#i think the last thing i saw was nwh

[incorrectstevebucky]

i haven’t really looked at this blog in so long and i have so many half finished drafts that i never posted and posts that i was meaning to queue but never did

[eregyrn-falls-art]

Uhhh... @stanuary - Week 4: Strangers & Brothers? Maybe?

I think this concept was stronger in my head. I was thinking about that bit in NWHS where Stan walks away from the kids just before telling them about the Portal and what he's trying to do, and he walks by this window and it shows his reflection in it. I was thinking about all the times when the show has used Stan's and Ford's reflections in things as a reference to their missing twin.

Even though in the ep, Stan doesn't look at his own reflection in that moment (it shows his profile), there are other moments when he does. And since he's thinking about telling the kids all of this, and thinking about that line "You're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true", I thought about him seeing the past in his reflection -- his own past, and then the echo of his face in his brother's face, and what Ford looked like the last time Stan saw him.

[tarjapearce]

How can you describe miguel mentally and emotionally ?

Oh man... This is a tough one. I'll start by saying that, even though we saw a glimpse of his mindset on ATSV, we still have sooo much to learn and know about him. (We just had it for 15 mins. jsksk)

I did this thing a while ago, focusing mostly on his grieving that addressed the rest just superficially.

I won't say I know him better than anyone cause

1. No. Characters evolve and I feel it'd be disrespectful af to just reduce him to a couple of traits or claim that I know him better than I know my nipple jsksk.

2. He's a complex character that is so well written that makes us all go psychoanalysing his behavior 🤭. (And love me a man that puts me to think)

But jokes aside.

He's emotionally unavailable. Simple as that. And though it might sound obvious to some, (And our savior complex kicks in and tell us to fix him 👀 yeah, I'm talking to us jsksk) there's no way we can do that, cause that's up to him ~. (And you can't help someone that doesn't wants to be helped.)

Healing takes time. And guess who overworks himself to the point of having his cortisol running 24/7 through his body? Miguel. He doesn't have time for therapy. His fear of watching it all go to hell once more is a too fresh wound. Some traumas last decades, and naturally people find ways around it without interacting with it directly to avoid reliving such impairment.

(I do appreciate the fact that in the new comic book, we see him trying to make amends with Conchata though. He's trying!!! :D.)

2. He's a patient man. I mean, he recruited after all versions of Spiderman that have this trait in common: They're perceived as friendly. And they're mostly young adults and teens. (Both are a handful btw. And most stories and comics Peter Parker is depicted as a 18-23 year old)

But they like pushing his buttons, (cracking a joke every 5 minutes, doing whatever they want even when specific orders were given) however. He doesn't strike me as someone that is mean on purpose, he's just wary but not totally closed off towards people. Wich is kinda contradictory on its own since:

You don't go around trusting people first hand upon just knowing them, right? 👀. But at the same time he showed Miles his own canon event, trying to empathise with him before dropping the bomb. (He was mentally preparing him, something he wasn't able to get but to experience the worst way)

A hypocrite truly. And not in the bad bad way (He calls a nerd the NWH Peter yet he is one) , cynic to an extent (Since he keeps repeating he's been the only one trying to keep it all together, meaning he still doesn't fully trusts the people around him.) A showoff (Did you see the way he turns towards Gwen when he first appears? Or the way he says "I was gonna do that") , arrogant to also an extent. ("It's much more cooler than a watch").

He took the job as a leader cause he knew none else was gonna, and if there was another one willing to assume the role, I'm sure he'd be dissatisfied with it's development cause our man likes to feel safe in when he's in control. (A trait often met in people with generalized anxiety)

And when he's not, his brain immediately goes into threat mode, but even so is able to adapt. (I have a theory he learned this the bad way. We've still got to see the origins of his Rapture intake though 🤔)

Now, we know this man is emotionally unavailable, through and through. His love is work. And married to it.

Now, I might get a bit controversial after this and some might not like it, but I don't think he wants another family after that. (We don't know much about this Miguel's background or family except that he was looking for things, and he found Gabi's universe. And for you to look into another universe in need to be happy says enough to imagine his family or is non existent or is really messed up.)

I know we want him to be happy, (And the producers better give him some healing and closure or else.) Cause he deserves everything. But grieving doesn't work like that. A loss like that is unmeasurable, it changes literally your brain chemistry forever. The least appropriate thing you'd do is have another kid or someone after such event.

(I've seen what that is an it's not nice. Specially for the involved kid)

But we're all ill here so Thank goodness fanfics exist ❤️

He allowed himself to be selfish enough to be happy, had his fun but consequences caught up to him. Consequences that he didn't know and now has him perpetuating his guilt and mind berating.

Hence the workaholic attitude, the coldness. He's done with establishing something with people in general, not just someone special. He's done of getting trampled by life, so he sticks with something he knows he can do very well and pours into it. The Multiverse is his hyperfixation.

Keeps him busy, keeps him on control but curiously and contradictory again, it keeps him needed and useful.

He's a walking contradiction. He doesn't need people to watch over him, not cause he doesn't deserves it. He knows that people worry about him, that's why he just minds his own thing to not be a burden.

Self-Sufficient, over achiever (Alchemax CEO & Spiderman, a genius, bilingual, probably more languages on his list cause he leads a multicultural and multidimensional task force babes ~)

He's not bad, he just doesn't know how to direct his anger or allows himself to feel properly and often rationalises his feelings. (Another coping mechanism where you're tired of feeling stuff and justify difficult or negative with logical thoughts)

But again, curiously knows how to communicate. I know it's fucked to say when he threw a trash bin to Miles before that. But! Hear me out.

Retaking the previous point, he was preparing Miles to give him the talk. After he throws the trash bin, he knows that anger won't solve things (Even though he wanted to give some chancla spanks to Miles for being an anomaly) So he chills, and you can see the transition between being completely furious to a more emotional approach. (Parenting surge there.)

He starts explaining everything from scratch, (literally with drawings and stuff) so Miles wouldn't be lost on what he was on about. Then they moved to the canon events, and shows his major trauma to him as a sign of empathy and an invitation to honest talk.

He admits he doesn't like what he does, and if you look closer his face is so damn distressed when locking Miles in the trap. It pains him, but again, someone has to do it, yet none is scarred enough to bear the burden.

I just want to hug him and send him to therapy. Cause he needs it. (Pretty sure he gave up on that too cause it was too time consuming.)

I'd be satisfied if the writers gave him that ❤️. But yeah. That's one of my many takes on him. Hope it helps c:

[destinyc1020]

I think the point is that many Tom fans are tired. For example, Z has Dune, Euphoria and now The Drama lined up, while Tom only has Spider-Man. It's as if we're living in a loop. We have no confirmation of any other projects that look promising, absolutely nothing, not even a glimpse of a new character or an interesting movie. And I know he's just done a play, but it's not the same, not everyone was able to see the play.

For those of us who are fans and don't live in London, it's as if we've been waiting forever to see only Spider-Man again, and that's the frustrating part. 😩

And I hate the way most people on Twitter treat Tom and now we're back in the same place, with people comparing his career to all the other white boys in the industry today, but this time there's no defending it, because in a way they're not entirely wrong. 😭😭

I understand your frustration Anon, but try to keep things in perspective here:

True, we haven't seen Tom filming a big screen movie since SM NWH, but most of us saw NWH in Dec 2021.... AND in Jan 2022 (let's be honest, we didn't just see the movie once lol 😏), then, right after that, we had "Uncharted" come out in Feb 2022.

We also JUST had Tom's series TCR come out last summer, where we saw not just 2 hours of footage of Tom (like a regular movie), but 10 episodes of the series, which is essentially like 10 HOURS of Tom footage... which basically equals out to him being in five 2-hour length films.

He also decided to take a much-needed and much-deserved break last year, which was ironically also the same year that a LOT of actors weren't allowed to film anything or even promote any of their films due to all of the strikes going on. 🤷🏾‍♀️

He just did a play run in London, and while most of us didn't see it, he was still keeping busy, and he also has SM4 coming up. I'm not sure what's going on with the FA biopic and whether or not it's still going to be smthg he's attached to, but I'm excited to see him take on that role as well in the future if it comes to fruition! 😃

Sometimes, some of these filming projects take TIME. There are also a lot of factors going on bts beyond the actor's (and even director's) control, so if there's a delay, then an actor just pivots, just like Tom did, and goes on to do smthg else in the meantime! 🤷🏾‍♀️

We also don't know what Tom might have going on in his personal life. He might be deliberately slowing down on some projects because he has some things he wants to do on his own. I just learned about Tom and Harry supposedly starting up their own production company last week lol 😆 We really don't know all the facts.

Some actors go 2, 3, even 4 years in btwn a filming project. Leo is notorious for this. I don't see his fans complaining. 😕 They just know that he takes his time, and they will be there in theaters to support him when another one of his films come out. Maybe when Leo was younger he was doing more back-to-back roles, but he's now pushing 50 REAL hard, and maybe he's just slowing down a little, or wants to work with specific directors on very specific projects. He can afford to do that.

Same with Tom! 🤷🏾‍♀️ If he can afford to take long breaks in btwn roles, then that's fine! Spiderman is a very physical role. It can take a lot out of your body. Plus, he's doing a lot of his own stunts. He might need breaks in btwn from those types of roles.

Another thing.... STOP ✋🏾 🛑 comparing Tom to Zendaya. They are two different people. They are two different actors. Just because they are in a relationship with each other, it doesn't mean that they have to have the same exact career journey.

Zendaya's acting journey is her own. Tom's acting journey is his own. Fans don't need to compare them both. I've never seen people compare both actors in a romantic relationship with each other in my life.

If you're a fan of both Tom and Z, then when one has some down time, you can enjoy whatever the other has going on work-wise on their end. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[tinyspoonsandblackdahlias]

And while I’m on the subject of Spider-Man 4, I really hope that spidey 4 comes out before Avengers Doomsday, if Spider-Man is going to be in that movie. Anyone who knows me knows I’m a determined spideychelle shipper who wants MJ and Ned back, to clarify I’m not one of those people who thinks that Spider-Man 4 should be a reboot with only Tom Holland staying on and completely new storylines, I’m the exact opposite. Buttt I do think Peter being cut off from the other superheroes of the MCU is a great opportunity to see MCU Peter, for at least one movie, be much more of an independent solo street level spidey. Especially as the time jump from NWH to where the MCU timeline is now means he’ll already be a bit older and wiser than the last time we saw him. I just think that cutting him off like that and then immediately throwing him back in with the avengers in doomsday would be a huge mistake and missed opportunity. At the same time it would be totally weird to leave him out of Doomsday altogether especially with RDJ coming back, I doubt he’ll be left out. And as a Spider-Man fan I want to see him in doomsday and I want the angst potential of Dr Doom looking like Tony. But can we just let MCU Peter do his own thing first? Can we time the releases to do that please Disney?

[godsfavoritescientist]

(this post is satire)

I keep seeing people be like "Mabel caused the apocalypse when she gave Bill the rift!" and I think those people are missing the bigger picture. The REAL reason why Mabel caused the apocalypse is because she didn't press the red button in nwhs to shut down the portal before it finished powering on!

She had NO reason to trust Stan by that point, all the evidence she had up until then pointed towards him being some kind of supercriminal who LIED about his identity and maybe even killed the real stan, and she KNEW for a FACT that the portal being turned on would cause the end of the world, because she saw the blacklight warning messages about it only a few minutes beforehand!

But when it came down to it, she didn't listen to her own brother (a reoccurring problem :/ its so toxic to have different goals and interests and opinions from someone as perfect as Dipper), and let the portal finish activating, which DIRECTLY led to the rift existing in the first place.

And sure, you might wanna argue that Stan was the one who spent thirty years making the portal functional again, and was also the one who started the portal-turning-on process, and was also the one who convinced Mabel not to shut down the portal at the last second, and he had plenty of time to see the blacklight warning messages between the time he discovered that Ford used blacklight and the time the portal finished powering on, but she still could have shut it down before it was too late! A little bit of emotional anguish doesn't excuse making a decision that led to the end of the world.

You might also want to argue that Ford was the one who made the portal in the first place (and he was manipulated by Bill for years... which is WAY worse than being tricked by Bill for one day or for one second, and is totally 100% definitely Ford's fault. Like... who would let themselves get tricked by Bill... just don't fall for it?) but Ford at least TRIED to shut down the portal after he discovered how dangerous it was. Like, sure, he started out ignoring a lot of people who warned him that it was dangerous, and even after he found out he never fully disassembled the portal before he fell in (or even just burned the portal schematic pages), and the last thing he told Stan was "help me!" which made it sound like he WANTED Stan to turn the incredibly dangerous portal back on.... but after he came back, he dedicated all of his time to fixing his mistakes! I guess except for the time he played dungeons dungeons and more dungeons for multiple days in a row with Dipper, and didn't say anything about Stan and the kids leaving the shack once it was bill-proofed, and didnt put alien adhesive on the rift right away when he found it in the spaceship, and let himself get captured by a security droid (as if letting himself be tricked by Bill wasn't enough...) and let Dipper, a 12 year old, carry the rift in his backpack while it was still cracked, but he at least he didn't say or do anything impulsive while upset with his sibling! And DON'T say "he punched Stan" or "he told Stan to leave his house by the end of the Summer" or "he corrected Stan's grammar right before they were going to defeat Bill in a way that wouldn't have required erasing Stan's memories", none of that helped to CAUSE the APOCALYPSE. Except for I guess the time he sent that postcard to Stan. He should have never brought Stan into such a dangerous situation when he knew he might get frustrated at him tbh, and he basically goaded Stan into shoving him into the portal, which helped to eventually create the rift. He should have dropped everything with their argument and turned off the portal before continuing the conversation! But even then, he wasn't the one who let the portal get turned on AGAIN, so he's STILL less to blame than Mabel.

Even if you think he DID somehow help to cause the apocalypse more than Mabel did (btw i am judging you for that if you are. Stan and Ford did basically nothing to help cause the apocalypse how could you hate them :/), Ford was the one who bill-proofed the shack! He did way more to try to stop the apocalypse than Mabel ever did! I mean yeah, Mabel was the one who fought tooth and nail for that unicorn hair, which they couldn't have bill-proofed the shack without, let alone have a safe haven during the apocalypse or make a successful shacktron without, but she wasn't the one to glue the unicorn hair into place around the shack. All she did was follow Ford's orders (unlike Dipper, who was willing to physically fight back against Ford and almost erase his mind when he thought Bill might be possessing him! And also the time he ignored Ford telling him not to try and save him and just focus on fixing the rift, and even brought the rift with him onto the droid, a highly dangerous environment that could have broken the rift and caused the apocalypse. It was so brave of Dipper to make such a risky move even though he knew what would happen if the rift broke open). All Mabel cared about was not getting separated from her sibling (a flaw she and Stan share tbh..... but at least the only thing Stan broke on accident was a science fair project and not an interdimensional rift!). She should have just sucked it up and accepted that Dipper getting away from her toxic behaviors and getting to be taught by Ford (the best possible mentor anyone could ever have!) would have been the best thing that ever happened to him. The show literally definitely 100% implies that Mabel is suffocating Dipper's potential just like Stan did with Ford, and its really sad that she was immature enough to be THAT UPSET about something Dipper was really happy about! Like, she's literally almost 13, she should be more mature by now. Not to mention picking up the wrong backpack and not even knowing what the rift was... use your critical thinking skills, Mabel! The audience knows how dangerous it is and we don't even live in the world of the show, its not that hard :/

Handing over the rift was less influential in ending the world than LETTING the rift be CREATED, but she still should have not wanted to spend more time with her friends and family. It's just like the time Stan spent decades trying to bring back his brother (who isn't even a good person?) instead of accepting that he was gone.

Like, sure, she didn't knowingly make a deal with Bill, but she still should have known better! The time Dipper knowingly made a deal with Bill after Bill made him upset at his sister was totally different, and even though he almost dropped Mabel from high up in a theater while she was in that cake prop, its not like she actually got hurt or anything, and if anything Dipper was in more danger from that mistake. Unlike when Mabel got put in that prison bubble! She got to be in a perfectly good and not-even-all-that-creepy fantasy land! Her getting lowkey brainwashed while in the bubble and trapped in there for away from any of her friends or family for what was supposed to be eternity is a pretty good deal as far as Bill deals go! And even if Bill ended up half a second away from killing her in the end, that's still nothing compared to the bridge plan he had for Dipper that he didn't get the chance to get close to following through with.

The bottom line is, Mabel is the worst member of the Pines family, and YES it IS a competition. Comparing all of their flaws and mistakes is what the show is all about! She should have either listened to what everyone else told her to do all the time or been kicked out of the house for the summer, and even that wouldn't have been enough of a punishment. If only she had shut down the portal before Ford came back, she would have been so much more bearable :)

Tl;dr: contrary to what was said in The Last Mabelcorn, Mabel Pines is NOT a good person and nearly SINGLEHANDEDLY caused the apocalypse!!!!!

[youve-doomed-us-all-jerk]

saw the first 2 eps of my adventure with superman! was cute and liked the anime-isms, first ep did move like super fast lmao but def gonna watch more

more thots, some spoilery:

ok last thing ill say about the trunks, remember how in nwh tobey and andrew had "now clap!!!!" vibes when they appeared, didnt think theyd do that for the trunks but i guess here we are lol

fuckin white haired bishie anime boy slade willson lmao

just noticed and maybe its just a coincidence but why do jonathan and jor look so old while lara and martha look much younger than them?

i like the animeism and the shonen "dormant power" troupe i think they gave clark, just a sucker for it lmao

it is interesting seeing a lois who doesnt have more experience than clark

i think ive said it before but once again I am real worried about how theyre gonna approach the immigrant/outsider theme of superman while having lois and jimmy be racebent while clark remains white, fingers crossed it'll be done well lmao

am hoping we dont linger too long on the lois(and jimmy i guess lmao)not knowing clark is superman and any lois/clark/superman love triangles, i like that the last iteration had lois figure it out on her own pretty early, felt like that was a good show of her journalist skills and clark trust in her, i guess im saying i hope the drama of it doesnt overstay its welcome and comes to a natural organic conclusion.

still praying on some motherfuckin superman sakuga scenes this season🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽

[irondad-defensesquad]

as someone who loves the sam raimi spider-man movies... i honestly DON'T want a spider-man 4.

so many spider-man fans wholeheartedly believe they're going to get a fourth raimi film, or TASM 3. to be fair, i'm not against andrew's spidey coming back. his films had a lot of potential (and the first one is great!), and he's a great peter parker imo.

but even then, i'm just... why? why can't ppl move on? the fun about spider-man is that it has so many different adaptations and different spider-people - especially miles who's finally getting the spotlight on the big screen. as much as i like tobey and andrew, i'm sick of ppl demanding their return. AGAIN. they got no way home and they still aren't satisfied with it.

and although i will always hate nwh, i also have the impression that tobey's and andrew's roles were more of a homage to the old days, so they came back one last time to help tom. i mean, i think the concept on paper is cool, too bad it pushes tom aside. still, it's been so many years, why does everyone insist tobey and/or andrew are the "only true spider-men"? there's not a PERFECT spider-man. they're all unique in their own ways. if you personally resonate with tobey and/or andrew, that's cool. but you have to respect that things change and spider-man is a hero that means different things to many ppl. that's what spider-verse explores.

when i was a kid, i did want spider-man 4 to happen. i get why some ppl don't want their childhood hero to be played by someone else. i remember being disappointed when TASM was first announced. but i think spider-man homecoming helped me accept other versions, ones that are fresh and more relatable to younger audiences. and spider-verse then opened my mind. i didn't even know miles before i saw the teaser. i was so excited! and i was not disappointed.

i mean, i think spider-verse is universally beloved in the spidey fandom, but mcu peter still gets the short end of the stick, which sucks. i'm so tired of ppl pitting the live action spideys against each other, especially to shit on mcu peter. it just feels too mean-spirited to me and it frustrates me that ppl have an unhealthy attachment to the older films.

besides, with all the bad reboots we've been getting, do you REALLY want them to ruin your childhood films? i think it's best to just let them go. or just watch the movies when you miss them.

[sukugo]

Tag Game To Better Know You!

Send this to people you’d like to know better!

tagged by @candyuu (thank u so much!!! 😖💖💞)

What book are you currently reading? none 😔

What’s your favorite movie you saw in theaters this year? i rarelyyy go to the movies. this year i only went to see jujutsu kaisen 0 i think. and well i loved it! (was gonna say spiderman nwh too, but that was last year apparently????)

What do you usually wear? uhhh jeans and a top i guess? tho lately i've been super into wearing this blouse, black leggings and boots.

How tall are you? 165??? idk

What’s your Star Sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event? sagittarius! i have no idea honestly

Do you go by your name or a nick-name? family calls me by nickname! everyone else just my name

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child? i don't think i've ever known what i've wanted to be

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one? nope! and no

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at? good at cooking 🍳. bad at opening up to people

Dogs or cats? kitties 🐈

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what’s your favorite picture/favorite line/favorite etc. from something you created this year? oh man, i can't just choose one thing! but if i had to say, maybe it's bc it's one of my most recent things, but i do adore my r2ani drawing. and obv anakin blink blink gifset my beloved, i think the coloring came out super pretty 💞 also this anakin-obikin ficlet thing is very dear to me

What’s something you would like to create content for? so so so so many things!!!! literally everything.

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with? do i need to answer this? anakin, anakin, anakin (also obikin) (and anakin ass)

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year? i really can't think of anything sgdjfhdg i don't do much lmaoo

What’s a hidden talent of yours? uhhhh, well i can do brush calligraphy, not hidden irl but i've never mentioned it here.

Are you religious? not really?

What’s something you wish to have at this moment? other than the obvious answer (anakin), wish to have the ability to relax

tagging: @demon-glittter @docdracula @bladling @jedibongrip @atlastriesisfuckingtaken @energydrinkbutch @lovey-dovey-and-sad @queerhollyleaf @finn-shitposts @obikitten @lowkeyanakin @playinggalaga + literally everyone who sees this!

[toomanyopinionss]

Three Weeks - Part 2

Pairing: Spiderman/Original Male Character

Summary: High School AU - After Manuel Juarez (MJ) met Spiderman for the first time, it took him 3 weeks to uncover that he was Peter Parker. To be honest, Manny doesn't know how he didn't figure it out sooner...

Warnings: light profanity ig? basically fluff

Author's Note: So I did a thing. I've never posted a fic here before. This honestly spurred from a tweet I saw after seeing NWH about how Andrew Garfield's Spiderman is yet to meet his MJ and it could be a dude. After seeing that a character instantly formed in my head and I needed an outlet. i made my peter parker a very vague cutout, so one can imagine whichever one floats their boat, whether that’s Maguire, Holland, the lego version 🤷🏾‍♀️

also this will be in like 4 parts i think. enjoy!

October 15

Good Evening, everyone, and welcome to Nightly News In New York.

I’m Shannon Johnson.

And I’m Charles Bailey. First things first, Cold and Flu season has come to ravage the nation once again. Clinics are overrun and low on supplies. Schools throughout the city have reported up to 10% of their students are sick. Multiple school faculties have been hit hard as well, making the shortage of substitute teachers all the more obvious.

That’s right, Charles. The office of the mayor of NYC released a statement this morning saying:

“Here we go again, New York. You know the drill. Stay warm. Stay safe. And if you’re sick? Please, for the love of God, stay home.”

*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*

Since the first night, Spiderman had swung Manny home 5 times. It didn’t happen every night. Sometimes Spiderman was off fighting crime and saving lives. But when the city was quiet (well, as quiet as Queens could possibly be), Spiderman would drop in and offer him a lift. And Manny would accept. After the second time, he no longer felt the need to release his lunch into his mother’s petunias.

This particular October night, Manny was glad for the lack of customers. Cold and flu season had amplified the small drugstore’s business, and the people of Queens tore through the medicine aisle with gusto. When traffic finally slowed down 15 minutes to closing, Manny used the time to re-restock the shelves, because his co-worker Alex couldn’t organize for shit. At 9:25, someone burst through the doors, because of course someone would. Manny leaned out of the aisle to see who had come in, and he was treated to a view of a windblown, out-of-breath May Parker.

“Hey Auntie May,” he said, standing up from his kneeling position so she could see him. “To what do I owe this marvelous pleasure, 5 minutes before closing?”

“Ha ha, funny guy has jokes tonight, huh?” May said sarcastically. “You know a circus opened up about 30 minutes from here?”

Manny flashed her a sweet smile. “I’ll be sure to put in my application.” She returned his smile with one of her own, winking.

Manny headed towards the counter, while May shuffled towards the Health and Beauty section. “So Manuel, I met one of your co-workers when I came in to grab a last-minute birthday card for my boss a couple of days ago. Alex, I think? She seemed real…distraught.”

Manny sighed. “She’s a mess. She broke up with her boyfriend last week and the dude’s already moved on. The boss man gave her a couple of personal days to “collect herself” so she would stop scaring customers.”

“Oh poor girl,” said May, shaking her head. “Young love is a rough terrain to navigate.”

Manny shrugged because he wouldn’t know. The longest relationship he’d been in was more of a friendship-with-benefits situation with his chem lab partner, Julia. They ended things amicably after 3 months once she got a boyfriend, no hard feelings between them. There was also that boy, Carlos. Although the relationship was sweet, it was short-lived. The boy moved away before any deeper connection could form between them.

May Parker approached the checkout counter with both hands full of stuff. Manny realized he probably should have gotten her a basket to carry them. “Hey, by the way”, May starts, dropping her stuff down, “I thought you worked every weeknight? Not that Alex wasn’t lovely. But I was planning on giving you this banana bread recipe for your grandmother the other day, cause I haven’t had the chance to stop by myself.”

“Oh yeah, I do,” Manny said while scanning her things. “The twins were sick, Carmen and Ricky had midterms, and mom had to work a double, so I offered to stay home with them.”

“Ugh…” May put a hand on her chest. “You are just the sweetest boy.”

Manny blushed and waved a hand dismissively. “Just doing my part, May.”

She shook her head, then. “This bug going around is just awful. You know Peter’s sick, too?”

“Yeah? Well, that explains why I didn’t see him in school today.” Manny wouldn’t say that he and Peter Parker were ‘best friends’ now, but they’d been getting closer over the last week or so. Ever since the moment they shared when Peter fixed his bandage, they’ve greeted each other in the hallways, walked each other to classes, and even spent their free period together in the library. The thought gave Manny a warm feeling.

May rolled her eyes. “Oh yeah. I made him stay home because that boy just does not know how to take care of himself. So much like Benjamin, it irks me.” Manny laughed as he finished scanning the last item.

“Tell Peter I hope he feels better,” Manny said as May collected her things.

“Send the twins my love. I’ll have fresh-baked cookies at your house by tomorrow.”

Manny called out, “Chocolate chip please!”May just laughed and blew him a kiss, before leaving the drugstore.

*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*

Spider-man wasn’t at their usual spot today, which left Manny feeling a little disappointed. After waiting a couple more minutes (just in case), Manny sighed and walked on, pulling his headphones over his ears to block out any sound.

After a few minutes of listening to one of his playlists, his favorite song came on. He slowed down a bit and closed his eyes, letting the music wash over him. He felt his lips curve into a smile. It was a marvelous feeling, and Manny felt like every single worry in the world simply vanished for a couple of minutes. He loved music. It’s like every one of his five senses comes alive. When the song ended, he opened his eyes to see his late-night walking buddy standing there, looking at him.

“AYE!” Manny yelped, his heart racing. “What, you can’t say nothing?!”

Spiderman scratched the back of his head in what seemed to be a sheepish gesture. “Oh shit! Sorry, Manny. You just seemed so…”

“What, high?” Manny asked, chuckling, shoving his headphones back into his bag, so he didn’t have to meet his eye. He felt his face heat up ever so slightly.

“No! No, like relaxed. Peaceful. It’s a nice look on you… I didn’t wanna mess it up.”

Manny’s heart skipped at least two beats. He would be glad for the darkness outside, but he wasn’t sure whether or not Spiderman had night vision. “Damn, you know how to woo a person. It’s a shame the only person you’re able to see these days is Doc Ock and his vengeful ass.”

Spiderman laughed, which quickly dissolved into a coughing fit. “Sorry,” he said, clearing his throat.

Manny raised an eyebrow. “You good?” The hero started to nod but then dissolved into another fit of coughing.

“Damn. Don’t tell me the germs of New York got you too?” Manny asked incredulously.

“Yep, this city does not do anything halfway,” Spiderman said, punctuating the sentence with a sneeze. Which launched him into another coughing fit.

Manny inspected the superhero. “Hey, maybe you shouldn’t swing me home tonight.”

Spider-man’s shoulders slumped a bit. “Yeah, yeah of course. Completely understandable. I’m kind of gross right now, anyways.” He made it like he was about to shoot out a web toward a nearby building, but Manny stopped him with a hand on his arm.

“Woah woah. Despacio, amigo. I just don’t want you overworking yourself.” Spiderman slowly lowered his arms, but Manny maintained contact. “I’m sure this cold doesn’t prevent you from walking me home, right? Cause if you leave and I get kidnapped, possibly murdered?! That’s on you, man. And I can’t promise that I won’t send a whole ghost army to fight you.”

Spiderman shoved Manny away, chuckling. “You’re an idiot.” He starts walking away, and Manny jogs to catch up. They walked alongside each other and talked about random things. If their arms accidentally brushed, no one said anything.

*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*

“What do you mean you’re JUST now reading the Harry Potter books?” Manny stared at Spiderman like he grew an extra head. “What are you, 12? I know that the mask kinda hides your age, but if that’s the case, put a lil space between us right now. I must be breaking some type of law.”

Spiderman looked at him. Although the mask hid his expression, Manny could somehow tell that he was rolling his eyes. “You are so overdramatic, I swear. I never read them growing up, and everyone who’s read them seems to be in on some type of inside joke, so I decided to see what all the fuss was about.”

“What do you mean ‘what all the fuss was about’,” Manny mocked. Then he walked ahead and turned, facing Spiderman and stopping them both in their tracks. “Picture this, okay? You’re a sad, orphan kid with a sucky life, and all of a sudden, BAM! You’ve got powers and your entire life changes. How cool would that be?” Spiderman stayed silent a couple of beats longer than necessary and Manuel raised an eyebrow at him in question.

“I don’t know,” he said, shrugging uncomfortably. “I don’t think it’s that black and white, Manny.”

“What?”

Spiderman looked off to the side, facing the city outline. “The being an orphan and getting powers thing. Yeah, sure, it’s cool and all, but it’s not that simple. You’re basically being thrust into a world you don’t understand and change, good or bad, is a lot to handle. You don’t know who you can trust. You make a ton of enemies. Not to mention the fact that you… you’d lose a lot along the way.”

The two were silent for a minute. Frankly, Manny didn’t know how to respond. It was obvious Spiderman was talking about himself. Manny didn’t know the dude’s history, but he had enough common sense to know that all superheroes had emotional baggage. Should he hug him? Does one simply hug a superhero? Would that be inappropriate? There wasn’t exactly a guide to this, Manny thought. So he simply asked.

“Can I hug you?”

Spiderman turned his head sharply to look at Manny, surprised. They both stared awkwardly at each other for a minute. But Spiderman had yet to recoil in horror at the idea, so Manny didn’t rescind his offer.

After a long beat of silence, Spiderman nodded his head slowly. Manny pulled him into a loose embrace, wrapping his arms around his neck, while the superhero’s hands rested limply on his hips. Manny whispered into his ear, “I don’t know your story, and frankly it’s none of my business. But I do know this. Despite all you’ve lost, you work overtime to make sure everyone in this goddamn city can sleep safely at night. You out here patrolling in the streets while you’re sick, for crying out loud, and I’m gonna take a wild guess and say you’re not much older than me.” Spiderman stiffened, but Manny plowed on. “The point is, you’re awesome. And also much cooler than Harry Potter. I admire you.”

“I… I, um—“ Spiderman broke off, clearing his throat. He inhaled shakily before whispering, “Thanks.”

“No biggie,” Manny quipped nonchalantly. He was about to say something else, but all of a sudden Spiderman launched out of his arms and turned his head before sneezing twice.

“Bless you,” Manny said, chuckling. “Come on, my house is a couple blocks away.” Spiderman nodded, and the two started walking once more. Manny knew that he really should send the guy on his way. He clearly wasn’t getting better. But he just… couldn’t bring himself to. He selfishly enjoyed their brief moments together.

As they went, Manny noticed Spiderman restlessly moving his fingers, and he had the urge to grab his hand. He should have squashed this thought the minute he thought it, but he’s always been a touch impulsive. Before second-guessing himself, Manny reached out slowly to grab his hand. He awkwardly managed to only grab two of the five fingers, but when Spiderman looked up surprised, he played it off like it was his intention.

“I do this with my little sisters a lot. It helps calm them down a bit,” he lied in what he hoped was a confident voice. His heart was beating wildly.

“You have sisters?” Spiderman asked. He didn’t remove his fingers from Manny’s, so the boy felt his heartbeat return to normal.

“Um, yeah. I have two younger sisters and two older sisters. The younger ones are twins. I also have three stepbrothers that live down the street.”

“Wow. You have a big family.”

“Yep. You have siblings?”

Spiderman hesitated, then shook his head. “Nah. Just me.”

“Dude, you can have one of mine. In fact, take your pick of the litter, I’ve got no favorites. They all get on my nerves.”

Spiderman barked a laugh, which made Manny laugh. Their laughter died as they approached his front porch. Manny released the superhero’s fingers from their captivity and turned to smile at him.

“Thanks for walking me home, Spidey. And they say chivalry is dead.” Manny wiggled his eyebrows playfully, and Spiderman snorted. Then he started coughing again. Manny patted his back a few times before remembering something. “Wait here for a sec,” he said hurriedly, entering his house.

A minute later, he came out with a container in his hand. “My ma made soup yesterday, and they say there’s nothing more magical than a Mexican mother’s cooking.” He winked and handed the container to Spiderman. The superhero looks down at the food in his hands, before looking back up at Manny.

“Why are you so nice to me?”

Manny looked at the superhero incredulously. “Dude, you're the fucking Spiderman.” His companion nodded slowly, clearly not impressed with the answer. Manny breathed out heavily through his nose. He took the hair tie out of his hair and ran a hand through it. Usually, he was pretty ok with the emotional stuff, but he didn’t want to seem lame.

“Look, you take time off your schedule every night to take me home. You choose to be here, and that means something to me. Plus,” he shrugged nonchalantly, “I consider you a friend.” Manny can’t tell if the other guy is smiling behind the mask, but he seems more relaxed than before.

“Manny, I—“

“MJ!” A yell from inside the house makes both of them jump. “Get your butt in here! It’s Friday, which means it’s YOUR turn to do the dishes!”

“¡Relájate! Carmen, give me a minute!” Manny yelled in response before turning back to Spiderman. “Sorry about that.”

The hero in question raised an eyebrow. “MJ?”

Manny groaned. “Manuel Juarez. My siblings have been calling me that for years.”

“Well,” Spiderman starts, shooting a web out to the nearest light fixture. “Thanks for the soup, MJ. I’ll see you on the flip side.” Then he disappeared into the night.

Manny sighed and turned back towards his house. He thought, Why was that hot?

*•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•* *•.•*•.•*•.•*•.•*

Manny knew he was gonna catch whatever cold/flu hellscape his sisters had, and the stuffed-up nose and sore throat he woke up with on Monday morning confirmed that theory. He groaned internally (and externally) but ultimately got out of bed to get ready for school. The rational thing to do would be to stay home and rest, but Manny had a test in 6th period, and his math teacher was fidgety and mean about retakes. So he took an Advil and some cold syrup, jugged half the carton of orange juice, and hauled his aching body out the door.

By the third period, he was falling apart. His head felt heavy, and the medicine he took was making it hard to think clearly. But Manny was determined to get this test out of the way if it killed him. So he brushed off the concerns of his friends, Gwen and Miles, and powered through. After Physics, he had lunch and then a free period before the 5th. So he grabbed an apple from the cafeteria, just to eat something, and went to the library. He needed to close his eyes.

When he reached the far edge of the library, his phone vibrated in his pocket alerting him to a text.

gwennie: mannyyy

gwennie: where r u? we were gonna study at lunch.

Manny groaned, falling back into the large bean bag chair.

manny: sry gwen. i completely forgot.

manny: didn’t sleep much last night, so i’m in the library catching extra z’s before class

manny: forgive me… ily

Manny didn’t wait for a response. He just shut down his phone and closed his eyes, drifting off mere seconds later into a dreamless sleep.

Manny woke up feeling worse than he did before. He sat up a little and shook off the grogginess that settled on him like a dense fog. It took him several moments to realize he was being watched.

“I hope you haven’t been watching me this whole time,” Manny quipped without opening his eyes. “That is stalker behavior, amigo.”

“You’re sick.”

Manny opened one of his eyes lazily to look at Peter. He was sitting across from him in the other giant bean. He seemed pretty settled in, with his open laptop in his lap and bag of pretzels settled next to him. Peter was looking at him all concerned, which made him squirm a bit. “May mentioned you weren’t feeling great on Friday,” Manny said. “You okay now?”

Peter looked at him incredulously. “I’m fine, Manny. You, however, are not.”

“Calm down, Parker. I’m well aware I look like shit. I have a math test during sixth, so here I am.” He extended his arms out in a dramatic fashion. And then he sneezed and fell back onto the beanbag groaning.

“Bless you. First of all, I never said you looked like shit,” Peter said. Manny looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Second of all, can’t you do a makeup test?”

“With Mrs. Anders?”

Peter winced. “Ouch. So not an option.”

“Nope.” Manny could tell that his meds had finally worn off because a wave of general awfulness fell over him just then.

Peter looked at him for a minute. Then he put down his laptop, got up from his chair, and walked over to him. He placed the back of his hand on his forehead. “Fuck, you’re so hot. You have a fever, MJ, you have to… no, you need to go to the nurse.”

“Nooo,” Manny said, pushing Peter’s hand away. “I don’t wanna go to the nurse. She’s old, mean, and racist. Plus she smells like the cafeteria’s lasagna. You know what will make me feel better?”

“What?”

“You calling me hot again,” Manny said, wiggling his eyebrows.

Peter gave him an exasperated look. “Look, all we need is an official note from the nurse. Then Anders will have to let you retake it. I’ll go with you.“

“Ok, ok.” Manny stood. His balance wavered slightly, which prompted Peter to grab his arm.

“You okay?”

“Nope.” Manny rests his forehead on Peter’s shoulder in defeat. ”I feel like lukewarm garbage, I’m awful at taking care of myself, and I should not have come today.”

Peter chuckled. “If it makes you feel better, I’m bad at taking care of myself too. That’s why we have to let the people who care about us help out.” Manny felt one of the boy’s hands reach down to hold his…fingers? Yep, he was not imagining it, Peter Parker grabbed two of his fingers. Manny thought back to his similar actions a few days ago, with Spider-man. Although he had made the mistake to grab the superhero’s fingers instead of his hand, Peter had acted intentionally. Huh.

“Let’s get to the nurse. You can lean on me if you need to.” Manny nodded, not trusting his big mouth to respond appropriately . They both grabbed all their stuff and headed towards the nurse’s office.

A few moments later, Nurse Maddocks, a stern looking older woman with a stiff posture, looked both of the boys over. “I’m not writing you out of another gym class, Parker.”

Manny turned to Peter, smiling playfully while the other boys ears turned pink. “No, I’m not here for me, miss, I’m here for my friend.”

The nurse, who was sitting at her desk, put on her glasses and turned to her computer. “Full name?”

“Manuel Juarez.”

“Is that short for Emmanuel?”

“…No?”

“Hmm.” She typed on her computer a bit more. Manny was starting to feel a bit nauseous, which was weird given that he barely ate anything today. “What seems to be the problem?” She finally asked, looking up at the boy.

“I have the flu, I think.”

“Is that a self diagnosis, or have you actually been to the doctor’s office?”

“Well—“

“Young man, I’ve had about 15 kids come in today trying to get a free ticket home. I’m not interested in games right now.”

“Miss Maddocks, he’s clearly not feeling well. You haven’t even taken his temperature yet,” Peter spoke up suddenly, sounding annoyed.

“Fix the tone, Parker,” the nurse said. But she got up and headed towards a cabinet in the back. Once her back was turned, Peter met Manny’s gaze and crossed his eyes while mouthing “Fix your tone, Parker.”

Manny grinned at him. Why hadn’t he and Peter been close prior to the last couple weeks? Manny’s mom and Peter’s aunt had been friends since nursing school years back, and the woman changed his diapers, as embarrassing as that was. But when May and Ben adopted Peter, Manny barely crossed paths with the small boy. He was quiet, and tended to stay back with Ben whenever May came over.

Then, halfway through their freshman year, Peter came to a pride meeting at their school. This sparked Manny’s curiosity, because the boys had never had anything in common, to Manny’s knowledge. Peter was always hanging out with Ned or Harry Osborn while Manny went on being a social butterfly. Manny approached Peter, who was in the corner eating an apple and reading one of the pamphlets set out on the table.

“Hi.”

Peter looked up from the pamphlet. “Hey Manny.”

“I’ve never seen you at one of these meetings before.”

“Yea…” The boy played with his sleeve in what looked to be a slightly awkward gesture before looking back up. “My uncle’s forcing me to join an extracurricular, and sports are out of the picture. I actually tripped on air twice before getting here. So I thought I’d just start simple.”

Many grinned at him. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s usually very low-key, but you might have to introduce yourself.”

Peter groaned. “It had to be something.” Manny chuckled, and they both found seats on the kindergarten circle rug used for meetings. As expected, when Peter was called to introduce himself a couple minutes later, he stood up (it took him two tries to do so, he wasn’t joking about the clumsiness).

“Hi. I’m Peter Parker, he/him. And… I don’t know what I identify as. All I know is, I’m not one of the heteros.” He finished off his last statement with a shrug and a smirk, before plunking right back down next to Manny. The room dissolved in snickers before the meeting started.

Manny leaned over and whispered, “That wasn’t so bad, now was it.”

Peter nudged him with his shoulder playfully. The rest of the meeting was a blast. They made jokes and laughed and just had a good time. May picked them both up afterwards, and Peter told Manny that he would be there for the next meeting.

But he never came.

Something changed in Peter after Ben passed away. They never spoke at the funeral, but Manny tried to find him after the high school called an assembly to discuss gun violence, but he disappeared. He started disappearing a lot too, afterwards. Their sophomore year, he was named Most Tardy to Class. At first, Manny had assumed the worst: that he fell in with the wrong people. But that didn’t appear to be the case: he still hung out with his friends, he still got the highest grade in his AP STEM classes (not that Manny was stalking, cause that would be inappropriate). He just didn’t go outside of that bubble much anymore. He and Manny exchanged smiles when they pass each other in the hall, with the occasional greeting. He even came over to his house a couple of times when his mom invited May over for dinner. But whenever they talked, he had this… heavy look in his eye. Like he was there, but also somewhere else.

And now, looking at Peter, Manny could tell that he was more… well adjusted. Not different, his personality had never really changed. But he seemed more comfortable in his own skin. It made Manny feel emotions that he refused to investigate now seeing as he most definitely had a fever, if the nurse’s worried look at the thermometer she just pulled out of his mouth was any indication.

“101.3,” she said. “I’m going to go give your mother a call, so she can pick you…”

“No wait!” Manny interrupted, shaking his head. “My mom is at work right now, I don’t want to bother her.”

“Well, young man, we have to contact someone. We can’t have you getting other kids sick.”

Manny was starting to feel dizzy now. “Can you call Rico instead? My older brother, he’s on my emergency contact list, I think.”

The nurse rolled her eyes, but headed towards her desk to make the call. Peter came to sit next to Manny.

“You okay? Do you need anything?” The boy asked softly, leaning towards him.

“I’ll be fine,” Manny replied back. He leaned his head back onto the wall and closed his eyes, the dizziness intensifying. He felt Peter grab his fingers once more as they sat and waited.

“Hey,” Manny whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I’m pretty sure that this boldness is coming from the fact that I’m basically dying right now.” Peter snorted. “You wanna go out sometime?”

The other boy froze, his hand tightening slightly around his fingers. “Do you mean… like a regular bro hang out or like a…”

“Peter Parker, what kinda dumbass question is that?! I thought you were an AP student. Where are those critical thinking skills? I’m asking you on a date.”

Then Peter smiled. And it was dazzling. The smile made Manny's heart soar. It cleared his skin. Whitened his teeth.

“Then yes. I’d love to go out with you.”

They looked at each other and smiled.

“I’m glad,” Manny said, before getting up and rushing across the room to hurl in large trash can. Peter hurriedly walked across the room to meet him. He held Manny’s hair back with one hand and rubbed his back with the other.

“Oh dear.” The nurses looked on worriedly. “Your brother will be here in about 5 minutes. Please try and avoid the petunias. It took me all summer to grow them.” In response, both Peter and Manny threw her a withering look. She cleared her throat and looked away busying herself with her actual job.

Peter crouched down and whispered “She can keep her ugly ass flowers.” Manny laughed. And they stayed in that position till his brother came.

That night, Manny texted Peter:

manny: i can’t believe you saw me at my lowest, and i don’t even know ur favorite color is yet.

manny: and don’t say some shit like ‘gReEn LiKe YoUr EyEs’.

manny: i know how you white boys operate

peter: red

peter: like your soul <3

manny: dayum

peter: i like to keep things funky and fresh

peter: how’re you feeling

manny: I’ve transcended beyond feeling like garbage. i AM the garbage now

peter: i’m sorry about that mj

manny: it’s alright. I have it on good authority that there is a hot piece of ass under all this sick

peter: i’m well aware

manny: so you DO think I’m hot

peter: *rolling my eyes* yes

peter: now hurry up and get better. i expect to be wooed.

manny: yes sir

manny: hey real quick. why call me mj? no one at school even knows abt that nickname

peter: oh?

manny: yeah. it’s just this stupid little nickname my sisters have for me.

peter: i don’t have to if your not comfortable with it?

manny: nah it’s ok. i like it when you call me that

manny: when they use it, it’s usually followed by something unpleasant

peter: lolll. gn mj

manny: gn pp

peter: NO.

link to fic on ao3

part 1

[tornrose24]

Heyo! So for the recent ask meme, can you do numbers 1, 9 and 14 for the Spiderman/marvel movies please?

Ok I’m doing one for the Spiderman movies and one for the MCU in general because that’s how I’m interpreting that question. For that ask meme.

For spiderman films

1-   I was a kid when the first Tobey Maguire film came out and by that point I was familiar with Spiderman through the cartoons that I saw. I remember seeing that film with my dad and a friend in elementary school. Ironically I guess I wasn’t a huge fan enough to see any of the other movies right when they were in the movie theaters until No Way Home came out, so there was some personal significance for me seeing that film and how it bridged back to my childhood. (I’m not counting Civil War, Infinity War, or Endgame in this case).

9–If we are grouping all the films together (where a Spiderman is the main character)…. It’s a toss up between Mysterio and J Jonah Jameson from the Tom!Spiderman films. Mysterio ruined Peter’s life out of a petty revenge scheme that he wouldn’t even live to see. Not to mention that there’s people in real life like him which makes his character far scarier than you’d think. MCU!Jameson…. Well he’s basically the Alex Jones of the MCU and was willing to give away the privacy of a teenager because of his hatred of Spiderman. And then the dick decided to trail Peter for a chunk of the film just for something to incriminate him with. And the fact that he was making a fortune off of this was disgusting (same with Flash, but no one was believing him in that case). If the deleted scenes were canon, Max’s mom would count too, given how awful she is.

14.  This is a tough one. All three versions of Peter have had a great character arc, especially if you use NWH as a way to conclude the arcs of both Tobey!Peter and Andrew!Peter. All three versions of Peter have to go through so much tragedy and suffering. Tobey!Peter has to struggle the balance of being himself and as Spiderman almost constantly, Andrew!Peter is haunted by his past (and past mistakes) and Tom!Peter is struggling to figure out what he wants and who he wants to be as a hero. And it’s all the sweeter when they are able to find closure or the answer to their issues. Of course I’m not satisfied with how NWH had to end for Tom!Peter and I hope they give him a happy ending in a future film.

Most of the villains themselves have interesting character arcs because at the end of the day they all were people who were dealt a horrible hand or suffered a loss. I still enjoy Otto’s arc out of all of them–he paid one price too many for a moment of arrogance and was swayed into a goal that was doomed to fail, but in the end choose to do the right thing despite the sacrifices required. And No Way Home took that up another notch by him choosing of his own free will to help Peter (instead of sitting out the final fight and not risk loosing the life he regained), which showed who he truly was as a person. Max is a close second given all he went through and I hope he was able to live a better life after NWH and was able to get some justice back in his world.

For the MCU films in general

1-I saw Iron Man when it first came out and I had no idea what it was going to lead to. (Though the last 30 seconds was a huge shock considering how it changed up the superhero genre by breaking the ‘secret identity’ rule.) I think Avengers truly cemented that enjoyment of the MCU for me when it was clear that those early films were leading to something that you’d think would never happen on the big screen. (Not enough to see ALL the films in theaters or all the shows though. I’m not that insane.) 

9-Oh boy I’ll need to narrow this one down. (Not including Spiderman characters).

-Thanos for killing half the universe and being an abusive dad.

-Ego for similar reasons.

-General Dreykov for what he did to all those girls and women (and his daughter) and for being disgusting in general.

-Zeus. F*** Zeus. He honestly wondered why people were looking up to superheroes instead of gods in the MCU? What an idiot.

-General Ross for various reasons.

Show wise, it’s–

-Marc Spector’s mom for being abusive.

-ALL OF INTELLIGENCIA. F*** those guys. Bruce would have been pissed if he knew what they did to his cousin.

I’m pretty sure there’s a few more, but they aren’t coming to me.

14. Christ there’s quite a few. I’ve had the most enjoyment with Thor, Nebula, and Shuri.

-I enjoy how Thor had to learn to be humble and not be rash in order to be a good hero. Though there were a few… unfortunate bumps… he has gone from a war loving God to a selfless, compassionate God worth putting one’s faith into.

–Nebula has the best redemption arc out of all the MCU villains. She had a shitty upbringing and it was only when she confronted her sister about her feelings that she could start going down a better path. Not only was she able to find people who cared about her and understood her, but she was able to both overcome her past and be a part of defeating her father for good. I can’t wait to see how her story concludes.

-Shuri was a character whose route none of us were expecting, given the tragic real life circumstances that shaped the second Black Panther film. I love this science/inventor princess who was capable of fighting alongside her brother…. But her journey in Wakanda Forever was intense. She was in mourning and grieving the loss of her brother, had to lose so much in that film, and almost followed the path of her cousin, which really concerned me. But she was able to overcome that anger, was able to find closure, and properly earn the mantle of the Black Panther (as I was hoping she would, especially given she had that role in the comics).

[zumicho]

IM SO GLAD YOU LIKE LONG ASKS BC I DO TOO!!! LIKE AS A YAPPER I HAVE THINGS TO SAY AND I WILL SAY THEM 🔫🔫🔫 ANYWAYS!!!! LAST ASK OF THE DAY BEFORE I FINISH EATING AND RAWDOG TWO CHAPTERS OF CHEM NOTES AND THEN MORE I HOPE

ONE THING I NOTICED IS THAT IM ALWAYS EATINF WHILE SENDINF ASKS TO PEOPLE?? LIKE IM SENDING AN ASK TO NESS AND IM EATING LUNCH OR BREAKFAST OR SOMETHINF AND EVEN NOW!! IM EATING LUNCH🫢🫢🫢

anyways just remembered i have school on saturday i think i shall Cry BUT CONTINUING

about the movies!! at heart ive always been a marvel baby <- one of the reasons why i didnt branch out of anything really but i love love love marvel sm!! or i love the older movies.. new ones just dont hit the same

like last month i saw your ask title (underoos) and so i watched the clip from civil war and almost SOBBED the nostalgia omfg WHATS UR FAVOURITE MARVEL MOVIE btw!! mine is the winter soldier <333 or age of ultron or the original avengers OR RAGNAROK OR THE GUARDIANS I LOVE THE GUARDIANS SM ALL THEIR MOVIES R 10/10 ALWAYS as u can see i was like hardcore a fan <3 irs so embarrassing like i have marvel tshirts and a (broken) mjolnir keychain and a bunch of original comics and a thor funko and a loki badge pin thing (but i lost?? it?? i think????) AND I READ LIKE AT LEAST 500 COMIC ISSUES OVER 2020-2022 AND THE SHOWS WERE ALSO<3333 like me and my sister would watch them together ,, good times..

I WENT OFF ON SUCH A TANGENT WHAT THE HECK!!!! I WAS GOING TO SAY recently i watched american psycho and it was like,, cool i enjoyed it except for the smex and also my english teacher talking about health and giving us unnecessary unasked for therapy(?( bc i was actually watching it in (online) english class. ALSO I STARTED WTACHING MEAN GIRKS TODAY BC ONLINE CLASS AGAIN BUT THEN THE ENGLISH TEACHER GOT WEIRD SO I HAD TO LOCK IN TO SAVE THE CLASS (i succeeded)

MY BIRTHDAY IS MARCH 16TH IT'S PRETTY CLOSE TO URS AND MAYBE IM WEIRD FOR THIS BUT WHENEVER SOMEONE TELLS ME THEIR BDAY I (INVOLUNTARILY) CALCULATE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM IN A YEAR AND I MUST SAY ITS A VERY SATISFYING TIME DIFFERENCE (IM WEIRD!!!! I KNOW!!!!! math kid moment) ANYWAYS I SHOULD STOP USING ALL CAPS LIKE THIS and go study BYE <33

best of luck with chem and school !! more under the cut again lmao

the eating while sending asks is ipad kid behavior but don’t get me wrong that’s not an insult I’m right there with u .. call it multitasking or something I guess? ??

I’m gonna put the movie recs last because I will geek tf out and forget about everything else ,, MCU AAAAA YES I GREW UP ON THOSE MOVIES THEY HAVE MY HEART !!!! IM ALWAYS DOWN FOR A MARVEL RAMBLE ANY DAY ANY TIME !!! age of ultron is my fav avg film but my hyperfixation on spidey in general has me attached to nwh <3 ITS THE CAMEOS FOR ME + THE CINEMA EXPERIENCE WAS CRAZY 😭 andrew and tobey trigger nostalgia like nothing else .. underoos was a nod to my favorite dynamic in the mcu (peter & tony) <3333 i love how i said I’d talk movies last but I’m already typing all this out like a maniac ,, anyway

hemsworth was my first celebrity crush so i get the thor love 100%, tho i hated love and thunder with a passion ‼️ that movie — HARD flop. ragnarok was great

I can’t not mention wandavision the graphics were insane and there was so much wasted potential for it to just end like that :// I was so frustrated ugh .. I haven’t seen daredevil (though I want to), and shehulk looks terrible. got bored of tfatws

LOKI OH MY GOD LOKI WAS INCREDIBLE HELLO THE PLOT ?? I’m a sucker for plot twists and unpredictability cause I have good intuition (sounds like a positive, but not when you’re watching something) LOKI WAS SO GOOD THOUGH. this is where my movie recs start :)

if you liked loki, please please watch everywhere everything all at once.

if you liked mean girls, watch 10 things I hate about you, the breakfast club (<3), clueless, how to lose a guy in 10 days, pretty woman

for american psycho, watch the social network, fight club, x + pearl + maxxxine, kill bill, maybe .. pulp fiction? <- check the content warnings for each of these though !!!

my general recs are the grand budapest hotel, goodfellas, little women (2019), moonstruck, challengers, and juno !!

oh and this is incredibly random ,, I think you’d maybe like whiplash (2014) if you haven’t seen it — just based off of vibe

the best ones are bolded in red !! i know these are a lot sorry 😭😭😭😭😭 this is my happy topic and if u don’t give me the specific mood ur in I go crazy

AND MARCH 16 !!! GOT IT !!! <3 all my love

[destinyc1020]

Crazy that Spider-Man fans can be so toxic and divided but for the first time like 95% is onboard with Tom having a more grounded Spider-Man story. I have seen on twitter and in YouTube discussions about how the story for SM4 could be a more grounded or a team up movie again and The more grounded story is winning all the polls for a huge margin.

And yes, me too. I prefer Tom leaving now with his huge successful trilogy and not doing a dumb multiversal story, after how NWH ended. He deserves that his next movie is focus on him living by himself as Peter and helping others as Spider-Man, for sure won’t do 2 billion dollars but will be great for character story wise and still will be successful. Not every movie has to do 1 billion. FFH was more profitable than Homecoming, made more money with a lower production budget. Sony like Marvel have to start creating stories to build the blocks to another team up movie like Avengers.

I'm all in for a more personal and grounded story. 😌

Sony/Marvel better not have bamboozled us with that ending that they gave us, in order to just "appease the fans" and give us everything that we've been wanting for years in prefer to wrap up Tom's Spider-man trilogy into a nice, neat, little bow, without having any intentions of actually following through with those ideas that we saw at the end of the movie. 🤨

Regarding your last paragraph....

I actually think a more grounded Spiderman would make a ton of money tbh. This is what the fans have been wanting for years!

***WARNING!!! UNPOPULAR OPINION COMING THROUGH!***

You all keep blaming Sony, but I also blame MARVEL. I know fans wanted to keep Tom in the MCU (and I get it), but when things were up in the air back in 2018 (was it?) I was actually not too sad about Tom's Spiderman being separated from the "MCU" tbh.

I felt like Spiderman being away from the MCU would give him more freedom, more NYC time, less "Avengers" making cameo appearances to "help him out" in his solo films 🙄, and less needing to be so tied to a silly timeline along with other films.

Idk if you all notice, but even Marvel's films aren't doing all that great. 👀

The timeline stuff and the interconnected films method was awesome and GREAT back when we had the OG Avengers, because it was all leading up to Thanos. Now that Thanos has been defeated and that theme is gone, and most of the OG Avengers are gone as well, I just don't see the point in continuing with the timeline format, and making each film connect to each other.

Imo, it eventually starts to severely LIMIT you and put you in a box. Not only that, but now, certain films HAVE to come out in order or else, they won't make sense. Heaven forbid we get another pandemic or Hollywood strike.....🥴

I'm just saying.... 🤷🏾‍♀️

I think there would be greater flexibility, creativity, and unlimited possibilities if they allowed Spiderman to just be a FREE AGENT again. 👀

Jmho 🤷🏾‍♀️

I know I'll get pelted with tomatoes for saying this though. 🙈

(End vent)

[callipraxia]

(Note: Huh, it seems that @zephrunsimperium has been inspiring me to essay composition longer than I'd realized - just found this in my drafts. Not sure when I wrote it originally, but here it is)

This is a good elaboration on an idea I’ve seen around a few places, and there’s a lot of truth to it. It’s a fairly crucial insight into Stan’s character….

…so naturally, as I wrote my fun adventure AU that was supposed to be strictly about action with minimal depth, the dominant theme became a problem with part of this idea: specifically, what would have happened in the event of failure, of Ford being irretrievable for whatever reason. It’s fair enough to say that Stan in 1982, the Stan who started working on the Portal, really had nothing to lose except his own life…but that wasn’t the case for 2012 Stan. This is even shown in the time-passing montage in A Tale of Two Stans, where we watch Stan rapidly age up from 1982 to the show’s present day in a mirror: at one point, he has a shadowed but visible photograph of himself and Ford as children taped up beside said mirror, presumably as a reminder of purpose, but when the montage ends in the present day, it’s been replaced with a picture of Dipper and Mabel. His family members who, when he cranks up the machine, he *knows* are alive. His family members who ultimately hand him the third journal, making it seem he really couldn’t have done it all himself. His family members who, in the interests of his project in the basement, he’s directly and indirectly endangered that summer. Repeatedly.

I saw something else on tumblr a while back, where someone made a comment along the lines that Stan is pretty much Walter White (of Breaking Bad fame) seen through the looking-glass; they both do seriously dangerous, seriously illegal things and justify them by saying it was all for their families. There’s a degree of similarity between “trust me - everything I’ve worked for, everything I care about, it’s all for this family!” in “Not What He Seems” and the lines “what the hell is wrong with you?! We’re a family!” from “Ozymandias,” and it’s interesting that “NWHS” and “Ozymandias” are both acclaimed as some of the best stuff television has to offer. In the end, Walt and Stan even both perform a last dramatic gesture/series of gestures which results in death/something believed at the time to be similar to death, and they both seem to do so as part of attempts (of a sort, at least) to rectify situations they regret causing. The difference is, we ultimately believe Stan when he says he did it all for his family, whereas Walt himself ends up conceding, “I did it for me. I liked it. I was good at it…I was alive” in BB’s series finale….

…kind of, if only a very small bit, like how, after saying he initially came up with the idea for the Mystery Shack because he had to pay Ford’s mortgage off somehow, Stan proudly but in passing notes that, “finally, I’d found something I was good at.”

Many, many, many years ago, I read an essay in another fandom (the essay was even older, circa 2003, I think) where a point made was “the mirror reverses what it reflects” but a sub-point was “the mirror also reflects what it reverses.” Stan wanted to rescue Ford because he wanted to make right what he he’d done wrong...but his behavior in Weirdmageddon 3 in particular underlines that it wasn't, unfortunately, totally disinterested behavior. He wanted to do the right thing (as he saw it)…but he also wanted recognition for it. This isn’t to say he’s a terrible person, of course, especially when compared to Walter “remarkably quick to adapt to the amount of homicide that goes with his new profession” White over here: Stan’s ultimately a heroic character. He's just not one we can ever be...completely comfortable with, I think, once we start thinking about it too much, because of how ordinary-human-level his flaws are. He doesn’t quite fit in the molds our brains are used to for a particular type of character. In my opinion, that’s also the genius of the character and the whole show, and why we’re still talking about them both near enough to eleven years after the finale.

I love them both to bits, but if Dipper or Ford had played the central role in the endgame, I think it would have probably weakened the show overall. They are clearly marked out as hero-protagonist types - they’re extraordinary people who regularly fall into extraordinary circumstances. When Ford and Dipper were driven to folly by a need for validation, it involved Bill Cipher, an unfathomably ancient, manipulative abomination against sanity; when Stan was so driven, on the other hand, it involved a snide comment about grammar, resentment about specific behaviors of a specific person, and his need for validation from his own family - issues, in other words, that could drive any of us ordinary folks to do something stupid in a moment of temper when the Line is just Hit. Stan didn’t make his tragic error of turning stubborn during the circle ritual because he wanted the world to acknowledge him as a Great Man, or to change history, or even to promote a Grand Cause. He did it because he had made huge personal sacrifices for specific people and wanted that acknowledged by those people. It’s not hard to imagine that he would have felt the same if he existed in a completely mundane show, one where he’d previously found Ford in a state of nervous collapse/on drugs/whatever and had proceeded to do what he had to do to get him psychiatric help while keeping up the payments on his mortgage - a story, in other words, that one could hear on the likes of Dr. Phil, and a story many of us have seen people go through some variant on at first hand. I would certainly be deeply, deeply tempted if offered an opportunity to know all the secrets of the universe - but on the whole, if I ever cause Great Harm to someone, it's far more likely to be over something far less grandiose. It is, realistically, infinitely more likely to be because I lost my temper at a bad time, when one relatively small slight proved to be the last straw that broke the camel's back and set me to yelling at someone I'd have done better to work with (or similar - perhaps not as immediate, but not doing X tomorrow because Person Y suggested it, one thing leading to another, etc. etc.). A sobering thought, as is the next one: on one hand, Stan - odd variant on the Everyman, in that he definitely has a distinctive personality, that he is - did get a chance to make it right once he realized he'd screwed up...but on the other, the price was high.

It takes a very special kind of strength to spend three decades working on something you can barely comprehend just to bring back someone who didn’t treat you as well as they should.

What kills me is just how uncertain everything would have been. Stan had frighteningly little information to go off of, yet staggeringly unshakable faith. The way he talks to himself while he’s working on it just twists my soul about because he has no idea what’s going to happen when he turns the portal on. He has no idea if Ford is even still alive and I think at this point, the idea of all his work being for nothing would actually destroy him.

Imagine if Ford didn’t come through the portal. The implication that you spent 30 years on something and it didn’t mean anything, that you probably killed the only person who ever believed in you because you’re just That Incompetent and they were all right about you, you were never going to amount to anything because you are the scum of the earth, you are nothing more than a Stan Co. knock off of the real thing and even though you deserve every bad thing that’s happened, it just hurts and the fact that no one cares makes it that much worse.

Ford calls Stan a hero, but I worry that that epithet is too vague to really impact him. Because sure, Stan may have untold trauma from living in the dregs of society, but Ford has blood splattered journals and a rivalry with a demon. That’s what heroes look like. They don’t look like tired old charlatans who run a tourist trap.

But strength - especially the kind of strength it must have required for Stan to even get up every morning - isn’t always flashy or even visible. Sometimes the strongest thing you can do is continue to love when the world has given you absolutely no reason to.

[1wngdngl]

It's been kinda crazy the last few weeks with my birthday, Thanksgiving, etc. So here's some stuff I meant to post sooner 😅

First, there was the comic con in my town on the weekend of November 11-13. I spent my first day there getting all my shopping out of the way so I could spend Day 2 on attending panels. We even had the Nostalgia Critic pay a visit and do a live riff of Batman and Robin! I also spent way too much money, but at least I mostly got Lego figures and little fridge magnets so they don't take up (too) much space.

Actually, the little NWH Doc Ock figure on the far right - the Cosbi Hot Toys version - was not from the convention, but bought on eBay from Japan, since it's apparently a rare find in the US. I saw it on a few other blogs and decided I had to snag it before it was discontinued 😍

My birthday was also a week ago, and that was likewise much fun. We had a homemade "high tea" and watched the BBC Pride and Prejudice, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and the Great British Baking Show.

Maybe my most unusual gift was a Japanese-language translation of Pride and Prejudice. I've been trying to get back into learning the language, and I've been using the fun "renshuu" app a lot for that purpose. The book is sort of a goal to work toward - when my Japanese gets to the point that I can accurately analyze the differences between the original and translated copies, then I'll be pretty happy. (And then there's my Japanese translation of The Hobbit to work on after that...)

I also had fun playing the Lord of the Rings "Exit" game over Thanksgiving. We've done several of these games as a family - it's not /quite/ the same as a real-life escape room, but it's the next best thing.

Okay, I think that's most of the recent stuff. I'm sure Christmas will produce a few more posts.

Gotta go check out a few video games now before the Cyber Monday sales are over 😁

[st-eve-barnes]

MCU has been a big hit or miss with me these past years, I loathed Endgame but I thought Wandavision was truly amazing. I was genuinely disapppointed with Loki but then Spider man No way home blew me away and I even went to see it twice on the big screen.

So I watched Multiverse of madness last night and of course I have some thoughts. Spoilers under the cut

I had such high hopes for this movie, NWH already showed us what they could do with the multiverse and I think many people with me expected Marvel to go all out with that in a movie called MULTIVERSE of MADNESS.

Unfortunately not even half of the potential of the multiverse is being used here, and most of it is already shown in the trailer. For real though, marketing team, what were you thinking putting your biggest cameo in the trailer?? You do not play your best card right off the bat! I hadn't even thought of more big cameos until they showed me Charles f*cking Xavier in the trailer. THAT made me expect more.

And there was more, but it wasn't what I wanted. Can someone please tell Marvel that Captain Peggy Carter isn't as popular as they believe her to be? Whether it's Endgame or Haley and the stuff I read about her I'm not sure but the second I saw her I felt this huge dislike in the pit of my stomach. Maybe I wasn't the only one who wasn't a big fan because the audience stayed rather quiet when she came on. (In fact the audience reacted more when Wanda split her in half with the shield and honestly if I hadn't been team Wanda before that scene alone sure did it and was strangely satisfying! lol)

During NWH our audience cheered and clapped on multiple occasions, this time that only happened once: when sir John Krasinski showed up as Reed Richards. That was the stuff I think we all wanted to see more of.( I'm sure if Xavier hadn't been in the trailer he would have gotten the biggest cheers.)

Unfortunately that one big scene was where that fun ended. Can we also talk about how stupid it is to put all your big cameo's in one and the same scene and then quickly kill them all off? This could have been spread throughout the movie keeping the audience more engaged and excited who else would pop up.

But enough about the cameos.

Wanda Maximoff, I wasn't a fan of the character in the beginning but she has grown on me so much throughout the years and after Wandavision definitely became one of my favorite characters in the entire MCU. But this movie doesn't get her quite right. Don't get me wrong, evil Wanda is amazing to look at and the horror elements especially when she enters the house of other Wanda for the first time were amazing, some of the best parts of the movie for me. But she regressed in this movie, basically her storyline is a copy of what happened in Wandavision and next to being an all powerful witch they kinda reduced her to Mom Wanda and I really didn't like that part. Also where the hell was Vision and wasn't he part of the family she wanted? Because this movie solely talks about her kids. That annoyed me. The ending also, NO, I mean obviously she's not dead but just no, she deserves a lot better, please do better for her, Marvel writers.

Next to mom Wanda Marvel also wanted to show us a little dad Strange, neither were a good thing for me and that may be personal but it once again felt like Marvel putting down those family values it seems to love so much. Which brings me to America Chavez, the new young character that had to be introduced in this movie and I'm sure younger viewers love her but personally the character didn't add anything. It was a young girl who couldn't control her powers and needed help and of course by the end she realizes she had the potential to control it all along, I mean...been there done that? And even then it was lame.

There was not enough Dr Strange in this Dr Strange movie and I don't necessarily mean screen time but I feel like we didn't really get anywhere with his character because all his actions were focussed on either America or Wanda, or Christine. And his love story with Christine to me is just boring, in every universe.

The dialogue in the movie wasn't very good either, not funny and sometimes so standard it literally made me roll my eyes thinking "this is what we're spending time on when we could be watching Loki and Strange have a witty face off?" (just an example, I did not expect Loki in this movie tbh but it could have been great) I feel like in general this was a movie with a lot of missed opportunities and I've seen some fans saying well your expectations were too high and you set yourself up for disappointment but I'm sorry, no. Marvel set those expectations with No way home and all missed cameos aside if the storyline and everything else was strong enough people wouldn't complain so much about that, but it just wasn't. The writing felt lazy, and messy and uninspired and you can feel it pretty early on in the movie and unfortunately it doesn't get better.

Let's end with some positives then, the movie no doubt is entertaining and visually stunning, I mean even with the boring dialogue now and then I was never bored watching it, the possibilities created through the multiverse remain exciting and I really hope future projects will explore this in a better way. My man Wong is a treasure and he was one of the best things in the movie. Also Wanda, even though they did her wrong whenever Elizabeth is on screen she captivates the audience, she's the main star of this movie for me and I will always be team Wanda here.

Overall unfortunately this is another miss for me from Marvel and I can't help but feel a little bitter over what we could have had here, this was the movie to go all out with the multiverse and they failed.