#especially since what happened with brie larson

[starliteonearth]

I've seen comments on the Twitter about how Snow White was never that girl and she's boring and passive and too content to cook and clean for men, and that Rachel Ziegler's version is actually going to do better for the character. Didn't we used to do the same thing to Cinderella? Called her passive and weak and not girlboss enough to save herself and instead needed a prince to come rescue her? And then we realized that take was super wrong and shitty because it actually takes a lot of strength to survive such abuse and come out a good, kind person, and that she deserved her prince and her happily ever after. And that it was also reductive af to label her anti feminist because she wasn't some proactive, go-getter heroine who saved herself. So why are we now not affording the same grace to Snow White? Why are we suddenly going back to that old problematic viewpoint we once left behind? I'm genuinely baffled, especially since the general consensus is that the girlboss feminism Hollywood thinks is so progressive really isn't and that there is more than one way for female characters to be protagonists.

(Also, Snow White fighting to take back her kingdom has been done twice already AND there are multiple badass Disney princesses, so no need to act like you're changing the game and inventing feminism in the Disney space).

[oizysian]

I. VICTORY ROYALE

All Eyes on Me masterlist

Word count: 1.7k

•

"You're kidding. Brie Larson? The Brie Larson? The Oscar winner Brie Larson? CAPTAIN MARVEL Brie Larson?!"

"Yes, yes, yes - a million times yes." I laughed as my best friend went on and on about my big news that I finally had the time to tell her about. "That Brie Larson."

"No way." She was quiet for a moment. "And I wasn't mentioned in the tweet at all?"

I felt bad for Claire. We had a joint Twitch channel together and we also had our own separate ones. I had been working on my channel longer than she had so I had more time to grow, and it seemed that my hard work was paying off and I was starting to leave her behind.

"No," I answered sadly. "But that doesn't mean you can't join in." I tried to be optimistic about it, hating that my best friend in the whole wide world was upset.

"Nah, I'm better off just watching the stream. But," I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was smiling. "Do you think she could hook me up with one of her celebrity friends? Maybe Scarlett Johansson?"

"I doubt that. Plus, she's got two kids now. Are you really ready for that responsibility?"

"Yeah, no, nevermind." She laughed. "Well, what about that Olsen girl you've got a crush on?"

"No, you cannot have Lizzie." I replied quickly.

"Oh no? You called dibs?"

"I think her husband already did that." I couldn't even pretend to hide my disappointment.

"Pfft. Husband or not, you've got dibs."

This wasn't exactly a conversation I wanted to have, especially when I was about to make a connection to someone so close to her.

"Whatever. Maybe she'll hook you up with one of the new Marvel girls; Florence or Hailee."

"Oh hell yes, Hailee for sure."

"If it gets you off my back about my crush on Lizzie, I'll talk to her for you." I chuckled, knowing very well I would do no such thing.

"Yeah, right. I know you too well to believe that."

"Worth a shot." I shrugged to myself, checking the time before mentally cursing myself. "Shit, I gotta go. The stream is in a few hours and I still gotta get things set up with Brie."

"Well, okay. Good luck and I'll be watching so don't say anything stupid!"

"Same to you. I know you'll be active in the chat."

"Damn right. Later."

I shut off my game and took off my headset, sighing as I got up and made my way over to my computer. I had a lot of work to do before the stream, mostly setting up Brie's camera and microphone so that she could be seen and heard while we played.

I was still in awe of the fact that I was going to be hosting a live charity stream with a celebrity. It was scary and surreal and I couldn't pretend that I didn't get a heady rush from it. I made all of this happen. I was finally someone. My past be damned.

I was so engrossed in what I was doing that I didn't even realize nearly two hours had passed, and that I had multiple notifications on my phone, the most recent one being from Brie.

"Shit." I muttered to myself, loading up Discord on my computer and video calling my new friend.

We had been texting nearly every day since I sent her the message with all the charity information, but we had never spoken, so this would be our first time face to face.

She answered the call quickly, her face popping up on my screen, taking me by surprise. She looked so down to earth, but still beautiful in a casual outfit and her hair up in a messy bun.

"Hey, Y/N." She greeted me with a bright smile and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, hi, Brie." I finally spoke, my cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment at my nervousness.

"You ready for our twenty-four hour stream?"

"Twenty-four hours?" I laughed. "Maybe twelve. I'm not sure about twenty-four."

"Aw, c'mon. It's for charity."

We spoke for a while before getting ourselves hyped up to start the stream. Once we decided on a game and double checked that all the stream settings were perfect, we went live.

@y/n_gaymergod LIVE 🔴 with @brielarson raising money for The Trevor Project!

We decided on Fortnite, a game she was familiar with and one that I was pretty rusty in, which made me a bit nervous due to the fact that my character skin was Scarlet Witch - someone she knew. I loaded up the game and invited her, ready for the influx of comments mentioning my big, embarrassing crush on Elizabeth Olsen.

She joined my game and I silently watched her reaction. Nothing. I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding and turned my attention to the chat.

"Hi, everyone! We just got started and already we've got $15 donated! We didn't even start playing yet." Both Brie and I laughed, interacting with the chat as we started up a game of duos.

y/n is playing as the love of her life

big gay crush on fruity lizzie

y/n your gay is showing

I blushed a fierce red as I read the comments, hoping Brie didn't notice. It seemed that she was too busy trying to snipe some guys from across the map to pay any attention to the chat at the moment, which I was insanely grateful for.

"Nice shot, Y/N!" She exclaimed as I saved her from being downed.

"Thanks. You're not too bad yourself, Larson."

She smirked at me and I dropped some items for her in-game so she could recover from the fight we were just in.

was that flirting

y/n don't cheat on lizzie

y/n is flirting with brie larson i cant even

what about ur waifu for laifu lizzie y/n?

I ignored them.

"We've got this dub for sure." I assured her and she nodded and started cheering us on as we ran through the storm.

"Number one victory royale, baby!" She yelled as she ran into an unsuspecting duo, blasting them both with her shotgun.

Our first win of the stream done, we returned our attention to the chat and donations, now having received nearly $130.

"Wow, guys!" I couldn't believe it. "We're doing great so far. And we got a win! This is going really well." I directed the last part to Brie and she smiled, nodding at me.

A large donation flashed on the screen and my jaw dropped at the message attached to it.

"Brie, introduce Y/N to Elizabeth Olsen. She's in love with her."

I could feel my cheeks burning, tears building up in my eyes as she, obviously, read it. I was so fucking embarrassed.

"Thank you for the donation, but please don't say things like that again." I swallowed roughly. "We respect Elizabeth's marriage in this house." I tried to joke, the hurt surely evident in my voice.

Brie looked at me through the screen with an expression I couldn't quite identify before speaking again.

"I could make that happen."

My eyes went wide, my attention completely gone from the game and on my new friend. I got myself shot at and I cursed under my breath, trying to recover from the assault we were currently under.

"If we win this game, I'll see what I can do."

"Brie ..." I started to speak before she cut me off.

"You've gotta get more kills to catch up to me, Y/N. Keep up." She gave me a crooked smile, probably realizing that by saying that the chat would lay off me about it.

I made a mental note to thank her later, pushing down my awkward feelings from the chat and the last donor and focusing completely on the game. Even if it was just talk, I was determined to win.

Which we did. And many more after that.

We streamed for nearly twenty hours, with small breaks in between. We played a few different games and even played with viewers for a while. Our final donation total was a whopping $5,450, which surprised the hell out of me, but I was proud of our efforts. We did really, really good.

"So, about meeting Elizabeth." Brie started as we sat in a video call after the stream, just chilling and talking about how much fun we had.

"Brie, don't worry about that. My chat often busts my balls like that trying to embarrass me."

"It seems like they care about you." I was silent. "It sounds like you admire her."

"I just think she's cool, that's all. She seems like a nice person." I tried to cover my ass, but I'm sure I was very transparent.

"She is a nice person, and I think she'll like you a lot." She looked down at her phone for a few minutes before looking back up at me. "There's going to be an invite only party in LA in a few days celebrating the release of the new Doctor Strange movie."

I swallowed roughly, listening to her with bated breath.

"I want you to come with me as my plus one."

"I'm in New York, not LA, Brie."

"We can fix that. We have time to get you a flight and hotel."

I bit my lip in thought.

"Would it really be okay?" My voice was small and unsure.

She smiled brightly at me.

"Yes, of course it would! It's gonna be so exciting to hang out together in person."

I smiled, now excited myself and nodded in response.

"Okay, I'll do it. I'll come visit you and we can party and we can even record some of it for your YouTube channel if you want and -"

"Y/N, breathe." She chuckled at my reaction and tried to calm myself down.

"Sorry." I apologized bashfully. "I've never been to LA before."

"Oh no? Maybe I can show you around a bit. I know some really fantastic restaurants that you might like."

"That sounds great, I'm so excited!"

"I can tell." She smiled. "And does any of that excitement have to do with meeting Elizabeth?"

"Psh, no." I lied through my teeth. "I'm excited about spending time with you."

"Mhm. Nice cover."

"It's true! I consider you a good friend, Brie. I think we're gonna have a good time together."

"Me too, Y/N."

•

@oh-thats-cute @marvelwomen-simp

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

THE MARVELS looks to lose money at the box office. I mean... It's MCU Movie #33... 33... And how many "losses"? QUANTUMANIA? This movie? The 2008 INCREDIBLE HULK that didn't make its money back? Not counting the COVID-era release of BLACK WIDOW?

That's a hell of a track record!

Some are saying that the ongoing strike, which ended just recently, played a part. Maybe? It does help to get the actors to do press and promo, but part of me feels that it wouldn't have made any difference... Because it's the 33rd movie, you had to have watched multiple shows and movies in order to know what's going on (and maybe you don't have Disney+ to watch WANDAVISION and MS. MARVEL), and the MCU's goodwill has been rather sloppy lately because of some of the recent movies not really meeting audiences' expectations. Especially when you're paying upward of $14+ at night to see these things, and another $41+ for concessions. (A slight exaggeration, but you get my point, right?) But yeah, strike shmike, look at how FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S did a couple weekends ago. It just boils down to "what people want to see".

And clearly THE MARVELS was not high on the list. Post-ENDGAME, the game has changed. A competently-made superhero movie that's basically a homework movie for a future movie, with rushed VFX just isn't enough anymore. People, I feel, want to see superhero movies with a vision behind them of sorts. Note how well GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 held up, note how much people love the SPIDER-VERSE films, etc. etc. I feel like a movie like BLUE BEETLE would've been a respectable hit in - say - 2017, not now.

Of course, this is all going to be drowned out by people that we quite frankly shouldn't give the time of day to. The people who honk "WOKE WOKE WOKE" like a flock of defective geese, sadsacks who hate Brie Larson so much that she lives in their heads rent free... They hate her over something she said in 2018 that she was... Absolutely correct about. I wish I had that kinda power, just to exist and be me, and make a bunch of men who will never amount to anything worthwhile angry.

Hint hint, there's money involved. It's why we need to just ignore these people, cut off their income and revenue streams. They thrive off of hate and outrage, and getting people like us to watch their rancid loud nonsense and platform them in the form of dunking them. That's still giving them attention.

I don't know. I think most "normal" moviegoing audiences don't care. I've worked at movie theater for 8 years now, and only a few customers do I hear this kind of weird-ass antisocial talk from. They didn't reject THE MARVELS because it stars three women. I mean, WONDER WOMAN made big bucks. CAPTAIN MARVEL itself was a billion dollar smash. SPIDER-VERSE is about a Black Puerto Rican Spider-Man, and the deuteragonist is a Spider-Woman, possibly a trans Spider-Woman at that! And this year, we had an anti-imperialist anti-war and probably anti-American movie make HUGE bucks both domestically and worldwide, we had a literal Barbie movie with tons of Barbie characters of different races and even a TRANSGENDER Barbie, and it became one of the highest-grossing films ever. At the end of last year, we had an AVATAR sequel. Environmentalism, colonialism, that's as "woke" as you can get! Like, you can't look at me with a straight face and tell me that THE MARVELS is going to lose money because it's "woke".

No, it's going to lose money because it's just more of the same, and audiences have kinda moved on from that. It happens in cycles with all kinds of movies.

It's an inert conversation that's been going on for far too long. Algorithms thrive off of chuds who complained about every STAR WARS movie made since Disney bought the franchise, who complained about MAD MAX: FURY ROAD, who complained *incessantly* about a GHOSTBUSTERS movie lead by women, dudes who are deathly allergic to anything that isn't about straight white men. It's a vocal minority, and that the conversation should be more about why the MCU is running out of juice for storytelling reasons and meeting audiences at where they're collectively at. Not why these perpetually-unsatisfied people will never be satisfied.

I mean, this past election cycle, we saw several Republican losses. And in 2022, that "Red Wave" turned out to be a "Red Mirage". Most angry chuds, if they don't vote Republican, then they sure seem to be their biggest base. The overlap with them and MAGA and such. I'd like to think that most normal Americans who aren't extremely-online don't give a shit about who's starring in what. Again, look at how BARBIE did. Republicans make it seem like Americans are fed up with transgender folk (among many other "issues" they're trying to run on), and in BARBIE, the transgender Barbie played by Hari Nef was no background character. She gets *a lot* of scenes... And it still made like $1.4 billion. Maybe because, shocker, most Americans aren't fazed by that. They don't care if you're not white, gay, trans, whatever- They just wanna grill! And are probably fed up with Republicans constantly telling them to be afraid of people who pose no threat.

I dunno, just a hunch?

This year, we saw QUANTUMANIA open in the triple-digits, but score an abysmal 2x multiplier. We're seeing this movie open with relatively low numbers. DC flop-a-doo'ed with SHAZAM 2, THE FLASH, and BLUE BEETLE. I don't see AQUAMAN 2 doing great, either. It looks more of the same, backwash from 2017. James Gunn's SUPERMAN: LEGACY needs to really stand on its own in order to make an impression and get people back for a new take on Kal-El. As for the MCU, I still think DEADPOOL 3 is locked to do great next summer because... People love that character, and the last two movies satisfied audiences. And Hugh Jackman returns as Logan, which is a plus. Not that the movie needed it to do great, but it's an added bonus, and given that this is a Deadpool movie, it'll likely be an irreverent takedown of what's wrong with superhero movies lately. All these forced cameos and multiverse plans that seem to not add up, and such... The rest might see diminishing returns as well. Are people up for another Captain America movie? THUNDERBOLTS? Yet another take on Fantastic Four? Blade, even? Or whatever is off in the future, like a 3rd Doctor Strange movie or that ARMOR WARS project? How many more of these movies can you belt at audiences before it's just a small group that dutifully shows up for them?

This is the conversation I'm much more interested in. Not so much the "death" of the superhero movie, but where it goes and how the MCU's path informs things going forward. Again, my theory is that we're going to see audiences respond to more director-driven films and films that have - again - some kind of vision. Films like THE BATMAN, GUARDIANS VOL. 3, ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE, etc. And on the TV end of things, stuff like INVINCIBLE. New and dynamic takes on this type of story.

[charcubed]

Celebrities’ sexualities/relationships, and what not to post where

I’m going to make an all-purpose, general post about this topic, because it seems like there’s value in making one. Anyone who’s been following me here or on Twitter long enough has seen me address this before but often in specific scenarios, but y’know what... let me just make a general all-purpose post too just to lay this out for the sake of my own sanity.

We all know this is a thing: people like to speculate on celebrities’ sexualities and/or participate in “real person fiction” (RPF), and that’s been happening since the dawn of fandom. On some level, I understand why; it's exciting to think a celebrity might be queer especially if YOU are. We all want role models & we all want that to be normalized, etc... and sometimes it’s a case of “like recognizes like”; queer people can spot other queer people. But whether or not one is “correct” doesn’t matter, and either way, celebrities' lives are not for our consumption. They do not exist for our entertainment or speculation. This kind of talk can get out of hand very quickly in a way that ruins the lives of real people. 

So I am here to remind people to be mindful of what you say about celebrities, where you say it, and HOW you say it too.

For example: under no circumstances should you openly post things about celebrities’ sexuality or relationships on Twitter.

If you know this already, cool! Great! Good! Keep scrolling! But not everyone does know this, and either way, it’s always a good reminder–especially because people can get excited in the heat of a moment and these principles can easily accidentally fly out of the window.

Not all social media is “equal” or carries the same weight of potential real world consequence. Tumblr, for example, tends to influence little outside of here as long as the topic in question stays on Tumblr; AO3 fic stays on AO3, or at least it should. But Instagram comments or tweets do not exist in a vacuum or echo chamber the way people often seem to think, and often route back to the celebrities in question in harmful ways. Those platforms are open to the wider world in a way that can translate to very real consequence for the people being discussed.

What do I mean by that? A good example of how things can get unintended attention is what happened recently when memes about Misha Collins and Bill Clinton got out of hand, made their way to Twitter, and resulted in journalists writing articles that Misha felt he needed to address. On a more related note, recently Brie Larson made one offhand gay joke/reference in a personal Youtube video; it then trended worldwide and resulted in many articles too. There is now, unfortunately, high potential that she could be asked about and pressured about her sexuality in interviews in future. Did any of the people tweeting about those topics expect that to happen? Probably not, and yet it did. But these are good examples of how Twitter algorithms have vastly shifted, and keyword use is enough for things to easily and quickly trend outside of fandom’s intentions or control in ways that cause harm.

Putting any celebrities’ personal lives under a microscope, whether unintentionally or otherwise, is never a good idea. But it’s especially not a good idea when it comes to sexualities or personal relationships.

People will say “Shipping is just in the fandom! We know how to behave! What’s the problem? It’s never gone wrong before.” The problem is multilayered, but here are the main issues: the fact that nothing “bad” has happened before does not mean it never will. You can control your behavior, but you cannot control how other people–especially people who are new to your fandom–may or may not behave on the wider internet surrounding the topic of people's personal lives. Posting about it on main on somewhere like Twitter also inherently runs the risk of other outside parties seeing it, being like “what’s all this then?” and then picking it up and running with it further–whether that be ~haters~ or journalists.

People will also say “These celebrities know about this kind of fandom talk and they don’t care!” or “If the celebrities wanted us to stop this, they’d have said something by now!” To that I say: those are a lot of assumptions, when the only “assumption” one should realistically make is that we don’t know celebrities personally, we don’t know if they may or may not be actually closeted/unlabeled (which is their right!), and we don’t know what may make them uncomfortable while other things may not. The absence of "no" or "stop" isn't equivalent to "yes," nor is it citable as defense for questionable or potentially harmful behavior. Silence isn't blanket approval or consent, nor should it be assumed to be in any situation. Just because celebrities haven’t said in so many words “Please stop doing [this specific thing]” doesn’t mean they are automatically cool with whatever a fandom is doing, such as speculating about them or openly pointing out what they think they know about their sexualities or relationships. This includes posts on the wider timeline, or tweets and Instagram comments @ celebrities themselves filled with references or assumptions about their lives that are very not okay.

Even with something like Brie Larson’s situation... A celebrity making a joke or acting a certain way in one environment where they may feel comfortable or more relaxed–like a Youtube video, or a convention with fans, or anything else–does not mean that that celebrity expects or wants worldwide eyes on their behavior. And worldwide attention is what is always at risk on platforms like Twitter or Instagram. 

Ultimately, overanalyzing and calling attention to people’s actions is how people who are allies can be made to feel awkward, or how people who are queer get outed or forced into labels. I literally live in fear of the day when some random journalist starts poking around specific fandoms/celebrities, connects the dots that are out there and are seemingly easy to connect, and then somehow makes their sexuality a topic of interviews. Once it becomes a Topic, it becomes nearly unavoidable for them. That’s what happened to Lee Pace; it’s how many people are forced to come out. At all times, queer celebrities are a stone’s throw away from having to deal with all of that in ways no one should, especially as they get more famous. If you care about any celebrity you like to talk about, or if you care about the privacy of real people at all in the ways you should (especially potentially queer people), this should be a point of concern for you.

So, in conclusion: be mindful. If you must talk about celebrities’ lives on something like Twitter, do it without using their actual names to avoid keywords, because they trend at the drop of a hat out of nowhere and that can ruin lives. Avoid deliberate repetition in your phrases because that’s how accidental trends are made. And, better yet, honestly? Consider just keeping that kind of talk to Tumblr/AO3, and preferably to personal private messages. 

Your ability to fangirl/squee/celebrate a real person’s life is not more important than their right to privacy. Ever. This is not a petty topic and it is not “fandom policing” to say things like this out of concern. Acting from an abundance of caution is always the better way to go, because you lose nothing by being extra vigilant; the alternative of not being cautious enough comes with a high risk of negative consequence.

If we all just operate under the knowledge that talking about real people can translate to real consequences for real lives, and act with an abundance of respect/caution accordingly, then there will be nothing to worry about. And celebrities will get to live their private lives and (if this is applicable) be the authors of their own coming out journeys as they see fit, which is a right everyone should have.

From the bottom of my heart: just use both your empathy and your brain cells, please.

[fandomlife-confessions]

After what happened to twitter, some pretty much the same confessions as last year has started coming again. One Brie Larson hater and one Mirai Nikki hater. If you are the same people who have returned, and you have the feeling déjà vu, search for what you are planning to confess about.

Since there's so many of them, unless they have done something really bad, confessions about "I hate x because I just do" are deleted, especially when it's real people. Imagine seeing a picture of yourself and the text that someone hates you for literally no reason.

-Mod Nen

[aion-rsa]

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: What the Post Credits Scenes Mean for the MCU’s Future

https://ift.tt/3jDyVCH

The following article contains spoilers for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

With Black Widow set largely in the past, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is technically the feature film kickoff to Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the exception of the end credits scenes, it’s the first Phase 4 feature set in the aftermath of the Thanos Snap or Blip, and it introduces a set of characters and a region of the MCU that we have not yet explored.

But like every Marvel movie, Shang-Chi also includes two scenes at the end — one in the middle of the credits, and one at the tail — and unusually, both offer important and possibly critical information for the future of the MCU. Often the very last scene tends to be a joke or a sight gag of some kind; that’s not the case this time.

While the last scene at the very end of the movie does hold some interesting implications of its own, it frankly doesn’t loom as large as the mid-credits sequence. We’ll get to that second one a little later. Right now, let’s examine the mid-credits sequence and what it could mean. And remember, we’re in spoiler territory from here on out!

Marvel Studios

The Mid-Credits Sequence

Halfway through the end credits of Shang-Chi, we fade into a room in what could be Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum. Present in person are Shang-Chi (Simu Liu), his friend Katy (Awkwafina), and Wong (Benedict Wong). Present via holographic image are Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) and Dr. Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) — although notably, Banner appears in his original form and not as the Smart Hulk hybrid he became prior to Avengers: Endgame, although his arm is still in a sling after it was fried pretty much to a crisp when he activated the Infinity Gauntlet. What happened to Smart Hulk? Can Banner change back at will or did something happen?

In any case, all five are in a circle studying the Ten Rings, which are floating in the air between them. Although Shang-Chi remarks that his father has been using them for a thousand years, Bruce says that their power signature indicates that they could be much, much older. What’s even more interesting is that the same power signature generated by the Rings looks a lot like the multiverse — the same jagged, interweaving, branching labyrinth of ever-expanding and twisting lines that we last saw at the end of the Disney+ series Loki — as explained to Loki and Sylvie by He Who Remains in that show’s season finale.

But wait, there’s one final revelation: there’s a signal or beacon of some kind coming from within the Ten Rings themselves — a signal of unknown origin.

Captain Marvel has to excuse herself and leaves, saying that Bruce has her number if she’s needed (he doesn’t). The other four are about to leave as well — but then in what does amount to a classic MCU end credits joke, Shang-Chi and Katy manage to lure Wong out for a night of karaoke instead of standing around wondering what all this means.

They’ll leave that to us.

Marvel Studios

Who or what is sending that signal?

If the Ten Rings is connected to the multiverse, then the signal could be coming from any one of the many different universes we saw forming at the end of Loki. It could also be coming from the Quantum Realm, which is clearly part of our universe.

How the Quantum Realm connects to the rest of the multiverse is a question that’s yet to be answered. But since we also know that some variant of He Who Remains, possibly the version known as Kang the Conqueror, is slated to show up in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, there’s almost no doubt that the multiverse and the Quantum Realm are intertwined — does the Quantum Realm act almost as a secret subway between universes?

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Is the beacon a greeting? A warning? A distress signal? Unknown. But there are possibilities of who or what could be sending it:

Kang/He Who Remains

While the version we met in Loki (played by Jonathan Majors) was a somewhat benign madman/dictator, intent on controlling the flow of events in our universe to prevent it from splintering into the multiverse, we know that there are other, more hostile variants out there, most notably Kang the Conqueror. 

And based on the ending of Loki, we know that there’s at least one universe in which Kang reigns supreme. Could Kang be sending out the signal as a way to lure others to his universe and entrap them? Or is a variant trying to warn others away from Kang’s dominion?

Read more

Movies

Who is Kang the Conqueror? Powers and Marvel Comics History Explained

By Jim Dandeneau

Movies

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings Review

By Bernard Boo

The Beyonder

Many casual MCU fans may react to this with “Who?” But hear us out. The Beyonder was the antagonist behind the classic 1984 Marvel Comics arc known as Secret Wars, in which the character — an omnipotent entity that is actually the sentient remnants of an alternate dimension itself — creates a planet called Battleworld out of pieces of other worlds, kidnaps the heroes and villains of the Marvel Universe and sets them on Battleworld to fight, so it can observe and learn about the ongoing conflict between good and evil (think the old Star Trek episode, “The Savage Curtain”).

The Beyonder’s creator and Secret Wars writer Jim Shooter recently hinted that he had been approached by a legal eagle from Disney to discuss the use of certain characters, leading Shooter to believe that a Secret Wars movie in the MCU was almost inevitable. And let’s face it, it’s too good a concept not to use — especially if you can cross over villains and heroes from different universes.

So the Beyonder may be sending out that signal as a lure or trap. But here’s another theory: Marvel Studios often takes liberties with characters from the comics, sometimes combining aspects of two or more into a version expressly designed for the big screen. If Kang is supposed to be the Big Bad of Phase 4 (and perhaps even some of Phase 5), it’s not unreasonable that Marvel might graft some of the Beyonder’s powers and motivations onto him.

The Fantastic Four

We know that a new movie starring Marvel’s First Family is finally coming, this time from Marvel Studios itself. And we know that Reed Richards can find a way to travel between universes as well as through time. Plus in the comics at least, Kang is possibly a distant descendant of Richards. Since the MCU until now has given no indication that the Fantastic Four exists, could that signal be coming from a version of the Four that does exist in a different universe?

It’s long been suspected among fans that the Quantum Realm (in which signs of civilization have been glimpsed) could play an important role in the introduction of the Fantastic Four into the MCU. But that signal, generated either by the Ten Rings or from somewhere in the multiverse, could also be coming from them.

The Celestials (from Eternals)

With the mid-credits sequence indicating that the Ten Rings are much older than first thought, is it possible that they are actually technology created by the Celestials?

The Celestials, of course, have been around almost as long as the universe/multiverse itself, and have seeded countless worlds in the cosmos with life. On Earth, they created “normal” humans, as well as the Eternals and the Deviants, and return periodically — we’re talking time on a cosmic scale here — to see how their experiments are going.

What if the use of the Ten Rings activates the beacon and sends a signal to the Celestials that it’s time to come look in on their little planet-sized lab? The Celestials operate on such a vast span of time that even Wenwu using the Rings for a millennium would seem like minutes to them. With the ongoing conflict between the Eternals and the Deviants seemingly coming to the fore in this November’s Eternals movie, it seems likely that a Celestial will show up to sort things out. That Celestial might also be very interested in finding out why the Ten Rings have been activated.

Marvel Studios

The Post-Credits Sequence

This one is a lot simpler to explain. Although Wenwu is dead by the end of Shang-Chi, and Shang-Chi himself is off hobnobbing with some of the Avengers, Wenwu’s daughter and Shang-Chi’s sister Xialing (Meng’er Zhang) is seen taking full control of the Ten Rings and planning to keep the organization running — although whether she plans to use it for good or perhaps some more nefarious purposes remains to be seen (she is, after all, still her father’s daughter).

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With a large number of now free agent Black Widows running around, and Sharon Carter/the Power Broker now operating her own agenda and unknown connections from within the CIA itself (at the end of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), there is plenty of geopolitical action for the Ten Rings organization to get involved with. Perhaps we’ll see more of their exploits in an upcoming TV series or Captain America 4 — or maybe Shang-Chi 2. But they aren’t going anywhere.

Shang-Chi and the Legends of the Ten Rings is in theaters now.

The post Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: What the Post Credits Scenes Mean for the MCU’s Future appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3mVPdZV

[kelvintimeline]

youtube(.)com/watch?v=LAOrbgRHsgo what do you think about this take? it's about marvel and military propaganda

I mean as a white person it’s really not my place to call her wrong to think people are using criticisms of Marvel’s depiction of the military to distract from it tackling issues like race. And I certainly do think that that could be the case with a lot of people.

I will clarify that when I do criticize FATWS for being military propaganda, I’m not saying anyone who still enjoys it is stupid (considering... I also still enjoy it, just critically) or that like... it can’t also have poignant themes. And I’m not a far right asshole, lol. Just speaking for myself personally. I am capable of criticizing the show for being military propaganda while still acknowledging other themes are happening.

But if she feels people are using those criticisms to silence the other themes in teh show... I’m not gonna tell her she’s wrong. That’s not my place.

I can just say that the specific military propaganda the show is offering is very deliberate and fits into a VERY specific type of military propaganda... often used by people on the right who often separate “government” from “military” (who they view as a defense from the government should a coup need to happen, as the military is the “real patriotic force” and Big Government is working against the people).

The idea of the government mistreating the military/veterans is often a way to prop up the military. If the military is victim to the government, instead of railing against the military, we should rail against the government. Now they are two separate things and we should only get mad at one. Nevermind that the reason we want the government to support veterans is BECAUSE the military chews them up and spits them out after using them to terrorize innocent people around the world.

And FATWS in particular upholds the military while taking swipe at fictional government groups, especially global tasks forces. Even when it shows the military as flawed (Sam sneaking around the border of Tunisia), it is framed as justified. “The bad things we do are with good intentions and the ends justify the means.”

And it deliberately removes the worst actors from the military (John Walker isn’t military) and RE-ADDS the best actors into it (Sam goes from a veteran to an active duty member who now has a fun team mate who is quirky and sweet and jumps up and down in excitement during military missions).

And it has done this before. It did this with Captain Marvel, where it pretends to have nuance about the military but ultimately boils down to “Criticize the military all you want, they’re still the good guys even when they’re bad.”

And we can talk about how Marvel uses empowerment of marginalized people to sort of cover this up. Using people like white woman ~feminist icons~ as a way to further military propaganda, the same way the Biden Administration used trans inclusion to prop up the military. Again, I can only really go into that on the Captain Marvel side but since she goes off so much about Captain Marvel, I feel like it’s relevant enough I can bring it up.

Carol Danvers,~empowered military woman~, was used by marvel to suggest that feminism should support the military. It made its first “Girl Power” movie a military smooch fest on purpose. Made sure to not be too overpowering about it... tried to both sides it... but clearly ‘military good tho... despite it all’ came out on top.

And of all the anti-feminists I witnessed... none of them went after the film for being military propaganda to hate on it. They just said BRie Larson wanted white men dead, called the film misandry, and then were just.... rly intense about it for three months.

Things could absolutely be different for FATWS but I will clarify that FOR MYSELF AND NO ONE ELSE when I call FATWS military propaganda I am not saying it is otherwise without value, that you can’t enjoy it, or that we should ignore the other issues it tackles. Just to keep the propaganda in mind so you don’t come away with a “Yeah, sometimes the military is bad, but sometimes it’s worth it” point of view.

And maybe wonder to yourself how the military propaganda is influencing how it tackles other issues, like veteran treatment and racism.

[erictmason]

The Road To “Godzilla VS. Kong”, Day Four

(Sorry for the delay on this one, Life proved just a bit too busy the other day to finish it; my “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” review is gonna be pushed back as a result too.  But!  No worries, on we go. ^_^)

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Writers: Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly, John Gatins

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly

Technically speaking, Gareth Edwards’ “Godzila” from 2014 was the first entry in what is now generally referred to as “The Monsterverse”, an attempt by Warner Bros. Studios and Legendary Pictures to do a Marvel Studios-style series of various interconnected movies (and which, like most such attempts to cash in on that particular trend, hasn’t really panned out; “Godzilla VS. Kong” seems likely to be its grand finale as far as movies are concerned, the only two “names” it had going for it are Godzilla and Kong themselves, and even at its most successful it was never exactly a Powerhouse Franchise).  But the thing is, when that movie was made, the idea of a “Monsterverse” did not yet exist; it was only well after the fact that Legendary and Warner Bros. got the idea to turn a new “Kong” project into the building block of a Shared Universe of their own that they could connect with the 2014 “Godzilla”, with a clear eye on getting to remake one of the most singularly iconic (and profitable) Giant Monster Movies of all time.  As you might guess from that description, however, said “Kong” project also had not originally been intended for such a purpose; it would not be until 2016 that it would be retooled from its original purpose (a prequel to the original “King Kong” titled simply “Skull Island”) into its present form, which goes out of its way to reference Monarch, the monster-tracking Science organization seen over in 2014’s “Godzilla” and which includes a very obviously Marvel-inspired post-credits stinger explicitly tying Kong and Godzilla’s existences together.  

The resulting film is fun enough, all things told, but that graft is also really, distractingly obvious.

Honestly, I wish I knew why I’m not, generally, fonder of “Skull Island” than I am.  It’s not as if, taken as a whole, it does anything especially bad; indeed it does a great deal that is actively good.  Consider, for example, the rather unique choice to make it a Period Piece; that’s decently rare for a Monster Movie as it is (indeed one of the only other examples that springs to mind for me is Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of “King Kong”, which chose to retain the original’s 1933 setting), and it’s rarer still that the era it chooses to inhabit is an immediately-post-Vietnam 1970’s.  Aesthetically speaking, the movie takes a decent amount of fairly-obvious influence from that most classic of Vietnam-era films, “Apocalypse Now” (a fact that director Jordan Vogt-Roberts was always fairly open about), and it results in some of the movie’s strongest overall imagery (in particular a shot of Kong, cast in stark silhouette, standing against the burning sun on the horizon with a fleet of helicopters approaching him, one of a surprisingly small number of times the movie plays with visual scale to quite the same degree or with quite the same success as “Godzilla” 2014).  It also means the movie is decked out in warm, lush colors that really do bring out all the personality of its Jungle setting in the most compelling way and, given how important the setting is to the film as a whole, that proves key; Skull Island maybe doesn’t become a character in its own right the way the best settings should (too much of our time is spent in fairly indistinct forests especially), but it does manage to feel exciting and unusual in the right ways more often than not.  The “Apocalypse Now” influence also extends to our human cast,  which is sizeable enough here (in terms of major characters we need  to pay attention to played by notable actors, “Skull Island” dwarfs “Godzilla” 2014 by a significant margin) that the framework it provides-a mismatched group defined by various interpersonal/intergenerational tensions trying to make their way through an inhospitable wilderness, ostensibly in search of a lost comrade-is decently necessary.  Though here we already run into one of those aspects of “Skull Island” that doesn’t quite land for me.  Taken as a whole, it sure feels like the human characters here should be decently interesting; certainly, our leads are all much better defined and more engagingly performed than Ford Brody, to draw the most immediately obvious point of comparison.  Brie Larson (as journalistic Anti-War photographer Mason Weaver), Tom Hiddleston (as former British Army officer turned Gun For Hire James Conrad), and John C. Reilly (as Hank Marlow, a World War II soldier stranded on Skull Island years ago) definitely turn in decently strong performances; I wouldn’t call it Career Best work for any of them (Hiddleston especially feels like he’s on auto-pilot half the time, while Larson has to struggle mightily against how little the script actually gives her to work with when you stop and look at it) but they at least prove decently enjoyable to watch (Reilly especially does a solid job of making his character funny without quite pushing him over the edge into Total Cartoon Territory).  I likewise feel like Samuel L. Jackson’s Preston Packard has the potential to be a genuinely-great character; his lingering resentment at the way the Vietnam War played out and the way that feeds into his determination to find and defeat Kong is, again, a clever and compelling use of the 70’s period setting, it gives us a good, believable motivation with a clear and strong Arc to it, and Jackson does a really solid job of playing his Anger as genuine and poignant rather than simply petulant or crazed.  But there’s just too much chaff amongst the wheat, too much time and energy devoted to characters and ideas that don’t have any real pay-off.  This feels especially true of John Goodman’s Bill Randa, the Monarch scientist who arranges the whole expedition; the Monarch stuff in general mostly feels out of place, but Randa in particular gets all of these little notes and beats that seem meant to go somewhere and then just kind of don’t.  Which is kind of what happens with most of the characters in the movie, is the thing; we spend a lot of screen-time dwelling on certain aspects of their backstories or personalities, and then those things effectively stop mattering at all after a certain point, even Packard’s motivations.  A Weak Human Element was one of the problems in “Godzilla” 2014 as well, though, and you’ll recall I quite liked that movie.  There, though, the human stuff was honestly only ever important for how it fed into the monster stuff; it was the connective tissue meant to get us from sequence to sequence and not much more.  Here, though, it forms the heart and soul of the story, and that means its deficiencies feel a lot more harmful to the whole.

Still, those deficiencies really aren’t that severe, and moreover, like I was saying before, there’s a lot about “Skull Island” to actively enjoy.  The Monsters themselves do remain the central draw, after all, and for the most part the movie does a solid job with that aspect of things.  It does not, perhaps, recreate “Godzilla” 2014’s attempt to make believable animals out of them (even as it does design most of them with even more obvious, overt Real World Animal elements), but there is a certain playful energy that informs them at a conceptual level that I appreciate.  Buffalos with horns that look like giant logs with huge strands of moss and grass hanging off their edges, spiders whose legs are adapted to look like tree trunks, stick bugs so big that their camouflage makes them look like fallen trees…the designs feel physically plausible (especially thanks to some strong effects work that makes them feel well inserted into the real environments), but there’s a slightly-humorous tilt to a lot of them that I appreciate, especially since it never outright winks at the audience in a way that would undercut the stakes of the story. Kong too is very well done; rather than the heavily realistic approach taken by the Peter Jackson version from 2005, this Kong is instead very much ape-like but also very clearly his own creature (in particular he stands fully erect most of the time), with a strong sense of Personality to him as well; some of the best parts of the movie are those times where we simply peek in on Kong simply living his life, even when that life is one that is, by nature, violent and dangerous.  Less successful, sadly, are his nemeses, the Skullcrawlers; very much like “Godzilla” 2014, Kong is here envisioned as a Natural Protection against a potentially-dangerous species that threatens humanity (or in this case the Iwi Tribe who live on Skull Island, but we’ll talk more about them later), and while they’re hardly bad designs (the way their snake-like lower bodies give them a lot of neat tricks to play against their enemies in battle are genuinely fun in the right sort of Scary Way), they’re also pretty bland and forgettable, even compared to the MUTOS.  That said, they serve their purpose well enough, and their big Action Scene showdowns with Kong are genuinely solid.  Indeed, the movie’s big climactic brawl between Kong and the biggest of the Skullcrawlers has a lot of good pulpy energy to it (particularly with how Kong winds up using various tools picked up from all around the battlefield to give himself an edge), likewise there’s a certain Wild Fun to the sequence where our hapless humans have to try and survive a trek through the Crawlers’ home-turf.

Where things get a bit tricky again is when the movie attempts to put its own spin on “Godzilla”’s conception of its monsters as part of their own kind of unique ancient eco-system. The sense of Grandeur that gave a lot of that aspect such weight there is mostly absent here, especially; there are instances where some of that feeling comes through (Kong’s interactions with some of the non-Crawler species, for example, do a good job giving us an endearing sense of how Kong fits into this world), but far more often it treats the monsters as Big Set-Piece Attractions.  Which is fine as far as it goes, it just also means a lot of them aren’t as memorable or impactful as I might like.  Meanwhile, the way the Iwis have built their home to accommodate, interact with, and protect themselves from the island’s bestiary feels like a well-designed concept that manages to suggest a lot of History without having to spell it out for us in a way that I appreciated (I would also be inclined to apply this to the very neat multi-layered stone-art used to portray Kong and the Crawlers except that the sequence where we see them is the most overt “let’s stop and do some world-building” exposition dump in the whole movie).  But the Iwis in general are one of the more difficult elements of the movie to process, too; it seems really clear there was a deliberate effort here to avoid the most grossly racist stuff that has been present in prior attempts to portray the Natives of Skull Island, and as far as it goes I do think those efforts bear some fruit; we are, at the very least, very far away from the Scary Ooga-Booga tone of, say, “King Kong VS. Godzilla”, and that feels like it counts for something.  I just also feel like there’s some dehumanizing touches to their portrayal (in particular they never speak; I don’t mean to imply that Not Speaking equals Inhuman, but the fact that we are not made privy to how exactly they do communicate means we’re very much kept at arm’s length from them in a way that seems at least somewhat meant to alienate us from them), especially given their role in the story as a whole is relatively minor.  

At the end of the day, though, all the movie’s elements, good and bad, don’t really feel like they add up together coherently enough to make an impact.  And I think if I had to try and guess why, even as I find it wholly enjoyable with a lot to genuinely recommend it by, I don’t find myself especially enamored by “Skull Island”.  It has a lot of different ideas of how to approach its story-70’s pastiche, worldbuilding exercise, Monster Mash-but doesn’t seem to quite succeed at realizing any of them fully, indeed often allowing them to get in each other’s ways.  It isn’t, again, a bad movie as a result of that; there really isn’t any stretch of it where I found myself bored or particularly unentertained.  But I did paradoxically find myself frequently wanting more, even as by rights the movie delivers on basically what I was looking for from it.   

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: The League of Evil Exes

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is one of the greatest cult classics of the 2010s for a wide variety of reasons: it had great performances, it got a video game adaptation that didn’t suck, it had an awesome soundtrack, and best of all, it apparently ruined an entire generation of women! What couldn’t this movie do (besides make a profit at the box office)? Of course, more than anything, this movie delivered on the promise of its premise by having Scott Pilgrim fight against the seven evil exes of his manic pixie dream girl Ramona Flowers.

That’s right: There’s not one, not two, not three, but seven villains to talk about in this movie!

Thankfully, this massive amount of villains makes it a lot easier to talk about them, because each of them basically gets only a single scene with which to establish their characterization and deliver a fun, exciting battle. Still, it’s pretty interesting to look at them, especially since not all exes are created equal. As a note, I’m obviously not doing a “Best Scene” for these guys because... they basically have one scene each. It would be redundant.

Motivation/Goals: The League of Evil Exes has a very simple goal: to control the future of Ramona’s love life. As Lucas says during his battle with Scott: “The Seven Evil Exes? Coming to kill you? Controlling the future of Ramona's love life?” This is especially funny because Lucas is probably the least evil of the lot. While this is an incredibly simple motivation, it fits with the tone of the movie; this is a sort of a Bowser-esque motivation, one that perfectly fits a movie that is so steeped in video game culture.

Performance: Lets go one by one here:

Satya Bhabha is the first of the evil exes, Matthew Patel, and he really eases you into what to expect for the rest of the evil exes, though here “eases you into” means “grabs you by the balls and swings you over the head like a chimpanzee.” Despite his meager screentime, he makes the most of it, delivering a Bollywood-esque musical number complete with fireballs and demon hipster chicks and generally just hamming it up. This right here is just a warmup, though, because things get crazier from here – just like in a video game, really.

Lucas Lee, the second evil ex, is a big-shot movie star regarded as a pretty good actor by all who see him. Unfortunately, they got some unknown weirdo named Chris Evans to play him, but casting this obscure indie actor certainly paid off, because Lucas Lee’s smug, over-confident portrayal combined with his affable nature make him one of the most enjoyable characters in the movie. He really comes off as a cool, cocky guy who just happens to be going up against our hero as opposed to being an actual antagonizing force.

Todd Ingram is the other best evil ex, and much like Lee it’s mostly because he’s a pretty nice guy. However, the key difference is while Lee was cocky and affable, Ingram is just kind of a ditz. Played by one-time Superman Brandon Routh, he opts to go for the more subuded route, a cold ham as opposed to a large ham, and he definitely makes it work; I did call him the OTHER best evil ex, after all.

Then we come to Roxy Richter, played by Katara herself, Mae Whitman. She’s a very angry, tomboyish lesbian who gets in a lot of great lines and shows off a very jaded, irritated personality in her limited screentime. She’s definitely a lot of fun, though apparently she has a lot of elements of Envy Adams due to being combined with an early idea to make her Ramona’s evil ex in the movie.

The Katayanagi Twins. Ken and Kyle, are… nothing. Because Keita and Shota Saitou (Kyle and Ken, respectively) did not speak English, the twins have no lines and don’t really get to establish much of a presence before dying. It’s a bit unfortunate, because it becomes really easy to forget these two are here as a result.

Gideon Gordon Graves is a smarmy, smug, condescending jackass. You have met a man like him before, and you have wanted to punch his face in. Jason Schwartzman really amps up the sleaze when playing this creepy, controlling bastard, making him a fitting final boss.

Final Fate: Each and every one of them is defeated by the end of their scenes, bursting into progressively larger amounts of coins, with Patel being pretty meager in terms of value and Gideon literally making it rain when he’s defeated. It does kind of feel weird that the twins are worth more than a beloved actor like Lucas Lee, or that Roxy is worth more than both Lee and a musician like Ingram, but frankly this isn’t really a movie where you should be overthinking stuff to begin with.

Best Quote: I don’t think I can really say Patel or Gideon have amazing, quotable lines to the extent as some of the others, but I’d be pretty remiss to not mention Todd’s legendary “...Chicken isn’t vegan…?” and Roxy’s equally legendary “Well honey… I’m a little bi-FURIOUS!” here. Lucas Lee has a lot of good lines but he’s quite frankly too consistent for me to pick one; Chris Evans really just went all-out for this one.

Final Thoughts & Score: Once again, let’s go one by one:

Matthew Patel

Matthew is the definition of a warmup boss, at least by the standards of this film. He brings a lot of insanity to the table all at once, what with his demons and Bollywood musical number and sick dance moves, but the fact he’s probably not the most insane and baffling character in the film really tells you something. He definitely makes the most of his screentime, and while his fight is relatively short, it’s a lot of fun. This man deserves an S-L-ICK 8/10.

Lucas Lee

Lucas Lee is probably the second best evil ex in the movie. He’s just so cocky, arrogant, and hilarious, and he still manages to come off as a bit polite. Its like if Captain America and Ransom Drysdale had a baby, Lucas Lee would be it. The fact he’s played by a pre-superstardom Chris Evans really is the icing on the cake here though, because his battle is fun and ends with Scott defeating him by playing into his arrogance. Ah! But he didn’t get his autograph… Oh well. Lucas Lee is an easy 10/10.

Todd Ingram

As much as I love Lee, I have to say that Todd easily has the most impressive fight in the entire film, in large part due to his awesome psychic powers he gains from being a vegan. I gave one of his legendary quotes up there, but frankly, the entire battle is awesome and quotable, the fact that at least half the battle is a rock-off is great, and the fact Scott tricks him in the most stupidly amazing to defeat him and put him at the mercy of the Vegan Police is just amazing. There’s also just the sheer novelty of how, with the power in hindsight, we got to see Superman (Routh) dating Captain Marvel (Brie Larson portrayed Envy, Scott’s ex and Todd’s girlfriend and bandmate). Todd is just a perfect, lovable idiot villain, and deserves nothing less than a 10/10.

Roxy Richter

Roxy actually gets to show up twice in the film, getting a brief scene with Scott a while before her identity is revealed. While her screentime doesn’t really amount to much, it really is incredible how much characterization they managed to pack into her limited screentime, her dialogue really selling how she is easily the most bitter and angry off all the exes. She seems genuinely hurt at some points that Ramona left her and considers her just a phase, though this of course doesn’t stop her from trying to ruin her life. In a weird way, I’d almost call her the most complex of the exes, and Mae Whitman does a great job at selling her. I will say though, despite her fight scene being filled with some of the best dialogue in the film (which is saying a lot, mind you), the overall fight is a little lackluster, and Ramona getting in makes it reek of “designated girl fight.” Still, there’s nothing so egregious about her that I’d give her anything less than a 9/10.

The Katayanagi Twins

These two, quite simply, suck. They get absolutely no characterization, they get no dialogue due to the actors not speaking English, they get no personality. They are, quite simply, just there, and they are just there because Scott needs to fight a fifth and sixth ex. There’s really not much to say here except that their fight scene is admittedly pretty cool and it’s fun to imagine how the hell their relationship with Ramona worked. Did they date her one after the other? Were they in a weird poly relationship? Did they both just spitroast her on the weekends? For those two things I’ll save them from the very bottom of the barrel and give them a 2/10.

Gideon Gordon Graves

Gideon is a smug, evil, controlling creep for sure, and he is the final evil ex Scott must face. But the thing is, he kind of doesn’t feel any more wieighty than any of the others? Gideon is for all intents and purposes the final boss, and while he does get a little buildup, it all comes in the final acts of the film. It certainly doesn’t make him a bad villain – he actually manages to temporarily kill Scott, and puts up more of a fight than any of the others – but considering how awesome Todd, Lucas, Roxy, and Matthew were in style and personality, Gideon kind of comes off as underwhelming. Yes, he is definitely the most evil of the exes, but he just doesn’t really have the “WOW” factor the others do. He’s an 8/10 for sure.

Well, I guess that’s it, that’s every villain in the mo-

Wait?

What’s this?!

Psycho Analysis: Nega Scott

…

[smokeybrand]

Mutiny

I’m not a fan of Joe Rogen. I find a lot of what he says to be problematic as f*ck but the way he says it, is FAR more damaging. Dude pushes some wild, dangerous, nonsense under the guise of “free speech”, disingenuous “debate”, and insidiously leading questions. Rogen is the Frat Boy version of Tucker Carlson in a lot of ways and that sh*t just doesn’t appeal to me. Beta males who think too highly of themselves listen to this due and take him seriously. These are people who are not self-actualized, who’s entire personality is based on their car or their sneakers or some other superficial bullsh*t they confuse for a personality, and that’s what Rogen’s entire show is; Superficial bullsh*t. So when he pushes dumb-f*ckery like “Don’t get the shot if you’re young and healthy”, these idiots who are either teenagers or have the mentality of teenagers, f*cking listen and we have a spike in cases. Because Joe Rogen said so.

The other day, this asshole bought into that whole “White Fear” sh*t, talking about how the Straight White Male is the most persecuted demo in America and i just groaned. This is the same exact sh*t Carlson does on his show, verbatim, just slightly less racist. It’s the current strategy of what is fast becoming the American Fascist Party, Republicans. It’s hypocritical f*cking nonsense and i hate it. How the f*ck would Joe Rogen, a Straight White Male with a whole ass podcast, be silenced or censored or persecuted/ He’s a multi-millionaire with one of the most popular platforms on f*cking Spotify. How the f*ck would any White person, especially Straight White Males, get silenced in the US? The bones of this country are built to uphold a very specific form of White Supremacy. Hell, cats talk about all these rights and liberties but, in the very beginning, those rights were only extended to White Male Landowners; basically Rich White Men, and guess who the f*ck Joe Rogen is? The constitution had to be amended to include every one else which means this country was designed to be a haven for objective White Supremacy. The fact that they replaced Straight with Rich is just a misnomer used to broaden that division and you have assholes with real audiences buying into that dangerous bullsh*t, disseminating that poison to their followers. And they just drink that persecution complex kool-aid, up. It’s f*cking absurd.

The irony in all of this is the fact that the country is getting younger and browner. Statistically, by the time Gen Z’s kids come of age, we’ll outnumber White people. The margin will be slight but they’ll be the overall minority in this country and that’s why we have all of this fear-mongering and treasonous tantrums. That system the Founding Fathers built to protect their power, is falling apart. It's all a matter of time. Why do you think they're fighting so hard to keep DC and Puerto Rico from becoming actual States? I can guarantee those cats who signed the Constitution never anticipated the influx of melanated people over the years, interbreeding with their lily White sensibilities, or the homogeneity desegregation would bring to society or the way Black culture ended up shaping the entire American zeitgeist or how the Internet just blew the doors off any illusion US citizens had about our true status in the world at large. I was born in 1984. Ten years before i existed, the South was still heavily segregated. My generation, the Millennials, were the very first to be completely free from the social consequences of the Civil Rights Movement. We were far enough removed from that to just see people, not race. I was exposed to so many more cultures, religions, and people, as a kid, than my ma had been when she was young. It wasn’t like, all of a sudden, we were singing kumbaya together, but it was definitely a start, one that has only gained more and more momentum as the Generations who came after mine, started coming of age in a world whose borders are just ceremonial at this point because of the Tech age.

I met my chick and made friends across the globe in a chatroom. One of my closest friends lives in New Zealand. Another stays in Finland. My birthday twin lives in England. She’s a year older than i am and has a beautiful family. My Puerto Rican sister met her dude around the same time i met my chick. He’s from Alabama. She moved from the island to be with him and they've settled down in Georgia where they share a beautiful daughter. My best friend became so close with an Asian girl from Australia, that he adopted her as his own sister. They spoke at least twice a week for the next fifteen years, all the way up until he passed away. The world is much smaller, much clearer, than it has ever  been before, and it turns out that it’s full of color. Color these Straight White Men are, apparently, terrified of. That’s got to be it. That’s got to be why they’re throwing these big ass tantrums and constantly fear-mongering about it. I don’t understand. When Brie Larson said what she said, it was the truth. There are THOUSANDS of films about White dudes you can watch. The entirety of film history is Straight White Males. What is so bad abut getting some chicks or People of Color or some LBGTQ representation in a few leads? Why can't we have strong Black performances in movies where we don't play the “magical Negro” or f*cking Slave? Why can't we have an all Asian cast when the principals aren't constantly fetishized? What is so terrible about giving a role to a Muslim that isn't linked to some ridiculous terrorist trope? Who’s really offended by this and why are they so goddamn fervent about it? Straight White Males, bud.

It’s because their grip on the reins is slipping. The power and the privilege they’ve had for so long, too long, is started to tip in the other direction. The playing field is, ever so slowly, evening out and these Straight White Males are losing their sh*t. They’ll talk about “being racist against white people” and “it's fine to interview everyone but hire cats who are qualified” with one breath but then absolutely savage voting rights directly focused on crippling the Black vote and desperately cling to the idea that 45 still deserves to be president, even though a steady stream of his criminal incompetence has been flowing out of the the White House since he’s left. The level cognitive dissonance is f*cking hilarious. It’s as bad as the GOP complaining about “cancel culture” while literally silencing Liz Cheney. Are you f*cking kidding me? I gotta sit here and listen to a very vocal minority complain about the direction of the MCU because they’ve decided to add a plethora of female and POC roles going forward into Phase Four. They keep asking “who's this for?” and it's obvious it's for everyone, not just Straight White Males. That, to them, means it's going to be bad. Just because the focus has shifted from three White dudes in leading roles, suddenly the MCU has lost it's way. It’s like, all of a sudden, just because the MCU wants to represent their audience as a whole, not just a narrow and shrinking part of it, we’re not supposed to trust in Feige anymore. Are you kidding me? The Green Knight is slated to be another massive hit for A24. The cat who wrote that film was bounced from studio to studio because he created that story specifically as a vehicle for Dev Patel and no major studio wanted to make it with him in the lead. Dev Patel is a f*cking Oscar winner and a brilliant actor but this movie, draped in surreal and beautiful imagery, driven by a visceral, bloody, focus, wasn’t going to get made because the lead this plot was specifically written for, happens to be brown. But Straight White Males are the ones being silenced? Okay, bud.

Joe Rogen is a symptom of a greater problem and it’s the problem of White Fragility. White Fragility fuels the worst of our society. It's the genesis of racism and bigotry. It drives Nationalism and is fertile ground for cults of personality which blossom into whole ass dictatorships. These motherf*ckers are in they’re feelings and will burn this country to the ground if it means they will stop getting their way. Brie Larson calls out the ridiculousness of the race bias in Hollywood? They attack. Arizona flips Blue because Indigenous people and Black folks come out to vote in droves? Voter fraud and four recounts, one months after the election has been called and Biden has already taken office. Jordan Peele says, out loud, to the entire country, that he’s not interested in telling stories with White people in the lead? Shadow banned from Hollywood. Dude was the toast of Hollywood after Get Out and Us. He said what he said and cat's been trapped behind the camera as a Producer ever since. It’s nuts because these people complaining about how hard it is to be and how unfair the current social climate is to Straight White Males, have called Twatter NPCs whiny, SJW, children, for years. Bro,you’re the same, just racist! You are the Trump to their Obama. You are the thermodynamic reaction to their Civil action. You assholes are arguing the same merit, just on the opposite ends of the spectrum so, if they’re whiny assholes, wouldn’t you have to be, too? The only difference is that the Twatter assholes have a zeal for inclusion while you Rogen Bros have a penchant for White Supremacy and, given the choice, I'd have to agree with the Blue Checkmarks in this regard.

Straight White Males have had the run of this country since before it was a country and look what they’ve done with it. Look where we are, right now, in the year of our lord, 2021. This is as far as we have come under their stewardship. It’s time for a new captain, i think. Sorry if that hard truth hurts your feelings. Now please steer us away from those very obvious rocks. I’d rather not violently crash into that reef and sink into a watery grave before we can get our hands on the wheel to right this ship, all because you assholes are in your feelings, thank you.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About the MCU (Phase Three Part One)

...I’m gonna have to split this one into two parts. Because Phase three is when these movies start getting good, and which in turn results in my have a LOT to talk about. So, here’s the first half of this phase.

10th place: Captian Marvel (6/10)

This is not the worst MCU movie. This isn't even close to the worst thing in the MCU. THAT honor goes to Inhumans, which might just be the most boring TV show that I ever had the displeasure of watching. And if you're a person who only counts the movies as part of the MCU, then there is no way you can look me in the eye and tell me that Captain Marvel is worse than Thor: The Dark World. Because this movie actually has better action, a handful of funny moments, a decent (albeit predictable) story, a fantastic tribute to Stan Lee, and Goose the Cat. Who is free from any criticism due to being equal parts adorable, hilarious, and awesome.

However, there is one major issue that this movie has, and that is Brie Larson's Captain Marvel. Before you say anything, no, it's not because she barely smiles (shut it, if you think that's actually the problem). The problem is that I just don't know what they want her character to be. Is she meant to be playful yet mysterious, like Marceline from Adventure Time? Is she meant to be a stoic badass with a deadpan sense of humor like Garnet from Steven Universe? Or is she supposed to be this perfect hero with witty remarks like Kim Possible from Kim Possible? Because at times, it feels like the people behind this movie are trying to do all three personalities at once, which makes the character feel disjointed. Plus, it's probably not a good thing that I listed three female characters in children's shows better than this character in this movie for teens and adults. Nor is it a good thing that every actor, including the males, act circles around Brie Larson, who is known for giving Oscar-worthy performances. Still, I'm willing to allow the benefit of the doubt that this issue will be solved in time for Captain Marvel 2, as it took both Captain America and Thor a while before they finally became fan favorites. For now, while Captain Marvel is nowhere near the worst, I wouldn't exactly jump the gun and call it the best, either.

9th place: Doctor Strange (6/10)

This movie is somehow both memorable and forgettable at the same time. The visuals alone help make Doctor Strange memorable, seeing the world bend and morph in a way that is best experienced on the most gigantic screen you can find. The visuals even lend to making the fight scenes unforgetable, resulting in action that's hard to forget. It's still just punching and kicking, but the way this movie uses punching and kicking that makes it fun to watch. Such as having Strange fight wizards as astral projections, or while the world is reversing in on itself, dodging debris as it puts itself back into place. Plus, that ending is not only the most unique defeat of a bad guy that any MCU movie has done, but it also proves how selfless Doctor Strange can be as a hero. So I won't be able to forget bits and pieces of this movie...but I can easily forget everything else. The jokes, plot, characters, and especially the villain are things I tend to lose track of on each rewatch. Which might honestly be worse than it sounds. Because while it's still a fun movie that I recommend, it's not a good thing that I constantly forget it, even as I'm writing this.

8th place: Ant-Man and the Wasp (7.5/10)

How is Ant-Man and the Wasp a dividing movie for MCU fans? People either really hate it or just think it's ok, and I don't get that. Because personally, I think this movie is really good. Yeah, there are leaps in logic, and the ending is a huge cop-out, especially since this movie came after Avengers: Infinity War. But I think Ant-Man and the Wasp incredibly improve upon the original with a tighter story and better-written characters, who all have great personalities and fantastic chemistry. Sure, these characters fall flat during certain dramatic moments, but really succeed when written for comedy. My personal favorite is Cassie, who might just be my favorite little girl character in fiction. She admires her father for everything he does, going so far as to smile with glee as he's wreaking shop in the finale. 

Speaking of her father, I really love how Ant-Man and the Wasp differentiate Scott Lang from the rest of the Avengers. In a world of gods and supersoldiers, you have Ant-Man, who's basically just a regular guy. The best example that shows how it that montage of him doing stuff while under house arrest. If any of our other heroes were in this situation, they would take advantage of the time to train, build cool s**t, and maybe even meditate. But for Scott? He wastes time singing karaoke, practicing close-up magic, and crying himself to sleep while reading The Fault in our Stars. It's a great way of showing how he's a little fish in the world's biggest pond. And I like that.

This movie may not be perfect, but every now and again, it's nice to get something small-scale (get it) and personal within the grand adventures in the MCU.

7th Place: Captain America: Civil War (8/10)

There are three camps of people who argue about this movie. The first camp is the people who fight about whether this is a Captain America movie or an Avengers movie. The second camp is the people who disagree on how Captain America: Civil War is the same as Batman v. Superman-Dawn of Justice. The third and final camp argues whether or not the movie is better than the comics. And I'm about to address each and every one of these camps.

First off, this is an Avengers movie. Captain America may take a more primary role, but consider that Thanos is easily the main character in Avengers: Infinity War, and how that movie isn't called Thanos: Infinity War. The fact that Cap barely takes center stage kind of ruins this being his movie, which is why it's arguably the worst Captain America movie by default, but that doesn't change how good this is. Mostly because it's easily a better Avengers movie than Age of Ultron.

As for how this movie is the same as Batman v. Superman, I can tell you right now that it isn't. They're similar in concept, I'll give you that, but their differences meet with the execution of said concepts. Yes, both movies have two people with different ideas fighting it out due to heroes causing collateral damage while inadvertently doing what an evil mastermind, with a tediously complicated plan, expects them to do. But you wanna know what Civil War has that BvS doesn't? Comedy. Marvel's ability to laugh at itself, to realize that what they're making shouldn't be taken too seriously, is what makes it worth the watch. Every. Time. Plus, I find it hilarious that a movie with four times the amount of superheroes manages to give each character a proper story and subplot than the film with just three.

This leads me to my third point: The movie is much better than the comics. Would it have been more awesome to see the number of characters we have now battle it out than seeing the relatively small one in this movie? Maybe. But look at Infinity War and Endgame. As good as those movies are, there were still many characters that got the short end of the stick. By keeping the cast small, Civil War gives each hero time to have an understandable motivation to pick one side or the other while giving each of their stories a proper conclusion. Even Black Panther and Spider-Man, introduced in this movie as sequel bait, still somehow manage to have clear motives and satisfying stories. Plus, where the comics make it hard to pick a side between Captain America and Iron Man because both made awful decisions after awful decisions, the movie makes it hard to pick and choose because both have to make hard decisions. Both Cap and Iron Man have clear reasons for their choices as well as hesitations. But they still see the point of view of the opposing side and try to talk things out. Which makes things all the more heartbreaking when they finally disagree. Something that never happened in the comics even once.

Overall, Captain America: Civil War is a great movie. It may not entirely be a Captain America movie, and the villain's plan is, again, tediously complicated. But it's still good because it understands the importance of characters and even a sense of humor. Which is something that I wish I could say about Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.

6th place: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 (9/10)

It's not every day that the sequel is better than the original, let alone being equally good. And yet, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 is just as fun as its predecessor, if not a smidge better. Everything that I love about the first movie is here in spades, with a few improvements added to the appeal. Like the visuals, which not only have the colors and gradient turned up to thousand, but there are also some spectacular shots that at times look like they could be panels in a comic book. Plus, Ego the Living Planet is a much better villain than Ronan ever could be. Ego's motivations are typical, but his charming personality creates a character that's fun to watch while also showing how dangerous a person like Ego could be when his true motivations are revealed. Although, despite improvements, there are still some elements that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 takes away. Because while most of the jokes are funny, there are some scenes where it's hard to tell if I'm supposed to be laughing or feeling emotional. Also, I just hate what they did to Drax in this movie. In the first one, he was a stoic badass with a deadpan sense of humor. Here, he's written as a dumb a**hole who gets one emotional scene. And it's a powerful one, sure, but it's not enough. Still, I love this movie. If I had to pick which one is better, I would probably say it's Vol 2, but even then, it's a close race, in my opinion.

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And that’s all for now. Here’s part two.

[nonsensicalobsessions]

Tom & the Cookie Monster Take 2

Author’s note: @villainousshakespeare , this idea came and hit me like a brick. Hopefully it did not leave any lasting damage, nor will it give you any by reading it. Anyway, you requested: “May I please have a Tom himself fic (since you are so good at those!) maybe something set during the Broadway run of Betrayal?“ I do not know if this will live up to your praise, as this is but a shortie, but I hope you enjoy, here is your promised prompt, my dearest friend:

Two male Hiddlestons made their way through the hallway towards their apartment door. One was prancing, sprightly and happy. The other was proceeding at a trudge.

Tom was tired, and he had every reason to be. It was Saturday night, which meant there had been the matinee production, as well as the evening show of Betrayal. And while the show was going extremely well, the pace was still grueling some days.

Like today. And yesterday’s. And last week’s...

He rifled through his keys, snickering as he remembered how one fan he spoke to was under the assumption he was living in a penthouse apartment on Fifth Avenue. Erm, no. He had quite a nice furnished flat, in a secure building where he did not have to be concerned any random fan could interrupt his rare moments of private life, but it was simply a nice flat. And at the moment, one of his neighbors was evidently baking biscuits, and his stomach growled.

And not just any biscuits, but chocolate chip biscuits. Damn it. Now he was hungry, and even though he knew of at least half a dozen places that would deliver even at this hour, he was tired, and didn’t feel like interacting with anyone. He wished to take his public face off, just as he had removed his stage make up a couple of hours ago, but then went and spent the time afterwards doing stage door appearances for his fans. Which he loved doing. But now, he just felt drained.

As he found the right key, Bobby was sitting at the door obediently, but Tom could see the dog was all but vibrating to be let in. “Bob, what is it, man?” As Tom unlocked the door, Bobby let out a joyous bark and sped in so rapidly Tom was grateful he had dropped the lead, or his shoulder would have suffered a hell of a jerk.

Tom walked in, his eyes bouncing quickly, dropping his bag and pulling out his phone in a reflexive action. While he had never had a fan break into any of his digs, it had happened to several of his friends, and his fingers were already preparing to call security, even as he recognized the smell of biscuits was even stronger now.

Apparently whomever Bobby had run to greet had baked for him. Which was a pretty decent thing to do, stalker-behavior aside.

“You forgot I was coming tonight, didn’t you?” The familiar female voice was amused, as her yet-to-be-seen form was bent over in the kitchen, acknowledging Bobby’s slavish adoration.

Oh, shit. He had.

He dropped his keys in the small dish she had given him to keep his keys when she learned he kept misplacing them.

“How much trouble am I in?” Even his voice was dull.

“Oh, honestly, Tom.” An arm came up from behind him, hugging his waist and brandishing a freshly baked treat, so fresh it was being held in a napkin. “If you’re so tired that you can’t even remember having given your extra key to someone for just this purpose, I think that speaks more to exhaustion than culpability. Have a cookie, Cookie. I made them just like the recipe printed on the bag, so I can’t have messed it up too badly...”

Then another hand snaked around his waist, this one bearing the body and face of none other than the Cookie Monster, who proceeded to menace the other hand’s bounty. “Delayed gratification, Hiddleston!!” Now the female voice behind him was growly and raspy. “No cookies for you, you must practice the art of...”

“Oh, fuck that,” quoth Tom, grabbing the napkin and spinning around to the laughing face of his baker-cum-stalker. “Get the hell away from my biscuits, Cookie Monster, and take your delayed gratification and get stuffed...”

“It’s a puppet, darling, I don’t think they can get stuffed...”

“No, but they can get a fist right up their...”

“Shut up, Tom, and eat your cookie! I am shocked, shocked and appalled by your uncouth behavior...” laughed Sabrina Wright, who was clearly neither shocked nor appalled.

Tom met Sabrina three months ago, when he did an impromptu visit at a children’s hospital as Loki, complete with costume. The entire event was kept under wraps and unpublicized, as it wasn’t sponsored by anyone. Chris Evans had come to the area to visit a friend who was facing surgery, and between him, Charlie Cox, and Tom, they hatched the idea. Then at the last minute, Brie Larson found out about the plan and came along as well.

The children were ecstatic and a “Marvelous time was had by all” as Tom kept saying later, much to everyone’s general disgust as they kept throwing things at him at his apartment...but Tom had noticed that while everyone, children, parents, siblings, and staff were excited and clamoring to be involved in the fun, there were a few patients that were just too ill to participate, and he and his friends made a point to leave some things aside for those kids to have, and to see if there was anything they could do for them once the furor calmed down.

There was one nurse that never joined in the carefully controlled chaos, but went about caring for, and ultimately consoling, the ones who wished to play but couldn’t, or were too ill to notice, or care. Tom saw her picking one child up, and simply rocking him in her arms in a rocking chair for awhile, rubbing his back, and apparently singing to him. He made a mental note to say hello to her as well. He knew there was always someone that had to stay behind and work when everyone was enjoying these kinds of parties, and he wanted to let her know he saw and was touched by the work she was doing with so much heart.

Once the brouhaha and the dust settled, Loki stepped aside, found Nurse Sabrina, and asked if the other children would be interested in seeing the Marvel crew, and she grimaced.

“It’s very kind of you to inquire, uh, Loki, if you and your...cohort would like to perhaps wave at the children from the doorway if they are awake, that would be fine, but that is the most I can allow. They really are quite sick.”

Chris stepped up. “Is it all right if we leave them some signed posters and things like that?”

“Cap, I know that would make them very happy, even if we have to put them up outside of their rooms, looking in...!”

Loki looked into the room where he had seen the little boy Sabrina had rocked. He seemed so frail... “Erm, that little boy...will he be alright?”

Sabrina’s face buttoned up. “I’m afraid I cannot comment on his prognosis, Loki. I will say...I wish you had healing powers. For all of these children, obviously...but especially for him. He was so distressed he could not come out and see you, in particular. He thinks you are, ah, badass. I do not bother correcting his more colorful speech. It’s not relevant.”

“I see. Is he awake?”

“Yes, he is, but I cannot allow you to go in...”

“I understand...tell this young Midgardian to expect a visit in a few minutes...”

One of the giveaway items they had was a small t shirt, which Tom had signed by both characters and actors, and then proceeded to his room.

Small Tim Curran was wondering why Nurse Sabrina had come in, and insisted that she comb his hair, and wash his face...and then...

“Midgardian.”

“Holy sh...smokes,” the little boy breathed. Standing in the doorway was none other than the OG, the badass himself... “Loki?”

“I understand you are unwell and as such I am not to enter your presence. I would not wish to undermine your recovery. However, I come bearing gifts.”

Sabrina entered, grinning from ear to ear, and showed him the T-shirt. Loki had even doodled his face next to his name. “I have embued it with as much healing seidr as possible. I do not know if it will be effective against your Midgardian illness, but I do know it will aid your prodigious courage and strength, provided you heed the instructions of Healer Sabrina, and all others who are working in your aid.”

Captain Marvel, Captain America, and Daredevil also spoke to him personally, adding what qualities they added to his shirt.

Tim was in heaven, and as Sabrina was looking at his vitals, saw he was getting over excited, and thought she would have to cut the visit short, but seeing as she was getting concerned, the actors all proclaimed they needed to depart to return to their duties.

Tim fell asleep that night clutching his shirt, and would not be parted from it. Loki would be pleased to know it did impart healing powers, because it brought the little boy so much happiness...

Tom called Sabrina the next day, and asked if there was anything else he could do for the children in the wing, and Sabrina replied they were still very excited, and he had done more than enough. She was very grateful. She was also very thankful he called to speak with her personally, not because she was flattered on a personal standpoint (although she was) but because her superiors in administration would be quick to turn it into a publicity request or worse, a financial one).

Tom shyly admitted he did have an ulterior motive for asking to speak with her personally...he wanted to know if he could see her sometime.

Something about the small nurse had gotten under his skin. Maybe it was the way she stuck to the background the entire afternoon, even when everyone was getting into the big group photo. Maybe it was the way she never asked for a thing herself, even when they were all speaking casually and privately at the end, when she easily could have. No one would have minded, and even Evans and Larson commented on it over pizza and beer later that evening, how she didn’t ask for a selfie, an autograph, nothing, even though she was as friendly and pleasant as old be...

Cox noticed how Tom blushed when Evans joked about he couldn’t get over someone didn’t want to get a photo with the man who saved New York, or the bastard that almost destroyed it. Cox noticed everything...as he was leaving for the night, he asked Tom, “Are you going to try to get Nurse Ratched’s phone number?”

Tom had flared, “Don’t do that. Don’t make fun of her.”

Cox grinned. “Ah hah. So that’s the way the wind is blowing...” and walked away, whistling.

Coffee became an exchange of What’s App phone numbers. Both of them worked long hours, so texting was a godsend. Texts became marathon phone calls at odd hours of the day, which became meetings in strange places to avoid the paparazzi, until they stumbled into each other’s arms, and each other’s beds.

Sabrina was like no one Tom had ever met: calm, compassionate, cheerful, and not giving a tinker’s damn about the industry, gossip columns, and all the rest of it. When he hesitantly pointed this aspect of her personality out to her she looked at him as though he was something of interest under a microscope.

“Sweet man, I act like I don’t care because I truly don’t. It’s completely irrelevant. Unimportant. Trifling. I have held children’s beating hearts in my hands while doctors have desperately tried to sew them back together in operating rooms because bullets ripped through their little bodies and their bedrooms in housing projects. I’ve held hysterical parents back as they’ve tried to somehow willtheir dying children back to life as they take their last breaths. I’ve held newborns in my hands as they have been only seconds old, and I have held children in my arms as they’ve breathed their last. That, to me, is real. That is life. And it comes wrapped up in tears and laughter and vomit and shit and blood and love and love and love. If some paparazzi, interviewer, man on the street, or tabloid tried to give me shit for loving you, ask me how much I’d care? The answer is not at all. It’s not going to change my mind, or my life.”

Tom knew, then, he had found his one, the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and grow old with, maybe even have a family of his own with...the question was, would she want the same...?

“...Tom? Tom?...Earth to Major...oh, you know what? Forget about it, Major Tom has crashed, Houston, we have a problem,” sighed Sabrina looking at her lover who had fallen asleep on the sofa still clutching part of a cookie he had yet to finish.

“Well, Bobby, it looks like another night of delayed gratification for me...good thing he’s so cute, and I happen to love the charming beanpole,” she commented wryly, only to see that Bobby was also lying on the floor asleep...and farting.

“Good God, what is it with the Hiddleston men tonight, I wonder?” Laughing quietly, Sabrina got up and made sure the bed was ready (and not in the hapless disarray of clothing tossed all around, which was not usual but happened enough to be worthy of a check). She turned down the covers and made sure there was a bottle of water on Tom’s nightstand.

As she was doing this, Tom woke up with a jerk, and he looked around for Sabrina. He wasn’t quite awake, wasn’t asleep, and Sabrina wasn’t there...she wasn’t there, she had finally done it, come to her senses and left him, he had forgotten she was coming to spend the weekend with him, one the rare occurrences she had the entire weekend off, and then he goes and falls asleep on her, no, noton her, but next to her like a right pillock, as if she wasn’t even there...no, no...he knew it was going to happen eventually, she was too lovely a person to put up with him and his bullshit, the way he was so self-absorbed and caught up in his own problems and life, she was right, she dealt in the real world, and...

He put his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, Sabrina...so sorry. You deserved better, but I loved you the best I could,” he whispered. “I gave you all the heart I have...”

“What’s this then?” A soft voice, sweet like melted chocolate, soothing as a warm kiss...

“Sabrina!” His head shot up so quickly she winced at the cracking sound from his neck, and then saw his reddened, swollen eyes.

“Ah, love, what is it? Nightmare?” She came and extended her hand to him. “Come with me, you’re exhausted, and we’ll cuddle.”

“You’re still here.”

She looked at him tolerantly. “Yes, Tom. Still here. Complete with my Cookie Monster puppet, just to drive you mad. Come to bed. I’ll snuggle with you and chase the bads away, I promise. The only monster here is the blue one eyeing your cookies, and I’ve put him away.”

He took her small hand, and smiled. “There will be no delayed gratification in this house. We will enjoy the things we love, and live the one life we have to its fullest...no longer am I going to delay giving my heart what it desires most...I shall be bold, and decisive...Bobby, you have my express permission, nay, encouragement, to destroy the Cookie Monster, and anything else that dares come between myself and my love...”

Yes. He would be bold. Tomorrow, he would ask her if she would consider becoming a permanent star in his sky, he would stop living in fear of her disappearing the moment he closed his eyes, he would throw caution to the four winds, and belay any idea of delaying his happiness, and hopefully, hers, for any reason, a moment longer. There would be declarations made, and promises, and...

He tripped over his shoes.

“Careful! Harsh, Tom, very harsh...and Bobby, don’t you dare.” They turned off the lights and made their way to bed, Tom sleepily stripping along the way, making Sabrina laugh. “Ah, what the world to pay to see this strip show...”

“Quiet, Woman. This is not a strip show, this is a ritual divestiture of armor.”

“Uh huh,” she skeptically agreed, looking at the trail of clothes behind him. “So, if I was to get undressed like that...”

“Ah, now that would be a strip show, and a lovely one, indeed...”

“Sexist double standards...here, sit down, I will tuck you in...”

“Promise?”

“Tom!”

The naughty little boy expression he gave her was ruined by his yawn he could barely cover. Sabrina laughed as she quickly undressed and put on her sleep clothes, only to be greeted by Tom’s gentle snore the moment she turned out the light. He was so very tired. She was glad he could relax, and find some rest.

And while yes, it was definitely a night for delayed gratification, they had the whole weekend to look forward to sharing. She, for one, was so looking forward to bringing out the Cookie Monster puppet in the morning...maybe as part of a wake up call...

Tagging @villainousshakespeare , @winterisakiller , @vodka-and-some-sass , @lotus-eyedindiangoddess , @just-the-hiddles , @yespolkadotkitty , @hopelessromanticspoonie , @theheartofpenelope , @sabine-leo , @wegingerangelica , @ciaodarknessmyheart , @wrathkitty , @rhemasky , @catsladen​ @sourpatchkidsandacokecan​ , @redfoxwritesstuff​ , @the-insomniac-cat2​ , @alexakeyloveloki​ , @myoxisbroken​ , @ladyfluff​ , @toomanystoriessolittletime​

[jennyboom21]

Well if Kaylor broke up earlier than we thought what could be the reason? Scooter hiring Karlie? Maybe Karlie realized Taylor was still writing songs abt Dianna? (DWOHT is clearly abt Dianna 😏) or Karlie really messed up their rs telling Scotter Taylor’s stuff. But I can tell you that Taylor would NEVER b ok with Karlie hanging out with Katy at that time. And she was left out of the LWYMMD t-shirt. However IMO End Game is not abt Karlie neither Dianna. Idk. It’s just not 😕

I don’t think there was one specific reason we could nail down, but the Junior Jewels situation didn’t help, and since this is just conjecture about what was shared/made public, arguments could be made that:

Karlie signing with Scooter late 2015/2016 may have kicked off the pursuit of Taylor as a representative, despite working with Tree since early 2014.

Karlie reminding the public that she was with Josh Kushner, especially after the election, probably didn’t help, since I don’t think Taylor miraculously became a Democrat in 2018, nor 2016. 

Karlie’s engagement to Josh, followed by Taylor’s performance with Hayley Kiyoko at Foxboro stadium on VERY short notice didn’t have the same feeling as when we got emo Taylor when Dianna’s engagement/marriage was announced.  It came off as “are you kidding me right now?”.

Karlie and Josh’s random wedding on a Thursday, just days after news about Jared Kushner’s involvement with Washington Post Jamal Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment, probably did them no favors, especially since Karlie’s role is to give Josh and his family positive promotion.

The KimYe mess was dealt with in quick fashion, but then you had Karlie step out with Kendall Jenner, and Katy Perry, pre-reconciliation. 

Karlie’s “Cold Shoulder” IG post after the Masters Heist was announced, couldn’t have helped.  

If Karlie was left in the dark about an alleged reconciliation with Dianna, whom seemingly knew about Reputation’s contents, then things were either A.) already on the rocks, and they hadn’t spoken in some time B.) they were “together” in name only, but that could’ve really hurt.  

The 2018 August Nashville concert could’ve been their own version of the Swiftgron FUN concert, with Karlie telling Taylor about the upcoming wedding, since the engagement was announced just a month prior, with Karlie’s quote:  “I love you more than I have words to express. Josh, you’re my best friend and my soulmate. I can’t wait for forever together. Yes a million times over.”

Their relationship just could’ve ran its’ course, since it appeared as if Karlie wasn’t going to leave Josh (their relationship predates Kaylor), Taylor had doubled-down with Joe, and was about to get LOUD with Lover LP.  They also could’ve not been as “committed” as many in the fandom would like to believe, and maybe casually dating other people took it’s toll?  Not to mention Taylor x Brie Larson appeared to be in a race to see who could Glass Closet harder (also, whatever was going on with the Braylor stuff before the Masters Heist, and Brie getting a beard), Taylor x Dianna probably saw eachother/hung out at the 2019 Vanity Fair Oscars Afterparty.  

As for “Endgame”? Those lyrics are suspect as hell, not to mention Taylor randomly bringing it up as it related to Avengers: Endgame (i think during Ellen?) without provocation.  It comes off as describing what happened in the past, and moving past that (bury hatchets, for one), “So It Goes...” is another example of this, too.

These are just several explanations off the top of my head. 

[paradigmsofbrittaperry]

I cannot tell you how many arguments (that I didn’t start or feed into) I’ve had with male friends over the Captain Marvel movie that culminated in me saying “great, you’re literally not going to convince me that this is a bad movie, because I enjoyed it and that’s all that matters to me. it’s okay that you didn’t enjoy it, especially because it wasn’t made for you.” and every last one of them looked at me like a cow looks at on oncoming train because they could not comprehend the idea that maybe, just maybe! there was a superhero movie that was developed with a female audience in mind. the most common comeback would be “but I didn’t get the symbolism/the metaphor/why Yon Rogg was the bad guy/etc.” and I always reply “great!! that’s kind of the fucking point of the whole thing!!! that she’s a woman who’s been held back by a man who felt entitled to control over her!!!! and you wouldn’t understand that because you’re a white man!!!!!!” and they then mumble something about Carol being overpowered before I shrug and walk away or hang up the phone.

the best of these arguments ended with my then-friend screaming at the top of his lungs “YOU ONLY LIKED THE MOVIE BECAUSE YOU’RE SEXUALLY ATTRACTED TO BRIE LARSON” and god fucking dammit, if that’s not the funniest shit that’s ever happened in my school’s band room, I don’t know what is. especially since this same person had told me on multiple occasions that he loved me *despite* the fact that I wasn’t straight and that I would have to repent for the sin of being gay on my deathbed if I wanted to go to heaven. that argument will hold a special place in my heart for the rest of my life.

and then we did this shit all over again with Birds of Prey, but at least most of those pricks didn’t bother to go see that one.

[duchessnorfolk]

(  brie larson, female, she/her ) — a member of the fitzalan-howard family claims membership to the society !  ambrosia is a thirty-five year old politician who hails from arundel, england, who call them sovereign. although their peers know them for being  audacious and astute, their reputation for being hedonistic and hubristic might prove intimidating for new initiates. while the fitzalan-howard family is known for being english nobility, the society’s own narcissus is better remembered by the well turned and annotated pages of the picture of dorian gray, the idle chatter on the carmine benches of the house of lords, the reflection of the female narcissus wavering in the water, whitening fist clenching around a family seal as it sinks into the wax, and the imperiously raised eyebrow of a woman who knows she’s right.  . having been a member for ten years now, ambrosia has managed to attain the duchy of norfolk in her own right — no doubt through the help of the society, wouldn’t you think ?

hi i’m shannon and this is my other muse, ambrosia — or amber! — and i love her just as much my brain is just not helping the words go. if you want clarification on anything please feel free and i can elaborate the big picture is just making my brain scream. ily all.

basics ;

name: ambrosia florence georgiana elizabeth madeleine fitzalan-howard, 1st duchess of norfolk

nicknames: amber

gender & pronouns: female (she/her)

age & date of birth: thirty-five, 8 november 1984

zodiac sign: scorpio

orientations: pansexual / panromantic

nationality: british

ethnicity: anglo

religion: chaotic (actually) / catholic (officially)

neuroses: none.

history ;

hometown: arundel, england

father: william fitzalan-howard, 19th duke of norfolk (deceased)

mother: georgiana fitzalan-howard, duchess of norfolk (via marriage, deceased)

siblings: none

extended family: the fitzalan-howard family

educational background: classic literature at oxford university

languages spoken: english, russian

occupational history: hereditary peer in the house of lords (current)

achievements: the first woman to hold the title of duke of norfolk in her own right

the society ;

codename: narcissus

meaning: narcissus, who drowned due to his own vanity — how much more crystal clear can it be?

traditionalist or reformist: reformist, if she has to care about the complexities.

goals in the society: be in it for the wild ride.

opinion on the society: it’s got a lot of rich people in it, so if they don’t throw the wildest parties going, amber’s going to be profoundly disappointed in all of them. but she’s indifferent as a whole. if it exists, she may as well be in it, 

personality ;

mbti: entp-a

enneagram: seven, with an eight wing

temperament: sanguine

hogwarts house: slytherin

inspirations: eleanor shellstrop and tahani al-jamil from the good place.

tropes: brilliant but lazy, instant waking skills

your muse as ;

a piece of art: vincent van gogh’s starry night.

a song: narcissist by libertines.

a book: the picture of dorian gray by oscar wilde.

a movie: heathers

a tv show: i can’t quite pinpoint her?

a historical era: the time is now, baby!

a historical figure: christine keeler.

a colour: carmine.

an animal: blue-jay.

your muse’s dream…

job: none. imagine having to work. ambrosia simply cannot relate; she prefers rolling into the lords to vote. and that gets her money every time she shows up.

vacation: the french riviera.

day: reading the picture of dorian gray undisturbed, far away from the rainy monotony of britain. 

as a child: to be a unicorn — yes, not particularly realistic, but this is a child’s dream, so this can be allowed. not that her father particularly entertained the notion, but he’s dead so it doesn’t particularly matter what he thinks, does it?

last night: being queen of england. it was a glorious few hours of dreaming where the inside of buckingham palace was all hers, and she could keep the corgis, but no. alas, she’s so hard done by — she’ll have to make do with arundel castle!

that they gave up on: being the queen of england. she worked out it was never gonna happen.

that they have right now: 90s trance music at a really good party.

TL;DR

- ambrosia fitzalan-howard is the sole child of william and georgiana fitzalan-howard, the previous duke and duchess of norfolk. georgiana died in childbirth, and william died when she was twenty-five years old.

- as the sole daughter of nobility, you can imagine she had anything she ever wanted. but what she really wanted was to be able to get the same things out of life regardless of gender, and be left alone to be happy.

- his daughter was already a member of the society to continue the family legacy. not that she personally really cared for it, oxford graduate who just wanted to exist for her own happiness. as the result of a legal case, the male-exclusive succession rule was overturned for the duchy of norfolk, enabling amber to become the duchess in her own right.

- the position came with a seat in the house of lords, the upper house in the british houses of parliament. she drifts in and out, ‘politician’ is just what she says when she’s asked what her job is.

- party girl supreme. the mess of the british nobility system, especially since the breakdown of her engagement.

[capcarolsdanver]

Comfort

Requests: So I just read Home and you did absolutely wonderful. I felt so much fluff, I was grinning the whole time. If you are still taking requests, can you do a continuation of Home where Brie kind of gets sad because of all the hate she is getting (she doesn’t deserve it) and the reader comforts her together with the rest of the mcu cast especially Hemsworth and Cheadle. Thank you.

i loved your Home one shot! can you do one where brie and her non famous girlfriend are hanging out at Disneyland with the other cast after she is done with press

Pairing: Brie x reader

A/N: Wooow I’m posting this much later than I meant to. Thank you both for the love and for the requests!! I love both of these requests and thought they would kinda work well together so here it is! Enjoy!!

The feeling of strong arms wrapping around you wakes you up. You groan slightly, snuggling closer to Brie. She pulls you in towards her, pressing a kiss to your neck before she leans over you and kisses you on the lips. You hum into the kiss and she pulls back, smiling softly at you.

“Morning,” she says with a slight rasp to her voice. You lift a hand to tuck a strand of her short hair behind her ear and out of her face.

“Good morning, baby,” you reply to her before reaching towards your phone. You glance at the time and then back at Brie. “I’ve got to get up, I’m supposed to be meeting some friends for breakfast.” Brie immediately pouts.

“What? No! Stay here and cuddle with me!” You attempt to remove her arms from around you but she only tightens them. You huff and playfully glare at her.

“Brie. I swear I’ll be back so quickly you’ll barely realise I’ve gone. Then we can cuddle for as long as you want.” Brie seems to contemplate your words for a moment before reluctantly releasing you from her hold.

“Fine. But you better be ready to cuddle me the second you get back.” You chuckle at her and kiss the pout off her lips before getting out of bed.

“You’ve got a deal.”

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

As promised, breakfast is only a quick outing and you’re back at the house fairly quickly. You make your way to the bedroom where you assume Brie still is. Your confusion peaks, however, when you notice the curtains are drawn shut, the room shrouded in darkness. You can see Brie’s figure sitting on the bed and her laptop in front of her shines some light onto her features.

“Uhh. Babe, this is very ominous, don’t you think?” You startle Brie and immediately notice when she swipes at her face, clearly wiping away tears.

“Brie?” You automatically rush to her, placing yourself on the bed in front of her and resting your hands on her face. “What is it?” You wipe at the tears she missed and watch her closely, trying to focus on her eyes through the dark of the room.

“It’s okay. Everything’s okay, I’m fine,” she says weakly. You give her a disbelieving look.

“You don’t look fine to me. What happened?” You speak gently and she sighs as another tear rolls down her cheek. You wipe it away with your thumb and wait patiently before Brie grabs her laptop and shows you the screen.

She’s got Youtube open, and she’s searched her own name in the search bar. You look at some of the videos listed on the page. They range from ‘How Brie Larson is ruining the MCU’ to ‘Proof that the Avengers cast hate Brie Larson’. You sigh and look at her.

“Brie, what were even doing looking at this stuff? You know it’s all bullshit.” She shrugs weakly and you shut her laptop and put it aside.

“While you were gone, I went on Twitter and saw all these guys posting about me and how Don and Chris clearly hate me.” You place your hand on Brie’s thigh to comfort her and she drops her hand onto of yours, tracing the back of your hand with her thumb. “I mean, I kind of knew it was happening. I guess it just hit me hard today. Especially when I saw all the videos.”

“Looks like you should extend that stay away from social media then, hm?” You say gently. Brie sadly hums in response and wraps you in a tight embrace.

Since the end of the press tour, Brie had been overwhelmed with the amount of attention she’d received, both good and bad, and had decided on a much needed break from social media. You knew that as she’d gotten more popular, she’d had difficulty dealing with the attention because of her introverted nature, and she needed these breaks from time to time.

“Hey, how about we go out and do something today? We can forget all about the trolls of the internet for a little while.” You kiss Brie on the cheek and she leans into your body more.

“I don’t know, Y/N. I’m just really not in the mood today.” She pulls away from your embrace and stands, rubbing her face with her hand before she smiles at you sadly. “I’m sorry.” You stand up to join her, taking her hands in your own and holding them between you.

“Brie, you have absolutely nothing to apologise for. You hear me?” Your words are gentle and you see the smallest of smiles cross her face.

“Yeah,” she nods. Her eyes hold a warmth for you as she holds your gaze. “I’m just gonna jump in the shower. Maybe it’ll make me feel a little better.” You nod at her and watch her walk into the bathroom, closing the door behind her.

When you hear the shower turn on you pull your phone out, going through your contacts and finding the name you were after. You bite your lip in hesitation for a second before hitting the call button and holding the phone to your ear.

“Hello?” You hear Chris Hemsworth answer after a few moments.

“Hey, Chris!” You say. At some point around the time of the world premiere for Endgame, you and the majority of the cast had all exchanged numbers, and right now you were glad that happened.

“Y/N! How’s it going? What can I do for you?” Hemsworth was a person you absolutely loved to talk to. No matter what the circumstance, he always had such a positive energy and you know he helped Brie out a lot when it came to her introduction to the MCU.

“You’re in LA right now, yeah?” You ask.

“I am! I just got back from Australia, like, two days ago.” You breath a sigh of relief.

“Okay, good. Uh, listen, Brie’s really not having a great day today. She found some videos online saying that the whole Avengers cast hates her and that she’s ruining the MCU.”

You hear Hemsworth mutter an “oh shit” before you continue.

“I was just wondering if you wouldn’t mind maybe coming by to talk to her? I have a feeling it’ll make her feel better hearing that it’s all bullshit from one of you guys instead of just me.”

“Of course!” Chris immediately exclaims. “You know what, I’ll try do one better. Let me make some calls and I’ll be ‘round soon, yeah?”

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

Brie comes out of the bathroom and walks to the kitchen, where she finds you drinking a cup of coffee. She watches you for a moment and you offer her an affectionate smile before nodding your head in the direction of another mug sitting on the countertop.

“That one’s for you,” you say and she smiles gratefully, walking further into the kitchen to pick the mug up and take a sip from it.

“Mm, I so needed this. Thank you.”

“No problem.” You both continue drinking your coffees in relative silence for a while. You can see the shower has made Brie feel a little better, but her eyebrows are drawn together and you can see she is still stuck in her own thoughts.

You glance at your phone to see if Hemsworth has texted you. At the lack of messages on your phone, you put it down on the countertop and look back at Brie. She draws her lower lip between her teeth, completely lost in her own thoughts, and you sigh, hoping Hemsworth gets here soon.

Right on cue, you hear your doorbell ring and Brie’s head snaps towards the door. She looks back at you in question.

“Are we expecting anyone today?” She asks and you shrug as she makes her way to your front door and opens it.

“Hey!” You hear Hemsworth shout in greeting before you see him step inside to hug Brie. She returns the hug before pulling back with a confused look on her face.

“Hemsworth. What brings you here?” She asks, though you can already see a smile on her face.

“What, you’re not excited to see me?” Chris says. His mouth turns to form a deep frown. Brie laughs at him before shoving him arm lightly.

“You know that’s not what I meant.” Chris chuckles and his smile finds its way back to his face.

“Well, a little birdie might have told me that you were having a pretty rough morning. So I’m here to make sure you still have an amazing day. Let’s go!” He exclaims as he gestures with his arm for you and Brie to follow him before he disappears out the door again. Brie turns to look at you.

“You called him?” You shrug, thankfully sensing that Brie wasn’t mad at you for calling Hemsworth. You walk towards her and her eyes study you carefully.

“You were breaking my heart,” you say and you see her eyes begin to swim with tears. “Plus, I’d say the fact that he dropped everything to get here so quickly kinda proves he doesn’t hate you.” Brie lets out a laugh and quickly wipes at her eyes before her tears can properly fall.

“Come on!” Hemsworth says insistently, coming back through the door. “Geez, at least you’re not going around telling everyone you’re the fastest avenger, eh?” He offers a cheeky wink to Brie before dodging a punch she has aimed at his arm.

Brie shakes her head and laughs, grabbing your hand as the two of you follow him out.

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

You and Brie find yourselves sitting in the backseat of Chris’ car, and he drives for a little while before Brie finally speaks up.

“So, where are you taking us?” Chris smiles at you both through his rear-view mirror.

“Only the happiest place on earth, duh! Where else would I be taking you?” Brie looks at you for a moment, her brow furrowing in confusion before she turns to Chris again.

“You’re telling me we’re going to Disneyland?”

“Yep! It’s guaranteed to cheer you up the second we get there. And on top of that, I might have also called in some of the squad who could make it.” Brie’s mouth drops open slightly.

“Wait, really? You’re really all doing this because I was upset?”

“Well, yeah. Of course. We’re a family, you know.” Brie smiles a disbelieving smile and you see more tears form in her eyes. You take her hand and squeeze it in reassurance. “Besides, you know all the haters are just jealous of our friendship. Let’s be real. All banter aside, we are the two strongest avengers.”

“Obviously,” Brie laughs.

The car slows down and you look to see that you have arrived. Hemsworth parks the car and the three of you get out.

“Okay, we’re meeting everyone near the side of the entrance, over this way.” You follow him down near the entrance where he leads you to the group, who are trying to be subtle to avoid the attention of fans before they even get inside the park.

Everyone immediately cheers in greeting as you join them. The group consists of Scarlett Johansson, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Jeremy Renner, Paul Rudd and Don Cheadle. Everyone hugs one another before deciding to head into the park.

“I can’t believe I’m at Disneyland right now without my kids. This is awesome,” Paul says, earning a laugh from the group as you all pay for your tickets and enter the park. You begin walking down Main Street, USA and, to no one’s surprise, fans immediately begin recognising the group.

They all are happy to oblige when fans ask to take a quick photo, and you stand back and admire the group of people you regularly get to associate with. You all make your way through the park, stopping to get ice cream and to purchase Mickey Mouse ears which you all proudly wear.

You and Brie walk hand in hand with the rest of the group and you look over to Brie to find a huge smile on her face. Your heart warms at the sight and you mirror the smile on your own face.

Because you had arrived partway through the day, you are all aware that you have limited time to go on rides and hang out with each other before the fireworks show starts later in the evening. You all decide to head to Tomorrowland first, of course heading straight for Space Mountain and some of the other rides.

Hemsworth insists that everyone has to get a photo together with Mickie and Minnie, which turns out to be difficult with he size of the group but also a great deal of fun choosing which poses to go with.

As you continue walking through Disneyland, you and Brie continue to walk contently with each other, trailing towards the back of the group. Mackie and Sebastian are acting as unofficial leaders for the day, leading the pack from one place to another while everyone else loudly talks among themselves.

Somewhere between Fantasyland and Frontierland, Cheadle breaks away from his conversation with Evans to drop back and join you and Brie.

“Hey. Listen, Brie. You know anything those guys have to say online is bullshit, right? I mean, you’ve got to know how much we all love you.” Brie takes in a deep breath and sighs, looking at Cheadle.

“I do know. I guess it just really got to me today, you know?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Cheadle nods, complete sincerity in his tone. “They’re only coming for you because you’re a strong woman standing up for what’s right and they’re just threatened by you. That’s literally all it is. I’d probably even take it as a compliment if I were you.” Brie laughs.

“That’s actually a good way of looking at it. Thanks, Don. It means a lot.” Your group stops walking so some fans can get photos and Brie takes the opportunity to hug Cheadle.

“Any time, Brie.” He smiles at her before Evans calls him back over. The group starts moving again and Scarlett drops back to walk with you two now.

“I know we’ve been stopped a lot for photos, but it’s actually kind of a nice break after that press tour, don’t you think?” Brie quickly nods.

“Oh, one hundred percent. That press tour was on a whole other level.” You know how tough press tours can be for Brie, and she practically did back-to-back press tours for Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, two of the biggest movies in the past year.

You’d only travelled with her for part of the Endgame press tour, so while you’d been at home you’d received a lot of phone calls and FaceTimes from Brie, many of which she would break down in tears because of just how exhausted she was. She also missed having you by her side, which is why she’d asked you to join her during the Endgame tour.

“Okay guys! Let’s stop to eat some food, then we’re heading to Space Mountain again before the fireworks. Sound good?” Mackie announces to the group, receiving a positive answer as he leads them towards the nearest restaurant.

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

After going on Space Mountain again, you and the cast head off to find the perfect spot to sit and watch the fireworks together. “Brie,” you hear from behind you as Hemsworth runs up to you and Brie. “Can we get a selfie?” He points at his phone and offers a grin.

“Of course,” Brie happily agrees. “What’s this for? Instagram?”

“Yeah. I’m planning on putting up some photos that are just a massive ‘fuck you’ to all the guys hating on you and saying we don’t like you. Plus, our whole group is just full of really hot people. I kinda want to use that for the likes, you know?” Brie laughs and shakes her head before her and Chris pose for a selfie, still both proudly wearing their Mickey ears.

Eventually, everyone decides on a spot to sit and watch the fireworks. Brie sits off slightly to the side of everyone else to give you both a little privacy, and gestures for you to sit between her legs in front of her. You do and she doesn’t waste any time wrapping her arms comfortably around your waist.

When the fireworks begin, Brie pulls you in closer and you lean into her body, feeling her chin coming to rest on your shoulder. Your hands rest on top of hers as you watch the show.

“Thank you,” you hear Brie say next to your ear. You turn your head slightly to look at her.

“For what?”

“For everything. You turned a pretty shitty day into one that I completely loved.”

“You know it’s no problem, Brie. But it definitely wasn’t just me who did all of this.” Brie presses her lips to your shoulder and you can feel the smile on your face.

“No, it wasn’t. But we both know that if it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be so happy right now.” You shrug lightly.

“Well. You know I would do anything for you.”

“God, this is gonna sound super sappy, but you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met and I’m so glad I get to call you mine.” You chuckle, a smile plastered on your face and you turn to capture Brie’s lips in a kiss.

“I love you,” you mumble against her lips. The corners of Brie’s eyes crinkle as she grins at you.

“I love you too.”