one thing i really liked about thor ragnarok that i havent seen a lot of folks on my dash talking about was its critique of imperialism and the ultimate message that a nation founded on the violent takeover of others doesn’t deserve to exist and will be the author of its own destruction, though its people may be innocent of their country’s past crimes
another thing i really liked about thor ragnarok is jeff goldblum’s painted nails
also it’s a great story about how the destruction and/or theft of land, though incredibly traumatic, does not signal the end of culture and identity, which is held within the peoples of the diaspora (he’s māori and has jewish ancestry so like!!! holy shit yes).
taika waititi not-so-secretly appropriating a marvel franchise for the purposes of de-/post-colonial storytelling is a power move and now my hype for black panther has been reinvigorated
Played by Tessa Thompson. Immediate awesome points
Finally the major supporting female character is a woman of color in a Marvel movie
Wears practical clothing/armor and doesn’t fight like a damn acrobat coughBlackWidowcough
Zero hints of any forced romance subplot with Thor
Treated with absolute respect by Thor, who doesn’t feel entitled to her attention or affection in any way
In fact Thor openly hero worships her. That’s right, the male hero has looked up to a female warrior and an all-female warrior team since childhood and doesn’t in any way feel threatened or emasculated by it
For once a female character gets to be the snarky, persistently drunk lovable asshole wash-up with a Tragic Backstory™ who needs to be persuaded by the male hero to do the right thing and fight for what’s right
Bottom line is that Valkyrie in this movie is basically a female sidekick in a male led superhero flick done right. She isn’t alternatively sexualized and loathed by the male hero, she isn’t treated as a prize the male hero is entitled to by the end of the film, her fight scenes aren’t relentlessly filtered through dismembering male gaze ass shots and she isn’t the moral “conscience” of the team there to tame all of the male egos around her like their fucking mom. Other Marvel/superhero directors take note.
you know what i love about valkyrie? she’s a woman and the narrative doesn’t hold a knife against her neck for it
that scene of her falling down drunk in her first appearance? amazing! that’s there for us to know she has a drinking problem, but don’t underestimate her because she will still get the job done. it’s not there to make us oogle her, it’s there to show us she is a person.
the weight of her survivor’s guilt and the ptsd and the questioning of her identity because everything that made her a valkyrie, a protector of the throne, a fearsome warrior in the ranks of other legendary women, was taken from her by the people she should never have had to fight
thor asks for her aid because she is a warrior and her reputation precedes her. he doesn’t needle her to join by invoking her gender, but rather her pride.
the things we associate more frequently with male characters like heavy drinking or physical strength are embodied in valkyrie, but it’s not there to make her ‘manly’ or Not Like Other Girls. in fact, it’s to remind us that these are things that can be true of women. women can be traumatized and turn to alcohol. they can isolate themselves and run away from their problems and want to punch their demons in the face. men don’t have a monopoly on compelling backstories!
valkyrie got everything that make men shine in the marvel franchise and it didn’t come at the expense of her gender or her race
thor is the friend you call when you wanna do something and all your other friends think it’s boring
you could be like “hey, thor, do you wanna take a knitting class with me?” and he’d say sure because he likes learning new midgardian things and he loves you and he’s canonically one of those people that likes seeing the smiles on other people’s faces when they’re doing something they really love to do
The great thing about Thor? He probably loves that shit. Intricate patterns and quite contemplation and STABBING PEOPLE THINGS. His mother ends up with delicately spun Lace Knit shawls, and Jane has at LEAST one knitted lab coat and like seventy sweaters.
Cooking classes mean FOOD.
Reading circles? Thor is in like eight.
Bowling? The man throws things for a living. He can and will cheer you on. If there’s beer? Double down on that Asgardian good cheer.
Painting? He’s probably Steves ‘painting in the park’ buddy because Jane likes the park for reading new theories or ranting at Tony about gobledygook quantum physics.
Thor is the ultimate social butterfly, and once you show him the Cool Thing you like to do? He insists on learning it, if only so you have someone marginally knowlegable to geek out with.
He’s also the ine that you can count on for two AM tuna fish sandwiches and philosophy.
Daredevil, aka Matt Murdock, should be either Latinx or Filipino in all modern incarnations of the character and them’s the facts
I don’t disagree, but I’m wondering if you have specific reasoning?
Oh yes, yes I do.
Daredevil the show is full of anachronisms that come with being a fairly direct modern adaptation of a piece of work from the 1960′s, most notably the fact that Hell’s Kitchen has gentrified. IMO, though, the biggest anachronism, is Matt’s ethnicity.
In the original comics, Matt is Irish American. Being a second generation Irish-American in the 1960′s meant was a LOT different than being a second-generation Irish American in 2017, and a lot of the things that were important about Matt being Irish in the originals are better represented if he were
Because Matt IS an immigrants story- the story of being the 2nd generation (his mother immigrated young in one of the comics I read? IDK, his dad is really Irish-AMERICAN, but the point still stands.) The one who actually “makes it” to fully blend into American culture, the one who lives goes to a fancy university and works a white-collar job in a suit. That divide between the way he was raised, and the circles he works in now, still as a hero for the working person but surrounded by wealth and the upper class- that makes up a really interesting segment of his character.
Matt’s mother was a young woman who slipped through the medical industries cracks and suffered from acute postpartum depression. He’s raised by a single father who makes ends meet by boxing, who instills a strong work ethic in him but dreams of him “rising above.” He has a chance to become very wealthy and both literally and figuratively move from where he was raised, but he chooses to stay and fight for it, because of what a formative place it is for him.
He’s also super Catholic. (Made even more Catholic, I would argue as a practicing one, by how generally mediocre he is at being Catholic.) And that’s really tied into his Dad and his family and were they’re from.
(I’m not saying that there still aren’t Irish Americans that fit this profile. I’m just saying that there are currently a lot more Latinx and Filipinos who do, and that it would provide amazing representation and breathe new life into the character in a way that’s really fitting with his original. Probability wise, if you were to find a young, Catholic, working class lawyer with a background in boxing, he wouldn’t be white. )
The reason I suggested he be either Filipino or Latinx is because they are the some of the largest groups of recent immigrant Catholics, and have strong boxing cultures. Matt could technically be Syrian Catholic or Samoan or Indian or Rwandan. Personally, my grandfather was a Filipino boxer, so I have some skin in this game.
Long story short, I think race bending Matt actually brings him closer to his Irish origins and honors them more, and I am ready to welcome the age of Mateo Miguel Munoz!
That’s so true! I’m so down with that!!! And the world would also have one less white saviour.
I was thinking more Italian, myself, based on immigration patterns of my own family. I was thinking a darker Italian though.
But yes!!! Thank you for taking the time to explain your reasoning. Hopefully marvel will adapt this at some point.
❤ ❤ ❤
In their effort to modernize and diversify the show to match modern NYC w/out doing the same to Matt they’ve made SUCH a white savior complex, that and the Hand Plotline that I will Not Mention BEcause I Hate It with the Fire of A Thousand Suns and the Only Good THing It Brought Us was Elektra.
They’ve started race bending characters, which is nice, but they’ve yet to do it to any main characters so even though it would make all practical sense I think we’ve got white Matt for the foreseeable future
Ohhh, if you haven’t hear of her you might really like Helena Bertinelli, the Black-Sicillian Catholic vigilante queen of my heart. Truly she is #everything and if DC wanted to give us nice things she’d have a full series
I love this, so much!!! ❤ My only criticism is that it should be Muñoz, instead of Munoz (the ñ is so pretty and has such a nice ring). Also, you can bet he is all the time correcting the mispelling, especially when done in any kind of official records, and he doesn’t let anyone say “can I call you Matt? is easier to pronounce?” And he’s there like “my name’s Mateo” (and his friends would call him Mati, like isn’t that cute? *3*)
There’s a problem with having a lot of 1) stupid ideas and 2) awesomely creative friends.
Because honestly they just enable your stupid.
I went off to Maine in August and, during a break from my novel, wrote nine episodes of this while on a sugar high. (My fave’s the Predator one, but it’s not until #7). Guys, LOOK AT DAVE’S ART. Why the heck isn’t he working for DC or Marvel yet? Anyway, here’s something dumb that Dave and I did in our spare time. We’ll be dropping one of these a month (-ish). around our actual commitments.
Question of Smoke 