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bipercabeth · 4 years

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percabeth | hurt/comfort | 3k | commissioned by @mericatblackwood

a post-TLO fic in which we finally Let Percy Cry

Annabeth doesn’t know what to do with anger—her own or others’. She can take her problems to the sword fighting arena or bury her nose in blueprints for weeks, but she’ll still come away with a tight jaw. She doesn’t know what to do with her hands when they aren’t clenched into fists.

So when the tendons in Percy’s hands strain around his silverware at dinner, when his eyes are downcast and he’s closed off in that I’m-angry-but-trying-desperately-not-to-look-it way, Annabeth can only fumble over a painfully casual attempt at conversation and watch as he retreats to his cabin. He doesn’t even make an appearance at the campfire. The flames have been low in the weeks following the Battle of Manhattan, but they’re rising tonight.

The problem isn’t reading Percy; it never has been. Annabeth knows what’s hurting him and why. It’s the fixing part she struggles with.

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He’s been angry for the better part of a year, often because of the ambiguous impending doom of his sixteenth birthday, but not exclusively so. Annabeth caused more than her fair share of his anger, she knows. Rachel had been there to provide an escape in her place, but Annabeth supposes part of being Percy’s girlfriend means that it’s her who gets to provide solace now. Not that she didn’t before, but. There’s a deeper commitment now. He was always her person—as she was his—but it’s out in the open. She’s the first line of defense—she wants to be the first line of defense from danger, be it physical or emotional.

So Annabeth dons her Yankees cap and sneaks to Cabin 3, replaying the conversation where Percy shrugged and said he’s fine when she tried to call him out. He isn’t fine. She knows that much.

That doesn’t mean she expects to find him curled in on himself, bedsheets tangled around his middle. It shouldn’t be possible to look small in a twin bed, but he looks so small—not at all like the hero the other campers celebrate over the campfire. It’s a stark reminder that he’s only sixteen.

He lifts his head when the door opens, his eyes wide. Annabeth remembers that she’s invisible and knocks her cap off her head. She’ll pick it up later. Right now Percy’s breath stutters at the sight of her, his eyes shining like open wounds.

Annabeth can do dry anger: the cold, unfeeling rage that motivates, propels, inspires. But wet anger—the paralyzing, painful kind you cannot power through—leaves her scrambling for purchase. Annabeth is a runner. She doesn’t sit in anything.

The sheets rustle as Percy closes his eyes and takes refuge in his bed like a dog hiding his wounded paw. Despite his efforts, he cannot disguise his limp.

“Please don’t hide from us,” Annabeth pleads.

“I’m not hiding from you,” he says mildly, not lifting his head from the pillow. “I can’t hide from you.”

“But you came here.”

“I knew you would come.” Percy shrugs, casually stating as fact something Annabeth didn’t know herself until a few minutes ago.

In this moment, Annabeth envies Percy’s connection with Grover. She would kill to have a way to funnel her emotions into Percy’s brain in a way he could understand. All the love and concern she can’t articulate could exist in the world without the struggle of finding the right words.

Still, Percy specified her. Grover is out there at the campfire, probably sensing Percy’s pain like a twinge at the base of his neck, but Annabeth is the one Percy can’t hide from.

The thought propels her to the edge of his bed, sitting in the curve of mattress his torso folds around. His knees press into her right thigh as he shifts to close the space between them. Annabeth realizes with a jolt that he left this space for her to occupy.

On her other side is his face, youthful and soft in the moonlight streaming through the window. Blue light for a blue boy, swimming in blue sheets that should shelter him instead of giving him something to fist his hands in. His arms cage his chest as if his heart is trying to escape it.

Annabeth reaches for his hand, drawing it to rest between hers. If his heart is a burden, it’s not one he has to bear alone. They held the weight of the sky once. They can handle this.

For all their shared burdens, the one that weighs on Percy now is uniquely his. Annabeth is a hero, but not the hero. Shouldering “child of Athena’s final stand” for a few weeks is not the same as “hero’s soul, cursed blade shall reap” looming overhead for four years. Percy’s very existence has been dissected and politicized since the moment he was claimed, whereas Annabeth could’ve chosen a quieter, quest-free life if that’s what she wanted. She chose to pick it up. Percy’s choice was to stand under a weight that would otherwise crush him.

It occurs to Annabeth that everyone who has shouldered this burden before him is dead. The heroes whose birth was prophesied, whose death was prophesied, died fighting their battles centuries ago. There are no words for that.

Words are Percy’s strong suit, anyway. He has always known what to say to calm his friends down. Annabeth can’t recall the last time she saw someone do the same for him.

She squeezes his hand and focuses on being here, where it matters.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asks, knowing he doesn’t. Or rather, knowing he doesn’t want her to have to talk about it.

As expected, Percy burrows deeper into the bed. Half his face is squished in his pillow; the sole eye Annabeth can see fixes on the empty space in front of him. He gives her a noncommittal shrug she doesn’t buy. But at least he won’t lie outright.

Silence follows. It nips at Annabeth’s ankles, nagging her to move, to do something, but she decides to sit with the discomfort. The confession he’s suppressing is a palpable thing: Annabeth watches it stutter in his lungs and claw its way up his windpipe. Percy will tell her when he’s ready, and she’ll be here when he is.

“I’ve been having dreams,” he says, still not meeting Annabeth’s eye. That’s okay, though. He’s getting the words out. That’s what matters, right?

“What kind of dreams?”

Percy grimaces. “Not the useful kind. Nightmares, mostly. About the war.” He doesn’t breathe between the sentences, just grits his teeth.

“It’s over, Percy. The war is over. We can rest now,” she tries.

“They can’t.”

Dread settles over Annabeth, but she asks anyway. “Who can’t?”

“Beckendorf,” he chokes, his hand tightening in hers. “Silena, Castor, Lee, Michael—I killed him, Annabeth. I told the others where to go, and they died because of me, but I killed Michael.”

Annabeth opens her mouth to interrupt, but the names keep coming. Percy steamrolls through the tears, leaving her to watch his anger limp along until it collapses into the worn bed of sadness.

“Ethan shouldn’t have been on Olympus. I should’ve hit him harder, then he might have stayed down. And Zoe—I knew she was going to die. We found out who her dad was, and I knew and I couldn’t do anything. And Bianca wasn’t supposed to stop the automation. It was supposed to be me. She could’ve come home to Nico, and maybe then—”

“Percy…”

He shrinks with each word, looking every inch the child Annabeth found on Half-Blood Hill: bruised, tired, and crying for his mother. “My mom died because of me. I didn’t even save her—I saved the world, because that’s what I had to do. Hades let her go, but she still died.”

Annabeth gapes at him uselessly. To love Percy is to know intimately the amount of guilt and unearned blame he assigns himself, but that doesn’t make it any easier to stomach.

“You saved your mom,” she reminds him. “You saved her and the world. You shouldn’t have had to do either, but you did.”

“But I didn’t save the others.”

“No one could’ve.”

“I should’ve. When you fight the way I can, the people who die around you die because you can’t get to them fast enough. If I had just been faster, I...” He takes a shuddering breath. “Why do I get to survive when they don’t?”

A lifetime of war games and war alike, and that question is the worst thing Annabeth has ever heard. Percy is just laying there, still not meeting her eye, and she doesn’t know how to help him.

Terrified of how he’ll answer that question, Annabeth leans down to kiss him before he can. She tries to pour everything into it despite not having too much experience. Kissing Percy so far has been fun, sweet, and definitely trial and error. Nothing this desperate, this needy. She inhales him like she can steal the painful words from his lungs before he says them.

Annabeth tastes tears and pulls back, terrified that she’s done something wrong. Instead, Percy’s hand catches the back of her neck, keeping her close enough for their foreheads to touch. It’s there, inches away from his trembling lips, that Annabeth finds the words.

“You saved me,” she pants. “From the Furies on the bus, at the Lotus hotel, when Polyphemus knocked me out—” her fingers travel to his grey streak— “when we held up the sky, at Mount St. Helens, on Olympus… Too many times to count. From the first day we met, you gave me hope.” She strokes his cheek and wipes away the tears, feeling her own eyes well up. “Every day. You save me every day.”

Percy clings to her hand on his cheek and releases a deep breath, fully exhaling for the first time all night. “You save me just as often.”

“So let me do it now, yeah?”

Percy looks at her, green eyes wet and wide, and nods carefully. Annabeth sighs her relief against his forehead before pressing her lips there with an aching softness. There is more to say, but she takes a moment to just hold him. The Fates deemed her his anchor to mortality, so anchor him she will.

“You survived because you were saddled with the weight of the world at twelve years old and the gods owe you a fucking break.” She looks at the ceiling, almost daring thunder to rumble. The sky stays silent. “More campers are alive than dead after a war with impossible odds, Percy. You saved so many, but you can’t save everyone. None of them would want you to blame yourself for this. We have to honor their sacrifice—and, in some cases, their choice.”

That breaks him. The last of his anger gives way to painful sobs, the ugly kind that squeeze your lungs like a spasming fist. In this moment, he is not the wounded dog, but rather the limp itself: the awkward cadence of his breath reminiscent of limbs struggling to hold new weight.

“What do you need?” she asks. “What can I do?”

The mattress jostles as Percy scoots closer, freeing up part of the bed. “Could you stay here with me? Wake me up if it gets bad? If you have to go back to your cabin, that’s fine—”

He’s cut off by Annabeth kicking off her shoes and crawling into bed behind him. There isn’t much room on the twin mattress, but she tucks her knees into the backs of his and wraps around him, and they fit well enough. She settles quickly to avoid overthinking, glad for the excuse to be close to him.

This is entirely unfamiliar territory, as Annabeth discovers when she tries to figure out what to do with her hands. She’s never spooned someone before.

Percy senses her hesitation and laces their fingers, pulling her arm around his torso. Annabeth squeezes him tight, like maybe lining up their hearts will calm the frantic beat of his. Between that and her body protecting his Achilles spot, she’s got him.

It’s a little awkward, the silence that follows. They haven’t exactly had pillowtalk before, let alone while calming Percy during a breakdown. Annabeth doesn’t know how to hold him to make all that go away, so she clings to him as tight as she can.

“You’re like a boa constrictor,” he chuckles. It’s a wet, half-hearted laugh that tells Annabeth he still has more to say. He’s at his worst when he’s deflecting.

Still, she moves to loosen up. “Sorry.”

He tugs at her hand. “No! I mean, it’s nice. I feel… safe.” He pauses, his breath deep. “I always feel safe with you.”

Annabeth hasn’t kissed much of him apart from his lips, but she liked the comfort of kissing his forehead. She tightens her grip again and presses her lips to his shoulder, just because she can.

“Sometimes they’re about you,” Percy whispers.

Annabeth lays her cheek on his shoulder, trying to see his face. “What?”

“The nightmares. Sometimes they’re about losing you.”

“Percy, look at me.”

The tension falls from his spine as he flips around, tangling further in the mess of sheets. Annabeth smooths everything out for him before laying on her back and tugging him close. He ends up halfway on top of her: his arm around her waist, her hands in his hair, their legs a tangled mess.

She holds his face, thumbs swiping at his cheeks gently. He may be invulnerable, but he’s a fragile thing. Maybe even more so with the invulnerability.

“Tell me about them.”

“What? No. Annabeth, I’m not— I can’t talk about you d— about losing you. I can’t say those words.”

Annabeth just holds his face and his gaze. “You should. Talk about it here, safe, with me, and maybe it won’t be so bad when you fall asleep. I’ll be here the whole time.”

The tension in Percy’s body is palpable as he resists Annabeth’s coaxing. But slowly, she slips her hands to his scalp and massages him there, leeching the stress from his body as he sinks forward into her. His weight presses Annabeth into the mattress. It’s comforting, having him above her. She can feel every breath he takes, every time his heart beats in his chest.

“We’ve almost died a ton of times, but that was always together.” He swallows, and his Adam’s apple bobs against her collarbone. “But then on the bridge with Ethan, when you took the knife…”

Percy takes a shuddering breath.

“Sometimes we get you to the hotel and Will can’t help. Or I can’t find Will. Or Blackjack can’t grab you. Or—” his grip tightens around her, and his tears fall on her skin. “Sometimes you, you die right there at my feet. You jump a second earlier, and Ethan hits you in the chest, and I kill him for it. I kill everyone on the bridge. Most times it’s an accident, just the river listening to me, but sometimes… sometimes I don’t know. Both scare me.”

One of Annabeth’s hands moves to his Achilles spot of its own accord. Percy gasps into her neck, where some tears fall as well. He’d fought his way through his confession, coming from somewhere so deep inside him that the deluge of tears was unavoidable. She hopes to distract him from them now.

“You saved me on that bridge,” she reminds him, her free hand scratching lightly at the base of his neck.

“But what if I didn’t?” he breathes. He sounds so small.

“Doesn’t matter. You did. Anything else is a hypothetical.”

“But in the future—”

“Uh uh.” Annabeth’s chin taps Percy’s temple as she shakes her head. “It’s like strategy. You can think and think and think and plan your whole life out, but it’s not real. You never know what’s going to happen until your feet hit the floor. Are your feet on the floor?”

“No,” he grumbles.

“No,” she echoes. “You’re in bed. You get to rest now.”

Percy is still for countless heartbeats. Right when Annabeth thinks he might’ve fallen asleep, he props himself up on one elbow to look at her. Even in the lowlight, Annabeth can make out his puffy eyes and wet cheeks.

“You know you’re my best friend, right?” He sniffles, his nose wrinkling adorably as he does, and his eyes bore into Annabeth’s. “You’re my girlfriend too, but you’re my best friend first. Always.”

Annabeth hears that statement for what it is and grins despite the tears prickling in her own eyes. “And you’re mine. Always.”

A smile breaks out on his face like dawn at this late hour, brightening up the small space between them. Exhaustion sets in to close it, drawing Percy to settle back into Annabeth’s neck with the slow pull of gravity.

They drift off in a bed made to be slept in alone as they share a burden made for one person. Newness tinges the corners of this memory, this moment Annabeth finds herself missing before it’s gone: Percy asleep above her, finally getting the peaceful rest he deserves. Part of Annabeth wants to stay up all night to make sure he gets the most of it, to watch his back as she promised to do, but her eyelids are heavy with sleep in no time.

What sticks with Annabeth is this: Percy’s breath slow and steady against her neck, his heartbeat reliable as ever as it syncs with her own. The world is warm and safe despite all the evidence to the contrary, and that’s what makes this moment untouchable. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, here they are. Together in every way that matters.

#i hurt myself writing this i am not going to lie #if u read this on tumblr all i ask is u give it some love on ao3 bc engagement with tumblr is Trash but i try to keep commissions accessible #commissions #my percabeth #my fic #mericatblackwood

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usuallydeepcoffee · 3 years

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I’m just so glad I finally found a corner of mcu tumblr that loves Steve because I honestly don’t even know what possessed ppl after endgame came out. Steve (and Peggy and Sam) are some of my biggest comfort characters and obviously there’s always some part of the fandom that hates your favs BUT after endgame I swear more than half the Steve or Steggy blogs I followed all transformed into ‘Steve critical’ blogs and it got so exhausting! And maybe it’s cuz I’ve never seen anything like this happen in other fandoms I’ve been in but it really confuses me because I’ve seen so many shows that get derailed past a certain season or get terrible endings and they’ve never made me hate my fav characters. I just blame the writers and move on... yet mcu tumblr is just throwing misogyny, racism, and the word nazi around like it’s not at all triggering. I’m so glad I followed your blog!

💗

Yeah, being 'critical *insert character*' is often a fancier, more palatable way of saying they dislike a character. Like if you don't at least admit that this character has some flaws, then *you're* the unreasonable one.

(Sucks that they chose Steve to be critical about, because he's perfect under every single aspect. No I will not be taking questions).

And again, I dont care if someone wants to be Steve-critical, but I do wish they would realize not everyone wants to see that in his tag. Or an unhealthy amount of unnecessary vitriol. Or those 'we can all agree that x sucks and he was wrong in y', because no we can't. You cant get a bunch of people to agree on most things.

I don't think fandom choosing a favourite in a popular pairing is that unusual, but I do love how Steve is stuck in such a peculiar position, being the less liked in not just one, but TWO very popular pairings.

I swear, Helen of Troy caused less ship wars.

#my boy is like that lil sexy black dress #goes well with everything #unfortunately this brings consequences #anyway sorry you've had a crappy experience anon!#i feel like this is the unifying steve stan experience #mcu wank #anon #pro steve rogers

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moonlight-prose · 3 years

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I was tagged by the lovely @din-damn-djarin. Thank you for that darling!

Nickname: Jameson from a friend that is now just one of my favorites. Andie by a few wonderful people here. My family calls me Jamoolee (honestly idk how it’s spelled but it’s been around since I was like three)

Pronouns: she/her

Star sign: Taurus

Height: 5′8

Time currently: 10:38pm

Birthday: May 12th

Favorite groups/bands: Oh this is a question. Okay well get ready for a long ass fucking list. Led Zeppelin, The Struts, Fleetwood Mac, Greta Van Fleet, Dorothy, Queen, Alabama Shakes, Pink Floyd. Okay that’s a small amount. I could keep going for ages.

Favorite solo artist: Vera Lyn, Hozier, David Bowie, Marvin Gaye, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Helen Forrest, Ronnie James Dio, Elton John. Again there’s a whole ass list that’s too long to put here and I know I missed some good ones.

Song stuck in my head: I Can’t Stand the Rain - Anne Peebles

Last movie you watched: The Equalizer 2 (there’s an explanation i swear)

Last show you binged: Mayans M.C.

When you created your blog: March in like 2014 I believe. Yeah it’s been awhile.

Last thing i googled: psychoanalytic criticism (I was doing homework)

Other blogs: I have several. Uh well as y’all know my star wars one is @im-poe-dameron and my fic rec one is @djarins-riduur and I have a witch one that I shall not be listing.

Why I chose my url: I changed from my old one that was the original url from 2014. I love the moon and well I’m an english major so prose was a good word. Idk honestly it just kind of popped up.

Do you get asks: Yes every and now and then I do!

How many people you are following: 191

How many followers: 688

Average hours of sleep: I don’t sleep. I’d say like five hours on weekdays and maybe eight hours on weekends. Maybe less. Depends on the day.

Lucky number: 12 and not because of my birthday. The number always pops up everywhere for me so I just kind of went with it.

Currently wearing: A yellow vintage skirt and men’s white button up shirt.

Dream job: Being a writer of novels. Basically yeah.

Dream trip: I’ve always wanted to visit Scotland. Idk why but it seems very beautiful there. Also going to Spain and travel through Mexico to see family that I haven’t seen in years.

Favorite food: This one is hard cause I love food. Pozole has always been one of my favorites. Pizza obviously is another. Does dark chocolate count as food? Cause I can eat that all damn day.

Favorite song: Again I could give a whole list for each genre, but two of my all time favorites that I will never get tired of are:

As Times Goes By - Vera Lynn

Stardust - Nat King Cole

Top 3 fictional worlds to live in: Star Wars, Percy Jackson (cause how cool would that fucking be), Wonderland.

Tagging with no pressure at all: @aaliyasaurus @the-purity-pen @ezrasarm @starryeyedstories @karasong

#about me i guess #tag games #tag you're it

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somuchfuckingsalt · 4 years

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Percy Earned his leadership

Okay, the thing is I get almost personally offended when the fandom tries to write off Percy’s leadership because that boy earned the right to be CHB’s leader.

First off, the way that RR wrote the first five books was in a way where when you combine them together, you can track one cohesive story the same way you’d do with a single story.

TLT is Act 1. It establishes the setting, the characters, and the story. While there aren’t a lot of leadership moments for Percy, because it’s the first act Percy has a lot of moments where you can see his various skills that will lead him to becoming a good leader coming through. This includes his ability to think on his feet (how he dealt with the love ride), manipulate (Crusty), and make the necessary calls needed for the good of the world (sacrificing Sally to return to the surface and stop the war).

There isn’t a lot that happens in this book that happens that changes Percy’s internally and turns him into more of a leader. Aside from the decision to leave his mom behind, every moment of ‘leadership’ that he has are small, baby step versions of leadership. This book is mainly just getting Percy accustomed to being in the situations where a leader is needed while not necessarily pushing him into a leadership position (while Percy was technically the leader of the quest he relied heavily on Grover, Annabeth, and Chiron since he was so new to the world).

SoM is Act 2. Since we know who Percy is and we don’t need to be coaxed into loving him like the first book, this book is the one where Percy probably receives the most help. This is also the ‘training montage’ portion of the story and likely the reason that the Sea of Monsters was chosen as the setting.

There are a few moments in the book where Percy takes the necessary steps to become a leader but most notably are.

Making the decision to send Clarisse on ahead.

Stepping up and confronting Luke on behalf of all four of them.

The beginning of the book where the campers poorly treat him and Tyson is also important for two reasons. The first being that Percy sticking by Tyson despite the poor treatment shows what a good person he is, even though we know he’s resentful of the situation and Tyson. The second is that part of the reason Percy is so resentful is because the last time he was at camp he was Hot Shit. Everyone thought he was the bees knees because he had completed a quest and prevented a war. By having Percy be ostracized for his association with a “monster” Rick not only prevented Percy from developing an ego but it also teaches him something all leaders need to know - which is that public opinion is extremely fickle.

This is also the book where we first hear that Percy is an ‘unreliable weapon’. Kronos specifically does not want Percy to be the prophecy child because he knows that Percy is difficult to predict, manipulate, and control. The gods themselves would be way less scared about how powerful Percy is if he was easier to control. By Percy being difficult to manipulate, that means he’s not going to wind up pulling all the people he’s leading in the wrong direction because someone else is pulling his strings.

TTC is Act 3 and the mid-story low-point. This is the book where Percy fucks up the most.

He lets his jealousy of Thalia cloud his judgement, which directly leads to Annabeth getting captured.

He again lets his jealousy and pride cloud his judgement which causes the campers to lose to the Hunters.

A tiny moment but he’s so upset over Annabeth possibly becoming a hunter that he nearly kills an Ares camper with a javelin.

He’s so pissed at Mr. D he almost lets his anger prevent them from getting help, which would have led to all of them dying.

All of Percy’s fuck ups teach him that he needs to not let his emotions cloud his judgement and clearly see in BotL and TLO that Percy has learned his lesson. Even when his parents are in danger or he has his own personal drama with Annabeth and Rachel, he’s able to focus on the task at hand.

(The one time that Percy lets his emotions take control is when he takes off in the Labyrinth alone because he thinks Nico is nearby and he’s extremely worried about Nico because he cares a lot about him despite what Rick and his ghost writers say).

They also serve as a humbling experience to keep his ego in check, because at the beginning of the book we’re told that Percy had become accustomed to campers looking to him and up to him after having completed two dangerous quests. His issue with Thalia is that he feels she gets all the attention because Zeus is her father (whether that’s a justified feeling or not). This shows us that not only does Percy have some sort of expectation of leadership but also that as someone who spent his whole life either in the corner or in bad light, he has enjoyed being in the spotlight even if only a little bit, and now he’s missing it.

This is also the book where Percy accepts the prophecy and basically puts himself in a leadership position for the sake of protecting Nico. However, for me, this isn’t the most meaningful leadership moment.

Percy’s big leadership moment in this book for me is when he takes the sky from Artemis and this is the big moment for many reasons.

For one, it shows that he has learned from his past mistakes of wanting to be the one to turn to. He acknowledges he’s not going to defeat Atlas and takes himself out of the fight so Artemis can fight instead. This is a great juxtaposition to the beginning of the story when he wanted to be on the front lines during capture the flag and have Thalia instead guard the flag (even though Thalia was right about the river).

For two, it shows his ability to make sacrifices because he knows very well that he can die.

And for three, it is his idea, his decision, and he has to convince Artemis it’s also a good idea.

BotL is Act IV, the rising action. The stakes are higher, the situation is more dangerous than ever, and our protagonist is digging himself out from under his mistakes of the previous act.

This is the book that while Percy has learned most of what he needs to in order to become a leader and has even chosen a leadership role, he’s not the one in charge. Annabeth is.

This book is literally Percy being Annabeth’s second-in-command because before you can lead, you need to learn how to follow. This is important to happen here because in the previous three books Percy either didn’t want to be a leader and/or he was fucking it up and had a lot to learn.

This is the book that shows us two things: 1) Percy's ability to sacrifice his personal wants and desires for the greater good and 2) why he is the best option to lead.

He does #1 first at Mt. St. Helens when he sends Annabeth away, because in the situation she’s the one that needs to get back for the greater good. Then the second time was when he sacrificed a peaceful eternity with Calypso for the greater good (not Annabeth, which the fandom, Rick, and his ghost writers seem to have forgotten).

Everyone is going to hate me for what I’m about to say next but bear with me. The BotL is showing us why Annabeth, the daughter of war and battle strategy, is not going to be the leader of their army in the series climax. To be clear, Annabeth is not a bad leader, in fact she is a good one, my point for the next bit here is why she’s not the best option. Throughout the book we see Annabeth repeatedly making the same mistakes that Percy made in the previous book; she lets her emotions get the better of her and cloud her judgement.

The Sphynx moment is her letting her pride overtake her better judgement and she puts everyone at risk by refusing to answer the questions over an insult to her intelligence.

Absolutely everything with Rachel is an issue. From the first moment Annabeth sees Rachel and Percy together she is jealous and she treats Rachel terribly. First off, this is poor behaviour in general (and it should have been addressed in series and apologized for) but as a leader it’s poor for a few reasons.

Firstly, that as a leader she needs to know how to put her emotions aside in order to work with everyone, regardless of her personal feelings towards them. By not being able to be at least polite to Rachel, she risked Rachel saying fuck this, I’m out (probably the only reason Rachel didn’t is because she’s chill and she knew it was a world ending problem they were dealing with).

Secondly, it shows a certain amount of immaturity. The thing with jealousy is that although it’s not a reasonable emotion, how you handle it shows how mature you are. The fact that when Annabeth becomes petty and vindictive when she’s jealous shows a lot of emotional immaturity.

Thirdly, she doesn’t fucking learn anything as we see her behaving the same way towards Rachel in TLO, made worse by the fact that she’s also attacking Percy. This isn’t entirely her fault because these actions don’t have any consequences that make her want to change her behaviour. Leaders need to be able to learn and adapt and check their own behaviour.

(honestly, the fact that Annabeth ended the series without at least trying to get over her pride and abandonment issues makes me feel like her character arc is incomplete).

TLO is Act V and the grand finale. It’s the book where Percy is 100% the Boss. It is the culmination of everything that he’s learned and shows off all the things he has that makes him a good leader.

Leaders need to know when to make sacrifices, evident by when he leaves Beckendorf and when he takes a million-to-one chance by dipping in the Styx in order to gain a chance at winning this war.

He’s cunning and manipulative, shown when he bribes the river gods into playing for his team.

He’s incredibly good at battle strategy, shown when he manages to make a plan that allows 70ish campers/hunters to defend the entire island of Manhattan from hundreds, if not thousands of soldiers from Kronos’s army.

He’s well spoken, shown when he’s able to get the campers pumped before the first battle.

He cares about the people that he’s leading. In the previous book he didn’t know Castor’s name before he died and he felt bad about that, so in this book every time he mentions a demigod it’s by name.

He’s clever, shown when he’s able to figure out literally on the fly how to kill the pig and that the hero that dies in the prophecy is Luke. He also figures out that Typhon won’t be defeated without Poseidon and knows what to say in order to get Poseidon to abandon the ocean battle and help the rest of the gods.

(Lowkey-highkey Percy is the reason that Typhon was defeated at all, because without him Poseidon would have never joined the fight and the gods would have failed, which would have meant that regardless of Kronos dying they would have been fucked)

He’s able to focus on the task at hand despite his emotional problems. This includes the times that his parents are put in the line of fire, both when they’re asleep and awake and when the Annabeth/Rachel drama is making him all kinds of angry and upset. In all those situations he’s able to carry on and largely ignore them in order to focus on the war.

To me, his deference to Chiron before the war officially begins is Percy a) being so used to following Chiron in everything and respecting the centaur as a leader and b) not entirely confident in himself and needing that confirmation that he’s in charge. While it’s never stated in the books that Percy enjoys being a leader, we never really see Percy lamenting that he wishes someone else was in charge even when he was neck deep in danger and death and stress.

No one ever questions the fact that Percy’s in charge. There isn’t ever a power struggle. Even with Thalia and Annabeth - both of whom have their own merits to make them leaders and the ambition/pride to make them chafe under the leadership of someone else. Everyone easily accepts and looks to Percy to be their leader.

I’m sorry if this comes off as rant-y and I’m likely going to piss a bunch of people off with my opinion on Annabeth’s faults, but Percy literally went through so much shit and learned and changed in order to be a good leader that it honestly makes me angry when people write him off for the sake of uplifting someone else.

#percy jackson is a leader #percy jackson #pjo #if you've noticed i have entirely ignored everything that happens in hoo

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thecrenellations · 4 years

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Return of the Thief Notes, Part Two: The Book of Pheris, Volume 2, Chapters 1-5

Notes from my first read, October 2020. (Part One | Part Three | TaT)

Contents: Me losing my mind in multiple ways each chapter, helpful links, nighttime garden cousins, an Irene pun, notes from my second read, “mwt is just like going for it,” and “this is so fucked up and heartwarming.”

Format: Page number. My thoughts (Context?)

Volume 2

Illustration

Book 2 bro

Now we’re caught up and changed forever by lots of things

What printer’s apprentice made this?

Elephants!

Chapter 1

175. me too, Costis, me too. I am so tired. (it’s hard to sleep when your brain and heart and everything are fizzing because you’re reading Return of the Thief for the first time and a new Queen’s Thief book for the last time)

176. Klimun + Gerosthenes vibes [moon doodle]

Holes in documents. That’s cute

Gen!!! <3

Wtf Ansel was hoodwinked!

177. The Queen waited

They’re ridiculous

Hi Pheris

Wtf he stole her earrings for Melheret?!?

178. Excuse me??? What is this book (sleeveless leather tunic)

He still roams!!!

Tattoos!

179. a sentence I never fucking expected to read ever “The absence of tattoos…”

180. that’s interesting

Stacked like kindling wow oh dear

181. She wants him to move in lol

Lol sorry Ion

Did she just want them to leave the room?

182. I can’t with this… I can’t. Why is sex symbol Relius canon. (the play that featured him! It’s great, it’s great, it was just a lot to take in!)

Silver crown?

183. Cleon! Rude!

Did they call Costis to deck him?

Queen scene!! <3

184. This is an epic. Abt Costis. Dirty stranger

185. he’s “the high king”

Lol

187. prophet (Pheris sure makes Costis sound like one)

Shut up Piloxides

188. resources for war! (book launch foreshadowing part two! She talked a lot about this kind of thing as well, and recommended the book Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army)

189. “we”

What were you gonna say (Gen almost says something to Costis part one)

193. RIP The Magus Archives … it was not to be. Yet.

194. Melenze’s doorstep. Why? Bc Melenze is Ferria’s dog. (idk dude that line from ACoK has just never left me)

195. This is … a big war

196. Oh gen

Nighttime garden cousins.

Chapter 2

197. wtf did Relius think of that play

Also … not a peep from the sacred mountain huh

198. wtf will happen with Cleon

with Erondites

with THE MOUNTAIN

a lot going on

everyone was in that room but Kamet! So close!

199. Cute Fordad + Gen friendship (I never said these notes would make me look smart)

Same 2 T + R! :) It’s not them is it? (I NEVER SAID THESE NOTES WOULD MAKE ME LOOK SMART)

Poor Teleus

200. gdi Gen

Excuse me? Is he worried for Pheris??? (taking his tablet)

They trust each other! C’mon!

Sure he has reasons

202. oh dear. :( that’s … the worst cover story

Also falling

203. wow almost like a story huh

Ula’s altar :(

Why haven’t we had a Gen and Costis scene IN THREE BOOKS

205. I just … I don’t know if he’s just miserable or if it’s all a plan. I feel like I should know it’s all a plan. But he really feels like he has far to go. He’s just a mess and the same and so different. (having a small Gen meltdown)

205. he did give him the gun

Odd that he missed Quedue

206. he’s gonna bite them (buckle up! it’s abdication time!)

207. Power. Power. Power. Power.

Thx 4 the editorializing Pheris

208. Gen is making choices. That’s a choice.

209. There’s KoA down the drain

Aaaand he’s Eugenides

“Eugenides stared into the future”

The page of like 3 different tumblr posts: Trophy husband, Library, No! yes!

210. make sure he doesn’t leave lol

211. Pheris :(

Also fucked up timing for Irene

I love them

212. again with the birthday book

He’s still the king in the narration

Go on the roof! So close!

213. EUGENIDES IS ALWAYS APPROPRIATE my motto

Viper! Bastard!

Oh shit. I love them.

214. “our treaty” “our queen”

AAAH! Wedding night!

Asked her to leave!

Smash Erondites and peace out, literally

215. a frank talk

HE SAID IT.

216. The Bructs?

Wait is this his grandfather (taking a moment to remember all about Susa)

Also that’s Costis territory

217. who is this lion

218. #3 to Gen.

219. hmmm ring

There’s been a lot to unpack wow.

Did this happen, Pheris? Pheris?!

220. Atté atté!

(Dear reader: for some strange reason, I completely forgot about taking notes on the final pages of this chapter. These notes are from when I reread those pages a few minutes later.)

Erondites full cup to brimming

The Pherises…

We must think of others before ourselves … occasionally

I do not like Orutus

Don’t fence Costis in! Does this count as prison? No (I had a square on my bingo board for “someone ends up in prison” ... but it turned out to be for someone else)

221. damn Costis

Aaah

Costis …

Irene… your jokes (I mean, it’s a joke, but also it is very real for her.)

SHE SAID IT!

My heart

222. where is Relius going?

SPYING

What you see and what you think it means (I love these instructions/this quote so much)

So are Susa + Erondites 2gether or what (listen ... proximity generates meaning in these books)

Also, like

What can

I say

WHAT CAN I SAY (Hell yeah! Never more glad to be wrong about the magus)

[page long list of doubles and parallels - from Cleons and Pherises and Ions to god-character and character-character connections]

Also the fact that in KoA and TaT Relius was like … oh … no … I just live a gentle life being friends with my king and queen and being scholarly. But no. He’s SPYING and TRAVELING MYSTERIOUSLY and has MANY LOVERS and also has been WITH TELEUS ALL ALONG and there is a PLAY written about him and he has a ~messenger~ network and PLAYS THE FLUTE and DOESN’T MAKE HIS BED and DISLIKES MATH and oh and he’s VERY HANDSOME! (Yes I was losing it, I hope my note from after the poem helps show some of the feelings behind this rant.)

Fucking … Wine shop. Should have known.

Chapter 3

224. ominous

Hello magus!

Sophos … babe (his impatience!)

225. Magus … cool your socks that’s your bff (he’s just describing Helen’s dead body! Fun!!!!)

In the van

That was good I love them

Why is it Couples Hour?

226. finally we’re out of the capital of Attolia

Ok they’re so cute

She was NEVER Helen in ACoK narration!

Also – Pheris. This is all Pheris. (Pheris plus information others told him!)

227. Bringing each other up to date – that’s their thing. Talking forever

All this talk of shooting Therespides

228. EX FUCKING SCUSE ME (time to learn a lot about the country of Eddis)

He was 15! (or almost 15)

He didn’t know! Or did he!

The MoW!

All thru Pheris

Fuck you magus

When did he know

229. EXCUSE ME

The emeralds?

Assumed the worst?

That classic quote about little to do with winter but with “seducing other people’s lovers”

230. yeah Sophos that’s a lost cause (“spare me my blushes”)

Also she didn’t answer you

What are they laughing about (the generally nameless men we’re learning many things about this chapter)

233. Gen I think it’s fair to say that was a mistake

234. wtf Gen

GEN! he just. Had those. (the jewels!)

Her crown

I cannot

235. Gen!

237. Crash

Her CHANGES

238. THESE TWO

239. called annux

Yeah it’s like … a family meeting (the war council)

Bring your father to work day

241. Oh no.

Stenides! Boagus!!!!!!!

EDDIS!

Wolves! Lol

mwt is just like going for it

243. aww

Eddis > Boagus > Gen

244. Yeah I’m with her on this. (“if that doesn’t frighten you, it should”)

Chapter 4

245. Gen and Magus scene yes!

Two people affected by his long hair (Gen and the magus? I think?)

Pheris are you there?

Gen … you used to wish yourself out of existence

Wow

Hair vanity

Yeah also battlefield

Ion is a darling tbh

248. Is he. Is he going to fight all of them

Also they are all his cousins huh

AULUS! I liked you!

Same, Hilarion

Taking a page out of Costis’s book?

You have definitely seen it before. (I mistook his lie for truth!)

Will Costis hear about this? (please)

249. #4 to Gen!

Pheris where are you

Why doesn’t the Continent want to conquer them (do I get partial credit for this)

A tattoo!

250. “Do not offend the gods”

Honestly … too bad Helen DIDN’T do this

251. he said he’d give all he had

I’m sure there are rules

253. Just men? :( (let everybody fight him!)

Ornon is back! I mean, of course he is

Also yea they practice

HELLO ORNON

A house being built … or one knocked down. Nice

Is Teleus in on this?

254. Pheris called him my king!

255. I wanna know which guards though

:( he’d been faking

Kicked him in the head (ouch)

256. “when he fell”

I … don’t like this

He never gives up. The thieves don’t have limits. They have flash points.

Stepped on his hand

“Enough Gen” – what Irene said?

257. :( :( :( :( :( :( :(

The magus. I forgot he was there.

The magus said … nevermind …

The magus is probs very into this as a cultural thing. Also he was talking to the MoW

Pigeon. The sky. :( Like in TT (OH BOY, THE SKYYYY)

If there was a god, Pheris would see…

258. They’ve, they’ve been through a lot.

Oh god what’s next

259. I … no. not in his arms to the palace.

The palace where….

The stairs…

They are all 3 lookers. Basilisks and brass and lead

I hate this. But I love this.

I will someday see this differently.

Ah yes… the grunt. Approval.

260. Honestly, this is so fucked up and heartwarming. These books.

Lol don’t defend Hilarion, we know him

Eddis visits him.

Attolia watches him.

261.WTF Gen. I knew it. Why.

Crying or laughing? Crying? :(

How does this not undermine her now that he is her king?

But … what he wouldn’t do for her.

262. “he did fine”

This book is like… Reasons Gen Says Sorry

So, so… - Helen

GEN!

263. I am right. I am always right. It’s a curse.

Helen :( :( :(

The amount of times these people have seen him beaten.

He’s like … self destructive, but in a way that gives himself more power. Which he hates.

Gen, let them in. Let them in.

Chapter 5

264. honeycomb

OH NO. is it happening?

266. I’m just supposed to accept this?!! What does it mean?!

267. … a my king moment … important

But like … now can he fight?

Caryatid? [doodle after I looked it up]

268. Teleus!

C’mon Teleus. Everyone you love or respect loves him!

Honestly Pheris and Teleus … not a duo I expected

THESE TWO ARE SO DEDICATED TO TELLING HIM THAT! Ok I should chill. At least he said “may.” These are like … Pheris’s life lessons.

Honestly… I love that Teleus likes poetry, or at least likes it for Relius.

269. Lol Legarus. It’s been years! I mean, I guess that was a big deal for him… (almost being executed is a big deal for most people.)

Does he not love Gen because of Relius? Because Gen manipulated him? Because he keeps sending away his successor? Why on earth not! Hop on that train! (...)

It’s interesting that their relationship is the one that touches Pheris, not Gen and Irene. Hm.

Also … “Idiot.” The parallels.

“relatively gently” (it’s so good)

~Teleus here to talk about love~

This book is full of surprises.

270. That is NOT the bright side, Gen (“I could use my newfound authority to insist on going into battle”)

271. BUNNY! Wtf is a wineglass warrior

Very cute everyone, good job.

Still sad about Helen’s tears.

271. Gen. Don’t say these things. [volcano doodle]

272. SEE I was worried about this! The doubt!

I am not ok

This is TOO MANY Eddisian Revelations (Lader time)

Yeah. Wow.

273. Cleon x5

I … his grandfather

No.

Baby Helen begging

How did Pheris get this scene

Gen chose Cleon for his plan

275. IRENE WITH THE STATS!

276. lol Gen

My brother Sounis!

277. Missing Relius club.

Where is he though

Yes! Sophos Gen food fight!

Grapes!

“Wisdom”

He’s “the king” here and in KoA bc that’s the story but also that’s who he is to Pheris and Costis

278. So how did that Irene and MoW meeting go anyway?

How does Aulus know???

Thief short story! Probably terrible to reread, oh no

279. Are … are Aulus and Boagus together???! (“his slightly smaller partner”)

This feels … potentially traumatic … but fun? Idk

Fleece

280. This dang book. No rules!

The chandelier! So dramatic!

Mwt had … a lot to put into this one. A lot. A lot.

283. “not the Thief he was chasing”

284. The queens! The salute!

He can’t give this up.

Official Worries:

100,000 soldiers heading towards Kamet

Re: Lyopidus, Gen called Sophos his brother. Helen apparently might BE his sister. Temenus and Stenides are also going to a war where 9/10 will probably die.

Also

the MoW could have been a king if he’d stolen Helen’s throne. A lot there.

why does this book have the vibe of the library post, my comic from 2010, the king and queen interactions here, and the military tactics dream

#part twooo #word clouds next #the queen's thief #return of the thief #mwt #rott spoilers #return of the thief spoilers #something i

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afrobi-loves · 4 years

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Am I the only one having fun watching Siren lmao like idk if I’m just goofy asf or what but I loved last nights episode! Like that Mommy and Me class...Ryn said “y’all babies gon get eaten” like sis was gon get arrested lol. And then Ben think he Aquaman or some shit. Ben just fucking up and it’s so funny cause every time something bad happens, you just blame Ben cause...he’s Ben. You know what’s really funny??? The entire purpose of Ben leaving Ian underwater to die was so that he wouldn’t lose Ryn or Maddie, but at this point, all of his actions are what’s ultimately gonna push them both away. Maddie being able to you know distance herself in a healthy way, like it being her choice is great! Ben and Ryn however are trapped in Pownall history. Like they’re both trying so hard to stay in eachothers loop. Ben essentially giving himself ‘abilities’ to help Ryn like trying to survive for an insane amount of time underwater. Ryn wants to raise her baby on land and underwater. Like the way she was struggling to let the baby go with Levi and Mate, something that’s natural for them, was...unsettling to me. Like I get she’s been on land for so long she has human feelings and stuff, a maternal instinct, I get that! But for the well-being of her child, it should have come more natural for her. And like Ben making Levi promise to protect Hope, like it was cute, but it’s literally Levi’s job and Mate is her father, like why wouldn’t they?!?! That baby is literally everything to Ryn’s tribe!!! What I’m saying is, basically Ben and Ryn are conforming?? themselves to eachothers lifestyles, Ben trying to become a hybrid of sorts I guess...having mermaid abilities and Ryn wanting to stay on land majority of the time....its not good. This is getting long so let me wrap this up! Basically what I’m saying is, they need to let go of eachother and heal their own minds, like a reset. I have a crazy gut feeling that this might be the last season we get of Siren. It kinda sucks but I wouldn’t mind it if they ended it the way I think it’s gonna end, which is Ryn leaving to go back to the water permanently. If Ryn is able to leave her family, Ben, Maddie, Helen, people who she has grown to love and care about, it would break that cycle, it’d be a turning point for them. Like instead of it being obsession that lead to destruction, it would be love that lead to healing and balance. I feel like it would be the point where humans and mermaids, hell even hybrids, would be at peace you know. Humans working to help keep balance in the ocean and mermaids being able to hunt and survive. The whole reason all of this even happened was because in season one, Ryn and Donna were hunting for food! Their species was starving and went to land looking for food. They were basically at war with fisherman, then with the fucking oil company like there needs to be a point where humans work to keep balance. Protecting the ocean, while also benefiting from it. Protecting it resulting in saving hundreds of species including the mermaids in which, I would hope, would lead to balance within the tribes. I don’t know, I’ve rambled on long enough. I’m bored and sleep deprived. I hope y’all understand all of that mess lol I’m so excited to see whats gonna happen!

#i feel like none of this made sense towards the end jdjfkfjk #i need to sleep #siren #siren freeform

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jellybeanbeing · 4 years

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Avatar: The Last Airbender Book Tag

I recently watched and finished Avatar: The Last Airbender for the first time in my life and it was sooooo good. I wanted to do a book tag to celebrate this event so here we are! This tag was created by Hannah from A Clockwork Reader!

Water:

Katara & Sokka: Best sibling relationship // Declan, Ronan, and Matthew Lynch from The Dreamer trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater

These three are far from perfect, but they are my favorite sibling trio. They are so different from each other but it adds to their dynamic. They can never fully understand each other and the choices they make but they’re there to care for the other when they’re in trouble. Sure, they don’t get along a lot, but not every set of siblings does. One of my favorite things about this trio is that they had a period of time where they hated each other and wanted nothing to do with each other (mainly Declan and Ronan) because of what had happened to their family but overtime, they learn to mend that wound and grow closer together. I just love my angsty boys.

Yue: Favorite star crossed lovers // Emma & Julian from The Dark Artifices series by Cassandra Clare

I know that a lot of people do not like this couple, and that’s valid. I really love this couple though. What can I say? I just love my angsty characters. But really, it’s the yearning and the “will they come out of this situation alive” pain that fuels my love for this couple. Their relationship is filled with so much intensity, and then you add in that factor of “we don’t know if they’ll have a happy ending” and it just hurts, but in a good way. They are strong-willed characters who have so much pain built up inside them and the one thing they so desperately want is each other and to be together but they can’t. Say what you want about this couple, but they are one of my top tier OTPs.

Blood Bending: A book with disturbing/unsettling concept // Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

It feels odd to choose the second book in the series to talk about, but this book has one scene that almost made me vomit, and that has never ever happened to me before. This entire series’ concept is deeply unsettling because it’s set in a world where technology is so advanced that even death by natural causes has been conquered so people called ‘Scythes’ are tasked to keep the population at bay. Within that world, there is corruption with how Scythes choose to kill their victims. Before I say what I say, just know that I really like this series. Anyway. I have never been more nervous and angry while reading a book and I thought I had reached my limit with book one, but no. Book two was just a fucking treat. The ending was fucked. The buildup to it was fucked. What Goddard did to Tyger was what made me almost vomit, and just thinking about it and Goddard makes me want to rip my head off because what the fuck. I still haven’t read the third book yet, but I will. Soon. Maybe.

Earth:

Toph: A character whose strength surprised you/or surprised the other characters in the book // Kell Maresh from the Shades of Magic series by V.E Schwab

We all know Kell to be a powerful magician, but at the time when I read this, I didn’t really understand how powerful he was capable of being. He’s one of the few Antari in that world so obviously it would make sense that he has a huge amount of power. It wasn’t until the second book when it clicked in my head that Kell has the power to do so much more destruction. In the tournament scenes through Lila’s perspective, I started to see the extent of his powers because of how much he was holding back and it blew my freaking mind.

The Tales of Ba Sing Se: Best short story/poetry collection // none

I have not read a lot of short story/poetry collections that really stand out to me so yeah, none for me.

Kyoshi Warriors: Best warrior character // Helene Aquilla from An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir

I love Helene Aquilla so much. She’s such a badass and it’s great. What I really love about her is that she’s not just a pretty face who wields a sword around. Yes, she’s strong physically and mentally at the beginning of the series, but during the journey she goes on, all of that is broken down until she’s at her most vulnerable. We are constantly seeing the turmoil inside her and it adds so much to her character. She’s far from perfect but those imperfections are what makes her such a strong character.

Fire:

Zuko: Best redemption arc/a redemption arc that should have happened // Matthias Helvar from the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

Literally, almost everyone hates him and I understand why but the amount of growth he goes through is one of the best things about his character. Sure, he’s a straight pasty white boy who, on the outside, is boring compared to the other five (or six???) characters but seeing his development from being a bigoted asshole to a more understanding and caring character was something I loved reading about. It takes a lot to unlearn the things you grew up thinking was true and heavily believed in, and to see a different view of the world. I do understand the meaning of his end but there was so much more potential for character to really grow even more than it did and I will forever be bitter.

Iroh: Wisest character // Evelyn Hugo from The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Evelyn Hugo is such a great character. She starts from the bottom and then climbs her way to the top by doing things that are considered to be not ethically correct. She’s aware of all of that and yet she feels little to no shame about it because she did what she had to for the dream she wanted. She makes mistakes and has flaws but that never brings down her character. After all of that, she still holds herself up. She went through so much in her life and throughout the book, she provides so much insight on the choices she made and how they affected her.

Azula: Best downfall // Bonnie from The End of the Fucking World S2

I know there’s a comic but I’m going to talk about the Netflix series, and I know it’s not a book but I really wanted to talk about Bonnie and her downfall. Would you call it a downfall? I don’t know really, but I guess I’ll consider it as one. Her downfall was by far the most emotional that I have ever seen/read about. I feel like episode 7 was just a perfect episode to capture Bonnie’s character and the downfall she has. Not to mention that it’s a fucking great episode and it will remain one of my favorites. Bonnie is a character who grew up with a lack of love and has seemingly detached herself from a lot of things and people. I say this because for the majority of the show, it seems as thought Bonnie is unfeeling and emotionless, but there are moments when her emotions just override and are visually expressed. In episode 7 when she confronts James and Alyssa, Alyssa asks Bonnie, “what happens next?” and it literally clicked in my head that Bonnie never really had a sense of purpose in the world until she met the professor. From there, her purpose was to be his “little salmon” but that ended up not happening and from there, her purpose is to get revenge for him by hunting down and killing James and Alyssa. From there, what does Bonnie do? There’s nothing left. The entire diner scene is just fantastic yet so heartbreaking. At the end of the episode, you just get Bonnie saying, “I’m really tired” and it hits so hard because of all that Bonnie went through.

Air:

Appa: Favorite fictional animal/pet // none

I actually have not read a lot of books with a fictional animal/pet that is super prominent in the story or that I have a big attachment to, so again, none.

Aang: Purest cinnamon roll // Aled Last from Radio Silence by Alice Oseman

Aled Last deserves the whole world and that’s a fact. He has such a pure soul and good intentions, and the fact that he goes through so much hurt in the book, hurts a lot. Aled is just a character you want to hug and protect. It’s so difficult to explain why Aled is a pure cinnamon roll because he just is and you just have to read the book to understand that this boy deserves nothing but love.

Avatar State: A stubborn character/a character that struggles with letting go // Elias Veturius from An Ember in the Ashes series by Sabaa Tahir

I love Elias Veturius with my whole heart and mind and soul, and you should too because he’s just a freaking amazing character. The journey he goes through in this series is so fucking painful because he constantly has to do things and become things that he doesn’t want to but he has to for the sake of keeping the ones he loves safe AND IT’S NOT FAIR THAT HE HAS TO GO THROUGH SO MUCH PAIN. We are always seeing Elias at war with himself and duty, and from this, he does make decisions that causes consequences but ultimately, he chooses duty, leaving the ones he loves behind in order to protect them.

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iron--spider · 5 years

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Worried that Tony Stark is going to die in Avengers: Endgame? Do you want proof that he logically shouldn’t and the citations needed to die on that hill in the event that the powers that be do the unthinkable? Well step right up, fans and friends, because @whimsicalethnographies and I have compiled everything you might need, from canon quotes to future promotional appearances, that prove Tony Stark is not destined to die, and if they do kill him, they are ignoring the path that they laid out themselves and are thus causing his character arc to fail.

Here we go:

Canon evidence

“Don’t waste your life, Stark”

“A man with everything and nothing”

Both of these quotes are referencing family. Yinsen was referring to his own loving family, and Tony revealed that he didn’t have one (of course it’s hinted that this is Pepper—she’s supposedly his frantic text when they’re first attacked—but he doesn’t explicitly have it or her yet). Yinsen’s sacrifice was not for Tony to become Iron Man. It was for Tony to have a life, to have a family. What he didn’t have in the beginning and what he wanted to stay alive for. Tony ultimately fulfilling Yinsen’s true wish for him to stop isolating himself and make a family would be the most satisfying way for Tony’s story to end.

Yinsen is able to die peacefully because he has family that has already passed, and he wants to see them again. There is no way Marvel can properly parallel this because Tony’s family (the ones he genuinely loves anyway, other than his mother) are still alive, or still in the future (his children). If he dies he will leave everyone behind. The love of his life will still be here, and he’ll never be able to have children. If Pepper is pregnant, this is even worse. He will have a child, as he wanted to do, as he was looking forward to doing, but he will never meet it. This is especially cruel.

This would be a gross subversion of Yinsen, and ruin any meaning the character actually had in Tony’s life. He wanted him to be more, to have more, and to Yinsen, more was a family who was waiting for him.

In IM3, a little boy in a restaurant ominously whispers, “How did you get out of the wormhole?” It’s heavily implied that that line is entirely in Tony’s head as he’s descending into a panic attack and represents his fear of the unknown, and his fear of how he’ll handle the unknown, essentially finding the man behind the Mandarin mask who is coming after the people he loves AND fear of what he’ll do if he doesn’t have his armor to protect him. He obsessively spent a year(ish) building suits (of questionable quality) to keep that unknown away. By the end, he’s faced *that* fear, the fear of who he is without the suits. His anxiety/PTSD shifts from that point to Thanos himself, but he doesn’t yet have a face or an actual explanation until Infinity War, even though the magnitude of it is ramped up in Ultron by Scarlet Witch using the power of the Mind Stone. This is the start of facing an unknown, and if it follows the narrative comparison, coming out on the other side victorious, better, and stronger as a person. Rising above and moving on, not dying in the process, continuing to carry the self-inflicted weight of the entire universe.

“A famous man once said, ‘we create our own demons.’” Dying when he comes into contact with and defeats his true demon—“my only curse is you”—is not giving Tony his good ending.

An article on Iron Man 3, arguably the most important movie in Tony’s arc https://filmschoolrejects.com/finding-the-place-of-iron-man-3-in-the-marvel-cinematic-universe/

“Tony is defined by his desire to set arms down and leave war behind; Steve is defined by his inability to do the same”

“If Marvel really wants to give Tony the ending he deserves, they’ll let him live. Fans will continue to push their predictions down the pipleline until they eventually come true, but the arc laid out for Tony, starting in Iron Man 3, is clear. He needs to let go, but he can’t. The conclusion of Tony Stark’s arc isn’t death; it’s learning to pass responsibility on not to an army of robots, but to the people he trusts. After ten years, Tony Stark deserves his time in the sun.”

Tony’s PTSD - it would be a punch in the face to those of us with anxiety/PTSD/OCD who identify with him. He's got one of the most realistic portrayals of mental illness in film, and the powers that be acknowledge that, and it would SUCK for a company like Marvel to rip it all away when he's almost to the point of letting go of the responsibility he's carried—rightly or wrongly, because Thanos would still be collecting those stones even if Tony had never been in that cave—since the beginning of his story. Dying? That's not letting go. That's saying "sorry you went through all this, it sucks and then you die, because it really was all YOUR responsibility and you have to suffer to fix it."

In Ultron, Helen Cho says Tony’s “bulky metal suits will be left in the dust”. Tony says that’s “exactly the plan”. He wants to retire. He wants to be able to stop being Iron Man so he can live his life.

“Isn’t that why we fight? So we can end the fight and go home?” Tony in Ultron. None of this has ever been continuous for Tony. He’s consistently been heading towards his future goals and fighting when he has to—he gets derailed because he feels it’s his duty to step back in. He does not seek out the fights, and he doesn’t necessarily want to be a part of them. He wants to make his life and that’s where his narrative is heading. If it doesn’t make it there, it fails. He fails.

“Maybe I should take a page out of Barton’s book. Build Pepper a farm, hope nobody blows it up.” “The simple life.” “You’ll get there one day. “I don’t know. Family, stability...the guy who wanted all that went into the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.” End of Ultron conversation with Steve. Tony wants to settle down, buy a farm for Pepper (representing retirement and the start of his family). He is the one, out of himself and Steve, that is actively seeking to “tap out” of the fighting life so he can be with Pepper, and start a family. Steve says “I’m home” when he hears the soldiers chanting.

Wedding conversations in Civil War, Homecoming and Infinity War. The amount of mentions this has is huge. It would be a major hanging thread if it never happens.

The original plan was for Pepper to be pregnant during CW, however this was changed to put Tony in a darker place. They are going for Dad-Tony eventually, and that wasn’t conducive with where he was in CW. Yet.

Happy has been carrying “that thing” since 2008. Would they really do that to Happy/Jon Favreau, perhaps the other father of the MCU as he directed Iron Man—have him carry the ring for 10 goddamn years just to cut that storyline off with no resolution? Happy deserves to see this man-child he’s chased around forever get married and settle down.

Specifically, “Wong, you’re invited to my wedding.” It would be a terrible subversion if instead he goes to his funeral.

And per the writers (who also wrote the CA movies),

Markus: Things always shift in the writing, but I think we all knew where it was going and it was a matter of how best to get there so that it feels most satisfying or most earned. What was that adjustment process like? How much did the script have to change from when you were breaking it in 2015 to when they went to film it? Were there big things that you had to account for that you just hadn't had any idea about? Markus: Because of the other movies? No. I don't think there was anything massive that we had to change gears for. There were things that became better because of the value that the other movie had acquired. https://www.etonline.com/how-the-avengers-endgame-writers-arrived-at-the-most-satisfying-ending-possible-exclusive-123477 That would be an absolutely collosal shift to wipe it away entirely

The baby conversation in Infinity War. Why set all this up so blatantly if they weren’t going to use it? For a cheap emotional rug pull? Tony wants children, not just another set of his genes in the world.

And Pepper’s response; she doesn’t want children if he’s still Iron Man, for fear that he’ll be distracted, or something worse. If she’s going to have a kid with him, she wants him there. If the point was simply a baby, not a baby AND Tony, this is pointless exposition. Also, Pepper has thought Tony was dead at least four times: IM1, Avengers, IM3 and IW. Would they really make her watch it happen for real after that? Rob her of her family and make her worst fear come true, right in front of her eyes?

Tony as Odysseus - A lot of us—who've watched and identified with this character—realize that this is an Odyssey, not a Tragedy. Odysseus makes all kinds of mistakes while trying to get home, but he gets there, after 10 years. And then,

“As for yourself, death shall come to you from the sea, and your life shall ebb away very gently when you are full of years and peace of mind, and your people shall bless you. All that I have said will come true.” He makes it home. He got super lucky a lot of times, but he made it home, to his family. He found his everything.

“You’re a hard man, Odysseus. Your fighting spirit’s stronger than ours, your stamina never fails. You must be made if iron head to foot.”

Alternate translation- “You’re a hard man, Odysseus, stronger/ Than other men, and you never wear out, / A real iron-man.” (both quotes taken from starkravinghazelnuts, http://starkravinghazelnuts.tumblr.com/post/181064173168/so-i-did-more-research-about-tony-steve-and-thor)

Promotional

https://www.themeparkinsider.com/flume/201812/6461/ Tony Stark is heading up a new rollout in Disneyland parks. Speaks for itself, they’re making Tony have a very strong presence in the parks. Disney is for kids, kids love Iron Man, and they will be aware of his death and reminded of it when they see him and Stark Industries everywhere on their family vacation. Longtime fans will also have to deal with this. If they were actually going to kill him, why would they make his presence in the future of these parks so big?

“In California and Paris, Tony Stark is retrofitting two of his father’s Stark Industries sites into new hubs for training and innovation. Through partnerships with S.H.I.E.L.D., Pym Technologies, Masters of the Mystic Arts and the new Worldwide Engineering Brigade, The Avengers and their allies will forge new global campuses to champion the next generation of heroes.” We know Hank Pym hates the Starks because he feels Howard betrayed him by trying to replicate the Pym Particle. As Scott says, “Hank Pym always said you could never trust a Stark.” How does this work, unless there is something forward that allows them to establish a better relationship? This can’t be retrofitted to anything before a potential Endgame end.

https://youtu.be/0tW77VFKQC0 https://youtu.be/EVIu43xSeYY In the Ant-Man and the Wasp ride, they collaborate with Tony/Iron Man in their ride mission. You see him, they speak to him, and it seems like a new storyline. It connects to the Iron Man Experience’s storyline, the ride they already had there in Hong Kong.

https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/marvels-iron-man-vr-ps4/ upcoming Iron Man VR game. It would be very morbid playing this game, from Tony’s POV, if Tony is dead.

That giant Iron Man statue for Endgame in Hong Kong (https://www.timeout.com/hong-kong/news/a-giant-4-5m-iron-man-installation-and-life-sized-avengers-have-taken-over-hysan-place-041219). Imagine coming across that thing if you just saw him die. It’s staying up until May 13th. Do they want it looking like a place of mourning? A monument with flowers and notes? Shit, that’s a spoiler in itself that I don’t think they want. It would also be incredibly depressing.

https://www.tmz.com/2018/01/12/avengers-4-wrap-party-cake-drops-clues/ Endgame wrap party cake. If Tony died, he would be on this thing. It wouldn’t even be considered a spoiler because Iron Man is literally the face of the MCU, so people wouldn’t look twice at it. But his absence does say something—that they didn’t think they needed to pay tribute to him here, because he is still around to pay tribute to later, if need be. This cake is implying different characters are in peril, with certain hands shooting up out of the ground. But Iron Man is only represented with his logo on the bottom, as are all the rest of the heroes. If he died, he’d be the centerpiece. More on this theory by starkravinghazelnuts http://starkravinghazelnuts.tumblr.com/post/180160474003/the-cake-theory-proposes-that-cap-nat-and-bruce

Cast quotes regarding Endgame

Gwyneth - (on a picture of her and RDJ) “you know I will be this guy’s Pepper any time he needs me” why would she say this if he’s dead? If he was dead and she didn’t want to spoil, she didn’t need to say anything at all.

And this wasn’t a one-off referring to playing opposite him, she was referring to Tony/Pepper, after an interview in which she said she was probably done, but would come back for a day if they wanted her.

Gwyneth again - https://www.etonline.com/how-the-avengers-endgame-writers-arrived-at-the-most-satisfying-ending-possible-exclusive-123477 “Pepper and Tony have had a real long journey together. She obviously starts as his dutiful assistant, and then the relationship evolves, and now this decade later they're married, and they have a child. Their relationship has evolved in all of the ways that great romances evolve.” Now, I always saw this as—Gwyneth was done filming when this quote was given. She was aware of the end of her character’s journey, so this is obviously something that happens at the END chronologically. Why would she reference something smack dab in the middle of the film, especially if it was just going to be erased by time travel/quantum realm shenanigans? She’s also wearing an engagement ring and a wedding band in some interview photos where she’s in costume. Plus, possible/probable spoilers…….Pepper is going to be suiting up as Rescue, which really knocks off the possibility of a mid-movie child for Pepper and Tony. It would be completely against her character to suit up and leave a kid behind, considering how much flack she gave Tony for his suits before, and how her hesitation to have a child hinged on Tony re-inserting his arc reactor. Plus, on a more emotional note, Gwyneth refers to Tony/Pepper as a great romance, and it is. But I feel like she and Robert combined would not be happy at all if the writers were to destroy this great romance by killing one of its members. That way it falls flat, it never finishes, it doesn’t get its rightful end. I feel like she and RDJ (who has significant sway over what happens to Tony) would argue against this happening. This is a great romance, and those end in happily ever afters. This isn’t West Side Story. This is a Disney movie.

Evans - https://youtu.be/bH0frwdtmXM (when asked to describe the movie in one word on GMA) “Satisfying. It’s like TV shows, the final finale—how many times do they stick the landing? How many times do you walk away saying that went exactly how I wanted it to go? This movie—I think they deliver, I think they really do stick the landing in terms of, you know—addressing the arcs and really finding a completion.” I think this definitely speaks for itself. The arcs are important and we know what they are. One of our main concerns is them tossing out the true endings to these arcs for cheap, cruel emotional shocks. If Chris says specifically that the arcs are addressed, then we know what that SHOULD mean for each character. Plus, saying “that went exactly how I wanted it to go”? I don’t believe any genuine fans want deaths. Especially fans with children. People who genuinely care about these characters want to see them succeed and live to reap the rewards. So saying it went “exactly as I wanted it to go” and that they “stick the landing” bodes well for things ending up nicely for our heroes. Nothing in his speech here screams death.

Hemsworth - https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a27110673/avengers-endgame-chris-hemsworth-interview/ also uses the word cathartic. Nothing about Tony dying would be cathartic. It would be sickening and depressing and we wouldn’t get anything out of it.

Taika Waititi https://www.express.co.uk/entertainment/films/1082838/Avengers-Endgame-Korg-Taika-Waititi-Thor-Ragnarok-Avengers-Infinity-War-MCU-Marvel “They keep their cards so close to their chests, but from what I’ve heard, it wraps up everything in a really great way." “It feels like the fans are getting rewarded for hanging around for 10 years and watching all these films.” “Because the more you know about the characters and the stories and stuff, the more satisfying this film will be.” These feel particularly important. A reward would not be killing the biggest character in the MCU. And he mentions the fact that really knowing the characters makes everything more satisfying. We all know where Tony is heading, and what he wants. These quotes particularly point to Tony surviving, and maybe everyone surviving.

Scarlett - https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/scarlett-johansson-calls-avengers-endgame-beautiful-valentine-decade-madness/ “a beautiful valentine to a decade of madness” Not ‘my bloody valentine’. A gift full of love for the people that have been here for ten years watching these characters grow.

RDJ - https://twitter.com/our_rdj/status/1118891286763798528?s=21 https://twitter.com/caplovesfondue/status/1118764023397249024?s=21 https://twitter.com/MCU_Direct/status/1119043210553249792 “I guarantee you that this will pay off. This Avengers Endgame, I’ve said it before, is our finest hour.” “The last eight minutes of that movie are maybe the best eight minutes in the entire history of the whole run of them, in a way. Because everyone’s involved. So I was delighted.” Both of these quotes, from the man himself, the man who loves Tony Stark with his entire being, do not feel like a Tony death at all. Because if we know Tony, we know what a payoff for him is. It’s getting the life, the family he’s been fighting for since the beginning. And as for the second one, logically, eight minutes does not feel like enough time to send Tony off in an out-of-left-field death. And I think our final battle will be longer than eight minutes. So I personally believe he’s referring to the wedding. He loves Tony/Pepper enough to hold their wedding in extremely high regard. He’s always delighted with Tony’s happiness and Tony advancing in his journey, especially with Pepper by his side.

“Cathartic” - https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/herocomplex/la-et-hc-avengers-endgame-press-conference-20190407-story.html said by the Russos at the press conference

“Satisfying” - https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a27110673/avengers-endgame-chris-hemsworth-interview/ , https://www.etonline.com/how-the-avengers-endgame-writers-arrived-at-the-most-satisfying-ending-possible-exclusive-123477

“Earned” https://www.etonline.com/how-the-avengers-endgame-writers-arrived-at-the-most-satisfying-ending-possible-exclusive-123477 When you think about Tony, you do not think his death is earned at this stage, because so much is left hanging that his story has been calling for since moment one. What would be “earned” for Tony is him marrying Pepper. He has more than earned that. She has earned this wedding, too.

Misc (POTENTIAL SPOILERS)

Tony has sacrificed over and over and over again, in almost every movie we see him in. Doing it in Endgame would be a rehash of the same storyline, and sacrifice is not something Tony has to learn. He already knows how, he’s already willing. He needs to learn how to live. Bringing him to that realization at the end of it all would be the most appropriate route to take.

Iron Man 1 - he implores Pepper to hit the button, even though she tells him, “but you’ll die.”

Iron Man 2 - while it could be said he would be killed by the presence of the reactor itself, JARVIS explicitly says the use of the suit is accelerating the palladium poisoning that is killing him. Tony doesn’t stop. Part of this could be attributed to his reckless end-of-life attitude, but it’s clear from the Senate hearing—he wouldn’t have stopped

The new element is obviously something in itself. While the IM2 novel called it vibranium, this was retconned in CA, and then set up for more in Captain Marvel when it was revealed the project involving the Tesseract was called Project Pegasus, first called that when Fury dropped off Howard’s things at Tony’s mansion. Tony withstood the power of the Mind stone in A1 with the arc reactor, and then again in IW when Thanos unleashed the power of the Power stone on him and the suit merely blocked it. The suit is literally powered by the Space stone, much like Carol is, and for IM2-IM3, the Space stone literally powers Tony, which is more than you can say for a Mad Titan. Even Hulk doesn’t have the power of the Space stone behind him. You don’t hang a gun on the wall unless you plan on firing it later.

Also tied into IM2 - “if you could make a god bleed” … Tony is the only one to actually injure Thanos.

Avengers - Tony lays down on the wire. The arc set up by Steve’s comment is fulfilled when he flies the nuke through the wormhole. He knew it would probably kill him, which is why he tried to call Pepper.

Iron Man 3 - he sends his suit to Pepper first, when the “Mandarin” comes for him. Then in a deleted scene, he removes his arc reactor to save Harley’s bully, and nearly dies before Harley puts it back

Age of Ultron - Tony, despite wishing to go home and buy Pepper her farm, is willing to stay with Thor on the flying rock, even though he knows he could die, it’s his responsibility to fix this.

Civil War - this is a bit of subversion, as Tony is in a dark place and never needs to sacrifice his life. But as we saw in IM3, Tony IS Iron Man. And he’s willing to turn over power of Iron Man, which he wasn’t in IM2, to a higher power. He’s willing to give up his autonomy to keep the rest of the team out of jail and assuage his guilt (he’s starting to see the repercussions of bearing it all on his own). We can have discussions about who was right about which part, but Tony was willing to sacrifice a big part of himself.

Infinity War - duh. He got on that spaceship. He was planning on it being a one way trip (which incidentally, is why Pepper wasn’t keen on a kid). And then he took Thanos on one-on-one. And then, the look of despair when Strange gave up the stone to save him? He was more than willing to die.

Endgame - eventually, he will be willing to try, even if it means his death, because he’s always been willing to sacrifice himself. Remove that burden from his shoulders.

(It is interesting to note that the one time Tony is not in the position to sacrifice his life is in Spider-Man: Homecoming. When he is in the overseeing/mentor position, which could be his role in the MCU after Endgame, and when he’s starting to take up the role of “father figure”, which he should also be after Endgame, but to his own biological children as well. He is however, appalled and terrified at the thought of someone else, this crazy Spider-child who’s just a bit too much like him, being reckless and willing to sacrifice himself. Maybe Tony needs to take a bit of his own advice.)

The endings of the Iron Man movies are all tonally upbeat and to end Tony’s story for good on a “downer” note does not go along with his storyline --from starkravinghazelnuts http://starkravinghazelnuts.tumblr.com/post/181110494893/avengers-endgame-is-said-to-be-the-end-of-many-of

The Infinity Saga is Tony Stark’s arc. Every other character, including Cap, is ancillary. Every character is where they are because of a Stark. What happens to him will be the defining characteristic of the Saga, and it isn’t set up to be a Tragedy.

RDJ says the last eight minutes of Endgame has “everybody” involved, which would obviously include Natasha, who is extremely important. Which contradicts the reddit “leaks.”

https://twitter.com/stevcrogvrs/status/1118853707280601088?s=21 Chris Evans says if Steve had a choice, he would go back in time to be with Peggy. Since he was able to say this, there’s no doubt that it doesn’t happen, as the Marvel spoiler snipers would have switched from Mark to Chris and put five holes in his head before he hit the ground. This contradicts the reddit “leaks.”

https://comicbook.com/marvel/2019/04/19/avengers-endgame-hawkeye-black-widow-relationship-jeremy-renner/ Jeremy Renner also says Clint and Natasha’s relationship will last “forever”, which seems to underline their closeness and how much they mean to each other. All of this contradicts the reddit “leaks”, which describe a horrible thing happening to the two of them that wouldn’t ever actually happen if they were to stay in character. Plus, Chris Evans apparently called these dudebros out and straight up denied their “leaks”, so these “leaks” have no veracity either way.

When asked to draw their favorite characters, Anthony Russo drew Iron Man and Joe drew Spider-Man. The Iron Dad relationship is obviously going to be important in the movie, and it would bode well for these characters to get a good ending in the movie if they’re the very favorites of both directors.

RDJ is screening Endgame at his house for family and friends on Easter Sunday. Would he really ruin a holiday with a movie in which his character dies an unwarranted death?

There has not been a wedding in the MCU yet. What would be a better way to end the MCU’s first romance than with the MCU’s first wedding? We’ve had a funeral already, for a side character, and that was bad enough. Imagine how horrible it would be to witness Tony Stark’s funeral as the ending for Endgame. That does not seem like the kind of feeling the Russos want to leave us with. The wedding seems far more appropriate for a movie of this scale and importance.

The chess theory (courtesy of starkravinghazelnuts) — “The last piece to discuss on the chess board is the King piece. This piece is the game winner. Once your king is check-mated, the game is over, and your opponent wins, regardless of the score. The king chess piece is the piece you must protect the most and the one you cannot live without. Many experienced players may find themselves utilizing the king in an attempt to gain an advantage over an opponent, something weaker chess players are leery of doing. No matter how you choose to use your king piece, he must stay alive at all costs.” Tony and Thanos are the Kings on opposing sides. The king must be kept alive in order to win, which is why Tony should make it to the end of the film intact. Thor also literally mentions someone “playing an intricate game” and says that person “has made pawns of us” at the end of Ultron when discussing the Infinity Stones. http://starkravinghazelnuts.tumblr.com/post/181491397743/starkravinghazelnuts-quite-frankly-this-is-the

Two very important meta pieces by starkravinghazelnuts, who has essentially been funding my positive attitude for a while now http://starkravinghazelnuts.tumblr.com/post/182086909963/looking-back-over-everything-i-still-feel-really http://starkravinghazelnuts.tumblr.com/post/182017989478/i-agree-with-you-the-rhodey-show-sounds-good-but-i

https://fanfest.com/2018/08/16/the-russos-reflect-on-iron-man-being-the-heart-and-soul-of-the-mcu/ “I think, in a lot of ways, he is the heart and soul of the Marvel universe,” Infinity War co-director Joe Russo said during a video interview with Wired. “He’s a fascinating character, a character that we love because he is imminently flawed and we like characters that are challenging and express their humanity and I think Tony Stark does that as well as any of the characters. He started off as a narcissistic alcoholic and grew into a hero which, I think, makes him imminently relatable and signifies what the Marvel universe stands for, which is character first and the heroes are defined through the choices that they make.” The Russos love Tony. And you cannot live without your soul, you cannot live without your heart. No matter what you say about Tony, losing him to death would leave a massive, gaping hole in the MCU. Keeping him available to return is the safer bet in almost every regard.

https://youtu.be/f0Ai05cUQoM “If there were no RDJ, there would be no MCU.” - Kevin Feige. RDJ started it all, and Tony shouldn’t die, his presence should remain. He should be able to pop in and out as he sees fit. They know his star power and how important Tony is to the MCU.

https://www.newsarama.com/39526-rdj-as-iron-man-irreplacable-but-will-eventually-leave-says-avengers-infinity-war-directors.html “One closeup from RDJ is worth another actor’s entire performance, he’s incredibly gifted and insanely talented” - Joe Russo. May be a weak reason, but would they really...make him permanently lost to them? They’ve expressed interest in coming back. Would they really banish their most talented and lucrative actor to the darkness of a character death for a cheap shock?

https://youtu.be/5ljluGA4dQU (around ten minutes in) In the Jimmy Kimmel interview, they show the clip they’ve been showing everywhere of Carol’s meeting with some of the Avengers. Jimmy points out that RDJ isn’t in the clip, and he asks if that means something bad for Tony. RDJ says “No, no, no. Not in the slightest.” He could and probably is referring to the fact that Tony is definitely alive at this point, sure, but his attitude and the way he says it points to an overall confidence about Tony that bleeds over to the viewer. In fact, Robert’s whole demeanor during this press tour has been one of pure joy. He is having the time of his life, dancing and laughing, moreso than we have seen before. It could be a man enjoying his last tour with a very special group, but, somehow, I don’t believe someone who loves Tony as much as RDJ does would be this happy if Tony died. Especially if Tony’s death was unwarranted and out-of-left-field, which it absolutely would be if it happened. And this is in contrast to Chris, who has been, while not sad, far more reserved.

Some on-point thoughts from some of the few sane people on reddit:

“After Infinity War went out of its way to establish Thanos as a physical embodiment of Tony’s PTSD (“he’s been in my head for 6 years,” “My only curse is you”, *author’s note: see also above with coming to face an unknown fear like in IM3*), the idea of him ultimately defeating Thanos by killing himself is like... morally reprehensible as a message. I’d like to think Markus and McFeely would know better than that, but honestly, I’ve felt since Civil War that they don’t have the best grasp on his character. Edit: someone asked me in a PM to elaborate on this, so I’m just gonna go ahead and post what I wrote just in case anyone’s interested. Ok, this is gonna be kinda long, but I’ve been sitting on this for a while. so Iron Man 3 was the beginning of Tony’s new character arc that’s gone from phase 2 up till now. In phase 1, his whole journey was learning not to be selfish, and to be willing to put himself on the line to protect others. Avengers 1 completes that arc, and Iron Man 3 sets up a new conflict, where he’s driven entirely by his trauma from the events of The Avengers. He’s obsessed with protecting the world from threats beyond his control- we see it in Iron Man 3 with the house party suits being products of his anxiety, and in Age of Ultron with the Ultron program. He feels like it’s his responsibility to be everyone’s protector, and he’s desperately clinging to any sense of control he can still have in a world that he now realizes is much bigger than him. In Infinity War, he finds out that the event that left him traumatized was orchestrated by Thanos, and for the rest of the movie is driven by a single-minded need to confront Thanos directly and put an end to him, in order to finally be free of the PTSD that’s dominated his life for 6 years. By taking on that responsibility and ambushing him on Titan instead of reaching out to his support system (Steve + the other Avengers), Tony inadvertently puts everything he cares about at risk. In the context of Tony’s story, Thanos is his trauma- and Tony’s defeat on Titan is a direct result of his compulsive need to carry the burden of that trauma alone. So to then have him sacrifice himself to defeat Thanos in Endgame essentially sends the message that “yes, it is a good thing to bear that trauma on your own, and in fact, if you can’t see any other option, killing yourself is an acceptable solution.” It sends a horrible message in the context of the ongoing story, and it doesn’t tell us anything new about Tony as a character- we already know he’s self-sacrificing, it’s been his defining character flaw for four movies already. It’s just a really poor way to end his story.” — msg53

“This. Tony’s arc has been about letting go of his ego while learning to rely on others. His first step was handing Stark Ind. over to Pepper. He tried letting go with Ultron, but it failed cuz Ultron was just an extension of himself. Then he started seeing how being a mentor/father figure could help a kid in need of both (Peter) and the eventual next step should be family and real retirement while others defend/avenge Earth, once he’s done with his Thanos curse. Aside from Thor, His death would feel the most gratuitously out of sync with his journey of all the OG Avengers.” —VictorVonDoomBots

(special shoutout to cuddlebirb over there, consistently fighting for Tony rights)

The absolute nastiness to take out their main character, their cash cow, the one that started it all, when he’s got so much still hanging simply makes no sense. They would leave people with a sick feeling in their stomachs over this movie. People would not be happy with the turn of events, they would feel cheated out of a proper ending for the main character of the whole franchise. It would not be an event movie, it would be the movie that Killed Tony Stark. It would be tainted, and I don’t think the Russos want that. I know they say they think about their own reactions when writing these films, but they’ve gotta be smart enough to realize what a mistake this would be for the die-hard, longtime fans.

Plus, this is an ending to one generation and a lead-in to another. They don’t have Stan anymore to do their cameos, and some people will be on edge about whether to continue. Having RDJ hang around to do cameos and show up here and there to help the new heroes will put people in those seats for the upcoming films. His fifteen minute presence in Homecoming made many people go see the film that wouldn’t have otherwise. They need a hero that people know and love to remain a constant, even if he’s not in a starring role, and Tony Stark is the perfect person to do this. He always helped the younger heroes in the comics, and he’s already taken the mentor mantle with Peter. It’s a natural progression.

The amount of suffering that Tony has been through in the entirety of the MCU and in Endgame in particular, should lead to him finally getting something good in the end, a retirement where he gets to relax and let someone else carry the weight of the world instead of him, for once. Endgame will begin with Tony in extreme anguish, sick, hurt, sad and alone (save for Nebula). In the end, he should be healthy and happy, surrounded by the people who love him, with his future bright, full of possibility, and free of threats because Thanos is gone. That is simply good writing and good bookending. The writers shouldn’t be in the business of torturing Tony for torture’s sake. If he begins in such a dark place, he should end somewhere promising.

Happy’s behavior in FFH trailer. Tony is Happy’s best friend. Would the man be acting so chill, flirting with May, if his BFF just died? It is confirmed that FFH takes place minutes after Endgame. Plus, in a deleted Infinity War scene that featured Happy, Tony says that he and Pepper should set him up with someone. Would that someone be May?

Pepper is literally Tony’s endgame—he says it himself, “in the end, it’s always you.”

#tony stark #avengers endgame #avengers #marvel #endgame speculation #this is massively long but i think it really gets its point across #there is just way way too much pointing to his survival #robert downey jr #rdj

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disbander-of-armies · 5 years

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Review of David Gemmell’s Troy trilogy

I recently finished the Troy trilogy (Troy: Lord of the Silver Bow, Troy: Shield of Thunder and Troy: Fall of Kings) written by David Gemmell (plus the third book was co-written by his wife Stella). As you can guess, these books are about the famous Trojan War. The books are told from the perspective of many different characters, though the main characters are Aeneas and Andromache.

I very much enjoyed these books and the authors’ take on the Trojan War story. It reminded me of A Song of Ice and Fire in a way because the setting of the war is very realistic (there is a lot of talk about the logistics of war like finding allies, preparing for a siege etc.) but at the same time, there are still supernatural elements in the story like oracles and Cassandra seeing the future (the gods don’t appear, though). What also makes it more realistic is the wide array of characters. There are not just Greeks and Trojans, but Egyptians and Hittites and other peoples as well. There is definitely a real Bronze Age feel to this world! Which brings me to my next point, the characters:

I’ve already mentioned that the main characters are Aeneas and Andromache. Other important ones are Priam and Odysseus plus a suprising amount of original characters. A lot of characters are also characterized very differently from what I’m used to, especially Priam and Helen (but she only has a small role in this version).

Same goes for the story: While Gemmell still roughly follows the events of the Trojan War as you know it, he made a few big changes to the story. Also, only the third book deals with the events from the Iliad, the first two books have an almost completely original storyline. And I must say, I enjoyed it! The changes didn’t feel forced and/or just because the author wanted to do something different. Some changes also come from the fact that the characters have different personalities and so would make different decisions.

This also includes mythology: Gemmell, for example, mentions at the beginning of the first book that Hephaistos causes thunder with his hammer and Zeus is called the All-father at some point. This confused me at first because these are things I only know from Norse Mythology. But I think the author put these changes in deliberately as a sort of ‘parallel’ mythology just like his story is different from the Trojan War of myth. Or maybe I’m wrong and his knowledge of Greek mythology is just really shitty ;)

I only had some minor issues with the story:

I didn’t like that the Greeks are more of the bad guys again (especially Agamemnon and Peleus are horrible people), though there are likeable Greeks like Odysseus and some of the original characters.

Also, I thought it to be a bit unrealistic that a lot of characters were infatuated with Andromache the first moment they saw her and I never quite warmed up to characters calling the Mediterranean the ‘Great Green’.

Finally, I have to say thank you to @sisterofiris for recommending these books!

#book review #troy #david gemmell

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backofthebookshelf · 5 years

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some vintage season two magnus archives theories

(this is 1000% self-indulgence, ignore me)

Dec. 11, 2016 - I will bet you anything that [Jonathan (we always called him Jonathan back then)] had a serious run-in with a supernatural something early in life, and he’s…avoiding becoming the vampire-hunter guy, but only because he’s squeamish.

Dec. 16, 2016 - if grbookworm1818 is not someone at the Institute then nothing means anything / What do we think: Did Gerard kill his mother, or was she turning herself into a book and he just cleaned up the mess?

Dec. 29, 2016 - I kind of wonder if our antiquarian friend has any relationship to the guy in Amsterdam with the coffin. It can’t have been the same person, obviously - if nothing else it’s strongly implied that whatever was in the coffin ate that guy - but for some reason I keep expecting that story to come back, and not just Breekon & Hope.

Jan. 9, 2017 - Can we think of The Archivist as a title with meaning? I know Rusty Quill uses it to refer to Jonathan Sims the character since the writer decided to use his own name. But does it have in universe meaning as well?(@fedorasandstuff)

Jan. 11, 2017 - But the real question is…Are the tunnels under the archives also Michael? [Can't get 'em all right.]

Jan. 12, 2017 - Also of concern: I’ve been assuming for a while that some of the factions in whatever supernatural chess game/cold war is going on were assuming that Jonathan as Archivist was roughly on a par with Gertrude as Archivist (actually, I’m pretty sure that some of them are not totally clear on the difference between one human and another, but it amounts to the same thing), and Jonathan has basically just admitted to Michael that he has no fucking clue what’s going on, and if Gertrude meant to leave him anything, he didn’t get it. (Except possibly some kind of protection on the Archive itself, which may or may not be directly her influence.) And we still don’t know if Michael is part of a faction or what any of the faction’s goals might be, except that Michael thinks that “this place” has an interesting impact on things and it doesn’t want that to stop just yet. Basically Jonathan’s just lost a card he didn’t know he could have played, which is almost definitely not good. [At least we know Jon isn't trying to manipulate anyone, he couldn't if he tried.]

Jan. 12, 2017 - And I’m kind of screaming internally? I have a few more headcanons now, I suppose? But mainly, the lightless flame/closed eye cult, seems to have it out for anyone associated with the seeing eye (and also Gertrude Robinson). Considering that Johann von Württembergs tomb and book collection also had the seeing eye as a symbol, I wonder if the Magnus Institute is somehow connected to the seeing eye as well. I have no idea where I’m going with this, or if there is some connection, but yeah. (@flammenkobold) [There are literally two notes on this post, my like and my reblog]

Jan. 12, 2017 - But my strong suspicion is that most creatures in this universe, and Michael especially, are not one of a type, they’re their own thing. But I do think that we’ve seen more of Michael than is immediately obvious. (More to come as I progress through the re-listen, but abandoned houses are…definitely a thing.)

Jan. 12, 2017 - It would amuse me tremendously if the whole of the Magnus Institute boils down to a grant-generating machine for the Archives.

Jan. 13, 2017 - But Gertrude died literally THE DAY AFTER “Antonio Blake” came in to give his statement about his dream about her death…so who filed that statement? Was someone just cleaning up in preparation for the new Archivist and stuck it in a box? Or was someone else moving files around for some other reason after Gertrude’s death? [This one still hasn't been answered, wahey!]

Jan. 14, 2017 - I don’t think Gertrude was… arrogant enough, if that’s the word I want, to believe she’d live forever… unless there’s more going on with her than I’ve even begun to suspect. But she may have had a beginning Archivist box ready. (@fedorasandstuff)

Jan. 15, 2017 - [in response to a question about your favorite one-off character]: Julia Montauk. I love that she’s not in denial but she’s coping pretty well – both about her father being a serial killer and about the supernatural. She’s pretty sure there’s something fucked up going on above and beyond the serial murder, but she’s happy leaving it alone, thank you very much, she just wants to get it out of her head so that she can move on with her life. I hope she’s still doing well.

Jan. 16, 2017 - [notes on re-listening] I’m torn on whether the apparition Lensik sees in the house causes burning because Raymond Fielding died in a fire, or because it’s somehow connected to the what I’m referring to as the Fire Nation faction (see also: First Aid, Burnt Offering). / Honestly, Trevor is so damn cool that I’m willing to bet he never crops up again. / Is Jonathan being watched by the Beholders? (I’m becoming more convinced that the closed eye/open eye isn’t two different factions but two levels of the same faction: the bronze versus silver pendant would seem to support that.) / “I believe every word. I’ve seen what Leitner’s work can do.” Which, all things considered, is pretty strong stuff coming from Jonathan Sims. I wonder if it was a run-in with a Leitner that got him working for the Institute in the first place?

Jan. 17, 2017 - I was just thinking about the last episode and making myself sad because John was ready to physically fight Michael over Helen doesn’t even KNOW Michael took Sasha (@regulusly) #shit is gonna go DOWN when he finds out

Jan. 18, 2017 - You know, I’m starting to think that I really like Gerard Keay.

Feb. 3, 2017 - Is Jonathan’s sarcasm his only defense against the creeping influence of The Archivist in his life?

Feb. 9, 2017 - new theory: everyone working at the Institute is a pod person. They hire potheads and dropouts and people with weird academic backgrounds and as soon as they get close to anything real they get replaced by beings from an alternate dimension, just like Not!Sasha. They missed Tim because he was out on medical leave after the attack; it’s just a matter of time now. Martin’s secret is that he’s been working there since 2002 and kind of knows everything and is not yet a pod person.

Feb. 15, 2017 - Although what do they both expect? To find a tape where Gertrude says “No! Elias, you Fiend! You’ll never get away with it!” (@fedorasandstuff)

Mar. 1, 2017 - The new episode has me thinking again about the Observer - the presence in the Archives that Jonathan thinks has an opinion about what his opinion about statements is, also probably connected to the panopticon prison, the nurse who felt the thing watching her when Gerard Kaey was in the hospital, the open eye and/or the closed eye motif that keeps recurring, and whatever it was that caused Gertrude to cut the eyes out of pictures of people on her books. Specifically, it has me thinking about the observer effect - that sometimes things change when they’re seen. This is a major horror trope, although it’s not usually called out so directly: monsters that move only when you’re not looking at them, things that lose their power when they’re seen and named directly, things that can exist only in the darkness. (There’s a nice resonance with the Montorks for you.) Is there something Gertrude was doing that she didn’t want the Observer to know about, or that could only be done unseen? What is the Observer - is it a direct relic of the panopticon (it would make sense as a genius loci kind of like Michael) or was the panopticon built in response to it, or to summon it? Whose purposes does the Observer serve - is it allied with the Institute on the whole, or with any particular faction? Or is it like Michael in that it has its own purposes that everyone else has relatively little to do with? (That seems unlikely to me at this point; I think the Observer is one of the core story points of this season.) Is it watching for a reason, or does it watch simply so that things are seen and known? #the magnus archives #yep it's meta time #i'm becoming attached to the idea that the observer is there for the protection of the archivist #somehow

May 17, 2017 - As to the Archives and the structures it imposes…I’m starting to wonder if it isn’t just that the Archives won’t let them go, but if there is a specific set of roles that it needs filled. We know Gertrude didn’t have assistants, and I’m starting to suspect that that was intentional on her part. But what if the Archives doesn’t just latch onto people and refuse to let go of them? What if it needs there to be a skeptic, and a caretaker, and the paranoid one, and - is not!Sasha part of the Archives’ structure, or is she a disruption of it? I feel like finding out more about where not!Sasha comes from and what her goals might be will be a key turning point in our understanding of this whole mess.

June 15, 2017 - Theory for the finale: Jonathan goes down into the tunnels, gets himself in hopelessly over his head, Tim and Martin come to the rescue, not!Sasha is revealed

June 28, 2017 - I’m starting to wonder if the real division in the supernatural ecosystem isn’t between things that use humans as vehicles and things that don’t? [Hey, uh, are there Powers that don't have human Avatars? This might still be a thing.]

June 29, 2017 - I do like the idea that there are people who basically cannot be fucked with, but then - why go to the Archives? She isn’t interested in a followup, she isn’t trying to process anything, she’s just sharing data. That screams pod person to me: something is trying to get Jonathan’s attention.

#the magnus archives #i'm not that good at theories #this show is just this good at foreshadowing #not posted: a number of confused theories about the tunnels under the archives being connected to michael #i was really invested in that one for a while

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mvndrvke-archive · 5 years

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ANNABETH'S CONNECTIONS/RELATIONSHIPS.

( aka how i change shit up from canon and ruin all of rick’s hard work )

annabeth has a lot of significant relationships in her life. from friends to family, parents to parental figures, annabeth takes each relationship she has and builds it carefully into who she is as a person. i’ve split this section up into two chunks-- annabeth’s biological family, and then annabeth’s friends/other important figures in her life.

this for sure was supposed to be all the ways she diverges from canon, but it’s so fuckin long, i decided that’s going to be a separate post altogether. jesus christ, luna.

☆.。₀:*ﾟ✲ﾟ*: FAMILY

annabeth’s relationship to her family members is incredibly complicated, both because she ran away at such a young age and because it’s wildly inconsistent. what we see of the chase family especially is extremely different from what we hear annabeth say about them, so it’s hard to tell if annabeth was exaggerating or if things have just changed since she was little. when we see annabeth’s family officially for the first time, it’s been two or three years since they’ve seen annabeth. she ran away from home at seven, and didn’t see her father or stepfamily for three years until she returned home for a couple of weeks, then returned abruptly back to camp. she didn’t see them for another two or three years after that. her relationship with them is, at least in my interpretation, a mix of things. the damage to her relationship with especially her dad and her stepmom was done so early, repairing that was always set up for failure. i’m going to go through her family members one-by-one, so here we go--

*:·ﾟ✧ ATHENA ( mother )

annabeth was always one of athena’s favorite. while a lot of halfbloods aren’t close to their godly parents, my version of annabeth is one of the special exceptions that gets a fair amount of attention from athena. she’s clever, she works hard, she’s a strong leader and a protective sibling. she’s always strived to give athena no reason to doubt her or dislike her. however, their relationship’s grown and changed as she’s gotten older-- it’s gotten more complicated, and annabeth started to struggle. she wants to make her proud, but for the first time, they start butting heads, and annabeth really ultimately has to accept that she’s never going to be the perfect daughter, and that’s okay.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S CHILDHOOD ( birth - age 7 )

annabeth had no official contact with athena when she was younger. i believe athena kept an eye on her daughter, though she didn’t interfere in annabeth’s struggles at all.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S TIME AT CAMP HALFBLOOD ( age 7 - 13 )

when annabeth ran away from home, it was athena that guided her to luke and thalia. though she didn’t interfere after that, athena still awaited annabeth’s arrival at camp halfblood. when annabeth finally did arrive, she was claimed almost immediately by athena. at first, annabeth didn’t actually believe that athena was her mother-- or, more specifically, that she had a parent that wanted to claim her, and was proud to do so-- and her idolization of her mother was almost immediate.

annabeth became her mother’s most devoted child-- she prayed to her, she left gifts for her at her altar, she took care of her siblings, and eventually became the counselor of athena’s cabin. athena showed her favor towards annabeth, and annabeth really did her best to imitate athena in every possible way she could.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S RELATIONSHIP WITH PERCY & THE TITAN WAR ( age 13 - 16 )

“i’ve been here since i was a kid, i did everything they ever asked. yeah, i did. and for what?”

annabeth’s relationship was strong until she started to get close to percy, and everything sorta went to hell when annabeth started dating percy. poseidon and athena’s rivalry wasn’t a surprise to anyone, and was something that in the beginning in canon we can see that it really bothers annabeth that percy is the son of poseidon. but annabeth gets over it and starts dating percy anyway.

it’s then that her relationship with athena really suffers. angry with her daughter, athena really pushes her daughter away, and cuts her off almost completely. annabeth is devastated by this, but decides not to break up with percy just to please her mother ( though in some verses where percabeth isn’t a thing, this fear/response from athena prevents annabeth from dating percy, and she eventually gets over her feelings for him ). this puts annabeth in an incredible precarious position-- luke’s left at this point, and it would’ve been INCREDIBLY easy for annabeth to take her resentment towards athena rejecting her because of her relationship with percy and channel it into the cause she’s fighting for. i sincerely think that if luke hadn’t left at that point yet, annabeth would’ve come with him when he did.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S PROMOTION TO ARCHITECT ( age 16 - present )

annabeth’s efforts in the titan war and her promotion to architect of olympus are what finally start to repair her relationship with athena. the two of them decide to make a pact that they will not discuss percy with each other, and with their differences at least ignored if not resolved, their close relationship is on its way to returning once again. while they’re nowhere near as close as they were before, athena makes more of an effort to be supportive of her daughter, even if it’s hard for her.

even though athena is no longer actively disapproving of percy, athena’s dislike of percy still puts a strain on annabeth’s relationship with percy. she’s made a lot of executive decisions based on this that stand in the way of her relationship-- most notably, when it comes to marriage. obviously percy and annabeth are way too young still in the books, but for my version of annabeth, she knows that if percy ever asked her ( and i believe he does, eventually ), she would say no. not because she doesn’t love him, or doesn’t want to marry him, but more because she’s worried that would push her relationship with athena into jeopardy again, and she doesn’t believe she would ever approve.

*:·ﾟ✧ FREDERICK CHASE ( father )

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S CHILDHOOD ( birth - age 7 )

“i never see you anymore. come out the door. it’s like you’ve gone away.”

honestly, frederick was just never really an attentive father in annabeth’s early years. we know from canon that he was very focused on his work and his career, and that this was incredibly difficult on annabeth. she took her father’s lack of involvement in her life as him blaming her for all of the monster attacks, and resenting being her father, which contributed greatly to her decision to run away, especially when they fought regularly about monsters putting the family at risk.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S TIME AWAY FROM HOME ( age 7 - 13 )

“where were you when everything was falling apart? all my days spent by the telephone that never rang when all i needed was a call that never came...”

nothing was more of a wakeup call to the chase family as annabeth running away. frederick wasn’t exactly the most attentive dad in the world, and annabeth disappearing is something that just rattles him out of his intense obsession with his work/career. he knew annabeth was having trouble-- monsters were attacking on the regular, how could he not be aware of it?-- but he didn’t really think or do much about it until it was too late.

frederick’s remorse about this is immediate. he attempts to get into contact with annabeth, and is ignored for a LONG time. he’s just about lost all hope when she finally decides to write back to him, and after a large amount of coaxing, annabeth agrees to come home and visit. so, when she’s ten, back she comes to virginia.

it lasts about two seconds. they hit all the same problems they did before, arguing about the danger annabeth’s presence puts the family in-- some of which is projected onto frederick by annabeth, who deals with her guilt by resenting the people she thinks will blame her, or that do blame her. she stays for about a week before she calls chiron and heads back to camp.

after she leaves, in an attempt to apologize, frederick sends annabeth his class ring, which she wears on her necklace from camp. she lets him know that she got back to camp safely, and doesn’t talk to him for another few years.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S TEENAGE YEARS ( age 13 - present )

frederick and annabeth eventually start talking to each other again. annabeth can’t really repair her relationship with her dad, nor does she want to, but they agree to try and meet every couple of months and spend a day together. annabeth introduces him to percy officially ( he’s met percy before this, but this is the Official Meet The Parents meeting ), and introduces him to sally jackson as well in the hopes that sally will be able to show frederick how to handle and support your demigod children. it doesn’t really work, but she still makes an effort.

frederick invites annabeth home for holidays after a while. she never agrees, but she appreciates the invitation and sends presents home for him and her half brothers.

*:·ﾟ✧ HELENE CHASE ( stepmother )

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S CHILDHOOD ( age 5 - 7 )

“i didn’t wanna’ cause trouble, trouble. i’m less the player and more the played.”

annabeth’s relationship with helene is so wildly complicated honestly it’s hard to find somewhere to begin. helene got married to frederick when annabeth was five years old, and annabeth was initially thrilled about the idea of having a mom. we know a wide variety of conflicting things about her from canon that make it difficult to figure out their relationship. annabeth remembers helene as being hostile towards her, which was deeply upsetting to her and incredibly frustrating. part of annabeth’s fear of spiders was agitated by helene not believing her, and getting upset with her for scaring her half brothers because she kept screaming. helene also got in between frederick and annabeth, trying to let frederick focus on his work instead of his children. it was from a desire to see him succeed, but to a kid as young as annabeth, it was helene being the bad guy and keeping her from her dad.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S TIME AWAY FROM HOME ( age 7 - 13 )

so how did we get from there to helene asking percy to remind annabeth that she’s always got a family there? the answer-- time. annabeth went from being a nuisance and a danger in the house to being gone completely. while helene might’ve not been thrilled with annabeth’s behavior / the danger she brought back with her, i don’t think she ever really thought of the consequences of her treatment of annabeth. it’s not like anyone expected her to run away, so when she did, it was a bit of a wakeup call that she feels really guilty about.

she takes a step back and doesn’t interfere with annabeth’s relationship with frederick after that. she makes an effort to be kinder and more considerate when it comes to annabeth, but at that point, it’s kinda too late. annabeth’s brief return home when she was ten did nothing for their relationship, even though she made more of an effort to get along with annabeth. in a lot of ways, helene feels responsible for annabeth leaving. she also has to keep her two sons with frederick safe, though, and monsters running around trying to kill their half sister isn’t really helping with that. still, the whole family tries to get annabeth to come back, which is where we have in the titan’s curse talking to percy--

“Tell her she has a home here, will you? Remind her of that.” - The Titan’s Curse

clearly at this point, she’s doing everything she can to mend that relationship. at this point, though, annabeth just refuses to get along with her, or see her.

*:·ﾟ ANNABETH’S TEENAGE YEARS ( 13 - present day )

annabeth and helene never see eye-to-eye. annabeth goes home occasionally, but there was a long time after she got back into contact with frederick where she refused to go to the house, and only wanted to see him. this is partly because her relationship with her stepfamily is bad, and partly because she feels guilty about the monsters that have made their lives harder. when annabeth eventually starts seeing the whole family again, though, she only does for short amount of time. she and helene never get close, even though helene makes more of an effort. it’s just not enough and at this point, they’re both aware of the fact that they’re never going to get along.

*:·ﾟ✧ MATTHEW & BOBBY CHASE ( half brothers )

there’s really not much to be said about annabeth’s relationship with matthew and bobby at all. they’re nice and normal kids, and part of her resents them for it, and they resent her a little bit too for being such a problem when they were really little ( they don’t remember it much since they were two when she ran away ), but being a constant sore spot in the family. she also never attended things like their graduations, etc., for fear of monsters attacking. they don’t have much of a relationship with each other at all, and the three of them are all okay with that.

☆.。₀:*ﾟ✲ﾟ*: FRIENDS / OTHER CONNECTIONS

annabeth has a lot of connections it’s a nightmare. these are her friends, mentors, romantic connections, and then rachel.

*:·ﾟ✧ CHIRON ( mentor )

chiron’s like annabeth’s unofficial dad. he took her in after she ran away from home, and was her mentor at camp that she really latched onto as her pseudo father. annabeth holds a great amount of respect for chiron, which is the same respect she has for him in canon.

the only place i really go off on their canon relationship is when it comes to how much annabeth is aware of.while she’s incredibly young, it’s shown very clearly that she’s one of the unofficial leaders of camp, even in the lightning thief. chiron trusts annabeth with a lot of knowledge, and i fully believe that if something was to ever happen to chiron, it would be up to annabeth to lead the camp alongside mr. d.

*:·ﾟ✧ LUKE CASTELLAN ( friend turned enemy )

“what do you do when it’s up to you to choose-- has something ended or begun? stay or go : pick one.”

of all the people in her life, luke was the one that shaped annabeth’s life the most. i think canon did their relationship a disservice by focusing more on percy’s response to luke’s initial betrayal ( which is because he’s the main character and annabeth isn’t, but fight me ). luke and annabeth have a lot of history together. year and years of it. luke’s known annabeth since she was seven years old, she’s known him since he was twelve. they were kids that bonded in the most difficult circumstances, and as a result, annabeth is wildly dependent on luke.

his betrayal hits her deep, and she’s incredibly conflicted as to why. simple answer: annabeth loved luke. as well as their strong platonic bond, she canonically has a crush on him ( not officially stated, but she’s blushing like a schoolgirl and flustered whenever he talks to her ), and while she says in the last olympian that she never had feelings for him like that, she did. she’s deeply wounded by his betrayal, but for mixed reasons. part of her is mad that he betrayed them, obviously, but part of her-- a part that she resents and hates-- is mad at him for not asking her to come with him. this, i believe, is the reason why annabeth denies her feelings at the last minute when she’s talking to luke.

along with thalia, annabeth considers luke to be her first love. there was never a romantic aspect to their dynamic, it was purely platonic, but i don’t think her love for luke should disqualify him from being her first love just because it’s platonic. it’s 2019, people, platonic love is just as if not more important than romantic love.

*:·ﾟ✧ THALIA GRACE ( friend )

“and maybe if i’d been a little bit braver. maybe if i stayed behind to fight. but maybe doesn’t let me go back and save her. maybe doesn’t make it alright.”

like luke, thalia was also annabeth’s first love. they traveled together for a long time, and grew incredibly close. while annabeth doesn’t have as long of a history with thalia as she does with luke, thalia is instrumental to who annabeth became. thalia was the definition of what a true hero looked like, and her sacrifice hit annabeth hard. i don’t really divert from canon a lot here, but i will just say that when thalia joined the hunters, annabeth was pissed. she’d just lost luke, her whole world had been turned upside down, and the ONE PERSON she thought could really understand her, the one that had traveled with her and luke, the one that had the best chance of helping her bring luke back to the right side, and she peaced out to join artemis’ hunters instead. annabeth never really gets over this, and while she’s always glad to see thalia, part of her will always be mad at thalia for leaving, even if she understands why.

*:·ﾟ✧ RACHEL ELIZABETH DARE ( oracle / pseudo-rival )

not much to say here, i just need to emphasize that annabeth’s initial dislike of rachel is NOT jealousy because she’s worried she might snatch percy away from her. i hate that, it’s catty, it’s immature, and it implies that annabeth doesn’t trust percy, which she absolutely does. annabeth is upset because rachel comes without a lot of baggage that she does, and she knows realistically that rachel would probably be a better match for percy. rachel doesn’t have a mom that despises percy because of who he is, she doesn’t have deep connections to the person that’s betrayed them to help kronos, she’s creative and pretty and smart in ways that annabeth simply isn’t. it hurts her feelings and her ego, and she’s mean to rachel because she can see in her what percy is missing because he’s with her. i’m not saying it’s mature or justified, that’s just how she approaches rachel and what makes her hostile towards her.

*:·ﾟ✧ PERCY JACKSON ( friend / boyfriend )

“ in search of silver linings, we found gold . . .”

not a whole ton has really changed about annabeth’s relationship with percy from canon, but i’m going to very quickly say a couple of things about how i see it, and then establish the non-percabeth arc of annabeth’s story, since it’s not the same in all versions and i know some people don’t ship percabeth. in any verse, however, annabeth trusts percy with her life, and would do anything it took to protect him. their relationships, both platonic and romantic, are founded on trust, honesty, and loyalty to each other, and i will never ever EVER support a cheating plot with them. if percy ever cheated on annabeth, she would drop him so fast he got whiplash, and she would never cheat on percy. please don’t approach me with a bad breakup plot with them based around someone cheating, i stg. okay. let’s go.

in the verse where they ARE together, i’ll just say that annabeth sacrifices a lot for percy. i touched on this a lot before, so i won’t harp on it, but annabeth’s relationship with percy fucks up her relationship with athena, so it’s not something she takes lightly. her feelings for percy are strong and profound. i touched on this before too but it’s important to note that while percy is annabeth’s first longterm relationship/boyfriend, he is not her first love.

beyond this, just a couple of small things that hold true for the most part with their purely platonic verse/relationship as well-- annabeth blames herself for a lot of the pain and suffering percy goes through. she blames herself for percy going missing in the heroes of olympus series. she will never, EVER forgive herself for him coming into tartarus with her. BUT in all the situations they’ve been together in, she’s never regretted being by his side and supporting him-- she trusts him, she believes in him, and she’s sure of herself and him enough to risk a lot to be by his side.

in the verse where they are NOT together, aka platonic-only with percy, annabeth still had feelings for percy briefly, but ultimately decided it was not worth alienating herself from her mother just to risk being in a relationship that didn’t work out. she’s well aware of the animosity between athena and frederick, and she doesn’t want to risk it all for something to end like that. additionally, annabeth is still reeling from luke’s betrayal ( again, so important to her growth, cannot be stated enough ), and her mind really isn’t on dating at the time or romantic pursuits, only on getting luke back and stopping kronos.

i see annabeth and percy as being incredibly close and supportive of each other regardless of their romantic/platonic dynamics, so unless otherwise plotted, this is the version of her i will be focusing on. while annabeth is incredibly joking and a little outwardly flirty in her own respects, i will never force ship percabeth. unless we’ve agreed they’re dating / percy says they’re dating first, i will play her as being platonically close to him, and that’s it. this holds true for all her ships, but since percy’s her main love interest, i’m putting this out there.

sally and paul’s dynamics with annabeth are centered around percy and annabeth’s relationship, but this, i believe, can also be read as being percy introducing annabeth as his best/close friend and not his girlfriend. this is how i’ll be approaching each dynamic here unless we’ve plotted otherwise, so. choose your own adventure.

*:·ﾟ✧ SALLY JACKSON ( percy’s mother )

pure and simple, annabeth loves sally. she always wanted a parent like sally, and if helene had been more like sally, she never would’ve run away. annabeth embraces any time spent with sally as a break from the madness, and she’s relieved that she has a little pseudo family outside of camp that she can go to and not feel guilty for all the potential trouble she brings with her. she’s spent a few holidays at home with percy and his family, and she treasures those times and memories far more than any memories she shares with her own family.

i will just say that while percy is missing, annabeth doesn’t know how to talk to sally. she’s overwhelmed and feels guilty and doesn’t want to scare sally, so she ignores her for a bit before being honest with her about things. she thinks that sally will blame her when anything negative happens to percy, and it’s always a shock when she doesn’t.

their relationship sticks pretty close to canon overall, it just needed to be addressed.

*:·ﾟ✧ PAUL BLOFIS ( percy’s stepdad )

my version of annabeth is incredibly close to paul. he’s smart, he’s fun, he’s good to sally, and is just all around a nice guy. annabeth is more than a little bit envious that percy has such great ( mortal ) parents-- she adores sally, and paul is the stepparent she always wanted. percy and sally have their own special bond, and annabeth’s relationship with percy puts her on the same level as paul, with both of them being both outsiders and insiders in the jackson family. annabeth talks to paul more often than she talks to her own family members, and the two of them exchange books and stuff.

annabeth also asks paul for advice when she needs some parental guidance that athena’s either too busy for or uninterested in. athena and annabeth made a deal not to discuss percy or anything to do with him after annabeth’s relationship with him alienated her from her mother for a long time. so, since she doesn’t have a parent she really trusts to both understand her life and support her as a person, paul is the one she ends up turning to. my version of annabeth will hang out with paul independently of spending time with percy’s whole family, and since annabeth hasn’t really gone to public school since she was seven, paul helps her out and gets her through getting her GED and taking the SATs. they’re little things in the grand scheme of things, but for annabeth, it means everything.

paul is one of the first people annabeth talked to about her time in tartarus. i seriously cannot express how important paul is to annabeth, he adopts her just like he adopts percy and she values and cherishes him as a person, a mentor, and just a friend.

you made it to the end! have this gif of annabeth smiling as your prize

#( you better wise up ‘cause i’ll rise up || musings; annabeth chase )#ac headcanons #please do not reblog thanks

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a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives · 5 years

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Ready for lift-off

Espionage thriller Summer of Rockets is the first screen work from acclaimed writer/director Stephen Poliakoff to draw on his own life, set in 1958 at the height of the Cold War. He and executive producer Helen Flint talk to DQ about merging fact and fiction.

As a writer and director for the screen over the past four decades, Stephen Poliakoff has been behind work that has amassed numerous Bafta, Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody awards. The playwright, who learned his craft in the theatre, counts series and films such as Perfect Strangers, The Lost Prince, Friends & Crocodiles, Gideon’s Daughter, Joe’s Palace and Capturing Mary, as well as recent dramas Dancing on the Edge and Close to the Enemy, among his extensive credits.

Yet for all his fascination with the past – among many examples, Dancing on the Edge trails a black jazz group in 1930s London and Close to the Enemy is set in the aftermath of the Second World War – his latest series is the first to draw on his own family and life experiences.

Written and directed by Poliakoff, Summer of Rockets is a semi-autobiographical drama set during 1958, a year that marked the height of the Cold War as fear and suspicion clashed with the start of the mobile revolution and the Space Race. It was also the last time debutants were presented to the Queen at Buckingham Palace and the year of the Notting Hill riots in West London.

Stephen Poliakoff, writer and director of Summer of Rockets, pictured during filming

Poliakoff says the fact it is partly based on his own life marks Summer of Rockets out as “significantly different” from anything he’s done for the screen before.

“My first real memories are from this time – I was five in 1958 – so I could feel, even as a small child, the apprehension in the air, the feel of nuclear war,” he says. “The Russians were the enemy and yet I was half-Russian, so that made me feel an extraordinary sense isolation as a child. I was also sent to boarding school, as we see in the story, and was the only Jewish boy there. That was why I was drawn to this time.

“There’s a lot of resonance for us now, as Russia again seems to be our enemy and there is also unfortunately, tragically, anti-Semitism in Europe and it’s coming back to the UK. Well, it never goes away. But above all, it was a sense of the absolute epicentre of the Cold War; the fact nobody could be trusted, especially if they were foreigners.”

Another parallel between that period and today, he notes, is the “humiliation” of the Suez Crisis in 1958, which left Britain “a laughing stock” on the world stage. “Things have happened since I’ve written the piece and we’ve become a laughing stock for very different reasons, with people harking back to a sense of our past glories, which also plays a part in the story,” Poliakoff says. “This is not a story about Brexit or a metaphor for it, but nevertheless there are resonances in the piece.”

Toby Stephens (Black Sails) stars as Samuel Petrukhin, a Russian Jewish émigré modelled on Poliakoff’s father Alexander, an inventor and designer of hearing aids, whose clients include former UK prime minister Winston Churchill. The series also focuses on Samuel’s wife, Miriam (Lucy Cohu), and their children, Hannah (Lily Sacofsky) and Sasha (Toby Woolf). In the show, having developed a new paging system for hospitals, Samuel is is approached by the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5 to demonstrate his work.

Set in 1958, the series stars Toby Stephens as Samuel, who is based on Poliakoff’s father

However, it’s not his inventions the agency (led by Mark Bonnar’s mysterious Field) is interested in but his fledging friendship with MP Richard Shaw (Linus Roache) and his wife Kathleen (Keeley Hawes), who also introduce him to Lord Arthur Wellington (Timothy Spall). As Samuel’s life becomes intertwined with his mission, he is left to question how far he is willing to let things unravel for his cause and who he can trust.

It was Poliakoff’s discovery that his father had been suspected of bugging Churchill’s hearing aid, a revelation he first heard when a journalist contacted him about newly released government papers in 2007, that sparked the story behind Summer of Rockets,

“It took me a long time to think about writing it because it meant revisiting my youth and a very traumatic time at boarding school,” he says. “I also tend to write slightly away from my immediate family experience because I find it easier to invent like that. But, after quite a considerable while, because the story kept haunting me, I broached it to the BBC.”

His father’s work, he explains, is truthfully reflected in the story by his hearing aids business, the deaf workers he employs in the factory and his invention of the paging system, which he created for St Thomas’ Hospital in London.

“But I always saw that as a jumping-off point for Keeley’s side of the story,” Poliakoff continues. “My father was besotted with everything English; he was a real anglophile. He was a Russian Jew but he wanted to be an English gentleman, so there’s the story of him being involved in this English upper-class family who have their own darkness and trauma hidden away in a magnificent house. They have charm and grace, they entertain people, but this covers a deep unhappiness.

“My father would have loved to have been entertained in such a house, so that was what led me from that jumping-off point for the fictitious side of the story, but it’s based on the sort of things my father loved and was attracted to by English life and aspired to. The story curve shows Samuel learning that he doesn’t want to be the perfect English gentleman.”

Bodyguard and The Durrells star Keeley Hawes plays Samuel’s wife, Miriam Richard’s wife, Kathleen

Through the first episode, the story is laid bare against the backdrop of rockets being launched and rising anxiety over what might lie ahead, coupled with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that stem from the still-raw fallout of the Second World War. Samuel’s technological achievements also shine a light on how industry was set to move forward rapidly over the next decade.

“When you have six hours of television drama, it’s a big canvas. The joy of longform is that you can build a complex world and you can delve deeper into character than you can in a two-hour movie,” Poliakoff says. “It’s great to try to be ambitious when you’re given that length of screen time.”

Helen Flint, MD of Little Island Productions and Poliakoff’s long-time producing partner, admits the writer’s outlines need very little development as they are often fully formed, “very detailed and very ambitious” by the time she becomes involved.

“The thing is to identify where and how you’re actually going to make it happen,” she says. “Both of us have been around far too long. Therefore, between us and the heads of department, we can work out how to put this on the screen, which is our craft.”

With all of Poliakoff’s work filmed on location, the first task on Summer of Rockets was to find the house belonging to Richard and Kathleen Shaw, which is a constant presence during all six episodes. They eventually settled on Benington Lordship, a grand setting close to Stevenage, 35 miles north of London, which is notable for the Norman keep adjoining the 17th century house and expansive gardens.

Catastrophe’s Mark Bonnar plays the head of MI5

“The other important thing was when to film it, because getting lucky with sunshine in this country is not a given – so the schedule is everything,” Flint says.

Finding London streets that could double for the time period also proved problematic, with the slums of Notting Hill in 1958 far removed from the affluent neighbourhood it is today. Another set piece saw a queue of 1950s cars lined up along The Mall, leading to Buckingham Palace, which was filmed early in the morning to avoid the crowds of tourists usually occupying the area.

“It takes a huge amount of work, more work than anybody would imagine, weeks and weeks, and then huge amounts in post-production just to paint out silly lines and stuff like that,” Flint says of filming in London. “After that, it’s all of the countryside, the driving [scenes] and the minutiae. But because we’ve got a cast that is working all the time, we have to try to jigsaw them all in, which is very complicated at certain points. Once you have those actors, the schedule is dictated by that. Then other problems come to the fore because if they’re not available, you can’t do the locations. London exteriors are the hardest, and then piecing it together is a massive jigsaw.”

In some cases, however, the reality on which some of the series is based was too extreme to be dramatised. Poliakoff decided to tone down scenes where Sasha is at boarding school, as his own experiences at school were too “draconian” to be depicted exactly as he remembered.

Summer of Rockets debuts on BBC2 tomorrow

“When I started writing it, I realised it had to be more interesting and more inventive than the actual thing I experienced, which in reality was relentlessly grim,” he says. “A little bit of that was fine, but I didn’t think an audience would stand for that being repeated in each scene. So, oddly enough, the bit that was closest to reality was the most difficult to write.”

The series sees Poliakoff reunited with Stephens, who starred in his 2001 family reunion drama Perfect Strangers, while this was his first time working with Hawes despite having known her since she was just 19. “She starred in my wife Sandy Welch’s adaptation of Our Mutual Friend 20 years ago,” he recalls of the actor, who has recently starred in Line of Duty, The Durrells and Bodyguard. “I’ve known her for some time and we’ve always wanted to work together. She’s phenomenal in her role, which is a really very juicy role, so I’m thrilled. I think she gives one of her greatest performances.”

Following Summer of Rockets’ launch on UK pubcaster BBC2 tomorrow, all six episodes will be made available on the pubcaster’s VoD platform iPlayer. The drama is distributed internationally by BBC Studios. “‘Bingeable’ is not the prettiest word but, actually, I think my work was born to be binged,” Poliakoff notes. “People over the years have always told me they’ve sat down to watch something like Perfect Strangers, which is only four hours long. They tend to watch the first part and then they’re there four hours later.

“So I very much hope the story has that effect. It does have quite a powerful story that gathers and evolves and changes. It’s great for people to watch it in a linear way or in an immersive way. Either way, I hope people will really get into it.” - Michael Pickard (Drama Quarterly)

#toby stephens #this writer got wrong with kelsey's name #it is kathleen not miriam lol #jeez #summer of rockets #interview

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ofichvr · 6 years

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( CHARLIE HUNNAM, CIS MALE, HE/HIM ) — ✧ that looks like VIDAR BJÖRK-THORSON! they’re the FORTY-ONE YEAR OLD SON of THOR ODINSON. [ they are also a S.H.I.E.L.D. TRAINER & FREELANCE TATTOO ARTIST at paragon. ] i hear they’re VIRTUOUS & BRAVE, but tend to be DISTANT & CREDULOUS. his file says that his power/ability is ASGARDIAN PHYSIOLOGY & ATMOKINESIS. you can find his pinterest HERE and his stats HERE.

triggers : ptsd , war , army / military , explosion , kidnapping - pls lmk if i missed something !

i. ( childhood )

vidar was born in the very MIDDLE of a giant and extremely long lightning storm that eventually turned into a bigger storm. helene , his mother , would tell him that was where he got his middle name. STORMR. for the storm that he was born during. helene also said that once vidar was born the storm started to settle and the sun came out of the clouds. but he never knew if she was just trying to give him hope or if there was some actual honesty to the story ( especially as he got ability to control and manipulate the weather ). helene was known for her stories-- especially her bedtime stories. her best ones were about thor and loki , the vikings , odin and his queen , frigga . and gaea , thor’s true mother . and hela , sleipnir , jörmungandr , fenrir -- loki’s children . vidar always thought that’s all they were : stories. not real. vidar could remember his mother telling him and his siblings stories when they couldn’t go to sleep easily. it’s one of his most fondest memories from his childhood.

while vidar never believed his mother's stories and never believed her when she told him about his father ( thor ? the god of thunder whom he’s never met ? ) , he did however believe that he was SOMETHING. he’d never believe that he was part god-- but enhanced ? a little more believable. he healed quickly , he was stronger and faster than the other kids that he was friends with and went to school with. sometimes his senses would be more alert than usual. he could understand languages that he shouldn’t be able to. things that he couldn’t explain like when the weather would change depending on his mood. was it magic ? was he somehow a descendant of wizards ? that sentence alone made vidar believe he was seeing things that didn’t exist and was looking for something that would never be. like a father.

vidar was always a fairly good kid. he didn’t necessarily belong to a particular clique in high school , he mainly just floated. he did sports because he was good at them and he was proficient in languages and other school subjects. he was good with his hands and when it came to hands on activities. but he was exceptionally good at art. he had a lot of imagination and creativity that you would be surprised by. he could have gone on to an arts school… but he didn’t.

when vidar was sixteen he was out in the middle of a storm that nearly destroyed his childhood home. he was truly just making sure that all of their animals were safe and in the barn and weren’t still out running in the storm or injured somewhere. vidar was struck by lightning in the storm. he nearly died but he DIDN’T. he was as close as you can get. his heart even STOPPED. if he wasn’t a demi-god then he wouldn’t of had any chance at surviving. when he breathed life and woke up -- HIS FATHER was standing over him. lttle did vidar know , his mother had tried to contact thor less than a week prior when she noticed the abilities that vidar tried so hard to hide. thor was even more difficult to get ahold of then , back in the 90’s , compared to now. he didn’t even have a landline.

vidar spent the next few days with thor and getting to know him. thor taught him everything about what it meant to be asgardian and taught him everything about his powers. vidar spent that summer on asgard. he met his grandparents , his aunt & uncles , cousins , etc , etc . it was all extremely surreal and unlike anything he’s ever experienced before. when vidar went back home he was a different person & he saw the world in a different way. his father was a GOD & this WARRIOR TYPE. vidar had considered art school , it was a great passion of his and he was a damn good artist too. but things changed. when he got back to school after summer break school was the last thing on his mind. it was like his eyes had opened and could see for the first time in years. he did apply to art schools and got in to all of the ones that he applied to but his heart and mind were telling him to do something else.

ii. ( the army )

vidar signed up for the army the day he turned eighteen. he met his future wife ( now ex wife ) barely a week later. she was there when he left his small town for boot camp. they were very much a dear john love story. they sent letters back and forth when he was in boot camp and continued when he was sent around the world. he would come home for a week at a time. they got married young and had kids not that much later. their love burned but as the years wore on that love burned out.

at one point he wanted to be in the asgardian army but that meant leaving earth , leaving his family — which included his wife and eventually his children. in a way , he left them anyways. he did a lot of tours and spent as much time at home when he could. he was not much of a presence in his children’s lives when they were young but he visited when he could and sent letters as often as he was able to. him and his ( now ) ex wife would have heated arguments about his decisions regarding the army. he had chances to retire and leave but he never took them. he had chances to visit but he wouldn’t always especially towards the end of that career. his wife just wanted help with their unruly children and his children just wanted a father. vidar had an even bigger chance to leave after the incident that caused most of his team to die. ( he had signed up for x amount of years which has coincidentally came up after everything ) he wasn’t in the jeep when they went over the mine , but he was SUPPOSED to be and last minute he ended up staying behind with the others. he heard that explosion and his stomach dropped. some of those left alive after what happened left completely. vidar didn’t. while he did take a break after the incident ( which was also close to the day that his baby sister was killed and his daughter , tova , was saved ). he went home , he attended his sisters funeral , he grieved with his family as well as grieving for the army family he lost. but still , he continued on eventually and saw even more horrific things , saw his life flash before his eyes more times than he could count. sometimes he wondered why he kept on going and kept renewing his contract and then he remembered when he went back home and couldn’t deal with regular everyday life.

vidar ended his contract with the army after a disaster with his then team. the person in charge had essentially put everyone in a horrible situation and surrounded by the enemy - a person that vidar was supposed to trust with his LIFE. vidar was left to get everyone out alive. and somehow , he did. he got everyone out alive with no fatalities and minimal injuries. vidar was awarded a medal for his heroism , which he just called “ SHEER DUMB LUCK “.

iii. ( post army + s.h.i.e.l.d. )

after years of ignoring the subject , vidar and his wife started the process of getting a divorce. their marriage had been strung along for TOO LONG and it was obvious to almost everyone that they hadn’t had a good marriage in years. the agreement was that vidar would pay child support , the kids would live with their mom most of the time and vidar would see them on weekends and vacations and every summer they would spend a few weeks in asgard.

vidar couldn’t hold down a job , he couldn’t even get a job because apparently 10+ years in the army doesn’t make it easy to get a job. he eventually finds his place and takes a few art classes at a community college and falls in love with the idea of being a tattoo artist. he starts as an apprentice and ends up being an artist that people REQUEST.

he doesn’t stay away from combat for very long and soon enough S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits him due to his background and abilities. his ex-wife opposes the idea , mentions the PSTD he’s still struggling with how he’s good he’s been doing as a tattoo artist. she was right but he dismisses all of her comments and becomes an agent. vidar always flourished in high stress situations ; it was one of his strongest points. vidar moved up the ranks of S.H.I.E.L.D. quickly - due to his great performance. this time around it was different - he was always around for his children. always.

after years in S.H.I.E.L.D. vidar’s youngest , milo , is kidnapped by an enemy. he’s not allowed to go on the mission to rescue him due to the close connection and how emotional vidar got concerning the situation but -- he’s never been one to follow orders when he disagreed with them. so he hijacks a plane and single handedly storms the compound that he knew his son was being held at. S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t arrive until after vidar had knocked out everyone and was holding his son safely in his arms. vidar quits S.H.I.E.L.D. that night.

iv. ( present day )

vidar is focusing on his family and his kids - especially milo , who sees a therapist bi weekly. there didn’t seem to be any damage to milo - physically and emotionally. he’s been working as a freelance tattoo artist and more recently : S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited him to be a trainer for the young agents in paragon -- which for some reason he decided to agree to.

v. ( personality )

vidar is someone who tries extremely hard but ends up messing things up. he MEANS WELL but it doesn’t always come off that way. in the military + as an agent he was hard due to the circumstances he was in. the tragedies that he has seen made him a little cold in the army but outside of that he’s a bit soft. he doesn’t keep up with pop culture and technology. vidar has a strong set of morals that he abides to -- he’s known for his heroism , even as a kid before he got into the british military. he’s not extremely close with his kids but he tries VERY HARD to mend the relationships with his kids from not being a strong presence in their life since they were born.

tldr; he tries hard ! he loves his kids ! he’s a big softie with a fluffy cat named floof and a corgi named bear !

vi. ( timeline )

1977 -- born in london , england.

1933 -- is struck by lightning and learns that his father actually is thor.

1995 -- signs up for the british military and meets his future wife a week later.

1995 -- gets engaged to his girlfriend after coming home from bootcamp - they marry three weeks later.

1997 -- tova soleil vidarsdottir is born.

2003 -- octavius eirik vidarson is born.

2006 -- laurel carina vidarsdottir is born.

2008 -- while not there , though he was supposed to be , vidar was able to HEAR the landmine go off and half of his team die. that in itself was the beginning of a downward slope for vidar.

2008 -- his baby sister was a fatality in theora trevor’s career as a hero. at the same time , she was able to save his child , tova.

2009 -- milo augustus vidarson is born.

2010 -- leaves the army after being gifted an award for his heroism in a disaster that could have killed him and his whole team.

2010 -- vidar & wife start talking about a divorce.

2011 -- divorce is finalized.

2013 -- he’s recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D.

2018 -- at the end of the year , milo , vidar’s youngest is kidnapped by an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. and vidar quits that same day.

2019 -- starts training the young + new S.H.I.E.L.D. recruits after vowing that he would never return.

vii. ( connections / relationships )

MILO AUGUSTUS VIDARSON. / 9. / milo is vidar’s youngest child. he’s the baby and definitely gets away with that. milo was also the one who got kidnapped last november by an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. since he’s the youngest and was born a year before vidar and his wife divorced , he’s never quite known them to be together. he was also born not long before vidar left the military so vidar has been a constant presence in his life , unlike the older ones. no known powers at this time aside from the part asgardian physiology. will be able to manipulate light when he gets his powers.

LAUREL CARINA VIDARSDOTTIR. / 12. / vidar has a decent relationship with laurel. laurel is an ambitious kid and extremely smart. she has extremely high dreams and ambitions but nothing related to S.H.I.E.L.D. or the military. an engineer or president , maybe. aside from typical asgardian abilities she can manipulate lightning.

OCTAVIUS EIRIK VIDARSON. / 15. / he’s the kid who still has glow in the dark stars on his ceiling. he always had dreams of being an astronaut until he realized that people aren’t sent into space anymore. extremely protective of his older and younger siblings. aside from asgardian abilities he can also fly & manipulate temperature.

TOVA SOLEIL VIDARSDOTTIR. / 21. / @tofuisms. / their relationship is... definitely rocky. he was extremely proud of her going into the military , just like he did. but now he just wishes that she would get out since he had a lot of troubles in the military and still deals with PTSD. he loves her but has difficulty telling her how proud he is of her and how much he wishes that he was more like her.

ADRIAN TREVOR. / not only did they serve together but they are also the closest of bros. the situation with tova , his sister and theora leaves things a little complicated sometimes but he would do anything for adrian.

AVA BARTON. / vidar met ava when he was serving overseas and they immediately clicked. she reminded him a lot of his own kids due to their age gap which is where their relationship started.

THEORA TREVOR. / this one is... a bit complicated. vidar is grateful that she was able to save his daughter but at the same time he feels anger because she wasn’t able to save his baby sister. and she’s the sister of his best friend.

THERESA DAWN BJÖRK. / theresa was adopted by helene björk as a baby. she was around eleven years younger than vidar and despite the age gap theresa and vidar were as close as ever. the entire family loved her with every ounce of their being. she radiated pure sunshine and happiness. while she had many reasons to be a negative person — she never quite was. she was always able to look on the bright side of things. she loved herself and others unconditionally. maybe it was because of that that she died so young. and because she wanted to help and SAVE people. vidar wasn’t there when theresa died and tova was saved by theora but he can imagine theresa telling theora to save tova INSTEAD. or even sacrificing herself so the others could get to safety. he’s never asked about the finer details concerning his sisters death. because maybe if he had been there then he could have stopped it.

BUCKY BARNES. / the first person he dated after the divorce and the first person he introduced his kids too. they dated when vidar wasn’t in the best place because he was trying to find himself after leaving the army. but vidar loved him and bucky accepted everything when they dated. their breakup was a lot on vidar but he eventually was able to move on.

HELENE BJÖRK. / helene raised three kids all by herself and to vidar , she’s a goddamn superhero. he’s 100% a momma’s boi.

THOR ODINSON. / he named one of his kids after thor so yeah... vidar loves his dad a lot !

MAGGIE THANOSDOTTIR. / vidar couldn’t tell you how they’re related but they are. and they train together a lot !

DANIEL FOSTER-THORSON. / half sibling who is closer to vidar’s kids than vidar , which vidar is fine with.

BEAR. / 3 year old corgi that vidar adopted from an animal rescue. not a service dog but ... might as well be.

FLOOF. / 11 year old white and fluffy cat. she’s grumpy but loving. vidar is her favorite.

viii. ( wanted connections )

( RAISED WITH ) SIBLING. vidar has one sibling that he was raised with that is still alive , they’re probably much closer compared to their other siblings not only due to the giant age gap ( and physical age gap ) but also because they were raised together. their adopted baby sister died 10 years ago because theora trevor wasn’t able to save her ( but was able to save tova , vidar’s daughter ! so u kno ! conflicted feelings ! ) they would be 35-48 ( 42+ if with thor since vidar didn’t meet thor until he was 16 ). Honestly , they could be adopted , a child of thor + helene ,,, or a child of helene + someone else !! bonus points 4 helene + another asgardian god bc … she got a TYPE !!

fc suggestions : ( 1/2 white if bio ! ) daniel henney , zoe saldana , hayley atwell , jamie clayton , alexis bledel , ryan hurst , paul wesley , matt czuchry , jason momoa , charlie cox , mads mikkelsen , kate walsh , skeet ulrich , garrett hedlund , simon baker , joe manganiello , maggie q.

( 1 of 2 ) CHILDREN. vidar has two children who are of playable ages. tova is 21 and the other one can be 23 or 17-19 ! as for the relationship,,,,, it’ll depend. vidar wasn’t around a lot due to being in the army. he was around when he could - which was never enough. vidar + their mom got divorced after a few months of him being back bc it just didn’t work out. the kids live with him atm ( for rp reasons since the mom isn’t being played rn ) but usually they have a typical divorced parent deal where he gets the kids on weekends and a few weeks during school vacations and some holidays. abilities wise , they’d just have a lesser version of what vidar has. vidar loves his kids so much ... he just isn’t always the best with saying that. he’s better with actions than words.

fc suggestions : ( must b white ) olivia holt , natalia alyn lind , nicole maines , elliot fletcher , chloe grace moretz , alice pagani , sabrina carpenter , peyton r list , ester esposito , kelli berglund , jared gilmore , chandler riggs , asa butterfield , katelyn nacon , xavier serrano , luke benward , joe keery , ludovico tersigni , ulrikke falch , henrik holm , nat wolff , blake michael , nat wolff , billie eilish , madelaine petsch , herman tommeraas , robbie kay , jenny boyd , harry styles , joey king , ella purnell , bailee madison , kat mcnamara , abigail cowen , ludovica martino , milena tscharntke , kennedy hermansen , michelangelo fortuzzi , miguel herran , dylan sprayberry , benjamain wadsworth , margot robbie , cara delevigne.

EX WIFE. they met when they were young and got married and had a wedding right before vidar was deployed. they were married for a long time but only dated for a few months before they decided they wanted to get engaged. they also started having children fairly young. it could’ve been one of the reasons why they got married young !! vidar hasn’t been the best husband. he went on a lot of tours and wasn’t around a ton. he also went through a lot of PTSD that he still deals with today. she could’ve also been in the military , even if it was for a short time. also military fam ?? that b cute. they have five kids ( 21 , 15 , 12 , 9 + a playable one who is 23 or 17-19 ). their whole marriage was strung along for a long time and a lot longer than it should have but they both really tried to make things work once vidar retired from the military. they definitely could have had an open relationship ,,,, an on and off relationship ,,, etc !! I’m honestly SO OPEN for anything !! Just lmk ur ideas !! and ill b happy to change things around !! i would definitely LOVE it if she was a child of another asgardian like karnilla , skurge , fandral , lorelei ( adopted ) , brunnhilde , idunn !! some other suggestions : donna troy , artemis of bana-mighdall , circe , death (dc or marvel) , raven darkholme , logan howlett , natasha romanoff , hercules ... etc. literally anyone that could have a child who’s 40+. age range for her: 40-44 ( vidar is 41 now and was 18 when they started dating ).

fc suggestions : ( must be white ) isla fisher , amy adams , jessica chastain , jennifer garner , anne hathaway , charlize theron , yael grobglas , rachel bilson , morena baccarin , minka kelly , kristen bell , zooey deschanel , alexandra breckenridge , bridget regan , alison brie , lauren cohan , aj cook , winona ryder , rachel mcadams , meghan ory , krysten ritter , jenny slate , sarah paulson , christina hendricks , vera farmiga , angelia jolie , gillian anderson , holly marie combs , amy acker , sarah michelle gellar.

FRIENDS FROM THE MILITARY. vidar was in the british army from 1995 to 2010 so he’s met a lot of people - not even reserved for others in the british military - open to people from the us military , etc ! also check out adrian trevor’s army skwad wc on the main ... !

STUDENTS. vidar is currently training young S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and new agents ! any age and don’t just have to be kids of canon S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

CO-WORKERS. for when he was an agent which was 2013 to 2018. his ending to being an agent wasn’t the best since it involved his son being kidnapped and vidar going against orders and stealing a jet and single handedly saved his son before S.H.I.E.L.D. had even showed up.

EXES / EX HOOK UPS. would be from 2011 and onwards. though , his first serious relationship and first person he introduced his kids to after the divorce was bucky barnes. he also wouldn’t have introduced simple hookups to his kids since he’s very careful about who he introduces his kids to.

CLIENTS. he’s a freelance tattoo artist and has made quite a name for himself -- he’s booked quite a bit in advance. also if you’re military or S.H.I.E.L.D. you’ll prob get a cool discount !

EVERYTHING ELSE. friends ! enemies ! flirtationships ! dates that didn’t go anywhere ! hateships ! anything !

#sidekick.intro #pstd tw #kidnapping tw #war tw #explosion tw #army tw

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