#sam was literally the ONLY one in the series to not be corrupted and idk if he could have gotten to mordor alone

[galavant-song-tournament]

I’ll be honest, I don’t think any of these people are making it to Mordor.

Not alone at least, in all likelihood.

[italwayshadtobeyou]

@fratricidesam Starting this as a separate thread, not because I don't like your thread, but because the details of Biblical angels are tangential to your original point, and also I suck at long threads.

it's interesting that the writers didn't actually depict the Christian apocalypse. i understand taking some liberty, though. what you said about the Christ is interesting because - insane theory alert - in 3x03 Kubrick, a Christian hunter, says, "Sam Winchester is... the adversary," and in 3x07, gordon walker says, "Sam Winchester's the Antichrist," and i've wondered since then if that makes dean a type of Second Coming. it's dumb, i know, especially considering gordon didn't know about the angels or the apocalypse, but it lingers at the back of my mind.

First, regarding the appearance of Biblical angels: Angels appear in different forms in the Bible. They can appear as humans, although it isn't their true form. The Book of Hebrews warns against failing to show hospitality by strangers, since they might be angels in disguise.

As for not-disguised angels, the Book of Ezekiel describes seeing cherubim (singular: cherub) as accompanied by, rather than resembling, sparkly wheels, which, along with the cherubim's bodies, are covered in eyes. Each cherub has four faces: Of a cherub (doesn't help much), a man, an eagle, and a lion. I'd say that Zachariah's "four faces, and one of them is a lion" boast was something of a self-own for such a supposedly high-ranking angel, but I doubt that the writers looked into it that deeply.

The Book of Isaiah mentions a different kind of angel, the seraph(im), each of whom has six wings. Christians have, for a long time, interpreted them as higher-ranking than cherubim, although I'm not aware of any basis for this, other than the number of wings.

The widely-accepted canonical Bible gives us very little detail on archangels' appearance. (IDK about the Apocrypha.) They do, however, appear as powerful warriors and messengers. Virtually all Christian denominations accept Michael and Gabriel as archangels; Catholics accept Raphael as well. I grew up assuming that Satan was an archangel, even though I can't recall any verse which states it, so it's probably a common interpretation. I think that some of the smaller Christian denominations, in North and East Africa and Asia, believe there are more archangels, but I don't know the details.

Second, regarding Dean as the Second Coming: I've got to say, I did not see this one coming.

Christians differ widely on what they consider to be the details of the apocalypse, including the basic order of events. However, a few points stand out.

No major denominations subscribe to the idea of reincarnation, or believe that Jesus will return as a human. He had to live a human life to perfection in order to take away humans' sins; he doesn't have to be human to judge the dead and resurrect his true followers.

2. If Jesus did return as a human, he would have to be without sin. This doesn't apply to Dean, who is pure only in that he lacks demon blood.

3. Most of the series' obvious messianic imagery is attached to Sam, who ends the Kripke era by sacrificing himself at Stull. The religious parallels and imagery that do attach to Dean associate him with Michael. Michael is a powerful angel-- and, if you're working with Millennialism, it makes sense for him to be the one who enforces Satan's thousand-year timeout--, but he isn't God. Conflating him with Jesus would be as idolatrous as worshipping Lucifer.

4. The Antichrist and Jesus aren't equal and opposite forces in balance. To make a much-debated topic simple, ancient Christian texts exist which support the idea of a corrupted or animalistic man with some powers who uses miracles to set himself up as a ruler, pretends to be a messiah, persecutes people who refuse to worship him, and gets taken out by Jesus's light. But he's an Antichrist in the sense of being literally against God and of being a fake Christ, not being the other side of God's coin (although High and Late Medieval writers portrayed him as such in every way except his power level; e.g., they theorized that, since Jesus was born to a virgin, the Antichrist would be born to a prostitute). There's no reason for Jesus to be his brother, or even have a more personal relationship with him than he does with any other evildoer.

EDIT: I should have clarified that some smaller denominations (like the Jehovah's Witnesses) think "archangel" should be translated as something along the lines of "chief over angels" rather than "highest-ranking angel." Since the highest authority in Heaven is God, they believe that "archangel" doesn't mean a kind of angel, it refers to God in his capacity as lord of the Heavenly host. So, there are people who believe that "Michael" is another name for God. What nobody believes is that he is both an angel (which SPN and most denominations present him as) and God.

[samthecookielord]

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[nocek]

Don't spare us the long rant! We want to hear your thoughts!

Oh you are going to regret this ;P

So here goes my loooooooong angry rant about Taskmaster and also the Black Widow movie in general.

Let's start with my point of comparison. Captain America the Winter Soldier was a good movie. It's still in my top 3 Marvel movies as I'm sure is for many people. And statistically speaking everybody likes Bucky. He is like the most beloved side character right after Loki. I guess.

Anyway. My point is that Taskmaster and Winter Soldier have bit for bit the exact same building blocks: hypercompetent antagonist that is a serious threat to our hero who just can't win with in one on one combat. But then plot twist: our antagonist was just a victim and puppet without free will in hands of actual villain who is bland bureaucrat.

So why did Winter Soldier worked really really well and Taskmaster was just ehh.. ok?

Well the short answer is that catws was a much tighter movie that had clearer goal (and also that goal/theme was singular: good things get corrupted with time and sometimes you get to start over) compared to black widow which had to jump through too many hoops and still somehow managed it but it wasn't as graceful as it would be if they (as in executives) resigned from one or two hoops and flips and explosions.

And I'm omitting a BIG disadvantage of making a prequel movie about a character that they killed off in shitty way. Though that created one of extra hoops for them to jump through: quickly build up Yelena as a character.

And character build they did. Because srsly Yelena is awesome and I love her. BUT. That came at a price.

Lets compare to catws. The new character there is Sam (and kiiiiiiiinda also Natasha a bit but that's a topic for a different rant) who is nowhere near as well build as Yelena. At the beginning. Because he had time to be fleshed out and naturally grow in few different movies and then we got a deep dive in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But Marvel can't give Yelena few movies because she will appear in Hawkguy an Hawkeye series and also Marvel is generally dividing their assets into: outer spaaaace, down to earth heros and magic stuff (aliens, androids and wizards ;P). But also they can only create so many things in a year.

So yeah. Yelena offtopic can be summarized that I love that we have her as we have her but it came at a cost of air time of the movie.

So comparing the movies again:

Catws had the theme of good things being corrupted with time. And the theme was underlined 3 times through Peggy, Bucky and then Shield/Hydra. Which are interconnected and also make nice scale from inner conflict of the main character to the outer conflict of the movie.

In Black Widow there is the topic of the past evil that never went away and is still taking away free will from people. And again we have it shown through 3 outlets: Yelena, Taskmaster and Black Widows. But there is also whole family subplot attached to Yelena and there is Red Room attached to Black Widows. So as you can see things are getting crowded. Which in turn make the theme a bit blurry.

I mean, sure, the Red Room should be the Shield equivalent. Even it could take smaller space because good Shield turns out to be evil Hydra is generally more time consuming to explain than Red Room bad. But still combining Red Room and Black Widows make things a bit crowded.

(There is a reason why the surprise subplot of there is more Winter Soldiers was in separate movie and was kinda handwaved and cut to minimum. But they couldn't do that here).

But it's time to stop my ranting about whole Black Widow movie and focus on comparing Taskmaster and Winter Soldier.

Because to be honest both are bare bones of character and more of an carte blanche in the movie. Both have barely any screen time yet there are colossal difference which stems out of:

first introduction: as I mentioned they are hypercompetent and unstoppable threat that you can't win with, you can only hope to run away (both done equally well)

programmable killing machine:

For Taskmaster we just get a scene with her watching other heroes fighting at the screen. For the sake of building up the mystery of character we think that "he" is just watching. Maybe learning or more likely just being creepy. The information about the chip and literal programming is given to us much later in the movie which makes this scene lose the power. idk how it will work on rewatch? Maybe better? Hopefully. right now there is too many new movies in cinemas to go for a rewatch and disney+ still isn't available here -.-

For Bucky we have literal torture scene. You just can't be more blunt than that. It also hammered the next point in.

there is human behind the mask:

Winter Soldier is introduced with full face mask which he gradually loses and then we have the big reveal of not only: that's a human but also that's a human our main hero cares about deeply.

With Taskmaster they fucked up it for chap plot twist. We are learning quite late that oh snap that's Antonia (that we don't really care about) and our main hero kinda feels guilty about her.

I think the big difference is what kind of character Steve and Nat are and also the way they reveal this secret. Steve actively recognizes Bucky by himself and is very openly shocked. Nat is passively told and shown that hey, this is Antonia. And there is no time in the movie for Nat (and for us) to be shocked because that's the 3rd act and we need time for explosions and stuff.

Besides, the problem is that all the big plot twist reveals are boring on rewatch (stil big props for Pacific Rim and giving us the monster reveal in like second minute of the movie, I will never not appreciate that).

Also on related shitty note. We the audience. Bucky is handsome and vulnerable and we can drool all over him (and oh man, we the fandom did a fair share of drooling). Antonia is disfigured and not sexualized in any way. Which I'm actually grateful for but there is no pretending that doesn't make a hell lot of difference. But that's a whole different, ugly and big topic I'm not remotely qualified to write about. I'm just angry ranting here.

they don't have free will:

For Winter Soldier we have amnesia + torture tropes which to be honest have been done over and over again and it shouldn't have worked as well as it worked. Bit it did. In context of Black Widow movie it worked because it was just one guy that actively broke through brainwashing with active help of the hero.

In Black Widow there is a lot of characters that are pasively "woken up" out of mind control over and over again by active protagonist. Unfortunately the repetition kinda cheapens it. Especially in comparison to main gut punch right in the feels scene in the other movie. Which is why it's not fair to compare the two.

So lets talk about lack of free will aspect itself. To be honest the mind control aspect in Black Widow was done really great from story perspective. Evil scientists perfected it to the point it being (bit handwavey but) completely impersonal but also completely dehumanizing to the subject. So I'm buying that it can be completely switched off in equally efficient and impersonal way. Even the way they explained it with Alexei the pig was great and terrifying... to a point. Because then kicked the main problem with this movie. Clearly some execs came and saw it and went whoa... that's too dark for pg13 blockbuster. Let's put some cheap jokes here. And it happens over and over again in this movie :S

humanizing flashback scene that ties them to main hero:

For Bucky, sure we had Captain America First Avenger but a movie needs to stand on it's own legs. That's why we have the flashback scene which shows us that Bucky cared about Steve. Leaving it at the narration in Smithsonian of "best friends since childhood" would be just telling us. And we needed to be shown and we needed a space for the "till the end of line" so it could come back and stab us right in the feels.

Also because we are ignoring previous movie Russos cleverly made us care about Winter Soldier because Steve cares about Winter Soldier. And we already know and like Steve so building up our main character gives us more mileage out of new bare bones character (because let's be honest, Winter Soldier is just that). Two birds one stone thing.

In Black Widow there is no such thing which IMHO is the main reason Taskmaster doesn't work. We just get information about cardboard cutout: insert cute little girl here (only told, not even shown actual cardboard) and all of the emotional connection to Natasha is: I know that my boss that I hate has a daughter, she got in the crossfire. Which means nobody cares.

All it would take is adding a short flashback scene. idk Dreykov is an asshole and doesn't care about Antonia but she is she cutest and most adorable little girl. She treats the Black Widows as older sisters. Hell if you want to make it more horrorish copy of the idea of Thor wanting to be a Valkyrie when he grows up or T'challa wanting to be a Dora Milaje. Little Antonia wants to be Black Widow when she grows up because they are badass and they are nice to her (and are also slightly confused by her) because she is nice to them and is only person that treats them as humans. Hell we could have short interaction between her and Nat. Just a smile between them would be enough.

You could get a lot of character buildup mileage out of such a short scene.

But it couldn't happen partially because the movie didn't have time for that but we didn't get that mostly because it would show us instead of telling that Nat killed a cute little innocent girl for her own personal gain. (well she thought she was destroying Red Room but mostly wanted to get away - vide she didn't check on Yelena or other widows. But I wouldn't hold that against her. It was put your oxygen mask first kind of situation. But still it would make her look bad)

Besides, that would take guts to actually show.

And technically they could have afforded to have that guts. That was last movie with Nat anyway. It would actually make this plotline about her feeling guilty about Dreykov's daughter and red in her ledger work. But well... It was last movie so they wanted to leave us with the most goodest and bleeding hartest and heartwarming mary sue version of Nat with just telling us without showing hey, she got dark past.

On the other hand if we had the rumored Endgame plotline of Nat running an orphanage. Damn that would tie to this plotline so well. We could tie the loose widows also. Dam we were robbed here I tell ya >.<

Ok I'm overdoing offtopic about Nat. Sorry

design

So yeah. Design wise Winter Soldier is like great. For Taskmaster, she sure looks cool but also kinda generic? If in 10 years you'd show me her and say it's antagonist from GI Joe or something I'll believe you :S (not touching the debate that in comics something something because unfortunately I don't know Taskmaster from comics. Although I hear that few recent ones were quite good so I'll check them out sooner or later)

snapping out of mind control

I mentioned before. It would be unfair and there is no point comparing main emotional scene of the movie versus means to an end that were repeated several times through a movie.

Natasha freeing Antonia even if she thought that Antonia will kill her because that would fair was great. What I'm annoyed is a cheap fakeout that went with that. It was just after the bombastic finale with explosions and all the cgi shit. Even without looking at the movie runtime it was obvious there will be no extra fight scene.

In catws it worked because the cgi pew pew extravaganza was a background noise and was part of a continuous fight. In BW helicarriers fell already, there was a second of dust settling and then Nat throws away the shield (uses that capsule). Tension just fell from highest place in a movie (quite literally lol), trying to rise it again for such a short moment just doesn't work.

But that's the general problem with Marvel movies. Bombastic CGI fest as grand finale that probably is "outsourced" and then actual director comes back and needs to end movie super quickly.

disappearing act at the end

So in catws there is mystery of what will Bucky do. We are given some hope since he dragged Steve out of river and visited the museum but thats all. I mean there is this annoying Marvel thing of skipping over the interesting ending of last movie and starting with next plot point. We were hoping for the grand roadtrip/hunt for Bucky but nope. We must run ahead with all the plotlines (same way I'm sure that the Spiderman is Peter Parker and he killed a guy thing will be already dealt with in the beginning of the next movie -.-) But that's bonus mini rant.

In BW they needed to wrap up to many plot lines too quickly so Antonia wakes up and that's all. We don't get a suggestion what she may do. The problem of the chip she still has installed is omitted. There is nothing. She just fucks off to lalaland with other Black Widows the end. Because we needed ending for Nat's actual family which was ok but also kinda rushed.

As I mentioned waaaay before (god, this rant is pretty long) too many hoops to jump through.

Which really sucks because if they added that one flashback scene just for Antonia and spared few more minutes for the overall ending it would work so much more better.

And I even know where they could have saved few minutes (besides the explosions thingies). The supply guy. One extra character in a movie with too many characters. In catws the supply problem (with wings) was solved with nbd shrug. If you wanted to show that Nat has her own web of contacts it should be more than one guy. IDK in Budapest there could be 10 second scene with neighbor saying hi nice to see you again we reinforced the walls after last time. In Norway we could see her visiting some special secret supply stash run by some rando before getting to the mobile home.

But oh she was on the run so that would be too many people. Then cut the people entirely. The shitty helicopter can be worked around with joke that I'm not on speaking terms with Stark rn and that's the best we can have on short notice.

Eh.. side rant again. Sorry.

So to wrap it up. I actually really would love to see what will happen with the loose Black Widows and Antonia because here they were really underdeveloped. And while widows were more of a group hero and we have Yelena as a representative so in a way it balances out but Taskmaster needed so little extra care to make her character so much better and I'm a tiiiiiiny bit salty about it.

[thebookbin]

The Sunbearer Trials

Aiden Thomas

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan Genre: young adult, fantasy Year: 2022

Me, every time I read a YA book:

I don’t know why I keep convincing myself to give them a try when I have clearly outgrown the genre. It’s probably the pretty covers and interesting blurbs, but yanno. I apparently can't trust myself. I'm an untrustworthy bitch.

Now, being the extremely gay fantasy-lover I am, when I saw the premise of the book I was immediately like yes. This is exactly what I want from a fantasy, a nonwhite setting with fantastical mythology and everybody's just so gay. But it just... disappointed me on all aspects.

I didn't used to be a prose snob, but now apparently I guess I am. I have just read some works that are so well-written that the more juvenile style of YA becomes grating. There were so many "he explained" and "she retorted"s. In my humble opinion, dialogue tags should only be used when there needs to be clarity over who is speaking. Also, what's wrong with plain ol' "said?" IDK it just takes me out of the story. Instead of focusing on what the characters are saying, I am so focused on these weird descriptors that are all over the place.

There are so many expressions that just come from an undeveloped writing style. "Terror gripped his spine" and "The curve of his muscles" were two phrases that I caught multiple times each, and they were so weird. There is an absurd amount of detail paid to clothes and appearance. It very much gives "secret-novel-I-wrote-in-high-school-that-was-lowkey-anime-fanfic."

First is the introduction to Teo. He is described as a troublemaker, but he rarely causes mischief and when he does, it's caricaturistic. His first introduction, he plays a "prank" on the described "bully." But because we don't get to see Ocelo actually be a bully, Teo becomes the bully in my eyes, humiliating them in front of a room full of gods. But literally as soon as anybody says anything to Teo, he gets so offended and cries. Characters constantly feel like caricatures: Niya is the literal stereotypical Nickelodeon Best Friend, like I'm pretty sure her character is just Sam Puckett. Loud, stupid, strong, and loves food. Aurelio, the strong and stoic type. His sister, the stereotypical high school bully, who is even described with a high pony tail!

There's also this weird hierarchy between types of gods. There are Gold gods and Jade gods. Gold gods are supposed to be "superior." But literally the only person who ever talks about this is Teo himself. It gets to the point where we as the audience start to wonder if it's all in Teo's head. Like yeah, Jades have never been in the Trials before, which means he's never had to worry about joining a life-or-death competition. And then Teo complains about not being allowed to go to the "Academy" (cue eye-roll), which is described as a place of abuse, anyway. Nobody literally says anything about Jades being less than Golds except Teo.

The comparison to Percy Jackson and The Hunger Games is so laughable. Both of those series have a main theme of systems of power being corrupt and harmful to society. But in The Sunbearer Trials the system itself is part of a religious order that is deeply rooted in latine cultures. I mean personally, any religion that requires child sacrifice isn't one worth following, but hey that's just me. But this culture isn't acknowledged as bad or flawed, even by the main character, the so called trouble-maker, the one who can see the flaws in the world, doesn't even have a doubt about the way this world is. It's like if Katniss was from the Capitol or Percy if he was more like Luke.

Just the idea of the entire world relying on teenagers à la Hunger Games but not for entertainment or a grotesque commentary on society but to literally keep the apocalypse from happening is probably the stupidest system for keeping the world from ending ever thought of.

There's just so much to say about this, because I wanted to like it. But the clumsy attempts at prose end up seeming like more of a rough draft for a novel than a complete novel in and of itself. I think I would consider reading another Aiden Thomas novel if it wasn't YA, and had gone through the higher publishing standards of the fantasy genre.

storygraph | bookshop.org | local houston

★★½ great idea but terrible execution stars

[atlasllm]

This may be cringe and idk if it's offensive but I have no idea what the fuck is going on in DreamSMP and if you want to info dump I would love to learn literally everything about it. If you want I can drop my discord.

-panicked.shrieking

I gave up the concept of cringe when I unironically joined the Onceler fandom. 

The Dream SMP is a Minecraft roleplay series, with a server run by Dream (and friends?) where a bunch of content creators are invited now and then. It’s very tough to keep track of actual videos for it sadly, since not all of the members archive their streams for it. Techno and Tommy do so from what I know, but there’s so many more perspectives. You could also try out the “clipshow” Youtube channels, they may not be ethical for stealing content but they do a good job putting it into edible pieces. From where I jumped on, Wilbur Soot made a drug van with Tommyinnit and Tubbo, and wanted to become their own nation. This started the war between the nation of “L’manburg” and the Dream SMP. At some point, L’manburg citizen Eret betrayed the others for Dream. However, L’manburg won its independance, and all was well for awhile.

After realizing that he just named himself ruler, Wilbur Soot called for an election, running against Quackity. Jschlatt (I don’t like his vibes very much) was invited to endorse Wilbur and Tommy, but ended up becoming his own party and becoming ruler of now “Manburg”.

Upset after losing their own nation, Wilbur and Tommy set off into a ravine, named Pogtopia, with the help of Technoblade (recently invited at the time, roleplaying an anarchist). Their friends, such as Niki and Tubbo, suffered Schlatt’s rule. At some point, Tubbo was executed for being a spy for Pogtopia, with Schlatt using Techno’s power to do so. This creates tension between Tommy and Techno.

This led to an all out battle between the Dream SMP/Manburg and the allies of Pogtopia. Pogtopia won back L’manburg, with the rulership going to Tubbo. Wilbur set off on his own after the battle and blew up L’manburg after realizing the nation he’s created has turned into a catalyst for pain and suffering. Knowing full well that he’s irredemable, he asks Philza (recently invited at the time, roleplaying Wilbur’s “father”) to kill him, which he does.

Realizing that he has been used as a pawn to take down the government so Wilbur and Tommy could have their own, Techno (known as a PvP master both in-universe and out-universe) releases a few Withers. He gets labeled as a traitor to L’manburg, and after destroying more of the country Techno retreats into a snowy forest to be a peaceful man.

Despite getting L’manburg back, Tommy is interested in getting some Minecraft discs back from Dream, who had them from the very first battles for L’manburg’s independance and refuses to rule, hence why Tubbo becomes president. However, he destroys the house of Dream’s best friend, Georgenotfound, and is found guilty. New member Ranboo is also suspected of doing so, but Tommy decides to take all the blame and gets exiled by Tubbo.

Dream is the only one who visits Tommy in exile, manipulating him to think that he’s his only friend. Tommy reaches a breaking point and seeks the help of Techno again, who’s reluctant but still willing to help him if he helps Techno destroy the new L’manburg. Tommy is hesitant, but they form an allyship anyway. I forget where this part happened, but Techno was a victim of a failed execution by Quackity, being executed for his crimes against L’manburg but escaping due to a Totem he had. He kills Quackity and goes on a mission to get his gear back (I believe Techno died in-game, and everyone saw it as an opportunity to get his OP gear and capture him while defenseless).

After being framed for blowing up the Community House by Dream, the oldest building on the server, Tommy snaps at the citizens of L’manburg and deems the discs more important than Tubbo. Realizing he’s been fighting for possessions this whole time, Tommy tries to redeem himself and sides with his best friend, Tubbo. Techno, feeling betrayed by Tommy once more, sides with Dream to destroy L’manburg once and for all.

Techno and Dream succeed (also aided by Philza, who lives with Techno in the snow forest after being unwillingly used to track down Techno), and all former L’manburg citizens can only watch as their home is destroyed.

This is where things start to get blurry from my perspective, since I’ve been busy:

Ranboo believes that he’s actually the one who blew up the Community House, and begins to hallucinate Dream’s voice in his head. Due to his memory issues, he can no longer distinguish between friend or foe, the real Dream or this “phantom” Dream.

At some point, Tommy and Tubbo go off to fight Dream for the discs once and for all. Dream and Awesamdude (Sam for short, he’s the Technoblade of redstone I think) have been building a grand prison that no one can escape from. Dream offers that it’s either the discs or their lives, and he aims to collect everyone else’s prized possessions in order to hold control over everyone in the server. He refuses to kill Tommy, because he’s just too fun to mess with; however, he is still willing to kill Tubbo if he steps out of line.

However, Punz, former ally of Dream, shows up and the old L’manburg citizens (and probably more) show up to fight against Dream. Dream surrenders, and becomes the first and only resident of the prison. He is only kept alive due to a supposed book that Schlatt gave him, which can bring people back from the dead. Tommy wishes to bring back Wilbur.

I think at this point, Tubbo goes off to create the country of Snowchester. Ranboo still struggles with memory problems, as he hasn’t recieved closure on whether or not he’s being manipulated by Dream or not. Techno and Philza have now formed “The Syndicate”, an anarchist group meant to go around and abolish governments.

At some point, Tommy confronts Dream in the prison. However, an explosion (most likely caused by Ranboo due to in-game evidence) causes the prison to go into lockdown, leaving Tommy with the server’s greatest enemy. After a week with each other, Dream kills Tommy after he kills the cat he has and screams his doubt about the resurrection book. Sam, the warden of the prison, feels guilt about Tommy’s death. The whole server mourns (except for the Syndicate). Jack Manifold, previously an ally to Tommy who worked with Niki to kill Tommy due to the bad things he’s done (I forget the exact events that led them to vengeance, but sometimes I don’t like Tommy’s vibes so I assume it’s related to that), realizes that this wasn’t what he wanted and mourns.

However, Tommy is ressurected by Dream; the book has been real the whole time, and Tommy regrets keeping Dream alive. He doesn’t want to bring Wilbur back anymore, but he also doesn’t have the strength to kill Dream. I don’t think anyone realizes Tommy’s alive yet.

All while this is happening, the “Badlands” ruled by Badboyhalo, Antfrost, and Skeppy (among others, I forget their names) are getting posessed by a giant red egg; their goal is to spread the egg’s corruption, which slowly has taken over the lands of L’manburg and the Dream SMP area.

Captain Puffy seeks the help of the Techno to destroy the egg.

Aaand that’s all I know. 

[jamlocked]

C, J, U, V and X :))

C -  A ship you have never liked and probably never will.

Ohhhh, boy. I could go three ways on this really...or maybe two, idk. I feel like my answer will be taken as problematic - - and I’m going for it anyway, because it’s just my opinion. 

The ship I dislike the most is Sherlolly. It’s not because I don’t like Molly - I do, a lot. It’s not because that would make Sherlock straight or bi - the whole argument that used to fly about that Sherlolly = homophobic is fucking gross. It’s just not a ship that does anything for me. I used to think that I just found it boring (and this is NOT me saying that Molly is boring, or het romance is boring, or any of that), but I’ve come to realise it’s mostly because it vibes with the part of Sherlock’s narrative I like the least. The whole, ‘Sherlock was weird and abnormal with no friends, but now we’re going to turn him into a complete human being’, thing. Which, VOMIT. 

Again, I’m not saying that het romance is too ‘normal’ to fit here. Sherlock could have a massive thing with Irene, and that would have a vibe I like far more. The issue I have with Sherlolly is that Sherlock has always been an extreme type of character in whatever canon. Molly, in BBC canon, is this wonderful character Sherlock came to find a great friend in. The notion that he could ‘learn to be normal/complete’ seems to be the arc of the four seasons, complete with the whole ‘I love you’ scene in TFP, where they full dangled the possibility of future!canon!Sherlolly by at least making Sherlock think about it seriously. It seems to equate with ‘the more we teach Sherlock to fit into ‘normal’ society, the more chance he has of having a ‘normal’ relationship, with someone...’ - okay, I’m not going to hold Molly up as a bastion of normality, given she falls for sociopaths and does autopsies, but even if you take that into consideration, it’s still the most ‘normal’ relationship the writers could put him into. A casual viewer would go, ‘he’s got a girlfriend now, he behaves better, he gets on with his family, he’s straight/white/upper middle-class = totally a character I’m easy with’. 

And that’s just not what interests me when it comes to relationships I want to watch. Now, if we’re talking about dark!Molly who’s into Glee and cats, but also runs a black market organ business and wants Sherlock to help sort out the competition - I’m totally here for that. If Molly likes her knitted cardigans and secretly wants to kill Sherlock, while he likes his suits and is madly in love her but also wants to use her to get to her criminal mother who harvests dead bodies and practices necromancy? I’m all ears. 

But ‘Sherlock gets a girlfriend, solves crimes, learns manners and is never obnoxious again, and OH LOOK WE FIXED HIM’ - fuck, no.  ...that was a lot of words, and I didn’t explain it very clearly, but I’ma stop now. 

J -    Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

Tumblr has made me aware of BTS, The Witcher (although I had seen adverts for that on Amazon, but idk anything about it), Hamilton, Moomin, MASH, The Mentalist, Kyo Dir en Grey, Elementary ...oh man, there must be more, but I forget. I’ve been here a few years now. I’d heard of most of these shows/people before Tumblr, of course, but didn’t know much about them. And still don’t on some of them, but am definitely aware of them now. 

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Jim Moriarty, obviously. HE IS SO FUN. And there is such pain under the smirk, and THOSE SUITS, BABY. I am the biggest sucker in the world for obsession, and ...well, see my answer to X in a minute. There’s nothing about him I don’t ove. So much scope to play with in fic as well. 

An old fandom of mine - Les Mis. My fave character is Javert, because of course I love the most awful dick of them all. Again, with him, see X below. And also again, so much to write about. I literally nearly based a PhD proposal around him, and his representation, his place in 19th century France, his attitudes and where they came from. Did you know the character of Sam Gerard in The Fugitive is based on him? He’s relentless, he’s unforgiving, and he collapses at the end in the most spectacular way possible. Total prick, and I fucking love him. :D

I’m really trying to think of character I love who isn’t a total douche, just for the sake of variety. But I can’t, so lets go with Gene Hunt from Life on Mars. 

I expect most people won’t have heard of/seen this show (but omg they might be making a new series, sa;ldfkjsalfksj I CANNOT :D), but if you can watch it, you should. Gene Hunt is awful - a 70s cop with all the faults of the time. Corrupt, mostly alcoholic, sexist, violent, homophobic, racist...but also hilarious, and there’s a really big heart under there. You learn that he might do nothing but call people the worst names in the world, but he always ends up doing his job in. If you watch this four minute video, you’ll get the gist. If you’re a fan of the Discworld series and you like Sam Vimes, you’ll recognise Gene. He’s the arshetype of Copper, and he goes on this great arc from being the stereotypical bad copper of the 70s, to being something quite different. And he really is hilarious, with insane charisma. He and Sam Tyler are the perfect double act. :D

V - Which character do you relate to most?

Jim Moriarty. I may not be a criminal mastermind, but only because I’m not that smart. And don’t have his level of swag, because c’mon. Who does?

X - A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

AHAHA. My bulletproof trope is ‘two sides of the same coin’. Sherlock/Moriarty. Javert/Jean Valjean - who, incidentally, were two characters based off one man; Vidocq. (A man who more films should be made about, incidentally.) These two are literally two sides of one man. Even Gene Hunt represents part of Sam’s psyche in Life on Mars, as well as the more obvious old vs new, forensic vs gut instinct. 

But yeah, in literally any fandom, you show me a protagonist and an antagonist that are more or less the same person, and I’m there. Cannot get enough of it. 

[zoedozy]

alright i’m barely even coherent enough to type down my thoughts after 5 hours of sleep and an episode of hyperventilating and sobbing but let’s fucking do this

let’s start with this: this is the canon ending we have. you can choose to love it, hate it or be neutral. just respect other’s opinions on it and don’t harass anyone. and please know that the team behind voltron worked hours, weeks, months, to years on this show. 

now let’s get down to business to defeat the huns

i’m sure lance, allura and allurance stans can agree they both deserved better. now allurance may not have been my ideal endgame (if you can call it that), but it was still cute. i saw it coming, we all kinda did. lance has grown and matured enough as a person, and allura saw that at least. so i am pleased with what we got with them. the date, the kiss, the cuddling and lance’s genuine care and worry for allura really made me like what they had while it lasted. 

also rip to any other shippers out there, especially to the plance and sheith shippers out there, as a plance and sheith shipper myself i mourn with you. but remember, not everything has to be canon in order for you to love it. 

now i think we should really get to business. 

allura deserved so much better. she was someone who had thing taken from her: her family, her planet, her entire race, her crown and finally her own life. and she accepted that. which is unfair beyond belief, she deserves to be happy with the rest of the paladins. but after bingeing the past seasons, there were many times where allura would attempt to do things for the greater good, even if it cost her life. it felt obvious in the end. does that mean i agree with it? no. does that mean i didn’t bawl at 8am? absolutely not. i may be brain dead at the moment, but i can’t think of another way to restore every reality imaginable, to let other characters live. in the end she was able to bring life back to destroyed planets, at the cost of her own. 

each goodbye she said to the paladins ripped my heart out, what hurts me most that she couldn’t say one to coran, her second father. the man who helped raised her didn’t even get to say goodbye.

now my theory about lance becoming altean(?) is that it was obviously a gift to him, to remember her bye. does that mean he has altean powers now? idk. we don’t get an explanation other than his marking glow when the voltron lions fly off. i’ve seen someone say it could be a soulmate mark and it glows when allura’s presence is near?? i like that idea

also what was with the lions?? why did they fly off? did they pick up some energy and that’s why they were flying towards the shape of allura in space? or were they flying away because they were no longer needed to protect the universe?? or it was used as a dramatic effect to send off the series. i really hope to get some answers

ok but it all honestly, for voltron to have a m/m kiss is pretty big. i’m happy shiro found true happiness, but i’m obviously disappointed it wasn’t keith, aka, his best friend, the man who was literally the closest person to him. i mean curtis is okay, he cute i guess. but he’s literally some random dude that shiro knew only for a year, and we didn’t see that development besides curtis cheering him on at the arm wrestling competition and then boom! wedding. keith knew him for years, and you can’t just forget about their relationship like that. 

i’m pleased to know for sure lotor was severely misguided, and his true intention was to help people. but the years of abuse finally made him snap, and he suffered. he looked happy to see his mother, and his real father on the other side. also let’s mention that lotor’s corpse was still inside the sincline and it was decomposing YIKES. AND MY THEORY ABOUT THE CORRUPTED QUINTESSENCE IN HIS VEINS WAS RIGHT I CAN BE HAPPY ABOUT THAT AT LEAST!

alright now for some stuff that hasn’t really been talked about

let me gush about pidge and the holts in general because it’s mandatory. pidge was willing to give up a super rare video game to dress allura up, and to make lance happy. SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN BY THE DESTRUCTION OF OLKARION, SHE APPRECIATED WHAT RYNER TAUGHT HER SO MUCH!!! SHE COULD SE THROUGH TIME YO!! pidge moved on from her glasses.. giving them to her robot chip to show that her character arc is finally done, how much she’s grown. god THAT SHIT HURTED. colleen and pidge are literally me and my own mother and i love them. matt with a pony tail is amazing, and short hair matt ain’t half bad yo. sam holt still continues to be a legend

HUNK GOT THE BEST OF THIS SEASON LET’S BE REAL. HE WAS AN ICON THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE THING

og paladins?? zarkon realizing what he did?? holy shit

there was like... nothing of keith and shiro. so rip sheith again

kosmo got REALLY FUCKING BIG

and once again, allura deserved all the happiness in the world

(12/15) EDIT

i got some more stuff

again, allura deserved better and didn’t even need to die. yeah, with her gaining access to oriande and saying “i need to learn the secrets of life. i give my own.” was a hint to her death. even if we got the open ambiguous ending with shiro and keith, allura would’ve died anyway. i feel that was inevitable with all the build up with her attempted sacrifices before. but what doesn’t make sense about it and why it wasn’t needed, is that honerva also gained access to oriande, she would’ve learned just as much as allura. so allura dying with honerva is unnecessary. honerva could’ve just died alone to bring back every reality without allura. it could’ve been avoidable, so yeah it’s unfair.

also i fully believe lance ain’t altean, the marks are just a reminder of allura. it’s practically a scar for him to remember her, and they glow when her presence is around. i feel he won’t be able to fully move on from that, and it’s just cruel to have him emotionally suffer like that. tbh i also don’t think it’s wrong for lance to be a farmer, he already knew how to milk a cow so? i guess some of his family were involved with a farm in the first place idk.

the very final image with allura space i think is the reference to the cosmic dust, and how they are all connected in a way. still don’t know why the lions left their paladins on altea just to fly into space but go off i guess

pidge gave up her own happiness for allurance’s, pidge really out there supporting allurance. also i will always believe pidge had a crush on lance and swallowed it down in order to make someone else happy and that’s that. rip plance but it’s still in my heart

also bi veronica and lesbian acxa own my soul thanks

ryan kinkade?? a true director, everyone loves him.

i hope hunay may have gotten together post canon so i have that but rip team punk but i always saw them more as a brotp

like sheith was literally forgotten about... all of what they meant to each other just disappeared and it was bs. i could go on but i don’t wanna get more upset.

in conclusion: sheith and allurance deserved better, allura deserved better in general, so did lance, basically everyone deserved better in this season. many writers left after s6 because they didn’t agree with what dreamworks wanted to do with the show and that’s why it’s so messy. the staff had their hands tied. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

so. wow that’s it huh? that’s the last premiere of voltron i can rant about. well, it’s been one hell of a ride, folks.

[verobatto]

"Break the jar, and do it again." The slow construction of Canon Destiel

Ok people the hiatus is gone and the new chapter aired so we have now time for interesting thoughts…

This is another Destiel meta, sorry again if anyone already talked about this ideas, you can share your opinions here!

We want Destiel become canon. That's law. But how you get together two characters with such defectives inner issues? Like Cas and Dean? Are they ready to be together? I know we are just NEAR to... But we need just a little big step for that...

Before we start to break things here... I want to discuss about one of the most important tool used by Supernatural writers... And bc I like symbolic titles... I'm gonna title it like this...

Supernatural and the Phoenix Complex

Spn must be the most mortal series, and we have memes of our beloved characters's taste for dying over and over again throughout the entire series and reliving in the same season or in the next.

Like the Phoenix, they reborn from their ashes renewed. And that's the meaning from this.: "I'm giving you this so many chances to change your point of view, so you can see with new eyes."

Is the same concept with the breaking point trough lost, pain and tragedy.

Moving this idea to the slow construction of Canon Destiel, we had witnessed how they broke Cas and Dean over and over again, just to develop their characters into a renewed and healthy ones, only in this way, they'd be able to love each other in a plenty way.

So .. let's keep the concept about "breaking the defective jar, to make the jar again." A new one, a better one...

We need new Cas and new Dean, loving themselves, growing in self acceptance and learning about communication.

Ok .. now we're ready for the jam here...

... Let's brake some jars ...

1) Breaking Castiel

Well... We have this millennial Supernatural been with a very hard to break settings. A program that every angel have: Obedience, castity, submission and complete the mission. How do you break a program like that? We need a really good hacker... Maybe one with green eyes? 😹

Godstiel.

Godstiel was the result from a desperate decisions coming from Cas to protect Dean from another Apocalypse. Cas couldn't manage the immensely of having thousands of souls and the hug power corrupted him.

But this traumatic experience didn't help Cas to improve. This experience gave us a depressing Castiel for the following two seasons. So this... Just depressed him deeply.

Human!Cas

Human!Cas was the breaking point for the character. This was the improvement he needed. Being human guide him to a brand new Cas. Changing his perspective about humanity and make him fell more in love with it 😉 if you know what I mean. This was the remarkable, tragic, but blessed situation that brought him to the bottom of himself. Yes. He was broken but still learning and growing. This was good for the character.

Empty!Cas and AUCastiel

Empty!Cas was another very important impulse for the character, at the beginning of the s13, where Cas talking with the Empty, was like "looking himself in the mirror" but not really, was more the meaning of it. Cas faces himself, his fears and feelings, he embraced all of that, and knowing he already was saved, he came back with his family. Closing this meaning by the end of the same season when he faces now AUCastiel, another "looking himself in the mirror" and he embraces his family, the Winchesters. Knowing AUCastiel helped Cas to reconciling with himself. And the meaning of killing that part of him, big development of the character. Cas killed all that lack of emotion, lack of fee will. Now he knows he don't regret chose Dean, humanity, and fell for it. That was huge for him, and prepared us to close his character issues. Now that he can love himself, he could freely love Dean.

But... We still have that miscommunication factor that is the last step. Aaaand the little, tiny big detail that he already confessed his love to Dean and he felt rejected? Well yes... That's bad...

Mourning!Cas

Mourning!Cas, the actual arc, came to sell the character giving him the last lesson trough pain and loose. How this Cas, whom tasted corruption, depression, redemption, humanity, reacts now facing AUMichael!Dean. Facing lost. Facing this "bond in pause" as I mentioned in my other meta, as Dean faced it in s13 with Castiel's death. Well I'm not very sure about if he is into a soldier mode? Or depressing mode? I'm gonna choose the second one... When he talks with Jack and said WE ARE GONNS FIGHT AND GET DEAN BACK AND KILL AU MICHAEL and etc, etc... He is talking with himself, and he is almost in tears... Emotional... He looks more human in his facial expressions. So yes .. Cas is being very human... He miss Dean... The bond is in pause.... Sigh... I hope he become more determined and aggressive to get Dean back... Let's wait and see... But this episode 1 Cas sounded me like... "I just wait here, then" please come back Dean. 🤷 I'm clueless...

2) Breaking Dean

Dean had always the height from being the first born, the obedient son, carrying on his shoulders with the oppressive idea of a toxic masculinity, the responsibility for being the older brother, toxic codependency and last, but not less important, fighting against his repressed feelings and desires. This whole defective jar needs a lot of breaking.

His years in Hell

Well, we have a very heavy past here, Dean have been trough so many traumatic experiences, he had suffer the lost from his father and Sam. The pressure of being responsible of his father death and not being able to save his brother, consumed him I'm despair, and that led him to make that deal with the cross road demon.

Once in hell he breaks... And when he come back, he just talked about it once with Sam. And that's it. Bc Dean .. and here is the big growing up impediment of the character... He's the Master of Disguise.

(And we have symbolism here again, bc Dean loves disguise, we had seen him in many chapters playing with it... He use disguise as an scape for fun... And for self protection. We could said he disguise his body and his feelings... And that's it)

So he pushes all those feelings again deep down his soul. This feelings and trauma doesn't' exist if I don't look at them. I'll be just fine!

So Hell was a traumatic experience, but it didn't improve the character for good. He remains as constipated emotionally as when he started. So... Not good.

Purgatory

I had already talked about how Dean facing his pure and true feelings in this place. This traumatic experience was positive for the character, bc how I said before, in Purgatory Dean realizes that he is in love with Cas when in his soul remains just what was pure in him (without others humans necessities). Maybe he wouldn't use the 'L' word here, he used the "Need" word as a love confession, then he felt rejected by Cas and decided locking his feelings again, but yes... Now he knows.

Yes... Season 8 was good... 😏

The mark of Cain and Demon!Dean

This was very traumatic for Dean and for us! Dean become a monster. Literally. He hit bottom here... A very good breaking point! But again... He continued doing the same "put down the feelings, and everything will be just fine".

The only good thing here was this inner realization...

This is what Dean learns going through that traumatic experience.

Cas showed him that he knew him very well, and even so, he accepted him. That was scary for Dean. That's a feeling he wasn't used to manage.

Something is growing up slowly in his mind, the idea of sharing his life with someone else...

Gif from @veryamooseing blog

I like that seed that was planted and become to release a little bud...

And this idea is settled when Dean felt he was about to change and die. He was a monster that was about to kill his own brother. When he become in what he hated and hunted all his life, he breaks again and in that huge situation, he become to reorder his priorities. Love, family, retirement? Settled down with a hunter? Building Dean' cave and watch movies with Cas?

Mourning!Dean

Dabb's era brought us a recurring fact: Dean goes crazy when Cas isn't in the bunker or don't answer the phone.

We thought wen Cas come back Dean would be able to recognize his feelings for him and maybe... Tell him??? Or change a little about it? But no. What we get after all this mourning was again, the pushing down emotions and more fear. Yes... A disaster! Dean keeps locked into this emotional prison and he can't get out himself for it. He doesn't advance. He is stuck. And now that he's afraid of loosing people he loves (Castiel) and now that he realizes he's in love with Cas... Well more and more fear... Sigh...

Michael!Dean

Well this is so interesting plot and opportunity for Dean's character development. We have AUMichael talking with two people about LOVE, PEACE, PURITY AND SAVE THE WORLD. If this isn not a mirror for Empty!Cas then idk what it is... And yes .. this is AUMichael talking indirectly to Dean...

"You think you want peace? But you bring war all the time with your actions... You think you want Love? But you lock it down and ignore it. You think you have purity in your heart? But you are just lies. You think you save the world? But you can't even save you from your own hate for yourself.

Yes, this is a huge opportunity for Dean to begin once for all to grow up in self acceptance and in love for himself, facing as it was in Purgatory, the purity that remains in his heart and soul. He can reach peace enjoying retirement with Cas and Sam. He can love Cas romantically and he can love his family in a healthy way.

This is the new Dean we are expecting to find through S14. This is the kind of breaking point, phoenix complex, new and improved jar, we were waiting for Dean. Let's see what happens.

So slow, slow, slowly but with sure steps we hope the construction of Destiel Canon wait for us at the end of this journey.

Sorry... This is so large!! Did you really read this mess? I really sorry... But if you did, please feel free to discuss.

I'm tagging for debate...

@magnificent-winged-beast @sactownbrowns3 @lovemesomecas94 @naruhearts @thedogsled @dimples-of-discontent @lykanyouko @mrsaquaman187 @evvvissticante @agusvedder @navajolovesdestiel @destielhoneybee @castiellover20

And everyone who want to discuss!

[goforwardgreenwriter-blog]

The Worm Reads: The Assassin’s Blade, Ch 5-6

*long, deep sigh*

Dinner with Sam was silent, and Rolfe appeared at eight to bring them both to the holding facility. Sam didn’t even ask where they were going. He just played along, as if he’d known the whole time.

I say, that’s my smart assassin boy! He never lets the enemy know they have the upper hand, I fucking love Sammy. Can this book be about him please?

Rolfe takes them to a warehouse full of slaves and Celery splooges over how bad she feels for them. Footage not found, bitch!

Aside from some occasional muffled weeping, the slaves were silent. Some of their eyes widened at the sight of her. She’d forgotten how she must appear—faceless, cloak waving behind her, striding past them like Death itself. Some of the slaves even sketched invisible marks in the air, warding off whatever evil they thought she was.

This might be cool if Celery was actually like, a bad ass assassin who deserves to be feared? I’m a thin ass weakling whose never been in a fight in her entire life and I could beat Celery with one fist tied behind my back.

Celaena’s heart pounded faster. Even after all these years, people still defied Adarlan’s conquest. But what right did Adarlan—or Rolfe, or anyone—have to treat them like this?

Funny how Celery acknowledges this but is completely fine with them being slaves for Rolfe........funny....

The men standing around the Eyllwe prisoner parted as Rolfe approached, bowing their heads. She recognized two of the men from dinner the previous night: the short, bald Captain Fairview and the one-eyed, hulking Captain Blackgold.

They sound way cooler than Celery. Can she drop dead and the book be about Sammy going on pirate adventures on the seas with these guys?

“I’d send him to the market in Bellhaven. Lots of rich men there needing strong hands to do their building. Or women needing strong hands for something else entirely.” [Captain Fairview] winked in Celaena’s direction.

Aaaand SJM ruined it. Great. Can I get one male character besides Sammy who thinks about something other than sex for five seconds? Pretty please?

They ask questions about the slaves and it’s just. Making me cringe so I’ll skip the details. The subject of brothels comes up and Sammy gets upset so Celery info dumps his backstory onto us.

His mother, sold at eight to a brothel, had spent her too-short twenty-eight years clawing her way up from an orphan to one of the most successful courtesans in Rifthold. She’d had Sam only six years before she’d died murdered by a jealous client. And though she’d amassed some money, it hadn’t been enough to liberate her from her brothel—or to provide for Sam. But she’d been a favorite of Arobynn’s, and when he’d learned that she wanted Sam to be trained by him, he’d taken the boy in.

Love this trend of YA mothers dying for their family to angst over. Fuck it, Sammy’s mother deserves better. She can join Darrow, Gav, Sammy, and Manon in a better series where she knits sweaters for all of them and her pet dogs. She deserves it.

Celery is like “death is better than slavery” which, okay I understand what she’s trying to say, but then she goes off about it like is she planning to kill these slave to free them?? This writing is off the wall tbh. Anyways she leaves after that and Sammy follows.

“Celaena, wait!” Sam called, panting as he walked after her.

Why is he panting if he’s just walking? He’s not even walking fast, he’s just out of breath keeping a moderate pace. Gg on the writing there, SJM.

So Celery walks down into the water and takes off her mask and cloak for some reason?

Bath-warm waves flooded past her, and she kicked up a spray of water as she kept walking. Before she could get deeper than her calves, Sam grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?” he demanded. She yanked on her arm, but he held firm.

So Sam is literally like “Uhhh it’s like super late, what are you doing?” and she starts to fucking wrestle him?? They’re wrestling in the water??? But why???

“I’m not going to let go until you promise to stop attacking me,” Sam said. His face was inches away, and she felt the breath of every one of his words on her mouth. She took an uneven breath, then another. She had no reason to attack Sam. Not when he’d kept her from gutting that pirate in the warehouse. Not when he’d gotten so riled about the slave children. Her legs trembled with pain.

Seriously what the fuck!!! Celery decides to pick a fight for him for literally no reason, then she splooges about how handsome he is, then she’s like “yeah we have no reason to fight” like what was the point of all this!!! Was this book not edited???

“I might do something as foolish as freeing the slaves,” she said. Sam went so still that he might have been turned into stone. “I knew you were thinking up something—but freeing them …”

So this was just so Sammy could find out her plans? But why?? Why don’t your characters function like regular human beings, SJM?

If I was writing this scene, I’d have Celery stomp off and Sam follow her, asking what’s wrong, and Celery knows Sammy is a good person so she tells him about her plans to free the slaves. There, cut out so much pointless bullshit.

“I have to try,” she said. “Why?” Sam stepped close enough that she needed to tilt her head back to see his face. “We’re assassins. We kill people. We destroy lives every day.”

In theory he’s not wrong, but assassin usually stick to killing corrupt political figures and dangerous people. Slavery is just stripping people of their rights and freedoms and enslaving them. Man, this book is really making me explain why slavery is wrong, isn’t it?

“We kill corrupt officials and adulterous spouses; we make it quick and clean. These are entire families being ripped apart. Every one of these people used to be somebody.”

See, even Celery understands this! Idk what SJM was smoking when she came up with this plot, but she gotta stop.

Anyways, Sammy is obviously not on board for this slavery thing and agrees to help out, only he doesn’t splooge about how that makes him a ~white savior~ or whatever so I’m actually rooting for him.

He groaned. “You already have a plan?” She grinned, then told him everything. When she finished, he only scratched his head. “Well,” he admitted, sitting on the sand, “I suppose that’d work. We’d have to time it right, but …”

Love how we don’t get to hear the plan so SJM can pull whatever she wants out of her ass and chalk it up to “Oh Celery told Sammy off screen so it was all planned lol”

Sammy implies Arobynn has more motives for sending them here than just getting him some slaves and Celery doesn’t believe him and I don’t care. Next chapter!

After yet another miserably hot and sleepless night, Celaena spent the following day with Sam, walking through the streets of Skull’s Bay.

Damn, I was lowkey hoping for a Sammy POV. I’‘d much rather be in his head than Celery’s.

From flirting with the harlots along the main street, Sam learned that every once in a while, Rolfe covered the tab for all the pirates in his service, and the revelry lasted for days.

Not for a lack of trying Sammy, but... what does this have to do with the slavery trade?

Oh, immediately after SJM is like “Lol the harlots have him some other pointers too hee hee” Great. Fuckin’ great. Never mind that he’s what, 17, and we don’t know how old those women are?

Rolfe ran a hand through his dark hair. “Don’t you two ever stop questioning? There’s no way of predicting how many slaves you’ll lose. Just keep them watered and fed.”

Rolfe is tired of this shit like me. Same hat, Rolfe, same hat.

They go to the group of slaves that’s for Arobynn and Celery asks if any of the slaves speak the Common tongue. Only one dude can.

What’s your name?” Celaena asked the slave. “Dia.” His long, frail fingers trembled slightly. “You’re fluent?” He nodded.

This guy is old and can’t be used for porn, so he’ll probably die for Celery’s angst. Ungh. Don’t know what would be worse, this or having a young hot slave speak Common so there can be a love triangle between him, Celery, and Sammy.

The scene ends and the next one starts up. If this had been written in current day, SJM would’ve added a chapter cliffhanger here.

Hours later, no one noticed—or if they did, they certainly didn’t care—when two cloaked figures slipped into two rowboats and headed toward the slave ships hovering several hundred yards offshore.

UHHHHHHHHHHHH I’M GONNA SAY THE FORMER BECAUSE????? Who wouldn’t think two cloaked people heading for the ship with slaves on it was suspicious??? Do all the pirates have mashed potatoes for brains????

It hadn’t taken long for word to get out that Arobynn Hamel’s assassins had opened a celebratory tab at the tavern, and even as they had strode to the docks, pirates were already streaming the other way toward the inn.

Even so, they still have guards on watch?? Rofle specifically said this earlier??? This fuckin’ book.

Celery and Sam make it to the ships and give each other a signal, ending the chapter. I’m ready for this snoozefeast to be over.

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Okay last one for the night because I am really tired and very ready for bed but I’ve gotta get in my Avengers commentary because I have to start off tomorrow on a clean slate and ready to go. Thus, here we are.

1. In lieu of only post Infinity War MCU canon, Loki’s rhetoric at the very beginning of The Avengers sounds a fucking lot like Maw’s. In the initial scenes when he’s fresh off the Tesseract Express his words and way of speaking sound nothing like his own. Even comparing his speeches at the outset of the movie versus the one he makes in Stuttgart, the tones and focuses of them are very different. (IE the first speech focuses on the “powers at be” versus the Stuttgart speech focusing on Loki’s personal opinions of humanity which are more and more developed throughout the film.) But it struck me that these first scenes are precisely on-cue for someone tortured and brainwashed by, say, The Black Order. 2. Given I literally just watched the first Captain America yesterday, I find Cap’s “old fashioned” comment about the stars and stripes on his uniform to be both sad and interesting. Especially given the context that comparatively Cap hasn’t been “up” for very long, one particular comment made to him by Schmidt literally moments before he went into the ice stands out. Schmidt says that through the Tesseract he glimpsed the future, and that there were no flags. In the America and world Steve wakes up to, compared to the world of the 1940s that claim of Schmidt’s could very suddenly appear to be true, which would be understandably uncomfortable for someone like Steve who is usually determined and quick on his feet but at such a staggering disadvantage because of the gap between his mindset and that of his contemporaries which are more varied than he necessarily knows how to quantify right at the outset. Watching his progress throughout the MCU in light of that is interesting, but that one moment of introspection about the utility of the “stars and stripes” is a uniquely postmodern comment coming from a pre-modern/modern man. 3. Okay so this intrigues me now that we have the Guardians and pretty much the entire universe in play in the MCU, but what “greater worlds,” exactly, was the Tesseract supposed to unveil? True the Tesseract is the space stone and verifiably can open portals to everywhere and anywhere in the universe, but Loki specifically makes the claim that the Tesseract can open up access to “greater worlds,” and I’m honestly still not entirely sure what precise reference this was supposed to be making. Because Thanos barely might have arguably needed the Tesseract to get to the planet the Soul Stone was on, but even so that’s a connection that still somehow feels like a stretch. So my question is, what if they meaning the Black Order or Thanos or possibly even Loki needed the Tesseract to get at something else? Somewhere else? Then again, this particular slip might just be Whedon’s doing and not necessarily be reflective of the culmination of the MCU up to this point so IDK. 4. I’m not going to lie, I’ve found it fascinating from day one that The Avengers very openly plays with godhood, to the point that I’m genuinely not sure if they’re reifying it in the MCU or tinkering with it. I mean obviously in the later movies this theme is less stressed because the tinkering patently takes precedence, but it’s still cool to me that there are both scripted and visual imagery that tie in multicultural interpretations of godhood. Fury mentions the burial rites of the Pharaohs within the first ten minutes of the film, Loki commits a human sacrifice on a Babylonian bull altar straight from Gilgamesh era in Stuttgart, Cap makes a comment about how his singular god does and does not dress after Natasha herself labels Thor and Loki as gods, and Fury unashamedly labels Thor as a god when they release the Tesseract to his custody. And while a bit ham-fisted, the correlation between theism and the bleeding-edge demand to acknowledge the reality of the universe is still pretty neat guys. 5. The old man in Stuttgart because no FUCK. If any of y’all think that my Germanist ass won’t get misty-eyed and choked-up during this scene, you’re wrong. 6. Okay so I’ll premise this by saying that I haven’t cross-checked the official script because frankly... yeah frankly I don’t want to be wrong and I really can’t hear anything but what I believe to be my interpretation of the line even though I know what the other fan alternatives have been. But when Thor and Loki are arguing on the mountaintop, when Loki says that he, “Was and should be ---,” my hearing of it instead of having been “Was and should be king,” is “Was and should be killed.” And while I’ll bow to whatever official record claims otherwise, I like my hearing better so there. (Also... there’s zero hint of Hiddleston’s palate producing a “g” sound in that sentence but I’ll put my inner linguist away and leave it at that.) 7. In light of that scene, though, when Loki and Thor are arguing is one of the first moments when Loki actually sounds like himself after the Stuttgart scene? Prior to that point the only times we see Loki is when he’s marshaling his human troops and getting policed by those lording over him. In all of those initial scenes Loki feels... very un-Loki to me. Not because Loki isn’t a bastard (hint: he is), but because his motivations and justifications are vague and not seemingly personally motivated, which is what Loki is to a fault. Post-Stuttgart, however, and the personal element seems to return for him because of some reason or another. (IE I have theories but you can read your own into it.) 8. Let it never be said that Thor is a dull bulb. Yeah it’s still sort of unclear how Thor got to Earth (though nothing is unclear about why Thor is pissed), but Thor does walk in with more than enough information to be frankly a little surprising. Bless Heimdall and all that, but seriously the fact that Thor knows about the Chitauri but doesn’t know other things casts an interesting focus on what he was told by Odin and Heimdall before going. Most importantly, though, even from conversing with Loki for a few minutes, Thor is attentive enough to pick up on some of what Loki isn’t saying. Such as, just who showed Loki how to use the Tesseract and all the things Loki claims to be motivated by. Equally interestingly, Loki specifically refuses to answer that question. 9. I feel bad for Fury for sleeping in a den of vipers for so long - though I do like the build-up from the first Avengers into the following issues with HYDRA corruption - but in ways more important to the immediate issue in the first Avengers, Fury might be a shady bitch but he is not an idiot. Because while everyone else was having pissing contests and not trusting one another, Fury was not trusting the person that deserved to be trusted the least, which isn’t just good leadership, but is good spycraft. 10. As established later in the MCU, it’s exceedingly clever that even in the first Avengers there are scenes when even without a “wielder” present, the Mind Stone - as-yet unidentified as such in the MCU - can be seen manipulating those in its vicinity such as in the lab where the biggest catfight in the history of the MCU breaks out. I mean. Until CA:CW... 11. Steve Rogers, poor cinnamon roll, unexpectedly served at dinner instead of breakfast, who cracks jokes about technology he really isn’t that bad at as “seeming to run on some kind of electricity.” Bless. Though really that internal console, while doing complicated shit, is definitely not any more or less visually complicated than the interior of a radio relay which Steve definitely dealt with in his day but kudos for the humor bb, A+. 12. Still one of the strongest and most harrowing lines ever said in the MCU in my opinion: “We are NOT soldiers.” Know why? Because they aren’t. Hell, the only ones among them that are soldiers - and some by slim and emergency-driven margins - are Steve, Bucky, Rhodey, and Sam. The rest of them are brilliant, gifted, and tortured civilians trying to do the right thing. And to Tony Stark above all else, that means something. That means that they didn’t get training to deal with this shit. They didn’t choose for this to be their lives, necessarily. And above all, they don’t deserve to die. And even though Tony knows Coulson is a SHIELD agent, Tony still considers him a person before a disposable “soldier.” 13. Mother-fucking Marvel give me an entire series devoted to my Hawk Guy I need him. You have so much to work with and yet you’re so good at squandering him. I hate it. 14. In light of how bad NYC got fucked up, it’s honestly no wonder Jessica Jones has a drinking problem because I would too even without the personal loss, experimentation, and emotional maladjustment. 15. IN WHAT FUCKING POST-9/11 WORLD DO BUSINESS BUILDINGS NOT HAVE VERY STRICT EVACUATION PLANS. SERIOUSLY. I am a little mad that there are morons ogling out of office building windows when frankly that shit wouldn’t fly. Even on fucking 9/11 that shit didn’t fly and if you think NYC is less paranoid because 9/11 was a decade prior to this movie coming out, you’re wrong. Everyone remembers, and city evacuation ordinances will sure as hell never forget either. Come on Marvel. 16. As a point of interest my grandmother - who also went to see The Avengers with me when it was in theaters but not at the midnight showing like my mom - was 84 at the time and still sat through the whole thing with a bucket full of popcorn to herself, and her favorite moment to this day is when the Hulk tosses Loki around like a rag doll. She’s 90 now, and the Hulk is still her favorite character. 17. Mother-Fuckin Nick Fury will cock-block your nuclear strike with a bazooka because he thinks you’re that dumb. Do not test Nick Fury’s willingness to be Extra (TM) . You will lose. 18. Real talk, though, I’m really curious about whether the Chitauri actually are a hive mind race or, is it their technology that runs of a hive mind link? Because the armor at least on the giant toothy space whale monstrosities does not look organic - it looks implanted. The Chitauri foot soldiers also seem to have a unique biologically based interface with their weapons, armor, and technology in general, which begs the question of whether their biometric matrix is just somehow more inclined toward shared-existence technologies, or whether they self-engineered themselves into a corner by relying on said technologies too much. Seriously guys I have questions and why won’t Marvel give me answers. 19. As a final send-off, this is the first time Tony has ever driven an Acura in the MCU and I refuse to believe it’s not because of the Avengers “A” aesthetic. Tony is canonically an Audi man. Fight me on this.

Okay I’m seriously done for now it’s 1 AM and I need to sleep I have 4 more movies to get through tomorrow. I’ll be up and around and at my shit again in the morn.∞

[originaljediinjeans]

MCU Rewatch: “Captain America: Civil War” (2016)

After everything Bucky has been through, I really wanted him to be doing better after walking away from Hydra. He DESERVED better. I’ll bet I’m not the only person who feels the same way.

The person who really needs to be called out for their behavior is the lady who confronts Tony in the hallway at MIT. I’m sorry, I don’t care about what you’ve suffered, YOU SHOULDN’T DO THAT TO PEOPLE. THAT IS JUST CRUEL.

I don’t think Tony is in a good place at all in this film 

I don’t think I realized how deep Tony’s daddy issues went until this movie came out

I definitely think the Staron kiss was unnecessary 

but other than that Sharon Carter is a Queen(TM) in this movie and deserves respect. She deserves a mini-series/TV show.

Thunderbolt Ross is a pompus twat

Natasha’s hair in this film is her best hair

Redwing is cool, and the fact that Sam Wilson has a drone like that hints that he probably knows a bit about computers and AI--not necessarily as much as Tony Stark or even Natasha, but he knows a bit

the Lagos fight scene is so great

The airport battle is either Feels or literal LOL. there is no in-between

Brock Rumlow is a drama queen. yeah his face could’ve turned out worse but it’s not as ugly as his soul

The dead look in Tony’s eyes when he sees Pepper’s name on the teleprompter

Natasha apologizing to King T’chaka for the deaths of his emissaries was necessary. The Avengers owed him that much even if it was an accident. And it was.

Civil War is the darkest and most intense Marvel film. Partly because some of the fight scenes are filmed in shaky-cam mode.

It was a cute nod to Sebastian Stan to have Bucky be hiding in Romania. But was Atlanta/Berlin/Puerto Rico really the best place to film those scenes? Because I don’t think Romania has that nice of infrastructure.

How much has Bucky been running? The answer is, a lot.

Also, how often has he found himself trying to escape and stuck awkwardly in the middle of traffic?

The demo “memory” in Stark’s simulator at MIT is probably 90% fabricated. Tony probably didn’t interact that much with his parents when they said goodbye IRL. 

“I know that road--” In spite of how much SHIELD/Hydra covered up the real nature of the Stark’s deaths, Tony was still acquainted with what happened. Like, he had detailed knowledge of anything that wasn’t covered up

I love how Vision is still loyal to Wanda even after they choose different sides. I love how he is trying to help her from the beginning, because he probably knows better than anyone that she is really down on herself after Lagos

I’m not sure how much on purpose Rumlow and his thugs chose to go after a bio-weapon kept in a developing country, but (A) he knew the Avengers were going to catch up with him at some point, and (B) collateral damage would make the Avengers look bad--their popularity had been declining since even before Sokovia. I’ll bet Rumlow watched the remainder of the events from Hell laughing at how much trouble he’d gotten the Avengers in. 

Plus the suicide vest: he wanted to take as many people with him as he could. He was already wearing it so he was banking on having to make a quick exit. He was even hoping he would run into Cap so he could get them both. Rumlow is SO evil.

The really unfortunate thing for the Avengers is that the people really responsible for the things that they are getting blamed for--Ultron, Hydra, Rumlow--are dead or in prison. So who do people blame? The people who saved the world from those idiots.

Vision states when explaining his feelings about the Accords that he’s noticed that in the last 8 years the number of world disasters has gone up. He’s right about the Avengers’ strength being challenged from the Universe. It may not look like it to a normal person within the MCU but there is causality. But as much as those events are related or unrelated Vision knows there’s something up. It’s like he knows Thanos is coming without being able to put a name on it

Helmut Zemo may be evil but Vasily Karpov is also a disgusting human being.

Karpov in the flashbacks: he’s deaf to the sounds of suffering but he hears when there is silence

Wanda’s arc in this film is about dealing with growing up

THIS WAS THE PERFECT INTRODUCTION FOR SPIDER-MAN

If Steve Rogers was condescending to anyone, it was Spider-Man

NO ONE of the Avengers was happy to see Secretary Ross show up at their compound. Even Tony looked like he was going to be sick--if he wasn’t already ill from the sheer awfulness of the situation. Like that look he gives to Steve is “I’m sorry, I don’t want this either.”

Tony is just under a lot of stress and he’s desperate to keep the team together. He knows that working with Secretary Ross and trying to make his team sign the Accords is a terrible idea. and he knows Bruce would hate him for it But to him, it’s the only option.

Tony may be acting cooperative but Thunderbolt Ross still treats him like garbage and it burns me. Thunderbolt treats all superhumans like garbage. 

I’m not sure Tony was at all hopeful that the authorities would play nice, including Ross. But if he did, or if he thought he could protect his fellow Avengers, it was a very slim hope, and he was gravely mistaken.

However, Tony is rude and condescending to the Avengers and to Steve the ENTIRE TIME. Except for when he goes to Siberia--but as we all know that doesn’t last long, thanks Zemo

The airport fight, Tony is like “YOU LISTEN TO ME, YOU ARE DELUDED, YOU ARE A PROBLEM, HAND OVER BUCKY”, he practically yells at Steve. Steve’s “You did that when you signed” is a low blow but he doesn’t say it in a mean way at all

Even after Natasha fought on his side in the airport battle, Tony took out his angst over Rhodey getting hurt by talking down to her--a woman he has known and respected for a long time. No wonder she walks away.

So much for Tony “protecting” his friends

I’m not mad at Tony, really. I’m really sad for him, in fact.

It can also be argued that Wanda Maximoff was genuinely mad at everyone except for Vision, she totally meant to hurt people at the airport

But tell me how that justifies the authorities putting her in a straightjacket. If Wanda has an attitude problem, that’s her problem, not an excuse to punish her for being who she is.

One thing that has always bothered me about this film and Doctor Strange is that right before the climax, the leading female characters disappear and it’s all about the men. Not that the climaxes of either film are poorly executed but it still bugs me

okay maybe FRIDAY counts but I’m not a huge fan of Friday

Why the heck didn’t Steve or Tony or Bucky destroy the computer while Zemo was playing the video?

Steve was definitely defensive about the Accords, but he was Woke about how corrupt they were and how Zemo was bad news. True, he was going on instinct for some of it, but his instinct was correct, and experience told him that it wasn’t worth trusting higher authority. He refused to compromise because of how it was unfair to his teammates, and to the world he was trying to save.

I’m still definitely Team Cap. 

But the Sokovia Accords were a no-win situation for anybody no matter which “side” they were on

It’s kind of hard to not be on an Avengers team with Steve Rogers and not at least know that Bucky is kind of a big deal to him

The shot of the inside of Rhodey’s helmet after he gets shot down, there’s no AI or computer projections--that is scary

There’s no reason Natasha wasn’t sitting in the back of the church at Peggy’s funeral. But the funeral may have been limited to just family and friends of Peggy and her family, so how would Nat have gotten an invitation?

The timing of the transition from the funeral to the UN bombing makes no sense, unless it was all happening on the same day and Sharon invited Sam and Steve to fly to Vienna with her. Which still doesn’t make sense.

Look, if Steve Rogers wants to be romantically involved with someone, then it makes the most sense, at least to me, for him to pick Sharon. 

The thing with Natasha is, her inner darkness is a lot different from Steve’s and she knows it, and that’s why in TWS she kept trying to set him up with someone else. They’re friends but in my opinion they don’t have to be romantically/sexually involved. In fact, Steve and Nat not dating makes their relationship stronger, in a way.

The kiss might have made more sense if Steve and Sharon had kept in touch over the last two years, but they’ve both been pretty busy

A Staron mini-series would also be great. IDK, don’t tell me that Steve and Sharon weren’t in touch between Germany and Infinity War.

Also Steve walked Sharon back to her hotel room, he’s not the same man that came off the ice but he’s still there with the old-fashioned manners

The authorities treat Bucky Barnes like an animal. Yes, he’s got issues, but it took Zemo specifically triggering his programming to get him to act out, and when he did the restraints were of no use. Gosh.

Two-on-one Natasha Romanoff and Sharon Carter versus the reawakened Winter Soldier HOW COOL IS THAT? Have they done that kind of thing before? Does Sharon need to be in the Black Widow movie? because she does. Does Sharon need to be a part of a someday all-female superheroes Marvel film? Absolutely.

Zemo triggering Bucky was a nightmare for everyone involved, including Bucky himself.

Call out Tony for whatever else you want but don’t call him a creeper for taking Peter with him to Germany

The beginnings of IronDad are actually beautiful to watch. He may have brought in the Spider-Dad to get an edge over Team Cap but he was still protective of his charge.

I also relate to Peter Parker’s satisfaction with nailing an Algebra test

Zemo probably had a long wait in the old bunker in Siberia. 

During the scene after the Winter Soldier attack Ross comes to chew out Stark. Ross says out loud that he wanted Barnes dead. I don’t know whether to shudder or to throw up thinking about that--and Tony felt the exact same way. Look, Tony is painfully aware of how much Bucky means to Cap. He offered to get Bucky into an American psych ward if Steve cooperated. Tony was willing to give Bucky a chance--until he found out that the Winter Soldier murdered his parents. And that’s when Tony chose himself over Bucky and Steve. 

Did I mention how much I hate Helmut Zemo?

Just a small observation: decisions made on impulse and based on emoton, such as attacking and murdering the person who was brainwashed into killing your parents, are often selfish

Wanda Maximoff was confined to the Avengers compound without her information or consent. How is that right? How is that fair?

Word on the street is that the Civil War comics ‘bent over backwards’ to make Iron Man the villain. The movie...in some ways did that to Captain America.

Part of the reason it LOOKS like Cap is the villain is because the film is structured so that everyone is aware of how much personal and psychological pain Tony Stark is in. And unfortunately Steve isn’t as aware of that. At least enough to be sensitive about it and give Tony the benefit of a doubt and compromise.

But you could also say that Tony Stark is made into “villain”--either because of his suffering or in spite of it

“You could at least recognize me”--I’m sorry, there is no other explanation. The Red Room happened.

“If it is any comfort, they died in their sleep.” No, that is not a comfort at all. That is horrifying.

Wanda Maximoff isn’t literally a “kid” but she’s still vulnerable. She’s been through a lot and she’s sensitive to criticism. Grown-ups can be vulnerable too. Case in point: Tony Stark.

The Raft prison scene: Clint is TICKED.

Rhodey’s argument for supporting the Accords is pretty logical, he’s not doing it just out of support for Tony. But at the end of the day, he’s the only person still there for Tony because Rhodey is the only person that Tony hasn’t been a jerk to.

Vision energy-blasted a line in the pavement in front of Team Cap. I grew up in Texas, just outside San Antonio. So I’ve heard a lot about the Alamo. I know the story about the Line in the Sand. It may be a legend, but I think it was referenced here.

Clint turns his bow into a baton/staff when he confronts Black Panther. How did we not see this as a hint at Ronin? Did anyone?

Can Tony sleep in his Iron Man suits on long flights?

“Oh, this’ll clear things up.” The dynamics between the new Avengers teammates--we don’t see enough of them but the’re fun to watch. Sam and Rhodey having arguments, then Vision cutting in with his uber-logic and them being annoyed with it. Darn, the new Avengers were great.

Sharon reading the quote attributed to Peggy and then looking down at Steve: I do not approve of the Accords and Peggy would not have supported them either

In the comics, the “no, you move” speech was originally Cap’s. The fact that they changed it to being originally Peggy’s words shows that the screenwriters and Kevin Fegie and perhaps other Powers at Marvel think she is important to the MCU

I wonder how much Sharon knows about what’s going down with the Accords? She’s just a CIA lackey, but who knows? Would she have told Steve more about it after the funeral? I’ll bet you she did

But that leaves me wondering what was in the rest of Sharon’s eulogy. And why she was important enough to the family that she gave that speech

Just for the love of everything LEAVE WANDA ALONE!

So did Tony actually want to kill Bucky or just hurt him really badly? It’s hard to tell the difference. 

The end of the fight: Steve really did ALMOST lose it and ALMOST kill Tony. But he caught himself after he broke the arc-reactor. And Steve DOES NOT LOOK HAPPY about what just happened--and what just almost happened.

If Steve Rogers compromised on one thing, it was acknowledging that he didn’t deserve to be Captain America and dropping the shield. 

Rogers didn’t leave Tony to die smh, he and Bucky went to Wakanda with T’challa and Tony took Zemo in the QuinJet to somewhere more hospitable, where he could hand over that son of a camel to the authorities (in my fanfic they go to Japan, bc it’s probably closer to that part of Siberia than central Europe)

The post-credit scene: Aunt May isn’t stupid y’all. She doesn’t know the whole story yet but she knows Peter is up to something.

Mid-credit scene: I don’t think Bucky consulted Steve at all about going under voluntarily. Bucky probably made the decision on his own with the doctors and then Steve was told and asked to come say goodbye ;kjfadslknj

There’s a shot where Bucky looks at the cryo chamber before Steve speaks to him and I wonder what he was thinking

Did Bucky even care whether or not he woke up?

On this viewing, him voluntarily going under does make some sense, his programming can cause him to do pretty bad stuff--but I’d still rather he hadn’t. I think it was partly out of self-loathing. “I’m too dangerous to have a normal life or be loved.” That thought that breaks my heart. Gosh darn it I thought this time I was over it but now I’m starting to collapse again...

There’s no arguing that Steve isn’t very happy about it

“Allow Barnes the dignity of his choice” Great insight. Where is the option for him to have a safe, normal, and happy life? Does he need to be unconscious for his programming to be fixed? Hm?

Oh yeah, I wrote a fanfic about that.

Also, there’s a deleted scene where the other Ross informs T’challa that he got extradition for Barnes. So maybe the “Let them try” line wasn’t necessary. Unless Thunderbolt was so determined to get Bucky’s head on a platter (*shudder*) that he literally did not care. Then again, nobody tries to invade Wakanda and gets away with it. Thunderbolt maybe thought it was a lost cause and he was probably right.

After I get Thanos, I’m coming for Thunderbolt Ross. 

And you better hope Ross got dusted and doesn’t come back because it won’t be pretty.

Steve’s letter to Tony is sincere.

The Raft was already built and operational when the Accords were created, it must have been in planning way far back--this has Thunderbolt Ross written all over it.

I really need more Steve and Bucky fighting together side-by-side and being bros. But I guess that just means I need to work on my fanfiction.

At the end of the day, it’s a tragedy that these wonderful people let their differences get in the way of getting along, but deep down and in spite of everything that happened they are all still friends.

I used to hate Spider-man. Tom Holland as MCU!Peter Parker is cute. And he’s probably one of the best things to ever happen to Tony, after Pepper. He can stay.