#and everything makes sense to me plot-wise but idk if i articulated it well

[valleynix]

Summary:

You stumble through the thick snow, broken and bleeding, pulled along by some imaginary string promising you safety. It's all you've ever wanted, isn't it? To belong, to feel the comfort of your loved ones. The feeling beckons you, calls your name, and you can't help but follow it. You never had a choice, did you?

Something seems to be missing as you spend your days inside the warmth of Castle Dimitrescu. You can't place it; you can't even remember why you were out in the freezing forest in the first place. You don't know why they're so intent on keeping you alive. Maybe you will, one day.

Surrounded by four women who could very well be the only ones to fully understand you... you've never felt more alone.

^chapter eighteen is now up!! very nervous about this one, as i usually am with angst fests, but here we are >:3 

[ashe-smash]

I don’t think I’ll ever post them (unless I severely rewrite them, they’re too personally based as they are currently) but my two main self insert/ x reader stories are:

BHNA: Assistant Teacher for the staff of UA (not like a TA in college, an actual teacher who assists the other teachers. Would be late 20s- early 30s aged. ) Personally I can only imagine myself as quirkless. And my personal self insert is a former “manager” (handler/assistant?) for two hero ocs in America and later became a high school teacher and works with troubled kids with quirks.

I struggle with this one a bit as I’d like to be able to focus on all of the Staff of UA but I have so little grasp on all their characterizations, and the fact we haven’t seen much of the day to day of life at UA. Fairly All Might focused- as he’s my fave but again I would want to include more of the staff. (Aizawa, Midnight, Mic, Vlad and so on.)

Timeline wise it’s placed post All Might’s retirement (and Dorms existing) but kinda pauses in the canon after that?? (Major events, specifically the war stuff going on it the manga?)

I’d likely have to introduce some ocs (that would largely be off screen). Might introduce them anyways- as they’re a huge part of my daydreaming stories outside of fanfic. My superhero-verse ocs have been beloved to me since before BNHA.

Dragon Ball: After some Saiyan shenanigans, you end up dating both Goku + ChiChi AND Vegeta + Bulma. (The couples stay separate, this isn’t a 5some situation.) Vaugely set in “Super”.

The main set up for the plot is: As part time tutor for Goten, you end up staying the night with the Sons (even if Goten is away said night) and you end up sleeping with Goku and ChiChi. During which, Goku ends up biting you- leaving a mark. Which means nothing to you in the end, except a tentative relationship with the couple.

Vegeta eventually finds out about this and is furious that Goku would do something like this- impulsively claim a secondary mate, not going through the proper process of doing so. Turns out this is a old Saiyan custom (from far before Freiza had reign of planet Vegeta), taking a secondary “mate” (I’ve called them ‘concubines’ but I don’t think that’s right?)- particularly a lower classed one.

It also wasn’t uncommon for rival Saiyans to fight over the same secondary mate (as prideful Saiyans would never go after someone’s husband/wife.) Thus, you jokingly offer for Vegeta to go through the “ritual” of becoming a secondary mate- with Bulma and him.

This concept might not really make any sense, I guess. But…. Fanfic lmao.

I don’t know if I’m articulating these ideas well enough. Will I actually ever share these stories? Idk. But I wanted to put them out there. This isn’t everything I could say- but I’ll never post this if I keep going.

These aren’t my only stories but, these are more like the multi chaptered/ scenario stories I imagine. I have a Piccolo fic wip but that’s more of a one shot kinda in my head.

Oh also I usually write fem + chubby reader cause.. I’m that lmao.

Anyways, this is a small portion of the ideas about the dumb little stories I think about (and occasionally tippy tap into my phone.) I can talk more about them if anyone has any questions and stuff.

[bbyboybucket]

I completely understand the concern about Bucky being on a team with the Thunderbolts. In the comics, they're mostly known for being reformed villains who are still known for being really brutal. Bucky has already proven himself a hero and an Avenger, he doesn't need to be with the Thunderbolts

I’ve got a lot to say about this and it might be incomprehensible bc when I rant, I typically get bad at articulating my points but anyways, I agree and here’s all the extra shit I think.

You’re totally right about the Thunderbolts members being “brutal”, more violent and unconcerned with how ethical their methods of doing things are. Which is expected for former villains and anti-heroes. I know in the comics Bucky was actually a thunderbolts member, I think he may have even been their leader at some point. Which good, great, that’s all fine and dandy in the comics but it wouldn’t work on screen.

Comics Bucky and MCU Bucky are very very very different in many ways, but one of them being that (as far as I know anyways) Comics Bucky is much more brutal and violent. He was more, for lack of better term, corrupted by Hydra than MCU Bucky. It makes sense for that version of him to be in the Thunderbolts, he was good for the comic, he’s fit to be there.

Our adaptation of Bucky is not. As you mentioned, he’s well proven himself to be a hero by now, and is literally named to be an avenger (ie: Walker calling him one) but also it’s just not adjacent with his characterization. MCU Bucky isn’t as rough edged as his comic counter part nor the other proposed members of the Thunderbolts.

I mean for one, the dude literally pulls his punches (to the point where dude-bro fans were saying TFATWS nerfed him) and is cautious of others around him. His whole thing is “not wanting to kill/really hurt anyone”. Even when he loses his temper with Zemo, he’s all bark no bite. And not to insult my beloved, but he’s also kinda a push over at times. I mean, take the whole scene in Riga (? is that where? idk correct me if wrong) with Walker. Literally Walker said one kinda offensive thing to Bucky and he literally went 🥺, backed down, and brought Walker to Sam. This man does not fit in with the fighting styles and general personalities of the other reformed villains. Bucky as a person over all is way too soft hearted, self-sacrificial, and humble, even if he has that whole “asshole” front. Bucky might make some questionable choices occasionally but overall everything he does is for the benefit of others.

He doesn’t fit with characters like Zemo or Walker or Abomination. He doesn’t even fit with Ava Starr because though she’s good, she’s let selfish (though very justified I just use that word for point) reasons make her willingly violent. Even Yelena, who I don’t consider a reformed villain, is much more brutal, chaotic, and risky than Bucky despite being a good person. Also, in major contrast to everyone else, this dude doesn’t even want to fight, he doesn’t want to do this job but does because he’s needed. He does because he’s stuck being super human and can put that to use.

The whole thing with Thunderbolts characters is that they’re supposed to be morally grey, but that’s not Bucky. Maybe on a surface level if his character isn’t being payed attention to but truly, he has a damn strong moral compass to have Ben through all that he has and not let it corrupt him. The dude not only goes out of his way to never become that again or never make any mistakes adjacent to what the winter soldier was, but he actively blames and hates himself for what happened. And he tries to CORRECT THESE WRONGS even though he truly isn’t responsible. I mean the fact that he doesn’t just say “not my fault” and move on, shows how strong his moral code is.

Also how would they even manage to lump Bucky in with them plot wise in a way that makes sense? He sure as fuck wouldn’t willingly work for the government and he even calls himself a “free agent” in TFATWS. Also he’s very clearly in with Sam, and is jumping at the chance to be on his team. He such a high amount of respect and admiration for Sam that it wouldn’t even make sense for him to go work with another group. Which yeah, he could do both, but it’s not like he’s friends with these people either? He hates Zemo and Walker, he doesn’t know the rest, and let’s be real, Bucky’s not someone who’s all that open to new friendships and socializing. If Val tried to recruit him, he’d find her sus immediately because he’s already an untrusting person but Val literally reeks of shadiness.

Like it just doesn’t work. Sorry for ranting so much but it’s just so stupid that he’d be lumped in with a group like this despite every aspect of his characterization going against it. So I truly hope whoever’s running shit up at marvel notices this and is like “hey Bucky is not a good idea let’s scrap that” and find someone else.

(Disclaimer: I’m not at all saying Bucky isn’t badass or trying to baby him. I know he’s a damn good fighter who’s capable of a lot and I know he’s a grown ass man that can handle shit.)

[legionofpotatoes]

we decided to watch all story cutscenes from the new resident evil village videogame on a whim, since it’s not really our cup of tea gameplay-wise but seems to be this massive zeitgeist moment that made us morbidly curious. And I know how much everyone cares about my thoughts on things I know very little about, so. let’s get into it huh gamers. and yeah spoilers?

for context, I’ve only played resident evil 4 and a small portion of 5. I also read the wikipedia entry for 7’s plot recently. all this to say I was only vaguely aware of how tonally wacky the series was going in

I also completely gave up following the plot of the mutagens’ soap opera, so that paid off in spades here as you might imagine

anyway so that baby in the intro. that baby’s head is just massive. humongous toddlerdome. when ethan finds the baby’s head in a jar later on. there is no way that head would fit into that jar. bad game design. no not even game design. basic stuff. one hundred years in prison for jar modeler

if I see a single functional hetero marriage in video games I will cry tears of joy. I understand their misery is kind of The Point irt them badly working through the hillbilly romp trauma but like. sheesh. at least set that up as an emotional story goal the plot will help resolve. but nope they start off miserable and it goes nowhere

I know I know the mia thing has a huge wrinkle in it but like. not really in terms of dramatic function?? set up a happy end to the re7 nightmare (miranda can keep up appearances for all she cares) and then take that all away from angry griffin mcelroy for manpain. it will still absolutely work to set up the dramatic forward momentum. why throw in this cliche Hollywood Tension in their marriage if you’re not going to address it oh maybe because it’s normalized as automatically interesting because nuclear families are a self-propagating pit of a very narrow chance at emotional happiness relying on social stigma to preserve their empty function oops my baggage slipped in yikes abort mission

I called him griffin mcelroy because I saw his face on twitter and. yeah. I will continue to do this occasionally. my house my rules

... fuck the reason I’m hung up on this is specifically because the rest of the game is so tonally dexterous (which is a shining point to me! more on that later!), and yet they felt weirdly compelled to create the aesthetic trapping of a family-at-odds trope without following it through too well. a sign of both the good and the bad stuff to come

but listen the real reason why I wanted to talk about any of this is to nitpick the fascinating backwards-engineered nucleus of the entire thing; in that this game essentially creates a melting pot of just SO many disparate horror tropes and then makes a no-holds-barred unhinged effort at weaving thick lore to piece them all together. it is truly a sight to behold. like straight up you got your backwoods fright night situation, your gothic castle vampires, your rural-industrial werewolves, and don’t forget your bloated swamp monsters over there, with then a hard left turn into robotic body horror, and the entire ass subgenre of Creepy Doll writ large, and the bloodborne tentacle monsters, and a hellboy angel bossfight, which rides on the coattails of a mech-on-mech pacific rim bonanza, and just jesus henry christ slow down

almost all of these are textural hijack jobs that don’t really get into the metaphor plain of any of those settings but the game sort-of makes an argument that the texture IS the point and revels in it. It is kind of admirable almost. The same reason why the intro felt boxed in and unmotivated is also why the rest of the game just blasts off of its hinges to the point of complete and self-indulgent tonal abandon. I kinda loved that about it. lady dimitrescu made sure to hold her hat down as she bent forward in mahogany doorways and then suddenly she’s a giant gore dragon and you settle in your temp role as dark souls man with Gun to take her ass down. Excellent??

this rhino rampage impulse to gobble up every horror aesthetic known to man comes to head when the game wrestles with its FPS trappings in what is the most hilarious solution in creating visceral player damage moments. Since most cinematics and the entire game is in first person, that leaves precious little real estate for the devs to work with if they really want to sell griffin’s physical crucible. To wit. This dude’s forearms. Specifically just the forearms. They are MASSACRED throughout the story. The poor man lives out the silent hill dimension of a hand model. by the end cutscene he looks like a neatly dressed desk clerk who had decided to stick both his grabbers into garbage disposal grinders just a few hours prior. like in addition to everything else it manages to rope in that tinge of slapstick violence into its general grievous genre collection except this time it IS for a lack of trying! truly incredible

but wait his miracle clawbacks from everything his poor paws go through are retroactively explained away, yes, but far too vaguely and far too late to console me as I sat and watched everyone’s favorite baby brother reattach an entirely severed hand to his wrist stump by just. placing it on there. and giving it a lil twist ‘n pop terminator-style. and then willing his fingers back into motion right in front of my bulging eyes. this game just does not care. it does not give a shit. and boy howdy will it work to make that into one of its strongest suits

cause generally speaking resident evil was THE premiere vanilla zombie content destinaysh for like a decade, right? and as the rest of the world and mainstream media started encroaching and bloodying its blue ocean it went and just exploded in every single conceivable horror trope direction like a smilodon on catnip. truly, genuinely fascinating franchise moves

yeah the big vampire milf is hot. other news; grass... green. although I do love the implication that her closet is just identical white dresses on a rack. cartoon network-level queen shit

apropos of nothing I’ve said there’s also this hobo dante-devimaycry-magneto man, and I can’t believe this sentence makes sense. anyway he made that “boulder-punching asshole” joke referring to chris redfield and it was probably the only easter egg that really landed for me and boy did it land hard. I have not seen him punch the boulder in re5, mind. I had only heard about how funny it is from friends. and here this dude was, probably in the same exact mindset as me, trying to grapple with that insane mental image. with you on that ian mckellen, loud and clear

I advocate vehemently against the shallow pursuit of hyper photorealism in art direction but I gotta admit it works really in favor of immersive horror like this. the european village shacks especially gave me super unchill flashbacks to my rural countryside retreat in western georgia. I could smell the linoleum dude. not cool

faces are weird in this game. can’t place it. nice textures, good animation, but the modeling template is... uuh strange? and the hair. it has that clustered-flat-clumpy look that harkens to something very specific and unpleasant but I just don’t know what. sue me

griffin’s mental aptitude to take all this shit in stride and end every seemingly traumatizing bossfight involving some fucking eldritch being yet unseen through mortal eyes by essentially throwing out an MCU quip is just. What the fuck dude? I mean that was funny how you casually yelled the f-word at a god damn werewolf that you considered a fairy tale an hour ago but are you like, all right?? it was swinging a sledgehammer the size of a bus at you, ethan

oh oh the vampires are afraid of cold and your last name is winters. I get it haha

Pro Gamer Nitpick: boss fights seemed a bit unnecessarily long?? idk why the youtuber we picked decided the ENTIRE propeller man fight counted towards the vital story scenes he was stitching together, but man mr big daddy lite there really had some get up and go huh??

why are they saying dimitrescu.. like that. is it really how you say that word or is the english language relapsing into its fetish for ending every single word with a consonant at all costs

I’m not saying it’s a dramatic miss of a twist in context of all that’s going on, but the “you died in the last game actually and have been DC’s clayface ever since” revelation is low-key. it’s. it’s just funny to me, I dont know what to say. century-old god-witch fails her evil plan after she mistakenly removes heart from what was definitely NOT just some white guy with eight fingers after all

chris realizing he’s about to become the player character and immediately swapping out his tsundere trenchcoat for the muscletight sex haver sweater

the little bluetooth speaker-sized pipe bomb he taped to his knife was nuclear?? really??? I must have missed something because that is just too good. I buy it though I totally buy it. chris just got them fun-sized nukes in his car trunk for, you guessed it, Situations

anyway this is all for now just wanted to briefly touch on how unexpectedly funny and tonally irreverent this seemingly serious game turned out to be. did not articulate any cathartic story beats whatsoever but my god it had fun connecting those plot points. he just fucking put his severed hand back on his stump and it Just Worked todd howard get in here

[w-ngs]

jan21

hello 2021! you did not get off on a good start. let’s try and be a little better, okay?

i didn’t read much this month (and probably won’t be for a long while because of school), but it was a wild month. well, you’ll see.

***

crooked kingdom, leigh bardugo — oh my god???? i completely forgot that i read this before i left for school and almost didn’t include it in my monthly wrap-up????? how dare i forget this masterpiece.

it was great. i loved it. i think overall, i preferred 6oc because heist stories are my guilty pleasure. but romance-wise... let’s just say kaz and inej have made it to my top 10 ships. but also i read through this so fast because i had to finish it before i left that half the story is kinda just not in my brain lololol

the most intriguing part of the entire story was the anti-wraith. her character kind of came out of nowhere, and i’m not really sure she had much of a purpose than being someone who could physically match inej. i guess she was also anti in the sense that she had no respect, just ruthlessness, which is the opposite of inej and what she stands for. but i don’t know if the anti-wraith was significant enough of a character to really be considered a foil.

i don’t really give spoiler warnings because hardly anyone reads these other than myself lolol but big spoiler ahead. skip the next paragraph if you don’t want to know. cuz i accidentally spoiled it for myself before reading and i kinda ruined it for myself lmfao.

poor matthias. he was there, and then he was gone. i feel terrible for nina. they were finally on the same page, and then he had to act all saint-like and trigger some idiot into killing him. and matthias finally came to terms with what he’d been taught and what he was trying to teach himself (#charactergrowth), so he wrapped things up neatly for himself before the bye-bye. but nina, she finally got her guy on her side and they were supposed to change the world together. sigh.

and of course, we got kaz. he’s my favorite. how could he not be, with his trauma and desire to overcome it but not letting it define him and still maintaining that evil genius act he’s so good at. it definitely hit harder in this story, the extent of his trauma. it made him more real, too. both sides of him coexist, and one could not exist without the other. he’s crazy, in nearly all senses of the word. also crazy in love, the mfing idiot. ugh, i love vulnerable kaz. i love what inej brings out in him, how she knows just how hard to push without driving him over the edge. also i saw a tiktok (this app is gonna come up a lot more in the next few reviews fsjdsdfkjdf) with a photo of them kissing with a towel between their mouths because he can’t touch her but he desperately wants to and what a perfect solution is that their... bathroom scene had me holding my breath. or at least taking very shallow breaths. it was intense. so intimate, i felt like i shouldn’t even have been there. ugh, the cute little babies. uwuwuwuwuwu

one last note. leigh bardugo is a very good writer, plot and characters and all. everything flowed much more smoothly in this book, and once again i was impressed by the detail provided. you go girl. i can’t wait to see the tv series development.

a 10/10.

***

the shadows between us, tricia levenseller — literally what did i read lmaooo. this is my first tiktok book recommendation. and it. was. boring. boring characters that didn’t make much sense. boring plot. i skimmed it after the first 50 pages cause it was so boring. that’s it bye.

a 3/10.

***

manacled, senlinyu — um. wow. i literally......... even hours after finishing it my brain is still ridiculously scrambled. edit: it’s about a month later and sometimes random scenes and images still pop in my head for no reason and then i feel all twisted inside again. i love it.

so, this is not a published book but a dramione fanfiction on ao3. i don’t read fanfics that often anymore, mainly because i’d rather read other things, not because i don’t like them. but i found this one because a tiktok that showed the illustrations in the story and i was so blown away by the fact someone would illustrate an entire fanfic that i just had to read it. and i have no regrets. it’s kinda long and a biiit wordy for me at times but holy shit that hit like a mother trucker. and i haven’t read dramione in ages, not since... years. so this really hit different.

the illustrations are beautiful. they’re what dragged me into the story in the first place, so, of course they are. but i’d literally spend minutes looking at every detail in amazement at how perfectly the emotions were captured and the lighting casting the perfect shadows and just… everything. i know nothing about drawing but my eyes were truly blessed.

i think integrating the handmaid’s tale with the hp world was ingenious. i would never have expected that. and wow. the relationship between the two, it’s…….. i can barely put it in words in my mind, and it’s even harder to articulate on paper. complex, but at the same time not, simply the desire for the other to stay alive. timeless. destructive. their only defense from the harsh reality of their situation. desperation at its most desperate, their one and only survival method. depressing. it’s so depressing. i was so sad, the angst almost too much at times.

the flashbacks were insanely intense. and i thought the handmaid section was bad. it was awful to read. i could hardly bear it, it was so dark at times i didn’t know how either of them got through it all. i mean, they barely did. the near-death scares, the constant need to create a blank slate within yourself in order to not overwhelm yourself with crushing emotions… wartime sometimes has a tendency to sound romantic, but theirs wasn’t anything near romantic, and i appreciate that the author chose to be very real about it.

at the beginning, and in the middle when we went through the flashbacks, i was afraid the love would be toxic. and, well, it kind of was at some points. but in a time like that and a situation like theirs, it would be hard to not have a toxic relationship. i was glad that in the end theirs was a good love, the kind that sustained and kept them alive and got them through until the very end, because it was what they needed from each other. and, of course, my favorite part of it all was draco’s ceaseless possessiveness that only seemed to grow, never fade. i love simpy men.

they deserve each other. i was afraid at the end they wouldn’t, that one of them would die—that draco would die because hermione basically did once already for him, so he would have to “return the favor”—also she was pregnant so there was no way she’d be the one to die—idk many theories. but at the end i’m so glad they both ended up alive. after everything, they deserved it.

i did nothing for two days straight but read this book. except eat. and barely sleep. and i have no regrets.

a 9/10.

***

bloodlines, richelle mead — dang. i used to be obsessed with vampire academy when i was in middle school. i even watched the terrible movie that released because of it. and now i can’t believe i really thought that was peak literature lmfaooooo

i remember adrian being such a funny and interesting character that i picked up bloodlines to see if it was gonna be as good as i remembered it was. i was disappointed. it was just... well let’s just say there wasn’t enough to get me invested in the characters as i used to be. i think what it was is that adrian’s characterization was so weak. he wasn’t as ~quirky~ as i remembered him to be haha. the plot was also way too slow-paced, and a little too easy to guess. maybe if i was 12 again i’d be going crazy over it like i used to. but i’m not a pre-teen anymore and my brain craves stuff along the lines of manacled—destruction, death, angst that wants me to pull my own heart out to stop it from hurting.

a 5/10.

[actuallyvady]

Vague babbling about why I’m so attached to Into the Spider-verse: Chapter One, in which I was disappointed by Endgame:

Y’all know I love Marvel. And I’ve been a fan of the MCU since phase one, though over time my enjoyment has shifted-- I loved the first Avengers film when it came out but I have since come to deeply dislike it. I had lost faith in the MCU around the time Age of Ultron came out... and then phase three happened. I think all of my contenders for best Marvel movie were in phase three; I deeply enjoyed the aesthetic and lightheartedness of Ragnarok, Black Panther is simply a work of art from start to finish, and I love that Doctor Strange wins the day with cleverness instead of an out-and-out physical brawl, which had always been the case even with the other “genius” characters in the universe. 

But going into Infinity War I was still not hopeful; the years had made me no longer trust the franchise as a whole. Leaving Infinity War, it felt like that had changed.

This may not be a popular opinion, but frankly, I thought IW was a masterpiece; it felt balanced in all the right ways, used its time wisely, never spent too long with any one character set, and all of them felt well-written, consistent with their characterization from previous films... there were only two things that didn’t work for me, and neither was the fault of the movie itself: 

1. The dusted characters were always going to come back, and I knew that for meta reasons-- Bucky was the first one to go, and I knew Sebastian Stan had a much longer contract outstanding. Combine that with several others who had upcoming sequels, like Doctor Strange, and it took away the impact of the “deaths.” 

2. The fan reaction to Thanos’s motivation was... off-putting, to put it mildly. No, Thanos is not right. Thanos is very, very wrong. Thanos acquired godlike power and decided that killing people was the best use of it. You are not edgy or clever or interesting for “agreeing” with him, you need help. 

That said, I still felt that IW was incredibly well done, and I was excited to see how they finished it. (Yes, “finished.” IW was Act One and anyone who was praising Disney for “letting the villain win” doesn’t understand how storytelling works.) 

And then Endgame came out.

And it was a disappointing mess. 

Why?

Because it was powered by fanservice instead of actually making any goddamn sense. 

When asked about it, I will usually say that it was “satisfying.” That was the goal. Give all the fans what they wanted. Give Steve a happily ever after. Give Tony a happy family and a heroic death. Give all the female fans a single, unimportant-to-the-plot girl power moment. Give people who liked Ragnarok a lead into Thor In Space Part 2 with the Guardians. Give everyone their faves back-- even Loki, whose death was far more real than the others. 

You know what it felt like? It felt like a Moffat ending. Not the fan version of Moffat, who is somehow evil and likes killing people, the real thing-- the “I’m going to kill and bring back this character so many times he’s going to lampshade it in his final episode” Moffat, whose version of “killing off” those characters involved them living a long and happy life together. I suppose the mess of continuity they created with their time travel “rules” adds to that, lol. 

So the faith that had recently been restored in the MCU? Gone. I will go and see more movies, I’m sure. It won’t be on opening night, probably. I no longer pay attention to news of future movies/shows, My friends talk about them, and that’s how I know any of it. (I’ll probably see the Loki tv series in gifs here rather than actually watching it, to be honest.)

And that’s where I’ve been, for months, until I finally got around to watching Into the Spider-verse-- I had been hearing that it was amazing since it came out, i was really happy it got the best animated feature oscar, but I just hadn’t sat down to watch it. But I think Endgame really poised me to appreciate it that much more, because Endgame just... wasn’t. 

I have every intention of posting about everything that I love about into the spiderverse... but this post is already long enough, and besides, I haven’t quite managed to articulate why it impacted me so much. But I feel like it stands in stark contrast to what the MCU has become, and acknowledging how I feel about the MCU at this point really serves to highlight everything that spiderverse did right. Like... I would have loved it no matter what. In some ways, finally watching spiderverse allowed me to really understand why endgame was so bad? IDK. But there we are.