#not even bothered with the MCU frankly

[worstloki]

saw someone on twitter say "one of the main characters in a loki show should have been thor odinson, not some random Sylvie or Mobius.

...... It's like a written law"

wdyt do you agree

I don't think it was necessary to make Thor a main character in a Loki show, the same way it WOULD be possible to throw together a Thor movie without having Loki be a main focus.

The issue comes in the quality of the narrative itself, and writing that if evidently without intention to care for (whichever) main character's importance will not work out. Neither the Loki series nor Thor 4 cared about the arc, motivations, history, or continuity of the titular characters beyond trying to make the media marketable.

Overall messaging can add a layer to the impact a story will have. Musical score can be a bonus way to control tone or tie a story together. Supporting cast can be vital to tell a good story. Prioritising their presence over anyone's (especially Loki's) characterisation is what the Loki series suffered from, not that other, original-adjacent characters were there.

[doctormead]

How about a DC x MCU prompt?

Okay, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who thinks MCU Peter Parker got a pretty raw deal. So why don't we do some crossover remediation?

After the events of _No Way Home_, some other multiverse snafu (maybe as collateral damage from _Multiverse of Madness_) rips him out of the MCU universe and drops him into the DC universe. Peter doesn't know how to get home and, quite frankly, little motivation to try at this point. After all, he functionally lost EVERYONE he loved back there and being a superhero resulted in him being vilified more than anything else after he lost the safety net he had with Tony Stark, so why bother? Looking around this new universe, it seems like they've gotten plenty of superheroes to take care of things. Maybe he can just...live?

But then there is the problem of putting food on the table when he doesn't have any work credentials that will fly in this universe...or even any established identity. He doesn't want to make it obvious that he's enhanced, but his spider powers have resulted in him having phenomenal acrobatic abilities...

So Peter Parker joins the circus. And, eventually, their tents are pitched in Gotham.

[amarriageoftrueminds]

Thinking about how great CATWS was and how Marvel dropped the ball on all the characters from that movie.

Steve? Got character assassinated beyond repair.

Natasha? Killed off, didn't even get an on-screen funeral and her only solo movie was more about introducing Yelena than her.

Bucky? Never got a prober story, was victim blamed, and will possibly die in Thunderbolts.

Nick Fury? Got character assassinated in Secret Invasion.

Maria Hill? Was killed off in SI.

Sharon Carter? Turned into a villian.

Sam Wilson? Unlike the rest they haven't completely fumbled the bag with his character but he was still screwed by FATWS in many ways, and his first solo movie doesn't look very promising either.

Also consider that their sequel to the movie where we find out Howard Stark knew about Nazis in SHIELD (the specific Nazi that tortured Bucky and killed members of the 107, and tried to kill Steve) ...was a movie where Howard is assassinated by Hydra and yet Bucky gets blamed and brutally attacked for it. Even though this is the same movie where we find out Bucky was mind-controlled.

And their sequel to the movie where we find out Peggy knew about Nazis in SHIELD is..... Uh. Nothing. They never address it. A character who died offscreen gets screen time wasted on a fulblown Royal funeral (attended by people who didn't even fucking know her!!)

They treat her like some kind of living saint, to the point where she's now a full blown Mary Sue, with yet another bloody tv show where every storyline must be about her, and her possessing Steve, and Steve is reduced to a Stepford Husband wheeled out to repeat 'Peggy. Is. Perfect' type lines. 😬 (Steve. Blink if you need rescuing.)

All Bucky's everything now belongs to Peggy.

Oh, apart from the blame of course! He gets to keep all of that! 🙂

(Oh, and as per What If, Sam is no longer part of CATWS, his own intro movie, and even Natasha's own movie is now about- guess who?? Peggy! And Peggy having Steve!)

Apparently Sharon has been turned into a villain in the comics, too. Just as they start product-synergy introducing MCU!Peggy to over-ride comics Peggy. I wonder why...

(It's so funny that TFATWS assigned MCU-Sharon MCU-Peggy's annoyance at being overlooked by men (cough the man she's relentlessly hitting on cough) and decided that this would be her villain origin story... and yet nobody has connected the dots to Peggy and her behaviour?)

Sharon and Sam's characterisation only feels like an organic continuation because, frankly, the MCU never bothered to write them being particularly nice people to begin with?

Sam being a fratbro-style dick to Bucky in TFATWS, with a side of dispensing unsound self-contradictory counselling advice, is consistent with being a dick to Bucky (and arguing against helping him) since CATWS and quitting a counselling job at the drop of a hat. (Only the 1980s movie locker-room homophobia queerbait is new.)

Sharon being a villain is consistent with being a Carter not being asked to join the 'bringing down Hydra' team in CATWS, dressing up as the same profession as Steve's dead mother to 'befriend' him while she's just spying on him (contrast: the calling-out Nat got from Steve just for not telling him something), staying in SHIELD while they were hunting down Steve and Natasha, immediately joining the CIA (aka, the people who just happen to have a superhero-proof electric chair and want to shoot Bucky on sight, who also have Everett 'ex-husband of Madame Hydra who laughs at the idea of Bucky getting a lawyer' Ross on staff), ...which is easily infiltrated by a (thinly-veiled-Hydra) villain who wants to mind-control TWS to bring down the Avengers (deja vu??), being snippy to Sam for no reason, continuing to lie about herself beyond the point of it being necessary, and also being a creep who expects a thank you kiss from Steve just for doing one basic helpful thing when asked. *phew!*

But the geniuses who inherited the job of writing her in TFATWS can't see any of that... They see no issues, so they think they've written her 'turning' bad. The writing is still shonky because it still isn't self-aware about what it's portraying. The cognitive dissonance is still dissonant.

(Same problem with Fury. They keep giving him 'bad' things to do, showing him instinctively first joining the 'bad side', eg. Pierce's SHIELD, the Kree, etc. But with the exclusion of Steve yelling at him in CATWS -- and only so that Nick gets called out, but not precious Saint Margaret, ofc -- it's never addressed. They can't do anything interesting with the moral charcoal that they've accidentally cooked up, because they aren't even aware that it's there. 🤦‍♀️)

We were mercifully spared from Joss Whedon's terrible ideas for Maria... (supposed to be a villain in A1, baffled as to what to do with a female character so obviously she should be hinted as a love interest for Steve out of fuckn nowhere in A2) ...only to end like that.

Outside of that AOU Avengers party, where she was chill and kinda gay, I feel like the best characterisation we got for her was when- was it in one of the Spidey movies?? -she was a Skrull. 😤 If only I could say the same of Steve...

[blindtaleteller]

MCU Asgard Canon Observation Research [Part 1]

Firstly and before I even start in on the subject, keep in mind that this is what it says: a collection of research into actual Canon Lore from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: not the comics, or the Nordic lore twice removed from it.

Secondly and alongside that, also keep in mind that even back at the start of the MCU as a long term project, while the MCU is based on the Marvel comics universe: the creators made a point of making it a completely different universe: for many varying reasons, including the spaces lacking continuity in the comics over the years that the MCU as a project wanted to pursue from it's first conception.

This is a large part of why there are phases and why they were numbered from it's creation. (And yes also why my tags recently mentioning counting phases are what they are elsewhere, but that's a whole other post.. or set of them.)

These are important to remember because, I would like to avoid previous iterations of people wasting their time trying to insert comics-universe lore and more excessively into or onto this requested post purely for the sake of, well; being argumentative or just trolling:as much as possible. I do try to take some time to respond to comments and reblogs as much as possible, but I can and will ignore or yes, at times point out people unable to manage these things.. and respond as necessary.

I normally wouldn't bother to mention this except yes, that has happened before so: consider this your disclaimer.. I ain't dealin' with you if you're gonna be a trolly shit disrespectful enough of the time effort and willingness to share what research and observations I have, by shitting on it or me in your pursuit of whatever flimsy excuses might be given for any inhuman reactions posted passive aggressive or worse.

More frankly: be respectful on my posts or get lost. I don't tolerate harassment on my blog whether it's aimed at me or others. Passive aggressive or otherwise. I'll discuss stuff, am happy to have any valid references I might miss added to and pointed out. Just don't be an asshat about it, and you'll get the same from me. That's how basic-bitch Karma, and I; both work: you'll get what you give along those lines, while in my space.

The necessary now out of the way... Next!

More as a side note with that mentioned; while I may mention some meta/theory in the form of the most probable (as that's how my meta in particular is formed) it is again: based on the facts of the canon lore and contexts confirmed presented in it; visually, in dialogue, and out of the mouths of the very people who made all that themselves, at the time that lore was given to us on screen: and will be mentioned as the theory and supposition that is 'meta' rather than 'canon'. I have gone out of my way as a fan of world, universe, and character building as a part of the creative process in particular: to watch, rewatch, rewatch again and again, and hunt down all this stuff (often lol purely out of my own curiosity.) All in all Meta is theory, Canon is story/film-established fact; and I do try to keep a clear line between the two of them. The early world and character building in the MCU has always been interesting enough to me alone, to do all that with my free time.

And that's especially true with Asgard in particular, as a main story driving force in one form or another as far back as 2010 when both Thor and CA: tFA's scripts were being filmed and their sets/settings picked out and created.

Final few bits before we get into it..? As Asgard lore (and even a lack of it's presence at times) is directly and appropriately attached and or in relation to the lore of several races, species, and massive events in the entirety of the MCU's first three phases.. I will be touching some of those cultures and places too, where important. Probably not in this particular part, but yeah. It's gonna happen.

As with the research post into Loki and his year of absence prior to Avengers 2012: (yes that's a link to an ask that contains a good chunk of info and years of interviews on that particular subject) this might not be an entirely complete compilation: for the same reasons. As I said, i didn't just watch, I rewatched repeatedly from differing personal mental angles: not just three or four times, but and as I wrote my own fanfiction.. I would also re-watch once or twice just prior to fleshing out an outlined story of my own to refresh my memory, seek out interviews official and otherwise from the creators and actors who made that lore and put it on screen for us to enjoy as part of the stories we enjoyed (or not, depending lol) and well.. the resulting organization of the whole outside of this post is less than comprehensive for anyone else. You can see the explanation for how that happens in the foreword of that thread if you're curious.

As a result, I may or may not exclude the actual interviews if this gets too long. Much of the visual in this first part especially are pretty self explanatory, as I did find some of my dissection pics too.

All said (I think? Gods I hope so that was a lot wasn't it? XD) and as suggested/requested recently in discord?

This one is gonna be expansive.. and hellaciously so: so grab your drinks and your snacks and still be prepared for this series of posts to be going for while (not kidding, may be compiling this properly between jobs for weeks) so yeah..

Here we go again!

The major forgotten fact of Asgard's depiction in the MCU is this:

We the audience are only shown a very tiny fragment of Asgard as another separate planet in space, and: they do show us we're missing as much, from the very first film.

That gif directly from the movie I used at the top? I'm using it again, because...

..look at that.

With topography, perspective and size in mind.

That tiny golden triangle in the middle is the Palace at the center. The little golden bar along that tiny portion to either side? Is the city attached to it proper, with the Bifrost, and as far as we've seen the 'Heroes Road' (as soem are calling it) and city walls cupping the Bifrost Bay directly facing the camera.

This is a space shot (of course,) and that tiny itty bitty moving spec that is still shrinking as it gets further from our perspective and closer to Asgard at the bottom, is the Bifrost in use.

And, they do give us a few views of that as early as five to six minutes into the first movie in 2011, as seen in the first clip below. I've set it to share at the first view of Asgard itself.

Hopefully that works. If not, the timestamp you're looking for is 2:04.

I recommend shutting off the audio, as it's a bit distracting. Trust me, we will get back to the very interesting audio from a world builder's perspective, when we get to the History and Relations section of Asgard's break down.. there are several tons, of that and in that opener alone, to examine later.

IMPORTANT!! When looking at any of these images or videos, keep in mind and look at the scale. Not just in the scene on screen at that moment, but also in reference to previous shots. Distance is a thing. The size of trees and people are a thing. This place in the MCU is much more massive than where it's very cloistered story parts take place.

This is not a city-planet like and for comparison: Coruscant, from Star Wars... though I am very aware that some people will throw out Asgard's concept art to try and 'debunk' that (yes its' been done and proven pointless in other threads).. that does also bring us to another couple of facts that slip by in their context.

In fact, you know what? I'll throw it in here right now myself:

This concept art: does still apply, if slightly adjusted with the topography and likely under ground portions taken into account.. because Asgard is the name of both the planet AND the city as separate entities of the same locale.

In other words, the concept art is VERY valid as a map of the city itself: but not the outlying locations outside of Asgard as a Capital City Proper, of Asgard as a disk planet.

And again.. they do show us this, and not just in the first film: although that first shot going into the city says as much too, being that..

A. Asgard is established as a society greatly more advanced than Earth and most others, and;

B. there are whole swaths of land (and especially mountain they like to build into) without structure between the edge panned through and the City itself. (see still image below: not the best quality but it's also in the video.)

Which.. we'll touch again a little more in a bit (and probably the biggest lol) part of this breakdown set; digging at History, Culture, and Relations.. as the fact they do prefer to build INTO their environment much more than on top of it is also shown in the shot of the canyons and canals on which not only that city is built, but even what buildings are shown outside of it on that panning-in shot.

We can see in the one above though: that while they did redirect some of the water through canals in the lower shot; they also kept and built into the natural(?*) lay of the river canyons below.

This theme is kept even before we get into the city though with the first part of the shot above the water.

Want a more visual view of the breakdowns as I do them?

Here you go, here's one example from out of my crazy folders and docs, that I made in paint back in 2013 (LOL yes I know. XD) while once again re-watching that same scene.

I would highly suggest clicking on it, as tumblr does downsize images making text on them hard to read otherwise. Crappy in-motion quality screen cap but, it was made more for breaking down the visual elements on screen for what it told us about the land, and more; on it.

----[?*] As a set of side/foot notes to that last bit and the image..

A. the top left corner yes: does reference some of where I use certain observations of canon in my own fics; and how they would have grown or evolved depending on that story. In this case, and at the time: the pink text is making note to utilize those observations in outlining Hvedrungr (Loki from Uni 0) and Flykra's (Loki from Vesti1 Uni 14) universes in particular: both of which return to Asgard at VERY different times and in different situations: while the history and culture I've been able to glean and expand on in some cases is still part of their and the location's background. As I don't have the patience to remove the text from an old paint shop cut.. I thought I would at least explain it's presence left there. These things are, ultimately connected by the culture that originated on and created them on that planet after all.. and why there's an entire section dedicated to the varied aspects of Asgard's presented Cultural, Relations, and History lore. B. The '?' at the 'natural' mention in parenthesis above, also takes into account that Asgard is much older than Earth's culture and has to be: if only because as only three generations have come and gone over the passage of what to us is five thousand years! (see the next installment Thor the Dark World: Bor and Darkalfheim, or just watch the movie with info gathering in mind.) In other words, between Bor's War, and Odin's Asgardian Great Wars: we cannot be certain whether or not 1. those canyons are actually natural or the now aged result of one of many previous interplanetary wars, or 2. whether Asgard at this stage of it's showing timed at 2011 more than a millennia later, has even always been this size, given their advancement in technology and study of magic as presented OR left in question, either. For my part, as there's no conclusive dialogue from that era to state otherwise in the MCU or it's interviews that I know of, and knowing the context of Malekith and Darkalfheim's familiarity with Asgard itself during their raid to reclaim the infinity stone: I tend to veer towards a mixture of the two. While it's very likely at least some of the canyons are indeed natural; the great age of the culture and planet both, along with the nature of Bor and Odin's rules alone as we've seen them: leaves a HUGE and LONG period of time and opportunities for some of those nasty fights to come directly to them... or even their predecessors. Which would also explain why they had that shield for the palace too. You don't build and more importantly upkeep something like that without a very good set of reasons or examples experienced, to do so after all. Much of that is meta though, however based on canon fact it may be: and as many of the creators were not asked publicly during that era, and have been dismissed or moved on to other projects since.. it's hard to know if we'll ever see a *genuine* answer from the people who actually made it all starting sixteen years ago.

Anyway, let's look at a few more shots of Asgard with that breakdown going. Some of these are all old, from as far back as about ten years ago when I first started writing outlines for the varied universes in my Lokiverse Project: but they do still hold up. theer are some from TDW in this bunch too. I heavily dissected these scenes knowing I was going to do whole chapters in multiple differing universes, and wanted to have the presented layout and feel laid out in my head, before I started adding in locations on the planet not yet shown on film. And given my first Book was already going to be DREAMS.. where Asgard has been blown to bits post Endgame? I really wanted to get it right so I could deconstruct it as many times as I and the muses wanted to. Laufeyson (Universe 10 Loki) was pretty insistent too with the opening chapters on his end focusing partially on that chase with Abell through Asgard's blown apart ruin

Sorry for the ramble of an explanation, but that's how it is and how it works over here...? XD

..uhmmmm. Yeah lol! When I said I watch and re-watch from differing mental perspectives..? That's what I mean. I don't usually share those at all... only the unedited pics. Genrally I will take caps or take existing raw caps and pick out piece that catch my eye. I've been told they do help put your brain in the right mode for those who have difficulty processing them in that way, like I do when in that mode. Also yes, trees and fish ...bruh. lol!

It's there, has been for years in some cases; and I'm not messing with it now.

That basic bit out of the way (doesn't sound so basic does it.) Let's backtrack a bit, specifically to Asgard's shape and the placement of it's location and the locations on it.

As I first write this, I don't have the talks I had with a few wild meteorologists and geologists back then directly on hand (as this is a part I still don't focus on too much; but:) shaped as it is, those I did talk to theorized that between the shape and placement of planets as well as the nebula they're partially inside, that Asgard may be shaped and in rotation as it is because of its' placement in it's system: or because of late interference by Asgard's inhabitants to keep it stable.

^ That one scene in particular from Thor 2011 really made my eyes pop. Not because of what's going on in it so much as trying to answer the whys and hows and what the actual fricks man: because..

Can you imagine, the conversation: trying to pitch that spinning death ball to the King there OR anywhere else on the planet before Bor or even his great grandfather?

Or, trying to talk the royalty down from the idea of putting it anywhere NEAR the palace, or other people's homes?

How about testing that house sized death-by-velocity-alone gilded mess? (Yes I still laugh thinking about that. Some poor scholar/engineer type trying to dissuade Bor's grand-daddy from building what would definitely become a giant pinball of death in the canyons and canals, if that thing ever came off it's anchors even once in the city. Good gods! lol!) Who knows; maybe that was when people started moving to Vanaheim... XD! Just (mostly) kidding.

Cray-cray thoughts of high velocity gilded pinball hell that was probably somewhere way back in the Bifrost's likely development and evolution as tech/normie science boosted by magic, and or vice versa, aside:

You probably notice I've mentioned the nebulae and the planets in their rotation more than once. And with good reason.

Backing up a bit; Asgard is interesting well before you hit her shores.

Not only is she a top-shaped disk-planet: but with the way the sky is shown: Asgard has a very interesting rotation if she has any left at all. There's very little we know, but what we do know is she is not alone in her systematic rotation either way.

(Asgard's sky from Thor's personal Hall in Thor: the Dark World)

In fact and as seen in the screen caps above: Asgard has an incredibly close relation to at least three planets in her nebulous solar system. At least one of which is absolutely massive: massive enough that it's close proximity is theorized as being pretty likely to be the only way Asgard experiences night cycles as seen in Thor: the Dark World... mainly through eclipsing the nebulous sun by passing between it and Asgard as a planet.

Which is both cool -and- scary when you take things like degrading orbits, space debris and projectiles like comets and other space science into account.. but also very, very interesting.

It also begs the question either way: why didn't Asgard at their earlier establishment of a greater technological level, colonize or move to those planets sooner? Of course.. the first obvious answer is.. they probably couldn't, at first. And even more probably were past trying by the time the Bifrost was built, prior to Bor's time (I say prior because we have seen Bor use it in Thor the Dark World: and on a massive scale moving whole armies, the same as his son Odin. See some of the scenes from Bor's seizure of the Aether below.)

But yeah, Asgard is a pretty unique place even before you get to the water fall's edge: or questioning what kind of condensed mass it has to retain gravity at it's very small size.

Or, whether that gravity and the shape is in fact generated in some form or another after millennia upon millennia of just the Wars we do know about in their history.

(At current we know about Darkalfheim and the series of Wars including Jotunheim and Muspelheim that they call the Great Wars. While they are definitely aware of the extensive millennia of intergalactic war between the Xandarian based Nova Corps and the Kree Empire put front and center in GotG.. there hasn't been any actual confirmation as to whether Asgardians fought in that war on either side: only that they are at that stage at least loosely allied with Asgard.. if not a more separated protectorate being considered among the nine realms in the MCU.)

Why do I keep pointing out trees, and perspective; or teh size of the city in that first little gif again?

Because.. that is our repeated visual evidence of just how much of Asgard as a planet; the story did not take place in.. huge parts of the place we haven't seen. And that makes sense.

Power plants or generators, smithys, and even schools can be easily placed in the city proper, at this stage.

But what about BEFORE, they got to this stage.. because that is a thing in the MCU in regards to Asgard: and a major plot point for three movies of script running, from 2010 all the way to 2015 when Taika Waititi was hired (unfortunately, for those of us who know the root of what happened there.)

What about food, for thousands of 5000 year lifespans and their kids. And their grandkids. And.. the food for the livestock, or the wild game

Or the bilgesnipes and dragons--well we can guess what happened to the dragons of Asgard in particular actually. If they were anything like Muspelheim's; and on a planet that size..? It doesn't take much to figure out Odin, Bor and their predecessors probably couldn't excuse not hunting a predator big enough to swallow people to extinction: not for much longer than they absolutely had to anyway.

What about fibers and leather for clothes.

How about waste management, for both the city and suburban areas? Sewers? Water filtration? Factories or slaughterhouses to process it all, and the means to support those things. Everything man made, is grown, processed or made somewhere.

We know they have these things, because we know they have and make their own alcohol (fermentation of grains, fruits, and more); as well as other things to eat: displayed in both T1 and TDW.

(The top image is from Thor's table flip scene in Thor 2011; while the one below it is from the tavern scene in the beginning of Thor: the Dark World.)

Meat, vegetables, fruit, grain, herbs, and seasonings are all represented on the tables above. While some might be imported (I really do wonder about the platters of golden apples myself:) it's not very likely all of them are. And it wouldn't make sense for them to have been imported from off world throughout their species development either. After all and again: they would have had to have survived and developed enough to GET TO, that stage in the first place.

You're also looking at Varnish in the shine of that table; smithing and metal working and ceramics in their table ware. Weaving either plant or animal fibers in their clothes, as well as the likely production of tannin (or it's equivalent) and leather working in every leather piece on screen. Candles can be made from varied sources, whether that's actual wax of some form, or condensed animal fat.

Oh, and if you find the enlarged version of those images: you'll also notice things like fine engraving and metal sculpture to the goblets and platters on the Thor 2011 table in particular.

Either way, the images above show us directly that unsurprisingly, they have come to understand whole other sub-levels of production: before you even get to the high-tech and magic ends of any of that to be able to reproduce it in that modern era.

As another side note related to that: the booze alone is pretty telling as to how far off the "Loki" series is on this mark, as well. Creators of current content 'conveniently forgot' that this is supposed to be a space faring, technologically advanced society (even if they're the social equivalent of medieval imperialist thugs .. lol sorry not sorry! That's literally how they're depicted... and honestly that really weird twist IS some of Asgard's most interesting and strange development) whose friends, allies and other examples of places visited DO and HAVE included Earth, Xandar, and six other 'realms' as their etymology names them: for literal millennia. Even taking the other, long established cultural influences and visitations aside? For a society who 5000 years ago was still porting whole armies to other planets to kick peoples asses? The idea they never discovered honey; or sugar especially even on the inside of a fermentation barrel for wine; OR how to process it into something like candy? Is more than just a -little- dumb in the stretch. Sugar often naturally starts to separate and crystallize during the fermentation process. Ask a vintner, or look it up if you don't believe me. Just sayin'.. just on Earth alone, we know sweets were discovered more than 8000 years ago. Eight thousand. And the only reason we haven't been able to confirm people older than that finding things like bee's hives?? Is because well.. that kind of thing rarely survives even that length of time at all, to be found in archeology in order to tell us more. I'll touch that and how it's pretty damned near impossible that 'Loki doesn't know wtf candy is' being 1k+ years himself, and a guy raised as an Asgardian prince & spymaster to boot later into the culture section I think, but mmm.. that whole bit still reeks of stupid, to me And more so after their own DB Cooper scene. Gonna say candy wasn't a snack in that era either? Cause if so; I got big shocking news, for those who think so... XD

In closing.. for this part?

As far as the world of Asgard goes, we have only been allowed to see a very small part of it: and even then? It is still undoubtedly massively larger than even what's implied: and definitely capable of supporting it's comparatively small base population of less than 10k people.

(Odin's subterranean vault reference: exterior)

The only reason we don't see even more of it; is the fact that films have a limited time to give you everything, and the story focuses on the royal family from the get go. And they live, in the heart of Asgard's capital city... so we largely don't see as much of that as weirdo world building fans like me would absolutely love to see in the process... and frankly; they gave plenty enough to start us off with.

The films would have suffered for having too much more of that, rather than the stories they were trying to tell.

The same.. I would love to know more: and I do wish the current teams paid the previous ones more respect by using what was already there and expanding on it: instead of making mismatched new things up, as they went.

The early creative teams really knew what they were doing back then.

(Asgard's defensive cannons defending against the Darkalfheim air raid in Thor the Dark World.)

And no, this isn't all they showed us, in the show and tell they did manage to give us over the course of years of work... far from it.

Hope you enjoyed part one! Maybe you learned or saw something you missed.. or have been inspired to watch the older films again..?

I know I often am.

[purplekoop]

Koop Talks About (#1)... Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves A 9th-Level Pleasant Surprise!

So the first of the movies I watched with my dearest partner during our thanksgiving meetup trip was the D&D movie, which... I'll be blunt, I didn't really expect much from. As much joy as I've had with DnD over the past few years, I don't really give much credit to DnD itself as a "brand". My memories come from the primarily homebrewed campaigns and thoroughly original PCs, saturated with house rules and whatever the hell I convinced my partner would fit in a DnD game. I even started a campaign of my own with an original setting, though it sadly didn't last long due to personal motivation. But all these memories I associate more with each game as separate entities from the nebulous basic concept of DnD, so an original story relying entirely on established official DnD monsters, locations, and characters didn't have much innate appeal to me.

Fortunately, Honor Among Thieves doesn't rely on pure DnD iconography and fanservice to be a solid film. It instead is a solid film on its own right, a fun and satisfying fantasy film that uses the props of established DnD material to tell a good story just as any Dungeon Master would. I have next to no complaints with it as just a movie, and the context of it serving as a big screen adaptation of a plausible DnD adventure smooth any gaps in its score for me. (Not that I'm scoring these things, don't expect THAT much from me.)

So let's start the in-depth topics where any DnD game does: the cast of characters.

What'd be of concern in a true DnD game but is more excusable in the context of a mainstream motion picture is the fact the movie has a clear main character: the questionably named Edgin, played by one of the Hollywood Chrises of all time, Pine. Pathetic as an alleged Bard (doesn't cast a SINGLE bard spell, he just sings a couple times, coward), Edgin is the cornerstone of the story, serving as the focal driving force of the plot and the (eventually assembled) party. We meet him and his longtime adventuring cohort, the barbarian Holga (played by Michelle Rodriguez), at the very start of the film, and follow their story throughout, from dramatic backstory retelling to the end. It's Edgin's story, which feels a bit skewed in focus for a DnD context, but I understand and agree with giving the story a definitive focal character for the sake of being a simple and cohesive film. It helps that his story is effective, with his character being charming yet flawed in a way that I thankfully think adds up to being likeable. Fortunate also that the overwhelming majority of this movie's "MCU dialogue" is confined to him, which I was personally unbothered by here. It contrasts a bit with most of the cast speaking in believable enough fantasy speak, but it fits for his sort of "scheming quick-witted bastard" persona, plus I guess also makes him a grounding point for an unfamiliar broader audience to attach to. The more modern speaking patterns are generally contained to the main cast of the four "player characters", so again, it's fair enough they don't keep the act quite as well as the "NPCs". I can see it be a bit grating to some, but personally I thought it was fine.

Oh yeah, I glossed over Holga. As great as she is, there's not much to say on her. Barbarians are usually pretty simple but great, lady barbarians are even better. She's not too "whimsical" of a barbarian, she doesn't say "I would like to rage" verbatim, much less do anything that looks like an active "rage state", but frankly it doesn't bother me too much. She's not too complicated, but she has some great moments, and has a subtle but solid performance.

Third of the four is Simon the sorcerer, played by Justice Smith of Detective Pikachu fame and also probably other things. He's the character with the second most "MCU dialogue", but his weird semi-accent he plays the character with hides it a little better. He's also the only one of the party's three casting classes to actively cast spells, but like. It'd be annoying to conveniently explain to a general audience what makes this magic different from this magic and this magic, so I get minimizing who actually gets to do casting. You could argue even that DnD has the problem of relying on casting as a mechanic a bit too much, but hey that's a different opinion ramble. Anyways Simon. He's fun too. He has the second most prominent story arc of the party, which while simple is still satisfying to see to its fruition. It's also fun to see an adaptation of wild magic specifically, which I do wish was extrapolated on further but again, I get keeping it simple.

Last up is Doric, the tiefling druid played by Sophia Lillis. Unfortunately she's also the least up, at least in screentime. She joins the story a significant portion after the rest of the main party, and while around for most of the ride she still feels a bit disconnected from the plot. After being shakily convinced to aid in the quest, she does get a really fun action scene to show off her wild shape abilities. While very much bending the technical rules backwards for most of her scenes with the ability (in some cases even impacting the official game, I believe the rules on what you can turn into were altered for the next major edition specifically to allow for turning into an owlbear like in the movie), I'm willing to ignore that for how fun they get with the gimmick. Again, slightly weird how her druid magic is limited to just wild shape, but again, it's fine, we're keeping it simple and approachable, I get it. I also get the choice to not give her the more conventional bright chromatic skin tone most players associate with tieflings. With the horror stories for how full-body painted live action characters have been on the actors (Drax being a notably egregious-sounding example), I don't blame them for keeping the demonic details restrained. The tail is cute at least, got that much. Her performance is also a bit low-impact, but she has her moments in the group dynamic, even if somewhat sparse.

The side characters meanwhile I have no complaints for. The hyper-competent temporary paladin party member Xenk (played by the eye-pleasing Regé-Jean Page) was a delight, both in the incidental comedy he brought and also the genuine sincerity he grounds the plot with.

The antagonists meanwhile are minor spoilers (though fairly obvious and short-term) so skip this next paragraph if you want to dodge those:

The glorious scheming bastard Forge Fitzwilliam (played by Hugh Grant, the glorious voice of the Pirate Captain from Pirates: Band of Misfits/In an Adventure with Scientists and nothing else possibly as important) is an absolute delight of a scheming love-to-hate villain, whose lack in actual threat besides financial power is made up for by the less entertaining but thoroughly menacing Red Wizard, Sofina (played by Daisy Head). They balance each other out nicely, and I feel like the movie's lineup of antagonists is both enjoyable and functional as a result.

Moving away from the characters themselves to how they're presented, the effects in this movies are faaaaaanTASTIC. The highest praises I heard sang for this movie in advance were towards its use of animatronics, suits, and other practical effects to depict some of the forgotten realms' more fantastical yet mundane inhabitants. About every other scene features a dragonborn, tabaxi, or aarakocra, which is brought to life with real, physical, classic effects. It adds such an element of richness to the world and makes the film feel so much more sincere. The more typical modern big-budget CGI effects are of course here in spades as well, but their presence feels earned and reserved for just the effects that like... yeah no, you're not doing that with modern physical technology. Helps that these effects also look good, which, yeah, they do. There's an effect or two for a gag that feels a little "modern" or otherwise out of place, but these are pretty sparse and still entertaining enough to pass as a suspension-bending bit that any DM with a sense of humor would allow.

I think that brings me to the last big thing that I think I need to give credit to this movie for: it works great as a movie, but it also feels right as a DnD movie. It's a well-told fantasy story that sets up and pays off a solid story with a solid cast in a beautifully depicted world. But just as much, it feels like DnD. The superficial references, like the specific array of iconic monsters the movie draws from and the names of locations and such, even the mechanics of certain spells and items, those are all great, and my partner especially adored some of the more niche references. But like I said earlier, DnD to me is just as much an energy, a feeling, as it is a set of rules and pre-built assets. It's the subtleties of how the party makes their plans and talks about their backstories, the way the world and adventure is framed, even the staging of the final fight scene, all bends conventional action film etiquette in favor of feeling authentic to the experience of playing DnD in a way that works shockingly well, all without shirking the film's duties as a film released in theaters for a mainstream audience. There's not really any moments where I think I'd need to explain something to my mom or anyone equally clueless on DnD's mechanics, they could just watch it as a solid fantasy adventure flick. It's two exceptionally well done layers of enjoyment, which I think is even more exceptional on its own.

So yeah, even to someone who literally knows nothing about DnD, I can recommend this one pretty comfortably. It's a fun action movie that doesn't fall into every pitfall of modern action movies, keeping a sincerely enjoyable solid story to the end. It's not groundbreaking, but it's still great. To someone who does know DnD... well uh, honestly my glowing review wavers a bit depending on how picky you are. If you're willing to excuse the mechanical inaccuracies and oversights for the sake of making the film a more accessible watch to broader audiences, then this film is even better than it is to those audiences. If you're not though, then... well honestly I think that's just as much a "you" problem as it is an issue with the movie. Yes I know nothing short of a level 20 druid can wildshape that much without a rest, just shut up and watch the lady turn into animals a bunch in this cool action scene, it's fine.

On a similar note to adaptations, the next two are also adaptations of game franchises: one that still thoroughly confuses my tiny brain, and one that I think I can confidently say I know a little more about.

[daakjenaar]

The greatest use of CGI in movie history (I am being unironic) (SPOILERS FOR SPEED RACER)

It’s the final five minutes of 2008’s Speed Racer. Of course the greatest CGI sequence was in a movie directed by the Wachowski sisters, that makes perfect sense.

For years, films with obscene budgets have been racing to try and reach the point with CGI where it can perfectly mimic reality, where practical effects and props are entirely done away with and replaced by some underpaid VFX artists working obscene hours. Any Disney project of the last decade is perhaps the finest example. With budgets to match a small nation’s GDP, they have repeatedly tried and failed to make the finest examples of bland hyper-realism. The trailer for the new Ahsoka series, where the titular Ahsoka fights with white lightsabers in a mostly grey environment, is just the newest case of this. In the drab, depressing Lion King remake, the last few MCU movies I bothered to watch, and seemingly every new Star Wars project, Disney has used a titanic budget to make a shoddy simulacrum of what 70’s movie prop artists could do with a box of scraps.

The real reason for this is that, at the time of writing, VFX artists lack the same union backing as those who work in practical effects. It is cheaper to make people slave away in front of a computer for months on end to render Chris Evans in his newest low-contrast, boring American flag outfit. The fault lies with the executives, who decided that this was the best way to both spend money and treat their fellow human beings, and that this is the direction high-budget cinema should go in. So many high-profile films are just messes of shitty CGI that seems to get worse every year. And I don't want this to be some annoying "RETURN TO TRADITION" post, this is specifically calling out the really big-budget stuff. I've gotten really into low-budget indie horror movies again, and the last few years have been an incredible time for those.

Now, back to that scene in Speed Racer. What does it do right? First of all, I think it justifies itself. The idea of making something so vivid and fluid with mostly practical effects just doesn’t seem feasible. This is a bizarre, cartoony neon-coloured nightmare of a racetrack that refuses to make sense. Bright colours pour out of every single place they feasibly could, and then a few others. It’s absolutely sensory overload, but it’s beautiful sensory overload. Every scene in the movie is high-contrast and visually appealing, even the dark and gritty moments.

On another level, I think it also knows how to hide the weaknesses of CGI. You mostly view objects from a distance and behind a layer of effects, and that makes it hard to see how bad some things might look in a clear close-up. Even when it really zooms in on a car, it’s in a moment where it feels so weighty and is still moving around too much to pick out flaws. Even managing to get across the vibe that these are heavy machines with momentum behind them is impressive, and more than I can say for a lot of CGI-heavy scenes. Nothing feels like it moves in an unnatural way, and the real humans inside of these color-vomit deathtraps don’t look out of place.

I think the thing it does best, though, is context. This movie is many things. Goofy, shockingly earnest, and stylish. The final scene is the culmination of all of that. The cars are doing frankly absurd things. The Mach 6 is doing some kind of car judo flip in the end of the grand prix scene. The flashbacks that come up help set the mood and take your mind off of analyzing the visuals of the scene to the point of finding flaws. I cannot emphasize this enough, this movie is about someone who loves his family and drives cars so well that he ends up halting an attempted corporate monopoly and reveals an insider trading scandal, and the film is all-in on this. They want you to be genuinely invested in this plot, and I still am on every viewing even as an adult. The visuals, the music, the culmination of the plot, it all gives this scene what it needs to work and stand out as perhaps the greatest application of CGI ever. I am being unironic.

Again, if you wish to give pointers or kill me with hammers, please do so and/or kill me with hammers. I finished this at 3am while listening to nu-metal and installing bootleg Starsector mods.

[soyouareandrewdobson]

Dawn of Justice: A pointless comic to a rather pointless movie

I really don’t have much of an idea for an introduction here, so let me just hand you the comic and then explain why it is rather dumb.

The comic in question came out sometime in late 2015 or early 2016, certainly BEFORE the movie “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice” had come out in March of 2016.

Now let me just say this: I am not a fan of that movie really. Frankly, Warner’s approach of creating a cinematic universe/franchise for DC akin to the MCU, has in my opinion always been a bit of a tonal trainwreck, starting with Man of Steel itself. Mind you, I have nothing against the actors involved in it, but I thought for a first “outing” for Superman it was a bit too heavy on the last act level of destruction and trying to emulate overall a tone more akin to “Batman Begins”. As for “Dawn of Justice”, I hated the way Lex Luthor was portrayed in it more like a knock off ginger version of Joker and it was silly in my opinion, how they already, in their second major outing for the DCEU, made a vs crossover movie with Batman and Superman, even though not really anything was much established of the cinematic world it was set in. To me it was already just in concept the equivalent of jumping from “Iron Man” in 2008, to “Age of Ultron” without the movies inbetween narratively.

That said, I do not hate the movie and if you find enjoyment in it, fine with me. I am at best indifferent, at worst I think we should look at it, see what worked and what didn’t, and learn from it for a future take on the idea, once the superhero boom and fatigue has ceased.

Somehow, that makes me however already more stable in mind than others, who hate the movie with a passion that’s  ridiculous. At least moviebob should reevaluate his life, when he thinks his greatest achievement (or one of them) is to talk for over 4 hours how much the movie sucks, believing by doing so he has shown Warner Bros how much of a smarty pants he is. Even though by doing so, he spend more time talking about it than the movie runs, even in the director's cut.

As for this comic… it is to me just reactional garbage like a lot of stuff Dobson did once he heard something “awful” in regard of entertainment he didn’t even care much for. Like how he thought the Mario movie will be a disaster, cause Illumination was animating it

Now to be fair, he wasn’t entirely wrong to react worried, as the movie was not that good. However, his very first reaction to the trailer alone (which he posted on twitter) is telling you already more about how he really feels and is just utterly dismissive of it, without outright saying it.

Yeah Dobson, Dark Knight Returns is not necessarily my favorite Batman comic of all time either, but even with Miller turning out not quite right in the last 15+ years, you have no right to really treat it like it has no value at all in the field of comics, as even your beloved Batman: The Animated Series took in part inspiration from it.

It is however his second tweet I could find about it, that kinda makes me chuckle

After all, it is essentially the very same thing/opinion he lets say the older man in the picture state about Superman and Batman, and how preposterous the idea of them fighting against each other would be, seeing how they are SUPERFRIENDS.

Which brings me back to the comic in itself and me actually wanting to explain, why it is kinda dumb in proper detail.

First, as stated before, it came out way before the movie even got released. So aside of some poster design that he could copy paste into it and some trailer material he had seen to make up his mind, Dobson had nothing to judge the product by. And I genuinely doubt he ever even bothered to look into it and judge it then based on the actual merit of quality or lack thereof. As long as he could rage about Zack Snyder and Snyderbros being neo nazis or whatever years later, why bother as a cartoonist and critic of nerd culture, to actually talk about a superhero movie. After all, he also never played a Metal Gear game, and that makes him still an expert on Kojima.

Second, the “generational gap” Dobson tries to show here is ridiculous. The “young” comic book fan -likely to be in his twenties, even though he looks older- actually being hyped for it, seemingly because he craves the violence of such a movie. As indicated by making a claw with his hand, having a facial expression that indicates less geek out and more “bloodthirst” as well as how he emphasizes the “Dawn of Justice” in a format that is normally saved for slasher movie titles like “Friday the 13: The Bloodbath at Menarche Lake”.

For fucks sake, Dobson comes off like some old geezer shouting at the clouds how the “younger” generation is craving for blood instead of a decent plot, even though many people younger than him at the time (quick reminder: Dobson was only around 33 to 34 years old when that comic came out) also had a problem with how that movie looked as well as its tone.

Also, the second person who is actually opposed of the idea of them fighting/ is confused about it, trying to portray the other age group, supposedly opposed to the concept of the movie? That character looks like he is in his late 50s. And I can tell you of actual experience, not many people in that age group would even care for superhero movies anyway. They have other things to worry about, like actually being responsible adults and getting their kids through college.

Okay, I apologize if that was rather insulting to some, but let us be real here: Most people at that age are not necessarily into comics anymore as an age group of 20-30 somethings in the 2010s would be And those that still are, would likely not act this confused at the idea, because with all the stuff that has been going on in DC comics within the last 30-40 years, this would likely just make them roll their eyes and think “aww shit, we go the vs route first” or be slightly intrigued if they can pull it off or not. After all, Superman and Batman/ Clark and Bruce may be friends, but that hasn't stopped people from writing stories where the two had to fight against each other. Just ask the people familiar with Injustice.

Really, the only reason we have that early retirement citizen look at the poster in confusion, is because Dobson needed someone to represent him and his opinion. And to be honest, the fact that Dobson, someone in his late 30s at this point identifies more with someone 15+ years his senior, is kinda weird. Like, is Dobson that old fashioned? Or did the years already have a bad effect at his looks and in real life he looked more to that, then he would ever admit?

Anyway, it just stinks of creating some sort of schism between generations, by insinuating that the younger generation is essentially bloodthirsty, while an older one would love something more positive. Which frankly, is dumb to assume, as age does not necessarily account for taste in some cases.

Honestly though, the funniest aspect of the comic for me however, is the way it is structured. Cause it reminds me of that pile of trash

And yeah, I know that Stan Kelly is meant to be a joke by the Onion about political comic artists in newspapers, but I honestly think those joke comics are to a degree so accurate to the mindset of some people on either side of the political spectrum, it hurts. And in regard of Dobson… well, Kelly is a joke. Dobson is the real deal.

Finally, like with many of his comics, Dobson likes to complain, but he does not really “offer” an alternative. Neither did he in comments or on twitter. And what alternative am I talking about?

Well, simple: If he thinks Dawn of Justice will suck cause he wants something more child friendly and comic like…

Why doesn’t he just recommend for others the animated movie “The Batman/Superman Movie: Worlds Finest” from 1997, based on the Superman and the Batman Animated Series of the 90s, on which later the JLA cartoon based its design and style?

Oh right! Because a Dobson only wants to complain but never help improve the status quo

[princesssarcastia]

for some fucking reason i’m thinking about the mcu again, but the thing about endgame is—

the reason it sucks.  the reason it rings hollow and cheap, the reason it made me feel like a balloon someone untied to let all the air out of—

it completely undermines one of the core tenants of so many of it characters, which it that it’s possible to irrevocably fuck up and still keep going.  it’s possible to commit unimaginable horrors and still wake up each day committed to doing better and righting the wrongs you could.  more than that: it’s worth it to try to be better even after you’ve fucked up irrevocably.

tony stark was a war profiteer whose weapons fueled not only the u.s. military industrial complex, but also terrorist cells like hyrda.  there’s no erasing that.  there’s no taking it back.  but he woke up one day (in a cave, with a box of scraps) and decided to do better.  he fucked up.  he fucked up so bad.  and that didn’t stop him from taking direct action to try and fix the problem; he hunted down the weapons he could, shut down weapons manufacturing, and ultimately killed the person trying to stop him from righting those wrongs.

natasha romanov—well, that needs little elaboration.  she’s got red in her ledger, and there’s no washing it clean.  but by god she’s trying.  she’s spending every day trying to fight the good fight.

thor was a frankly racist war criminal who took his banishment better than he had any right to, using it as fuel to accept he was in the wrong and take immediate steps to improve himself; whose character arc over three movies has him learn to treat his enemies more fairly, his allies more kindly, and allows him to peel back the gold veneer on the imperialist empire his father built and see asgard for what it really is. 

you have these people hitting rock bottom of their own volition.  failing.  complete wipeout.  morally and ethically bankrupt.  responsible for the deaths of hundreds (thousands, in tony’s case).   you can’t go back.  you can’t undo those things or bring those people back to life.  but there is still value in trying to do better moving forward.  that’s what all three of their character arcs are about.

except.  then we get to endgame.  and suddenly, there is no value in learning to move forward after unimaginable tragedy, after failure.  suddenly that’s too much to ask.  suddenly the only option is to re-write reality and undo your mistakes, because they’re just too terrible to live with.   suddenly striving to be better becomes cheap and meaningless and there are no steps you can take to improve your current circumstances.  let the guilt consume you.  overwhelm you.  weigh you down until you become useless.  why bother with the future when you can obsess over the past?

jay gatsby-ass movie.  i stg. 

[fandom-gt]

FANDOM: MCU

REQUESTED SUMMARY: ” This would be a sequel to the story where Peter is hired to serve at Pepper’s feet.

The story would begin with Pepper getting back from a stressful day at work. With Morgan staying at a friend's house, she kicks off her heels and relaxes. Peter, worn down from being her insole all day, crawls out of the shoe and makes his way to Pepper's feet. He begins to rub them, which surprises her given his visible exhaustion and she tells him he can relax for a bit. However, Peter nonetheless continues. As he does so, he thinks about how he's recently started to feel aroused by her feet at times, despite him never acting on it and trying to ignore it. Pepper, meanwhile, reflects on the past two months and how hard Peter works, even now when he's clearly exhausted. She also thinks that unlike her previous tinies, she finds herself caring about him (Which is actually a lingering feeling from her erased memories). After having him stop, she then proceeds to thank him and tell him to take a break, which shocks Peter. After she gives him a genuine smile (Different from the ones she's given him the past two months) that reminds him of the ones before she lost her memories of him, he listens to her. Sitting down, he rests his back against her sole and relaxes, thinking about how he hopes to see more glimpses of how she used to treat him.”

Previous Part

CHARACTERS: Peter Parker, Pepper Potts

WARNINGS: Feet, Femdom, Objectification/dehumanization (but slowly reversing?)

COMMISSION TYPE: Full Page +2 Add-On

——

Pepper has had a long, long, long day. It isn’t easy to do the work she does, keeping Tony’s company running after– everything. Keeping things organized, managing a dozen different departments on top of being a mother. She spends more time on her feet than anybody with her salary normally does, she’s more involved in things than most CEOs or CFOs or CTOs tend to be.

She doesn’t go golfing, she doesn’t screw around, she works, and she does it in person, face to face, meeting with every department head in the building in their wing so she can see operations first-hand. This is why she’s gone through so many sole interns, burning through them like they’re disposable, wearing them out to the point that they’re unable to continue doing the job anymore.

When that happens, they’re dismissed with an equitable severance package and a bonus based on how long they managed to serve her before becoming worn-out and useless, and she immediately hires the next one that even remotely qualifies. She doesn’t bother getting attached – not just because she doesn’t tend to pay much attention to tinies in general, but when you go through so many, so fast, they all become kind of an irrelevant blur.

As a matter of fact, she isn’t even thinking about the one she has now when she finally collapses into her favorite chair and slips her worn-out feet out of her heels, her eyes drifting closed as she lets her hair down from its clasp and absently, tenderly massages her eyelids. She doesn’t see her newest little intern wearily climb out of her heel, and frankly, she expects him to take the opportunity to recline in it and slack off for a little while, given that she’s been stepping on him down there all day.

Except that a new and pleasant sensation surprises her enough that her perfectly manicured hands drop away from her face, and she blinks down, down, down her toned legs toward her arches, where her insole intern has dragged himself to standing. He’s got both hands braced against the tight tendons of her foot even though she can see a matching weariness in his little tiny shoulders, in his slumped posture, in his face – but all the same, he dutifully tends to her foot with a surprising amount of strength and dedication.

Hmm. That is… impressive, and for some reason, it reminds her of someone she can’t quite put a name to. Somebody she used to know, somebody she used to like – but how important could they have been, if their name doesn’t even come to the tip of her tongue? These are the kind of details her sharp mind usually retains.

Peter! shouts a voice in her mind, and she puzzles over it for a second – before a flash of an image of his application runs through her mind. Ah, right, okay. That must be how she knows it. This one’s name is Peter.

At the same time as this seemingly innocuous epiphany, something unexpected stirs inside her chest, a subtle sensation, something like pride mingling with sympathy, and she finds herself calling gently down to him with something she rarely ever offers to her interns: “It’s alright. You can relax for a few minutes if you want.”

She’s surprised again as the seconds tick by, and she realizes rather abruptly that he’s not stopping. That his tiny little body continues on, pressing into her pressure points, rubbing her aching feet, putting every ounce of his exhausted strength into serving her in a manner she assumes is selfless.

This isn’t exactly the case. Down by Pepper’s feet, Peter’s been having a few revelations these past few weeks. Even though he’s tired, even though he’s worn out, even though this role would be absolutely untenable for the average person without all his biological enhancements, what he’s doing still isn’t the chore he’d thought it would be back at the beginning.

He’d been apprehensive, of course, that first day that he settled himself into her sole and watched her foot descend upon him from on high. He’d been nervous, and stressed, and extremely unsure when she stood, putting all her weight on his tiny but indestructible body, and he’d been absolutely embarrassed when he realized she intended to spend all day treading on him, sweating on him, dragging her feet over him.

But after a while… after a while, it’s like something in him started to wake up. He tries his best to ignore it, he very deliberately does not act on the way his blood sometimes redirects course and leaves him with a growing hard-on down there underneath the arches of her sole, but all the same… it’s happening. Some strange association is cementing itself in him, and as the days progress, he finds it happening more and more often.

To put it bluntly: Pepper’s feet have been turning him on. Now, standing there even after a long day of body-aching labor down there in her shoe, he doesn’t really mind standing up and continuing to prove himself to her like he’s been desperate to prove himself all along.

“Peter,” he hears, and starts for a second, because there’s a shift in her voice. He pauses, his head snapping up to her massive, beautiful face a mile away, his heart hammering in his chest, because she- does she remember his name? No, she can’t. Obviously she can’t, that’s impossible, he realizes with just a slight sinking feeling of disappointment. She learned it from his application, his paperwork. He just hadn’t expected her to retain it, because she hasn’t really used it much these last two months. “You’re exhausted. You’ve done a really good job today. Thank you. Stop for a while and take a break. I mean it.”

There’s a gentle benevolence in her, a barely-discernible fondness he thinks he can hear creeping around the corners of her mouth. If he didn’t know any better, if he hadn’t already so firmly resigned himself to the truth of it all, he might be tempted to feel optimistic. He might be tempted to try harder to remind her.

But for now, he’s satisfied just letting himself slump down and bask in the new attachment that might be growing in her. If he keeps doing his job right, if he keeps spending time with her, if he keeps earning tender and lingering looks like the one she’s giving him now, maybe… they can have something new. It might not be like it was before, but it can still be good. He can still *matter to her one day, and that’s… something.

His tiny body slowly lowers down to the ground at her heel, one aching limb at a time, and he allows himself to recline backward against her foot. The shape of it is nice, the heel supports his lumbar, the curve of her arch allows him to recline a little, and the soft and supple flesh cradles the back of his head as he settles into a familiar feeling, a familiar smell. His eyes drift closed, and he ignores the urge once again building in him.

Pepper stares down the length of her legs at the little sweetheart intern resting against her sole, voluntarily choosing to spend even his relaxation time pressing his little body against her foot, despite the fact that he’s free of her shoes, despite the fact that she hasn’t settled them on top of him.

He’s a hard worker, she observes again, and a fast learner. He’s smart, based on the way he’s adapted his techniques and his strategies to best suit her. He’s different from the others, and she feels-

She feels something again in the back of her mind. It’s like an itch, like a fishing hook has snagged on something, but no matter how hard she tugs on the line, it refuses to rise to the surface. This is an annoying sensation for Pepper Potts, who has always been sharp, and driven, and has always prided herself on her excellent recall. She’s always been able to keep up with Tony, even though she’ll never be at his genius-level technical ability, but her moment-to-moment intelligence is certainly above average.

So why, then, can’t she figure out what message her mind is trying to send her about the exhausted young man at her feet? Her toes flex over Peter’s head, an absent product of her deep thinking, but it doesn’t seem to disturb him. He’s still reclined against her, so small and trusting, so compliant, that she can’t stop the swell of feeling that begins to unfurl behind her chest.

It’s silly, she knows. Absolutely silly to feel that way about an intern, and especially about a tiny, but… stranger things have happened. And he’s lasted so long now…

Maybe she’ll keep this one. Maybe she’ll make him an offer to make the position permanent. It will, of course, require giving him a few bonuses and benefits rather than just work experience and housing, but that’s something she can mull over later.

Together, the two of them lapse into silence, into stillness. Pepper soon closes her eyes as well, her toes absently scrunching now and then, her foot gently moving behind Peter’s back. She ruminates on his future, on all her potential plans for him instead of the stress of her day. Peter, meanwhile, thinks about that smile she wore, about how nice it felt, even fleetingly, to be seen by her. To be treated so nicely, with such kindness, like she used to do before.

It’s good. For a while, for now, it’s good, and that optimism carries them both into a relaxing, companionable, very much needed nap.

[magnusmodig]

𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐑𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄 . / @unluckyuncle ! ╰┈➤ how does your muse get local news and updates on current events? are they up to date with all the latest goings-on or do they prefer to avoid it altogether?

||. Ravens. ...I say that jokingly, but it's been made very clear that Thor does not use what humans would consider typical modes of communication. Asgard and its technology is far beyond Earth's understanding of technology. (Yes. Even kingdoms like Wakanda.) So technology like radios, cellphones, tvs, etc. would all be antiquated to Thor and his people. Given what we do see of Asgardian technology, I think it would be safe to say theorize that they may get their more important, wide-spread news through holographic images and texts. The Hall of Knowledge hosts the Tree of Yggdrasil. Who is to say they can't peer into the general happenings of the Nine Realms by going through its branches? Things like magical books and papers exist too. Who is to say that those books cannot be updated remotely as their understanding changes?

They are also connected to Omnipotence City. Personally, I hate L+T/Wa*ti//ti's version of the place, so I've elected to draw from Earth-616 Omnipotence City for inspiration. NAMELY: in the comics, Omnipotence City has a giant library that is chock-full of books, scrolls, notes, etc. that are constantly updated with the lives and deaths of every god known in existence. imo: there's no reason for that part of Omnipotence City to not exist. So I'm keeping it and making it my own, thank you.

To touch on the ravens, though: In mythos, Odin's ravens could fly across the Nine Realms and report their findings back to Odin, giving him what seemed very much like omnipotence. (They'd do this during battles too!)

Huginn and Munnin do exist in the MCU even if they don't have a concrete role outside of set dressing... but I like to think that they can travel through the realms and act as Odin's eyes and ears. His scouts, as it were. So if Thor ever saw a raven flying overhead, he would know his Father is watching. He'd likely often get updates through his father's word of mouth, and any updates from the Einherjar and their travels across the realms. (And Heimdall.) Being royalty is work. A LOT of hard work. And so I'd imagine most of his news came mostly from political meetings and the like. That said: Thor doesn't purposefully avoid news. But he won't go entirely out of his way to get news either. And he won't bother to get a phone. Or a computer. He has friends who can navigate all of it perfectly fine, and he quite frankly has bigger fish to fry throughout other galaxies.

[haloguyfttp]

So I have some big things I wanna get off my chest. Penacony Spoilers mainly for 2.1 and 2.2 if you haven't watched/done it yet. Also this got ungodly long because thoughts kept flowing so if you bother to read this I'm sorry.

So this is gonna be a take and someone's probably gonna hate me for it but... I really don't like that in both 2.1 and 2.2, Acheron's stuff involved such heavy reference to HI3. Now I get it, it's fanservice for the HI3 fans, and fair enough it does have Honkai in the game's name. But it really soured me on some parts.

First is 2.1, her first real chunk. The entire conversation between her and Welt rests on you knowing what the hell they're referring to. As someone who did not play HI3, and does not care about HI3's story, I didn't like that scene. Like I'm watching 2 people talk about events that I just didn't see and have no context for and am supposed to care about? And as much as I would be fine with that if said context came, it never did. HSR makes no attempt to fill this gap, so if I ever want to know what the fuck they're on about I have to go watch a video or something about HI3 instead.

This is especially annoying when just before this they said on the livestream something like "There'll be references that HI3 fans will enjoy, but newer players won't have to worry" or whatever, which turned out to be a fucking lie for this version.

2.2 was much better. While 2.1 had some glimpses of Acheron that weren't related to HI3, this gave us the scenes with her and Tiernan, which was way more enjoyable. Gave me a real look into who Acheron is beyond "walking powerhouse who's a HI3 reference". EXCEPT for the ending.

The name drop holds no significance if you don't come from HI3. And when it happened all I could do was roll my eyes because yes we get it it's Raiden Mei, everyone who comes from HI3 already knew this last version, and anyone who doesn't know this will have nothing to take from this name drop into cutscene combo beyond just "well it's cool so I'll turn my brain off and enjot the lights and music". The big cutscene before we return to face Sunday again is also weird because we fall from the sky, Acheron pulls us, and we.... appear in the boss fight? This made no sense already, but finding out it's a HI3 reference just made me annoyed yet again, as it's yet another scene that holds no meaning unless you already came from HI3, in which case it still doesn't mean anything, but is a fanservicey callback to get those players excited.

Now those previous ones are subjective, and frankly I don't expect people to agree with me on disliking those. But the last thing is the one that irks me the most, and it's almost completely independent of the game: Fan response. From what I gathered, Acheron is Raiden Mei, but something(s?) happened that made things diverge massively from HI3's storyline. This is something I like about Acheron, because while she's an HI3 reference, she is also mostly her own character, meaning I don't need to go find HI3 content just to know what's happening like I'm watching the goddamn MCU.

Unfortunately, some of what I've seen just uses Acheron as a stand-in for Raiden Mei. Or more specifically, the same Raiden Mei as in HI3, even though I thought the whole point is that this is an alternate universe and alternate timeline etc, and by extension these 2 characters, while likely sharing an origin and backstory, are by this point vastly different people. Idk how else to phrase this, but it's most common in playthroughs and stuff where you know it's an HI3 fan because they won't stop talking about Raiden Mei when the story is focusing on Acheron, it feels like they often ignore Acheron's actual story and just want Raiden Mei again.

2nd last segment here, I am very worried for Luocha's story. He's clearly being set up to have more importance in future, specifically in regards to the Xianzhou and Yaoshi. And to this point I'd been fine because he's been his own character, and Welt and Himeko have been their oen people too. But Penacony, the undoubtedly biggest and best chapter Hoyo's released, has all the issues I just ranted about w/ Acheron. And Luocha is another character who bears a striking resemblance to someone from HI3, who Welt also knows and is not so subtly being hyped to meet.

Lastly, this last one's entirely me and even more so than the rest I've ranted about is definitely subjective, but I don't want Kiana to be in HSR. She's already the main character of HI3 anyway, it'd bring us back to square one with Acheron as I don't doubt for a second they'd write it so they get back together (see also BronSeele, a pairing I like now too, but which felt like it had the most forced start ever just so we could pair them up as fast as possible), continuing my fear of Acheron not being allowed to be her own character and keep her stuck in the shadow of Raiden Mei. And she'd no doubt become extremely important if she were to exist here since Hoyo does have favoritism to HI3 characters, and I was already sick of the Astral Express' lack of impact in the Luofu arc.

Well that's all this time. I will stop bitching now because no one wants to read these walls of text full of subjective views. As is customary with these things, all my thoughts and opinions are... well, exactly that, MY thoughts and opinions. I still like Penacony, I still like HSR, and I hsve no quarrel with those who like the things I didn't or vice versa. I mostly make these rants just to vent since I don't have anywhere else to let anything out. If you bothered to read this far then uhh thanks I guess, and I hope you have a great day/night.

[evilkitten3]

the mcu is extremely lucky that tessa thompson is so freaking gorgeous bc everything else i've seen from that movie is ugly as balls

[edith-hyde]

Norman X Female Reader

I Forgot My Umbrella - Part 2

Word Count: 1897

Summary: Norman starts out his day in a foul mood. But thankfully you know just the thing to brighten his day and make his work week bearable.

Warnings: None really. Age Gap I guess. Rated G for everyone.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who read Part 1! I really appreciate your kind words and likes. This one is a slow chapter but has a lot of insight into what Norman's life is like now that he's back from the MCU. [I am looking forward to Part 3. Fluff is on the horizon.]

Archive

Previous

Next

-----

“You think you’re rid of me? I am YOU, Osborn! The you you’re too scared to be! And when you need me most, I’ll be there. Don’t you worry.”

Norman awoke with a start as the Goblin’s laughter echoed around his sunlit room.

“No! No…. You’re gone… Peter… he- he fixed me.”

Moving into a sitting position he did a quick look around. He expected to see the Goblin’s grinning face in the mirror but thankfully, it was just his own tired features gazing back.

With a sigh, Norman pulled his knees to his chest and ran his hands through his hair. It was just a nightmare. Nothing more.

The Goblin wasn’t back.

But, even though Norman knew that was true, his body hadn’t realized it yet. He sat there, curled in a ball, trying to get his breathing under control. His heart pounded in his ears as memories flashed behind his eyes. The Goblin’s memories. They had been coming back in broken pieces; tormenting him. He still couldn’t remember everything he had done in the other universe. And frankly… he didn’t want to.

He had been trying his best to pretend like he was fine. But the truth was- he was far from fine. He wasn’t even close to being ‘just okay’. Every day was a struggle. Some were easier than others. Like yesterday.

At the thought of yesterday, Norman felt his heart begin to calm. It had gone quite well. No mishaps in the labs. No issues with investors. There were many new hires that were doing a wonderful job. At that thought, Norman remembered his new personal assistant. What was her name? It was something pretty… that’s right, Y/N. She seemed like a sweet hardworking girl. Honest and kind, but often a bit frazzled. Norman wondered if Y/N would enjoy working for Oscorp. He hoped she would. He’d hate to lose her help.

And Heavens knew he’d need it today.

With a groan, Norman pulled himself out of the bed. Without the serum coursing through his veins, aches and pains had become a daily part of his life. The injuries he had received in the other universe were dealt with by the leftover serum, but they left his body in an almost constant state of dull pain.

Or perhaps he was actually feeling his age.

Rolling his eyes, Norman shuffled into his kitchen to find Bernard fixing breakfast.

“Good morning, sir.”

“Hardly,” Norman grouched as he reached for the coffee maker.

“I’m afraid it’s broken,” Bernard warned, “I’m sorry, sir.”

Norman’s hand was already gripping the handle of the pot. He had to resist the urge to throw the blasted thing into the wall. Taking a deep breath he slowly released it.

“I’ll buy a new one today,” Bernard promised.

Norman didn’t even bother to answer as he grabbed his plate and sat down.

“Harry called this morning,” Bernard said cautiously.

Norman brightened for a moment.

“He called? Should I call him back?”

Bernard turned to face his boss, hesitation on his features.

“He… he just wanted you to know that he’s moving out of his apartment. He didn’t say where he’s living now.”

Norman’s features fell.

“Oh…”

Despite his best efforts to make amends, Norman found himself struggling to fully earn Harry’s affections. The boy was still upset over MJ picking Peter instead of him and the whole debacle was still a festering wound. To make matters worse, Norman had made it his mission to maintain a good relationship with Peter. He owed the boy that much. He could never tell him that he knew his secret, but he did everything he could to make up for what the Goblin caused. He paid for Aunt May’s hospital bills as well as MJ’s. He had also personally apologized to her for what the Goblin made him say on Thanksgiving. While he couldn’t say sorry for the Goblin kidnapping her, this was the next best option. Norman wasn’t too sure if she had fully accepted it, but Peter had been relieved.

Harry, however, seemed angry with Norman’s attempts to make amends. It was as if he expected Norman to abandon Peter as he had. It made things very strained between them. While Norman had hopes that Harry would come around, he didn’t know how to help things along. Despite being Harry’s father for years, he felt like he was just starting out.

And it made him wonder if he was, perhaps, too late to mend what was broken.

Norman’s appetite left him, so he chose to get ready for work. Thinking about the troubles between him and Harry did NOT improve his mood in the slightest. With a grimace upon his features, Norman headed out. He wasn’t looking forward to the day at all. In fact, he would have rather stayed home and hid in his room.

But he couldn’t play hooky today. There was too much work to be done.

Though… that didn’t mean he had to enjoy it.

Norman had every intention of letting his tired gloomy mood rule his day. He had scowled at the security guard, snapped at the front desk attendant, and once in the elevator- he glared at his reflection the whole way up. The expression stayed on his face as he stalked down the hall.

But then he saw you.

You were standing by your desk, a smile on your face, and a cup of coffee in your hands. You held it out to him and gave a cheerful greeting.

“Good morning, Mr. Osborn. I have your coffee for you. No creamer with three big spoonfuls of sugar.”

He stared at you, more than a little dumbfounded. The lovely smile on your face, the sparkle in your eyes- what had he been so mad about again? Norman found it hard to remember. And when did you memorize the way he likes his coffee? Had you been paying so close attention to him yesterday that you saw how he made it? He had to admit, he was impressed.

“Thank you,” he muttered, “good morning.”

He took the cup and headed into his office. He was still tired but the coffee, and your smile, improved his mood enough for him to feel at least somewhat human.

~~~

At the start of your day, you picked up Mr. Osborn’s shirt from the dry cleaners. You had dropped it off the night before and planned on returning it as soon as you got into work. With it back in your hands, you couldn’t help but notice that the friendly smell of his cologne was gone.

What a shame.

Because you had gotten out early to pick up the shirt, you actually arrived at the office before your boss. So you decided to go ahead and brew a cup of coffee for him. You had observed the way he made his cup yesterday and committed it to memory.

Every good personal assistant should know their boss’s coffee order. Or so you believed.

And so you waited. Osborn’s shirt was hung on the back of your chair, also waiting. When you heard the ding of the elevator, you hopped up and prepared the cup. But as you waited at the corner of your desk, you saw Norman’s demeanor- he was clearly upset about something.

You entertained the idea of backing off. Don’t say anything, just let him storm into his office. But you decided to hold your ground. Perhaps all he needed was a cup of coffee?

And so you gave your greeting and offered the cup. You half expected him to shout at you. But you were pleasantly surprised when his scowl turned into an expression of confusion. That look made your smile grow even bigger. His blue eyes were twice their usual size as he looked between the coffee mug and your face. You honestly wanted to laugh but knew that might make him angry. So instead, you kept your smile on your face and held the mug out a little further. He stared for a long moment and you could feel the heat rising to your cheeks. Slowly, he accepted the cup, muttered his thanks, and disappeared into his office.

You thought it best to wait until he finished his drink before you brought him his shirt. And it was a good thing you did. It seemed like it was just enough time to let the man find a better mood. When you entered his office, he was on the phone discussing some kind of investment. His expression was deadpan as he nodded along.

That is, until he saw you.

A smile broke out on his face and he gave a little wave. The action made your heart flutter as butterflies came to life in your stomach.

This was bad.

If such a small gesture could get this reaction out of you… there was a chance that these feelings were more than just nerves.

You smiled, held up the shirt, and pointed at the closet. He gave a curt nod and then a thumbs up. Placing the shirt back in the closet where it belonged, you had to resist the overwhelming urge to smell his overcoat just to see if it smelled like his cologne as well.

Darn that curiosity. It would get you killed one of these days. Or at the very least, make you thoroughly embarrassed. Thankfully, you didn’t give in and promptly shut the doors.

However, before you could escape back to the sanctuary of your desk, Mr. Osborn hung up and addressed you.

“I see you managed to avoid any coffee mishaps on the bus this morning.”

You smirked and gestured to your pristine clothes. It was another blouse and dress pants combo, only this time the blouse had a black and pink floral print.

“Coffee free!” you laughed, “Thank God.”

“That’s good to hear,” Mr. Osborn smiled, “Speaking of coffee, thank you for the cup earlier.”

“It’s my job, sir.”

Norman’s features fell for a fraction of a second before he gave a nod, “Indeed it is. And you’ll probably need to brew more. It’s going to be a long day. In fact…. It’s going to be a long week.”

“Oh?”

Mr. Osborn rose to his feet and straightened out his suit. Coming around to the front of his desk, he sat on the edge, one leg outstretched. The action was so mundane and normal but it still sent you reeling.

Yup.

This was way more than just nerves.

“Starting today we’ll be doing a walkthrough of all the labs. We have to assess their work and if they’re earning their funding. It’s a week-long affair. I’ll need you with me to take notes.”

“Ah, that’s right.” You sighed dramatically, “Oh well. I guess I could use the cardio.”

Mr. Osborn chuckled but his expression became solemn.

“I wish it wasn’t necessary, but if a lab isn’t performing, changes must be made. Either to the staff or the research itself.”

“Makes sense. This is scheduled for the next 4 hours, yeah?”

“Yes. And that’s just one floor.”

You gave a determined nod and went to leave. Pausing in the doorway, you looked back and smirked.

“I’ll be sure to bring a thermos of coffee for the both of us.”

Osborn grinned, a look of fondness clear in his eyes as he beheld you.

“Smart girl.”

[izzyspussy]

Happy Fanfic Friday!

If you could have one of your fics (completed or WIP, either way) become Official Canon™️, whether by being included as a chapter in the source novel or airing as an episode in the show or some other means, which fic would you choose? Would you pick that one because it fits pre-existing canon, because you like it that much, or some other reason?

Extremely tough question, because frankly? I don't think any of my fics really belong in canon...

But! If I have to pick, can I pick a series? (Yes, I can do what I want.)

I'd pick little cuts, which is a Thor MCU series about Loki and Thor repairing their relationship and their background and such. It's both pre-canon, within canon, and a canon divergence from Ragnarok on. Loki lives and Thanos et al take a nice long while to make it to Earth.

I think it does fit with canon pretty well (excepting the parts that it diverges from lol). And I certainly like it much fucking better than I liked the actual Loki show we got. (Since it's a series, I'm figuring if it was to go canon it would be a show. God, what I wouldn't give to have executive control over a Loki show...)

But yeah. I hated Infinity War, and Endgame, and Loki, and I haven't even bothered to see Love & Thunder yet, if I ever will. I won't claim I could do better than that one, because again I haven't seen it, and also because I know Waititi at least to generally make good work. However. I will absolutely assert that I could have done better than the other three, story and character wise. I'll say it! And I'll believe it, too. So there.

Additionally! My version has a bisexual (sans label) Thor, and a more textually queer Loki - both in sexuality and gender. And! Thor still gets fat in mine, but it's depicted as a good thing and a relief! And!! My fucking Bruce!! Is in character!!! And Loki shapeshifts on "screen". As animals, and other genders, and his Jotunn form. And uses his Silvertongue.

[And, for the love of God, if given the power I would insist on as much practical effects as possible, and actually good and well paid for CGI when absolutely necessary.]

[And!! IF I was going to have a selfcest plotline. I! Would! Make! Tom! Hiddleston! Kiss! HIMSELF!!]

Anyway, thank you for asking. If I don't stop now I never will.

[scarlet--wiccan]

Hi I’m sorry to bother you, and I’m sorry if you’ve already answered this before, but I was wondering if people can still somewhat enjoy parts of WandaVision if they acknowledge and don’t excuse the problematic history surrounding the show and the its characters?

Look, I’m not the thought police. I can’t stop you from enjoying a tv show, and I’m not interested in trying to moralize about consuming ‘problematic’ media. I can only really tell you the same thing I’ve already said several times over-- if you understand the problems that the MCU Maximoffs represent, you should be unable to enjoy them or frankly anything about them. It’s not just the casting. It’s the development, the adapted material, and the conversations that have been had both within and without the industry. It’s also about the fact that intentional erasure of Romani history and the false conflation of the Roma population with lower-class white Europeans are real factors of structural racism.

Olsen is fully aware of these issues, as was Joss Whedon during the development of AoU, but she and several of her colleagues nevertheless continue to exploit pejorative language and racist imagery regarding her character. Much of the material that WandaVision draws on is material which references her identity and her family’s history, so the people making WV had to have known about those elements and made a conscious decision about how they wanted to address them-- and make no mistake, they did address them.

These are not actions that I am willing to make concessions for, and I am not willing to hold space for other people to do so, either. I cannot tolerate any form of engagement with the show that does not include a conversation about this, and that’s exactly what you’re doing any time you share fanart or gifs, or put up posters, or praise it uncritically on any platform.

Maybe if the last few months had gone differently for me, I would be taking a gentler stance right now, but they didn’t. Let me tell you what I’ve been going through.

Every industry person I’ve reached out to* during WV’s run has either brushed me aside, or else paid me lip service while refusing to have a public dialogue about the show’s racism or even change their behavior in loudly endorsing it. My LCS has not removed their promotional material for the show, even after I disclosed my identity and had a conversation about it in person. I’ve been sent hate speech and suicide bait on this blog several times in response to my writing. Meanwhile, twitter threads rife with hate speech and misinformation erupted around Roma actress Mihaela Dragan’s statements on the show, and similar responses followed Roma writer Jessica Reidy’s article about Roma women and witchcraft.

I’m taking a hard stance because it’s been made pretty clear that playing nice and making concessions won’t achieve anything. It has been proven to me, time and time again, that people who would otherwise be progressive and anti-racist will avert their eyes and feign ignorance when they hear the words “Roma” or “gypsy.”  You are all looking for chances to pretend we don’t exist. You are all looking for chances to ignore and enable antiromanyism, even in such an immaterial arena as Marvel fandom. I’m asking for the bare minimum, and I can’t even get that. So I say, no, sorry to ruin your fun. I'm sick of it.

I wish Teyonah Parris all the best moving forward and I hope she gets the opportunity to play Monica Rambeau in the lead role unburdened by misogynoir that she deserves. I hope that the child actors have safe and enjoyable careers moving forward and that they will be able to cleanly step away from this project, and the MCU's fandom, as they get older.

*This includes primarily fellow LGBT folks and fellow people of color. Since I’m in a bad mood, I’m going to name two people who I had one-on-one conversations with that amounted to nothing: Kevin Wada and Luciano Vecchio. If you’ve spent any time on this page, you’ll know that these are two artists who I admire deeply and have shown tremendous amounts of love and (financial) support in my time as a comics collector. This really stings, and I have had to honestly ask myself if I can continue to support either of them in good faith having been sent such a plain message that neither of them care about me or my community.

[battletrio]

there may come a day when i will resist the urge to scream when people write about John and the whole reinforced helmet nonsense but it is not this day

firstly, people don’t have to jump on a grenade with their flesh and bones in order to really understand what it means to be captain america, or else Sam who has canonically not been said to have ever jumped on a grenade with his flesh and blood body would be excluded from understanding what it means to be captain america by this sort of a definition

secondly, this dismissive attitude as if jumping on a grenade with a reinforced helmet is something to look down on or means someone is less worthy than another person who used their flesh is ridiculous, it is STILL someone willing to risk their life to protect others, hell, in the real world, soldiers STILL DIE or are SERIOUSLY INJURED when they try to use helmets to block a grenade because guess what, you STILL have to jump on top of the helmet and grenade with your own body to keep the helmet staying on the grenade

this image is literally what a soldier’s helmet looked like in the aftermath of a young soldier in 2004 who died jumping on a grenade with his helmet while trying to protect others, he was awarded a medal of honor posthumously 

so unless the MCU has now developed a reinforced helmet for the military that not only stays on the ground on its own and is 100% blast proof, then John is still risking his life on FOUR separate occasions trying to protect other people from danger and doing it for the same reasons Steve did it — and even if the helmets were blast proof, it doesn’t mean John somehow doesn’t understand sacrifice just because the military actually cared to update their equipment to better protect their soldiers, like that’s actually a good thing for soldiers to be protected, not leave them open for threats just for the sake of some “test” of noble sacrifice — we don’t look down on firefighters now having better and safer equipment when they go fight fires, we don’t say they’re less brave or less worthy or less heroic than firefighters of old who didn’t have those equipments, so why is it people keep refusing to grasp that using a reinforced helmet is not some shameful thing that makes John less worthy of the shield or not understanding what it means to be captain america??

thirdly, Steve himself literally used his vibranium shield to block a grenade once instead of his own body, does that make him somehow less worthy now? or what about T’Challa diving on a grenade to block it using his suit, is he somehow less worthy because he didn’t use his own flesh and blood body?

John already knows about nobly sacrificing yourself for others, he wouldn’t have THREE medals of honor AND jumped a grenade FOUR TIMES if he didn’t understand that, if anything, bravery and self-sacrifice are two things he didn’t need to be taught on, he already possessed those qualities

what he didn’t understand about being captain america is the correct temperament needed to be suited for the job: the level of open compassion, the ability to negotiate and understand others, the awareness of others’ struggles, and self confidence in one’s own morality

those were the things John didn’t understand or lacked, those were the reasons he is unsuited to be captain america, because sheer bravery and self sacrifice means very little if it’s not being aimed in the right direction

i need folks writing these articles to stop going on about the nonsense about the reinforced helmet, because quite frankly they (and the writers of the show as well) are only showing their ignorance and how they don’t really understand many military stuff or bother to do any research