#and also his specific brand of depression hits Hard with post graduate depression where you thought you would do things and ended up a cog

[mitsybubbles]

Sometimes I remember that when Mob was 3 Reigen was 17 and Reigen makes a lot more sense to me lol

[veliseraptor]

the endgame reaction post

I know you’ve all been waiting for it. It’s 3:30 am right now so this may not be totally coherent and I’m almost certainly going to forget things, but here goes.

HERE BE SPOILERS. LIKE, PLENTY O SPOILERS.

I went into this movie with one main question and that was “is Marvel going to stick the landing on what they did in Infinity War?” my answer?

sort of. I...didn’t dislike it? I liked parts of it a lot. but mostly my reaction, frustratingly enough, is kind of a “shrug, with a few ‘into it’ and a handful of ‘oh no thanks.’ I cried a couple different times but overall my emotional response is very...muted. 

this could be a function of my being depressed right now, but I also think it’s because this movie...just didn’t hit the right notes, for me. it did a lot of things right, technically, and it had a lot of character moments, but it felt...I don’t know, something indefinable was missing for me. 

I’m going to try to unpack that later, but let’s break things down a little.

the good

NEBULA, oh my god, Nebula in this movie was fantastic. her moments with her younger self (I’m always going to be here for older/younger self confrontations with characters with her specific brand of issues) especially, but also...in general, I felt like this movie did very well by her. and ohhhh god “you can change” “he won’t let me” my feelings. 

i’m gay for Carol’s new hair and that’s that.

WAS THAT A FUCKING FLYING HORSE? WHERE DID VAL GET A FLYING HORSE. IS THERE A FLYING HORSE FARM IN NEW ASGARD

Thor and Frigga’s conversation. I...did not like almost anything else having to do with Thor in this movie (more on that later, and I know everyone and their mother has already written about this), but that conversation was...so lovely, and I’m glad Frigga got that after her fridging in The Dark World, and the “I was raised by witches” line obscurely delighted me.

this is the SECOND time we’ve seen Loki transforming into Steve onscreen and I’m just saying that Loki being obsessed with Steve? #confirmed

also, Loki taking advantage of chaos to bolt with the Tesseract is golden and while it is seriously unclear what happened to the timelines altered by intervention (more on this later too) I’m going to assume that this means there is at least one Loki out there having the time of his goddamn life

more on this later, but there were some great Natasha moments in this movie as far as character work, and I am still very into her “five years later” hair. also lots of good Clint and Natasha stuff like we haven’t seen since the first Avengers movie, so that was nice. (the arrow necklace!!)

while I have caveats about it, the ending they gave Steve was pretty much what I was expecting and the best I could hope for, so I think that’s a solid “good”

I have absolutely no caveats about Steve giving Sam the shield, and everything about that scene passing it on was delightful, and Steve and Peggy dancing made me cry, so there’s that. 

STEVE’S WORTHY CAUSE OF COURSE HE IS

the whole concept of a time heist is super neat.

SO WE ALL SAW THAT A-FORCE TEAM SHOT, RIGHT? THAT’S SETTING US UP FOR AN A-FORCE TEAM, RIGHT?

wanda fucking wrecking thanos yes girl

the bad

the big obvious one first: the stuff with Thor. as a whole bunch of people have explained: it’s not the weight gain, it’s how his character change after the five year jump is treated. it’s the fact that roughly 75% of the character beats for him in this movie are weighted for humor, that even the emotional moment with Frigga is undermined by the “eat a salad” line, that while he gets moments with his grief they tend to be undercut for a laugh. 

also the fact that he...doesn’t get anything back? I mean, while it’s true of Bruce to a certain extent, and obviously Natasha, Thor really doesn’t have any of his losses ameliorated. Tony gets Peter back, Steve gets his life with Peggy, and Thor...? I just...it feels like his character arc in this movie wasn’t, and I’m severely uncomfortable with how much of a fatphobic undercurrent (overcurrent?) it felt like there was in his scenes.

and while I love the idea of Queen Valkyrie, it doesn’t really feel earned, and feels like it shackles her to a role where she doesn’t really fit.

the final battle felt...tacked on. it felt like there was a feeling that “oh, we need an epic battle where there’s a whole army on both sides” and I...didn’t need that? it felt like a Lord of the Rings battle in my superhero movie and something about it felt very...mmm weird. I mean, I’m almost never one for Big Final Battles With Armies (with the major exception of the ones in Lord of the Rings) and it didn’t work for me here. 

though I did enjoy “keep away with the Infinity Gauntlet”, that was a fun game.

Gamora and Nebula should have been given the chance to face Thanos again together at the very least, and preferably strike the killing blow. The fact that that was given to Tony...annoys me. I mean, I can see why they did it - they needed him to have a big hero moment for his big hero sacrifice, and it was emotionally effective (I assume, if you weren’t me), but...that victory should have belonged more principally to those two, and I’m disappointed that it didn’t.

so I guess all that “foreshadowing” in Loki’s death scene was...nothing? that was just...what it looked like? I mean okay I’m not surprised but I am disappointed

the ugly

SOMEONE DATE THOSE CARS IN THE END SCENE WITH STEVE AND PEGGY, HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT EVEN WORK, so, like, is that an alternate timeline? did Steve live a seriously down low undercover life with Peggy and that’s why it never came up that oh yeah, she was married to someone who looked exactly like Steve Rogers? how does this fit in with the Winter Soldier!Peggy? I DON’T UNDERSTAND.

basically this movie did the time travel stuff but didn’t really think all of the time travel stuff through as much as it needed to, imo. time travel plots are hard, and messy, and very quickly get confusing, and this was definitely one where they were doing some “don’t look too close!” prestidigitation to keep the holes from showing.

but I’m thinking about it and the holes are showing and I want to know how this works, are the Disney+ shows going to be alternate timelines? I assume because Vision’s going to be in one? and if Sam’s still Falcon then he’s probably not Cap in that one? BUT I DON’T KNOW it’s all very confusing.

Natasha...Natasha. I was spoiled for her dying, though I didn’t know the circumstances, and I...gah. I wrote in my notes on my phone “I wanted Clintasha BUT NOT LIKE THAT” and that’s...kind of how I feel about it? I honestly thought she was safe, is the thing. of all the characters I was worried about, she wasn’t one of them. but in retrospect...I really should’ve been. if they’re trying to shuffle the original six out of the line up then...but I felt like “surely they won’t kill their only original female Avenger, surely the optics of that...” but no, nope.

and while she wasn’t fridged per se it did feel like a lot of the energy of her death went toward providing five male characters with angst, which... [squints]

...and now I’m thinking more and if it’s been five years then all of Peter’s friends should have graduated high school. or were they not going to high school? was school suspended for five years because of the apocalypse? are we going to get fallout from this in Far From Home? 

I’M TELLING YOU THERE IS SO MUCH HERE THAT JUST DOESN’T MAKE SENSE maybe it will moving forward but...I really don’t get how they’re going to sustain this five year jump forward timeline...

GUESS WE’LL FIND OUT

basically I think what I’m coming out of this movie with is “end of an era and that makes me emotional, also there is some stuff here I like but mostly....eh” and honestly I think I’m okay with that being where I land. 

I said last year that I was going to hold off on my final verdict for Infinity War until I saw Endgame, because it seemed like they were, whatever they’d said, setting up a two movie arc. I thought there was some possibility that what they did in this movie might “save” Infinity War for me, or make me think it was worth it. 

part of the reason I don’t feel like I can say Marvel did really stick the landing here is because it didn’t. they stuck a landing. they had, like I said, a lot of the pieces in the right place. 

but I’m still feeling vaguely dissatisfied. 

[westernmanews]

SPRINGFIELD — Mychal Connolly’s connection to the subject of suicide is all too personal.

“I was talking with my friend Nate about ways to teach our kids about entrepreneurship,” he explained. “He had moved to Florida with his family and was back for a visit. We were talking about his business and how it was doing well. I was taking my family to Florida on vacation soon and thought we could connect, but with my family focused on theme parks, it never happened.”

After he got home, Connolly saw a post on Facebook alluding to a friend who had died, but it wasn’t clear who. When he reached out to learn more, he received a shock: Nate had taken his own life, in front of his wife.

“Nate was a quiet guy who stayed to himself, but that was his personality,” Connolly recalled. “His friends knew that about him. I knew that. There were no signs he was going through anything difficult in his life. Nothing suggested there was any issue troubling him. He left a wife and three kids.”

Now Connolly, in partnership with MHA and the Pioneer Valley Coalition for Suicide Prevention, is taking a message to the streets: suicide is preventable when people start talking. The message is getting out via Stand Out Truck, a business Connolly created that uses a mobile, digital messaging platform built into a truck that drives wherever a message can make the most impact.

“Our friends at the Pioneer Valley Coalition for Suicide Prevention made a grant to cover half of the cost of the campaign, and Stand Out Truck offered a discount,” said Kimberley Lee, MHA’s vice president of Resource Development & Branding. “All three organizations are working together to get the message out that suicide is preventable, continuing through the second week in October.”

Connolly explained that “Stand Out Truck takes the message directly to the streets where people in motor vehicles, on the sidewalk, or out in their yards can see it. I’ve known Kim Lee for several years, and MHA does a lot to aid suicide prevention, so Kim and I connected to see how we could work together specifically for Suicide Prevention Month. Short story, we made it happen.”

Stand Out Truck is uniquely mobile and, frankly, hard to miss, Lee added. “Silence breeds stigma, and we must take every opportunity to encourage each other to talk about how we’re feeling emotionally and raise awareness about resources for suicide prevention. Stand Out Truck is delivering our message throughout the Pioneer Valley: Springfield, Agawam, West Springfield, Westfield, Tolland, Huntington, Chicopee, Holyoke, South Hadley, East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Wilbraham, Hampden, Monson, Ludlow, Palmer, Brimfield, and more. It’s traveling daytime hours as well as evening, which is great because the truck is brightly illuminated; it really draws attention after dark.”

Connolly stressed that this issue hits home for him. “Having a conversation with someone may encourage them to talk some more, get some help, and realize life is worth living.”

Stand Out Truck, in business since March, provides mobile digital messaging for business promotions, graduations, birthdays, anniversaries, and a wide variety of activities and events. What makes it unique is taking a mobile message directly to the community, instead of hoping members of the community happen to pass a fixed billboard and notice a message. That’s especially critical with a message this timely and important, Connolly said.

“People see the truck and say, ‘wow, what’s that’” he noted. “It’s just not something you see every day, a billboard driving by with a message. We use a GPS system that highlights busier routes, and we travel those. We also travel predictable high-traffic routes and times, such as during the morning and evening rush. If the one person who needs to see the message sees it, or if a friend or family member sees it, then it’s made an impact.”

It’s important to reach people who aren’t feeling quite right before they start to feel that killing themselves is their only option,” said Sara Kendall, vice president of Clinical Operations for MHA.

“Through BestLife, MHA’s outpatient center for emotional health and wellness, people who are anxious, depressed, afraid, or at risk of hurting themselves can talk with someone who cares, who listens, and who can help connect them with supports to help them start feeling better,” she added. “BestLife opened right here in Springfield in 2019, and in a little over a year, we have had conversations with more than 500 individuals in this community — people ready to start talking about their anxiety, their depression, their fears … even their thoughts of suicide. And let me be frank: COVID has certainly not helped with any of those things. More than ever, people are feeling distressed, isolated, frustrated and confused.

“So, we invite members of the community to join us for a conversation,” she went on. “Whether that conversation happens in person, with appropriate social distancing, or whether it happens virtually using MHA’s TeleWell app to connect interested persons with a licensed MHA counselor, we are ready to start talking. We are ready to listen. We are ready to help save lives by helping people live their best life.”

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