#expending mcu

[madamebaggio]

Merry Crackshipping 2022!!!

All the battles were worth it! It is done and I’m proud but scared of myself... lol

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it.

DISCLAIMER: This is a fan made video, made only for fun. I do not claim to own any of these works. 

Happy Holidays!!

Music: "All I want for Christmas is you" by Mariah Carey 

Images from: 

Mariah Carey's "All I want for Christmas is you" music video 

"The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug" 

"Thor: Dark World" 

"The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies"

 "The Expendables 3" 

"Dollface" 

"Boss Level"

 "Marvel's Defenders" 

"Reign"

 "Game of Thrones"

 "The Witcher"

 "House of the Dragon" 

"Birds of Prey" 

"Charlie's Angels" 

 Ships: 

Loki x Thranduil 

Bilbo Baggins x Thorin Oakenshield (Bagginshield) 

Darcy Lewis x Brock Rumlow (with Barney Ross being Darcy's father) 

Susan Pevensie x Robb Stark 

Jessica Jones x Matt Murdock (DareJones)

Geralt of Rivia as the father for both Ciri and Rhaenyra 

Dinah Lance x Sabina Wilson 

 Remember you can always find me on YouTube and AO3 as madamebaggio. Have fun.

[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.

[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.

[trashpandaorigins]

This might be an unpopular opinion but the very fact that they can just have the OG Gamora we know and love die…and have a “replacement” Gamora come back shows just how expendable she is to them.

I love OG Gamora, I was enraged at her death at the hands of her abuser (Thanos) if Gunn-and by extension the rest of the MCU-think they can just “replace her,” with a “new,” Gamora and make us watch the whole Starmora story play out (yet again), they are sorely mistaken.

[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.

[darksxder]

mcu masterlist

bucky barnes 

loud roommates | series| smut, fluff & angst | rivals to lovers | college!au |

-  hating your roommate and academic rival wasn’t difficult, especially with his lack of care for the rule of no noise after 10pm

ms. america | series | slowburn | angst, fluff & smut | haters to rivals to lovers | 

- after becoming an american icon in the marines, you’re recruited to take up the shield of captain america 

hydra hero | mini series | heavy angst & fluff | allies to friends to lovers |

- once a brainwashed pawn for hydra, you’re now just someone who went to therapy in the same building as bucky barnes 

druig / makarri 

forever and more | series | heavy angst, fluff & smut | enemies to lovers | canon-divergent | 

-  with the rise of deviants, new eternals must be made, but the process of choosing the best candidate proves deadly, as no price is too high for immortality 

bookshelf building is a gateway to sex | series | smut, fluff & angst| roommates to lovers |   

- you had a rule to never fuck your roommate, but druig made enforcing that rule difficult

eddie brock / venom 

tainted | series | slowburn | angst, fluff & smut | dying!reader x eddiex venom | 

- eddie took everything from you and in an effort of revenge you aim to take away his freedom, but instead steal his symbiote from him

helmut zemo 

the expendables | series | angst, fluff & smut | enemies to lovers to betrayal, repeat |     

- zemo was not afraid of anything but you, as he horribly betrayed you years ago

sins and sugar | series | fluff & angst | chef!au | 

- you’re a quiet but renowned chef, so you aren’t terribly surprised when helmut zemo asks you to travel to paris with him for a new restaurant opening 

natasha romanoff

the sharps  | one-shot |  angst, no comfort | lovers to enemies |        

-   there was nothing natasha romanoff was better at than hating you, even when she was but a child learning how to kill  

dire diner( for @belle82devart​ )| one-shot| tooth rotting fluff | strangers to lovers | 

- natasha liked the hiding spot that your diner proved to be, and she loved how easy it was to fluster you 

peter parker 

good 4 u | one-shot | fluff | friends to lovers |

- once befriending peter parker you start getting stalked by a red spider 

steve rogers 

to miss you, is to live | one-shot | angst & fluff | happy ending |

- your lover reminisces on memories of you, even as his life fades away

baby, i know the law | mini-series | angst & fluff | haters to lovers |

- an accomplished young lawyer usually doesn’t end up with public enemy #1 steve rogers (captain america) at their door, but you certainly did

stucky (bucky x steve x reader)  

command badger | series | angst, fluff & smut | ww2 & future centered | inglorious basterds! type au | not marvel’s view of what war is | 

-  you led a small group of women called ‘the badgers’, that tore down germans left and right, successfully stealing information from the howling commandos

tony stark 

embellishment ( for @belle82devart​ ) | one-shot | fluff & angst| rivals to lovers | 

- you were simply ‘the help’, to Tony stark, but you were loved for your work as the avengers fashion designer, and you aim to prove just exactly why to tony 

wanda maximoff

loving is grief | one-shot | heavy angst, no comfort | dead!reader | wandavision era | 

- losing you in the final battle against thanos was simply too much, and if wanda had to destroy the world to bring you back, she would not hesitate to do so

yondu udonta 

pleasure barge | one-shot | smut & fluff | friends to enemies to lovers|

- you’re brought on his ship for pleasure, but instead staged a mutiny that impressed yondu much more than it probably should have

[adhoption]

The whole complaint about there being too many comic book movies is weird when you think of it as a medium rather than a genre - it's like complaining about there being too many novel adaptations, or films based on a true story.

Actually, come to think of it, it does feel like we've had enough films based on video games or musical biopics recently, but that just means that comic book adaptations are hardly the problem. It's all unoriginal, just chasing trends and following certain formulae, all latching onto recognisably IP and milking it until it curdles.

Relative to an industry dominated by films based on toys and household objects and spun off of TV series, even cannibalising other films into unwanted remakes and reboots and sequels and prequels, somebody adapting an actual story, with new characters, that has not been previously adapted to film, is like a breath of fresh air.

Within that medium, there can still be great diversity of genre. It used to be that we could distinguish between film noir and heist capers, between space operas and spy thrillers, but now if they were originally comic books it's all the same. It feels like lumping The Shawshank Redemption and IT together as 'Stephen King movies', or Twilight and The Godfather as 'novel movies'.

Yes, there are a lot of Marvel stories being produced all at once, but that's because they have half a century of content to catch up with, with thousands of comic editions to sift through and adapt. It's no different to what they'd do with anything else, and if anything I think they're being more discerning than the way they drag out some of their other source material.

You think they wouldn't have made 30 Harry Potter films if there were enough books? They added some extra ones as it was, and now they want to do a TV series. They turned a couple of Jurassic Park books into six films and counting. The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings became twenty hours and a TV series. If the Marvel canon offers a whole untapped universe of hundreds of characters to explore, what do you expect them to do?

'There are too many Marvel movies', sure, but there are too many everything movies. Every single smidgeon of IP will get exploited until all of the flavour runs out. This year alone we have John Wick 4, Rocky 9, Scream 6, Fast and the Furious 10, Evil Dead 5, Magic Mike 3, Transformers 7, Indiana Jones 5, Insidious 5, Mission Impossible 7, The Equaliser 3, The Expendables 4, The Exorcist 6, Saw 10, Trolls 3, Hunger Games 5, and Ghostbusters 5.

At the same time, we have films based on Super Mario Bros. and D&D and Gran Turismo and Five Nights at Freddy's and Teen Wolf and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Paw Patrol, biopics about George Foreman and the origins of Tetris and Air Jordans, remakes of Children of the Corn and The Colour Purple and White Men Can't Jump and Haunted Mansion, live action adaptations of The Little Mermaid and Peter Pan and a Willy Wonka prequel for some reason.

I feel exhausted just reading through that list. How many of those films were actually needed, or even wanted? How many are an obvious cash grab from a studio bereft of any original ideas, a forced extension of a franchise which should have been left to rest where it was? I don't understand all of the criticism focusing on the fact that there are three MCU films, when surely they are no more tired than any of the alternatives?

If you ignore the cross-over events, and look at Guardians of the Galaxy 3 or Ant-Man 3 as the conclusion of a self-contained trilogy, resolving various character arcs and introducing an engaging villain which an established history and background in the source material and an actual plotline planned out and executed, I don't know how you can say they aren't stories at least as worth telling as the umpteenth phoned-in sequel being drawn out of every popular film, with no plan other than to try to copy what was good in the original, to increasingly diminishing returns.

Next year we're going to get Planet of the Apes 4 (itself a reboot of a reboot), Godzilla/Kong 5 (itself the latest in a long line of reboots) Mad Max 5, Kung-Fu Panda 4, Transformers 8, Mission Impossible 8, Despicable Me/Minions 6, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, a musical biopic of Bob Marley, a live action remake of Snow White, another Garfield film, a prequel to the Lion King remake, and sequels to Dirty Dancing, Gladiator, and Beetlejuice.

I'm not looking forward to Thunderbolts, Captain America 4 or the Blade remake, but I don't think they're less original than almost any other film being released, and I don't understand why people are acting like Marvel are doing something particularly boring or cynical when they are still largely adapting original material and still have untapped stories to tell, which is more than can be said for most of these zombie franchises staggering on long after they should have ended.

[elrondhalfelven]

Are there any characters from the comics you would add or take out of any of the 3 movies?

I haven’t read a ton of the comics, need to read more of them…is there anything you hated that was stripped from the characters transferring to the MCU or that was added that wasn’t in the comics?

like most teams, there are sooo many gotg members in the comics that it’s silly and you literally can’t have everyone in a 2hr movie. it would be terrible. that being said, there are staples of the team/people allied with the team who the movies chose to introduce later/haven’t introduced at all (adam, mantis, phyla, heather, cosmo, rich etc.). however when you acknowledge that yes, it’s a two hour movie, and you have finite time to introduce characters and get people invested, the core team in vol1 makes sense to me (pete, gamora, drax, rocket, groot). they’re all dynamic and distinct characters that leave a strong impression. it would be nice to have more women in the movie (mantis could have been squeezed in somehow!) but as it stands they’re a strong line up.

i do find vol 2 quite… self-indulgent?? for gunn. if we’re specifically talking about it as a comic adaptation, he started developing things that don’t have any real basis in the comics. it’s a good movie, don’t get me wrong, but he very much did his own thing with it. god damn adam should have been introduced in this one. so i guess my point is that I would have introduced a lot of characters earlier but the ramifications of that would be so messy, that fixing them would result in films unrecognisable from the ones we have!

in terms of changes, the characters in the comics are much more morally ambiguous. peter, for example, isn’t incarcerated for being a thief. he’s a mass murderer (that doesn’t sound morally grey, but in context it is haha) who turned himself in. at first, the team are concerned that he sees them as totally expendable. he’s doing suicide runs. he’s that stressed out about the guardians possibly failing that he makes mantis tamper with their minds to make them want to stay. he has a “somebody needs to do it so why not me” mentality that when written well makes him such an interesting character to follow. i do hate the movie choice to make him a womaniser! just cause it’s so… tired. he’s a lonely little freak <3

a movie example too is that gamora is much harsher; vol. 3 “mean” gamora, for example, is basically truer to comic gamora haha. it’s true that the guardians is the thing that gives her a purpose and saves her life! but her overall attitude about it all is quite different.

to me the movies are an alternate universe and one that’s fun to holiday in but in the end i like to go home to 616 where all the rest of the gang is cause i miss them and their ridiculous shenanigans.

[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...

[bushs-world]

Warning, rant below as well as spoilers for Quantumania and leaks for season 2 👇⬇️

I am kinda pissed right now coz I was looking forward to both Loki season 2 as well as Quantumania and while it's unfair to complain without seeing either of the two but the recent leaks and spoilers have left me a bit unhappy.

For one, I am totally annoyed at the direction MCU is taking with Kangs. I know MCU's entire concept of Kangs is 'you don't have one devil, you have many devils.' And ngl the council of Kang is a fun idea but MCU seems only interested in introducing new Kang variants instead of developing anyone in depth. I feel MCU is treating Kangs as expendable and not caring to explore the backstory of Nathaniel Richards or the twisted relationship between Kang and Ravonna.

In Loki S1 we met HWR but he was killed off in the episode 6 and the entire statue of Kang in the end was just a red herring. Instead TVA is being run by an older version of Sylvie (which I am not excited about tbh. I go back and forth of hating the idea to thinking it might work). There's no exploration of he who remains backstory or how he started the TVA from what I think and that's one big letdown.

I don't understand how sylvie who was supposed to hate the entire existence of TVA due to her past actually start running it. I hate this arc frankly but Kate Dickie is an amazing actress so I am willing to see how it pans out

But now apparently Kang is killed in Quantumania and I am fed up of Marvel's 'is he dead, is he not' or just killing and then bringing back the characters. It's getting old and I hope that's not what marvel does in this movie.

My main point is that yes variants of Kang are awesome and council of Kangs is cool but it's no fun if neither of the kangs is developed and killed off for shock value and replaced by a new variant. I want him to get a backstory and their entire lore developed

[starmora]

I know you have a lot of Gamora asks but I need to share with someone.(If any of this is too much and you don't want to post I'll understand)

I liked parts of vol 3 but the rest of it is tainted for me because I can't let go of how Gamora was treated and I don't think anyone else should either. Gamora's death was too eerily similar to cruel, careless losses of life we've seen for people in real life. The way fans have brushed it off as justifiable has been too eerily similar. The way most of the characters who were supposed to be her family brushed it off was too eerily similar. Gamora's life mattered and only 2 people acted like it did thereby having the entire canon suggest that she was barely important to the family she helped create and the story she she had been a big part of.

You can literally see the hierarchy of whose lives were considered important and whose weren't when looking at the deaths in IW and EG. Loki, Vision, Tony and Natasha all had already completed their arcs either in a separate trilogy(loki)or were Avengers dying in an Avengers centered event. They all didn't die completely alone. They didn't die back in the same exact hell they had escaped from. They all got visual on screen mourning from all the characters who knew them best and/or a show or movie that further explored their lives, importance and/or grief around what happened to them. Then you have Heimdall who didn't die alone and Thor was upset but beyond that not much else. Last you get Gamora who died alone. Was back with her abuser. Reduced back into a tool for her abuser to use. Had her soul forever tied to her abusers actions. Most of her family doesn't appear to have cared she died and in fact pretend she didn't die and instead just can't remember them. Which even then they don't care she can't remember them. And everyone but Peter pretends she never played any importance to the family and didn't contribute to who and what the guardians are. Most of them also didn't even speak to her past self or notice her existence. If all of this isn't enough look at how Gunn treated Yondu's death and then look back at Gamora's.

Now am I really supposed to believe all of that is a coincidence. And even if it is a coincidence that doesn't change the harm. That doesn't change the mcu objectively putting out a broad story that makes it look like Gamora was expendable and we should forget about what came before her death because it's not like most of her family cared anyway. They don't even credit Gamora for the end of Nebula's arc taking on the care of the kids when it was literally Gamora in vol 2 who said there were kids out there who needed saving and they could help them. Like come on now. They could easily have Nebula say it's something Gamora wanted us to do together or I think Gamora would be so happy to see this. They couldn't even acknowledge Gamora had hopes and dreams that will never be fulfilled

Again maybe this wasn't done on purpose but it still paints a certain picture. If people want to say it doesn't matter just look around at how many fans and the general audience are taking it and what they are saying about her and her worth. It would have taken 1 minute to have Drax and Mantis say they miss Gamora too while talking to Peter. The holiday special easily could have had all of them take 2 minutes to discuss Gamora or have Drax say, yeah I miss her too this is hard when Mantis said Peter was still so sad. Even a stranger could have more compassion and empathy for Gamora's death and the new situation she's in than most of her family. Also why can nobody say murder victim, abuse victim, killed when talking to Peter. Why are they trying to downplay what happened. She doesn't have amnesia. She was murdered and then poor past Gamora was denied ever getting to know them by the events of Endgame. By the end of the movie as much as I love these characters I was glad both Gamora and Peter left. You don't try to gaslight a grieving person into thinking the person they loved isn't really dead and wasn't killed when the whole movie is about how Gamora died and her past self never got to live that life. You don't not speak to past Gamora even if just once to say I'm glad you're in the future and found something you love because you deserve it. All of this hurts so much. Especially seeing some fans say she got a good arc and nothing was wrong. Would they honestly choose this over say what Yondu got if someone asked them choose how you get to die and how the aftermath is handled. Then there are other fans trying to act like not even Peter loved her or that she doesn't need love anyway. This whole thing is sickening.

Thank you for sharing. I really do appreciate it, because it’s nice to see I’m not alone in these feelings.

Honestly the more I think about the difference between Gamora’s death and anyone else’s death, the angrier I get. But tbh it’s the worst when I think about Yondu. In every other circumstance you can chalk it up to just being different writers or directors or creative directions, but when you directly compare the difference between yondu and Gamora, Gunn’s favoritism becomes pretty clear imo. I truly don’t know why so many people are seemingly okay with how she’s been treated over the last 5 years. It’s even surprising to me how many apparent fans seem to be okay as long as she’s still technically “alive” and wanna get on people’s cases if they express anything other than extreme approval with how she’s been handled

[thisischaostragic]

MCU (Magic Corner) Multiverse Saga Predictions

I am just a lone MCU ScarletVision fanfic writer who has made a funny volume of accidentally corroborated predictions, so here's a running list for posterity. (I don't want all of these to happen; it's based on where I think writers are foreshadowing things going.)

Wanda confirmed alive/mentioned in a post-credit scene of Loki or the Marvels.

Agatha: Coven of Chaos delayed to 2024/2025 because they want it to be closer to DS3, so that they can reveal that Agatha got the Darkhold from Sinister Strange.

Sinister Strange gave Agatha the Darkhold with the intention of getting it to Wanda so that she'd either destroy it or kill 616 Strange.

Sinister Strange knows Wanda would be severely hurt and/or die if she read the Darkhold, but he does it anyway with the "in the grand calculus of the multiverse" quote.

616 Strange did actually get corrupted by the Darkhold, which makes him one of the Strange variants "destined" to destroy the multiverse.

Kang is pro-Wanda and saved her from dying on Wundagore.

Wanda and Agatha formally become a little morally ambiguous duo at the end of Coven of Chaos, possibly with Billy.

Wanda wants to find Tommy and begrudgingly decides to look for Vision, too, because the 'twins deserve to know their father' but she's mad at him because seriously why did he go on a self-discovery journey for a YEAR after they lost their kids...?

Hex!Billy and Tommy were physical embodiments of cosmic entities who sought new "hosts" when the Hex ended, choosing children who'd get to cross paths with Wanda and Vision. (Kinda similar to Love from T:L&T. Less complicated than reincarnation.)

Vision Quest is unfortunately not as dark as it could be, and Wanda mostly makes flashback appearances for more "stolen moments" heartbreak.

Wanda shows up in real-time at the end of Vision Quest and he apologizes but she rejects it for the added drama.

White Vision identifies all the Young Avengers in Vision Quest and introduces many of them, but the team doesn't form until later.

The Young Avengers formally become a team in Kang Dynasty, when a mysterious young Kang variant shows up to tell them that the 616 heroes are actually helping a destined supervillain who Kang Prime is trying to stop, so they need to defect from the Avengers.

The YA team is who brings Wanda in knowing that she'll believe them about the Avengers having a future supervillain. She joins forces with them and the team is initially seen as antagonists from the Avengers POV, especially due to affiliation with Wanda.

616 heroes splinter over whether or not to trust YA team. Monica, Carol, and Sam side with YA team. Inexplicably, Spider-Man does not.

KD subplot: the YA team does Darcy-style live commentary of "oh my god just KISS ALREADY" trying to get Wanda and Vision back together.

Scott and Clint die in Kang Dynasty.

Plot twist at the end of Kang Dynasty is that the YA team + ScarVis are right and Sinister Strange is actually a huge threat. Everyone turns to 616 Strange, whose hands are black before the movie cuts.

DS3 ties all the Strange lore together but leaves it ambiguous as to whether or not 616 Strange is "doomed." Sets up Clea to be the next 616 Sorcerer Supreme.

Secret Wars features a fight about whether or not to just preemptively kill 616 Strange like the Illuminati did in 838. Most people are on board but Wanda comes forward to say she refuses to treat a good man like he's expendable just because of the Darkhold. Everyone stares awkwardly.

Kang actually builds Battleworld in Secret Wars to save people from Strange, who's been destroying universes with no actual plan, whereas Kang wants to rule them all.

Scarlet Witch vs. Sinister Strange rematch in Secret Wars.

Kang wants Wanda's help with something and offers her time with her kids. She says no, which is a "turning point" in her redemption for the other heroes.

Main fight in Secret Wars is deciding between order and chaos, basically. This doesn't focus extensively on Wanda, who is pretty firmly against both destruction and time fascism.

Before the big battle, Wanda and Vision finally admit they're still in love "just in case."

Wanda and Loki chaos teamup.

Monica has a cross between Wanda's and Carol's Endgame roles where she basically saves everybody's asses and establishes herself as the most powerful, but isn't the thematic core of the movie.

Wanda (and maybe Billy, America, and Franklin Richards) has to "destroy the world" (Battleworld) and essentially restart the multiverse. Prophecy fulfilled.

X-Men don't exist in 616, but Wanda finds out about Magneto in Secret Wars and ends up bringing the X-Men into the main continuity from another timeline as a "reverse" House of M and speedrunning the "redeemer" arc. (Mutants were still an oppressed class in the other timeline.)

838 Maria Rambeau lives and 838 Monica Rambeau died pre-DS2, so 838 Maria and 616 Monica are reunited. (Please let Monica be furious at Wanda. I know they're unlikely to go this route but JESUS.)

Wanda tells Strange that his destiny isn't sealed, but someone has to stay behind to close Battleworld and Wanda's going to do it ("I fucked up, I should be the one to sacrifice" vibes) but Strange stops her and sacrifices himself instead (sad).

Strange and Thor die in Secret Wars. Maybe Carol. Sorry.

Vision doesn't die (SHOCKING) and they go home together :')

Sometime at the end of Secret Wars, someone tells Wanda that even though the timeline and prophecy fuckery was caused by Kang and Strange, Chthon IS real and DOES want her.

Post-SW Scarlet Witch movie is an adaptation of Darkhold: Omega. She does not ever get heavily involved with the mutants.

Wishful thinking:

Morgan le Fay (Aubrey Plaza) and Agatha Harkness are ex lovers.

Scarlet Witch movie is actually three witches harmed by the Darkhold (Wanda, Agatha, Morgan) taking back their autonomy from Chthon.

Monica Rambeau trilogy.

Love is actually Tommy's reincarnation and after Thor dies, she chooses to grow up with Wanda and Vision.

Vision is a background character in the Scarlet Witch movie but really only as a sexy house husband.

[side-shuffling-hyperfixations]

@whumptober #19: Knees Buckling

Fandom: Marvel (MCU Spider-Man)

Characters: Peter Parker (Tom Holland)

~

You’ve got this. One step at a time. Been doing it for seventeen years. You’re a pro at this point. 

Left and right. Slow and steady. No big deal.

This internal mantra and the grinding of his teeth were all that kept Peter from yelping with every small shuffle toward home. Every nearby wall or post became a crutch as his leg wobbled like a splintered toothpick. At least the setules in his hands kept his grip relatively steady, despite the imbalance of his gait.

He couldn’t tell yet if his leg was sprained, broken or dislocated; he didn’t even want to think of the possibility but with his luck, it could be all of the above.

Did it matter at this point? At the moment all he needed to know was whether or not it would last long enough to make it to the safety of his apartment. His knee throbbed viciously, a promise that as soon as it was free of the confines of the suit, it would swell like a gourd.

One lucky goon with one lucky swing of his bat against Spider-Man’s leg. Snap, crackle, pop, that was it. If he hadn’t expended the last of his web fluid stringing the guy up—

A lip in the pavement wrenched him out of his thoughts, sending him staggering against a dumpster with a strangled gasp. Nausea soured his tongue at the stench of the trash and the roiling pain, reflexive tears budding in his eyes.

This might be worth a call for pickup.