“Do you want talk, maybe, about the dynamic between Coulson and May, because it’s such an interesting relationship, and it’s almost hard to know, it’s like… They’re always just looking out for one another, and it’s like who’s the caregiver, but really they both are.” (x)
Tag: meta
why deaf clint barton is important
ok, all you boys and girls who read comics, listen up.
if you read matt fraction’s hawkeye comics, you know that clint barton has been stabbed in the ears with arrows, and as a result, is now deaf. furthermore, if you read the comics, you know that today was the release of the asl issue.
in case you don’t know me, i’m hard of hearing. i grew up hearing, and my hearing wound up getting fucked up the older i got. now i’m 20 years old and wear hearing aids. my signing isn’t as good as it could be since i’m surrounded by hearing people who won’t learn asl to communicate with me, but i use it as often as i can.
when i read the asl issue, i found a superhero that i could actually relate to, an actual, real, human being, flawed superhero that d/Deaf/hoh people can relate to and understand, particularly those people who have lost their hearing as they’ve gotten older the way i have. this asl issue speaks more than anyone can understand.
admittedly, the issue didn’t quite use proper signs all the time, and the grammatical structure was more english than asl (asl has a very different grammar syntax), but for now, it was enough. it was representation. it was a step forward. (and why was clint talking on the phone if he’s deaf? honey, if you deaf, you deaf. i’m hard of hearing, and i can’t hear shit on the phone. like, i get he was letting jess know that it was him talking, but son, you are deaf and cannot hear her response. but that’s ok, it’s just details.)
so marvel, you don’t know how much your asl issue meant to me, but i’d like to thank you, matt fraction, and everyone else involved with this from the bottom of my heart. thank you for giving representation to a group of people who don’t really get very much representation at all. thank you for for showing me a superhero who gets it.
deaf clint barton is important.
disabled superheroes are important.
disabled superheroes getting back on their feet when their disability makes things rough for them is important.
disabled superheroes trying to figure out how they fit into the abled world around them is important.
deaf clint barton is important.
This. All of this.
No, I don’t think so. I think he thinks it’s strange. Then again, the circumstances are weird. Bucky gets rescued by this new Steve. For all we know, Bucky is on an operating table thinking he might never come out. That he might never again see the light of day. So for him, every time he comes back from war, he’s like, “Here’s another chance to think whether it’s worth going back. I’m alive. I’m here for one night. I want to live life.” I don’t think it’s jealousy so much, but he doesn’t really have much of a choice because I think for him there’s an element of, “Okay I’m going to go fight and I will survive this one mission and then I’ll come back and I’ll not go back.” But the problem is that he has no choice because Steve’s going and he never lets Steve go by himself. So I think the protective nature of a parent or a brother was was always there. It wasn’t like, “Steve’s this muscle guy and I want to be him.” It’s more like, “Oh god—he’s grown up and what do I do?”
Sebastian Stan’s response to Do you think Bucky almost wishes he was the one turned into a super soldier? (x)
HAWKEYE #19
MATT FRACTION
• DAVID AJA (A/C)
“Rio Bravo” – PART 4
• The sense-shattering fallout of the Clint vs. the Clown — Clint Barton has been deafened!
• With the Barton Brothers this battered and bloodied, surely they’ll make easy pickins for the Bros, right? Bro? Seriously?
• If we do our jobs right THIS time, this issue will be the Dog Issue of Sign Language issues
This is so important. This is so damn important.
Not only is Fraction undoing the retcon of other writers who took away Clint’s disability, but he’s taking that disability back to his childhood before it originally started in classic canon.
This is so important because Fraction is refusing to let Clint’s disability be overwritten anymore so long as he has hold of the tenure.
YES THIS.
I have been upset that they ~magically fixed~ Clint’s hearing since I found out he was ever deaf, and the idea that he’s been hard of hearing since a childhood “accident” (aka – you know it was his dad, I am sure it was his dad) that was unable to heal fully because y’know HIS EARDRUMS WERE DAMAGED is just. Yes good. Especially since Fraction said he’s been writing Clint as if he’s been hard of hearing since he was a kid, and getting “fixed” only took him back to the level he was at before the sonic arrow incident.
This is so important to me for reasons I can’t even entirely express and basically this is the best thing and I’m going to cry while I read it.
This explanation that he’s been hard of hearing all along would also make me feel better about the “Spanish-sounding stuff” that turns out to be Russian (probably), as if Clint Barton wouldn’t recognize Spanish (living in BedStuy? Please.) or Russian (working closely with a Russian ex-pat and also an intelligence agency employee).
Fraction has explicitly said that’s what was intended by those captions/speech bubbles/whatever you want to call them. I wish it’d been more explicit in the comics themselves, but that was what he was going for.
I AGREE WITH THE PERSON WHO REPLIED TO MY ASK. I don’t know… how to reply to that. But I just wanna say that I agree with evilkneazle so hard! :DD
So hey @evilkneazle this happened. ^
Okay, so I talked to my pal who’s a professional interpreter and she says she basically agrees with this.
Her actual commentary: “You’re exactly right: “Stupid” and “Clint.” I can’t really extrapolate more than that without having context, but I am wondering what the question mark is all about. [I then sent her the whole page, rather than just the bottom couple panels] I think maybe it’s Barney asking Clint, “Are you stupid or something?” Clint hasn’t been involved in his own treatment or shown any interest and Barney is obviously fed up. It feels like spelling his name is like when your mom would get so mad she would throw in your middle name.”
That last part feels so right. That perhaps Barney is spelling it out in frustration, though it’s also possible that Clint doesn’t have a name sign.
Anyway, thanks, @whichfandomdoipick and @actuallyclintbarton! Good convo!
Whether he’s just asking if Clint’s stupid or he’s doing the “mom using your middle name” thing, this makes a hell of a lot of sense. Hooray!
Did they ever reveal how Captain America was thawed? Because I’m picturing a bunch of Shield agents with hair dryers and I don’t think that’s quite right.
I don’t think they’d want to microwave him so hair dryer is really the only remaining option. That’s how I’d do it.Do you have a sciency way to accomplish this task?Well, let’s see.
To thaw a 1.5 metric ton colossal squid frozen in a block of ice (the only way the fishermen who trawled the thing in could bring it home before it went bad), scientists put it in a big vat of brine just above 0 Celsius/32F. That allowed the fresh water to melt while still keeping the squid as cold as possible. Essential, since for a giant corpse with tentacles, certain parts are bound to thaw days before others and could become quite rotten before the rest comes out of the ice block if you’re not careful.
HOWEVER Captain America was still alive, which complicates things. On the other hand, even supersoldiers are significantly smaller than this record-setting colossal squid. This helps thaw logistics somewhat.
Much like the squid, Captain America would have to be kept at a consistent temperature throughout his body in order to be thawed successfully. If his extremities were to thaw more than a minute or two before his heart and lungs were thawed and reactivated, the tissue wouldn’t have any oxygen and would quickly die. What a shame to bring back Steve Rogers only to have him be the poster boy for gangrene. Brain tissue becoming metabolically active before the cardiovascular system began functioning would be even more disastrous— possible permanent brain damage.
And the GH-325 project was bornTo keep his temperature as equal as possible across his entire body, something like the squid brine or (more likely) an antifreeze solution would be used. Immerse the Capsicle in brine until the entire unit is within a degree or two of thawing* to begin Phase II.
*Note that due to presence of salts, fats, protein, etc, the freezing point of meat is actually 28-29F. Apologies to non-US readers, sadly I only work with American meat and don’t know the freezing point of corpses/beef in Sane Country Units. That being said, Steve Rogers is 100% American meat. Fahrenheit shall be considered the appropriate unit for this project.
At the thawing point, it’s important to consider life support functions. I don’t know how fast human tissue uses up oxygen at refrigerator-range temperatures, but I’m going to assume that the sooner you have oxygen circulating the better. A heart-lung machine would be needed to oxygenate and move the blood around for a while before the heart gets started back up.
Meanwhile, because Captain America’s last un-frozen moments were spent deep underwater, there may be decompression issues at play. Whatever gas bubbles may have been present in his tissue are currently frozen in place, but when he thaws they can move about and create embolisms —> the bends. Better put him in a hyperbaric chamber just in case.
Since Captain America regained consciousness in a recovery room rather than during the thaw process, it may be safe to assume that he was sedated and/or placed in a drug-induced coma during thaw.
So at this point we’ve got a giant bathtub of brine, a heart-lung machine, oxygen canisters, lots of drugs, plus all the necessary monitoring equipment all inside a hyperbaric chamber. After thawing the antifreeze bath could be replaced with gradually warming water or saline solution in order to bring Captain America back up to normal body temperature. So many machines! This is US medicine at its finest.
Forced warm air blowers (hairdryers) are needed after Captain America is fully thawed, organ systems are reactivated, and he is brought back to normal body temperature. At this point it becomes necessary to dry and style Captain America and put him in period-appropriate jammies to sleep it off in a vintage hospital room. If you think hearing the wrong baseball game tipped him off fast, you should see him wake up with bad hair.
THIS IS THE BEST POST IN THE HISTORY OF EVERYTHING.
That being said, Steve Rogers is 100% American meat. Fahrenheit shall be considered the appropriate unit for this project.
Can we talk about Steve here? The way he’s looking at the Tesseract. He must be thinking “how could something this small cause so much pain?” The war it started, the years it cost him… the friends he lost…
can I just-
this is the only closure Steve gets for the war. That the weapon that fueled Schmidt’s maniacal search for power beyond what the Reich could give him, the weapon that created the backbone of Hydra’s weaponry, the weapon that contributed to Bucky’s fall, to the bombs on the plane, to Steve’s decision to down the plane {ten days} and then everything he lost because of that-
this is the only closure Steve gets for losing everything.
Look at him. Steve Rogers is not the kind of guy who experiences hatred, but he fucking hates that thing.
So I’ve been sitting on this gifset for a while, trying to think of how I want to parse this.
Maybe I’m following the wrong blogs, but I just do not see enough meta about Natasha’s story arc in this movie. This scene here is, to me, one of the three critical moments for Natasha that are the reasons she ends up being the one to release all of SHIELD’s data to the world.
As follows (quotes paraphrased as I don’t have the script):
- The first critical moment comes on the Lemurian Star, right after Batroc throws a grenade at her and Steve. They end up sitting on the floor and she says, “Okay, that one’s on me” and Steve replies “Damn right it is.” Her reaction to that isn’t disdain or frustration with Steve, it’s very clearly a form of disappointment — she’s upset with how Steve views her, his opinion of her. Sure, I’m reading a lot into that expression, but I think it is pretty masterful of ScarJo to show that side of Natasha in such an ambiguous way. The take-away here, however you want to describe it, is that Natasha’s unhappiness has less to do with being nearly blown up than with her working relationship with Steve. He doesn’t trust her, and that burns her.
- The above gif’d scene, where it’s clear that she’s pretty shocked and upset to hear Steve admit that previous to their current situation, he would NOT have trusted her. It’s a blow for her to realize just how she’s been perceived by those she’s given her complete trust and faith to.
- The scene where Fury’s survival is revealed is the final one, where Natasha reacts as if to a body blow when she realizes that Fury didn’t trust her, but he did trust Maria Hill. Earlier when he was “dying” it was clear that she’s somehow emotionally attached to Fury, and whatever reason you want to concoct for that, the fact is that she clearly believed that he did trust her…but he didn’t. My opinion of her reaction shot at the reveal is that she’s not angry about it, she’s heartbroken.
What I believe this all points to is really well reflected in her line to Steve, “I don’t know everything, I just act like I do” (paraphrased), and then reiterated in the truck ride where she talks about being the person she needs to be, as opposed to who she is.
In other words, Natasha is so good at being “whatever you need me to be” that it is exactly what the people who know her best expect of her, and accordingly don’t feel like she’s trustworthy because they don’t know the “real” her. Meanwhile she has been operating on the belief that they do know the real her and so therefore do trust her.
It’s like…a double blind situation, where both parties aren’t privy to the truth, even though they think they are. Everyone up to and including Fury “knows” that Natasha is a spy and nothing she says can be trusted; Natasha “knows” that the people she trusts see through that mask and trust her in return because they know the real her. She goes around in this movie constantly surprised and disarmed by the fact that her closest friends/co-workers doubt her loyalty.
So in the end, when Pierce is asking if she is ready for her past to be revealed, she is so fucking ready it hurts. She knows it is the right thing to do, but putting that on top of the experiences given above, it’s easy to see that she felt she had to do it for herself too.
Can she be trusted? You’re damn right she can, and she was willing to burn down her entire world to prove that fact to the very people she thought knew it already.
Rhodey (possibly) canon
The one thing I think fanfic authors miss, is Rhodey went to MIT with Tony. His major was probably aerospace engineering, since many Air Force officer candidates major in this area. You know what another name for an aerospace engineer is? Rocket scientist.
Rhodey is a rocket scientist.
Rhodey is a rocket scientist, y’all. Treat him with the scientific respect he deserves.
Rhodey did indeed go to and graduate MIT for Aerospace Engineering in MCU canon. that is legit. He is a rocket scientist
tho, post MIT and probably during, his specialty became more weapons focused but no doubt he is quite knowledgeable in a lot of other related areas
#TEN BUCKS SAYS THAT MORE THAN ONCE#JUST TO BE AN ASS#TONY’S LIKE ”WHAT ARE YOU#SOME KIND OF ROCKET SCIENTIST?”#AND THEN BOTH RHODEY AND TONY ARE JUST LIKE ‘EYYYYY!!’#because trolls#all the fic where Rhodey is a rocket scientist and everything to do with that#PLEASE (via mayqueen517)
A note on rocket science and weapons from a rocket scientist with a more than passing knowledge of how rocket scientists function in the US Air Force. 😀
It is completely reasonable for an aerospace engineer to go into weapons, especially missiles. And it makes sense for Rhodey to be a missile guy, since he’s working with Tony and what do we see Tony giving the Air Force at the beginning of the first Iron Man movie? The Jericho Missile.
Missiles are at their heart, a rocket problem.
For a missile, aerospace engineering is required, in at least three parts. (1) The aerodynamics of the missile, (2) the guidance, navigation and control of the missile, and (3) the propulsion system of the missile. Now if we extend this problem to Inter Continental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), you also have to consider the astrodynamics problem, so this is an additional area in a missile design that an aerospace engineer would be required.
Whether Rhodey initially put himself on a path to study missiles, I can’t say. What I can say is something about the idea that Rhodey is “no doubt knowledgeable in other related areas.” This is undeniably true. The Air Force does not actually seek to over specialize their officers. They instead put them on a path that leads them towards a more “jack of all trades master of none” philosophy. So it is highly likely that Rhodey spent time in all areas related to Aerospace Engineering—including airplanes, helicopters, and satellites. To get as far as he is in the military, a Colonel, Rhodey would also have been required to do multiple over seas tours and probably spent some time doing nothing more than being a glorified admin while he was a lowly LT or Captain. (As a general rule, butter bar lieutenants are trusted with exactly zero responsibility. I can just imagine Rhodey calling up his buddy Stark to complain and Stark being like “weeeelllll, you could always come work for me” and Rhodey being all like “NOT ON YOUR LIFE” and Rhodey just continuing to press through and making it clear he is worth something until finally he’s a first LT and they actually trust him with something.)
If Rhodey did not get his master’s degree from MIT, which is likely if he was ROTC though not impossible, he probably went to AFIT for his later degrees. And Rhodey would *at least* have a master’s degree, since a master’s degree is essentially required to ascend from the rank of Captain to Major. I say *essentially* because the Air Force occasionally changes it policy on this. Sometimes it’s absolutely required and sometimes it’s merely recommended. Regardless, Rhodey would at the very least have a master’s degree. It’s also highly likely that for a Colonel working in a research based division, he would be required to have his PhD (considering it’s Air Force weapons, I’m going to make the guess that he probably works in something similar to AFRL Munitions Directorate, though perhaps not that particular group since Rhodey doesn’t seem to be based out of Eglin AFB). As a full bird Colonel, it’s also highly likely that Rhodey would in fact be IN CHARGE of the entire research directorate.
So yes, not only would Rhodey be highly knowledgeable in all areas of Aerospace Engineer, he would probably also have a PhD in it, and is probably in charge of whatever weapons division he runs.
For example USAF research colonels, check out these biographies of current USAF colonels: here and here.
^^And THIS is why I began this meta…for wonderful comments like these. This stuff is golden. Thank you, all of you, for your wonderful additions. So now we know. Rhodey is very likely DR. JAMES RHODES, thank you.
Why is femslash the smallest genre in the world of fanfiction? Why is femslash the most underrepresented relationship type by a sizeable margin? More importantly, why is it that almost all femslash writers are queer women? Male slash pairings are written by straight women, queer women, and even some men (I say “even” because men are rarer than a two dollar bill in the world of fanfiction) and they’re read by a mostly female audience. Femslash has a completely different ideology, because it’s almost exclusively written and consumed by the community it portrays. Unlike a straight girl writing about two boys having sex (and I guarantee that they’re two conventionally attractive white boys whose female love interests have been deemed either worthy of death or asexual by the fandom), femslash is written by those whose identities and personal narratives are reflected in the stories themselves. Maybe the writer of that erotic scene hasn’t had sex with a girl yet, but damn, she has thought about it a lot. That queer author writes two girls falling in love even if they’re straight in the original work because two girls falling in love means something to her and to so many people like her, and it’s important that she sees herself in a piece of media whose canon forgets she exists. One of the great frustrations of LGBTQ media is the fact that so little of our representations end up coming from LGBTQ-identified creators, and thus we see inaccurate portrayals with limited diversity. Femslash exists because we were sick of being told we didn’t exist, so we wrote ourselves into their stories.
excerpt from a very long piece I’ve been working on for autostraddle about femslash and why there’s so little of it (and why we need to make more of it NOW)
knitting in the dark 