Just hit the fifties!

Noodle Strings Pages 50-51 have now been posted!

Is Claire Bear one of the villains of The Bear? Part 1

This is going to be kind of long, so I decided it'd be better to cut it up into 2 parts.

This is all so juicy. I know this very idea has been starting to dawn on several people, (maybe lots? idk) especially given the show is so deliberately playing with storytelling tropes, and warned us they are with the whole movie magic, legerdemain lessons it gave this season.

I absolutely believe there’s a deliberate air of ominousness from Claire, which is SO fascinating considering she was on the surface, supposedly just a light, frothy way for Carmy to experience “amusement and enjoyment.”

One of the ways it came together for me was watching The Bear again with family who've haven't seen it yet. Their reactions towards Claire were illuminating... because I had a similar reaction towards her but didn't think too much of it. Part of that is every character in The Bear giving Claire praised, and even when Carmy is going through his panic attacks the image of Claire is so innocent.

But watching it over with family, when Claire had called Carmy upset about the fake number, I heard grumbles all around. Everyone was annoyed by her, like can't she take a hint? But there is one emotion I realized most of us were feeling... and that was protective of Carmy. What Claire did was one big red flag. She broke a boundary that she shouldn't have crossed. She acted like she was entitled to Carmy and gave him no way out. She told him she knew all his friends and family. She jokingly says she going to get them to beat him up for giving her the fake number. She gets him to tell her what she wanted to hear, twice, and he tells her it with the less amount of enthusiasm. It still makes her happy though, because she sees how easy she can twist him around, having him believing the he always wanted her to have her number. The way she times her guilt trips whenever she wanted something from Carmy. Carmy negative reactions to their physical relationship increasing in seriousness and his depressive moods that came with it.

As a writer myself, I find it hard to believe that there wasn't purposeful intent to writing Claire this way. If the roles were reversed and Claire was a man, but did the exact same things, most viewers would easily see Claire tactics as abusive and manipulative that it is. I believe Claire's air of innocence is the way for the show to express how toxic individuals can absolutely come from the people you less suspect.

Alright, website is a go! You can read the first eight pages here.

My webcomic will be going live on May 16, completely free for all to read. I will be posting character designs and other promo art in the next coming days. For regular updates, please subscribe to my substack.

https://telimo.substack.com/p/what-to-expect

I did these character designs a few years back for a story that has always been in the back of my mind. It is one of those stories I always imagine being told best as an animated series rather than a comic. I’m making some current artwork of them now and I just realize I never posted this. These aren’t the final designs for them.

Those who want more background information on these characters, please continue reading below.

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the rage of princess shuri

very few character arcs have been as substantive and transformative as the arc given to shuri in wakanda forever. and what makes it so powerful is her undeniable rage.

shuri angry. at herself, at the ancestors, at the world. and there’s so much range in her anger. it’s cold and dismissive to her mother’s faith in the spiritual. it’s painful and untethering to herself and her beliefs. it’s hot and all consuming towards namor and the harm he causes.

and then with how mythical and fairytale-esque wakanda forever is in general. shuri plays with the princess archetype and instead almost becomes a vengeful goddess. eternal war was one death away. it just happens that the person she longed to kill was her mirror image.

a black heroine having the space to transform, rebirth by fire and fury, was an experience. i don’t really know how to put it into words.

“Is my mother’s life not worth eternal war?”

that might be one of the most heartbreaking, and relatable lines in the mcu. grief and anger crystallised into one question.

¡QUE VIVA K'uk'ulkan, QUE VIVA Tlālōcān! By Roberto Venegas (x).

“My brother is dead but it doesn’t mean the Black Panther is gone.” — Shuri, Wakanda Forever

So like, I'm seeing such posts like "Namor this, Namor that but I was looking at [x person]. The straights are so annoying," (hi, I'm bi. We exist and also find Tenoch to be hot).

While I normally would be on board with this kind of sentiment and I get it, (cause again, hi, I'm bi), I would just like to remind yall that José Tenoch Huerta Mejía is a 41-year-old Mexican actor of Indigenous descent. Indigenous inclusion in both Hollywood and Latin television/ cinema is rare to come by, as is seeing them getting their flowers.

I would also like to point y'all to this tweet:

Darker-skinned Mexicans have a notoriously harder time getting on screen because of such concepts like Latinidad & Latin America's constant reach towards Spain (and by extension, whiteness).

All I'm saying is, let him have this. Our peoples rarely ever get this.

M’baku was an absolute gem as usual during this film