Ian Stone, Doubting Thomas, oil on linen, 12x16 in, 2023

"If you know the painting by Caravaggio, Doubting Thomas, it was my direct inspiration for this piece.

A doubting Thomas is a skeptic who refuses to believe without direct personal experience. 50-60 years ago, it was not uncommon for people to think or believe that being gay was a phase or a mental illness or deviance in some shape or form. It's embarrassing that the same things are being said about trans people today."

People who want more unhinged female villains, please watch Galavant.

It’s so silly to wish characters a happy birth- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY FAVORITE CLUSTER!

So, I was thinking

I'm still annoyed by the shoddy and way too rushed use of Skrulls in Sectret Invasion. I'm not alone in thinking this should've been enacted over an entire Phase, not a six episode show with no big main characters.

A post Blip MCU could've been an ideal landscape for this story. They could've started planting seeds throughout.

Imagine if at the end of TFATWS, when Sharon is shot and bleeding, she's hiding her wound and refuses Bucky taking her to the hospital. Why? Because we, the audience, get to see that she's bleeding purple. 😯 Weird.

Then the show wraps as planned (i.e. it doesn't get derailed by this question) and then in Sharon's post credit, there's the reveal! She's a Skrull! (Takes care of people not liking her villain turn) She's not the Powerbroker (fix that), but the Powerbroker could also be a Skrull. Madripoor could be a pretty good base of operations for a group of insurgents. Unregulated, shady ties, lots of shady people, etc.)

I'm not 100% sure how this would affect the Flagsmasher/serum plot, but I'm sure there's a way to tweak this too, since Sharon's reason was flimsy,l. Maybe recreating the super soldier serum was a first attempt to create Super Skrulls, but turns out it's only compatible with human physiology, blah blah something. (Maybe while we're at it, tweak some more so that you don't have a case of displaced young people becoming terrorists. I'm sure a good writer could tie these together somehow.)

Anyone, my point is, Phase 4 could've started laying the foundation of Skrulls with hints that we the audience see. Then slowly, the characters discover things are amiss. This would allow for Earth bound stories in Phase 4, and establish new characters as a potential new Avengers line-up.

You could still introduce new characters, Shang Chi and Ms. Marvel, for instance. But these characters would need a major crossover cameo, like how Sam Wilson appeared in Ant Man, which allowed Sam to recruit Scott into CA:Civil War.

If an Avenger, say Sam again or Rhodey or Doctor Strange (or keep Wong appear at the end of Shang Chi!) or NICK FURY, know of these new characters, THEN when the Skrull situation begins seeming more serious and wide spread, our heroes can reach out to these newbies, knowing that they need more help, reinforcements, and knowing that it's unlikely that these unknowns will have been Skrulled.

Everything feels more integrated, connected in an organic way; there's something for an audience to get hyped about and theorise about between films; it allows for smaller films coming off of Endgame's high, giving space to breathe and rebuild; and importantly, the Phase would culminate with Avengers: Secret Invasion. Every phase needs an Avengers team up, and by this point, you could have established the team, form new bonds, and establish the threat with a real sense of paranoia, suspicion and competency.

The downside to this plan is you'd lose the multiverse, or just push it to Phase 5. Personally, I haven't liked any of these films enough to care about losing them, but I know each have their fans. Regardless, I think Phase 4 was absolutely the wrong Phase to introduce such a narratively messy idea to rebuild the MCU around.

These are just my thoughts, though. Curious to know anyone else's!

I think that 2023 is a good time for many of us, and allies in particular, to practice again the dying art of minding our own fucking business when it comes to the identities and lives of other people.

You see someone from one of your classes in a public place with a different gender presentation/expression than they typically have? Mind your own business.

You discover that one of your coworkers is in a same gender relationship, but they aren't out at work? Not your place to share that information in the workplace.

You notice that your neighbor in a red state takes a road trip across state lines with their transgender child every 3-6 months? No you fucking didn't.

You overhear students in your classroom using a different name and different pronouns for one student than you are used to using? If you live in a state hostile to trans rights, pretend that you don't know anything about this and report nothing.

You suspect that an acquaintance of yours might be gay, but they deny it when asked directly? Leave them the fuck alone.

One of your friends refuses to publicly label their sexuality? Good for them, you aren't entitled to that information anyway.

Your sibling comes out to you as questioning, but isn't comfortable sharing that with your parents yet? Keep your fucking mouth shut.

Don't out people; coming out is a personal choice not a moral obligation. Don't demand personal information about other people's sexuality or sex lives. You aren't entitled to information about anyone's gender identity, assigned gender at birth, or transition.

Bring back privacy, allow people to have control over the information that is shared about them publicly; it might save their job, their housing, their parental rights and their child's safety, or even save lives.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) dir. Leonard Nimoy aka The One With The Whales

i genuinely dont care if the creation of all media comes to a screeching halt btw i will very gladly live with no new movies no new tv shows no new anything for years if that's what it takes for the people who create them to be treated like human beings. i hope every other facet of the entertainment industry goes on strike too and i hope all the ones that havent unionised yet will. i want media creation to become completely impossible and i want the people who could make it possible again to hold out until they get every single thing they want. btw

[StarTrek:AOS/TOS/SNW] [Spirk]

The Creation of T’hy’la

Hello! Sorry for my long absence, I have trouble maintaining multiple accounts at the same time, so I mostly post my artworks on IG. Please follow my IG if you’re interested: https://www.instagram.com/koi.illust.studio

It has been a long time since I drew Spirk fanart, I’m finally back!!!

To celebrate my reunion with Spirk, I put a lot of effort into this one, drawing it for nearly 15hrs, inspired by the famous Renaissance masterpiece of Michelangelo - “The Creation of Adam”.

In the process of drawing draft, I discovered that although Kirk often being described as a lady’s man, his encounters mostly with guest characters we soon forget, in the contrary, Spock had girlfriend, fiancée, admirer who were regular characters throughout Star Trek series! In order to represent this outrageous fact, I deliberately picked those girls from different series, T’Pring from SNW, Uhura from AOS, Chapel from TOS… but as you already know, Spock, in the end, will always choose no one but his T’hy’la Kirk! (Don’t get me wrong, I love those beautiful and strong Star Trek girls, I feel bad to break their heart too, but I have no choice bcs I’m a M/M romance sucker🤷🏻‍♀️)

Three cheers to the person(s) in my neighborhood who celebrated the Fourth of July by never letting our neighborhood go more than three hours without setting off fireworks last night, therefore reminding us of our nations long history with using sleep deprivation as an intelligence technique.

It’s Fourth of July Eve so make sure to leave some milk and cookies out for Captain America

So within two days of each other, Fox News writes an article comparing aromanticism and asexuality to pedophilia, and then Matt Walsh releases a video saying asexuality is a mental illness and asexuals are tricking teenagers into having depression.

Not sure what’s going on right now over in Conservative World, but it’s a hell of wild U-turn for them to suddenly switch from “Oh no! The left is sexualizing our children!” to “Oh no! The left is asexualizing our children!”

oh I didn't realize you used to be a huge piece of shit

now this may surprise some of the audience, but the majority of humans have to survive a phase called "being a teenager" and the results are often catastrophic

I haven't seen this version anywhere so I made one!

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine // S04E16: Bar Association