#my own take of marvel mcu lore

[boncottontail]

Chapter 3 of my QSMP x Marvel fic, Along Came A Spider, is now up!

Link here 🫶

[griefpersevering]

to celebrate fanfiction friday, reblog this and share your favourite marvel fics (whether they're your own or someone else's!!) so we can all find something to read over the weekend <333

[giuseppe-yuki]

friendly neighborhood boyfriend

spiderman!esteban ocon x reader

w.c.: 4.3k

warnings: curse words, mentions of violence

summary: WHY were your boyfriend’s clothes always scuffed up, his body always bruised, and his hands so freaking sticky??

a/n: sorry to any hardcore marvel and spiderman fans if there are any huge inaccuracies... i know close to nothing about the to the mcu spiderman lore besides a few watches of tom holland's spiderman movies so errr yeah.

picture credits from pinterest :)

present

three whole hours of doing nothing but waiting on your boyfriend’s stupid bunk bed had to be a new record- you’re sure of it. if there was a contest for this niche topic, you would literally be the reigning world champion. your last personal best was an hour and a half, which seemed pretty long, but was definitely miniscule to this new groundbreaking achievement of three hours. 

you were heavily considering filing a missing person’s report before the telltale noise of his squeaky fire escape window opening and the soft “thump” of his shoes landing on the carpet sounds in your ears.

estaban slips in like a ninja of some sort, which makes you roll your eyes. he innocently re-adjusts his clothes and brushes off any offending pieces of dust that had landed on his school backpack as if he didn’t just climb through his freaking window, seven stories up. you finally speak up when he reaches his hand towards the window panel. 

“what is the excuse this time, huh? did you like, take a detour to save the entire city of new york in the three hours it took for you to travel from our high school to your own house?” 

esteban freezes half-way in the middle of closing his window, looking alarmed, before his face morphs into a guilty frown when he sees you with your arms crossed on his blue bedspread. 

“i’m so, so, sorry baby!” he exclaims, hurriedly sliding the window all the way shut with a bang. “something came up again- i swear! i- i can explain! please don’t be mad at me!” 

you just sigh and roll your eyes, watching as esteban, like always, stutters out an excuse for his lateness as he peels off his mangy jacket that, more often than not, was dirt-coated. it was after-school detention a few days ago, an unplanned stop at the grocery store last week, and heavy traffic the week before that.

”let me guess… you got stuck in an elevator? subway delays? or maybe traffic again?”

”yes…?” esteban responds, nervously wringing his hands under your harsh glare. 

when it is clear you are not going to let up, he quickly reaches into his backpack, a mangled and stained piece of cloth that looked like it was on its last life, and pulls out a rather flattened object wrapped with wax paper. 

he holds it out to you like an apologetic offering.

“i also stopped by delmar’s deli grocery on my way back and got you your favorite - ham, cheese, pickle on french bread with mustard, grilled and pressed real flat,“ he says quietly.

you suppose you can forgive him- this time.

“alright,” you huff, taking the sandwich from his hand. “i guess i forgive you.” 

esteban brightens up almost immediately, and quickly skirts around the half-built lego death star littered on his bedroom floor to jump into his bed next to you as you take a huge bite from the sandwich. 

besides the fact that it was a little cold from sitting in your boyfriend’s backpack for a little while, it tasted absolutely scrumptious. 

in the minutes it takes for your boyfriend to lay his lanky self horizontal on the bed and place his head in your lap so you can rake one of your hands through his short black hair, you scarf down the last of the sandwich.

“merde!” he notes from your lap, looking at the empty spot in your hand where he swore the sandwich was a second ago. “was it that good?” 

you laugh, patting the top of his head. 

“of course- mr. delmar always makes the best-“

almost immediately, you are distracted by the most ginormous hole in his shirt that you were surprised you hadn’t noticed before. it lies on the area where his shoulder meets his neck, probably hidden from his jacket when he came in, but visible from the angle from above his head. the edges of the hole look burnt.

what the fuck? 

esteban looks at you quizzically when you pause your sentence. 

“-best..?”

“sorry, i got distracted by the biggest hole you have in your shirt right now,” you giggle, jokingly poking at the soft skin visible from where the hole resides.“did you blow something up in chemistry and get acid on your shirt or something?”

instead of laughing though, he hisses and shrinks away from your touch almost immediately.

you snatch your hand back with a gasp, feeling terrible for hurting your boyfriend, even if you didn’t mean to. 

“i-i-i’m so sorry,” you stutter out. “i didn’t know…?” 

”no, no, no, it’s fine- i’m fine- it’s all okay,” he says reassuringly, yet he still sits up and adjusts his shoulder gingerly.

”did someone beat you up at school, este?” you ask slowly, searching his face for answers. 

this isn’t the first time he came home with bruises on his body. bullies were the only possible explanation, and it wasn’t out of the park, considering there were some pretentious assholes at school who you knew openly disliked your boyfriend for no reason whatsoever. 

reaching up and placing a hand comfortingly on your shoulder, he looks you in the eye. 

“baby, thank you for your concern, but i’m okay- i promise- i just ran really hard, um, backwards, into a shelf, and there was this whole big thing about somebody dropping some cigarette ashes onto a part of my shirt, so that explains the whole burnt hole scenario.”

you obviously don’t buy it, but you still, you nod, hesitantly.

esteban smiles at you and squeezes your shoulder once reassuringly, before starting to turn back around to sprawl himself back in your lap.

however, to your horror, when he lifts his hand off of your shirt, it sticks to his hand like it’s superglued there. 

???

in your state of confusion, your boyfriend’s eyes widen and he yanks his hand back from your shirt, almost propelling you off of the bed from the force he exerts. 

“what the fuck was that, este?” you screech, looking at the shoulder at your shirt to see if there were somehow remnants of whatever magic your boyfriend used to temporarily glue his hand to your shirt. 

there isn’t, really- just a small white stain of sticky, web-like fluid?

”i’m sorry, i’m sorry,” he repeats, hands held high in the air away from you.

at this point, you snap. 

“esteban ocon, you need to explain right now. i just went through, like, five different emotions in the last five minutes, and i don’t know what just happened, but as your girlfriend, i need you to tell me why you always show up with your clothes scuffed up, body bruised, and fingers all sticky???” 

“i don’t,” he defends desperately.

you sigh. 

”let’s take a trip down memory lane, huh? last saturday?” 

last saturday 

your little kitten heels clack against the pavement, shiny and sleek against the dirty grime-covered grey of new york’s sidewalks. you wore it on purpose, obviously, along with one of your favorite outfits that you knew would leave esteban drooling. the hazy sky orange sky bleeds into black behind you, but the always-on lights of new york light up your jewels, leaving a shiny hue around your neck. 

the restaurant that you had booked almost a month in advance loomed overhead, fairy lights around its exterior that you knew would perfectly set the mood for you and your boyfriend’s two-year anniversary dinner. 

“yeah, i’m almost there,” you parrot back to your boyfriend on the phone as you squeeze through a group of noisy tourists who were- quite rudely- taking up the entire sidewalk. “i’m at the corner, like, a minute away from the french restaurant-“ 

before you can finish your sentence, a shrill scream from among the crowd of people interrupts. 

“hey! give me back my bag!”  

a masked man whips past you, knocking straight into a pretty girl in gym workout clothes nearby.

the giant protein shake in her hand flies out of her hand, and it is almost like slow motion when its contents splash across your clothes. 

“fuck!” you yelp. 

the shake is cold as it drips down the entire side of your right side. it smells like cookies and crème. 

esteban’s voice sounds frantic on the other side. 

“what? what? baby, are you okay? i’m on the way, just hold on!”

with the rise of crooks and supervillains in new york lately, it was no wonder that he sounded worried. 

“i’m fine,“ you reassure him. “just- let me call you back- there’s a situation where i’m at,” you reply quickly, glaring at the backside of the masked man who continues to scamper down the road with a bright pink purse that obviously didn’t belong to him. 

you jam the red “end call” button on your phone just in time to see the girl offer you a semi-moist gym towel. a monogrammed “abbi” is stitched on the edge. 

”i’m so, so, sorry!” the girl- abbi- blurts out apologetically. “i just left the alpine gym a block away and that-“ she gestures over to the man, who was now leaping across lanes of new york traffic, “-absolute dick just pushed me! i can, like, pay for your dry cleaning, if you want?” 

you start to reassure her, using the towel to dab up some of the bigger chunks of protein shake and unmixed powder, when, in the corner of your eye you spot a flash of red, blue and black from the metal scaffolding of a nearby construction site.

abbi’s mouth drops in amazement. 

“is that-?”

you stop dabbing the towel and turn, only to find the great superhero of the new york- the one and only spider-man- swing down onto the concrete, barely missing the tips of your heads.  

well, great. thanks, spiderman, for conveniently showing up now, you think. 

“hey ladies, no worries, i got this!” spider-man shouts, throwing finger guns at you both before sprinting towards the crook. 

he propels himself like a freaking rocket across the street onto the masked man with the purse, sending the both of them into a dirty puddle on the gutter of the sidewalk. they scuffle for a bit before spider-man successfully knocks out and ties the crook, semi damp and scuffed up, onto a nearby pole. 

huffing with exertion, he stands back up before swinging with his webs over the heavy traffic and back towards you and abbi with the bag hoisted on his shoulder. 

landing with a soft thump, he stiffly extends the bag out towards the pair of you, arm straight at a 90 degree angle with his body. 

“um, is this yours?” spider-man asks, voice barely muffled through his mask.

it wasn’t every day that an average new yorker saw spider-man in real life. he seemed a little- taller than you expected. and a little more…awkward.

“no, no, it’s not,” abbi says quickly. she looks starstruck, hand limply holding the half-empty shake container and the other barely gripping the dirty monogrammed towel you gave back.

“yeah, it’s not ours,” you say in support. “i think it was some lady way behind us.” 

spider-man scratches his head. 

“oh,” he says. “um, well okay.”

there’s a slight pause before he continues. 

“did um, any of you guys, want me to escort you to wherever you are going next? with all this, like, crime and all, going on, you know?” 

wherever you're going...shit, the anniversary dinner!

“i’m fine, thank you,” you assert, hurridly turning to go. “i have an dinner to get to with my boyfriend.” 

abbi, however, just about explodes with giddiness. 

“you? spiderman? escort me? yes please!” 

after sprinting like you were usain bolt into the french restaurant and avoiding the weird looks regarding the giant stain on your outfit, you are seated in a comfortable spot underneath the twinkling fairy lights. a waiter comes by and lights a few candles as well, creating what would have been a real romantic atmosphere- if esteban was there. 

present

“even after being held up by spider-man, i waited for like, twenty minutes in that restaurant, este.” 

your boyfriend shifts awkwardly on the bed. 

“yeah, but-” he starts.

“no, i’m not done,” you snap. “not only that, your entire dress shirt was literally wet and had unidentified scuff marks on it. care to explain yourself?”

he stays silent. 

you sigh. 

“even if i forgive you for that, how about you explain the weird bruises you got at the school fair on wednesday?” 

last wednesday

as the reigning associated body president, you were in charge of one of the biggest fundraisers at midtown school of science and technology- the grand fair. it was a tradition, at this point, for every president to host a larger, bigger, fair than the last in an effort to outdo one another. it always raked in thousands of dollars from the community that single-handedly funded many of the school’s programs.

last year, gwen, the asb president then, had somehow gotten bumper-cars as an attraction, which you decided to one-up by adding an enormous ferris wheel and dunk tank, which would more than likely look even more impressive. 

the new york state fair had nothing on you by the time you had most of the stalls set up an hour and a half before the event started. the cotton candy and popcorn machine was up and running, making whiffs of spun sugar and melted butter float over the quickly darkening site. between a few student workers, milling about, the little game stalls flashed red and yellow, advertising bean bag throwing or ring tosses to earn giant stuffed prizes shaped like the school mascot. 

esteban, being the good boyfriend he was, had volunteered to come “help” you organize and sort all the booths at the fair site, but you knew it was a pitiful excuse that would probably end up with him taking advantage of open booths and nicking a shit ton of cotton candy and kettle corn popcorn. 

like you predicted, after rounding the final grassy corner from the balloon darts booth, you spot your boyfriend metres away, sitting still and looking pretty at a little decorated picnic table stuffing his mouth with cotton candy.

so much for helping set up the stalls.

when esteban spots you from the table, he beams and waves energetically, teeth and lips colored an artificial strawberry pink.

“hi baby!” he shouts, startling a few classmates setting up and a few poor birds in the trees. “the fair is looking really good- and so is the food!”

you roll your eyes, but nonetheless blow a kiss to him. 

reaching a hand up, your boyfriend exaggeratedly mimes snatching your kiss out of the air and sliding it into his pocket before patting it protectively. 

you giggle softly and turn back towards the front of the venue after he blows an air-kiss back with a more-than audible smooching sound. even if he was a little goofy sometimes, he more than made up for it with all the love and support he gave you. 

weaving through small groups of students that were just-arriving, you flip through your clipboard of papers to do some last minute checks.

it’s not until a few seconds later when you hear a thundering sound of propellers behind you.

huh, you don’t remember setting up anything that involved propellers. 

curiously, you turn around  and snap your head up, only to meet a glowing green hoverboard paired with a grinning, wild haired man that immediately strikes fear in your heart, freezing your feet from moving.

the green goblin. 

“hiya there sweetie,” he says, peering down at you in a sickenly sweet voice. “do you know where your-“ 

before he can finish his sentence, a flash of blue-red flashes across the sky and sends the green goblin flying, narrowly missing the game stalls.

for the second time in a freaking week, you were graced with the presence of spider-man. but now, he was fighting green goblin. over your just-built fair. 

in all of new york, of all the times, green goblin decided to pick now to start a petty fight? 

almost immediately, screams from your classmates start up, blending weirdly with the jolly carnival music surrounding the atmosphere as the green goblin’s pumpkin bombs rain down from the sky. they sprint past you, pushing and shoving to get away from the potentially-deadly scene.

the first thought in your head is: esteban.

you force your legs to start moving to find your boyfriend in the now burning fair-site as the pair in the air above you crash straight into your house of mirrors, sending glass shards everywhere. 

even when you straight-up almost die after one of the bombs land a little too close to your feet, you continue searching through many of the booths and stalls for your boyfriend. there was no way you were going to let him die to something as stupid as one of spiderman’s city-demolishing fights. 

your search is largely unfruitful, even though you do find a few trapped classmates under a destroyed balloon-making stand as spider-man and green goblin grapple each other and do irreversible damage to your fair. 

by the time you find the picnic table your boyfriend was sitting at a few frightening minutes later, it didn’t even matter that spider-man had won the fight by propelling green goblin’s unresponsive body straight into the dunk-tank that you spent a wild amount of asb money on, because the table was entirely crushed, with your boyfriend nowhere in sight. 

an existential feeling of dread fills your chest. 

no. no. 

you wipe a few stray tears from your eyes. 

you refuse to accept this. esteban had to be around here somewhere. 

before you set off to look someplace else, a red-and-blue clad body blocks your path.

spider-man.

“are you okay?” he asks, patting your shoulder. 

you could almost throttle him.

”no!” you screech, on the verge of bursting into tears. “you fucking destroyed my entire fair, and now i can’t find my boyfriend!! why couldn’t you fight green goblin somewhere else?” 

spider-man recoils, snatching his hand back.

 “i-i-i’m sure he’s fine,” he stutters out. “he’s probably, you know-“ he gestures around the burning debris next to him- “around..here.” 

you’re not satisfied with spider-man’s flippant answer. what if esteban was buried under a bunch of heavy wood planks? what if he was trapped underneath a fiery inferno? 

although you were pissed at the so called “hero” in front of you, you couldn’t help but admit that he would probably be the best chance in finding your boyfriend. 

trying your best to hold yourself together, you snap, “look, spider-man, can you just please find my boyfriend? he’s kind of tall, has straight short black hair.. i just can’t bear losing him right now, okay?” 

he nods once, tersely, before swinging off into the flames. 

it doesn’t even take five minutes before your esteban steps out behind a wrecked hot dog stall. even if he looks absolutely disheveled, with countless bruises littering his arms and a half-ripped shirt, you can’t help but to run straight into his arms, feeling his body against yours. 

your boyfriend tucks you into him, making sure to pat head comfortingly. 

“hi baby, you okay?” he asks a little too nonchalantly, as if you both weren’t standing in the midst of what looked like to be the aftermath of a meteor shower. 

“no!” you shoot back, leaning backwards to look up at his face. your face must be streaked with tears, but you didn’t care at this point. “i genuinely thought you died, esteban.” 

“ah,” he replies. “well i, um, didn’t, so that’s good. i just, you know, went to the bathroom.” 

present

“don’t get me wrong, esteban, i was super glad you were fine that i didn’t really question you, but now i realize- what the hell were you doing in the bathroom that got you bruises that bad?”

your boyfriend wrings his hands. 

“i, like, ran into the bathroom door really hard after i heard those banging sounds from outside the restroom.” 

hmm. 

you roll your eyes.

”okay, how about yesterday when you got literally everything in my room sticky during our physics study session?” 

esteban raises and eyebrow before snorting, seemingly taking your words a different way.

you huff. boys and their dirty minds.

“no! i’m being serious!” 

yesterday

although your boyfriend could somehow ace physical education class, no problem, and run a mile in, like, under six minutes, he struggled sometimes with other subjects. thirty one sit-ups? sure. thirty one algebra or physics questions? eh, not so much.  

good thing though, he had a top-of-the-class, straight a student as a girlfriend. 

by hosting impromptu study sessions (that honestly usually ended with you both making out on your bed since esteban got distracted pretty easily), you were able to boost his average grade up to a moderately acceptable level.

currently, your room looked like an absolute mess, with esteban’s physics papers scattered everywhere on the floor, eraser shavings all throughout the area, and your heavy textbook flipped open halfway.

“alright, next problem!" you exclaim. "what is the net force of a race car on a 30 degree-angled bank- are you even listening?” 

while you read out the next question on his homework, it is clear that your boyfriend’s attention has drifted elsewhere, specifically the tv mounted on the corner of your room. 

you knew you should have turned it off before you started tutoring him.

when you glance over to what has caught your boyfriend’s attention, the screen blares an all-too-common scene of a bank robbery that was taking place a few blocks away. from the helicopter live-footage through the side of the bank's glass window pane, a masked man greedily stuffs green bills into his camo bag. 

it doesn’t cause you that much concern though. you knew spider-man, the sometimes good/sometimes bad friendly neighborhood hero would show up soon or later to patch up the situation, so you reach over the papers to tap esteban gently on the shoulder. 

“okay baby, focus! you’re literally almost done with the worksheet!”

instead of snapping his attention back to the work though, he scoots back rather hurriedly and announces that he was going to get something to eat. 

you let him rush out of the room, knowing that he was probably going to be stuffing his face with the fresh pain au chocolat that your mother had freshly made a few hours ago.

meanwhile, you scribble shapeless blobs on the corner of your history homework. 

the news network on your tv moves on from the robbery (like anticipated, spider-man came in, swinging on his webs, and slingshotted the robber against the bank wall) to some car race in australia by the time your boyfriend skips back into your room, slamming the door behind him with a flourish. 

you pat the seat next to you, gesturing for him to sit down. 

he peers at your tv for a quick second before settling down next to you. 

“welcome back, este!” you say enthusiastically. “don’t worry- you didn’t miss much from the tv- just spider-man saving a bank or whatever.” 

“oh,” your boyfriend murmurs, fiddling with a pencil. “was- was he cool?”

”huh?” you blurt out, puzzled.

he waves you off quickly, setting the pencil down and scooting closer to your desk.

”no, nothing, just joking. so um, where were we on the physics homework?” 

you send him a weird look before shuffling his papers back to how it was before. 

“ok, back to the problem- what is the net force of a race car on a 30-degree angled bank…”

when you finish re-reading the problem, you reach over to grab the pencil that esteban put down to draw out a diagram to clarify the problem, when surprisingly, it doesn’t budge. 

even when you pull as hard as you could, the pencil stays stubbornly stuck to the desk.

what the..? 

present

“okay,” esteban says, waving his hands in the air as if it was clarifying things. “i went to your kitchen to eat those éclairs your mom made, remember? i got the crème filling on my hands, and it got on the pencil and everything, so that’s why it got stuck to the table...” 

you were so done with this guy. 

“este- my mom didn’t make éclairs- she made pain au chocolat!” 

caught up in his lie, there was nothing your boyfriend could do but to scratch his head awkwardly and pretend not to make eye contact with you. 

scoffing, you shake your head. honestly, you didn’t understand why your boyfriend had to lie all the time. what did he even have to hide? 

pushing off the bed, you take off your piece of clothing with the weird stain that had came from esteban’s hands in one smooth motion. it was probably best to get the stain out immediately before it ruined your shirt. besides, it would give him a chance to reflect. maybe then he’d tell you. 

before walking out to throw your laundry in the wash, you sternly tell off your boyfriend.

”este, i suggest you tell me whatever it is you’re hiding after i come back from starting up the laundry, because, as your girlfriend, i think i deserve to know, no?”

chucking your piece of clothing into the washing machine, you decide to wash a few articles of esteban’s clothes as well, cause hey, it saves water, right?

you throw in a few mismatched socks, a scuffed up hoodie, and a worn shirt before you spot a flash of red-spandex like material at the bottom of his basket. 

brushing aside a rolled-up pair of jeans, your eyes widen almost comically when you spot what it really is. tucked haphazardly at the bottom of your boyfriend’s laundry basket is a wrinkled spider-man mask.

general taglist: @ellelabelle @n0vazsq

[drekkavacarc]

okay , so here's what i'm working with for coming back. i'm still giving myself until the first , just because i wanted to give myself the time. i've deleted any asks i wasn't working on responses for already. sorry if this upsets anyone , i just had a bunch going back a month & it was overwhelming. i'll be working on those first. once i'm done with those , i'll be going through my threads to see what hasn't been replied to in a while , & will make a judgment call on threads i'm keeping or not. my main goal is to make sure i'm focusing on threads people have interest in , so if for any reason you don't want me to untrack a thread , come let me know. lastly , there's the problem of feeling directionless. i think the reason for that , is because i'm scared of making her a fandomless muse. it's been hard to do with so much of her lore being rooted in marvel lore. so i'm still going to be focusing on au verses to help me explore ways to expand on that part of them more.

I STILL WANNA WRITE WITH MY MARVEL PEEPS!!! i don't want any of you to think that i don't. i'll likely just be keeping it to the marvel blogs i'm currently following , for the sake of my own personal opinions on some of the marvel fandom. nothing to do with the rpc , it's all just me being bitter about the mcu , but that's not what this post is about. i'll still be writing marvel stuff with the peeps here. i'll just be very much sticking to my own homebrew marvel universe.

lastly on notes of things changing ... i'm going to go back to what i had originally intended for her personality. this is another thing i think was making it difficult. anya is not a nice person. in fact , they're really fucking mean most of the time. i softened her so she would be more palatable , but i think that was a mistake , as then anya didn't seem like anya anymore. going forward , there's going to be a very small list of people that anya is nice to. i'll be making a post talking about all of this later this week.

i think i can finally say i have a starting point for where i wanna take things here. thank you to everyone who has been patient with me through this time. i didn't expect to get hit with such a bad case of writers block , but i'm happy to say i have a good idea of how i'm moving forward.

[etherealspacejelly]

Alright, I saw you talking about your OC and now I’m curious!

So here, have a few OC questions(and also take this as an opportunity to tell me more about them)

1) Tell me something about your OC! Introduce them to me, if you please. Also, do you have more than one OC? If yes, tell me about them! :D

2) How did you actually make your OC? Is it for some specific reason (book/animatic/RP/whatever)? Or did you just really want to make a special guy to rotate in your brain?

3) I saw you talking about enjoying looking through your OC’s eyes, do they have a very different world view from you? How do you come up with what the character would act like in any given situation?

4) And speaking of, what is a situation that your OC would absolutely hate being in? Like, their personal hell? (I’d also ask about a situation they’d love to be in, and please do feel free to tell me about that as well, but as a professional “put that guy in a situation” I just had to ask about their personal hell you know XD)

And 5) Does your OC have a set design/look in your mind? I know most of my OCs don’t. As in, I know the basics of them and sometimes even their hair/eye color but usually their personality and circumstances matter to me way more and the rest changes on a whim, so I’m just curious here :D

My OC's name is Einar. He's a light elf, an ancient species of warriors dedicated to protecting the Universe. He's the last of his kind, orphaned when he was just a kid and raised by humans. He has been a starfleet security officer for hundreds of years, basically since starfleet began, serving on many starships and protecting their crews from danger. On paper he sounds pretty intimidating, but hes actually a total sweetheart. (i do not currently have any other OCs. Einar is my first and only.)

I started daydreaming as a coping mechanism and as a way to participate in my special interests when i was a teenager. Every time i got into a new tv show i would create a self insert character for myself that fit into that universe, and then i would act out scenarios as that character where i would interact with my favourite characters from the show. Einar came about when i tried to make a self insert character for the marvel cinematic universe. I went through a few iterations before realising that there are dark elves in the mcu, but not light elves, and i was reading neil gaimans norse mythology at the time (this was way before the allegations pls dont cancel me) so i came up with my own version of the light elves to fit in with the mcu canon, came up with lore and everything, and then created a light elf character for me to be. normally i just named my self inserts robin, but i thought this character needed a cool norse name, so i looked up norse names and found Einar, which means lonely warrior. and i was like that fits so perfectly its gotta be that. and then he kinda became a character of his own over time, separate from me. he also is now a star trek OC, rather than a marvel OC like he was originally.

he does kinda have a different worldview to me. his basic moral compass is the same, but his motivations are different. he is very religious, where i am not. he worships the Universe, as an entity and as all of its individual parts. his motivation for protecting people is that every life is part of the universe, and it is his duty as a light elf to serve and protect them. however he also has a lot of trauma, which can also effect how he reacts to things. i know how he reacts to stuff because i have spent many years role playing as him in my head lol. its just sort of instinctual now. im like yeah he would say that. he would do this. i just Know him.

oh man i love torturing my special guy. i think forcing him to relive the death of his parents would certainly do a number on him. being rejected by people he loves and cares about would also hurt like a bitch. more than anything he just wants to be loved, but often, because of who he is, he is feared instead. he understands why, but it still hurts. i think he would do anything to prove his trustworthiness. its very "guard dog who looks scary but is actually a sweetheart and just wants to be loved but all he knows how to do is scare people" of him.

he does! his look has changed a little bit from his initial conception but yeah i have a pretty solid idea of what he looks like. he has long blue hair, purple eyes, soft/kinda androgynous facial features, muscular build, pointed ears, and lots of scars. dudes been through a lot of shit.

thank you for the questions!! and sorry for rambling!! i just love my special guy so much!!!! blorbo from my brain!!!

[ailoda]

Okay so I had my biggest marvel phase a couple of years ago (my Loki obsession was insane 🙂↕️) BUT my dash has been full with Bucky stuff recently, and here I thought, who better to tell me all about the hype and convince me to start stanning him than you babe!! Soo… Any takes or fics to initiate me?👀 Any lore I should know besides the basic Steve bromance stuff? I’m all ears😌🫶🏻

Love ya💗

AGH, hello lovely! so nice to see your notif pop up in my feed as always, and thank you for coming to see a professional ;)❤️ buckle up buttercup, because this one might be a long one!

i’ll start with lore just in case you’re not too familiar: i’m not too sure on your knowledge of bucky as a whole (i imagine you have a brief idea if you’ve watched the mcu films?), but for most fics a general idea is fine. just in case you require an overview:

if we’re going with mcu bucky, then james buchanan “bucky” barnes started out as steve rogers’ bestie in the 40s. he fought in wwii (badass sniper), but fell off a train (classic). instead of dying, he got scooped up by hydra (moustache man’s nasty ass groupies), brainwashed, and turned into the winter soldier—an elite assassin with a metal arm (‘cause he lost his during his wobble off the train) and no memories of his former life. he spends decades like this, being popped out of cryo like a sad, murderous, ptsd-ridden crumpet whenever hydra need him. long story short, his boyf steve eventually helps him break free in a love-conquers-all-moment, but his very understandable and evident trauma doesn’t vanish overnight. his mcu arc (until marvel destroy it) is all about reclaiming his autonomy, his memory, and his morality while dealing with a world that still sees him as a weapon.

tldr: he’s a lil human disaster just trying his best 🥹

my proposal for why i think you should read for bucky:

*ahem*what to say to entice you into the world of bucky barnes fics?? with the amazing writers in the fandom, he’s like a walking trope buffet with the emotional baggage to back it up. you’ve got the angst of a bionic (anti/super)hero, the moral complexity of a charming lad who’s been tortured and brainwashed into killing people but still somehow retained his sassy side, and the enduring appeal of a man who’s been through literal hell, thawed, emotionally gutted, and still comes out the other side with a boatload of guilt—so whatever you’re looking for, there’s plenty of material to work with 😂 plus, the fandom has a tendency to treat him like our own patron saint of pain and fluff, so reading for him means you get the full range of his many layers: pre/post-war domesticity? post-war angst? avengers tower bullshit? soft moments with a cat he didn’t ask for but would most definitely die for? all a resounding TICK. basically a swiss army knife of a character that this fandom has managed to cultivate into a multifaceted, deeply rich person with so many different ways he can be written.

recommendations: BOY where do i start?? for people, @aquaticmercy is my holy grail for bucky across canon and au fics—such a diverse range of well-written, emotionally varied fics that you can’t go wrong. @pellucid-constellations is also a really strong and compelling writer for bucky, with some of my favourite series’ being from them! but i do have a page for my favourite marvel writers, as there’s so many to name—a lot of whom write excellent bucky fics.

my bucky library is my biggest character library, so i’d probably just refer you there for my (many) recommendations. my marvel favourites have a lot of my top bucky fics, so that would be another place i’d direct you to (i’m truly sentimentally attached to them). but my love for bucky fics started with 1940s!bucky, so any of the ones listed in that bit of my library are excellent starting points too!

hopefully this helps, and that i’ve convinced you to start ;) probs overkill but it should give you enough places to start the journey 🥰

aimee x

p.s. i PROMISE i’ll get round to answering your messages. my brain is a lil fried so please excuse the tardiness 🫶

[clawdee]

ok ok ok ok

@rebel-held and I told each other we'd get some writing done this weekend on our many WIPS

I watched Thunderbolts* on Thursday, which ignited a fire under my ass for Androniki, my Bucky Barnes / fat!f!Reader Whitaker (Princess) fic (she is not a Princess, she is nicknamed Princess--by Bucky, it makes sense in context).

I had a vague plotline, but after Thunderbolts* the plotline has solidified a bit more, and a lot has been added to it after many long chats with the sibling.

Androniki now takes place after Thunderbolts* (even after the 2nd after credit scene), it is not canon-accurate--I'm playing around with Marvel lore, if you don't like it, leave. I'm trying to stay as close to canon as I can with what I am using, and filling in what the MCU hasn't yet.

I don't believe there's gonna be spoilers in what I'm sharing, but I'm putting it under a cut...and it's def bigger than a snippet because it's a funny scene (to me) (very very rough draft, basically word vomit):

“Miss. Whitaker has a dig in Greece this summer—she’s a big-name archaeologist—our intel has shown that de Fontaine and Whitaker have a vested interest in Miss. Whitaker’s dig that she’s doing in Greece this summer—this is the first dig Daddy Whitaker has been interested in.” Bucky leans back in his chair. “I thought she was just going to party, I didn’t know she did anything besides spend Daddy’s money.” Sam shakes his head. “No, she’s a big name in the archaeology scene, it’s what she does and she’s good at it, how do you not know her? She digs old things, you’re old,” Sam laughs at his own joke. “I’ll send you her file.” Bucky waves his hand. “I’ll Google her.” “There’s more info in the file.” Sam sighs. “But anyway, her dig is in Mitropisi, which is a locality in Lavreotiki, East Attica.” He taps at the table top bringing up a virtual map. It shows Greece as a whole, the major metropolis’ pointed out, and then it zooms in. Mitropisi was a small little town southeast of Athens, near the tip of the mainland of Greece. “Anything in particular they’re looking for?” Bucky grabs his carton of chow-mien and stuffs a chopstick full of noodles in his mouth. Sam looks at the map and shakes his head. “We don’t know.” He swallows quickly. “What do you mean you don’t know?” “Man! I mean what I said, we don’t know if she’s looking for anything in particular or what; and it annoys me! She and her team have been tight-lipped about this whole dig. We just know there’s gonna be one.” “And where it is,” Bucky adds, pointing at Sam with his noodle-filled chopsticks. Sam nods. “And where it is,” he echos. “But I need you to go Bucky; Bishop is one of the interns going with her. Coupled with the fact that Whitaker’s father and Fontaine are interested worries me.” “de Fontaine,” Bucky mumbles without thinking and then shakes his head. “Never mind. So I have to go babysit the heiress playing Indiana Jones, plus Hawkeye Jr.?” Sam holds up his hand. “Kate,” he says pointedly. “Can take care of herself, but I’d like her to have backup. Besides, someone has already broken into Miss. Whitaker’s place, we think it might be connected.”

[wandasaura]

Hi!

so idk if this makes you uncomfortable but you always word things so nice so I have a question. What do you think about the fact that they whitewashed Wanda from the comics? Not that Lizzie isn’t a great actor! But it’s kind of rude to a number of communities and I just wanted to know what you thought.

hiii, so i’m actually not too well versed in the comics, but from what i do understand from the micsellanion facebook post or dichssed with my friends is that wanda and pierdo are romani jews. correct me if i’m wrong, i’m going out on a limb here !!

i myself am a mixed race woc, who grew up in a predominantly white area. i adore seeing roles being filled by other colored individuals, especially when theirs a kind of backstory these actors are honoring, playing homage to, whatever. i was a late 03 baby, so princess and the frog was my first glimpse of representation in a franchise that geared toward my entire friend group. little aura and her princess tiana costume with a blonde haired blue eyed best friend she affectionately called charlotte was living her best life. (to this day this friend and i still sign cards charlotte and tiana). so i very much understand how important and significant it is for representation and authentically to be carried out in a character.

i don’t know all of wanda’s comic lore, so again, take what i’m saying with a grain of salt, but i don’t believe a lot of her mcu timeline is like… entirely aligned with the comics? like there’s hella billy and tommy lore that was kind of alluded to but happened in a different way i think… i have no idea. anyways, the point is that i think while they should’ve had a romani woman play wanda, that the disconnect from the comics kind of… doesn’t make it okay, but i think there’s just enough space between them that there can be some differences.

people whined for months about halle bailey being ariel. but it’s a recreation, the same way that this newest live action is a recreation not an exact replica. they pay homage to the originals, tell the stories of the originals, but they stand as their own films. ariel being black takes nothing away from the film because she’s a fish that grows legs and what the hell does it matter. i think somewhat of the same could be said for wanda just because marvel doesn’t hone in on those details of her character in any way ?? i could be mistaken !! there’s definitely a divide between the ariel controversy and the wanda debate, but i think a little bit of the same premise can be applied.

[thanatologie]

DARP Advent 2024 - Day One! Get to know each other! FIRSTS AND FAVORITES!

Preferred name:  amanda Preferred pronouns: she/her Favorite dinosaur: ankylosaurus, because i'm also low to the ground and will take out your ankles. What's the coolest rock you own or have seen:  those giant amethyst geodes.  kinda wanna take a nap in one. What piece of media was your first experience with Dragon Age?: origins, but i hated it.  was offput by the early-00s humor at first.  got over it eventually. What was your first Dragon Age game?: origins. Which is your favorite DA game?:  da2, i will not be taking questions.  a bigger bunch of disasters outside of the avengers i've never seen. What was your first DA book or comic?:  tevninter nights, probably. Which is your favorite DA book or comic?:  honestly the world of thedas(es)?  i love dumb lore dumps like that, ask me how many times i've read the iron manuals for tony. Who is your favorite DA character? (please don’t include untagged character hate in your answer – keep it positive!):  if i can't say emmrich, then it's varric.  and if it weren't so damn hard being funny all the time, and i didn't already have a funny character, i'd probably try to write him too. What was your first ship? Romantic or platonic: my warden that i can't remember the name of / alistair.  alistair was baby. What's your "forever" ship? Romantic or platonic: don't really have one, tbh.  or it's cassandra / swords & shields.  i never identified with her more than in that moment.  same, girl.  same. What is your favorite DA-verse creature? (nug, giant, halla, etc): will you hate me if i say the nugs with their weird little human hands 🥺?  because it's nugs with their weird little human hands. What's the best advice you've ever gotten?:  for better posture hold your shoulders like you're shooting lasers from your nipples.  correcting it longterm is a lot more painful, but this keeps me from letting my shoulders round again. Are you comfortable receiving feedback / asks from others as the event goes on and will request on certain days that other people reach out?   i mean sure? i come from the land of dwrp originally.  how's my driving posts came standard. What are your boundaries? i don't autoship and prefer to develop things outside of game mechanics organically.  also, i have things to do sometimes, i'm not ignoring you, please be patient. If you're okay with asks/comments, are you okay with them from anyone or followers only?:  always.  the marvel (comics! not that mcu shit) rpc has prepared me for this.

Share a picture of something you're excited about/something that you love if you're comfortable doing so!

this is clove. she drools when she gets pets and then likes to wipe it on your face. biscuit making champion of 2k24. i have a scar on the outside of a thigh because she tried to climb my leg once because i wasn't paying attention to her right that second.

Repost, don't reblog. Remember to tag your posts with #DARP Advent 2024 so people can find them later!

[louiesselfshipramblings]

Kate Bishop: My very first selfship!!

Hee hee this takes me waaaaay back. This was back when the Disney+ Hawkeye show first aired, and I kinda accidentally fell in love with the MCU incarnation of Kate Bishop, the second Hawkeye. Helps she was played by Hailee Steinfeld, who I do have a minor celeb crush on still, but that's not who I fell for! I fell for the dorky, fangirly, silly, and kinda dum (affectionate) Kate!! :]

Overtime, as I kinda got sullied on the MCU in general, I kinda just...took its version of Kate and made my own Marvel AU that was kind of a mix between what I liked of the films and the comics. Tied in nicely with the Spider-Man AU I was making! For the most part, tho, if ya know Kate from the Hawkeye show, and Kate from the comics, ya know the Kate I selfship with.

I don't exactly actively selfship with her as much as I did before, but I still have a lotta fond memories of her, watching the show, and talking with my friend about how much I wanted to kiss her. There's a lil corner of my brain where my Marvelsona and her get to relax and snuggle together, that's for sure.

The Lore!!

My sona here is known as Luka McNell, also known under the alias of Striker! Through some wacky shenanigans, I attained the power to control electricity and generate it within my body, not unlike the Spider-Man villain Electro (in fact, we have opposing charges of the same base power, so our unique generations of electricity cancel each other out!). I was born and raised in Maryland, but moved up to New York for more hero opportunities.

I briefly worked with SHIELD, which is when I first worked with and met Kate! I had a lotta respect for her, seeing as she was an Avengers-level hero and all—though, technically, she's a reserved member, but she's a teeny bit of a gloryhound here so she didn't bring it up, heh. We started with mutual respect for our abilities, and it just kinda blossomed into a wonderful romance! Though some of our coworkers claim we were practically dating a month before we went official but shush.

I eventually struck it out independent as a hero, and moved in with Kate! Life's a touch rough—even being a public hero only pays so well—but we manage well enough! We live in that apartment space she has in the show, with Lucky the Pizza Dog and Jeff the Baby Land-Shark as pets/roommates!

We aren't in a rush to get married, but we do eventually. Nothing big or the like, just a small affair with family and close friends. And then after that...we do have one kid, a sweet baby boy named Archer. Because of course XD. We may have more, but that's yet to be seen, heheh...

But yeah! That's my self ship with Kate! We're two silly goober heroes who are stupid x stupid (again affectionate lol).

The wonderful art piece of me and Kate riding the bus home from a mission was done by @schpog-art/@schpog! They did amazing on this!

[blindtaleteller]

MCU Asgard Canon Observation Research [Part 1]

Firstly and before I even start in on the subject, keep in mind that this is what it says: a collection of research into actual Canon Lore from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: not the comics, or the Nordic lore twice removed from it.

Secondly and alongside that, also keep in mind that even back at the start of the MCU as a long term project, while the MCU is based on the Marvel comics universe: the creators made a point of making it a completely different universe: for many varying reasons, including the spaces lacking continuity in the comics over the years that the MCU as a project wanted to pursue from it's first conception.

This is a large part of why there are phases and why they were numbered from it's creation. (And yes also why my tags recently mentioning counting phases are what they are elsewhere, but that's a whole other post.. or set of them.)

These are important to remember because, I would like to avoid previous iterations of people wasting their time trying to insert comics-universe lore and more excessively into or onto this requested post purely for the sake of, well; being argumentative or just trolling:as much as possible. I do try to take some time to respond to comments and reblogs as much as possible, but I can and will ignore or yes, at times point out people unable to manage these things.. and respond as necessary.

I normally wouldn't bother to mention this except yes, that has happened before so: consider this your disclaimer.. I ain't dealin' with you if you're gonna be a trolly shit disrespectful enough of the time effort and willingness to share what research and observations I have, by shitting on it or me in your pursuit of whatever flimsy excuses might be given for any inhuman reactions posted passive aggressive or worse.

More frankly: be respectful on my posts or get lost. I don't tolerate harassment on my blog whether it's aimed at me or others. Passive aggressive or otherwise. I'll discuss stuff, am happy to have any valid references I might miss added to and pointed out. Just don't be an asshat about it, and you'll get the same from me. That's how basic-bitch Karma, and I; both work: you'll get what you give along those lines, while in my space.

The necessary now out of the way... Next!

More as a side note with that mentioned; while I may mention some meta/theory in the form of the most probable (as that's how my meta in particular is formed) it is again: based on the facts of the canon lore and contexts confirmed presented in it; visually, in dialogue, and out of the mouths of the very people who made all that themselves, at the time that lore was given to us on screen: and will be mentioned as the theory and supposition that is 'meta' rather than 'canon'. I have gone out of my way as a fan of world, universe, and character building as a part of the creative process in particular: to watch, rewatch, rewatch again and again, and hunt down all this stuff (often lol purely out of my own curiosity.) All in all Meta is theory, Canon is story/film-established fact; and I do try to keep a clear line between the two of them. The early world and character building in the MCU has always been interesting enough to me alone, to do all that with my free time.

And that's especially true with Asgard in particular, as a main story driving force in one form or another as far back as 2010 when both Thor and CA: tFA's scripts were being filmed and their sets/settings picked out and created.

Final few bits before we get into it..? As Asgard lore (and even a lack of it's presence at times) is directly and appropriately attached and or in relation to the lore of several races, species, and massive events in the entirety of the MCU's first three phases.. I will be touching some of those cultures and places too, where important. Probably not in this particular part, but yeah. It's gonna happen.

As with the research post into Loki and his year of absence prior to Avengers 2012: (yes that's a link to an ask that contains a good chunk of info and years of interviews on that particular subject) this might not be an entirely complete compilation: for the same reasons. As I said, i didn't just watch, I rewatched repeatedly from differing personal mental angles: not just three or four times, but and as I wrote my own fanfiction.. I would also re-watch once or twice just prior to fleshing out an outlined story of my own to refresh my memory, seek out interviews official and otherwise from the creators and actors who made that lore and put it on screen for us to enjoy as part of the stories we enjoyed (or not, depending lol) and well.. the resulting organization of the whole outside of this post is less than comprehensive for anyone else. You can see the explanation for how that happens in the foreword of that thread if you're curious.

As a result, I may or may not exclude the actual interviews if this gets too long. Much of the visual in this first part especially are pretty self explanatory, as I did find some of my dissection pics too.

All said (I think? Gods I hope so that was a lot wasn't it? XD) and as suggested/requested recently in discord?

This one is gonna be expansive.. and hellaciously so: so grab your drinks and your snacks and still be prepared for this series of posts to be going for while (not kidding, may be compiling this properly between jobs for weeks) so yeah..

Here we go again!

The major forgotten fact of Asgard's depiction in the MCU is this:

We the audience are only shown a very tiny fragment of Asgard as another separate planet in space, and: they do show us we're missing as much, from the very first film.

That gif directly from the movie I used at the top? I'm using it again, because...

..look at that.

With topography, perspective and size in mind.

That tiny golden triangle in the middle is the Palace at the center. The little golden bar along that tiny portion to either side? Is the city attached to it proper, with the Bifrost, and as far as we've seen the 'Heroes Road' (as soem are calling it) and city walls cupping the Bifrost Bay directly facing the camera.

This is a space shot (of course,) and that tiny itty bitty moving spec that is still shrinking as it gets further from our perspective and closer to Asgard at the bottom, is the Bifrost in use.

And, they do give us a few views of that as early as five to six minutes into the first movie in 2011, as seen in the first clip below. I've set it to share at the first view of Asgard itself.

Hopefully that works. If not, the timestamp you're looking for is 2:04.

I recommend shutting off the audio, as it's a bit distracting. Trust me, we will get back to the very interesting audio from a world builder's perspective, when we get to the History and Relations section of Asgard's break down.. there are several tons, of that and in that opener alone, to examine later.

IMPORTANT!! When looking at any of these images or videos, keep in mind and look at the scale. Not just in the scene on screen at that moment, but also in reference to previous shots. Distance is a thing. The size of trees and people are a thing. This place in the MCU is much more massive than where it's very cloistered story parts take place.

This is not a city-planet like and for comparison: Coruscant, from Star Wars... though I am very aware that some people will throw out Asgard's concept art to try and 'debunk' that (yes its' been done and proven pointless in other threads).. that does also bring us to another couple of facts that slip by in their context.

In fact, you know what? I'll throw it in here right now myself:

This concept art: does still apply, if slightly adjusted with the topography and likely under ground portions taken into account.. because Asgard is the name of both the planet AND the city as separate entities of the same locale.

In other words, the concept art is VERY valid as a map of the city itself: but not the outlying locations outside of Asgard as a Capital City Proper, of Asgard as a disk planet.

And again.. they do show us this, and not just in the first film: although that first shot going into the city says as much too, being that..

A. Asgard is established as a society greatly more advanced than Earth and most others, and;

B. there are whole swaths of land (and especially mountain they like to build into) without structure between the edge panned through and the City itself. (see still image below: not the best quality but it's also in the video.)

Which.. we'll touch again a little more in a bit (and probably the biggest lol) part of this breakdown set; digging at History, Culture, and Relations.. as the fact they do prefer to build INTO their environment much more than on top of it is also shown in the shot of the canyons and canals on which not only that city is built, but even what buildings are shown outside of it on that panning-in shot.

We can see in the one above though: that while they did redirect some of the water through canals in the lower shot; they also kept and built into the natural(?*) lay of the river canyons below.

This theme is kept even before we get into the city though with the first part of the shot above the water.

Want a more visual view of the breakdowns as I do them?

Here you go, here's one example from out of my crazy folders and docs, that I made in paint back in 2013 (LOL yes I know. XD) while once again re-watching that same scene.

I would highly suggest clicking on it, as tumblr does downsize images making text on them hard to read otherwise. Crappy in-motion quality screen cap but, it was made more for breaking down the visual elements on screen for what it told us about the land, and more; on it.

----[?*] As a set of side/foot notes to that last bit and the image..

A. the top left corner yes: does reference some of where I use certain observations of canon in my own fics; and how they would have grown or evolved depending on that story. In this case, and at the time: the pink text is making note to utilize those observations in outlining Hvedrungr (Loki from Uni 0) and Flykra's (Loki from Vesti1 Uni 14) universes in particular: both of which return to Asgard at VERY different times and in different situations: while the history and culture I've been able to glean and expand on in some cases is still part of their and the location's background. As I don't have the patience to remove the text from an old paint shop cut.. I thought I would at least explain it's presence left there. These things are, ultimately connected by the culture that originated on and created them on that planet after all.. and why there's an entire section dedicated to the varied aspects of Asgard's presented Cultural, Relations, and History lore. B. The '?' at the 'natural' mention in parenthesis above, also takes into account that Asgard is much older than Earth's culture and has to be: if only because as only three generations have come and gone over the passage of what to us is five thousand years! (see the next installment Thor the Dark World: Bor and Darkalfheim, or just watch the movie with info gathering in mind.) In other words, between Bor's War, and Odin's Asgardian Great Wars: we cannot be certain whether or not 1. those canyons are actually natural or the now aged result of one of many previous interplanetary wars, or 2. whether Asgard at this stage of it's showing timed at 2011 more than a millennia later, has even always been this size, given their advancement in technology and study of magic as presented OR left in question, either. For my part, as there's no conclusive dialogue from that era to state otherwise in the MCU or it's interviews that I know of, and knowing the context of Malekith and Darkalfheim's familiarity with Asgard itself during their raid to reclaim the infinity stone: I tend to veer towards a mixture of the two. While it's very likely at least some of the canyons are indeed natural; the great age of the culture and planet both, along with the nature of Bor and Odin's rules alone as we've seen them: leaves a HUGE and LONG period of time and opportunities for some of those nasty fights to come directly to them... or even their predecessors. Which would also explain why they had that shield for the palace too. You don't build and more importantly upkeep something like that without a very good set of reasons or examples experienced, to do so after all. Much of that is meta though, however based on canon fact it may be: and as many of the creators were not asked publicly during that era, and have been dismissed or moved on to other projects since.. it's hard to know if we'll ever see a *genuine* answer from the people who actually made it all starting sixteen years ago.

Anyway, let's look at a few more shots of Asgard with that breakdown going. Some of these are all old, from as far back as about ten years ago when I first started writing outlines for the varied universes in my Lokiverse Project: but they do still hold up. theer are some from TDW in this bunch too. I heavily dissected these scenes knowing I was going to do whole chapters in multiple differing universes, and wanted to have the presented layout and feel laid out in my head, before I started adding in locations on the planet not yet shown on film. And given my first Book was already going to be DREAMS.. where Asgard has been blown to bits post Endgame? I really wanted to get it right so I could deconstruct it as many times as I and the muses wanted to. Laufeyson (Universe 10 Loki) was pretty insistent too with the opening chapters on his end focusing partially on that chase with Abell through Asgard's blown apart ruin

Sorry for the ramble of an explanation, but that's how it is and how it works over here...? XD

..uhmmmm. Yeah lol! When I said I watch and re-watch from differing mental perspectives..? That's what I mean. I don't usually share those at all... only the unedited pics. Genrally I will take caps or take existing raw caps and pick out piece that catch my eye. I've been told they do help put your brain in the right mode for those who have difficulty processing them in that way, like I do when in that mode. Also yes, trees and fish ...bruh. lol!

It's there, has been for years in some cases; and I'm not messing with it now.

That basic bit out of the way (doesn't sound so basic does it.) Let's backtrack a bit, specifically to Asgard's shape and the placement of it's location and the locations on it.

As I first write this, I don't have the talks I had with a few wild meteorologists and geologists back then directly on hand (as this is a part I still don't focus on too much; but:) shaped as it is, those I did talk to theorized that between the shape and placement of planets as well as the nebula they're partially inside, that Asgard may be shaped and in rotation as it is because of its' placement in it's system: or because of late interference by Asgard's inhabitants to keep it stable.

^ That one scene in particular from Thor 2011 really made my eyes pop. Not because of what's going on in it so much as trying to answer the whys and hows and what the actual fricks man: because..

Can you imagine, the conversation: trying to pitch that spinning death ball to the King there OR anywhere else on the planet before Bor or even his great grandfather?

Or, trying to talk the royalty down from the idea of putting it anywhere NEAR the palace, or other people's homes?

How about testing that house sized death-by-velocity-alone gilded mess? (Yes I still laugh thinking about that. Some poor scholar/engineer type trying to dissuade Bor's grand-daddy from building what would definitely become a giant pinball of death in the canyons and canals, if that thing ever came off it's anchors even once in the city. Good gods! lol!) Who knows; maybe that was when people started moving to Vanaheim... XD! Just (mostly) kidding.

Cray-cray thoughts of high velocity gilded pinball hell that was probably somewhere way back in the Bifrost's likely development and evolution as tech/normie science boosted by magic, and or vice versa, aside:

You probably notice I've mentioned the nebulae and the planets in their rotation more than once. And with good reason.

Backing up a bit; Asgard is interesting well before you hit her shores.

Not only is she a top-shaped disk-planet: but with the way the sky is shown: Asgard has a very interesting rotation if she has any left at all. There's very little we know, but what we do know is she is not alone in her systematic rotation either way.

(Asgard's sky from Thor's personal Hall in Thor: the Dark World)

In fact and as seen in the screen caps above: Asgard has an incredibly close relation to at least three planets in her nebulous solar system. At least one of which is absolutely massive: massive enough that it's close proximity is theorized as being pretty likely to be the only way Asgard experiences night cycles as seen in Thor: the Dark World... mainly through eclipsing the nebulous sun by passing between it and Asgard as a planet.

Which is both cool -and- scary when you take things like degrading orbits, space debris and projectiles like comets and other space science into account.. but also very, very interesting.

It also begs the question either way: why didn't Asgard at their earlier establishment of a greater technological level, colonize or move to those planets sooner? Of course.. the first obvious answer is.. they probably couldn't, at first. And even more probably were past trying by the time the Bifrost was built, prior to Bor's time (I say prior because we have seen Bor use it in Thor the Dark World: and on a massive scale moving whole armies, the same as his son Odin. See some of the scenes from Bor's seizure of the Aether below.)

But yeah, Asgard is a pretty unique place even before you get to the water fall's edge: or questioning what kind of condensed mass it has to retain gravity at it's very small size.

Or, whether that gravity and the shape is in fact generated in some form or another after millennia upon millennia of just the Wars we do know about in their history.

(At current we know about Darkalfheim and the series of Wars including Jotunheim and Muspelheim that they call the Great Wars. While they are definitely aware of the extensive millennia of intergalactic war between the Xandarian based Nova Corps and the Kree Empire put front and center in GotG.. there hasn't been any actual confirmation as to whether Asgardians fought in that war on either side: only that they are at that stage at least loosely allied with Asgard.. if not a more separated protectorate being considered among the nine realms in the MCU.)

Why do I keep pointing out trees, and perspective; or teh size of the city in that first little gif again?

Because.. that is our repeated visual evidence of just how much of Asgard as a planet; the story did not take place in.. huge parts of the place we haven't seen. And that makes sense.

Power plants or generators, smithys, and even schools can be easily placed in the city proper, at this stage.

But what about BEFORE, they got to this stage.. because that is a thing in the MCU in regards to Asgard: and a major plot point for three movies of script running, from 2010 all the way to 2015 when Taika Waititi was hired (unfortunately, for those of us who know the root of what happened there.)

What about food, for thousands of 5000 year lifespans and their kids. And their grandkids. And.. the food for the livestock, or the wild game

Or the bilgesnipes and dragons--well we can guess what happened to the dragons of Asgard in particular actually. If they were anything like Muspelheim's; and on a planet that size..? It doesn't take much to figure out Odin, Bor and their predecessors probably couldn't excuse not hunting a predator big enough to swallow people to extinction: not for much longer than they absolutely had to anyway.

What about fibers and leather for clothes.

How about waste management, for both the city and suburban areas? Sewers? Water filtration? Factories or slaughterhouses to process it all, and the means to support those things. Everything man made, is grown, processed or made somewhere.

We know they have these things, because we know they have and make their own alcohol (fermentation of grains, fruits, and more); as well as other things to eat: displayed in both T1 and TDW.

(The top image is from Thor's table flip scene in Thor 2011; while the one below it is from the tavern scene in the beginning of Thor: the Dark World.)

Meat, vegetables, fruit, grain, herbs, and seasonings are all represented on the tables above. While some might be imported (I really do wonder about the platters of golden apples myself:) it's not very likely all of them are. And it wouldn't make sense for them to have been imported from off world throughout their species development either. After all and again: they would have had to have survived and developed enough to GET TO, that stage in the first place.

You're also looking at Varnish in the shine of that table; smithing and metal working and ceramics in their table ware. Weaving either plant or animal fibers in their clothes, as well as the likely production of tannin (or it's equivalent) and leather working in every leather piece on screen. Candles can be made from varied sources, whether that's actual wax of some form, or condensed animal fat.

Oh, and if you find the enlarged version of those images: you'll also notice things like fine engraving and metal sculpture to the goblets and platters on the Thor 2011 table in particular.

Either way, the images above show us directly that unsurprisingly, they have come to understand whole other sub-levels of production: before you even get to the high-tech and magic ends of any of that to be able to reproduce it in that modern era.

As another side note related to that: the booze alone is pretty telling as to how far off the "Loki" series is on this mark, as well. Creators of current content 'conveniently forgot' that this is supposed to be a space faring, technologically advanced society (even if they're the social equivalent of medieval imperialist thugs .. lol sorry not sorry! That's literally how they're depicted... and honestly that really weird twist IS some of Asgard's most interesting and strange development) whose friends, allies and other examples of places visited DO and HAVE included Earth, Xandar, and six other 'realms' as their etymology names them: for literal millennia. Even taking the other, long established cultural influences and visitations aside? For a society who 5000 years ago was still porting whole armies to other planets to kick peoples asses? The idea they never discovered honey; or sugar especially even on the inside of a fermentation barrel for wine; OR how to process it into something like candy? Is more than just a -little- dumb in the stretch. Sugar often naturally starts to separate and crystallize during the fermentation process. Ask a vintner, or look it up if you don't believe me. Just sayin'.. just on Earth alone, we know sweets were discovered more than 8000 years ago. Eight thousand. And the only reason we haven't been able to confirm people older than that finding things like bee's hives?? Is because well.. that kind of thing rarely survives even that length of time at all, to be found in archeology in order to tell us more. I'll touch that and how it's pretty damned near impossible that 'Loki doesn't know wtf candy is' being 1k+ years himself, and a guy raised as an Asgardian prince & spymaster to boot later into the culture section I think, but mmm.. that whole bit still reeks of stupid, to me And more so after their own DB Cooper scene. Gonna say candy wasn't a snack in that era either? Cause if so; I got big shocking news, for those who think so... XD

In closing.. for this part?

As far as the world of Asgard goes, we have only been allowed to see a very small part of it: and even then? It is still undoubtedly massively larger than even what's implied: and definitely capable of supporting it's comparatively small base population of less than 10k people.

(Odin's subterranean vault reference: exterior)

The only reason we don't see even more of it; is the fact that films have a limited time to give you everything, and the story focuses on the royal family from the get go. And they live, in the heart of Asgard's capital city... so we largely don't see as much of that as weirdo world building fans like me would absolutely love to see in the process... and frankly; they gave plenty enough to start us off with.

The films would have suffered for having too much more of that, rather than the stories they were trying to tell.

The same.. I would love to know more: and I do wish the current teams paid the previous ones more respect by using what was already there and expanding on it: instead of making mismatched new things up, as they went.

The early creative teams really knew what they were doing back then.

(Asgard's defensive cannons defending against the Darkalfheim air raid in Thor the Dark World.)

And no, this isn't all they showed us, in the show and tell they did manage to give us over the course of years of work... far from it.

Hope you enjoyed part one! Maybe you learned or saw something you missed.. or have been inspired to watch the older films again..?

I know I often am.

[aletheia-in-the-space]

So I'm catching up before the asterisk movie and that's how I finally came around to see the Black Widow. Overall, I had fun. Not a movie to be in awe for but also not a movie to be pissed at. Tbh, it would be rather forgettable if I hadn't watched it for character(s) and lore anyway. Not much thought on it besides bulletpoints:

+ If Natasha took off the plane, who landed it? Also her? Melina was out of the game and Alexei can't land a tale… Then again, maybe he could, once. He's the one character that reads really inconsistent to me here and headcanoning some sense into this takes more effort than I'm willing to invest in him. Idk, prison doing things to man, whatever.

+ Btw, I'm not asking why Soviet Russia's one (1) supersoldier is put as a sleeper muscle on a years-long sleeper job in Cuteville OH because I don't expect Marvel/MCU canon lore making sense. As far as I'm concerned, Marvel/MCU canon lore is to make the ground for fanworks, nonsense is seed and wtf feels are fertilizer. Go wild, fandom.

+ I mentally pfffed at all the super yellow filters on all places south of approximate Kansas. At this point it's like they deliberately wink at the trope or something…

+ As much as I appreciate the action and the N&Y's lines, all this stealing random people's drives For A Greater Cause (and also we're really in hurry)TM is not remotely as much funny as all filmmakers seem to think it is… It's almost like no superhero ever stole their own stuff For Cause.

+ And the inmate Ursa's arm. Not funny. Not funny at all. Poor guy. Bad Alexei. He can't take a little truth.

+ I loved the avalanche sequence, the whole of it, with Yelena's shot and her words about cool way to die, and Natasha tarzaning Alexei away, and the copter rising out of the cloud in the end, but I don't appreciate how it belongs in the in-universe Deadliest Disasters by Death Toll Wiki list. And it totally belongs in our universe Does the Dog Die list. I need some fix fic where the dog survives together with his assigned human, they dig out a number of other survivors and then quit the prison job and go for a career in disaster rescue. I allow the guys who ate Alexei's mail snack not be counted in the survivors.

+ Gotta love all the killing style criticism and one-upwomanning each other about who's the bloodiest of 'em all in front of the shop guy like he's furniture. Much professional. Very spy. Go on and ask him to pull a Paris and make the Judgement, why won't you. With a Golden Band-Aid for the apple.

+ It's my firm & evidence based conviction that every MCU actor in the title role must have a Chest Scene clause in his contract, which here posed a problem with Hollywood being very Tumblric about female presenting nipples. Is it why this movie went for Alexei hhnnnggnning his way into his old suit? (Ye gods, I sorta almost like Alexei, but frankly, his only saving grace is being genuine. Okay, two saving graces, being genuine and being self-aware, sometimes.)

+ I can take comic book movie science but not comic movie dramatic gestures, when Natasha shucks the headphones and tears Alexei's ones off, and proceeds with Serious Talk Time That Wasn't Serious Enough With HP On. Like, uh…? They are there for a reason, you know? A very noisy reason? A totally untalkable in these circumstances reason?

+ Speaking of which I said nothing at Natasha's comic movie field surgery (and hitting just the right nerve through all the bone and tissue had nothing on plugging it back online in a single crunch like she's secretly Steve Rogers 2.0 and grows neurones for fun) but this time I was disappointed that her comic movie dramatic gesture wasn't it, apparently. I thought she sacrificed her smell sense for good…

+ They totally wasted it not making Natasha ask Yelena after they hugged it out if she checked for the body and Yelena be forced to admit there wasn't any to check. Granted, in movie language it would open a doubt… but then again, Marvel lives of such openings so it's not like they care for avoiding them.

And speaking of hugging and all, I liked it being a hugging kind of movie instead of another Civil War. And that at least some goons are pointedly saved. And that twists tend to take the 'actually with us' turn instead of 'actually traitor who betrays' for once. Very refreshing and heartwarming. Cringey family reunion aside.

[geehollow]

Agatha All Along and Loki(s), my thoughts

[Cointains spoilers for: Agatha All Along (2023), Loki (2021), Young Avengers (Marvel Now! 2013) and Journey Into Mystery (from #622)]

[I watched this show not on D+ or any other platform that had the original English dialogue. Whatever I recall from the show has thus been translated by me from the Italian dialogues]

Giving in to @lucianalight 's nudging about watching Agatha All Along yielded some interesting results and I'm going to share. Thank you Luci.

Overall thoughts on Agatha itself are:

very good, 9.5/10. That remaining 0.5 is a score I give to concluded stories that have wrapped up nicely without disappointing me–Agatha doesn't get it because it doesn't feel concluded, although it did not disappoint me.

In fact, it gets high praise for not feeling like an MCU series at all, which means its story was engaging and well performed (everyone seemingly did their loving best and the sets and cgi were good), the characterization didn't feel disrespectful, I didn't feel the need to throw anything at any point, it kept me guessing back and forth for a long time during the episodes, and it truly felt like an independent series I could have randomly found on Netflix and binged in two days as I did. I only needed to ask Luci a few clarifications (I haven't watched Wandavision) and they could be delivered with a few sentences at most, so the series itself stands on solid lore and storytelling.

Major props to the soundtrack and song choices too.

Being a Loki comics reader and thus already knowing who Billy was meant I was able to make accurate guesses on what would happen and why throughout the story, and I think it lessened my enjoyment, but I don't think it should diminish my judgement of it all. I was pleasantly surprised at least once as I sidetracked myself thinking I was cleverer than the story, and although for some reason I couldn't manage to learn the other witches' names besides Alice's, I very much enjoyed their characters, the acting, their storylines and how they were told. The concept and execution of divination in the show is quite engaging.

10/10 on the humor. Coherent with the story, well-sprinkled, not one cringe one-liner for the sake of one-liners, didn't treat me like a dim idiot. Seeing the Agatha-Billy interrogation and chase scene from his POV was sooo funny I giggled the entire time, and I appreciate that the humor was created through the juxtaposition of two sequences that made sense in their own time, not through childish jokes. That's real work. It reminded me of the effortless humor in Loki S2.

More of this please. Stories and characters loved by their storytellers, a healthy consideration of the audience's intelligence, diverse cast, settings that were real–true respect for people and craft.

Similarities with the YA story

Across the central and penultimate episodes, I was reminded of Ikol from the 2013 Young Avengers run, and it was interesting.

Episode 5: I was first reminded of how Ikol wanted to take Billy's power by Agatha taking Alice's, as both stories involve Billy, and him being mad about someone taking someone else's power, and the act itself is an important part of the plot;

Episode 8: Agatha and Ikol both consider an option leading Billy to his death for their own gain, then both have a change of heart that lets Billy live;

(a bit of a stretch but I was laser-focused on similarities, so–Rio Death carving a path out in the background like AoA Loki drew a door in the background lol)

the way show-Billy's power acts through the Road reminded me of YA-Ikol's guilt-led missing power***

To Luci I jokingly said "'Based on Marvel comics' yeah I know which one."

I find it peculiar because, in a way, knowing that story + general expectations of how a story like Agatha could work allowed me to predict what was going to happen in the second half of it. It combined with my previous knowledge of Billy and it amused me to no end. I can't help but see Agatha in the role of Ikol within Billy's experiences–in Agatha, she helped him realize he was the creator of the Road and the implications of it. In the YA run, Ikol helped Billy along in realizing his powers to save Teddy and get rid of the Mother parasite.

Future MCU projects with Billy and Loki

In another post of mine, I'd shared the idea of having Kid Loki from the series be the one joining a team of Young Avengers, with the magpie being Tree Loki.

In JiM, Ikol the Magpie is a hallucination of the Kid from the phantom of the old Loki planted in his mind, with malignant intentions. But the magpie in a future series/movie could be benevolent–the MCU seldom follows comics faithfully and this could be a very nice instance of that habit. I would very much enjoy Tree Loki extending some protection and guidance to the displaced Kid. I think he would be kind to all the young heroes, and be particularly interested in Billy given Billy's ability to warp things, thus his potential to create timelines or even, through destructive actions, erase some.

At the end of Agatha, her ghost and Billy start looking for Tommy. The YA run, besides running from Mother, also includes looking for Tommy. I can see this being the basis for a future MCU project with the younger cast that has been introduced slowly after Endgame.

"Your path winds out of time" and "I need more time!"

I have the headcanon that the Road created by Billy was outside Time, simply because of that sentence. Yes, it most likely references Rio-Death, the original Green Witch described as the cycle of all living things, growth and decline in a constant stream, the common path everyone walks on, and is likely a warning directed at divination witch lady–***which by the way was the element that made me realize Billy's power shaped the Road around each participant, like Ikol's guilt-led missing power shaped itself around each Young Avenger's past for the final confrontation.

The Road-out-of-time is an interesting headcanon and I'm keeping it. It would make Tree Loki's curiosity more peculiar too. I'm sure there's more to be said about this whole thing.

It caught my attention that "I need more time!" was a repeated line/invocation in Agatha. I remember three instances (it's late as I add this so I might misremember): while the ceiling with swords was lowering, while Agatha was trying to make the dandelion growth, and Agatha pleading for more time with her child. Another little crumb I found intriguing.

Death the Green Witch, green the color of Time

I'd like it so much if Rio Death was a Loki. Or, better, more abstractly, a consequence of Loki creating Yggdrasil.

Agatha describes death as the green witch, tied to the cycle of all living things, growth and decline in a constant stream–like the branches of the Tree.

Green being the color of Time and all that exists within it means so much to me after everything the MCU did.

"Loki's magic keeps the multiverse alive. If he dies everything dies with him" pointed out Luci to me. True–so Loki is both life and death in the MCU. Time means growing, like the branching timelines, like living beings from birth through youth through maturity to death. From the beginning to the end. A manifestation of Death is a manifestation of Time, and in the MCU, Loki is Time–in Norse Mythology Loki is the parent of Hel. Well, I'd say Loki's the parent of death in the MCU in a way.

(Which brings me to MCU Hela, in an–undeserving of my brainpower and efforts–explanation for why she looks similar to Loki despite them not being closely related: if you become the god of something, you take on certain characteristics. Like a green and black palette)

Light thoughts: SWORD

Luci told me SWORD was in the Wandavision series after I asked if it might have been the SHARP society from the Mackenzi Lee's Where Mischief Lies book–a young Loki going to Midgard and running into a ragtag society whose acronym he finds silly, suggesting two more: first SWORD and then SHIELD.

I'm not expecting anything to come from this light connection, but like the "Your path winds out of time" quote, I find it really interesting.

__________

Obligatory link to the Loki comics reading order + plea to help find appearances

[unusual]

I mainly engage with League through Arcane but I knew about Viktor before the show came out and enjoyed his design a lot and honestly your take is 100% correct

I've seen people say that Riot making Arcane the main canon wasn't a good idea and I'm curious about your thoughts on that since you know more about the lore of the game itself than me lol. From what I've seen while the idea of a unified canon sounds nice I think League lore works best because it's prime for "putting my favorite characters in a situation" kind of material

Thank you!! I agree with that, yeah. It’s sort of a weird situation, but more or less this is how I would sum it up:

League of Legends already has one large (more-or-less) unified canon — with the exception of a few champions who are old, uncared for and out of date, most everyone seems to have their own special place and niche within the “standardized” / mainline universe and some connections with (generally) at least one or two other champions. Arcane was originally conceived as an AU, which isn’t weird for League; Star Guardian, Heartsteel/KDA (aka musicverse), Spirit Blossom, etc all exist in canon alternate universes inside League of Legends because the multiverse and time travel canonically exist in League.

The issues mainly begin as a result of Arcane blowing up independently of League, leading to a lot of people who dislike League of Legends (for any number of reasons) functionally getting into League lore and treating it as a separate thing. Riot also has its own issues with being kind of ashamed of the world it’s created, but imo there was already a pretty solid and flexible canon that plenty of people were already happy with and playing around with

This is why people are upset — retconning the world lore and biographies for select champions who were in Arcane has weird, messy implications that make it so that right now everything is very disjointed especially around Piltover and Zaun. There are champions who technically “don’t exist” right now (Blitzcrank, Camille, Seraphine, etc) and champions in weird positions (Renata) and overall there is sort of a feeling that Arcane should have stayed an AU because it was maybe a bad idea to recenter the lore around a miniseries that had to cut and adapt a LOT of the worldbuilding for timing/pacing reasons. I’ve compared it in the past to Marvel’s attempts to make the MCU the “main” universe… it just kind of doesn’t work and messes things up

The changes they’re planning to implement are probably going to take years to fully integrate because now they’re putting everything into this whole cinematic universe of tv shows they’re producing (which takes time) so I don’t know what it’s going to look like fully realized but I’m pretty skeptical of its future at the moment :P this is just how I feel about it right now

I also am mourning old viktor and jayce lol 💔 I’ll get over it and am definitely not as upset as other people because I’m coping by pretending they still exist in another universe but I will definitely miss seeing them around

[lesbiradshaw]

sometimes I worry if I've accidentally slipped into headcanons around stucky b/c the majority of the the fanon is so different and overwhelming sometimes but then someone shares the scripts to the movies and remember my "headcanons" are actual canon and I've just been forgetting how layered and deep devastating these two are and I'm not making it up omfg

Bucky was Steve's shield and savior the whole time keeping him safe he faced the brutality of war and tried to protect him from it and was willing to die to keep Steve rogers safe and faced indescribable horrors enslaved in his own mind for it, & Steve is pained in his soul for failing to return the favor and protect his hero in return and now Bucky Barnes is named as a face of evil while everyone praises Captain America and it feels so wrong to Steve and he throws his whole life into doing right by Bucky because he is his home he was the first hero and the history books will never give Buck his due. I am inconsolable T.T

MCU was cooking when they were first writing their story. Marvel needs to stop being afraid of stucky and get back to their roots they had such gold at the heart of their story it was like divine intervention how hard they went at the beginning

one of my fav bits of Steve&Bucky Lore that isn’t explicitly shown in the movie is that bucky isn’t only steve’s protector before the war, he’s also the first one who actually taught steve how to defend himself. steve’s motivation to stand up to bullies is completely his own but in the first vengeance comic (the tfa prequel) bucky, upon realizing steve is not going to give up on enlisting, decides that since he can’t persuade steve to stay out of it, he’s going to make sure he at least knows the basics of protecting himself. they go to bucky’s boxing gym together and bucky gives him lessons on how to fight, stressing the importance of steve focusing his tactics on speed and agility because the people he’ll be going up against are going to be bigger, but not necessarily dumb. he has a whole speech that sort of ties into what erskine says about steve being the little guy— and even when steve takes the serum and gets bigger and stronger, you can tell that he uses what bucky taught him. bucky didn’t stop protecting steve when they were apart. he did his best to prepare him to fight despite being frustrated by how steve was trying to throw himself headfirst into battle and i think that speaks to how much they understand each other. bucky knew steve was too stubborn to stay out of it and steve knew bucky would never let the matter go without doing his best to help. even when they weren’t necessarily on the same side of an argument, they were still a team, and that’s something that has never changed.

[paragonrobits]

also to be a bit salty about popular Vtubers and online personalities who have earned my eternal... if not hatred at least comically exaggerated but mild dislike because they're dismissive about Transformers, i have to admit it IS hystericall to see them being like

first dismissive of the series or outright mocking the iidea of people who are invested in it because they have vague memoriies of toy commercialls and assume the entire franchise is based around those commercials

and then manage to act SHOCKED when you tell them this is a really weird and bombastic franchiise that has no real long-term continuity but almost every single series, video game and movie is almost its own completely seperate continuity. These are all radically different series that have nothing in common beyond basic characters and concept

so i suppose in a world where things that have that sort of context aren't exactly that popular, with the MCU being the most prominent example of a big continuity and people still get shocked by the idea that the MCU is still not the 'canon' of all marvel content, but its own thing

well i guess this sort of reaction makes more sense when you realize this approach to continuity is not THAT commonly done until recently; that its not common knowledge that the G1 cartoon, the anime Cybertron series, the various Netflix War For series, Earthspark, Cyberverse, the Bay movies, the Bumblebee and Rise of the Beasts movies, those are all completely separate and unrelated series with their own lore, context, wildly different takes on the characters, tone, and yes, continuity.

this doesn't include, say, the Aligned continuity (which spanned a while and was meant to be definiitive, for a while) or the g1 + Beast wars continuity which is technically only a continuity in a very broad strokes sense, and it gets even worse if you include Beast Machines in it, but anyway the point is

Transformers is COMPLICATED. It is FAR more complicatted than will be appreciated by most people who aren't into weird continuity-heavy stuff like comics or Transformers stuff. It is ironic that a lot of the people who express these views are into MLP, since it is also a 'continuity specific to one iteration', but ultimately it does boil down to a somewhat salty hot take:

"This franchiise has been going on almost continously for nearly forty years.

"Are you honestly surprised a franchise going on that long, constantly being reinvented and reinterpreted with almost every single work set in the series is more complicated, especially when it was never particularly hard to take a look at any of the more recent series? If you failed to notice because you've actively refused to pay attention to it, you don't really have much of a position to act like its a shocker or it was only relevant as toy commercials. So was most of the stuff you fixate on, it's not any less meaningful just because you don't care about it or can't be bothered to project onto robots instead of talking horses."