#so maybe he thinks it's ok because he assumes that the Hulk will genuinely want to help once it's presented to him in the right way | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

theunderdogwrites · 4 years

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Green Lives Matter

My favorite Halloween costume from my childhood (age 10) was The Hulk.

For three reasons:

1. I made it myself

2. I wore it two years in a row

3. It made my outside look how I felt on the inside – tough but complicated

I cut up an old pair of jeans to look as though my tiny legs had busted through the seams and to make it appear like I’d grown taller. I took an old white dress shirt and shredded the sleeves to symbolize my biceps exploding in rage and slightly shredded away the length. I put black (safe) spray paint in my hair and painted my legs, arms and face in Hulk green to complete the look. There is a photo of this masterpiece somewhere in an old album, I just don’t have access to it right at this moment. I know I looked magnificent because I remember the feeling of hiding behind this larger than life character for a night while grunting for candy or else “HULK SMASH!” your front door down. I love this memory.

Now let’s address this – I did green face.

I refuse to apologize and if The Hulk wants to come find me and break me like a hard pretzel, well then he better bring backup because even though I am no longer painting my face green… I have turned myself into a Hulk. Ok, a mini Hulk. But I can conjure up a temper and throw a tantrum while also being completely unreasonable and void of real direction. So... yeah, he’s going to need someone other than Black Widow to come with him.

I should mention that I am white. And not just white – I am Scottish white (Scottish heritage, born in Canada). Fair skinned, blonde hair, green eyes and I once thought mashed potatoes were the best food of all time. Until I discovered garlic mashed potatoes. Mind blown.

“I love humanity, but I hate humans.” – Albert Einstein

Let’s not lie – being white has its privileges. Do I know what all those privileges are? No, probably because I’m privileged in some way. But I find myself going back to the same bit to explain so much that I encounter in life:

Until my high school guidance councillor explained to me what suicide was, I had no idea it was a thing. I had no idea it was a possibility and I certainly did not know that many people were actively participating.

My lack of knowledge wasn’t due to privilege but rather because suicide had never been apart of my life experience. Would we call that ignorance? Some definitely would because it literally means ‘being unaware’. I feel an ignorant person is not only being unaware, but also a first-rate wanker because they won’t educate themselves or evolve and wish to remain blind to reality.

Once I became aware of suicide, I didn’t pretend it didn’t exist. I started to pay attention. I didn’t brush it off as an experience that didn’t affect me but rather a symptom of fragile mental health and I gave it the consideration it deserved as something that many people were suffering through… most of the time alone. If I see something that is wrong, that I know needs my support – I am there.

That is not my privilege speaking, that is my humanity.

The senseless murder of George Floyd ignited a firestorm.

(A firestorm is a conflagration (an extensive fire which destroys a great deal of land or property) which attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. It is most commonly a natural phenomenon, created during some of the largest bushfires and wildfires.)

When I saw the footage on the news – I didn’t understand. I didn’t understand the blank, almost twisted look on that officer’s face as he drove his knee down on George Floyd’s neck. I didn’t understand the blatant inaction of the other officers while witnessing this brutal extinguishing of a human being. I didn’t understand why this level of aggression was necessary on someone who was already subdued. And I didn’t understand why the words “I can’t breathe” didn’t invoke an ounce of compassion or relief.

Then came the protesting. Then the riots. Then the looting. And I still didn’t understand.

While some people want to group all three of these events, in my mind, these are three separate actions. Because by attaching the riots and the looting with the genuineness of the protesting… it lessons the cause, blurs the intention and distracts from the truth… therefore painting the protestors with a brush of violence, greed and chaos. And that is beyond unfair.

The PROTESTS are NOT out of control.

The pain and frustration are what’s out of control and more importantly the injustice is out of control and people are responding to a situation where they feel angry and powerless. Yes, the fires, destruction of property and looting are awful collateral here but it’s important to not loose focus on what caused this current situation. We often look at with contempt and criticize reactions while forgetting the action that started everything.

And that is another injustice.

I wouldn’t even know how to begin writing about Black Lives Matter or Antifa. I say this because of the controversy surrounding both movements. And if you dive deep enough into the internet, like I did, you too will begin to suffer from what I like to call ‘I don’t know what to fucking think anymore-itis’.

So, I’m going to escape talking about these two groups with this:

“Instead of feeling threatened by and hating a movement, be glad you don’t need a movement.”

My experience with black people is pretty limited. Not by choice, but rather due to geography, common interests and quite possibly socioeconomics. I can count on one hand the number of black people I knew throughout my school-aged years. My area was diverse in other ways, so no, I did not grow up in White Breadville. I mention all this to lay down a bit of background before I continue.

“I don’t see colour.” How many of us have said this at least once in the last six months? I have. And I probably said it to prove to myself or someone else that I wasn’t racist. But I no longer say that… because the truth is, I do see colour. I see ALL the fucking colours and they are beautiful. It’s people who are ugly.

If you were to ask me point blank if I was racist, I’d tell you point blank – I am not. And I’d say this with absolute belief in my character and sincerity. I care less about your skin colour and nationality and more about you returning your shopping cart to its proper location. That is the truth. Your religion doesn’t bother me at all (as long as you’re not cramming it down my throat) but your ability to treat others with genuine kindness and compassion sure matters to me. And I don’t give a flying fuck how you want to identify… be a Martian, I’m totally cool with that, but bully others in my presence and I will come at you with the full force of nuclear pasta (look it up).

The last handful of months (I’m assuming here) has caused most of us to pull up and examine those deep in the corner of our brain concepts. You know the ones – the ones that might get you questioned by The Thought Police if they existed outside of fiction. It’s ok, we all have those little bastard notions creeping around… no matter the skin colour. I started to take a closer look at some of the things I think and how they would affect others if I wore those thoughts on a t-shirt. Needless to say, I’m not super impressed with myself. Because while I know with all my heart that I am not a racist person, I do recognize that I buy into and perpetuate some stereotypes. And I have zero excuses. This admission makes me a bit uncomfortable, but I’m ok with that… I can learn through discomfort.

I hear many people talking about and referring to white guilt.

- White Guilt: ‘the feelings of shame and remorse some white people experience when they recognize the legacy of racism and racial injustice and perceive the ways they have benefited from it’.

I do not feel shame and remorse as a white person. As a human being, I am ashamed of how many of my fellow humans treat those who do not look the way they do or do not come from the same background. Do I believe there is a legacy of racism and racial injustice? Yes, 100%. Have I benefitted from this because I am white? I may be too dumb to answer this correctly. Or maybe too white? Or maybe I’ve had blinders on because based upon my own level of perception, I’ve always struggled to navigate my own existence therefore only know what has directly prevented me from being who and what I want in this world?

I underlined ‘level of perception’ because as the quote goes: “I stopped explaining myself when I realized people only understand things from their level of perception”

Earlier I said there were so many things I didn’t understand about George Floyd’s death and the protests etc. but here is something I do comprehend - there’s a big difference between understanding someone’s plight and being understanding of someone’s plight. Sympathy doesn’t require a total understanding of what problems other people are experiencing.

I may not fully grasp the struggles of those in the black community because it is not my experience but I will not ignore, deny or challenge their struggles. I will however educate myself on the issues, observe my own reactions and offer support in the ways I can and offer compassion to anyone who is willing to accept a little love from a min Hulk.

Nothing I write here is meant to change your mind. It is not meant to offend or shame you for how you may feel or think and nothing I write here is meant to lessen the seriousness of the current situation facing an entire community of people. As a writer my only goal is often to just disrupt your thoughts. Period.

#thehulk #blm #perception #george floyd

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f4liveblogarchives · 4 years

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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #187, #188, & #189

Thur Aug 22 2019 [02:04 PM] Bocaj: 187 issues later, still fantastic but not necessarily still four [02:05 PM] Wack'd: Eh, they're still pretty Fourish [02:05 PM] Wack'd: Unless you count Franklin I guess [02:05 PM] Wack'd: Sure, Thundra, Greer, and Impy have been around a lot lately, but Greer insists she's not part of the team and Thundra and Impy don't really play well with others [02:06 PM] maxwellelvis: Also, Impossible Man's been KO'd by an unseen assailant. [02:06 PM] Wack'd: Also true [02:07 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, on the plane ride back from New Salem, the team recaps a little [02:07 PM] Wack'd: Agatha left that place in the hopes that others have her kind would be encouraged to join her, and she blames herself for raising Nicholas badly [02:07 PM] Wack'd: These are, again, the kind of details it might've been nice to have during the actual story so we could wring something out of them [02:08 PM] Bocaj: "Thundra and Impy don't really play well with others" I posit that Johnny and Ben historically haven't always played well with others [02:09 PM] Bocaj: Sometimes a family is that cat woman stray you adopted, the woman from an alternate universe where men are considered the weaker gender until you slammed her universe into another, and that annoying alien [02:09 PM] Bocaj: We'll call him the 'urkel' type [02:09 PM] Wack'd: Let me rephrase that to "are openly contemptuous of others and seem hesitant to do even the bare minimum to lend aid" [02:09 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, but in a different way from Impossible Man, who literally nobody except other Popuppians can stand to be around. [02:09 PM] Bocaj: Ok well thats different [02:10 PM] Wack'd: The Four discover Impy, knocked out but apparently unharmed. Sue worries that whoever did this might still be in the Baxter [02:11 PM] Wack'd: We can also add to George Pérez to the long list of comics artists who are bad at drawing children but very good at drawing tiny adults

[02:12 PM] Bocaj: George Pérez can draw a lot of things, in terms of range and also in terms of numerical things on a page but children are black magic that eludes him [02:13 PM] Aleph Null: i relate because children are also black magic that eludes me [02:13 PM] Wack'd: So Johnny flies outside to look in all the windows while Ben decides to go floor by floor. Reed is out out because they made a plan without him and Sue has to heal his fragile ego [02:13 PM] Wack'd: “Without my stretching powers, I'm not really good enough to be anything more than a nursemaid!” [02:13 PM] Bocaj: fuck off reed [02:14 PM] Aleph Null: can we retitle the blog to “fuck off reed” [02:14 PM] Wack'd: This is a nice moment

[02:15 PM] Wack'd: Honestly I like how forgiving everyone is being of Agatha. Not that anyone on this team has room to throw stones [02:16 PM] Wack'd: Oh my god Johnny is also like "man, running off on my own like I always do probably hurt Reed's feelings" [02:16 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Ben runs into KLAW! [02:17 PM] Bocaj: Ulysses Klaue Klaw? [02:17 PM] Wack'd: Whose shtick at this point is still being made of sound and also being able to fire sound monsters at people [02:17 PM] Wack'd: And not, you know, having a claw [02:17 PM] maxwellelvis: His artificial hand is his claw. [02:19 PM] Wack'd: Oh hey it's this guy

[02:19 PM] Bocaj: oh thats a bad look [02:20 PM] maxwellelvis: Actually that's not that guy. That's a different guy. [02:20 PM] Wack'd: Back in #20 he got the ability to alter non-organic matter because he was exposed to an atomic incident [02:20 PM] Wack'd: Since then he's had a couple of appearances in the 70s, one in Two in One and one in Iron Man [02:20 PM] Bocaj: The guy I knew as Molecule Man is a multiversal bomb [02:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Wait, I saw that guy shrivel up and disintegrate when separated from his wand for too long. [02:22 PM] Wack'd: Yes [02:22 PM] Wack'd: This got undone in the Iron Man appearance I mentioned [02:22 PM] maxwellelvis: oh [02:22 PM] Wack'd: Where he also gained the ability to possess people [02:23 PM] Bocaj: There was a shitty Avengers Assemble episode about Son of Molecule Man [02:23 PM] Bocaj: It had a stylistic flashback to EMH [02:23 PM] Wack'd: Given how fucking often these books are like "oh, they killed him, he's gone for real" and then in a completely different book he comes back to life and then he returns to his original book with a long winded explanation... [02:23 PM] Wack'd: I'm not sure why you would've assumed that he was actually dead [02:24 PM] maxwellelvis: Because this time he left behind a body. [02:24 PM] Wack'd: That doesn't mean anything! [02:24 PM] maxwellelvis: Well, a pile of dust in a ragged old Molecule Man costume. [02:24 PM] Wack'd: At the end of his first appearance the Watcher aged him into oblivion [02:26 PM] Wack'd: Agatha filling the role of "lady who tells Reed to suck it the fuck up" now that Medusa's gone

[02:28 PM] Wack'd: Anyway Ben gets turned into glass, Johnny is drowned in midair, Sue is...uh...

[02:28 PM] Wack'd: Sure, that's how that works [02:29 PM] Wack'd: And Reed tries to fire on the two but his gun is turned to helium and he's knocked out [02:30 PM] Wack'd: Okay so uh [02:31 PM] Wack'd: In the aftermath of that Iron Man I mentioned, Klaw found Owen's wand, with Owen's mind trapped inside, and gave it to a guy he met on the street so Owen would possess that guy [02:31 PM] Wack'd: The narrative notes that the guy was a boxer so I should probably also note that the guy was a boxer in case it becomes relevant [02:33 PM] Wack'd: So! The Four are incapacitated! Who cam save them now! [02:33 PM] Wack'd: Why, Impossible Man, of course. Not because he cares about the team, but because he's angry that someone defeated him in combat [02:34 PM] Wack'd: Impy can shapeshift so Molecule Man can't really do much to him [02:34 PM] Wack'd: And Impy removes his ears and makes himself into a non-sound-conductive material so he's immune to Klaw [02:34 PM] Wack'd: And then he kicks their asses [02:35 PM] Wack'd: Owen had been planning on using Reed's psi-amplifier (from that time Ben and Hulk switched brains) to make it so he could keep his ass in this body forever [02:35 PM] Wack'd: But Reed manages to cut the cord mid-process, sapping Owen back into his wand [02:36 PM] Wack'd: And undoing all the damage he caused [02:36 PM] Wack'd: AND THEN REED PICKS UP THE WAND WITH HIS BARE HANDS, LIKE AN IDIOT [02:37 PM] Wack'd: W E L P

[02:38 PM] Bocaj: Basically Lunella becoming Smartest was long overdue because Reed is dumb [02:38 PM] Bocaj: Someone needed to explicitly be smarter than him or else it would be very sad [02:39 PM] Wack'd: Don't think it's escaped my attention that this is our second evil Reed storyline in which Reed isn't actually evil [02:39 PM] Bocaj: Hm [02:40 PM] Bocaj: At least it’s not an evil Sue storyline [02:40 PM] Bocaj: Those are bad in many many ways [02:40 PM] Wack'd: If Gerry Conway's read on the Reed/Sue divorce arc was "if they're going to split up it should be because Reed does something truly ghastly", it seems like Wein's was "people seem to really want to make Reed a jerk, so how do I do that without altering the fact that he's genuinely a nice person" [02:42 PM] Wack'd: I loathed Conway's take, but Wein's is even worse because it denies the idea that Reed has anything to be culpable for. It seems like people have been shilling him constantly recently--Sue noticing Counter-Reed is unaffectionate to spot the ruse, Ben assuming Counter-Reed is obsessively watching the Negative Zone because he wants to save his counterpart, Counter-Reed immediately becoming a selfless paragon when his headache wears off [02:43 PM] Wack'd: And this issue, too, with everyone but Agatha assuming Reed is entitled to authority and feeling bad for hurting his feelings by doing their own things [02:44 PM] Wack'd: Maybe I'm being uncharitable because he's the cripple-the-b**** guy, but it does really seem like he sees nothing wrong with Reed's normal pattern of behavior and is mildly baffled anyone would. Which would fit well with his aesthetic of overwhelming nostalgia [02:45 PM] Wack'd: Anyway

Thur Aug 22 2019 [02:46 PM] Wack'd: So Reed's brain is trapped in Owen's wand now [02:47 PM] Wack'd: Ben destroys the Psi-Amplifier so Owen can't take over Reed's body permanently [02:47 PM] Wack'd: Owen, in retaliation, traps Sue, Johnny, Ben and Impy in an adimantium cube [02:48 PM] Wack'd: While he goes to blow off some adimantium rage [02:48 PM] maxwellelvis: Spider-Man and Venom ~ Maximum Carnage (Genesis) - Main Theme [02:49 PM] Wack'd: Johnny uses his heat to expand the air in the box, forcing it open, but it takes basically everything he's got [02:49 PM] Wack'd: You would think everybody in that box would die a million times of heat stroke but I guess not [02:50 PM] maxwellelvis: I was about to question the presence of Adamantium in an FF story, then I remembered that A. it's past 1975 now so Wolverine is a thing, and B. Len Wein is one of Wolverine's co-creators. [02:50 PM] maxwellelvis: And I think he first coined "Adamantium" to describe what his claws are made of. [02:51 PM] Wack'd: Watcher has gone from a white Grey to a fat bald guy to a Tor Johnson character

[02:53 PM] Wack'd: Watcher is still not talking, which Ben takes as a sign of apathy [02:53 PM] Wack'd: "Why don't you go to sell tickets to a funeral," he asks [02:54 PM] Wack'd: Ah yes, my favorite Tom Hanks movie

[02:55 PM] maxwellelvis: "You should make'em bugs!" [02:58 PM] Wack'd: Credit where it's due, I think this is genuinely the coolest monster design we've had in a while! You can see some remnants of the Kirby aping that still, in 1977, has not worn off, but it feels novel applied to brick and mortar, and I love the arrangements of the windows and the way the structures on the roof jut out of it's shoulders

[02:59 PM] Wack'd: Reed agrees to stop resisting, and the building returns to normal [02:59 PM] Wack'd: And then his friends show up and Reed starts resisting again [03:00 PM] Wack'd: Thanks to that resistance, Owen can't do anything to our heroes directly, and has to settle for transforming their surroundings [03:00 PM] Wack'd: This would be a lot simpler if they just kept the "no organic matter" limit from his first appearance [03:01 PM] maxwellelvis: Blame Steve Gerber, I guess. [03:01 PM] Wack'd: Impy tries to hit Owen with a giant mallet but Sue stops him because she doesn't want to hurt Reed [03:02 PM] Wack'd: Impy takes it well

[03:05 PM] Wack'd: Unfortunately, Reed's body gets knocked out anyway [03:06 PM] Wack'd: But while this renders the Reed inside of Owen's wand unconscious, it sends Owen into spasms of pain [03:06 PM] Wack'd: Causing him to release his grip on the wand, dropping it into a nearby factory furnace [03:07 PM] Wack'd: And so normalcy is restored--OR IS IT?! [03:07 PM] Wack'd: Reed's decided to resign from the Four [03:07 PM] Wack'd: And Sue's going to join him because "I already deserted my husband once, I'm not going to do it again" [03:07 PM] Wack'd: *sigh* [03:08 PM] Bocaj: 😐

Thur Aug 22 2019 [03:10 PM] Wack'd: FANTASTIC FOUR VOL 1 #189 [03:10 PM] Wack'd: Is a reprint of Annual ’66 [03:10 PM] Wack'd: Moving on [03:10 PM] Wack'd: As if there weren't enough reasons to hate Wein, it certainly seems like a lot of issues get delayed while he's around [03:11 PM] Wack'd: This is the second in less than ten issues [03:11 PM] maxwellelvis: That might explain why Chris Claremont took over Uncanny X-Men almost immediately after Wein revived it

#1977 #Len Wein #George Pérez #The Main Book

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tyrantisterror · 6 years

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Well Made Futility: Infinity War Thoughts

I saw Infinity War for a second time and have some thoughts. SPOILERish thoughts, so, y’know, a cut here for the sake of those who care about such things.

I mean, I actually think this movie is better if you know what you’re in for going in, but I’m weird so what do I know.

So like... Infinity War is fucking difficult to evaluate. It’s a movie that does something completely unprecedented in film - while we all enjoyed joking about it, no single movie crossover has attempted to weave this many VERY different stories, characters, and (especially) tones into one coherent narrative before. It is a crossover unlike any other in film. And it’s mostly successful!

but

I know we all like to dunk on Marvel’s films because they’re popular and make a lot of money, and all of us have an inner hipster who hates things that are successful regardless of their actual quality or content, because fuck that man we’re not normies we only like things BEFORE they’re cool. But as a person who loves “genre” fiction - i.e. Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, anything that isn’t set in standard reality - the Marvel movies have been kind of revolutionary. Genre films had gotten so LIMITED before Iron Man, and it was stupidly limited at that. We could accept that a billionaire fury who punches criminals could walk into a police department without making everyone burst into laughter, but we couldn’t accept that a strange chemical bath would permanently bleach a clown-turned-criminal’s skin. We could accept a guy getting powers from a spider OR a guy being really good at science but not both. We could accept a guy growing claws out of his hands, but god help you if that man also wears something other than black skintight leather. Everything had to be “grounded” and “real”, and I put quotations marks around those words because what they REALLY meant in the context of Hollywood was “boring.”

but

And then Marvel slowly chipped away at that. Not at first - Iron Man and The Hulk were about as restrained as the superhero movies that preceded them, but slowly the movies conditioned us to accept weird shit. Thor brought in Norse mythology and a certain kind of magic, although they dressed it up as “advanced science”, because we were in a transition and that was a concession they could make. Captain America took us out of modern day - a risky idea, period piece action movies are never a sure thing - and also introduced the idea of a serum that can turn you into either the ULTIMATE BEEFCAKE or a red skinned skeleton man depending on your moral compass, which is PRETTY FUCKING WEIRD when you think about it.

but

Then The Avengers happened. Before that movie came out, every conventional Hollywood line of thinking told us it would fail. Movies with multiple heroes don’t succeed. That’s why Batman and Robin sucked, right - too many heroes? And Batman and Robin, why, that’s the worst film ever! Spiderman 3 had too many villains! You can’t have more than two super powered guys in a movie - that’s just movie law! Having more than two super power guys is box office poison.

but

But The Avengers wasn’t. Maybe most of you don’t remember it because we’ve had 10 years of these Marvel movies and their success seems like an inescapable fact now, but The Avengers defied expectations by being both good AND a box office success - a ridiculously lucrative one at that! The Avengers took a huge fucking risk and it paid off.

but

Then it happened again. People assumed The Avengers was as weird as you could go. Critics were CERTAIN these movies would peter out eventually, that they couldn’t keep doing the impossible. One of these risks had to doom them. And a lot of critics looked at one movie on the post The Avengers slate - Guardians of the Galaxy - and said, “That’s the one - that’s gonna be the turd. A movie about a talking raccoon and a tree monster - two RIDICULOUS character concepts that sound more like jokes than something a studio would actually put in their action movie - along with some d-listers no one but hardcore nerds care about, all directed by a guy best known for gore-filled low budget b movies? That’s going to kill Marvel. There is no way that film can be good, much less a financial success.”

but

Guardians of the Galaxy was not just good, but it’s the best series within the franchise. Yeah, fuckin’ fight me on it nerds. (no actually don’t I’m voicing a subjective opinion in this paragraph I don’t actually give a shit about ranking movies like this)

but

Even when their movies weren’t game changers, they were still solid and fun. Whether or not they’re your cup of tea, Marvel’s superhero movies are never worse than “good.” Some of them are “great.” Some, like The Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Black Panther, are arguably transformatively great. At the very least, these films taken as a collective whole have changed the way we approach Genre Films. They have redefined what is possible - they reminded Hollywood that suspension of disbelief is a malleable thing, even if some studios haven’t quite grasped the concept yet.

but

Which brings me back to Infinity War. Like The Avengers before it, Infinity War brings different characters from many different stories with many different tones and styles and, to an extent, genres/subgenres, and blends them into a coherent and emotionally resonate whole. It requires you to have seen at least the majority of the previous DECADES worth of movies to work, but that’s not a flaw - no more than, say, the twentieth chapter of a novel requiring you to read the previous 19 at any rate. Infinity War needs those previous films to function, and to its credit, it not only uses what they built, but does so in genuinely surprising ways. You didn’t think you needed a Rocket Raccoon/Thor team up in your life, but this movie proves you did. You also didn’t think you’d see Rocket Raccoon genuinely reach out to Thor (who, to him, is a relative stranger) and try to help him through his grief, but it happens, and it’s a legitimately interesting moment that movies both characters forward in their respective arcs. This movie is more than just taking a bunch of toys out of a toybox and smashing them together (though yes, there are parts of it that are very much that - these are action adventure movies, after all). Characters develop and bounce off each other in glorious and meaningful ways. There is a weight to everything beyond the obvious, mercenary Hollywood mandate to make as much money as possible by getting fans of all these different franchises into one theater.

but

The movie even tries to rectifies some of the franchise’s most notable flaws, in particular their lack of decent villains. You could count the number of actually compelling and interesting villains from the previous 18 films on one hand. Thanos, the big bad of this film, finally gets us to the other palm. His motives are understandable but NOT justified - that is to say, you can understand why a person may believe what he believes, but at the end of the film you know for a fact he’s wrong. Thanos is a bad guy whose evil plan will destroy countless lives, but he manages not to be the cartoonish caricature of a villain whose over the top “destroy the world” motivation makes no sense. It’s nuanced, is my point. I don’t think he’s the best Marvel has offered us - he wouldn’t crack my top three just yet - but he’s miles above most of the competition.

BUT

So here’s the crux of my review. When I got to the ending of the movie - an ending that, admittedly, I spoiled for myself ahead of time, because I do that for most movies ever since I got majorly burned by Jurassic Park III when I was a teen - I couldn’t stop thinking about it, because it’s... it’s a paradox. Not just the ending, either, but the whole movie. This is a film that both does and doesn’t work. It is both an amazing feat and... and fundamentally broken.

And it all has to do with those 18 films before it.

Ok, so: if taken as its own story, that is to say, as just it’s own thing, not the part of a greater whole... then the ending of Infinity War is exactly the ending this story needed. This is Thanos’s story more than anyone else’s, when you get right down to it, and from the perspective that this movie is meant to tell his story and his story alone, the ending is the only one that would fit. Thanos gets everything he wants, at the cost of everything that mattered to him. His crazed vision finally comes true, and the audience feels the full weight of how horrible that is. That ending - that maddening, confounding ending, where almost every hero we’ve come to love over 18 goddamn films is killed with the snap of his fingers - shows us exactly why we can’t let monsters like Thanos come to power, and how even the monsters like Thanos himself are destroyed by following those mad dreams through (a point reinforced by the cameo of a long forgotten past villain, Red Skull).

However, as I said before, you really CAN’T take this movie on its own. Structurally it DEPENDS on you seeing those previous films. You have to have seen them just for this movie to make sense, and to be emotionally affected by it you must also have cared about those movies and their characters. This movie is a sum of those parts.

And as a followup to those 18 films - as a part of their greater whole - it fails. So many characters we followed and love - Black Panther, Spider-Man, every fucking guardian of the galaxy except Rocket and maybe Nebula if we count her, just to name a few - is killed off in a literal instant. With the exception of Loki, each of these deaths kind of renders their preceding journey pointless. Peter Parker was just starting his journey in his preceding film - so was Black Panther, so was Dr. Strange, so were many of the others. Imagine if Hamlet was killed in act 1 of his play - everything about him would be unresolved, and all of his supporting cast would have no anchor to the plot since the conflict they’re involved in is removed with Hamlet’s death. You’d have to start over. Other characters are farther along, but with rare exception, none of them had what could be called a satisfactory end. If the deaths in this movie actually hold true, then most of the preceding 18 movies have been broken. They are wastes of time.

Of course, a savvy person would note that literally every character killed in this movie has been cast in the next Avengers film, due out next year. Spider-Man and the Guardians have announced movies with release dates after that one, too. Black Panther’s sequel has been announced although the release date has not. These deaths are highly unlikely to stick.

BUT if that’s the case, well... then this movie’s broken again, because now that ending has no weight. Now that ending is pointless - in fact, this whole movie is, because it’s all just going to be undone by the next. Either this film was a narrative waste of time, or the preceding 18 were. There’s no other option.

...but...

There is, I suppose, a possibility. A faint one, admittedly - I have no idea if they can achieve it. There’s a possibility the fourth Avengers film could find a way to make this movie’s weight hold while still putting all those dead characters’ stories back on track. Infinity War was conceived as a two part film story, after all, even if they dropped the “Part 1″ label come release. No matter how much this film wants you to think otherwise, it is just part of whole - and maybe, just maybe, the second one will make the first work WITHIN that whole.

I don’t see how it can, but then, I didn’t see how they could make me care about fuckin’ Rocket Raccoon. And Guardians of the Galaxy is, as I said, the best one.

If I were a betting man, I’d bet on this movie ultimately being a narrative cul de sac - a very well made, but ultimately pointless entry that is invalidated by what comes after it. If that ends up being the case, then that’s kind of sad - but there’s a chance they may make it work after all, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s not to bet against Marvel.

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jeongincore · 7 years

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Shit i really liked and kinda didn’t like about Ragnarok

I recently saw ragnarok and became so rejuvenated that i brought my marvel blog back but i wanted to seriously talk about like things that i liked and really didn’t just to get shit out there.

Things i really liked (like so much that i am obsessed)

-Thor’s new hair cut/outfit, i think its actually super suitable. Gives that sort of cool ass warrior refugee look. Plus, Chris Hemsworth is beautiful.

-The humor, oh god it was hilarious, i’ve never laughed so genuinely and so much in my life and it made the movie so charming and relatable. It was also such a departure from The Dark World and the first Thor, which dealt with so much emotional baggage for not only just Thor, but for Loki, who basically suffered throughout both movies.

-Hulk being an actual toddler/Bruce Banner being so fucked up and anxious because WHEN DID HE GET ON AN ALIEN PLANET.

-”You’ve been on other planets before i assume” “Yeah, one!” “well now it’s two”

-Valkyrie. Her entire everything gave me so much to love and adore. Tessa Thompson has stole my heart yet again.

-TAIKA WAITITI AS KORG WAS ACTUALLY SO FUNNY

-The little tiny glimpses of Loki and Thor’s childhood, aka the snake story, get help. It really showed how much time Loki and Thor had spent together, which i assume is a lot because age in Asgardian years work differently probably? Like imagine that, Loki and Thor spending time together and being inseparable for 100 years. It showed that they were always close despite loki feeling different or alienated, which explains why its so hard for Loki to just leave thor for dead.

-”You’ll always be the god of mischief, but you can be so much more” See that shit destroyed me. Thor acknowledges that Loki is not like him. He’s a trickster, manipulative, and selfish. But he also acknowledges that Loki is so much more than his tricks and lies, which shows so much character growth in Thor, who sees loki as more than just an asgardian prince that was raised the exact same way opposite of Thor, but as his own fucking person.

-Thor actually not being stupid and falling for Loki’s tricks, aka his magic projections of himself/his petty, stupid betrayals. Tom mentioned that Thor was evolving and that Loki was finally starting to realize that he’s the only one not growing. Scenes like the betrayal scene and the snake scene, although meant to be hilarious, point out that Thor isn’t that idiot that just was too trusting of his brother, he sees through Loki’s tricks, he’s seen them for years, and it really shows that Loki’s getting predictable with his fake deaths and betrayals, which might hint at him changing?

-IT FIXED THE INCONSISTENCIES. The main reason i didn’t like Dark world, though i did see it as amazing for its ability to mix the emotional darkness between Loki and Thor along with the humor throughout the movie, was because it pointed Loki out to be the type of cold blooded monster that would murder his own father. I mean I’m no Loki apologist, i love the kid but he’s killed, he’s manipulated, he’s hurt everyone around him, but i doubt he could ever kill Odin, no matter how much of a shitty father he is. Also low-key hated the whole “Loki if you betray me, ill kill you” Thor bullshit. We all know thor wouldn’t be able to do that, he still hopes Loki is his brother.

-AGAIN, THE SNAKE SCENE WAS SO FUNNY.

-”I thought the world of you Loki.” Ouch.

-Hulk and Val’s bromance.

-The entire Valkyrie v. Hela scene. It was so beautiful and ethereal i actually nutted.

-LOKI DIDN’T NEED TO COME BACK. HE DIDN’T NEED TO GO BACK TO THE SHIP WITH THOR. HE DIDN’T NEED TO GO BACK TO ASGARD. HE COULD HAVE NOT. BUT HE DID. BECAUSE SOMEWHERE IN THERE UNDER THE SELFISHNESS MAYBE HE CARES.

-Loki’s face when odin called him his son.

-Loki’s face when Hela told him to kneel.

-Loki refusing to let Thor go back to Asgard. “Are you serious? you can’t be thinking of going back there, that’s madness!” is that? Loki cARING?

-Loki’s character development.

-thor in a jean jacket and hoodie in new york.

-Thor spilling beer everywhere.

-Loki letting Thor take the orgy ship.

-Jeff Goldblum. Thats it.

-LOKIS FACE WITH THOR AND ODIN ON THE ROOF OF THE CASTLE I SCREmed AFTER ALL LOKI DID HE WAS STILL PUT THERE AS A PRINCE OF ASGARD BYE.

-”Hello father” “OH SHIT”

-The entire play. Loki’s rule as a benevolent god/king in which, before everyone feared him for a dictatorship militaristic form of ruling he could have, but in reality he just like ate grapes and watched plays.

-Thor wanting to be a Valkyrie. The crowned prince of asgard, wanting to be an elite team of woman warriors.

-VAL IS GAY AND IN TESSA THOMPSONS WORDS, HAD A GIRLFRIEND THAT SACRIFICED HERSELF TO SAVE HER.

-Val kicking Loki’s ass.

-THE RETURN OF THE DOUBLE BLADES OUT OF NOWHERE.

-Loki in a suit.

-HEIMDALL I LOVEJWIFHTGE.

-”I thought you didn’t want to talk about it” “heres the thing”

-”Hello!” “Hi” *blasts everyone in room with giant laser guns*

-”What are you? Thor, god of hammers?”

-IMMIGRANT SONG.

-”i swear i left him right here” “where? on the street? Or in that nursing home thats being torn down?”

“I’m not a witch” “Why do you dress like one then?”

-Loki rolling his eyes when thor is approached by fans.

-Loki calling stephen strange a shitty sorcerer and going at him with stabby hands.

-Confirmation of loki’s love of stabbing.

-Confirmation that Loki is a snake, and also Thor’s favorite snake.

-Loki reciting Thor’s prayer to odin with him mY SON.

-The avengers parallel. “He’s my brother!” “adopted.”

-”mbLERG ITS ME”

-”AGH LOKI!”

-’DIRECT ME TO WHO’S ASS I HAVE TO KICK”

-”Where? the devil’s anus?”

-Bruce fighting evil with fireworks. Good job sweetie.

-Bruce flopping like a fish on the bifrost.

-Thor and his sparkles.

-Lightning eyes.

-Odin finALLY DYING. THANK GOD.

-*Loki on a death trip* ‘this is a terrible idea”

-Loki somehow reciting a spell to bring surtur back. what a weirdo. how did he know that.

-LOKI COMING BACK.

-im here.

-Loki

-Brodinson.

-Thor and Bruce’s bromance.

-Jane not being there. I mean it makes sense she dumped him, he left her for two years chasing down infinity stones and constantly almost dying while she had no way of contacting him because Thor’s ass didn’t know how to use fucking email. Also i just really honestly never liked her character to begin with, i mean sure i love that Jane is a strong, smart woman but tbh i just wanted to Fast forward every time she was on screen.

-The cute death wolf.

-”THATS HOW IT FEELS!” “sorry i just really like the sport”

-THOR ACTUALLY BEING PORTRAYED AS LESS OF A JERK WITH CACTUSES SHOVED UP HIS RECTUM AND MORE LIKE THE SWEET, CHARMING, CHARISMATIC AND SLIGHTLY ARROGANT BUT MEANS WELL MAN HE IS.

-Val being there as a cool as member of the team rather than just the love interest of Thor. Protect her at all cost even though she probs doesn’t even need it.

-”I’VE BEEN FALLING FOR THIRTY MINUTES”

-Stan Lee’s cameo as the dude who cut Thor’s hair. Thank you for doing all of us a giant favor. Please do the same to Loki.

-loki beating someone up with his horn hat.

-Loki twirling his horn hat.

-Loki being such a self serving, extra asshole that he came from the fucking fog screaming “YOUR SAVIOR HAS ARRIVED”

-Bruce asking where tony was and then complaining about his tight crotch pants.

-LOKI’S COSTUME CHANGE GOD I HATED THE OLD ONES BLESS UP.

-Loki’s costume being mainly blue, black, and gold :-)))))))

-Loki being 100% done with everything that happens.

-Val knocking Loki out when he makes her relive her trauma why do people ship this you go honey that was a dick move

-Thor throwing various things at Loki to make sure he’s not a mirage.

-he’s a friend from work, something a kid from make a wish that met chris suggested, being in the film and all of the trailers. I hope that made that kid smile.

-”In return, i wish to be granted safe passage through the anus”

-LOKI FINALLY ACCEPTING THAT HE DIDN’T WANT THE THRONE WITHOUT A FAMILY. THAT HE’D RATHER WATCH HIS BROTHER TAKE IT AND STILL HAVE A BROTHER THAN HAVE A THRONE WITH NO ONE TO SHARE IT WITH.

-LOKI SHOWING UP ON SCREEN DURING THOR’S CORONATION.

-Loki being genuinely worried about and double checking if Thor really wants to bring him back to earth after what he did kill me honestly that would probably hurt less.

-Loki’s face when thor said that going their separate ways was what Loki always wanted bc in reality that is the opposite go back.

-Hela not being Loki’s daughter because 1) it proves that ya’ll should stop hoping that a comic soap opera about rich petty alien boys with daddy issues would be anything like classic norse mythology, and 2) when the fuck and how the fuck and why the fuck

-Loki suggesting that he and Thor both rule over Sakaar together lmao ouch.

-Loki just being really cute and quirky.

-Thor being so fucking amazed by Val all the time.

-”You’re late.”

-”I saw you coming” “course you did.”

-THE GUNS NAMED DES AND TROY I WANTED TO FUCKING DIE.

What i didn’t like much;

-Hela. I loved her character, but honestly here is where i think there might’ve been some failure despite how much i loved that movie. She seemed so out of place as a villain, and i feel like the whole related shit tried to mimic Guardians vol. 2, but honestly the fact that Thor didn’t care much about her made her feel so out of place. But i did like some parts, like how she was so disappointed about not being remembered or what her existence and disappointment did to how loki was raised.

-Dr. Strange? Ok that was weird. It makes sense and it was funny to see him but to be honest i wasn’t into it.

-tHE SCENE WITH VAL AND A GIRL BEING CUT. WHYWHYWHY

-tbh was not fond of frost master, don’t hate me.

-Loki possibly taking the tesseract????? And hinting that he might turn evil again??? don’t do this to me marvel.

-loki possibly being turned into the quirky sidekick of his brother. Loki is Thor’s equal, not his annoying little brother/wacky sidekick. I didn’t get that vibe often, but sometimes i did honestly.

-RIP thor’s hammer.

-ODIN BEING A PIECE OF SHIT YET AGAIN.

-Hela’s entrance. it was so quick and like out of place i was like what wait, Loki and thor didn’t even have time to prepare or even mourn.

-the comedy. It was its best and worst part of the movie. Sometimes it was tasteful. Other times it was too much. Thor and Loki didn’t even get to mourn for their dad who tbh was an asshole but still their dad before there was a annoying joke about kneeling. It took away from the story sometimes.

-the lack of hugging between thor and loki.

-The way they glossed over the warriors three’s death like they weren’t Thor’s closest friends and the only ones there for him when Odin tried to banish Thor to earth :-))))) I mean after all that shit he went through I’m pretty fucking sure it probably hasn’t caught up to him but ya bitch still pissed.

-The way, Thor, who basically admitted that Loki actually meant the world to him and was the only family he had left, didn’t ask where he was after asgard exploded? Like tbh i get it, he trusts Loki, his brothers capable and strong and most of all really fucking smart, but i’d still be like :-) the fuck is Loki. I think this is a directing error though rather than like the characters fucking up but i was freaking out, i mean asgard was literally pebbles and everyone was out BUT my son.

-No sif, i mean i get it Jaime Alexander was busy but like y'all could’ve explained smh.

-Loki not getting a hair cut. When will his emo phase end.

-Not getting that one flashback to 80′s asgard with mullets and emo loki.

Overall it was pretty fucking cool, one of the best movies of the trilogy. I fell in love with the marvel cinematic universe all over again. But it wasn’t perfect.

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abadpoetwithdreams · 7 years

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Nirvana in Fire Episode 3 Reaction

I’m back with more long-winded babbling about this incredibly complicated show! I mean that as a good thing–this plot has so many plates spinning at once, and so many layers of character interaction, and it’s all done really well and we haven’t even really started yet! This is still just setting the stage! By the end of this episode, however, it feels like things are actually getting ready to kick off more. The basic foundation that we need of who all these people are and what their agendas are is firmly established and now we are ready to see where the story goes. Or not ready? Ready in the mind but not in the heart.

Note: this reaction is really just a glorified recap. I tried shortening it because, uh, LONG, but this episode is SO FULL OF IMPORTANT EXPOSITION that I couldn’t really comment on my reaction to any one thing without having to contextualize it with other things, and any of the few seemingly non-important things were all really fun character bits so I want to talk about them and. Um. I guess I’ll alternate how I format my reaction posts between more streamlined bulletpoint reactions and long-winded recapping depending on episode content.

Also! This was the last episode I watched where I took any kind of notes until episode like 12 (I’m on ep 17 now guys help but I’m holding off watching more so I can write these. Barely). When I write up eps 4-11 I’ll keep my later knowledge from coloring what I remember my initial responses to be as much as possible.

(And a HUGE thank you to everyone who has welcomed me to this fandom and to those of you who have sent me feedback on my recaps and helpful commentary! I LOVE THIS SHOW. I will reply to your comments in a separate post because I want to foster this dialogue, because I LOVE THIS SHOW and want to talk about it! So thanks, guys, don’t hesitate to send me messages or whatever, every one of them makes my day!)

We resume the story in this episode exactly where we left off in the last one (as seems to be the norm with this show): with Ni Huang and Lin Shu–I mean, Mei Chang Su–I mean, let’s be real he’s always Lin Shu whenever Ni Huang is around–ok let’s start over. We resume the story with a slave child getting beaten by a eunuch. When the eunuch realizes the boy has a book on him, his rage only increases, but I’m immediately interested because this slave can read?? Hm.

The eunuch taunts the boy, telling him the fact that Prince Jing favors him does not protect him because no one likes Jing, lol. But Chang Su instantly looks even more interested in the scene, and speaking of Jing, he comes running up, and insists the eunuch stop hitting the kid. The eunuch responds by listing the boy’s punishable offenses (among them “talking back” and like lol did you forget which Prince you’re talking to??? I’m pretty sure all you did was make Jing high5 this kid mentally) and trying to pull rank via the Empress, but while Jing just stands there tongue-tied and stormy like he seems to be a lot (I really love him and his Serious-Sad-Grumpy face) Ni Huang interrupts by WHIPPING THE EUNUCH FROM LIKE SIX FEET AWAY.

Have I said I adore Ni Huang? Because I adore Ni Huang. I love how she uses her popularity and power to sort of defend Jing. Based on the last two episodes we can see what a good match she is for Lin Shu, as she is brilliant and charming and you can see how they click intellectually (even as he tries to disguise himself from her, their minds work together too easily) but here we can also see what a good partnership she has with Jing. I don’t mean romantically. I just mean she is exactly the friend he needs. “Thank you for your help, but I can handle a servant,” he tells her gravely. No, Jing. You can’t. It’s adorable. While Ni Huang kindly explains to Jing about how politics works, Chang Su, who has been watching this all with poorly concealed heart eyes, hurries over to comfort the boy and ask his name. THAT gets the immediate attention of the other two. Jing looks worried as he suddenly remembers that Chang Su is there. Iiiiiiiiinteresting.

The boy’s name is Ting Sheng, and he’s eleven. The big battle that killed Lin Shu’s father? Happened twelve years ago. Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinteresting.

Jing doesn’t seem pleased at this line of questioning. Chang Su looks startled when Jing speaks up, like he was so interested in this kid he had forgotten he was not alone. Whenever he looks surprised about something or like he’s scrambling about something I can’t help but wonder if it’s legit or if he’s just playing what he wants the others to see. This time, it looks genuine to me but he recovers fast.

Meanwhile, back at the tournament, the Crown Prince and Prince Yu look bored out of their minds because Chang Su isn’t around for them to fawn over. As soon as they realize he isn’t coming back, they ditch. I know that doesn’t sound funny on paper, but trust me, it’s funny as heck. I love these actors so much. Their mannerisms as they squabble (both when they’re actually arguing and just in the tension whenever they’re near each other) are hysterically funny, but their power and motivations in the story are very serious, so they remain formidable opponents for our Hero With Three Names. It’s a wonderful balance that the show’s writing and these actors manage to achieve, and I am enjoying it a lot.

(I hope Yu Jin and Jing Rui can relax and have a bit more fun now that those two have left the premises, btw. I want only happiness for those sweethearts. Ha. Haha. Don’t mock me in your replies to this, fandom. I know it’s a foolish hope. Don’t crush my dreams, not this early in the show.)

Back with our dream team, Jing is suspicious of Chang Su. In this whole conversation, Ni Huang plays an intriguing role in both supporting Jing but also defending Chang Su. Chang Su asks Jing why he cares about this boy. Jing, after an uncomfortable pause, says the kid is literate and his mother was a disgraced woman who could read and so Jing feels bad for him and that’s all. And okay, granted, I haven’t been given enough time yet to get to know Jing very well, but what I do know is that he is a TERRIBLE liar. Even Ni Huang looks like she feels a bit sorry for him. I believe what he’s saying–up to a point. But no way does Jing care just because this kid wasn’t born a peasant. There’s more to this for sure.

Chang Su offers to help teach the boy how to read, as I guess he is technically literate but not very good at comprehension yet. The boy is excited, but Jing seems even more unhappy at the attention Chang Su is showing the kid. Poor Jing. Learn to stop wearing your unhappiness on your sleeve, man.. Be like Ni Huang. Everyone should be like Ni Huang.

Then we get some exposition courtesy of our favourite princess, explaining that as a slave Ting Sheng cannot come and go freely, and only a decree from the Emperor could free him, but not only does the Emperor never free slaves, he dislikes even the suggestion that he free them. Thus Jing, who is already on dangerously thin ice in court, has had to keep quiet on the subject, which also explains his worry at Chang Su shaking things up. Our sneaky drama boy just smiles and says he’ll think of something. Attaboy, Shu.

Jing asks aggressively why Chang Su is so very interested in helping this kid, Chang Su replies with what I can already tell is his patented “I’m sorry could you repeat that I can’t hear you over the sound of my illness and harmlessness” smile. Hilariously, Ni Huang then cuts in to turn the question back on poor Jing. Chang Su’s smile turns just a shade smugger at that. He’s got to control himself around Ni Huang. She already clearly suspects him, and he’s only been around her for like ten minutes.

Anyway, I’ve spent way too much time on this scene because I loved it so much (I love these three people so to see them all spar together for the first time was super fun) but the scene ends with Jing walking away with the boy and looking quite adorable as he does, and saying he will wait and see what Chang Su does. And Ni Huang continues to be very intrigued by Chang Su.

Back at the tournament, Ni Huang’s baby brother arranges to have one of his men test Chang Su somehow because he’s alarmed that this strange scholar has been getting friendly with his sister. It’s hilarious that this brother thinks that Ni Huang needs protecting, but also that’s very sweet of him. I guess.

The show is unnecessarily cruel by having the old Dowager’s calling to Lin Shu play as VO as Chang Su walks pensively out of the palace. I’m never getting over that scene. But then he gets attacked by baby brother’s man and doesn’t so much as blink when the soldier charges because Fei Liu is there to save him! THIS KID. He is all ready to Hulk Smash the soldier, but Chang Su almost amusedly makes sure he doesn’t. (Side note: The attacker mentions Chang Su looks weak. I can’t help but wonder more and more if Shu is frustrated about how his body has (apparently?) failed him, leaving him with only his mind and charisma as weapons against the people who wronged his family? Since he’s such a great thinker, I am assuming he must have been a prodigy in warfare as well when he was younger. Since filial piety is a huge thing for his culture (basically virtue #1 if I remember my Chinese studies from college accurately) I am guessing a major motivation for him isn’t just revenge for his sake but for his father’s sake somehow. That’s a huge task he has set up for himself, but his means to accomplish it have been very handicapped, and meanwhile all these other characters get big action sequences and stunts and he just has to. Stand there. And smile blandly. And bury every part of himself that IS himself deep down inside. Related to this, I wonder if the actor himself found it frustrating at times how he just has to dress up and stand in the background of all the fun wirework scenes, lol. Maybe he gets to let loose a bit more later in the series. I have no idea.)

But things only get REALLY interesting here when who shows up but that general I liked last episode!! He’s still great, and dismisses the soldier angrily: “You’re not leaving yet? Are you waiting around to have a meal with me?” -best burn of this show so far, oh my gosh.

BUT THEN.

“It’s been twelve years. You’ve finally made your way back.”

!!!!!!

HE KNOWS WHO CHANG SU REALLY IS.

Not only that, but they apparently were corresponding for five years now, and he is worried because he had repeatedly warned Lin Shu that it would be too dangerous for him to return. But, now that he’s here, he’s 200% ready to do whatever Lin Shu wants and to help him do whatever it is he’s trying to do in whatever way he can. This guy is an AMAZING friend. And, given his high status in the palace as the head of the guard, from what I can tell, he’s an immensely valuable ally. I’m so glad!! I’m honestly also surprised, as I did not expect people to start recognizing Lin Shu as early as episode 3..

(“I’m finally home,” Lin Shu says, and ugh, isn’t that depressing.)

Also, it’s confirmed that he planned to have Fei Liu attack the general so that would serve as their sneaky introduction, because Lin Shu is ridiculously dramatic. Was he always this way, or is that just one of the ways falling off a cliff Mufasa-style changes a soul?

They arrange to meet at his house on Jing Rui’s dad’s estate that night(it’s called Snow Cottage, apparently? Cute name) to talk more freely. Cut to that night: Ni Huang is furious at her brother for his horrible attempt at protecting her. The actor who plays her brother plays the character as so much more casual and spontaneous than 99% of the characters on this show, and it makes him seem both very likable and very young. Don’t hurt him, show. Pls.

Ni Huang explains that Chang Su isn’t just a random scholar friend of Jing Rui’s: he’s the lord of that Eastern Yangtze Alliance and he sent tactical help once when she and her brother were having difficulty defeating their enemy at some battle. She’s convinced there’s more to him than meets the eye.

Then we cut to mister mysterious himself, who has fallen asleep sitting in his chair all wrapped up in his robes and then if that isn’t cute enough Fei Liu hurries up to tuck furs over him and I nearly died from this cuteness squared. Then, alas, the moment is ruined by the arrival of the general–Commander General Meng, actually, seems to be his name proper. Fei Liu still hates him because of their fight, and Meng is concerned that Lin Shu is burning coals in a brazier even though it isn’t that cold. Remember: he’s sickly. The show keeps throwing up little “HE IS UNWELL” flags like this, but so far there isn’t any evidence really of what exactly is wrong with him beyond his restraint in action and his apparent sensitivity to cold. I’m guessing this is planting seeds for episodes to come.

Something else that jumps out at me is that for the first time Lin Shu admits he isn’t 100% sure of what his plan is. He has obviously planned ahead a LOT (he did have 12 years to scheme, after all), but there is a certain amount of winging it that seems to be happening, too. Part of the fun of this show so far is trying to figure out how much of what happens is Lin Shu influencing events 20 moves ahead like a chess master, and how much is him being very adaptable and fast on his feet with strategy.

Meng insists on being Lin Shu’s ally in whatever he’s doing and will continue to pretend they don’t know each other well. He is apparently this loyal because he was part of the Lin army at some point. He asks how many people survived the battle. Shu says as far as people Meng would recognize goes, it’s only him and someone called Wei Zheng. I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet?

Meng then asks what happened in the battle. YES. TELL US THIS.

Flashback time!!!! … It shows nothing we haven’t seen before, though. Dangit. But when we cut back to Shu’s face, he’s got actual tears in his eyes and it’s all very intense. Poor boy is still traumatized, seemingly. And angry. He tells Meng he’ll reveal all when the time is right. I want to argue that the time could be right right now, but oh well. I can wait. Maybe.

Meng agrees, because he is a Good Friend and can see how the topic affects Shu. Then he basically asks for orders, and I guess we will find out what those are later! Next day, Yu Jin and Jing Rui are leaving for the tournament and are greeted at the door by literal wagonloads of gifts from Prince Yu and the Crown Prince. This got a good laugh out of me, I love how their very serious rivalry manifests in absurdity at least in this stage of the game. I also love Jing Rui’s frogface expression of “I am not amused but secretly I rather am.” Protect him, show. I’m worried about how close his story is tied with Chang Su.

Montage time! Jing Rui looks splendid in his fight at the tournament, and Yu Jin actually looks almost as good! They’re both great fighters despite being so laid-back, and that makes me love them even MORE. “You could have won with 58 stances, but you had to stall until the 65th to show off your gorgeous pose,” Jing Rui tells a very, very pleased with himself Yu Jin, and it’s so Good. Just. I want these two to run far away. Now.

Btw, I’m assuming they’re in the tournament to try to take two of those top ten spots, not because they actually want to marry Ni Huang. I’m pretty sure it’s established she could defeat them in combat anyway.

There’s a brief shot of a giant hairy wall of a man who is winning his bouts by punching out swordsmen. I am guessing he will be important as the tournament progresses. Oh, and the boys do get spots in the final two. Yay! I’m very proud of them.

The emperor is pleased that most of the final ten are not foreigners and thus make his kingdom look good. The lady who I think is the Crown Prince’s mother tries to coyly convince the emperor to favor a candidate she likes, but he replies that the Empress has already asked the same thing, just for another candidate. Ha. He then says that it doesn’t matter anyway because he’s not going to judge the exams: some random impartial scholar Ni Huang recommended is going to.

Good Lord, Emperor. You are making a mistake. It’s almost pitiful how wrong you are.

(I am distracted throughout this scene by how beautiful the woman’s eye makeup is. I tend to paint my eyes exactly those colors when I do my own eye makeup, so I feel vindicated. I guess it’s the Chinese ancestry in me coming out in mysterious ways.)

Chang Su’s reaction to the news he is to grade the exams is curious to me. I don’t know for sure, obviously–but it looks like the wheels start spinning very quickly in his head. I feel like Ni Huang requesting him as the examiner was a power move on her part; I do not think he was expecting it and now he has to adapt fast. I could be wrong. But I think his question of “how does the emperor know about me?” is him genuinely thinking out loud. Did he not plan on being this conspicuous this fast?

The giant man at the tournament is Baili Qi, and he is from Northern Yan, so outside the kingdom. This is problematic, because he totally demolishes another one of the finalists in a single punch, leaving the three boys (Ni Huang’s little brother, and the duo) thunderstruck. I LOVED Yu Jin’s tentative “maybe we could beat him together?”/Jing Rui’s incredulous face/Yu Jin conceding that nah, they’re toast. These two. I believe in you guys! Defeat him with the power of friendship!

The Emperor is LIVID. Marrying Ni Huang off to a former enemy would strengthen that enemy with her considerable following and would potentially embolden them to new war. He asks the Princes for a solution, and for once they are dead silent. Meng says when asked that he does not think Ni Huang can defeat Baili Qin, but I wonder if he has something up his sleeve here because he looks a little shifty, and in his nighttime meeting with Chang Su he did ask for orders … He looks uncharacteristically calculating as he watches the princes, is all I’m saying.

Meanwhile, Ni Huang’s little bro (whose name I must learn) is even MORE LIVID. He is acting like he is the one that’s getting married, lollllll.

Ni Huang, however, seems weirdly calm until she asks gently, with a pensive smile: “Do you know what a perfect match is?”

AAAAAAND CUT TO MEI CHANG SU.

I live for obvious editing like that. It was very satisfying. Oh this sad couple.

Now here comes what feels like one of the most important scenes in an episode filled with important scenes (this show is ridiculously dense, guys. I can’t believe I’m only on 3?????): a long bit of exposition explaining the significance of Jing Rui’s name. Told by a gleeful Yu Jin. Can he do all exposition for this show? He’s so fun.

I’m not ashamed to say I rewatched this scene twice to make sure I followed, because it just feels like such an important story I don’t want to be confused ten or twenty episodes on. But basically: Jing Rui was named so to mark him as being related to the Imperial family. This is because (I THIIINK) his mother is the current emperor’s sister??? HOWEVER. When he was born, there was a plague or something that made it necessary for his mother to leave the palace and go to some remote area for her safety. Because the princess is a kind person, she let another traveling pregnant woman (who I guess is from a powerful family in her own right but is not royalty) stay in the same place while she was there, and they became friends. They also ended up going into labor at the same time, and birthing sons the same stormy night. During the storm, however, the lights were doused and in the confusion the babies were misplaced so when the lights were restored, no one could be certain which boy belonged to which mother. This problem was compounded when one of the infants died the next day. So each family had equal claim to the living baby. Instead of solving this problem like Solomon would have done, the Emperor just declared Jing Rui is the son of both families, so he has two moms and two dads I guess but he only lives with one set of parents? Anyway his name signifies that. So it could confuse foreigners into thinking he is the emperor’s son, which we see borne out when one of the Northern Yan delegation bribes a eunuch to find out this whole story.

In addition, him being the son of both families has bound his families together into one big happy family??? The son of one set of parents has married the daughter of the other set and it’s all very confusing but Jing Rui seems comfortable so ok. I don’t know if I’ve met both his sets of parents. I know I’ve seen the princess and the Marquis … Xie? Something like that. Roundish face, beard. But I don’t remember seeing a Zhou or Jing Rui interacting with a Zhou, so. Hmmmmmm.

This story is too detailed. It’s gotta come back to bite us later. I don’t know how, but I’m already upset.

Jing Rui plans to challenge Baili Qi at the feast for the final ten suitors, in hopes of injuring him enough that Ni Huang will be able to beat him. He’s so pure. Ni Huang’s brother bursts into the manor like a breath of fresh air and literally drags Chang Su away, babbling at him about how he trusts Chang Su to defeat Baili Qi and totally steamrolling Chang Su’s attempts to keep his usual reserved and polite man of mystery facade intact. The unspoken rule of this show is that everyone hangs of Chang Su’s every word; Ni Huang’s brother just cuts him off mid-sentence lol. Arguably the best-delivered line of the episode: “If you can’t handle him, I’d have to have him beaten up.”

And then! Chang Su! Is announced! In the palace! Well, it’s his other fake name but whatever. He walks in and Ni Huang looks very pleased with herself and the theeeeeme music plaaaaaaays

The music feels very internalized. This moment isn’t important to anyone except Lin Shu right now but it’s SO important to him, so–MUSIC.

I also got a bit giddy at this whole scene because the camera keeps cutting to show all these characters gathered in one place and it was like–oh. OH. Everyone is here. Our major players are here. The game is officially started. It was a pretty cool moment.

And he gets to sit next to Ni Huang, so he’s already winning. And so is she, judging by the look on her face XD

Prince Yu suggests the finalists duel each other as entertainment. The Crown Prince, of course, immediately bounces up to argue against this idea, but hilariously in the middle of his pompous speech he notices Chang Su ever so slightly shake his head: no. The lame, stuttering backtrack the Crown Prince clumsily manages is beautiful to behold, and Yu looks very smug. Both princes seem to think Chang Su is helping them, which I feel like might lead to problems later, but for now Lin Shu is just having fun with playing them both like a couple of bratty, red-gold fiddles.

Oh, and intercut with this is the harem of Emperor concubines (is harem the right term here? Idk. You know what I mean) discussing Ni Huang’s upcoming marriage, but it isn’t that interesting a scene so I’m glossing over it. It just reinforces that the emperor’s actual wife and favourite concubine hate each other and are playing power games of their own, trying to one-up each other. Meanwhile, Jing Rui’s mother is both angelically lovely AND angelically nice, apparently. I really like this actress’s voice.

Ok but enough of that scene. At the feast, the emperor happily agrees to this idea to have the men fight, and good ol Jing Rui immediately jumps up to challenge Baili Qi. Ni Huang watches keenly, but Chang Su is seemingly entirely absorbed in peeling a tangerine, this jerk. He is having waaaaay too much fun with this.

To be fair, tangerine peeling is a task that requires 100% attention. Gotta get rid of all those white fibers that stick to the segments.

Jing Rui gets into this amazing stance that almost kills me from how pretty it is, and then–fight, fight, fight! This is my favourite bit of combat of the entire show so far (admittedly there hasn’t been THAT much fighting anyway) because of the contrasting choreography. The styles are very distinct and the camerawork is so smooth. I also feel SO BAD for those actors, because filming complex choreographed sequences while wearing all that fake hair and layers of satin and silk must be the WORST. I would know; I’m an Irish dancer.

While Jing Rui easily looks the faster and more disciplined fighter, however, it’s like he’s hitting a wall; Baili Qi is simply too strong. So our boy ends up only barely holding his own, much to the Liang crowd’s distress. Except for Chang Su, who still only looks mildly interested as he chews what looks like the entire tangerine in his mouth. This jerk. I love him so much. No one is even watching him and he’s still gotta be extra.

Yu Jin, worried about his friend, calls out that for the match to be really fair, Jing Rui should have a sword, because that’s what he usually fights with; he’s not a brawler like Baili Qi. The emperor nods, and so Meng CHUCKS A SWORD AT JING RUI. I would not feel like that was a greaaaat help if I was him, but Jing Rui has much better reflexes than I do and so he does this fantastic flip-kick-the-sword-into-the-air stunt and tries to maneuver Baili Qi under it. Alas, he forgets that he is not the stronger of the two, and Baili Qi easily spins so Jing Rui is under the sword instead. In the nick of time, however, Jing Rui snatches the sword out of the air BEHIND HIS BACK and presses to the attack. Once again, however, Baili Qi wins the upper hand and manages to both snatch the sword from Jing Rui AND send Jing Rui flying into a table, smashing into and over it and scattering fruit everywhere.

(“Oh no, the tangerines!” Chang Su says for the benefit of anyone listening, or at least I’m headcanoning this is his reaction offscreen. In the wide shot literally NOBODY ELSE in this entire hall is eating except him. Extra funny: he looks like he’s having issues swallowing that ridiculously large mouthful of fruit he took earlier. He needs to curb that part of him that likes Drama, because if he wants to be inconspicuous he shouldn’t be so obviously flagging that he’s impartial and uninterested here, good lord. LOOK AT ME IM SO NOT WORTH LOOKING AT, he screams. I wonder if he was a prankster growing up, as he seems to get a prankster’s delight out of stuff like this. It isn’t all grim and dark on his journey to do whatever it is he’s doing. Not yet, anyway. I still don’t trust his friendship with the boys. And he’s already manipulating the heck out of everyone, including Ni Huang–although that latter might be a mistake, because she clearly knows something is Up with him.)

Before Baili Qi-with-sword (aka Baili Qi the Grim Reaper) can take Jing Rui out, however, the emperor yells for the fight to stop–and that’s the cliffhanger ending of this episode.

Will Baili Qi marry Ni Huang? (HA. As if.) Will Jing Rui be okay? (I have my doubts about the long run because he is Too Good, but for now I think he’s pretttttty safe.) Will Mei Chang Su manage to swallow that tangerine fast enough to say whatever it is he needs to say to spin this situation to his advantage? (50/50 chance on that one.) Only one way to find out–on to episode 4!

#badpoet watches #badpoet watches nif #nirvana in fire #long post #nirvana in fire episode 3

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