These Swimming Pools With Black Tiles Are My Aesthetic. 

Captain America & Superman

You know how when Marvel is compared to DC people say that Captain America and Superman are synonymous? Or Iron Man and Batman are? I would like to propose that we switch those. I don't think Captain America and Superman are good comparisons.

Argument number 1 : Captain America is a team player, Superman is not. One of Superman character flaws, something he has to overcome, is that he thinks he can or should protect the world alone. He can lift it alone, and so he should. He struggles with control because when things are outside of his control he feels responsible when they go wrong. He feels he should be able to protect everything, because he has the power, but as only one man he often fails in the scope of it. He may be able to solve every problem, but he can't see every problem. One of the first thing any adaption of the Justice League origin story has to overcome is Superman trying to fight the bad guy alone. Captain America is the literal opposite of that. He is the most team player team player, and when he can take a mission with a team he does. He doesn't shy away or panic at not being able to control every problem or fix every problem, he acts calmly under pressure. He works on teams.

Argument number 2 : Superman is the team leader, Captain America is not. Superman, at least later on in stories (And I don't mean like later editions, but just later on in the stories, like after justice league formations), is genuinely the leader of the Justice League. He calls people together, he addresses issues. Batman is nominally the leader as well, as in he calls attention to problems and offers solutions, but it's Superman who often makes the final calls. Captain American can not be said to often make the final call. He can call orders in combat, and maybe lead missions, but it's either Shield or his fellow Avengers who call missions. In fact, most of the Avengers can be the leader at different times, depending on the situation. Captain American and Iron Man are the leaders of the Avengers in equal measure.

Argument number 3 : Superman's No-kill rule, and Captain America's willingness to kill. I think this relates to Superman's feelings that only Superman can keep Superman in check. And he's not wrong, which means if Superman doesn't have hard morals, then he doesn't get to be Superman. Captain America doesn't have those issues. Captain America was taught combat in war, and made his morals there too. He has mercy, don't forget that, but he also doesn't see killing as the be all end all of morality.

Counter Argument number 1 : Both Superman and Captain America deal with the narrative question of "Are they necessary?" And the conclusion is that they aren't. Superman can retire, so can Captain America. They aren't necessary for the world to go on. But they have inspired people who often carry on their legacy. Superman has inspired plenty of the Justice League to be better heroes, and plenty of Super-boys who came after. Captain America also inspired heroes, and plenty of people who try to take up the mantel after he's gone. And their success depend on how much they understand themselves and what they stand for, and overcome who Superman and Captain America were.

Counter Argument number 2 : Clark Kent and Steve Rogers are very similar. Both are small town guys who view themselves as Clark Kent and Steve Rogers first, and Superman and Captain America second. I think their civilian identities are good comparisons.

Secondary Arguments 1 : I think Iron Man and Superman have more similar narratives. Both have these sense that their skills and powers are dangerous and they need to be their own moral compass. Both are scared of their own powers in a way. Stark is scared of his tech being misused and also running from his weapons dealer past. I've already explained Superman's fear. I know that Iron Man isn't exactly no-kill but he's one of the guys who I could see having that rule.

Secondary Arguments 2 : I think Batman and Captain America have similar fighting styles and approaches to missions. I don't think they'd agree or have similar narratives but I think they'd fight side by side well.

Closing thoughts : I love all four of these characters and I think all have incredibly intricate and interesting narratives, and so I think comparing them also leads to interesting discussions. Ultimately I think that their worlds are different to find exact comparisons, but it's still a fun draw to make. What are your thoughts?

david tennants so funny to me cuz  hes like. a very private and quiet person. and all characters they call him to do are like mr slutty mcthot

Raya and the Last Dragon felt like a bit of a missed opportunity to showcase the beautifully unique shapes and sensibilities of SEAsian art styles in their dragon design. I couldn’t help but try my hand at pushing that aesthetic in her design just a little bit more. Her colors in the official art are very unusual for the style, too…but I tried to keep them for this. I couldn’t help but include some gold, though. (also, this is all in good fun, there’s probably a million reasons why Disney went with the more Japanese fish-kirin look in the end. But!! I hope that this’ll inspire more folks in the area to make dragons inspired by the culture and mythology here!! Because it’s unique and beautiful!!)

Just got back from a much needed vacation in San Juan, Puerto Rico. ❤️

I still think that my favorite urban legend/folklore fact is that there are certain areas in New Orleans where you cannot get a taxi late at night not because it isn’t safe, but because taxi companies have had recurring problems of picking up ghosts in those areas who are not aware that they are dead and disappearing from the cab before reaching the destination and therefore stiffing the driver on the fare causing a loss for the company.

instagram | fleurflowerfarm

Despite what you see on this sub, Firefall isn’t all that Yosemite has to offer | Yosemite National Park, USA | [OC] [3712x4640] - Author: CameronKelsey on reddit

In honor of #BlackHistoryMonth, we’re celebrating queer pioneers! Ernestine Eckstein was one of the first Black women on the forefront of the LGBTQ+ rights movement in the 1960’s, putting her knowledge from the Civil Rights movement to good use. . After college, she moved to New York City where she grew into her identity as a lesbian and decided to join the movement for LGBTQ+ rights. After a friend explained the term “gay” to her, she said, “Then all of a sudden things began to click … the next thing on the agenda was to find a way of being in the homosexual movement.” . Eckstein often demonstrated for LGBTQ+ rights as the only woman of color among other white protestors, connecting the dots between Black Civil Rights and LGBTQ+ rights. She eventually became a leader in the New York chapter of Daughters of Bilitis, as well as other Black feminist organizations like Black Women Organized for Action (BWOA). She was in favor of doing away with labels, and uniting people together as people alone. “I’d like to find a way of getting all classes of homosexuals involved together in the movement.“ 💪

The Gondola

Have you ever misinterpreted something and really just questioned how that your version was the misinterpretation? 

It all started when school decided, many decades ago, that children were clearly going to pay attention at 7:30 am to a lecture on the French Revolution. Luckily for my class our teacher recognized that we would not be listening unless he woke us up first. So he preceded with his tried and true method, second only to giving us donuts, and third to jumping-jacks, was by gossiping about school and just life with us. 

So we did our usual morning conversations of a few of the more extroverted kids telling us what they did on the weekend, my only friend in the class ignoring everything to draw for a mother competing she entered, and then proceeding to us pestering the teacher with personal questions. This led to the very American question- 

“Hey, you're a public school teacher with three kids, how do you mange to live in the ‘rich kids neighborhood?’”

And that is where he began the Gondola story. And in actuality his story was shorter than my introduction. He simply answered-

“My wife fell off a Gondola before we met, and she sued the ranch.” 

Now, there are many things I misinterpreted from that sentence alone, but no, it got much worse because the second he said that, the entire class(Except my lone friend who was still nose deep in her iPad) gasped and asked if she(his wife) was alright, okay, doing well, etc. Well, those are okay-ish reactions, I guess. I mean, was the water dirty? 

If you haven’t guessed by this point, when I heard the word “Gondola” I assumed we were talking about the small Italian boat. I wasn’t even hung up on how the wife was doing, I assumed a small 1 foot drop in some water was not life threatening, I mean she clearly lived, this is before she married our history teacher. I was hung up on that he said “sued” and “Ranch.” I was not aware that Gondola’s were like Ubers, or taxi’s, I thought they sort of individually did that sort fo thing. And why would there be a Gondola on a ranch? 

But those questions were immediately shunted to the bottom of the list after what came next. The most prominent follow up question was-

“How far did she fall?”

What? It is a Gondola. How far could she have possibly fallen?

“85 feet.” 

Now most of my class reacted as one would suspect, with loud gases and “oh-no’s.” But I’m not most of my class. My only thought was ‘what?’ I had moved on from her safety by this point because my only reference for how far a human has to fall to die is 630 feet because that’s the height of the St. Louis arch- and never mind I was more baffled by falling 85 feet out of a Gondola. 

I didn’t even begin to think that maybe I had misinterpreted something by that point because I was more troubled with trying to visualize a Gondola, with 85 stools on it and- no, how would that work? It’s too tall and the base is too small, it would topple over. Not to mention that the Gondola would never fit under any bridge, at all. 

How was this all cleared up, you might ask? Well another one of my classmates asked which ski ranch it was at- 

Yes, as I figured out my asking my only friend, in my neck of the woods we call Ski Lifts, specifically the fully enclosed ones, Gondolas. The wife is fine, she’s doing well with little-to no adverse health effects(She actually bounced off something during her fall, but it’s not my story to tell.) and my history teacher is still teaching. And that is how I misinterpreted Gondolas.