#saw sitcom cinematic universe

[self-aware-sawtrap]

saw sitcom episode pitch: saw x alternate perspective that’s just lawrence & amanda’s 42 hour road trip from new jersey to mexico city. lawrence was supposed to stay behind to watch hoffman so they didn’t have a home alone situation on their hands but they just locked him in the trunk and took him with them. hijinks ensue. halfway through they hit a speed bump, knocking hoffman out & leading amanda to think that she killed him. lawrence knows how to check his pulse but allows her to continue thinking he’s dead to punish her for what she did to adam. this backfires when neither of them end up giving a shit. hoffman continues screaming for the rest of the episode, but neither of them notice (they’re too busy arguing over how they’re going to break the news to john). at one point he breaks through the tail light with his fist and amanda’s like. what’s that. and lawrence without looking up from the road says they probably just hit a squirrel. on the second day amanda’s driving and lawrence tries to jump out of the car like in lady bird but she just keeps driving and leaves him stranded in texas (this is actually the canon reason he wasn’t in saw x). b plot: strahm investigates hoffman’s sudden disappearance. he calls lawrence halfway through the road trip & hears hoffman screaming in the background, clearly being held captive. this confuses him, since he’s certain lawrence & hoffman are both jigsaw apprentices. obviously, he thinks, if they were on the same side they wouldn’t be trying to kill each other. he concludes that because of this they can’t both be apprentices and begins to question his entire worldview as he tries to figure out which one is really working for jigsaw.

[bleachbleachbleach]

Saw your reblog on tragic unrequited platonic love and technically, that trope definitely applies to the betrayed trio, especially on Hinamori’s end (depends on whether or not you subscribe to the view that she was crushing on Aizen). The way I saw it in my initial viewing of bleach, it was more of the type of intense admiration for an authority figure that can be misconstrued as a crush cuz you (the devotee) lack the ways to properly articulate it. Like how u feel abt the rlly cool English teacher u sometimes eat lunch with before they get arrested for like fraud or something. After experiencing the Horrors, of course Kira and Hinamori are going to imprint hard on the first semblance of stability and symbol of safety at the time. So that what they went thru meant something. Also, let me take this moment to briefly gush abt the headcanon u presented in the B3 fic cinematic universe abt hinamori’s fixating on squad 5 because it offers her the knowledge beyond her town that she’s lowkey seeking + the values she wants to strive towards (source: from afar). These nerds just wanted to be mentored so badddd!! Thus, the reveal of the fact that they were only a means to an end, specifically chosen on where they fall on the “easy to manipulate” scale hits HARDER. All that devotion?? Loss of work life balance and for WHATTT? Extended medical leave ? 😭 oh bleach my fave workplace sitcom AND workplace drama u will always be famous

PS: thank u for tagging me in that post!! In the process of drafting my response. It was so lovely of you.

You're right! That totally works here. It's interesting because (and I'll just focus on Hinamori here, because otherwise I'd feel compelled to honor the distinctions between her and Aizen vs. Kira and Ichimaru and Hisagi and Tousen, and this would probably end up reading very convolutedly) I think it kind of asks a question about when the platonic pining would have happened.

Is the pining part of suddenly realizing the disjuncture between what Hinamori thought something was and what Aizen did, and mourning something lost (and something that never really was)?

Or was there also pining when things were Good? We see Aizen be reassuring to Hinamori and generous with his time, etc. and we see Hinamori happy to receive from him, and quite devoted both to her VCship as well as to Aizen on a person level (or as he put it, "as a man" lol). We know she's well-respected by her division, and esteemed by her colleagues (okay, Kira and Hitsugaya may have some bias in this arena, but they both describe her as highly skilled).

But was she needed? Was she doing, and did she get the opportunity to do, things that Aizen couldn't do better? Did she have opportunities to express things that Aizen found interesting or outside of his expertise? Even as they are not equals--and there is no expectation that they should be--in the most fruitful mentorships, both parties have things to teach and learn.

Did Hinamori ever look at other Captain/VC relationships and yearn for pieces of what those looked like to her? Nanao would probably say "god i hope not" because Kyouraku's "reliance" on her often takes the shape of her having to do all the busywork and also herd cats, but in spite of this there's an intimacy there, an openness or trust, that Hinamori might yearn for. And that's taking Kyouraku--shadowy and full of many surfaces himself--into account. Hitsugaya and Matsumoto also have something that both Hitsugaya and Matsumoto probably complain about to Hinamori, but there's a degree of mutualism and collaboration to whatever's going on at the 10th that Hinamori might not mind a taste of, too. Renji has been Byakuya's VC for a month but Hinamori has probably already thought to herself "Kuchiki-taichou let him do WHAT" at least twice. Even though Byakuya is Byakuya, judging by how they handled their "meeting Ichigo in the street" mission, it seems like Byakuya lets Renji have his little projects. Like Renji is part of his investment portfolio and Byakuya feels very comfortable considering Renji a volatile but potentially valuable property and in order to get that ROI you need to stick with him through several honorless tech startup busts and commit long-term to the thing. Er, but I digress. My point is, Renji gets projects. "Develop training menu." Creative opportunity! With a result that has Renji all over it.

Does Hinamori get projects? Does it ever feel like she's pushing the envelope of what the 5th can be and how it can function on her own, without it being something Aizen already predicted the outcome of, or was actually his idea that he let her propose and take nominal ownership of anyway? Despite being completely blindsided by the actuality of Aizen, was there already that sense of inevitability/Aizen all over everything that happens at the 5th? (Competing, of course, with Hinamori's self-concept as a creative person; and her love of Aizen as a person, not just as a boss and mentor; and feeling as though she just needs to excel more and be creative better and she'll eventually meet this need she feels--it's not the environment that's the issue. She's happy here. Mostly. She doesn't need to leave, she simply needs to surpass--)

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press/Gallery: How Elizabeth Olsen Brought Marvel From Mainstream to Prestige

“The thing I love about being an actor is to fully work with someone and try so hard to be at every level with them, chasing whatever it is you need or want from them.”

  GALLERY LINKS

Studio Photoshoots > 2021 > Session 008 Magazine Scans > 2021 > Backstage (August 19)

Backstage: Elizabeth Olsen grins widely over video chat when recalling many such moments on set with her co-stars. Yet, she can’t bring herself to divorce such a lofty vision of film acting from the technical multitasking it requires. The camera sees all.

“But then you move your hair, and you’re in your brain, like: OK, remember that! Because I don’t want to edit myself out of a shot. I know some actors are like, ‘Continuity, shmontinuity!’ But the good thing about continuity is, if you remember it, you’re actually providing yourself with more options for the edit.”

That need to balance being both inside the scene and outside of it, fully living it and yet constantly visualizing it on a screen, feels particularly apt in light of Olsen’s most recent project, “WandaVision.”

The mysteries at the heart of the show grow with every episode, each fast-forwarding to a different decade: Could this 1950s, black-and-white, “filmed in front of a studio audience” newlyweds bit be a grief-stricken dream? Might this ’70s spoof be a powerful spell gone awry? Could this meta take on mockumentary comedies be proof that the multiverse is finally coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

The series’ structure, which branches out to include government agents intent on finding out why Westview has seemingly disappeared, calls for the entire cast to play with a mix of genres, balancing a shape-shifting tone that culminates in an epic, MCU-style conclusion. What’s key—and why the show struck a chord with audiences during its nine-episode run—is the miniseries’ commitment to grounding its initial kooky setups and its later special effects-driven spectacle in heartbreaking emotional truths. It’s no small feat, though it’s one that can often be taken for granted.

“I was thinking how hard it would have been to have shot the first ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ” Olsen muses. “Like, you’re putting all these actors [into the frame] later and at all these different levels. All the eyelines are completely unnatural. And yet the performances are fantastic! And technically, they are so hard. People forget sometimes that these things are really technically hard to shoot. And if you are moved by their performance, that took a lot of multitasking.”

As someone who has learned plenty about harnesses, wirework, fight choreography, and green screens (she’s starred in four Marvel movies, including the box office megahit “Avengers: Endgame,” after all), Olsen knows how hard it can be to wrap one’s brain around the work needed to pull off those big, splashy scenes.

“​​If you think about it, it’s, like, the biggest stakes in the entire world—every time. And that feels silly to act over and over again, especially when people are in silly costumes and the love of your life is purple and sparkly, and every time you kiss them, you have to worry about getting it on your hands. Those things are ridiculous. You feel ridiculous. So there is a part of your brain that has to shovel that away and just look into someone’s eyeballs—and sometimes, they don’t even have eyeballs!”

The ability to spend so much time with Wanda, albeit in the guise of sitcom parodies, was a welcome opportunity for Olsen. Not only did it allow the actor to really wrestle with the traumatic backstory that has long defined the character in the MCU, but having the chance to calibrate a performance that functions on so many different levels was a thrilling challenge.

“It was such an amazing work experience,” she says. “Kathryn [Hahn] uses the word ‘profound’—which is so sweet, because it is Marvel, and people, you know, don’t think of those experiences as profound when they watch them. But it really was such a special crew that [director] Matt Shakman and [creator] Jac Schaeffer created. It was a really healthy working environment.”

Related‘WandaVision’ Star Kathryn Hahn’s Secret to Building a Scene-Stealing Performance ‘WandaVision’ Star Kathryn Hahn’s Secret to Building a Scene-Stealing Performance Considering that the miniseries spans several sitcom iterations, various layers of televisual reality, and a number of character reveals that needed to feel truthful and impactful in equal measure, Shakman’s decision to work closely with his actors ahead of shooting was key.

“We truly had a gorgeous amount of time together before we started filming,” Olsen remembers. “Our goal was—which is controversial in TV land—that if you wanted to change [anything], like dialogue in a scene, you had to give those notes a week before we even got there. Because sometimes you get to set, and someone had a brilliant idea while they were sleeping, and you’re like, ‘We don’t have an hour to talk about this. We have seven pages to shoot.’ And so, we were all on the same page with one another, knowing what we were shooting ahead of time.

“Matt just treated us like a troupe of actors who were about to do some regional theater shit,” she adds with a smile.

That spirit of camaraderie was, not coincidentally, at the heart of Olsen’s breakout project, Sean Durkin’s 2011 indie sensation “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” As an introduction to the process of filmmaking to a young stage-trained actor, Durkin’s quietly devastating drama was a dream—and an invaluable learning opportunity.

“It was truly just a bunch of people who loved the script, who just were doing the work. I didn’t understand lenses, so I just did the same thing all the time. I never knew if the camera would be on me or not. There was just so much purity in that experience, and you only have that once.”

The film announced Olsen as a talent to watch: a keen-eyed performer capable of deploying a stilted physicality and clipped delivery, which she used to conjure up a wounded girl learning how to shake off her time spent in a cult in upstate New York. But Olsen admits that it took her a while to figure out how to navigate her career choices afterward. In the years following “Martha,” she felt compelled to try on everything: a horror flick here, a high-profile remake there, a period piece here, an action movie there. It wasn’t until she starred in neo-Western thriller “Wind River” (alongside fellow Marvel regular Jeremy Renner) and the dark comedy “Ingrid Goes West” (opposite a deliciously deranged Aubrey Plaza) that Olsen found her groove.

“It was at that point, when I was five years into working, where I was like, Ah, I know how I want it. I know what I need from these people—from who’s involved, from producers, from directors, from the character, from the script—in order to trust that it’s going to be a fruitful experience.”

As Olsen looks back on her first decade as a working actor, she points out how far removed she is from that young girl who broke out in “Martha Marcy May Marlene.”

“I feel like a totally different person. I don’t know if everyone who’s in their early 30s feels like their early 20s self is a totally different human. But when I think about that version of myself, it feels like a long time ago; there’s a lot learned in a decade.”

Those early years were marked by a self-effacing humility that often led Olsen to defer to others when it came to key decisions about the characters she was playing. But she now feels emboldened to not only stand up for herself and her choices but for others on her sets as well.

“[Facebook Watch series] ‘Sorry for Your Loss’ I got to produce, and I really found my voice in a collaborative leadership way. And with ‘WandaVision,’ Paul [Bettany] and I really took on that feeling, as well—especially since we were introducing new characters to Marvel and wanted [those actors] to feel protected and helped,” she says. “They could ask questions and make sure they felt like they had all the things they needed because sometimes you don’t even know what you need to ask.”

It’s a lesson she learned working with filmmaker Marc Abraham on the Hank Williams biopic “I Saw the Light,” and she’s carried it with her ever since. “I really want it to feel like we’re all in this together, as a team,” Olsen says. “That was part of ‘Sorry for Your Loss’ and it was part of ‘WandaVision,’ and I hope to continue that kind of energy because those have been some of the healthiest work experiences I’ve had.”

If Olsen sounds particularly zealous about the importance of a comfortable, working set, it is because she’s well aware that therein lies an integral part of the work and the process. As an actor, she wants to feel protected and nurtured by those around her, whether she’s reacting to a telling, quiet line of dialogue about grief or donning her iconic Scarlet Witch outfit during a magic-filled mid-air action sequence.

“Sometimes you’re going to be foolish, you know? And [you need to] feel brave to be foolish. Sometimes people feel embarrassed on set and snap. But if you’re in a place where people feel like they’re allowed to be an idiot,” she says, “you’re going to feel better about being an idiot.”

This story originally appeared in the Aug. 19 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.

Press/Gallery: How Elizabeth Olsen Brought Marvel From Mainstream to Prestige was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

[tibby]

tibby cinematic universe enjoyers when nicholas braun as bark shows up in the saw sitcom series

[twh-news]

To land ‘Loki,’ Kate Herron had to pull out all the stops. How she won over Marvel

As a teenager, Kate Herron was obsessed with the “Lord of the Rings” films.

In particular, she recalls heading to theaters repeatedly with friends who shared her passion to see “The Two Towers” (2002), the second installment in director Peter Jackson’s trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy novel. She even wrote “Lord of the Rings” fan fiction.

“It was very silly,” the British filmmaker insists, revealing that one of her stories saw the heroic Fellowship traveling through a magical fountain and getting trapped in New York. “Honestly, I was just writing the stories to make my friends laugh. I guess it was kind of that first foray for me: ‘How do I tell a story?’”

Years later, Herron is again involved in telling a story about a protagonist displaced from the world he knows. But this time, her audience is much bigger.

Herron, 33, is the director of “Loki,” the Marvel Studios series that follows the adventures of the titular god of mischief after he has been plucked out of time by an agency charged with maintaining the sanctity of the timeline. Thus, the six-episode series, which premiered earlier this month on Disney+, features a slightly different version of Loki than the fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have grown to love since his first appearance in “Thor” (2011) through “Avengers: Endgame” (2019).

“I love villains,” says Herron during a recent video call from Atlanta, where she is putting the final touches on “Loki.” “I think that if a villain’s done right, you don’t necessarily have to like their actions, but you have to understand them. And I think that Tom [Hiddleston], in the last decade, has brought such empathy and wit and pain to a very real character for so many people. I just wanted to be part of whatever [Loki’s] next chapter was going to be.”

The series, on which the self-described Loki fan also serves as an executive producer, is Herron’s highest-profile project to date. Her previous credits include directing on Netflix’s “Sex Education,” as well as “Five by Five,” a series of short films executive produced by Idris Elba.

While growing up in South East London, Herron never considered filmmaking as a career. Her love of movies manifested as the aspiration to become an actor, and she often goaded her peers into putting on plays or making movies using a friend’s father’s camcorder. It wasn’t until some astute and encouraging teachers at Herron’s secondary school pointed out that she seemed more interested in storytelling that she changed course.

By introducing Herron to new texts, these teachers — as well as a film studies class that covered films directed by Stanley Kubrick and Akira Kurosawa — helped expand her perspective.

“I just didn’t know that you could have a voice and an authorship over a film, which probably sounds a bit silly. But I just hadn’t really thought about films in that way,” says Herron. Soon enough, she was on the path to film school at the University for the Creative Arts in Farnham, England, where she graduated with a degree in film production.

Herron laughs as she remembers how she believed she would just go off and find work in film straight out of school. “Obviously that did not happen,” she says.

With no post-graduate roadmap (or job offer) to help her break into the industry, Herron eventually started writing and directing short films with “no money” while juggling a day job as a temp. Both experiences provided Herron with material for “Loki,” which introduces a new bureaucratic agency called the Time Variance Authority to the MCU.

“I’ve worked at a lot of random places, which weirdly has influenced ‘Loki’ in some ways because we have this office culture kind of running through it,” says Herron. “I’ve worked in a lot of offices.”

In order to give the retro-futuristic offices of the TVA “a real lived-[in], breathed-in office” feel, Herron incorporated details that viewers could recognize from the real world — from paper files to the posters on the walls — and gave them a fantastical twist befitting the superhero series.

“One of the most exciting things to me about Kate is she has this amazing attention to detail,” says “Loki” co-executive producer Kevin Wright. “That was something that we saw on her very first pitch [and] it works its way into every frame of the show. Every monitor, every piece of paper in the TVA … she has looked over and approved everything you see.”

In an email, “Loki” star Hiddleston described Herron as “a dream collaborator” who possesses “a unique combination of extraordinary diligence, stamina, energy, respect and kindness.”

“Her affection for and understanding of Loki was so deep, profound and wide-ranging,” Hiddleston wrote. “She built a new world for these characters to play in with incredible precision, but she was also acutely sensitive to their emotional journey.”

Herron’s affinity for outsiders is apparent throughout the course of our conversation. There is of course her love for Loki — the heir to the king of Frost Giants raised as the prince of Asgard who has become one of the MCU’s most beloved villain-turned-antiheroes. Herron’s first introduction to the world of Marvel as a kid was through “X-Men: The Animated Series,” about the superhero team with mutant powers that set them apart from average humans. Herron cites Lisa Simpson — the overachieving, opinionated middle child from the animated sitcom “The Simpsons” — as the reason she is a vegetarian who can play the saxophone.

And although Herron describes herself as shy, it’s no match for the passion she brings to discussing film and television.

She calls Wes Anderson’s 2001 film “The Royal Tenenbaums,” co-written by “Loki” actor Owen Wilson, “a perfect movie.” In addition to being obsessed with “The Simpsons,” Herron gravitated toward genre shows such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” the updated “Battlestar Galactica” and “The X-Files” when growing up.

As Herron enthusiastically dives into “Loki’s” influences — which include “Alien” (1979), “Blade Runner” (1982), “Brazil” (1985), “Metropolis” (1927) and, yes, even “Teletubbies” — it’s easy to see why Wright knew she was the right person to bring “Loki” to life from their very first meeting.

Upon learning that Marvel was developing a show about Loki, Herron tasked her agents with calling Marvel every day until they would meet with her. And it worked.

“I was just so excited that somebody was chasing the project,” says Wright. “Which sounds crazy, that Marvel would be excited somebody’s chasing us. But it was the early days of us trying to get this Disney+ streaming stuff off the ground, so people were very hesitant … they didn’t know what it was yet.”

Herron’s enthusiasm for the show landed her a video meeting with Wright and executive producer Stephen Broussard. Believing it might be her only shot at the project, Herron came armed with so many stills and clips to illustrate her discussion of the scripts she’d been sent that a simple meet-and-greet turned into a four-hour conversation.

“Over the course of the next week or so,” Wright explains, “it was really figuring out how to set Kate up to succeed when we got her in front of Kevin Feige to pitch this.”

Herron put together a 60-page bible of ideas for the characters, the story, the visual references and more. The rest is Marvel history.

She learned not to wait for permission, she says, after graduating from film school and becoming involved with improv and stand-up to both develop her comedy chops and to meet funny collaborators to be in her short films.

“I think I’d always find excuses, almost, [to not do it],” says Herron. “It was that thing of being like, ‘Oh, well, I’m not ready. So I’ll wait. I’ll wait until I’m perfect at it and then I’ll go do it.’”

Taking inspiration from Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel Without a Crew” and a SXSW keynote speech by Mark Duplass, Herron realized that she just needed to start making things. She told herself it was OK if the films were messy. If a short was bad, nobody had to see it. If a short was “halfway to good,” she would submit them to festivals.

It’s this tenacious creativity that connects the dots between her early fan fiction, her short films, her pitch presentations — and now “Loki” itself. It’s a trait that has helped her navigate the industry to her current success, even during the periods it’s been most frustrating. As a female director, “I got asked crazy stuff in interviews sometimes,” she says of life on the festival circuit. “I remember being asked, ‘Are you sure you’re ready? Are you sure you’re ready?’ And male colleagues of mine were never asked that in interviews. I think that’s probably why I was so driven to just go out and make stuff.”

[pulaasul]

Lightning and Nexus

Billy, as Captain Marvel, was patrolling Fawcett city when he came upon a glowing red hexagon near the train station where he first met the Wizard Shazam.

Naturally, he investigates.

FFN I Ao3

Preface: Not at all related to my Justice League Unlimited in the DC Animated Universe and Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover, but I'll be using the Billy Batson of that crossover but minus getting sucked in during Endgame.

If you want to read the fic, it's called "Undo".

--------

Billy was just minding his own business, he was patrolling Fawcett City when he noticed an eerie red thing glowing at the alleyway near the train station where he first travelled to the Rock of Eternity. He cautiously approached the glowing hexagonal thing.

Upon closer inspection, the red hexagon had tints of blue around it.

He cautiously tried to reach out it when the Wisdom of Solomon warned him of it.

That was when he learned that the glowing red hexagon was a combination of spells that were cast by the homo magi from before the Salem Witch Trials.

"Mom! H-he-help me!"

Billy could hear two voices coming from the hexagon, two voices that the Wisdom of Solomon supplied to be coming from children.

"SHAZAM!" Billy shouted

Thunder cracked as lightning lit up the night sky before lightning struck Billy's champion form.

Billy soon found himself, as a fifteen-year-old, inside the Rock of Eternity.

"I'm sure the Wisdom of Solomon has informed you that those were cries of help young Billy Batson." The Wizard Shazam's ghostly form appeared sitting on the lone throne.

"Is it safe?"

"You are the world's mightiest mortal young Billy Batson." The Wizard offered, "The gods, your benefactors, through the nexus of the multiverse has provided you with the power."

"Nexus?"

"A being, place, or thing that is outside the confines of time and space," Shazam explained. "The constant in every universe," Shazam's ghostly form approached the teen. "Only you and your family can pass through the nexus of all realities, even a lord of order like Doctor Fate will have trouble passing through there."

Billy looked a bit reluctant as he processed what the wizard told him.

"Young Billy, what does your heart say?" The wizard asked his young champion.

"I want to help."

"Then you go help."

"What about this universe? What about Fawcett City?"

"I'm sure young Mary and young Freddy are up to the task."

Lightning struck the ground a few paces beside Billy before he saw his twin sister and best friend stood the ground where lightning just struck.

"Billy? What's the emergency?"

"Young Billy is about to travel to a different universe." Shazam informed the new arrivals.

"Travel?"

"Different universe?"

"A hexagonal portal just appeared in Fawcett," Billy supplied. "It's a call for help."

"You want to help them, don't you Billy?" Mary sighed.

"And we're called here so we can pick up the slack." Freddy raised an eyebrow. "We'll be this world's champion of magic while you go dimension-hopping to help someone in need."

"This show of humility and selflessness proves that I chose well in you young Billy." Shazam's ghostly form smiled.

"What about me?" Freddy pointed out. "I get why Mary was called here but without Billy, no one would give me Shazam's powers."

"Freddy's right, Billy shares his powers with Freddy," Mary nodded.

"Do not worry young Freddy, you'll still be able to transform into your champion form even if young Billy is not in this universe." The Wizard assured.

--------

Not before long Freddy, Mary and Billy were in front of the glowing red hexagon in their mortal forms.

"I trust that you'll take care of things here." Billy smiled at his best friend and sister.

"Don't worry Billy, I've got the league handled." Mary assured his brother.

"And I'm taking care of everything else." Freddy proudly announced.

"Oh please Freddy, we're taking care of everything in Billy's absence." Mary rolled her eyes.

"Seriously, what about Pedro, Eugene, and Darla?" Freddy voiced out. "They'd want to know where you've gone to, especially Darla."

"Not to mention Batman would go to great lengths to find where you've gone," Mary muttered to herself. "He might commission Superman's services to check the areas where technology is still sparse or outright non-existent."

"Just tell everyone that the wizard sent me somewhere to restore order," Billy instructed. "As the Wizard was once a Lord of Order."

"Wouldn't they ask Doctor Fate about that?" Freddy questioned.

"Doctor Fate is the least of our worries," Billy shook his head. "We have to worry about how Constantine is going to react."

"Why Constantine?"

"Because he's as unpredictable as sorcerers and homo magi go, one of the rare homo magi that have been to hell and back," Billy answered. "Just tell Constantine everything from my encounter with this thing." He gestured to the hexagon.

"Tell the family and Constantine the truth then tell everyone else that the Wizard sent you somewhere to restore order." Mary summarized the instructions.

"Got it one Bill." Freddy grinned.

"So this is goodbye?" Mary asked.

"For now." Billy smiled at his sister. "I promise that I'll come back."

"SHAZAM"

Lightning struck Billy Batson, and Captain Marvel was standing where the young boy stood.

"I'll leave everything in your hands." Captain Marvel smiled.

Captain Marvel reached out to the glowing red hexagon and braced himself for what was about to happen.

All Freddy and Mary could was watch as Captain Marvel was yanked into the red hexagon even when he was already approaching it.

----------

Captain Marvel found himself in an empty street wearing some sort of cosplay of his hero costume; form-fitting red shirt and red form-fitting trousers, bright yellow belt, and boots with a big black lightning bolt with yellow outlines printed across his shirt.

Thanks to the Wisdom of Solomon, he was able to identify that he was supposed to be in some sort of sitcom-like reality, and apparently it's just starting their Halloween episode.

"SHAZAM!"

Lightning struck the heroic captain and was replaced by his mortal form, Billy Batson.

Billy was wearing a smaller version of the outfit he was wearing as Captain Marvel from the form-fitting shirt to the bright yellow boots.

Billy shook his head and decided to forego thinking up of theories and possibilities like he used to when he was fighting with the Marvel family and ran straight ahead.

As Billy was running he noticed few people were out and about, standing stationary in their places. He narrowed his eyes and approached one of them. He waved his hands in front of one kid, trying to get a reaction but to no avail.

He tried to do the same from an adult but to no avail. He even tried poking them in areas he knew most people were ticklish but he barely got an 'eep' from them.

Not a moment later, everyone around him started moving, children running around going house-to-house trick-or-treating some adults were putting up Halloween decorations in their lawns.

"Sorry boy, I didn't see you there," The adult he was just poking earlier stated. "Let's get you to my front door."

The adult escorted Billy to the house.

"Trick or treat!" Billy exclaimed, trying to blend in.

"Here you go boy, you're costume looks great, a circus performer right?"

"Yeah! I just love them! Especially that one family that does all their acts together." Billy grinned.

It didn't escape Billy's notice that everyone started being responsive and moving when a woman in red walked with what seems to be her family.

-----------

Billy continued trick-or-treating but he kept passing by the odd family. Apparently, the man the lady was with was her twin brother and the two boys were her children. The four of them were dressed in costumes that one would find in the pages of a comic book.

From passing by them constantly, he was able to put faces on the voices he had heard back in Fawcett city. The other boy's voice back then was just overpowered by his brother's voice. They were clearly trying to get some help, they were trying to call their mom to help them.

Acting against his better judgment, he decided not to approach the family.

It can never be said that Billy can't learn from his mistakes or the mistakes of others. He knew that he did the right thing when he and Superman fought because of Luthor's machinations. He just hoped that Superman can learn from his own.

That was during this moment that Billy noticed that all his candy were gone and he was covered in silly strings. He looked at the family only to find the red woman talking to a man in a zombie costume. He looked around his surroundings and he can see the blue and red streaks breezing around his immediate surroundings.

-----------

Night came, and the family was at the town square and they pointed at Billy as if they finally found him.

"Mom, that's him." Billy heard the boy with the red cape exclaim.

The family approached Billy and handed him a handful of candies.

"Now boys, what do you say?"

"We're sorry," The Maximoff twins apologized. "We won't do it again."

"It's fine," Billy smiled at the twins. "I understand the feeling of having all the candy to yourself especially on Halloween night," He stated. "What do you say that you two split the candy you got from me earlier?"

"Really?" Tommy looked at Billy expectantly.

"Are you sure?" Wanda asked.

"I'm sure," Billy nodded. "It's my fault that I wasn't attentive that you were able to steal my candy," He grinned. "I've been an orphan for years and that was basically what I first learned after running away from my uncle. It's my fault for letting my guard down after being sent to a foster home here."

It wasn't a complete lie, after Billy ran away from his uncle Ebenezer, one of the very first things he learned was how to guard all of his things and make sure that none of them end up getting stolen. Ever since Uncle Dudley took him in and then by the Vasquezes, his guard had been lax.

However, Billy knew that super speed was applied during the Maximoff twins' candy heist, but they didn't need to know that he knew that.

Wanda glanced at her twin brother and frowned.

The Maximoff twins looked at each other then looked at their uncle.

"If you're sure." Wanda nodded, unsure how to process the information. "What is your name?"

"I'm Billy Batson." Billy introduced himself.

"No way!" The other kid exclaimed. "My name's Billy Maximoff!"

"No way!"

"What should we call you little dude, I don't think we can call our Billy any other name." Pietro offered.

"You can't even tell the difference between us." Billy Maximoff fired.

"Hey! I've been here for a day only," Pietro defended himself. "You can't blame me if I can't tell the difference between you two demon spawns."

"You can address me as Batson, my family name." Billy Batson suggested.

"Now boys, what do you say to Batson after he graciously told you to keep the candy that you stole?" Wanda asked her twin boys.

"Thank you, Billy." The Maximoff twins expressed their gratitude.

"It's no problem," Billy grinned. "Gotta run, I have a few more houses to get to, assuming you returned the candy you stole to the others." He gave off a smirk. "See you around."

"See you around Billy!"

-----------

As soon as Billy was a distance away from the Maximoffs, he can sense something different from the twins and their supposed uncle. It may just be the Wisdom of Solomon leaking out to his mortal form, but he just had this feeling.

Billy nodded to himself as a plan formed in his mind.

"SHAZAM!"

Billy transformed back into his champion form of Captain Marvel. He flew upwards and gained a fair distance from the ground.

He looked around and finally found the family he was looking for.

It seemed like the feeling he had as Billy was right. The Wisdom of Solomon has informed him that the boys were mere constructs, living constructs, of the mother.

The uncle on the other hand has a different feel from everyone he had encountered so far, minus the Maximoff twins. It felt like he didn't belong in this universe, just like he was. Then there was the fact that he the man was showing signs of magical possession, and Wanda, the mother of the twins, was none the wiser.

But before he could even take action, he saw that the boys approached their mother frantically which was followed by Wanda blasting her supposed brother with red energy.

It looked like Wanda has just realized who the man was.

The next thing Captain Marvel knew was that everyone around Wanda, minus the twins and the man who was just blasted away stopped moving in the middle of what they were doing as if time had stopped for them. Someone was even jumping when they froze in the air.

A pulse of red energy was released from where Wanda stood and engulfed everyone it came in contact with.

When Captain Marvel came into contact with the pulse of energy, which was when things clicked into place.

Magic.

Wanda was casting magic through sheer willpower. She simply has to think of what she wants and the magic, as if it was subservient to her will, would follow her desires to a T.

It was a good thing he was in his champion form or the red magic would have placed him completely under Wanda's control and cast him to a role in this reality-warping magic. The rock's magic protected him from the supposed effects Wanda's magic would have had on his mortal form.

As soon as the effects of the pulse subsided, everyone was suddenly walking to their respective houses all robot-like with no conversations, no laughter. They were just like machines ordered to go back to their storage centers.

----------

Captain Marvel soon found himself in the morning when everything has changed shape as if trying to depict a certain era: buildings, advertisements, even the cars were changed.

He ignored the fact that it was suddenly morning and decided to fly around the area and see what the effects of the red magic pulse earlier was. Much to his surprise, the area seemed to have expanded as there were areas that weren't present before.

Captain Marvel decided to descend near where the circus was situated. He saw, an unconscious man?

A machine?

A synthezoid?

A synthezoid that emanated the same magical signature as the twins, which would mean this man was also a product of Wanda's magic.

He was about to approach him when the circus became lively. People were coming out of circus tents and started practicing their supposed routines and acts.

-----------

Only a few short moments have passed and the machine woke up from slumber and approached the woman in chains, her supposed role was that of an escape artist considering the ease she showed in escaping from the chains she was previously bound in.

A few more moments of observation, the synthezoid pressed two fingers on the woman's temple. It unscrambled the magical energy that was lingering unto her heart and brain, suppressing it.

Captain Marvel was about to approach the duo when he noticed what he was wearing. It was certainly something. He was now wearing what Clark Kent would wear when covering stories. He supposed that Wanda's magic rewrote his clothes into that of a journalist considering that he was a radio reporter himself, despite the rock's magic protecting him from further alterations.

He shook his head and decided to approach the duo who were now about to board an ice cream truck.

"Excuse me." Captain Marvel called out. "William Batson from the Daily Planet, I would like to ask the escape artist some questions."

"Sorry," The machine apologized. "We really have to go, we were double booked."

"It's fine, this is an ambush interview, and I could ride with you to your destination." Captain Marvel bargained.

"Fine, he can come with," The former escape artist acquiesced.

The ice cream truck moved and both persons talked to each other as if they didn't have any other passenger with them. This does work to his advantage, he didn't have to ask any potentially triggering questions that would be detrimental to anyone involved.

"This was fueled by grief." Captain Marvel shared his conclusion.

"Wha-?"

"I'm sorry I had to lie earlier," Marvel apologized. "I didn't lie that I was supposed to be a journalist set to cover the circus in town but I knew that I didn't have the same mentality as the rest of them," He admitted. "That gist of what I knew was that I was suddenly in a place where people acted differently."

"You noticed that we acted differently from the others, that's why you approached us." The man in red surmised.

"That's the gist of it."

"What do you mean this is fueled by grief?" The woman asked. "I'm Dr. Darcy Lewis by the way."

"I'm The Vision."

"As far as I know, based on your explanation, this Wanda person seems to have more powers than what was recorded: telekinesis and telepathy. Why not say that her power evolved through grief or even say that her powers are magical in origin?" Captain Marvel offered.

"Magic would make a lot of sense," Darcy nodded. "Especially considering what's happening."

"A sitcom-like reality where nothing dangerous or traumatic ever happens." Captain Marvel nodded along.

"I'm still stumped on that fueled by grief part." Darcy frowned.

"It makes the most sense, according to you, five years ago this universe experienced an extinction-like event that erased half of the universe's population out of existence and it wasn't until a few months ago that those who got their existences erased returned."

"For Wanda, when she returned, my death was only a few minutes earlier."

"And in turn make your death only a few months old from her perspective," Darcy concluded.

"Grief has five stages and Wanda's on the first stage of grief – Denial." Captain Marvel somberly stated. "Add that with magic, and she can essentially deny the reality of her losses."

-----------

As the conversation inside the ice cream truck evolved to a myriad of topics, they waited for the group of school children to pass through the intersection. Captain Marvel must admit, if he wasn't being subjected through these circumstances, he would get a good laugh about this situation.

Not a moment later, Vision the synthezoid, flew upwards and phased through the truck's roof and left Dr. Darcy and Captain Marvel inside the truck.

"O-okay, meet you there." Darcy remarked belatedly.

"Dr. Lewis, I suggest you hold on tight." Captain Marvel suggested as he exited the truck from the back door and lifted it up in the air.

"Gaah! What are you doing?!" Darcy exclaimed in surprise.

"Getting us to our destination faster."

Captain Marvel lifted the truck off of the ground and flew towards the direction where the Vision flew.

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

Captain Marvel placed the ice cream truck at the town square where a lot of Westview's citizens were living their days as they cast of Wanda's sitcom reality.

"Take a minute to compose yourself then do what you need to do." He instructed before he flew off.

Captain Marvel flew towards a strong magical presence, not of Wanda's, that's filled with mal intent. The feeling he got from this magical presence was the same feeling he got from facing one of the seven deadly sins way back when.

Captain Marvel utilized the speed of mercury and increased his flying speed that he was able to overtake the Vision and see what was happening near Wanda's residence.

"Let my brother go!" Captain Marvel heard Tommy demand as both he and his twin struggled from the purple strings tied around their necks. "

Captain Marvel summoned a lightning bolt to his hands and threw it towards the strings that connected the noose to the floating woman's fingers, cutting the captive boys free.

As soon her twins were free, Wanda immediately launched two red energy balls at the woman, knocking her back a few meters away from where she floated.

"Go to your room boys." Wanda ordered.

"Mom, we can help." The twins protested.

"Listen to your mother boys." The woman remarked as she got up from the pavement just by planting her feet on the ground.

"But-"

"I'll take them home." Captain Marvel volunteered.

The lightning hero flew towards the twin boys and carried them under his arms towards their residence.

"Who are you? How do you know where our house is?" Tommy frowned.

"Never mind that boys, you need to get inside while I go help your mother."

Captain Marvel left the boys and tackled the woman in purple robes and actively utilized the Wisdom of Solomon once more.

The woman before him was Agatha Harkness, an ancient witch from the Salem witch trials. She dabbled in magic that was above her station that cost the life of her entire coven when they punished her for going above her station.

"Another magician in the midst." Agatha smirked.

The purple witch sent out a pulse of purple energy that sent Captain Marvel flying towards the sky however she failed to notice the flying car that Wanda had summoned and slammed her into a nearby house.

By the time Captain Marvel was able to regain his bearings from being unceremoniously blown away from where he was, he immediately flew back to where he knew Wanda was at only to be greeted by the Vision flying towards a white version of himself and Wanda chasing after Agatha.

Captain Marvel was about to chase after both witches when he saw clear signs of magical tampering on a certain house. He flew towards the top of the house and shouted at the top of his lungs.

"SHAZAM!"

As thunder cracked on an otherwise clear sky, he immediately flew away from the structure as the lightning he summoned dispelled whatever magical spells the house was under by way of a purple-tinted glass dome shattering to pieces.

As soon as the purple dome shattered, the lightning hero could feel insidious magic emanating from the house, magic that would even make the Lords of Chaos back in his home universe giddy with excitement.

Marvel shook his head as he immediately headed for the window at the top of the house in question only to be greeted by a woman straddling a man.

"Nice to meet you, Ralph."

"Hello, Peter." Marvel greeted.

"H-how…"

"None of that right now, Peter your speed is needed now," Marvel ordered. "I fear the residents of Westview are going to be caught in a crossfire between a fight amongst witches, and robots, once the dome we're in opens, I need you to transport all of the civilians outside."

"Gotcha!" Peter nodded.

"As for Captain Marvel…"

"You mean me? I'm not her." Monica raised an eyebrow.

"Right, Danvers is the Captain Marvel of this universe." Captain Marvel muttered to himself, "You're on guard duty, your powers can be used to protect the civilians unlucky enough to get in between Wanda and the other witch."

"How will I get there?"

"You're going flying with me."

"See you on the flip side." Peter saluted before speeding off towards the town square.

----------

Monica and Captain Marvel flew towards the town square only to be greeted by a screaming Wanda Maximoff, whose magic seemed to strangle the crowd that formed around her.

"Wanda, control your magic," Captain Marvel called out. "I know grief can be drowning and this magic is the only thing keeping you afloat but you need to control your powers so you won't hurt others in the process.'

Wanda looked around and saw for herself what was happening, everyone around her on the ground struggling to breath.

"No! Stop!" Wanda forcibly dispelled the spell that she unconsciously cast on the townspeople. "Stop! I'm sorry."

Captain Marvel nodded to Monica as he set her down on the nearest sidewalk, intending to assist Wanda.

"I will, I will let you go, I will." Wanda remorsefully nodded.

"What's stopping you?" Agatha inquired. "Use your power and do it now." She urged the grief-stricken hero. "Heroes don't torture people."

"You've done enough damage, Harkness." Captain Marvel growled.

The lightning hero summoned a lightning bolt to his hand and threw it right at the purple witch, missing her by an inch. He summoned another one and threw it in the same direction.

"Were those supposed to hit me?"

"No, they weren't."

As if on cue, the billboard behind Agatha started to crumble and fell towards the witch. He knew that the witch was able to save herself from the oncoming fall, but it was enough distraction so that he can tend to Wanda.

Before he could even approach her, Wanda screamed and summoned a pillar of red magic that pierced the skies, opening the hexagonal dome that trapped all of Westview.

"Go!" Wanda ordered. "All of you! Now!"

"Peter now!"

Two by two, Peter Maximoff carted off the residents of Westview just outside the premises of the dome as military-grade trucks entered its premises. The speedster ignored the people going inside in favor of getting the residents out of the dome Wanda has created.

As the surroundings flickered back and forth to different eras, Captain Marvel was vigilant and observed everything. Even with the powers of the gods at his beck and call, he still doesn't know where Harkness would soon reappear next.

He was a bit surprised when the Vision plummeted towards the ground, slowly but surely disintegrating. He soon witnessed Wanda's twin boys arriving, also sporting the affliction that plagued their synthezoid of a father.

The recent turn of events has made Captain Marvel come to a conclusion: All of Wanda's living constructs are tied to the dome that she created. Dispelling the dome would technically kill her family as well.

The family that kept her afloat from the sea of grief within her.

"Now do you see?" Agatha appeared in front of the downed billboard. "You tied your family into this twisted world, now one can't exist without the other."

"Mom!"

"Boys!"

"Save Westview or save your family?"

Peter managed to return to the dome and nodded to Captain Marvel.

"Wanda, close the dome!" Captain Marvel ordered. "Every man, woman, and child of Westview has been evacuated."

Wanda looked at her husband and sons, and that was all the motivation she needed to close the dome that was slowly and but surely killing her family as painful as possible.

With the dome closed, the Vision, Billy, and Tommy Maximoff reformed to their original states.

"M-mom!"

"Mom! Are you okay?" Billy Maximoff asked his mother.

Wanda simply hugged her boys as a response while the Vision hugged his family.

"Really?!" Agatha growled, sending a beam of purple magic towards the family.

"Oh no you don't"

Captain Marvel threw a car to intercept the purple beam and exploded as Wanda erected a red shield to protect herself and her family.

Agatha didn't give up and sent another purple beam towards the Maximoffs, this time Peter reacted and was able to whisk away the younger twins with the lightning hero grabbing both Vision and Wanda.

"It makes me wonder," Agatha spoke. "How come I haven't absorbed your magic sorcerer?"

"I know how your absorption magic works Harkness," Captain Marvel responded. "You're not getting a whiff of mine or any more of Wanda's magic."

"Let's see about that." Agatha smirked as she fired off purple balls of magic towards Captain Marvel, all of which were dodged.

As Captain Marvel dodged every attack that came from Agatha, military-grade trucks came running before military personnel exited their vehicles and pointed their guns at the Synthezoid-Human family in the center.

"Listen, boys, your mother and I never really prepared you for this." The Vision started, eyeing the military personnel pointing the guns at him and his family.

"But you were born for it." Wanda finished.

Vision flew towards his differently-colored counterpart as Wanda and the twins stared at the military before them.

As Captain Marvel continued to dodge the purple balls of magic coming towards him, some of the military people pointed their guns at the flying beings in the sky, namely himself and Agatha.

With one final purple ball, Agatha shifted her attention to the gun-bearing men and lifted them off of the ground.

"Same story, different century." Agatha scoffed. "There will always be torches and pitchforks for people like us Wanda." She smirked as she faced the lightning hero.

Agatha dispelled the floating spell she cast on the military men, with gravity doing the rest of the work for her.

Captain Marvel was quick to save a few of them, as did Peter who was watching from afar not knowing what really to do next, but there were some of them left who would surely plummet to their own deaths.

Wanda was quick to act and saved the remaining few with her magic and stopped the momentum of their fall before unceremoniously dropping them on the pavement.

"Boys," Wanda faced her sons. "Handle the military, mommy will be right back."

Wanda flew towards Agatha.

The military turned their guns on the Maximoff twins but Billy Maximoff already had a plan in mind. He immobilized everyone from the military, who were pointing their guns at him and his twin, through his magic, while Tommy used his super-speed to steal their guns, a hat, and a pair of sunglasses.

"Right on, my dude!" Peter praised.

"Uncle P?" Tommy questioned, unsure.

"Not exactly kid," Peter shrugged. "But close enough." He grinned.

Another person exited his vehicle and pointed his pistol right at the celebrating kids.

From a distance, Monica was riding the ice cream truck with Darcy as they helped Peter in evacuating the residents of Westview, saw what the man was about to do.

"No, no! That Hayward!"

"What about Hayward?" Darcy questioned when she noticed what her passenger was doing. "Monica! What are you doing?!"

Monica ignored Darcy's questions, and the fact that the vehicle she was in was still moving, and exited it before rushing towards the boys, leaving behind a golden streak, and placed herself between the twins and the man firing his pistol.

The bullets passed through Monica before falling just behind her, losing their momentum, but one lone bullet whizzed past her, helpless to stop as she did the bullets before.

Billy Maximoff used his magic to stop the bullet in its tracks before he dropped it to the ground.

"Nice tricks." Monica praised.

"I like yours too!" Billy Maximoff returned the compliment.

"I'll take this."

Captain Marvel landed before the man, Hayward, and grabbed the emptied gun from his hands and crushed it all the while glaring at the man who dared to shoot at children.

Hayward scrambled to get to his vehicle to make his hasty escape. He was able to successfully drive the car backward only to be slammed by an oncoming ice cream truck, stopping him dead on his tracks.

"Have fun in prison." Darcy quipped.

Monica was quick to rush to Darcy's aid, even if she still didn't know how to open the door that was most likely slammed shut from the driver's stunt earlier.

Billy Maximoff knew what to do, he immediately used his magic to open the door as Monica helped the relatively unharmed driver out of the truck.

With the de-facto leader pinned inside his vehicle and the other military personnel deprived of their guns, and he just saw the white version of the Vision fly upwards, Captain Marvel instantly knew that the remaining threat was the witch, Agatha Harkness.

Captain Marvel looked around and there he saw Agatha looking down on the Vision, his kids, her supposed husband, Monica, and Darcy. He was about to charge when he saw Wanda approach the unsuspecting witch, albeit creepily, and whispered something to her ear.

The next thing that happened was Wanda and Agatha jumping off of the roof before flying towards the sky.

Wanda began attacking Agatha, firing off red energy balls, some of them hit the other witch right on the chest while some outright missed.

Vision and Captain Marvel flew towards Wanda only for her to cast a dome right at the both of them, which the lightning hero was able to evade leaving Vision trapped inside the dome which left him with no choice but to land back towards his sons, hugging them.

"What are you doing Wanda?" Captain Marvel shouted.

That was when Captain Marvel realized, he looked at the places where the energy balls hit every time Wanda missed Agatha.

Wanda was casting runes, magic dampening runes.

Runes that would make any other sorcerer, witch, or wizard incapable of using their magic once inside them.

Before Captain Marvel could react, Agatha started the process of absorbing Wanda's magic.

A few moments passed and it seemed like Agatha has absorbed every ounce of magical energy inside Wanda as she floated lifelessly in her place.

"About our deal, once cast, the spell can never be changed. This world you made will always be broken." Agatha blinked. "Just." She raised a lone finger. "Like." She pointed at Wanda. "You."

Agatha raised both of her arms, intending to deal a finishing blow towards her opponent, but once she placed her arms forward, her spell failed to materialize.

She repeated her actions but nothing still happened.

Wanda slowly straightened her body as the effects of having her magic drained on her body faded and reflected her age, with a slow turn of her wrist, the runes Wanda has cast beforehand revealed themselves.

"Runes?"

"In a given space, only the witch who cast them can use her magic." Wanda quoted Agatha. "Thanks for the lesson.

Agatha glared at Wanda.

"But I don't need you to tell me, who I am."

"No, no, no." Agatha panicked.

An ethereal red crown appeared on Wanda's head as magic around her, including the magic that Agatha has absorbed from Wanda and various other witches, were going towards her.

It took everything in Captain Marvel's power not to get swept up in the magic absorption that was happening but he successfully landed on the pavement, albeit on his knees.

"SHAZAM!"

Thunder cracked as lightning flashed the sky, not a moment after, lightning hit Captain Marvel's chest, much to everyone's shock, to which he turned back into his mortal form, Billy Batson.

"No way!" Billy Maximoff exclaimed. "You're that lightning dude!"

"Yeah, I'm the lightning dude." Billy Batson nodded.

"How?" Darcy questioned.

"How did you do it? Did you just de-age yourself? Why would you go back to being a kid?"

"Slow down." Billy Batson chuckled. "To start with, I'm Billy Batson, I turn into lightning dude, I call myself Captain Marvel while in that form."

"Captain Marvel? I thought I heard you say 'Captain Marvel of this universe'."

"He also mentioned how this universe experienced an extinction-like event." Darcy chimed in.

"Who are you Billy Batson?" the Vision questioned.

"I'll explain once Wanda's done with Agatha." Billy smiled at the group.

As Billy, Darcy, Monica, and the Maximoffs, including Peter watched how Wanda close this threat.

"So what now? Just gonna lock me up somewhere?"

"No."

Billy tensed at Wanda's response.

"Not somewhere."

"Wanda no," Billy immediately spoke up. "I know it can be tempting to exact vengeance but that will never satisfy you, it may bring temporary relief and closure, but it's just that, temporary. You just have to believe that if you're good, good will follow."

"Here." Wanda paid no heed to Batson's outburst.

"Here?" Agatha questioned.

"I'll give you the role you chose, the nosy neighbor." Wanda approached Agatha.

"No, please!" Agatha begged.

"I'm sorry."

"No, you're not," Agatha scoffed. "You're cruel."

Wanda ignored Agatha's last verbal stance and approached her some more.

"No you, you have no idea what you've unleashed, you're gonna need me." Agatha bargained.

"If I do, I know where to find you."

"Wait, wait, wai-"

Wanda touched Agatha's left temple and a red swirl of magical energy morphed Agatha's whole appearance to that of an unassuming person.

"Hiya hun, say, that's some kinda get up you're wearing," The woman who was known as Agatha grinned. "Did I leave the oven on, is that just you, hot stuff?" Agatha chuckled.

"You live here now, no one will ever bother you."

"Okay dokey, artichoke."

"I'll be seeing you, Agnes."

"Not if I see you first, hun." Agatha-turned-Agnes fired back.

"Mom!"

The Maximoff twins ran towards their mother and hugged both in joy and relief. Wanda returned the hugs with kisses on both the boys' foreheads.

"So it would appear that our dream home has been reduced to a fixer-upper," Vision commented. "I know you'll set everything right." He looked around. "Just not for us."

"No," Wanda shook her head but in affirmation. "Not for us."

"It's time, should we head home?"

"Yeah."

Darcy, Monica, Billy Batson, and Peter looked at the family of four with sympathy, especially for Wanda. They knew that this will be the last time they'll see this family.

Wanda looked at the four of them but only nodded in acknowledgment.

Monica and Darcy simply nodded back at them.

"I promise you'll get your answers, but there is something that I need to do first."

"I'll take you there."

Peter placed his hand on Billy's shoulders before they disappeared from view.

-----------

"Boys… Thank you for choosing me to be your mom."

Wanda turned off the lights and closed the door.

"SHAZAM!"

Billy transformed back into his champion form and entered the boys' room. He looked at their sleeping forms as they were slowly but surely disintegrating one piece at a time as the barrier of Wanda's dome inched closer.

Captain Marvel raised his arms sideward, each hand hovering over one of the boys. Harmless bolts of electricity seeped out of his hands and made contact with the Maximoff twins.

Captain Marvel was going off of what he did to Freddy years ago, after his fight with a villain resulted in broken bones and losing a grandfather. While he may not have fully healed the broken leg, it did protect his best friend from further injuries even as Freddy Freeman.

Despite the minimal amount of contact Captain Marvel had with the boys, both as Billy Batson and Captain Marvel, he knew that the Maximoff twins were sentient and possess a soul of their own, and they just lack a body.

As they were beings constructed with magic, there is a high chance of them being used against Wanda, and he was hoping that what he was doing to them, that by sharing a small amount of divine magic to them, would protect them from malicious beings that would use them against their mother.

As soon as he was done, it took everything for Captain Marvel not to keel over from the experience. He might have done something more, something unexpected, to the boys and the experience was draining, to say the least.

Captain Marvel looked at the boys for one more moment and that was when things clicked, thanks to the Wisdom of Solomon. He left a small imprint of himself, of Billy Batson, on the magic that he shared with the Maximoff twins.

All things considered, it was probably for the best, now he knew that the boys would have someone else with them, regardless if that someone was just a small projection of his mortal self, at the very least the boys won't be lonely by themselves.

Billy knew loneliness and no one deserves that fate, especially not children who chose the Scarlet Witch as their mother.

With everything done, Captain Marvel exited the boys' room and shouted his magic word before transforming back into his fifteen-year-old self.

Almost as soon as Captain Marvel returned to his mortal form, he and Peter made contact with the contracting dome of magical energy as everything transformed back into what it should be: including the disappearance of the house in front of them, leaving one Wanda Maximoff standing at the center of the lot.

Peter immediately approached the grief-stricken mother.

"Can I hug you?" Peter asked.

Wanda simply nodded, still unable to form a coherent sentence.

"Why did I have to lose everyone dear to me?" Wanda muttered to herself.

"I can't give you an answer to that myself." Peter rubbed Wanda's back.

"You're not Pietro." Wanda removed herself from Peter's hug."

"I'm not."

"Why do you have his power?"

"It's because he's your brother in another universe." Billy answered.

"Batson."

"What do you mean another universe?" Peter frowned.

"Ask Wanda of something you're sure to exist." Billy urged the speedster.

Peter decided to humor Billy and looked at Wanda.

"Do you know of a Professor X?" Peter asked Wanda. "The X-men?"

"Professor X? X-men?"

"You mean to say that there are actually multiple universes out there?" Peter exclaimed at Billy. "There's no way mutants don't exist!"

"Mutant?"

"You're standing in one Peter." Billy smiled.

"I'm a long way from home." Peter realized.

"Who are you Batson?"

"I'm just someone from another universe who's here to answer a call for help," Billy answered. "And no, it's not someone from Westview or the people from the military." He sighed. "Frankly speaking, I don't think I'm done with this."

"Not done?" Peter raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not sure myself, it's just this feeling I've got."

In truth, the Wisdom of Solomon who alerted Captain Marvel had informed him that he wasn't done just yet. Billy does have a sneaking suspicion that he may have travelled to a point in this universe before the boys, Wanda's twins, were asking for their mother's help.

"How did you come to this universe, Peter?" Billy asked. "I came here through a hexagon portal in red of my own free will."

"I'm not sure…" Peter trailed off. "I was on an en errand by Professor X when I felt like one of my sisters needed me," He admitted. "The next thing I know was that some woman approaching me and forced on me a necklace then I found myself at your doorsteps claiming to be your 'long lost brother'."

"Sisters."

"It's possible that you responded to Wanda's grief and pulled you out of your home universe." Billy hummed.

"Did I… No." Wanda gasped. "I promise that I will send you both back to your home as soon as I understand my powers."

"No need to rush sis," Peter grinned. "I can wait."

"As I said, I came here of my own free will," Billy repeated. "I can wait, maybe even assist you."

"No, I need to do this on my own."

"I understand," Billy nodded. "But if you need me, you can simply cast one of your spells and I'll immediately come to you."

"Count me in on that too."

"I have to go." Wanda excused herself.

"We'll go together." Billy smiled.

---------

As Wanda walked towards the town square of Westview, she has her hood up as if hiding from the glares the citizens were giving her.

Billy and Peter tried their best to shied Wanda from those stares. No matter what they did, it won't erase the fact that they were held hostage by someone who should have been their hero. The feeling of betrayal was there, and Billy was familiar with that kind of feeling.

Especially after his bout with Superman years ago.

Wanda approached Monica.

"They'll never know what you sacrificed for them."

"It wouldn't change how they see me." Wanda sighed.

Monica simply nodded, agreeing with Wanda's sentiment.

"And you, you don't hate me?"

"Given the chance, given your power, I'd bring my mom back." Monica nodded. "You know, I would."

"I'm sorry, for all the pain I caused."

"I know,"

"I don't understand this power, but I will."

Wanda looks around her before looking at Monica's eye.

"Goodbye, Monica."

"Bye Wanda."

Wanda turns her back on Monica before transforming her clothes into something else and flew off to who knows where.

"As for the both of you." Monica looks at Billy and Peter. "Care to tell me who are you both?"

----------

"Let me get this straight, you two are from a different universe, different from this one." Jimmy questioned.

"Seems to be the most plausible explanation," Peter shrugged. "Seriously, no one here knows about mutants or even the X-men or even the brotherhood of mutants."

"Where are you from then Billy? If that even is your name."

"I came from a universe where one of our heroes dresses as a bat." Billy shrugged.

"A bat? Seriously?" Peter snickered.

"Hey I was an orphan who was given these powers by a wizard, I'm not one to judge on why he dresses as a bat."

"No more joking this time." Jimmy groaned.

"I'm not joking." Billy told the trio seriously.

"And so am I." Peter nodded.

"I'm sorry, but I'm still lost at 'the different universe' part."

"Yet you're not at all surprised that the Norse god of thunder is part of your hero lineup." Billy raised an eyebrow.

"He has a point." Darcy conceded.

"Why are you here Billy?" Monica took over the questioning. "What about your home universe?"

"I've got my family to pick up the slack." Billy smiled.

----------

"M-mom!"

"H-help us!"

"I don't know if Billy can last much longer."

--------

Somewhere, Wanda in her Scarlet Witch costume, opened her eyes as it glowed red.

[that-shamrock-vibe]

WandaVision: Dissecting the MCU’s Most Successful Superhero Couple

Disclaimer: I am only using the term WandaVision as the coupling name for Scarlet Witch and Vision. I am not centring this discussion on the upcoming Disney+ series but rather talking about the 6 year build up to it.

Introduction:

Despite the fact the likes of Hank Pym’s Ant-Man & Janet van Dyne’s Wasp along with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman are Marvel Comics’ most prominent superhero couples, Scarlet Witch and Vision have always been that “unusual couple” that became a fan-favourite, didn’t diminish either character’s individual stories and, once the two were officially introduced into the MCU in 2015′s Avengers: Age of Ultron, became a hotly anticipated coupling by fans from their somewhat instant connection.

Not only is this comics-accurate love story finally being realised in the MCU, but the fact Kevin Feige feels as passionate about them as fans like I do that he is giving them their own series to shine, along with Wanda herself being involved in the MCU’s next big arc with exploring the Multiverse, I think it is safe to say that WandaVision have outshone the likes of Ant-Man and the Wasp and other couplings to become the MCU’s It couple.

Well, considering Disney+ released a new behind the scenes series called Marvel Legends last week with the first two episodes focusing on Wanda and Vision, despite them being no more than clip-reels of the characters MCU timeline, I wanted to delve in deeper and discuss how characters that were deemed B-worthy enough to be sent to streaming...which suddenly seems like the place to be...have suddenly become the hottest commodities in the MCU.

The Age of Miracles:

Wanda Maximoff first appeared in the MCU in an mid-credits scene for 2014′s Captain America: The Winter Soldier, adding the cherry on the top of what was already a glorious cake of a movie by unofficially introducing Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Sidebar, this was, at its time, very confusing for fans who believed that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were owned by 20th Century Fox in their X-Men movies. However, after the announcement of the Maximoff twins in the MCU and Quicksilver appearing simultaneously in 2014′s X-Men: Days of Future Past, it was revealed that a deal was made between Fox and Disney that the twins would only have certain traits in either universe.

For the X-Men movies, they would be Mutants, have their origins as the children of Magneto and...even though this never happened...appear as members of the Brotherhood of Mutants.

For the MCU, the Maximoff twins are known as enhanced individuals gaining their powers from the Mind Stone after experimentation from HYDRA. There is no mention of them being Mutants, their parents were indirect victims of Stark Industries, and despite Pietro having his original speed physiology powers, Wanda started off with Psionic Manipulation rather than Chaos Magic as her comic-book counterpart has.

However, it has been confirmed by Kevin Feige that Wanda’s shapeless red energy is magic of the same elk to Doctor Strange, just untamed. Meaning the upcoming alternative sitcom reality Wanda has created in WandaVision restoring Vision, could be an application of her latent reality warping powers.

The Maximoff Twins were officially introduced in 2015′s Avengers: Age of Ultron originally as operatives of HYDRA, before moving on to serve Ultron until defecting from him after realising he was evil and joining the Avengers in their fight to save their home country Sokovia.

Vision meanwhile was officially introduced at the end of the second act for the movie but his predecessor JARVIS was first introduced in Iron Man way back when in 2008...the movie that started it all.

As Tony Stark’s A.I. assistant, JARVIS was stated by Stark to be a top of the range program that runs more of Stark Industries than anyone other than Pepper Potts as CEO. However, when Stark had the ingenious idea to create Ultron...otherwise known as RDJ wanting to steal Hank Pym’s most famous comic-book storyline...as a peacekeeping program to safeguard Earth from extra-terrestrial threats, in typical sci-fi fashion Ultron goes evil and seemingly destroys JARVIS.

However, JARVIS simply retreated into the server only to return after the Avengers acquire Ultron’s recently created synthetic android. The Science Bros. transfer JARVIS’ conscience into the synthetic body and with the help of Thor/s thunder charge Vision was born.

I have to say also, while superhero movie trailers do get me excited for said superhero movie, seeing the reveal of Vision in the final Age of Ultron trailer gave me that wow factor moment only X-Men trailers usually do.

Comics to Movies:

As I have always admitted, I am not as in-depth with the comics as the movies. However, Scarlet Witch and Vision are two characters I have followed pretty since I first found out about them in the mid-noughties as a teenager.

But what cemented the two as my favourite Marvel characters overall, from Comics, to Movies to TV, is the literal creation of the twin sons Wiccan and Speed who became key members in the Young Avengers.

Now yes, both characters have had lives separate from each other because, as I said before, they are still their own characters despite being also known as a couple. But while Wanda has had a somewhat twincestuous relationship with her brother in far comics history, and Vision had his own family of synthetic androids including daughter Viv, who was a playable character in Marvel’s Avengers Academy, I find the best in Marvel Comics writing was actually after their twins were reabsorbed into the demon Mephisto as they were fragments of his soul and Wanda went crazy heralding in the House of M.

Also, not only is Wanda apparently getting her Scarlet Witch moniker either during or after the MCU Multiverse arc, but also a more comics-accurate costume. Up until now Wanda’s costume in the MCU has been they street-casual which does suit the Wanda of Sokovia. Even when she joined the Avengers and got an upgraded costume it did seem more like something someone could wear for a casual day out...as proof, my sister dressed up as the MCU Scarlet Witch by finding clothes in standard clothing stores rather than costume outlets.

My favourite Scarlet Witch outfit to date has been her full-length red gown complete with headdress from the comics, the headdresses of Magneto’s daughters are so iconic that when Polaris crafted her own out of Magneto’s medallion in The Gifted I was fanboying so hard.

We already know Wanda will be wearing a Halloween costume inspired by her iconic comics suit in WandaVision, but if the Halloween costume looks that impressive, I cannot wait to see what her actual supersuit looks like.

Throughout the MCU:

Right from the start, I really enjoyed both Scarlet Witch and Vision in the MCU, despite Scarlet Witch still not to be known as Scarlet Witch to date in the MCU. But from when we see cameos of Wanda and Pietro as experiments of HYDRA, that one quick shot of Wanda displaying her powers I was sold.

Vision meanwhile gave himself a somewhat modified version of his comics-accurate cape because he saw Thor had a cape and wanted one. He could also wield Mjølnir, does this make him worthy? It must do despite the Avengers constant mithering about it. If you can wield Mjølnir you’re worthy.

Talking from a romance perspective, it was a big tease of the two getting together right up until 2018′s Avengers: Infinity War as while it was teased in 2016′s Captain America: Civil War, a romance wasn’t actually shown until we find them in Scotland.

Interestingly enough in the comics, the couple retire to New Jersey rather than Scotland.

Also, like a lot of heroes, both Wanda and Vision seemed to get an upgrade in powers every movie. We always got teases of both their full potentials in the quieter moments like when Pietro died and Wanda, feeling her twin dying, vaporised the surrounding Ultron Sentries in a moment of distraught heartache and when Vision destroyed the last Ultron Sentry.

But it wasn’t until Captain America: Civil War, where we learned that Wanda could control the Mind Stone powering Vision and Vision could easily severely injure another hero and then in Infinity War when either Vision created a human guise for himself or maybe Wanda did, while Wanda not only made short work of Thanos’ army but could also destroy the Mind Stone and, in Endgame take on and possibly defeat Thanos single-handed, that we got a true display of her powers.

MCU creatives have stated that Scarlet Witch is in fact the most powerful MCU hero after it was originally stated Captain Marvel was, so when Wanda finally upgrades and realises her true potential this should be fully realised making Scarlet Witch the most powerful MCU character.

WandaVision and MCU Future:

Here’s what we know about WandaVision:

Wanda finds herself in a sitcom television universe potentially of her own making after not only losing Vision, but not forgetting also Wanda has lost her family including her twin brother as well as friends and teammates Black Widow, Captain America and even Iron Man.

For someone who was late-teens early-twenties at the time of Age of Ultron, this makes her late-20s early-30s by the time of this series, my age, and so obviously all of this loss and grief will play havoc on one’s mind let alone everything else she has gone through.

Also Vision is back but I still don’t know to what extent that is, is he only back in this alternate sitcom reality or has Wanda willed him back into existence in the same way that she willed their twin sons into reality in the comics.

Speaking of which, we know the couple have twins in the series as when they’re in their 80s sitcom setting, we see two bassinettes and it’s hinted we will see them as teenagers.

It has to be Wiccan and Speed, it can’t not be. This would be a massive red mark on WandaVision’s scorecard if it isn’t. I have recently heard rumours they could be human-android hybrids to match the parents and someone even suggesting Viv could be one of the twins...but I can’t fathom why if the Young Avengers are coming into play with the confirmation of Kate Bishop, America Chavez and Stature, why these two core characters wouldn’t be at play.

The other hotly anticipated character introduction is Kathryn Hahn as Agnes...again if this isn’t Agatha Harkness then it is major tease. Agnes is surely an alias for Agatha Harkness who in the comics and even X-Men: Evolution was Scarlet Witch’s mentor for controlling her powers.

The only difference between the two incarnations is in every other version of the character Agatha is an old woman whereas Kathryn Hahn looks like Kathryn Hahn. It will also be great to see Agatha Harkness in a comedic setting as Kathryn Hahn is hilarious.

We also have returning MCU characters Jimmy Woo, Monica Rambeau and Darcy Lewis added to the series. All three may not be connected or they all could be working for SWORD which is the successor to SHIELD first seen in the post-credits scene for Spider-Man: Far From Home.

I’m thrilled to have Kat Dennings back in the MCU and considering both she and Randall Park have a history in comedy, the sitcom settings should suit them well.

I’m not sure why any of these characters are connected to Scarlet Witch or Vision considering all three are connected to separate heroes Ant-Man, Captain Marvel and Thor respectively, but any excuse to bring them back I’ll take it.

What is also more or less confirmed is the ending of WandaVision will see a massive witch fight between Wanda and Agnes resulting in Wanda tearing a hole in the multiverse starting the Multiverse arc in the MCU which will be picked up in Spider-Man 3 and resolved in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with Wanda set to appear in both movies.

As for Vision’s fate post WandaVision, it is currently unknown where he will appear next if at all, and it may actually depend on the success of the series, but we know that Wiccan and Speed will become part of the Young Avengers so they’re staying on.

It is also worth noting that in the Young Avengers, a second version of Vision known as Jonas was a member of the team created through Nathaniel Richard’s neurokinetic armor gaining sentience after having Vision’s operating system downloaded into it.

Nathaniel Richards is a distant relative to Reed Richards aka Mister Fantastic who is set to appear in the upcoming Fantastic 4 movie, but is also a time remnant of Kang the Conqueror who is set to appear in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantummania and may be alluded to in the upcoming Disney+ series Loki.

Nathaniel is also Iron Lad, who forms the Young Avengers as part of the Avengers Fail-Safe program. Do you see how this all ties together?

So basically even if we don’t see this Vision again after WandaVision, we may see Jonas in the Young Avengers.

As for the future for Scarlet Witch post-multiverse, if they are bringing in Wiccan and Speed, I really want the next big arc to be the Children’s Crusade. I know fans want House of M...WandaVision is possibly as close to House of M as we’re going to get.

Children’s Crusade is how Wiccan and Speed learn about and are reunited with their estranged mother who has lost her memories and is living in wedded bliss with Doctor Doom...who could easily be introduced in said Fantastic 4 movie.

Conclusion:

Whatever the future holds for Scarlet Witch and Vision, no one can deny that this love story has not only been an organic one, but with it set to be the running theme for WandaVision, this love story is most definitely one for the ages.

So that’s my analysis of the newest superhero superpowered couple currently at play in the MCU, what do you guys think? Is WandaVision a couple for the ages? Will they have a place in the MCU after the upcoming Disney+ series?

Post your comments and check out more MCU Reviews as well as other posts and WandaVision starting this Friday (Jan 15).

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2020 Part 2 (#10-#1)

And we’re back.. The first part is HERE, which includes the first 10 and my thoughts on this past year in animation, so we can cut the long intro and get right into it. This is the best episodes this year had to offer in animation, and it’s , without meaning to, at least a third bojack horseman. On with the show. 

10. I Am My Monster (Steven Universe Future)  “We all had Steven when we needed him, but the only person who's never had Steven is Steven. He's always been there for us, so... how can we be there for him now?“ Oddly “The Future”, a finale I did really truly enjoy.. is not on this list. Really good episode, it’s just Future was easily one of Steven Univereses best season, tightining up the pacing without loosing what made the series feel special and really digging into some of more unhealthy aspects of steven’s life. And while the future is good and certanily the needed epilogue.. this episode is the climax, the cumilation of EVERYTHING Steven had done and gone though and something fans sadly saw coming and just had to simply watch, unable to help as Steven slowly lost himself. Previously on this list we saw him hit rock bottom and it only got worse: He went to home world, attacked white diamond due to his pent up trauma and once again ingored attempts to help him, this time from the diamonds and spinle, angrily refusing to listen to his own words she she sang Change at him.  This only got worse in the briliant and sadly edged out of the list “Everything’s Fine’ A really damn painful episode where steven tries to assert he’s okay and act normal.. only he cant and he destroys everything around him, and even repeats pearl’s text trick from a single pale rose with a pained voice message to connie saying to help steven. But the pressure of the LONG overdue intervension and the fact it came too late.. means steven confsses his recent sins.. and instead of taking them for twhat they are, spur of the moment acts caused by a toxic influence and a fuckload of ptsd and unreseovled issues with white that while certanly not okay are symptoms of a larger issues takes it to mean “Im a fraud”.. and thus he horriingly corurpts.  So here we are as Greg, Connie and the main gems all gap ein horor as Steven has corrputed himself, reduced to a monster whose not even malcious just.. sad.. so full of self loathing he can’t function and at risk of STAYING like that. And the relization hits hard.. and hits everyone who joins in hard. The auxilery crystal gems soon join but attempts from both groups to stop Steven do nothing. The diamonds arrive.. and not only are saddneed by what htey’ve doned but equally powerfless to stop him.  Everyone breaks down, blaming themselves for not seeing this sooner and for speding YEARS piling their issue on the kids, everyone ready to give up as they loose the person they care about most.. except one. Connie proves to be the hero of the episode, rallying the others with the above, pointing out Steven would happily help them if he could.. and that’s the problem. He’s spent his whole life fixing other peoples problems and focusing on that.. but never had someone to be HIS Steven. Fighting him’s not going to work.. he needs to know he’s loved... in the end the final battle of the series is not some struggle of life and death.. but of love. What wins the day isn’t a fight, though our heroes various powers do come in hand to restrain steven.. but it’s all of them, one by one telling them they love him in easily the most tearjerking moment of the series, cumilating in connie softly playing a kiss on his nose... and it’s this that FIANLLY frees steven from his self made prison.. finally realizing h’es not alone and that no matter who or what he becomes.. his family loves and forgives him. While we REALLY needed the next episode to wrap things up after this swell of emtitions. this was the climax the series desrved: after spending 6 seasons trying to help everyone ELSE and fix their issues he never should’ve had to.. it’s eveyrone else who gladly pitches in to fix steven’s own issues, to help HIM when he’s at his lowest point like they’ve been, and make it so he can FINALLY heal and finally find himself once and for all. IT’s one of the finest episodes of the series and easily the best of future. 

9. The Perfect House (Close Enough)  “I’m this close to connecting garfield, TO JESUS”  This one’s just really funny, charming and creative. Simple as that.. I could move on but eh i’m a wordy bastard. Once again we’re focused on Emily, this time as we find out an endearing hobby of hers: She likes visiting open houses and fantasizing about affording a better place she likely never will afford, one with trash can nooks, a kitchen and a living room that are fully seperate, and indivudal bins for tea and sugar... and when it’s pointed out she dosen’t drink tea it’s only because she has nowhere to put it.  But after Josh and Candace get them thrown out, if adorably so, Emily is forced to face reality... i.e. Alex, in one of the series finest gags, in his underwear with conspiracy boards trying to connect garifled to jesus and having a jug of his urine around for some reason. Did I mention I love this weirdo because I do. Brigette is painting in the ktichen.. using her body as the canvas, though in a bikini because the show wasn’t streaming only yet. You’ll have to wait a season for possible boobs. Naturally this just stresses her out so she goes to visit more houses while Josh vows to buy a family bike, a large circular bike for the whole family, as an activity because of course he does and of COURSE he also has a recurring issue of being mocked by some random kid about not having one. 

So she escapes and meets dave and caitlin, a husband whose family life is miserable and a child star who got emanicapted and they quickly form a psuedo family to look at open houses.. only to, as if to remind you what show your watching, instead end up in a tgif sitcom... and trapped in a styigian void, with only Emily desperate to get out. Also she’s been missing three days and Josh has some thoughts on that and goes after her.  Naturally given she’s crashing in on her fake sitcom family, this oly has him seen as a plot element, and Emily’s attempt at cursing and everything she can , while hilarious fail.. but the climax is what makes the episode and what inches it slighlty above quack pack.. which itself was fucking awesome. Instead of FIGHTING the format... Emily is forced to play into it, and realizes a cheesy moment of emtional honesty is what’s needed. She apologizes to her fake family, saying their nice but she has to face the world and to josh and much like Donald, seroiusly this episode was made years ago and there’s no way in hell frank knew about it, she just needed an escape but it’s more healthy: instead of wishing for a life she never had Emily just wants a break from the life she does for five minutes. She’s happy where she is, with her loving husband, wonderful daughter, impulsive but still carring best friend.. and well okay maybe not Alex, there’s somethihng really wrong with him, but as much as I love the guy I admit he’s not for everyone. I’m also a borderline feral man covered in hair who wants people to know i’m smart. I get him. 

IT’s this that sets her free.. and we get another amazing gag as Dave’s family shows up and Dave chooses the fantasy.. though instead of this being thorughly pogiant it’s just “classic dave”. COmplete with title sequence. And of course it ends on a family bike with Emily getting those tins from Josh. Their relationship.. is REALLY what makes both this show and this episode in paticular work. Here while Emily screws up, it STARTS innocently enough, simply faking being a family and spirals into tgif because while this show isn’t, possibly, in the regular show cinematic universe, it’s defintely in the same multiverse. She just wants some peace of mind from a chaotic life, but dosen’t resent her husband or anything.. he just frustrates her sometimes which is fair. But he’s never portrayed as an abusive asshat which you think would be a low bar to clear but.. you’d be suprised. Point is it’s a wonderfully weird and somehow still unique despite being one of three tgif parodies this year. Seriously that shit is a goldmine. It’s how Dashieel Driscoll got half a season out of full house and a good chunk of a very special epsiode as a whole out of it. Though a certain incident helped. 

Point is good show, jolly good show... and ew’ll be right back with the rest afte the cut

8. Agony of a Witch/Old Bodies, Young Souls (The Owl House) “You always thought you were better than me! That I could never Beat you at anything! “  “I AM Better than you!” “Then WHY WERE YOU SO EASY TO CURSE?!”  The Owl House was a show I took WAY too long to catch up on after missing the second half of season 2.. minus Enchanting Grom Fright which I caught first run and we’ll get to that story shortly. Point is my procastnation did me dirty here as this show , which was already fantastic just got better and better, cumulating in this epic, heartdestroying, soul punching, beautifully animated finale that takes everything the show has built up thus far, blows it up in some places and uses it to beautifully end in others, leaving us with a new road for the future.  So yeah naturally it’s been a long ride as one of Owl House’s strength.. is that no episode is filler. No really, each one has a purpose great or small in the larger narrative, and every major arc has been expertly paced and crafted, bringing us to this point. The only major arc or plot thread left out is Amity, and that’s honestly for the better. Make NO mistake, she’s a great character.. but like fellow great Donald Duck, she was left out because the episode had a LOT of emotional stuff going on, a lot of plot to fit in, and a lot to do and it’s simply better for her character and for the moment’s she’s bound to have in response to well.. everything happening here, to let it breathe next season rather than try to shove it into an already stuffed two episodes.  But this episode is one long string of payoffs, and payoffs creating more setups: So all season Eda, our loveable witch, has been grappling with a curse that turns her into an owl beast, one that’s been getting worse as far back as the mid season finale Escape from the Palisman. She’s been needing more and more elixer to combat it, a harrowing parallel to some real world diseases: Sometimes your meds can only DO so much to combat something actively killing you.. thankfully this time.. not speaking from personal experince.  And Luz finds out soon into the episode as Eda makes a cloak of witches wool, which can deflect powerful spells, to protect herself.. only to black out and go owl just as she’s saying she’s fine. Like most parents would Eda hid just how bad things have gotten and it’s gone from needing just one bottle of elixer to needing their entire suply, and even that barely worked. Despite her mentor’s assurances, Luz is now PAINFULLY aware her mentor is on borrowoed time... not helped by the fact the coven attacked earlier that morning and she finds out by finding hooty playing tea party with them, meaning Eda is outgunned, outmanned and while Lilith failed, again.. the emperor can now easily find her himself and send whoever he wnats and however many people he wants to fetch her.. and Eda can’t use too much of her magic or else.  So while Eda and King, touched by how much Luz has changed them, decide to throw a suprise party with King making a big cake to jump out of and Eda using witches wool she intended for herself to make her a cape. Meanwhile as you’d expect Luz.. is plotting a dangerous and life threatning mission: with a field trip to the Emperor’s Coven that day, one she was going to sit out because you know they hate her second mom for dogmatic and vile reasons the episode fleshes out, she finds out they have an artifact called the healing hat that can seemingly heal anything.  So she does what Luz does and comes up with an impulsive plan to heist the thing.. but for once her impuslivness isn’t played for laughs. Her mother figure is slowly sucumbing to a fate worse than death, for once instead of just acting rashly because Luz.. she’s doing so because she KNOWS, that she has no other choice. Nothing else in sight and she’s smart enough to know that if Eda had a cure she’d of told Luz about it. Even if it was dangerous or required a sacrifice or something Eda would’ve just left that part out.  But the trip serves a few other purposes besides getting Luz where she needs to be for the plot that makes it work: it elaborates on just what the emperor’s coven is like and WHY Emperor Belos gets away with everything: He claims to speak for the titan,  the giant dead monster whose body makes up the boiling isles and who, as Luz has discovered, is the source of the magic there. So when he bloodily, I mean it’ sa kid show so they dont’ say so but given how violent this one is i’m asssuming bloody, took power, he claimed they were doing magic wrong, killed any hertiics and set up the rigid coven system. It explains just WHY the boiling isles limits themselves, gives the whole thing a creepy dogmatic religion vibe.. something that i’m REALLY suprised disney let them get away with as they had to fight for gays in the series.. but at the same time shouldn’t be because hunchback of notre dame exists and Soul , released the same year, was a big gamble against the bible belt. So their not afriad of religious groups.. but they ARE afraid of homophobic groups.. which have a lot of overlap. 

Point is it’s a good storytelling device.. and cathartic given i’ve been playing Fire Emblem: Three Houses as I finally bought it with some christmas money. Good game, probably will talk about it in the future, not the point here. 

The point is that the visit gives us some worldbuilding that helps show just how much of a threat the coven is and why their so intent on capturing Eda. We also finally meet belos, god emperor and man tired of Lillith’s shit and giving her till twilight to get Eda.. or presumibly die. I mean he dosen’t say it but he sure is implying it as loud as he can.  That’s when things go pear shaped for Luz who finds the hat.. and LIlith who has found her barganing chip to lure Eda to her, which works as well as you’d expect and leads to the best figh tin the series thus far and one of , if not it’s best scene; A duel between edith and lilith. And while they fought back in Covention this time  it’s not a petty squabble between siblings masquerading as one trying to capture the other.. it’s  fight NEITHER can afford to loose. Eda can’t loose her protege and Lilith will loose everything, dying at best being cast out of the coven at worst, if she fails not to mention loosing what she feels is her only chance at saving her sister.  But it’s also VERY clear Lilith is groosly outmatched, and while no slouch herself Eda’s constant bragging about being “the most powerful witch on the boiling isles”.. is entirely backed up. Lilith barely is able to hold herself and only gets ahead by using a child as a shiled, going even lower than her sister. However the stress of this, the build of having been the older sister of someone who constantly outshined her then turned entirely against her, finally causes lilith to snap.. and reveal the curse is her fault. Cissy Jones delivery here.. is jsut perfect, showing a mixture of rage and pain, showing that she’s spent YEARS hiding this, years resenting her sister for constnatly being better desptie working harder and doing the right thigns. Even when she’s trying to HELP Eda, genuinely trying to undo her mistake as we find out and as we’ve seen genuinely sees the emperor as the wise and benevlolent god he portrays himself as.. she can’t let it go. SHe can’t see past her own bitterness to see her sister is right and if she could just let this go and work on Eda’s terms instead of forcing Eda into her world, then maybe it wouldn’t of gotten this bad. Maybe she could’ve told her. 

Eda takes it about as well as you’d expect, and Lilith.. uses this to threaten luz’s life and force eda to use up her magic to save her, leading to the series most heartbreaking moment and Wendy Mallick’s best acting so far as she bids her appretnince a tearful farewell. Luz RIGHTFULLY and angrily lashes out at lilith calling her a monster while Lilith takes Eda and urges luz to go home... and after a tearful ending with king realizing something’s deeply wrong.

So thus next episode after a history lesson from king and some suprisinging caution as he KNOWS what Luz is up against.. Luz still decides she dosne’t care. Eda’s sacrificed herself, to Luz it’s her fault she’s in this which while KINDA accurate missues some fine points such as her sister’s stubborness or the fact had lilith not shown up she could’ve taken the hat. And the fact LIlith saying the hat was junk was pretty unreliable. What i’m saying is maybe the child shoudln’t blame herself for being kidnapped while genuinely tring to reach the same goal. 

But Lilith soon learns to her horror her sister was right. While Belos restores Eda’ss sentience even fully owled.. he has no intrest in helping her, eveyr intrest in publicly petrifying her, and not even the slightest hint of remorse at betraying lilith this deeply. After all her faith in the man.. Belos spat in her face and told her to like it.  Meanwhile Luz goes on the warpath, and we see just how far she’s come.. and WHY Belos is probably so restrictive with magic and put it on such a tight leash: we see that with her natural power and just a handful of spells, the four she’s pciked up over the season, she easily curbstomps the conformotrium staff, gets to Eda fairly easily.. and fines sshe can’t free her and eda wants the door destroyed so whatever Belos wants with it, he can’t have it. Luz heads home, ready to destroy the door.. onlyt of ind two things. her magic dosen’t work there.. and Lilith followed her and grabbed king. After a breif fight and Luz angrily and rightously confroting the asshole, wish she was in Eda’s place.. Lilith admits luz’s right and gives her backstory: That her insecurity was so great that on the day before a duel with Eda to determine who got into the emperoror’s coven, she curfsed her own sister, with no idea it’d last this long or get this bad. And with no idea Eda had lost intrest in it and WILLINGLY gave her sister teh spot.. It’s very clear despite her masssive flaws that will need to be adressed.. lilith never stopped caring about her sister, and it took all this to make her realize that trying to fix the mistake on HER terms without including her sister.. instead has almost cost her it.  So Luz and King relucntnatly take her help, though the other two are quickly capatured when theyt ry to get to hte exceution platform and thrown in the cage with Eda.. which dosne’t help the coven’s reputation as gus and willow try to make a case for Eda. Meanwhile we get the SECOND best fight of the series as Luz challenges Bellows.. and it’s UTTERLY chillling and while he’s had scenes before this it’s here we get the true scope of who he is ..and that like eda the god complex is something he can back up. Whlie Luz proves just how strong she’s gotten by keeping up with him it’s barely, and it’s clear from the moment go, and one of the series best shots, with Belos creeply materlizing behind her before announcing “sure, i’ll play” that this is a game. She’s no challenge to him and he simply wants to see waht she can do and is mildly impressed if a tad annoyed at her actually damaging his mask. But with Eda, King and Lilith’s lives in the ballance the only way Luz can save htem.. is to give him waht he wants. 

Thing is, just like Lilith, just like everyone has, good an dbad all season.... Belos undereesitmated luz.. who left fire runes on the door, willnig to sacrifice ever seeing her mom again if it meant keeping him away from her. While he has no invasion planned whatever it is CANNOT be good. Luz saves them, and Eda flies them off with Belos saying the titan dismissed them. Also that Belos has a big penis.. super huge, size of a tractor that one. Yeah that’s the ticket. 

But we get  a happyish ending as LIlith does what she should’ve done a long time ago and apologizes, and Eda starts to fogive her, brought on by King earlier standing up to her as whle he’s not happy with her either, he realizes from her story she’s not a bad person.. just a very messed up one who couldn’t own up to her mistakes. One who belivied in the wrong person to fix her problem and finally takes repsonsiblity and part of the curse into her. So with the sequel hook of Eda having lost her internal magic power but still being able to use glyph’s like luz, we also find out the Emperor has the door and a mysterious masked minon,.. who i’m fairly certain isn’t amity only because it’s too obvious. This is simply how you end a season: It’s engaging, heartbreaking, well animated and pays off EVEYRHTING so far while setting up the season to come. It’s going to be a LONG wait till next time, mid-this year.. but I can wait. The high from this one’s going to last a while. 

7. Good Damage (Bojack Horseman)  “ That means that all the damage I got isn't good damage. It's just damage. I have gotten nothing out of it and all those years I was miserable was for nothing. I could have been happy this whole time and written books about girl detectives and been cheerful and popular and had good parents, is that what you're saying? What was it all for?! “

Bojack Horseman is one of the best shows of the last decade, and an important one to me. it was the first one I watched when we switched to all streaming. I really related to Bojack and his struggles with depresion and self loathing.. which backfired given he’s a much worse person than me and while I could relate, I also compared myself too much to a character who in retrospect is both far worse  and has FAR MORE issues than I do and diffrent ones at that outside of the depression and self hatred.  The point i’m framing is that the series and I have a complicated relationship and that coupled with how bad 2020 was meant it took until a few days ago to finally finish it, almost a year later. But I cannot deny how good the show is: it has faults, a bit of reptititon in some character arcs, casting a white woman as a Vietnamize-American woman (something both Ralph Paul Waskerberg and Alison Brie have apologized for to their credit), and .. I can’t think of a last one. They never brought Ralph back? Yeah let’s go with that one what the fuck there. So I felt I owed the show one last round and it payed off as the final stretch, while easily the hardest to get through due to covering the collapse of Bojack’s life, is easily one of it’s best. 

But before the fall, we get Good Damage, which instead of focusing on BoJack focuses on Diane, said asian woman voiced by a white lady, neurotic writer and Bojack’s best friend, who has moved to Chicago to be with her boyfriend guy, a chill, charasmatic and likeable buffalo cameraman. Things are going better than they ever have: she’s in a supportive relationship and thanks to her antidipresenants, while still her loveably neurotic self, is now not obessing over shit as much and is solving her problems with applomb. Even the weight gain from her meds, which she dreaded in the previous half of the season.. has insteead only made her look healthier and happier, and more beautiful than ever. 

The only problem is she can’t write her long promised Memoir, which Princess Carlolyn, her former boss, agent and loveable pink cat and single mother, has promised to a lot of celebrities. She TRIES, she puts lots of work into it, keeps trying to sit there but nothing comes out. And what makes the episode truly great is how this is presented. Bojack is no stranger to beautiful, visually diverse episodes, Stupid Peace of Shit being a notable example and one similar to this one but uniquely great in it’s own way, but this one is easly the bes,t using a squiggly crude style to show just how chaotic and uncomfortable diane is and how stuck she is. She’s TRYING, but she just can’t make her life’s story into anything GOOD, she can’t get the words out which as someone whose had reams of projects I never startd, even to this day and who has genuine trouble writing fiction.... I related to this like all hell. But even people who have never had an intrest in writng can just get the feeling thanks to the wonderful writing and animation, from cameos by the rest of the cast to Diane’s father showing up as a goblin to the word boxes showing what she’s writtne it’s just a treat.  But what centers this amazing visual represtnation is Diane’s internal struggles as an encounter with a rude sales person leads her off on a tangent..and to Ivy Tran, a teen detective whose upbeat, optimstic, and in a great bit outlines who she is in jsut the right amount, and solves mysteries in a food court. It’s a genuinely good idea, one I honestly think could support it’s own series... seriously get on that Ralph-Bob. Get on that. Point is it’s good.. but Diane’s so hung up on what she SHOULD be making, she can’t see what’s right in front of her, despite guy saying the passages are good.  Things come to a head when Diane makes a huge mistake and goes off her meds.. which from experince never ends well: for the entire episode she’s been under the impression she can’t write because of them.. only to be proven HORRIFYINGLY wrong. It’s a  VERY necessary aseop: that your medication will always be with you and that going off it suddenly, or blaming it for writers block not only isn’t true but is DANGEROUS. Diane spirals, cries and her writing gets dark and full of self hate. It’s then Guy proves just how fucking majestic he is: he figures out what’s going on after she tells him, and helps her get to bed so she can rest, puke whatever she needs and they’ll talk about things after she takes her meds again and gets her head on straight, when she’s in a good place to do so. As someone with mental illness.. ti’s nice to see a character who not only supports someone fully, but knows how to handle it. Instead of a shitty third act breakup like many shows would do guy stands by her.  He does however step SLIGHTLY over the line, if iwth good intentions and reason and send Princess Carolyn the Ivy Tran pages, because as he puts it he made an executive decision.. and when Diane is a bit annoyed by that as it does sound a tad douchey, he rightly points out she was in a really bad hole of a place, stuck in a loop doign something that even before going off her meds was clearly hurting her and going nowhere, and needed SOMETHING to snap her out of it, and did so not to hurt her or because he thought he knkew better or , like her ex husband, because he was oblvious to her needs; he did it because it was the hard but necessary thing to get her to seee she had something special and that she dosen’t have to constnatly tear herself up by diving into past traumas because of some internal obligation. 

Naturally Diane dosen’t take it despite Princess Carolyn not only being impressed but PREFERRING the ivy pages, as she was genuinely unaware Diane had something so happy and charming in her. While Diane is worried about it when the two end up meeting in person, we soon find out why: If all the damage she went through wasn’t “good” damage, things she could writ eabout and use later.. what was it for? Could she of just been happy this whole time? Did she waste her life. And in a rare moment betwen the two PC helps Diane walk it back, explaning that she can do what she always wanted: write something that makes someone like her feel not alone. That she dosen’t HAVE to make her life story into something complicated, just make what makes her and other people happy. Something PC’s daughter could enjoy one day. So Diane finally accepts that maybe there’s something else for her.. and then we get a segue into the next episode with bojack having a panic attack and pasing out but that episode, good as it was didn’t make it so moving on.  We also check in with Penny, the daughter of an old friend of bojacks who he nearly slept with and is stil haunted both by the decision and a drunken later visit to apologize... which isn’t helped remotely when max and page, two reporters inovlved in teh subplot that tears bojack’s life apart, start hounding her. While they have good intentions, exposing Bojack’s connection to Sarah Lynn’s death, the two’s methods still come off as creepy, following a, at this point , 21 year old girl whose been through ENOUGH home. While the two aren’t terrible people their actions.. are.. while getting hte story ismprotant is it truly worth genuinely harming this person. And penny wonders if she SHOULD air her story.. she ends up not.. but only because her mother, while lettiner he decide, poitns out it may not be worth all the pressure and possible trauma it digs up,especially since Bojack is getting what he deserved anyway. IT’s a decent subplot tha tties up a loose end but really makes our journalist characters feel like assholes for again, basically stalking and harassing a young woman who didn’t want to rehash the worst moment of her life. Otherwise top notch stuff. 

6. Heart (Parts 1 and 2) (She Ra and the Princesses of Power) “Don't you get it? I love you! I always have! So please, just this once... STAY! Stay. “

Now we get to the gays winning.. and to one of the best series finale in recent memory. And given the other two titanic shows ending, one of which we’ll get to’s ending in a moment, last year, it’s a huge compliment. Heart is how you end a space opera... with big wonderful speeches, great payoff, a huge climax.. and a beautiful cathartic kiss paying off the relationship at the heart of the series that ends up saving the universe.  So let’s just go ahead and crack open that pinata: The kiss.. was easily one of the best moments of animation this year and, at a time when the quarantine was starting, misery was spreading, and things looked pretty damn bad, having a major animated show, one of the biggest of the last few years, climax with an emotional moment between two women, one the series had been setting up since day 1... it was a huge step foward for gay representation in children’s animation, and warmed my big bi heart. And it’s not just good because of that: the fact it’s a giant pile of representation is wonderous, but it’s because it’s also well baked into the show. This is the conclusion of both their character arcs: Catra finally realizes Adora will not abandon her and her leaving the Horde was not choosing them over her.. it was simply doing the right thing. So instead of running or trying to escape she’s grown enough to fight for what she wants and fight for a future with Adora.  Adora meanwhile finally overcomes her martyer complex, her determination, especially after Angela’s death, to make sure no one else is gone and she’s the only one that suffers and looses. To make sure there’s nothing else. It’s Catra’s confesssion that FINALLY gets it through her thick skull that she dosen’t have to be alone or bear anything alone.. she’ll always have someone with her to do that.. and even before Catra.. she’s always had friends for that. She dosen’t have to be alone. So the two embrace and it’s fucking beautiful..and gives adora the full power of the doomsday device they went to shutdown in the first place, restoring the planet.. and allowing her to destroy horde prime’s fucking soul. I just want to reiterate that because it understandably got lost in the shuffle of the gays winning, but our heroine fucking tears out the main villian’s soul.. and it is SO damn satisfying given what a truly repulsive , irredemible, asshat Prime was. So the two finally get a future together, a chance to build and to stop letting the past define them. It’s wide open.  But while that alone would probably net it on this list but it’s damn good otherwise, an epic final struggle between our heroes and the horde for the fate of not just their planet but ALL of htem as Prime prepares to finally wipe everything else out in egomanical genocide. There are just.. tons of awesome moments in this one: Bow and Glimmer’s suprising but welcome love confession, Seahawk annoying mermista into fighting her chip, the people of etheria fighting back.. and the reason they do is easily the second best moment of the episode. With the chips down, not literally, and things looking bleak Bow hyjacks Prime’s egoamnacial hologram.. and broadcasts for everyone to fight, to fight back, and to END THIS. After spending most of the series as the one trying to keep his friends together, the glue of everyone.. it’s bow’s heart, courage, and voice, the one that lead his friends through some rough times and severed as reason when they needed it most wether they listned or not.. that frees the world and with Entrapta turns the tide at long last. It’s just a hell of a moment.  And the only other moment equaling it is Hordak freeing himself and deciding he is his own man, he made himself tha tway for better and worst and kills prime, at least before adora finsihes the job with the badass “I am HORDAK and I DEFY your will. “ It’s just a wonderful, epic finale that pays off most of the shows major arcs, gives our heroes a MUCH deserved happy ending after spending their lives at war, and let it be said one last time, gave gay representation in children’s cartoon one hell of a win.

5. Nice While it Lasted (Bojack Horseman) 

“ No, I need to tell you... thank you... and... it's going to be okay... and... I'm sorry... and... thank you... “

Back to back finales here and honestly both are REALLY close in quality, both satisfyingly paying off their series. But both take equal and opposite routes: Heart is an epic finale in scope size and impact... while Nice While it Lasted is a very stripped down character piece: there are other characters in the background but after the intro the only voiced characters in each segment are Bojack and one of the main cast, each one both showing how much said relationship has evolved since the show began, and giving Bojack time to reflect on his possible future. I say possible because one of Nice While it Lasted’s best aspects it that there’s no real concrete ending for Bojack. Ther’es still closure: after his life emploded and he nearly died, more on that in a bit, Bojack ended up in prison, offically for breaking and entering but unoffically for all the shitty things he did with him glumly accepting it. So one year later he’s out thanks to Princess Carolyn for her wedding, sober again thanks to prison and even started his own acting class at the prison he’s geninley invested in, inteding to continue it once he gets out. But otherwise.. his future’s in flux. HE’s sober for now, but he’s painfully aware that could change again, his friends while, with one excpetion, still having a place for him in their lives, have moved on, and his career is on the upswing again despite being a pariah a year ago because as I mentioned earlier and as PC brilliantly puts it

So he could become a better man, get his career back, make amends for what he did and stay sober.. or backslide and fall down into the same traps he always has. It plays into an aseop the series has always preached: There are no real endings, life just goes on. Even for the rest of the cast hteir lives aren’t over.. their just in a good place.. maybe bojack will, maybe he won’t. Tha’ts up to the indvidual viewer and I like that. While ambgious endings can be frustrating and I get while some preferred the more concrete if still somewhat ambgious ending of a view from halfway down, I feel this fits the series better: Bojack, like the end of every season is moving on to something new, but this time we don’t know what, and that’s okay. IT’s time for us to move on.  Well okay not from this entry as each vingette deserves some praise: Our first has Mr. Peanutbutter pick up Bojack from prison, and even get him a new suit.. and then another one offscreen because predictably for his life BOjack got meatball all over it. He also calms our hero down when he wants to go back to jail, letting him know it’s okay and he’ll be there for him.. unless his friend Erica shows up but what are the odds... 1:1. But what’s nice about it is while Bojack still makes jabs, it’s clear he’s gone from truly hating and resenting PB for being the betterversion of him.. to truly seeing the guy as one of his best friends, his jabs having gone from hurtful and bitter to wry and warranted. I mean they were warranted a lot back then too he’s just a lot softer about them. 

At the wedding Todd and Bojack finally reach some form of understanding after years of awkwardness, the two having reconclied but not being really remotely close or in each other’s lives hardly anymore after Todd’s understandable blow up at Bojack in “It’s You”. Here Todd has Bojack rush him to the beach to cary him on his shoulders.. to watch fireworks because he could tell he was overhwelmed, the two having found a rhtym again, with, like with mr peanutbutter, Bojacks jabs being a lot friendler and Todd having a respect for his own needs while actually being present for bojack instead of ignorant of how bad things were like he was at the start. He even helps BOjack see even if he DOES replase.. he can get right back on the horse, couldn’t resist that one sue me, and as the hokey pokey says turn himself around. 

After, in one of the best payoffs of the series, finally trying Hondedew and finding it’s not so bad, Bojack dances with PC, admittingh e half hoped he’d have to help her go thorugh with it before the two run through the scenario, and PC expresses some honest fears with bojack helping her showing how the two hav egone from a horribly stiffing relationship.. to two close friends who are probably stuck with one another for life. Sunk costs and all that. And if bojack does want to act again she knwos some people. But for now PC finally really has everything she ever wanted:: A daughter, and a loving husband in judah. 

Finally we have the most painful of the group because of course the Bojack finale wouldn’t be all sugar and would have to punch us in the gut. Bojack finds Diane again who hasn’t talked to him.. because he called her the night of his near death/sucidide and due to putting the blame on her due to being high out of his mind, made her feel like it was his fault during the 7 hours she could reach no one and thought he was dead. Diane is hurt, feeling betrayed that bojack promsied he’d be fine then possibly left her with the pain of his death on her concious forever. Thankfully she’s doing fine, as she’s now married guy and Ivy Tran is a huge success and probably a series now.. but it’s abudnantly clear her friendship with Bojack is over.. but even this bittersweet, and necessary, seperation, as Diane has moved past LA and Bojack needs to stop relying on her and stand on his own two hooves, still warms the heart as she thanks him and lets him know i’tll be okay, and endugles him in telling her one last story, a rathe rfunny one about prison movie night bfore the series ends on the melancholy and apporriate song mr blue as the two gaze out and they see each other and we see them for the last time. 

4 The Wasteland (Infinity Train) 

“I'm as good as dead, and if my last act is to bring you with me, sliver, I can't imagine a better way to go!” “Well, I can! “

So from a bittersweet ending to holy shit that’s depressing, we have our only entry from Infnity Train on the list. That’s not to say the series did bad this year. Season 2 was easily the series finest hour, taking the framework from season 1 and crafting a gripping story of a teenage mirror person who just wanted to live without assholes trying to kill her for what she fundementally IS, and be recognized as a person, with the help of a magical deer and a more optimstic teen grappling with his peer pressure issues.  The series was still undoubtly silly with a parasite voiced by Bill Corbett, wonderfully so, and again a magical deer named Alan Dracula, long may he reign, it simply deconstructed the nature of the train and thus opened up the floodgates. By giving us a denzin who, after years of being someone’s reflection in both senses of the word, just wanted to live and how that clashed with the train and the racist assholes she met alnong the way, from the ones who wouldnt’ stop trying to kill her.. to humans who considered her as nothing more than a plaything at best and something to get rid of at worst. While Season 3 was not bad, if a bit way too strcuturally messy and trying to do too much at once, Season 2 still handled the same issues but in a much tighter frame storywise.  And that’s why only one episode made it: Most of the episodes, espicially the later ones, are pieces of a large whole, with the show being heavily seralized. Which while a great approach intended for streaming, also means it was hard to find a chapter that worked that well on it’s own, steven universe future had similar issues. But I did and the wasteland is easily the darkest, harshest and most intresting episode out of the batch.  The episode opens at MT’s darkest hour: The apex told the mirror police where she is, Jesse is gone, and MT is now running for her life from the sadstic assshole and his spinless partner who want her dead just for existing.. gee can’t imagine why a bunch of assholes refusing ot acknolwedge other peoples opinons, rights or even existance was a big topic last year.. or this year. 

So while Mace, the main mirror cop, manages to handcuff her MT manages to throw him under the train. THe result is her trying to escape the train by wondering i’ts vast desert, forced to drag Mace along as he taunts her, bleeding out slowly from you know being bisected by a train. It’s a really moody peace as Mace mock’s mt’s dreams of escape and justify’s his own selling out, while MT pokes holes in that: he was so desperate to not nonexist.. he’s willing to kill others who just want the same. IT’s a damn hard watch but fuck if i’ts not compelling. 

And the climax is what makes it. MT finds out she can’t leave the bounds of the wasteland, as it only projects so far and after escaping the ghoms ends up back on the train, with Mace, not long fo rthis world trying to kill her.. so we get a 13-14 year old GRINDING HER HORRIFYING ABUSER UNDER A TRAIN WHEEL. Just jesus.. I mean I kind of get HBO Max’s point that MAYBE this is a bit much for kids. I mean i’ve seen other really dark stuff but holy fuck a man died.. and we see his blood splatter. But it’s this horrible, harsh moment that makes the episode.. as is MT”s reaction.. not one of triumph.. but of exaustion and horror at what she’s done, before steadying herself to prove him wrong. A hard one to write about but damn it was good. 

3. Enchanting Grom Fright (The Owl House)  “Dear Luz, will you go to Grom with me- Amity”  Now we THANKFULLY get to something lighter: the gays winning.. again. Coming out during pride month, phrasing, and only a month after the she ra finale we got this delightful episode. As I said earlier I watched this one first run: while I was super behind, I couldn’t resisit to the point I watched it before that week’s amphibia. I was that curious what was going to happen.  See as i’ve given out about quite a lot.. and I mean a LOT, Disney dosen’t have the best track record with gay representation: they don’t do horrible sterotypes or anything.. but they also don’t do much of anything for the most part. Alex Hirsch has outright spoke about how much he had to fight just to get Blubbs and Durland firmly together in the finale, and how the symbols for the love god were widdled down to just male and female. And around the time this episode came Disney was coming out of a REALLY bad batch of pr stunt gay representation: They made a big deal about the first gay x in an x having gay characters in avengers endgame, star wars: Deep Hurting and onward.. but these were cameos AT BEST, with the endgame one being so minor I genuinely didn’t realize the character was talking about dating a man and only found out afterwords. Sure Ducktales had gay dads, which is awesome and always will be.. but none of the major cast was allowed to be openly gay. I mean we know webby and lena are gay but hell if disney would allow that.  But miracoulsy.. shockingly and wonderfully.. Disney DID mange to finally just say fuck it and let some big gay rep in, something so obvious it can’t be ignored and that actually features the main character and one of the most major supporting characters. And what do you know, the good press and pats on the back outweighed the bad. It’s almost if giving up homophobic markets in exchange for doing the right thing.. is a GOOD thing while also being profable. Who’d a thunk. Point is via sheer perstiance, Owl House creator Dana Terrance got to not only make her lead bi, which Terrance herself is, but have her love intrest be a girl. And I find it genuinely wonderful that gay, bi, pan and what have you children can watch this and say “tha’ts me and this is okay”.  But even minus Owl House saying gay rights.. the episode is just REALLY good and part of it is who it focuses on. Amity easily has the most character devleopment out of the cast going from someone who walls herself off from everyone, revels in her superiority.. to slowly opening up to heroine Luz, realizing Luz is not a bad person and that Amity herself dosen’t have to be, and right before this starting the road to patching things up with her former best friend willow. Allt hrough this said friendship had been prettty, prettyy, prettyyy gay. And that’s wonderful obviously, but part of why I watched this was while I HOPED they’d get to be couple.. I wasn’t convinced since see a fucking bove. But I was happy to realize that oh my god I was wrong, the gays won all along. 

So with Amity a better person she’s naturally syampthetic when sh’es put front and center at hexside’s prom equvilent which while having a dance, gromprosals and a disco ball tha’ts also a sentient being, becuase boiling isles, it also has the queen or king forced to fight a horrifying monster that manfiests as your greatest fear. And, as we find out towards the end.. Amity’s is being rejected by Luz, having her love letter, which she fails to deliver due to running into luz.. and co (which is my faviroite gag of the episode and the adorable smiles gus and willow give in response are what make it). And . it makes sense. When you stop and think about it.. Luz is the best thing in her life. She got her to change as a person, genuinely cares about and adores her, just wants to be her friend and thinks the world of her. Given her siblings, while trying to be better, are two disaster bisexuals who just stopped a lifetime of untietonally harsh bullying and her parents are controlling asshats who made her abandon her best friend at a young age and she sees LILITH as a mother figure, just let that sink in given a few entires back.. yeah.. no wonder sh’es utterly terrified of rejection. Poor baby. 

Of course WE know Luz wouldn’t. Luz may be many things, including oblvioius to thte freaking obvoius as this story line has revealed, but shes not cruel and even if she said no, which I higlhly doubt she would, she woudln’t be a dick about it. But being surrounded by cruel assholes for some time has made Amity a bit paranoid so Luz volunteers to sub in to both genuinely help her friend.. and to prove to eda she can do this. Eda is also chaperoning. and looks neat in a suit, while King and Gus get a wonderful b plot of mcing the dance with the egotisticl king having issues with stage fright. I will get more into that when I review the episode proper, come back in a month for that.  But yeah while Luz does well when the time comes, and while sadly not wearing her otter suit does wear a wonderful tuxedo with a tutu.. she has her own repressed issues to adress as Grom takes the form of her mother, as Luz has been nursing guilt over not telling her the truth about what’s going on. Luz runs, and Amity ends up facing her fear to save her crush and the two get a wonderfully romantic, and desturctive dance together as they face hteir fear, untie as one and kill that motherfucker... well okay i’m not sure grom can die but it’s gone for now.  The dance sequence.. is easily one of the best scene’s all year, beauituflly animated and painstakingly planned out, with wonderful music.. it’s just awesome and what takes the episode ove rthe top, with the two perfeclty in synch as they take grom out in less than a minute. Also king become prom king and queen, he is best of both as Luz’s own personal issues put a damper on things. Also someone’s been writing her mom. 

Overall just a perfect episoe and a perfectly gay episode of one of the best shows going right now. Speaking of a perfect episode of one of the best shows going right now, tha’ts also on disney. 

2. Escape From the Impossibin! (Ducktales)  ”We have to keep them safe” “But not like this!”  So from some emotinal torment mixed with some lovely shipping, we get a whole buttload of emotional anguish but with a robotic scrooge and the time loop room and the time loop room and the time loop room, and time l...

As I said in part 1, Season 3 is easily Ducktales best so far, having far better pacing, character ballance and bolder and more intresting stories than ever before. While the first two seasons are still excellent, this one has taken everything great and honed it and no episode shows off just how great this season is than this one.  This one takes place in the fallout of “Let’s Get Dangerous!”, with the family dealing with finding out FOWL”s not only still alive, but is run by Bradford, head of scrooge’s board of directors former shush agent as we’d find out later, and asshole, who knows all their secrets. And given Scrooge is mildly paranoid on a good day and Beakly is extremley paranoid on her best day, it’s done a number on both as they’ve split the family minus launchpad, who just had a whole episode so fair enough, up: Scrooge has taken Della and Louie, wiht their see all the angels schtick, to test out his new security, while Beakly and Donald are securing the house while Beakly has webby throughly test the boys.  Neither side goes well. The bin ends up locking our heroes out due to Scrooge’s password being changed, and forcing them to work past it. Louie rises to the challenge, as does della.. but as they beat a robot versoin of scrooge, because of course the final test would be a robot version of scrooge, Scrooge is instead of triumphant at not being dead, incredibly depressed and furious. Because when told he’s scrooge mcduck he tellingly replies “AND WHAT IF THAT’S NTO ENOUGH’. For once.. Scrooge is SCARED, up against someone who knows his every move and is one step ahead, iti’s how it’s always been, no matter what he’ll do, he’ll always loose and Bradford will always win. I REALLY need to watch spies are forever, point is he’s scared and Bradford PROVING the point by revealing he was behind it and taking over the robot dosen’t help. Our heroes win though in a damn impressive action sequence, but as it turns out.. it was just a distraction.. but we’llg et back to that.  The other plot though is whyt his is so high. While the first plot is a fun romp with deep eomtional consequences.. the second plot is decidly far darker.. it still has some good bits as webby terorizes the boys and easily one of the best in the season when she horrifying imitates dewey, but its’ only when she does finally attack she realizes she’s taken it way toof ar. She’s terrorized her brothers, caused huey to break his leg and then turn her away when she tries to help.. all she’s done is turn them AGAINST each other and they can’t win this way.  Beakly strongly disagrees and clealry lost in her own paranoia and fear, prepares to attack huey.. and thus Webby steps in... leading to one fo the most heartbreaking and tense fights in the series as grandmother and grandaughter fight one on one but both are outmatched.. but Huey and Dewey, despite everything, refuse not to help their sister and help pull webby up, with Webby panickidly realizing something’s VERY wrong and her granny usually isn’t like this when sparring... and is also chasing them. This leads to the roof, in a rainstorm no less, and Webby relcutnatnly ready to fight even though she clearly knows she both can’t win.. and dosen’t want to anymore. Despite her wilingless to scrap, fight and train.. Webby dosen’t WANT to hurt her granny she just wants to help her. Thankfully, the boys attempt to stop this, while failing horribly, catches donald’s attention as he catches them, ntocies what’s going on and furiously refuses to let this go on. While Beakly tries to ignore it and fight..s he instead slips and despite everything, the rest of the group rescue her, with Webby impressing on her grandmother that they aren’t fowl. They wont’ win acting like them and tearing each other apart.. they need to be the family they are.  But if all that wasn’t enough turns out.. yeah, Bradford’s thing was a distraction and with the rest of the group distracted with Beakly, that meant his plan went off without a hitch: all the missing mysteries have been taken by FOWL, in a masterstorke that ties both plots together and brings what seemed like isolated adventures on their own in a tagnetally related plot into the fore. Everything so far has built up to this.. and despite the loss.. the family, having been through a dark night of the soul, is ready to fight back. They want the rest of the mysteries? Their going to have to fight clan mcduck in their elment. And it’s been glorious so far. A tense, well paced, hard hitting episode, this one’s a winner. and almost got #1.. ALMOST. But as much as I tried to not go with the obvious chocie, the one with tons of press and praise and that’s graced tons of best of lists... I had to go with what was honestly the best. So...

1. The View from Halfway Down (BoJack Horseman)  “Oh BoJack, there is no other side. This is it. “  This episode was my main reason for catching up with the series and finishing it off once and for all. Awash with praise and hype I was curious about this one.. and my curiosity paid off. This is easily one of if not hte best episodes Bojack put out in it’s storied run: it’s creative, impossible to look away from and devistating: in short it’s the show in a nutshell.. and it’s a hell of a view. 

Previously as mentioned before Bojack’s life blew up and he lost just about everything, from his friends, though as the finale bared out only one of them stayed away for good and for good reason, his only family in hollyhock, his house, even horsin around. He had nothing left.. so high on drugs and in his old house he passed out at the end of last episode.. and we wake up here with a recurring dream as Bojack has a dinner party at his mother’s house, another wonderful performance from Wendy Mallick. Everyone there is someone Bojack knew who died: his former best friend he betrayed Herb, Sarah Lynn his former child co start turned washed up 30 something he let die, Courdory, a co star who died trying to get off david caradine style, Crackerjacke, the uncle he never knew who die din the war and his parents, distant mother Beatrice as mentioned and his father, who is in the body of his hero secretariat who comited suiccide in this unvierse due to getting banned from racing, as that’s the kind of weird shit dreams do. Also Zack Braff, who has no real conncetion to bojack but still died during that time Mr Peanutbutters house sunk into the earth and his ex wife Jesscia bIel formed a death cult.  The group play a game of best and worst, lay into each ohter and have some really intresting conversations with Bojack confident of when it’ll end: before the show their always mentioing. But this time, it’s diffrent.. Bojack is there for it so we get a trippy and horrifyimng stage show as Bojack watches the various people one by one vo into a black door, allt he while bojack coughts up sludge and is persued by it, unaware where he was before this. Sarah Lynn gives one last song, a reprise of a song from previous in the series, Courdroy does a ribbon dance and zack braff gets on roller skates. And bojack has a frank conversation with his dad, with his dad/secretariat revealing he DID care but was just so filled with loathing he coudlnt’ admit it to his son and thus was an abusive ass.. and then reveals to bojack he’s not waking up and bojack horryfigngly see shimself, drowning ina pool. And while he frantically, heartbreakingly tries to flee... he can’t. There’s no exit for him. As herb tells him, this isn’t the afterlife, this is his brain making sense of his last moments, and ther’es no way of knowing if he’ll get rescued, no way to do anything but watch.. watch as his father secretairat shows suicide in all it’s horror by letting it know he wouldn’t of done it if he knew “the view fro halfway down”, a horrifingly haunting poem that sells just how bad it was. As beatrice and crackerjack also go we’re down to herb who introduces bojack... before going in himself, claming there is no other side. Bojack tries not to go genle and runs, and in a horrfying sequence is surronded by the ooze as he tries his damndest to escape.. but in the end he can’t. As herb said.. he can’t do anything about this. So speaking to his min’ds version of diane he accepts he probbaly won’t be coming back and we hear a monitor as we fade out. While we know it’s not the end now... there’s no way of telling then. 

The View from Halfway Down is a haunting, beatuflly animated, masterwork, taking 6 seasons worth of communinity and regret and shoving it in bojack’s face in an intresting way, while bringing back characters we thought we’d never see again for one last go round. It was patcually nice to hear LIn Manuel Miranda and Wendy Mallick again,, and Kristan Schaal is always great. The show ALWAYS had a horrifying habit of having it’s penutlimate episode be an utter gutpunch that broke you, with the finale picking up the peices and offering some hope.. and this was no exception. They literally saved the best for last, and it was worth the wait. The view from halfway down may be gahstly,.. but the view of this episode is hauntingly beautiful. 

So that was the list, and it was.. a lot taking 2-3 days to finish all together over both parts. But it was worth it and hopefully we can get back to some regular stuff later today. For now, thank you for reading, and hopefully i’ll see you somewhere in the sunset. 

[elindae-writes]

Disney MCU : not really my thing and I don’t really care Elindae writes MCU : this is mad this is bogus and I love it so much

Okay, so I only watched the first few MCU movies. I'm gonna be honest, I think the franchise peaked with only the first Iron Man movie. I read a lot of MCU fanfiction before I ever saw any MCU movies at all so I just had no clue what was going on.

There are actually a few MCU fanfics I like: In The Home , (A City Full of) Helping Hands, A Hospital Full, and Wilting Yellow Flowers, all by aloneintherain. I like the spider-man.

I still don't know what's going on. I'm only caught up to the atrocity that is the second Thor movie, the one with Padme in it and the teleporting trash? That entire movie was trash. I will try to construct the storyline of the MCU based off of what few details I know:

There is a raccoon?

The Avengers break up and the Hulk is just unfazed and immediately asks: "like the beetles?"

There is an evil purple man named Thanos with a small green child and the child grows up into a tall green woman?? who is his daughter? and they talk about resources and supply and demand.

Apparently some long-haired hot man with a metal limb shows up and Steve loses his shit trying to save this bud of his

who the hell is bucky

Harley Quinn is apparently not a MCU character and that genuinely shocked me

Thor is hot. wait is he still alive?

Aunt May is hot? like wtf? how?

There's apparently a scene where Spider-Man and his Aunt are eating Thai food and they're seeing replayed Spider-man battles on a TV and she's like. "peter. petey. pete boy. NEVER get involved in those fights! run away!"

And spider-man is just like

"t'was not me"

Spiderman then ends up homeless (and friends with karen??)

There's a fishbowl man who makes images with his hands but then Spider-Man defeats him while they're on a gondola

Steve wields mjolnir? i thought Steve turned into a villain

The new Spider-Man theme is a hot bop. Same goes for the Avengers film

Benedryl Cucumberspaz is there and he has a cloak with a stupid-looking collar

there was a cat-man movie with Bilbo in it

People cast spells via throwing orbs of light into the air

JARVIS DIES?? see, i don't like that. rip. i think? i think he's dead?

They have a big spat where there's some civil war. I remember the marketing for that movie. I was trying to buy bananas at Wal-Mart and all of the cashiers were wearing "ARE YOU TEAM IRON-MAN OR CAPTAIN AMERICA?" and this was apparently a spicy debate there. I was just like "i am team banana"

Iron Man was upset about his mom and pop for some reason whereas Steve was upset because he wanted to save his bud (the one from the 1940s) so they beat the shit out of each other in the snow.

wait i remember now. the 1940s bud mURDERED Tony's mom and pop. ohhhh. oh? oh. i don't think that got resolved.

everybody wants a magical glove and the stones for the magical glove but then they fail so they try again and win

Spider-man gets attacked by a guy with a mechanical bird suit and then also there is a ferry. Spider-man also harasses a man and his ice cream

There's a sitcom show with a boring evil witch lady with red magic (very boring) and a cool groovy purple witch lady with a very good theme song

Robert California voices a robot!! But I don't think he declares himself to be "The Lizard King." disappointing.

They're making a new movie where there is a guy with arm ring jewelry with super-powers

OH and they're making a new movie where there is a bollywood dance scene and i'm a sucker for 3 hour long Indian drama so who knows, that might be my style

There's a movie where some lady punches an old lady on a train

There was an atrocious movie about a boring shrinking ant guy. I only saw like five minutes of that movie when it was 10:30 pm at night and I just happened to be in the kitchen eating muffins when I saw the movie. Kate from Lost is in it??? the ant guy is a convict, i know that much. the fuck did he do? probably got sent to the clink for being weirdly into ants tbh. i switched it over to Antiques Roadshow and lemme tell you it was 10x more exciting okay some old lady came in with an autograph from Abraham Lincoln!! I mean my god he's dead you just can't get those anymore :(

Tony gets Peter some bling

some norse dude makes out with himself. nasty

Twilight Sparkle voices a clock that harasses people

The guy who played the cowboy in Night At The Museum is also in the show, the guy who says "wwwwoooowwww" in that way that makes me crack up

steve goes back in time??? and does not prevent any of the horrors he knows will happen? for some reason? also he turns into joe biden.

Pepper Pots marries Tony or something? wha

and he gives her a SUIT? whY? the goop lady??

tony dies (rip. i liked him. i appreciated how he was an ass to everybody. i bet he'll come back though because this is comic book logic)

DOES STEVE TURN EVIL I CAN'T TELL

Anddddd apparently the comic book industry is in the trash and is getting its ass handed to it by Japan

There you have it guys! Elindae's Hot Recollection of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Believe it or not I actually am the Resident Authority On The MCU in my house so whenever my family has MCU questions they consult me.

That's probably a mistake.

Wait, by MCU did you mean McPrime Universe or Marvel Cinematic Universe?

I am still stuck in the 2012 MCU fanfic mindset where the Avengers are all living together in the tower, Steve has a sketchpad, Hawkeye travels in the vents, and Thor likes pop-tarts. I like that era of the MCU.

[cait-blooms]

WandaVision “The Series Finale” Review

I’ve been following Disney Plus’ WandaVision since it’s release. I thought even though I never started a review from the first episode, I may as well just do a review for the finale to give my final thoughts about the show. I personally really enjoyed it because it was part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I’ve grown to love Wanda and her relationship with Vision. I was also pulled into watching the show, approaching the release of the first episode after I watched and read some interviews by Elizabeth Olson (who plays Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch) and Paul Bettany (who plays Vision).

True to Olson and Bettany’s comments when promoting the show, WandaVision was crazy, funny yet mixed with the heartbreaking reality of the aftermath that occurred in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. That special mix of comedy but classic Marvel action was done well with WandaVision in my personal opinion. At the same time, I’m not surprised since Disney is generating a lot of revenue because of their Marvel products (whether it’s the product merchandise or the films/TV shows Disney releases under Marvel Studios). So I’m high-key impressed with the production quality of WandaVision though I am a bit disappointed with how short each episode is that often made me wish that WandaVision was a movie instead. On the other hand, considering WandaVision was using the idea of TV sitcoms for most of the episodes that had me rethinking that thought (WandaVision being a movie).

From this point after, BEWARE of SPOILERS!!!

The finale episode of WandaVision was true Marvel Cinematic Universe style. There is no holdback on the push and punches and it’s the kind of action you would typically see in a Marvel film. You see Wanda fighting Agatha Harkness (played by Kathryn Hahn), Hex!Vision fighting White!Vision, Tommy, Billy, and Monica fighting SWORD. Those action scenes were so epic to watch and also very cute when it came to Tommy and Billy displaying their powers since they are mischievous kids.

The Hex!Vision and White!Vision fight was interesting especially when White!Vision stopped fighting Hex!Vision to hear him out and it talks about who is the real deal or are both of them the real deal (identity). When Hex!Vision brings back White!Vision’s memories, I for a moment thought that the original Vision was brought back. But it was somewhat confusing when White!Vision flew away after declaring “I am Vision.” So it leaves us on a limbo about if White!Vision was restored to the Vision we first saw in Avengers: Age of Ultron. But afterwards I got over it as the main focus of WandaVision and the development for Wanda’s character is for Wanda to face her grief over Vision’s death.

The highlight for me for this episode though was Wanda’s fight against Agatha. You can see more background and growth for Wanda’s character in terms of finding her origins about her powers, outside of the Mind Stone’s influence. And we finally get to see Wanda in a Scarlet Witch outfit that fits Olsen’s portrayal while still honoring the original Scarlet Witch costume. The buildup to it was there the last few episodes but the fight scene between Agatha and Wanda completed the buildup and revealed... Scarlet Witch.

The only thing I worry about with Wanda is what occurred during the post-credit scene and you see an astral form of Wanda in her Scarlet Witch outfit looking through the Darkhold, which Agatha warned and told Wanda, is the Book of the Damned that prophesized the Scarlet Witch is destined to destroy the world. And based on hearing the scared voices of Tommy and Billy, maybe we’ll get to see Billy and Tommy again and even White!Vision. That would be an interesting season 2 of WandaVision, if Marvel decides to make a season 2. I kind of hope they do, unless Marvel plans to expand Wanda’s story in Doctor Strange which I’m not sure how that will work out considering I’m expecting the movie to mostly focus on Doctor Strange.

Aside from that, a mid-credits scene appeared for the finale which showed Monica being informed by a Skrull that an old friend of her mothers wants to meet her. I’ve counted out Captain Marvel because the Skrull said “he”, so I’m thinking it could be Talos. Unless something happened since the first Captain Marvel movie, that Skrull could be talking about someone else that Monica knows of in space (I don’t know, I don’t often try to predict these things to help keep my hopes low).

Overall I think WandaVision is a fantastic show. If you haven’t been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe, you may find yourself lost in the plot as there are a lot of references to the previous Marvel films in this show. However I would still highly recommend this show, it’s a 10/10 for me! I know there are a lot of disappointed people out there who some things that occurred in the show isn’t to their liking and may disagree with my rating. And that is why I try not to put too much stock into the theories that spread about the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Though I do wish Pietro was Peter Maximoff (played by Evan Peters) from the X-Men films that were previously owned by 21st Century Fox (I know it is now owned by Disney), I was able to quickly move past it as more things went on after that Halloween episode with Peters.

What did you guys think of the finale? What do you predict may happen to Wanda in the future? Let me know your thoughts. Until we chat again!

[neodemon591]

WandaVision Series Review

WandaVision is the first Marvel Cinematic Universe TV show to debut and air on Disney Plus. The miniseries which consists of nine episodes was created by Jac Schaeffer with Matt Shakman directing all nine episodes. The miniseries stars Elisabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Teyonah Parris, Randall Park, Kat Dennings, and Kathryn Hahn. Set a few weeks after the events of Avengers Endgame, WandaVision follows Wanda Maximoff (Olsen) and Vision (Bettany) in the town of West View, New Jersey where they live in peace and harmony in a TV sitcom world. As the decades start to change within the show, Wanda and Vision start to figure out that something may not be as right in the place that they are living in. As someone who has missed being in the MCU for a while, this show was a great way to bring me back into the world that I love and cherish. 

My favorite aspect of the show is being able to see both Elisabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany shine in their roles as their respective characters. I’ve been a fan of Wanda since I first saw her in Age of Ultron and to be able to finally see this character fully realized made me so happy. Olsen’s performance is Emmy worthy in the show, for the journey that she goes on and where the outcome leads to is something I don’t believe could be done in a film. Not to be outdone is Paul Bettany who we love as Vision, but we also get to see him flex some of his comedic sensibilities in the show. Much like Wanda’s journey, Visions’ journey is also filled with great depth and emotional complexity that reminds us why we love these characters. For all the fun spectacle and secrets this show reveals, it really is the character journey and performances that carry this story and make it more than just a comic book show. 

This is a show about grief and how we process that and what happens when we do. Along with the grief the show also explores how our mental health and how we cope with our lives can change when dealing with a loss. As someone who recently lost a family member this show helped me grieve in a way that felt real and okay to do. In one of the later episodes, Wanda describes something that when I heard it felt like that’s how I feel when I deal with my own anxiety and mental health issues. It was really profound hearing that in a world such as the MCU and the issues the show tackles. I think this show came out at the right time for all of us who have been dealing with so much this past year, WandaVision is something that can be an outlet or catharsis for relating to one’s own grief and mental health. 

I’ll admit and say that the first few episodes can be slow and hard to understand where the plot is going. Around the end of episode three and jumping into episode four is where the show hits its stride for the rest of the series. This show in a way is a slow burn and takes its time to get to where the story wants to go. If you can soldier through the slower beats of the show, the reward will be worth it once you finish the show. There’s not much issues I have with the show, it’s the type of weird and craziness that I love and appreciate. Marvel took a big swing with giving us something new and original that they haven’t done before that features wonderful acting, the MCU spectacle we know and love, and a wonderful story with characters that we love and care for.  

[agentnico]

WandaVision (2021) Review

I’m sorry but someone needs to address the elephant in the room - if Wanda and Vision are in a relationship, does that mean Vision - a robot - has a penis? Look, I cannot be the only one thinking this, right? Right??

Plot: Living idealized suburban lives, super-powered beings Wanda and Vision begin to suspect that everything is not as it seems.

So Marvel’s first Disney+ series has reached its finale, and I’m certain many fans will be left disappointed due to all the outlandish rumours and theories that the fanbase are known to come up with not coming to fruition, but I personally admire this show for sticking true to its guns by being something that is very different compared to anything that Marvel has done before. Well, mostly. When its different, its hugely different, however when it gets to the usual MCU antics its pretty generic Marvel.

At the beginning the show left a lot of audiences scratching their heads as to what was going, as in the first few episodes especially there isn’t much of a plot per se, and instead we are taken through the various stages of American TV sitcoms, starting with the black and white old-school The Dick Van Dyke Show styled format, with the first episode going as far as being filmed in front of a live audience just like they would’ve back in those olden days.....at least that’s what history tells us happened back in those days, honestly take that with a grain of salt as I wasn’t even alive back in the 60s so for all I know history is a massive conspiracy and all of this is a massive pile of tosh! But setting deceitful plot schemes, supposedly everyone back in the 60′s were black and white and there was no colour in the world... okay, I’m kidding, I’m not that stupid, but I digress. As I was saying before I rudely interrupted myself, we are taken through various phases of American tele-sitcoms and eventually entering into the usual MCU territory. What works at the beginning of the series is the way it pays homage to those sitcoms back in the day, and I’m certain there was a lot fun has on set by the production designers recreating visual look of those old shows and also with the actors biting into every opportunity of playing up to acting style that was used back then, with the winks to the camera and the purposeful pauses as they wait for the laugh track to die down, or there’s an episode akin to Modern Family and The Office where our stars act as if they’re in a mockumentary and even answer questions to the camera to great comedic effect. 

In between this sitcom format we constantly get little clues and teases towards what may actually be going, and there is this sense of constant mystery that really motivates you to get excited for the next episode (as Disney+ releases their shows one episode per week) and as such WandaVision turned out the be very exciting simply from trying to come up with the most out-there theories of what’s to come. And it seems like the showrunners were fully aware of this by playing up to the fanbase by ending episodes on massive cliff-hangers (people who have seen this series can now easily agree with me that “Please Stand By” is an even bigger Marvel villain than Thanos!) as well as featuring certain surprises and appearances that suggest much bigger plans for the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, so to be fair this show really felt good simply from the anticipation factor and the discussion that it built among audiences. Naturally with huge anticipation it’s difficult to then fulfil that promise, and as such to the second half of the series where the show goes full Marvel on us, we do kind of get stuck in more mediocre territory, with the final episode especially serving some disappointment by ending with the typical generic Marvel superhero battle we’ve all come to expect at this point. In other words, WandaVision comes off a tad anti-climactic at the end, but its the journey that makes it worthwhile.

Typically to most Marvel projects, you can expect the cast to be great, and here in WandaVision that’s the same case. Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany are both stellar as Wanda and Vision, and first and foremost this show is about their romance and their love, and gosh aren’t them two just the biggest lovebirds! So adorable with only me and my girlfriend offering competition as the more gushier and sickly cheesy couple! Hey, we’re cheesy and proud, that’s all I’m saying!!! Anyway, the show is mainly about Olsen and her character’s grief and evolution, and Olsen proves her chops as a leading lady and I’m really looking forward to seeing what she’ll get up to in the Doctor Strange sequel. Bettany is both innocent yet smooth as her robotic boyfriend, and basically proves that if you want to get with one of the Olsen sisters, you have to accept every single chip that Bill Gates sends you to have a shot. We also see the return of a couple other MCU side characters, with Kat Dennings and Randall Park returning as Darcy and Jimmy Woo and to be honest WandaVision gives these characters proper justice. Kat Dennings in the Thor films always came off more annoying rather than funny, yet here on the show her character is both useful and her humour is sarcastic yet funny. And Jimmy Woo in the Ant-Man & the Wasp was stuck in the stereotype of the goofy FBI agent who is stupid and oblivious to everything, however here you can tell his character has become more wiser and better at his job, yet still with the wit and charm that Randall Park usually provides (and he’s the learnt the card trick from Ant-Man!!). We also have Teyonah Parris appearing as grown up Monica Rambeau who we saw as a young girl in Captain Marvel, and Parris is quite pleasant and does well with what she has, but I’m hoping she gets to have more interesting material to work with in the future Marvel projects she appears in. Then there is Kathryn Hahn as the mysterious nosy neighbour character, and though I don’t want to spoil anything about her role, I’ll say that Hahn gets to overact her face off and also gets a fun musical at one point that is annoyingly catchy!

WandaVision is a great sign showing Marvel attempting to branch out and go to new and different places, however with its ending it still proves that they need to learn how to break away from the repetitive formula they have gotten themselves stuck in. All we need is Deadpool proclaiming “Big CGI fight coming up!”

Overall score: 7/10

[bewitching-elizabeth-olsen]

Press/Gallery: Elizabeth Olsen Is Ready to Lead the MCU

An ambitious new Disney+ series might just give the strongest Avenger the happy ending she deserves.

  GALLERY LINKS

Studio Photoshoots > 2021 > Session 001

  ELLE: We can’t keep meeting Elizabeth Olsen like this. By “this,” I mean in the throes of catastrophe or bereavement, or, to put it plainly, when she’s an emotional wreck. In the 2018 Facebook Watch drama Sorry For Your Loss, Olsen assumes the role of Leigh Shaw, a young widow grappling with the unexpected loss of her husband and all the painful nuisances that come with death: the unbearable waves of sadness, the clichéd condolences, a grief support group that runs out of donuts. At one point, Leigh says through a cracked voice, “I’m just mad all the time.” It’s hard not to draw parallels to Olsen’s other angry character. After all, “mad” is exactly how 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron introduced us to Wanda Maximoff.

Defined by tragedy since her Marvel debut, Wanda (aka the Scarlet Witch) is an orphan with telekinetic powers. When not saving the world, she spends most of her time onscreen grieving the deaths of her parents, twin brother, or lover. Wanda’s never been allowed to fully exist outside the confines of her grief and anger, but with the launch of WandaVision—Marvel’s foray into serialized content for streaming—she may just be getting the happy ending she deserves.

Partly inspired by The Vision comic book, which follows synthezoid superhero Vision and his family as they move to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., the Disney+ series is an ode to the TV sitcoms we’ve come to love, with Wanda and Vision (Paul Bettany) basking in newlywed bliss—except Vision’s been very dead (killed twice, in fact) since the events of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. It’s unclear exactly how these starcrossed characters got to suburbia, but for now, it’s a delight to see the typically solemn duo sink their teeth into slapstick comedy.

“The show is like a blank slate for them,” Olsen tells me over Zoom, her light brown fringe a departure from Wanda’s red waves. The Scarlet Witch’s doleful glare is also long gone; in its place, Olsen’s eyes are wide with excitement. “Wanda and Vision’s journey to this point is a story of pure, innocent love and deep connection with another person,” she explains. “It was also very traumatizing. Tragedy has always been their story. In our show, we kind of wipe that clean and start fresh.”

But Wanda’s complicated past looms over WandaVision. Age of Ultron saw her and her twin brother, Pietro, initially opposing the Avengers (the siblings volunteered for a series of experiments with Hydra—a super evil organization within the MCU—after the deaths of their parents at the hands of Tony Stark’s Stark Industries) before switching sides to help save the Earth. The movie ends in victory for our superheroes, but yet another tragedy for Wanda when Pietro dies in battle. She finds comfort in the arms of Vision, an android created from the remains of Tony’s J.A.R.V.I.S. program, but even that bliss is short-lived. You see, Vision can only live with the help of the Mind Stone, which Mad Titan Thanos needs to take over the universe. In Infinity War, Vision asks Wanda to sacrifice him, and Wanda reluctantly agrees—but Thanos reverses time to gain control of the stone, killing the robot for a second time. Wanda’s pain is palpable: Imagine sacrificing the love of your life to save everyone else, just to watch him brought back to life and killed again—by the very villain you’re trying to defeat.

Though the thrill of playing a character with superhuman abilities is enticing for any actress, Olsen says it was Wanda’s internal battle with mental health that attracted her to the role in the first place. “[Joss Whedon] explained to me that Wanda Maximoff has always been this pillar of the struggle of mental health, from her pain and depression and traumatic experiences to how she completely alters the reality of the comics,” Olsen says of her early conversations with the Age of Ultron director. “The thing I held onto after reading the initial script was that she was not only powerful because of her abilities, but because of her emotions.”

In fact, MCU theorists would argue she’s one of, if not the, strongest Avenger. She can infiltrate the others’ minds to reveal their biggest fears (Age of Ultron). She can overpower Vision and send him plunging through several floors to break up a fight between warring superheroes (Avengers: Civil War). She can even bring Thanos to his knees, snapping his sword in half and forcibly removing his armor piece by piece (Infinity War).

Still, “they keep slapping her over the head with more grief,” Olsen quips.

As phase one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with the sound of clanging metal on May 2, 2008, phase four kicked off on January 15, 2021 with a kitschy 1950s sitcom theme: “She’s a magical gal in a small town locale / he’s a hubby who’s part machine / How will this duo fit in and pull through? Oh, by sharing a love / like you’ve never seen.”

With WandaVision, Marvel steers clear of the typical superhero trappings: no destructive battles at a Berlin airport or across the streets of New York City; no blonde-haired god time-traveling to other realms; no tree-like alien fight alongside a raccoon. Wandavision takes place after the events of Endgame in a fictional suburban town called Westview, and the biggest problem the newlyweds face in the show’s opening moments is creating a convincing backstory to get nosy neighbor Agnes (Kathryn Hahn) off their backs.

“They are just trying to fit in,” Olsen explains. “They’re trying to not be found out by their neighbors that they’re super-powered beings.” Now, if only we can figure out what the hell is actually going on. Olsen remains tight-lipped: “The reason it’s a sitcom shows itself later in the show,” she hints. “When Kevin [Feige] told me, it didn’t feel so bizarre. It felt like a great way to start our story.”

“With our show, you don’t know what the villain is, or if there is one at all.”

So, is Wanda stuck in the first stage of grief, denial? Has she altered reality as a coping mechanism for Vision’s death? Is she being held hostage by a terrorist organization (ahem, Hydra!)? One thing we do know is that someone is watching the couple and taking notes. At the end of episode 1, the camera pans out from a retro TV playing an episode of WandaVision (meta!) to show a hand jotting down notes. There’s a strange sword symbol on the notebook and a nearby control board, and in episode 2, the same sign appears on a toy helicopter lodged in the couple’s front yard. Later, when a mysterious beekeeper crawls out of the sewer on the couple’s street, the symbol is seen on the back of his suit. In its 20-plus movies, Marvel villains have always existed in plain sight. But with a new, less obvious darkness lurking at every turn, Wanda may have to return to her world-saving roots.

“Someone said to me when you watch any of these hero movies, you know when the villain’s about to show themselves, and you also have an idea of who the villain is,” Olsen says. “With our show, you don’t know what the villain is, or if there is one at all.” For now, WandaVision allows for glimmers of hope and optimism for Wanda and Vision, despite what darkness tries to threaten their happiness. “Wanda is trying to protect everything in her bubble, protect what she and Vision have and this experience,” Olsen says. “I think everything she does is in response to keeping things together.”

In addition to exploding the concept of the superhero onscreen, WandaVision toys with a different era of TV in each episode. The pilot takes viewers to the ‘50s with an episode filmed in front of a live studio audience, and Wanda dresses up in the quintessential housewife garb, not a hair out of place in her voluminous bob. By the time we click on episode 2, she trades in her apron and kitten heels for a more pared-down ‘60s look, while episode 3 gives a nod to the ‘70s, complete with a Brady Bunch-style staircase and a shag haircut for Vision.

While dressing up was the fun part, time-hopping through the eras required a lot of binge-watching old sitcoms to get the mannerisms down right. Olsen studied series like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Brady Bunch, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and Bewitched to “understand the tones of each era” and get a grasp of how Wanda and Vision should act as a couple. (One of her favorite TV pairings was Jane Kaczmarek and Bryan Cranston from Malcolm in the Middle.) She was fascinated by the way female characters evolved through the decades: “You have to learn appropriate manners—what’s considered being polite or proper. That coincides with women’s voices changing,” she explains. “I enjoyed challenging myself to match the syntax and the lyricism. I live in a very chest-register kind of deep voice. I had to remember not to bring it up at certain moments.”

For so long, Wanda served as a supporting character to Marvel’s biggest names, and the formulaic mundanity of the major theatrical releases made it easy to get comfortable. WandaVision offered Olsen a much-needed challenge. “I’ve only been working for 10 years, but there is this feeling where you start to get comfortable,” she says. “WandaVision was the furthest thing from comfortable for me. It felt intimidating. The character is a completely different thing.”

And fans hoping for a little Marvel action won’t be disappointed. “We still live up to what Marvel does,” she promises. “We just tell the story in a completely different way. It’s a very emotional, female story and it’s a story they haven’t told yet for either of our characters.” Whatever your theory is, keep the cliché condolences to yourself. No one will be uttering, “Sorry for your loss” in Wanda’s world.

Press/Gallery: Elizabeth Olsen Is Ready to Lead the MCU was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen

[aion-rsa]

Did WandaVision Explain the MCU’s Previous Recasts?

https://ift.tt/3aWWHUG

This article contains WANDAVISION spoilers.

“She recast Pietro?!”

The vexing vicissitudes of WandaVision accomplished what was once unthinkable in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Wanda’s long-deceased twin brother, Pietro Maximoff a.k.a. Quicksilver, appeared on her pseudo-sitcom doorstep with a franchise-altering twist, since it was Evan Peters’s quirky version of the speedster—from Fox’s X-Men movies—in lieu of the homegrown version played by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. Thusly, with one whooshing streak, the MCU might have installed the missing mutant half of its comic book ties. Yet, the change came with a plot-based explanation passable enough to make one wonder if it canonizes the MCU’s previous casting swaps.

While the implications that could result from Fox-grown X-Men characters getting grandfathered into the Marvel Studios-produced MCU are potent (and Deadpool-prominent), the understated narrative here is that the scene in question from WandaVision Episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode,” provided a monumentally meta moment from Kat Dennings’s Darcy Lewis, who blurted outloud the aforementioned question that we as the audience—who are watching the show’s SWORD audience watch the show within a show—were all asking ourselves about the recasting of Pietro. In doing so, she provided the MCU the first canonical acknowledgement of one of its recastings; a moment that could bear implications—of a retroactive variety—it is own right.  

Elizabeth Olsen’s Wanda Maximoff, who first made impact in the MCU—by way of an introduction in Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s mid-credits teaser a year earlier—in 2015’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, was introduced alongside twin brother Pietro as young Sokovian HYDRA operatives who were manipulated into being experimented on by Wolfgang von Strucker with Loki’s scepter—specifically the Mind Stone it housed—which bestowed Wanda telekinesis and telepathic manipulation and Pietro super-speed. That backstory, however, was a workaround from the pre-Disney-acquisition movie rights to their traditional status as mutants who debuted in the pages of X-Men, a Marvel property whose film rights were held by Fox in a dynamic that limited how the MCU could portray those characters, and even forbade usage of the very term, “mutant.”

Marvel Studios

Therein lies the surreal nature of Pietro’s arrival on the series, since Peters’ version is not only a member of the heretofore MCU-forbidden species, but is—as he learned in 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse—the son of an intrinsically-X-men character in Magneto. Yet, we’re still not quite privy to the nature of Wanda’s bizarre sitcom fiefdom, only with a vague scientific explanation that she’s controlling CMBR (Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation) to manipulate reality within the confines of the Westview anomaly. Thus, while this newcomer clearly looks like the Pietro from the Fox movies, his new existence—akin to rapidly-growing twin sons Tommy and Billy—connects to this proverbial matrix.

Yet, Wanda didn’t simply conjure the Pietro she knew (Taylor-Johnson’s Age of Ultron version), and was genuinely surprised by him, which seems to indicate that she’s losing control of the phenomenon, and may have unwittingly yanked X-Men Pietro from the multiverse, a concept that could figure prominently when she appears in upcoming movie sequel Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Moreover, the fact that Darcy—who was monitoring the scene from outside the anomaly—actually understood that this wasn’t MCU Pietro might just indicate that the reality-altering effects of the event are being contained within Westview… at least for now.   

Read more

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Consequently, by the time WandaVision reaches the inevitable moment in which Westview—Wanda’s reverse Faraday cage of sorts—collapses, the barrier containing her hex-powered quantum alterations would, theoretically, no longer protect the outside world from its distributive effects on the timeline. Thus, in a manner akin to Marvel Comics’ House of M storyline, Wanda could not only end up reshaping the reality of the present, but the past as well; an event that could (emphasis on “could,”) eventually be used to canonically reconcile the various aesthetically unpleasing inconsistencies we’ve seen across the MCU, most notably the instances in which major characters were recast. As we saw with DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths (both the comic storyline and the CW television event), changes to the ever-fragile timeline often leads to the creation of people who, for all intents and purposes, are the same person, but are physically different, perhaps due to timeline variables connected to their conception. Therefore, (just as the title indicates), this initially-unassuming Disney+ television vehicle might just end up providing an invaluable plot-driven explanation for the MCU’s recastings!   

Of course, the conventional industry move of recasting characters—a practice long-associated with sitcoms and soap operas—is hardly a new concept to the MCU, and even goes back to 2008 launcher Iron Man, in which Terrence Howard played James Rhodes (complete with an auspicious War Machine teaser moment), until the specter of studio politics and star-power-centric wage disputes led to an acrimonious exit. He was abruptly recast for 2010’s Iron Man 2 with Don Cheadle, who has been fielding the part ever since across the MCU’s lucratively groundbreaking moments, and will apparently do so again with an appearance on March-scheduled series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Moreover, the MCU’s 2008 sophomore effort, The Incredible Hulk, saw its A-list headliner, Edward Norton, recast with Mark Ruffalo for 2012 megamovie The Avengers, and, like Cheadle, he has reaped the wanton benefits with successful reprisals ever since.

Marvel Studios

Hugo Weaving also put in a spectacular villain performance as the Red Skull in 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, but eventually soured on Marvel, leading to an uncannily evocative Red Skull performance by Ross Marquand in 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War. The list goes on with the original Thor’s Fandral, Josh Dallas, who would be recast in the 2013 sequel by (eventual Shazam star) Zachary Levi, and—in a recent development—Emma Fuhrmann saw her Avengers: Endgame role as a teenage Cassie Lang (minor as it may have been,) slip away, with Kathryn Newton having been cast as Cassie for 2022-scheduled sequel Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. One could even point to the MCU’s ultimate big bad, Thanos, as a tangential example, since he was first played by Damion Poitier (sans lines), seen in The Avengers’ mid-credits scene, only to have Josh Brolin take over the role two years later, starting with the mid-credits scene of 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy, which yielded iconic results in subsequent MCU efforts.   

Accordingly, while the reality-altered WandaVision originally seemed like a bizarre, artfully-indulgent way to launch Phase Four of the MCU, it might just end up being the perfect vehicle to not only neatly reconcile the canonical contradictions that have existed (the recastings), but also handle the array of unfathomable game-changers on the horizon now that the X-Men (and Fantastic Four) side of the Marvel Comics mythos is on a collision course with the once-insular 13-year-old Marvel Studios multimedia franchise.  

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WandaVision, which is now past the halfway mark of its 9-episode run, continues premiering new episodes Fridays on Disney+.

The post Did WandaVision Explain the MCU’s Previous Recasts? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/372CPyj

[forestal-ramblings]

Wandavision 5-7

I needed time to process all the incredible things in this chapters , of course spoilers ahead !!

I straight up screamed when i saw evan peters !!! I didn't know he was going to appear , I'm a big fan of x-men movies , specially first class , because the sequels are kind of terrible.

Poor Vision after almost dying trying to get out of the hex , is just trying to make sure of his situation. Also I'm the biggest darcy stand and i love to see then together.

The whole halloween episode was just amazing. The costumes !!! The sokovian flashbacks , the twins getting powers !!

But finally we get the good pietro on the MCU universe. I'm a bit worried after the big Agatha harkness reveal , because she was controlling him , but I hope he sticks around.

The modern family references , with the interview style and Vision talking to the camera , where hilarious. I have seen comments from people who don't like the sitcom situations but for me they are the special touch of this series.

The Agatha harkness intro ? Cinematic masterpiece !! Oh I love a good villain and she looks so evil.

Monica rambeau is the most badass bitch , i can't wait to see her full powers.

I think the big clash between Sword and Wanda , probably with more Agatha involvement is going to be awesome. Poor Wanda needs a rest !!.

[amoveablejake]

A Vision of Wanda

See what I did there 

Yes. I know that I have discussed ‘Wandavision’ previously and also that I start most of these pieces with a slight disclaimer but thats neither here nor there. The reason why again we’re jumping back in to looking at the latest offering from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is because I am finding it hard to think of anything else. I was also excited for ‘Wandavision’ and from the limited trailers that I saw for it I thought that this does look like it could be something I am very much going to fall for, what I didn’t realise was that it was going to be the inside of my head and surpass all of my expectations. 

As the series is still ongoing I won’t ruin anything about the key plot points today. Once the series has wrapped up perhaps we’ll dive back in to talk about the development of the narrative and the greater impact but for today I thought in order to dodge that bullet we’d look at the aspects that have made me adore the project in a sort of spoiler free way. 

First off, and yes this is a spoiler so look away now, the show within a show format is a real hit for me. It is a fantastic way to tell this story and to examine Wanda’s frame of mind but more than that it offers up some excellent excuses to see Vision in some brilliant outfits and more importantly to hear some exquisite theme tunes. As I write this I am listening to the theme tunes for the Wandavision show within ‘Wandavision’. Honestly, they’re all hits. They make me nostalgic for times I didn’t live in and make me think back to golden days that I haven’t experienced outside of photographs. They bring with them a sense of comfort that as a viewer we cling to as everything else in Westview seems to unravel. Like all good old fashioned sitcom opening songs they set out the premise of the show which in this case is quite the minefield so instead we get a sickly sweet look at Wanda and Vision’s life that really is anything but? After five episodes I’m still not quite sure where the series is going to end up but as long as we keep the theme tunes coming like this I will be more than happy to stay along for the ride even if it results in heartbreak city. 

Now, another part of the series that has really sucked me in the Suburban setting. Look, I’ll admit I’m a sucker for the American suburbs. I enjoy the way it is portrayed in films like ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ but really I’m always looking for it to be shown under the American gothic light and this is what we get with ‘Wandavision’. The picture perfect outside and something brewing on the inside is what I’m always drawn to, with projects like ‘Twin Peaks’ (oh boy, how much time do we have) aswell as a book that I’,m currently reading called ‘The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires’ which I would highly recommend. I guess what with ‘Wandavision’ and the Southern Book Club I am currently quite deep into the American gothic suburban life and I’m not complaining at all. The hidden sinister thoughts behind the smiles has captivated me once again and if both can pull off the ultimate reveal like ‘Twin Peaks’, well, I’ll be one happy resident in suburbia. 

There wasn’t really an end goal to my piece today. I’ll admit it was more of a love in for ‘Wandavision’ without trying to give too much away. I will however, try to round us off with a thought other than pure head over heels infatuation. After the end of ‘Endgame’ I wasn’t quite sure where we were going to go in the MCU and honestly I still don’t know. But, if Marvel Studios continue to take risks and branch out from the path they have previously forged with off beat projects like ‘Wandavision’ then I don’t need to know where we’re going to end up because I am more than happy to just be along for the ride. 

-Jake, a man trying to figure out how to get into Westview to steal Vision’s clothes, 07/02/2021