#(This might also explain some things happening in MCU threads ;)))) )

[respondedinkind]

Headcanon: Khan's mind (Main Alien Verse & MCU-Alien Verse)

It is mentioned very briefly in Khan's bio, but only 'grazed upon' so to speak. It's also mentioned in a few other posts here and there, scattered along headcanons and muse-ish things, but:

Khan's mind is incredibly powerful.

Heads up: This information cannot be known by any muse, with a few exceptions being made (for example, by muses who possess a powerful mind of their own, they might sense that Khan is different / powerful, or by muses who can do magic and see his aura being of different kind etc - but they would only know that, nothing more, no details).

While Khan does not possess the ability of reading another one's mind, or do tricks such as telepathy, or to take over someone else's mind to control them, he can do other things.

Back on his home planet, he was bred to be superior; His abilities were honed from the very beginning and his mind sharpened for what leads his kind to success most of the time. Not only is Khan incredibly intelligent, he is also meant to use his mind to kill.

In fact, the division he was meant to become a part of are the specialists in that regard - elite soldiers who conquer for their rulers. Next to physical combat, being so much stronger, faster and more resilient than most of their opponents, they also use their minds to gain the upper hand in what is known as a 'dirty technique' by nations who are aware of his race and the great devastation they bring.

Here is one part of what Khan can do, and what highlights the strength of his abilities:

Khan can, in theory, basically 'drill himself' into another person's mind; He grants himself forceful entry by sheer willpower, no need for any physical connection. Holding intense eye-contact during the whole act intensifies the sensation and makes it easier for him to do it, but it's not needed. However, once that intense eye-contact is established, and once he's managed to first enter another person's mind, they won't be able to disconnect from his own gaze (unless they are extremely powerful and have abilities of their own that would be able to make it happen)

Once inside another person's mind, he can force his way to the very core. Not many know about it, but a body does not live without it being connected to the host (the mind, also called the soul) that drives it. Khan can find said core, the most vulnerable part, and he can break it, which results in instant death to whoever he is doing this to.

'Fun' fact: This is actually the last 'test' he needed to go through back on his home planet, the one he failed: Because of him not having successfully disconnected himself from his own emotions, killing another individual caused him great stress and took a toll on his own brain. Heavy nosebleeds are a indicator for such to happen, and one cannot control them - so, despite Khan managing to kill the person he was meant to kill, he was deemed a failure because of his nose bleeding, meant to be executed - that is when he managed to fight his way out and flee from his home.

Next to that, Khan's mind is powerful in other ways: It's extremely good at blocking off intruders, so in case someone wants to enter it, it will be incredibly hard for them to do such. It's fierce and trained to withstand a lot of torture, and it takes a great amount to break him and gain access (in his main Verse, Alexander Marcus managed to do that; One can assume how much force it took and what it did to Khan in return)

For MCU verses and muses: His mind seems to be able to do some 'tricks', in a way, which he is also quite unaware of; With how powerful and unique said mind is, it might be able to connect to certain kinds of magic in ways, leading to some... interesting things happening. Not always, not all the time, but under certain circumstances Khan himself is (mostly) not aware of.

Happened in another thread, but is very much canon: In case someone uses a spell or any other technique to look into Khan's memories, his own past self - which is a literal memory and therefore everything that can be seen has already happened in the past - can realize that someone does this to him and, in rare cases, interact with whoever watches. How this happens is unclear, as it should not be possible; Whether Khan's future-self remembers that interaction happening or not depends on a case-to-case basis. It shows, however, that Khan's mind is made in a way that's probably impossible to explain, able to break 'the fourth wall', so to speak.

All of that being said: As much devastation as Khan's mind can bring, as much as it can cause death, this is only the result of what it has been shaped into during his upbringing. His mind is trained to become that sharp, dangerous and powerful weapon; However, by nature, his mind is meant to be an incredibly sensitive instrument and all of its abilities stem from what, in the past, once meant to be of entirely positive nature.

This means he can also do another thing:

Khan's mind can connect to other people's minds in the most vulnerable way, create a bond that will last until he cuts the connection himself or either one of them dies (Khan or the person he bonds with). This bond is extremely powerful and strong; It allows communication on an emotional level, lets both Khan and the chosen other one experience feelings and sensations of one another. For example, if one were to feel frightened, the other could sense it. If one were to experience deep happiness, the other would feel - and experience - it too. Love is also thoroughly shared through that bond, so is affection and any other feeling that they might have for one another.

That bond also allows partners to be incredibly close at all times: Even if separated by a great physical distance, they would still be able to feel each other's presence and experience what the other might feel.

In some cases, if one is (or both of them are) experiencing great emotional stress, the bond might even go as far as allowing them to communicate with more than just emotions. It means they could, in theory, talk to each other through their connection (for example, if one is in great stress and thinks of Khan within their minds, calling his name, he might be able to hear his partner call his name through their shared minds).

Also, when Khan is connected to his loved one, they can share close and intimate moments through their minds. Their minds can basically touch each other in loving embraces, very much similar to their physical bodies, which gives both a very calm, soothing, warm and intense sensation, bringing them even closer together. Sometimes those mind-touches can even manifest in a way that they will see each other inside their heads as their actual self surrounded by a warm glow, and they can interact with each other in that way too.

This might be the true reason for Khan's powerful mind to exist: It's meant for lovers to connect and keep a bond up that will bind them in ways no other can ever be close to one another. It opens up Khan equally as much as it opens up his chosen partner, the most sensitive parts of him, and the intense connection is unlike anything that is usually experienced between two individuals who cannot share such a bond in any way. It's the most pure form of love that Khan's kind can give.

The downside is that, should that bond be forcefully interrupted by either of them dying, the other will experience a devastating sensation - the loss of a bonded partner oftentimes results in the leftover one to fall into insanity, which can manifest in a lot of different ways... even drive them into suicide. It can be overcome if the person who is still alive is strong enough to deal with the feeling of a ripped mind, of a hole that can never be fixed, but it's hard to do and not many, not even of Khan's own race, would manage to do it.

Since this bond is meant to connect lovers, Khan can only connect in such a way with one person at a time. There's one exception: If he ever were to have offspring, his children would also automatically connect to the bond, to both parents, and keep them all together as a close-knit family. The children could choose to separate themselves if they want to however, without any side-effects happening to any of them - this allows them to then, in the future, seek out a partner to connect with.

[musical-chick-13]

SELF LOVE TIME FRIENDO 🖤

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

🤔 Would you ever want to write something canon if you got the opportunity?

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

Oh, absolutely my most recent Christmas fic, to lay in your arms when the world is burning, where River is grieving her parents. (Can be found here.) I don't know how to explain what happened while I was writing this, but there were so many turns of phrase where I went, "Somehow this is exactly what I was trying to communicate," and I genuinely felt...so accomplished and emotionally fulfilled when it was done. Anything I write about grief or loss will be incredibly special to me, and this fic is probably the predominant example of that. :)

❤️ What is your favorite line that you’ve written in a fic?

I remember being particularly proud of this one (also from to lay in your arms...) when I wrote it:

She’s not going to muddy up an occasion he’s particularly fond of by wallowing in the past and trekking its dregs all over the carpet.

In the interest of not making all of these answers about the same fic, here's one from tricking ourselves nice:

But. Such a small word, yet it prevented him from sleeping, from enjoying food or wine, from focusing on how to rebuild his life, after Stannis and after Jon Snow and after the White Walkers. The word sticks to his mind like wax to paper, turning any reassurance he might have been able to offer himself into shit.

(^^^ I like this one because it's a play on Ned's line "everything after the word 'but' is shit.")

I was also proud of this line, from the A/H wip:

How do you tell someone that you want to live in the grooves of their grey matter. That you want to thread yourself through every single one of their braincells, until the only thing they ever think about is you. That you know that’s impossible and utterly insane and deeply, deeply unhealthy, but you don’t care, you want it anyway. How the fuck do you even begin to tell someone that, she’s surprised she can even say it to herself.

🤔 Would you ever want to write something canon if you got the opportunity?

I honestly feel like I write just as much canon as not-canon? Most of my stuff leans toward characters studies, which means a lot of referencing canon and working within it. There are some things I have that I would consider a straight-up AU, like my Cersei/Melisandre fic, the GoT performer AU I'm working on, and the "Natasha lives" MCU fic (I'll get back to you someday, I promise). But I feel like most of my Adlock or Doctor/River stories are rooted in the confirmed events we see onscreen. (And there are definitely a number of WIPs that involve exploring the characters' psychological reactions to canon events, even if it ends up diverging a bit). So, in short, yes, I am in favor of me writing something canon.

🎨 If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

OH MY GOD. I...would be honored if someone made ANY art of my work at all!! There are so many things I could choose. Melisandre giving Cersei a hug in you opened up the things I shut. The "actually, I go by Annie" moment in the ghost possession OCD fic. Davos picking up the leaf in tricking ourselves nice. Irene's subtle (and successful) attempts to get Sherlock to write off his brother's assignment in Let Not Light See My Black and Deep Desires. Clint pilfering Natasha's case file in my haunted heart is uneasy. But I'm going to be really boring and say that, if I had to pick one (1) scene, it would be the one in to lay in your arms... where Twelve holds River.

(My pipe dream is that someone makes art of an upcoming scene of c2g, where a Big Emotional Development happens, but a) this fic is very much not for everyone, and b) I don't want to spoil what happens.)

Fanfic Writer Ask Game

[hiddleloki]

I can't get off this clown cart, HELP, even as it hurtles towards the cliff. Please reassure me with your theories of how R@**h can still be Peter/Pietro given the latest "official" statements that he was some actor and this was his stupid hex AND non-hex name... and that he was de-powered without the necklace... PLEASE ENABLE MY DENIAL WITH LOGIC!!

Well, mostly it’s because I highly doubt Kevin would settle for Mandarin 2.0, given the fact they received so much negativity and backlash from fans back in 2013. Despite what people might assume, Feige knows his shit and how to please fans. He was probably aware fans would be disappointed if Peters’ appearance amounted to nothing but a crude boner joke.

Second, I don’t believe a thing the crew behind WV says.

“we didn’t know casting Evan Peters would cause so many X-Men and multiverse theories” -  um....they literally had him look identical to his X-Men character...in a show that’s leading into Multiverse of Madness....how can anyone believe for a second that there wouldn’t be any crossover theories, especially since the lead actress herself thought the same at first.

“didn’t know who Mephisto is.” i HIGHLY doubt that lol

“wanda’s grief caused her to kind of forget how her brother looks like.” - yet one of the things she says to Peter is literally “why do you look different”, meaning she knows that’s not how Pietro looked.

Also, we’re forgetting that the canon is what we see in the show. Not what anyone else says. Sure, they can say ‘oh this person was that and that and they were doing this’ but unless it’s shown on screen/show/media it’s not canon.

What do we know about ‘Ralph’ by watching the show? 

- he played the role of Agnes/Agatha’s husband (then why did Agatha keep his ‘real’ name? Why didn’t she change it, she changed her own? Why keep his actual name? Why did he go along with wife/husband ruse if he’s never interacting with anyone)

- that his name is apparently Ralph Bohner (show’s canon never explains if this is actually his real name or hex name. The hex was still up when that reveal happened, any viewer could assume it’s the same case for him. The documents could change too)

- he has superspeed (people assume the necklace gave him powers, but again, the show never confirmed that. for all we know he could still have powers)

- “yeah, but he was begging for his life after she tore off his necklace which he wouldn’t and he’d just run away if he still had them” (are we forgetting that he still had the necklace on when Monica literally knocked him off his feet? He could have easily used powers then too, but he didn’t, so...that’s not a sound argument)

- he wore his necklace so Agatha was possessing him (to what point exactly? for all we know the necklace was just giving Agatha the ability she could see/hear everything he does? Or maybe it was just mind control?)

- the show left his fate ambiguous. Is he a good guy, a bad guy? Was he a victim or Agatha’s accomplice? Sure, there’s a deleted scene where he joins the team in stealing Darkhold but that was not included so it’s not canon. 

- what happened to him after Monica tore off his necklace? We don’t know. 

Basically anyone who doesn’t follow what showrunners have to say or a casual viewer is left in the dark about ‘Ralph’, his fate, powers etc.

He’s basically a loose thread. Wanda will be back. Darcy will be back. Vision will be back. The twins are out there and we know we’ll get more of them. Monica will be back. Woo will be back as well apparently. Hayward is in prison, Agatha will be back eventually as well, the residents got some closure towards the end, everyone’s story was resolved, except Ralph’s. 

Which is VERY sus, because usually, marvel does a fine job with wrapping loose ends. 

The fact that they left it so ambiguous gives Feige and co a perfect option for a retcon or future exploration of that character - if that wasn’t already what they had planned to begin with. 

 I have no doubt that this isn’t the last we see of Evan in the mcu.

[twh-news]

How Loki's finale sets up season 2 and the future of the MCU

Loki finale spoilers follow.

Just minutes into the season-one finale, Loki and Sylvie finally arrive at their destination following last week's big castle reveal. When the doors to their destiny swing open, Miss Minutes suddenly appears and congratulates the pair on completing this "awfully long journey."

Sure, season one was only six episodes long, but Loki's story started way before this. Combine all of his movie appearances with the wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey hijinks of this show, and it sure does feel like we've been on a long journey with the God of Mischief.

And now, following that post-credits reveal, Marvel has confirmed that Loki will indeed return for a second season. Thank the gods this journey is continuing, because there are more loose threads in that final episode than there are in all of Asgard's finest tailories combined.

Loki ending explained

Upon arriving at the Citadel at the End of Time, Loki and Sylvie are promised all of their greatest desires, including an infinity gauntlet, the Throne of Asgard and a win against those "self-righteous' Avengers. Christmas came early for our Lokis, but despite all that, they both end up turning Miss Minutes down.

And with that, the Big Bad of Loki (and now the MCU as a whole) is revealed to be Lovecraft Country's Jonathan Majors, AKA He Who Remains AKA Kang the Conquerer AKA "a jerk" (his words, not ours) AKA the villain that comic book fans predicted all along. What follows is a hefty amount of exposition that puts even the first episode to shame, so we'll do our best to summarise.

While He Who Remains bops around to avoid Sylvie's sword, he serves the pair tea and begins to explain his big origin story. Eons ago, in the 31st century, our guy (let's call him Kang, even if the show didn't) discovered the multiverse around the same time that other Kang variants did. At first, they shared knowledge and tech amongst themselves, but as time went on, those who were not "pure of heart" began to invade other realities, which erupted into all-out war.

This Kang was different from the rest, because he discovered Alioth, a creature born of the tears in reality that this war created. He Who Remains weaponised the creature, thereby ending the multiversal war. To preserve cosmic harmony, this variant then decided to isolate the "sacred" timeline, his own, and prune the rest to avoid another war. He then created the TVA to maintain this peace and thereby keep his other variants at bay.

According to He Who Remains, the only way Loki and Sylvie can move forward is if they either take over the TVA or kill this variant, which would unleash the multiversal war along with an "infinite amount of devils." So either "stifling order or cataclysmic chaos."

Pressure mounts once they cross the threshold, the point beyond the timeline that Kang knows. Everything from this point on is a surprise to him, so he's content to let his fate rest in the hands of two Lokis because… he's tired, he says.

Sylvie thinks that He Who Remains is also He Who Fibs A Bunch, so she tries to kill him. Loki isn't so sure though, and as you might expect, the pair try to settle this with a cheeky knife fight. This ends with a big kiss (cue the strings!) and then a double cross.

That's right. Sylvie chooses vengeance over love and shoves Loki through a portal, sending him back to the TVA. And with that, Lady Loki guts Kang like a fish. He seems pretty chill about it though, promising that she'll see him soon... Ominous much?

At that point, all of the timelines start branching out like crazy, creating the multiverse of madness that Kang tried to stop, until he got bored of it. We then cut back to Sad Loki at the TVA where he tries to tell Mobius that a terrifying new threat is on the way. But Mobius doesn't even know who he is anymore.

Does this mean that the timeline has been altered? Or has Loki been thrown into a new reality? Either way, it's not looking too good for the God of Mischief because a statue of Jonathan Majors has replaced the Time Keepers one we usually see in the TVA lobby.

How Loki's finale sets up season 2 and the MCU's future

Season two is going to throw plenty of new challenges at Loki, and hopefully a lot less exposition. First of all, our God of Mischief will need to figure out what the Hel's going on in this new version of the TVA. How will he get Mobius on side if Kang has always ruled this timeline or rewritten history in some way?

And it's not just one Kang he needs to worry about. He Who Remains has now become They Who Remain, which means that there are an infinite number of time-travelling villains to fight. And the worst thing of all is that Loki doesn't even have Sylvie on side now either following that savage betrayal.

Things could soon change in that regard though given the pair's connection. With Kang's tempad, Sylvie can go anywhere now, and we wouldn't be surprised if she ends up drawn back to Loki in some way.

Ravonna will almost certainly pop up again too. The TVA is all she's known, before the mindwipe anyway, and her quest to discover free will could end up transforming the Judge into an ally of sorts. And boy does Loki need all the help he can get.

Beyond the show itself, Loki's finale also just changed Marvel's entire trajectory. Not since we saw America's Ass has the MCU been left so shook by one event, but here we are, about to dive into the multiverse of madness.

The most obvious connection is between this and Doctor Strange's next film, which happens to be called The Multiverse of Madness. The good Doctor must be having heart palpitations after watching this episode, and rightly so, because he's perhaps the only one strong enough to fix this mess, aside from Wanda of course. In fact, the Scarlet Witch could turn out to be the key to everything going on here.

As a Nexus Being, Wanda can reshape reality itself, and that's going to come in handy given all of the Nexus shizz happening from this point on. Elizabeth Olsen's involvement in the film has already been confirmed, and at the end of WandaVision, it was strongly implied that Wanda will visit another reality to try and rescue some version of her now deceased children. Could this help fix things somehow or perhaps make them worse?

Doctor Strange and Wanda aren't the only ones caught up in all this. An animated show called What If...? will dive into some of Marvel's alternate realities firsthand, and the upcoming Spider-Man sequel will also tackle the multiverse with cameos from franchise stars who appeared pre-Marvel. Who knows? Maybe Spider-Ham will turn out be the one who saves everyone.

All this multiverse tomfoolery also opens the gates for X-Men and Fantastic Four characters to finally join the MCU. Marvel's First Family, as they're known in the comics, are already confirmed to star in their own film, and those Merry Mutants won't be far behind either. Whether those teams end up being recast or whether they ask the original actors to come back, one mutant whose return has already been confirmed is Deadpool.

[occidentaltourist]

The Unbearable Whiteness of (Comics) Beings

An excellent thread by Gene Demby, correspondent and co-host of NPR’s Code Switch podcast, on the deeply embedded whiteness of Marvel and DC comics characters.

From Droll Embiid.@GeeDee215:

A quick thing about Isaiah on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

About a decade ago, I interviewed Robert Morales, who invented that character for Marvel in 2001. The result was "Truth: Red, White, And Black" which recast the story of Captain America's origins as part of a Tuskegee Syphillis Study-like plot.

In Robert's story, the US rounded up hundreds of Black GIs in a segregated battalion during WWII to use as guinea pigs. The US is trying to re-create the procedure used to turn Steve Rogers into Cap.

They get it wrong — a lot. Almost all of the Black men they round up die.

Only five of the 300 Black men subjected to the super-soldier experiments survive the process; of that five, Isaiah is the only Black super-soldier who survives the war, and he is thrown in prison for decades.

"It was so depressing I didn't think they would approve it," Robert told me. ""But it was depressingly realistic. And *likely.*

"Robert died in 2013. But his revision of the Cap story was part of a wider on-page reckoning w/ the whiteness of the stories in the mainline MCU/DCU.

The Kents of Smallville, as one example, were reimagined as radical abolitionists — Free-Staters who settled in Kansas to oppose the state from becoming a slave state. Clark Kent, then, would be directly downstream from the principles of his forebears.

It's a very liberal inclination — positioning the Kents on the side of justice for a century-plus before the space-ship landed on their farm.

but it skips over some bigger, more important question about race and power: like how is it that whiteness was literally so universal that both a Kansan *and* a Kryptonian might possess it?

Much more under the cut.

Black mainline comics writers kept playing with these premises. The legendary Dwayne McDuffie, wrote his Black superman analogue Icon as having become Black upon imprinting on the enslaved Black woman in the American south who found and adopted it.*

*why this character was still -male- is...yeah.

anyway, a lot of mainstream superheroes, in their reimaginings, have to nod to the oppression in this country. (There was an aside in one of the Nolan Batman jawns that positioned the Batcave as originally a hideout the Waynes used for fugitives on the Underground Railroad.)

And i think that speaks to how deeply embedded the whiteness of these characters is.

The Green Lantern's power ring had to scan the earth for the bravest person in a world of billions of people and...decided that its rightful bearer was a white fighter pilot from the Midwest?

anyway, more later!

okay, so young Kal-El rocketed across the cosmos as a baby in a spaceship before crash-landing in a field in Kansas. He was Kryptonian but also, somehow, a white boy. Which brings us back to this question upthread: whiteness could literally span the cosmos?

in those Silver Age days, that's literally how they explained it: he could be a white American because there were white Kryptonians.

This was underscored by the fact that they created distinctly *Black* Kryptonians — who lived in a place called Vathlo Island.

Vathlo Island "retained its independence throughout history and did not join the planetary federation, though good relations were maintained."

Kryptonian Wakanda, I guess.(Yes, I know i'm mixing universes to make that metaphor work. calm down, nerds.)

Not long after that first (and one of the only) references to Vathlo Island in 1971, Neal Adams, a white artist at DC, asked his editor a q: what happens if Hal Jordan — the Green Lantern —  dies? The editor told him that there would then be a backup Lantern.

The backup Green Lantern they had in mind was a white gym teacher who used to play Big 10 football.

Again: the bravest person in the world was a white USian dude.

Adams eventually pushed back, and along w/ Dennis O'Neil, created a Black character to take over the GL mantle: an ex-Marine named John Stewart.

(Adams told me his editor originally wanted to name the character Lincoln Washington, but he talked him out of it. Phew.)

Again, y'all see the problems here — the bravest person in the world is still a male, a USian and a member of the US, military? — but as representation went, Stewart was better than a lot of the other Black superheroes that DC tried their hands at.

In the 70s, DC created Black Lightning (who was black and electrical), Black Goliath (black and a giant), and Nubia ( black...and Wonder Woman). And at Marvel there was Luke Cage, who, in his earliest pre-dab incarnations, was a jive-talking powerhouse in butterfly collars.

Anyway, the upshot here is that John Stewart taking over the Green Lantern mantle...stuck with Dwayne McDuffie, who created the Milestone comics imprint under DC in the 1990s, featuring all characters of color.

(Milestone's Superman analogue, Icon, mentioned upthread, became a way to embody and critique a certain kind of ascendent respectability politics; he was, after all, essentially a Black cop. Milestone was already playing with chewier ideas around race than mainline DC.)

McDuffie would eventually become a the principal player in the DC Animated Universe. When they were creating the Justice League animated series, underlined that there way that the show could have a team in which everyone — even the aliens Kal-El and Hawkgirl! — were white.so instead of Hal Jordan, the original Green Lantern, taking his traditional place as at the Justice League table , the animated series launched with John Stewart in that role.

The show debuted in 2001 and became a huge hit. McDuffie often pointed out that, as a result, a generation of younger fans who were introduced to the character through the animated series had only ever known a Black Green Lantern.

(There were a lot of reasons the 2011 Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern movie failed, and the "who tf is THIS guy?" factor probably played some role in it.)

There's a lot more, obviously. But some of these IPs — Batman and Superman and Captain America, in particular — are 80+ years old. They're holdovers from a pre-Civil Rights Act America, a pre-Stonewall America, etc. They represent a bunch of stuff that is ever harder to update.

And it will be interesting to watch how that chafes against the the fact that they are more valuable and popular than they've ever been. Could a critique of the premises of the Cap origin story, like Robert Morales', even happen today?

[cryptovalid]

The weird politics of the Blip

The more the MCU fleshes out the events after Avengers: Endgame, but especially in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the less sense the geopolitics of the MCU makes to me. In this essay I will be sharing my perspectives on politics in the MCU. If you’re not interested in that sort of thing, don’t feel obligated to engage. Also, by the very nature of this essay it will involve spoilers for the MCU and discussions of topics like state violence and terrorism, so consider this a trigger warning.

It’s an understatement to say that the world would change radically if half the population would randomly disintegrate, and I understand that speculating on the consequences of those people coming back after five years is no simple task. There might even be story considerations I am unaware of.

But the idea that the world’s governments would immediately start forcibly removing people from the homes they lived in for five years, to accommodate people who were declared dead five years ago sounds really strange to me. Let’s explore this.

If you were the survivor of a disaster that cut the world’s population in half, what would this look like to you? You’ve presumably went through a lot of hardship and trauma in the years following. You’ve sold some of the things belonging to your deceased loved ones, or bought stuff from other people in a similar situation. You may have relocated, started a new family. Grieved.

And suddenly those people you literally saw turn to dust in front of you just appear again, like nothing happened? Literally in the same befuddled state in which they died. 

And I have to stress: they died. there is no way to suggest that a person can be atomized and still be alive.

So why would you even trust that this was the same person? In a very real sense, it’s an identical copy of your deceased loved one. Similar to teleportation, this should cause us to wonder if they were truly resurrected, or merely cloned. What kinds of rights do they have, being legally deceased? Would we even know if these were impostors, if the situation changed them somehow?

I’m not saying there’s no answer to these questions, just that people should disagree on this. People would have high-minded philosophical, scientific and religious debates. Conspiracy theories and fistfights. This is by far the most world-changing event ever recorded. It should have massive ethical, political and spiritual implications.

And what I think we should think about is that these people who returned have nothing. They have no memory or lived experience to prepare them for this different world, all of their material possessions belong to someone else now, and by definition, all political, economic and military power is held by those who stayed, who now have a material conflict of interest, because if they acknowledge that you are the same person and deserving of the things you had 5 years ago, they have to give it back. Even without the administrative nightmare this would represent, the returned have nothing. Even their work experience is practically meaningless, especially in high-paying jobs. 

What would happen if Steve Jobs somehow magically returned, having no idea what Apple had been doing in the last couple of years, and demanded to be put back in charge of Apple? It’s not exactly an easy ‘yes’, is it? The world’s power balance would be forever shifted. 

I’m not saying everybody would be unsympathetic to the plight of the people who unblipped. But I am saying there would be a massive movement or series of movements opposed to giving them back their stuff. And I’m saying that movement would not only be popular but also backed by every powerful business interest and government.

Because realistically, the unblipped would be the refugees. They are the ones who would have lost everything, fighting an uphill legal battle to even be recognized as alive and as the same person they were 5 years ago. They would be the ones in camps, waiting for supplies.

Ironically, they would be the ones most hurt by the status quo returning to normal, as there is no way to keep massive famines and shortages from happening in this situation without international coordination. 

So why did the MCU decide on the opposite idea? There are two arguments I can think of: one narrative, and one political. On a narrative level, speculating on a changed world is complicated and risky. If Marvel wants to make stories relevant to us in our world, they have to more or less get back to a status quo we would recognize before it would complicate their properties going forward.

The second reason, I think, is that to truly explore a world like this is radical and potentially a liability for Disney, both in terms of their audience and their relationship with the US military.

Of course any real discussion on policy in this situation requires the heroes to at least pay lip service to a political opinion, which could cost them a lot of fans. We are talking about the legitimacy of borders, of private ownership. Any examination of the edge cases will cause people to have Strong Opinions of their own. In a crisis like this, can people squat in empty houses? Do these people have human rights and refugee status, and how should those be protected in the real world? Can any state justly displace people and if not, are these people allowed to disobey the government or even fight them?

Since the US military subsidizes Marvel’s use of military hardware, it has script approval. So that can also explain why they can’t make the US government the bad guy or present a truly different world where the US military is rightfully no longer in control. 

Who can legitimately deprive people of things they need to survive in a crisis like this? What’s more important: the right to own a house and keep it empty if we so choose, or the right to live in a house? 

If we get too deeply into it, Karly’s position (in theory) seems very compelling, like Erik Killmonger’s before her. And so, they have to make her (like him) a hypocrite who goes too far, so it doesn’t seem like the MCU is advocating violence against the state. 

Karly’s ideology is muddled by the writers because the violence she performs has no chance of actually achieving her goals of global solidarity. It feels tacked on to make her less sympathetic. Realistically, someone like Karli would be holding political rallies, sit-ins. Writing op-eds, staging marches and organizing her community into self-sufficiency. Possibly getting into fights with the cops during evictions or protests. If you read Falcon and the Winter Soldier as a kind of allegory for American politics, then Walker represents Trump, Sam represents Obama, and Karly represents... whatever conservatives think socialism/BLM is?

So it feels like FatWS is trying to thread the needle: Nationalism is bad, but so is statelessness. A state should have integrity, and benevolence. And it can have those things, if represented by the right people. Then, the violence is just and measured. It’s barely even violence at all.

I’m kidding of course, the kinds of solutions the MCU offers are basically ‘Co-Intelpro, PMC’s and neighbourhood watches... but run by morally perfect people’. It’s the way a propagandist would represent clandestine domestic espoinage or police brutality: Sam and Bucky would never kill anybody defenseless, and they would never interfere with legitimate polical movements. Because the writers create a perfect world where it’s always clear what everybody’s intention is before the fighting starts, and non-lethal violence is a reliable default option, no more morally problematic than some rough-housing by rambunctious kids.

I know I can trust Sam and Bucky because the writers would never give them realistic implicit biases in a way that would endanger their moral character. They are perfect because they are not real.

The robots, aliens and wizards are not the only unrealistic thing about the MCU. we have to be aware of how artificial the politics are, even if we want to suspend our disbelief. Or else we end up trusting politicians when they embrace a fundamentally immoral status quo, and let thousands die to maintain it (I know, a WILD hypothetical that will surely never come true, but worth keeping an eye out for.)  

The politics that a blip would realistically set in motion are so different from our own, that it would call into question the legitimacy of private ownership and the state. In order to avoid upsetting its fans and its financiers, the MCU has to return to a status quo where those political realities can be taken for granted.    

[ironxkid]

why don't you like endgame or civil war

((hoo buddy, idk what brought this up but salt under the cut!! Like... a lot of salt - specifically regarding Endgame lmao

I’m gonna start off with CACW because it’s a short response lol

I don’t like it simply because I was done with the infighting between the Avengers. The found family crumbs we were given in Endgame was something I really wanted to see, and them just... ripping them apart frustrated me lol

honestly, the movie was... fine? Idk, I found it to be a lil slow for my taste (it felt like it just dragged on when I watched it in theaters), and I just don’t care for it in general  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also, ngl, I’m really bummed that Captain America: Serpent Society was a joke announcement because that sounds dope as hell and I really wanted to see that before I realized it’d been a joke dfgjhdsfhj

but, yeah, literally just because CACW is specifically an infighting movie annoys me to no end so I just won’t watch it again dgsfjhsfdhj

now, Endgame?

fuck Endgame

I. have a lot of issues with it, all of which are major grievances throughout the fandom. I’m pissed they killed Natasha and didn’t even bother giving her a fucking funeral because, I quote from Joe Russo, “Well, Tony does not have another movie. Tony is done. And Natasha has another film. And Marvel Universe obviously does not have to move forward linearly anymore. But that character still has more screen time coming.” (see here) and that annoys the hell out of me. She’s getting another movie - great! So you killed one of the few characters doing her fucking best to keep everything together at the compound, the one who was taking charge, give her a big role, and then murk her and... give her nothing but a brief mention at the end. Like... what the fuck? Natasha deserved so much better than what she was given. Tony’s funeral could’ve (and, frankly, should’ve) been a funeral for him, Natasha, and Vision because god forbid we see anyone mourn Vision other than Wanda

(actually this post covers how Endgame fucked over the MCU women perfectly, though Wanda’s not mentioned :c )

plus... Tony’s not done lol - he’s still a massive figure in the films/shows despite RDJ not acting in them, so his character has left shockwaves that aren’t dying any time soon. Natasha... basically disappeared, and I believe she would’ve been dropped completely if it wasn’t for the fact she does have a film coming out soon. Which, frankly, seems awesome and all, but it’s a film that goes back to post-CACW pre-IW and... frankly doesn’t give me any reason to understand why that means she didn’t get a funeral. She’s not coming back in future movies/shows that are in present MCU timeline - her movie is set in the past. She could’ve gotten a decent sendoff 

now, Clint’s arc as Ronin rubs me the wrong way. I know it’s a huge thing in the comics, and it’s not him taking a different mantle that I have an issue with. It’s the fact he, a white man, went around murdering people and got off scot-free. Yes, he was targeting genuinely bad people, but... to show that, they specifically singled out Mexican cartels and the yakuza (Japanese mafia, essentially) - so, in other words, the bad guys were people of color! I feel like I don’t need to explain how fucked up that is. And, to clarify, I love Clint! Clint is honestly one of my favorite characters, and the whole thing was just handled... poorly in the film

Tony’s arc genuinely hurts. This is a man who has suffered for years and has tried to make things right, and finally got a chance to settle down. He finally retired from the Avengers, finally settled down, and had a fucking life he could enjoy despite his ghosts, and yet... His arc ends with a message of “tortured soul finally gets rest by dying”. Because, y’know, it’s great seeing yet another long-suffering character only reaching peace through death, because god forbid they let characters heal! He could’ve still caused the second Snap, and he could’ve survived. He could’ve finally been able to step away for good and focus on his family, focus on recovering, and be truly happy. What’s so wrong with letting him stay alive so he can rest and be with his family? What’s so wrong with letting a long-suffering character finally find peace after one last bang? 

plus it pisses me off that they’re now using him as a reasoning as to why bad things are still happening. Why is this person the bad guy? Because Tony Stark somehow may or may not have done something that hurt them! Even though most of that really stems from Howard or Obadiah. Tony just ends up getting the blame in their place. He’s just an easy target to use, much like the tesseract seems to be the go-to answer for why things go wrong. But this is a different train of thought

Steve’s ending pisses me off just as much as the next person lmao. You take a character who has acknowledged he no longer belongs in the past (which, funnily enough, was written by the Russos), aaaaaaand have him go back to the past while ignoring two important people in his life that were still right there. He got Bucky and Sam back, and he leaves them. His arc is ruined within a matter of minutes, and it paints a hella bad picture of him in the process. He goes back in time to stay with Peggy (which ultimately destroys her own arc, and the fact she’s a person outside of her relationship (or lack thereof) with him because, y’know, why have her be able to move on and be her own person?), and we’re supposed to believe he’s fine with everything he knows from the future? Fine with knowing Bucky’s trapped with HYDRA and is suffering as the Winter Soldier? Fine with knowing HYDRA has infested SHIELD from day one? Fine with knowing Howard and Maria are going to die? Fine with royally fucking up the timelines? We’re supposed to believe he sat back and did nothing with all of that? They could’ve had him still hand the shield over to Sam - they could’ve let Steve stay an Avenger without the mantle

also the fact the Russos said he didn’t recognize Red Skull when he returned to Vormir to return the soul stone? Like... what the fuck?? Not to mention he literally returns the stone to Vormir, which “soul for a soul”, and they didn’t bring Nat back that way??

and now onto Thor. Thor... holy fuck is this hitting something personal for me. Thor was ridden with guilt - he was furious with himself, hated himself, and blamed himself for failing to stop the Snap. He fell into a massive depression, and... was promptly danced around as laughing stock. Like, “oh! look at Thor! he’s fat and drunk because he’s depressed haha!” - like fuck off. It’s not funny in any form. His suffering was made into a joke and it pisses me off because I suffer from depression. A lot of people suffer from depression. It’s not funny. It’s fucking terrifying at times. I wasted a shit ton of money on a stupid online sim game because it was a distraction - it gave me... god, I wouldn’t even say temporary happiness, but it gave me something to temporarily help, and I still hate myself for doing it. It was a poor decision on my part, and I wish I could change it. And, during that time, I was scared because I couldn’t see myself pulling out of it. I thought I was gonna feel that way forever. I called out of work multiple times because there were days I couldn’t stop crying (something I still feel horrible for doing), I couldn’t get myself to contact any of my friends for months, and it was all because the medication I was on at the time... stopped working. Thankfully, my depression doesn’t work in a way that makes me a danger to myself, so that wasn’t an issue, but it still fucking sucked. And to see a character that I could relate to on such a personal level treated as laughing stock fucking hurt. I’m not sharing this for sympathy - I’m sharing this because it Thor’s arc hit home and it’s literally the main reason why I will not watch Endgame again

this is more of a nitpick than anything else, but... I didn’t really care for Carol in it tbh? Which is unfortunately because Captain Marvel is one of my absolute favorite movies! And I’m well aware she was introduced in Endgame while CM was being drafted, but that in itself is annoying?? Because Carol was originally going to be introduced in AoU, but was cut because it wasn’t going to introduce her character properly. And yet they decide to introduce her character in a clusterfuck of a movie before her movie is in the final stages, and proceed to release her movie first and then give a complete different characterization in her following appearance

honestly I just wanna cover this now to clarify some things regarding Carter and her backstory: the only reason I keep Endgame as is is because it felt easier for me to do so for the purpose of bending canon for specific threads. I wanted to stay as true to the given plots as possible to help with fudging of both the movies and her background, and also because I didn’t want anyone to feel like I was trying to force my own headcanons onto them, y’know? 

I’m just gonna plug this here because fuck it lol, but I did start a fix-it fic regarding Endgame that you can read here! I... probably won’t finish it tbh, and I haven’t gone over it in a hot minute so it might be riddled with errors ahah - plus I’m not sure about how I wrote the characters! I get nervous when writing canon characters because I feel like I’ll miss their characterization completely, which is actually why I,,, rarely rp canon characters dgfjhgsfdhj

also the image in the doc was created by @/archervale!! 

[tansypoisoning]

Scrappy Doo

You got in trouble often, and it showed. Worse than every bruise and cut, though, was your front door neighbor’s concern. He didn’t know you; he was too busy to know you. You wished he would stop pretending he cared so you could move on with your life in peace, and never have to deal with intrusive thoughts of what it would be like to have a room in his heart.

Me, writing fluff? More likely than you think (and yet not that likely). This is my entry for @jtargaryen18​‘s “30 Days of Chris” I’m just trying to branch out a little, and since J’s fics tend to end up being really sweet even if they don’t start that way… Well, I thought I’d go for some sweetness too. Ended up calling out myself in this xD. Anyway, I would appreciate if you guys let me know if you think this is okay. Don’t judge the name too harshly please xD

Fandoms: MCU

Genre: Fluff? Hurt/Comfort? Things you wouldn’t expect from me, I guess.

Ships: Steve Rogers x Reader

Word Count: 3166

Warnings: Mentions of violence and injury, some blood, non-graphic descriptions of wound dressing

The bits of bandage and specks of blood in the sink were piling up worryingly fast. You had looked at them to take your eyes and mind of the gash in your arm, but you reckoned you should’ve just closed them.

“One of these days you’re going to lose your head,” The woman in front of you grumbled as she weaved needle and thread through your flesh “and I’m not going to put you back together, I swear.”

You tried to tell her ‘If anyone could it’s you, Molly’, but the stiff thrown pillow stolen from her couch so you’d have something to bite muddled the words to the point none of them were recognizable.

You ground your teeth on the linen with every new puncture, your fingers gripping the edge of the counter like a lifeline. It hurt, but you’d be okay. You’d been through worse. Your love of hiking, parkour, urban exploration, political activism and doing good recklessly (emphasis on the reckless bit), meant you often found yourself beaten and bruised and wounded and just fucked up in general, but it was all worth it. Just last week you’d rescued a woman’s purse! Molly didn’t share your enthusiasm.

“I should really charge you for this,” she complained. She said it every time you showed at her doorstep, and every time she would put you back together free of charge.

Nick by nick, all your wounds were dressed and you were good to go. You dropped the pillowcase in the washing machine before making your way to the door.

“Seriously, you gotta start being more careful.” Your friend called. “I get that you can’t always help it, but…. jumping on a rusty ladder, are you kidding me?”

“I can’t make any promises!” You smiled sheepishly and she rolled her eyes “Thank you, Molly. I really appreciate it.”

She sighed, but her lips curled upwards nonetheless “Yeah, I know. I expect to see you again in a week.”

“You know I’ll visit regardless!”

“Hopefully not bleeding!” She yelled just as you turned around to jog back to your apartment complex just across the street. The walk was familiar, if a little uncomfortable. Your bruised legs hurt as you climbed up the stairs, but you were smiling all the way.

You had just shoved the key in the lock when the door across from your place opened, and someone behind you sighed.

“Again?”

You whirled around on the balls of your feet, arms raised in preparation to salute the other person on the hall with you.

“Hello, captain!” You greeted cheerfully, resting your hand against your forehead.

Captain America’s look of disappointment could make just about everyone wilt, and you weren’t the exception. In fact, maybe you were even weaker to it than the average person.

“What happened this time?” He asked.

“Urban exploration,” you said, your voice losing a considerable amount of volume and enthusiasm “I was on some ladders when they broke down.”

The lines of his forehead deepened. No, this wasn’t disappointment; it was concern. That was somehow worse.

Who the hell was he to be concerned about you? He didn’t know you; he was too busy to know you.

“I’m okay, though. Nothing broken or anything.”

“You got stitches.”

You shrugged. “Stitches, schmeeches.”

He didn’t find it amusing. “And you’re still going on these expeditions alone.”

“Well, who else am I gonna do them with?” Most of your friends lived too far away, and the ones who lived near had no interest in your little misadventures.

Steve didn’t answer. He likely didn’t have an answer, but he also didn’t have the decency to wipe that look of faux worry off his face.

“And how are your expeditions on the culture going?” You used his silence to direct the conversation to a more pleasant topic.

You didn’t know much about Captain America – he didn’t really let himself be known – but living across from him had given you some insight on his life. Given he’d been stuck on ice for seventy years, it was no wonder he’d needed help to acclimate to the radically different world he had woken up in. He got used to the social and political changes with surprising ease, and it didn’t take him long to acquire a passable understanding of current technology. What he struggled with was pop culture.

You had been his media dealer for a few months now, supplying him with an endless stream of movies, series and music (some of which of questionable legality, but he didn’t need to know that). He had told you of his difficulty finding some of the things people had urged him to look into, and you offered to help him with that. You used the opportunity to introduce him to some things that you liked, because it was always nice to have another person to talk to about these things.

“It’s been going,” he said, and you were happy to see his expression softening “slowly, but it’s been going. Thank you for the Prince songs, by the way.”

“You’re so welcome,” you answered with a grin. He had initially given priority to media other people had suggested to him, but he’d been getting around to your things in the last two months or so “Have you watched Mr. Rogers Neighborhood yet?”

“Not yet.”

“You really should. Fred Rogers might be the one person who beats Steve Rogers at the whole ‘being a good human being’ thing.”

“Maybe that’s why I’m putting it off,” he smiled, but it was short-lived as he stopped to clear his throat. “I gotta go now.”

“Okay,” you nodded and stepped back to press your back against the wall. The hall was almost too small for the two of you. “Gotta rush to save the World, huh?”

“Something like that,” he said as he moved toward the stairs, but he turned back to you as he reached the railing. “Take care of yourself, okay?”

You recoiled at his words. “Sure.” You answered stiffly, then rushed to open your door before he could say anything else. You didn’t need this. This fake concern, those empty words… You much preferred hostility, that was at least less confusing, less painful.

It really was stupid of you to nurture such a silly crush. Steve was just your front door neighbor. The sooner you accepted that, the better.

Molly wasn’t home, and she wasn’t picking up her phone. Where the fuck was she? It’s not like she had an obligation to help you out, yes, but… She always did help, and now she had to pick the worst possible moment to go M.IA.

The walk up to your apartment was familiar and painful. You were worried about your right arm; it wouldn’t move, and whenever you tried to touch it, it hurt. Could it be broken? You hoped not, but if anyone could be sure, that person was Molly. And she always picked up.

Your key was in your backpack, so you had to take it off before you could open your door. You tried to be quiet, but when the strap brushed your injured arm you couldn’t help but yelp.

Your neighbor’s door opened instantly, and at such a speed you felt the air in the room being rearranged. Steve’s gasp behind you only made you feel worse.

“What happened to you?”

“Nothing,” you sniffed “I’m fine.”

“No you’re not.” There was a pause and then a hand was at your right arm, squeezing it as if to turn you around. You were loathe to show any weakness in front of him, but it hurt too much. You howled, tears slipping from the corners of your eyes, and Steve let go. He walked around you, coming to stand in front of you. He didn’t look angry at all, just deeply concerned.

Great. You didn’t need this shit on top of everything else.

“Steve, let me get into my home.”

“Where’s Molly?”

“I don’t know,” you whined. It was getting harder and harder to keep the little composure you still had “Please let me in, Steve.”

“I’m taking you to the hospital.” His voice brooked no arguments, and something about it was too much for you.

You broke down with one sob, then several more, and the look on Steve’s face only grew more worried. “I don’t know if I can afford it.”

“I’m paying,” he said, and you were about to tell him no, but he didn’t give you the chance: “This is serious. You can’t wait this out. I’m taking you and I’m paying for it. Do you need me to carry you or can you walk on your own?”

You wiped at your tears with your good hand and nodded. “Yeah, I can walk.”

You followed Steve out of the building, pausing ever-so-often. Steve would wait for you whenever you did, not once complaining or frowning. He helped you into his car and buckled you in.

“Are you going to tell me what happened?” He asked once he’d settled in the driver’s seat.

“I don’t want to.”

He took a deep breath as if he wanted to say something, but he didn’t press the issue. You didn’t want to talk about the incident, but you didn’t know what else to talk about, so you kept quiet. Steve didn’t speak much either, occasionally asking you for updates on your state, but otherwise letting the radio do the speaking for you. The songs playing were ones you’d recommended to him, you noticed.

The trip to the hospital was longer than the waiting in the lobby, and thankfully that wasn’t very long. Steve remained outside while you were being patched up. You were glad for it. Having to explain your wounds to the staff was already bad enough, you didn’t need him to hear it as well.

You left the hospital in bandages and with a cast on your right arm. Despite the weight of the plaster, you felt a hundred times lighter, knowing you’d gotten the care you needed for free. Steve didn’t share your enthusiasm. He sighed when he saw you walk out of the room, and you felt your smile slip just a little.

The two of you were quiet when you entered the car. Steve drove in absolute silence for about two minutes before you thought to thank him – and you really were thankful, but thanking him almost seemed a waste. He looked so frustrated, just like everyone else when it came to you. Reckless, hasty, imprudent, you should just know your limits and not go past them. You should just stop doing the things that made you happy and the things you felt were needed because you would get scratched in the protest. That’s what everyone said. You couldn't imagine a super-human who put his life in graver danger every day being any more understanding.

You were about to bite the bullet and thank him, but Steve opened his mouth before you could: “You’re kind of like Scrappy Doo.”

“What?” All your previous feelings of goodwill vanished from you like the air in a popped balloon.

“I started watching some of the cartoons you-”

“I’m surprised you’re even here if I’m such a burden.”

It was his turn to look incensed. “What are you talking about?”

“Scrappy Doo. Am I seriously that much of an annoyance to you?”

“No!” He took his eyes from the road for a brief moment to direct them at you. “I was making a reference. Isn’t that what people like to do nowadays?”

“You compared me to a character everyone hates.”

“I don’t. And I don’t know why anyone would.”

“That’s not-” Your words didn’t come to you as fluidly as you would like them to.  “It doesn’t matter. He’s an annoyance and only ever makes things worse.”

“Is that what you think of yourself?”

“No, that’s just what everyone else thinks of me.”

You looked at the rear view mirror to see him frowning. “Who told you that?”

“You don’t have to tell me anything.” Of course he didn’t. If you were a nuisance to normal people, imagine how pathetic you must’ve seemed to someone as strong as Steve.

“I-” Whatever he was going to say he interrupted with a shake of his head and a sigh. “I shouldn’t say you remind me of Scrappy Doo. Rather… you remind me of me.”

It was your turn to frown. “You?”

“Before I was recruited for the serum program, I used to be very small. Short, frail… that didn’t stop me from getting in trouble whenever I saw injustice. I thought it was wrong to let bullies go unchallenged, even though I knew I couldn’t win. I always had to get rescued, but I kept doing it because I knew it was the right thing to do.”

“And then you got jacked and that helped a lot.”

He laughed. “I’m way better at doing helping out nowadays, but even so… I don’t think you’re an annoyance. I worry about you because I used to get in the same sort of trouble. I ask you to be careful because I’m afraid you won’t come back home one day.”

Your heart leaped in your chest, and then you remembered you had been there before. That wouldn't be the first time someone pretended to care for you on a personal level, then abandoned you when it wasn’t convenient anymore.

“You don’t really know me, Steve. I get if you’re worried about me just like you’re worried about everyone else, but I would rather… It feels fake, you know? Like you’re just helping me because I’m right there, and if one day I didn’t come home you’d just go on worrying about everyone else.”

“No, I-” He started, then cut himself off to huff. “I can’t talk about this while I’m driving. Hold on.”

You were quiet as Steve turned into a side street, darker and quiet than the one you were on. He looked around until he found a place to park, and then turned to you once the engine was off and the key was out of the ignition.

“I do care about everyone. If I was neighbors with someone else and they got hurt as often as you, I would worry and I would help them however I could, but I wouldn't feel the same way I feel about you. If you suddenly didn’t come back I- Why would you think I don’t care?”

“I just don’t see why you would. We only talk when we meet in the hallway, and you don’t look at the things I reccomend you, because you never talk about it.”

“I was watching Scooby Doo when you showed up.” Steve said, and there was an edge of frustration to his voice “Whenever I’m home I’m looking at the things you gave me. I don’t have as much time to learn about the things you like as I wish I had. I don’t have as much time and energy to know you as I wish I did. And you-” He stopped himself and shook his head. “Nevermind. I don’t want to do this when you’re injured.”

“No, tell me.” You and Steve were finally conversing rather than exchanging pleasantries. Now that you were being honest with each other, you didn’t think you could go back to how things were before. “I told you I wanted honesty. And whatever it is you’ve got to say, I bet won’t hurt more than this fucking thing.” And you pointed at your injured am.

He hesitated. He looked back and forth from you to the windshield, then swallowed hard before proceeding. “You put up a wall. I couldn't get you to talk to me about your injuries for months, and every time I ask you to be careful, you brush it off. It’s like you don’t want me to know anything about you.”

You considered his words for a second, then your own feelings for a moment longer. You couldn’t pretend it was just because you didn’t want to be a burden. “This is going to sound weird, but I’m scared I can’t trust you?” You turn to him. His brows are scrunched together, and he almost looks to be in pain. “I know, right? If you can’t trust Captain America, who are you gonna trust?” Your chuckle sounded hollow to your years.

Steve shook his head as his right hand moved from the wheel to latch onto your left wrist. His hold was gentle, and you knew you could pull away if you wanted to. You didn’t want to. “I thought you disliked me.”

His words sent a shock through you. Dislike him? How could he think that when the truth was the exact opposite? Then it dawned on you that you really had avoided him. Whenever he tried to get you to open up you deterred his efforts, like you really didn’t like him, like you didn’t want to know him. You did, you just… You were just afraid of what could happen if you let him in too deep.

“That’s funny.” You said, even though it wasn’t. “I was so scared you wouldn't like me, or you would stop liking me, that I didn’t even give you the chance to do that.”

He was quick to respond: “No. I could’ve talked about different things-”

“It wouldn’t have worked.” You said. The words came to you easily, products of an epiphany rather than a thought. They’re not a product of your own reason, rather a universal truth. “It’s not your job to chip at my barriers. I was avoiding you, I was fighting this. Why would you keep pushing if I gave nothing back?”

“I don’t know why you put up walls.” Steve’s fingers skimmed against your skin. Was he still afraid his touch wasn’t welcome? “You must have your reasons, and I’m not going to ask them. I want to be someone you can trust, but I can’t make you trust me. Do you think… Do you think we could make this work? I’d like to get to know you, if you’re okay with that.”

You pulled your hand from his. His shoulders slumped, but he looked up when you entwined your fingers with his. His surprise was evident, and behind it, subtler, there was something else. You didn’t know what it was, but something in his expression sent your heart fluttering.

“I would like that too.” You said, smiling at the same time he did. “And you can let me know when you’re free so we can watch some series together, and you can explain to me how the hell you don’t hate Scrappy Doo.”

He laughs and squeezes your fingers in his. His touch is reassuring, and you feel nostalgic. You remember your childhood bedroom, and being snug under covers while a hand ran through your hair. Safe. That was the last time you had felt this safe.

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I thought about the MCU (Phase One)

I love Marvel. More specifically, I love Marvel movies. And more specific than that, I love Marvel movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (with the occasional Deadpool from the X-Men universe). Within eleven years, we have gotten twenty-three movies. Most of them successful, with a few cracks in the armor here and there. And I want to show my love for this success by reviewing each movie in their respective phase. But I'm going to be doing things a little differently than others before me. I'm going to rank each film from worst to best in each phase of the MCU. After I get through all three phases, I'll rank them all from worst to best, with only a sentence explaining my ranking. With that said, let's get started, shall we?

6th: The Incredible Hulk (5/10)

I wish that I could be that guy who says The Incredible Hulk is an underrated masterpiece that doesn't deserve any of its hate...but I'm not, and it isn't. Don't get me wrong, I do love the first few minutes, I love how the Hulk is presented as a danger rather than a hero, and there is some decent visual storytelling on display. Seriously, there are scenes with little to no dialogue, and it is easy to tell what's going on in the characters' heads from their movements and expressions. Which is a treat, because the lines aren't great, and the delivery is not any better. It's worse with Liv Tyler as Betty Ross, who has two different speech patterns: Shouting and sounding like a robot pretending to be human. Plus, the CGI is butt ugly in this movie, and it's easily the worst in the MCU. Say what you want about Black Panther and it’s CGI, but at least the hero and villain don't look like ugly green blobs punching each other. If you think it's Incredible, more power to you. For me, it's just...meh.

5th-Iron Man 2 (5/10)

I actually like this movie. Or, at least, I like parts of this movie. I like the performances, the action, and a couple of well-handled scenes. For example, the party scene is actually pretty decent as it shows how irresponsible a hero can be when drunk, even if the latter half of it becomes a rock'em sock'em robots fight. Separately, scenes like this work. It's when they're put together does the movie fall flat. There are too many plot points and story threads to follow that the movie becomes a jumbled mess as a result. Also, Sam Rockwell's Justin Hammer is just a dweeb of a villain. Which is a shame because I can see how he can be the perfect foil for Tony Stark. It's just that he lacks a lot of the charisma that RDJ gives his own character. But an even bigger shame is the underutilization of Mickey Rourke as Whiplash, who seems like a unique villain that I would have loved to see more of. But instead, we just get some jerkoff in a suit. That being said, I still don't think Iron Man 2 is as bad as people claim it to be. Yeah, it's bottom five, for sure, but that doesn't mean it isn’t irredeemable.

4th-Thor (6/10)

WHAT IS UP WITH THE EXCESSIVE DUTCH ANGLE SHOTS?! Seriously, was the majority of the movie shot on a hill? Did the crew lost a wheel on one of the cameras and decided to roll with it? Why does it keep happening?!

A dutch angle shot only works if you're showing something cool. NOT whenever you feel like it! 

With that said...this movie is ok. There are some good things to like. Chris Hemsworth definitely has the physique of a Norse god, there are some well-handled comedic moments, and the action is pretty cool at times. It's just that the supporting cast is a little bland, and Thor is not Loki's best appearance. Tom Hiddleston certainly nails the trickster character, but the chaotic personality doesn't really let loose until future movies. Still, I think Thor is fine. And definitely better than Thor: The Dark World.

3rd-Iron Man (7/10)

What can I say about this movie that hasn't been said already? Robert Downey Jr. is still the definitive Iron Man, the acting is top-notch, the action is even better, the CGI still holds up to this day, and the story is pretty amazing...for the most part. The stuff with Jeff Bridges as Iron Monger, while not as bad as everyone else says, is still not as engaging as everything else. Personally, I don't hate him, and I think the final fight between this giant robot man with a tiny robot man is still pretty entertaining. I can maybe see why others wouldn't be as entertained, but that doesn't change how this film is a great start for something big.

2nd-Captain America: The First Avenger (7.5/10)

Now, THIS is an underrated movie...for the most part. I can see why some people can be less than thrilled about certain aspects of this movie, but I can still argue why those aspects don't bother me. Yes, it becomes a cliche action movie halfway through, but at least the action is cool. Yes, the scene where Captain America becomes a dancing monkey is embarrassing, but at least that song slaps. Yes, Red Skull is boringly evil for the sake of an evil villain, but he's a nazi. What were you expecting? The intricate reasons for why he's a nazi? And yes, Captain America's reasoning for crashing the plain is stupid, but...it at least give us two more awesome movies?

Alright, that one I'll give to you.

Regardless, I still consider this my favorite Captain America movie. Because it has moments that come to mind when I think of our star-spangled man. He's the guy who jumps on a grenade to save his fellow soldiers without an ounce of hesitation. He's the guy who will continue to do the right thing, no matter how hard it might be. And he's the guy who has a sense of humor, but not overly quippy like other characters. I'll admit that the other two movies are better, but as for which one has what I love about Captain America, it would have to be his very first adventure as the First Avenger.

1st-The Avengers (9.5/10)

At first, this movie has nothing more than cool action and corny jokes, some funnier than others. But by the time the film reaches The Battle of New York, that's when it goes from a good movie to a great one! Every film before The Avengers has been building up to this gigantic fight. With The Avengers hyping itself up as well. And trust me when I say: It's worth it. Add that with some fun characters with phenomenal chemistry fighting Loki at his best, then you've got yourself one hell of a movie.

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

And that's all of the movies in phase one. I'll see you soon as I talk about phase two.

[aion-rsa]

WandaVision Episode 9: The Big Questions We Need Answered

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

With just one episode left in the season – and technically the series – the finale of WandaVision has a lot of ground to cover.

Its penultimate installment was not just a heartbreaking retrospective of just how terrible Wanda’s life has been and how much she has suffered, it gave us an entirely new understanding of a character that’s been part of this universe for four feature films to date. Plus, there’s the whole thing where a secret government agency appears to have reanimated Vision’s dead body to use as a weapon, and Wanda herself is most likely a legendary, all-powerful witch. 

How the series plans to wrap up these dangling plot threads in addition to laying the groundwork for the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and establishing what comes next is anyone’s guess. But there are a few things that WandaVision is going to have to tell us in order for this series to truly stick the landing as the MCU’s most ambitious – and best – project yet. (Which right now, with one episode to go, is a title it wins by a mile.)

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Here are nine burning questions we need the WandaVision finale to answer.

What is the Scarlet Witch?

In an episode filled almost to bursting with surprisingly rich callbacks to multiple MCU films, the biggest moment was still probably Wanda being directly referred to as the Scarlet Witch for the first time. But what that actually means is anyone’s guess. 

Sure, she’s powerful enough to literally rewrite reality and turn a run-down New Jersey town into a classic sitcom paradise. But that’s not exactly news – she did destroy an Infinity Stone and almost take down Thanos in the Avengers movies. Agatha bestows the name upon her as though it means something significant, as if Wanda’s some sort of magical harbinger that has a larger role to play in…something (and the Scarlet Witch costume Wanda sees in her vision would seem to back that up). But who or what is she?

What Does Agatha Harkness Actually Want?

Most of us have assumed that Agatha Harkness must technically be the Big Bad of WandaVision – I mean, the song says that she’s been pulling every evil string, c’mon – but “Previously On” hints that may not entirely be the case. The creation of Westview was clearly a result of Wanda’s chaos magic, so…what is Agatha doing there? And what is her ultimate goal?

Has she sought Wanda out simply to determine where her power comes from? To try and steal it for herself? To suss out another powerful witch to become besties with? (Agatha was Wanda’s mentor in the comics.) 

Are we meant to read Agatha as a true villain – or something more complicated? I mean, she does put Wanda’s kids in choke collar leashes, but whether that’s out of a desire to protect herself from the Scarlet Witch or to use her in some way is still unclear.

Is Vision Somehow Alive Again?

Well, there go our theories that poor Wanda has just been puppeting her dead boyfriend’s corpse around Westview (thankfully – that idea was always dark af). Instead, it appears that this is more of a Vision 2.0, a being created by a combination of an incredibly powerful dose of Wanda’s chaos magic, her memories of the man she loved, and the overwhelming grief she can’t seem to control.  But does that mean Vision is actually alive? Like, could appear in another MCU film, alive?  And if so, why can’t he leave the boundaries of the Hex? Does he even have a physical body, or is his form just a Wanda-powered projection?

What is Tyler Hayward’s Endgame – and Why Is He Trying to Blame Wanda for it?

One of the biggest revelations in “Previously On” was that Wanda did not, in fact, storm into SWORD headquarters and steal back her boyfriend’s dead body. Instead, she actually experienced a quietly shattering moment of grief in which she accepted that the Vision she loved was truly gone. So…why did SWORD director Tyler Hayward not only insist that she did, he literally put together a deep fake video to prove it?

Hayward has been a fairly shady figure since he first appeared on WandaVision, but this is some next-level mustache-twirling stuff. Has he just been trying to turn Vision’s body into a weapon – seemingly mission accomplished there – or has he been crafting a much larger and more nefarious scheme? 

After all, he is on record as hating the superpowered beings that he believes are responsible for both the Snap that erased half the population and the Blip that brought everyone back but ultimately devastated those left behind in the meantime. Is the White Vision his revenge on Wanda – and those like her – in some way? (Truly, so many problems could be solved in the universe of the MCU if people just got some help for their PTSD, but that’s a rant for another day.) Or is Hayward’s scheme more complicated in some way?

What is the Purpose of the White Vision?

The Dr. Manhattan-esque White Vision revealed in this week’s credits scene is both creepy and heartbreaking at the same time. The real Vision, after all, had specifically requested that he not be brought back or used as some kind of weapon after his death. And now he’s been made into what is likely some sort of soulless killing machine, using his soulmate’s magic and against his own wishes. How Hayward figured out how to reanimate Vision, what vibranium he was tracking in the Hex, and what he intends to do with this new weapon he’s made are all outstanding questions. But none of them likely have happy answers. 

Look, we probably have to start preparing ourselves now emotionally for the fact that Wanda is going to have to fight the reanimated body of her dead lover, who probably won’t even remember her name. And she’ll have to do it with the magical recreation of him she made in Westview at her side, in a battle that will more than likely destroy both Visions by the end of it.

And at this point, we’re going to need a WandaVision Season 2 in order to deal with Wanda’s trauma from all of that (that’s not a complaint, by the way).

Is Wanda a Mutant Now?

With the X-Men franchise officially part of the MCU, the question has to be asked: Is Wanda Maximoff officially a mutant now? Her exposure to the Mind Stone clearly triggered or otherwise activated some latent abilities – powers that the show implied would have vanished otherwise.

Wanda and Pietro appear to be the only two individuals who survived HYDRA’s attempts to create supervillains using the Mind Stone. Does this mean that Pietro’s survival also indicates that his powers were merely latent and then “activated” by their experiments?

Does this twist give Wanda back her official mutant roots, or is it just an origin story for witches in the Marvel universe? 

Where’s Monica?

When last we saw Monica Rambeau, she was getting busted for snooping by Agatha’s nebulously explained fake version of Pietro Maximoff. Since she doesn’t appear in “Previously On” we’re still not sure where she is, what’s happened to her in the meantime, or what role she has to play in the finale. 

One has to assume she’ll show up to fight at Wanda’s side – whether that’s against Agatha or the White Vision or both – but how? 

We also don’t know much yet about her superpowers. We’re all assuming she’s basically just inheriting her comics abilities as Spectrum, but will those abilities work outside of the Hex or without Wanda to power them?

What Does This All Mean for Pietro?

Though we journey back to the HYDRA base in which Wanda and her brother were experimented on, we don’t see any hint of Pietro in this episode (and, no, the child version doesn’t count). We know that the Evan Peters version is a fake conjured by Agatha to pry information on how she created the Hex out of Wanda – how is she powering that by the way? And how does Fake Pietro know so much real Maximoff history? – but what does all this new backstory mean for the Maximoff brother who died? 

What happened to Pietro when he encountered the Mind Stone? Were his powers also latent and only “activated” by the stone like Wanda’s (and thus making him a mutant)? And does any of this somehow open a door to bring Quicksilver back to the MCU?

Who is the Aerospace Engineer?

Yes, we’ve all apparently spent weeks thinking about a throwaway line from Monica back in WandaVision’s fifth episode, in which she references an aerospace engineer she knows who might be up for the challenge of figuring out the Hex. 

Maybe it’s nothing, but this is Marvel, so it’s almost guaranteed not to be nothing. 

Could Monica’s mysterious friend be Reed Richards and could SWORD serve as a way to finally introduce the Fantastic Four into the MCU? It’s more than possible – it’s practically likely at this point. There are other options – Victor Von Doom and Hank McCoy are also notable Marvel scientists we’ve yet to meet in the MCU – but doesn’t Reed just make the most sense?

How Will WandaVision  Lead Into Doctor Strange 2?

One of the few things we do know about the WandaVision finale is that it’s somehow connected to and will likely lead directly into the upcoming MCU film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. At this point, it seems safe to say that Wanda is more likely than not responsible for both the multiverse and the madness parts of that title, and the finale will involve her somehow fully becoming the Scarlet Witch and unleashing some cosmic chaos powers. But where does that kind of ending leave  Wanda and Vision? Will Doctor Strange himself show up – either to defeat the White Vision or stop Wanda from ripping down the walls of reality? Will Vision have to die again? And how does Agatha Harkness fit into things? (At this point, she’s more than earned a place in Doctor Strange 2, if you ask me.)

The post WandaVision Episode 9: The Big Questions We Need Answered appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[alwida10]

Signs of abusive relationship that can be found in the Thor-Films

@alstee We talked about aspects of a narcistic personality disorder we can find in the Thor-films in this thread. The original thread is adjectant to a gif-set, which is why I don’t want to post there. The people who make those gifs are forced to “listen” to the discussion even if they don’t wish to be associated with the anti-Ragnarok party and I don’t want to pull someone into the discussion.

Also, this got kinda long, therefore I put it under the cut. :) 

The following text is a quote from you, @alstee, taken from said thread, because I would like to have all relevant points in one thread together.

If anyone is interested, I’ve been skimming through the book The Narcissistic Family: Diagnosis and Treatment by Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman, and it’s super interesting! It’s aimed at therapists, but it’s easy, if sad, to read as a general audience person.

I’ve heard internet anecdotes of people who had to try several therapists before they found one that could actually help them, because the first ones ended up validating/siding with the NPD parent’s perspective (big WHOOPS, continuing that gaslighting) and/or didn’t really get what kind of damage and toxic family dynamics they were actually dealing with.

Now, reading through the book, there are example cases where the patient starts seeking therapy for specific problems, not having the slightest idea that their parents did anything wrong or unusual in their parenting, until a neutral third party correctly identifies the cognitive dysfunction in what the patient is saying, and digs deeper to trace the path of that dysfunctional thinking right to the source.

Also, tell me these two following bits don’t scream MCU Loki:

(This first one explains Loki’s whole behavior in Thor 1 and Thor 2, to a T.)

(And this one is in a section about romantic relationships, but I can see this whole thing running through Loki’s subconscious in every scene where he has Thor or Frigga standing in front of him.)

(@lucianalight​ You have written excellent meta posts about this which opened my eyes in the first place – I had read about this topic years before, but not made the connection to Odin’s family; I hope you don’t mind a tag here?)

 <End of quote>

So, I am not completely done reading ‘why does he do that? - inside they mind of angry and controlling men’ by Lundy Bancroft so I raise no claim to completeness. Two short remarks at the beginning: The book describes situations in romantic relationships and is therefore not exactly pointed towards sibling relationships as we see in canon MCU between Loki and Thor. Since I believe abuse to work in many situations similarly, I am still using it to interpret the brothers’ relationship. But this is of course a point that can be discussed.

Second: the book describes situations in which a woman is abused by a man. Therefore, a “he” in the text refers to the abuser and a “she” to the abused. Loki would in this context be labeled “she”, since most signs point towards him being the abused one. The book states very clearly that abuse can happen in same-sex relationships as well and is just as bad and worthy of condemnation as abuse in hetero-relationships. The wording simply eases the reading process because you always know if the author refers to the abuser or the abused.

1.       Is Loki really abused?

I marked the points yellow which I think might be true in his case. Here some gifs why I think so:

Source of the gif and a nice meta about TDW

The gif is relevant both for “are you afraid of him” and “do you feel like the problems in your relationship are all your fault”.

Source

Also, when we see Thor and Loki for the first time in Thor 1, Loki doesn’t appear to have any friends of his own. As to the aspect of isolating him from his family:

Source

2.       Disrespect is the soil in which abuse grows.

I think we know Thor doesn’t respect Loki like he respects other people such as the Avengers and other Aesir.

Gif source.

But Thor doesn’t know of Loki’s heritage until the end of Thor 1. So where does this come from?

This whole topic is connected to the first of my introductionary remarks. Abuse in romantic relationships is so common, because there is an imbalance of power in combination with the feeling of being above the other. Due to our social conditioning, the man is mostly more powerful than the woman, and there are far more abused women than abused men. People often argue a woman could abuse a man just as well. The author meets this point that this is true on a surface level, but abuse is mostly based on entitlement. Men, who are raised in a belief of superiority, feel entitled to be catered by their wife and entitled to use force if she refuses or fails to do so.  

So, we are back at Odin again, who certainly knew about Loki’s heritage and didn’t fail to act upon this knowledge. And not only his dismissive attitude towards Loki carries over to Thor, but also to the staff, as we see in the famous “spilled wine”-scene of Thor 1. So Odin basically taught Thor that he’s better than Loki.

And based on this learned disrespect, Thor feels entitled to enforce the respective behavior in Loki.

Thor shows signs of this power over Loki very early. Loki is the only one of his group he doesn’t ask to accompany him. He just assumes it. And Loki complies. He orders Loki around on Jotunheim, but Loki doesn’t comply this time. We can’t know if Thor would have gotten back to him, because he gets banished before he has the change to. We see Thor quite often demand something from Loki in the following films without Loki obeying. It mostly gets violent after that. But since it still are superhero films we can’t count this as abusive behavior because it’s somehow ‘normal’ in this context. I don’t remember Thor using physical force to make someone else do as he wishes in the films. Interestingly, if he does so it would rather invalidate the theory of him being an abuser, since most abuser make sure only to exhibit this kind of behavior in private, because they don’t want to hurt their public reputation. So if he would threaten people more often, it would rather mean that he’s a brute than an abuser.

Since we already discussed the narcistic personality disorder I would mention that both things can appear in combination:

You might have noticed that I did refrain from using examples from Thor – Ragnarok up to this point. This is intentional. Because most points that indicate Thor would act in an abusive way are relatively rare in the first films (Thor 1, Avengers and The dark world). Thor 1 even sketched out a redemption arc from his arrogance (which is the basis of entitlement) and even though he has his flaws in TDW he isn’t giving in to most of his urges. In the boat scene he threatens to punch Loki, but he doesn’t act on his urge. This is means he does, in fact, NOT feel entitled to do so. He remembers Frigga and recalls he should not. An abuser is different from an angry man because he thinks he has the right to hurt the other one.

This tone changes in Thor - Ragnarok:

I will try to make this as conceive as possible and therefore use a list of methods abusers use in interactions (split into two parts because it was to long for one picture):  

Sulking, Refusing to talk: Thor’s behavior in the cell when Loki visits to talk.

Ridicule: He throws stones at Loki in the cell.

Source

Distorting what happened in an earlier interaction: 

Source

(Ok, this one is not sure, since we don’t know what actually happened. But he says first “I dumped her!” and then “It was mutual dumping” which fits the point that past actions get distorted.) 

Using a tone of absolute certainty and final authority: In his talk with Hela about her past.

Source

Everything is your fault: Thor demands Loki to lift his magic before Odin’s death. He implies Hela’s return is Loki’s fault. He blames Loki for the situation in the nine realms.

He changes the subject to his grievances: When he talks to Bruce about his fear being on a planet and changes to the point that Bruce has to help him fight Hela.

Part II: 

Provoking guilt/Turning your grievances around to use them against you: 

Source

Playing the victim:

Source

Threatening to leave you:

Source

But the major point will always be the physical violence. Here some quotes concerning that:

Source 

[rainbowravioli]

Please share your thoughts on Avengers Endgame, especially regarding Captain America, Iron Man and Black Widow (being very vague to avoid spoilers)

(Sorry for the wait, this wasn’t easy to write)

Oh boy…

So my thoughts on the overall movie are that it was an enjoyable movie for about 80% of its run time, though the other 20% were mostly awful. It’s not anywhere near perfect or a masterpiece as I’ve seen some people call it. The character arcs aside, the movie itself has problems. The pacing, for example, is all over the place. Also, somehow, I left the movie feeling they both did too much and too little, though I would have to delve into specific scenes and characters to explain what I mean. It’s kind of a amazing that they managed to build so many great callbacks to the past MCU movies and still have the movie that’s supposed to close of this chapter end without a sense of finality when it comes to a bunch of plot threads and characters. But you asked specifically for Steve, Tony, and Natasha thoughts.

Before I get into them I would just like to say one thing that may be an unpopular media opinion in general: I don’t believe that tragedy is meaningful by default, and I don’t believe happy endings take away from sacrifice or emotional impact or that a battle without stakes (AKA deaths) is unsatisfying. Especially when we already saw our heroes in this particular case lose everything once. Infinity War was about loss and tragedy. Endgame should have been about rising up from it and taking it back. Why is it more meaningful to end this chapter with tragedy than with joy and togetherness? 

Anyway.

I’ll start with Natasha.

BEWARE SPOILERS

Honestly my biggest problem with Natasha is that they didn’t bring her back. I had this problem with not bringing back everyone who wasn’t dusted, honestly. I thought that the scene between Natasha and Clint in pursue of the Soul Stone was one of the best scenes in the movie and it made perfect sense that both of them would try to sacrifice themselves. Natasha repaying what she saw as her life debt to Clint was very poignant. My problem is with the idea and framing of Natasha’s death as some sort of redemption for her character. I saw a reviewer say something of the effect that Natasha’s death was beautiful because finally the “red was wiped out of her ledger”.

Natasha was taken as a child, groomed to be an assassin, endured a lifetime of trauma, but she still wanted to make herself a better person and, with Clint’s help, she did! She changed her circumstances, she rose up against those who wronged her, she found friends she could trust who were like a family to her, and she spent FIVE YEARS at the Avengers base keeping the Avengers going, throwing herself into work to keep what was left of Earth as safe as possible. She had already done more than enough to wipe the red of her ledger. She was a hero. And it’s vile that she had to die for the greater good as redemption.

It’s even worst though, that she was not mourned properly. Her death was brushed aside so quickly and there was barely any reaction from the team. Clint and Bruce were clearly affected, but I was not impressed by Steve’s Single Tear™ over one of his closest friends or how everyone else just pretty much shrugged it off because you know, gotta move on with the plan. 

Someone had to die for the Soul Stone. I expected it. My friends and I all agreed pre-movie it would fall to Clint or Natasha. But having Natasha be brought back after the final snap would not erase the depth of emotion of the scene where she fights Clint for it, where she begs him to let her go, where she tries to comfort him before making the ultimate sacrifice for the world. Let her come back, let her be welcomed back as the hero she is, let her live out a happy life with her new family who loves her.

Natasha deserved better but then again, she deserved better throughout most of the MCU.

Tony is actually one of the parts of the movie where I felt they did too little in a way. And no I am not asking for more Tony screentime, but that I feel that the 5 year gap screwed over some characters and Tony was one of them. It was beautiful to see him having the family he always wanted, but it felt strange and distant that we didn’t get to see that happiness before it was fully realized. We missed out on the wedding, we missed out on Tony learning he would be a father. It was honestly a bit jarring to be pulled right into the middle of Tony being a husband and parent and living a quiet life without seeing how he got there, even though we can of course guess from his reaction after being rescued from space. It’s just that this was Tony’s endgame. We’ve known since IW. His literal dream was to have a child with Pepper. Personally, it would have been more satisfying to me to see him achieve it. But that’s a minor detail.

And the thing is, the fact that Tony was fully immersed in that life, that he was fully retired, already showed that you didn’t have to kill Tony to get him out of the game: he walked out of it willingly, and he fully intended to get back to his family life once they brought everyone back.

Him getting the stones and doing a call back to the very first Iron Man was spectacular. Honestly an amazing moment. His slow, painful death scene? Not so much. I don’t think he had to die. It felt more like they were killing a symbol than a character, to put a definite period on this chapter of the MCU. So by basically objectifying Tony as mattering more as a symbol, I believe his character integrity suffered. Tony was the one character always focused on preventing IW from happening. His methods have not always been the best, but he was driven by panic and PTSD and ultimately good intentions (even if, once  again, his actions haven’t always been The Best™). He wanted to protect the people that mattered to him, he wanted to go back to Pepper and to watch Morgan grow and be a better parent than what he got.

Killing Tony was unnecessary. Make Tony lose the arm. That’s how I would have handled it. The suit technology protects him long enough to be saved from dying, but he permanently loses his entire arm. He built it in a way that he would be able to make a gauntlet of it and use the stones, he could have also built it in a way that protected him from the after effects. It’s still a sacrifice, but it’s not his life. He can go back and live the rest of it. He can keep contributing to saving the world through his inventions without having to be in the center of the battle itself. It wouldn’t have taken away from the fact that he was willing to put down his life for the world (it’s not even the first time he did so), and it wouldn’t have taken away from how awesome his “I am Iron Man! *snap*” moment was!

Tony didn’t deserve this.

I’m not even sure what to say when it comes to Steve, I’m so angry and heartbroken.

I’ll say that, and maybe I’m extremely biased because he is my favourite MCU character, but I could live with all the other faults of the movie until they had Steve make the most possible out of character decision he could have and trash 8 years worth of movies and character development. That final decision made no sense, broke the movie’s own previously established rules, and was as far from a happy ending as possible.

You’re telling me Steve Rogers, whose character arc has been about moving forward, who has never been one to abandon his friends, who had built a life for himself in the future with a new family with the Avengers, who had just gotten his best friend and main motivator throughout 3 movies and arguably his most important relationship back, who knew Peggy had lived a full happy life, decided to be a gigantically selfish, cruel man and give up on everything he built to go back to the past and rob Peggy of her own life?! Over a relationship that we were shown him making peace with? When Peggy herself tells him the best thing he can do is move on and live his own life?

Steve’s arc has always been about moving forward and protecting what he had with all his might. Steve going back, abandoning everyone he knows and everything he achieved, isn’t him living his own life, it’s him robbing someone else’s, it’s him giving up and regressing completely. Not my Steve Rogers.

Not to mention, the fact that Steve shows up as an old man breaks so many canon established rules it’s not even worth getting into, it simply makes absolutely no sense. And no, don’t give me any of that “he closed his loop and was Peggy’s husband all along” because lol no, all past movies contradict that, and also that means Marvel supports Sharon getting with who she knows damn well is her uncle because it’s ok if he’s young and hot I guess.

There’s too much to say about Steve, it would be a whole essay on its own. I’ll just conclude with something that breaks my heart to say, but it’s where the movie brought me to:

Marvel might as well have killed Steve because what they did was character assassination. 

[wickedsingularity]

Christmas Miracle [one-shot]

wickedsingularity’s Christmas Stories 2018 Masterlist

Fandom: MCU Pairings/characters: Steve Rogers x reader (but not really), Wanda Maximoff, and all the Avengers post AOU/pre CACW (and @iguess-theyre-mymess starring as Sam Wilson's girlfriend/baking-partner) Words: 3747 Warnings: Angst, fluff, overworked, stress, nagging family, kissing, almost smut

Prompt/summary: When work and Christmas and sleep deprivation just becomes too much… Steve comes home from a mission and sets off a miracle. (Inspired partly by my own life and partly a Norwegian commercial.)

The busiest time of the year was busier than ever. It was also supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, but with all the rogue HYDRA agents running around it was just stress, stress and more stress. They'd been fairly quiet all year, but now, right before the holidays, they were everywhere. Steve and Natasha had been sent away to deal with the larger of the suddenly active groups, and I was running around at home, working my ass off.

As the IT manager to the Avengers and what was left of SHIELD, I shouldn't be too busy, Tony made sure we had state of the art equipment, and I was pretty damn good at my job if I could say so myself. But it seemed that everything went wrong lately. I barely had time for my usual duties, as I was called here and there to fix the most ridiculous problems. And in the middle of it all, our servers crashed and I tried my best to get it back online as it was vital to Steve and Natasha's mission, even though everyone else felt their buggy printers or out-of-battery-mice was more important.

After a long day of fixing screens that showed everything upside down and saving a hard drive from someone accidentally opening a malicious attachment to an email and fixing the server temporarily and not doing any of the maintenance I was supposed to do, I dragged myself home to an empty apartment. Dry toast was my dinner and the couch was my best friend. That was also where I was reminded of all the other things I had to do at home. The lists were there in front of me on the table after one panicked evening when I decided I needed to write it all down in an orderly fashion. All the Christmas presents I had to buy, I had even figured out what to get everyone. All the baking I had to do. All the cleaning and decorating.

I groaned and reached lazily for the remote and turned the TV on. I don't know what channel it opened on because at that moment I got a text. I touched the fingerprint scanner and saw that it was from my mom. Have you decided what to do for Christmas yet? Your old room is waiting for you!

Another groan and my heart rate sped up. I glanced for a moment further up the thread.

I don't know. I don't know when Steve will be home.

If he can't come, you're welcome to come alone. Though we'd love to see you both!

Have you talked to Steve yet? Your grandparents are eager to see you too!

I hadn't replied to the last two, prompting her to send the current one. Steve's mission was on radio silence and no one knew how long it would take. I contemplated chucking my phone out the window.

Someone bursting into a Christmas song on the TV caught my attention. A family was gathered around their open front door, a group of cheery carollers standing in the driveway. I don't know what movie it was, because I tuned out before the guilt could overwhelm me. Instead, I remembered all the laundry I had to put away and dishes I needed to clean and the windows that needed to be cleaned because I could barely see through them, but I couldn't move from the couch. I just stared blindly at the TV for a long time, my mind going over all the things I had to do in an endless loop until another text dragged me back to reality.

This one was from Wanda. Want to skip work tomorrow and come with me to help me find a present for Vision? He's not easy to shop for.

I was able to reply to this one. I wanted nothing more than to get away from everything for a bit and spend some time with Wanda, maybe even get started on the Christmas presents, but I couldn't. I would have loved to, I need to get some shopping done too, but I'm still swamped with work. Everyone is useless. Laughing emoji.

Wanda's reply was quick. Oh, I'm sorry. Just let me know if you can get away, or if I can do some shopping for you while I'm out. Followed by five hugging emojis.

Thanks, I'll let you know!

A flash of guilt for saying no to Wanda went through me, even though I knew I was being ridiculous. I had just said no to her too many times the last few weeks.

I was done for the day. It was about nine, but I still turned off the TV and got ready for bed. On top of everything, whenever Steve was gone, it took me ages to fall asleep, and when I did sleep, I slept poorly and woke up early. So, I figured, the earlier I got into the bed, the earlier I would sleep and maybe long poor sleep was better than short deep sleep.

A few days later, nothing had changed, except I was now working alone. I had a few people working under me as the IT manager. Good people too. But all of them had applied for time off before Christmas and I'd granted it to all of them, except the one who was out sick. I worked better on my own anyway, it was faster and easier than getting more people involved. It was a flaw I had, one I was very aware of and one I should probably work on right now. It would have taken a lot of weight off my shoulders.

But I just couldn't do it. Not now. I did my best to fix everyone's problems and make sure the makeshift fix on the server didn't buckle under the strain and tried not to think of all the things I never got around to.

I was sleep deprived and stressed. My entire body was a tight knot of muscles, every time I turned my head my neck protested and pain shot through my head, my brain worked a million miles a minute, and my heart rate was probably through the roof and I nearly had a heart attack every time the phone rang or someone called my name in that please help me-tone of voice. I kept thinking about all the things I had to get done at work before Christmas but seemed to never have time for, and all the neglected tasks at home. The holidays were just days away. I decided to force myself out to get presents after work.

But when I got out, I was starving and exhausted, so I went home and would try to find all the presents online. With express shipping, I might get them all in time. And then I could spend a little bit of time every day the rest of the week, getting the apartment ready. I was proud of this idea and felt some of the burden lift from my shoulders.

But all I could find online was one present. Everything else was sold out. I was just about to throw my laptop into the toilet and cancel Christmas when my phone went off. I jumped half a foot off the couch, but my heart nearly exploded when I saw Steve's contact picture grinning up at me. I answered right away.

"Hi, doll." His voice was like a balm for my soul.

"Hi... I miss you." I felt my voice almost break, but I swallowed it down and hoped he didn't notice.

"I miss you too. How is my best girl?"

"Busy. So busy. But it's that time of year. When are you coming home?"

"Couple of days. We're just finishing up now. Did you work out the server glitch?"

"Sort of. It's online for now, but it's only a temporary solution. I suspect HYDRA has something to do with it though, given all the other things happening. But I'm doing my best."

"I believe in you, sweetheart."

"Fingers crossed." I grinned into the phone, trying to sound hopeful, but was glad he couldn't see how my lips twisted into a tight line instead.

We were silent for a few moments. I could hear him breathing at the other end, and I tried to imagine us curled up in bed, him the big spoon, his breath on my neck and his arms tight around me.

"I really miss you," I said.

"Are you okay?" Steve sounded concerned now.

"Yeah," I lied. "I just miss you. It's Christmas after all."

"I'll be home in two days, three tops."

"I can't wait."

"Me neither. Nat is waving me over. I got to go. I love you, okay?"

I felt the lump in my throat. "I love you too, Steven Grant." The line went dead and I dropped the hand holding the phone into my lap. "So much."

Steve hadn't been entirely truthful. He was already on his way home when he called, and he wanted to surprise her. But the call worried him. There had been something in her voice, something that told him she wasn't just busy, something was wrong.

After he had relieved Natasha as pilot, letting her get some sleep, he had called Wanda. If anyone knew if his girl was hiding something, it was the Scarlet Witch.

"She's been working really hard, Steve, everyone is on her tail," Wanda had explained. "According to Maria, her entire staff is gone for the holidays, and she's been doing everything herself. She is everywhere trying to help everyone and everything seems to be buggy. And whenever I see her, she gets paler and stiffer and there's a pained frown on her face. I don't think she's sleeping well either."

It was just as Steve expected. "Have you picked up on any of her thoughts?"

"You know I try not to do that." Wanda had hesitated for a moment. "But I couldn't have even if I wanted to. There are many thoughts in there, bleeding out. I couldn't pick out one from the other, without putting my hands around her head."

Steve pushed the Quinjet a bit faster after he had hung up. The hours flying back went by too slowly for his liking. Even slower was the medical check-up and the debriefing after. He tried to reschedule the debriefing for the next day, or at least a few hours later, but no such luck. By the time he went back to the apartment at the facility, she had gone off to work.

Steve stood still just a few steps inside the door, looking around. Next to the couch stood a basket of laundry that needed to be folded and put away. The dishwasher door was open and the inside was filled to the brim with dirty dishes. There were no Christmas decorations, no sign of anything Christmassy anywhere. Kicking off his boots, he walked further in and saw the handwritten lists and sticky notes on the coffee table. She had made orderly lists, and it made him crack a small smile, it was so typical her. They were sorted into what needed to be done around the house, what presents to buy for everyone, what Christmas decorations were to be put up, and what cookies to bake. Each list had a checkbox for "started" and "finished". The only thing checked off as finished was one of the presents for Tony, with a yellow sticky note next to it saying "online, estimated 23rd". No check marks in the started-columns.

He sighed and went into the bedroom to unpack his bag and take a much-needed shower. As he sat the bag down on the foot of the bed, he noticed that her side of the bed was barely slept in. Instead, her pillow had replaced his, and his was further down as if she'd been holding it while she slept. Steve's heart broke as he just imagined how these weeks had been for her. He knew she didn't sleep well without him, he didn't sleep well without her either. And she'd been so busy and she'd not had time for anything, she hadn't even answered her mother about Christmas judging by the texts Steve himself had gotten with questions about why she hadn't replied.

He set his bag on the floor, that could wait until later. And then he put the pillows back in their rightful place, pulled the covers up as neatly as he could.

"FRIDAY, are the others in and available right now?"

"Welcome home, Captain Rogers. Miss Romanoff is in the shower. Everyone else is in and available."

"Could you ask them to meet me here in half an hour? And could you call in Tony too? Say it's sort of a family emergency."

"Of course, Captain Rogers."

Steve tore off his uniform and went straight into the shower to wash away the grime of the mission. It was the quickest shower he'd taken his whole life. Body barely dry, he pulled on the first clothes he could find and got straight to work on the dishes, getting the machine started and handwashing the rest he could find.

Half an hour almost on the dot, there was a knock on the door. He told FRIDAY to open the door and Vision floated through before it was halfway open. Shortly after him, Wanda, Sam and Rhodey came in. And wet hair blowing behind her, a newly showered Natasha came running inside seconds later.

"What is this about a family emergency?" Rhodey asked.

"My poor girl has been working her ass off and has been running left and right to help everyone else but herself. I haven't been home to help out either. I was hoping we could all help her now. Before she gets home?"

They all nodded to a chorus of "of course".

Steve breathed out a sigh of relief. He would have tried to do it all himself if he had to, but he was glad they all wanted to help. He walked over to the coffee table and the lists there. "Sam, can I ask you to bake some cookies? You don't have to make everything on this list, but at least the ones that take the least time?"

The Falcon nodded and took the list Steve handed over. "I know just the person to help me with this," he said with a grin getting his phone out and walking over to the kitchen to make a call.

"This is a shopping list?" Wanda asked, grabbing one of the lists. "Vision and I can get this."

"Thank you, both of you. I can cross out what she's getting you, and get them myself later," Steve said.

"No, no, we'll look appropriately surprised."

Steve nodded and found his wallet, pulling out a credit card for them. "Rhodey, Nat, could you help me clean and decorate? If Tony shows up, he can help with that too."

"Sure, anything you need," Rhodey replied and Natasha nodded.

Steve looked around at them, and he had never been more grateful for each and every one of them. "Thank you, all of you. I know it's a lot of work and you probably have better things to do this close to Christmas, but I really appreciate this."

"It's no worry, Steve," Sam said, having just hung up and walked over while folding up the baking list. "We've all seen her getting more and more stressed lately. She's family, we're all family."

"This is what family does," Wanda added.

Soon, the apartment was filled with the fresh smell of soap. Dishes and laundry were dealt with, and Tony arrived with a gorgeous, plump spruce. Down the hall, the smell of baking made everyone salivate. Wanda sent pictures when she couldn't find the exact thing on the list and asked Steve for advice about what to get instead.

Decorating was next and everyone came in to help out a bit, while the gingerbread cookies were cooling before frosting, and when Wanda and Vision had finished all the gift shopping and placed them neatly wrapped around and under the tree in the common area.

It had been some long, hard hours, but the place was transformed. Steve had made sure everything was just the way she liked it and he couldn't wait for her to come home to this surprise. He didn't know how to thank everyone, but they assured him it was their pleasure as they left to let him rest for a little bit before she came home.

Steve sat down on the couch and looked around. It was almost perfect, there was just one thing left. He grabbed his phone and dialled a number.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Steve."

"Oh, hi, Steve, dearest! How are you? How is my baby girl?"

"We're good, thank you. I just called to let you know what's happening for Christmas. I'm really sorry, but something has come up at work for both of us. We can't make it."

"Oh, what a shame... It's been so long since we've seen our precious daughter, and there are so many people who are dying to finally meet you."

"I know. We're really sorry. We'll try to take a few days after New Year's if that's okay with you."

"Yes, please do! Have a Merry Christmas both of you and try not to work too hard!"

"We'll try. Merry Christmas to you too, say hi to everyone for us!"

Another day of being pulled in every direction. Another day where I could barely get a moment to spare for what I was supposed to work on, instead I was helping everyone else with silly things, and no closer to a permanent solution on the server glitch. Another day closer to Christmas and nothing was done. And still two days until Steve came home. I didn't even want Christmas anymore.

The halls in the building were quiet. There was a lingering smell of baking, and I felt a stab of guilt at all the baking I had yet to do. Tears pricked at the back of my eyes.

"Well, I can always try again next year," I mumbled to myself as I pressed my hand to the scanner next to the door and it swung open. The apartment was dark, I was sure I had left at least the kitchen light on. I frowned. "FRIDAY, could you please turn on the lights?"

"Of course."

The whole apartment was flooded with light and I gasped. A tree, lights, stars, tinsel, Santas, it was all there. And from the couch, a figure emerged.

"Steve?"

"Hi, doll."

My purse dropped from my hands and I ran across the room and jumped into his arms. He made a sound as if the air was knocked out of him and then chuckled, his arms wrapping around me. But seeing him and feeling him after the past three weeks of hell without him and what he had clearly done for me, just made the damn burst. His name was wrenched from me in a whine before I buried my face in his neck and the tears fell freely from my eyes.

"Oh doll," he said and sat down on the couch with me still wrapped around him. "It's okay." His arms tightened around me, holding me as close as he could. He whispered in my ear, probably all the reassurances he could think of, but he could have been reciting all the numbers in Pi for all I cared. It was his voice and his warmth and the safety I felt around him that I cared about at that moment as all the stress and worries bled out of me. I hadn't wanted Steve to know how hard it had been, but somehow, he always knew, always found out. He could read me without seeing me, just like I could read him.

I don't know how long it was before I calmed down. But when I did, I was starving, and it was the growling of my stomach that had me pulling away from his drenched shirt.

"Don't worry, I've got dinner in the fridge, it just needs warming up," Steve said, his hands cradling my face, thumbs wiping at the wetness below my eyes.

"I thought you said you'd be home in two or three days," I said, frowning. "Not that I'm not happy to see you."

"I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, colour me surprised. How did you manage all this?"

"Everyone helped. All the gifts are bought and wrapped. There are cookies in the jars and boxes on the counter. The place is sparkling clean and festive."

My breath of relief turned into a chuckle and then laughter, and I couldn't stop. Steve's smile grew and grew until he too started laughing. I fell sideways on the couch and off his lap, lying on my back and heaved for my breath.

Steve leaned over, planting a kiss on my cheek and that finally made me stop. "I'm sorry," I said, my voice shaky. "You just came home from a mission and you're probably so tired and you haven't even had time to process it because you had to do all this and I just cry and laugh and I'm just a mess."

"I'm just glad to be home again and I'm happy I could help you get this done." He climbed in between my legs and finally pressed his lips against mine. The last bit of stress rolled off me and I hummed. "Oh, and if anyone in your family asks," he whispered against my lips, "something came up at work for both us," his lips moved down to my neck, "and we can't visit for Christmas."

"Oh, how I love you, Steven Grant Rogers," was all I managed to say.

His lips moved lazily against my neck, finding that spot just below my ear that turned me into putty in his arms. I raised my hips, grinding them against his, feeling the need for him bubble up inside me. But then he pulled back and sat up. "I love you too. But go take a quick shower and I'll warm up dinner. Your stomach is still growling."

I groaned and tried to kick him, but he dodged my legs and was up and by the fridge before I could say "bastard".

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[asgardianhammer]

*

(( Some Marvel Wank: An Essay by Mir, or, How And What Shall Be Ignored 5Ever Regarding Endgame. ( SPOILER HEAVY BEYOND THE CUT YOU DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND, SO MUCH SPOILER )

To be honest, I am rewatching both Infinity War and Endgame this weekend, but for now I need to pour some salt truths and thoughts out about mostly Endgame. Very frankly speaking, Infinity War was mostly acceptable but also sort of forgettable in a weird ‘ I like it but I kinda don’t ‘ sort of way. It’s hard to explain, I might actually better liveblog into 1 post when I watch it again so I don’t miss any... thoughts on what happened.

----

Where do I actually even begin with it? As someone who has watched Marvel start with Thor’s story, and abandon any sense and reason when it comes to his character development, I feel Endgame was honestly just a final nail in the coffin of an already deteriorated version of an otherwise glorious character. The final noose around his neck, the falling chop of the guillotine if you will. The weirdest thing is that they sort of did other characters dirty by doing Thor dirty, which is something I didn’t expect but oh well... ( sans Steve, per usual <3 )

New Asgard: I love the idea of it. I had envisioned the remaining Asgardians would be allowed to settle somewhere, and it makes sense it would be by a shore but also with mountains. Even though they would thrive in woodlands and mountains I feel the connection to the Vikings of old would give them this opportunity, and the location is fitting. Do I suspect they will resurrect Asgard properly at some point? Absolutely. They would want to rebuild much of their former home, and I feel that would be only possible off-Earth, possibly hovering above it.

Vakyrie: It warmed my heart to see her thrive, and seemingly happy. I don’t like it when trauma and PTSD, ( and gods know what else ) is glossed over by movies, but it’s understandable they couldn’t focus in depth on her character, or the Asgardians for that matter. That still doesn’t mean my greedy ass didn’t want it, or means that all is well and good, emotionally and mentally, for her ( or any of them ).

Thor: - cracks knuckles - Listen, my bias for him as a character should be clear and well known at this point. Everything about him, about the setup, intro, continuation and the overall approach was a joke, literally... 

I find it acceptable he wouldn’t be in a palace anymore, their main priority is getting their people back into the swing of normal life, coping with said life and this new world, and supporting each other. Nobody cares about glitter and gold at this point, and Thor def wouldn’t. He would NOT however live away from them. Post Infinity War, post everything, his people is what matters most to him right now, and getting revenge on Thanos. Showing him as a recluse makes no sense, and he would never, period.

Continuing on from that idea, let me make one thing very clear. I’m NOT against the loss of his physique, or whatever the hell that means, I’m not against the notion that he suffers from (suvivors) guilt, depression, and that various other issues would haunt and plague him to no end. Including poor coping mechanisms that goes with that. But painting him as someone who would wallow in self-pity, after everything he has experienced and been through, after everything he has lost? Not in a million fucking years.

These tantrums, and whining, and staying hung up on mistakes and a lost battle of all things, is going against everything he has learned over the years ( and considering both Taika and the Russo bros shat on all previous movies and everything they displayed, I shouldn’t have been surprised). Thor has grown and evolved from that brash, foolhearted boy, CHILD he was, with every step he has taken since being dropkicked in New Mexico, and with every loss and grief he had to endure since then. He was raised by a father who demanded loyalty and bravery from him since the day he was born, and raised by a mother who taught him compassion and seeing the good in others. He had friends ( AND LET’S NOT FRICKEN FORGET SIF IS STILL OUT THERE SOMEWHERE TYVM, don’t even get me started ) that have taught him how to persevere, that have encouraged him and brought him down a peg each time his head got too big. He is a MAN now, someone who doesn’t hide or run from his responsibilities, and definitely someone who will NEVER allow the woe is me to take his focus of his purpose. And speaking of purpose....

Not A King: Thor has always been reluctant to take the throne, this has been a red thread through his arc in the MCU, with waxing and waning intensity towards the issue. But judging by the comments ( mostly of the casual fans, but def some of the die hards as well ) people seem to believe he doesn’t want to be king at all. Honestly, I disagree so hard it makes my body itch. Thor is not Odin, and Thor has rarely understood, let alone agreed with how his father ruled. He didn’t want to be a king LIKE HIM. He didn’t want to be caged on a throne, and ( seemingly ) rule without a heart, without ACTIVELY doing something. That’s what he didn’t want. He is tempest made flesh, he has compassion and a heart, and he needs to DO SOMETHING. And he didn’t feel, for a very long time he was capable to be and act as a king without Loki, without someone by his side to do the ‘ hard stuff ‘, he thought he was incapable of doing what was necessary. He has believed himself unworthy often, of both his hammer and definitely of the throne, and after all this he will not cower and hide, and play Fortnite ( he would be an Overwatch or Skyrim dude anyway tyvm). This is why this... characterization if you may call it that, this story of self-pity and loss of confidence, is outright bullshit. It implies, once again, that he doesn’t learn from the past, and it’s regressing his character so much it’s painful. He would never ever run from his responsibilities, at this point in his life, and that’s why I cannot accept his renouncing of the throne, in whatever form that may be.

The Running Gag And Why It’s Gross For All Involved: I understand that contrast is funny by default, and that extremes, in characters, can be hysterical at times. I didn’t appreciate the Thor Is Fat jokes running through the movie, constantly. It made everyone participating looking like a douche in the process ( Rhodey for example, was so utterly disappointing I legit gasped...). Rocket is a character I expected cheap things from, but the OG 6 ( sans Steve, bless ) participating in it was so OOC for them it was cringe. They were there during the battle in Infinity War... they KNOW what he feels, they understand the guilt. And they would NOT act this way towards Thor.

A Moment Of Brightness: I’m happy with the closure he received with Frigga, fricken finally, but of course it had to be ruined by the ‘ eat a salad ‘ bit. Frigga would not give a rat’s ass about her child being fat, ffs. Steve wielding Mjolnir was magnificent and complies with my headcanons from years and years it makes my heart sing. Steve in general was a jewel in a sea of shit. The throwbacks to other movies were ingenious.

What We Needed But Never Received: A moment between Loki and Thor, at the very least, to offer some closure there as well. T’challa and his people being more than just canon fodder. Captain Marvel being used properly. Multiple characters just... being more than just screen filler.

In Conclusion: This topped my very disliked Ragnarok and that’s saying something. A proper synopsis will follow of course, and updates on the verses page per movie. As it stands I’ll probably be like 80 - 90 % canon divergent since the AoU era, and that’s frankly a-okay with me. 

[qqueenofhades]

Oh dear 😅 Okay so basically part one was me saying how someone was complaining that Maria's whole character was how perfect she was and how they were upset that we didn't get to know her better, and I said that's kind of the entire point? Especially because Frank even said to David that he only remembers good things, and then part three was me saying that while this is yes the trope of women being used for male development, because it's Frank, the application of this trope is a good one

(part 2) his memories are always of her loving him. we don’t get to know who Maria truly is because we were robbed of that, just like he was. We only see her as how Frank remembers her, and of COURSE she’s gonna be perfect and loving because that’s what frank is choosing to remember (and like what a beautiful thing to be remembered as??)

(part 4) and of course he is going to imagine her as beautiful and perfect and he’s going to keep that memory untouched by his reality because he sees who he has become. I am not going into detail about his children, but I of course recognize that they were also taken from him too, but someone was specifically complaining about Maria’s character and i felt like they missed the whole point? Idk what are your thoughts on this/might you be able to put what i’m trying to say into better words 😂

Well, as noted, I only got two parts of this ask (glares at Tumblr) and despite your many and valiant efforts, parts 1 and 3 never came through on any of your attempts. You have the patience of a saint, so bless you. 

(It turns out I have a lot to say on this topic, so brace yourselves?)

By definition, the “dead wife” trope is going to involve some of this, since it’s still totally standard practice to kill off a woman (mother/daughter/wife, but usually wife) to explain a male character’s motivation, and usually to induce us to support him on his vengeance quest. Most of my trash male favorites have or had a dead wife/similar romantic partner at some point, and a lot of the narrative’s success at convincing us that this is a sympathetic character, regardless of the other violent/angsty/anti-heroic things that he does, rests on selling to us that he truly loved his wife (and vice versa, though we also have the Surprise Evil Now Not Dead Wife glares very very hard at Timeless) and it was a travesty that she was taken from him in an unfair way by people much more evil than him. Since Frank’s entire initial character motivation, for much of his to-date appearance in the modern MCU, rests on getting vengeance (often in spectacular and bloody fashion) for the people who killed his wife and kids, in some sense, yes, that emotional thread is necessary. If we’re going to be like “yeah Frank, shank eight more mobsters!” and continue to see him as someone for whom we have an investment in the positive outcome of his story, he needs to be, in some sense, doing the right thing, however badly or violently. And yes, the Dead Wife and Dead Mother trope for protagonists just… happen a lot. Everywhere.

Next, while fandom is in often many cases predominantly female, it still has a lot, a lot, of internalized misogyny to deal with. Dead wives are viewed suspiciously and as possible obstacles to ships, especially when her widower has moved on to a new canon/onscreen relationship with someone else. By virtue of seeing it develop, viewers are more invested in this one, and when dead wives return for whatever reason, she is often implicitly or explicitly used for ship drama with the current couple (glares at Timeless again). This sets her up to be disliked from the start, since we all know shippers aren’t really the most rational creatures in the world at all times and are eager to look for/invent reasons to dislike a character being outright used to keep their OTP apart. If for some reason Maria DID return to life (not at all likely, if not out of the question in the MCU) I can imagine that she would probably, unfortunately, receive some of the same treatment. This happened a lot in the OUAT fandom, where shippers relentlessly villainized a male character’s past/dead love interest (in this case, Milah, for Captain Hook) because it was somehow felt necessary to make the current ship (CS) more valid if the previous one was discounted. Milah was a complicated character and not one that I particularly personally was invested in, but yeah, we know complicated women get turned into “bitch” or “ship obstacle” PDQ. Here, again, I am obliged to glare at Timeless a third time. And when she and Emma met in canon, it was respectful, they both worked together to save the man they loved, and then Milah got fridged AGAIN, which was pretty rage-inducing even if you didn’t like her all that much. Also, the OUAT fandom was extremely tribal in the shipping regard as it was, so yes.

Now, with the overall commentary on Dead Wives out of the way, onto Maria. As you note, and Frank himself notes, he is an extremely unreliable narrator when it comes to Maria. What we know about her canonically/outside his dreams/nightmare about her is the following:

She was Italian Catholic (probably like him) since her grandmother came over from Sicily, and a good cook;

She met Frank in a park by telling him to play a better song;

She got pregnant with Lisa three months into their relationship and told Frank that he could leave if he wanted, but she was keeping the baby, and instead Frank proposed to her that day;

Frank was absent for the birth of at least one and probably both of their children (“we serve 15-month tours in Afghanistan… you leave, you’ve got a pregnant wife, you come back, the kid’s walking”);

By Frank’s own admission, he sometimes preferred to be overseas with his unit rather than at home with her and the kids, which is probably not a reflection on how happy their relationship was, but the fact that Frank really flat-out enjoys being a soldier and indeed, killing;

Maria could probably be very jealous at times and had a hot temper (as Frank tells Karen in the diner scene in DD 2x11, she could be vicious and put him through the wringer emotionally)

She was close to Billy and viewed him as part of their family;

Frank’s last memory of her is her coming to wake him up on the morning after he returned from his last deployment, which is also the day that she and the kids were killed, because they went to the carousel later and were shot. That is the memory that keeps playing in his nightmares/increasingly deteriorates, with him witnessing her being shot in their bedroom and then by himself (which is of course not what happened).

The one time that memory continues on past her just waking him up, in TP 1x12 when Frank is being tortured by Orange, it’s clear that their relationship has suffered from Frank’s long absences and preference to be overseas/at war, and Maria asks him point-blank where home is, says he’s here but not really here, and wants to know if he is yet again going to be mentally somewhere else.

Anyway, all of that points to the fact that Maria was probably a complex human woman, like most women are, and had mixed feelings about her husband’s addiction to war and violence, even as he was by all accounts a good and loving husband to her and father to their children. Frank himself clearly states that he feels guilty about not paying more attention to them while they were alive, so of course, yes, he has valorised their memory and put them on a pedestal and made them the all-consuming reason for his vengeance. I’d say that part of his motive is to keep punishing himself, as well as the actual killers, over his guilt and regret about what he lost with them – some of it unavoidably, and some of it by his own choices. As he indeed says to David, their relationship was not perfect, because no one’s is, but now he only remembers the nice/good/beautiful parts of it. Which is a fairly understandable response to losing a loved one, especially in a horrific/traumatic way like he did.

And yes, exactly, the tragedy is that we DON’T get to know Maria outside Frank’s highly idealised and increasingly fantasised memories of her. She is dead, and he continues to struggle over and over with that fact, even as there is an awareness that he is starting to move on. He already compared how he feels about another woman (Karen) to how David feels about Sarah (his living/current wife). In some sense, Frank has started to/to some degree already fallen in love with someone else, and the entire end of S1 was him coming to terms with his trauma in some part, having to let Maria go (“come home, Frank” / “I am home”) and figuring out how his life looks now. But he clearly loved her very much, she loved him the same, and he’s willing to burn down the world for her and for their children, so we certainly can’t say that she was anything less than someone he loved with his whole heart and soul and had built a life and family with, with all the problems that go with that. And that should definitely be defended.

[desperatelyreviewingdennis]

Endgame

By basically any metric, Endgame was strictly inferior to Infinity War. It was a solid conclusion to he MCU, they wrapped things up nicely. But they really didn't meet the bar they set in the last movie. Visually, sound design, effects, all the technical aspects they nailed.  As always.  But the *story*?  The plot, the meat and bones of it?  Abysmal.  

I don’t remember *exactly* how I felt leaving Infinity War.  I know I did not like it as much as most, I felt they rushed too much into the one story, and they would have been better off with a trilogy [Guardians of the Galaxy 3 followed by Infinity War and Endgame].  I disliked Thor’s sequence in the film in particular, and thought the Snap was poorly handled because it was obviously going to be undone in the next movie so there was no emotional punch [although Peter Parker sure tried, even knowing he’s not really dead that scene stings].  Despite the flaws, though, I felt the movie was largely solid.  The writers crammed too much into one film, but most narrative threads were fully realized and the ones that weren’t have a whole nother movie to wrap up.  Upon a couple rewatches, my opinion has grown.  The tightness of it all is much more apparent, and Thor’s sequence is now my favorite in the movie, despite basically being a retread of his arc in Ragnarok. 

So maybe once I will reevaluate this once its on DVD.  But I suspect my opinion isn’t going to change.  The issues are more fundamental, and there’s no sequel planned to fix the problems.  Honestly, I wonder how much of the writing team carried over, because this movie doesn’t feel like it was the planned sequel to Infinity War.

Also, it seems clear that there was some executive meddling in places that would suggest the problems of Ms Marvel are going to carry forward.

I don’t want to say its a bad movie.  Ms Marvel was a bad movie.  Iron Man 2 was a bad movie.  For the first two thirds of the movie, it had its issues but nothing irredeemable.  And the stuff it did right it did really really right.  The last act, though, really dragged the whole thing down.

Spoilers abound after the break.

First of all, I never watched so much as a trailer for this movie. I wanted to go in completely free from assumptions. I'm glad I did, but I don't know what other people took from different scenes with that additional context.

Movie opens with Hawkeye's family getting dusted. I hate Hawkeye so that was immensely satisfying.

Next scene less so. Why did Tony and Nebula get on the damaged ship? What was their end game (no pun intended)? Not a huge deal but right off the bat I'm questioning character motives. Not a good sign.

Oh, it's because if they're on a ship it's easier for Ms Marvel to save the day. How did she find them? Was she specifically looking for Stark? Why? Nobody on Earth knew what happened with him. Was there a distress signal? Can she sense those now? Nobody knows, and we're not going to find out. The only thing we learn about Ms Marvel is that she didn't help out during the previous movies because she was busy on other planets. I mean, come on. 

The sequence between Stark and Rogers back on Earth was spot on and I loved it.  This will be a recurring theme, specific scenes being perfect with the surrounding material being crud.

They then kill Thanos and we time skip five years. That was actually pretty cool, and an unexpected turn of events.  Take notes, Rian Johnson.  My expectations were subverted but it didn't make me want to murder the Russo's. It does sort of abandon the child Gamora scenes from Infinity War.  Everybody thought that was supposed to be her actual soul in the soul stone, but the Soul Stone is now destroyed so maybe it was just Thanos being crazy?  Maybe it’ll come up later in the movie [Ron Howard: It won’t.]

Commence exposition. Couple thoughts. One, I hated Bruce Banner. The Hulk was a separate, unique personality. Banner killed him, and took over his body. We can debate the morality of it, but I just found it unsatisfying. It all happened off camera, and they never really explain why The Hulk refused to fight in Infinity War. I assumed it was because he was afraid, the Russo's claim it was because he was tired of being Banner's  lap dog. Either way, that character was killed unceremoniously during a time skip and never mentioned again.

Two, Banner’s pretty confident in how Time Travel is going to work.  Time Travel has never been a thing except with Dr Strange, and the two never sat down to discuss the subject before the later was turned to dust.   So where is his confidence coming from?  Their entire plan hinges on him being correct.  What really bugs me about this is that, with about thirty seconds of actual discussion [rather than the comic relief listing time travel movies and Banner shutting them down], they could have reached the same conclusion.  “Why don’t we prevent the snap from happening in the first place?” “Because that would be a paradox, and we don’t know how time responds to paradoxes.  Maybe we all live happily ever after, maybe time itself implodes.  But if we undo the snap in the present, we know exactly what will happen.”   But instead he just knows.  And, oh, also he’s wrong.  We figure that out later in the movie, but never really address it.  

Tony with his daughter was perfect and I loved it.  It was a little unsatisfying that he just sort of tinkered with time travel for an afternoon and figured everything out, but that’s sort of his thing so it works.

Thor... less perfect.  Look, this is the third movie in a row now that is about Thor losing everything then regaining his power.  They did it in Ragnarok.  They did it better in Infinity War.  Do they really need to do it again in End Game?  In fact, it occurs to me just now as I’m writing this that was the plot to the first Thor as well.  So this is four times now that we’ve been in this exact situation.  I’m just done with it, you know?  The scenes were funny enough, and I certainly understand *why* the character is in that place, emotionally, but being understandable is no excuse for retreading old ground.

So now we’re time traveling.  This was like 90% great, but the 10% really drags the whole thing down. 

We’ll start with the Power Stone.  Having Nebula reconnect to the interstellar wifi was inspired.  Obviously they need Thanos to figure out the plan and move to stop it, otherwise there’s no climax.  Obviously there’s no present day Thanos to do that, so it has to be past Thanos.  This also wraps up one of the nagging threads from the first movie.  Thanos has been hunting for these things for years, then just stumbles upon all of them in a couple months?  It seemed a little convenient, but now they’ve shown that he had inspiration from the future telling him exactly where he could find them all.  Just wow.  Then having past Nebula take present Nebula’s place?  I loved it.

Next, time stone.  Remember my annoyance with Banner’s overconfidence earlier?  Here Banner being told he’s full of shit, but they just sort of ignore it.  Its not that you can’t change the past, its that when you change the past you create an alternate reality, and that alternate reality might be super shitty so you shouldn’t do it.  But they hand wave it away with a promise to return the stones back to where they belong on the timeline, so that the timeline doesn’t “branch” and Banner ends up technically correct.  So it works, I’ll put this in the 90% great category.

But here’s the 10% shit: how did The Sorcerous Supreme know how great Dr. Strange was going to be? She can’t see past her own death, but she knows how powerful Strange becomes after she dies?  But she doesn’t know about the Snap, so they’re definitely sticking to the original rules, this isn’t a retcon.  But Strange is dead, so how does he know everything works out?  In fact, not only is Strange dead, the time stone is dead too.  He used the time stone to go further into the future than the time stone itself exists.  This would have been a perfect opportunity to close some loose threads, but they missed them.

Also the scene after they arrive in New York where Banner half heartedly destroys some stuff was pretty cringe.  I think they were playing it as a joke, and people in the audience definitely laughed, but it really drove home the earlier point about how they killed off The Hulk and replaced him with a Green Bruce Banner.  

Next up: Space and Mind Stones.  Talk about important McGuffins.  Studying the Tesseract lead to the creation of SHIELD and Hydra and Captain America and eventually Ms Marvel.  Studying Captain America lead to the creation of The Hulk.  The Mind Stone created Vision, Quicksilver, and the Scarlett Witch. Important stuff here.

But anyhow, 90% good.  Everything was great right up until the end.  The plan, the banter, everything worked for me.  I even loved the bit about “America’s Ass.”  I do wonder if that wasn’t a response to criticisms of Brie Larson’s ass in Ms Marvel?  Or just commentary on comics drawing attention to asses in general?  I’m not sure but I liked it.

10% shit: the plan goes sideways at the last minute, and Loki escapes with the Tesseract.  Ok, now, its been a while since I watched the first Avengers movie, but I don’t remember Loki escaping with the Tesseract?  Isn’t that exactly what Banner said can’t happen, and the Sorcerous Supreme made Banner promise he wouldn’t let happen?  A branch in he timeline?  That’s a pretty goddamn significant change in history.  But whatever, we’re never going to comment on it.  A rogue infinity stone, in the hands of a crazy person, NBD.

So Stark and Rogers go further into the past to steal the Tesseract from SHIELD before Loki could steal it from Rogers stealing it from Hydra stealing it from the Avengers.  No complaints here, Some nice foreshadowing for Rogers, and Stark gets closure with his father.  It was great.

Finally, Soul Stone.  Look, I have always hated Hawkeye, since the first Thor, and love Black Widow so that’s all I have to say about that.  Except that Nat doesn’t get the sort of closure Stark and Rogers do.  Can’t really blame the writers on this one, they didn’t have a lot to work with, but its still disappointing.  At least it wasn’t a pointless death and her and Barton got some time together. 

Finally: the Ether/Reality Stone.  This was just an extension of the previous “we’ve covered this already why is this here?” issue around Thor.  Him getting Mjolnir was pretty tight, though, not gonna lie.  

So now we’re back in the present, we have all the Stones and past Nebula has infiltrated the group.  First of all: this would have been a great place for an Intermission.  Like, seriously, There are literally no dangling story lines, everything’s come back together to one location, and you’ve got a couple minutes of downtime before the action starts anyhow.  Just give people ten minutes to piss, please.

First of all, how did Past Nebula bring an entire fucking battle ship into the present?  Like, they had just enough Pym Particles to get their team back once.  Sure, they picked up some extras but she couldn’t have been expecting that, and the memories she got from Present Nebula should have made that clear.  So what was her end game (no pun intended)?  And if they could send a ship full of people all at once, why didn’t the Avengers do that?  Take the entire team back at once, leaving themselves with eight more doses if they fail.  

Moving on, the scene were they use the stone worked for me, given what they’ve done so far.  Specifically, with respect to the Hulk.  But bear with me here: what if they hadn’t fucked up the Hulk?  Imagine a movie where Banner doesn’t kill a character off camera.  He’s just a regular guy the entire movie.  Maybe they ask him if he still has issues with Hulking out and he says “no, I guess he got tired of cleaning up my messes so now he refuses to come out even when I need him to.”  Then, as Thor is about to don the glove, Banner transforms and everybody is certain he’s about to ruin everything when he puts the glove on himself and snaps his fingers.  After, his body is still green but its Bruce talking.  He doesn’t sense the Hulk inside him anymore.  He sacrificed himself because he knew he could do it and Thor couldn’t.

Just a thought.  As I said, the scene works as it is.

We establish the plan works, then suddenly THANOS.  Opportunity #2 for an intermission.  They launch the barrage of missiles, then fade to black, see you in ten minutes.  Would have been epic.

So we get a nice, super satisfying scene with the three original Avengers fighting Thanos.  Thor is fucking dual wielding, yes please.  And the scene where Steve catches Mjolnir?  I was literally hard.  But Thanos is even more powerful than he was in Infinity War.  Remember Infinity War, that movie a YEAR OLD written and directed by THE SAME PEOPLE?  In that one, Stark went toe to toe with Thanos in control of the Infinity Stones and held his own.  In this one, Thanos has no problem taking down a dual wielding Thor, and literally destroys Cap’s Shield without even the use of the Power Stone.  Its just... blah.  

Now, when things are at their worse: MAGIC.  Literally, Dr Strange uses magic to save the day.  Its not a complaint, its just what happens.  Again, SUPER satisfying.  But lots of things stick out.  One, half the Wakandan army just woke up from being dusted.  As far as they’re concerned its been like half an hour since Infinity War, but they’re all in pretty good shape.  Even if you assume the Wakandan army was made up of survivors, they sure mobilized quickly.  That’s impressive.  Two, where did Valkyrie get a fucking Pegasus?  They’re all dead, remember?  Hela killed them thousands of years ago, it was kind of a big deal.  Yeah, neat scene, loved seeing it, but it doesn't belong.  Third, Pepper Potts shows up.  She abandoned her five year old child to fight alongside Tony.  I get there’s an end of the world argument to be made, but it still doesn’t seem in character.  Both for her to do it, and for Tony to not call her out for it.

Still, nice satisfying fight scene.  Things still kind of go south, though, they just can’t seem to beat Thanos’s army.  Wouldn’t it be convenient if a flying god were to show up for no reason and destroy the battleship causing all the trouble?  That would be convenient, but they’re better writers than that. [Ron Howard: they were not]

To add insult to injury, they literally divide the heroes by sex and have a scene where all the women are together launching an attack.  It wasn’t even like a natural progression of the battle, where the women are thrown together.  Just the one shot of all them showing up for no reason.  

There was no corresponding scene with the male heroes.  

But I’m sure that’s just a coincidence and they weren’t pandering for woke points.

At one point Thanos grabs the Power Stone with his bare hands and uses it to blast somebody [I think Ms Marvel but I don’t remember].  He doesn’t appear to suffer any ill affects, 

Finally, Tony Stark’s big moment.  People were literally weeping in the theater.  I loved it so much.  It was honestly perfect.  Killing everybody wasn’t what I expected, I thought they’d be sent back to the past to preserve the timeline or whatever, but this way it mirrored the end of Infinity War so thematically this works better.

Everything after that was basically shit.

First of all, this movie suffers from a serious case of Return of the King Syndrome.  There was like half an hour of movie left after Thanos died the second time.  Christ.

Past Gamora might or might not still be alive in the present?  She kicks Star Lord in the nuts then kind of vanishes.  There’s no reason to assume Tony’s snap wouldn’t have killed her along with the rest of the past army, but they also didn’t resurrect Present Gamora so she probably survived for Guardians 3. Starlord is using the computer to search for her at the end, but Thor keeps trying to stop him because I guess he’s a prick now?

Also Thor retires.  Just quits.  Names Valkyrie Queen of the Asgardians.  That’s the conclusion of his story.  He just goes off to find himself, gonna spend some time with the Guardians of the Galaxy see where life takes him. Because that’s satisfying.

They still have to return the infinity stones, along with Mjolnir.  Rogers gets to do the honors, and he makes it pretty clear to everybody that he’s saying his goodbyes.  Somehow, nobody notices, and everybody’s super surprised when he doesn’t come back after.  Apparently, he choses to return to the 40s and live out his life with Peggy.  I liked this, it was a satisfying conclusion to his story.  He found a way back to the love of his life.  Nice.

Here’s what’s not nice.  Bucky and Falcon see old Steve sitting near by.  Bucky, Steve’s childhood friend who owes his life to the fact Steve never stopped believing in him, sends Falcon over to talk to him.  Because...I don’t fucking know.  Why didn’t they both just go talk to him?  Why didn’t they call over Bruce, who was standing right there trying to figure out what went wrong?  No, its Falcon’s time.

But more importantly: HOW IS STEVE THERE?  You can’t change the past.  Bruce tells us that.  The Sorcerous Supreme shows us that changes in the past create alternate timelines leaving the original in tact.  They pulled Thanos into the present and killed him before he could collect the Infinity Stones, but the snap still happened.  Present Nebula shot Past Nebula in the heart but didn’t wink out of existence. 

But somehow, when Steve goes into the past, he doesn’t create an alternate timeline where Captain America survives the war. He just inserted himself into the prime timeline, and waited until he had a chance to say hi to his old friend Falcon.

Oh, also he had a second Shield made at some point? 

Look, I liked Steve’s story.  I liked that they passed on the title to Falcon, a nice nod to the source material.  I’m thrilled that Peggy got the dance he promised her all those years ago.  But that scene ruined the core premise behind the entire movie.  Time Travel stories are hard, but if you agree on how they work and stick to those rules its fine.  This movie did neither.

Also: how did Steve return the Soul Stone? How shocked was he to discover the stone was guarded by Red Skull?  Did he just drop it off the cliff and hope the ancient magic would handle the rest? Will Thanos still have to sacrifice Gamora or does Nat’s sacrifice still count?

There’s other issues.  Ms Marvel and Wanda both just sort of vanish.  Wanda especially should have gotten more story, but they just gave her one angry woman scene then she was forgotten about.  They sort of gloss over the massive issues they’d have faced with half the population dead.  They show one overgrown neighborhood, but by and large everything seems to be exactly the same as it was pre-snap.  Just with everybody sadder.  We never see Rocket meet a racoon.  Hawkeye was in the movie.  Nothing really huge.

So that’s all I have to say about that.  Thank you for coming to my TED talk.