The REAL Songbird/Diamondback

masonthegrey:

phantasystar:

the world of video games is only to expand

MORE Doritos and MORE Mountain Dew

(Source: skypestripper)

(Source: sojiroizumi)

reasonsmysoniscrying:

“I wouldn’t buy her the “dolly” movie for Christmas.”
Submitted By:  Dede B.
Location: Washington, United States 

superhighschoolleveluguu:

snug-ler:

D̜̪͎̏ͭ́͜Ĭ̴͍̅͝D̴̬̯̎ͪ̿ͧ͋ͩ ̵̡̫̭͇̼͈̰̊ͧ̏ͬ̊̆̔ͅY̨̪̻̫̣̒̓͟O̗̞͚͕̞͋̈̏ͫ̒ͫ͠͞U̢̫̲͈̫̙̣̺ͣͨ̋̓̔́͞ ̭͖͚̗̎̉̿̀̚͡Ç̱͖̃̎ͣ̉̓U̸̢̦͎͎̝ͩ̑̆͌ͮͫ͛͗T̺̬̹͇̳̔ͮ̄̓ͭͧ͋ͯ̀ ̷̢̛̻͈̬̲̦̀̔̅ͣͥ̌̀Dͦͬ͏̨̖̩O͕͎̝̣̰̟ͥ͋ͩ͌ͣ̕͟W̭̳̦͓͓͇̝ͯͬ̌͢Ņ͖͕͕͎͖̠̗̃̒̂̔́ ̸̲̫̘̫̜̣͎̈ͣͧ̎̒ͭͣ͟Ţ̦̝͖̪͎̘͔͑̑̈͒̀ͫH̡͙̖͍͛̎̎̓ͧͩ̔Iͯ̌͂̾͌͂͏̷̜̬͎͕Ş̧̘͈̻̃ͭͫ͘ ̺̘̝̩̩ͯ́ͅT͙̱͓̖̪ͮͯͭ̔͑̚͜ͅR̦̬͍̫̬̺̜̖̳͗̈́ͮ͢͡Ĕ҉̤̟̞̱̠̜̭̯͘Ȅ̴̖̺̼͇̞͙̗̗ͩͨͩ̓̋̎?̵̜̫̜͇̩̪͓̙͎ͧͨ̈́̓͋

fUCKING HELL

(Source: pootisman)

majingojira:

madwizard321:

majingojira:

madwizard321:

marvel-confessions:

Confession #858

“If they kill off Chase or Nico in Avengers Arena I will cry. The Runaways was a great series full of great characters-great characters that don’t deserve to be killed off in a “cash in on the fad” series as mere canon fodder.”

-Anonymous

In my opinion, Hopeless isn’t cashing in on a fad. They’re telling a really compelling intense story, that just so happens to have a few already established characters in it. Each character has died for a purpose so far and hasn’t died as just cannon fodder. Mettle died to show that no one is safe in this series, Red Raven died to show that escape is impossible, Kid Briton died to show that the games had really now begun, and Juston died so that Katy could become a bigger threat to the others.

That isn’t cannon fodder at all. That’s carefully planned and well thought out story telling. If Nico or Chase happen to die it will surely have a point to get across to the readers.

I hate to be that guy, but those are really crap reasons to kill a character.  They’re about the narrative, and not the character.  This makes them shallow and cannon fodder deaths almost by definition. You could replace them with any other character in the scene and would change nothing.

A good death in fiction, a death that maters, not only serves the narrative, but serves the characters who die. Not just their killer.  Not just the narrative.  That is the role of Red Shirts.  They die to show a situation is serious and a threat to the core cast members and nothing more. 

And that’s why people call it a Meat Grinder.  Because to them the characters are greater than the narrative.  Hopeless could make it mater with proper mourning scenes for those that died, but they seem a long time coming, long after the emotional wound in the audience has scarred over.

Compare the deaths in Arena to: the death of Gert Yorkes in Runaways volume 2; the death of Alex Wilder in Runaways Vol. 1; the death of Spock in “Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan”; the many  name-character deaths in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and Angel”; and the death of Hiroko Asahina in “RahXephon” (which managed to turn a Gwen Stacy Fridging into something truly memorable and about the one who died). They pale in comparison. 

You can like it, I’m not saying that.  I’m saying that your defense of it in this situation is faulty.  It’s okay to love crap, I love things I know are crap!  I know what it’s like, so understand this: pretending these things we love aren’t flawed does no one any favors. Neither do poor defenses of it.

Edit: because spelling and grammar are my kryptonite.

I’d argue against it being crap. To me, almost all the deaths were really powerful and meaningful. Mettle’s death was extremely powerful because he chose to die over Hazmat. There was a lot of build up, in Academy that set up the relationship with Hazmat and Mettle, so they had the most to lose in Arena.

Imagine if Hopeless had decided to kill one of the Braddock Academy kids first. The general reaction of the readers would have been that the already established characters are pretty safe. The emotional factor of that death would have been diminished and it wouldn’t have made sense to make Hazmat the point of view character.

The build up in issue one to Mettle’s death was great, Mettle going after Hazmat after she was thrown into the snow, Mettle trying to get Hazmat to calm down and think things threw clearly before attacking Arcade again, Mettle foreshadowing that he’s willing to die to protect Hazmat, and then Mettle making the ultimate decision to give up his own life to save the only girl who’s ever loved his for who he is. To me that isn’t crap or being a meat grinder. That’s a tragic love story that scars the girl for life.

Kid Briton’s eventual death was built up over the course of the first few issues. He was a bully, he picked on Cullen Bloodstone and Anachronism, he was cheating on his girlfriend for Nara, in his own issue he was considering killing off the weak members of his own team. Also in his own issue was got a look at how him and Anachronism greatly dislike each other, and it was foreshadowing when Kid Briton told Anachronism that he was never going to use his ax.

His issue also gave us so much more information about the Braddock Academy kids and their relationships with each other. Before that issue I had just assumed that they were all a team that were going to stick together, like the Academy kids. His death was the first death not done by Arcade or that happened by accident. His death was at the hands of another “tribute”, I would say student but not all the characters in Arena are students.

Juston’s death is extremely sad mainly happened because the group of tributes left Death Locket next to Apex. After spending most of the first arc stuck out in the desert he appears again. His story was extremely sad because you find out that his Sentinal, his best friend, died to save him and in the process he was paralyzed from the waist down. He also was upset that his own friends never came to find him, because they had all assumed that he had died. It was shocking that he was killed, because he had just showed up again, and also because of all the stuff mentioned that happened to him. He didn’t have to die, but the group that he was with made a bad call in allowing Apex to live and that caused his death.

Nico will probably feel responsible for Juston’s death because he died on her watch and she stopped Chase from killing Apex. Now Nico has to deal with the after math of that death.

Red Raven, though I don’t really like her death and I would say that it was unnecessary, made the point to the cast that escape is impossible and that anyone who tries to find them also has to get past the barrier as well. Frankly, Red Raven didn’t have to die to show this so in the case of “meat grinder” I would agree with that statement here…. but at the same time I see the reasoning as to why she died.

I don’t think the series is crap at all. In fact, it is one of the only series that once I get I sit down immediately and read to find out what happens next. All the other comics that I collect don’t have that same effect on me. I still love them, but I read them later on in the day. For comics, if they’re crap I usually drop them because why should I waist my money on them? This has been the case Alpha, the new Deadpool series, Age of Ultron, and a few other series that at first interested me and then I dropped because of one reason or another…. or because I found some other series that interested me instead. So in other words, your definition of the word crap has an entirely different meaning to me…. So yeah, I still love Arena and I still think it’s a really great story that keeps me wanting more.

You didn’t address the problems.   You just went and elaborated on why you felt they worked, utterly ignoring the fact that I already took apart that reasoning at its core.  Shoring it up with elaborations won’t change the points I made.

See beyond your horizons.  The reasons why people decry them and why so many view it as a meat grinder are not for nothing.

The first point is irrelevant since it’s the work of another writer that Hopeless exploited rather than any work he did himself.

The second point is pretty much a concession to my Red Shirt point.

The third, completing point is overshadowed by the one I already made.  Let’s break it down: the POV character was Hazmat, and it was done to elevate Arcade.  These mar the nobility of Mettle’s sacrifice and recieve far more narrative attention than anything Mettle does. Furthermore, it wastes the other aspects of Mettle’s character (violence-related issues regarding how far his temper can go) which are far more exploitable in such a situation than just “Noble Sacrifice”. It’s value is all surface.

Kid Briton’s death had some build up, and the minor-est of followups, but at the end of the day, his death was about Anachronism and little more than that.  His issue was more a backdoor pilot for the Braddock Academy. Most of this series is, if one thinks on it: strained under bronze age fetishism and a narrative that the writer simply does not properly understand.

The same with Juston. It was about Apex, not him.  After all he’d been through, after that off screen development and build up, we don’t even get to hear his thoughts.  He died only to cement that Apex is the villain and will probably kill a few more before she goes down.  She’s a third rate Kiryama. 

I repeat: The best deaths in fiction focus on the person who dies.  This is simple narrative fact.  English 102.  Your points miss this entirely.

Your final declaration of devotion, however, reveals the shallowness of Arena: there is no re-reading value.  You want to know what happens next, but that’s it.  There’s no depth, just the next twist.  It is narrative popcorn.

You want to talk about it, but only into the next twist.  There’s no reflection.  No analysis.  Arena has readers more than it has fans, and the lack of fanart, fanfiction and, frankly, reblogs here on tumblr of anything older than 4 weeks is a testament to that.  An Arena post that isn’t Marvel official is likely to get about 10 reblogs, caping around.  While it’s antecedents can get 15 and can reach heights of 50 or even 80 rapidly.

And by saying that, you’re going to try and prove me wrong by becoming more active.  You, I can say, are a fan of Arena. A rare individual.  And that’s awesome.  I’m glad you found something you’re invested in.  Go!  Be creative!

Even if it’s just for popcorn.  Hell, I like popcorn fiction too, but this one comes with far to much salt and a vile cost that detracts from the Marvel Universe as a whole rather than bringing anything significant to it.

Understand that your enjoyment comes with schadenfreude as well as the anger and sadness of others.

God I love you.

pizzaforpresident:

vine is getting out of hand

(Source: pleatedjeans)

brianmichaelbendis:

Man-Thing by Skottie Young

(Source: fyeahmarvelcomics)