinking with her non existent dick is not a complex woman
if anything she’s simplified for the sake of the romance options
it would be great if she WAS a complex character with multiple goals and motivations driving her such as tempering her darker side with her new found goal of redemption but nope she sexually harasses people cause funny and horny
What do you think of the idea of Douglas's role within Escape being swapped out for Bear?
Having Oliver, this poor engine who just had to fight his way through hordes of diesels for his survival, having to accept help from one is genuinely interesting to me, and Bear's a Western Region diesel too!
It's amazing how well this all falls into place, haha
Oh HELL YES.
Normally I'm not much for rewriting canon, but damn.
You just blew every new scrap of an idea Christopher Awdry just gave us in his new book combined right outta the water. (And no one @ me, this blog has a long proud history of Christopher Awdry Defense and Appreciation. So all due respect. BUT.)
It's that they're both Western Region that makes this so natural... in fact, I'd counter-propose Bear helping Oliver way before Barrow. Nonononono. They travel across the country together. (Well, as much as possible. I'm imagining them separating often, Bear barrelling into a depot and causing big distractions along the way so Oliver had a chance to find a hiding spot.)
Best fugitive buddies flick never filmed.
Two further thoughts:
1. I have always, for the record, proposed that Oliver had some diesel help along the way. Whether he knows it or not. Some diesels definitely looked aside and pretended they didn't see nufink. (Toad references this in chapter 2 of Small World. I really think something like that happened, in the canon timeline... albeit, in this AU, I chose the Matlock location specifically so the reader could plausibly headcanon that the diesel Toad speaks of was BoCo or Bear, if the reader so pleases.)
2. If you have Bear coming from the Western region with Oliver, then Douglas can still play a role in the rescue over-the-bridge. I think this is great, because this story is important for Douglas's character arc — he frets and panics in at varying points at the beginning of his intro book; it's his big bro who covers for him. And when he encounters Oliver and learns his plight, for a moment he's scared — before he sort of roars to life and activates badass mode. So I'd like him to still have that.
What if it's a desperate Bear who approaches Douglas at Barrow? And Douglas's first instinct is to disbelieve, to suspect this is all some sort of evil diesel scheme to lure him into a dark hidden part of the yard and have his buddies jump him and drag him to the smelters?
So he growls and puts Bear off at first — but his conscience worries at him, as he shunts his train home, and he finds that he can't leave behind a scared wee steam engine one bridge away from safety if there's even the slightest chance that this story is true? So he doubles back, and Bear shows him Oliver-et-al, and Douglas and his crew quickly act to secure the fugitive train?
Bonus points if either Douglas thinks to ask what happens to Bear if everyone at Barrow finds out about this, or if Oliver is like "But what about Bear? 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 He's a wanted engine. The crack diesel patrol squads want him as badly as they want us 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺" and definitely Toad whispers something to Douglas about how it's true sir, Mr. Bear has saved their lives a dozen times already, and Douglas is like "[huge elaborate grumbling sigh]... Right. Fine. Ye get on the ruddy train too."
Bear: But Sodor is only for steam engines. Isn't it?
Douglas: It's for real engines. It's Family.
And so Oliver and Bear are given a rapturous welcome on Sodor and we definitively get over all this asterisking-the-diesels stuff and the Thin Clergyman prints us an even more badass storybook than the one we already got.
I feel as if there's a lot of story potential and more emotion if it's Bear doing it.
You open the book up with the overlooming threat of dieselisation, scrap, and what not -- Two new diesels arrive and quickly make an arse of themselves, but one of them redeems himself by saving an engine that was propagandized to him by his creators as being outdated and useless.
A minor unpopular opinion that I have is that the opening to Escape is ... very jarring? So much so that I don't think that Douglas' role is necessary -- plus it flow far much more better since it's coming right after Super Rescue and Bear becoming an established presence on the railway.
I’ve never seen anyone successfully explain where the Guardians movies fit into the whole “the entire MCU is propaganda” thing –– or Doctor Strange too.
Can you imagine some DOD schmuck having to read through hundreds of pages explaining Dormammu and the fucking Dark Dimension??? I sure can't.
I think some movies in the MCU are military propaganda. I think some aren’t. Idk man like I think it depends.
Like, famously, the DoD refused to sign off on The Avengers because they didn’t like that the S.H.I.E.L.D. security council were portrayed as villainous and the whole nuke thing.
gun to head will not re-watch civil war but i recall people did years long discourse about how not signing the accords made team cap american imperialists. did they know that in iron man 2008 when tony returned from afghanistan the reason he gave for shutting down their weapons division was, "i saw young american troops die" he does not mention afghan civilians or his company's role in the war on terror. his best friend is a member of the usaf. he shuts down the weapons division and immediately makes a bigger weapon in the form of the iron man suit but this time he's "privatised world peace" like nobody at marvel studios is doing postcolonial commentary the scripts are read over by the dod in exchange for access to military equipment. the most charitable reading of his position in civil war is that ross is exploiting tony's guilty conscience into getting him to sign because by the end of the movie he breaks the accords right away when he supposes he has misjudged steve. the final fight isn't even about the accords it's about why steve didn't tell tony that his brainwashed buddy had killed his parents. which was so stuuuupid. they knew they couldn't do a civil war adaptation without making the pro accords argument look moronic which is why they drop that subject in less that ten minutes as bucky immediately becomes an example for why the accords are standard bureaucratic comic book evil—has a history as a mind controlled operative but they were going to execute him on sight without trial. this was bad. you did not have to be a genius to get this was bad and was narratively positioned as such. but for some reason people kept telling each other to kill themselves about it for several years
I mean, to be fair, in the real world -- The Sokovia Accords would be a morally good idea, but then they make Ross the main sponsor of it and then it all falls apart.
And I have a feeling they only did that because they didn’t went Steve to be in the wrong.
because god forbid we have that in a captain america story.