#mcu critical cw

[panathemas]

[icyfox17]

New tag game bc I'm bored

List 5-10 of the most obscure crossovers you have floating around in your brain !!

1. Dumbass!crimeboys x halcyon!crimeboys

-> arguably the most obscure since it's a crossover between two aus that aren't even posted publicly, but i gen adore it sm<3 db!crimeboys is a hero au where tommy is just. Welp. A dumbass<3 he's my fav tommy ever guys 😭😭 he's my friend's au and I just SOBS most precious guy ever... And halcyon crimeboys is a detective au. Basically take the dumbest tommy and tired older brother Wilbur and make them meet the smartest crimeboys. It's very silly:))

2. Psych x Dsmp

-> okay hear me out. Hear me out. Shawn Spencer is literally Tommyinnit. They are the SAME. Now Phil as Chief Vic, Techno and Wilbur as twin detectives who both function as Jules and Lassiter (platonic ofc), and Tubbo as Gus. It fits way better than it should 😭😭

3. Critical Role (specifically Mighty Nein) x Dsmp

-> guys. Guys. I went on a rant on here like a year ago BUT CADUCEUS AND TECHNO'S CHARACTER DESIGNS ARE EERILY SIMILAR TO EACH OTHER. Tall pink dude w animal traits (cad is more cow, tech is more pig)? Cad is like c!Phil and c!Techno to me... (Is it bc of the tea obsession? Maybe...). I just also think that clingyduo would get along with Jester and Nott/Veth like a wildfire. OR OMG FOOLISH-- Does anyone remember Foolish building dick statues everywhere?? Yeah, he's definitely a follower of the Traveler.

4. 911xMCU

-> okay ngl guys this just came 2 me bc I realised that everyone calls Bobby Cap like how all the Avengers call Steve Cap and I was like lmfao imagine a scene where someone says Cap and they both respond to it.

5. Cw Flash x Pjo

-> okay this isn't my idea but it's one of my fav fics ever WHY DOES IT WORK SO WELL LMFAO

6. Spider-Man x Dick Grayson & Wally West

-> PETER IS LITERALLY DICK AND WALLY IN ONE PERSON 😭😭 SUPER SMART SCIENCE BRAIN + SILLY GOOFY + ACROBATS they're the same. I need them to meet so badly sobsosbsosbsosvsosbsosbsisbsjs Not sure which versions of which I just. Need it. Pls 😭😭😭

7. Justice League Unlimited x Young Justice (tv show)

-> This one has its own separate post here, but omg it makes me SO UPSET GUYS 😭😭😭

8. TMNT x Batfam

Okay not obscure bc they have had both a movie and a comic BUT HEAR ME OUT. SPECFICALLY THE 2007 MOVIE VERSION OF TMNT. This scene is literally Dick and Jason I can't do this guys WHY DO THEIR COLOURS EVEN MATCH

9. Dceu!Bruce & Barry x MCU!Irondad

-> okay my mental illness is full blast here but omfg they are the same duo THEY ARE THE SAME I need them to swap sons for a day plspslspslspspspdlfkfdishskdfjdksklaskd

10. Any vigilante au Tommy x Spider-Man

-> this is hidden in my notes app and is both like my own version of Tommy and Spidey but omfg I'm attached it's such a fun idea to play around with rahhhshshshss. I have a scene where Tommy and Spidey have a miscommunication over Blade lmfao and it lives rent free in my mind. Like Blade is a vampire but does NOT dress the same as Technoblade who might also secretly be a vampire in Tommy's universe lmfaooo

Okay and Bonus One that literally no one will understand except me

11. Magnum PI remake x Orphanduo (Techno and Skeppy)

-> Katsumoto is literally Technoblade guys. THEY ARE THE SAME PERSON. And omfg Magnum and Higgens are so happy duo ngl 😭😭😭

OKAY THAT'S ALL FOR NOW YIPPEE

Tag time :D

@sammiekel @jiksvokrat @cristalmystery @ghosts-and-blue-sweaters @sleepdeprivedofmycorn @sunflowervc @angrilydancing and anyone else who wants to join in!!

[cogentranting]

Just on a mission, apparently, to convince everyone on here that I have zero taste in media.

[the-unspeakable-tsar]

Ranking Avengers In Terms of Edibility

Scarlet Witch

Reason: Relatively normal human mutant, isn't full of radiation or super soldier serum or any of that bullshit. Probably won't give you cancer.

2. Thor.

Reason: Lean beef, I want to know what a god tastes like. But he's also pampered so i think his meat would be ribboned with fat like kobe beef.

Cons: Probably really difficult to catch and kill.

3. Iron Man

Reasons: Like wanda maximoff, totally normal human being.

Cons: He has a crunchy metal shell that cannot be broken open using a lobster cracker.

But those are my top three most edible avengers, what do you all think?

[amarriageoftrueminds]

'that child could easily have fought that predator off if they didn't want to be trafficked!!'

😬 YIKES.

Anyway, re Elon:

Mark Fergus, who wrote Iron Man 1, said:

"That was our rock-star industrialist model for Tony Stark. [...] “Who would be the Howard Hughes of now? Who’s an industrialist who would also be on the gossip pages? Is there even anyone like that?,” Elon’s name was definitely in the conversation as the guy who grabbed the torch. Him, Trump, and maybe a little Steve Jobs. Trump was fun before he became president — he was actually kind of a goofy celebrity. Steve Jobs was always serious and angry; he never quite had that gift of the bullshit, the working the crowd that Musk has a real natural talent for. Musk took the brilliance of Jobs with the showmanship of Trump. He was the only one who had the fun factor and the celebrity vibe and actual business substance."

While filming IM1, it was RDJ himself who told Favs "We need to sit down with Elon Musk."

And RDJ specifically asked Favreau to include a prototype Tesla Roadster in Tony's garage, which happened because Favreau is friends with Musk.

[see far right below 👇]

And the reason RDJ knew about the Tesla is because, in March 2007, Elon Musk gave him a personal tour of the Space-X factory in El Segundo.

RDJ said:

“My mind is not easily blown, but this place and this guy were amazing." Both Musk and Stark were the type of men, according to RDJ, who “had seized an idea to live by and something to dedicate themselves to...” On a deeper level, the car was to be placed as the nearest object to Stark’s desk so that it formed something of a bond between the actor, the character, and Musk. “After meeting Elon and making him real to me, I felt like having his presence in the workshop,” RDJ said. “They became contemporaries. Elon was someone Tony probably hung out with and partied with or more likely they went on some weird jungle trek together to drink concoctions with the shamans.”

(RDJ has also since said. "You have to look at all that he’s done that demonstrates why he’s valuable.”)

They used the same Space-X factory to film Iron Man 2.

And, as mentioned, Favreau is a buddy of Musk's.

So that's:

Tony in the movies shaking Musk's hand (and Pepper!), complimenting him, offering to collaborate with him

(an exact foil to how Tony and Pepper treat Justin Hammer moments later in the same scene, don't pretend to be dense)

the guy who wrote Tony,

the guy who directed Tony (and knows Musk personally),

AND the guy who actually plays Tony!

All thinking that Tony is like Elon Musk! 🤷‍♀️

Ok but like imagine civil war from peters perspective, youre 14, post some vids of yourself doing some sick flips, a few months later Elon musk shows up and your house and coerces you into flying to another country to pick a physical fight with his coworkers

[the-great-knight-gay]

Ranking Live Action Superman Suits (Not all)

Christopher Reeve:

8/10 - amazing for the time and truly a classic - The logo looks a little off centre and (and this is a criticism for some future suits as well) not a fan of the logo looking like its stitched into the suit. I get that practically it makes more sense but it looks slightly off-putting to me

Brandon Routh (Returns):

7/10 - I like the fabric better than the reeve suit but the symbol and trunks are too small and the red is too dark everywhere - I actually love the belt here and I think this might be the best belt and trunk design put together, if only the red was brighter - This had the potential to be a 10/10 but the red is too wrong - Plus they used the logo too much (I mean, I get the belt and cape but the bottom of his boots????)

Henry Cavill:

6/10 - Used to like it more but too much blue - way too dark - the 'belt' which isn't really a belt doesn't break up the blue enough - In concept it's nice but the execution didn't hit - The slightly alien texture to the costume doesn't work the best here but it is done spectacularly in a different suit which I will mention later.

Tyler Hoechlin (Arrowverse):

8/10 - Honestly solid redesign but the blue is still a little dark and the belt is too high up - This may be the only time I've actually liked Superman not wearing trunks as the belt does an infinitely better job than the Snyder version - Still would have preferred with trunks though and this goes for all of Tyler's future suits except the Flashback suit.

Brandon Routh (Crisis/Kingdom Come):

9/10 - Crazy how one of the best superman suits ever came from a late stage CW crossover - easily one of the best they ever made for the Arrowverse and if the black Kingdom Come section of the suits had been swapped out for Yellow like they were post crisis then it would easily have been a 10/10

Nicholas Cage (The Flash):

0/10 - good lord do I even need to say anything what is this abomination - I am so glad this never got made

Tyler Hoechlin (Flashback/Fleischer):

8/10 - Again amazing - The logo was a bit off for me though and (like all of Tyler's future suits) the padding is horrendous, like WHAT ARE THOSE ABS NO ONE HAS ABS LIKE THAT

Tyler Hoechlin (Season 1-2):

8/10 - Good but feels too much like a bad cosplay and the padding is not good plus not a fan of the logo looking stitched into the fabric

Tyler Hoechlin (Season 3-4):

9/10 - A huge improvement over the previous seasons - Fixes most of the problems like the logo no longer looking stitched horribly placed - most of the bad cosplay is gone from the suit - They did use a similar texture to the Snyder suit which was done to make it more alien looking in Snyder's version but here if you look closely then you see the texture is made up of interlocking Superman Logos which is so cool - Padding is still bad but oh well

David Cornswet: 9/10

9/10 - Crazy how the best look they've given us so far is a behind the scenes set photo (what was that reveal image good lord) but good lord is it so good - The logo could use some work - I've got nothing against the Kingdom Come design but maybe a little curve at the bottom to give it a slight S shape - The gold Fleischer outline is a nice touch - My favourite version of the cape so far, using the New 52 design to attach the cape to the body and the yellow logo at the back??? (Ik its not in this photo but its there search it up) - The belt looks so good and there is minimal to no padding in this suit which means he just looks that good in it - The trunks are perfect and the colour is amazing - The lines are a bit much - makes it look a little too MCU style but the costume designer is the same one who did the MCU designs for Captain America 2 and 3, Avengers 3 and 4 and Guardians 2 and 3 so that tracks - She also did X-Men: The Last Stand and Gunn's Suicide Squad so I can understand the MCU like parts - Go check out her work her name is Judianna Makovsky - she's done some of the best comic book suit adaptations.

[asgardianhammer]

“ A god who wondered every day if he was worthy, without realizing, that was the very thing that made him so…"

჻ϟ჻  Marvel Thor Indie RP  ჻ϟ჻  MCU based  ჻ϟ჻ ჻ϟ჻  slight comic & heavy myth influences  ჻ϟ჻   EST: 12.Nov.2013 ჻ϟ჻

|| Heavily canon-divergent from Ragnarok onward || || Driven and developed by threads and personal headcanons || || Adored by: Mir || 30 + || she/her || private & selective ||

|| Verses || Memes || Plots || Perma starter & Interaction call

A study in: duty & honor personified, survivor’s guilt, the godly urge to rage and release some of the pain, a quest for a home within himself and within others, finding value in others, finding value in living, guiding with a strong but gentle hand, learning still, processing the inevitability of death, remaining kind when all else is cruel, forgiveness without forgetting, containing and not abusing power, finding joy and purpose, honoring what once was and creating a new future.

updated 05-2025 : I have not seen Love & Thunder and I will not be adopting anything from that movie, please also keep in mind that during Ragnarok his arc goes bananas and canon-divergent. I can’t stress this enough so please, please check out my rules and the Ragnarok PSA for clarification. I have also not seen Loki the series yet, I plan to still but don’t have the mental stamina for it yet, I apologize.

psd: @jjcre8 <3

family: @torxnn || @hollustu

exclusives/affiliates: @untamedtempest || @utsxlevshiy || @summerxmelodies || @frostkingoftheapocalypse || @yellingmetatron || @ssolessurvivor

mains: @lettherebemonsters || @talvisoldat || @kingoftheravens

( RULES BELOW THE CUT )

BLOG & MUN INFO: Private and selective MCU based RP blog, this means I rp only with mutuals at this time. Multi-ship/verse/continuity. Mun + Muse are both 30+, we will not rp with anyone under 21+ regardless of the plot/topic. I have no specific triggers, all questionable content is tagged with general tags ________tw or ___________ cw.

Blog and writing can contain NSFW and/or highly triggering content, please read my stance and PSA regarding that.

ON WRITING:  Medium to High Activity, this means I am online quite a bit, speed of replies however is depending on muse, real life stuff and can vary from absolutely insanely fast rapid-fire to a bit longer. Multi paras and novellas will usually be queued to keep my sanity from going haywire.

I consider myself adaptive and literate ( English is technically my 3rd language, and typos are the bane of my existence please forgive me any errors ). I’m comfortable with any length, script/chats, multi-paras, novellas and everything in between. There is no need to match length, just give me enough to work with and it’s all good.

ON INTERACTIONS: The best way to start writing together is to poke me in IM, throw something via Ask, or make use of the Memes . There is also a permanent starter & interaction call here that I check when I’m inspired to write small or big interactions/starters.

OC and Multi-muse friendly. I am however selective with both.

For OC’s, it’s helpful if you have a plot in mind already and your character is developed with some info/bio I can read up on, feel free to come to me with suggestions ^^

Multi-muse blogs are also welcomed and loved. However, we appreciate well-developed muses, and we love developing relationships with said well-developed muses.

I cleanse my following and followers regularly, if we haven’t interacted IC or OOC after quite some time I will cultivate my lists accordingly. No hard feelings, the door is always open. This also goes for following to remade blogs or new blogs, I will pick and choose if I follow you elsewhere.

ON TIMELINE & CANON:  I’m in general very anti-Marvel and very MCU critical, especially when it comes to the movies and some directors. Negativity regarding this is rare, if I post about it it will be tagged with “ marvel wank “.

My muse and timeline are hella canon divergent since Ragnarok, things are cherry-picked from canon.

Please make sure to read my Ragnarok PSA and Endgame PSA. When in doubt, poke me with questions :3

ON MY CONTENT:  I don’t enforce reblog karma on my blog, so feel free to reblog memes, general gifsets, quotes, music or whatever else from me <3

Please don’t reblog my world building posts or head canon posts without checking with me if it’s okay.

As much as I appreciate people’s approval of my creative works these posts are for my muse and for his universe specifically ( or even verse dependent ). More often than not things spread like wildfire in the fandom, and I don’t necessarily like my content to be exposed to a large group of people. It messes up my activity feed, it opens doors for needless discussion and discourse, and it is more likely to get stolen or copied. Please consider this before reblogging any of these posts and contact me if it’s okay to reblog a particular post. Original posts that are verse or ship dependent are off-limits by default, as are posts not created by me but by others for my muse or our verse.

ON RELATIONSHIPS:  I match your freak, IC and OOC.

Any NSFW content will be played out with partners we’re comfortable with and we established a relationship with. If your sole purpose for interactions with us is shipping and/or smut I’d rather you look elsewhere, I’m probably not the right partner for you.

I ship Thor with a LOT of people, he loves a lot and loves hard, we ship chemistry first and foremost. He is not picky in the slightest, but plotting and development are awesome things! We don’t assume or insta-ship ( not even if the ship is canon), and any kind is welcomed. Brotp’s, enemies, strange neighbor, weird uncle? Yes please.

Ships are only possible with development, when there is undeniable and natural chemistry, and especially if we vibe well OOC, I’m not a fan of pre-plotted ships.

Exclusives/Affiliates:

For my own comfort I prefer to build relationships for my muse that are meaningful and will last. This means that I have main muses/partners that have our love and trust and we will prefer new plots and threads with them over new partners.

However we will not be exclusive with anyone unless there is a mutual exclusivity.

Please note that the exclusivity/affiliation extends to faceclaims also, I’m old af and Thor is set in his ways, neither of us enjoy confusion or chase faceclaims.

Regular non-shipping rps:

There is no issue however with rp-ing as a certain character if I already am with someone else, however I will keep everybody out of each other’s world.

Don’t assume kinship, or friendships. Thor will approach canon characters according to the MCU timeline and will treat them as such.

Thor only has children in side-verses and plotted verses with specific muses. In default/main he has no children ( yet ) so any replies or approaching him as his offspring will result in confusion. Please approach me first to see if I A) am open to new threads and B) am willing to plot something before interacting.

Please don’t be mad if I deny participating, I will always inform you about the reasons.

I take relationships, IC and OOC, very seriously, and expect the same courtesy in return. This means I value OOC communication and enthusiasm a lot, and will expect depth and development between us as muns and our muses. This goes for romance but also family, friends and any other sort of interactions. Wordlessly dropping essential ( key word essential ) and plotted out threads, or disappearing for prolonged periods of time without any sort of communication, or blatantly discarding a ship is hurtful, it kills my muse and the will to invest in interactions.

CURRENT STATUS:

* Inbox/Submit box: OPEN

* IM:  OPEN to mutuals

* Plotting:  OPEN

* Memes: always OPEN

* Discord available to mutuals after we have interacted for a while.

[therollingstonys]

What are your favorite things about Steve and Tony? Separately and together.

Ooo what a good question!

For me, Tony is such a beautiful, flawed, vulnerable character that is just vibrant with humanity. He’s arrogant and also intensely self critical and anxious, he’s guarded and also desperate for acceptance and love. He’s a mess and he tries so hard to learn from his mistakes and do better and I think he’s just the most intensely human character in the MCU.

And then, for me, Steve is this representation of the bravery and strength that lies in all of us, that we all aspire to be and that’s really beautiful—especially when it’s paralleled by Steve’s vulnerability of learning a new world and trying to create new connections when he feels so lost and out of place. I think Steve is complicated and often makes bad decisions that I don’t agree with, but it makes him compelling!! Even if I vehemently disagree with a decision (side eyes CW) it’s still compelling and makes me try to understand his position.

I think together Steve and Tony are similar in so many ways and that’s why we see them clash so much in the movies, but it’s also what bonds them together and makes them friends and teammates who can put aside the past and work together to save the world.

I think as a romantic couple they probably have arguments that end in someone walking away or someone icing the other person out because they’re both stubborn and tend to believe that they’re right. But on the flip side I think they’re incredibly passionate about each other and would have a deep and abiding love that would allow them to get past the arguments and the battles and come home to each other because their home is in each other.

[legalandnotease]

The biggest problem with Bucky defenders like you is that you refuse to acknowledge anyone else’s suffering. Never denied Bucky grieving nor being a victim of horrific proportions, but he was far from the only one grieving.

"I don't deny Bucky was grieving" but then 10 seconds later you be like "he doesn't have the right to grieve and has zero right to any of his feelings".

There's a word for what you're doin there. Its called *gaslighting*. Its what my abuser used to do to me- yes, you're talking to a real life abuse survivor in the flesh.

That's the problem with a lot of Sam fans. They cannot identify with any other character or their experiences.

I mean this here a prime example of what I am saying:

You really need to get off of Bucky’s fictional dick and stop believing that he’s the grand winner in the trauma olympics

You believe Sam is the grand winner do you not? People like you are convinced Sam and Isaiah have some kind of monopoly on suffering, and because of this they are incapable of identifying with the trauma of others and understanding how other people's suffering impacts them. (Legit they are getting as bad as Tony fans..)

Thus anybody who has feelings or emotions that do not align with what Sam wants is condemned. This is absolutely classic gaslighting, and its also incredibly narcissistic: recognize Sam's struggles by all means but nobody is required to supress or alter their emotions to cater to him.

Nobody is required to turn off their trauma to make him feel better: not that they can.

How Bucky managed to not grapple or try to understand Sam’s mental strife ... means he’s an obtuse little fuck when it comes to emotionally attaching himself to an inanimate object in lieu of feeling abandoned.

Yeah.... um its called the grieving process. Grief impacts different people in different ways.

You're basically saying here that because Bucky doesn't grieve the same way as Sam it means his grief is not legitimate. Gaslighting again.

Sam and Bucky have different experiences, ergo their experience of grieving is different. Although Bucky feels to a degree for others involved in the fight against Thanos he didn't really know any of them aside from the Wakanadans. So its harder for him to grieve for somebody like Natasha because he didn't know her. People generally don't grieve for strangers - that's not selfish its just how we are.

The only person he really knew was Steve Rogers: Steve is the man who literally saved Bucky's life when everyone (including Sam) was telling Steve to kill him.

That's why the shield means so much to Bucky. Its the object that was used to save his life by his brother. It doesn't mean the same thing to him as it does to Sam because they both associate it with different things.

Both their experiences are valid: but of course you want to say that Bucky's are not.

But him feeling betrayed and hurt gives him no leeway to be a bastard to Sam as he was

Ah yes, here we come to it. Bucky has no right to his feelings and he has no right to his trauma responses. Gotcha. He should turn off his PTSD to cater to Sam, did I say that already? Only problem is it doesn't work that way.

You see here's the thing: the vast majority of Sam fans who write things like this do not have PTSD or trauma: but the vast majority of Bucky fans do.

This is why Sam fans don't get it: they are looking at things from an outsider perspective. They see a traumatized person acting a certain way and they think they're choosing to do that because they're just being a dick.

What they don't understand is that trauma messes you up. It makes just living from one day to the next a sruggle. Traumatized people do not have room for others because they are struggling to just survive themselves. Not because they are selfish but because they have been harmed in horrific ways and it keeps impacting them long after the event.

Also, certain conditions predispose people to act and respond in certain ways, so when they people say say incredibly misinformed things like this:

Being a victim doesn’t give him a forever pass to be an asshole to those that didn’t cause his pain.

...All they they reveal is that they cannot comprehend trauma. That they have absolutely zero understanding of hiw trauma impacts human beings. That they are incredibly ignorant and certainly in no position to lecture anybody else on trauma healing or say they understand.

See here's the thing about PTSD, the condition that Bucky has. You don't have to be around the person who hurt you to react in a certain way.

In fact, anything that reminds you of your trauma and pain can cause a certain response. These things are called triggers. And when I say it cane be anything I mean *anything*. Objects, sounds, even certain words can remind a person with PTSD of the experience which caused their condition, and this by turn can cause unpleasant responses.

Lashing out, freezing, panic attacks, etc. Bucky doesn't like notebooks because the Soviets used a notebook with the Russian words to activate his programming: that's why Raynor's notebook annoys him so much. Its probably one of his triggers.

This means that Bucky is not being mean to Sam because he's malicious: he's a traumatized person who has been triggered by something or somebody.

Most likely, the talk of the shield reminded him of how Steve had to save him when he didn't feel like he was worth saving- and then he had somebody telling him HYDRA were "his people" so he was feeling like shit all over again.

Of course the vast majority of Sam fans don't see that: all they see is somebody being mean to their fave, and that is an unforgivable sin.

And Anthony Mackie stayed talking shit in the interviews whenever asked what was involved in the films, but you’re 100% ready to believe the character that Sam was only reached out to ‘taunt’ Bucky? Are you fucking serious?

Actually, yes.

Sam taunting Bucky with those text messages is entirely consistent with the behavior he displays throughtout the show- making jokes about his disability, mocking his trauma and the symptoms of his brain damage etc.

Like you pointed out, he was a counselor and knew the importance of contact but he’s only reaching out to fuck with him, not to check in, not to try to connect over similar experiences of losing time and friends? Shows how much you know the character.

Do you remember what I said about certain Sam fans being incapable of identifying with anybody else?

The same goes for Sam himself. Believe it or not, Sam is an able-bodied person who has never experienced things liks captivity, mind control, torture and sexual assault. He hasn't been forced to kill people against his will.

As such, Sam cannot identify with disabled people or abuse survivors. That's why he does things like mocking Bucky's appearance or making fun of his bionic arc and his propensity for staring. Which is due to brain damage btw.

You call that banter- but its very much more like the way able-bodied people act towards the disabled in real life. The kind of casual cruelty or insensitivity able-bodied people display when they ask intrusive or hurtful questions about disability or make off-color remarks about certain condtions.

Sam isn't necessarily trying to be insulting or offensive (although sometimes it appears he is) he probably thinks calling Bucky a "freak" or a "cyborg" and asking him if he killed anybody lately is just a harmless joke, but he is nevertheless being incredibly insensitive.

And like you said "intentions don't mean shit in regard to hurt feelings". Yeah the same applies to Sam. It doesn't matter if his remarks weren't meant to offend Bucky- they clearly did and he had a right to be offended.

You don’t get to dictate how what Bucky said affected Sam and you don’t get to pretend that some of the shit he said didn’t reek of self centeredness.

Guess what? You don't get to dictate how what Sam says effected Bucky either. Just because you think Sam was seeking to bond over mutual experiences it does not make it so.

Its entirely possible that Sam said things in those texts Bucky ignored that were incredibly offensive, insensitive or triggering and that's why he ignored them.

Its like if you sent me a text saying " how is (naming my abuser) today and did you freak out?"

You might think that's a harmless joke, but guess what? You don't know how that is going to impact me.

Being a counsellor doesn't mean Sam cannot also be an insensitive dick. As I said before- Sam is not an abuse survivor so he cannot identify with Bucky's experiences as an abuse survivor.

Which means he also doesn't understand how his negative attitudes and behaviours are likely to impact people who are. That also makes him more likely to engage in things like victim-blaming, and casual ableism.

That’s the way to heal, but Sam giving the advice was such a big problem fer y’all stans and I’ll never understand why.

Um, no.

You don't get to tell traumatized people how they heal. When you don't know anything about PTSD or trauma its very likely you also don't know anything about the long, slow process of healing, so I won't bother going into the complexities of it.

What I will do though is tell you why Sam's "advice is such a big problem".

Sam was doing what is known as victim-blaming. Victim blaming is a phenomena where victims are told that what happened to them is their fault, and that they caused or wanted it in some way.

Sam telling Bucky he had to "make amends" whilst he lectured him on the importance of "being of service, being present in his life and surrounding community" was akin to telling a person who was r*ped that they have to go and apologize to their attacker, and then they have to go find other people who were attacked by the same person and apologize to them as well.

Instead of like, bringing the rapist to justice and telling them to make amends.

Everything about what Sam says is implicity and explicitly telling Bucky that he was 100% responsible for what HYDRA did to him. He was to blame, it was his fault and he has to make right. Victim-blaming.

The fact that this came at the end of a series in which *every single character* as well as the narrative itself said that Bucky was serving HYDRA willingly and wanted to do all the things he did as the Winter Soldier makes it even worse.

Its like if they retconned Nastasha's story and decided to say she joined the Red Room voluntarily and then make her Dreykov's lover or something.

Oh and in addition to that several major characters outright say that Bucky is an evil monster and a pyschopathic killer and can never be anything other than that. Sam never once challenges or questions this version of events. He goes along with it, in fact.

So yeah, that's why Sam's advice is such a big deal- because it and the series itself are constantly shoving this idea down our throats that Bucky was never a victim. That he chose to do everything he did as Winter Soldier, and he is to blame for all that happened to him: which is why according to Sam and everybody else he has to "make amends" help others.

He's not a victim, therefore he doesn't deserve care or compassion. Therefore he doesn't need self-care. He just needs to stop kidding himself and admit it was all his fault. Oh and he then needs to do something which could explicity put his life in danger by confronting the families of victims. Cos' last time he did that it ended so well (Tony Stark almost killed him...)

All the while, remaining HYDRA operatives are walking free, allowed to do as they please.

As for the rest of your post: Bucky had zero intention of allowing Zemo to remain free forever, he fully intended to hand him over to Wakanda when he didn't need him anymore. He literally explained that. He was using the guy as a means to an end and the Wakandans were welcome to him when he was finished.

But if you want to talk about betrayal- how do you think Lemar Hoskins family would have felt seeing Sam treat the little terrorist bitch who murdered their son as some kind of fallen hero on live TV? The same little terrorist bitch who had burned innocent people to death and said she would do it again: the same little terrorist bitch who got her serum off a *Nazi*.

Whilst we're at it this is the most antisemetic piece of trash I have ever had the misfortune to read.

And lastly, while this is a fictional show, real world imitates art and vice versa. Sam not feeling he could follow in Steve’s footsteps, the literal blue eyed, blond poster boy of America, was saturated with racist ideologies.

That show had the fucking audacity to say that Steve became Captain America because he adhered to some kind of Aryan stereotype.

I was going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they did not watch The First Avenger but no- actually I am not going to do that because the showrunners probably did watch it and chose to ignore it anyway.

They still had the FUCKING audacity to say that the Jewish Doctor who chose Steve for the serum chose him because he looked Aryan? Yes, Dr Esrkine was Jewish.

At a time when Jews in Europe were literally being murdered by the Nazis because they were not considered to fit the Aryan model of racial perfection closely enough

As opposed to the actual truth: Dr Erskine chose a disabled puny son of Irish immigrants for the serum, who was the total opposite of the perfect race stereotype.

If you want to pretend that racist connotations didn’t exist in either the show or the movie, go play dumbass somewhere else.

Racist connotations exist in ths show: its fucking racist against Jews just for a start. Not only did they try to retcon the heavily Jewish coded Bucky to be a fucking Nazi they then tried to say Dr Erskine chose Steve for being a good little Aryan.

Its also utterly and disgustingly bigoted against every other minority group in existence.

...and then to top it all in the movie this continues with Sam saying Bucky chose to get the serum in the same way Steve did. As opposed again to the real truth: he had it put into him against his will when he was being experimented on by Nazis in a Prisoner of War camp. (Just like actual Jews and actual Eastern Europeans were experimented on by actual Nazis in actual real-life prison camps)

I am going to put this in big bold letters.

Sam being subject to racism does not give him a free pass on victim-blaming or being a bigot to disabled people, people with PTSD, Jews, women or anybody else.

Nor does Malcolm Spellman or Kori Skogland or whoever wrote that shit get a free pass on the trash they produced on that basis.

After watching the only scene in BNW that mattered to me, I wanna emphasize how important it is that bucky says one of the most emotionally mature things that a character has said in the MCU in a long while.

He asks sam “Why?”

He doesn’t correct Sam. Tell him he’s wrong. He doesn’t make the moment about himself.

It shows that Bucky fucking grew after TFATWS. a show where he is so self-obsessed (because of his trauma which isn’t inherently his fault) that he rarely considers Sam’s emotions.

Bucky Barnes has one of the best arcs in the MCU, and I think him even saying “I love you” is another sign that he is frankly pretty damn emotionally intelligent and either the writers or Sebastian Stan decided that it was important to include.

[cloudinterlude]

A Steve meta(?) from user cloudbells? More likely than you think.

One thing I struggled with when wanting darker plots was Steve's place in them. I always wanted to put him in a dubious, spy-like role where he'd have to set aside some moral hang-ups in favor of being a part of an objectively greater good that, in time, would save everyone.

At first, I thought that it just didn't fit him - that nothing in canon pointed to him being able to accept something like that. I mean, the whole "we don't trade lives" thing is just one of a few instances that seem to prove he leans towards immovable. But there is one line (among other actions we see but I'm using this line as an example) that gives me wiggle room.

In CATWS, when Steve is talking to Fury, he says that sometimes they compromised during the war. Just that one line, and I'm taking it because here's how I see it.

1) If something is catastrophic or horrific enough, then Steve is going to do "whatever it takes" to fix that. It will hurt his heart to have any complicity as a spy, but if that's the path to safety, then he's taking it.

2) Steve isn't fucking stupid. He has the foresight to discern when something could go horrifically bad and when to fight against it. I don't think he's entirely against "the ends justify the means" to an extent. The reason why he may be more at odds with Fury is because there are other paths to ensure safety and a lot of Fury's actions are preventative rather than reactionary to what is already coming.

3) Steve isn't stubborn enough to put his own ethical objections above the welfare of everyone else. That would seem selfish to him, I think. Yes, the guilt might eat him up, but the cause is more important, so unless it's truly not worth it, he's joining in. Some people might say "But user cloudbells! What about in CW when he threw everything away and defied countries just to defend Bucky and get what he wanted?" And to that I say, "Re-watch the movie, study Steve's character, read what was in the Accords that Steve read himself, critically think about his motives, and then come back to me".

With all this being said, I do think it would have to be a guaranteed....make or break event for Steve to play the long game knowing he's going to have to be complicit in or compartmentalize unsavory acts. Also I want to slip in that this is about MCU Steve. We know how 616 Steve fairs when he has to engage in more...shadow work than normal. But 616 Steve also seems more emotionally free or expressive than MCU Steve. Most Steve variants are better off emotionally than MCU Steve lol.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Okay, here's the thing... The problem with posts like this one is that it doesn't differentiate between criticism and hate.

The hate is not worth mentioning, some people want the MCU to fail and will hate on it no matter what they do or how they do it (I'm perfectly fine with that by the way, but these people are not fans, so they shouldn't be part of the discussion to begin with).

I will admit that there was this aura of... greatness... during the Infinity Saga that is nowhere to be seen nowadays. Perhaps it's superhero fatigue, perhaps it's due to the lack of quality of some projects (not all, not even close imo), perhaps the fact that certain series and movies have been so utterly bad that they broke the romanticism or connection some of us had with Marvel until that point (it happened to me with EG and even more so with the Loki series).

With that said, to claim that we're hard to please now as if the MCU had been perfect pre-EG is just plain wrong. There are movies that were done with no respect for previous canon or characterization (Ragnarok), movies that ruined the framing, sidelined the title character and had a horrible underlying message regarding rights and liberties (CW), a movie that ruins every single character it touches (EG)... and that's just to name a few.

The main difference between that and what we have now I'd say is that the MCU had a clear path during the Infinity Saga and, while not perfect by any means, it knew the story it wanted to tell and every movie led us straight to it... but nowadays it's all over the place. It doesn't feel connected anymore because we have so many movies, series, specials + we have writers who don't watch previous canon + the inconsistencies are off the charts.

I do agree that Secret Invasion's one-on-one conversations were pretty amazing, I love that it was dialogue-heavy and I genuinely enjoyed all the eps.. until the finale came. But I don't see what's wrong with genuine criticism.

Now, that comment that it's hard to engage with MCU fans nowadays (because we're all too critical now)... my, my. Marvel is still insanely popular and they have a huge fanbase and so many fans out there speak positively of every single thing they release... this claim that it's hard to engage with positive fans is insane to me 😂

Every critical fan who dares to voice their opinion against Marvel is met with accusations of some kind of bigotry, called a hater, or we're basically insulted all the way out of certain sites for daring to criticize a movie/show. If anything this sounds to me like OP believes what Marvel has been doing lately, playing the victim and complaining that "everyone" is criticizing them nowadays. And even though I have no evidence, I feel if we were to compare the positive vs negative opinions, the former would win by a landslide. They're still huge... they just want to play the victim card to avoid criticism.

[laf-outloud]

I know it's debatable, but I'd really rather Jared not be on The Boys. It's already not my show anyway, but any time I see Seth Rogen (ex: Critics Choice Awards), it just makes me realize Kripke isn't "our" Kripke any more // Rogen slashing at the CW and cutting people with mean humor. TB going over the top with gratuitous gore // Some people may like it, and I'm glad for them, IG. But it's really not my thing, they're really not my producers any more. I'm in my Soft TV Era, wanting family feels

I don't know that there's anything to debate. Jared fans have never wanted Jared on The Boys and Jared's branding doesn't fit with that show. It's highly unlikely he'll ever be on it.

As for Kripke, I'm pretty sure he's the same as he's always been, he's just no longer tied to broadcast network standards. And Seth Rogan has openly criticized the wildly successful MCU, so I wouldn't take anything he says seriously.

I think a lot of people prefer the relaxed, family-friendly drama. The grittier series may win awards, but it's the broadcast network shows that appeal to the most people, and therefore get the most advertising dollars. And if you're looking for more family feels... I came across this article from December about USA looking to bring back the "Blue Sky" feel to their scripted shows! Here's hoping they succeed because there was a time when I was watching USA practically every night. I'd love to have more shows like those on air.

[destinyc1020]

sorry destiny, i am huge tom fan believe me, but i agree with what the anon said, i understand that u can like a movie that others dont thats not what i am saying but out of the MCU and throw in uncharted, tom's acting skills aside because we both hes fantastic, his projects have been misses, in terms of overall quality, reviews & numbers, TDATT, CW, Cherry, TCR. yes u may have liked some of them but numbers were bad, in a sense they flopped. most of these projects he chose when he was still pretty young and green and the only project he chose post covid was i think TCR and it was amazing but people weren't patient and it was slow at first. and i think since then he has grown a lot more and u can tell, its obvious the way he views things and the way hes picking his projects are diff now so hopefully things go well for him in the future in terms of success outside popcorn movies.

I mean, we can all have different viewpoints on films or actors, and that's fine! 🤷🏾‍♀️ I don't think anyone doubts that Tom is talented.

I understand some fans haven't enjoyed his projects in the past several years. I know for me personally, I've enjoyed 90% of Tom's films....whether they were successes at the box office or NOT. Most of his work I didn't even see in theaters. I saw at home.

The only films of Tom that I've actually seen in theaters are The MCU films (of course), The Current War, The Impossible (before I even knew who Tom Holland was lol), Uncharted (of course lol), and Spies in Disguise! Everything else of his, I've seen at home.

RE: TCR....

I actually enjoyed TCR, but if I had one critique, I would say that Akiva took a little TOO long to get to the point and kind of treated us as viewers like we were too dumb to get the "twist". Most of us knew or got the twist w/in the first episode lol. He really could have spent more time focusing on other things imo. Don't get me wrong, I actually think Akiva had a very ingenious, sympathetic, and creative way of showing what's actually going on when someone suffers from DID (and why they may end up having it), and it was done in a way I'd personally never seen done onscreen before. But I just feel like he should have given us as the audience a little more credit. We could have known from the very beginning that he suffered from DID, but maybe not know who exactly his alters actually were. There were many things that could have been done differently. And I think some of the critics purposely gave TCR LOW reviews to spite Akiva, because apparently he didn't even want DID or "multiple personalities" to be written in any of the early reviews coming out for the series, in order to preserve the "twist". But umm.... Everyone saw it coming a mile away bro lol 😅

So...I really think his tactic of trying to keep the audience in the dark felt a bit laborious after a while, and it's like, "WE GET IT man... we've already figured it out!" We didn't need several episodes prolonging things. But hey, I still enjoyed TCR Summer last year lol, and it was very enjoyable to watch Tom in a series (for a change) every single week! 😊

[gwensy]

i have a running theory that half the mcu fandom can't stomach daredevil media as soon as he isn't sexy or edgy because so many of them will immediately jump on zdarsky daredevil and say it's a masterpiece and the best run when that could not be further from the truth

hello... you may notice you are strapped to a chair infront of a computer screen.... you must either saw off your arms or read two hours worth of mcu influenced daredevil fanon

[radroller]

Keep your valid and insightful criticisms of MCU shows and CW DCU stuff, i’ll be over here inanely pointing out that they’ll never have what M.A.N.T.I.S. has. And being 100% correct.

[samlamwambam]

Critical Race Theory in the CW Series: Arrow

Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SK4r5rn2i3Dz-4ymnkxqZKCOHO811h-41PcMA-WOxqA/edit?usp=sharing

Arrow (2012-2020) is a CW superhero show surrounding Oliver Queen, a millionaire playboy who gets stranded for 5 years on an island called Lian Yu after a Yacht trip with his father goes wrong. Upon getting rescued by a Chinese fishing boat, Oliver returns home with an agenda. He vows to protect his city as a vigilante, whom the police captain of the series later names “Green Arrow.” 

My video essay discusses Critical Race Theory in relation to Arrow. Television, while fictional, is ultimately a reflection of societal values and the show runner’s world view. Critical Race Theory is the concept that the biased perception of race in society impacts the representation accepted in media, which leads to unintentionally distorted depictions of characters of color. 

In chapter 5 of Ella Shohat and Robert Stam’s book, Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the Media, Shohat and Stam discuss the diffulcty for the media to properly represent people of color due to their obsession with “realism” in a eurocentric society. This theory is especially reflected in the character Diggle, the only person of color for a while in the eight years that Arrow runs for. Diggle, played by David Ramsey, is introduced in the very first episode as Oliver’s bodyguard, a respected but nevertheless inferior position to our protagonist. In Shohat and Stam’s section “The Racial Politics of Casting,” they point out the recurring theme that “Europans and Euro-Americans have played the dominant role, relegating non-Europans to supporting roles and the status of extras.  By episode 3, Diggle displays his abilities, fighting off an assassin from Oliver and his “friend,” Laurel. Throughout this exchange, Diggle gets caught in a headlock, forcing Oliver to come to the rescue and skillfully strike a knife into the hand of the assassin to give Diggle a leg up. Thus, Diggle is placed inferior to Oliver in both employment and physical skill. While some may find this sidekick role is crucial to the superhero narrative, it is also reflective of the level of representation accepted in the media. When looking at other pieces of media, it becomes evident that this relationship of white protagonist and black sidekick is a pattern. Examples of this trope can be found between Captain America and Falcon, and Iron Man and War Machine. Arguably, in both these situations, in the MCU, both Falcon and War Machine are no longer sidekicks - this also eventually becomes true for Diggle, which I’ll discuss later in this post. However, it took years for this to happen and these are only recent developments to their character. 

Arrow further displays Eurocentric practices in its depiction of foreigners and foreign countries. “Inscribed within the play of power, language becomes caught up in the cultural hierarchies typical of Eurocentrism. English, especially, has often served as the linguistic vehicle for the projection of Anglo American power, technology, and finance” (Shohat 191). In Arrow, whenever a foreigner shows up, Oliver never has difficulty communicating with them because they all speak English. Even when Oliver is known to be fluent in another language such as Russian or Mandarin, both Oliver and the character(s) he is addressing opts for English. Examples of this can be seen in episode 3, where Oliver immediately assumes that Yao Fei, the skilled Chinese hunter also stranded on Lian Yu, speaks English. Despite Yao Fei answering in mandarin, his immediate understanding of Oliver’s English reflects a Eurocentric  presence in the show. 

In season 3, the show revolves around Nanda Parbat, a made up land that serves as the headquarters for the League of Assasins, who’s native language is Arabic. The show designs the headquarters with influences of South Asian and Hinduist architecture styels. Nevertheless, the immortal leader of the League of Assasins, Ra’s Al Ghul consistently chooses to speak English, even in private conversation with his daughters Nyssa and Talia Al Ghul. Some may argue that as an immortal being, it makes sense for Ra’s to be fluent in multiple languages such as English. However, Eurocentrism is also present in the wedding scene between Nyssa and Oliver, where the marriage officiant conducted the entire ceremony in English. 

Delving deeper into the relationship between language and power in media, Shohat and Stam point out that ““People do not enter simply into language as a master code; they participate in it as socially constituted subjects whose linguistic exchange is shaped by power relations” (193). The correlation between language and power is prevelant in season 1 episode 3. In this episode, Oliver must prove himself to be Bratva, a Russian mob group of this universe, in order to gain the respect of two mechanics representing the Bratva. Oliver asserts his credibility, Oliver begins the conversation in fluent Russian. Upon confirming Oliver’s position as Captain in the Bratva, the two mechanics adapt their speech to suit Oliver’s most comfortable form of communication by speaking in English. This switch in language indicates the switch in power that Shohat and Stam were referencing in their book, as when Oliver wanted something, he appealed to the mechanic’s first language and vice versa. 

Arrow, while conforming to Critical Race Theory in many questionable ways, ultimately readjusts its treatment of POC characters by the end of the series. This is done most noteably through the addition of the new Team Arrow, which consists of all POC heroes who, unlike the dynamic between Oliver, Felicity, and Diggle, see each other as equals and dismantle the hierarchy among teammates. This adjustment is still a reflection of Critical Race Theory as the show is aligning itself with society’s push for equal and proper representation of marginalized groups in 2016. 2016 was the year Trump was elected President, exposing a deep divide in America in regards to race, ethnicity, and culture. “The sensitivity around stereotypes and distortions largely arises, then, from the powerlessness of historically marginalized groups to control their own representation” (Shohat 184). Reflecting upon this point, the changing demographics of the Arrow cast in 2016 is reflective of the social scene during this time.  

Lastly, as mentioned before, Diggle becomes much more than Oliver’s sidekick by the end of this series. Diggle’s character is most reflective of Critical Race Theory as he goes from being Oliver’s bodyguard to his best friend to his sidekick to his replacement when Oliver goes missing. Each of these identities however, while he becomes a more important and well loved character, is dependent on Oliver’s relationship to him. Furthermore, in Robert Stam and Louise Spence’s work titled “Colonialism, Racism and Representation: An Introduction,” they point out that “We should be equally suspicious of a naive integrationism which simply inserts new heroes and heroines, this time drawn from the ranks of the oppressed, into the old functional roles that were themselves oppressive” (757). Thus, by having Diggle become the Arrow in place of Oliver, Arrow supports the biased fantasy of a black man slipping into the role of a white vigilante without consequence. Nevertheless, by the end of the series, Diggle begins to form his own identity outside of what it is in relation to Oliver. Diggle begins to prioritize his wife and children, and by the last episode, he makes the decision himself to turn down the opportunity to become Green Lantern. This decision is momentous because in the earlier seasons, Diggle wanted more than anything to be a hero and measure up to Oliver’s legacy. By allowing Diggle to choose his own narrative that swerves from audience expectations, Arrow reflects the shift in racial bias and the progress within the television industry, as showrunners are now taking initative to minimize the othering of POC characters. After all, “a film inevitably mirrors its own processes of production as well as larger social processes” (Shohat 187). 

Braudy, Leo, and Marshall Cohen. Film theory and criticism: Introductory readings. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.

Shohat, Ella, and Robert Stam. Unthinking Eurocentrism: Multiculturalism and the media. London: Routledge, 1994.

@theuncannyprofessoro