05/03/21: Marvel and Monster Roommates
TLDR
Update: Complaining about capitalism
Playing: more Low Stakes
Watching: The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
End Notes: You can contact me at jadettman@gmail.com
THE UPDATE
I’ve been struggling this week with society’s obsession with productivity, self-reliance, and capitalism. Part of that is being unemployed and thinking about what, if any, are my next steps in terms of employment, and the other part is the persistent feeling that I need to find ways to monetize my hobbies to “do what I love.” And that feels like a recipe for hating my hobbies, so: what to do?
To be clear, we are financially comfortable (and I know that’s a privilege that not everyone has), which is why it feels uncomfortable grappling with these ideas. Do I need to be productive? Do I need to worry about making more money if Britt makes enough for both of us to be comfortable?
I mean, obviously, I shouldn’t have to but I feel like it is drilled into us as children that we have to constantly be thinking about money and how we have to do everything we can to make more of it. And we do, don’t we? Because the future is uncertain and who know how much you will need later in life. And with the way politics are right now, who knows what healthcare in America is going to be like in ten years.
I don’t have any answers. That’s a struggle after all. This is just where my head is at all too often.
PLAYING
I’m pretty sure I’ve already talked about Low Stakes, but I’m going to do it again. As a reminder, it’s a game of supernatural creatures living together and having silly hijinks.
In our first session, we had Gaius “Guy” Tertius Meridius (a ghost), Garth (a werewolf), Theodosia “Theo” Levingston (an Edwardian vampire), and Verner Von Vokel (a mystic). We were all scrambling around trying to find Guy’s pet cobras, Andrew and Phillip, and, since it was our first session, we were getting a hang of the game and our characters. We ended up meeting some neighbors, bickering, getting a neighbor snake-bit, and generally poking at each other.
This last weekend was our second session and we added a new roommate, Zoe (an Egyptian mummy). It turned out that Verner had bought Zoe’s sarcophagus (which for some reason he kept calling a carsophagus) online and it just happened to come with our new mummy friend. Meanwhile, in our B-plot (our own innovation) Garth took Theo to a “Moon Energy” group meeting thinking that he could find some other werewolves to hang out with (of course, that is not what he found).
I’m not going to make this too long, because I know a roleplaying session is one of those “you had to be there” situation. What was interesting to me this time around is that we just jettisoned what little rules the game has and just improv-ed the session. It was a good time.
WATCHING
I re-watched The Falcon and the Winter Soldier again this week. I think I finally understand folks that prefer binging shows (though I still prefer a little breathing room between episodes) because it was good to see the way the episodes all fit together.
TFatWS was originally supposed to stream before WandaVision and it feels like it should have because it is definitely feels like a more traditional Marvel production. After the weirdness of WandaVision it seemed like a little bit of a let down, especially considering that Loki, the next Marvel show, looks like it is going to be bonkers.
TFatWS feels very much like an extension of the Captain America movies and I’m sure that was the intent. It’s very much about the geopolitical situation after Avengers: Endgame and getting back to many of the themes from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and CA: Civil War. But, it also has boxes that it wants to tick to setup future movies / series.
(SPOILERS, PROBABLY)
A lot of this show’s politics felt surface deep; more like gestures toward recognizing real-world issues without getting deep into them. That is on-brand for Marvel. The government finding a new white dude to be Captain America is no surprise but it feels like they didn’t talk enough about the why. And I know that Isaiah Bradley and Sam talk about it but it still felt like too little in a show that already felt too short. And, honestly, it was weird to have to people of color talking about “Supremacy” with the all too obvious “White” left unsaid.
All of this is not to say that I disliked The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I did. But like a lot of the Marvel stuff it feels like it didn’t go far enough. And, maybe, when we get a new Captain America movie with Sam as Cap we’ll get to see them take it farther. Maybe.
(END SPOILERS)
END NOTES
If you’d like to send me some feedback or discuss one of the topics I’ve talked about here (or even a different topic), email me at jadettman@gmail.com
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