#I was thinking of Heimdall’s ‘I can’t see her’ from TDW and how Thor HAD to go find her bc I want to write a fic with Lokius parallels

[agathas-megacoven]

I’m scared for my lil guy Mobius on the timelines all by himself. What if some non-Kang related big bad who has managed to evade the reformed TVA’s watch and wants to control a bunch of timelines puts 2 and 2 together, realises that Möbius was a key player in helping establish Loki at the centre of the Yggdrasil (that Loki cares deeply about Mobius and visa versa) and comes after him in the hopes to oust Loki? Part of me feels like Mobius could handle it but Mobius doesn’t have big scary dog privileges anymore girlies, what with Loki being tangled up at the Citadel and it worries me. Sylvie is a slippery lil sword wielding snake (affectionate) who’s entire childhood WAS self-preservation and survival, she’ll be fine. B15, O.B and Casey are all somewhat afforded better protection from within the TVA but what about Mobius? He’s just a lil mourning retiree trying to make a new life for himself. What if danger finds him? I trust B15 to have some sort of protection and emergency measures in place for him but what if it’s not enough?

[lucianalight]

Can we talk about the whole sentencing scene? I mean, I can grant that the actual trial happened before that, that Loki was given the opportunity to plead his case, that his deeds were actually presented in a manner that does not amount to "you did bad things," that there is a criminal code, etc... I also get it that Odin just does trials, although he's the father (big no-no actually - bias). But the queen is punished along with Loki; a relative, she did nothing wrong. What's your thoughts?

Sure we can! That’s a very interesting take on the scene, that I’d never thought about. But first, let’s talk about this part:

I can grant that the actual trial happened before that, that Loki was given the opportunity to plead his case, that his deeds were actually presented in a manner that does not amount to "you did bad things," that there is a criminal code, etc..

According to canon, none of this happened. The scene that we saw, was the only trial that Loki got. It can be further confirmed by Thor The Dark World Prelude comic which is an official tie-in to MCU. In that comic Loki’s trial happens right after Thor and Loki arrive in Asgard. Loki was never going to get a fair trial.

This is when Heimdall sees Loki on Earth. They had already decided that Loki wanted revenge. They didn’t think that there might another explanation or it doesn’t make sense that Loki would want to conquer another planet after committing suicide. His family had already made up their mind about him.

I also get it that Odin just does trials, although he's the father (big no-no actually - bias)

It’s true that as the father Odin shouldn’t be the judge, but about Loki, his bias is against Loki not in favor of him. Apart from all the accusations and hurtful things he says to Loki he still finds more ways to twist the knife.

Now back to your question. Why Odin also punished Frigga?

I have written a five part meta analyzing the dynamic in their family. Basically, Odin is a narcissist and Loki is the scapegoat. Loki is the one who is always blamed when things go wrong, he is the one who Odin projects all bad parts of his personality on him. He is also the one who can see through the lies and hypocrisy and point them out, as we’ve seen in his trial which he brings up Odin’s conquests and later tells Frigga that Odin has taken more lives than Loki. Odin, the narcissist, hates this and he can’t stand anyone defending or siding with the scapegoat. He also has a black and white perception of the world and anyone who disagrees with him is wrong and a bad person and will be punished in some way. Thor has already given up on Loki at this point. But Frigga…

“Frigga clings to you like the mother of a drowned child, but she is too late to save you.”

Frigga still has hope to save Loki. She hasn’t given up on him, like Odin. She disagrees with Odin. How dare she? So, she won’t be allowed to visit Loki. That way Odin not only has punished the scapegoat but also the one who is still has hope for him. Notice that Frigga isn’t even on Loki’s side and doesn’t defend his actions. She is only in disagreement with Odin that there’s still hope for Loki. She is being punished for this! That’s why she has to visit Loki in secret and only by illusions. In a deleted scene of TDW we even see her quickly hide her visit from Thor.

Thor criticizes her for still having hope for Loki. Even goes so far to ask her if she doesn’t regret sharing her magic with him.

(Source of the gifs)

This is how much alone and misunderstood Loki was in a year of enduring solitary confinement. After his suicide, and then being mind controlled by Thanos, most of his family gave up on him and didn’t even ask what happened to him. Loki deserved better.

[tonaathena1996]

Lokane: Soulmates

Rating: PG (curse word)

Background: This is canon compliant through TDW. Everything else goes AU.

Prompt: Soulmates / Or Aether & Tesseract. In this fic they are kind of one and the same.

Summary: Jane did not believe in a lot of things. And then her life changed.

[[MORE]]

Jane Foster had never believed in Norse Gods from Asgard. She had dismissed them as baseless mytholical figures.

Until Thor, God of Thunder, fell into the New Mexico desert.

Jane had never believed in soul mates either. She had rebuked the idea in favor of free will.

Until she slapped Loki, the God of Mischief.

It had been a rash impulsive move, driven by rage and hatred. And it had been the skin to skin contact which triggered the bond.

Standing there in the halls of Asgard, Jane knew the instant her palm kissed his cheek that her entire life had changed.

Loki, for his part, simply grinned in unspoken understanding as his sparkling eyes found hers for an instant, “I like her.”

Jane didn’t know what Thor was saying to Sif or she to him. All she knew was that Loki held her eyes with his. He didn’t speak. He just smiled. And it was mesmerizing.

The next hours went by in a blur. Between the Aether’s hold on her body and the new bond upon her soul, it all seemed like broken memories only stitched together with flashes of imagery and sound.

Loki. Loki was the thread that held her together.

But when Malekith lifted her in the air, the Aether churned angrily within her. It fought against being pulled from her body where it had found safety.

Jane felt most of the Aether flee to Malekith’s call, but there was a piece of the power left behind. She felt the bond to her soul just as if the Aether too were her soulmate.

When Loki “died”, she broke into tears. She tried to tell herself the tears were for Thor’s loss.

But the remains of the Aether left within her stirred gently and whispered in the wind, “He isn’t gone.”

It wasn’t until after Greenwich that she allowed herself to contemplate what she truly felt inside. It obviously wasn’t working with Thor. While he was intelligent, he was much more interested in chasing Hydra. After the events with Ultron, it was over. Jane knew things could never work between herself and Thor. She had broken up with him via telegram to Avengers Headquarters.

Darcy and Erik has both demanded Jane take time for herself. After all the excitement with aliens and portals and constant threats from Hydra and Thor, she wasn’t about to argue.

Jane hadn’t told anyone where she was going for her getaway. Only that she knew she would be perfectly safe.

And now, here she stood in the same spot where her life had begun to change forever. The spot where Thor had landed. The runes had long faded with the desert winds, but Jane could have found it blindfolded. She had been drawn back here time and time again.

The Aether’s remains burned gently within her, “We will soon be together with our soulmate.”

Jane closed her eyes and took comfort in her now permanent companion. An instant later, bright light crashed upon her before the stars of the universe blurred by her.

The Bifrost. She was riding the Bifrost.

Mere seconds passed before she arrived in the Observatory in Asgard. She turned towards the dais where she expected to see Heimdall.

Only, it was Odin standing there above her.

“I am not involved with Thor anymore. So, why am I here?” Jane asked defiantly, placing her hands on her hips as she readied for battle, “I believe you said I’m insignificant. I belong here like a goat belongs on a banquet table, remember?”

Odin raised a curious brow. Jane, or rather the Aether, noticed, and immediately warmed in recognition.

“Give it up, Loki,” She spoke calmly, relaxing from a battle stance to a slightly more relaxed hands in pockets approach, “If you brought me here to get to Thor, you might as well know that I broke up with him.”

Odin’s visage faded as Loki stood before her. He wasn’t in the battle armor she’d seen from New York neither was he dressed in the modified armor from the Dark World. He was dressed in a more informal, almost casual Asgardian tunic and trousers. And he looked amazing.

The Aether stirred within her, “Yes, it’s him.”

“You are bonded with the Aether,” Loki spoke as he stepped slowly towards her.

“Yes, I am,” Jane replied. If nothing else, he now knew the power she could still harness if she needed it. She met his eyes defiantly, “If you think you can get her out of me, good luck. She’s bonded to me. Like...” She paused as she searched for the right description, “It’s like she’s...she’s my...”

“Soulmate,” Loki answered as he continued slowly towards her, cautiously but not unlike a predator with his prey, “I felt the same with the Tesseract. Even when we are apart, we are not. And for some reason, Jane Foster, I feel the same with you.”

“Me too,” She replied in awe, “I can’t believe this is happening. I didn’t believe in soulmates. I always thought I should be able to decide who I love...not cosmically tied to someone forever.”

“I never believed either. I, like you, preferred to believe in my choices. My choices led me to the Tesseract. Your choices to the Aether. While I don’t understand why we would be drawn together in the absence of the stones,” He sighed as he offered her his hand, “I’ll make you this agreement, Jane Foster. How about we get to know one another? Let us decide in the end if we agree with fate or not.”

“And how would we do that? I have a life on Earth. And you are supposed to be dead,” She countered as a smile began to form upon her lips.

“Yes well, every relationship has its obstacles, or so I’ve heard,” He flashed her a charming smile, “Stay here with me. Let me show you the wonders of Asgard.”

“I’ll be missed on Earth,” She reiterated as she slowly placed her hand in his.

“Easily solved,” Loki closed his fingers around hers before lifting her hand to his lips, “I can send you back to check in with your friends as often as you would like.”

“Why are you so eager to explore this?” She questioned, wondering about her own motivations as much as his.

“Besides the rather delicious irony that my brother fancied himself in love with you,” He muttered quickly before becoming more eloquent, “I’m ready to explore my place in the universe. And I cannot do that while I’m constantly wondering about you and this connection between us.”

“Damn,” She whispered softly.

“Does my answer not suit you?” Loki asked, searching her brown eyes worriedly.

“Actually, it was surprisingly perfect,” Jane squeezed his hand, allowing him to escort her to the Rainbow Bridge. She didn’t know exactly what the future held for Loki and herself, but she did know she would never outright declare a disbelief in anything ever again.

[bioticgoddess]

Endgame: Opinions/Analysis 

Spoilers ahead - under the cut- so read at your own risk.

The movie was good. I may not agree with how we go to the end of some of the Avenger’s stories but it was done well. Let's being.

Putting to stones back didn't undo Nat's death, I don’t think it could have without hurting her, not without changing her on some fundamental level. She went willingly into that void as much as Clint. She sacrificed herself not for him but for the avengers and her adoptive Barton niece and nephews. She died to protect her family as much as Clint was willing to. She was fraying, coming apart at the ends in a way that is keenly familiar to me. Yes, she found a family with the Avengers but that was the only family she found. Yes, she lost the opportunity to build anything beyond 2023 with that or any family. But that's okay. Sometimes you don't get more than a few years and your protect it vehemently. She did. She weighed the needs of the many against those of the few and wouldn't let her oldest/best friend join those numbers. I doubt she wanted to entertain the conversation with Laura about Clint sacrificing himself for this. For them. So she did what she does, she read the situation and made a play. She was the better spy, the better hero that day. I was reminded that because Wanda’s powers came from the mind stone, she may have a link to the Soul Stone so she has some awareness of that stone’s pocket reality. (So “Force Ghost” Nat and original MCU Gamora. Maybe?)

Tony got a happy ending. Or at least part of one. He was always going to be our Martyr. That's just MCU/RDJ Tony. It's his MO. He was always going to be the one we lost tragically, no matter how Endgame went. He got to flip out and call Cap on his bullshit from AOU and how he knew this would happen. He and Pepper have their Morgan and gods do I hope she makes appearances or is at least referenced going forward. But in the end, Tony did it all of this for HER and for PETER. These are his kids. He couldn't protect one but he'd be damned if he wasn't going to be there for the other right until he was given the chance to fix things from 2018. His death hurt me most because your spouse dying is one of if not the most stressful events that can happen to a person (so sayeth science). It's an inevitability and Pepper knew from Iron Man 1, the start of all this, that he could probably die out there. She's called him on in and cautioned him to be careful more times than I can count. He seldom heeded her warnings. 

Thor blamed himself for everything that happened: Frigga’s death, Hela’s return and the inevitable destruction of Asgard, the losses in Infinity War, and those at the beginning of Endgame. It didn’t matter that destroying the planet of Asgard meant saving the people. He lost. He was their monarch and he failed to protect them in the ways he was expected to. Then Thanos showed up and cost him half the remaining people. The losses that day included at least one of his best friends & most trusted advisers (Heimdall) and Loki, the brother with whom he’d only JUST reconciled. The only way he wasn’t going to be the drunk we saw (or some variation thereof because survivor’s guilt manifests in different ways) was if he’d taken Thanos’ life before the snap. That was it. He’d still be dealing with Survivor’s Guilt, no doubt, but if he had at last avenged the assault on their refugee ship and saved everyone else from the snap. His going off to join the Guardians was fitting in that he’s not a ruler, not like he thought or was told he’d be. So he’s going back to what he knows, what he does best, and doing the things he does best - saving people.

Why not reverse the last 5 Years with the time travel heist/plot? What about all the time travel and Steve living a life with Peggy? Well, I’m gonna quote Doctor Who “it’s a great big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey...stuff.” The movie ctually established the MCU’s time travel rules through Banner Hulk and The Ancient One. First, they couldn’t change their memories or pasts. So STeve staying in the post WW2 era with Peggy doesn’t or can’t affect anything we saw in the movies. Bucky stayed in the present, so he’s the same Bucky. Loki snagged the Tesseract and BAMF’ed out so, as someone else posited, he’s probably something similar to his TDW self. Second, changes to the past would only result in branching timelines an d alternate realities.  The current MCU timeline’s “present” is still likely that new/central timeline only Old-Man Rogers (Old Man Carter eheh) knew the future and he knew to stay ahead of his younger self. How uncomfortable would that conversation be? Third, things are inevitable as a result. Thanos’s 2018 assault: Inevitable. The fates of all our beloved characters: Inevitable. Bucky staying in the 2023 present as a physically 30 year old: Inevitable.  

Now, I put the basic time travel overhaul up there because Steve’s whole ending is time travel. This video from ScreenCrush explains it better than I can. So I’ll hop onto the psych explanation since that’s more my jam than quantum physics. We all HEARD him say he’d moved on at the end of AOU. He told Tony as much. Then he got Bucky back in CW only to lose him again to both cryo and Thanos. During time travel he sees Peggy, who he’s definitely not let go of and never will, only to lose her a third time the second he and Tony are back in the present. He’s been broken and had to put himself together in new and interesting ways emotionally multiple times over the decade of the MCU. Like Thor, he’s likely suffering from survivor’s guilt and PTSD. With everything he’s been through it would impossible for him not to be. Unlike Thor, and I suspect even unlike Bucky, he never really found a home in the modern world. Bucky had Wakanda and was reluctant to leave his little farm to fight except that he was duty bound. Steve wanted the kind of life that Tony got to have with Pepper. Only he wanted it with Peggy. By the end of Endgame, he’d finally found a way to achieve that when he returned the stones and TDW Mjolnir to their original places in time. 

I’m not going to launch into the arguments for/against him and Peggy, the internet and Tumblr in particular have done enough of that. The video I linked above also explains how he got to have both lives and still follow the rules put forth for Time Travel in the MCU by suggesting that his timeline with her was a branch and so never interacted or impacted the one we know prior. If I had been in Steve’s position, I can’t say I wouldn’t have gone back in time and risked my life to stay with the person I love. 

Bucky’s the last person I’m gonna touch on. There was no way that he didn’t either know or suspect that Steve was going to stay back in time. For all know they had a conversation about it prior, even if it was one of those “so Hypothetically speaking what would you do if I stayed in the past with Peggy”. any conversation they may have had about him saving Bucky sooner would have probably included some mention of Sam and, I suspect, how Steve needs him to guide/keep an eye on his successor. It could have even included the same lecture(s) from Bruce Hulk and the Ancient One about branching timelines. Bucky needs to stay in the present because he fits there better than Steve did and he’s the link that Old Man Rogers-Carter is going to rely on to look after the others. 

By this point I realize I’m talking in circles but I’m trying to look at the film in the context of what happened and how it ties into the rest of the MCU as opposed to what I as a fan would have wanted to change. Like somehow getting Nat back. Or maybe the Loki Outside Time showing up during that final fight to throw a knife or two at 2014 Thanos. Maybe a tie in to that video of middle-aged Peggy talking about her husband and kids where Steve is sitting another room, looking enough not like himself that the camera crew never bothers him. Something like that. Have Tony live somehow and just be the brains behind the team even if he couldn’t fight. And so on. 

[crashdevlin]

Bottle- 15: Sausage With Peppers

Bottle Masterlist

Author’s Note: Originally posted to ao3 (This is an edited and improved version), I work in info from the comics (Like Hawkeye was married to Mockingbird and Red Skull had a disappointing daughter) and I took a few liberties with what the scepter could do (but not really because the Mind Stone was used to create the Twins so what I did is not that far-fetched). This is a lot more angst than I realized when I wrote it, but it’s compelling angst.

Summary: Cassandra Campbell is a Stark Industries lab tech with dubious genetics and a history with the new Director of SHIELD. She’s been working in New York since right before the Chitauri invasion. What does she have to do with Loki, and what will happen when he returns? Starts post TDW and continues to the end of AoU.

Pairing(s): Phil Coulson x OFC (Past), Loki x OFC (Non-con), Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC

Word Count: 3539

Story Warnings: So many, worst (to me) are bolded. Younger woman/older man relationship,non-con, mutilation, torture, mind control, PTSD, depression, alcoholism, forced abortions, bad things (non-con) in a church, insomnia, memory manipulation, eventual consensual oral sex (female and male receiving),

Chapter Warnings: none

Cassie pulled the van into the parking lot of the Walmart and started at the building for a minute. "How is your first Avengers mission treating you, Joanna?" Loki's voice came from the passenger seat.

"You're not really there," she whispered, closing her eyes. She couldn't look at him, even a projection of him. After what she saw in Africa, she couldn't deal with that.

"True, but I am truly speaking to you. So easy to find when you open up your mind to me."

"I didn't do that. The witch did."

"Witch? I'll have to thank her, you've been practically begging to see me for hours."

Cassie shook her head. "No. This is not... I didn't call to you."

Loki laughed, a cruel sound that gripped her spine. "Joanna... it's perfectly understandable to miss me. With me, there is no doubt, just complete domination. You don't have to worry about who knows you're laying with whom. You don't have to worry about Stark's metal contraptions killing you. You just have to worry about me. And I was gentle last time."

"In Austria? Disguised as the priest who kept me from killing myself?"

"I wanted to see the fire in you! That place dulled you."

"That was the point! I didn't want to think, I didn't want to shine, I didn't want to blaze. I just wanted to be left alone to be. Just be. Exist without anyone paying any attention to me and somehow you and Clint both found me."

"You were suffocating in Austria. You were suffocating as Cassandra. You are still barely pulling air into your lungs. You long for the freedom Joanna thrives upon."

She looked to her right, finally allowing herself to look at him. His eyes looked green in this light. "Look, I'm not going to lie... it'd be useless to try that on you. I had fun with you. You let out a part of me that had been dying to breathe since SHIELD took me, and yes, consensual sex with a God is nothing to shake a stick at, but... I don't miss you. I don't want you. I don't even want to be around you. You killed my daughter."

"And gave you a son." He smiled softly and shook his head at her. "Do you know how I know you do want me around, free to see you as I please? You haven't told Thor what I did to Odin."

As the projection disappeared, Cassie looked at the instrument panel on the dash. Confusion washed over her. She'd found it amusing that the Allfather had been tricked by Loki and that Heimdall, who sees pretty much everything, hadn't seen it. She knew that she'd been too desperate to leave Playground when she woke up, but why hadn't she said anything since she'd been back? She hadn't forgotten: she just hadn't mentioned it. "Just means I'm nuts, not that I want you to drop in unannounced," she muttered, getting out of the van and walking toward the store.

"Talking to yourself already, Campbell? That's a sign of poor fortitude," a familiar voice said as she crossed the double doors.

She turned to the vending area and blanched at the sight of Nick Fury, dressed in jeans and a black t-shirt and wearing dark sunglasses, drinking a Coke. "Director Fury."

"You aren't SHIELD and I ain't in charge anymore," he said, stepping toward her.

"I-I know, sir. I, uh, just thought... After the way I spoke to you last time... respect is due."

"You didn't say anything that wasn't true, Cassie. I am old and I have bad depth perception."

She couldn't help the smile that crossed her face at the use of her chosen name. "But you have so many years of spycraft under your belt."

"And you can carry Thor around as dead weight. Girl, you woulda kicked my ass."

Cassie smiled wider. "So, what are you doing here?"

"I figured Barton would bring you to the farmstead. Safe place, off the grid. I showed up right as you were pulling onto the main road, followed you. I came in here to get a drink while you argued with yourself in the van." Cassie looked down. "I know the Maximoff girl got you, made you see things. Loki?"

Tears came to her eyes as she just nodded, dumbly. Fury put his hand on her shoulder and waited for her to look at him. When she did, he smiled. "You're the only one who got hit by that chick and wasn't completely down for the count. Your teammates, who include the strongest woman I've ever met and a Viking God, had to extracted by you."

"Guess I have better fortitude than you think."

"Definitely better than you think. You know... Maria Hill sends me reports."

"About me?"

Fury nodded. "Among other things. She said you're putting a lot of effort in. You spend most of your free time training. Says you're ‘almost obsessional’ about being an asset."

"Just don't wanna get anyone killed because I can't handle myself in a combat situation. Fat lot of good I did against Ultron. Got shot in the back by one of Tony's legionnaires before I could touch him. Feel kinda useless."

"Useless?"

"What do I add? I mean, the Avengers already have a revved-up super soldier and an acrobatic weapons expert. I'm like a shitty knock-off version of both of them. I don't have anything..."

"You know, doubt is a perfectly normal, healthy thing, that you need to get the hell over, right now. This is not the time for it. Even if you were a shitty knock-off, you could put down some robots. You are more in control of yourself than some of the strongest-willed motherfuckers I have ever met, so pull your head up and move past whatever that witch made you see."

Cassie chuckled and turned, grabbing a hand basket as she headed further into store. "Wow."

"What?" Fury asked, keeping pace with her.

"No, it's just... I finally understand why you were in charge for so long."

"Why's that?"

"There is something oddly inspiring about a one-eyed man yelling at you to get your shit together." She stopped in front of the sausages and stared at them. "Guess I couldn't expect more than Johnsonville at a Wal-mart. Beer brats, I guess. And beer." She dropped three packs of sausages into the basket and walked toward the beer aisle. "So, how's Phil doing?"

"Don't think Barton would be very happy about you asking after your ex, do you?"

"You're kidding me." Cassie turned to him. "Hill knows about me and Clint?"

"Did you forget that you're working with spies? That you're sleeping with one? You remember what that entails."

"Oh, come on, Nick. It was totally different with Phil. We weren't trying to keep any secrets. It was the most honest relationship Phil had ever been in. He didn't have to hide anything from me. I mean, he did... some." She shook her head and grabbed a box of Guinness. "Clint and I just want something that's ours, you know? We don't want everyone talking and speculating and... being jealous."

"Jealous? You're talking about Steve?"

"I'm talking about Steve," she confirmed. "And Natalia and Phil. Also, there's a deep-seated fear that Mockingbird is still in love with him and she's gonna destroy me over this."

"Mockingbird? Natalia? You haven't just been studying your Ops manual, have you?"

"I started in on those SHIELD files while I was still in Austria. Everything I could learn would better my chances of evasion. Once I got back, it was more 'learn everything I can so that I can survive longer'." She started toward the bakery and stood in front of the racks. "Commercial American bakery's nuzing like Hohenheims bakery. Oh, vell." She grabbed several bags of rolls and headed for the registers.

"Are you coming back to the farm, Nick?"

"Yeah. I'll be right behind you. When you get inside, have the lovely Mrs. Barton send Stark to the barn."

"Yes, sir."

************

As Cassie walked across the grass toward the house, she smiled at Steve and Tony, who were chopping wood in the front. "Glad you're working up an appetite. I'm making lunch."

"Austrian diner food, right? Barton might've mentioned." Tony brought his ax down on one of the logs.

Cassie nodded and jogged inside, dropping the plastic bags on the counter. Clint was beside her almost immediately, he was freshly showered, smelled like a forest. "Hey, you made it back!"

"Today, even. Wanna help me cook?"

"Uncle Clint."

"Yeah, Li?" The little girl waited, a bit impatiently, for Clint to stop looking at Cassie. As soon as his eyes fell on the girl, she started to sign. Cassie watched it in her peripheral vision as she pulled a knife from a knife block and ran soap and water over it. "Yep... I think so... " Clint signed as he spoke his responses to her slightly fumbled sign language. The girl seemed frustrated with a word and resorted to signing each letter.

"Wait, who's Mary?" Cassie asked, slicing through the white onion she picked.

Clint turned to her with an eyebrow raised. "You know Sign?"

"Just the alphabet. There was an accident on 107, so traffic slowed enough for me to pull it up on my phone."

"And you learned ASL alpha in the few minutes you were stuck in traffic?"

"Like it's hard?"

"And now you're quoting Legally Blond at me?"

Cassie grabbed a red pepper and a green one from the fridge. "Never seen it."

He chuckled and turned to the girl. "Lila, we'll continue this conversation later, when there's no one around to eavesdrop."

"I weren't dropping no eaves, Mr. Barton, sir. I was just making lunch," she said, in her best Samwise Gamgee impression. Lila nodded and ran out of the room as Cassie started slicing the peppers. "It's a little early in the relationship for your family to be pushing us down the aisle, don't'cha think?" she asked, quietly.

"Eh, she wants a cousin. Thought you didn't Sign?"

"I caught the double Rs in 'marry', and she pointed at us. Not hard to follow."

"She likes you." Clint grabbed a slice of bell pepper from the cutting board and bit it in half. "And she knows I do, too. She just wants me to be happy, that's all."

"Uh-huh. Hey, Laura," Cassie called out. The brunette woman waddled in, hand secured over her belly. "Nick Fury is in your barn. He requests an audience with Mr. Stark, but Tony isn't one to just do what someone asks. Can you figure out a way to get Tony into the barn, please?"

"Yeah, I think I can do that," she said with a smile.

"Grab the sausages out of the bag for me and grab a pan, cast-iron if you have it, and a broiler pan."

"Broiler pan?"

"Every oven comes with one, Clint. Usually it's a two piece thing, slots in the top to catch drippings in the bottom."

"Oh, that thing. Gotcha," Clint said, digging into a low cabinet by the fridge to pull out a large roasting pan. He put it on the stove before pulling out a cast-iron skillet and handing it to her.

"Nice. Okay. Oil?"

"In the glass squeezy thing, there," Count said, pointing to the counter.

"So articulate, Hawk."

"What can I say?” He shrugged. “Obviously not much."

"Then, why do you talk so much?" Cassie said, clicking the burner on under the skillet.

"Hoping to say something to turn you red again. It's a good look."

"Ja, mein Vater seemed to think so."

"Ich finde dich süß when you mix up your languages. [I think you’re cute when you mix up your languages]” Cassie felt her cheeks heat up. "There's her color," he whispered, leaning into her.

Her eyes flicked towards the living room. "Back off, Hawk. This isn't the time," she said, pouring oil into the skillet. Clint leaned away again, but she could feel his eyes on her. "Put the sausages on the broiler pan. Single layer, like you know what you're doing," she said, grabbing the peppers and onions putting them into the skillet.

Cassie had the oven open, flipping the sausages over when Tony stomped into the house, Steve and Nick following behind. "Are you going to be eating with us, Nick? We've got plenty."

"I've heard good things about your cookin', Miss Campbell. It was one of the things Coulson felt comfortable braggin' on you about."

"I'll take that as a 'yes'," she said, smiling as she closed the oven door.

"So... what's the thinking, Fury?" Banner asked as Lila ran into the dining room to hand Natasha a watercolor picture.

"Ultron took you folks out of play to buy himself time. My contacts all say he's building something. The amount of Vibranium he made off with, I don't think it's just one thing," Nick said, walking around to the sink to pour himself a glass of water.

"What about Ultron himself?" Steve asked, leaning against the wall.

"Ah. He's easy to track, he's everywhere. Guy's multiplying faster than a Catholic rabbit. Still doesn't help us get an angle on any of his plans, though."

"He still going after launch codes?" Tony asked, throwing darts at a board on the wall.

"Yes, he is, but he's not making any headway," Nick answered.

"I cracked the Pentagon's firewall in high school on a dare."

"Yeah, well, I contacted our friends at the NEXUS about that," Nick said, starting to cut the rolls Cassie bought for the sandwiches.

"NEXUS?" Steve and Cassie asked.

"It's the world internet hub in Oslo. Every byte of data flows through there, fastest access on Earth," Banner responded.

"So, what'd they say?" Clint asked, examining the fletching of one the darts.

"He's fixated on the missiles, but the codes are constantly being changed."

"By whom?" Tony asked, as Clint threw his darts at the board. Tony looked at him, exasperated as Clint just shrugged, before pulling all three darts from the bulls-eye.

"Parties unknown."

"Do we have an ally?" Natasha asked.

"Ultron's got an enemy, that's not the same thing. Still, I'd pay folding money to know who it is."

"I might need to visit Oslo, find our 'unknown'," Tony said.

"Well, this is good times, boss, but I was kind of hoping when I saw you, you'd have more than that," Natasha grumbled as Nick finished cutting the bread.

"I do. I have you. Back in the day, I had eyes everywhere, ears everywhere else. You kids had all the tech you could dream up.  Here we all are, back on Earth, with nothing but our wit, and our will to save the world. Ultron says the Avengers are the only thing between him and his mission and whether or not he admits it, his mission is global destruction. All this, laid in a grave. So stand. Outwit the platinum bastard," Nick said, sitting down with his water as Cassie pulled the sausages out.

"Steve doesn't like that kind of talk," Natasha teased.

"You know what, Romanoff?" Steve started, faux threateningly. Natasha just smirked.

"So, what does he want?" Nick asked.

Steve looked around as Clint came to sit at the table. "To become better. Better than us. He keeps building bodies."

"Person bodies," Tony responded. "The human form is inefficient, biologically speaking, we're outmoded. But he keeps coming back to it."

Banner walked forward and examined Lila's picture. Natasha looked between the scientists. "When you two programed him to protect the human race, you amazingly failed."

"They don't need to be protected, they need to evolve. Ultron's going to evolve."

"How?" Nick asked as he took a drink of his water.

"Has anyone been in contact with Helen Cho?"

Cassie placed a platter full of sausage and pepper sandwiches on the table and sat next to Natasha. "So, what? Ultron is going to have Helen Cho make him a... a better body?" Everyone looked around at each other, nervously. "Guess we should eat." She reached forward and grabbed a sandwich, but she suddenly didn't feel very hungry.

Clint stood, grabbing a bottle of Guinness and handing it to her. "Anyone else? Might not have another chance."

"Don't talk like that," Natasha said, but she put her hand out for a beer.

************************

Steve walked into the living room as he finished suiting up. "I'll take Natasha and Clint."

"All right. Strictly recon. I'll hit the NEXUS. I'll join you as soon as I can," Tony said, tapping at his wrist.

"If Ultron is really building a body..." Steve started.

"He'll be more powerful than any of us. Maybe all of us. An android designed by a robot."

"You know, I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science ever created was me," Steve mused.

"I'll drop Banner off at the Tower. Do you mind if I borrow Ms. Hill?" Fury asked.

"She's all yours, apparently. What are you gonna do?"

"I don't know. Something dramatic, I hope," Nick said, walking out of the house.

"What about me?" Cassie asked, walking up to Steve and Tony.

"Cass..." Steve started.

"No. Don't even think about leaving me behind. I may be pretty new to this whole 'superhero' thing and I didn't help much against Ultron in New York, but I've got more will, more fortitude than any of you. I pulled myself out of that fugue state..." *Or was the vision simply over* She shook away Loki's voice in her head and kept going. "...and I didn't sulk around about what I saw in that vision. I pulled myself together and then I carried your star-spangled ass off that ship. And then, I went back for Thor and carried his ass out. An action, by the way, that outed me as a superhero to the international news media."

She threw her hands up in exasperation. "Which is great, because Hydra is still looking for their lost legacy and Loki is still looking for his queen, so it's awesome to broadcast my whereabouts. And even with all that, with my worst fears playing in my head on repeat since that witch touched me, I still want to help, because that's what I signed up for. As soon as I decided 'Avenger' would look good on my resume, I signed up to put away my shit and focus on everyone else's. So, tell me, boss, where do you need me?"

Steve looked around, then cleared his throat. "Stark?"

"Ever been to Norway, blondie?" Stark asked.

"No, sir," she answered, standing straight.

"It's good. You'll love it. Might need some muscle, anyway. Can't wear the suit everywhere. Go grab yours," Tony ordered.

Cassie nodded and rushed for the room where she'd changed before heading to the store. Clint followed, closing the door behind him as she pulled her super suit off the floor. "Not the way I pictured the first time you grabbed your clothes off of my floor," he joked.

She turned to him and smiled, slightly. "Be careful. Please. Be careful."

"It's a milk run, babe." Clint stepped forward and pushed her hair out of her face.

"No. My trip to the NEXUS is a milk run. Tony's only taking me because I threw a fit. Ultron might be in Seoul. I mean, he's everywhere. So, he's probably gonna be there... with the Maximoffs. Clint... Wanda, she's..."

"I know, Cassie."

"You don't. I saw-"

"Loki. I know. And you liked it, right? That's why you're all messed up." Cassie blinked back tears. "You remember when we first met? Took you for a drink to celebrate and mourn? I know what you're missing."

"It's not missing the mindlessness, Clint. I mean, that's part of it, but... Joanna, I wanted to... to be with him. I had sex with him. I enjoyed it, being with him."

"That's your greatest fear? That you might've enjoyed sleeping with a demigod?" Clint chuckled. "He's a thousand years old and strong enough to give it to you good. I might've even liked screwing him," he joked.

"Clint... why are you so understanding?" she whispered.

"I've had a long life. Done a lot of bad, had a lot of bad done to me. I focus on intentions, mostly. And your intentions are good, even when you're Joanna. Your intentions as Cassie are... good, right?"

"You're amazing."

"Nah. I've just gotten good at hiding the un-mazing parts of me." Clint brushed his lips against hers. "I'll be safe if you will."

"I promise," she said, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him into a deeper kiss. Her super suit rubbed against his cheek as their tongues pushed against each other.

"Where's my lab tech?!" Tony called up the stairs.

Cassie pulled away, balling her clothes up in her hands. "Hold your water, Stark, I'm comin'." She opened the door and bounded down the stairs, three at a time.

"You had plenty of time for that while the rest of us were showering. You chose to shop," Tony said.

"Shut up," she groaned. *Everybody knows.*

"Come on," Tony said, walking out of the house.

KITCHEN SINK TAGS @heyitscam99 @wonderlandfandomkingdom @unlikelysamwinchesteronahunt @mrs-meghan-winchester @henrymorganme @lonely-skys @allykat2108

[originaljediinjeans]

MCU Rewatch: “Thor: The Dark World” (2013)

King Bor knew the Aether was an Infinity Stone. Even if the script writers didn’t.

Frigga can’t believe that Odin kicked her out of Loki’s tribunal

Remember how I refuse to believe that Loki was mind-controlled by Thanos when he invaded Earth? This trial scene seals the deal for that to me. Loki does not regret his actions. Unless Thanos had him under some kind of mind control so deep that he thinks he actually wanted the Earth for himself or that it was his own idea, to the point where he showed no remorse in front of his horrified family and Asgardian friends, then the mind control theory holds no water.

Loki definitely deserves some tough love

Eric Selvig has NOT been okay since New York.

It’s not just Jane that Thor is pining after. Thor may not have connected that much with the Avengers in his brief time on Midgard but I get the feeling that everyone else knows that Thor did not fight the chitauri alone.

I hate that they tried to set up a love triangle between Thor, Sif, and Jane, but even if Sif does not have romantic feelings for Thor how could she not be jealous of the fact that one of her closest friends is pining after a woman on another world? Things haven’t been the same since Thor got banished to Midgard and Lady Sif and the Warriors 3 are dealing with it, Thor has been through a lot and he’s a lot more distant. Everyone wants things to be the same but they’re not.

It’s like what Thor says to Hogun after the battle of Vanaheim: he knows how it feels to have your heart and mind somewhere else

Sif deserved so much better in this film. Especially more screentime.

Thor is a nerd. He’s going to see Heimdall not just to inquire after Jane but he’s also interested in the stars and space. I feel like Heimdall might be teaching him things about the cosmos whenever he hangs out that the observatory. By Ragnarok Thor and Heimdall have enough of a relationship that they can communicate between worlds on the other side of the universe. Thor and Jane initially bonded because she was studying the structure of the universe and now she’s interested in the Convergence. Thor has his mind on Jane but he also has his thoughts on space and time and the different worlds of the universe. There’s not really much textual evidence to support this but that’s the vibe I’m getting. Thor just doesn’t get enough credit for his nerdiness.

That being said, the Bifrost Observatory is actually pretty cool. It probably gets its best screentime here.

Also that rock guy on Vanaheim--is he some relation to Korg?

In Thor:The Dark World we get the best ground-level and street views of Asgard. It probably has the most “viking” aesthetic of all three films.

Jane is a nerd too. She’s very curious and intelligent.

Asgardian illuminations. Why does nobody talk about that?

Also the Tree Room.

Asgard’s defenses are A+

Don’t get me wrong, the battle scene is cool, but I feel like the time we watched the Asgardians trying to blow up the Dark Elves could have been better spent on the actual characters of the film.

Me watching Frigga’s funeral: what are these...emotions??? I’m feeling...things???

Frigga’s death is really sad, but if Thor TDW did anything right, it was actually killing off a character and giving the film some emotional stakes

Thor’s plan to bust Jane out of Asgard is great, I love it, I love how he explains each step and then we get footage of it being carried out

The consequences for all involved did include possible exile: Loki kicked out Odin, he could easily have sent Sif, Farandal, and Volstagg packing once he was on the throne

I just...could never get the hang of the fact that they traded Josh Dallas for Zachary Levi as Farandal. And Farandal has like zip screen time in Thor TDW and his lines are actually kind of lame. Everything about Farandal in this film bugs me.

Although after he helps Thor, Jane, and Loki escape, his 10-second fight with the guards is pretty well done.

Frigga’s death: Odin handles her face tenderly, but he’s looking up at Thor and Jane. He is distracted from his grief by blaming his wayward son and the Midgardian woman who was stupid enough to get the Aether stuck inside of her. As if that was completely her choice. As if she had asked Frigga to die for her.

Does Jane get PTSD from this?

Malekeith and the Dark Elves/Svarthaelfen are some kind of extreme anarchists or nihilists. Except they are trying to overturn the last 4.5 billion or so years of the progress and evolution of the current universe. Instead of adapting and moving on they just keep trying to tear down the new reality to make it go back to the old. Their hubris probably came from the fact that they had the Aether in the first place. Even their weapons are these mini black holes that utterly destroy whoever or whatever they land on, make space and matter collapse in on itself.

You have to hand it to Marvel for giving us villains that just want to destroy what they hate rather than conquer and rule

the Svarthaelfen live long lives. Longer than Asgardians. Granted Malekeith and his surviving followers have been in suspended animation for the last 5000. But Odin says the Asgardians have been fighting the Svarthaelfen for generations.

Everyone has their eyes on Odin at the funeral ceremony, waiting for him to give the signal to light the pyre. Waiting for him to let go.

I need more Odin spending time with his ravens please

Would the Dark Elves have been more creepy or less if they had spoken in English instead of a made-up language?

Malekeith has a relationship with the Aether. A long one. The Aether knows him and responds to him. He can use it as he pleases.

*Loki looking at Jane on their ride in Svarthaelfheim* “Oh, what I could do with all that power.” Loki knows what the Aether is too. Odin talks about the Infinity Stones offhandedly as “relics” in the Tree Room scene, so the Asgardians or at least the Royal family know about them kind of as legends of powerful things that exist. But Loki knows more than most...

Thor and Jane are really LUCKY that Loki didn’t need to get them killed to move forward with his plan

How DID Jane get on that date with Richard in the first place?

In all fairness to Jane Foster, she hasn’t really had that great of a love life. Thor is probably the first person she’s really connected with. At least in a long while. Really, if I was her, I would be pining for him--maybe not as badly as Darcy teases her about but just enough to be hurting

When Thor first shows up to pick her up he tries to explain to her what he’s been doing--but it’s like all gibberish to her. Yeah, you can tell that Thor still hasn’t spent that much time on Earth

Did anyone else notice that Jane and Darcy’s car was vandalized while it was locked and abandoned?

If Malekeith hadn’t showed up with the Aether, the Convergence might have just been a weird day in Greenwich

That’s got to be crazy, being able to see into eight other worlds at once

I didn’t realize it before this viewing but the sticks and the gravity fields that Jane and Selvig and Darcy and Ian were playing with were what actually saved the day, they just all got upstaged by Thor and his cool hammer tricks. Jane, Selvig, and Thor killed Malekeith together.

Thor was willing to give up his hammer why does no one talk about this?

Would the real Odin have been as “nice” to Thor as the fake one in that last scene?

Overall, Thor:The Dark World is still a great movie but it could have used stronger writing in some places. I appreciate Thor TDW the most when I’m watching it. And I guess if Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the MCU film that comes right after it, you’re going to have a harder time appreciating it, right?

I wish they had made Jane less helpless rather than just a helpless heroine who resents the position she’s in

That being said, though, I love the music score.

If Thor TDW is supposed to be a chick flick, then that explains why it’s my least favorite MCU film because I’ve never been a huge fan of chick flicks.

Asgard. Asgard’s mountains. Asgard’s back country. Asgard’s streets and buildings and architecture. Asgard’s waterfalls. Asgard. ASGARD!

Alternate Title: “Someone Should have Planned for this Emergency Better.”

[sweetdreamr]

thoughts on thor: ragnarok

I’m gonna preface this by saying that I really really wanted to like this movie. Like. Really.

But, as the Rolling Stones once said, we can’t always get what we want.

Be warned, this is long af.

Hits:

--Valkyrie--um, lethal, gorgeous, haunted by her past? Yes please. I’ve been a sucker for that one since my Xena fangirl days. Her bond with Hulk was also funny and warm (”Angry girl!��� made me smile, the more so because she seemed less angry around him.) It was nice to see somebody having fun around here.

--Hela-- Her costume was epic. I was antsy about what they’d do with her clothing, given that it can be pretty, uh, minimal in the comics sometimes. Fortunately that didn’t happen here. She was equal parts scary, funny, and seriously badass, and i enjoyed the parallels between her relationship with Odin, and that of Loki and Thor.

--Grandmaster was fucking hilarious and occasionally cruel, and who knew Jeff Goldblum could rock blue eye makeup like that?

--Fenris. I still wanna pet the puppy. Even undead he is floofy and gorgeous.

--Thor having to see Hulk naked. That’s karma, asshole.

--Loki’s costumes were fantastic, and his ability to be equally resilient yet able to charm his way into the Grandmaster’s good graces (and STAY there, since the Grandmaster is fickle af) is one of the few things about him that stayed in-character.

--It’s nice to see Loki supporting the arts in Asgard. Also, eating healthy is important. U go Loki.

--Matt Damon had the role of a lifetime as Loki. He may as well end his career now, since it’s not gonna get any better than that.

--Odin’s death scene was really beautifully done. Even if Odin suddenly being about to die made no fucking sense. At least he doesn’t seem pissed at Loki, and let us have a nice little moment between them.

--I liked the acknowledgement that Odin’s power and wealth has a really ugly history. For all Asgard’s beauty, it’s built on something truly hideous.

--Loki: “You had ONE JOB.”

--Thor is right about Hulk’s room and its stylistic choices. It was ugly af.

--Literally everything Heimdall. He gets better with every film, but goddamn does he need more scenes. Still, his hair looks great and he’s the unsung hero of the film.

--Thor losing his eye and becoming more like Odin, but hopefully better. Also, harnessing his lightning/thunder powers fucking ruled.

--”Oh? You’re the God of Hammers now?” Odin pls stop making me laugh. I’m trying to hate you over here.

Misses:

Oh boy here we go, strap in kiddies.

--Odin’s power and legacy is shown, as mentioned above, to come from true ugliness, and yet? He doesn’t have to answer for it at all, and instead dies a peaceful death. I liked that scene, don’t get me wrong, but what the fuck?

--Really, Loki? Skurge was the best replacement you could find for Heimdall? Maybe try Ziprecruiter or something next time?

--Thor. Um, has anyone seen this guy? Do you think he knows that some douchebag stole his outfit and is douching his way around the multiverse pretending to be the God of Thunder for most of the film? More on this later.

--Why would the realms have gone to hell after Loki assumed the throne? Nothing in his past within the films indicated to me that he’d be a poor ruler, certainly no worse than Odin. He might get bored with it, and come to dislike it, but Loki can and does do many things he doesn’t particularly like, and does them well. (Exhibit A: playing second fiddle to Thor, etc.)

--How the fuck did Loki’s spell drain Odin of his magic? Also, if Loki is that powerful, how the fuck did Dr. Strange manage to trap him for 30 seconds, let alone 30 minutes?

--Seriously, Odin’s death made no goddamn sense. At all.

--I’m calling a bam on Thor saying “I have a feeling it will all work out fine.” THOR. IT GETS WORSE AFTER YOU SAY THAT. EVERY TIME. STOP.

--Dr. Strange’s cameo was a waste of my fucking time. That’s like 20 minutes of my time that I will never get back. You’d think, being such an experienced actor, that Benedict Cumberbatch’s American accent would be way better, but it sounds awful. Like, really really awful. I’d rather fall for 30 minutes with Loki than have to listen to that auditory nightmare again.

--Who was Hela’s mother? (I mean given that her father is Odin, her mother could be pretty much ANYONE.) Not a big deal that we never found out, but it annoyed me anyway.

--Are we gonna talk about how Hulk has spent the last two years fucking murdering people?

--Also, how the fuck did Odin convince an entire kingdom (or NINE) that his daughter never existed? I’m assuming magic, but as the writers didn’t give enough of a damn to think this was worth explaining, I’m not about to theorize and do their job for them.

--WHY DID I HAVE TO BE SUBJECTED TO HULK’S NAKED ASS? WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO DESERVE HAVING TO SEE THAT WITH MY OWN EYEBALLS. THIS IS NOT OKAY.

--The Warriors Three died the most pointless fucking deaths ever, literally for no goddamn reason. There was no need to kill them off, since it would have been perfectly logical for Thor to send them to various parts of the realms to restore peace. Honestly, the only reason for their deaths that I can fathom would have been to increase Thor’s grief, but we never see him learn of their deaths or mourn them, so that can’t be it. Again, pointless.

Remember when I said I’d talk about Thor’s OOC behavior later? It’s later. And OH BOY do i have a lot to say.

--I’m about to contact the authorities and put in an MIA search for Loki and Thor’s character development. It was nowhere to be seen in this film. They were just tossed straight into their old cycle of betray, threaten, beat up. It’s stupid as fuck, and I’m really fucking annoyed that I have to sit through this again. Sometimes it’s entertaining but at this point? It’s just tedious.

I’d also like to point out that the initial relationship presented to us in the first Thor film was really not that cycle. It’s vaguely hinted at, but not completely spelled out. There was genuine love and affection punctuated by the occasional prank, but that’s pretty much all I got. While I recognize that the cycle is a central theme in the comics, the film versions are very, very different. That said, it makes giving the film characters the storylines of their comic book counterparts is a tricky business that needs to be handled a LOT better than it was here.

Spoiler alert: It was not handled well here. At all.

Oh, then there’s Thor’s repeated line of “That’s what heroes do”, which was reminiscent of this:

Not a great parallel to evoke, guys. I’m just saying.

Because last time I checked, heroes don’t leave their brothers tazed and convulsing on the floor. That’s not a hero move, that’s a dick move. Thor is supposed to have evolved from that, and bringing it back for the sake of punchline just feels like a cheap-ass way of getting laughs. (Yes, there’s the possibility that they planned this together, but again, I’m not wasting my time honeypotting for hack writers.)

I mean, the Thor we’ve been presented with so far is warm-hearted and smarter than most people think, and he does his best to make things right when he fucks up.

Except for this movie, apparently.

Also, while I didn’t mind Loki’s ‘looking out for ME’ mindset (it’s one of the few things that actually made sense--I mean fuck, who else is gonna do it?), Thor’s surprise at it was kind of ridiculous. What the fuck did you expect? It’s like he totally forgot that, at the end of the first film, he realized his role in inflicting damage onto Loki that helped to make him into what he was.

Instead it was like:

Um yes. Yes it fucking does. Does this negate Loki’s choices, or his actions? Fuck no. But it did play a role, so let’s at least acknowledge that, shall we? Having said that, it’s logical to conclude that continuing the same behavior that inflicted the initial damage is counterproductive at best. And a shitty creative choice if ever there was one.

Thor’s anger over Odin’s death, and Loki’s supposed causing of it (albeit intentionally) made sense, (i guess? i didn’t understand Odin’s death scene in case u hadn’t noticed) but it was done in such a weird way. “I hate you, oh no wait let’s banter, oh okay now i’m mad at you again, whoops no i’m not” all throughout the film. Conflicting feelings is one thing, but goddamn, pick a fucking flavor.

Also, what the fuck is Marvel’s issue with portraying psychological trauma? The way they do it, it’s like it isn’t even worth mentioning unless it can be played for laughs. (See: Naked Selvig running around in TDW, without much reference as to why he’s doing that. “Oh he’s naked hahaha”, yeah, let’s not treat this with any sympathy at ALL, good job Marvel.)

And in Loki’s case? Oh God. The whole scene where he sees Hulk again is just. So awful. That it’s played for laughs makes it worse. Loki getting his comeuppance from Hulk during the first film after trying to use him actually had purpose (Loki’s defeat and Hulk’s taking revenge at being used), but since he hasn’t done anything to Hulk during Ragnarok, it’s just not all that funny.

I mean, fucking hell, psychological trauma does have absurdities that can lend their way to humor, but doing it at the expense of the traumatized person is fucked up and gross. Whether or not the traumatized person is a nice person or not really doesn’t come into it. Or at least, it shouldn’t.

Myy good friend @icyxmischief has a lot of meta about this on her blog, and she’s way more eloquent than me, so please go read it. It’s amazeballs.

[bemynightmanager]

Okay, review time. In short: THOR RAGNAROK ROCKS!!!

Or maybe I should say  “ragnarocks!”? xD

Very minor spoilers possible, but I promise to avoid the bigger ones (I’ll hide them behind the cut).

First of all, this movie is hilarious and extremely entertaining, but every review starts with a similar comment, so I’ll just skip that part, okay?

Let’s start with the characters. I simply love the new Thor. Making him smarter, more cunning and more sassy was a perfect decision. Yeah, he’s different from the simple, pretty naïve man we met in the first movie, but hey, people evolve, and so do Norse gods, right? Maybe it’s a sudden change, but I don’t mind it. Because the new Thor rocks (yeah, I feel like I’m going to use this word a lot in this review^^).

Loki is just perfect. There was a lot of him, he had an important role in the whole plot, he was hilarious and mischievous and SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL! That face! That body! There is a scene in which Loki and someone (Valkyrie?) walk on a floor that is made of something like glass and it reflects those long legs of his so perfectly that I might have started drooling a bit. So yeah... well... back to the more important stuff. I’ve seen people complaining he’s the scapegoat/the butt of the joke here. I disagree. Yeah, he has a lot of such moments, but in my humble opinion they fit the overall mood and plot without taking anything from his character as we love it. Besides, he’s changed, evolved as well, and I buy it completely.

One of the brightest points of this movie for me was the relationship between Thor and Loki. It was everything I wanted it to be. It changed, evolved, and left me with so much feels! But first of all – it existed! Like, in the previous movies we don’t see them much as brothers (except for maybe that flying scene in TDW which is one of my favourites btw), while in this one they’re brothers all the time and I just love it! And that last scene between them was like SO MUCH FEELS! Besides (I hope this is not much of a spoiler) after that spot with Loki in chains saying “ouch” many of you guessed it right – Thor’s throwing things at his brother to make sure he’s real. It happens more than once in this movie and I loved this idea!

Hela was pretty okay as the villain. Not outstanding, but not bad either. At least better than Malekith :P She has some motivation, not a very great one maybe, but at least we can see she has it and she just revels in being bad. And Cate Blanchett is not only an amazing actress, she’s also so damn beautiful! Yeah, I might be a little gay for her. XD

Btw, Grandmaster is totally gay for Loki! XD I really enjoyed his character. Jeff Goldblum is hilarious.

Valkyrie is a great addition to the team, and Tessa was just perfect in this role. I hope we’ll see her more. She rocks!

The Hulk is another character that has evolved in an interesting way. As you’ve probably seen in the trailers, he talks. And he’s like a giant green toddler. I really liked him, but at the same time I missed Banner. And then Banner appeared and I started missing the Hulk. Why can’t I have them both at the same time? XD Btw, I won’t tell you what made Hulk change back into Bruce, but I can tell you that this was another of these SO MUCH FEELS moments. <3

I simply love that they gave a slightly bigger role to Heimdall. It was awesome and I don’t think I’ve ever loved him as much as I did in this movie. Also, I dig the new look^^

I’m surprised how much I turned out to like Skurge. He had a lot of personality given that he was supposed to be basically the villain’s sidekick. I could really see the reasons behind his actions and even though at some point his story arch became a bit predictable, I still think he was quite an interesting character.

Korg steals every scene he’s in, and that’s mainly thanks to Taika’s voice. I love him (yeah, seems like “love” is another word I’m using too much of).

I really liked the bit with Doctor Strange. It was hilarious, even though I wish we could see him interacting more with Loki (he mainly interacted with Thor – but this was awesome too!). Actually the same goes for Loki and Valkyrie. They had some great moments together, but I still think it was not enough. They have a great chemistry, I could watch their banter all day.

The Stan Lee cameo was awesome as well!

What else? Visually it’s great. I just loved how they depicted Sakaar. Surtur was cool. I loved the music. I was surprised they actually used Immigrant Song in the movie, I thought it was only for the trailer. But they use it in the actual movie, at least twice, yay! Yeah, I love this song. Another nice touch was the music that played in the scene when Thor (and us together with him) is first introduced to the Grandmaster and Sakaar. I’m not 100% sure if it was exactly “Pure Imagination”, but if not, it must have been extremely similar to it. And I think it was a very nice little reference which really fitted that moment.

My only major criticism is the pacing of the early part of the move, between the opening fight and Thor landing on Sakaar. While in the rest of the movie the pace was just perfect, in the beginning I felt like things were happening way too quickly. And they were very important things, crucial both to the development of the characters, their relationships, and their positions in the plot, and to the plot itself. And yet I didn’t have time to process them properly, because scenes were changing like a kaleidoscope. I’m really counting on the deleted scenes!

And btw, that scene from the trailer where Loki throws his knives into the air? IT’S NOT IN THE ACTUAL MOVIE! Taika, whyyyy?

PS. There are 2 post credits scenes, you really should stay and see at least the first one. 

A few major spoilers below the cut – if you haven’t seen the movie yet, I advise you to stop here

Here are a few spoiler-y comments in no particular order ;)

1. I was a bit disappointed in how quickly Volstagg and Fandral were killed. They weren’t maybe the most important characters of the Thor universe, but I think they deserved more. What point was there in bringing them back for literally one second? Luckily Hogun’s part was exactly what I expected it to be.

2. I absolutely loved the scene in which Thor said he wanted to be a Valkyrie when he was a little boy and was disappointed to learn that only women could join their ranks. <3

3. Loki’s reactions to the Thor/Hulk fight were perfect and hilarious and I love them, but I particularly loved the moment when Hulk smashed Thor like he had done with Loki in the Avengers – Loki’s leap of joy because “now Thor knows how if feels” was just the best!

4. And as we’re speaking of Loki’s reactions. I found them very interesting in Odin’s last scene. The fact that Loki didn’t say anything, didn’t try to argue, say that he’s not Odin’s son etc., but just walked quietly to him side by side with Thor when they were called – I think it tells a lot about the change that’s begun within him.

5. And as we’re speaking of Odin. I wonder who Hela’s mother could have been. I don’t think it was Frigga. In fact my very personal headcanon is that it was his marriage to Frigga that changed Odin and made him become a different, better and more peaceful ruler – and as a result cast Hela away. What do you think?

6. And the last one: do you think Loki took the tesseract when we was in the vaults to collect Surtur’s helmet/crown?^^

[lofi-muses]

Thor Ragnarok - a sort-of review.

Obviously, spoilers here!!! Don’t read until you watched the movie yourself or you don’t mind having most of the movie revealed.

First of all, I’d like to mention that I got opportunity to watch this movie in 4D. I won’t refer if the technology itself was good or bad (bc it depends on the cinema, not the movie itself), but it allowed me to engage more into this story than 2D or even 3D.

Things I actually enjoyed:

1. HELA. Oh, good Lord, Hela was the most badass female character I’ve seen. We don’t see enough of female villains which is a shame. Cate Blanchett owned it.  Hela was so powerful. Threatening. Beatuiful. Terrifying. Her seidr skills were absolutely amazing (even if a little op? *cough* mjollnir *cough*). I disagree with her backstory, but 10/10 would kneel to the Goddess of Death.

2. Thor and Loki being heroes. Together. Kind of fighting side by side and kinda not? It was a strange dynamic but overall it fitted them. They didn’t get along, there was a lot of bad blood between them but it felt like a beginning of something new.

3. Heimdall! My golden-eyed bae. He was a quiet hero, saving lives of hundereds, never for glory but simply because he knew it was right thing to do. Two previous movies didn’t care much for him, but I’m glad he got his chance to shine. 

4. The Grandmaster. I think Jeff Goldblum really loved this character and had a lot of fun during the making of the movie. He was so comfortable playing this gold-clad, face-painted weirdo. He was able to make the character not just comedic, but also threatening. Silly as the Grandmaster seemed, he was not a guy you wanted to mess with.

5. Friendship between Hulk and Valkyrie. Yes, wow, there was something I actually liked as far as Hulk is concerned even though I always hated this character.

6. Valkyrie. Ex-valkyrie with terrible past and drinking addiction. I think she was refreshing in a sense that she was completely not what I expected she would be. Valkyrie is incredibly skilled warrior and she’s remarkably smart. The creators didn’t try to cover up she’s been through some terrible events in her life. They didn’t try to cover up her drinking habit, either. It’s not often to see addiction and ptsd/depression showed so boldly, especially in female character. 

7. Loki’s powers. I had a sort-of personal headcanon where my muse learned to manipulate other’s minds without the mind stone. I was right! Loki was even powerful enough to contain Odin’s powers. He was enough to revive Surtr! And not the weakened Surtr from the beginning of the movie - he was a full-fledged GOD you would imagine, as huge as Asgard’s palace itself and powerful enough to destroy it completely.

8. Stan Lee’s cameo. LOVED IT.

Things I didn’t enjoy:

1. I still think the Hulk/Bruce was wholly unnecessary for the movie’s plot and the Sakaarian’s glorification of Hulk was annoying. Yes, Marvel, I remember your unloved green baby, but I still don’t like him so stop pushing me to. Not to mention Hulk is super op. HE IS STILL ONLY A HUMAN, GAMMA RADIATION OR NOT. HE SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DEFEAT LOKI OR THOR.

2. Loki being afraid of Hulk. Like, the honest fuck??? LOKI IS A SEIDRMADR. LOKI IS A WARRIOR. HE’S BEEN AROUND FOR A THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE HULK. EVEN IF HE WAS DEFEATED, I THINK LOKI WOULD AVENGE THIS SLIGHT.

3. The scene. The fucking cringy, dumb scene with theatre play of Loki and Thor. I just facepalmed throughout the entriety of it. It was unbearable to watch. I know it was supposed to be funny, but it was just cringy and stupid. No one even laughed at it. While I admit Loki WOULD make a big-ass golden statue of himself, this was just too much. If he wanted to make Asgardians remember him as a hero, he would be much smarter about it.

4. The whole “Loki is just dumb and stupid and he can’t do anything correctly” shebang. Staaahp... Loki is more than god of tricks. He’s god of lies, deception. THE Silvertongue. THE smartest guy among Asgardians, according to the myths.

5. Thor humiliating Loki. Multiple times.

6. Thor bashing Hulk for no fucking reason.

7. Thor being smartass, sassy fuck who thinks he knows everything better and who will always win just because he’s Thor Odinson, duh.

8. Thor acting like a two-faced bitch between Hulk and Bruce, making each believe he likes them more than the other.

9. Thor manipulating his friend into helping him, knowing that Bruce might not come back after he becomes Hulk again.

10. It seems like mature Thor we got in TDW went off to take a holiday break when this asshole Thor replaced him and is having the time of his life.

11. WHY DID YOU KILL OFF THE WARRIORS THREE? WHY DID THEY DIE LIKE THEY WERE NOTHING? WHY THOR NEVER ASKED ABOUT HIS BEST FRIENDS?

12. WHERE. IS. SIF?!

13. The whole Stephen Strange scene was unnecessary. Like... what the fuck. It felt so out of the blue and confusing.

14. What was that will ALL. THAT. SWEARING. Idk if it was just polish version of the movie, but there was just so much swearing? To the point I felt uncomfortable even though I like to throw some juicy cuss words? There were parents with kids watching the movie and I heard how displeased they were.

Things I’m not sure about:

1. Odin being a good papa to Loki. Odin put him in jail before and disowned him. Then, Loki took over and did even more damage and Odin’s acting like it never happened. Part of me strongly believes Loki deserved a lot of bashing from Odin. Other part of me is happy that this jackass got his final proof that he IS loved, despite everything he did. That he has family he’s part of.

 2. The ending suggested a possibility of Loki becoming a (chaotic) good character. I am happy that my lovely emo godling can get a happy ending for himself after all, but at the same time I’m not sure what the future movies will do with the opening TR gave. They could either screw up plot or Loki’s characterization. It’s going to be a challenging thing to write.

Overall:

As a movie, it was fun. It had action, it had humor, it had unique aesthetic. However, there were many things that need fixing. Thor’s characterization, for example. I thought he would grow, but we got this... I don’t know. The whole movie felt like a crossover fanfiction. A good fanfiction, but NOWHERE NEAR canon previous movies had set, not to mention the comics OR the myth. Oh, yeah... Except Ragnarok in the title and characters like Hela, Fenrir and Surtr appearing in it, it had absolutely nothing to do with Norse myth. Nothing. Hela’s origin will never stop bothering me the same as the fact that MCU’s Ragnarok was supposed to affect only Asgardians, not the whole Yggdrassil. Taika Waititi should’ve spent as much time including Norse culture as he did with Australian one.

[magicmastered]

Plot Holes in Thor: Ragnarok

If you don’t want to see criticism of Thor: Ragnarok, I suggest that you a) don’t read this, b) filter your tags, c) block me, or d) some combination of the above, instead of complaining in my notes. Then again, if you’ve spent any time on my blog, you know that.

Now....

I’ve already addressed that what with contradictory backstories and nonsensical characterizations, Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t seem like part of the MCU. As it turns out, those aren’t the film’s only failings. Ragnarok is loaded with plot-hole after plot-hole. Loaded. Some of them come from continuity from other movies. Some of them are completely within Ragnarok itself. Either way, the plot of this movie is a mess.

How many plot holes? In no particular order, here’s all the ones I’ve thought of....

1. How did Thor get to Muspelheim? He said he hadn’t used the Bifrost in a while, he can’t teleport or make portals, and we don’t see a spaceship anywhere when he comes to surface level. What happened?

2. What’s with Thor’s sudden disinterest in the Infinity Stones? He was pretty urgent about finding them in AOU. Now he just...doesn’t care, and is off investigating some recurring dream he’s been having.

3. “I thought my father killed you, like, half a million years ago.” What? Odin’s father Bor was king 5,000 (or 10,000, I’m not sure) years ago, wasn’t he? That’s what it says in TDW. How was Odin around so long before that? That doesn’t make sense.

4. The prophecy in Thor’s dreams involves uniting Surtur’s crown and the Eternal Flame to destroy Asgard. With that in mind, why does Thor proceed to bring Surtur’s crown to Asgard and send it to the Weapons Vault, where the Eternal Flame is kept?

5. When did Heimdall get banished? He was clearly still there in AOU, when Thor last called him, or Thor wouldn’t have been surprised to see Skurge controlling the Bifrost.

6. Speaking of AOU. When Thor called Heimdall then, where’d he go if not to Asgard? It sounded like he was going back to Asgard to find answers then. By the sound of it, he hasn’t been there since TDW. This is never addressed.

7. Where’s Sif? Apparently (according to Kevin Feige, I think) Loki banished her as Odin. Why? Did she get suspicious? Did she do something he didn’t like? Why does no one even mention her?

8. The Avengers are now “too corporate”. Huh? He hasn’t been around them since AOU, and he only left to investigate the Infinity Stones. Why are they suddenly “too corporate”?

9. Minor point, but who operated the Bifrost while Skurge was getting his “stuff”? He couldn’t have just left it open; that would’ve destroyed wherever he was.

10. How did Odin keep Hela a secret? There were obviously other Asgardians around when he was conquering the Nine Realms. What did he do to keep them quiet? Can he do mass memory-manipulation or something? Did he just have anyone he thought might tell killed?

11. Who’s Hela’s mom? She clearly wasn’t Frigga. No other wife of Odin was shown in the murals. Hela never mentioned her. Odin never mentioned her.

12. Where did Odin banish Hela to, anyway? To Hel? How does that work?

13. When was Hela banished? Odin only lost his eye a little over 1,050 years ago, at about the time of Loki’s birth. Presumably baby Thor was around at that point—and a whole lot of other Asgardians. She’s supposed to have been banished for so long that no one except Odin knows about her. So how does she know that Odin was missing an eye when it happened in what is (to Asgardians) recent history?

14. Why does Loki call the Bifrost back to Asgard when Hela’s within range? As I’ve seen someone put it before, this is like running into your house to escape a robber or murderer and leaving your door open. It’s not that hard to figure out.

15. How did Hulk get to Sakaar? Did he fly the Quinjet into a wormhole or something? How would it not have gotten torn apart? Valkyrie’s ship is made for space; it can go through some of the wormholes on Sakaar—but only some of them. Others can destroy it. The Quinjet isn’t meant for space travel. It’s just for transport on Earth. Wouldn’t it make sense for it to have been destroyed by a wormhole instead of just going right through it?

16. How did Loki not know that Hulk was the Grandmaster’s champion? There’s a massive sculpture of Hulk’s head on that tower, and Loki’s been there a couple weeks. It’d be hard not to notice. Add to that, the Grandmaster’s not shy about his games. Wouldn’t he have mentioned “his beloved champion” at some point?

17. When Hela’s making herself an army, she resurrects the fallen soldiers she led when she and Odin were conquering the Nine Realms. Then she completely ignores the horde of Einherjar that she’d just killed. Wouldn’t it make sense to zombify them too? That’d make a bigger army, wouldn’t it? Why does she ignore them?

18. “I thought all the Valkyries had died gruesome deaths.” Mostly they did. Hela killed all but one. Except nobody except Odin knew about Hela. So who did Loki think had killed the Valkyries? Why would Odin allow people to tell stories about the Valkyrie when that would inevitably raise uncomfortable questions as to where they all went? What was his official story?

19. Hela’s urgency in finding the Bifrost sword. Is that now the only way to operate the Bifrost? Odin and Loki have both used Gungnir to open the Bifrost before. Does that not work anymore? Does Hela not know about that? Is it a recent addition? Or is she just ignoring it so she has an excuse to go hunt down the rebels?

20. “The reward was simply too great.” The Grandmaster never mentioned a reward when he ordered Loki and Valkyrie to bring in Thor and Hulk. He said that he’d woken up that morning thinking about a public execution. Basically, one of them would bring in Thor and Hulk, and the other would get killed. Nothing about any money or reward. So why does Loki say he’s betraying Thor for a reward?

21. Thor and co. took down the obedience disk system when they were starting the rebellion. Then Thor puts an obedience disk on Loki and it still works. How? Does that disk have its own individual system or something?

22. How does Loki not pass out from the obedience disk? It makes Thor pass out within settings. As some have suggested, does it have different settings? Does Loki have a higher pain threshold than Thor after his time with Thanos? Why doesn’t Thor notice this?

23. Thor leaving Loki in the hangar with the obedience disk. He couldn’t possibly know that Loki was going to get out of it at any point. Loki could’ve gotten killed. No telling what would’ve happened. Did Thor just not care?

24. The Grandmaster and Topaz came into the hangar to escape the rebellion. Loki is also in the hangar, incapacitated by the obedience disk. How do they not see him? He’s not exactly hidden or anything.

25. Does Gungnir suddenly echo through all of Asgard when dropped a little to the floor? Before it only really echoed in the throne room itself, and served as a signal to the Destroyer. Can it now be heard all the way from the mountains? Apparently so.

26. More on Gungnir. Loki and Odin have used it to shoot blasts before. Thor uses it only as a spear/staff. Wouldn’t he want to use its full abilities to fight Hela? Does he not know how to make it blast like Loki and Odin do? Can Gungnir only blast when Odin’s alive or something?

27. Why does Loki come back to Asgard after Thor basically told him that he wasn’t quite good enough as he was, and that he had to do what Thor said to be good enough? Historically, Loki doesn’t take rejection well. And Thor just left him getting his blood superheated for an unknown length of time. Is he simply that loyal to Asgard? If he’s still that loyal, why did he try to stop Thor from going back in the first place?

28. “You’re late.” How did Thor know Loki was going to come back? He had no way of knowing that no one would find Loki when he left him incapacitated in the hangar. For all he knew the Grandmaster or Topaz or some of the Sakaaran guards could’ve found Loki and executed him for killing some of the other guards.

29. Where’s the rest of Asgard’s population? Asgard’s got an army big enough to control nine Realms. That size of an army would need a big population to support it. Heimdall’s not leading that big of a population. Where’d they all go? Did Hela kill them all? Wasn’t she only killing rebels? They can’t all have rebelled. Were they all still in the city? Does that mean Thor and Loki basically killed their own people via Surtur?

30. WHY did Heimdall not see Thanos’s ship coming? Wasn’t he supposed to be looking ahead for danger? Doesn’t that massive ominous-looking ship carrying an omnicidal cult count as danger?

Wow. Ragnarok’s plot would be shaky even as a standalone. With the rest of the MCU around it? It shatters.

@lucianalight @mastreworld @lokiloveforever @miskiett Am I missing any?

[magicmastered]

Plot Holes in Infinity War

If you don’t want to see criticism of Infinity War, I suggest that you don’t read/filter your tags/block me.

Now.

Avengers: Infinity War is one of Marvel’s biggest movies, being among the longest MCU movies and quite successful in the box office. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it’s a great movie. The storyline that calls itself a plot is smashed together in whatever manner makes a few specific scenes happen. That style of writing has its trademarks—plots that could almost be used as cheesecloth. I’m not kidding; there’s tons of them. Some are within the movie. Some fly in the face of the rest of the MCU.

Here’s all the plot holes that I can think of. After the first couple scenes the chronological order gets messed up a little, but here goes.

1. Starting at the beginning here. So...Loki has the Tesseract. Why didn’t he use it to make a portal to get the Asgardian refugees out (or as many as he can, anyway)? We know he can use it. Why didn’t they just start a ship-chase to buy a little time and use that time to evacuate?

2. So, Loki knows Thanos, right? He’d know Thanos’ M.O. Wouldn’t he know that Thanos would go for Thor? Why not stuff Thor in his pocket dimension beforehand? Did Thanos and the Black Order block him from doing that? That’s not what I remember seeing. Loki was standing off sort of on his own at the very beginning of the scene.

3. Where has the Hulk been? Yes, “we have a Hulk” is a cool callback and it looks good as an entrance, but wouldn’t a Hulk be good to have when Thanos and the Black Order were slaughtering the Asgardian refugees? Why was he staying back the whole time? It doesn’t make sense. If he hadn’t been staying back, Thanos and co. would’ve known about him, and the surprise-attack wouldn’t have been a surprise. Was he just sitting on his butt listening to the refugees dying until he heard the words “we have a Hulk”?

4. Once Hulk does attack, Loki dives for Thor and drops the Tesseract. What. Why not just hold onto the Tesseract, grab Thor, and portal out of there? Wouldn’t that make more sense than dropping it for someone else (Ebony Maw) to pick up?

5. Heimdall. Why does Heimdall rescue the Hulk instead of Thor, Loki, or both? He’s known Hulk for maybe a day or two. He’s known Thor and Loki for over a thousand years. What’s going on with that? Why does he save the one he just met as opposed to the ones he’s known since their infancy?

6. More about Heimdall. Since when has he been able to summon the Bifrost? This is a major point of TDW. If Heimdall had been able to summon the Bifrost without the actual structure, Thor and co. wouldn’t have had to break Loki out of prison. How can he suddenly do it now? Why hasn’t he used it before?

7. Where did Loki go during the Hulk-vs-Thanos fight? He disappears after going for Thor for several minutes. Where to? I know people have brought this up before, but I want to know.

8. Why doesn’t he stay there? He’s stuck in a ship with five people who’ve just killed half the refugees his risked his life to rescue, who’d be more than happy to kill him (at best), and they’re more or less ignoring his presence where he currently is. Why go out and deliberately draw their attention?

9. Loki attacking Thanos at all. What is Loki doing?! He knows Thanos better than any other protagonist on that ship. He just saw Thanos beat Hulk one-on-one. Why does he think this is something he should do?!

10. More on that stupid, stupid attack. Loki’s got plenty of powers and abilities. Super-strength, durability, insane reflexes, freaky intelligence, combat skills, ice manipulation, illusions, invisibility, teleportation (this is canon, check out Thor: Heroes and Villains), shapeshifting, telekinesis, off the top of my head. I probably forgot something. Loki overpowered Odin. He has all this and likely more at his disposal, and he attacks Thanos with what? A knife. One knife that barely reaches Thanos’s throat.

11. Another thing about this attack. Considering the above, he probably knew he was going to die. So why did he do it? People say that he was sacrificing himself for Thor. Except...him dying wouldn’t have stopped Thanos at all. Thanos could’ve just killed Thor after Loki’s death. Loki dying or Loki being alive wouldn’t change a thing. And besides, Thanos all but did that anyway when he blew up the ship.

12. Thanos killing Loki. The Russos said that Thanos killed Loki for ‘disobedience’. Presumably this means Loki’s ‘disobedience’ in Avengers (2012). But...death is not what Thanos (or his underling the Other, rather) threatened Loki with for failure/disobedience. The threat was, “if you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon or crevice where he can’t find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something sweet as pain.” That is...not death. Definitely not what Thanos actually did.

13. Still more on Thanos killing Loki. Let’s look at the insane stuff Loki’s survived so far: falling into an unstable wormhole (in the prequel comics, Odin claims that this should have scattered Loki across the universe), a year of torture from Thanos, getting thrashed by the Hulk (who’s nearly as strong as Thanos), taking a sword through his chest and back, and getting knocked out of the Bifrost (note that Thor seems somewhat surprised with his “you’re alive!” in Ragnarok). And now apparently getting his neck broken is going to kill him.

14. Okay, finally done with the first scene. How did Heimdall know about the Sanctum? How did he know to send Bruce/Hulk there? How did he know about Strange? Thor and Loki didn’t know that Earth had wizards in Ragnarok. How does Heimdall know? Did they tell him? When? They’ve been pretty busy.

15. Dr. Strange keeps a list of threats, but he doesn’t know about Thanos. He doesn’t even seem to know that a threat so large exists. I suppose this could be a case of Thanos simply never having been to Earth, but it still seems off. Wouldn’t Strange at least know that there’s something huge out there? Given that the Masters of the Mystic Arts know about beings around the multiverse and all.

16. How does Bruce know so much about Thanos and the Infinity Stones, or that Thanos sent Loki? He knows what Thanos does. He knows that Thanos is after the Stones. How? No one tells him this stuff onscreen. Was there some mysterious conversation somewhere between Ragnarok and Infinity War where everyone shared all the information that they had? Wouldn’t they have been busy organizing the refugees in the ship/finding quarters for everyone/figuring out how to get food and water for the trip? You know, stuff that’d seem more immediately relevant?

17. How does Thor know that the Aether was on Knowhere? This is never discussed onscreen. I’m seriously suspecting that info-dump conversation. But still, why were they having an info-dump conversation? Wouldn’t the things mentioned in item 15 be more immediate concerns? It’s not like they all knew that they were about to need this information.

18. Thanos’s plan and “making sense”. No plot-hole list of IW would be complete without this. Thanos believes that there is too much life in the universe for its resources to sustain. For the sake of argument alone, I’ll assume that he’s correct for the duration of this point on the list. Thanos has decided that in order to save all life in the universe, he needs the Infinity Stones to “balance” the ratio of life to resources. Okay, that’s fairly logical. He can do anything with the Infinity Stones. Here comes the weird part. He decides that the only way to “balance” the universe is to kill half of all life...including (according to the Russos) plants and animals. AKA resources. Remember, he’s devoted decades at minimum to the development of this plan. And this is the best he can come up with. He’s got unlimited power. Couldn’t he use the Space and Reality Stones to move beings around to other planets with more resources? Couldn’t he use the Reality Stone to make more resources? No, gotta kill half the life he’s ‘trying to save’ and the resources they use as well. That doesn’t change the ratio at all. It doesn’t accomplish his stated goal.

19. Gamora. How does Gamora know what the Soul Stone is? The Collector had to explain Infinity Stones to her as well as the rest of the Guardians in GOTG Vol 1. So how would she know what the Soul Stone was, let alone where it was?

20. What exactly did Thanos do to the Zen-Whoberi (I think that’s how you spell Gamora’s species)? In IW, Thanos says that the remaining population of her planet is thriving. However, in GOTG Vol 1, it’s stated onscreen that Gamora’s the last of her species. Did Thanos kill all the Zen-Whoberi or half of them? If the latter, did the other half die off because—gasp!—his plan hadn’t worked on their planet? In that case, is Thanos just even more massively deluded than I previously thought, is he lying, or is it someone else who’s thriving on Gamora’s home-world?

21. How did Steve, Sam, and Nat wind up exactly where Wanda and Vision needed them to be? They’d moved quite a bit from their initial location during the fight with Proxima and Corvus. I know, I’m nitpicking, but still.

22. How does Nat, an unpowered but skilled human, manage to overpower Corvus Glaive, a member of the Black Order who’s presumably far stronger and also highly skilled? Yeah, she took him by surprise, but it shouldn’t have been easy at the very least.

23. Steve denying Vision the choice to sacrifice himself. As others have pointed out, Steve made a very similar decision back in CA:TFA. He chose to dive a plane into the ocean, which would—he thought—kill him, to save many lives. Now, Vision’s decided that Wanda should destroy the Mind Stone in his forehead, which would kill him, to save many more lives. Why is Steve denying Vision the ability to make the choice that he made himself? (Hint: It’s so they can have a cool-looking final battle to save Vision and then have him die anyway.)

24. Speaking of destroying the Mind Stone. Isn’t destroying Infinity Stones supposed to be impossible? This was another major point in TDW. Jane only came across the Aether (Reality Stone) in that movie because there was no way to destroy it and Bor had to settle for hiding it. Malekith gets the Aether because they still couldn’t destroy it. Infinity Stones are either indestructible or they’re not. Which is it?

25. “We don’t trade lives,” says Steve, right before he decides to trade hundreds if not thousands of Wakandan lives to save the life of his friend (who’d already decided that he wanted to sacrifice himself). Um, what?

26. T’Challa agreeing to risk his countrymen is iffy. He’s agreeing to send hundreds (if not thousands) or his people to their deaths to save one person with a lengthy, experimental procedure. And again, that one person has already voiced the opinion that they should just destroy the Mind Stone while they still can, whether it kills him or not. Wouldn’t T’Challa respect that decision, especially since it’s the one that saves the most lives?

27. When the Titan crew pins Thanos, why are they just trying to take the gauntlet off his hand? Tony at least has been in/witnessed (it’s been a while since I saw IM3) a fight that involved cutting off the villain’s hand. Wouldn’t he have thought of this during the planning stage? They could’ve stuck Thanos’ wrist through one of Dr. Strange’s portals and cut it off. No gauntlet, no snap.

28. How does Thor know to come to Wakanda? I get that he knows there are Infinity Stones on Earth. But last time he was on Earth, Vision was in New York, wasn’t he? How would he know that Vision was now in Wakanda? How would he know that the battle was there? Does Rocket have an Infinity Stone-sensing device? Why didn’t this come up?

29. Why did Thor go for Thanos’ chest? Thor generally goes for the head when he’s fighting. Except, of course, for this time. Why? Wouldn’t he want to make absolutely sure that Thanos was dead? (Besides so Thanos could win?)

30. If not the head, why didn’t Thor at least go for the gauntlet hand? In TDW his and Loki’s plan to deceive Malekith involved Loki pretending to cut Thor’s hand off so he couldn’t use his weapon. Wouldn’t Thor have some vague memory of the whole ‘if you remove your enemy’s weapon hand, they won’t be able to fight’ thing?

I guess it’s pretty obvious where I spent most of my time looking.

I’ve probably forgotten some, seeing as I watched this thing, what, one and a half times last year, when it came out and shortly afterwards. Any additions?

@lucianalight @lokiloveforever @philosopherking1887 @mastreworld

[originaljediinjeans]

MCU Rewatch: “Thor:Ragnarok” (2017)

The background Asgardians. The womens’ hairstyles. The outfits. I can’t get enough of it. I need a photo album of ALL their costumes. *drool*

Seriously, though, if the ancient Norse/Vikings had had unlimited wealth and technology, what would they have worn?

Sutur: “You have seen Ragnarok, the fall of Asgard, the--” Thor interrupts him as he turns around on his chain--DUDE NO HE WAS ABOUT TO SAY SOMETHING WHAT WAS IT???

One of my friends commented recently that this movie needed to be more serious. At first I agreed with him. But as I was watching Ragnarok tonight I was like, “How could this get any more serious than Hela killing everybody?”

Thor’s...personality difference from the previous 4 films is unsettling. Clearly he’s been through a lot of crap since he left Earth 2 (Earth) years ago. Is he coping with it by being as sassy as possible? 

Also, you’d think Thor would know better than to touch Doctor Strange’s stuff!

Do Asgardians have that poor taste in theater?

Sir Anthony Hopkins as Loki pretending to be Odin is perfection. Clearly Loki has let his guard down, in that scene he isn’t even trying to pretend he’s someone else.

I also love the part where Odin is talking to his sons before he turns into glitter. Seriously, props to Sir Anthony. Thank you for being in the MCU

This is the first time Thor has realized that Loki is alive since he last left Asgard. It’s been like 5 years since TDW--he’s been back but he clearly wasn’t hanging around long enough to figure out something was up with Odin. There’s bigger stuff happening in the cosmos, Thor has been dealing with that.

Asgardians literally get “twinkled” lol

Why didn’t Thor call for his hammer while he was in Sutur’s cage?

Valkyrie is a really resourceful scavenger. She’s been doing this for a while. Where else in the cosmos has she been? How did she end up on Sakkar? Has she tried to escape? Did she end up there and decide to stay because she hit bottom (like more depressed from her grief than she was at the time of the battle)? Does she know who Thor is? 

You would think Asgard would have bigger weapons, like tanks and catapults or even rockets or cannons. Maybe Loki decided on disarmament.

I’m surprised that there is so much garbage on Sakkar. Couldn’t they find a way to recycle it? like use the materials to make buildings and cities? Give people real jobs? Maybe there isn’t much incentive because Sakkar is surrounded by wormholes and they can’t get out without difficulty.

I get why they cut out Jane, Darcy, Selvig, Sif and the Warriors Three and decided to take the story a new direction and raise the personal stakes for Thor but still it feels disconnected--like, there are fans who care about those characters, why you gotta ignore them?

Thor is really lucky that his haircut didn’t turn out worse than it did. 

That being said, Thor with long hair > Thor w/ short hair...although I’m not sure the long hair would go as well with the eyepatch.

The people on Sakkar are really poor, really hungry, and really desperate. I’m not sure the scavengers who found the Grandmaster in the post-credit scene even knew who he was or what had happened. Having Hulk as their gladiator hero might be the one thing going for them. No, really. 

Thor reciting the last rites for Odin in the gladiator prison and then Loki coming in and quoting with him--that scene resonates with me

Thor is, like, REALLY BITTER about everything, especially Loki. He blames Loki for their father dying (whereas Odin died a perfectly natural death). Before now, I’ve come away from watching this movie feeling like this is the best their relationship has ever been since Loki fell into the void/New York. But today, you can see that the conflict and mistrust is still there, and for good reason. The gulf between them is huge.

*the whispered conversation between Thor and Loki in the Grandmaster’s party room tee hee*

The battle with Hulk: After the first few minutes of the fight, Loki isn’t just scared for himself, he’s scared for Thor getting himself killed

Did Hela raise Fenris from a puppy? Was Fenris her pet that she cared about a lot and not just her battle steed/murder buddy? A part of me wants to think she was soft about something rather than just all evil. 

Is Heimdall’s hair magic? Do Asgardians have magic hair? Is that an ability they have to unlock themselves?

Thor had a working relationship with the Hulk when he was with the Avengers, not just Natasha. I think Thor could also do the “sun’s going down” thing on Hulk and it would work. Hulk respects Thor enough to do him a favor

But notice when Thor tries it during the Hulk fight: it seems to work, but then Hulk just loses it and smashes him, like he knew what Thor was trying to do

Thor’s scenes with Bruce Banner also show how much he cared about the other members of the O6. They weren’t the best of friends but they were bonded.

Hulk tells Thor that he’s “always angry.” Hulk has been in Hulk mode for two straight years because he’s been dealing with disappointment--that was how hurt he was by the events of AoU that he just can’t let go of it--maybe Hulk trying to “protect” Banner from having to deal with the emotional baggage. The line “Earth hates Hulk” is also very telling

After all the criticism and debate about Age of Ultron it’s very validating that Taika Watiti didn’t erase what happened

Hulk calls Valkyrie “Angry Girl.” He relates to her.

Is Hulk’s bed a monster he killed?

I can totally imagine how it went down when Hulk was found on Sakkar: Grandmaster: What do they call you? Hulk: I AM HULK!

“D--n you, Stark.” XD

Seriously, though, when Thor looks out Hulk’s window and sees the QuinJet, it pains him because that QuinJet used to be home to him and the Avengers. And that pains ME too. And then Hulk goes and breaks everything--did Thor hit that particular button on purpose?

Valkyrie claims she wants to forget everything that happened to her--and yet she held on to her sword, and Thor found her armor lying around. Huh. Well, I think it’s for the same reason she decides to join up with Thor and Bruce in the end--deep down, she’s still a Valkyrie, she still takes her oath and her calling seriously.

I think she wanted to forget her real name. She just lets the Grandmaster call her 142 and she never is addressed as anything else. It makes sense calling her ‘Valkyrie’ in that case. Whoever she was when her sisters were massacred, that part of her died with them.

From that line that Korg dropped, there have been other Asgardians on Sakkar. 

The flashback to the Valkyries’ massacre is the saddest part of the movie hands down.

Loki wanted to stay on Sakkar and forget, too.

Bruce Banner does look kinda like Tony with those glasses on

*Thor and Loki casually blowing the security guards to bits while having a discussion about their dysfunctional relationship* 

I wonder if Thor taught “get help” to the other Avengers. 

Thor tapping the end of the spear on the ground: it is a summons to the royal court. It is Asgardian tradition. He knew it, and so did Hela. 

Did Skurge really fight with the Beserkers and kill his fellow Asgardians as they were trying to escape? Or did he just stand in the middle of the zombies and watch?

The people in the spaceship were watching. They saw what Skurge did. They saw him die for them. 

I am just so proud of the fact that “Des” and “Troy” were from “Tex-as”

When Bruce falls out of the Grandmaster’s ship onto the Bifrost and faceplants and he just KNOWS he failed to Hulk out

Hela is just FABULOUS and I love her

Is Hela that overpowered because she IS the “firstborn”?

Thor already KNOWS how to do the magic skype with Heimdall. That can’t have been the first time he’s done it. 

Heimdall worked overtime in this movie and he has my respect.

Can Bruce have panic attacks without turning green?

Tony’s pants still fit when Bruce went Hulk on Asgard? Do they share clothes? Or was that an Avengers’ contingency measure?

Loki’s battle with Valkyrie is SO COOL. And then he triggers the flashback and boy she is TICKED, yeah I’d chain him up too

I think Hela seriously believed that she could take on Sutur and win. Wow, that’s some hubris you’ve got there, sis.

It can look like Thor doesn’t plan things very well, and maybe that’s true sometimes. The truth is, though, on Sakkar he was more or less planning his escape the entire time. Scouting out where he was being held prisoner. Making friends with other prisoners. Getting people on his side. Figuring out what his resources were. (Maybe he learned some tips from Cap? But that doesn’t seem fair, Thor has centuries of experience as a warrior to Steve’s ten.) As soon as Loki revealed that he had stolen the access codes and he was willing to share them, everything was in place. And he had a plan for dealing with that little twit when he betrayed him. Thor deserves more credit for his leadership and people skills than we give him.