#he was literally a necessity for loki's character development

[totally-not-kawaii]

okay, yeah, we gotta talk about this. we gotta talk about this.

loki has always been perpetually alone. even around his own family, he felt misunderstood and unwanted. the only person who ever made him feel like he belonged was his mother, and she died, leaving him completely and utterly alone again.

loki has always felt lonely. even with the company of his brother, even surrounded by people, he still felt lonely. nothing could ever really fill that gap for him.

but mobius did. but casey did. but b-15 did. even sylvie and ouroboros did. despite how everything began between loki & the rest of the tva, he finally felt like he belonged somewhere. he finally felt like he wasn't alone.

and it all started with mobius, seeing how much potential loki had and how much better he could be from now own.

[motherofmymotherreclist]

Forced Bonding

·       The Tie That Binds by leonidaslion (Supernatural, Explicit, 3K, 2011)

o   No one asks Sam what he wants.

o   [Wincest, incest, non-con elements, forced bonding, angst, John is a shitty parent, minimal smut]

o   This is the angsty fucked up version of a forced bonding fic. But I’m trash, so I love it.

·       Necessity by notboldly (Star Trek, Mature, 14K, 2010)

o   When Jim is attacked by a telepathic species, Spock bonds with him to save his life.

o   [slow build, romance, minimal smut, telepathy, empathy, bonding]

o   A classic forced bonding to save your life fic. Focuses on the discomfort of the sudden intimacy and how that brings them together.

·       ♥ ♥ Then You Think Again by leah k (blinkiesays) (Teen Wolf, Mature, 22K, 2012)

o   "You had no idea that it was going to work!" Stiles throws his hands up. Why is Derek the most frustrating werewolf in the history of ever, why is Stiles even helping him, why is this his life?  "Why did they even believe you in the first place?" Derek says, "You reeked of me," which is unfair.  Stiles only smelled because he'd gotten covered in Derek's bodily fluids trying to staunch the bleeding.

o   [bond or die, hags made them do it, bonding, forced intimacy, empathy, useyourwords!Derek, humor, sarcastic!Stiles, UST, pining, werewolf instincts, scent!kink, minimal smut]

o   Another one where Stiles’ voice is on point. Funny and tense with the UST. Forced bonding for the win. Their relationship builds really nice and organically.

·       Here Comes Your Man by hannahrhen (Avengers, Teen-Explicit, 25K, 2013)

o   (Reluctant!Soulmate AU) An unexpected bond forms between Tony Stark and one of his greatest enemies. But not everything before is forgotten, or forgiven.

o   [Tony/Loki, forced intimacy, dub-con, angst, bickering, denial of feelings]

o   This relishes in the awkwardness of forced intimacy as Tony has no understanding or patience for the bond. It’s laid out as a series, but really this should have been chapters of one fic.

·       ♥ ♥ Choices by Kethrua (Dresden Files, Mature, 28K, 2011)

o   In an AU to Changes, Harry sold himself to John Marcone instead of Mab. They both take a while to adjust to this. Written for the Kinkmeme, for a prompt requesting both serious treatment of the issues and smut. Contains non-explicit reference to past child abuse and rape.

o   [bonding, dubcon, magic, power imbalance, healing, hurt comfort, smut, trust issues]

o   I love this fic so much. It has perfect pacing and character development. The love and growing trust between the characters is so obvious and yet understated.

·       A Shove Towards Love  by General_Button (Voltron, Teen, 31K, 2016)

o   A simple rescue mission turns into chaos when the species on the planet Novaria take an interest in the lives of two of its paladins.

o   [Klance, meddling aliens, aliens made them do it, but there’s no smut, bickering, pining, mind meld, forced proximity, soul bond]

o   This is great example of the trope. Keith and Lance are somehow both pining and acting like they can’t stand each other at the same time, and you just want to smack them, until you don’t.

·       ♥  Debt of Honor by Brianna Falken (Star Trek, NC-17, 33K, 2009)

o   Six months after being taken prisoner and raped by a Vulcan captain, Kirk finds that same Vulcan is now being assigned as his first officer when peace between Vulcan and Earth is declared. Originally published in the print fanzine Beyond Dreams 7 (2004)

o   [Non-con, non-reform Vulcan, super angst, rape recovery, healing, bonding, slow build]

o   This starts with a pretty graphic rape scene so please take care of yourself, but if that isn't your trigger or you can get past the non-con, this is a lovely story about forgiveness and healing. It’s actually one of my favorite star trek fics, something about the characterization both breaks my heart and gives me all the feelz. Literally the definition of a fandom classic since it came out of a fanzine.

·       Defendere by Lomonaaeren (Harry Potter, Mature, 37K, 2012)

o   When Harry stumbles into a magical ritual meant to enslave Draco, he manages to create a bond that leaves Draco with some free will. And the ability to irritate Harry in the name of "guarding" him.

o   [Drarry, forced soul bond, dub con, lots of consent issues, free will issues, slow build, pining, UST, angst, forced intimacy]

o   This one felt weird because of all the consent issues, but it does deep dive into the forced bonding and intimacy, and it’s well written. I’m just not sure I think this relationship is actually healthy, but it’s fanfic so, ehhh. The author does address the consent issues, don’t get me wrong, I just couldn’t 100% believe that they were solved.

·       Unexpected Consequences by lauren3210 (Harry Potter, Explicit, 39K, 2015)

o   Harry was going back to school. He was going to play Quidditch, sleep in lessons, hang out with his friends, and generally just enjoy being a kid for a change. And he was also going to do it while being bonded with Malfoy, because apparently life was just going to continue throwing curveballs at him. Harry didn't know why he expected anything different.

o   [Drarry, slavery sort of, consent issues, slow build, healing, enemies to friends to lovers, trust issues, magic, bullying]

o   Draco is completely in Harry’s power and must learn to trust his jailor. It’s very good. One of those classic Drarry fics IMO. It’s what Defendere could have been.

·       ♥ Present  by reillyblack (Teen Wolf, Explicit, 112K, 2018)

o   When Stiles's best friend Scott presented as a werewolf, it was just the worst. Worst by far was that it meant Scott had to leave immediately to live with the werewolf pack in the mountains -- which no one knew anything about. Stiles couldn't even visit, so he only got to see Scott once a month when he came back to visit his mom. It sucked. A year later, he presents too.

o   [world building, ABO dynamics, werewolf dynamics, scent kink, inventive werewolf world, like—super inventive, soul mates, Oblivious!Derek, plot, smut, UST, pack dynamics, pack bonding, BAMF!Stiles, Stiles doesn’t take shit from anyone]

o   As you can tell from my tags, this fic has precious and wonderful world building. I absolutely adored it. It’s everything you could want from werewolves. It’s also well plotted and fun as hell.

·       Rare Merchandise by CateAdams (Star Trek, Explicit, 120K, 2015)

o   Jim and Spock are kidnapped by Orion slavers during a diplomatic mission, transported to a location outside of Federation space and sold to a mysterious woman who commands an entire world. Once there, they are forced to participate in her terrifying agenda: their friendship used against them and their strength brutally tested. Can they survive and escape, or will they be used to bring down the Federation itself?

o   [For want of a nail, angst, action, Non-con elements, character torture, forced bonding, mind meld shenanigans.]

o   This is a very action oriented fic that will keep you reading late just make sure everyone lives through it. It has some mind rape elements though, so be careful there.

·       ♥♥  other things the road to hell is paved with by LuciaZephyr (Dresden Files, Explicit, 138K, 2011)

o   Book One of the Matter of Chicago series. Diverges from the canon plotline from Fool Moon, chapter 23, running on the idea of Marcone not holding the Idiot Ball and thus getting Harry to sign his contract. Very slow burn romance. Essentially an AU take of the entire series.

o   [slow burn, deliciously slow burn, magic, power imbalance, magical contract, Oblivious!Harry, manipulative!Marcone, trust issues, plot]

o   This is one of those perfect fics. I don’t know what else to say; look up a summary of the Dresden Files and then read this if you haven’t read the books. It’s better than the source material. The bond is more an oath of fealty/obedience than the more traditional telepathy or empathy version.

·       Human is Just a Word by lady emebalia (emebalia) (Teen Wolf, Explicit, 173K, 2017)

o   Getting claimed by a werewolf has so not been on Stiles' agenda for the night. But at least he can choose whose human pet he's going to be. That's a plus, right?

o   [fuck or die, forced bonding, so much angst, slow build, pack dynamics, werewolves are known, BAMF!Stiles, scent kink, forced intimacy]

o   This has a lot of similar qualities to Present, so if you liked that, then you’ll probably like this too. It has a different concept of the intimacy of wolves and enough drama/tension to burst a blood vessel.

·       Bond by Anna Fugazzi (Harry Potter, Mature, 204K, 2006)

o   Yet another one of those Harry and Draco Are Forced To Be Together By Something Beyond Their Control And Then Stuff Happens Leading To Twoo Wuv stories.

o   [Drarry, fandom classic, fuck or die, UST, pining, smut, they eventually fuck like rabbits, magic compulsion, bonding, mystery, angst, loss of virginity]

o   This is the OG best of the best of Drarry bonding fics. If you haven’t read it and you like either Drarry or the bonding trope, then what even are you?

·       ♥♥ The Saffron Soul by BeautifulFiction_FMA (Fullmetal Alchemist, Explicit, 267K, 2010)

o   When a serial killer blurs the lines of alchemy in an effort to seal two souls together, Ed finds himself under suspicion from the police. Can he prove he is innocent, or are he & Roy doomed to suffer the consequences of the killer's ideals?

o   [RoyEd, BAMF!Edward, BAMF!Roy, murder mystery, action, adventure, dream sharing, empathy, plot, smut, slow burn]

o   This is one of my favorite fics of all time. I’ve reread it countless times. The characterization is amazing, the plot engaging, and the writing wonderful. All of her FMA works are great but this is the masterpiece.

[frankcastled]

So, I was drunk and told people to fight me on facebook about the MCU, and people did and this is my response to one of those people who said, “the villains are trash.” I just decided to post it on here for The Discourse. I love The Discourse. (Also, it explains why I refer to another person while writing this. I don’t feel like editing.)

So, your comment is super broad. I dunno if you’re referring to some villains or all of them, but I agree and disagree. Are all the villains in every movie perfect? No. Some of them have been underwhelming, that’s for sure. Malekith is a good example of this. And then on the opposite of the end of the same spectrum you have Loki, who is arguably the best villain. But let’s make him an exception to the rule, because he appears across multiple films and thus he has room to develop and grow as a villain and a character, even beyond the Thor films and so, like the heroes, he has a character arc that makes sense and just naturally makes him a good villain.  

But anyway, I’m assuming you’re talking about the infamous Marvel villain problem. Well known and although I don’t know the specifics of the argument, I’m going to pick out a few standalone villains who I think stand well on their own and actually present the heroes with real stakes.

First, Obadiah Stane. So, I think a fair argument can be made, that in a way, he is the catalyst for everything in the MCU. For one, there would be no Iron Man without Obadiah. I mean, he had Tony kidnapped, which is subsequently the reason Tony developed the Mark I in the first place! He’s the entire reason the Iron Man exists. In Civil War, we see the opposite effect: where Iron Man, as a result from mere existence, spawned a backlash. It’s pretty much the entire plot of Civil War: heroes create villains. But with Obadiah, he was a villain who created a hero, which I think is fascinating (and fine, a lot of stories follow this narrative, but in a world where superheroes are generally an accepted thing, it’s fascinating within this context). Not only that, but he has a history with Tony and with Tony’s father, Howard. Did the movie explore him fully and completely? No. That’s, I think, part of the problem with the villains in the MCU, most of them are given their one movie and because they are killed off, don’t have room to develop or grow the same way our protagonists do (again, the exception being Loki). However, I think Obadiah is also a great start for the MCU, plus the kind of villain who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty. He goes out of his way to have other people do his dirty work: having Raza be the one to kidnap and kill Tony, trying to get the scientists to build an arc reactor, etc. However, at the end of the day he realizes that he has to do it himself and does exactly that.

Stakes: He got his own Iron Man suit, makes him and Tony evenly matched. Perfect introductory villain.

Second, Red Skull from Captain America. I’m not even entirely sure that I even like him as a villain, so much as I like what he does for the movie and for developing Captain America as a character. But, I’m gonna throw him out there, because I’m already writing an essay here and may as well go full force. So, Red Skull first and foremost serves as a foil for Captain America. He got injected with the serum, etc, etc and yet here he is, the bad guy to Captain America’s good guy. He is the, “it was important for the super soldier experiment to pick the appropriate person to do tests on because this is what happens if we pick the wrong person” scenario. He is the “what if” scenario. He is like the dark side of Captain America. I think that’s important to establish for Captain America as a character because so much of the first movie is all about pushing his character and motivations and the Red Skull also kind of serves as a cautionary tale of, “this is what happens when you get greedy and power hungry and search out power for the wrong reasons.” But, it also establishes why he’s a formidable foe for Captain America. He has the same abilities as him. He is a match which also serves to show that an ordinary person could not take Captain America time (yeah, yeah we see this demonstrated multiple times when he takes out 20 henchmen on his own, but whatever). Again, I don’t know if any of these points necessarily make Red Skull a good villain, but I also think it was necessary for him to the the first villain (but also he’s a nazi and yeah this movie came out ages before, umm, well today’s current political climate, but suddenly Captain America straight up fighting a nazi is relevant again, but I digress).

Stakes: Also enhanced with super soldier serum. Is literally Captain America, but the evil version. Perfect introductory villain.

Captain America: Winter Soldier. I’m including this movie, because the villain here isn’t the traditional Marvel villain and I think that’s part of the reason why people love this movie so much. It’s complex and explores something very real and tangible (in my humble opinion, I think it’s slightly overrated and I have movies higher than this on my list, but I loved this one nonetheless). So, we’re made to believe the Winter Soldier is the villain. Makes for great drama and I would say a good twist, but considering the trailers gave it away— Anyway, he starts off as the villain, but as the movie progresses, lo and behold we find out that it’s really Hydra that’s behind all this!!!! *GASP* Not only that, but somehow Hydra is still around. And I’m not going to get too wordy, because Hydra ends up falling into the Loki category of villain, in that, they become a well developed and established organization being developed across multiple films, but hey! Still, they count as a valid villain and the fact that Hydra infiltrates S.H.I.E.L.D. and manages to compromise them, I feel speaks volumes for how powerful they are.

Stakes: Is an en entire organization whom Steve Rogers has history with and thus it dissolves his trust of others in general. Of course there are stakes.

Next we have one of the newer entries to the MCU: Spider-Man, or rather, The Vulture. So, I think part of what makes him a brilliant villain, maybe only second to Loki, is that he is so damn relatable. Which is the point. He represents the blue collar worker and the struggle they encounter in today’s world. He gets his job taken away (by one of the HEROES no less!) and is left being obsolete. Machines and technology are basically doing what he does (because are we really going to believe that Tony Stark has physical and living people doing the jobs that his Iron Legion can feasibly do or any other specialized drone that he may have made to do clean up) and that’s kind of the one thing you hear a lot about today: people are being replaced by machines! People with a limited skillset are having their jobs taken by machines! They’re being left behind and forgotten because they have never done any other job but the one job they just had taken away from them. The Vulture presents such a modern day dilemma for so many people, especially nowadays (coughminerscough). And so the Vulture forces us to question a lot. Do the ends justify the means? How far is too far? How bad is he when he was literally doing this to keep a roof over his family’s head, a family we know about and grow to care about prior to the big reveal and thus compromising how we feel? He’s one of the more complex villains I would argue. His entire character arc is about being able to obtain materials to make weapons so that he can sell them and literally keep food on the table and a roof over his family’s head (hey, remember which other famous character was a weapons manufacturer and made his living off selling weapons and facilitating war? Hmmm, he might have popped up once or twice in this movie already…). Ultimately, yeah, we know what he’s doing isn’t great. He sells to only criminals (that we know of), I’m sure part of it is out of necessity considering that he kept all the debris illegally, and what better way to make sure your client base doesn’t talk than to make sure they’re already criminals who aren’t going to go blabbing since they live their lives outside of the law, anyway. I could go on, but I won’t.

Stakes: Well, Peter Parker is a high school kid with powers and the Vulture has alien technology and is an adult, so pretty evenly matched. Arguably the Vulture has less morality than Peter Parker, as well, and thus will aim for the kill, unlike Peter who obviously aims to keep him alive.

The living planet, Ego. Okay, so this one, again like Red Skull, I’m not even entirely sure if he makes a good villain, or because I like the purpose he serves and the way he drives the story. But, he’s gonna get thrown on here. So, this was never a secret, but hey turns out Ego is Peter Quill’s father! Hurray! How happy for Peter Quill. Ego ends up being the opposite of Winter Soldier, in that he is meant to be a good guy until he’s revealed to be the villain. I think this is part of makes the second Guardians movie really compelling. There isn’t a real villain until the final reveal. Even the Sovereign, who arguably are something of a secondary antagonist, are more of a nuisance to the Guardians rather than an outright villain. Anyway, part of the whole Guardians’ storyline is the concept of family (if the use of Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain didn’t give it away, then I don’t know what would have) and that’s why Ego makes such a suitable villain for this movie. Peter’s own biological parentage isn’t really family, not in the same way Yondu was and not in the same way the Guardians are to Peter. Ego is a necessary villain because it makes an incredibly relevant point, that hey, your family isn’t actually who is related to you by blood, but about who you make your family. That people who share blood with you can be the people who make you miserable, but that does not mean you have any obligation to them. Honestly, the movie said it best, “Sometimes, the thing you’ve been looking for your whole life is right there beside you all along.”

Stakes: Literally a god. Does not get harder to defeat than this. Someone straight up died, so.

Final villain, I swear. I thought having a nice variety of good and relevant villains was important for the discourse. Hela. (Huh, three of my villains from the three most recent films.) So, first I would like to point out, I think Hela was vastly underused. I don’t think she had much screen time and I think she should have had more, but that being said, I do think there was one very important thing that Hela did accomplish, and it honestly makes up for her lack of screen time. So, at the end of Ragnarok, you have everyone on the ship and Asgard has just turned into a fiery hellscape. Fun stuff. Taika then has this moment as Korg, where Korg talks about how they can rebuild Asgard because it has a foundation, etc. only to then have any semblance of a foundation blow up. It’s a joke. However, it’s a very important joke, (to be fair, the following of what I’m going to say kind of is a shot in the dark and based on only two viewings of this movie) I think part of the point of Korg making light of what has just happened, despite the seriousness of the situation (Thor no longer has a home. He has all these people with him that he needs to find a home for so they can rebuild their lives and start anew and that’s something very serious), but remember Hela’s entire arc in the movie? For the most of the movie, she talks about her life before Odin imprisoned her. There’s a scene where she destroys a mural and reveals another mural underneath that showed her and Odin conquering the world. She talks about all the conquests she and Odin have, building an empire (kind of sounds like white colonialism, if you ask me) and I think that’s kind of the point of her character? She reveals Asgard for what it is, a sham. She reveals Odin for who he was. She shows that the foundation of Asgard was built upon conquests and wars and that after she was imprisoned: lies. Ragnarok isn’t just about Asgard dying, but about Asgard having a fresh start. It’s the cyclical nature of what Ragnarok really is and I think it’s part of why Korg makes light of the whole situation. There was never really a foundation for Asgard. It was covered up and in the end, it was built on something dirty. Hela, while brief her appearance is, serves to expose all that. She was a villain because her father made her that way, that much is clear. She didn’t want to conquer Asgard because that’s what villains do, she wanted to conquer Asgard because that’s literally what she was told was true. She was the rightful successor, but also she probably truly believed that. In fact, you see her giving Asgard the chance to simply accept her (which, to be fair, from the POV of the people, that’s a lot to ask when they’ve literally never heard of her, so you can’t blame them, but you also can’t blame her) and she might have ruled with an iron fist, but again, that’s how she was raised. Wars and conquests, and in a way it makes her character arc kind of tragic. In all honesty, I kind of hope she ends up coming back because I think she’s fascinating (and I’ve heard that in the comics Thanos has a thing for her, and to be honest, I am here for the evil, villain couple).

Stakes: She is Thor’s sister, therefore is a goddess and is level with him in the sense they are both otherworldly beings. Also, she can create weapons from nothingness. Literally Thor and company can’t defeat her, they bring back the hell monster to get rid of her (and to be honest I am not even sure that she’s dead anyway). People died, people less powerful than Thor and friends.

Anyway, if you’ve made it this far, congratulations for making it through my rambling! Here’s are just how I think the villains stack up individually in terms of being awful to being excellent.

Terrible, glad they are dead. 3 out of 10 stars.

Tim Roth (Lmao, okay that’s the actor, but god knows what his character’s name is, I admit I’ve seen the Incredible Hulk like four times and it’s at the bottom of my MCU movie list)

Malekith

Okay, probably could have been better but the movie was good so I don’t care.

Whiplash + Justin Hammer

Killian Aldrich

Hovers in the middle of being “eh” to being “good.”

Kaecilius + Dormammu

I liked them, not sure of public opinion, I could defend in a fight.

Ronan the Accuser

Ultron

Darren Cross

Zemo

Villains I think are good and just wrote a literally essay about 

Obadiah Stane

Red Skull

Hydra

Ego

Vulture

Hela

The only collectively good villain in the MCU that most people agree on

Loki