#let alone that non-mcu films exist

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Kevin Fiege when there are Marvel Films that aren't related to the MCU and therefore actually allowed the directors and writers to do what they wanted with the story and characters:

[theuntitledblog]

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023) - REVIEW

SYNOPSIS

Ant-Man and the Wasp find themselves trapped within the Quantum Realm only to discover a much larger world exists including a great threat in the form of Kang.

Let's be clear, this is a film that's about one thing and that's introducing the new major villain of the Marvel Cinematic Universe; Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Does it succeed in this task? Absolutely it does but does Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania succeed as a film? Well that's a different matter; it couldn't be more further away from its predecessors with a visual scale and style that's more akin to James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy and Taika Waititi's Thor sequels. Yet Peyton Reed doesn't seem to fully embrace the quirky weirdness of that visual style in a film that seems too focused on its singular purpose that it feels somewhat undercooked. There are characters and plot threads that are underdeveloped to the point that you don't really care about them or the more wider stakes of the third act. But most surprising of all is that for a film called 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania', it really should be an absolute blast for comedy especially with the more light hearted tone of this particularly property of the MCU. But Quantumania barely lands any significant laughs or has much in the sort of comedy moments that stay with you once the credits roll. That's not to say that I think this is an outright bad film but Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is a film that I can't help feel could've been better than it actually is.

One thing that continues to baffle me about the Ant-Man sequels is why they even bother to have 'The Wasp' in the title. If you take a look at the poster at the top of this post alone then the conclusion you would draw is that this is a single lead movie despite the team up in the title. Evangeline Lily's Hope van Dyne is a character that has enjoyed some great action beats in these films and has in fact been the more competent hero of the pairing. However the major character arcs have always been focused on Paul Rudd's Scott Lang and never for Hope. Quantumania is pretty much an Ant-Man movie in everything except name and Hope feels nothing more than a spectator in a movie that should also be about her. It's a consistent waste for this series even though Reed does do a better job serving other characters such as Cassie Lang (Kathryn Newton) and most of all the original Wasp, Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer). They smartly expand on Janet's previous exile in the Quantum Realm to create history and personal with Kang. Michelle Pfeiffer is one of the standouts of film as her character is given greater depth all the while she's utilized to develop and build-up the anticipation to the films standout element; Kang the Conqueror.

The MCU doesn't have a good track record when it comes to the villains for their non-Avengers movies and the Ant-Man series hasn't really been much different ... except now. In Quantumania the villain not only delivers but is easily the best element in the movie and is when the film comes into its own. Jonathan Majors Kang gets excellent treatment; he's carefully established initially as an off screen presence as the various displaced, oppressed (and underdeveloped) characters of the Quantum Realm speak cautiously of a "Conqueror". His appearance feels a long time coming and is all the more effective due of the build-up and Majors doesn't disappoint in the role. There's a genuine sense of threat to Kang as Majors brings an imposing physicality to Kang in the several set pieces he is a part of and in the way he delivers his lines in several outstanding exchanges with Pfieffer and Rudd. The struggle against Kang is by far the most satisfying part of Quantumania it's just unfortunate that other aspects of the story falls flat in a sadly too formulaic third act.

Quantumania's lack of depth when it comes to new characters such as Katy O'Brian's Jentorra and William Jackson Harper's telepathic Quaz leaves the story feeling somewhat thin. It all feels at service to introducing Kang rather than being a satisfying part of the story on its own although it does also go hand in hand with the story between Cassie and Scott. But it is the lack of screen time and the surprising lacks of humour that prevents these characters from having any meaningful impact like the way that Korg did in Thor: Ragnarock. The writers simply haven't given the audience to care about in this regard which is disappointing. What does work however is exploration of the relationship between the now teenage and her father while Janet's hidden backstory with Kang is the source of needed tension in the Van Dyne family. All of this is held together by the threat of Kang who is more of a match for the heroes which ensures that there are some genuine stakes. The finale itself does feel like a missed opportunity for Quantumania and Kang to leave an immediate and lasting impact but fans of large scale set pieces will be thrilled by the effects heavy spectacle. That this film isn't more funny than it is is as baffling as it is unforgiveable because even the weaker elements could've been lifted some great comedy.

VERDICT

Quantumania isn't top tier MCU and it demonstrates that the formula is starting to show signs of wear but the imagination of the visual effects, the likeability of the main characters and Jonathan Majors Kang offers just enough to make it a fun experience despite it flaws. But how this isn't more funny than it is I'll never know.

3/5

[dpterri]

Quicksilver aaron taylor johnson

#Quicksilver aaron taylor johnson movie

In Age of Ultron, Pietro Maximoff and his sister Wanda are volunteers of Hydra, both acquiring superhuman powers after volunteering to be experimented upon. for the next bout of Avengers-related action. Aaron Taylor-Johnson signed on to play Pietro Maximoff in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), and first appeared in a mid-credits scene for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014). We’ll have to wait and see whether the subtle dance of agents, representatives, lawyers and producers ends up with Johnson joining the likes of Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans and, presuming he makes his deal, Robert Downey Jr. This week in Duh, We Knew That news, Aaron Taylor-Johnson has officially joined the cast of The Avengers: Age of Ultron as Quicksilver, the one hero more. In the same year that he appeared in 'Godzilla,' Aaron Taylor-Johnson had a short. In a strange coincidence, Peters played Todd in the original Kick-As****s. The weird quirk is here is that while Quicksilver and his sister are technically mutants – they’re the children of Magneto, as you can learn here – Marvel can’t mention that or their parentage, while Fox can’t ever link them to the Avengers.įox and Singer have gone with Evan Peters for their Quicksilver, picking someone who is a little lower profile than Marvel’s idea.

#Quicksilver aaron taylor johnson movie

Apparently, however, the man who has until recently been best known to comic book movie fans as the title character in Kick-Ass (and who will be back in the sequel on August 16) is the front-runner for the role. Marvels Avengers: Age Of Ultron Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) Ph: Jay Maidment. 'The Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)'Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) - All Scenes PowersPietro Maximoff was a native of Sokovia who grew up with his frater. We’re cautioned that it’s early days for this right now: there isn’t even a formal offer, let alone a deal in place yet. Aaron Taylor-Johnsonwhose previous superheroic exploits include a two-film stint as Kick-Ass, and the (non- Wandavision) MCU incarnation of Pietro Quicksilver Maximoff is getting back. Shakman did confirm that they moved past this idea fairly quickly, though, and explained how the use of Peters as Quicksilver worked on several levels for WandaVision. For most of their existence, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have been classified as mutants in the comics, though it’s since been retconned that they. Today comes the Marvel response, as The Wrap reports Aaron Taylor-Johnson is being considered for the role in Whedon’s film. He didn't reveal how using Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Quicksilver would've potentially changed the show. When Joss Whedon started hinting that Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were likely to appear in the line-up for the Avengers sequel, there was considerable casting speculation. Aaron Taylor-Johnson Talks Adapting Quicksilver For The Avengers 2.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

If Harry took the route of becoming an obscurial, would dumbledore have clued in before it was to late? How would he deal with this scenario? What’s the fallout if he doesn’t and Harry tornadoes through privet drive?

A Few Thoughts

I mean, you don't take the route of becoming an obscurial, it's not exactly something you want to do with your life.

Also, obscurials...

Fantastic Beasts is such a retcon beautiful franchise that isn't even sure what an obscurial is either. Film one it's implied that this is a fate that will ultimately destroy Credence Barebones. This will kill him shortly, violently, and he essentially has cancer that turns him into an evil rage filled storm cloud.

Then film two happens, it's been several years, and he's alive and well and seemingly able to control his evil cloud powers much like an MCU superhero. Grindelwald interacts with him again and the idea that Credence is dying doesn't seem to come up, instead he's a protege and champion to be used to fight with Dumbledore who is now a badass.

My point is that obscurials haven't even been consistent between the Fantastic Beasts movies let alone their non-existence in the original canon. What's an obscurial? I have no idea, an evil cloud I guess. What does it even do? Uh, destroy buildings... maybe... and be an evil cloud.

Of doom.

Harry Becomes an Obscurial, Does Dumbledore Notice?

Depends.

If Mrs. Figg can recognize the signs or even just describe them then Dumbledore (having had some familiarity with this Credence fiasco given the man's his secret brother) he could very well have realized what was coming about and gone "OH SHIT" and dumped Harry on Snape.

(And it would be Snape, Dumbledore would trust no one else with this, and both Snape and Harry would have a miserable time.)

On the other hand, he was pushing it to the limit. Now, I think obscurials are a silly silly retcon, because the world would look so different if they existed.

I imagine muggleborns would become wards of the state. The disaster they can cause if abused and their magic suppressed is simply not worth it and would put the statue at so much risk. Tom Riddle would have been taken out of his orphanage, Hermione likely removed from her parents, and Harry probably never left with the Dursleys.

But if they did exist and Dumbledore put Harry with the Dursleys who he knows resented Lily and her magical abilities--then he's willing to take that risk. Dumbledore was very likely aware that not all was well with Harry Potter and did not remove him. I'm sure he wouldn't like for Harry to become an obscurial but, on the other hand, perhaps this is the power the dark lord knows not.

Credence, after all, became an instrument of destruction.

And Harry is doomed to die regardless so--perhaps it's for the best.

What's the Fallout?

I imagine Harry destroys Privet Drive and murders not only his relatives but the entire block. Albus has to cover up what happened, and Harry is dumped on Snape who immediately sets about getting Harry under control and trying to get him to control his new abilities much the way Credence could.

This may or may not fail in which case Snape will also be gruesomely murdered.

Dumbledore puts Harry in Hogwarts regardless (as he once did Lupin), and Harry probably ends up murdering several classmates. This keeps getting covered up somehow.

I imagine Harry ends up dying before Voldemort resurrects himself as being an obscurial catches up to him sooner rather than later.

Then Dumbledore realizes that he's in trouble.

[aelaer]

Stephen Strange has finally invaded my dreams

I've been having pop-culture, plot-heavy dreams for years and years, the first ones I remember coming at 13/14/15. Usually I need to be obsessing/watching something for years to get it in my dreams. I've been expecting a Stephen-centric dream for a while but it never came, or at least not one that I could remember. (RTGame, a streamer I watch regularly, has stopped by my dreams like 4 times in the last year in contrast). Sometimes I'm with the characters in the dream, sometimes I'm just watching them like I would a film, sometimes I *am* the character, or a side character.

Well, it finally came. This was a film-watching dream visual. I don't remember all of it, naturally, but here are the highlights:

It was MCU!Stephen and he was travelling the multiverse, so definitely inspired by recent media. He was alone, which also means no Cloaky. No idea what happened to Cloaky.

I think he entered multiple universes, but I only remember one clearly.

The universe he entered in was a much larger Kamar-Taj led by MCU!Mordo. Mordo had his short hair. He was tough and a bit merciless, but not like, a bad guy.

My brain kept on blending Mordo and MCU!the Ancient One visually since he took her role, I guess, but it was definitely Mordo's voice and characterization.

Kamar-Taj was a much larger complex, probably the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing (with similar architecture). I visited the city in 2007, but I haven't thought of it in years. There was definitely parts of my old college campus in other parts of Kamar-Taj, too, with a wee bit of Hogwarts in the hallways and stairwells. Very multicultural.

Stephen had to prove he wasn't a bad guy, and at the same time, that he was a sorcerer worthy of respect. This was somehow achieved by turning a bunch of water in a man-made pond in the Kamar-Taj complex into very large, several foot tall ice cubes, then fitting them into a steel frame like 10 feet high like some weird art installation. Because this somehow proved both his morality and power. Dream logic. Funny enough, dream made it very challenging with all these dramatic loops and like, water had to be poured in and frozen to fit in the cracks to put in a perfect fit and finish the timed trial. And if he didn't complete this Stephen would have been killed. So yeah, dream logic.

After he passed this test Mordo begrudgingly let him stay with them until Stephen figured out how to get back to his own universe.

The rest of Kamar-Taj distrusted Stephen and no one was talking to him until this random guy that my brain invented started to guide him. I think his name was Tim, and he looked a bit like Hamir. Definitely Asian, non-Western accent, though couldn't say what ethnicity beyond that. Possibly more southern than northern biological roots.

Tim gave Stephen a tour of that universe's Kamar-Taj. There was definitely a secret passage scene that involved Stephen, yet again, needing to prove to Tim that he wasn't a bad guy. Some spells in the room made memories appear on the walls and he had to talk about Thanos and Dormammu.

In the most college campus part of the dream, after Stephen passed that test, they were in this inner courtyard eating lunch with a bunch of people in robes and books walking back and forth. They were in a corner a bit away from everyone so people couldn't stare at them. Stephen finally learns why no one trusts him: his counterpart in that world had murdered his wife Clea (from the comics) and then ran off, basically leaving their teenage daughter Sophia (who... sorta exists in the comics but not really? Not really in the main 616 continuity) alone. She passes by in the distance at some point. Clea was portrayed by an Asian actress, FTW.

The murder happened a month ago, and my dream informs me that it's now February, because that's the detail my dream thought important.

That's literally it. No confrontation with his evil self, no going home, nothing more with Wong and Mordo, my dream just left it there with these two eating lunch and this bombshell of a fact.

I do wish my dream gave me something a bit better than this for its plotting. Less dream logic, please, more good conclusions.

[nostalgicatsea]

Common questions about and excuses for racism in fandom

I noticed that the same excuses, justifications, and questions that have come up in response to racism in fandom over the years appear in the notes for my post, so here’s a FAQ of sorts to address them. Hopefully, this will help people understand why these arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny and have something to refer to in lieu of writing a new reply every time someone says these things. 

Due to the length of this post, I made a Google doc for easier reading. Please note that several points are specific to the Marvel fandom and to the post linked above and are often M/M-focused (I explain why in that post), but generally speaking, the following can be applied to any fandom and various relationships. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS 

I can ship whatever I want. Stop being the fandom police!

Shipping isn’t activism. 

Fandom is supposed to be fun. Being told what to do or not to do isn’t fun.

I put a lot of different people in my works, and I do research about the groups they’re in. For example, I have a *marginalized group here* character (e.g., disabled), and I did research to represent them accurately. It’s not fair to say that I don’t care about diversity.

I don’t think people should write about POC if they’re white, just like I wouldn’t want anyone to talk about *insert topic you’re passionate about or interest group you’re in here* (e.g., the BDSM community) if they didn’t know anything about it.

I really don’t have any knowledge about what it’s like to be a POC, though, so maybe I’m not the best person for this. If POC want to see themselves represented, they should make their own works.

I’m not comfortable with writing POC as I’m unfamiliar with the struggles they experience. I don’t want my writing to come off as inauthentic, inaccurate, or offensive. Why are you saying it’s harmful to use this as a reason for abstaining from writing POC?

It doesn’t make sense to include every single POC in my work.

What you said and the data you have don’t necessarily point to racism. It might just be individual preference. I prefer certain ships over others, and it has nothing to do with race/I don’t see color.

A big part of what informs my shipping is physical attraction or interest in the characters.

I don’t ship _____ because I see them as brothers/sisters/siblings.

Some white characters and ships are popular in the MCU fandom because people bring in canon characterization or material from the comics to the character(s)/ship. Your MCU-only examination fails to account for ships with one character from the MCU and one from comics (e.g., MCU Bucky/616 Clint or Spideypool).

Some subfandoms just have fewer POC which means there will naturally be fewer ships featuring POC. To say that the Marvel fandom is racist as a whole is disingenuous; you can see how more diversity in the cast leads to more diverse ships in fanworks.

Some of the characters and ships are popular because white characters get the lion’s share of screen time and development or they appeared in canon earlier.

Is it racist to racebend a character?

Racist language in fics is more important than fandom representation.

My fanworks tend to focus on one ship and don’t really include other characters in general. When they do, the others mostly talk about that relationship. Am I falling into the trap you mentioned? 

I feel guilty about not including or writing about *character of color’s name here*.

How do I ensure that I don’t offend anyone if I include POC in my work?

What should I do to examine myself for any implicit biases?

The rest of the post is under the cut.

I can ship whatever I want. Stop being the fandom police!

As explicitly stated several times in my post, I agree that you can ship whatever you want. I’m not targeting a specific ship. I’m not telling you to stop shipping what you ship. All I’m asking is for everyone, including myself and other POC, to regularly examine ourselves for any implicit biases. If you’re a multishipper, are all of your ships in the fandom white? If you only have one ship and it’s white, are most or all of your ships in your other/previous fandoms white? Is the only media you consume predominantly or all white? 

Shipping isn’t activism. 

No, it isn’t and in many cases, shouldn’t be seen or treated as the same thing. However, by responding this way to POC who want to see themselves represented in fanworks more and not be ignored or written stereotypically, you’re telling us that our mere existence is a “political issue.” 

Fandom is supposed to be fun. Being told what to do or not to do isn’t fun.

It should be fun for us POC too, and it’s not when we’re consistently misrepresented or we don’t exist in this fandom. By using this as an excuse to exclude POC from your works, you’re saying that only some people are allowed to have fun or that having fun is conditional. Also, no one is forcing you as an individual to do or not do anything. See two paragraphs above.

I put a lot of different people in my works, and I do research about the groups they’re in. For example, I have a *marginalized group here* character (e.g., disabled), and I did research to represent them accurately. It’s not fair to say that I don’t care about diversity.

Just like you do research for those groups, you can easily do research on POC. Also, please be aware that this statement is similar to the “I’m not racist because I have a ___ friend/have a ___ person in my works” argument that many people use to prove they’re not racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. We aren’t interchangeable with other groups. 

I don’t think people should write about POC if they’re white, just like I wouldn’t want anyone to talk about *insert topic you’re passionate about or interest group you’re in here* (e.g., the BDSM community) if they didn’t know anything about it.

Something like BDSM is a lifestyle and preference. It is a choice. Being a POC isn’t. We can’t take off our identity every time we leave the house, the way you might keep it secret at work that you’re in the BDSM scene. 

I really don’t have any knowledge about what it’s like to be a POC, though, so maybe I’m not the best person for this. If POC want to see themselves represented, they should make their own works.

We do. Also, all of us fanwork creators make works with characters who are different from us all the time. Fandom is largely composed of people who aren’t straight cis men, yet the bulk of works on AO3 features characters who are canonically or implied to be straight cis men even if we end up changing that in our works. Most of us aren’t billionaires, but we don’t have a problem writing Tony. We don’t know what it’s like to be a WWII-soldier-turned-brainwashed-assassin who was kept in cryo for decades except when deployed on missions, but we don’t have a problem writing Bucky. The list goes on.

I’m not comfortable with writing POC as I’m unfamiliar with the struggles they experience. I don’t want my writing to come off as inauthentic, inaccurate, or offensive. Why are you saying it’s harmful to use this as a reason for abstaining from writing POC?

Your concern isn’t harmful. Reducing us to our trauma is, and you’re doing that if the reason you’re not comfortable with writing POC is that you don’t know how to write our struggles. We’re not only our pain. We’re more than that.

Not every fic has to be about the trauma of being a POC. We deserve to have fun, silly fics in addition to serious, plotty drama. We’re not thinking about our suffering 24/7 even if we do think about or are affected by it a lot. It’s not like if you write a Sam/Bucky fic, Sam is going to randomly lecture Bucky about the history of Black people in the U.S. and modern enslavement through the prison industrial complex while Bucky is trailing kisses down his neck in bed. We don’t need everyone being racist to MJ in a Pride and Prejudice AU. If you do want to include their struggles because that informs the way the characters think or act in your story, you can do so in ways that feel organic. 

Additionally, this is an excuse that we hear often; you may have heard it as people in Hollywood have used it to explain why they don’t have any, or at least any major, characters from marginalized groups in their works. If we allowed this excuse, an overwhelming majority of who we see in the media would be straight, cis white men considering who has power in the film and TV industry—and we would have to say that’s okay. We would have to say that the only people allowed to write about a certain group are members of that group, e.g., only women can write women. That’s not acceptable especially considering the gatekeeping, oppression, and high barriers to entry and success that make it difficult for marginalized people to even be in the room let alone make a name for themselves.

Fandom is no different. You’re saying that you can’t relate to POC because you’re white, but none of us POC have any problems making fanworks with white characters even though we don’t know what it’s like to be white. There are straight women who write fics about gay men and don’t feel uncomfortable doing so when they don’t know a single thing about being a gay man and the struggles of gay men (M/M can include bi or pan men, fics about gay men by straight women can sometimes include problematic portrayals, and straight men, queer women, and non-binary people write M/M too, but this is just an example).

You should be more careful when writing a POC if you're not a POC. The same goes for men writing women, cis people writing trans people, straight people writing queer people, able-bodied people writing disabled people, etc. However, there ARE ways to go about it, and while I understand the fear of messing up, the truth is everyone is racist, sexist, etc. Everyone including people in marginalized groups. Being a white lesbian doesn’t mean you can’t be racist. Being an Asian man doesn’t mean you can’t be sexist. You can see that within groups themselves. POC are not exempt from racism against other POC or from internalized racism against themselves or their own group. Women aren't free from internalized misogyny. The best we can do is to not make that prevent us from making inclusive works; if you make a mistake, which may happen, all we can ask is that you try your best to be open to feedback and grow. 

It doesn’t make sense to include every single POC in my work.

No one is telling you to. Choose characters who make sense for the story. Don’t choose them just so you have a POC in your work. We don’t want them to be tokenized. 

What you said and the data you have don’t necessarily point to racism. It might just be individual preference. I prefer certain ships over others, and it has nothing to do with race/I don’t see color.

This argument is identical to the “not all _____” rebuttal (“not all men,” “not all white people,” etc.) which places the blame on a few lone individuals and shifts the conversation away from an existing widespread problem. When there’s a consistent pattern and there are many examples of it both within the fandom and in other fandoms, it no longer is about individual preference. 

I urge you to consider the following:

If most people say they don’t write about or include a POC in their work because it’s too difficult or they’re afraid of making that character inauthentic, but they don’t seem to have an issue with writing other characters from groups they’re not in (e.g., if you’re a straight woman who writes a lot of M/M fics despite not knowing what it’s like to be a bi, pan, or gay man), doesn’t that say something?

If most people have the same reasons you do about not being interested in POC (e.g., “they’re not fleshed out enough” while being interested in or fleshing out minor white characters who get the same or even less development as those characters) or ships with POC (e.g., saying “they’re like brothers” while being interested in a white ship with similar dynamics and tropes or seeing why other people might ship it if you don’t), doesn’t that say something?

If most people give characters of color the same roles in their works even if that makes them OOC and/or the role reduces them to a (frequently stereotypical) trope, especially if they’re never fleshed out beyond that trope (e.g., the funny sidekick, wise friend who always helps or gives advice/free therapy, or responsible, mature, and sometimes stern friend who “parents” the protagonist), isn’t that saying something?

If race truly isn’t a factor for you when it comes to liking characters and ships, then this isn’t about you and you don’t have to distract people from the conversation by announcing that. That said, we should all look at characters and ships we like anyway instead of assuming that’s the case as that’s good practice. How much of your list is white? If it’s mostly or entirely white, why is that the case and why do you feel differently about ships of color?

A big part of what informs my shipping is physical attraction or interest in the characters.

What characters and actors do you find attractive or interesting? Are they all or mostly white? If they aren’t, are you drawn to any ships that include those POC? Refer to the section above.

I don’t ship _____ because I see them as brothers/sisters/siblings.

Part of this is preference as it comes down to perceived chemistry and relationship dynamics. However, POC are often not seen as romantic leads both in fanworks and the media and are just friends or “brothers/sisters” (this is why Crazy Rich Asians was a big deal). Sometimes, people even argue against POC being or having love interests in the name of diversity. You see this a lot with WOC in the media where the explanation against a love interest is “she’s a strong, independent woman who doesn’t need a man”; yes, they don’t and sometimes the story doesn’t need a romance, but WOC deserve love too and it’s strange that while white women can get the guy and be independent, WOC can’t and it somehow belittles or reduces them if they do. 

The way you can gauge whether it’s just preference at play or biases you may not have been aware of is to see how many relationships featuring a character of color fall under the “just friends/siblings” category for you, what you need to ship something, and how you feel about white ships with the same type of relationship or same lack of chemistry. For instance, you may say that there needs to be enough interaction for you to ship something and that’s why you don’t care much for Rhodey/Sam. Do you feel the same way about Clint/Coulson then, which has much less interaction (actually much less than Rhodey/Sam in this case)? If it’s about chemistry, are Steve and Sam just “brothers,” but Bruce and Thor aren’t or, if you don’t ship Bruce/Thor, you still “see it” and get why other people might be into it?

What do you ship, or what ships do you understand even if they’re not for you, and how is that different from ships that follow the same beats? Why are Steve and Bucky not brothers, but Rhodey and Tony are (there are many parallels between the two relationships—and one can argue the latter is more nuanced—than appears at first glance, and Rhodey/Tony can be just as sweet or angsty)? If you like the rivals/enemies-to-lovers or meet-ugly aspect to Steve/Tony, Sam/Bucky, Scott/Jimmy Woo, and M’Baku/T’Challa have that dynamic. You like that superior/subordinate-to-lovers dynamic that Clint/Coulson has? Coulson/Fury. Flirty meet-cutes or love/trust-at-first-sight? Steve/Sam.

Some white characters and ships are popular in the MCU fandom because people bring in canon characterization or material from the comics to the character(s)/ship. Your MCU-only examination fails to account for ships with one character from the MCU and one from comics (e.g., MCU Bucky/616 Clint or Spideypool).

I explained why I focused on the MCU here and that most of the fics that feature an MCU character and comics ’verse character tend to be heavily or entirely MCU-influenced here.

Also, characters of color exist in the comics, cartoons, and games too. By this logic, Steve/Sam and Rhodey/Tony should be juggernauts in the MCU fandom considering the depth and history of the characters and relationships. Ask yourself why people are happy to ship MCU Spideypool, to draw on the comics for that relationship and even bring a non-MCU character into the MCU and write him based on his comics history and characterization. Ask yourself why people are unhappy with MCU Clint’s terrible writing and lack of characterization and decide to give him his 616 (usually Fraction-era) characterization. And then ask yourself why people don’t do that for characters of color and then use “___ is a minor character/doesn’t have much development” as an excuse for why they’re uninteresting or not shippable with others.

There are many strong and interesting relationships in the comics, but only a few make it to the MCU fandom and almost all, if not all, of them are white.

Some subfandoms just have fewer POC which means there will naturally be fewer ships featuring POC. To say that the Marvel fandom is racist as a whole is disingenuous; you can see how more diversity in the cast leads to more diverse ships in fanworks.

It’s more important to see how many fanworks there are for ships of color in a fandom than how many ships of color there are in that fandom. See how few works there are for POC ships other than MJ/Peter in the MCU Spider-Man fandom despite the diversity of the cast. See how the most popular ships are white and three of them involve white characters from the Iron Man fandom (explain to me how Harley/Peter has over 1,000 works, but Ned/Peter has 436). 

And sure, you can say almost all of the Black Panther ships feature a character of color so there’s “more” diversity, but see how few works there are for them and how works with a white character fare compare to POC-only ships (almost all have 100-200 or fewer fics, with many having so few that I didn’t include them in the post, while BP ships with a white character have more works despite little to no interaction between the characters). 

Both of these, by the way, are critical and box office hits with characters who are clearly supposed to be the faces of the MCU now that the OG6 are gone. Black Panther is an award-winning critical and box office hit, and it is, more than any other film in MCU history, a huge cultural phenomenon with tremendous impact. It broke so many records and milestones, and it’s STILL breaking and making them. It has the most nuanced and balanced ensemble cast with side characters just as three-dimensional as the lead, a rarity in MCU films. Yet, its tag only has 3,966 works, fewer in total for the whole fandom than some of the white M/M ships on this list. Even if you account for BP fanworks that may have been tagged as MCU instead of BP, the number is paltry as you can see in this post. People simply do not want to make fanworks for characters of color (in this case, specifically Black characters) and don’t. It’s not about how diverse or successful a film is.

Some of the characters and ships are popular because white characters get the lion’s share of screen time and development or they appeared in canon earlier.

Yes, that’s true, but fandom has no problem catapulting white ships with minor characters into extreme popularity. See Clint/Coulson. See fics prioritizing Happy and having him show up more than Rhodey in Steve/Tony fics. 

It’s not about chronology. Many ships of color came before white ships as a whole and before white ships with the same white character they have. See Bucky/Clint vs. Bucky/Sam. 

Lastly, please don’t tell me how certain white M/M ships came to be to explain how they’re exempt or how I’m failing to consider other factors for their popularity. I’ve been in the fandom since 2012, and I’ve seen almost all of the white ships in the fandom be born or boom into popularity. Don’t try to explain, for instance, that Clint/Coulson is big because Coulson has his own show and his fans followed him from the show (this logic falls flat when you look at something like Luke Cage); that ship became huge way before that happened and way before Agents of Shield became “big.” Also, see the section above regarding screen time, development, and fame. 

Is it racist to racebend a character? 

People’s opinions differ on racebending—and often that comes from personal background and on the situation—so I can’t speak on anyone’s behalf. However, I think everyone can agree on the following:

Racebending a white character is not the same thing as whitewashing a POC. For example, making Tony Stark Indian vs. turning T’Challa white or as canonical examples, making Fury black in Ultimates and the MCU vs. making the Ancient One or the Maximoffs white. The latter (whitewashing T’Challa, the Ancient One, and the Maximoff twins) is racist for various reasons. There’s a long history of POC being erased and white people taking roles from POC, a huge imbalance in representation between white people and POC, the unfortunate perception by the public and media that “white = neutral/standard” (Bruce’s whiteness doesn’t define his characterization and development), and the way race plays a role in influencing the way POC feel, act, and are treated.

Racebending a POC from one ethnicity or racial group to another is also problematic as we’re not interchangeable. Hollywood often does this and goes, “But they’re still a POC! We’re being diverse!” 

In general, people who racebend white characters to POC want to see more POC in canon and in the media! These aren’t mutually exclusive.

Sometimes people racebend because they’re not represented at all in their works. (This happens with other marginalized groups too; for instance, some people make cis characters trans in their fanworks as there are few to no trans characters in the canonical source.) For example, there are, as of now, no Latinx superheroes in the MCU films. Even if people wanted to, they can’t make works with an MCU Latinx superhero unless they bring one from the comics or the one Latinx superhero from Agents of Shield (if they know the comics or AoS), make a minor Latinx film character like Luis a superhero, or racebend their favorite white character and put a fresh spin on the character, drawing from their personal experience and background.

There’s a massive difference between fans racebending a character and a creator taking credit by pretending they viewed a character as non-white or didn’t see race all along when it’s clear that the character is canonically white (this is different from a creator saying they support anyone, POC or white, playing that character onscreen or onstage). 

Racist language in fics is more important than fandom representation.

We don’t have to pick our battles. Both are important! I focused on fandom representation as it’s much more quantifiable and easy to find and analyze data for than racist language on a fandom-wide scale on my own without any tools. You’re right that the latter is a problem as is racist representation in fanworks, though. 

My fanworks tend to focus on one ship and don’t really include other characters in general. When they do, the others mostly talk about that relationship. Am I falling into the trap you mentioned?

If the story is about a relationship (examining that relationship and the feelings of the characters in it) and there isn’t much of a plot outside of that, then that makes sense. However, even in situations like this, consider how much time you dedicate to characters of color vs. white characters. If the story is about a ship featuring a POC, do you spend more time on the white character of that relationship? Their white friends and how they feel about that relationship? If it’s about a white ship, do white side characters appear more than side characters of color even if the latter have a closer relationship with the protagonists? For example, does Wanda show up more than Sam or play a bigger role than him in a Steve/Bucky fic? Do you have Pepper show up all the time (or even Happy), but Rhodey is chronically absent? Do only the white characters get to be more than the tropes you’re using, if you’re using any, while the POC don’t get to be nuanced? Are there any stereotypes that you’re reducing the POC to?

I feel guilty about not including or writing about *character of color’s name here*.

See “It doesn’t make sense to include every single POC in my work.” Include the character(s) who make sense for the story, perspective you’re writing/drawing from if applicable, and central group or ship if this is a ship-specific work. For example, if you’re drawing the Avengers and you include the newer Avengers, Rhodey and Sam should appear too, not just Wanda, Scott, Bucky, and/or Carol (this happens a lot). If you’re writing a Tony POV fic that includes other characters, depending on the story, it may make sense that Sam doesn’t appear much as he and Tony aren’t close whereas he would in a Steve POV fic.

How do I ensure that I don’t offend anyone if I include POC in my work?

You can’t ensure anything as POC aren’t a monolith, but you can try to be as informed as possible and avoid common pitfalls while writing. You can do research, just the way you might research anything you’re not familiar with. You can ask if anyone is willing to do a sensitivity read while you write or before you post. You can look for betas. There are a lot of resources out there, but these are good places to start if you’re looking for more information and help:

Writing with Color - resources

Writing with Color - Stereotypes and Tropes page

Reference for Writers - POC tag

What should I do to examine myself for any implicit biases?

We should all take stock of:

our feelings about different characters and relationships, both platonic and romantic, who we prioritize in our works, and how much they’re prioritized

our decision whether or not to seek or make content with characters of color. This includes content for white ships because sometimes every white character in the MCU shows up as a side character, but characters of color don’t or all of the white characters play bigger roles than the POC despite how close they are to the protagonist(s)

the way we interpret and write/draw those characters. For example, is Sam a yes-man? A figurative or literal therapist for white friends? The bro who only cracks jokes and/or gives sage advice but seems to not have any flaws, struggles, or life of his own outside of his white friends? The BFF who thinks his white best friend is being ridiculous about another white guy and wants them to get their act together already? Does the character of color talk in the way you perceive everyone of that race to talk rather than the way they personally do (e.g., does Luis randomly and awkwardly switch into Spanish when he talks just because he’s Latinx despite never speaking Spanish with Scott? Does Sam use AAVE with Steve, Bucky, and Natasha when he doesn’t do that with them?)? 

Also, here’s a Google doc with more anti-racist resources.

Even well-meaning people can slip up or not be as proactive as they hoped they would be so it’s just good practice to check in with ourselves every once in a while and see if there’s anything we missed or didn’t notice.

[tristinai]

What about 2 and 7 for the asks meme? 👀

Thanks for asking <3. All questions are taken from here. Now, time to make ya'll hate me XD

2)  Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

Detroit: Become Human

For the longest time, I was a begrudgingly HankCon brotp shipper. I was so uninterested in the ship that I couldn't even see them as friends, let alone romantic. After doing a deviant!Connor playthrough of the game, I sort of got the ship but the deviant path left a strong platonic impression on me, not a romantic one. I prefer them as a Brotp now and perhaps should apologize to the shippers who read my fics with them as a side pairing and assumed I ship them. I don't dislike them romantically but I prefer them as a Brotp. To get even more specific, I would much rather see them as best friends than with a father-son dynamic, but I don't mind the father-son interpretation either.

MCU/Marvel

Another one that will probably get me murdered XD. I have read Stucky fics and I think as a pairing they are cute but I prefer them non-romantic, especially because the MCU really downplayed their friendship to the point where I am surprised Steve even acknowledged Bucky's existence in the last film. They were done dirty by the films and I get where the anger from Stucky shippers comes from but due to the way they were written in the moviea, I was never sold on there being a romantic attraction between them and I suppose once my brain "friend-zoned" them, I found it hard to see them as a romantic couple. However, I will say that I love when fans draw on the comic Canon and create Stucky fics. Pretty much the more film Canon-compliant a fan work is, the more I'd rather Stucky be interpreted as friendly instead of romantic. (asking @cap-sweet-and-salty-sadness to not hate on me because she knows I love her Stucky fics and she's probably one of the few writers I know who always gets me rooting for romantic, fluffy endings for Steve and Bucky <3)

Supergirl

This is perhaps one of the biggest w|w ships in superhero Fandom and as a lesbian, I probably should be on board. Fun fact: I even met a woman during self isolation (online) who seemed super into me... Until we started talking about our favorite superhero ships. Months of back-and-forth gushing over our favorite pairings and when she learned I don't like Supercorp (romantically) , she pretty much dropped me cold turkey. That was the deal breaker for her XD. It's crazy how big this ship has gotten and yet I have never been able to see how it can be romantic. Brotp? Hell yeah. But I just don't see Kara as gay. I stopped watching Supergirl after S3 so maybe my feelings on this pairing would change if I catch up. 

7) Is there anything you used to like, but now can’t stand?

Fandoms have ship wars, fans who harass the writers/actors, a million headcanons I disagree with, and they can be a creative exchange of ideas or their own little hell. I can tolerate a lot of shitty stuff but I will check out mentally if the loudest voices are misogynistic ones that scream about how terrible women characters/actors/writers/producers are. I think Star Wars is one of the worst Fandoms for that atm so I have never gotten involved in the Fandom at all since I really don't want to wade through all the bs and hate against the women leads just to enjoy myself. But in terms of a Fandom I was in before all the misogyny chased me away and made me hate it, that's SPN in a nutshell.

Just to put this in perspective, it's not like I had a lot of ships involving women anyway. I was a pretty big Destiel fan but I also liked Sam/Ruby, Dean/Jo, Dean/Bela and I even wrote my first w|w fic, which was Bela/Jo (total crack pairing but they are my favorite women on the show so of course I had to pair them up in fic!). But even though Destiel was pretty much the biggest ship in the Fandom, the attitudes of the fans towards non m|m pairings or fans who liked the women characters was pretty fucking gross. Maybe the Fandom has gotten better now but when the harassment reached the point where fans were sending a lot of hate to the woman showrunner (I think she has been replaced since), I just got disgusted and fed up. I can't enjoy something if angry fans start threatening real life women simply because they don't like the direction a show is going >:(

[redspiderling]

Just a loving mess

Listen, this post won’t make much sense. Just know that, while my brain is not working properly right now, this all comes from the heart, because I, along with many of you (and Scarlett Johansson) have been waiting for this day for a very, very long time, and that means, I have a lot of feelings. Mostly love, always love for Natasha. For example, it’s beautiful how I can’t be bothered with the mess that was the Endgame anymore, all that is gone and do you know why? Because look at all the actors wearing their black widow caps. How they obviously love and support Scarlett. At this point it's more than likely that she went through a lot with the MCU and with getting anywhere with her character, and if this is their way of appreciating just how hard she's fought for this, well, look at the tears in my eyes.

I snorted and cried and loved the indignation is Scarlett's voice when she said "Well, I was upset about it!", when asked about Natasha’s “death”. Isn’t it just typical behaviour of some self-obsessed male writer to do something like this and say nothing to the actress until she gets the fucking script and goes "WHAT?!"? And she knew she had her movie coming and they went straight ahead and did this. You bet your ass she was upset. It's common enough for actors to not care about their characters, but Scarlett obviously cares about Natasha. And of course she knew the fans would be upset as well, how could we not be?

I'm happy Clint is not in the film, in a non-cameo way at least. I love how knowingly they left out the boys, and Natasha's film will be rid of ship wars. It will be rid of people following it around for BoyCharacterA. It will start afresh.

I love, (can’t put into words how much I love) that they gave to the woman "without a family", a sister. Because a real sister, and not necessarily a biological one, is the greatest family a woman can have. I love that there is someone out there who calls Natasha family and actually means it.

I absolutely love Scarlett's crew. They are all brand new and super excited because this is their first MCU film. They have only been shooting for a month and their chemistry is amazing. Scarlett looking at them answering questions about Natasha's film with a big smile on her face is just the sweetest thing, she's so happy about this.

Rachel Weisz. That's it.

I love/hate how Scarlett chooses to "take the blame" for the character being "a caricature of herself" if she had gotten her movie 10 years ago. Darling, we all know you could have done it perfectly then. But I appreciate the fact that you're unwilling to draw a certain kind of attention to this film, and to yourself, and I couldn't be prouder of the human race, just for the fact that this kind of grace and class currently exist in one person. We really don't deserve you.

Which reminds me, I love that this movie attempts to stand on its own feet. It doesn't have an agenda, it's not a marketing scheme. It's not pressing its back against anything else to make sure people will get excited about it. It doesn't have a before, and it probably doesn't have an after either.

It doesn't need it, because Natasha Romanoff and Scarlett Johansson have had us begging for this film for 10 freaking years. It has a story to tell, and they're confident enough in this story to sail, without anything else, and that's the best anyone can hope for in a film. I couldn't possibly be happier about this. I honestly can't wait.

Speaking of story, Scarlett's dig at Marvel about the amount of dialogue Natasha has had in the past is Reasons To Live For. Can you imagine the childlike glee with which she must have dived in that script when she first got it? Also, doesn't it say A LOT about the quality of a story if Scarlett Johansson, aka woman who has been in some of the most defining films of the century so far, likes this script?

By the way, and if you follow me you know this already, the sheer amount of happiness Scarlett brought to the stage on Saturday is staggering and I’m dying inside from love for that alone. 

Yeah she’s usually reserved, and stressed, and as contained as she can be when she goes to stuff like this, because this world is full of people who can’t wait to tear the woman apart 24/7 over literally anything, but none of that could contain her happiness at coming on to the stage and announcing Natasha’s film to the world. 

10 years she worked for this. 10 Years. She could have let go as so many of them did before her, but she didn’t because if anything, to get to where she is you would need some fucking nerve, and a lot of care, and she has both, and if anyone has earned a film ever, Scarlett has earned Natasha’s film, it’s 100% hers and it’s full of women. In front and behind the cameras.

I hope this film will be everything they hope for it to be, and if we are to take Scarlett's comment about Natasha's ambiguous (or abstract, if you prefer) nature to heart, if this film puts a question mark over Natasha's "demise" that will never be answered, it will be more than enough of a resolution for me. Not only because not knowing anything for sure is better in this situation, not only because it will be a nice, polite but definite FUCK OFF to the Endgame team, but mostly because that question mark is EXACTLY who Natasha is, and I'm already smiling my evil smile just thinking about it.

See you in a minute Nat!!

(gif by the lovely @natashasromanofff 💖)

[dalishious]

K so I get part native Canadian, I’m part Native American, but like why deny that blackwashing is a thing? I watched the whole video you linked, I’m just not convinced. Like it’s not fair even if there’s a history of whitewashing. If we’re trying to go for equality, there should be actual-ass equality

Exactly, there should be actual-ass equality. Which there is not, which is why “blackwashing” is not a thing. 

Take a look at this graph from this 2017 report:

This is indeed almost identical to the 2016 report:

And the 2015 report:

From one Indigenous person to another, then, how does it feel to you to almost never see yourself on screen? (And I do mean never. The ‘other’ percentages of those graphs broken down further show native peoples rep is 0-1%. Which is why supporting independent film festivals is so important.) How does it feel to you when that number is decreased even further when non-native actors take native roles? That is why whitewashing is so bad on a statistical level, let alone the racism in deciding a white person is better to play a native person than an actual native, of which said roles are often either straight-up about or strongly connected to the character’s nativeness, as further discussed in the video previously linked. [Here it is again for context]This is no different when whitewashing other minorities. 

Now, lets for a second pretend that Nick Fury in the MCU isn’t based on the Ultimate comic verse Nick Fury, who is Black. Since people love to use him as an example of quote, “blackwashing.” Take away Sam Jackson’s portrayal of Nick Fury in the first and second Avengers films, and you have a main cast that is entirely white. (Since Wanda and Pietro were also run through the whitewashing machine.) All white men, and one-two white women. Looking at the first film alone since with the added whitewashing things are even worse in Age of Ultron, yeah, this sure would have been accurate to the comic books, (again, pretending this is 616 Fury and not 1610,) but why would you want to be accurate to something that could instead be improved upon? Why would you look at a lack of racial diversity and decide to prioritize keeping the status quo, rather than challenge it? 

TL;DR: “Blackwashing,” “brownwashing,” etc. does not exist because it is a false equivalency to whitewashing. It is a false equivalency to whitewashing because white people are not even in the slightest loosing representation when a white character is played by a racial minority, whereas when white people play minority roles, they are taking away from what is already very little representation for us. If we lived in a world where these statistics were not so drastically disproportionate, then there would be something to talk about. But if you are really wanting to support equality, you should focus on equitably supporting those who actually need it, not white people. 

Wela’lioq wjit nike’ (thank you all for now).

(If you’re going to reblog anything in this discussion, please make it this. In fact I’d really like to see this reblogged.)

[msawesomegeek]

Avengers Infinity war/end game review

A/N: So quarantine happened, and I finally got around to watching movies again, now including giving the MCU one last chance. And spoiler alert... It didn’t truly deserve it. Also spoiler alert, and also this is two three hour reviews crammed into one, so it is gonna be a little while.

Also also, while I have seen most of the movies in the marvel cinematic universe, I have not seen Dr. strange, guardians 2, into dark world and Captain marvel. 

So let’s start off with Infinity war, it had some genuinely good moments. The only plot and character arc that was outright annoying was Bruce’s. It was good it had real character developments, and a lot of relationships that were great. I thought it was funny to the right extent, and serious when it needed to be. Honestly I could have done without a lot of scenes but I understood the fact that all characters needed some screen time to be fully developed. But like, did we honestly care that much about the romance with Vision and Wanda to need the scene before them being attacked more than just a quick establishment of them kissing?  I enjoyed the emotional scene genuinely, the Peter and Gamora scene was heart wrenching, and showed Thanos devotion to his goal. I had a little hard time believing he loved her enough to it being enough of a sacrifice, but it still worked. 

The big scale battle was kind of annoying but I will get into that later. 

The cinematography was fine, I enjoyed how colourful they allowed space to be, and that the lighting for the most part was not grey and gritty. 

There were a lot of plot holes in this movie, like why did Thanos forget all the crazy powers he had in the Gamora Peter scene and not use it in the battle later?  The problem with this is also that power differences is so weird, and non consistent. Like in the battle with Thanos, strange, Spidey and Tony, how do any of the three heroes have a chance against someone who can manipulate the rules of reality? Like Strange, maybe, but the two others? Not a chance! 

The stones themselves raise a lot of questions. Like if he can control time and space, why not bring Gamora back the second the gets the soul stone? Or go back to a time when the rule that you have to do that does not apply. And in End Game, why not just kill baby Thanos? Why doesn't he go back in time to make sure the avengers do not get in his way in the first place? 

The Loke death in the beginning felt so... Pointless? Seriously? Why has Loke been apart of anything in the MCU up until now? His arc has been pointless, and when he dies it is within the first 10 minutes, so it’s like: Oh, Loke is in this. And he is dead again. But because he has been “Dead” before, it does not resonate!  And that is a general annoyance I have with these two movies, the stakes are non-existent. We know which characters have movies coming up, so we know who is going to survive in the end and who doesn't. So when they die, it doesn't have any impact! 

So the movie is pretty good, it has some real emotional hits and some genuinely funny scenes, but it also leave you confused during some scenes. The thing I enjoyed the most about this movie, is the fact that Thanos won. The fact that the good guys lost, is amazing! Because after seeing them win challenge after challenge over 20 films, it was great to actually see our heroes lose, actually lose. 

Onto End Game, to say that this is the worse of the two is correct. The movie for a two parter movie does hold up as movies on their own, which is great considering how all other movies split into two parts are as stand alone movies.

The colour grading in this movie is just weird, and a lot of times, it is weird looking at and clear that it was shot on a green screen, and usually an unnecessary green screen, for my taste. This combined with lack of playing with colour in this movie, everything just visually seemed gray and boring. No shots were interesting, they never played with the pacing of anything, it was all just regular film making, which is okay, but honestly bland. Even the composition of the everyone avengers assemble shot is so messy it does not evoke the amazing comic book front page style it could have been.

End game has a lot of big problems, and I might go into more of a ranting terrortory than actual reviewing, and for that I am sorry. But it has a lot of problems. The character arcs are so rushed and you never get time to absorb anything emotionally or care about anything that is going on, because then we immediately cut to another character, and we have to be completely invested in them.  Thanos role in this movie was weird, while the first half of it was earned the rest of his part in the movie seemed forced. But what I think both movies got wrong about Thanos, is that they cut out death. Which is a shame, because a big part of his character and motivation is his love affair with mistress death. Hell they even put it in as an easter egg the first time we ever see Thanos! And his philosophy combined with his love and romance with death, would make sense, but they completely missed that opportunity. Which would also give more impact to him killing people more than just morals, and make him a more dimensional character. 

The three biggest problems this movie has is pacing, tone and character arcs. Along the same lines of infinity war, the pacing is a little better in the first movie, but all over the place in End game. And the problem is because the pacing is so quick and everything needs to progress so quickly, everything just seems so rushed, and everything that was supposed to be an obstacle was basically solved in a super easy barely an inconvenience kind of way. The problem with the pacing is also that it rushes the characters. Meaning every time something happens to any character, any tension and character development, hell even emotional impact that could have had is cut short to cut to another characters arc. And even if it is not like that, the harsh editing in the movie ensures that any emotion any scenes hold is immediately undercut by something. Like, wow Hawkeye has lost all sense of morals and Natascha can't talk sense into him, but his surface is beginning to crack, that is interesting, let’s immediately cut from that to Thor opening a beer! 

The only things that were actually given any kind of consideration to the pacing in this movie was when Scott came back, and the funeral scene, and maybe the fight scene in the end. Every thing else in this entire movie is so weirdly paced! Like, oh boy the stakes are high, I wonder if we will ever be able to figure out this time travel thing. 5 minutes later, Iron man comes out of a car and deus ex machina’s the entire thing. Like why? This should be a bigger issue?  Oh no, we lost the one infinity stone, but we don’t have enough Pim particles to travel back anymore times. Simple just travel back to world war two, steal them as you conveniently get into a heavily guarded area while remembering that the love of your life exists while also without much trouble steals and have a cathartic moment with your father who dont know its you, so you can conveniently get back. That whole sequence is pretty cool, but is undermined so many times by being resolved too quickly, making you wonder what the point of it being a conflict at all was?

Which brings me to its second biggest problem, tone. This movie unlike the first one that balanced things pretty amazingly, cannot decide whether it wants to be dramatic action or a comedy, and it ends up being neither. I cannot stress enough how much I hate the jokes in this movie! The jokes are good, hell they are funny (though the Thor got fat jokes needs to leave and never come back. (although that big Labowski reference can stay, but it is on thin f*cking ice.) The other movies had fun moments, this genuinely felt like I was watching a parody movie half of the time. Yes the jokes are funny, I laughed out loud at the america’s ass jokes, but that joke felt like a meme that was somehow left in the final cut.  The problem is, whereas the other movies, usually only used the comedy as a relief in certain scenes, it allowed other scenes to be genuinely emotional. It knew when it was appropriate to joke around. It did actually get it right a few times, the whole “hi peter” introduction between cap marvel and Spidey, was in character and genuinely appropriate to the situation, and funny, that scene worked. Where it did not work, was when Tony got back from space, part of that scene was amazing! It was a broken Tony confronting people he did not agree with about the fact that they lost and that he was traumatised and that he told them something like this could happen but they did not listen to him! And it just cuts in-between him being mad as hell and sad as he should be, to be cracking jokes two seconds later. And I hate that scene! Because it did not understand that it was not the time that it needed to break the tension it could have been an amazing and heartwrenching scene that eventually led to Tony giving up his super hero career and setting Tony and Steve on the path to forgiving each other. But no, it was constantly undercut by comedy. It was like they forgot that scenes were allowed to be emotional and not have any quick wit in it and still be good. The tone was just messy all the way through and seemed like I was watching two movies that had been mashed together into one. 

The last problem this movie has is character arcs. Besides the undercutting of the emotions of its character in order to make jokes. This movie also seemed to forget who these characters were. It has a problem that many films like it has had, which is too many characters in one film. Every character is never given proper time, we like them because we know them, but this movie does nothing to further their relationships or own growth. The time jump, screws a lot of things up. Like I did not mind but why give Hulk the power to control Hulk then? (His arc through the entire MCU) and not right as he grabbed the stones, him through them being given the knowledge that Hulk isn’t the disease but the cure. Why not make his arc matter to the plot?! (like it did in the first avengers which was though a pretty deus ex machina, solution still a development that coincided with the plot!) The whole Natascha, Hawkeye fight was good, it meant something and it reminded me of their fight in the first Avengers that showed how good friends they were. But the quick editing ruins Nats death so much. This plays into pacing as well, but we are never given any kind of time to be sad about Nats death. Yes she was a minor character, but she was a character we cared about. If they could only have spent a few more seconds at Hawkeye realising what is happening, and being sad about Nats sacrifice in the soul world, and then picking up the stone and being like, I will finish this for you Natascha. That was all the writers needed to do, it would take two minutes more, but it would have allowed her death to mean something more. Hell Coulsons death was given more screen time in the first avengers than someone we have spent so many movies seeing and caring about! 

I honestly wished that they had followed the comics version more, and in infinity wars, introduced Thanos, then wrapped up all the original avengers character arcs in that film. Let the snap happen and let Thanos also kill the original Avengers. Then let End Game be about the devastating loss, and the second squad (Black Panther, Scarlett, vision, Captain Marvel, Peter, Strange and part of Guardians & Ant-man) Struggle with their personal grief about losing their friends and mentors, finding the courage to band together and fight to go and defeat Thanos. I would have loved that so much more, mostly because it would give them a chance to lose and have these newer avengers actually mourn them all properly, while also being able to properly process it, and then decide to pick up their torch and finish what the original avengers started. But sadly we got this mess.

Also, I really need to rant about one particular thing in both movies, and honestly it has been a long time coming, but if I have to look at one more giant CGI henceman battle, I will walk out of the movie theatre! This is in both infinity war and End game! I do not care! I hate those big CGI lord of the ring type battles. Why? Because, yes it makes it all look grand, but it also make it look pointless. I don’t care about any of the people they are fighting I care about the villains and the heroes, characters I have spent time with. Why does Thanos send, wizard what's his face and other CGI dude in the first place? I do not care about his henchmen! I do not care about their meaningless fights with their meaningless goons. Why not instead of this giant battle in Wakanda and on the planet in End game ending battle, have all of our previously established villains, such as Loke, Hella, Thanos, that dude from guardians, whoever is the villain in captain marvel and doctor strange. Be the people they fight? Why not make it a few villains that we actually care about be the villains they are fighting, and instead of them punching random fools they could actually fight people who pose an actual challenge to them. Giving everything more meaning and not just, look how many CGI extras we can afford. It is not fun anymore! I have had it! Fight fewer but harder bad guys! That way the fight has some actual stakes and meaning! 

If you have made it this far, wow, impressive. I also imagine that it is very clear that I thought there was a lot of problems with these two movies. I will not say I hated them. They were not flaming piles of garbage like suicide squad, but they are also not anywhere near as good as the first guardians movie.  In the end, they were entertaining. Were they, I am willing to sit through these six hours ever again entertaining? Abso-f*cking-lutely not. 

I have before given up on the cinematic univers and come back to it and this was me actually hoping it would be great movies that everyone said they were, so I could get back into Marvel super hero movies, but sadly, they were visually pretty stale, tonally, pacing and characterly a mess, and not the finale to 22 films I had hoped for.

I give infinity war 8/10 stars

And End game 3/10 stars.

Send me a message if you agree, disagree or just wanna talk about movies (or have any recs for what I should see next) Until then

- Geek out.

[sineala]

Iron Man: And Call My Killer... MODOK!

So if you're a Marvel Comics fan of any stripe, you're probably aware that Marvel has a longtime history of publishing what they call "prose novels" and what literally any other publisher would just call "novels." You know. Books with only words in them. As opposed to "graphic novels," which is I guess why Marvel needs to make the distinction.

You're probably also aware that a lot of these prose novels are, well... bad. Some of the current ones, the original ones with new stories, have been getting good reviews -- I've heard good things about the Black Widow and Squirrel Girl books -- but a lot of them are just things like "novelizations of Civil War" and those ones are not great. (The MCU Iron Man 1 novelization was pretty good, but I would say that that was one of the few exceptions, and that only because Peter David both can actually write and has also written comic books.)

But a few weeks ago @blossomsinthemist told me that there had been a line of paperback Marvel prose novels way way back in the late seventies, and I was immediately interested for two reasons. One, if it's not novelizing an existing story arc, it's less likely to be terrible. And two, I really like late-seventies Marvel comics. So if I get to read a brand-new (to me) late-seventies story, I'm going to be pretty excited.

(If you're looking for these for yourself, prices vary, because people seem to be really into just having them for collection value, but if you don't care about condition and are patient you can get them for $5 to $10 or so.)

Anyway. I'm starting here with the Iron Man one, And Call My Killer... MODOK! It's from 1979 and is by William Rotsler, who also appears to have written the Doctor Strange novel in this series, and according to Wikipedia, he won four Hugos for Best Fan Artist, though most of his prose work appears to have been SF novelizations, and, uh, he was involved in the making of over two dozen pornographic films? Thanks, Wikipedia!

Right. Okay. The actual book. We are talking about the actual book. So the plot, as you can guess from the title, involves a lot of AIM and MODOK -- and because this is vintage 1970s Iron Man, also a lot of Happy, Pepper and SHIELD. SHIELD here is a lot of Nick Fury and a lot -- hi, again, 1970s -- of Jasper Sitwell. (If you're only familiar with the MCU, 616 Jasper Sitwell is, like, the ultimate Boy Scout SHIELD agent, a giant nerdy stickler for protocol.) Basically, AIM is scheming to get the armor, and the basic plot itself is kind of fun in that respect -- Tony scheming right back, decoy fake plans, a fake auction of the armor, and of course Tony and Happy captured by AIM. There's the requisite fight with an armored villain, of course, and what feels like a very perfunctory showdown with MODOK. (It's not a long novel.)

But since we're in fandom, we're not reading these things for the actual plot content, and so I am happy to say that on a characterization level, if this is the Tony Stark characterization you like in this era of comics, this book is going to make you happy. Because he really is, just... peak, classic Tony Stark. This is established very early on, in what is actually my favorite section of the book. Tony addresses a roomful of students about ecology, and his plans for SI and for the future, and about how he's not actually in it for the money and he just wants to do the right thing and save the world and so on and so forth and he wants to hire some of these kids to help everyone and build space colonies and so on. Similarly, when we first see Tony at SI, there's a paragraph about how he knows his employees' names and values them as people and it's very much classic Tony characterization. I love it.

In terms of canon, I'm not quite sure if this is relying on any particular recent developments in canon. Pepper and Happy are still together, and there's a throwaway line, in the list of Things That Have Happened To Tony's Heart, about how he's had several surgeries and a new heart and at this point in his life he has to wear the chestplate some of the time but not all of the time. I think that whole "weak heart" era is the Michael O'Brien/second Guardsman stuff, but I'm not exactly sure; this is not an era of canon I'm 100% up on in order. That may be a little too early for this, as well. Sorry; I'm not the best at this part of this game.

There is, of course, some identity porn, since what would an Iron Man story be without some good identity porn? There's a section early on where Tony explains why he would never reveal his secret identity. (Literally, he wishes he could "come out of the closet," and, yes, they do put that phrase in quotation marks.) His rationale is that the media would never let him alone, and also there are "Iron Man groupies, publicity seekers, and other assorted crazies" who would make his life miserable.

The weird thing is, then he goes on a date with what seems to be an Iron Man groupie. Pepper sets him up on a date with a woman who is a bellydancer and auto mechanic trying to break into acting. (The even weirder thing is that she seems to be named after a woman the author has coauthored several novels with. I, uh... I hope she knew first?) Anyway, they go on a date and she starts asking him about what Iron Man is like. Now, in a book where the plot appears to be that the bad guys want Tony's armor, I would be a little suspicious of people who were curious about Iron Man. But apparently this woman is on the level and just really likes gossip about famous people, and then at the end of the book when Tony talks about maybe going on another date he seems excited to "give her an opportunity to know Tony Stark." Although, really, she seems to still think Iron Man is cooler, so I don't see this working out well.

(Also, in the course of the plot, he does end up unmasking in front of MODOK, and as cover he comes up with the excuse that he isn't the only Iron Man and that there are a group of them. Which, y'know, historically, isn't even untrue, for a certain view of Tony's behavior -- there have actually been multiple people in the suit before now. So I kind of like Tony's quick thinking there. Amusingly, as he's bluffing his way through this, one of the fake Iron Men he names is Captain America, which honestly I think would make a hell of a fanfiction plot.)

Another weird thing: since this is right before Demon in a Bottle, Tony still drinks. It's not even an issue. And obviously it's meant to show something about his affluent lifestyle (and how he considers alcohol a necessary part of that lifestyle) but it's interesting reading this in retrospect and thinking about all the character development that Tony is basically about to undergo but hasn't yet.

So, yeah, in terms of characterization, this is an interesting look at Tony Stark basically preserved in one of the more-well-regarded eras for him, so on that basis I think it's worth reading. Which is not to say that there aren't some downsides, and since this book is mainstream fiction from the 70s, I bet you can guess what the main one is: namely, there is a certain amount of casual sexism and racism. The first scene takes place on a college campus and there is a lot of, uh, dwelling on co-eds and their short skirts. There is also a retelling of Tony's origin story, and you probably already know that ToS #39 is racist as hell (especially if you have seen non-recolored versions in which Wong Chu is literally yellow in the art) but the prose retelling here manages to add in some racist epithets (many characters are referred to as "the Oriental") which is... disappointing. Neither of these things are really unexpected for a book from 1979. But, you know, there they are. Heads up.

It also makes some weird narrative choices. One is that it has a surprising number of extended flashbacks in which dialogue is taken directly from the comics. I understand that back in the day before trade paperbacks and Marvel Unlimited and back issues whenever you want them, you the Iron Man fan might not have been aware of a lot of Tony's history. So I get why you would want to spend some time going over the events of Tales of Suspense #39. And, okay, Happy is a pretty important character in the plot, so I get why you'd want a lot about their first meeting in Tales of Suspense #45. But then there's a whole flashback devoted to the whole body-horror extravaganza of how MODOK came to be, and that one... that one was just kind of weird, especially because Tony didn't even figure into it.

And that leads me to my final complaint about weird narrative choices, which is the author has chosen to write this book in 3rd person omniscient point of view. I mean, it's a valid POV choice, sure. But it's a little jarring coming from fandom, where we are all basically 3rd limited forever and ever (like, honestly, I'm not even sure I'd know how to write 3rd omni if I tried!), and it's even weirder to read Tony in the middle of one of his inspiring speeches while a female student is thinking about how sexy he is even if he is an "older man." Yeah.

Also, the narration calls him Tony when he's out of the suit and Iron Man when he's in the suit. Consistently. Even when he's thinking about himself. I am pretty sure fandom never does this, and it is weird as hell.

So, overall, I have to say that despite some reservations, I really enjoyed this, and if this is an era of Iron Man canon that you enjoy, you will probably like this if you can get your hands on it, because it's a lot like reading an Iron Man comic from 1979, and the plot shenanigans are amusing. I mean, it's not the best-written book ever, but it is a lot of fun, especially in terms of Tony's characterization.

[captainpikeachu]

Why I love the Ant Man/Ant Man & Wasp movies!

There is something so very beautiful with watching movies that portray certain relationship tropes in such a different and positive light than the usual toxic mainstream movie narratives.

1. Cassie & Scott’s relationship

This relationship is beautiful and pure. Scott talks to Cassie, not only does he communicate with her honestly and doesn’t treat her like she’s an idiot just because she’s a kid, he also seeks advice from her and is encouraging to her. There is none of this controlling father behavior that is being billed as protective. No. When Cassie says she wants to help people like her father, Scott never discourages her. He is proud of his daughter and whatever choices she wants to be and he lets her be the person she wants to be instead trying to tell her what to do. This is a father who not only understands his daughter but also treats her like an equal, like they’re both partners in this bond they have. This is how father-daughter relationships should be.

2. Scott & Maggie’s relationship

How many movies would have gone the route of ex-husband and ex-wife still fighting and being angry or controlling or jealous? When is the last time mainstream movies have allowed two divorced people to simply just be amicable and supportive? To just be friends who may have divorced but are still friends who care about each other and isn’t trying to use their daughter as some pawn in some marital fight. No. Instead we have Scott and Maggie treating each other respectfully as you would another adult and parental figure. We have them finding a way to make things work for Cassie. We have Scott still being part of Maggie’s family despite her having remarried. These are not two people harping on each other and trying to find flaws and faults. No, we have two people who care about each other and trust each other and have each other’s backs.

3. Scott & Jim’s relationship

This is something that is more prominent in the first movie, but it’s also still existing in the sequel - there is no male ego/macho-ness crap going on between them. Jim married Maggie and is Cassie’s step-father, but there is none of that he’s the evil wicked step-father who’s trying to ruin things. No. Instead Jim is just a guy doing his job in the first movie, and in the second he’s a friend being supportive. How many other mainstream films or even TV shows would have made a huge deal of a love triangle drama or have Jim be evil and horrible just so Maggie and Cassie would go back to Scott and he wins and proves himself the hero. But no, these movies aren’t about any of that macho drama. Both Scott and Jim care about Maggie and Cassie, and instead of having it be a competition, they have basically decided that two people can do it better than one to protect their family and the people they love. It literally warms my heart to see them hug multiple times in these films, even if it’s a family group hug. There is none of the drama of Scott trying to sabotage Jim and Maggie’s marriage or trying to prove that he’s Cassie’s father and Jim isn’t. No, these are two men who have a healthy and respectful relationship and honestly that is SO DAMN RARE in this day and age in films and TV shows. Both Scott AND Jim have a place in Cassie’s life and they both love and look after her. I’ve said it before but Cassie is so lucky to have two dad-figures in her life.

4. Hope & Maggie

While it can be argued that perhaps Hope and Maggie should get to spend more time in scenes together interacting, it still is a positive in these films that we never see these two women being rivals for Scott’s affections or fall into that trope of jealous angry catty and petty women fighting all the time. They are just two women with their own lives who share some important people in common and they’re fine with that. Hope isn’t trying to steal Maggie’s place with Scott or Cassie, and Maggie isn’t all freaking out about Cassie spending time with another woman whom Scott may be with. Again, not seeing any fights is so damn refreshing!

5. Ava & Janet

First of all, just the fact that Ava isn’t an evil villain. No. She is a victim of institution, of SHIELD, and perhaps even of Hank’s arrogance. She’s just a desperate young girl who was used and abused with only one adult figure who cares about her and wants to look after her. Yet her story didn’t end with her dying or with her being alone or becoming this horrible person. This movie doesn’t have her kill Janet, instead, Janet sees her pain and her sorrow and instead of either of these two women trying to take each other out, we see Janet reach out to Ava and HELP HER. For once, someone else is taking her pain seriously and actually helping her instead of hurting her. Ava gets to be happy, she gets to have a happy ending and be a family with Bill. And Janet gets to be reunited with her family, her daughter. Instead of using violence, this movie allowed two female characters to interact with empathy and kindness and understanding. And everyone gets a happy ending that they deserve. Nobody had to die.

6. Hope & Scott’s relationship

Scott’s relationship really with all the people around him is really just such a huge positive in these movies, and his relationship to Hope is no exception. He doesn’t yell or scream or act like it’s her fault, Scott is able and willing to admit to his mistakes and feel bad about it and allows Hope to think and decide things for herself. He doesn’t push or prod, nor is he hanging around anxiously waiting. No. He knows he messed up and Hope is mad and she gets to be mad. And while Hope gets to be mad and process her feelings, Scott is focused on trying to just be a good dad and stick to the rules. If anything, romance isn’t even really much of focus between them until near the end of the film where she seeks and initiates their relationship again. Healthy and non-toxic relationships is so hard to find these days. The fact that they get to be individuals instead of two people co-dependent on the relationship and not knowing how to exist without the other, is so very important.

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

here is hoping that more MCU movies and other mainstream movies/shows will take a look at the way the Ant Man/Ant Man & Wasp movies portray healthy relationships and actually do more of that as well!

[nettlestonenell]

How Peggy Carter Shows Up in Avengers: Endgame

...is actually a really important question to ponder, Gentle Readers. Thanks for asking.

As I recently set forth here, Peggy Carter is the central bedrock of the MCU. If you don’t like her, you don’t like it.

As such, it seems unlikely that the attention she will be given in Endgame will be limited to the infamous black and white picture Steve keeps in his old compass (which some fans believe he looks to for moral guidance. About which I stringently disagree.)

Insert your own traveling-across-realms Once Upon a Time Swanfire keychain reference here.

Just to cover all the possible bases, then; 

SCENARIO #1: Peggy used solely as image/misunderstood totem for Cap.

NOPE.

I firmly expect “actual” Peggy Carter to make an appearance in Endgame, and according to the internet at large, I am not alone.

HOW she makes that appearance, and what is made of her appearance is entirely unknown at this time, but here are the strongest possibilities. (All following scenarios involve Time Travel or universe-shifting.)

SCENARIO #2: 

Cap sent back in time to his version of a Valhalla/warrior’s paradise: right after his jet goes into the ice he manages somehow to arrive the following Saturday at the Stork Club at 8pm as she and he were talking about in his last moments on the radio.

While iconic for that time period, The Stork Club (of New York City) has always seemed a rather upscale venue for Peggy and Steve to pick. (Coincidentally, it closed its doors in 1965)

(Ultimately, you may recall Steve saying he’s going to need a raincheck on that dance.)

I don’t see it. Doing this robs those moments in The First Avenger entirely of their gravity and their far-reaching impact in the MCU. Peggy wouldn’t even have a hot moment to grieve for what she lost. What’s more, Peggy in the immediate aftermath of Steve’s disappearance hasn’t got anything to offer the plot/Cap in the way of fighting Thanos/the power of Infinity Stones. She’s just relegated to a sort of trophy/reward, without any utility in the storyline.

If Peggy Carter is used in Endgame without having something to contribute to the forward motion of the plot, IF, for example, she’s reduced to a sort of ‘Grey Havens’ for Cap, what an utter waste of everything MCU has put into her over the years. If going back to be with Peggy (pre-Marvel’s Agent Carter and ongoing developments in the MCU) is simply Cap’s “reward”, then Peggy gets reduced to nothing but a dog treat. [which, I daresay from reading enough tumblr plenty of bloggers think she is]

Just as I said in that earlier blog, narratively it’s Steve in TFA who has to “come up” to Peggy’s level, both physically 

She could snap him in two if they tried that dance, now.

(at least narratively-speaking—obviously there’s absolutely NOTHING wrong in real life with two partners not being the physical equal of one another, in fact it’s rather more standard than not) and also heroic conviction-wise; he has to be willing to step out there and join the fight (as when he left the showgirls, etc). 

Of course, even leaving the showgirls behind, Steve won’t miss out on the sight of a great pair of legs, Angie Martinelli will gladly tell you.

Ahem. It’s been awhile since Cap woke up from the ice. He’s seen and done a lot. But Peggy, in the immediate wake of his crash, well, she’s hasn’t had a chance to grow similarly.

TFA-era Peggy and Infinity War-era Cap are far from on the same footing. She’s only just had her first brush with the supernatural (Vibranium and the Tesseract, super-soldier serum). She’s still WWII-Peggy, and Cap hasn’t been WWII-Cap for awhile (remember his government’s betrayal in Winter Soldier? His own rebellion in Civil War?).

Unlikely we’ll see this noobishly terrified expression ever again.

Lots has happened since next Saturday at the Stork Club, 8pm. Let’s talk funerals. Cap has gone to Peggy’s, 

I’m not proud of showing you this.

and in the season one finale of Agent Carter, Peggy “Goodbye, My Darling” (words, btw, she never said to him in real-life) Carter takes a moment to pour Steve’s blood sample off the Brooklyn Bridge to prevent it being used for ill, and memorialize and let him go in a real way, which she had yet to be able to do.

Do you think the military held a funeral/event in memory of Steve after he was lost to the ice?

A day or two (or even a year) after the crash, she hasn’t been able to bring herself to do that.

Secondarily, as I said in that earlier blog, Peggy has to live and operate in a world without Steve IF ONLY TO BE SHOWN AS SUCCESSFUL ON HER OWN TERMS and not viewed merely as Captain America’s Girlfriend.

Having him show up ON TIME for their dance doesn’t allow her that. It also doesn’t see her co-found S.H.I.E.L.D. (for one example). Peggy would have remained Peggy unchanged, and Cap—well, Cap’s changed plenty. He doesn’t even dress the same. 

Just look at the confidence in this man’s face. This man has grown and changed since burying that plane in the ice.

If he wakes up in TFA the same year that film came out, that’s almost nine years ‘til Infinity War, and who knows how long ‘til the plot of Endgame picks up. All of WWII lasted six years. It doesn’t seem like Cap’s life since waking up has been any less of a crucible.

I absolutely understand the emotional desire fans have to see that dance and that date take place as though nothing has happened. I. Get. It. But from a story standpoint, it’s a bad idea that negates so much work and development that’s come before.

I deeply apologize for my story-based convictions on this matter.

SCENARIO #3: Parallel Peggy

Parallel universes make my brain hurt. Literally anything could happen in them. Except Steve getting time with actual Peggy.

Also, that would be something of a Whovian #10/Rose re-tread, wouldn’t it?

SCENARIO #4:

(Possibly one-way) Time Travel to Just the Sweet Spot Where Peggy Has Access to an Answer the Avengers Need

Peggy Carter’s life and work have meant a lot to the MCU (don’t get me started on the fact the franchise didn’t have Nick Fury, Coulson, Hill, and Tony Stark attend her funeral).

We know some of what she was involved in with SSR and S.H.I.E.L.D. (okay, well, likely she was involved with literally EVERYTHING). We know she had two children, a boy and girl, and a granddaughter (we don’t want to negate them, do we?[Aside: Could Steve and Peggy even have kids?]). 

Children on the right, on the left the photo is taken later (note clothing style), indicating a granddaughter.

We know she was married, though the powers that be have stopped short of ever naming her husband. 

Sorry, wrong wedding dress, wrong wedding, v.v. sad day about to happen.

Season Two of Agent Carter shows her embarking on a relationship with Daniel Sousa, 

All my love, Daniel!

but for all we know that proved a non-starter, and in a twist she wed Jack Thompson—or even Dum Dum—or some other guy we never met. We’re simply not told. No man appears in photos by her bedside in Winter Soldier, her husband is given no name in her official obit from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In her 1953 interview we’re told that she’s married by that time, she speaks about her husband, a WWII vet. (The bedside picture with her two children shows her with a similar hairstyle to this interview)

What we’ve never been given is information about how long that married lasted. Divorce, death of a spouse? Entirely possible. If Cap’s being sent back (at least in part) to pitch woo to Peggy, I’m betting her husband will have passed on. (Truly sorry if it’s you, Daniel!)

I’m betting that in those files Cap was reviewing in The Winter Soldier, there may have been something among his research about what Peggy got up to after he was gone. 

In my memory, there’s like a whole box of this sort of thing sitting around Cap’s apartment.

And that among her work, or even among Howard’s Bad Babies, might well be technology or an item needed to help defeat Thanos or reverse the snap.

So, Cap shaves his beard (to be more recognizable to her), 

goes back not to 1940, but sometime after Peggy’s interview in 1953 

(recall the motion-capture dots on Hayley in that Instagram pic which may be used to age her, recall also the casting call for 1960s office girls). 

This gives us BOTH a Peggy who had moved on and done important work, AND a Cap who has grown and changed since being pulled from the ice.

In a scenario like this, what we are presented with (again) are Steve and Peggy as two EQUALS, the reward for each of whom, and their lifetime of service and sacrifice is each other. And a Cap returned to a world more in- line with his human life expectancy (and among which he might feel more comfortable—and in which some of his friends/the Howling Commandos might still live). Peggy would be in her 40s in the 1960s*. (Don’t even get me started on loving middle-aged awesome, reaching her sexual peak Peggy getting to be with constantly on-peak super-soldier Steve.)

I mean, check out Peggy in her late 60s: Here, hot, and still happening.

SCENARIO #4 doesn’t diminish a possible Steggy happy ending. In fact, it just deepens and burnishes it.

*Perhaps whatever takes place in the 60s also involves the long-unexplained tease of how Peggy as head and founder of S.H.I.E.L.D. remained (we assume) unaware that Hydra had long infiltrated her organization. #utterpipedreams

COMPLICATIONS:…now don’t get me started that if Cap-Now goes back, Cap-Then is still in the ice, destined to wake up, and that gets all kind of weird—sort of like Parallel Universes. 

Time Travel and the potential plurality of existence is treacherous and headache-y to contemplate.

QUESTIONS THAT PERSIST: IF Cap is able to go back in time, and there’s nothing in-story that can be gained by it other than his reunion with Peggy, doesn’t it make more sense that he’d choose to go back and reverse something terrible in history, such as prevent the US from dropping atomic bombs, saving countless (estimated around 250k) lives?

Or that he would go back and rescue Bucky from Armin Zola?

After all, he’s seen that Peggy’s life was happy. She died loved, safe, and respected as a (very) old woman in her bed. Ya can’t say that for ole Buck.

Truly, if the power of time travel is in your hands, and you choose to use it purely for selfish reasons, well, that’s about the most un-Cap thing I’ve ever heard of.

So, Gentle Readers, how do you think this thing is going to go down?

[sserpente]

So um I saw this twitter post on how the main reason the loki series was created in the first place was to make loki the first main character in the mcu to be bi, is this true? I mean I thought the reason it was created was because marvel wanted to continue on where loki went after he escaped in endgame. I know I shouldn't just belive everything I read on the Internet that's why I'm asking you about this. I kinda belive it for a second cuz ever since ep 3 of loki came out, Kate herron has been kinda pushing the fact that loki is bi in everybody's throats in a twitter post of hers and I quote "it was very important to me, and my goal, to acknowledge loki was bisexual." So yeah, I just need a second opinion on this cuz lately marvel has been kinda woke if you know what I mean if you know about the whole controversies on their new comics. I really don't want any of this to be real. I'm really looking forward to your response.

*blinks* Okay, first of all, I'm flattered you want my opinion on this because I didn't even work on the show and I am, in fact, just another Loki girl on the Internet, haha! Okay, so here me out:

The main reason? I really doubt that! The reason we got a Loki show is because Tom Hiddleston has been stealing the show for years. In fact, I strongly believe that it is OUR passion for this character and HIS incredible talent and commitment that Marvel went ahead with his own series. If Tom's Loki wasn't this popular, I'm pretty sure he would have stayed dead after TDW. So don't worry about that. ♥

As far as I'm concerned, Kate is bisexual herself. She loves Loki as a character, so her passion for this is understandable. I support the LGBTQ+ community with all my heart, so I too cheered when Loki cheekily went "A bit of both". They worked this lovely aspect of his character into the show and given that it's always been there both in the comics and in the myths, it was only a matter of time in the show, I guess. After all, they didn't really have the time to focus on that in the Thor films.

But, and this is very important now: Loki being bisexual doesn't define him. It's a meaningful aspect of him (an aspect that resonates with many fans which is great), part of who he is, sure--but it doesn't define him as a fictional character. He is Loki, the God of Mischief, not Loki, the MCU character who is a bisexual. A friend of mine is a lesbian but if I pointed this out to her every time we met or only referred to her as such, she would go mad. And she certainly wouldn’t keep talking about her being a lesbian every time we met either. It doesn’t define her. It’s part of who she is but it doesn’t define her entire being, let alone reduces her to that. Just... let people love whoever they want, you know?

In other words, I remember there being a few discussions on whether the show should include Loki’s sexuality or even love interests before it came out and I understood that worry to some extent simply because Loki has a lot on his plate right now. Think about it:

The last thing that happened to him was him finding out that he is a Frost Giant, why Odin favoured Thor all these years and that his entire life is a lie, him starting a desperate attempt to gain his adoptive father’s recognition, failing, trying to commit suicide, ending up with Thanos instead, getting tortured and being forced to invade New York City, failing again (presumably even intentionally) and now being about to be brought back to Asgard expecting Odin to execute him (which is not far-fetched—Odin said ‘Frigga is the only reason you’re still alive and you will never see her again’ in TDW so I’m sure Loki was almost certain to be executed by Odin). So when the Tesseract landed at his feet, he saw his chance so he took it and escaped and now the TVA is telling him that he shouldn't exist and forces him to work for them, else he will be disintegrated and he learns that he can't return to his own timeline, has no home. He is struggling with his identity and finding his place in the world, figuring out who he is and what he wants. Now imagine making all that only about his sexuality and gender identity and disregarding everything else or shoving it in the background. Doesn't make sense, right? Loki must learn to love himself first before anyone else, regardless of their gender identity, can love him. If he ever gets love interests in the future, I'm pretty sure it'll be a process full of angst and hurt. I don't know anything about those alleged controversies concerning the new comics though, so I wouldn't be able to comment on that.

A lot of people are staining society with their negativity and try to find negative aspects everywhere which is why I never interact with such posts on here or elsewhere, it’s not worth my energy. It starts with bisexuals who happen to end up in a relationship with the opposite gender and are being judged for it even within their own community and as of right now it continues where some individuals on the Internet insist that we all must now use "they/them" pronouns for Loki when even in the show, they use "he/him" pronouns for him and "she/her" pronouns for Sylvie--not every non-binary/genderfluid person exclusively uses “they/them” pronouns.

Most importantly, I really doubt that every future episode now will keep reminding the audience that Loki is bisexual. You’re probably not familiar with her but Alex, the winner of this year’s season of Germany’s Next Topmodel is transgender--and, at some point in the season, when she was asked by an interviewer about what she thinks about a transgender model winning Germany’s Next Topmodel, she said in her opinion, simply a woman would win Germany’s Next Topmodel because that is what she is, meaning that society should stop pointing out how “different” the LGBTQ+ community is by constantly pointing it out but instead to finally start acknowleding it as normal. She told her story once and that’s it--she wants to be considered a female model, not a transgender model. Being transgender is a part of her but it doesn’t define her entire being.

Puuh, now that was a very long answer. Please, anyone, feel free to add things, I’m happy to learn more about what you guys, especially if you’re in the community, think about it. ♥

[aelaer]

Gonna send this separately so you can choose which ask to answer first and when. So the sorcerers have four main HQs in four different time zones and countries, all of which they can easily travel to in seconds. What do you think that means for the masters, their sleep schedule, and their nationalities? Like, do they have a fairly distributed postings (x number of masters are posted in London and must stay awake when London is, etc)? Or do they just sleep whenever they want?

This is a great question and one I’ve considered it while building out my headcanon for the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Here’s something of an excessive essay through a history of building out the four areas, which I think can help establish what goes on in modern day.

Because I’m a Tolkien nerd, I go overly deep into thinking about how languages come into play. Not only that, but I’m also a huge history nerd *and* I adore geography, so this gets very long and unnecessarily detailed. Regardless, I hope you enjoy it.

Hypothetical Early History - Kamar-Taj:

The films established Agamotto was the first Sorcerer Supreme and so he must have established the Sanctums and Kamar-Taj. It’s likely he was either from or very familiar with the Nepal area to establish Kamar-Taj in Kathmandu– but Kamar-Taj may not have necessarily been there since the first Sorcerer Supreme. The Sanctums protect the Earth, but Kamar-Taj is more of a headquarters, and those sort of places can move. I like to think that the first Kamar-Taj in the MCU was actually in Tibet like in the comics and had to be moved centuries ago due to Reasons. However, there is no evidence for this currently and simply remains a headcanon.

A lot of the books Stephen gets are in Classical Sanskrit, according to Wong, once he finishes several books in English as a novice (called The Book of the Invisible Sun, Astronomia Nova, Codex Imperium, and Key of Solomon). Classical Sanskrit’s more recent than Vedic Sanskrit, but it’s still a very old language. It came around about 2500 years ago and was widely used until the beginning of the dominance of Islamic societies about the 13th century. It spread all throughout Asia in its near 2000 years of prominence in learned, literary circles as well as in several vernacular circles. This includes both Nepal and quite a bit of China.

So with Kamar-Taj within Asia (there’s no reason to believe otherwise) the primary language both studied and spoken across several different cultures would have certainly been Sanskrit until the end of the first millennium AD. For any newcomer who was illiterate (of which there likely would be many) it would be the first language they were taught to read and write (and speak as needed). It would serve as the lingua franca across all four locations. But naturally each location would have picked up the vernacular languages in their region as well as other elements.

So let’s take a look at the actual Sanctums and how they would differentiate between each other before going further into how the lingua franca would change over time.

Hypothetical Early History - The London Sanctum

Let’s look at London first. London is a very old city that has history to the Roman era (called Londonium then), established by them in 47 AD. Apparently it had a population of 50,000 by the 3rd century AD, which is nuts; remember that the historical City of London is only about a square mile wide, but in modern day about 500,000 people work in that square mile. So 50,000 people can live in that amount of space easily. It only really started spilling out in the 1600s, too.

Why am I saying all this? Well, I looked up the filming location from the very beginning of Doctor Strange, where Kaecilius runs out of the library to the London Sanctum and to the city. That was filmed on Whitehall Court, which is located in Westminster and about a kilometer away from the borders of the classic City of London.

This means that the London Sanctum was not considered a part of London for some time. Indeed, Agamotto likely established it several hundred years before the Westminster Abbey and the predecessor to the Palace of Westminster were established in the 10th and 11th centuries. Before that? There was no reason for anyone to be there. So for several centuries the London Sanctum was in the middle of nowhere. There was likely an illusion spell over it to prevent any random passerbys from over the centuries to find it unless they were “meant” to find it, or whatever. You know, magic stuff. They’d probably disguise it as a small servant’s house once the village around the abbey and palace started developing (with some sort of suggestive “do not disturb” spells of various strengths depending on the political/religious climates of the decade).

The facade would change with the changing architecture in the village and likely would remain generally undocumented until Westminster became an official borough in the 16th century. With houses getting much closer and less easily able to completely hide their presence, even with subtle “look the other way” spells, this is when I really think they’d have to set aside actual budget for whatever property taxes were set by the Crown. You can hide a building in plain sight with magic if there’s enough empty space, but I don’t think you could hide it if you have buildings on each side of it unless you do the Harry Potter trick of squeezing the space out of existence for all non-magic folk. They clearly don’t do this in the film, and they wouldn’t want someone to try and build something on their very not-empty lot, thus needing to pay property taxes. But generally they’d otherwise be left alone.

Despite it not being part of London until the Greater London area was established in the 20th century, due to its closeness to the City of London I think it would have been called the London Sanctum from a very early point. London/Londonium had been around for a millennium longer than Westminster, so I don’t see them changing the name just because they’re suddenly in a village called Westminster now.

The vernacular language of the Sanctum (not to be confused with the literary language and worldwide language of communication, Sanskrit) would shift with the centuries. First it would be the Common Brittonic with Latin after the Roman invasion in order to do any business in London (which was only a kilometer away, though distance naturally wouldn’t be an issue with a sorcerer). This would eventually shift to Old English at the Roman Empire’s decline, and Latin would be put on the backburner for some time. Old English turns to Middle turns to Early Modern (which is Shakespeare), and Latin’s revival with the Renaissance does spread into the Sanctum if they pick up any well-read, learned individuals in the 16th to 18th centuries.

Hypothetical Early History - The Hong Kong Sanctum 

The Hong Kong Sanctum was built on a set for a street that doesn’t actually exist in Hong Kong so we can’t use the same trick we did for London on precise location. But like London, the area has been inhabited for millennia, with it becoming part of one of the Chinese dynasties (Qin) in 221 BC. It was difficult to find dating for the history of its name and what it was called before it became Hong Kong. From what I can find, the British, once they received the island to colonize in the 19th century, gave the whole island that name, which was the phonetic translation of “ 香港 ”, or “fragrant harbour”.

It’s very unlikely that the Hong Kong Sanctum was actually called Hong Kong for most of its history unless it was directly within the village that bore that name on Hong Kong Island. But we don’t know where the Sanctum is supposed to be; it could be on Hong Kong Island (the original British territory), the Kowloon Peninsula (in the second growth of the colony), or on Lantau Island, another island, or one of the other New Territories north of the peninsula, gained by the British in 1899. Its original name probably reflected whatever area it’s historically located in and it would not have been changed to “Hong Kong” likely until the 20th century.

The vernacular language of the Hong Kong Sanctum would have started with the Chinese/Sinitic language groups of Yue and Hakka (which are considered Cantonese by non-linguists), specifically with dialects local to the area. It looks like another dialect from the Min family also lived in the area, so that could be sprinkled in as well. I would think that sorcerers based within the Hong Kong Sanctum would be expected to speak at least two local Chinese dialects to be able to communicate with as many newcomers as possible, and that the common language across language barriers for all the hundreds of variants of Chinese would be Sanskrit, as that would be the literary and formal language used to talk with people from all around the world. The literary language would eventually change, of course, but we’re not quite there yet in this ridiculous meta.

It’s possible that, since the area was generally not very populated until the 19th century, that the Sanctum was a lot more open in its existence (with less concealment spells and the like) and that they even allowed rumours of its existence to leak out to the local villages for anyone who was looking for greater spiritual enlightenment and knowledge. They may set some sort of obstacles on the way to find the Sanctum, but it wouldn’t be completely off the map like London would have to be for most of its existence. I don’t see anything in Taoism, Buddhism, Daoism, or Confucianism that would mark the magics of sorcery as “unnatural” or “evil” as many sects of Christianity would have in Europe, but I may be wrong on this topic.

They’d not have to worry about an increasing populace until the 19th century, since Hong Kong Island only had 3,000 people when the British colonized it. The population got a huge influx of people from Canton/Guangzhou once the British took over, which would eventually shift the vernacular from several dialects of Chinese to the one the people of Canton brought with them: Cantonese. Along with Cantonese, there definitely would be an increase in English amongst those speaking the vernacular in the Hong Kong Sanctum from the 1840s onward, just as there was with the rest of the population of Hong Kong. We’ll get more into this development in another part, but first we need to cover America.

Hypothetical Early History - The New York Sanctum

Like Hong Kong, this name is more recent, though not as recent as its sister sanctum in China. Before New York City was colonized, it was populated by the Lenape people, who called their territory Lenapehoking. I imagine that the New York Sanctum was once called the Lenapehoking Sanctum, assuming that the Lenope people were able to hold that territory for the several centuries before the Europeans came over. There’s no recorded history that I could find, so we cannot be certain on that account.

Unlike the London Sanctum (and possibly the Hong Kong Sanctum), it is also possible that the religion of the Lenape people and other local tribes were open to the idea of some individuals having a greater natural connection and unusual, great powers. I think obstacles would be set for those of the Lenape who wanted to leave to find this spot of enlightenment, but at the same time I do not believe it would be viewed necessarily as a negative thing.

If they drew recruits from the local populace, the vernacular would have been largely from the language spoken by the Lenape of what is now called New York City, which is called Munsee (and sadly has only two living native speakers left). They possibly also spoke Umani, the language the Lenape south of New York spoke.

This would have all changed with the arrival of European colonizers. The Dutch bought some of the area in modern lower Manhattan in 1626 from one of the Lenape groups, but the territory only extended to Wall Street; Bleecker Street is about 2 miles north of that, so they’re still in Lenape territory. However, the next 100 years dramatically shifted the landscape. New Amsterdam became New York (and transferred back, *then* back again), and inter-tribal warfare combined with the lack of immunity from the diseases the Europeans brought over cut Lenape populations dramatically in the modern New York area. I could see a potential influx of Lenape individuals who wanted nothing to do with the business of war and disease and looked for the mysterious building that no one could ever map in their territory for sanctuary. And from there, a lot of Lenape sorcerers in the 17th century.

Greenwich Village (which is where Bleecker Street is) started as farmland with some of the Dutch in the 1630s onward. The first black Dutchmen were freed a decade later and given parcels of land there, as well. Who knows: maybe one of them, or their children, became the first black sorcerers as I’m uncertain if such an opportunity would have presented itself earlier in London and I’m not sure if they would pick up random folk who didn’t come directly to Kamar-Taj or one of the three Sanctums. That said, I don’t know what travel from Africa looked like (outside of the countries on the Mediterranean) before the slave trade really got going from the age of exploration onwards. It’s hard to say what the sorcerer recruiting process would be like, especially with the language barriers. And I’d rather not magic all language barriers away, they’re interesting to keep around.

Anyway, the area was first designated as a hamlet on paper in 1713 (as Grin’wich); by the end of the century it was a decent-sized suburb that absolutely exploded in population throughout the 19th century. It would certainly have been during the 1700s that they would have had to established a visible building on record so no one tried to build on top of them (and start paying property taxes on that, too, haha); they probably expanded their property throughout the 1800s as smallpox drove people out of south Manhattan to the fresher airs of Greenwich, then with the immigration and building booms of the rest of the century.

By the 18th century English would have entered the vernacular of the sorcerers residing in the New York Sanctum and would remain the primary vernacular language until modern day. It would likely be renamed sometime in the 1700s as well with the expansion of New York City and the further decline of native settlements.

Hypothetical Early History - Mingling With the Normals Around the World

One reason I favour Kamar-Taj in a more remote region in its earlier years rather than Kathmandu would be for sorcerers from all around the world to easily mingle outside without worry of some central Asian villager getting spooked out of his ever-loving mind for seeing his first European. And it makes sense to me that Kamar-Taj would have a large community of farmers, herdsmen, and the like doing basic things to keep people fed and shod while more experienced sorcerers did the reality protecting part of the job. They simply wouldn’t be able to do their job if they didn’t have people who were keeping the community running. And I don’t think they’d outsource it for much of their existence. I really see Kamar-Taj as a very self-sufficient society that keeps away from the rest of the world as much as possible. That would take a lot of room, and you’d need a lot of land for that. So yeah, I’m favouring Kamar-Taj as a “hidden land” in Tibet as it was in the comics until the world began to enter the modern era. And here they could mingle with anyone they wanted.

When it came to going out to the rest of the world, however, I would imagine caution and secrecy was of ultimate importance. Again, you don’t want to spook the western European villager with seeing a black person for the first time some 2000 years ago. So basically sorcerers avoided any locals as much as viably possible.

On that note, until the age of exploration I imagine that each Sanctum would be very strict with who was allowed outside of the Sanctum to their immediate surroundings. They don’t want to draw too much curiosity and scrutiny lest rumours travel to those with considerable power. This would be especially important in London after the rise of Christianity and the distrust in anything seen as magical. People that didn’t look like you appearing in your little village? Don’t want to scare the illiterate locals.

So for the majority of the Sanctums’ histories, only sorcerers with backgrounds that were native to their location would actually go outside if they needed to and there was a chance they’d come across someone. America would be the most lenient while London the strictest. These rules would be in place for precaution and secrecy.

Even when the age of exploration begins in earnest and you actually start seeing traders from Asia, Africa, and the Americas in London as the centuries pass onward, minority sorcerers still may not want to travel the streets of London due to the possibility that they may be mistreated. I’m not greatly familiar with the history of diversity and how minorities were treated in London, but if it’s anything like the rest of the world, it probably wasn’t great. And the last thing anyone before the 19th century would want is to show magic and be accused of witchcraft. I imagined they just avoided the possibility of problems happening altogether by limiting who went outside the Sanctum in certain parts of the world.

It’s not really until the 19th century that you see stringent rules start to relax a bit; Hong Kong has several European traders and New York and London have turned into much larger melting pots. By the time WWII comes around, these old rules about where people can travel directly from the Sanctums are dropped as the world has become a melting pot.

Hypothetical History Up To The Modern Era

As established, the main language of literary and cross-cultural communication would start with Sanskrit due to its prominence in Asia as a writing system first and foremost when the Sanctums were established (presuming that they were established a few centuries before or after the BC/AD shift; I don’t think the MCU uses the comic canon for Agamotto’s age). Using it for spoken language afterwards just makes sense with so many cultures present.

The lingua franca of Sanskrit wouldn’t change until Sanskrit’s decline; I don’t see it happening immediately, either. Sanskrit started declining in the 13th century, but I think it would remain the lingua franca until sometime during the Renaissance and the years of colonialism that follow. I believe there would have been a large push for Latin to be the main language of literacy and communication between the 16th to 18th centuries, primarily from the sorcerers from Europe. A good number of more complex texts from the London Sanctum would have surely been translated into Latin at this time (while the idea of writing in the vernacular, as spread with the printing press, has certainly caught on and beginner texts there are starting to be translated into early Modern English).

The Ancient One, who is now Sorcerer Supreme at this time, isn’t quite sure yet of that change. She’s getting a lot of resistance from Hong Kong in particular who think Sanskrit has served fine for well over a millennium and can serve just as well in the next. Instead she encourages more translations of beginner books into the vernacular and encourages those in the other Sanctums to learn other vernacular languages of other Sanctums as she can see the world is beginning to shrink and more places are being mapped. She, of course, can speak several languages fluently so she can talk to as many students in their native language as possible. Because the Sanctums are not within Spanish-speaking or French-speaking territories, these two languages are acknowledged as wide-speaking and at least a couple sorcerers learn the languages if there are no native speakers, but they do not come into the running as a lingua franca (just as Mandarin does not, either, as no one near Hong Kong speaks it).

Things remain in flux for the next 200 to 300 years until the New York Sanctum is largely populated by those who immigrated recently to the English colonies. And then the request starts to change: make the lingua franca English. London largely agrees with this (though things get a bit salty between a couple English natives and a couple pro-Independence colonizers at the end of the 18th century) but by the time the 19th century rolls around, there’s a lot of support for this from both New York and London.

Hong Kong doesn’t see why it should change at all, and then the Opium Wars come around, and by 1850, there’s quite a bit of English being spoken by newcomers in their area and almost everyone else is speaking another dialect of Chinese rather than the vernacular they were familiar with. They agree, albeit a bit reluctantly. English becomes the vernacular in the latter half of the 19th century and any starter books that haven’t been translated start to be translated into English.

The Hong Kong Sanctum also works on translating several starter books into Cantonese as they still want to draw from the local populace who don’t speak English; they still have plenty of the local Yue and Hakka dialects made over the last thousand years (with updates made every couple hundred years with shifting languages).

France’s fall from power with the removal of their monarchy and the defeat of Napoleon, alongside the continuous British colonization efforts and the growing prosperity from the new county of the United States, remove French from potentially becoming a lingua franca and solidify English as a worldwide language. This only increases in the 20th century after the Allied success in WWII, even with Britain giving up/losing their colonies throughout the next thirty years. English is still spoken in those territories, after all.

Hypothetical History: The Modern Era

The twentieth century saw the most change in the shape of the world than all centuries previous, and this change is reflected in policy with the sorcerers of Kamar-Taj. Before the twentieth century, the sorcerers that resided/worked in the various Sanctums were very homogeneous. London was staffed by Europeans and Hong Kong by Asians, especially of southeast descent. New York was the most lenient due to the low population in the area that was constantly moving, though individuals who looked like the indigenous peoples were certainly preferred (no blonds here). Everyone was welcome in Kamar-Taj as it was a completely closed off, secluded community and everyone was used to a very mixed population. As mentioned earlier, while London and New York saw different ethnicities, especially after the Renaissance, I don’t think a lot of people would really want to go out and about in those areas due to the prejudices of the era.

It is possible that some sorcerers came with prejudices as they were introduced to Kamar-Taj, but the amount of discipline and the ability to work together was so imperative to Agamotto, the Ancient One, and other Sorcerer Supremes (however many there were) that anyone who didn’t shed them simply wouldn’t be permitted to continue. Their tight-knit society wouldn’t be able to function if some sorcerers refused to work with other sorcerers because they looked different, practiced a different religion, or was a woman. The Ancient One being a woman of ambiguous religious practices helped get rid of a lot of people.

But as mentioned, a lot of things changed with the twentieth century. Prejudice still existed, of course, as it does today, but it was significantly less than when the slave trade was legal around half the world 200-300 years ago. The invention of photography, radio, and TV alongside WWI and WWII made the world smaller than it ever has been. And as the three Sanctum cities were much more heterogeneous than in centuries past, who presided over what relaxed.

In the 21st century, sorcerers come from all around the world over. Because their numbers are small I think recruitment still remains largely out of being lucky enough to come across a sorcerer who thinks you may be a good candidate, or to hear about Kamar-Taj through word of mouth and travel to Kathmandu (where it eventually permanently located as need for fields and fields of space became unnecessary). Anyone who doesn’t know English well (or at all) is taught to read, write, and speak the language during their novice days. As English is the lingua franca of the business world right now, no one in their right mind would turn that down, either; right now, English remains the most desired language to learn in the majority of non-English speaking countries.

Anyone can now be posted anywhere due to the heterogeneous world. Sleep schedules correspond with the local time of the location; as each Sanctum has an alarm system that goes to Kamar-Taj (and I imagine Kamar-Taj has its own), it would be easy enough to get sorcerers who are wide awake to help with an emergency. There’s probably someone keeping an eye on all locations when the locals are sleeping, even if they’re not physically there.

The majority of sorcerers who don’t have assignments that correspond with the Sanctums would remain in Kamar-Taj, and if they needed to go to any old Sanctum, it likely would be Hong Kong as Hong Kong is only two hours and 15 minutes ahead of Kathmandu. (China is one time zone when it should be at least three, but that’s another conversation altogether). That said, even if the local residents of the Sanctums are asleep, I view the Sanctums as facilities that are open twenty-four hours to the people of Kamar-Taj if they need to reference something that lives within one of the other Sanctums.

I don’t think the permanent staff of the Sanctums in the modern era would be overly large, either; there’s the Master, of course, probably another person to see to the Sanctum’s day-to-day tasks, and maybe a handful of acolytes and apprentices making a certain study of something that lives within the Sanctum or prefer to be within that time zone for some time while doing another job that they could do anywhere (such as the translations I mentioned). But because they do have that nifty alarm system, and the world is much more heterogeneous than it once was, the desire to keep sorcerers assigned to certain parts of the world appearing like people locally from there so as to draw less attention from locals is a custom that has more or less died out. And that has made the assignments much, much more flexible.

So yeah, I think in the modern era there is a bit more flexibility that wasn’t present in former eras because the world is smaller. With the alarm system connected to Kamar-Taj, which would have traffic 24 hours a day more than likely, you have a worldwide system of sorcerers with an eye on each Sanctum as well as a worldwide system of sorcerers that can go wherever they need to go to take care of dimensional issues as they come up.

[ryanmeft]

What Will Happen to the MCU Post-Endgame? Some Predictions (Part 1)

So, there’s that big Avengers movie coming up. You may have heard of it. There’s a lot of speculation about what will happen during it, but one thing’s known: it will not be the end of the MCU. So what happens after? In order to preserve us from spoilers, Marvel has been unusually tight-lipped about exactly what’s on the docket after Endgame. Yes, we know who is getting movies, but we don’t know when, in what order, or how things will be affected by Endgame. Heck, it’s possible Black Widow eats it and her movie is a prequel.

However, I have a few predictions to offer about the larger future of the MCU. Remember before you break out the knives that they’re only predictions, not necessarily all the things I’d want to happen. Let’s go.

No More Big Team Ups (For a While)

The Avengers branding isn’t done. Eventually, some of the newer characters who survive Endgame will face some great cosmic threat and will have to form a new iteration of the Avengers to defeat it---but it’ll be a while. Not only will Endgame be such an epic finale to the team as it currently stands that Marvel will be reluctant to release any other Avengers movie in its shadow, we’ve had four of these things plus Civil War in seven years. Look at Spider-Man: Far From Home to be the template for at least the next 4-5 years of the MCU: single character-driven movies with maybe a more minor guest star like Nick Fury. When you really think about it, Marvel sort of rushed the build up to the first Avengers, trying to get it in before people began to doubt the feasibility of the concept. Now that their shared universe is in no trouble, they’ll take their time on the next iteration.

It’ll Be Weirder

We think of the MCU as being an established force in Hollywood, but many of the characters who will take center stage in Phase 4 and beyond---Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man---are just barely wetting their wings, with only one solo movie apiece before Phase 4. Three of those four also happen to be among the Marvel characters whose stories often take a turn for the bizarre. Factor in that Ant-Man and his Quantum stuff, not to mention the Guardians, are clearly around for the long run and that The Eternals are tagging in, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the MCU get into some of the crazier stuff and take more chances in order to stay fresh.

The Fantastic Four Will Tag In…

There’s no Marvel without the FF. They set the tone for not just the classic Marvel era but the entire Silver Age of comic books. They got some rocky treatment from their own publisher, possibly out of pettiness from Fox having the rights, and the movies have not done them justice. I’m not a huge fan of Disney’s acquisition of Fox Entertainment, but what’s done is done, and now that it is the time has come for Marvel’s First Family to bring their unique flavor to the MCU. That weirder vibe I predicted would almost have to include them. And Marvel, please…get it right. Your parent company has Brad Bird, for F’s sakes. Get him on this and knock it out of the park.

…But The X-Men Will Not

There’s no dispute over who owns the X-Men movies now, but there is some debate about what they will do with them. Plenty of nerds want them in the MCU, but logistically, this is a case where the fans are wrong and should be over-ruled by good business sense. Even if a few old soldiers are retired after Endgame, the MCU is already incredibly dense, with three films and multiple television series featuring an army of characters per year, and it doesn’t need dozens upon dozens of mutants crowding it up even more. The most likely scenario is that Marvel will do what they did with the Netflix shows: officially “integrate” the X-Men into the same universe, but keep them mostly separate and not actually incorporate the major characters into the MCU. You might get an occasional cameo from Professor X, but that would be the most of it. Anything else is just going to make it all bulge at the seams a little too much.

The Black Widow Movie Will Morph Into a Television Series

Or rather, a streaming series…and it won’t feature ScarJo, but rather will replace her with one of the other, obscure Widows from the comics---or invent an entirely new one, perhaps putting an actress-of-color in the role, perhaps someone who appears in the film. ScarJo will kick things off with a first-episode cameo before passing the torch. The character in any form is much more suited to this format than a single two-hour movie, as she is more fun and interesting when she’s being a real spy than when she’s fighting Thanos (Don’t believe me? Watch Winter Soldier again. It’s the best use of the character to date.)

 The Netflix Continuity Will Live On

It’s highly unlikely that Marvel is willing to abandon Daredevil, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones and the rest just because Netflix has ended their involvement. It’s also unlikely they’ll hit the reset button, since the shows were mostly well-received and they already established them as part of the existing MCU continuity. It’s hard to say if there will be more shows on Disney+, but don’t be surprised to see the characters, now likely all entirely back under the Marvel Studios umbrella, make appearances in non-stand-alone movies---perhaps as recruits for that future second Avengers team. I’m behind on these, so do me a favor---don’t spoil anything if something I said is impossible.

Part 2 Tuesday!