#ten2 talks

ffh was fun to watch but it was also really frustrating seeing ppl push peter to take on this adult job and then get mad at him when he doesnt perform as well as an adult? that made me legit sooooo Mad lmao like! yeah! he’s not gonna do as well as tony bc peter isnt a full grown adult man what the fuck! but the movie frames peter, A Child, not being ready to handle Adult Responsibility as a character flaw... like he’s being a bit of a coward rather than being justifiably overwhelmed.....

like i feel like they could’ve had peter feeling overwhelmed and insecure about his status as a superhero Without shaming him for being a kid??

when i first watched ffh, during the battle against the water elemental in venice, i was soooo excited bc i thought i had pinned down the theme. mysterio is engaging in this big flashy battle with the water elemental while peter gets knocked around trying really hard to reduce civilian casualties and keep his friends safe

and it’s mysterio who gets the spotlight while his classmates have no idea that he saved them from getting crushed by a building

and so i thought this was the start of a story about Performative Heroism vs Actual Heroism... and like it’s still kind of about that but i dont think the movies dives deep enough into that theme?

and i thought it was reinforced with again, peter being preoccupied with keeping betty and ned safe that he cant help mysterio..... nick fury railing on peter for being too focused on his friends’ safety rather than fighting the big bad elemental monsters. the very perfomative flashy stuff....

i thought it was gonna culminate into the realization that like yeah, peter is an avenger. he’s been to space, he’s fought thanos, he fought in this big War.... but his friendly neighborhood spider-man schtick is important too and it is just as heroic as fighting the big bads. peter always looking out for the little guy is a Good Thing! maybe it isnt world ending stuff but it’s not insignificant! peter is made to feel ashamed for being so caught up with these “smaller” issues but what he does is important

but then after mysterio reveals himself to be a bad guy all of that kind of just?? gets pushed aside... and it’s then that i realized ok, this movie isnt gonna be about what i thought it was gonna be... peter doesnt learn to see the value in what he does instead it’s just... he believes in himself now, making mistakes is ok nobody’s perfect, and now he has the confidence to take on these adult sized problems

mysterio is still representative of performative heroism but peter isnt rly presented as a foil to that? not in any meaningful way? like yeah. peter is a true hero... but why? what makes him different from quentin other than the fact that peter is actually trying to do good??

i think it wouldve been interesting if. in the final battle, peter had to choose between saving his friends or fighting mysterio. peter chooses to save his friends. he ultimately ends up defeating mysterio but maybe mysterio uses footage of peter going off to save his friends to frame him as cowardly

like the scene in the end where they just... use that one out of context line... not that i dont believe that that’s enough to convince ppl that spiderman is Bad lmao humanity be like that... but footage of an Act is far more difficult to disprove i think. and it would also be a consequence to a choice peter made rather than just a line taken out of context

ANYWAY TL;DR im just frustrated bc the mcu spidey movies sprinkle in these really interesting themes but then they dont actualy explore them in depth... and im frustrated with peter never really experiencing any growth beyond learning to be confident himself?

like i designed my aziraphale to have blonde hair and blue eyes and i? kinda regret that now lol?

i mean like part of my thought process was that i wanted him to still be recognizable to an audience that is here from the tv series

but the other part of my thought process was also “this is an angel. angels are typically depicted with blonde hair and blue eyes. so im giving this angel blonde hair and blue eyes.” which was also prob why aziraphale looks the way he does in the show

but like! i thought that! actually, i didnt even really Think about it bc angel and blonde hair/blue eyes were so heavily associated with each other in my mind

and it wasnt until later that i realized that: oh wait hey uh it’s kinda weird to have this symbol of Purity and Goodness be indicated by typically white characteristics huh? thats actually weird!

ive also seen fanart with crowley being significantly more tan than aziraphale? like it’s their tv show selves, theyre both white, but crowley’s skin tone is darkened despite in reality them being pretty similar in tone?

and im not saying the artists’ thought process was “im gonna make the evil one darker” but i think probably “im gonna emphasize the paleness of the angelic one” played a role there

i feel like at first glance there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with that! i mean that was my first thought! until i actually took a second to think about how Weeeiiiird it is that, again, paleness was being used as a signifier for Pure.pale skin is a normal thing people have, why are we giving it these significant associations

and i feel like maybe (hopefully not) some people are reading this and are thinking “it’s not That Deep”

but that’s what i Mean!!! like! it doesnt seem That Deep bc these associations are something that have been ingrained into our minds over a loooooong period of time to the point that they seem perfectly normal! like Of Course angels are white and blonde and blue eyed?? like of course it’s not weird that it never occured to me, a person of color, that an angel could look like me? not weird at all! no need to question anything here bc that’s just how things are!!

like the thing is, im already Aware of the discussion surrounding angels being predominately depicted as white and yet that association Still stuck in my mind