#I tried my best to just limit this to mcu characters the best I could

[shurisneakers]

a writing challenge? in 2024? you bet

Hi! Hello! Hey!

I've been going through A Time and have chosen to cope by going back to the specific vibes of 2016 to 2018. That happens to include an incredible resurgence in my love for MCU fanfic, the community around it and all the love that goes into them. I've felt a bit distant from here for a while, but I still see so many of my old friends writing, ones who want to get back into it, and a whole lot of new writers I am dying to meet.

I've floated this idea vaguely on my blog and people seem to be interested so I figured it was worth a shot!

So yeah, welcome to Ari's Old School, Nostalgia Jam, Why-The-Hell-Not MCU Fic Writing Challenge 2024!

Prompts, rules and whatnot under the cut:

Requests:

If you could reblog this post to reach someone who might want to participate, I'd really appreciate it! No need to be following me, it's open for anyone.

Reader-inserts, OCs, solo character fics, character x character-- absolutely no limitations

Any and all MCU characters are allowed

Anything above 500 words should have a read-more/keep-reading tab. Series, multi-chapters, one-shots, drabbles, etc etc. The sky's the limit.

Please tag me in your fics (@shurisneakers) so I'm notified of them, and post them with the tag #arisoldschoolwritingchallenge . It may take me a while to get back to you due to the circumstances I find myself in currently, but I absolutely will. Please send me a DM if I haven't responded within 10 days.

Send me an ask with the prompt you would like. Feel free to pick up to 2 prompts

The only thing I request of you: no RPF and no dark fics. Smut is welcome, but non-con/dub-con/incest or anything along those veins is something I'd ask you not to submit for this challenge. Thank you for your understanding!

I know I've called it an MCU fic challenge as it's the community I've grown with, but if you feel like any of these prompts resonates with a character from another fandom, please go ahead and write it. This challenge really is just about the fun of writing fanfic and love for Your Little Guys

No submission cut-off date. Take all the time you need.

Prompts

I've tried to have a mix of classics and uncommon tropes/dynamics, so I hope everyone finds something they connect with!

Relationship Prompts

1. Enemies (taken by @theysaywhatasadsight)

2. Best friends/childhood friends

3. Coworkers (taken by @jaaneymann)

4. Internet friends

5. Neighbours/roommates (taken by @angrythingstarlight)

6. Fake dating (taken by @hungryforpowernotfood)

7. Commuters

Alternate Universe Prompts

1. Florist AU (taken by @hungryforpowernotfood)

2. Showmance AU (taken by @bombsonboard)

3. Social media/streaming/gaming AU (taken by @splintered-emotions)

4. Thieves/Heist Group AU

5. Time travel AU

6. Pirates AU

7. College AU (taken by @lovelybarnes)

8. Apocalypses/dystopia AU (taken by @targaryenvampireslayer)

9. Chef AU

10. Roadtrips AU

Some rarer miscellaneous ones for those who are so inclined!

1. Shipwrecked together on an island

2. Meet Ugly (opposite of Meet Cutes) (taken by @barnesandco

3. Both of you are ghosts but don't know the other is

4. Treasure hunters AU

5. Faking death

6. Professional cuddlers AU

7. Time loops/Groundhog Day (taken by @sxrensxngwrites)

8. Orpheus and Eurydice

9. Villain x hero

10. Hitchhiking

11. Carnival of Horrors

12. Robin Hood

13. Matchmakers AU

14. Insomniac x narcoleptic

15. Intergalactic Coffee Shop AU

16. Doomed By The Narrative

17. Enemies to Lovers to Enemies

18. Subversion of Classic Hallmark Movie Tropes

Dialogue prompts

You can tweak them as per requirements, but be sure to keep the underlying message!

Angst

1. "I should have trusted myself. I should have stayed far away from you." (taken by @waywardcrow)

2. "Has it occurred to you that how I feel matters too?" (taken by @jaaneymann)

3. "We failed. I would do it again."

4. "You do not deserve my forgiveness."

5. "You make me feel so alone." (taken by @reidishh)

6. "I'm not giving up on us." "I did. You should too." (taken by @targaryenvampireslayer)

Crack

1. "Ohhh, you wanna kiss me so bad it makes you look stupid." (taken by @pinkthick)

2. "I think you and I make the worst choices together." "Yeah, but it's always entertaining."

3. "I trusted you." "Terrible decision, really."

4. "I know I'm smiling but I want to push you off a very big cliff." (taken by @pepperonijem)

5. "I'm hilarious." "You're traumatised."

Fluff

1. "This is the only thing I look forward to everyday." (Taken by @bombsonboard)

2. "I think we should do that again. For the sake of the world and my sanity."

3. "You're all I think about." (taken by @waywardcrow)

4. "Don't go anywhere I can't follow." (taken by @iguess-theyre-mymess)

5. "Don't smile at me like that." "Like what?" "Like that." (Taken by @lovelybarnes)

Word Prompts:

Flesh

Strawberry

Bruised (taken by @juvenilearson)

Groovy

Jump

Sunflower (taken by @barnesandco)

Alchemist

Wayward

Offerings

Mischief (taken by @supraveng)

I hope you'll join in! Please do tag anyone you think would be interested, I'd love for this to have as wide an audience as possible.

Lots of love <3

-Ari

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

yo, do you think Netflix could make a better Moon knight show than Disney plus?

And other than Oscar Isaac, who would you cast as Moony?

I mean daredevil Netflix is better than most mcu movie so a Netflix moon knight show might be better than the Disney one

Alright, thank you for your time :D have a nice day!

Hello!

Oh that's a tough question.

I absolutely adored the Netflix Daredevil. Specifically season 1. The hallway fight scene is my happy place. Netflix is known for blowing it out of the water When They Want To. Not to mention the casting was the single best casting job I've ever seen. And Frank Castle? They couldn't have done better.

Since Disney has not actually taken the reigns of Dare Devil yet, it's hard to say how they will choose to carry on the story or what different choices they will make.

But the real difference in the two? How much they are willing to invest. Because it really was all about the script, the direction, and the cast.

You see, Marvel (And Disney) tend to have very strong opinions about what happens in their movies. And these choices have affected many of the movies in very negative ways. Often leaving the directors, writers, and actors very frustrated.

They also tend to heavy hand things and put a lot of pressure on directors. Not to mention that Marvel has an ultimate goal to reach and when you start interconnecting things, it's going to get MESSY.

My biggest joy in Moon Knight was how it was a stand alone and not involved in a larger messy plot with an end goal of tying him into a larger franchise to make movies and more money.

It's a big worry. The more big characters you have involved, the less time you are going to have to establish and develop each individual character and their relationships. And since Moon Knight has his own inter-system relationships to deal with first, there is a HEAVY chance things are going to get overlooked or underutilized or cast aside in favor of a quick fix or sloppy story telling (Looking at you End Game).

I think that the Moon Knight we got in season 1 was absolutely amazing and that was in large because of the freedom that was given to the cast and crew and director of the show. The absolute freedom and research and care they put into it. I'm not sure they would have had that financial ability if Netflix had done it. Not to mention they would have put limits on the set design and location. Disney has that lovely ability to just go "You want the Wadi desert? Let's go."

And OSCAR. This man MADE Moon Knight. His own research, input, and creative suggestions. He was the one that gave Steven the accent. He cast his brother as his body double. He even chose to do the single shot mirror dialogue with Marc and Steven. That's a flex that a lot of actors can't do. There have been MANY that have tried to play multiple characters and complained about how hard it was the whole time. Oscar took it as a fun walk in the park. I honestly can't imagine anyone else doing a better job or even as good a job as he did. If they had used anyone else, it couldn't have been a well known name. It would have had to be a new person. (All though I did just try to imagine Ryan Gosling as Marc for the briefest of moments and it gave me some serious Smallwood vibes. That Smallwood scrunkle on that face? Yes.)

And trust me, when I heard they were making a Moon Knight show with Disney, I was skeptical as hell going in. I'm super protective of my boys. I feared the worst. I have never been happier to have been wrong. I hope I continue to be wrong with season 2. I WANT it to be just as amazing. I want it to blow me out of the water and destroy me like season 1 did. So I'm just sitting here holding my breath and trying not to think about all the ways they could seriously mess it up. (there are so many).

Uh... Did that answer your question?

[meidui]

So I'm actually very glad you came back, among many others I'm sure :D Esepecially because I recently saw a post by Sineala stating the difference between 616 vs MCU Steve and Tony, and she said people should ask someone else if they wanted to know about the MCU. So, I really wanted to ask you from your perspective what you think the difference is, because you seem to like MCU the most! This is the post.

sineala(.)tumblr(.)com/post/172540509139/whats-the-difference-between-tony-and-steve-from

Thank you and welcome back :DDD

oohh i know that post and i love that post 🤗 i learn so much about 616 from sineala, her fic and meta are more sacred to me than comic canon i'm so serious about that

i feel like i read the comics very chaotically and so most of my limited firsthand knowledge is very.. incidental. but if you're looking for someone who has spent too much of her time obsessing about every stevetony related detail in the mcu i am your girl <3

mcu steve makes me go *heart eyes* because even though he's very fighty and very stubborn (the core steve rogers traits across the multiverse), i think as a generalisation mcu steve is sadder and 616 steve tends to be angrier?? in my opinion he's gentler, quieter, more reserved and measured and forgiving than his 616 counterpart and that's one of the reasons he's so attractive to me because i think he's actually so soft!!

also- mcu steve did the best with the hand he was dealt but he did not at all have the support system that 616 steve when he came out of the ice :'( in the comics the avengers are the ones who find steve, but in the movies it's a group of shield agents who get a call from an oil team. the first thing that happens to mcu steve when he wakes up is that he gets lied to (shield puts him in that fake hospital room and tries to convince him it's still the 1940s to ""ease him in""), and then between waking up in 2011 and meeting the avengers in 2012, he's completely alone. there's an amazing deleted scene from a1 that shows steve wandering around new york by himself and his loneliness is palpable

i think this also relates to their ideas of home in the 21st century. 616 steve seems very sure about the fact that tony gave him a home, his home is with tony and the avengers, but mcu steve spends a long time searching for a place to call home. even in catws, when he's been in the 21st century for 3 years, he still has books stacked on the floor of his apartment and paintings he hasn't hung up yet. a year later in aou, sam asks if he's found a place in brooklyn yet, and steve says he doesn't think he could afford a place in brooklyn, and sam says "home is home" and steve sort of just stops smiling and goes quiet and looks away. the only place he calls home in the movies is avengers compound, once in aou when tony asks if he's alright and steve says "i'm home" and once in infinity war when sam asks where they're going and steve says "home" (referring again to the compound). and when the compound gets blown to bits in endgame, even that's gone

on the other hand mcu tony seems more well adjusted than 616 tony and that felt like a deliberate choice based on the scenes that didn't make it into the movie. for example ,there's a deleted scene from im1 where pepper finds tony on the floor the morning after a party, drinking in his iron man suit and he's bleeding and there's a wisp of smoke coming from his armour and he is clearly not doing well, and an alternative opening scene for im2 that they didn't use where tony is vomiting and altogether freaking out a little bit before the stark expo

tony's alcoholism and sobriety is an important part of his 616 character, and there's the birthday party scene in im2 where tony gets drunk to cope with the fact that he's dying, but other than that and mysterio casually calling tony a "boozy man-child" in spiderman ffh, it's not really part of his mcu character

there's also the childhood trauma he has from howard, 616 howard was horribly abusive!!!!! a lot of people dislike mcu howard for not showing tony affection growing up etc, but the mcu portrays that father-son relationship in a more complicated light so you do see people split over tony forgiving him in the end. for example tony invents the new element in im2 with the help of howard's old tapes and notes and goes "dead for almost 20 years and still taking me to school," tony tells steve "my father made that shield" "he made it for you," and there's the full on reconciliation scene tony has with howard in endgame (also we get to see young howard stark in catfa and agent carter and he is honestly so likeable there, which still confuses me to this day but anyway)

and in the comics tony sees himself as more separate from iron man, hence the secret identity, and it feels like he sees iron man as his repentance and as having only his good qualities, someone he wishes he could be? but they tossed that right out at the end of im1 when tony literally says "i am iron man," which was a very clear rejection of the identity-crisis component of his 616 character, and they drive it home again when it's his last line in endgame. i think mcu tony sees iron man as an almost inextricable part of himself which i really love about him, and it makes sense because 616 tony hates himself so much more than mcu tony does ;_;

in terms of steve and tony's relationship, they have such a long history of friendship in the comics which makes the civil war arc hurt more but i feel like they always have that friendship as a bedrock to keep building and rebuilding their relationship on, whereas in the mcu they get off on the wrong foot and tiptoe around a very fragile relationship/disproportionately deep feelings for a few years but don't trust each other enough for a long time and that's the reason their civil war happens, and it's only at the end of their canon that they resolve it and really come together

there's also the romantic relationships- they both have several significant love interests in the comics but just one true love in the movies, it's always been peggy for steve and pepper for tony, but i think that's more due to the nature of the mcu being one movie canon and 616 spanning so many more years and going through so many more writers

now i'm just rambling but they shifted a lot of the characters around in steve's life as well, like the role sharon plays in the comics is diluted in the movies and peggy and natasha are the two most important women in his life instead because they're the ones who give him that support and guidance. also mcu stevebucky doesn't really exist in the same way in the comics because they didn't grow up childhood friends with bucky being protective over steve, they met in the military and bucky is a few years younger than steve in the comics, so steve was a mentor to him

[hexhomos]

I'm sorry if you've been asked this before but what are your thoughts about Arcane potentially being canon? I do not like it.

And if you don't mind answering another question, how do you feel about the way people sort of interpret Jayce and Viktor?

I don't think it's a good idea and it strips away many of the interesting things about these characters and the *universe's story as a whole* to exclusively represent the simplified, time-limited version of events that could fit the runtime of a TV show.

I've been asked this before and I always say this: Arcane is the MCU version of league lore; with the same strengths (improved visuals, the fast pacing of a cinematographic adaptation) and same biggest weaknesses (flimsy story summarizations that sacrifice a lot of the compelling narrative and kill entire characters)

I've been a comic fan for nearly as long as the MCU has been viral and I can tell you every attempt to retcon MCU events into the estabilished comic universe has not worked. It has the opposite effect of interrupting character arcs and stories people actually like and undoing pre-estabilished facts about the magic of the universe, driving away fans of the original medium while failing to attract the new movie/tv-show audience to check out the original, because those are completely different demographics.

It's even worse with Arcane, as we already KNOW one big joke in the fanbase is "even if you like the show, dont play the game. It's stupid bigoted redditor shit and it sucks" - there's an entire genre of arcane fan accounts who are militant about not playing the game and encourage others to never play the game. I don't think league's execs understand this, though, which is why we are seeing this current trend of a DRASTIC pullback in any and all lore-related content for league coming from higher-ups, and some of the old estabilished writers leaving the company while CEOs promise they're trying to find "an unified version of the narrative experience."

To stay on topic here and also answer your second question; ive rambled at length about jayce viktor interpretations in my meta tag. I reccomend you to look there! You'll notice i havent gone into specifics about what in arcane's narrative is weaker since its included on those.

I'd like to finish this post in another way though. In the long run, I don't think it matters that execs are trying to force narrative retcons despite the internal and external negative response to it. Fans will always like the specific thing they like, and in this scenario, start to define what versions of the universe/character they're talking about by release year or authorship, which is already happening in league. This is why the vikjayce codex exists and will not change, and this is why you see people using "2011/2016 lore" and "jayce giopara", etc.

Remember all these MCU retcons I mentioned? Whenever a movie is past its expiration date and the story element they tried to fit into original canon is considered a fad, it's just rewritten back to what it used to be. The newest marvel news this month is that CEOs decided to kill kamala khan ahead of her upcoming movie, as the MCU couldn't fit her signature elastigirl powers and they want to swap those out for the dumb purple magic the movies gave her instead. This will not last, as these never do. In 4 years she'll be back to normal, and in the meantime, elastigirl kamala will continue to exist in all her source books and videogames. The same way league's original bios are preserved and spin-off game content like the LOR comics or Convergence will continue to exist; I can't change any shortsighted decision from the CEOs, but fans as a whole have systems to define different universes and pick the version they like best.

Arcane has been called an AU by people who've worked in LoL's narrative, and is just the newest shiny thing. It is not "canon", as it never fit any part of the current game universe, and any future attempt to "make it canon" is just another permutation of an AU. I would encourage anyone who's nervous or anxious about retcons to not give a shit and disregard it altogether. If it doesn't work, you can always change it back.

[justworthlessreblogs]

waffleverse: full bibury fic author's notes

this fic is so long and i had so many writing decisions/notes i wanted to talk about that they couldn't all fit in ao3's 5000 character limit. so i figured i might as well put them here. they'll be under a cut to prevent any accidental spoilers!

writing notes:

- first off this fic drove me CRAZY. another one of its nicknames was “the frankenfic” because i really did feel like i had 3 fics i was shoving into one. and it also took on a life of its own. every day i wake up and scold myself for deciding that covering 33-40 was a good idea. it was not helped by me not having many strong feelings about any of the episodes in that set, which led to me feeling really bored when writing them, and then in the last month of writing i said “fuck it, we ball” and started just making up shit. i also remembered Hey I Made Bibury Try To Kill Rio Back In May I Should Do Something About That. so you get bibury backstory! plus i was sad that they never explore her’s and rio’s time working under noir in canon aside from like. one scene in episode 18

- rio is trying his best to be better at emotions but it is definitely an uphill battle and not linear. the other cures meant well by accepting bibury so easily - after all, it didn’t really work out that great when they were constantly suspicious of him - but he didn’t see it the same way they did. in his eyes bibury was getting away with everything even though she did similar things to him. this was inspired by how the show itself does not seem to ever hold bibury accountable (at least as of where i’m at) but makes it very clear that rio needed to do something to make up for what he did (which i am fine with! this is not a “omg poor rio he was so hated by the writers” moment. i just found it interesting and thought i could explore it)

- episode 37 was the reason for like. nearly all of my original writer's block. it almost got cut, but in the end 34 got the chopping block instead because i felt that bibury didn't really have a justification to be there and 36 got basically entirely cut because i thought it was boring. plus 37 was just… too important to not acknowledge unfortunately. i still definitely want to write a waffleverse version of 34, though, i just think it’d work better on its own! which is why i summarized it here. i had the entire thing written out and saved it, so the original version will probably get uploaded to spice of life someday

- rio being like “i am so mad at my sister. however she is upset so i will make her waffles” was very funny to me. the duality of rio kuroki

- i left the bib & rio talk at the end open-ended, since i had so many things they could have possibly discussed that i couldn’t fit them all in naturally no matter how hard i tried. so let your imaginations go wild lol. however i guess i do have to thank that original draft of their conversation since it was the thing that finally, finally, made me figure out what i wanted from this fic - exploring not just bibury, but bibury and rio. this fic was originally a lot more ciel-heavy than what the final product ended up being, and frankly bib & rio didn’t interact much at all, and i wasn’t able to get to the bottom of why they still hated each other until i remembered. hey. attempted murder

- you are all so lucky that i ended up incorporating 26 into this fic because the original plan was for the scenes that changed to be stuck into spice of life when i got around to writing them someday. the mcu-ification of waffleverse is defeated for another day

- no fantastic animale because i really dislike those super forms and the attack. this is one of two times i have actively disregarded canon, i usually try to stick as close to canon events as possible (which is why the crystal animals are in this. you have no idea how badly i wanted to cut them). fantastic animale is Just That Bad. this was literally the first thing i decided after i started planning this fic. so animal-go-round is powerful enough in this ‘verse. just roll with it please

- no "do sweets bring sadness?" dilemma here because i didn't vibe with that part of the episode. i was looking forward to bibury shenanigans :( the crystal animals are just cielbib shippers /j

- if the writing seems disjointed i apologize it's because this thing was written on and off over a period of 3 months and is also super long

- i had so much fun writing the bathroom scene. finally allowing myself silly rights. the flashback scenes were also really enjoyable

- i messed with the yukari v. kirarin fight because i was a little disappointed with how it played out in canon. yukari tells everyone right away here because she had a Realization because of part 4. kirarin is more resistant than the average fairy to diable in this universe but not fully immune

- RIO FINALLY GETS TO SAY FUCK WOOHOO i've waited so long for this. also bibury is definitely a character who would cuss if the show's rating wasn't the japanese equivalent of tv-y7 so i was a little looser here

- you all know it in your hearts that aoi was 100% a vine kid. also there was no way i was letting that joke slip past me

- did the math and i'm preeettty sure that rio's age in the prologue section checks out with the waffleverse timeline? when i started this series i was under the impression that rio had been gone for way longer than what the series ended up implying, and so in waffleverse i decided he was gone for about a year. he's 12-about-to-turn-13 in the prologue and 14 in the present (his & ciel’s birthday was shortly after part 4!)

-bib starts calling him rio pretty quickly because a) she may have been evil, but she respects people's preferred name choices and b) yukari already had an arc about realizing how he's not julio anymore and i really didn't want to write that same arc a second time!

- waffle’s secondary attack finally shows up!!! waffle protége my beloved. giving him some sort of barrier just Felt Right (and waffles are the perfect shape for it). i like to think he can split it apart and use it offensively a la rosetta reflection. it was originally supposed to show up in 34 (which got cut) then in 37 (then i cut the battle from the episode since it felt very forced) and then i worried i wouldn’t be able to fit it in at all but got the opportunity with the climax rewrite

- in regard to bib's aging i'm going with "noir's presence slowed down her aging a lot somehow, so she may be chronologically 106 or so, but in all other aspects she's around 13-14 and will now start aging normally again". the same would've happened to rio had he stayed with noir longer. insert noir child labor joke here

- hey remember that time noir tried to take rio back!? i guess 40 kinda busted that for canon by establishing he sees them all as expendable but in my defense while i was writing part 3 i saw it more as a twilight-dyspear situation. and then i ran with that. at this point i’m just gonna have to accept that waffleverse isn’t purely canon divergence any more thanks to me writing it as i watch the show, which leads to the show debunking things from earlier parts 

- was a bit disappointed that the great fairy meeting episode didn't really involve, well, a meeting. so they actually get some time to talk strategy here! i'm so sad the technological limitations of ichigoyama meant that i couldn't have waffle give a powerpoint presentation on noir like i wanted to. it would've been so funny. maybe i'll make it for fun someday

- yeah i messed with episode 40 like. a lot. sorry. it's just how it ended up working out tbh. i actually debated back and forth for literal months on if i should give bib a "canon cure waffle" moment or not, and nearly did it, but decided against it because in the end it just didn't feel quite right for a multitude of reasons. so you were going to get fairy combat and then bib yelling at grave instead. and then that got rewritten once i decided i wanted to expand more on why rio & bib are so antagonistic to each other. you can still see traces of the original climax though in ciel showing up with the fairies, as well as the part where bib confronts grave! bib also originally wasn’t supposed to be dragged into the town with them, she was gonna stay on the mountain and then venture down with ciel and the fairies. but rio said Nope She’s Coming With Us once the fic's course changed direction

- my beta enabled me on the "bibury hasn't slept in an actual bed in a century" thing. i originally sent it to him as a joke. he told me to go ahead with it. but let's be real noir would do something fucked up like that

- let waffle fight the townspeople 2k23. this is the other time i actively disregarded canon in the fic idc what it says He Would Do It

- bibury’s verbal beatdown of grave was inspired by her canon one in episode 40

- ciel & bib's relationship isn't gonna progress past "mutual crush" at any point in waffleverse simply because i cannot write romance sorry. rest assured it blossoms into a beautiful love story. they get married on the island where they met properly for the first time. rio is ciel's best man

- i came to the realization that a lot of my decisions regarding this fic were along the lines of "fuck canon". idk what that means

[lizlives]

Marvel Fan-Fix Suggestions

This is a partial re-post of an earlier post but I feel like I didn't do a good job explaining what the document was for, so here's hopefully a better explanation.

Basically, with Marvel and more specifically the MCU becoming more and more complicated, hit-or-miss, and hard to follow, I've been thinking a lot about how the movies and really the universe could be improved with editing. I've seen some really decent attempts at editing the movies to be a bit better, and some that take the footage and try to tell an almost entirely new story.

This document, that I have opened for comments and suggestions, is hypothetically for something somewhere in the middle. Basically it's a compiling document of ideas for ways of improving the movies with fanedits. These include but are not limited to new shot-to-shot editing, adding deleted scenes, cutting dialouge, new color-grading, new soundtrack, and more. I'm not the most skilled editor, but I do have some experience with fanediting and if nothing else would like to start putting together some ideas on how best to improve the movies/series.

My ideal edit is one that turns all the footage and tries to re-edit the best parts of the universe into movie-length episodes often following an anthology-esque format. This format could not only make watching a more streamlined experience for those that are confused by the all the various small connections and recommended viewings for specific characters and storylines, but also potentially gives the editor some leeway. If a movie/plotline/idea in the source material wasn't very good, there's a greater chance that it can be edited down, or at the very least de-emphasized.

As mentioned before, I've opened it up to comments and I would greatly appreciate anyone who comments. Even if it's just a small thing, any sort of idea for how to improve the characters, the plot, or even just a scene would be amazing. I will be continuing to add to this document as I remember more ideas.

It's also alright if some of your ideas contradict the ones I have written down, there's a decent possibility that they're better than mine lol.

[excusethequality]

My 2024 in Film: July

Oh, dear. I am once again super behind on my listing duties.

I was so hoping to be caught up by October, but then I went and watched a boatload of movies in August and now I'm in the weeds once more.

But there's still time! Maybe I can make a big push and make it in time. Especially if I don't blather on about things as much I wound up doing in this post.

In any case, July was a pretty good month for movies. Rewatched some old goodies, tried out some classics I had never seen, took some chances.

Movies are under the break.

* = rewatch

142.

Shark Huntress

(2021)

— Animal attack Directed by: John Riggins

A woman teams up with her old group of environmentalist friends to get to the truth behind the death of her mother at the jaws of a shark.

This movie is trash.

It's so bad. Just truly bad writing. Nothing makes any friggin' sense. The guy who plays "Guru" is one of the worst actors I've ever seen. It was just a confounding and painful experience to finish.

I was toying with the idea of trying to watch all the shark attack movies and ranking them. But I quickly learned that shark movies are havens for the writers of low-budget garbage films. There's just so many truly terrible ones. I haven't fully given up the quest, but I do limit myself to one a month at most in order to protect my sanity.

143.*

Captain Marvel

(2019)

— Superhero Adventure Directed by: Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck

While on a military operation for an alien race known as the Kree, a soldier is taken prisoner and forced to realize that everything she thought she knew was a lie.

Ever since this movie came out people have been shitting on it, but I love it and y'all are out of your minds.

The best thing about it is that it's a character driven movie about someone coming to terms with their past hidden in the guise of a big superhero action movie.

People are so used to the standard MCU framework that they use that to judge it, not realizing that it was subverting the framework the entire time.

"Ugh," they complain, "Carol is too strong and she's so arrogant." She's a friggin' fighter pilot! Have you seen Top Gun? Those fuckers are as cocky as they come. And she's had to battle against sexism her whole career, so she can't show any hesitation or weakness.

And yes, Carol is incredibly strong. That's the whole point. She was the strongest character in the movie the whole time, but her past, her environment, and the toxic people around her had been holding her back the entire time.

The whole story is about her being forced to realize that none of the limiters she thought she had on her were real. They were all just ideas put on her that she could ignore if she stopped trying to play their games.

And if all that wasn't enough you've got an incredible cast, top tier friendship chemistry, queer undertones, and a cute cat.

I don't think it's at the level that will make you a fan if you don't like superhero movies. But it's definitely in my top-tier of my favorite superhero movies.

144.

جوائے لینڈ

[English title: Joyland]

(2022)

— Drama Directed by: Saim Sadiq

A Pakistani family must all bear hardship in different ways when the tensions between tradition and culture versus personal desires and family relationships start to come to a boil.

From the description and the trailer I assumed it was going to be more of a straight forward romantic drama about a romance between a man and the trans woman he works for at a theater. But it really is so much more than that.

The thing that won me over with it is that it never limits its story by focusing too much on any one character. By maintaining a sort of distance it allows you to see all the interactions between the characters and how any one action can ripple through the rest. And thus when things happens you get a more objective view of who, if anyone, is to blame.

I'd definitely recommend giving it a watch. It's a really fantastic bit of character work.

145.*

Miss Congeniality

(2000)

— Comedy Directed by: Donald Petrie

A cop goes undercover as a contestant in a beauty contest in order to take down a serial killer.

I remember there was a reason I decided to rewatch this, but I really don't know what it was.

It's a very 2000s movie, I'll say that about it. And it has not aged particularly well. Especially because if you want a beauty pageant comedy from this era you could just watch Drop Dead Gorgeous, which is funnier, less problematic, and doesn't try and portray cops as heroes.

...the April 25th joke is truly hilarious though. That's something I can't take that away from it.

146.

Leprechaun: Origins

(2014)

— Creature Feature Horror Directed by: Zach Lipovsky

Two couples are vacationing in Ireland, but an attempt to learn some local history backfires when they find themselves under attack by leprechauns.

For anyone reading this list that hates stupid Horror movies you'll be glad to know that this is the last movie in the Leprechaun franchise. I made it to the end!

But for anyone who does like stupid Horror movies you won't be glad to know that this is By Far the worst one.

It's not even a competition. This is the worst one by quite a large margin. There were some stupid entries in the Leprechaun franchise, but at least they all had their own demented sort of charm. This is just hollow.

I knew Warwick Davis wasn't going to be in it, but I figured, hey, he's getting older. I can see them thinking it's time to pass the torch.

But I wasn't expecting them to just change the format completely. The leprechauns don't even talk in this one. They're just feral little creatures here. The whole thing is just a really shoddily made creature feature.

There's also this style of horror filmmaking that I'm sure any horror fan is familiar with. It's particularly prevalent in creature features. But it's a really cheap style where they try to see how far they can get by cutting around anything interesting and relying on you filling in the gaps.

Let's make a fake scene here as an example. Okay, our setting is a cabin in the woods. Characters are acting scared. Oh, a shadow moves past the window? Close up of character looking outside. Jumpscare of something slamming into the window. Characters freaking out and backing away. Something smashes through the window and we quickly cut back to the characters running away before you can see what it was. They all run out of the room and slam the door closed just as something thuds into it. You hear monster noises as the characters struggle to hold the door closed as something on the other side charges into it repeatedly.

You see what I'm saying?

Single location, handful of actors, not much dialogue. And if you're really feeling fancy? Perhaps throw in the most meager of monster props, like a hand or something trying to slip through the crack in the door to heighten the illusion.

Heck, you can even have the creature attacking someone directly, and by using close-ups and a jumble of cuts you can try to suggest the chaos of a monster attack. But once again you're cutting around the actual object of interest.

Your film thusly has a hole in the middle; it is essentially hollow.

Keeps that budget real low. But it's an offensive style, because it relies on you thinking your audience won't notice that you gave them an illusion for dinner.

Sure, lots of horror movies show you very little, but the good ones are using that as a tool. Spielberg famously had to limit the amount the shark was in Jaws because his animatronic was malfunctioning constantly, but he's a talented director so he changed his style to match having to use the shark sparingly. The terror became knowing that something was in the water that you couldn't see. Peaceful scenes became menacing because you knew a killer was somewhere out there and the fact that you couldn't see it right now meant it was all the scarier.

The reason the show-nothing style of horror is the most prevalent in creature movies is because creatures are inherently expensive and easy to do badly. So you try to show them as little as possible. But creating scares without showing anything requires talent, and talent costs money, and these types of low-budget movies don't want to spend that kind of money.

And thus you end up with films like this that want to act like they're The Thing and having the monster coming after these people, but never show the thing.

(The reason why slashers are typically the most budget friendly of the horror genres is because you can show the killer as much as you want and not break the bank on effects.)

Long story short, this is a prime example of modern low-budget horror. The type most often seen in made-for-tv / made-for-streaming money grabs.

And as someone who has watched a lot of Horror, anytime I start something and notice these hallmarks? Oh, you better believe I'm cursing under my breath, because I know I'm about to be treated like an idiot for 90 minutes.

And this is such an egregious example of the style that even people who aren't big film nerds hate this stupid thing.

Just look at these average ratings:

Letterboxd: 1.5/5 IMDB: 3.2/10 Rotten Tomato audience score: 1.6/5

It is just that fucking lazy and stupid.

147.

My Dinner With Andre

(1981)

— Drama Directed by: Louis Malle

Two old friends meet and catch up over dinner.

I feel like I was led to believe this was a movie about dinner between theater majors. But in actuality it is more like a dinner with philosophy majors.

And those are very different dinners!

This is such an acclaimed and oft-mentioned movie, but I had never bothered with it because I was pretty sure I wasn't going to like it. But let it not be said that I don't push myself when it comes to film and try new things.

I think it's fair to say that your instincts about this film will probably turn out to be correct. Love it or hate it, it truly is a movie entirely about two dudes having a conversation over dinner.

I will say that that the first half is definitely harder to watch than the second half. Andre dominates the conversation in the first half and he's a new-agey kinda dude and of the sort that I don't do well with.

In the second half Wallace Shawn's character starts to assert himself in the conversation and I definitely liked it much more once it became more of a dialogue and less of Andre monologuing about nonsense.

148.

Anatomie d'une chute

[English title: Anatomy of a Fall]

(2023)

— Mystery Directed by: Justine Triet

A man is found dead on the ground below the window to his house's attic that he had been in the process of renovating. The only other person at home was his wife. As the circumstances around the fall become murkier and murkier the wife is forced to defend herself from accusations of murder. And the only other person with any clue what might have happened that day is their blind son.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, but I will say that there were definitely parts where I was completely distracted by my ignorance of the French criminal justice system.

All I know is the American system, and damn! It turns out they are quite different. And it very distracting to be watching a trial and having shit happen that apparently is very normal for a French trial, but just utterly out-of-line for an American one.

I know, I know: even US courtroom dramas almost never depict courts in an accurate manner. But the French system is just close enough to be relatable, but also completely different.

So through no fault of the film's, I was definitely taken out of a lot of scenes by my utter bewilderment over what was happening in the courtroom.

Aside from that though, just a tour de force in terms of acting. A really intriguing mystery. And it has definitely stuck with me after I watched it.

149.

The Third Man

(1949)

— Mystery Directed by: Carol Reed

An American author moves to Austria after being offered a job by a friend, but when he arrives he learns that his friend has recently died. However, the more he hears about the incident the more he begins to suspect that things aren't adding up.

This is an example of me finally getting around to watching some acclaimed film to see for myself.

It's alright. It's certainly well-made. But I'm rather character-centric when it comes to stories and there isn't a single character I really care about. And I have a hard time getting invested in a story when that's the case.

If you're more interested in the cinema of it all then there are better sources than I to describe why it's considered a classic.

150.

Platoon

(1986)

— War Directed by: Oliver Stone

It's 1967 and a new soldier has just arrived at an infantry unit in the Vietnam War. He soon learns that the Vietnam War was pretty fucked up.

Look at me! I'm on a roll here with acclaimed films.

I was watching something or another and they made reference to a classic scene from this movie. I've never watched this one, because War movies, and Vietnam War movies in particular, often aren't my thing. They are usually based around having character go through horrible ordeal after horrible ordeal, and then end on a note of "War is truly a terrible thing."

...I don't know about you, but I don't really need to watch a whole movie to know that war is fucked up. And I don't particularly like watching people suffer just to watch people suffer.

Someone might now be like, You watch all that Horror and you don't like watching people suffer?

And they're different! Horror isn't about death, the Horror genre is about SURVIVAL. The bad things that happen to the characters has a deeper meaning within the story, and seeing how they handle these troubles and move forward provides the story arc.

War movies are often about death or guilt or trauma.

And yeah, this one is no exception.

I will gladly concede that one of the reasons this movie feels so average to me is that it came out before I was born and was incredibly influential. So I came up on pieces that were refinements to its formula. It's hard sometimes to properly judge things within their own era, especially when you've seen people build upon what it did and further refine it over the decades.

So while I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to most people, if you're a big movie buff I think it is interesting to see how this fits into the timeline of the genre.

Also, while Charlie Sheen is utterly forgettable as the lead, Willem Dafoe is definitely bringing some heat.

151.*

The Waterboy

(1998)

— Sports Comedy Directed by: Frank Coraci

A man with a love for water and for hydrating the thirsty is fired from his job as the waterboy for a local college. But while trying to find a job at another college it's discovered that he actually has a natural gift for playing football as a linebacker.

And then I end the streak with an Adam Sandler comedy.

Although I hate modern Sandler comedies with a deep loathing, I still can't help but enjoy the older ones.

Look at some of this cast: Kathy Bates, Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler.

I won't try and convince anyone of it's quality, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it.

The main character is just so earnest. Kathy Bates and Henry Winkler steal the show and are hilarious. And I've never seen Fairuza Bulk in a movie where she wasn't giving something unique to the role.

152.

The Wedding Singer

(1998)

— Rom-Com Directed by: Frank Coraci

A wedding singer in the 1980s falls in love with a bride-to-be.

I do believe this was the only early Sandler comedy that I never saw before.

Well, actually, after watching it again I'm pretty sure I had at least seen parts of it before? A couple scenes definitely felt familiar, so maybe a family member was watching it one day back in my younger days. But I really couldn't have told you a single thing about the plot, so I'm going to go ahead and count this as something new to me.

For a Sandler movie I was kind of shocked at how down to Earth it was. His movies of this era usually had some sort of zany element to them and this is one is played pretty straight.

The most maddening thing about Adam Sandler is that he really can act when he wants to, he just chooses not to for 99% of his movies. And he is so much better when he's playing down-to-earth characters than he is playing wacky ones.

153.*

Drop Dead Gorgeous

(1999)

— Mockumentary Comedy Directed by: Michael Patrick Jann

Things at a beauty pageant in small-town Minnesota turn deadly when someone starts trying to off the contestants.

After Miss Congeniality left a bad taste in my mouth I felt compelled to watch a beauty pageant comedy with some chops.

I could write an essay on this film. There is just so much going on here.

I know people that love it and I know people that hate it and I understand where both are coming from. It's equal parts ingenious and flawed. But it's the way it's flawed that is so interesting.

(well, except for almost everything surrounding Will Sasso's character, which is far and away the cringiest element of the film.)

In spite of being completely over-the-top it still somehow manages to be one of the most accurately Minnesotan movies ever made. And the problems I see in it were all problems that I saw while growing up in 90s Minnesota. And it's the weirdly accurate depictions of both the good and the bad that make it so compelling to me.

It's just doing so many little things that I never see in other movies. The way it shows how young people often have really passionate interests? And the way that sometimes those interests are incredibly esoteric? The accuracy in the way that small towns gossip. The way people at parades in real life look hot and as if they've perhaps been in the sun too long. Almost every scene has some little details in the dialogue or in how a shot is set up that I could point to.

And I haven't even gotten into all the amazing performances in it (not to mention all the before-they-were-famous big names that show up). There are just SO many hilarious women in this movie. If I had to pick a favorite it would have to be Allison Janney, because (like always) she just always finds a way to crack me up.

So yeah, I have a weird love for this movie. But if it's issues are a little too much for others, I do understand.

154.

The Vampire Lovers

(1970)

— Horror Directed by: Roy Wade Baker

A vampire woman specializes in seducing her victims, but things get tricky when she falls for her latest victim and those around her begin to suspect that her intentions might not be on the level.

Came across this one on Tubi and was in the mood to take a chance.

I was a little worried at the beginning, because it was shaping up to be a very stereo-typical Hammer Horror movie. But I've gotta say, there's some stuff to love in here.

While 50% is a pretty straight-forward Dracula ripoff with as many boob shots as they could fit in, the other 50% is a pretty fun queer vampire story?

As long as you know what you're getting into to I think it was a pretty enjoyable watch.

155.

A Streetcar Named Desire

(1951)

— Drama Directed by: Elia Kazan

A woman goes to stay with her sister and husband-in-law after being forced to sell her family home.

Not gonna lie: I know this is a classic, but I finally got around to watching it because of The Simpson's episode "A Streetcar Named Marge" (S4E2).

[and I love that episode even more now that I understand all the jokes they were making.]

I really do understand why this is an acclaimed film, there's a lot about this I really enjoyed. But Blanche makes me want to put my head through a wall.

I have nothing against Vivien Leigh's performance, she's doing a great job, I get what the movie was going for, and I can't explain it...but the character infuriates me.

I get that this is a me problem. I really do think I might have loved this movie if not for the fact that Blanche was driving me slowly but surely to madness.

156.*

The Muppets Take Manhattan

(1984)

— Family Comedy Directed by: Frank Oz

The Muppets have just graduated college and go to New York City to try and stage their show on Broadway.

I thought I had never seen this before and sought to rectify that, but eventually realized that I had seen this at some point as a child. I also now know why I had forgotten so much about it.

I have a hard time knowing how to rate this.

If I'm rating it against all movies? It's alright. There's a lot of fun to had. There's a lot of sweetness and good humor. But on my scale of Muppet movies? It was a bit of a let down.

This came out after The Muppet Movie and before The Great Muppet Caper. And yet it lacks the heart of The Muppet Movie and the plot/character development of The Great Muppet Caper.

Okay, so technically it has a plot. But I would argue that it has less of a plot than a string of things that happen.

There's a quote I think about a lot when it comes to movies and it comes from Terry Pratchett's book Hogfather. In it a philosopher named Didactylos has a theory about the origin of the universe, "Things just happen, what the hell."

And it perfectly describes how some stories are written: things just happen.

It's not a flowing stream of events that naturally lead from one point to another. It's just a string of events that happen because they were written that way.

So if you're a Muppets fan, definitely give it a try one day. There's some fun stuff in here. (This is the movie that led to the Muppet Babies show for instance.)

But I just can't see myself wanting to watch this one again when I could just watch one of the other ones instead.

157.

The Last Dragonslayer

(2016)

— Family Fantasy Comedy Directed by: Jamie Magnus Stone

A former orphan must take on the mantle of a dragon slayer in order to free her adoptive father from a magical spell.

This is only going to make sense to a select group of you, but you can really tell this was based on a Jasper Fforde book. I haven't actually read this one, but the fact that it's very Fforde-ian seems to suggest to me that they at least got the vibes right.

Fforde in general reminds me of Terry Pratchett...but like a sillier Pratchett without the substance and flair. And likewise this movie reminds me of the live action Discworld movies...but without the same substance and flair.

But in spite of its flaws I still had a good time. Although it is rather heavy-handed in its messages, I think it has a really good heart. I really like the main character, I like its anti-corporate messages, and I like that it seems like it was made with genuine care.

And it's a kids movie! It's not made for me. And I would gladly show this to a kid and have a good time watching it with them. So I can't really say it isn't successful.

158.

Deadpool & Wolverine

(2024)

— Superhero Action Adventure Comedy Directed by: Shawn Levy

In order to save his universe from eradication Deadpool goes on a journey across the multiverse to find the missing key.

I keep telling myself that I'm gonna stop watching all these half-assed superhero movies...and I keep doing it anyways.

'Surely THIS one will be different,' I tell myself.

But I grew up reading comics and watching cartoons and my inherent curiosity at how those stories are being adapted keeps me coming back. And hey, the previous Deadpool movies were Fox productions not Disney ones, so maybe Disney will leave them alone to do their own thing?

But no.

It's just more of the usual for MCU movies.

Sure, the previous Deadpool movies had lots of references, but they also had stories and actual character development. (they also had a different director than this one)

This is just nothing but empty calories.

"Hey remember this? Remember this?" for over 2 hours.

And I do remember those things, and there is some enjoyment that comes from that. But damn. I need some actual food for dinner, y'all. You can't just give me potato chips.

I was just thoroughly not having a good time by the end of the movie. And it's such a pity because sometimes you could get a shimmer of what this could have been. Emma Corrin was giving a really engaging performance, which is especially impressive considering her character is given absolutely nothing to work with.

Likewise, Hugh Jackman is out here bringing all the emotion he can (and was my favorite part thing about the movie), but it doesn't really work to have one character having serious emotions in a loony tunes potato chip world with no stakes.

——————

——————

July Stats

——————

Movies watched this month: 17

Rewatch percentage: 29.4% (5/17)

Favorite new movie of the month: Anatomy of a Fall

Least favorite: Shark Huntress

——————

Previous months’ posts:

JAN | FEB | MAR p.1 | MAR p.2 | APR | MAY | JUN

[eightysix-baby]

Hello dear Sara!! Can you do Marvel for the Fandom ask, please? Have a lovely day my friend!! ❤️💜❤️

Hello Val! thank you so much for the ask 💕

The first character I first fell in love with: Peter Parker! watching sam raimi's trilogy in theaters was how I first got interested in superhero movies The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Vision, didn't really have much of an opinion of him in the movies and then wandavision made me care about him, also surprisingly Thor! wasn't a huge fan of him at first but now I absolutely adore him he's one of my top faves The character everyone else loves that I don’t: if you would have asked me this a few years ago I would have answered natasha and loki (didn't dislike them but was indifferent towards them & thought they were over rated) but now I like them so now idk The character I love that everyone else hates: not sure which of my fave characters are the most hated by others but I know that there are a lot of people who dislike Steve and Tony and I love them both The character I used to love but don’t any longer: don't think I have one, my fave characters change sometimes but I still love them all the same The character I would totally smooch: oh boy more like who wouldn't I smooch steve,bucky,thor,peter,matt,frank,wanda,pietro/peter,tony,zemo,yelena,valkryie, scott,carol,stephen,karen,trish,mysterio,howard stark ( but only him in agent carter and the first cap movie ! ) billy russo,david haller,charles xavier, eddie brock, ikaris,druig and so many others lol The character I’d want to be like: there are so many characters I'd love to be like; Steve Rogers(tho I relate to him a lot already), Peggy Carter, Karen Page etc The character I’d slap: Tony sometimes A pairing that I love: some platonic & romantic pairings I like are steve x bucky,steve x thor, steve x peggy, wanda x vision,matt x foggy,matt x karen,karen x frank,druig x makkari,charles x erik A pairing that I despise: don't have one

[dontcallmecarrie]

In Endgame it seemed like the producers wanted Tony dying to be the only way he could be at peace. Like Pepper literally tells him 'Rest now', as if sacrificing himself to destroy the enemy that's been haunting him since Avengers 1 is the only ending where he can be happy.

"Sorry meant to add this to my ask (about Tony's death in Endgame being portrayed as his only possible happy ending): The whole thing makes me want to cry. And scream. Your opinion on what was being portrayed there?"

.

Friend, I...think you're more invested in this than I am, at this point. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I have ranted at length about my feelings on everything related to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. [Note: those are only some of the highlights. There's plenty more— I'm not even including the whole "in an interview, the writers flat-out said they didn't like the characters" thing, even.]

Beyond that, the main thing you should know about me is the fact that I have very, very limited time and energy, and prefer to focus on things I enjoy over dwelling on things I know I'll hate. Because I've seen this road before, and it never ends well, and life's got enough bs without me piling on even more.

Am I going to be forever bitter about what went down? Yes. Am I never going to let go of the fact that the writers prioritized ticket sales over the age-old art of telling a good story and threw years' worth of effort down the drain in the process? Also yes. But I refuse to let it get to me.

The MCU lived in my head rent-free for a good chunk of my childhood and teenage years, and— yeah, I mourn for the potential it once had, but if I cling to the anger I feel about how the writers butchered everyone's character arcs and consistency for *drama*, I will never know rest.

If I let myself, I know I'm capable of being incandescent with rage over how they fridged the only woman in the original Avengers' Initiative, of the way they somehow managed to make Steve "I don't like bullies, also FUCK Nazis" Rogers into someone completely unrecognizable in the span of three movies, and—

I'm tired.

Look: you probably found this blog because of my most famous fic, The War is Far From Over Now. I started writing it because I needed at least one (1) world where Tony Stark got a happy ending for all the bs the MCU kept throwing at him [and only him], and if that meant making it myself, then so be it.

When I first started, I wasn't old enough to legally drink. Originally, it was supposed to be something short and sweet, something funny— but spite made it longer, and the readers' reception meant more inspiration to go into even more detail, and then it turned into a stress relief valve for all the shit that kept going down in my life.

[I try to keep personal life bs separate from my writing, but.

Shit went down.]

So, long story short: TWiFFON started out a fun thought exercise, but ended up becoming my love letter to what the MCU used to be— and later, a eulogy for the same.

Because over a decade of being invested in the world that turned my casual interest in the comics into something more concrete, only to watch as the audience was robbed of just about every sort of resolution there possibly could have been.

This isn't my first disappointment of this type, sure: Harry Potter was the book series I learned to read English with and I'd once thought the epilogue was as bad as things could get in that regard [...boy was I wrong], and Naruto and Bleach both managed to be incredibly ??? in their finales, but.

Of all of the things that made up so much of my childhood, my favorite character was Tony Stark.

The man who tried so, very hard to do his best, and kept getting beaten down for it time and time again. Who, by all rights, should have been the villain— either as the rich white guy who apparently can do nothing right [see: Iron Man 1 onwards], or simply because it makes no sense for him to be on the same side as the heroes who lied to his face and stabbed him in the neck or back time and time again [see: Iron Man 2 onwards, special mention for Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War].

Who was both the Da Vinci and Cassandra of his generation, because for all his accomplishments, nobody ever took him seriously— and never even got an "I told you so", after shit hit the fan and everyone immediately turned to him for answers [see: Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame and need I go on?]

...I could go on for hours. But I won't.

If the writers won't give it this much thought, I won't either, not anymore.

Same way I refuse to watch another Marvel movie or tv show. I'd only barely been sticking around and gritting my teeth at the writing before Endgame, but that's the movie that made me ragequit the MCU entirely.

I've moved on, trying my hand at other fandoms and hobbies to occupy my brain when I'm not working or studying. At most, I have been poking at old cartoons and comics when I feel up to retreading old ground, but...right now, the main thing I feel when I think about the movies is disappointment.

[lokitvsource]

You came into the show with the idea of Loki clashing with the TVA already in place. How exactly does this kind of arrangement work at Marvel? Michael Waldron: There was a creative brief that was 20 pages or so that basically said: “We want to do something about Loki running up against the TVA. Here’s some different avenues that might be cool to explore.” It was really serving it up for writers as a jumping off point for us to put together our pitches. Then I went off and really worked on the idea of Loki being brought in to hunt another Loki, and that becoming the heart of the show, and the Loki/Sylvie relationship. The big thing that I did in my pitch — even as early as pitching it to Kevin [Feige] — I really walked through the six episodes, kind of similar to what they were. I knew I wanted Episode 3, for instance, to be a little bit of a Before Sunrise, with Loki and this character walking across this apocalyptic moon. But Marvel had the initial, probably the most important spark of genius, which was just Loki and the TVA.

Where did the idea of the variant being a female Loki come from? That was one of my ideas, that we then confirmed in the writers room. Yeah, we knew from the get-go that it was going to be Loki falling for another version of himself.

Why was that appealing to you? I love writing any romance; it’s fun. Especially, it hasn’t been done a ton in the MCU. There’s an obviously self-reflective quality to it. And a show that’s quite literally about self-love; it is Loki getting to see parts of himself. At the start of the show, he kind of hates himself. He assesses himself to Mobius as a villain. And then he meets Sylvie, and he sees her as someone on a heroic crusade. He sees the good in her, and is able to see the good in himself.

Mobius suggests that, of course, Loki fell in love with his own variant, because he’s a narcissist. Do you think he’d be capable of falling in love with someone who is not a version of himself? [Laughs] I don’t know if he didn’t fall in love with himself first. Maybe after that, but the first time he falls, maybe this is what it had to be.

What’s the key to telling a time travel story that takes advantage of the concept without confusing the audience? I think it’s doing a lot of work that the audience never sees. It’s really understanding the logic of this thing, building out the TVA as a real organization that actually exists in our minds. Our writers room, we had a TVA handbook, encyclopedia, what they do and why they do it, a glossary of terms. And then you want to only give the audience the absolute bare minimum to understand the story, and to just get swept up in the emotional stakes of everything. If the sci-fi of it all, if the time travel logic of this show did not hold up week to week, then that would have distracted from the emotional journeys of the characters. So I’m glad that even though everyone had to take their medicine a little bit, along with Loki, in episode one, I’m glad it didn’t distract from the story we were telling. And we had the benefit of Loki being the audience’s eyes in. The audience is learning as he is.

There’s a funny scene in Avengers: Endgame where the Avengers start arguing about exactly how time travel works in the MCU. How much did you have to study what other Marvel movies had done with the idea to make sure your rules were consistent? Fortunately, Endgame was the main one, and that’s how they understand it. The TVA is an organization that understands time travel on a deeper level, probably more comprehensively than the Avengers do in Endgame. We wanted to make sure we were staying true to any rules that they laid out, but sort of establishing our own rules. It’s a time travel show. What was I thinking? A movie’s one thing, but a show is hard.

How many Loki variants did you have on the writers room whiteboard at various points? Hundreds. So many different Lokis. There was one Loki, actually maybe it was a version of Mobius that took off his glasses, and he just had really tiny eagle eyes, like he could see everything. There was stuff like that all over the white board. Tom Kauffman, who wrote that fifth episode, he’s an amazing comedy writer, and was on the first three seasons of Rick and Morty. His first draft of that episode was just bananas.

Was there a variant, or a crazy idea in general, that you really loved but couldn’t ultimately do? There was so much different stuff that we wanted to do in the Void. But the truth is, I don’t want to say any of it, because you never know. The ideas that I want to do the most may pop up elsewhere.

Okay, so let’s stick with a variant we did see. Was Alligator Loki actually a Loki, or just an alligator that happened to be wearing a Loki’s crown? A magician can’t reveal his tricks, man. That’s the great debate. Let it rage.

What was Alligator Loki‘s origin story on your side of things? Who pitched him and how was that initially received? That was maybe my very first meeting with the producers at Marvel, Kevin Wright and Stephen Broussard, talking about the show, and me saying, “When we’re doing this, you can encounter lots of different Lokis. You could have an alligator Loki. Why? Cause he’s green.” And us all laughing about how stupid that was. I think I made the point that it’s that energy of what we can do with the show. We can have something like that, but let’s play it straight. Alligator Loki, you get a laugh out of it, but by and large you try and play it straight. That was the fun tonal balance that we tried to strike in the show.

There’s been some conflicting information out there about whether the big bad was originally just going to be He Who Remains, who’s a different comics character altogether from Kang, and whether the casting of Jonathan Majors changed the plan. From your point of view, what happened? The character was always written as a version of Kang, as early as the first draft of the script, we knew in the writers room, relatively early on. He Who Remains, that’s the guy behind the curtain with the TVA, and we saw an opportunity to fuse that mythology with the Immortus mythology. And that was just really compelling. It was a way to elevate, it just felt right for Loki, because Loki was there in the first Avengers, he’s the one who brought the Avengers together, and here is directly related to the exploding of the multiverse, this event that will drive the events of Phase Four. Certainly, when Jonathan came in, it allowed us to step on the gas of just how eccentric and charismatic this character could be. I was inspired in the writing of He Who Remains by Tom Cruise’s character in Magnolia, trying to give it that Frank TJ Mackey energy a little bit. He captures that and then elevates it to something else that’s different and weird.

You just said how important the multiverse is going to be to Phase Four of the MCU. How challenging is it to have to set up this big thing for the larger Marvel endeavor while also serving the needs of the particular story you’re telling on this show? It’s a challenge in the sense that it’s all a relay race, and you’ve got the baton on this thing, and you want to do a great job. The name of the game over at Marvel is with each movie or TV show, make it the best it can possibly be. And they’re really supportive of that, and trust that it will organically fit into the larger blueprint of everything. We were excited about introducing a version of Kang, because yeah, to introduce this new big bad was cool for our show. I was aware, and cautious, of the thing I read in your review, that it might not be the most sound storytelling to introduce a new character at the very end that we’ve never seen before as the big bad of this thing. Obviously, we had the benefit that people know who Kang is, and there’s a meta thing where a portion of the audience knows Jonathan Majors is going to be playing Kang in Phase Four. But the finale was only ever going to work if He Who Remains, in a compelling way, serviced the Loki and Sylvie emotional story. That was the most important job that that character did in the finale: he laid out a very compelling conflict that ultimately drove the two of them apart.

There has also been some confusion as to exactly when you knew that there would be a second season, as opposed to you just making a limited series. Initially, in the writers room, we were not operating as though there would be a second season. And the whole way through was, this should be a story that should stand on its own. I referenced The Leftovers and Mad Men all the time. I think about those seasons, they pushed the overall stories forward, but you can pull any one of those seasons and look at it on its own as an individual story. I wanted that to be the case here, whether we did a second season or not. I think we always felt that we would want to propel Loki forward into the MCU after the conclusion of our season. The only question was, would that be in an appearance in a movie, or would that be in a second season. And it was only over the course of development that the stars aligned to make a second season.

But that end scene, where Mobius no longer recognizes Loki and the TVA is filled with Kang statues, wouldn’t have been a satisfying conclusion to a limited series. That is an ending that only works if there’s going to be a second season. So there is another conclusion to the story that I wrote that exists out there, that I guess is just for me. My own little play, that I perform with my action figures.

What was Sylvie’s original plan, before Loki hijacked her to that dying moon? It was to empty out the TVA. The entire bombing of the Sacred Timeline was to create a diversion. She’s not going to be able to create a multiverse from doing that. Ultimately, the TVA has the manpower to get out and take care of these events, but they’re going to have to scramble a lot of their minutemen teams, and it leaves the Time-Keepers significantly less guarded than they would have been otherwise. That was her plan.

You didn’t come into this as a big comic book nerd. So was there someone on staff who could tell you, “Well, there’s this giant cloud called Alioth that eats time,” or, “Well, one time Thanos had a helicopter,” or maybe someone assigned to you by Marvel? I’m constantly reading the comics but trying to not be so beholden to the and do our own thing. I charged our writers assistant, Ryan Kohler, with, “You’ve got to become the authority on all things TVA, all things Kang, and all that.” So he and my assistant, Sophie Miller, became a support staff who read a ton of these comics and became a wealth of knowledge for the writers to turn to. And then the Marvel producers, obviously are very well versed in the comics. It was Kevin Wright who came in one day and was like somebody throwing down a blueprint in an asteroid movie, going, “Alioth! Look at this!” And we were like, “Ohmigod, this is perfect!” The best thing about working on these comic book shows is that if it’s from the comics, it doesn’t matter how much of a deus ex machina it is, it’s just cool, like, “I can’t believe you pulled that from the comics.” Alioth, that was a big breakthrough that unlocked the last two episodes for us.

That is not a famous comic book that introduces Alioth. It’s an obscure Nineties miniseries, with really ugly art. But you look at it and see what it could be. You say, “If we do this, and it feels like Twister, it’s going to be really cool.”

Was Mobius’ love of jet skis there simply to illustrate his character, or did you have a grander idea in mind? I will come clean: I’m a jet ski guy. I’ve spent a good amount of time on jet skis in my day. I used to tow a jet ski to a lake and ride it in college. So it probably was me. Loki, I was just becoming a steward of that character. Mobius was a character I really felt I got to create from nothing. There’s not really anything to that character in the comics. So bits and pieces of me found their way in. I just think there’s something so poignant — here Mobius is, a guy who is literally fighting to preserve all of time in the multiverse, and yet his interests are maybe the most humble, human, terrestrial, unremarkable thing you can think of. Just a jet ski. And when you’ve got Owen Wilson playing him and it’s just that much better.

Will you be back in some capacity for Season Two? [long pause] Time will tell.

‘Loki’ Head Writer Michael Waldron — and ‘Rick and Morty’ Alum — on MCU, ‘Heels’ and More

[gogglor]

Cap-Ironman RecWeek: What-If Wednesday

Time for another installment of @cap-ironman rec week! Today’s theme: AU’s.

I know AU’s in different settings are half the reason most people read fanfics, but they’re not really my thing on the whole. AU’s where different choices are made, or different events transpire? Absolutely. Coffee shops? Not my cup of... you know.

So, here’s my AU recommendations for mostly “turn left” scenarios. This time with an under-the-cut break so I don’t take over everyone’s timelines (sorry about that last post). Also with some summaries truncated for length.

Alone Like This

Author: GotTheSilver

Word Count: 7,452

Summary: Steve, post waking up, runs away from SHIELD, and Tony's the one who tracks him down.

Why You Should Read It:

First off, GotTheSilver’s been consistently and regularly putting out solid Stony since 2012 and not only are they not stopping, they’re only getting better. This writer doesn’t get nearly the fanfare I’d expect in Stony circles for someone who puts out this much good stuff, and here’s hoping this post can be a part of changing that.

While I am always a sucker for enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, there’s something to be said for stories where Steve and Tony hit it off right away. And watching these two very different people look at each other and see the same sense of being lost, then finding each other again is... excuse me, there’s something in my eye, ignore me.

Second Chance Lives

Author: raeldaza

Word Count: 43,872

Summary: Tony's gonna die of palladium poisoning anyway, why not join a pointless expedition to recover Captain America’s body? And after, well, why not dedicate his last few months to making sure an American hero settles into his new life? What else is he going to do, get drunk at parties?

Why You Should Read It:

This writer doesn’t write a lot for the MCU but when they do, dang.

“Tony is the one helping Steve acclimate to the new century before Avengers 2012″ is a whole genre of Stony fanfics that scratch an itch I didn’t even know I had before I started reading fanfiction, and this is one of the best ones out there. It’s got it all - Steve poorly coping with his PTSD, Tony poorly coping with his immanent mortality, some breathtakingly poor communication between the two most emotionally stunted men in the MCU, and a cat named Roomba. What’s not to love?

Should You Choose to Accept It

Author: elwenyere (look, you’re gonna be seeing a lot of them this week, sorry-not-sorry)

Word Count: 27,106

Summary: After a terrorist attack and a field operation gone wrong, the Avengers realize that Nick Fury's secrets are just the start of a much bigger mystery. Steve and Tony try to keep some things from each other as well, but that can't possibly affect the mission — right? Mission Fic + Getting Together (or Mission: Getting Together) that mashes up elements from Iron Man 3, CA: Winter Soldier, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season one, and Mission Impossible 3.

Why You Should Read It:

You can see my post yesterday for singing El’s praises, but what I really liked about this fic was how how damn creative it is. The CAWS/IM3/AOS mashup is everything I wished the actual MCU gave us and more, with well-developed characters and an exciting story to put them in. And because it’s El, you know the banter’s gonna be on point, the way the characters care for each other is gonna be emotionally constipated but touching, and the pacing’s gonna be exciting enough to draw you in and keep you there. Also, this fic doesn’t have nearly enough kudos so please go read it and fix that or I’m gonna have to try to hack AO3 and that’ll just be embarrassing for all parties involved.

What Happens In Vegas

Author: sabremc

Word Count: 161,951

Summary: “What the hell, Tony?” Rhodey demanded brusquely.  Tony winced and drew the phone away from his ear.  “You’ve got cops and Feds all over the hotel.  I’m watching you perp walk out of the police station on repeat on CNN.  They’re saying you tried to bribe Stern?  Fox News has you selling weapons on the black market, and God that picture they’re using is the one from Bali in ’09.   You look like shit.  They wheeled Stern out and put him in an ambulance, by the way.  Got some paparazzi swearing you decked the guy.  Now they’ve got ‘copters following it like he’s OJ.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Sourpatch, I’ve got it covered.   Uh, though, I should probably tell you that, purely in the interests of national security and the greater good, I kind of had to fake marry that stripper-gram  you sent.  Thanks for that, by the way,” Tony added quickly.

Why You Should Read It:

If you’re deep enough into Stony to see posts like this on Tumblr, you probably know sabre’s what we in the business call a “big name author.” They’re prolific, they’re popular, and most importantly, they write words good (technical term). Seriously, sabre just keeps cranking out high quality stuff over and over again, raising the bar for the rest of us like a jerk (not really. I’m not bitter they write stuff so good I wish I’d thought of it first. Not at all.)

I never read stripper!Steve or stripper!Tony as a rule, but this came so widely recommended that I broke that rule and boy am I glad that I did. This is also the only fic on this list that’s a true-AU, with Steve being a non-powered vet from Afghanistan who left his army career to help Bucky and is stripping in Vegas to raise money for a prosthetic arm. He’s booked to do a private show for Tony, shenanigans ensue, and now they’re fake-married. This fic’s got some top-of-the-line banter and character development, but I particularly love it for its rich setting. Sabre paints a Vegas not just with strip clubs and blackjack tables, but KISS-themed minigolf, romantic dinners on the Eiffel tower, gaudy hotel lobbies, and making out on giant ferris wheels. It’s such a richly developed playground for the characters to play on, and through it, Steve manages to find a life for himself he’d given up on, and Tony finds multiple ways to show his kindness and depth of feeling for Steve. I know the word count’s long for this one but trust me, you’ve gotta read this fic.

Wait & Sea

Author: Lenalena

Word Count: 53,244

Summary: In which Tony and Steve get sent on an undercover mission aboard a cruise ship to make contact with Hydra. In this AU the military has kept the discovery and defrosting of Captain America a secret, so Steve and Tony have never met before. Yet they are to pose as newlyweds....

Why You Should Read It:

This one’s old and popular enough to be considered one of the “classic” Stony fics, and for good reason. Lenalena doesn’t write too often and not as much as they used to, but the fics they have up there are an absolute delight.

This is another fic that I skipped a bunch of times for being outside my comfort zone, but when I finally read it I saw why everyone’s so wild about it. In this story, Steve’s defrosted a bit earlier and not revealed as Captain America. He and Tony are sent undercover to sniff out Hydra shenanigans on a cruise and, because it’s fanfiction, they’ve got to pretend to be a married couple while onboard. There’s tons to love about this fic, but the things that bring me back to reading it over and over is first, Tony’s kindness and the way he’s attuned to Steve’s feelings, which... God, just inject “kind, observant Tony” straight into my veins, please and thank you. This is also another really rich setting for a story, and Lena knows how to fold the the hokeyness of the cruise into the seriousness of the mission and the depth of feelings Steve and Tony are finding for each other in a really beautiful, layered way. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it’s steamy, it’s gripping... why are you still reading this here? Go check it out for yourself!

Ashes to Ashes

Author: dirigibleplumbing

Word Count: 51,582

Summary: After regrouping following some surprise time travel, the world's heroes and sorcerers come up with a plan to protect the Mind and Time Stones by taking them into space in opposite directions. The result involves a lot more time loops than Steve would like, but at least they're getting a second chance to stop Thanos. (As well as a third, and a fourth...) And if Steve takes the opportunity to try to reconcile with Tony, too—well, they have the time, and Steve's going to make the most of it.

Why You Should Read It:

Dirigibleplumbing’s another name in Stony fanfics that does not get nearly as much fanfare as they deserve. They’re consistently a really creative voice in Stony fanfics and I always look forward to their stories showing me something new. Go read all their fics, I need more people to geek out with me over them.

I tend to limit myself on Steve-and-Tony-mend-things-after-Civil-War fics not because they’re not good, but because they’re so heavy, and also the Sokovia Accords have five hundred layers of crap in them that no good fic could possibly hash out well. This one, though? When you add in the Infinity War/End Game fixit? Poetry. Art. Music to my ears. DP wrote a really engaging, twisty story where it’s hard to predict what’s coming next, in spite of it literally being a pseudo-Groundhog day scenario. The characterizations are great, the story is engaging, and the feelings are big and sad and eventually happy. Go read it, you’ll love it.

I have tons of other recs for this category but this seems like a good place to stop for today. Tomorrow’s Alternative Media Thursday, and I’ve got some real gems I’ve been saving for that day (aaaaand possibly a self-rec or two ;)

[wenellyb]

this is probably just me but I’m kind of getting annoyed with directors and producers saying in interviews that they didn’t intend for the characters to be read as LGBT at all...i just feel like it’s always been a given that once you create a piece of fiction (like books or movies), the interpretations of the reader/viewer are just as important as the intentions of the author/creator.

even if the intention wasn’t to make sam or bucky bi and in a relationship, i feel like we are allowed to read them like that without the directors and writers saying “no no we didn’t mean for it to be like that!!”...like it might not have been their intention but it’s still there

and i don’t think it’s wishful thinking that they’re in a relationship either, like the tropes of a romcom are right there...anyway sambucky rights 😭

Hi Anon, I don't think it's just you and I really understand the frustration because I share some of it too but I'm frustrated at the real "culprits"... the executives making the decisions. I'm sorry for replying late to this but I have a lot of thoughts on this topic and I wanted to organize them first😂 First things first... I know we have all been in other fandoms... But we have try to stop applying what happened in other fandoms and what other directors have said in other fandoms to what's happening with Sambucky. For so many reasons, but the main one is: Marvel people cannot say anything.... literally.... They must have a secrecy oath or something but it's not in these interviews that you will find meaningful information.. Remember a while back when Anthony tried to tell us he WASN'T Captain America even though we had all seen Steve hand him the shield in Endgame?? So it was already a scene we had seen? That man was contradicting something that millions of people had seen with their own eyes. Was I frustrated at Anthony ? No. Because that's how anyone involved in marvel projects talks... ( You remember why people make fun of Ruffalo and Holland? Because they are the only 2 unable to follow that one simple rule😂) So my strategy is focus on the content we have and focus on the future content when it's time to focus on the future content... But I really never focus on cast members interviews or directors interview etc...(Only Stackie interviews but you know that already). I think that we are so used to complaining in other fandoms that we complain for the FATWS but the directors did the best they could. Maybe the directors/writers in other shows/movies have a little more freedom in what they said.

I would understand of it were an indie movie or something but it isn't, Kari and Malcom arent making the decisions alone and have some limitations because they aren't allowed to give any hints about the future... and most of the time they don't even know themselves... Directors/ writers change all the time. Besides in Marvel shows the romance is never at the center of the story, I consider myself lucky that we got this much romance in the show... If Sam or Bucky were a woman I don't think we would have had any more romantic moments than what we got (maybe just on little kiss at the end but not much more than that... Sam and Bucky wouldn't have been kissing in every episode I can assure you that). The only difference is that people would have seen the romance right away, and the shippers wouldn't have minded if there had been a kiss or not. Because that's how Marvel projects work... not much focus on the romance itself, it's not even a subplot, more like a sub-subplot.

Sam and Bucky started with only 4 lines in Civil War and then 2 scenes in Endgame... That's it. So what they have now is just amazing.

Another point: If I'm not mistaken, Kari never said that Bucky was never intended to be read as LGBT/ Bi. If she did, let me know and I will read the interview again. What she said was that the Tiger Pictures weren't put there to show that Bucky was bisexual but to show that he was not good with technology. And that there was" no sexuality attached to his character" which makes no sense, by the way, because he went on a date with Leah, so they had to at least think avout his sexuality,... But she didn't say that, she didn't say he was straight or bi. She purposely gave a vague answer...Like all Marvel people do... So I think it's unfair to get frustrated at her for things that are out of her control. She was giving a specific answer related to the Tiger pics, maybe she would have given a different reply to a different question. I know that directors or actors other shows have said what you just mentioned in your ask, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it hasn' t been the case for TFATWS. I don't think any of them said Bucky wasn't bisexual and even less about Sam. They never said anything like that or never said that they never intended them to be read as LGBT. Last point: I don't think that she had no intention of portraying Sam and Bucky in a romantic lighting... I do think it was intentional but I also think that this is the best she can share right now...

As you said... the romance tropes are right there... it's not a mistake or a coïncidence... they put them there for a reason I have said this before but I will say it again because I think some Sambucky shippers don't come from other MCU fandoms and even the ones that do seem to forget this sometimes... y

These writers, directors, etc always talk in riddles and share as little information as possible...We don't know what will happen and they don't know either... So it's very difficult for them to make impactful comments.

Sorry to bring this a lot but am I the only one who remembers the Peggy Sharon and the Peggy again situations...??? Do you think any of the directors or writer knew where the story was going when they were filming the movies? no. I say we just focus on what we liked and ignore the reat until there is real content, Kari said " they love each other and rhey work great as a couple" and Malcom said they are a family .... If I were in their position I don't know what I would be allowed to say... nothing is ever certain in the Marvel universe. As much as I'd like to hope about what happens with Sam and Bucky in the next movies... I don't even think the decision has been made, so why get frustrated over something that isn't even decided yet...What I can so... is the already great and developed love story, I don't care that there wasn't a kiss.

Would I have appreciate an "official" confirmation? Yes, yes yes. But I'm also happy with the story as it is and know that maybe it isn't their decision to confirm or not. But the content is there and it's a love story. People who say Marvel will never go there are lying because they don't know. And people who pretend Bucky and Sam will be together in the next movies are lying too because they don't know either... It's also a possibility that Seb wouldn't be in the next Cap movie... We really don't know enough to be frustrated about anything😂. Even if Kari and the writers had depicted Sam and Bucky as a romantic item (Which they did, by the way). I believe this is the maximum she would have been able to say... Maybe because they are two men... or maybe because that's just the way Marvel operates.

Please feel free to share your thougts on this if you want too and of course: Sambucky rights!!!

[buckysforever]

PLEASE READ

in this post i just want to go over my boundaries and disclaimers. i put the basic ones in my bio but i do want to make everything explicitly clear so here are my rules:

please note that these may be updated as i go along, i’m not new to tumblr but i am new to posting so i’m trying to get everything figured out!

- i am a minor, i do not write or read smut and i do not write heavily mature content. i’m not against writing about people getting hurt or light bleeding but i will not write about gruesome deaths, explicit violence, consumption of drugs or alcohol, s/a or r*pe, DGGL, incest, and as previously stated, smut.

-  i respect peoples boundaries and i expect the same. i do not read any sort of smut and i do not interact with 18+ blogs. i understand that i am young but the topics i am choosing to write and read about are things i consider appropriate for myself. i would not write or read anything i wouldn’t want my parents to see. if you are an adult and you would like to interact with my work, i have absolutely no problem with that. if you are an 18+ blog and you interact with my work i will not interact with you but i want to make it clear that i also have no issues with that. to add to the topic of 18+ blogs i’m not sure if 18+ includes messaging but if you are an 18+ blog and would like to message me privately for any reason, i am 100% okay with that and i still will not read your work. i know my limits and i know what people post on this site, i monitor my own content and i am conscious of what i am consuming. i know that some adults have a problem with minors being on this app at all and if that is you i am asking you now to block me, i will not argue with people on this.

- i am a very anxious person who has no problem taking breaks and blocking people when things get tough. i’m just looking for a place to share my work and constructive criticism is always welcome (please be nice, i am sensitive 😂).

- there will be absolutely no racism, homophobia, colorism, transphobia, ableism, misogyny, or antisemitism on my page. my block button is going to be used frequently and i will not entertain any mocking or disrespect to those (and more) oppressions. i’m open to having (civil and respectful) discussions about social justice issues and privilege when i’m feeling up to it. microagressions to me and other people will not be tolerated.  i will block those who do not apologize for microagressing people and i will speak up for oppressed communities if i see any offensive content posted. if you find anything i post offensive to your community please, please do not hesitate to let me know and i will accommodate to your wishes regarding my harmful post.

- as of right now i only write for chris evans and mcu characters including: bucky barnes, steve rogers, natasha romanoff, and peter parker. i will not write for sebastian stan or scarlett johansson.

- i write with black women in mind and i will only be writing for black women if a race specific request is submitted, i am african american and i am only comfortable writing about that culture if requested. the majority of my work will include no physical description of the reader. 

- i will always have trigger warnings tagged when sensitive topics are being discussed (for example: blood -> “tw blood”) 

- i will remain anonymous-ish for the time being. i don’t mind answering personal questions to an extent, i will let you know if i’m not comfortable sharing certain things. 

- i do take requests that fit within my comfort zone, aka my boundaries. 

- my work is written and edited by me and i do not consent to reposting, rewording, translation, or rewriting my work without my permission.

i will take the main idea from each bullet point that i think people should know before they interact with my blog and put them at the beginning of every piece writing i post. i hold myself accountable to read and respect peoples wishes and i hope that you all can extend the same curtesy to me. i’m very excited to post my writing and my main goal of this blog is to learn and grow as a writer and make friends. i tried my best to bold the things i found most important for those who have trouble focusing and absorbing information (like myself). thank you to those who read what you could from this, words cannot describe how much i am looking forward to writing and i hope you all enjoy my work!

[enmy-writes]

Baby Avenger

Summary: (Y/N) is one of the youngest avenger members and some government officials repeatedly let her know of “her position.” So, she lets them know exactly what her position is.

Word Count: 2100

Fandom: MCU Avengers

Pairing: Avengers x Reader

Genre: Fluff, soft, slight angst and sadness, & family love.

Rated: 18+

Content Warnings: profanity, death, abandonment, bullying, this is my first ever post of any fanfiction ever so it’s probably bad

**** This is my first ever imagine that I have ever finished and published. Please give me feedback and let me know what else I should write! I’m very excited and nervous so please let me know if you enjoyed this :) I’m thinking of making this Y/N character into a little “Baby Avenger” one-shot series, so let me know your thoughts ****

 _____________________________________________________________

Baby Avenger.

Baby Avenger.

Baby. Avenger.

 In her head, her stomping can be heard throughout the whole Compound and all of its residents and guests can hear her anger. They know she’s going right to the meeting room; not the team meeting room, but the meeting room they use when they have special guests in for a meeting.

The new government officials who are now “in charge” of the Avengers since The Snap Part 2 were in for the day to go over the general plans that the Avengers have been coming up with. They’re nicer than those in charge of the group from the Accords, but in no way were they nice to majority of the group as a whole.

(Y/N) (L/N) happens to be the second to youngest member on the team coming in at an age of 18, second only to her best friend Peter Parker

(Y/N) is an orphan, the typical origin story of any superhero. Her parents spent their last minutes pushing her out of their burning house in rural Pennsylvania. Actually, it was her father who got her out of the flames and by their fishpond 100 meters from the house. Her mother was inside, trapped under a steal beam in the basement.

(Y/N)’s mother was a scientist who worked in secret in a little band of scientists who tried to accomplish their own small victories in testing the alterations and limits of humans. The goal of these scientists is to stay out of sight of the CIA, FBI, S.H.I.E.L.D., and other government agencies. Most of them are left alone and those who get found are either immediately sent to a high security prison or recruited to continue their experiments for a certain country/agency.

(Y/N)’s mother decided to give herself her treatment she was working on instead of potentially kidnapping someone in the everyone-knows-everything kind of town that they had been living in. Her experiment and life studies were all in trying to find a way to unlock the rest of the human brain so that more than that small percentage is being used at a time. It has been hypothesized that humans could do a lot if their brains just used itself more.

The only problem is when she gave the treatment to herself, she was unknowingly pregnant, and the treatment attached onto that small lifeform instead of her own. She created a super baby.

No one knew the exact answer to what is on the other side of that tunnel of science. No one knew what opening the mind could do, there were only theories to support ideas. Plenty of scientific evidence, but it meant nothing with no legit proof.

Well, turns out that those on the team of “you will gain the ability to read minds and shit unlike any human” were the correct guessers.

(Y/N) can read others’ minds, move things with her mind, slow down time in her mind to be able to successfully breakdown a situation and perform the best possible reaction to anything that comes her way. Oh, and the color spectrum is broader for her, allowing her to see a significantly more amount of colors than a normal human (including seeing the aura’s and heat that people give off. Very useful in the few missions she goes on.).

But her parents are dead.

After setting small (Y/N) down, her father ran back in to save the love of his life. Or, well, that’s what the towns’ people say to romanticize the situation. A brave man trying to save his family.

In the end, her father had shaken his head, laughing at the moment like a mad man with tears running down his face. He pulled (Y/N) in for the tightest hug that he had ever given the girl—which is tight considering how close the two really were. They were just like two peas in a pod, the light of each other’s lives, basically soulmates.

But love makes you do crazy things.

“You listen to me, (Y/N).” He gripped her face in a painful grip, cheeks sure to be bruised later. “I will always love you. Don’t doubt that, baby girl, okay? I love you so so so so much” By this time, tears are pouring off his face, the neon flames coming from the house reflecting off his wet face. “Mommy… mommy just needs me now, baby. I need mommy, too. We love you so much.”

It had confused her, his words. Nothing could prepare her to watch her father run back into the house, leaving her by the pond with nothing but a small bag of little family things like pictures, little stupid gifts, and a notebook she had stolen from her mom’s bookshelf one day.

Her mother’s grandfather had been friends with Howard Stark, both science men having been in the same circle of famous inventors since before WWII. While neither her mother nor father personally knew his son, Tony, he was still listed as the godfather to the child. With no close friends allowed in their secret circle, old bonds and pacts that her grandfather had with the older Stark led to a blind trust in the man.

Tony Stark had agreed to be the godfather during a one-week bender in his 30s, and when he was yelled at about it, he chose to just keep it there because “the chances of this happening is very slim.”

But here we are, Baby Avenger.

The officials who are here now actually were the same people that used to do check-ins and such with them pre-Accords, so they knew the team better than any government official save for the rare union that the team members may have with government officials. (Y/N) randomly has one with the Queen of England (she did a favor for Her Majesty once, and now they have tea every third Thursday of every month).

They knew that Tony suffered from panic attacks, and they knew Steve was going through a never ending loop of an existential crisis, and that Bucky will most likely always be having an identity crisis, and that Sam cries to sleep a lot around a certain time of year that renders him almost useless in his sleep deprived state he puts himself into. They know EVERYTHING vulnerable about the team.

So, that means they know how when she first got to the team and to Tony that she wouldn’t speak to anyone unless absolutely necessary. It took her almost a year to be able to speak more than a sentence to every person she was around. No one was too upset, though, Tony was trying to figure out how to save himself and rebrand his whole legacy and the Avengers weren’t really a family family yet like they are now. (Y/N)’s shyness made it much easier on the adults to figure out their stressful situations.

The officials, though, never got why she wouldn’t speak to them. They actually pushed her progress back more and more with taunts and comments such as “Oh, the baby can’t speak?” or a “Get your phone out! She’s about to say her first words!” every time she did go to say something.

Tony soon got fed up with it and filed a lawsuit against them which threatened their agency enough to pull them out and let a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent be a liaison for them. After their presence was rid of, (Y/N) grew exponentially with her new family. She was still home schooled, but now she had Peter Parker as a friend and world geniuses as her teachers. She was an only child, but now she’s a big sister to Morgan and has plenty of people on the team that are dubbed her siblings (since they don’t act their age majority of the time to be considered aunts and uncles).

While she’s trained to fight, (Y/N) doesn’t go out on the field much unless they need her brain or her extended vision. She likes to remain behind the computer screen and help that way. She’s invented a way to make prosthetics like Bucky’s become more available to the general public and has started a school/home that’s three miles from the Compound for orphaned kids, mutants, super kids, and those who aren’t accepted where they come from.

In conclusion, (Y/N) is 18 and not useless in any way, shape, or form.

So why, why, do these absolute short dick idiots decide that they can come into here, her home, and push her around like she hasn’t contributed more to the Earth and society in the short 18 years than their middle-aged asses?

Eyes narrowed and seeing red, she stomps her way down the last hall, shoving herself into the door of the meeting room and throwing it open.

The team stays unfazed, knowing she’d show up pissed at some point. The officials, though, jump in their seat and turn to look at her.

It wasn’t the biggest meeting, the original Avengers plus Bucky, Sam, and Wanda sit around the table. Though, Rocket and Groot are here sitting along the back wall, looking bored as hell. Thor must have drug them along.

Fists clenched, (Y/N) narrows her eyes more. She’s been here since the first attack. Sure, she didn’t fight since she was like, 8 or so, but she was in charge of her man-behind-the-computer work. She’s been a part of the team since the beginning, and these assholes are too big of pricks to acknowledge that.

That’s what’s pissing the girl off. This could have been a meeting for every one of the fighters of the team, which she wouldn’t go to because that’s not her role. This meeting, though, was scheduled as “Originals plus the newly appointed leaders only.” She’s an original.

SHE IS AN ORIGINAL.

SHE. IS. AN. OG.

AND YET, they remained in telling her she wasn’t invited because “The Baby Avenger doesn’t need to join big kid conversation.”

She locked eyes with her adopted father and her best friend, aka Peter Parker, aka the only reason she knew this meeting was still being held.

Poor, lovely Peter. He grew confused when his best friend wasn’t sitting in between Mr. Stark and him for the meeting, especially when the officials referred to the meeting as they did. He was just there to take notes for Mr. Stark, not that the man wouldn’t remember it all. Pepper thought it’d be a good idea if Tony had written evidence to anything said in these meetings so that he wouldn’t be pouring statements out of his ass without proof, and poor, lovely Peter got elected to take such notes.

When he noticed you weren’t there, he had sent you a text asking where you were and that your drink that he brought you was right next to him.

“(Y/N)! It is so great to see you, my wonderful flower.” Thick arms wrapped around her as a golden man squeezed her tight to him. Thor and (Y/N) had a special relationship. They’re always close and do the most innocent of tasks together like flower crowns, step-by-step painting classes, and making those Tik Tok crocheted blankets made with that big yarn. He even had taken her to Asgard (back when it was a planet) for a royal ball where she was the guest of honor. They’re just soft together.

Though, rage blocked that softness that normally occurs between the two. Pushing off of him, she points her finger at the men in the front. The officials look like they’ve seen the devil and all of Hell and (Y/N) can see the fear pouring off of them.

“Let’s get this clear,” she says as she slowly stalks her way up to them. “I am an Avenger. I am an original Avenger. I know about 3,000 ways to kill you in this room at this very moment with anything. I drink tea with the fucking Queen on Thursdays, and I’ve created a better orphanage/school system in 2 years than this country has in the 250 years it’s been around. Don’t you EVER call me a fucking baby again, you fucking hear me?”

By this point, she’s right up in their faces, her glare unwavering and them sweating. The silence in the room was great and seemed to go on forever. The team held their breaths, some trying not to laugh and some scared of backlash that might be trust upon the girl.

With one last eye narrow (you could blindfold her with toothpicks at this point), she whips around and walks back to Thor, placing herself sideways on his lap and relaxing into his hold. Peter passes her (Drink Order) down the table, and (Y/N) takes it.

Clint, Bucky, and Sam try and hide their laughter when the meeting starts again as they look at their long-time teammate cradled and curled up in Thor’s arms, head on his shoulder and under his chin as she sips her drink with an angry look in her eyes and a pout on her face.

All wrapped up like a baby.

[thepolyamorouspolymath]

And now we're fight again...

I have grown distant and disillusioned. He has gotten hostile and angry. To me the sensible solution to this is individual therapy because these thing clearly go beyond our relationship.

I also asked him to use the app Lasting, which is kind of a shared journaling app to improve communication and has like web seminars. We can use this to decide if we need couple's counseling because nothing here us working. We are both home all day, and I spend it in my room reading or writing, he's out in the living room doing whatever it is he does -- to me it looks like he's always downloading comics that he doesn't read or watching YouTube, but I could be wrong. We are less than a football field away and yet never in each other's presence and rarely talk.

I think this is a problem. I dont know that we can ever be a couple again. But I would like my best friend back.

He is dodging it like hell. I even said that with me getting full benefits, Cerebral might be covered (they're my choice of app because they have both shrinks and therapists and we both need both.) If it's not, he could still do it (I'd probably go back to a therapist who was covered) because our income is more than doubling. He could do both that and Lasting from the couch on his phone. It is like the least commitment you could possibly make.

He says the problem is just we have nothing in common. That he had given up everything for me when we met, got back into it when we separated and isn't willing to give them up again. Um, excuse me?

Some of the shit he spends his time on, a lot of it didnt exist when we met IN 2002. Second, I never asked him to give up a damn thing; at most I asked him to limit it to a reasonable amount instead of neglecting his fiancee and his baby and not getting a job so he could do that shit.

And in return, I read every Star Wars book (now Legends, but they were just books then) even Crystal Star (if you read it, you appreciate my pain), Shadows of the Empire and Black Fleet Crisis, all of which were character assassination of Princess Leia, who is the best thing in any time and any galaxy.

I do not play video games, because I hate them. But I learned what kind he liked, I learned things like grinding and wtf the point is in opening every goddamn chest, I sat and we played KotOR together with him playing and me making decisions for curiosity, I watched the Force Unleashed, I even read the magazines.

I learned to play Magic:The Gathering which I think everyone regrets now because I stomp them all, all the time. I built an unbeatable deck that only I can play because no one else can keep it straight (it's fucking COMPLEX and that is part of its beauty... I am very proud.)

So I made him give up everything he liked? Really motherfucker?

Now I say all the shared interests in the world won't help if you can't communicate. Learned that with M, we had tons in common, but out communication fell apart and so did we. And I am totally willing to own my part in that breakdown and address it not only in couples treatment but individually, by using the DBT Interpersonal skills module. (I have a workbook for like every behavioral therapy method.)

But hey, he thinks the problem is shared interests, ok. We'll address both.

So I said ok, well send me a list of all your interests and I'll find some that I'm interested in trying.

Motherfucker argued with me for AN HOUR. Something I know he's interested in is comic books because he downloads them all the time. Anyone who has looked at this blog knows of my obsession with the batboys of late. And I have opinions on a lot of DC characters. Marvel not so much just because I'm such a huge MCU fan that those version are deeply in my head (Sentry interests me greatly though.)

He proceeded to argue with me about whether or not I really wanted to read them or if I was just doing it for him abd would resent him for it (I only resent when he tries to push things down my throat like trying to force me to like board games when I do not, not when I volunteer to try it), because I had said I didn't before. I didn't before because I find them hard to read on my phone, my Kindle is black and white, abd the TV just bothers me on some instinctive level seeing it on a 60 in screen. We have the money now to buy an appropriate size tablet I can read them on.

I STILL don't have that fucking list abd the comic books thing I had to pull out of my own ass.

Now I have a list he could choose from, but since I got accused of making him give up his hobbies in favor of mine, I refuse to go first.

This? This fucking nonsense bullshit right here? This is why he needs a goddamn therapist to quit playing the victim when I'm trying to accommodate him. And so that when I ask a couples therapist can say, she's trying to do her part, give her the fucking list!

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About Loki (Season One)

(Sorry this is later than it should have been. I may or may not be experiencing burnout from reviewing every episode of the gayest show Disney has ever produced)

Salutations, random people on the internet. I am an Ordinary Schmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons.

Do you want to know what's fun about the Marvel Cinematic Universe? It is now officially at the point where the writers can do whatever the hell they want.

A TV series about two Avengers getting stuck in a series of sitcoms as one of them explores their personal grief? Sure.

Another series as a guy with metal bird wings fights the inner racism of his nation to take the mantel of representing the idea of what that nation should be? Why not?

A forgettable movie about a superspy and her much more mildly entertaining pretend family working together to kill the Godfather? F**king go for it (Let that be a taste for my Black Widow review in October)!

There is no limit to what you can get with these movies and shows anymore, and I personally consider that a good thing. It allows this franchise to lean further into creative insanity, thus embracing its comic roots in the process. Take Loki, for example. It is a series about an alternate version of one of Marvel's best villains bouncing around the timeline with Owen Wilson to prevent the end of the universe. It sounds like just the right amount of wackiness that it should be too good to fail.

But that's today's question: Did it fail? To find out my own answer to that, we're gonna have to dive deep into spoilers. So be wary as you continue reading.

With that said, let's review, shall we?

WHAT I LIKED

Loki Himself: Let's get this out of the way: This isn't the same Loki we've seen grow within five movies. The Loki in this series, while similar in many ways, is still his very own character. He goes through his own redemption and developments that fleshes out Loki, all through ways that, if I'm being honest with you, is done much better in six-hour-long episodes than in past films. Loki's story was already entertaining, but he didn't really grow that much aside from being this chaotic neutral character instead of this wickedly evil supervillain. Through his series, we get to see a gradual change in his personality, witnessing him understand his true nature and "glorious purpose," to the point where he's already this completely different person after one season. Large in part because of the position he's forced into.

Some fans might say that the series is less about Loki and more about the TVA. And while I can unquestionably see their point, I still believe that the TVA is the perfect way for Loki to grow. He's a character all about causing chaos and controlling others, so forcing him to work for an organization that takes that away allows Loki time to really do some introspection. Because if his tricks don't work, and his deceptions can't fool others, then who is he? Well, through this series, we see who he truly is: A character who is alone and is intended to be nothing more than a villain whose only truly selfless act got him killed in the end. Even if he wants to better himself, he can't because that "goes against the sacred timeline." Loki is a person who is destined to fail, and he gets to see it all with his own eyes by looking at what his life was meant to be and by observing what it could have been. It's all tragic and yet another example of these shows proving how they allow underdeveloped characters in the MCU a better chance to shine. Because if Loki can give even more depth to a character who's already compelling as is, then that is a feat worth admiration.

The Score: Let's give our gratitude toward Natalie Holt, who f**king killed it with this series score. Every piece she made is nothing short of glorious. Sylvie's and the TVA's themes particularly stand out, as they perfectly capture who/what they're representing. Such as how Sylvie's is big and boisterous where the TVA's sound eerie and almost unnatural. Holt also finds genius ways to implement other scores into the series, from using familiar tracks from the Thor movies to even rescoring "Ride of the Valkyries" in a way that makes a scene even more epic than it already could have been. The MCU isn't best known for its musical scores, partly because they aim to be suitable rather than memorable. But every now and again, something as spectacular as the Loki soundtrack sprinkles through the cracks of mediocrity. Making fans all the more grateful because of it.

There’s a lot of Talking: To some, this will be considered a complaint. Most fans of the MCU come for the action, comedy, and insanely lovable characters. Not so much for the dialogue and exposition. That being said, I consider all of the talking to be one of Loki's best features. All the background information about the TVA added with the character's backstories fascinates me, making me enthusiastic about learning more. Not everyone else will be as interested in lore and world-building as others, but just because something doesn't grab you, in particular, doesn't mean it isn't appealing at all. Case in point: There's a reason why the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise has lasted as long as it has, and it's not entirely because of how "scary" it is.

There's also the fact that most of the dialogue in Loki is highly engaging. I'll admit, some scenes do drag a bit. However, every line is delivered so well that I'm more likely to hang on to every word when characters simply have honest conversations with each other. And if I can be entertained by Loki talking with Morbius about jetskis, then I know a show is doing at least something right.

It’s Funny: This shouldn't be a surprise. The MCU is well-known for its quippy humor in the direct acknowledgment that it doesn't take itself too seriously. With that said, it is clear which movies and shows are intended to be taken seriously, while others are meant to be comedies. Loki tries to be a bit of both. There are some heavy scenes that impact the characters, and probably even some fans, due to how well-acted and professionally written they can be. However, this is also a series about a Norse god traveling through time to deal with alternate versions of himself, with one of them being an alligator. I'd personally consider it a crime against storytelling to not make it funny. Thankfully, the writers aren't idiots and know to make the series fun with a few flawlessly timed and delivered jokes that never really take away from the few good grim moments that actually work.

It Kept Me Surprised: About everything I appreciate about Loki, the fact that I could never really tell what direction it was going is what I consider its absolute best feature. Every time I think I knew what was going to happen, there was always this one big twist that heavily subverted any and every one of my expectations. Such as how each time I thought I knew who the big bad was in this series, it turns out that there was an even worse threat built up in the background. The best part is that these twists aren't meant for shock value. It's always supposed to drive the story forward, and on a rewatch, you can always tell how the seeds have been planted for making each surprise work. It's good that it kept fans guessing, as being predictable and expected would probably be the worst path to take when making a series about Loki, a character who's all about trickery and deception. So bonus points for being in line with the character.

The TVA: You can complain all you want about how the show is more about the TVA than it is Loki, but you can't deny how the organization in question is a solid addition to the MCU. Initially, it was entertaining to see Loki of all characters be taken aback by how the whole process works. And it was worth a chuckle seeing Infinity Stones, the most powerful objects in the universe, get treated as paperweights. However, as the season continues and we learn about the TVA, the writers show that their intention is to try and write a message about freedom vs. control. We've seen this before in movies like Captain America: The Winter Soldier or Captain America: Civil War, but with those films, it always felt like the writers were leaning more towards one answer instead of making it obscure over which decision is correct. This is why I enjoy the fact that Loki went on saying that there really is no right answer for this scenario. If the TVA doesn't prune variants, it could result in utter chaos and destruction that no one from any timeline can prepare themselves for. But when they do prune variants along with their timelines, it takes away all free will, forcing people to be someone they probably don't even want to be. It's a situation where there really is no middle ground. Even if you bring up how people could erase timelines more destructive than others, that still takes away free will on top of how there's no unbiased way of deciding which timelines are better or worse. And the series found a brilliant way to explain this moral: The season starts by showing how the TVA is necessary, to later point out how there are flaws and evil secrets within it, and ends things with the revelation that there are consequences without the TVA keeping the timeline in check. It's an epic showcase of fantastic ideas met with exquisite execution that I can't help but give my seal of approval to.

Miss Minutes: Not much to say. This was just a cute character, and I love that Tara Strong, one of the most popular voice actors, basically plays a role in the MCU now.

Justifying Avengers: Endgame: Smartest. Decision. This series. Made. Bar none.

Because when you establish that the main plot is about a character getting arrested for f**king over the timeline, you're immediately going to get people questioning, "Why do the Avengers get off scot-free?" So by quickly explaining how their time-traveling antics were supposed to happen, it negates every one of those complaints...or most of them. There are probably still a-holes who are poking holes in that logic, but they're not the ones writing this review, so f**k them.

Mobius: I didn't really expect Owen Wilson to do that good of a job in Loki. Primarily due to how the Cars franchise discredits him as a professional actor for...forever. With that said, Owen Wilson's Mobius might just be one of the most entertaining characters in the series. Yes, even more so than Loki himself. Mobius acts as the perfect straight man to Loki's antics, what with being so familiar with the supposed god of mischief through past variations of him. Because of that, it's always a blast seeing these two bounce off one another through Loki trying to trick a Loki expert, and said expert even deceiving Loki at times. Also, on his own, Mobius is still pretty fun. He has this sort of witty energy that's often present in Phil Coulson (Love that character too, BTW), but thanks to Owen Wilson's quirks in his acting, there's a lot more energy to Mobius than one would find in Coulson. As well as a tad bit of tragedy because of Mobius being a variant and having no clue what his life used to be. It's a lot to unpack and is impressively written, added to how it's Owen Wilson who helps make the character work as well as he did. Cars may not have done much for his career, but Loki sure as hell showed his strengths.

Ravonna Renslayer: Probably the least entertaining character, but definitely one of the most intriguing. At least to me.

Ravonna is a character who is so steadfast in her believes that she refuses to accept that she may be wrong. Without the proper writing, someone like Ravonna could tick off (ha) certain people. Personally, I believe that Ravonna is written well enough where even though I disagree with her belief, I can understand where she's coming from. She's done so much for the TVA, bringing an end to so many variants and timelines that she can't accept that it was all for nothing. In short, Ravonna represents the control side of the freedom vs. control theme that the writers are pushing. Her presence is necessary while still being an appealing character instead of a plot device. Again, at least to me.

Hunter B-15: I have no strong feelings one way or another towards B-15's personality, but I will admit that I love the expectation-subversion done with her. She has this air of someone who's like, "I'm this by-the-books badass cop, and I will only warm up to this cocky rookie after several instances of them proving themselves." That's...technically not B-15. She's the first to see Loki isn't that bad, but only because B-15 is the first in the main cast to learn the hidden vile present in the TVA. It makes her change in point of view more believable than how writers usually work a character like hers, on top of adding a new type of engaging motivation for why she fights. I may not particularly enjoy her personality, but I do love her contributions.

Loki Watching What His Life Could Have Been: This was a brilliant decision by the writers. It's basically having Loki speedrun his own character development through witnessing what he could have gone through and seeing the person he's meant to be, providing a decent explanation for why he decides to work for the TVA. And on the plus side, Tom Hiddleston did a fantastic job at portraying the right emotions the character would have through a moment like this. Such as grief, tearful mirth, and borderline shock and horror. It's a scene that no other character could go through, as no one but Loki needed a wake-up call for who he truly is. This series might heavily focus on the TVA, but scenes like this prove just who's the star of the show.

Loki Causing Mischief in Pompeii: I just really love this scene. It's so chaotic and hilarious, all heavily carried by the fact that you can tell that Tom Hiddleston is having the time of his damn life being this character. What more can I say about it.

Sylvie: The first of many surprises this season offered, and boy was she a great one.

Despite being an alternate version of Loki, I do appreciate that Sylvie's her own character and not just "Loki, but with boobs." She still has the charm and charisma, but she also comes across as more hardened and intelligent when compared to the mischievous prick we've grown to love. A large part of that is due to her backstory, which might just be the most tragic one these movies and shows have ever made. Sylvie got taken away when she was a little girl, losing everything she knew and loved, and it was all for something that the people who arrested her don't even remember. How sad is that? The fact that her life got permanently screwed over, leaving zero impact on the people responsible for it. As badass as it is to hear her say she grew up at the ends of a thousand worlds (that's an album title if I ever heard one), it really is depressing to know what she went through. It also makes her the perfect candidate to represent the freedom side of the freedom vs. control argument. Because she's absolutely going to want to fight to put an end to the people who decide how the lives of trillions should be. Those same people took everything from Sylvie, and if I were in her position, I'd probably do the same thing. Of course, we all know the consequences that come from this, and people might criticize Sylvie the same way they complain about Thor and Star Lord for screwing over the universe in Avengers: Infinity War. But here's the thing: Sylvie's goals are driven by vengeance, which can blind people from any other alternatives. Meaning her killing He Who Remains is less of a story flaw and more of a character flaw. It may be a bad decision, but that's for Season Two Sylvie to figure out. For now, I'll just appreciate the well-written and highly compelling character we got this season and eagerly wait as we see what happens next with her.

The Oneshot in Episode Three: Not as epic as the hallway scene in Daredevil, but I do find it impressive that it tries to combine real effects, fighting, and CGI in a way where it's all convincing enough.

Lady Sif Kicking Loki in the D**k: This is a scene that makes me realize why I love this series. At first, I laugh at Loki being stuck in a time loop where Lady Sif kicks him in the d**k over and over again. But a few scenes later, this setup actually works as a character moment that explains why Loki does the things he does.

This series crafted phenomenal character development through Loki getting kicked in the d**k by the most underrated badass of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's a perfect balance of comedy and drama that not every story can nail, yet Loki seemed like it did with very little effort.

Classic Loki: This variant shows the true tragedy of being Loki. The only way to survive is to live in isolation, far away from everything and everyone he loves, only to end up having his one good deed result in his death anyways. Classic Loki is definitive proof that no matter what face they have, Lokis never gets happy endings. They're destined to lose, but at least this version knows that if you're going out, you're going out big. And at least he got to go out with a mischievous laugh.

(Plus, the fact that he's wearing Loki's first costume from the comics is a pretty cute callback).

Alligator Loki: Alligator Loki is surprisingly adorable, and if you know me, you know that I can't resist cute s**t. It's not in my nature.

Loki on Loki Violence: If you thought Loki going ham in Pompeii was chaotic, that was nothing to this scene. Because watching these Lokis backstab one another, to full-on murdering each other, is a moment that is best described as pure, unadulterated chaos. And I. Loved. Every. Second of it.

The Opening Logo for the Season Finale: I'm still not that big of a fan of the opening fanfare playing for each episode, but I will admit that it was a cool feature to play vocal clips of famous quotes when the corresponding character appears. It's a great way of showing the chaos of how the "sacred timeline" works without having it to be explained further.

The Citadel: I adore the set design of the Citadel. So much history and backstory shine through the state of every room the characters walk into. You get a perfect picture of what exactly happened, but seeing how ninety percent of the place is in shambles, it's pretty evident that not everything turned out peachy keen. And as a personal note, my favorite aspect of the Citadel is the yellow cracks in the walls. It looks as though reality itself is cracking apart, which is pretty fitting when considering where the Citadel actually is.

He Who Remains: This man. I. Love. This man.

I love this man for two reasons.

A. He's a ton of fun. Credit to that goes to the performance delivered by Jonathon Majors. Not only is it apparent that Majors is having a blast, but he does a great job at conveying how He Who Remains is a strategic individual but is still very much off his rocker. These villains are always my favorite due to how much of a blast it is seeing someone with high intelligence just embracing their own insanity. If you ask me, personalities are always essential for villains. Because even when they have the generic plot to rule everything around them, you're at least going to remember who they are for how entertaining they were. Thankfully He Who Remains has that entertainment value, as it makes me really excited for his eventual return, whether it'd be strictly through Loki Season Two or perhaps future movies.

And B. He Who Remains is a fantastic foil for Loki. He Who Remains is everything Loki wishes he could have been, causing so much death, destruction, and chaos to the multiverse. The important factor is that he does it all through order and control. The one thing Loki despises, and He Who Remains uses it to his advantage. I feel like that's what makes him the perfect antagonist to Loki, thanks to him winning the game by not playing it. I would love it if He Who Remains makes further appearances in future movies and shows, especially given how he's hinted to be Kane the Conqueror, but if he's only the main antagonist in Loki, I'm still all for it. He was a great character in his short time on screen, and I can't wait to see what happens next with him.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Revealing that Loki was D.B. Cooper: A cute scene, but it's really unnecessary. It adds nothing to the plot, and I feel like if it was cut out entirely, it wouldn't have been the end of the world...Yeah. That's it.

That's my one and only complaint about this season.

Maybe some scenes drag a bit, and I guess Episode Three is kind of the weakest, but there's not really anything that this series does poorly that warrants an in-depth complaint.

Nope.

Nothing at all...

…

...

...I'm not touching that "controversy" of Loki falling for Sylvie instead of Mobius. That's a situation where there are no winners.

Only losers.

Exclusively losers.

Other than that, this season was amazing!

IN CONCLUSION

I'd give the first season of Loki a well-earned A, with a 9.5 through my usual MCU ranking system. It turns out, it really is the best type of wackiness that was just too good to fail. The characters are fun and likable, the comedy and drama worked excellently, and the expansive world-building made me really intrigued with the more we learned. It's hard to say if Season Two will keep this momentum, but that's for the future to figure out. For now, let's just sit back and enjoy the chaos.

(Now, if you don't excuse me, I have to figure out how to review Marvel's What If...)