#But I don't trust Disney/MCU with shit

[fouralignments]

Me in my little corner of the internet. (I know I'm repeating myself after Wandavision). I'm happy and content with knowing that the Fox X-Men movies are over and there's nothing that Marvel or Disney can do or add that will make me stop enjoying those movies. I can go back and rewatch them anytime that I want. Do they have problems sure, what movie doesn't? Which I can't say from newer marvel movies.

I don't give a flying fuck about Deadpool & Wolverine and quite frankly I didn't get it when the first Deadpool came out.

If Marvel/Disney won't give me Dadneto, Stepdad! Charles Xavier and their Quickson, Peter. They were the hater of FinnPoe.

I will do it myself!

[gavillain]

AGATHA EPISODE SIX SPOILER DISCUSSION; HOLY SHIT THAT WAS A GOOD EPISODE!!!!

A LOT happened in this episode, and we got a LOT of answers!

I'm really glad we got Billy Kaplan/Billy Maximoff's full backstory here at the midway point, and I really enjoy the way this episode bridged the gap between WandaVision and Agatha All Along. I'm just really excited to see Billy's story getting adapted here in general too. Obviously it's a bit different from the comics, but they kept a lot of the core ideas of it in tact. And I'm super happy to see that they explicitly kept his Jewishness in tact as well given the MCU's unfortunate habit of erasing or neglecting Jewish identities. We find out here that Billy Maximoff's spirit is inhabiting the body of Billy Kaplan, who died in a car accident the day the Hex came down. We also find out that Lilia was the one who put the sigil on Billy after reading his palm and seeing his broken life line (I was surprised but I thought that reveal was very satisfying). We find out that Billy's boyfriend's name is Eddie, so he's not Teddy Altman and thus probably not Hulkling, which I personally never really thought but other people were theorizing.

Oh and RALPH BOEHNER RETURNS!!!! :D Honestly, I didn't think I would care, but my boyfriend and I went WILD when we saw him pop up. A+ callback right there :D And I like him being the one to sort of facilitate Billy going to Westview after Agatha. After how little he did in WandaVision post-reveal that he wasn't Pietro, it was nice to see him get a bit more relevance again in the overarching plot.

Agatha pulls herself out of the mud and survives, and I also really loved how Agatha wasn't mad or vengeful towards Billy. She was legitimately excited to see him and know who he was. Their relationship is one of the most interesting parts of the show, so I'm glad to see that it's not totally being burned to the ground. Obviously, Billy is fully in the right not to trust Agatha, but we're now at a juncture where the two of them are going to be more open and honest with each other, and that has me excited! We just saw Agatha last episode prove why she is still very much a villain, but we also saw that Billy has a bit of a dark side in him too. I think we're gonna see Billy be torn between good and evil as the show goes forward and deciding what type of witch he wants to be, with Agatha being the proverbial devil on his shoulder. I made the comparison a few weeks back about Agatha and Billy being Maleficent and Riku from Kingdom Hearts in another font, and that seems to be the direction we're heading, which excites me.

Theory wise, there's not a whole lot of new theories for me at least, other than the ones continuing from previous episodes, but I do have a few more scattered thoughts: *Eddie uses the black heart emoji for Billy, so does that mean HE was the black heart that Lilia wrote on the list instead of Rio? If so, it's kind of weird that HE would be a "black heart" in any way. But also this still has me thinking that Blackheart may yet be involved. Not as Rio (who we pretty much know is Death due to leaks), but maybe somewhere else? I dunno, I'm not giving up hope that he or Mephisto are involved, even if it's just as an after credits scene.

*BILLY HAVING A BLACK CAULDRON POSTER IN HIS ROOM MADE ME SO FRIGGIN' HAPPY! To see Disney acknowledging that movie always warms my heart, but to know that Billy is a fan in this universe is REALLY cool and gives me a sort of kinship with him. Love to the underloved!

*Rio is still MIA since Alice died. Is she still tending to Alice or is she doing something else?

*Lilia and Jen aren't dead, and we know as much, but they didn't escape the bog with Agatha, so I'm wondering if the next trial will see the get out or maybe see them waiting there for Agatha and Billy.

*Billy is apparently on the road to find Tommy, which makes a lot of sense. I know people are upset that he's not after Wanda, but I genuinely don't think Wanda's return to the MCU was ever going to be in another TV show. I think, if Wanda returns, it's going to be in Avengers Doomsday, much like her return in the comics during Children's Crusade. But I'm excited to see if Tommy DOES return in this show or if Billy's ambitions are going to remain unresolved at the end of the road. I'm excited to find out!

NEXT EPISODE WITH SPEED PLEASE! I have a MIGHTY need to see Billy in that Maleficent cosplay in what I assume is the next trial… yes, I am, as ever, myself XD

[raccoonfallsharder]

There’s been a few rumours that the Russos (and one of the writers from Infinity War/Endgame) may be coming back for Avengers 5/6! I’m curious about what those movies will be like, because they’re going to be even MORE crowded with a gazillion characters. 😅

And particularly, I wonder what the role of the Guardians is even gonna be in them… or at least Star-Lord, if no one actually has any plans to bring them back — which seems to be the most likely outcome. Personally, I wouldn’t actually mind too much if the new Guardians were brought back to join the final battle or something like that. It might be nice as a last hurrah for Rocket, maybe!

But what do you think? I know your opinions on those movies, so… I know what you have to say will be very interesting. 😁

oooooh boy. this just unlocked a whole bunch of competing thoughts in my head. i hope i can make sense of them enough to type them up.

here's the thing. i don't trust the russos or the IW/E writers but i am a person who (1) believes that people can grow and become better at damn near anything they want to, and (2) i am happy to be wrong. maybe the russos and whichever writer who is coming on board will have taken good lessons from the last five years since endgame (five years holy shit) and they'll come out stronger, better, more respectful storytellers. maybe they'll listen to other, better, more respectful storytellers on the team. hell, maybe disney will even let them be better (disney properties seem to be at their best when the mouse is least invested in controlling its indentured creatives). and of course, quality and effective storytelling won't only be on the shoulders of the russos et al. it will also be on the people who are working on the adjacent, intervening movies, and whether they are capable of and permitted to create compelling narratives and fully-developed characters along the way.

now, another thing i think will be tricky is if they choose to do another massive ensemble-battle (like the final endgame fight). i'm just not sure almost anything they can do will be actually satisfying to anyone who identifies with the characters who aren't the main focus. the reason that so-called "girl-power" moment in endgame was so fucken dissatisfying for so many of us was because it was unearned. condescending. you can't choose to feature so few of these women in the course of the whole movie, kill the only one of them with more than like three lines, and then throw every woman left alive into thirty seconds of battle choreography and think that your target-audience will see that as anything but patronizing. if the russos go for that level of sprawling battle-pageantry, that's what will happen, on some level. we just can't pay attention to every character the way they truly deserve when the cast is that massive.

and... i imagine this is exactly how the guardians would feature, if they aren't picked up by anyone in the meantime: one second of screentime in the background of a big fight, maybe with rocket's signature word as his new team advances to ultimately be lost in the ranks. or a singular star-lord, fighting on the side of the new avengers.

now, i'll let you in on a little and possibly controversial secret: i don't need more of rocket in the mcu. i think the mcu might fuck up a beautiful story. if they were to bring him back - unless it were a complete alternate timeline like a new cartoon - i almost think it would need to be a wholly different genre. here are the best ways i think disney could bring "mcu" rocket back:

fuck copaganda but brooklyn-99 had a distinctly guardians vibe in terms of a bunch of well-meaning dysfunctional idiots coming together under extremely exhausted but HIGHLY effective leadership. we could take this ride through space in a star-trek-esque adventure-of-the-week approach or base it in knowhere so we can really see what it looks like to be a guardian in that community, and meet some of the characters like xlomo smeth, ssssaralami, hoobtoe, the broker, HOWARD, etc.

mst3k but it's like, movie night on knowhere. they project some disney movie on the side of one of the bone-buildings and rocket and groot are always making commentary. but they're not the only ones. nebula's there, and for kid-appropriate movies drax and the kids are too. sometimes howard comes along and he and rocket get drunk and compete to be the harshest critic. adam tries to crack jokes sometimes but he's bad at it.

nebula and rocket during the snap. IN SPACE. mostly. i'll accept occasional visits to terra check in on thor. i suspect we see a lot of kraglin on the third quadrant and maybe spend some time helping with reconstruction in knowhere.

a super-ironic self-aware parody of some old sitcom like full house. i'm open to rocket being the father-figure and the new guardians being the chaotic fam, but i'd also be open to it focusing on the star children, calling it "drax the dad," and having rocket be the uncle-jesse-character. which brings me to my last option, which is

actually center the show around a singular someone else, like adam or phylla, and have rocket occasionally make an appearance as an important background character: a father-figure, a mentor, a captain, a guide, a beloved pain-in-the-ass. occasional conversations over the comms where he's like "are you eating enough? are you cleaning your cannons like i taught you? you still closing your eyes when you squeeze the trigger 'cause i told you to stop fuckin doing that. when are you coming home? nebula misses you and your brother is driving me fuckin crazy"

i do think there are other things that good writers could make work but these are the ones my heart rests on because i just don't trust disney/marvel very easily these days

WHICH IS ALL TO SAY

of course i'm gonna watch whatever disney/marvel puts out into theatres and/or on disney+, especially if the guardians are in it. and especially if my guy is in it.

but i'm also fully expecting to have my heart broken. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

as i said, i'm a person who is happy to be wrong.

[redheadlesbianfreak]

I know that I'm a little late to the James Somerton thing but I wanted to make my own post about this. I started watching James when I was 20 during the pandemic. It made me feel comforted to watch someone talk about queer theory in film, especially because I found out so many films I never heard about. His stuff did make me very passionate about queer history as well, and led me to start seeking more of it. I took a queer literature class in University (one of my fav classes) and I started watching more queer creators.

I grew up in Texas and Mississippi (the Deep South) in a pretty conservative environment. I started to break free of that in middle school and high school, though I was still very ignorant. I think I knew I was queer for a long time, but it took me a while to come out. I felt that I was around queer people who were somewhat hostile and wouldn't believe me. This is because I identified as ace for a little while. People were either actively hostile about that or they acted like it was a dumb identity that didn't matter. I also don't know if I'm cis or not, all I know is that I really relate to the experiences of the trans community.

I kept watching James' stuff over the years. I fell for the hole "academic queer" vibe. He talked so much about queer erasure that I thought he cared deeply about it. I felt connected to the queer community when I watched his content. He talked about trans and sapphic experiences so I thought he cared about that--turns out he stole all of that. All my favorite videos of his were stolen, word for word, from queer writers. All of the passion, all of the great writing, that was stolen. I thought I was watching someone who cared about queer history, but he was actively erasing it and harming other creators.

There were some things that I noticed. He mentioned the indie movie studio and I thought that was weird. I thought his Attack on Titan video was extremely weird and made a lot of non-points. I also remember disagreeing with a lot of it because he just said a bunch of nothing. I thought that it was weird he mainly talked about mainstream culture (Disney, MCU, etc.) rather than less well known pieces of queer media. And there were quite a few videos I didn't watch because there were so many of them (not sure how I didn't suspect that he was a content mill). Some of his videos were incredibly intriguing (because he stole good writing) while others were boring, so there was a lot of inconsistency.

I'm incredibly pissed at this man, and it's hard not to be pissed at myself. I didn't watch every single video by this dude, but I did watch enough. I think that I have a lot to examine about myself when it comes to picking up racism/misogyny/transphobia. Especially when he dressed up all his points to be "progressive" and "academic." I didn't pick up on things like "bad vibes" from this man. I'm not really sure what bad vibes even look like? I also didn't pick up on the fact that his writing style constantly changed. Even with all the strange shit, I still gave him the benefit of the doubt because he was queer and that was way too trusting and that's something I need to work on.

As for the misogyny thing, especially when it comes to queer women and trans/AFAB people. He said a lot of blatantly lesbophobic, biphobic, and transphobic things while downplaying the experiences of everyone who wasn't a cis gay. What James was saying about women in his videos is how a lot of people talk about queer women in the queer community. Especially in fandom spaces. Misogyny is so rampant on the Internet that it can be hard for me to pick up on it as a queer woman. So many people talk about how lesbians want every female character to be gay or how bisexual women are "fujoshis" constantly trying to fetishize gay men.

I hope this makes sense, but it feels like I'm being gaslit when it comes to misogyny because of how often I see it. It's hard for me to tell if I'm being oversensitive or if someone is actually being misogynistic to me. So many progressive men that I trusted have been misogynistic to me and that can be a lot. James was someone I trusted and defended. I even recommended him to people. It's something I'm still disappointed in myself for doing, but I'd like to think I've grown as a queer person since watching his channel. There are so many great queer creators out there and I definitely need to make a recommendation list in the near future.

[the--journeys]

Talk Shop Tuesday: as someone relatively “new” to the fandom, tell us more of what you thought you’d find vs. what you did (aka more thots on the tags of the woobified peter post)

hooooooo boyyyyyy.

Peter Parker has always been my Boy. As someone who read the comics first, to find out that most comics purists hated MCU spidey was so surprising to me, because while there are Many problems with the MCU adaptation of Spider-Man (many of them revolving around Tony Stark, yes) I still think that MCU Peter has the Essence?

MCU Peter dies and walks it off. Gets a building dropped on him and walks it off. Almost gets shot point-blank and walks it off??? To log into tumblr.com for the first time in many, many years and see MCU spidey largely regarded as some uwu, noob of a character was cognitive dissonance.

Until. I read a few fics! And suddenly it all made sense.

I still don't trust comics fans who hate MCU Peter for uwu reasons simply because that isn't Him, and that can be true while also being annoyed at the way fannish works have bred this misconception of who MCU Peter is.

Writing MCU Peter into a world where he calls Tony Stark "dad" or calls the other Avengers to come save him at the drop of a hat is not illegal. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and interpretations of media, but I PERSONALLY believe it's a disservice to Peter Parker's character to file down his nails and teeth because doing so erases not only his competence and tenacity but also! His flaws!

Most (I'm sure there are exceptions but I'm yet to see them) of these worlds created to showcase MCU Peter Parker as a soft li'l bean do not allow Peter to keep his ego, selfishness, or even his optimism? He is a "perfect" little child, a kid with a boatload of trauma but whose coping mechanisms have been changed from kicking the shit out of criminals to??? cuddling?? on the couch??

It does not make sense. To me. In MY mind palace. Peter Parker is a fascinating character (and has been since his conception decades ago) in large part BECAUSE of his flaws. To take them away leaves a character who is boring, flat, and also... Not Peter Parker lmao.

And on TOP of this, to have hate directed at MCU Peter not because of how he's actually portrayed but because of how fandom has massacred him and to see how that hate gets translated into cries that the MCU has "ruined spider-man," or is "the worst spider-man adaptation" when it's the only Spider-Man adaptation to feature POC in really any sense, and especially as Peter's friends/love interests/supporting characters? side EYE.

I love me some media critique! I am a believer that Disney made so many Wrong choices with the MCU, with Spider-Man in particular. But so much MCU Spider-Man critique is actually fandom critique without being labeled as such, and it has an effect on attitudes regarding characters who are portrayed by POC. MCU Spider-Man doesn't do right by its POC lmao, but fandom's psdeudo-straw man hatred of MCU Spidey Isn't Helping.

All this to say, I avoid teen!Peter now in fics now unless I recognize/trust the author, and MCU critique is only as good as the author's understanding of the actual MCU versus fandom's portrayal of it.

[cacw]

miscellaneous civil war thoughts. word count 1214

Ok first Ant-Man is annoying in this one. Sorry. Not really. The airport fight is also annoying. I feel like it should have been taken a lot more seriously considering literally everything that's supposed to be happening. And like most of these movies, there are a few lines and deliveries that are just embarrassing to watch. Tiny guy is big now makes me want to kill myself. But on the other hand Spider-Man throwing a chunk of wall at Bucky did make me almost cry laughing.

On the other other hand I deeply and truly hate 15-year-old Spider-Man's entrance and overall presence here. What a joke.

The Steve and Sharon moment is also a joke mostly because the writers completely abandoned her character for 5 years afterwards. Steve never got her that pardon. I don't think anyone even mentions her again. If there's one thing Marvel hates more than gay people it's women.

It's beyond unfortunate how little of Steve and Bucky we actually see in this one and throughout the remainder of the MCU (which is another topic for another day, but you already know what I mean). We're shown again and again through Steve's words and actions that Bucky is his most important person and that nothing will stop Steve from trying to save him. But they're hardly allowed to even touch each other. The reason for this is so glaringly obvious it would feel a little redundant to even spell it out but it really does make me feel kind of sad. Hollywood is evil. Disney is evil.

That being said, their relationship is still deeply heartfelt and personal and it's so obvious in what we do see. Steve's intake of breath before he asks if Bucky knows him. Bucky smiling at Steve for the first time since 1945. The little nods and the ways they're still able to communicate without words. The way Bucky somehow always manages to drift to his left. Steve looking to Bucky again and again only to find Bucky looking right back. Dropping the shield for him, again. I feel like it's easy to forget that the first shield Steve ever picked up for Bucky wasn't even made of vibranium.

And speaking of relationships, it is also beyond irritating to see Tony lash out at everyone who doesn't completely agree with him. Natasha attempts to reach out multiple times, and the outcomes involve him either shutting her down or talking straight shit. Natasha gives him a hand, and he pushes her away, and it's clearly a big reason why she helped Steve in the end, because he trusts and knows her in a way Tony can't.

In a similar vein, there's another scene that is absolutely crucial to Steve and Tony's relationship. When Tony is trying to get Steve to sign the accords, he ends up mentioning his father, and Steve says he's glad he eventually got to settle down. Tony is quick as ever to make a crack about hating hearing about Steve while growing up, and you can see Steve's face fall immediately. Steve, like Natasha, is always willing to reach out a hand to those who need it, but Tony's ego makes him incapable of taking it. Steve and Tony are not as close as the audience is supposed to believe; they are not family. Like this scene alone is incredibly telling. And I feel like the point of a lot of these scenes is that Tony IS in the wrong for doing this to them, but it feels egregious and it's almost painful to watch him do this to himself, hurt others in the process, and get away with it every time.

And while I'm talking about people who actually feel and care for Steve I have to bring up Sam and Natasha's roles in this one. Sam doesn't have too much screentime but he stands out in every scene he's in. He's an incredible person and character and I wish he had been utilized more. He's always by Steve's side and their friendship is genuinely sweet to see, especially compared to some others. He went with him to the funeral and that alone speaks volumes! He's willing to give it all up to help Steve (he spent 2 YEARS helping look for and save someone he believed to be dangerous just because he believes in Steve), but he's also doing all this because HE believes it's the right thing. It's so good. I'll have to dive more into my Sam thoughts another day.

One more thing about Tony and I was really trying hard to sound unbiased here but he deserved to die just for knocking Sam to the ground. He's a bitch. And sidenote a lot of people try to justify his anger and outbursts in this movie and some of it is reasonable to an extent sure but he just keeps doing all this shit and getting away with it and no one has a problem with this. He brought a high schooler to fight Captain America. Come on. And that's not even mentioning Sokovia.

Natasha's character in this movie gets a lot of flack sometimes and I can understand why, but I think people who say so aren't really seeing her for who she is. It's not that she was with Steve all along, or that she couldn't make up her mind, because it isn't really about Team Cap VS Team Iron Man; she's with her whole team. Everything she does is for her team, whether it's SHIELD or the Avengers, because that's her family. She went to meet Steve at the funeral because he is a part of that family and she didn't want him to be alone. She doesn't want any one of them to be alone! And she is good at genuinely listening to people, so she manages to hear the thoughts of Steve and Tony and everyone else in a way others struggle to do. And in the end she chooses to help do what SHE believes is right, not just her team. Staying together is important to her, but not if it means giving up everything else that makes her who she is.

I want to end this with something positive. I think Bucky is very cute. His hat and his Henley are cute. His hair tucked behind his ears was cute in those 2 scenes. What a sweetheart. That post-credit scene was stupid as hell.

Actually I do have to mention how dumb that is. I don't understand why they had to figure out a way to fix his mind. That doesn't even make sense. It's all conditioning and there's no hack for that. That is not how that should work. Maybe I'd be more understanding if they hadn't kept him in Wakanda for the next 2 years but it's bad and it's lazy and it sucks and this is the hand Bucky is going to be dealt for the rest of time.

Steve is a great character. I just wish this movie had been fully about him.

So all in all Civil War is a pretty pitiful excuse for a Captain America movie and I honest to god don't understand how some of this made it through the writer's room. Whatever.

[animebw]

So I've been stewing a bit with the whole concept of "MCU Fatigue" after my disappointment with The Marvels, and I think I've come to a realization.

See, most people when they shit on the modern MCU act like they're been putting out tons of terrible stuff. But looking at their track record, that's not actually true. In fact, I'd argue that the majority of their Phase 4 and 5 output has still been above average. The only real misses I'd count are FATWS, Dr. Strange 2, The Marvels, and maybe What If if I was feeling particularly uncharitable (and I guess Secret Invasion, but the bad response kept me away from that one so I've never watched it myself). Other than that, Marvel's still putting out a lot of good stuff.

The problem is they're not putting out a lot of great stuff.

Like, we need to take a step back and realize just how fucking insane the MCU's track record used to be. They didn't just put out good movies on a regular basis that put every other franchise to shame, they regularly released some of the most iconic superhero blockbusters of all time. They cranked out all-time classics on such a consistent basis that at this point, at least half of the top 20 greatest superhero movies of all time list would be taken up by MCU projects, maybe more. That's how they built trust with the general audience; not just consistency, but the promise of greatness. People flocked to the MCU not just because there was a near guarantee of a well-made fun time at the cinema, but because that was a strong probability you were going to see something truly spectacular.

Seriously, just look at the studio's track record through Phase 2 and 3. Iron Man 3, Captain America 2 and 3, the first two Guardians movies, Thor Ragnorak, Black Panther, Infinity War and Endgame... you could argue that over half of their movie output from this period was unqualified home runs. And sure, maybe Thor 2 was a dud and Avengers 2 was disappointing, but it didn't matter because there was always the promise of another masterpiece waiting in the wings. People weathered the occasional misstep because they could trust the MCU to always find its way back to greatness.

But now consider: how many all-time bangers can you name from Phases 4 and 5?

Like, I can name a few. Wandavision, Black Panther 2, Guardians 3, Spider-Man 3, maybe Ms. Marvel if I pretend episode 5 doesn't exist (and I've heard Loki season 2 was also great, but that's another one I haven't seen yet). But the ratio of Big Deal Events to Just Another Marvel Thing has gotten much steeper. Between the movies and the Disney+ series, Marvel's cranking out more stuff than ever, but it hasn't been cranking out landmarks any faster than it used to. It's just shoving a lot more padding between the properties that really set the world on fire. And it's training the audience, unintentionally, to no longer associate the MCU with guaranteed smash successes every other weekend.

And I still like most of the MCU's current output! But I don't love it as much as some of its older stuff. Black Widow and Shang-Chi are good, but not quite great. Eternals I will defend to my dying breath, but it was destined for cult classic status. Love and Thunder I would argue is actually pretty fantastic, fuck you fight me, and Quantummania is fine, you guys, but I wouldn't die defending them the way I would, say, Iron Man 3. And as much as I enjoyed Hawkeye, Moon Knight and She-Hulk, you can only watch so much Pretty Good TV before it starts to feel like a chore.

This deluge of content hasn't resulted in tons of more Great Marvel Stuff. It's just resulted in tons of more Good, Okay, and Not That Great Actually Marvel Stuff. It's resulted in audiences feeling like you can't trust Marvel to regularly crank out classics that change the way you view superhero media. And it turns out, it gets a lot harder to justify spending so much time on such an overstuffed time-sink of a franchise when it can't guarantee you a steady stream of masterpieces on a regular basis.

Especially with so much more of it coming out now in such a painfully short timespan. Even in Marvel's busiest years, they used to max out at three movies per year and a couple spinoffs like the Netflix shows that you didn't need to watch to feel up to date. You went out to the movies a couple times a year and were basically guaranteed a good movie every time, and that was it. Now, though, with the Disney+ content, it feels like a constant battle to not fall behind, to keep up with tons of stuff you're just kind of enjoying to justify getting to the increasingly few nuggets of true gold. This stuff would need a track record just as good as the Phase 2/3 days to justify sitting through so much of it, and it just... doesn't. And the second you drop off from exhaustion, it's already roaring ahead and leaving you with too much to ever reasonably catch up on if you're not prepared for a couple days of heavy bingeing.

The shared universe model is fucking hard. Every studio's failed attempt to copy Marvel's playbook is a testament to that. The fact it even maintained its cultural domination as long as it did is nothing short of a miracle. Because it turns out, even being consistently good isn't enough to maintain the level of trust and engagement necessary for such a long haul. You need to be consistently excellent. You need audiences to come away from every other event singing your praises as the new gold standard of blockbuster cinema. And the second you can't maintain that standard anymore, all that goodwill slowly bleeds out as more and more people decide that the effort it takes to keep up with everything is no longer worth the reward.

Does the MCU recover from this? I don't know. At this point, what it needs to do more than anything is slow the fuck down instead of overloading audiences with too many shows and movies to keep up with. Maybe it's not the dominant cultural force anymore, but with a little patience and willingness to sacrifice quantity for quality, it can at least re-establish itself as a franchise worth sticking around for. Marvel used to be special; with a little luck, maybe it can be again.

[mischief-and-tea-by-the-sea]

CHARACTER ASK GAME!!!

Emma: 2, 4, 14, 24

Loki: 5, 15, 16, 25

Tony: 7, 11, 19, 22

Goodness! So many asks! YAY!

Emma Frost:

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

She's highly intelligent and incredibly snarky. She knows who she is, she knows what she wants, and at least by now (I hope), she's not going to let another person treat her like a consolation prize/second choice.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

Well, she's been in a movie by a fantastic actress to play her, but the writers were shit and decided that they were just going to treat her like eye candy fluff instead of the beautiful badass that she is. I'd like to see her in a movie again, but I'm not sure how much I trust the MCU (Disney) with her portrayal - and she wouldn't get to interact with some of my favorite characters for her to interact with because the MCU killed those characters off or sent them back in time to 'dance' with the handsy, red-flag giving person who brought Hydra into S.H.I.E.L.D. Emma would probably be better utilized in a book where the powers of her snark and sass and mind aren't hinging on some screenplay writer's/director's shitty sexist agenda.

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Expensive Parisian Runway in the Streets, Comfy Borrowing Her Boyfriend's T-shirts in the Sheets.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Lagertha from Vikings. Maybe a little bit Bedelia du Maurier from Hannibal but without Bedelia's petty jealousy in Season 3. Maybe a blending of Montespan, Palatine, and Henriette from Versailles.

Loki:

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Nature Boy by Nat King Cole

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

Tony Stark. Runners up: Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Emma Frost, Justin Hammer. Following those four: Bruce Banner, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, Fandral.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Thor and the Grandmaster.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Okay my first-first impression of Loki as a Marvel character was that he looked fucking stupid and how could they disrespect my beloved deity that way. (My ex showed me the 80s comics he had, and I had this view of Loki from the first shot - nevermind that I don't mind the look now with Richard E. Grant because it served a fun purpose, a Glorious Purpose, as it were. But I mean, my ex also showed me Logan in those same/year comics, and I thought he looked stupid af, too.) Now I think they do better to portray a good look for Loki as well as his not-evil morally gray sass, but also I love him in the series as well because it shows a versatility to the character as is meant to be in a trickster and not just some one-mood (brooding/dark) that so much of his fans in fandom seem to cling to.

Tony Stark:

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

When fandom pays attention to his PTSD and lets other characters actually notice his PTSD and try to help him rather than mock or try to humiliate/denigrate him for it. When fandom highlights Tony's big loving heart and his love languages with other characters.

11. Would you date this character?

Without hesitation.

19. How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

Pepper Potts. I love them as friends, I do not love them as a romantic relationship because she's too dismissive of his PTSD and all the good he's trying to do. I'm also not partial to his relationships with Janet Van Dyne and Patsy (Trish) Walker (comics).

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

Like: Kind of a repeat of the #7 question above, but also I love when writers perfectly capture Tony's sass and sarcasm. I love the extent that writers (including myself) will go to in order to come up with Tony's nicknames for other characters.

Don't Like: When writers imagine Tony as utterly selfish and spoiled and deliberately cruel. When they make his failures that he learns from and gets back up and does better the next time as some sort of unforgivable crime.

Thanks for all the asks! Don't be afraid, y'all! Give me more asks and other characters and fandoms if you like! These are a blast!

Character Ask Game.

[spider-gem]

These "i JuSt GoT a JuMpScArE fRoM lIn-MaNuEl mIrAnDa" posts aren't funny - they're just tasteless and hateful, first of all. And so damn old. Just admit you're racist and move on. Second of all, as much as I love him, I don't think he'd make a terrible Stark since he can pull him off appearance-wise, but I don't know who he could be in the MCU. I want him to stay away from comic book films and shows anyways, because he is so much better than that shit.

First off all, I am a HUGE Lin Manuel Miranda fan. I know all of the Hamilton songs by heart and listen to his work, Disney and all, frequently. If you don’t trust that, check my Spotify wrapped post. He’s my 3rd top artist.

My joke wasn’t meant to come off as hateful, much less racist. Nothing in that post mentioned race, nor his talent. It was mostly to point out how Disney has been using him and his work a lot recently (Moana, Encanto, DuckTales, Mary Poppins, Percy Jackson, etc - not to mention that Hamilton is now on Disney +) and it wouldn’t be surprising if he joined the MCU.

I’m happy he has these opportunities, trust me, this was meant as a JOKE. If I can’t joke about him as a fan, who can?

I hope this clears up this misunderstanding :)

[mischief-lies-and-stories]

Loki Collection Update 9/8

I know I said like a week ago that I was gonna talk about Loki's tarot card in Defenders Beyond. This week has been hell at work, and I'm getting close to quitting without another job lined up, which is currently the plan, but you don't come here for my job updates. Anyway, timing and mental space has not been conducive for the post I want to make about the tarot card, so I'm doing this instead.

Alligator Loki, from Shop Disney: Not the size I was expecting to get, but for the price I paid it makes more sense that I got this one. It also took forever to get here, but I'm glad it's here now.

Loki coin bank, from my comic book store (but you can probably find it on Amazon): This thing is HUGE. Right now it's on the top shelf, but it almost completely obscures the vintage comic and almost takes up too much space for Loki and Mobius to stay on the top. I may need to rearrange soon. (I also love it for the idea that certain versions of Loki, namely MCU, would hate the design of it.)

The Immortal Thor, variant cover, from my comic book store: On the one hand, seeing this variant cover triggered my fight or flight response (I love Tara Strong but I hate Miss Minutes and do not trust her). I'm not sure how much I like her presence's implications on the future of this series. On the other hand, this is creating a crossover between Ewing's Loki and the MCU's Loki, which is exciting (even if just as a variant cover). If Miss Minutes can show up in the comics (specifically Ewing's comics; the TVA already has tie-in comics), the Coat can and should show up in the tv show, at the very least.

Scarlet Witch issue 8, from my comic book store: This is what I went to the comic book store twenty minutes before closing today to pick up. I've been talking about it on here for weeks. I'm so excited to read it!

The good news (if you want the tarot post, not so much for me) is that my plans for tomorrow have been cancelled, so I don't have any excuse not to analyze the tarot card like a true Loki nerd. So I'll probably (hopefully) do that.

And I had coupons from Box Lunch and Alligator Loki comes out next Wednesday, so if I don't quit my job I'll probably have more Loki shit to talk about next week. (I'm joking; I already ordered the Box Lunch stuff so not having a paycheck won't affect that.)

[ace-geographer]

I really really trust and appreciate Jon Kasdan. His tweet made me feel a little hopeful over the situation, but I'm definitely still scared as hell about the future because I don't trust Disney for shit.

I definitely see the value in limited edition type of stuff, I think it does make things "more special." I just genuinely don't know how compatible the idea of limited edition content is with how media is produced and consumed today.

It's obvious that most streaming services' and studios' and whatnot's main goal is to make content that will be highly profitable. This often comes at the cost of new/original/highly creative shows and series', as we've clearly seen with Willow, which I think has been one of the worst parts of the rise and dominance of streaming services. Streaming services seem far and away less likely to produce, promote, and/or continue making shows that don't already have an almost guaranteed large audience that will watch them (like new MCU and Star Wars shows that are introduced to those already massive fandoms and "universes"). And it's the fault of streaming services for relentlessly pushing those very popular shows (since they make them the most money) because doing so further prevents people from investing in smaller, newer, lesser known, shows and fandoms and the like.

I think this has led to an overall lack of creativity in the streaming world (which isn't to say that extremely popular shows aren't creative in their own right) because so many shows and movies in these mega studios feel very formulaic and overdone.

Creativity cannot exist in a vacuum.

For new, creative, innovative content to flourish, it needs to also come from somewhere other than these huge studios that house countless broadly similar shows. Streaming services then need to push that content to actually generate genuine interest instead of the half-assed way they approach it now.

It's obvious to me based on this situation with Willow that Disney is willing to forgo creativity and innovation for more and more money. This is all to say that if I just cannot seem to fathom the possibility of the existence of limited edition shows today since they aren't given the chance to gain the kind of popularity and momentum that streaming services are looking for to profit off of.

But I don't know. Maybe a re-release of Willow later on would be a good way to give Disney another crack at generating interest and a larger audience for the show, so long as they actually properly advertise it. Who knows? Everything changes literally all the time so maybe everything I said before this won't be relevant in a year. I am still scared as fuck over Willow's fate though, and I'm not sure that will ever change.

Anyway, support the writers, support Willow, and support lesser-known creatives and creative content.

questies…what we thinking?

personally? i see the value in limited edition stuff, but if the whole premise of Disney+ was to have disney content accessible at anytime by buying access to this app, then it makes the app pointless??? and also, if it was meant to be limited…market it that way?????

i also can’t help but think of the WGA strike rn and i don’t know their contracts, but i imagine these streaming companies were like “we will pay you somewhat less bc you’ll make it up in streaming residuals” and idk i can’t see how this doesn’t fuck over the workers in the new streaming economy we find ourselves in.

[fouralignments]

Never Forget the Boner Joke

I. DO. NOT. TRUST. DISNEY. PERIOD.

ESPICALLY WITH THE FOXVERSE X-MEN CHARACTERS.

Does the Dadneto/Quickson fandom have a short term memory problem to forget about the Boner Joke? Made at the expense of Peter Maximoff's character, who was played by Even Peters. Wandavision built up all this hype around the idea of Mutants being the MCU and let theories run afoul. Disney didn't even try to dispel the rumors and as to not get everyone's hopes up, but instead said what were you expecting and FUCK YOU to X-Men Fandom as if Disney cared about what Even Peters's Quicksliver meant to us. Adding salt to the wound MCU fans said that Quicksliver sucked and thought the Boner joke was a masterpiece of cinematic comedy writing on pare with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, when in actuality a sucker punch to Foxverse X-Men fans in order for them to get them hooked on Disney+.

I'm not saying you can't like Wandavision or the character of Wanda, Vison or any Marvel character for that matter.

I don't trust Disney and you shouldn't either. They don't give a shit about the characters. Or at least ye forget about other controversies surrounding Marvel's productions that aren't even a year old yet.

Loki series making Loki a shell of his former self, disrespecting the fandom surrounded him and the mutli layering subtext of colonialization, abuse, queerness, and imperialism. Also making the colonizer the good guy and writing off King Odin imperial conquests across the nine realms as 'good' painting Loki's actions as king of Asgard as cowardly and unbecoming of a king to let the nine realms rule themselves. Just shrugging all that interesting intersections of conflict within Loki as Loki being a selfish narcissist. Yeah...I'm sure that isn't going to upset fans at all.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. CEO Bob Chapek said: "interesting experiment," by only releasing Shang-Chi on Disney+ unlike "Black Widow," "Jungle Cruise" and "Cruella" would have both a theatrical release and be released on Disney+. When Shang-Chi was ground breaking in terms of Asian rep at a time when its really needed.

I could go on

Queerbaiting. Racism. Sexism. Imperialism. Classism. American Exceptionalism.

The blatant and disrespect in Wanda and Pietro's backstory just making them Nazi and anti-romani sentiment said by Wanda's actress. MCU/Disney being a propaganda arm of the military-industrial complex. Disney trying to go back to the Hollywood System and blacklist Scarlet Johansson. Obliviously taking a Miles Morales's story and plastering it on Peter Parker and also taking his poverty, which quite frequently showed up in his storylines, not even address it and its no longer a problem. Taking the entire plot of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and making it suck.

I could write whole essays on each one of theses topics. In fact I have! I wrote a 20 page essay on how the US media promotes US imperialisms aboard focusing in on the Afghanistan and Iraq war. I featured the MCU quite heavily in that essay.

Personally, I've stopped watching Marvel movies after seeing Infinity War at the drive in. I was constantly looking at my phone wondering 'when the fuck is this movie going to be over with?' I was bored out of my mind and I didn't care about the plot or the characters. On some levels I liked that they interacted, but I still preferred their individual movies instead of end of phase 2 or whatever it is for the climax. MCU is basically a tv series on the sliver screen, we just been doopted.

There was a time that I enjoyed Marvel movies, but I just don't care anymore. If your wondering theses are my favorite marvels in no particular order: Black Panther, Antman and Wasp, Captain America: Winter Soldier, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, and Thor.

If the rumor is true that Charles is going to be facing Wanda and then has his neck snapped. I expected the MCU to do no less with their treatment for the Foxverse characters.

The X-Men are canon fodder in order for the MCU's characters to look more powerful. Which I don't care for.

THEY DON'T GIVE A SHIT.

All they care about is making money and if they have to make soulless, lifeless husks of the characters, Charles, Erik, Peter that I hold dear. I want no part of it.

Now if you ask me. For all their flaws, the X-Men movies have soul and are well produced and Disney cannot take that away from me.

[nastiiuu]

I've just given up on the MCU at this point. The overly woven together storyline that means you have to watch 20 movies with practically the same dull plot to watch a new movie, the way they sort of... smoothed out a bunch of the heroes' quirks to make them all the same, snarky cool good guys and the gratuitous overuse of cgi.

I mean I get you but also:

Up to Infinity War there wasn't really a necessity to watch all of the never ending superhero movies that came out. For all the diehard fans? Yeah sure. But if you were a casual watcher you could just watch the big Avangers Events and point at the characters you liked and say: imma watch his movie bc he seems cool.

With a few exceptions you didn't really need much to understand what the fuck was happening in Infinity War as long as you kinda knew the characters and "those are the magical mcguffins and they make shit go down also the raisin alien is the bad guy and also something something family tree" tho last thing wasn't even that important if you don't plan to watch the next Guardians of the Galaxy Movie.

The freedom to choose what you are or aren't gonna watch is really what make the Marvel Universe such a big and successful thing. Plus the Formular is easy to follow and makes for an enjoyable general watch that you can laugh and forget about pretty soon after.

I honestly liked Infinity War more then Endgame bc we saw the heros LOSE and that was fucking awesome to see after movie and movie full of wins. I don't even remember much from Endgame outside the key events like Tony dying and Steve leaving his friends and best friend Bucky for pussy lol

But yeah the movies are getting a bit stale. You can only give so much personality to 40+ characters cramped into a movie while trying to get shit done. Most of the series rn are just "please just buy the Disney+ services. Look you need to watch this to get the upcoming movies!" (Which. Trust me. You don't. I haven't seen a single episode of any of the series and I am not less clueless of the happenings because of it lmao)

About the cgi: well. Classical film making its pretty much dying in the superheros movie industry. We'll probably never going to see the charm that are sets with build environments or suits that are actually suits and not overlapped by layers and layers of cgi. But that's nothing new. Why do you think the movies cost up to more then 200 Million to make WHEEZE

[the-l-spacer]

petty rant about (one of the multiple) things bothering me about matt in the mcu so far incoming -

okay so the thing im having trouble wrapping my head around is just. how flippant he is with hinting at his powers while he's in his civilian identity

i know comic matt is awful at hiding his identity but nmcu matt (which. apparently is supposed to be the same version as mcu matt) hates revealing shit about himself. he never told his dad about his powers, and he most famously kept his daredevil identity from foggy and karen (his closest friends) until he was on the brink of death, or until his entire life got ruined and all his bridges were burned. the times he has outed himself to strangers are few and far between (and like. actually important to his character/narrative, like stick and elektra, or unmasking himself to calm down a scared kid, or revealing himself to ray as a symbol of his trust).

and yet, in about every appearance he's made in the mcu recently he's dropping hints like he doesn't care about his secret identity at all !!! yes there are Reasons why he made those moves but imo they're incredibly flimsy and im just saying nmcu matt would've yelled at everyone to duck instead of catching the brick, or just told happy to relax because he's got this instead of telling him to 'stop sweating', or found a roundabout way to question frog man about the jet fuel instead of going 'he's using jet fuel don't ask me how i know about this'

and yes, he has dropped hints about his identity in the dd show before (for example, standing up before everyone else when a witness was killed by fisks cops in s1, throwing himself over karen when reyes office was shot up, and defending himself against fisk when he visited the prison in s2, and ofc the multiple times he just bolted down a random alleyway and threw his cane away) but those were either dire, life-or-death situations, or situations where he was on a time crunch and in public spaces where it would've been harder to trace him, and not just casually in every interaction we've seen him in so far (and peter's doesn't count because hello he is a superhero who could have caught that brick his own damn self)

idk yall disney has certainly been making,,,, choices,,, about his character lmao

[tenduw]

This^

anyone who comes at me talking shit about the X-Men movies/lecturing me about how the Fox cast aren’t gonna reprise their roles for MCU content will not get a rise outta me. you will literally just get blocked ‘cause I really cannot be bothered to waste my time arguing with you trolls, so please don’t waste your time trying to start shit with me.

[redspiderling]

i really want black widow to perform well and as much as I'd like to believe it will, I fear that it will fall short due to the inevitable need for it to push the mcu forward. this is why we needed black widow to come out earlier so that by now, she'd have a completed triology that not only completes her arc but also can push forward phase 4. I don't see how a solo movie can do both. I'm scared that her story will be overshadowed by a storyline that pushes the mcu forward (aka thunderbolts)

Dear anon, listen. 

This is the 3rd message along those lines I’ve received today. I know it’s annoying to see how awesome things could have been, and I know we’re all really worried and stressed, and the film getting postponed hasn’t helped at all. But there are issues here much greater than story arcs to be honest.

We need to discuss the reality of discrimination, racism and sexism in Hollywood and what it really means beyond the pointless twitter rage.

There are so, so many things that happen behind closed doors, and not even half of it reaches our ears. And even that is enough to allow me to tell you with absolute certainty that there is no way we would have gotten a Black Widow movie anytime before now, and that even now it’s a miracle that we’re getting it.

Let me start with who was the boss at Marvel HQ until 2015, a man who even up until last year had a great deal of creative influence at the studio even if he wasn’t calling the shots anymore. A man by the name of Isaac Perlmutter. 

Here are a select few headlines the man, and Disney’s gender and race politics in general, have made over the years.

“[...]The first movie featured an African-American actor, Terrence Howard, as Colonel Jim Rhodes. Don Cheadle, another African-American actor, was hired for the same part in the sequel at a cheaper price. Mr Perlmutter apparently told Mr Mooney the change cut costs. He allegedly added words to the effect that no one would notice because black people "look the same".

3 African American Female Executives fired from Marvel and seek legal settlements. Link 1 Link 2 Link 3. (You will notice that most of these articles forget to mention that the women were African American, which is significant given how big a racist Isaac Perlmutter is known to be. Plus, I had to dig really deep into google news to actually unearth these).

A Suit Against Disney Claims Unequal Pay for Women

Another woman joins gender pay lawsuit against Disney

Why Rich Ross Was Fired At Disney: What Does It Say About Bob Iger's Leadership? “He had an ‘awareness’ issue,” a Disney source explains to me. 

Marvel’s Trump Donor Ex-CEO Is the Reason There Was no Black Widow Merchandise 

Marvel CEO Says in Leaked Email That Female Superhero Movies Have Been a 'Disaster'

I know we all have our reasons, lots and lots of reasons, on why it would have made sense for a Black Widow solo film to have happened years ago. I’d like an origin story before Iron Man 2 for example. But that was never in the cards, ok?

It was never an option and it’s not like Scarlett didn’t try.

Why do you think she made Lucy in 2014? 

Or said yes to Ghost in the Shell around the same time Margot Robbie dropped the project due to scheduling issues (circa 2014-2015)? 

Because of the awesome script? 

Maybe because she wanted to steal roles from minorities? 

Hell no. She wanted to prove the simple fact that she -a woman- could star, alone, in a film and still bring in box office results, ok? 

Scarlett already told us just how shitty things were behind closed doors back in 2015 when they gave her that disgusting storyline in AoU, and were trying to block Captain Marvel from happening. 

Ok, phew.

Sorry about that anon, it’s getting a bit much reading all the crap that’s happening and all the shitty people that run away with being shitty people (and getting tons of money out of it too).

Lets move on to the storyline of the Black Widow film that we are miraculously getting now.

There is always the possibility that they will include some elements to push forward the MCU, but I think they’ll keep those for the end credits scene, mostly. From what I’ve seen in other MCU solo films, the do add these hints here and there, but there is always a dominant story at play, and you don’t want to lose the viewers by focusing too much on the sidelines of it. 

Finally, like I’ve said before, I truly, honestly believe, that after all the shit Scarlett has gone through in these past 10 years, I am absolutely certain that she wouldn’t put herself through this if it weren’t worth her while. I’m not saying that it’s a given that the film will be good, ok? Nobody can guarantee that. But we can hope. If it makes you too stressed, don’t watch it opening day, or opening weekend. Get some feedback from some trusted friends, ok?

Stay strong anon. Oh and one last thing. After living though a toxic work environment like that, I’m pretty sure Scarlett would want Natasha’s film to be glorious. And she got a big win the day the film was announced. A really, really big one. So that’s something to celebrate, I think. Women really won that day at SDCC last year :)