#AGAIN i really think it's very funny to have v1 in the middle of family drama it didn't know existed lol

[muzzleroars]

I love love love your angel OCs and like to imagine them vibing on their own or together post gabriel murdering the entire council, like either they were spared or had some reason why they weren't there and weren't killed or whatever however I also like to sometimes imagine that these are the people who were killed during all that because we don't really know much about the people in the council Gabriel killed besides their devotion to God and this makes Gabriel's actions kinda like hit harder, if that makes sense. Like he killed actual dudes, some of them were nice or cool or whatever, but he thought it had to be done regardless. Makes it like sad but also more impactful. idk i just have fun thinking about it sometimes I'd love to see more of these OCs! I love the little glimpses into the inner workings of the council and heaven that they offer!

aaaa thank you!! i absolutely have ideas about at least a couple pieces i want to make with them, as i sort of decided to finally solidify their designs and characters largely to explore some other sides of gabriel. as the other archangels, he knew them best throughout his time in heaven as the four of them were made as a "set", all to balance one another. i really did consider making them a part of the council, but ultimately i made them separate from it for two reasons: they rank the same as gabriel and i think the council members specifically may have blocked their entry due to the idea that any one of them, let alone all four, could easily overtake the other members and control the entirety of the council; also i...just want to play with their interactions post-gabriel's "betrayal" and loss of grace since i think they all have very different reactions to it.

like i mentioned in raphael's post, he was actually the only other archangel present at the death of the council - he and gabriel had increasingly sporadic interactions throughout that time, with both of them consciously chalking it up to how busy they were given raphael's emotional tending to the people of heaven and gabriel's constant work for the council...but in reality, i think gabriel's faith was weakening while raphael refused to acknowledge any issues, making it harder over time for gabriel to continue relating to him. i do definitely want to draw raphael finding him just before he leaves heaven afterward, knowing that gabriel is now going to be condemned to hell and struggling to understand what that means for the archangels, for heaven as whole, and for the plan he has always been so sure of.

uriel and michael, on the other hand, actually don't know anything about the council's formation - uriel's meditation began before it was conceived while michael left heaven around the time they began to discuss potential fixes to the leadership issue, claiming he would find god to plead his return but hasn't been seen since. they only all meet again when gabriel falls - in the interim, raphael has been left on his own to deal with the inevitable fallout while he mourns both gabriel and all that once was. uriel wakes first upon gabriel's death and rebirth as a fallen angel, the disturbance so terrible and unexpected that he can no longer stay dreaming. he finds a heaven collapsed, eternal blood stains that can't be scrubbed from the halls of paradise and distinctly feeling the horrible loss of gabriel - to lose one is to lose a part of themselves. he seeks out raphael to fully understand what's happened (who is deeply grateful to have another archangel back), but shortly thereafter michael finally returns to heaven.

angels, by their very natures, are creatures not meant to live alone - while they're certainly not a hivemind, i do like to think they have clusters they are interconnected with for their work like i've been talking about with the archangels. michael, being so far gone for so long and away from the tempering personalities of his fellow archangels, has grown into an extreme and twisted form of his intrinsic personality and position. importantly, i see gabriel as his biggest influence - they are warriors matched in strength both physically and characteristically, but gabriel had always been more compassionate while michael was stronger in faith. because of their even footing, they retained a mutual respect and understanding of one another that allowed both of them to be kept in check even though they tended to butt heads the most out of the four. now, however, michael has lost his counterpart and has been too long on his own besides, so upon his return, he is consumed with righteous fury and a dire need to see gabriel punished for his fall. michael, as the binder of demons and the damned, wishes to personally chain him to the lowest circle of hell, to never move freely again and to only feel pain for the rest of his existence as all those condemned must. as the prince of angels, his strength of personality and god-given leadership convinces uriel and raphael to join him in his work, though the two of them are not nearly as sure about the proper course of action.

heaven is changed, god and one of their archangels is gone, as well as many of the highest due to their loss as council members; additionally, hell itself is in shambles, self-directing and doing as it pleases as its own entity with machines making it down to its very bowels. but michael doesn't care, nor does he seem to realize his motivations now are far from a simple exercise in doing as god would have wanted, but instead are driven by his own personal pain and by a mind changed by his time in solitude (plus, in a sense, feeling responsible as michael's faith bolstered gabriel's and so...is something of his fall not on his shoulders now?) and so he commands uriel and raphael by his side to see gabriel bound or killed if he refuses to accept his due punishment. gabriel, physically, has always been the strongest of them in my interpretation (due to his title of "god is my strength"), but michael is matched quite well and with the other two, he fully believes them capable of subduing the fallen angel. unfortunately, he doesn't realize gabriel's going to give him a much harder time than even THAT, since he's got. he's got a creepy little robot now!!!!

[agentxthirteen]

SAM WILSON aka The Falcon is a former U.S. Air Force pararescue jumper turned Avenger who was Steve Rogers’ right hand man. When Sam finds himself tangled in an international conflict that is more personal than he could have ever imagined, his only shot at overcoming this trial will be to team up with his least favorite 106-year-old: Bucky Barnes. Anthony Mackie, who returns as Sam/Falcon, welcomed the opportunity to dive deeper into the character. “I feel like with this series, we've been able to show you why Sam and Bucky are who they are and why they believe in what they believe,” he says. “You get to meet and get to know them as three-dimensional characters. You get to see them as people. It's funny because usually in a movie forum, you only have two hours to tell the beginning, middle and ending of a story. But we have six episodes to tell the entire scope of where these characters have been, how they feel about the world they're in, and where they're going once this series is over.”Upon returning from the Blip, Sam joins his sister Sarah in Louisiana in an effort to help save the family business. It’s complicated and he struggles. “Sam became a hero because of where he’s from—he saw that the world was not fair,” explains head writer Malcolm Spellman. “He ran off to save the world by joining the military. But he’s always worried if joining the military was really about running away from problems at home—they seemed so insurmountable, it'd be easier to save the world.”But it’s not the only thing on his mind. The future of the shield and the role Sam plays is not as clear as Steve Rogers anticipated. Says Spellman, “He truly believes that there’s an argument to be made that red, white and blue—stars and stripes—inherently represents oppression.”Adds Mackie, “Sam considers the shield a representation of the country that we live in. There's a lot of trepidation as far as how does a Black man represent a country that does not represent him?”

BUCKY BARNES was Steve Rogers’ best friend and a WWII veteran who was brainwashed by Hydra to become the Winter Soldier—a deadly and ruthless assassin who would stop at nothing to achieve his assigned mission. As revealed in the post-credit sequence of “Black Panther,” Bucky’s mind was healed by the Wakandans, and he later joins the Avengers to heroically battle and ultimately defeat Thanos. But now that Bucky has been thrust back into the real world, he must figure out how to become James Barnes again—all while facing the demons from his past. Sebastian Stan portrays the eternally troubled Bucky/Winter Soldier. “He is trying to embrace his new life—but he’s pretty lost and having an identity crisis again,” says Stan. “He's doing his best, finding his own path after Steve, after all those events. It feels like this is the first time he's finally free, so to speak, to look after himself. But it's not easy. “How does this character now function in the world?” continues Stan. “What's his life going back to Brooklyn? How is he meeting people? How is he interacting at coffee 5shops? Is he dating? Is he thinking about another career? Is he in therapy? There were all these questions about where we could take this character. There were a lot of fun and exciting things that came out of that exploration.”Co-executive producer Zoie Nagelhout adds that for the first time, Bucky is making a concerted effort to take charge of his life—and that includes making some difficult amends. “He is working to unburden himself from the trauma of being the Winter Soldier,” she says. “He believes that will get him closer to knowing what he wants.”Stan asserts, however, that Bucky’s past is there to stay. “Look, there's always going to be a darker side of this character, which I’ve always loved—it’s what makes him more interesting and complex,” he says. “I feel like that doesn’t go away. It's still there deep down. He's just learning how to deal with it a little bit better.”

JOHN WALKER is one of the highest-ranking soldiers in the U.S. military. He is patriotic, strong, good-intentioned, and every bit of him will be put to the test as he tries to team up with Sam and Bucky to protect the world from a new threat. Wyatt Russell was called on to portray the dedicated soldier. “We thought Wyatt was an interesting choice because a lot of his work before had him playing the slacker with long hair and a beard,” says executive producer Nate Moore. “But we found this unique energyin him that neither Sam Wilson nor Bucky Barnes has, and we felt that was important so that John Walker stood apart from these two characters.”But, says Russell, Walker’s journey is not without complication. “I gravitate towards characters who need to make difficult decisions,” he says. “His dichotomies are what attracted me to him, and I’ve been allowed the leeway to shape him a little because we’ve never met this character before.”

SHARON CARTER, a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who went on the run after breaking the Sokovia Accords, knows that if she stepped foot in the United States, she’d be arrested. But life underground has taken its toll on Sharon, who’s become somewhat jaded while fending for herself since the events of “Captain America: Civil War.” But heroism runs in her blood, and she finds herself tangled in Sam and Bucky’s global fight.Emily VanCamp, who returns to the MCU as Sharon Carter, says the character has changed since we last saw her. “Listen, when we find Sharon, she’s in a pretty dark place,” says VanCamp. “When we first see her, there’s a little bit of anger. She’s tougher, a little raw and rough around the edges—a totally different version of Sharon than what we’ve seen in the films. That’s really interesting to explore.”Adds Nagelhout, “We never really heard from Sharon after she put herself out there for Cap, Sam and Bucky, so we felt it was important to tell her story—to see what’s she’s been going through after throwing her career away to do what she felt was right. She’s that kind of person.”

ZEMO, the Sokovian special forces officer who targeted the Avengers after he lost his family in the battle of Sokovia, has been rotting in a German prison since we last saw him in “Captain America: Civil War.” But Zemo isabout to be reignited with a new ferocity. “I kind of fell in love with Zemo,” says director Kari Skogland. “He’s a man who’s struggling with this desire for revenge. But his story is a slippery slope of trying to make something right, but going about it all wrong. So, when we meet him, he’s paying for his crimes. He’s lost everything. He’s in a very sad place. I couldn’t help but feel a certain amount of sympathy for him.” DanielBrühl, whoreturns as Zemo, feels similarly about the character. “In ‘Civil War,’ I was fascinated by the fact that Zemo is a multi-layered villain,” he says. “He’s not just a sinister bad guy. But there was not that much time to explore different facets of him, so it was great to be given the opportunity to revisit this character.”