#mcu thoughts

[legalandnotease]

My main issue with that scene is Sam directly says Bucky took the serum willingly. This is part of a pattern of making retcons to his character which began in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (which said he was serving HYDRA willingly too).

Now at this point certain fans are going to jump in an accuse me of "nitpicking" but the point here isn't pedantic. Until a couple of years ago, the lore regarding the Super-Soldier serum was pretty clear.

Everyone who took it willingly was corrupted. Schmidt aka Redskull, the other 5 Winter Soldiers in Civil War, and Emil Blonsky who took a knockoff version in Incredible Hulk which transformed him into a monster called Abomination.

The only exception was Steve Rogers. Why? Dr Erskine said it ".. the strong man who has known power all his life, may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion"

Steve was chosen for the serum because Dr Erskine realized he of those rare people who isn't corrupted by power because he didn't want that power for selfish ends. Bucky saw it too: hence his famous quote about the skinny kid from Brooklyn. He is a deliberate contrast with someone like Tony Stark who thought Steve was nothing without his serum and "everything good about you came out of a bottle".

Bucky also wasn't corrupted by the serum because he didn't take it willingly. He had it put into him against his will when he was being experimented on by Zola. This *used to be* a major part of his character arc. He was the guy who didn't seek power, didn't want enhancements etc. Was just an ordinary dude given powers he didn't want so they crould be exploited by others for nefarious ends.

The changes made to the lore after 2021 though made it so people could take the serum willingly without being corrupted. Sam was tempted to take the serum because he wanted to be stronger and wanted power to save people. These aren't bad things but nevertheless in canon before 2021 this would almost certainly have resulted in him being courrupted by it.

However now the serum is just a thing that makes people able to punch through concrete. There are no moral implications involved. It doesn't amplify what is inside. You don't have to be of good character. Which also means a person won't run the risk of having thier bad character evident for all to see when the serum takes effect (most notable instance being Redskull). I almost think we've lost something by the dilution of the lore surrounding the super-soldier serum.

Of course I've been thinking about the "I love you, buddy" and "thank you, Buck" moments but honestly one of my favourite parts of that scene is Bucky helping Sam work through his feelings about being Captain America and taking the serum.

First of all, "say what you need to say" is such a beautiful line because it's simply Bucky encouraging Sam to be honest and open about how he's feeling. Sam has helped Bucky out a lot with his mental health and it's great to see Bucky reciprocating that. They're both there for each other and help the other confront their feelings in a way that allows them to process things rather than let them eat them up inside. It's Bucky's way of saying to Sam that there is no judgement for what he is feeling.

And then they talk through Sam's feelings about the serum and how it isn't the thing that defines Cap. Sam is such a great Captain America because he's just fucking awesome. Steve was a great Cap because he embodied all of the right principles (the serum just changed the fact that he was built like a twig), while John Walker, who was physically capable, lacked the personal qualities. Sam is like Steve in the fact that he has all the characteristics to be an amazing Captain America, but he feels that he isn't good enough because he can't save people from being hurt. I think what Bucky says afterwards is really important because he's right. Taking the serum will never change the fact that people will get hurt. Steve had it and he was still unable to save everyone because, at the end of the day, that was never going to be feasible. Sam is great for the role because he's simply himself, not because he's some super-serumed version of him.

[It also makes me think of how Bucky says he isn't following Captain America, he's following the skinny kid from Brooklyn that he knew. Bucky isn't friends with Sam because he's Captain America, he's friends with him because he's Sam.]

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Deadpool and Wolverine might actually be the best love letter to Marvel that I’ve seen.

On a meta level, the movie feels like it was written in response to people dismissing the Marvel properties that aren’t the MCU. The MCU is the “Sacred Timeline” while everyone else gets thrown into the trash aka the Void. Wade even tried to become an Avenger because he feels that his life doesn’t matter. Then, Wade gets a chance to join the MCU. Of course, he’s thrilled, but is then told that the rest of his universe is getting destroyed since they lost its “anchor” (aka it lost its relevance). So, Wade decides to fight for his universe.

On a surface level, you can read this movie as a criticism of the MCU in that it’s treating the only stories worth a damn as the ones coming from that universe. But I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, first off, this was made by Marvel Studios. Feige and Co had to sign off on this and a great deal of the plot stems from the Loki show. Second, the movie felt more like it was trying to say that ALL Marvel stories matter. It’s not really criticizing the MCU, it’s criticizing how audiences view the Marvel movies/shows that aren’t the MCU. The “why should I care about this movie if it doesn’t lead to the next Avengers movie” attitude.

That’s why I say this was the best love letter to Marvel I’ve seen. It’s a celebration of the company’s works, both MCU and non-MCU. You can see that from the Easter eggs, the cameos, the nods to the fandom, and the emphasis on forgotten characters getting a chance at redemption. Even the jabs at the company and fanbase feel like they come from a place of love.

But what really sold me on this movie being a love letter to Marvel was the ending. Instead of a tease to a potential De4dpool movie, it was a montage of the development of the Fox Marvel movies (I can’t say X-Men since clips of the Fantastic Four were there). On one side, it’s a touching send-off to the Fox X-Men franchise. On the other side, it felt like a reminder of why people love Marvel to begin with. It’s these people - actors, writers, directors, producers - coming together to make these entertaining stories for us, to bring the comics to life on the big screen. It’s like Ryan Reynolds was telling us to take a step back from all the conspiracy theorizing, nitpicking, and fanbase drama for a couple of hours, that we should just enjoy this Marvel movie as it is.

And it worked. It was genuinely just a fun, awesome movie to watch. If we’re using the MCU-as-a-TV-show-analogy that people love using, Deadpool and Wolverine is the 100th episode that is made dedicated to the fans and celebrating the show as a whole. It’s a fanservice movie done right, one that goes beyond just references and cameos.

[a-spes]

So.. guess who is back with more thoughts about Wanda's really nice hands, and long nails?

Me.

I am the one who can't think about anything else but those perfect hands 🙆

You have many bad habits. You would bite your nails — or your lips, depending on your current mood — and skip meals sometimes. The woman hates that, but there is one bad habit of yours that she doesn't want to fix because she finds it absolutely endearing, and it is the way you are always avoiding her gaze.

She had quickly noticed that you were unable to hold eye contact with her for more than a few seconds, crumbling under a simple glance. She loves to slowly drag her index all the way up your neck until it finds a place under your chin. She loves to apply a slight pressure here, forcing you to tilt your head back until you have no choice but look at her, directly in the eyes. She loves the embarrassment she can read on your face.

—

Sometimes, you forget to think, and words you regret eventually fall past your pretty lips. Words that you do not mean, but would still get you in trouble with the woman — “Shut it, before you say something I'll make you regret,” she reprimands, and you can feel her nails slowly digging into your cheeks.

She is right. You don't want to suffer the consequences of your own actions, you were just craving for some of her attention. She has been so busy with her job lately that you've been feeling left out. Eventually, her thumb would find its way in your mouth, and you would just accept it.

“Isn't it what you wanted, honey? My whole attention? No, don't get shy now that you have it, and use your words to tell mommy what you want,” she teases, and suddenly you find yourself unable to speak — god, there is nothing she likes more than seeing how fast she can make you shut the fuck up and how quick she can turn you into her perfect, and obedient, little girl. One that would do anything she asks without thinking twice about it.

—

She does it on purpose, and you know it. The woman keeps pretending that she left these marks by accident, but you can see in her smile that she meant every one of them.

She loves them.

She loves to see those red crescents that decorate your skin. They are the reminder of who you are belonging to. They are the memory of the nights you've shared, and her not so gentle touches. Most of those are left when you try to squirm out of her grasp, when she has to dig her nails into your hips in order to keep you still while she ruins her precious baby.

—

That is something she loves to do, grabbing you by the hips whenever she is given the chance to. It is not her fault that you are looking so adorable that it gives her the urge to have her hands on your body, and to slowly draw pattern on your skin.

Most of the time, the woman would just sneak up behind you when you are busy, and you would have no idea that she was coming before you could feel her nails slightly digging into your skin and her soft breath brushing your neck.

[leodrraws]

And let me tell you one thing, people of tumblr: Steve Rogers was a total jerk with that letter. No, he did a good thing for apologising (sort of) and explaining himself, but the fact that he just sent Tony a letter? And a phone?? Which basically translates as, here, the next move is yours, I’m not gonna deal with the mess I left behind, but “I’ll always be here” if you need me. As if he didn’t understand that Tony would likely never call. As if it wasn’t the most hypocritical way to apologise — keeping his distance, wallowing in guilt, saying ‘just give me a call!’ like it was about some argument over what show to watch, not what happened in Siberia.

And yeah, it’s good Steve apologised in general, but the way he did it? Not so much. Passing the responsibility for their relationship onto Tony (here’s the phone for YOU, call me if YOU need), subtly implying that he, Steve, probably won’t need Tony, but he’ll be gracious enough to be there if Tony feels like reaching out. Well, fuck you, Steve, and your hypocritical, self-righteous nobility. If you really wanted to fix things between you two, you’d go to Tony and talk face to face like adults do — not send a fucking note admitting you screwed up, hoping it somehow will take all the guilt off of you and fix things. Like it doesn’t just leave Tony to deal with the fact that Steve acknowledges what happened but has no interest in doing anything about it.

(for the record: I’m speaking from a place of emotion here, because objectively, I love Steve’s hypocrisy. It makes him such a compelling, layered character by highlighting his struggle to handle personal conflicts (as opposed to physical battles), and I absolutely love how CW pushes him into that moral grey area)

P.S. come and like my drawing that sparked all these thoughts

[meraki-yao]

Meraki tells her mom about CATFA

So... I'm trying to get my mom to watch CATWS with me lol

She doesn't do sci-fi, never watched a single superhero movie in her life, and her only exposure to any superhero was in 2017 when we went to the marvel event in HK Disneyland for my 13th birthday so I started there.

I talked to her about how much I admire (pre-Endgame) Steve and why I was so excited when we met him at Disneyland. She remembers that meeting and I started there:

Mom: Hang on when Captain America was talking to you two he said you two were like him and Bucky? Who is this, Bucky? Me and Sis:Uh..... Mom: his older brother? Me and Sis:kinda? Not quite? Mom: his stepbrother? Me and Sis:No... Mom: Oh his adopted brother! Me and Sis:No that's Loki not Bucky

I proceeded to spend the weekly family walk plus dinner time to tell my mom the plot of catfa. In Chinese. From memory. Omitting the tesseract stuff because she does not understand magic.

And it was a lot of fun! Genuinely, it reminded her of swapping stories with her friends because everyone was poor and could only afford one book once in a blue moon. She's willing to make it a family/weekly thing, I'm gonna see if I can fill her in for Phase One. Then maybe star wars.

I played her the clip of Bucky falling from the train though because I couldn't find the right words to describe the emotional height of the scene. And this is the first ever time she's seen anything MCU, and when Bucky fell, she gasped with widened eyes. She then said that it must be agonising for Steve to watch his best friend, someone he loved die right in front of her eyes, that is traumatic.

She then realised I kept saying "Bucky fell" instead of "Bucky died" and that my sister and I, who knows what happened after kept supressing smiles and asked what was up with that. I refuted and said "he fell from the alps, how is he not going to die?"

After we were done with the story and the few clips that I wanted to show her, she asked me again if Steve avenged Bucky at the end of the movie. I've been referring to Hydra as Nazis to make it simple for her, so I said "I mean look at history" (the truth is not yet because of the catws stuff but I didn't want to lie or spoil it for her)

She also asked me if Bucky ever comes back. I gave a vague answer and said that's why I wanted to watch CATWS with her. I asked her why ask, and she said "I want to hold onto hope" :')

So yeah this was fun!!!

[indominusavenger]

Not gonna lie, it feels very weird knowing that there's gonna be a new Avengers with RDJ in it but not as Iron Man. That straight up feels wrong. It feels like an arrow to the stomach.

[dream-beyond-the-fantasy]

Watching Captain America: Civil War. I still hate how The Falcon and the Winter Soldier dealt with Sharon Carter. Making her a villain? Really? And don't get me started on Avengers: Endgame and that Steggy history-warping mess.

[traveller-of-the-knight]

I AM MAAAAD AT ELIAS SPECTOR OK?!

So I rewatched episode 5 because I loke pain and I just realised-

At the Shiva.

He hadn't seen his son for more that a decade!

And he finally saw him crying in the middle of the street alone, after his mother's death and he just let him leave?!

Like- No, nonononono you don't do that! You don't fucking do that! That is your son! Your son you haven't seen in ages and you are just letting him go???? You are not running to hug him?! DUDE!!! I'm so going to mention this in my fanfics

[xx-stark-xx]

The lack of scenes between Tony and Rhodey in Endgame is criminal, and I do still think that all these years later.

Literally, Peter freshly back from the “dead” interacts with Tony more during the final battle and leading up to Tony’s death than Rhodey does the entire movie. How? Why?

[reallyunluckyrunaway]

Epic Rap Battles Of History, wants to know your location...

[attoye]

Congratulations to the AO3 Attoye Tag…

300+ fanfics!

Attuma x Okoye Nation!

[shackleton2]

AU IDEA

Steve and Bucky get Snapped, so Sam becomes Captain America, otherwise canon, time heist involves encounters with racism and younger Steve and Bucky who are heartbreaking in some types of ways (i.e each tells Sam "keep him safe don't tell him i'm in love with him" or Sam just sees how they are and is like dang you guys are in love or maybe they're just like hey Sam here's our secret we're lovers you get the theme-but don't forget loss, and sickness, and war, and how different they are from the men they became and then evaporated as!). Other stuff is different too, you tell me.

I just got this idea because I thought about how it would be cool to see a scenario where Sam was Steve's superior, & maybe older, I'm sure the comics do it but this is my mcu fanfic idea version of it (after they return--maybe after longer than 5 years? idk)

~runs away~

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Okay, I just had a thought. What if “Deadpool & Wolverine” is the start of this arc that’s going to address the state of the non-MCU Marvel properties? From how I’m seeing things, it looks like the universes of the non-MCU Marvel properties are breaking down for some reason (maybe related to the incursion in Multiverse of Madness) and the TVA are scrambling to save them.

So, what’s the plan? Take the remnants of the destroyed universes and “merge” them into a stable universe. On a meta level, it’s taking the non-MCU Marvel properties and merging them into the MCU. That’s how the mutants end up getting introduced into the MCU, as well as other concepts like Inhumans, Ghost Rider, and so on.

From a creative perspective, this allows Marvel Studios to bring in characters and concepts from these non-MCU properties without needing to address the previous storylines. You like James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender as Charles and Erik? Well, we can bring them back now without having to address the bullshit that was the late stages of the Fox X-Men universe. That’s basically what’s happening with this version of Wolverine; it seems like this Logan is separate from all the other Logans we’ve seen, which I think is a good move since it allows Hugh Jackman to come back and audiences don’t have to question his existence.

[a-spes]

It is a random thought but, please, tell me that I am not the only one thinking that Wanda would give the absolute best head scratches in the world?

—

Imagine, you are coming home after a particularly hard, and exhausting, day at work. When you get home, the first thing you notice is that Wanda came back before you, something that rarely happens.

From then, the only thing you can think about is how bad you want to be close to her, how much you need her. You precipitately get rid of your shoes, not even taking the time to put your bag away, just dropping it in the entrance.

A second later, you are letting yourself plop on the sofa, where she is sitting, your head finding her lap to be the perfect place to rest. Immediately, you can feel one of her hands — the one that is not holding her cup — coming down to your scalp, and her fingers gently scratching it.

She is not paying much attention to you, her gaze is fixated on the sitcom that is playing on the TV, but you are fine with that, finding comfort in the silence.

“my baby had a rough day, uh?” she would eventually ask, but not before the end of the episode she was watching. By the time, you would already be half asleep.

—

I mean, look. at. those. hands.

I already know that some of your dirty minds are thinking about sometimes else, but let those thoughts aside for a moment to think about the head scratches, just the head scratches.

[icalledhimpietro]

Daniel RPK on twitter has made incorrect predictions about Marvel projects in the past and just because he says there is a Scarlet Witch film in the works, it in no way indicates that it's true.

Please stop using Twitter accounts and Screenrant style articles as sources for Marvel news unless it is an account attached to Marvel itself or someone who currently works on the films at Marvel or there is a direct quote from said Marvel or people working on the projects. The Marvel News accounts and articles are unreliable and there is a good chunk of them that will just make up Marvel News and other similar accounts and articles will copy them to try and stay in the know.

Friends, I implore you to not get your hopes up based on what these accounts and articles say. Please take everything you hear in the rumor mill very lightly. I have been in this community a long time and have learned to only trust news that comes from the source (Marvel or people currently working on Marvel projects). I've been burned by these accounts that claim to have the inside scoop of what's going on in Marvel, they don't. Many of them make lightly educated guesses or total shots in the dark with no base at all to them.

Please take every piece of news lightly. I know it hurts when things don't go how we, as fans, expect. Don't let them heighten your expectations based on something that they posted while trying to get likes, views, and follows.

Be smart. Do research. Question everything.

[meraki-yao]

Soooo

Finally watched thunderbolts with my sister

And this is on par with CATWS for me, they are now tied for my favourite marvel movie

We cried. A lot. Which is normal for me but very rare for my sister. We were gripping each other's hands the whole time. We hugged each other and sobbed during Yelena and Alexei's moment because holy shit that hit hard. Way too hard.

I wish my parents could see it and get it. That would never happen. I have my "thunderbolts" but part of them is you guys, part of them is theatre which my mom is banning me from (I'm trying to work around it). I don't want to be left alone. I know the feeling so well. I don't want to feel it but I am.

I also cried when Bucky came in with the motorcycle because after listening to the horrifying masterpiece that was CATWS soundtrack where his theme was mechanic murder and screams of terror, my man finally gets a hero theme. But neither me nor my sister could keep a straight face during any of the congressman stuff.

Wanted to punch Valentina throughout the whole movie. I have many thoughts on the bitch, including not wanting to play God being a really big part of the reason I quit STEM. Also compulsory original Avengers nostalgia which also made me mad when she drank where Tony Stark once drank. I'm also following the amazing fic that is "twelve step" by boopboop on AO3, so the line "them living in the building built by the man whose parents he killed, in the suite that once belonged to his husband." Was running through my head. It's a fucking amazing fic by an insanely talented writer.

Also what's the difference between my girl Wanda's magic vision thing and the void? Also whatever superpower the void has, about re-living your trauma, that's the super power I wanted since I was 12. I was and am still sure that this is the most effective method of dealing with bad guys lol.

Me and my sister needed this movie. We just... Kinda wish we were them. We wish we had the solution that they did, but right now we're just... Kinda in the middle of misery.

I'm not optimistic enough to say the MCU is back, but I've definitely regained my interest in the universe. Still have reservations about the very premise and casting of Doomsday and looking back I have plenty of opinions on the infinity saga, but I'll be keeping an eye out. Really hope they keep up this quality of story telling.

Also love the revolution suit on Bucky.