Rest in Peace Akira Toriyama
😳
Happy 25th Anniversary Batman Beyond
*DO NOT REPOST MY ART*
Godzilla definitely needs a hug after that brutal fight against Kong and MG. Thank goodness Mothra is there to give him all the hugs (and love) he need!
Hehe smoll moth wife and big lizard husbando
Inspired by @kaiju-krew’s post here
AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
The problem is not that Tony is a flawed character or that he’s wrong (because he IS wrong), the problem is that the MCU goes out of its way to validate and legitimize Tony’s arguments despite the fact that they are blatantly unethical.
And yes, pre-Iron Man Tony is explicitly okay with killing people using his weapons. Then he swears off selling weapons and makes the suits, then makes Ultron, then throws his weight around to force the Avengers to sign the accords. Hell, he shoots Sam when it’s Vision who knocks Rhodey out of the sky.
And then he tries to kill Bucky and Steve.
Let’s be clear here, there is a direct parallel between already woven in the MCU: Tony’s missiles killed Wanda’s parents. Ultron, and stopping Ultron, is what killed Zemo’s family. And it would be FINE for Tony to need time to figure it out, to metabolize how Bucky was forced to do what he did, and what it means about agency and responsibility and all that.
Look: they had to torture Bucky for 70 years to get him to kill people but they had to torture Tony to get him to stop.
And that would be great character development if Tony’s character actually, you know, developed but by Endgame, years later, Tony has doubled down on his position and still blames Steve for the rift in the Avengers and the MCU lets him get away with that.
I’m not anti-Tony, but you need to let him be wrong so he can learn from it.
BRUCE: I’ve created jobs by keeping Wayne Enterprises in Gotham. I’ve provided scholarships to every employee of my company and I offer them to others as well. I’ve built orphanages and hospitals, including mental health facilities. I’ve provided jobs to ex-felons right out of prison so they can rebuild their lives. I’ve supported pro-reform political candidates and the few honest cops in Gotham City.
BRUCE: It’s going to take time to reform the system and lift this city out of poverty and corruption, so I think I’ll spend my evenings protecting the people who live here. Tonight, I’m going after the criminals preying on the sex workers struggling to make a living in Crime Alley.
BRUCE: And once I’ve kicked some ass, I’ll offer their victims jobs at Wayne Enterprises so they can get off the streets and have stable, safe, legal employment. I’ll pay for any education or training they might need.
ALFRED: Don’t forget your cape, sir.
there was an entire episode of the 90s series ‘the forgotten’ where he personally visits a homeless shelter he funds, discovers some homeless people who frequent it have gone missing, then to find out where they went purposefully pretends to be homeless to be beaten up, captured, and taken to where the other homeless guys were being used as slave labor
he legit willingly submits himself to torture and nearly dies trying to help homeless people, at least one person actually died in this situation he willingly entered
then when he gets out straight up has Alfred pull the limousine up with job applications for the guys he was locked up with
-that- is how to batman
This is reason number two modern cinema doesn’t get Batman.
If you can’t picture your batman as Matches Malone, or getting the ventriloquist into a job at Wayne enterprises, you’re not picturing batman.
(the first test is “Can you picture your batman taking time to comfort a lonely, scared child?”)
People looooove to go “Star Trek/comics/Star Wars/video games were ALWAYS political,” but what they don’t acknowledge is how these things were political.
In a lot of old media, they bring up a subject, have the characters discuss it, acknowledge the alternate viewpoints, and do so in a way that works within the story they’re telling–not as a weird TEDTalk thrown into a largely unrelated plot. Even when the story comes down on one side, they usually don’t present the other side as evil or without merit–maybe just misguided, or needing to compromise, or lacking in vital information that would affect their stance.
With a lot of stories now, it’s that all the good characters agree on the viewpoint the show wants you to take–everyone who disagrees with them is demonized–there’s really no discussion, it’s just the people who are right throwing hands with the people who are wrong.
It’s like you’re not allowed to engage in critical thinking and disagree with the show’s viewpoint if you want to enjoy it; the only ‘correct’ way to watch the show is to 100% be in agreement with whatever stance it’s taking.
And a lot of times, these stances shift arbitrarily. You see different characters in the same situations, but you can tell that sometimes you’re meant to sympathize with them and sometimes you’re not, even though they’re acting in the same way or are in the same circumstances. And it starts to become obvious that the story doesn’t care about these characters’ actions so much as their race, gender, or sexuality.
It doesn’t feel right to give some characters a pass for their misdeeds, while other times, characters who do the same thing have their actions held up as proof of how depraved and sinister they are. All this moralizing starts to feel like a waste of time if it’s all contingent on what skin color or genitalia a character has, not ethical principles that are universal and meaningful. In the end, it all comes off like lip service.
“We should hold bad people accountable for their actions… IF they’re antagonists. If they’re protagonists, we should let their evil deeds slide. Our sympathy shouldn’t be for everyone, it should only be for a select few who are framed as sympathetic. Otherwise, dismiss them!”
And here I thought what made heroes so damn heroic was that they hold themselves to a higher standard than normal people–one we in the audience are meant to aspire to–not that they demand a free pass for their asshole antics because they happen to be good at knocking out whatever bad guy comes along to be modestly worse than they are.