not-close-to-straight:

Why I love Deadpool and Why We Deserve a Good Venom Movie (and by good I mean Rated R)

One of the (thousands) of reasons I love Ryan Reynolds is because he took a Rated R character (Deadpool) and actually did the character right.

He gave us a movie that not only starred that character in all his raunchy glory BUT ALSO gave us the fandom content we all love ie: loving with his entire heart, being nice to kids, and especially in Deadpool a fantastically diverse cast without shying away from Deadpool’s blatant not-straightness. They aren’t perfect movies but they are GREAT movies.

He earned the hell out of that R rating and I love it because Deadpool is NOT for children and it wasn’t toned down to make it family friendly. He didn’t erase the depression, the bad coping, or even DPs lean towards suicide whether it’s because he’s having a bad day or because he ends up dead post mission. The movies don’t shy away from DPs history as a survivor of abuse, Vanessa is definitely a hooker and then works in a strip joint and not ONCE is that painted as something she needs to redeem, and (again) they don’t ignore that DP is canonically not-straight even though they give him a female love interest. (Also, the movies don’t shy away from other people’s non straight relationships as well)

DPs redemption arc (if you want to call it that) isn’t “you need to change your ways to be a good guy” it’s “you have a reason to exist” which is a far cry from the first movie where he basically only lives for revenge, and the second where every time he died he was relieved because he just wanted to stay dead.

Wonderfully enough, the people who try to demand DP change are shown as the ones who are “well meaning but don’t understand” (the few x men) and they eventually realize that they need to let him do what it is he does and are happy to be with him where he is, not force him to meet some “standard” before he is deemed acceptable, and that is so important because IRL people with a mental illness are treated as if they have to be “this level of socially acceptable” before they are worthy of love and that’s such bullshit.

Weasel is a prime example of a friend who maybe isn’t the best influence but he is loyal and he is TRYING and that’s enough.

He doesn’t have to be some god-tier level of “always right” like the friend of the main character is so often shown to be (looking at you Pepper Potts)(don’t worry, I love her), Weasel Just has to be there when Wade needs him and he tries very hard to make that happen and the “healthy coping boundaries” he puts on Wade are completely doable, for example “go home and take a shower” because he’s well aware that a shower will not only do wonders for Wade’s outlook (being clean is good for the soul!) but also because he knows that’s probably the bare minimum Wade can handle.

I could keep going, but basically Ryan Reynolds took a Rated R character and actually did him justice, didn’t try to water DP down, didn’t ignore the harder-to-deal with issues (depression, suicide etc etc), didn’t force a traditional redemption arc on him and didn’t try to force him into that “straight white male superhero” mold and it’s WONDERFUL.

And I’m just saying, if we can handle Deadpool, we have earned the right to a Rated R Venom movie.

Venom isn’t a kid friendly bad guy/situation no matter how much they try to change him.

He munches on people, he is terrifyingly violent and he could very well be a literal physical representation of the “violent split personalities” they show us in scary movies—he’s practically a horror story.

Give us the horror story.

We lived through Deadpool and Logan we can handle a big ol monster with a suspiciously interesting tongue.

(I realize this was more about DP than Venom but I stand by my rant)