#THIS INCLUDES THINGS THAT ACCIDENTALLY GET OTHER MCU CHARACTERS KILLED IN MOVIES SHE'S NOT EVEN IN

[nostalgia-tblr]

So I am ostensibly doing Fic Research by rewatching an episode of telly and re that post about Depressing Sylvie Headcanons I think it is probably correct and Sylvie no longer speaks Asgardian, for I def got the vibe that she has no idea what the words to that song are.

Meanwhile, look at the stance, look at the swagger:

This 'serenading the lady (or gentleman, or whoever) to win them over' technique has worked before and is expected to work again. That's confidence. Misplaced confidence, but it's still confidence.

However:

Oh no, the lad is smitten. Caught in your own spell, you idiot. You fool. You protagonist who will be heartbroken a few episodes from now.

[miela]

Could you do Tom holland x fem!reader

You were invited to wedding. Just walk around in church, lots of people and you bump into someone that hold your waist, you look up that you never knew who it was. You might be apologizing. He would love to seat with you. Then after that go to reception that you two talks to each other. *fluffiness*

(Hope you will write it,thanks and have a good day)

THIS IS SO CUTE HOLD ON-

I hope you like this! I enjoyed writing this a lot! Thank you so much for this request!

Beautiful Stranger

Pairing: Tom Holland x Stunt Double!Reader Genre: Fluff Warnings: Insecurity (Maybe???) Extra: Song inspiration is "Finally // Beautiful Stranger" - Halsey Word Count: 3.8k 

↪ divider by firefly-graphics

You’ve been to plenty of weddings and each one of them has been bittersweet. You loved weddings, truly, but they reminded you of the fears and doubts that you had about yourself. You were never considered conventionally attractive and never really dated anyone because of it, whether it was because you were everybody’s last choice or you were afraid of getting too close to someone and they saw you how you saw yourself. On top of that, you have seen so many marriages fail so badly, including the one with your family members. You just couldn’t understand why you would put yourself in such a stressful situation like that. 

So when your friends daydreamed about love, you daydreamed about your future plans instead. 

You knew you wanted to be in the entertainment industry, despite the shit show it is. But you couldn’t help but love the art of cinema and movie making. You grew up loving action and adventure movies and wanted to be a part of that. You didn’t get much support from your family and it killed your dream for a little while, but after seeing videos online and watching the MCU and other action-filled movies, you couldn’t help but feel that you were meant for this. So you trained yourself to do stunts, dance, and martial arts so you could be a stunt double. Once you made your big break there. You found yourself happier than ever. 

Through this job, you found one of your greatest friends, who was also a stunt double. Since you both looked similar you were often paired to be in action movies together. If one of you landed a job, the other usually followed. It worked out well because you both get along so well. You guys were a dynamic duo and your pair nickname was the Dynamite Doubles in the industry.

She often told you that you should try acting because of how into the character you get sometimes, but you told her that you didn’t want to because of how shy you were about it. You didn’t think you could actually do certain things in a film and not mess it up and accidentally break character. Also, you didn’t want that kind of fame. The most you could do is probably just be an extra in the background.

One day, she told you that she was seeing someone. When you met them you could tell they really loved each other and that they were meant to be. This person was also a stunt double so you knew who they were by face. They were so adorable together and honestly, it warmed your heart to see them so happy together (even if it made you feel lonely sometimes). 

And that’s how you ended up here. At their wedding.

It was beautiful and sweet. You would’ve been a bride’s maid but she had so many sisters who easily filled the role, so you really just became the assistant to the Maid of Honor who was her eldest sister. You didn’t mind not being part of the bridal party officially, you really didn’t want any attention on you whatsoever. 

When you arrived at the church, you went to your friend, wished her luck, and then went to go find your place in the pews. When you entered, there were already so many people there and it made you kind of nervous to be walking around without someone, but you could manage. Once you sat down you would feel better and much more relaxed. You seem to have been too excited to plant yourself in a chair because you forgot to pay attention to your surroundings. You tripped over someone’s foot and fell very quickly toward the edge of the seats. But before you could crack the bridge of your nose on the pew, a strong arm gripped around your waist to stop you from the catastrophic event that would’ve happened.

You stared with wide narrowed eyes at the seat edging as your heart raced in your chest. Your entire body was tense and cold from shock. 

Way to avoid bringing attention to yourself.

Before you could process anything the strong arm pulled you up and helped you to stand up straight on your feet. Once you caught your composure a moment later you looked up at the face of the one who saved you. 

“Careful there, darling,” the most beautiful sound came from his lips as they were filled with concern. “You alright?”

Your eyes shifted rapidly from embarrassment at all the eyes on you and your face burned. You nodded in response. 

“Thank you,” You replied sheepishly. “I’m sorry.”

His arm slowly moved from your waist once he realized your composure was back. 

“There’s no need to apologize. It was my fault for not paying attention to where I was going. I should be the one apologizing. I’m sorry.”

You smiled and nodded still not meeting his gaze. “It’s okay, I should’ve paid attention to where I was walking as well.” You rubbed your arm nervously and were still rather embarrassed as all hell. “I should go to my seat. Enjoy the wedding.”

And with that, you went and sat down with a deep sigh and full of embarrassment. 

The wedding itself was beautiful and heartfelt and sweet and now it was time for the after-party celebration. You sat down at the table with a few of your friend’s cousins that you had met before and you sat silently as you observed the conversation. Once you were able to you went up to your friend and their new spouse and congratulated them with hugs and smiles. Then it was time for food. 

As you were getting your food, you bumped into someone and a hand quickly grabbed your waist catching you from stumbling before you and your food could fly all over the place. 

“Excuse me, love.” It was that voice again.

You hummed, more like squeaked, in response and quickly made your way back to the table to eat your food. After a while, your friend came over wearing something more comfortable and dance-worthy than her original wedding dress and sat down next to you. 

“I’ve heard you’ve been swept off your feet twice today,” She teased. 

You rolled your eyes with a smirk. “By myself. It’s not like I was carried away after saying my vows and tying the knot. It was more of an im-so-clumsy-for-a-stunt-double kind of deal.”

She laughed. “You have no idea who kept saving you do you?”

“Hm?” you asked in response. “I mean, no, I was too busy being embarrassed to hell by myself to get a good look at him. I just know he’s British.”

“I swear you are so oblivious of your surroundings sometimes,” She giggled. “But don’t worry, I got you. Wanna come dance with us?”

“I will in a bit,” you smiled. “I wanna let my food settle a little more. Plus you have to dance with your significant other.”

“Okay,” she smiled. “You better come dance, (Y/N) or I’ll drag you onto the dance floor.”

You laughed. “I will, I will.”

And with that, she got up and joined everyone else on the dance floor doing different line dances and other wedding song favorites. You watched everyone for a bit before deciding the scroll on your phone aimlessly checking social media. You were so engrossed in your phone that you didn’t realize when someone sat next to you. 

“Hello,” the voice said sheepishly.”

You gasped softly and looked over at the figure, your heart racing again. 

He blushed. “Sorry…I keep disrupting your flow today.”

You finally got a good look at the face of the person who saved you twice today. You had to question if the universe was messing with you or not. 

It was Tom Holland.

To say you were a fan was a bit of an understatement. You watched all of his movies, shows, and interviews and you loved his craft of acting. Uncharted is a comfort movie for you and you watch it all the time and he is your favorite Spiderman. Not only that, you admired the fact that he does his own stunts and that he has a background in dance and gymnastics. One of your dreams was to one day be able to work on the same set as him. So him approaching you and sitting next to you at your best friend’s wedding sounds like a scene in a rom-com or some sick joke being played on by some higher power.

You understood what your friend meant now. 

“H-hello-” you stuttered out feeling a bit, starstruck for a moment. 

“Hi,” He smiled. You couldn’t believe you were seeing his charming smile in person. “Oh…I said that already.”

You giggle softly and set your phone down. 

“I’m Tom,” He continued. 

“I know,” you blurted before mentally smacking yourself. “I mean…I’m (Y/N).”

“I know,” he smiled with a light chuckle. “Nice to meet you.”

“It’s nice to meet you too.”

He was wearing a black suit with a white button-up shirt under it. His curls were slicked back and his skin was glowing. Or that could be your starstruck moment going on in your mind, you couldn’t tell. 

“I noticed you sitting over here all alone and wanted to ask you if you were okay,” he explained.

“I’m okay,” You smiled back, trying to calm your nerves. “I’m usually a wallflower at weddings. I like observing the fun more than getting lost in it.”

“Really?” He asked but it came out more like a statement. “You don’t like to dance?”

“Oh, I love dancing,” you replied. “I just…never really have anyone to dance with.”

There was a quick moment of silence before he spoke again. 

“Would you like to dance…with me?”

Your eyes widened. “Um…” and before you could think of an answer, your mouth spoke for you. “...Sure!”

Next thing you knew, you were on the dancefloor with none other than Tom Holland. You wanted to pinch yourself to make sure that you weren’t dreaming this, but it felt so vivid at the same time. You figured that if it’s a dream you may as well have fun with it. 

You knew Tom was a sweet guy, all you ever heard was good things about him from other people who had worked with him,  so if you felt uncomfortable with something you knew he would understand. That eased your mind a little as you awkwardly danced with him. The tension was thick but not enough to freak you guys out. When you got a little bit more comfortable with each other's presence, you began to move more fluidly. After a couple of fun songs, another line dance song came on which made it even easier to get comfortable with each other. 

But then a slow song came on and everyone grabbed their pairs, minus the children who all opted to find a place to grab more food and treats, and teenagers who opted to sit at the table and be on their phones. You and Tom really only had each other as options if you wanted to slow dance. So when he looked at you lifted his eyebrows in question, you smiled and nodded.

“May I have this dance?” He asked holding his hand out and bowing.

“You may, you giggled and softly placed your hand in his.

You both walked further into the dance floor and when you found a comfortable spot, you put your hands on his shoulders and he put his on your waist sheepishly. You realized how close you were to him now and it made your face burn. You had never danced with someone like this before and it just now occurred to you how close you were. You went to homecoming years ago but you went with a group of friends and you sat down when slow songs came on, You skipped out on prom because there was no way you were gonna spend so much money just to not have a date. It made you realize how inexperienced you were when it came to these things, and it reminded you how inexperienced you are with a lot of things when it came to romance.

Your first dance ever is with Tom. 

You looked up at him meeting the gaze of his soft, dark eyes and your face burned more at the eye contact. You needed to divert your overthinking and quickly before your timid nature took over and you ran off like a deer. 

“So, what brings you to the wedding?” you asked. 

“I’m mates with the groom,” he responded. 

“Oh!” You chimed. “I had no idea that you knew him, but then again I never really asked.”

“We worked on Civil War together. He was a stunt double on there.”

That’s right! You had forgotten all about that. 

“Oh, lucky him.” You giggled. “I always wanted to double in a Marvel movie.”

“You haven’t?” 

“Nope,” you shook your head looking at your hand on his shoulder for a moment. “But one day, hopefully.”

“I think you’ll do great,” He smiled causing you to look up at his gaze again. “I’ve seen a lot of the stuff you stunted for.”

“Really?” Your eyes beamed.

“Absolutely,” He responded with a smile. “I’ve also seen your videos on YouTube.”

Oh.

Not only did you work on films and movies but you also made your own short films on YouTube of different fight scenes to show off your skills and also as a portfolio for jobs. You also posted dance videos from the dance studio that you worked with. 

And he’s seen them.

“Your craft is very unique,” he continued. 

“Thank you,” you smiled. “I’m very proud of it.”

You moved your hands to clasp together at the back of his neck so your arms could rest more comfortably as you two swayed. 

“I am a fan of your work too,” you said to him. “I watch Uncharted like every week.”

He chuckled softly. “You like it that much?”

“I do! I grew up reading and watching things with pirates in it and also watching Indiana Jones. Uncharted is like a mix of both but contemporary. So I hold it close to my heart. I also want to play the games but I’m so busy usually.”

He kept a small smile on his face as you spoke. 

“I’m glad you enjoyed it so much.”

A simple silence fell between you guys as you listened to the song play and tried your best to not make the situation awkward by your lack of knowledge on any of this. In all honesty, you wanted to run but at the same time, you didn’t, both for obvious reasons. It brought up a thought to your brain that made you giggle softly. 

“What is it?” Tom asked curiously with a wonderous look on his face.

“Nothing,” you replied with a smile.

“Nothing, eh?” He asked with a mischievous look in his eye. “That doesn’t sound like nothing.”

“It’s Nothing,” you sang. 

“Hmmm,” He hummed in doubt. “Alright, fine. Don’t tell me.” He turned his head looked away dramatically and playfully.

You let out a laugh. “You really wanna know?”

“I mean you don’t have to tell me,” he smirked.

“If you wanna know, I can tell you.”

“Well, if you insist, darling.”

Your face burned at the pet name and mentally scolded yourself to keep your composure.

“I had a thought,” you began.”

“You had a thought,” he repeated.

“A memory, if you will.”

“A memory,” he said the octave of his voice raising. 

“Mhm,” you nodded and smirked mischievously.

He squinted his eyes at you curiously.

“I remember an interview you had,” You began. “Where you talked about dancing with Madonna and you freaked out and walked away.”

He winced and groaned at the memory and you giggled softly.

“Not my most shining moment I will admit,” he said with a strained voice but a smile on his face. “What brought that on? Are you afraid I’m going to run away from you?” 

“No,” you shook your head. “I just… never mind.”

He hummed again. “Do you want to run away from me?”

Your eyes widened. “N-no…! Of course not! I just…when I try something new…especially with someone else…I get nervous an my first instinct is to run for the hills. It’s nothing personal, I promise.”

He thought on your words for a moment and then looked at you questioningly. “I’m not sure I quite follow.”

“I…never danced with someone before.”

He looked at you with a look of surprise on his face. “Really? Why is that?”

You shrugged. “No one really wanted to dance with me.”

“Well, they’re all a bit daft. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to dance with you.”

Your mind couldn’t process what you were hearing right now. His words looped and echoed in your mind as you looked up at him searching for an explanation of his words. Surely he wasn’t flirting…was he? Were you just being delusional? Probably. Someone like him couldn’t possibly find someone like you attractive. Hell, even your friend looked like a better version of you…a more conventional version of you. That’s why she was here getting married. You weren’t anything special, you were just…you.

“What are you thinking about?” He asked pulling you from your thoughts.

You shook your head and looked down avoiding his gaze. 

“I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable…”

“You’re not, no, it’s not you…you’re perfect.”

Your eyes widened at your comment and you slowly looked up at him to see a blush dancing across his nose and cheeks. “You’re sweet, darling.”

You smile in response but stay silent as you listen to the rest of the song. 

Beautiful stranger, here you are in my arms and I know

That beautiful strangers only come along to do me wrong

And I hope

Beautiful stranger, here you are in my arms

But I think it's finally, finally, finally, finally, finally safe

For me to fall

After the slow dance, you and Tom went your separate ways due to you both being summoned by different people. The rest of the reception you had Tom on your mind, as anyone would. Even though you were a nervous wreck and you swore you had sweat marks on the pits of your dress, you very much enjoyed yourself. You smiled to yourself several times throughout the rest of the party. 

Your friend and her man left for their honeymoon as you all threw confetti at them and you were getting ready to leave out the door after. You started walking to your car when you heard fast and loud footsteps heading your way.

“(Y/N)!”

You stopped and turned to see Tom jogging toward you.

“Tom…!” You said with wide eyes as he stopped in front of you slightly out of breath.

“Hey,” He greeted. “You shouldn’t walk alone. It’s dark out here.”

You went to protest but decided against it. “You’re right.”

“Can I walk you? Even If I have to stop at a distance and make sure you get in your car safely.”

You thought about it for a moment and then nodded with a small smile. He returned the smile and you both began walking at a slow pace. The wind blew softly but it was enough for the cold to kiss your skin. You shivered and rubbed your bare arms. You knew you should’ve brought a jacket but it was so warm earlier you didn’t think it would get this cold. 

You heard a shuffle and then felt fabric drape over your shoulders and instant warmth engulfing you. You processed that Tom had put his suit jacket around you and you looked up at him wonderously. His white button-up shirt was clinging to his muscles and it made your face burn enough to were the cold air felt good rather than rigid.

“Don’t worry about me,” He smiled. “I’m rather warm right now.”

“Thank you,” you replied. 

“No worries.”

A moment of silence fell between you guys before he spoke up again.

“So…um I was wondering, if I could have your number, maybe?” He asked his voice a little strained.

You looked at him surprised and your emotional defense walls instantly reacted and went up. 

“Ah,” You pressed your lips together and spoke with a playful tone. “So that’s the real reason you’re here.”

“No. Well, yes and no,” He started. “I really do want to make sure you get to your car safely, but I wanted to ask for your number much earlier…since we first ran into each other.” You stopped walking and he followed suit. “I know we barely know each other but I would like to get to know you more.”

You blinked rapidly. “But...why?”

He was taken aback a bit as you kept looking at him with your walls still built up high. 

“Well,” he began nervously. “I find you…charming.” Your eyes widened as he continued. “I’ve been interested for a while…but I had no way of knowing how to connect with you without it seeming weird.”

“Really?”

“Yes. I am kind of a fan of yours too. Like I said before, I watch your videos on YouTube. And when I found out you were my mate’s girlfriend’s best friend I got a little excited about it. So when we kept running into each other today, I took it as a sign to make a move.”

Your face softened in response and your face burned once again as you looked down. 

“So this is me, making my move,” he continued. “If you’ll have me.”

His words resonated with you. You never thought of yourself as anything like that so it was strange hearing it from him. It’s not like you hated yourself. Quite the opposite actually. You loved how you looked and how you were as a person. You worked hard on yourself to make sure that you had confidence in yourself and were happy with yourself. You were afraid that the rest of the world wouldn’t see that. 

You look up at him with a smile, deciding to take a chance. “Okay.”

He smiled and sighed in relief. A Moment later you, both traded numbers and he walked you the rest of the way to your car and opened the door for you. You gave him back his Jacket and you looked at each other. 

“Please, let me know when you get home.”

“I will,” you respond.

He smiled in response. “Goodnight, darling.”

“Goodnight, Tom.”

With that, he closed the door to your car and stood there until you drove off safely. Through your mirror, you could see him visibly cheering to himself and it made you giggle and your heart fill with warmth.

~

[saintvainglorious]

Fics I Enjoyed in December/January

10 fics total. Includes fics from the following fandoms: A Song of Ice and Fire, Avatar (Cameron), Black Sails, Hannibal, MCU, Our Flag Means Death, and Star Wars

The Favor of the King by thingswithwings MCU | T'Challa/Sam Wilson | 18k | Explicit

T'Challa – King T'Challa of Wakanda, the Black Panther, Guy Who Dresses Up Like a Cat to Fight Crime or Possibly for Other Reasons, Who the Fuck Knows – T'Challa corners Sam during one of their visits to check in on Bucky and says, in a mild voice that should not sound as threatening as it does, "We need to talk." "We do, huh," Sam says, looking him up and down. He's just a king and a superhero and a genius inventor and possibly the richest man alive, looking way too fine and wearing the hell out of a tailored three-piece suit; Sam can hold his own against this guy.

Free Folk to the Bone by Jennie_D A Song of Ice and Fire | Gen, Jon Snow/Ygritte | 82k (WIP) | Mature

Jon will admit he doesn’t know a lot of things. He doesn’t know who his parents are or what clan he was borne from. He doesn’t know what’s on the other side of The Wall, though he’s been itching to find out practically since he could walk. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever learn to be a proper warg, or if Mance will finally let him go raid kneeler villages with Tormund’s band this year. But he does know one thing; he’s Free Folk down to his bones.

Order Carnivora by husborth/@husborth Star Wars | Gen | 8k (WIP) | Teen & Up

In a universe where Leia is told the truth of her biological parentage as a child, she makes a deal to save the galaxy from certain destruction; she'll surrender herself to Vader if he'll destroy the Death Star. Between the galaxy and what he wants, there's only one choice Vader always makes.

The Spiral of Lives by Damkianna Avatar | Gen | 20k | General Audiences

The last thought he has before everything goes black is, Shit. An AU of the movie, wherein the Avatar Program never existed. [Warning: some in-character ableism.]

Gone To Port Royal by Apetslife Black Sails | Gen | 3k | General Audiences

Definition of Valhalla 1: the great hall in Norse mythology where heroes slain in battle are received 2 : a place of honor, glory, or happiness : heaven

Ad Utrumque Paratus by obeyingthemuse/@otmuse Star Wars | Gen | 39k (WIP) | General Audiences

It's hard to bring balance to the Force when the only method you've seen is your black-cloaked psychic cyborg sorcerer dad with a severe breathing problem throwing an old man down the Death Star reactor shaft. As much as Luke would like to see the not-yet-Emperor dead, he doesn't want to be arrested by his unusually attractive(?) war-hero dad and spend the rest of his indeterminate time in the past dropping Ewok beats in a jail cell. Also Leia would probably kill him. But not before breaking him out of jail. So when the twins wake up on Tatooine decades in the past, they play it safe. They take over a planet, reconnect with their adoptive and real parents without weirding them out (too much), and accidentally cause the Chancellor perpetual near-death experiences. Nailed it.

Where All Ladders Start by emungere/@emungere Hannibal | Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter | 43k | Explicit | Part 1 of Ladders

Will is slowly losing his mind in the Baltimore State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. He makes a deal with the devil to get out.

Whatever this is by equestrianstatue/@justlikeeddie Black Sails | James Flint/John Silver | 5k | Explicit | Part 1 of Combat

It was difficult to shake off the pervasive feeling of being permitted, even required, in the places that he most wished to be; and after knocking on the door of Flint’s cabin, Silver pushed it open without waiting for the call to enter. Flint had his back to him, but his head turned sharply at the sound. He was stood towards the stern of the cabin, by one of the gilted pillars, the hammocks newly-strung for the vanguard swinging gently beside him. “Oh,” he said, with no particular inflection, at the sight of Silver. Then he completed the action that his hands had been midway through: lifting the leather sword-belt from his waist and hanging it in place below a mounted candlestick. “What do you want?” (After Flint talks the crew round to bombarding Vane in his fort, Silver has some questions of his own.)

A thing of any relevance by equestrianstatue/@justlikeeddie Black Sails | James Flint/John Silver | 4k | Explicit | Part 2 of Combat

“You like this,” Silver said, and he allowed himself a grin, even though he knew it would earn him Flint’s arm pressing fractionally upwards, against his throat. Not hard enough, though, to cut off his voice. “Putting me in my place.” Flint’s eyebrows raised minutely. He looked down the length of Silver’s body, at the way it slouched beneath him, sprawled against the trunk; at the rise and fall of his chest, his hands curled loosely by his hips. Glancing back up, he said, “Not as much as you do.”

man on fire by Ajaxthegreat Our Flag Means Death/Black Sails | James Flint/Israel Hands, Edward Teach/Stede Bonnet/Israel Hands | 16k | Explicit

“Who the fuck,” Ed says, “Fucked you.” Or, we discover the consequences of jealousy.

[madlilsongbird]

Watching The Amazing Spidernan movies so that I’m all caught up before No Way Home. Will add my thoughts as I have them. Note I am not some big Spider-Man fan nor have I read the comics so if my thoughts sound kinda stupid they probably are.

First movie:

That’s a good trick with the broom. Making a mental note as we speak.

Actually seeing Peter say goodbye to his parents is horrible and I would like to never experience it again

SALLY FIELD IS AUNT MAY?! Why does this one have the good cast? (not good as in better but good as in more well known)

The sexual tension in “good morning flash…good morning Peter” (this is a joke I’m not shipping him with his bully)

Jesus roid rage much?

Shut your blinds! I don’t know who would be looking in your window at this exact moment but close them anyway!

First careful, you never know who is watching what you search (when did I become this person)

Second…curt connors is ableist.

Poor Rodrigo Guevara

Oh internalised ableism. And that is the only comment I will make going forward because my disabilities do not include limb difference and I dont want to overstep.

Stop following the man, you are not subtle…wait wtf how’d he do that?!

This is where he gets his powers right?

Okay but when would 5 men make that much of a fuss over a woman that only 1 of them seems to know?

Same. (This is in reference to smashing the alarm clock)

Oh my god is it really necessary to show all the different kinds of spider bites.

Actually just going back to the internalised ableism thing…he is allowed to feel whatever type of way about his own disability that is his right. But insinuating that all disabled people are weak and wanting to breed out the weakness is eugenics and just kinda gross. THIS is the final comment I will make on the matter.

No but seriously he is way more aggressive than regular teen boy aggressive so either he’s on something or he’s overcompensating for something

The way he looks at him doe (again all jokes am not shipping flash and Peter)

Why is this so awkward? And not like teens navigating a crush awkward just genuinely awkward. I feel no chemistry between them.

I like the song, it’s an interesting choice for this scene but I like it.

Stop does uncle Ben die now? Like I know uncle Ben dies at some point but I was really kinda hoping he just wouldn’t in this iteration. I was going for a ninth doctor moment “just this once everybody lives”

MOTHERFUCKER

God Sally is incredible

Don’t show me moments of Flash being human I might accidentally start shipping them for real and that simply can’t happen.

Oooh he’s a fashion designer

I just really enjoy how he takes the piss out of his victims? Arrests?

Is Gwen aware that the school nurse can’t cure everything? Both legally and just like generally doesn’t have the knowledge to cure everything. She suggests going to the nurse a lot.

This family gives me bad vibes

This is a long movie…it’s not even half way through

Well that’s one way to tell her

NOT GEORGE FOYET!

I think with what I remember of SpiderTobey and what I know of SpiderTom, Andrews Spider-Man is definitely better with the people he’s rescuing. Smoother, good bedside manner.

His sons name is Jack. Why does that make me angry?

So he’s just not gonna rescue the other people hanging off the bridge?

It’s almost poetic that the son of the man tried to stop him the first time will be the one to stop him now

Now how is he getting enough power in the sewer

No means no Peter

Does she die in this one or the next one? I don’t imagine her dying will help captain stacey see him as a good guy

Stan 🥺

This movie is exhausting and I don’t know if I mean that in a good way or a bad way.

MoThEr HuBbArD aRe YoU sErIoUs

He managed to get three whole words out and you didn’t think to ease up on the trigger a little to hear what those words might be?

She’s very clever and I will be sad to see her go

That wasn’t her scream. Or it was but from a different take.

Foyet about to be coming in clutch

I’m going to cry.

He’s so ugly. Some lizards are really cute but lizard + human, kinda gross looking.

Well shit. I didn’t know that happened. I guess what I said about him being upset with Peter about Gwen is irrelevant. Unless it isn’t, like if you believe in the afterlife, imagine how pissed he’s gonna be when Gwen arrives.

He finally got the eggs 🥺

As someone who’s boyfriend at the time didn’t go to her fathers funeral I feel ya Gwen. I mean I don’t care now but at the time it sucked.

Dr Connors was just in a silly goofy mood. He seems to show genuine care for the boy (this is mostly sarcasm).

Second movie

Oh we’re going back to peters dad.

How do they have access to a private jet?

Miss Honey is badass

Ngl I’m actually quite relieved they both died before the plane crashed. Stil devastating though.

Okay so this is first up on the list of potential mystery villains in No Way Home…he looks like a tool.

HeLLo PeDeStRiAnS

He really just let Spider-Man put his hand on his tongue. Sir do you know where his hand has been? Not to mention just in general the feeling of spandex on your tongue. I feel ill.

No respect for the proper care of plutonium.

Please don’t ever say “come to daddy” again 😂

I’m kinda sad Jamie Fox becomes a villain, his character seems kinda sweet so far from the 2 seconds I’ve seen of him

You mean to tell me he missed his girlfriend’s fathers funeral AND her valedictorian speech?!

Stan x2 🥺

Because you can’t lose me you’re going to lose me? 😂

I love her jacket

Why are they still pretending like she doesn’t know?

I may have spoken to soon about Max

See I would be speeding up daddy’s death if he told me he’d passed down a genetic disease and just decided not to tell me.

Friendship.

Okay max is still a little bit nutty but you gotta feel bad for the guy. He must’ve been so scared.

Don’t smile that’s not cute, if he was a regular boy you’d file a restraining order.

Oh I see Spider-Man is gonna fight him which will make him turn and become the “bad guy” whether he will actually be a bad guy is still unknown.

This scene is actually kinda just making me angry (the time square scene)

Cops suck man. Peter was talking him down just fine.

Did nobody teach these people not to touch metal when there’s electricity about.

Interesting that I didn’t pick up any chemistry from them in the first movie weren’t they an actual couple for a while?

Another good song with an interesting placement

I’m sorry did the caller ID not say Mary Parker? How was it Harry on the phone?

Run Gwen!

This version of Harry is kinda creepy I’m sure the actor is swell but the character is terrifying. Original version Harry was swell whereas the actor is…

“Maybe everyone has a part of themselves they hide” gives him the eye

This movies shorter or at least it feels shorter

An excellent show of what happens when you tell a rich daddy’s boy no for the first time.

This makes me very sad. She’s so excited for the possibility of Oxford.

As much as Harry disturbs me, I want him to burn his entire team.

His daddy really did love him!

I think it’s mostly his eyes, his behaviour can be explained by trauma (why I find Harry creepy)

Okay most of his behaviour. The taking joy in killing people that’s just him being nutty and not a trauma response.

This is fucked up. And where is Peter? he is off chasing a girl who has broken up with him twice now.

PLANES NEED THE POWER!

I really like SpiderAndrew, the movies are fine but as a character I thoroughly enjoy him

Sorcerers apprentice who?

Captain Stacy can’t blame him! She’s clearly stubborn as hell and her own free woman

I quite literally stopped breathing (in reference to the almost plane crash)

Is this why they made it Gwen and not MJ so that he could kill her and be an actual bad guy? From my little knowledge of the comics and what I’ve seen from the movies Harry would never hurt MJ so it had to be someone else important to Peter but not super important to him for him to a real bad guy

I like that Harry actually looks like a goblin.

What was the disease he’s supposed to have?

This poor family. I know I said they gave me bad vibes in the first movie but nobody deserves this.

He looks less like a tool with his suit on…but only slightly less

Baby you better get back behind that baracade!

Nobody talk to me I’m very emotional. This child looks very much like a magical mix of all 3 of my brothers put together and seeing him stand there so brave but so scared is doing something to me.

Final thoughts:

So I think SpiderAndrew might be a close second favourite for me. I like the relationships of the original the most, the comedy of the mcu version the most but this one was like a nice in between. Im a little disappointed there won’t be a third not cos I think I would have enjoyed it just cos the original had 3 movies, the mcu version will have at least 3 movies and this one is left out with 2. Don’t think I would have loved Shailene Woodley as MJ though so I dunno. I think the only thing I would have wanted from a third movie is to know who fedora guy is…and for Peter and May to acknowledge that they both know that he is Spider-Man. Apart from that it was fine and I now feel fully prepared for No Way Home.

[always-and-forever-pan]

MCU Vs. DCU in Character Arcs

The DC universe made me care about their villains, gave them better backstories and semi redemption arcs more in 1.5 movies than the MCU gave any of their characters in 23 movies, 3 short TV shows and numerous shorts.

And I'm honestly kinda mad about it. Mostly because MCU is one of my 3 most favourite fandoms of all time. They're my go-to action movies. But I've only seen Wonder Woman, Birds of Prey and am watching Suicide Squad as I type this.

To make a villain likeable, to bring them back to a hero or an anti-hero, or even just make them a villain we stan, you need to show something that views can get behind, something to make them relatable. Most commonly that's empathy, understanding of wrongdoing, and an active desire to fix their wrongs.

It's why the Winter Soldier works so well, we were given this assassin who's cold-blooded, deadly, the worst of the worst, but once he is a person again he's soft, he feels bad, he's actively trying to make up for it even though it's not truly on him.

And in direct parallel, we have Deadshot, a cold-blooded assassin working for money, deadly, one of the worst people. But then they put him in a team setting and within hours of meeting the team he has formed enough of a relationship with them to literally risk his own head to not have to kill one of the members. And when Harley's plane is shot down any way he is visibly upset and another teammate actually says "You couldn't have saved her".

And we love both of those characters for that. We want that! We NEED that! But where the DCU was able to do that on a smaller scale for some of their others, the MCU didn't do that for anyone else.

(Warning for some salt from here on)

And I hear you arguing "Oh Wanda showed empathy", and sure they showed her feeling bad in CA: CW but the context of that scene, and the lines they gave her made it so she was feeling bad because people were saying mean things about her and not because she accidentally hurt and killed people.

Like don't get me wrong, I was so excited when they decided to make Maximoff's MCU characters because what little of the comic I have seen made me STAN them. But the MCU butt fu*ked those two raw and I'm PISSED.

Like honestly they had the twins join a terrorist organization. Had Wanda mess with Tony's head making her an accomplice to the creation of a murder bot. Had Wanda mess with the teams head and then Bruce's so the Hulk would go on a murderous rampage with no one to stop him. Had them willingly working with Ultron, only to switch sides when he wanted to kill the entire world instead of just a few people making it seem more like a move of self-preservation than actual good motives. Then summed the movie up by saying "Oh her brothers dead so that good enough".

Only to turn around in the very next movie and have her show 0 empathy about the people who died past "They're saying it's my fault". Then they backed it up by her causing physical harm to some she's supposed to love with 0 hesitations.

Then the next time we see Wanda she's with the same guy we just watched her put through god knows how many floors, and within minutes of them being on the screen together she is refusing to allow him to choose between his life and the lives of half the universe. She is an accomplice to the decision of sacrificing an entire Black nation to save her white presenting boyfriend only to decide otherwise at the very last minute as her boyfriend begs her to kill him (Which in itself, MCU WTF!!!).

Even in endgames when she goes up against Thanos they give her some shitty line about "You took everything from me". They made her character revolve around the love of a man like she wasn't a complete person in her own right without him. They made her fighting Thanos seem like she wouldn't have if Thanos hadn't gone for Vision at the base of it when they could have had 1000+ other lines to make it seem like she was fighting for the right things and not just 'cause boy, love'.

The next time we see Wanda she has enslaved an entire town of people. Is forcing them to act against their will and for her enjoyment. The one person woken up while under the influence talks about how it hurts. And then they brush it off with some quip about how the people should be happy because Wanda wasn't doing it with malicious intent, that it was an accident. But still, Wanda shows absolutely 0 remorse for what she's done.

Now having said all of that let's compare her to Harley Quin. Harley Quin also willingly joined a terrorist, in her case, it was a person and not an organisation but still. The first we see of Harley in Suicide Squad we see her enjoying the pain and suffering she's causing, we see her willingly killing people including herself. And they summed it up with "Oh she did it cause she loves him" which I have some massive issues with.

We see Harley willingly steal, and kill, and hurt over the course of both movies. And yeah it's not making her a hero by any standards. But the DCU never tries to push that she's a good person either.

But what they also do is show us a Harley who is affectionate, who wants friends, who mourns when she thinks her love has died. They make us see ourselves in those little moments. They make her funny to offset her heavy crazy weirdness. They show us Harley who is empathic with her team and later with Cassandra.

They make Harley an anti-hero when they have her turn down bringing her love back in favour of saving people. Something the MCU did the opposite of with 'WandaVision'.

Do you see how those are different? Do you get why I can get behind Harley but not Wanda? And I will always say it but I hate that they made Wanda so HARD to like because if you ignore the red flags she is a BOSS ASS BI*CH.

And they did it to Tony as well, gave us so many likeable characteristics and boss moves, but never actually bothered to address personality flaws that lead there. They just made him go from 'not a single F for anyone else' to 'all the F's for everyone except me'.

They did the opposite to Rogers, made him go from 'countries and governments may be flawed but a single dictator having power isn't okay either' to 'I am going to ignore 117 countries and do what I want anyone even if it kills/hurts/maims your citizens because governments are wrong and I know best'

And I'm not saying that one is better than the other, actually, I kind of am saying that DCU did better than MCU here but the point is you cannot expect an audience to love and support a character you are unwilling to show to have humanity, to have empathy. And I really hate (Mostly out of jealousy) that the DCU, a fandom I'm not in was able to get that and the fandom I am in is still wandering in the dark with problematic lessons being relayed to us.

I JUST WANT A REDEMPTION ARC THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME HATE THE MOVIE IS THAT SO HARD!

[direquail]

list 10 different female faves from 10 different fandoms

got tagged by @lightdescending!!! Thank you!!! Putting answers under a cut in case this gets Long (update: It Did)

Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Angel) - A formative archetype, for all that Joss Whedon turned out to be a creep and it kind of shows in how his characters are written. But honestly, there's how they were written and how they were received, and Faith has become so much more than how she was written. My younger disaster gay self was instantly vibing.

Tamsin (Lost Girl) - One word: Valkyrie. Two words: Drunk Valkyrie. A broken ancient warrior wandering the world as a mercenary, cynical and hardened, who proceeds to fall in love with her mark because her mark is The Real Deal? Iconic. A bisexual foul-mouthed murder lady who swigs vodka and then kills things? Effervescent. And she has WINGS???? There were many things about this show that (a) did not age well, and/or (b) were Not Great when they first aired, but Tamsin was. Influential to how I write and the fandom had a huge impact on me personally. I have a Character Type, and BOY HOWDY is Tamsin the mascot.

Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (MCU) - When Tamsin died at the end of season 3 of Lost Girl, I had a minor existential crisis because Valkyries canonically reincarnate, and I could not imagine another actress doing what Rachel Skarsten did with the role. And then I watched Thor: Ragnarok, and I am convinced that Skarsten's Tamsin is but an imitation of this Valkyrie. I know, I know; Lost Girl ended years before Thor: Ragnarok came out. But I don't make the rules.

Dutch | Yalena Yardeen (Killjoys) - She's just. I just. So. I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp, right? I watched it because I knew Hannah John-Kamen (the actress who plays Dutch) would be in it as Ghost. I did not watch the first Ant-Man movie. I have no plans to watch any Ant-Man 3 movie unless HJK is in it again. Technically, Killjoys is about all three of the main Killjoys (Johnny, D'av, and Dutch)--but the show is Dutch's story and Dutch is. How do I even describe her? "Badass" is not a strong enough word. There are similarities to other earlier characters on here--she's not as drunk as a lot of them, she can't afford to be, but like a lot of other characters on this list, she exists on the margins of the society she lives in (as a bounty hunter), and she is deeply, deeply cocky. But her story is also so much about self-determination and choosing how to use her deadly skill set after a truly horrifying childhood, about not being a pawn in anyone's plan anymore, and I can do absolutely nothing but respect and love her. And Hannah John-Kamen.

Wynonna Earp (Wynonna Earp) - What a fucking mess of a human. I love her so much. A very Gideon Nav kind of human who comes back to the town that had her committed to a psych hospital and gave her electroconvulsive therapy for refusing to lie about the horrors she'd seen and now, she finds herself bound to defend them. She is the hero of the show. End of story.

Kara Danvers | Kara Zor-El (Supergirl (2015)) - After reading this list, you may think that this is a departure from my Very Predictable Wheelhouse of drunk murder ladies, and you are correct! This came as a shock to me, too, because I almost never feel any kind of emotional connection to female title characters--I connect with Faith before Buffy, Tamsin before Bo, etc., and I know that at least part of the reason for that is the kind of gendered expectations placed on female title characters by our media, the kinds of stories they're allowed to embody. But Kara is the exception, and What A Fucking Exception. It's very predictable for me to love Gideon Nav; but Kara Zor-El is a Sunshine Character, and I have a deep love for her. Possibly because, while she is a Sunshine Character (ha ha, yes, pun), she is also just so profoundly genuinely kind, and it comes from profound and genuine grief and rage and loss, and it makes her sunshine-y -ness feel like more than a platitude. I love messy characters, but I also love Genuinely Good characters, and Kara Zor-El is so genuinely good. (This is also the exact kind of character that I love to pair with characters like Tamsin)

Grace Harper (Terminator: Dark Fate) - BUTCH REP BUTCH REP. (Accidental) BUTCH REP. Also, Mackenzie Davis. Grace gave me so many gender feels, and her complete unhesitating devotion and loyalty is *clenches fist* So Good

Camilla Hect (The Locked Tomb Series) - Why do I love her so much that I'd pick her out of all the Locked Tomb ladies to include on this list? I do not know. I only know I have a soft spot for gruff badasses who share their food with people. Also it helps that she dual-wields (yes, that is a euphemism, but also no, it is not a euphemism)

Alice (CW's Batwoman) - Another Rachel Skarsten character, because Rachel Skarsten is a Fucking Delight and Alice is just. *chef's kiss*

Mara (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) - The other Sunshine Character on this list, and I think I love her for similar reasons to why I love Kara? She's good, and kind, and noble, and so much all of those things it hurts. It would have been easy for her to be (and with any other people running the show, she probably would have been) uncomplicated and kind of boring, but instead she was moving and tragic and beautiful and I love her, thanks for coming to my TED talk. Also: She gives me distinguished older queer vibes, and my not-nearly-so-distinguished slightly-older queer self connected with that for some reason.

If you made it through all of that and you'd like to do this, consider yourself tagged! And I'd like to see what your answers are, so if you do do this, feel free to tag me! Tagging (with no pressure to do it but just inviting you to join in): @diaryreadingcat, @queersintherain, @nike-ravus, @the-evil-queen-14, @the-consequences-of-salt, @makutas-chronicle, @generalalder, and uhhhhhhh anybody else who wants to pass this around

[kinnoth]

AVENGERS INFINITY WAR MEGATHREAD

-really doubt i'm gonna be able to finish this movie so we'll just see where i get to

- we already know how i feel about loki and thor, we don't need to revisit this

- ok but if i were going to revisit this, i mean come on, who wants to talk about "hela draws her power from asgard, same as you" cos i wanna talk about that

like what if that's the reason thor, god of thunder, king to a civilisation of warriors, was unable to fend off like, 4 dudes and a big purple dinosaur? the royal family of asgard draws its power from asgard, and without it, they are weak, they are mortal. maybe that's why heimdall is unable to just, you know, bifrost everybody off the fucking ship the minute it comes under attack. maybe that's why loki can't fucking conjure up a swarm of fucking microscopic knives to fillet the invaders from the inside out. MAYBE THAT'S WHY LOKI TRIES TO KILL THANOS WITH A FUCKING DAGGER. BECAUSE TAKE AWAY HIS POWER, TAKE AWAY HIS GODHOOD, WHAT DOES HE HAVE LEFT OTHER THAN HIS WILE, HIS TRICKS AND HIS BROTHER

WHAT IF IN SAVING THE UNIVERSE AND DESTROYING ASGARD, THEY'VE LOST EVERYTHING INCLUDING WHAT MAKES THEM GODS

somebody talk about this

- etc etc what if the reason loki is unable to attack the purple dinosaur with magic is because when he tackled thor earlier, he used whatever magic he had left to spare in order to heal him

checks out cos thor goes from flat on his face to swinging his fists in the space of like 30 seconds and the only thing to happen to him in between is said bit about loki tackling him

- why does heimdall save hulk? i mean, i could understand it if he were trying to aim the bifrost at thor and somebody somehow knocked off his aim and he accidentally saves hulk, but like, we've established that heimdall's loyalty is to the royal seat of asgard upon whom sits thor's mighty ass. thor who, in this scene, has just been incapacitated by a metal eggshell(?) and is at the mercy of their assailants. given heimdall's priorities, it is baffling to the point of inconceivability that he would preferentially save fucking HULK over his own king.

- if this next scene isn't the guardians of the galaxy coming across thor clutching loki's dead fucking body floating through space then i don't know why any of us are even here

- "he sent loki! the attack on new york was thanos!" makes no sense? like, if loki's scepter had the mind stone in it, which we established it did in the last movie when we broke it open to retrieve vision, then.....why didn't thanos just....take the mind stone in the first place? cos rock collecting is and has always been his goal?

what, do you think that just because you assert a thing makes us forget all the shit that happened before?

- i.....am actually with tony stark. why don't they just destroy the stones they have so that thanos can't get to them? oh, you made a promise? well promises change and circumstances change! you tell him tony! you tell that stupid fucker --

oh my god i'm gonna be ill

- i think the only person whose ego can match tony stark's is probably a neurosurgeon so 👍 i guess

-i love how we immediately went back to the "so dark can't see shit" aesthetic after ragnorak because ensuring that one's audience can SEE what is HAPPENING IN YOUR MOVIE is apparently for radical directors like taika waititi

- cannot believe that tony stark staring at captain america's phone number is being played with the same emotional intensity as thor losing his soulmate entire people

- honestly how many times is the mcu gonna invoke 9/11 imagery til someone calls them out for being terrorists

- lmao i know i said this before but peter's spidey senses tingling AFTER the giant alien anus has already started sucking up new york and it is right outside his window is fucking hilarious. that's just called using your eyeballs peter

- "friday notify first responders about the giant alien anus sucking up new york" lol like the first thing somebody did when the alien anus showed up wasn't to fucking call 911 GREAT IDEA TONY

- still can't believe that they let failed neurosurgeon dr strange do more magic than god of tricks and sorcery loki lol

- i know i rag on dr strange a lot about the fact that he's a neurosurgeon it's just that he sucks.

as a neurosurgeon eyy.

- i hate that peter parker has to be here!!!!! leave him alone!!!!!

- tony stark should not be allowed within 100 feet of children or minorities

- it is very weird to me that steve "brooklyn" rogers has an area code from georgia

- since when was hela a half-sister? ODIN'S DAUGHTER AND THOR'S BLOODED SIBLINGS OR BUST YOU FUCKING COWARDS

- i am very disappointed that thor is going to go get another weapon after we spent the whole last movie talking about how he is not the god of hammers

- i just need thor to have much more PTSD than he has right now. fucking hulk has ptsd. maybe they're saving the ptsd for later. one can only hope.

- i am glad that they are letting him be cleverer though

- THEY ARE LETTING VISION DATE A TEENAGER WHY

GOD. FUCKING GROSS.

- wait when did vision turn into a white man again? did i miss that movie?

- i am disappointed that vision the computer techno robot apparently has a penis. like what a stupid limitation to give your computer techno robot, gender. 🙄

- i think that the mass destruction of infrastructure and architecture in the MCU is because of the pg13 no blood limitation that disney has set? like there's no way to show destruction to the body, so one may only show the exponential destruction to one's surroundings. like imagine how much more dramatic intensity you could wring out of a regular fight scene would be if people were allowed to bleed?

- cannot believe that a computer techno robot and a witch are having a punch up with the bad guys. of all people to fight with something not their fists, it's these two

- wanda has no enhanced strength or durability? she's a regular teenager who's a bit witchy. the first time she got thrown through a glass door should have shattered her vertebrae. again i don't understand why we insist that everybody must have the same powers and capabilities when it's clear they don't. think about how much more interesting it would be if some avengers were more fragile than others and had to be given accommodations as such

- IT IS INCONCEIVABLE TO ME THAT FUCKING BLACK WIDOW (regular human), CAPTAIN AMERICA (enhanced human), AND FALCON (regular human with wings) CAN DEFEAT THE CHILDREN OF THANOS WHEN THOR COULDN'T UNLESS THOR (god of fucking thunder carved of steel and stone) WAS NERFED

- still don't understand how we'll lend aliens afro features but not afro hair, like, seriously? you're gonna dream up green aliens with gills who look like black people but imagining them with black hair is a step too far?

- the gap of commentary in this liveblog is simply because i do not care at all for the galaxy defenders

- "earth just lost her best defender" who? who does captain america consider earth's best defender? it's not thor; he doesn't know thor's presumed dead. it's not tony; he doesn't know tony's on an alien anus. who else has died so far?

- love how exhausted bucky looks. have always loved how exhausted bucky looks. love bucky.

- i forgot that tony was with peter parker. god i hate that.

- "i'm peter btw"

"dr strange"

"oh you're using the made up names then. i'm spider man"

ok that was cute, but peter's cute, we knew that already

- i want to fling both strange and stark into space and i'm having a hard time deciding which one to push first

- "you went to bed hungry, scraping for scraps" oohhhh thanos is just anti-poor people, he would literally rather poor people be dead than struggle, i get it nowww

this is on brand for mcu

- oh my god thanos gets 2/6 stones by torturing siblings in front of other siblings, seriously? you couldn't come up with 6 different ways to find his stupid rocks you had to reuse one twice?

- which one of thor's friends was stabbed through the heart....? fandral??

- "if i don't get my vengeance what more could i lose" more like what else is there eh? what else is there for a king of no people but their vengeance?

- CANNOT BELIEVE THEY GAVE HIM BACK AN EYEBALL JESUS CHRIST IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THOR RAGNORAK JUST SAY SO YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO FUCKING

VEHICLE FOR AUTHORITARIANISM, NOTHING IS ALLOWED TO CHANGE, FUCK YOUR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I GOT MINE

FUCK

- i do enjoy that thor is now science fiction rather than fantasy, i don't think anybody knew what to do with fantasy cos fantasy is again, ultimately about conservatism and the status quo. so i do like that we're embracing the new and boundless for whatever that's worth.

- marvel is a cesspool of toxic masculinity. at no point are characters allowed to actually feel anything because weakness is uncool i guess and therefore unmanful. like thor lost ALL OF HIS PEOPLE. fucking ALL of them. he watched his brother die in order to save him. he is not allowed a single fucking response of mourning. i don't care if he's pushing it back because revenge or whatever, this is the sort of grief that rules you, which will bring all your load bearing structures down to heel, and they let him do nothing; he does not even rage. perfect control. smooth witticisms. why. why aren't we allowed to see his sadness?

- yo i can't believe red skull is a scifi villain now lol space nazis for real

- OH MY GOD THEY WASHED BUCKY'S WIG AND IT LOOKS SO BAD

- michael b jordan was right btw wakanda is complicit in africa's exploitation

- i do LIKE black panther i guess in the way you technically like that cousin you met once when you were like 9 and never saw again?

i like how we have here in wakanda the sears tower (chicago), the batman building (nashville), and the gherkin (london)

- ok but like, presumably not a death cult super technologically advanced wakandans who are deffo made of human flesh and human blood still arm their people with spears

i mean unless wakanda is also a death cult

why is this chicks entire fucking face cgi'd she looks like a fucking cut scene video game character

- oh ok they have LASER spears, ok

so then why did they give bucky a fucking gun

- what is bucky supposed to be able to contribute here exactly, like fucking, again, he's spycraft isn't he? he's a one man, dead of night, operation go loud and then immediately silent kinda operation. why do they have him on the front lines of a fucking lock-step formation battle??

- "it will be the noblest ending in history" WHAT, FIRST COUNTRY TO EVER BE OVERUN BY ALIEN JACKALS??

- stormbreaker is just leviathan axe, somebody's said this already right

- omfg i'm so glad they're finally acknowledging that thor is OP as fuck and does not belong amongst the fucking squabbles of earth

-"titan was like most planets, too many mouths to feed not enough to go around, so i proposed a plan, dispassionate to rich and poor alike" JUST SAY YOU HATE POOR PEOPLE MCU. YOU CANNOT HAVE RICH AND POOR, YOU CANNOT HAVE DISPARITY, YOU CANNOT HAVE SOME WITH TOO MUCH AND OTHERS WITH NOT ENOUGH AND CALL IT EXTINCTION. THAT IS NOT A QUESTION OF OVERTAXED RESOURCES THAT IS A QUESTION OF RESOURCE FUCKING MANAGEMENT. IT IS AN ARTIFICIAL CRISIS IF THERE EXISTS ENOUGH TO GO AROUND BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST HOARDING IT THAT'S WHEN YOU KILL THOSE PEOPLE AND TAKE THEIR SHARE. KILLING HALF THE PEOPLE IS THE KIND OF FUCKING SOLUTION TO INEQUALITY THAT RICH PEOPLE COME UP WITH

GOD. ITS LIKE NONE OF YOU EVER READ

-you've got the big fucking boss in an ambush AND YOU ATTACK HIM WITH A MAGIC SWORD STEVEN STRANGE?????

THIS FRANCHISE HAS NO IDEA HOW TO UTILISE MAGIC USERS FUCKING HELL

- when will somebody please utilise ironman like the one man artillery he fucking is WHY IS HE FIGHTING WITH HIS STUPID FISTS HE IS LITERALLY ONE CONTINUOUS CARPET BOMB JUST USE HIM THAT WAY

cut of his arm CUT OFF HIS ARM YOU BLOODLESS SPINELESS USELESS FUCKING CUNTS . this is a manufactured crisis, KIND OF LIKE THE ONES THANOS LIKES I GUESS LOL

- dr strange could have very easily prevented or stopped quill from punching thanos but he didn't cos i guess even the movie forgets steven strange exists sometimes

- i like that the shield around wakanda has the same weakness as a poorly constructed chicken coop -- you always build into the ground a couple feet to stop the diggers man, come on, what is this, your first energy shield?

- oh disgusting, a girl boss moment. whatever you're all fascists.

- nobody adores martial might like fascists do fucking change my mind

- " avengers: not one person in this fucking cast is able to stomach ANY AMOUNT of personal sacrifice" more like

- "why did you give away the time stone?" "we are in the endgame" THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER THAT'S A FUCKING MOVIE TEASER FUCK YOU

- why didn't strange just trap thanos in a timeloop again? we've already established that is a perfectly acceptable way to deal with planetary annihilation. IS IT POSSIBLY BECAUSE NOBODY ON THIS WRITING STAFF KNOWS HOW TO DEAL WITH MAGIC

- THOR OP BLIZZARD PLS NERF

-CAPTAIN MARVEL SERIOUSLY THAT'S WHO YOU'RE GONNA SEND YOUR LAST PAGE TO JESUS FUCKING DISGUSTING

[thorne93]

Unforeseen Chasm (Part 1)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together. 

Word Count: 2191

Warnings: Language,

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo. It started as a funny “What if...?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once in a lifetime, and sometimes not even then, people meet someone who can be described as their better half. The person who knows them better than anyone. The person who completes them. Sometimes it can be found in a lover, or a sibling, or sometimes...once in a blue moon, it can be found in just a friend -- a stranger you cross paths with one day. A stranger that eventually means more to you than anyone else in the world. 

That’s how it was for you and Shannon. 

It was freshman year of college when she walked into your life. The two of you were set together as roommates. She had a touch of pluckiness to her, drive that you’d never witnessed, intelligence that rivaled yours, and a take no shit attitude. 

Of course, she was shy at first, so were you. But within just a few minutes, you realized that you two were destined to be best friends. Her major lied in anatomical mutation and molecular engineering with a minor in foreign language. Meanwhile, you majored in physics and engineering, minoring in Norse mythology. 

Shannon definitely teased you for that. She wondered why or how you would ever need that, but your reasoning was simply that you enjoyed it. If you were going to spend thousands upon thousands studying something for a career for the rest of your life, the least you could do was study one thing that was a little different that fascinated you, even if was just for four years. 

Your areas of study may have overlapped, but your upbringing didn’t. Shannon had parents, who loved her, and according to her “sent her to a prestigious academy to refine all skills”. And you saw these skills in the way she moved, talked, carried herself, and focused her skills. She was all things a lady should be. In fact, she did so well in this so called “Red Room”, that Howard Stark (founder of Stark Industries) caught wind of her accomplishments and decided to invest further in her. He gave her a full ride scholarship to any college she wanted, to study whatever she wanted. He thought maybe, one day, she might be of use to his son Tony. 

In fact, they became good friends too. Tony and Shannon, that is. He was a few years older than her, but he helped her with her work, and became curious as to why Shannon was always hanging around his dad’s company. It didn’t take a genius to see why Shannon was selected -- she was elite, one of a kind. 

You on the other hand, you were the nerd. The little bit dorky type. All you ever really loved was science, math, technology. You were raised by foster parents, but they weren’t the greatest. They didn’t ever give you any attention past making sure the foster money cleared for you. The only person you had was Remy, another boy that lived in the foster family with you. Kids were in and out of that house for years, but you and Remy seemed to stay, that is, until you left for college. College was where you met Shannon and her family, and ever since then, Shannon’s family was now your family, making you far closer to Shannon than you’d ever been to anyone besides Remy. You went to her house for holidays, even met with Tony a handful of times. 

Once the two of you graduated college and decided on grad school, you didn’t want to separate. Four years of living together had made you two almost inseparable. Not wanting to lose each other just yet, you grabbed an apartment only thirty minutes away from your graduate school. Graduate school was surprisingly a breeze, and when you completed it, the two of you moved into a studio apartment together. 

After being best friends for nearly a decade, you got a dog together, both of you animal lovers and you thought it might add some more character to your home. And he certainly did. 

While the both of you, yes, were involved in STEM, for the most part, your paths slightly diverged.

After graduation from graduate school for both of you, Tony Stark offered a job to Shannon at his company as his assistant. She would help oversee nearly every operation, invention, gizmo, gadget. All of it, would be under her supervision. Through this, she became good friends with Dr. Bruce Banner, and Tony, being at the labs day in and day out with them. 

It was actually in those labs that her… well… accident happened. A lab malfunction caused a chemical gas to react with her molecular structure causing a strange reaction. By strange you meant, well, unusual. She developed a mutation, but not like a third eye, or another pinky. No, she gained the ability to manipulate the weather and drain people of their powers. It was the most magnificent thing to watch. She accidentally discovered her powers at home, in the kitchen, and you witnessed it, but you swore yourself to secrecy for her. You could never hurt her and betray her like that. 

Tony knew, of course, because he had to help her figure out what was wrong with her. And Bruce was an expert in lab experiments gone wrong. Between those two helping her control her powers, and your emotional support, she was just like a normal person -- until you pissed her off. 

Just another crowning jewel on an already nearly perfect woman. She was the epitome of a femme fatale -- beautiful, genius, deadly, and powerful beyond human strength. 

As for you? Your work placed you in the field. Your physics took you to some crazy locations and you picked up work wherever you could find it. You loved physics, you were good at it, damned good. But you weren’t winning nobel prizes, you weren’t heading huge projects for Stark Industries, you weren’t getting offers from MIT for research. No, you were scrounging for contract jobs, for little pick me ups with NASA. It wasn’t that you didn’t like it, or that you were desperate for work. People knew of your work, you spoke at conferences, you were in high demand. 

But by your dumb luck, it wasn’t you that ended up with the glitz, glam, and glory that came from working for Stark. 

For the last few months you’d been in the field with Jane Foster - a highly respected physicist -- with barely any funding. The two of you could barely split the research grant you’d been given and you had to hire an intern. You were all the way out in New Mexico while Shannon was still in NYC, living the dream. You missed her like crazy, but this work you were doing was important… At least that's what you kept telling yourself…

---------------------

Jane and you had set up camp in Small Town, New Mexico, you’d been out here for a few weeks now. There were these strange atmospheric phenomenon that were going on that Jane felt were connected to the research the two of you were involved with. She called Dr. Selvig out to study it with you two, seeing as he was a pioneer in this field. 

Just before you all headed out to the site, you decided to give Shannon a call, a strong case of homesickness hitting you. 

You propped open your laptop and selected her contact and called. The familiar ring only went through twice before her wonderful face filled the screen. 

Y/N! Hey!” she greeted delightfully. 

“Hey!” 

She stepped away from the computer and back to her workbench in Tony’s lab -- a very familiar sight to you. 

“What’s up?” 

“Just missing you. We’re about to go study that aurora again tonight, but Selvig is here now, so it’ll be another set of eyes,” you explained. 

“Ah, yes, the light in the sky. Any headway on that?” 

“None. Hopefully he’ll have some insight because I’m growing tired of staring at clouds each night. I’m not out here to be a storm chaser…” 

“What’s this about storm chasing?” Tony suddenly said, entering your field of view. 

“Hey, Tony,” you greeted in a friendly tone. 

“Why don’t you ditch the desert and come to a real lab?” he asked as he walked backwards, looking at the camera before spinning to stand next to Shannon and work on the tool she was soldering. “You could have unlimited technology here. I could really use someone with your expertise on physics when it comes to landing gear for my suit. What do you say, Y/N? A real job, in air conditioning, not out in the dirt…?”

“Tempting,” you said with a smirk. “But I’m gonna stick to real work for now.”

“Did she just insinuate I don’t do real work?” Tony asked Shannon, pretending to be offended. She merely rolled her eyes and laughed, shaking her head. 

“You two…”  she lovingly chided. “When are you going to come home? I miss you. I need your world famous tacos.”

You laughed. “My tacos are trash and you know it.”

She returned the laugh before becoming serious again. “Seriously though. When? Things aren’t the same without you.”

You sighed, wondering the same thing. “I don’t know. I’m trying to get all this data, but since we have to wait every night… There’s no telling.” 

“Well work hard,” she requested, sadness but understanding in her voice. 

“I’m trying.”

“Seriously. Y/N, pick up the pace, I can’t take another week of this. She is killing the morale,” Tony remarked, gesturing to her with a tool. 

“Okay, Tony, for you, I’ll try,” you said with heavy sarcasm, making the two of them smile. “Oh, shit, gotta go. Time to go watch the sky give me some pretty colors.” You rolled your eyes and told them goodbye before signing off of your laptop. 

The four of you set off about twenty miles west from your little lab in the middle of town. You sat out there for several minutes, nothing happening. Selvig started to question Jane and you, and Darcy was getting restless. Jane was pleading that he just hold on a few more minutes. Finally, Darcy saw something and drew your attention to it. 

This was no subtle aurora. This was… something else. 

Jane ordered Darcy to drive, and all of you launched back into the camper full of equipment, bumping and knocking things as you went over the rough terrain of the desert. Darcy was pushing the camper to full speed, zooming towards the odd light in the sky when suddenly a funnel of light and wind swirled toward the ground. Jane was filming it all and you were taking in what you could. 

Just as you were about to go through the tornado-like event, Darcy cut away from it.

“Darcy!” you shouted, needing to get inside this event.

“I’m not dying for six college credits!” she yelled before Jane tried to take the wheel from her. 

The two of them fought over the steering wheel for a few seconds before -- THUD. You hit something… actually, you think it was someone. Darcy slammed on the brakes and all of you jumped out of the camper. 

You ran over to a man lying on the ground as Jane said, “Do me a favor and don’t be dead.”

“I think legally that was your fault!” Darcy called.

“Get the first aid kit,” you commanded as you knelt beside him. You grabbed his wrist and felt for a pulse -- there was a strong one, good. Next you looked at his face to examine any damage -- but before you could do that, you were taken aback by his beauty. He was… handsome, very handsome. Then he opened his eyes. 

He jumped up, muttering and stumbling around. Jane noticed the markings on the ground, and you saw them too, and they should’ve been important to you, but right now all you could focus on was this stranger. 

“Hammer...Hammer!” he suddenly yelled. 

“Yeah we can tell you’re hammered, that’s pretty obvious,” Darcy noted. 

Jane began trying to note the markings on the ground, telling Erik to look at them, but he was telling her they needed to get this stranger to a hospital. Your mind wasn’t exactly focused on either thing as you watched him. There was something… familiar about him, but you were sure you’d never seen him before in your life. 

“Father! Heimdall! I know you can hear me! Open the Bifrost!” the man commanded, making your hair stand on end. 

“Bifrost,” you muttered inaudibly. You’d heard that a lot. Actually you’d heard that in Norse mythology. Clearly this man was delusional and thought he was some Viking God…

“You! What Realm is this? Alfheim? Nornheim?” the man asked of Darcy. 

“New Mexico?” 

She pulled out her taser and aimed it at him. “Darcy, no!” you demanded. 

“You dare threaten me, Thor, with so puny of a weapon?!” 

She pulled the trigger and he dropped, just as a mortal man would, making some of your suspicion (and hope) fizzle out. Of course gods weren’t real, that was just silly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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[xxseekritsxx]

MCU references in the Marvel Netflix shows! Yes, they are canon.

(Disclaimer: I tried to edit the original version of this post to add a new reference to the “Multiple Sources” section since I did not feel like reblogging and wasting an extra part of the post for this. But for whatever stupid reason, mobile Tumblr apparently no longer keeps the original text when you try to edit a post, and I accidentally reposted the original without any text. So I deleted the original post and am doing this again. -_-)

Yes, despite what some ignorant people would say, the Marvel Netflix shows are part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. They’re self-contained enough to be their own thing, but they are still part of something greater. IF they were completely separate like some people idiotically assume, then nothing from those shows would have pages on the MCU Wiki or be part of the MCU page for TV Tropes, nor would they be allowed to make references to the larger MCU if they weren’t in it at all.

So I have put together a list of references from the TV shows to the greater MCU. I have broken down my list by each show where a reference was made, as well as making a category of references that run across multiple sources at once. Everything is under the cut.

1. Daredevil:

In the episode “Kingpin”, upon learning how the Anatoly brothers and their fellow Russian mobster mooks failed to stop Daredevil so far, Wilson Fisk’s right-hand man James Wesley derisively mocks the mobsters over their failure with this remark: “If he had an iron suit or a magic hammer, maybe that would explain why you keep getting your asses handed to you.”

Among the headlines in Ben Urich’s office (which later becomes Karen’s office after Urich’s death) in season 1, there are articles written by Urich referencing the “Harlem Horror” (the final battle between Hulk and Abomination in “The Incredible Hulk”, which was also referenced during the first Avengers film and comes up again later in this list) and the Avengers saving the day during the Battle of New York.

Adding to the last part of the previous point, the devastation brought to Hell’s Kitchen from the fallout of the Battle of New York is what allowed Wilson Fisk to grow his influence in the underworld and make a profit off of the reconstruction that took place after all the fighting was done.

2. Luke Cage:

When Pops tries to encourage Luke to use his enhanced strength for good instead of hiding his powers, he gives Luke this advice with the following remark: “You should be out there helping people, like them other fellas downtown.” First heard in the Luke Cage season 1 trailer and in the very first episode, this quote is a clear reference to the Avengers (one of multiple made by this series).

A running gag with the young character Dave “D.W.” Griffith in season 1 revolved around him going into the streets selling bootleg footage of the Avengers in action during the Battle of New York.

Misty Knight’s former (crooked) partner Rafael Scarfe made an interesting statement about the redundancy of the police in New York with the following remark referencing Thor: “Unless this sidearm that I’m wearing suddenly turns into some kind of magic hammer, this whole job is irrelevant.”

Cottonmouth mockingly refers to Luke Cage (to the main character’s face) as “Harlem’s Captain America” when questioning Luke on whether the latter truly thinks of himself as a hero.

Remember when I said earlier that the final battle between Hulk and Abomination was going to be referenced again on this list? Since the “Luke Cage” series is set in Harlem, this is where it unsurprisingly comes up again. Locals in Harlem still remember the battle between the super strong monsters years later. I mean, how could you forget something like that easily?

Multiple references to Hammer Industries technology. Despite its founder still being behind bars (covered later), the company still continues to operate. Like SHIELD and others (such as HYDRA, Vulture’s crew, and a criminal couple who ended up working for SHIELD under an agent who would later go rogue-after Sitwell decided to go against his orders from said rogue agent to kill them for possessing a Chitauri gun), Hammer Industries salvaged leftover Chitauri technology from the Battle of New York to make new weapons out of it. In the show, these weapons include the Judas bullets (which are those rounds fired by Diamondback that were able to actually pierce Luke Cage’s skin). The other notable piece of Hammer tech in the show is Diamondback’s battlesuit, which he wore for the final battle in season 1 when he and Luke fought.

3. Jessica Jones:

In the episode “AKA 99 Friends”, Jessica is contacted by a woman who allegedly wants Jessica to use her investigative skills to follow her cheating husband around. However, this turns out to be a ruse. The woman who called Jessica lured her into a trap and attempted to kill her, the reason being that the woman’s mother died during the Battle of New York. Despite Jessica having no involvement in these events at all, the woman who laid the trap views all superpowered people as freaks-basically a much smaller-scale version of the attitudes shared in “Captain America: Civil War” who see superheroes as people that need to be brought to heel and put on a tight leash.

Shortly after learning about both of them having the power of super strength in common, Luke asks Jessica during their dinner if she knows about any other enhanced people besides themselves and the Avengers. Jessica reveals the existence of Kilgrave to Luke in response.

In the first episode of season 3, Jessica is asked to bring a young girl back to her mother following the divorce of the girl’s parents. As she is getting dragged by Jessica back to her mother, the girl asks the title heroine “Would Captain America do this?” when questioning Jessica’s actions.

4. Iron Fist:

When Danny is initially not believed by his friends Joy and Ward Meachum to be who he says he is after Danny and the Rand family were declared missing long ago, Danny is sent to a psychiatric ward. When Danny explains his title and powers to the doctor assigned to treat him, the doctor responds with a scoffing remark about the frequency of crazy people emerging with claims of possessing superpowers having increased since the emergence of Iron Man.

In season 2, we learn that Mary Walker/Typhoid Mary was held captive in Sokovia for nearly two years prior to her being discharged from the Army following her escape.

5. The Punisher:

Believe it or not, there is a connection between the Punisher series and “Agents of SHIELD”. Many of you may not remember this, but back in season 1 of the latter series, Daisy name-drops one of her old contacts from the Rising Tide hacktivist group she used to be part of: Micro. While the Punisher series itself does not return this reference at all, it is still worth mentioning. Micro was part of the Rising Tide group prior to his eventual recruitment by the NSA, who picked him up after learning of his skills.

6. Multiple sources:

Roxxon has been referenced as an Easter egg multiple times within the MCU canon, such as being featured in “Iron Man 3″ when Trevor Slattery murdered a Roxxon executive on live TV while posing as the Mandarin, and being featured in the first season of “Agents of SHIELD”. The company has also been integral to the plots of the TV series “Agent Carter” and in “Cloak and Dagger”. In the latter series, there are some references to the greater MCU:

Peter Scarborough, CEO of Roxxon in the present day, justifies the company’s attempted extraction of Darkforce and Lightforce energy with this remark while being held captive by Tandy/Dagger: “In this day and age, you need to keep up with the Joneses. As well as the Starks and the Rands.” A clear nod to Tony Stark and Danny Rand.

Detective Brigid O’Reilly reveals that she is originally from Harlem and was part of the local police force there prior to moving to New Orleans. In addition, she mentions a friend named Misty-a clear reference to Misty Knight. What makes this nod even better is when Luke Cage season 2 returns the reference when Misty mentions O’Reilly having moved out of town.

In season 2, Tyrone has a discussion with a friend about Luke Cage when the former finds out his friend cannot read what’s on the newspaper about Cage. The article in question is a “Harlem Rumble” piece about Luke, which is also explicitly mentioned to be written by Karen Page.

Carl “Crusher” Creel AKA Absorbing Man has been referenced in the Daredevil episode “Cut Man” as the young boxer Matt’s father Jack Murdock fought in the ring on the same night the latter was eventually murdered for not throwing the fight. The poster advertising their fight can be seen in the background of Fogwell’s Gym where Jack and, later, Matt, would spend time training. Creel himself appeared as a recurring character in seasons 2, 3, and 5 of “Agents of SHIELD”. In the latter series, Creel’s boxer past was referenced as part of his introduction in the second season.

Seagate Prison has appeared in multiple sources. In “Luke Cage” we know the prison as the one where the title character was sent for a crime he didn’t commit and where he received his powers from Dr. Noah Burstein’s experiments. In the Marvel One-Shot “All Hail the King”, it was revealed that Seagate is also the home to Justin Hammer and Trevor Slattery, following their respective arrests in “Iron Man 2″ and “Iron Man 3″. During the One-Shot, Slattery was interviewed by a documentary filmmaker named Jackson Norris. However, the filmmaker revealed that he was actually an agent of the Ten Rings (whom we all know as the terrorist organization who captured Tony Stark in the first “Iron Man” movie). Norris captured Slattery and extracted him from Seagate with the intent of taking the washed-up actor to meet the former’s master: the real Mandarin, who was not exactly pleased with Slattery’s portrayal of him. Slattery’s final fate after this is unknown.

So the next time someone says the Marvel Netflix shows are “not canon” or “completely separate”, show them this list.

[aion-rsa]

Avengers: Endgame - The History of Captain America's Climactic Moment

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Remember in Avengers: Endgame when Captain America picked up Thor's hammer? We sure do! Here are other times he did that!

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This article consists of nothing but massive Avengers: Endgame spoilers. You’ve been warned. We have a completely spoiler free review right here.

Ever since Thanos showed up in the mid-credits of the first Avengers movie, there was one scenario that most comic book fans knew was going to one day happen: Captain America was going to at one point lift Thor’s hammer Mjolnir and bash Thanos’ stupid face with it. Until Hela broke Mjolnir in Thor: Ragnarok. Then we all went, “Oh, never mind, I guess,” and thought about what could have been.

Well, time travel is funny like that. It gives you a mulligan. Avengers: Endgame gives us one of the most triumphant moments in superhero movie history, when Captain America is able to lift Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, and use it to beat the ever-lovin' crap out of Thanos for a few minutes. Not only can Captain America lift Thor's hammer, he's able to call down the lightning just as Thor would. It's a huge, cathartic, and historic moment in the history of the MCU, but it's something long familiar to Marvel Comics fans.

How Can Captain America Lift Thor's Hammer?

Simple: Steve Rogers is worthy. The inscription on Mjolnir reads "Whosoever holds this hammer, if they be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor." It doesn't matter how strong you are, if you aren't worthy, you can't lift Thor's hammer, no matter how hard you try. It's why Thor, at a low point in his life, is so relieved to find that he can still call and hold Mjolnir when he travels back to the events of Thor: The Dark World.

In Avengers: Age of Ultron, we got the slightest hint of what was to come when Cap was able to slightly budge the hammer when trying to pick it up. Thor's reaction shot there was priceless, and teases the moment in Endgame when Steve finally gets to call down the lightning. Of course, the big payoff in Age of Ultron was that Vision (not Cap) was able to wield it near the end of the movie as a way of proving his fidelity, but many of us knew that there was more to it, including Thor, who exclaims "I knew it!" when Cap gets his big moment with the hammer.

read more - Which Avengers: Endgame Deaths are Permanent?

There is comic book precedent to Cap picking up Mjolnir. While not the first non-Thor character to pull that off in Marvel canon (that would be the delightful Beta Ray Bill), he’s had a couple moments where he’s been able to prove his worthy worth and cracked some heads with the uru metal.

Here’s some American history with a mix of Asgardian shop class.

THE ORIGINAL

The Mighty Thor #390 (1988)

Around this time, Steve Rogers had lost the right to be Captain America and just fought crime as "The Captain." This meant dressing exactly as Captain America, but in a black costume with red and white stripes on the front. Thor stopped by Avengers HQ, saw this guy with head wings and a shield and went, “I never saw you before in my life! Who are you?!” Then he threw Mjolnir at him in mid-sentence before realizing that it had to be Steve Rogers because of how fast he could dodge the attack.

I swear, Thor must scream, “STRANGER DANGER!” whenever Jane Foster gets a haircut.

Cap later explained his whole status quo, as well as his current feud with Iron Man (that happens a lot). So the government considered him an enemy and he was at odds with Iron Man for ideological reasons. Same as it ever was. While Thor mused over all this, one of his villains, the god Seth, sent an army after him. Cap, of course, helped out his stupid, stupid friend.

read more: Avengers: Endgame - Complete Marvel Universe Easter Eggs and MCU Reference Guide

Thor dropped his hammer after being tackled by generic grunt Grog. Grog tried to lift Mjolnir, but couldn’t budge it. Instead, he started torturing Thor with a laser. Cap didn’t quite understand the whole “worthy” gimmick at the time and figured it was just really heavy. Even though Grog, a brick shithouse of a miniboss, couldn’t do it, Cap decided it was worth trying.

Wouldn’t you know it, The Captain picked it up and wiped the floor with the dogpiling goon squad. He tossed it back to Thor, who proceeded to finish off the bad guys.

Afterwards, Thor admitted that while he had no idea what was really going on with Steve and Tony’s current argument, he sided with Steve due to his ability to pick up the hammer. Cap nodded, rushed into a Quinjet, and flew off to go break Tony Stark's nose several times over.

2099 PROBLEMS

2099: Manifest Destiny (1998)

Even though it's been brought back a few times since, 2099 was one of Marvel's big fixtures in the 90s. It was how 90s comics felt the future would be like. The story was that the heroes had long gone missing and there were no surviving records of what happened. Either way, Thor was worshipped as a religious figure and many awaited his return.

When serial-pointer Miguel O'Hara got powers and became the new Spider-Man of the era, someone pointed out that he was the first of many who would take up the mantle of a long-forgotten hero. This would continue until the coming of Thor 2099, who would deliver them all. Sure enough, we got Ghost Rider 2099, Hulk 2099, Punisher 2099, X-Men 2099, etc. After a few years, the line of comics lost its luster and they wrote it off with this one-shot where they found Captain America's frozen body.

read more - Avengers: Endgame Sidelines the Captain America/Bucky Relationship

As Steve got accustomed to this new world, Miguel gave him Donald Blake's walking stick. With a little reluctance, Steve accepted the gift and struck it to the ground, transforming it into Mjolnir and transforming himself into a gaudy Cap/Thor hybrid. He and Miguel started a new Avengers team, but on a space mission, things went haywire and it looked like Captain America was going to be knocked into deep space. His last act was to throw Mjolnir to Miguel, who caught the weapon and turned out to be just as worthy.

Yes, in a wonderful twist, Spider-Man 2099 wasn't just the herald of Thor 2099. He WAS Thor 2099!

With this power and the slow aging that came with it, Miguel turned the galaxy into a utopia. By the time he was done with his duty in 3099, they discovered Captain America's frozen body yet again. The poor guy just couldn't catch a break, but at least he got the hammer back.

THE HELLSCAPE OF APOCALYPSE

What If? Featuring X-Men: Age of Apocalypse (2007)

Age of Apocalypse was a pretty big deal in the '90s and the world it depicted was a nasty one. At least it had Magneto’s X-Men to make some kind of difference to offset Apocalypse’s evil. Naturally, Marvel’s What If series had a couple of takes on the big event. One had its continuity move forward and show how that Earth would have handled the coming of Galactus. One had Legion succeed in killing Magneto in the past, showing a world where Charles Xavier could better fight for a world where mutants were accepted.

Then there was this ridiculous one-shot where Rick Remender came up with the idea of Legion accidentally killing both Magneto and Xavier. The event had terrible repercussions, leading to governments to discover the existence of mutants earlier and going straight for the persecution. Apocalypse made his big appearance and the world got weirder than in normal Age of Apocalypse continuity. For one, Apocalypse’s army included a nest of Peter Parker clones connected by a big Venom symbiote blob.

read more - Avengers: Endgame Ending Explained

The resistance team included the likes of Nate Grey, Molecule Man, Wolverine, Colossus, Thing (with robot arm), Doctor Voodoo (introduced a year or so before Brother Voodoo was the Sorcerer Supreme in canon), Captain Britain in Mach I Iron Man armor, and the leader Captain America. With no real context given, he wielded Mjolnir throughout the story and constantly fought maskless.

The whole issue was mainly these Defenders jumping from one spot to another, facing different threats and gradually losing members. Towards the end, Nate Grey killed Apocalypse, stole his armor, killed Molecule Man, and opened up a portal to the past so they could prevent the deaths of Xavier and Magneto. Fearing that Grey would become a tyrant as bad as Apocalypse himself, Cap killed him via Mjolnir and allowed the portal to close.

He and Wolverine were the only survivors of the adventure.

WAR OF THE WORTHY

Fear Itself (2011)

Fear Itself was a Captain America/Thor crossover idea that Marvel decided to turn into a full-on event. It was...there. The tie-ins were better than the main plot, honestly.

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The Red Skull’s daughter Sin came across a mystical hammer that transformed her into the deity Skadi. She helped unleash forgotten Asgardian god The Serpent, who in turn created seven hammers that would possess and empower those worthy of unleashing fear. They were Hulk, Juggernaut, Thing, Titania, Absorbing Man, Grey Gargoyle, and Attuma. Then Nazis in mechs started swarming Washington DC and the whole thing was a big mess.

read more: What's Next for the Marvel Cinematic Universe in MCU Phase 4?

Around this time, Bucky Barnes was Captain America and the story partly existed to have Bucky fake his death and move the Cap identity back to Steve Rogers (and you thought Endgame treated the Bucky/Steve relationship poorly?). A lot of good it did for him, as The Serpent was able to shatter the shield with his bare hands.

To turn the tide, Tony Stark and Odin made some special weapons for the superheroes to wield. As for Cap, he simply found Mjolnir lying around on the battlefield and used it to go to town on Skadi. They hyped all this magic weapon stuff up like crazy in the adverts, but the whole thing was really background noise. The fight just kind of ended after Odin pulled away all the hammers and Skadi went back to being Sin.

THE MIRROR MATCH

Secret Empire (2017)

And then there’s this load. Nick Spencer did a lengthy story about Steve Rogers revealing he was really an agent of Hydra all along. Marvel was really adamant that it was really Steve Rogers and that he wasn’t being mind-controlled. Also, the company insisted that Captain America wasn’t a Nazi because Hydra weren’t Nazis. TOTALLY DIFFERENT THING. Because, you see...look over there!

Hydra Cap then turned out to be a version of Steve Rogers created by a little girl with reality-warping powers (sure), who was manipulated by Red Skull. Cap ended up taking over the US and shockingly beat up opposing superheroes via wielding Mjolnir. That too seemed to be a product of the reality-warping as the inscription/rules of the hammer were different and you had to be a bulky Hydra asshole to pick it up.

read more: Full MCU Marvel Movie Release Calendar

By the end of the event, the little girl conjured the original version of Captain America to beat up his please-don’t-call-the-Nazi-a-Nazi doppelganger. When Hydra Cap went for the hammer out of desperation, it had already reverted back to normal and he wasn’t worthy enough to pick it up. Regular Cap picked it up and walloped his douchebag counterpart.

"Your ass will never be America's ass." (not actual dialogue)

Yeah, everyone knew that the status quo would return in the end, but the whole Hydra Cap business was as well-timed and tactful as showing off your chainsaw and hockey mask to your son, in the middle of the night, when Sideshow Bob is trying to kill him. It also killed the end of Gerry Duggan’s otherwise legendary Deadpool run, which I can never forgive.

HONORABLE MENTION

There’s only been five comic scenarios where we’ve seen Captain America wielding Mjolnir, so let’s just move those goalposts a little and talk about times when superheroes have kicked ass with the shield AND the hammer at the same time.

First up is Crusader from an issue of What If based on the original Secret Wars that showed what would have happened had all the heroes and villains been stranded on Battleworld for 25 years. While some died in that time, others got busy and we got a new generation of heroes and villains. One of which was Sarah Rogers, daughter of Cap and Rogue.

read more: Marvel Movies Watch Order - An MCU Timeline Guide

No, the comic doesn’t answer the question of how that conception worked.

Even though her boyfriend Bravado was the son of Thor and Enchantress, it was Crusader who ended up being able to pick up the hammer and turn the tide against Vincent Von Doom. She also had stolen her dad’s shield from his closet when he wasn't looking, but that’s less impressive.

Then there’s Superman. The miniseries JLA/Avengers was the final crossover between Marvel and DC and it finished with a bang. Leading both hero teams into battle, Superman was entrusted with Captain America’s shield. During a pivotal moment, in order to break into the villain Krona’s stronghold, Thor threw Mjolnir to Superman. Superman caught it and smashed his way in.

read more: Does Steve Rogers Still Have a Place in the MCU?

Later on, after the dust had cleared, Superman found himself no longer able to lift it. As Thor put it, Odin may be strict, but he knows when to cut you slack when times are desperate.

I have to imagine we’ll be seeing more Cap/Mjolnir moments going forward. Marvel really seems to enjoy having comics imitate movies that imitate comics. God, remember when Spider-Man 3 came out and comic Spider-Man just happened to start wearing black again?

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and when Captain America throws his mighty hammer, all those who attempt to...stammer that hammer must clamor...? Read his other articles here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

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Gavin Jasper

Nov 25, 2019

Marvel

Avengers: Endgame

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[dawnblxde]

🔥

@angeledwings - Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

“Remember kids, with great power, comes great triggering opinions!” 

I suppose this counts, but it’s only unpopular for a specific group of people. More are majority for it, but oh well. I am extremely pleased that Sony took Spider-Man out of Disney’s (MCU) Marvel Cinematic Universe, why? Simply put, they were butchering him. Extremely butchering him. Making him ooc, not faithful to the source matieral and the oppisite of authentic. Try to picture Cloud Strife, but he’s singing the campfire song as if he’s Spongebob or Tifa, but she is simply a stripper on a poll. Sounds like a bad butchering of them, right? Well that’s what was going on with Spider-Man. This is coming from someone, who has read all 800+ of Spider-Man’s ongoing issues in the main universe that started in 1962 several times over, I know the character’s story, his morals, his core, what makes Spider-Man = Spider-Man down to a T. I’ll throw in some examples. Disney represented Spider-Man as a figure who idolized Tony Stark aka Iron Man and needed Iron Man to make all his suits and equipment for him? An authentic Spider-Man doesn’t like Tony Stark, makes all of his suits, gadgets and equipment by himself. Also, Spider-Man’s IQ is 250, but while Iron Man’s is 192. Notice the disrespect? Disney had him casually reveal his secret identity to thousands of heroes and villains. Just casually whipping off that mask. It is a strong core part of Spider-Man’s character to want as little people as possible to know who he is behind the mask. Heroes included. He’d go to funerals for heroes with his mask on and he made a deal with the devil to craft a magical contract based spell so that it was now magically impossible for people to learn who he is, unless he wanted them to know for some reason. The official list of those who know who he is in the prime universe is smol. Disney (this is the worst thing, I don’t have tolerance for praise of any of these disrespectful actions, but this is the one that will really put me off) decided it was okay to have him both indirectly and directly kill in the movies Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame. This takes the cake of Spider-Man disrespect. If you know of Spider-Man from his source material (or looking it up on wikipedia, it’s faithful adaptions; = All Spider-Man video games, Spider-Man 1994 TV series, Spectacular Spider-Man 2008 TV series, Tobey’s run with Spider-Man & Spider-Man 2, Andrew’s run with Amazing Spider-Man & Amazing Spider-Man 2 or the best interpretation/adaptation which takes the main Spider-Man with one change to make it different = Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), then you know - as well as I do. Spider-Man is a pure soul, a pacifist, he doesn’t kill anything. Whether it be human or not. He doesn’t cross that line. Spider-Man doesn’t kill. In what if comics where he has. He either shoots himself in the head, unable to bear what he’s done, quits being Spider-Man for good, allows cops to shoot him down intentionally or blows himself up somewhere alone. In the main branch, he only has one kill to his name. A suicidal woman that tricked his Spider-Senses when he was fighting Wolverine and was tense, so he turned around thinking it was Wolverine, set off a full power punch and made her head go splat. That was well over a decade ago and even now the guilt eats him up. He can’t forget what he accidentally did. Killing isn’t Spider-Man and faithful adaptations get that. But Disney who are messing with main branch storylines, have him do it and then shrug it off. Have no guilt or remorse for what he’s done. Brushes and laughs it off and it’s just disgusting. That is far worse then how unfaithfully Disney’s two solo movies have treated him. So yeah, back to the main matter, I am happy about the split. Because Sony never did this! It so clear how much respect and love they have for the character of Spider-Man. They messed up once with Spider-Man 3, but that was it. Made all the on point games and TV shows, while all the bad TV shows has been by, no surprise = Disney (there’s even a comic where main Spider-Man rips their cartoon tv Spidey to shreds in the form of roasting.) Sony’s Tobey Maquire films took an original spin on things, intentionally from the beginning, but remembered what made Spider-Man him, in Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2. Then the two with Andrew Garfield, the ones that should of just been crossed into the MCU or continued on their own, were accurate to the source material with miner changes. Capturing the moment that defined Spider-Man as a character and helped him mature and develop beautifully aka below. 

The death of Gwen Stacy, Spider-Man’s first and one true love. 

This is brings me to the beginning, where I said this was unpopular to a specific group of people. That’s right, just people hooked on the MCU like an addictive drug and think it can do no wrong. My in depth research revealed those crying over Sony taking Spider-Man back, which they have the film rights to, were people who’s only knowledge was movies. No knowledge to Spider-Man’s canonical history via reading those comics or going to the Marvel 616 wikipedia. People crying that he will be no longer butchered or treated like a good, when this is actually a good thing. While all the people who have read the source material, Spider-Man’s wiki page, watched or played one of the faithful adaptions sit in the majority of being happy this spit happened. All like myself, looking forward to what Sony will do with Spider-Man in their Sony Marvel Universe. Which kicked off to a great start with the accurate Venom and Into the Spider-Verse. I have no hate for the actor who portrayed the bad Disney Spider-Man, it’s not his fault. I don’t mind him continuing to portray Spider-Man in Sony’s universe. When they wrote him in Civil War, ignoring Disney’s choice to push Stark as a mentor over Uncle Ben, otherwise he was accurate in that one movie. Lastly, I’d like to point out. Another reason why the split is a good thing. Spider-Man was created by Stan Lee and Steve Dikito, who neither liked what Disney were doing, nor did their families still alive right now. Here’s the good part, you can look up that that Stan Lee’s daughter, other then like the previous posting their thoughts on personal social media. She made a public statement where she sided with Sony in the split over Disney, while stating the ones who have shown the most disrespect and lack of appreciation for her father’s legacy (aka Spider-Man and some other characters) were Disney and Marvel under their thumb. And he was better off without them. So yeah, I am extremely confident Sony made the right choice for Spider-Man. 

[anneapocalypse]

Anne watches MCU: Civil War

Civil War is the logical culmination of the Avengers series thus far and effectively presents the Avengers Initiative as a catastrophic failure.

I like this movie. I like it a lot. I think it does a surprisingly good job with continuity, both logistical and emotional.

I also think that what I took from it is perhaps not what the filmmakers intended, that in fact I probably like it for reasons that were accidental, and that were I deeply invested in these characters and their relationships, I would probably hate it.

I think at this point it works best to look at the Captain America series as a subseries of the Avengers. Both Winter Soldier and Civil War are unavoidably Avengers films as well as Captain America films; they balance an ensemble cast with Steve as the emotional core of the story.

I can see why Thor and Hulk were written out for this film, because the cast is already bursting at the seams and the movie is really long. I do miss Bruce getting to weigh in on the Accords, but Thor didn’t need to be here. Thor is not a citizen of Earth, and this really isn’t his story.

Finally, Bucky Barnes gets some character development. I have wanted to like Bucky up until now but there just hasn’t been much to hold onto; The Winter Soldier is Steve’s story, not Bucky’s, and we get precious little of Steve’s old friend coming through in the present day.

I still hate mind control plots, because you can make a character do absolutely anything and while the character might hold themselves responsible for it, the audience won’t, which makes it great woobie fuel: you get to have the character wrestling with all the guilt and horror of having technically committed terrible acts, but it’s not really their fault, so the audience can feel sorry for them and indulge in all the angst without any of the uncomfortable culpability. Nevertheless, I am happy that Civil War established some parameters around Bucky’s brainwashing and allowed his real self to come through. He���s certainly a more interesting character to me now than he was in Winter Soldier. Had I seen Bucky re-frozen at the end of Winter Soldier, I wouldn’t have felt much about it. Now, I actually kind of care.

But Wanda’s situation, by contrast, is much more grounded and compelling to me than Bucky’s: she actually did do something terrible while trying to do good. Wanda saves Steve, accidentally kills a bunch of civilians in the process… and reacts to that like a normal human being. There is a direct contrast to the way Tony Stark behaves in the first Iron Man movie, and the complete disregard for civilian casualties not just in the character but in the films themselves. This is Marvel’s meta-commentary on its own cinematic history as much as it is establishing continuity for the characters. Wanda reacts with immediate horror and regret, and she doesn’t have to say a word to convey that to us. That is good writing, good acting, and good direction. Now Wanda has to live with what she’s done, and decide who she’s going to be in the world after that, when she can’t change the past or the public’s opinion of her.

Tony and Pepper’s relationship is on the rocks, giving real consequences to the tension we’ve seen in their relationship in the Iron Man trilogy. Whether or not those consequences will stick beyond this movie remains to be seen (assuming I watch further), but it is nonetheless a breath of fresh air to me.

We already know from Iron Man 3 that Tony suffers from PTSD, and in this movie we see him confronted face to face with his responsibility for the events of Ultron. What makes Tony sympathetic in this movie is his very real remorse, and his desire to make amends, expressed in his supporting the Sokovia Accords.

And there are moments when I sympathize with Tony’s perspective, when I don’t find Steve to be in the right. When Steve says that Wanda is “just a kid”—yes, that may technically be true, but you can’t have her fighting in the streets, using her tremendous powers in real battle, and then turn around and say she’s just a kid. You can’t have it both ways. Of course Steve wants to defend Wanda; what happened in Nigeria was an accident. But calling her a kid doesn’t cut it.

Steve is still sympathetic, of course, even when I don’t fully agree with him. This is a Captain America movie and Steve is its emotional core. That he is preoccupied by even the mention of his old friend shows his humanity, as does Peggy Carter’s funeral, which gives an external voice to his convictions—even if it is a bit on the nose.

Who supports the Accords and who refuses makes sense for the most part, though I think this story would be better served by a clearer definition of what constitutes an “enhanced individual.” Steve, Wanda, Bruce, for sure, are enhanced individuals. There’s no question that they possess abilities impossible for most humans. But what about Tony? His powers come from the Iron Man suit—without it, he’s just a guy. Genius billionaire playboy philanthropist—but not superpowered. Then there’s someone like T’Challa, who can be enhanced when he has the powers of the Black Panther, but can also have those powers removed. Clint is just a guy who’s a really good shot—is he an “enhanced individual?” What about Natasha? She’s a highly skilled spy and assassin, sure, but she doesn’t have superpowers. Do the Accords include people with highly specialized training? Do they include anyone who might qualify as a vigilante, powers or no powers?

These questions are never clearly answered in the film. But if we read between the lines, it kind of makes sense that Tony and Rhodey and Natasha would feel less personally threatened by the Accords than Wanda or Steve.

Tony especially feels the least put upon by the Accords, for a few reasons. First, Tony is already a public figure by nature of being a billionaire. He is accustomed to living a very public life, and doesn’t view the Accords as a breach of his privacy. Most importantly, Tony’s wealth has always served as a kind of “do whatever the fuck I want and get away with it badge” (to borrow a line from Transformers). Even with the Accords in place, we still see Tony calling the shots, and when Cap goes rogue, Tony sees it as a “PR nightmare,” an inconvenience, but still a problem he can make go away.

A lot of character beats in this movie really work for me. I love Natasha’s assessment that “We played this wrong,” not necessarily changing her position but admitting to a tactical and interpersonal failure. I love her calling Tony out for putting his ego before everything—and the fact that it actually gets through to him for a bit is gratifying. I even enjoyed T’Challa trying to avenge his father, though I think I appreciated that a lot more for having seen Black Panther first.

There are a couple of character decisions that don’t track for me. I don’t think the film does a good enough job (or like… a job) of establishing why Clint would side against Natasha when she is his closest friend in the Avengers. I also think it’s strange that Natasha thinks Bruce would side against them if he were there. Bruce hates himself. He thinks of himself as a dangerous monster; that’s the whole reason he ran. He would absolutely be on the side of the Accords.

I have no opinions on the way Vision sides because Vision doesn’t feel like a character to me or like he really serves any purpose in these movies beyond being a walking plot device. I know he’s got an Infinity stone powering his brain and that’s going to matter in the next movie, but as a character everything about him smacks of “He’s here because he’s in the comics.”

The scene in which Spider-man is introduced was so out of the blue that I literally checked my phone to make sure I hadn’t accidentally started casting a different movie. I guess he’s mostly here to provide Tony some perspective on being an actually enhanced human: “When you can do the things I do, and you don’t, and the bad things happen, it’s your fault.” Peter Parker is the most innocent vigilante! And now both sides have a teenager. He does have some great dialogue with Tony and I can’t really be unhappy he’s here because he’s just too damn likable.

But nothing tops the Steve/Sharon kiss for being out of the blue. Came from nowhere and went back there fast. I have no idea why that was here, except that Steve is the hero and The Formula demands that he kiss a girl at some point. Peggy’s dead so her niece will do I guess. Anyway, it was bad, but brief enough to ignore.

And nothing drives home that this movie is not in any way a standalone like the appearance of Ant-Man. I actually laughed out loud when he appeared because I was imagining what this random cameo would look like if I hadn’t just watched his origin story and it was hilarious.

The big full-team battle was clearly the scene that was supposed to be the most fun to watch—which in itself is a bit strange. Clint and Natasha, in particular, seem not even to take the fight seriously. And in a story all about the fallout caused by superhero vigilantes, one would think those superheroes fighting each other in a huge group would cause even more damage. But it doesn’t, because they just super conveniently have their big battle on an empty airport tarmac, which was so funny. I assume we’re meant to think the place was evacuated but a part of me just really wants to say there were people in that air traffic control tower they knocked over.

Avengers 2.75: The Avengers vs. Delta Airlines.

The most truly stupid part was the ending. I had to go ask red where the fuck Steve knowing about Tony’s parents was set up, and apparently it was a blink-and-you’ll miss it moment in Winter Soldier. I sure didn’t remember it, so that came way out of left field for me and seemed purely contrived to make sure Tony’s change of heart would be short-lived.

But goofiness aside, there was a lot about this movie that worked for me. The focus on relationships surprised me, frankly. I was expecting a stupid, contrived battle of egos between Tony and Steve, and what i got was actually a fairly nuanced (for Marvel) story that gives real consequences to the actions of the Avengers thus far, brings to a head the tension that has been building between Tony and Steve from the minute go, and very effectively conveys the Avengers Initiative as a failed experiment.

The moral of Civil War, intentional or not, is superheroes can’t work together.

Because the Avengers are not a team. Not really. They're a bunch of lone superheroes trying to work together, succeeding for brief moments, but overall failing to build a team dynamic and Civil War is where it all falls apart.

It really put into perspective a lot of what was bugging me about Age of Ultron, which I couldn’t really put my finger on until I ran across this post and it all fell into place for me. I never bought that they were all friends or had built any deep bonds. Tony going rogue wasn't a betrayal of trust so much as it was just the clearest indicator that there wasn't any to begin with.

This movie raises questions about loyalty... and when it comes to Steve Rogers, the answers are pretty unambiguous. Steve Rogers is a powerfully loyal person who sticks by his people no matter what, and never was it more clear that the Avengers are not his people. Bucky is his people. Sam is his people. Peggy is his people. These are Steve’s friends. Steve Rogers is the first Avenger. He is also the first to jump ship when the Avengers fail to align with his principles. That’s who Steve is, and this movie also serves as a very effective character study. Despite its proximity to Ultron, there’s a reason this is a Captain America movie first.

If we’re supposed to see Civil War as a family torn apart, it fails, because this series never sold us on that family dynamic in the first place. From the start, every Avengers film has been about driving conflict between the characters, especially Steve and Tony. You cannot destroy what was never there, and if Civil War is meant to be that kind of tragedy, it does not succeed.

If I was a real fan of the Marvel cinematic universe, one deeply invested in these characters and in the idea of the Avengers becoming a found family, Civil War would’ve been a massive letdown and I’d probably hate it.

But coming in as a casual tourist in this franchise, a story about the tragic inability of superheroes to work as a team is fascinating to me.

And intentionally or not, that’s what Civil War is.

[withallthingslove]

Captain Marvel Spoiler Filled Review

A completely chaotic “review” that is just my random thoughts

spoilers under the cut

- i saw this movie with three of my close friends (one who is a dude and lifelong comic fan, and then two girls who are hella feminist) so I will include some of their reactions as well just to give an idea of what it was like for different people

- right out of the gate the Marvel intro montage is all Stan Lee. It was very heartfelt and the entire theater clapped. That pretty much set the mood for the entire movie

- I know a lot of critics found the beginning to be slow, and while I agree I didn’t mind it. One of my friends said she thought the beginning was a little too jumbled and she described it as “it’s like the directors learned how to direct as the movie went on”. 

- The movie opens with Carol (at this point called Vers) having a confusing nightmare and trying to decipher it afterwards with little help from those around her. Because Carol has amnesia, the audience is left to feel what she feels which is confusion. I get what the directors were going for, but it was a little jumbled. 

- I did find the dream sequence effective and did feel Carol’s confusion and fear when she woke up. 

- She goes to her mentor yon-rogg and asks if he wants to practice fighting. They banter, and it becomes immediately clear to the audience that although Carol is confused they have a rapport with each other and she trusts him. Although he teases her, he *appears* to care for her. During the fighting scene there is more banter, but yon-rogg also tells Carol to control her emotions better. I know there were a lot of complaints from fuckboys about brie larson being stoned faced, but it makes sense for the character. She has emotions, and then is told to suppress them. 

- it was satisfying to see her zap him with her powers anyway, and the whole “don’t show emotion” garbage he was telling her reminded me of like every female experience ever and first clued me in on yon-rogg’s shadiness

- On the train ride back from fighting, carol and yon-rogg have very flirty banter and eye contact and i was like ohhhhhhhh and interpreted it that they were a thing. I’m not sure if this was on purpose, but jude law and brie larson had great chemistry (brie had chemistry with everyone though tbh) and it was very hard to ignore. Plus they’re both hot. I leaned over to my friends and asked “they’re a thing right?” and they said “yes I thought so too” and “i think it’s implied”

- When Carol gets sent to the artificial intelligence place to be approved for her first mission I did find that scene pretty confusing and jumbled

- The mission itself was very dimly lit which made it a little confusing to understand/see what exactly was happening

- But it was cool to see Korath from GOTG. One thing this movie did really well was tying into other MCU movies and connecting everything. This movie definitely feels fresh compared to other origin stories but also fits in the the universe and makes it feel more complete

- When Carol was captured and her memories explored, ben mendolsohn’s voice came on as a voice over for talos and I leaned over to my guy friend and went “i fucking love ben mendolsohn” because ITS TRUE. His voice is so recognizable and then even underneath the skrull make up his acting was so distinct

- The memory exploration scene was jumbled like the nightmare, and it made me wish that we got more of carol’s human life backstory. I got the vibe that those scenes would have been better if they were fleshed out more instead of just little tidbits for the audience. that was one of my biggest complaints for the movie is the order the flashbacks appear and how little there were

- Carol screaming at one of the skrulls as she escapes was super funny and showed a lot of her personality. I think it separates her from a lot of heroes because most are nervous as they are trying to escape but she seemed confident in her powers and her ability and therefore could joke around a bit more

- The story definitely picked up once she crash landed on earth, and the 90s nostalgia was very funny and all of those jokes landed with the audience

-Samuel l jackson did a great job as a young fury. This fury is different. He’s much more idealistic and optimistic about the world, and functions more as a good cop than the fury we see in other mcu movies. It was also cool to see coulson again

- I really really enjoyed the scene when carol is able to make contact with the rest of the kree warriors the first time from the phone booth. Even though I got a bad vibe from yon-rogg I did get the feeling that he genuinely cared for carol’s safety. By the end of the movie my opinion about that was conflicted but I think that scene did a good job of showing that she was with them for 6 years which is a long time and why it took her so long to process everything that happened later because it countered everything she knew. It also did a really good job of showing that when she first landed on earth, she still was more kree than human. Her report back was very matter of fact compared to her later contact with them.

- Brie larson and samuel l jackson had GREATTT buddy cop comedy chemistry

- The train chase was very fun to watch, and like the trailer it was very satisfying to see Carol punch the “old lady” 

- the scene where fury and talos (disguised as a SHIELD agent) look to see if the dead skrull has a penis got A LOT of laughs

- There’s a scene where Carol is standing outside trying to figure out her next move and this motorcycle dude pulls up and revs the motorcycle and tells her to smile. She just glared at him and then stole his motorcycle and it was ICONIC

- Again I really really really love the dynamic between Carol and Fury

- the second phone call when Carol makes contact with the Krees shows her more human side coming out. Brie Larson is great at showing emotion and as she was starting to put the pieces together everything was making more sense and less sense at the same time and you could feel her confusion and panic that something was off.

- Ben Mendolsohn is a gem and needs to be protected pass it on

- I LOVEDDDDD the moment when Coulson let Carol and Fury go without ratting them out just proving once again that he is one of the best and while i love loki i also hate him for killing him because coulson is too good for this world

- Things got really good when Fury and Carol went to Maria because I STAN FEMALE FRIENDSHIP SO HARD. From the first look they had so much depth and Maria played a huge part of helping Carol understand who she was. 

- Also go Maria for being a badass pilot and single mom and amazing best friend

- MONICA IS THE BEST OMG. Her line to her mom about setting an example for her was A++++++

- Goose the cat was also great the only thing I’ll say about this is that Goose is a scene stealer. I don’t want to give the spoilers for Goose away because while predictable they are things I wouldn’t want to spoil for anyone

- I loved the subtle nods at gender inequality 

- While the “twist” of Talos and the skrulls being good was predictable it was still very enjoyable. The predictability of it did not take anything away from it. There were references to how other planets treat refugees and Ben Mendolsohn did a great job with the pathos required for the role

- He also did an A+ job with the humor which I won’t give away because those lines are worth hearing fresh

- I think yon-rogg ‘s shadiness at the beginning is what tipped me off to the twist that he is the true villain of the story. 

- Again, the movie’s flashback scenes felt like they should be my favorite part and filled with drama and be the emotional backbone, but they just didn’t get there. It took so much effort to decipher them that you didn’t really get to sit back and process the emotional weight of them. So when Carol ran out crying once her memories returned while I thought the acting between her and Maria was great, the meaning of the conversation and hug did not have the full weight because the audience (or me) was still processing what we just learned

- Annette Bening is my mom. Also if there was ever a biopic on elizabeth warren she should play her. Also I don’t like that we didn’t get as much Mar-Vell and the reveal that she was helping the skrulls was very rushed and I feel should have had more of an emotional impact. Plus more about her relationship with carol

- Talos reuniting with his family was incredibly sweet

- It’s cool to see where exactly the tesseract ended up between CA: TFA and Avengers

- Okay.why.do.yon-rogg.and.carol.have.so.much.sexual.tension. I was worried it was just me and I looked at my friends and was just like wtf is this are they about to fuck? and we basically agreed that their sexual tension kept building throughout the final act of the movie and that they wanted to hate fuck. After one moment during the fighting it kept building my friend went “yep THIS IS CANON”  because you guys I am not kidding like I don’t ship them because yon-rogg SUCKS but they had the best accidental chemistry of any co stars ever

- The scene where Carol breaks out of the restraints and realizes her full power was BADASS. I loved the flashback montage of her always getting back up again and embracing who she it. POETIC CINEMA

- Though I personally did not like the scene where she is fighting off the Kree on the ship.. . I just wasn’t a fan of the song choice and some of the lines were just cliche. It was nice to watch Carol smile with each hit as her power increased because she was enjoying it which is something we dont see a lot i feel like but the scene did not reach its full potential for me

- It was cool to see ronan and have the space marvel movie characters be tied in. And interesting that we saw ronan before he went “rogue” Again this movie did a great job connecting the dots to other marvel movies

- CAROL IS SO POWERFUL OH MY GOD THANOS IS GOING TO GET HIS ASS KICKED AND IT WAS SO SATISFYING TO SEE HER JOURNEY

- speaking of satisfying watching her tell yon-rogg she doesn’t need to prove him anything and then blasting him into a rock cured my depression

- again i dont really understand their relationship because there’s the sexual tension, the seemingly genuine caring on his side that is conflicted with his utter manipulation and lying (a very good example of how abusive/manipulative people often don’t come across that way)... the fact that she doesnt kill him? like girl kill him and be done. It was funny when she grabbed his hand and then just dragged him to his ship, but then when he told her he couldnt go back empty handed the way jude law delivered the line made it seem like he was confiding in her and there was this intimacy. And then she was just like “boy bye im ending this war and idgaf what happens to you” because shes a queen and is done with his lies

- The ending with Carol and Talos was cute

- The ending with Coulson and Fury made me want to cry and scream because the avengers theme song began to play and we see the beginning stages of the avengers initiative which just made me think about how we have one month till all the characters we love die and this franchise has meant so much to me over the years

- the mid credit scene continued that excitement and dread.

If I was ranking the movie as a critic, I would probably give it 65%. It was good, I was never bored, the performances were great. But it definitely should have been better. There were just some parts of it that were underwhelming or didn’t deliver the way they should. My guy friend said it was just okay and that it felt more like a tie in to endgame and less about captain marvel herself. My other friends agreed on the 65% from an objective opinion, but we all want to see it again.

As a hardcore marvel fan, I give the movie 75%. I loved the characters, the easter eggs, the acting, the way the movie felt like a new beginning for marvel while still tying into past movies. It was everything I love about this franchise

[geekiary]

Avengers: Endgame is once in a lifetime cinematic experience.

Picked up right after the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the movie tells us how our heroes cope with the changing of the universe with half of it gone, and then how they deal with the lost and Thanos himself.

The movie itself premiered in my country on 24th April 2019, but I haven't written any review despite have watched it two times since to avoid spoilers, but I guess it's time.

I'm still going to put ⚠️ SPOILER ALERT ⚠️ warning just in case. And again, this is more about my personal opinion about the movie instead of professional review.

So. Here we go. What will you read below is going to contain spoilers, so please proceed with caution.

⚠️SPOILER ALERT⚠️

After a year waiting on how this whole Thanos debacle will conclude, Marvel Cinematic Universe presents us Avengers: Endgame. And despite having everything about the movie being guarded secretly so that it won't leak anywhere, we still got few things right.

First, time travel. This already been a fan theory. Because that's the only possible thing on how to re-do what Thanos done in Infinity War. At first, the story sets in 2019 right after Infinity War event, and then fast forward to 5 years later in 2023, where everyone already cope with their own way. And then after a mouse accidentally release Scott Lang from Quantum Realm, the story picks up from there.

Second, is the funeral. We all already guess that some would die in Endgame, and some of us guessed it right. Despite that, it still makes me cry.

And even though the movie can be categorized as once in a lifetime experience, it's far from perfect. Plotholes can not be avoided still.

Characters-wise, there are characters that are well-written, but there are also that disappoints me.

The well-written ones including Clint Barton. After being deprives of Hawkeye for years (how they didn't do him any justice in Avengers (2012) or Age of Ultron or Civil War and even had him not being there for Infinity War event at all), Endgame did him good. Endgame started with Clint and his family, and how they disappeared, leaving Clint alone. And then he turned to Ronin because of his anger, that Thanos snapped good people--like his family--instead of bad guys and that's why he went on a killing spree, to kill of those bad guys who still has the audacity to keep on living. And in this movie, if you Clintasha interaction after being denied from it for years, I think this movie going to satisfy you, despite what happened with Natasha later.

Talking about Natasha, the ends up died, so that Clint can get the Soul Stone from Vormir. And it's one of the saddest moment, but still, the plothole is disturbing. Because in order to get the Soul Stone, you must sacrifice the one you love. Natasha and Clint came to Vormir together. So they have to kill one of them to get the stone. But Clint didn't kill Natasha. Natasha killed herself, by throwing herself to the valley. But Clint got the stone still. But anyway, plothole or not, this moment broke me, because Natasha barely lived for all this time. The only family she got was the Avengers, and I want her to have a normal happy life somehow, instead of died like this.

For Bruce, he finally made peace with the Hulk side of his, after spending 18 months in his lab. The result is that Bruce is now big and green all the time, but in total control of his anger and strength. I can't say much about Bruce because I don't think he's being written badly, but I also can't say his being written well. Just so, so. However, I'm looking forward on what MCU has for him next.

And as for Thor... Oh my God, Thor. I've been wary of him. Because I don't think anything good ever happen to him since Thor Dark World. His mother died there. And then he broke up with Jane. And then his father died. And then he lost his whole planet. And Loki died. And he still can smile so wide? That worries me, to be honest. And in Endgame, they showed that Thor is actually not okay. And I'm glad they showed that. And I'm also looking forward for Thor next project after Endgame because I need to see him heal. Because if they left him like this, it won't be good anymore. Thor in Endgame will only be good if they made him heal.

While for Steve... *sighs*. I used to think that Russo Brothers are the best on writing Steve Rogers. But they ruined it in Endgame. Because that ending where Steve decided to be with Peggy and grow old and leave Bucky? Hm. I thought he is Steve "When I Had Nothing I Had Bucky" Rogers. I know this is probably because they need Captain America to retire and pass on the shield to Sam Wilson, but still. They could do better, I think. But despite that, I'm wheezing when they made Steve said, "Hail Hydra," and also made him be able to pick up Mjolnir. We've been waiting for that Mjolnir moment since 2012 and that's epic.

The last one, is Tony Stark. RDJ has been played Tony Stark since 2008. 11 years. And he will forever be Tony Stark, because for 11 years, he played the character very, very perfectly. The ending for Tony is very, very sad. Even until the very last moment I still hoped that he will live again somehow. But I'm glad Tony finally got the peaceful life even for only 5 years. Where he married Pepper and got a beautiful daughter named Morgan. He can rest now.

Other than the original 6, the other marvel ladies are also being so badass here. Nebula, Carol, Valkyrie, Pepper, Mantis, Gamora, Wanda, Hope, Okoye, Shuri, they are all kick-ass. So awesome.

Though despite the plotholes, I think the movie is satisfying still. What a ride.

[sophygurl]

Wiscon 42 panel Lighter Side of the MCU

Okay, the rest of my panel write-ups are not going to be quite so dramatic as the Killable Bodies one thank goodness. And I’ll be typing the rest up in chronological order - excepting the ones I was on since I don’t take heavy notes for those, so will add a bit about them at the end. 

The first panel I went to was Lighter Side of the MCU

Reminder that these panel notes are only my own recollections and the things I managed to write down - my notes are incomplete and likely faulty in places. Corrections and additions are always welcome. Especially please do correct me if I get names or pronouns wrong! 

Also I name panelists as that’s publicly available information but not audience members unless requested by that person to have their named added. 

Panel description:

In 2017, the Marvel Cinematic Universe gave us 3 movies that were lighter, funnier, and a bit different from their normal fare: Guardian of the Galaxy Vol 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Thor: Ragnarok. All three of these movies felt like a year-long palate cleanser after the darker path the MCU has been on. However, with movies like Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War coming next, are we back to serious business, or is there still room to play? 

Moderator was Christopher Davis. Panelists were Jess Adamas, V. Greyson, and Carrie Pruett. 

Chris talked about Thor: Ragnarok as having a shift from the other Thor movies, not just due to Taika Watiti’s influence but the writing and acting as well. 

Jess said people figured out that Hemsworth can do comedy and is not just ridiculously good looking, but also willing to make an ass of himself.

Jess and V. agreed that they almost can’t even remember Thor 2. Thor should be funny and silly - the comics are. There are still real feelings and relationships in there, but every scene looked like it should have been painted on the side of a van. 

Carrie said the movie found the right tone for including the Led Zeppelin song. The use of Bruce/Hulk in the movie also used more comedy than earnestness. She compared it to Deadpool as far as pointing out the ridiculous parts. 

She also talked about her desire for Darcy to interact with more MCU characters. 

V. talked about Kenneth Branagh’s Thor 1 and that she liked how serious it was. But she enjoyed the comedy of Ragnarok even more as a contrast. She brought up an article that talked about the Maori flavor of the comedy in the movie, the deprecating aspect and poking fun at the earlier movies (example: “the sun is going down”). 

Carrie liked the calling out of Loki as Odin as a reminder of how Thor 2 ended, but doing it in such a funny way.

Jess talked about Korg and the hilarity of how his revolution failed because he didn’t print enough pamphlets. She brought up the Grandmaster - Carrie asked who? - Jeff Goldblum - oh yea! (lol)

Chris discussed the heavy 80′s nostalgia and Jack Kirby aesthetic in the visuals and musical choices. For example, the Pure Imagination song while going through the tunnel.

Jess and V. joked about their husbands not getting why certain things were funny (IIRC this was because they weren’t as familiar with some of the references to earlier Marvel movies?).

Chris said that Goldblum was the perfect choice for that role. He asked the panelists what their favorite bit of his was.

V. said the meltstick part. Carrie added - accidental killing is hilarious. Jess brought up the part about Bruce looking for a button on the ship for a weapon and getting the song and lights - the discovery that it’s an orgy ship. Carrie added that Bruce’s whole life is a series of wondering how he got here. 

V. talked about the deleted scene of the Grandmaster engaging in tentacle porn. Chris said in Watiti’s director’s cut, he filks the Marvel logo at the start and it just goes from there.

Chris moved on to the Guardians movies - a part of Marvel that’s not well known outside of the deep fandom. This gave them more freedom in their choices. They mostly take place outside of the MCU world, but still did well.

Carrie compared Guardians to Deadpool 2 saying that there is such a thing as too many ironic music cues and Guardians had just enough while D2 went too far. 

Carrie also added that the Guardians/Thor part of Infinity War was the best part. The bit where Thor keeps calling Rocket a rabbit (I added from the audience that this somehow didn’t make Rocket mad) and Carrie agreed saying he really responded to Thor as an authority figure in ways that he usually doesn’t do with anyone.

Jess said that she has James Gunn issues and especially didn’t think Guardians 1 was that well written, but that G2 did a good job of balancing the serious with the funny. She was really resentful about crying at the end. She really bought the Peter/Yondu relationship. Jess tears up talking about the scene with Rocket at the funeral and how he noted that Yondu yelled a lot and was mean but that people still stuck with him. [I teared up a lil too, that part hit me hard]

Jess also added that the rainbow glitter aesthetic of the Guardians movies seems to be responding to the darker superhero greyscale we usually get.

Carrie said that they did good with the Ego stuff, as well. She knew that a twist was coming, but not what the twist was going to be. It called out toxic masculinity in a unique way. Kurt Russell was used well in the role. Peter has his own sexist issues, especially in G1 - which is not interrogated - but in G2 he’s clearly trying to be better than his dad. 

Jess said Russell was great in the role because the audience sees him as his oeuvre.

V. didn’t like G2 as much as G1. G1 had a lot of lampshading of Peter calling himself Starlord and the group the Guardians of the Galaxy. Also - so many Groot-based tears. She didn’t like the start of G2 with the team all fighting and being mean to one another. But G2 and Thor:R both used that rainbow glitter aesthetic well and showed that you can have serious issues going on even if it’s sparkly - things don’t have to be all grey with just some blue.

Chris brought up that lighter movies can still have some very serious issues and still be funny. The characters and relationships can grow and change, for example Thor finally acknowledging that Loki is going to keep tricking him. 

V. talked about how Spiderman: Homecoming’s humor is more of the #relatable type. Peter is “just like us” and we identify with him. 

Carrie said she has a complicated relationship with Spiderman. She saw the Toby Maguire movies before she got into comics and didn’t realize that Spiderman was supposed to be funny. Andrew Garfield did okay but still didn’t really feel like Peter. Tom Holland does Spiderman/Peter better. But the movie changed around some of the characters from the comics. Also - why is it appropriate for Tony to have this relationship with a high school student? On the other hand, Tony’s use as a side character is funny and done well.

Jess added that Tony makes terrible decisions but doesn’t realize it until someone else points it out to him - like, maybe don’t take a minor out of the country for combat-related reasons?

Jess went on to say that all Marvel movies have some humor, and it often is that relatable kind, but it also comes from the fondness for the characters and their relationships to one another. It’s not just references (V. - like The Big Bang Theory).

Jess talked about how Thor:R addresses colonialism and anti-colonialism while being funny. Spiderman:Homecoming culminates in a homecoming dance. Jess always wanted a Marvel high school movie. Also Michael Keaton did well in the role for similar reasons as Russell in G2. Both actors bring their career history with them into the role. 

V. talked about the humor of Spiderman in the pratfalls. Heroes already have such exaggerated physical movements, so this leads well to physical humor. Holland is a good physical actor in both senses.

Carrie lamented the lack of funny women in the MCU. (I spoke from the audience again pointing out MJ) 

Jess said that Gamora did not get a lot of comedy - a lot of her character is wrapped up in drama with Nebula. Mantis is a character we laugh at and she is not comfortable with that. Valkyrie gets to be funny. Cate Blanchett as Hela was very campy but in a straight-faced way. She does tell jokes, but they’re terrifying.

Carrie discussed the issues with Mantis a bit more. The jokes were mostly about her fitting the submissive Asian trope. Black Panther has women who got to actively do stuff and be funny! There should be more little sisters in superhero movies. Lupita  Nyong’o was used better as a funny character in BP than she was in more serious roles. Jess added that Okoyo was used in humorous ways too.

Carrie said BP was not just about found family, as many of these movies are, but is actually a family movie. 

Chris said that Hela got some of the best lines in Thor. Examples: “Whoever I am?” and the bit about the executioner to execute plans ... but also people. 

He added that BP did have a lot of humor. It also had a similar plot as Thor, but with a very different tone and narrative. 

Carrie said BP makes you care about Wakanda. Asgard feels more distant. While watching Infinity War, her concern was for Wakanda - why are they bringing the fight there?!

Thor:R builds on the other movies for it’s worldbuilding, whereas BP is introducing us to this world for essentially the first time. There is a sense of wrestling with what is the right thing to do. An audience member added - it’s a less mythical world. 

Jess talked about BP having lots of joy - you get the sense that the cast and crew just loved being there and making it what it was.

V. talked about Thor 1 having more of a fish out of water type humor. The humor in BP comes from investment in the character relationships.

An audience member brought up the M’Baku vegetarian joke. Someone (another audience member maybe?) brought up how the Grandmaster was queer-coded and a villain and funny but it was not offensive. 

Jess said that was just Goldblum being Goldblum. It also works because Watiti is queer, so he’s aware of the tropes and it’s not a mean-spirited laughing - we’re not laughing at the queer-codedness of the character. Contrast this to Mantis, where we are supposed to be laughing at the racial and sexist stereotypes.

Chris brought up that Mantis literally personifies emotional labor. 

An audience member said that the Grandmaster reminded them of Tim Curry’s characters - he’s using himself in the role, so we’re not laughing at someone’s depictions of an other.

V. said in Thor:R the gags are at everyone’s expense - it’s equal opportunity joking. We’re not just laughing at say, the one campy character in the entire movie. 

Carrie talked about not liking Drax as much in G2 because he was so mean to Mantis - we were expected to laugh at this one character. 

An audience member talked about Drax’s actor being hilarious. The MCU and DC are mostly white and male, so they appreciate when this is not the case. The Drax/Mantis issue would have been better if they’d addressed his crush on her. It felt like a third of movie was cut out because they skip right over his meanness to acceptance. Mantis is the first Asian character in the MCU.

Carrie said there is a representation problem. A friend of hers who is Asian said her kid told her she looks like Mantis, and she wasn’t sure how to deal with that. There were no other characters for the child to compare her to.

Jess said this was especially bad because outside of the Mantis thing, Drax is the best of them as far as emotional expression. 

Chris said - as a white dude named Chris, I’m getting lots of representation and I’m getting tired of it. (lol)

Valkyrie came up and someone said their headcanon was that she lived and took the half of the Asgardians who live off to safety. I shouted out from the audience that this was confirmed as canon. V. said her theory is that she took the sex space ship!

An audience member brought up how some people found Asgard as a flying disc in space as being more relatable than a non-colonized African country. This is partially because you have to set up the seriousness first and then introduce humor. Thor could be funnier right away because it was the third movie. 

V. said that both Thor and BP had interesting things to say about colonization and Chris laid it out as: Killmonger wants to start conquering and Hela wants to go back to doing it.

V. talked about BP as having to engage white Marvel fans, black audiences who aren’t as familiar with the comics, and of course the Venn Diagram of black fans of the MCU. Discussed the use of both Wakanda and Oakland scenes to accomplish this.

An audience member asked about the evolution of Hulk as a comedic character.

Chris said Ruffalo was able to pull off the humor well on Thor. The physical comedy of when he tried to pull the Hulk out and then splat! The movie used both Bruce and the Hulk for comedic effect. 

Carrie related back to the comment about starting off with the serious backstory and then adding in the humor - Bruce himself has learned to take himself less seriously over time.

Jess said that he does get to be funny here and there in the other movies, but it’s more of humor as coping mechanism. In Thor:R he gets to do more slapstick stuff. 

And that’s all I got! Overall this was a fun, funny panel which also hit on some serious themes in these lighter movies. 

[wazafam]

WandaVision episode 6 features the show's creepiest commercial yet, in which a child starves to death while trying and failing to open a pot of "Yo-Magic" yogurt. While previous commercials have been straightforward references to suppressed trauma from Wand's past, the Yo-Magic commercial also seems to include some hints about her present life in Westview - and what the future could hold.

"All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" brings WandaVision's sitcom aesthetic forward into the 2000s, when there were plenty of weird commercials around. The chattering skeleton child is certainly in keeping with the episode's spooky Halloween theme. But while the Yo-Magic commercial's meaning may be more difficult to parse than WandaVision's previous ad breaks, it also may be the most insightful one yet.

Related: Why Vision Doesn't Remember The Avengers

Just as WandaVision's setting has been moving forward in time, so too have the commercials been moving forward through Wanda's past - from the Stark ToastMate 2000 in the first episode (a reference to the Stark Industries bomb that killed her parents) through references to Hydra and Von Strucker. In episode 5 there was a grim nod to Scarlet Witch accidentally blowing up the side of a building in Lagos, which kicked off the main conflict of Captain America: Civil War. Though she's aware that she's controlling her new reality, Wanda has suppressed memories of her life before Westview, and cannot remember how the Hex was first created. If the Yo-Magic commercial is a manifestation of more recent memories, it could be a hint at what's really going on.

Following Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox, the X-Men movie rights are now back with Marvel Studios and mutants are expected to be incorporated into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver made their MCU debut (first in Captain America: The Winter Soldier's post-credits scene, and then in Avengers: Age of Ultron), rights issues prevented them from being referred to as "mutants" or connected to their father from the comic books, Magneto. The twins' powers were instead explained by them volunteering for Hydra and Baron Von Strucker's experiments with the Mind Stone.

In addition to casting Evan Peters (who played Quicksilver in Fox's X-Men movies) in the role of Wanda's "recast" Pietro, WandaVision has also started to lay the groundwork for a retcon of Wanda's powers. Episode 3's Hydra Soak commercial featured the slogan "Find the goddess within!" - a suggestion that Hydra's experiments didn't give Wanda her powers, but instead simply unlocked the potential that was already inside her. The child in the Yo-Magic commercial being handed a pot of "Yo-Magic" and struggling to break the seal on it also fits with this theme. If the malevolent-looking shark represents Von Strucker, then the name of the product indicates that what Hydra gave to Wanda was actually her own latent magic.

The dark ending of WandaVision's Yo-Magic commercial is also linked to the trauma of Wanda's past and the deaths of her loved ones. When Wanda and Pietro's childhood home was collapsed by a Stark Industries bomb, the twins were left trapped under the rubble for two days, staring death (in the form of a second, unexploded bomb) in the face. Though Wanda survived, she experienced the trauma of being stuck and helpless, without food or water. And even when she got her magic powers, which she hoped would ensure she'd never be so helpless again, she was unable to prevent Pietro's death at the end of Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Related: WandaVision: Billy & Tommy’s Powers Explained

Perhaps the most obvious parallel between the child trying and failing to open the seal on the yogurt, and dying as a result, is Vision's death in Avengers: Infinity War. This would be a natural place for WandaVision to progress to, after the last commercial referenced Captain America: Civil War. The climactic battle of Infinity War saw Wanda using all of her strength to destroy the Mind Stone in Vision's head while also holding back Thanos, to prevent the Mad Titan from completing the Infinity Gauntlet. Vision ultimately died twice: first when Wanda destroyed the Stone (and him along with it), and again when Thanos rewound time and forcibly ripped the Mind Stone from Vision's head. Despite being arguably the most powerful MCU hero, Wanda's magic hasn't been able to save the people she loved the most.

If Wanda constructing a fantasy world populated by people with enslaved minds wasn't enough to signal her current instability, the Yo-Magic commercial indicates that she is not fully in control of either her mind or her magic. She is unable to fully control Vision's mind, which in episode 6 led to him making a break for freedom. And while "Pietro's" origins and motives are still unclear, he too is aware that Westview is under Wanda's control and that Vision is actually dead. If the child in the commercial represents Wanda, then the character being stuck on  desert island alone, slowly dying, and unable to save themselves says ominous things about her current state of mind.

WandaVision has been dropping plenty of hints that Mephisto, a devil-like supervillain from Marvel Comics who played a prominent role in the story arc that WandaVision is loosely based on, could secretly be the puppet master behind Westview. "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!" doubles down on these hints, with Pietro playfully calling the twins "demon spawn" (in the comics they were created from pieces of Mephisto's soul) and commenting that Westview is "charming as hell." Wanda herself has a gap in her memory regarding the birth of her version of Westview - as if that information has been deliberately blocked out.

The decidedly creepy-looking shark in the Yo-Magic commercial tells the starving child that he has survived by "snacking on Yo-Magic." This, combined with the disturbing image of the child withering away to a skeleton, suggests that something is drawing on Wanda's magic. The Hex may actually be a kind of giant magical battery, designed for Mephisto to siphon off Wanda's powers while also keeping her placated. If the other commercials are manifestations of Wanda's suppressed memories, the shark in the Yo-Magic commercial could be her mind's way of remembering the role Mephisto has played. With only three episodes left of WandaVision, the show is getting ever-closer to revealing what's really going on in Westview - and perhaps revealing the true villain behind it all.

More: WandaVision: Every MCU Easter Egg In Episode 6

How WandaVision’s Yo-Magic Commercial Connects To Her Past & Future from https://ift.tt/2NnUhpY