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nothieflike · 2 years ago

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Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 (2023)

★★★★☆

Written and Directed by: James Gunn

Based on the Comic Book series by: Marvel Comics (Arnold Drake and Gene Colan)

The last film I reviewed for this blog before I sort of let it peter out was 2012's The Avengers. Obviously a lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe... er, stuff occurred in the intervening years. All three Spider-Man movies, for one thing, but also any mention of Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Ant-Man, even the Infinity Stones. Heck, the first glimpse of Thanos came during the mid-credits bonus scene at the end of The Avengers. And, of course, in between that review and this one, we got two Guardians of the Galaxy films.

I won't get into my thoughts on those two previous films except to say that I understand why these films have been so frequently emulated in the years since the release of the first one. It's a formula for an ensemble movie where the characters are (probably) not known ahead of time, but by the end there is enough work put in to make the audience genuinely care. So with James Gunn apparently signing off from the MCU to take the reigns on a new chapter of DC films, Vol. 3 exists here in a space where the MCU has floundered a bit (or a lot, depending on your point of view) since the conclusion of The Infinity Saga and we see what Gunn's Guardians franchise is going to do to right the ship.

The answer, it turns out, is: nothing. Guardians Vol. 3 does not make any effort to "fix" The Multiverse Saga, Phase 4, or the MCU. Well, except in one specific way: Vol. 3 returns to a strategy that served the MCU extremely well in earlier eras which is that it sets out to make a solid action/adventure film first and leaves all the inter-connected broader universe stuff either to the backstories, the post-credits scenes, or just other franchises/films. And it's fairly obvious that is absolutely the right move to make. Guardians has been a bit of an outlier in the MCU for some time in that they are team movies but not team-UP movies. But the fairly minor flaws of this film don't have anything to do with it feeling distant from any of the Kang/Thunderbolts/Celestials nonsense going on elsewhere. That's a feature, not a bug.

So, what holds Vol. 3 back from true greatness? Mostly it comes from a trend in the cinematic universe model that has been in place since Avengers: Endgame, and that's catering to the most indulgent excesses from the comic book arm of Marvel. See, in the early days of the MCU, Marvel Studios rightly recognized that movies based on comic books needed to do several things simultaneously: firstly, appeal to broad audiences mostly by focusing on being self-contained and well executed films in their own right but secondly, they needed to also be as unassailable as possible by the hardcore comic book nerds who constituted the very core of the movie's audience. Plenty of earlier "successful" comic adaptations (Byran Singer's X-Men films from the 90s, for example, as well as edgier adaptations like Batman Begins and 2003's Hulk) seemed quite often to be embarrassed by their brightly-colored source material. They downplayed the elements that had originally endeared some of the characters to comics fans in favor of mass appeal, often in ways that quickly dated them. Marvel Studios though decided that the thing holding super hero movies back wasn't flashy costumes or somewhat trope-y, goofy fantastic elements but rather a self-seriousness that sucked the inherent fun out of escapism. And, ultimately, they were right.

Very, very right. The problem though? They were almost too right. For about ten years Marvel Studios stuck to a particular formula for making their movies fun and approachable and true enough to their funnybook roots that they avoided hardcore nerd outcry while gaining huge amounts of new fans who maybe otherwise had little to no use for comics themselves. But no one can keep a streak like that up forever. So what happened?

My theory is that Endgame happened. And it didn't just happen, it was (and still is as of this writing) the biggest MCU film in terms of box office grosses. It crushed. Looking at the overall plot of Endgame, it really did feel more like a direct adaptation from a Marvel Comics summer crossover event: time travel, alternate realities, key character deaths, the whole shebang. Up until this point Marvel Studios had been smoothing over some of the more comic-book-y elements of their storylines, running a riff on their Ultimate line where popular, foundational elements of the modern myths they traffic in were given a fresh pass under the guise of expanding the audience. But it worked so well, pleasing core comic fans with it's rootsy takes while gently easing moviegoing audiences into their world, they learned the wrong lesson.

The lesson they should have learned: don't stop doing that.

The lesson they did learn: if everyone loves every risk we take (galactic setting? portal wizards? funny Thor? yes, please!), we got so much more where that came from!

Which starts the straight line that leads us past unmentioned-afterward canon including: dueling myth-gods, literal Zeus, half-hatched god eggs, robot K.E.V.I.N (Feige), alligator Loki, and a giant popped-out eyeball in New York City. Oh and, like, Kang.

Now, to be fair, most of those things would feel a lot more at place in a Guardians of the Galaxy movie. As in, it's pretty weird they aren't the excesses Vol. 3 is guilty of. Rather, Vol. 3 reaches into the vault of dark, over-expository sorta-allegories straight from the fashionable grim-n-gritty late 90s era of the comics. It decides to push boundaries even beyond what a Sam Raimi MCU film felt inclined to push. And it does it all while daring to have a happy ending.

Vol. 3 picks up somewhere after the events of the Disney+ Holiday Special, which is (I believe) where we learned the Guardians had inducted Kraglin and Cosmo the dog and set up shop over in Knowhere with a bunch of... friends? Locals? Refugees? It's not clear. What is clear is that Guardians' leader Peter "Star-Lord" Quill (played with an unexpected complexity by Chris Pratt) is still struggling with the loss of the teammate Gamora (played here with as much nuance as possible by Zoe Saldana given the disservice the script pays her) he'd fallen in love with, particularly in light of the fact that a version of her lives on somewhere out in the universe, at best hostile toward him and at worst indifferent. A gold-skinned guy arrives, wreaking havoc, seeming fixated on Rocket (voiced with a lot less wise-cracking than usual by Bradley Cooper) and manages to mortally wound the mutated raccoon. When they try to heal him, they discover Rocket's creator put a kill switch into him and if they try to operate without removing it, he'll die.

This sends the Guardians on a desperate quest to find a way to save Rocket by digging into the past of his creator, a being who calls himself the High Evolutionary (played with a vulnerable gravitas by Chukwudi Iwuji). As the team crosses paths with Gamora and the Ravager faction she's been running with for the inevitable awkward reunion between her and Star-Lord, the film then begins cutting back and forth to the time when Rocket, well, became Rocket.

It's here that the film makes a choice to swerve hard into the pitch black in tone and visual aesthetic. The scenes of Rocket's creation and the introduction of his fellow discarded experiments are harrowing, ghastly things that might as well flash a bright yellow, all-caps title card: "ANIMAL EXPERIMENTATION IS ANIMAL CRUELTY!" Or maybe just, "HURTING ANIMALS IS EVIL!" It's a lot, in all honesty and I was very glad I pre-screened this before taking my kids to see it.

Eventually the Guardians track down the High Evolutionary on a planet called Counter-Earth, which he created as part of his quest to fabricate a perfect utopian society. Here, again with the dark, we get essentially a genocide that occurs without much more than a passing mention by the main characters. And, y'know, narratively it mostly serves as a ticking clock and bit of chaos to keep the team from forming Voltron and making short work of the film's conflict before we can wring a bit more pathos out of the audiences' greater concern for a computer-animated raccoon than an entire planet of sentient and uncomfortably human-adjacent animal hybrid people.

The rest of the movie takes a few more dark swerves which really felt like the movie was setting me up for a huge gutpunch of an ending. I was thinking, fool me thrice, or whatever but I see where this is going. And then it swerves again and says, "actually no, you know what, sometimes things really suck a lot but then it turns out to be some flavor of all right." And it sorta turned out I was right because while I was waiting for the inevitable slug to the breadbasket, I got a different, gentler strike and dammit if it wasn't even more effective because of it.

I know it sounds a lot like I have some pretty major gripes with the film and I did find it's brazen and ballsy approach to the MCU as a bit off-putting. Buuut... the last several tentpole MCU entries that have been trying to stick with "the formula" have been pretty off-putting as well so even if I didn't say anything else positive at all, I'd still have to give it to Vol. 3 for at least failing to stick the landing in a novel fashion. And I genuinely do have a lot of positive things to say about this movie. The dynamic between the characters is loose and feels lived in, no matter what configuration is on screen at the time. I'd go so far as to say the acting is all best in Cinematic Universe for these characters. Not only do Pratt and Saldana do a fantastic job with adding new layers to their performances that carry the backstory in a way that means they have to do only minimal "as-you-know-bob"ing to sell their scenes. Unsung heroes abound as well from Pom Klementieff's smooth portrayal of a woman growing into an affinity for compassionate leadership to Karen Gillan's deft and subtle arc of "How Nebula Got Her Groove Back." Even Cooper manages to deliver a stellar vocal performance, really dragging the audience that extra few feet across the finish line to genuine concern for... well, for a computer-animated raccoon.

The stakes are smaller than expected but the satisfaction of the resolution is so rewarding it feels like it's been a bigger journey than even saving the universe with a dance contest. The soundtrack adds the same kind of welcome texture to scenes as ever, the visual effects are great, and though there are fewer jokes than earlier entries, when they do come they mostly all work. I could cite a few more minor bits of both nitpicking (Groot's regeneration ability seems very ill-defined and at this point amounts to "it's just whatever we need it to be for the current scene") and complimentary (the way they handle the lampshading on Groot's signature dialogue is super satisfying and wonderfully subtle), but I think I can summarize it all with this: it's not perfect, but it kind of feels like exactly what we needed right now. And if that doesn't summarize the Guardians of the Galaxy, I don't know what does.

I recommend Vol. 3, with the minor warning that it has some squirmy, uncomfortable scenes and subject matter. If you have some younger kids who have enjoyed previous Marvel films or if you're a squeamish type who generally finds nothing distasteful about these films, tread carefully because this one takes even some of the shocking moments from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and more or less says, "hold my beer." But if you can stomach it, it's one of the best Marvel features in a long time and well worth the wait.

#guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-3 #full-review #movie-days #four-star #action #adventure #2023 #space-opera

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fandomtrashhh · 3 years ago

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How Stucky was Queer Coded

A deep, detailed look at how Steve x Bucky had queer subtext and coding in the MCU movies.

Word Count: 9k+

Trigger Warning: Cussing, I mention the normal stuff that comes with action movies like mentioning torture, brainwash, mind control, violence, character deaths

I want to say that I AM NOT smart enough to come up with all of this by myself. Most of this article is based off of the Tik Toks made by "daniellesilverstone." That's where I get most of my examples and sources from. If you have Tik Tok, give them a follow! You can also follow her on Instagram with the same name and YouTube under the same name.

I used some information from the account Char on Twitter: https://twitter.com/charcubed/status/1085731788897570817

This is an article of someone explaining why Cap should have had a boyfriend:

Why Marvel Should Give Captain America a Boyfriend - HubPages

Other than that, the rest of the stuff I added was from common knowledge facts online like memes that you can find anywhere, there's no source for those.

Warning! Spoilers for Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, Falcon and The Winter Soldier, and What If...?. I cover a lot of content, so if you haven't seen these and plan to, read this after you've seen them.

Before I begin, let me just say that there's a difference between queer coding and queer baiting. Queer coding is when a character is coded but isn't able to be queer because of homophobia. A lot of queer coding is through villains and relationships. In a relationship sense, that's when the characters are written as romantic parallels to each other and are coded. It could be on purpose or accidental. It's not always harmful, but it can be. In the MCU, Steve and Bucky are queer coded, and so are Carol and Maria. So queer coding is subtext, but isn't allowed to be confirmed. Queer baiting is used as a marketing ploy and is on purpose. An example is when there was a scene in Falcon and The Winter Soldier when it was hinted that Bucky was queer (I'll discuss that later) and the people working on the show said "Just wait and see" and literally nothing happened. Stucky wasn't used as a way to bait people, so it's coding. Now that I got that out of the way, let's start! I hope you enjoy this 29 page essay!

Introduction

The ship "Stucky" is the romantic pairing between Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The duo are very close and share a very strong bond, and while many people believe it to be only platonic, there is strong evidence that supports it could've been way more than that.

Who the Hell is Bucky?

Did you understand that reference? Anyways, Bucky has been Steve Rogers's (aka Captain America's) best friend since childhood. He protected Steve against bullies and took care of him. In the comics, his character was actually very different. The comics takes inspiration from Bucky Barnes and a character called Arnie Roth. Bucky in the comics is Captain America's sidekick, an orphaned teenager who admires Captain America. It's a similar dynamic to Batman and Robin. While Bucky's name and storyline is the same as in the comics (as in he is presumed dead but is brainwashed by Hydra for decades and becomes the Winter Soldier) his character role and personality is mainly based off of Arnie Roth. Arnie Roth was Steve's childhood best friend who looked out for and protected Steve and fought off bullies for him. When he was a teenager, he flirted with and dated a lot of girls. All of this seems quite like Bucky in the MCU, right? So what's my point? Well, Arnie was gay (and Jewish! No Jewish erasure here). He was trying to overcompensate. If so much of Bucky's personality and role in Steve's life was based off of Arnie, is it really a stretch to say that Bucky is possibly also gay or bisexual? (Not to mention in some recent comics, both Natasha (Black Widow) and Bucky admitted to having a crush on Steve. If you don't believe me, look it up.)

There are also moments in the newer comics (where Steve and Bucky are the same age) that seem pretty gay, like in Planet Hulk, or when actual comic characters were shipping them. I don't usually take the comics into consideration though, because Bucky was a teenager in the earlier comics so I obviously don't ship them then.

Here's an article about Arnie:

Captain America May Never Have A Boyfriend, But He's Long Had A Gay Best Friend

Anyways, onto the MCU!

Their Home

It's never explicitly stated in the movies, but it's hinted that Steve and Bucky lived together during the 30's and 40's (the flashback scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.) I mean, to be fair, that's pretty normal, right? Friends live together all the time. It makes even more sense because Steve was an orphan by the time he was 18, and due to his health issues he was probably unable to work. It was also during the Great Depression, so things were really difficult. Just wait. There's a piece of concept art that was made for what Steve's apartment looked like, and it was made by people who worked for the MCU. In the picture, a tall dark haired man is standing at the sink, which is presumably Bucky. That's still fine, right? That is until you realize there's one bed. Yup. They lived in a very small apartment, the only room that isn't visible is the room that has a toilet in it. They had one bed in their apartment. There was no couch. Listen, I get that they were really close friends, but even really close friends, especially adult men, don't sleep in the same bed every night unless they were in a relationship.

That's not all. Steve and Bucky lived in Brooklyn, New York, which was known to be a very queer area back when Steve and Bucky lived there that can be traced back to the 1850's. It was one of two underground queer cities. And actually, Coney Island, which Steve and Bucky talked about going to, had gay bath houses. Not only did they live in a queer city, they lived in a queer neighborhood. The exact place they lived according to Marvel Studios themselves was in a neighborhood that was in the middle of bar/gay hangouts. Someone mapped out the entire area they lived in in detail and everything surrounding during the 1930's/40's, and it was very queer. (Sadly, the post was taken down, but you get the idea.)

I've only talked about Bucky's character and where they lived so far, and I already have a lot of proof. Just wait, I have a LOT more.

Punk

In the beginning of the movie, Steve and Bucky go on a date with 2 women. I'm not even going to go into detail about the fact that Bucky always insisted on going on a "double date" with Steve, or that he never understood why no one wanted to date Steve, or that Bucky spent more time focusing on Steve during the date than his actual date. Anyways, Steve sneaks off to try and enlist in the army again and Bucky finds him. They have a whole conversation where Bucky is very protective of Steve and very insistent that he doesn't join the army. Fast forward, and Steve and Bucky are saying bye to each other. Bucky says "Don't do anything stupid 'til I get back." Steve replies, "How can I? You're taking all the stupid with you." They hug each other, and Bucky calls Steve a punk.

You would think it's normal to call someone a punk, because the way we use it now is WAY different to how it was used in the 1940's.

The word "punk" can be traced back to Shakespeare, and during that time it meant a female prostitute. So it's really no surprise what the word was used for after that.

"Punk" meant "twink." Bucky called Steve a twink. I mean, Steve was the younger and smaller one of the both of them, so I guess it adds up.

The Bar Scene

This scene. This whole scene right here. This would be enough proof to prove my point. This scene in Captain America: The First Avenger that starts at 1:14:00 is the most queer coded scene in any of the MCU movies for multiple reasons. Let me dive deeper.

First, let's talk about the dialogue. Steve asks Bucky if he's "Willing to follow Captain America into the jaws of death." Bucky says, "Hell no. But that little guy from Brooklyn who was too dumb not to run away from a fight, I'm following him." I don't know about you, but that sounds romantic. If you watch the look on Bucky's face as he's saying it, I can't even describe it. Then Steve looks at him intensely.

Next gay line. They're talking about Steve's tight skinned Captain America costume. Bucky says, "But you're keeping the outfit, right?" He made the first America's ass joke. Why would Bucky say that? Gay jokes were not a thing back in the 40's. You could be killed for saying that if the wrong person overheard you. So it wasn't just a joke. In the original script for the movie, Steve replies with "Don't get your hopes up." Um??? Why would Bucky get his hopes up??? Again, gay jokes were NOT a thing then. And he wasn't drunk, because at this point Bucky had gotten the serum, and people with the super serum can't get drunk.

Just wait, this scene gets GAYER.

So, music is really important in movies. It sets the tone for certain scenes, and lyrics most times have purpose to what is going on in the story. Marvel is no exception. So, with that being said, the song playing in the background of this scene is called "Tavern in the Town." It was written in the 1880's. You want to know what it's about?

It was written about a man who was flirting with another woman. Yes, the song was originally sang by a woman who was talking about her boyfriend (as in the boyfriend was the one flirting with another woman), but in many of the versions afterwards, including the one played in the movie, it's sang by a man. The singers and the MCU writers could've changed gender pronouns, but they didn't. Making the song in this context gay.

Why would Marvel use that specific song if they weren't trying to tell us something? They could've used any song in the world for this scene, so why did they choose that one? One that describes the situation perfectly? Peggy Carter, Steve's canon love interest, is a dark haired woman. And wait. It STILL gets gayer.

The song lyrics match up with what is going on in the scene. The song starts with "There is a tavern in the town, in the town. There my true love sits him down, sits him down." The song is basically saying that the 2 lovers are sitting down in a tavern, and Bucky and Steve sit down in a bar, which is similar to a tavern. The next lyrics say "And drinks his wine 'mid laughter free. And never, never thinks of me, thinks of me." In this scene, Steve is drinking and he is thinking about his new life, which Bucky is barely a part of. The next lyrics basically talk about how even the best of friends must part but don't grieve me, which symbolizes that they'll be separated soon because Steve thinks Bucky dies. The next part goes "adieu, adieu" (I'll skip a couple lines) and then "I can no longer stay with you, stay with you," as Peggy walks in. I don't think I need to explain what that means. When Bucky and Steve stand up as Peggy approaches them, Bucky's jaw is clenched and his fists are balled. What other reason besides jealousy or hate would make someone react like that?

As Steve and Peggy are talking, the song talks about the lover actually leaving for a woman. It even says that they go out on a Friday, which is when Steve and Peggy said they would go dancing right before Steve crashed the plane into the ocean. Look at Bucky's face as they're talking. He's looking at Steve and he looks uncomfortable, unhappy when he realizes how Steve feels about Peggy.

Now, the GAYEST part of the scene. As the music gets louder for this one line and goes, "He left me for a damsel dark, damsel dark," the camera focuses on Bucky's face and he looks at Steve and then looks down. He looks upset. Then he tries to flirt with her, but if you watch his facial expressions and his body language and his voice, he isn't very convincing. It's more likely he's trying to direct the conversation towards himself so she isn't focusing on Steve, like when Peggy says she likes to dance he cuts in and says "So what are we waiting for?" But again, the way he's doesn't sound like he actually is trying to flirt with her because he wants to date her, it's because he doesn't want Peggy and Steve to date so he's desperately trying to end the conversation.

Some people might say that this scene is saying that Bucky is jealous that Steve is getting the girl for once, but that doesn't fit with his personality. It showed in the beginning that he was trying to get girls for Steve. He wanted Steve to be happy. He wouldn't be upset if Steve finally found someone. He just didn't realize it would happen so soon. So the only explanation? Now that Steve actually has a chance with someone, Bucky is jealous because he wants Steve.

After Peggy walks away, after he's frowning after her, Bucky says "I'm invisible." He's trying to play it off like he's invisible to Peggy, but by the way he's looking at Steve with a hurt expression, then looking away, it's really the opposite. He can't even look Steve in the fucking eyes. Then the lyrics repeat "Fare thee well for I must leave thee. Do not let the parting grieve thee. And remember that the best of friends must part, must part." Bucky realizes he's nothing compared to Peggy. Then the song ends. Interesting that they decided to end the song there. The rest of the song basically just talks about being in love with someone who is in love with someone else.

I want to point out real quick that the way he addresses Peggy in this scene is very different to how he addresses other women in the MCU, especially in this movie. Yes he's a flirt (like I said, a cover) but he's also polite and kind towards women. That's not the case with Peggy. It doesn't seem like he likes her, and there is no other reason why he wouldn't like someone as amazing as Peggy unless it was because he was jealous.

So. That's what I call The Bar Scene. This scene is clearly angst. This movie came out in 2011, over 10 years ago now, and there STILL isn't a heterosexual explanation for it. I sometimes have to remind myself that this scene is actually real.

Link to The Bar Scene, watch the words closely and watch Bucky's expressions and the way they look at each other! Captain America: The First Avenger Bar Scene Stucky Easter Egg -- There is a Tavern in the Town

Here's some more detail about that scene if you want it:

Homoerotic Subtext from the Bar Scene in CATFA - vulcansmirk - Captain America (Movies) [Archive of Our Own]

Facial Expressions

Before I get onto the next specific piece of evidence, let me point out the way they look at each other. ESPECIALLY the way Bucky looks at Steve. He looks at him like Steve is his whole world. I'm sorry, I don't look at my friends like that. If you look at the way Sebastian Stan (the actor for Bucky) and Chris Evans (the actor for Steve) look at their love interests in both the MCU and other things they have acted in, it's practically the same look.

Look at the way Bucky looks at Steve when they are sitting at the bar. Or when Steve and Peggy are talking right after Steve gets back from saving all those people from Hydra. In that scene specifically, when Steve is looking at Bucky, Bucky smiles. As soon as Steve looks away, his face falls as he's looking at Steve and Peggy talking. That's TWO scenes where Bucky looks jealous that Steve is talking to Peggy.

Almost every time, if not every time that Bucky smiles in any of the movies (not including the show) he smiles for and at Steve.

There are many more examples of the way they look at each other, and I could go on about it all day. Instead, let me get to my next topic.

The Apartment Scene

In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, we have another scene that is queer coded through the music. The scene where Steve is in his apartment and Nick Fury gets shot by the Winter Soldier (aka mind controlled Bucky.) The song playing in the background as Steve walks into the apartment is "It's Been a Long, Long Time." Yes, I know we all have feelings about this song. This was the song used for Steve and Peggy (Steggy) at the end of Avengers: Endgame. But it was used for Stucky first, way before it was used for Steggy.

The song "It's Been a Long, Long Time," is a woman singing about seeing her husband after he comes back from war. In the movie, this is the scene where Bucky and Steve interact for the first time since 1945, when they were in the war together, so it really matches up. They could've used any reunion-like song, why did it have to be such an overly romantic one, which literally says "kiss me once then kiss me twice then kiss me once again?" If you continue the song past the point where it cuts off, it goes really well with the scene, and at the end Steve is looking out over the city while he stands on the roof as the music rises. Yeah, that's romantic. So when they made that song a Steggy song, they were telling us that song was always supposed to be used romantically. That's now 2 romantic songs that are used for Steve and Bucky.

'Til the End of the Line

Any MCU fan knows this famous line. In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, there's a flashback to the year 1936, right after Steve and Bucky went to Steve's mom's funeral. Bucky was telling Steve that he could live with him, but Steve was saying he could get by on his own. Then Bucky says, "The thing is, you don't have to. I'm with you to the end of the line, pal."

I don't know about you, but to me that sounds like "til death do us part." Aka, a wedding vow.

In Spanish, if you translate it, it says, "Because I'm with you until the end." That's even gayer!

Later in the movie, Steve says it as a mind controlled Bucky is beating him up, almost killing him, and it was enough to break through Bucky's brainwashing. That's how important that phrase meant to each other.

Which brings me to my next piece of evidence.

Bucky's Brainwash

Bucky constantly got his memory wiped and was mind controlled and conditioned during his 70 years of being used as a weapon for Hydra. No semblance of his past life ever broke through that. His orders to kill people went smoothly and he was a very deadly weapon. That is, until he was ordered to kill Steve. All Bucky had to do was see Steve's face and hear Steve say his name for the brainwash and mind control to start to break.

Even when he was sent to kill Howard and Maria Stark, he didn't show any sign of recognition. Bucky and Howard were friends, and Howard said "Sergeant Barnes?" right before Bucky killed him. There was just nothing there. Bucky just didn't recognize him.

So when Bucky lifted up his gun to fire at Steve after he started to recognize him, there was a look of fear and confusion on his face and in his eyes. Already all of that mind control is breaking.

When Bucky gets back to the Hydra base, he's very upset and he asks who the man on the bridge was. His captors try to lie to him about it, but Bucky just keeps saying "I knew him." So they wiped his memory again and tortured him. It was a heartbreaking scene that always makes me cry.

Not long later, Hydra sent Bucky to go kill Steve again. Steve was trying to convince Bucky that he knew him, and that his name was James Buchanan Barnes and that Steve knew him his whole life. Bucky tried denying it and punched him and shouted "You're my mission!"

That's when Steve said, "Then finish it. 'Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." After that, Bucky's brainwash breaks AGAIN, and that's when Steve falls off the Helicarrier that they're on in the air, and Steve falls into the water. Bucky didn't even have his memories at this point, he just felt that he needed to save Steve, so that's what he did. Bucky pulled Steve out of the water and made sure he was breathing before he left. Honestly, that whole scene felt romantic for me, with the dramatic music and the slow motion and the trust that Steve had for Bucky. It was very beautifully written and every time I watch it I always feel blown away.

Character Roles & Movie Details

All three Captain America movies were about Steve and Bucky's devotion to each other. The movies constantly showed us that Steve would do anything for Bucky and Bucky would do anything for Steve. All 3 of Steve's movies were about him trying to save Bucky.

It feels like fate that these two ended up in the 21st century. Like they got a second chance.

Let me start with Captain America: The First Avenger. In this movie, Steve starts out in the "damsel in distress" role, because Bucky is always protecting and saving him. After Steve gets the serum, the roles switch, and Bucky becomes Steve's damsel in distress.

The first thing that Steve did as Captain America was to save Bucky from Hydra (the FIRST time Bucky was captured by Hydra.) He literally picked up the shield to save Bucky. As soon as he found out where Bucky was, he stormed the base all by himself just because there was a chance that Bucky MIGHT be alive. He had no idea if he was. That reminds me of in movies when the main character saves the love interest, even if it gets them killed, they still do it.

Not just that, but earlier in the movie, before Bucky was captured, Steve said, "I don't want to kill anyone." After Bucky was captured, he said, "I'm not gonna stop until all of Hydra are dead or captured." This is when he talks about saving Bucky. That's called character inconsistency. That usually only happens in a story when a love interest is in danger.

Later, Bucky and Steve refused to leave a burning building without each other. When Steve told Bucky to leave without him, to save himself, Bucky yelled, "No, not without you!" That was hands down the most passionate and crazed Bucky had ever been about something. He had never been more serious about something in his over 10 year span of him being in the MCU. He would rather die than leave without Steve. Every time I watch that scene I can feel how frantic, how sure he is about that statement. It's one of my favorite Bucky lines. Damn, Sebastian Stan is an amazing actor.

Later in the movie, when Bucky seemingly died, that was Steve's motivator to stop Hydra once and for all. Bucky's "death" was what led Steve to being able to take down Hydra.

Let's not forget that Steve could've probably jumped off the plane. In a deleted scene for Avengers: Endgame, Rhodey asked why Steve had to crash the plane. Steve tells him there were bombs on board. Rhodey then asked him why he didn't jump off, and Steve didn't reply. Steve could have jumped off, but Bucky had "died" 3 days before, and Steve didn't want to live a life without him.

So basically, in The First Avenger, Steve "became" Captain America and picked up the shield for Bucky, and Bucky's death was what motivated him to take down Hydra. That usually is the role of the love interest.

Now, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That one was basically an act of true love's kiss.

First off, foreshadowing is added a lot in stories. Marvel is no exception, there's many instances of foreshadowing in the MCU. Including a scene between Natasha and Steve not long before Steve meets up with Bucky. The two of them are talking about dating and the like, and Natasha says, "Nobody special then?" And Steve responds with "Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience." Umm? I wonder? It's not like there's anybody who was born in the early 20th century who fought in World War II and who didn't age for decades only to wake up in the 21st century. Besides James Buchanan Barnes, of course. The fact that they used the foreshadowing in a romantic context was so unnecessary, they could have foreshadowed Bucky's appearance in so many other ways. There's no other explanation for this line besides it foreshadowing Bucky.

When Steve realized that The Winter Soldier was Bucky, he dropped his shield and refused to fight him. A well trained assassin who could kill him in a heartbeat. Then there was the whole Bucky remembering him, but I already discussed it.

Steve was in so much shock that he let himself get arrested. He then blamed himself for what happened to Bucky even though there was nothing he could've done. He said, "Even when I had nothing, I had Bucky."

Then back to the fight on the helicarrier. Steve risks his life for Bucky just like he did in The First Avenger. Steve drops his shield in this scene because he doesn't want to hurt him, which contrasts picking up the shield for Bucky in The First Avenger. He tells Bucky TO KILL HIM. Then Bucky says "You're my mission." Then Steve says "Then finish it. Cause I'm with you to the end of the line." He gave Bucky permission to kill him, he knew there was a chance that he couldn't break through Bucky's brainwashing, but he still took that chance. He loved him so much that he gave him permission to kill him. He'd rather die by his hand than live without him.

Then Steve breaks Bucky's brainwashing, which is like the act of true love. It's actually been confirmed that the only reason the brainwashing broke was because of his memories of Steve.

The closing scene of the movie is Steve looking at Bucky's file, which mirrors Peggy looking at Steve's file at the end of The First Avenger. Which, again. Peggy is Steve's canon love interest. They parallel a canon love interest with a "friendship."

Then, there's 2 years between Winter Soldier and Civil War. In those 2 years, Steve had been actively trying to find Bucky. 2 YEARS. During that time, Bucky was trying to lay low in places like Romania (which is a nod to Sebastian Stan who lived in Romania until he was 8) and trying to remember things.

Next, I'll talk about Captain America: Civil War. Oh, boy. That whole movie was incredibly gay. Even Sebastian Stan, who plays Bucky, admits as much. He said, "Look, maybe it was a little bit Brokeback Mountain at times, I mean I'll admit, it was a little I won't quit you."

Like. You know something is gay if one of the main cast members even admits as much.

There's quite a bit to this movie, but I'm only going to talk about the things pertaining to Steve and Bucky.

In the movie, Bucky is accused of bombing a building that was resposnible for killing and injuring many people. The whole world is looking for Bucky and trying to kill him. The only person that believes he didn't do it and tries to help him is Steve, and Steve gets some of his friends to help.

At one point, a character who previously appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier showed up in Civil War. His name was Rumlow. When he went up against Steve, he started talking about Bucky. (Rumlow was a part of Hydra therefore he worked with The Winter Soldier.) He said "You know, he knew you. Your pal, your buddy, your Bucky." He says "your Bucky" which is used possessively, like Bucky is Steve's. Yeah, that sounds romantic. You don't use that for platonic relationships. The mention of Bucky distracted Steve from his mission so much that it allowed Rumlow to detonate a bomb which killed people. Later, Steve was talking to Wanda and said, "Rumlow said 'Bucky,' and all of a sudden I was a 16 year old kid again in Brooklyn."

The "your pal, your buddy" was probably added in there so it wouldn't just be "your Bucky" which sounds ever gayer.

One of Bucky's trigger words to become the Winter Soldier is seventeen, and all the words are strongly theorized to have meaning in Bucky's life. Bucky is a year older than Steve, so what the hell happened when they were 16 and 17? (This one is mostly a joke and probably just a coincidence, though.)

Another thing. When Steve goes to Bucky's apartment in Romania to rescue him from people who are trying to kill him, we see that he has a notebook. In that notebook there's a big picture of Steve. Bucky had been using that journal to remember Steve again. He's relying on his memory and trying to get his memories back by focusing on Steve. And like....c'mon. You have a huge picture (that's not just a picture but a drawing) of "your best friend" on the first page of your journal? That's kinda gay, my dude.

Steve goes against 117 countries for Bucky. He fought the entire government for Bucky. He becomes an international fugitive for him. He gets arrested for him. He risks his life for Bucky AGAIN in this movie and some of his friends' lives. His friends actually end up in a high security prison because of it. He risks a friend's career for him. When Bucky gets mind controlled again, Steve risks his life AGAIN. He stops a helicopter for him. In this movie, Steve literally gives up absolutely everything for Bucky. He gives up the shield AGAIN for him, proving that Bucky is worth more than being Captain America. This whole movie was about Steve trying to protect Bucky and showing the lengths that he would go for him.

So yeah. The lesson is everything goes to shit when Bucky is taken from Steve in any of the movies.

Not to mention the scene where Bucky loses his metal arm and is bleeding and broken on the ground and can't do anything but still tries the best he can to get Tony away from hurting Steve, anything to help Steve even though Bucky can barely move.

In the scenes they fight together, they're immediately in sync, even though they hadn't fought side by side since 1945, that's how comfortable they are with each other. Like the scene where Steve instantly covers Bucky with his shield, no hesitation. Only Steve's head is covered, and Bucky has his arm on Steve's back. That's just one example!

Let's talk Sharon Carter: she was Steve's love interest in Civil War. I use the term love interest loosely. They got less than 10 minutes of screen time together in this movie and less than 10 minutes of screen time in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They kissed once. Their "relationship" was very underdeveloped, and was probably just thrown in there so that it wouldn't seem like Bucky was the love interest. Steve x Sharon is probably one of the worst romantic relationships in the entire MCU, whether you ship Stucky or not. Both scenes they are in together gets interrupted by Bucky. (There are even scenes where he interrupts Steve and Peggy moments, and even scenes where Peggy interrupts Steve and Bucky moments! That all seems romantic to me.) Also, the less Peggy that's in each Captain America movie the more Bucky there is. Just something worth pointing out.

Another thing is that there is a scene with Sharon and Steve talking in front of an elevator (one of the ones that was interrupted by Bucky) and it was honestly kind of weird and there was no passion. This contrasts a scene later in the film where Steve and Bucky are actually in an elevator, and they're looking at each other and that scene seems pretty passionate. No words and no interruptions. Not really that groundbreaking of a piece of evidence, but I thought it was interesting.

So yeah, she exists to throw off everything that's going on with Steve and Bucky. Just by the scenes she and Steve share, things feel awkward and whatever was going on between them wasn't written to be a long term relationship for him, not like with Peggy. And simply, their little fling doesn't work because of Bucky.

Another little music fact: one of the songs they credited in Civil War was a song called "Bonnie & Clyde." Bonnie and Clyde were 2 lovers who were on the run from the law...hmmm....what were Steve and Bucky doing that whole movie? I mean, there were no other 2 characters who were romantically involved that were on the run together.

Here's the scene I mentioned above where Steve and Bucky are in an elevator together and they're facing each other and staring at each other. I could really feel the tension between them in that scene. If they were "like brothers" wouldn't they stand more like how Loki and Thor stand next to each other in an elevator? I don't know, I just wanted to add that.

If you think about Peggy's character and the role she has in Steve's life, it's way less than Bucky. When Bucky "died," Steve tried to get drunk and he was crying for hours and he was ready to kill anyone, then he went into the ice 3 days later so he didn't even have a proper amount of time to accept he was gone and start the mourning process, so who knows how it would've been. When Peggy died, he went to her funeral and cried a little and stuff and was sad, but he kissed her niece less than a week later. If she was his true love then she would be more important to his story. I'm sorry, did Steve infiltrate a Hydra base with nothing but props for Peggy? Did Steve give Peggy permission to kill him? No, he did not. That was Bucky.

Bucky truly is Steve's only weakness. Not even Peggy is his weakness, it's always been Bucky. He would go to the ends of the Earth to save him from harm. Bucky was the most important person in Steve's life. His priorities always changed to him, even giving up his new family with the Avengers to keep him safe. He put Bucky ahead of everything else even when it wasn't the right thing to do. He was always blindsighted by Bucky. This is another character inconsistency because Captain America always stood for what is right, except when it came to Bucky. Being Captain America was really important to Steve, but he went against everything Captain America stood for - multiple times - for Bucky.

Bucky always insisted on being called "Bucky" because Steve called him Bucky. I thought that was cute.

If you try to argue that "they were like brothers," I'm sorry, you're wrong. Loki and Thor are brothers. Peter and Ned are like brothers. Even Sam and Bucky are like brothers. I don't know any brothers or best friends with such a deep emotional bond that one sentence would be able to break through 70 years of torture and brainwash and mind control.

All in all, they were written as romantic parallels to each other. All 3 movies were about their devotion to each other. Their stories can't even exist without each other. Their motivations depend on each other and they are each other's purposes.

Behind the Scenes

A lot of people who worked on these movies literally called Steve and Bucky a love story.

Joe Russo, one of the directors, called it a love story. Then he later clarified that it was between brothers, but why would you call a story about brothers a love story? You would call that a family story. Joe also said that "Steve and Bucky's arc follows the same arc that a love story would follow."

Markus and McFeely said they were soulmates. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely wrote all 3 Captain America scripts.

Chris Evans said, "It's a love story. You can take it however you wanna take it, but the fact is, it's a love story." This was after he walked himself in circles trying to tell people it wasn't romantic.

Samuel L. Jackson, who plays Nick Fury, said, "He's the first LBGT Captain America," after an interviewer asked Chris Evans, "Why do you feel like Captain America is the perfect hero for our times?"

Kevin Feige, who is in charge of the MCU, wore an ACTUAL Stucky sweatshirt.

Then we have Mark Millar. He's an important person. He wrote the Civil War comics that Civil War the movie was based on. He's literally a Stucky shipper. A Stucky shipper who wrote comics that the MCU used in their movies.

One thing he tweeted was "In a movie with Spider-Man & Ant-Man, Cap's few seconds kissing a girl was STILL the least-convincing moment in Civil War :) #TeamStucky."

In another tweet, he said, "#NationalBoyfriendDay" with a picture of Steve and Bucky.

A fan got to meet Sebastian Stan a few years ago and she had him sign a picture with Cap and Bucky on it. He signed "#PowerCouple" and he told her, "At least I'm on top." (In the picture Bucky is above Steve.) Even Bucky's actor supports the ship! (Plus there's the whole BrokeBack Mountain thing he said.)

In an interview a few years ago, the interviewer asked "Do you think Falcon is a contender as Cap's greatest love?"

Anthony Mackie, who plays Sam Wilson aka The Falcon who is one of Steve's good friends, said, "No, I'll be a contender for getting rid of Bucky."

A different interviewer said, "But you already have a romantic B story with Cap and Bucky, right?" (Cue in the screams and cheers.)

"We sure do." Said one of the Russo brothers. And the other said "We still do, we still do."

The interviewer went on to ask, "Did you ever have to dial down the sexual tension on set?"

One Russo said "Why should we?"

LIKE WHAT THE FUCK, MAN.

Chris Evans said at a Comic Con one year that Bucky is Steve's home, then realized what he said and backtracked.

A whole crowd chanted "Bucky" when Chris Evans was talking about his love interest Peggy, including 3 other MCU actors. (Chris Hemsworth who plays Thor, Jeremy Renner who plays Hawkeye, and Paul Rudd who plays Ant-Man.) Are Thor, Clint, and Scott Stucky shippers confirmed? 🤨

If you go online, TONS of articles talk about the relationship between Steve and Bucky. There are articles talking about why Bucky would've been better as Steve's love interest, articles about how close they are. Then there's stuff like this. "While Peggy was his actual love interest, Steve's love for Bucky was such that they can be considered each other's true loves." Famous sites like "TIME" and "BBC Three" even talked about Stucky!

In 2016, Marvel UK & Ireland said "The Winter Soldier....#baein3words" with a picture of Steve and Bucky.

In 2016, the hashtag "givecaptainamericaaboyfriend" was trending WORLDWIDE. The most popular choice for Steve was Bucky. Stucky is the most popular MCU ship in the fandom. They were in the top 5 ao3 ships for multiple years with over 50,000 fanfictions and are on the top 5 popular ao3 fanfictions of all time starting in 2017 and still holding in 2021! That's a lot of shippers!

Even though some of these interviews were jokes, they were jokes made from realizing that there is a deep bond between Steve and Bucky. Even if they are joking about romance it's still showing that they might see a little bit of what I see, or else they wouldn't be joking about it. And if there are actual articles by popular sites like ScreenRant about them, that means there's definitely something going on there.

The other ones who were serious, why did they keep backtracking? They were basically the people who were like "Oh yeah, they're soulmates, but no homo lmao." Or like historians who found out that they lived together in a one bedroom house and said they were "the best of friends."

I think the reason they had to be careful when they were talking about Steve and Bucky is because they didn't want to get in trouble with the higher ups.

What If....?

In the Marvel show "What If....?" Episode 1, "Agent Carter," there is surprisingly a lot of Stucky content. But not in the way that you think. It actually has to do with the parallels between Steve and Peggy moments in the show and Steve and Bucky moments in the MCU. Let me break it down.

So if you haven't watched What If, it's basically what the title says, what if something different happened in the MCU. Episode 1 is if Peggy got the super serum instead of Steve.

First parallel, Steve says "Let's hear it for Captain Carter!" When he's cheering on Peggy for saving a whole bunch of people. Just like when Bucky says "Let's hear it for Captain America!" In The First Avenger when he was cheering on Steve when HE saved a bunch of people.

Or when Steve literally fell off a train, JUST like Bucky did. The same train.

Then, Peggy's motivation to end Hydra was because she thought Steve was dead, just like when Steve thought Bucky died, he was motivated to stop Hydra. It was in the same room and everything.

And the fact that there was even a bar scene for Steve and Peggy in What If.

Let's not forget the fact that there was a scene when Peggy and Steve were talking, and Steve said to Peggy "In a way, the outside finally matches the inside." That's literally a direct quote from a popular Stucky fanfiction.

Basically, what these scenes were telling us was that they were romantic, because Steve and Peggy were romantically involved in the movies and in the show. So by telling us the scenes were romantic in the show, they were telling us they were always supposed to be romantic.

Like, why would you parallel 2 characters who were actually romantically involved with 2 people who are "just friends?" It doesn't make sense.

Miscellaneous

Before I go, let me point out a couple things that couldn't quite fit in any of the other categories. For one, in Avengers: Infinity War, the first scene we see with Bucky, his hair is all greasy and he looks dirty from being out on the farm. Shuri tells him that Steve will be coming soon, and the next time we see Bucky, he's all clean and his hair is very clean and fluffy and pretty and he looks so happy to see Steve even though it was confirmed that Steve visited him multiple times when Bucky was in Wakanda.

In Avengers: Endgame, Steve has to fight a past version of himself. They're having a pretty intense fight and matching each other in strength (which makes sense, they're the same person) and at one point 2012 Steve had current Steve (2023) in a chokehold. Do you know how he gets away? Current Steve says "Bucky is alive." And 2012 Steve loosened his grip on 2023 Steve long enough for him to get away. Out of everything he could have told him, he said that, because he thought that would be the most likely way to get him to stop. Again, Bucky is his main weakness, if not his only weakness.

When Bucky turned to dust, his last words were "Steve...?" Even when he was dying, his first instinct was to address him, in his final moments, Bucky looked at Steve for comfort and because he was all that mattered. I imagine his final thoughts were confusion about what was happening and to show Steve, but ultimately, as he was fading away, he probably thought "It's okay. Steve is okay and that's all that matters." Jeez, that's making me emotional just writing that! Then Steve goes over and touches his ashes as he looks at what Bucky had been reduced to in shock and horror, defeat and confusion.

So this one doesn't have anything to do with Stucky, but this is some proof that Bucky is queer. In the show he recently was in, "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier," there was a scene where Bucky went on an unsuccessful date with a woman who worked at the place he went to eat sometimes. When they're on the date, they're talking about online dating. Before I tell you what Bucky said, let me explain something. On dating apps, it's quite popular to have a man pose with a tiger for his profile picture. It's a guy thing specifically, though. Bucky says he's seen some weird pictures on dating apps, saying, "I mean, tiger photos? Half the time, I don't even know what I'm looking at. It's a lot." This is weird because dating apps show gender preferences.

The director of the show tried to give some half- assed excuse for it by saying that Bucky just thought it was weird and reminding us that he's 106 and finds modern technology confusing. But that still doesn't explain why he was seeing tiger photos in the first place? It just doesn't add up. There's no explanation.

Just like how Wanda was the only one able to destroy the mind stone out of Vision's head (she had to kill the love of her life for the good of the universe, it was sad), Steve and Bucky are equals and only Steve can get through to Bucky.

I'm just going to put this one out there. If one of them was a girl (especially Bucky) it would've been canon by now. Quick tip: if you ever need to figure out whether something is queer coded or queer baited, just imagine it as a straight relationship. Now think of Bucky and Steve being in a straight relationship. It would probably be considered the greatest love story of the MCU. Even if it wasn't made canon, there would be so many more people shipping it. They would take one look at the way they look at each other and say "Omgs they're so cute together!" I'm just giving you the facts here. So here's all the evidence laid out for everyone to see. We're not making this up.

If you're thinking "Steve loved Peggy, he went to the past and had a happy ending with her!" then let me just tell you that Steve's ending in Endgame was wrong and extremely out of character, it doesn't matter if you're a Stucky shipper or not. Steve's entire arc in the MCU was saving Bucky no matter the cost, he showed time and time again that Bucky was the most important person in his life, and he just recently got Bucky back for good, he would never leave him. At that point, Bucky was very broken and he needed help healing. Steve was the only person in Bucky's life, he wouldn't just abandon him for a woman he kissed once. It doesn't make sense for his character. Steve would do anything for Bucky, he never abandoned him throughout everything that happened, he never left Bucky's side.

A constant theme throughout the MCU movies for Steve was moving on. His character development was to move on from the past. In Avengers: Age of Ultron, Steve said that he was home. (This was after he found out Bucky was alive, by the way. Just pointing that out.) In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, old Peggy told him that "The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best and sometimes the best we can do is to start over." That was the main point his movies were making after he woke up from the ice. That was his development. Endgame ruined that.

Not only did it affect poor Bucky's life, but Peggy's, too. She got married. She had children and grandchildren and she said that she had a happy full life. She moved on from Steve. By going to the past, he erased all of that for her. Erased how her life was supposed to be. He also made Peggy's entire show "Agent Carter" not on the official timeline anymore.

I understand that they needed an ending for Steve because Chris Evans' contract was up, but they could've done that in a way where it wasn't completely out of character and ruined people's character arcs. They could have killed him off in battle (that would've made me very upset, but it still makes more sense.) He could have retired from fighting so he could help Bucky heal (they could regularly mention Steve but not show him while having Bucky still be in the MCU.) So if you use that as an argument against Stucky, I find it irrelevant because it was extremely out of character and was a lazy way to take a character out. They also severely changed his character in Infinity War and Endgame, he was totally out of character in certain parts and they completely sidelined Steve and Bucky's relationship because at that point Marvel knew about Stucky.

And before you go and say Steve and Peggy were soulmates, remember that they were only crushing on each other for two years and kissed one time before Steve went into the ice. They never got to date. I've had a crush on the same person for 3 years without dating them and no one would say I'm in love with them. I love Peggy's character a lot, I think she was really badass and amazing, but she wasn't Steve's soulmate. For all we knew, Steve could have gone to the past to be with her and it could've not worked out between them. I do believe that they could've been in love with each other, and I think they're really cute together, but they needed more time to fall in love.

In a universe where magic and superpowers exist, why is Captain America having a boyfriend the least believable? Why can Wanda be in love with a robot yet Steve can't be in love with someone who he has built up a relationship of many movies with?

So do you want to know what I think is the most plausible explanation for why they have all of this chemistry and coding? I think someone who worked on Cap's movies was a Stucky shipper but had to be subtle about it. It could've been one person, it could've been multiple. But I know for sure some of those things were NOT accidents. You don't accidentally create the greatest superhero love story of all time.

Why Avengers: Endgame's Sidelining of the Steve & Bucky Relationship Matters | Den of Geek

Afterword

Well, that's all I have for you! I got the inspiration to write this after reading "The Case for R/S" which was explaining how Wolfstar was queer coded. I thought to myself "I don't think anyone has made one for Stucky!" So I wrote this! I've been shipping Stucky since I was 11 when I first joined the MCU fandom. Back then I thought it was cute. When I was 13 I saved some pieces of fanart of them and still thought "they're pretty cute!" Now, at 15, after I found legitimate proof that they were coded, I went from thinking they were cute to obsessing over it!

Wolfstar Article: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/12/10/harry-potter-and-the-secret-gay-love-story/

The Case for R/S: https://web.archive.org/web/20050305162545/http:/www.livejournal.com/users/elwing_alcyone/11152.html

Also, if you ship another ship, I'm not trying to put down your ship. I respect all ships as long as they are legal and appropriate. It's okay if you ship something else. This was made to give more proof to my fellow queers that the iconic Captain America is probably queer like us, and for the people who hate on this ship and try to say it wasn't real and that we're reading too much into it. I'm someone who doesn't read too much into things, and I don't headcanon many fictional characters queer if they aren't confirmed queer. (If you want to know my queer character headcanons, just ask me!) Anyways, like I said, this is made for proof and validation.

If, after reading all of this, you still don't think they were coded, that's okay! While the purpose for this was to convince and inform, it's totally fine if you don't agree with me. Steve is dead now, so we'll never truly know for sure. This is probably all we're going to get. (Unless Bucky admits to being in love with Steve or something, but I doubt that will happen. We can only hope.) I hope you enjoyed the read, anyway!

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agentnico · 2 years ago

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Werewolf by Night (2022) Review

Anyone else agree the Marvel Studios logo is super indulgent? Their title card before each film/tv show is over 30 seconds long as is, and additionally in Werewolf by Night the Marvel Studios logo is shown three times - first comes “Marvel Studios Special Presentation”, then followed by the usual half-a-minute title logo and then straight away ‘Marvel Studios Presents’. Like yes, we get it, you guys are a big deal. So much so that you have managed to get away with making a load of content after Avengers: Endgame and most of it being a pile of sh**, yet still make the dollar. Yep, I said it. Get your act together Feige. When’s that Deadpool/Wolverine crossover scheduled for?

Plot: On a dark and sombre night, a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader; the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic.

So following my little rant at the beginning of this review about how bad Phase 4 of the MCU has been, Werewolf by Night is actually quite good. Yep, talk about smooth transitions. My point is though what makes this Disney+ offering stand out is that it shows that the folks at Marvel are at least trying to attempt something different here. A call-back to the 30s/40s era of Universal monster movies, with the black-and-white grainy filter and over-the-top characters and featuring, well, monsters.

Interestingly enough this also happens to be the directorial debut of Michael Giacchino. For those wondering why that name may sound familiar, this cool geezer *never will I ever use the word ‘geezer’ again, that felt weird and peculiar territory which I will never tread towards ever again, I do apologise*, any way, so this cool Giacchino dude is the man that’s been composing all the cool blockbuster movies that Hans Zimmer hasn’t for the past few years. Like this fella’s done it all - think Star Trek, think Planet of the Apes, think Star Wars, think Pixar, Jurassic World, Batman, fricking Cars 2! What hasn’t this guy composed!? Well, the Lord of the Rings fan within me acknowledges he never did any Middle Earth music, but let’s be honest, who would dare compete with Howard Shore! Ah just remember when Aragorn, Frodo and the fellowship walk through the misty mountains towards Caradhras as Shore plunges his orchestra to the mighty depths of Khazad-Dum and you can feel the instruments literally burning the atmosphere with its mastery!!! Sorry, I’ve recently been thinking of rewatching the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I’m a bit in the zone.

Anyway, that Giacchino guy, what did he do? Well, he directed Werewolf by Night and you can tell a composer directed this project, as the use of sound and music to build up tension and build to the bigger moments in the scenes here could have only been accomplished by a man with a very acute sense of hearing. And overall Giacchino seems to be a fan of those aforementioned monster movies. The use of retro style smoke and mirrors, cigarette burns and the use of practical effects, especially for the main werewolf that is evidently inspired by The Wolf Man, however I couldn’t unsee Nicholas Hoult’s Beast from the X-Men movies. It all does look really cool, and very unique, and though it never hits the cheesy level high’s of those original monster movies such as Dracula and Frankenstein, it’s a very unique direction for a Marvel production. I have also seen many other reviews mention how this is a gorier MCU outing, and I can see where they are coming from, but due to the use of black and white they are able to get away with it, as you don’t see any blood colours. As such its pretty harmless in that regard.

I enjoyed Werewolf by Night. Gael Garcia Bernal brings his usual likeable relatable vulnerability to the lead role, and Michael Giacchino exhibits qualities of a filmmaker who actually cares to bring something different to the table, yet not afraid to take inspiration from previous great works. Heck, where other Marvel projects would try to go bigger, Giacchino opts to go smaller. When the transformation of the werewolf occurs, he does so off-screen, and the camera instead slowly zooms closer and closer on the face of the terrified Elsa (played by Laura Donnelly) as we see only the shadowy silhouette of the man turning into a monster. It’s a neat trick that really heightens the tension and anticipation… and when we finally do see the werewolf, we then can enjoy a very satisfying rampage. But perhaps the biggest treat is Harriet Sansom Harris as Verusa, Ulysses’ widow and the night’s master of ceremonies, delivering an over-the-top performance that gives the whole affair huge theater-kid energy. Then again, there’s also a character named Ted in this thing, and he’s an example of comedy in Marvel done right. But no spoilers, if you’re wondering about who Ted is, you’re just going to have to go and watch Werewolf by Night.

Overall score: 7/10

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mrstransformersfanfiction · 3 years ago

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A little facts about this writer: 🇦🇺 🌹📚✍️

Sit your ass down, have a bloody cuppa to read cause you're gonna need one 😂☕. I ain't going to deal with nothing in 2022 this year and is all going to be positivity and lots of love for 2022.

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I'm new to this piece of shit area. So I am very rarely on it for a very long time and as you know I'm a busy bee. So don't get mad if I'm not a talker. 💜 I just write when I feel a muse on. If I don't have then I don't.

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[20/2/2022] all my writing social websites:

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I am rarely on Wattpad just so you know. My primary ones are Fanfiction and archive of our own. Though I was also introduced to like quotev that a friend on Tumble recommended. B/c I was so damn busy with my studies this year please forgive me for not updating a lot of anything this year. That's why I took a long break from writing. Welcome to follow me on Wattpad but this is my rarest to go to on the site just FYI!

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Fanfiction post account

https://www.fanfiction.net/~torianscriber2012

My first account. I did have two but b/c I wrote a crossover fanfiction for NCIS Los Angeles and Hawaii Five-0 before I was an idiot for forgetting what was my second account.

This is my primary account stored with all my Transformers fanfiction stories that I was really proud of and definitely much better than my primary school age stories I written when I was like in sixth grade 🤣 for reals.

Try Skylia2016 b/c I'm pretty sure it says DeletedConfirm. I lost major motivation and hit a massive writer block when I felt like doing something very different for a side hobby and didn't know what to do or how to complete the plot story. I love those two series and still watch them until now. So if you're a fan of Hawaii Five-0 like me, well, aloha to you b/c Steve McGarrett is my all times hero! 💜

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Archive of Our Own Pinned Post

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Bio author: TorianScriber2012

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I was a former Roleplayer writer, a multimuse writer. I am a firm believer in writing that all writers should enjoy their own creativity, that Fanfiction is only for fun and should be respected. Writing is not a job and no hate should be ever tolerated. This is a dedicated page only for my stories that should have been written and all from hearts desire.

English is not my first language. I'm actually multi linguistics language and speak 3 languages at home. I support foreign language too and don't care if you make fun of people that can't speak well.

I love MARVEL more than I love DC.

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Fandoms the writer know of are:

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• Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV.

I use to love the Final Fantasy fandom but b/c of drama excuse me for beginning to block as I have zero intention to associate with it.

• Thor

• Hawaii Five-0 and NCIS Los Angeles

• Kingdom Hearts series 1 - 3

• Avengers Infinity War, Avengers Endgame, Civil War

• Guardian of the Galaxy

• Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises only Christopher Nolan trilogy movies

A true story:

• I have been on Fanfiction since 2012 and I have been off for a very long time b/c I learned to accept criticism in regards to me being as a second language writer or that my ideas are too complicated, or to be simpler than to be overly long paragraphs.

• I have been criticised for a character that's been loved when writing a NSFW for a fandom, rudely bashed out of own creation and a lot of hate. So, a side note on this I take seriously, if you really hate the way I do it, don't even bother being my friend and literally leave my account and if it disturb you when you become a fandom protector for stupidity reason when I enjoy exploring my creativity ideas, please feel free to use the block button.

You can still flame people like me and there may be people like me who will end up picking my ideas in the end. So go get other writers who won't enjoy either if you go on bashing them! Just saying. If you have serious problem on NSFW dark themes bashing, please feel free to leave my account b/c I can be a very dark writer theme plot.

If you adore a character from a beloved fandom and got put off, no one asked you to read the way I write to ruin your day. You chose it in the end. I'm just stating the obvious facts people have against me back then. Hence, had happened on countless occasion and blowing up my DMs after.

I will literally throw your ass out myself. Don't tell me later that you won't stalk me when I prefer a quiet small group and I certainly won't spend my day chasing people who hates me. I focus on people that is levelled with me and match my energies not people that doesn't help me grow as a person and as a writer. There's a major big ass difference.

• I have been sent with hate in regards on the way I portray certain characters due to a fandom loved and protected when I don't even take Roleplay writing at all seriously. I just see it as a side hobby and my characters writing portray was definitely a lot of hate. I learned that if you been sent a hate, that means you are absolutely doing something right about your writing.

• Know that I don't tolerate any dramas. I will block anyone that have a problem with me on the way I don't follow headcanons. I am the type of writer that believes solely in creation, that all writers should explore their own unique ways of writing and what makes them happy. I am typically the most boring person people will ever meet so don't stalk me, ya!

You are allowed to have your own opinions. If you have a problem with non head-canon of a fandom, the way it is design, the way writers portray a character, let it be let go. Don't send us anon hate if you hate something. It's beyond bloody childish.

If you don't like the writer, block. Don't chase the writers, use the button. Don't anonymously go through accounts. I think is overkill. Respect their privacy please and leave them be. It's weird and obsessive. Very creepy as hell I might add.

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TorianScriber2012: what she loves about Transformers Prime and Bayverse points: 🌹📚✍️

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• Massive fan of: Ironhide, Dreadwing, Jazz. I'm also okay too with Ratchet. Too shocked when the Bayverse decided to write our favourite bots off the movie. I was so gutted. Long live the Transformers! Can we have a Transformers emoji? Like seriously! Please! I will use it!

• Diehard fan of Dreadwing lover here. He needs a sparkmate for crying out loud. Stupid Megatron killing him to save that little backstabber Starscream. I mean how could you! 😩😭💜

• Types of fics I really enjoyed: William Lennox x Ironhide friendship lots of whump moments please I beg someone to write one for me too. I don't see many on Fanfiction. I enjoy a lot of whump, angst and bromance broship big time. Probably too much 😂.

• Enjoys a dirty smut fics NSFW of bots and female humans 🙈 before I end up falling heads over hill of Wheeljack x Female oc human please. I dare someone to write another one. I'm going crazy! -slams fist on table- I may end up asking you to write me a request because I'm a hoe on it

• Massive fan of OCs female humans and we all have different cups of tea.

• Currently in progress with my three fics: Rogue Alliance, Stand By Me and Until Death Do Us Apart fanfiction novella series in Transformers Bayverse and Transformers Prime.

• Mature contents will be separated in relation to my stories for smut purposes 😝😏 this author is very sinful you have been warned!!!! Plays with dark themes a lot. So if you don't like dark themes I suggest turn back around.

• No Roleplay community anymore. I certainly am very against people saying people on statuses because leads to many miscommunication and misunderstanding. This is due to a personal experienced from lesson learned.

• In her early 30s. If you are a minor under age 18+ please keep away from my sinful thoughts because this page won't be for you. You have been warned!!!! 📚✍️

• Don't expect me to always be on Tumblr. It is very much okay to talk with me in messages but I am not always here everyday. I can be very slow during my work days and school lecture especially working days!

So if I reply you on due to timezone reasons that's okay cause you can too. I don't mind. I'm not the type of person that says: oi, why don't you reply to me. No man. I'm very introverted and don't chase anyone.

I'm highly introverted ass. I'm just going to say it out here. 🌏📚

• I do stalk memes/fanfiction and archive of our own for my own amusement and am a very introvert person.

• Does not follow at all marketing people. I only follow Fanfiction, Transformers memes and fans to connect. You can say I'm a novella crossover writer and singular series alone.

• VERY AGAINST ANYONE that STEALS PLOT IDEAS BECAUSE THERE WOULD BE HELL TO PAY! I do not condone this at all and have huge respect to creative writers as already mentioned.

I was asked earlier in the week if I take on requests: so I am going to spill it all out here for you guys:

• At this stage I am not taking any requests due to real life reasons. But vice versa I will asked you to create a gift fic for me if I want to dare someone to write for me.

• Likes and interaction through post is very okay. Keep in mind I'm a very introvert writer and sometimes I also don't know if I should interact with people or over doing things. So if I'm a little weird to you, I apologised just in advance.

[22/10/2021: edited bio pin]

• If you are a Roleplayer I am sorry to say I will not follow you at all. I made a big promise to myself I will never go back to that bullshit community for mental health reasons. This goes to all fandoms! I would unfollow you instantly if you are a Roleplayer. I'm adding this on because I feel very dishearted at the thought of Roleplay with very good reasons.

• I don't tolerate people that steals stories or oc characters. Please respect creative writers because they put time and effort very much. I applaud all creative writers that writes from their hearts and all work should be protected is something I highly support. Technically should have a rule on people plagiarism on own plot stories. 🔒📚

• If you throw a drama at my way, a block will be on instantly and I won't tolerate nonesense. Respect admin choices. I don't care if you do it but I don't use block for no good reasons. That's what's is there for. The reasons I would block also if it is telemarking advertisement and definitely not interested in any other areas but writing only.

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Keep in mind as in experience of mine:

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• Always consult with me and I also don't tolerate gossip. I don't tolerate cyber bullying either. To me it is highly not professional. Do not ever get me involved or asked me to side with you. There is something called boundaries. I got my own problems to deal with and something called life.

• I make take a long time to reply at my own pace. Please don't feel like you're ignored. It's not my intention. Keep in mind this writer is very introverted person and chat when less stress free, less busy. Writers have real life too please. Mun will check in when can 📚✍️

If you end up reading my fics pay attention to the human holoforms so you can have a clear picture what they look like. 💜📚

I can be an emotional ass at times when I read a fic before people look at me weirdly and say this bitch is a mess 🤣

~ ★ You are welcome to follow me: I do keep up with authors statuses ★~

You can have your own bio version.

#transformers fan continuity #fanfiction #transformers #author #transformers bayverse #transformers fandom #transformers prime #ao3 writer #oc fanfiction writer #fanfiction oc #archive of our own

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daleisgreat · 3 years ago

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Speed

youtube

Today’s entry will mark the first official 4K home video release I am writing about. I already own a few other 4K UHDs, and a couple of months ago, I watched my first 4K video at home with 2001’s The Fast and the Furious. However, I already covered that movie’s BluRay release here several years ago, so I will not be dedicating another entry for it, other than to say that the 4K upgrade pops and makes it look like a new release. Today’s entry is for 1994’s Speed (trailer). Before diving into this movie, I noticed one of the tracks from this film’s score repeatedly used throughout sounds awfully like one of the main themes I primarily associated with the Metal Gear Solid franchise. I have no idea if this was pointed out before, and I just overlooked it all these years, or maybe I am grasping at straws. Click or press here to take a listen and decide for yourself. 1994 was a hell of a year for Hollywood movies primarily transpiring from a highway with The Chase, Speed, and the OJ Simpson Bronco chase….oh wait (although I highly recommend the ESPN 30 for 30 on it, simply titled: June 17th 1994). The majority of Speed has a straightforward premise: serial bomber and local madman Howard Payne (Dennis Hopper) planted a bomb on a bus rigged to explode once the bus drops below 55 miles per hour. Police officer Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) is alerted to this by the bomber himself to exact revenge on Traven after successfully rescuing hostages from an elevator Payne armed at the beginning of the film.

From there, for the middle hour of this nearly two-hour film, the action almost entirely takes place on the bus. Traven makes a grand entrance onto the bus by commandeering a Jaguar and having its owner (Glenn Plummer) take the wheel so Traven could heroically leap onto the bus and save the day. It would not be that easy of a rescue mission as Payne has eyes on the bus, and Traven has to play by his rules and get him his $3 million ransom to disarm the bus. Without question, the middle hour on the bus is the best part of the film. The opening half-hour is an excellent appetizer with the elevator hostage crisis that Traven and his partner, Harry (Jeff Daniels), successfully foil. However, once the action shifts to the bus is when Speed takes off. Shortly after taking control of the bus, one of the passengers freaks and inadvertently shoots the bus driver, and a fellow passenger, Annie (Sandra Bullock), takes over the wheel. Throughout the film, Annie and Traven have wonderful chemistry, and I could not help but root for the duo throughout. Every couple of minutes, there is a new potential conflict to overcome to keep the bus going over 55mph. The film wisely peppers in brief dialog exchanges to let the movie breathe just enough before the next hurdle makes itself present.

The film's standout moment is the major obstacle for the bus to overcome when it encounters a stretch of unavoidable highway under construction and missing a hearty chunk of the road. Traven’s solution is that since that stretch of a road is on an incline, they may clear that gap if they build up enough speed! That epic stunt hits all the right notes, and I got goosebumps all over again re-watching it, and odds are, I bet you did too if you have seen this movie. If you have not, then watch this scene and see for yourself by click or pressing here. A lot of the critical discussion in the aftermath of this movie was if that jump was realistically possible. The best thing I can do is to compare it to another film, Road Trip, which is likely a better indicator of what could happen when attempting such a feat. Once the middle bus portion of the film is over, there are still about 20 minutes left where Traven tracks and chases down Payne in a subway station. The movie felt over once the bus portion had such a satisfying conclusion that it almost feels wrong to keep sticking with the film by this point, but I recommend you do since there is a satisfying payoff in the form of Payne’s demise. I have to share a story now when I first saw this film at around 13 or 14 on VHS. My dad’s VCR had what seemed to me at the time was a revolutionary feature where if I kept pressing the pause button repeatedly, it would slowly, frame-by-frame, play the film in super slow-motion. At that age, I thought this was a fantastic way to get the most out of the biggest stunts in action scenes. My favorite moment exploiting this feature was seeing Traven and Payne wrestle around on the top of a subway train until Payne was not watching his field of vision, and a warning light lead to his sudden beheading. I slow-motion replayed that sequence countless times in my awkward, early teenage years. Suffice it to say, Hopper plays the out-of-his-mind bomber perfectly, going so far as to make sure he receives his appropriate cinematic comeuppance.

The director ensures the many passengers on the bus maximized their minutes to the point I where it feels like you are right there with them!

Two audio commentaries are the only extra features of the 4K disc in this 4K/BluRay combo pack. One is with the director, Jan de Bont, and the other is with producer Mark Gordon and writer Graham Yost. Props are to whoever decided to subtitle the commentary tracks. I very much appreciate it! I first started to bounce back and forth between the two commentary tracks, but Bont was way too relaxed and had too many pauses to hold my attention, and I finished up with his track within five minutes. However, Yost and Gordon are very much engaged from beginning to end and have fun cracking jokes and sharing memories throughout. Some quick takeaways I got from them were how they wanted to film a major scene outside of a sports arena, dealing with critics poking holes at how unrealistic their stunts were, and how watching the movie felt very different at the time of the commentary recording just two months after 9/11. The BluRay disc contains the remainder of the bonus features. Inside Speed is a four-part feature lasting just under an hour breaking down the visual effects, stunts, and location sequences, but half of it also contains an HBO First Look special hosted by Dennis Hopper that hits all the right kinds of cheesy mid-90s EPK nostalgia that it is worth checking out. Aside from 12 minutes of extended scenes and a Billy Idol music video that seems totally off base with the tempo of the film, there are a couple of Action Sequences mini-features breaking down some of the stunts. I highly recommend watching the one dissecting how they did the bus jump, as it shows raw footage of what really happened when they shot it, and showed footage of some of the specific safety measures they instilled to make that stunt as safe as possible and had some eye-opening interviews with the stunt driver before and after.

After watching that old VHS copy nearly a dozen times, Speed wound up being one of my favorite action films I got burnt out early on and never bothered upgrading to a DVD or standalone BluRay. Watching it again in 4K all these years later breathed new life into it for me. I am not an expert at breaking down video quality by any means, but watching the 4K disc on my 4KTV gave the impression of this having far more current production values. The editors somehow managed to remove all the old film grain defects for a smooth 4K upgrade. If you have not seen Speed yet, then it has everything you could want out of a mid-90s action movie with explosions, gripping thrills and stunts, dramatic rescues, plenty of zinger one-liners…..and a Billy Idol theme song. Pardon me while I attempt my best Dennis Hopper impression here, “Pop quiz, hotshot, which 1994 blockbuster that takes place primarily on a bus is a perfect candidate for beer and popcorn movie night at home?” Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Endgame The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve The Clapper Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dirty Work Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Inglourious Basterds Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Justice League (2017 Whedon Cut) Last Action Hero Major League Mallrats Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Nintendo Quest Not for Resale Old Joy Payback (Director’s Cut) Pulp Fiction The Punisher (1989) The Ref The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery Scott Pilgrim vs the World The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT Trauma Center The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

#random movie #speed #keanu reeves #Sandra Bullock #jeff daniels #dennis hopper #glenn plummer #jan de bont

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ao3feed-brucewayne · 3 years ago

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Into the Multiverse

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3CPzcKu

by weird_ass_crossovers

The Snaps made by the Infinity Gauntlets have made a tear in time and space, causing multiple alternate realities to clash and characters from very different worlds to cross paths.

A story told in six parts...

Part One: The Biggest City Part Two: The Last War Part Three: The Beastie Part Four: The Strangest Thing Part Five: The Snaps Part Six: The Chosen Ones

Words: 1211, Chapters: 1/11, Language: English

Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, DC Extended Universe, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Justice League (2017), Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies), Godzilla (2014), Godzilla: King of The Monsters (2019), Stranger Things (TV 2016), Ghostbusters (1984-1989; 2020), Die Hard (Movies), Lost, Daredevil (TV), The Defenders (Marvel TV), The Punisher (TV 2017), X-Men (Movieverse), Wolverine (Movies), Spider-Man (Movies - Raimi), The Amazing Spider-Man (Movies - Webb), Deadpool (Movieverse), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Friends (TV), Alien Series, The Dark Tower (2017), Back to the Future (Movies)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death

Categories: F/M

Characters: Tony Stark, Jack Sparrow, Bruce Wayne, Thor (Marvel), Steve Rogers, Diana (Wonder Woman), Bruce Banner, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Padmé Amidala, Victor Stone, Clint Barton, Barry Allen, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Arthur Curry (DCU), Stephen Strange, Peter Venkman, Peter Parker, Anakin Skywalker, Will Turner, Eleven | Jane Hopper, Sam Wilson (Marvel), Ray Stantz, Elizabeth Swann, Pietro Maximoff, Mike Wheeler, Thanos (Marvel), Sheev Palpatine | Darth Sidious, John McClane, Mace Windu, Joker (DCU), Harley Quinn, Vision (Marvel), Clark Kent, Oliver Queen, Ancient One (Marvel), Wong (Marvel), C-3PO (Star Wars), Yoda (Star Wars), CT-7567 | Rex, CC-2224 | Cody, CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives, CT-5597 | Jesse, Darth Maul, Joshamee Gibbs, Pintel (Pirates of the Caribbean), Ragetti (Pirates of the Caribbean), Marty (Pirates of the Caribbean), Cotton (Pirates of the Caribbean), Mullroy (Pirates of the Caribbean), Murtogg (Pirates of the Caribbean), Scrum (Pirates of the Caribbean), Henry Turner (Pirates of the Caribbean), Carina Smyth Barbossa, Jacob (Lost), The Man in Black (Lost), Joyce Byers, Jim "Chief" Hopper, Will Byers, Dustin Henderson, Lucas Sinclair, Maxine "Max" Mayfield, Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers, Karen Wheeler, Ted Wheeler, Erica Sinclair, Robin Buckley, Billy Hargrove, Lois Lane, Curt Connors, Sam Owens (Stranger Things), Matt Murdock, Foggy Nelson, Karen Page, Egon Spengler, Winston Zeddemore, Dana Barrett, Emmett "Doc" Brown, T'Challa (Marvel), Peter Quill, Gamora (Marvel), Drax the Destroyer, Rocket Raccoon, Groot (Marvel), Nebula (Marvel), Scott Lang, Hope Van Dyne, James "Bucky" Barnes, Frank Castle, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Danny Rand, Kraglin Obfonteri, Okoye (Marvel), Shuri (Marvel), M'Baku (Marvel), Brunnhilde | Valkyrie (Marvel), Korg, Pepper Potts, Ebony Maw, Wullf Yularen, Carol Danvers, Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Satine Kryze, Wade Wilson, Howard the Duck (Marvel), Godzilla (Legendary | MonsterVerse)

Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker, Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson, Eleven | Jane Hopper/Mike Wheeler, Elizabeth Swann/Will Turner, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, Avengers Team & Stephen Strange, Avengers Team & Justice League (DCU), Jack Sparrow & Henry Turner, Steve Harrington & The Party

Additional Tags: Multiverse, Crossover, Fan Service, character interactions, Avengers versus Justice League, Alternate Realities, Alternate Universe, Endgame but for everybody, This will give you franchise fatigue, To tag this would be to spoil everything that's good about it, The real multiverse of madness begins here, Some pairings are credited but this won't have a lot to do with those, How many franchises can you spot, Dialogue exchanges that have been begging to be written since these characters were created, A final battle like you've always wanted, random Choose Your Own Ending inbound

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3CPzcKu

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the cape crusader #gotham #dc universe #ao3 #ao3feed

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article contains Loki spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

The ending of the Loki season finale made one pretty substantial change to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The introduction of a full multiverse, caused by Sylvie killing He Who Remains, is an enormous shift in the cosmogony of the MCU. And it opens up some fascinating story possibilities for Marvel’s film heroes. So what does the introduction of a full, unlimited multiverse mean for the future of the MCU?

Hopefully, everything. Literally.

There are obvious near-term implications to Loki’s finale. It answered questions that Spider-Man: No Way Home (with its purported multiversal Sinister Six) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness asked back when Loki first premiered. Specifically: “What do you mean there’s only one universe?”

The beauty of time travel is that now, there is and has always been a full multiverse in the context of the MCU. Because whatever Kang War happened far in Loki’s subjective past (because the timelines were left to run wild when Sophie killed He Who Remains), the entire history of the MCU is now potentially subject to retcons as necessary. So the strong implication from Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse that that movie and all its various spider-people existed on Earths parallel to Tom Holland’s MCU can now be considered accurate, even though the movie came out years before Loki was even a twinkle in Kevin Feige’s master MCU spreadsheet.

Time travel is a trip, man. It’s also beautiful. Literally anything is possible now.

What Does the MCU Multiverse Mean for Marvel TV?

This sort of thing happens all the time in comics. The slang is “retcon,” comics-speak for retroactive continuity, where creators reach into their characters’ pasts to change something that impacts their present.

Loki’s infinite multiverse sets up the entirety of Marvel history for any number of retcons that the folks in charge might deem necessary. It allows current MCU casts and crews to cherry pick what they liked from old MCU projects and fold them into this new normal. All those times Agents of SHIELD didn’t quite line up with what the movies were doing? The show was on an alternate Earth! Want Ghost Rider back without the TV baggage? Blame it on a Kang!

And grabbing the stuff that worked from old projects means porting in the good actors, too. That means people like J.K. Simmons, the Platonic ideal of J. Jonah Jameson, can continue playing the role across from three different Spider-Men, or Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio can show up as Daredevil and Kingpin in Spider-Man: No Way Home while Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings nukes Netflix’s Iron Fist continuity from orbit. Wondering how Ms. Marvel could potentially deal with concepts from the Inhumans without ever mentioning that disastrous TV show? Now we know.

Could the MCU Multiverse Retcon Marvel Movies?

This same ability to pick and choose the continuity most appropriate for the story applies to decisions the movies made, too. A full multiverse lets future filmmakers bring back Chris Evans as Captain America or Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow (OK…maybe not ScarJo) without burdening the MCU with yet another time paradox. As far as we’re concerned, pre-Marvel Studios curiosities like all those crazy old live action Marvel TV shows or Howard the Duck or Dolph Lundgren’s take on The Punisher are now officially canon somewhere within the multiverse.

Phil Coulson could show up in Phase 6 leading a Squadron Supreme (just like in the comics), out for vengeance against the Avengers because they let his Earth 20085 brother die. Hell, if they really wanted to get dirty, Nick Fury could hire Deadpool to kill Coulson in retaliation, like in the comics. Wait, that was Secret Empire,wasn’t it? Never mind, don’t do that.

Anyway, you get the idea.

The possibilities are as infinite as the imaginations of the writers, limited only by Kevin Feige’s patience/sense of humor. Don’t expect anything too crazy: the time travel solution in Avengers: Endgame was wild, but before Loki, that was far and away the most ridiculous comic book science the MCU had trafficked in. Typical MCU adaptations include much more modest nods to comics’ wackier elements – Eternals pending – like secret societies that had taken over SHIELD or Kurt Russell being Chris Pratt’s dad. So that ultra-maxi series that starts out a movie, moves into a TV show, has a comic tie in that directly crosses over with the show, and wraps up in Avengers 6 that we’re all hoping will come to pass is probably not on the horizon.

The Crisis on Infinite Earths Problem

An infinite multiverse doesn’t just mean possibility. It has a trap built in, too. The biggest multiverse story of all time, probably the one that set the template for future interactions with the concept, was DC Comics’ Crisis on Infinite Earths. That book set the standard for multiversal destruction, collapsing DC’s infinite comics timelines down to one single Earth and one single timeline. Gone were the separate Earths for the modern Justice League and the World War II Justice Society, replaced by one, unified timeline. And while the comic itself was a masterpiece, miraculously balanced by Marv Wolfman and beautifully drawn by George Perez; what it wrought on the DCU was 30 years of explainers why the Green Lantern of World War II still looked 35, or why Batman has only been operating for five years but went through six Robins in that time.

The cautionary tale here is one of inward looking stories versus expansionary choices. Post-Crisis DC retcons were about fixing problems the writers and editors perceived with the new timeline, and not about telling the best story they could with the characters and continuity they had. This is an easy trap for a new, expanded (but not all the way expanded) MCU to fall into. There are key pieces of the comics that haven’t been ported to the films yet.

The Fantastic Four

The temptation is likely huge to use this new, beautiful, infinite multiverse to introduce the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to the MCU. That’s probably half of a good idea.

The cosmogony of the multiverse is ingrained in who the Fantastic Four are. Their story begins as explorers of the unknown – Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm are bombarded with cosmic radiation after an unauthorized space launch. That origin is very of the time when they were created, and would probably hit different now when the only unauthorized space launches are led by giant assholes. So why not take a page from the end of Secret Wars and have them get their powers exploring the new multiverse? It makes so much sense to do it that way that one is almost suspicious of this entire retcon. But that doesn’t make it any less cool.

The X-Men in the MCU

While introducing the Fantastic Four to the MCU by saying they’ve been off exploring the multiverse would make a certain elegant sense, if Marvel tried to introduce the X-Men that way, it would be hugely problematic.

The core concept of the X-Men is the mutant metaphor, the idea that mutants are hated and feared because of who they are. On a completely superficial level, this is nonsense: what’s the difference between Cyclops’ eye blasts and Captain Marvel zapping Kree ships with fist beams? Why are mutants singled out for scorn and bigotry when someone like Doctor Strange has MUCH more terrifying abilities?

The difference is the idea that mutants are humanity’s destiny. There’s no concern that the majority baseline human population is going to someday be replaced by handsome super-soldiers or radioactive Catholic lawyers. But that genetic distinction – the idea that Magneto and Apocalypse and Pixie and Skids all share a distinct identity, while Captain America and Daredevil and Dr. Druid and Tigra do not – creates tension that allows real world out groups to superimpose their struggles onto X-Men comics and makes them infinitely relatable.

As superficially attractive as the idea of plopping the mutants on their own parallel Earth might be (and trust me, this definitely seems like the simplest justification for keeping Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine and Ryan Reynolds’s Deadpool in the MCU while jettisoning anything else that is less appealing for audiences or studio execs), putting the mutants on their own separate Earth strips that struggle from the story and makes them just another cape crew.

Worse, using the multiverse as justification that suddenly mutants are here because they came from a parallel timeline disrespects the marginalized people who identify with the X-Men who, like left-handed people, have been here the whole time. Whether society noticed or not.

The Sony Spider-Man Problem

What keeps me up at night about the new Marvel multiverse is the Spider-Man family. The Marvel/Sony relationship has always been…complicated.

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While the new multiverse provides creators with endless storytelling opportunities that could expand the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it also sets up an easy out for the studios to separate the Spider-Man movies from the rest of the MCU. Cleaving off the Spider-family movies wouldn’t be great – I don’t need to be reminded of complicated business deals while I’m at the movies. Dedicating all of a future Spidey movie to explaining why Pete isn’t in the master MCU and can’t talk about Iron Man anymore would almost certainly be a nightmare.

But these inward-looking continuity fixes are the types of stories that Marvel, on page and on screen, has generally avoided (before you jump in the comments to shout “CLONE SAGA” please take into account how much work “generally” is doing in this sentence) with its big multiverse stories. Hopefully they’ll keep making those wise decisions going forward.

The post MCU Phase 4 and 5: What the Multiverse Means for the Future of Marvel Movies and TV appeared first on Den of Geek.

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britesparc · 3 years ago

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Weekend Top Ten #490

Top Ten Female Superheroes in the Movies

I feel like female superheroes – and I'm stretching the definition to include those who aren't consistently out-and-out heroic – are finally, belatedly, starting to get something approaching their due. Already this year we've had two Disney+ shows that had very prominent leading roles for female supers (I'd argue very strongly that Sylvie becomes a co-lead), and on the DC side there's still Supergirl and Batwoman. At the pictures, however, women in capes have historically suffered; if a film had a female lead, any poor performance at the box office was seemingly blamed on gender rather than, y’know, the film being crap. Fortunately the last few years have seen this trend starting to be reversed; Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Birds of Prey, and the recently-released Black Widow have all showcased super-powered female leads and been (for the most part) big successes too.

So, anyway, inspired in large part by the fact I’ve watched both Wonder Woman and Black Widow this week – and with an eye on future female-focused flicks too – this week is dedicated to my favourite filmic femmes (hmmm, there might be such a thing as too much alliteration. I need an avalanche of Advil…). I’ve tried to be pretty strict here and only use movie superheroes – although I’ve stretched that to its limit, as you’ll see. And, like I said before, I’m allowing “anti-heroes” – hey, I had a whole list about them last week, might as well double down! And I know what you’re thinking – surely, in over nine years of making stupid lists on a weekend, I’d have done this before. But no, I checked, and apparently I haven’t. Really I should have scraped the bottom of this particular barrel by now, but fortunately not!

There’s not much more to say at the moment really. Here are my ten favourite female superhero-type characters from the movies. I’m tempted to make some kind of terrible, cheesy reference to “girl power”, or end with a “you go, girl”, or something like that – but let’s face it, that’s a really, really bad, hackneyed idea. Let’s just get on with the list instead.

Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot, DCEU, from 2016): there can be only one! Yeah, still the best female superhero on the silver screen in my book. Gadot gives her the perfect blend of steely determinism and wide-eyed naivete; full of faith and righteousness, but also a fierce fighter. It’s clear from the moment she blasts, fully-formed, into Batman Versus Superman Colon Dawn of Justice that Gadot was born for this role, encompassing every aspect of Diana – the princess, the warrior, the ambassador, the goddess. Like Superman all those years ago, her solo film is equal parts optimism and pragmatism, and (despite the dodgy finale) it remains a wonder. Sorry.

Raven (Tara Strong, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, 2018): here I go, cheating already. Yes, Raven is mostly from a TV show and I’ve decided this is a list of movie characters. But she is in a movie! And she’s the main character and focus of the straight-to-DVD sequel, Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans. So yes, whilst her sole cinematic outing doesn’t really show her off to the greatest degree, she’s still amazing. A deadpan, dark-tinged comedic tour-de-force from voice veteran Strong, Raven is profoundly hilarious, one of the all-time great sarcastic pieces of comic relief. And, whilst we’re talking about the DVD sequel, Strong does a terrific job differentiating between the sillier, looser Go! version of the character, and the more sombre and serious OTT animated Titan.

Laura (Dafne Keen, Logan, 2017): otherwise known, in the comics at least, as both X-23 and, latterly, Wolverine. Laura is a frankly outstanding performance by a child actor. Steely, determined, pissed-off, wounded, proud, but still coming across as a child and not at all precocious or precious. And then there’s her physicality; she storms through the screen, a whirling dervish, leaping around and, frankly, slashing the shit out of everybody. She holds her own against the nuclear charisma explosion that is Hugh Jackman, and against the titanic chops of Sir Patrick of Stewart, and brings a huge amount of heart and pathos to one of the best superhero films of all time.

Catwoman (Michelle Pfeiffer, Batman Returns, 1992): yeah, okay, she’s not really a superhero. But Pfeiffer’s performance is phenomenal; one part sheer unadulterated sex appeal, one part wronged woman seeking revenge, one part utter batshit craziness (no pun intended). She created interesting layers of manic craziness to a character already a good fifty years old at that point, informing the portrayal of the character in comics and cartoons, and her chemistry with Keaton’s Batman lights up the screen. And, frankly, she was so damn sexy that she gave puberty to an entire generation.

Rogue (Anna Paquin, X-Men movies, 2000-2014): presenting Rogue in the first X-Men as a younger character, without her stolen Captain Marvel powers, was a masterstroke; making her the audience surrogate as a way to introduce the X-Men themselves and Logan in particular, giving the latter character one of his comic-book trademark young female proteges. Paquin does a tremendous job giving her an inner strength despite her heartbreaking power, and although she fades from prominence as the (increasingly bonkers) series progresses, she continues to give it everything she’s got, even if the films don’t do her sufficient justice. An excellent portrayal, sadly cut short.

Elastigirl (Holly Hunter, Incredibles movies, 2004-2018): ah, our first non-comic book character! Hunter is brilliant in this role, presenting Elastigirl as a feminist icon even as she’s forced into an increasingly domestic role. Despite the risk of her being portrayed as a shrill nagging housewife, stomping on Mr. Incredible’s fun, Hunter (and the script, to be fair) walks a fine line, and we as viewers are actually on her side as her husband takes foolish risks. And then, when the action kicks in, she’s amazing – full credit to director Brad Bird and the animators and Pixar. The sequel, which is mostly more of the same but still pretty great, gives her even more lovely character beats.

Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson, MCU, 2010-2021): I’ve given it an end date but let’s face it, none of us will be surprised if she turns out not be dead. The first real female superhero we see in the MCU is still the most important and effective. Johansson does a great job fleshing out Natasha, overcoming the cheesy nature of her debut in Iron Man 2 and some of the problematic wrinkles given to her in Age of Ultron. Over the series of films, she is a consistent action superstar, but also gives us interesting layers and wrinkles and depth, evolving from the badass assassin we first see to the hard-bitten leader in Endgame. Her belated solo film gives her some great opportunities to correct those early missteps, as well as deepening the character even further, and showcasing her action chops. A great character, but it would be nice if we knew there was even more to come.

Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie, DCEU, from 2016): another DC not-quite-hero, Robbie does a phenomenal job as Harley Quinn, one of those lightning-in-a-bottle perfect pieces of casting (and, I’ll be honest, the only other actor/character match-up that’s quite as perfect on this list is Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman). Harley is a character who can be so easily misused: the abused moll, the bit of eye candy, an objectivised woman denied agency who’s only seen through the lenses of the men. And, true enough, there’s a bit of that in her debut in Suicide Squad, but Robbie is smart enough and her performance strong enough that she transcends the muck that surrounds her. She nails the accent and the demeanour, and in what we shall choose to call her solo film, she gives us a raucous, hilarious performance as an emancipated Quinn, blasting through police stations with glitterball shotguns and snapping limbs left right and centre. It’s the anarchic anti-hero of modern comics turned up to 11 and with the pottiest of mouths, but she’s also smart enough and skilled enough to give us embers of a conscience beneath the crazy, and offers up some great character beats and a believable relationship with Cassandra Cain. I can’t wait to see what she does next.

Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen, MCU, from 2015): Here we have another performance that matures and develops over the course of a franchise – surely one of the greatest aspects of Marvel’s multi-film narrative arc. Coming in as a minor villain in Age of Ultron, Wanda is powerful enough to temporarily get the better of the Avengers just by being “weird”; subsequent films see her attempting to be a hero, suffering a series of tragedies, falling in love, and coming together to save the world in Endgame. In what amounts to a series of snapshots – a photo montage of ongoing character development – Olsen is able to flesh out Wanda, giving her depth, showcasing different facets of her character, and making her consistently believable. Yes, I know I said this was a list of movie characters, but it’s stupid not to own up to the fact that this all comes to a head in the frankly phenomenal WandaVision, which – despite having two Avengers’ names in the title – is really all about her. The series leaves Wanda in a totally different place, and as we see her next in The Multiverse of Madness, I feel like her story is only just beginning.

Jean Grey (Famke Janssen, X-Men films, 2000-2017): I mulled over whether to include Jean Grey here or Valkyrie from Thor, but despite Tessa Thompson’s terrific performance, I’ve gotta go with the Phoenix. Back when superhero films weren’t a cinematic religion, Janssen gave a terrific performance as a resolute, thoroughly sensible Jean Grey; a telepathic Girl Friday to the officious know-it-all that was Professor X, she shows intriguing cracks in her façade when confronted with the gruff and unutterably sexy Logan. Clearly a powerhouse without needing to show off, she gets more development and some great hero moments in the phenomenal sequel, before being giving an epic sacrificial send-off that sets up a rise from the flames that never really comes. Yes, despite being brought back in The Last Stand, it’s a storyline that’s fudged from the start, and the Phoenix as a mopey emo version of Jean just doesn’t cut it. It’s a storyline that’s handled better, but only just, in Dark Phoenix, but that film sadly doesn’t have the weight of character behind it; despite the excellent work of Sophie Turner, we’re barely introduced to the character in Apocalypse before hints of the Phoenix are coming forth, and next thing we know she’s going all crackly and accidentally killing dudes. So yeah: I prefer the OG Jean, and Janssen’s great chemistry not just with James Marsden’s Scott but Jackman’s Logan really does justice to that element of the comic book character too. Still, two timelines, two actors, two versions of the Phoenix Saga, and it still ends in disappointment. Hopefully we’ll get a better version eventually in the MCU.

#top ten #women #superheroes #female superheroes #comics #comic book movies #mcu #x-men #justice league #wonder woman #teen titans

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3pirouette · 3 years ago

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AO3 Tag Game

Thanks for the tag @captainjimothycarter

This was a wild fucking ride, and I invite ANY and all of you to hop in my ask to discuss any and or all of this. because I’ve been writing fic since the 90′s...

1. How many works do you have on ao3? 223

2. What’s your current AO3 wordcount? 1,016,444 (Holy shit I had NO IDEA)

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they? 10 Main fandoms (Captain America/MCU/Agent Carter, Once Upon a Time, CSI, Big Bang Theory, X-Men, Doctor Who, X-Files, House, Nolan-verse Batman, Stargate Sg1/Universe) with crossovers that included 9 other fandoms (Operation Endgame, Ravenous, Indiana Jones, Monster’s Inc, 10th Kingdom, The Santa Clause, Outlander, Rocky Horror Picture Show, and Return to Oz)

I also have some questionable Lois and Clark the new adventures of Superman and MacGyver fic I’ve never published.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Silly Stocking Supposition (995)

The Attractive Enchantress Extension (656)

The Unexpected Evening Encounter (518)

The Descending Spiral Derivation (430)

Nobody’s Baby (406)

I don’t know why it surprises me that the top four are BBT Sheldon/Penny. The Shenny community I was a part of was AMAZING and to this day I don’t think a SINGLE day goes by where I don’t get notifications about kudos on my S/P fics.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not. I didn’t in the beginning- I came from ff.net where that wasn’t something you really did unless you DM’d the person, and I felt like it was “inflating” the number of comments. BUT i have since learned how important it is to thank people for their comments, and how much fun it can be to talk to people there, so now I reply to EVERY comment, even if it takes me a while to get there. Because I appreciate you. I really, really do.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? I mean... In most of my other fandoms I was the QUEEN of angst. Especially X-Men. Like- there’s a story where Rogue commits suicide. And the one where Logan watches his children grow old and die because he can’t die. I’ve done a few for Steggy- Steve talking to Peggy’s AI, Steve replacing Peggy’s picture in his compass, Old Steve living through the snap again... My House fics are are pretty angsty... and some of my S/P ones, too. Like- there’s a lot of angst. Probably more than happy endings.

7. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve ever written? Ha. ha ha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

I mean, let’s start with the ones that make sense, shall we? Cap/Indiana jones. Totally makes sense. As does Doctor Who/Avengers, because Doctor Who can be anywhere, right?? And Outlander/Captain America sort of makes sense because of the time period and them both being in the same war.

There’s my still unpublished (shh, i know, I know) Stargate SG-1/MCU crossover... As soon as I manage a plot that’s getting posted because I LOVE IT.

Once you get to the Rocky Horror/Captain America TFA, that’s when things start to take a turn.

And then there’s the “Anyelle” from the OUAT fandom.... where we shipped all of Bobby’s character’s with all of Emilie’s characters and THAT IS HOW YOU GET CANNIBAL PORN CHILDREN.

But... but Once Upon a Time really did me in. I crossed that shit over with The Santa Clause, Monster’s Inc, The 10th Kingdom, Stargate Universe, and Return to Oz.

Seriously? If it makes even the TINIEST bit of sense, I will fucking write it.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? Yeah, but nothing horrific. Just your run of the mill stupidity.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? YES. Most of the time it’s pretty straightforward M/F. Sometimes it’s Cannibal. Sometimes it gets a little kinky.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? YES. And it sucks. don’t do this.

11. Have you ever co-written a fic before? YES. Twice. I did an X-Files series with a friend who I’ve lost track of about Mulder and Scully getting drunk off their asses and hooking up, and then I did a forever-unfinished self-insert fic in the CSI universe. Neither of these are on my AO3 because I don’t have/never got permission to post.

12. What’s your all time favorite ship? ALL OF THEM. God... I don’t pick ships because they’re cute- I pick them because the CALL to me on a basic level. Mulder and Scully were my first love, Steggy is my latest, but these pairs- UGH. They all kill me and I will happily die with them over and over again.

13. What was the first fandom you wrote for? The first fandom I wrote anything on paper for was actually X-Files. I started writing stories before I knew fic was a thing on the internet. But I’d been writing episodes of Quantum Leap in my head long before I ever wrote that first (awful and will never see the light of day) X-Files fic.

14. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? How can I answer that? Like, LITERALLY HOW CAN I ANSWER THAT? I love them all, and I am so proud of so many of them for so many different reasons!! Don’t ask me to choose amongst my babies. I can’t.

Ugh, this was crazy and so much fun.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT MY FIC I WILL TELL YOU ALL THE THINGS!

#3P writes stuff #holy shit I love this #I really had NO IDEA ABOUT MY WORD COUNT

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doomonfilm · 4 years ago

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Ranking : Marvel Cinematic Universe - The Infinity Saga (2008 - 2019)

Outside of the Star Wars or James Bond franchises (or maybe even the longstanding BBC series Dr. Who), I am hard pressed to think of a bigger, more intricately connected set of films than those created by Kevin Feige for his Marvel Cinematic Universe (better known as the MCU to most people). With the help of numerous established and upcoming stars, a vast range of directors, and a rich history of characters and events the studio could play fast and loose with, Marvel Studios spent roughly a decade transforming “comic book” films from gimmicks into legitimized artistic storytelling, forcing many studios to attempt and emulate the success of a connected “cinematic universe” without laying the groundwork needed to do so.

With WandaVision in motion on Disney+, and the release future of Black Widow still up in the air, the trajectory in which the MCU will move forward is still a mystery, but these properties firmly close the door on the initial three phases of Marvel Studios releases, collectively known as The Infinity Saga due to their connection to Thanos and the six Infinity Stones. Individually, many of these pieces had impact, but as a whole, the overarching story that they tell is an epic feat yet to be matched.

But enough preamble, I know what everybody came here for. So, based solely on my opinion and nothing else, here is The Infinity Saga, as presented by Marvel Studios, ranked from least to most favorite...

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008) It’s a shame that my favorite Marvel character seems to be a conundrum when it comes to giving him a solo movie. With a decent slice of these characters, it’s about casting the “normal” version of the character, and in the case of this film, as great of an actor as Edward Norton is, I am not sure if he can play enough self-sabotaging behaviors to believably provide us with a Bruce Banner that audiences can connect with. As a result, The Incredible Hulk left us with an isolated protagonist (literally and figuratively) forced to carry audiences between long stretches absent of Hulk in his green glory.

22. Thor (2011) For a time, it seemed as if Thor was going to be the realm of the MCU where gravitas resided. The Shakespearean approach to mythic heroes adapted by Marvel was fresh at the time, as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were around, but certainly more relatable. Bringing Thor, Odin, Loki and a host of other legendary Asgardians into the fold broadened the world, but with the entire picture of this stretch now laid out in front of us, it is clear that Chris Hemsworth had not yet found his voice as Thor. We knew he would have to earn his worthiness and his title as King of Asgard, but I doubt anyone anticipated Thor would become one of the consistently funniest aspects of the MCU... sadly, that was not yet developed in his first film, and as a result, his introduction falls to the lower realms of the list.

21. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

20. Ant-Man (2015) It was not my intention to lump the Ant-Man movies together, but in all honestly, they do work best in that capacity. The events of both movies, for the most part, seem to satellite around the bigger nucleus narrative, and up until Avengers : Endgame, and appearance made by Ant-Man in the other films was cursory or meant to “balance the scales” (as in the case of Captain America : Civil War). Don’t get me wrong... Paul Rudd is a fabulous addition to the MCU family, and listening to Michael Peña tell stories never gets old, but when it comes down to the big picture, Ant-Man and his two films are not the largest puzzle pieces on the table.

19. Captain Marvel (2019) The possibilities for an epic film were all there... Krees and Skrulls would finally get a chance at the spotlight, we were being teased going back in time without realizing how it would play into the resolution of our Infinity Saga storyline, and the final moments of the film made us question everything we’d been presented with up until that point. Sadly, however, Carol Danvers turned out to be an extremely overpowered and dangerously self-unaware character, resulting in a lack of stakes or emotional connection ever really being established. While Captain Marvel does have fun elements to it, much of the work that managed to stick was undone by her forced and underwhelming appearance in Avengers : Endgame. Of all the properties in the MCU, this one seems to have the most whispers and rumors surrounding it in regards to its production and future within the MCU moving forward, but I will be curious to see how time treats this film.

18. Iron Man 3 (2013) Up through Phase Two of The Infinity Saga, Tony Stark was always positioned as the loner of the group. With that in mind, it does seem a bit strange to me that his final solo film, and the first solo film after Marvel’s The Avengers, would find Tony back in isolation mode so vigorously. In all fairness, War Machine is there (during his brief stint as The Patriot), and Pepper Potts is given the most room to play out of all three films, but as interesting as the antagonist structure for the film is, the convoluted nature of having at least three tiers of villainy almost begs the inclusion of at least one more Avenger. Ultimately, the film does move Tony closer to the rest of the camp, but it’s odd that more Avengers weren’t involved in the actual film.

17. Captain America : The First Avenger (2011) Of all the characters fans were presented with in the MCU, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Captain America received the most rewarding arc of any character in The Infinity Saga. Every journey needs a starting point, and simply because it was the origin story, Captain America : The First Avenger was never destined to be the best of the MCU. Visually, the MCU was still figuring a few things out, so some of the scrawny Cap scenes look awkward, but by the time this film is all said and done, all of the honor, character and heart needed to propel Cap forward was present and accounted for.

16. Thor : The Dark World (2013)

15. Iron Man 2 (2010) Maybe it’s a recencey bias thing, but I really enjoyed Thor : The Dark World and Iron Man 2. Up until deciding to make this list, I’d not seen either of these films, and it was largely due to the negative reactions I’d heard from most fans and critics. Thor : The Dark World gave us brief glimpses of where the Thor character was headed, it was a great look for Jane Foster (who is seemingly on her way back into the mix), it opened up some mystic doors that we will likely be exploring moving forward in the MCU, and due to these mystic elements, we may have seen the beginnings of S.W.O.R.D., who is already making its presence felt in Phase Four. As for Iron Man 2, we are given the polar opposite Tony Stark from his introductory movie, and due to his seemingly unstoppable mission to erase himself, War Machine is given autonomy, and the beginnings of the Iron Legion are built. Perhaps its a bit of a revisionist lens as well, hence these two being grouped together, but time seems to have been very kind to these two films, despite their flaws.

14. Spider-Man : Far From Home (2019) Avengers : Endgame would have been a perfect place to close the door on The Infinity Saga, but that monumental task was appointed to Spider-Man : Far From Home. Perhaps it was that implied burden that made the film feel a bit buried under the weight of expectations. There are certainly calls to a post-Tony Stark snap present throughout the film, but Mysterio’s plan runs seemingly independent of any previous events shown. The mid and post-credit scenes certainly tease big things for the future, but even before COVID-19 flipped the script on the industry, it was uncertain where things where headed as the new phase unrolled. This film was enjoyable, but almost feels like a stand-alone trapped on a bridge between two worlds of narrative.

13. Iron Man (2008) The one that started it all. I’ve never been the biggest Iron Man fan, but I can certainly respect the large risk that Kevin Feige took by kickstarting his empire with a character seemingly caught between fame and obscurity. Tony Stark has enough Bruce Wayne in him to make him an intriguing character, but Iron Man and Batman could not be more different from one another, which immediately gave the MCU a fresh feel in light of them using a Silver Age character. The pool of household name talent was limited, as Sony was sitting on Spider-Man, the X-men and the Fantastic Four in 2008, but ultimately, Iron Man was a roll of the dice that paid off in a major way.

12. Spider-Man : Homecoming (2017) Spider-Man is such an iconic character that it is sometimes hard to believe that he was not always involved in The Infinity Saga. Tobey Maguire was the definitive Spider-Man to many fans, and Andrew Garfield was starting to build a cult following, but after a bit of legal ping-pong, Captain America : Civil War went from being an anticipated mess to possibly a shadow of its comic book counterpart when Spider-Man appeared in the trailer. Tom Holland brought a pitch-perfect voice and sensibility to the character, and Spider-Man : Homecoming drove those feelings home (no pun intended). It wasn’t like Spider-Man needed a boost in tandem with his entry into the MCU, but his introductory movie did most everything right (including assuming we were WELL AWARE of his often repeated origin story).

11. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Out of everyone that the MCU has introduced to the masses, it is safe to say that I knew the least about the Guardians of the Galaxy... in fact, my closest tie to knowledge of their existence came in the form of Howard the Duck, who shares that section of the Marvel comic universe with them. Marvel Studios had already made me enjoy films about Thor and Iron Man, two characters I did not consider myself a fan of prior to their films, so I went out on a limb in hopes that Marvel could sell me on characters I had zero connection to. Guardians of the Galaxy did provide another set of colors in the Marvel spectrum, and it helped open the door to Marvel’s space-centered stories, but it wasn’t until the sequel that I went back and really found an appreciation for Guardians of the Galaxy, which I will expound later. That being said, Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel film that has been benefited by time and revisitation.

10. Marvel's The Avengers (2012) The main pieces had found their way to the board by the time Captain America : The First Avenger was released, and it only seemed like a matter of time before the big players would cross paths. Rather than build to a mass collaboration via smaller duos and groupings, Marvel went all in to close Phase One by locking in The Avengers as the collective stars of The Infinity Saga. Loki found new agency as their protagonist, but he was really just a smokescreen for the big bad of the entire saga, Thanos. The entire run of 23 movies can be summed up or represented by the iconic shot that rotates around our heroes when they stand shoulder to shoulder for the first time, staring up at their enemy emerging from the sky. There was no turning back at this point, and this is largely due to the wonderful execution of one of the MCU’s key films.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) I’m really not sure why Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t connect for me initially, but after watching Vol. 2, I felt a deeper understanding of Peter Quill, the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, and I came to love Groot and Drax even more (who didn’t immediately love Rocket Racoon?). Kurt Russell was the evolved mirror to Chris Pratt that I didn’t know I needed, and the soundtrack contained more songs that spoke directly to me than the first film. Some of the set pieces were downright beautiful in this film, I lowkey became a big fan of Mantis, and Yondu’s story culmination may have been the first time the MCU brought a tear to my eye. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may deceptively be the most emotionally powerful of all the MCU films, short of Avengers : Infinity War, and for that, it must be respected, considering it all came from a little known band of upstarts.

8. Captain America : Civil War (2016) While Marvel’s The Avengers may be the first true “event” film in the MCU, the first major “event” attempted in terms of historic Marvel stories was the infamous Civil War run. A weird mix of anticipation and fear existed in the time preceding the film’s release, as a number of key players from the comic book storyline were either not available to the MCU or had not yet been introduced into the MCU. Speculation between who would be emerging, omitted and adjusted flew back and forth, but in the end, we were not only presented with a riveting triangle of emotion between Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Bucky, but Spider-Man and Black Panther stepped into the spotlight (with a little dose of Ant-Man thrown in for good measure). Had the MCU waited for a different phase, there’s no telling how many heroes and villains could have ultimately been involved, but considering what they had at the time, the MCU definitely exceeded expectations and created their own iconic version of a Marvel narrative hallmark.

7. Black Panther (2018) Outside of the final two Avenger’s, there wasn’t a more anticipated or well-received release (to my knowledge) than Black Panther. After bursting onto the scene in Captain America : Civil War, it seemed everyone was ready for more of King T'Challa, Black Panther and Wakanda. Chadwick Boseman became even more of a fan favorite than he already was, and Black Panther became the first MCU film to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards. Marvel presented Wakanda, and Africa in turn, with the utmost cultural, historical and social respect, and short of a slightly underwhelming finale in terms of visual effects, it was hard to hang a complaint on Black Panther. If the MCU had to pick a single film that they were most proud of, I would not be surprised if this was the one that was chosen.

6. Doctor Strange (2016) As a fan of science fiction, mysticism and overall weirdness, I was incredibly hype for the announcement and release of Doctor Strange. Of all the active characters in the MCU at the time, Doctor Strange was the most obscure that I was already familiar with, and his introductory film did not disappoint. The visual representation of the mystic arts was brilliant, casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One was a stroke of genius (despite many that voiced reservation to the choice), and the introduction of different dimensions and realms to the MCU hinted at the future that was to come. With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness coming in sooner than later, it is almost certain that I will be revisiting this film, and I hope that as time goes by, it finds a bigger audience with a deeper appreciation for it.

5. Thor : Ragnarok (2017) If I think about it hard enough, I can probably find a character that will contradict this statement, but I’m hard pressed to think of a character than took a bigger personality jump between individual films than Thor did between The Dark World and Ragnarok. We got shades of a new Thor in The Dark World, and he was really starting to come out of his shell in Avengers : Age of Ultron, but I’m not sure if anyone expected for Taika Waititi to not only turn Thor into possibly the most loveable Avenger, but make his third film a psychedelic masterpiece of fun. Thor and Loki have never had better chemistry, Cate Blanchett was surprisingly well cast as Hela, and most everyone’s favorite MCU iteration of the Hulk came to life (not to mention a brief nod to Beta Ray Bill being present for keen viewers). It may not be the best film in the MCU, but Thor : Ragnarok is almost certainly the one viewers gravitate towards if they make a quick selection.

4. Avengers : Endgame (2019) How do you end a story arc that spans more than 20 films? Well, for starters, you bring every character to the table, collect every expectation that fans have for them, and then kick all of those expectations to the side and forge a completely wild, new and unexpected path. For a large portion of Endgame’s runtime, it is tonally and stylistically different than any other Avengers film, but near the end, when the rubber hits the road, Thanos and his legions of followers take part in one of the most epically satisfying stands against our heroes already present, only for the world of the MCU to open up and rain the most enjoyable and acceptable fan service ever to be captured to film, including the most iconic Captain America moment of all time.

3. Avengers : Age of Ultron (2015) For a long while, this film stood as my clear-cut favorite in the MCU. I didn’t even know I was a Vision fan until he emerged from his chamber, and the introduction of Scarlet Witch has brought me nothing but joy. David Spader brought some of the best antagonist personality in his powerful portrayal of Ultron, and the party scene provided one of my favorite non-action sequences in all of the MCU. The interactions between the Avengers had the best balance of all their collaborative films during Age of Ultron, and Scarlet Witch took each of our heroes to the darkest corners of their mind. Perhaps people had other ideas in mind when they learned that Tony and Bruce’s murderbot was due for a screen appearance, but for my money’s worth, Age of Ultron was the first Avengers film that blew my mind, and still stands as my personal favorite of the Avengers movies.

2. Avengers : Infinity War (2018) Easily the most epic of all the MCU films, Infinity War set the stage for a truly iconic struggle between the Earth’s mightiest heroes and the seemingly unstoppable Thanos that had been promised over many, many films, and in the opening rounds, Infinity War delivered. For all of the combinations of characters we’d been provided, we’d yet to see Tony interact with Doctor Strange or Star-Lord, and each of those meetings yielded hilarious results. The stakes had never been higher prior to Infinity War, and the costs had not been greater up to this point. I personally remember people in theaters being nearly moved to tears when their favorite heroes (especially Spider-Man) began turning into dust, like they were watching Schindler’s List. If the MCU collectively raised the bar for comic book movies, then Infinity War raised the bar for the MCU.

1. Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014) The MCU has more than a handful of classic films under their belt, but Captain America : The Winter Soldier is probably the sole film of the MCU that feels like a proper action/adventure suspense-thriller, like it was penned by John Grisham. The connection between Bucky and Cap is kinetic in its swings between impending hope and tragedy, and the level of combat and action in the film is second to none. This was the film where the Cap that the masses know and love stepped into his own as a hero and a leader. Of all the directors that Marvel Studios has tapped, the Russo Brothers seem to have the secrets unlocked to make a great MCU film, and Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the pound for pound best they’ve offered yet.

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