#gone from the scene gone from steve's life after cw and then again after iw and then fr left behind

[cacw]

i do still stand by this and it's kind of upsetting me they don't hate him but they really obviously dislike him and his place in the story

[help-i-need-a-cool-username]

My fam is rewatching the MCU and i jumped in the middle of Phase 2 but because ive seen the future movies i know whats going to happen and my brain is conquering a bunch of "but what if this happened instead" scenarios. They're mostly crack scenarios but they're still pretty funny so im going to share them with you

AoU Nat develops a thing with Bruce. But when he returns in IW its been two years, and Nat still kinda likes him. What if Bruce showed up on Earth with his new gf Valkyrie, who Nat doesnt meet till after their awkward reunion. Cue: Natasha Angst.

Bruce returns to Earth in IW but what if he returned with Valkyrie but shes HULK'S gf. Cue: constant correcting ("Bruce's girlfriend is drinking my whole bar" "shes not my girlfriend, shes Hulk's" *cricket noises*), Tony making jokes, and inappropriate questions about how the sex works and if Bruce is conscious for it.

What if the Guardians arrive on Earth (before Bruce does in IW) and they're the ones that inform them of Thanos. Cue: Peter having a lot of mixed feelings about returning to Earth, the GOTG not making it any easier with their comments, Peter being all "im a expert on all things Terra" and it becomes immediately clear hes not (its only been 26+ years...), Tony shoving a picture of a raccoon in Rocket's face, Peter and Gamora dancing in the breakroom and the Avengers being like "how did a guy like him land a girl like her", Drax making everyone uncomfortable, the Avengers not knowing how truly dangerous Gamora is since shes the only one of them with common sense, Mantis throwing off the Avengers' dynamic because she revealed something

Thats it for now i'll add more as we watch them

UPDATE:

In Ant-Man Scott uses a leg strangling move and it surprises both Sam and Hope. In CW Scott's first combat person was Black Widow. What if in CW Scott used Black Widow's signature (at least to the audience) move against her. Cue: surprise (as seen in Ant-Man), probably someone going "thats a girl move" and Scotts like "well i was trained by a girl so", maybe someone going "Nat he just used your move against you!"

In CW both Bucky and Steve go after the arc reactor in Tony's suit. What if the arc reactor was still regulating his heart when this happened. Cue: Steve's scary desperate fighting being seen as even scarier because he's legit trying to kill Tony, maybe Steve trying to intervene earlier like "Bucky stop! Thats his actual heart!", possibly T'Challa deciding to take Tony back to Wakanda too

UPDATE:

What if (in Black Panther) Erik was on the battlefield when the Jabari entered scene. Cue: idk M'Baku throwing him across the field? I just wanna know what Erik's reaction would've been when seeing a random huge guy just ripping through his army

UPDATE:

I didnt realize Strange knew so much song trivia so What If him and Quill got into a little argument over some 70s songs. Cue: entertainment

What If Loki didnt grab/he dropped the Tesseract and the ship reached Earth without Thanos' little stop. Cue: Asgard reaching and settling into life on Earth, Thor being excited to contact his friends and the Avengers are just like "what? how? huh?", Bruce's return/Bruce hiding out in Asgard, the news that Prince Loki is among the refugees...

Actually why were here what if Thanos has to get the Tesseract from the remains of Asgard? Like would he have to fight Surtur? Would he have to fight Hela? Tbh i think either would win in a fight with him Or are they both long gone and all thats left is rubble?

What if Hulk became Bruce again before Bruce got fast tracked to Earth in IW and he showed up in either mismatched Sakaar armor or Asgard fashion. Cue: Bruce's trip being much more real to the Avengers, Avengers believing Thor was secretly hiding him these past two years, just general curiosity over the fact Bruce was on and lived on another planet which no famous human has done

What if Bruce and Valkyrie were still doing their "i feel like i know you" thing and it drives everybody else nuts. Cue: general irritation, a unhelpful Thor, Nat not liking how Bruce's face lights up and he gets excited every time that happens

In Thor 3 Thor tries to do the whole "sun's going down" thing in the arena. What if it worked??

UPDATE:

The San Francisco chase scene in AMatW was huge so what if it happened a week before IW. Cue: massive media coverage, Avengers being like "is that the guy from Germa- DID THAT BUILDING JUST GROW", random crack theories about Ghost, Scott NOT being in the Quantum Realm when The SnapTM occured

What if Ghost was there in the fight against Thanos. Cue: her walking up behind him and ripping his heart out. Game Over. Everyone can go home now. Like the only stone/weapon that could stop her would be the Time Stone or if her treatment was permeant and not temporary. If we can have a million fics on what if Venom or another SPUMC character was there then imagining Ava there isnt that far out

In Ant-Man Hank breaks Scott out of his holding cell, in AMatW Scott sneaks Hank and Hope out of a interrogation room using the same techniques. What if Hank and Hope rescued Scott from The Raft. Cue: everyone (Team Cap) getting excited only to be left behind, them hearing the one-half conversation that is Scott trying to defend himself to Hank, everyone (government and Team Iron Man) being forced to treat Scott more seriously

[always-winter-baby]

feel free to add anything i missed, endgame haters.

This is a Wordpress post that I never posted about a Facebook post that I made last fall (2019) about how godawful Endgame was.

-------- I know I've been gone for a while and when I was here, I was writing about films I had watched. (Maybe I should start that.)

However, I am a HUGE fan of Marvel and their cinematic universe. I have the movies, the comics, the clothing, and far too much memorabilia to be considered a "casual" fan at this point. I've been reading comics for about twelve years and I started dedicating myself to the MCU around the end of Phase One.

That being said, it means everyone comes to me with their Marvel questions and everyone comes to me to see what I thought of each new film. And I don't give simple, "It was good. I really liked it," answers. I make complete strangers regret their own questions sometimes because I dive into the deep end immediately describing how they really pulled off the Mysterio "mind-bending" stuff fantastically, but how the story hinged really hard on Tony Stark when Peter in the comics stands on his own and Peter in the MCU should be able to as well.

I can give you speeches on the reason why Natasha's backstory would have been better established in The Winter Soldier than Age of Ultron or and how killing off Pietro in his first film did a disservice to Wanda's character, etc, etc. In the words of a person I passed by at work the other day, "I can talk the ears off a snake."

That's not the point of this post. That was just establishing that I am very dedicated and I Care deeply about these characters and this world.

That being said, when someone on Facebook not too long ago asked me to share my opinions on Avengers: Endgame, I asked him if he was really prepared for the novel I was going to spill on why I think that Endgame was a poorly written and directed film. He said his was. But his lack of any response to my novel was proof that he clearly was not.

However, for anyone else wondering, I copied that little book of a response and I'm posting it here. It's a little scrambled up (it was a facebook post so these things happen, okay?). I think it will still get the point across as to why I tell people that if I pulled the good parts of Endgame, I could make a really great thirty minute Avengers movie.

The post went as follows:

-Thor’s characterization was a three hour long fat joke. Thor had the most character growth out of anyone in Infinity War. His part was fantastic. Then they turned around and made everything about it completely idiotic. Thor has lived over a thousand years. He’s lost battles and lost countless, countless people before. Infinity War wasn’t the first time he made a mistake in battle that cost someone their life. He lost his entire family and almost all of friends and none of that turned him into lazy, sloppy, unshowered, fat Thor. I refuse to believe this time would magically break him. Character annihilation.

Banner has hated the Hulk for the entirety of Hulk’s existence. He’s talked about how exposed and vulnerable it makes him feel. He’s always been a quiet, shy, reclusive, and work-focused kind of guy. Now magically, he’s happy being Hulk 24/7, dabs, and takes selfies with kids? He’s hanging out in public as Hulk and drawing attention to himself? Sorry. Refuse to believe it. I know Professor Hulk is from the comics. It seems stupid and forced there too. I’m not of the opinion that just because something is found in comics that it’s necessarily a good thing. I’ve read plenty of bad comics as I’m sure any decent comic reader has.

-Tony isn’t awful. I actually think he’s done pretty well. No complaints.

-However, Pepper is awful. And it makes sense now that they’ve released the info that Gwyneth Paltrow just made up a lot of her own lines. She doesn’t know the character despite having played her for a decade. Pepper is always super cautious and she is constantly on Tony’s case about his heroic ventures, etc. Therefore, I find it incredibly hard to believe that she let him go without a fight after he “solved time travel.” I also find it absolutely impossible that she sits beside him as he’s dying and is peaceful enough to just tell Tony that he’s okay and he should rest. Per her character for the last decade, she should have been frantic. Of course it wouldn’t have been as sad and poetic an ending, but it would have been much more believable for the character.

-Clint. Meh. I can live with Clint, I think. I don’t love it or hate it. I am glad they reestablished his closeness with Natasha after AoU tried to erase it.

-Natasha. I actually like Natasha’s character in this one. Same as Tony, I think they wrote her without compromising her. Good for them. Even though I hate that they killed her off, I think that the final scene where she fights Clint is SO WELL DONE. (Except her father wasn’t named Ivan. Not even in the MCU. But whatever. Maybe Markus and McFeely know absolutely nothing about Russian names despite giving Natasha’s full name in CA:TWS. I’ll chalk it up to ignorance. Whatever.) HOWEVER, despite liking Natasha’s character and death scene, the death should not have happened. I don’t know if you’re a comic reader, but if you are, you know that the trip happens where you see the bad guy or a random person or whatever do a Bad Thing. Then later in the comic, when the Bad Thing comes into play again and there seems like absolutely no hope, the hero pulls out One Last Magic Trick. The hero manages to do what the previous person could not. And they Save the Day because they are the hero. And the hero is the one designed to give readers hope that we can overcome all odds, etc. It is literally the entire point of superhero stories to tell the stories that “realistic” books never could. We’ll come back to my complaint with Natasha’s death in a moment.

-Scott, Rhodey, Rocket, Carol were all fine. No complaints. But Okoye.

They made it out in promo that Okoye was going to have a much more significant part. She was barely in the thing. And I think it was a very missed opportunity. We saw T’Challa turn to dust. And we were told Shuri did (although, I would have paid much bigger money to see her alive and operating as The Black Panther. She’s assumed that mantle in the comics before so definitely not out of the realm of possibility.) I wanted them to show us what Wakanda would look like with half its population dusted and its ruler gone. Does M’Baku rule? What do Okoye and the Dora Milaje look like now without their King and who do they protect/defend? They had a great opportunity to show us how the world was faring after five years post-Snap, especially a place like Wakanda that rarely suffers any devastations due to their tech. Now without that protection, how are they handling the aftermath? Enormous missed opportunity.

-Steve. On my god. Where do I even start? Going into Endgame, Steve Rogers had the BEST story arc of anyone in the MCU. But here is where Marvel really shot themselves in the foot. They let the opinions of fans after Civil War severely alter their original plans for this film. (That’s a fact that’s been admitted by former Marvel employees. I didn’t make that up.). After Civil War came out, there were two strong opinions being voiced. 1) Fans who didn’t know the comics didn’t understand Sharon being there and didn’t like her quickly becoming Steve’s love interest. 2) Fans saw the always-present and ever-growing bond between Steve and Bucky and got bolder about their campaign that Steve and Bucky were a couple. Doesn’t matter if you’re for that or not. The fact of the matter is that the idea of them as a couple has A BIG FOLLOWING. I don’t think people were really pushing to see it become a real thing on screen or anything, but the execs at Marvel suddenly did this thing where they all quickly shouted “NO HOMO” really loudly and promptly dropped Bucky from as many scenes as possible. They admitted to creating distance between Steve and Bucky for this reason. And because Steve and Sharon didn’t get the reaction they wanted, they had Steve go back and get back with Peggy.

But let’s recap here and see if any of that makes sense for Steve Rogers.

—He and Bucky were “inseparable on both playground and battlefield.”

—He literally broke the law and went behind enemy lines against orders just in case he had even the slightest chance of finding and saving Bucky from a Hydra base. He didn’t even know if Bucky was still alive.

—He added Bucky to his elite team and they fought side by side until Bucky’s “death.” When Bucky “died,” Steve went from saying, “I don’t want to kill anyone. I don’t like bullies” to saying, “I’m not going to stop until all of Hydra is dead or captured.”

—Years later, when he realized Bucky was still alive, he literally stopped mid-fight and dropped all defenses. Later in the same film (on the helicarrier), he refuses to even fight Bucky. He drops his shield and was going to very willingly let Bucky kill him rather than fight him.

— When the Accords become a thing, Steve defied his own friends and 117 countries to get Bucky to safety. And then continues defying them with Bucky at his side because he is determined that Bucky deserves due process and a lawyer and help, not imprisonment.

— He helps Bucky get somewhere safe to hide and recover and visits him there. (Russos said they even discussed showing that Steve and Bucky were in regular contact between CW and IW.)

—He fights the Battle of Wakanda with Bucky and then gets to see him disintegrate right in front of him. It’s built up to be a very big moment. Bucky collapses into nothingness and Steve sits there touching Bucky’s dust remnants and with tears in his eyes. “Oh, God.”

—Then, magically comes Endgame and Steve is in a support group for people lost in the Snap and he’s grieving over PEGGY??? HE NEVER EVEN WENT ON A DATE WITH PEGGY. NOT ONE DATE. He kissed her ONE TIME very briefly 75+ years ago! HOW CAN HE BE SO SURE THEY WERE SOULMATES?! This is just awful writing.

— Then when everyone is brought back through the portals, Steve doesn’t even look for Bucky to make sure he’s there. They fight far away from one another. They never acknowledge the other one. These men have literally looked at each other before thinking that would be the last face they ever saw and then at the Battle to End All Things, they don’t even glance around to see if the other is present.

— Steve literally barely says goodbye to Bucky. He fought and was willing to die for the man, but now he is in such a rush to get back to that one girl he kissed that one time that he forsakes the people he should care about. (Sebastian Stan says he questioned this to the Russos and was actually told to just imagine Steve and Bucky must have talked it over offscreen and Sebastian tried to fight it, but was shot down.)

— Steve jumps in a time machine and goes back to live with his supposed soulmate thus creating an alternate timeline.

I have a real problem with this. A man who has been selfless his entire life chose to go and be selfish for 75+ years instead of helping anyone. This man lives to fight injustices and we are supposed to forget that? In order to believe that he went back to a woman he didn’t know that well and who already had a husband/children. CA:TWS showed that she had lived a happy life. She told him she only regretted that he didn’t get to live his. She didn’t regret them not getting to spend theirs together. And he didn’t seem to either. He was actively moving forward with his life. Thus the reason for Sharon.

Anyway, his entire story arc which is based around him being partners with Bucky and him being selfless got absolutely destroyed when he went back in the time machine and just ran away from everything he had built.

Which seems more likely? That everything in the three Cap films and IW was wrong about his character? Or that Endgame just slapped a big “No Homo” sticker on the script and did whatever they could possibly do to make sure fans could not say that Steve and Bucky were a thing?

Furthermore, I have no problem with Sam becoming the next Cap. I have a big problem with them doing it if the reason was to further the sever the ties between Steve and Bucky.

-And the Russos said that Bucky couldn’t be Cap because his mind had been compromised and that he couldn’t be trusted with a weapon. Which means that Bucky’s whole recovery story was what? A lie? They established that Bucky was really a great guy and not a terrible terrorist. And they said Shuri fixed his mind. And we still can’t trust the guy with the shield?

So either Shuri failed dramatically even though we saw her talent and progress with him in Black Panther and IW, Bucky is now magically “too broken,” or the writers and directors are stupid.  Your call, I guess.

They literally foreshadowed Bucky!Cap in all three Cap films. Bucky handles the shield in ALL THREE FILMS. But now he can’t be trusted with a weapon? Now he’s dangerous? He literally fought the battle of Wakanda with knives and an assault rifle. The shield is a DEFENSE weapon. So this excuse is the flimsiest argument ever and says horrible things about putting trust/faith in people after they’ve been victims and recovered from trauma. Gross.

-At least they FINALLY got Scarlet Witch right. I’ve been waiting to see my favorite Avenger done right for years. No complaints here except it took them long enough.

-Let’s not even discuss how their time travel ideas and theories are a MESS. Plot holes everywhere. (Steve would have created a new time line by going back. Did he just magically put the aether back in Jane? Did he have to kick Red Skull’s ass again on Vormir because I can’t imagine he would just stand by idly. This stuff would take me too long to even add onto here.)

-But back to Natasha. If it’s a “soul for a soul,” then when Steve returned the soul stone, he should have gotten Natasha back. Apparently a lot of fans saw this plot hole because they asked the Russos about it and the response they seriously got was something to the idea of, “No, you can’t do that. It doesn’t work that way.” Which WHY NOT? (Apparently because of poor writing.)

-Also not bitter (yeah right) that Tony got this big deal send off and everyone forgot about Natasha half an hour after she died. Shouldn’t the big send off at the end have been for both of them?!?! Would that have been SO hard?!

-Should I even discuss the fact that for some stupid reason Steve goes back in time and the serum stops working? Why does he age? Thor establishes in AoU that he doesn’t think Steve is mortal. And Peggy says in CA:TFA that Steve’s cells regenerate at four times the rate of average human cells. So he should still be fairly young even if he went back to the 40s. He shouldn’t start to age like a regular human just because he time traveled. He didn’t travel back to before he got the serum. I literally said, “No,” angrily the second they showed the back of Steve when he was sitting on that bench at the end. The other people in the theater turned to look at me and I was already pissed as hell and the movie wasn’t even over yet.

-Nebula having to kill her last self just seemed sloppy and cliche. I wasn’t impressed. That character had been through hell.  She is the one who really turns the tides in in the Infinity Saga comics so for her to get such poor treatment in the film?  SHE should have been the one to kill Thanos.  I know what Thor said, but Nebula literally has a lifetime of torture to make up for and she would have gotten some small consolation in avenging the death of her sister. GUH.  THIS MAKES ME SO ANGRY.  SHE DESERVED THIS.

-So we really just backtracked and retconned Gamora’s whole story like that, huh?  I’m sure James Gunn is thrilled. (I’m joking. I’d be annoyed to high heavens if I were him.) Gunn had literally written this character’s story arc and progression and the Russos and Markus/McFeely took over and then literally wrote the story equivalent of “and then they all died” with Gamora’s story.  Such a jerk move and I sincerely hope Gunn finds a way to make GotG Vol 3 work out really well despite this.

I’m sure there’s more I’m unhappy with, but you get my point. I had high hopes for this film and they did not deliver.

It’s been months and I am still so immensely disappointed in Endgame. I expected the people who had written such great films in the past to deliver with another great film and they did not.

It wasn’t a completely awful film though. I thought they did a really good job with Doctor Strange and Wanda (finally!). And I loved Steve lifting Mjölnir! Carol’s short hair made me hot and bothered.  So the film had a few perks. 

I have friends who liked the film until I started pointing out its flaws. Sorry, not sorry. I'm glad Marvel broke box office records, but I'm not going to lie to anyone and say it was with a great film.

They are ----- And look, I never posted it on my blog because the rant ends there mid sentence and was never completed, but I think it’s safe to say I’m not happy.  That great cinematic masterpiece is a mockery of good character arcs. Anyone is welcome to try, but I’m unlikely to change my mind.

ETA: Since writing this, I have found multiple things about Tony’s character that upset me too.

[ninainthetardis]

AVENGERS ENDGAME SPOILERS + MY THEORIES & COMMENTS

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It's been a week since I saw Endgame and I think it's really the time for me to write some comments about it.

The First Part of the Movie

- It was kinda smart as in a couple of minutes it foiled almost every theory ever made about it.

- It was good as they showed us our heroes humanity, the way they struggled to move on after the snap and how alone, responsible and broken they felt.

- It was too long: they could've used half - or at least a third - of that time to cover some of the plot holes left at the end of the movie, or to show us something more interesting. For example, Imagine if there was no scene about Hulk taking pictures with his fans and instead of it we'd got Steve's meeting with Red Skull. Wouldn't it be amazing? Yes.

- Thor and Hulk were destroyed. Those characters went on a journey since we first met them, and starting from Ragnarok to finish with Endgame, they ended up going backwards instead of moving forward. They were hilarious in some moments, yes, but mostly they looked ridiculous and ooc. I mean... Hulk's dab dance? WTF?! Thor spending his days playing fortnite? It looked a little excessive to me honestly.

- I loved the way Natasha and Steve kept counting on each other like the family they were supposed to be. They give each other strength and support, and love. They were amazing. Truly.

- Tony's speech almost made me cry. Of course I knew that was not his end, - it was too soon -, but I almost cried anyway. Watching him suffering pained me. I was trying to figure out how they would manage to get out that situation when Carol showed up and I almost screamed. And CAN WE TALK ABOUT TONY LETTING NEBULA WIN, PLEASE?!

The Time Travel Thing

Basically, Ant man came back to our world to find out half of the population had been wiped away, and he has this idea of time traveling because why not? Let's mess with our minds a little more.

They explained that if they went back, their past would not change anyway, but at the same time Bruce says that when they remove an Infinity stone from its timeline, they create an alternative reality. Now, sure Steve put them back to where they belonged when they were not of use to the Avengers anymore, but still, there's a Loki who fled with the Tesseract in 2012 and I don't think that Steve faced him and fixed it on his own: I mean, it took the six of them to defeat him the first time! So, didn't that create a different reality? There is an Infinity stone out of place after all.

Still, I can't see how Thanos could do the snap if his 2014 version is dead. All I'm saying is that the timeline we saw remains unchanged, but we can't actually know whether there is an alternative timeline in which IW never happened or not. I like to think there is because this would mean that there is a reality where Nat, Tony and Steve are still alive, together and maybe happy. Just we'll never see it. Unfortunately.

Plus, the soul stone. A soul for a soul, right? Given that Steve returned the stone, couldn't he get Natasha back?

Tony. I expected Tony to die at the end of this movie but seriously guys that hurt too much, I was not ready at all. He finally had the family he deserved and wanted but could not sacrifice half of the living beings on earth just to keep his happiness. WHAT A CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. He started from fighting for himself to almost sacrifice himself in Avengers 1 and to actually do it in the end. Chapeau, Iron Man.

Steve. And here the thing gets complicated. I expected Steve to die as well,though his death would have broken me, - you know, favorite character and so on. We were ready for just one of them to die, so the only way to completely destroy our hearts was to kill both of them off. They didn't, and somehow this was even worse.

It's like we were robbed of our proper goodbye to Cap. I am, of course, happy he got the love of his life back (though I can't see how this will not affect the timeline tbh), but up to Endgame, things happened. First of all, Sharon Carter. And here everything gets weird. Secondly, he made a journey during which he changed and came to accept what had happened to him. In the end, it was all thrown away. It's kind of ooc for me that he just left Bucky in the present, friends who needed him, and went back to the past. And at the same time I can't actually see him just sitting there when he could prevent shit to happen. Though he promised Nat to move on, and maybe, after losing Nat and Tony, he realized that the only way for him to move on was to go back. Because yes, I think he wouldn't have come back if they had been alive. And Bucky followed his own path after CW, so they had already gone on separate ways.

As I said, it's tricky. A lot.

It's like Tony learnt from Cap to sacrifice himself and Cap learnt from Tony to put himself first for once.

"See you in a minute".

Natasha's death. That I didn't expect. Well, actually I did, being her my second favorite character and being used to watching my favorite characters die all the time. But you know, I thought that the soul stone required the soul of the one you love the most, and there was no way that Clint loved her more than his family. So I thought he was the one better suited for the sacrifice. And instead that wasn't the case and she died. But I didn't want any of them to die anyway. And it hurt because she said "see you in a minute" and then she didn't come back. And Steve's reaction when he realized she was gone forever. My poor heart.

This movie truly messed up with me.

Random comments

- Pepper was amazing and the scene of all women fighting side by side was MARVELOUS. I wish Natasha was there though.

- Poor Morgan lost his father, they were so cute and happy, my heart can't handle this.

- Thor giving away his throne was... I don't know, that's tricky as well. His whole path was about becoming worthy and gaining the awareness he needed to be a just king. So it makes sense he didn't feel like ruling at that moment, he lost himself and needed to find the right path again, but giving the throne away? Sounds too much to me imho. But I also don't think we've seen all of Thor, so... Maybe they'll fix it later on.

- Gamora. 2018 Gamora is dead, 2014 one is alive. What. About. Her? If the past remains unchanged, does it mean that she has only four years left to live (in perfect final destination style)? Or maybe she died when Tony snapped? Or she just run away to follow her own path again, as originally in 2014 she left Thanos and changed from a bad to a good guy, doing we don't know what exactly. Maybe she's meant to do it again, (just in the future) before meeting Quill again.

- The Scarlett Witch is FIRE. Can't wait to see her show! (Also, Loki's. I wonder if it will start from him fleeing with the Tesseract or if it will be a prequel like the movie about the Black Widow)

- Ronin. It was like Natasha and Clint's position were reversed and this time it was down to Natasha to save him and she did it. She's so loyal to her friends, her family, the family she found in the Avengers. She deserved so much better.

- I expected that they had to face either Loki (the one who fled with the Tesseract, after he did it), as a sort of coming back to the start, or Thanos from the past. It was Thanos and I was happy. I still hope we'll see Loki with his character development intact again.

- The final battle was INCREDIBLE. AMAZING.

- When I was at the cinema, I was 99% sure there was no scene after the credits. I waited anyway. And it was only when I saw that black screen that I realized it was really, really over. That was the moment I had to repress other tears.

- I'm gonna stop now. I just want to say that, in spite of all the plot holes and things I don't agree with and that were done, or things that I thought could've been done better, I loved this movie. It's the end to an era that meant - and still means - a lot to me and it was AMAZING. I will bring all those characters and those stories with me forever. Nat, Steve and Tony in a special way. One day I'll come to terms with the fact that this is all. But not today.

Love you 3000.

[evanstanbot]

I think I understand somewhat why they did this now. It all concludes in the ultimate no homo of Hollywood. Also, because folks at marvel are cowards. I’m not defending m&m and the russos but this whole thing put them into a tight situation. they planned everything together in tws and cw but this conclusion of Steve’s arc was only planned out after civil war. they always said they looked into everything back and forth so that there wouldn’t be anything left out. but now it’s a clusterfuck of events. not only that, they destroyed Steve’s character arc, the character the russos admittedly consider as a character whom they have a soft spot for. that’s why the russos are so determined on saying steve went to another timeline to at least adjust his character a bit better. m&m’s take is the worst of course. look at this interview..

they came up with the ending after civil war. probably because of the protests for steve to canonically have a boyfriend. before you start with the stevebuckies ruined everything, it wasn’t just a shipping thing as far as I’m concerned. there are queer folks looking for presentation. it’s for perfect reasons. he could’ve been the first lgbt cap! Okay maybe I was dreaming. then, let’s talk about the friendship between steve and bucky. many people relate to that, adore it and even love the idea of them being together. the creators themselves said they love the bond between them and brotherhood as they like to call. m&m called them soulmates (platonic maybe). it’s unique and very rare to see delicate male friendship like them in media. everyone seemed to be on board. but what changed...?

I’m not saying there’s an evil Mickey Mouse ordering the creators to do this and that either. however, they were probably told to take care of it. y’know? the protest went on to tv even so.. it’s sad and absurd that we end up getting an extremely heteronormative ending. what I’m saying is they shouldn’t be so scared of fans calling steve rogers gay. they can make him as straight as possible without messing up his character arc. But in the end, the writers and directors went the easy way. They know people love nostalgia so they chose this path. Right,,

Another thing is m&m keeps talking about the dance. We all know the dance was coming as soon as it’s involved with time travel. to me, they didn’t even think deeply about anything beyond the dance. that’s why they’re still struggling to make a reasonable explanation concerning steve’s ending. they did everything in their own way to have end this way, even bending their own time travel logic. they neglected everything from before to construct a plausible (to them) ending in iw and endgame. there wasn’t enough steve in iw to begin with so he’s still in character (lol). endgame steve however is a problem itself. even without that ending, he’s becoming a different guy. the steve rogers we knew and love along the way is just gone. he’s being deprived of emotional scenes if not for a women. they totally ignored many relationships he has along his journey. okay so he was in trauma. but it’s not a fucking excuse to turn his character 360 degrees.

people still argue with “he’s happy now”, “he only left for a few seconds”. umm let me explain. he’s a fictional character, his feelings don’t count. these heroes are constructed so that we can follow their path and morals. their morals always come first. him retiring in the 21st is considering for himself. him going back in time however, is him giving up and is very pathetic that our hero couldn’t move on from something that happened twelve years ago. also, he didn’t just leave for five seconds. he left for 80 years not knowing he’d even be alive by the time he goes to meet them at that place, not knowing he might not even see his friends ever again. he didn’t even say goodbye. he chose not to spend his life with people who’d follow him everywhere. he left to live without so many important people in his life so that he could enjoy a married life? no, that’s not steve rogers at all.

here’s another topic. the past can’t be changed. so, steve has little reasons to go back. he didn’t have a family there. his family is here. bucky, however, had so many reasons to go back. he could’ve gone to meet his ma, his sisters but he didn’t. “bucky knows!” the creators included that bit to make sure that we wouldn’t argue. but they��re pretty dumb if they thought that way. Anyway, you’re telling me bucky barnes, who has barely lived in this century apart from the brainwashed years, who lived in solitary trying to remember who he was, belongs in the 21st century while steve rogers who has been here for twelve whole years, who’s made connections with people throughout the years, who’s already made enough progress moving on, belongs in the 40s??? bullshit! do the math. for bucky, it’s only been around four years after he fell off that train. for steve, it’s been twelve years plus his meaningful relationships with people in this century. if anything, bucky deserves to go back, not steve.

the creators really trashed their own work for the grand scheme called heteronormativity and money. even in this age, I’m sad to see that little progress we made along the way has gone back to square one. we should and must push back these boundaries, again and again if we have to. large corporations with their het propaganda and entitlements.. although I didn’t know why I’m surprised at this point lol even a movie like deadpool got straight lives matter treatment in the end.

In conclusion, i cannot and will never accept this ending for steve’s arc.

[anogete]

Bullet List of My Very Random Thoughts on Endgame

Don't click the keep reading link if you haven't seen the movie yet.  I don’t want to be responsible for ruining your first watch of the movie.  Serious, guys.  Only click if you’ve seen it.

I really enjoyed it and I'm happy to suspend my disbelief with almost all of the time travel plot element.  All things considered, it was masterfully executed and a beautiful love letter to the characters, movies, and fans.

My original six lovelies:

- Tony's arc was beautiful and heartbreaking but in a very satisfying way. I think most of us saw that one coming with the way IW set him up against Thanos.  It was that much more poignant when you saw he was happy with Pepper and their little girl but still couldn’t step away from helping make things right if he had the ability.  Pepper knew he couldn’t avoid involving himself despite not wanting to jeopardize his life with her, so her encouragement at the beginning and her comment to him right before he died (“We’re going to be okay. You can rest.”) just break my fucking heart.  So does Peter crying over a wounded and dying Tony, telling him they won.  Oh man.  The waterworks were something fierce.

- Nat was a surprise but packed a shockingly hard punch for me.  Maybe that was in part because it WAS a surprise and also because when we opened the movie she felt so fragile even though she was the one keeping the hope alive.  That moment with her sad little sandwich and the news about Clint being so far off the rails that Steve interrupts?  That alone made my heart hurt for her.  My stomach dropped when I saw her and Clint climbing the mountain on Vormir as I realized what had to happen to get the Soul Stone.  I was hopeful they could game the system and jump off the cliff together and both live, but I understand why this would cheapen it.  She always felt like the glue that kept all these big personalities and big egos together, so it hurts that she’s gone and the group has been fractured with Tony’s death and Steve being out of the game.

- As for Clint--I’m assuming he returns to the family man life unless something big comes up in the future.  I don’t know anything about Renner’s contract, but I’d like to see Hawkeye again.  The hair and the sword and the arms and tats and revenge attitude really did it for me.  How very dare they make him look this edible.

- Thor coping with grief by drinking beer (that beer belly, though!) and playing video games with Korg and Miek was actually refreshing and endearing.  I know some people didn’t like seeing him that way, but it gives his character so much depth.  Besides, he was back to his kickass self by the end of the movie.  I do love that he handed over New Asgard to Valkyrie to rule, and I hope we see him pop into movies in the future, especially with that adorable rivalry between him and Quill.

- Bruce and his newfound truce with Hulk was a delight to see and completely unexpected.  Also, Bruce/Hulk with the muscles and the voice and the five o’clock shadow and the glasses?  Ummmm...  ::is tempted to write Hulky Bruce smut::  I hope he’ll be in future movies.

- Steve.  Ahh, Steve.  I loved the fight with himself and the funny little winks to the viewers with the lines (America’s Ass, “I can do this all day”, “Hail Hydra”).  I loved that he was encouraging others to move on when he couldn’t seem to do so himself.  I LOVED him wielding Mjolnir, especially when the lightning started flying out of it.  Thor’s reaction to that (”I knew it!”) was adorable.  But, I’m torn with Steve’s storyline.  I wanted him to get his happily ever after.  I was dreading seeing him die in this movie, which I thought was definitely going to happen.  But what was so shocking to me was that he got exactly what I wanted him to get but it felt so cheap to me.  I left the movie satisfied with everything but the way they ended things with Steve, and yet I couldn’t seem to put my finger on why I started hating it the more I thought about it.  I know a ton of people are Stucky ‘shippers and, while I love his relationship with Bucky, I’ve never ‘shipped them together.  I’m not thrilled about the way they glossed over that relationship, but I understand the necessity because of time constraints.  I don’t mind that Steve handed the Shield off to Sam because I assumed either he or Bucky (or even both) would pick it up in Steve’s absence.  Bucky would have been a nice full circle between the two of them on their separate paths, but I also understand why it was given to Sam.  Bucky obviously knew exactly what was going on, though I thought the distance between him and Steve was a bit strange.  Maybe they were trying to make a point of showing that Steve and Bucky have both changed.  Whatever.  I can live with it, I  guess.  No one wanted Steve to get his happy ending more than me.  So, what gives?  I couldn’t figure out why it felt so wrong and cheap and like the worst kind of fan service.  @bulmavegotaku sent me THIS ARTICLE which actually articulates what has been bothering me.  Just because I wanted a happy ending for Steve doesn’t mean that it was what was best or even what was in-character for him.  I know other people thought that him hiding in the past to live his life with Peggy WAS in-character, but I don’t think it was at all.  And that’s not even to mention the fuckery with Peggy’s timeline.  Yeah, yeah, they left the question of who Steve married up in the air by not having him divulge that info when Sam asked, but I’m not stupid.  He says she’s the love of his life.  If he’s going back, he’s not going to share a dance with her and then go marry some other chick in the past.  Please.  And that makes Steve Sharon’s uncle.  Which is... weird and WTF.  But maybe they thought we’d forget all that since it is now an alternate reality or whatever.  So, Steve’s “ending” was the one major thing I really didn’t like.  I’m sure one day I’ll write some fic that branches off into an AU in which it didn’t happen that way.  It’s a little too fresh right now for me to tackle, though.  I need to get the bad taste out of my mouth.

Other things I liked:

- Nebula’s dynamic and (at times) heartbreaking storyline as we watched her internal struggle actually play out in front of us with two Nebulas.  My heart dropped when Rhodey was able to return to the present time on Earth, but she got trapped in the past with Thanos.  I’m so happy she survived.  Plus, her game of finger football with Tony was so goddamn endearing for both of them.

- Gamora being alive and the thought of watching her future interactions with Quill all over again.  I love the sexual tension and the chase for sure.  However, if past Gamora ends up in present time, then did all that stuff with Quill and the other Guardians even happen?  Her past self is in the present and so is Nebula’s past self.  Plus, Thanos plays a part (even if he’s off-screen) in much of the two Guardians movies, so if his past self died in the present, did this create some sort of alternate reality in which the things we witnessed didn’t actually happen in that way?  This kinda ties in with my dislike of Steve’s storyline.  Too much fucking with time travel begins to unravel the plot and create holes that I start picking at.

- Thanos turning to dust.  So so so satisfying.  What an absolutely arrogant turd.

- “On your left.”  What a wonderful moment when you heard Sam’s voice and saw T’Challa appear from that portal followed by all of the others.

- While I didn’t enjoy it, I did think the fight between Steve and an emaciated and exhausted Tony at the beginning of the movie was so well done and well-acted.  What a low point to climb out from.

- The scene in the beginning when they kill Thanos was also pretty low, but I thought a great way to start the movie.  You can kill the bad guy, but that won’t change all the bad he did.

- I feel like Scott Lang is all of us.  The scene with him outside when his taco blows away was so wonderful. And the scene in the diner when the kids want pics with Hulky Bruce, but not poor Antman.  So awkward and so funny.

- The closure that Tony got with his dad.  Oh man, that was the best and made even better because he was a father himself at that moment.  Thor being able to speak with his mother and move forward from that was also unexpected but so needed for his character, especially at that moment.

- While I love Carol Danvers and the Captain Marvel movie, I didn’t want her to come in and steal the show from the core group of Avengers as we ended this era of the movies.  I’m pleased with the way they used her to rescue Tony and Nebula and then go off to bring some order to the rest of the universe before returning to help in that final battle.

- Speaking of Carol--the scene during the battle when she takes the new gauntlet from Peter in an effort to get it away from Thanos and all the badass women fall in line behind her to assist brings a tear to my eye.  What made it even better is it caused the two bros seated beside me to mutter and wiggle uncomfortably in their chairs because it was obvious they didn’t really like that part.  As Beyonce would say, “Suck on my balls,” boys.

- Wanda’s white (red?) hot rage toward Thanos when she finally came toe-to-toe with him during the battle.  YES.  I was cheering her on.

- Steve’s ass.  Oh, I’m sorry America’s ass.

- Did I mention Steve wielding Mjolnir?

- Loki being the sneaky little snake he is and grabbing the Tesseract during the confusion when Tony gets hit by the flying door.  And Hulk screaming in frustration about how many stairs there are since he wasn’t allowed to ride on the elevator with everyone else.

- Bucky’s luxurious hair.  Although, I do want my beefy Civil War Bucky back.  On a side note, can someone please please please fix Sam’s facial hair before the next movie or show?  Please?  I do not like it at all.  Anthony Mackie, please go back to WS or CW facial hair.  I’m begging you.

I’m ready for more Guardians of the Galaxy featuring Thor.  I’m ready to finally watch the first Spiderman movie before the new one comes out.  (Don’t shoot me for not seeing it yet!) I’m pumped for more Carol as Captain Marvel.  I love the original characters the best, but I understand we have to move forward and I’m trying to embrace these new babies even though they aren’t Tony or Nat or Steve.  I’m consoling myself with Bucky and Sam right now.

And most of all, I’m excited to start writing again.  I started something last night, but I don’t want to give many details until I know if what I threw on the wall is going to stick.  If it does, then it’ll be Wintershock, take place after Endgame, and will probably be fluffy and free of life and death situations.  My heart can’t take any more of that between Endgame and Game of Thrones.  I’ll pop in periodically to keep anyone who cares updated on new material from me.  Can’t wait to see you again over on AO3 this summer!

[bluueejay]

mcu wanda is an adult, she is not “just a kid.”

She’s in her late teens (18+) in AoU, that is not a child. Yes, she’s young. Yes, she grew up in a small country that, from her childhood on, was brimming w civil war and chaos. Yes, her childhood and young life were filled to the brim with horrors and destruction. She’s young and unsure, afraid even, but she’s not a child. The ‘borderline’ infantilization of her throughout the movies, though it’s mostly prominent in CW (and hell, if ya wanna get specific about it, AoU too) is fucking weird. It’s odd. She’s old enough to be in the field, fighting, and training w the others. She’s old enough to be a legit, living-on-the-avengers-compound-property, avenger. She’s old enough to be going into other countries on missions, she’s old enough to be mentored by The Black Widow and Captain America, she’s old enough to fight battles, she’s old enough for all of that: but the minute something goes wrong or she’s faced w something less than pleasant, it’s a bout of “oh come on, she’s a kid! How dare you, she’s a kid!” When absolutely no? No, she’s not? She’s young, traumatized, and learning, absolutely. but not a child.

Let’s get technical for a sec, aight? When you go to the mcu maximoff’s wiki and scroll down to their AoU section, it reads as such, quote,

“When the twins reached adulthood, (....) Wanda and her brother took part in various riots to drive the foreign forces out of their streets. (....) The Maximoffs were approached by List who offered them a way to achieve the power needed to drive war out of Sokovia. Although she was initially skeptical, Wanda was convinced by Pietro to agree to the experiments to gain new powers.”

When they reached adulthood, (read: 18+) Sokovia had fully fallen into its civil war and that’s when the Twins were approached by List. (Idc if you want to argue about them thinking it was SHIELD/if they knew it was hydra, I don’t care. The main point being presented is that they underwent voluntary human experimentation. Another thing, because this was mentioned in AoU by I think Steve? A civil war is not the same as an external war. A civil war is not typically where you are fighting for your country, more you’re fighting for who controls your contry. Got it? Cool, moving on.)

She is not a child.

Treating her as such within the movies and then having certain chunks of the fandom push that belief only snowballs the iffy as fuck storytelling mistake that is the ‘as long as my intentions are good, any mistakes made are excusable’ mentality present within the MCU, but especially so in cacw. It’s fucking weird.

Take Clint’s line durint the compound, where after she’s said she’s caused enough problems and that it’s likely better for her to stay (content, not dialogue) he casually manipulates asks her into joining the fight by insinuating that the only way for her to make amends is to fight more, but he refers to their age difference w that high school comment. I can’t remember it word for word but paraphrased it’s essentially ‘if you want to make amends, you get off your ass. You wanna stay here and mope, you can go back to high school.’ Now obviously, we’ve learned thru mcu Clint’s meegar character development that he’s absolutely the type to refer to anyone significantly younger than him as a ‘kid’, he’s presented as that type of a character, that kind of a guy. Many people allege that his words are in reference to their pseudo familial connection but ehh, that’s up to personal speculation.

My longwinded point is that Clint and Steve have shown a repeated habit of infantalizing her, despite her adult age. Idc if it’s because she’s younger or bc of a sentimental connection between the lot, she’s in her early 20’s come cacw, the repeated comments about her being w kid (I know the high school moping comment was made more in reference to her behavior, rather than her age, but the phrasing is absolutely off for what they were going for and it’s still weird so)

Whether that be bc of their age differences, their sentimental affections, the mentor ship relationships towards her; whatever, it doesn’t really matter, because in the end: they’re still treating this then 18+ now 20+ year old woman like she’s a 14 year old. That’s,, that’s weird. It’s weird.

If you follow the mcu timeline and the information present, she and pietro are already 18, if not older, in the end credits scene for TWS. There’s about a year jump between TWS and AoU, putting her at about 19 in AoU, if you want to be a bit handwavy. (I’m personally of the idea that because the twins were already adults before list approached them about the experiments, they’re likely closer to 19 in the TWS end credits scene where it’s apparent that they’ve been with List long enough for their powers to manifest/start manifesting but it’s eh) That may be a little on the nose but for the sake of this, we’re gonna be a little on the nose. Alright? So she and pietro are at about 19 in AoU, young but by no stretch of the imagination are they children. Then, we jump from AoU to CW. There’s another year jump between AoU and CW, which is putting her in her early 20’s, let’s say 20 exactly for semantics sake.

CW specifically is where a lot of the infantilization and weird shit comes into play, which is even weirder to me specifically bc in this film, she’s absolutely not a child? She’s not a teenager or a weak-willed infant, she’s 20! And then again, we jump from CW to IW, where there’s a 2 year jump in time. That puts her at 22. 22! (On the nose again, I know, it’s likely not exactly year by year, but still) We jump again from IW and endgame, w the 5 year jump and even more semantics, she’s in her late 20’s. 27ish, to be a bit more specific. From her introduction to the latest film presented, she’s isn’t nor has she ever been a child.

So why are people (specifically Clint and Steve lmfao) so fucking insistent that she’s a kid?

(The time jump confirmations I’m using are coming from interviews and statements Joe Russo has given in the last year plus or so lmao, so don’t @ me about my stretching the timeline to fit my agenda or some shit)

Just all around, it’s a fucking weird story aspect to have at play, especially for as long as it was (mostly between AoU and CACW with contextual stuff scattered in IW, not much of note but it’s kinda there). It infantilizes this (currently) 20+ year old character to a near dangerous state, which brings us all the way back to that childish as fuck statement made in CW, the ‘you locked me in my room’ one. Your room.. you mean the several multi-million dollar facility with hundreds of amenities and your robo-boyfriend? And yes, her situation should have been explained to her much more throughouly, that’s something I absolutely stand by but also.. she was watching the news. She knows people are angry, going for the jugular, Steve’s little ‘we can’t save everyone’ speech absolutely doesn’t change the fact that the public is afraid and that they know her face. “Mr. Stark would like to prevent the possibility of another public incident” yeah, like say if she had gone to the store and had people come after her, something like that? She wasn’t even under official house arrest, she was making dinner with her boyfriend and hanging around. That “you locked me in my room” Comment is something I’d expect to hear from my 11 year old niece, an actual child, not a 20-something year old woman who also happens to be the mcu’s Scarlet Witch. It’s.. weird and iffy as fuck, a really bad writing choice, and something that shouldn’t have been done but oops it was and now we’re left w all this shit to pick and poke at while we cry about other shit. Nice.