InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "La odio."

psychicsaphie (psychicsaphie) wrote in scans_daily,
@ 2009-09-03 20:22:00

Entry tags:

char: blue beetle/jaime reyes, char: miss martian/m'gann m'orzz, char: red devil/eddie bloomberg, char: wonder girl/cassie sandsmark, group: teen titans, publisher: dc comics, title: teen titans

Teen Titans 74
MASSIVE SPOILERS

Do not click unless you want to be spoiled.

So when we were last left with the Titans, blah blah prison break, blah blah distractions, blah blah, the Calculator has a huge plan going to mess with the Titans. Lots of foreshadowing about a Titan dying, and it was pretty clear from Origins and Omens who.

The problem is the Titans left the situation at the prison without realizing there was a severely injured metahuman with nuclear powers slowly going critical, so that it wasn't even noticeable until after they left and got into the fighting elsewhere. Eddie was informed of this fact via a "government agent" that turns out to be the Calculator having rerouted all communications from the Tower.

Trap or not, calculated or not, this guy is going critical. The others are fighting for their lives, so Eddie does what a Titan does and powers or not, pulls his own weight.

Wonder girl goes to beat the snot out of the bad guys, Amazon style, but stops raeging and doesn't do anything she'd regret.

And ultimately... they learn from it. Rather than it destroying them like the Calculator intends, they deal with it.

And I have to say, I've severely disliked this trend as Titans being expendable canon fodder, I'm sick of characters dying in general, but... I was very happy with how this turned out. Eddie went from being a kid sidekick to a kind of useless lump that couldn't hold down a job, to someone so desperate for a family and to be a hero that he sold his soul for superpowers to be able to be a Titan--and then who refused to be useless when he lost those powers. He had a hell of an arc, and came a long way from being something of a dorky foob wannabe.

Recently, the Titans have gotten chumped. Random, pointless deaths all over. In making a comparison to the Legion of Superheroes, recently, to a friend, I pointed out that when Legionnaires die it is typically in a blaze of fucking glory, and how it's much more satisfying. Yes, people just die sometimes, and no, not everyone can have a heroic death, but you still expect one every once in while, and after a string of pointless ones, it gets tiring and seems like all they want is a gore-splosion. These are heroes, dammit. Even if death is swift and surprising, they still would likely give the finger to evil as they go down.

And here, Eddie just carries a walking nuke away, gets himself bombarded by a ton of radiation, carries the dude even as it burns him horribly, and kind of flies right into his death with a smile on his face, and a loyal "They'd do it for me"--with all the faith in the world that they would, and without a flinch. And even if he'd known it was a trap, since it was the only way to save them, and communication was cut off, you know he would've done it anyway.

I would've liked more time with the Red and the Blue, but I was happy with this. It wasn't a chump death--it was a send off, with the characters dealing afterward by not dwelling in angst, but deciding to fight harder, learn from their mistakes, stick together, and make sure his sacrifice to save them all wasn't in vain.

He believed in the Titans, and it ends on the note of them trying to believe in themselves. THAT is how you do a death if you're gonna do one.

So, RIP Eddie. Thanks for dying in an attempt to make the Titans suck less. It probably won't work because the new writer sounds utterly vapid ("Static is special because he’s the male version of me – Pasadena, California as my Dakota. I was this kid growing up, except for the whole big bang explosion-turns-you-into-a-super-hero-ability-to-harness-electromagnetism part"--oh God, make it stop), but thanks for trying, kid.

(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

	mugiwara 2009-09-04 01:12 am UTC (link)
	I hate those "save everyone by going away with the bomb" death. I prefer when the death are a bit less heroic and spectacular, like Cypher's or Cap America's. Anyway, good ridance. As much as I'm sick of the Titans killing (and more general, the young heroes killing in both Marvel and DC), I was even more sick of Kid Debil. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	psychicsaphie 2009-09-04 01:20 am UTC (link)
	(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-09-04 01:22 am UTC (link)
	That's getting a bit too close to a personal insult, don't you think? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychicsaphie 2009-09-04 01:24 am UTC (link)
	If you take Bullseye saying dialogue from "Mean Girls" to be personal insult, certainly, but I was going more for the "POOPHEAD" approach. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-09-04 01:27 am UTC (link)
	1) That assumes you'd know "Mean Girls" dialogue in the first place. 2) You'd associate it with Bullseye for some reason 3) Negative personal statements to another poster are not permitted. Disagree with their opinions all you like, but leave subjective assessment of their personalities out of it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychicsaphie 2009-09-04 01:31 am UTC (link)
	Geez, PC Police, it was a joke. I'm not actually calling the poster a whore, nor do I take great offense that they dislike Kid Devil. It's meant to be silly. If that didn't come across, well oopsie-daisy, but I figured the icon was silly enough to make that clear. My bad. Matter clarified. Carry on. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	bj_l 2009-09-04 04:06 am UTC (link)
	I appreciated the Mean Girls reference. Although, now I really want to watch it. Curse you! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	mugiwara 2009-09-04 06:56 am UTC (link)
	I'm not going to debate the board's rules, but I didn't take it as an attack. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychicsaphie 2009-09-04 07:50 am UTC (link)
	I srsly didn't mean it as one, dude or dudette, just to let you know. No offense meant at all. I was just being silly at you. (And I actually agree a bit about Cypher and Cap's deaths. Cypher's especially, I liked). (Reply to this) (Parent)

	psychicsaphie 2009-09-04 01:25 am UTC (link)
	I.E. Like when someone says "I hate such and such" and someone goes "BLASPHEMER!" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-09-04 01:29 am UTC (link)
	In such cases "Blasphemer" is so out of context it's obviously not meant seriously. "Boo, You Whore", on the other hand, is more direct and much less obviously meant in a non-serious manner. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	psychicsaphie 2009-09-04 01:32 am UTC (link)
	How is it more direct? The person isn't engaging in any whorish behavior and I don't even know if they're a girl or a dude. It's just as out of context. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	icon_uk 2009-09-04 01:38 am UTC (link)
	"Whore" is much more commonly used as a generic insult than "blasphemer" ever is. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

psychicsaphie
2009-09-04 01:46 am UTC (link)

It's also used as a joke one, too, if you're not uptight about it. I think it's a silly icon with a silly phrase that it would be silly for Bullseye to actually say, because it's a teen girl thing to say matched with a cold, hardened assassin dude. It's already out of context.

If the person I responded to (which is not you) is genuinely upset by it, I'd just give 'em a genuine "my bad," because I was just being silly and thought that'd come across, and if the mods deigned to give me a strike over it, I wouldn't argue it.

But part of a personal insult is intent. There was none on my end to actually insult the other poster. I thought the icon was silly, and that any silliness would come across. Apparently, it didn't. All I can do there is go "whoops" and clarify that I thought it was just silly. Which I have done.

So chill. You're not fighting a huge injustice here. You're fighting "someone thought an icon was silly enough to not be taken seriously and didn't take into account someone else would interpret it seriously."

And honestly, you're doing the thing that makes me have the hugest problem I do with this place, and why I only just rejoined, like, today. I'm all for holding people accountable to their words, and anti-racist, anti-misogynist, anti-ableist language and all that, but there's a point where people cross over into ignoring the intent of the poster and the fact that sometimes they don't communicate things well or a joke goes off its mark rather than them intending ill will.

Chill. I'll be more careful next time. Though, honestly, the easiest way to settle this was simply explaining it wasn't a real insult and that I meant it like "Blasphemer", which I already did, and would've done if the poster went "Hey!"

You didn't even need to step in. Let it go.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

icon_uk
2009-09-04 07:33 am UTC (link)

I think you're actually taking this a lot more seriously than I was.

As I said, the icon ONLY has meaning in the context you intended if you know an obscure line of dialogue from a fairly obscure movie a couple of years ago. I know I'd never heard it before, and I'd put good money on not a whole lot of other people knowing it either.

Otherwise it's simply an insult from a character known to use insults, so you can perhaps see the problem.