#or you adapt world war hulkS

[jademight]

A Planet Hulk movie really isn’t as hard to pull off as you think

MCU never does straight adaptions anyway

Have Brulk return to a Sakaar now ruled by a tyrant called the Red King in Grandmaster’s absence, Caeira (a gladiator Hulk knew pre-Ragnarok) is running a rebellion with a kid that looks suspiciously Hulkish 

yadda yadda yadda Hulk liberates them and becomes the Worldbreaker, ten gammillion bucks at the box office 

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I just realized something... Is DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE the first R-rated Disney film to be released as... A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures movie?

And NOT as a... 20th Century Studios, Searchlight, Touchstone, or Hollywood release?

Marvel Studios movies never open with a Disney Pictures logo, nor does such a logo appear in trailers/promo materials for those movies. The only mention of Disney as the movie's distributor, ever, is in the credits. Particularly the title card saying "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures". You know, when the movies aren't making references to Disney movies/theme parks. (i.e. "I'm Mary Poppins, y'all!")

THE AVENGERS and IRON MAN 3 were the first Disney-distributed Marvel movies, both of which opened with Paramount and Marvel Studios logos per a contractual agreement. Paramount had been distributing the MCU movies - sans 2008's THE INCREDIBLE HULK - up until the switchover. Disney bought Marvel in 2009, and distribution was out of Paramount's hands shortly thereafter, but for whatever reason, they retained their logo on those two films specifically. I guess this was because AVENGERS and IRON MAN 3 were already in development before the Disney buyout, IRON MAN 2 was already being filmed with a third one expected. THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER had yet to be released. They both debuted in mid-2011, and sequels weren't announced until after they came out. A second THOR and a second CAPTAIN AMERICA movie were Disney greenlights. Starting with THOR's sequel - THOR: THE DARK WORLD - in fall 2013, the movies would open with the Marvel Studios logo only.

That'll likely be the case with DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, though I wouldn't put it past the movie to - in an irreverent sense - have a Disney castle logo at the beginning. Deadpool narrating "Yeah, this is Disney and it's rated R! Buckle up, kids!" They already made similar jokes in that recently-released trailer.

It's really weird to think that Disney can't do R-rated "Disney" movies.

Other studios/companies don't have that problem. Universal, Warner Bros., Paramount, etc. It's all part of the collection for them. With Universal, the Minions can co-exist with Michael Myers. In Paramount-land, Dora the Explorer can share the space with Ghostface. For Disney, it was always through alternate names like Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures, or through whole-ass studios like 20th Century Studios, Searchlight, and Miramax.

Nowadays, Hulu is essentially merged with Disney+, and Disney+ houses plenty of R-rated things. That is, of course, if you are using an adult profile. But even in the theme parks, like for example - The Great Movie Ride, that had a whole section devoted to ALIEN. And that was before Disney bought 20th Century Studios and the ALIEN franchise. And Disney films have referenced R-rated things, before. It's kinda weird, really... Disney... A person's SURNAME, associated with strictly family-friendly stuff.

After Disney created the Touchstone Pictures banner in 1984, it seemed unlikely that they would ever do a PG-13 movie. They stuck with G and PG, and some of those PG movies had a special Walt Disney Pictures logo at the start of them, too. A black background with blue serif text... No castle. But then lo and behold, in 2003, they released PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL... Since then, not counting Marvel and Star Wars movies, they've released 14 more - many of which being PIRATES sequels or theme park adaptations - in addition to a filmed HAMILTON performance on Disney+.

So... It kinda begs the question... Could Disney possibly just go all-in for the first time... and release an R-rated movie?

The MPAA rating system was created in 1968. Disney in 1968 were already concerned with being family-friendly. Proudly so. That shift began to take place back when Disneyland was opening in the mid-1950s, when Walt Disney was transforming the enterprise's image. What was once the trailblazing, sometimes edgy studio was now a family entertainment company. A show on TV every Sunday, a theme park for kids of all ages, and movies that played to mothers. (To Walt's estimation: Mothers took their families to movies, and also told their friends, and their friends told their friends-) It was to the point where Walt himself was frustrated. When he had seen TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, he stated he wished he could've overseen a movie like that...

So, Disney stayed in the family-friendly corner after Walt's passing in 1966 and after the creation of the rating system two years later. The 1970s was a period of auteur-driven films, challenging pictures that upended the status quo, brought heavy topics and themes to the table, shocked audiences even... Disney was mostly making movies like THE BAREFOOT EXECUTIVE and GUS. All G-rated affairs, and following tried and true formulas. Interestingly, when preparing the 1950 classic TREASURE ISLAND for re-release in 1975, Disney weren't too pleased when the picture received a PG rating for its violence... So, they recut it to get a G rating. That's how it ran in 1975 in theaters, and interestingly that was the only version that was available on video until 1992.

It took Disney over a decade to make a PG movie of their own (THE BLACK HOLE in 1979, not counting their distribution of the independent movie TAKE DOWN earlier that year), back when the rating actually meant what it meant. After being launched in 1984, Touchstone was largely meant for PG-13 and R-rated affairs, with the occasional PG movie here and there. For every SPLASH and DICK TRACY, there was a BLACK CAULDRON or HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS. So it was kinda on-and-off there, it depended on the content and tone of the movies, I suppose.

Then it took Disney 19 years to make a PG-13 "Disney movie"...

I guess for an R-rated "Disney movie" to work... Tweak the Disney logo so that it doesn't appear all family-friendly in that distinctive font? Don't have the logo appear anywhere on promo materials? Come up with a Touchstone-esque name for Disney movies that get the R-rating? What the hell would you call that anyways, haha. Can it even be feasibly done without unsuspecting parents taking their kids to see it?

If it ever happens, it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

[randomtvpollsjp]

There are a lot of people who say that the problem with modern media—specifically tentpole franchises like the MCU and “Star Wars”—is that there’s too much “pandering” to “wokeism” as opposed to “just telling good stories.”

And I want you to walk with me as I tell you about how “Wokeism” has always been a part of these franchises and that the stories are STILL GOOD actually. But how YOU’RE engaging with these stories is the problem.

Comics have literally always been woke. Superman was created by Jewish men with a specific goal in mind—he represented Jews. He was a response to the rise in Nazism.

The X-Men are, well, we know who they are—they represent persecuted minorities, be they race or sexual/gender minorities.

Star Wars was heavily influenced by the Vietnam War—and was on the side of the Vietnamese!

And don’t get me started on “Star Trek”. Cuz in that universe, people don’t even use money anymore. It’s a socialist utopia.

“Wokeism” has been baked into all these stories from the jump. It’s just that when we were children, we didn’t have the worldview that we do now (as adults) to see what it was.

A lot of people say that these “woke” writers are “reimagining great comic characters” and making them worse. Yet, the Tony Stark everybody loves in the MCU? Not comics accurate. The Superman Snyder made? Not comics accurate.

It’s ok to not like versions of characters that people choose to make. That’s why they’re adaptations. They’re not meant to be analogous. I accept Snyder’s version even though that was not Siegel and Shuster’s original vision. It’s Snyder’s take. And I engage with that as its own piece of media.

Has this era of these franchises been more inclusive? 100%. And will that appeal to everyone? Absolutely not. But there’s a reason for that.

I believe the problem is that, due to the interconnectedness of the MCU/Star Wars etc., fans feel forced to watch programs that don’t appeal to THEM. And then blame the show for that. When, perhaps, you were not the target audience.

“She-Hulk” was not made for everybody. It was made for people who would like to follow a female character with special abilities who just kind of wants to be normal and deal with everyday, normal stuff. But can’t. Because she’s a Hulk. But also a woman in the modern world. I found it funny and charming because it appealed to ME. And I often watch shows about women dealing with their careers and love lives.

It’s “Ally McBeal” if she got Hulk powers. And if you were unlikely to watch “Ally McBeal” why do you think you would like “She-Hulk”?

“Andor” is in many ways a good show. But I did not like it because I did not find it entertaining. I understood every political message it had. And share the politics of the show. I just didn’t find it to be a show that I enjoyed. So I didn’t watch it past the first couple episodes.

The problem is FOMO—fear of missing out. Not diversity. Not inclusion. But fans don’t realize that it’s ok to not consume everything from a franchise. That doesn’t make it bad. It just makes it not FOR YOU.

And saying that the work is bad because of “Wokeism” and “bad storytelling” (which is subjective), sounds like a YOU problem. If you can come to me with an objective take, I will engage with it. I’m not saying these new things are above criticism. But the problem isn’t that it’s “woke”.

[alpaca-clouds]

Mary Sues are a stupid concept

I wanna vent about this one thing that has annoyed me for so long. The concept of the "Mary Sue". On one hand it seems that fandom at large has moved past it - but on the other hand, I still see a lot of whiney dudes comment how this and that female or non-white character is a Mary Sue. Especially in Star Wars this seems to be an evergreen topic.

So, let me say it outright: The concept of the Mary Sue was always a silly one. I can absolutely see where it came from in terms of fanfiction, but when it comes to canon media, it ends up being a shitty concept beginning to end.

Originally the entire thing about the Mary Sue came from the kind of OC within Star Trek fanfiction, who were outstanding in any way imaginable - and often were romantic interests of one or even multiple of the male crew. Which showed up often enough, given the fact that a lot of the fanfic writers were female and Star Trek - while always progressive for its time - has still a lot more male than female characters.

From there the concept got adapted into other fandoms. Most of all I saw it within a lot of HP fandom discussion back in the day. And if you were active in Fandom for a while, you probably at some point have come across The Ultimate Mary Sue Litmus test.

But... it was always silly, right?

I mean, sure, yes. I do know those stereotypical Mary Sues from multiple fandoms. Like the kind that is half-dragon, quarter-elf, one-eighth unicorn, has this one superspecial skill, a superdramatic backstory, and about the same kind of hair colors as your average Yu-Gi-Oh! character.

But here comes the usual thing: Fanfiction is free. You are not forced to read it. There is a "return" button in your browser for a reason. And just... allow folks to have their own power fantasy within their favorite universe. Fanfiction in the end is all about wishfulfillment after all.

This entire thing became more stupid over time, though, when certain groups decided to decry all sorts of female and marginalized characters in canon material as a "Mary Sue". Within the MCU I saw Carol Danvers and T'Challa both decried as Mary Sues. And She-Hulk, too. And probably the other marginalized characters, too.

And then there was Star Wars. Where they decried Rey as a Mary Sue and after that a lot of other characters as such, most recently of course Sabine.

Now, why is this so stupid?

Most of all because those characters usually are not out of the ordinary for their respective universe. They are not more powerful, or at least not more exceptional than most other characters of that universe.

The standards used on them are just different, than the standards used on male characters.

You know, a long while back, I was too bored and did the Litmus test linked above on several canonical character from media. Including the Anne Rice Books, the Sherlock Holmes books, Lord of the Rings, Twilight, Star Trek and Star Wars.

Now, out of this media Bella of Twilight got most often accused of being a Mary Sue. But out of the characters I went through it... she ended up with the lowest score. The highest, by the way, was Lestat. He is almost like the ultimate Mary Sue, really xD I mean, God and the devil argue about who gets to recruit him. But... I never saw a lot of argument happening about how much of a Mary Sue Lestat is.

So, yeah... In the end it is mostly just a veil for misogyny.

Also, mind you. The entire idea of valuing a character based on their powers whether or not the are "mary sue". But here is the thing: Not all stories have conflicts that can be resolved by punching them real hard. You can have the most powerful character - when the main conflict is political, all the power in the world will not resolve it.

[tobarrow8]

My thoughts on superman and the authority:

To start with the art is absolutely gorgeous it is some of the best I have seen in comics, Mikel Janín and Jordie Bellaire do an amazing job every pannel looks beautiful. The begining is the best part with the set up of this older modern superman and his brief introduction along with the introduction of Manchester Black who is the star of this comic along with superman their dynamic is really good and something I wish they focused more in the comic. The villians are kinda werid it ends up being a conspiracy and brianiac is at the top but they just like leave earth after there first battle leaving ultra humanite and braniac and letter Supermans son John deal with it. They just go another planet called war world but like it ends there. Its only 4 issues, tf happened to the rest of the comic. There was a real opportunity to have these characters go into this new medivial planet hulk type world and see how they adapt, interact with each other and develop as characters but it just ends there. Idk if there's gonna be more there should, it has the potential to be one of the best superman runs since all star superman. I didn't really like the new introduction to natasha irons / steal, it was kinda weird, they just through you into this complex situation and like here's a new character and then she's there now and idk who she is or even her personality traits all I know is she has a grandad called John. Also there are a lot of references especially in the introduction of natasha to modern day technology like tik tok nfts Porno actual body shaming trolls and it just felt cringy and trying to much to be down witb the kids like stop please, whose making you do this grant Morrison. The introduction to midnighter and appollo was good I wish we could see more of there relationship but we don't get to see them much together in the short mini series. The introduction to enchantress was probably the best bit of the comic it really set up the problems she was struggling with in a really creative way that's true to the character but Manchester Black is like just get over it and her problems are never mentioned again - it's rushed character development. The main problem is the length of the series though, it makes the comic feel rushed and complicates characters and doesn't give them adequate growth or development and it has to much going on. Had Morrison had say like 50 or 70 issues he truly could of created something amazing, or something even akin to spider-man life story. Overall, it wasn't bad but far from Morrisons best work so I'd give it a 5.5/10.

[athetos]

My thoughts on what movies for other Nintendo franchises would be like:

Legend of Zelda - abysmal. I have zero faith in a film adaptation characterizing link or Zelda properly. And there’s simply so much game to pack into a single movie, no matter which game you base it off of. They’d have to do an original plot, and I doubt that would go over well. If anything, it would have to be a tv show, and even then it will be pretty bad.

Metroid - sounds like it has potential, but I have a feeling it would fail. I don’t trust many people to write samus Aran. Metroid Dread would be the most likely to get a film adaptation, and it would definitely be scary and thrilling, but I feel that Hollywood would botch the execution fantastically. The EMMI designs would terrify me, though.

Fire Emblem - I feel this would land similarly as Zelda, in that there’s just so much to adapt, especially if it’s based off a more recent (and more popular) game, like three houses or awakening. Plus, with all those games having dating sim elements and player choices, plus the large casts, it would be a mess. I think a movie based off of perhaps the first game/shadow dragon would be alright, though. It wouldn’t be great if you had played the games and knew what was wrong in the adaptation, but for casual fans it would fare well.

Kirby - an animated Kirby movie would most likely underperform at the box office, but would be a big hit with fans. It would be a lot of fun, and kids would love it. You could give Kirby partner characters like Kirby right back at ya did. Maybe waddle dee would be the new minion…?

Star fox - assuming the style was aesthetically pleasing, I think this would be THE best adaptation. Fuck Star Wars, this is a star fox world now. A space opera with furries, what’s not to love? Just don’t adapt Star fox adventure, because I would be the only one to see it. Just follow the first game or Star fox 64, give us some angst and one-liners, drip feed us lore, throw in tons of Easter eggs, and set up a sequel that more prominently features Pigma or something. Easy.

F-zero - nintendo doesn’t even remember this exists.

Animal crossing - I’m sorry but this would be so boring. No matter what plot they make it would suck. I’m sure people will eat it up regardless, but I just can’t see it being fun. Am not sold.

Kid Icarus - has a lot of potential, but only if it’s animated. Would be a good movie to turn your brain off and watch while eating popcorn, equal parts laughs and “oooh”‘s. The writing needs to be fucking solid, though.

Pikmin - could be a fun family movie with jokes kids will miss that will make adults laugh. Not even in an innuendo way, but in a “makes references to stuff from the ‘80s and ‘90s” way. Very nostalgic and new all at once. Could be cozy. They’ll need to expand the cast of astronauts though, and maybe perhaps have some of the pikmin speak. Who knows.

Earthbound - I suppose the entire game could be condensed down into a single film, and I think it wouldn’t be amazing, but still good. However, it would earn hundreds of “omg this is kinda like stranger things!” Comparisons solely because it follows kids/teens in a retro world, which would make me so so mad I would turn into the hulk or the grinch or some other green beast.

Splatoon - it would be super colorful, flashy, and fun, and be a surprise hit. It could focus a lot on the lore that most casual fans are unaware of, and have a ton of original songs courtesy of the idols that would be on the radio forever. I have never played splatoon but I would see the movie the week of release.

[lokiinmediasideblog]

If i was in the marvel fandom in 2012 i would've been a major loki hater ngl. I started to warm up in the dark world. I know its controversial but i liked him in Ragnarok but then they killed him in infinity war im sfill mad abt

I like Loki a lot, and I liked him least in Avengers (2012). I watched the movies out of order at first (A1> T:TDW> Thor 1). I enjoyed him a lot in the Avengers, I was drawn to him because he's fun, but he also gave me second-hand embarrassment because he was just so arrogant yet got his ass handed to him(And I didn't know the backstory). I didn't think about Loki for a long time, until I watched T:TDW, where I fell head-over-heels for him. Without Loki, that movie would have felt like watching paint dry, so I felt especially grateful to Loki for that. That eventually got me to finally watch Thor 1. LOL. I enjoyed him in Ragnarok a lot, as well, and shipped him with Valkyrie, but I was not in the MCU fandom at the time (I was in another fandom). I am also still mad about Loki being killed off like that in IW!!!! Let's mourn!

Bear in mind I am biased towards antagonists and villains while reading this. This is my history of how I ended up obsessed with Marvel's Loki. And I am not sure if I should tag this post as "anti Thor" because I mention my extreme dislike of Thor from the past (and reasons). But I mention at the very end he grew on me. It's up to you if you keep reading.

The first time I saw Marvel's Loki, it was on a Hulk v. Thor cartoon on Netflix. Loki looks like an evil DILF in there. And Hela is a hot giant goth lady. I remember I googled norse mythology for the first time because up until then, I had thought "Son of the Mask" made up Loki, and I wanted to learn more about Hela (Hel). And I learned about Sleipnir and how hilarious myth!Loki was.

I found cartoon Thor annoying because he felt too perfect, and that's the kind of character that grates my nerves. And he survived thanks to a kiss from Amora, ugh, that's so dumb. I didn't go to watch Thor (2011) for the longest time because Thor just annoyed me because he felt too perfect and Gary Stu-ish in that cartoon.

And the comics I read at the time, specifically for Loki, made me dislike Thor more because they were like "Thor is the FUCKING BEST! AND ALL THESE SCANTILY CLAD WOMEN WANT TO FUCK HIM. BLEH BLEH. "(I was reading some omnibus by Matt Fraction on readcomicsonline). But I was more of a lurker in fandom, with no tumblr account, so I didn't express it.

And it annoyed me that some Marvel re-tellings of the myths (think it was Ages of Thunder) substituted Loki's cleverness (that saved him in the myths) for Thor being merciful or coming to the rescue. And they'd make Loki not only much eviler, but also dumber than in the myths when scheming and wprd-play is supposed to be his thing. Like, let Loki have something! You don't even have to write it because the myth you're adapting is there already! And ugh. Like no offense to anyone, but I don't really feel bad over Loki being so popular because those comics that existed for 5-6 decades annoyed the fuck out of me.

Also, at the time, a bunch of comic book nerds and dudebros would lose their shit over Loki's popularity. And Loki would be the subject of really fucked up homophobic jokes in parodies (*cough* The Key of Awesome).

Thor started growing on me in Ragnarok, IW (coolest Thor), and EG (EG!Thor is my fave because he's just so sad and I love sad men). And he was actually not Gary Stu-ish in Thor 1, I just didn't appreciate it at the time (unlike in other Marvel media). So I definitely like MCU!Thor way more than in many of his comics runs.

I also feel like I have different Thor and Loki preferences than most of the fandom, because I was a lurker and didn't interact with the fandom until 2022 and then making this blog, thanks to the Loki series bringing back my Loki phase.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Durza

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

Ah, Eragon. A series as wonderfully creative as it is wonderfully cheesy. Yes, the first book is horribly derivative of stuff like Star Wars, but Christopher Paolini threw in just enough spice to make it work, and overall the series does come into its own in later installments. One of his more interesting ideas was Shades, which were basically a sorcerer whose body was turned into a shell containing multiple evil spirits. Yes, it’s not wholly original, but it did give us the badass antagonist of the first book, the red haired, red eyed Durza. He even ultimately had a pretty tragic backstory, and inspired a truly cringeworthy poem that Eragon wrote to try and get some elfussy (elf pussy).

Now imagine taking that, draining everything interesting that I just mentioned, and turning that into a generic evil sidekick and you have Film!Durza, pictured above reading the original novel and wishing he got that badass final fight instead of whatever happened here.

Eragon is a bad movie. Sure it’s not the worst thing in the world—really, it’s just dreadfully dull—but it managed to miss the mark on adapting anything from the books without sucking the creativity and fun out of it. The Urgals probably have this the worst, going from hulking horned humanoids to just unwashed barbarian hordes, but Durza got hit pretty bad as well. Losing any sort of compelling characterization or explanation for his existence, what we’re left with is a shade itself: an empty husk filled with awful things.

Motivation/Goals: He’s the evil emperor Palpatine’s Sauron’s Galbatorix’s right-hand man following the death of Morzan, his previous right-hand man. To this end, he has to do evil right-hand man things like torture elf girls until they start getting way too into it (Arya looks like she’s about to bust it at any minute in the film) or steal the kills of other characters from the books because the filmmakers didn’t think through who they’d need in this series. There’s really not much too Durza, I’m afraid; he’s really a bland antagonist.

Performance: Look, Robert Carlyle is a cool guy. He was in Trainspotting, he was in Once Upon a Time, this man has a great resume! And I imagine when he turns that resume in for a new job he leaves this film off, because he does fuck all with his performance here. Oh, he’s certainly trying, that much is clear, but the dismal script and the fact they fucked anything interesting out of Durza really just hampers what should have been a deliciously hammy villain role. At least he’s having fun and clearly seems to get how bad the movie he’s in is.

Final Fate: He dies, sure, but in a way that is unbelievably lame compared to the book. We don’t get a cool moment where Arya and Saphira explode a giant gemstone to save Eragon’s ass and let him deal the killing blow, followed by him absorbing Durza’s tragic backstory; no, here we get a crappy CGI smoke monster battle. Cool. Great. This is so totally better. Kind of like how it’s so totally better that the Ra’zac were made into gross mummy ninjas Durza created who die halfway through the movie, ruining any chance of a sequel making sense (not that this film ever had a chance of getting a sequel with how dismal it is).

Final Thoughts & Score: Durza somehow manages to be one of the lamest villains ever despite getting a massive boost in competency from the books. Here, he’s way more badass, constantly having the heroes on the ropes, never really losing a fight, and even creating the Ra’zac out of bugs; in the books, the dude is an absolute jobber. The thing is, in the books he still gets more characterization that makes him an interesting character, while in the movie, the most he gets is progressively uglier as the film goes on. It’s just so incredibly insulting to just about everyone.

Still, Durza isn’t the absolute worst villain ever or anything. Much like the movie itself, he’s really just a bland, forgettable waste of good ideas and talent. I think that Carlyle is at least trying his best with what he’s given, even though what he was given is basically nothing, and Durza at least still looks pretty cool. It’s not really enough to save him or make me be more generous with the score or anything like that, but he’s not the bottom of the barrel. He is, however, about an inch from it.

The movie version gets a 2/10, while the book version deserves a nice 7/10. It really is bad when you give a character the role of killing the hugely important mentor figure, the one who is a badass former dragon rider and the secret daddy of the protagonist, and he still fucking sucks.

[clonewarsarchives]

VOICE OF THE FORCE (#110, JUL 2009)

Yoda—the ultimate Jedi Master, a character known and loved throughout the world, whose voice was created by one of the most legendary puppeteers and voice actors of all time. You’d think that taking over the character from Frank Oz would be such a daunting and difficult assignment that it would be all one performer could handle.

But not when that performer is Tom Kane, one of the top voice-over artists working today, and the man who has given voice to some of the most memorable and iconic animated characters of the last dozen years. In fact, Yoda is merely the most prominent of a seemingly endless stream of Star Wars roles Kane continues to tackle. A born mimic, Kane even admitted he dedicated no time to preparing for the powerful role—other than the years he’d spent as a devoted Star Wars fan.

“The Yoda thing just kind of happened,” Kane tells Star Wars Insider, explaining that he was already in a recording studio playing another character for a LucasArts video game. “I’m a Star Wars nerd,” he says, “so I would sit there looking through the script, and I would try to do my best Grand Moff Tarkin or Boba Fett or whoever. I was goofing around one day, and saw some Yoda lines, so of course I was trying to do my very best Yoda, and the producer looked up and said, ‘Can you do that again?’

“What I didn’t know,” he continues, “was that Frank Oz was very busy at that point because he had become a very successful director. So they played my Yoda for George Lucas and got approval, and suddenly I found myself doing Yoda for videogames, and that led to toys and commercials. When it came time to do Star Wars: The Clone Wars, somebody up north said, ‘We’re just going to use Tom.’”

CAST OF CHARACTERS

By that point, of course, George Lucas and his team had good reason to be confident in Kane’s formidable abilities. He’d already played Yoda in several LucasArts games, such as Jedi Power Battles, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds, Super Bombad Racing, Jedi Starfighter, Star Wars: Battlefront I and II, and videogame adaptation of Revenge of the Sith, among many others. Most memorably of all, Kane voiced the sage Jedi Master in The Clone Wars micro-series that ran on Cartoon Network from 2003 to 2005.

Kane’s Yoda voice—confident, resonant, and true to Oz’s original vision—is the culmination of a saga that began with Kane’s work on the early LucasArts title, The Dig. That success led to Kane’s entry into the Star Wars universe, where he has provided voices for nearly every videogame the company has ever created. Kane started out playing random stormtroopers and Imperial officers before going on to tackle more familiar characters like Lobot, Admiral Ackbar, C-3PO, Nien Nunb, Bib Fortuna, and even those three characters he used to impersonate during his goof-off breaks: Boba Fett, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Yoda.

Indeed, it was Kane’s success in the videogame world that led to the next step, about which he’d always dreamed: animation. That dream has come true many times over, with Kane having voiced unforgettable characters like Professor Utonium and the villainous Him on The Powerpuff Girls, Darwin the chimpanzee of The Wild Thornberrys, Mr. Herriman on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Lord Monkey Fist of Kim Possible, and Magneto on Wolverine and the X-Men. He also lent his many voices to such ’toons as Duck Dodgers, Shrek the Third, and late 1990s animated series starring Spider-Man, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk—not to mention his continued videogame voice work, which has included Gandalf for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Commissioner Gordon in the Batman game, Arkham Asylum.

PHONING IT IN!

Yet the scope of Kane’s work is so wide that all of those famous characters are just a small slice of it.

In fact, if you’ve turned on your TV or radio today, chances are you’ve already heard him. Kane works every day—which is virtually unheard of among voice performers —and the vast majority of his work is as an announcer, voicing everything from promotional spots for TV crime dramas to the trailers for Monsters vs. Aliens. He’s been the official voice of the Academy Awards a few times, and he’s done so many commercials and movie trailers, he’s lost count. On the day Star Wars Insider caught up with him, Kane was between recording sessions, one as an announcer for CBS promos and the other for a character on Adult Swim’s The Boondocks.

He does it nearly all from a home studio in Kansas City, his hometown that he returned to in 2005 with his wife and six children after 20 years in Los Angeles. Kane is now so in-demand that he can literally “phone it in,” recording his voice over a high-bandwidth ISDN line that connects him to the Los Angeles studios where the directors sit. “I grew up here, and my wife and I met at the University of Kansas,” Kane says. “Our families are here on both sides, and we wanted to let the kids get to know their grandparents.”

Growing up just outside of Kansas City, where he was born in 1962, Kane never expected to be working on major Hollywood projects, but he did have a talent for mimicry and voices from an early age, a skill he started to develop in the local media.

“My mom tells me that when I was three years of age, my grandfather would be watching the football game and cussing at the television in German, and I would just repeat what Grandpa said. He would laugh and say, ‘Ya, the kid’s got a pretty good German accent.’ I used to embarrass the heck out of my sister in the grocery store, because we’d be in the cereal aisle and I’d go, ‘Frosted Flakes, they’re grrrrrrreat!’” [It should be noted that Kane said that last part in a perfect Tony the Tiger voice.]

Young Tom soon discovered he could do almost any voice he heard—and he loved doing it. By the time he was 15, he was confident enough to start cold-calling local advertisers, offering his services as an announcer.

“The local commercials were horrendously bad,” he recalls, “and I just thought it would be fun to hear myself on TV. It didn’t occur to me that anybody got paid for it. Most turned me away, but I got a call back from the American Cancer Society’s ad agency. I had called, basically saying, ‘Your Public Service Announcement sounds like you put the microphone in front of the receptionist.’ I was a teenager and had no tact, but it turns out that’s exactly what had happened. They called me up and said, ‘We understand you’re willing to donate your time.’

“I was 15 years old, but I sounded like an adult on the phone,” he continues. “I had to have my dad drive me to the studio, and of course, they walked up to him. He said, “No,” and pointed at this pimply-faced teenager. The poor producer had to explain to his boss that this 15-year-old kid was the one he hired!”

The producers were even more skeptical when the “pimply teen” offered to read the script, “like the old man from the Pepperidge Farms commercials,” he said, but their attitudes changed when the young upstart delivered a perfect, Wilford Brimley-esque performance in one take. “I wasn’t trying to show off,” he confesses. “I just thought it would be fun.” Three days later, the same ad agency hired him to voice a cowboy in five more TV ads.

“By the time I went to college, I’d done probably a hundred commercials,” Kane said, “and by the time I got out of college, I’d done several hundred. But I always wanted to do cartoons, and there’s only one place those exist, and that’s Los Angeles. So we made our way out there around 1985, and I was tremendously successful in every other aspect of voice-over work very quickly. But I couldn’t get arrested when it came to cartoons. I auditioned and auditioned, and I think I was there for six years before I started landing anything. I’d really almost given up.”

A LIFE CHANGING MOVIE!

It turned out that Kane’s break came out of another passion from his formative years in Kansas—his love of Star Wars. “It was the last day of school in the ninth grade when Star Wars came out in 1977,” he recalls, “and the world changed for me that day. Within 10 seconds, when that Star Destroyer came overhead, I just sat there with my mouth hanging open, going, ‘Whoa!’ I think I saw the movie 12 times. I took my mom, and then I took my grandmother. She said, ‘Oh honey, I don’t watch those types of movies,’ and I said, ‘Grandma, you will love this,’ and she did. When the other movies came out over the next several years, she went and saw them.”

So Kane was thrilled when he finally got a job doing character voices for LucasArts. “Then the first time they hired me to do something for Star Wars,” he said, “I sat there sort of just shaking my head, because to be a fan and find myself sitting in front of a script with the words Star Wars on it, and characters that I knew and loved, and here I am working for a guy that had an office up at Lucasfilm ... I’m sitting there thinking, ‘How did this happen?”

It happened because Kane could seemingly do any voice in the Star Wars universe, as he proved over the course of the last dozen years doing voices for videogames, from classic voices heard in the Star Wars movies to brand new characters. Some of those new characters were still familiar, posing an even greater challenge. Kane had to come up with the first-ever voice for previously-silent Lando-sidekick Lobot, as well as the sound of Vandar Tokare, one of only two other known members of Yoda’s species, who soon returns in a new multi-player online game, Star Wars: The Old Republic.

“We had to come up with a voice for him,” Kane says. “So we ended up basically doing Yoda but then I changed it slightly, and the thing we did to make it completely different is that he doesn’t speak in ‘Yodese,’ he doesn’t flop his words.”

As time went by, Kane became entrusted with more major roles, such as filling in for Anthony Daniels as C-3PO for some games. “It’s his voice,” Kane insists. “I’m just caretaking it occasionally when he doesn’t want to do the job or isn’t available.”

In contrast, Kane has pretty much inherited Yoda from Frank Oz, who originated the part in the Star Wars feature films but hasn’t performed it since Episode III. Those are not small shoes to fill. Oz, who began his career as a puppeteer with Jim Henson’s Muppets, has created and performed the voices for some of the most treasured characters in our culture, including Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster, Grover, and Bert, and The Muppet Show’s Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, and Animal, among many others. Oz’s Yoda captured the world’s imagination since his first appearance in The Empire Strikes Back, could any actor even come close to that standard?

YODA THE ICON!

Kane admits that even though he had George Lucas’ full confidence, the magnitude of the character can be a little intimidating.

“I look at it not just as a cool gig, which it is,” he said, “but it is such an honor to be entrusted with something that iconic, with a voice that’s known to the world. James Arnold Taylor, who is [the voice of] Obi-Wan, is now Fred Flintstone, and something we talk about is how honored we are to be caretaking these characters and their voices. It’s not something we created, so even though it may become ours, it’s on loan. I may be Yoda for another couple years or another 20 years, it’s up to George, but for as long as it lasts, I’m just trying to do it the justice that it warrants and hope everyone’s happy with it.”

So far, so good. Kane not only continues to play Yoda, but is expanding his Star Wars repertoire with still more characters. In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Kane also voices Admiral Wullf Yularen and provides the opening narration at the start of each episode.

Still, there is one Star Wars character Kane has said he could never play. “I would love to do Darth Vader, but he’s so hard to do,” the actor admits. ‘There is a quality to James Earl Jones’ voice that is just impossible to duplicate. My Vader is OK for a line or two, but it’s not going to fly for any length of time.”

YODA IS NUMBER ONE!

No worries, since there’s no shortage of work for Tom Kane, both inside and out of the Star Wars universe. “I like Professor Utonium,” he says of his Powerpuff Girls alter ego. “He’s one of the favorite characters that I’ve done because he’s a dad and I’m a dad, so I got to put a bit of myself into that role. I think cartoons are always going to be nearest and dearest to my heart, because they’re fun to do, and they mean something to my kids.”

Still, Kane makes it clear that, “Yoda has to be number one. Anytime it’s a character who was important in the films, that would just add a little extra weight to me emotionally, because as soon as I hear the words and hear the voice—even if it’s me doing it—it brings back the joy at seeing the movies.”

Perhaps one day, some voice-over actor of the future will be taking over the role of Professor Utonium, or Darwin, or even Yoda—and when that day comes, we will all be wondering and hoping: Can this guy really do justice to the voice mastery of the one and only Tom Kane?

FROM ACKBAR TO YULAREN TOM KANE’S 11 GREATEST STAR WARS VOICES

Admiral Ackbar (Star Wars: Battlefront)

Bib Fortuna (Star Wars: Demolition)

Boba Fett (Star Wars: Demolition, Galactic Battleground and Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy)

Leebo (Shadows of the Empire)

Lobot (Star Wars: Demolition)

General Madine (Rogue Squadron series)

Narrator (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

Nien Nunb (Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance)

Vandar Tokare (Knights of the Old Republic)

Yoda (Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the movie and animated series; Star Wars: Clone Wars, the micro-series; and various games and toys)

Wullf Yularen (Star Wars: The Clone Wars)

BEYOND STAR WARS TOM KANE’S ANIMATION AND VOICE-OVER LEGACY

These are just a few selected characters from Tom Kann extensive voice-ograhy:

H.O.M.E.R., Iron Man (1995-96)

Dr. Doom, Spider-Man (1997)

Dante, Team Knight Rider (1997-98)

Berry, Johnny Bravo (1997-2000)

Professor Utonium/Him, The Powerpuff Girls (1998-2005)

Darwin, The Wild Thornberrys (1998-2002)

Greco, Heavy Gear: The Animated Series (2001)

Gandalf, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (videogame) (2002)

Lord Monkey Fist, Kim Possible (2002-2007)

Various Characters, Duck Dodgers (2003-2005)

Dean Cain, The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius (2005)

Ultimos, Ben 10 (2006)

Guard, Shrek The Third (2007)

Mr. Herriman, Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends (2004-2008)

Magneto, Wolverine and the X-Men (2008-2009)

Commissioner Gordon, Batman: Arkham Asylum (videogame) (2009)

[revival-rp]

FAQs

Can I play a character who isn’t in the MCU?

Marvel has a plethora of characters, many of whom have not made their cinematic debut. We allow comic characters on the site as well. You have creative freedom — all we ask is you fit them somewhere in our timeline, use a real face claim to portray them (not illustrations), and make sure they align with existing characters on the site of whom they're closely connected.

Are Disney+ and Netflix shows canon here?

If the show took place pre-Infinity War, it is considered canon on our site. Think: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D seasons 1-5 or the early seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, etc. Anything that took place post-Infinity War and post-Endgame is not canon here. That includes Wandavision, Loki, TFATWS, Hawkeye, She-Hulk, etc.

Same for movies. Anything that takes place post-Endgame is not considered canon. This includes Spider-Man: Far From Home, No Way Home, Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, etc. If the movie came out post-Endgame, but the plot took place before Infinity War, it is canon. Think: Black Widow.

My character was introduced after Endgame. Can I play them?

Of course! If your character was introduced post-Endgame (read: Eternals, Shang-Chi, Moon Knight, etc), you're still allowed to bring them to Revival. Feel free to take inspiration from their source material — comic, movie, and/or show — and adapt them into our timeline. Remember you are only fitting the character's background to the timeline, not their post-canon plot events, as those did not happen in our timeline.

Can I make an original character?

Yes! You are free to create an original civilian character or an original villain character. We are not accepting original hero characters. NOTE: Your original villain character IS allowed to have powers, but they must be simple powers. We don't allow all-powerful beings like Ultron, Thanos or Kang.

Do I have to take part in subplots or site events?

Subplots are meant to give our players established plotlines to jump right into. If you already have an idea you want to explore, you're free to do so. Think of subplots as a suggestion, rather than a requirement.

There are two types of events on Revival: community events and plot events. Community events are centered around our player base. Plot events push the site's plot forward. When it comes to participating, both of these are optional. Be aware that even if you choose not to participate in plot events, it doesn't mean your character is unaffected by them.

What is the “threat” mentioned in the site plot?

In order to keep the mystery and intrigue, we've decided not to outright say what the threat is. Think of our plot as a slow burn. Clues will be revealed through future plot events. It'll all come together in its own time.

Can my character be from the multiverse?

We know the multiverse is a popular plot point for Marvel right now, however, we are not a multiversal site. We are not accepting "variant" characters nor are we exploring multiverse plots.

What if my character isn’t based in New York?

No worries! While the Compound is open for all hero characters to reside, your character doesn't have to live or even operate out of New York for them to be accepted on the site. We welcome plotting in all parts of the world or the wider galaxy (looking at you, Guardians). Just note that the majority of our subplots and events take place in New York, so while your character does not need to live in the Big Apple, they must be able to travel there.

[biggreenneatbox]

Tagged by @sadiemacoy -- list a favourite character from 10 favourite fandoms.

Now, do I even have 10 fandoms in ma brain *to* pick from.....

(Turns out, answer is "No". So I will be listing my favourite characters from what seems to be my brain's current fixations)

Critical Role - Caduceus Clay / Grog Strongjaw / Laudna

I couldn't pick individual people, so I've listed, in order, my favourites from each of the 3 main campaigns. We've got out of place asexual loner with a heart of gold and a penchant for reason in a world of chaos in Cad; No Thought, Only Heart and Instinct for Grog; and misunderstood weirdo with a love of both the arts and a strong independant woman what don't need no man (but wouldn't say no to a woman if she were to try and fill that void) in Laudna

RWBY - Neopolitan

I love this little shit so much! And now that I fully identify as Non-Binary, having my favourite character be someone who can alter their appearance at the literal drop of a hat makes so much sense. Also, Ice Cream Aesthetic

God of War - Kratos (Norse era)

I liked the overarcing spectacle of the Greek era, and TC Carson was a fantastic Greek Kratos, but Norse era Kratos is just a whole other man and I am here for his growth. Christopher Judge conveys so much with so little; he's like the father I never had

Star Wars - Anakin Skywalker (Clone Wars era) / Darth Vader

If you think about it, he's a Gifted & Talented Kid that got pushed to the point of breaking. Especially when we got Season 7 of The Clone Wars and we saw the overlap of it and Ep.III. And then there's Vader. I have never really seen someone command a presence in everything he's in just by being there. He literally needs to *breathe* and that's most people done. He just shows up in Jedi: Fallen Order and everyone *knew* that we were fucked

Sly Cooper - Bentley

(I have to pick Bentley because apparently "The track 'Paris Rooftops' from the Sly 2 OST" can't be a character)

Joking aside, Bentley overcame his nerdy social anxiety and thrived when he had to face the world alone. And then when Clock-la happens and he becomes paralysed, he didn't stop. He adapted. I thrive to be like that eventually. But also, turtle: things going bad? Just jump into your shell

The Last of Us - Ellie Williams

Ah, my little Les-bean. Reminds me of a close friend, what with the arting and the guitar and the singing and the gayness

Sonic the Hedgehog - Shadow

An even darker and edgier speedy hedgehog? Yes please! But also, Shadow (especially in the games I played as a wee lad - Sonic Heroes & Shadow the Hedgehog) had a whole lot of uncertainty in his life and had to discover and forge his own path. Being told he's so many different things and having to decide whether that's what he wants to do and listen to one of their stories, or become his own individual person away from the pressures of everyone else

Dragon Ball - Future Trunks

What's that? My favourite Dragon Ball character has a hero complex, wherein he tries to prevent any ill-fate before it happens by going back in time to change the past, hopefully making his future a better place, only to find out that protecting them did nothing for him and he ended up sad and depressed anyway? .........nope, can't relate ......to the time travelling part

DBZ Abridged also helped by constantly drawing Doctor Who parallels with him, and that was one of my many childhood / teenage hyperfixations soo.....

Dead by Daylight - The Dredge

Got to give thanks to HighKingMargo on AO3 for delving into some lore of DBD that I wasn't aware of in their amazing fic "This Hunger, It Isn't You", but when I looked and really paid attention to everything, I kind dug the vibe of The Dredge. Long story short - it's a SUPER fucked up amalgamation of cultish despair that manifested as a shadowy mass of limbs and general ick. I'm not much of a horror fan, but of all the (non-license) Killers in the game, I adore this disgusting thing

Marvel - The Hulk

A man with a curse to be the worst version of themselves when pushed, so decides to live a life of relative solitude and ease for fear that the less people are around them, the better? And with that, the absolute power fantasy of having almost free reign to be as strong as I need to be in any given moment. Hmm, I guess I'll focus on that one. Also, they're literally part of the reason my blog is named BIGGREENneatbox

BONUS 11th: Avatar: The Last Airbender - Uncle Iroh

It's Uncle Iroh.

Well, now that fustercluck and self-realisation journey is out of the way... @dvdson @geekg1rl3 @calxiyn you try

[adamwatchesmovies]

The War of the Worlds (2005)

Steven Spielberg’s take on War of the Worlds is a distinctly 2000’s disaster movie. You have the close calls, abundant destruction, and special effects-heavy scenes. It doesn't get consumed by them, however. Under the director's steady hand, the scenes eerily reminiscent of the 9/11 terrorist attack, grounded performances, abundant thrills, and intelligence make it a picture that lingers in your mind.

When hulking mechanical "tripods" suddenly appear across the globe and lay waste to human civilization, governments and the military try in vain to oppose them. The picture follows Ray (Tom Cruise), his young daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning), and teenaged son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) - ordinary people who stand by and watch, powerless.

If you do not know the classic novel by H.G. Wells, I won’t spoil it. What I want to discuss is this picture's central theme, that feeling of impotence in the face of calamity. Ray and his family go through harrowing ordeals, narrowly escaping crumbling structures, crashing vehicles, panicked citizens, the alien's disintegrating rays, and more. In 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow the heroes feel like they’re being deliberately targeted by natural forces but nonetheless always manage to get away so the film can showcase more special effects. When Ray, Rachel and Robbie survive, it’s not because they’ve encountered some kind of alien radiation that makes them immune. They’re not scientists who've discovered how to make themselves invisible to the invaders. They’re just lucky or in the tripods' eyes, insignificant.

When writing protagonists, you must find the delicate balance between stupidity and realism. "Logical" choices could often prevent entire films from happening. Make the characters too stupid and your audience ceases to relate to them. Ray is an intelligent protagonist. He still gets away by chance, but he has the instinct required to survive. He runs away, he hides. This means we miss out on some traditional alien invasion movie scenes - for better or for worse, depending on your taste. I'll just say that we've seen military forces try and fail to defeat aliens many times. It's more interesting not to keep the invaders mysterious, to focus on the ground-level situation instead.

Spielberg's genius as a director is on full display in War of the Worlds. Many scenes echo ground zero at the World Trade Center – the visuals, the way people react immediately after, the way the attack affects people once the magnitude of it all sets in. The scenes of destruction are spectacular and chilling. Then, Spielberg makes the unconventional - and correct - decision to fashion characters who aren’t always likable. Realistically, an 11-year-old girl WOULD be much more of a burden than an asset in a global invasion. It makes Ray's choices as he and his children wander through blasted landscapes that much more difficult, their future that much more uncertain.

War of the Worlds is a story that works best in a contemporary setting. Place the aliens just a few years in the past and we could comfort ourselves with thoughts like “If they’d attack us today, our weapons could take them down easily!”. This avoid this separation, writers Josh Friedman and David Koepp have made significant changes to the narrative while keeping it as frightening as it must have all those years ago. You’ll be too worried about the giant machines to even wonder about what kind of creatures are piloting them.

This adaptation brings many fresh elements to familiar story made new once more. I was wondering how much I’d enjoy the film, particularly after having seen the wonderful 1953 version - a film that’s very different than this one because of its setting and then political climate. I think I might like this War of the Worlds even better. (On Blu-ray, September 15, 2017)

[bedlamsbard]

Talk about the AoU references people aren't catching in the already-posted chapters of Horizon?

Oh, the big one is something that's in the current chapter in progress, and because that's a later-chapters reveal... *hands* People are catching some of them (sorry to the person who said "hmm, I've never seen AoU, maybe I should watch it..." I did not expect people to watch AoU, lol, I expected people to go, "ooh, maybe I should watch The Incredible Hulk" for context on Betty and Sterns.)

The biggest one is Madame B, who is kind of a tough case because she's never named onscreen in AoU -- she's the Red Room trainer who Natasha sees in her Wanda-induced vision. I didn't want to explicitly say "Madame B" in Horizon because it's just kind of an awkward title/name, so she's only referred to as "Madame," no B, but she's the same character. Since she doesn't appear or come up at all in Black Widow I'm doing some backfill on how Natasha's Red Room experience differed from what we see in BW and how Madame played in. She was planned to be the big bad from almost as soon as I started working on this story as a chaptered, plotted story, as a movie villain who had very little screen time but was not explicitly dead, and using her means I had a direct tie to Natasha. This was always going to be a story about the super soldier serum as soon as I decided not to use a Thor villain; it was "who's a character who's unaccounted for right now who could be in a position to pull in Sterns and Hammer," who are two other characters I wanted to use from very early on. Using her lets me deal with a lot of Natasha's unaddressed Red Room trauma, including the stuff from AoU that is apparently not consistent with BW. (I was a little worried people would think she's supposed to be Madame Hydra, who's a comics villain who has appeared in, I think AoS in one form, and Valentina in Phase Four is supposed to be Madame Hydra even if she hasn't used that name. She's not; she's Red Room, even if she has some as-of-yet-unrevealed backstory with HYDRA.)

(At one point I considered using a character from Thor's rogues gallery, when it was going to be more Loki-focused, but that was discarded in the planning stages; I wanted to use a movie character and I wanted to use a character who was from an Earth characters rogues gallery, because part of this story is Loki having to function as an Avenger dealing with villains who are, in all honesty, well below his weight class in terms of power.)

The Hammer-adapted Ultron-bots are explicitly mentioned; they're not identical to the ones in AoU but they're mostly a red herring for the characters as well as the audience. (You can tell they're weaker than the Ultron-bots from AoU because Steve's actually punching straight through them, which he doesn't do in AoU.)

There are a handful of dialogue references to AoU -- one of the things I really like to do as a fic writer is to bring relevance back to stories that can get swept under the rug by canon, regardless of my actual feelings for them. So Steve has the "well, maybe Ultron was right" about "maybe I don't know how to live without a war" line in 5; the Hulk-Widow Natasha fights pulls a couple of lines that are meant to invoke Natasha's vision-conversation with Madame B -- the "sloppy" and the "you have no place in the world" are both from that vision.

More explicitly there's Natasha's conversation with Bruce and Betty about her brief relationship with Bruce -- there was actually supposed to be a Bruce and Natasha conversation about that in 7 that didn't end up fitting there, so hopefully I'll get in later, maybe in 10. With Bruce, it's also -- he has not been on Earth since AoU. That is his last point of reference to...everything, and everything changed between AoU and when he returns in IW.

Thor and Selvig's trip to the Water of Sight is referenced in this last chapter -- that was one I had to do a bunch of checks on, because I couldn't remember what was from the cut extended version and what was in the actual film, and I wanted to use what was on the actual screen; they're not consistent with each other.

Madame's the biggest one. There's characterization stuff with Nat and Steve and Bruce and to a lesser extent Tony (a lot of his dialogue in his return-to-Earth scene is straight from Endgame and that calls back to AoU), because I don't not think it's consistent with them even if it's not, like, ideal in terms of my characterization for all of them, but that's what it is. I knew almost no one was going to get Madame without me saying so because she appears for like fifteen seconds in a scene that people don't like in a film that people don't like. A few people did.

The thing I was checking today was actually a setting thing, which is potentially something that readers could recognize; like, it's going to be A Reveal but it's the kind of reveal where readers can go "oh, I should have realized because XYZ," so it's fine if people recognize it, I just don't want to say it in advance. And that's from AoU; it's definitely recognizable if one remembers the physical geography of the film. It's also very lightly hinted at in previous chapters, but it's not supposed to be recognizable earlier.

[piepeloe]

She-Hulk S1E2

This was alright. I wasn't bored, in fact it felt short, but I'm also not craving the next episode. But then this is still setting up the story.

I really liked the visuals of her interviews at all these different firms, the backgrounds changing, becoming shabbier each time.

I would have missed it if others hadn't pointed it out, but she does have Steve's butt as her phone background, which is weird. I mean, I get it's a joke, but as a grown woman in fandom with an actual job (that isn't nearly as fancy as Jen's), I'm always extremely careful to pick 'acceptable' backgrounds. It's a dumb thing to nitpick, I realize.

The family was...nice...? The dad was, at least. He's also the only one who acknowledged Bruce was a member of the family. I do wish they'd fill in how close Jen and Bruce are/were, how they're related, etc. Feels weird to meet her family and not know that.

Liked the prison. Seems the security is tighter than in Ms.Marvel. Feels suitably intimidating anyway.

I truly enjoyed Blonsky's appearance. You can see why Jen would believe him, but at the same time there's something off about him. I'm also very curious about his 'seven soulmates'. It could be the Thunderbolts, but I'm not sure that makes sense.

The timeline is a few months after Shang-Chi. Maybe concurrent with Moon Knight/Ms.Marvel? So that clip took a while to surface? At a very suspicious time too.

Thoughts on Bruce:

I know for us the joke 'I was a different person' refers to the fact the character was played by a different actor. But in universe it totally refers to him not actually being Bruce anymore, but a mix of Bruce and Hulk.

I (like many others) would prefer to have the Bruce from 2012 back too. But at least they're not trying to sell us the idea that this is Bruce in Hulk's body. This way we might actually get OG Bruce and OG Hulk back one day. For now, I comfort myself with the idea that this is a third, completely new character. Apparently it's what he (and the show) feels as well.

Seems like we are getting Planet Hulk or World War Hulk? Or something like it? I haven't read either, I only know summaries. I doubt the MCU can adapt either very closely anyway. Frankly it doesn't seem like anything I want either.

I just hope those 2 minutes in the previous ep weren't the last we'll ever see of Banner.

[smokeybrand]

Somebody Save Me

The demo breakdown for Black Adam is wild. It's sixty-seven million opening is middling in the face of expectations but how it even got that much, is hilarious. Nearly sixty percent of that audience was black and brown people. a whole third of that audience was just black folks, alone. I mean, of course it would be. Mans got "Black" in his name and is played by The Rock. Nah, what's surprising is the fact that, like, twenty-something percent of the audience was white. I say that because it's white boys always complaining about "wokeness" and "forced diversity". Well, by their own admission, none of that was even IN Black Adam and they STILL didn't show up! In order for a movie to be a proper blockbuster, to do MCU numbers, the white audience should be the top demo of any film. Jut based on population numbers, in order for a film like this to be healthy, white people need to make up forty percent of that audience. They showed up to Black Adam at a twenty-five percent rate. All that sh*t they talk about identity politics or whatever and they didn’t even support a film that was, by their own admission, devoid of that stuff. So what's that tell you? It was never about wokeness.

It was never about identity politics. It was never about agendas, race bending, or gender bending. It's always been about white boys seeing less of themselves in media, and getting caught up in their feelings about it. There’s been a pivot in Hollywood to b more inclusive as to what they present in their films. They ant to reflect the world at large, not just what is seen in, like, rural Idaho. Superman isn’t just for America, bud. Dude is a worldwide icon and there are people other than Caucasians in the world. Marvel has a decent understanding of that and you see them trying to adapt to that new social perspective and they’re getting trounced for it. Nothing in Phase Four is terrible, maybe Eternals, but everything has a lot of different “color” to it. Lots of female energy. Lots of diversity. Lots of realistic takes on the greater world of the MCU. There are more than just three black people in the world. There’s a prominent Muslim character now. Shang-Chi is a much better take on a martial arts hero rather than Iron Fist. Everything about Moon Knight was incredible. Nothing was as pedestrian or superficial as Black Adam. there was opportunity, sure, but that was slighted in favor of the “safe” take and these assholes who decry a far more realistic snapshot of the world as a whole in their cinema, still didn’t support the sh*t. But we did.

I'm no fan of what KK is doing to Star Wars but you're an idiot if you don't understand that the force has always been female. Ahsoka Tano. Mara Jade Skywalker. F*cking Leia Organa. Hell, Leia is the archetype of how to write a strong female character without losing that femininity in the process. Kennedy is definitely injecting her bitterness into these new female characters, for sure, and hate them for that, but to be upset that there are so many women in a franchise that has, historically, championed women, is dumb. She-Hulk isn't misandrist slander, it's playful satire of those very vocal, very neckbeard-y, “fans” who refuse to see reason about their comic book and space wizard movies. Seriously, after that show ended, the head writer came out and said the entire series was an exercise in trolling the trolls, which re-contextualized the entire viewing experience for me. That show went from mid and fun to top tier sh*tposting, bait in a matter of seconds. And these assholes took that bait with fervor, only to “reee” something fierce, after Gao exposed her intent after the fact. These are the people who championed Black Adam. These are the same people who jacked that Audience score “to the moon” on RT. The failure of this, very specific, very vocal, crowd showing up to support what they tout as "the best capeflick of the year", proves that it was never about wokeness. Motherf*ckers out here complaining about forced diversity and sh*t but the fact we forced our diversity into them theater seats and made this movie a mild hit, effectively saving DC on film, is irony at its finest.

[daniel306gaming]

¿What if Ultron brought down Sokovia in Avengers Age of Ultron?

To: James Spader, Ross Marquand, Joss Whedon and Marvel Studios 

                                                      Intro

What if events went differently in the MCU? What if Ultron brought down Sokovia in Avengers Age of Ultron? In todays fan fiction we’re going to be seeing what would have happened if Ultron had brought down Sokovia instead of the Avengers which leads to them being defeated. ¿How can

this affect Infinity War and Endgame going forward? Now when I say those words u might be wondering “Isn’t there an actual episode of What if where Ultron defeated the Avengers? Well yes there is but that is not the story I’m about to tell you because this is an original what if created by me taking inspiration from the 2013 Age of Ultron comic which trust me this fan fiction does adapt many events from the comic and will be following the mythology of Ultron and the Avengers and the timeline of the MCU and there will be a character from the Ultimate Alliance 3: the Black Order video game. Without wasting any more time sit back and relax and enjoy this brutal fan fiction.                  

                                                        Prologue

In my analysis of the multiverse I have seen death and destruction in every universe like a zombie infection, our recent battle with Infinity Ultron and speaking of Ultron our world where the Avengers along with War Machine, the Maximoffs and Vision himself along with the agents of Shield managed to defeat Ultron and his drones bringing down Sokovia with it and leading to the events of Civil War due to the Sokovia Accords. However, that is not the story I’m about to tell u as this story in particular will be in a world where the Avengers lost to Ultron. And don’t worry it’s not a retelling of the events of the actual episode. I am the Watcher and I will be ur guide to these vast new realities. Follow me and pounder the question. What If…

                                                         Act 1

The events of Age of Ultron were playing out the same as in our universe. The Avengers and their allies were gaining the upper hand on Ultron and were defeating the drones. Our fan fiction begins when Ultron discovered that Thor was beneath the building and that if he hits the core the Avengers will come out victorious in the end. Ultron needed to come up with a plan quickly before the defenders of Earth could win. Sokovia began to fall down like in our universe. The Avengers have defeated the Ultron drones. However, Thor realized that something was wrong and Ultron came and punched him knocking him unconscious. Ultron hitted the core but instead of the city getting destroyed Ultron became a huge version of himself dubbing himself Ultimo and destroyed the city killing everybody in it including Thor, Maria Hill ,Phil Coulson, Melinda May, Hulk and Quicksliver. The Avengers have failed to save the civilians and retreated to New York where Ultimo will go next. The Avengers along with the Defenders, Inhumans ,the remaining Agents of Shield, Spider-Verse, Runaways, Cloak and Dagger, Midnight Sons, the Illuminati of Earth-838, Avengers 2000, Fantastic 4s and the X-mens from other universes etc. united and fought against Ultimo. Many heroes died including the 3 Cyclops, the Professor Xs, Cloak, Robbie Reyes, the Mister Fantastics, Psylocke, Jessica Jones and her newborn baby and many more including some of the villains were killed by Ultimo and his upgraded drones. The remaining heroes and villains retreated and went underground with Ultimo destroying New York City in the process with Hawkeye saving Spider-Man in time.

                                                        Act 2

3 years have passed and the remaining Marvel heroes and villains were still underground as Ultron in his Ultimo self continued to destroy the world. Spider-Man told the heroes that they need to stand again against Ultron but that without many of the heroes like Cyclops, Cloak, Psylocke, Mister Fantastic, Jessica Jones and others there was no chance that they can stop him. However, Captain America told them that they should indeed go up against Ultron no matter the cost and despite the few heroes left. Though Luke Cage was not sure if to do it as he had lost Jessica and the baby 3 years prior during Ultimo’s initial attack. Cap told Luke that this well be their chance to honor the fallen heroes including Jessica to which Luke then accepts and together they get ready for the epic final battle that was about to come. Meanwhile, Ultron was still in New York City killing any human left when he heard Doctor Strange saying that now revenge is coming. He turned around and saw the remaining heroes and villains as they were about to make their last stand against Ultron. Ultron got mad and told them that the world dies today and transformed into Ultimo sending the drones to attack them. The brutal battle has begun.

                                                     Final act

The Avengers were fighting against Ultimo and the rest of the heroes and villains were fighting against the Ultron drones. The Ultron drones were destroyed and they all focused their attention on Ultimo. They then heard a loud boom coming from the sky and it was the Milano carrying the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Ravagers who had called the Asgardians led by Loki in to help. Earlier Odin died and Hela arrived eventually leading to Loki summoning Surtur to destroy Asgard like in our universe and escaped to Earth after the Guardians sent the beacon to them. Black Panther and the Wakandan army were also called in as they had vibranium weapons that can defeat Ultron. They all fought in a colossal battle. Despite being charged by vibranium technology they managed to defeat him with not much energy left and However he sensed a presence looming and they all saw a portal and it was none other than the Mad Titan Thanos himself along with his armies who has come to find the remaining Stones as he already had the Power, Reality and Soul Stones after decimating Xandar and Knowhere and sacrificing Gamora. One by one of the MCU were being killed by Thanos’s armies. Thanos approached Strange and he surrendered the Time Stone to him before immediately ripping Ultron’s head off killing him for good. Loki then approached Thanos and almost killed him before he grabbed him by the neck and choked him to death in front of everyone and just like that Thanos had all the Infinity Stones and was getting ready to snap twice. Strange called upon the Masters of the Mystic Arts but they too were starting to get killed by the armies. Strange thought of this and told Stark that if they could go back in time and stop Ultron from getting to the core then perhaps they’ll be victorious then. Stark agreed and Strange sent Tony back to 2015 before the destruction of the city. Stark went to the core and told Thor that Ultron knew that he was here and they have to be ready for his arrival saying that if hits the core there will be terrible consequences for the entire world. Thor believed him when Ultron came and this time Thor managed to hit him before Iron Man came and destroyed the Ultron body.

                                                  Epilogue

Thanks to this the Battle of Sokovia will finish the same way as in our universe with the Avengers defeating Ultron and bringing down Sokovia with it. Because of this the rest of the MCU will play out the same as in our universe…

                                                 THE END!

And that is going to be it for what if Ultron brought down Sokovia in Avengers Age of Ultron. We saw how one moment created a alternate timeline where the Avengers lost and here was where I included elements of the original comic like the heroes and villains going underground, Spider-Man and Captain America telling the people to not give up, heroes like Cyclops, Jessica Jones and her newborn baby dying and in the end thanks to Strange Tony managed to go back and stop Ultron before he reached the core. I had a lot of fun narrating as the Watcher and i will keep doing this for other Marvel what ifs. Do make sure to be on the lookout for more what ifs coming soon. Take care guys and have a fantastic day. Peace out!