I was watching Spider-man: No Way Home again, like you do. There’s a moment that I thought was a gag when I first saw it. Tobey Maguire’s Peter tells Andrew Garfield’s Peter that he is “amazing” and makes Andrew repeat it. To get the “negative self talk” out of his head.
I thought it was a pun on “The Amazing Spiderman” but it’s actually he moment the Amazing Spiderman is cured.
Earlier in the film JK Simmons’ J. Jonah Jameson is seen speaking on a huge TV monitor while Tom Holland’s Peter stands in the rain and watches. We are to understand that what Jameson is saying, “that Spiderman is a menace and that he gets innocent people killed” is what Peter is telling himself. That it’s his own fault that May died.
It’s at this moment that the two other Peters arrive. They represent two possible paths for our Peter. One where he keeps May and Ben’s “responsibility” in mind and continues to struggle with putting people he loves in danger the rest of his life.
Or one where he locks himself away, and doesn’t let himself get close to other people, because he is traumatized by who he has lost (Gwen).
This is something all the Peters Parker struggle with. And they are often hard on themselves, but they express nothing but admiration for Peters outside their own head.
So that’s why Tobey’s Peter can earnestly tell Garfield’s Peter that he is amazing. He speaks with the authority of an older, wiser self. Saying, “Don’t beat yourself up, just do better next time.”
And Garfield’s Peter is able to. He even stops the battle to tell the other two that he loves them. He saves our Peter’s MJ because he is open to caring about the lives of this other Peter, to it being okay that Peter 1 have someone; something he denies himself.
Perhaps we can intuit that Garfield’s Peter will go home to his universe, and now make room for “the MJ” of his life.
This movie’s very existence is kind of fascinating to me. Because it wasn’t supposed to exist. This was never the plan. Coming out of Far From Home, the plan was for Kraven the Hunter to be the next big Spidey bad guy. And that makes a lot of sense! You can see how Kraven coming in and doing a public manhunt for Spider-Man spins out of Far From Home’s sequel hook.
But then Disney and Sony decided they didn’t want to work together anymore and nearly broke up. Now, this is going to be speculative, because a lot has to do with contract arrangements behind closed doors which we are not privy to. So take what I’m about to say with a grain of salt. But we know that Sony was the one that wanted the divorce because they were unhappy with the profit splitting.
But here’s what always struck me about this whole situation. When Marvel and Sony first got together to make their Spidey films, they had very different understandings of what this agreement would entail. We know that because of a public disagreement between Amy Pascal and Kevin Feige years back.
When Sony announced their Venom movie, Pascal was thrilled to tell us that these Spidey Villain movies would be MCU-adjacent. What that means is that they would exist in a one-sided relationship with MCU continuity. The idea seemed to be that they take place in a setting that is the MCU, but that proper MCU products are under no obligation to ever reference their events.
Kinda like how Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. worked, where whether or not it’s canon to the MCU depends on if you’re asking the show or if you’re asking anything else but the show.
But when Kevin Feige heard about this, he was like, “What? No! The Sony movies aren’t MCU anything. Sony is doing THEIR thing over there and it has nothing to do with us whatsoever. These aren’t quasi-canon, they are NOT CANON AT ALL to the MCU.”
I’m not saying that this argument was why Marvel and Sony were going to split up. But it did suggest that what Sony and Marvel each thought they had agreed to were two different things entirely.
So now, we arrive at No Way Home. Sony was a hair’s breadth away from taking their ball and going home. It was only because of an impassioned plea from Tom Holland that they agreed to stick around and work together. They’re literally staying married for the kid. And the result of the new deal? Seems to be a lot more in-line with what Sony originally wanted.
Sony’s movies are now officially canon to the MCU sort of, just like Sony wanted. They aren’t happening in MCU-616 but they are recognized as part of the MCU Multiverse, and they can slip in cheeky references in their movies like having Miguel mention Dr. Strange’s NWH spell in Across the Spider-Verse.
And not only that, but every Sony Spidey movie is now canon to the MCU multiverse. No Way Home has been completely retooled, from a movie about Kraven hunting down Peter to a two-hour documentary on how cool Sony’s contributions to the Spider-Man filmology were, and how wonderful Sony is for making them.
Regardless of who was actually at fault, which is a super messy question to get into, this movie is the cinematic equivalent of a bouquet of flowers with a card that reads, “Come back to me, baby; I’m sorry, I was wrong.”
hey its me comic writer who constantly mischaracterizes characters because i turn them into ocs and two-dimensional self-inserts i’m gonna make your favorite character more accessible to new readers by regressing their growth, retconning longstanding canon, and ultimately making the timeline impossible to follow thus discouraging new readers while also inconveniencing dedicated fans by destroying the character they love so much hope you understand
I really hope everyone reblogging this followed the link and read the article, because it’s larger point is really good
“Reproductive health and childbirth is a crutch, and Lucas gets away with it because his audience accepts that these things are mysterious and cannot be intervened with the way that that the loss of limbs can be remedied with robot prosthetics, or the way Luke can be rescued from near-death on Hoth by being submerged in a bacta tank. Having babies is worse than being mauled by a wampa ice creature or being chopped up by lightsabers and falling into a river of lava. Lucas can write a world like that, and worse, the audience will accept it.
But uteruses aren’t made of malignant magic. Women’s bodies are real physical things that can be studied and understood and when necessary, cured. ”
IDK about everyone else, but I’ve actually been certified as a doula and childbirth educator and worked in women’s health media for most of a decade.
All points valid, but “Help me OB-GYN Kenobi” broke me.
fun fact about me: When I was 6 years old I sent so much hate mail to the president (the second Bush) that the mail carrier had to tell my mom I needed to stop before we got FBI’d
I was COMPLETELY unaware of the US political scene or why the adults in my life hated Bush, but I knew I hated him because he let people shoot wolves from helicopters and that’s mean and shitty
I also had a poor grasp on how stamps worked, so given that I wasn’t allowed to continually throw money away by putting stamps on my presidential hate mail, a lot of the times I just drew squares with little pictures inside on the corner.
Love, love, love reading more proof that everyone should encourage the children in their lives to write to elected officials–it teaches them about citizenship and can also be very funny.
When I taught second grade, one of the options for students who had finished their work was to write a letter to the president. I would send all of the letters in a big envelope at the end of every month.
Watching my students get more and more frustrated with him (and concerned about his wellbeing) was not the result I’d hoped for when I came up with the idea, but it was kind of hilarious.
See, Obama had a standard packet with information and activities about his dog he’d send in response to letters from very young citizens…and of course his office sent one back to our class every single time we sent mail.
So eventually all of the letters looked something like this:
Dear President Obama,
I am writing about the environment. I am sad that the Great Barrier Reef is hurt. Also the Amazon Rainforest. Can you help? PLEASE DON’T WRITE BACK TO TELL ME ABOUT YOUR DOG AGAIN. WE ALREADY KNOW ALL ABOUT BO. WE COMPLETED THE MAZE AND COLORED HIM IN. It is good that you love your pet a lot. But try to remember the environment. It is also important.
it fucking sucks how you can do all the therapy and self healing in the world and you still have to wake up living under a capitalist death cult that’s killed community and crushes your soul
congrats you want to live and be happy
bad news the world doesn’t want that for you
I’ll still love fully and crawl to hope until my body gives out anyway I guess
I do wholeheartedly believe Wes Anderson is a sick sick freak. I like his movies but I definitely think this guy has like a hidden room in his spacious french apartment that he slips into quietly each night and it is just filled with tiny little doll replicas of all the actors he’s ever used in any of his movies and he puppets them around and mimicks their voices and shit. and sometimes he’ll text Owen Wilson pictures of his little doll with a comb or something from an untraceable number and pair it with like “see how I take care of you Owen?” and then the following day Owen Wilson will find him at the service table and go, “Geez Wes look at this,” and Wes will pretend to be all concerned and horrified but there is this calculating almost eager look in his eyes that unsettles Owen Wilson. and the next time Wes is having a little soiree with all his actors, his beloved beloved actors, maybe Owen Wilson will accidentally get lost on his way to the beautiful bathroom and find that little room and see all those dolls and his throat will hitch with horror. And before he can call Bill Murray or Adrian Brody to look a dark silhouette will appear in the doorway and Wes looks sort of resigned when he says, “I see you finally found my secret, Owen,” and Owen Wilson will try and pretend that he’s fine with it but they both know better. and Wes will go (the look in his eyes back again) “We both know this can’t get out, right?” and he’ll grin very suddenly and Owen Wilson will laugh along very nervously and leave the room and eat some brioche and when the evening is over he will rush over to his Prius and frantically click his keys but over the cobbles on the beautiful beautiful street there is the sound of footsteps. and tears are running down Owen Wilson’s cheeks but he can’t say a word and Wes, emerging from the shadows, will gently touch him on the shoulder and say, “look, I’ll drive you to the airport, huh?” and Owen Wilson will try to refuse but they both know it’s futile. and, halfway through the drive, Wes Anderson will smile and say, “I’ll miss working with you” and then perfectly jump and roll out of the car, wiping off his corduroy pants, while Owen Wilson’s Prius swerves into a local patisserie, bursting into flames
