#i could honestly go on about things tom king has done that angered me

[sarahreadstoomanycomics]

Why do you dislike Tom King so much?

I'm a DC fan whose favorite character is Wally West and he wrote Heroes in Crisis isn't that enough reason to dislike his writing? Like literally after years of Wally being erased we finally had him back. Then what happens just a few years later? He's written into a story where he loses control and murders a bunch of his friends including Roy Harper. The fact there is a canon DC story where Wally kills Roy is such an absurd statement but it's true. Obviously retcons changed this later but this doesn't change the original story's intent to have Wally be the culprit. And that's not even going into how insulting Tom King's view of mental health is throughout that story. Or how ridiculous of a thought is to have a character like Wally be like "I'm depressed cause I can't find my kids" and have other heroes like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman send him to a mental health facility....instead of you know HELPING HIM FIND HIS DAMN KIDS.

And that's not to mention literally everything else he's written which I also dislike. Even right now he's absolutely ruining characters I love on Human Target ...because let's ignore all of Guy's character development and not understand he's actually a guy with a rough exterior and anger issues that he struggles with and tries to overcome yet still cares so immensely for everyone around him he would endure any pain if it meant his friends never get hurt......lets ignore all that and write him as a horrible abusive person instead. Also if you know anything about Guy you'll know he himself had a horrible abusive alcoholic father who targeted him specifically in his youth. So Tom King here is perpetuating the whole cycle of abusive bs that I hate especially since he's doing it to a character who for decades has always struggled and tried to be a better person despite all this. Who knows how bad abuse is and would never inflict it on someone he loves like what happened to him.

[daily-hayley568]

ᴋɪʟʟᴇʀ Qᴜᴇᴇɴ//ᴛᴏᴍ ʀɪᴅᴅʟᴇ

ａｕｔｈｏｒ：Hayley ｓｕｍｍａｒｙ：Following the song of Killer Queen by Mad Tsai, see the insight of Y/N’s school and love life, and her strong need for revenge.  ｗａｒｎｉｎｇｓ：death, murder, blood, does not follow books or movies ｐａｉｒｉｎｇ（ｓ）：tom riddle x fem!reader

There was this girl, the most beautiful in the world She had all the boys in town wrapped 'round her finger, oh

Her hair was gorgeous. The beautiful y/h/c locks fell to her mid-back with a natural straightness to it. She always had the prettiest smile that she saved for the boys who would try to flirt with her, but she was never interested in such scoundrels. She’d flash them a fake smile and continue down the corridors. 

Once, Y/N dropped her books and two Ravenclaw boys scrambled to pick them up for her. “Here you go, Y/N.” 

She’d just smile and say: “Thank you, boys.” 

Of course this happened a lot. She’d need something and before she could get it, boys would hand it to her. It was exhausting having zero personal space. 

She would walk the halls and everyone would whisper and talk 'Cause all the girls in town wanted to be her

Y/N straightened her skirt as she stood from the library table and entering the corridor. She heard the whispers about her, but of course, she paid them no mind. Honestly, who had time to gossip about such petty things like what kind of hairstyle she had in today or anything else. 

There was better things in the world. Like Revenge. 

“Y/N is so pretty. I heard ten guys asked her to the Valentine’s ball, but she already agreed to the first guy who asked her.” 

“I heard Y/N slept with Hufflepuff’s seeker.” 

“Well, I heard she slept with Tom Riddle.”

“I’d date her if she gave me a chance.” 

But behind those emerald eyes

She's a devil in disguise

Y/N had the most interesting of eye colors. Her eyes were a deep emerald with a piercing stare to those she glanced at. Though to as many she deceived. Y/N was not innocent, she was not sweet, but she was a devil in disguise. 

Y/N was prone to acting as she was heaven-sent to all of her professors and most of her peers, but her thoughts were penetrated by the most of evil of things. She kept her anger cool, the facade of an angel mixed in with the cunning Slytherins. She cared greatly for success and revenge and she’d do anything to get it. 

Once a first year bumped into her, her eyes seemed to be so full of anger, but she would just subtly shake her head with a small smile relieving the first-year of their panic. 

Another time one of the girls were talking about Y/N, 

“I heard she got a lot of work done over the holidays. There’s no way she went from how she was to that.” 

Y/N’s eyes flicked over to the two girls walking past her as they openly talked about her. The menacing voice in her mind taunted her, Curse her. Make her feel humiliated in front of the whole Great Hall. They’ll never suspect you.

Do it. 

Obeying the voices in her head, Y/N used a nonverbal spell to make the girl’s books spill and fly in the hallway. The two girls began to scramble their things together and y/n stepped around them. The two gossipers gaped as they noticed Y/n was by them.

The prom queen has blood on her hands

Every boy and girl she dates disappears without a trace

So be careful when she asks you to dance

At the Valentine’s ball that was being hosted, they decided to take the tradition of crowning a king and queen at the ball. 

“This year’s Cupid Queen is Y/N L/N!” 

The girl casted a pageant smile as she stepped on the makeshift stage, taking her crown. She gave a little thanks and got off the stage. She was stopped by a fifth year Ravenclaw boy who she was sure made fun of her back in her ‘ugly duckling’ stage. 

“You look so gorgeous tonight.” 

“Aw, thank you.” She smirked, as she cocked her head to the side, “Would you like to have this dance with me?” 

The boy eagerly accepted her invitation to the floor. He began to twirl her in the midst of everyone. 

“Have you heard about the mysterious disappearing? I think they’re going to cancel all trips to Hogsmeade.” 

“Oh?” Of course, Y/N knew. She knew where the missing people were. “Let’s talk about this.. Somewhere more private?” 

Since she knew people would be watching her every move she and her dancing partner moved to be unseen by the crowds of people. The couple fled down the corridor, with goofy smiles on their faces as they moved along. Well, he had a childish grin and she had a smirk behind him. 

The corridor was empty only filled with her heels clicking and his shoes slapping the ground until they reached their destination. The destination was in the middle of the corridor with no one else around. 

“Where are we headed?”

“You’ll see.” She simply replied with a small smile on her face. 

Then there was a loud noise, and the most beautiful girl was dragging a petrified body off into the depths of the bathroom. 

She's a motherfucking killer queen, a psychopath at 17

That wasn’t the only time she was involved with murderous activities. Y/N was a cold-blooded killer looking for success and revenge and love is what she found on the way. 

“Avada Kedrava!” Her wand pointed at the girl’s heart. The girl dropped dead onto the equally as dead grass they were standing on. 

The birds chirped a slow, depressing song as if they knew the type of tone this situation was. For strictly good measure, the girl kicked the body watching the corpse’s muscles twitch in the moonlight. Casting a disillusionment and a floating charm, the girl’s corpse followed behind her back into Hogwarts. 

And another time. 

“You’re crazy!” 

“Possibly.” The girl’s smirk turned vicious as she smiled at her next victim the wand twirling between her fingers. 

“You’re the one behind the disappearances!” 

“Oh my, your Ravenclaw brain figured it out!” Y/N tilted her head to the side watching the boy’s confusion turn into panic. 

“Killer!” 

“Killer Queen sounds nicer, my dear.” 

They were arguing in the corridor and I a prefect, heard the arguing walking onto the scene. “What is a Y/H and Ravenclaw doing in this corridor at night?” 

“Riddle, please, help me!” I smirked turning to Y/N and then back to the Ravenclaw. 

“Would you like to do the honors?” Y/n jerked her head over to the Ravenclaw watching them suspiciously. Maybe if he would’ve ran, he could’ve gotten away. 

“Avada Kedrava.” I stated with a careless flick of my wand. I turned to Y/N and with two strides I was leaning down in front of her giving her a peck of affection on her lips. 

She entangled herself into my arms and I smiled down at her. “So, Killer Queen, what’s next?”

“I’ll meet you in your dorm about twenty minutes or so, Darling.” I nodded casting the two charms on the body for her and she dragged the body by his foot into the bathroom. 

A beauty in a blood-stained dress

As expected, twenty minutes later, Y/N walked into my dorm. She looked gorgeous from her naturally straight hair to her emerald eyes to her bloody dress. 

“The basilisk was starving.” Y/N groaned as she slipped her dress off her body and threw on one of my shirts. 

I was leaned against the headboard my arms crossed behind my head as I watched her. She was just one of the prettiest sights I’d ever seen and she looked so nice even if she was stained with Ravenclaw blood over her dress or if she was just in one of my shirts that she found comfortable. Y/N used a charm to clean the blood off her dress and then she climbed into the bed next to me. 

“I love you, you know?” She gave me a small sleepy smile before she responded.

“I love you more, Tom Riddle.” 

She'll fill your heart with kerosene

And light you up 'til you can't breathe

It was dark and murky in the Chamber of Secrets, just how Y/N liked it. The basilisk was sleeping currently, but Y/N and I were doing other things in the chamber. 

A Gryffindor boy was tied by a spell to the chair he was sitting on. “Truly I didn’t mean it! You were ugly admit it.” 

“Gryffindor brazeness is honestly on my nerves.” Y/N muttered as I let the basilisk out for his dinner. 

If you cross her path you just might end up dead

“There’s my killer queen.” I smirked as Y/N came into my room again. She placed a simple kiss on my lips before placing herself on my lap. She sat sideways to me and her legs hung off the arm of the chair and her arms were linked behind my neck. 

“I’ve thought of it!” 

“Thought of what my dear?” 

“Your new name. Voldemort.” I looked at her with a beaming, proud smile. 

[lokiondisneyplus]

[This interview contains spoilers for Loki‘s season finale.]

When Kate Herron joined Loki as director, she knew she had an ace or two up her sleeve that would forever alter the Marvel Cinematic Universe as we know it. And in “For All Time. Always.” — the now season finale — Loki showed all its cards by revealing Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains, a variant of Marvel supervillain Kang the Conqueror, who set the events in motion that would open up the multiverse. Since the character of Kang is a key player throughout phase four of the MCU, Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige and his team, along with Herron, knew exactly what was at stake with this particular casting.

“Casting was a very surreal experience. When I joined the project, we always knew that Loki and Sylvie were going to go to He Who Remains, and the multiverse would be released,” Herron tells The Hollywood Reporter. “So I already knew when I got the job that it was going to be a massive undertaking to do that and a big responsibility for Marvel to get it right. And Jonathan Majors is an actor that we were all just blown away by; I think everyone who knows his work is blown away by him. And when I knew we had Jonathan, he and I were solely focused on He Who Remains and this version of the character, this variant.”

At last December’s Disney Investor Day, Feige confirmed earlier reports that Majors would play Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But since Majors ultimately appeared first in Loki, Herron further clarified the timing of his casting.

“[The Quantumania casting] happened at the same time,” Herron shares. “So basically, [Ant-Man director] Peyton [Reed] and I were in that discussion with Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel. We knew he was gonna be in [Quantumania], and we knew that a version of him was going to be in [Loki].”

As Loki (Tom Hiddleston) and Sylvie’s (Sophia Di Martino) doomed love story culminated in a passionate kiss, the latter repositioned Loki so she could grab He Who Remains’ futuristic TemPad and send the God of Mischief back to the TVA. Despite Sylvie’s guile, Herron still considers her side of the kiss to be authentic.

“Sylvie is sort of where our Loki was in Thor. She’s driven by revenge, pain and anger, and that’s what he’s saying to her,” Herron explains. “He’s like, ‘I’ve been where you are, and I just want you to be OK. You’re not going to get what you want.’ But on her journey of self-healing, she’s not where he is. So she’s not going to see it that way. So there was a sense that she was turning to get the TemPad, but I don’t think it meant the kiss wasn’t genuine. In my head, it was always a horrible goodbye, really, but the feelings were real.”

In a recent conversation with THR, Herron also discusses her own shocking goodbye to Loki following the surprise season-two announcement. She then offers her take on the final scene and the subsequent questions she hopes are answered in season two.

Brava, Kate. Loki season one was top-tier MCU as far as I’m concerned.

Thank you so much. I love Marvel, and I was just so excited to have a chance to direct for them. It’s been so nice to see everyone enjoying it.

In a complete tonal shift, Friday morning’s news about you not returning for season two makes this victory lap rather bittersweet. After one of Marvel Studios’ best pieces of storytelling, you’d think that getting the band back together would be automatic. So what else can you say about this?

I would say that when I joined Loki, it was always going to be those six episodes. We were treating it like a movie, and we were running it like a movie. We weren’t doing it in the showrunner system. So it was a lot to direct these six episodes, and I gave it all of my energy and everything I had in my soul and in my heart. I threw everything I loved about Marvel at it. So I always intended just to do these six. And it was such a massive compliment and a delight that as we got much later into production, Marvel and Disney were like, “Ah, man. This is excellent, and we want to keep going.” So I just feel like my part is done, but I’m really excited to see where it’s going to go next. So I gave it all that I have, and it came from a place of love. I really enjoyed working on it, and I hope to work with Marvel again in the future. They changed my life, and I just love Marvel as I’m sure people can tell from the amount of Easter eggs and references I did throughout it. But I just feel like I’ve done my part with Loki, at least for now, and I’m excited to see where it goes next as a fan.

Jonathan Majors’ He Who Remains. How did this go down from casting to filming?

Ah, so casting was a very surreal experience. When I joined the project, we always knew that Loki and Sylvie were going to go to He Who Remains, and the multiverse would be released. So I already knew when I got the job that it was going to be a massive undertaking to do that and a big responsibility for Marvel to get it right. So when we were casting, it was basically me, Kevin R. Wright, my co-executive producer, Kevin [Feige], Lou [D’Esposito], Victoria [Alonso] and Peyton [Reed]. So we were all just talking about actors, and the amazing thing about Kevin Feige is that he’s so collaborative. He wants everyone at the table to have a voice, and he wants to see what they think and how that fits into his plans for the character. And Jonathan Majors is an actor that we were all just blown away by; I think everyone who knows his work is blown away by him. He’s an amazing actor, and the thing that I love about him is that he’s this chameleon. He’s so different in everything he does, and that’s exciting, obviously, when you’re asking an actor to play a character who’s going to have a lot of different versions of himself. So for us, that was a thrill. And when I knew we had Jonathan, he and I were solely focused on He Who Remains and this version of the character, this variant. It was just fun digging into him. We have this character who’s so lonely and isolated, and the only character he probably interacted with is Miss Minutes, which is what we imply. At the beginning, you see that he’s surrounded by all this noise in the universe, but he’s quiet and he’s alone. So how introverted or extraverted is a character like that? What makes that personality? So it was really fun digging into it with him.

So even though Jonathan’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania casting was announced first, your team technically cast him first, right?

[The Quantumania casting] happened at the same time. So basically, Peyton [Reed] and I were in that discussion with Kevin Feige and the team at Marvel. We knew he was gonna be in [Quantumania], and we knew that a version of him was going to be in [Loki].

So once a big movie or show is finally released, fans like to comb through trailers for any unused footage. So was that “King Loki” moment supposed to be a quick insert for when Loki is tempted with a throne by Miss Minutes (Tara Strong) and He Who Remains?

So that moment wasn’t actually King Loki. It was just meant to be a memory from our Loki’s past. It was basically going to be in episode one because we had a lot of memories in that episode. But it was honestly a tonal thing. The scene was actually quite a funny scene, and it was really beautifully written. But he was about to see his mother die, and it didn’t feel right to have something so comical next to a gut-wrenching moment like that. So it’s just the nature of making any film, really. Unfortunately, you sometimes have to kill your darlings. (Laughs.)

Did He Who Remains put a Time Twister on the edge of his desk, or a TemPad? Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino) called it a TemPad even though it looked like a Time Twister.

(Laughs.) I love weaponry and technology so I’m just like, “The fun thing with this is…” So basically, it’s meant to be a futuristic version of the TVA tech. So that was the fun idea of it. When He Who Remains tells his story about his other variants meeting, you see bits of the TVA technology. So our idea was that it does both things. With the TVA technology, you see that the Time Twister hooks into the TemPad, but it’s these two separate, clunky things. But whereas with He Who Remains, he has more advanced technology than the TVA So it has both functions, basically, which we see him use. The difference is that he’s in control of the twist; it’s twisting him. Whereas when we see the TVA use the Time Twister, it’s with a Time Collar as they’re controlling a prisoner.

As Loki and Sylvie kissed, she repositioned him so she could grab the futuristic TemPad and eject him back to the TVA. So do you consider the kiss to be genuine on Sylvie’s part despite her calculation during it?

Honestly, the way I always read that kiss is that her feelings were genuine and that it was a goodbye. Sylvie is sort of where our Loki was in Thor. She’s driven by revenge, pain and anger, and that’s what he’s saying to her. He’s like, “I’ve been where you are, and I just want you to be OK. You’re not going to get what you want.” But she’s not there yet. On her journey of self-healing, she’s not where he is. So she’s not going to see it that way. So there was a sense that she was turning to get the TemPad, but I don’t think it meant the kiss wasn’t genuine. In my head, it was always a horrible goodbye, really, but the feelings were real.

Since the TVA resides outside of time, what can you say about the mechanics of the final scene?

So the way I see it in my head is that the TVA exists outside of space and time, but reality and everything as we understood it has completely changed in the last few minutes. With the multiverse branching, how do we know the TVA still exists in that way? We don’t know, and I suppose that’s a big question that will be answered as the show goes on. But in my head, the intention is that Sylvie thinks she’s sending him back to the TVA, but because of the way time and branches are crossing each other outside the window, Loki has unfortunately been sent back somewhere very different. So reality has shifted just by the nature of what He Who Remains said, and the idea is that he’s in this alternate TVA now.

We have to wrap, but is Eugene Cordero’s Casey OK? He went missing after episode two.

(Laughs.) Yes, Casey is fine! I love Casey, and I hope there will be more Casey to be enjoyed.

Well, congratulations once again, Kate. And if you do return to the MCU someday, please make a Miss Minutes slasher movie since she’s utterly terrifying.

(Laughs.) I would love to! That would actually be my dream.

[seerofmike]

The Writing In Apex Kinda Sucks And Also They Use Ship Bait As A Plot Device I Hate It Here

a stupid essay/rant encouraged by @zombiegloss that originally started as a youtube video script so if its like. weird at points. this was intended to be a verbal rant SNZISKSIA

basically i'm gonna talk abt the caustic-wattson-crypto relationship drama and how i think it was mishandled and how much the writers kind of Suck because i Can

you are free to disagree with me on any of my points and think that this aspect of the story was handled well, this is just my opinion, and i'd love to hear your thoughts and counterpoints !

first, addressing some things:

i know this is a battle royale and not necessarily a story-based game, so i can’t expect it to have masterful witcher-style writing.

but with the direction the game seems to be going; putting quests, evolving interactions, and comics in the game, plus coming out with a lore book and hinting at something bigger in the future, i think it’s fair to criticize it for lackluster writing, especially since what i’m criticizing has been something present since Apex’s story technically began.

secondly, i am not a professional writer. i’m a high schooler who writes as a hobby. i don’t have the decades of experience that some of the apex writers do, and i can’t claim to be a better writer than they are--but i also don’t have to be a five-star chef to realize that something tastes bad. when i critique something and give suggestions, i am not saying i could’ve done it better. i’m just bringing up what i think could have worked.

third, before i upset anyone , when i say a relationship is badly written, i’m not telling you that you can’t ship it or that your ship sucks. i’ll briefly touch on the shipping aspect of this and how it’s a detriment to the story but Ye

okay, so with that out of the way, let us Begin

relationships are often the emotional core of a story, and how strong your reaction is to conflict in these relationships depends on how the story sets them up. if you want the audience to care about these characters and what they go through, you need to develop them and establish the type of relationship they have well. it’s why so many people cried in the last episode of telltale’s the walking dead. you’ve spent roughly 12 hours bonding with clementine and protecting her, and your relationship with her is part of several story beats as well as character beats for lee. 

when these two characters’ relationship reaches its peak at the end of the game, it’s powerful, and it’s emotional. you care. you feel something, and the fact that you have to choose what to do to lee only makes it more gut-wrenching. 

now, the walking dead is entirely story-based and especially character-driven, so it may be unfair to compare it to apex, but i just wanted to lay the groundwork down for what i think is a strong relationship that makes you feel something when conflict arrives, in this case the conflict being lee getting bit and clementine having to decide his fate.

the broken ghost in general is kind of not-good sometimes, tom casiello previously wrote for soap operas and you can really, REALLY tell sometimes.

this story feels like it should’ve taken place a little later, and that we should’ve had a season to actually set up the characters and their relationships, but that’s a story for another day.

to put it bluntly, the set-up for the crypto, wattson, and caustic conflict is done poorly. for caustic and wattson's relationship it’s a little better, but not by much. 

wattson and caustic having a relationship was hinted at in season 2, when her lore indicated that caustic was among one of the Legends who comforted her after her father died. In season four lore materials posted on Twitter, an email from Jacob Young states that Caustic is acting paternal towards Wattson. In season five, interactions get added to the Game, and this is the first time we actually see their relationship in action, as they have unique revive voice lines for each other. in the quests, when wattson is injured, caustic lashes out at loba and attacks her out of what seems to be anger at wattson’s current state.

Side Note this plot point was really stupid and done for cheap drama because she literally wakes up like two chapters later and they don’t even give her anything to say it’s just suddenly oh yeah crypto and wattson are working together. the same exact injury thing happens to octane later but nobody gIVES A SHIT because again, it’s just cheap soap opera drama.

their relationship might seem a little bit sudden for anyone who wasn’t on top of twitter lore drops, but like, it’s okay, i guess. i’ll give it the slightest credit for at least establishing something between the two in terms of voice lines and stuff, even if for some it might seem like it came out of nowhere.

what did come out of nowhere, though, was crypto and wattson’s friendship. in the quests, crypto and wattson are tasked with rebuilding the broken ghost because of their respective skills, and they’re seen talking in chapter six while they work on it. we’re not really given a clear timeline on how long the story in the broken ghost is, but i think it takes about a week, maybe.

unlike wattson and caustic, their relationship has been given absolutely zero material to work with before now, not even a passing glance in the trailers--which is a little weird considering crypto took down the repulsor tower and destroyed wattson’s home, but. Whatever.

tl dr of the chapter: crypto and wattson talk to each other while doing nerd shit, crypto laughs at wattson’s bad pun, and then suddenly they’re BESTIEEEES, until a couple dozen lines later in the same chapter. then they’re Not.

crypto’s drone gets hacked by revenant while everyone was kind of on edge after the reveal of a spy in their midst, he gets framed as the spy by caustic, anddddd wattson gets upset.

before i get into how dumb this storyline is, i’m gonna talk about the set-up to this conflict.

we have been given no reason to believe that these characters have ever talked to each other, and quite frankly, their friendship doesn’t really make sense.

ignoring the fact that crypto destroyed wattson’s home--which she probably doesn’t know about, so that’s forgiven for now--crypto is a paranoid guy. in the lore book he makes people stand on fucking footprints in his house so he can scan them for weapons and listening devices, and he apparently doesn’t stick around much after the games and nobody knows anything about him because he doesn’t talk to them.

a key part of crypto’s story is the fact that he is undercover and afraid of anyone finding out anything about him ever. him becoming friends with wattson kind of comes out of the blue, and we’re not even given a reason as to why they supposedly became close in the first place. i would kind of understand if like, maybe he draws parallels with her and mila in his mind and it makes him open up a little more, but that doesn’t happen. he just laughs at her joke and suddenly they’re friends.

maybe they’re trying to go for this ‘wattson can become friends with anybody’ angle, kind of hinted at with caustic but not really we’ll get into that, but that also? kind of doesn’t make sense since so many of her voice lines straight-up say she doesn’t understand people and electricity is more her thing, but honestly, she also does have those really friendly elements in her voice lines too, so its not as egregious as what they did with crypto.

their sudden out-of-the-blue friendship would’ve been fine if they spent a little more time fleshing it out, and giving us something to work with, but instead, the story immediately tries to rip it apart and frame it as this grand conflict where crypto is framed as the mole, crypto then accuses caustic, and wattson feels betrayed.

except it doesn’t really work, because we don’t give a shit. for several reasons. 

one: crypto and wattson became friends and then ended their friendship in the same exact chapter. they did not speak to each other onscreen until this chapter began, you can read the entire quest on the wiki and see for yourself that their interactions up until that point were nonexistent aside from mentions in the narration that they were building something together.

the reason wattson feels betrayed is kind of stupid too. why does she really care that much if one of them betrayed loba? nobody else really cared about the fact that one of them was a spy, in fact, nobody even seems to like loba that much, and they just found out that loba’s been lying to them this whole time, and wattson was conscious for that conversation and had a speaking line, so she’s fully aware of the situation. 

maybe it’s just like, the idea that one of them lied, but that’s still kind of a weak reason. 

this entire betrayal thing is just dumb, and it gets even worse when you realize that there could have been an actual legitimate reason for wattson to feel betrayed by crypto--even if it still would’ve come across as weak conflict because of their newly established friendship, it would’ve made more sense than this. 

Crypto destroyed Wattson’s home. He took down the tower and then all the flyers and stuff invaded Kings Canyon and made it their bitch. Not only that, but Wattson considers the Syndicate her family. The Syndicate are the very people who framed Crypto for murder and he’s trying to take them down. 

They could’ve set up actual conflict with these things, and it almost seemed like they would, because Caustic briefly brings up that Crypto could be working with Revenant because he has something against the Syndicate but then that doesn’t really go anywhere and we’re just back to Wattson feeling betrayed because either Crypto or Caustic was a spy and she doesn’t know who.

Weak conflict could’ve been made better by a strong relationship and a weak relationship could’ve still been interesting with strong conflict, but both the relationship between Crypto and Wattson and the conflict that drives them splitting up as friends were really weak and didn’t make much sense. 

It would’ve been ten times more interesting if Wattson found out Crypto ruined her home, the arena she grew up in, and was now participating in the Games to take out the people she regards as her family. That’s where her distrust could’ve manifested and conflict could’ve began, but instead it was the stupid betraying loba thing. why do you care. you just started talking to this guy like 2 hours ago.

also caustic’s whole reason for framing crypto feels stupid as fuck. he didn’t just frame crypto randomly, he framed him specifically because he doesn't want him to influence wattsob because he likes her Big Brain, but this is the FIRST time we have seen those two interact. 

what influence is he talking about? wraith and wattson have been shown to be friendly with each other in the trailers, according to tom’s tweets, and in the story too so why doesn’t he frame her? at this point the audience had slightly more build-up for those two’s relationship than crypto and wattson and a betrayal storyline would’ve felt a little more deserved if still weak.

this is the point where i briefly want to touch upon shipping, and the fact that part of this conflict feels driven by shipbait. 

aside from their relationship coming out of nowhere and the writers trying to make the stakes seem high and deeply emotional to the characters involved (despite this essentially being the first time they’ve ever interacted) tom casiello literally addresses shippers in a tweet regarding chapter seven, and as the story between these characters progresses, it becomes clear to me, at least that the crypto-wattson thing is just bait for shippers, and it’s lazy. 

it’s easy to get away with giving your characters little to no relationship development if you’re just counting on shippers to do the heavy mental lifting for you

why should i put any effort into making this relationship seem believable? people are going to see a young guy and a young girl having bare minimum interaction and assume there’s romantic interest! then i don’t have to do any work, see look, it’s a ready-made relationship wrapped in a bow for me! all that’s left for me to do is give them conflict so i can keep teasing shippers with lines like ‘you never deserved her’!

i think it’s reasonable for me to suspect shipbait, since tom casiello likes doing darksparks shipbait on twitter, and i’m like, eighty percent sure mirage and bloodhound suddenly being childhood friends in the book is shipbait too, because these characters were the number one ship in apex for a long time despite little to no interaction, and then all of a sudden in the lore book they’re childhood friends despite this literally never being mentioned before?

like bloodhound is set up to be mysterious and nobody knows what they look like, or where they’re from, or who their family is--except for mirage Apparently, who played with them when he was a kid on their home planet, and has seen them with their mask off, because bloodhound did not wear a mask when their parents were still alive.

its weird.

i’m pretty sure they’ve said somewhere they were working on this book before apex even came out, so i could just be completely wrong and they always planned for mirage and bloodhound to know each other, but if that’s the case, why did they never mention it like they did octane and lifeline?

i refuse to believe MIRAGE never brought it up either like ‘heeeeyy bloodhound remember when we used to throw eggs at our parents lab haha wanna go do to that to bangalore’s room’ 

[silence]

‘good talk buddy’

ANYWAYS I GOT OFF TOPIC. POINT IS, shipping is a detriment to the story because the writers don’t feel like they actually have to put any work into establishing or developing the relationship between characters when they know the community’s just going to do it for them anyways, and that they can put in shipbait and it’s fine and it makes sense when it really doesn’t.

imagine watching captain america civil war after not seeing a single other marvel movie.

why would you care about the avengers splitting up or tony and steve butting heads or steve’s commitment to bucky? you wouldn’t care, at least not as much as someone who’s seen all the movies and knows the relationship between the characters and why the sokovia accords exist in the first place. you don’t have context and you don’t have any reason to be emotionally invested in these characters’ relationship.

 this feels like that. the writers tried to squeeze this relationship and stuff into a single chapter and we don’t fucking care unless we were already invested in the idea of their relationship (shippers) because we barely spent any time with it.

so to summarize this little section, the set-up of this storyline Kinda Sucks! crypto and wattson barely seem to know each other, because we the audience barely saw them together and the writers are relying on shipbait in place of a relationship.

wattson and caustic are a little better but not great, but the conflict is stupid and it only gets stupider.

moving onto summarizing the rest of the broken ghost, gibraltar and caustic talk, caustic LITERALLY confesses to being the mole and says he framed crypto so he couldn’t corrupt wattson and to appear innocent because his identity was suspected, then that wraps up the season storyline.

season six begins with new voice lines, where wattson has had enough of crypto and caustic’s shit and is all passive-aggressive and going ‘this doesn’t change anything’. she has to decide who to trust, and how to figure out The Truth for herself because she’s not a little girl anymore. crypto and caustic are both trying to convince her they’re innocent and it creates some interesting conflict.

just kidding. it’s terrible conflict. you want to know why?

BECAUSE GIBRALTAR TRIED TO TELL HER THE TRUTH, RIGHT AFTER THE SEASON 5 QUEST HAPPENED, AND SHE LITERALLY REFUSED TO HEAR IT.

LIKE THERE’S A SEASON 6 LOADING SCREEN WHERE HE’S TELLING EVERYONE THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED, AND WHEN HE GETS TO WATTSON AND IS LIKE HEY I KNOW WHO THE MOLE WAS AND WHY THEY DID IT, SHE JUST GOES i dont wanna hear it. i need to think

IF YOU WANT THE TRUTH WHY ARE YOU REFUSING TO HEAR IT

SHE SPENDS ALMOST TWO ENTIRE SEASONS MAD AT CRYPTO FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO BECAUSE SHE TOLD GIBRALTAR TO FUCK OFF WHEN HE TRIED TO TELL HER WHAT HAPPENED

ITS SO DUMB

i think it was towards the end of season 6 or the beginning of season 7 where apex posted this picture of wattson asleep at her desk where she has a letter from gibraltar on it that looks like it tells her the truth, so she knows now, she knows what happened, but NOW her issue is the fact that she doesn’t know anything about crypto.

WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT IS YOUR GODDAMN DAMAGE. YOU DON’T KNOW SHIT ABOUT BLOODHOUND EITHER ARE YOU THIS UPSET WITH BLOODHOUND TOO?? HAVE YOU EVER TALKED TO PATHFINDER. DO YOU HATE PATHFINDER TOO

oh but she was friends with crypto and now she’s mad that he lied to her EXCEPT THEIR RELATIONSHIP WASN’T BUILT UP WELL SO IT JUST FEELS STUPID. THEY SPENT LONGER BEING NOT-FRIENDS THAN THEY SPENT BEING FRIENDS. THEY BECAME FRIENDS IN ONE CHAPTER AND THEN IMMEDIATELY AT THE END OF THAT CHAPTER THEIR FRIENDSHIP ENDED AND THEN WATTSON SPENT LIKE 2 SEASONS MAD AT HIM FOR SOMETHING HE DIDN’T DO . 

AND THE WRITERS TRIED TO RECTIFY THIS BY SAYING OH SHE’S NOT MAD ABOUT THE TRAITOR THING SHE’S MAD BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM AND IT’S LIKE WHY THE FUCK DID YOU NOT MAKE THAT CLEAR WHY DOES SHE SAY ‘IT DOESN’T CHANGE WHAT YOU DID’ IN HER VOICE LINES WHY DOES SHE CALL HIM A TRAITOR IF HER CONFLICT WAS HER NOT KNOWING MUCH ABOUT HIM . WHAT DID HE DO. 

HE JUST STOOD THERE AND LAUGHED AT HER JOKE AND THEN HE GOT FRAMED AND THEN THAT WAS THE END OF THE CHAPTER AND NOW SHES SUDDENLY LIKE IM ACTUALLY MAD BECAUSE YOURE A LIAR AND I CANT TRUST YOU EVEN THOUGH I NOW KNOW YOU WERE FRAMED I STILL DO NOT LIKE YOU AND HES LIKE YEAH THATS MY FAULT

The Caustic voicelines are stupid too, again his reason for framing Crypto was stupid and a lot of his voicelines just seem to be that shipbait thing again but like from the angle of overprotective dad who doesn’t like the new boyfriend. it’s stupid but not as egeregious as this next part which is

crypto telling wattson his identity.

CRYPTO was framed for MURDER and is paranoid and can’t trust anyone and doesn’t talk to anyone and the last time he did talk to someone he got framed for Another thing and the person he was talking to turned her back on him and actively refused to know the truth for like 2 seasons and then he went This Is Fine I Can Tell Her My Identity

the stupidest update to this storyline was crypto telling wattson the truth

why did they do it on the dropship where there are presumably syndicate members and other legends around.

why didn’t he scan wattson for listening devices like he did for pathfinder in the book.

why is he telling her his identity when he knows she has very close ties to the people that FRAMED HIM for MURDER. Does he trust her that much? WHY? They spoke to each other in a chapter and then spent two seasons not talking to each other beyond passive-aggressive BS. why are you so fucking stupid taejoon

their relationship was so poorly set-up that even if the writers maybe intended for them to come across as close friends who had spent weeks bonding, it really feels like they became friends in a single conversation, had a falling out, and now crypto suddenly trusts her with his identity after an undetermined amount of time because he wants to be friends again. 

that does not make SENSE this conflict feels contrived AS FUCK and the resolution feels even worse and unearned UGGGHHHH

it honestly comes across as crypto feeling desperate for friendship, and maybe this would’ve worked better if that’s the angle they played it as.

he’s been alone for roughly two years, and just wants a friend, and he’s honestly so lonely he just breaks down to the first person who’s really talked to him. it could’ve been an interesting little part of his character, and they could've gone into depth about how much this situation has affected him, but that’s not what they’re doing. he’s still paranoid and anxious and doesn’t trust anyone, except for wattson, because the plot needs him to or else there won’t be any stupid soap opera drama.

and to rub salt in the wound, wattson’s new voice lines with caustic have him telling her that she forgave crypto.

WHAT ARE YOU FORGIVING HIM FOR. ARE YOU FORGIVING HIM FOR BEING FRAMED? WHY DID HE HAVE TO APOLOGIZE TO YOU WHEN YOU WERE THE ONE WHO REFUSED TO HEAR THE TRUTH?

 did the conversation just go hey my real name is taejoon park and something bad happened to me and she went aight i forgive you WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT

Caustic’s new voice lines to Crypto where he’s like ‘what did you tell her’--YOU TOLD GIBRALTAR STRAIGHT-UP YOUR EVIL MASTER PLAN LIKE A SUPERVILLAIN AND NOW YOU’RE SURPRISED WATTSON AND CRYPTO ARE ON GOOD TERMS NOW?!

THAT’S LIKE TELLING SOMEONE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER AND THEN BEING SURPRISED WHEN YOU BECOME THE VICTIM OF IDENTITY FRAUD. YOU SET YOURSELF UP FOR THIS WHY ARE YOU ACTING LIKE CRYPTO DID SOMETHING SINISTER OR LIED OR WHATEVER. WHAT THE FUCK. WHY DO YOU HAVE LIKE 3 BRAINCELLS

this is at like ten pages already so i’m going to just try and wrap this up quickly. 

it’s frustrating seeing this storyline play out when there are actually good relationships and storylines written into apex. i’m kind of getting tired of the loba and revenant conflict, but we at least had set-up to it in the form of a few animated shorts and it doesn’t play out as stupidly as this story does. bangalore and loba’s friendship is actually developed well, even if the point between the end of season 5 and season 6 where they suddenly talk like each other feels like it could’ve used a little more. 

where crypto and wattson having an established friendship in the broken ghost failed, lifeline and octane’s established friendship works because we’ve been told since octane’s release they were childhood friends and given lore materials that indicate they’ve known each other for a very long time.

apex wants this storyline between crypto and wattson and caustic to feel dramatic and tense and ultimately rewarding when crypto and wattson did become friends for real and stuff, but instead it just comes across as hollow and empty. 

there’s nothing there. it’s a case of tell, don’t show, and it looks like this stupid conflict is gonna keep going for another couple of seasons at this rate. 

side note: this entire script was written before the new twitter comics

please tell me ur thoughts and feel free to respond with ur own lil essay

also believe it or not this is not the "shipping is a detriment to apex's story" essay i was gonna write this is a completely different essay that has some overlap SKXISOSOW

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

Alright HERE WE GO...SOME PRESS!

By which I mean, Tom King was on ComicPop discussing Supergirl! So we have CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND INFO! WOO!

Gonna get into it below, but my recommendation, as always: the best way to have an informed opinion is to get the info firsthand, so don’t just take my word for it! Go forth! Watch the thing! (Language advisory, though. There is some swearing.)

Okay. With that out of the way, LET’S GO!

Gonna lead off with a summary of the Supergirl bits, as they discuss a variety of things, from Strange Adventures to Batman/Catwoman to the canned New Gods project:

How Tom King came to be the writer of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow:

King’s longtime editor, Jaime Rich, was moved from the Bat books to the Super books. 

King, historically, likes to take on characters that ‘need help.’ He cites the example of Kirby who, upon coming to DC, asked what their lowest-selling title was, which is how he ended up on Jimmy Olsen.

So, when King asks which character needs help, Rich, to King: Supergirl. We have trouble selling that book.

King, describing Supergirl: ‘She’s singular in a way Mr. Miracle and Vision are not.’ Says that if you ask any four year old who Supergirl is, they know.

Editors asked him, ‘what’s your take? what are you gonna do with her?’

King then discusses the difference between his approach to Bat people vs. Super people.

Bat people: It’s a deconstruction approach. King brings up Kite Man from his Batman run. You tear the character down and build them back up, a la Dark Knight Returns

Super people: It’s not about deconstruction. Let them be themselves. They’re wonderful, let them be wonderful. 

But he does mention sort of stripping down the character to their purest form; he describes it as chiseling off the barnacles that have built up on the character, over the years.

Additionally, he says ‘evil doesn’t work for the Super family of characters.’

He mentions Superman: Up in the Sky. He says that there’s deep stuff in Up in the Sky, but the theme of every page is simply: Superman is awesome.

King: “I don’t want to make Kara mean or sad. I want to test her.”

The host compares ‘angry Kara’ stories to ‘evil Superman’ stories in that there are many of them, such to the point that people think Kara is relatable because she’s miserable and angry all the time. 

The host: I don’t get that.

(Same dude, same.)

King talked to Steve Orlando

They discussed the fact that Supergirl knew her planet; the people who died were her friends, family, classmates.

King summarizes Kara’s original Silver Age origin: she witnessed three huge, traumatic losses of life. First, when Krypton exploded. Then again when the Kryptonite started killing Argo residents, and then again when the meteorites destroyed the lead shielding that was keeping Argo safe. 

King: “That’s some f-ing trauma! I don’t know if you’ve read my books, but I love the trauma in characters.”

King thus describes Kara as world-weary, she swears, ‘she has seen some sh*t’.

On the new character, Ruthye:

She’s a child on a vengeance quest.

She’s named after King’s niece, Ruthie.

The pronunciation for the comic character, though, is Ruth-Eye.

One of his sons told him to add the ‘e’ on the end to make it look cooler.

Further discussion of Kara herself:

King noted that there’s sometimes a tendency to be very precious with the character.

King: ‘Let’s not be precious with Supergirl.’

This is not the story of a sixteen-year-old girl discovering the world; King says that Supergirl has been that sixteen-year-old for a long time now.

He describes it more as a move from Supergirl to Superwoman.

Art and Influences:

Talking about the red sun planet that Kara visits for her twenty-first birthday, King says he was reading a lot of Conan, which influenced the look of that portion of the story.

The impetus for getting Evely on the book: King said his editor emailed him, ‘Hey, how about Bilquis?’ King: “And I did a happy dance!”

Evely sent King a mood board of the types of things she wanted to draw; Moebius, Kirby, Wally Wood, landscapes in particular. 

Also, King says Evely is fast! She’s already halfway through the book, art-wise, and King is confident the book will release on time.

The host asked him, following up on King’s description of the book as a fantasy/western, ‘Is this True Grit?’

King: “It’s True Grit inspired. The novel AND the movie.”

If asked to give the Hollywood pitch: ‘It’s True Grit in space with Supergirl as Rooster Cogburn.’

Details about this book, as compared to Other Tom King titles:

He’s using captions on this comic--he’d thrown out captions as a storytelling device after Batman, but he found a ‘good voice’ for this comic.

King was prepared to do his usual twelve issues, but they said no one buys Supergirl comics, so it’s eight issues.

King says that Strange Adventures, Rorschach, and to a lesser extent, Batman/Catwoman, were written at a time when the world felt very apocalyptic.

He considers them to be angrier books; they are about what happens when evil is in our life, and how we deal with that.

Supergirl is the start of the ‘next generation’ of titles. 

It was written during the pandemic, but King hoped that by the time it was released, the pandemic and this very dark time in our history would be past.

He says it’s a ‘roaring 20s’ book. Not about anger, or trauma, it’s about stepping into the future and kicking a**. 

THUS CONCLUDES the Supergirl portion of the interview. 

Okay, so! Now that we’ve been objective and presented the information in a straightforward, unbiased manner...SOME THOUGHTS AND OPINONS!

The thing I was most curious about was how King got the book, so I was EXTREMELY PLEASED to get the full story.

This wasn’t like. King desperately wanting to do a Supergirl book, nor was it DC coming to King like, ‘Take Supergirl!’

Sadly, it was, ‘which book needs the most help right now? In the Superman lineup?’

He even said that Supergirl was kind of just sitting around, no one was doing anything with her/there were no plans.

(So the idea that King stole this opportunity from a woman is not true. There were NO PLANS.)

(Also it’s not based on the FS stuff, I suspect they gave the FS team some ideas from his pitch to work with, as that entire event was sort of a stop-gap/fill-in as they hurried to relaunch their line.) 

Anyways!

My initial thought that this is DC’s attempt to sell some dang Supergirl books? Not that far off! XD

Boy, I hope it works.

(Important to note: This is not news. Supergirl has historically always sold poorly. I’ve heard from actual Supergirl writers that the trades do not sell, which is a huge problem.

So King, who is KNOWN for having really good trade sales, is as solid a gamble as they could probably hope for.

He said Superman: Up in the Sky is his third best-selling trade. A WAL-MART BOOK! Is just behind Vision and Mr. Miracle!

Basically: If this doesn’t work, I don’t know that anything will.) 

As for the specifics of King’s take in particular!

Again...I really want to see it, before I pass judgement on it.

I liked the Andreyko run! And that was pretty edgy! 

Also, we have never seen a twenty-something Kara, post-Crisis. She’s always been a teenager. Thus I’m pretty willing to go along with this approach because it’s entirely new territory.

And it does seem like King is enjoying leaning into the idea of a Super who swears and kicks butt and is just a little ‘done’ with it all.

It might not mesh with my ideal Kara but again. I need to see it, before I come to any firm conclusions. 

Honestly the thing that gives me the most pause? Is that King says this book really focuses on Supergirl, not Kara, which is a more recent identity for her.

(That is somewhat true! The ‘Kara Danvers’ identity is wholly new to the show; she’s always been Linda Lee, Linda Danvers, Kara Kent, or Linda Lang, when she has a secret identity. Sometimes she doesn’t.)

(Also of note: Tom pronounces it ‘Care-a’, like the cartoon.)

(PERSONALLY I like KAHr-a, like in the show, because it creates a phonetic consistency with ‘KAHl-el’ but that’s not really relevant to a comic book. You can mentally pronounce it however you choose! XD)

So, yeah, I like the Kara Danvers part of her identity, I like earth-bound Supergirl stories, but. This isn’t that. Which I’ll need to make peace with, I guess. XD

Otherwise? Tell me a story, Mr. King. Even if I hate it, Evely will draw it beautifully, Lopes will color it masterfully, and that’s half the battle, right there. 

I’m sad King didn’t mention the Gates/Igle run! But I also understand he’s probably been looking at more recent stuff; those Gates/Igle comics are fifteen years old, oh man, oh geez, how are they that old already.

King did confirm that this is 100% in-continuity, and will affect the character going into the future.

But, IDK, given the sort of. Grim beginnings of how this book came to be, what with the reminder that the Supergirl title doesn’t sell well...who knows what the future will look like, for Kara!

I stand by my guess that Kara will graduate to ‘Superwoman’ and the Supergirl mantle will pass to someone else, maybe Ruthye? She might be a bit young, though.

Mmm. What else, what else?

Oh, this is pretty funny, IMO: when King first teased the new character, Ruthye, a bunch of SG fans rushed to google to see if there was any clue as to like. What it could mean.

And they freaked out over some obscure connection where that name appears but hey, turns out! It’s just a made up name! Based on King’s niece!

It’s funny because SG fans never learn, man. Just chill out, read the dang book, then get all upset and huff and puff and blow your twitter house down.

They briefly mentioned the Peter David run; King said the PAD stuff was great.

He’s already teased that ‘treat’ and, okay. Time for some rumination on that specifically.

I’ve read the whole PAD run. It wasn’t my cup of tea, I don’t really like the DnD, angels and demons stuff. Also, it wasn’t Kara; it’s an entirely different character who uses the name ‘Supergirl.’

Also, stuff from that run didn’t age well.

And on top of that, PAD turned out to be...kind of a jerk! As so many folks in the comic industry are.

There’s also...an extremely weird, mean-spirited vibe through the whole back half of the run; I thought maybe I was imagining it at the time, but I recently went back to “Many Happy Returns”, the final story arc of the title, and David’s introduction in the trade...it doesn’t read like a guy who was in it for the love of the character, you know?

All of which to say! I’m not excited about connections to the PAD stuff. 

But I know a lot of fans who love that run, love that version of the character.

So like. Eh! Not for me, but to the folks who enjoy it, I hope it’s cool/fun, whatever it is.

(Still think it’ll be a variant or an easter egg or something, but we’ll see.)

(Oh, hmmm! Evely *did* post a WIP of like. Some creepy skull gate that they presumably encounter...hmmmmm.)

Okay, this is crazy long, and there’s no fun art or anything to go with it--OR IS THERE?!?!?!

BOOM. From Bilquis Evely’s twitter today. (GO. FOLLOW. HER. FOR THE GOOD ART.)

(LIKE!!! I look at this and I just! Can’t! Bring myself to not be hyped as all heck! LOOK AT THIS! AND iT’S JUST THE PENCILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

God, wish that Supergirl sold better, so we could get a full year of this. HNNNNGGGGGGG.

Oh! That was another thing King discussed in detail; that 8 is way different from his usual 12, in terms of pacing and story. The beats fall at different places (obviously) so it was a bit of a challenge for him.

Actually, now that I’m thinking about it...maybe 8 will be good. Issue 10 just dropped for Strange Adventures, and wow, it has felt LONG. (I mean, the last four? Three? issues are also bi-monthly so that doesn’t help but. Still.)

(Superman: Up in the Sky was twelve issues but half the length, because it was a Wal-Mart book, so it was more like six.)

OKAY! For real, I’ve gone on long enough. XD 

SOON. Soon. June 15th, to be exact. Mark yer calendars!

[erictmason]

The Road To “Godzilla VS. Kong”, Day Four

(Sorry for the delay on this one, Life proved just a bit too busy the other day to finish it; my “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” review is gonna be pushed back as a result too.  But!  No worries, on we go. ^_^)

KONG: SKULL ISLAND (2017

Director: Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Writers: Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein, Derek Connolly, John Gatins

Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hiddleston, Brie Larson, John Goodman, John C. Reilly

Technically speaking, Gareth Edwards’ “Godzila” from 2014 was the first entry in what is now generally referred to as “The Monsterverse”, an attempt by Warner Bros. Studios and Legendary Pictures to do a Marvel Studios-style series of various interconnected movies (and which, like most such attempts to cash in on that particular trend, hasn’t really panned out; “Godzilla VS. Kong” seems likely to be its grand finale as far as movies are concerned, the only two “names” it had going for it are Godzilla and Kong themselves, and even at its most successful it was never exactly a Powerhouse Franchise).  But the thing is, when that movie was made, the idea of a “Monsterverse” did not yet exist; it was only well after the fact that Legendary and Warner Bros. got the idea to turn a new “Kong” project into the building block of a Shared Universe of their own that they could connect with the 2014 “Godzilla”, with a clear eye on getting to remake one of the most singularly iconic (and profitable) Giant Monster Movies of all time.  As you might guess from that description, however, said “Kong” project also had not originally been intended for such a purpose; it would not be until 2016 that it would be retooled from its original purpose (a prequel to the original “King Kong” titled simply “Skull Island”) into its present form, which goes out of its way to reference Monarch, the monster-tracking Science organization seen over in 2014’s “Godzilla” and which includes a very obviously Marvel-inspired post-credits stinger explicitly tying Kong and Godzilla’s existences together.  

The resulting film is fun enough, all things told, but that graft is also really, distractingly obvious.

Honestly, I wish I knew why I’m not, generally, fonder of “Skull Island” than I am.  It’s not as if, taken as a whole, it does anything especially bad; indeed it does a great deal that is actively good.  Consider, for example, the rather unique choice to make it a Period Piece; that’s decently rare for a Monster Movie as it is (indeed one of the only other examples that springs to mind for me is Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of “King Kong”, which chose to retain the original’s 1933 setting), and it’s rarer still that the era it chooses to inhabit is an immediately-post-Vietnam 1970’s.  Aesthetically speaking, the movie takes a decent amount of fairly-obvious influence from that most classic of Vietnam-era films, “Apocalypse Now” (a fact that director Jordan Vogt-Roberts was always fairly open about), and it results in some of the movie’s strongest overall imagery (in particular a shot of Kong, cast in stark silhouette, standing against the burning sun on the horizon with a fleet of helicopters approaching him, one of a surprisingly small number of times the movie plays with visual scale to quite the same degree or with quite the same success as “Godzilla” 2014).  It also means the movie is decked out in warm, lush colors that really do bring out all the personality of its Jungle setting in the most compelling way and, given how important the setting is to the film as a whole, that proves key; Skull Island maybe doesn’t become a character in its own right the way the best settings should (too much of our time is spent in fairly indistinct forests especially), but it does manage to feel exciting and unusual in the right ways more often than not.  The “Apocalypse Now” influence also extends to our human cast,  which is sizeable enough here (in terms of major characters we need  to pay attention to played by notable actors, “Skull Island” dwarfs “Godzilla” 2014 by a significant margin) that the framework it provides-a mismatched group defined by various interpersonal/intergenerational tensions trying to make their way through an inhospitable wilderness, ostensibly in search of a lost comrade-is decently necessary.  Though here we already run into one of those aspects of “Skull Island” that doesn’t quite land for me.  Taken as a whole, it sure feels like the human characters here should be decently interesting; certainly, our leads are all much better defined and more engagingly performed than Ford Brody, to draw the most immediately obvious point of comparison.  Brie Larson (as journalistic Anti-War photographer Mason Weaver), Tom Hiddleston (as former British Army officer turned Gun For Hire James Conrad), and John C. Reilly (as Hank Marlow, a World War II soldier stranded on Skull Island years ago) definitely turn in decently strong performances; I wouldn’t call it Career Best work for any of them (Hiddleston especially feels like he’s on auto-pilot half the time, while Larson has to struggle mightily against how little the script actually gives her to work with when you stop and look at it) but they at least prove decently enjoyable to watch (Reilly especially does a solid job of making his character funny without quite pushing him over the edge into Total Cartoon Territory).  I likewise feel like Samuel L. Jackson’s Preston Packard has the potential to be a genuinely-great character; his lingering resentment at the way the Vietnam War played out and the way that feeds into his determination to find and defeat Kong is, again, a clever and compelling use of the 70’s period setting, it gives us a good, believable motivation with a clear and strong Arc to it, and Jackson does a really solid job of playing his Anger as genuine and poignant rather than simply petulant or crazed.  But there’s just too much chaff amongst the wheat, too much time and energy devoted to characters and ideas that don’t have any real pay-off.  This feels especially true of John Goodman’s Bill Randa, the Monarch scientist who arranges the whole expedition; the Monarch stuff in general mostly feels out of place, but Randa in particular gets all of these little notes and beats that seem meant to go somewhere and then just kind of don’t.  Which is kind of what happens with most of the characters in the movie, is the thing; we spend a lot of screen-time dwelling on certain aspects of their backstories or personalities, and then those things effectively stop mattering at all after a certain point, even Packard’s motivations.  A Weak Human Element was one of the problems in “Godzilla” 2014 as well, though, and you’ll recall I quite liked that movie.  There, though, the human stuff was honestly only ever important for how it fed into the monster stuff; it was the connective tissue meant to get us from sequence to sequence and not much more.  Here, though, it forms the heart and soul of the story, and that means its deficiencies feel a lot more harmful to the whole.

Still, those deficiencies really aren’t that severe, and moreover, like I was saying before, there’s a lot about “Skull Island” to actively enjoy.  The Monsters themselves do remain the central draw, after all, and for the most part the movie does a solid job with that aspect of things.  It does not, perhaps, recreate “Godzilla” 2014’s attempt to make believable animals out of them (even as it does design most of them with even more obvious, overt Real World Animal elements), but there is a certain playful energy that informs them at a conceptual level that I appreciate.  Buffalos with horns that look like giant logs with huge strands of moss and grass hanging off their edges, spiders whose legs are adapted to look like tree trunks, stick bugs so big that their camouflage makes them look like fallen trees…the designs feel physically plausible (especially thanks to some strong effects work that makes them feel well inserted into the real environments), but there’s a slightly-humorous tilt to a lot of them that I appreciate, especially since it never outright winks at the audience in a way that would undercut the stakes of the story. Kong too is very well done; rather than the heavily realistic approach taken by the Peter Jackson version from 2005, this Kong is instead very much ape-like but also very clearly his own creature (in particular he stands fully erect most of the time), with a strong sense of Personality to him as well; some of the best parts of the movie are those times where we simply peek in on Kong simply living his life, even when that life is one that is, by nature, violent and dangerous.  Less successful, sadly, are his nemeses, the Skullcrawlers; very much like “Godzilla” 2014, Kong is here envisioned as a Natural Protection against a potentially-dangerous species that threatens humanity (or in this case the Iwi Tribe who live on Skull Island, but we’ll talk more about them later), and while they’re hardly bad designs (the way their snake-like lower bodies give them a lot of neat tricks to play against their enemies in battle are genuinely fun in the right sort of Scary Way), they’re also pretty bland and forgettable, even compared to the MUTOS.  That said, they serve their purpose well enough, and their big Action Scene showdowns with Kong are genuinely solid.  Indeed, the movie’s big climactic brawl between Kong and the biggest of the Skullcrawlers has a lot of good pulpy energy to it (particularly with how Kong winds up using various tools picked up from all around the battlefield to give himself an edge), likewise there’s a certain Wild Fun to the sequence where our hapless humans have to try and survive a trek through the Crawlers’ home-turf.

Where things get a bit tricky again is when the movie attempts to put its own spin on “Godzilla”’s conception of its monsters as part of their own kind of unique ancient eco-system. The sense of Grandeur that gave a lot of that aspect such weight there is mostly absent here, especially; there are instances where some of that feeling comes through (Kong’s interactions with some of the non-Crawler species, for example, do a good job giving us an endearing sense of how Kong fits into this world), but far more often it treats the monsters as Big Set-Piece Attractions.  Which is fine as far as it goes, it just also means a lot of them aren’t as memorable or impactful as I might like.  Meanwhile, the way the Iwis have built their home to accommodate, interact with, and protect themselves from the island’s bestiary feels like a well-designed concept that manages to suggest a lot of History without having to spell it out for us in a way that I appreciated (I would also be inclined to apply this to the very neat multi-layered stone-art used to portray Kong and the Crawlers except that the sequence where we see them is the most overt “let’s stop and do some world-building” exposition dump in the whole movie).  But the Iwis in general are one of the more difficult elements of the movie to process, too; it seems really clear there was a deliberate effort here to avoid the most grossly racist stuff that has been present in prior attempts to portray the Natives of Skull Island, and as far as it goes I do think those efforts bear some fruit; we are, at the very least, very far away from the Scary Ooga-Booga tone of, say, “King Kong VS. Godzilla”, and that feels like it counts for something.  I just also feel like there’s some dehumanizing touches to their portrayal (in particular they never speak; I don’t mean to imply that Not Speaking equals Inhuman, but the fact that we are not made privy to how exactly they do communicate means we’re very much kept at arm’s length from them in a way that seems at least somewhat meant to alienate us from them), especially given their role in the story as a whole is relatively minor.  

At the end of the day, though, all the movie’s elements, good and bad, don’t really feel like they add up together coherently enough to make an impact.  And I think if I had to try and guess why, even as I find it wholly enjoyable with a lot to genuinely recommend it by, I don’t find myself especially enamored by “Skull Island”.  It has a lot of different ideas of how to approach its story-70’s pastiche, worldbuilding exercise, Monster Mash-but doesn’t seem to quite succeed at realizing any of them fully, indeed often allowing them to get in each other’s ways.  It isn’t, again, a bad movie as a result of that; there really isn’t any stretch of it where I found myself bored or particularly unentertained.  But I did paradoxically find myself frequently wanting more, even as by rights the movie delivers on basically what I was looking for from it.   

[weapon13whitefang]

Apple of the Eye [Chapter 1 of 3]

It had been six months since Lucifer had laid eyes on his daughter. One hundred and eighty three days since their fight. Twenty six weeks since her little broadcast on Chanel 666 had made him want to shake the girl as all of Hell was laughing at the Magne family because his daughter had some ridiculous belief that she could help redeem his subjects and get them into heaven? He still had no damn idea where she had come up with this fucking ridiculously impossible idea! Honestly he wondered if maybe some of his old heavenly days had sunk from his sperm...

Sinking into his work chair, Lucifer rubbed at his temples in circular motions, trying to gain some relief to the fucking headache he was getting. Six months of this shit - constantly playing over his fight with Charlie and the many ravings he’d given to Lilith - was really starting to put pressure on him. He hasn’t felt this annoyed since fucking Gabriel and Michael had come waltzing into his kingdom to meet Charlie after she was born, acting like the whole goddamn war between them had never fucking happened!

Waving a hand, a freshly made cup of tea appeared before him. He’d rather be getting drunk right now, but today was supposed to be the big gathering. While many of his citizens had no true respect for him or his family, he still had their fear. And he needed them to still see that - despite Charlie’s actions over the last six months - he was still to be feared and still demands their respect. And he could still absolutely crush them all into nothingness before they’d even have to worry about another purging.

Thinking about the purging made his blood boil. He stared down at the dark brown liquid with a bitter anger licking through him like the flames of his keep. This whole damn thing - this headache, his anger, this fight between him and his daughter - was all because of this damn purge. A purge that had been “agreed” upon by him and God after it was noted that his kingdom was crowded. That His little Exterminators could help “ease the trouble of trying to make more space”.

Lucifer wasn’t a fucking idiot. Heaven was afraid. With so many souls at his disposal - so many sinners he could rile up - Heaven and their precious Lord had gotten scared. With his numbers, Heaven could easily be overthrown. His archangel “brothers” wouldn’t even stand a chance with all his numbers. They’d all fall.

That’s why this blasted purge was even a thing. And yet Charlie wanted to add more of his people to those stuck up bastards that wanted to eliminate his people like cattle to the slaughter?! The girl had even written to God himself - behind his and her mothers back - to ask for fucking permission to try!

Growling under his breath, Lucifer sucked down a gulp of tea, sighing at the delicious burn that hit his throat as he grabbed his remote out of his desk front drawer and turned on his monitor to pick up Channel 666 for some news. He needed something to get his mind off things for awhile. And with his wife on tour, this would have to do.

“Welcome back! Katie Killyjoy here! Time for everyone’s favorite: celebrity news update! And boy do we have some fucking crazy news, right Tom?” Katie Killjoys smirk was as wide and intimidating as ever, a slight twitch to her left eye catching Lucifer’s attention. This should be good.

“That’s right, Katie, it seems our very own Princess of Hell has actually done it folks! Our news camera caught the very moment an actual citizen of Hell was REDEEMED!” Tom exclaimed, throwing his hands up in shock as the camera swerved back to Katie.

Lucifer's expression went blank, his usual smile tightening as his fingers went numb.

On the screen - as Katie Killjoy went on to talk about how this citizens was seen turning and being greeted by angels - Lucifer's eyes weren’t on the citizen or really taking in much that was being said. For his eyes were glued to his daughter... Who was touching Alastor, the Goddamn Radio Demon!

Her hand was on Alastor’s arm casually, her smile wide and eyes sparkling in awe as she was bouncing on her heels, tears streaming down her face as she spoke to the redeemed - was that the porn-Star he’d heard she was trying to redeem? - as he looked frightened and confused, holding some pig.

His daughter hugged the star - Angel something? - before he was being lifted up by the angels sent to gather him. Charlie was calling up to him and waving as the angels disappeared... And then his tea began to pour from his cup.

Lucifer watched as Alastor placed a hand on Charlie’s shoulder and drew her to him, crouching down and wiping away tears from her face, still smiling and seeming to gently tut at her... Before Charlie was smiling at him and leaned up and placed a kiss on his cheek and mouth the obvious words of “Alastor” along with “thank you”??!

“It seems Hell’s Princess and the infamous crime lord, the Radio Demon, are a pair! Wonder how the King and Queen will react?” Katie asked the camera, eye still twitching. “More on that after our commercial break!... Okay what the fuck is going on-?!“

The channel went to commercial abruptly and Lucifer stared at the screen for what felt like hours before he slowly set his empty cup on the table and stood abruptly. Expression still blank, he grabbed his cane from its holster and made his way out the door.

His secretary barely missed being run over by him as she called after him. He ignored her and briskly walked to the elevator. He waited as the elevator opened and stepped inside. As the door closed, he let out a screech!

“CHARLIE WHAT THE FUCK?!”

———

What can I say besides I like this pairing lol. This was inspired by a lot of artwork of people having Lucifer reacting to Charlie and Alastor being a thing! But this image is what fully stroked the idea so yay!

Also yes I made Angel the first to be redeemed. It makes sense to me. He already has shown some small potential. Given time and a few scenarios and boom, heavenly bound!

For my friend @chocolatemicenwhiskey

[softspiderling]

swanky fortune - part seven | t.h.

Summary: life keeps you apart, Tom has a rotten morning and you return to your life

Pairing: Tom Holland x Reader

Song I listened to while writing: Dance Monkey by Tones and I

Author’s Note: I did it y’all. I hope you’re proud of me, because I honestly did not think I would pull through. This part had me squealing, will you squeal with me? Also, trying some new pics, gif is not mine! Make sure to leave some feedback :’)

Warnings: cussing and swearing

Word Count: 3,6k

Masterlist

Teaser | Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | Part Nine | Part Ten

Your eyebrows shot up in surprise. What could he possibly want from you?

“Yes. I am. And you are…?”

The man nodded and gave you a polite smile.

“You can call me Felix. I am here to pick you up for the airport.”

Wait, what?

Your smile faltered and you frowned at him.

“You are? But Tom said that he was going to drive me to the airport,” you pointed out and the man- Felix, ducked his head.

“Mr. Holland was called away, he has some important business to take care of and he asked me to escort you to the airport.”

You couldn’t help but feel disappointment wash over you. Of course you understood, honestly you were really surprised that Tom was able to spend so much time with you as he already did, but if you had known, you would have said good bye properly the last time you saw him. Hell, you couldn’t even remember when you saw him last.

“Oh, yes. That makes sense. Uhm. Just let me grab my stuff real quick,” you told Felix, your tone much more subdued and you went inside to grab your luggage.

“Get a grip, Y/N,” you mumbled to yourself and shouldered the backpack, dragging your suitcase to the doorway where he was waiting for you.

“Let me take that for you,” Felix said and grabbed your suitcase, before making his way over to the elevator, leaving you to follow him.

You were flipping over your phone in your hand as you walked over the marbled floor to the elevator, your phone blinking, an apology text from Tom already waiting for you.

Tom: I hope you read this before Felix comes to pick you up, but I can’t drive  you to the airport. I know this sucks because we couldn’t finish our conversation from last night, but my agent is really on my arse about this and I wouldn’t cancel on you if this wasn’t important. I’m really, really sorry and if it helps, I haven’t had the best morning anyways. I promise I will make it up to you.

Tom: Have a safe flight love, let me know when you land xx

With a sigh you locked your phone and slipped it in the pocket of your backpack. You were way too emotional to form a reply right now, you were going to wait until you calmed down to text him back. You followed Felix out of the hotel and clambered into the backseat of the car.

“Do you want to stop for breakfast on the way to the airport?” Felix asked, looking back to you after he’s got in the driver’s seat.

You shook your head, buckling up.

“No, I’m fine. We can go straight to the airport, thanks.”

He nodded and turned his eyes back on the street before he started the drive towards the airport, with the radio providing the only sound in the car.

You leaned your head against the window and watched buildings pass by in a blur, before you closed your eyes.

“Good bye Los Angeles,” you mumbled under your breath when you opened your eyes again, but the only thing you were seeing was Tom smiling at you and his warm, brown eyes.

A couple hours before, across the city…

“Mate, you gotta wake up.”

Tom whined in his sleep and turned over in his king-size bed, huffing a breath out of his nostrils before his breath evened out again, small snores filling the room.

Harrison hesitated. Tom had stumbled into the apartment pretty late the night before and he had only muttered out a quick ‘Argument with Jeff’ out, before he disappeared into his bedroom.

Harrison had wanted to go in to cheer his best mate up a bit, but standing outside the door, he had heard muffled talking, Tom’s soft voice and he knew that someone else was already taking care of that. It was why it was so much harder for him to wake him up now, knowing how upset Tom was going to be with the change of plans.

“Tom, seriously, wake up,” Harrison said gently and shook the brunet by the shoulders.

“Whatttt?” Tom groaned and covered his eyes with his hand, his other reaching for his phone.

“It’s not even time for me to get up to drive Y/N to the airport, bro.”

“Jeff is here,” Harrison told him and Tom sat up, blinking at him in confusion.

“Here here?”

Harrison gave him a look and Tom sighed, throwing the blanket back and getting out of his comfortable bed. If his agent really showed up in person at his place, it wasn’t a good sign.

He headed into his bathroom to brush his teeth and scowl at his reflection in the mirror, before he slipped on some sweats and a t shirt.

“Morning Jeff,” Tom yawned while he padded to the kitchen where Jeff was talking to Harry and Sam.

“Look who’s finally awake,” Jeff said sarcastically and the twins quickly disappeared into the backyard with Harrison as the tension rose in the room. Jeff was a great agent, Tom was really thankful for everything he’s done. But he’s also a stickler to the rules. If it was Jeff’s call, Tom was pretty sure he wouldn’t get any time off anymore and just spend it getting interviewed, doing photoshoots and making sure his image was clean as slate.

It was safe to say that they got along greatly professionally. Personally? Not that much.

Tom rolled his eyes and grabbed a mug out of the cupboard before pouring himself some coffee. “It’s not even nine am, cut back the sarcasm. Do you want some coffee?”

Jeff shook his head and crossed his arms across his chest, his eyebrows furrowed. So Tom was right. His agent was not here to congratulate him for the premiere the day before.

“So, what’s up?” Tom asked, sipping on his coffee while he stared at Jeff.

Jeff stared back at him, his forehead creased. “You’ve been slacking off the last few days, Tom. I can’t believe you blew off the photo shoot with Cosmopolitan on Friday.”

“I was tired, Jeff. And it was the day before the premiere, did you really expect me to have time to do a photo shoot on top of everything?” Tom sighed and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. It really was too early for all of this.

“But you had the time to hang around that fan who won the Brothers Trust ruffle?”

Tom narrowed his eyes at Jeff. He didn’t particularly like the direction Jeff was steering this conversation to. “Her name’s Y/N.”

“Y/N,” Jeff hissed, massaging his temples. “The reason why you almost got mobbed at the Four Seasons if it weren’t for me?”

“It wasn’t her fault, I wasn’t being careful,” Tom pointed out and Jeff snorted, leaning on the counter with his hands.

“That’s exactly my point. She’s distracting you. I have never seen you out of your game like this before, she’s messing with your head and it’s not good, Tom. I thought you always prided yourself on being focused and always giving your best when you’re working,” Jeff taunted and Tom slapped a hand on the counter, feeling anger simmering up in him.

“Do not turn my words against me, Jeff,” He snapped out. “You know I’ve never liked doing so many photo shoots, I’m an actor for god’s sake, not a model.”

“It was a promotional shoot. For your new movie, remember?”

“Don’t patronize me.”

Tom downed the last of the coffee before he put the empty mug in the dishwasher, sighing. In the end, he knew that Jeff just wanted the best for his career, and Tom really owed him a lot of his success.

“Why are you here, Jeff?” he then asked, his voice milder than before. He was tired and the more he fought, the longer this conversation was going to be (and the longer you had to wait for him).

“I’m here to accompany you to the Cosmopolitan photoshoot. They agreed to a second shoot to make up for the one you ditched,” Jeff said and Tom’s eyes widened, he was shaking his head vigorously.

“No no no, I can’t. I’m supposed to bring Y/N to the airport, and this wasn’t planned, I- What the fuck, Jeff?” He argued agitated and Jeff only held up a hand, uncharacteristically calm.

“Zendaya and Jake are also going to be there. There’s no way you can get out of this.”

Tom stared at his agent in disbelief before he threw his hands up, cursing. “Fuck, I can’t believe you’re doing this Jeff,” he muttered, his heart sinking when he thought of you. “Y/N’s going to be so upset.”

Jeff clasped Tom on the back, his face sporting a grin. “If she really is that amazing like you’re painting her to be, she’ll understand buddy. Now get dressed.”

oOo

“Ahhhh! I can’t believe you asked Zendaya how her kiss with Zac was!” Luisa yelled and pulled you in for a hug.

“Geez, is that really how you greet me?” you snorted and patted her back before you pulled away, shouldering your backpack. Even though the flight was quite pleasant, it still was rough to spend nine hours in a cramped up seat.

She shot you a beaming smile and wrapped an arm around your neck as you made your way to the exit of the airport.

“Can’t have you get all cocky just because you walked the red carpet with some celebrities,” she teased and you rolled your eyes fondly, heaving your suitcase in the trunk of Luisa’s car, getting in the passenger seat.

“So, I ordered some pizza and we’ll just pick it up on the way home. I figured you wouldn’t want to go out for food after your flight,” Luisa said and you gave her a grateful smile, buckling up as she started her car.

You turned your phone on, and waited as the apple logo lit up, before the phone pinged excessively.

“Jeez,” you muttered, swiping through your notifications.

Messages: Tom: yeah yeah, I’m fine. Just got into a little spat with my agent, nothing big 😅

Messages: Tom: You’ll see, Y/N. It’ll be great, I swear 🤞🏼

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Instagram: tomholland2013, hazosterfield, paddyholland2004 and five others started following you.

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Messages: Tom: Have you landed yet? x🤔

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

Messages: Harrison: hey did u land yet

Messages: Harrison: tom thinks that u r mad at him

Messages: Harrison: pls text him back, he’s starting to annoy me

Instagram: tomholland2013 liked your post.

The corners of your mouth ticked up. This was a bit excessive, even for Tom. You swiped right on Harrison’s text, letting him know you landed, before you opened Tom’s texts:

You: it’s okay. Not going to lie, I am a little bit disappointed tho. How will you make it up to me?

You: Why would it help to hear that you haven’t had a great morning? Are you okay?

THREE UNREAD MESSAGES

Tom: You’ll see, Y/N. It’ll be great, I swear 🤞🏼

Tom: yeah yeah, I’m fine. Just got into a little spat with my agent, nothing big 😅

Tom: Have you landed yet? x🤔

Frowning, you pursed your lips. It seemed like Tom was really having trouble with something lately, but it was obvious that he did not want to talk about it, so you just let it slide.

You: Yep, just got off the plane 😊

You: Did you go through all of my insta posts?

You then opened Instagram, just to see red hearts blinking at the bottom of the screen, indicating the number of posts Tom had liked. Shaking your head, you dropped your phone in your lap and leaned your elbow against the window. What a dork.

Luisa glanced at you and raised an eyebrow at your serene smile, before turning her attention back on the road.

“What’s gotten you all smile-y?” she wanted to know and you shrugged, pursing your lips. You hadn’t told Luisa anything about what has happened between you and Tom yet, you weren’t even sure why.

“Just glad to be home.”

Luisa scoffed and as the car rolled to a stop by a red light, she poked your thigh. “Are you trying to tell me you’d rather be home than with Tom Holland? Girl, don’t even try to fool me.”

You flushed and turned away, clearing your throat.

“Jeez, the last time you were this red was when Julian from biology kissed you.”

She eyed you when you kept silent at her jab and her eyes widened comically as it dawned on her.

“Holy shit, did you kiss Tom Holland?”

“What? No, of course not,” you lied and Luisa cackled, shaking her head.

“Oh my god you totally did. Fuck, I deeply respect you, Y/N,” she laughed. “I can’t believe you haven’t told me, I need details!”

“I’ll tell you at home, for god’s sake keep your eyes on the road!”

Luisa laughed gleefully, but luckily, she didn’t mention it for the rest of the drive. After having picked up the pizza at your trusted Italian, you finally headed home and you nearly cried in relief when you tossed your luggage in the corner of the living room and dropped down on the couch. It’s been a long day.

“Hey, get up or the pizza will get cold,” Luisa said, kicking your foot that was hanging off the couch. “Don’t think you can get out of telling me all about that smooch with Tom Holland.”

Groaning loudly, you propped yourself up and dragged yourself to the table, opening the pizza carton all the while Luisa was staring at you with expecting eyes. You knew she was not going to let it go until you gave her every small detail about you and Tom.

Picking the mushrooms off of your slice, you let out a sigh before diving into your story and Luisa was clinging to every word that left your mouth.

“I can’t believe it,” she said after you’ve finished. “And you guys didn’t even have a chance to finish that conversation?”

You shook your head and she made a ‘yikes’ face. “I wouldn’t want to live through that cliffhanger.”

“Tell me about it,” you muttered and pushed your half eaten pizza away. Your stomach was full and you knew there was a bunch of assignments waiting for you to start on them, it couldn’t wait any longer.

“Thanks for the pizza Lu,” you said and kissed her on the head. She smiled cheesily at you and waved her slice in your direction.

“I’m here if you need to talk!”

Sending her a thumbs up, you lugged your suitcase in your bedroom and cracked it open, tossing most of its content into the hamper for laundry later, before you sat down at your desk to get some work done.

As the sun set over the horizon, you had managed to check in with all of your professors to get the assignments you had to catch up on, contact fellow students for the material from the classes you had missed and outline an essay that was due the next week. Your eyes were drooping and you shut your laptop before pushing it away from you, stretching your arms with a yawn.

Reaching for your phone, you rubbed over your eyes as you scanned your notifications, your heart thumping in your chest when you caught sight of Tom’s name.

Tom: what? How’d you know?

Tom: oh shit I liked all of them 🤦‍♂

Tom: sorry, that probably creeped you out

Tom: how was your flight? what’re you up to right now? x😊

Biting on your lip, you let out a snort and swiveled in your chair. How can one be so Instagram inapt? It wasn’t like he was of a different generation, either.

You: it’s fine. I think it’s kinda cute, you’re like a fifteen year old with a crush

You: It was okay. I got plenty of sleep even though the person behind me kept jabbing their knee into my seat. I just caught up with everything I’ve missed from university. What are you doing? Something more exciting, I hope?

You exited the text chain and checked the time, pursing your lips. It’d be eleven pm in Los Angeles right now, but honestly, you weren’t even sure if he was still in the States or not. If you were honest, this was another part that held you back from throwing yourself into a relationship with Tom. The contrast between your lives could not be any more different. How would a relationship with him even work out if he was travelling most of the time and you were stuck back in your apartment, getting your degree?

The sound of your phone chiming a couple of times distracted you from your depressing thoughts and when you turned your phone to look at the notifications, you were surprised to see that Tom had already messaged you back.

Tom: trust me, I was much much worse when I was fifteen. Believe it or not, this is progress 🤷‍♂

Tom: I’m in South Korea!! Just finishing up the press tour before I finally head home

South Korea, huh.

You looked up the time in South Korea – around three pm – and wrinkled your nose. You returned to the textchain and his name was staring at you from the top of your phone screen. He must be in the middle of interviews and press meetings, you wondered how he found the time to text you. Tapping your finger nails against the side of your phone, you formulated the text message in your head, not wanting to type mindlessly on the keyboard before erasing all of it again.

Do you not have to do interviews? No, that sounded too harsh.

What are you doing right now? L a m e.

You groaned and pressed the phone against your forehead. Why was this so hard? You just made fun of Tom and his incompetence around Instagram and now you were sitting here, taking forever to reply to a simple text.

You: Press tour huh? Aren’t you supposed to, you know, actually do press instead of texting me? 🤔

Looked good enough.

A vibration announced of the arrival of a new text from him and you didn’t even have the time to exit the text chain. Damn that boy was a fast texter.

Tom: I am doing press. For myself. On you. Is it working?

Was it working? Judging by the smile on your face, it definitely was. But you were certainly not going to tell him that. As you were typing your reply, his text was pushed up by a new one.

Tom: I actually have to go now. Talk to you later? x

You pressed your lips together, forcing the ever growing smile on your face to shrink a bit, before you deleted what you had previously written and replaced it with a one word reply.

You: definitely. 

Inhaling deeply, you felt your heart hammer against your rib cage and you smiled widely at the ceiling. Wow, you definitely were smitten with him. But he made it so easy. Why did he have to be so endearing and cute and nice? It was not going to be easy to resist him. Not that you had been doing a good job so far anyway.

oOo

The next couple of weeks flew by and next to the life crushing work you were doing for university, you had found your rhythm in your daily routine again. The daily routine that now apparently included a nightly phone or video call from Tom, because that was just how life worked right?

You glanced at the time stamp on your phone as you jogged up the stairs of your apartment building, breath coming short. It was nearing the time Tom was usually calling and you weren’t even home. Your calculus had class had run late and your stomach was grumbling since you hadn’t eaten anything yet.

Even though Tom’s texts that day were a lot more sparse than usual, you had blamed it on a probably packed schedule on his side, rather than throwing yourself into the pit of self-doubt. He was finally back home, surrounded by his family and friends, you were glad that he wasn’t constantly on the phone to text you.

Nevertheless, he’d always called you. Every night. So you wanted to get home, shovel some food in and burrow yourself in your bedroom by the time Tom called, because Luisa had this annoying habit  of eavesdropping and giggling during your phone calls with Tom.

You let out a sigh of relief when you finally reached your floor, keys already dangling in your hand. A delicious smell of tomato sauce wafted through the air and you were crossing your fingers that they were coming from your kitchen; Luisa really made a kick ass Spaghetti Bolognese if she got off of her ass.

Unlocking your door, you dropped your backpack unceremoniously by the wall and your whole apartment was smelling like an Italian restaurant. It was almost like heaven.

“You’re a godsend Lu!” you called towards the kitchen where you could hear her tinkering with the pots. You kicked your shoes off and slipped out of your jacket, before stumbling into the kitchen.

“I’m starving, I only grabbed a banana before I left for class and I forgot my wallet at home so I-.”

Your words died in your throat when you saw Tom standing in front of you, dressed in grey sweats and a white t shirt with a red stain on it. He was holding a spatula in one hand and was staring at you with wide eyes, his mouth pulled into a sheepish grin.

“Hi darling. Hope you’re hungry.”

Bolded means I couldn’t tag you for some reason. If that is the case with your user, please shoot me a message so we can figure out the problem! Also, please interact with my fic, especially if you’re in the taglist, it would mean the world to me ❤

Taglist: @littleraton // @kingjvngins // @fangirlingisajob // @yourbiggestspiderfan // @fandomdarlings // @jeffsbarbershop // @americasmarauders // @yourwonderbelle // @noobmaster63 // @eridanuswave // @incorrect-things // @thollandx // @lala-florez // @theefactorygirl // @xidaughterofthemoonix // @sweetdarlingholland // @arichella // @let-me-luve-you // @cxtetxm // @pmvelez97 // @monjvn // @procrastinatingismybiggestflaw // @gotmyhandonmyheart // @tapptaptap // @dah-knee-cuh // @1-800-back-off // @milkandpepsi // @xoxomandoo // @how-the-heck-is-bucky // @shaygrace825 // @asix122747483 // @wheres-mccall // @nightxshadex201 // @lovcyou3000 // @softboyparker // @photoshopart15 // @yourdaisys // @twinklestqr // @centriststark // @snowxbarryxendgame // @fangirling12566 // @hot-pocket01 // @strang-ersclub // @heathera101x // @bumba-bitch // @marvelousgab // @smolbeanfive // @mybesttobobcratchit // @lost-in-translating // @chaoticharmonyqueen // @sunflowercth // @thatphandomchick // @psychicforest // @llamasaurousmaddie // @fandomdarlings // @unfortunateshelby // @skyfall8600  // @yeahimcrying // @spideys-gurl // @one-big-fangirl // @imagine-lovebug // @professionalphangirluniverse // @zabdisamor // @palindrome-teddy // @axa-vega // @btsgot7crackheads // @angelicshinigami // @mrsfortune1306 // @spicy-mango626 // @thorsvotary // @boughs-of-hollie // @magicalturmoil // @overdramaticdepressedteen // @tomhollandismyspiderman // @tomshufflepuff // @trustfundparker // @evelyn120700 // @sincerelygmg // @the-surviving-revolutionist // @darktwistydiamond // @tomspidertingle // @jackiehollanderr // @jsusofsburbia // @nerdyandproudofitsstuff // @marvelislove10 // @chaoticc-loki // @pluckypete // @afangirlwashere // @laureharrier // @parkeret // @screamholland // @beautifullydisconnected

[thattimdrakeguy]

Robin - The FIRST Miniseries - Issue #5 (The LAST Issue) Review - (R.I.P Tom Lyle)

This is the big movie styled climax of the miniseries. So its mostly just endings, and action from here, but that doesn’t mean there’s not fantastic character work in here either.

There’s a LOT in this issue I didn’t remember, since normally I don’t pay attention to this one simply because I didn’t remember as much character stuff in it, but to my slight surprise (and bigger surprise in one or two moments) there’s some stuff in here I didn’t quite remember.

The weirdo trio finally breaks up in a way that reminds me of a divorce of some kind.

In a way Clyde and Lady Shiva played the roles of Tim’s parental figures in this miniseries. So that is fitting in it’s own way.

Clyde argues that Timmy shouldn’t be a part of this. Partially for his own want to kill King Snake (Dorrance) himself, but also because he wants to protect Tim’s innocence given the gruesome nature of what’s about to go down.

While Lady Shiva is absolutely numb to violence, and if anything wants Tim to be like her and revel in it.

Some of the word usage and Tim’s reaction to Clyde running off really set this up to a bizarre version of a divorce. It’s a slight soul cracker seeing Tim so worried that Clyde’s leaving to the point he yells out “CLYDE! WAIT!”. In the panel were Lady Shiva holds him back, he looks like such a helpless kid.

It’s a wee bit more emotional then it has any right to be given this trio only lasted 3 issues or so.

But, the climatic action must begin.

--

Tim uses his established cleverness to give the team some kind of advantage against what’s more or less an armed militia of men ready to protect King Snake and his drug empire.

With some small, but still tense moments.

And Timmy, of course, being on sneaky time.

This is one babyfaced boy that loves his sneaky time.

There’s even a good page that’s a good reminder that Tim isn’t the best fighter on the planet, but that he does his best given any opportunity he can.

--

A good chunk of this issue though, and deserving enough too. Is Clyde trying to get his revenge against King Snake for all he’s done.

It’s genuinely tense even if it is just a one time side character in this fight.

Because this has been building up between him and the bad guy since issue two. He is the emotional connection between the heroes and the main big villain. It’s for the best he’s the one that gets to take him on first compared to if Lady Shiva or Tim did it.

He’s the one that deserves this fight the most. Even if King Snake is too much.

While Tim’s too preoccupied stopping the plague from spreading and making sure he doesn’t get killed himself. Tim isn’t skilled enough to get out of the situation fast enough. He’s helpless to help his own friend.

Tim has no idea whats even happening to Clyde as he keeps having to run to his own safety.

All Tim can do, is his best. He sticks to the rafters to be sneaky. Uses the tools he knows he can use like his sling, and that’s just about it. Which continues to use his established skill-set instead of giving him sudden Gary Stu moment were he’s suddenly good at everything.

He’s lucky he’s small enough to even hide up there.

--

I know I been talking spoilers this whole time, but after this part. This contains-

MAJOR SPOILERS. 

So read at your own risk, because this is the climatic issue and stuff happens.

So the big crushing part about this issue. Is that the last time Timmy Drake ever got to see Clyde Rawlings still alive, breathing, and blood pumping through his body was when Clyde ran to come to this fight.

The last thing Tim ever heard Clyde said was “RIGHT NOW!” and the last thing Clyde ever got hear Timmy’s voice say is “CLYDE! WAIT!” that’s the last they ever got to hear each other, because the next time Tim finds Clyde’s body it shows he’s already been killed by King Snake.

At this point it’s literally just this tiny little boy in red and green spandex vs a tanking man (with a freaking mullet) that’s supposedly one of the most dangerous men.

There isn’t a Lady Shiva in sight to save him, and Clyde’s not around anymore. Tim’s all alone, and the two people that have been protecting them this whole time are either gone in one way or gone in another way.

It’s all up to Timmy now.

And for the most part he doesn’t do good, because of course he doesn’t. He’s not a good fighter. He’s a tricky scamp with a sling and staff. Against the One of World’s Most Dangerous Men.

King Snake mocks Tim’s notable innocence.

Luckily though, Tim’s a clever boy, and finds a way to distract King Snake, before he can kill him or destroys him too badly. Thanks to Lady Shiva teaching Tim to his enemies underrating him to his own advantage.

Also right before Timmy absolutely wrecks him with one big, hit, that’s the biggest Tim can get out of his very teeny body.

This is when Lady Shiva shows up, and we get another scene representing Tim’s morals, because it’s a spot were King Snake should be knocked off the building, but he managed to get one solid grip on the scaffolding.

Even to the very last issue the character’s remain strong as ever. With constant reminders during their fights of who they are.

Clyde was so stuck on vengeance and anger, even if he wanted to try his best to protect Tim.

Lady Shiva, while calmer, doesn’t care about other people. She’s empathetic to her own fault.

Tim’s just the Boy Scout doing his best to stand up for what he was taught as right.

So what does Tim do in this Emperor Palpatine “DEW IT” moment?

What do you think? He’s such a good boy. He’s no Anakin Skywalker. This is a Luke Skywalker (Original Trilogy anyways), baby.

There’s some hard to watch panels though. Some stuff that actually made me a bit emotional reading this stuff.

Where Tim carries Clyde’s corpse because he’s not leaving him behind. Even when it causes Tim physical pain given he has a busted rib as he does it.

Tim could’ve easily left Clyde’s body behind for the police to find but he didn’t.

Clyde’s still on his mind and who can blame him. This is the dude that protected him this whole time even when he jumped in to protect him.

Tim tries to figure out what this all was for, because it starts to drag on him.

There’s even a surprisingly dark moment were Tim goes into the mindset of getting some payback, but of course, because he’s Timmy. He backs off of it because he realizes it was wrong. Showing that even when stuff goes wrong, Tim still has a sense of morality in him.

It’s stuff that really weighs down on Tim as the issue closes, because this was Tim’s first real adventure, and as it ends there was a lot of stuff he probably never wanted to be a witness too.

Probably some regrets carrying in his brain.

He starts to wonder what it’s all about as the miniseries and his adventure comes to an end.

--

So this was honestly a pretty good climatic issue even if it gets massively grim towards the end to a degree I wasn’t expecting.

Tim’s ongoing series touched grimness in the 90s, but it never went to this level or had such soul crushing visuals like Tim carrying the man who protected him on his back even with a busted rib.

Or contemplating physical payback against the person who caused him being dragged into all of this but backing off.

Like his ongoing series (where I fell in love with him) was a lot more lighthearted after this. So this isn’t the typical tone Tim carries. Even before this, it was just a soft action romp with character moments.

A lot of this caught me by surprise, because since I skip to Tim’s parts and the action didn’t take me away like other scenes, I didn’t even realize Clyde freaking died in this issue.

How did I not realize that?

I don’t even have a clue how, but in a way, it made it better for this review, because I’m more in tune with how a first time reader might react to it.

It’s a grim ending to a good miniseries.

The miniseries biggest flaws is having creepy girl characters who’s creepiness either feels out of character or not expanded upon to make it feel like it has a point, and moments that don’t go anywhere, with a really lame villain. Such a super lame villain.

However it’s character moments, character work for Tim, pacing, art, and sense of adventure still makes it a really good read. Even if compared to others it’s still a low-key adventure.

If you really wanna learn about Tim’s character. It’s a definitive recommend, because it’s a great character study for him. Through his goodie two shoes boyscout moments, his geeky moments, his awkward moments, to even his immature moments, and a rare dark moment from early Tim, but even that dark moment showed that in the end, Tim’s still gonna do what’s right, and not go too far.

I love reading the miniseries when I’m bored, because even if it’s typically just the first issue or two I read. I just love Tim, and I like to be reminded why.

He’s such a bean that’s trying his best to be heroic. You get a real sense of depth with the character that wasn’t seen by a Robin that was still Batman’s sidekick till this.

Dick had depth, but it wasn’t till he split with Batman that he got it.

With Tim he was the first Robin that was still Batman’s sidekick that could carry depth, and this is were you get it.

It’s the full show of Tim as a character from all sides.

It’s great that way.

I’m thinking of reviewing his next miniseries next just because reading this captured my spark for Tim in a brighter way then it has been after all the dullness of his current life as a character being misused time and time again sort of dragged on me.

With this, I get what I want even if there’s a bit of dirt on it. It’s a good read for a Tim fan, or someone that wants to learn about who he is just to include him in a fan fiction.

It’s a great feeling to remember just how fantastic Tim used to be.

I still hope DC brings back the old Tim eventually.

[demigodofhoolemere]

Long bitterness below because I saw something that drove me crazy and I wasn’t gonna be able to rest until I articulated my frustrated thoughts

~~~~~

@ the person who wrote this I just wanna talk

https://screenrant.com/mcu-avengers-most-shameless-things-loki-ever-done/

Most of these are just outright wrong and it only takes the slightest glance at canon events to prove them as such, and the ones that have any amount of accuracy to them are devoid of critical context.

I don’t remember seeing much of this stuff before Ragnarok but it’s everywhere now and it’s kind of telling of the narrative bias that movie planted in everyone’s heads that people are now looking back with a lens that’s colored to be against him from the outset without bothering to take into consideration context, critical thinking skills, or empathy. The narrative tells us that he’s just bad so let’s not look any further than that I guess.

Wasn’t gonna debate each of them but the more I think about it the more it’s gonna bug me until I do, so here comes the bitter canon police...

Number 10

1) Right from the off: “Loki and Thor have always had a love/hate relationship — though it gravitates more toward the ‘hate’ part.” Um... always? Because last I checked, despite their differences, they grew up as best friends. Their problems that we see onscreen span from 2011-2017, a measly 6 years compared to over a thousand years of life together. This is a blip on the radar, one that certainly doesn’t constitute leaning towards mainly hate for each other. Heck, even during this time period, they’re clearly shown to love each other. Loki definitely gets angry, but I wouldn’t say he outright “loathes” Thor, at least not in a way that diminishes the love he also has for him.

2) “As such, Loki has betrayed Thor and his adoptive family many times.” This is so wrong I barely have the energy to explain why. People love to give examples of all of Loki’s supposed betrayals and they pretty much all fall down under scrutiny. The only ones I can understand listing are lying to Thor about Odin being dead, along with his attempts to kill Thor at the climax of the first movie (this stuff was when he was waaay out of his right mind, btw — not that he’s not responsible for his actions, but context is still important when taking into account anything he does), and various things in Ragnarok that were out of character for him to do in the first place. Anything else, even if it’s bad, cannot be counted specifically as betrayals against his adoptive family, since things like coming to Earth weren’t about them. If only a couple of instances are able to qualify as betrayals, then no, he has not done this “many” times, no matter how much people like to push that idea.

3) “Of course, Thor often got the brunt of it.” I’ll let that one stand because Thor got a fair number of screams aimed at him, but honestly, I’d say the person most negatively affected by Loki’s actions tends to be Loki. Thor really didn’t get more than he could handle. And as much as I love him, he’s not innocent of dishing his own stuff onto Loki as well. Wording it this way makes it sound like he’s Loki’s abuse victim (when more than anything, they are both the victims of Odin’s awful parenting rather than each other).

4) “So, it’s basically a normal sibling relationship that they portrayed. Oh, and Loki is never apologetic about his violence against Thor — siblings through and through.” First of all when I see stuff like this I have deep concerns for other people’s relationships with their siblings and am reminded of how grateful I am for my sister, but secondly, I don’t get the impression that Asgardians do much apologizing overall. You don’t see Thor apologizing for violence against Loki either. Terrible habit, but it seems to be the culture they were raised in. Besides, I feel like dying for Thor multiple times is decent substitution. (And while it’s not totally clear what he was specifically referring to, it’s worth noting Loki did profusely tell Thor he was sorry on Svartalfheim.)

Number 9

1) Oh my word, I am tired of seeing this. That scene was filmed as a real death, and everyone from Tom Hiddleston to Kevin Feige continued to refer to it as such after the reshoots. I wouldn’t know where to find it right now but I know there’s a quote from Kevin about it being real and that it was only just non-fatal enough for him to survive it. The only place anyone ever says he faked it? In Ragnarok, which is already filled to the brim with retcons, and it’s said by Thor (or whoever that is in Ragnarok who took Thor’s face) who has no knowledge of what really happened, he just makes assumptions and accusations that Loki isn’t given the chance to refute. It. Was. Not. Fake.

2) “He was rather casual about it and didn’t care much about how the rest of his family would take the news.” Source? We don’t exactly get the time to see his feelings on the matter. Also, Thor is the only one who would have cared anyway. Frigga was killed and Odin wanted him dead.

Number 8

1) “One of the reasons why Loki faked his own death was to seize a great opportunity [...]” He must not be good at carrying out his own plans then, since he immediately genuinely tried to offer the throne to Thor. Thor turned it down. Was there still satisfaction from getting the chance to prove that he can be a king? Yeah, because he’s still never felt like he’s been able to prove himself as equal. The chance to prove people wrong about him, and especially the chance to prove his own worth to himself, is exciting, hence that grin at the end. He’s certainly not upset at that opportunity. But that only happened because Thor didn’t take him up on the offer.

2) “The worst part was that he cast a spell on Odin and exiled him in a retirement home on Earth.” The... the worst part? That he removed the man who would have killed Thor upon return and was willing to have all of Asgard and everyone in it destroyed? And still had the mercy to send him somewhere that he’d be safe and taken care of every single day? Uh... okay.

3) “For a time, Loki ruled the Asgardians in their process of recovery from the Dark Elves’ attack.” Yeah, exactly. Thanks for aiding my point. Even Ragnarok of all things, despite the issues I have with the way Loki was portrayed as king, still manages to prove this point by showing things on Asgard being peaceful and repaired.

Number 7

1) Mostly correct this time, but missing the context of why Loki is angry enough at Odin to want the Dark Elves to go after him. Without considering all of the lies and heartache Odin caused that sent Loki’s mind spiraling in the first place, let alone the fact that he left him to spend the next 4,000 years of his life in solitary (which is outright torture, and Loki knew it would be because he seemed to have no problem with the thought of being executed instead), it makes it sound like it was a purely petty betrayal rather than based in any reason. Loki does everything for a reason.

2) “One would think that Loki would’ve learned a lot from this but he kept on being his usual self after a short bout of guilt and anger in his cell.” First of all I think you greatly underestimate how long that’s gonna stick with Loki. Secondly, if by ‘kept on being his usual self’ you mean the immediately following scenes wherein he helps Thor go get revenge on the monsters that killed Frigga and ultimately dies to avenge her and save his brother’s life, then you forgot the actual events of canon again and also inadvertently complimented him by saying that’s normal for him.

EDIT: You know how you can watch something a thousand times and somehow it takes that thousandth time to catch something? Yeah. Anyway, Loki directed Kurse to Asgard’s power plant so he could turn the shield off. THAT is what he was directing him towards, it was to let the Elves in to get to Odin. He didn’t even unknowingly lead Kurse to Frigga, Kurse just went where Malekith was, and Malekith found Frigga because she was guarding the Stone. Kurse would have killed her anyway, Loki’s actions had no bearing on that. Hold him responsible for getting the shield shut down and letting more Elves in (while still referring to point 1 for why), but Frigga’s death never had anything to do with him because Kurse got out anyway. Loki just doesn’t know that. But a character blaming themselves doesn’t mean they’re right.

Number 6

1) Another thing I wish would stop cropping up in all discussions of Loki. Stealing the Tesseract isn’t his ~thing~. I’m annoyed with this one just on principle lol.

2) “Throughout all the MCU movies, Loki has stolen the Tesseract at least thrice, each in three different movies. He just doesn’t know when to give up.” None of those times were just for the lolz like people say. In Avengers he had to get it for Thanos to save his life. In Ragnarok, what the heck was he supposed to do, leave an Infinity Stone floating around in space for anyone to get? It’s not like it would have been destroyed with Asgard. Better to take it and keep it safe. And in Endgame, while I felt that was starting to lean too much into ‘haha I love taking the Tesseract’ territory, it was to get away from the imprisonment and possible death that would have been waiting for him in either SHIELD or Asgardian custody. Loki does everything for a reason.

Number 5

1) “[...] he immediately embraced his evil tendencies.” ROFL I’m sorry but the idea of THIS kid having had prior evil tendencies is actually hilarious.

2) “[...] killing countless innocents on Earth [...]” In canon, there were 74 fatalities in the Battle of New York, which were caused by the Chitauri that Thanos sent rather than directly by Loki. Loki’s personal kill count on Earth can be listed on one hand — literally, it’s something like 5 confirmed onscreen deaths by his hand, with several other unconfirmed ones because we just see him attack but not how badly people got hit. The 80 people that Natasha mentions were the SHIELD agents that went down with the base in the beginning, which wasn’t Loki’s doing, outside of the few guards he killed when he got there. That was pretty easy to count.

3) “[...] and probably other planets as well.” Supposition. Not even the slightest bit of hinting of that in canon. Next.

4) Loki himself was being tortured and under extreme emotional duress and mental manipulation during this movie. Not that he’s automatically 100% absolved of responsibilities, because he did make choices of his own, but again - CONTEXT. This was a fight for his life. He was not well, physically, mentally, or emotionally. There is almost nothing he did in this movie that he would do under normal circumstances in his right mind.

5) “In addition to that, he also put his homeworld of Asgard in constant danger. Odin’s words about Loki being followed by death and destruction wherever he goes definitely rang true.” If you’re referring to the first movie when he lets the Jotuns in, both instances of that were planned in such a way that no Asgardians were supposed to be in danger; he couldn’t have known the guards to the vault wouldn’t be able to take them (and that first plan was intended to protect Asgard from a young and arrogant Thor’s reign; another of few instances that can count as betrayal, but done with reason), and the second time he brought them in was specifically to kill them because, with the combination of his unstable mind and the kind of things Odin praises, he thought it would finally gain him approval from his father (and he was raised with no regard for Jotun lives therefore he didn’t even grasp that it was wrong). That’s the only time Asgard was even slightly jeopardized by Loki. In every single other instance, he is pretty darn devoted to protecting Asgard. Time and again. Odin’s words are a load of crap. Loki has only been surrounded by things like that in the last couple of years, when out of his right mind or coerced or both. This is not something that has always been, and it’s certainly hypocritical for Odin of all people to be making accusations like that when he and his favorite son have done worse things. Heck, Thor’s body count on Jotunheim in the very beginning is on its own a larger number than Loki’s body count in the entire MCU, all for being called a princess. Many of the heroes in the franchise have worse — even significantly worse — body counts than Loki.

Number 4

1) Tortured and controlled by Thanos. Next.

2) “[...] the culmination of all of Loki’s plans ever since he left Asgard to become a villain.” For one thing I love how this makes it sound like he made the conscious decision to run away and be a villain lol, but I just... you remember how he left Asgard, right? When he made a suicide attempt by falling into the void that he could not possibly think he would survive through? He didn’t exactly have future plans in mind. He was trying to die.

3) Now you’re only assuming people died? I thought it was countless?

Number 3

1) This wasn’t a takeover of Asgard. Frigga, who knew that he’s a Frost Giant, appointed him as regent for the time being. What he did with the power is what’s questionable, but the way he got it was completely legit. There was no scheming — he didn’t even want it at first. The thought of proving himself got to his head but he didn’t take the throne purposely nor was it illegally, or done in deception or under false pretenses.

2) While the things he did were wrong, it was not technically a betrayal of Odin or Asgard. He did what he did precisely because it was the sort of thing his father and his people would usually see as heroic. If you wanna call it a betrayal of Asgard for taking the risk of having Jotuns there, I guess, but not of Odin, and it was not done maliciously towards them. The ones who actually suffered for this were the Jotuns.

3) “[...] quickly transformed into one of Asgard’s most dangerous enemies.” He transformed into Odin’s enemy. If he were an enemy of Asgard he wouldn’t have spent his years on the throne protecting it.

Number 2

1) This one is mostly fair and I consider this to be the worst thing Loki’s done. However, this is hardly about shamelessness. This (and seemingly all of the article) is written in the assumption that his actions were done in his right mind. Again: he was in the middle of a mental breakdown. That doesn’t exonerate him but it’s sure as heck important context.

Number 1

(covered the image because no one needs to see that)

1) “[...] betraying the whole universe just because you can is pure evil.” Yeah, it would be. Good thing for Loki then that that’s not what he did. 

2) “Loki consciously served Thanos with the initial goal of becoming ‘king’ of the Earth.” Loki was consciously fighting to stay alive because disobedience and failure would mean unimaginable horrors.

Working with Thanos is NOT something he would do just because. As far as wanting to be king of Earth goes, Thanos canonically messed with Loki’s head. He made him think that was what he wanted, just like he dug into his mind to make him angrier at Thor. Thor himself, who has known Loki their entire lives, noted that his behavior and goals were uncharacteristic of him.

3) “It seems like Loki got his just desserts on that front.” Gotta say, I’m genuinely a little horrified when I see people say that Loki deserved that death. No one deserves to have their windpipe crushed and neck snapped brutally by their abuser. That was the most gratuitously graphic character death I’ve ever seen. Even if you think he wasn’t tortured by him before and willingly joined forces with him, he still wouldn’t deserve that fate. It’s too morbid for anybody. ‘Just desserts’ is supposed to be about justice. There’s no carrying out of justice here. It’s just senseless and cruel, and done to a man who had gotten out of the dark place in his life to start anew.

~~~~~

That was longer than I ever intended to let myself get worked up over a dumb ScreenRant post but I feel better with that out of my system.

Here’s to fact-checking before making accusations that have no basis 🥂

[thelastraigeki]

My Thoughts: TMNT’s Jennika

So... I am still in the process of digesting and trying to accept that now there is a fifth Turtle around in IDW’s TMNT Universe, and she’s certainly made a lot of buzz through out the entire comic book community. And I can even say that my initial reaction to this was.... perhaps uncalled for and even anger laced. I am not really good with certain additions or even subtractions in canon when it comes to my favorite franchises, case in point my negative reactions to the current Alien-Predator canon which... I’ve largely abandoned.

I want to talk about the craze for the new fifth and female Turtle, Jennika, who seems to have taken IDW’s TMNT universe by storm since IDW’s TMNT#95. Now... the news was spoiled to me on Facebook, but I went out and read the comics anyway, and understood the context better but... I’m still trying to process and accept this and it’s not easy for me.

I’ve been reading IDW’s TMNT comics since 2011 when the comic first came out, and have been a faithful reader since. I’ve collected the annual comics, I’ve collected the side story companions such as the Villains series, the Micro series, and the TMNT Universe series. All of them are well done, the comic has been such a treasure and an expansive one to that with newly created and fresh characters... From Alopex, Kitsune, Aka, Lindsey, Libby... And those are the new established female characters I’m talking about...

But Jennika... I haven’t been invested in. Nor have I really felt any gravity towards... And this is a question I am asking myself in order to accept this character with open arms and give her a chance.

Yes. I want to give this character a chance. I want to like this character. I really do... I honestly, really do like I appreciate Alopex, Kitsune, Lindsey and Libby, and all the other ladies of TMNT..

But... right now it’s just... hard for me. To even know she exist in the comics and possibly become a fixture in future TMNT projects.

Why?

The answer... is very, very simple...

Venus De Milo.... Let’s talk about the female Turtle who the entire TMNT fandom treats like the red headed step child that they keep locked up in the basement and occasionally feed fish heads to. Yeah... Let’s talk about the OTHER female and fifth member of the TMNT and the new kid, Jennika.

For the longest time, and I’ve known this in the back of my mind and in the forefront that IDW is pulling from EVERY known TMNT canon out there-- as TMNT has a multiverse, and every TMNT universe is as equally true as the other. Meaning... it’s ALL canon... At least, some universes more so than others. And I kept on asking myself: “So are they going to be pulling Venus into the IDW comics, or introduce a female Turtle?”

Venus De Milo showed up in Saban’s Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation and she wasn’t very well recieved. As a matter of fact, she’s become the object of hatred and mockery in the fandom... Even her conception as a character was something badly executed, as Saban and Fox Executives had wanted Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman to create a fifth and female Turtle, but also wanted her to be the love interest to the brothers...

...Who were no longer mentioned to be brothers related by blood, as she wasn’t really their blood sister because if she was, this would’ve made the romance between her and whoever of the brothers she wound up with be.... really, really, really, weird and well... wrong!

But Venus is the reason why we haven’t had a fifth Turtle in over twenty two years. Now, I could be wrong on this, so correct me if wrong but... the very memory of her and the experience of working with Saban had caused something of a distancing between Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and Peter even had decreed a rule that there was to be no female Turtles.

Let’s face it... Venus was a bad idea...But she didn’t HAVE to be...

And for some reason, I am more okay with Venus than I am with Jennika. You heard it right... I am more for Venus than Jennika. No, I am not slamming or dumping on Jennika but what I am saying is... I think I would’ve preferred Venus.

IDW would’ve have to given her a complete overhaul in design and even backstory since she wouldn’t really be a sibling. And I would’ve been okay with that... I’d like to think I’d have been okay with that anyway.

So... Why am I having a hard time with Jennika?

She’s already got some great design points over Venus. Let’s face it, Jennika has Venus beat in ever department over Venus as a mutated Turtle... For one, no Turtle boobs because Turtles are reptiles and have no need for something like that, and biologically, female Turtles are almost indistinguishable from males unless you look at the claws and tails, and the plastron.

I think it may have something to do with her debut and what IDW did with the character. And IDW has given us a wonderful plethora of female characters through out the eight years they’ve been doing this.

I suppose... I feel, and this is my opinion and mine alone... That they really didn’t do a lot with her.

In her debut, she was shown to have some connection with Darius Dunn in an attempt to overthrow Splinter when he seized control of the Foot clan, then tried to assassinate Splinter herself but ultimately had been defeated... and then he took her under his wing to get her to see things differently. And she’s perhaps been seen in a few battles when Splinter tried to seize control of the criminal underground... Then she was focused to be a love interest to Casey.

Which... I kind of had an issue with since for me, it was all about Casey and April.

And when Michelangelo had decided to bring some orphans to the Foot clan after the whole Triceraton invasion and the Rat King arc, Jennika was more or less regulated to be a babysitter.

I suppose... this is why I feel like they didn’t do much with her when compared to characters like April, Angel Bridge, Alopex, Sally Pride, and Kitsune.

And then the blood transfusion happened and... the comparison to She-Hulk’s origin had come to mind and... I suppose I didn’t react to the news too well.

Another thing which I think contributed to my initial reaction to Jennika is... I hold the IDW TMNT Universe in such a high regard, to a high standard as I do with the original black and white Mirage comics.

I am used to there being just four Turtles, and only four Turtles because that’s what numerous TMNT media has always shown us, and since my focus is on the Mirage comics-- a storyline called the Sons of the Silent Age showed us why the Turtles were something special and unique, and that they are the first and last of their kind. This is something which even the 4Kids 2K3 series adapted though they toned down the tragic ending from the original story...

I guess what I am saying is... I’m such a fan of the Mirage continuity that... I wanted everything to more or less conform to what Mirage did but have their own spin on the mythology... and this was such a drastic change, I reacted badly... and I shouldn’t have.

I want to owe an apology to @idwpublishing, Tom Waltz, @mooncalfe for my initial negative reaction to the news on their new fifth Turtle.

I sincerely wish everyone the best of luck on the IDW comic and hope that I can warm up to Jennika as I have grown to love the other characters.

[nicolacoughlanbigheartfanpage]

LILY-ROSE DEPP

New interview from a Italian article from the night after Venice Film Festival. 

By Stefano Monti

https://www.artslife.com/2019/11/06/the-king-intervista-al-regista-david-michod-e-a-lily-rose-depp/

Presented at the 76th edition of the Venice International Film Festival, the film ( written by David Michôd and Joel Edgerton , which in recent years is proving to be not only a great actor, but among the best authors of our generation: The Gift , Boy Erased ) narrates the exploits of Prince Henry V of England during the delicate passage in which he is crowned King of England. Forced after his father's death to put a stop to his unruly attitudes, his trusted Falstaff, who is interpreted (impeccably) by Edgerton himself, lends him his hand, but above all the beautiful Catherine of Valois, who in this gigantic Netflix production has the face of another star: Lily-Rose Depp(daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis), muse of Karl Lagerfeld and face of the maison Chanel ... as well as (at least, so they say) also off-screen girlfriend of the small Timothée. 

Not only history: in spite of the matter by its very nature dark and gloomy, The King , available all over the world from 01 November on Netflix, also means a lot of glamor. In the cast many other superstars: Robert Pattinson , Ben Mendelsohn, Sean Harris . Not even the big names are spared behind the scenes: along with Netflix , Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment is one of the producers . A megagalactic production, which on 2 September 2019 attracted fans and the press from all over the world to the Lido of Venice. An affectionate public that has had the pleasure of enjoying one of the most glittering red carpets of the last years of the Venice festival.

The occasion was delicious. For this reason, the day after the premiere of the film, I could not miss the chance to snatch a few statements from it’s protagonists. Here, then, that I was able to have a chat with the director David Michôd and the irresistible Lily-Rose Depp , who - taking me by surprise - makes me the first Question: How are you? I'm a little tired, if I'm honest, I'll answer . Tired out? What did you do last night? She urged me. And nothing, Lily-Rose has already screwed me.

So, you're fresh from last night's premiere. How did this world preview go?

DAVID MICHÔD: It was ... incredible. It went bananas. It was all so big, the audience went crazy, the stellar cast ... After years and years of hard work (which sometimes made me crazy), it's finally out. I have no idea how it will go ... if it will be well received by the public, or if instead it will be hated. On the other hand, now it's out, it doesn't matter what I think anymore. Help, I'm already talking. I'm very excited. To tell you the truth, after all this carousel, I would just like to sleep, sleep, sleep.

I turn to Lily-Rose instead: it's not your first time in Venice. How do you feel about returning to the Lido to present this gigantic film?

LILY-ROSE DEPP: It's simply wonderful. The Venice Film Festival is an extraordinary, beautiful, exciting event. But the biggest thrill is being here with the whole crew and the cast of The King, representing a film I'm so proud of. Venice ... no complaints, whatsoever!

Indeed, the tradition of the Henry V is infinite: from the original text of Shakespeare to the most recent cinematographic transpositions [the last of Kenneth Branagh, in 1989, with Christan Bale as Henry V of England and Emma Thompson in the role that today is Lily-Rose]. Where did you look for your inspiration to play the character?

LILY-ROSE DEPP: To interpret each character, I personally love stealing from the experiences that I really lived. I'm not special, many actors do it! But every so often, it happens that a character gives you the opportunity to have experiences that you would never have done in your real life. This is the case of Catherine of Valois. The most fascinating side is its "calm strength": it required a lot of work, because when I read the script I immediately realized that its vitality and its energy are channeled into a wonderful calm, a tranquility that sets it apart every reaction ... and that I don't have! It's a quality I've tried to steal from them. So, paradoxically, I was inspired by her.

Indeed, Catherine of Valois is a very strong female character, surrounded by violent men and often toxic masculinity.

LILY-ROSE DEPP: This is why I am very proud to have dressed her clothes. She is a fantastic character, in the film but above all in a historical perspective. Catherine of Valois came from a family that already had a great tradition of strong women: on the other hand her father was Charles VI of France, passed into history as "the Fool" - and already her mother was forced to govern family and court behind curtains, always being careful to hold off and not anger her husband. Plus, she also had lots of sisters. If we are to look for models of great femininity at a time when it seemed impossible for women to claim any right, Catherine and her family are a perfect example. This is why it was very important for Joel [Edgerton] and David [Michôd] to write the character as rigorously as possible,

Whether you like it or not, you're used to working with great celebrities - and this film is certainly no exception. Do you think the star's role still has value?

DAVID MICHÔD:I don't know, honestly, if there is any particular power in being a "star". As for me, a director, I am always fascinated: I don't know what makes the star ... a star, I just know that when I set the camera on one of them, I feel it [you can feel it, ed] . All those people we call "stars" have something incredibly special, a little mysterious, but always based on great talent. On this set, for me it was absurd to look at Timmy Chalamet at work: I was starting to think that movie stars were a concept anchored to the past and that the last, big stars of our time were that group of young boys in the nineties and that today face the fifty (like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise). And I was wondering: where are the new "movie stars"? I have not had time to find an answer ... that Timmy has arrived. In him I felt that thrill that I didn't feel for a long time in a young American actor.

LILY-ROSE DEPP: It's a complex question. For me, as an actress, being surrounded on a set (like that of The King) by so many great actors [actors, not stars!] Is the best school that exists in the world. At first it can be a bit intimidating, but working with so many professionals - of which you admire the work and of which, often, you are also a fan! - can only improve you. As for the value of a "star" ... I think that the moment you start thinking of yourself as a "star", as a "celebrity", you're already going in the wrong direction. Personally I don't know if I can really define myself like this: I can only tell myself very grateful and grateful to the people who believed in me, public and colleagues.

One last question to David. Before I leave, I have to ask you. And please, don't hate me for this question, but ... how do you deal with the Middle Ages after Game of Thrones?

DAVID MICHÔD: [laughs, enthusiastic and not at all offended]: For me it was actually quite easy, because I never saw it. Or rather: actually I saw the last episode. Well yes! It was very strange, because I was at the home of friends who are hardcore fans and had to see the big finale. I've never seen Game of Thrones , but I know how it ends. What can I say? While I was looking at it I had only one thing in mind: The King will be very very different. Indeed, already from that moment I hoped that for the public too it was more ...

He thinks for a moment, before deciding (unfortunately) not to say too much and smile a little mischievously.

I EDIT AND TRIED TO SOLVE THE BEST I COULD WITH TRANSLATION, IF I LOST ANYTHING, SORRY, AND I KEPT A FEW PARTS OF DAVID AS WELL THAT I FOUND INTERISTING. BUT IT CAN BE READ EVERYTHING IF YOU WANT ON THE LINK ABOVE.

[honeylikewords]

I am freaking out over all the Marvel news out of Comic Con. You?

Honestly, when I first got this ask, I was going to answer “no” because I legitimately hadn’t heard anything from Marvel at all. All I knew was that we were in for a bunch of Disney+ shows like Loki, which I wasn’t interested in, and Falcon and Winter Soldier, which I am interested in but concerned about.

But then I did a quick Google, and saw that there’s plenty of other stuff to be excited about, so here’s a listicle-style breakdown of what I am and am not excited for, as was released in the press junkets regarding the SDCC Marvel Hall H panel.

1. Black Widow: Nope, not interested. Way, way back in 2012, I might have cared, given that Natasha was LITERALLY THE ONLY WOMAN in the MCU with any agency or hero role, but now that we have significantly more women, significantly more interesting women, and women of color (who aren’t played by white women stealing roles from actual WOC lmao), I think we don’t really... need a Black Widow movie. I mean, cool that David Harbour will be in it, but, uh... yeah, count me out of that one.

2. Falcon and Winter Soldier: Yeah, I’m excited for this one! Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan have a lot of fun chemistry, and I hope the series plays up the fun buddy-cop aspect of their relationship rather than “doom and gloom, Steve is gone, boohoo” stuff. They deserve to be heroes in their own rights and to not live in Steve’s shadow. Also, I’m not hugely into Bucky Barnes (I kinda find him boring, sorry) so I hope the series will, at least a little, start to endear me more to him. But I am very excited to see Sam getting more screentime!

3. Eternals: Eh, can’t really say. I don’t know enough about the original Eternals, nor do I have any information about who the new Eternals will be to weigh in. Ask me again when we’re closer to the release date.

4. Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: Honestly, some warning flags are popping up for me on this one. Much as I want more POC led MCU films (and just, fucking, like, any films in general), Marvel comics has a pernicious history surrounding Asian fetishism and mysticism. I’ve talked about it before with my hatred for Iron Fist, and the problems Marvel had during the big “Asian Craze” of the 60s and 70s, but I really do worry about re-adapting works based in and rooted in the comics made during those times. I don’t know enough about Shang-Chi’s origins to weigh in just yet, but I am on high-alert about how this could go wrong. Hopefully, though, with actual Asian and POC actors involved in the project, it will be done tastefully and respectfully. Hopefully.

5. WandaVision: Nah. I never liked either character to begin with so I’m not really gonna waste my brainspace on some TV show about a random white girl and her toaster boyfriend. I know that sounds mean but I have a lot of pent up anger about how the MCU depicted the Maximoffs, given that the Maximoffs were originally Jewish and survivors of the Hol*caust, but then somehow the MCU decided to make them not only white, but white people working with a literal N*zi organization. So I have beef with that, and I just... don’t care about Wanda or Vision. They haven’t been with us long enough for any of us to really, you know, see them have arcs or be meaningful people. They’re just kinda there. So no thanks. Maybe if the show turns out to be great, I’ll watch, but as it stands, I’m uninterested.

5. Doctor Strange: Multiverse Of Madness: Eh. I never saw the original Doctor Strange because of the whitewashing issues and Benedict Cumberbatch’s, shall we say, history of anti-autism comments and classist perceptions about poor and undereducated people, so I just noped out of that. But I also didn’t like Stephen Strange from what I saw in the other MCU films I have seen him in, so I don’t feel like I’m missing much. If this movie turns out to be cool (apparently, it’s going to be the MCU’s first “scary” film, whatever that means?), I might see it, but for now it’s largely off my radar.

6. Loki: Nnnnnnnnnot especially excited. As I’ve said before, I like Ragnarok Loki, and that’s about it. 2012 Loki was, no joke, literally set up as a N*zi, and y’all know how I feel about N*zis. I’m not being hyperbolic. He is literally supposed to be equitable to a N*zi. So I’m disappointed that we’ve regressed all of his character development back in time to his worst stage, and we’re going to be seeing that play out in his show. Hopefully, the directors allow Tom Hiddleston to have more fun with Loki, because holy shit does Tom have great comedic timing, and I hope we get some redemption for Loki, because as it stands, I feel sad and hurt that they just threw away everything Loki grew into being. And if you’re one of those salty “Loki is a Classy, Intelligent, Sexy Villain, And Ragnarok Made Him DUMB, Give Us Back Our King” fans, please leave me alone. He was gross and greasy and weird and Ragnarok made him funny and likable, in me humble onion. Also, Loki is canonically not straight, not cisgender, and has been pregnant with horse babies, so, uh, let’s all just chill out and have some fun.

7.  What If...?: The What If...? comics can be really confusing and fun, alternatingly. So it’ll be interesting to see how this show manifests itself to match the wild, changing, freewheeling chaos of the What If...? storylines. Let’s see what happens!

8. Hawkeye: FUCK I AM SO MAD THAT THIS ISN’T AN ANIMATED SERIES BASED ON THE HAWKEYE COMICS THAT CAME OUT RECENTLY. FUCK. I would have loved that! But instead we’re getting Ronin Hawkeye (which sounds so dumb and also question-mark-y racist?). At least we’ll be getting Kate Bishop, I guess. C’est la vie. Not a fan of the Jeremy Renner Hawkeye, tbh, so I don’t know how this show will keep my interest, but fingers crossed.

9. Thor: Love and Thunder: BUCKLE UP BOYS I FINALLY HAVE A MOVIE TO CARE ABOUT YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAW AMEN PRAISE GOD WE HAVE A GOOD MOVIE COMING YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FEMALE THOR AAAAAAAAAAAAA GAY RIGHTS YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

FUCK! I AM SO HAPPY OH MY G O D!

10. Blade: YEE FUCKING HAW! Mahershala Ali has been in the MCU three times now (1st as Cottonmouth in Luke Cage, 2nd as Uncle Aaron in ITSV, and now as Blade!) and I’m both pleasantly surprised and a little confused, since the MCU very rarely reuses actors. Oh, well! I’m so happy to see him back and I hope Blade does him justice. I worry that the original Blade (comics and movie alike) were a little, uh, Blaxploitation-y, so I hope this update will be more thoughtful and more progressive in its depictions. But at the end of the day, this is one I’ll be watching.

11. Fantastic Four: I’m worried but hopeful. The last swings at making a Fantastic Four film have been, um, mixed to say the least. Fingers crossed for a diverse set of characters this time! Although I do think that David Harbour being in the Black Widow movie does rule him out of being The Thing, as was previously speculated. Well, anyway, here’s hoping it’s good.

12. Black Panther 2: SHIT BOI DO I DIE I AM READY YES YES YES YESSSSS 

But please for the love of GOD bring back Ryan Coogler to direct. I don’t trust this story in the hands of, well, non-black people, especially because the story of Black Panther is so intrinsically tied to the black experience. That being said, I’m ready and excited for a return to Wakanda and to see what is next in T’Challa’s saga. Also, please, more Shuri, more Nakia, more Okoye. Honestly, Black Panther brought us some of the best women in the MCU so just... bring back all the ladies. Ramonda too!

13. Guardians of the Galaxy 3: I’m a little nervous about this one re: the issues surrounding the firing of James Gunn (which is, like, such a can of worms to get into), but fingers crossed. The GOTG films are really fun and such a great break from the rest of the dull, painfully self-absorbed MCU, so I hope that the light-hearted tone and center on found family comes back. I also hear that this one will be more female-centric (focusing on Gamora, I believe?) so that’s good to hear!

14. Captain Marvel 2: I didn’t see the first one, but, hey, my lesbian friends sure are happy to have Carol back so you’ve got my approval on that one, Marvel.

15. Mutants: DOES THIS MEAN...MCU X-MEN...I’M SCARED...SOMEONE HOLD ME

16. This one technically isn’t MCU but it’s what I’m most excited for...

THE SPIDERMAN 2099 COMICS ARE COMING BACK!

I’M SO HAPPY I GET TO SEE MY BOY MIGGY AGAIN I AM SO SO SO SO HAPPY OH MY GOD I WAS SO SCARED THEY’D PERMANENTLY CANCELLED MIGGY BUT HE’S HOME I GET TO SEE HIM AGAIN I COULD JUST C R Y AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

anyway, that’s just what I’m excited for. Y’all tell me if I missed anything or if there’s other updates or news! Or tell me what you’re excited for-- I’d love to hear!

[alexdecampi]

The Scottish Boy is 90% funded! Plus a new excerpt: death & the seaside

I can’t believe that my novel is 90% funded. We’re so close to being fully there. If you fancy sharing it or pledging for an eBook ($15), the illustrated 530-page hardback ($35) or more, I’d really appreciate it. Go here on Unbound to read more excerpts, see me be a dork on a video, and see some of the book’s amazing cover art and illustrations. Meanwhile! A new excerpt, from Chapter 2, in which Iain is very much Iain. 

The next morning, Montagu, Ufford and the rest of the Galloway Dozen break south, direct to Carlyle, leaving Harry at a small crossroads with Montagu's man-at-arms, a hired local guide, and a boy in a cage. They're to take the long way around, bypassing the English nobles and their households streaming south along the main London road from their Scottish victory, avoiding their questions about the prisoner.

Harry's little band head west, towards the Irish Sea. The guide, in his heavy accent, says it will be two days along the Cumbrian coast until the old Roman road bends eastwards again through the forest and meets the London road at Kendal. Harry has always loved the ocean, and he feels as if a great weight is lifted from him now that he is out of the company of Rabbie and the other knights. He's almost calm. It's the most peaceful he's felt in months, and if he could get off his horse and kiss the English soil without his companions laughing at him, he would.

But as they sway in single file down the dirt track leading westwards, past dramatic hills dotted with curious sheep and wary peasants, Harry can't get his mind off the boy. He's still bound and gagged, his cage still covered by a sailcloth sheet. But he's awake.

An hour into the vast Cumbrian landscape with no witnesses but sheep, Harry makes a decision. He rides back and yanks the cover off the cage. This gets him a glare from Johann, Lord Montagu's bald, red-faced man-at-arms, but the boy is quiescent, huddled in a corner, glaring at them.

At midday, the hilltop road  splits, a spur of it dipping down to a wide, sandy beach, fed by a clear stream. They pull up by the stream to break their fast and water the horses. Their guide lopes off with some of Harry's coin to a nearby collection of hovels, looking for a peasant who can sell them anything other than salt beef and hard biscuit. He soon comes back with a brace of hare, and he and Johann set to skinning and cooking them.

Harry checks on their prisoner. He is all too aware the Scottish boy hasn't eaten in three days. The boy stares back at him, long hair now matted with dried blood, shirt stained with piss and filth. He looks exhausted but his eyes still burn with a pale, fevered fury, a determination Harry has never encountered before.

Harry can't find it in his heart to hate him, whatever Rabbie says about the Scots. The boy obviously had some upbringing, given his ease in French and his mother's dress, finer than any his own mother had ever had, fine as any of the great ladies at the King's table, even denuded of its embroidery.

Harry unlocks the cage and reaches in to pull the boy out. The Scottish boy flinches hard when Harry touches him, and Harry wants to strangle Rabbie in that moment. The boy shivers uncontrollably as Harry helps him out of the cart, shaking with hunger and exhaustion and some combination of fury and terror.

The boy's bare feet sink into the dark beach sand and there's a moment where he pokes it with his toes, digging in, feeling the wet grains. It's a strangely endearing, intimate gesture, so normal after days of blood and horror, and Harry has to glance away.

When he looks back, the boy is watching him again, waiting for whatever comes next.

“We're in England now,” Harry says. “I'm cutting your gag. You can yell all you want. Please don't bite me again.”

The smell of roasting hare wafts over and the scent causes Harry's stomach to clench in hunger. He can't even imagine what the boy is feeling.

Harry cuts the gag before he can second-guess himself. He steps back, holding the boy up but also at arms length. The boy's wrists and ankles are still bound, but he does his best to stand tall, defiant, even if the shaking undermines it. Uncurled, he's not nearly as small as Harry thought, only a few inches shorter than him. But the boy is so thin. It's a thinness born of constant hunger, of not enough, for a prolonged period of time. Harry thinks back to Montagu's words, they would have starved in that keep, and realises their terrible truth.

The boy yells.

And yells and yells, in Gaelic.

At the sky. At Harry. At the hills. Johann and their Cumbrian guide, Tom, jolt to their feet and reach for weapons but Harry stops them with a raised hand. After what seems like an eternity the boy falls down in the sand, shaking. No tears fall, but it looks like he's crying. His voice cracks and breaks, and the yells crumble away first into hoarse whispers, then nothing. He's just hitting his forehead against the sand, over and over, his lips moving soundlessly as if he's reciting a prayer, or a curse. The silence is startling after so much noise.

Harry squats down next to him. “I'd like to wash you. Can you swim?”

The boy sits back onto his knees and turns his head to Harry. There's sand stuck to his forehead. Harry's hand twitches, the urge to brush it off stilled instantly by the look the boy is giving him. It's a narrow-eyed expression of complete and utter disdain.

Then, in the most beautiful French Harry has ever heard, the boy whispers, “Of course I can fucking swim, you great Sassenach idiot. I grew up in a tower in the middle of a loch.”

Harry laughs, despite himself. “Well, I'll have to leave your arms tied then.” He reaches forwards and cuts the rope binding the boy's ankles.

Harry helps the boy up. They walk towards the ocean, the boy shaky as a newborn foal, his thin legs barely holding him. The boy stumbles, and Harry should expect what happens next but he's still caught by surprise when the stumble becomes a sweep of leg that knocks Harry square on his ass.

The boy runs.

Harry shouts to Johann and Tom, and they give chase. The boy falls, skinning his knees, but pushes himself up rapidly and keeps running, blood coursing down his shins. He's not fast. He's too exhausted to be fast, and Harry catches up to him just as he gets to the stream at the top of the beach.

The boy glances back at the thunder of Harry's footsteps. Harry watches in horror as the boy's ankle turns on a stone and he starts to go down. With bound arms, there's no way he can break his fall.

Harry lunges and grabs the boy before he can hit the ground. They both end up in a heap on the marshy edge of the stream, the boy thrashing and keening his anger. But Harry has both height and strength on him, and just wraps his thickly-muscled arms around the boy from behind. Harry still has to dodge the boy's attempts to break his nose with the back of his skull, and his shins get a bruising from the boy’s heels, but they’re both reasonably unscathed.

“C'mon,” Harry says, hauling the boy to his feet. “Let's get you into the ocean.” Harry holds the boy by his upper arms, in front of him, and frog-marches him towards the slow roll of waves. The boy doesn't fight, and Harry can't tell if he's given up for the time being, or if he's just waiting for his opportunity.

The boy hisses as the cold salt water washes over his many cuts, over the irritated, broken skin at his wrists and ankles. But he obediently ducks under the water when Harry exerts a gentle pressure on his shoulder, letting the sea clean the filth and blood out of his hair. He dunks himself a few times and then stands up and shakes like a dog, managing to get a substantial amount of water on Harry.

Then the boy tips his head back and closes his eyes for a moment, the midday sun hitting his pale, elegant face and turning the drops of water in his raven-dark hair into something like jewels. His long linen shirt is translucent from the water, clinging to his slim body. His lips are rose-red from the abrasions of the gag and the irritation of the salt water.

Harry's throat goes dry. Who is he?

“Better?” Harry chokes out.

One pale eye opens, and a bowed red lip curls in a snarl. “You honestly expect me to congratulate you on that being the least shit thing that's happened to me this week?” The boy spits, hitting Harry in the cheek. “You killed my family. I will kill every one of you.”

Harry uses his free hand – the one that isn't gripping the boy's bicep against his next escape attempt – to wipe the saliva from his face. He sighs, and changes tack. “I'm Harry. What's your name?”

The boy laughs, sharp and hollow. “You killed them all and you don't even know my name. Fuck you. Death. That's my name.”

He turns his back to Harry. “If you're done being the Good Samaritan, I'd like to go back in my cage.”

(psst, if you enjoyed this, please consider buying the book! It’s all written, and will be published as soon as we’re funded, edited, and typeset!)

[whenimgoodandready]

"Live from Mewni, it's The Ponyhead Show!" (applause) It’s The Ponyhead Show! Cooking with Marco and Kelly! Musical Guest: Queen of Darkness, Eclipsa Butterfly! And our host Princess Lilacia Pony Head!

*The Ponyhead Show!-Voice Over:”The Ponyhead Show!” was filmed in front of “a live studio audience”

Ponyhead makes her very own show with help from her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Seahorse, and her sisters by hijacking all electronic devices on Mewni to make them watch. Star brought in Eclipsa to perform a special song she wrote hoping it’ll win the Mewmans over and make her liked cuz Ponyhead “knows about popularity”..........okay sure, let’s go with. Unfortunately, Ponyhead hogs the spotlight for everything like the diva she’ll never change leaving poor Marco and Eclipsa left out in the dust. Ugh! Seriously!? This is the final season and Ponyhead is still the same self centered b****!? Wow! And here I thought she changed. The only thing she’s learned in this show is that people can have more than just one best friend! And yet, she still thinks the world revolves around her! :P.

While that goes on, Star tries to help out Eclipsa get ready and Ponyheads sisters give her a makeover. When I saw the promo, I was conflicted whether that was her or not, but now I see that it’s true and for a second, I thought it was gonna be her new look throughout the rest of the show! Lol! I was like, no way! Too 90’s! Marco accidentally breaks Kelly for a moment when he tells her wrestling is fake and she bounces right back up again shortly after a walk. Huh, it’s the same as how she coped in “Lava Lake Beach”!

The ratings are getting more 😡 as the Mewmans don’t like the show (and more importantly, cuz it’s hijacked so that they can’t even turn it off!) and are rioting outside the Cloud Kingdom. Star has had it with Ponyhead and tells her to shove (a crystal cupcake! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻) and finally puts Eclipsa on the show where she plays a beautiful ballad about how she tries to be their new queen as best as she can while trying to adapt to her new surroundings. Awwwwww. It was nice. Sadly, her performance got ten times more 😡 and Star feels it was a waste of time. Eclipsa on the other hand, says it’s fine cuz she’d rather be real and than a poser. Damn, I wish I could be that chill. Honestly, the Mewmans just kept on hating not because the show sucked and didn’t like Eclipsas song, but because they wanted their f**king devices working again so they could do whatever’s. There’s a little spark of hope though, one little Mewman girl liked Eclipsas song and gave the first 🙂. Thank you, little lady!

Voice Over:The Ponyhead Show! Is brought to you by Reflectacorp Mobile Technology! Now with new DNA compacts!

(sigh) I’m very disappointed in Ponyhead right now. We had a lot of characters change in this show: Star become more mature and responsible, Marco broke out of his shell, Moon became more accepting, Ludo redeemed himself, Tom succeeded in his anger management therapy and Ponyhead, what did she learn? Hmm!? That it’s okay to make new friends. THAT’S IT! She’s still the same selfish and inconsiderate b**** she was since the beginning! She berated Eclipsa on her goth taste and ignored Marco! On the former, I would’ve thought she would show some sympathy since recently Mewmans tried to off her from “Yada Yada Berries” cuz uh, Helloooooo! Ponyhead! YOUR OWN SISTERS TRIED TO OFF YOU TOO! I’m surprised Star is still friends with her! Ponyheads a bad influence! Not that Star was any better before her, but I think Ponyhead made her worse. I’m sorry, but she’s really not that funny to me like how she was supposed to be portrayed even with her being an attention w****. Although, I did feel that maybe she’s getting along better with her sisters a little since they were helping her with the show along with Seahorse, but than I thought, Eh, it’s just for her own benefit. From what Star was saying about the show, with the whole, “We should’ve pulled the plug a loooong time ago”, I’m guessing she was referring to her friendship with Ponyhead. Star, sweetie, open your eyes, your flying horse friend, IS CRAY-CRAY! (shrugs) Guess not everyone has to change, I mean, maybe we just need one jerk? Also, I don’t know if you guys noticed, but Kelly really knows how to perk up Marco real fast, he quickly got over his annoyance of people thinking his karate moves were a “sword hand dance” when she asked him to dance with her “Monster Bash” and it happens again when she asks him to cook at her place and he happily says yes! (sing song voice) Kellco! As for Eclipsa, that was her voice actresses, Esmé Biancos, actual singing voice! Usually, voice actors don’t do their own characters singing voices, but it’s justified cuz it’s not their fault if they can’t sing and even if they can’t, it’s only done for comedic purposes. For serious cases like this, it’s wonderful if they can do both!

[goddamnitashlee]

King of the World Chapter Six | Marie

*smut in this chapter

Marie’s right leg bounces up and down while she sits on the staircase. Her nails are all gone, having bitten them off while waiting for Tom’s men to arrive. Tom is currently helping Harrison get cleaned up and bandaged, and she is having a hard time looking away even though she wants to. Harrison’s right eye is completely swollen shut, his nose is 100% broken, and his lip has a huge gash in it that he is having a hard time trying to stop bleeding. If she wasn’t staring at them she wouldn't have seen the huge bruise that covers his entire left side when he lifted up his shirt to show Tom.

Tom’s mood had shifted drastically once again; from anger and frustration to lustful to downright dangerous. Every once in a while she catches him clench his fists, wishing that the man was still here so he could kill him like he should have before. Marie knows she should be terrified. She has witnessed and experienced more danger and illegal shit than she has her entire life. After seeing Tom do what he was doing when she showed up should have Marie running for the hills, but for some reason every time she thinks about getting up and leaving without him she can feel her heart clench. How could she feel this way so fast? She wasn’t one to believe in love at first sight, but after today she might reconsider it.

Lost in thought, she didn’t hear the footsteps upstairs until they were right behind her. She scootches out of the way and lets the multiple men pass through. They are big; muscles protruding out from their shirt sleeves and at least 6 feet tall. There are only 3 of them and she isn’t sure why but she expected there to be more. Isn’t there always a bunch of men in mob movies? They go up to Tom and each shakes his hand. Marie wonders how Tom got to be in charge, how someone smaller than these men came to be their leader.

Tom explains the situation of what happened, thankfully leaving out the part of them having sex right upstairs. She can see the anger come across each of the men’s faces, and she knows that when they find Brandon he is dead.

After Tom explains everything to the men he tells them to meet at his place because he needs to take her home. She takes that as her cue to stand up and Tom meets her. They walk up the stairs in silence and after walking outside Marie takes a deep breath in. The fresh air feels fantastic after feeling trapped in that place. He takes her hand and she lets him guide her to a car the next block over. It’s her dream car. Of course. Because the way she feels about him already wasn’t creepy enough.

She gets in his black 2018 Jeep Wrangler and after she buckles her seatbelt he starts the drive to her place. The silence is nice, it gives her time to think. To wonder what happens next. Is he going to explain everything to her like he said he would, or is he going to disappear and leave her hanging? She hopes he at least has the decency to answer her questions before leaving though because there is no way she is going to be able to go back to normalcy after what she experienced tonight.

They get to her place and he shuts the car off after pulling into a parking spot. He turns at looks at her.

“Can I come in?”

“Yeah, of course you can.”

They get out of the jeep and make their way inside. It’s not that late at night, only about 11, so when they enter her apartment and it appears that the other girls are already in their rooms with the lights off, she is thankful. They go to her room and the instant she turns on her light she cringes. The floor is more clothes than carpet, and her desk is scattered with empty chip bags and her notes from studying the past week. Her next thought is that her room is extremely small compared to Tom’s and she wonders if he’s thinking the same thing.

Tom surprises her by laughing and making himself at home by laying down on her bed. He pats the space next to him and she goes to him after turning the light off. He pulls her into his side and all negative thoughts vanish. It’s quiet for a few minutes, and she watches Tom as he takes in the room around him. In front of the bed is her dresser with a TV on it. Next to that is her desk with a lamp on that illuminates the room. On the entire wall are posters with different bands and quotes. On one side of her bed is her nightstand that has nothing on it but a picture of her and her parents and brother. The other side has a tall white bookshelf that is overflowing with books. Behind her bed and covering most of the wall is a huge purple tapestry that matches her bedspread.

After examining her room Tom focuses back on Marie.

“Okay, fire away. What do you want to know?”

“Everything. Start at the beginning.”

“Well, I was born on June 1st, 1996.”

“You know what I meant,” she replies with an eye roll and a light slap to his chest.

Tom chuckles and she can feel the vibration of it with her head laying on his chest.

“My dad was originally the leader and he kept this part of his life well hidden from my brothers and me for a really long time. I honestly have no idea how he did it, considering how you found out literally 2 days after knowing me. But 4 and a half years ago my dad found out he had stage 4 lung cancer and he told me. He told me what he really did for a living and that once he died that it was my responsibility to take over. I had been accepted to NYU only a couple weeks before and I didn’t want to not go, but how do you tell your dying dad you don’t want to continue his legacy and make him proud? But my dad only wanted to see me succeed and actually didn’t even want me to not go to school either. So him and his right-hand man, Harrison’s dad actually, showed me the ropes quickly so I could have that under control by the time school started. And that’s pretty much it. I’ve learned how to juggle everything at once and I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I’m pretty fucking great at it.”

By the end of his story, Tom has a sad smile on his face and Marie tightens her arms around him.

“I’m so sorry about your dad Tom.”

“It isn’t as hard anymore. I mean I miss him all the time and wish he was here to help me when I’m not sure what decision to make because I know he would know what to do, but I know he’s here in his own way guiding me.”

Marie is silent, not sure what to say after that. She has a million questions but asking them right now doesn’t feel right. She begins to lightly draw on his stomach with her fingers and he begins to run his fingers through her hair. She’s too comfortable with this dangerous man and knows that this probably won’t end well, but for right now she is content with where she is and who she is with.

A couple minutes go by in silence and then Tom asks, “What, no questions?”

“Are you sure you want to answer anymore?”

“Of course, I told you I would tell you anything you wanna know.”

“Have you killed anyone?”

“Wow okay, diving right in I see. Uh… yes, Marie, I’ve killed someone.”

She suspected he had, so the shock isn’t as great, but it still is a horrifying feeling hearing someone straight up tell you that they’ve killed someone while you’re laying in bed with them.

“Okay, but why? And how many?”

“A few, and because they’ve come after my men and me. Marie, I would never let another person hurt my men. I am responsible for them and I will protect them at all costs. You too now. Your safety, my family’s safety, and my men’s safety is the most important thing to me. If someone comes at us I will not stop until that danger is taken away.”

She can hear the authority and sureness in his voice, which makes her feel really proud and she isn’t sure why.

“Do you like it? Killing people?”

“Killing people, no. I never want to take someone’s life away. That is someone’s husband, dad, brother, or even a best friend. But if I’m being honest, hurting someone can be such a high. Having that control over someone and knowing that you’re showing them what they have done is wrong and that from now on they’ll fear you. And that fear can take you so many places and get you so much in return, but at the same time, that fear can be dangerous. I’m terrified that we won’t find Brandon before he finds someone else. His fear of us could be my downfall.”

She can’t even begin to understand how hurting someone could make a person feel good inside, and she doesn’t know if she can be with someone who just admitted that to her. On the other hand, though, she doesn’t want to be away from him. She sounds like such a cliche girl from the fanfiction she reads in her spare time, but she can’t help it. There’s something between them that she wants to explore, regardless of who Tom is and what he does.

“Are you okay? You’re really quiet…” she can hear the sadness in his voice.

“Sorry, yeah, I’m okay, just thinking.”

“What are you thinking? I just told you the darkest aspect of my life, I think I deserve to know what’s going on in that head of yours.” He sounds scared, thinking she is going to leave him.

“I’ve decided that I’m gonna stay. I don’t think I can ever accept you killing someone, regardless of what they’ve done to you, but you were right earlier, there’s something here with us and I want to explore it.”

He grabs her tighter to him, so close that there is no space between them anymore. She can feel him give her a kiss on her head and she closes her eyes.

“You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that. Of course, I wouldn’t be mad if you decided to leave. I wouldn’t ask you to stay after knowing what I’ve told you and seeing what you’ve seen, but I’m so fucking happy you’re not going anymore.”

She gives him a kiss back on his chest. She grabs the blankets and covers them with it and then snuggles back into him.

“So why didn’t Harrison’s dad become the leader if he was your dad’s right-hand man?”

“He didn’t want to do this without him. So he told Harrison in the same way my dad told me. He let Harrison know what I was going to be and if he would do the honorable thing and stand by my side. I knew Harrison would do it, he’s my best friend and together we’re a force of nature. There’s nothing we can’t do and no one we can’t beat. I honestly don’t know if I would be where I am today if Harrison decided he didn’t want to be in this with me. I probably would be dead, to be honest.”

“Are you sure you want to be with me? Cause it sounds like you’re in love with Harrison.”

He doesn’t answer right away and instead surprises her by turning on top of her with both arms on the side of her face.

“If  I was in love with Harrison would I do this?” He kisses her, hard.

She breaks away. “I dunno, you might.”

He laughs and moves his head down to her neck. He starts to suck on the spot behind her ear he found earlier that knows gets her going.

“How about now? You believe I’m not in love with Harrison yet?”

“Nope, still not convinced.”

“That’s alright darling, I got all night to convince you,” he says and begins to kiss lower and lower.

Yeah, I’m not going anywhere anytime soon she thinks to herself as Tom reaches the inside of her thigh. It feels weird since she still has jeans on, but as if he can read her mind he unbuttons them and gets them off her in record time. Since he ruined her panties earlier there is nothing in between her open legs and his tongue.

He licks a stripe right up her folds and begins to suckle on her clit. She throws her head back and puts her hands in his curls. The harder he sucks the more she pulls which in turn makes him suck harder. She’s already about to cum when he puts two fingers inside her and begins to pump them in time with his sucks. She can feel the coil tighten in her stomach and is about to let go when the thought of him killing someone flashes quickly through her mind and the coil disappears.

He can sense the shift in her and he stops.

“What happened? You were almost there.”

“I know I’m sorry I don’t know what happened.”

“Don’t lie to me Marie, ever. I want nothing but honesty between us.”

She covers her eyes with her arm, embarrassed about what’s happening right now and a little guilty for thinking what she thought during a moment like that.

“Hey, whatever happened it’s okay, I won’t be mad,” he says as he moves her arm away and looks down at her.

“I just imagined you killing someone and my orgasm went away.”

He sighs and frowns. “I figured. I’m sorry. I can go if you want.”

“No, no that’s not what I want at all. I’m the one who's sorry. Can we try again?”

Instead of answering he smirks down at her and begins to lightly move his finger up and down her opening. He slowly puts one finger in and goes back to sucking on the spot on her neck. She clears all thoughts in her head and instead focuses on the sensation. He puts another finger in and uses his thumb to rub down on her clit. She can feel the tightening in her stomach again and probably so she can’t think of those thoughts again, Tom uses his other hand to pull her shirt down and pinch her nipple in his fingers. All of this happening at the same time puts her over the edge and she lets go.

Tom pulls his fingers out and pulls her shirt off. He takes his clothes off and pulls her into his side and covers them up with her blanket.

“I don’t know about you but I’m ready for bed.”

“You don’t want anything in return?”

“You did it earlier, it’s all good Marie. All I want now is to end this day and fall asleep with you in my arms.”

She snuggles into his side and they are both asleep in minutes.