captainwidowspring

[captainwidowspring]

I'm done bottling this up. I need to go on a rant about how much Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness insulted me the one and only time I watched it.

I’m still furious that the trailers didn’t spoil that Wanda was the villain, because if they had, I would’ve sworn never to watch the movie.

I liked the first 15 minutes or so fine, and got really excited when Wanda was introduced. But I don’t think I’ll ever forget the way my heart dropped when the reveal happened two minutes later.

It shocked me so much in the worst possible way that I totally zoned out and barely registered anything else that was said in that scene, or the next one for that matter.

The Kamar-Taj massacre legitimately made me want to vomit. I truly couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This couldn’t be fucking happening. And to think it was almost even worse if that horrific BTS footage of Wanda hacking the sorcerers to pieces in melee combat made it into the movie.

This may sound odd, but the visual of Wanda ripping herself apart to get out of the Mirror Dimension truly disgusted me, because I sincerely think it was intended to dehumanize her and make her look more like a monster. Again, it was like the movie was TRYING to personally insult me.

I wasn’t paying attention to anything that was happening with Strange and America when they got to the other universe. I couldn’t focus on anything at all because I was reeling from the shock.

I hate to admit it, but when the Darkhold got destroyed for a moment I hoped against everything that that would be it. But no, immediately after that she intentionally tortured some of the surviving sorcerers to make Wong talk. Again, I genuinely could not believe what I was seeing. How was this real?

The Illuminati massacre, like the earlier battle, insulted me in ways I truly cannot articulate. I feel like everyone involved was trying to insult me specifically with how evil they were making Wanda. [A part of me has grown to morbidly like this scene, however, as the Illuminati are full-on fascists, and with how much I've grown to hate Captain Carter it was darkly cathartic seeing Wanda bisect her, but still.]

During the final battle I was sincerely expecting either those demons to drag Wanda to whatever hell dimension they came from, or for America to do that instead. If that happened then the anti-Wanda whiners would feel even more vindicated about how she was "finally being properly punished".

The way she is written out rung completely hollow, because there was no indication whatsoever that she wasn’t being corrupted anymore. It just looked like she stopped because she wanted to. And again, I feel like the movie was trying to make me upset by saying "no, this is just how Wanda is".

I want to say I felt nothing when it looked like Wanda died, but the truth is it was just the final middle finger. I guess I should be thankful for small mercies since apparently she was originally planned to go on ANOTHER killing spree ending with Strange killing her.

So yeah, TLDR, Multiverse of Madness was the absolute worst movie watching experience I’ve ever had, and cemented itself as my most hated film of all time before it even ended. I made a conscious choice to never watch it again before I even got up from my seat. It truly felt like Sam Raimi and Michael Waldron were intentionally and maliciously ruining Wanda, and the fact that it was just sheer incompetence that caused this to happen is somehow even worse, because that's how little Marvel values this character.

And just for the record, my mom, who got into the MCU because of WandaVision, was also really excited for this movie, and she has no standards whatsoever, so the fact that even SHE hated the movie's treatment of Wanda speaks volumes.

Fuck Marvel, fuck Michael Waldron, and fuck the anti-Wanda losers while we're at it.

[captainwidowspring]

Watched the Thunderbolts* Trailer and….

Hyped for the movie and all but I got reminded of this one thing that annoyed the crap out of me when I watched Falcon & The Winter Soldier..

The way that John Walker was treated in and out of the verse! He deadass didn't even do anything bad!

From the jump he was humble about being Cap, he made it clear was wasn't trying to replace Stev, he tried to be friendly and work with Sam & Bucky, and most importantly this was a position pushed onto him! But Bucky, Sam & the Fans somehow saw him as some kind of egomaniac who needed to be taken down a peg.

Dumbasses getting upset over him using a Gun like Steve wasn't using one in the first Avenger. He’s Captain *America*! Not Batman!

“Oh, he killed a defenseless man in broad daylight!” He killed a Super Soldier Terrorist who just a minute ago was trying to kill him and helped kill his best friend. The only reason the Gov turned their backs on John was because it happened in public and they wanted to save face.

“Him getting beat up by Sam & Bucky was so satisfying!” 1. They barely won that and they were jumping him! 2. Sam & Bucky were petty assholes to him the whole time they knew him just because he was assigned a position that Sam refused. Sam ran a support group for Vets with PTSD, he should've been more understanding when it came to John!

John was legit just doing his job. Sam & Bucky were the ones who made shit worse, they helped Zemo, the man who killed the King of Wakanda & single-handedly broke up the Avengers, escape from prison then helped the Power Broker, who was the cause of the issue with the Flag Smashers, get a direct connection to Government resources.

The Writers and Media pushed the narrative that he should be hated even though he didn't do shit and I hope he gets some kind of Justice in Thunderbolts* but I doubt it.

[captainwidowspring]

Post-mission Stuckynat commission for the lovely @frostyemma!!!

COMMISSIONS | PATREON

[captainwidowspring]

Am I the only one who will be discouraged with interacting with any type of media if it has a picture made by AI with it??

Like I can love a concept and want to check it out but if I see it has been attached to a picture of AI by OP I just won't touch it. I won't check it out or even give it a chance even if I really want to!?!??

Am I the only one that feels like that??

[captainwidowspring]

Personally, I think the thing that matters most is intention. In the case of the people on the Raft, they would know full well what they were doing, and they would be doing it voluntarily. In Wanda's case, however, she actually had no clue what was doing: and because of this, the torture she accidentally inflicted on the people of Westview can't really be considered voluntary, because she didn't understand what was happening.

It's also worth pointing out that Wanda did actually receive a taste of her own medicine, when what she did to the Westviewers was reflected back at her. Now, the unique thing about Wanda's case is that she wasn't purposefully torturing people, she was accidentally spreading her own pain to others after she had a mental breakdown. So there wasn't really any medicine for her to taste, so to speak, since her pain was literally the reason why everyone else in Westview was in pain. But she nonetheless received even more pain when she found out that, not only was the happiness she thought she had finally found entirely fake, but also she had been unknowingly hurting other people during the experience. Wanda thus amply paid for what she did.

See, my view of the receiving a taste of your own medicine thing is that sometimes, people need to have something done to them to understand why they shouldn't do it: and I also believe that, if someone is willingly and knowingly inflicting harm and then they have the tables turned on them, it is altogether just. In the case of the Raft guards, I too am of the opinion that Wanda wouldn't be trying to kill the Raft guards, since she quite simply isn't that kind of person: although I do think she might hurt them, so they had some idea of the pain they inflicted on her. However, I am also of the opinion that if some of the Raft guards did end up perishing, that would be their own fault, for they would be a large part of the reason why the situation was so bad in the first place. Not to mention, if they were truly repentant they would help Wanda and the others escape. So Wanda would have done nothing wrong in that case.

In the case of Westview, though, not only was Wanda never intending to harm anybody to begin with, but she also fully understood how and why what she did was wrong. In addition, she owned up to what she did, and did everything she could to fix it. Thus, the Westview citizens torturing her would not accomplish anything except causing even more unnecessary pain, and delaying healing for everyone involved. That is how the two situations are different.

These are my thoughts on the matter.

Sorry, but no. Wanda Maximoff is not a murderer (fuck you Waldron). And her killing anyone, even her torturers, would just make people hate her even more both in and out of universe.

[captainwidowspring]

[captainwidowspring]

(by analog.amor)

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[captainwidowspring]

idk if anyone else remembers that photoset with that guy who's getting interviewed about being asexual and the interviewer is like "well what do you think about instead of sex??" and the guy is like "uhh superheroes mostly" because that is SO me right now. i'm on 24/7 hero-villain lockdown. don't talk to me about anything else don't make me think about anything else it is heroes and villains ALL the way baby!!!

[captainwidowspring]

Some good points are brought up here, and there's a few things I'd like to add.

A lot of the problems with the Flagsmashers stemmed from the issue of poor world-building, namely that the whole Snap/Blip thing never got proper treatment. Endgame, the movie that started that whole mess, didn't have much time to get into world-building, as there was too much else it wanted to do: so it only showed brief glimpses of what the Snapped world was like. However, it was also the only thing in the MCU that took place during the Snap, as everyone was brought back by the end of the movie. And since the MCU is interconnected, or at least tries to be, subsequent material couldn't just completely ignore the Snap/Blip, as that would always be a giant elephant in the room. So already there is this terrible combination of an event that is too big to be entirely ignored, but which was never really fleshed out in the first place.

And then to compound the issue, it was never expanded on in Phase 4 either. While it was acknowledged from time to time, we never received any more substantial information about it.

All of this led to problems when TFATWS actually made an effort to grapple with it. Because for one thing, it makes the goals of the Flagsmashers unclear. We're told that they want things to go back to the way the were during the Snap, since things were apparently better then: but we don't know enough about the Snap to know why this would be the case. Indeed, it seems pretty counterintuitive, as it would be pretty hard to live in a world where half the population suddenly disappeared, and what little Endgame showed of the post-Snap world certainly portrayed it as a less than happy place. So already, it's pretty hard to understand and get behind the Flagsmashers' motivations.

And then on top of this, TFATWS tried to make the issue a lot simpler than it was. Now, to be fair, the logistics of the Snap/Blip are nightmarishly complicated; it's very clear that the Markus and McFeely and the Russos didn't really think through the implications when they made it a thing. But ignoring the implications does not make them go away: and the problem is, the governments in TFATWS were genuinely in a tight spot. It would already be hard enough to deal with half the world's population disappearing: but then on top of this, just as the world was starting to adjust to that, the half of the population that was Snapped away suddenly came back. This would be an absolute nightmare for the governments to have to deal with.

Despite this, the show kind of acted like it would be easy for the governments to give the Flagsmashers what they wanted, when it really wasn't. No matter what the GRC did, they were going to upset some people. That's why many people were frustrated when, when the senator was trying to explain to Sam how complicated the situation was, Sam basically kept dancing around the issues. It's also why the only advice Sam was really able to give was "Do better," and why, while the GRC ended up not having the vote at the end, we never learned what they decided to do instead.

Moving on, I'd like to say real quick that I don't think John and Bucky belittled the Flagsmashers that they caught. What happened was that, when the Flagsmashers came upon John and Bucky, John said, "Mercy bears richer fruit than strict justice," to indicate that he didn't intend to finish them off. Bucky then showed them the app and said, "It's a great app," to show them how they were found: and then, when the Flagsmashers didn't start attacking, Bucky said, "Thank you," and he and John walked away. There doesn't seem to be much belittling going on there.

Finally, a major problem with TFATWS is that it didn't even care about "the main protagonists and John Walker"; pretty much the only person the showed cared about was Sam. Despite the fact that it was literally called The Falcon and The Winter Soldier, Bucky was largely sidelined throughout the show. His story wasn't treated with as much importance as Sam's was, and multiple times throughout the show a staggering misunderstanding of his character was demonstrated. Two examples really drive this lack of care home. First, the fact that the season built up to Bucky telling Yori about what he did as the Winter Soldier, but when Bucky finally did it they quickly cut away; to be fair, this might have had something to do with the fact that that whole situation was very questionable, but then they should have put more care into the story. And second, the fact that at the end of the show it said "Captain America and the Winter Soldier," giving Sam a new title but not Bucky, even though a large part of Bucky's arc is not being the Winter Soldier anymore. So they clearly weren't interested in Bucky.

As for John Walker - it's pretty clear that Marvel doesn't care about him either. A lot of people somehow think, quite erroneously, that TFATWS was biased toward him, and often hold up his "undeserved redemption arc" as an example: but the fact that it is widely seen as a redemption arc in the first place is proof of just how mistreated he was. Really, the reason why so many people hate John is because TFATWS constantly acted like he was doing something wrong even though he wasn't, and a lot of people completely swallowed that messaging despite the fact that there was clear proof to the contrary. The "redemption arc" wasn't John acting any differently than he had acted throughout the rest of the show, it was just pretty much the only time the show let him have a moment instead of trying to undermine him in some way. John is thus not very important to them either.

And the ironic thing is, even though Sam was the star of the show, he also did not receive the best treatment. The show was continuously on his side, but it often made him act like a complete jerk, so that he was pretty unlikeable. Therefore, while it's clear that Sam is the only one Marvel is really interested in at the moment, unfortunately this doesn't necessarily mean that even he will get good treatment.

So yeah. TFATWS really is a deeply flawed show, with quite a bit of wasted potential. We can only hope that Marvel will at some point clean up their act, and choose to improve the quality of their work.

How MARVEL failed Karli Morgenthau

For The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, there have been a few reviews from those who have seen it online, and with them came tons of critizisms on differing aspects of the show - and while I could go on quiet a bit about them too, I want to talk about Karli Morgenthau and her cause, the Flagsmashers - in particular how the writers of MARVEL have completely and utterly failed them.

(spoilers for The Falcon and the Winter Soldier)

Keep reading

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Four Directions

(c) gifs by riverwindphotography

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[captainwidowspring]

it's about regaining purpose, right? remembering yourself again amidst the rubble. it's about finding your people even when you think you'll never be anything but alone ever again. it's about hope, about miracles, even the ugly ones. and it's about love, how it survives, waits for the light, and unfurls, green and growing and alive again. ten yeras ago they put this in a superhero movie from marvel studios

[captainwidowspring]

Anybody else think that the "superhero fatigue" people keep talking about has less to do with people not liking superheroes as a genre, and more to do with many superhero movies made in the past few years being bad faith adaptations?

I'm not tired of comic books or action movies, or the inherent optimism of a world that, despite its many flaws, deserves saving

I'm tired of movies that are mass produced with no respect to the source material, audience, or the people making it!

[captainwidowspring]

life was simpler when loki just wanted that stupid blue cube

[captainwidowspring]

a reminder that yesterday in the MCU timeline, John Walker proved that by letting go of revenge and the shield, he actually could be worthy of the legacy of Captain America after all, even if so many people don’t have faith in him

and the only two times in the show that he chose to let go of the shield were all to save people (Lemar and the hostages in the truck)

despite all his flaws and mistakes, his desire to protect others and do good is genuine as the showrunners always said, and even comics Steve Rogers always knew that John could be counted on when it mattered