Apparently all my other shit to do today was not as important as trawling tumblr for Glee links.
► GENERAL:
→ Being as I am on my period this week, this tumblr is my new best fucking friend. (It's not really NSFW, but you might want to treat it that way anyway.)
► FARMVILLE:
→ ....wh-what? Zynga may soon allow us to breed sheep with our friends? HOLY SHIT, DO WANT. I'm skeptical of this, because a lot fewer people will buy the special sheep if they can just breed one with their neighbors, wouldn't they? Still, holy crap, do waaaaant!
→ Speaking of Do Want things! I see Zynga finally re-released that chameleon sheep, but as a ram this time and GOD I WANT ONE. But I'm not sure if the breeding issue is settled down or not because I've been trying to get one from a neighbor and have had like ZERO LUCK so far despite both the ram and ewe being chameleon ones. (Though, I have discovered that the time you can adopt a new lamb isn't the usual 12am EST/11pm CST, but 3am EST/2am CST. I have no idea why, but that seems to be when I can adopt a new one. However, I still cannot place lambs on my home farm and it's kind of driving me nuts.)(3am EST/2am CST also seems to be when RewardVille resets?)
→ AHAHAHAHA I AM CAUGHT UP ON TREES. This post almost gave me a fit, until I saw that it was a couple of unreleased trees--I can do without the Ash Tree, but man that Rowan Tree is kind of pretty--but now I can relax again. I had the best haul last night! I got another Royal Crystal Tree, another Wedding Tree, the Bird Cherry Tree, and the Purple Magnolia Tree. Though, I kind of want the regular Magnolia Tree, too, because it's so pretty! But not enough to spend FV$ on it.
→ I am nearly at my wit's end trying to figure out something to do with all my fucking trees. I don't want to just stick them in orchards because it never looks very pretty that way. But I've been hanging out on the landscaping forum for months now and I never see any good ideas for massive amounts of trees like I have.
→ I TAKE IT BACK, I TAKE IT BACK, I TAKE IT BACK. GOT THE CHAMELEON SHEEP TO BREED AND NOW I HAVE A CHAMELEON RAM OMG FUCK YEAH. I am not going to breed the shit out of this thing until I get a chameleon ewe and then I am going to breed the shit out of those. .....COLOR CHANGER WITH A STRIPE ON IT FUCK YEAH I AM ON TOP OF THE WORLD TONIGHT. No luck with getting a chameleon with dots yet, but I'm actually almost more pleased with the striped one.
→ I finallyyyyy got the second level of the flower collection done, which means I am just a few uncommon/rare collectibles away from FLOWER COW FUCK YEAH.
► COMICS:
→ So I've been reading comics again, right? (Though, seriously, internet. You're not making me go back to Thor. I've been there and done that, I am stronger than you.) And mostly I'm reading UXM (517-520 or so) and Nation X and a little Legacy in there, but I decided to go a little out of order to read the backup in UXM 526 because I couldn't stand waiting any longer. And, oh, jesus christ, Heinberg, if you rip my heart out at the end of all of this (in a bad way) I swear to christ I am flipping a fucking table and giving up on Marvel all together. Because I cannot take how many fucking ~*feelings*~ I am having over this.
SPOILERS for this and probably (still only) halfway through Nation X. Shut up, I was also reading manga! I already posted all of this to my tumblr, but lj is easier for me to go back and reread, so I'm going to paste it all here. Plus, picspam!
Magneto hearing about Wiccan and Speed for the first time from Nemesis, who hands him a photo of the Young Avengers.
It makes no sense that they should be Magneto's grandkids. It's impossible.
And yet… they do look rather like Wanda.
You can FEEL the nagging doubt and something a lot like hope there.
"Wanda's sons weren't real. They were magical constructs-"
"They were considerably more than that. They had thoughts and feelings. They had minds of their own. They had souls. Wanda may have used magic to give them life, but even the Scarlet Witch can't create a human soul."
I really think he wants to believe they're Wanda's children-and interesting that he says CAN'T instead of COULDN'T, obviously he believes Wanda is still out there somewhere.
"As unlikely as it seems, Wiccan and Speed may be the only family I have left."
"Who's fault is that? After all, last time you saw your son, you tried to kill him. And your daughter hated you so much, she tried to wipe out your entire race."
I am just all over this. Has it really been all the way since House of M that Pietro and Magneto haven't seen each other? Not that I'd blame Pietro-Magneto KILLED HIM for (as Pietro sees it) trying to save Wanda in his own way. And it's interesting that LOGAN of all people is calling Magneto out on his kids hating him.
All the while Magneto just keeps moving the debris of Utopia around in the background.
I honestly don't know if Magneto really believes that he needs to wait until he's proven himself more or if he's just giving lip service to Logan here to get him off his back.
Either way, jeez, Magneto's face.
"I gotta admit, Erik, you put on a helluva show. Bringing Kitty back. Taking down those Super-Sentinels by yourself. You've pretty much said and done everything right. If I didn't know you, I'd swear you were one of the good guys. But I do know you.
"And I know that the minute the X-Men-or the Young Avengers-or your own kids even-no longer serves your interests-you turn on ‘em. You can't help yourself. You're Magneto.
"You may even think you want to change, but deep down we all know it's only a matter of time before you turn out to be the same selfish, manipulative-"
The interesting thing about this is that of course Logan is right. He nails it with how Magneto probably WANTS to change, probably has every intention of being a better person and saving what little family he has left. But eventually he'll return to his old ways, because that's the nature of reformed villains in comics-they CAN'T stay good. At least not if you're Magneto. His views are too fundamentally different from the X-Men's, even if they're almost as often on the same page. He's been there before too many times. He's probably meant it every single time. He may even get Pietro to come back around (not likely any time soon, though) and who knows how Wanda's going to react to him. But it'll always end the same way, because that's how Marvel rolls.
In the meantime, however, I am eating Magneto trying to salvage what little he has left like it is delicious, delicious candy.
"….with all the rebuilding, it's not as if we don't have our work cut out for us."
I love that Magneto has been working in the background the whole time and you think it's just that he's keeping himself busy, that he's showing that he's fine already, that he's putting himself to this goal. Maybe even using it as a way to ignore the rest of the X-Men's jabbering.
And then, when Magneto has practically moved mountains of debris out of the way, "Ah… …there you are." as he picks up something out of the rubble.
Something that's had to have been buried there for years and years.
And, once he finds what he's looking for, it's pictures of Pietro and Wanda as kids-that he compares to the new photograph he has of Tommy and Billy. The scattered pieces of his family. You can't even see his full expression, but you can see enough.
And just. HOLY SHIT, MY HEARTTTT. I WILL BLOG ABOUT THIS FOREVERRRRR.
"Tell me I'm not going to have to worry about you, Erik."
"You have nothing to worry about, Scott. Nothing at all."
I love everything about this final page. Magneto kneeling in front of the box that had pictures of his kids, the shadow of Scott behind him, WATCHING him, Magneto turned away, saying that there's nothing to worry about, the way this all leads into Avengers: The Children's Crusade, everything.
I read ACC before I read this, so this gives a whole new context to Magneto's actions there and I love that it both changes things and doesn't. Also, the art in this bonus is fantastic, I love pretty much everything Coipel does here.
Because of how much I really enjoyed that bonus story, I went back to reskim House of M (because I do that a lot lately--no matter what problems I had with Bends re: Wanda, that was still a really excellently paced story, I felt) and reread bits of ACC. I guess I hadn't really thought about it much, but that probably is the first time Magneto and Pietro have seen each other since House of M/M-Day (though, I'd have to go reread some of post-M-Day to be sure and, ugh, that was painful crap most of the time, at least with Pietro) so, you know. Their last interaction was when HIS FATHER KILLED HIM (and then Wanda brought him back), so Pietro is pretty venomous towards him, obviously. I'm not sure where Magneto's headspace is at during ACC, though. If he really wants to connect with his grandchildren or if he just wants to use them to find Wanda again. If he's resigned to his relationship with his son being forever ruined/knows that Pietro isn't going to forgive him or if he's still angry at Pietro for what happened in House of M and on Genosha afterwards. Shit, now I'm going to have to track down that M-Day crap with Magneto just to see if anyone addresses it.
This is why comics suck, it never ends!
Anyway, on to the rest of UXM! So, I'm right around the point where Hank decides to leave because he is fed up with all this shit and, to be honest, as much as I'm going to miss Hank and hope he turns up somewhere else, I'm kind of enjoying this storyline. Bobby lets Hank vent for awhile, then says, really, what Scott needs right now is just regular dudes around him, not all these crazy megalomaniacs or recreational killers around him.
Bobby: "I was talking about you. He needs us, yes, but he really needs you. And you've run around with those science weirdos and everything has gone and gotten strange and dangerous. You're the rock, Hank. You always were."
Hank takes a moment to pause. Then: "They tortured me, Bobby. And Scott let it happen until the time was right for him to stop it."
Whatever other concerns I might have about Fraction and the way he's written some characters or some of the events in this book, when he nailed that line for me, it made everything else seem unimportant in comparison. True, part of it is that I'm always looking for people to acknowledge that Scott is a total dickbag right now, but the truth is that he did that. He let Hank be tortured until the time was right to save him, he made a calculated decision to maximize his gains, rather than simply caring that his friend was being tortured. You can make all the arguments you want about how Scott needs Hank around to keep him from sliding further into that mess, but Hank doesn't owe Scott that much. He doesn't owe Scott being tortured for awhile longer because there's a better moment coming.
Though, I have to admit. In a way, this almost makes me want to give Endsong some slack because maybe Jean was right. If Scott can't hold his shit together even with Emma's support, imagine how god-awful everything would have been if he really were alone. (.....not that it makes the rest of Endsong any better.)
My only (tiny) complaint about this whole storyline is that we didn't get more of that scene between Hank and Scott as Hank left. I know that Scott has to keep his poker face on at all times, but I would have liked more of a reaction later on, to have some effect from one of his oldest friends leaving him like this. And I'm not wild about Dodson's art--he does lovely women, but his men look kind of awful.
I did also like Emma saying that she trusts Xavier completely (when telling Betsy that, if Xavier says to cut their heads off while the Void is slinking around in their heads, do it) because it's nice to see that not everyone is still shitting on him. And I fucking loved Namor and Magneto GETTING SHIT DONE while Scott was off dealing with Emma and the sliver of the Void. Of course it was going to go the way it did, Magneto was stepping over the line even if it was for a good cause, and I like that Fraction got me to not quite know which side to take there. On the one hand, Magneto saved their asses. On the other... he's Magneto, he hasn't earned that trust. And there's a chain of command for a fucking reason.
I also like that Fraction not only made me give a shit about bringing Kitty back, but he ramped up the tension and emotion of it beautifully. The scenes of everyone gathering as Magneto pulled the bullet back from deep, deep space, everyone waiting for their dear friend to come back, that was beautifully done. Portacio drew a beautiful Kitty in those pages (and the scenes with Magneto and the High Evolutionary) but I have to say the rest of his artwork looked kind of terrible. Emma especially suffered during that issue.
Oh, also! 520 had a great one-sided conversation from Emma to Magneto while he was doing his trance thing. About how Magneto is a natural leader, how he has an innate confidence in a way that Scott has to work overtime for despite training for this since he was fifteen. But Magneto will never understand the compassion Scott has right down to his very core, that it might as well be Chinese algebra to him. I thought that kind of nailed the differences between them really well. Sometimes Fraction can really be on.
Though, he seriously could have dropped that whole business with the Predator X hunt in New York because Fantomex is a SNORE and absolutely nothing interesting came out of that mess. Except maybe getting to see Betsy in action again!
I read a bit more on Nation X, mostly just the oneshot with all the various stories going on around Utopia. The Magneto one wasn't bad, despite being a little OOC of times, it ended on a decent note. I really wanted to like the Piotr one, especially because protective big brothers and sullen little sisters! My heart! But Piotr has become such a one-note character when he's only ever centered around Kitty that I just don't care anymore. I skipped the Logan and Kurt one, honestly. I... I kind of loved the Bobby one, though.
EVEN IF IT MADE ME KIND OF SHIP NAMOR/BOBBY, HOLY SHIT, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME, FRACTION?
Bobby's story starts out cute:
Just his normal routine: Make a joke about Namor, hit on Dazzler, torment the X-Kiddies, eat a shitload of food, you know. The usual. Bobby's life sounds pretty awesome. Then he goes through the usual connecting with a random character thing that comics are so good at, but it doesn't quite go well. Tomorrow's still another day, though.
Implying that Namor REALLY, REALLY LOVES fish! Complete with an ice sculpture for illustration! Namor gives Scott the courtesy of letting him know that he's going to break his friend's neck! I'm NOT supposed to be giving that ship the side-eye and wondering a little about it?? I still think Fraction is some kind of evil wizard to be doing this to me.
But whatever. I repeat my new motto: Namor is a JOY FOREVER with the X-Men these days! (Even if I'm not even supposed to like Namor!)
► TELEVISION:
→ This post should already be long enough, but fuuuuuuck I just watched Glee 2x20 - Prom Queen and, shit, do I ever have lots to say. Or at least I think I'll have lots to say. I never know until I actually start typing away. SPOILERS, of course.
(Btw, good luck to me getting any sort of coherency in here! Because I'm pretty sure the only thing I'm going to get across clearly is: HOLY CRAP I REALLY NEED SOME FANFIC RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.)
(P.S. More pretty Glee fanart. And I don't care if it makes me a terrible person, this one of Santana and Karofsky made me lol and lol. I thought this one was cute. ....god, someone save meeeee already. .....oh, fuck it, fanart/tumblr spam at the bottom. Because I'm not starting another tumblr for Glee. Fuck no.)
So, basically, my most majorest thought that's at the forefront of my mind: OMG AFTER THOSE KAROFSKY/KURT SCENES I HAVE A NEW FREEDOM TO GO READ ALL THAT REDEEMED!DAVID FIC. *rubs hands together with glee* I always kind of had to avoid them because, feh, like Karofksy would be ready to say he was sorry for everything he'd done up to then! BUT THEN HE DID IT ON SCREEN. AND YOU KNOW HE WAS CLOSE TO DANCING WITH KURT AND COMING OUT. HOLY CRAP, I AM GOING TO READ A MILLION FANFICS THAT INCLUDE THAT SCENE GOING JUST SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY.
I was a little surprised that I didn't hate that they took the character there without a lot of build-up and I do feel like they shortchanged what could have been a bigger arc, but... well, this is Glee. Asking them to do consistent, natural character progression in an overall storyline arc is like... asking three monkeys on three typewriters to come up with consistent, natural character progress in an overall storyline arc. I'll take what I can get.
And what I got was some absolutely amazing acting from Max Adler and Chris Colfer. I was all set to be content with just that look on Karofsky's face when Kurt said that maybe nobody really cared, maybe that's why he wasn't getting shit for being gay this week, maybe they'd just moved on to better things. There was this moment where you could just see the horrible struggle Karofsky's going through, all the hurt and the confusion and frustration, and I was like, "....oh."
Also, he escorted Kurt to class, told him to wait there for when he got out of his own class, then he'd walk him to the next one and I sort of stared at the screen because, holy shit, that scene was pretty much WHAT FANFIC DREAMS ARE MADE OF.
But then Karofsky apologizes for what he put Kurt through and it was an incredibly acted moment. What could have been over the top from either of them was instead heartfelt and probably a hell of a lot better than a show like Glee deserves. I want Chris Colfer and Max Adler to be in every scene together forever! FOREVERRRRR.
Though, Naya Rivera can come, too. Telling him, no, you have to say OVER when you're done talking! CHRIST, FINE. "No burning Liberacci mannequins, OVER." I laughed pretty much for-fucking-ever. Easily my favorite line of the night.
I enjoyed so much about this episode. I mean, sure, it was super predictable even without all those spoilers floating around (and maybe they were good? I was expecting Karofsky to backslide, not to make so much progress here!), but I still enjoyed it? I think the "Run, Joey, Run" joke put me in a good mood early on--was it predictable? Of course it was. But it was also well-delivered, so I totally snorted with laughter when Rachel piped up with it (despite that it makes no sense that she would want to sing that song again) and it was Glee poking fun at itself. I can do with more of Glee poking fun at itself.
I enjoyed Kurt's enthusiasm for the entire night, from his OTT outfit (that looked fabulous) to even being kind of pushy with Blaine about going to the prom (but it was his DREEEEEAMMMM and if you date Kurt Hummel, you're just going to have to date the OTT, too) to refusing to back down when drawing attention to himself to his determination to go back in there and hold his head high and not let the cruel joke get him down. And, oh, darling, when he reached out to Karofsky, when he said that this was his chance, he could come out right here, and you could see Karofsky desperately wanted to, when there was this connection between them, it was amazingly well done.
Sure, I instantly had about a gajillion images in my head of Karofsky and Kurt dancing together as prom royalty (and then makeouts later!) and I'm pretty sure I'm going to read every fucking one of the fics that results from this. I am far past shame. I'm reading Glee fanfic, for god's sake! I have no use for that thing you call dignity.
Other things I loved! "Go with god, Satan!" Oh, Kurt. So HAPPY to be there with the girls and choosing outfits! The Karofsky/Santana prom date! They looked amazing in their red and black outfits, but dancing to Friday was beautiful. Even more beautiful than the return of the berets. "Friday" wasn't bad, but I'm sorry, Glee. You are nowhere near the level of epic cover that Stephen Colbert reached.
I enjoyed the whole Rachel - Sam - Mercedes storyline. I didn't mind the return of the Groff, but I can't say I cared, either. Especially since it's only being used to fuel the Finn/Rachel part of the show, which is always the slowest. I wish they'd get back together already just so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. The show has even managed to kind of make me hate Finn/Quinn now because of what they've turned Finn into. It's not even that he's been that bad lately, I'm just at my tolerance point now. I did, however, enjoy the Quinn and Rachel scenes a lot. Thank you for remembering that they can have a connection to each other beyond just Finn!
I may have laughed at Jacob Ben Israel's "I'm not scared, I've been hit by a girl before." I'm not actually that fond of the Puck from s2, but that line definitely cracked me the hell up. I even enjoyed Artie singing to Brittany and gracefully taking her answer when she said no. He definitely shot up a ways in my book there. But, oh, Santana and Brittany. I want them so badly.
There's a lot you can pick apart (like, I agree with the AV Club's review where they say Figgins actually announcing Kurt as Prom Queen, which was obviously done with malicious intent was absolutely ridiculous, but that's part of what Glee is--it's cartoony and ridiculous, you either roll with it or you don't... granted, that's a lesson I took a long time to learn, too) but I find that I don't really want to anymore. Maybe I'm desensitized at this point, maybe I don't care because I got awesome Karofsky development here, maybe the show has gotten less rageful, I don't know. But I enjoyed this episode. The heartbreak of it was very well done and yet it wasn't depressing heartbreak. I can believe there's still some hope.
Where they go from here, I don't know. There are only two episodes left to this season and... there is season three (whereupon they'll have licensed to regress all the characters' growth, just like they did from s1 to s2), but I'm hoping that we actually get to deal with Karofsky coming out. Because that's an entirely different scenario than Kurt coming out. I'd like to see Santana come out as well, but I think she has more potential in the closet than Karofsky does--since he's at the point where he apologized to Kurt and meant it. There's not much to do with him until they have him come out. (And LET MAX ADLER SING AT LEAST ONCE. WE KNOW HE CAN, SO GIVE IT TO US ALREADY.)
Second favorite line: "Do I smell like a golf course?" a;sldfkjalksj ahahahahaha, oh, Santana. ♥
P.S. I know some people are like, "....Dancing Queen? For the two gay kids dancing? Are you fucking kidding me?" but whatever. Glee's offensiveness is so awful that it whips right back around for me into HILARITY. This show is so bad sometimes.
Okay, linkspam!
» Oh god this fanart. I am melllllltinnnnnggggg.
» I am deliberately refusing to think about this rant (which basically says: ....uh, wait, why did no one go after Dave, when he was clearly upset?, along with other points) because... it's Glee! YOU DON'T THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT GLEE. Once something leaves the Glee screen, it ceases to exist! CEASES TO EXIST. I do agree that nixing the Artie - Sue storyline in favor of giving some actual storyline weight to the Karofsky storyline (rather than just what Max and Chris brought to the table), but... what're you going to do? This is Glee.
» .....based on this gif, I would read at least one awesome Jesse/Blaine story. It would be amazing.
» This and this are gorgeous collages. (Santana/Brittany, then Karofsky/Kurt, both from this episode.)
» Dying, dying, dying omg. More laughter.
» Conversation with a Klaine shipper made me laugh really hard.
» I really need to stop reading this tumblr, because this post (that points out that Kurt and Karofsky are often seen in similar color schemes) just suggested: "If/When Kurtofsky happens… we can look forward to matching outfits all the time." And like. My brain exploded with ~*possibilities*~.
→ Being as I am on my period this week, this tumblr is my new best fucking friend. (It's not really NSFW, but you might want to treat it that way anyway.)
► FARMVILLE:
→ ....wh-what? Zynga may soon allow us to breed sheep with our friends? HOLY SHIT, DO WANT. I'm skeptical of this, because a lot fewer people will buy the special sheep if they can just breed one with their neighbors, wouldn't they? Still, holy crap, do waaaaant!
→ Speaking of Do Want things! I see Zynga finally re-released that chameleon sheep, but as a ram this time and GOD I WANT ONE. But I'm not sure if the breeding issue is settled down or not because I've been trying to get one from a neighbor and have had like ZERO LUCK so far despite both the ram and ewe being chameleon ones. (Though, I have discovered that the time you can adopt a new lamb isn't the usual 12am EST/11pm CST, but 3am EST/2am CST. I have no idea why, but that seems to be when I can adopt a new one. However, I still cannot place lambs on my home farm and it's kind of driving me nuts.)(3am EST/2am CST also seems to be when RewardVille resets?)
→ AHAHAHAHA I AM CAUGHT UP ON TREES. This post almost gave me a fit, until I saw that it was a couple of unreleased trees--I can do without the Ash Tree, but man that Rowan Tree is kind of pretty--but now I can relax again. I had the best haul last night! I got another Royal Crystal Tree, another Wedding Tree, the Bird Cherry Tree, and the Purple Magnolia Tree. Though, I kind of want the regular Magnolia Tree, too, because it's so pretty! But not enough to spend FV$ on it.
→ I am nearly at my wit's end trying to figure out something to do with all my fucking trees. I don't want to just stick them in orchards because it never looks very pretty that way. But I've been hanging out on the landscaping forum for months now and I never see any good ideas for massive amounts of trees like I have.
→ I TAKE IT BACK, I TAKE IT BACK, I TAKE IT BACK. GOT THE CHAMELEON SHEEP TO BREED AND NOW I HAVE A CHAMELEON RAM OMG FUCK YEAH. I am not going to breed the shit out of this thing until I get a chameleon ewe and then I am going to breed the shit out of those. .....COLOR CHANGER WITH A STRIPE ON IT FUCK YEAH I AM ON TOP OF THE WORLD TONIGHT. No luck with getting a chameleon with dots yet, but I'm actually almost more pleased with the striped one.
→ I finallyyyyy got the second level of the flower collection done, which means I am just a few uncommon/rare collectibles away from FLOWER COW FUCK YEAH.
► COMICS:
→ So I've been reading comics again, right? (Though, seriously, internet. You're not making me go back to Thor. I've been there and done that, I am stronger than you.) And mostly I'm reading UXM (517-520 or so) and Nation X and a little Legacy in there, but I decided to go a little out of order to read the backup in UXM 526 because I couldn't stand waiting any longer. And, oh, jesus christ, Heinberg, if you rip my heart out at the end of all of this (in a bad way) I swear to christ I am flipping a fucking table and giving up on Marvel all together. Because I cannot take how many fucking ~*feelings*~ I am having over this.
SPOILERS for this and probably (still only) halfway through Nation X. Shut up, I was also reading manga! I already posted all of this to my tumblr, but lj is easier for me to go back and reread, so I'm going to paste it all here. Plus, picspam!
Magneto hearing about Wiccan and Speed for the first time from Nemesis, who hands him a photo of the Young Avengers.
It makes no sense that they should be Magneto's grandkids. It's impossible.
And yet… they do look rather like Wanda.
You can FEEL the nagging doubt and something a lot like hope there.
"Wanda's sons weren't real. They were magical constructs-"
"They were considerably more than that. They had thoughts and feelings. They had minds of their own. They had souls. Wanda may have used magic to give them life, but even the Scarlet Witch can't create a human soul."
I really think he wants to believe they're Wanda's children-and interesting that he says CAN'T instead of COULDN'T, obviously he believes Wanda is still out there somewhere.
"As unlikely as it seems, Wiccan and Speed may be the only family I have left."
"Who's fault is that? After all, last time you saw your son, you tried to kill him. And your daughter hated you so much, she tried to wipe out your entire race."
I am just all over this. Has it really been all the way since House of M that Pietro and Magneto haven't seen each other? Not that I'd blame Pietro-Magneto KILLED HIM for (as Pietro sees it) trying to save Wanda in his own way. And it's interesting that LOGAN of all people is calling Magneto out on his kids hating him.
All the while Magneto just keeps moving the debris of Utopia around in the background.
I honestly don't know if Magneto really believes that he needs to wait until he's proven himself more or if he's just giving lip service to Logan here to get him off his back.
Either way, jeez, Magneto's face.
"I gotta admit, Erik, you put on a helluva show. Bringing Kitty back. Taking down those Super-Sentinels by yourself. You've pretty much said and done everything right. If I didn't know you, I'd swear you were one of the good guys. But I do know you.
"And I know that the minute the X-Men-or the Young Avengers-or your own kids even-no longer serves your interests-you turn on ‘em. You can't help yourself. You're Magneto.
"You may even think you want to change, but deep down we all know it's only a matter of time before you turn out to be the same selfish, manipulative-"
The interesting thing about this is that of course Logan is right. He nails it with how Magneto probably WANTS to change, probably has every intention of being a better person and saving what little family he has left. But eventually he'll return to his old ways, because that's the nature of reformed villains in comics-they CAN'T stay good. At least not if you're Magneto. His views are too fundamentally different from the X-Men's, even if they're almost as often on the same page. He's been there before too many times. He's probably meant it every single time. He may even get Pietro to come back around (not likely any time soon, though) and who knows how Wanda's going to react to him. But it'll always end the same way, because that's how Marvel rolls.
In the meantime, however, I am eating Magneto trying to salvage what little he has left like it is delicious, delicious candy.
"….with all the rebuilding, it's not as if we don't have our work cut out for us."
I love that Magneto has been working in the background the whole time and you think it's just that he's keeping himself busy, that he's showing that he's fine already, that he's putting himself to this goal. Maybe even using it as a way to ignore the rest of the X-Men's jabbering.
And then, when Magneto has practically moved mountains of debris out of the way, "Ah… …there you are." as he picks up something out of the rubble.
Something that's had to have been buried there for years and years.
And, once he finds what he's looking for, it's pictures of Pietro and Wanda as kids-that he compares to the new photograph he has of Tommy and Billy. The scattered pieces of his family. You can't even see his full expression, but you can see enough.
And just. HOLY SHIT, MY HEARTTTT. I WILL BLOG ABOUT THIS FOREVERRRRR.
"Tell me I'm not going to have to worry about you, Erik."
"You have nothing to worry about, Scott. Nothing at all."
I love everything about this final page. Magneto kneeling in front of the box that had pictures of his kids, the shadow of Scott behind him, WATCHING him, Magneto turned away, saying that there's nothing to worry about, the way this all leads into Avengers: The Children's Crusade, everything.
I read ACC before I read this, so this gives a whole new context to Magneto's actions there and I love that it both changes things and doesn't. Also, the art in this bonus is fantastic, I love pretty much everything Coipel does here.
Because of how much I really enjoyed that bonus story, I went back to reskim House of M (because I do that a lot lately--no matter what problems I had with Bends re: Wanda, that was still a really excellently paced story, I felt) and reread bits of ACC. I guess I hadn't really thought about it much, but that probably is the first time Magneto and Pietro have seen each other since House of M/M-Day (though, I'd have to go reread some of post-M-Day to be sure and, ugh, that was painful crap most of the time, at least with Pietro) so, you know. Their last interaction was when HIS FATHER KILLED HIM (and then Wanda brought him back), so Pietro is pretty venomous towards him, obviously. I'm not sure where Magneto's headspace is at during ACC, though. If he really wants to connect with his grandchildren or if he just wants to use them to find Wanda again. If he's resigned to his relationship with his son being forever ruined/knows that Pietro isn't going to forgive him or if he's still angry at Pietro for what happened in House of M and on Genosha afterwards. Shit, now I'm going to have to track down that M-Day crap with Magneto just to see if anyone addresses it.
This is why comics suck, it never ends!
Anyway, on to the rest of UXM! So, I'm right around the point where Hank decides to leave because he is fed up with all this shit and, to be honest, as much as I'm going to miss Hank and hope he turns up somewhere else, I'm kind of enjoying this storyline. Bobby lets Hank vent for awhile, then says, really, what Scott needs right now is just regular dudes around him, not all these crazy megalomaniacs or recreational killers around him.
Bobby: "I was talking about you. He needs us, yes, but he really needs you. And you've run around with those science weirdos and everything has gone and gotten strange and dangerous. You're the rock, Hank. You always were."
Hank takes a moment to pause. Then: "They tortured me, Bobby. And Scott let it happen until the time was right for him to stop it."
Whatever other concerns I might have about Fraction and the way he's written some characters or some of the events in this book, when he nailed that line for me, it made everything else seem unimportant in comparison. True, part of it is that I'm always looking for people to acknowledge that Scott is a total dickbag right now, but the truth is that he did that. He let Hank be tortured until the time was right to save him, he made a calculated decision to maximize his gains, rather than simply caring that his friend was being tortured. You can make all the arguments you want about how Scott needs Hank around to keep him from sliding further into that mess, but Hank doesn't owe Scott that much. He doesn't owe Scott being tortured for awhile longer because there's a better moment coming.
Though, I have to admit. In a way, this almost makes me want to give Endsong some slack because maybe Jean was right. If Scott can't hold his shit together even with Emma's support, imagine how god-awful everything would have been if he really were alone. (.....not that it makes the rest of Endsong any better.)
My only (tiny) complaint about this whole storyline is that we didn't get more of that scene between Hank and Scott as Hank left. I know that Scott has to keep his poker face on at all times, but I would have liked more of a reaction later on, to have some effect from one of his oldest friends leaving him like this. And I'm not wild about Dodson's art--he does lovely women, but his men look kind of awful.
I did also like Emma saying that she trusts Xavier completely (when telling Betsy that, if Xavier says to cut their heads off while the Void is slinking around in their heads, do it) because it's nice to see that not everyone is still shitting on him. And I fucking loved Namor and Magneto GETTING SHIT DONE while Scott was off dealing with Emma and the sliver of the Void. Of course it was going to go the way it did, Magneto was stepping over the line even if it was for a good cause, and I like that Fraction got me to not quite know which side to take there. On the one hand, Magneto saved their asses. On the other... he's Magneto, he hasn't earned that trust. And there's a chain of command for a fucking reason.
I also like that Fraction not only made me give a shit about bringing Kitty back, but he ramped up the tension and emotion of it beautifully. The scenes of everyone gathering as Magneto pulled the bullet back from deep, deep space, everyone waiting for their dear friend to come back, that was beautifully done. Portacio drew a beautiful Kitty in those pages (and the scenes with Magneto and the High Evolutionary) but I have to say the rest of his artwork looked kind of terrible. Emma especially suffered during that issue.
Oh, also! 520 had a great one-sided conversation from Emma to Magneto while he was doing his trance thing. About how Magneto is a natural leader, how he has an innate confidence in a way that Scott has to work overtime for despite training for this since he was fifteen. But Magneto will never understand the compassion Scott has right down to his very core, that it might as well be Chinese algebra to him. I thought that kind of nailed the differences between them really well. Sometimes Fraction can really be on.
Though, he seriously could have dropped that whole business with the Predator X hunt in New York because Fantomex is a SNORE and absolutely nothing interesting came out of that mess. Except maybe getting to see Betsy in action again!
I read a bit more on Nation X, mostly just the oneshot with all the various stories going on around Utopia. The Magneto one wasn't bad, despite being a little OOC of times, it ended on a decent note. I really wanted to like the Piotr one, especially because protective big brothers and sullen little sisters! My heart! But Piotr has become such a one-note character when he's only ever centered around Kitty that I just don't care anymore. I skipped the Logan and Kurt one, honestly. I... I kind of loved the Bobby one, though.
EVEN IF IT MADE ME KIND OF SHIP NAMOR/BOBBY, HOLY SHIT, WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME, FRACTION?
Bobby's story starts out cute:
Just his normal routine: Make a joke about Namor, hit on Dazzler, torment the X-Kiddies, eat a shitload of food, you know. The usual. Bobby's life sounds pretty awesome. Then he goes through the usual connecting with a random character thing that comics are so good at, but it doesn't quite go well. Tomorrow's still another day, though.
Implying that Namor REALLY, REALLY LOVES fish! Complete with an ice sculpture for illustration! Namor gives Scott the courtesy of letting him know that he's going to break his friend's neck! I'm NOT supposed to be giving that ship the side-eye and wondering a little about it?? I still think Fraction is some kind of evil wizard to be doing this to me.
But whatever. I repeat my new motto: Namor is a JOY FOREVER with the X-Men these days! (Even if I'm not even supposed to like Namor!)
► TELEVISION:
→ This post should already be long enough, but fuuuuuuck I just watched Glee 2x20 - Prom Queen and, shit, do I ever have lots to say. Or at least I think I'll have lots to say. I never know until I actually start typing away. SPOILERS, of course.
(Btw, good luck to me getting any sort of coherency in here! Because I'm pretty sure the only thing I'm going to get across clearly is: HOLY CRAP I REALLY NEED SOME FANFIC RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.)
(P.S. More pretty Glee fanart. And I don't care if it makes me a terrible person, this one of Santana and Karofsky made me lol and lol. I thought this one was cute. ....god, someone save meeeee already. .....oh, fuck it, fanart/tumblr spam at the bottom. Because I'm not starting another tumblr for Glee. Fuck no.)
So, basically, my most majorest thought that's at the forefront of my mind: OMG AFTER THOSE KAROFSKY/KURT SCENES I HAVE A NEW FREEDOM TO GO READ ALL THAT REDEEMED!DAVID FIC. *rubs hands together with glee* I always kind of had to avoid them because, feh, like Karofksy would be ready to say he was sorry for everything he'd done up to then! BUT THEN HE DID IT ON SCREEN. AND YOU KNOW HE WAS CLOSE TO DANCING WITH KURT AND COMING OUT. HOLY CRAP, I AM GOING TO READ A MILLION FANFICS THAT INCLUDE THAT SCENE GOING JUST SLIGHTLY DIFFERENTLY.
I was a little surprised that I didn't hate that they took the character there without a lot of build-up and I do feel like they shortchanged what could have been a bigger arc, but... well, this is Glee. Asking them to do consistent, natural character progression in an overall storyline arc is like... asking three monkeys on three typewriters to come up with consistent, natural character progress in an overall storyline arc. I'll take what I can get.
And what I got was some absolutely amazing acting from Max Adler and Chris Colfer. I was all set to be content with just that look on Karofsky's face when Kurt said that maybe nobody really cared, maybe that's why he wasn't getting shit for being gay this week, maybe they'd just moved on to better things. There was this moment where you could just see the horrible struggle Karofsky's going through, all the hurt and the confusion and frustration, and I was like, "....oh."
Also, he escorted Kurt to class, told him to wait there for when he got out of his own class, then he'd walk him to the next one and I sort of stared at the screen because, holy shit, that scene was pretty much WHAT FANFIC DREAMS ARE MADE OF.
But then Karofsky apologizes for what he put Kurt through and it was an incredibly acted moment. What could have been over the top from either of them was instead heartfelt and probably a hell of a lot better than a show like Glee deserves. I want Chris Colfer and Max Adler to be in every scene together forever! FOREVERRRRR.
Though, Naya Rivera can come, too. Telling him, no, you have to say OVER when you're done talking! CHRIST, FINE. "No burning Liberacci mannequins, OVER." I laughed pretty much for-fucking-ever. Easily my favorite line of the night.
I enjoyed so much about this episode. I mean, sure, it was super predictable even without all those spoilers floating around (and maybe they were good? I was expecting Karofsky to backslide, not to make so much progress here!), but I still enjoyed it? I think the "Run, Joey, Run" joke put me in a good mood early on--was it predictable? Of course it was. But it was also well-delivered, so I totally snorted with laughter when Rachel piped up with it (despite that it makes no sense that she would want to sing that song again) and it was Glee poking fun at itself. I can do with more of Glee poking fun at itself.
I enjoyed Kurt's enthusiasm for the entire night, from his OTT outfit (that looked fabulous) to even being kind of pushy with Blaine about going to the prom (but it was his DREEEEEAMMMM and if you date Kurt Hummel, you're just going to have to date the OTT, too) to refusing to back down when drawing attention to himself to his determination to go back in there and hold his head high and not let the cruel joke get him down. And, oh, darling, when he reached out to Karofsky, when he said that this was his chance, he could come out right here, and you could see Karofsky desperately wanted to, when there was this connection between them, it was amazingly well done.
Sure, I instantly had about a gajillion images in my head of Karofsky and Kurt dancing together as prom royalty (and then makeouts later!) and I'm pretty sure I'm going to read every fucking one of the fics that results from this. I am far past shame. I'm reading Glee fanfic, for god's sake! I have no use for that thing you call dignity.
Other things I loved! "Go with god, Satan!" Oh, Kurt. So HAPPY to be there with the girls and choosing outfits! The Karofsky/Santana prom date! They looked amazing in their red and black outfits, but dancing to Friday was beautiful. Even more beautiful than the return of the berets. "Friday" wasn't bad, but I'm sorry, Glee. You are nowhere near the level of epic cover that Stephen Colbert reached.
I enjoyed the whole Rachel - Sam - Mercedes storyline. I didn't mind the return of the Groff, but I can't say I cared, either. Especially since it's only being used to fuel the Finn/Rachel part of the show, which is always the slowest. I wish they'd get back together already just so I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. The show has even managed to kind of make me hate Finn/Quinn now because of what they've turned Finn into. It's not even that he's been that bad lately, I'm just at my tolerance point now. I did, however, enjoy the Quinn and Rachel scenes a lot. Thank you for remembering that they can have a connection to each other beyond just Finn!
I may have laughed at Jacob Ben Israel's "I'm not scared, I've been hit by a girl before." I'm not actually that fond of the Puck from s2, but that line definitely cracked me the hell up. I even enjoyed Artie singing to Brittany and gracefully taking her answer when she said no. He definitely shot up a ways in my book there. But, oh, Santana and Brittany. I want them so badly.
There's a lot you can pick apart (like, I agree with the AV Club's review where they say Figgins actually announcing Kurt as Prom Queen, which was obviously done with malicious intent was absolutely ridiculous, but that's part of what Glee is--it's cartoony and ridiculous, you either roll with it or you don't... granted, that's a lesson I took a long time to learn, too) but I find that I don't really want to anymore. Maybe I'm desensitized at this point, maybe I don't care because I got awesome Karofsky development here, maybe the show has gotten less rageful, I don't know. But I enjoyed this episode. The heartbreak of it was very well done and yet it wasn't depressing heartbreak. I can believe there's still some hope.
Where they go from here, I don't know. There are only two episodes left to this season and... there is season three (whereupon they'll have licensed to regress all the characters' growth, just like they did from s1 to s2), but I'm hoping that we actually get to deal with Karofsky coming out. Because that's an entirely different scenario than Kurt coming out. I'd like to see Santana come out as well, but I think she has more potential in the closet than Karofsky does--since he's at the point where he apologized to Kurt and meant it. There's not much to do with him until they have him come out. (And LET MAX ADLER SING AT LEAST ONCE. WE KNOW HE CAN, SO GIVE IT TO US ALREADY.)
Second favorite line: "Do I smell like a golf course?" a;sldfkjalksj ahahahahaha, oh, Santana. ♥
P.S. I know some people are like, "....Dancing Queen? For the two gay kids dancing? Are you fucking kidding me?" but whatever. Glee's offensiveness is so awful that it whips right back around for me into HILARITY. This show is so bad sometimes.
Okay, linkspam!
» Oh god this fanart. I am melllllltinnnnnggggg.
» I am deliberately refusing to think about this rant (which basically says: ....uh, wait, why did no one go after Dave, when he was clearly upset?, along with other points) because... it's Glee! YOU DON'T THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT GLEE. Once something leaves the Glee screen, it ceases to exist! CEASES TO EXIST. I do agree that nixing the Artie - Sue storyline in favor of giving some actual storyline weight to the Karofsky storyline (rather than just what Max and Chris brought to the table), but... what're you going to do? This is Glee.
» .....based on this gif, I would read at least one awesome Jesse/Blaine story. It would be amazing.
» This and this are gorgeous collages. (Santana/Brittany, then Karofsky/Kurt, both from this episode.)
» Dying, dying, dying omg. More laughter.
» Conversation with a Klaine shipper made me laugh really hard.
» I really need to stop reading this tumblr, because this post (that points out that Kurt and Karofsky are often seen in similar color schemes) just suggested: "If/When Kurtofsky happens… we can look forward to matching outfits all the time." And like. My brain exploded with ~*possibilities*~.