#// in this house endgame especially does not exist | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lopaak · 9 months

Text

In Stars and Time, Aion, Mirages and Thoughts

Launching a game you were awaiting for long is always weird to live ; you're in a special time frame, an Eon you're aware you'll only live once.

In the case of In Stars and Time, it's also partly because once your finish the game, once your fixation will be over, you know you'll look back a few days or weeks before and realize your life changed in such little time.

Eon, or Aion as I will be referring to, one of the three divinity of Time in ancient Greece, represents the Time of eras, cycles, where Past and Future cohabit like lines on a globe, both parallel and meeting at every pole.

While there is Kronos the linear, unstoppable Time, and Kairos the Time of the moment and opportunity you'll get once, Aion is a Time that takes from both of its siblings.

Aion only happens once, as a specific time frame, a frame constructed by the events within it. Yet it is also a Time you live through during which Kronos' linearity makes you suffer, inexorably, makes you love and appreciate things nearby, makes you fear the end.

Yet it is also a Time in which countless opportunities are presented to you, as Kairos' influence washes over every ounce of Time thrown by the Universe.

Another specificity of Aion is that it is the only of these 3 divinities that has an existence within space, not just Time. It was originally used for astronomical time, to measure the cycle of astronomical objects, of Stars.

So here I was, playing a game about loops, unavoidable cycles of repeating events, while myself being in an Aion, aware of the ephemeral aspect of my emotional playthrough.

So, what about In Stars and Time?

It was a great game, standing in that huge rift between imperfect game and perfect piece. So great actually that this small essay is, unlike my digression about Aion might suggest, about this game!

A professional reviewer making an article on the game might be more interesting and especially, better written than a silly 18yo tumblr user though. Read at your own risk. Spoilers ahead btw!

But, since I'm making this, let's start with the basics, I imagine? The art direction is really, really good. The design of the characters is both cute and distinctive, and the (mostly!) black & white aspect of the game fits the characters and the story really well! Some still art of the characters during the hangouts and at the end of the game brought tears to my 4am-completely-dry eyes.

As an rpg, ISAT does the job well for me. The traditional medieval rpg endgame place, the castle, in this game the 'House of Change', is where most of your gameplay will take place, in 3 different floors. Which starts in the beginning as a map to go up the floors to encounter the King later evolves into a labyrinthine experience as in act 3 and 4 you have to go back in rooms hinted at you by an NPC, by your helper-companion Loop, or by deduction, to get some items, go back to another floor, go to the spawn village, over and over again.

That is where my only negative criticism of the game stands ; Acts 3 and 4 felt sometimes too confusing, hard or complicated, finding the items to advance in the story almost felt more as a burden than a fun detective exploration game. The moments of fun in these were talking with your friends about the discoveries and then going back to the village to talk with Loop. And all that was inevitably done so by Siffrin dying or being frozen in time, which wasn't making all that job any more fun.

BUT! Because most criticisms need a 'BUT', that was also experiencing, what Siffrin, our main silly hat character, was living, and thousands of times less strongly. In this specific case, the slight frustration or annoyance i got by looping to certain floors to get books and all that fuss was completely justified, as the ending would make less sense without it, and Siffrin's development as a character would be pretty meaningless, because they would have went through way less.

Act 5, where Siffrin "slightly" loses it because of everything he went through in the previous acts, is only meaningful because while what we as players might have found annoying, he as a character suffered his heart and mind through it. Every time you decided to step on a banana peel to loop up in the House, Siffrin had to die and fake their feelings to their friends once more. Every time you found slightly annoying that you had to fight a specific enemy (Sadness) again, Siffrin was living it.

About fighting! I felt the battles as really fun, satisfying and never really getting boring? Some criticisms I've seen say that fighting Sadnesses is boring, either too easy or too hard, that it's not fun... But personally i really enjoyed it!

First because, the art of the Sadnesses is like. reallyanotherlevelofdope. I found each Sadness' design amazingly cool. Many of them have this silliness to them, whether in their pose or in their expression, yet they are all crying, and, as their name implies, anything they experience is nothing but sadness. At a point where sometimes, despite hurting them in the process, you almost feel like you're freeing them when defeating them.

And well, the moving patterned background art during the battle is super duper cool as well! As someone who loves patterns of any kind, i found all of them really cool looking. Each Sadness has a background different tied to them!

Secondly on why i liked the battles, this won't be a long point but : simply, the combat system is fun! The rock-paper-scissor aspect, the different Crafts, the jackpot mechanic, all that was pretty fun.

And thirdly, the MUSIC!!! The music playing during the battles is really good and makes them more fun. And that brings me to another point on why I love ISAT : the OST. Which is my next paragraph, how fortunate.

THE OST!!!! Composed by Studio Thumpy Puppy, the soundtrack of the game is stunning! stunningly good! The genre of music i listen to the most surely is videogame ost (I'm even listening to that rn), and the soundtracks of games is something I always pay great attention to and an aspect that really hammers the nail (or nails the hammer?) when it comes to me loving a game. Every track of this ost from the King theme down to the rock-paper-scissor tutorial kid tune is of genuine amazing quality. I can only recommend giving it a listen if you're not interested in the game, and supporting the composer on Bandcamp if you can! The ost is a great fit to the event currently happening in the game, and sometimes really feels as if you were in the place of Siffrin, reflecting their mental state. For example, during Act 5, when everything about the music takes a drastic change and becomes darker, fitting the game and Siffrin's current state.

Oh, did I mention Siffrin's feelings? Makes me realize I haven't talked much about our main character yet. Oh well! Here I go. And that is where I'm gonna spoil!!

Siffrin, the silly hat wizard (wizards are not real, urgh, i mean traveler) is who you play as in ISAT. Every moment you experience is from Siffrin's perspective. He's a traveler (uses he/they!) from another country, unknown even by him at the beginning of the game. Eventually as the game progresses, they realize the land they came from was a land north of the country in which ISAT takes place, Vauguard. That land disappeared years ago, and everyone sort of forgot about it. The characters know there was an island north of Vauguard, but forgot everything about it. Trying to read its language or saying its name out loud gives a headache, if you can even remember the name. A big chunk of the game is about remembrance, Siffrin wanting and trying to remember that name, as he himself forgot. Siffrin is a deeply introvert person, scared when people touch them yet touch starved, have a hard time talking about their feelings, and much more (I'll go into it more when I'll talk about the story and do the essay part of this post). Most aspects of their personality, the topics of depression and trauma he went/is going through, as well as him being asexual makes me relate a lot to him.

However Siffrin is far from being the only multilayered and complex character in ISAT.

AND!!!! Here is when I took a break from ISAT.

A few weeks ago, I started writing this essay and eventually took a break, heh. It gave me time to think more about this silly sad game :)

I wondered whether I should rewrite everything or continue where I left off, and if you're reading this, well it means I decided to continue!!! SO here I am, continuing this essay, however moving the direction a little. I'm easing back on the review aspect and going full-on essay. Let's gooo~ wowee

When there's a topic tough to talk about because of its complexity, I ask myself : why do I want to talk about it? It eases the process to reflect on why I'm doing what I'm doing. But for some topics there's another level of complexity, thanks to, oh well, the emotional attachment there is to it ; and one of these topics is ISAT.

In what lens should I analyze ISAT? Under what light? What zoom level on the microscope? What aperture size? What focus? And perhaps the most important question ; should I use anti flare and damaging equipment? Should my picture of In Stars and Time be burnt, as looking as Stars entails. I think I'm going to look straight into the Stars and let my pupils burn, let this text get consumed, because if this text were to exist in the grand scheme of ISAT, I imagine it would get consumed either way.

Let's think. I'm closing my eyes now. No spider on my neck, no croissant in sight. Thoughts merge with C418's beautiful composition on his album "Excursions".

On the horizon, a plethora of games, shows, movies or artists that will impact my life in more ways than I can imagine at this moment. On the ground, in the sand, In Stars and Time lies, an artifact in the photographic sense, and an Artifact in the sense that it will stay with me, like many did in the past, still impacting what I'm writing right now. I pick up the cartridge..or the..steam key(?), slowly blow off the sand and rise my hand to look at it under the scorching sun. It won't be an easy task. But it wasn't for the past Artifacts either.

So ; In Stars and Time is an incredibly hard object of analysis, both because of its nature and because of my attachment to it. That's for certain. Now, it's far from impossible and nothing's impossible anyways when you have all the time in the world. A lens that I feel necessary to use when analyzing In Stars and Time is the lens of the dispossession of one's identity. Siffrin is forcefully separated from what made them who they are now, forcefully separated from the impending victory and freedom.

Cultural dispossession is something that I can't say I relate myself but is something that had a definite impact on my family, something that I could witness in the eyes of a loved one back a few years ago, someone who was reminiscing their earlier memories as a way to survive in a brain getting used and fatigued. Memories that I could not all write down, as Time was getting close. One day, a bit over three years ago, these eyes closed and with that ended a flow of mental souvenirs.

ISAT made me think about that person a lot. It feels that throughout In Stars and Time, at least to me, grief was treated in a way that I've never seen before. Grief is everywhere, but subtly? It is just a car you see driving next to you during a trip on a long highway. You can't really read its license plate but, do you need to? Do you need to know where that car is from, in what country, what state was it bought? Do you need to know where it is going? No you don't. But sometimes you wish you could know. (Note ; writing this makes me think about this song)

I left all my luggage in the last station. I lost them. Moving on.

Grief is also present as a fear of something that might have already happened, in the character of Bonnie. They did not lose their sister but what if? What if it was too late? 'Siffrin, what if they could never go back because of you? Because of me?'

Siffrin witnessing Bonnie being murdered was one of the most terrifying experience while playing the game. I don't know if Sif can ever recover after that in the future, but my headcanon says so. Thinking about that event makes me ...sick.

Bonnie is, despite their age, one hell of a strong character, for many reasons. Because their final hit can be an absolute bop. Because they make super duper good snacks. Because they're here. They crawled to escape the curse, walked with no gear nor water for days before meeting the crew. All this time, they stayed strong. They kept advancing, in the hope of finding something, anything to help.

And they did. I can see them right now, in this desert, looking at this cartridge. The scorching sun is freezing cold, so I'll keep moving to heat myself at least a bit. I have to continue.

Difference is constructed.

Mirabelle is, in a lot of ways, the other main character. She created the party, she saves everyone's life, she beats the King. It's tough to be more 'main character' than this. At least it is by most fictional adventure standards. She's very unique anyways, but is it a weakness to be unique? Obviously not; except in the house of Change? Tough to say, but needless to say, she has a very dyptical (i made that word up, let's say, "dual") relationship with the House and with her fellow housemaidens. She loves being where she is, she loves her place in the House, she loves her beliefs. But she's scared whether she is the right person, because the reality is that she wasn't "chosen" by the Change God, because there are expectations she cannot (or is repulsed to) fulfill due to being on the aroace spectrum.

That is also something I related a lot with! And the message about religion and more specifically belief is really healthy. To believe is not necessarily to make compromises, it is also to believe in yourself, as apart of whichever deity, able to change, able to be who you are.

I think her fears are very relatable, to many people. To an inattentive eye, it could make her a pretty consensual character when it comes to her personality. A character that everyone can like, she's the nice one, all that. But that'd be falling for the trap she's in herself.

Mirabelle is way more complex than what she may look like, a sweet housemaiden who is nice and caring, here for others, who fits her name really well (to be fair, Mirabelle does suit her alot, but not just bc of the sweetness and all that). She has a strength other characters don't necessarily have ; a strength that is in-game represented by her shield ability and the fact that she deals the final blow to the King. But it's a strength that deeply, is tough to explain and that other people will likely do better than me. A strength tied to her belief in Change, tied to her care towards the people of Vauguard, but also tied to her believing in herself. She seem unsure of herself and, arguably she is in many situations, but when the moment is important she knows what to do and she's sure of that.

In the end of the day ; Mirabelle is aware that she doubts her strength, and knows that she can fight those doubts.

And, as I see in the distance a faraway light illuminating the sky, making day look like night, I understand that a shield, far, far away, is resonating for countries around. In another land that is mere mirages for me, they're celebrating.

I don't want this essay to look review-y too much so I won't go around analyzing Isabeau and Odile like I did previously with the others ; plus, patterns get quickly boring. Nah.

There is a ton to say about Isabeau and Odile though. However I've been thinking about how to express my feelings and essaying on them, and I can't find the words. Which granted I'm no journalist, no professional reviewer, but I feel like any inability to write about the things I love is a form of weakness for me. Just for me though, if, that makes sense, oh, well, okay,. If people read this and are interested in my thoughts about them, I'll definitely try my best to go in depth in another essay, specifically about the whole roaster ; Bonnie, Isabeau, Mirabelle, Odile and Sif! (and another one!) They're in alphabetical order! (not the essay).

I will try for now tho, to at least express a bit my feelings on them two. Isabeau is a beautifully written character. I really see his personality as a glimmer in the party. He's brave and strong, but so romantic and kind-hearted. Like Mirabelle, he may seem like a pretty consensual character that is a bit stereotypical ; the buff guy with a heart of moss. But! Like her, he is much much more complex than what meets the eye of someone casually glancing at a ISAT 100% No Commentary video by "theFullGameplayGuy" or some other name (made them up). (No hate towards these channels. They're lifesavers sometimes. Thanks thefullgameplayguy or any no commentary gameplay channel.)

Got distracted but, like the script of a film being created on set, I decided to not delete my distractions. Makes the essay more me!

Odile. Odile is a character that I found so very intriguing since I played ISAT's "prototype", Start again: A prologue. She talks less compared to the others, she's much older, mysteriously scientific and scientifically mysterious. She's lesbi- oh sorry that's a headcanon. . . Um, so, she's very intriguing, especially until her hangout event where you learn much more about her, her past, her life, what brought her here. She has a personality that is quite hard to get at first, but a really cool and sweet one. When I played the game and had to choose the wish in the first minutes, I actually chose the one with Odile! And the reason is exactly this intriguing personality, her mysterious veil of Craft and Science, and my interest for Ka Bue (the country she came from).

All these characters will stuck with me for a long, long time. While playing, I saw myself in each of them at least a bit. Few games made me feel represented with an array of different characters, all shaped in the small world they're coded in, yet near infinitely complex.

Now I know what you may be thinking. I'm not forgetting Loop!!! I actually thought a lot whether I should include them here and decided that I will include them in that other essay I'll make if it interests people, because they are a WHOLE other level of layers and as much as I love writing this, it's a very big piece I can't really tackle in the middle of an overall essay about the game.

In Stars and Time is one of these games. One of these art pieces that will have a lasting on my life. In the continuity of games such as Undertale/Deltarune, fnaf (yeaa it's a franchise), The Stanley Parable, Stardew Valley, Bad End Theater, Life is Strange, If Found, or more recently q.u.q and Stories Untold, and much much more ; this game will change my perception and apprehension of things, and will continue to influence me over the time, over all my future creative projects. (id recommend to check all the games i mentioned that you haven't heard of!!) It will follow me, for the better, in my creative process. So thank you Armor Game Studio, thank you Studio Thumpy Puppy, and thank you the creator, Insertdisc5!

So ; as I'm nearing the end of this, I wonder what it is. I called it an essay for a lack of better words, but I honestly don't know if I'm qualified to write something and call it an essay. And it's definitely not a review either. But it started as one, a bit! Though i don't want to make a review. So I don't really know! But oh well.

Also, remember the three Time in ancient Greece? I think a lot about its ties to the game, but again, that would be too long and especially, too hard for me to explain with words..?. Everything interconnects, everything meets everywhere, everything, on all ends and all thoughts. And ISAT is now part of a cobweb bigger than worlds, words and concepts. I might, tho, try to write about it, one day.

Call me lazy for not expanding on some topics but it's tough to produce allthat for my tiny brain!! I really want to go further but you know. Eh

As for me, I continue walking in the sand. In the erased steps of someone of more importance, I go forward toward the unknown with a new piece in the forever expanding puzzle of a life ; a piece called In Stars and Time.

#in stars and time #ISAT #essay?#thoughts about a game i really like :)#it's probably not really good but it's my first time

12 notes · View notes

escapismqueen · 4 months

Note

YES that's what I'm talking about I don't understand where that comes from getting married at a early age I get but she was against Jeremiah in general for Belly. You know I heard nothing from her when Conrad does anything she actively defends him in both book and show. It's funny because in book one she was telling Belly in the car before ariving at the vacation house of theirs that she saw something between Jere and Belly I was just screaming you see it too yes we have a fellow shipper but no Jenny had to ruin it she treats Conrad better than Belly herself. I agree I need healthy ships that actually stay together if there's problems go through them together is that too much to ask? I've been tired of love triangles for years I think they've been done to death. I've always seen the relationship of this series as a straight line Jere and Belly I know it's considered a love triangle but their relationship and chemistry is so strong that you would forget Conrad exists especially in the books because he barely appears lol

YESSSSS ! Honestly the whole thing just sounds like a shit show and from what I’ve heard of the audio books, it is 🤣I swear I got whiplash from the back and forth. I’ve literally always hated love triangles. I don’t see the need for them and they don’t appeal to me at all. They’re done for the drama and nothing else and it drives me insane. That’s why anything other than a jelly endgame at this point would be a genuine disservice. Also, I know I’m not Conrad’s biggest fan, but having bey switch between the brothers AGAIN would not be fair to their relationship or their own bloody sanity. I hate how sometimes belly is shown to be so unsure on how she feels. A lot of shows do it with teenage girl characters and it annoys me. She’s an intelligent girl who knows her own heart and I wish this doubt plotine would stop sneaking in.

If they wanted me to be team bonrad, then th Ethan should have made him a good boyfriend. All they did was make me dislike him.

#tsitp #team jelly #belly x jeremiah #asks

6 notes · View notes

fantasyinvader · 1 year

Text

For the anon asking about endgames, since I don't do asks, I don't really have one. At all. At best, I grow bored with tumblr and walk off into the sunset.

This blog is simply here for me to talk about stuff. Books I read, games I play, movies I watch, just an outlet for me to pour my thoughts on them. Like I just finished God Emperor of Dune the other day and have been meaning to talk about it here. And one of the things I talked about since starting this blog was Houses.

The discourse could be more forgiven at the beginning, when the game was out and people were scrambling to figure out what was going on. The kind of thing that you'd expect to be cleared up as time went on, except they weren't. As it became clearer and clearer that Edelgard wasn't the heroine people thought she was going to be, and those they initially pegged for the villains turned out to be the heroes, things only got worse.

People weren't only ignoring the details that speak out against her, they were ignoring what she believed and what they were supporting. Her lies must either be treated as the one truth or excused entirely. We were led to believe she sounded better in the Japanese (read: cuter) and that Treehouse must have hated her, only to discover that she is much worse in the Japanese text and that the devs called her a villain. Heroes makes her look bad and throws shade at what she's supporting, while Engage subtly implies Byleth is from SS through the music mixed into Trial of the Academy while Nemesis is used as the bad guy to represent Houses (People also say Edelgard was written ooc when it came to Alear). A fanfic writer is treated as an authority on the characters, while the creators don't understand them.

They ignore Edelgard's lies, downplay her actions, dehumanize her victims, erase part of her sexuality, rewrite her personality, and replace her beliefs with their own. That's not supporting Edelgard, they're supporting a character who does not exist in the game's script.

I want to talk about Houses. There's just so many minor details that link together to keep me engaged, especially when those details were altered by the translation. What I don't want to talk about is this group fanfiction by people who scream for blood when actual canon and authorial intent is brought up. Why can't we discuss the actual game, seek out the clues and put them together? Because this isn't some M-rated, morally ambiguous work. It's rated for middle-schoolers for crying out loud.

5 notes · View notes

shellheadtmarc · 5 years

Text

with regards to where we’ll be going with tony’s story from here:

since this is in the general endgame spoilers tag bc i don’t want to needlessly spoil people: if you are a personal/not a mutual please don’t touch this post. this is a roleplay verse for my portrayal of tony, and not a general fix-it for fic. thanks.

alright. okay. i’ve done some thinking, and it’s time to talk about where tony’s mcu verse is going to go from here, since obviously i can’t do shit with him in actual mcu canon now and definitely do not agree that was a fitting end to his character arc. i think it was a huge step backward, but we’ll leave that for another time. onward.

it’s not everyday you get to roll at least three verses into one, amirite?

first off, things i am willing to keep in a case-by-case, mun-by-mun basis: marrying pepper, having morgan. again, case-by-case, and my tony will not be dying in some huge character-reverting sacrifice that could have been avoided (and was for him in the comics - he’s used the infinity gauntlet there, too, and survived, so i ain’t wanna hear it was the only way bc that’s bullshit). i will not have his big fear of being like howard, not being there for his kid, to come true. that’s just not gonna fucking happen.

that’s it. that’s fucking all.

instead, tony’s gonna mostly diverge post-civil war/post-spider-man: homecoming, and here’s how.

x. guardians of the galaxy arc: after civil war/spider-man: homecoming tony’s headed to space for a while. what, that sound silly? for reference, please see guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 (616) and the invincible iron man (2013 - 616) for inspiration and some details. anyway, tony’s off to space for a year. to have space adventures, because i still fucking despise the mcu making him terrified of it, when tony stark has always looked to the stars and seen potential - that’s a character quirk that’s existed since the first moon landing. it’s canon he does space repairs on shuttles and stations. it’s canon that he likes to go to houston and watch the shuttles land. so tony’s gonna get to spend some time among the stars, to see what he can see, to see what potential allies and good and advancement there is out there. and, if any gotg muns are interested, he can hook up and be a guardian for a while like he did in 616. events will vary, but he’ll spend around a year out there before coming home to Earth. there won’t be any hooplah he’s just gonna show back up one day. and it lets me play with godkiller, don’t @ me. this also leaves things open for stuff on sakkar? and with asgardians?? and all kinds of fun things to happen while out in the great black expanse.

x. director of shield arc: amanda, aren’t those reversed? yeah, so? this isn’t gonna be an exact translation of 616 to mcu. things are allowed to shift around a little. this one’s a pretty boilerplate plugging in of 616′s turn at shield’s helm. standard shield problems with bonus superhero bullshit. some of the same events may occur, they may not, but his tenure as director is going to be fairly shortlived one way or another, because tony stark is messy and not a desk jockey and can’t keep out of things (see: his own strike team). you know he’s gonna fuck up somewhere along the line eventually. and when he does, he’ll step down. does shield become hammer? well, that depends on the makeup of each thread. maybe sometimes. maybe sometimes after tony erases his own brain and has to be rebooted from a harddrive. it’s flexible.

x. illuminati arc: if any mcu/xmcu muns are interested in forming a mcu version of the illuminati, i’m fucking here for it. reed richards, tony stark, black bolt, stephen strange, namor, charles xavier - these six come together to each take an infinity stone (gem) and keep them separate and safe, swearing to never, ever use them. tony hides his in area 51. bad shit happens, gets fixed. ps. t’challa kind of knows what’s going on, the end.

after that? there’s a world of possibilities open. the avengers can reform, you can have formation of the various regional avengers, deal with old enemies that are supposed to be dead, pull from classic invincible iron man and avengers and tales of suspense, make up something completely new. because the point of this is that in the mcu, the avengers’ story was just beginning when it really, really got cut short with so many of the core members and pillars of support for them gone. this is, honestly, a bad end, that the 616 crew would try to avoid/fix.

9 notes · View notes

porcelain-giyuu · 2 years

Note

hello I have come w another long ass ask I just need you to know that your blog is currently one of my favorites, I smile at your writing and ideas okay 💛

NS Au thoughts:

aw giyuus parenting being influenced by urokodaki and tsutako is so sweet to me. Like tsutako, I wish urokodakis relationship with Giyuu was explored more in the manga. How did tsutako and urokodaki baby Giyuu?

Isn’t it implied that Giyuu didn’t really visit urokodaki after his final selection? I see the potential for some sweet reconnect type thing, where they both have to relearn how to exist w each other and show each other affection since it’s been a while.

Aw Giyuu is so sweet, homemade comfort food and helping them fall asleep?? He’s so protective I love it.

Zenitsu and genya being being annoyed but comforted is so on point and of tanjiro and Giyuu are going to have another awkward conversation they are such beans . Inosuke showing off I can already imagine how proud he would be lol

He’s even protective of muichiro despite being in the same rank as him (now that I think of it I think the rest of the hashira would naturally be a tiny bit protective of him/ careful with him just because he’s so young) Him showing off is just icing on the cake lol. (I’ve seen you use this term a couple times, but in your omega verse what does dams mean?) I need to know how the pups collect him😭 also what do all the hashira and oyakata sama think about him joining them?

omg sanemi I have no doubt he would be meaner to Giyuu somehow like he’ll just find a way to antagonize him, either subconsciously or on purpose. Also sad too, I’d imagine it’d be hard to see his brother (or him for that matter) create familial bonds because of what happened to his family. Anyways sanemi is so funny I want to study him and his weird concoction of confusion anger and jealousy like a bug.

shenanigans?? like what op what shenanigans are kyo senjuro and Giyuu getting into???

Also Giyuu going to each of his pups houses,, he’s so devoted what a sweetie. what do the hashiras of the estates think of his visits.

and rengoku falling in love with Giyuu because of the way he parents makes me feel warm and fuzzy, I guess itd be really enthralling to be witnessing a such a warm side of giyuu. honestly I can picture them all getting closer like a big family, it’s sweet. I think kyojuro would be a big family man. Itd be good for both of them.

How does Giyuu fall in love with him back? How does shinjuro react to suddenly having all these people at the estate? How would kyo let Giyuu know of his feelings?

I love Saunnes other work, the mask one is just so 😭

It made me yearn for more ‘mask wearing Giyuu finally takes it off/ it breaks and the hashira react’ aus. I think soon will be adding to the omegaverse one with another story so I’m keeping an eye out for that, so excited !!!

I also love ‘Breathe for Me.’ by AniramLynx, it has a love harem square thing with sanemi, shinobu, and kyo, and Giyuu has a secret daughter and it’s endgame rengiyuu and I just love how they tackle omega verse dynamics, And the writing is awesome. The writing is also in Spanish but maybe one day there will be a translations because it is awesome ☺️

“Your Name” by OddlyStupidOtaku I am liking so far as well, if you couldn’t tell already, I am a sucker for good omegaverse aus, especially when they are focused on family dynamics

For the Giyuu x uzui fam au

I love the hc but that Giyuu likes keeping track of weather patterns, science and the like,. This is canon now i don’t care

I think Giyuu sharing little parts of himself and his past like the tea shop or river is so sweet. Lol at Giyuu sitting in the shadows, does he sunburn easily Somehow this suits him. I know im getting redundant, but I wish the manga added more bits of his backstory and childhood before he lost tsutako (I actually just want more Giyuu)

how does the uzui fam try to include Giyuu into their relationship? How outwardly obvious is their affection for each other?? I can imagine that the uzuis is that pda quadruple, but i think they might tone it down with Giyuu for his sake lol. aww I love Giyuu x healthy relationships, it’s the best ship imo

ANON. YIRE BACK!!! sorry it took me fucking forever to answer i got caught up in watching the entirety of camp cretaceous. it’s really fun. to apologize for taking a balls ass long time, there’s some fun dialogue/a little unpolished blurb for you 💕

i’m really happy you keep coming back. the fact that i’m one of your favourite blogs and that you actually enjoy my writing means a lot more to me than you probably think.

as always CW: canonical character death, briefly touching on shinjuro and kyojuros relationship (and all that entails) maybe a general warning for light angst. that’s it though!! have fun :-)

NS Au thoughts:

well i fucking ADORE tsutako so much actually. urokodaki and tsutako treated giyuu differently because their places in his life were fundamentally different: tsutako was his mother, his sister, the woman who raised him and loved him. she helped lay the groundwork for who is he is as a whole- she was and still is monumental in his mind. his love for her is completely and utterly huge. she treated him fairly and kindly- she treated him like her son, and wasn’t often harsh with him.

urokodaki was also gentle, but he wasn’t giyuus parent. he was giyuus teacher; first and foremost he was someone who helped guide giyuu into a very dangerous profession. he trained him to be the best of the best because giyuu (while not as hard hitting or bold as sabito) had speed, precision and a steadfast will to protect. urokodaki wouldn’t have forced him into it: giyuu took to training with his entire being.

urokodaki wasn’t always kind. there are harsh, violent lessons you must go through to become a demon slayer that won’t perish at the first clawing- the first gnash of a demons teeth is always the worst. luckily, he saw even sharper teeth hidden behind giyuus tiny smiles and soft voice.

tsutako didn’t baby him, per se, but she was soft with him. she helped him wash his hair, let him curl up in her futon with her and helped him hide the first nest he ever made. her nests were small, could fit in cabinets or forgotten cupboards- giyuu takes after her in that aspect.

urokodaki didn’t baby him. he occasionally brought him to teahouses or festivals, but he also brought sabito. he rewarded giyuu for his hard work more than he babied him.

urokodaki loves his students. unequivocally, wholly, with everything he has. he guides them with calloused hands and his hidden gentle face, hoping they get to watch the sun rise each day. hoping the night doesn’t take them.

it always had. the night (the creatures it sires- monsters made of flesh and imploding stars) takes his students; his children. death reaches for them each time.

it had taken giyuu away from him in a different sense. he still lives, breathes, eats and sleeps- he just doesn’t come home. from the brief and quietly agonized letters he sends every once and a while urokodaki can tell the night took him- just… in a different way. he doesn’t return even when he promised, at the ripe age of fourteen and a half, to do so.

giyuu is afraid of seeing urokodaki. not the fear of demons, or of death or of loosing someone he loves, but the strange type of dread that comes when you find something you didn’t mean to forget. hadn’t meant to leave behind, didn’t want to part with but couldn’t bear to hold. he’s ashamed of breaking his promises.

eventually, giyuu gets a letter from tanjiro. nezuko enjoys being with urokodaki and tanjiro misses him. he assumes giyuu does as well and implores him to visit.

urokodaki isn’t aware that his other students (nezuko included of course) have bonded so closely with giyuu. his one student who was taken by the night and spat back out. tanjiro had returned to him bathed in the light of dawn; giyuu finally arrives home on a clouded noon, years after he left.

they’re both new people, but in that singular moment urokodaki is staring down at the half-frozen child he met so long ago. giyuu looks back at him, guilt, shame and relief building tightly in him.

when urokodaki hugs him, cradling the back of giyuus head in his hand and mask tipped to the side to hug him better, he realizes giyuu is taller than him. the sun does not break from behind the clouds; but urokodaki thinks one dreary day is a small price in the face of his beloved student coming home.

He’s even protective of muichiro despite being in the same rank as him Him showing off is just icing on the cake lol. (I’ve seen you use this term a couple times, but in your omega verse what does dams mean?)

the kids love giyuu a lot but they’re still getting used to him, and vice versa. tanjiro is used to protecting and providing so having someone do it for him feels… a little bit condescending at first, but when they talk about it he begins to settle into the idea more. it’s meant out of a genuine want for his safety and happiness as opposed to giyuu not thinking he’s capable.

eventually they all settle in enough to show off, mui and inosuke (and nezuko oddly enough) just get a head start.

dams are another term for mother, usually used in relation to omegas (both male and female) and has slightly different emotional connotations than just “mom”.

I need to know how the pups collect him😭 also what do all the hashira and oyakata sama think about him joining them?

it’s all tanjiros fault, really. when mui and giyuu were recovering from their mission, giyuu was in a very hormonally vulnerable state because he had just fully imprinted on a pup who was injured while in his care. he started nesting even while his hip/leg was fucked up, and was spending a lot of his time in his nest with mui.

tanjiro visited him a lot, sometimes even being pulled into the nest beside mui because he fucking loves tanjiro (this is after the sword smith arc).

nezuko was always with tanjiro, and where they went zenitsu and inosuke were never far behind. they were consistently shooed away because “if you don’t get out of his nest right now you’ll mess him up more and delay recovery for them both! not to mention you’re all still pups and Tomioka was just newly imprinted on!” (by aoi, who didn’t notice -or maybe just didn’t acknowledge- that she was also slowly imprinting on giyuu)

kanao also frequently did shooing duty, but liked to spend time with the others while they were all there.

tanjiro saw that giyuu and mui were healing and in better spirits, as giyuu was becoming more open and warm with them (beginning to treat them as his pups) and mui was lightening up around people that weren’t tanjiro or giyuu!

he dragged genya around too, because they’re friends damnnit and genya is going to spend some boss ass quality time with them if he like it or not.

this all backfires spectacularly when shinobu catches all of these children taking a dogpile nap on giyuu. they’re careful of his and muichirous injuries, but still. she’s right cheesed when she figures out giyuu has claimed them as his: they’re his kids now and nothing will make him let them go.

oyakata was both so very very pleased to become a grandfather (something he didn’t think would happen before he died) and also quietly amused. his biological children are also pleased to become aunts and an uncle, even if their nieces/nephews are older than them.

shinobu has some confusing feelings abt it all. on one hand, giyuu is healing from being nulled and is creating important bonds with people, but in the other he keeps stealing her fucking kids/sister. the triplets, aoi and kanao are her girls. but giyuu just swept on in and started mothering them. so to be petty (and to maybe give herself a little bit of normalcy) she starts acting all Pack Alpha around the girls. and mui. and the other kids. (she’s digging herself a fucking grave. giyuu has begun to act like she’s part of the pack. she’s so stupid for thinking this wouldn’t happen)

mitsuri, gyomei, and uzui all think it’s nice. uzui thinks it’s more funny and flashy than pleasant, but he still gossips about it with his wives.

obanai fucking hates it. end of story.

muichirou and kyojuro both adore it. muichirou doesn’t remember everything about his life before, but he remembers warmth. he remembers hands that held his face and swept away his tears; the scent of home buzzes constantly in his nose- the memories from his family before and the fresh notes of his family now. he promises that he will never forget any of them ever again.

kyojuro can’t get enough of it. giyuu smiles at him, spars with him, flutters at the edges of his vision even when he’s gone. the thought of giyuu is always with him; the shape of his body and the tilt of his lips when he hums to a curled up nezuko sleeping peacefully in his lap. bathed in light or rain or fucking ash giyuu would be more breathtaking then any god in kyojuros eyes.

oh don’t worry anon sanemis emotions get explored. also his relationship with his parents, genya and their other siblings. just wait. it’ll be so fucking fun. (and heartbreaking 💕)

shenanigans?? like what op what shenanigans are kyo senjuro and Giyuu getting into???

mostly the shenanigans are giyuu coming to the flame estate and everyone either a) going super overkill in training to show off their progress, b) shinjuro and giyuu awkwardly existing in each other’s presence (bc shinjuro Knows. he is completely aware of his eldest sons infatuation) c) kyojuro attempting to “subtly” keep giyuu and senjuro from spending too much time together while still pushing them together enough for them to get along or d) some horrible mix of them all, plus other random little issues.

it’s a whole mess, basically, but they all become more in tuned with each other. shinjuro is the exception of course; he’s fairly distant with his sons students. and the pretty water hashira.

Also Giyuu going to each of his pups houses,, he’s so devoted what a sweetie. what do the hashiras of the estates think of his visits.

the hashira of the estates generally like giyuu a lot. kyojuro is… horribly in love with him, and would give anything for the chance to properly show it.

gyomei thinks giyuu is sweet- and he never actually intended to steal his student. his visits are usually timed well enough to never interrupt anything and he brings gyomei high quality cat treats as gratitude gifts, so gyomei has no complaints. (it helps that genya seems to relax quite a bit when with two extremely powerful omegas who care about him very much- he’s not scared of being an omega, but the thought of navigating it alone was never pleasant)

muichirou obviously loves being in his home with giyuu, even though he’s taken to spending a good amount of his down time in the water estate. most of his house hands are working there now- it gets a lot more traffic and now requires a lot more upkeep. he’s a tiny little pre-presentation alpha pup with a mother that he loves to impress. his collection of terrariums is no joke, and he finds they both enjoy spending quiet time surrounded by the pretty glass jars.

shinobu definitely likes giyuu; she wishes his newfound tendencies towards gaining children stopped or at LEAST slowed down though. she and giyuu get a bunch of focus for their relationship as well- i’m unsure about whether or not to keep it platonic but still with lots of intimacy and trust (like queer platonic partners- commitment and love but not strictly romantic) or if i should go the romantic route. i’m 50-50 split currently. all i know is that she’s an important part of the ever growing pack.

How does Giyuu fall in love with him back? How does shinjuro react to suddenly having all these people at the estate? How would kyo let Giyuu know of his feelings?

giyuu falls in love with a lot of difficultly, grief, and guilt. he and sabito were courting from the ages of 12-15, and had promises. they were supposed to become the water pillars together- a bonded team so strong they would embody the ocean and all her tides. when sabito died giyuu felt less like the ocean and more like an ice floe; cold dark and dangerous, isolating in strange and terrifying ways.

in some ways he never let go. even after he begins to heal, let himself thaw and crumble under the warmth of his pups love, his pack, there was always the shape of sabito carved into him. a brand of love, friendship and deep respect- but a brand nonetheless.

generally, giyuu thinks it’s a disrespect to sabitos memory to fall in love with someone else. to hold them like that in the same space in giyuus heart that he had taken. but slowly, as giyuu visits the flame pillar estate more often and watches him live (the night his crow had told him of the train is held deep inside of himself. he does not think about why the memory rests next to the news of his parents death- of his sister smoothing his hair as she sobbed and sobbed and didn’t let him see them even after the villagers helped remove them from the house.) he realizes that sabitos place can remain his.

he can keep his first love (his first everything) in the same place. he doesn’t have to throw him away to love someone again. tanjiro and nezuko don’t throw away their family for a new one- muichirou doesn’t throw away his sparse memories of a face mirroring his own for the other pups. zenitsu doesn’t throw away his grandfather or even the brother that hated him; they all just make new space. giyuu simply (read: with great difficulty and lots of hesitation) wants to do the same.

giyuu doesn’t love like the ocean- nor does he feel like it when he’s with kyojuro. kyojuro is hot embers and thick sloughing metal- giyuu feels like the moment he makes contact he’ll burst into steam. kyojuro makes giyuu feel like endless rain sinking deep into the earth. he isn’t a glacier, or a steep and deadly ice floe, but he is a man. a man and an omega and a mother and a son and his sisters little brother. he wants kyojuro.

kyojuro is both stunningly impatient and mature, which tempers his impatience enough to seem nonexistent. he’s eager and jovial and quick to move, but not stupid. he thinks things through, he just has very little shame or boundaries with himself. other people on the other hand…

they aren’t easy for him. he gets along with most people but it’s usually by accident or by saving them from a demon that would’ve killed them. giyuu is easy to speak with- gentle and quiet but easy to goad into reacting if you phrase things right. he’s competitive, resilient and so so fucking gorgeous.

kyojuro doesn’t tell giyuu right away. he can tell there is still a thick wall between giyuus heart and everyone else. the pups hop the wall often, but occasionally stumble or are knocked back. kyo very rarely even gets to climb high enough to glimpse the other side.

he speaks with his father first. it’s painful, in the way speaking privately with his father has been for years, but there is no alcohol in the room and it smells of his mothers favourite incense.

shinjuro listens for once. takes the time to watch his son, his eldest boy- a hearty alpha and reliable young man. his darling pup, who he has hurt deeply in the past and continues to do so even now when he doesn’t do much of anything. lets his sons worry and adoration for the beautiful and destroyed omega that has captured his heart wash over him. when he had met the new water hashira, he was taken aback by how fair he looked while being so cold. so dull. he had seen the grief for what it was- his wife’s death left a similar mark on him.

when kyojuro finishes speaking he waits for a moment, then two, then his patience wears thin and he moves to leave.

“that boy has loved someone before. deeply. like how you love him, like how i lo- how i loved your mother. i was ruined by her death. i’m still ruined.” he begins, not baring to look at his boy anymore. kyojuro settles back down.

“whoever they were they were ripped from him. it was probably the catalyst to him being nulled. it’s a miracle he’s not a completely blank slate, now.”

they’re both silent. kyojuro is deep in thought, replaying interactions with giyuu for signs he might’ve overlooked. he’s not jealous, or angry, but sad. he adores giyuu with everything he has, but if giyuu loves someone else he would’ve wanted them to be here with giyuu loving him as they must have.

“he doesn’t look at you with blank eyes. he did to me, and most of the other people he ever saw- like he was looking right through them. to love a man like that is almost a death sentence.” kyojuro has no words for that that are kind. instead he offers this;

“giyuu has always looked at me without malice, at least. there has never been disappointment in him- not for me.”

shinjuro doesn’t shiver with rage or shame as he usually would.

“break it to him slowly. talk to his pups and his pack, then make yourself clear. don’t expect an answer. don’t expect it to be a pretty or soft confession; he might be pretty and soft but he is far from both at once. dont… don’t wait, kyojuro. whatever you do, reach for him.” during his speech, made with tilted and rusty words of encouragement, kyojuro has folded in on himself. he knows this is the closest thing he’ll get to fatherly approval. for now, it’s enough.

For the Giyuu x uzui fam au

i feel you anon. i’m desperate for more information but since there isn’t any i’ve just been making shit up!! it’s great

they take him on a lot of dates, and spend a lot of time with him. he spends a lot of his time while not on missions in the sound estate- his house feels so cold and so quiet now. he still can’t bring himself to furnish it because at his core giyuu believes it’s not his place.

so instead he keeps things with the uzui family. he has a room with a handmade wood box inlaid with silk, which keeps tsutakos bow, half the rope from sabitos mask, and various trinkets that people he’s saved have given him. they (along with his haori) are his most painful and important possessions.

the fact that he can put them here, in this house with these people who he adores and aches for in equal measure, says a lot.

the uzuis are fond of pda, but they’re not actually too intense with it. there’s definitely a level of casual intimacy that always surrounds them, but it’s not forced or anything. they fold giyuu into the mix fairly naturally and after a few months it’s not a strange sight to see uzui just toss one of his wives and giyuu over his shoulder and bounce around. he seems so happy and it makes them laugh. they don’t have to tone things down because giyuu would tell them if he was uncomfortable (even if it was just with his expression/body language)

227 notes · View notes

lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

Video

undefined

tumblr

'Loki' takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

Tom Hiddleston is Loki, and he is burdened with glorious purpose: After playing Thor's puckish brother for over a decade in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, no one understands the mercurial Asgardian God of Mischief as well as the actor. He can teach an entire seminar on Loki if given the opportunity — which he actually did during pre-production on his forthcoming Disney+ show. In conversation, Hiddleston quotes lines from his MCU debut, 2011's Thor, almost verbatim, and will playfully correct you if you mistakenly refer to Asgard's Rainbow Bridge as the Bifrost, which is the portal that connects Loki and Thor's homeworld to the Nine Realms, including Midgard, a.k.a. Earth. "Well, the Bifrost technically is the energy that runs through the bridge," he says with a smile. "But nine points to Gryffindor!" And when he shows up to the photo shoot for this very digital cover, he hops on a call with our photo editor to pitch ways the concept could be even more Loki, like incorporating the flourish the trickster does whenever magically conjuring something. The lasting impression is that playing Loki isn't just a paycheck.

"Rather than ownership, it's a sense of responsibility I feel to give my best every time and do the best I can because I feel so grateful to be a part of what Marvel Studios has created," the 40-year-old Brit tells EW over Zoom a few days after the shoot and a week out from Thor's 10th anniversary. "I just want to make sure I've honored that responsibility with the best that I can give and the most care and thought and energy."

After appearing in three Thor movies and three Avengers, Hiddleston is bringing that passion to his first solo Marvel project, Loki, the House of Ideas' third Disney+ series following the sitcom pastiche WandaVision and the topical The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Led by head writer Michael Waldron (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Heels), the six-episode drama sees Hiddleston's shapeshifting agent of chaos step out from behind his brother's shadow and into the spotlight for a timey-wimey, sci-fi adventure that aims to get to the bottom of who Loki really is. "I wanted to explore slightly more complex character questions," says Waldron. "It's not just good versus bad. Is anybody all good? Is anybody all bad? What makes a hero, a hero? A villain, a villain?"

Even though Loki — who loves sowing mayhem with his illusion magic and shapeshifting, all with a major chip on his shoulder — has never been one for introspection, the idea of building an entire show around him was a no-brainer for Marvel. When asked why Loki was one of the studio's first Disney+ shows, Marvel president Kevin Feige replies matter-of-factly, "More Hiddleston, more Loki." First introduced as Thor's (Chris Hemsworth) envious brother in Kenneth Branagh's Thor, Loki went full Big Bad in 2012's The Avengers. That film cemented the impish rogue as one of the shared universe's fan favorites, thanks to Hiddleston's ability to make him deliciously villainous yet charismatic and, most importantly, empathetic. The character's popularity is one of the reasons he's managed to avoid death many times.

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

The Loki we meet on the show is not the one who fought the Avengers in 2012 and evolved into an antihero in Thor: The Dark World and Thor: Ragnarok before meeting his demise at the hands of the mad titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) in 2018's Avengers: Infinity War. Instead, we'll be following a Loki from a branched timeline (a variant, if you will) after he stole the Tesseract following his thwarted New York invasion and escaped S.H.I.E.L.D. custody during the time heist featured in Avengers: Endgame. In other words, this Loki hasn't gone through any sort of redemption arc. He's still the charming yet petulant god who firmly believes he's destined to rule and has never gotten his due.

Premiering June 9, Loki begins with the Time Variance Authority — a bureaucratic organization tasked with safeguarding the proper flow of time — arresting the Loki Variant seen in Endgame because they want his help fixing all of the timeline problems he caused while on the run with the Tesseract. So there will be time travel, and a lot more of it than in Endgame. As Loki makes his way through his own procedural, he'll match wits with new characters including Owen Wilson's Agent Mobius, a brilliant TVA analyst, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's Judge Renslayer. The question in early episodes is whether Loki will help them or take over.

"One of the things Kevin Feige led on was, 'I think we should find a way of exploring the parts of Loki that are independent of his relationship with Thor,' or see him in a duality or in relationship with others, which I thought was very exciting," says Hiddleston, who also serves as an executive producer on the show. "So the Odinson saga, that trilogy of films, still has its integrity, and we don't have to reopen it and retell it."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

Hiddleston can't believe how long he and Loki have been connected. "I've been playing this character for 11 years," he says. "Which is the first time I have said that sentence, I realize, and it [blows] my mind. I don't know what percentage that is exactly of my 40 years of being alive, but it's substantial."

His time as Loki actually goes a bit further back, to 2009 — a year after Robert Downey Jr. big banged the MCU into existence with Iron Man — when he auditioned for Thor. It's no secret that Hiddleston initially went in for the role of the titular God of Thunder, but Feige and director Kenneth Branagh thought his natural charm and flexibility as an actor made him better suited for the movie's damaged antagonist. "Tom gave you an impression that he could be ready for anything, performance-wise," says Branagh, who had previously worked with him on a West End revival of Checkov's Ivanov and the BBC series Wallander. "Tom has a wild imagination, so does Loki. He's got a mischievous sense of humor and he was ready to play. It felt like he had a star personality, but he was a team player."

Hiddleston fully immersed himself in the character. Outside of studying Loki's history in the Marvel Comics, he also researched how Loki and the Trickster God archetype appeared across mythology and different cultures. "He understood that he was already in something special [and] it was a special character in a special part of that early moment in the life of the Marvel universe where [he] also needed to step up in other ways," says Branagh, who was impressed by the emotional depth Hiddleston brought to the part, especially when it came to how isolated Loki felt in the Asgardian royal family.

There was a lot riding on that first Thor feature. For one, no one knew if audiences would immediately latch onto a Shakespearean superhero movie partially set on an alien planet populated by the Norse Gods of legend. Second, it was integral to Feige's plans for the shared universe. Loki was supposed to be the main villain in The Avengers, which would not only mirror how Earth's mightiest heroes joined forces in 1963's Avengers #1 but also give Thor a believable reason for teaming up with Iron Man, Captain America (Chris Evans), and the rest of the capes. Feige first clued Hiddleston into those larger plans when the actor was in L.A. before Thor started shooting.

"I was like, 'Excuse me?' Because he was already three, four steps ahead," says Hiddleston. "That took me a few minutes to process, because I didn't quite realize how it just suddenly had a scope. And being cast as Loki, I realized, was a very significant moment for me in my life, and was going to remain. The creative journey was going to be so exciting."

Hiddleston relished the opportunity to go full villain in Avengers, like in the scene where Loki ordered a crowd to kneel before him outside a German opera house: "It's the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation," says the Machiavellian god. "The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life's joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel."

"I just knew that in the structure of that film, I had to lean into his role as a pure antagonist," Hiddleston recalls. "What I always found curious and complex about the way Loki is written in Avengers, is that his status as an antagonist comes from the same well of not belonging and being marginalized and isolated in the first Thor film. Loki now knows he has no place in Asgard."

Loki did find a place within the audience's hearts, though. Feige was "all in" on Hiddleston as his Loki from the beginning, but even he couldn't predict how much fans would love him. Feige recalls the reaction at the 2013 San Diego Comic-Con: "Did we know that after he was the villain in two movies, he would be bringing thousands of people to their feet in Hall H, in costume, chanting his name? No, that was above and beyond the plan that we were hoping for and dreaming of." It was a dream Feige first got an inkling of a year earlier during the Avengers press tour when a Russian fan slipped past security, snuck into Mark Ruffalo's car, and asked the Hulk actor to give Hiddleston a piece of fan art she created. "That was one of the early signs there was much more happening with this quote-unquote villain."

Despite that popularity, the plan was to kill Loki off in 2013's Thor: The Dark World, but the studio reversed course after test audiences refused to believe he actually died fighting the Dark Elves. Alas, he couldn't out-illusion death forever. After returning in Taika Waititi's colorful and idiosyncratic Thor: Ragnarok, Hiddleston's character perished for real in the opening moments of Infinity War. In typical Loki fashion, before Thanos crushed his windpipe, he delivered a defiant speech that indicated he'd finally made peace with the anger he felt toward his family.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

Credit: Charlie Gray for EW

When Hiddleston returned to film two scenes in Avengers: Endgame in 2017, he had no idea where Loki portaled off to after snatching the Tesseract. "Where'd he go? When does he go? How does he get there? These are all questions I remember asking on the day, and then not being given any answers," Hiddleston recalls. To be fair, it's likely the Powers That Be didn't necessarily have answers then. While Feige can't exactly recall when the writers' room for Endgame first devised Loki's escape sequence, he does know that setting up a future show wasn't the primary goal — because a Loki series wasn't on the horizon just yet.

"[That scene] was really more of a wrinkle so that one of the missions that the Avengers went on in Endgame could get screwed up and not go well, which is what required Cap and Tony to go further back in time to the '70s," says Feige. Soon after that, though, former Disney CEO Bob Iger approached Feige about producing content for the studio's forthcoming streaming service. "I think the notion that we had left this hanging loose end with Loki gave us the in for what a Loki series could be. So by the time [Endgame] came out, we did know where it was going."

As for Hiddleston, he didn't find out about the plans for a Loki show until spring 2018, a few weeks before Infinity War hit theaters. "I probably should not have been surprised, but I was," says the actor. "But only because Infinity War had felt so final."

Nevertheless, Hiddleston was excited about returning for his show. He was eager to explore Loki's powers, especially the shapeshifting, and what it meant that this disruptive figure still managed to find a seat beside the gods in mythology. "I love this idea [of] Loki's chaotic energy somehow being something we need. Even though, for all sorts of reasons, you don't know whether you can trust him. You don't know whether he's going to betray you. You don't why he's doing what he's doing," says Hiddleston. "If he's shapeshifting so often, does he even know who he is? And is he even interested in understanding who he is? Underneath all those masks, underneath the charm and the wit, which is kind of a defense anyway, does Loki have an authentic self? Is he introspective enough or brave enough to find out? I think all of those ideas are all in the series — ideas about identity, ideas about self-knowledge, self-acceptance, and the difficulty of it."

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

The thing that truly sold Hiddleston on the show was Marvel's decision to include the Time Variance Authority, a move he describes as "the best idea that anybody had pertaining to the series." Feige and Loki executive producer Stephen Broussard had hoped to find a place for the TVA — an organization that debuted in 1986's Thor #372 and has appeared in She-Hulk and Fantastic Four stories — in the MCU for years, but the right opportunity never presented itself until Loki came along. "Putting Loki into his own procedural series became the eureka moment for the show," says Feige.

The TVA's perspective on time and reality also tied into the themes that Waldron, Loki's head writer, was hoping to explore. "Loki is a character that's always reckoning with his own identity, and the TVA, by virtue of what they do, is uniquely suited to hold up a mirror to Loki and make him really confront who he is and who he was supposed to be," says Waldron. Hiddleston adds: "[That] was very exciting because in the other films, there was always something about Loki that was very controlled. He seemed to know exactly what the cards in his hand were and how he was going to play them…. And Loki versus the TVA is Loki out of control immediately, and in an environment in which he's completely behind the pace, out of his comfort zone, destabilized, and acting out."

To truly dig into who Loki is, the creative team had to learn from the man who knows him best: Hiddleston. "I got him to do a thing called Loki School when we first started," says director Kate Herron. "I asked him to basically talk through his 10 years of the MCU — from costumes to stunts, to emotionally how he felt in each movie. It was fantastic."

Hiddleston got something out of the Loki school, too. Owen Wilson both attended the class and interviewed Hiddleston afterward so that he could better understand Loki, as his character Mobius is supposed to be an expert on him. During their conversation, Wilson pointedly asked Hiddleston what he loved about playing the character.

"And I said, 'I think it's because he has so much range,'" says Hiddleston. "I remember saying this to him: 'On the 88 keys on the piano, he can play the twinkly light keys at the top. He can keep it witty and light, and he's the God of Mischief, but he can also go down to the other side and play the heavy keys. And he can play some really profound chords down there, which are about grief and betrayal and loss and heartbreak and jealousy and pride.'" Hiddleston recalls Wilson being moved by the description: "He said, 'I think I might say that in the show.' And it was such a brilliant insight for me into how open Owen is as an artist and a performer.'"

Owen Wilson as Mobius and Tom Hiddleston as Loki in 'Loki.'| Credit: Chuck Zlotnick/Marvel Studios

Everyone involved is particularly excited for audiences to see Hiddleston and Wilson's on-screen chemistry. "Mobius is not unlike Owen Wilson in that he's sort of nonplussed by the MCU," says Feige. "[Loki] is used to getting a reaction out of people, whether it's his brother or his father, or the other Avengers. He likes to be very flamboyant and theatrical. Mobius doesn't give him the reaction he's looking for. That leads to a very unique relationship that Loki's not used to."

As for the rest of the series, we know that Loki will be jumping around time and reality, but the creative team isn't keen on revealing when and where. "Every episode, we tried to take inspiration from different things," says Waldron, citing Blade Runner's noir aesthetic as one example.

"Part of the fun of the multiverse and playing with time is seeing other versions of characters, and other versions of the titular character in particular," says Feige, who also declined to confirm if Loki ties into Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and/or other upcoming projects.

Making Loki was especially meaningful to Hiddleston because they shot most of it during the pandemic, in late 2020. "It will remain one of the absolute most intense, most rewarding experiences of my life," he says. "It's a series about time, and the value of time, and what time is worth, and I suppose what the experience of being alive is worth. And I don't quite know yet, and maybe I don't have perspective on it, if all the thinking and the reflecting that we did during the lockdown ended up in the series. But in some way, it must have because everything we make is a snapshot of where we were in our lives at that time."

While it remains to be seen what the future holds for Loki beyond this initial season, Hiddleston isn't preparing to put the character to bed yet. "I'm open to everything," he says. "I have said goodbye to the character. I've said hello to the character. I said goodbye to the character [again]. I've learned not to make assumptions, I suppose. I'm just grateful that I'm still here, and there are still new roads to explore."

#Tom Hiddleston #Loki #Disney+#interview

519 notes · View notes

antiloreolympus · 3 years

Text

14 Anti LO Asks

1. To the one anon: good question - how is it that the mortals dont know who Persephone is / assume she is a minor goddess and therefore its okay to mess with her but the gods (or Olympians / underworld denizens) know exactly everything about her (despite her being there only every so often and only being 20ish) - enough to say shes "wearing her signature white color" during a murder trial.

Also the reason why Persephone is wearing white is because

A). RS wanted persephone to always be "dressed as a bride" (and have Hades dressed as a groom respectively) to show that their matching / is supposed to be a visual cue that their eventually gonna be together.

B). I believe this is RS way of saying that Persephone (despite murdering some mortals) is innocent because in purity culture White = innocence, virginity, youth etc. (Even though RS explicity ssid she wanted to go against purity culture morals shes very much leaning into them).

2. why are Psyche’s eyes yellow even in her human form? Is she sick??

3. honestly? LO is just gossisp girl at this point, espect even GG (at least in the first season) bothered to saturze the rich and was calling out how wealth and power makes them corrupt assholes. meanwhile LO is just GG season 2 and on of being like no no, the poor people are the evil people and the rich people are the oppressed ones! all while also fawning over their wealth and status and being way into grown men wanting to bang barely legal teens and claiming to be "feminist" somehow.

4. Tumblr is well-known for broken tag system. Check the post' tags before complaining that it's op's fault. How about you guys not tag greek mythology when posting about LO? LO is not one-shot or short fancomic. It's also definitely not considered actual greek mythology. LO is years long webcomic with huge fans. LO has its own tag. Tell your fellow fans to stop using the greek mythology tag.

5. I would argue nyx is the only woman with a unique in design in LO but thats only because she looks like a deformed chicken woman. why was my night mom disrespected this much 😭

6. So now that LO is back from break and I can finally read chapter 170 - Why oh Why do ALL the female characters Have to be defined by their male love interests??? (Or really just love interests in general).

I understand LO qualifies as the "romance" genre and there are certain stipulations or I guess themes or what have you that make it romance but for f*cks sake.

Psyche being worried about Eros loving the "fake" her I kinda get, but really? Thats your most pressing concern?? Hera is defined by her garbage marriage to Zeus - King of the gods (of which is why she is Queen of the gods). Hestia + Athena are now defined solely by their relationship to each other (not the TGOEM or their respective traits of being a goddess of the hearth + goddess of war, strategy etc etc).

Aphrodite is defined by giving Persephone "relationship" advice (e.g: telling her to curb stomp Minthe because "nymphs dont take things from gods" - doubly implying that people are things to own) And by her jealousy of Persephone in the first place because Hades made a comment about how he thought Persephone was prettier than her. And also because of her "house of debauchery" (Artemis' words) - and relationship with Ares.

Persephone is defined both by Apollo raping her and by her fated future status as Queen of the underworld (so her relationship with Hades). Hell, even the minor characters such as nymphs are defined by this relationship status / standard. Minthe is defined by her mean spirited personality yes, but Also because of her abusive relationship with Hades prior to the introduction of Persephone. Psyche is defined by her relationship woes with Eros. Daphne is defined by her relationship with Thanatos (and because shes a flower nymph) but also mostly because she looks like Persephone.

Rhea is defined by her marriage / relationship to Kronos (lets ignore the whole "fertility goddess power" plot for a second). Even Aetna is defined by Haphestus creating her! Is there not a single character (especially female) is isnt defined by their romantic love interest???Sorry. Maybe I'm overthinking this, but thats definitely how ot comes off as of late, in regard to the latest chapters.

Okay, same anon as earlier - I take it back somewhat - we have Artemis and Hecate that are not defined by their romantic relationships - but rather their lack of one.

However the way they are shown - it still comes off as a standard - "Artemis is stingy / a stick in the mud" because shes not romantically involved and is "barbaric" (according to Hera). And Hecate is still somewhat defined by her being Hades' employee (and cheerleader for him and Persephone to be together).

So technically yes, we have at least 2 characters that are not defined by their romantic interests / relationships, but they are still held to the standard of their "un-ladylike / undesirable" because their not romantically involved.

(I guess I should count Demeter, but only because shes more defined by just being "Persephone's overbearing mom" )

7. i think whats also kinda weird about this trial is like?? persephone is obvs framed as not liking the attention (bc duh) but she didnt like the previous press either, she wanted to be private, but wouldnt being with hades force her to be in the spotlight that makes her uncomfortable? also the citizens of the underworld already dislike hades, why would they want a uncontrollable felon as their queen, even if she found innocent? idk the whole thing just makes the endgame less plausible, tbh.

8. love that rachel was able to find a random deity name to name her random nymph the greek word for "beans" meanwhile apparently cant google actual greek names for even one off characters? like andrew, ellen, george, alexis, damian, luke, phoebe, sophia, and so any other english names are also greek, but she cant even bother with that? what exactly is her "research" if she cant even bother to spend 30 seconds googling greek names? at this point LO seems determined to be as un-Greek as possible.

9. wait so everyone in LO went from having no idea who persephone was, to her only showing up on ONE magazine cover, to now being the most well known person with a signature color? all in the span of two weeks with no genuine public outings? how does that make sense? also white isnt even her signature color if 90%+ the female cast and even a lot of the men ((including ZEUS) all wear it too.

10. the fact the courthouse WASNT the areopagus, aka the place in greece where they say the first ever trial ever happened and where the court system was invented, is just another point of rachel talking out her ass about being "respectful" or "researched" on greece and their mythology. its literally one of the most famous mythology spots ever with some fantastic stories to it and she's just like "nah! boring rectangle will do!" like why even both with mythology then if its this devoid of it?

11. Anons are saying Hades in the FS chapter is leaning down and talking to Persy like a child. Say it aint true.

(I wanna see. I thought RS was finally giving Persy adult proportions). 😨

12. So wait, hold up. I kinda get where RS is coming from with the law school in the underworld (because Hades is supposed to be a kinda Judge, jury, executioner situation in the afterlife when it comes to mortals and their "punishments" and whatnot). However, is RS stating that the ONLY law school / courthouse exists in the underworld? If so, why? Why wouldn't Athena be there then. She's a goddess of strategy and justice (among other things).

Also is RS really implying that Hades owns not only the banks and underworld but the law too? She really wants Hades to be a Gary Sue along side her Mary Sue - Hades controls everything that matters and since its his realm and blah blah blah rules, Zeus, king of the gods cant do anything about it.

(Which is dumb. Because you would think that because Persephone committed the crime in the mortal realm / on, or near Olympus that therefore she would be brought back there to dole out justice under Zeus jurisdiction because she committed the crime in His Realm).

13. FP Spoiler ahead:

Why on earth couldn't the reporters have Greek names? There is so much wrong and bad with this story, yet this irks me so much. It is Brenda all over again.

14. i dont really get the point of the trial plotline, tbh. even persephone says she should be punished and held accountable, but hades is framed in the right for trying to go against that and weasel her out of it. so?? plus zeus has legit reason to punish them? persephone is a danger to others, demeter and hermes both committed treason to cover it up, and hades was harboring a fugitive of the law and is now trying to force the system to let her go. how is zeus in the wrong for this?

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #lo critical

32 notes · View notes

marvelvsmarvel · 3 years

Text

MCU Captain Britain Speculation

Captain Carter - Peggy Carter

Many fans have caught on to the slight detail that What If Episode 1 dubbed thee Peggy Carter as Captain Carter instead of say Captain America or Captain Britain. While it seemed obvious that she wouldn’t be Captain America because she is British the fact that she is working with/for the US military would not have been too far off considering how quickly they turned and embraced her following her success in the field. However the Captain Britain moniker might have made perfect sense to most fans given that she is British and the union jack suit and shield ensemble. In all honesty she should have been... unless that title were already taken. We know because of Avengers Endgame that a Braddock exists in the MCU year 1970 and is working with/for SHIELD. What is unclear is if this Braddock is either of the twins Brian or Betsy and/or Captain Britain at this point. Regardless we can confirm that the Braddock family exists in the MCU and may be introduced in the future one way or another. Thankfully the showrunners confirmed in an interview that naming her Captain Carter and not Captain Britain while even in an alternate timeline was intentional. Let’s speculate why.

Captain Britain - Brian Braddock

Comics inspired by Captain America it was Captain Britain who was to be celebrated and sold to our national cousins across the pond. Rooted in Marvel-Arthurian mythology this hero obtains his powers through magical relics introduced by him by the wizard Merlin who allows him to choose either the Amulet of Right or Sword of Might (not to be confused with Excalibur the legendary sword of King Arthur). Even if Captain Britain does not currently exist in the Captain Carter timeline perhaps the legend of him as King Arthur does and as such the governments might be holding out on giving Peggy that namesake in the hope and respect of Britain’s true protector. By extension the MCU is not new to retconning and blending comic concepts. In introducing Captain Britain I can see them changing the Sword of Might into Excalibur and then using that as the powerful sword of one Black Knight as opposed to his Ebony Blade. Black Knight is set to debut in the Eternals portrayed by Game of Thrones actor Kit Harington. As the MCU goes into the multiverse as What If and Loki already have the Captain Britain persona itself is a multidimensional character and part of a greater Captain Britain Corps. He could be a worthwhile addition to the MCU and why naming Peggy that could verily cause confusion.

Captain Britain - Betsy Braddock

Speaking of confusion as fate would have it the What If series comes after Marvel Studios has reclaimed the rights of the X-Men and their introduction into the MCU while yet to be announced is undoubtedly imminent. A peculiar character in Betsy Braddock once possessed the form of telepathic/asian assassin Psylocke Kwannon. [Comic Spoilers] Within the current Jonathan Hickman run these two are separated back into their individual selves leaving Betsy still with psychic ability but without Kwannon’s mastery or a moniker of her own. Through the X of Swords event Betsy was revealed to take on her brother’s role of Captain Britain leading the new Excalibur team (not related to the sword). If we look at Captain Marvel in the MCU as an example they ignored the comic canon of the original Captain Mar-Vell. While I do not think the MCU would sidestep Brian and go straight to Betsy I also would not bet against it especially as many believe that Hickman’s House of X version of mutants will be the way they would be introduced in the MCU.

45 notes · View notes

kingandfireheart · 3 years

Text

What stories are left in ACOTAR: Lucien edition

Lucien wears many hats in the ACOTAR world. This post goes through his roles and how his story within those roles is unfinished. A huge part of Lucien’s story will be his mental health and dealing with trauma of Beron (physical and emotional abuse), Jesminda (grief, guilt), UTM (eye trauma, physical and emotional abuse, guilt over Feyre), Ianthe (sexual assault), and Tamlin (guilt, physical and emotional abuse).

When Feyre slips into his mind in ACOMAF, we see that Lucien’s mind is deeply sad and guilt-ridden. We can guess that a lot of it has to do with UTM and Jesminda, but we’re never given any true insight into Lucien’s psyche. We know he blames himself for what happened to Jesminda, we know he recognizes he was complicit in Feyre’s falling apart after UTM, he is basically shaking around Ianthe, but we don’t see him deal with any of his feeling about anything that has occurred in his life.

High Lord’s Son: Lucien hasn’t had to play this role for a long time. When he was in the Autumn Court, he trained and studied, and got to know the people. He enjoyed his life, and made friends in other courts, and he left because of Jesminda. It’s possible that Lucien enter this role again as Helion’s son and sole heir.

Unresolved Eris tension “You know nothing of what happened that day. Nothing” What are the larger forces in the Autumn Court? Why was Jesminda killed? Why did Beron want to kill Lucien? It has to be more than the fact that Lucien loved someone who was below their status. Did Beron finally have enough with Helion?

Emissary: Lucien plays an Emissary and Courtier for a lot of reasons. He’s quick on his feet - he’s clever, and witty, and charming and he can read people well. He’s friends with people in a lot of courts. He navigates each of these roles, all while keeping calm (especially with Tamlin and Eris). Lucien is deeply loyal to Tamlin, even though that loyalty is not well received. He also seems to be loyal to Feyre, Jurian, and Vassa because of his friendships. It’s precisely why Lucien is key to the Night Court’s relationships across Prythian.

Elain’s Mate: Lucien hasn’t been given the opportunity to play this role to his fullest ability. He’s relatively withdrawn after ACOTAR, and we rarely his humor or charm again. Still, Lucien makes an effort to bring Elain presents, and to be around generally.

Stateless: Lucien is lost in a lot of ways - Mor points this out in ACOFAS, that Lucien needs to decide who he needs to be and where he needs to be. I think he’ll reach that inner peace and resolve that conflict with whoever his endgame is. Deciding who he is between Spring/Autumn/Day/Humans, will be a huge part of his arc. Lucien needs to find where he fits, where he can establish a permanent base. This is why the Home trope would likely fit Lucien the best.

Night Court: Things between Lucien and Feyre are tense at the end of ACOFAS. Feyre doesn’t support his Band of Exiles, and Lucien doesn’t want her pity or charity. We see Lucien go to the House of Wind on Feyre’s recommendation. Lucien is invited the Inner Circle’s private Solstice Dinner. He seems to have tentative friendships with Cassian and Nesta. The only other non-IC/family person invited is Varien. Lucien refused the invitation the last year, opting to spend it with Tamlin. What changed?

Spring Court: Lucien is supposed to take up residence in the spring court to deal with Tamlin, but we never get any indication that he has gone. All we know that Tamlin is staying in his beast form and did not react well to the Feysand baby news. Apparently Lucien is trying to get Tamlin back to normal, but again: we don’t see any evidence of that progress yet.

Day Court: Helion (and how does he not know?) - Lucien has to know he isn’t like his brothers. He used his spell-cleaving powers in Hybern, and his skin is noticeably darker than his families. I think Lucien knows, or at least suspects he has Day Court ancestry, but we haven’t seen him interact with anyone to indicate this is true. Does Lucien want to be heir to this court? What is his opinion of Helion? Did they interact at Starfall?

Autumn Court. Feyre notes that Lucien seems to belong in the forests of the Autumn court, yet Lucien hadn’t been there for centuries. He clearly won’t be high lord (because he’s not Beron’s son, and there are still 4 more brothers, but it would be nice to see him come to terms with his parentage and roots) (See my What the fuck is happening in the Autumn Court series Part 1 and Part 2 for more)

The Band of Exiles - Lucien has found friendship with Jurian and Vassa. We don’t really see this dynamic play out in ACOSF, just the fact that it exists, and Lucien refers to the tension between Jurian and Vassa at Solstice. He seems to be a mediator of sorts between the two humans since they have different approaches to anything. He also seems to be fiercely protective over Vassa (which is in line with his loyalty thing).

#acotar #lucien vanserra #elucien #autumn court #spring court #vassa #day court #the band of exiles #band of exiles #eris vanserra #kp analysis #acotar series #mtp

95 notes · View notes

bangtansbun · 4 years

Text

Endgame || Say Anything

pairing: jeon jeongguk x f. reader

genre: slight angst, fluff

word count: 2,308

warnings: heated make out sesh in school, nothing graphic at all because they’re high schoolers still here

summary: you grew up with him all your life, even fell in love with him in high school, but then that all came crashing down and it’s been years since you’ve seen each other. you feel like you’ve got most of your life figured out now, but that’s all about to change.

a/n: listen to the song dress by taylor swift along with this chapter. also i’m so sorry this is over a day late and also if it feels all over the place. it’s been a weird couple of days for me and some rough stuff happened so it took a little longer than i thought. i hope you guys like it and are happy with the ending :))

You had walked up to the soccer field. Saw him talking to the girl, Jae-In. Your heart immediately sunk. It’s not like you had never seen him talking to other girls before, especially in the 16 years you had known each other. This was different though.

You were so excited he had asked you to come to his rescue of a disaster practice. Your feelings soaring at the idea that all he wanted to do in that moment was see you instead of deal with the two teams on the field. Only you were met with him chatting and smiling at the other girl. Her hand was even grazing his elbow as she talked to him.

It really wasn’t fair for you to be jealous. He wasn’t yours. He’s your best friend, not your boyfriend (as much as you wished he was). Plus, in the end, he was still here with you. In a restaurant, chowing down on some ramen after having told you that he was hoping you’d interrupt his conversation with her. You should be happy about this! That’s what your brain said anyway, but you still couldn’t get the image of him and her standing there out of your head.

This couldn’t keep going on. You had to figure out something. A way to deal with your feelings and still remain friends with him. As much as you hated to admit it, you’d probably have to go to Jin about this one. He was the most annoying big brother on the planet, but he knows more about dating and stuff than you do and he knows Guk.

So, you continue to sit across from your best friend, smiling, laughing, and carrying conversation as if a war wasn’t happening inside of you. One that half begged for you to just confess to him how you feel and the other half urging you to stay quiet and not risk losing your one true friend.

Guk is none the wiser. I mean, he knew something was going on with you because of your mood from the time he met you at your car to the food hitting the table. He really wasn’t sure what to make of your downcast mood, just knew he wanted to get some food in you and make you smile over dinner.

He hated seeing you like this and it just reminded him that you were going through something that you weren’t telling him about yet. He hoped you’d open up to him soon, but he also didn’t want to push you. You guys were getting back to normal again and he didn’t dare risk that.

The two of you were just finishing up your food and you were laughing at the goofy voices he was putting on while telling you a story from his day. That’s when it really hits him. He’s sure he’s never felt his love for you as strongly has he did in that moment.

Jeongguk has always loved you, that love changing and morphing as the two of you grew up. He realized his feelings were starting to change sometime last year. Realized his love wasn’t just of the friend variety anymore, but that he was truly in love with you.

It hit him because he was able to make you laugh when you’d been having a bad day (or really a bad couple of weeks). He always wanted to be able to make you laugh and smile. The sound of you giggling like the most beautiful melody ringing through his ears. He always wanted to be the one responsible for that sound.

He’s smiling at you from across the table, stars in his eyes and cute bunny teeth digging into his bottom lip. He looks like he’s contemplating something, but just as you’re about to inquire he speaks. “You ready to get out of here?” he asks with a nod of his head toward the door. “Yeah, you wanna come over for a bit?” you ask him, not wanting the evening with him to end yet. “Sure, I’ll even help you go into that woodland mansion you found last week.” That makes you smile, happy that he even remembered something so trivial.

The two of you make your way back to your house. The drive back was comfortable. The two of you singing along to the songs on the radio and joking with each other.

You both spend the rest of the night basking in the wonderful friendship you share. You guys talk about your week, him chatting about how soccer has been and you talking about your rising grades thanks to your study sessions. The night ending with you finally having conquered the woodland mansion in your minecraft world, thanks to him, and sweet good nights said by the front door.

But even with all the happiness you felt this evening, there was a knot forming in your stomach. You had to tell him. You couldn’t carry on like this as if you weren’t completely in love with him. The problem is you just don’t know how. How does one confess to their best friend of nearly 16 years that you’re in love with them and can’t bear the thought of them with anyone else?

You were definitely going to have to text your brother in the morning. Figure out the best way to tell Jeongguk because you felt like the feelings would burst out of you at any second and you wanted to do this right.

To Jin:

[8:31am] MAYDAY MAYDAY!!! Jin please be awake because i’m going to have an emotional meltdown if you don’t

[8:33am] i am fREAKING OUT HERE!!!

[8:34am] HELP

From Jin:

[8:36am] oh my god, woman. what do you need from me at this god forsaken hour?

To Jin:

[8:37am] i need to confess to guk

[8:38am] but i don’t know how?? like how do i do this without absolutely ruining everything?? please help me, jin :((

From Jin:

[8:40am] god the two of you are so oblivious. just tell him, yn. I don’t think you really need to worry about his reaction.

To Jin:

[8:41am] just come out and say it?? out of nowhere???? there’s no way that’ll end well.

From jin:

[8:44am] trust me, yn. you may not be aware of it, but it seems clear as day to me that he feels the same way. he’s probably just as freaked out about this as you, so I’m sure if you confessed everything will fall into place.

To Jin:

[8:45am] i really hope you’re right because i’m about to walk into school and just do it before class. i can’t hold it in anymore, it’s eating away at me.

From Jin:

[8:46am] i’m sure it’ll go well, but good luck. text me when you two love birds have made things official ;)

With the vote of confidence from your brother, you head on down the hallway to where you know Guk’s locker is located. You spot him down the hall and begin to make your way towards him, a smile starting to creep on to your face just from the sight of him, but your heart is about to break through your chest. Butterflies swarming inside your stomach. It’ll all be okay, you tell yourself.

You’re just 100 feet away from him when you’re stopped by someone grabbing your elbow to get your attention. “Yn! Hey, could I ask you something?” It’s Yunho, and even though you used to have a massive crush on him, you couldn’t be more annoyed by his existence than you are right now. You quickly look between him and Guk, trying to weigh your options. Jeongguk is still busy at his locker so you turn back to Yunho hoping he’ll be quick. “Uh, yeah, I just have somewhere to be soon, but what’s up?”

While Yunho talks to you harmlessly about possibly starting a tutoring/study group two days a week in the afternoon with other students, Jeongguk looks over and sees you talking to him. A wave of jealousy coming over him just like it had the other day when you decided to study with Yunho instead of him. He knows you said you don’t have a crush on him anymore, but he can’t help the way his heart drops into his stomach seeing you talk to him.

Jeongguk’s never been the most confident or outgoing person, but in that moment he decides to take a risk. He’s going to tell you and he’s going to tell you now. This could ruin everything, but he doesn’t want to regret not telling you and never getting to know whether you felt the same way back.

You’re just saying your goodbyes to Yunho when Guk grabs you by the arm and pulls you into an empty classroom. “Hey, Guk! W-what are you doing? I was just about to come talk to you,” you say to him, taken aback by his abruptness. “Yn, I really need to tell you something,” he feels bile trying to reach his throat as he possibly makes the best decision or the worst mistake of his life. “Oh, um, I needed to talk to y-” he cuts you off. “Please, just let me get this out before we’re both late to class,” he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. His long eyelashes dusting his cheekbones. You feel a little breathless looking at him like this, but you’re also worried about what he has to tell you. He finally looks back up at you, “I like you and not, like, in a friend way. I think I may even be in love with you, and before you just completely reject me let me just say that I understand if you don’t feel the same way. I wasn’t even sure if I should tell you, but I just couldn’t take keeping this from you anymore. I needed to tell you and on the off chance that you do feel the same way, I’d really like to take you on a date this weekend.” He feels like he’s going to faint from having rushed all of that out.

You feel like you’re in a dream. There’s no way that this is happening. “Please, say something,” that’s when you realize that you’d been staring at him for a while, mouth hanging open. You shake your head lightly to pull yourself from your trance. “Oh! Uh, that’s actually what I was going to tell you. I do feel the same way and I’ve been freaking out about it for the past month. That’s why I had distanced myself from you for a bit, I didn’t know what to do.” That’s when a huge smile takes over his face. A breath is let out and he runs his hand through his hair. “Fuck, you don’t know how relieved I am. I thought I was going to destroy our friendship by doing this.” You laugh at this because you had felt the same way.

He’s looking at you now the same way he had looked at you last night, stars twinkling in his eyes, and there’s that same tension lingering in the air from the night you had attacked his ribs in your room. Clearly both of you feel the shift in the atmosphere because before you know it, he’s leaning in to kiss you. His pillowy lips slotting between your own and you swear the world stops around you. He’s got his hand on the back of your neck now trying to deepen the kiss. You both know the bell is about to ring, signaling your late arrivals to class, but you don’t care. The only thing that matters to you right now is the way he tastes and the way he’s holding you while he kisses you, like he’s afraid you’ll evaporate into thin air.

It’s kind of insane to you, how right this all feels. You’re best friends and this could have felt extremely weird, but instead it feels like the most right thing you’ve ever done.

Jeongguk must feel the same way too because instead of coming up for air and getting on your way to class, he’s moving you toward the door. Your back is up against it now and he uses his free hand to close the blinds on the window of the door. All the while his lips never leave yours. You’re all hot breath, panting, and frantic hands. Your mind is becoming so foggy. the only thing running through your mind is Jeongguk, Jeongguk, Jeongguk. Your new personal mantra.

His hand is running through the end strands of your hair and his tongue is begging for entrance into your mouth just as the second bell rings. You both jump apart, realizing you’d gotten lost in each other and were now going to be late for class. “We better get going,” he drawls out, voice slowed from having been so entranced by you. You nod your head, a shy grin appearing at the thought of what just happened.

Even though you’d both just confessed to each other, you’re still surprised when he takes your hand as the two of you make your way out of the empty classroom and to your respective classes. “So, this saturday?” he asks you, excitement written all over his face. His wide doe eyes holding expectancy. “Yes, I’d love to,” He smiles brightly at you, “okay, I’ll plan everything.” You start to walk backwards away from him slowly in the direction of your class, “you know where I live.” He laughs at this and winks at you, which in turn makes you laugh because he’s horrible at winking. With that, the two of you rush to your classes, lame excuses sitting on the tips of your tongues as you enter and your teachers question you.

taglist: @ggukkieland @hecticwonderer @kookiepout @koochiekoo @secretlycrazyhummingbird @imluckybitches @mybiasforsure @madaboutjeon @thequeen-kat @betysotelo18 @scentedsope @apollukee @nightapple4jk

#jeon jungkook #jungkook #bts #bts jungkook #jeon jeongkook #jeongguk #jungkook x reader #jungkook fluff #jungkook angst #jungkook fic #jungkook social media au #bts x reader #bts fluff #bts angst #bts social media au #bts fic #fluff #endgame sm au

188 notes · View notes

lazarus-lazuli · 3 years

Note

What are your opinions on people in The Magicians fandom being gatekeepy about Quentin’s relationships with Alice and Eliot. From the beginning Alice and Quentin were made for each other and so were Quentin and Eliot! Alice and Quentin had an intense relationship, they loved each other so much, and even in times they weren’t getting along the love never died. Quentin sacrificed so much to bring Alice back even though he knew it would damage their relationship! Same thing with Eliot and Quentin! From the beginning Eliot was such a supportive friend to Quentin while he was with Alice. And when Q and Alice broke up his relationship with Eliot started to blossom and they had a beautiful life (that we didn’t get to see unfortunately) together. Quentin spent an entire season trying to bring Eliot out of that possession! It’s obvious that Quentin was in love with Alice and was in love with Eliot too! I’m sick of people trying to pretend like Quentin was only in love with Alice or he he was only in love with Eliot. Bisexual men exist for fucks sake! What do you think?

I don’t think Alice was in love with Eliot per se (show canon wise), but I think they have a very interesting dynamic and it’s pretty garbage that it wasn’t explored more outside of that one episode in season 5 and a few interactions in season 1. The fact they both are in love Quentin is a good jumping off point but they never went much further than “Yep, we both love him, that much is true”. They could have been great friends but nope, we’re not allowed to eat good food in this house. Not after 4x10 aired, anyway (save for 5x05 and 5x06; I will die on my sword for those episodes).

I think both relationships got the short end of the stick in regards to writing (in fact most of the relationships on The Magicians don’t really get a chance to flourish; the ones they established early on ended up crashing and burning and then the ones they established later on that were frankly really strange writing decisions without much thought/development that ended up being endgame... and I do say this despite my soft spot for Margosh). With Eliot it’s obviously way more egregious because he’s a gay character that never got a proper love story; even the one that was established with Quentin was taken out by the knees just when the writers confirmed that there were mutual feelings there. It was never a matter of queerbaiting, it was a matter of they WERE queer and they WERE in love and the writers decided to fucking take the plotline out back and shoot it anyway because they just HAD to kill the main white male lead despite the fact he was bisexual and mentally ill. If Jason wanted to leave/his contract was up and he didn’t renew it then whatever, his prerogative, but the writers could have done literally anything else to sideline Quentin. At the very least, they could have given him and Eliot some closure. But NOPE straight to Superhell for gay crimes. That’s how they decided to end his nearly completed arc.

However, I feel like his relationship with Alice got treated with the about the same amount of respect despite it being a “Straight” ship. I think that’s why people are pretty shit about it (that and some people are just highkey misogynistic and hate female characters, especially ones that “get in the way” of mlm ships); they just kind of dropped the ball and made it almost uncomfortable to watch.

Their relationship was not nearly as healthy as the one between him and Eliot; in fact I would argue it was pretty toxic. But they still loved each other and still fought hard for each other, even to each others detriment (namely how pissed Alice was when Quentin made her human again). I have no idea what the writers were going for when towards the end they threw him and Alice back together. Seriously, in my opinion they should have just been friends and supported each other because they do love each other very much, they just weren’t in the right place in their lives to work as a couple unfortunately. And honestly that would have been much more realistic than Alice running back into Quentin’s arms and Quentin taking her back. It’s like she wasn’t allowed to be an independent character outside of her relationship with him (but that’s a whole other discourse and I have enough to say about this aspect of it alone).

Then to add insult to injury he didn’t even so much as LOOK at Eliot when they brought him back, which makes absolutely NO sense considering how for the whole season up to that point he stood up to a God-powered entity that could have snapped his neck on a whim on behalf of the man he loved. Then the writers were like “lol cool, anyway we’re killing Quentin so he doesn’t get to have any meaningful relationships or even interactions with his love interests or even his best friends today” and threw it all out the window. Like, you wanna talk BAD finales...

Sometimes I wish I was a fly on the wall in the writers’ room while they were working this shit out because honestly what level of brain rot do you need to have to take all these interesting characters and relationships and do the worst things possible to them? It’s like they WANTED everyone to ragequit the show. Long story short the more I think about the way certain relationships on the show are written the more I wanna slam my head through drywall. It was so good in so many ways but then they completely bungled within the span of like THREE EPISODES!

All that being said, I don’t blame some people for being weird and gatekeepy about certain ships because of the end of season four. However, I feel like everyone has a good dynamic (or at least a dynamic that was good at one point or another) and people have the right to ship who they want. SO much setup with so little payoff; if people wanna fix it via fanfiction or just straight up ship it anyway they’re allowed to. Like you said, Quentin is bisexual and he loves both Eliot and Alice; one love does not invalidate the other regardless of personal opinions on which should have been endgame/how well the respective relationships were handled writing wise.

PS while I personally prefer Marqueliot but Alice/Quentin/Eliot is valid too.

#this is such a long rant i'm sorry lol #the magicians #queliot #qualice #Anonymous

40 notes · View notes

lazyliars · 3 years

Text

I FINISHED DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2

Very fun. I was genuinely struggling with the last boss, played it up to 1 AM last night, was about to give up and go to bed, and then...

I don't know what happened, but something clicked in my brain? Suddenly I was perfectly dodging attacks and had the pattern LOCKED down?? I was having such a miserable time right until then. Then out of nowhere I started seeing the freaking code and owned it.

Spoiler-laden thoughts under the cut.

THAT ENDING.

So Kris opened a dark fountain in their house, right? That's what happened?

Setting aside the obvious "What the hell does it mean for a fountain to exist in the Light world" question, does that imply that they're the Knight? Probably not, right, because the King and The Queen would have recognized them...

I'm still on my crack theory that Papyrus is the knight. Think about it! He just arrived to town, and this business with the dark fountains only started recently iirc? And in UT, Papyrus wants to join the royal guard... in other words, a knight.

And considering the Lightners that have entered the Dark World so far seem to be ones facing serious emotional issues (Susie feeling like she'll always be "the bad guy", Noelle's difficulties speaking up for herself and dealing with her family life crumbling, Berdly's superiority/inferiority stemming from skewed self-perception, the myriad things going on with Kris...)

Papyrus just moved to a new place, and doesn't seem to want to leave the house. It's not hard to imagine a person struggling with the loneliness that comes from a situation like that.

The allure of being a powerful, influential figure in the Dark World would make sense.

That ties Sans into this weirdness, which in turn gets us a little bit closer to whatever the hell Gaster has to do with everything.

...or maybe not.

Theories aside, I really loved the cyber-city as a setting. I was skeptical at first because I usually dislike "electric" themed worlds, just, aesthetics wise, but they knocked it out of the park. I especially liked the glitchy garbage heap part.

The enemies were cool and adorable, the Werewires as a standout were creepy and awesome. Also liked the mechanics of the Butlers.

For characters? I liked the Susie and Noelle-budding romance, it was cute. The ferris wheel was such a good sequence.

I liked Noelle in general. Not too many specifics, I just liked the way they handled her.

AND BERDLY. Goddamn it. As soon as I saw him in the dark world, I fucking KNEW he would be my favorite by the end of the chapter because Toby Fox does not do things half-assed and I'm a sucker for character development. But Yeah no, I really, really liked Berdly's arc.

This wasn't as much of a Susie-heavy chapter as the last, but the developments she did have were nice. Her excitement at seeing Lancer was so sweet! And at the ending, I took her to the bunker, where two other kids were there, and one off-handedly said something mean about Kris and she stepped in and scared them off and then checked on Kris like... 🥺

And Ralsei. Ralsei... Gonna be honest, I was super sus of him at the start of the chapter, and still kinda am, but in a different way now. He DEFINITELY knows more than he's letting on, but whereas at the start of the chapter I was getting almost... idk, smug vibes? Now I feel pretty confident that he's more in the vein of "doing what he thinks is best" type beat. Still sus, and I still wonder what he talks to Kris about when the player's perspective shifts to Susie in both chapters... but I don't think he's a villain-in-disguise. At least, not intentionally.

There's still a lot of mysteries surrounding him that might point to something more sinister, but... yeah, idk. I think part of my initial hesitance was because I was still adjusting to his goat-face after having replayed ch. 1 with the covered bird-ish face.

Also the Swan-boat scene was soooooooooooo cute.

The big plot still remains obscured, but what with "the roaring" being name-dropped, we have some sort of endgame we could potentially ascribe to the Knight, but no motivations to couple with it yet...

I really hope in chapter 3 we get to see them. Maybe not like, ACTUALLY see them, but hear them speak, get a feel for their voice and what they're like...

ANYWAYS. tldr, Deltarune ch. 2 was very good, just as good as ch. 1 in my opinion. Now, the waiting game begins for chapter 3.

OH. Also, I am absolutely OBSESSED with the Snowgrave route. Hooooooly shit. Just... wow. I need to watch a full playthrough before I make any judgements about what it says for the story, but what I've seen so far...

It seems like a deadly reminder that the events of the Dark World DO have consequences for the Light World. It may feel like fantasy, but it can easily twist out into reality, in drastic and horrifying ways.

#deltarune #deltarune chapter 2 #deltarune spoilers

16 notes · View notes

jumpingjaxx13 · 3 years

Note

📚 📖 📓📕📒📔📘📗📙

Lol

The joke's on you. I have a ton of these and I'm about to make it everyone's problem.

Put "📓" into my inbox and I'll explain the plot of a fanfiction that I haven't written but daydream about.

(I'm gonna cheat a little. The ones with * are ones that I have started writing, but are incomplete/have been WIPs for a long time/nowhere close to being done. I feel like that counts just because of the amount of daydreaming/not writing that goes into them lol)

(Also, if there is any that someone is particularly interested in reading once it's finished, just leave a reply and I'll reach out with a link once it's published!)

This is going to be a long post, so I'll put the answer under a read more!

📚 *

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Ships: ShigaDabi (primary), TodoDeku (background, maybe)

An AU where Tenko Shimura was found by Inko Midoriya instead of AFO and raised as Izuku's brother. He winds up becoming Hawks's secretary, meets All Might and learns about his grandmother, and gets to proudly watch his brother follow his dreams. Things start to change when he meets a strange man outside of a cafe and falls for him. How was he supposed to know that Dabi was a villain!? From there, Tenko has to do a lot of self reflection and decide what he wants to do after learning about his boyfriend's identity, especially when he found out that his boss had known all along. Does he chase after Dabi? Join him? Turn him in? I'm not 100% sure how I want to end this, but I am tempted for it to lead to the "birth" of Tomura. Any suggestions would be welcome!

📖*

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Ships: N/A, maybe background Duo Holders?

Essentially an AFO origin story focusing on his relationship with Yoichi over the course of his descent. I take a few snapshots of the brothers together, starting as teens and going through to his death, and showing how their regard for each other changed. It finally ends with AFO speaking to Yoichi's grave years later. I'm a fan of DFO, so I'm going to be using the name Hisashi for him, but if/when his canon name comes out, I'll be changing it to match!

📓

Fandom: Death Note

Ships: LawLight (primary), MattMello (secondary)

An AU where Roger Ruvie dies early on in the investigation and, with the entire world under suspicion, L can't afford to replace him. Instead, he sends the majority of the kids off to other houses that Watari had built, save for his top three successors. Near, Mello, and Matt all move into the Task Force HQ and, despite L's "best efforts" to prevent it (read: he's totally just pretending to stop them to please the others), they continually find themselves thrown in the middle of the investigation. I'm also not 100% certain how I want this to end, but I do know that it's going to be endgame L/Light and Matt/Mello.

📕*

Fandom: Bungo Stray Dogs

Ships: RanPoe (past), ODazai (past, platonic or romantic), SteinCraft (past, background)

A sequel to Unstoppable Force. I've had a few people express interest in the culprit, so I've decided to write up an optional sequal that explains it. I debated not doing it, but I know that a lot of people enjoy closure, so I thought it would be fun! I invented a new villain and a new ability and I found an excuse to drag some Guild members into it as well. Essentially, Ranpo reopens the case after the funeral and uses the strange behavior of Steinbeck to corner and catch the elusive ability user. I'm personally proud of the ability I created, so I'm going to keep it a secret for now.

📒*

Fandom: Toilet Bound Hanako-Kun

Ships: TeruKane (primary)

This one is actually based on a post that has since been deleted proposing the idea of a soulmate AU where the name of your soulmate is written on the inside of your book in the Four O'clock Library. I shook it up a bit and added the idea that if you read your soulmate's name, people will begin to forget they exist and you have to confess your love to them within a week or they will disappear from existence entirely. Akane didn't think it would be a problem to go and confirm his soulmate-- it's obviously Aoi-- only to discover a very different name written in his book. Knowing his time limit, he struggles to find a loophole in the curse that would help him avoid confessing a love he doesn't feel. In the meantime, people are slowly starting to forget who Teru Minamoto is, with Akane being the only one to remember, forcing them to spend even more time together. This one is going to have a happy ending, but it's going to be a really close call!

📔

Fandom: Robihachi

Ships: Robby/Hatchi (primary)

This is a sequel to Lovely that I've been playing around with. Someone expressed that they wanted to see how Robby's father would react to their situation and that got me thinking about it. In a misguided gesture of good faith, Hatchi's parents invite Robby's family up to the moon to help celebrate either his birthday or their first anniversary. Much to Robby's surprise, they agree to come, leaving him with an awkward mess of judgement to deal with until they leave. I still haven't decided how this will end, but I know it's going to be on either a positive or bittersweet note.

📘

Fandom: My Hero Academia

Ships: EraserMist (primary; may be romantic or platonic), Tomura/Touya (secondary)

Sequel to Purpose. Kurogiri and Tomura move in with that kind hero, Aizawa, after what happened in the alleyway. It takes a lot of getting used to, but it is leagues better than living out of a hotel. Kurogiri juggles working to obtain his hero license with raising Tomura (made easier with the new help) and investigates just why that hero seemed so familiar... Later on, when Tomura enters UA, he juggles making friends for the first time, proving his heroism despite his quirk, and a concerning new crush on the hot upperclassman.

📗

Fandom: Sk8 the Infinity

Ships: MatchaBlossom (primary), Renga (secondary), ShadOka (maybe)

This one is going to go through a week of after-hours visits at Sia la Luce. Each day, someone drops in while Joe is closing up, needing one thing or another. From relationship advice to a pleasant escape to pleas for forgiveness, Joe finds himself to be the center of all of their attention. It's just a collection of seven mini-stories that are all collected throughout the span of one week in-universe. Everyone is going to give Joe a visit for different reasons and I'm excited to see how it turns out!

📙*

Fandom: Bungo Stray Dogs

Ships: Shin Soukoku (primary), Soukoku (secondary), more potentially TBA

A fantasy AU in which Fukuzawa and Mori are the kings of two rival kingdoms, Ada and the Port Kingdom (I'll probably change the names lol). Fukuzawa has no genetic heirs, but he had taken in a number of wards, one of which will be chosen to succeed him. Mori has two children, and the prince was born with a terrible curse that leaves his reputation soaked in blood. Atsushi, one of Fukuzawa's wards, is also cursed and feels that Prince Ryuunosuke is just like him; that he can be saved with some kindness and compassion. Despite being warned not to, he sneaks out and attends a ball intended to find the prince a suitor. While there, he unknowingly defends the prince from a number of attackers, which, while unnecessary, piques Ryuunosuke's interest. The two run away together, but wind up being sidetracked by an advancing enemy and wind up lost. Chuuya, a knight from the PK, is sent by Mori to go and find his son. Dazai, Atsushi's mentor and ward of Fukuzawa, is sent to go and locate the weretiger after he does not come to breakfast in the morning. Chuuya and Dazai run into each other while searching for their respective people, which leads to them teaming up to find them while Atsushi and Ryuunosuke are trying their hardest not to be found.

33 notes · View notes

lokiondisneyplus · 3 years

Text

Loki spoilers won't be found here.

Loki shouldn't exist. Not as a show anyway. Despite being perhaps Marvel's most popular character on screen, Loki snuffed it at the start of Avengers: Infinity War. But of course, that didn't stick for long, what with him being a god and all.

Following the return of an alternate Loki in Avengers; Endgame, Thor's mischievous brother is now working to fix the timeline alongside an organisation known as the Time Variance Authority (TVA). It's a weird starting point for one of Marvel's most unique characters, but in a world where people fly and heroes are named after bugs, weird is most welcome. In fact, that's exactly why fans are so passionate about Marvel, and that includes Loki director Kate Herron.

"I remember trying to turn one of my Barbies into Storm, and I melted her hair off," says Herron. As far as Marvel entry points go, that has to rank up there with the very best. And just like Kate grew up "loving the X-Men cartoon," a whole new generation will grow up adoring shows like Loki.

Herron tells us that she's always loved the God of Mischief, so when she heard that Loki would be starring in his own solo outing, she immediately had to get involved. "I remember saying to my agent, 'Just keep calling them. Just keep calling them. Eventually, they will cave, and they will meet me.'"

Once she was in the room with Disney, Kate showed them a 60-page pitch document that included "everything" in it. "I figured, go big or go home, because I knew I’d be up against some really experienced directors, and I thought, 'Well, I’m not going to lie to them' and be like, 'I’m the most experienced person you’re meeting.’ But I thought I’d just be the most passionate."

"Loki defines what the vibe of the MCU has become. He was that, almost from the beginning."

Clearly, it worked, and not long after, Herron started to collaborate with Loki head writer Michael Waldron, another Marvel fan who took an unusual path to reach this point. Before joining the House of Mouse, Michael worked in the Rick and Morty writers room, which he describes as a sort of "sci-fi college" where he was "inundated with science-fiction knowledge all day, every day."

Riffing on obscure Marvel characters for Rick and Morty put Waldron in good stead for the challenges he would face writing Loki. "Obviously that kind of sci-fi multiversal world was adjacent to what Marvel is doing more and more of. My brain was really finely tuned for that, heading into the MCU world."

In his first pitch meeting, Michael described Loki himself as pivotal to this world that Marvel has created. "He defined what the sense of humour and the vibe of the MCU had become. He was that, almost from the beginning." It's vital then that Marvel gets this show right, and that's something both Michael and Kate are fully aware of.

Not only does Herron want to "pay respect and homage to a character that people love," she also wants to ensure "there’s a reason why we’re going back in," by "taking Loki to fresh ground."

Of course, covering "fresh ground" can be risky, especially with a "six-hour movie" like this. And that's why Waldron was "terrified" longtime Marvel fans might find their show too complex or inaccessible. "That was my biggest fear. It keeps me up at night," says Michael. But the writers room rose to that challenge by starting from the ground up.

"We had to establish a logical foundational sci-fi reality for the show. It’s the TVA. They police time. That meant that we had to create rules, and build out what do they do? Why do they do it? For the writers’ room, they all had drawings and stuff like this on the whiteboards."

"That was my biggest fear. It keeps me up at night."

"And that necessitates really complex explanations and ideas," Michael continues. "Then you have to figure out: 'OK, how can we boil this down into a very simple way so that the audience is going to understand what Loki is going through, but they’re not going to feel like they’re in science class? They’re not going to tune out because they’re bored?'"

That doesn't seem likely though. Waldron describes himself as the show's "harshest critic," so he was quick to call out scenes or bits of dialogue that might not work. "I’m very easily bored," says Michael. "I fall asleep easily in anything." And it was this low threshold that helped him navigate those trickier exposition scenes in ways that will still hold the viewer's interest.

And it also helps that we've never seen Loki quite like this before. As Kate points out, "Loki's in a very different place to where we’ve seen him in the last 10 years. We’re taking him on a very unique, new journey. It’s him working out who he is, and trying to basically undo this mess he’s made with time, with the TVA."

Although there will be nods to the comics, Herron says that Loki's journey here is something we've "not seen or read before." And that's also true of where we're at in the MCU right now. Post-Endgame, this is a very different world to the one Stan Lee envisioned all those many years ago.

Michael remembers when the Loki writer's room was fortunate enough to watch an early cut of Avengers: Endgame, and then suddenly they realised, "We’re making Loki in this era after that." So what comes next? "To me, that was exciting – this unchartered territory of 'where does the MCU go?' It felt like, more than ever, that sandbox – we could blow the lid on it, and go wherever we wanted to."

No comic book characters were off-limits to Waldron and his team either. "If they were within the rights, and legal could clear it, there was no reason we couldn’t try and chase them down." And when we pressed him on possible cameos, Michael simply told us to "Expect the unexpected."

"Loki's in a very different place to where we’ve seen him in the last 10 years."

That's often par for the course with new shows like this, but we have no reason to doubt Michael here, because for once, it really does seem like Loki will be different from anything that's come before. Kate says just when it looked like things might be getting "too" weird — "They’re not going to let me do this" – Marvel told her, “No, go weirder.”

So yes, keep an eye out for "twists and turns" and sure, look out for wider "ramifications" that will impact the MCU at large. But first and foremost, except things to get real weird real fast. Could melty-haired Storm even appear for a multiverse cameo? Probably not, but that's exactly the kind of chaos we're expecting to see in the God of Mischief's very first solo venture.

Loki premieres on June 9, 2021, streaming exclusively on Disney+.

#Loki #Disney+#Michael Waldron #Kate Herron #interview

82 notes · View notes

thesaltofcarthage · 3 years

Text

Loki takes over: Tom Hiddleston on his new TV series and a decade in the MCU

from Entertainment Weekly

Ten years after Hiddleston first chose chaos in Thor, Marvel’s fan favorite God of Mischief is going even bigger with his time-bending Disney+ show.

By Chancellor Agard May 20, 2021

"He's been around for thousands of years. He had all sorts of adventures," says Feige. "Wanting to fill in the blanks and see much more of Loki's story [was] the initial desire [for the series]."

Yet, in order to understand where Loki is going, it's important to see where he came from.

"It felt very, very final, and I thought, 'Okay, that's it. This is Loki's final bow and a conclusive end to the Odinson saga,'" says Hiddleston, who shot that well-earned death scene in 2017.

But, though he didn't know it yet, the actor's MCU story was far from over.

“The series will explore Loki's powers in a way they have not yet been explored, which is very, very exciting.”

Additional reporting by Jessica Derschowitz

#loki #loki series #tom hiddleston #entertainment weekly

26 notes · View notes