#has this one been done yet? I have seen dimension travel and alternate universes but not like this. if you know one drop the link!

[magicpiano]

I have seen the idea in Danny Phantom fics that the ghost zone connects alternate universes to each other. This makes me want a fic where Danny has a bad reveal with his family, escapes to the ghost zone, then goes to another world where Danny just straight up died in his accident. In their grief, his parents completely abandoned their research.

These alternate Fentons don't care that Danny is half ghost, nor that he is from another world, they are just so happy he is here. Now Danny has x2 Jazz, Sam, and Tucker.

[aspiringhorrorauthor]

GX Month- Heartbeat

Times of great stress and fear give way to times of peace, and Prince Haou is looking forward to the long-awaited visit of his friend

For @gxmonth

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41403294/chapters/104847597

Warnings for this one are blood, death, and possession.

“Sir Marmoru is here to visit you, your highness.”

The words swirled around his head like a favourite song, stuck in your head and playing on repeat, a song so brilliant you wouldn’t mind if it remained there forever. The duties of the day had drawn to an end, and the universe was, for now at least, at peace. The forces of darkness and light kept in balance once more, assisted by the emissaries of both. There had yet to be such peace in Haou’s lifetime, and he was relishing every moment of it.

And they had worked long and hard to reach it, knowing too that it was but a brief respite. All too easily could any of the forces regain their strength, and threaten the twelve dimensions once more, but for the first time in ten years, there was nothing calling for the attention of either of them except for their usual day-to-day duties. Marmoru protected the Crystal Beasts, and he helped his father rule the Kingdom.

Haou traversed the corridors with practiced ease: he knew every shortcut, every alternate path. He broke into a run when no-one was looking, walking in a more dignified manner when there were people watching. Marmoru never minded all of that, he’d seen too much of Haou and Haou too much of him for either one to hold the other to any standards higher than when they’d first met, in that forest, hunting for apples and laughing until the sun set, having to sneak back into the castle without either the castle staff or the Guardian noticing.

He cut through the kitchens, stealing an apple off the side of the counter while the staff focused too heavily on their work to acknowledge him. Twenty-four years they’d known him, and they’d known for all that time how little care he gave for them to bow while they were working. The kingdom may one day be his, but the kitchens were ruled by the chefs, and he would never outrank them within their own domain.

Once out of the kitchens it was a short walk to the dias room, where he would always meet Marmoru. It saved his friend walking through the castle, especially if they decided they would rather spend time among the Crystal Beasts in Light World than remain in Dark World. Eagerly, he wrenched the door open.

But the room was almost empty. Only Yubel stood in there, looking as confused as he did.

“I heard Marmoru was coming, so I thought I should meet with him,” Yubel explained, crossing their arms. “But he mustn’t have waited for us.”

“How odd,” Haou commented. “He usually does. Maybe he has been busy and retired to his usual room instead?”

“Perhaps,” Yubel agreed slowly, cautiously. Haou turned to head towards the chambers, with Yubel following close behind. “Or perhaps he is wishing to avoid seeing you, after your last conversation.”

Haou cringed, he’d tried very hard to forget what had happened, the callous things he had said to his friend through his own stress. “I hope not, I must apologise to him, and ensure that he is well after all. Surely he must be, to travel this far.”

“I think it will take more than an apology, my prince,” Yubel warned. Haou stopped, with Yubel stopping behind him. “He was worried, and he came to you for help, and he left feeling rightfully ignored. It’s no wonder it has been so long since his last visit.”

Haou bit his cheek; he’d been working almost tirelessly for a solid month, trying to fight back the Light of Destruction with no break, when Marmoru had approached him, insisting that there was something wrong with his powers. But he couldn’t find anything, and Marmoru’s insistence had irked him badly, sending his dear friend away with a harsh tongue. He regretted every word, yet he wasn’t sure what else he could have done. There truly was nothing wrong with Marmoru, except for what was happening within his own mind.

“But he has come here now, so he must want to see me,” Haou insisted. Marmoru had never, to his knowledge, come to the castle without saying hello. He barely ever passed through Dark World without stopping to check up on him. Maybe he should’ve gone to Light World once the Light of Destruction had faded once more to apologise, but he’d been so tired. Marmoru would understand, he surely had to…

The chambers eventually came into view, with Haou rushing to the guest chamber Marmoru used; truth be told, it was just another guest chamber, and Marmoru could always return home as he pleased so it wasn’t necessary, but he had insisted. He enjoyed having his friend so close. Haou knocked on the door.

“Marmoru? It is me, please make yourself decent if you are not already,” Haou joked, lifting the latch on the door and walking in. But the room was as it was the last time he had seen it: empty, with only the furniture in it. No Marmoru, and no Crystal Beast either. Strange.

“Maybe he has gone to my room?” Haou asked, his heart starting to beat harder within his chest. “If he was searching for me.” Yubel gave an uncertain sound behind him, but Haou was too determined now, too heartbroken to think Marmoru would have left again so suddenly. He walked the short distance to his own room, opening the door without knocking, yet that one was as empty as the first. So where could he be?

Yubel’s hand reached out to hold his own. Had his friend left so quickly? Sent a false message that he wished to see Haou, only to leave him high and dry in return for his own cold behaviour last time they had met? Truly, it was all he deserved…

A sudden scraping from beyond the door to his father’s room caught Haou’s attention. His father had retired for the evening before he had, trying to show trust in his son’s ability to rule by leaving him in charge, even though Haou knew he would double check any decisions he had made in the morning. But how strange for his father to still be awake, usually he went to sleep quite quickly.

“Father?” Haou called out, walking over to the door. It would be too much to ask if the King had seen Marmoru, they generally avoided any mention of the other, but a loud hushing on the other side of the door sent dread to fill Haou’s heart, as it beat strongly through his ears. He knocked gently on the door. “Father, is everything alright?”

“Haou?” Came an all-too-familiar voice, yet in a stranger’s cadence. Haou’s brow furrowed.

“Marmoru? What are you doing in there?” Haou asked, grabbing the door handle and realising it was locked. “Open this door now!”

“It’s alright, Haou,” Marmoru answered, his voice almost dream-like, as if not fully aware of himself. Barely muffled gasping could be heard from within the room. “Everything will be alright.”

“Marmoru!” Haou yelled, trying to push the door with his shoulder. Something wasn’t right, his heart was racing and a heavy weight was settling into his guts, trying to drag him deep, deep into the floor below him. “Open the door!”

Yubel pushed Haou aside, trying to ram the door open themselves, yet the door wouldn’t open. The panic started to really settle in now; what was Marmoru doing in his father’s room? The King would be livid if he found him, and if they were in there together…

The commotion had gathered some of the castle residents to the corridor, watching with shock as Haou desperately tried to get the door open, until one of the monsters stepped up to tackle the door down instead. It flew off its hinges, as Haou rushed through the doorway, his heart thundering within his chest.

Marmoru was stood at the centre of the room, but there was something horribly, horrifically wrong. His eyes looked glazed over, his short, well-kept blonde hair had darkened and become incredibly messy, the light that he always seemed to have such good control other seemed to bathe him like a cloak. And he wielded his sword. It was dripping with blood.

“Haou!” Marmoru greeted, his face cracking into a horrific smile, seeming to stretch further than was every natural on a human face. It was like looking at a friendly dog that had gone completely rabid, yet was only stood staring for now, foaming silent at the mouth. A shiver ran down Haou’s spine. “Come see what I have done!”

The blood on the sword… it was everywhere. Pulsing out across the floor, an ever-growing puddle of wasted life, each beat only taking away more. And there, at the centre, laid like a slaughtered deer in his own blood. Was the King.

Dead.

[heller-a-good-time]

I offer a theory about tonight’s episode and the finale and yes it’s a long shot but I’m just writing this to make both myself and all of you feel a little better.......

From the very beginning of this episode, something felt off.

Dean tells Sam and Jack what happens to Cas and everyone has a very underwhelming reaction to it. Not to mention, they gloss over how exactly Cas died.

For the entirety of the episode they don’t seem very effected by Cas’s death.

Next, we’re told that Lucifer was brought back from the empty despite the fact that only a few episodes ago we were told chuck had no way of doing that. We can obviously chalk that up to bad writing and most likely it probably is. But it’s crazy that they seriously created a plot hole for episodes that are so close to one another. This is usually something we see happen between different seasons.

Also, despite everything that Lucifer has done in this show, the brothers are almost too quick to trust him. Granted they do have some doubts at the very beginning but the brothers would usually put up a bit more fight than that considering how much Lucifer has taken from them over the years. Dean has struggled to trust Jack for several seasons because of what he’s done and specifically what happened to Mary. And yet Dean trusts Lucifer in the space of a couple of minutes.

Then, there’s the ending.

When Chuck finally decides to end Dean and Sam, he says he can “Get his hands dirty” despite the fact that in an episode earlier in the season, Sam accuses him of being too afraid to get his hands dirty.

Chuck is defeated almost too quickly for being God. And the way he begs for Sam and Dean to kill him as they drive away also just doesn’t seem like God.

Also, this entire season, we’ve seen Dean absolutely furious over what Chuck has done to him and his family’s lives. He has been so hellbent on killing him that he pointed a gun at his own brother just two episodes ago. Even last episode, he tried to take Death on by himself because he was so motivated to kill Chuck. And then when he’s finally at that moment he’s been waiting for, he barely seems to care. Granted, it could be argued that Cas’s death might’ve made him finally realize how reckless he’s been the entire season. But everytime Dean has ever lost someone he usually has two responses. Getting himself killed or revenge (with the exception of Sam’s deaths where he obviously desperately tries to bring him back but I’ll talk more about that in a second) It’s been a consistent pattern with him throughout the show. And yet all of them are absent here. They’re not even acknowledged.

And also, them sparing Chuck wasn’t them being heroic. Killing him would have been mercy in this instance. Instead, they force him to live as mortal with no family—because he killed the only son who still trusted him, and he has to spend the rest of his life knowing he couldn’t defeat Sam and Dean. This specifically reminds me of that scene when Dean was demon back in season 10 when he spared the man who had traveled all that way and trained his entire life just to kill Dean for what he did to his father. And Dean spares him. Not because it was the good thing to do. Because the man would spend his entire life knowing he missed his one shot and that was ultimately a worse punishment than death. And they do the same thing to Chuck in this episode.

When Jack brings everyone back, the boys don’t even seem to care that now all of their friends and Eileen are alive. Sam doesn’t even mention her despite the fact that two episodes ago when he first heard about everyone “going back to where they belong” his first concern was Eileen. He was also completely gutted last episode knowing she was gone and he doesn’t even mourn her in this episode.

Also, when Jack becomes God, Dean doesn’t even ask him to bring Cas back. Despite the fact that this is once again one of his common responses we’ve seen consistently throughout the show when he loses someone. And especially considering how Cas died, Dean should especially want him back. Even when not interpreting his feelings romantically, Cas has been his best friend for 11 years. And they finally have the peace that Cas helped them fight (and sacrificed his own life) for. Dean would want Cas back. Especially since he knows now from earlier on in this episode that God has the power to do that.

Jack then decided to not go to the bunker with them. Despite the fact that for the three seasons he’s been in, the only thing he’s ever wanted was a family and to be accepted. (Let’s not even mention the fact that the brothers were both just chill with a 3 year old running the universe now. Even if it is Jack. He’s literally three. But whatever.)

The boys head back to the bunker and celebrate their “big win” if you can even call it that. They are completely content with being all alone. They lost Cas. They kind of lost Jack too. And they’re fine with it.

Literally last season, a bunch of hunters from the alternate dimension that they barely knew were all murdered and they were more upset about the bunker being empty after that than they are at the end of this episode.

They do a toast to all of the people they’ve lost along the way in a bit too good of a mood, which is something that these characters would never do. We’ve seen them grieve every person they’ve ever lost prior to this episode and they always believe the blood in on their hands. Yet now they’re suddenly content with the people they’ve lost. Even if it was their own faults.

The entire show has been about family. And yet half of their family is missing in this ending and they’re okay.

The entire show has also been about how the two of them have a crippling codependent relationship and how that always seems to start trouble. Instead of the brothers finally acknowledging this relationship. They now live happily in the bunker. Probably still codependent on each other.

Which means neither of them were forced to learn a damn thing.

My point is this episode feels very off.

And people who have watched 15 seasons of this show more than likely recognize that.

And there’s so many things that seem wrong and ooc that it almost feels as if it’s on purpose.

And that’s why I’m starting to wonder.....

What if it is?

There’s one more episode to go and what if, just maybe, they reveal that the episode that we just watched tonight isn’t what really happened. Maybe it’s the cheesy “it was all a dream” trope. Who knows?

The biggest reason why I believe this (besides the fact that I’m just a salty bitch and I need to find a way to calm myself down) is because this ending aligns almost perfectly with what Becky said about Chuck’s final ending earlier on in the season.

I now provide you the examples:

Just saying.....

I think that this might just be another variation of Chuck’s endings that they were forced to play out. Or something like that.

Because there’s just so many things that don’t fit with the entire rest of the show.

From what I’ve seen online thus far, people are very upset with this episode. Because they’ve watched 15 seasons of this show and they can tell when something just isn’t right.

And in a way, if this episode was purposely made to feel off to then reveal in the finale that none of this was real, it would pay respect to the fans who watched the show for all these years. Because they’re so familiar with the characters and the way plot lines usually play out that when all of a sudden it felt like Opposite Day watching this episode, they picked up on it and they were supposed to.

(Also another thing that I just realized I forgot to add, maybe this is just me, but a lot of the scenes in the montage at the end were very random??? Like a lot of them were insignificant scenes from the show. Ya know? I just think if any of us put together a montage for this show it would probably feature very different scenes. Like way more important ones. Maybe this fits into my theory? Maybe I’m absolutely reaching too damn far with this one. Idk. Please tell me I’m crazy)

Maybe this episode relied on fans having extensive knowledge of this show and it’s past. Maybe this episode wants you to believe something is off about it. Because they’re going to rip the rug right out from under you in the finale.

Hell, maybe this entire season has been a lie. We’ve seen Dean specifically do things he would never do in previous episodes. Point a gun at Sam. Tell Jack he’s not family. Be completely on board with sacrificing a family member. And Sam has been practically wallpaper in this season but maybe let’s not get into that too much. And hell, I’m gonna say it: Destiel went kinda canon when we never in a million years ever thought it would. Maybe all of these things are supposed to tell us all of this season wasn’t real? Maybe. Dunno. I think I’m actually just going insane? Yeah that’s probably it.

I’m really just spit balling here. Mostly because I was very upset by this episode. But maybe some of you feel the same and even if this is nowhere close to where the show is heading in its ending, I just wanted to maybe provide some comfort to those who feel the same as me.

Or maybe I’m completely wrong and this episode was just bad.

[jadoue1999]

The X-Men and the member they lost - Chapter 3

Summary: What do you get when you mix Hayward and the Xmen? A pissed off Erik that's seriously trying to not murder the man!

Previous parts: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, 

Chapter 3: The Maximoff Anomaly

They had settled in fast. The older man that had intercepted them was called Hayward. He seemed very distraught at their arrival and made them go into an unused building. The director hadn’t listened to their protesting, he preferred having them out of the way. For what ever reason, Erik wasn’t sure. They soon realized that time worked differently in this universe. While they had already seen the episode and moved on, it had just ended as they arrived. Charles had told him with amusement that Hank would go crazy over the possibilities. Thankfully, the bunker contained televisions that monitored the town and the broadcast. Hayward had deemed necessary to make sure only people close to him knew of their arrival. They were all sitting around a table when he demanded their story. Charles spoke up. “We’re not from your Earth,” he started.

The director had looked at Kurt with a raised eyebrow, “I had that much figured.”

The professor continued, “two weeks back, one of our members went missing and the broadcast was all we could find. Our universe seems to be ahead of you with the episodes, but we are behind in years.”

“How so?” Questioned the woman sitting next to Erik.

“To us, it’s the eighties.” Charles waited a few moments, letting the people around some time to understand. “We come from a world where people are born with mutations, Kurt here can teleport.” The teenager looked at the professor, silently asking for permission to show his powers. Charles nodded and the blue mutant teleported from one side of the room to another. Hayward seemed shocked as the rest of the people gasped. Charles continued, “this is Raven, she can shapeshift.” Erik smirked as Mystique changed into a perfect copy of the director, making him jump out of his chair in surprise. She turned back into her human form and watched with amusement as Hayward slowly sat back down, eyeing her with caution. Probably seeing how unsettled the agents were, Charles decided to end this quickly. “I can personally read mind and Erik can control metal.”

Erik rolled his eyes as the military people looked at them with wide eyes. He wasn’t going to demonstrate his powers; he had done enough of that with Shaw. The team seemed to get the message that there would be no more demonstrations and moved on.

“So,” said the lady next to the director, “why are you here? Other than the broadcast.”

“Oh well, like I’ve mentioned before, we had a member of our team go missing.” The professor wheeled himself close to a screen and rewound the episode to when Peter appeared. “You see this young man? This is Peter, we had no clue where he went. We watched the broadcast in hopes for answers and we finally found him. Though in a tighter spot than we’d expected, but he does have a knack for trouble.”

Erik smirked at the joke; the speedster had always found himself in the strangest place at the wrong time. He was basically a magnet for trouble.

The director broke the silence. “So, this is not Pietro Maximoff?”

Erik shook his head, deciding to speak up at last, “no, he is not your Pietro, this is Peter Maximoff; my son.”

Hayward seemed surprised that someone other than Charles had spoken. “Is he like you all, enhanced?”

“Yes, he is a mutant,” answered Raven, clearly uncomfortable about the man’s tone. “He has superspeed.”

The director closed his eyes and sighed before turning to his colleague. “Bring the files concerning the Maximoff anomaly, they need to know.” The woman nodded and left the compound. He turned to the other members that hadn’t done much but gape at them and ordered them out. Apparently, he didn’t want people to witness what was about to happen. That left the man alone with the X-men. “Look, I get what you people can do, you barge in and act on an impulse; fix what you think is a threat and leave the rest of us to deal with the mess you leave behind. You might think you’re right, but this is my base.” Erik tensed up at the man’s words, this speech being all too familiar. “I don’t want you meddling in my stuff, Wanda Maximoff is a threat that needs to be dealt with no matter the price. You can go get your friend after.”

It was now official; he hated this man.

Though, before he could show him just how much he despised him, his colleague came back. She didn’t react to the lack of personnel, perhaps she had been expecting it. She was holding a significant number of files and what seemed to be a tv remote. Hayward thanked her and opened a file labeled ‘confidential’. It showed a picture of Wanda. Only she seemed younger, and her hair were a dark brown; there was also a man with bleached blonde hair at her side. They were in a crowd of people, their faces twisted in rage as they seemed to yell to something the picture didn’t show.

“This is Wanda Maximoff, back when she joined a Nazi base and accepted to be experimented on. This is how she got her powers.”

“Director, with all due respect, I believe your thoughts betray you,” interrupted Charles, to the man’s frustration. “I think it’s important to complete your statement and precise that she didn’t know what she was getting herself into.”

Erik secretly praised his friend and his telepathy; Hayward was obviously trying to antagonize the woman. It was obvious they now had to take his version of events with a grain of salt.

“Yes...” grunted the director, obviously upset about being caught in a lie. He pointed to the other man in the picture, “this is Pietro Maximoff, Wanda’s twin, the real one. He too had superspeed.”

He switched on a screen that was flatter than any television Erik had ever seen. It showed Wanda and Pietro in what appeared to be a lab. There was a sort of casket all plugged in with tubes. The pair seemed to be arguing with two older men. There was no audio, so their discussion didn’t make much sense. Suddenly, a blue blur raced through the lab, removing all the tubes in mere seconds. The blonde man stopped next to the casket looking thing and threw the last tube on the floor. It was strange, seeing another version of his son. Their powers were very similar yet very different. While Peter’s trail was silver, Pietro’s was blue, he also left some blue energy lingering in the air. It lasted a few seconds as he stopped before it disappeared. From the few dates in the documents and video, this Quicksilver seemed to have developed his powers only for a few months. It was probably why he seemed to be a little slower than his son. Hayward spoke again.

“The twins were working against the Avengers, those in charge of defending our planet. There was an army of robots threatening to destroy the world, they had sided with the robot in charge.” He glanced quickly at Charles. “They eventually changed sides, but Pietro didn’t survive.”

The footage changed to show a man and a child trying to take cover as a trail of bullets grew nearer. Suddenly, they were out of harm’s way and the speedster was in their place. His shirt was riddled with holes that quickly soaked with blood and he fell to the ground, dead. Fear seized Erik as he watched the man fall to the ground; momentarily seeing Peter in his place. Would a similar thing have happened had Mystique not disguised herself as one of the horsemen?

Hayward continued, showing footage of Wanda fighting in a group against other people, explaining how this event had led to the Sokovia accords, which was nothing more than a differently named mutant registration act. Except this one was actually approved. She had refused to sign and went into hiding, only to resurface when a titan had attacked the Earth. He apparently needed something called infinity stones, one of which was in Vision’s head. From the next chain of event Hayward told them, the titan had apparently succeeded in retrieving the stone. The real mystery was how the Vision was back to life; the director insisted that it was Wanda who resurrected him. She had been blipped, like half of the universe, and had came back grief stricken and ready to do anything to have a perfect family life. She had taken an entire town hostage and made them into her puppets. There was no telling what she might do to achieve her goal. Apparently kidnapping an alternate universe version of her brother wasn’t out of her reach. As Hayward continued telling them about Wanda’s life and what she had done, Erik had only one pressing thought: just how powerful was Wanda?

“How many people are in this town?” Wondered Charles.

“A little more than three thousand. They’re not all casted as roles, most are simply background characters.”

The wheelchair bound man nodded in comprehension. “Have you identified them all? Warned their families?”

He shook his head. “I believe it’s in everyone’s interest if we keep this low, we don’t want to alarm anyone. Especially when the world just came back.”

“You idiot,” raged Raven, “if they can’t reach their loved ones, they will ask questions. They will panic. Your logic is awfully flawed.”

“This is not your dimension, you don’t get to tell me what to do,” argued Hayward, clearly annoyed with them. “I will try to urge the identification process, but you people stay here. I don’t want more superpowered people and their associates getting in my way.”

With that, the man just left the place, followed by his colleague. Whether it was intentional or not, they left their documentation behind. Erik took one of the many files from the pile and opened it. This one described Vision’s origin and whereabouts until he had been destroyed in-

“Charles,” he said, not taking his eyes off the numbers. “This here says that the android died in 2018, five years ago.”

“We traveled 40 years in the future?” Said Kurt, understandably a little overwhelmed by the situation.

Raven put a comforting hand on the teleporter’s shoulder before looking at her friend. Her eyes showed how the situation affected her just as much as it did them. He didn’t blame her; Erik wasn’t sure if he truly grasped the gravity of the implications yet. For now, he preferred to focus on Wanda and her past; the more he knew about her, the better of a chance they’d have to retrieve his son safely and unharmed. The later wasn’t looking too hopeful. From his own experience with mind control and the co-worker’s reaction to being awoken, Peter would likely have a long and painful recovery once he would be back to himself. He just hoped that the differences between their timelines meant that he hadn’t been controlled since he had gone missing. Perhaps, by some luck, he would have arrived a little before he appeared on screen. He didn’t let himself think of what the speedster could have endured before being put under the woman’s spell. Especially if he had been her puppet for the entire two weeks he had disappeared.

“Erik,” interrupted Charles, “I can hear your concerns and I can assure you; your son is a fighter. His mutation is a natural telepath repellent, he’ll be just fine.”

The man smiled at his friend’s words, momentarily comforted. But then, a terrible thought creeped into his head. “Then tell me, old friend, if he is so immune; what horrible torture would he have to go under, so that his mental shield would be lowered enough for him to be vulnerable?”

The silence that followed his statement seemed to confirm that no one had even considered how Peter could be controlled in the first place. They had been too panicked at seeing the young man on the screen and then focused on getting to him to even think of the logic of his newly casted role.

“B-but he’ll be alright,” stammered Kurt, his tail anxiously twitching behind him, swinging, and curling unto itself. “He’s Peter, he always comes out alright.”

Charles smiles weakly at his student, “of course he will, Kurt,” he reassured him, “but we will have to give him time to heal and let him do the first steps when he’ll be ready.”

Erik shared a worried look with Raven, the professor seemed hopeful that the speedster would turn out fine, but he didn’t seem to realize how ahead he was thinking. They were on a military base that had studied for nine days this seemingly all powerful being that didn’t let you in without her consent and a rewrite of your life. And they hadn’t gotten far. From what they had learned, Peter would not be free of Wanda’s control unless she herself brought down the dome. But how could a grief-stricken mutant with powers never seen before just give up what she perceived as the perfect life she deserved?

...

They had stayed up late, learning about Wanda’s past and being horrified at what she had to go through. Erik wasn’t sure how he felt about the woman. She had gone through awful events, a struggle similar to his own. He did feel pity towards her, but he couldn’t look past the fact that she had his son playing her twisted game. The group had eventually settled down for the night, sleeping as good as they could without beds or blankets. They were suddenly awoken by some agitation on the base. Charles stared off into the distance before turning to his team, “Hayward has kicked off people from the base that were being disrespectful to him, now he’s coming our way.”

Indeed, barely fifteen seconds after he had spoken, the director opened the door. He seemed annoyed. “I’m just here to tell you that a new episode should air in the next twenty minutes.”

The blue teen looked at the man, “what happened outside just now?”

His question apparently wasn’t a welcome one since Hayward clenched his jaw in frustration. He answered nonetheless, “I got rid of nuisances. Nothing that concerns you or your team.”

That shut the boy up, but Raven stepped in front of him protectively. “You don’t get to talk to him like that, or to any of us.”

The director narrowed his eyes at her. “You should be thankful,” he snarked, “I could have you all arrested and locked up for the rest of your days, along with your little friend. Yet I haven’t even told anyone about your presence. I’ve been more than benevolent. So, I suggest you watch your mouth.”

Rage built up in Erik, he had heard these words so many times from government figures that disguised their hatred by saying what they could have done but didn’t. The metal bender was well aware that men like him wouldn’t hesitate to sell them out for a raise. What he didn’t appreciate was the way he threatened to imprison Peter as soon as they would get him free from Wanda’s control. Erik felt the metal in the man’s outfit and forced him closer, bringing him at his level. A sliver of fear was seen for a split second in Hayward’s eyes and a feeling of satisfaction crept into his chest. That man was a coward. “You listen to me,” he growled, “we can take out this base in seconds if we feel like it. I’ve seen your kind before, you crush others to rise in rank, but deep down you’re scared. You’re terrified because you’re aware that you are nothing. And if you drop your facade even for a second, they will see you for what you truly are. So, you take out the competition before it even has a chance to realize its potential. But guess what? You’ve met your match because I see you for what you truly are.” He paused as he stared into the man’s eyes. It was a competition of stares that lasted for a few seconds. Erik’s unwavering gaze pierced through the man’s pitiful attempt at intimidation without much effort. Finally, he let his grip go and kept his ground as Hayward took a few steps back. “Here’s a deal, little man, stay out of our way and we’ll stay out of yours.”

The director glared at him and then switched to the other people in the room, probably wondering if the threats he had said had a chance of becoming reality. Whatever he concluded, Erik didn’t know, but the man left the room fuming. The room was silent for a few seconds before Charles wheeled himself closer. He was about to speak but the metal bender beat him to it. “Don’t try to reason with me, old friend, that man had it coming. I only spoke the truth.”

The bald man shook his head. “Yes, you are right, and I don’t blame you for this, but perhaps threatening the director of the base we’re staying in wasn’t the greatest idea?”

Before he could argue, Raven intervened, “I think you did good. It’s been a while since I had seen one of your Magneto speeches; that Stryker knock off deserved it.”

He snorted at her comparison; Hayward was very similar to their own impersonation of the anti-mutant feeling back home. Kurt seemed a little unsettled by Erik’s speech. But he didn’t have time to make sure the teen was alright. Suddenly, the television in their little bunker flickered on; a new episode was starting. They all scrambled to sit down as the screen showed one of the twins running around with a camera in his hands. The upbeat intro song was echoing through the room.

‘Wanda!

WandaVision!

Don’t try to fight the chaos

Don’t question what you’ve done

The game can try to play us

Don’t let it stop the fun’

He opened the bathroom door, showing Wanda brushing her teeth; she also had rollers in her hair. She closed the door with her magic and Tommy ran downstairs to Vision who was reading the newspaper.

‘Some days, it’s all confusion

Easy come and easy go’

Erik watched the screen anxiously as the family members were shown, what would she make her son do?

‘But if it’s all illusion

Sit back, enjoy the show!’

The twin went in the kitchen, their neighbor was looking in the fridge. After a distasteful close up of the woman’s behind, Tommy was now headed for outside.

‘Let’s keep it going

Through each distorted day

Let’s keep it going

Though there may be no way of knowing

Who’s coming by to play’

A blur came out from the house and Erik’s stomach twisted as his son appeared on screen. He was wearing a grey and black shirt and jeans shorts. He briefly stopped in front of the camera and pulled his tongue out like some sort of rock star. He ran out of the shot and came back holding the long-haired twin under one arm. The screen froze to simulate a family picture being taken. The logo ‘WandaVision’ in red and yellow hues.

“Pietro Maximoff as himself?” remarked Raven unimpressed. “Really?”

Erik didn’t react to her voice; he was all too focused on his son. While he didn’t seem that different than usual, he couldn’t help but notice his hair. His usual silver mess of hair were now a bleached blonde. He stared at the screen in disbelief.

This woman had taken away one of Peter’s most unique traits, a part of his personality, to fit her narrative.

He continued looking at the screen with a mix of rage and anxiety. If she had changed him so easily to fulfill her illusion; there was no telling what else she could do if she found out he wasn’t truly her brother.

***

Notes: Next chapter: the halloween special! (and something else)

[inspirashion]

Your turn! Tell me about your favorite head canon or AU that you’ve been wanting to write or are most excited about but haven’t had the time/energy/whatever to actually get too.

*Clears throat*

Well, let's start with Kidge stuff.

One of the AUs I have planned is a short featuring their sons - Kelsey (11) and Kameron (9). Some Galran rebels kidnapped them as a way to get back at the Paladins and use them as bargaining chips. However, the children are rather savage like their parents (probably even worse) and the kidnappers end up begging the parents to take them back. But throughout all this, Keith and Pidge tear through the universe trying to find their children, leaving behind a trail of destruction in their wake.

Eldritch. This one is about eldritch beings living in what humans call The Forest of Abominations. It shows how the two races view each other - Eldritch beings view humans as monsters that they should stay away from, and that the lands outside of their forest is dangerous while the reverse is also true. Keith is a half-eldritch that lives with his mother and pet wolf, and he ended up stumbling upon Pidge, who's craft had crashed into the forest. Seeing how tiny she was, Keith thought she was a baby and took her home. When all is said and done, Keith helps Pidge to return to Plaht, but the journey is far from easy. I have most of this planned out with my co-writer, just need to put the flesh on and stuff.

Destined. This is a dimension-hopping fic. Somehow, at the end of a really rough battle, the Green Lion went offline and a dimensional rift had opened up nearby to her. Not wanting to lose her, Keith tried to save her, but failed. They end up in alternate dimension -as a matter of fact, they keep ending up in multiple dimensions before they find themselves back home. In each of these, they encounter their alternate selves -normal college students, celebrities, entrepreneurs, police officers, and of course, chaos, hilarity and shitstorms ensue. The reason this one isn't really written yet, my co-writer and I just can't decide which Lion Keith will be piloting. We love him in Red, but Black is so badass too...

The Sword and Shield. We've worked out roughly all of the major plot points, since it's a Shield Hero AU with lots of twists. Instead of Lions, its the Bayards and these weapons choose their wielders, no matter where they are in the world. Like Shield Hero, this world has to deal with the Waves of Catastrophe and the Bayards are the only things that can vanquish them. Altea is still standing, and Zarkon was never an evil asshole.

For the Naruto AUs

Transtemporal. his one is the second installment of our Displacement series, and a Time Travel (yes, total sucker for that trope) but the catch is, Kakashi died in the Pein attack and even though he woke up in the past, he woke up in his father's - Sakumo Hatake -body. Of course, he decides to give his younger self the childhood he wished he had, somehow managed to rope in Orochimaru and stop him from falling into that dark place, and deal with his younger self falling for Obito, and just, try to change the shit future he had.. Like, I'm super excited about this one. I've never seen this been done before, and I wanna see how well it'll turn out!

Moonlit Haze (name subject to change). This is a Sakumo/Kaguya fic, in which Kaguya O. is Kakashi's mother. Of course, the whole Naruto canon gets thrown through the damn window. Pairing is of course, ObiKaka

I think on these shits every day and while I manage to scribble down some stuff about them, to actually get writing...I haven't gotten the chance to. Plus, I gotta the characters in these AUs before I actually describe them in the fic....so Hopefully next year.

And thanks so much for the ask! As soon as I get some better breathing space, I'll be popping up in your DM! XD

[the-cookie-of-doom]

📖 alternate dimensions/time travel for Steter (me trying to narrow it down, did it work?)

alternate dimensions/time travel for Steter (me trying to narrow it down, did it work?)

NOW we're cookin! (Pasted it bc as soon as I opened the answer window, your ask disappeared. Might be because of the heading font?)

I've got exactly 1 AU that fits this desc: Survivor's Guilt. (Technically 2, but the second is more of a reincarnation type story)

This story has presented an interesting problem for me, because it's technically Pitch (Peter/Mitch), except Mitch is still Stiles; just Stiles from the future. Obviously he can't tell anyone he's from the future, so he falls back on an old nickname that predates Stiles; this one drawn from his actual name. His parents usually shortened Mieczyslaw to Mitch.

So: Stiles for younger self, and Mitch for future self, but they're both the same person.

The future... does not go well for the pack. They all get killed off one by one, until Stiles is the last one standing 10 years in the future. After he buries the last one, he can't take it anymore. He's the human, he never thought he would be the last one to survive. it's not fair. So he performs some forbidden magic to tear a rift in reality and travel back to the beginning, before it all started. Unfortunately it's not an exact science, so he ends up part way through season 1, once things have already kicked off. And his younger self is damn stubborn; he has to change his plans from staying away from the supernatural at all, to keeping himself and his friends alive.

I'm going to put the rest under a cut and just copy what I have from my notes, because it's much more organized!

Stiles is determined though. Mitch gets there shortly after Scott has been bitten, and the wolf is out of the bag, and Stiles is so fiercely loyal that he won't abandon his best friend. Mitch wants to grab him and shake some sense into him, but he's a stubborn asshole and that won't work. He tries to intervene in other ways when it becomes clear that Stiles will not be put off this course, tries to keep him far away from Derek. And hindsight is 20/20, he's able to prevent a lot of things. But a lot of things still work themselves out anyway, interdimensional lynchpins that will always happen. The Hales will always die, Scott will always get bitten, Stiles will always foolishly fall in love. And Mitch hates it, having to watch Stiles make all these same mistakes over again, because he's already lived them. He's seen the consequences play out, felt the pain of everyone he loves dying horribly, leaving him the only survivor because surviving is what he does, like a fucking cockroach.

The best he can do is try to teach him everything he knows, all the knowledge he's had to pay for with pain and blood, in hopes that it will prepare him for what's coming. And along the way, something starts to unfold between him and Peter and that is just... so complicated. Mitch doesn't want to deal with that, he knows he shouldn't get involved, he's fucked up enough with everything he's doing here, falling in love with Peter is the last thing he should be doing. 10 years ago, when he was still Stiles, bright-eyed and not destroyed by the world, the kid he sees running with wolves like it's no big thing, Mitch wouldn't have even considered it. He remembers how much he hated Peter, always suspicious, watching with a careful eye. It's a distant memory, like the ghost of once-familiar perfume. More fresh is the memory of his grief, when Peter picked the wrong moment to start being altruistic, and got himself killed for it.

But he's not sixteen anymore. He's not the same optimistic kid mooning over Derek's bad boy with a heart of gold schtick, thinking he can fix him and heal the damage done by Kate (and god help him but he did, somehow). He's older and jaded and bitter, and Peter is everything ne needs and doesn't want but does, desperately. Peter, so damaged that being with him is like looking in a mirror, because Mitch has lost everything too, can sympathize with Peter now in a way he never could before. Peter would do anything to get his revenge, and Mitch would risk everything, break every sacred rule of magic, to save the ones he loves.

Peter gravitates to Mitch, drawn to his pain like a moth to flame. There's something so familiar about him, but Mitch keeps everything hidden, doesn't let any of them get close, and Peter has always loved a challenge. A good mystery is just what he needs to focus on, to temper his more murderous impulses. Now that he's older, Mitch is less Stranger Danger and more reluctantly attracted, and it's so easy to let Peter in. To not be alone anymore, after so long. Of course Peter puts it together. He doesn't say anything at first, but he watches, sees the way Mitch and Stiles interact with the world, the way they mirror each other. Mitch isn't nearly so spastic, doesn't talk as much. he's not an anxiety-ridden teen anymore, he's a broken confident adult. But they have some mannerisms that are impossible to mistake, and Peter wonders how no one has put it together yet. Then he remembers that these are stupid puppies; Scott can't be bothered with anything that isn't up Allison's skirt, Boyd and Erica only have eyes for each other, Stiles is too busy not listening to Mitch to hear the way their verbal tics are exactly the same, and Mitch does his best to avoid Derek, the only other one who may notice. It hurts Mitch to be around him, because somewhere, that bright-eyed kid that's dead and buried still loves him, and the pain of losing him will always be an open wound. Scott thought it hurt to break up with Allison, but he doesn't know true loss. But he will. They all will in the end.

Mitch and Chris get on well of course. Chris is the one that trained him into the killer he is now, almost like a second father to him. Aside from Peter, Mitch spends time with Chris, warns him about the dangers Gerard represents, especially towards Allison. Chris isn't one to blindly trust, but he does investigate into the situation when dear old daddy comes kicking around.

And when Mitch sees his dad the first time... It's some innocuous meeting, maybe they're in a bar. They strike up a conversation, John offers to buy a round, and it takes everything in him to maintain his composure when all he wants to do is collapse into John's arms and cry, because the only thing worse than losing Derek was losing his dad, holding him in his arms as he bled out, hearing his breath stop, seeing the light leave his eyes. The nightmares of that night still haunt him.

-

Mitch is gonna feel so conflicted about his attraction to Peter, especially at first. Bc part of him still remembers what it was like to love Derek but there is no way he's touching that with a 10 foot pole even if he's not the same kid that was in love with him, and maybe he wonders if he's just trading in for another Hale? that wouldn't be fair to anyone.

And like that is the least of his concerns, who knows what's going to happen if he starts something with Peter now. But he's been so lonely, starved for touch and affection. And Peter knows, he more than understands. He spent 6 years in a coma, longing for the same thing. He wants to give that to Mitch now, to both of them, if Mitch will just let him

it's a clusterfuck trying to deal with it, and Mitch is trying to fix things, but he doesn't know how. he's not omniscient. All he knows is that something went wrong, Y caused Z but he had no idea about X. He only knows the things he was directly involved in, and there are layers of schemes, unseen factors that will be uncovered this time around as fate continues to set itself straight even as Mitch keeps messing with the timeline

eventually Mitch has to admit that he wants what Peter is offering, desperately. He's not as cold as he pretends to be, and it's stupid to keep denying them both. He's already breaking every cosmic rule by coming back here to change things, and the universe keeps laughing in his face. So he may as well go all in here.

and maybe, briefly, Peter wonders if Mitch still loves Derek. But he doesn't; Stiles died along with the rest of his pack, leaving Mitch in his wake. Everything Stiles was is gone in him not everything, he's still fiercely loyal, hopeful beneath his jaded pessimism, enough to challenge the universe itself like Icarus on his waxen wings nothing left but the memories.

Mitch is reliving his own mistakes getting involved with Peter, just like Stiles is with Derek, and god knows what the consequences will be this time. But they can't be worse than any he's already suffered, the total destruction and devastation of everything he held dear, leaving him a burnt out shell of a man. Peter can empathize. Can't take his pain, but can maybe help to dull it, help shoulder the burden of it, show Mitch that he doesn't have to be alone anymore

And I think I know how stiles figures out Mitch is him: something happens. One day Mitch and Peter are just doing something, it’s a pretty normal day. But then something seemingly innocuous happens and Mitch has a moment of oh shit realization and he just takes off running because Stiles is in danger

Because you know, he doesn’t know the exact dates that things happened, especially in the beginning. It was so long ago. But something will happen, some small thing burned into his memory, and he’ll remember. And he doesn’t get there in time of course, the damage has been done. Leaving stiles with a wound to perfectly match a scar Mitch has from the same incident.

Mitch does manage to avert enough to change the future. But that means he doesn’t become who he is. If the pack doesn’t die, Mitch never comes to be, he never has to come back in time to change things, never falls in love with Peter. So he ceases to exist. But even though he fades away, the memories of him don’t.

-

"We did it," Mitch gasps suddenly, eyes wide like he can't believe it. Something in him shifted, something intrinsic. Like a damn had broken and all of his suffering was washed away by the cool waters of relief and happiness, the kind he hasn't felt in years. Not since before he lost everything. "Peter!" And Peter is watching him with pure, unadulterated excitement, because they've averted the catastrophe that would have befallen the pack without Mitch's intervention.

And then Mitch starts to fade.

Peter is grabbing for him, but his hands pass right through like Mitch is just a ghost, and then there's less than that. His very molecules are ceasing to exist. He doesn't exist anymore, Mitch realizes. "I'm sorry," he tries to say, a second too late.

Peter is left standing there staring at nothing. An empty space. There aren't even any ashes to prove that Mitch had ever been there, vanishing between one heartbeat and the next.

Peter doesn't realize what's happened at first. Doesn't want to, his fast mind lagging behind. "No," he whispers. Everyone is staring at him. Stiles is looking on with mounting horror, Derek mirroring him. It's the Sheriff who catches him when he collapsed, arms strong around him. "No, no!" It's all Peter can say. This can't have happened, it's all a mistake. Mitch will come back to him, he has to. It can't end this way.

Distantly, Peter knows he's crying. John is too, Peter can smell his tears. Of course he is, he just watched his son fade out of existence. Of course, he still has Stiles, still gets to watch him grow. Peter has no one. Derek comes to him, followed by Stiles. He's crying too, on the ground with him. Derek has a hand on his shoulder. Melissa is covering her mouth with her hands, eyes glistening. Even Argent's stony mask has broken as Peter falls apart in front of them.

Peter throws his head back and roars, so loud it shakes the trees around them. The earth quakes, the preserve trembles in fear. But the world keeps turning, the universe continues on, ambivalent. What is one human life in the grand scheme of things?

Everything, he is everything.

[kainetestament]

Deciphering Peter’s conversation with Wanda

1. Wanda tried to test Peter by asking him about the name of the boy that has a skin problem who always steal his shoes to which Peter counter “You’re testing me.” And has successfully divert the conversation by telling her “I know I look different.” Wanda do feel his brother is not the same brother she remembers. That even us viewers wonder why Peter and not Pietro is present? Though I do have a theory about that and talk about below.

2.  “I'm just trying to do my part, okay? Come to town unexpectedly, create tension with the brother-in-law, stir up trouble with the rugrats, and ultimately give you grief. I mean, that's what you wanted, isn't it?” For these sentences, it kind of look like someone is speaking for him (like he’s possessed). Peter gave off the ‘mischievous elder brother’ or possibly has a sister complex as seen X-Men Days of Future Past. If this is really him, giving Wanda a grief will definitely be the last thing he’ll do, pranking her? Maybe, like what he did when Vision left the house and sneak up on her back on Episode 6.

3. Peter said “Details are fuzzy, man. I got shot like a chump on the street for no reason at all and the next thing I know, I heard you calling me. I knew you needed me.” And Wanda has a confused look on her face. Also, If we go on FANDOM, Wanda’s profile has been updated and one of the updates the user add was “He told her that he heard her calling him after he was shot by Ultron, and that he knew she needed him.” First of all, whoever made an update, none of Peter’s words mentioned Ultron, and didn’t imply Ultron as well, second Pietro was not shot for no reason at all, Ultron was firing bullets from Quinjet and Pietro have to save Hawkeye and the kid he’s holding, Peter on the other hand phrase it as “no reason at all”, so I don’t believe it’s anything related to Ultron.

Let’s translate what Peter just said, “I got shot like a chump on the street” – if we are to simplify this sentence, he could meant he’s running (as usual) on the street and got knocked down because he’s an easy target (after all, chump means a foolish or easily deceived person), or someone stopped him from running then he was hit by something, then when he’s trying to understand what happened, he can hear in his head his sister calling him, in probably mournful voice because he claimed “I knew you needed me.” Because before he appeared, when Wanda mentions Pietro (in past tense), she was still smiling, almost indicating she was able to move on from his passing, then when was asked by Tommy if Wanda have a brother, she now spoke of him in present tense “He’s far away from here, and that makes me sad sometimes.” – this could probably be what he meant when he say “I heard you calling me. I knew you needed me.” Because Wanda is now reminiscing the Pietro, and could possibly be now in denial with him and she wants to see him. We don’t know what’s going on in X-Men Universe and hell Earth-616 is one confusing world. Retelling it here in MCU that X-Men could probably be from different multiverse will make it less confusing as well.

Also Wanda was not officially introduced in X-Men Universe, but on the delete scene of Days of Future Past, Ms Maximoff (their mom) said to her youngest “Go upstairs and bug your sister”, implying (and confirmed by the director) that the “sister” is Wanda and she does exists in X-Men world, Peter being the eldest of the siblings, have a big brotherly love for his younger siblings so he easily got brainwashed and was summoned to Earth 616, we can only theorize that Mephisto discovered him as he was travelling thru the multiverse (as per his comics abilities), discovered Wanda and Pietro. Who knows if Wanda of X-Men Universe is alive or dead, but we can try and think, why this Wanda? If Mephisto has the ability to travel to the multiverse, he can chose Wanda of other multiverse too. Is it because of her involvement with the Infinity Stone? So this Wanda is so special because she is able to mother twins without a man’s help? We just have to wait for 2 more episodes for answers.

Also on top of Wanda not being introduce X-Men Universe, FOX changed Pietro’s name to Peter because MCU is also introducing another Pietro, but in MCU, they killed Pietro, this is probably due to copyrights restrictions (between Disney and FOX) because both Pietro and Wanda can appear on both franchise with some restrictions, which makes sense why there’s only Wanda in MCU and only Peter in X-Men World to avoid referencing the restrictions due to legal rights. Now that the Multiverse is being introduced, they can now cross Peter from X-Men World to MCU as a mutant (vice versa) and can also be referred to as Magneto’s children since the restrictions have been lifted. Although another possibility that the MCU killed Pietro is because MCU and FOX already planned ahead for a possible future Multiverse since way back, once the First Generation of Avengers retires (Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, etc.), that is possibly the time they can introduce the mutants. Because if the First Generation is still present when the Mutants arrive, it could destroy the balance of the super heroes line up and the MCU might become a trash of super hero franchise, which of course they won’t want that to happen. By killing Pietro on the other hand, can actually be both a risk and advantage. MCU’s researchers have definitely done their job well and study other products that involved alternate dimension/reality/timeline. In my point of view (as an otaku), when I watched these type of anime with alternate dimensions/reality/timeline, it does feel weird especially if the character meets her/her counterpart, like in Dual!! Parallel Trouble Adventure where both Mitsuki have actually met (I only remember parts of the story, so I won’t go deeper into this), the awkwardness is kind of hard to watch… So killing Pietro might’ve been the best decision, because keeping both characters and later meets up will not only cause awkwardness but the viewers might also find it weird. With no offense to ATJ but unlike his, Evan Peters’ QS have more cool scenes, his running in the kitchen is definitely a big wow, Age of Ultron didn’t showcase much any cool moves, we do see the slow motions around him and his afterimage, but the kitchen scene looks way more cooler, and personally for me, I find his break in Magneto scene (the glass shattering and escaping the guards) much more satisfying than anything...

Evan Peters could’ve also been given instructions by FOX of him possibly appearing/joining the MCU in the future because in an interview with the X-Men Apocalypse cast on MTV After Hours, Peter (Evan Peters) comment to Cyclops (Tye Sheridan) “Just because you wear shades, doesn’t make you cool.” In which Cyclops responded with “Just because your name is Quicksilver, doesn’t make you an Avenger.” And Peter responded back with “You know, legally I’m not able to respond to that.” Also during Dark Phoenix interviews, Evan Peters was nervous yet silently freaking out, almost like Tom Holland trying to  avoid telling anything. In the interview with New Trailer Buzz, Evan Peters was ask  to say the first thing that come to his mind like Wolverine = claws, Marvel = X-Men, Magneto = metal, Charles Xavier = wheelchair, then when as SCARLET WITCH – he pause and almost choke and said nervously “okay” and started to laugh, then was asked about cross-over and he responded with sweet, although compared to his previous answers where it only took less than 1sec to respond, the word SCARLET WITCH and CROSS-OVER definitely gave him a scare as he was probably be in talks but is of course not allowed to disclose.

If we think about it back then, we can probably just dismissed it as part of the restrictions between Disney and FOX, but Kevin Feige did mention before that everything is plan even up to 5 years, and X-Men to be in talks for the future multiverse is not impossible and of course they will not disclose that information (to actors let alone media), and what are the odds of killing Pietro in MCU and not introducing Wanda in X-Men.

 I will wait for Episode 8 for the next WandaVision update ‘cause it really hard to assume.

[animatedminds]

Let’s Get Dangerous Review!

It’s dangerous. In a good way. <cue dramatic music> Okay, obviously there’s more thoughts than just that. I’ve been waiting for it for weeks, and it arrived just as awesome as I hoped. For the first time, let’s give my full movie style review to the double length Ducktales special: “Let’s Get Dangerous.”

The spoilers are open and widely discussed, so maybe don’t look past the following image if you haven’t seen the episode yet.

To note, I’m not entirely convinced that this was actually meant to be a pilot. It definitely does introduce a new status quo for the Darkwing trio of characters (minus Honker for now, here’s hoping they haven’t forgotten him), but it’s also a very remote story that still tries to take place within the context of Ducktales’ universe, so it really depends on what they choose to do.

But let’s just get down to it.

First off, as I mentioned in my earlier post… Taurus Bulba. He was maybe the biggest and most eye-catching aspect of the first part of the episode, as one of the few elements we hadn’t already seen yet, and his reputation as a really, really bad guy has quite preceded him. As I may have gushed somewhat about, he’s one of the best parts of the special.

James Monroe Inglehart, for those living away from the Disney scene for a decade, is an actor and voice actor most famous for being the original Genie on Broadway’s Aladdin. A grand, bombastic presence, he generally plays characters who - much like the genie himself - a big, jolly, kind but maybe a little mischievous souls that take the attention of a room and brighten up the characters’ day - like Lance, in Tangled the Series. The most interesting thing about Bulba is that Inglehart brings that exact same energy to the role, and so Bulba keep that jollity and lofty personality in a package that becomes increasingly less nice as the story goes on. As someone who keenly remembers Taurus Bulba as cruel monster willing to hurt kids and capable of crushing Darkwing like nobody’s business, the contrast was immediately fun to watch - and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.

In this story, Bulba is recast from a crime lord intending to use a super weapon go on an endless plundering spree to a FOWL scientist with a respectable reputation who intends to use a super weapon to take over the world, and the transition goes off fairly well. The end result is a pretty standard mix of superhero fight and Bond plot, as Bulba ends up holed up in his lab with his squadron of elite supervillain minions - all plundered a particular fictional universe - with the heroes having to break in / escape from his captivity and stop him before he destroys everything. It’s very Silver Age, with Bulba in the role of maniacal villain, and he’s contrasted very well with Bradford - who is as always an antagonist who prides himself on pragmatism. This contrast leads to some great moments: Bradford’s increasing frustration with the cavalier attitude of both the heroes and the villains gives him the best stint of characterization he’s had since the beginning of the season - he basically spends the whole episode arguing with everyone about how badly thought out their actions are, while also badly hiding his own secrets.

The Fearsome Five (of which Quackerjack is voices by his original actor) are great to see, though used minimally. If you’re expecting to see classic show dynamics between the villains and Darkwing, that’s not really what they’re used for. Mostly, they’re minions with personality, and they’re more there to establish both to the audience and to Drake the character himself that he is ready to take on really big threats even with his lack of superpowers.

But enough about the villains, on to the heroes!

A couple episodes ago, with the Halloween episode, I criticized that story for not balancing its A and B plot all that well. This episode does not have that problem. The story is actually maybe about three fifths Darkwing’s story, and the rest of it is Scrooge and the nephews as they figure out what Bulba is up to independently of Darkwing and try to stop him themselves. It’s somewhat similar to Timephoon, where they’re there constantly and are doing their own bid to solve the story but the focus isn’t primarily on them. Instead, we have some of the best “HDL actually matter to the story” bits of the show, where they escape Bulba’s prison on their own and lead Bradford out, all the while slowly figuring out that something is shady about the guy. Meanwhile, Scrooge gets stuck in the original Ducktales universe’s most memed scene, which was a fun gag (but not the best gag - that would be the one and only Bonkers D. Bobcat as the Harvey Bullock-style cop in the Darkwing show).

Which I suppose can lead to a digression about the mad science bit here. The alternate universes here are… interesting. I always pay special attention to how things like time travel or other dimensions or alternate universes work in a series, and this one reminds me the most - I think - of DC’s Dark Multiverse: a collection of universes that are both explicitly fictional but made real because people created them. Ultimately, it’s less as if the OG Darkwing universe exists independently of the Ducktales universe and more that the in-universe Darkwing show as a world based off of it that the characters can reach into. I wish the episode had delved into that more, and now you’ve got people trying to use it to look for more establishment of OG Darkwing elements (though I was fine with it being separate, perceiving anything else as rather needlessly inexplicable), but ultimately that is not specifically what the episode is about, and is kept rather separate.

So what is the episode about? Like you didn’t already know…

As always, Gosalyn Waddlemeyer is a little girl whose grandfather was done away with by Taurus Bulba, and who falls into Darkwing’s lap over the course of his adventure with him. Here, her grandfather is (possibly) still alive, just lost in the ether a la Gravity Falls’ Grunkle Ford. And like the mighty glazed McGuffin, Darkwing’s goal in the episode is less strictly defeating Bulba as it is helping her get her grandfather and her home back. Gosalyn here is self-sufficient and action oriented (it may be my inner Brooklyn 99 fan talking, but I loved Stephanie Beatriz as her, and kind of wish she had gotten a wider range of lines), taking on her own crusade against Bulba until she realizes she can go to Darkwing for help, and is constantly trying to pull him into the fight - even while he is reluctant, and no matter what the danger - so that they can win and she can get justice. But in the end, she has to accept that they might not be able to.

As a longtime Batman fan, I immediately recognized a plethora of Robin references with Gosalyn. She’s a kid who’s family was taken from her by a villain, given a surrogate home by the hero - like Dick Grayson. She’s a street tough who originally met the hero committing a crime, and who is both skeptical of his heroism and heavily critical of his flaws - like Jason Todd. And she’s a young genius with a lot of scientific knowledge, tech skills and common sense - just like Tim Drake. There’s even elements of Carrie Kelley or Terry McGinnis there, in her determined if not gung-ho approach to heroism despite her circumstances and the hermit-like behavior of the hero.

And in the end, this is a fairly apt comparison, because Gosalyn essentially ends the story more as a Robin figure than previously, now as Darkwing’s more of a ward and official sidekick alongside Launchpad. The story does not, to note, involve her being adopted by Drake or becoming Gosalyn Mallard. Indeed, they don’t really end up having that sort of relationship. They’re distant and don’t really know how to relate to one another, and not about to broach the subject of family except in distant terms. There’s ultimately far less emphasis than before on Gosalyn and Drake being similar and hitting it off on a personal level, or even really Drake keying into Gosalyn’s potential and spirit as a person vs an element in his adventure. Throughout the story he regards her as a victim to be saved, then ultimately as an ally with potential to be respected, and in the end he gives her an offer to take up the mantle along side him while they search for her family… which ultimately creates something very different.

For people expecting something a little more akin to the implications the show made with Gyro and BOYD, Gosalyn here. The implication that they could be a family is brought up by Launchpad, but neither Drake nor Gosalyn are really there at the end of the story - I want to say they’re not there yet, but the way the story goes gives off the impression that the dynamic duo dichotomy is the relationship for the two the writing is most comfortable giving them.

Again, I’m a longtime Batman fan, so I understand and appreciate the nod. It gives them a really cool status quo that’s distinct from what came before it. Still, the strong father/daughter relationship between the two was very much the heart and soul of the original show, an endearing quality that created the character traits we love about both characters, and ultimately one of the primary characteristics that set the Darkwing family apart even from most comic book superhero stars - so even if they made something great out of it, it’s a shame to see Ducktales ultimately keep that relationship at arms’ length.

But that’s less a criticism and more just something I wish they had chosen to do differently - and it makes sense for the 2017 team’s take on Darkwing, which has always been more focused on “irrepressible hero who doesn’t give up” - a pluckie rookie growing into his competence - than “former fool whose great potential is unleashed through the people around him.” The latter is there, sometimes, but it’s not prominent. Original Darkwing was a man made better by his daughter, while the modern Darkwing doesn’t quite need that to find the hero within.

The only (and I mean only) criticism I have is the way the characters kind of jump around in how they respond to things. Drake wanting more crime, and then freaking out when super crime shows up and it’s way more than he thought he can handle is fine, and is one of the better character bits in the special. It being unclear whether Drake is against fighting supervillains because he thinks they’re too powerful vs because he doesn’t want to risk Gosalyn’s safety is another thing, though - it seems the show intended to imply the latter but forgot to include the line somewhere, so it’s not inferred until later and Drake suddenly benching Gos towards the end lacks set-up.

For her part, Gosalyn is suddenly and quickly afraid to fight for a brief moment so Launchpad can inspire her to face impossible odds, even though it was hardly the first time she had done so in the special. The ending I think wanted the characters to be somewhere that the rest of the special hadn’t gotten them to yet. But it’s all good - it ends well, so all’s well. Best gag of the episode, btw? Fenton, who is awful at keeping his secret identity secret, has hooked up Darkwing with his own hi-tech hero lair. Darkwing, despite supposedly being a detective (or at least an actor playing a detective), ends up as one of the two or three people remaining on Earth who hasn’t figured out that Fenton is Gizmoduck. Darkwing considers himself good friends with Fenton, despite hating Gizmoduck. It’s actually very funny.

It’s as of now unclear what is coming up for Darkwing. We know the St. Canard characters are going to factor in more as the FOWL plot progresses, and this episode kicks that plot into high gear - the characters now know about FOWL and their intentions, and are preparing themselves for a far more dangerous fight than usual. In short, with the midseason comes the renewed focus on the primary plot of the season, as per the usual. Like I said before, while I’m not as on board as most with the idea that this was a pilot, St. Canard was definitely established here - with series regular Zan Owlson as it’s new mayor, and a general aesthetic and set of protagonists. It wouldn’t be remiss for a future episode this season to take place there (though we know Negaduck isn’t happening this season).

The new few episodes, however, are focused more on the quest for Finch’s treasures and FOWL, so that’s going to have to wait for a while. We’ve been promised, as I recall, an episode that brings all the kids together (unless that’s part of the finale), which is nice - I may have mentioned before that the best episodes of the series have been the ones that put the kids (who are the characters with the most focus throughout its run) together and let all their personalities run through an adventure together - and with the cast growing somewhat constantly, it’s nice to know that no one is being forgotten.

Either way, I give the episode a great deal of recommendation - I only had a couple things that bothered me, and a few wishes for different choices, and ultimately I’m planning on watching it a ton of times just like I did the first Darkwing episode. From a classic Darkwing fan, and in the words of Bat-Mite, it’s a different intepretation to be sure, but not at all one without merit.

So thanks to Frank Angones, Matt Youngberg and the Ducktales crew! I hope my virtual thumbs up reaches them somehow, but either way, it was a good day to be dangerous.

[thesuitelife547]

My ONF MV Theory Thoughts

So this is probably long and wordy so I’d just like to warn anyone ahead of time. I broke it down by listing the MVs in the order that I think they belong in (it’s almost the order that they released them surprisingly) and the reasons behind what I thought the storyline was in relation to an overall storyline and pretty much why I put them in that order. If anyone has any questions about what I said, questions in general, or thoughts about the MVs and your own theories, feel free to reach out!

I did actually put a condensed version of what I think is going on in the MVs first and then got further in depth, going through each music video, in the section after.

Thanks!

- Marisa

My Thoughts on the MV Storyline (Condensed)

Overall, my thoughts about the MVs is that ONF were originally humans that were recruited through Laun, who was already an android/robot, to join an organization to help take over the earth or to destroy it (Complete & ON/OFF). In that process they would also become part androids/robots. Over time they begin to see their impact and after the disappearance of Laun, of which they searched all over and couldn’t find him (We Must Love), they begin to see the effects of their decisions and perhaps come to regret ever joining an organization so they begin to rebel (Why) in the dystopia of the world that they’ve created. In the end, alternates are sent in to fix the problem and what happens is that they decide to jump to another timeline (Sukhumvit Swimming). It is through that timeline that they get to a completely revolutionized future and create identities for themselves (My Name Is). They are then in a stronger position to fight against the organization that has been seeking them out ever since they jumped ship to create the world that they see fit (Beautiful Beautiful).

My Thoughts on the MV and Order (In Depth)

Complete

It seems very normal in a way? Yeah there are things coming down from the sky and they have transmissions, rockets, and a globe, but if I were to tie it in to the rest of their MVs, it would be that this one is the one where they’re observing Earth. Other than the objects around them, it doesn’t really seem like there’s much in them having to do anything. Another one of my thoughts is that maybe this is their alternate “normal” dimension, as in the one where they aren’t robots. We later see in Why that Wyatt gets cloned, supposedly, something like that could’ve happened to them as well. Another theory is that this MV could also be a case of them being observed to see if they’re a good fit for the organization before they actually get committed to doing anything.

Another thing to point out is that none of them have those fancy computer watches and they aren’t really doing anything within their sort of “powers” of these MVs. Yes, I know it could be before they thought about using something like that but for the sake of the storyline, that’s what I’m going with. Other than Laun, who we see as the first one to use the flare gun, or whatever it was, and the one to do something with the rocket, there’s really nothing else besides some stuff sitting around that they go through. Before he used it, there was a shot of everyone on the roof, besides him, looking up to the sky. Wyatt was the only other one that wasn’t there but he uses the smoke signal, I think, after.

Therefore I’m going to take it as Laun was the leader of all of this stuff. He could’ve been the main android/robot collecting data and that’s why he was so important in the other MVs and why the other guys were so desperately trying to search for him. He probably had some sort of knowledge about what was going on, maybe.

If we were to go off of the lyrics of the song, the song tells the other person that they complete them, so maybe, in perspective of the MV, is it Laun who completes them and introduces them to the world beyond which they knew?

ON/OFF

I see this MV as the sort of transportation MV. After the guys have already left Earth, they’re now being introduced to the world and perhaps they’re starting to be converted to sort of androids/robots. I take that from the mark on Hyojin’s neck being faint. I believe that Laun probably is already one, hence him sleeping in the room and being isolated from everyone else as they look on, he was getting recharged or uploading the data that he knew to the computer system, which is why there was an uploading screen during the music video.

Because the guys are still kind of human, that’s why they’re just doing normal things and why they don’t really interact with Laun during the music video. They’re exploring the contents of the place they’ve now entered and are getting a better feel for the world that they are now entering. Laun, on the other hand, probably needs to be protected since he’s the one with the information and the one who puts the disk into the machine, the rocket looking thing. It’s probably his information that he’s uploaded onto the system so it would know and could thereby send out more rockets, perhaps? If those things in the sky were maybe rockets.

One thing that is interesting is the mirror that says ‘My Name Is’ and where Laun puts a picture of himself. I’m assuming that perhaps he was once human and doesn’t want to forget that once human side of himself. Laun is also seen wearing a school uniform type outfit at one point during the MV, when he’s putting the information into the rocket, and it seems like when he faints on the ground the other guys are wearing something similar, too. Perhaps he fainted because of an overdrive or he ran out of battery? Hence him lying in the room by himself because he needs to recharge?

Lyrically, the lyrics say that “You’re my producer” and “Make me into your man, I’m yours.” In the perspective of the storyline, they could be taken as the guys are fully giving themselves to the project at hand, resigning themselves to be created however the person controlling them wants. Also, obviously, they talk about being turned on and off, which, if they were made into robots and androids, could probably be done to them.

We Must Love

By this point, the guys are seeing the sort of consequences that come with their actions. The first scene of the colorful earth turning into a dystopia type land with, what I’m now calling rockets, raining down on the sky, and MK watching on shows that they’re not surprised that any of that is happening. Yet because of the world beginning to fall apart, this is where I think that it all starts to break down, and how it turns into the world in Why. Perhaps they didn’t know that things would turn out like this or perhaps they didn’t realize that things would get that bad, either way, I think that during this entire duration they’re finally realized just how badly things have gotten and what they’ve actually gotten themselves into.

That’s why it’s so important for them to find Laun. He’s probably the glue that holds it together, holds them all together, and that’s why they’re frantic to find him all by using their specialties that they’ve been trained in. It becomes a theme for them, especially in Why and then it can be seen in Beautiful Beautiful, too. Hyojin is the one who can teleport, kind of, J-Us is the information hacker, MK is the machine/system hacker, and Wyatt is the one with the motorcycle but I don’t know what that does yet. Both E-Tion and U seem like they’re the ones to manipulate machines.

I don’t think Laun just got up and disappeared, though. In the context of the MV, in the scene where everyone is running to him, he’s fiddling with the watch and then disappears. I think it’s important to point out that the guys are all wearing a school uniform type outfit, similar to the school uniform outfit that they wore in ON/OFF and the one that Laun wore as well when he was putting the information into the rocket. From U’s past memory about them, they were all probably in class together to learn about their specialties and what their true missions were. So when they’re all searching for Laun, some time has probably passed since they no longer have to attend those lessons.

But anyway, I think Laun might’ve traveled back into the past. On a scene with J-Us in the room that Laun was in, there was a warning on the screen behind him at one point that said time travel was being operated. If the other holds true, that Laun disappeared before they were even out in the world, it could mean that he’s still time traveling, or at least someone is. I like to think that it’s him for really one reason.

That potential reason is because of the scene at the train station with E-Tion finding him. What I think E-Tion finds is a different version of Laun, which is why he looks so calm and is just reading a book. If Laun did go to the past and change the timeline, then it could be presumed that the current Laun of that time might not be doing what he was originally doing. That may also be the reason why, at the end of the MV, he turns to look back at Hyojin but it doesn’t seem like he has any recollection about him. He does still have the mark on his neck, though, which means he might not be entirely free from fate. He could’ve been assigned to do something else in that timeline. When J-Us hacked into information about Laun, it did say that his address was Universe 01 but we don’t know what universe the guys are in. Another theory is that maybe it’s the guys that are time traveling, but I don’t really think so. They could potentially be jumping around to different timelines looking for Laun but I don’t think they’d ever find the true Laun that they’re searching for.

Another reason for Laun’s disappearance could be that he was tired of it. He was looking at the image of the whale swimming with a blank expression so maybe he wanted to be free like the whale swimming in the ocean instead of sheltered and used, like what was seen in the ON/OFF MV. Instead of just being used, he wanted to simply live his life. But like I mentioned, he still has the barcode on when they find, who I’m assuming, is that timeline’s Laun, so maybe he can’t truly escape it but can pretend like it doesn’t exist and try to forge a new lifestyle for himself.

However, on the same line, I do think that Laun probably remembered Hyojin but chose not to do anything or show any recognition if he’s jumping around on the same timeline. Was it for Hyojin’s own good? Or for his? It did seem like he sensed someone on the other side of the train station where E-Tion was and honestly, that would probably be the only other explanation for the mark on his neck still being there if he were to travel to a different time. That would also explain why the guys still have memories of him even if he traveled back and changed the timelines. They’ve also become part androids in the process and are unaffected by the changing of the timelines because they also have the ability to change them. Therefore, rather than maybe Laun not remembering E-Tion at the train station, we don’t actually know because he never saw him. Or maybe it would’ve been another situation like with Hyojin, he could just pretend like he doesn’t.

Hyojin did have a vision of a happy Laun reading a book in the forest only to have a memory of him crying before he rested on the train. Hyojin is on a lot of trains. But anyway, the scene of happy Laun could have been one that was sent to Hyojin to remember him by while the scene with his tears could’ve been the reality.

But out of all of the MVs so far, the lyrics I think really relate with the story of Laun disappearing. The lyrics talk about strange things happening since they met the other person wondering if they lost their memories of the past, future, or even of a different world and also expresses their confusion because they don’t actually know what happened.

Why

There’s really one main reason why I think Why comes after We Must Love and that’s because of the setting. By this point the guys are seemingly against each other compared to when they were in We Must Love and seemingly working together to find Laun. Or at least that was how it seemed. We never actually did see them together throughout the MV, but it did seem like they all cared for him and were aiming for the same kind of goal. This MV clearly shows us that they’re no longer on the same side. E-Tion threatens U and J-Us threatens Hyojin. Those two even have a fight. Also, it showed that Hyojin and J-Us were once friends with one another, they were both looking out on the city together, but I think that as their opinions about their situation became divided, there was a split in them. Therefore they’re all looking for the same thing but for different reasons.

I think this MV has split them up into the On and Off teams. While I’m not positive who is on what side, I do think that maybe Hyojin is on the side of whatever organization they’re in and I’m basing that off of him still having a mark on his neck, only this time it’s darker than what it was in the ON/OFF MV. That could mean that he’s completely become an android and one of them, but I also have another theory that I’ll get into later. Anyway, it could also be said that that’s the same as Wyatt, who they seemed to be cloning and who did have an android/computer systems back. However, that would be an android Wyatt and not the real Wyatt since he throws the key away. I attribute to the Off team working against the organization.

 But there are points when it seems like maybe everything is not that black and white. MK is using the googles which sends out beams into the world but the next scene is time reversing itself as those rockets seem to be moving back up into the air very slowly. Perhaps MK was the one to end up reversing those rockets, I’m still calling them rockets, falling from the sky. That could also be the reason why an alternate Hyojin comes and makes the current Hyojin disappear along with the city at the end and the rockets still coming down. Maybe the On team were getting swayed to change sides therefore an alternate Hyojin was sent in to fix the problem to make things go down the path they intended to be. That could also be why Wyatt was being cloned. If they needed another person to help fulfill their missions, they could substitute him. But the theory about an alternative Hyojin is why the mark on his neck could be dark. This alternate Hyojin has committed to the organization to do its bidding, including ridding the world of his old self.

 But then how does it all relate if he gets rid of his old self and I said that I don’t think they’re affected by time traveling? It’s because I do think that there are multiple timelines and universes. That was shown by them having Laun’s address in Universe 01. With that information it can be presumed that maybe other versions of themselves live in other universes, only they take on different lives. So even if alternate Hyojin destroys this timeline’s Hyojin, that doesn’t mean that he’s gone forever. There could be an infinite amount of universes. It’s just for the particular timeline we’re in, Hyojin has walked down the path of joining the organization and potentially becoming a rebel. If the organization that they’re working for wants to take over/destroy the world, then they need to get rid of this timeline’s Hyojin to achieve their goal. The Hyojin’s of other timelines could be doing something different. Near the end of the MV we do see mirror worlds of each other, one on the top of the screen and one on the bottom. It could be that those worlds exist in different timelines and universes. The time traveling and remembering could pertain to only their timeline. They would need other means to jump into other timelines, which I’ll mention later.

 On the other hand, if the Off team is the rebellion, it doesn’t add up why U didn’t do anything when he went to see the cloned Wyatt and was caught by E-Tion. Maybe he wanted to see the progress or maybe he did end up doing something? I do think that it was U who told E-Tion maybe the true reason why things were happening when they were at the abandoned building and why E-Tion looked so distraught and still sat there after U left. One interesting thing is that there’s a blue flower behind E-Tion and in the Sukhumvit Swimming MV, he plays with a blue flower on the moon.

 Another interesting thing is that MK has the googles in this MV that make things into a static rainbow spectrum of color. I think Wyatt ends up getting those goggles in Beautiful Beautiful but I’ll touch on that when I get to that MV. Honestly, there are so many snippets of things that are scattered around MV to MV like the blue flower, googles, the globes, the red looking record player, and the red box that Hyojin goes towards. A lot of things are similar and are carried over which I think is also an interesting way to tie the MVs together.

 But going back to the storyline, other reasons why I think the Off team is against the organization is because U did run from the police when he was in the museum type location and it seemed like he was desperately looking for information when he was in the room with the computer and going through the CDs. Also, when Hyojin and J-Us have their showdown with J-Us pointing a gun at Hyojin, all of the masked people come from Hyojin’s side. I would assume that those people are also workers for the organization and that’s why he has such numbers that are able to be on his side. As for Wyatt, he was the one who threw away the key. Not sure what he would’ve done with it otherwise, but it was probably a part of the overall picture of whatever the ultimate goal was.

 Overall, I think this MV is about how they were separate but how they’re slowly looking towards the same goals and slowly coming together, since there are some scenes of them all being on the roof together from above. While they’re all still far away from each other, maybe they don’t truly trust each other, it’s possible to say that the Off team was successful in creating rebels out of the On team.

 In the lyrics for the chorus, they talk about someone being dangerous and how they’re breaking down the person and also pulling them deeper. It could be said that the organization that they are a part of is continuing to hurt them the longer they stay connected to it and they’ve come to that realization that they need to separate from it for the betterment of themselves.

 One thing that I’d like to mention before going into the next MV that I think is in line is that I think the googles that MK has help them jump through or transport through, including maybe the watches but I only saw E-Tion with one this MV, unless I missed others. The googles that MK has created a door for both Wyatt and E-Tion. The goggles showed MK a combined red and blue door and it presented a red one for Wyatt and blue for E-Tion. Maybe that was somehow showing that the two teams should be combined? That they’d work stronger together?

Sukhumvit Swimming

The reason why I mentioned the googles and using them for jumping through is because it could be that they used the googles to jump to another timeline, where Sukhumvit Swimming comes in. Yet I don’t think that it’s just any simple timeline. Based on the scenes of Wyatt driving, those computerized backgrounds, it could be said that maybe they are in between timelines, like they have no definitive place anywhere. Sidenote, those same computerized backgrounds are shown on the screens of the place that U is in, I believe, too. Back to the point, but that’s why images of things that have happened in the past keep appearing through this MV like the red record player, the scene of the hallway where it seemed like that’s the same hallway that Laun disappeared in, the globe, and the dystopian city.

 That could also be a reason why E-Tion is looking down at the earth and scenes are bigger behind them. Because they’re not in any particular timeline, they’re looking at things from an outsiders’ perspective. Also, there are scenes of what seems like barcodes dropping quite frequently. That could symbolize that they’ve decided to forgo their past android/robot identities and move forward with their lives as they try to find a new place to restart their lives.

 I think I did hear somewhere that in this MV Hyojin is trying to steal time, which is why J-Us comes to stop him on the train and why time stops when he enters. That could potentially relate to his need to find out where Laun went therefore maybe he thought that if he were able to steal time before actually entering any timeline, he’d be able to manipulate it the way that he wants to find out where he went and perhaps reverse what they had done in the other timeline of the dystopia reality. But how is Hyojin here if he disappeared in the other timeline with the city? This would just be another Hyojin from a different dimension and universe.

 Even though I think they’re jumping timelines in this storyline, they still have remnants of the past such as E-Tion and the blue flower that was in Why, MK being surrounded by computer monitors, and J-Us and the dystopia city behind him. What may become important later is that in one scene, there looks to be an android arm that is on the ground in J-Us’s dystopian city ruins. Those androids probably relate to Beautiful Beautiful so maybe there is a timeline when those androids are destroyed?

 Contextually, Sukhumvit is one of the longest roads/boulevards in the world. That meaning could tie in together with the guys jumping timelines as they go down a long road to find the right one. That could also be why they’re all dressed up as something different. They’ve probably experienced different paths on their way to find the right one that will allow them to fight back with the organization they’re rebelling against. That could also explain why in some scenes time is going forward and in others, time is going backwards. Plus, the song also explains going on a trip and traveling which ties into what they’re doing story wise. It could be said that they’re swimming through the universes and timelines.

 Also, at the end of the MV, we can see that the bullets that Hyojin and J-Us shot are reversed and then time starts up again. That could show that whatever happened during their trip wouldn’t stay permanent since they’re like in the in-between where time has been temporarily frozen.

My Name Is

As it pertains to the story, I see My Name Is as the part where they’ve finally reached the timeline they want and where they establish themselves as a group and reassert their bonds with one another. After they were no longer working on the same side temporarily in Why, this MV relates to the story as them reiterating that they are working together now in their new timeline and universe. By creating identities for themselves they’re also showing that they plan on staying in this timeline to fulfill their duties.

Beautiful Beautiful

The reason why I think Beautiful Beautiful is the last one in the timeline, as in the most current, is a similar reason as to why I put Why after We Must Love, and that is the setting. Beautiful Beautiful seemingly takes place in what I see as a revolutionized future. In Why and Sukhumvit Swimming, there were some flying cars, or flying somethings, in the MVs but in the case of Why and We Must Love, those were almost dystopian worlds that were getting destroyed. Reversely, in my opinion, Beautiful Beautiful takes place in a world where the organization has won.

 But then why is it more futuristic looking? One reason could be because when jumping timelines in Sukhumvit Swimming, they went farther into the future. Another reason could be that after destroying the current world in Why and We Must Love, the organization decided to rebuild the city from the ground up to make it exactly the way they wanted. But then why would the guys choose to go to a timeline when the opposition wins? Well, I think it’s because that no matter what timeline they go to, in some way, the opposition will always win. In the end it could be seen that it’d just be better to go further into the future where they have more resources and probably know more about themselves and have more faith in their skills to defeat them.

 Like in previous MVs, they’re still doing what they do best. MK is still hacking into computers, E-Tion and U control machines and have the watches, Hyojin is teleporting, and Wyatt is using the googles to access a computer system and he still has his bike. J-Us, since he’s under arrest, can’t really do as much in this case regarding his information hacking. But maybe it was because of his information hacking that he was able to pass information on to the others about how to temporarily defeat the robots that are chasing them.

 A difference in this story compared to the others is that they all looked a lot more relaxed than they once were. In Why and We Must Love they were frantically looking for information and at each other’s throats. In this MV since they’re working together and are able to get things done, they don’t have as much stress accumulated and rely on one another to complete the task at hand, which is saving J-Us at the moment.

 Based on the ending of the MV, it could be said that they’ve temporarily won as their Beautiful Beautiful cube ends up in the sky and they admire the fireworks, but I would definitely say that the happiness probably doesn’t last. They may have won a temporary battle and got J-Us back, but there will definitely be future issues, which of course depends on their future MVs.

 Going back to this, I think there were a lot of ties into past MVs and similar scenes. For one, Hyojin was still on a train with masked figures, the red record was shown again, and the googles that Wyatt wore seemed like the ones MK had in Why. One of the bigger things, I think, was the usage of the cube at the end. Instead of seemingly wreaking havoc on the earth like the other cubes of the other MVs did, this cube was ONF’s cube that helped them instead of rain down rockets. In one of the scenes when U and E-Tion are in their hideout, which I’m pretty sure is the yellow machine that comes up behind U at the junkyard looking place, the cube is on a screen behind them and it says that all systems are active. Who knows, maybe during their time on the run they figured out the best way to fight back against the organization. Using the same method, the cube and with all of their hacking abilities, they were able to cause a data attack and subsequent system error. That was shown on the green banners that Hyojin and J-Us saw after he was rescued and before they jumped out of the building at the end.

Conclusion

Overall, I think the basic gist of it is just like what I mentioned in the condense version. There’s some organization that ONF were once a part of that they’ve become rebellions of and are now working against. It’s an interesting concept, that of androids/robots, that they’ve had from the beginning and I like how everything still connects with each other with similar skills and abilities being shown throughout or similar looking scenes that relate one MV to the next.

 When I initially saw the MVs, I thought that maybe I would organize them in a different order than when they premiered, but thinking about them, they kind of make sense in the order that they showed up. I only switched ON/OFF and Complete. But even if they were to be in the same order, as in ON/OFF first and then Complete, I think an argument could be made for that way, too. It could be said that in ON/OFF, ONF are created as the robots but are created with more human qualities so they can go to Earth in Complete and get the information needed. Yet because Laun was the one to put the information in the rocket, I assume that he got that information when he was already on Earth in Complete, which is why I reversed them.

 But if you’ve made it this far, then congrats! I know this was long. I honestly didn’t expect me to have so much to say about these MVs and storylines and things I noticed that were interesting. I guess I just found myself being drawn into it in a way. But I can’t wait to see what kind of future stuff gets put out and if it’ll continue to relate to the storyline that they’ve been telling so far.

[cellydawn]

Sans is a Darkner Theory (MASTERPOST)

I know that this theory has been touched on before, but I’d like to compile all the evidence from the original post with some additional stuff I found relevant into a single comprehensive post. To preface this, I would like to remind everyone that the merchandise based on Sans isn’t canon and that though Deltarune isn’t a direct sequel to Undertale, the Deltarune FAQ confirms that connections between the two are not precluded.

I’m going to divide this theory into three parts because I want to cover all my bases and there is an extensive amount of evidence, so without further ado, let me introduce you to my completely self-indulgent crazed ramblings!

WARNING: This is very long. Also, a bunch of speculation here so read at your own discretion.

1. Sans has connections to the Deltarune universe

Let’s list off what we know for sure:

Sans instantly recognizes the Player as a human and has knowledge of the Surface.

In the conversation at MTT Restaurant, Sans confesses that he knows the feeling of wanting to go home.

According to the Snowdin Shopkeeper, Sans and Papyrus showed up one day and “asserted themselves”.

In his lost soul dialogue, Sans says that “you’ll never see ‘em again”.

During his battle, Sans reveals that he “gave up trying to go back a long time ago” and that “getting to the surface doesn't really appeal anymore, either.”

After being defeated, Sans says that he’s “going to grillbys”. In Deltarune, the first place we see Sans is at Grillby’s. Sans’s house and the restaurant in Deltarune are the same as in Undertale (except for slight alterations like the lack of snow and...’sans)

Undertale!Sans and Deltarune!Sans have identical sprites.

After talking with the Clam Girl and learning of Suzy, you can go to Sans’s workshop and find a card sticking out from the back flap of the binder, described as a poorly drawn picture of three smiling people with the words "don't forget" written in lowercase. Deltarune’s credits song is titled “Don’t Forget”.

We can safely assume that Sans came from another place that is not the underground nor the surface; Sans misses his home and his friends there (presumably the people in the picture); Susie and Suzy are related somehow. Additionally, we can speculate that Sans and Papyrus may have arrived from another dimension. It might very well be the case that Sans originated from the Deltarune universe: Sans is completely resigned to the fact that he can’t alter the past no matter how hard he tries. Deltarune’s prophecy is all about inevitability. Sans’s defeatist attitude might stem from this.

Here’s some evidence that is more debatable:

River Person warns the Player to “Beware of the man who came from the other world”. It’s possible that the man in question is Sans.

I’ve noticed this isn’t brought up as much, but Sans’s word search is from ICE-E’s, which is a brand we only see in Deltarune. As far as we know, there is no trace of this brand in the Undertale universe. It definitely doesn’t appear to be one from a newspaper—it’s a distraction given to kids at restaurants.

BONUS: There’s a wacky inflatable mascot that resembles the ICE-E’s mascot in the dog shrine found in the skelebros’ house (console version)

During Shyren’s encounter, if the Player hums twice, the flavor text describes Sans selling tickets made of toilet paper. Now, we know that all the food in the Underground is made out of magic. Magic nourishes monsters, but it doesn’t pass through their bodies as waste. Why does Sans have toilet paper? 

Alphys seems to be in-the-know about Sans’s time-space shenanigans. In the epilogue of the pacifist ending, there’s some dialogue that suggests Alphys and Sans are quite familiar with each other. Both of them want to keep this a secret for whatever reason. In a neutral ending in which Alphys becomes the ruler, she is mournful of the deaths of Undyne, Alphys, and Asgore, but is glad that “at least Sans is here”. In the MTT quiz, if you pick “Don’t Know” to the question about her crush, Alphys reveals that she has done research on alternate universes and knows they exist. Both Sans and Alphys have connections to Gaster, who is quite prevalent in Deltarune. She, along with Sans (and coincidentally, the ICE-E word-search) are affected by Fun values and have their own Fun events. It seems a little random, but what if all the Fun events are Gaster-related? Are Alphys and Sans the two people mentioned in Entry 17?

So I think all of these pieces are sufficient in establishing Sans’s connection to Deltarune, though it is still unclear whether Sans came from Deltarune into Undertale or vice versa, OR Sans showed up from yet ANOTHER universe. That’s a theory for another time, though. On to the next part!

2. Sans has abilities/properties exclusive to Darkners

Some of the basics:

Sans can teleport, that is, use “shortcuts”, as evidenced by appearing both in front and behind the character in Snowdin, going to Grillbys, chasing after Papyrus in the wrong direction during the Pacifist ending scene, etc. Though Rouxls Kaard is shown to teleport, Lancer’s style of teleporting most closely resembles Sans’s. There are multiple instances in which Lancer stays ahead despite the Player passing him (for example, Lancer sneaking a sign past the party despite there only being one way to the door).

The door to Sans’s room greatly resembles the fast-travel doors that only Darkners are able to create. If you get the key to his room, the pitch-black and seemingly-endless walkway is not dissimilar to that of the supply closet. Papyrus also happens to liken Sans’s room to “another world”. All of the weird junk could be representative of various landmarks in the dark world.

Sans can manipulate shadows as seen through his first appearance (I also like to think that this is the reason why his “eye-lights” can disappear). This is most prevalent with Ralsei, Lancer, and the King obscuring parts of their body with shadows.

Darkners have colored portraits. At first glance, you would assume Sans doesn’t have one, but his head is already—conveniently—black and white.

If that wasn’t enough, let’s take a look at Sans’s battle in the Genocide Route. The most distinguishing feature of this fight is Sans’s ability to dodge your attacks, an ability that was thought to be unique to him. As it turns out, Darkners are also able to dodge (provided that they are warned). In order to actually beat Sans, you need to tire him out, and once you have dealt the final blow, he runs away. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

I believe that Sans actually survives the encounter as well. I’ve seen people claim that when he goes off-screen, the “dusting” sound effect signifies that he dies. This is wrong. That sound effect plays at the end of every battle, regardless of whether you spared or killed an enemy. I’d like to point out that the EXP you gain from the battle does not confirm Sans’s death. If you pick on Loox, you can get 5 extra EXP stacking up to 3 times. This means that killing an enemy is not required for you to gain EXP. I’ll also include that the kill counter doesn’t go up once Sans’s battle is over. It’s believed that this is the case because of Chara’s interference, though I don’t personally agree.

Let me also present this tidbit that I see no one else talking about: unlike literally any monster in the underground (besides Flowey, but he doesn’t count), Sans HAS NO HP BAR. When he gets hit, the damage numbers are present, but the HP bar that should have appeared above him is absent. Darkners don’t have a visible HP bar when struck.

Here’s some stuff that’s a little bit more controversial/speculative:

Lancer more or less implies that Darkners bleed, though we haven’t seen any examples of this yet. Ralsei doesn’t correct him, however. We know that the monsters in the light world don’t bleed (“Does it hurt to be made out of blood?”), and Susie’s comment (“Everybody bleeds, right?”) could be read as her trying to look cool for Lancer. Then, does Sans bleed?

It has been confirmed by @nochocolate​ that the red coming out of Sans is the exact same red as his ketchup bottle. This is a deliberate choice, but it doesn’t completely deconfirm that it may be blood because we don’t have other instances of blood to compare it to. Additionally, there is a mention of both blood and ketchup from Noelle: "This isn't another trick, is it, Kris? Like when you put ketchup on your arms and told me it was blood?" This might just be Toby Fox poking fun at the fandom or intentionally misdirecting us—really, it could go either way.

Sans’s mouth doesn’t move at all while he talks. It turns out that there may be an explanation for this! In Undertale, you can see the mouths of face sprites move while words are being spoken.

However, in Deltarune, both Lightners and Darkners don’t feature moving mouths in their textboxes! In instances wherein the full-body sprites are shown (Papyrus date, Alphys date, literally all the battles), the mouths don’t move either. So while his expression rarely changes, it might turn out that Sans DOES actually move his mouth while speaking, we just can’t see it. I’m a bit iffy on this theory since it varies from monster to monster in the Light World. Moreover, in Undertale, while Mettaton’s mouth doesn’t move at all (I’m going to disregard this since he is a robot) it’s very peculiar that the same can be said for Alphys.

Seriously, why doesn’t Alphys’s mouth move at all?? This HAS to be intentional, all of the other characters with a face sprite have moving mouths. Deltarune!Alphys doesn’t have one either. This brings up more questions than answers: Are certain monsters Lightners and others not? Is Alphys a Lightner? Did her “research” on alternate universes involve her actually traversing the multiverse? Am I overthinking this? In any case, it’s more stuff linking her to Sans...

If it turns out that not all monsters are Lightners, then it makes sense that Sans is so devoted to Papyrus, assuming that Papyrus is, in fact, a Lightner. No other person’s death makes as much of a difference as Papyrus’s concerning Sans’s behavior towards you. Alternatively, if Papyrus is not a Lightner, then it stands to reason why Sans is so depressed—he has no way of fulfilling his purpose. “Sans”, after all, means “without”.

The Light World has virtually no indications of monsters being able to use magic. In Undertale, it’s stated that magic is a method of self-expression for monsters, yet the only magic we see in Deltarune is from within the Dark World. If we compare Deltarune!Toriel’s stovetop to Undertale!Toriel’s, we see that the flavor text has omitted her use of fire magic. Susie is able to send out magic ax attacks, but this is likely due to the nature of the Dark World. I need to clarify that she is not the one that casts the Pacify spell at the end of a “neutral” run; she realizes that the King is tired, and waits for Ralsei to finish the job. Her remembering Pacify is exactly what it means, and Ralsei comments on it because he is expressing surprise that she cared to remember the spell she made fun of him for. I’ll also point out that the lack of magic would be the reason why the monster-human war ended differently/didn’t even happen, therefore allowing monsters to reside on the surface. If Sans did hail from this world, he wouldn’t have magic or would have very limited magical capabilities if he isn’t a Darkner.

Here is a piece of dialogue from Sans about the Underground. Interestingly, he differentiates himself from monsters, though this could just be because he doesn’t want to lump in Papyrus with them. The King has a similar line (“Show my son the monster you REALLY are!”). Monsters are possibly complicit in Darkners’ imprisonment. Is it possible that Sans is also resentful? Do Darkners exist in Undertale?

I feel like this interaction is worth mentioning. It’s entirely possible that Darkners were sealed so long ago in the Undertale universe that nobody even remembers their existence. 

Going back to Papyrus, if Sans is a Darkner, then it’s important to mention that Papyrus is not. We see Papyrus turn to dust when he is killed. For that reason, it seems that Sans and Papyrus are not biological brothers. I think this actually makes a lot of sense given how different they look. Yes, it’s true that Sans and Papyrus both have a skeleton motif, but they don’t look remotely similar. The face shape, the jaw, the build, the height, the eyes, the nasal cavity—nothing matches! Each monster species look the same, hell, even boss monsters like Toriel and Asgore resemble each other. Compared to Papyrus, Sans seems a lot more solid (his gut) AND he’s almost completely covered up save for his face (what are you hiding under there?).

Their bone attacks are distinct as well: Papyrus’s have a more angular aesthetic compared to Sans’s rounded edges.

In comparison, Toriel, Asgore, and Asriel have the same exact fire attack.

So, if Sans is a skeleton-themed Darkner, what type would he be?

3. Sans is the Ace of Spades

This part of the theory is a bit more conjectural, but I think there is enough evidence to put this in here.

Let’s start with how Sans, Lancer, and the King are similar:

Their sprites have the same color scheme: black, blue, white, and grey.

They sport uneven and toothy grins, are round and chubby (“if you eat too many hot dogs…you’ll probably get huge like me”), and have a hood.

The spades seem to have a smile motif. The grinning “mouth” of the Card Castle has the same number of “teeth” as Sans. Additionally, you can see portraits of spade people inside the castle. They’re all smiling.

These three are the only characters that can freely shift between being completely submerged in the shadows and becoming visible. The ability to cloak their body with shadows is a trait thought to be shared by all Darkners; Ralsei, after all, exhibits this all throughout our journey. What’s interesting is that there are clear parallels to Sans, Lancer, and the Kings’ shadows: they conceal their entire form and reveal it during their first appearances.

Sans and Lancer are shown to be able to teleport. I’m bringing this up again because it seems that not all Darkners can teleport without the use of a door as indicated by Ralsei’s confusion. If Ralsei has extensive knowledge of Darkner powers, and he is unaware that Lancer can teleport, then teleportation must be an ability unique to the spades, or, at the very least, card-themed Darkners.

Sans and the King’s fights are eerily similar. You need to fight/tire them out and listen to them monologue in order to progress. A major theme of both fights is how you can’t truly spare them. Appearing worn out from the battle, they appeal for mercy. Should the Player fall for it, they launch an unavoidable attack that deals catastrophic damage. Additionally, before his fight, the King employs the use of silent text, just like Sans during his judgments and his intimidating moments. Also worth noting: in both fights, the battle box is manipulated deliberately to suit the needs of the Player (for our last attack against Sans) and the King (his weird stomach tongue latching onto the box). Sans is also capable of stretching the box as seen with the attack before his special attack.

Lancer and Sans, in particular, parallel each other quite nicely. They are both playful jokers, they both own bikes, and both of these characters have a strange relationship with food (particularly with red condiments).

The two just so happen to have stands to sell questionable foodstuffs.

Sans is evidently constantly eating:

Undyne: “And his brother kept making 100’s of midnight snacks.”

Papyrus: “GRILLBY’S… IT’S DARK AND FULL OF GREASE. PURGATORY OF FRIES… HAMBURGER ABYSS… ANYWAY, MY BROTHER PRACTICALLY LIVES HERE.”

Big-Mouth: “Sans is interesting. He has told me about all kinds of incredible foods. But, despite his knowledge, he always orders the worst burger off the menu.”

And we know that Lancer barely eats at all. He doesn’t think that having three glasses of milk as his dinner is unusual, he’s not allowed to eat the Dark Candy, he pretends to eat the salsa in the stump, and he has to get fed worms by Rouxls because his father forgot to feed him. Sans and Lancer both have terrible eating habits. I’m not sure what this is supposed to mean, but you know, food for thought.

Why the Ace of Spades:

The designs of both Lancer and the King originated from @kanotynes​ who created an entire deck of cards. The Ace of Spades does not have a distinct design.

French manufacturers standardized the four playing card suits. “Sans” and “Lancer” are both French words.

It symbolizes uncleanliness and depression (Sans’s socks and his room, the latter is pretty self-explanatory), omens (River Person’s warning, Flowey alerting us to not reveal our abilities to him, “you’re going to have a bad time”), and death (the reason for his skeletal nature).

In Blackjack, Aces have a numeric value of 1 (matching his stats) or 11 (the same number of unique pre-battle dialogue from Sans, though this may just be a lucky coincidence). The Eleventh Hour is an idiom meaning nearly too late. Sans’s fight is your last possible chance at quitting before the world ends and your game gets corrupted.

Remember that bit where Sans has toilet paper? In the Card Castle, you can see that a bathroom, the Royal Flush, is occupied. Darkners have to digest their food. On a related note, the royal flush is a poker term for an A(14), K(13), Q(12), J(11), and 10 hand. Interestingly, in the sequence before his “special attack”, we see Sans disappear and reappear at the edges of the screen 14 times (again, probably just a neat coincidence).

The ace is paradoxically the least and most valuable card (in Blackjack, Poker, etc.), paralleling Sans being the weakest and strongest enemy.

Ace of Spades also represents “an end”, and Sans is there at the end of our journey, judging us before Asgore’s fight. He is also responsible for initiating the phone calls at the end of every neutral route.

Okay, this one is a little bit of a joke. In this deleted tweet, Toby said that Sans would be too lazy for sex, causing fans to speculate that he is “ace” lol.

BONUS: Sans was originally intended to run a casino. This one’s a bit self-explanatory. Also explains his poker face.

The most important piece of evidence, however, is this: the French expression fagoté comme l'as de pique means "(badly) dressed like the ace of spades." Checks out.

On Gaster Blasters:

Gaster Blasters might have a spade motif. If you connect the natural curves of the eyes and the top of the nose ridge, you get a spade shape. The GB's crests resemble King Spade's crown and possibly the neck/shoulder part of his cape.

A GB's nose resembles King Spade's when he isn't snarling at you; this might also apply to Sans if he stopped smiling (mouth shape affects the shape of their noses). 

Also on the topic of noses, Sans, Lancer, and King Spade's noses translate to the same shape in their overworld sprites.

The fog from Snowdin, which has been theorized to be either a front-facing GB or Sans' face (and honestly I lean more towards it being Sans's face because of the eye shape) has a hidden line underneath and above the nose. Perhaps Sans resembles the Gaster Blasters and the Spades more than we anticipated?

HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.....

[dontasktheradiodemon]

Scheming (with Sandwiches) (5/3/2021)

Alastor talks to Valera @autokrates about her visit from Ruler Of Hell King Alastor @akillingspreeinwhite—and more importantly, what to do about him if he decides he wants to start conquering other Hells.

Alastor's plan: an alliance between as many potentially threatened dimensions as possible.

Alastor

Lunch time! Hello Valera guess who it is, it's Alastor. "I hope you don't mind, I thought it might be nice to have lunch together today! Sandwich?" The sandwich is an innocent gift of friendship with no ulterior motives! And also it's a bribe.

Valera

Lunch time! A great time, usually. A chance to gossip with coworkers AND eat. And look who's here, it's Alastor, with a very innocent sandwich! "Mind? Not at all, by all means my dear, it's a pleasure."

She does TRY to take a bite from the sandwich, but before she can even sink her teeth into it her whole face twists and she has to put it aside to flop her head down and groan. Don't mind her clutching her stomach, this is normal. "Eelizzy is *rioting* back home, oh my *gods*. Feels like I swallowed a radio full of hornets."

Alastor

"Oh, don't you hate that? When you're trying to pick up a station on the radio and there's so much interference all you hear is *buzzing*?" He's proud of himself for that joke. He shouldn't be. "Try this, see if it calms her down any." He sends over a song. <https://youtu.be/2t4iBbfwBLw>

Valera

She'd glare at him for that joke, but she's too busy making her poor floppy at-home body cooperate long enough to open a link. "Louisiana Lullaby? Well by name alone it promises results. She loved New Orleans."

A minute passes, and she slowly sits upright. The sandwich is cautiously picked up, and she nibbles at the crust as she raises both eyebrows at Alastor. She can guess what he really wants to know. "Incredible, even from a distance you're better at wrangling a kid than your more... *royal* alternate." That's an opening if she's ever given one, here you go Alastor.

Alastor

His smile widens. The exact topic he wanted to talk about! "I take it his visit was rather... stomach-turning?"

Valera

She glances around, making sure they're far enough away from any coworkers, then leans in with gossiping intent. "Putting it *mildly*. He's very tall, he's very self assured, and he's got the worst vibes I've ever felt roll off of a man. Like dunking my face in used cooking oil. And get this. The second he stepped into my house, Eelizzy started thrashing like a harpooned whale. She's never reacted so violently to *anything*."

Alastor

A slow nod. "That's never a good sign. I trust the judgment of the as yet unborn, they tend to be less prejudiced. And I take it you don't think it was a mere reaction to his power level?"

Valera

Her head cocks to the right, nose scrunching in thought. "He gave me one of Lucifer's flight feathers, so I assume she felt some of that power too. But I put the thing away and she still spent the entire visit either flailing or spitting static at him every time he got too close."

The hand not holding the sandwich brushes her barbels back, rubbing her forehead. "I suppose it's possible that his energy was simply so foreign she reacted strongly, but I live with *Leal*. She's been around for everything from eldritch magic to his full demonic form and barely even stirred. When she met Alexa? Happily buzzing at him barely a minute in. You saw how well she took to you, too. She's met dragons, gods, demons, sinners, and not a single one had her that pissed. Even Seapup was growling at him and Seapup loves *everyone*."

Alastor

"If she doesn't even react to *gods* like that, I'm going to assume it's the quality rather than the quantity." He sighs. "Well, *that's* telling, isn't it! I'm not sure *what* it's telling us yet—but I don't think I'm going to like the answer, do you?"

Valera

She snorts. "No. No I do *not*. He got to my planet unaided, Alastor. Got into my house without me giving any sort of direction. He knew the planet's name before I ever told him. And I want to chalk that up to just him reading my blog, but... I know he's followed me and Leal around without either of us being able to sense him."

Alastor

Alastor nods. "He mentioned that to me too, your 'being followed' adventure. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if the king's done it more than once. Or, considering how strong he has to be to have seized the throne, he might have additional methods of sussing out information. All of which are probably bad news."

Valera

This poor sandwich is never going to get eaten at this rate, there she goes putting it down again. "No kidding. He's been the pinnacle of manners and social grace for now, but.." A shrug, and she offers Alastor a wan smile. "I don't trust that to last. He's an outlier to the already unpredictable Alastor model."

Alastor

"No, I don't trust it either." His voice lowers—not his usual trick of changing his tone of voice to pretend he's being quieter, but an actual lowering of volume. "Here's the thing. I don't trust a single one of my alternates that's joined in the overlord rat race—much less has made king. A propensity toward boredom like mine should *never* be married to earnest political ambitions. When he gets bored, he's going to do what he's always done: conquer. And if there's no more room for him to move *upward,* he'll start moving *outward.* And wouldn't you know it, he's *just* found the multiverse."

Valera

"Exactly." She exhales almost too forcefully for it to be a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. What a headache this was turning out to be. "I *really* don't want to test my mettle against even a normal Alastor alt, the idea of *that* man being able to show up in my house on a whim and start trying to play at the All American Dream of Conquering the Alien Menace is... Not good." An absent minded rubbing of her stomach, self soothing and comforting an egg that was universes away. "I'm not ashamed to admit that I am, on some level, absolutely terrified."

Alastor

"You're not alone," Alastor admits. "Not to downplay your very realistic 'heroic human conquering the savage alien world' fears, but if human history has proven anything, it's that we tend to try conquering our neighbors first and only travel farther after we either succeed or decide it's more trouble than it's worth. And neighbors don't get much closer than a parallel copy of the same place."

Valera

"Oh dear." Grimacing, she lifts a hand like she's about to offer comfort, letting it hover for a moment before slowly putting it back down. No, don't do for the shoulder pat just yet. "I don't like that one bit, Alastor. But for what it's worth, if it came down to it, I'd try to help you."

Alastor

"That is *exactly* what I wanted to discuss." Alastor's eyes glow brighter. "Now, any version of me that's conquered Hell is going to be stronger than any version of me that hasn't, that's practically a given. He could beat any *one* of us hands down. I haven't seen *you* at full power, but frankly that's a boxing match I wouldn't want to bet money on for either side. But—*but*—if enough of us have agreed we'll fight him if he stepped out of line... The more of us agree to fight in defense of each other's dimensions, the better a chance we'll collectively stand. Leclerq and I have already agreed to offer each other mutual support. With three of us, we might have the start of a proper defense."

Valera

She folds her hands, listening as Alastor lays out his plan. Strength in numbers, it was an effective strategy. She could think of a few others who would gladly throw their hats in the ring in the name of keeping the line as well, Alastor or otherwise. "Alright. I'll add myself to that list, and pray we never need it."

Alastor

He laughs wryly. "And I'll be praying for backup in case we *do* need it. Apparently upstairs doesn't care about who's calling the shots in Hell, if they didn't intervene before my alternate could take the crown; but maybe they'll start to care if multiple Hells start uniting in one empire."

Valera

She snorts despite herself, shaking her head. "I hope so! Wouldn't that be something, heaven and hell uniting forces against one common enemy! I just hope we never have to see it."

Alastor

"So do I." He takes a deep breath. "So! Anything else of interest to report from his little visit? You mentioned *you* didn't like his... 'vibes'?"

Valera

"Oh! Yeah. Holy shit." A WELCOME subject change. "He's freaky. And I don't like that I know even one of his kinks. I want to know zero of them." She shrugs and picks her sandwich back up. At last, something she can eat while discussing. "As far as his visit though. He gave me one of Lucifer's flight feathers. Which I _immediately_ handed off to mon cerf."

Alastor

"He certainly has poor taste in kinks." He says this like his ace ass is some sort of elitist kink connoisseur. Like a wine snob judging a broke-ass college kid for drinking box wine. "But is that the *only* sense you meant he's freaky in, or...? Granted, handing an acquaintance a souvenir harvested from the body of one's vanquished nemesis is a hell of an opening statement all by itself, but."

Valera

"I wish." Look at that face scrunch. It won't keep her from taking a bite out of her sandwich, but still. "No, I mean his very presence was like trying to breathe oil. He's.." She frowns, brow furrowing as she tries to think of a less melodramatic way to put it. "He's nice, but in the way people are nice to a pet."

Alastor

A huff. "I got a little bit of that impression from talking to him. Granted, Radio Demons are a naturally condescending lot, but even at that..." He searches for the right words. "He strikes me as the kind of person incapable of seeing anyone as his equal. Even his own alternates."

Valera

She nods. "Yes, I think you're right. We're entertainment more than we are people. Perhaps _especially_ his alternates, come to think of it.." Judging by the way he'd treated his alts on dash..

Alastor

"Could be worse—could be outright loathing—but I'm wary around any alternate who can't even see *himself* as a kindred spirit. I'm hoping I can take advantage of it, though. I've got an open invitation to visit his dimension sometime to provide entertainment—a few Hamilton songs from me in exchange for a tour. I plan on scouting the place out then."

Valera

"Oh yeah! You do, don't you! You should try and see what happened to the other overlords in his Hell. Assuming he didn't kill them as soon as they manifested, I've wondered whats become of them."

Alastor

"So have I. I have to think overlords still exist—what does it matter to a king if the peasants claim ownership of a block or two?—but whether any of them are the same overlords *we* know..." He grimaces. "He said he took power in the fifties, didn't he? If we're assuming a worst case scenario where he executed all the overlords who currently existed, that includes Sir Pentious and Rosie. Maybe Rosie was minor enough to be spared, if anyone was spared at all; but someone else with ambitions for the throne..."

Valera

She scowls, shoving the rest of the sandwich in her mouth to keep from saying anything before she can think it over. He was right, and the thought was.. Deeply uncomfortable. A hard swallow, and she starts brushing the crumbs off her chest. "We're set to have lunch together tomorrow, *out* of my house." She doesn't sound especially *happy* about the arrangement, but oh well. "If I learn anything new, I'll let you know. Between the two of us, we should hopefully be able to get a feel for what situation we're dealing with. Odds are his Pentious was exterminated."

A blink, and she squints. "Actually, he said something to Theodore today. His Hell has had some *significant* technological advancements since he took the throne, he was very proud of that fact. All radio based, obviously, but he doesn't strike me as an inventor."

Alastor

"*Our* Hell's had significant technological advancements since the fifties, too," Alastor pointed out. "He could be collecting newly-dead inventors and pressing them to turn their expertise toward radio-based applications. Or, hell—it could simply be that having V#x out of the way means the technological developments in Hell naturally drifted a different way."

He gives Valera a tired, wan smile. "I'd *like* to imagine that Sir Pentious is happily toiling away as the royal inventor, but I don't want to get my hopes up. I don't think the majority would be happy with that."

Valera

"Mm, I'm being too optimistic. And he would hate it, so maybe it's for the better that he's probably been exterminated." She sighs. "I don't know if we manage to find trouble, Alastor, or trouble manages to find us. Either way, what a pain. Any other questions before we drag ourselves back to the dreadful chore of watching Hamilton get shot on stage over and over?"

Alastor

"Just one." He nods toward the stage. "Do you think it's been long enough since the last time I got in trouble that I can start singing 'he's never gon' be president now' when the bullet connects?"

Valera

Now that is a very serious question that must be considered.... Hrm... "Yes, but barely. I think the director would throw his clipboard at you, but not much beyond that. He's on his sixth coffee of the day, so the odds of dodging are in your favor."

Alastor

"Maybe he'll forgive me out of pity if I let it connect." He stands, picks up his own sandwich—yeah, he's had a sandwich this whole time—and devours it in five huge bites. "Shall we?"

Valera

For some reason, she's tempted to clap at that display. But no time for more banter, it's back to work. "We shall."

Alastor

Back to work. Time to watch Hamilton get shot again.

Valera

~~Boooooo give us a twist ending next time, add some leopards eating people's faces~~

Alastor

~~Hamilton is the leopard and he tries to eat Alastor's face for singing in the middle of his dramatic death~~

[mittensmorgul]

I'm sure your askbox is flooded, but I did have one 15x13 thing that I'm confused on (and, no, it's not the Impala driving...). If the cosmic entity warding boost was temporary/ineffective/clearly didn't work on Billie (or did it???) And Jack is meant to be hiding out NOT using his powers for fear of Chuck seeing it. And Chuck can look in on the bunker at any time to check to see if Sam and Dean are there/if Sam has a manbun... then why couldn't he see Jack there or see him pull Cas's grace out?

Hi hi! I hope you’re holding up well :)

The ask box it’s too bad, actually. Typical bucklemming >.>

I’m not entirely sure what the cosmic entity warding boost would do. I don’t think it would work on Billie. I mean, reapers can get anywhere. Otherwise people inside the bunker would be effectively immortal. Ooh... the bunker would be like a Faerie Mound... inside humans would be untouched by death, but the moment they ventured outside again... so yeah, I don’t think they can truly bar Death that way.

We were told the warding boost was temporary, but we weren’t told how long it would be for. A day? A month? The rest of the season until the critical moment they dramatically fail? We have to assume they were still active if Cas asked Jack to use his power.

We also know, per Billie in addition to the fact they witnessed the destruction of AU!Sam and Dean’s universe in the opening scene, that Chuck is world-hopping-and-popping at the moment, and not actively focused on *this* universe. We don’t even know if Chuck realized an alternate Sam and Dean slipped out of their world. And the fact they were “trapped between worlds” in the bunker before they used Cas’s grace to open a rift into that between place to pull them out kinda makes me think Chuck missed them...

In the episode, Jack even brought up the point that Chuck isn’t actively paying attention to the still-- after Cas’s escapades in the empty. If anything, I think Chuck would’ve noticed Jack using the Occultum, you know? That... was quite the magical blast (it blew away a couple of Hellhounds in a blast of power). I also think the instant Chuck is done with the other universes, Billie will be on the spot to warn them that Chuck has returned, too.

The show has given us plausible reason for Chuck not keeping a close eye on this universe, for Jack being able to use a minor magical power-- especially one directly connected to the Empty, which is also a dimension we have been told Chuck has no power over, and especially within the cosmically warded bunker (since we have no evidence that that warding has stopped working). And especially when it was Cas’s life force being affected/manipulated, since we know Chuck (and pretty much all the other cosmic entities outside of the Empty) don’t seem to notice Cas at all... He’s our wild card, and the show keeps hammering on that point.

Chuck can look in on the bunker, but I’m not sure he actually is. We’ve seen how he goes all one-track mind once he’s made a plan for himself. Gosh he’s really like Sam this way, isn’t he? He’s decided those other universes don’t spark joy, and is dismantling them one by one. He’s put all his attention into that project, not even realizing the Winchesters (and Jack!) are setting up a plan to use against him yet.

In a lot of ways, what we witnessed in this episode was TFW actively working within the limited number of choices they have available to them. All of their options have potential downfalls, but they also have a priority mission to help Jack prepare to face Chuck. Billie keeps pushing the importance of Jack being ready, the urgency to complete this mission to find the Occultum in this case.

Sam: Let’s go then!Jack: Wait, what if Chuck checks in on us, sees what we’re doing? Isn’t it... pretty much... over?Sam: Yeah, it would be.Dean: Uh, I have a dumb idea... If Chuck comes back to check in on us, he’s gonna look for us here, in the bunker.Sam: We don’t know that.Dean: Well, we don’t not know that.

And yeah, it’s a bit silly, and contrived, but it doesn’t blatantly defy anything that’s already been established. And we know TFW MUST find a way to get the Occultum, which even Billie can’t see the location of. The only person in existence, alive or dead, who even knew the location was apparently Ruby. Why didn’t Cas ask Billie to travel to the Empty and ask Ruby herself? We just don’t know. See... a bit silly and contrived... but thematically still on point in every other way:

Cas and his belief that he must be “useful” at all cost-- which was highlighted with that “I got the info, am I still an idiot?” scene, with Dean frustrated and telling him he sure was... because that’s their core character issue between them and has been all season. It feels like a progression toward understanding between them. But in this case, risking himself to go to the singular place where he personally was most at risk in order to get the information they needed was the choice he made for himself.

Acting on that choice also brought him in direct confrontation with the Empty Entity, confirming that his deal with the empty is still in force, and reminding us of the conditions of the deal-- Cas’s happiness being the trigger

The direct parallel between Cas’s current lack of perfect happiness despite Jack even getting his soul back in this episode-- and Jack finally experiencing the profound suffering of truly feeling what he’d done, the emotional hurt he’d caused the people he cared about most-- but also echoing what Cas once told Sam (lol also in a bucklemming episode, 10.03-- they’re a bit ott and contrived, but heck they’re thematically consistent), that only humans can experience true joy or such profound sadness, and it took Jack having his soul restored to actually feel it, after trying to work through what he was supposed to feel on an intellectual level with Cas earlier in the episode.

The fact that Chuck doesn’t know what’s written in his own book in Billie’s library, the fact that Sam, Dean, and Jack are tied to his fate and Cas still feels like the wild card-- pointed out by the Empty that he’s not part of the plan and yet he keeps coming through with these sorts of things that literally nobody else could’ve chosen to do-- and yet Cas seems to be outside of Chuck’s personal observational radar... Cas was in nearly every image in 15.12 while Chuck went on and on about “Sam and Dean,” and yet didn’t even rate a mention by Chuck, as if Chuck couldn’t even see him sitting there. And I think this is gonna prove to be critical by the end, whether Chuck is simply dismissing Cas as relevant or important, or if he legitimately can’t even see Cas sitting there for some reason. Either way, I think that was the point here. Even when delivered in slightly stumbly bucklemming fashion compared to the subtlety of bobo or meredith or dabb... they are still trying to convey the same advancement of the themes...

Lol, this is why I am willing to backflip through bucklemming canon. If we can get past the moments of wtf, there is actual substance and continuity to be found. I mean, I hate the fact we have to shovel our way through stuff to find the continuity like this, but it is there. Their problem isn’t in the core themes, but in the execution.

And for them, this episode was pretty damn good... Even Mr. Mittens liked it, and was surprised when I told him it was the deadly duo. He was like, “wow for them that was better than usual,” which is honestly a rousing endorsement of the episode overall. :P

[hellyeahheroes]

Ghost Spider problems

Disclaimer: the comic is not bad. Take this as constructive criticism

1. Start from the beginning

This is all you get when it comes to Gwen’s origin.

And before you say that this is mirroring Peter, no. Amazing Fantasy #15 was a fully fleshed out origin story. Amazing Spider-man #1 takes place immediately after Uncle Ben’s murder. Gwen’s origin encompasses years of her being Spider-woman with actual events that go beyond just a sparse origin. When Spider-Gwen starts, we are like coming in at the equivalent of Amazing Spider-man #300.

So Jason Latour tries to use flashbacks and detailed full page word dump expositions at the end of each issue to further fill in the gap between the shit the audience doesn’t know. The latter is quite frankly the laziest thing I’ve ever seen in writing. Rather than creating stories to establish characters and create a catalogue to their history, lets fucking just explain everything that happened in essay form.

This, til this day, pisses me off.

Anyways, when Latour did introduce a characters like a Harry Osborn, he relied on flashbacks to detail what happened. The issue however that he was simultaneously advancing a story while retroactively setting foundation of a character. One example of a past event being constructed entirely out of flashbacks: the death of Peter Parker.

In these flashbacks that are construed across multiple issues and not in chronological order of either the issue nor the flashback, Latour basically shows the audience for the first time Peter’s personality, how Gwen was after her dad indirectly told her about his feeling about Spider-Woman, and a little about their high school life.

The problem with this is that Latour relied on the interpretation of 616 Spider-man characters when he didn’t elaborate on their character for characters like George Stacy, J. Jonah Jameson, and Aunt May while simultaneously hiding behind the excuse of it’s an alternate universe to explain why characters are different. This comes with accusations of character shilling since he portrayed Em Jay as a selfish self-centered person, Peter as an arrogant misanthrope, but Gwen completely escapes her negative 616 characterization and comes off looking better.

So Spider-Gwen really doesn’t have an origin story. And no one actually bothered to make one even 4 years later.

2. Alternate Dimensions convolutes stories

Traveling to another dimension to just fucking go to school is cop out. Granted, the explanation as to why it was done was simply because Gwen doesn’t have a secret identity anymore, but okay, far be it for me from wanting a good time. It would have been more interesting if she persisted in trying to go to school in her universe while being known as Spider-woman, anxiety attacks be damned. “Man fuck consequences of a plot point, let’s just create a specific scenario to avoid them” is what McGuire decided to do. Didn’t even bother to retcon. Just fucking noped it.

MJ says what I’m thinking.

Barring this, it is a stretches my suspension of disbelief that ESU would enroll a girl who not only is named after a deceased student who you named a library after in memoriam but also looks like the girl who died and is around the same age. Oh and also, you hired the guy who looks exactly like her mentor who went on to practice unethical experiments and tried to conquer the world with them at one point but he has a different name so...

Granted, Latour twice left Spider-Gwen in a hole. He wasted Gwen revealing her identity to her father for the introduction of the character and Gwen then revealing her identity to the world to defeat Matt Murderdock kind of screwed the pooch. First, there has to be a way for Gwen to defeat him without sacrificing her identity like exonerating herself from being blamed for Peter’s death because clearly she’s innocent(self-defense and saving kids from some incel white boy turned monster is not an jailable offense).

Regardless, McGuire was dealt a shitty hand that nuked any possibility of continuing any story developments in E-65 without Gwen being under constant danger. I, for one, would welcome it and had Gwen continue to try, it would have made shit interesting.

But this is also taking away Gwen from her own supporting cast that she has had since the beginning and also from her setting. The more she is in 616, the less I am going to see of the Mary Janes. The less I see of Harry although I don’t mind that. The less I see of any character that was established in her series. And honestly, those new characters could have been introduced in her own setting. Hell, E-65 Jackal could have been a college professor at E-65 ESU without Gwen knowing if she attended there.

Why are we choosing to avoid superhero drama in a superhero comic book?

3. Don’t rely on 616 Gwen Stacy while simultaneously declaring this Gwen as a different character

For all intents and purposes, the Death of Gwen Stacy has nothing to do with Spider-Gwen. This book and her fans will deflect any criticism about the lack of parallels between Gwen Stacy’s death and Peter’s death by saying Spider-Gwen is not the same as Gwen. You sit there and complain that all Gwen Stacy is known for is dying yet you commentate using a completely amended character while simultaneously avoiding the literal hundred of issues of character that 616 Gwen previously had before her death.

If you read the Night Gwen Stacy Died as a stand-alone, what you did was the equivalent of watching the Red Wedding without the three seasons leading to the event.

Spider-Gwen can’t go five issues without harping on about every miserable or unhappy or dead Gwen in some other universe. It comes to a culmination that writers want to tie Spider-Gwen to 616 Gwen Stacy so much that she is actively going to school in 616. The same school that Gwen attended and has a library named after her in memoriam, and apparently her creepy stalker teacher still teaches at albeit with a different identity because no one apparently recognizes faces anymore.

This doesn’t redeem Gwen. In fact, you proved Gerry Conway’s point. 616 Gwen is so unlikeable that you’d have to completely change her character to make her not worth throwing off the bridge.

Point is that Spider-Gwen treading the stories of Gwen Stacy defeats the purpose of separating the two in personality. What happens if Kindred is revealed to be the ressurrected Gwen Stacy while Gwen basically caught treading her stories instead of continuing her own?

4. The Jackal? Fucking really?

Personal, but point still stands. I fucking hate the Jackal. Jackal is like the catalyst of feeling like you need to take a shower afterwards. Along with the Inherentors, this is one of the villains that go to far in being made for a specific purpose in that they really don’t have a motivation as to just why do they do the things they do other than to be a bad guy.

Warren Miles is a creepy professor with an almost paedophillic obsession with his barely legal and also dead mentee, 616 Gwen Stacy. And it’s only almost because Gwen was 19 and almost certainly would have engaged in a sexual relationship with her. I don’t buy that he saw her as his child because it’s not like Gwen was just this remarkable science prodigy that would warrant any special attention from a professor. No, she was a remarkable and hot co-Ed scientist that was in her sophomore year. He was trying to fuck her and hated that she was dating guys her age. I wouldn’t put it past him to quid quo pro her into some sick shit for grades.

And the thing about it is that this story has been done before with Mary Jane and it was more appropriate to her occupation as she was a model at the time and married to Peter Parker. She is going to get the attention of richer and skeezy men that would have the power to force her into questionable shit. Hollywood is pretty much a glorified sex trafficking ring, don’t @ me. Far be it for me to say male professors don’t abuse their station on women and sure, I’d like a Spider-Man story to explore that, but Jackal takes it to a whole other that defiles the memory of a dead girl. It is basically a type of necrophilia and ew ew ew ew.

His obsession with Gwen and clones doesn’t foil Peter in anyway. It literally carries this creepy and unsettling implication that if Gwen lived, he would have raped her. There has never been a good Jackal storyline. It is literally the CJ meme every time he appears. He is not an engaging or fun.

Guess who is the first villain Gwen faces in 616.

Why people insist on putting him in anything over more thematically appropriate and fun characters is beyond me. I don’t even mind 65 Jackal. He doesn’t seem to interested in teenaged girls. He just wants to kill her like a proper super villain from what I gather. But of course, we had to not be spared from the comic equivalent of taint that is Miles Warren.

@ubernegro

[bellatrixobsessed1]

A Flame For A Cabbage (Part 14)

Sneaking into the boiling rock is much easier than expected. All it takes is a long and convoluted plot. Such is easy for Azula to come up with. Really, all she had to do was put on a false mustache and claim that her name is Jake, from State Farm, there to update them on company policy. Everyone knows that State Farm is the insurance company used by the Boiling Rock. But Azula does not like such simple thinking. Instead she had come up with a much grander scheme. She journeyed deep into and past a plethora of boobytraps until she came to a lost tribal society. A society that owns the last few dragons in the world. Her world anyhow. They were kind enough to allow her to borrow dragons red dragon, free of charge. Azula, however, felt a sense of kinship with the blue dragon.

The tribesmen had clicked their tongues, tsking. But they said that she could take the blue dragon, all she needed to do was part take in a ritual sacrifice. Being that, according to mother dearest, she is the spawn of Satan himself, this was no big deal for Azula. Unfortunately they were not expecting to do a ritual so soon so they did not have all of the necessary alter tools. So it was that Azula had to journey to find the special dragon atheme. She searched each of the four nations but came up empty handed. She knew that she needed to enter a different dimension.

Unfortunately, Bosco had been in charge of all interdimensional and alternate universe travel--since his death glitches in time and space have been far and few in between. So Azula made her way to the Foggy Swamp where she met with the witch doctor, who informed her that witch doctors and necromancers are not the same thing so he could not  resurrect Bosco. But the witch doctor was kind enough to point her in the direction of the Foggy Swamp necromancer.  Feeling optimistic, she had knocked on the woman’s door. The woman said that she would help resurrect Bosco, but she was all out of ritual candles.

So it was that Azula journeyed back to the Fire Nation to pick up several ritual candles. But they were all out of black wax. However, the candlemaker was willing to make her a special order if she could procure an item for him. Azula had nodded and asked him what item he seeks. The man said that he needed some protective paper. Easy enough, Azula had thought, forgetting that the virus had left toilet paper in short supply.

After combing through dozens of stalls and finding them baren of toilet paper, the merchant decided that she would have to break into the palace and steal some from the Fire Lord’s stach. She had tried to bribe the guards but he wanted a free cabbage. By all means that was easy enough but Azula never sells her cabbages for free. Instead she seeks out an unlikely alley.

It had taken a lot of searching, but finally she found the hideout of team avatar. Upon asking for help, Katara threw several items at her including a crowbar,  a ceiling fan,  a spare tire, a walrus, and an electric stove. “You killed Aang!” She accused. And it was a true accusation. And so Azula informed her, “if you help me break into the place to steal toilet paper, I can go to the candlemaker who will make me some ritual candles to take to the necromancer will summon Bosco for me. And while she is resurrecting Bosco, she can resurrect that arrow-headed cabbage killer, Aang.”

Wholly confused by the whole situation, Katara agreed to help Azula break into the palace. “Here, you can borrow our Toph. That ought to get you in.” She had lifted the blind earthbender up and handed her to Azula.

Azula thought that it would be smooth sailing from there, but she was wrong. The Earthbender said that she would only help if Azula could make her see. So Azula tried seeking out Christ. But Azula is an unholy creature, according to her mother, and so it did not work. What she did not know is that all she had to do was go to confession and then she would be forgiven. But Azula is afraid of confessing anything so she chuckled nervously and accepted that it was a hopeless cause. Toph had laughed and said, “man, I’m just messing with you, I’ll help.”

With that they broke into the Fire Nation palace and stole a few rolls of toilet paper as well as the Fire Lord’s toothbrush. Sie cried out in frustration because it was actually his toothbrush.Toilet paper in hand, Azula returned the Toph and fetched the Katara. Katara followed her to the candlestick maker.

“I promised you enough black candles for one ritual!” The candlestick maker had noted. But Azula is intelligent. She had planned for this, “which is why I brought you two rolls and the Fire Lord’s special bedazzled roll!”

The candlestick maker’s eyes had lit up and he procured the black candles. So the cabbage merchant and Katara journeyed back to the foggy swamp where the necromancer lit the candles and resurrected Bosco and Aang. Aang muttered an apology to Azula for destroying her cabbages so many times. Azula faintly thought that she should have apologized to him for murdering him, but apologies are dumb. And for people who are wrong. Azula is, in fact, always right 100% of the time. The merchant and Katara parted ways. Bosco, thankfully was a slave to the necromancer who summoned him was forced to obey her commands. So he had to help Azula with her interdimensional travel. Unfortunately, the author forgot what Azula was supposed to fetch so she had to scroll all the way back up. Azula used this time to file her taxes. With her taxes done and out of the way she journeyed through several dimensions similar to her own but not the same and found the super special, magically sinister, dragon atheme. Having accomplished this she sought out Mai and her Kenu Reeves knife, fought Bosco, and banished him back to the other side. She returned the Kenu Reeves knife, but only because it was along the way to the tribe.

She arrived at the tribe and set the dagger before the tribesfolk who gathered around it and said, “ooo, ah” and “wow that’s so purtty” and “ain’t she a beauty.”  They put the dagger aside and began the ritual which consisted of doing the soulja boy twice and the macarena once, followed by the cha cha slide. EVERYBODY CLAP YOUR HANDS!!! The closed the ritual by creating their own hybrid variation of all three dances. Satisfied, the blue dragon accompanied Azula to the Boiling Rock. Thank spirits that they have State Farm insurance, because they were about to need a good neighbor. For the dragon had punched through the window and placed Azula into one of the cells. “Watch my cabbages.” Azula requested of the dragon.

“I will if you bring me two cheez-its.”

With that promise in mind, Azula sets out on her real mission.

“Hello, Suki.” She greets.

Suki flips her off before apologizing and saying, “sorry I mistook you for someone else.”

“Who?” The merchant asks.

“That guy who put me here!”

Azula nods. But she has no more time for discussion. She needs to find Iroh now.

.oOo.

“I'm telling you it wasn't me!” Vows the guard.

“Save your breath! I know you were working together. You threw Chit Sang in the very cooler they used to escape. It was all part of your plan.” Says the warden.

“That didn’t even happen.” The guard points out. And he is right. But now the warden feels all awkward so he decides that he will keep pretending that he is right, despite knowing very well that he is wrong. Before he can begin reveling in his wrongness the door opens and someone enters. “There's someone to see you.” Informs a less troublesome guard.

“Who told you to interrupt me?” The warden snaps.

“I did.” remarks princess Sie.

“Princess Sie, brave and powerful, Princess Sie!  It is an honor to welcome you to the Fire Nation's most exemplary prison.” He backpedals. “I didn't realize you were coming.”

Sie enters the room and takes notice of the guard being interrogated. “Who is this?”

“He's a guard who was involved in a recent and feeble escape attempt.”

“What escape attempt!?” Asks the guard with more ferocity. With no real defense, he resorts to a harsh, “Quiet, you!”

Sie folds his arms. “You're wasting your time. Zuzu isn’t around to try to help Sokka break his father out of prison.”

The warden turns around with a look of shock and befuddlement. He does not realize what has transpired, dear reader. You see, in Ozai choosing not to acknowledge the eclipse, the eclipse had never happened. It had been skipped. But this has caused a horrific rift in time. It was in this chapter that Zuko was supposed to break free, but with the opportunity lost, the void had sucked him in and claimed his existence. Perhaps one day he will emerge again.

Presently, the warden looks at Sie. “How do you know?”

“Because I'm a people person.” This is not why. It is actually because he saw the void claim Zuko and he has seen enough bizzare happenings to know how it works. But, ‘I’m a people person’ sounded so much cooler.

.oOo.

Azula sits in her cell feeling like a complete and utter moron, but she knows that the absurd deeds that she is doing serve a greater purpose and she has never been one to shy away from a task. So,  without thinking too much, she makes another hideous and obnoxious screech. She has been going for pterodactyl but she is not practiced enough to manage that yet. So she is only able to manage a brontosaurus screech.

It serves its purpose, for Iroh responds back. They have been communicating like so for the better part of the day. By the next morning each and every guard is equipped with a pair of ear plugs (the higher ranking guards get air pods). It is to her advantage for they, having their air pods in, don’t hear her slinking out of her cell.

She takes a moment to think of her cabbages because we have gone several paragraphs without mentioning them once. After listing off the anatomy of a cabbage in her head, Azula proceeds down the hall and finds Iroh’s cell. She gives a faint brontosaurus call to let him know that it is her before opening the cell.

“Here, take this.” Azula hands him a top hat and a wizard cloak. Azula, though off screen, has managed to acquire a guard uniform. She leads Iroh out of his cell. No one questions it because she looks like a guard. But really, she is a cabbage merchant. The top hat and the wizard cloak aren’t strictly necessary. They just make Iroh feel cool™. They please him. Suddenly the plague begins to retract.

The two confidently march out of the prison, Azula wearing gucci shades and Iroh wearing pimp shudder shades. Iroh had found himself a gun holster and is now packing! This would have worked out well and it would have looked so cool™, had the blue dragon not taken off. Azula had not been able to get her hands on any cheez-its.

Azula still isn’t worried. She looks at her new business partner. He gives a cool™ wink and pulls out his gun. He doesn’t have a chance to fire it when Hakoda shouts,  “wait! Who's that?” You see, Hakoda was beginning to feel left out, this was supposed to be his time to shine.

“That's a problem. It's my sister and her friend.” Says Zuko as he emerges from the void. But he is different. Changed. His abs have abs and his eyes have a haunted look (and somehow they also have abs). Momo has abs too (but we already knew that). Iroh got abs in prison. Azula has abs. Literally everyone has abs right now. Everyone has abs except Haru who only has a mustache. Nothing else. Just a mustache.

Sie looks up at the gondola that Iroh and Azula are riding as they make their escape. Unfortunately the bit about abs had not been long enough for them to escape unnoticed. Sie decides that this is it. This will be the moment that he gets rid of that pesky merchant and her meddling cabbages.

.oOo.

Offering a guard no word of warning, Sie snatches a set of handcuffs from his belt. But it doesn’t matter because that guard is only a background character and everyone knows that background characters don’t have feelings. TyLee, happy for the opportunity to pretend like she is at the circus again, dashes up the cable.  Sie blasts himself with a wave of green fire onto the gondola.

Azula is there. Iroh and Zuko are there (but they are not talking; everytime Zuko tries to speak Iroh ‘hmmps’ and turns his back). Hakoda is there. And for some reason, so is Suki. No one knows how Suki managed to get up there. She hadn’t even been a part of the breakout. No less she declares how excited she is for a rematch against TyLee.

“Me too!” Says Zuko. He looks over at Sie, who he has actually been getting along with rather well lately. He realizes that it is actually Azula who needs to fight the princess Sie. His fight is with Iroh. He knows how it will end. It will end with him in tears. And then Iroh crying for making him cry. And then he crying harder for making Iroh cry. And then Ursa crying for leaving her family behind and losing so much free entertainment.

Sie strikes first, kicking an arc of fire at Azula. The cabbage merchant dodges the attack. She wishes that she had her cabbages to throw. A hole in the sky opens up and her cabbage stall drops onto the gondola. Like a kid on a seesaw at the park, Suki is catapulted back to Kyoshi island. She is not happy that she didn’t get her rematch. But she is glad to be home, she had left the stove on.

Sie snarls, why did things always come so easily to that vile merchant. Nothing ever comes easily to him. He is just regular old princess Sie and his father expects so much from him. No less, he keeps blasting green fire at her. All the while TyLee is jabbing and swiping at the air, not realizing that her opponent is no longer there.

“I don’t need you Zuko, I have cool™ sunglasses now.” Iroh remarks.

“But I need you, uncle.” Zuko replies. “I made a mistake.” Sie was being supportive and everything, but Ozai! Ozai is a beat. A toilet paper shrouded absolute fiend. “I care about you, uncle.”

Iroh readjust his shades, “Did I ever tell you the story of the old man and his pet rabaroo?”

Zuko shakes his head and prepares himself for a long story with a confusing metaphors. Instead, Iroh relays the tale of the two lovers but with a rabaroo and an old man instead.

Hakoda doesn’t ‘do anything because he has stage fright and the guards have taken to watching the scene unfold with bowls of popcorn.

Sie does not have stage right, he kicks more fire at Azula who begins her magical girl transformation. “I don’t think so!” Sie declares before doing the unthinkable. He takes one of her own cabbages and throws it at her, knocking her to the floor, which is actually the roof because they are on the gondola, not in it. So the floor and the roof are technically the same thing???? Sie does not have time to contemplate the circumstances under which a roof can become a floor, for he finally has the upperhand.

“There's the warden! I see him!” One of the guards points out through a mouthful of popcorn. Sie shudders, he knows that something is going to go astray. Nothing ever just comes easily for him.

“Cut the line!” The wardan hollars. Unlike Suki, he is in the gondola for a reason. He likes to read sappy romance novels and shonen manga on his breaks. He is fine with everyone knowing that he likes romance novels, but no one can know that he is a weeb so he hides in a random gondola on his lunch breaks.

“He wants us to cut the line” Says the guard.

“But if we cut the line, there's no way he'll survive!” Declares the guard next to him. The first guard does not know why this one is shouting as they are sitting right next to each other.

“Shhhh!” hisses a third guard. “I’m trying to hear the movie!”

The first guard jams the gondola system with the nearest object he could find, which, surprisingly, is a mechanism specifically for emergency braking. The abrupt halt causes the merchant’s stall to teeter precariously. Sie smirks but the stall does not fall.

“WOOOO HOOO!” Aang shouts as he sails by on his glider. “I’M ALIVE AGAIN! WHEEEE!” The gust of wind that follows him, pushes the stall closer the the edge. Azula is twitching anxiously and Sie is watching smugly.

He swoops down a second time, this time Momo follows. Momo, who is still unapologetically jacked, only nudges the stall and it finally falls over the edge.

Azula’s eyes seem to narrow, but she doesn’t even have time to shout, “my cabbages!! Before TyLee exclaims, “they’re about to cut the line!”

Sie does not have time to relish in the cabbage merchant’s visible distress. “Then it's time to leave.” For once things go according to plan and her blasts himself onto a gondola that just so happens to be approaching. “Goodbye, merchant.”

“They're cutting the line! The gondola's about to go!” Zuko notes.

“Come on nephew, we will cry at each other later.” Iroh gives a particularly loud pterodactyl screech. The sky splits and a flock of the prehistoric marvels swoop down. Iroh extends a hand and helps Zuko onto one of them.

“What are you doing?” A guard shouts, drawing attention to Mai, who throws a fidget spinner in Sie’s direction.

“Testing out my new weapons.” She shrugs. She is confident that figit spinners are more effective than knives because in PG-13 shows blood is not allowed to be shown and she is very tired of having always missing her targets or simply pinning them to walls by their clothes. “I think that this one is going to work.”

Azula, not one to back down over a simple mild inconvenience, realizes that not all is lost. Her new business partner might have abandoned her, but her cabbage stall is still clinging to the gondola. She must stop them from cutting the line! “What is she doing?” Sie asks upon noticing Azula pickpocketing Mai for her fidget spinner.

Ty Lee shrugs and gives a mumbled “I dunno.”

Azula flicks the fidget spinner and it lands a few hits and one critical strike before returning to her. The guards have fallen. She watches the gondola and her cabbages drift off to safety. “My cabbages.” She sighs with relief.

“Leave us alone.” Most of the guards leave at Sie’s command. “I never expected this from you.” She looks to Mai and TyLee as though it was they who had assisted the gondala’s escape.”The thing I don't understand is why. Why would you do it? You know the consequences.”

Mai shrugs and says, “I didn’t know she could do that much damage with a fidget spinner.”

Sie turns to Azula. “And you! You know exactly what happens to people who interfere with my plans.” He pauses for a moment to recall his objective. For a moment, he doesn’t think that he has one. But then he remembers that his father had wanted him to find Zuko for betraying his nation again. He was also sent there to make sure that no prisoners escaped. Ozai bet one of his war generals 300 gold pieces and a roll of toilet paper that no one would ever escape the Boiling Rock. But now Hakoda, Suki, Iroh, and Zuko have escaped. “You know how this is going to end.”

“I guess you just don't know people as well as you think you do.” Azula says. She shudders to herself. Something is not right about this. No, she does not like this at all. She has a deep aversion to what she is about to say and she can’t place why. She ignores the unsettling feeling growing within her.  “You miscalculated. I love cabbages more than I fear you!”

Sie’s face twists into a snarl and pulls out a calculator, it reads ‘12’. Just ‘12’.  “No, you miscalculated!” He points furiously at the calculator. “You should have feared me more!”

Azula is in fact afraid. But not of the princess. She is afraid of the princess’ words. Not because they have been directed at her, but because of that something. That strange something, that she cannot place. She feels like she should be offended. She is suddenly overcome by a sadness. A feeling as though she has lost something dear and important. But her cabbages are safely sitting on the other rim of the volcano. So what then? What has she lost? Why did his words make her feel so hollow? Why did it leave her feeling so haunted to inform him that he has miscalculated.

Sie begins to generate lighting. Azula clutches the fidget spinner. Mai too holds a fidget spinner. But before Sie can send off his lightning bolt, TyLee jabs him several times and he falls. Azula can’t help but feel a hint of shock; she has no connection to TyLee whatsoever.

“Sorry, my hand slipped!” She explains apologetically, clearing up any confusion.

Sie is well aware that TyLee sometimes has muscle spasms. They mostly happen when she stands or sits still for too long. But in his disgust and outrage, he forgets this. Laying with his cheek pressed firmly against the floor, Sie declares, “you're both fools!”

Azula looks between Mai and TyLee. She isn’t sure which one of them isn’t a fool.

“What shall we do with them, princess?” Asks one of the remaining guards.

“Put them somewhere I'll never have to see their faces again, and let them rot!” Sie says. He realizes that he is being very harsh and that this is probably a misunderstanding. But he has had a taste of power and power changes people. He is a new man now. He decides that he is no longer going to be timid and shy. He is going to be a badass like Iroh.

The guards cuff Mai and TyLee and whisk them away before he can say that he was referring to Azula and TyLee, not Mai and TyLee. He does not have a problem with Mai, as far as he is concerned, she is a victim of the evil merchant too.

The merchant in question had pickpocketed two cheez-its and is smirking at him as a blue dragon flies her to safety. This is the worst day of Sie’s life.

.oOo.

Feeling a sense of accomplishment, Azula sets up her cabbage stall next to the one she had left in the Fire Nation capital. She takes down her ‘back in 15’ sign. And what an eventful fifteen minutes those had been!

“Oh good, I’ve been waiting for you for ten…”

Azula does not let the female soldier finish, for she knows that the woman is only going to set her stalls on fire again. She hastily packs up and hustles to find the tea man.

.oOo.

“Hello?” The warden says into the phone.

“Hello, warden!” Greets the man on the other end.

“Is this Jake from State Farm?”

“It is!” The many replies.

“Wonderful, I’m calling about a busted window and a broken gondola system…”

[danadumaurier]

*This is a Continuum pseudo AU written for @Dana-cz - all scenes fit within the film to a point then diverge. @dana-cz indicated that she likes the idea that Jack and Sam married during the time Sam was at Area 51 in season 9, so this story assumes that is the case. Merry, merry and holly, jolly.*

———-

“Go.” With a struggling breath he was gone. She couldn’t believe it. Her mind couldn’t process what was happening. Training kicked in and she turned to see Ba’al vanish, as so many others in the room had moments before. The threat gone, she turned back to Jack. He was too still. Was this really? Was this really happening? This couldn’t be happening. Time slowed as she took in his quiet features. She needed him to open his eyes. To smile and crack a joke about the wound, or his track record for escaping just this situation, Ba’al being asshole. Something.

Cameron grabbed her pack and forced her back into action as they raced to the gate and safety. She was surviving on her training and her fear for her friends. Everything else she forced down.

Then they gated into cold darkness, and her mind slipped back to Jack. He was gone, and she was numb. Numb with shock, disbelief. Her mind played the moments over. She’d just watched him die. He was gone. She swallowed ragged breaths, then Cam needed her, and she was forced back to their reality, to her training, yet again.

———-

“Wait!” She stumbled at the voice and turned to Cam. Did he hear Jack too? Was she hallucinating? Had she actually passed out and dreamed him back to her? Cam responded to the mirage. Maybe she wasn’t dreaming. She pulled at the scarf over her face so she could communicate better. It was really Jack, she could have kissed him, but years of pretending kept her in check.

———-

Jack squinted his eyes at the woman before him. What the hell was Samantha Carter doing, standing in front of him, in the god damned arctic? The woman was supposed to be dead for Christ’s sake. She’d perked up when he admitted he recognized her, but then looked shocked when he’d cracked the line about her being a dead astronaut. Something was not right about these two. He should have heard of Mitchell, if he really was a Colonel.

She was prettier than on tv though. Despite the sun and wind burn. “Training exercises on the ice, sir.” He mumbled under his breath. “It’ll be like Christmas, sir.” He shook his head and led them to the sub.

———-

It wasn’t really Jack. This man hadn’t been softened around the edges by Daniel’s compassion. He’d never learned to trust her despite not fully understanding the science behind her reasoned ramblings. This Jack was still bent to the rules and the reality of a steady, normal, earth bound military life. Her Jack would have made her go back and explain the bit about alternate timelines instead of calling them freaks. She sighed. They’d been sent to a base and were separated into private quarters. She had nothing to do but sit and contemplate their situation. Her situation. The looming unimaginable reality of being Jack’s widow in a timeline where she didn’t belong.

———-

They’d been questioning the trio for hours. He’d observed the Daniel guy for a while on the monitors, hoping to catch him out for that crack about Charlie. Currently he was observing ‘Colonel’ Carter. The troubling thing was, they had their stories straight. He watched as the woman sighed in frustration as she tried to explain again that she wasn’t an astronaut, but yes, she was Samantha Carter. She ran her hands through her hair and stared at the table. “I’d like to talk to Jack O’Neill.”

The woman questioning her stopped her scribbling. “That’s not possible ma’am.”

He glanced at his watch. He could stay for a couple of more hours, but then he had orders to begin his delayed training exercises. He tossed the headphones on the table and headed to the improvised interrogation room. He tapped on the door and entered. He’d watched her grimace when that Daniel guy had mentioned Charlie. He wanted to know how she knew about his son. Why and how she’d anticipated his negative reaction to that tactic to gain trust.

“Major. Colonel?” He nodded to the two women, but focused on Samantha Carter. She looked shocked that he would use the honorific.

“Sir.”

“I understand you wanted to talk to me. I have to leave soon. Talk.” He pulled up a chair and sat at the end of the table, between the two women.

Sam weighed her options. He’d completely dismissed them earlier, but something had changed. She decided to start with science.

“Sir, scientists theorize that there are an infinite number of dimensions each of them containing a different possible version of reality.”

“O-Kay.”

“The theory is that there are an infinite number of alternate realities, some of them very different and some of them almost identical. These realities diverge at every choice we make like, forks in the road.”

“So?”

“In my reality, I joined the airforce instead of pursuing a career at NASA, and we’ve worked together, known each other for over ten years. We’ve also encountered multiple alternate universes, traveled to hundreds of planets, and even gone back in time.” She paused and sheepishly added, “Accidentally.” His face remained stoic and hard throughout her ramble, so far removed from her Jack that defeat started to sink into her bones. He wouldn’t believe her.

“Assuming I believed you, how does one encounter an alternate universe and travel through time?”

“In my timeline, the US Air Force is in possession of an ancient artifact, called a Stargate,that enables the creation of stable wormholes, through which teams of airmen explore the universe. In these explorations we’ve found other artifacts that allow for travel between realities, and discovered that if one traveled through a wormhole while there was a solar flare it was possible to travel through time. Once we ended up in 1969, sir.” Jack has begun to pace the room, but didn’t ask anything further so she continued.

“We’ve made quiet a few enemies in the universe. Beings that would enslave humans, called the go’uald. One of these go’auld learned about the possibility of time travel using solar flares, and went back in time to hide the Stargate so the US wouldn’t find it. After he changed the timeline, the next time we tried to use the gate to come home, we ended up here. Back on earth, but an earth with a timeline that didn’t include the US Airforce using the Stargate, a timeline where I joined NASA apparently, and you and I never met.” She didn’t have the courage to outline their real relationship.

“Ba’al has something planned, sir. He will take over the earth and enslave humanity if given the chance. They have powerful weapons, like nothing the US military has ever seen. In my timeline, we had made powerful alien allies that were much more compassionate and technologically advanced than the go’auld. Without their help...” exhausted she let the sentence hang.

“Okay, so you’re saying we should be on high alert for little green men.” Sam couldn’t stop her smile, finally something resembling a joke.

“Actually, Ba’al looks quite human. The go’auld live inside human hosts. They are parasites that claim bodies and suppress the human from communicating and even controling their bodies.”

Jack sighed. “Parasites like ticks that are sentient enough to attack worlds? Really Colonel?”

Sam just stared back at him refusing to allow even a glimmer of hesitation to show in her features. She knew the truth. He had to accept it.

When she didn’t respond, he continued to watch her. Even exhausted and clearly unstable there was something in her strength and resolution that impressed him. She had the bearing of a Colonel, despite her apparent exhaustion and the sadness that pooled just behind her blue eyes.

“I have to go.” And with that he was gone, and the questions began again.

———-

It had been a month. She’d settled into her new house, but hadn’t decorated or really bothered to make it home. She had the essentials, but nothing special. She’d bought rather utilitarian clothing, again nothing special. She couldn’t afford to be recognized as the dead astronaut. After the first two weeks of stares, she’d dyed her hair dark brown, but she was having a hard time adjusting to the new look. She’d been making notes and trying to plan a way to fix the timeline and had some Orlin inspired thoughts. If she could build a mini-gate similar to the one he had made in her old basement, they could at least contact the Asguard. She was still trying to figure out how to reach Cam and Daniel. That might be harder. As it was she was working to gain the trust of some local teenage hoodlums to help her order materials without raising her handler’s suspicions. As she was going over her list of supplies for the third time that morning, the doorbell rang.

She wasn’t expecting a delivery, but she hurried to the front of the house more out of habit than curiosity. She opened the door and stood shocked. “Jack?”

He stood, one brow raised at the familiarity, and took in her casual dress and the dark hair. “Colonel.”

“Um. Come in, Sir.”

Jack walked in and glanced about the sparse apartment. Noting the bare walls and absence of Knick knacks or art. “I like what you’ve done with the space.”

That earned him a chuckle. “I’ll grab you a drink.” She returned with his favorite brand of beer.

“Ah, thanks Carter.” They settled in the living room, and she nervously picked at the label on her own bottle of Diet Coke.

“What did you need, Sir? Can I help you with something?”

“Your friend, Daniel was it, mentioned something about my son, when we first met. It made you flinch if I recall.”

“Yes, Sir. He.” She paused and squirmed just slightly in her seat. “Charlie. In my timeline, Charlie died before we ever met. He’d found your gun at home and accidentally shot himself.”

“So if we fix the timeline, ‘save the world,’ my son is dead?”

She had the good sense to be flustered by that eventuality. “Yes, Sir.”

He looked at her, a grim set to his mouth.

“They found your Stargate Carter. Tested it. The Joint Chiefs now believe you.” She sighed and closed her eyes in relief. When she opened them back up he was gone, a second later she heard the front door click shut.

TBC...part 2 will be a New Years surprise.

[metalgearkong]

Avengers: Endgame - Review

5/6/19 **SPOILERS**

Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo (Marvel Studios/Disney)

The original Iron Man came out a year after I turned 18 and graduated high school. Effectively, the Marvel Cinematic Universe began as soon as I started my adult life, each film acting like 2 or 3 checkpoints every year, always giving me something to look forward to. While I haven’t loved or liked every movie so far, the MCU has been incredibly consistent, slowly increasing in quality on average as time goes on, not to mention having that sentimental factor of facing the world along side it. Scale has also increased in these films over time, seeing more and more team-up movies with larger and larger casts crammed on screen. Endgame is the biggest super hero movie of all time, and not just based on box office earnings, but based on fan expectations, concluding such an incredible saga.

The Russo brothers have been a godsend to the MCU, directing what are most of the top tier entries so far, including The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and now Endgame. While Infinity War was essentially Thanos’ story, Endgame shifts perspective back to the heroes, picking up the pieces and desperately trying to undo what Thanos accomplished. Endgame is sometimes overwhelming (in a good way), with several instances catching myself holding my breath. One of the best things about this film is the level of pay-off it gives for those who have followed the series since the beginning. While I don’t think I enjoyed it more than Infinity War, Endgame is certainly one of the biggest super hero movies of all time, but sometimes the logic of the story detracts from the emotion and memorable moments of the film.

The movie picks up 5 years after Thanos’ genocide. The remaining Avengers discover a possibility to use the quantum realm (Ant-Man’s shrinking machines) to go back in time and collect the infinity jewels before Thanos does. While this is a “time travel” movie, I like the explanation that Bruce Banner gives that you simply cannot just go back to an earlier time and change the current present; going back in time is like visiting an alternate dimension where what you do does affect that timeline, but yours when you go back continues as its been. This essentially takes care of the “grandfather paradox” of why you couldn’t just go to the past, kill Hitler, changing history for the better. You could tell the writers of this film anticipated question most theater-goers would ask, like “why not just go back and kill Thanos as a baby?” and things like that. 

After being rescued from space by Captain Marvel, Tony Stark has officially retired from being an Avenger. He understandably has lost the battle, and resides to live his life with Pepper Potts and their 5 year old Morgan. Tony’s home life and dynamics with his daughter are some of my favorite moments in the movie, as it further humanizes Tony, and offers even more deconstruction of super heroes this series is known for. When the other Avengers think of a possible way to fix everything, I actively wanted them to leave Tony alone and let him have his earned life of peace, even if half the universe was killed off. But, being the guilty genius he is, he can’t fully let it go, and works with quantum tech to make a time machine for the heroes to use. Quickly, they develop a plan to split off and go to different teams and time periods, and retrieve the infinity jewels from their original known locations.

Seeing the current Avengers physically revisit famous scenes from prior movies was incredibly satisfying and felt like an appropriate use of fan service. Some of the best scenes of the entire movie are current heroes accidentally meeting up with themselves in the past, or accidentally coming across people they miss dearly. One of the scenes that come to mind are Steve Rogers meeting his younger self during the events of The Avengers (2012), and the ensuing duel. It instantly reminded me of playing a fighting game with your friend, but you’ve both picked the same character. It was one of the most and creative and clever moments of the movie. The other best time travel moment easily goes to Tony revisiting the 1940′s and having a hear to heart with his unwitting father, getting closure and a feeling for full circle his character didn’t even know he needed.

One one the complaints I do have about the story is that Thanos is no longer the same Thanos from Infinity War. When problems emerge during Nebula’s trip to the past, Thanos from that time period learns that someday he is successful in using the infinity jewels to wipe out half the universe. Through convoluted events, he is able to travel to the future (Endgame’s present) where he faces the Avengers head-on for trying to spoil his plans. This means the Thanos of this film (B) isn’t the same Thanos as in Infinity War (A), as he hasn’t done anything from those events yet, nor has any history with the heroes. Thanos B also seems to have a more malevolent and less complex attitude about using the infinity jewels, and comes off more as a typical bad guy, and less of a complex emotional psychopathic environmentalist, which is what made his character so interesting in the first place.

The other major issue I have with the film is its seemed to shoot itself in the foot with all the time travel multiverses. The movie feels like it breaks its own rules for the sake of the big emotional character scene at the very end. I’m of course referring to “Old Cap” and how he somehow went back to the past to live out his life with Peggy Carter, yet was able to show up back in Endgame’s timeline as an aged man to pass off his shield to Falcon. Once he went into the past, he, by this movie’s own rules, cannot appear back in the regular timeline because visiting the past is basically a parallel universe. What makes it doubly bad is that it’s not in Cap’s character to simply allow the world to go through the turmoil it did while standing aside through all of it. Don’t even get me started on how this would have affected Peggy’s life and the entire conception of SHIELD. If someone can explain to me how this was all possible, please do, otherwise, it felt like either a genuine mistake, or more likely, the movie bending its own rules for the sake of a payoff (which left me scratching my head and took the emotional impact completely out of the final scene of the movie).

However, I’m extremely happy with the rest of Captain America’s scenes. Aside from the scene mentioned earlier (Cap vs. Cap), his use of Thor’s hammer in the end battle was incredibly satisfying and cathartic. I’ve always felt that if anyone was “worthy” of being a good person and warrior, it was always Captain America. Why he could barely budge Thor’s hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron is beyond me (unless he was faking it to protect Thor’s feelings). Hell, if Vision could lift the hammer, why couldn’t Cap before now? Cap also gets a lot more time on screen in general, which was nice after barely having any lines or presence in Infinity War. Hawkeye, Black Widow, and other side characters also get their best moments of the entire series combined, and it was nice to see the regular people among the Avengers still have emotionally and plot poignant scenes as good as the super heroes.

Thor’s story arch could be seen as criticisms of the film as well. While the universe in its throws of coping with half of all life disintegrated, and how that would affect hugely every aspect of life, Thor meanwhile settles for comically getting fat and doing absolutely nothing. While I still found Thor in-character and funny in this film, upon further speculation, I really wish Thor continued the high he rode after passing what was his darkest chapter in Infinity War. I thought Thor finally settled into his own, and was confused why he regressed into a gag, even if I found it humorous at first. But, I was thankful certain other characters didn’t steal the limelight, especially Captain Marvel. I still find her way too powerful and her personality wildly unlikable and inconsistent. I tried to defend her character in her own movie back in March, but seeing Brie Larson once again strutting her ego made it impossible to root for a supposed underdog. One of my greatest fears of Endgame is she’d use her power to steal the show, and overshadow the legacy of the original characters in their fight against Thanos.

Summing up every great scene or character moment in this review is impossible, and they certainly outnumber the scenes or concepts I disliked. Almost every character gets some resolution or moment in the spotlight by the end of the movie. The final words of Tony Stark, “I am Iron Man,” was a triumphant moment as it capped off the entire series so far, further establishing Tony Stark as the heart and soul of the MCU. While Tony has never been my favorite Avenger, Endgame pays huge respects to him and his accomplishments, and I was a bigger fan of him than I ever was before. Its too bad that the plot raises so many questions in my mind, especially related to time travel and alternate dimensions. Endgame has too many conveniences for the sake of a big bombastic super hero climax, and I wish some of the logical issues with the plot or characters could have been executed differently. If you have any affinity for this series, you owe it to yourself to see Endgame, and while it has many moments of pay-off and awe, it isn’t the series’ most airtight film.

8/10