like, i totally appreciate that HP fandom is still so intense and all the creativity that still gets poured into it, nearly 20 years after the first book came out, but ngl every time i see one of those edits with the original Marauders being represented by like, some impossible perfect Millenial instagram models with artfully tousled hair and pouty lips it always throws me bc those dudes were in their prime in late 1970′s england aka an era when looking like a led zeppelin reject was about the peak of popular young male hotness
like you know this is what they looked like, don’t try to fight it
Are we so sure the sexy amphibian from the Shape of Water is male, anyway? Who are we to presume the genders of Amazon amphibian people?
Gods are often depicted as having multiple genders
Yes. I like this.
@catywampous replied:
Guillermo actually talked about this and said that the Asset has no gender and is capable of changing it’s sex based on reproductive needs (or in this case, desire), just like many amphibian species.
The amphibian person is genderfluid and I love them.
The movie is brilliant. They didn’t leave a stone unturned.
Ok not only that! but! I’m feeling like the reason why N’jobu wasn’t in Wakanda in the ancestral plane is because 1. he wasn’t buried the right way, (if you remember several times throughout the movie, the burial process is mentioned to be extremely sacred and important), and 2. because N’jobu hadn’t died in Wakanda.
This was another reason to point out what Erik and his father were talking about being lost and away from their home. Because N’jobu would never go home, in his former life and the next, he’d always be trapped, forever lost from finding his home
^^this gave me chills.
I also thought it could be relationship to how black men in America encouraged to not show emotions, not cry or hug, as they make it seem to show a since of weakness.
When N’jobu asked Erik,” No tears for me?” You could see how Erik was holding back tears and just left it as,” the world is hard, men don’t have the chance to cry” in so many words.
I really almost cried because he could finally see his father and they didn’t share a tender embrace as T’Chaka and T’Challa..
☝damn, NOW I’M CRYING AGAIN 😭😭😭
They didn’t hug because Killmonger’s father was disappointed, both in himself and in his son. And yes because toxic masculinity defines our society.
T’Chaka was proud of his son because T’Challa was a good man despite T’Chaka’s mistakes. N’jobu failed his son utterly and completely. He was estranged from Wakanda and so, in turn, was his son.
It was a beautiful scene, full of regret and the ways in which the mistakes of the past can be visited on present generations. The scene was supposed to be our clue that Killmonger was not going to be king. He was not a product of Wakanda. He was a product of that sad, angry room with both the guns and the history hidden behind a painting on the wall.
He was a product of a hidden history and a violent society. So that is where he went, and that is where he met his father forever trapped by the mistakes of men who could not see beyond their own needs. T’Chaka, his need to protect his vision of himself and Wakanda and N’jobu, his need to heal the world by defying his King and country.
The thread running through Black Panther is estrangement. It is the stylised story of a people whose history has been hidden for far too long. It is the story of a people estranged from themselves and their history. It is the story of the Diaspora. It is also a story of choice. We, the Diaspora, choose every day and in every minute our response to that estrangement. Are we defined by the wrongs visited upon us as a people? Do we hold the anger in? Do we explode? Do we make people pay for the hurt, the pain, the indignities? Will we be Killmongers?
Will we meet our ancestors in the sad, dark places of our pain?
That was one of the points of that scene. Erik Killmonger met his father in the sad, dark place of his pain.
I hope that the original cut has another scene. One in which Erik Killmonger joins his ancestors in Wakanda, because in the moments before his death he got it. He finally became a child of Wakanda. He would have freed himself and his father from those chains.
I mean look at how that scene began. Erik learned his history by finding it in the hidden place. His father wanted him to find it, but that is not how you teach children their history. You hold them in your lap and say this is who we are. You tell them stories. You take them home.
Ryan Coogler is trying to show us in a few scenes what estrangement means. What being cutoff from your history means. You are not supposed to find it in a cutout behind a painting sitting next to the guns. And that wasn’t his fault. Other people made bad choices. A society made bad choices and he paid for their bad choices with his soul.
But then there comes a point when you choose who you will be, despite the bad choices that formed you. Killmonger made the correct choice in the end, or at least the only choice he could have made.
His story is heartbreaking. It is Shakespearean. He is the first beautiful villain in the MCU, and I adore his story.
Black Panther is such and complex and compelling story with such rich text and undertones and themes that I’m thoroughly convinced that we’ll be discussing its meaning for, possibly years to come.
Another thing I love that I’ve probably already mentioned on here is how T’Challa woke up the second time with his back turned on his ancestors symbolizing he was turning his back on their old ways. The symbolism running through the entire movie is intense.
imo any scene where Erik joins his Wakandan ancestors would ring false to me. He specifically rejects Wakandan burial rites, asking instead to be buried at sea like his ancestors. Wakanda is a landlocked country, so whatever their rites, they won’t ever include a burial at sea. That choice alienates him one final time from Wakanda, and explicitly aligns him with the African diaspora instead of his Wakandan heritage. Which is probably also symbolic because he can probably trace his Wakandan ancestry back centuries if not millennia, but we don’t even know his mother’s name. She’s just another nameless, faceless black woman sadly unmoored from her own history due to the violence of the slave trade.
Plus there were multiple scenes where the women spoke with each other and the conversations weren’t throwaway or trivial they actually helped move the plot along.
frodo and sam’s love for each other is literally the only thing keeping middle earth from just spontaneously combusting
No, but like, that’s literally it. Gandalf straight-up says to Elrond this Quest can’t succeed by force or wisdom, but by friendship. If Frodo and Sam hate each other even a little, Middle-Earth is doomed.
And it gets more terrifying when you realize that one of the strongest powers of the Ring is to turn people against each other, and that even if it didn’t, the Ring and the Quest still put Frodo in a psychological state where he can barely keep himself sane, let alone love anyone or anything other than the Ring. In fact, I’m fairly sure the Ring tried to persuade Frodo to kill Sam far more often than the books shows – the Ring tends to encourage murder, from what we see. Instead of listening to the Ring, Frodo somehow manages to keep in the back of his mind that he can trust Sam more than he can trust himself, and I have no idea how Frodo can resist the temptation to think his trust is misplaced.
And sure, one could say, “Oh, but Sam has to understand it, so it’s not all that bad” but you have to remember Sam is a plain, non-Tookish hobbit with no inclination or skills for adventuring around and yet he has to become the entire Fellowship. Name one thing the Fellowship did for Frodo that Sam doesn’t also do. He has to advise, guide and protect him as well as keep his hope alive and remind him of who he is. The amount of pressure he’s under is incredible, and unlike, say, Aragorn, he has no experience to draw from. Plus, Merry and Pippin tend to rely on each other, while Frodo relies on Sam, but Sam himself hardly seems to have anyone to turn to for strength. I’m not saying Frodo doesn’t support him as well as he’s able – actually, Frodo is remarkably consistent about taking care of Sam from Book I to Book VI. But what Frodo is capable to offer (see the paragraph above) is far from being all that Sam needs. And actually, in the last stages of the Quest, Sam is basically living a one-sided relationship under the worst possible conditions, and that his devotion doesn’t even waver despite that just blows my mind.
That the Quest was successful is one of the most incredible and beautiful things that Tolkien wrote. Frodo and Sam walked straight into the Land where no love can exist and managed to become closer to each other than they had been. It’s the biggest fuck you Sauron probably ever got. No, seriously. Frodo and Sam beat a Maia basically by cuddling a lot and talking about food. Like, what the fuck??? I mean, if I told you someone could write a 1000 pages novel in which a pacifist and his gardener beat a minor god via supporting each other emotionally, would you believe me?
It’s classic Tolkien: the surprise element (i.e. flawed creatures can be incredibly noble even under unspeakable distress) might overcome even the most carefully thought out plots devised by powerful evil lords. (See also: the entire Silmarillion, pretty much.)
“A pacifist and his gardener beat a minor god via supporting each other emotionally”
I would read 50 books with this premise. I don’t love all 1,000 pages, but this is the heart that keeps me rereading
talked about this idea with @byelawliet and i just really wanted to share
a loose collection of people who only vaguely respect one another, usually based on how annoying fighting the other person would be
whenever there’s sunlight they collectively go outside to lie in it, daring anyone else to say something about it
fluffy and angry looking unless they’re doing something dumb, in which case they look like this was their plan all along obviously they wanted to get stuck underneath this fence
elegant, until you catch them eating something Questionable at midnight–they insist you’re imagining things. was that a bird? there’s feathers on their collar. oh god
utterly incomprehensible to anyone who doesn’t spend all their time around them
climbs the tallest thing in the room to assert dominance in a conversation
climbs onto other people when they they’re being ignored
Nature’s Amazing Perffect Killing Machine: but still manages to back flip off of something and scare themselves with the fall
communal child rearing: all uchiha children are dressed the same with similar hair, no one can tell their kids apart and no one cares to try
communal grooming: have you… seen their hair? they need it
chasing each other around the village at breakneck speed because YOU TOUCHED ME IT’S TIME TO FIGHT
screaming Rage Fights at 4am when all the other clans are trying to sleep. it’s usually madara screaming.
all Bucky wanted to do was get some more tea and now this. Thanks a lot, Sam. You had to fuckin’ tell him, you ass.
Aggressively Progressive Steve Rogers is so what I’m here for.
STeve would unleash and be all “DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WHOOPING COUGH SUCKS?! DO YOU?! DO YOU REALLY?! ARE YOU FUCKIN’ STUPID?! BUCKY, TELL THEM HOW I BROKE TWO RIBS! TELL THEM!”
Omg, new headcanon, Beleaguered Bucky Barnes being grabbed by the shoulders and practically lifted into camera view by Steve shouting about how Bucky needs to confirm some terrible illness because no one else is alive form that time to corroborate any of Steve’s claims. Bucky shyly telling the reporters that yes, Steve did indeed have that thing adn yeah it is dangerous and Steve jumping back into frame like “I told you! I TOLD YOU IT SUCKED SHUT UP JENNY MCCARTHY!”
“AND YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE?! POLIO!”
“Steve you never had fucking polio-”
“YEA BUT IT STILL SUCKED! KNOW WHAT STOPPED IT?! VACCINES!”
“Oh my God, Steve.”
“I DIDN’T EVNENKNOW WHAT THAT SHOT WOULD DO TO ME BUT I TOOK IT!”
“Steve, that’s… That’s not really a good argument.”
“I DON’T CARE FOX NEWS NEEDS TO STOP USING MY IMAGE!”
“Steve, doll, calm down.”
“I VOTED FOR OBAMA!”
I love everything about this post
And all the while Sam is just laughing his fucking ass off and Bucky is wondering if he could just go take another nap for a few years.
Okay but imagine the savvy pediatrician who shyly sends Steve a message at Avengers Tower. She loves his message. Loves it. Wants to know if she can give her vaccinated kids a sticker of the shield because she wants other parents to subtly get the message, and of course what kid doesn’t love Cap? She’s no graphic artist, but she got a picture of the shield off the Internet …
… two weeks later, a box arrives at her office. It’s an order of shield stickers, very clearly actually produced by a graphic artist. Some of them sparkle, some are metallic, and some of them say “Protecting my friends by protecting me!” for the older kids who can appreciate the idiocy of the anti-vax movement.
There’s also a hand-written note with Pepper’s personal address at Avengers Tower listed on it: Contact us when you need more. No charge. Keep fighting the good fight.
They end up going on sale after the pediatrician’s colleagues see them and want to pass them out. Steve insists that any profit they might make should go to the March of Dimes. Tony and Pepper barely talk about it before they go “do you know how little it costs to produce stickers, Steve?” and decide to donate the entire sales cost. They’re not expensive to sell, either, but it adds up.
Vaccination rate goes up. Being an anti-vaxxer stops being trendy and starts being seen as living in the dark ages.
Steve Rogers, everyone.
It got better.
Much better.
This started out great and *kept getting better*.
The post I wanna reply to is gone, but it’s possible that Steve had polio and didn’t know it! Most cases are actually not severe/paralytic and many children recover completely, but post-polio syndrome could partly account for his trouble with muscle mass and easy fatigability years later.