Some years are harder than others. It's only natural. And in my life, I've been through surprisingly a lot of things. Finished up a degree in Management of Information Systems, fancy title for "person who can run a call center" got my first real job out of college in 2007/8, and then in 2009, when I was looking to get my first house, we had the housing market collapse. Last one in. First one out. I drove home in my brand new Jeep Wrangler, parked in the garage, and contemplated letting the car run. Clearly I didn't, mostly because my dog at the time was freaking out that I was home at lunchtime. That was a bad day. And the year or so of just applying for job after job after job wasn't better. My unemployment ran out so quickly. Fast forward to 2013. I left Indiana for ostensibly a brighter future on the East Coast, taking my Shar Pei and brother with me. The first year was hard. I struggled to support essentially three people. If you're not familiar with the Shar Pei, they are expensive. Maggie was allergic to damn near everything, so she needed special food. We had to avoid bees and wasps. She couldn't have more than a single shot at a time. Super expensive. She died rather suddenly in 2014 to liver cancer. Then in 2016 I lost my job when the company I worked for restructured/got bought out. That started a great six months of trying to find a job, this time with the stress of a house. But I survived and got a job that was so stressful it legitimately almost put me into the hospital on a couple of occasions. A Prozac prescription, some therapy, and my new doggo later, I was at a better job. Just in time for it to be bought up... And then that bought-up job was almost literally bought WHILE in the negotiation phase. Seriously. The ink was still drying when the company who bought my company was itself bought. And then COVID, and we were told to go work from home. Great for doggies and the like everywhere. Not necessarily great for that svelte figure I maintained by eating out daily and driving in the car two hours a day. But 2025 has been hard. Financially, politically, emotionally. All just shit. I found out in November of 2024 that my faithful companion through COVID had developed cancer. January of 2025 we found out how bad. Unlike with Maggie, Dorian benefited from my hyper-vigilant, almost-always-home nature. We caught it, and while it was too much for surgery, it was treatable. Meds every month totaling almost $150 before certain actions raised drug prices. Now that same med, with shipping, is $200. And still I maintained vigilance and watched. Discovering Cushing's in him. And watching his hip dysplasia start to act up. I've had dogs my entire life. My German Shepherd mix from first grade until sophomore year of college basically passed because his hips got so bad he couldn't walk or relieve himself. I knew with Dorian as a Labrador mix he would probably have that same problem as well. And then in July, I received the news that my health wasn't great. What I was chalking up to excessive heat and humidity was actually far worse. September we did a scan, and it was bad enough to warrant surgery for a closer look. That was essentially October. Discovering in October that one of your arteries is 100% blocked and its nickname is "Widowmaker" is about as sobering an experience as you can get. Heart disease is on both sides of the family. It's mostly genetics that got me. Sure, American diets aren't great, but I was trying to improve by limiting sodium. And hey, cutting sugar and going to cardiac rehab three days a week to do essentially cardio has cut the pounds. So imagine my surprise when shortly after my mother leaves, I get one of the worst migraines of my life. And hey, that American healthcare was really being top-notch by having people who absolutely didn't answer, neurologist, or the primary care saying "it's not our problem." A trip to urgent care lessened it but didn't fix it. A trip to pain management referred me for physical therapy. And hey, guess who has some twisted spinal discs? Did you guess me? You should have. And then a trip to the vet showed the dog's blood pressure is through the roof, even on blood pressure medicine. I hadn't mentioned that he at some point over the year got a parasite, that his liver values were wonky, and that he started having nosebleeds that would put anime characters to shame. Cancer has progressed. So needless to say, as far as banner years go, my 2025 has been a bumper crop. But here's the thing. As his journey comes to its end... as much as it hurts to lose the buddy I've had with me for eight-plus years... I know I'd do it all again. I'll go into the kennel, the pound, the rescue, and I'll grab another dog. Because no matter how much pain comes with owning one, there's just something so decent and loving about having a pet. Yeah, him waking me up in the middle of the night sucks. Or that he ate something on the walk and now he's sick. It doesn't matter. It's a pain that you willingly take on each time. When I got him, I was his third forever home. It stuck. And I hope everyone who reads this gets to experience that joy of rescuing an animal and becoming their forever home. And when I write this, he's still alive, sleeping on the footstool. And unlike others this won’t sit in the queue. I have no reason to let it languish, and I have no reason to even post it. Other than it’s raw and I know everyone can connect. And I hope there is an afterlife where I can see each pet I've rescued or grown up with. Because it is too fucking cruel that while we are their entire life, their life is just a blip in ours. Love you, Dorian. And thank you. Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint

Found out my ticker's messed up back in September. Heart problems. The kind that require cardiac rehab three times a week. Which means I now lose two hours a day minimum, twenty to thirty minutes in morning rush hour traffic to get there, an hour hooked up to a portable EKG while running and lifting weights, then the commute back. All so I can maybe not die before I'm fifty. Guess what caused it? Take a wild fucking guess. The same corporate grind that's been grinding all of us down since we were old enough to understand what a mortgage payment is. It takes to long to eat healthy, to eat clean. Factor in any bad genetics and you’re not going to have a good time. Say hello to a CAD Diag in your mid forties. The Four-Day Work Week That Wasn't For a brief, shining moment, I had a four-day work week. Four ten-hour days, Monday off. It was glorious. I could breathe. I could write. I could exist as something other than a productivity metric. Then the boss's boss said no. Not because it didn't work, I was getting everything done just fine. But because "no one else in his department worked that schedule." Never mind that others could work that schedule if they wanted to make the switch. Nope. Back to five days because... reasons. And here's where it gets beautifully absurd. When a holiday falls on Monday: Someone Who Doesn't Really Do Anything But Meetings: "Well, Monday's a holiday so you have to work five days that week." Me: "I'm already off on Monday. It's my day off. So I'll just work 30 hours. It'd be like taking off those other 8 hours like everyone else." SWDRDABM: "That's not how the system works. We have to say you worked 40 hours in the pay system." Me: "Does the system acknowledge that I'm there 4 days or 5? Or does it care that I'm getting 40 hours on the paycheck?" SWDRDABM: "It only works if there's forty hours." Me: "So you put in that day 10 hours. And I work 3 ten-hour days. Which, if my ability to do math is correct, is 40 hours. Which you can put into the pay system." SWDRDABM: "That's not how it works." Me: "It either works on 40 hours or 5 days. And I know we're all salary, so I'm willing to have this conversation with HR and Payroll." Spoiler: That follow-up conversation never happened. No one would respond to follow-up emails. The system doesn't care about logic. It cares about control. The Treadmill That Speeds Up When You Run Faster Back in the 2010s, I worked for a small company that built laboratory interfaces. I was project manager/developer/troubleshooter/tester/onsite coordinator for 30+ projects a month. The burnout was real and relentless. I remember going to Vegas for a client install and having to get up at 5 AM Eastern time just to keep working on other projects so I could meet expectations while I was onsite. No backup. No relief. Just grind. I got smart. I adjusted my schedule so all my meetings were Monday/Wednesday, my actual work was Tuesday/Thursday, and Friday was free for whatever came up. I started getting ahead. Then someone noticed my calendar was free on Tuesday/Thursday and started loading it up with meetings. So I adjusted again. And again it happened. The corporate wheel is always poised to run over someone. It doesn't matter how efficient you get, if you’re cutting corners, how many hours you pour in, how much of a Subject Matter Expert you are. The machine will find a way to demand more. And I don't know anyone, outside of fucks like Musk and Bezos who've never known real pressure, who doesn't understand the weight of mortgage payments, of putting food on the table, of keeping the lights on. The Creative "Side Hustle" That's Killing What's Left Now they tell us we need side hustles. Second jobs. Third jobs. Multiple income streams because one job doesn't cover it anymore, even though productivity has skyrocketed and CEO pay has gone up 1,460% since 1978 while worker pay has increased 18%. If you’re lucky. So I write. Because I'm a writer, and writers write, right? I spent the last year getting roughly 300,000 words down. Across multiple projects. I Am Not A Kobold!, Esper Fade: An Old Man's War, Esper Fade: Digital Ghosts and Other Anomalies, We Could Be Heroes... Maybe, Magical Mayhem, My Monstrous Life, Devilish Deal, Ballad of the Blade Queen, The Misadventures of Kiadan Slywyth, Beyond the Rifts... and that's just to name a few. None of it's finished. Because there's a vastly different energy between writing and editing. Writing can be relief, can be escape. Editing requires focus, requires energy, requires the mental bandwidth to see what's actually on the page versus what you think is there. And I don't have that bandwidth anymore. This week I cleaned up A Goddess's Gifts and threw it up on Itch.io. Felt good. Moved to Altered Realities, and the dread I had about rewriting scenes wasn't as bad as I thought. Felt emboldened. Moved to True Blue Alien. Slammed headfirst into a brick wall. I wasn't prepared for how much rewrite that would require. And now it's sitting there, another project on the pile, another thing I don't have the energy to finish because I'm too busy keeping myself alive in the corporate grinder. At least with a normal side hustle, DoorDash, Uber, whatever, you can see the cause and effect of your effort. You can see you're ruining your car for a pittance. With creative work? You're ruining your body and your mind and maybe, MAYBE, you'll see a paycheck years from now. And that's not even a certainty anymore. We're All Too Tired to Think Here's something I've noticed, and it scares me: I'm losing my attention span. I used to watch 30+ minute YouTube videos. Long-form analysis, documentaries, deep dives into topics. Then it shifted to 10-minute videos. Now? YouTube Shorts of dogs being dogs. I won't apologize for watching dog videos, they're a small joy in a joyless grind, but if I'm noticing the decay in myself, there's a serious problem coming. And it's not just attention span. The majority of Americans read at a 5th grade level. At best. Fifty-four percent read below 6th grade level. That's not because Americans are inherently stupid, it's because we're exhausted. We're nose to the grindstone from sunup to sundown. We don't have the mental energy left for complex thoughts, complex sentences, complex anything. One of our little pleasures in life is those TikToks that make us chuckle for eight seconds. Or that slice of cheesecake, go ahead, take the one with the fudge, I won't judge. Most of the news is doom and gloom. Nobody has the time or energy for that. I get it. I don't condone it, but I understand it. And I appreciate when you take a bit of time for yourself, because Allfather knows the system won't give it to you. The Point The corporate machine doesn't care if it kills you. It's designed to extract maximum value before you break, and then it'll replace you before your chair gets cold. Your health, your creativity, your relationships, your dreams, none of it matters to the quarterly earnings report. So here's what I'm saying: Take care of yourself. Take care of each other. We're all running this rat race, and the only goal is to not be ground up in the grinder for as long as possible. There's no trophy for the most gold coins you collected or the most hoops you jumped through to get them. If you see your fellow rat stumble or fall, help them back up. Encourage them. Because that's how we survive this. Together. Not by grinding ourselves into dust trying to prove we're worthy of basic dignity and a living wage. The system is killing us. Let's at least make sure it doesn't kill our humanity too. Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint

When the character does something cool and impressive in the book or the anime or the movie this is referred to as the power system, or sometimes the magic system, of the setting. Brandon Sanderson is known for each of his books having a power system. For instance the Stormlight in Way of the Kings. Magical mana that, I’m still reading the book, causes storms so intense that it can strip the land bare apparently. But it can be used so subtly to provide lights to the general population, that it infuses the currency of the world. But it can be used to such an extent that it allows someone to turn a pile of stone into smoke or create quarries of marble out of what would appear to be nothing, or the more common use is apparently turning things from rubble into food. Some are pretty straightforward, like in Dragon Ball Z where your power level dictates your strength, your durability and your speed. The claims of some characters to be fastest or strongest can be quickly blown away by the appropriately more powered character. And in this regard if a person is of sufficient power level above someone else they essentially receive little to no harm from the weaker person. Like when Perfect Cell was being smacked on by someone and just walking forward like an avalanche. The entire power level meant that they had become effectively immune to most standard attacks. Every form of media has a power/magic system and I’ve been thinking about it a lot. I really spent a lot of time making a system that I felt stood on its own. I called it the Esperion system, since the people who had this power were called Espers. My goal was to make it so it fit in each book I wrote. But the more I’ve worked on it the less logical it seems to have a single system for everything. So I’ve been working on other power/magic systems while I work on my YA Monster book. Which has its own unique power system. But this got me to thinking about Full Metal Alchemist. I recall hearing that a lot of people consider it a great magic system because it’s not “magic.” And on the surface they’re right. It’s not “magic”. It’s “science”. Or at least they say it’s science. I’m sure I’m not the only idiot who’s had this thought. I’m just not brave, or suicidal enough, to go wading into the FMA subreddit to give my opinion. But the Alchemy they use is… magic! Dun dun dun! It is, and I can prove it. We see that our brothers learn from books left around in their father’s study. So accessing and learning this system isn’t that hard. And we see dozens of state sponsored alchemists. But something funny happens when you look at all these alchemists. In theory the idea is that you have to use the laws of equivalent exchange to make things happen and that you can’t perform human transmutation. That bringing something to life that has died is impossible in this system. Cool, these are pretty fundamental rules we can work with. Now something we see is that outside of a few exceptions everyone seems to do something with stone or the like. Armstrong uses his powers to summon pillars of rocks, make statues and turn rocks into drill bits. Another uses the earth to create chains and I think I recall seeing someone turn the earth into artillery and another into cannonballs. This kind of implies that the magic is limited by the imagination of the group. Even our titular characters aren’t really that creative. Using stone for hands, weapons, movement and the like. Only characters like Mustang, Kimbly and the ice alchemist guy are the ones who seem to have new ideas. And Kimbly can arguably be dismissed since he just seemed to make explosions from the rock. That sort of implies the others could do it as well. In the case of Col. Mustang we see that he learned his Flame Alchemy from Hawk’s father and then that old bastard tattooed it to his daughter’s back and Roy destroyed it so no one else can learn it. Which implies you don’t want someone else to learn these secrets to your magic, so you destroy the recipe. But we’re told that alchemists hide their secrets in the meanings of their meanings, or something. Which is saying that if you knew the formulas you could learn and use the most broken and unhinged alchemy there appears to be. Mustang is using the very air molecules to create flame and explosions and that’s broken. But no one else seems to have a clue how to do it. Which is weird, if it’s a science then the process is repeatable by trial and error. The same goes for Kimbly, for the ice alchemist and everyone else who has a unique spin on Alchemy. With enough review of their formula and an understanding Ed and Al could have been wiping out fireballs left and right. Major Armstrong could have converted his stone into explosive nitro packed projectiles. Ed shows us in an early episode that they have the chemical components to create a human. They have the bits and the bobs to say that this is what the human body is made up of. Yet they fail, and arguably they stop after one failed attempt. If this was real science they would have kept trying, maybe not with their own bodies, but they would have tried it. Try bringing back a squirrel or something. You can get the chemical components to that. Or maybe instead of just jars and tubs of the stuff that make up a human you go and get an actual corpse and use that. I mean, Frankenstein used bodies for a reason. But no, where this shows you 100% that this is magic and not science is, spoiler, Truth. When Ed goes to see Truth at the end of the series to get his beloved brother back his bargaining chip is to give up his knowledge. His truth. And apparently Truth is a vindictive little shit because he’s like “That’s the right answer!” And then roll credits Al has a body, Ed’s lost his leg and I guess arm still… or something. I really didn’t care at that point. King Bradley was dead and he was the only reason to watch that series. Have I said I like villains? I feel like I have at some point. But the point of this is, if Ed gives up his “knowledge” of “science” then he can just go back to the mortal world and learn it again. Science is repeatable. Science is teachable. Science can be learned if the pupil is willing. And unless he gave away all his knowledge of everything that transpired in their pursuit of getting their bodies back then he’d know how bad ass he was. And even if he did forget that in the bargain. You know who didn’t give up Ed and Al’s amazing exploits? Everyone else on the fucking planet. How many times is Ed going to walk by people praising him for how awesome of an alchemist he is without the shrimp being like “Maybe I should look into this alchemy thing.” If Ed can learn it again, he knows he can’t do human transmutation, but they were awfully vague on what that entails. What if he was tired of being blond? Is that transmutation to change his hair color? What about skin color? Eye color? What about making an arm? A leg? Replacing a damaged bone? Warping your bones to be metal? Healing a cut? The vagueness of it means that it’s practically useless in healing applications. But then you cross the desert to Shin and you get Alkhistory. The thing Hohen Hime taught those people. And you can heal with this “science”. Uh oh… that’s human transmutation. Which is taboo. Looks like Truth is coming for you. But Truth never seemed to go after Mei Ling for healing Dr. Marco. So you’re saying Truth only operates within the bounds of Father’s kingdom? Doesn’t seem like science to me if he’s some all powerful Science Being doing Science Stuff. It seems almost like it’s divine nature. And you could argue that it sort of is. Father’s blend is based on tectonic plates and that while Van Hohen Hime is based on the “chi” of the land. Whatever that is. So Yeah, that power system in Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood? Sorry not sorry… it’s Magic. Always has been. And honestly, it would've been better if they'd just owned that from the start instead of dressing it up in pseudo-scientific gibberish about equivalent exchange. The system has potential, but it's built on a foundation of contradictions that anyone paying attention can spot. It's still entertaining as hell, King Bradley alone makes it worth watching, but let's stop pretending FMA cracked the code on "realistic" magic systems. It didn't. It just made magic look like chemistry homework. Incorrigibly yours, J. E. Flint

Earlier this week I decided since I knew I was going to be down a lot of productivity, not to go into details, I’m going into surgery the middle of the week and they’re thinking it’s at least a week recovery. I already lost like 2 hours on monday at the doctor’s office, unrelated doctor visit, and today my brother is off so I knew I was going to lose several hours of productivity to several hours of youtube/anime watching and a trip to the wally world for shopping. To go back and reread some of my old fanfics I wrote for me… only to discover that they were gone! Don’t judge me. My Ranma ½ Fan Fic where Ryoga shows up first and starts dating Akane is just as viable as anything you wrote. What do you mean it’s not? Well I like it and more importantly imaginary voice in my head, it’s only for me. Over the years I’ve been writing stories, terribly. I started in 1993 in the fall with a story called Belgo The Wizard and then Lizard Hero and then another story that was somehow almost like Birdy the Mighty even though I’d never seen it and I set it based in Florida. It was an alien cop inhabiting a boys body and everything. It gave me a way to focus on my inability to say aloud that I was trans and what I wanted. But that was still how I got started. And I kept everything. My system was “genius” I thought. See I create a folder for the project start writing and then when I restart or rephrase or majorly tweak it I rename the first file into whatever it was, chapter 1, into chapter 1.old and then “archive it” by putting it into a folder in that same folder. I would then keep on writing. Well over the years I’ve had several hard drive crashes and my older works are gone. I used to reread them to remind myself how I’ve grown. How writing my fanfics and pr0n for myself actually improved my ability to write. I wrote a 700 page Greek tragedy about Circe tormenting and transforming Greek heroes for years and the various bad writing that entailed. Don’t judge me, I already know it’s cringe, but you gotta start somewhere. There’s a certain amount of danger with digital media. Along with those hard drive crashes I lost tons of songs I’d ripped from cds, mostly, and from napster, kazaa and limewire. To combat that I started using the cloud when it became available. But as my music collection on google play/youtube will attest it’s not the same as it used to be and most of it has been converted into a weird gobbilty gook that works on my account but can’t work on others. But here’s the problem with the cloud. If you save files and it gets updated, unless you’re using something that allows for versioned savings you’re going to overwrite the old stuff. Which is not a problem most of the time. But it is if you’re trying to figure out what the hell happened and you suddenly have a change in the direction/pacing of your story and you want to go back and check a version to see what was the change. I don’t know about everyone, but when I’m working on personal projects, like my Ranma ½ Fan Fic The Misadventures of Akane Tendo… again imaginary voice it’s my choice. I’m sometimes gone for months at time from this project. In most of my work I always keep a sort of running catalog of ideas, pacings and the like churning on the back burner. Not everything is constantly boiling at the forefront of my mind. Some things need time to set and continue to simmer down until it’s just the flavorful bits. I assume that’s how cooking works, I’m more of a crockpot gal. Throw it all in and just come back eight hours later. So when I came back to this work and found that two huge chunks were gone I was a bit annoyed but didn’t think anything about it. Until I couldn’t find the old documents anywhere in my library of crap. I’d already made peace with Belgo, Lizard Hero, the Birdy thing and Adventure’s Adventure having vanished. I was really sad about AA vanishing, because that damn novel gave me carpal tunnel as I tried to write it over the summer. Even if it was so bad that a publisher said it made them sick. “Due to Illness, we cannot publish this.” I also lament that rejection letter having vanished from my collection of past relics. My dislike of physical media sometimes does me a disservice. Had I been keeping stuff on zip drives, floppies and thumbdrives I might still have them somewhere. Instead I kept them on my pcs and then eventually up to the Google Cloud. The reason I bring this up is with the advent of AI and everyone questioning “did you do this? Is this your work?” the internet has become like some asinine math teacher who wants to show your work. And while in the literary world that’s probably more rare. I see a lot of folks on Reddit who relegate everything to AI if it has an EM Dash in it. I’m not a bright individual, I didn’t know what an EM Dash was until someone pointed it out. I don’t use dashes. Hell grammar and spelling are by far my two biggest weaknesses as a person, my third being modesty. It’s hard to be humble when you’re as mediocre as I. I don’t really know where I was going with this, I guess just sad that somehow a personal project for myself had bits missing and or rewrites and I didn’t have the old documents to look back on and see why. I suppose I could write notes for myself, but that sounds practical. I could use this as a call to action to better myself, develop a system to avoid this. And I sort of have. I work off my laptop that auto backs up to my google drive, or off my pc to my google drive. It’s not a sure fire way to work on things though, as clearly, some things are still lost. Gone to the ether. So, I guess to end this meandering. Back up your, Pr0n. Always. Incorrigibly yours, J. E. Flint

So, I got a question on Quora the other day that made me think. Someone asked how to write a good trans male to female anarchist character, and honestly, it's a question that deserves more than a quick throwaway answer. And being brutally honest, I won’t throw in as much of my usual humor into it. This is a serious topic, as series as we can get most days, and should be treated like it. As a trans author who's been grinding away at this whole writing thing for a while now, I've seen a lot of representation in media. And outside of erotic stuff, I haven't seen many trans characters that were actually good. My personal gold standard? Alters, a superhero comic where the character presents as a female hero in costume and then at home maintains their assigned maleness. It was nuanced, it felt real, and it didn't make the trans experience the entire plot. The character had agency, had other problems to deal with, and the gender stuff was just part of who they were - not their entire personality wrapped up in a neat little "look how progressive we are" bow. But that's rare. Most of the time, we get the tragic trans character who exists solely to suffer and teach the cisgender characters a lesson about acceptance. Or worse, the trans character who's just there for tokenism - checking a diversity box without actually being a person. Make Them Human First (And I Mean It) Look, I'd like to say it's simple, but it sort of is. Your character has to feel like a character first and foremost before anything else. It's the same principle whether you're writing someone who's gay, Black, Asian, or hell, even a furry. You need to establish the world they live in and the person they are. What does this individual do for fun? What quirks do they have? Do they listen to oldies or are they all about whatever's topping the charts this week? Are they left-handed or equally terrible with both hands? Maybe they have some physical thing going on - lost a leg dancing with a train, as I like to put it. Are they a picky eater who won't touch anything green, or do they eat everything in sight? This isn't fluff. These details matter because they make your character feel lived-in. When readers meet them, they should feel like they're encountering a person, not a walking representation of an identity. The trans part comes later - after we know who they are as a human being. I've seen too many stories where the character walks in and might as well have a neon sign flashing "TRANS CHARACTER" above their head. That's not representation, that's a prop with a pulse. Building the Backstory That Actually Matters Once you've got your human established, then you start looking at their backstory. And this is where things get complicated, because every trans person's journey is different. There's no standard timeline, no checklist of experiences that every trans person goes through. When did they first articulate that something was different? How did they articulate it? Some people know from childhood - that classic "I always knew" narrative. Others don't figure it out until they're adults, sometimes well into adulthood. Some people have the language for it early on, others spend years trying to find the right words for what they're feeling. Who did they share it with first? Was it a supportive friend, a therapist, a random person online? Did they come out to family right away or did they test the waters elsewhere first? How did their life change once they started being open about it? And here's something a lot of writers miss - the practical stuff. How do they transition? Can they transition? Transitioning isn't just "I'm a woman now" - it's doctor's appointments, insurance battles, legal name changes, updating documents, dealing with bureaucracy that wasn't designed with trans people in mind. It's expensive. It's time-consuming. It's exhausting. Some people medically transition, some don't. Some change their legal name, others don't. Some people's families are supportive, others get kicked out. Some people live in places where being trans is relatively accepted, others have to worry about their physical safety just for existing. Your character's backstory should reflect these realities, but it shouldn't be a misery parade either. Trans people have joys, successes, mundane Tuesday afternoons just like everyone else. The Political Connection (Finally Addressing the Anarchist Part) So about that anarchist thing in the original question - yeah, let's talk about how political beliefs intersect with gender identity. This is where it gets interesting, because being trans can absolutely inform someone's political views, but it doesn't have to define them entirely. Think about it - if you've spent time dealing with systems that weren't designed for you, that actively make your life harder, you might develop some opinions about authority and institutional power. If you've had to fight for the right to exist as yourself, you might be skeptical of other systems that tell people how they should live. But here's the thing - not every trans person becomes an anarchist. Some become more invested in working within the system to change it. Some become libertarians who just want to be left alone. Some don't care about politics at all and just want to live their lives. Your anarchist character's politics might stem from their trans experience, or they might have come to anarchism through completely different paths - maybe they grew up in poverty, maybe they had bad experiences with police, maybe they just read the right book at the right time. The trans experience might have reinforced their existing beliefs rather than created them. Don't make the mistake of assuming that marginalized identity automatically equals specific political views. People are more complicated than that. World-Building Considerations (Because Context Matters) The world your character lives in matters enormously for how their trans experience plays out. Are we talking about a contemporary setting where they have to deal with current laws and social attitudes? A historical setting where the language and understanding of gender might be completely different? A fantasy world where magic might change the entire dynamic? If you're writing fantasy or sci-fi, you've got some interesting options. Maybe shapeshifting magic exists and gender is fluid in ways our world doesn't allow. Maybe advanced medical technology makes physical transition trivial. Maybe your society has completely different concepts of gender altogether. But if you're going that route, think through the implications. If changing gender is easy and accepted, what conflicts does your character face? If it's not accepted, how does that shape their world? Don't just handwave the interesting questions away. For contemporary settings, do your research. What are the laws around gender marker changes in the area where your story takes place? What does healthcare access look like? What are the social attitudes? These details will shape your character's experience in ways both big and small. The Day-to-Day Reality (Because Life Keeps Happening) Here's something that gets missed a lot - trans people have to deal with trans stuff while also dealing with all the regular human stuff. Your character isn't going to spend every waking moment thinking about gender. They're going to worry about paying rent, getting stuck in traffic, whether they remembered to feed the cat. But the trans stuff does pop up in everyday life in ways that might not be obvious. Using public restrooms can be stressful. Getting called "sir" or "ma'am" by a stranger might make or break their day. Having to show ID that doesn't match their presentation can be anxiety-inducing. Some days the dysphoria is overwhelming and all they want to do is hide under a blanket. Other days they feel great and the trans thing is just background noise. Sometimes doing something gender-affirming - painting nails, working out, whatever fits their situation - can help combat the rough days. Your character might have developed coping strategies, support systems, ways of navigating the world that work for them. Show us what those look like. Avoiding the Obvious Pitfalls (Please) There are some tired tropes that need to die already. The tragic trans character who exists only to suffer and educate others. The deceptive trans character who's hiding their "real" gender from unsuspecting partners. The trans character whose entire personality revolves around being trans. Don't kill off your trans character for shock value or to teach the other characters a lesson. Don't make their transness the punchline of jokes. Don't have them explain basic trans concepts to other characters unless there's a good reason for it. And for the love of all that's holy, get a sensitivity reader. Preferably multiple ones, because trans experiences are diverse. If you're not trans yourself, you're going to miss things. That's not a judgment - it's just reality. I'm a trans author and I still worry about getting other trans experiences right when they're different from mine. We're not a monolith. The Bottom Line (Because This is Getting Long) Every trans person is different, so every trans character should be different. Focus on making them feel unique and complete as individuals. Give them quirks and flaws and interests that have nothing to do with being trans. Make them people first, representations second. You're going to face criticism no matter what you do. Some people will say you're pandering, others will say you're not doing enough. Some will accuse you of fetishizing the experience, others will call you woke for including trans characters at all. Write the character anyway. Write them as a full human being with their own agency and their own story. Don't make their entire arc about transitioning unless that's genuinely what the story calls for. Let them be heroes, villains, comic relief, love interests - let them be people. And remember, representation matters not just for trans readers who want to see themselves in fiction, but for everyone else who needs to understand that we're just people trying to live our lives like everyone else. Some of us just happen to be anarchists while we're doing it. Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned a time or two that my brother really loves Brandon Sanderson and has read most if not all of the books the guy has written. I’ve had in my kindle library for a long time The Way of Kings and according to google that or Mistborn: The Final Empire are where you’re supposed to start when reading his stuff. Now my brother has given minor spoilers as he’s read it and talked to me about it. Never like huge plot points but he’s mentioned minor things. Like how the magic works or how the interconnection works and maybe now and then talking about a character. Honestly most of it I’ve forgotten so it’s almost a fresh start to reading this. I decided since I’d done so many film reviews that maybe I should sit down as an author and actually read something for a change. And so I am, I’m reading some of the book each night. About an hour and a half each night. And I’m slowly progressing. According to Kindle I have about 21 hours left. So at my pace I should be finished by October, give or take, if nothing pops up that destroys my evenings. As of writing this on 8/26/2025. One of the things I’ve noticed, and I’m struggling with this, is I have a hard time tuning in for fantasy novels. I guess I’m just more geared towards the Sci-Fi stuff. Now that said of the characters I like Kaladin and in some parts Dalinar or whatever his name is. The Blackthorn. But otherwise there’s about 9 or 10 characters that have been introduced that I don’t personally feel any connection to and I get a little miffed that they show up. When I was talking to my brother about the crabber/fisher guy who lives in the lake he’s like “Yeah, he doesn’t come back.” And that stuff annoys me. Like if you have to have a random dude show up for a conversation then you should probably have figured out how to get an omniscient view point or put it in a character we’ve already met. But as I was reading it, I noticed that in our first scene where we’re introducing Blackthorn’s soon to be dead brother, spoiler for a 15 year old book, that some of the Radiant folk were in the audience trying to blend in. And I realized pretty much instantly that Wit isn’t just your standard king’s fool or whatever. I suspect he’s going to be one of those original shardblade holders or a god or something because he just doesn’t sit right when I read him. I don’t recall where I was going with this, but there’s a few places in the story where I see a problem that Sanderson has that I have. When he’s describing the Highstorms, they’re apparently supposed to be a category 10 or 15 hurricane sweeping through the lands. And I myself sometimes over estimate things, and by sometimes I mean often. A normal cat 5 hurricane is absolutely devastating. But having Kaladin be like “Oh yeah, I rode one out under an overhang.” Sorry, no. That’s not very plausible. And to have them ride it out in a wooden wagon is kind of laughable because again you’re talking about getting buffeted by winds that are 160mph. I don’t know about you but there’s very little that survives getting hit by a damn NASCAR at full speed. But that’s minor, it’s like ok someone either doesn’t understand the physics of it, or it’s played up. Considering that most of the characters are probably imperfect or shoddy narrators I would say it’s their understanding that taints this experience. But what do I know? I’m only like a quarter of the way through the book. I like the various little sprites floating around in the setting but they’re a background item. I was very confused about the currency. Because it seems stupid to use this stuff. So if you’re not aware they take a gem, and put it in a glass bead. And depending on the gem is the value and how much mana it holds. The currency is used both for currency and magic… oh and for lighting houses and stuff. It just doesn’t make sense that you’d have this as your form of currency. These Highstorms will recharge gems that I guess have been infused and lost their magic. We see a guy throwing his stuff out into the rain so it’ll be replenished. But there doesn’t seem to be a reason for it, since as Kaladin points out that the chips, as they’re called, lose their luster and can still be used. It’s just the merchants don’t want it if it’s dull. And as we’re seeing with Kaladin either he or his spirit companion are sucking up the magical juice in the currency, burning through them fast. But as of yet we haven’t seen any real reason for Kaladin/Syl to slurp up the tasty mana. My brother pointed out that it’s amazing I figured out that Kaladin is taking the magic and I pointed out in the scene where the king is soon to be dead, sorry about that spoiler again, that the assassin is sucking up the lanterns on the wall to do his flip flip kill routine. He’d apparently forgotten that. But I guess it makes sense that it’s been like 20 or so chapters since the assassin was hookshotting his way through the palace so maybe people are expected to forget that. I will say, I’m also confused about the run bridges to a plateau and then shove them across instead of just building them out of stone and then setting up fortification. They have mo fos who earth bend houses, food bend food into being and guys who will wood bend stuff. Seriously, if you’re telling me you can fabricate fresh supplies with the magic, why are you not setting up more defensive formations closer to fighting. Like the big bad bug guys climb and jump well. But you know, there’s this thing called guards and they stand watch and look for bad guys to shoot with arrows and warn the army they’re under attack. And I get it, the big bad crabby guys can scuttle up the cliffs and have the hops that make his airness Michael Jordan jealous so you don’t want to necessarily let them surround you on the cliffs. But this screams of someone who never won a game of RISK or overwhelming might in Civilization. You can call me Sifu Turtle, plodding along that tech tree until you declare war then it’s Zerg Rush time. I don’t leave cities standing in Civ when it’s go time. In regards to the bridges, it sort of makes sense when you realize it’s only this one guy who’s doing it this particular way and everyone else uses wheels. But when you consider how much effort and energy it takes to constantly raise and lower bridges it’s not worth it. Slave or not that’s a toll you don’t need to endlessly make. In medieval sieges they would clear cut the forest when they got to the engagement. Not have a group of 30 men running them from five towns back to get there. But hey, I’m not expecting Turtledove here. And let’s talk about the power armor, sorry the Shardplate. The magical awesome exoskeleton that can take a hit from a whale sized monster and keep on trucking. Call it what you want. It’s power armor. It just doesn’t fly. It’s the RIFTS Glitterboy minus the BOOM GUN! that is on it’s shoulder. Instead they have shardblades which don’t kill flesh yet leaves it dead? Like uh… what? You’re telling me you have a blade that cuts through any material and vulcan nerve pinches a part of the body? I think the thing I struggle with is that Sanderson is trying to tell this fantastical story and there’s just parts where I just cannot suspend disbelief and let the handwavium take over. I’ve heard time and time again that he creates intricate systems of magic and so far we’ve only seen the hookshot assassin hookshotting to kill the soon to be dead king, not sorry for that spoiler. And boy was that annoying for him to explain. Like, I didn’t need 5 paragraphs to learn that this guy’s ability is to basically anchor himself and make a new “down” or gravity point to where he falls to. Look, that took 15 words to describe. I didn’t need 5 paragraphs to convey that. Your reader isn’t normally stupid and as long as you’re not discussing thermodynamics and things like that they’ll pick it up. Show us don’t tell us. So, I kinda lost my train of thought on what I was supposed to be impression on this. I guess it’s not bad, but man I am not a fantasy nerd. I guess just give me more of Kaladin giving out that main character side quest vibe over the “tactical stuff.” Hats off to Sanderson though, he’s writing and he’s doing what I want to do. So I can’t fault him for that, even if so far this book is more to just remind me why I like things like Have Spacesuit Will Travel, The Foundation Series and The Martian. Oh and give me more hermit craps the size of trucks, please and thank you. Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint

I had contemplated taking the Superman approach to this, writing a pre blog with my predictions and the like, but I decided against it. And honestly that's probably for the best. I have problems with the movie, I mean I've yet to find a movie I can't find faults for. But really they're very minor, and that's good. But that said, a spoiler-free review of the Fantastic Four First Steps. I'm going to come right out and say this right now. If you have only the time and money to see one superhero flick this summer, granted this will probably be released in like September but the thought counts, pick Superman. It's not that Fantastic Four is bad, in fact it's probably above average. Hell, the last one had a Rotten Tomatoes score of 9% and if that doesn't tell you everything about the state of the FF movies I don't know what does. It's honestly because Superman is just a better movie for your time and popcorn munching pleasures. Don't deny it, you're looking forward to downing some overpriced buttery popcorn in the theater. The thing is, FF just didn't seal the deal for me, and it was for probably more personal reasons than anything else. So, we're treated to a quick blow-by-blow introduction of the FF and how they got their powers and we're joining them in mid adventure. Thank goodness. The Exiles talked about the birth of the Fantastic Four as the birth of superheroes. And while it's not necessarily true, they are, for all pretense and purposes Marvel Royalty. There are very few story lines that they don't seem to find themselves in. Honestly, arguably one of the best villains in the Marvel universe IS Reed Richards from The Ultimate Universe. But let's get into it. The Thing. Our ever-loving blue-eyed thing. Where was his gravelly voice, where was his accent? Was Microchip from Punisher Season 2 and Shaw's Partner from Person of Interest bad? No, and his voice grew on me as we went on. But it wasn't the voice I would have picked. Now, I did sort of ruin myself on Galactus, I was comparing his voice to Orson Welles as Unicron and then later John Colicos who was the voice of Apocalypse from X-men Animated Series. Come on, tell me you wouldn't have had a shiver if Galactus stood up and was like "I am as far beyond mutants as mutants are beyond you." Or some variation of it. Don't get me wrong, Galactus voice wise was a good choice, it would have been nice to have more of our boy in the movie. Have I mentioned I like villains? I feel like I have. But here's the thing. FF has a LARGE library of rogues to go against. None nearly as memorable as Galactus, Super Skrull and our man Doctor Victor Von Doom. They threw Mole Man under the bus, name checked the Red Ghost and then threw in a few others for good measure. So you could have taken time to give us what we wanted. You know what I didn't pay for? A god damn screaming Sue Richards in a climax point. I'll be honest, I tuned out right there. I just stopped caring about what was happening in the movie, cause I frankly didn't care about Franklin Richards being born. Here's a pop quiz… in a fight between Nathan Summers, the child of Scott Summers and Jean Grey, the sole culmination of everything Mr. Sinister has worked to perfect vs Franklin Richards the first born of Marvel's First Family who wins? Is it a man who can stop the earth from spinning and keep all but a few people from flying off into space? Or the kid who literally conjure up a new dimension on a whim? It's Nath--- It's Frankie. It's always going to be Frankie. And Frankie can McGuffin his fingers away for his family to win. And as an author I just stopped caring because you've literally introduced Deus Ex Machina to your story. Sure, they have to add Franklin Richards at some point, I guess, but why? Why the first movie that's booting up the series? If you guessed it's boring and might annoy the fans, well you got one right here. The other thing, and this is an example of that Deus Ex I was just talking about. Is Sue Storm. Mrs "I knocked out the hulk" was bullying Galactus. Um… the guy who IS the power cosmic? The man who is a living sun? The man who can wave his fingers and giveth and taketh away powers? The man who is older than your entire damn universe? Yeah no. That's just lazy ass storytelling. And that's ultimately why as a Marvel fangirl I'm telling you to go watch Superman. Yes, Superman is uncontested unless it's kryptonite or Darkseid or himself. But you're not having a mere mortal bullying the thing that in some stories has eaten celestials. Yeah, one of the greatest story arcs in my opinion was Earth X. It explains why there are so many champions on Earth for it being an arguably backwater planet. And it's because the Celestials seeded earth and they needed people to protect the embryo from you know who. Galactus. So, you're talking about a guy who was scary, and powerful enough, to make celestials think twice. Entire space campaigns are quick to point out that Galactus is doing something in this contest only because he was forced to be involved. He doesn't care about the annihilation wave or about Thanos doing his thing. Galactus has a table reservation, and he's going to get his appetizer. Even Galactus does not turn down the Red Lobster Cheddar Biscuits. And that's the other thing, Galactus most times isn't defeated by any real stretch of the imagination. He's put off from eating that cookie. He reached out to grab it and a bee stung him, and it actually smarted, and he was like, I can hold off. You didn't beat him, you smacked his hand, and he toddled away to wait until you weren't looking to come back for that cookie. And maybe this time he'll snag another for his trouble. Go ahead, smack his hand again. Now, that's going to be an unpopular opinion that me saying Sue Storm bullying Galactus is stupid. I'll take that heat. But it doesn't change that the writing is bad. They were twisting themselves in knots to avoid the Ultimate Nullifier. So, they went from one McGuffin to another. And that doesn't make it better writing. Arguably that might make it worse. Now, Sue Storm IS a powerhouse. She's probably the most powerful member of the team. Sure, Johnny ain't no slouch at all and Reed's brainy, and in some cases can shape his brain to give him the ability to use Cerebro… Earth X was wild man. But Sue's force fields are very durable, and the only limitation is her imagination. So, I guess I'm saying I don't like Sue. She basically made it, so I've watched the movie once and won't be coming back. There were several parts she was talking, and I was like "And skip." That's not the attitude you should have as an audience member. And it's not like the actress did anything wrong. She was everything that you'd expect from someone playing Sue Storm. Just, don't put damn labor in my superhero movie in the middle of an action sequence. An Action sequence that had our Silver Surfer been taking it seriously would have been point 2 seconds of fight. It's amazing how everyone forgets like everyone in the comics have projectile attacks. One good old ZORT or KABLAMO and there is no more chase sequence. It's a scene where our heroes are slowly dying from lack of oxygen while these two gods are just walking by them with little interest. Is it better than 9% on Rotten Tomatoes? Oh, most assuredly. Is it better than Thunderbolts*? No. No it's not. Honestly After Endgame I haven't watched any of the Marvel movies, outside of Spider-man No Way Home, more than once. They just didn't leave lasting impacts. Iron Man, and hell I've watched Thor Ragnarök probably a dozen times now. And Sue, outside of literally pushing out a baby, providing Mr. Fantastic with a terrible idea, you should understand it as soon as he mentions it in the movie. I feel for the “smartest man” on the planet he didn’t think that plan through, she didn’t do jack shit in the movie. Hell Johnny Storm, her younger brother took like 4 words from Silver Surferette and translated 28 galactic records into a language, taught himself and become fluent in roughly three months. Mr. Fantastic said that everyone of the FF was a “scientist” um… really? Cause the only scientist type seemed to be him. Now Ultimate Sue Storm was a genius who was into Physics and then later Inner-Space Biology, whatever that is. But I mean, you made her useless. In the original 616 she was a damn spy for SHIELD, you couldn’t have thought of more than just making her the ultimate pusher? This is a rare, after blog post edit update. I saw on a youtube short how Vanessa Kirby was so proud that she got into Quantum Physics. Ok... cool. Where in the hell does she Quantum some Physics in the movie? If it's in the extended cut then that's one thing. But if it's just her, the actor talking about it for the character, then boy oh boy was that a damn waste cause I'm wracking my brains for any science scene that was potent with her. She was doing more UN and Foundation/Charity stuff, which nothing bad. I'd want Sue as the face over Johnny and Reed anyway. I know Feige is a big Marvel nerd, but I feel at this point since these characters have been around since the dawn of comic books, it's pretty easy to do research and figure out ways around this without having to shove a round peg into a square. The folks who are against superhero flicks will say that's because they aren't art and are trash. Look, I've watched a lot of art pieces that were poorly written, and they were trash. Looking at you Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire. Man did you ruin a horrible film theory class for me. Of course, what was I thinking taking a film theory class anyway in college? I guess we should remember… no need to fear, they're here. Just call the four. And before anyone asks, yes. I have the Galactus popcorn bucket head. What am I? Some sort of hater of art? Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint

One of my favorite quotes from Training Day is when Alonzo Harris goes on his whole spiel at the end of the movie about what he's going to do to all the onlookers. But the unmitigated bravado to say "King Kong ain't got shit on me." That's a line that stuck with me. But to some point, it's true. And I feel the exact same way currently. I'm never going to be Tolkien or George R. R. Martin; I'm just not built to be that type of writer. But you know what I have the capacity to do? Integrate and expand. For instance, some of you know about my old webcomic The Chronicles of Loth. A Dungeon and Dragons game that I turned into a webcomic, and when that was over, I moved on to writing novels. But I was never done with it. Not by a long shot. I had so much to do there. But my fear was that I wasn't the writer for the job. Sure, a few fans were talking to me and encouraging me to keep going, and I was. In the background I'd thrown items into a crockpot and walked away to do other things, still letting it percolate and develop. Building a Pantheon But one of the biggest things that had gotten me was the Pantheon. In the webcomic we're introduced early to Zieki The Celestial Father who is head of his own Pantheon, specifically the moons and sun. But I knew I wanted more. So I set that in the back and worked on Altered Realities, which was originally just a Chronicles of Loth story, in that I introduced Lista, the elemental goddess of water. And of course a water goddess needs sisters and brothers... and then we had our elemental gods. But they were neutral folks. And that led us to 32 other gods. I already knew I needed top tier elder deities to call the shots, and no way they weren't going to have subordinates... and yeah. So one Pantheon now had more or less been completed with the aim to be balanced. And then Zieki needed his own choir and we had some demons to combat against them and potentially make them have conflicts with all the gods. And then above them 13 more gods. Well, yeah, I have 68 gods in such a state that only about 15 need to be finished fleshing out. Which will certainly happen. The Scope of World-Building I've already nailed down the majority of our 8,000 or so years of timeline. But recently I realized I couldn't call the Chronicles of Loth the whole show. I always was going to have more books in the world, and I've been working on those. Recently I've been working on some short stories for Brooke Amira which take place in and around what Loth and crew are doing. In fact, Brooke's final story is going to be in... spoilers... The War of the Kings. Which is going to be like... book 8? Cause the first three are Loth and her crew, then we're going to have a few books devoted to the children of heroes, then the War of the Kings, and then a few books after that. But anyway, the name of the series will be The Sundered Realms. We'll have sub books like The Chronicles of Loth so you can see what it'll be. But it'll be like Star Wars or Star Trek where there are series inside of it. For instance, The Thrawn Trilogy or the Hand of Thrawn Duology. They're broadly listed in Star Wars, but if you mention Heir to the Empire Trilogy or Thrawn Trilogy, everyone knows what that is. Word Count Bragging Rights I was thinking about this off on one. This year I've written about 160,638 words, it's July 24th by the way, in various sci-fi works, but I haven't been counting the work I'm doing for world-building, like fully fleshing out some 65 gods, their domains and the timeline for this. So I'm capable of at least getting the words on page; whether or not it's any good will be the question. Folks would argue Brandon Sanderson is just slop/slocky writing and that he just pushes stuff out. I've not read any Sanderson so I can't really weigh in on his quality. If he's anything like David Eddings I'd probably like his writing, and my bro has read, I feel, damn near all his books. I'm not even counting my blog posts in my word counts. So yeah, I'm saying King Kong ain't got shit on me. When I finally get around to writing more than the first chapter of The Chronicles, then I'll get going. By the way, that was started in 2013 and has been touched off and on since; the last update was just last month, where I was reworking the touch and feel of the Treori in their home kingdom. Marathon vs. Sprint Altered Realities took me about 10 years to write, but I had a lot of going back and forth and manipulating because I was dealing with altering reality as I worked on the story. I've learned from my mistakes and have started to do outlines and quick drafts to get the ideas out. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Not to say I can't sprint, I just don't seem to do it as much as I used to. A Goddess's Gifts was done mostly in a week. I was waking up at like 6 AM to pound away for 2 hours, had some breakfast, then more writing until noonish for lunch, then more writing until like 5 or 6 for dinner and then more writing until 8 or 9. The only breaks were for walking the dog and restroom/food. I was sprinting for that one. 50,000 words, give or take, in a week. Now, whether it's worth reading or not, you be the judge of that. I'm just here trying to break my back patting myself on the back. And knowing me, there's probably at least three more blog posts I'll write before this one ever sees the light of day. But hey, that's what happens when you've got 68 gods demanding attention. Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint

So, I'm doing something a little different with this one. As I write this it's 09:08 on July 11th. And my brother wants to go see James Gunn's Superman. Normally I don't write the blog post before the movie, but this time I thought I'd do a sort of pre and post draft. Cause it's Superman, you can sort of get away with that. And what I mean is that, largely, a Superman film or a Superman comic has certain action beats that you encounter. And arguably the biggest one is that Superman struggles for a bit with something and then just decides to get serious and the problem is solved. It's pretty standard, and I was talking to a coworker about this and he was talking about how much he liked Superman. And well, I don't. He's a boring character. Now that stated, there is something to be said about that power fantasy of just rising up and beating the snot out of a problem. Like when I play Elden Ring, I'm on playthrough like 10 on the PS5 now, I envision myself in that first playthrough as the scrub who has to "Git Gud." And then I beat the game and I'm "Gud" and then the 2nd time through with the same character I'm one of the end bosses strolling through the game taking in the sights. And by the 3rd iteration of beating the game I'm the full "I am the lord of all that is golden" or "I am the avatar of the frenzied flame." The unstoppable juggernaut. And there's some appeal to that. But this is a James Gunn movie. Don't get me wrong, I loved Dawn of the Dead, Slither, and Guardians of the Galaxy, and his version of Suicide Squad was miles beyond the original with Will Smith. He's going to take some of the giants of D.C. and attempt to make the Justice League movie. And that's something DC has been wanting to do for a while. And I don't think it's going to work. Oh, it'll be a blockbuster success. Superman movies pretty much, like Batman, sell tickets. And people like James Gunn's Guardians and his Suicide Squad. But the thing is Hawkgirl, Guy Gardner, Mr. Terrific, and Metamorpho? You tell me which of those heroes has a sense of humor. I'll wait. So Mr. Gunn is going to be taking mostly serious characters and throwing them into a situation where they need to work together and become buddy buddy. Most of us know Hawkgirl and Metamorpho from Justice League/Justice League Unlimited. And Hawkgirl had some zingers, mostly at The Flash's expense. But Flash was funny and set himself up. But what were any lines Metamorpho had? None that are really worth remembering, but that could be excused because JL/JLU had so many characters you couldn't give them all the spotlights they needed. They all don't get to be Question and Huntress or Black Canary and Green Arrow. No, I suspect we're going to get a Bloodsport sort of thing. Where this one serious dude is stuck in the middle of a bunch of clowns. Superman is known as The Boy Scout by a lot of characters in the DC universe because he's always fighting for Truth and Justice and tries to redeem/see the good in others. Admirable traits and I can appreciate that. But you're telling me that Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner is going to be completely straight-laced without jokes? Naw. That's not happening. So, my prediction is that Superman is going to be the straight man, just like Idris Elba, and we'll have someone playing opposite him as Peacemaker/John Cena. And the others will be quirky characters. Who those are? Couldn't tell you. I looked at the IMDB page at the cast, and I'm already bad at names of actors, and I didn't see anyone I really recognized. I recognize Wendell Pierce and Frank Grillo and Sean Gunn, he's in every Gunn movie it seems, oh and of course Alan Tudyk, I'd recognize that crotch shot anywhere. For those not in the know, reference the jokes to him on Andor/Rogue One. But yeah, none of these guys are folks I really recognize. But when it came to Guardians I really only knew Dave Bautista, cause I used to watch wrestling. I knew the girl who played Gamora having seen her in various places but she wasn't a headliner, so to speak, and Chris Pratt was just the dude opposite Ron Swanson. Anyway, time to wrap up the pre-movie thoughts... I feel like this is going to be a long blog post. And as it stands there are 3 other blog posts before this. So, it won't be out until like August 28th. And of course, the Fantastic Four is going to be coming out next and that's going to be even later. The joys of a backlog of blog posts. As promised, part two of this. It is now 7:55 on July 11th, 2025, and I have seen Superman 2025. Saw it in a theater at 11 with maybe 6 other people. It certainly wasn't a packed house, which I like. I hate having to struggle to find seats, who doesn't, right? Anyway, so the movie is, well, it's a superhero movie. If you're expecting flying fists and explosions and that sort of stuff, congrats, you'll give it a standing ovation like the two dudes in front of me did. For some reason. This isn't a bad movie, does it have problems? Yes. What movie doesn't? Some of them are, like in my case most likely, a matter of taste. Hawkgirl screaming like a bird of prey got annoying the first second she did that. And I hope she's quietly forgotten in the next movie. Which is sad. I actually really loved Hawkgirl in JL and JLU, she was probably my favorite female character. But again, minor gripe. I also felt the theater volume was spinal tapped up to 11 for maximum reverberation. Supergirl walking on for all of two seconds and then saying "Peace out, bitch." Yep, that's a square go fuck yourself right there. There is no profanity that I heard in the movie. And the explanation that she likes to go to other worlds with red suns and get trashed. Great, you're telling me she's the Kryptonian version of Lobo. And I'm sure it was supposed to be cutesy and quirky but that minute or so of dialogue and interaction just killed Supergirl 2026 or whatever for me. And the general feel of the movie. It was Guardians of the Galaxy. Which nothing is wrong with that. Your cast of actors acted and largely did a good job. But there were a lot of moments where I could close my eyes and be like "Oh, that's Star Lord." That's generally not a good thing. But I will say in this particular case that James Gunn actually made Superman seem human. Like you can actually feel like he's a lived-in character. Normally he's just a dull brick used to solve problems by smashing things. Superman saying "He's punk rock" was somewhat adorable. I'm not punk rock, but anyone who makes that claim should get an arched eyebrow and a look that speaks volumes. But, that's not a complaint in this particular case. It's some of the characteristics they decided to impart in this version of Clark Kent. But I could go on about how Luthor, like most incarnations, just doesn't live up to the hype. It's really hard to compete with Clancy Brown's voice for Luthor. That Luthor felt menacing and like he had everything planned out. This one, if I were told he's Luthor just starting out, I could believe that. He didn't have most of the sophistication of the Luthor I love. But you could see him doing those Luthor things. And I will say one last positive note about Superman 2025. There is something about that theme. I've never liked Superman, but I find myself occasionally listening to the Superman theme Christopher Reeve had. And I won't lie, I got a little teary eyed. And the kids raising the flag and pleading for Superman, that was probably the highlight of the movie. Not the fighting the raptors, not the fight against Planet Watch, not even the end when Clark is talking to Luthor about how he's as human as everyone else. Until Krypto came in and tried to kill the villain. But the entire Krypto thing, as a dog owner, could earn an entire rant. So, I suppose, go see it. I've already been told by two of my friends regardless of my thoughts, they'll see it. And that's A-OK. Just because I have mixed feelings about the Guardians of Justice/The League of Galaxies doesn't mean others won't. Just maybe wear some earplugs and realize that this isn't a Superman movie. It's a James Gunn Film, for better or worse. I feel like I've been doing a lot of movie things, maybe I should go read a book, you know, since I pretend to be an author. Incorrigibly yours, J.E. Flint