#expending mcu

[darsynia]

Saw the creativepromptsforwriting post...

I would like to place a order :)

Steve Rogers, MCU/reader is an avengers hero, #12 corner mouth kisses/maybe #57 trembling mouth kiss

I can't believe I let myself think I'd do UP TO 500 WORDS! Steve/Reader, fluffy AF coworker love declarations facilitated by one ginger cat named Kirk. 2,200 words <- OOPS.

Excerpt:

You powerwalk over to the door and pull it open right as you hear the repulsors make their ‘ready to fuck shit up’ noise. “Don’t. You. Dare.”

“Oh look, you’re alive!” Tony says, completely unphased by your vehemence. “As your friend and teammate, let me save you both some time here: you--” he points to Steve “--need to tell her you’ve been making secret drawings of this woman’s every possible facial expression and you--” he points to you “--ought to let him know you stay after sparring sessions to hand-sew the rips in his suit. I’m talking before it’s laundered. Now, go kiss or something. Note how I didn’t say ‘go play with the pussy?’ That’s camaraderie. Stark out.”

With his verbal grenades expended, Tony grabs the door handle from your nerveless fingers and pulls it firmly shut.

“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Steve says in a stunned voice.

The Trouble With...

When you woke up this morning, you had a ground floor apartment and a pet cat. When you got back from your day of team training an hour ago, there was no cat to be seen, and your front door was cracked open to the apartment lobby.

A frantic call to your landlord revealed that they’d sent maintenance workers to finally fix the leaking toilet in your unit (with zero notice. Pepper Potts said she’s ‘on it,’ and you suspect your landlord won’t enjoy that experience one bit). 

The following sequence of events was where everything kind of fell apart.

You love your cat, and your first instinct was to call your teammate and training buddy, Steve Rogers. Your voice had been shaky during the call as you wandered the nearby alleys calling for Kirk and shaking his favorite earth-shaped cat toy. Steve asked twice as many questions as you even understood on the phone, until finally he said he would be right there to help out. You’d thanked him, bent over next to a dumpster, and sobbed.

Two minutes later, Tony Stark had flown in to use his HUD to search for small animal-shaped heat signatures. “Wow. That’s a lot of rats.”

Thor had sauntered up not long afterwards, Bifrost smoke still following his footsteps, but his ‘special cat whistle’ appeared to be inaudible to humans and cats. Not rats though, according to Tony.

Clint texted you a search grid diagram that had suspiciously blood-colored smudges on it, but before you could ask him about it, Nat sent the larger frame image of his lunch (BBQ wings) beside the printouts. “Don’t worry about him, I have some leads,” she’d told you.

By the time Steve showed up on his motorcycle in street clothes, you were completely overwhelmed, and you’d spent more time managing the feelings of your fellow Avengers than your own. As soon as you saw him approach on the bike, you let out a long sigh, pasted on a smile, and headed straight for your apartment building. You needed to feel safe and at home for the coming conversation.

As soon as you touched your own doorknob though, you realized something.

Was that maybe how Kirk felt too? Maybe for Kirk, the enemy of the week was the maintenance man who invaded the ‘ship’ of your apartment, and your cat wasn’t equipped with enough Dilithium Crystals, Phasers, or Tribbles to deal with it this time. When you had found the door open, you’d called out his name and rushed all over the place looking for him, but what if the sound of your voice just wasn’t enough for Kirk to trust that things were back to normal?

Steve’s arrival forgotten, you rushed into your apartment and tried to think of where Kirk’s ‘safe space’ would be. There was a damaged vent on the wall under the bed that he sometimes fiddled with--could he have finally broken it enough to go exploring? You were on your hands and knees setting one of his favorite treats on the floor next to the bed when Steve tapped gently on the door. 

“When I heard how upset you were on the phone call, I--”

Without thinking about the exact words, you blurted out, “Rogers, I love you, but you need to get out, right now. I think I found Kirk, but if there’s someone else here--”

You were so worried about your cat that you didn’t hear what he said in response.

*

You wake up on your side a few hours later on the floor, head resting on your pillow, with Kirk sleeping peacefully on the rug beside you. The bag of treats you’d grabbed to lure him from the vent in the wall is lying on the floor nearby, completely empty.

“Are you serious right now? Ginger cats, I swear to God.”

A judicious application of duct tape patches up the vent hole, so you head into the kitchen to make yourself some coffee. As the machine whirs to life, you unlock your phone to find multiple messages from each Avenger, all demanding to know if you are okay, if Kirk is okay, if you and Kirk are okay, if your landlord is around for a ‘casual conversation,’ and so on.

“Nope,” you say aloud, popping the ‘p’ for Kirk’s benefit. Of course, that’s when there’s a knock at your door.

It’s Steve, and he’s hovering like something happened during the disproportionate Assemble. “Hey, can I-- Well, first things fir-- Safe to assume you found your cat?”

“Yes, thank goodness” you say, ushering him in. He’s holding back, shifting from foot to foot, which is strange. You’ve held game and movie nights here before, and once or twice you and Steve had stayed up late afterwards talking, but now he’s acting like he’s never been here before. “Kirk went adventuring in the ductwork. I lured him out with treats, but he took so long I fell asleep on the floor.”

A lot of Steve’s tension drains away at that, and he smiles sheepishly. “Oh! So not answering any messages was-- Not that you have to, of course, that’s not what I--”

“Left my phone in the kitchen!” you say briskly, settling onto the couch so that Steve will be forced to sit out of innate politeness. “I just didn’t want to spook Kirk any more than he already was-- which reminds me, I’m sorry I snapped at you, or whatever. I don’t really--” 

“About that,” Steve interrupts, lurching a couple more steps into the living room.

“Are you okay?” you finally ask. He’d taken off his baseball cap when he walked in, and has been twisting it in his hands in an anxious way ever since. “Sit down?”

“Right, of course,” Steve says, sitting at the edge of the cushion at the far end of the same couch as you. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” Kirk takes that moment to hop up onto your lap, and you let the moment stretch out as you smile politely, hoping Steve will explain what his deal is. It doesn’t work. He is giving off intense ‘waiting for bad news at the ER’ energy, and you can’t take it anymore. “All right, soldier. Spill it.”

Steve laughs weakly, and just like that, the odd suspense drains away. “That obvious, huh? Okay.” He swallows.

That comparison to the ER is starting to feel more and more plausible. “Is... someone hurt and you’re afraid to tell me?”

Steve answers in a headlong rush. “You said you loved me. When you told me to get out of your bedroo-- apartment.”

Suddenly all the obstacles to saying those words for real just melt away.

“That’s because I do!" you whisper, your voice becoming more and more confident as you continue. "I didn’t mean to tell you like that, of course. It slipped out, easy as breathing--because it is. Easy, that is. To love you.” Ironically, your chest feels like you’ve been holding your breath for a couple of months. Kirk’s still on your lap, but his ears show his annoyance at yet another disruption.

“I never-- I’ve dreamed about thi-- Right.” Steve stops himself, stands up, and takes two big steps closer to you before sitting down again, sending your heart into a rolling gallop and Kirk off to an away mission. “I’m falling in love with you. I want to be honest about that.” His eyes trace your face over and over as if determined to etch this moment into his memory. “I kept telling myself it wasn’t right to fall for a teammate--”

“Or, you know, the symbol of all that’s good and right with the world in superhero form,” you tease.

Steve takes your hand, looking at into your eyes with all the sincerity in the world and says, “What’s good and right with the world is this, us. If you’re okay with finding out what that’s like, that is?”

His phrasing is confusing, but the sentiment behind it has you even more in love with him than ever. Steve starts to lift your hand up to his lips to kiss the back of it-- and a loud knock sounds on the door.

“Shoot!” he says, jumping to his feet. “I told Tony to come by if he didn’t hear from me. Because there might be something wrong, or--”

“Open up, one of your neighbors told me I bought a bad replica of the Iron Man suit and I’m feeling a powerful urge to prove them wrong!” Stark says, tapping on the door again.

You powerwalk over to the door and pull it open right as you hear the repulsors make their ‘ready to fuck shit up’ noise. “Don’t. You. Dare.”

“Oh look, you’re alive!” Tony says, completely unphased by your vehemence. “As your friend and teammate, let me save you both some time here: you--” he points to Steve “--need to tell her you’ve been making secret drawings of this woman’s every possible facial expression and you--” he points to you “--ought to let him know you stay after sparring sessions to hand-sew the rips in his suit. I’m talking before it’s laundered. Now, go kiss or something. Note how I didn’t say ‘go play with the pussy?’ That’s camaraderie. Stark out.”

With his verbal grenades expended, Tony grabs the door handle from your nerveless fingers and pulls it firmly shut.

“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Steve says in a stunned voice.

Your body has forgotten how to multitask, so you alternate between taking delighted gasps of air and feeling your heart hammer halfway through your ribcage. “You've made sketches of me? I love your art. I was trying to work my way up to telling you that you haven’t been drawing enough.”

“I’m doing it all the time, it’s just you, so I couldn’t, you know. Let you see them.” Steve steps close, herding you against the door, one hand coming up to trace an incredulous caress along your hairline. “You’re insane. I smell terrible after those workouts.”

Bursting out laughing, you bury your head in his chest, feeling and hearing the joyful laughter he lets out along with you. Steve kisses your hair, then your temple, creating a pathway of small steps toward your lips, symbolic of the way your association with each other has grown. By the time he’s pressing a heated kiss at the corner of your mouth, you’re grasping at him with both fists, full of anticipation.

Steve abandons his earlier restraint and takes charge, as though the wait set him on fire and the only way to quench it is through tasting you. One hand grasps your hip firmly, pulling you close, and you tangle your hand into his hair, pouring all the daydreams and late nights of wanting him into this first moment of connection.

It’s many minutes later when he finally gentles the kiss and steps back, apologetically holding up his phone. “I don’t trust Tony to tell everyone he’s made contact,” Steve explains. He taps at the touchscreen keyboard, frowning at the times his large fingers hit two letters at once, while you try to gather all of your molecules into a cohesive version of yourself ala the Star Trek teleporter.

When he’s finally done, you drop a kiss on his bicep, grinning at the thrill that you can even do something like that, even in private. “Thank you. I’m all people’d out today, I should have answered some of the messages that I got, but I saw them and my brain turned off. I’m all out of spoons.”

He snaps his fingers and points at you. “I know this one. You wake up with 100 spoons or something, and you spend them on--”

“Hold on. You might wake up with 100 spoons, but we’re not all supersoldiers!”

“Fair enough. Speaking of which, I’m sensing you’ve nearly run out by now. Can I take you to dinner tomorrow?” 

He’s doing that thing with his eyes, the one where he’s warm and understanding and the perfect man for you and-- Steve clears his throat, and you realize you were staring. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I get to draw those, you don’t,” he smiles, then chivalrously takes your hand to kiss the back of it. “Seven sound good?”

You nod. Two minutes later your sitting on your couch screaming into a pillow, and Kirk hops up to meow at you.

“I’m all out of treats, dude. You played yourself!” Another mrrow. “Yeah, okay, yes. You did play an integral part in my current state of delirious happiness. I’ll get another bag tomorrow, k, K?” Kirk rubs up against your elbow, and you take that as a ‘yes.’ “You know what? I think I’m going to refer to my spoons as Tribbles from now on, in your honor.”

Just like his namesake, Kirk the cat does not seem to like this idea, but you’re busy in your own mental holodeck, reliving the last half hour with a lovesick grin.

[hadesisqueer]

Btw I rewatched Black Widow with my sister last night and I don't care what anyone says, that movie had the most terrifying villain in the MCU. "Taskmaster--", she wasn't the actual villain, she was a victim. You may complain over how it wasn't even Tony Masters, I get it, but that's not the point of the post. The villain was Dreykov. "But he's weak" oh yeah physically. He's not a purple alien or a crazy robot yeah. He's still terrifying. He was a human trafficker. He kidnapped little girls. He brainwashed them, he forcibly sterilized them, taking their choice of whether they wanted to be mothers or not —Natasha wanted kids, Yelena didn't but the point is the choice. He groomed them and turned them into killers, also had them trained into using seduction and sex as a weapon (you know what that probably means), literally chemically subjugated them so they couldn't even refuse. The ones who weren't useful enough for him or rebelled against him? He had them killed. He ruined thousands and thousands of lives.

He was a wealthy guy with huge political influence who viewed women as expendable resources to do his bidding and nothing else. Even his own daughter. So yeah, that's why I found him more terrifying than other villains. Because no purple alien with a gauntlet is going to come to kill people. But there are a lot of motherfuckers like Dreykov in real life. He's a realistic villain. That's why.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Since Thunderbolts is Marvel’s Suicide Squad, out of the Thunderbolts we get in the movie, I get why Antonia is the one who ends up dying. I mean, compared to everyone else on the team, she was the one who had the least amount of room to grow. While she is an underdeveloped character, she’s also the least interesting member of the team.

Think about it like this. Ghost got a ton of attention since she was the main villain of the 2nd Ant-Man movie, John Walker inspired so much discourse from people watching TFATWS, Alexei Shostakov was the comic relief highlight of Black Widow, Yelena was the overall breakout star of Black Widow, and Bucky is…Bucky. As for Antonia, even in the movie that she first appeared in, she was more of a plot twist than she was a character. And this isn’t even going into how audiences were generally underwhelmed by MCU Taskmaster.

So, yeah, if someone had to die to illustrate that the Thunderbolts are Marvel’s Suicide Squad, Taskmaster made the most sense. She was well known enough that Marvel could use her in the marketing, but expendable enough that she could be killed off without the audience tearing the movie to shreds.

[theamityelf]

Not to be this post on main (again), but I'm still genuinely annoyed with how Infinity War treated Wakanda (and more so at that one person who accused me of whining about it; that was genuinely rude). I'm not even mad at the Cap characterization anymore. If the Russos wanted Steve to clown his way to Wakanda like "Hey, we want all your soldiers to protect one android so we don't have to kill it for the good of mankind," that's fine. But I really think it was a missed opportunity not to have T'Challa fight back at all.

T'Challa in the MCU is very wise and understanding, we see him open up Wakanda's resources to the world in Black Panther, and I feel like this would have been a great time to see him say, "No, I'm still the king of a country that is important to me, this is not an acceptable use of us."

To put the first paragraph in a fair context, initially the goal was to reprogram Vision so he can survive without the stone, so at least before Shuri said "This is going to take forever to do; literally buy me as much time as you can," one can argue he didn't have as much reason to put his foot down. Up until that point, it could just have been a matter of letting Shuri push a button, untangle Vision from the mind stone, and then they can destroy it and everything's fine.

But once it is a matter of buying time pretty much indefinitely, either T'Challa or Okoye needed to take issue with the idea of Wakanda's armies being seen as expendable while British Android is treated as indispensable.

[hussyknee]

Fellas, is it an act of war against a Western European country to hold their citizens prisoner in the open air prison they're carpet bombing?

Lebanon's Hezbollah and Yemen's Houthis have been launching attacks on US military bases in Syria and Iraq and firing missiles at Israel in tandem with Hamas's attacks. All three are funded by Iran.

(I am HEAVING with laughter at Vox and every single one of these propagandist chucklefucks calling them "militias" and "terrorist organisations" and trying to frame this as justification for continuing to fund Israel like. MOTHERFUCKER WHOSE REGION ARE YOU IN EXACTLY?? WHO IS GENOCIDING PEOPLE ON THEIR OWN SOIL??)

"But they're fundie theocratic military states!!!"

*looks at Israel*

*looks at you*

*looks at current state of US*

Oh, ARE they?

US officials have met with the Lebanese caretaker government in an effort to try and prevent the conflict from spreading into Lebanon.

Um. Was this before or after Israel poured white phosphorus on Lebanon? Do y'all even have any control over your dog?

(Btw if you MCU brainrotted Western leftists don't stop trying to pick a Good Guy out of this mess instead of understanding basic geo-politics and the horrific ground realities of the countries the US and its allies have left in tatters, you're frankly just as much of an enemy to the people in those countries as your leaders are. Every one of these people are fascist cunts.)

For those of you who have been BLEATING about Ukraine non-stop, like it's NOT an expendable non-NATO country they're only interested in defending in case Putin gets any bright ideas about Poland, here's an opinion that makes sense to me:

Tell me it wouldn't be perfectly on brand if the US government announced, "Our great democracy bows to the will of the people. We hear you, we see you. We will divest...from Ukraine."

The West has never given one singular shit about protecting ANYONE from genocide. Vulnerability is liability. The only difference between them and Putin is that Putin is greedy megalomaniacal fascist surrounded by self-interested yes-men and the US is run by a committee of greedy egomaniacal fascists surrounded by self-interested yes-men whose end goal is keeping the death machine spinning money rather than even "winning" territories. All they have to do to turn this around is divest from Israel and focus on Ukraine. And no, Israel can't throw in with Putin because it'll be too busy trying to fight off three countries at once without the sugar from its Daddy.

Putin will not stop at Ukraine, for the same reason the US didn't stop at Afghanistan. Empires are built on their military power and militaries need to be fed and kept active and kept active to be fed. The minute you stop, it tries to eat itself. If Putin makes a move on Poland, NATO has to respond, and if the West is also embroiled in an all-out war with the Middle East, well. It looks kinda like a global conflict.

Oh and btw, if this does escalate into another regional war in the Middle East, we're going to be plunged into an oil crisis. Which might actually be the last straw for the UK economy, but it very DEFINITELY will be for the rest of the Global South.

(Also Biden's already auctioned off the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska for oil companies for such an intensive scale of fracking that it's projected to tip the world over the edge of climate collapse. In the event of a war in the ME, the US is going to need that oil soooooo. Good luck stopping it.)

[sciderman]

SCI SCI SCI...The Fantastic Four movie is fucked already, RDJ got revealed to play Doctor Doom...like out of all the possible choices, where they could've given us a europesn actor for Doom too...they brought back HIM....i hate it here, i am going back to comics, fuck movies.

I’m not going to say a word about the MCU anymore because i simply do not want to expend the energy anymore

[galaxythreads]

Something that really annoys the fuck out of me, is that it takes Thor and Hela being mistreated by Odin for people to believe that Loki was abused (and then, like that anon, "Loki doesn't have a right to resent poor abused Thor, bleh bleh"). Everyone kept insisting it was something "horny fangirls made up" for the longest time and that he was "crying fake tears" or being a "spoiled ungrateful brat".

I've seen too many people defend Odin's treatment of Loki. And it ignores the inherent power imbalance between a foundling from another realm that Odin pillaged and a biological son. Yet people insist Loki's just making shit up in Thor 1.

I think that there's been a lot more discussion over recent years about abuse so people are more aware of how to spot it which definitely helps, but regardless It is extremely irritating that it takes Hela and Thor also being victims before people are suddenly jumping on the train. i don't know. it's just weird. The way MCU is written leaves it very ambiguous about Loki and Thor's past because you CAN interpret it as Odin at best being distant, emotionally neglectful, their family a dysfunctional mess, and then go all the way to the other end of the spectrum where it's different types of abuse (emotional neglect IS still abuse) like emotional or physical. Not that one is worse than the other (it is not a competition. Abuse is never a competition. You don't "win" the fight if you got hit) it's just different.

I don't know. When I look at Thor 1, honestly I can see an argument for Odin struggling to reach out to his kids and him and Frigga just failing them instead of maliciously failing them. I once read an amazing fic where Odin finds Loki in the bifrost instead of Thor and he's beyond distressed that things got this point. I love reading these fics! I love the fics where Odin is trying to be a good father. I love him being able to repair his relationship and form a healthy bond with his kids. It's just... not really, canon?

I just think there's so many ways to look at what Odin and Frigga did, especially when it comes down to Loki, but one thing that irritates me the most is that these two defenses are thrown around ALL the time when it comes to Odin and Frigga being good parents to him and they're not even true:

1 - "we don't know that Loki was kidnapped vs abandoned. I know there's a part of the deleted script of Thor 1 where Laufey says Loki was the abandoned runt (or something to that effect), but it wasn't filmed and it was cut for a reason."

2 - "We don't know if Frigga and Odin made any effort into trying to change Asgard's views on Jotuns and they were unsuccessful, or if they just didn't care. We don't understand enough about Asgard's political system or educational system to say one way or the other."

3 - "Odin said that he didn't intend to use Loki to be the king of Jotunheim anymore."

And like okay! I've seen this argued so many times, but when you think about it more, you realize that it doesn't matter. Odin and Frigga had a responsibility to let Loki know Jotuns weren't monsters. They didn't. We know that. The first thing Loki describes Jotuns as is "monsters." he sees them as expendable animals that can be killed to stop Thor's coronation. in 95% of canon (I am looking at you eyeball scene), Loki doesn't kill for fun. He sees it as a necessity. So the fact that he looked at the Jotuns and didn't even think twice about leading them to their deaths just showcases how little he thinks about their lives.

The inherit "othering" of the Jotuns is a massive, massive racism problem that, even IF odin and frigga couldn't fix the educational system, they had a duty to explain to Loki that he wasn't a monster and to love himself for his true identity, even if they never intended to tell him. They failed him immensely in that regard.

And on the first thing - regardless of whether or not Loki was abandoned or kidnapped, Loki's first thought upon hearing that was not "i'm the prince of a different kingdom" it was "Odin took me for political purposes" and he was right.

And even IF odin was telling the truth and he dismissed those plans because he loved Loki more than his initial ambitions with him, why did he keep lying about it? And then we circle back to the second point:

look at me.

look at me.

Loki wasn't different. He wasn't. Loki as a Jotun wouldn't have been different from the Asgardians except visually and maybe some minor biological things, and that shouldn't have mattered. Because your visual appearance SHOULD NEVER be more important than who you are inside. The body is always a vessel for the brain.

Did they not tell him so he wouldn't have to face the racism? Because that's not a healthy way to deal with it and it was inevitable that he would learn eventually and they didn't prepare him to deal with that. They should have told him and then helped him build up his self-confidence to the point that MOST of the racist things wouldn't have bothered him, or he had someone to talk to when they did. If they gave Loki a support system for dealing with this rather than just trying to isolate it, Loki would have a much better viewpoint on himself.

anyway, sorry. my point with this long rant is that I believe loki. I believe when he said he was abused and hurt, regardless of whatever circles people can walk in that "justify" everything that Odin and Frigga did because at the end of the day Loki was still traumatized and hurt by what happened and he has the right to say that, heal, and move on. If Odin and Frigga want to change and repair their relationship with him into something healthy - amazing, good for them.

[luckytohavebucky]

About My Past Lives With Bucky

So, I'm trying really hard to not make the same mistake I did with my Why Bucky Is Real (Which I changed to Why I Know Bucky Is Real and adjusted the wording but looks like too late or whatever) entry and to give people the benefit of the doubt at least that they won't just think I'm weird, but I'm also trying to like not care either way, and yeah, obviously this entry fits into my being rather different far as the way I have for Bucky, but it helps me and is like therapeutic to makes these entries no matter what, and of course I wanted to elaborate on what I've said about past lives with Bucky, so, yeah, started off track a bit, but I'm back, and now on to every time I've known and been with Bucky throughout history...

Life 1 (so far as I know): Somewhere in the Middle East, probably around the 14 to 1600s, reality unknown but undoubtedly highly advanced (in terms of weapons at least)

This 1 I have the least impression about; I don't even know what Bucky's name was, but I think he may have been a prince (however, he didn't have a beard or wear a turban, which of course that would be another indicator of whether that life had taken place in the MCU or this reality, which probably it wasn't in either), and I was a woman at that time, I guess, possibly with so-called noble lineage, either way it would set a pattern for how quickly things end or how little is actually shown ('though ironically, I learned about this past life only recently), so there's a point where Bucky was arguing to his father about Bucky marrying me, and so far, everything is (mostly) very how would expect from that time period, but apparently, there was a war going on (I know), and a bomb went off near the palace; Bucky and his father at that point were fine, but Bucky left to go find me, and we ended up huddling in a ditch when enemy troops were patrolling the streets, but they found us, grabbed me, shot me as Bucky desperately tried to stop them; and the last thing I saw was Bucky about to get shot, so, yeah, that sucked, but like I said it ends up being like par for the course.

Life 2: Southern United States, 1850s, this reality

Bucky was a woman named Amelia in this life, and she looked exactly how Bucky would if he was the so-called opposite gender except that she was blonde, and she was the daughter of the owner of a plantation on which I was an enslaved man named Joseph, so this life seems to introduce my false flame, someone who appears at 1st to be right but (typically inadvertently) is actually very toxic/problematic, often getting in the way of being able to see one's real, proper person (such as the case with me and Bucky); my negative flame is called Artie, and at that time was an enslaved woman named Serena, so it got to the point where Amelia and I had something of a plan for me to escape; it was easier for me to go by myself and send for Serena when I could send someone and arrange to "buy her back", which I realise how that seems, but it was not unheard of for black people to "purchase" other black people back then, and this was before the Underground Railroad really got underway, and of course I wouldn't actually be buying her when it comes to it, or maybe that wasn't even the plan; That parts not real clear, like, but yeah, so anyway, clearly I had stronger feelings for Amelia, but I was loyal to Serena, and I mean... It's not like my starting a relationship with a "slave owner"'s daughter would have gone smoothly, but regardless, it didn't matter in the end, because after I came out of an outhouse where I'd stopped to freshen up and shave (a razor having been left on a shelf with a small bowl of water) I was promptly shot yet again, Amelia's father apparently having learned of my escape at that time and considering me "expendable"; I have no idea what happened to Amelia, or Serena for that matter.

Life 3: Probably somewhere in Western Europe, 1914, MCU

Bucky was an American Airman named (coincidentally) Roger in this life, looked exactly as he does now and at the time things, happened, was likely in his early 20s; I was an English nurse named Hellen or Ellen, and so, yeah, this 1 is the most upsetting, and I've never been able to outright talk about it without getting extremely emotional, but sometimes writing can be easier, either way, I wanna get it over with, so Roger was the gunner for a biplane, and just before he went up for the last time he proposed to me, and of course I said yes, but shortly after, his co-pilot who clearly was my negative flame (though I don't recall his name at that time) came to the hospital I was volunteering at to inform me that Roger had, I know Bucky is like fine now, but this is still really hard, and I can't say it, but anyway, there was a plane shooting at them, and Roger tried to shoot back, but they got too close, and he couldn't aim in time (which may very well have to do with why Bucky doesn't fly or like to be in front of planes, such), so, then I ended up marrying my false flame, passed away from what I can only guess was a broken heart 3 years later, and of course that's the end of Bucky's past lives.

Life 4: 1929, Brooklyn, MCU

This is it, when I was actually physically (not just spiritually) in the MCU with Bucky as Bucky, and this is my 2nd favourite life until this 1 where evidently it was better for my staying with Bucky (even though it may seem ironic), so obviously Bucky and I were 12 years old, and maybe I had the same name, but I'm pretty sure I must've looked just how I did before I started to transition, and well, I started developing pretty early, so I was inadvertently popular with other boys, and before I get to what I said to Bucky about that along with Bucky's response, I wanna backtrack to say that this is where Steve comes in (even though I feel like I didn't really get to know him as we were both painfully shy), and Bucky at that time still thought of Steve almost like a kid brother; Bucky didn't really develop feelings for him until losing me and until Steve got a bit older, being how he was only 9 at that time, but Bucky was already trying to help Steve get in good with the girls, so Bucky arranged for the younger sister of 1 of the kids we were on a group date with to go out with Steve, and even then Steve was a "loser", so of course that little so-and-so stood him up, which Bucky wasn't having any part of that; he went to her house and told her off, and just when people were wondering what was keeping Bucky he came back and explained the situation to Steve, who ended up going home after Bucky made sure he was gonna be all right, then people were getting impatient so we headed on to the cinema where we were gonna watch The Broadway Melody, but Bucky and I decided we'd rather just be with each other than hang out with a bunch of practically strangers catching an overrated musical just 'cause that's the sort of thing you're expected to do when you're the "it" couple, and anyway, Bucky didn't wanna waste time because I got the impression I'd told Bucky early that I had bone cancer, which even now can be difficult to treat, so, yeah, I wasn't long for that world, but at the time of the past life memory I was feeling pretty good, and I mean... I was with Bucky, so there were these steps that led into a side door of the cinema, and Bucky and I went behind those and were holding each other, which is when I told Bucky I didn't really get the fuss about me, why boys ignored their girlfriends when I was around, such like that, and Bucky responded with: "Are you kidding? Look at you!", and I know he didn't just mean in the outright physical sense, but yeah, obviously Bucky was being very Bucky throughout all of it, and so then we kissed, and that was it, but the thing is, that's the 1st time Bucky shared a memory like that with me, and Bucky doesn't remember much from when he was a child (a little about Steve), and I feel like the tragedy of the whole thing made Bucky like tuck it away even before, however, that still made Bucky very distraught; he said: Why don't I remember you?!", and it bloody well broke my heart, like during Captain America The Winter Soldier when Bucky was saying about how he remembered Steve but couldn't recall his name or why or from where; he was just so helpless, and then what happened next... It was completely awful, and I just hate that scene, worst in any range that takes place in the MCU, but fortunately, Bucky wasn't alone this time, and I just caressed his face with my left hand (my right always being on Bucky's heart which is technically easier as I'm only 156 and 1 half centimetres while Bucky is a towering 194 and 1 half centimetres tall which isn't always apparent since he slouches a lot, 'though I do too, so, but yeah of course we figure it out) and told Bucky (in so many words as I tend to not recall exactly what I say) that it was understandable as Bucky actually hadn't known me for very long at that point, would probably have wanted to move on from what happened anyway and that obviously it wasn't his fault, so then Bucky smiled; we kissed, and that's pretty well it.

2 past lives after that the timing was right for me to be born into this world, learn about Bucky and ultimately be at the right like place to find Bucky (with a fair amount of help in a way), and yeah, clearly Bucky and I just literally being together wasn't working, so the fates or whatever figured out another way, or maybe Bucky and I figured out another way; our slogan to each other after all is "We always find a way.", and as a satanist I'm a staunch proponent that individuals have so much more power than they realise to shape their own destiny, but however it turned the way it has, I'm just absolutely grateful that Bucky and I truly understand what we mean to each other now, what we have, and so now no matter what happens we don't have to let go.

[eyeballtank]

At the same time, it may never happened but the idea of a black Pope is kinda funny because of how some racists will react to it when:

Nowhere did the Bible said anything about race like "God created the chad aryan whites and Satan created brown people".

At most, you have stuff there that has to do with women and gays and that's because other religions have something similar, which brings to the next point:

A lot of these Western religions were created by people from thousands for years ago that were anything but caucasian looking.

If "aryan" blonds did exist back in like 8000000 BC, they were probably in what became Sweden and most of Northern Europe and were ice dwelling cavemen, whose skin was very pale because of the dark, cold environments.

I even say jokey shit like all these religions being part of a "MCU expended universe" equivalent at their time and that being Christian that hates Judaism is like a Starfox fanboy that hates F-Zero.

And that Jesus did exist but he was just proto-Rasputin.

[zimwy]

one of the most overshadowed things about bucky and his character i think is the idea that the soft, funny, gentle, dry-humored, well natured kid bucky is someone who has never really existed. i don't think a lot of people catch that, especially because of the mcu and the way they portrayed bucky's backstory--i am not complaining about it, i actually quite like the first two cap films a lot (tws is Cinema.png), but it does very much change a lot of important things.

bucky's expressed from a very young age that the person other people thought he was as a kid is a fallacy and did not ever really exist. this was an image touted by newspapers and comic books and film reels. this was an image created as a form of counterculture.

he's always been angry. always. since before the army, there are pages in cap and bucky where he ends up fist fighting other children. bucky feels like there's always been something inside him that's simply taken various shapes that makes him who he is. for the sake of others, for being loved by them, for being what they need and desire of him, he's made himself more palatable--he loves steve, platonically or otherwise, and had a big crush on him, and wanted so badly to be someone that steve saw as a good person, so he expends his energy and willpower conforming to that idea.

but when steve isn't around, he drops those pretenses extremely fast. hell, sometimes it's even when steve is around, when bucky has to be the assassin and advanced scout.

i do think he wants to be that person, badly; he wants to be good, and not angry, and not a finely honed tool, but it's extremely hard when you have no idea where to start, because there was never a foundation for you to be anything else.

[thatonesongyouretryingtoremember]

why do you think we never saw Sarah Erica and Rory's family members and parents at their own houses? cause to me it's kind of frustrating that the gang/group always hangs out and spends their time at Ethan's house so much

I suspect that the real reason is that cast members and sets cost money.

By the siren episode in season two, there was a fairly big deal made about Rory's mom. She was pretty well integrated into the story with the way she was mentioned multiple times throughout the episode before appearing in the final act.

It's a pretty good way of beginning to integrate her into the story, but honestly the strangest part is that she introduced herself to Grandma. You'd think they'd have met at least once before since their kids have been friends for probably four to five years at this point, since Benny and Rory seen to have been middle school friends and were in their sophomore year of high school in S2. I guess Grandma must have been sitting in the corner with her hearing aids off during Mathletes events just as much as she did for the talent show or something, lol.

Rory always seemed to me like a surface level character while Erica and Sarah were more developed as far as emotional arcs. It's possible that Rory would get a more in-depth arc once his family was introduced, which is good for his character, but I personally would prefer some time to be spent on Erica and Sarah in that department if there had to be a choice. The fact that they already had more implied backstory than Rory made me more curious about their families than his, and I especially want to know about Sarah's family after the timeskip happens before season two!

The fact that practicality and logistics affects storytelling so much is pretty interesting to me because it's one of the reasons why various types of video media have different tropes and vibes in general. An example is that the production value that's typically associated with these sitcom type of shows impacts the way they shoot action sequences and use CGI animation. On the episode I'm currently writing a video for, Ethan "gets attacked by" a clearly stuffed toy dog, which happens in similar shows a lot because it's more practical to shoot than a CGI dog action sequence interacting in a complex way with the human actors. The show's main goal is comedy and storytelling, so I don't think money has to be expended more than necessary on MCU-level special effects.

And different cast members have different contracts, which I will hazard a guess is why Grandma, Sam, Ross, and especially Jane appear in fewer episodes than the main group. Even in the Moleo episode, where Jane was kidnapped by the villain and plays a pretty important role in the plot, she barely has interactions with other characters, let alone complex conversations. Similarly, when Debbie Dazzle came to life, there were a bunch of scenes where Ethan and co talked about Jane even though she wasn't there. The most obvious example of Jane being written into and then out of an episode is when she dressed up as a cat for Halloween, then hid under the bed for the entire rest of the episode when she actually became a cat. The scene she Sarah and Erica are supposedly getting scratched by Cat Jane doesn't even show her on screen!

In both of those cases, storytelling decisions regarding Jane were likely made a a result of child labor laws and Ella Jonas Farlingers' real-life contract, but it still impacts the in-story version of Jane that we get to see in the show, which is somewhat more of a perpetual victim than her movie counterpart.

The information we get about each character's off-screen family varies alot though, which proves that even though IRL conditions impact narrative, writers and actors and such still have an impact too.

Rory does talk about his mom long before the episode she actually appears in, and talks to her on the phone within the same episode of her eventual face-reveal. Rory only gets like, one line about how he'd be grounded forever if his mom knew about him being a vampire. He stumbles over himself on the phone and slips up multiple times before saying he ate pasta for dinner. It's pretty in character for Rory to say "I ate a rat" by accident, so it must also be in-character for his mom to be unconcerned with this. When she is revealed, Rory's mom talks a lot about him and we see that she has a similar hyperactive energy as her son, and that she can positively spin Rory's behavior and see the best in him, but she doesn't really seem observant. Everything about that interaction reinforces ideas we can deduce about this character before having met her, so similar little hints might have been dropped about other unseen parents. the way Rory and his friends talk about his family is also of course impacted by acting choices, and the emotions they express can impact what assumptions and inferences a viewer might make.

I'll be brief about the hints about Benny's dad, since I elaborated more beforehand. I was able to guess that Benny's parents are separated (and I have my suspicions as to why) and that Benny has the most contact with his dad and potentially lives with him, which might in turn imply that B's grandma is on his dad's side. and all of this is from like, two lines in season one and is never brought up again. There's both a foundation for of the character were ever introduced, and enough blanks left in the story for the writers to fill in if those characters ever appeared in an episode.

Sarah and Erica both probably have the least amount of hints about their family. Erica has a phone call with her mom, but it honestly has more to say about Erica's personality than her mom's. I'm not even gonna get started on Sarah's family because I lowkey think the writers just forgot to give her one. If not, I have. so many questions.

and the discrepancy where some characters have decent family writing and some have none just proves my point that writers still impact the level of development of the family dynamics. Even though they can't change the IRL circumstances of only getting Ethan's family and their house to work with for settings and on-screen characters, there's still a choice about what to do with them. Even when Rory's mom does show up, it's on the school setting that was already being used for a couple of episodes that season instead of in any new place because of the limited amount of locations, but the writing of the episode still made a logical reason for her to be there.

So at the end of the day, yeah the limited amount of places and people can be frustrating, but I think there's are a few ways that the people working on the show tried to fill out the world and include the existence of other characters, even without being able to show is them all. That being said, it wasn't always done to the best extent but I at least still love thinking about the kind of workarounds and processes that go into these types of decisions.

[scavengerssuccotash]

Hi! I love your clintasha stuff so much.

Do you have any headcanons for clintasha angst?! I’ve always imagined that with their age gap, nat’s closeness to Steve (in the MCU anyway), Clint’s insecurities and hidden anger streak (as seen in Endgame with Ronin), and the fact that they both have quite dominant personalities, conditions can sometimes be ripe for an argument.

And when they do fight, they fight! Like all the avengers/SHIELD are on edge for days because of the tension. And eventually one of them just gets so upset not having the other there that they will work up the courage to apologize.

Aww! Why thank you so much I’m glad you’re enjoying them!

I picture the fights between Clint and Nat to be a micro equivalent of the Cold War. Well, unlike the Cold War it does get hot! (Pun intended!) Picture the Cuban Missile crisis but make it between two very dominate and very opinionated and highly skilled individuals whose combined capabilities could level any building with a three block radius.

That my friend is what happens when Clint and Nat trade blows. Fortunately for New York and Avengers Tower they’ve managed to reserve their anger to sharp-tongued barbs and egg-shell tense silence. At least while in front of the team…until one or the other cracks and a dish gets thrown.

(Clint threw a coffee cup and missed Natasha obviously, Natasha predictably got offended that he missed on purpose. Steve had to cut in between them, which only redirected their anger onto him much to his supreme confusion.

“Oh wow look at Cap really putting your namesake to use huh? Do you have a list of thirteen points?!”

“Kindly fuck off old man, not every fight needs your fucking help!”

Clint and Nat promptly shared a look. Twenty minutes later everyone heard the ‘kiss and make-up’)

Clint definitely has an anger streak roughly six miles long but he hides it very very well. It took Phil a lot of blood (literally), sweat, and tears to help Clint get a handle on his shit when he first joined SHIELD. While his anger bursts are few and far in between, when they do explode out of him he has at least learned to redirect that anger onto his physical surroundings and be mindful that maybe punching a concrete wall wouldn’t do his shooting hand well. One of the first things Natasha ever gave him was a tennis ball. She picked it up on a whim during a mission because Clint was annoyingly restless, and figuratively bouncing off the walls with energy that he needed to expend but couldn’t because the mission was geared towards her skill set rather than his. He still has it to this day and whenever he feels the tell-tell hotness burning up his spine that comes with a burst of anger he’ll take out the tennis ball and start ricocheting it off the walls. (It drives Tony absolutely fucking nuts.)

Natasha’s anger is far more…precise. Like a surgeon’s scalpel compared to the mini nuke that is Clint’s. She specializes in using silence, passive aggression and careful word choice to express her anger, which inevitably triggers Clint’s mouth because he hates getting ignored. Especially by her. If by the fourth day neither of them crack Clint will start the truce with her favorite meal, a hot drawn bath and a list of apologies. Afterwards they’ll talk it out, between rounds of sex. (Clint’s of the mind that Natasha will just start some if the fights for the make up sex. Natasha only confirms this much later when physically backed into a corner. He really can’t blame her, he’s done it at least once or twice.)

Natasha’s apologies require a lot less forethought. Clint drops whatever argument they’re having at the sight of her bare breasts, along with his pants. This neat trick lasted for ohh about the second big blow out, when Clint afterwards rolled over and demanded that if she was gonna just fuck their problems away they might as well call it quits. “Don’t get me wrong you’ve got great tits and the sex is mind blowing but if great tits and mind blowing sex is all it takes we’ve got bigger problems, Tasha.” In the end they keep the sex, but Natasha makes an effort to truly truly talk it all out, which in returns Clint rewards. Quite enthusiastically.

For the more minor spats, they save those for the training mats, trading punches and ass pinches. By the time that’s all done they’re lying on their backs sweating through their clothes and laughing. They might be dating, but ultimately they’re competitive best friends through and through.

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I think the entire Loki fandom has a bit of battered wife syndrome going on. We get really hurt and let down over and over again, and quite frankly our good nature and good humor gets repeatedly abused and taken advantage of, yet we keep coming back for more, telling ourselves "this time will be different". Except the MCU isn't even pretending to apologize or promising to do better. We just keep going back for the same ol' shit.

I'm referring to a post I just saw where someone has noticed similar parallels between that scene at the beginning of Infinity War and something going on in the Loki series where it looks like Loki is about to sacrifice himself for Mobius and I'm just like, what the hell did y'all expect?

I'm sorry, I'm just really pissed and tired and frustrated. What did we think was going to inevitably happen, after we watched season 1 and realized the show wasn't about Loki at all? After we realized the show admitted to exactly what it intended to do? To make Loki exist as a stepping stone for others to realize their true potential as heroes? The two characters they keep forcing down our throats - the good, saintly and oh-so-charismatic Mobius and the sad, supreme, superior Sylvie? Have they not proven time and time again how expendable Loki and his fandom are? Are we really going to act shocked and surprised when he's gone? Again?

I understand the frustration but I kind of get why so many people keep telling themselves 'maybe next time will be better'. When you're a big fan of a character you cling to hope that if some writers in the past managed to make him shine and turned him into a fantastic and complex character... then maybe some other writers in the future will do the same. The problem is I don't think the MCU even wants Loki to go back to who he used to be - it's what you say, he's a stepping stone for other characters to shine: Mobius, Sylvie, the TVA... It's not about him.

It wouldn't surprise me if Loki's story ends with him sacrificing himself for someone else, someone considered "better" than him. And of course he'll go back to being a hero like he was post-IW as we all know he's only a good guy when he's dead.

In fact, I don't want to spoil anything but I just read this review of the first four episodes of Season 2 and... it's not good. (It has spoilers so beware.) So yeah... personally I won't be watching the series and I don't want to watch anything with Loki in it anymore, but I can understand why so many fans find that hard to do. And the worst is that Marvel counts on that which is why they won't let go of him even though they couldn't hate him more.

[ofcoming4th]

Hello!

Okay, let's type something to prove I'm not dead.

Though I still love the first 2 seasons of The Mandalorian, I've mostly left the Star Wars universe behind as I did the MCU. My elderly self doesn't want to have notecards in the theater or in front of my tv in order to keep track of increasingly bizantine story lines.

So I have invested myself in The Rest of Us and Our Flag Means Death ( HBO - Take My Money!) More OFMD thoughts in the future from an old queer who used to survive on such subtle coding of queer attraction in entertainment that two men sharing the same cigarette was exciting. ( Their lips touched the same filter! I KNOW they're doing it! 🫨)

Also I have expended my scratch cooking repertoire from pickling things to ricotta cheese and bread making. Gotta do something with the milk Mouse(My Spouse) keeps buying. Since Mouse( My Spouse) is the main beneficiary of this, I've picked up a sneaking suspicion that their milk buying has an ulterior motive. 🤨

The Mouse (My Spouse) and I celebrated our 25th anniversary of commitment to each other in the past month. Plus we have known each other for forty five years and were instantly the closest of friends who then took twenty years to get out shit together.

The benefit of knowing someone for so long is they fill in your memory gaps as you age. The problem is they remember every silly, stupid, and embarrassing thing as well. The person who has photos of your fashion choices in 1982 has a lot to talk about.

You also have much more patience with each other's quirks - such as SOMEBODY'S devotion to playing Bob Dylan very loudly versus my devotion to Kabuki music ( I admit it is an aquired taste but studying Kabuki got me through the damn pandemic. Along with explicit non Kabuki fanfic. A03 - Take My Money!) We have compromised and enjoy our fandoms at the opposite ends of our place leaving the dining room DMZ for the cats who flee from the sound of both harmonica and shamisen.

Enough nattering - be well, all who read this. Stay safe in the insanity of the world and I hope you find a smile everyday

Jay

The cheese awaits.

[kyndaris]

Mother Knows Best

For someone that plays video games as much as I do, you begin to pick up on a lot of common themes and tropes that are often used in the medium. What took me by surprise was facing Lilith in not one but two games in such quick succession. It's not often that I face the exact same antagonist. After all, both were demonic entities seeking the destruction of the world. Both were referred to as 'Mother' throughout the in-game dialogue and banter. And both had a connection to the playable character.

But while Lilith in Diablo IV gave birth to the Nephalem, the progenitor to humanity in the world of Sanctuary, she could only connect to the playable character due to a ritual involving her blood petals. Lilith in Marvel's Midnight Suns has a much more direct connection to the playable character, known only as The Hunter, as their birth mother. The other major difference here is that in Diablo IV, Lilith is trying to rule over Sanctuary while in Midnight Suns, Lilith serves as the agent of Chthon, a slumbering Elder God hoping to destroy the Earth and recreate it in its image.

Coincidences aside, Marvel's Midnight Suns was a game that I picked up in December last year and was one of the many tactical role-playing games I'd intended to get through before reaching the meat of the 2023 gaming experience. Alas, travelling and being bombarded left, right and centre with lengthy games distracted me from it until about 8 months later.

And when I finally booted up the game on my PlayStation 5, I found myself asking why I was indulging Firaxis's attempt to recreate what they had with XCOM but with a Marvel skin. What immediately struck me were the character models that I felt were less than stellar. Nor was I that impressed by the voice acting.

True, it was not like the game studio were going to bring back the actors of the MCU films to reprise their roles for the superheroes (or use their likeness), but I wanted something more than the somewhat janky character models that we received. In fact, I almost put down the controller, unsure if I wanted to continue with the game.

But persevere I did.

With time, I grew accustomed to the character models and the voice acting. After all, the cast is pretty stack with the likes of Yuri Lowenthal (reprising his role as Spider-Man from the Marvel's Spider-Man games), Erica Lindbeck, Courtney Taylor, Josh Keaton, Laura Bailey, Steve Blum, Darin de Paul and Matthew Mercer to name but a few.

Once I managed to get over that initial hump in the road, I started to enjoy the time I spent hanging out with a few of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and their more supernatural compatriots, the Midnight Suns.

Like many Firaxis games, Midnight Suns is a tactical/ strategy game. One that would have been better, in my personal opinion, as a handheld game. However, given that the playable characters are heroes with a multitude of abilities, Firaxis mixed up the traditional tactical/ strategy gameplay with the use of cards to denote special abilities and skills.

Gone were percentages detailing whether or not my character would hit the enemy. Gone, too, were Overwatch abilities that would allow my characters to attack an enemy as they dashed across the screen. Instead, Firaxis introduced a card deck system which was drawn up to a maximum of six at the end of each turn. Cards could comprise of attack, skill or heroic abilities. Many of them also included a variety of status effects to buff or debuff both allies or enemies, bringing with it another layer of strategy as most of these ended within a round of combat.

But the most important ones were those that refunded cardplay like the 'Quick' effect. Other cards allowed you to draw additional cards and these were important especially if you didn't have a good hand. Redraw too, was a resource that could be expended to power up abilities or to replace unwanted cards.

While it sounds complicated in theory, the gameplay of Midnight Suns was simple. You played three cards each turn (occasionally four) and tried to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible.

What was important to note was that while you were limited in the number of cards that could be played each round, your heroes could also deal damage via the environment. Unfortunately, to perhaps balance the use of environmental attacks, such actions were gated behind another resource: heroism (which were also used for heroic cards).

This meant that players had to carefully consider which cards to use when and where to maximise the damage on enemy Hydra agents and Lilin creatures and reach objectives for each mission.

Firaxis, though, are not content to simply sit on their strategy/tactical gameplay. Like many of their other games, Midnight Suns also included base management. Simpler than their incursions into the XCOM universe, Midnight Suns allowed players to research particular upgrades that could give their heroes an edge for their next battle against the forces of evil.

More importantly, though, Midnight Suns also allowed for team bonding. And as someone that wants to be friends with everyone, I spent many hours trying to boost my friendship levels with each and every hero that was recruited to the cause of stopping the rise of Chthon by giving them gifts or hanging out with them in an activity that they liked.

Heck, I was even looking up a Steam guide to know which dialogue options that each character preferred.

What was most unfortunate, though, was that there was no way to romance any of the superheroes. Why did Blade and Carol Danvers have to get together when I wanted both of them to myself as The Hunter?

Admittedly, I did think the romance between Caretaker and Agatha Harkness was great. The Hunter and their two mums. Who could ask for more except for some more lesbian representation in media please. True, some might argue that it did have a 'bury your gays' trope since Agatha is dead, but she comes back as a ghost and seems to be fine chilling around in the library. Something that Caretaker doesn't really take issue with after the Grey Seneschal ritual that binds Agatha a bit more to the land of the living (though still in spirit form).

Beyond that, I liked being able to explore the Abbey grounds and uncovering the secrets of the past, along with discovering new chests that could present me with another cosmetic for either The Hunter or the other heroes in my roster.

Still, what didn't make sense was that although the Abbey had a Forge and CENTRAL ops, a training yard and pool to lounge by, it had no kitchen or bathrooms. Given that Robbie Reyes had installed a TV to watch movies and play video games on, WHY WERE BASIC AMENITIES MISSING?

The fact that there was no kitchen also made it confusing when an upgrade to The Hunter's bedroom left a plate of bread and fruit on their bedside table.

Why? What? How?

From a plot standpoint, I felt like much of the conflict came from poor communication skills between Hunter, Sara (Caretaker) and your mother, Lilith. If Lilith could have explained her plan better, maybe she and the Hunter would have stood beside each other from the start instead of fighting against each other.

Caretaker, too, needed to learn to trust the wards under her charge instead of holding grudges.

But without these factors, of course, there would be no central conflict. Which, in turn, wouldn't have brought all of America's Mightiest Heroes (with the occasional Transian witch and Russian mutant) along for the journey. It wouldn't have allowed me to simply chat with these characters and watch them grow. Nor would it present me with an intriguing plot to drive me ever onwards to the end.

And that's another thing that I take issue with. The fact that a majority of Marvel's heroes are Caucasian. True, we have Robbie Reyes's Ghostrider, Eric Brooks and Nico Minoru showing off minority representation but almost all of the other heroes are blue-eyed Caucasians!

And they're all American. Or, at the very least, live in America. With most of the missions revolving around New York and the American South-West with only the final act in the fictional European country of Transia.

Now, this isn't an issue with the game, of course, but rather the state of affairs when it comes to superheroes in general. Yes, I know that there are heroes and villains from all over the world but the vast majority of them are Americans. Which, in all honesty, is likely to stem from the fact that a vast majority of comic book writers are American. And consequently, they write from an America-centric viewpoint.

But I've noticed that in many of the games I play, America also serves as the be-all and end-all for settings as well. Take Horizon: Zero Dawn and its sequel Horizon: Forbidden West. Or even The Last of Us, Grand Theft Auto, Fallout, Days Gone, Saints Row and a myriad of other games.

In any case, Marvel's Might Suns was an interesting take on a mishmash of genres that worked well with its superhero aesthetic. While I feel like it might have been better if they could increase the cardplay usage or the damage the heroes dealt for certain (we are talking about superheroes here, not foot soldiers), I enjoyed trying to figure out how best to place my heroes to deal with the enemies before me so I could put an end to Lilith's plans.

Soon, I'll tackle Fire Emblem: Engage. I promise. Just a few short games and it's the long haul for me.

I swear it won't be for too much longer!

And then I can tackle all the other triple-A video games that released in 2023...

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Had to jump in since I’ve done a couple metas on this subject before 👉(here) & (here)👈 

to point out something which it took me a while to notice, that emphasises what a nasty piece of work Zola really is:

We presuppose that Red Skull knew about and ordered Zola to do these serum experiments, but if you actually look closely at the movie again...

There is zero sign Red Skull knew anything at all about Zola’s experiments, or ordered them, and in fact a few things which suggest he very much wouldn’t approve.

Examples:

it’s explicitly stated that Red Skull wanted serum for himself alone (classic MCU villain behaviour) to become a ‘superior man’ so that he could seize the power of the Tesseract -- which he promptly did.

IIRC there’s no mention of Red Skull wanting serum to make a superior army, in the way Phillips says the US Army does.

Zola and Red Skull have been discussing Erskine at some point very recently, because Zola walks in and says ‘I understand you’ve found him?’ (without needing to specify who he’s talking about.)

Zola can immediately pick Erskine out from a series of surveillance photos of random men on the street, despite it being taken from a distance, and while Erskine is wearing a hat (I’d say baldness is his distinguishing feature, wouldn’t you?) Both Erskine and Zola were, until recently, Hydra scientists... To me, these things together suggest that Zola was part of the serum team when Erskine was there.

Zola hears that Red Skull has been looking into Erskine’s work post-Hydra... and then comes in acting all cagey about it, wanting to know more but trying to act like he’s not bothered, and despite Red Skull being a scary mofo he tries to dissuade Red Skull from looking into it any more. ( 'You disapprove’ /  ‘I just don’t see why you need concern yourself. I can’t imagine he will succeed... again.’)

Red Skull says he wants the serum destroyed, has ordered Erskine killed and his lab destroyed, and yet somebody high up in Hydra has told the spy Clemson to retrieve a vial of the serum in the process of blowing up the SSR lab. Why?

When Zola hears that Red Skull has already given the order for Erskine to be killed and the serum destroyed, he looks dismayed and tries to leave in a hurry...

In the 3-4 months after this moment with Red Skull, Zola is given control of a tesseract-weapons factory and, despite Red Skull specifically telling him he wanted the serum destroyed, starts doing serum experiments on American soldiers.

(Think how quickly he’d have to set up that factory and then get all the components for serum before he could start doing this; he must have been on this from the second he and Red Skull had that conversation... if not before?)

Zola is very clearly in charge alone at the Krausberg weapons factory, because there’s a scene where Red Skull takes an inspection and is given updates about their productivity (which wouldn’t be necessary if he was based there himself; we know he isn’t, because his main base is elsewhere in the Alps). IE. Zola has a secret place he can do things without Red Skull knowing.

Red Skull orders Zola to work the POWs harder, and Zola looks dismayed (then mentions he doesn’t think they have the... strength).

Red Skull orders Zola to work the POWs to death and then replace them

if Red Skull had ordered Zola to do experiments on them, why would he be treating these valuable subjects as if they’re expendable? 

why would he lace the factory they’re all housed in with explosives? (which Zola clearly doesn’t know about) 

why would he be so blase about blowing them up? 

(Red Skull doesn’t treat the POWs as if they’re important; ergo, shows no signs of knowing about Zola’s experiments at all.)

On two occasions (including in the factory) Red Skull meets Steve and is very visibly pissed off to face another supersoldier. He asks Steve what’s so special about him, that Erskine gave him ‘everything.’ Like other characters who greedily seize serum power for themselves, Red Skull is an egomaniac. He very clearly has it in his head that he (like Steve) is a special, unique, Great Man, great enough to harness the power of the Tesseract, and it should be he alone who gets to outdo ‘mere mortals.’

This outraged interrogation is not the behaviour of a man who: 

a) happily ordered for other supersoldiers to be created, or 

b) already knew what kind of person serum works on (Bucky). 

If Red Skull had known about Bucky, he’s the kind of guy to taunt Steve about Zola experimenting on his best friend; or about Steve not being special after all, since Bucky has serum too. But there is never any indication at all that Red Skull even notices Bucky, or knows anything about him or Zola’s serum.

tl;dr: IMO, all these human experiments with serum are entirely Zola’s baby, done  secretly / without Red Skull’s orders, and/or Zola doesn’t want Red Skull finding out about them.

So it’s very plausible that Zola had his own side plot going to recapture Bucky. Maybe even intended to be caught by the SSR all along...? 🤔

Time for some more rambling. I’m not sure if this is something that’s already been touched on in the fandom, but I was rewatching the The First Avenger recently and I’m pretty sure the train was set up by Hydra to be a trap for Bucky… 

Let’s start by looking at the scene where Steve rescues Bucky from the Hydra munitions factory. When Schmidt sees that Captain America has infiltrated the facility, he sets the building to destruct. Zola sees what Schmidt is doing and he freaks the hell out.

Now, Zola is normally a groveling worm when it comes to Schmidt. He knows better than to stand up to him; but there’s something that tips him over the edge here–if just for a second.  

We already know there are a handful of other munitions factories across Europe (which is part of the reason Schmidt can be so casual about blowing up this one). Wanting to save the weapons might be part of Zola’s reaction here, but that really isn’t reason enough for him to risk Schmidt’s anger (which can be deadly). At this point in time, there’s nothing in the factory they can’t afford to lose. 

Except for Bucky. 

Sergeant Barnes is the first one to show signs he might survive his stint in the isolation ward. He’s the first one to show signs that he might be responding to Zola’s attempts to create his own super soldier. That research is only located in one place, and Schmidt is about to send Zola’s breakthrough up in flames. The moment Zola realizes he can’t stop Schmidt, he makes a break for the lab to try to rescue his notes. Of course there’s no way he can carry Bucky out of there, so he has to make do with what he can get.  

In a painful twist of fate, Steve does Zola a favor by saving Bucky. 

Take a look at this standoff on the scaffold. Here the audience is meant to focus on Steve and Schmidt going head-to-head for the first time; but pay attention to Bucky and Zola. This is their standoff, too. Follow their line of sight. They’re not looking at Steve and/or Schmidt through most of this scene. They’re looking at each other, and you can almost see the realization on Zola’s face that his experiment might just be saved. 

Don’t you dare look at Bucky like that, you asshole. 

Also, can I just point out the look on Bucky’s face when he spots Zola?

If looks could kill. 

Not to mention his face when he sees what Schmidt looks like under the mask. Sure, Bucky’s line asking Steve if he has “one of those” is meant to be a joke for the audience; but I think Bucky’s experience as a character is a lot different from our experience outside the fourth wall. He’s genuinely scared–for Steve, for himself. You can see the trace of tears in his eyes. 

Bucky knows something awful has been done to him at the hands of Hydra, and he doesn’t know if he’s going to lose his humanity, too. 

Jump ahead and Captain America and the Howling Commandos are now laying waste to anything and everything Hydra. Things are looking bad for our villains.

This is an interesting line, because the movie doesn’t exactly tell us what Zola’s mission is. Maybe we’re supposed to think his mission is to make sure the weapons are finished in time to meet Schmidt’s timeline for world domination. Or maybe it’s to kill Captain America. And maybe those things are part of his job, but as Zola himself says, “I merely develop the weapons. I cannot fire them.” His primary job is research and development, not tactical planning and defense. 

Now that Hydra is up against a super soldier, it’s likely that Schmidt is anxious to get his own super soldiers into combat. The easiest and fastest way to complete that research, of course, is to retrieve Sergeant Barnes. (In theory, Zola could use Steve for experimentation if he caught him; but he would have to start the experiment from scratch. Peggy made it clear earlier in the film that it would take them years to find out the formula using Steve’s blood. Chances are good the same would apply to Zola. The work on Bucky is already underway, it’s Zola’s own handy work, and Bucky’s still weak enough to be an easy catch compared to Steve.)

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that, directly after Schmidt gives Zola the ultimatum to “finish his mission,” we cut to the Howling Commandos laying in wait for the train. They’re hoping to catch Zola, whose location has somehow been leaked, and it quickly becomes clear that the scummy doctor hasn’t been caught by surprise. In fact, everything indicates that Zola was the one laying in wait for them. He’s surveilling the entire train from a command center and issuing orders to strategically placed Hydra soldiers.

When Steve and Bucky board the car, Zola deliberately separates them.

Divide and conquer is a tried and true tactic, but look at the difference in the opponents sent after them. Steve is given a huge opponent armed to the back teeth with a Tesseract energy gun. But Bucky? Bucky faces off against one traditionally-armed guard. (EDIT: In a subsequent viewing I noticed he actually faces off against two guards, but the second one is barely seen and is removed from the equation fairly quickly.)

Why wasn’t that guard given an energy weapon too? My guess would be because Zola didn’t want his guinea pig harmed too badly. Bullet wounds can heal, but disintegration is forever. 

It might also be telling that when Steve and Bucky are back in the same compartment together, Zola screams “kill him” not “kill them.” It’s up for debate who Zola meant for the guard to target; but since he was initially sent after Steve, it’s my assumption that’s who Zola meant for him to shoot.    

As we all know, the plan goes horribly awry on both sides and Bucky falls to his seeming death. Zola is captured and, when Colonel Philips tells him that “the last guy you cost us was Captain Roger’s closest friend,” Zola barely acknowledges it with a creeptacular grin. 

He knows. He knows whatever he did to Bucky would keep him alive. And, as it turns out, even as a captive Zola will gain the means to finish his little experiment. 

Fucker.