#iirc the golden compass too | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

oliveroctavius · 2 years

Note

idk if its an accurate word since it's not usually intentional, but how do you feel about the queer coding with Eel's gender? (especially in the 2018 comic)

to steal someone else's joke phrasing that puts it well:

I... have complex feelings on the 2018 solo's writing overall. I think my final thesis is: The character decisions were cool enough, but 2018 Plas misses out on some SUPER interesting possibilities by ignoring so much of original Plastic Man's lore.

I hope you sent this ask expecting an essay because you're getting one under the cut. Contains musings on the nature of comedy, "passing", and comics-typical transphobia.

~ ~ ~

I'm going to start with gendered attraction instead of presentation—I think it explains some things.

"The noble chaste hero gets a funny horny sidekick" is an old trope. OG Plas was the neutral hero. He seems actively scared of flirtation.

IIRC his only on-panel kiss is when he lets a lady who electrocutes via kiss power catch him, in order to defeat her (PC #100).

(Including these panels just because they're gorgeously rendered.)

The JLA writes him Like That because they'd decided he was the Horny Sidekick now. This ran into creepy-guy-threatening-women territory quick. 2018 Plas being the bouncer (get it?) at a strip club feels like both a continuation and direct rebuttal to that characterization.

Is there a hard line between queer coding and comedy-driven sexuality?

Comedy often works via expectation/setup -> subversion/punchline. Gender and sexuality standards are a kind of setup. (A man would enjoy attention from a pretty woman. A man would rather not see the Riddler in a thong.) Implied asexuality or bisexuality is then a subversion, a punchline.

I'd say it's on a sliding scale. Mockery wants you to laugh, because the subversion is impossible or unnatural. Earnest representation wants you to nod, because the subversion is possible and acceptable.

Bisexual Plas is in the spirit of the original, somewhere on that sincerity scale. Did I mention an off-panel golden age kiss?

Also, Plas and Woozy lived together and slept in Bert & Ernie beds. Listen: Woozy is a whole pile of transgressions you're supposed to find funny. If you're going for bisexual Plas, why not make him like Woozy and retroactively validate some of those jokes as possible states of being? Just sayin'.

Right, right. Gender. I'm guessing you're thinking of is the parallel drawn between Plas and the explicitly trans kiddo Pado Swakatoon. Seeing the Suave Prince of Pine Street boldly claim such a seemingly silly identity makes Eel decide to embrace Plastic Man.

So I'm disappointed that they dropped something that could make the trans parallel explicit: OG Plastic Man wasn't just Eel in shades. He created a new, permanent face and body for himself both as an expression of identity and a protective measure. Being "outed"--even though he has not physically been Eel for years at that point--nearly loses him friends, his job, and his freedom.

All 2018 Eel is really considering changing is his moral compass. With little else at stake, the parallel feels weaker.

The pressure to "pass" is an (unintentional) theme written all over pre-DCverse Plastic Man. Explicitly related to gender, even: the meanspirited man-in-dress jokes were rarely targeted at Plas even though his job included missions in girlmode.

If a joke is the gap between expectation/reality, "passing" is meeting enough expectations to close that gap. Plas fits the mold enough to dodge most of the 1940s otherwise rampant transmisogyny.

But passing as female is dangerous, too. When Plas takes a woman's place, he's usually trying to act as a lightning rod to a threat targeting her. That's another reason I love the "bouncer for a strip club" thing. They could push his identification with the dancers even further. Skimpy costume, dubiously legal night job, talented physical performer whose intelligence is often underestimated and whose secondary identity puts them at risk for violence...

It's odd. The 2018 series only has Plas take on other forms partially, momentarily, and usually just as a punchline. Passing as other people or innocuous objects to go places unaccosted is usually an entire pillar of his shtick.

When people "clock" him, they tend to shout something like "That's not a table! It's Plastic Man!" But if he's shaped like a table, and acting as a table, it would be just as accurate to say "Plastic Man is a table now" until he resumes his "normal" form. He can be one thing today and another thing tomorrow and all of those things for real.

Your ask uses the word "queer". That word shows up in the oldest comics in its original meaning: out-of-the-ordinary. Those who self-identify as "genderqueer" often do so because they'd rather not define themselves in relation to male or female-ness. "Passing" only has meaning if your goal is to be seen as one of the Expected Categories. What if you're something entirely unexpected?

(At this point I'm just kind of adding vaguely relevant panels to break up my wall of text. Thank you, 70s Plas.)

2018 Plas does briefly turn into Wonder Woman. I don't really know why he does this? Did he want to get tackled? Either way, he talks like Plas Doing A Parody--this isn't really a form he's trying to own.

Later he turns into Harley Quinn, mostly. The artist later apologized for adding serious crotch bulge to how she normally draws Harley. Which could be based, but the "transgression" lasts for just one absurdist sexed-up panel.

Plastic Man is the character it makes least sense to trot out the "men can only ever parody female-ness" jokes on. He doesn't even have toes—what's inside this man's Speedo is a state of perpetual quantum uncertainty.

I love Pado Swakatoon being included in the 2018 comic. But Pado's transition, rejecting identity A, preferring identity B, probably isn't the best lens for reading Eel. Transition doesn't have to be a straight line to a fixed destination; it's slipperier than that.

I'd argue "being Plastic Man" isn't a goal identity; he's just a conveniently safe default for someone who can be anyone. He's more defined his ability and enjoyment of change: the joy of self-determination without boundaries. The joy of being able to change one's mind at any time for any trivial reason. Because it can be helpful, because it can be fun, and because it can be him, all of it.

#plastic man #anon #didn't finish adding image ids. will go back and complete that later #eel o'brian #hey. why does the 2018 one keep calling attention to the fact that eel has a dick actually.#maybe women writing comics can take a little L for that

165 notes · View notes

my-artblog-is-ssjumi · 3 years

Note

Isono/Seto, Isono/Aileen, Hannibal/the other guy in that show aaand whatever Evangelion ship u most wanna talk about

disclaimer for folks with different taste than mine: you do you ofc but this ask game is not about your opinions

Isono/Seto

11/10 in every way (as long as not shipped as uwu) and the age gap is a big part of what really makes this ship in the first place

Love me all of this misplaced father/son dynamic stuff going on, since Isono doesn’t have time for the family life he would be pretty good at if he didn’t have the rich kids to take care of and Seto. Seto is just. His entire deal is that he is a bag made out of daddy issues filled with lots and lots of boxes that are also filled with daddy issues and a bunch of issues he got from his birth family.

Imo there’s a lot of unplatonic tension and a dynamic with an endless amount of potential right there and aside from a couple Japanese doujinshi artists and maybe 2 or 3 friends I don’t trust anyone in this fandom to do it justice so I’m not even mad that it’s not one of the more popular ships bc I don’t wanna see the healthy uwu.

Isono/Aileen

UGH, Sam, you’re SPOILING ME, asking for my MarySue child! X3

Ofc it’s a top tier ship, too, bc I came up with it and my taste is simply flawless.

I mean, if I was married to Seto Kaiba for some reason and ruined my social life outside the relationship with him in the process so I felt I didn’t have anyone aside from him anymore and we drifted apart because of his issues and my issues and then there’s the whole thing with the public eye, too, and I was this gorgeous (probably day-drinking) rich lady whose job it was to run the KC’s PR department - a job that only got shittier and shittier over the years the weirder Seto’s stunts got, building a school right next to an active volcano being just one of the cherries on top...........

I mean, who would I turn to in my loneliness?

Ofc I’d turn to the only other person who can relate to how exhausting it is to clean up Seto’s mess again and again and again but still sticks with him anyway.

(Some ppl might argue “What about Mokuba?” and I want these ppl to know that Mokuba deserves better and in this storyline he knows that and studied abroad and traveled the world and now knows what life outside the Kaiba bubble looks like... Also he probably fucks Jounouchi)

The soap opera aesthetic. Everything is bling in this golden cage.

And it’s impossible to tell if this relationship between Ai and Isono would even work outside of this bubble. I don’t think they want the same things from life. I mean, in case they even still know what they want from life in the first place.

Amazing. Show-stopping. Someone start production on this telenovela right now and I want a soft shimmery blur and star filters that makes the jewelry blind the audience on each and every close-up of Aileen!

Hannibal/Will

Oh boy!

Ok, so I actually watched that show a couple years ago but only got through the first two seasons and then was too lazy to figure out where to watch the rest (especially since it wasn’t clear at the time if it was cancelled or would be cancelled or not) and then kinda... forgot about it? Also I think I remember I was pretty annoyed by Will’s angst after a while.

I mean, it’s valid ofc.

His therapist/friend/whatever they were by that point was a manipulating cannibal and he had these blood-smeared antler nightmares and shit so I’m gonna cut him some slack here.

So, uh, my honest opinion............. I... guess it’s a ship that exists?

I mean, if I had the hots for one or both of them I might be able to get rly into it, but the sexiest thing on the show was the food (ignoring what it’s made of ofc. i guess.) and the rly fancy ties Hannibal always wore.

But the ship itself..........

¯\_ (ツ)_/¯

an NGE ship of my choice

Oh my.... hmmmm.... ok, this is brutal honesty hour so I’m just gonna be brutally honest and say that I don’t care much about the ships of this show.

I’m okay with most of them like. They have their place in the narrative, I guess? So iirc I’m not squicked by any of them?

They’re very tropey, especially the ones among the teenagers, but that trope density with these kinda archetypes n stuff wasn’t that run-of-the-mill common and fucking everywhere to that degree back when the show came out so while I would probably at least be bored if not hella annoyed to get all of that shoved in my face nowadays... it’s fine with me in the context of NGE.

Hmmm what could I say about a specific ship....

Yo, what about Kaoru/Shinji.

Everyone loves Kaoru/Shinji after all.

I think it’s. Okay, I guess.

I mean, it’s cool that it exists, but I don’t really FEEL much about it tbh?

It does get a bit more substance and becomes more interesting i you throw yourself down the rabbit hole of fandom’s timeline speculations and their related essays on that tho, in which all the NGE canons are somewhat linked in a particular order bc Shinji reset everything a couple times in previous Third Impacts XD

In this theory, Kaoru is the only one who remembers all these timelines, which explains why he starts out as a kinda emotionally incompetent bratty douchebag in the manga and only learns a human emotion or two and something resembling compassion through Shinji, which explains why he’s in instant flirty mode when he sees him “again” in the anime(s) and seems to know exactly what Shinji is going through and needs to hear (and how to hurt him by giving/saying it to him before making him kill him XD’) there.

Like, in the context of that connected timelines theory, this pairing is pretty cool and I can really get behind it and could see myself getting emotionally invested if I spent more time on it and/or maybe were a little younger.

But outside of that context, judging it by just one of the canons at a time...

It’s just.

It’s fine. It’s there. It has its place. It makes for pretty fanart sometimes. Eh.

#samcybercat #honest ship opinions #ask game #long post

4 notes · View notes

sophygurl · 6 years

Note

"give me a character and i’ll answer" I cannot NOT ask you about RotE, that's like postbaiting. I give yoooou... Kettricken, Althea and Alise! (also curious about what you would say about Beloved)

woot yay! and lol postbaiting.

Kettricken

do I like them: Oh I love her so very very much.

5 good qualities: This is a woman who raised her son to understand that leadership is about sacrificing yourself for those under your rule instead of about privilege and power over them, goddamn! She’s also incredibly sweet even when she has to be firm with someone, has amazing reserves of mental and emotional strength, respects all life including animals and those people who are usually discriminated against and hated, and understands keenly the importance of cultures retaining their own traditions even as they join together.

3 bad qualities: Does she have any? IDK. I can’t think of a one. Especially as seen through Fitz’s eyes, who ADORES her.

favourite episode/etc: I think in Royal Assassin when she leads the hunt for the Forged and inspires everyone to be brave but also take it seriously, and then cleans and prepares all the bodies and a whole unit of soldiers take on her colors afterward and songs are sung of the Vixen Queen - that showed a lot of her character, especially since she was really on the outs with everyone at the time.

otp: I mean obviously her and Verity, but you know I have my secret otp of her and Fitz too. ;)

brotp: her and Nighteyes. *tears up*

ot3: I mean, I guess sort of her and Fitz and Beloved? Though it would be more platonic on her part mostly, and especially between her and Beloved.

notp: her and Regal. *shudder*

best quote: Oh gods, probably the part at the end of Assassin's Fate when Fitz makes a comment about not seeing her there, and she kind of sadly says he never does and kisses his head and walks away like. OOOF in the feels!

head canon: She’d have happily joined Fitz and Nighteyes and Beloved in the stone wolf if she hadn’t both her own grandkids and Fitz’s daughter to take care of. But she’s a sacrifice to her people, and so even had she been asked, she’d have said no. *crying*

Althea

do I like them: Ooohhh, I love her so much!

5 good qualities: She stands up for herself and those she cares for against even impossible odds, she chooses what she believes is right for those she loves even if it goes against what she wants for herself, she tells her truths even when it’s incredibly uncomfortable to do so, she’s a fantastic captain, and she’s a great friend once she’s chosen to be one to someone.

3 bad qualities: Her over-confidence/need to prove herself does sometimes get her into dangerous trouble, it takes her awhile to realize she loves someone, and oooooo she has a temper!

favourite episode/etc: Gosh, I’m having trouble picking a favorite part, but probably when she and the others are working on getting Paragon sea-worthy and she realizes she has to let Brashen be the captain because if they get Vivacia back she’ll need to go and be her captain, so even though she stubbornly believes she’d be just as good if not better at it than him, she backs down and acts appropriately as his second - even to the extent of covering the feelings she finally realizes she has for him.

otp: with Brashen, obvi.

brotp: with Amber, or possibly Ophelia.

ot3: none.

notp: with Kennit - blech!

best quote: Probably the one where she talks about how she wants both romance and to captain a ship in her life, and how anyone she would partner with would have to be okay with that.

head canon: The two dragons that were once Paragon, especially Karrigvestrit, come to visit her and Brashen and Boy-O sometimes. They are favored by many of the dragons, especially the ones who were once liveships, for their part in freeing them and for the care they gave them as ships. This helps their families survive the community’s difficult transition to the new economy.

Alise:

do I like them: I do! She annoys me on occasion, but I do like her.

5 good qualities: She’s brave as heck, she has compassion for days especially for dragons even when they have none back for her, she doesn’t care much about social class even though she comes from the richer Bingtown stock, she’s optimistic as whoa, and she cares deeply for the history of her home even though such academic pursuits are looked down on in her social and familial circles.

3 bad qualities: She’s so so so naive, she has trouble standing up for herself, and she sometimes gets so wrapped up in studying the past that she loses track of what’s happening right in front of her.

favourite episode/etc: When she and Sedric realize they’ve both been used by Hest and that their friendship to one another means more to them than any hurts they’re carrying - but she still makes it known that she’s angry with Sedric for how he betrayed her and that it will take her some time to get over that. She’s so strong and true to herself and her own value in that moment and I love it.

otp: with Leftrin of course.

brotp: with Thymara. Adore their friendship.

ot3: noooone, but. the part of me that kind of digs dysfunctional love/hate stuff would be interested in a much less abusive Hest/Sedric/Alise something something??? idk, probably not. maybe just a little.

notp: with Hest or anyone else who would abuse her trust and open heart and not see her with the same adoring eyes as Leftrin does.

best quote: Can’t think of a specific one - wish I had those books! (I got some in the series for Xmas, so that only leaves ummm 11 to go? holy crap this series...)

head canon: She eventually finds out what happened to Hest because even Kalo took pity on her and Sedric’s constant worry about when he’d come back out of the woodwork to hurt them again. She doesn’t approve of what the dragon did, but she’s also quite relieved. She has trouble reconciling the two things and Leftrin has to assure her that she’s not a bad person for being glad that her ex is dead.

Beloved (aka The Fool, Amber, etc.):

do I like them: I very very much do.

5 good qualities: Genderfluid (as well as classfluid and just kind of identityfluid), wonderfully playful trickster type, lives with constant awareness of how every action they take could set important historical events on or off course and yet finds ways to be joyful and have fun despite the seriousness of their life, brave - oh so brave - charging into battle even as a pacifist with no fighting skills to speak of, able to befriend kings and slaves and everyone in between alike as well as animals and dragons and liveships - basically can empathize with and get along with just about anyone.

3 bad qualities: Really really doesn’t like to talk about themselves even when doing so would help someone out a great deal, allowing this trait to turn from a mysterious sort of wiliness to outright deceit at times, can be cruel even to those they love if they believe it will help fulfill their spiritual purpose in life.

favourite episode/etc: Probably how much fun they had playing the role of Lord Golden and treating Fitz like their servant and hobnobbing with the rich and famous of the Duchies.

otp: with Fitz, the only person they ever loved in a romantic way, IIRC.

brotp: also with Fitz, since their relationship was primarily platonic.

ot3: I mean kinda with Fitz and Nighteyes not in a romantic/sexual way but as a 3-soul soulmate kinda way. (Add in Kettricken to plz?)

notp: Pale Woman? IDK, I could see some fans shipping them but I wouldn’t like to see that personally.

best quote: So many, especially all of his fool-like quips and puzzlers. But probably the best is where he tricks Fitz into calling him Beloved. hee

head canon: As part of the Wolf of the West, they check in on Bee and Kettricken and Nettle and Hap and everyone else as often as they can. They also visit with the spirits of Chade and Verity and Shrewd in the skill-river. *tearing up*

#realm of the elderlings #rote #kettricken #althea vestrit #alise kincarron #beloved #the fool #fandom memes #question memes #robin hobb #blackandwhitemotley

80 notes · View notes