It's very far from my usual content, but I feel like this is a topic I have to take a stand on, because it's something I deeply care about, and I don't want to see my stuff being reposted together with some hateful shit again.

So here I am. I'm a white christian, and I stand with the LGBTQ+ comunity. Because the first and most important rule of the religion I choose to practice and believe in everyday is to love everyone. There isn't a "but" after that sentence, which means no exceptions. As a christian, it's my duty to "Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

I can't pick and choose who is deserving of that love, I can't simply point my finger and decide who is not worthy of being treated as a human being. Does God speak trough our tongues, for us to declare which between our brothers and sisters is not his child? Was he the one who told you, love and cherish everyone but: The gay, The muslim, The atheist? The sinner?

Now, I don't think homosexuality is a sin, for no form of love that comes with no harm could ever be considered "against nature", but even if it was, the sheperd left the whole flock so he could run after one single sheep, for he loved her, even after she had fled from him, and he brought her back as she was. He didn't change her, didn't punish her, he simply welcomed her back as one of his own. Why should we behave any different?

And please, don't go quoting the bible on me. I'm italian, the pope lives next door to me, christianity is taught in school here, there are countless youth groups that teach the pinciples and parables. I also happen to know the history of my country, and you know what I've learned? that during the Middle Age many priests and many popes have used the bible and the words of God to take money from the poor in order to hoard riches and lands for themselves. They exploited the faith of less educated people to gain power and they destroyed anything that could've been a threat to that, including innocent people. They used the bible to justify the blood on their hands and hate in their hearts. Not quite the example you want to follow, right?

Futhermore, nitpicking from the old testament is quite the idiotic tactic, anyone can do it. In the same Leviticus it says "You shall not let your cattle breed with a different kind. You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor shall you wear a garment of cloth made of two kinds of material". So, if you ever wore a dress made with two different fabrics, you're a sinner, and you shall be punished. It goes both ways.

And on that same track, "let him who is without sin among you cast the first stone". Which, I think, speaks for itself.

Now, I don't want to have a debate about this, I don't want to argue about wether or not a person deserve to be treated with respect and kindness regardless of sexual orientation, skin color and religion. You should know the answer to that. So, if you disagree, let's part in peace and let's never interact again.

Like, putting aside the fact that a sad backstory doesn't automatically make a character complex, but Sukuna does have one. Just because Gege didn't put a whole flashback in there doesn't mean that he didn't give us the context clues necessary to understand what kind of background Sukuna's from, but especially why the fact that he does have a difficult past has relatively no importance in relation to the evil he has done.

Breaking it down, we know that he was born during the Heian era and that due to the condition of starvation of his mother, he absorbed his twin brother in the womb, which caused his unnatural appearence.

Now, if a kid with four arms, four red eyes and a second mouth on his stomach was born in our current age, he would live a fucking terrible life. Kids born with deformations or disabilities far less scary are treated like animals, so no doubts he would be bullied and scorned at best, hated and mistreated at worst. Imagine how people five hundred years ago may have reacted, especially because he evidently came from poverty.

Sukuna describes himself as an unwanted and cursed child, and he was surely trated as one. He must've went trough hell in order to survive before he discovered his cursed technique. He must've been mistreated, abandoned, left to fend for himself.

And you may ask, why Gege didn't show this then? why not delve in Sukuna's early years, which could've been a very easy way to gain him sympathy? well, the answear is: Sukuna as a character didn't need nor want sympathy. In the manga (slight spoiler) he proudly admitted to all of his crimes when he was "on trial", and he went into a blind rage when he noticed that Yuuji was looking at him with pity. He never searches for anyone's understanding or approval, much less for anyone's compassion, which is why he has no interest in sharing his story. On the contrary, he probably doesn't want people to know that.

He's not a scared kid trying to survive anymore. He killed anyone who might have knew him as such and spent the rest of his life burying the memory of that part of himself under so many atrocities, people barely remembered he was a human once, much less a child. All the pain he suffered he gave back tenfold, and for that he was proud.

That is the whole reason why his backstory at the end of the day is not really relevant. Yes, it explains the why, but all that came after? it was all him.

A fundamental part of JJK, explained trough many of the characters (especially Yuuji) is that your traumas don't define you as a person. Bad things can happen to you, and you can lose all hope, become angry and mean and cruel because of it, but at any point in your life you have the chance to be good again. At many of the countless crossroads of life you are given the opportunity to pick the right option.

Sukuna purposefully decided to not do that. At any chance he got to be be better he doubled down on his behaviour and actively chose to be worse, because if a monster was the only thing the world saw in him, than it was much easier to prove them right, and that can't be justified!

He's the literal incarnation of "The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth". And that's what makes him such an interesting character, if you can pick up the clues scattered in the narrative. He's an horrible person who commited atrocities while laughing, he's a kid that the world failed, he's a curse feeding off other's misery, he's a man trying to forget he was ever weak enough to be hurt.

-

Booster: Dude, I don't know how could people possibly mistake us. We're completely different under any aspect!

Hal: Hm, let's see. You are a superhero who's work is rarely truly recognized because people either don't see the result of it first hand or can't remember it, correct?

Booster: ... yes, I guess?

Hal: Do you hide all your pain, anger and guilt behind charming smiles and corny jokes so no one can see how truly fucked up you are and decide you are unfit to be a hero? Do you prefer your peers roll their eyes at your antics and idiocy, thinking you're an arrogant moron, because at least that way they won't notice how hollowed out you feel? how much on the verge of breaking down you actually are?

Booster: Damn.

Hal: Were you raised in relative poverty, which pushed you to be highly independent, adaptable, and quite suspicious of anyone offering help for free? Do you have a family situation that led you to feel guilty from a very young age for things you had no control over and placing an enormous amount of responsability on your shoulders? Do you feel immense guilt over the death of one or more of your family members, despite the fact that you had distanced yourself from them thinking it would protect them?

Booster: mmmmmmmm

Hal: Do you ever feel that your mistakes outweight your good deeds by a long shot, so you've got to make up for it, and your life is a small price to pay for it to happen? Do you ever hope to die in an actual significant way, in a blaze of glory, so you can be rembered as a good person and a hero, without having the chance to mess it up again?

Booster:

Hal:

"I bid you come out before your doors and look abroad. Too long have you sat in shadows and trusted to twisted tales and crooked promptings."

Oh they'll be happy for their people maybe, happy that those they love will never have to suffer again, that houses won't be burning no more, that children won't know what it's like to lose their family, that green things will be able to grow.

But them specifically? that's no happy ending for them. They'll live the rest of their days feeling like a fish out of water, for all their life has been bloodshed and steel, so they have no idea how to go on without those.

Their dreams will always be hunted by the past, and despite the losses, the pain and the guilt, they'll still feel disappointed that they woke up. Because for how horrible and devastating it all was, that's what they were good at, great even. They swung weapons like they were extension of their bodies, they moved batallions like pieces on a board, they laughed in the face of fear and danger, made killing look like something of a dance, a brutal and yet beautiful art. And now that it's all ended, what is it they should do? What there is left to do for a weapon when the purpose it was made for it's fulfilled, if not to rust till it loses it's glint.

Now all I can think is Hal having a hand in raising Lara and Jonathan (it's a post apocalyptic world where Supes dies and Lois basically becomes twice as militaristic as her father), i.e. teaching them how to use their powers and trying to help the kids have a sense of normalcy as General Lois Lane just views them as soldiers and goes all out guerrilla warfare on future Lex Luthor and his regime.

I just want Hal to be an active part of the rest of the League's members' lives, I want him to try and be a father figure to the Kent kids when Supes is out of the picture, I want him trying to save Lara and Jonathan from a version of Lois who is probably giving him PTSD attacks of his own mother and older brother when his father died, I want to see him taking her to task for her abhorrent treatment of her kids, I want an alternate future "flashback" of sorts where he reads her the riot act for sending her own children into the past to commit murder.

I want Hal to be the voice of reason and right again, and blast it if this new show isn't making me come up with some kind of idea or five.

Anyway take care and I hope this doesn't bother you!

Ehi, no bother at all.

I didn't watch this series, it's not my jam personally, but I love the idea of a potetial Superman kid having a relationship with Hal. I've made a post about how Hal is (and should be portrayed more often as) the Justice League glorified baby sitter.

He's the only one of the original members who doesn't have a sidekick, which automatically makes him cool uncle material. Roy and Wally canonically call him uncle, so why not the others?

Also, he was the one who supported and helped Roy when Ollie kicked him out, so he would absolutely stand up for the kids if he considered them to be in a situation of danger or abuse. You don't fuck with uncle Hal's nephews.

(Also, I love that you mentioned Hal's relationship with his family and how he was treated. In the earliest comics Martin Jordan was the abusive one, and later it was changed in his mother and Jack. Either way he suffered from both physical and emotional abuse that he would not wish on any other kid, so not only does he decide not to ever willingly pull a child in his lifestyle, but he also does his best to look out for all the ones who are already involved in similar ones.)

Because at the end of it, there would be two older brothers desperately clutching at the (apparently) lifeless bodies of their younger siblings. Over the cries and the laments of the wounded and mourning, from the corpses filled battlefield and from the ruins of the white city, twin screams would rise for the Valar themselves to hear, so full of agonizing pain that they would barely sound human.

Two eldest sons, cradling the people they love more than anything in their arms, begging them to open their eyes because just like a father shouldn't bury their child, it is simply unnatural for an older sibling to outlive their youger ones.

The first one was fun and people liked it, so here some other headcanons for my "Green Lanterns are Eldritch Horrors" agenda.

Their powers don't come from an object, but from an entity, the first being to ever will itself to move. Precise informations about it are scarce, but the rings are bond and take their energy from it, they are part of it. With time, as the human becomes ring, the entity becomes them. Lanterns are the eyes and hands of a God.

You'll probably never guess their true age. Time affects them only if they remember that it's a thing it should happen. No perception of time passing equals no growing older.

If you see a Lantern enter a quarantine zone, do not for any reason follow them. The ring makes them immune to almost every disease and poison of the universe. We try to avoid putting their lives on the line like that, but in emergencies know that they'll likely survive what most beings can't.

Remember, they are space diplomats. They have connections in every crevice of the universe. If you have requests that couldn't possibly be satisfied on Earth, call any of them. Some of those connections may be a bit shady, but don't ask about it because you won't have an answer. Just know that if you need anything, they have the guy for it.

Again, they are space diplomats. They can quote hundreds of intergalactic laws by heart and frame you for a crime you didn't even know you could be prosecuted for. Their whole gig is finding loopholes and technicalities to fuck with alien politicians and royals, especially the blue ones they have on Oa. Don't start a discussion with them without having built a structured argomentation with proof and evidence. You'll probably still lose, but your dignity won't be anhilated.

Lanterns can perceive your presence trough your willpower from miles away. The stronger the will the brighter a soul shine, and there is no disguise that will hide your or anyone else's light from their gaze.

The uncanny valley feeling is inevitable. The more advanced the fusion with the ring is, the more they'll look like they are wearing human skin like a costume. Suppress the instict to flee.

If a Lantern has just returned from space, it's advisable not to touch their uniform for a minimum of at least an hour. Touching the black parts will freeze your fingers, the green ones can cause third degree burns.

In a direct fight, don't count too much on their need to recharge the rings. Much like the no kill rule, the recharging process becomes rather obsolete once the ring it's fused enough with them to start feeding of their own will.

It may happen that all of a sudden their irises turn a lighter shade of green, the color seemingly extending to the veins under their eyes. If you ask about it, the only answer you'll get will probably be "Ion likes to watch around sometime". See the initial "eyes and hands of a God" paragraph.

Listen, if an alien space monster or whatever was flying full speed at me with homicidal purposes, you can bet that my mind too would start panically spamming

GIANT HAMMER, GIANT HAMMER, ANVIL! ELEPHANT, WHALE! GIANT HAMMER, GIANT HAMMER.

Like, creativity is well and good in complex circumstances that require thinking outside the box, but in situations of immediate danger? Your mind will conjure the quickest and most effective thing to defend yourself, and I can assure you that dumping the equivalent of 200 tons of hardened green light in the shape of a blue whale on someone is as efficient as creating a Kaiju.

The X-Men movies were a clusterfuck, but I have to say that one thing they did better than the comics is their portrayal of Charles Xavier and his relationship with Erik/Magnus.

Like, in the comics his dream of peace and coexistence is rooted in stubborness and egoism. He refuses to see other points of view or consider any opinion that's not his own. He's a middle aged, manipulative white man that uses his telepathy to control people and push them to do what he wants. He treats the X-Men like soldiers, some of them he grew up specifically with the intent of making them fight for his ideals. He's a shitty person, all in all.

The Charles of the movies starts as a naive young man with good intentions but a poor understanding of the world. He's kind, brave and deeply empathetic, and his experiences with his powers pushed him into wanting to help others like him by fighting to integrate them in the world rather than using violence to perpetrate a cycle of pain and fear. He doesn't create an army, he uses the resources he has and creates a school, a place of learning and acceptance. Thing is, he grew up sheltered, a white man living in a giant mansion and never lacking anything he may want. He may have faced some emotional neglect, but that's it. His idealism is born from a privileged life experience. Which is why his relationship with Erik is so interesting.

Charles has to look into the face of a man who has gone trough terrible things because of humans, who is rightfully angry because of them, and he has to find a way to explain his desire for peace and understanding to someone who lost everything to humanity's hatred. This is no easy process, which is why in the movies sometimes he sounds a bit condescending or out of touch. He's growing, he's facing the cruelty of normal people for the first time, but he's still hopeful, still convinced that if they try hard enough people will accept their kind.

Then Cuba happens, and the Vietnman war starts. He first loses Erik and Raven, people he deeply loved and trusted, while facing the fact that he will never walk again. Then he loses his students because of a new war, and everything he worked so hard to build goes to shit. He's faced with what the world is slowly taking away from him and that's the moment he loses his boyish and naive nature, and he gives up.

The movies don't make him a perfect leader. Charles is human, flawed, he crumbles in the face of pain and loss, he becomes angry and uncaring. He's still controlling and a bit manipulative, that's part of his personality. Thing is, he grows.

The whole Days of Future Past movie is about his journey in growing from the hurt and angry young adult he is into the wise and trusting professor that he will be. It's not an immediate change and he doesn't do everything right the first try, but he keeps going. He learns from his mistakes and tries to do better. I honestly loved the fact that they made Raven call him out about trying to manipulate her, and then when it would've been convenient to actually take control of her mind, when everyone was telling him to force her to do what he wanted, he chose not to.

He let her take the decision that he knew would change the destiny of the entire world, because he wanted to trust her. His hope is not the same naive and idealistic one of the First Class movie, it's something born from witnessing great cruelty and still choosing to believe people are capable of kindness. It's knowing that trust can be betrayed and stepped on, and that people can do horrible things, and still giving that trust, still giving the chance to do good. Because if you don't give that chance, than how can you expect good things to happen?

It's such a powerful message, and it's the one at the core of Charles's ideology. Which, I might add, isn't portrayed as opposed to Erik's. It's not a good against evil fight like in the comics. In the movies Erik is portrayed as sympathetic, someone each of us can understand, because he's often proven right. He is simply the other side of the coin, not evil or cruel, but the consequence of circumstances.

Charles and Erik are the true Yin and Yang. Charles looks at Erik and sees what violence and fear can do to a person, and so chooses to try kindness and coexistence. Erik sees Charles and how a mentality of peace brings to oppression, and decided to fight fire with fire. Neither is wrong or right, neither is flawless or without guilt. They are just men trying their best, it's that simple.

After so much time of being portrayed younger and younger in movies while other characters got to be fully functional adults, people got this idea that Peter is a teenager in every piece of media, a kid that needs to be taken care of by the older heroes. Which is fundamentally wrong because:

In the comics, he hasn't been a teenager for a while now. He's a young adult, at worst, with a succesfull job as CEO of his own company in some most recent issues. But even when he was an actual kid, his relationship with heroes like the Avengers was... complicated. The Irondad thing is mostly MCU created. Depending on the comic, Peter and the avengers are on pretty thin ice with eachother. He is on much more friendly terms with the Fantastic 4, but even then they tend not to team up so much for reason number 2

Peter is a vigilante. Outside of galaxy ending "all hands on deck" situations, he tends to stick to street level. He started as the friendly neighborhood spider-man, and that's where he likes to stay. Which is why he meets and usually teams up with people who also tend to stick to that level, like Daredevil and Deadpool. Again, depending on the comic their relationship changes, but it's undeniable that there is one. They basically live next door to eachother, Deadpool kicks a bad guy over a building and it ends in Hell's Kitchen at least once a week. And in this particular team Peter gets to actually be recognized for the heavy hitter he is. He doesn't need to be protected by the other two, and Deadpool calling him "Baby boy" is just because... well, it's Deadpool. I can assure you that if Peter was an actual kid both Wade and Matt wouldn't behave the way they do around him.

These three are good for eachother in more ways than one, but I think that they are especially good when it comes to finally get Peter out of the "awe, cute and innocent spidey-kid" trope. Deadpool and Daredevil are not Pg 13 by any means, their stories always involve blood, gore and very heavy themes. If you want him to fit him with them, Peter has to get to their level, which means giving him an acceptable age and making him behave like a fully realized vigilante that has been doing this for more than a decade and has seen some shit.

I'm so tired of people using those contingency plans to glaze Batman, when a quick search would tell you how ass some of those plans were.

Like, with Diana, the idea was to drug her or something in order to make her fight with an imaginary opponent that is as strong as her till she collapses from fatigue? Or Hal, that is supposed to be drugged with fear toxin so he's put in a scenario where he fails so he feels unworthy of the ring and stops fighting? Or even for Barry, for who the plan is to injects nanites into the base of his spine that disrupt his metabolism and overload the Speed Force, causing seizures and disorientation.

Like? really? these are the most plausible plans the allegedly "smartest" man could come up with?

In normal circumstances I wouldn't fault Bruce for this. I mean, Superman and Martian Manhunter have weak points that can be easily exploited and so do most of the Justice League, so Bruce's plans for them are pretty solid, but these three specifically? they are basically unstoppable. Quite understandable that Bruce would struggle finding solutions to their powers. But it irks me that people think this plans are so brilliant and would actually work just because Batman created them.

They are basically Bruce playing on Hal and Diana emotions and sense of duty and praying that it stops them, which is stupid because both of these characters have overcome mental control all on their own multiple times, have experienced great fear and great failure time and time again and decide to come back swinging. Those plans wouldn't work. I mean, the idea that Hal Jordan, the man widely known as "the man without fear" would be beaten by fear toxin is just pure madness to me, and let's not talk about how deaming that plan is for Diana.

And Barry whole plan is based on the assumption that someone would actually be able to inject those nanites in the first place. Given how Barry perceive the world around him and how quickly he reacts to threats? that is most unlikely.

The only way to gain an upper hand on these three is probably to use magic, and even then it would be a struggle. That is probably the only viable plan to bring to the table, because otherwise there is no way that Bruce can handle them.

By the time the Titans were formed he was the only original Justice League founder who was sidekick free. However, as close friend to both Ollie and Barry, he acquired the title of uncle immediately. Roy and Wally love their uncle Hal, and every time they have a fight with their mentors they show up at Hal's apartment claiming political asylum.

Hal adores this kids with all his heart, so he lets them stay. This start changing things for him, because he can't always buy the kids junk food right? it's not healthy, so he starts keeping an actually stocked fridge and learn how to cook, then he buys board games because the kids need entertainment, and new blankets for the colder nights, and an actual decent first aid kit for the times they come hurt. All in all, it becomes not just an apartment he crushes in sometimes, but a place that resembles a home. Hal also gives Roy and Wally a pair of keys each for when they need a place where to stay and he's in space.

This is the first domino, because once established that Hal not only won't kick them out, but will also spoil them rotten, Roy and Wally start bringing company. One day they show up with Donna in tow, which is fine, Hal has more trust in that little girl than in most other adults he knows, she is a delight. Then Garth shows up, and Hal is not so close to Arthur but the kid is polite and seems hungry, so he stays.

Then, they bring Dick Grayson. Dick is aware of Hal and Bruce's rocky relationship, so he's actually a little bit hesitant about coming into his home. Hal takes one good look at this hyperactive, smart as a whip, bright smiled kid that all the others look at with stars in their eyes, and just says: "First rule of the neutral zone, you don't talk about the neutral zone, or anything that happens in it. This secret club thrives in the shadows. Jump in".

It's an avalanche from there, because the Titans pass the information to the newer heroes. They tell the younger ones that if they are ever in danger, or need a place where to stay away from their mentors for a while, there is this place in Coast City that takes in basically anyone who's polite enough to ask. If you find him home, the Lantern will feed you and make sure you're alright, if he's not there you'll find supplies and a safe environment anyway. And Hal knows about this, but he let them, because with time passing he's more and more in space, so he might as well have a good reason to keep paying rent (and a reason to return home. Who will keep all this young, reckless little menaces fed and safe if he doesn't come back once in a while to restock everything? He has to return alive in order to do that).

All the other heroes have no idea where their kids go when they disappear after a fight, they refuse to reveal their secret hideout. Some begins to have some ideas tho, because how the hell does Hal knows every member of every team of young people even if he's always in space? and why is he telling Batman to lay off his kids back about that one patrol? Or telling Arthur that if he hears anyone is giving Garth troubles because of his purple eyes again he's gonna come down to Atlantis himself? and why does he knows Kon and Cassie's usual Starbucks order? Why is Mia casually walking beside him and telling him that he's out of chips?

Listen to me very carefully. Every time, and there are a lot of them, someone start a sentence directed at any Earth native Green Lantern with "I order you to-", Riot by Three Days Grace start playing.

This is the "I barely take suggestions on a good day, what would make you think I would take orders?" group of heroes. They are very much "You're not the only one refusing to back down, you're not the only one so get up, let's start a riot!".

Their relationship with the guardians sounds a lot like "If you feel so empty, so used up, so let down, if you feel so angry just get up, let's start a riot" to me.

In general, "let's start a riot" may be their very anthem. Fuck the whimsy space music, they may be space diplomats (fuck space cops propaganda) devoted to keep peace in the universe and protect every planet's rights to govern themselves, but also, as single individuals? the rings chose the most anarchist leaning people on earth, and every tyrant and dictator wannabe of the galaxy is gonna suffer because of it.