beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

I got Ant Man for xmas so I just now watched it.

It was bad in exactly the ways I expected it to be from discussions.

Everything involving use of powers, all the stuff with the ants, the whole shrunk world thing, that was beautifully done, interesting, inventive.

Anything to do with plot or characterisation?

Blergh.

I'm making faces. They are not good faces. Epic blergh.

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So, movie didn't surprise me, and I'm unlikely to rewatch it later.

But hey, xmas present, mum likes it when we have something to unwrap.

Am watching The Bridge, season one episode of Agents of SHIELD, when my C/C shipper brain perked up. Because rewatching with Age of Ultron in mind gives a whole different spin to some lines.

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The thing is when I read C/C fic it's pretty obvious that the fandom has not embraced Agents of SHIELD and is pretty much in denial about Age of Ultron. I've read maybe two canon compliant fics since AoU in Clint/Coulson fic. Which seems like either a failure of tag searching on my part or a failure of imagination from writers. We have all these new pieces to fold in, but nobody folds them.

But this is the first time I've gone back and found something that sounds more C/C after AoU, which is fun.

This cartoon is actively bad.

I have watched a bunch of episodes now and there were maaaaaybe two with Black Widow in, and Black Widow is the only female character.

Worse than that, the Avengers aren't just out of character, they're borderline bad guys. They're petulant and childish and wreck stuff for fun. They're mean, cruel, beat each other up for fun.

Tony built rocket boots for Cap and they bounced Cap off the ceiling repeatedly and Tony did nothing to fix it, just filmed it and posted it online. Hawkeye brings his arrows everywhere and repeatedly draws on friends and team-mates. Hulk mostly interacts with Avengers by knocking them around and trashing the tower, and I don't just mean Thor, I mean he just threw Hawkeye out a window at the top of the tower.

These are not good guys. They aren't heroes. And the clunky aesop of each tale just doesn't work in that context.

I don't get how these can be so bad when they've got comics to draw on and when EMH was, compared to this, so good. I mean with EMH I was complaining it needed more women, but there were always two women around as heroes, let alone in the background, which is hugely better than very rarely even one anywhere.

Avengers Assemble is only vaguely interesting if it's some kind of lost boy alternate universe where they have a huge smurfette problem in actual gender ratios and toxic masculinity is all they've got left.

Everything else is just bad.

My life is so boring. All of the parts are boring. Everything I try and do is boring.
Yes I'm familiar with symptoms of depression, it is not helpful.
I need to do more and more interesting things.

It has been two years since college finished and I've been trying to think of those things for ... well, substantially longer than that, actually.



Spider-man cartoons with Coulson in them are fun, but he's the grown up, so he doesn't get much to do except be the punchline. I watched a couple of episodes today, including the one where we find he wears a Cap uniform under his suit to go meet Cap. In MCU that would have ended in unfortunate bloodstains.

The endless MarySue 'verse in my head keeps High School Principal Coulson. He probably gets brought back in a slightly different way, needs more time to recuperate, gets set on duty that was not expected to be combat: oversee teenaged Gifted. Probably he brings some friends. And not friends. Somehow I can see Ward as a high school gym teacher. It's not flattering. But science babies teaching science to only slightly younger science babies would be fun. The whole thing would be super secret even from a lot of SHIELD, which is slightly different from the cartoons, but if you smush it into MCU then it has to be anyway because you end up bringing X-men and everyone along with. The school would be secret because attitudes towards Gifted within SHIELD are... mixed, and Fury is trying to protect them. Which is also one reason they're not at a SHIELD academy. I like the cartoons MJ, internet savvy reporter in training, but I mix back in the latest Gwen, because awesome. So then Osborn is even more of a problem.

When I watch the movies and cartoons and comics I separate out the different canons just fine, but none of them are the perfectly perfect version, so parts and pieces go back in the stew for the version to live with.

Hawkeye in my head is more the Fraction version, but probably older. Black Widow looks like MCU but is lying about her age, among a great many other things. But then the way they were together in EMH was cool.


EMH needed more women more often. Black Widow was on all the boxes but not in many of the episodes. The Spider-man cartoons treat women like they're rationed, so you get one, maaaaaybe two per episode. Weird and creepy. And there's a whole disc of him meeting Avengers but so far only the guy Avengers. In fact in his little fantasy of being able to yell 'Avengers Assemble' only Hulk, Iron Man, Thor and Cap appear to be relevant. That's it for Avengers in that 'verse. Unacceptable.

Basically if I want women in my daydreams I have to draw on more than one canon to get them properly plural. Ridiculous.






I'm reading a book right now with a whole lot of women in it. It's just also a weird preachy Gaia worshipping dystopia of evil mind controlling environmentalists. Which... I am not seeing the appeal of.

So then I'm left holding a book full of women relating to other women in a variety of complex ways, in a multi ethnic society, with assumptions about sexuality changed so it isn't right to say queer characters cause they wouldn't think of it that way in such a queer world... but I'm epically and completely bored.




Yeah, I know, if I don't think the perfect book exists yet I should sit down and get to writing it. (hah)




I been thinking about multi generation stories, like I complained were missing from the shagging-and-politics stories. It's weird because it seems like only one generation gets to be actual characters at once in a lot of stories. Like, if it's a kids story, the kids will be well rounded characters with agency, plans, hopes, dreams, inner lives, and... parents, or parental units, or older type people, who kind of exist but aren't really properly real. But then if the story is meant to be for adults then the children are kind of empty and just exist to be threatened and maybe stand around whimpering? Well, not in every genre, but the contrast between Home Alone and what the average kid does in a not-kids movie is kind of huge, even though I think we all though up elaborate death traps with our toys at some point in our bored younger lives. ... didn't use them, obviously, and I can buy a tiny minority of kids would reach the point where they feel the need to do something like threats are real even when there's grownups around. But there's also an absence of elders in either of those stories, pretty often. Grandparents seem rare. Parents even, for adults. So many fantasy stories and even some SF start when a parent dies, like that's some kind of necessary prerequisite and otherwise you'd hide behind them. Not all parents are going to be skilled in relevant areas? And even if they are it could be cool like Indiana Jones, both knowledgeable but in such different ways.

I keep coming back to Batman and the Bat family, as they seemed to me in the 90s when I was reading comics. Like, you've got Batman, Nightwing, whatever Jason is calling himself at the time, Tim Drake Robin, and eventually more Robins after that. You've got Batgirl who became Oracle, and Batgirl who was Cass, and also Spoiler. They're all in different decades, but they're kind of two generations, only Batman as an Older, and that kind of only just. Like, he was an adult when Dick was a teenager, but probably he was in his 20s then, not in fact old enough to be his father. Maybe he was older when Dick was the Robin in the comics? But the sliding timeline landed them closer together while I was reading. The only definite different generation was Alfred, who rocks but seems to parent every last one of them without the rights to go with the responsibilities. But for a long while Tim also had a surviving bio parent, he just wasn't very helpful. And Spoilers parent was, like, the source of her problems. Oracle's dad is still around, but can't actually solve anything for her, cause the problems are bigger. There are multiple ages, at least two generations, and they still all seem weirdly teenage.

In the Spider-man cartoons Coulson is a joke, because if he was a competent grown up that could handle the problems for them then why would they hero? Well, because there's more problems than that, obvs. But by extension SHIELD is a joke, to make it so teenager supers are a thing. Like, whenever the team runs back to SHIELD for protection and support, SHIELD get kicked and the team ends up doing the fighting. Which just seems unnecessary? Like, law enforcement is a real thing that tends to work, and yet crime happens because police have to actually arrive after they're called. The episodes are only 20 minutes long, run them in real time and New York traffic and do you really need an excuse for why SHIELD aren't there yet? Well with a helicarrier that's always above the city then yes you do. But still.


It's like how urban fantasy mostly makes it so the police can't help, could just get themselves killed, so the 'hero' can ignore the whole concept of law and law enforcement and capturing criminals and holding them for trial and trials and prisons and sentences and appeals and, you know, civilisation, and instead can just solve problems with violence.

The way most superhero stories are set up, they're left on their own to solve problems with violence, and prison is a revolving door, treatment ineffectual at best, and capture kind of futile. Why write it that way? Why not have the hero be part of a loyal law enforcement team that works within a system that has trials and lawyers and all the rest?

Power fantasy. Blergh.




Stories need different generations to be actual people on the inside, systems to be set up so that humans can be human and it actually work, diplomacy and redemption to be actual useful words. Otherwise they're all twisted up small and turn into long fight scenes.



... or I could watch different genres.


... but I kind of like these ones, with some tweaks, I just complain about them a lot.
*facepalm*

This was sort of disappointing. When Carol was added to the team I thought she'd be as well as the other female characters we'd met, not instead of. But no, on this disc, we have Jan and Carol, with Amora on the bad guys side. There's a few images of Pepper but no actual Pepper. Jane isn't even mentioned. Mockingbird is missing, I think since the end of the first season. Black Widow same. Maria Hill and Quake are likewise nowhere. This disc is such a sausage fest. Snore.

Also it has Black Widow on the box but not in the episodes, and it says Featuring Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk, but there is no Hulk. That's just plain cheating.

This still concentrates on the big fights, usually hero on hero, and is light on the character interactions I'd rather see more of. Genre, I guess.

Powerless: ( Read more... )

Assault on 42: ( Read more... )

Ultron Unlimited: ( Read more... )

Yellowjacket: ( Read more... )

I liked when Hawkeye was watching TV and someone told him off for it and he's being all 'you do research your way, I do it mine' and had in fact found journalists talking about the current topic.


Emperor Stark: Tony takes over the world in less than a month. Rock on. ( Read more... )

Code Red: ( Read more... )


This disc was not awesome. Needs more ladies and more actually fighting bad guys and not each other.

Ultron! Loki! Grand plans coming together!
and a cliffhanger ending!

I am appreciating the way the stories weave together with this version. Stuff gets seeded twenty episodes ago and eventually pays off. It's fun.

And y'all want to watch without reading these spoilers, to see how they do it, if you're tempted to watch at all.

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That's some impressively twisty stuff for a punch the supervillain show.

:-)

I am now looking forward to how they undo this knot.

And trepidatious about what will happen to the team in the meantime.

As I should be.

:-)



... wait, 11pm already? guess that was proper interesting then.

I like it. Twisty plots are twisty.

Also, Ultron!

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Basically, nice story, but these are not the characters I've been hanging out with in my head, even when sharing many of their characteristics. Which is interesting.

And I find myself liking quite different people than expected.

There's a certain amount of stupid I can believe, and the sort of stupid that gets in arm's reach of Hulk and challenges him to a fight is... genre appropriate, but ( Read more... )



I do not like having headaches. That part of my evening is annoying. And I already took painkiller, so I appear to be stuck with it.



I am really glad the movies didn't go with Hawkeye's purple design quite the way it is in this cartoon. It's the pointy head bits I can't quite be having with. The rest looks like perfectly reasonable vaguely asian skirt whatsits or a purple robin hood. The mask is... even with my expectations reset to comic book I keep noticing it and instead of story I'm all Clint what is on your head.

I don't know why, it's hardly the weirdest thing in marvel.



Now Hawkeye has had stuff to do he seems super good in a fight but weirdly untrusting and confrontational considering what they keep saying about partners.

Not my favourite character set.



but that was the first 13 episodes and end of volume 2.

Have watched two more episodes of Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes
basic plots were
'everyone fights Hulk until he changes his mind and saves everyone'
and
'everyone fights Cap until he changes his mind and saves everyone'

Is it always like this with Avengers?
Is Whedon doing this just following tradition?

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This cartoon series is being a lot like comic books because it clearly has a vast and complex backstory you're not expected to know, a lot of which whizzes by while you have a few fight sequences, and you only get small episodes in a larger interconnected story with each episode/issue. It could be cool. I'm not sure I'm in the mood for it, but it should be cool, doing longer stories in smaller chunks.



Avengers Mansion in this is introduced as used to be a museum for the Maria Stark foundation. So that thing I theorised about a certain location in Avengers Age of Ultron, where the art got moved out and the war moved in, that is pretty much canon for Earth's Mightiest Heroes Avengers Mansion. Only it's Tony doing it there, which is different from what I was thinking because he doesn't identify so much by the museum parts, the sub level tech stuff is more key to his identity even if he wasn't flying around wearing it. Also that thing where he sold all his art at once in IM2, and he was buying overpriced pieces he knew little about for investment and never seemed to look at much of it. Art character doing it would be different.

Avengers Mansion has 12 bedrooms. ( Read more... )

Jan is still Most Interesting, not just because she's The Girl, but because she seems interested and excited and like she actually wants to be there and doing the things they're doing. It's hard to get particularly excited about grumpy faces who fight each other. Tony is next most interesting because he's like, here, have a club house, have a training room, that was the easy setting, wanna play more?

Also, already he and Steve get along better than they did in the MCU and he has tons to say about how everyone looks up to Captain America and his dad told him all about him.




Now I could watch more episodes or go outside the house to do the errand I told myself I would do at 2pm.

... probably episodes, lets face it.

I went with mum to vote and then we caught the bus in to Norwich to go visit the Avengers.
As you do.

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I'm reading a meta about themes of family and legacy in Avengers Age of Ultron. So, SPOILERS ( Read more... )


I think leaving Bruce out of this equation is misleading and unhelpful.

Also, why everyone blame Tony for everything? Only true for many things, really.

Oh, also, theme 'Together' : ( Read more... )

SPOILERS to discuss that triggery infertility line: ( Read more... )

Okay, so, I'm self aware enough to know there's something I had to get over before I could watch this movie and not sulk about it. Because I had heard about the 'ships before I went in, and they were not my preferred sort. And people who are squee about the movie when I am not squee, they maybe thinking I'm bitter, but I don't think so? I mean, we have so many canons already, this isn't precisely new, we'll make versions of characters from the bits we like. But okay, here's my thoughts:

SPOILERS for Age of Ultron

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Having feels about imaginary people having imaginary relationships in some but only some versions of fictional universes: humans, what are we like?