#Also marvel put the characters in the movies that bring in people

[eiremauve]

Le sigh. Spiderman is unfortunately popular but other movies doing well does not mean Tony is not the heart of the MCU. Not sure why on earth you would think that. And the problem is not that people believe it, the problem is that people don't believe it. That's why the Captain America writers and directors ignored that to murder him and why he is one of the very few people they're not ever going to bring back. (A soft reboot in which they pretend someone other than RDJ is Tony does not count.) Them bringing back RDJ as Doom is them clearly thinking they need him back but it is murdering Tony that killed the vibe.

The really irritating thing is that prior to Endgame people were willing to admit that Tony is the heart of the MCU. But post-Endgame they need to believe he is actually disposable, that they can give his stans ashes with no consequence and carry merrily along with the characters they actually care about after using him to death so their favs could be alive and happy.

Another irritating thing is that to normal people who have just seen some Spiderman movies prior to the MCU, Tony was new. And Marvel punished people like me who were interested in this new thing with death. Hopefully all who get interested in Marvel stuff will be punished like me.

Also you don't care that Tony is dead so you don't like him at all to put it mildly.

RDJ as Doctor Doom is the most uninspired flavorless casting I have ever witnessed

[the-one-and-only-elita]

One thing that I absolutely love about TFOne's writing is that it manages to avoid a lot of the heavier criticism I've seen regarding MegOp's hero/villain dynamic over the years (trust me, the mid-2010s TF discourse was crazy)

*Spoilers Below*

First of all, the narrative benefits so much from the main 4 cast members all being a part of the same exploited mining class. So many takes on MegOp have Orion being of a higher status (an archivist, a cop, etc) while Megatron is much lower down on the social latter (a miner, a gladiator, often in the context of being a slave).

I've seen many people be put off by this, because it feels as if Megs is being villianized for being rightfully angry at the system that deeply harmed and exploited him, while Orion/Optimus is praised for taking a more pacifistic stance despite him not suffering as much from or in some ways even benefiting from the system he claims to oppose. I don't find their dynamic to be as simple as that, and I do find these takes to be a bit reductive, but I do very much see where they are coming from.

I am definitely one of those people who's very frustrated with the way pacifism is hailed as the one true path of morality, and the inherent implication that taking any sort of revenge on the people who abused/exploited you makes you just as bad as them. Also, Marvel's particular brand of demonizing any form of radical political action, despite the system clearly being broken and corrupt, but being completely unwilling to offer any other alternatives to meaningfully change things for the better.

When looking at what I described above its pretty easy to see how a lot of versions of MegOp's hero/villain dynamic unfortunately fits into that trope. Bringing it back to TFOne, you can see how Op and Meg coming from the same political/social status subverts this. The existence of Elita and Bee only further illustrates that out of the 4 people of the mining class who were all deceived, exploited, and literally mutilated in the same way it is only D-16 that completely loses himself to his rage, even to the point where he loses compassion for his own companions and disregarding the safety of the other miners (when he decides to "tears everything down" and Elita exclaims he's going to "kill everyone").

What I think I love most about the characterization in TFOne is that Orion is the radical one. Not only that, but he is praised by Elita and by extension the narrative for it. He is constantly challenging authority, and is the first to have the suspicion that their society is structured in an unjust way.

Meanwhile D-16, to be frank, is kind of a bootlicker. He fully believed in the system and that Sentinal Prime, as someone with power, had the right to decided "what was best" for those who are weaker/lesser (I wish I had the specific quote from D-16 to support this, but the movie's still in theaters). It illustrate that D-16 already held certain fascistic ideals, and that he and Orion already have fundamentally opposing moral/political values, it simply hasn't been of any consequence yet. It shows that their eventual falling out was inevitable, even if they had decided to rebuild Cybertron together.

It should also be noted that D-16's feelings of anger and betrayal do not necessarily have anything to do with the unjust system itself, but that said unjust system was predicated on a lie. Hence his fixation on deception in the post-credits scene and him naming his faction the Decepticons. Meanwhile, when Orion learns the truth he's just sort of like "yeah, I always kinda knew something was up" because again, he understood on some level that their system was predicated on injustice.

Even D-16's obsession with Megatronus Prime, while initially an endearing aspect of his character, is also an indicator of the questionably large amount of value he puts on one's strength. It foreshadows the "might makes right" ideology that the decepticons follow, and is a key part of their ideological characterization across continuities.

Instead of the narrative we often see in Transformers media were Optimus is idolized by the narrative for being more moderate and Megatron is villiainized for being radical (or so people often claim), it is instead Optimus who is rewarded and praised by the narrative for being radical, and Megatron who is villainized and punished by the narrative for holding potentially fascistic values.

I do agree with some criticism I've seen that the whole thing with killing Sentinel and D-16's final turn into villainy felt a bit rushed and more than a little cliche, but I also understand it both had a limited runtime and that it is ultimately a family film meant to be accessible to children. More importantly though, I think the movie set the groundwork early on that, no matter how this final act played out, D-16 was always going to turn to darkness, and Orion would not have been able to stop him.

Its perfectly tragic, the way all MegOp should be, while also feeling really well thought out from a thematic standpoint. I love it.

[notafunkiller]

Attending the Berlinale (The Berlin International Film Festival | February 15-25, 2024) will bring more opportunities for Sebastian.

He wanted to have more power over his projects aka to produce since he was in his 30s (producing = freedom and control). He always wanted to have an input when it comes to his characters, and I think he managed to do this the most with "Fresh" (before "A Different Man"), and it's a project very dear to him.

I know "I, Tonya" was the film that made directors notice him, take him seriously, and want to work with him more [internationally too], but he's always had range. He never chose "the pretty but boring boy" role. He loves grey and dark characters because they are human and there is more to explore.

He was just ignored.

Even though he's American too, not just Romanian (he moved there when he was 12), he's still seen as a foreigner by the film industry.

I think Sebastian believes he still needs to prove himself to get awards. So getting an award is even harder in this case because no matter how much PR you do, how hard working you are, how great you are at What you do, how much passion you put into your work and your roles, you're still (seen as) an outsider.

[Don't get me wrong, I think the roles he chose and chooses are challenging and send a message in general. They have layers and are human. He always gets out of his comfort zone, which is incredible.]

Also, it's "funny" how journalists and reviewers have ignored Sebastian for decades and now praise him as a new star (they did it for "Sharper" too), even though his filmography is varied (different roles, different genres) and it displays how talented and hard working he is.

This also says a lot about the prejudice they have:

[source: Deadline]

"In another type of movie" as if: "I, Tonya," "Monday", "Endings, Beginnings", "Fresh", "Sharper" etc are the same type of movie, and the fandom is limited in general...

They overlooked hin just because he became famous with Marvel, and he's seen just as the guy who plays Bucky Barnes... And they say it in an offensive way, anyway; as if Bucky has no complexity, no depth... as if he's just a flat character, so Sebastian playing him shows nothing. But they are so wrong!

He played so many versions of Bucky (40s Bucky, TWS, lost WS, Bucky trying to figure out who he is, trying to adapt etc).

The way he acts when Bucky's finally free of the brainwashing will always haunt me:

His eyes, in general, are so expressive. It's just amazing!

And Craig Gillespie worked with him three times ("I, Tonya", "Pam & Tommy", "Dumb Money"). He even chose Sebastian to give him an award [source: The Messenger].

A director like Craig wouldn't work with someone with no range.

Sebastian proved himself so many times! He always chooses challenging projects and roles and doesn't care if he's the main or the side character. He always wants to learn and be better.

I really hope more people will start to recognize how great he is.

[sapphoshands]

here's the thing tho. less than a month ago this article came out about inside out 2 and the disney-pixar culture around making it, and it included these bits of reporting:

But multiple sources say that Disney leadership internally put a large part of the blame for Lightyear’s financial failure on a same-sex kiss in the film, which was briefly removed then reinstated after an internal staff uproar. In a joint statement to Walt Disney Company leadership, LGBTQ workers and allies at Pixar said leadership was censoring “overtly gay affection” at a time where employees were also protesting the company’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. “It is, as far as I know, still a thing, where leadership, they'll bring up Lightyear specifically and say, ‘Oh, Lightyear was a financial failure because it had a queer kiss in it,’” one source tells IGN. “That's not the reason the movie failed.”

The apparent hesitance to touch on LGBTQ themes and storylines in particular affected Inside Out 2’s development, according to several of our sources. Multiple people recall hearing about continuous notes to make Riley, the main character of both Inside Out movies, come across as “less gay,” leading to numerous edits that ramped up around September 2023 after the resolution of the WGA strike. Sources describe rumors that there was special care put into making the relationship between Riley and Val, a supporting character introduced in Inside Out 2, seem as platonic as possible, even requiring edits to the lighting and tone of certain scenes to remove any trace of “romantic chemistry.” One source describes it as "just doing a lot of extra work to make sure that no one would potentially see them as not straight."

“Mind you, Riley is not canonically gay,” one source says. “In the film, what you saw, nothing about Riley says that she is gay, but it is kind of inferred based on certain contexts. And so that is something that they tried to play down at multiple points.” Another source calls some leadership “uncomfortable” with queer themes at large, and the insistence on keeping those themes out of Inside Out 2 was “a big thing throughout” development.

and granted that's disney-pixar rather than disney-marvel but it is blowing my mind that in january 2023 this show started filming with two queer leads and up to three queer or queer-coded secondary characters?

how do you even pitch this. how do you go into an office at one of the biggest, most conservative conglomerates in the entertainment industry and sell this show? how do you GET IT MADE without being buried in notes? especially with the uptick in review bombing in the last couple of years? there are no disney-big names in it or behind it. there are no big comics characters in it. there are no? straight? men???? there is no heterosexual explanation for any of this!!!

jac shaeffer and mary livanos, teach me your ways.

[marksbear]

MULTI FANDOM MALE READER SCENARIOS 

It’s been a while since I done one of these, but I think it’ll be good for me to practice more at writing different characters and such so enjoy!

The fact is I had more tags to share 😭

-Miguel O’Hara biting your neck harshly to get your attention when he feeling jealous. Or marking you as his.

-Izzy Hands always lightly taking your hand and helping you either up the steps or down the steps. He doesn’t even realize he’s doing it most time. Everyone in the ship always notices it but doesn’t say anything.

^^Ofmd

-Bob taking off his glasses and putting them on you then starts to compliment you how good and cute you look.

^^Top gun!

-Matt Murdock tracing your face in morning when he thinks your still sleep. He also traces your face anytime your two are arguing because he wants to see your emotions.

^^Marvel

-You and The Corinthian driving around during late nights with his hand on your thigh as he drives you around.

^^DC

-Tony stark buying you whatever you want or even dream of. It can be jewelry all the way to new houses and cars.

^^Marvel

-Bruce Wayne and you being a power couple throughout Gotham. Lots of magazines and headline about you two.

^^DC

-Teaching Adam Warlock about feelings about like having a crush or being in love.

^^Marvel

-You and Doom head being an unstoppable duo anytime you two are paired up in a game.

^^Rob Zombie movie 31

-You and Richard Madden making fun of each other accents in interviews for the newest movie you two are in.

^^Actor

-You and Hobie Brown making out in a middle of Miguel’s rant.

^^Marvel

-Homelander wrapping his arms around you as you two makeout and he slowly rises from the ground bringing you in the air with him.

^^The Boys

-You we’re very close with Love to the point all lot of people thought you two were dating. Joe was furious so he started to stalk you planing to murder, but all that stalking for weeks slowly became to months and he slowly started to catch feelings.

^^YOU

-Benedict Bridgeton being so in love with you, but he so scared that his family would disown him as well as everyone around town.

^^Bridgeton

-You and Benedict sneaking off during ball’s and random events to be with each other alone.

^^Bridgeton

-Imagine sitting down in the bleachers waiting for Mark to be done with his track meet.

^^Author/ Me

-Playing with Dutch Van der linde hair during a camp meeting and he tries to stay focus but he can’t.

^^RD2

-You and Larry smoking as you two listen to Sal play the guitar.

^^Sally Face

-Ted feeling ashamed after he realized that he caugt feelings for you even though your a player.

^^Ted Lasso

-When Dean first met you y’all both were very young. You were reckless and carefree while Dean was taking care of Sam and brought him along while you two hanged out. And he caught feelings, but he was confused about why he had feelings for a man so he kept it to himself.

^^SPN

-Helping Mark walk without his leg brace or crutches.

^^Author/Me

-Stu Marcher giving you neck kisses in the middle of class. And most of the time teachers sees him and gives you both detention.

^^Slashers

-Hannibal Lecter leaving bite marks all over your neck and shoulders.

^^Slashers

-Roy Kent being soft spoken and quiet anytime he’s with you.

^^Ted Lasso

-Larry Trainor slowly warmed up to you being his boyfriend so he lets you touch his skin underneath the bandages.

^^DC

-Anytime before a fight Arthur asks you to hold his hands. He says it’s for a good luck, but he’s just really stressed and tense.

^^Peaky blinders

-Steven Grant still being so shy and quiet with you even though you two has been dating for years.

^^Marvel

-Bringing Namor gifts like flowers, jewelry and even little things like a picture of yourself or a padlock necklace. He cherishes all of them and keeps them safe.

^^Marvel

-Meeting Namor on the beach at night almost every night.

^^Marvel

-Bobby and Athena inviting you into their relationship. They both didn’t cheat on each other to find about their feelings for you they just kinda knew one day and talked it out and for a while and a lot of thought they asked would you be willing to date them.

^^9-1-1

-Being a rich man while Steven is your trophy husband.

^^Marvel

-Dying your hair with mark.

^^Author/Me

-Watching Mark stay up all night writing just for him to randomly stop to watch a movie.

^^Author/Me

-Lee and Maren catching you eating a person right in the middle of a dark and empty road.

^^Bones and All

-Being a different love interest for Elio and being heartbroken once he chose Oliver over you.

^^Call me by your name

-Imagine rejecting Derek Shepheard after finding out he has a wife.

^^Greys anatomy 

-Rue hugging and crying on you tight after she relapsed.And you being her favorite person ever since what happened with Jules and Elliot.

^^Euphoria

-Being a father figure to Rue.

^^Euphoria

-Imagine being Maddy Perez brother and finding out Nate pulled a gun on her so you pulled up to his house barged in and looked for him and beat the shit out of him.

^^Euphoria

-Billy Hargrove acting like he hates the nickname “Curls.” Or “Curly.” But when you say it he loves it.

^^Stranger things

THE END

[holyblanchett]

honestly, what even would her redemption arc be ? she stops killing ? stops lying ? stops being an asshole ?

she goes oh, i have killed thousands (uncountable) of witches (and others) with little to no remorse (leaning towards none), that’s bad and i shouldn’t do it anymore…

and then all is well because she picks up her “mentor role” as if she hasn’t willingly been sharing knowledge her whole life (which let’s face it usually bites her in the ass)

like why can’t people handle someone being “evil” - you don’t need someone to become “good” - we don’t have to follow conventional storyline rules

also this whole lesbian thing… like if they can’t even realize that… how can any other analysis be correct

This!! let her be a villain. Her being a "mentor." Is not going to suddenly make her a different person. She regrets nothing and dgaf. Even her sacrifice was in her words a calculated risk. People do not understand her at all. They read comics and think they know everything. Comic book Agatha is nothing like mcu Agatha (although her younger version is close she's a menace fr.)

Erasing her lesbian identity is also erasing all the hard work Jac and her team put into those damn meetings with disney execs to get this approved in the first place. The sooner people understand that the better off we all will be. They keep bringing up that one interview that Kathryn did and what people don't understand is that marvel rarely ever confirms their characters sexuality in their shows and movies. Same goes for Deadpool, Valkyrie, Captain Marvel,etc. They are still very conservative and will probably never flat out say anything. This is why we have media literacy and if Daniel didn't confirm the bracelet i would give them that but he did so people that are still questioning her sexuality are weird. Agatha has never shown interest in a man, never will i stand by that.

[mrs-stans]

Sebastian Stan’s Crash Course in Becoming Trump

After a long tour of duty in the Marvel universe, the Romanian-born actor is conquering the festival circuit, with starring roles in “The Apprentice” and “A Different Man.”

Illustration by João Fazenda

By Alex Barasch

The actor Sebastian Stan glanced approvingly at the neon signage and old-school menus at the Pearl Diner, in the financial district, the other day. He’s lived in and near New York since he was twelve—around the time Donald Trump swapped his first wife, Ivana, for Marla Maples—and has watched the city evolve. “It’s funny. It’s changed, but it’s also the same buildings,” he said. “And then you’re, like, ‘The buildings are there, but you are not the same.’ ”

Stan took off a white ball cap and ordered coffee with cream; he was jet-lagged, fresh from the Deauville American Film Festival, where he’d received the Hollywood Rising-Star Award. “Rising” is a stretch for the forty-two-year-old, who’s appeared in a dozen Marvel projects, but Stan has lately reached a different echelon. In May, he went to Cannes for “The Apprentice,” in which he plays seventies-era Trump. In Berlin, he’d won the Silver Bear, an award whose previous recipients include Denzel Washington and Paul Newman. “Everyone was, like, ‘Oh, the Silver Bear!’ ” Stan said. “Then you go back and you’re, like, ‘Do we know what the Silver Bear is in America?’ ”

The prize was for his role in “A Different Man,” Aaron Schimberg’s surreal black comedy, which nods to “Cyrano de Bergerac.” Stan stars as a man whose lifelong disfigurement is miraculously reversed; the shoot included a grisly three-and-a-half-hour session spent peeling off chunks of his face.

“The Apprentice” demanded a transformation of a different sort. At the diner, Stan pulled out his phone and swiped through an album labelled “DT physicality”—a hundred and thirty videos of Trump, which capture his tiniest gestures and his over-all mien. Marinating in Trump content was, Stan said cheerfully, “a psychotic experience.” He watched the clips so many times that when the director, Ali Abbasi, asked him to improvise in a scene about marketing Trump Tower, he could rattle off the stats: sixty-eight stories of marble in a peachy hue chosen by Ivana, because, as the real Trump put it in a promo, “people feel they look better in the pink.” (It turned out that he’d also memorized Trump’s lie: the tower is actually fifty-eight floors.)

Growing up in Communist Romania, Stan had just an hour of TV news each night; New Year’s Eve was an event because it meant twelve hours of programming. His instinct for mimicry—he had a habit of imitating family members and neighbors—was the earliest tell that he might be an actor. After he and his mother fled to Vienna, in 1989, Stan got his first credit, in a Michael Haneke film—an experience that nearly put him off show business. “I stood in line with, like, a thousand kids, for I don’t know how many hours—which I hated,” he said. “If I could fucking meet Haneke now, it would be amazing!”

When the family moved again, to America, he experienced pop-culture shock. He binged every movie he’d missed—from “Back to the Future” to “Ace Ventura”—in a pal’s basement. Another friend roped him into the school play. “My high school was really, really small, so I didn’t have a lot of competition,” Stan said. “They were, like, ‘Please be in the play!’ ” Soon he was playing Cyrano himself.

After stints on Broadway, and on “Gossip Girl,” Stan was scooped up by Marvel. “I’ve been lucky to play a character for fifteen years,” he said. The blockbuster paychecks freed him up to explore edgier material. “I, Tonya,” in which he played the ice-skater Tonya Harding’s dirtbag husband, was a turning point. “It allowed me to see that a good director will bring out more in you than you can,” Stan said. It was also his first time portraying a real person—a feat that he repeated in “Pam & Tommy,” as the Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee, and now in “The Apprentice.”

“It’s like learning a piece of music,” Stan said, of nailing an impression. “You’ve got to start out slow—it requires practice. Suddenly, you’re getting it more. You’re still making mistakes—but you’re playing the music. You’re playing the music every day until you can do it in your sleep. That’s when the fun starts.” He sliced the air for emphasis, then caught himself and grinned. “And sometimes it’s months later at a diner, and you’re, like, ‘Why am I doing that with my hands?’ ”

[the-great-knight-gay]

Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man Review: Episodes 1 and 2

I've just watched the first two episodes of YFNSM and I have one thing to say...

I was fucking right. It's not a bad show.

In fact, its pretty decent especially so far.

Full review under the cut: *SPOILER ALERT*

Characters:

One of the MOST important factors this show needed to get right was the characters and BOY DID THEY.

Let's start with the supporting cast.

Harry Osborn is the character with the least screen time so far (his only appearances being the 'Good Deed' clip in Amazing Fantasy and a shot of him on television in The Parker Luck) so there isn't much to say about him yet.

Next is Pearl Pangan, a character who hasn't shown up much outside of being Peter Parker's older crush who seems like a genuinely nice person. She also seems to be a less academically inclined version of Liz Allen-Toomes from Spider-Man: Homecoming (by which I mean that Liz was the captain of the Academic Decathlon and Pearl hasn't really had any scenes that show she has that level of intelligence). The similarities between the two characters are high so it might lead to people asking, 'Why not just reuse Liz?'.

The answer is, why not? Reusing Liz would have been fun but she doesn't add much to the story (at least yet) and the usage of Pearl has quite a few positives. One, it raises awareness about some lesser known Marvel characters (Pearl is a minor super hero and an Agent of Atlas called Wave) and it allows for different stories to be potentially told in the future. This is the same reason they used Nico Minoru rather than a character like MJ or Gwen, both of which he met in College btw not High School - pretty much all Spider-Man media since the first Ultimate Spider-Man comics have decided his ENTIRE supporting cast should be in high school with him. Personally the easiest way to rectify that imo is to just make an adaptation where he's in college or got a job already (adapt the JMS run marvel I dare you) but one can hope.

The characters in the Oscorp Internship where also a fun nod to characters in comics (looking at you Amadeus Cho aka Totally Awesome Hulk/Iron Spider depending on the adaptation) and Carla Conners was a fun addition (also I better not see anyone hating on her for being a genderswapped and raceswapped version of Curt Conners - there is no part of Dr Conners character that is negatively affected by these changes - its still the same character)

May seems to be very similar by the MCU version (which makes sense) so nothing much to say there yet.

Norman is a character we haven't seen yet in MCU media outside of Willem Dafoe reprising his role from the Raimi movies and I am LOVING it. Colman Domingo is FANTASTIC in the voice role, bringing just the right amount of menace and authority to his voice. All I need now is for him to be able to play crazy and we can get a potentially amazing Green Goblin when the time comes (also his design is just *chefs kiss*)

Next is the character that might actually interest me the most.

Lonnie Lincoln.

Anyone who has seen The Spectacular Spider-Man (or read my screenplay on ao3 - sorry for the promo but I don't get many chances to advertise it) will know who he is. Tombstone, a vicious gangster and mob boss and in this show, he's... an American football player.

And I love it.

Saying that he's been just put into the 'nice jock' category, while accurate, does not think to scratch the potential of this character. There is a scene where he's walking home and it's revealed he lives in a rough neighbourhood. In that same scene, we see that he is helping his family out in quite a few ways (for example the part where he offers to help his little brother with homework) but the part that stuck with me was with his mother when he said that he'd talked to someone about fixing their car and how to get a cheaper price for it.

Money problems.

What I'm thinking they're doing is they aren't showing Tombstone as a mob boss. No. They're showing his descent from upstanding citizen and star American football player to gang violence. We already see that they've planted the seeds and we know they're going for the long haul with this show (It's been greenlit all the way up to season 3 already) so I'm incredibly excited to see Lonnie's arc play out, especially if we're going to get Tombstone by the end of it.

"Cold as Ice. Hard as marble. What else would you call a Tombstone?"

Next, we have the main character himself. Peter Parker. The Amazing Spider-Man.

This might be their best achievement yet in the show. They have Peter's dorky attitude and nerdy demeanour down to a T and it's so fun to watch. He's also a genuinely good person, just how Peter should be. A scene that stands out is the scene where he's caught a shoplifter who's broken down and crying in his eyes and he looks at them and he doesn't see a criminal. No. He sees someone who was down on their luck and asks the shop owner to give them a second chance if they give back the money they stole. It's beautiful and it's so very... Spider-Man. This is the exact kind of thing Spider-Man should be. A friendly guy who's just in the neighbourhood. It's a scene that's very reminiscent of Tom Taylor's Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man in all the best ways. (also the shop that was stolen from is called Pizza Time and that's already the best thing ever)

Animation:

Okay so some people have been saying the animation of this show isn't very good which I can say is not an unfounded concern. The effort the show has taken to emulate the original Ditko comics have had a slightly detrimental effect to some of the series.

There aren't as many background extras used in an attempt to mimic the original comics and lots of the shots don't use typically cinematic shading, opting instead to use brighter and slightly less rendered shots to emulate the older style. In some ways, this is actually really cool if you can appreciate the attempt to mimic the 60s style but it can be quite off putting for some people which I can respect.

There are also some issues with the 3d models. The characters mouths don't always move directly in sync and sometimes, for when they do use background extras, they are just 2d images in the back which can be quite unsettling when standing in the same shot as 3d models (there is one scene at a party where Nico is on the phone with Peter and in the background there's a completely unmoving 2d person who's eyes just seem to follow Nico and its quite unsettling).

HOWEVER, there are some incredibly beautiful shots too. Some shots are a direct mimic of older MCU shots from Peter's first introduction in CA:CW like the opening shot and final scene of the first episode which stand out as incredibly well done.

The best part of the animation is easily the web swinging which is so well done and one of my favourite parts of this version of Spider-Man so far. His movement is rough and unrefined as it should be for a Year One: Spider-Man but it is very reminiscent of the Insomniac Games style swinging (which in my personal opinion has the best web swinging in Spider-Man media since The Amazing Spider-Man 2) and it is INCREDIBLY fun to watch when it occurs. They actually focus some time on the web swinging too unlike some other adaptations which see him shoot a web and then THWIP out of the camera frame so we get to really see the extent of this web swinging.

Story:

This is the one where I probably have the least to say, mainly because we're only 1/5 of the way into the season so far and we haven't actually gotten much of the story revealed yet. However, it definitely has a LOT of potential.

Episode 1 establishes that the Spider that bit Peter came from a portal (alongside this universes version of Doctor Strange who is fighting a demon looking creature which is credited as Symbiotic Alien - Klyntar easter egg?????) which might be slightly different to some people but to me this gives me a heavy JMS vibes.

JMS wrote for Spider-Man from 2001 to 2007 and created what became the foundation of the Spider-Verse by introducing the Spider-Totems to the Marvel mythology. He said that the powers that Peter received did not come from the radiation, but the spider itself. The radiation is just what killed the spider. It was never even stated that Peter was the intended recipient of the powers and was hinted that maybe he was just in the right place at the right time when the spider died, which really hammers home the idea that anyone can be behind the mask.

The spider coming from a portal which also brings a symbiotic alien that looks hauntingly similar to Shathra (also a character introduced by JMS that returned to the Spider-Verse in Dan Slott's End of Spider-Verse story line) hints that maybe YFNSM is taking a similar approach to JMS , which is always a good thing. I mean that man wrote Back In Black. (OMD and Sins Past were editorial and should not be credited to JMS despite it being his run people)

Now in terms of the rest of the story, we haven't gotten many hints yet but there is a scene where Spider-Man fights Butane and sees a symbol on his gauntlet that looks hauntingly similar to the number 8. You know what has 8 limbs?

An octopus. Specifically, Doctor Octopus.

We already know Doc Ock is in this show. My theory is that Butane's gauntlets were made by him but my main piece of evidence that tells me that he's the final villain?

The final episode of the season is called 'If This Be My Destiny...'

ITBMD is one of the most famous Spider-Man comics of all time and the panel where Spider-Man lifts the heavy machinery of his body has become legendary. It was used in multiple adaptations of Spider-Man, including Spectacular and Homecoming. Doctor Octopus is also the main villain of that storyline.

Norman Osborn seems to be a character that they're setting up as a main villain for the complete show but not the main season just yet, similar to how the insomniac games treat him. They seem to be putting Doc Ock as the first big villain and then following up with Norman later down the line, maybe around Season 3.

All in all, this show is shaping up to be an incredible adaptation. What are your thoughts?

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

The 20 Best Films of 2024 (And the 10 Worst)

I fucking love movies.

Most people following me know that on some level, but I haven’t really showcased that love in a long while. Over the past couple of years I felt really drained and unmotivated, and my review series I did all petered out. And it made me sad. I WANT to share my opinions, I WANT to talk about things I’m passionate about! So I decided about halfway through 2024 I was going to do something big to bring my blog back: Watch as many new releases from 2024 as possible so that I could make an end of year ranking of my favorite movies!

Since I decided to do this halfway through the year, it made watching the films I actually wanted to see fairly easy since everything was able to be pira—er, watched completely legally on various streaming platforms. Max and Prime were big helps, as was Netflix towards the end of the year when my wife got it for her yearly month-long binge of Christmas films. My only rule was that the film needed to have a wide release in 2024—a few films had festival screenings in previous years, but I counted them for the purposes of my list. This also, sadly, meant Better Man and Wallace & Gromit were ineligible (but they’ll likely be ion my 2025 list near the top).

I gave myself a little leeway and extended my deadline to mid January just so I could make sure I didn’t miss anything I really wanted to see, as well as so I could watch movies from other years. I managed to watch 77 newly released films, and while I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to I was incredibly happy with what I did see.

This was a really good year for queer films and horror. For the former, I watched four different movies with queer themes with three of them focusing on trans folks, and of those four three were extremely good! In fact, two of them made this list, and one that didn’t—The People’s Joker—is still a fantastic work that puts a fresh spin on well-worn characters while telling a coming-of-age story! With the latter, we just got some truly fun and inventive films that showcased what the genre can do in the hands of skilled filmmakers; even more flawed horror films like Late Night with the Devil and Alien: Romulus were still really good and fun, albeit held back by some glaring and often frustrating issues (CGI necromancy for the latter, AI generated image use and a shitty finale for the former).

Surprisingly, this was also a decent year for superhero cinematic universes, mainly because they all slowed the fuck down. Marvel released a single film—Deadpool & Wolverine—which managed to be a fun crowd-pleaser as well as releasing the wonderfully witchy Agatha All Along to Disney+. DC put out two shows this year, The Penguin for the Reeves elseworlds and Creature Commandos as the animated debut of the new main DC film universe’s continuity; the former is a fantastic crime drama full of excellent performances that gives one of the best portrayals of Batman’s most versatile villain yet seen, while the latter is a decent-but-nothing-too-special ultra violent animated series. Both studios are looking to have interesting futures, and at any rate they’re both doing way better than Sony, who not only gave us now news on Spider-Verse but also shat out the three worst films in their already abysmal cinematic universe. Honestly, I think creating a six film run in a cinematic universe where none of the movies are good is an incredible feat!

But most of all, this was a great year for women. Most of my favorite performances of the year came from immensely talented actresses giving it their all: Mikey Madison, Margaret Qualley, Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, Anya Taylor-Joy, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Lauren LaVera, Alisha Weir, Liza Soberano, Kathryn Newton, Naomi Scott, Willa Fitzgerald, Lupita Nyong’o, Kristen Stewart, Cristin Milioti… The Ladies were killing it this year. Three stand above all the others for me, however. The first is Zendaya who, between Dune and Challengers cemented herself as one of my favorite actresses; the second is Lily Rose-Depp, who with Nosferatu gave a performance so good it completely erased Yoga Hosers from my mind; and finally there is Demi Moore in The Substance, who gave the best performance of the whole year, hands down.

Before we get into the top 20, let me just give a brief rundown of my ten honorable mentions. If there wasn’t a 30 image limit, I probably would’ve covered these, but oh well. Lisa Frankenstein is a shockingly charming and macabre directorial debut from Zelda Williams and a welcome return to form for Diablo Cody; Blink Twice is a gripping psychological horror thriller dealing with themes like gaslighting, sexism, and wealthy tech bros abusing women (a very topical subject) and features perhaps the best performance of Channing Tatum’s career; Smile 2 is a wonderfully crushing downer of a horror film, with a fantastic lead performance from Naomi Scott; Trap is M. Night going full goofy with a black comedy about a serial killer who keeps rolling nat 20s on his persuasion checks; Rite Here Rite Now is a kickass concert film for the band Ghost with story bits interwoven, and features a Scooby-Doo homage music video for “Mary on a Cross,” finally embracing their role as goofy Scooby-Doo chase music; Juror #2 is a fantastic late-career film from Clint Eastwood that features a fantastic performance from Nicolas Hoult, though it unfortunately released in a year where the guy had even better performances; Strange Darling is a dark thriller told out of older that is incredibly stylish but maybe a bit too full of itself; Road House is an awesomely stupid remake that fully embraces the goofy spirit of the Swayze original while telling its own story, complete with cartoonish logic and fights; The Wild Robot is a great (but a bit overhyped) found family story; and Love Lies Bleeding is basically Drive for lesbians with macrophilia, fulfilling the sort of niche none of us knew existed but we should be thankful is around. I’d also like to shout out two contenders that would have been higher if not for glaring issues—Late Night with the Devil and Alien: Romulus. The former has numerous moments that break the immersion of its setup and an absolutely terrible finale, while the latter employs CGI to bring a dead actor back to life and leans far too heavily on nostalgia for much of the middle portion of the movie. Both are still really good, but their glaring issues hold them back.

Now, onto the main event! Keep in mind, this is all just my opinion and not the objective list of what's best and worst, and you're free to agree or disagree as you see fit:

20. The Fall Guy

I really loved Bullet Train and Deadpool 2 is a really solid superhero sequel that might actually be funnier than the original, so it’s safe to say David Leitch is a director I enjoy. Now, how about throwing in Ryan “Literally Me” Gosling instead of Brad “Wife Beater” Pitt as the lead and also throwing in Emily Blunt, Winston Duke, and giving Aaron Taylor-Johnson a chance to actually act? You’ve got yourself a fun, funny little stunt extravaganza. It doesn’t quite reach the highs of Bullet Train but it gets pretty close, and if nothing else it managed to convince me Kiss didn’t suck for the duration of its runtime (they play “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” about every five minutes, and it honestly rules every time).

19. I Saw the TV Glow

I sometimes worry I’m not going to be able to pick up on metaphors or allegories, no matter how obvious. I watch a lot of horror and superhero movies, y’know? Simple stuff. I worry it makes me too stupid. But I was able to fully grasp the trans allegory of this movie, and absolutely loved it and thought it enhanced the narrative. Justice Smith absolutely kills it here; the dude is great at playing mumbly autistic people uncomfortable in their own skin, and this is the peak of those roles. He absolutely sells the final, soul-crushing party scene at the end of the movie in a way few other actors could. Also Fred Durst is here, and while this seems a funny tidbit, he actually delivers a line that is so unbelievably brutal that it instantly made me hyper aware of the themes of the film. I actually passed out the first time I tried watching this film, and thought that it sucked because of it; as you can see, I’m glad I gave it a second chance.

18. Conclave

I was worried a stuffy drama about holy men vying to become the Pope would be boring, but boy am I glad to be proven wrong! This is a film that is mostly old men talking to each other, but they’re also scheming, plotting, and acting like bitchy mean girls as they try and become the next head of the Vatican. Ralph Fiennes puts in a fantastic performance here, and the film’s views on faith and religion are actually pretty relevant to me (someone who has a complicated view of religion). Throw in a jaw-dropping final twist and I can see why this film is so heavily hyped as an awards darling—though I don’t necessarily think it should win.

17. Abigail

I’m sure you all are aware of my love of vampires, especially vampires with a singular defining theme. I have created vampire OCs with gimmicks ranging from a lost cosmonaut vampire to a traumatized WWII veteran clown vampire to a former Cosa Nostra boss vampire to a vampire who’s the king of Atlantis… But let me tell you, the fact I somehow didn’t think of “Vampire ballerina” is something that will haunt me forever, especially when it was done so perfectly here. The titular vampire’s profession of choice is utilized amazingly in how she moves and kills, and it makes her one of the most unique and fun horror antagonists in recent memory. The fact the rest of the film is funny and engaging is icing on the cake, really.

16. A Different Man

I love movies that are character studies about people who are literally the fucking worst, and Sebastian Stan’s character here is a very interesting take on this. He’s a man who feels his deformity is what causes people to not like him, so he gets a procedure to make him ‘normal’… And then along comes a guy with the same issue as him (played by Adam Pearson) who is the fucking Rizz Master and who everyone loves. It turns out the whole time he just fucking sucked! Stan is absolutely great and proved to me he’s the real deal after multiple MCU projects where he bored me to tears, but Pearson is the one who steals the show here. He’s just an unbelievably charismatic figure, a real fun guy, and without him the film just absolutely wouldn’t work. How he keeps getting overlooked for awards is beyond me.

15. Megalopolis

Every single opinion you will hear about this film is correct. It’s great, it’s awful, it’s genius, it’s moronic… It has to be seen to be believed. I saw this for my birthday, expecting it to be a glorious trainwreck lovingly crafted by an aging auteur who saw this as their ultimate passion project… and that’s exactly what I got! I think every decade needs its own take on The Room, and this is that film if it had an even more insanely huge budget and a director who actually has genuine talent and some semblance of knowledge about how a film is supposed to be.

14. Terrifier 3

The Little Slasher Film That Could! A truly inspiring film, one that managed to make a massive profit despite being a grisly, gruesome splatter film the likes of which haven’t been seen since… well, since Terrifier 2 really. The plot is a bit weaker than its predecessor, but what it lacks in story strength it makes up for in buckets of blood and pitch-black comedy. David Howard Thornton gives his best turn yet as Art, cementing the demonic clown as a modern horror icon with an impressive physical performance.

13. In a Violent Nature

One of the year’s most polarizing films due to its concept: It is a slasher film that follows the killer as our POV, and that means lots of slow, methodical walks through the woods as he seeks his victims. There’s lots of lingering shots and slow pacing, feeling like a real-time hiking simulator… but there’s something so fresh and engaging about it, and when we finally get to the kills they are easily some of the best the slasher genre has seen in years. Does the ending car ride drag on maybe a bit longer than it should? Sure, but I still enjoyed it for fleshing out the film’s world a bit more while hammering home the themes. I think this might be one of the only slasher movies I could reasonably call a genuine work of art.

12. Deadpool & Wolverine

I’ll be the first to admit this is not a great movie; the story is basically nonexistent and everything that happens seems to be contrivances that exist so that Reynolds and Jackman can bounce off each other. But this isn’t a bad thing! Jackman wisely brings his A-game when he could have easily half-assed this role at this point, and Reynolds manages to squeeze out a few solid emotional moments from Wade Wilson. And while the film is a terrible sequel to the first two Deadpool movies, it is a wonderful Deadpool themed meta-commentary and tribute to the Fox Marvel films of the 2000s, movies that tended to suck ass and that most would find unworthy of respect. Not this film; it brings back characters like Johnny Storm and Elektra and uses them in fresh and funny ways that will make you feel at least a little something for that era of superhero cinema. This is a fun fanservice fest—and the perfect demonstration of why we don’t need any more after it, because they could never be as good as this.

11. Wicked

Yes, the lighting is bad and the direction isn’t exactly anything special. Let’s not give Jon M. Chu any credit for why this film is so high up. No, it is the absolutely stellar cast that carries this film, with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande knocking it out of the park in their roles as Elphaba and Glinda. Their developing friendship feels sweet and genuine, and their songs all hit as hard as they should, with the “Defying Gravity” sequence easily being one of the year’s highlights despite the sun’s best efforts at ruining the moment. It’s just nice to see a fun, colorful, campy fantasy musical get this big. We need more like this.

10. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

It’s nice to see the world of Mad Max expanded and it’s even better to see how Furiosa became the woman she was in Fury Road, but the real star of the show here is Chris Hemsworth as Dementus. It is mind-boggling how good an actor he is when he gets to let loose, and this might genuinely be the best performance of his career. Just a damn good film, but what else can you expect from Miller? Its biggest flaw is it just isn’t as good as Fury Road—but what movie even is?

9. Transformers One

The trailers for this movie didn’t look particularly good, and the Transformers franchise had long lost any goodwill in my eyes, so this was a movie I fully expected to fly under my radar. But then along came a Twitter user who did nothing but hype this film up to the high heavens, and so I had to give it a shot… and boy am I glad I did, because this is easily the best animated movie I saw last year (I did not get a chance to see Flow or Memoirs of a Snail, which I’m sure are better movies). For the second time in the year Chris Hemsworth pulled off a shockingly great performance, but this was truly Brian Tyree Henry’s film; his performance as D-16 AKA Megatron is genuinely fucking amazing. He truly manages to sell the future Decepticon's fall from grace and make it believable while also managing to sell the friendship between him and Optimus before it all goes to shit. Easily the best film in the entire franchise so far.

8. Sonic the Hedgehog 3

Family films really didn’t get better than this one this year, a feat that is monumentally impressive when you remember this is the second sequel to a movie based off of a video game and that easily clears both of its predecessors. It is paced like its title character and isn’t quite as funny as the last two, but it’s much more tightly plotted, the action is incredible, and best of all the emotional story beats it pullls off with Shadow and his tragic backstory hit just as hard as they should. As perfect as Shadow is, the movie wouldn’t be half as good without Eggman and his interactions with Gerald Robotnik; Jim Carrey, the man who once refused to do sequels, managed to give two of the best performances of his career in one film, delivering a fantastic character arc with Ivo and his toxic yaoi with Agent Stone as well as the zaniness-masking-depravity of Gerald. An utter joy of a film, a joy only compounded when a certain song kicked in at the finale and my daughter turned to me with a big, excited grin. You can’t buy an experience like that.

7. Anora

You know all those movies about hookers with a heart of gold like Pretty Women, these live-action fairy tales where a sex worker is swept off their feet and saved from their situation by a rich guy who loves them? Well, this is the antithesis to those, a dark and realistic take on those very stories that still manages to be very funny thanks to strong performances across the board and excessive amounts of profanity. If Demi Moore wasn’t in the running, I would be throwing my full support to Mikey Madison for Best Actress, because she rules in this.

6. Heretic

I really, really love Hugh Grant. I love how he’s taken his charming leading man image and used it to play sleazy, conniving villains, weaponizing his established charisma to play the nastiest guys imaginable. And let me tell you, his performance here had me sympathizing with fucking Mormons. I think maybe the movie goes on a bit too long for its own good—there’s a point where I was thinking “Ok, I get it, can we please just wrap it up?”--but the fact this is so high on my list should tell you that I don’t think that really holds it back much.

5. Challengers

Tennis is not anything I give a shit about, but for the duration of this movie it was the actual coolest thing in the world. This is the tale of the world’s three most toxic people, and the ultimate tennis match that will decide their destiny all with the backstory of what led to that match woven in. Zendaya cemented herself as one of my favorite actors with this film, the cinematography is genuinely insane (there is a fucking tennis ball POV sequence!!!!), and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross deliver one of their best scores yet… Why isn’t this film drowning in Oscars? How did it get snubbed this badly?

4. Nosferatu

Robert Eggers might be the greatest modern horror director. He has an impeccable sense of style, an attention to detail when it comes to historical accuracy that is genuinely insane, and the ability to always get the best cast imaginable for his films. Bill Skarsgård is unrecognizable as Orlok, a role that manages to surpass Pennywise in sheer vile wickedness, but it is in fact Lily Rose-Depp who gives the greatest performance of the film. She is truly the heart and soul of this movie, and showcases the sort of acting talent her father wishes he still possessed. This might be the first horror remake since the 80s that manages to surpass the original, though with that said there aren’t many surprises here. It knows how good the original story is, and doesn’t change too much. What it does add is crucial to the plot, though, especially showing us Orlok’s penis.

3. Dune: Part Two

I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first Dune. I liked it well enough, but it felt like a whole lot of setting up and not enough delivering. Well, guess what? This film delivered. Oh fucking boy did it deliver. Austin Butler debuts as Feyd-Rautha, one of the most badass and bloodthirsty villains ever put to film, and despite not getting the winged panties Sting had manages to steal the show and leave a lasting impression despite his brief screentime. But even better than that—but only by a little—is Timothee Chalamet’s Paul’s journey from a desperate hero trying to survive into a full-blown dark messiah who buys into his own hype and whips his followers into a frenzy. It is genuinely chilling seeing what he becomes, and it has me excited where the third and final film will take him. Also Christopher Walken is here. And worms. I really love big worms and Walken.

2. The Substance

People have tried so hard to apply deep meaning to this film and say it has complex moral themes. And sure, it does have strong morals and themes, but let’s not kid ourselves here: This is an R-rated Goosebumps episode. And that’s why it’s fucking amazing. It’s gross, it’s gory, it’s nasty, it’s ridiculous, it’s cartoonish, and it features Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley going all out with their performances. This film has one of the best third acts of the year, because while it does drag on quite a bit it continually gets crazier and crazier. This would easily take my top spot, but there’s one film that’s even better...

1. Hundreds of Beavers

I did not know what to expect when watching this. After hearing so many online reviewers like Schafrillas and YMS rave about it, I definitely was uncertain that I’d find this to be quite as good as the hype would lead me to believe. But let me tell you, to say this film surpassed my expectations is an understatement. This is the funniest film I have ever seen in my life. This is a black and white (mostly) silent film comedy that showcases such a joy and appreciation for the art of film, a movie that oozes charm from every pore. It genuinely needs to be seen to be believed. It has one of the best protagonist journeys from nobody to badass I've ever seen, and it features some of the funniest gags I've ever witnessed. My daughter walked over when she heard me laughing, started watching, and laughed her ass off at the movie too. Genuinely a masterpiece.

Go. Go watch it. It’s free on Prime Video, it’s free on Tubi, stop fucking reading this, go and watch Hundreds of Beavers, and then come back here. It’s fine, I’ll wait.

Alright, now that you’ve seen peak cinema, it’s time to talk about the dogshit.

Even with watching so many movies this year, I surprisingly enjoyed most of them. Sequels I expected to despise like Moana 2 and MaXXXine ended up being decent but heavily flawed, cartoon slop I thought would be irredeemable crap like Thelma the Unicorn and The Garfield Movie ended up being surprisingly decent and surprisingly mid respectively, and Madame Web was perhaps the funniest piece of shit Sony ever churned out. Kung Fu Panda 4 and Venom: The Last Dance are really the closest to genuine “dishonorable mentions” I have, but neither of them are that bad. Like, they definitely suck, but they have enough good points to them where I don’t want to put them on this list. The same goes for hilarious streaming garbage like Nanoshark and Cinderella’s Revenge. Sure, the former feels three hours long (it’s barely over sixty minutes) and the latter ends up squandering its fun premise and dickriding Elon Musk (I’m not kidding), but it’s hard for me to muster up anger at schlock meant to be put on as background noise.

But I still saw some fucking awful movies this year that I hate with a passion. Here are all ten of them:

10. Poolman

Poolman is the directorial debut of everyone’s favorite Chris, Chris Pine… and it is a perfect demonstration of why he needs to stick to acting. Imagine, if you will, Chinatown crossed with The Big Lebowski. Now imagine The Dude is the most annoying, insufferable moron imaginable. That’s essentially what this film is. There is some mild entertainment in some of the bizarre, rambling conversations the characters have but it never truly feels like a worthwhile experience.

9. Emelia Pérez

Is this the absolute worst film of the year? No, absolutely not; if anything nice can be said about this film, it’s that it is competently made and all the technical aspects are sound. But it is probably the most offensive film of the year, delivering some of the most problematic depictions of Mexico and the trans experience you can imagine. This is basically a Mexican minstrel show desperately trying to be some grand, operatic tale of a cartel boss who tries to right their wrongs and live as their true self. It comes off as incredibly tone deaf and cringeworthy, with the transition feeling more like a way for the title character to escape her sins than anything else, which tarnishes a story that genuinely sounds fascinating on paper. Throw in a bunch of nonsensical musical numbers that are uniformly awful and a cast that has a poor grasp on the Spanish language, and you have a movie that’s offensive to everyone from man to woman, from woman to man, from penis to vagina.

8. Nosferatu

Yeah, that’s right, two Nosferatus released in 2024! And the difference in quality couldn’t be more night and day; while the Eggers film is a stylish remake that tells the familiar story with enough of the director’s own ideas to make it a unique and engaging experience, this film is a shot-for-shot remake that looks like it has the budget of a Channel Awesome movie (with the acting talent to match). The one saving grace is that the inimitable Doug Jones portrays Orlok, but even he isn’t enough to redeem this pointless slop. There are three better versions of this story you could be watching, the original and two remakes that justify their existence. Don’t waste your time with this glorified fan film.

7. The Crow

I’m not usually one to say a role died with an actor or that some stories are just not able to be remade, but The Crow is definitely one of the exceptions. Brandon Lee owned the role of Eric Draven, and the original film is perfect 90s gothic action; it’s a story that doesn’t really need a retelling. They could have easily just done a spin-off sequel like they’d done before, but no, they decided to randomly slap the names of Eric and Shelly on two characters who end up being in name only and tossing them into a sloppy supernatural murder thriller with forgettable villains and piss-poor characterization. Bill Skarsgård is probably thanking God every night he had the role of a lifetime in Count Orlok to fall back on, because a performance as bad as his Eric is would be more than enough to tank an actor’s career in any other year. Yet, even as bad as this is, it somehow isn’t the worst comic book adaptation of the year.

6. Hellboy: The Crooked Man

With The Crow, I can see why it was remade. Sure, the end result is a pile of shit, but I at least can admit there is some level of artistic integrity there; they wanted to try and put a unique spin on a familiar story, that they failed catastrophically is another thing entirely. This movie, though? This is one of the most cynical adaptations ever created. It is so blatantly an ashcan copy—a cheap production churned out as quickly as possible to cling to the rights—that it’s genuinely painful to watch. It has the look and feel of a fan film, and not a very good one; this is the Spider-Man: Lotus of Hellboy films. Frankly, this one makes me appreciate the Harbour-led film even more. Sure, that movie was a sloppy trainwreck of a dozen plotlines, but at least it had cool gore and Ian McShane! This movie has next to nothing of value.

5. Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie

You’d think that giving SpongeBob’s coolest friend her own feature-length adventure where she gets to save the day would be a good thing, especially since she’s often sidelined in the theatrical releases. Well, you’d be wrong! This is easily some of the most insufferable SpongeBob content ever shat out by Nickeleodeon, with bogus and uncomfortable grossout humor, a padded plot filled with random action sequences that do nothing to advance the plot, and a bunch of poorly-acted villains with annoying gimmicks. Wanda Sykes’ Sue Nahmee in particular is just an absolute eyesore once her true nature is revealed. I absolutely love Sandy, she’s one of my favorite characters and has been since I was a kid, so when I tell you it stung to see her time in the limelight be such a dumpster fire you’d better believe it.

4. Harold and the Purple Crayon

I honestly don’t know why this film exists. I don’t even know what to say about it. The fact that no one looked at this, a film where Zachary Levi plays a manchild who represents a grown-up version of a beloved cartoon character who enters the real world to go on a stupid journey, and thought “Hey this actually fucking sucks and maybe we shouldn’t release this into theaters” is absolutely astounding. This is a film destined to pad the bottom of the bargain bin at Wal-Mart, with the copies going unsold for years and years. Hell, it wouldn’t surprise me if they released the Blu-Ray straight to the bargain bin. This is the kind of crap I’d expect to see on Netflix.

3. Kraven the Hunter

Sony really had a fucking abysmal year. Madame Web was the insane, stupid comedy gold we’ve come to expect from their Spider-Man minus Spider-Man cinematic universe, but it also showed that the novelty of a series comprised of nothing but bad movies was wearing thin. Then came Venom: The Last Dance, a meandering and mediocre finale to the beloved campy Venom trilogy that ditched the fun and queer undertones for an almost incoherent sequence of random events occasionally interjected by Knull sitting on his ass and yelling at people like he’s Steven Seagal on set of his latest movie. And then as their final gift to us, they managed to put their stupid franchise out of its misery with this brutal death blow of a film. Kraven is bad in the worst possible way: It is incredibly fucking boring. This is astounding because not only is this rated R and able to take full advantage of Kraven hunting, it also has the perfect character to delver a badass anti-villainous role. But they don’t do that; instead, they make Kraven into a pretty boy anti-hero with Aaron Taylor-Johnson giving a performance so dull it convinced me he was a bad actor until I saw The Fall Guy. It’s truly pathetic that after six films they couldn’t manage to get even one thing right. It’s the miserable end to a historically awful franchise. I truly hope Disney gets the full Spider-Man rights back soon, because I trust Sony with these characters about as much as I trust a toddler with a live grenade.

2. Borderlands

I have never played a Borderlands game in my life, but if they are even remotely like this movie I don’t think I ever want to. This movie is what everyone who hates the MCU says every Marvel movie is like; flat characters, bad action, stupid quippy “he’s right behind me isn’t he”-ass dialogue, baffling casting choices, and the world’s most annoying comic relief character all congeal together into this disastrously bad sci-fi adventure. I guess we’ve been pretty spoiled with good video game adaptations lately, so they had to release a bad one to even things out. At any rate, this is the sort of black mark a Zionist dog like Eli Roth deserves on his career. With any luck, it will keep him out of the director’s chair for a very long time.

1. Joker: Foile à Deux

As many of you may know, Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered is one of my all-time favorite films. It is a troll film, a film where Green is deliberately pushing the limits of gross out comedy and sanity at the expense of the studio; it’s a film that is deliberately off-putting. I’m also a fan of the John Leguizamo vehicle The Pest, a movie where the main character is made to be as deliberately annoying as possible, a film designed to be as horribly offensive to everyone as possible in the hopes it crosses the line enough times you’ll laugh. These are films I admire for their edgy, stupid, confrontational style; they will not appeal to everyone, and that’s fine, because while they are certainly laughing at your expense they’re laughing at everyone else’s expense as well.

This film is very similar, except that it’s only laughing at you. You, the viewer, are the punchline of this movie and it spends its plodding runtime hammering that in and telling you over and over how much of a stupid fucking idiot you are. The film is half the most banal courtroom drama you’ve ever seen, one where they do nothing but recap the first film, and half a terrible jukebox musical where the songs are just there to be there and are poorly sung. All of it is built around picking apart the first film and repeatedly hammering in that you’re stupid for liking Joker, the original film and the character. Now this isn’t an idea wholly devoid of merit, especially because of the wild misaimed fandom of the character, but Todd Phillips lacks the intelligence and maturity to tackle something as profound as that. He is truly a shallow filmmaker, unable to grasp these deeper ideas and so settling into surface-level style to distract you from how awful the screenplay is.

Genuinely, the worst part of all this is the incredibly tasteless moment where Joker is implied to be raped by prison guards, something that crushes his spirit and removes all his desire to be Joker (something he spent this whole film up to this point getting back to, despite the whole first film covering the same plot beats). There is so much wrong with this, so much that needs to be unpacked. Did he not realize the sort of messages this sends? Did Phillips really not think through the implications of Joker being cured of his Jokerness by being sexually assaulted? Considering his numerous crimes and the fact that he’s the fucking Joker, is this not implying in a way that perhaps the ends justified the means here? Honestly, I’m putting more thought into this than Phillips put into the whole movie. He just wanted to say “screw the audience” without finding ways to make it fun, engaging, or entertaining.

People are going to look back on this film in a few years and try and convince you it’s good. Don’t listen to them. It isn’t. This is a fucking disaster of a movie, and you are genuinely better off just watching the first film again; if you’re dead set on watching this, hit yourself on the head with a hammer while watching the first one and you’ll get just about the same basic effect. Any film that wastes Lady Gaga this badly is a crime against nature.

[lucianalight]

A Glorious Culmination

Let's talk about that perfect ending with its beautiful scenes and epic soundtrack, shall we? Here's all the reasons why I loved it:

The ending answered the question "what makes a Loki, Loki?"

"Authority, independence, style". Sure, but that's not all of it. And it's not the real answer.

So who is Loki? A villain? A loser? What defines Loki?

There are many characteristics that define Loki but one of the main ones that truly sets him apart imo is that he is a catalyst for change. Loki when faced with options he doesn't like, or a problem that looks like doesn't have a solution, makes a new way, creates a new solution, chooses an option that didn't exist before.

He has the power to destroy, like the mythological tale of Ragnarok.

And to give life. Like how the Ragnarok he brings, means the beginning of a new cycle in Norse mythology.

-"Yeah it was the best character development. Loki went from wanting a throne to..."

Let me stop you there.

Loki went from not wanting a throne but thinking he must have it to be considered worthy and an equal to Thor, to taking a throne despite not wanting it, because it was the right thing to do.

The fact that Loki sacrificed himself once again for the people he loved and cared about, wasn't a new character development. In the movies Loki risks and sacrifices himself every time when it matters. For Thor, for Asgard, for the world. The only development here was that this time he sacrificed himself for every universe there is.

And his sacrifice wasn't treated as sth he deserved by the narrative because of every terrible things he'd done. On the contrary the narrative acknowledges that this is the last thing Loki deserves. That he is paying for others' mistakes and wrongs. He spends centuries to save the timelines. He spends a long time trying to stop Sylvie without harming her. And when everything seems lost, he makes a decision to save everyone but himself, he creates a different path. He faces his deepest fear, to not hurt the people he loves.

If there is any character development, it's for the narrative and the audience that finally recognized who Loki actually is.

The Symbolism

I have to say my first reaction to the new Loki costume was:" This is the worst Loki costume ever :))))" also me two days later: "I'm gonna set it as my wallpaper." But I loved the symbolism. The biggest horns Loki's ever worn to show the weight of the crown. His cape that was connected to timelines, to show the burden of a throne. The simplicity in his clothes in contrast with his other outfits. Because this wasn't about the recognition Loki always wanted and deserved. This was about the responsibility Loki decided to literally put on his shoulders and feeling the gravity of it.

His shoes though :)))) I mean

Either let him be bare footed or give him boots you cowards :D

The Parallels

The fact that how the ending parallels the first Thor movie and everything came back full circle.

How Thor and Loki destroyed sth at the cost of themselves losing the people they cared about.

Loki doing sth not because of a desperation for acceptance, not because he thought it was sth someone else wanted.

Knowing if he chose the easier way, no one could have fault him for it because it seemed there was no other way.

He did it because he knew it was the right thing to do, because he knew who he wanted to be.

Loki not giving up, not letting go, not falling down from a broken bridge, but ascending, holding on as he fixes what's broken.

He holds and carries the whole universe on his back. It's not only a beautiful Atlassian tragedy, but also parallels Norse mythology in more than one way. Yggdrasil, the tree of life in Norse mythology, the one that Loki holds in his hands in the finale, wasn't the only parallel in the ending.

There's a subtle and beautiful nod to Norse mythology. The tale of Loki being bound till Ragnarok. The myth that says when Loki gets freed, the end of the world begins.

What a marvelous tragedy. And what a glorious culmination.

It's not all tragic though

Loki now is literally the most powerful and heroic character in MCU. He's holding the universe in his hands and keeping it alive. You can't top that.

And it makes his portrayal in the recent movies in which he was unfairly underpowered, even more ridiculous than before and that makes me happy :D

There is also a possibility to see Loki again and I'm not talking about the other variants. Marvel now has the best dues ex machina through Loki. He might be able to appear in any universe as an illusion to warn about dangers or help the characters. He might figure out a way to keep the tree alive without being there himself. That way he can find Thor in the sacred timeline. Or maybe the Loki who survived Thanos and is still in the sacred timeline finds Thor. Maybe there's still hope for a good reconciliation and a good story for Asgardian siblings.

So to sump up this was an epic, symbolic, beautiful and tragic ending. And yet hopeful. I loved it💚

[thecollectivefixation]

Deadpool and Wolverine thoughts

OH MY GOD.

This movie was so good that it brought me back from the dead. HELLO?

As always this post will contain spoilers.

plot - themes of purpose and belonging and finding their place in the universe

Let's start with how Ryan Reynolds and Shawn Levy tackled the whole phase 3 multiverse MCU and adding Deadpool into it. They did it so well omg. In Loki and current Marvel there's a focus on "the scared timeline" (also known as Earth-616) and how important it is. However, Deadpool is no longer in Earth-616 he's in Earth-10005. And when Deadpool is faced with his whole reality dying because the anchor (Earth-10005 Logan) has died he fights for his timeline to live. I really like this idea because it brings light towards the these timelines are just as important as the scared timeline even if their importance (the anchor) dies off. So he grabs a Wolverine who is hated by his own timeline and is assumed to not be his reality's anchor because he wasn't the hero he was meant to be. (I'm also assuming that each reality has a different anchor such as Iron Man being Earth 616's anchor because since he's died everything has gone to shit). And since it was stated by Paradox that bringing a another Wolverine won't replace the anchor i believe that Earth 10005's new anchor is the friendship and bond between Deadpool and Wolverine. How their character's developed and learned, together they are now intertwined.

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

In his universe he failed his team. He convinced everyone that he was meant to be alone, that he didn't want to apart of a team. He closed himself off from friendships and trust in a team and that caused the death of the X-men team, he couldn't save them. Then he want on a killing spree thus sullying the X-man and Wolverine name. He questioned his self-worth and struggled with survivor's guilt.

When we meet him he was at his lowest low. Deadpool teams up with him and you could see the flabbagasted look on that man's face when he gets told that Deadpool's Logan is the most important being of his reality. He teams up with Deadpool on the "educated wish" of him being able to get sent back in time before his reality's events because its clear he struggled with a lot of guilt and regret and he is not proud of who he is. He ran away and his decision to run away haunts him.

Throughout the movie you can see him grow and start trusting Deadpool. Another turning point was when the outcast group and Deadpool plans to take down cassanova and get her to send them home. He think they are stupid for going onto that mission because they are going to get themselves killed. However, after a talk with X-23 he realised that in each reality Wolverine has impacted people and people put their faith in him. He realises that he has a second chance of helping and saving the people who trust him and wants to team up with him. He's determined to help Deadpool save his 9 most important people of his life.

At the end when Deadpool locks in out and Deadpool plans on scarificng himself, he doesn't run. He doesn't run because he wants to make this right. He won't waste this second chance and if he's going down he's going down trying to save Deadpool's whole world (nine people) because he trusts Wade and he couldn't save his whole world (the x-men). He actively puts all his strength into breaking down that door. After when the TVA says that they won't send him back into his past to fix his mistakes he understands that without those experiences he wouldn't have done what he did. He's proud of who he's growing to be.

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

Now before this movie I never was a big fan of the fantastic four or the X-men. In fact this movie has caused me to start watching the X-men movies and ofc I' loving it. So watching the movie I was a bit confused about who all these characters are and started to research after watching the movie. It's really great how Ryan and Shawn brought these characters back that have either been forgotten or recasted. Chris Evan says that he loved playing Johnny Storm again. Bringing Gambit into the movie when his character originally got cancelled was also amazing. Because in the MCU theres this big focus on the main characters that we don't see a lot of the hidden heros of the MCU. Even references towards characters like Moon Knight with the Cup Cake truck made me very happy because I love Moon Knight.

Anyway overall I loved this movie and have many more thoughts on it.

I'll make a post talking about Deadpool character arc if you want lol

(also if i got anything wrong because I'm very new to the X-men universe and haven't really edited this post well. Please comment lol. And please also comment your thoughts because I want to know.)

-Bookworm

[braveclementine]

Chapter 28

Warnings: None

Copyright: I do not own any Marvel characters or locations. However, I do own a few OCs like Elizabeth, Katherine, Stacy, and Jessie. I do not condone any copying of this.

You and T'Challa were standing in a chapel like building, black twine encircling both of your wrists while the Wakandan. . . priest(?) spoke Wakandan during the entire ritual. You and T'Challa stood there, staring into each others eyes before the black twine was burned, letting it all burn away to ashes below your feet.

T'Challa swept you up into a passionate kiss in front of all of Wakanda, which was met with the cheers of the people, screams of little kids, and a few cat calls from some of his friends from the border tribe.

Soon after, you were saying good-bye to Okoye, Nakia, Shuri, and his mother before very quickly heading onto the Quinjet and heading home.

Though you had loved Wakanda, you couldn't wait to be back in New York. The others seemed to feel the same way.

You were curled up between Tony and Stephen, both of them holding you. You were feeling uncomfortable on the plane ride there, every bump made you groan in pain, willing yourself not to throw up. You wished Stephen would just portal you guys to the Avengers compound.

However when the Quinjet finally touched down the ramp unloaded, you saw that you weren't near the Avengers tower. In fact, you weren't even in the city. You weren't even sure you were still in New York.

"Where are we?" You asked, looking around.

There was a very, very large mansion spread out on a large plane of green grass. There was large forest surrounding it around the back and sides. Both the front and back lawns looked absolutely huge and upon looking around, you could tell that this place would have everything you guys needed.

"Welcome home." Tony said with a grin.

Your heart melted a little. Bucky picked you up, carrying you over the threshold before putting you down inside the house.

The inside of the house was huge, but there wasn't a single spot of room wasted. There was a living room, a dining room, a very large kitchen and breakfast room, three offices, two bathrooms, and a very large library on the bottom floor. Upstairs was another two bathrooms, a dozen bedrooms, and a few balconies, one of which led out to the deck outside.

There was also a basement that contained a movie theater, a workout room, a gaming area completely with both board/physical games, a pool table, an air hockey table, along with two TVs that were equipped with every device available.

The backyard was very large, with only a huge pool, complete with a diving board and water slide alone with a greenhouse farther out. There were several fruits and vegetables growing in the greenhouse.

"This place is amazing Tony." You complimented after you guys had settled back down in the living room. Your stomach was rolling a little, but you weren't sure if that was because you were getting pre-period cramps, or if you were still feeling guilty about the whole Dora Milaje incident.

Tony grinned, proud of himself, "Glad you like it gorgeous."

"What state are we in?" You asked, curious.

"Ohio." Tony said with a shrug. "It's not to far from New York, but it had a lot more land than the ones we were looking at in New York. Besides, it's a bit quieter out here in the country."

"This is actually set on a nice plot of land." Stephen said next to you. "you could technically start an entire farm on here if you wanted."

"Maybe we could bring Samantha and Stella over, eh Buck?" You asked, winking at him.

He chuckled nervously, brushing his hair back from his face as Sam and Steve both turned to look at him.

"Who are Samantha and Stella?" Steve asked.

"His goats in Wakanda." T'Challa answered. "His milk goats."

You were now imagining all of them living on a farm. Wearing plaid flannel shirts and blue jeans. Chopping wood. Milking cows. Shearing sheep. Feeding the pigs and chickens. Collecting eggs. You could imagine some of them in the gardens, working the plants.

Steve, Bucky, and Sam were the easiest to imagine this scene along with Rhodey, Clint, and Fury. The others just seemed impossible. You didn't think you'd seen Loki wear jeans once. Thor maybe as well could pull off the farmer look as well. T'Challa, Tony, and Stephen on the other hand? Absolutely not. Tony only wore suits, Stephen rarely changed out of his wizarding clothes, and T'Challa wore traditional clothes almost all of the time.

As the night wore on, movies playing on the TV, you started to drift off. You could feel Stephen picking you up in his arms, bidding the others good-night as he carried you up the stairs and into one of the bedrooms. You knew Tony was around as you could hear him talking softly to Stephen.

"Hey sweetheart," Tony said softly as they sat you upright on the bed. You blinked before leaning your head on his shoulder, trying to fall asleep. He chuckled gently. "You gotta get into some pajamas. You're going to be uncomfortable if you stay in that dress all night."

You ignored him, making him sigh in fake exasperation. "You want me to undress you then?"

You nodded, already half-asleep. You could feel his fingers unzipping the dress behind you, sliding the shoulders of it off, before you were nodding off.

The last thing you felt was being slipped under silk sheets, a warm arm holding you tightly to their chest.

***

You bolted upright, leaping out of the bed, stumbling into the bathroom, the door banging against the wall behind you.

"Sweetheart?" Tony's tired voice was drowned out as you vomited into the toilet. You heard feet hit the floor behind you before Tony was pulling your hair back as you emptied your stomach into the bowl.

Once you were done, you rested your forehead on your arms.

"Darling?" Stephen's voice was behind you now as well.

"Shit." You groaned. "I feel terrible."

Stephen's hand landed on your forehead, "You do feel warm. Tones, do you mind going downstairs, grabbing the ginger ale and some saltine crackers. I think there might already be a thermometer up here."

"There is." Tony said, knocking on one of the drawers as he passed by to leave the room.

Stephen rummaged in the drawer to pull out the under the tongue temperature reader. He pulled off the plastic cap, writing your name on the back with sharpie before crouching in front of you. "Open Y/N."

You did, letting him stick it under your tongue. You held it there until it beeped, showing that you had a 103 degree fever. The news made you vomit again, this time Stephen being the one to hold your hair back.

After he figured you were done, he helped you gently back into bed. Tony came back with a cool glass of ginger ale, so cold that perspiration was already dropping down the side of the cup. A box of saltine crackers was under his arm and he was holding a large pot in the other hand- probably so you could throw up without running to the bathroom.

"Here we go baby girl." Tony said, sitting next to me on the bed.

"Tony, you'll get sick." You mumbled, taking a small sip of the ginger ale, nibbling at a cracker.

"You need to keep up your fluids," Stephen said, completely disregarding your worry. "Salt isn't particularly good when you're sick so if you're going to be eating crackers to settle your stomach, you need to keep it balanced with plenty of water and ginger ale." [You could supplement with Sprite if you want to]

You nodded.

"I'm kind've disappointed." Tony said softly and both you and Stephen looked at him. He gave a small shrug, "Was kind've hoping you had morning sickness."

You smiled a little, "Sorry."

Tony shook his head, "I just want you to get better."

The others visited you throughout the day, which was met with your weak protests. But they figured if they were going to get sick, it was better they were all sick at once than having them someone sick every three days for a month.

They were all so sweet and attentive, laying with you, making sure that you got enough fluids. Loki loved coming in and reading more of that poetry to you. For example, the poem the second poem that he read you had laughing so hard that you got hiccups:

starkle, starkle, little twink, Who the hell are you I think. I'm not under what you call The alcofluence of incohol. I'm just a little slort of sheep, I'm not drunk like thinkle peep. I don't know who is me yet, But the drunker I stand here the longer I get So just give me one more fink to drill my cup, 'Cause I got all day sober to Sunday up.

Loki, not knowing the song of twinkle twinkle little star was a bit confused about why you liked the poem so much. Despite this, he enjoyed that you were laughing at it, and let you read it over and over as you hiccuped, tears streaming down your face with laughter.

[I mean- I though it was funny]

And then there was another one that sounded just beautiful, if not a little creepy.

There's a truth not many know, About the world while you're asleep That the wind slips through your window, To steal the secrets that you keep, And if you don't believe me, Then you're welcome to your doubt, But have you never stopped to wonder, What it's whispering about? What else in the world Could make the treetops bend and sway But the weight of all the words, that no one ever dared to say? And since it's while your sleeping Secrets are easiest to take It's no surprise those with the deepest are the ones kept wide awake.

"Is that why you don't sleep?" You asked Loki teasingly.

Loki chuckled, appreciating your humor. "Naturally my Queen."

After you'd gotten better, most everyone else had either gotten it and it had passed, or they hadn't gotten it at all. Except Bucky who had it really bad.

He was shivering under his blankets, his nose red and his lips blue. Except that he always kept saying he was hot, trying to throw the blanket off of him.

For the most part, Steve, Sam, and Stephen stayed with him, taking care of him. But you tried to get some time with him, curling up with him while he pressed his cold face into your neck.

You wanted to surprised him for when he got better, so you grabbed Loki and the two of you went out into the town.

"What are we getting?" Loki questioned, following you along. You both ignored pointing fingers and stares from passerby's.

"You'll see." You said, gripping his hand before dragging him to a pet store. You and Loki looked around before you found two kittens and a puppy that you both wanted and were sure that the others would want.

[The two kittens are a species called Munchkin kitties. I don't know the dog breed I'm sorry]

The first kitten was a white kitten with grey eyes that reminded you of Bucky. The second kitten was black with such blue eyes you could've sworn that it was Loki impersonated. And the puppy was just to cute to pass up on.

"Okay, this one is adorable." Loki said, cradling the black kitten in his arms. The puppy was on a leash while you tried keeping the other kitten in your hands. It was a very squirmy kitten and it took a minute before it finally settled contentedly on your shoulder. You were sure that it wouldn't last long.

"Are we getting any other pets?" Loki asked as you moved through a second pet store.

"Yes." You said. "I want two rabbits as well. I think it's only fitting, after all, I want pets that everyone wants. And I absolutely adore rabbits."

"Why two?" Loki asked.

"Rabbits are very social creatures. They can actually die of depression so if you get a rabbit, you should always get two so that they are never lonely. Human interaction can only be so much for them."

"Interesting." Loki mused as you looked over the English lops that were sitting in the area. The kitten in your hands sniffed at them in interest. One of the bunnies stood up on its hind legs, sniffing at the kitten before tentatively starting to groom it behind the ears. The kitten purred, closing its' eyes. You and Loki exchanged a look.

"That one." The two of you said together.

[There are four pictures. The first picture is them as a baby. The second picture is them full-sized]

"They're adorable." You cooed. The brown Miniature English Lop eared was a girl and the blue miniature lionhead was a male.

"They are quite cute." Loki admitted, holding the cardboard carrier case with the two bunnies inside gingerly. "This kitten is still my favorite though."

"I got him specifically because he looks like you." You said with a smile, feeling giddy as the two of you got back to the car. Loki said he would sit in the back with all of the animals.

You drove slowly so that you didn't make any sudden stops, turns, or starts. When you got home, Rhodey and Clint came out to see where you guys had gone.

"Oh Fury is going to freak." Clint said with delight, picking up the white ball of fluff in one hand. The cat peered up at him.

"That one is kind've Bucky's." You admitted. "and the black cat is kind've Loki's. But the dog and the bunnies are all of ours."

Rhodey picked the puppy up, which immediately started to lick his face energetically.

You took the white cat from Clint, trading the two bunnies for her. You carefully made your way up the stairs while the others downstairs started crowding the other animals.

You knocked on the door, hearing Steve say, "Come in."

"Cover his eyes Steve." You said before you entered the room.

You heard Bucky mumble a weak protest as you came in, making your way over to the bed. You watched Steve's eyes widen and then a smile break out on his face. You sat down on the edge of the bed. "Okay."

Steve removed his hand and Bucky looked at you and then at the white fluff in your hands. Bucky's face lit up in delight and you quickly reached out, placing the kitten in his hands.

The kitten stood up in his two hands, starting to nuzzle and knead the metal hand like it a toy. Then it hopped off his hands, making her way up to his chest, curling up into the tiniest ball you'd ever seen.

Bucky was grinning so wide it was like he had never been sick. "She's adorable. What a good little kitty." He petted her with two fingers. "Does she have a name?"

"No, you can name her." You said.

Bucky continued to look down at her, petting her, "Alpine."

"Cute." You commented. "I wonder what Loki will name his cat."

"There's another cat?" Bucky's eyes lit up even more if that was possible.

"And a puppy and two bunnies." You said sheepishly. "I wanted to make sure everyone had a pet that they liked. I mean, for the most part we're sharing the animals. Like how we'll share kids. But I thought you'd like your own cat."

Bucky motioned for you to lean over so that he could kiss your forehead. "Thank you doll."

"Anything for you Buckaroo."

Clint, Sam, and Rhodey came upstairs at that moment, bringing in the bunnies and puppy to see Bucky as well.

Bucky smiled, watching how attentive the bunnies were with the puppy, both of them climbing all over the poor dog.

"We thought you'd name the bunnies Y/N." Rhodey said with a grin.

You smiled back, "That's Cinnamon roll and that's Boba." You said without any hesitation.

Steve chuckled behind you, "Cute names."

"What's the dogs name?" You asked.

"We haven't decided yet." Rhodey said.

Suddenly you heard the door open downstairs and you heard Fury give a strangled cry before he shouted, "What the F-"

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Age of Khonshu, or as I like to call it: Oh no. Oh no no no no.

Age of Khonshu, written by Jason Aaron. 2018.

Who is Jason Aaron? A big writer at Marvel, he is best known for PunisherMAX (the ultras violent and non-marvel universe version of the Punisher), some runs of Thor (the one where Jane Foster becomes Thor), and certain runs with Wolverine: Weapon X. He also wrote Southern Bastard, which is a big name over in Image comics.

Another important fact? He was raised Southern Baptist that has since become an atheist.

That history out of the way, let's look at the sort of comic this is.

I have been putting off reading this little doozy for YEARS. Why? Three reasons.

This was not a good year for me personally. In fact, this was the start of some REALLY bad years to follow for the next 4 years.

I missed the original release and when I tried to find it to read it, no one had it. Not even the library. (This should have been my first clue).

This is a Marvel tie in event.

Now, I have ranted about these before and I'm going to rant about it again.

What is a tie in event? It's a big Marvel World event that attempts to do a large story-line that involves a lot of other big names (usually the avengers).

In Events, you have the main story line that involves the main character. So say, DareDevil is fighting a super ninja. You have the main story that takes place in DareDevil's comic "DareDevil vs. the super ninja" and in that comic, it's such a big fight that the avengers have to get involved, and maybe Dr. Strange and perhaps Brother Voodoo is getting a movie next spring so they want to showcase Brother Voodoo working with familiar faces so he's involved now too.

BUT. All these people involved also have their own comics running. They don't just want to keep going and ignore this big ninja fight that's happening. So then we have side event tie ins that pause their normal story-line to respond in some way to the event that is happening.

So Let's say Ms. Marvel has her story line going where she's been fighting some evil mob boss. She's suddenly going to pause that story. She'll suddenly come up on a hole hoard of evil ninjas and have to fight them for a single issue. But they don't want to loose steam with her evil mob boss because they have to get back to that in the next issue! So it turns out her evil mob boss HIRED those ninjas in some sort of attempted partnership with the evil super ninja. Just to highlight how evil the mob boss is!

Oh, and if you haven't been reading DareDevil or the Avengers or ALL THE OTHER COMICS INVOLED good luck trying to keep up with what's going on. So by the end of the event, you have to compile a LOT of comics together in a particular order so that you can fully understand what's going on.

Even worse? Sometimes the responding tie in comics that aren't really involved with the main story line try to solve the issue. So, going back to my example, Ms. Marvel not only defeats the ninja gang, but she discovers something amazing that will in the end help defeat the Super Ninja! She has single handedly helped bring it down! …In her own comic. It makes her look like the big hero and like she was crucial to the event….When in truth, she has nothing to do withthe main story line over in DD world and her little discovery won't have anything to do at all with how to bring down the Super Ninja in the end.

With me so far?!

If this sounds familiar to you, then congratulations, you may have read "Moon Knight Shadowland", which was infinately better than the main story line of Dare Devil Shadowland. (I'm still bitter about that one). Or the original Civil War saga. Or Seige. Or Dark Reign. Or Age of Khonshu.

Today, I'm here to talk about Age of Khonshu.

In which Moon Knight gets his own special event under an Avenger's title.

So how did they compile this event under an Avenger's title? We start with something that makes no sense to someone that has not been following the Avenger's comics.

Stepping further into it? This event follows directly after the 2017 BEMIS run. So we are moving from the worst run in MK history into Aaron's Age of Khonshu. The next comic after this didn't come out till 2021! That's a three year gap!

What's the story?

Mephisto (I hate Mephisto. He has been made basically into Marvel's version of the Christian Devil.) is messing with the time line and is going back in time to amass soul contracts with people and is slowly taking over the world or destroying it or building up hell. It isn't ever properly explained, but most evil things like this usually aren't.

For some reason Khonshu has seen the future of a world where Mephisto has destroyed it and done terrible things. So he puts these images into Marc's head. Marc, thinking Khonshu is out to fuck with him again (when isn't he?) tracks down Khonshu in one of his Moon Cult temples.

Khonshu tells Marc that he's terrified of Mephisto and Marc realizes that Khonshu isn't just fucking with him this time.

So he teams up and decides to…STEAL ALL THE POWERS OF THE AVENGERS AND GIVE THEM TO KHONSHU.

That's right. As someone told me, it's like watching a ten year old talking about how their character is the most powerful and can beat up all the other characters.

Moon Knight beats up Dr. Strange with the power of Khonshu and steals his magic. Then he beats up Danny and steals the Iron fist. Then steals the GHOST RIDER'S fire of vengeance. He goes after Thor on the MOON. Turns out Thor's hamer is made out of moon rock so Moon Knight laughs as he steals the hammer because he has the power of moon. He goes after the Black Panter and T'challa is just like "LOL No. My power comes from my ancestors. You can't steal that."

So they lock up T'challa in a pyramid.

YOU KNOW WHAT MARVEL MOVIE WAS COMING OUT IN 2018?! That's right, the first Black Panther movie.

So in this comic, it's going to feature heavily that Black Panther is super powerful and the hero of the story.

Giving Khonshu all these powers, he remakes New York into Khonshu World and imprisons anyone that fails to worship him, because he's an all powerful god that will stop Mephisto.

And he does fight Mephisto and kill him, but there are so many versions of him now, because he's the devil and you can't kill the devil.

And throughout this, Moon Knight worships and prays to Khonshu, calling him his god and how he's a follower, and believes that Khonshu is a powerful god.

The Avengers keep asking him to stop, that he's off his meds or something and mentally ill and they can help him stop Mephisto if he stops Khonshu.

Eventually Moon Knight realizes that Khonshu can't stop Mephisto and he's gone too far.

He prays to a different god and THE PHOENIX fire shows up and he becomes Moon Knight Phoenix.

He betrays Khonshu because now he is his own god I guess? Helping them take Khonshu down, he gives back all their powers and they lock Khonshu away in Asgard.

Now he expells the Phoenix from his own self before he becomes Dark Moon Knight and destroys the world.

Now the Avengers story moves on to them dealing with Mephisto in a later run, but Khonshu is defeated and that's the important part!

T'challa offers Moon Knight a place in the Avengers, rather than a jail cell in Wakanda for his crimes. Moon Knight turns him down and returns to a small part in Manhattan that he'd rather protect.

And that's how it ends.

Aside from the main story aspect of this particular volume of MK avengers, here are the MAJOR problems:

Throughout the entire run, there is HEAVY christian imagery and language.

They talk about the devil and how scary the devil is. They talk about Hell. They talk about angels. They talk about gods.

They especially show Moon Knight worshiping and PRAYING to Khonshu or Phoenix.

Moon Knight himself discusses fighting the Devil and going to Hell as a construct of the horrors he has seen and done.

2. Throughout the run, Aaron tries to pull out bits from Lemire. Referencing him and doing callbacks. It falls SO flat.

There is a scene early on where he does the "I am Marc Spector. I am Steven Grant. I am Jake Lockley. And we are Moon Knight" bit. But it's followed by a prayer to Khonshu because he is the Moon God's accolyte.

Later he talks about how Marc expelled Khonshu from his mind and had healed and was his own man again. He talks about how Khonshu had put horrors in his mind that made him ill.

He then talks about how he frequents a certain mental hospital.

Not only is he referencing Lemire, but he's taking it in the wrong context. This man read it and went "Yeah sure I got it" when he clearly didn't.

In Lemire's run, we see Marc dealing not just with how KHonshu used and abused him and how messed up he was, but we also see him coming to terms with his own mental illness and trying to understand himself. To understand that he himself had been abusive towards himself. His self harm attributes. His pushing people away. We see him learn to embrace the 'what if' aspect of after mental illness. We see doubt and we see room to heal.

In this it's just "Khonshu did it."

3. We're back to the mental health topic. While they DO acknowledge Steven and Jake twice, offhandedly, we don't see them. It's just MARC. And I find it hard to believe that either of them would either let Marc go this far off the rails to hurting his friends, but that they would go along with it without having a discussion or working as a team if they found it to be the only solution.

They also have NUMEROUS remarks from the others about "We all know Moon Knight is crazy but I didn't think he was this crazy". It carries on the old conversations that everyone in the Avengers and so on all see Moon Knight as mentaly unwell. Unfit. Crippled, even. He's not well enough to do things. He pretends to be a hero but we all know he's likely to melt down any minute and do something crazy, attitude.

And repeatedly he's told to take meds, go to the hospital, check himself in… Even T'Challa tells him "Wakanda has made great strides in Mental Health. We can cure you!"

Cure him from what? Trauma? Take away his DID? Or implying that he's some sort of other unwell causing him to not think straight?

It's these three things combined that just really set me off.

The absolutely disgusting use of Christian vocabulary and idealism to portray a Jewish character. Even if Marc isn't observant of Jewish beliefs, he is culturally Jewish and raised by a Rabbi. Unless he blatantly converted, he would not find himself worshiping and praying to another god. He wouldn't believe in the devil or use such language to describe Mephisto. He wouldn't talk about Angelic idealations or even Hell.

Then the blatant use of his mental illness to further how it's easy for Moon Knight to fall into such ways. Of course he did this. He's crazy. He'll do anything!

Of course he made his god Khonshu into an over powered dick.

I've discussed this before with a good friend, but there is a difference between following Khonshu and worshiping Khonshu.

I love the use of Yehya Badr to show this in MacKay's run. One has converted and religiously believes and follows Khonshu. The other follows a path that he himself set down as a result of his experiences and own needs.

Moon Knight never outright worships Khonshu (when properly written). Even in Moench's old run, he believed that he had been resurrected by Khonshu and therefore his power and life was in Khonshu's hands. This was more following Marc's thinking that he himself was nothing more than a ghost. Without Khonshu, it was more of an existential dread that he was nothing. Not that Khonshu was a god figure.

In later runs this translated into a sort of worship and it never should have. In Moench's run, Khonshu was some unknown force. Perhaps a god, perhaps a spirit, perhaps some form of something ancient that represents the moon and protecting those who travel by night. Considering the Marvel universe and such loose terms of applying all powerful beings under the phrase of 'god', it makes sense. Thor is technically a god. But he is not a god to be worshiped.

Moon Knight takes his own Jewish upbringing. He is here to cherish all life. To protect those who fall into the margins and cry for help.

What's most insulting is that this comic directly followed the run by Bemis. The one that was so laced with antisemitism and blatant disregard for mental health topics.... So we jump from blood libel and Nazism into fighting the actual Devil and praying to gods and worship.

This is not a good look, Marvel.

Here's the thing, we need a Jewish writer.

I don't mean someone that was formerly Jewish that converted to some other following. I don't mean an atheist that has a special interest in other religions (as Aaron claims he is). We need a born and raised practicing Jewish writer.

We need someone to use the proper terminology that isn't Christian based. We need Jake to speak more Yiddish. We need Steven to be seen putting money into the Tzedakah box. We need Marc to discuss his conflict with his Orthodox Rabbi father and his current path in life and how, like it or not, he has become the epitome of the Jewish struggle to exist.

I appreciate Mr. MacKay, but when his run is done and Marvel looks for the next Moon Knight writer, I'd really like to see a Jewish voice step in and not only respect their own people (despite what Marvel may tell them to do) but to also continue to represent and respect the mental health aspect of Moon Knight.

Maybe I'm asking too much? But this issue...

TLDR: Do not read Bendis, Bemis, and Aaron when it comes to Moon Knight.

[luna-rainbow]

Thoughts about this quote from AM about how Sam doesn't trust Bucky and will probably never completely forgive him for being the Winter Soldier?

Here's the link to the tweet I saw (I don't know how to include screenshots sorry 😭😭):

https://twitter.com/DianneR_99/status/1785867853238833641?t=NUhkilfwG2guZQx31-b82g&s=19

It's apparently from the official Marvel Studios' collector special TFATWS book.

Why is it so hard for people at Marvel to acknowledge that Bucky is a victim not some reformed villain?

(Also please feel free to ignore this ask, I know people have been dogpiled in the past for being slightly critical of AM and the last thing I want is for you to get hate because of me.)

It’s okay I think I’ve blocked most of them, or they’ve gotten tired of dogpiling me and blocked me. If I’ve missed anyone feel free to announce yourselves to get a block 😌

Thanks for bringing this to my attention!

I’ve said in other asks about AM’s comments on Bucky, I never blame an actor for not understanding the nuances of another character. That’s not his job. Understanding Bucky is the job of Sebastian Stan and the writers.

However, I know it’s tempting to compare him to CEvans, who had always spoken so affectionately of Bucky. Remember that Bucky’s story in the movies was complementary to Steve’s, meaning that CEvans had to understand Bucky's tragedy in order to understand Steve’s pain and guilt. To CEvans/Steve, it was important that Bucky was a wronged hero, because it rationalises why Steve would go such lengths to help him. For the entire trilogy, Bucky, and particularly Bucky's suffering, was very much impetus for Steve’s personal journey and growth. I've talked about the narrative motifs in other meta and I want to emphasise I don't mean this from a shipping lens - I mean that thematically, events that happen to Bucky have always been a major driver for Steve to make important narrative choices, and it is true even if you see their relationship as platonic.

Which…I guess brings us to the crux of the disk horse that brought about this tweet. No, Bucky is in no way important personally or narratively to Sam. Sam doesn’t grow or change because he cares about Bucky, although fortunately at least Bucky’s TFATWS arc involves him growing because he cares about Sam. We know Bucky is not personally or narratively important to Sam because of what AM has just said — Sam will always see Bucky as the guy who tore off his wings and kicked him off a helicarrier. Not a WW2 war hero, not a prisoner of war tortured into blank amnesia, not a survivor who had to rebuild most of his identity ground up, not a veteran living with PTSD without any social supports. These same views are echoed by his fans, who will scoff at everything I’ve said above and say we’re trying to “woobify a white fave” without knowing what woobify means. Sam does not care about what Bucky has been through, we know because the writing of the story has told AM that it is not important to understand who Bucky is or what Bucky has been through. All AM needs to do is to banter with this guy like he’s still annoyed at him over an incident 10 years ago when he had amnesia.

Again, I don't blame AM for this, because he can only work with what the writers have told him about the intended relationship between Sam and Bucky. And to be fair, he plays it like it is. At no point does it feel like Sam values or trusts Bucky beyond "annoying guy I put up with for work". I know some fans like to point to the Louisiana scene as proof that Sam trusts Bucky and has him as part of the family -- which would be great fanon if 1) AM didn't just contradict that and b) Sam spends most of the deleted scenes calling Bucky "the Winter Soldier" like the guy had any say in the moniker. And no, Bucky confessing his deeds to Yori is not Bucky reclaiming his identity as the Winter Soldier.

This is not an indictment on the ship, by the way, because you can wrangle canon to make it work, and shipping has been built on far less. I've got nearly 50k words on AO3 proving I've tried. But TFATWS canon is full of things happening off camera and the truth is...we never saw mutual trust and affection on camera between the two men. We saw two guys perpetually annoyed at and annoying to each other, and AM just gave the reason why.

[thoughtfulfangirling]

I don't know too much about the horrors Shelley Duvall underwent during the making of The Shining, but I've heard just enough to know that it was at the very least unethical. And sure we can marvel at her performance of fear and horror. It was impressive.

But it also manages, to people who are me, to fall flat in its lack of dimension.

People suffering the sort of torment Wendy are under are not only experiencing fear, confusion, and horror. They're also angry and vindictive and vengeful at times.

What if they'd let her fully act the fear so that she could have pulled back and displayed a glimmer of satisfaction when she hit Jack with the bat, a sense of the hilarious/humor as he went head over heels down the stairs? What I wouldn't have given for a sense of rage and fury as she dragged him through the halls of the hotel to lock him in the pantry. A woman dealing with the shit that she's been under would probably have a moment of sadistic satisfaction when he cries out that she may have really hurt him, he's dizzy, and now he wants that doctor she'd mention.

Sure those may be things that at the time might not have gotten written into a script because maybe at that time, women weren't like that(tm). But that's exactly why Duvall should have been left the choice to act with all her wits about her. Actors bring small nuanced moments like that to roles all the time because they are the ones trying to fit their minds into it wholly and completely and without consultation of any of the other characters around them. And they can bring insights into that role that others may not have thought to.

Think Furiosa re her scream in the desert. That was Theron's idea. And when asked where she found that rage—a question that maybe, in a different world, Duvall might have been able to make the space for—she responded that women just have that rage. A good actress will find it and put it where it's needed to go, in places her male coworkers might not think to put that.

Sure I don't think there was any performing better than she did during the bathroom scene, but almost everywhere else, I just got so tired of the constant fear/sadness of the performance, which I believe is exactly what was aimed at by the creators for the film. It was exhausting not in a way that makes me feel Wendy's exhaustion, but made her a caricature that she didn't deserve being.

There's nothing wrong with someone in her situation feeling mostly fear and terror, but it's absurd to think it's just that.

Fuck. Where was the disassociation? We got it maybe for the moment she sliced Jack's hand?

I dunno. I'm sure many people have spoken on this much better than me before and probably having seen it more than one (1) single time and have better, more sophisticated thoughts. It was a good movie. I don't recall anyone putting Jack through shit to get his performance and he did a great job, with lots of various emotions throughout. Let actors do their job.

[busyxfangirling]

The second season is honestly becoming increasingly harder to watch because what are they trying to do?

The show is titled Loki but he feels like a side character is his own show, I know many MANY things are happening but literally Loki is not the central figure driving the story.

My expectations were low but I did not know Disney could do this much worse!!!!

What the FUCK was episode 3 with the Miss Minutes thing and weird little Ravonna/Victor attempt???

Marvel is just getting worse and worse with what they're putting out, I want the character or even narrative driven stories back where people were well fleshed out, had consistency and their actions made sense to who there were!!! This feels like just trying to sell shock value because you know you have a base of consumers who will stay to see what happens to their favourite character.

They are absolutely ignoring all the material they have available to them to work with! This Loki has only experienced things till the Avengers movie, there is so much character deep dive they could do! What is the point of giving them their own show and then not talking about them at all??

I'll come to the queer things later cause boy do I have a list for that, but first of all, Loki is not a new character in any capacity??? He has been loved and is arguably the biggest fan favourite since his introduction, the amount of theories about him and what people would like to see is very well known!! Right in front of them is his still unclear feelings in his adoption, about being a Jotun, loosing his family and the complicated relationships with them. I can see they are acknowledging his God of Mischief status a little bit but!! Trickster!! Let us see him be a wild card properly!! Not in the sense of betraying his new TVA family - that's what it is and you can fight me on that- but being chaotic!! Yes, using his magic like with Brad!! SHOW ME HE IS A GOD!!!

The worst thing is how lost everyone feels, like I'm not talking about the whole free will conundrum everyone is going through, that is spectacular! Unfortunately it is not coming across, we literally don't get to hear any of the characters talk about what they think of it. There was the key lime pie moment but no follow up to what that is for Loki? It's just one crisis after another, maybe rehash some of what has already happened, bring back the seriousness of this!! The entire multiverse is at stake but we'll make it look like whimsical wishy-washy stuff??!??!!!

Don't get me wrong, I am LOVING the time travel aspect of it, where it looks like Loki/Mobius are on cute dates. But then make it real, the fucking queerbaiting is ridiculous. The throw-away comment in season one about looking being bi was just that and nothing else. And I'm not saying this cause aww they look cute together! But also cause the development of their relationship has been as such!! They have been very dependent on each other and that's not being addressed at all.

I know there are multiple posts about a possible betrayal and my fear is that they're going to try to use that to basically change everything about the characters again, a lot of OOC based on the fact that oh yeah they're going through an existential crises so it makes sense.

Sylkie made barely any sense to me even apart from the whole selfcest issue- they just imposed a the structure of what a straight relationship should be where there was barely any chemistry. S1 E3 had them as really good chaotic siblings/twins and then adding the romantic tones to that really ruined it. Trying to bring it back, possibly, is just weird cause so far they want very different things. These people just don't align together, stop forcing them to? The fact that they refuse to even talk about that kiss shows that they are keeping it open and not just acknowledging that "hey, we don't want the same things in life and I'm happy for you, you matter a lot to me but a romantic relationship is not happening. Also cause you know, we're the same person, lol."

Sylvie as a character is also very confusing rn, there is honestly no need for her to keep coming back in this way??? I'm going to reserve further opinions because half the season is left but I dont expect anything to really get better.