#but y’all seriously can’t just coexist and let people like the characters they like and/or possibly identify with in some way??

[clovermunson]

honestly the discourse in the stranger things fandom always amazes me because it’s absolutely ridiculous and almost always some bullshit

(incoming rant in the tags)

[thatwitchrevan]

Okay so here’s my general impression of Endgame, aka what I liked and didn’t like. This post has ALL the spoilers (or at least a lot of them.)

Things I didn’t like:

Carol’s parts in the movie were way too brief. I understand this movie was mainly about sending off the original Avengers but I really thought there’d be more Carol!!!

I also wanted more Valkyrie.

Steve’s ending was...not at all satisfying to me. Seeing him as an old man was jarring and the way they did the scene felt cheesy and if they expected me to be happy about him going back to live with Peggy I’m...not. It’s not that I don’t like Peggy but I literally haven’t been invested in their relationship since the end of The First Avenger. At least not romantically. Steve’s scenes with Peg in Civil War were good and I was heartbroken when she died. I like her as a character. But I’m so far from convinced that she was the great love of Steve’s life that he was always meant to be with. If that’s the case why wasn’t there more than a literally five seconds foreshadowing that he’d go back? I liked the scene where he saw her in shield hq and they should’ve left it at that.

Because here’s the thing. Not only has Peggy not been upheld as The Significant Person in Steve’s life, but he has other people that are right there in 2023 that he should give a second thought to. All the surviving Avengers, for one, but particularly Bucky and Sam. You’re telling me Steve loves Peggy SOOOOO much after not seeing her for over a decade and not having been in a relationship with her for much longer, that he would abandon his best friends without ever telling them he wasn’t coming back, RIGHT AFTER they had just come back from the dead and he’d mourned them for five years??? really??? nah absolutely not. There isn’t any way in hell Steve Rogers would ditch his best friends for his ex like that. Are you kidding me. I hate it. 

Natasha?????? Didn’t get??? a funeral??? SHE SHOULD HAVE A STATUE. A MEMORIAL. She sacrificed herself for a CHANCE to save the world and she gets nothing except a few solemn words between Avengers? why didn’t they at least give her and Tony a joint funeral are you fucking kidding me all the same people could’ve come. 

Don’t tell me Fury wouldn’t speak at Nat’s funeral. AND CLINT. AIUDNUDNAUIDND

The fact that instead of resetting the timeline (which I understand why they couldn’t do that) they brought everyone back five years later with all the consequences of millions of people disappearing from existence temporarily is fucking with my head and given the way everything was handled in this movie I highly doubt it’s going to be satisfyingly addressed in future ones. Like listen - May lived without Peter FOR FIVE YEARS. That’s just an example.

I’m really really really sad they didn’t bring Loki and our original Gamora and Vision back. They didn’t even really discuss it. Thor said NOTHING about wanting his brother back. I don’t even think he said he missed him?? We spent this whole hiatus thinking about if and how those characters might also be revived and Endgame gave only the barest shrug in response to those questions and hopes. Those characters’ stories got NOTHING satisfying to tie them up. I’m so disappointed.

The fact that Nat didn’t get to see the massive team up at the end makes me emo.

Things I liked:

Morgan Stark is absolutely precious and I love her and I too would tell all the Avengers to fuck off and let the world continue to burn in order to protect her.

Seriously I haven’t been able to get over the fact that they gave Tony and Pepper a beautiful baby girl. The pure happiness I felt when realizing that TONY HAD A CHILD was...unparalleled. I literally cannot. He loves her SO MUCH. He wanted her SO MUCH. He wanted to be a dad, and a good one. and he was. He was the best dad. i’m crying. 

“I love you 3000″

Morgan is an absolute angel 

NAT NAT NAT my baby my love

she’s so fucking sad the whole time. her expression when they killed Thanos and realized there was nothing left to do destroyed me. And post time skip??? her crying over her sandwich and smiling at Steve with ALL the sadness in the world in her eyes and trying to keep up with being an Avenger even though it kind of feels like there’s no point anymore, because she HAS to? you can see her survivor’s guilt. She knows the world’s already ended and she’s one of the ones who has to go one. She knows her best friend lost his family and is out there losing himself too. She knows half of her family is never coming back. I can’t handle how sad she is or how strong she is for going on anyway. She’s amazing.

and it KILLS me that she died but if it had to happen I’m glad it was the way she wanted. she saved the world one more time.

Bruce was so good the whole time. I love seeing him and Hulk coexist, I love his nearly ever-present sweet little smile, how much he appreciates what and who he still has, how he’s still trying to be optimistic. Bruce has been through a lot, including suicidal depression, and here he is doing his goddamn best and SMILING. I’m just?? so proud and I love him he’s come so far.

I love all the tender little moments??? Nebula and Tony playing tabletop football (and the way he very calmly, non-judgmentally says ‘you don’t have to do that’ when she thinks it’s a fight at first) and taking care of each other (she lets him have the rations?? covers him with a blanket?? is this fanfic that I wrote in my dreams??); Bruce reminding Thor how he helped him when he was in a bad place (and his goddamn smile when he says it, so full of love and care?? Bruce adores him and just wants to help him I cry); Steve trying to cheer Nat up and them just being friends; Rhodey and Nat being buddies and looking out for each other; Rocket and Nebula holding hands; Tony crushing Peter in a hug; Carol meeting Peter and giving this kid she just met a smile and their whole exchange...I could go on. Just Avengers being friends and loving each other and being wholesome and overwhelmingly platonic?? aijdnauidnhuadn

And also painful as fuck like see: the ENTIRE scene between Nat and Clint before she throws herself off. Particularly the forehead rest and how they go right into fighting each other (again). THEY’RE BEST FRIENDS AND THEY LOVE EACH OTHER SO MUCH.

Thor talking to Frigga again was???? Everything. I love them both so much. Especially how she told him to stop being who he’s supposed to be and be who he is.

Also the fact that Korg and Miek and Brunnhilde are still there for Thor even after five years of being in a Depression Cave? amazing. 

Nebula is so important. My love for Nebula has grown with every one of her appearances and this movie gave me so much of what I wanted for her....character growth, making new friends, tender/ funny scenes, getting to see her relax. Her reaction banter with Rhodey was great to see. Just the fact that she’s loosened up enough and learned to trust enough to joke with these people and be friendly with them, even if she is still Nebula about it......im love her. And she genuinely became an Avenger like she was just as determined to fix things as the others and she didn’t hesitate to shoot alt Nebula to protect Gamora. She’s fucking perfect lots more Nebula please.

Let’s talk about the big fight scene. 

as soon as I heard “on your left” i was freaking THE FUCK out.

Sam is a dramatic magnificent man and I love him. 

and Steve!

guys he finally fucking said it

they assembled guys

ALL of them 

(except nat)

jainkjandknadkjandkjandkjadn 

and my FAVORITE part of the Battle was Wanda

She went ALL OUT on Thanos and I just enjoyed it so so so much

Carol was also amazing and I think I ascended when she took that headbutt without a flinch...without even blinking...GODDESS

and the team up?? “don’t worry, she has help” I DIED Y’ALL 

for a moment I was in badass female character heaven where all was right in the world

Rescue was particularly awesome I’ve been waiting for that for YEARS and she was AMAZING

And seeing Shuri, Okoye, and Valkyrie acting as Avengers was!! good shit

and alright I’m heartbroken that Tony died but again, it was the way I would’ve wanted him to go. He saved the world one more time! and at least I got to see him with a fucking infinity gaunlet

watching Thanos die not once but twice was. extremely satisfying.

SAM. IS. FUCKING. CAPTAIN. AMERICA. (no not like that. I mean also like that but. you know what I mean.)

a lack of end credits scenes is the best way to pour salt in the wounds of me.

but I did cry at original Avengers bit of the credits. particularly Scarlet and Robert’s.

[larathia]

On Quintessence and the Galra Empire

I dunno how far this will get into my stories, because frankly I don’t have a lot of characters to work with who are deep into the ideas of why and wherefore, so I’m going to write this (rather lengthy and detailed) headcanon down over here, and y’all can accept it or deny it or whatever but it is in the background of my VLD fics, as this is my genuine understanding of How This Shit Actually Works.

The TLDR is: Our Heroes got it wrong and ‘quintessence poisoning’ is not actually a Thing. Rather, what happened to the galra in general (and the royal galra family in particular) was something else entirely, something only baaarely touched on during the series but absolutely present.

You ready? Strapped in? Good.

1) Quintessence does not and cannot ‘poison’. Rather, it is a multidirectional intensifier.

We get introduced to quintessence, timelinewise, when the reality crossing meteor strikes Daibazaal. Quintessence comes out of that rift pretty much from the getgo, but we do not hear of the galra being negatively affected as such. Zarkon evacuates people near the rift because, well, BIG HORKING RIFT, but quintessence doesn’t seem to affect anyone particularly. We hear nothing at all about, for example, fights breaking out, or plagues, or anything.

If quintessence by itself could poison, it would’ve poisoned Kova the cat first. It would have poisoned the galra people long before anything else happened. No, the only things we know quintessence does  - by itself - based on what we see in the show is:

* it heals * it lengthens lifespan * it intensifies emotion

Keith gets splashed with untreated quintessence and it just heals his burns. Allura and Lotor fly into the quintessence field and there’s just curiosity and quiet joy. Kova gets dosed with quintessence and becomes the first immortal housecat.

2) What poisoned Honerva and Zarkon was the Dark Energy Being (DEB). DEB then poisoned the entire galra empire.

We do see Honerva kind of wilting and distracted, but we don’t see her having that reaction until AFTER the DEB comes through the rift. She keeps a little DEB by her workstation, possibly for years, just studying it. We know from S8 that the DEB is a hugely nasty piece of work, that it feeds on quintessence to survive, and that it can attach itself to a sentient host. I believe that the DEB in Honerva’s workstation drained her quintessence over time, and its visions screwed with her mind - and that’s why she withers the way she does, and eventually dies/lapses into a near-death state.

Zarkon and Honerva enter the rift and are both overtaken by the DEB. They both, thereafter, focus on acquiring and consuming quintessence. The DEB also has the effect of playing on/playing to/enhancing darker emotions like paranoia and rage, causing Zarkon to distance himself from Honerva (letting her name herself Haggar) and Haggar distances herself from Lotor. Lotor is born a sort of dhampir, in that the DEB is part of his being from the getgo. But because he’s born with it, and it’s a part of him throughout his life, he learns ways of dealing with it - it’s not manipulating him, it’s just part of who he is.

Anyway. Back to the empire. Possessed!Zarkon and Haggar need quintessence. They need the galra people on their side, angry enough to suck the quintessence out of planets. Now the galra were never as peaceful a race as the alteans - the galra history is a lot more like our own, in that they revered great warriors and conquerors. But they were clearly able to coexist with other races peacefully before the DEB was unleashed. What Honerva did was implant little DEBs into various sensitive people, and these people became the Druids. I firmly believe the Druids wear masks to hide the physical effect of having a DEB inside them, as well as to hide the fact that they’re not all galra. The DEBs in them grant them their magic, and also tie them in obedience to Haggar. The Druids use their magic to ‘process’ quintessence into fuel that runs the entire galra empire.

That fuel is tainted by the DEBs. So basically, the galra empire is created to run on ...well, ‘hate fuel’. The galra on the cruisers are in close proximity to huge amounts of tainted quintessence, which makes the calm ones angry, the angry ones furious, and encourages things like sadism in the ranks. The exposure makes the galra long lived, but warps their minds and hearts as the centuries pass. That warping lets the galra do what they do during the series.

When Honerva destroys the galra high command, she’s killing off the generals most thoroughly tainted by that poisoned quintessence. When the druids are destroyed, so is the source of that tainted quintessence. And weirdly enough the galra fairly quickly become much less of a Serious Problem. The stuff that’s been pushing them over the edge is gone, and the leaders that were probably also so poisoned as to keep going anyway are also gone.

I’ll backtrack a bit here and explain why I think this is the case.

Firstly: the DEB is known to affect personality.

We know this because Allura takes on a DEB in S8, and her focus is pretty much a beeline for ‘take out Haggar’ after that. Her character development in the whole season is kinda questionable, I grant you that, but we do see her being tempted early on, with visions and dreams, and once she takes the DEB on she’s willing to do things that are seriously morally questionable especially compared to where she started. (Like diving into Honerva’s mind? Really? At the start of the series she had a problem with putting Sendak’s memories into an interrogatable AI.)

We also see Honerva’s acolytes, and we know they’ve taken a DEB. They’re also the straight up most hateful Alteans we see in the primary reality of the show. They’re a lot more willing to react emotionally and from places of fear or anger.

My final evidence for this is the alt-reality Alteans, where it’s the Altean empire that’s the danger. With the worlds affected reversed, we can infer that the meteor hit Altea and not Daibazaal - and while they’re kiiiinda? gentler about it the Alteans are twisted in horrible ways too.

Secondly: Druid magic screws with normal quintessence quickly, and negatively.

We have as our main example for this the Crystal Venom episode. The crystal that Sendak puts in the castleship is purple, meaning it’s been tampered with by Druids. And what does it do? Exactly the same shit that the little DEB mote later does to Allura. It spreads fear through the castle. It tries to kill off the paladins. It plays upon their terror. None of that happens on a cruiser, but the cruisers use liquid forms of the quintessence, not giant crystallized chunks, and it may well be that this is why.

I know a popular fan theory is that it’s Sendak doing this, but we actually have no evidence of that. The AI of Sendak remains dormant all the way to S8. The ‘real’ Sendak is frozen in stasis - we can’t actually say for certain that him waking up was anything but Shiro’s terrified hallucination, as the ship poked at him the way it was poking at everyone else. Honestly, the only AI the crystal could’ve warped was Alfor’s, and we know that it did do so.

Hence, I really think all that purple quintessence in the cruisers and fighters was seriously fucking with galra minds. I think that may well be part of why a lot of cruisers were staffed with robot sentries, too - robots aren’t living, and thus can’t be driven into psychotic breaks by being near sources of tainted quintessence. The officers and commanders are near it, but not so near that the effects are too strong or immediate. Just a low, slow, warping of personality.

In short it’s never ‘quintessence’ doing the poisoning.

It’s the DEB behind pretty much everything.  And since they can’t stop reality-crossing comets from happening, there’s always a chance another rift will form, and some DEBs can get out and start this mess all over again.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk and goodnight.