XiaCobolt [undecided, she/her]

I know right? he also wrote on the tape on everything he fixed with a pen. Like Ben garrison captions “broken wall” and now…I’m thinking on hindsight maybe he had undiagnosed mental illness.

But Herge’s actual involvement with the nazis was slim, when the war began he was writing about how bad the Japanese invasion of China was in collaboration with a Chinese friend (The Blue Lotus is still so fucking racist)

There’s a bit in the Blue Lotus where Tintin trys to access the Shanghai international settlement (a chunk of Shanghai basically occupied by US and UK troops during the Century of Humiltation) and British troops try to stop him, they cut it from the 90s cartoon and just had Japanese soldiers, because suggesting that Anglos were once also trying to colonize China was considered poor taste at the End of History. It’s so racist still. But he also locked in and put everyone on blast.

(They also cut so much of Tintin in America. Lynch mobs. Mistreatment of First Nations. It’s like the shortest arc).

I saw this on my phone and said “fuck, this needs the computer” and walked to my computer.

Tintin is a real land of contrasts. Herge was a reactionary, started writing for racist publications and how much he collaborated with the Nazis is a subject of debate from begrudgingly to enthusiastically. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is anticommunist trash. Tintin in the Congo is racist trash. There’s a reason they didn’t translate it into English for decades because it was too fucked up even for Anglos. Those books are not worth reading.

So his works start off really racist but over time Herge shows a surprisingly level of nuance and respect for other cultures (for an early 20th century European). Like the Blue Lotus is very racist to Japanese (but they’re also the villains because it’s the 1930s) and it’s stereotypes the Chinese badly, but it also sincerely suggests the Chinese are the same as Europeans, a proud culture with a long history worthy of respect and friendship. Chang, Tintin’s Chinese sidekick is brave and heroic. Even returning much later in Tintin in Tibet.

Tintin in America straight up calls pretty much all Americans gangsters and irrational lynch mobs, who will swindle First Nations out of their lands to steal their oil at first opportunity. As the books progress non-European places (Peru, Tibet etc) get shown with at least more nuance and interest, even if there’s still problems.

Also the quality just gets so much better. Like the early stories are just dogshit. Barely readable. Tintin in America is one Deus Ex Macchina after another as Tintin bumbles from one situation to another. Tintin in the land of the soviets is a series of shitty newspaper cartoons strung together. But later works like the Calculus Affair is a tense political thriller about a spy battle over new sonic super-weapons in fictionalized Balkan states, Tintin on the Moon is a sincere and realistic story of the challenges of lunar travel a decade before the moon landing.

Tintin also over time assembles his cast, Captain Haddock, Professors Calculus Thompson/Dupont and Thomson/Dupond, as well as recurring characters Bianca Castafiore, Spruk, Chang etc. Tintin trully doesn’t start until the Crab with the Golden Claw, when Captain Haddock storms on the scene “blistering blue barnacles” and all.

I said that because they did add some minor side quests that were almost finished at some point I think.

That game was wild, I remember putting a bunch of hogtied Confederate remnant guys into shallow muddy water and watching them struggle to keep their heads up so they didn’t drown.

That’s in the game from the start. I think the first time I played I was still a bit of a lib and went “I’ll leave him to die a sad broken man” the second time I let my sawn-off bark.

He was hiding his power levels during the election…they were much lower.

Apparently he might be a Yang Guy because all would be US assassins these days have incomprehensible centrist politics.

Shapiro is a real ghoul, former IDF, super pro-Israel etc

But also given he’s a Jewish Governor in a swing state that went Red for Trump, I’m thinking the bomb throwers were probably Nazis so that’s not great either.

My grandfather was from the so called “greatest generation”. He was “handy” and refused to get help fixing anything. Cue everything in his house just being fixed with masking tape. TV panel fell off? Tape it back. Hole in wall? Tape over it? Nothing couldn’t be fixed with masking tape.

It was dogshit and sometimes you have get people who know what they’re doing to help.

Weirdly true. Source is dog shit (Radio Free Europe), but a combination of the non-aligned movement and loving basketball made Serbs pretty chill with most other people except those also from the Balkans.

All the other former Yugoslav nations scoring well too except North Macedonia.

Yeah definitely Yugoslavia was in the Balkens not Eastern Europe, and non aligned movement not Warsaw Pact. It’s more like if China broke apart and there was a restoration of “liberal democracy” and oligarchs etc, then Vietnam broke out in a Civil War due to US meddling economically, politically and covertly.

Because most Cis men won’t buy a prostate massager or a magic wand.

Baby Zombies will jump onto chickens and ride them, it’s pretty rare.

C’mon don’t up vote this

“Face too manly, haircut too woke, looked too old, breasts too small” etc. I remember they hated this.

Superficially it’s not great. A few observations though:

• This costume is no more revealing than things Emma Frost wears in the comics, it’s basically her thing. Not that this excuses things (comics are misogynistic AF), but it’s not like they took a more modest character and changed her (like Kitty Pryde in a skimpy outfit etc).

• This is an unlockable outfit her default is way more concealing than anything she has ever worn in comics (and I remember that pissing Chuds off a while back). Still pretty objectifying

• The Art Director for Marvel Rivals is Dino Ma (far left on picture I confirmed with other sources as the naming order is wrong in the tweet), now I don’t know for certain Dino designed Emma Frost, but it’s a small studio. I don’t know Dino’s gender or sexuality and shouldn’t speculate. But they have queer vibes from my impressions. I also from years of hanging out on NSFW tumblr and twitter have a good sense for when an artist is drawing objectification (cishet) versus objectification (queer) and this tickles my six sense slightly, entirely vibes based towards the latter.

• There’s an online meme that Emma Frost is trans (positive) that some writers have leant into over the years. From memory there’s a story about how a young Brunette Emma Frost has a blonde brother named Christian who is sent to a conversion camp for being gay and is never seen again. Both sort of connecting the mutant as a metaphor for queerness, but also a theory is that Emma was that blonde boy and wasn’t gay but actually straight trans woman (the Brunette Emma being a sibling or an invented person). A trans woman dressing like this would be “Mother” as the kids say

• Uh…she could make me worse.

Milo Edwards has this bit about how foot fetish guys have the worst PR for what is kind of a mild fetish and it’s so bad you can’t compliment or massage a foot without being suspected.

I’m not a foot fetish person but I’m not anti it. Feet stuff synthesises well with a lot of BDSM which I am into, being stepped on, dismissive foot jobs, tickle torture, worshipping through foot massage etc

It’s kind of like piss. Not my thing again but I’d do it in a BDSM context because it fits well, being tied and needing to piss, being forced to drink piss, piss waterboarding etc.

Er do we need CW in an already NSFW thread?

The problem I had with that is surely there’s still something Superman can do to help the war effort (in universes where he was around). That SMBC comic where he’s a transitional source of renewable energy by cranking an electromagnet, or IDK helping a shipyard pump out aircraft carriers etc