#she deserves a bludgeoning weapon. as a treat

[egginfroggin]

It may not be a grappling hook but frying pans have violent potential all on their own, frankly

[princeescaluswords]

I like Stiles as a character, but I often get frustrated by fanon diverging from canon, and the worst of it to me is the ways that Lydia treated by Stiles - as something he deserves, most notably when she kisses Scott and he's angry, which the fandom holds against Scott because apparently Lydia making choices means Scott is a bad friend - or in the scene when Lydia is high after the werewolf attack at the movie rental place, and the only thing that keeps Stiles from doing [something] is that Lydia calls out for Jackson rather than him.

I think Stiles is kind of a jerk, and I like him because of it, but the fanon Stiles used as a weapon to bludgeon canon Scott is... the dumbest thing in the fandom

Have you ever seen the frequent criticism on this site that certain people should have paid more attention in English class? This criticism arises from posts like the one I saw today, where a person was confessing that "people think Stiles is evil because he almost made out with Lydia while she was drugged up." I don't think Stiles is evil for doing that; it sounds like you don't think Stiles is evil. I've never actually heard anyone call him evil for almost giving into temptation. (The closest I've ever come to calling Stiles's evil is his behavior in Lies of Omission (5x09) and Status Asthmaticus (5x10) and I don't even go that far). What we do recognize that what he did in Lydia's bedroom in The Tell (1x05) wasn't the right way to behave.

Stiles's desire for Lydia is real and natural; it was his inability to recognize and respect proper boundaries that almost created a very bad situation. He did pull away when Lydia said Jackson's name; the realization that she was confused about who he was and not secretly attracted to him reminded him that his behavior wouldn't be the fulfillment of his desire but him taking advantage of her. It's a good scene that tells us about Stiles's weaknesses but also about his strengths: beyond the insecurity that leads him to fixate on the most unattainable girl in school and his constant disregard for proper boundaries, Stiles is a fundamentally decent human being.

So why do I, personally, bring up this scene when talking about Teen Wolf a lot? Stiles-stans (who are not really fans of Stiles but fans of Fanon Stiles or, more accurately, Self-Insert with a Stiles Name Tag) like to go on and on about how deficient a person Scott McCall, the lead protagonist, is because he was "obsessed" with Allison and lacrosse. They argue this to say why they 'dislike' him, but what they actually mean is that he shouldn't be the lead protagonist. But they never seem to remember Stiles's behavior when it comes to Lydia (or Derek's behavior when it comes to Paige or Liam's behavior when it comes to Hayden for that matter).

My position -- and I think the production shared this position -- is that Scott's desire to have a girlfriend and make first line on the lacrosse team is real and natural. However, his attempts to avoid recognizing and coping with the consequences of Peter's vicious assault could lead to very bad situations unless he took responsibility. Scott had to learn how to anchor himself -- which he did! He had to make sure he put what was truly important ahead of his relationship with Allison -- which he did!

I have always maintained that Teen Wolf is a bildungsroman, which is a story about children becoming adults. Throughout the series, Scott's growth is primary; he evolves from an asthmatic loser who feels like he sits on the sidelines of life into a True Alpha werewolf leading a war against those who would murder supernatural creatures out of self-interest. But he's not the only one to grow. Allison had her own story; Lydia had her own story; Derek had his own story (one of the best redemption arcs ever); and Stiles had his version of that story!

The problem is that there are a lot of people who didn't watch Teen Wolf as a story, but rather as raw material. They swooped in and picked up the parts that they wanted, like vultures devouring a carcass. They wanted Stiles and <insert white male love interest here> to be the focus of the show, as they were the focus of their interests, but they could do without the part where Stiles struggles to grow up. In response, they selected only the parts that fit their agenda. Thus, Scott becomes dull, obsessive, stupid, with a foolish no-kill rule, and an unearned hostility toward the Hale Family whom he shamelessly usurps, even though none of that description is remotely true. On the other hand, Stiles becomes the should-be valedictorian of his class, a master archmage, and a ruthless anti-hero ready to kill anyone to protect which ever white male character he loves this week, even though none of that description is remotely true.

Fandom, in the name of their own enjoyment, has boiled their understanding of the story down to "I don't like Scott" and "Stiles is not evil!" Nuanced takes like "Stiles had the courage to cross boundaries to protect others but that tendency also led him into some problematic actions" and "Scott didn't start out a heroic protagonist; he only embraced the mantle when he realized that the threats he had to face didn't care that he and his friends were teenagers." become difficult for them to understand and unpleasant for them to process, because they only really want Power Fantasy Stiles and Bad Friend Scott. Those bits and pieces fit into the pre-existing tropes that bring them pleasure. It's the limitations that frustrate them, not Teen Wolf's.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Susan Rinkunas at The New Republic:

It’s a chilling fact that the Project 2025 playbook written for Donald Trump’s administration is just a roadmap for the first 180 days. But based on the contents of that manual, the MAGA movement’s longer-term goals aren’t exactly a mystery. Still, if people want a broader sense of what’s coming down the pike in the months and years ahead, it’s instructive to look at litigation involving rights granted under a Reconstruction-era addition to the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment was intended to extend full citizenship to formerly enslaved Black people, and it undergirds the right of all Americans to be treated equally under the law, no matter who they are or in which state they reside. Yet over the past year, conservatives have been increasingly open in their beliefs that pregnant women, transgender adolescents, affirming parents of trans kids, and immigrants are not legally entitled to the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections—all while arguing that fertilized eggs are. Republicans are using strategic litigation to effectively rewrite the Fourteenth Amendment to prioritize conservative white men and embryos above and beyond everyone else. They are warping something used to grant rights into a bludgeon to take them away, and are redefining who counts as a person in the United States.

“The selectivity about whom the Fourteenth Amendment ought to apply to is stunning,” said Khiara M. Bridges, professor at University of California at Berkeley School of Law. “It’s not demanded by the text of the Constitution at all. Instead, these are political choices that are being made, and they’re elevating certain individuals’ rights.” Michele Goodwin, professor of constitutional law and global health policy at Georgetown Law, calls this process of picking and choosing “citizenship gerrymandering”—a process in which one’s rights are not necessarily granted by the Constitution but rather a live issue, subject to the whims—and more specifically, the prejudices—of state lawmakers and courts. The judiciary is already stacked with Trump picks, but in the next four years, it’s possible that half of all judges will be his nominees.

Many GOP-appointed members of the judiciary profess to care about the original intent of our laws, but accepting this theory of the amendment is merely “opportunistic originalism,” Goodwin said. States are quickly passing laws and filing litigation over issues such as abortion and trans rights because the makeup of the courts provides a chance “to make movement within these particular spaces,” Goodwin said.

Movement, specifically to the right, is necessary to a coalition of Christian fundamentalists, white nationalists, and power-hungry Republicans displeased that women and Black people have made gains in the modern fight for full citizenship, Goodwin said. These fights culminated in protections including the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, and, yes, Roe v. Wade. States and private lawyers have set about demolishing those rights, and the Supreme Court has responded in turn: It gutted the Voting Rights Act in Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 ruling that Goodwin said basically ignored the Reconstruction Amendments; overturned Roe despite scholarship showing a Fourteenth Amendment basis for bodily autonomy following the end of inheritable chattel slavery; and then ended affirmative action in college admissions in 2023. “If you look back at what’s taken shape in the last 15 to 20 years, it’s really been a dismantling of racial justice, and so now everything else is up for grabs,” she said, adding, “Race is often the conduit for undermining what will be the rights of us all.”

[...] But conservative groups don’t believe that all Americans deserve protection under the law. As high-profile cases of pregnant people being denied emergency medical care show, giving rights to fetuses, let alone embryos, relegates women to second-class status. The U.S. is suing Idaho over its policy to deny emergency abortions to women facing threats to their health—complications that could cause a loss of fertility or even require amputations—because their lives aren’t immediately at risk. (Crucially, ADF is representing Idaho in this case. The Trump administration is expected not only to drop the lawsuit but to rescind Biden administration guidance that hospitals have to provide abortions to stabilize patients under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, or EMTALA.) South Carolina lawmakers made plain the harms of the logical endpoint here. They reintroduced a bill that would allow women who have abortions at any stage of pregnancy to be charged with homicide and called it the “South Carolina Prenatal Equal Protection Act.” If fertilized eggs have rights, then women and pregnant people do not, and every pregnancy loss is a potential crime scene. We can expect low-income Black people and other people of color to face the same higher rates of abortion criminalization as they do for other crimes, Bridges said. The recent Supreme Court arguments about Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for adolescents underscored the selectivity in who gets to exercise Fourteenth Amendment rights. The conservative position in U.S. v. Skrmetti is that while parents typically get to argue a due process right to direct their children’s upbringing, that right does not extend to parenting that affirms their transgender child’s identity. Trans adolescents can’t access medical care that is legal for their cisgender peers, and Republicans claim this is a regulation, not discrimination based on sex. Under this interpretation, even trans and nonbinary adults could continue to see their rights diminished. “This [incoming] administration would be interested in denying them health care and, if not criminalizing them, certainly banishing them from public spaces,” Bridges said. One conservative group says it will pursue a ban on federal insurance covering affirming treatments, akin to the Hyde Amendment for abortion. As far as immigrants are concerned, President-elect Trump has also said he wants to end birthright citizenship and start a mass deportation program, which would necessarily rope in U.S. citizens. While citizenship for people born on U.S. soil is written verbatim into the Fourteenth Amendment, conservatives have previewed an argument to gut it.

[...] Still, citizenship itself doesn’t always protect against removal—meaning people born to immigrant parents could have their rights violated without the Supreme Court issuing a new interpretation. Bridges said this country’s history of mass deportations is rife with evidence that legal residents will be caught up in the dragnet. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens with Mexican ancestry were deported during the Great Depression under President Herbert Hoover. (His slogan was “American jobs for real Americans.”) President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1950s deportation regime also wrongly removed American citizens of Mexican descent.

The GOP is rewriting the social pyramid to put straight cis White conservative males on top and everyone else below.

[itsthestutterforme]

Becoming Mine (Vincenzo)

Summary: Y/N is working with Vincenzo and a loyal ally from Italy. Han seok captures her and tortures her for information. She holds out longer than he hoped and wants her loyalty for himself.//SMUT WARNING, MINORS DNI

--

Jang Hanseok sent Ms. Choi to get her hands dirty and oversee the torture of Y/N for information. Y/N and Vincenzo grew up in the Mafia together. They taught each other everything.

He has asked Y/N for help with taking down Babel and she said yes without any questions asked. And now she has to suffer the consequences of loyalty.

First they started with electrocution. They tied her to a metal chair and put spark plugs on the back side of the chair. They would send a jolt, each longer than the last. "Go to hell!" She yells at Ms. Choi after the jolt that lasted 20 seconds.

Then they moved on to cutting with the thinnest daggers. Death by a thousand cuts, she always thought it was a cliche thing to use. But hey, to each their own torture method.

Her hair sticks to her forehead and the sides of her neck as he digs his knife across her collar bone. "Fuck!"

Ms. Choi walks into Hanseok's office with a grimace. "What's wrong?" "She's not breaking. She's a lot stronger than I thought." Ms. Choi says, linking her hands behind her back. Hanseok stands from his chair and rounds the desk.

"What tactics have you used?" He asks. "Electrocution, cutting, waterboarding, fire and even bludgeoning and she still tells me to go to hell." Choi rambles.

"I could use someone of her loyalty," Hanseok states. "I want to meet her," he adds. "With all due respect, sir, she'll never agree to that. She's endure days of torture for Vincenzo, she isn't going to give him up or betray him. She's willing to risk her life for him." "Will you risk your life for me?" He asks, searching her face for a response.

"I'll kill anyone you tell me to, sir," "That didn't answer my question. I still want to see her." He says. Ms. Choi drives him to the warehouse where they keep Y/N. She was currently unconscious from the pain she has endured. Hanseok's face grimaced and he says, "You took get your hands dirty a little too literally."

Y/N gasped as she regain consciousness and she groaned softly. She looked up to see Jang Hanseok and he smiles. "Who the hell are you?" She asked before spitting out some blood in her mouth. "Hopefully, I'll be your new boss." He says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "In your dreams, tough guy." She snarks.

A man punches her across the face and she looked at him with pure annihilation and vexation. That look gave Hanseok butterflies in his stomach. The feeling was beyond the norm and he had no idea what the origin was. She opened her mouth to say something else but Hanseok intercepted.

"Touch her again, and I'll have you thrown off a building." He threatens. Hanseok watched as the man stepped away from her. "You, cut her loose," He adds, pointing to another man.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Choi asked and he didn't answer. She was cut free and the first thing Y/N grabs is the man's throat before breaking it.

Another man came at her and she ducked under the punch before punching him twice in his armpit before punching his throat. She limps over to the table where her weapons were and grabbed her smaller knives.

She tossed them in the air and within seconds, three men dropped dead with the knives in their skulls. Which only left Ms. Choi and Jang Hanseok.

She grabs a gun from one of the corpses and aimed it at them. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you both," "Do that and my men sets that entire plaza on fire with everyone inside."

"I'm calling your bluff lady, you're just trying to save your ass because you know that I'll put bullet in your head without blinking," she says as she cocks the gun and applies steady pressure on trigger.

"Wa-" she pulls the trigger and sends a bullet straight through Ms. Choi's head. Hanseok chuckles wryly before saying, "Now I'm in need of a new lawyer and strategist," he says, his hands still stuffed in his pockets.

"Who are you?" "The CEO of Babel," he answers nonchalantly. "So you're the one who started all this,"

"Well I can't take all the credit. She had her fair share," he says, referencing to Ms. Choi. Red dots appear on Y/N chest and she notices. "I have this place surrounded. One move to shoot me and you'll get shot to pieces. Just take the easy way and work for me. It'll be a lot of fun." "Right, like killing innocent people is fun,"

"It seems like you enjoy killing people." "Only those who deserve it," she snaps. "Regardless of your intentions, my guys wills drop you before you can fire. Question is, do you want to live and be treated like a queen?"

She doesn't respond and he adds, "Or I can kill both you and your mother. She loves to visit a little shop in.. Siena, right? What's it's called again?"

Her grip tightens on the gun before tossing it across the room. "Kill her and I promise to kill you and every single one of your sponsors," "Looks like you and I have more in common than we thought. Come on, let's get you cleaned up." He walks out of the warehouse and she hesitantly follows.

Y/N's POV

You sigh softly as you stepping into the cold, crisp in contrast of the warm, misty air in bathroom. You had pulled your hair into a loose ponytail before you put on Hanseok's shorts and t-shirt. You hate to say it, but his clothes were extremely comfortable. He promised to take me out shopping tomorrow for clothes.

"I didn't know what you liked so I bought everything," he says, referencing to the various plates of food on the kitchen counter. Your eyes settle on kimchi jiagae and you make your way over to the table.

You a grab a few bowls to try some of the kimchi jiagae, bulgogi, dakdoritgang, dakgangjeong and mixed rice. You set them on the tray sit on the pillow he prepared for you.

"You like spicy food, huh?" He says and you nod. "Yeah, my brother likes spicy food too." You wait until he comes back with his tray of food to dig in. You hum lowly as you eat your bulgogi and you feel a hand touch my chin. You pull away and look at him with confused.

"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm sorry, I just.. you look.. you're beautiful," "If you think that you can someone convince me into sleeping with you, you have another thing coming,"

"What? I can't appreciate your beauty without something in return?" He asks innocently. "Hell no," you sneer. He chuckles before saying, "I'm going to have some fun with you."

Over the next few weeks, he has bought you a whole new wardrobe, shoes and jewelry. He's even made sure my hair and nails are done with complementary spa days.

He's been pampering you ever since you were a part of his life. You've been enjoying it but you've developed a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It also raises questions. Why did he choose you? How long will this pampering thing last? Is your mom still held hostage? What is he planning on doing with Vincenzo?

"Hey, kitten." You roll your eyes at his new pet name for you. You have no idea where he got it from because you are nothing like a kitten. You were playful or adventurous, but you were high maintenance.

"How many times do I have to tell.." you trail off as you see him in a light blue three piece suit with white leather shoes. His hair was combed to the side with gel and you could smell his cologne from where you sat.

"Why are you dressed like that?" "Do you like it?" He say, nearing you slowly. "No," you lie and he smiles at you. "You sure about that?" He leans his hands on either side of you and ducked his head to be at your eye level. "I bought you a matching dress. Get dressed, we leave in an hour."

He nudges his nose against yours before leaving the room and leaving you hot and bothered. Ever since you walked in on him lifting weights without his shirt, your mind came up with various, filthy scenarios that made your panties soaked.

You stand up from the chair and walked into the bedroom to see a goregous silk, light blue dress with diamond seam around the midrange of the stomach.

You take a shower and apply your favorite lotion and perfume before you slide on the dress. You latch on the sparkly, light blue heels. You put on your robe and sit down to apply some foundation, highlight and mascara on to your face.

You were just about to clip your hair up and leave a few curls out but you hear Hanseok say, "Leave your hair down." You look at him through the mirror to see him leaning his arm on the door frame, pulling his dress shirt taught around his solid biceps. He eyes you with a soft smile on his face. "You look beautiful," he says as he nears you once again.

"I know." You stand up and meet him half way across the room. "Shall we?" He says , offering you his arm. "Let's just get this night over with,"

**

You two return at one in the morning and you were infuriated. He spent the whole night flirting with random women at the gala. "You make no sense to me, Jang Hanseok." You say, taking off your earring and tossing them on the dresser.

"What makes you say that?" He asks, sitting on the bed to take off his shoes. "You pamper me with all these gifts, clothes, jewelry to convince me to stay in your life and then you spend the entire night flirting with every one you could lay your eyes on." You snap.

He takes off his vest with a sigh and loosens his tie. "I wanted to see if you cared. Cared about me and my attention." "Well, do you?" He adds. "If I didn't care, do you think I would have said anything?" You snap.

He grabs the back of your neck and pulls you inches away from his face. He tightens his grip and says through gritted teeth, "I've had enough of your attitude, just answer the question."

"I just did." His fingers dig into you neck enough to cause discomfort but not enough to break skin. "Do you care about me?" He asks. "Unfortunately, yes." "Why unfortunately?" "It only makes it harder to-" "

"To betray me?" You push his hand away and say, "What the hell makes you think of something like that? I was going to say it makes it harder to say no but you always think everyone is out to get you. It should be me asking the qu-"

He stops your rant by slamming his lips on yours. One hand rests on the back of your head and the other smooths over the dip of your back.

Your fingers work on unbuttoning his shirt as you walk him onto the bed. He sits on the edge and pulls you into his lap. You pull his shirt off his shoulder and leave kisses up his chest in it's wake.

He moans softly and you could feel his hard on press against your inner thigh. You tug the rest of his shirt off and push his back on the bed. You buck your hips against him and a soft whine leaves his lips.

You quiet him by tenderly biting down on his bottom lip. His lips latched onto yours and presses your core harder against him.

He pulls your hair gently to evade your attention from his lips. He rolls you on you stomach and stands. "Han seok, what are you-" he rips the dress open from the back, making you yell out in surprise.

"Damn it, I liked that dress." "There's plenty more where that came from kitten," he smooths his hands up the back of your legs and squeezes your ass.

You pull off the rest of your mangled dress, leaving you in your white lace set. "And don't you dare rip-" he rips the lace underwear in two and pulls you so your knees are on the edge of the bed. "I'm going to kill you, Han seok."

"I've been wanting to get a taste of you since I set my eyes on you." You let out a squeak when you feel his hot breath agaisnt your core.

You've never been in the position before so you have no idea what the expect. He licks up the stripe with slow, deep licks, each lick lasting longer on your clit. "Oh God," you grip the sheets with a white knuckle grip when he curls his tongue along the upper wall and caresses a g-spot. Your legs started to shake and loud moans leave your lips when he slips in two fingers and curled them hard.

You tried crawling away from him, feeling overwhelmed of the pleasure but he holds you back by your thighs. With a few more licks, you release yourself on his tongue and he hums with satisfaction.

"You taste a lot better than I thought, baby." Your body already started to twitch and you could tell that this was going to be a long night.

You roll onto your back and chills roll down your spine when you see him licking your juices off of his fingers. Pushing yourself backwards, he pulls you closer to him by your ankles. "Han seok, please. It's too much."

"You're doing great, kitten. Just relax and let it wash over you." He says softly, pecking your lips before settling himself between your legs once again.

He spreads your legs wide before he sucks on your clit harder and faster than the first time, sending shock waves through your body. "Fuck! Oh my God!"

Looking down at him, he locks eyes with you and he completely devours your bundle of folds. He alternate between licking side to side and up and down with a curl of his tongue.

Your back arches and stars cloud your vision as you come down from your second high. He pulls away from you with his lower face covered in your juices. "Come here," he lifts your trembling body and dropping it into his lap. He smooths his hands over your ass before unbuckling his dress pants.

He pulls down his boxers and his erection stands up tall, making your whimper. He's going to destroy you. "I'll be gentle," he whispers, lifting your chin to meet his gaze.

You nod your head in agreement and lines himself up at your entrance. Throwing your head back as your walls expand and contract around him. You wrap your arms around him and bury your face into his neck and he bounces you in his lap.

Time slows a few seconds when you meet his gaze. "Oh God," you chant as the knot intensified in your stomach. "I'm close, Han seok."

His lips locked with yours and your boys jolts forward when his thumb rubs hard circles on your clit. Your entire body spasms as he cums inside of you but he continued to rub circles until you came.

He stayed buried inside of you while you sat in his lap as you both catches your breaths. Resting his forehead against yours, he says, "I love you. You believe me what I say that, right?"

You nod and holds the sides of your face. "Say it," "I love you," "Good girl," he pulls out of you and slides you both under the covers.

You lay directly ontop of him with a thin sheet covering the both of you, sighing as he draws circles on your back.

[flightfoot]

Greeting the New Dawn

Set post-Reveal in @buggachat Bakery Enemies AU, whenever that ends up being.

Thanks to Queenie for betaing!

AO3 ---------

“If you want me to leave, I will.”

Adrien looked off to the side, as if he thought that he wasn’t even worthy of meeting her gaze. As if already looking elsewhere, trying to impose on her as little as possible. “I can put in my resignation and tell your parents I found a different opportunity elsewhere.”

Marinette’s mouth went dry, her stomach dropping into a cavern. He- he couldn’t- not again- he couldn’t leave her- she’d only just got him back!

She willed desperately to say something, to stop him. 

Nothing happened.

Instead, she felt her mouth move, saying words she didn’t want to say. “I think that would be for the best.”

Adrien’s face fell further, his breath hitching slightly.

He didn’t say anything. Marinette suspected that if he tried, that hitch would devolve into full-on sobbing.

He turned around, heading for the door. 

Marinette regained control of her limbs. She reached out to grab him, to stop him from disappearing-

Her vision turned black.

-----

Marinette happily hummed as she kneaded some dough, her father joining her song. She’d missed spending time with her parents while she was in New York. 

*ding ding*

A customer?

Moments later, Sabine walked through the entryway to the kitchen. Marinette relaxed.

Until she got a closer look and noticed her eyes glistening.

“Maman?” 

“A-Adrien- he- he-!”

She burst into tears.

Marinette saw it then. Adrien desperately scrounging out of garbage bins to survive, getting thinner and thinner, having been unable to find another job. Losing his apartment, being forced out onto the streets.

Until finally someone had caught him going through their dumpster, recognized him, and decided that trash like him was unworthy of even having those rancid scraps. 

Adrien leaning against the dumpster, beaten and bloody as the rain came pouring down. Slowly closing his eyes.

He didn’t open them again.

-----

Marinette looked out the window at the rain. She’d given him her umbrella, he’d be fine. He said so himself. She didn’t need to do anything more, right? He could walk straight, he hadn’t even been slurring his words, he was coherent. Everything would be fine.

------

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! Today, Adrien Agreste, son of the infamous supervillain, Hawkmoth, was found bludgeoned to death in an alley. The weapon of choice? An umbrella given to him by my favorite babysitter, Marinette Dupain-Cheng! Let’s give her a round of applause for helping set up the circumstances that allowed Paris to get rid of that loose end, once and for all.”

-----

Faceless masses quietly muttered all around Adrien.

A person would occasionally glance at him. Their face would twist up, fear and anger warring over their features.

Until they’d just walk away.

Leaving him alone, crying, desperately trying to reach someone, anyone.

They all slipped through his fingers like water, leaving nothing behind.

A flash of yellow. A defined figure. The last friend Adrien had.

“CHLOE!”

She turned around, gave him a glance.

Her hair swished as she turned back.

She didn’t look back a second time.

------

“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news! Today Adrien Agreste was found dead in his apartment. Police are currently treating the case as a suicide-”

Marinette turned off the TV, getting back to designing her new outfit. It was sad what happened, but right now she wanted to concentrate on something more hopeful. 

She smiled as she looked at the red dress she’d just finished, its black accents making the bright red pop that much more.

Her Kitty was out there. She just needed to find him.

------

Marinette jolted awake, panting heavily. She threw off the covers, shakily getting to her feet. Stumbling forward, she reached out for the light switch.

It took her several tries to hit it. Her arm was shaking so badly she just kept on missing. 

Taking the stairs two at a time, she rocketed down. She really missed being Ladybug right about now; she could’ve just swung down to the first story.

A seeming eternity later (36 seconds later, to be exact), she rounded the corner into the kitchen.

The light was on, the sound of dough being rolled out punctuating the quiet of the early morning. 

Please let him be there please let him be there please please PLEASE-!

A blond-haired man turned around. “Mari-?”

She hit him like a freight train.

Instinctively Adrien wrapped his arms around her as they rolled to the side, dough spraying everywhere. 

She couldn’t bring herself to care.

“MARINETTE!” Adrien shouted, anxiety tinging his voice. “What’s wrong? Is someone hurt? Did anything get on you? I’m so, so sor-”

She just pulled him even tighter against her, muffling his voice with her shoulder. 

*thump thump thump*

Adrien was alive. He was here. He wasn’t in an alley or a grave or… or ALONE.

Not anymore.

“Ni-nightmare,” she choked out, trying not to cry. 

The blood drained from Adrien’s face. “It was him, wasn’t it?” He asked quietly, his voice quavering slightly. “I- I should’ve known, I wish I’d-”

“NO!”

She was NOT letting him take the blame for this. 

“It wasn’t your fault kitty, NONE of it was your fault. It was his, ONLY his, you did everything you could to stop him.”

Adrien frowned. For a minute she thought he was going to argue, but he seemed to think better of it. 

“And- and it wasn’t him anyway. Not really. It- it was you.”

“I- I’d never try to hurt anyone here, I’d never try to hurt you, regardless of what happened with Mother I-”

Marinette winced. Foot, meet mouth. Again.

“It wasn’t the Peacock nightmare. It- it was-”

She took a deep breath, pressing her head into his neck, feeling his pulse. “There were so many times when things could have gone worse than they did. Where you could’ve gotten hurt or killed. And- and I would never even have known I lost you.”

“I’m not going anywhere, My Lady,” he murmured into her ear. “Not unless you want me to.”

“If you want me to leave, I will.”

“NO!” She shook her head violently. “Never. I- I couldn’t stand it if-”

If I never saw you again. If you killed yourself because you thought no one wanted you around. Because you thought you deserved it. Or that you deserved to be out on the streets, struggling to survive, because of who your father is and how people see you because of it.

“I want you here,” she told him more calmly. She needed him to know that. To internalize it. “You deserve to be here. You deserve happiness and safety and people who love you and- and just every good thing in the world!” 

She’d tell him this every day if she needed to, until he believed it.

“I- I dreamed that you’d died those times. Like- like when you asked if I wanted you to leave. Or- or thinking back on what could’ve happened if you’d walked home while drunk. But the worst one? Was where you committed suicide before I ever ran into you as a civilian.”

She needed to bake Chloe some cookies. ALL the cookies. She’d probably comment about how she was only tolerating Marinette’s cooking in order to seem nicer to Adrien or something, but she didn’t care. If it weren’t for Chloe, then Marinette’s best friend, the love of her life, would probably be dead.

“In that nightmare, it barely even registered that you’d died. Just- you were just some stranger. Some stranger who was dead now. That- that was most horrifying of all.”

Her hearing about him dying and barely even caring because she didn’t know him - it terrified her more than anything else. Logically she’d known that was a possibility before she’d found out Adrien was Chat Noir, but- well she’d never really seriously thought about him dying. And- and part of her thought that because of how close they were, she’d just know if he was hurt, if something had happened to him. Would recognize him on sight if the worst happened.

But neither of them had known the other when they ran into each other at the bakery. And she’d never had a clue that the boy on the billboards was the same boy running alongside her on rooftops. 

Adrien held her tighter. Something wet dripped onto her neck.

She didn’t comment. His shoulder was damp from her own tears.

“It didn’t happen.” He told her. “It could have, but it didn’t. I- I know what it’s like to have those ‘what ifs?’ running through your head. Sometimes, the best you can do is tell yourself that everything did work out. That it’s okay. I- I tell myself that all the time. Every time I think about what could’ve happened if I never met your parents- if I’d never started working here. If I’d never seen you again. Never met Nino or Alya.”

“Adrien…” 

“It doesn’t help. There’s nothing that can be done about ‘what ifs’. It may not make those thoughts go away, but- but at least it doesn’t matter what could’ve happened, because it didn’t. And thinking about it in circles won’t help.”

He grinned at her. “You know what will?”

She blinked at him, lost for words.

Until she felt something sticky on her forehead.

Reaching her hand up, she got the substance off. 

Dough coated her fingers.

Her partner gave her a shit-eating grin. “Ooops.”

“Oh you are ON.”

As she chased her kitty around the kitchen, trying to tag him with bits of the fallen dough, she smiled.

He was alive. 

Maybe he wasn’t okay yet, but he would be.

And so would she.

[caretaker-au]

Kindness & Justice: Backstory

The two adolescent girls huddled around a small campfire in the twilight, trying to finish their dinner before nightfall. The tall cook poured the remains of pancake batter into the cast iron pan, mentally crossing her fingers that this one wouldn’t stick as bad as the previous one did. 

“This is the last one,” the cook said, “You want it?”

“No, that one is all yours,” her friend answered between mouthfuls. She didn’t have a fork, so she had rolled up the pancake like a burrito. At some point, her black cowboy hat had fallen off her head and hung against her back by the drawstring. It was her latest attempt at bringing Western wear back into vogue. “I shouldn’t have teased you for packing all that kitchen stuff. This turned out way better than I expected.”

“Worth it?” the cook asked with a grin.

“Worth it,” the shorter girl smiled. She finished off her food and stretched, moving her hat so she could lay down by the fire. The pink-streaked clouds floated overhead. It was warm enough that the fire was a little bit uncomfortable, but it didn’t seem right to lay anywhere else.

“So…” the cowgirl ventured, “You ready to talk about what happened with your folks?”

“Ugh, not really,” she answered, prodding at the batter with the spatula, “But, after working so hard to cheer me up, I suppose you’ve earned the right to know... Mom and Dad cornered me about their suspicions, and I told them the truth about us. Well, not about us, exactly, I left you out of it. I told them about me.”

“I’m guessing they didn’t take it too well.”

“I mean, they took it about as well as expected. Shouting, some crying, the whole works. Kept saying it was their fault, but that didn’t stop them from blaming me anyway.” The cook glanced at her friend, and saw her scowling. “It really wasn’t that bad though,” she added, “I mean, it could have been a lot worse, I’m pretty lucky, when you think about it.”

“Are you kidding me?” she sat up, her face incredulous, “Your parents are the lucky ones for having a daughter like you! They don’t deserve you, and you don’t deserve to be treated like a mistake. The unfairness of it all, it just--” she clenched the fabric of her skirt, stumbling over her words, “Once we get back to the city, I’m going to give them a piece of my mind.”

“I really wish you wouldn’t…” the tall girl said, her voice falling low, “I know it’s not your style, but I want you to try to be nice to them.” The cowgirl rolled her eyes, so she continued with a bit of forced smile, “Not for them but for me, okay?”

The short friend sighed, “Okay, for you. Is that thing done cooking yet?”

In response, the cook jerked the pan, masterfully flipping the pancake over. One side was a perfect golden brown. “Just a little bit longer now.”

The cowgirl sat up, surveying the campsite. The two of them had never been camping before, and the hike had been much harder than either of them had anticipated. It didn’t help that they had over-packed and had to cut their climb a bit short as a result. Nonetheless, the clear warm night and birds chirping in the trees made the escape feel almost as magical as the girls had hoped for. A quiet sanctuary where no people would be around: well, most likely no people, that is. 

“Hey, speaking of miserable family members,” the short girl ventured, “Did I ever tell you about the skeleton in my family’s closet?”

“This better not be one of your weird scary horror stories.”

“It sure is!” she answered. The cowgirl jumped to her feet, clearing her voice in preparation for the tale, “Listen to this: when my grandpa was a little kid, his brother tried to murder him.”

“How very ‘Cain and Abel’,” the cook smirked, “You can’t just start there. Start at the beginning of the story. What lead up to it?”

“That’s just it, no one really knows. Everyone says he just snapped and went crazy when the two of them were home alone. Grandpa was just happily playing video games at the time, so maybe his brother wanted a turn.”

“That… doesn’t seem like a very compelling motive,” the cook said, checking the underside of her pancake, “Are you sure your grandpa’s not exaggerating?”

“It’s the truth!” the cowgirl insisted, “His brother attacked him and cracked his head against the coffee table. They found gramps in a puddle of blood in the living room, and he had to be rushed to the hospital and got six stitches! But I still haven’t gotten to the best part.” The girl paused for dramatic effect.

“Best or worst?” the cook lifted the whole pancake with her spatula and tested a small bite on the edge. It was still too hot to eat.

“The best part is…” the cowgirl swept her arm towards the dimly lit forest around them, “His brother fled to this very mountain. And he was never found again.”

“What?” the girl dropped her pancake on the ground. She quickly snapped it up and set it back in the pan. Dirt and ash was stuck to it.

“Five second rule,” the cowgirl murmured. 

“Did you just say your grandpa--”

“Great uncle.”

“--your great uncle ran away to this mountain and died?”

“Disappeared. Maybe he still roams this mountain, searching for more innocent children to send to their graves…” The short girl’s voice was dramatic, but her eyes were dancing with mischief.

“Are you kidding me, that’s so creepy! And to think coming here was your idea! Was this all a set up to scare me?” The cook crossed her arms, but her friend just laughed.

“No, no! To be honest, I didn’t realize this particular trail was a part of The Mount Ebott until we were on our way.”

“A likely story,” the cook murmured as she nibbled the edge of her pancake.

“It’ll be fine, really. Oh, I know--I have something to protect you from any undead uncles. Check this out!” the cowgirl skipped towards their yellow tent and unzipped her backpack that was laying in front of it. She withdrew a long leather holster, with a revolver already tucked inside it.

The tall girl’s jaw dropped open, “You brought your dad’s gun?!”

“Maybe,” she giggled, strapping the holster around her waist, “It will be my gun in a few years, I’m just borrowing it a little early.”

“Do you even know how to use one of those things?”

“Yeah, yeah, I shoot it every year on my birthday. Family tradition.” the gunslinger drew her weapon, pointing it out towards the woods.

“Don’t--”

“It’s okay, it’s not loaded,” she said, popping open the cylinder, “The ammo’s in my bag.”

The cook shook her head, “And I thought my family was crazy.”

The cowgirl spun the gun around her finger and holstered the weapon with practiced flourish. She spoke with an exaggerated drawl, “Don’t worry, darlin’, this lone ranger will defend you from any murderin’ spectral horrors.”

“Stop it! You’re awful!” the cook laughed, before taking another bite of her food. It wasn’t as dirty as she thought, and she swallowed a few more bites before stuffing the rest in her mouth.

“You hear that?” the lone ranger put a hand to her ear, “It won’t be safe for long, we best be getting to bed before the devil finds us.”

“Oh please, that’s enough, Calamity Jane.”

“I prefer the name--”

She was cut off by the sharp crack of a snapped branch. The gunslinger stilled, turning in the direction of the noise, “What was that?”

The tall girl huffed in response, “I said cut it out--" but the cowgirl shushed her, scanning the dense foliage around them. Her heart caught in her throat as she saw a pair of eyes glinting from their firelight. A huge creature, larger than a man, was standing on two legs and peering into the camp from about two hundred feet away.

"There's--" the gunslinger's voice strained to form the words, "There's a bear."

The cook froze. She reached for her cast iron pan and held it with both hands. "What do we do?" she whispered.

The cowgirl shook her head. There weren't supposed to be bears in this area. According to her research, none had been seen for over a decade, which is why she hadn't bothered to look up how to defend against one. The bear dropped down to all fours, and they could hear it begin to huff and snarl.

"Get ready to run," she hissed. The cook stood, and the shorter girl eyed her backpack that held her ammunition. It was sitting at the foot of the tent, but she would have to go toward the monster to retrieve it. The bag was only fifteen feet away but it might as well have been fifteen miles. 

The two didn’t have a chance to decide when to act. With a roar, the bear lunged forward, crashing through the foliage as it charged. The cook shrieked, fleeing the camp, but the cowgirl did the opposite, sprinting towards her bag. She had almost reached it when the tent surged forward, collapsing on top of her in a wave of nylon and snapped metal supports. The gunslinger fell to her back and she pushed the tangle of tent away from her face, only to see the bear looming over her, separated only by the crushed tent. The girl shielded her face with her arms and braced herself for what was to come.

“Get away from her!” her friend screamed. She had returned, and had taken to bludgeoning the bear’s hindquarters with her pan. The bear twisted around and swiped a clawed paw towards her, but the cook jumped back, turning heel to run again. With a snarl, the bear released the cowgirl and chased its assailant. The gunslinger kicked the tangled tent off her legs and before she realized it she was chasing the bear, screaming obscenities and death threats. The cook was fast, but the bear was faster, and she lost sight of them both as they crested a small hill outside the camp. 

A blood curdling shriek filled the tree tops, followed by silence.

The gunslinger tore up the slope and hesitated when she reached the apex. Her friend was nowhere in sight, but the bear had already changed directions, loping back towards her. Her fingers reached for her gun, but she reminded herself it was still empty, and willed herself to retreat. The rapid thumping of the bear’s steps told her she wouldn’t make it to the camp before it caught up with her.

Overhead, the large branch of a cedar bowed over her. Leaping, the girl grabbed it and hoisted herself onto the branch before scrambling up the next. The bear was under the tree in an instant, stretching to full height to swipe at her. Its claw caught her foot, nearly yanking her out of the tree, but only managed to knock off her boot. The girl continued to climb, and the bear snapped off the lower branches, pushing against the trunk. The tree shuddered and flexed under the weight.

With one arm wrapped tight around a branch, the cowgirl pulled off her remaining boot and tossed it down. It bounced off the bear’s shoulder, who gave it a glance before turning its attention back to the girl. She whispered a prayer before unholstering her weapon, and threw the revolver at the monster. The gun crashed against the bear’s muzzle with an audible whack, and the bear pulled back from the tree, shaking its head. She held her breath as the bear paced around the tree before leaving in the direction of the camp. The dense canopy obstructed her view of it, but the tell tale sounds of the creature ripping through bags and crunching through supplies told her all she needed to know.

The girl settled onto the upper branches of the tree and wrapped her arms around the trunk. Against the odds, she was safe but trapped. Without a loaded gun, leaving the tree wasn’t a risk she could afford to take. To make matters worse, the last rays of twilight were fading away, cloaking the woods in frigid darkness. Her flashlight, phone, and ammunition were all at the camp, hidden under the destroyed tent. There was nothing she could do but wait it out.

***

Two hours elapsed before the bear left the camp. Another 30 minutes went by before the gunslinger felt safe enough to crawl down from the tree. Her fingers and toes were frozen and her legs ached as she collected her gun and put her boots back on. However, she didn’t have the luxury to pity herself. Through the dark, she crept back to where the campfire once was and strained her eyes in the dim moonlight for the remains of the tent. It had been dragged a good distance away, destroyed beyond use. She was relieved to find her backpack still twisted up inside, and rifled through the contents. She flicked on her flashlight and put it in the crook of her neck as she loaded her gun. Only six bullets, just enough to show it off to her friend.

If only she had loaded it earlier, then that monster would have got what it deserved.

The lone ranger returned to the camp and cast her flashlight across the ransacked carnage. Clothes and supplies were strewn throughout the foliage, and all that remained of the food were shredded cans and crushed boxes. Even the cooking utensils had been mutilated with gnaw marks. Rage boiled inside her.

The forest looked very dizzyingly similar at night, and she found herself walking in circles, ending up back at the camp again and again. Finally, she accurately identified the hill she had last seen her friend and was surprised to discover a steep drop of about twenty feet not far from it, jagged granite boulders resting at the base. There she found her first lead. A conspicuous dark splatter against the white rocks: blood.

The small girl shouted her friend’s name, but there was no response. She climbed down the steep surface of the cliff side at a much slower pace than her friend would have been afforded. The blood was no longer fresh, but she could see the direction it led before the ground cover became more soil than stone. She followed the trail.

The ferns and ivy lashed across her torn stockings, but she continued forward, right hand hovering over her weapon. She stopped at the entrance of a cave yawning out of the mountainside. It looked both parts refuge and trap. Didn’t bears live in caves?

She called out her friend’s name again, but was answered only with a faint echo. At least it was better than the growl of bears. She shined her light across the back of the cave and could see the tunnel curved, making it impossible to see how deep it was. As she traced the floor with the light, something sparkled. The gunslinger ventured forward and pinched it between her fingers: a hair pin, with a small crystal embedded at the end. The last time she had seen it was in her friend’s hair. She had been here.

The cowgirl huffed out a shuddering sigh, and she couldn’t tell if it was from relief or a renewed sense of dread. If her friend had been here, where was she now?

The child took a deep breath and stepped deeper into the cave.

kindness and justice: backstory // end

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[cetacian]

The Fall and Rise of Orca: The Introduction of Prime Earth Orca Part 2: Nightwing Vol 4 Issues #30-34 “Raptor’s Revenge”

Warning for blood, a nasty beatdown, brief mention of animal abuse and hypodermic needles

                                          Under Cut For Length

Avery, leader of the Whale’s Enders, was pissed at being sold crap weapons by Roland Desmond (who took over Tiger Shark’s casino and was soon considered the head crime boss in the city) as well as being being targeted by other criminals. She soon challenged his leadership capabilities:

Not sure if Roland purposefully misspelled Avery’s surname or if that was a mistake on the part of the scriptwriter or letterer. What was that weapon for anyway? Was it something to bust into bank vaults? Was it self defense against metahuman criminals? We were told in an earlier issue that the Whale’s Enders were a “robber gang”, which would imply that they probably didn’t need anything stronger than handguns if they were just robbing places. Most likely, it was meant to be a show of force in order to try to make them seem tougher than they actually were. Something that Avery tried to do when she sicced Orca on Roland:

Which went about as well as you might think once Roland downed some of the Blockbuster serum:

I feel torn on this attack because while I understand Roland’s motivation of wanting to assert his strength over someone foolishly trying to usurp him, I still question if his beatdown of Orca needed to be quite so brutal. 

Orca would be out of commission until Issue #32, but her influence on events was still relevant in Issue #32, as the Whale’s Enders broke into a marine lab/chemical transport facility to steal horseshoe crab blood:

However, following up on a lead for another villain (Raptor, a former mentor and friend of Nightwing’s deceased mother), Nightwing and Huntress showed up to stop them, with Huntress willing to abide by Nightwing’s code against killing (partially because they had become a couple by this point in the book):

They spelled Avery’s surname right this time, making me wonder if it really was Roland being disrespectful. Which she absolutely deserves.

The battle went on, with Nightwing at one point using a couple of the horseshoe crabs as bludgeoning weapons to knock out a Whale’s Enders member. I’ve seen several comics do this with animals over many decades and even though it’s fiction, I really don’t approve of characters who are supposed to be heroic treating animals so callously. It’s a little easier to accept when villains do it, but I’d really prefer if this trope got phased out in general.

Once the Whale’s Enders were whittled down to Avery and one other member, Avery revealed why the group needed the blood: as the final component of the serum that turned Grace Balin into Orca:

In a last, desperate act, Avery injected herself with the serum, beginning to transform into an orca hybrid as she lunged at Nightwing and Huntress:

However, her attack was short lived, as she unexpectedly missed the two heroes and began to change back into her former human self, as her one remaining companion gave himself up to the heroes’ custody:

As the Whale’s Enders were being arrested/taken to a hospital, Nightwing contacted Roland (who had given him the tip about the facility being a potential target for Raptor) to inform him that Raptor was not there. Huntress, having heard the conversation and unable to see past her black and white sense of morality, breaks up with Nightwing.

Nightwing later encountered Raptor while working undercover in Roland’s casino, only to discover that he had poisoned many of the rich patrons with the Blockbuster serum via their drinks. 

Meanwhile, after the murder of Giz and the betrayal of former members and allies, the Run-Offs sought out another former member, Orca, at her makeshift lab in the abandoned Sea Land park:

Soon enough they found Orca herself, still recovering from Roland’s brutal beating. She revealed the fate of the Whale’s Enders before telling the Run-Offs to leave as Shawn pleaded for her assistance:

Shawn then surmised what had gone wrong with the formula Avery had injected herself with, before appealing to Orca’s conscious, as well as her scientific knowledge, to help cure the poisoned patrons:

Which I do have to wonder whether the horseshoe crab blood was the wrong ingredient or whether there were other wrong ones or lack of the right ones in the serum already. We’re never told one way or another.

Orca soon began working with the Run-Offs to create an antidote to the Blockbuster serum:

Unfortunately, they had found out that the problem was much bigger, as the casino outbreak was a distraction from Raptor’s real plan: using trained birds to carry canisters of the Blockbuster serum to aerially poison the city’s entire population. The Run-Offs then began using Orca’s antidote via Shawn’s spray cans and hypodermic needles:

Orca then brought in a large canister, full of enough antidote to cure all the patrons locked inside of the casino, with Mouse hacking into the building’s fire suppression system in order to deliver the antidote via the sprinkler system:

Meanwhile, Nightwing, Shawn and Roland fought against Raptor and his accomplice Pigeon, which ended in the latter two’s deaths before they could trigger the release of the serum carried by the trained birds.

Orca and the Run-Offs later exited the casino alongside the cured patrons as the police arrived:

Based on the final panel of the story in Issue #34, it appeared that Orca had rejoined the Run-Offs in order to help Nightwing continue to fight crime in Blüdhaven:

Summery Thoughts: Orca got a nice arc throughout this storyline, going from pathetic in her self loathing to having her true value recognized and becoming instrumental in saving the poisoned patrons. Writer Tim Seeley recognized what many readers knew for a long time: Orca works far better as an antihero than as a villain. Her potential as an antihero would be explored within the context of a team in the miniseries Gotham City Monsters (which will be covered in the next post). 

[aion-rsa]

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs

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This article contains The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

Well, it’s finally here. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 6 was an action-packed, but rather messy season finale for the show. Hopefully it isn’t a series finale, and we’ll see it continue in season 2 as Captain America and the Winter Soldier, but that’s an argument for another time.

For now, we’re here (as usual) to dig in to all the Marvel Comics and MCU references the show gave us this episode. We’ll be honest, it was relatively light on those, but there’s still plenty to speculate about. And if you spot anything we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments!

The New Captain America

Sam’s incredibly sharp-looking Captain America costume is a perfect live action translation of the version he wore in the comics. That costume was designed by Carlos Pacheco, and first hit the pages of Marvel Comics in October of 2014, in All-New Captain America #1. Even then, it felt like a perfectly movie-ready design, but to see it translated to beautifully to live action is a real treat, and this is an immediate contender for “best superhero movie or TV suit” right now. The additional stars and stripes motif added to the underside of the wings here seems to be an MCU flourish, but that’s just one little way they managed to improve on perfection.

It’s safe to assume that Sam’s new wings are vibranium, or at least vibranium laced, just like his shield, considering that it was made for him by the tech geniuses in Black Panther‘s Wakanda. There’s something to be said here about how America is stronger when it works with and accepts help from its allies, as opposed to going it alone. Just witness how much better Sam’s wings hold up under pressure than Walker’s homemade shield.

Similarly, Sam primarily uses the shield and the wings for defense. Compare that to how Walker wields his shield, as a slashing/bludgeoning weapon for offense. It’s a nice illustration of two different interpretations about how best to utilize America’s power.

Bucky

Bucky’s leap from a barrier-crashing motorcycle in episode 6 is a nice callback to Steve’s very similar move in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As a voice barked “stand down” from a SHIELD quinjet, Steve hit a barrier on his bike and was thrown forward into the action. 

We also see Bucky straining to open the back of the van with his vibranium arm, but he doesn’t flex as hard as Steve did when he stopped Bucky taking off in a helicopter in that same movie. Both Sam and Bucky reflect elements of what made Steve an exceptional Captain America in the finale, and prove to be a terrific team.

Bucky gives Steve’s notebook to his therapist as a thank you gift. Honestly, she deserves less. It belongs in a museum.

U.S. Agent

John Walker manages to control the effects that the super soldier serum is having on his psyche when he gets a second chance to prove himself, dropping his damaged makeshift shield and realizing he needs to prioritize human lives over vengeance. 

Val says that people will need a “US Agent” soon, and not a Captain America, as things are about to get “weird”. US Agent, of course, was the codename Walker took on after he stopped being Captain America in the comics. Speaking of which, Walker’s new costume is basically identical to his Marvel Comics US Agent costume and it looks really great here.  We wrote more about the Marvel Comics history of U.S. Agent here.

Why are Val, Walker and his wife back in the courthouse where Walker got court martialed to try on his new US Agent costume? Feels like pandemic-related restrictions forced the show to film all those scenes at the same time, doesn’t it?

Isaiah Bradley

Sam returning to properly make sure Isaiah Bradley gets his due once again mirrors the excellent Truth: Red, White, and Black story by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker. There it was Steve who made sure that Isaiah’s deeds were finally known to the world.

Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of Isaiah, but you can bet we’re going to get more of Elijah down the road. Between introducing two members of the Young Avengers in WandaVision with Billy and Tommy, and the impending arrival of Kate Bishop on Hawkeye later this year, young Elijah is due to get himself some red, white, and blue duds of his own.

Sharon Carter is the Power Broker?

Yes, Sharon Carter is the Power Broker. No, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. She took Sam, Bucky, and Zemo to see super soldier serum scientist Dr. Nagel in his lab. He was working for her! She let that dangerous shit play out, which was very much against her interests! What! No. What! The man must have been confused as hell in his final moments.

Sharon uses the same tech that Natasha Romanoff used to disguise her face during the climax of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. 

We find out that Sharon was indeed behind Karli’s initial rise to Flag-Smasher power, after taking her in and giving her a chance in Madripoor. Sharon is willing to forgive the betrayal if Karli and her friends come back to the fold, but Karli’s too far gone for that.

Sharon gets a pardon from the US government. I guess it wasn’t that hard after all. Maybe you could click this link while you’re here.

Is this the first time Sharon has been called Agent Carter in the MCU? And is there some way to bring Peggy back to kick her narrow Power Brokering ass? How dare you besmirch the Carter name, girl.

Sharon’s “mercury vapor” bomb that takes out that poor dude kind of feels like the dust that the Red Skull used to use during the Mark Gruenwald era of the comics to kill people…which left them looking like red skulls. Uh-oh…this brings us to the next question…

Who was Sharon calling at the end? Val? Nick Fury? Her Skrull bosses? Alexander Lukin? Something is definitely wrong here. It’s possible that she’s working with Val to put together a team of Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts, but nothing makes a lot of sense with Sharon’s arc in the MCU in general, let alone this show.

Zemo

That is indeed Zemo’s butler Oeznik (played by Nicholas Pryor) who kills the fuck out of the Flag-Smashers in the police van with a remote controlled incendiary device. What an Evil Jarvis. In any case, Zemo got at least some of his wish, as now there are a few fewer super soldiers running around the MCU.

Among the books that Zemo is reading in his cell is Alexander von Humboldt’s Views of Nature – the German polymath, geographer, naturalist and explorer was the first person to truly make note of human-induced climate change. But we can only assume that the book Zemo is holding close to his heart as he hears the fate of the Flag-Smashers is the Machiavelli tome that Bucky rudely interrupted earlier in the series.

Despite the news saying that there are no suspects in the Flag-Smasher bombing, Val knows straight away that it was Zemo who had “the last laugh”. Huh. “Couldn’t have worked better if I planned it myself,” she jokes. “Oh, well, maybe I did. No, I’m kidding, I didn’t. Or did I?” Who the hell knows, Val.

Batroc

Is Batroc dead? Batroc had better not be dead! We demand more Georges St-Pierre in the MCU! Ze Leaper has managed to escape certain death multiple times in the MCU so far, and we’d like that trend to continue. He’s such a great all-purpose, kinda hapless baddie, that we’d love to just see him show up for the occasional slugfest. Or hell, maybe a Batroc fight can be a kind of “right of passage” for anyone else who has to wear the Captain America costume down the road!

And hey, he even did some leaping in this episode!

The Flag-Smashers

Sam’s face-off with Karli Morgenthau is a lot like Steve’s final face-off with Bucky in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when he tries to talk her down instead of fighting back.

The Raft

The Raft was first introduced to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, but the fact that they’re going out of their way to mention it multiple times in this show, and the fact that the Flag-Smashers were destined for there (after all, they’re super soldiers) should be an indication of just how important that place is going to be to the MCU going forward. I think we can safely expect both Val and Sharon to be doing some recruiting out of there.

The New Falcon?

We only get a brief moment with Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres, as he gazes adoringly at the TV broadcast with Sam as Captain America, but hopefully we get more of him in the future. After all, Joaquin became the new Falcon when Sam wore the red, white, and blue in the comics, and he DOES have Sam’s old wings.

Where is Steve Rogers?

You know, if they keep making that joke about Steve being “on the moon” maybe there’s gonna turn out to be some truth to it. Is this how the MCU will introduce the “man on the wall” concept from the Original Sin story in Marvel Comics? OK, fine, probably not.

The Bridge

Sam having his first big public moment on a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, where New Yorkers see him, cheer him, and implicitly accept him as a hero feels like moments in Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man movies, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge scene in the first one, and the subway car scene in Spider-Man 2. This is decidedly less heavy-handed, though.

Ayla

GRC representative Ayla is not from Marvel Comics. We don’t get her last name, and she shares a first name with extremely obscure Nightstalkers villain Rotwrap. Look, there’s not  a lot going on in this episode, we’re trying.

Speaking of things we don’t have a lot on…

“Government Official”

Can you believe that despite appearing in nearly every episode of this show, Alphie Hyorth’s bearded senator is still only named as “government official” in the credits? What are you hiding Marvel?!? Maybe he’s actually Mephisto! (sorry, a little WandaVision humor there) 

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But for real, why would you have a recurring character who ends up central to so many elements of this story and NOT name him? Is he a Skrull? Is he Senator Robert Kelly? (look, we miss all the mutant speculation from the WandaVision days)

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[beings-from-the-otherworld]

OC Summaries (revised)

I’ve decided to revise the post with the information about each of my OCs, especially since when I posted it, I’ve changed some of the character’s names and races. I’ve also made a better summary to the story I am writing.

The summary of the story is this: Siblings Alex and Robbie have lived with their grandparents for two years, after an incident that involved their parents occurred, and have often wondered why haven't they learned of their grandparents before from their mother...and what's with all the locked rooms in the mansion they're not allowed to go into, the locked shelf of books they're not allowed to read and the questions they're not allowed to ask. They find the answers to these questions one night, when their grandparents are out of the house and a mysterious being invades the mansion and attacks them. What are their grandparents' histories, who are these strange beings that keep showing up and trying to kill them, and what is this Otherworld that they keep mentioning?

And now information about each of the characters. 

First, the human characters: 

Samuel Verrat: Robbie and Rikku’s grandfather, who is a very level-headed and respectful man. Nobody knows where exactly he came from or how he and Beast got together, and that’s not the only secret he’s hiding.

Beast Wagner: Robbie and Rikku’s other grandfather, who is Samuel’s husband. He has some facial scars that he claimed he got in a “war”. What war it was, he never told his grandkids, and it doesn’t seem like he will anytime soon. He has a very high IQ and has knowledge of world history and cultures. He also tends to be very temperamental.

Alex Verrat-Wagner: A 6-year-old who is mostly innocent, if not a bit naive. She’s very sweet and caring of her family and friends, and is very enthusiastic about learning. She loves hanging around her grandparents, but it never dawned on her to question Samuel and Beast’s family history and why their mother never mentioned their existence to her or Robbie.

Robbie Verrat Wagner: A 16-year-old boy who is striving to make it in his teenage social life, such as by trying to have a lot of interesting friends and being great at a lot of things. So far, he’s had the people that he lives with on his list of “interesting friends” and using being a loner as being a thing he’s “great” at, but he still wants to have some sort of adventure. Maybe like one of the ones his grandfathers hide from him and Alex.

Darrian Jones: A woman who lives in the city far away from where the mansion is and is a friend of Zara’s. Darrian is a very strong-minded and proud woman who would do anything to keep her son safe, but she can be a tad strict at times.She is proud that Skylar is informed about social justice movements, but she’s worried that he might get into trouble because of it someday.

Skylar Jones: An 8-year-old boy who lives in the city and is Alex’s best friend. Skylar is also very big on human rights activism, especially Black Lives Matter, and he will not hesitate to call someone out when they’re being offensive to a marginalized group. He really likes hanging around the Otherworld beings, mostly Broker.

Clayton Jones: Darrian’s older brother, and Skylar’s uncle. He’s a pretty cool guy who can get along with pretty much anyone. He was aware of Darrian and Skylar visiting a “house that’s very far away from the city” where some friends live, but he’s never been to the mansion. When he does, he’s very taken aback by the Otherworld beings but he gets used to the chaos very quickly and sometimes helps the people fit into the Human World better.

Constantine Alvarez: A Cuban man who is a very enthusiastic and kind-hearted. He cares a lot about his wife, daughter, and friends. However, every now and then, he and his best friend, Ivan like to pull jokes on other people, and he can be a bit of a smartass sometimes, which drives Beast insane.

Zara Alvarez: A very loving and kind woman who almost always has a very sweet smile on her face. She rarely gets angry, but according to Constantine, her husband, when she is, she’s kind of scary. She also tends to be a little blunt with her opinions on things, which can be kind of painful since she seems like such a nice lady. Her biological daughter is Leah, but she treats Robbie and Alex like they were her own kids ever since they moved in, mostly because she feels bad about what happened to their mom.

Leah Alvarez: Constantine and Zara’s 18 year old daughter, who is very smart and cool, but she has a big of a sassy attitude and a bit of sarcastic sense of humor sometimes, something she probably inherited from her father. She is pretty protective of Robbie and Alex, since they’re like the younger siblings she’s never had.

Ivan Azarov: A Russian hacker, robotics expert and a bit of an inventor, Ivan came to America after Samuel discovered him after an incident involving a Russian robotics lab (though he won’t say what). Ivan is a goodhearted man despite his hacking hobby and he’ll help his friends when he has to, but he can be a big of a joker, usually assisted by his best friend, Constantine. He has a husband named Frederick Wage and a little daughter named Carina.

Frederick Wage: A British man who is very skilled in hacking. Frederick is a very dignified and friendly person, but he can kind of lose it when he’s angry or his anxiety’s through the roof, which is usually caused by someone doing something stupid or crazy, but he’s getting used to it. He has a little daughter named Carina, who he’s very protective of.

Carina Azarov-Wage: Ivan and Frederick’s 2 year old daughter, who they adopted not long after getting married. She’s a very sweet little girl who loves stuffed animals and knows a few Russian words from Ivan, specifically ‘da’, ‘nyet’ and a few curse words, much to Frederick’s chagrin.

And now for all the non-human characters!

Bog the Ampman: An Ampman is an amphibian-human being. Bog is a very amiable person, who offers his friends advice when they need it and answers any questions regarding biology that they have. He was a very respected scientist from Ampman Country in the Otherworld, so when he came to the Human World, he was very interested in studying the environments. He has a Nigerian accent and knows Hausa.

José the Playa: A Playa is a being that appears human but is slightly stronger than that of a normal human’s and has an strong immune system that can protect against a lot of STDs. José is a very outgoing man who cares a great deal about his friends’ well-beings, especially Broker, who he has a crush on. He is also very informed on the concepts of sex, reproductive health, sexuality and gender orientation, since sex education is taken very seriously in Playa City, where he’s from. He has the appearance of being Latino and knows Spanish.

Jane the Nymph: A Nymph is a human-looking being that wields a music instrument as a weapon, whether they use it to bludgeon their enemy to death or use the supersonic sound mode to blow their foe away. Their type depends on what genre of music they’re involved with and what instrument they play. Jane is a Rock n Roll Nymph with an electric guitar. Jane is a very bubbly lady who loves her friends and is always eager to learn new things about them and the Human World. Despite appearances, Jane is ready to kick anyone’s ass when they deserve it. She has long curly blonde hair, brown skin and bright blue eyes.

Broker the Loaner: A Loaner is a human-looking being that’s culture is mostly built around wealth, which can either be attained by mining or stealing. What differentiates Loaners from Humans is the fact that they all have super speed when it comes to running and thought-processing, so they’re quick physically and mentally. There is a caste system in Loaner Valley, where Broker is at the bottom, a Brown-neck, signified by a brown bandanna tied around his neck, meaning he’s the poorest, takes the least, and treated badly by the upper caste levels. He is very caring of his friends and always tries to do what he can to help them, though most of the time he doesn’t use the best method to do it. When he’s in the Human World, he’s surprised that they have a similar classism problem in their society like back in Loaner valley, but he’s even more surprised that people judge others based on their skin color more than their wealth, which doesn’t make sense to him since he’s used to being mocked for being poor rather than for being what humans say is “black”. Skylar does his best to explain what social injustice in the Human World is to Broker whenever he can. Broker is also a trans male.

Beatrice the Goth: A Goth is like a Nymph but the music genres they all play are mostly forms of goth rock, metal and punk. They broke away from the Nymphs centuries ago and became their own race, residing in Goth Grounds. Beatrice is a Punk Goth with a bass guitar. She’s a very bitter and blunt woman, and prefers to be by herself most of the time. Beatrice doesn’t show it, but she does have a soft spot for her friends and would fight anyone that would try to hurt them, especially Jane. She has the appearance of being Latino.

Kiowa the Askarian: An Askarian is a bit of a warrior race that is very skilled in fighting and hunting and well-known for their superhuman strength Kiowa is a very strong Askarian soldier, but he doesn’t let his strength go to his head. He has a lot of respect for his friends. Kiowa also has a pet micro-bunny (A bunny that’s the size of a 9-month old rabbit) a named Crooked-Ear, who’s been his companion ever since he was a kid and Crooked-Ear was the size of a cotton ball. Kiowa also has a lover back home named Sallali, or Sal, who he loves talking about and misses a great deal. He has the appearance of being indigenous.

Catty the Aristocrat: An Aristocrat is a very wealthy race that have very fancy lifestyle. They got their riches from mining, textiles, jewelry and other forms of production and they’re very proud of it. Catty is a very well-mannered and sweet lady, but that doesn’t mean she won’t act out when someone upsets her or one of her friends. She has a plus-size figure, which is common for Aristocrat women, but she dislikes how most humans seem to associate being fat with being ugly. Catty is also a brilliant baker, so she helps Alex and Skylar with making cookies or cupcakes when they need them for a class party or bake sale.

Platinum-Teeth the Tough-Tooth: A Tough-Tooth is a race of people who are known for three things: their large size, both height and weight-wise; their ability to use a large ax in combat; and having metallic teeth, hence their name. Platinum-Teeth has platinum teeth, hence his name, but he mostly goes by the name of Platinum. Despite his scary appearance, he is very level-headed and kind, not to mention very philosophical. He gives his friends advice when they need it and whatever wisdom he has to offer, which usually helps fix a situation that occurs. He tries to figure out if there’s a way to solve a problem logically, before anyone, mostly Nightshade, has the chance to do anything that worsen it.

Wimpy the Weakling: A Weakling is a human-like being with pale white skin and pastel or light colored hair. For instance, Wimpy has light green. They also tend to have very small frames and are generally low in strength, but their running speed is equivalent to that of a Loaner’s, which is good since they’re more so flighters than fighters. Weaklings also have this weird birthmark on their forehead, which is some sort of symmetrical shape, like a star in Wimpy’s case. Like most Weaklings, Wimpy has the worst anxiety and gets easily nervous and stutters a lot. He is a very sweet guy and he means well, but sometimes, it’s hard for the others to take him seriously. Since he’s moved into the mansion, some of the others, especially Kiowa, Platinum, and Jane have tried motivating Wimpy to get stronger and learn to cope with his anxiety better so he’ll feel more comfortable when he’s staying with the others.

Wolf the Werewolf: A Werewolf is a canine-human beings. (but you probably could figure that out) But these werewolves are pretty different from the ones we’re more familiar with. They usually appear as humans with canine ears, tails, sharper teeth, and claws instead of normal nails, and they’re very hairy regardless of what gender they are. They have a more monstrous form that resembles what we expect werewolves to look like which they use in combat and can also morph into full wolf forms. Wolf is a very tough werewolf, but he does have a bit of a temper and tends to try to avoid most problems his friends have,though he’s hardly ever successful. Despite his aggressive attitude, he cares a great deal about his friends. He is also sensitive to extremely loud noises, like thunder and fireworks, since he is after all part dog.

Florence the Fairy: A Fairy is a human-like being with insect-like wings, ranging from butterfly to housefly, that have power over magic, mostly of the elemental and healing sort. Florence is very serious and distinguished, getting easily annoyed whenever someone does anything stupid or annoy him…or both. Florence thinks of himself as being better than any of the other non-human world residents, thinking of himself as perfect and flawless, which isn’t true. He tends to get easily irritated and be very judgmental towards others. Florence can be nice to his friends sometimes, but it takes a lot to get his respect. Nezo and Nightshade still have yet to earn this.

Nezo the Shadow: A Shadow is a being that looks human, save one thing-they all have black hair and black skin, and when I say black skin, I mean black like a shadow you see when it’s sunny out, hence their race’s name. They use a form of dark magic and each have odd colored eyes, which are said to represent their personalities. For instance, Nezo has yellow eyes, which means he’s quick-witted, confidant, playful, enthusiastic, and easy-going, which he can be sometimes. However, yellow also describes dishonesty, jealousy, covetousness, and treachery, which also describes Nezo well. He tends to be a bit of a prankster, mostly picking on Florence and Wimpy, but when he’s not messing with people, he likes to sit back and relax, or have a friendly chat with the other people in the mansion, mostly Gloomy.

Gloomy the Alkristal: An Alkristal is a being that can have a variety of skin, hair and eye colors, usually associated with a gem or mineral color of some sort, like Gloomy has light blue skin, baby blue hair, and sky blue eyes. They also have crystalline wings that they can make appear and disappear and a form of light alchemy. Gloomy’s real name is Gloomstone, but lets the others call him Gloomy for short. Gloomy appears to be a very smart, respectful and content man, who helps his friends when they need it, cares about their well-being, and tries to make sure that none of them are feeling down. However, Gloomy himself as gone through some episodes of depression, where he isolates himself from the others for the whole day, which concerns the others, especially Nezo.

Abigail the Werecat: A Werecat is a feline-like person, who all have cat ears, whiskers, tails, and claws for nails, similar to a Werewolf. However, unlike Werewolves, Werecats tend to be a cat-person of a particular feline species, like Abigail is an Ocelot. She’s a very excitable and out-going person that just loves to get on everyone’s nerves. She tends to be a little sassy and enjoys poking fun at the other residents of the mansion, even when it’s probably not necessary. She and her best friend, Nightshade, like to play pranks on everyone and have a lot of good and happy fun together. However, Abigail also has some bad anxiety, which tends to cause her to be twitchy and stammer a lot whenever it acts up. She has a difficult time calming down alone and someone has to be around her whenever she gets like this to be sure that she’s okay. Aside from the cat features, she has the appearance of being Latinx.

Nightshade the Malopix: A Malopix is a being that is like a fairy, except they don’t have wings and their powers are mostly dark. They use the elements, like fairies, telekinesis, which can allow them to levitate objects and themselves, and can apparently manipulate death. Nightshade is a very energetic and overly excitable guy who adores pulling pranks on his friends, especially horror-themed pranks, with the help of his BFF Abigail, and tends to do the most ridiculous stunts. He seems to be very happy all the time, but there are moments where he goes through an episode of depression, which usually renders him inactive for awhile. His depressing episodes are very rare, but when he had his first one around the other people living in the mansion, the other residents were very surprised. He has gray skin, coily white hair and purple eyes.

[wweextremerules-2018]

Early Predictions for Entire WWE Extreme Rules 2018 Main Event

WWE Extreme Rules 2018 will be the bridge between two major events: Money in the Bank and SummerSlam.

An event known for having multiple specialty bouts, particularly among the biggest matches on the card, this year's Extreme Rules could be intense come July 15.

Most of the card is still up in the air, but there have been significant hints about which stars will be fighting to earn major spots at SummerSlam on August 19. Almost every championship is certain to be on the line.

Still, there are questions about what stipulations the confirmed and expected matches will have as well as what will come of these exciting contests to kick the WWE summer into high gear.

Kickoff: Finn Balor vs. Baron Corbin

This card is going to be stuffed with talent, so it's hard to say how Finn Balor will fit.

His feud with Baron Corbin has been developing nicely, but unless the No. 1 Contender multi-man match is reinstated, these two cannot fit on the main card for Extreme Rules.

The Kickoff match has often been used to keep Raw feuds moving, so Balor and Corbin could have their first match here before the rivalry takes off. The Irishman could certainly put on a show that makes WWE officials regret wasting him.

Corbin's resurgence as The Constable has been fun to watch, but he's still not being treated as the same type of talent as Balor, who will eventually be in the world title scene.

Corbin may not win any matches in this feud.

Prediction: Balor wins

Raw Tag Team Championships: Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt (c) vs. The B-Team

It was a surprise when this tag team match was not announced for Money in the Bank, but a limited card has forced this feud to be delayed until Extreme Rules. Now the two tag teams can finally clash and hopefully show why they deserve a greater spotlight.

The Woken tag team champions are popular and entertaining, but they are still waiting for someone to step up as a real threat to them. While it has been fun to watch Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas recreate themselves without The Miz, they do not come off as legitimate rivals for the champions.

Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre or The Authors of Pain should be next in line for an opportunity come SummerSlam. Hopefully Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt will prove in this contest why they are worthy tag team champions.

Prediction: Hardy and Wyatt retain the Raw Tag Team Championships

SmackDown Tag Team Championships: The Bludgeon Brothers (c) vs. Team Hell No

Until Tuesday's edition of SmackDown, it was hard to say who would help Daniel Bryan in his fight against The Bludgeon Brothers, but Kane answered the call.

Credit: WWE.com Team Hell No have reunited and hopefully will bring some needed excitement to the blue brand's tag team division.

As stacked as the division is, not much has been done with Harper and Rowan since they won the tag team championships. They should pair up well with the entertaining alliance of Bryan and Kane, who should give the monsters a good fight.

In the end, though, this comes off as a temporary team battling a dominant alliance. It will be fun while it lasts, but The Bludgeon Brothers will not fall just yet.

Prediction: Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team Championships

WWE United States Championship: Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

This match was expected to happen on SmackDown Live, but a freak accident led to Shinsuke Nakamura getting injured. This means fans will have to wait until Extreme Rules for The Daredevil to get his hands on The Artist.

This pairing is the perfect connection of athletic ability and pure charisma that should make for an excellent match. The United States Championship has been underutilized lately, but this rivalry can be the catalyst for the title returning to relevance.

While Hardy makes sense as champion, Nakamura is in desperate need of a win. He couldn't capture the WWE Championship, so the U.S. title is a solid consolation prize.

The Rockstar is too good not to get a chance to be a major attraction on SmackDown.

Prediction: Nakamura becomes new WWE United States champion

WWE Intercontinental Championship: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Seth Rollins

On Monday's edition of Raw, Seth Rollins and Ziggler put on a show in the main event without a definitive winner. It only makes sense they get a second chance at Extreme Rules, but this time Drew McIntyre would have to be banned from ringside.

The two could have an even better match than before, giving Rollins another great bout to add to his banner year. Ziggler, meanwhile, has seen resurgent in his alliance with McIntyre, and the two can only get better with each passing week.

Ziggler and McIntyre still have unfinished business in the tag team division, so this may be the end of their Intercontinental Championship detour. Rollins can regain the title, while the two heels go on to take the Raw Tag Team Championships.

Prediction: Rollins regains the WWE Intercontinental Championship

Steel Cage Match: Braun Strowman vs. Kevin Owens

The feud between Braun Strowman and Kevin Owens has been a fun diversion on Raw lately, but it now needs to reach its climax. What better way to settle a feud in which KO is always trying to escape than inside a steel cage?

Credit: WWE.com These two are among the best on Raw right now, and Strowman has the Money in the Bank briefcase. It makes sense for their bout to be one of the few on this card without a title on the line, although The Monster Among Men could convince KO to compete by putting his briefcase up for grabs.

Whether the case in on the line or not, Strowman is on too much of a roll to lose now. It is likely he will be Universal Champion by the end of the summer, while Owens spends much of the next few months annoying other upper midcard faces.

Prediction: Strowman wins

SmackDown Women's Championship Handicap Match: Carmella (c) and James Ellsworth vs. Asuka

The last time Carmella fought Asuka, it took a surprise return from James Ellsworth for the SmackDown women's champion to retain her title. It stands to reason then that their next clash should give Asuka a chance to get back at The Chinless Wonder.

A mixed gender handicap match is a rarity in wrestling, but Ellsworth could pull it off by playing punchbag for Asuka. This also protects Carmella and The Empress of Tomorrow, who can continue their feud into SummerSlam regardless of the result.

Significant time has been spent building up The Princess of Staten Island as a top competitor on SmackDown, so it is likely she will keep the title a while longer.

It is hard to say who will next step up if Asuka fails here and at SummerSlam, though.

Prediction: Carmella retains the SmackDown Women's Championship with Ellsworth's help

Raw Women's Championship Falls Count Anywhere Match: Alexa Bliss (c) vs. Nia Jax

The rivalry between Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax began in force before WrestleMania 34, and the two women have had two solid heated matches in that time.

With The Goddess of WWE stealing her title back from Jax at Money in the Bank, the feud has reached its climax.

This match should be the last chapter in this rivalry, with the two getting the necessary stipulation to showcase their hatred for one another. Falls Count Anywhere is a rarely utilized stipulation that would be perfect for these rivals who could battle throughout the arena.

While Jax has won every encounter with Bliss to date, the story has shifted back to Litttle Miss Bliss, who is on the verge of a rivalry with Ronda Rousey when the former UFC star returns from suspension.

It will likely take more than a few tricks, but Bliss will walk out still champion at the end of Extreme Rules.

Prediction: Bliss retains the Raw Women's Championship

WWE Championship Strap Match: AJ Styles (c) vs. Rusev

This match is already set after Rusev's surprise win in the gauntlet match, outlasting more likely contenders such as Bryan and Samoa Joe. Now The Bulgarian Brute needs to prove he deserves more opportunities like this going forward.

Credit: WWE.com AJ Styles can have a great match with anyone, but it has still been a bit hard to see this as more than a filler bout. Rusev is unlikely to win, which makes him just a placeholder before a bigger challenger comes along. Even if it is a quality fight, this contest may not stand out on this card.

That is why the two need a stipulation to help them take this bout to the next level. However, it is more likely the stipulation they are given will just add more ridiculousness to the proceedings as has often happened in Rusev's career.

A Strap match is a bizarre stipulation that has the benefit of keeping the wrestlers close together and physical. It would add some heat to this clash even if it would also add more silliness.

Prediction: Styles retains the WWE Championship

No. 1 Contender Extreme Rules Match: Roman Reigns vs. Bobby Lashley

The original plan for a Six-Pack Challenge match has seemingly been nixed, which may be for the best. More interesting bouts are possible if the expected competitors move into singles matches.

The two men most benefiting from the decision are Roman Reigns and Bobby Lashley, who can now have their first-ever one-on-one match. The two could have a stellar physical bout together, but the crowd in Pittsburgh may not be interested.

Even if it becomes an Extreme Rules fight, with the two allowed to battle through the crowd and with any weapons they can find, it will take some strong storytelling to convince anyone to invest in two underwritten and overbooked characters.

Either man could win to set up a solid main event at SummerSlam, but Brock Lesnar vs. Lashley is an easier sell, especially with The Beast on his way out of WWE.

[wavenetinfo]

Ever since Christopher Nolan’s last great Batman film, 2008’s The Dark Knight, DC has been in a pretty brutal big-screen slump. Watchmen. Jonah Hex. Green Lantern. Suicide Squad. The various Superman movies. Some of these films have managed to make a nice chunk of change at the box office. But they’re the kind of hits that exist more on a studio’s balance sheet than in the hearts and minds of moviegoers. Unlike its crosstown rival, Marvel, DC has had a hard time finding the right mix of darkness and light, seriousness and humor, gravitas and fun. They just haven’t been able to crack the magic nut. It would be insane to think that the suits at Warner Bros., the custodians of the DC celluloid franchise, weren’t getting twitchy and envious every time a new Marvel flick hit theaters. But now, with their latest superhero saga, they can finally stopping chewing their cuticles — if there are any left. Wonder Woman is smart, slick, and satisfying in all of the ways superhero films ought to be. How deliciously ironic that in a genre where the boys seem to have all the fun, a female hero and a female director are the ones to show the fellas how it’s done.

Ever since her comic-book debut in 1941, William Moulton Marston’s groundbreaking superheroine has been ahead of her time. A girl-power icon in a male-fantasy universe that rarely had much use for powerful women — just damsels looking to be undistressed. But Wonder Women always (or most of the time, anyways) refused to play by those rules. A demigod warrior-princess sculpted from clay by her Amazonian mother, Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman was a distaff badass with the courage, superpowers, and gee-whiz doodads to match her male peers: The Lasso of Truth, indestructible golden bracelets, and even a sword that could bring down the Gods. She used them all to shatter the superhero glass ceiling.

That’s the same protagonist we first meet in Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman — a rollicking origin story with a clear and distinct feminist message that never bludgeons you with its gender politics. It’s far too assured and sly for that. The film opens on the island of Themyscira, an idyllic paradise with chalk-white cliffs and turquoise waters that was gifted to the Amazons by Zeus. Invisible to the rest of the world, the island is hidden by a protective atmospheric cloak. It’s like the Bermuda Triangle if the Bermuda Triangle were inhabited solely by a race of she-warriors living in harmony and training in combat under Robin Wright. Zeus created the Amazons to put love back into mankind’s hearts and restore peace. But under Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen), they’ve remained in hiding, practicing the ancient martial arts in strappy gladiator sandals and on horseback while speaking in a thick Slavic goulash of accents that give you the impression that Themyscira might just be located somewhere near Transylvania. Hippolyta has a young daughter named Diana — a curious, rebellious, bullheaded little moppet eager to learn how to fight like her elders. She’s not like the others, though. There’s something special about her — a secret link to the Gods that no one told her about. But as Diana grows up to become Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, her gift reveals itself. And just in the nick of time, too.

When the plane of an American spy named Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) pierces the island’s force-field whatzit and crashes into the ocean, Gadot’s Diana dives in and saves him. He’s the first man that she’s ever laid eyes on. The first man that any of the Amazons have laid eyes on. All of them want him to leave. But Diana is curious. Especially after he tells her about the horrific war that’s raging back in his world. It’s 1918 and it’s being called “The War to End All Wars”. Diana, raised on the Amazonian creed of peace and her people’s duty to fight against Ares, the God of War, sees his war as her war. She has found her destiny. World War I and the Allies have been Waiting for Gadot.

Clay Enos/Warner Bros

Gadot, an Israeli actress with piercing dark eyes, is probably best known for playing Gisele in several of the Fast & Furious movies. But there was nothing in those installments that hinted at the undeniable star power she gives off as Wonder Woman. Granted, the Fast & Furious movies aren’t exactly acting showcases, but still…. Her Diana is both awesomely fierce and surprisingly funny, especially when she arrives in war-torn London with Trevor and gets her first taste of 20th-century modernity. Whether she’s reacting to the unfamiliar sight of automobiles or constricting early 20th-century women’s fashions, she takes it all in like a fish-out-of-water naïf. When she has her first taste of ice cream, she swoons and enthusiastically tells the salesman, “You should be very proud,” as if he’s performed some kind of miracle. Gadot sells the innocence and humor in these moments every bit as convincingly as Daryl Hannah in Splash. Her chemistry with Pine is just as unexpected and electric. Catching him in the nude back on Themyscira, she takes a peek at him in the buff and asks: “Would you say you are a typical example of your sex?” He replies, “I am above average.” Screenwriter Allan Heinberg (Grey’s Anatomy) deserves as much of the credit for their sparks-filled duet as the stars.

As World War I seems to be winding down and an armistice is about to be signed, a holdout among the German high command, the evil Gen. Ludendorff (Danny Huston), is busy creating a poisonous biological super-weapon to turn German defeat into victory. His chief chemist, a disfigured sadist named Dr. Maru (Elena Anaya), is a vision of villainy right out of comic-book nightmares, wearing a prosthetic faceplate that hides her hideous scars. Diana, Trevor, and his trio of mercenary pals (Ewen Bremner, Said Taghmaoui, and Eugene Brave Rock) race to the Belgian front to stop Ludendorff and “Dr. Poison” before it’s too late. Some might wonder why a character who was first conceived in 1941 and who’s finally being brought to the big screen in 2017 has been plopped into 1918? But I’d argue that Wonder Woman’s time period is a pretty clever stealth weapon to explore some of the movies more progressive themes (more on that in a sec), not to mention the fact that it gives the film a retro-cool charge reminiscent of Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger. We’ve grown so accustomed to seeing superheroes flash their powers on screen that it’s refreshing to see people react with awe, like they’re witnessing miracles. The miracle of the movie — or at least the fantastic first two-thirds of it — is that the audience feels that same novel rush. As Diana deflects machine gun-fire with her bracelets, flips army tanks with one hand, and whips German soldiers around like ragdolls with her luminescent Lasso of Truth, we feel like we’re watching her feats with new eyes.

The setting also helps to make the film’s resonant feminist subtext feel more organic and less forced. At a time when women were still without the right to vote and were subjugated to a position of being seen and not heard, the fearsome Diana becomes a spokeswoman in word and deed of resistance and empowerment. She refuses to be treated like a second-class citizen by politicians and generals. No one puts Wonder Woman in a corner. On the battlefield in Belgium, she displays a martial courage that her brothers in arms (even including Pine) don’t possess. She’s completely fearless…not to mention a long way from Lynda Carter.

It’s only in the movie’s unnecessary final half-hour or so that Wonder Woman finally meets her match: the special-effects imperatives of contemporary blockbuster filmmaking against which even the Germans onscreen seem insignificant. When Diana realizes that the villain she’s been chasing all this time is, in fact, not the end but just the beginning to a line of villains to be trotted out, no doubt, in subsequent chapters, the movie turns into an eye-rolling digital smackdown that mirrors every other late-period DC (and, to be fair, Marvel) movie smackdown. It would be nice one of these days if some heroic editor just lopped off the last 30 minutes of all of these things. But it’s hard to quibble about what’s wrong with a movie that gets so much right, especially when it comes to Gadot’s revelatory portrayal of Wonder Woman. The wait is over, folks. The DC movie you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived. A-

30 May 2017 | 4:00 am

Chris Nashawaty

Source : EW.com

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