#MCU: we're deleting that scene actually

[lazlolullaby]

It's been a month I can be salty.

Explanation under cut

He dropped the ball on Gamora and the whole Group of Guardians. This is the first time that it feels less like an ensemble movie and more like "The Space Adventures of Rocket and Quill"

There could have been more elaboration on Peter and Mantis leaving, Nebula staying on Knowhere during the story instead of at the end. Drax's touches of being a Dad to the kids was actually really well done.

Groot didn't really have a character. Not even when his Dad Rocket was dying, he didn't feel like he was active in the story or given time to react at all.

Peter Quill's Arc was halfway decent so he wasn't mentioned. I have doubts that he'll return, but worse things have happened in this franchise. (i mean this as a joke.)

James has gone on record to say "you can just hop in" to Vol 3...but. That's putting new fans over the old ones. That's not fair or satisfying to the people that love these characters and have been following them for these 9 years.

List of Gamoras:

Guardian Gamora who was killed by her abuser in IW to "humanize" him. And then not followed up on. No funeral, no mentions aside from Quill having some very human grief but still unhealthy and Nebula taking a moment.

Gamora from the T'challa Star-Lord What if was just...not mentioned. At all. Only Nebula and Thanos were seen.

Gamora from the What if where she Kills Thanos and takes his armor. She has a Funko Pop...but she's in season 2 in limbo and we don't know anything about her. Also a Gamora that died against Upgraded!Ultron...

Ravager / Feral Gamora, who hitched a ride with the Ravagers in a deleted scene and got her bonding with them off screen. Pulled into a tough situation with her other self, constantly compared. It was a bad spot but Gunn handled it where she kept her choices and understood the Starmora relationship enough to keep in touch with Quill.

James just gave a really good swing at his fursona (i mean this affectionately) 's backstory and writing the end of a chapter of their lives. Adventures can still happen, the Guardian's aren't gone, but...they'll never be the same again.

We're never going to see them at their "peak" between Vol 2 and Infinity War and that's a shame. They were more family than the Avengers ever were. Despite being aliens, they were more human than many other characters in the MCU.

[davidstirlings]

Fic writer interview :))

Thank you, @roseszirnheld, for tagging me <3

How many works do you have on AO3? 24 (a few are multichaps)

What’s your total AO3 word count? 127,742

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? 1 - We're gonna look after you, 2 - A Taste of Silver, 3 - Punishment, 4 - for once in your life, shut up, 5 - there is chaos hiding beneath your skin

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Sometimes yes, not very quickly because I find it difficult, I do my best!

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I do many, many angsty things. Murder and betrayal is probably my angstiest ending, in "there is chaos hiding beneath your skin"

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? Uhhhh, the ones that actually end happily are probably equally as happy? I guess??

Do you write crossovers? Not exactly. I'll do crossover settings, but not proper crossovers

Have you ever received hate on a fic? Yep, and I deleted it because of that, so remember people, please be kind to fic writers.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes, and I'm usually down for any kind, though it does tend to be gay.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not as far as I know?

Have you ever had a fic translated? No, but I'd be more than happy if someone ever did (I'm not even going to attempt to translate it into French, it will go wrong)

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Kinda in the discord servr, but not officially

What’s your all-time favourite ship? Pfftt, this is like asking me my favourite book. Umm, probably Stucky and Joe Al-Kaysani/Nicky di Genova

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? I do, unfortunately, have several. Probably the Project Blue Book fic, and the Midnight Texas one

What are your writing strengths? I'd like to think I'm decent at describing the scene, emotions, people, etc.

What are your writing weaknesses? Dialogue and humour. They are my kryptonite (hence why I write so little when I can avoid it)

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? I don't tend to see much of a point in it, because it can be annoying for readers, having to use google translate, or scroll to the bottom of the fic. I only use it for terms of affection (e.g. mo grá) or swearing (e.g. bastardo)

What was the first fandom you wrote for? On AO3, it was The Man from UNCLE (2015). First ever fandom I wrote for was MCU though.

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? - I'd love to write for Slow Horses, but I haven't really been able to focus on anything yet.

What’s your favourite fic you’ve written? "we are among the ruins", or "me and the devil"

tagging @eoinmcgonigal @just-barrow @leftenantjopson @homeahoy and anyone else who wants to do this!

[tallulahchanel]

What are your hopes or predictions for a "Black Panther 3"

Sorry it took me a while to get to this got so busy with life.

I don't really have a prediction, but I have ideas on how I think they can progress the series.

I"m currently reading Vol. 6 of the Black Panther comic series called A Nation Under Our Feet and Shuri's storyline in there can easily fit into BP3.

A Nation Under our Feet is about Wakanda going to war with its own people because they no longer trust T'Challa's rulership and are working with evil Americans and other nations to do it. As far as the MCU version, I can see the Wakandns that live amongst the Golden City taking issue with M'Baku's rulership, seeing as how the Jabari Tribe has been in isolated to the mountains for centuries.

In ANUOF, Ayo stole the Midnight Angel prototype to bail Aneka out of jail, who was arrested for killing a Wakandan ruler of one of the subnations (couldn't think of a better word, sorry) who were raping women, and Queen Ramonda sentenced her to death. For the MCU, I can imagine a conversation about loyalty amongst the Doras, and deleted scenes from WF gave us a bit of that when Okoye almost fought the Doras and when Aneka quit because of the unfair treatment towards Okoye.

In ANUOF, Shuri's arc involves her being in a coma while she takes on the Griot in Djalia (what is known in the MCU as the ancestral plane). I'm not sure where the direction the MCU is taking, but there's a possibility that Shuri could get hurt, so that could happen.

Ramonda is still alive during this comic, but she's later put in a coma after an explosion in the Golden City (which should've happen in WF, but we're not talking about that right now). Meanwhile in Djalia, Shuri is talking and training with her mother, but it's a spiritual manifestation of her ancestry. That is my idea of how they could bring Angela Basset back as Queen Ramonda. I've literally imagined Angela Basset saying to Letitia Wright, "Tell me a story." (which is an actual line in the comic)

And I would love to see Shuri take on the Aja-Adanna mantle because I think Letitia Wright would body that costume

And then I'm hoping that by this T'Challa could come back as a variant or they will at least use the multiverse as an excuse to reboot the series.

Those are my thoughts

[sounds-of-some-day]

thoughts on MCU stevesharon ?

So, I want to preface this by saying that I am not opposed to Steve/Sharon (I think that's his main love interest in the comics?). And I am not even necessarily opposed to Steve/Sharon in the MCU. But...I think the MCU completely fumbled this from the very beginning to the very end. Here's how:

The beginning: by making Peggy a much more important part of Steve's life (and also a romantic love interest) in the past it does make the whole dating her niece thing a bit odd, BUT, I think they still could have made it work, if they hadn't continued to just completely screw it up every step along the way.

The above problem was compounded by having their "romance" (I'm using quotes because can we really call it a romance?) develop in the same movie where Steve loses Peggy, a movie in which both what Peggy meant to Steve, and Sharon's familial relationship to Peggy are highlighted.

The romance comes literally out of nowhere. Up until the point of their kiss, they are presented as co-workers with a deeper connection that to me feels like it's built more on friendship and mutual respect. The thing about this is, there was actually a deleted scene with Steve and Sharon in a café after Peggy's funeral, and that scene actually makes their romance feel a lot more natural. Chris and Emily have great chemistry in that scene (of course, I think Chris could have chemistry with a lamppost), and if they really wanted to go the romance angle with them, that scene never should have been cut (and maybe they should have added in a couple more...)

The romance disappears just as quickly as it appeared. Literally I don't think Steve and Sharon appear in the same scene in the entirety of the rest of the MCU. (I could be wrong about this, it's been a while since I've watched it.)

Steve goes back to Peggy. Like, ugh, this just compounds the problem in number one, and makes it 10x worse.

And the final nail in the coffin, TFatWS outright says that Steve doesn't come back for Sharon after the airport battle in CW, and just leaves her to fend for herself after she stuck out her neck for him and broke the law for him and then she became a villain, because the MCU just had to get in one last post-Endgame character assassination of my boy.

So, essentially, this is a ship that I actually think could have worked, but it needed to be handled with a lot more nuance and care (something the MCU isn't exactly known for) and since it wasn't, what we're left with is a ship that feels like it was forced into the movie to counter the growing popularity of Stucky. This of course didn't work, which is why we got Steggy in the end.

What's my pick for "give Steve a girlfriend" if we had to have one? Natasha all the way. Their chemistry in TWS was amazing, and it's a relationship that would have felt totally natural and realistic. Ball completely dropped on that one.

[dnfinite123]

(Remake) SPIDERMAN NO WAY HOME

SCENES

PART 1

So for my pitch of the final battle for NWH. We do have the Spider-Men vs. The Sinister Six...sorta. Doc Ock is confirmed to be present the whole time for here. However, it's the same format, with the additions of Vulture and Rhino. Plus redesigns of Lizard and Electro (yes, even Rhino since we all hated that TASM2 suit). However, Doc Ock will actually be watching over the fight after demanding his Group for an attack, before sneakily change sides to help out defeat Electro and others. Also while we're at it. Spider-Gwen (Emma Stone) and Venom (Tom Hardy) will help out the Spider-Men. Only them, don't ask for Daredevil, Deadpool, Wolverine, Scarlett Witch, Black Cat or even Miles Morales to be in it. Only the 2 I mentioned.

This pitch is unfortunately delayed to the summer since I'm more busy with my final semester (almost halfway there to finish). But I'll still post more to give you guys info just for the heck of it.

PART 2

Yup! This is the part where it gets interesting for my pitch for No Way Home. So basically, after the defeat of the Sinister Six (sorta). Green Goblin and Mysterio jump in to attack at the Statue of Liberty. The Spider-Men, Gwen and Venom faced more threatening villains after the ones they defeat. And you all remember that deleted scene (concept art) where Mysterio fights Dr. Strange. It will be revived for my pitch, but for a quick matter and something different. Now yes, this is the same Mysterio from the MCU, and it's indeed Jake Gyllenhaal's Quentin Beck after faking his death. However, he no longer needs Drones. He instead snuck inside of Strange's mansion after Spidey defeated him in the mirror world, and taking the villains to the apartment he moved in with May and Happy. Mysterio will gain that magic power to become fully powered Mysterio (while killing or firing his team to form new ones with superpowers...aka the 7 other baddies from previous Spider-Man movies). And that time, he and Green Goblin are the only 2 to be the last to fight Spider-Man, since they're the most evil and threatening villains to fight. I won't go fully into details on what will happen or what will be different, cause I don't want to spoil the fun. But yeah, Mysterio is here with Green Goblin, and will be part of the big finale with him.

Concepts not done by me big shoutout to a deveantart username SP-Goji-Fan

[worstloki]

remember when Selvig referred to the Tesseract as truth and how Loki smiled and agreed, saying he knows that and then stammered when saying it touches everyone differently while still smiling the most genuine way he had the entire film

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Also I want to make clear the reason why I brought up Jack Harkness was because when Russell T. Davis called out Loki's representation being a feeble gesture I've seen people criticize him. Like, we really should be happy with getting so little. Davis created Jack in 2005 he's absolutely right when he calls out Disney for not better by now.

He certainly is.

I was just checking the tag and it's always the same, the straights have husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends... us queer folks we have "queer-coded" characters, we have subtext and we have directors, producers and writers confirming certain characters are not straight in interviews while at the same time they delete the scenes in the movies where those characters' sexuality was meant to be shown.

And we're supposed to thank them? Give them a pat on the back and shut up because at least we now have something, we shouldn't be asking more, we shouldn't expect better? Why not? Why can't we have what the straights have?

There's still a lot to be done when the MCU has been going on for 14 years and we have only had one gay kiss on screen, and the reason we got that was Chloé Zhao not Marvel. I really think those who defend what Disney do should watch more queer media, perhaps that way they would realize what actual representation looks like.

[magnificent-nerd]

Why Naqib in The Boys sucked

Image description: fictional character Naqib in Amazon Prime’s show The Boys.

(Is the fire in the background an excuse to use racist Yellow Filter to show how exotic he is? Hmm.)

I first posted this on my blog in Dec 2020, and since nothing in superhero media has changed for the better at this time (September 5th, 2021), I’m going to keep talking about it.

Because nobody else does. So, without further ado:

WHY NAQIB SUCKS.

I was a big fan of The Boys season 1; I love superheroes, I love deconstructing a genre. Sure, it has its problems, but overall I enjoyed season 1 and thought the show had potential.

(That’ll learn me for being hopeful!)

When season 1 ended with this big build up of mostly nameless brown and background characters as Muslim terrorists (deep sigh) we the audience are left thinking this one Muslim character (Naqib) whose superpower is to blow himself up repeatedly (insert another long deep sigh here) is going to be The Big Bad of season 2.

I had my misgivings about that direction. Firstly, as you can see from the image of Naqib, he is highly exoticised and is walking around bare chested with Arabic writing on his chest. He looks more like a generic western media depiction of a genie than he does a supervillain. 

And yet he's the first prominent Muslim character in superhero media I've seen in YEARS.

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(See my post about MENA and Muslim character good guys, including Joe played by Marwan Kenzari in The Old Guard, which is technically a comic book movie but it’s not what I’d call ‘caped and costumed’ superheroes so it’s more... superhero adjacent.)

I follow superhero content closely and as far as I'm aware the last time we saw any named Muslim characters in superhero movies WITH SPEAKING LINES was:

Instance 1) Iron Man 1 back in 2008 with The Ten Rings in Afghanistan, showing multiple Muslim characters as baddies/terrorists, but only two of them as a named character and with any meaningful lines to say. And despite one of them, Yinsen (actor Shaun Toub), being a good guy he still dies! Which is common in western media for Muslim and MENA characters.

Note: Fellow Iron Man 1 castmate, actor Sayed Badreya, makes an important point in this GQ article: "I die in Iron Man, I die in Executive Decision. I get shot by everyone. George Clooney kills me in Three Kings. Arnold blows me up in True Lies…" (x)

Instance 2) A more recent instalment in Batman V. Superman in 2016, with some unnamed 'General' character and mercenaries/terrorists in Nairomi, Africa, referred to only as "the desert" throughout the movie. All reference to the General's actual name are available in an extended/deleted scene only, so a very poor and vague depiction in the final cut.

Instance 3) The generic and badly written ‘bad guys’ in Wonder Woman 1984 (2020 movie), which was honestly such a racist depiction of Arabs and Muslims that many critics pointed out we hadn’t seen a depiction this terrible since 1994′s True Lies. (At least most critics were in agreement that WW84 movie was generally terrible, so there’s that.)

And that's it, those are the only major instances showing any Muslim actors or characters in a caped and costumed superhero movie. 

Some other fleeting glimpses of Muslims onscreen:

Glimpse 1) I spotted a girl wearing a hijab among the nameless and unspeaking background characters of Peter Parker's class in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019). A first for Marvel movies, apparently.

Glimpse 2) Disney Plus show Falcon and Winter Soldier (2021) had two nameless Muslim characters walk by in a scene that’s supposed to be Tunisia (using Yellow Filter), and ‘thank’ the present American Air Force (eye-roll).

Glimpse 3) Netflix show Jupiter’s Legacy (2021) had a nameless Muslim sailor conversing with one of the main characters in a scene, with meaningful dialogue about racism. (WOW. Really good.) Bonus: no yellow filter. It’s a pity he’s a nameless background character because this brief instance is the least problematic MENA rep I’ve seen in ages, but it is very brief.

I just wrote about Glimpses 2 and 3, and how the Netflix show outdid Disney when it comes to these nameless walk-on Muslim characters.

This is pretty pathetic overall, these small crumbs, especially compared to better rep and probably the only instance of legit MENA superheroes in a ‘costumes and capes’ style superhero show, the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.

-

Anyway, now I’ve listed what crumbs are available across the live action superhero genre, back to The Boys.

I was intrigued about how season 2 would handle Naqib and any characters relating to him, and what storyline they'd use. 

Was I excited at the possibility of seeing Muslim supers onscreen? Damn straight I was. Did I mind that they were baddies? Well, yes and no. When you only ever get crumbs or no crumbs at all, you tend to get excited over one stale old crumb.

After the build up for season 2, I eagerly sat down to watch the first episode, only to have the first five minutes of episode 1 Trigon him.

Note: who's Trigon, you ask? Well if you didn't watch the DCEU's Titans show, Trigon was The Big Bad who was hyped up throughout season 1, introduced in the season 1 cliff-hanger episode as this big 'oh shit!' moment for the cast of heroes, only for him to fizzle out like a wet fart in the first episode of season 2 while the show pivots wildly in another direction. 

Exactly what happened to Naqib in the first five minutes of The Boys season 2.

Erm, so, Naqib. Farewell, I guess? As a character you briefly appeared in 2 episodes, portrayed by a different actor in each (Krishan Dutt, and Samer Salem). It seems the writers used you as a plot device when they needed a cheap cliff-hanger for a direction that ultimately went nowhere.

Am I disappointed? Yeah, I am. Overall I thought season 2 of The Boys was weaker than season 1, but I'm not here to talk about the whole season: I want to talk about Naqib and this missed opportunity.

The Boys and its showrunners sell the show as being a satire of recent and well known superhero content, of all the big movies and TV shows. There's been a lot of patting themselves on the back for calling out overused tropes in superhero media (and sometimes they've done this satire well: see the LGBT marketing scene with Queen Maeve in season 2), but my issue with the show on their Muslim rep, or should I say lack thereof, is if your show has even less Muslim character rep than the content you're trying to parody, how is this a win for satire?

Naqib and that whole angle came across as a lazy, half-assed swing from the writer's room. Sure, perhaps a lot of the non-Muslim and non-MENA audience won't even notice, as we've been ignored by western media or made into nameless, generic, vacuous baddies for decades now. Non-Muslims and non-MENA just accept that we're always the baddies for no particular reason at all (which feeds into Islamophobia, by the way) and The Boys' writers could say they are simply satirising the tropes already present in media...

But, and this is a big but, the media that The Boys is satirising has already made a step toward better inclusion and representation: Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), Marvel comics' first Muslim superhero, is entering the MCU as a lead character in her own Disney Plus show, debuting in 2022. 

Ms. Marvel/Kamala Khan is also cited to appear in upcoming Captain Marvel sequel, The Marvels (2022), which will be a major movie.

The MCU has also cast a Muslim actor (Mahershala Ali) as the lead in a reboot of Blade. That's going to be big news when it starts filming.

So to the showrunners on The Boys, I say this: now you've done this small angle of 'all Muslim characters are terrorists, yuckity-yuck!' like we've seen in major superhero movies thus far, and you've brushed that aside in favor of focusing on other whiter villains, my question is will you come back to Muslim and MENA characters again? Or is that all you got?

Because if that was ALL, then the current score is Disney/MCU:02, Netflix:02, DCEU:02, and The Boys: a big ZERO as far as Muslim and MENA rep goes.

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Originally posted on my blog, magnificently nerdy.

If you, like me, are always on the lookout for onscreen Muslim and MENA characters in superhero media, and have spotted any characters in superhero TV shows I haven’t watched yet, let me know about them!

Here is my post on good guys, featuring Old Guard’s Joe, and Blindspot’s Rich Dotcom.

Here’s my post about the Tarazi siblings on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow TV show.

And, if Marvels’ Eternals gets released on schedule for 2021, we will have a MENA actor portraying a supporting character. I just hope Marvel gives him a name.