What did Marvel do???

Hoo boy. Sooooo here’s the twitter account.

The short version, from what I understand, is there is an author of several of their Star Wars comics named Chuck Wendig. I’ve read some of his novels. He posts political commentary sometimes, because it’s his personal twitter. He also made a habit of explicitly including LGBT characters in his Star Wars canon novels. Which is awesome. Unfortunately that attracted trolls who targeted him for his inclusion of a bisexual woman among other LGBT characters and his left-leaning political views. He told a couple trolls off using some swears, so Marvel fired him ostensibly for using profanity in his tweets.

The issue is that 1) this behavior of his is not new, so Marvel didn’t care until alt-right people brought it up to them, 2) this is now a pattern of Marvel caving to alt-right people, which is. Not. Cool. Especially given that Marvel’s history with representation is shameful. Also 3) Marvel has other writers who legitimately target people who say they don’t like their things. All in all it’s not a good look for Marvel. 

It’s also an issue because he was defending himself. Could he have been more professional? Yeah. Did he have to be? Honestly given what he was responding to, I don’t think he’s morally under an obligation to do so. I think there’s an attitude in our culture that glorifies being passive instead of being assertive, and I honestly don’t think he was being aggressive because he didn’t go after anyone from what I know; he simply responded to people tweeting shitty things at him. I think when someone attacks you, you have the right to tell them to stop it. And to be clear: we aren’t just talking rude comments to someone on twitter, but doxxing attempts and other threats that have according to him have the police involved, and he has a kid. If someone was attempting to doxx me and I had a kid, being civil wouldn’t necessarily be a priority. 

So anyways, Marvel, come on. 

About last chapter of hxh. Relationship between families is really weird and doesn’t make sense to me, who even thought of that. I know it was remarked on but still. Why would someone come up with such rules?

So this is going to be rambly because there’s clearly a motif that this is playing into but I’m not quite sure what it means so I’m going to throw some ideas out there and hope one sticks lol. I am very likely overthinking. 

I find it darkly hilarious, because it’s foiling the royal succession war. Despite royalty clearly considering themselves upper class (literally they’re on the upper decks), the mafia have rules for fighting just as the succession war has rules. One might even say that the mafia’s rules are perhaps… more moral than the succession war’s rules in which you literally have a baby fighting for her life.

The ironic thing is that the succession war limits the war to the first two decks and would deign to duck below… and we know Morena wants to kill the princes too so my guess is it’s going to come to them. 

Which this exchange clearly foreshadows as well:

The idea of class issues has come up more than once in HxH specifically in regards to the Phantom Troupe, which originated in a city where people are literally thrown away and where no records are kept and that some people don’t even think exists. Class, is, of course, a societal ideology.

Family and legacy is also a theme that seems to be present in this arc (the Zoldycks for one), and of course it’s also been present in Kurapika’s arc from the very beginning as he’s aiming to avenge his family. Kurapika’s nen abilities are also strengthened by rules stemming from his ideology of revenge. With dire consequences.

My guess is the point of all of this is to even the playing ground between the different classes (as we know they’re all going to mix eventually) which are really just society’s established rules, and also to show that rules about how to kill and who you can kill is stupid because you’re still killing. Like I doubt very much Morena or Tserriednich plan to stick to the rules, but if they did it wouldn’t matter.

Remember again what saved Chrollo the first time was Pakunoda breaking the rules/ideology of the Spiders, which kinda imply Chrollo ought to die.

Basically I’d say the point is that living people/families matter more than rules/ideologies in these particular situations, which is a lesson Kurapika needs to learn, and Chrollo as well (since the PT is a kind of makeshift family) unless he’s going to die (but we have Morena and Tserriednich as the antagonists this arc that I don’t see making it out alive). I might be wrong about exactly what’s going on with this rule thing, but it’s clearly a motif in this arc.

Sorry if I am wrong but I remember you saying that Harry’s attitude towards Snape towards the end of the series wasn’t realistic. Was it not realistic because it didn’t suit Harry’s character and his personality or is it just Snape didn’t do enough to redeem himself. I have seen opinion that narrative treated Snape too much like a hero. Do you agree with it?

I actually don’t think it’s unrealistic!! So I don’t think I ever meant to say that. I do think it is idealistic though and would be unusual in reality—but it’s a fairy tale so I think it fit perfectly with Harry Potter’s framing as a series. I wouldn’t change it for anything, and I actually do think it fits Harry’s character and the themes bound up in it: namely, loss and grief, and learning to be wrong. Harry was seldom wrong about his hunches and he didn’t take people doubting him very well either (it led to conflict multiple times) but he was very wrong about Snape and not only acknowledged that but chose to honor him. I think that’s a beautiful resolution personally.

Are there specific reasons you enjoy manga more than anime or you just do?

It’s just a personal preference! I’ve always been a bookworm lol. I can read faster than I can watch things, so that’s also a factor. I do like watching too and if I like a manga I’ll almost certainly check out the anime as well! I think they’re both mediums that are very effective in telling stories, so one isn’t better than the other–I’m just generally more motivated to try a manga than an anime.

What do you think of Theta and hxh new chap?

I’m frightened for Theta. She’s too good working for too evil a man. I’m very, very intrigued by Tserriednich’s second nen beast and what that might suggest about him, because his first nen beast, if representative of his subconscious, seemed pretty integrated with his conscious. His second one–well, I’d need to see more of what it does. 

I am also not at all surprised he and Morena know of each other. t’s also interesting to me that Tserriednich is a Kurapika enemy set up, and Morena is a Chrollo foil, so @aspoonofsugar and I were talking and wondering if their relationship isn’t going to foil Chrollo and Kurapika’s relationship this arc. 

Most of my friends are saying the new chapter of hunter x hunter is a death flag to Phinks and Nobunaga :( but I don’t think so. I think the remaining founding members (Chrollo, Machi, Franklin, Feitan, Phinks, Nobunaga) along with the Zoldycks will survive (so only Shizuku and Bonolenov will die) … then again, the author planned to kill Machi at one poin but decided against it so I don’t really know. What do you think?

Ehhhh… I don’t know. I am with you that the original members, save Franklin, all have more development on their side, which increases their chances of survival. I do, however, think that going up against Morena is a Bad Idea, since she is clearly positioned as a Chrollo negative foil with the Biblical imagery (a crown of thorns really Morena) and her nen ability and group of followers is a dark foil of the Phantom Troupe. 

All that to say I do think and have been predicting Morena and her abilities are going to be behind the death of some PT members, or she might use her ability on them should one of her current minions die or be esteemed not good enough. Because Chrollo and Morena will surely meet/face off at some point, and motivation is needed there. 

I do think PT members are about to start dying. I still think Shizuku, Bonolenov, and Franklin, as the three with the least development, are still the most at risk. We will see. 

The new chapter is definitely another hint towards Dabi is Todoroki Touya huh XD

Majorly! Lol. I’m quite happy; I wasn’t expecting to get anything on it again for awhile. I hope Todoroki has more thoughts on it during his fight. But yeah, at this point it’s fairly clear that Dabi is Touya, and Endeavor, WTF is wrong with you? But it does seem to strongly hint that Dabi’s body was not well-suited for his quirk, which would explain the burns.