#something something about all the theories being wrong and Thanos never actually having mind controlled loki at all

[musclesandhammering]

Something about the fact that Thanos had no idea loki wasn’t asgardian but immediately recognised Thor as his brother & knew he was the best way to manipulate him. Like… how does their working relationship even get to that point?

“The Tesseract or your brother’s head. I assume you have a preference?”

Have….have we ever considered the fact how utterly disturbing it is that Thanos a) waves Thor in front of Loki because he knows that Loki would kill the universe to save him, and B) HE RECOGNIZED THOR AS LOKI’S BROTHER ON THE SPOT? 

I don’t think that Thanos, Thor, and Loki had a little sit down before the battle started and talked about familial relationships. 

This line, usually thought of in passing, means these things: 

Thanos knows how important Thor is to Loki, which means Thanos and Loki have talked about this beforehand. 

Thanos knows what Thor looks like which means Thanos has seen Thor from Loki’s head before

Thanos knows that Loki has the Tesseract. He could have chosen ANY PERSON on the ship to convince Loki to give up the Tesseract, but instead, he picked Thor out of the group and CHOSE to use Thor against Loki on PURPOSE. 

Thanos didn’t demand the Tesseract from Loki first, he WANTED to play with him and he WANTED to torture Loki and he WANTED to see Loki mouth “please” and he WANTED to see Loki’s desperation and he WANTED to see Loki break again, and he WANTED Loki to think Thor getting tortured was his fault, not Thanos’

Thanos knows Loki on an intimate level that we do not fully understand. 

Thanos probably knows Loki better than his family does

And Thanos, more than likely, killed him in the way that he knew Loki was terrified of 

[five-rivers]

@lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks came up with this op!Danny/Marvel AU!

BTW I need help naming this newest proof that I can't keep anything to a short little one-shot.

.

Loki was not, and never had been, a good man. For that matter, whether or not he’d ever been a good boy was debatable. His mother would argue that he had, but she would very likely be the only one. Well, except for Thor, perhaps, but that was because he was an idiot who could drown in three inches of nostalgia. Like he didn’t remember every time Loki had humiliated him. Maybe he didn’t, for all that he kept falling for the same trick over and over again.

It made Loki’s late nights studying the arts of illusion, misdirection, and lying seem redundant. Almost. Not everyone was as dense as his big brother.

No. Loki had never been a good man. He had, however, been a free man.

Free to run or hide. Free to explore the nooks and crannies of Asgard, to uncover her secrets in ways few cared to do. Free to walk hidden paths between the Nine Realms and even farther flung territories, where his people did not and had never ruled, to play games, make deals, have adventures, take risks. To be. To exist as his own creature.

He had been free. He had.

But on one of those little secret excursions, he had discovered something that had made even his flippant, slippery heart clench with fear. A ravening plague, spreading across the stars. The death of half of everything on the horizon.

Loki was not a good man. What cause did he have to care for all the sundry others in the universe? There were too many. It was too much to ask.

But Asgard—His home, even though the had long ago realized the blood in his veins originated on very different soil. That was different.

Asgard, he could help. Asgard could survive.

But it had to be strong. It had to have strong allies. None of this barely-held peace, this enemy eternally at their gates. It needed strong leadership. Not his brother’s simplistic view and longing for the glory of war.

Loki was not a good man. But he was one who could get things done.

Before he knew it, he had burned all his bridges behind him. In one case, a literal bridge that was literally broken.

And he fell.

And he fell.

And he fell right into the hands of the one he had feared enough to do this. Broken enough for poison to drip into the cracks. No one knew where he was, no one could know where he was, except, perhaps, Heimdal, and Loki sincerely doubted Heimdal cared. No one was coming for him. No one was looking for him. No rescue was forthcoming.

He was alone.

Asgardians were considered gods for a reason. Their bodies and minds were much more resilient than the average mortal’s. But Thanos’s people had been titans, and there was a reason for that, too.

Thanos enjoyed breaking him.

And Loki turned his lies on himself. A skilled master of games always had one gifted opponent, even alone. Hadn’t he wanted to rule? To command? To see a world, any world, prostrate at his feet? To be given the recognition and praise of which he was so worth?

To pull something, anything, out of the fire?

(If he had spent less time learning how to spin lies and more on how to see the truth, he might not have believed it. A better, wiser, man would have. But Loki was not a good man. And he was very skilled in his craft.)

So, his new master put a weapon in his hands, and he went off to conquer a world.

.

Danny was used to rude awakenings. He was used to those rude awakenings being full body chills and ghosts, not someone knocking on his door.

Blearily, he pulled himself out from under the blankets. Quasi-military government facility or not, the beds were comfortable. Maybe Mom or Dad had gotten themselves locked out of their room? Or Jazz—No, not Jazz, she hadn’t come with them. She was at college, not being flown places by Mom and Dad’s suspiciously generous new consulting job.

At least it wasn’t the GIW.

He stood on tiptoe (curse his perpetually short body) to peer out the peephole. His parents’ buff, one-eyed, and incredibly imposing new boss stood in front of the door, hands on his hips, slightly sweeping back his long dark coat. If Danny listened carefully, he could hear two other people near the door, and… was that an alarm? Yes. Faint, but present, was a warning klaxon.

Okay. Danny would bet his right arm that something had gone horribly wrong with whatever his parents were consulting on. Didn’t explain why the boss was in front of his door.

Unless they’d gotten the rooms mixed up, somehow?

Ugh. Danny wasn’t paid enough to deal with this.

He opened the door. “What-?”

“Phantom,” intoned eyepatch guy with great solemnity.

Danny immediately tried to close the door. The guy stuck his foot in the jamb, and, sure, Danny could have crushed it, but that would be a jerk move. He didn’t think this guy was going for a pirate look, after all.

“We need your help.”

.

“I’m not sure what you think I can help you with,” yelled Danny over the beating of the helicopter blades. He’d remained stubbornly in human form. “My parents are the scientists. This sounds like a science thing. Not a punching-people thing.”

“We spoke to them earlier,” said Fury, “and we have plenty of scientists working on the theories they brought up. You’re the one with practical experience.”

“Practical experience in what?”

“Interdimensional portals,” said the woman, who had yet to introduce herself.

As if this whole thing wasn’t already giving him a bad feeling. “My parents built an interdimensional portal. Again, you should be talking to them. They’re the ones you’re paying.”

“We could pay you, too,” said Fury, “but we assumed you would want to avoid letting your parents know about this, as you’re still a minor and they have control of your bank accounts.”

Danny stared flatly. “This is blackmail.”

“We aren’t threatening you,” pointed out the woman.

“Emotional blackmail,” said Danny, glaring, daring her to challenge him on whether or not he actually knew what blackmail was.

In the meantime, the helicopter landed. Danny unbuckled and hopped out, trailing slightly awkwardly behind Fury and the woman. He didn’t want to stand out, but he suspected that, being the only kid here and being in the general vicinity of Fury, who radiated authority, that was a lost cause.

“This is Agent Coulson. Coulson, this is Phantom.”

Danny’s mouth went dry(er) at how casual the introduction was. His eyes went nervously to all the other people running around the field. With all the noise, it was unlikely anyone had heard, but still…

“Can you not? Secret identity and all? Unless you’ve told everyone herealready, which, rude.”

Fury sighed. “How bad is it?” he asked Coulson.

“We’re not sure,” said Coulson. “That’s the problem. Big fan of your work, by the way,” he added as an aside to Danny. He glanced at the woman. “Agent Hill.”

“Background?” asked Fury as he led the way into the building.

“The first energy surge was four hours ago. Dr. Selvig’s equipment picked it up – He’s the head scientist on this project.”

“Dr. Selvig isn’t authorized to test,” said Fury. “We wanted to run his plans by the Fentons.”

“He wasn’t testing. He wasn’t even in the room. He called it ‘spontaneous advancement.’”

“It turned itself on?”

“What are the energy levels?” asked Fury before Hill’s question could be answered.

“Climbing,” said Coulson.

“Mr. Fenton,” said Fury, “any comments?”

“Look, I don’t even know what this thing that you built looks like or what it’s a door to.” Danny frowned as a thought occurred to him. “You’re not expecting me to fight whatever comes out of it, are you? Because, unless you’ve got a ghost portal down there, I can’t make guarantees.”

“It’s called the Tesseract,” said Coulson. “It’s supposed to be a connection to the other side of space. A source of unlimited energy. At least,” there was a note of humor in his voice despite the evacuation taking place around them, “that’s what the scientists say.”

“A door to space?” asked Danny, firmly shoving down his excitement at the prospect. “Like, a Stargate?” It was no good, he could practically feel himself sparkling. He took a firm grip of his core and reminded himself he might need to fight before the end of the day.

“Well, no,” said Coulson. “It’s this little… cube… thing.” He made a shape with his hands.

“Oh,” said Danny, mind still whirring. “You know, if it’s really a tesseract, it isn’t a cube in just three dimensions, so bigger things could come out of it than you’d think.” He’d seen some weird portals in the Ghost Zone.

“Well, right now, we’re just getting energy.” They entered a large room with an extremely sci-fi setup. It looked like they were planning to shoot some kind of laser across the room onto a platform surrounded by strange-looking panels. There were men with guns scattered around in what was probably a well thought out formation Danny couldn’t see. There was also a dude with a bow sitting up in the rafters. He frowned down at Danny as he noticed Danny noticing him.

“Dr. Selvig!”

“Director!”

“What do we know?”

Danny allowed himself to be distracted by the centerpiece of the room, a piece of machinery built around what was indeed a little cube thing. He tilted his head and approached, trying to get a better view of it around the people in lab coats and protective gear currently swarming it. He caught mention of radiation a grimaced.

It was unlikely to kill him, but, really, everyone here should probably be wearing more PPE. You never knew what was going to come out of an interdimensional portal, after all. Except trouble. Trouble was a pretty safe bet.

It was pretty. Blue. Reminded him a little of a blue raspberry ice pop. Part of him wanted to lick it. Which was stupid. He didn’t want to wind up half what-ever-lived-on-the-other-side on top of his regular ghost nonsense.

“Mr. Fenton?”

Danny jumped and turned, refocusing on the adults, who had multiplied while he’d been daydreaming. The guy with the bow had joined them.

“Mr. Fenton? Like the Doctors Fenton I spoke to earlier?” asked Selvig.

“Yeah, it’s—”

This, of course, was when everything decided to explode. Sort of.

The blue cube shot out a beam of energy that had more than a little in common with the Fenton Bazooka’s portal setting. The beam terminated on the platform, a portal rapidly forming.

Danny slid into a fighting stance, and barely even noticed as blue energy washed over the room, throwing many less-prepared people back.

Something shaped like a man stepped through the portal.

Danny did not break his stance. Still. “An alien,” he whispered, eyes wide. If they were friendly, maybe they’d answer his questions about space. If they weren’t friendly, maybe they’d answer his questions about space after Danny beat them up.

(Danny did not go ghost. Did not even think about going ghost. There were too many people here, and the space was too open.)

Fury attempted to negotiate. Danny approved. Not everything that came through an interdimensional portal was necessarily evil.

Except this guy apparently was. Go figure. He could also deflect bullets and was very good with throwing knives, which led to Danny having to pull several of the gun guys out of their own line of fire as well as the alien’s line of knife. Who would have thought an alien’s weapon of choice would be throwing knives? The energy-blasting spear was much more in line with his expectations.

The bow guy proved to be more competent than the gun guys. This didn’t really surprise Danny. Bow guy sort of had to be competent. Otherwise, no way would they let him go around with a bow. Like, seriously. A bow.

Even so, bow guy was fighting an alien and—

“You have heart,” said the alien, raising the spear.

Danny pushed bow guy out of the way, and his mind fuzzed out.

(The human part of it, anyway.)

.

Loki didn’t know what a child was doing here, and he didn’t particularly care. The boy would do for a hostage, at least. He had a mission he had to fulfil, or else…

Or else.

“Please don’t,” he said turning with a shadow of his usual lazy affect, vaguely insulted that the human thought he could be sneaker that him, “I still need that.”

The human went on and on, apparently burdened with the delusion that he was on the same level as Loki.

Loki was burdened with other things. A glorious purpose. Glad tidings. Freedom. What could be better than freedom?

“A world free from what?” asked the human.

“From freedom,” said Loki, and wasn’t that what he believed, now? Wasn’t that what he’d been shown? “Freedom is life’s great lie.” He would know. He was an excellent liar. “Once you accept that, in your heart—” He batted away an arrow and tsked. “Shield me, boy,” he demanded. Had Thanos misrepresented the scepter’s powers? Or was the boy merely—

A dome of green surrounded him and the boy, thrumming with magic the likes of which he had only seen once, in a tome thrice forbidden.

“Oh,” said Loki, almost purring. “You are interesting. What are you?”

“Half human, half ghost,” replied the boy, tersely.

Loki had never heard of such a creature. No matter. He’d be sure to make good use of him.

“Grab the scientist,” he said, nodding at the balding man who had been with his brother when he’d fought the Destroyer in the desert.

Loki wanted the archer. He seemed interesting. Useful.

.

Fenton was under thrall. Phantom knew what that felt like. A hundred feet under red water, trying not to drown, whispers everywhere. Pulling. Pushing. Prodding.

This was different, but the principle was the same.

Neither half of him could truly ‘fight’ the other. Fenton and Phantom were a single entity. Not two in lockstep. Even so.

Fenton grabbed onto Dr. Selvig, as ordered. Phantom made sure that was all they did.

“What are you doing, boy?” snapped Loki. “Follow me! Bring the scientist.”

And so, they followed.

.

Loki breathed. Acquiring Barton had been the right choice. The boy was powerful, but, perhaps because of his unique biology, did not have Barton’s presence of mind, and couldn’t have led him to such wonderful allies.

Allies.

These weren’t truly his allies. Nor were they subjects. They were…

Loki forced himself to breathe. He just had to follow the mission. Follow the mission, let Thanos’s army through. He’d been promised this world. He would have this world.

And then he could be… His mind stuttered over the next word, and he shook his head, trying to drive out the painful buzz of Thanos’s herald and mouthpiece trying to contact him.

He looked up at the drones bustling around, all according to his will. Except the boy, who stared at him, somehow managing to be both utterly blank and challenging at the same time.

He was alone, here.

He was alone.

But what did it matter? Bad men always wound up alone, and Loki… Loki could never be a good man.

[carinyms]

I've scrolled through a lot of discourse on episode 4 of Loki and I need to talk about it

(good lord its a whole essay im sorry)

I gave myself a headache from crying while watching this. (I joined the Loki fandom post-IW so I’ve never had to see him die before while emotionally invested and boy!!! Is it doing things to my fragile psyche!!). But now I’m rehydrated and more stable and ready to party so let’s go

Right off the bat, I loved this episode — loved it loved it loved it. Silly, manic in-shock Loki is gone and shit is getting real. My thought while watching this was truly “wow this is my favorite episode so far” and damn am I in a minority with this opinion lol.

So here’s my perspective on some of the discourse flying around, and just general thoughts

On the whole ‘Narcissist’ thing:

IMO, Mobius saying this means nothing: he’s mad and he’s spouted lies at Loki to push his buttons before (see: every interaction they’ve had since episode 1).

Loki saying this to Sif-- well, Loki is and always has been an unreliable narrator on himself. The major theme of this show is that he doesn’t really know who he is, deep down, and he’s trying to figure it out. The TVA is taking advantage of this, and even though he’s trying to stay above it all throughout the series, he's still in a really impressionable spot and absorbing what others tell him about himself. (not to mention this scene is literal torture and he’s already proven that he’ll say whatever he needs to to get out of it.)

But he does admit one true thing when he says “It’s because I’m scared of being alone.” (And like wow okay same don’t mind my tears) but here’s a big brain idea!

Sif pulls him up and says ‘You are alone, and you always will be’, which is like, WOW that’s cruel after what he said, but it makes me ask wonder: Sif is sentient in this scene, but obviously it’s not really her. Who’s controlling her? And why is it so important for them to make sure Loki thinks he’s alone? I’d go as far as to wager that Sif never even said this to Loki, the big bad made this up. (he admits he forgot about this ever happening, I doubt he’d remember what she said.)

I think the nexus event on Lamentis that caused the branch was two Loki’s joining sides. Or, Loki no longer being alone. Loki insists while talking to Mobius that “she’s not my partner!” but she was, and they were partners from the moment they grabbed hands on Lamentis — right when the timeline broke off. I think Loki variants teaming up is the biggest threat to whoever is pulling the strings here — that’s why the post-credit scene is so significant. (Is Loki the only person who has multiple variants of himself who've escaped the TVA?)

And here’s where I’m gonna get salty--so I apologize but i need to rant about this-- but it’s seriously pissing me off that so many people are intentionally reading this as Loki/Sylvie and then being mad about it when that’s clearly not what’s happening and why is everyone acting like Mobius with one angry jealous brain cell and no critical thinking about the context of the characters.

If people ship it that’s chill, but for the people who are against it—it’s clearly supposed to be platonic, and it’s so upsetting that in the year of our lord 2021 we still can’t have a man and woman hold hands without people saying it’s proof they want to f*ck each other, like what in the misogyny??? STOP. This show was written by a bi woman and Tom the-most-emotionally-sensitive-man-on-this-planet Hiddleston — let them display an intimate loving friendship goddammit. This isn’t romance, this is Loki learning how to admit he cares for someone who cares for him in return — something he hasn’t experienced a whole lot of and clearly doesn’t know how to navigate.

(You have permission to personally come at me if it actually turns out to be romantic by the end of the show—but as of right now I will die on this hill.)

Him putting his hands on her shoulders to me was a clear indication he wanted to hug her, and I’d like to think he would have told her he cares about her, and that they can figure it out together. Because these are two characters who’ve never had anyone else to rely on and trust, and for the first time they’re not alone.

And I have to think about what prompted this from Loki. He just lost Mobius the moment after he called him friend. The way I see it, he’s just realized the true gravity of what they’re up against, and Loki is suddenly very afraid of losing Sylvie too before he tells her cares about her, of dying truly alone because he never told anyone what they meant to him. (Don’t think about this in the context of him also having watched his entire family die knowing he never told Frigga or Thor how much he loved them either don’t think about it—) He’s realized, finally, that he has doesn’t have to be alone, that he can choose to be close to people and have friends. And god it’s so heartbreaking that he never got to hug her or have that moment with her. I really hope they get that in the end. I hope he gets it with Mobius. I hope they have a group hug. I'm upset again.

Okay, deep breath, ANYWAY.

Hopefully this didn’t come off as attacking anyone else’s opinions.

Personally, I love this character so much, I’m just so happy to be seeing him in his own storyline that they can’t go wrong here. Objectively I think the production is amazing, and personally I love they way Loki’s character has been explored so far. (Yea yea, was I HOPING that the bad-memory loop would morph into Sanctuary and Thanos and like a full exploration of his true worst memories? Yes but let’s be honest my whump needs will never be met in canon and I have to accept that lol.)

Honestly I left all my own meta about this character at the door when the series started, because for me the opinions I’ve formed from the hundreds of (amazing) fics and meta I’ve read on this character and what’s true in canon are basically inseparable at this point, and no portrayal is going to live up to the way Loki exists in my head. Canon Loki and fic Loki are two different characters and I can enjoy both at the same time :) I’ve just loved seeing the character get given the different dimensions he deserves, and written by people who care about his story.

Also, it’s not over! If he was dead and this was it I’d be very upset, but this is the rock bottom of the storyline, and I think the whole next two episodes will be the build back up. I trust it’s gonna be worth it. SO hyped for flaming sword Loki. I would die for Sylvie, but I’m excited to see him on his own again.

My current most pressing questions are:

-what was the fallout of Sylvie’s bombing the timeline? (Have we seen that yet, am I just dumb and missing something?)

-Obviously, who’s behind it all? (Kang? Is there a head honcho Very Evil Loki at the top?)

-How much does Ravonna actually know, and to what extent is she just a pawn too? She asked Sylvie to prune her— she’s probably also been duped here.

-Is everything we learned about the sacred timeline BS? How much of what the TVA workers believe is real?

-my favorite theory so far is that the war of the timelines miss minutes talks about hasn’t actually happened yet, maybe making setting that into motion is the true endgame, leading into Multiverse of Madness?

(Side note: holy HELL im so excited for this soundtrack to drop on Spotify. It’s SO AMAZING I had CHILLS in the end credits.)

Open invitation to discuss anything with me if you feel inclined! :)

[lokislittlesigyn]

// loki spoilers

This is basically a huge infodump on my thoughts about the first episode, because I doubt y’all want to sift through my trauma-ridden ramblings. I’ll make another post for the rest. This is just everything not related to the IW stuff/my reaction to that. It’s general thoughts, theories, musings.

1. When Loki gets first taken into the TVA. Is that Peggy Carter in the background? Others have suggested it might be. What would that mean??? Will we see the TVA fix the mess the Russos made with Steve/Peggy (not likely) or is it just a lookalike? Who knows..

2. A skrull at the main intake desk! Idk not super relevant just interesting!

3. I’m kind of glad they changed the... uncomfortable scene... with the robot burning his clothes off. He gets more time to react to seeing the machine itself, and he seems more shocked (”Now.. H-hang on just a minute.”) than angry (”Now hang on just a minute!”) i still feel.. horrible for him, i’m glad nobody Saw him and that the machine didn’t grab the clothes off, but still. Ehhh.. uncomfortable.

He is beautiful though, don’t get me wrong - I’d just prefer a shirtless Loki scene where he wants to be shirtless? let him do what he wants with his body?? he’s probably felt so out of control of his body, from being jotun to falling through space that any invasion of privacy like that hits extra deep...

That being said, I recognize the utility of the scene for the narrative - his lack of control, his literally being stripped of what he was before.

4. WHO IS THE MAN WITH THE CAT. What is his name. I love that he has a mug with his cat on it. But I want to know more. Who is he?

4.1 WHY DIDNT YOU LET LOKI PET THE CAT Please,,, I am begging you,,, let loki pet the cat and have something react kindly to him and purr all happily at his scratching behind their ears plea s e

5. The info sheet. Now this is just a little nitpicky tidbit, but in a previous promo they listed Loki’s height as 6′4 ft and weight as 525 lbs. This is taken directly from the comics if I’m not mistaken. However, in the actual show he’s listed as  6′2 (Tom’s height and Loki’s presumed height) but I don’t remember if his weight is the same. Is Loki 6′2? 6′4? please let me know i want to know how smol i am in comparison

6. His little aggressive shaking of the ticket at the guard makes me giggle each time.

7. The fact the turnstile hits so low on him reminds me,, I am short compared to him. Those things hit my stomach/waist. That one hit his legs. I am once again asking Loki to pick me up.

8. The cartoon with Miss Minutes introducing the TVA is wonderful, I love the art style especially. But it raises questions about Variants... I guess Variants can just, pop out of nowhere? Any action could be the wrong one? And then once you commit the wrong action you either get returned or pruned? Yikes??? And THIS ties into another thing later!

9. The trial scene. I have a hunch - a feeling, a suspicion. That one of three things may be true.

A. The Time-Keepers never actually existed. They’re fabricated, and now whoever runs the TVA is actually using the excuse of “The Time-Keepers decree it so!!!” to carry out whatever They think is right. The fact we haven’t seen the Time-Keepers makes me.. suspicious...

B. The Time-Keepers existed, but they have since passed on, however that may have happened. Now someone is doing the same as above, using the excuse of the Time-Keepers apparent dictations to run things.

C. The Time-Keepers do exist, and do run the timeline/TVA, but maybe they’re not infallible? Maybe the TVA info video is lying or incomplete in some way? Idk I just feel like, something about the TVA and how they run things has to be wrong. It has to? Something is off. Again, this will tie into another thought later...

I have no idea if any of these are actually true! But Loki’s questions of “Who’s in charge here? What do they do? What do you do?” punctuated by laughter leads me to believe he’s suspecting something too, or perhaps just trying to figure this mess out.

10. Seiðr/Magic. We see in this scene, Loki’s magic (”powers”) don’t work in the TVA. (and a quick side note, did he have to Flex like that? do you have to make me see Loki’s bare arms Flex like that? be still my heart. anyway please get that collar off of him and let him rest for five minutes) This makes me wonder.. Why isn’t Loki in his Jotun form? His pale skin and blue eyes are decided by magic, are they not? I suppose this is 2012, so perhaps Odin’s magic is keeping Loki looking like that. But if magic doesn’t work in the TVA, why would his spell reach so far? Clearly Loki’s magic isn’t what’s doing it. How is Loki not appearing as a Jotun? Is his Jotun form repressed - is pale skin his default now, rather than something hidden by magic? I need answers!

11. he sounds so scared about being “reset” please dont hurt him,,

12. cALLING LOKI A PUSSYCAT? (lokitty confirmed) I think Mobius was goading him (Mobius strikes me.. As extremely clever. He’s trying to push Loki’s buttons to see who he’s dealing with. At least, I hope so. Because if he really meant that “You were born to cause pain and suffering and death... All so that others can achieve the best versions of themselves.” and that line about killing Frigga??? No no no he is not guilty. He had no way of knowing what would happen. It wasn’t right to send Algrim up to Asgard (i think algrim wouldve found the way up anyway) but there was no intent to hurt Frigga. I really hope you’re trying to goad him, Mobius, because if you believe that I trust you much less. anyway i digress) but wow is he pushing Loki’s buttons a lot. I can’t... Blame him entirely, I understand he’s trying to make sure Loki’s on his side, maybe I’m just too soft for Loki idk. But some of that was very cruel to say. /:

12.1 AND ANOTHER THING ABOUT MOBIUS. That scene with the girl in the church?? Did that little girl kill the men? Is that young Sylvie? Or is she using an illusion to make herself look young and innocent? What’s going on!!!!

13. LOKI SNATCHING THE LITTLE TIME-TWISTER DEVICE AND STOWING IT IN HIS POCKET.... POCKET....... sorry sometimes i get so caught up about loki that i just say random words in between little noises and squeals,,, i am a silly thing

14. CASEY. CASEY??? That whole exchange is funny. Poor Loki, just trying to intimidate this guy so he can escape but - Casey doesn’t know what a fish is. to be fair.... thor doesn’t seem to know what a raccoon is... right?

15. That bit with the infinity stones is kind of funny until you realize

A. Natasha died for a paperweight

B. Tony died from paperweights

C. Loki was tortured for paperweights

D. Oh, and Gamora died for a paperweight too. And Vision. Need I go on?

Then it becomes less of exclusively “haha funny” and now it’s a mix of funny and pain and gosh, is that a good way to sum up being a Marvel/Loki fan sometimes...

16. Loki gazing at the timeline all “Is this the most powerful thing in the universe?” or something, i’m sorry i don’t remember exactly... made me think of a meme and i shall make it presently.

17. I love that Loki got to see examples of how his family loves him but the fact he’s all “I can’t go back.” really just breaks me. It’s like he can finally see they love him after all of this mess, and now he doesn’t have the chance. Please, please let him be happy. Give him some relief. This is the Loki that just came off finding out about being Jotun, falling from the Bifrost, encountering Thanos, attacking Earth, facing defeat, and now he’s being thrashed around in this wild place and has just found out he inadvertently caused Frigga’s death (he did not kill her: his actions, by mistake, lead to her murder, let me be very clear) AND Odin will die AND all the rest... And he wants to be with them.

18. Loki’s reaction to Thor suggesting the hug makes me soft. Please I want to hug this little mischief man so so so bad-

19. Skipping over the iw parts! That’s for another post because this one will be grossly long anyway.

20. “I don’t enjoy hurting people.” and “It's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate play for control.” was all so, so validating. I’ve been trying to argue on Loki’s behalf for almost a solid decade. Seeing the show recognize that Loki’s not all just violence and hurting for “fun”, that he’s not unhinged and bloodthirsty.. Is so nice. It’s just so, so comforting. and it gives me hope for future episodes that they won’t go the route of “oh haha loki bullied and mistreated and stabbed thor for years!!! :)” loki cries during basically every fight with Thor and you want me to believe he stabs Thor for fun? absolutely not.

21. Theory.. Just another hunch.. So we know a fugitive variant, aka Loki, is running amok. Refer back to 8 and 9.C. What if the Time-Keepers never actually fixed the timeline into a single timeline? What if there are other timelines, and these different Loki variants have hopped over to the current one? Or, maybe the Time-Keepers did fix the timeline into a single one, and these Lokis are remnants from that huge time-war at the beginning? Time runs differently in relative spaces, they may have Just Left that war from their perspective!

I say Lokis and not Loki because we’re pretty sure there’s Female/Lady Loki, Old Man/King Loki, and possibly Young/Kid Loki. That’s at least three. From the peeks of Asgard and NYC we’ve seen from the trailers, I think we’re also getting an Asgardian King!Loki and Midgardian King/Vote!Loki. (unless our dearest variant is hopping into timelines and situating into them, but I doubt Mobius would let that happen..?) That’s five.

To further support this, keep in mind, I believe recently six (i think 6 regular and 6 rare...) different funko pops were announced for the series? I’m not sure if they’re in addition to the Loki and Mobius already released. If they are, there’s enough room for each Loki and maybe a TVA agent. One of the pops is supposed to have a buddy/companion I think? Maybe they’re making the cat guy into one, or maybe there’s something else (Throg, anyone?).

22. That is totally Lady Loki/Sylvie at the end by the way. Has to be. But why does she want the reset devices? Why did she snatch that TVA Hunter? Again, WHAT’S GOING ON

ANYWAY this was a very long post if you made it this far, I commend you.

[wackiekebab]

Alright. Its time. Its thoughts time. Episode 8 of Wandavision. Was a ride. So here are thoughts. Spoilers of course.

So personally I really enjoyed this episode. I am one of those weird people who just adores exposition and backstories in narratives (especially books...I should never write again...) so just to have an entire episode of back story was amazing for me

If Agatha the Villain...why so hot...also why make me sympathize with her.

I mean I get that I was going to sympathize with her anyway because cool woman with cool purple coloured powers and cool wardrobe played by ultimate cool person Kathryn Hahn.

What I mean is...is this like a Thanos situation where we're trying to paint a sympathetic villain or...or is Agatha not the big baddie of this show.

Personally I hope that she shows up again because it seems like a shame to introduce this awesome cool badass witch just to kill her off. Like if she died say right now...I'm not gonna feel any kind of satisfaction.

So I'm really curious to see where they take her...I hope beyond the show.

(Also I'm a massive simp for Kathryn Hahn so I'm very biased ignore me)

Next. Wanda

Wanda. Baby. Sweetie. Pls. Let me hug. Pls.

Okay so emotions aside for a minute. Its interesting that Agatha is convinced that Wanda already had dormant magical ability and the mind stone just unlocked it. I guess it kinda makes sense.

Like considering something like epigenetics it kinda links up. (don't bully me pls I'm an animal biology student).

Can we talk about how much Agatha is like "bro. You desperately need a therapist" every 3 seconds and like...she's not wrong.

Also me thinking we might get to see Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the flashbacks: 🤡 

Also. Vision talking to Wanda about grief being the continued love of a person. My fucking god. I just...as someone who is still trying to process a loss from last year this just...it really hit me.

Okay so at SWORD

Hayward clearly wanted Wanda to see Vision...maybe because he thought she could bring him back

But she couldn't...which begs the question...why did it work in the post credits scene...

My theory is that Wanda was too bogged down in her grief and emotions to like...fully exert herself in her power...which is why when it was used as an energy source that could be quantifiably controlled...it did work.

And judging by the post credits scene we were right in saying that Hayward wanted to use him as a weapon...I mean look at Vision. Look at him. Look how they massacred my boy.

AND it looks like Hayward has indeed been trying to frame Wanda as the villain. Like...all that security footage we saw earlier was given out and made to look like Wanda just stormed in wrecked shop.

Wanda walking into SWORD and being like "I just want to give him a funeral. Its what he deserves. It's what I deserve."

And okay 1. My poor fucking heart yes it is what he deserves. And 2. Yes it is what you deserve you tell him Wanda

Also

Can I talk about how I cried my eyes out when she got to Westview.

I was watching like...oh why is she stopping there...its clearly so boring...there's nothing there...was she just like "whelp this is a good a place as any to sit and cry"...wait...what if that piece of paper in the car was like the deed to a house or a piece of land...oh if it is I'm gonna cry real hard...

AND THEN IT FUCKING WAS AND I CRIED

AND HIS NOTE

MY FUCKING HEART OMG WHYYY

Okay. I think its time we talk about:

The fact that Wanda just created another vision???? Just??? Created another one???

What???

Excuse me???

I mean. She really wasn't kidding when she said she just felt alone and then all of a sudden they were in a sitcom.

So. We've already established that Vision can't exist beyond Wanda's Hex...he starts to die...

So my question...or more...pondering...is what's going to happen to him...

And this new SWORD!Vision...what's he gonna do.

Also what actually is Agatha's motivation here...is she trying to gain Wanda's power. We've be shown that she wants to know how Wanda did it...presumably so she can do it (or something similar) too.

But why...and what for?? She does she really want?

Needless to say I am VERY excited for the rest of the show and can’t wait for next week...aaaaaa.

[toxictrannyfreak]

So, now that we are literally three hours from the eighth episode of Wandavision, I have decide that now is the perfect time to post this theory that I’ve had since episode seven came out. If it’s disproved in a few hours (which it likely will be) it’ll have been fun to post and come up with it, but if it is canon y’all will never hear the end of it.

Agatha’s plan

In episode seven of Wandavision, we get the “reveal” that Agnes is actually Agatha Harkness, a witch from the comics, which surprised absolutely no one. She’s been manipulating Wanda and controlling everything since episode one. Now, a lot of people posted theories and videos and stuff about this (almost all of it is just vindicated fans saying “I totally predicted it!”) but I haven’t heard a lot about what Agatha’s actual plan is, beyond wanting Wanda to have Tommy and Billy for some evil purpose. But I think I’ve figured it out. I think Agatha is trying to recreate the Infinity Stones.

Now, that seems pretty wild and out of nowhere, so let’s break it down. Agatha herself clearly has powers on the level of Wanda, which means that her powers also have to come from an Infinity Stone. It’s pretty obvious Agatha’s powers come from the Power Stone. The color of magic always correlates to the Infinity Stone it’s related to, like Wanda’s reality magic being the same color as the Reality Stone, and Doctor Strange’s time magic being green, since it comes from the Time Stone, so it’s obvious that Agatha’s dark purple magic comes from the Power Stone. That’s cool and all, but Agatha’s magic coming from the power stone doesn’t exactly mean she wants to recreate the Infinity Stones, and even if it did, it wouldn’t give her any way to actually recreate them, right? I think it kind of does, but probably not in the way you’re thinking. 

In Infinity War, Wanda destroys the Mind Stone, (Or, probably she just reduces it to atoms like Thanos did in Endgame, because the multiverse would, like, implode or something, without it.) implying that she, or another Infinity Stone-powered being like Agatha, could reconstruct the stones from their atoms, but, like any good philosophy book will tell you, it is far easier to destroy than create, meaning that Agatha had to figure out some way to bring the stones back, and she couldn’t do it by herself. So, what did she do? I think she initially tried to get Wanda to recreate the Infinity Stones in the the regular MCU reality, but she and Wanda combined only have the power of the Reality and Power Stones, and that’s not enough. So she manipulated Wanda into stealing Vision’s body, and creating a reality where outside forces, like the rest of the Avengers, couldn’t intervene. But even with the powers of  three Infinity Stones, that won’t bring back all of them, so she tried to get Wanda to bring back Pietro, who had Space Stone powers. But she saw pretty quickly that Wanda didn’t have the control to bring him back, so she attempted to bring an a Pietro from another reality. Again, however, that didn’t work, because she brought back x-men Pietro, whose powers were natural, and had no connection to the Space Stone. That’s where Monica comes in. Monica initially came in by accident, getting sucked through the Hex in episode four. Agatha was fine with her being there, unaware and controlled by Wanda(?), but then she tried to get Wanda to snap back to reality, mentioning that Pietro was killed by Ultron, and Agatha controlled Wanda to yeet her out of there. Then, after Pietro went wrong, Agatha was trying to think of a way to get some other Space Stone-powered being into Westview, but she probably couldn’t think of much, with Captain Marvel being the only currently living Space Stone-powered being in this universe, and the fact that she’s in space. So, Agatha realizes, that, using the Hex, she can create a new Space Stone-powered being in Monica. In a last-ditch effort to get Monica back in the Hex, she manipulates Vision into leaving it, forcing Wanda to expand it. It doesn’t go exactly as planned, but Monica gets through the Hex, gaining her powers, and gets into Westview. Then, Agatha separates Wanda and Monica, because she can’t have Monica convince Wanda to bring down the Hex before the last part of her plan falls into place. Doctor Strange. Now, there’s no one in the MCU that actually has the powers of the Time Stone, but Doctor Strange is the closest one to it, as he was naturally pretty good at using it, and he had it on him and used it quite a bit for a few years, and as the Sorcerer Supreme, he’s obviously gonna want to investigate the new reality that suddenly exists on Earth. So now Agatha has people who have the powers of the Infinity Stones all in one place, so she should be ready to bring them back, right? Except I haven’t talked about the Soul Stone yet. The most mysterious of the Infinity Stones, and the one that seems to break this theory. No one in the MCU has the powers of the Soul Stone-hell, we don’t even know what the Soul Stone’s powers are, and the one person that could technically kind of maybe have a connection to it is Gamora, who is dead and also in space. But I don’t think we need anyone connected to the Soul Stone, because the Soul Stone has already been re-formed. Now, I’ll admit that this is the weakest part of my theory, as I don’t know who could’ve reformed the Soul Stone (Mephisto? Red Skull?), but in Agatha’s creepy basement-dungeon thing, we see this: A book glowing with orange magic a similar color to the Soul Stone.

[Image ID: A scene from Wandavision episode seven, a close-up image of a metal-covered book sitting on a shelf. The book glows with orange magic. End ID]

Maybe I’m crazy, but the clues seem to be there. And who knows, maybe none of this makes sense. I am typing it at midnight, so who knows? 

[dragonmp93]

WandaVision Theory | | | BEWARE SPOILERS | | |

The Hex (or anomaly, force field, energy field or whatever you want to call it) is actually the inside of Vision’s head, brought to reality by possibly the mind gem and / or Wanda’s powers.

You may remember this car from the intro of the first episode, and while many have pointed out that the number “0102” could be a reference to the Avengers Vol 1 #102, but the comics doesn’t seem to have relation to the show unless Grim Reaper (who the intro of the second episode implies that he is buried within the house) shows up to offer Vision a human body in exchange of helping him defeat the Avengers or Wanda gets kidnapped by Sentinel robots.

Others have pointed out that the “0102” happens to be a error code preluding the dreaded Red Ring of Death from the X-box 360, more specifically, that your Xbox is on verge of falling apart definitely, due to the heat, one of the main causes of the RROD, melting the welding joints and other parts of the console, causing to the console to consider the cpu, the gpu, the ram or any affected part as missing.

And that bring us to Vision’s job, a popular trope in sitcoms, where there is at least one character who obviously has a job, sometimes a well paying one, but we are never explained until much later what that job actually is, like Kramer from Seinfeld, Barney from How i met your mother, or Chandler from Friends; or some twist like we know what is the character’s job within the company but we don’t know what the business itself is about like Reynholm Industries in the IT Crowd or Veridian Dynamics from Better off Ted.

So for all we know Vision’s job is “statistical analysis and data reconfiguration” because the only thing clear about it is that it’s something to do with code; so it’s pretty interesting that while Vision is shown perfectly capable of doing his job, he has no idea of what he is doing or why is he doing it, and apparently no one can give him an straight answer. Another interesting thing is why his sitcom job is something to do with computers out of all the professions.

And in episode 5, when the job computer got the SWORD email, everyone except Vision started to read the email out loud in a creepy unison hind-mind-like voice, so it’s possibly that the office is actually the physical representation of Vision’s internal circuits.

So here is the thing, in the Avengers 2012 movie, there is this scene where Loki using his staff, that we know is powered by the mind gem, failed to work on Tony because of the arc reactor on his chest, and as we saw in Endgame that the gems possibly offer more power outside of their containers, like when Thanos was about to get his fingers broken by Captain Marvel so he grabbed the power gem with his other hand and punched her with it.

So if the mind gem does have weird interactions with technology, and Vision being a very advanced AI in a synthetic body instead of being a flesh and bones human being, also as we have been shown in the trailers and teasers, maybe Wanda’s attempt to bring back Vision went sideways and the hex was created instead out of Vision’s conscious, Wanda’s subconscious and the power of the mind gem.

And finally, Vision doesn’t seem to have pre-Westview memories and Wanda switches between two personalities, is because unlike the rest of the town, and to continue with the simulation, Vision is the operating system, and Wanda is the administrator user; and like a real computer, it can’t know remember or know things before it was turned on the first time.

The hex turned Wanda into the one in control after reading her mind, her desires, her traumas, her subconscious, and with that information created the user Wanda, the sitcom housewife and mother that doesn’t remember anything outside of Westview and doesn’t seem to notice anything wrong, that is normally in control until the administrator access is needed to perform an action, in this case, the administrator Wanda remembers everything and will remove anything that threaten the stability of the illusion where user Wanda lives.

But like a real computer, administrator Wanda is not in control of absolutely everything, there are automated tasks but only if they are features of the operating system, like controlling the rest of the town, but it won’t do anything else unless you installed other softwares, like having children around.

[ohwereusingourmadeupnames]

“You almost died! And for what?” - post endgame, please!

Where All Your Biggest Fears Are Gonna Come For You

Pairing: Peter Parker/Tony Stark (Starker) Rating: Mature (M) Notes: I had a great time with this one - thanks for the prompt, anonymous friend!  Word Count: ~3K Warnings: Tony losses an arm and the symptoms of PTSD are described. Summary: 

Peter never thought Tony would be the one to snap the world back to normal. When it happens, there’s a desperate scramble to save his life. 

do the thing, send in all the prompts 

At the end of 5 years slaving over theories and ideas, Peter never thought the end of Thanos would lie in Tony’s hands.

They spent hours a day working through the time travel capabilities and even longer trying to tap into the makeup of the pym particles. Between the late nights in the lab, Peter and Tony found comfort in each other. It was the one consolation prize of the fucked-up situation that wrapped its hand around the planet.

Adventuring with Steve and Tony to get the stones was like watching a movie of their past lives – the younger Tony didn’t seem all that different than the one he knew intimately; but then again, Peter didn’t think Tony would ever feel like a stranger.

After watching Thor resuscitate Tony with his illustrious hammer, Peter quickly realized losing Tony was his worst fear. They weren’t entirely open about their relationship, but Peter craved the comfort of Tony’s touch and held his hand the entire way back to their present.

Bruce stepping up to take ahold of the gauntlet the first time gave Peter a sense of false hope. There were others willing to step up – people that could handle much more than Tony; no matter what though, Peter should’ve known better. So many people wrote Tony off as someone who only worked for himself; it made his chest ache, how wrong they actually were. Peter knew that Tony’s biggest fear was losing the people that meant the most to him. Luckily, the entirety of the world was included in that.

Completely absorbed in keeping as many of Thanos’s soldiers at bay during that final battle, Peter didn’t realize what happened until everyone stilled. Turning on his heels, Peter let out a loud wail – Tony was stumbling, his brief look of triumph giving way to pain and disorientation. Glad to have his super speed, Peter closed the distance between them quickly, his hands grabbing Tony’s shoulders before the man could hit the ground. 

“Tony – Tony, it’s okay. It’ll be okay.” Peter repeated those words over and over again, Tony grasped his hand and looked at him helplessly, the energy he absorbed obliterating the right side of his body.

“Fuck, please no,” Peter groaned, his palms on Tony’s cheeks. Despite it all, Tony was looking at him with a dazed sort of smile, the haze in his eyes one Peter saw so many times over the last few years. He wasn’t willing to part with it, either. Leaning forward, not giving a single fuck about the people gathered around them, Peter pressed a kiss to Tony’s head and let go.

Before he could turn away or think or come up with a plan, a hand was on his shoulder – T’Challa was looking at him with a serious expression. “Let Shuri try.” As if his words summoned her, the technological genius appeared. “He doesn’t have much time,” T’Challa said without hesitation, his arm pulling Peter away from Tony to give Shuri room.

Without being asked, Stephen created them a portal that lead directly to Shuri’s workspace in Wakanda. Peter watched with wide eyes as Tony was laid across a table that Shuri immediately started to interact with. His heart hammered when he noticed the heart rate monitor fluctuating between low and non-existent.

Tears he couldn’t help were rolling down his cheeks, the sobs that felt trapped in his brain were shaking his shoulders. Seeing Tony like that pulled him apart one cell at a time. He didn’t know how hysteric he was until T’Challa pulled him from the room, the man’s hand a solid weight around Peter’s shoulders.

They didn’t exchange any words for a while – Peter was too immersed in his agony to be able to form anything coherent or even listen to someone talking at him. The heavy pressure of T’Challa’s arm stayed there until he cried himself out. His head ached, the front of it pounding from the ruthless feeling of grief and confusion and loss. The last vision of Tony was burned in his brain – he’d never seen the man he knew to be one of the strongest on the planet so lifeless. The white of his face would haunt him for a long time to come.

“Shuri will do everything she can, Peter Parker. You must keep the faith,” T’Challa remarked, breaking the silence after Peter’s sobs subsided. “I know that I won’t get you to go far – but you need to get cleaned up and refuel before standing vigil. Her work may take a while.” He gave Peter a brief squeeze before leading him down the hall. Peter could do nothing but follow, his emotional instability no good for anyone in that moment.

He made his way through the food put before him on autopilot – his body must have needed it, because it was gone before he even realized he’d been spooning it into his mouth. The shirt and pants he was given to wear were deep red and made of the softest fabric he’d ever felt. A small comfort in a time when he didn’t remember how to put thoughts in sequence; his brain bounced back and forth between worry and the horrible sight of Tony’s blackened side.

When he felt more or less like a human again, Peter wandered back into the small chamber they set up for Tony. The fact that he hadn’t been sent for during the last couple of hours was reassuring, but the paleness that still clung to Tony’s skin as he laid against the sheets gripped at his heart. He looked frail – Tony’s fragility staring him right in the face. The overwhelming feeling it evoked in Peter raw and devastating. 

Grabbing Tony’s hand between both of his, Peter pulled it towards him – his lips lingering on the skin there. The usual warmth wasn’t there, but at least the subtle thrum of his heart could be felt when Peter checked his pulsed every few minutes.

It took five days for Tony to open his eyes for the first time. Shuri did what should could for the damage on his right side – she had to remove his arm completely and the skin of his face was riddled with scarring; but he was alive. The first time Peter saw Tony’s deep brown eyes after what felt like a lifetime, he flew forward and wrapped him up. Peter pulled back when Tony groaned, his heart fluttering at the sound. “God, Tony – “ Peter babbled, tears already streaming down his cheeks.

Tony didn’t stay conscious for very long. He stuttered out Peter’s name and drank a little bit of water before passing out again. And it went like that for a while. He slept for long periods of time, then woke up just long enough to blink blearily Peter’s way. Despite the progress, Peter was slowly going insane. Shuri didn’t see a lot of changes in his condition, but attempted to meet Peter with a smile when she told him to keep hanging on to the hope that everyone who entered in the room tried to project.

Since the most pressing threat was under control, most of the Avenger’s scattered to do their own thing. The few that were planning to stick around and take up the next fight made their way to Wakanda to be with Peter and Tony. Steve, Bucky, Sam, Wanda, and Natasha took turns sitting around with Peter while he morosely clung to Tony’s hand. 

Peter mainly watched the rise and fall of Tony’s chest and tried to listen to whatever his concerned friends were trying to tell him. He always shot them an embarrassed attempt at a smile when they had to repeat themselves for the second or third time.

Peter woke up a little when Nat sat down next to him after a couple of weeks of the endless moping. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him against her side, fingers on him tight – her grip telling him he wasn’t going anywhere. Sucking in a breath, he turned his head to look at her, eyebrows quirking.

“He would hate to see you like this, Peter,” Nat said plainly, the white in her red hair still something that made his breath catch. The passage of time blew his mind, even after all the crazy shit he’d seen in the last few years. Dropping his head against her shoulder, Peter felt himself start to cry when she pressed her lips to his forehead. “You’ve gotta do something else.”

It was the exact thing he needed. The next day, Peter approached Shuri; she was fiddling with something under a microscope, the recognizable hum of vibranium engulfing him the longer that he stood there. She broke the silence – the sharpness of her voice bringing a sort of smile to his face. “You want to help, I assume,” she said, Shuri’s eyes coming up from the microscope to look at him head-on. “I could use it. Your familiarity with vibranium will come in handy.”

He didn’t understand what she meant at first, Peter was honestly just willing to do whatever he needed to. When she showed him the arm she’d been working on for Tony, he suddenly understood. Shuri wanted to give him an arm that would function with the rest of his suit. It was absolutely brilliant and terrified Peter to the core. The thought of Tony stepping onto the battlefield again made him want to drop to the floor and curl up into a ball. In the depths of his heart, Peter knew he would never be okay with it – not after the close call they were still dealing with.

Pushing passed it, Peter dug into the work. As it turned out, his knowledge on both the nanotech and Tony’s work with vibranium made the process a whole lot easier. They wouldn’t know for sure whether the suit extension would work until Tony tried it for the first time – but, the arm was stellar. The creation and design was very remnant of Bucky’s – Peter pitched a color change and grinned when Shuri showed him the red and gold accents she added to it.

Tony finally woke up entirely after four months of coming to and dropping back off again. 

Peter walked into the lab to start working when Shuri gave him an unrecognizable look. Tilting his head, Peter shrugged on his lab coat and rolled up the sleeves before asking – “What? Is something wrong?”

With a firm shake of her head, she grabbed his hand and pulled him over to the machinery monitoring Tony’s condition – even without any expertise, Peter could see the noticeable change in brain activity. “This is good, right? Maybe he’ll actually wake up!” Peter exclaimed, his shoes squeaking on the spotless floor as he ran over to Tony’s bedside. He gripped his hand tightly, his eyes slamming shut. “Please – wake up, Tony.”

The clench of his fingers a little while later had Peter looking up, his eyes wide. Tony attempted to sit up, the shift in his weight apparent when a grimace flashed across his face. As quickly as he could, Peter hefted him up and placed a couple of pillows directly behind him. After being fed by a tube for the past few months, Tony was probably extremely weak – the slump in his posture speaking volumes.

“How am I alive?” Tony asked first, his voice scratchy and deep – like each word was being pulled out of his throat like it didn’t want to leave. His fingers twitched again in Peter’s hand; the weak touch probably meant to be reassuring. Peter sat on the edge of Tony’s bed and got his hands on as much of his boyfriend as he could. The limbs below him were too skinny – the paper-thin skin so different than the lively flush of the man that stepped out of their house in hopes of finally defeating Thanos.

Giving himself a second to process the question, Peter drew his bottom lip between his teeth, the tension on his skin there enough to help him think. “T’Challa offered to help. We’re in Wakanda. Shuri worked her magic and did everything she could to make sure you’re sitting here with me right now. It’s been 4 really long months.” Peter’s last few words were gut wrenching, his mouth sour from saying them out loud.

Still exhausted, Tony nodded and relaxed into the pillows. “Can’t say I expected to be here. But, I’m so happy to see you.” He reached for Peter, his hand not making it very far before falling back to the bed. Moving without thought, Peter rearranged them until Tony was in his arms, the frail body against him one he missed so desperately. There was nothing like the warmth that was steadily attempting to creep back into Tony’s center.  

----  

Tony’s recovery was slow moving. A couple days after he woke up and started moving around, Shuri and Peter presented him with the vibranium arm they created. Peter didn’t want to delve into the additions made to incorporate the nanotech yet, but Shuri went off excitedly. The small flash of excitement in Tony’s eyes made his stomach roll, the nauseous feeling of pure panic settling deep in his gut.

Once he got used to the weight of it and how the absence of his actual limb felt, Tony seemed more determined than ever. With every passing day, he got a little bit more color in his cheeks. He put on weight and let Bucky take him through exercises that would help to accommodate for the extra points of force the new arm brought with it. The part of Peter that loved to watch Tony flourish burned brightly – the Stark determination wasn’t a made-up thing; it was tangible in the way he put his all into every part of the process that would make him better.

With the increase in energy came an increase in the need for constant stimulation. When he wasn’t working out or training, Tony was annoying Shuri in the lab with his constant questions. And when he wasn’t doing that, Peter captured his attention and kept him as close as possible.

Luckily, nothing had changed between them. In fact, the bond they fostered over the years seemed to burn brighter than ever. Tony didn’t have to hear from the team about Peter’s dedication to his bedside to know how devoted he’d been. Despite not being entirely conscious, Tony swore he could feel Peter there every single time he managed to come to.

A month later, Tony felt good enough to travel – so they headed back to upstate New York to disappear in the comfort of the little house that’d been their sanctuary for such a long time. It felt amazing to walk through the door to something familiar – watching Tony’s face light up in recognition and obvious affection had him grinning, his palms gripping delightfully rosy cheeks to pull him into a kiss. “Welcome home, Mr. Stark.”

The happiness surrounding their homecoming lasted for about 6 weeks – Steve Rogers pulled into their driveway and broke the bubble to pieces on a rainy Thursday. Peter shot him a murderous look when he knocked on the door – “Can I talk to you for a second?” Peter asked before Steve and Tony could shake hands. He pushed Cap down their porch stairs and didn’t stop until they were within feet of his car. “Why are you here? You can’t be here with Avenger’s shit already, Steve – he’s just now getting back into the swing of things. And still healing.”

Steve put a hand on his shoulder, like the parental gesture would erase the fear and anxiety that wouldn’t stop rushing through his veins whenever he thought about the inevitability of their next mission. “It’s time, Pete. Threats are imminent. We’ve got to be better prepared next time.”

He presented it in that exact way to Tony, too. Steve kept flashing looks over in Peter’s direction the entire time he talked, but never stopped the words from coming out of his mouth. It made his head spin, all the details about rounds and patrols and training schedules. Peter figured they’d eventually make it back into the helm of things – but, he wasn’t ready. The idea that he’d be faced with the helpless feeling of waiting by Tony’s bedside again so soon like a claw gripping his heart and wrapping it in doubt and uncertainty.

Peter felt Tony’s arm on his waist when he pushed the door closed after Steve left – neither of them giving him the go-ahead, but both aware that it was coming, that not answering the call wasn’t in the cards for them. Sighing, he reached up, his fingers tangling with Tony’s on his shoulder.

“I’m not ready,” Peter admitted, the pressure in his chest too much to keep inside any longer. He was surprised he made it through Steve’s visit before coming undone. “I’m not ready to worry, yet. I’m not ready to put how I feel about you away for the greater good. You almost died! And for what? To just jump back into the fray and not enjoy the life you fought so hard to secure for everyone else? I can’t lose you, Tony. I can’t.”

His hands framed Tony’s cheeks as he spoke, Peter turning around and tugging him close when he felt the man’s weight shift behind him. His thumb ran across the scars on Tony’s right cheek – the lines there still a bright pink, the noticeable effects of healing enhancing the point for him more. “Can we wait – please? Just a little longer.”

Tony didn’t answer right away – he let Peter’s fingers run over the skin of his face, his eyes following every movement he made. Leaning forward, he closed the gap between himself and Peter, their lips meeting in a tender kiss. Tony brushed their noses together as he pulled away, the caress sending a shiver down Peter’s spine. He closed his eyes, the steady rise and fall of Tony’s chest soothing in the silence that surrounded them.

The softness of Tony’s voice had him stepping away, his eyes desperately seeking out the warm chocolatey pools he loved so much. “I’m not ready, either. I thought, just for a second, that I might be. Then he started talking about battle plans and my heart started to race.” Tony gripped his hips with both hands, the coolness of the vibranium against his skin still something Peter was getting used to. “I’m scared, Pete. I don’t want to go just as much as you don’t want me to.”

Throwing his arms around Tony’s neck, Peter pulled him into a tight hug, a beaming smile slipping across his face.

“That’s the best thing you’ve ever said to me.”

[aion-rsa]

WandaVision: The Unanswered Questions From the Marvel Series

https://ift.tt/38r7iqE

This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

After two months and nine episodes, WandaVision came to a close. One of the more unique projects to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the show mixed mystery and horror with sitcom pastiche and understandings of grief under the superhero umbrella. The first step in both Phase 4 and Disney+’s Marvel lineup came out a success and built towards future projects.

Then again, its mysterious nature worked against it at times. Figuring out answers on a weekly basis meant trying to stay one step ahead of the show and sometimes it got viewers going in the wrong direction. There was no Mephisto or X-Men or Fantastic Four. On one hand, you can say that people are getting angry about stuff that they were never promised, but there is a feeling that when combing over the details of the show, they did cause us to ask some questions that never quite had a satisfying answer.

After all, even Agnes’ joke story about being out of town due to her mother-in-law visiting proved to be an important detail down the line.

As we sit back and wait for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to pick up where our power couple left off, here are some lingering questions we’re left with from WandaVision.

What happened to the beekeeper?

The beekeeper was the first truly haunting moment of the series. Sure, “Stop it!” and the exploding radio were creepy in their own ways, but the idea of Wanda and Vision walking outside at night to find a lone beekeeper sneaking out of the sewer and quietly looking at them was outright nightmare fuel. It was a major instance of wondering what in God’s name was going on, and that’s even before Wanda simply noped out, hit rewind, and retconned the scene from happening.

We later discover that the beekeeper is SWORD Agent Franklin and his appearance is just Wanda’s reality making sense of a man in a hazmat suit. We see him crawling out of the sewer from his point of view, but then…nothing.

While the reveal of his identity doesn’t lead us to AIM henchmen or Swarm (star of Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark), it does explain the nature of Wanda’s neighborhood. That still makes it weird that we never hear from him again.

Or do we? While it’s never made explicit on the show itself, supposedly the guy playing the ice cream man in the episode 5 intro is the same actor as Agent Franklin. Perhaps the beekeeper didn’t die, but was just assimilated into a happier role.

Who was in Witness Protection?

FBI Agent James Woo gets the story rolling by coming to Westview in search of someone in witness protection. The complete lack of anyone having any information or even memory of this person is what gets SWORD involved and Monica Rambeau sucked into Westview. In the end, the identity is just not important.

But it feels like it should be, right? Having Woo go from coast to coast to follow up on this person seems pretty major. You would think it would have come up here or there, but nope. If anything, I guess it just goes to show that Jimmy Woo is a true professional for keeping his trap shut.

Who is the aerospace engineer?

I can understand that throwing Evan Peters’ Quicksilver at us was a good way to distract us from everything Agnes was doing, but the aerospace engineer? Come on! That was definitely more deliberate than the witness protection and they know it.

Monica brings up a friend who is smart enough to get her to break into the Hex all over again. All that’s missing is a smile and wink to the camera. The writers gave us something so blatant that it would be ridiculous NOT to speculate who she was talking about. This had to be an important cameo leading to something major down the line. Would we get Reed Richards? Blue Marvel? Beast? Dr. Nemesis? NFL Superpro?

Even when Monica’s dream vehicle didn’t do the job, it was still believed that this aerospace engineer would still get a dramatic shout-out down the line or a post-credits scene. Nope. At most, this throwaway friend is like that scene in Thor when Erik Selvig was talking up his gamma scientist friend who went missing because of SHIELD.

What did the commercials really mean?

It isn’t hard to figure out that the commercials were based on Wanda’s trauma: the bomb that killed her parents, her time with Hydra, the events of Captain America: Civil War, and her inability to deal with her grief in a meaningful way that didn’t involve torturing and enslaving innocent people. While it isn’t really important to see how the sausage is made, I’m left wondering what the commercials actually were.

From the fourth episode, we do know that the commercials were part of the transmissions. Darcy was able to see the one for the watch, but was focused on something else. Otherwise, I’m sure she would have been wondering about the inclusion of the HYDRA logo. The way everyone in the SWORD collaboration just glossed over the commercials is rather weird.

One of the popular theories was that the man and woman featured in all the live-action commercials were going to be revealed as Wanda and Pietro’s parents. That turned out not to be true, so…were they also Westview citizens? That would be disturbing because to make sense of the commercial narratives and the sitcom narratives, that family would have to be forcefully separated from the rest of the town.

Did Agatha magic up the stop-motion commercial for Yo-Magic? Because that was about her too much to be something Wanda’s psyche came up with.

Is there more to “Fake Pietro” Ralph Bohner?

“Fietro” was the big red herring of the series. After all that wondering of whether he was the first true step in bringing mutants into the MCU or if he was literal Satan in disguise, we discovered he was Agnes’ hypnotized “husband” whose payoff was nothing more than a dick joke.

Then again, he was already called Peter in the Fox universe, so it’s not such a hard stretch to make him a Bohner.

Read more

TV

Will The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Become a Victim of WandaVision’s Success?

By Kirsten Howard

Movies

A Tale of Two Pietros: Explaining the MCU X-Men Problem With a Mutant Speedster

By Gavin Jasper

Monica’s ability to see energy in its various forms allowed her to figure out that Agatha was controlling Ralph with a mystical necklace. Once she tore it off, Ralph immediately gave up and that was the last we saw of him. But what does that mean in terms of his powers?

I imagine Agatha gave him the speed powers so he could play the part of Pietro in order to get intel on Wanda’s magic. Just because she no longer controls him, does that mean he’s physically back to normal as well? Because, hey, he might not be the Quicksilver from the X-Men universe, but he could totally play the role of Quicksilver if Marvel ends up doing a cinematic version of the Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers.

Where did White Vision go?

Vision’s Soul fought Vision’s Body and after we got enough lasers and explosions, the two talked out their differences. Hex Vision convinced his pasty counterpart to stand down and did him the favor of unlocking his dormant memories (that he asked permission was such a nice touch). White Vision recalled everything from the moment of his creation to Thanos pulling out the Mind Stone. Accepting who he is, White Vision flew off and was never referenced again.

I supposed the real question to ask is when will we see him next? Obviously, he has a lot to think about. He’s an emotional husk with lots of data to work through. Does he love Wanda in this form? Can he still love Wanda in this form, knowing what she’s become? As someone who was pro-government oversight, how will it affect him knowing that the government outright betrayed his wishes and memory? Where does someone like White Vision go from here?

Maybe we’ll see him in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Perhaps, when a new Avengers movie finally happens, Vision will show himself again. Or if they go in the direction of Young Avengers, he could be the wise father to the sons he’s never met.

It would be pretty wild if White Vision relearned how to convey emotions by watching Simon Williams movies.

What are the twins, exactly?

“FOR THE CHILDREN!” is what the neighbors echoed like a brainwashed cult, culminating in Wanda’s very unusual pregnancy. It could have been Wanda’s subconscious telling her to have kids. It could have been Agatha testing out her ability to create life from nothing. It also may have been the children themselves.

We never did fully get a grasp on what Billy and Tommy were. Wanda had a very unnatural birth and, outside of being able to age themselves a couple times, the boys seemed fairly down to earth and good-natured, while also still capable of questioning Wanda’s reality. There was nothing ominous about them outside of the weird nature of their very existence.

When Wanda relaxed the Hex, they started to disappear. When she ended the Hex completely, they once again vanished. Simply saying that they were two kids Wanda conjured up out of thin air would have been an acceptable answer.

Read more

TV

WandaVision: What Wanda’s Kids Mean for the Future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

By Gavin Jasper

TV

Will The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Become a Victim of WandaVision’s Success?

By Kirsten Howard

Instead, when Wanda fully accepted what her reality was and that it had to end, she thanked her children for “choosing” her to be their mother. She was able to explain what Vision was in the grand scheme of things, but she remained silent when it came to those kids. They were an outside force that sought her out. That’s what her final conversation certainly implies.

The post-credits scene had her studying the Darkhold while being alerted to Billy and Tommy screaming for help. They still exist, in some form, somewhere. Their true nature probably won’t be better explained until the Doctor Strange sequel.

Speculation on this one is a pain in the ass because even the comics explanation is a whirlwind of confusion.

What really happened to Agatha Harkness?

Wanda doesn’t kill Agatha, but does punish her by forcing her to be stuck in the living Hell of portraying Agnes the nosey neighbor. It’s a harsh punishment, but her intent doesn’t jibe with Agatha’s post-Hex status. People know about her. Even if the last few in-universe episodes of WandaVision weren’t on the SWORD airwaves, she was still playing the role of final boss and having magic fights in the sky. The people of Westview saw that.

Wouldn’t this mean that she can’t just go back to her “nosy neighbor” role and that she’s likely destined for a cell? She’ll be lucky if the government isn’t doing experiments on her, which is extra messed up when you imagine her acting like Ned Flanders.

At least she’ll be kept subdued for when the Scarlet Witch needs her. Or maybe she too will join whatever Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers team we may see down the line.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Just give us more Kathryn Hahn, damn it!

The post WandaVision: The Unanswered Questions From the Marvel Series appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2OFQ8yB

[fandomfanfics12]

We Are A Family-Part 33

Title: We Are A Family. Pairings: Steve x tony, Peter x Wade, Nat x Clint, Sam x Bucky. Part: 33/? Warnings: swearing, fluff, angst, eventual smut, slowburn. Summary: When Nat comes into the avengers tower with baby Peter Parker, the avengers didn’t know what they were getting themselves into. But now that Peter is here,Steve and Tony both feel protective over him. It doesn’t help that Peter hates everyone other than Steve and tony. But as Steve and tony raise Peter, they start to fall for one another. Will this superfamily work out or will it all turn to hell?

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22, Part 23, Part 24, Part 25, Part 26, Part 27, Part 28, Part 29, Part 30, Part 31, Part 32

Steve was angry, devastated, but mostly angry. At himself and at Tony. Why was it so easy for Tony to just move on? Was it because he got the extra years with Peter? Did he get his fill of Peter and decide that he didn’t need their son anymore? Steve knew it wasn’t fair for him to be bitter that Tony was around in the last couple years of Peter’s life, but he couldn’t help it. Tony was there and Steve wasn’t. and now it was Steve fighting for Peter, not Tony.

“Steve?” Natasha prompted and Steve snapped back to attention.

“Yeah?” he asked, but she was frowning. Her head tilted to the side and then she rolled her eyes.

“I still can’t believe you gave up on Tony, after everything.” Steve shook his head, that wasn’t fair.

“I didn’t give up on Tony.” Steve told her and she snorted.

“Right.”

“He gave up on me. and on Peter.”

“so that was the deal breaker huh, the very thing that brought the two of you together?”

“I don’t see Clint hanging around either.” Steve snapped and knew it was a low blow. He’d vanished and Steve knew that Natasha had been hunting him down. Halfheartedly, but Steve knew that she was just afraid of the man that she’d find.

“On the account that you and Tony just broke up and given the history, I’m going to let that one slide. Besides, they’re both not here for the same reason.”

“And what’s that Natasha?” Steve asked, crossing his arms.

“They’re scared that it won’t work and that they’ll have to face the disappointment of not bringing everyone back yet again.”

“And what about us? Don’t they think that we’re scared to?” Steve asked and she shrugged.

“When I first told you that I was doing this, you said you didn’t want Tony to know. You wanted to protect him from that disappointment, so don’t get shitty with me that you blabbed.” Natasha said and Steve sighed, he was being an ass and he knew that, but the idea of losing Tony was killing him. He wanted Peter back, and Tony and Steve didn’t understand why he couldn’t have both. Why was Tony making him choose?

-

Tony felt like the worst person on the fucking planet. The worst person in the fucking universe. God, how was he so selfish? His own fear of facing disappointment, was ruining the one good thing he had left in his life. Here was Steve, working tirelessly to bring back Peter, and Tony was being selfish. Yet, if it didn’t work-if they couldn’t figure it out, how the fuck would Tony survive that disappointment? It would be like Peter dying all over again. So he’d asked Steve to choose, in Tony’s head he thought Steve would just nod and that would be that. But Tony should have known his husband better than that, should have known the truth that was coming for him.

Steve didn’t quit.

Especially not when it came to their family. this whole time Steve had been fighting for it, he’d never given up on their little family. so why was Tony?

-

Four years later...

-

Steve stared down at his phone and was overcome with the overwhelming urge to call Tony. He just had to press down on the screen and the phone would dial. But Steve was afraid of rejection, of being told no by Tony. He was scared to tell Tony that he couldn’t give Tony what he wanted. All Steve could do would be to ask for forgiveness, for them to learn to get passed this.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Steve’s brows furrowed and he shot up to his feet, his phone forgotten. He knew that voice, the man who that voice had vanished along with everyone else. Natasha pulled up a video clip and there was Scott, waving at the camera.

“is this an old message?” Steve asked as his heart leaped up into his throat. How was that possible? The only person who was still alive despite Thanos’ best efforts was Wade, and that was only because he rematerialized faster than the stones had been able to take him.

“No.” Natasha said and the phone fell from Steve’s hand and clattered against the floor.

“Let him in.” natasha pressed a button and Scott grinned, Steve took off so he could meet the man halfway.

-

The phone ringed and ringed and Tony’s heart was up in his throat. Finally it stopped ringing.

Ttony? Is everything alright?”

“Everything’s fine, I wanted to talk to you about that little girl, Morgan?” Tony asked and the therapist chuckled.

“So you’re going to go through with the adoption?” she asked and Tony began to pace around his little cabin.

“Yes, I think so.”

“That’s great news, her parents disappeared in the snap and she’s just been passed around from foster home to foster home.” Tony nodded, that was why Tony cared about this little girl so much. She was Pepper’s daughter, and if he’d known about her earlier-he would have adopted her sooner.

“So when can I get her?” Tony asked and the therapist laughed.

“Well I’ll have to make a few arrangements, you’ll have to sign some papers but I suspect that within the next couple days she’ll be all yours.” Tony grinned, feeling relieved.

“Excellent.”

-

“How the hell are you alive?” Steve asked and Scott shook his head.

“It’s a long story.” Steve couldn’t help but look around, hoping others would start to materialise out of thin air.

“Well how’d you do it? I need you to tell me every detail Scott, we need to bring the others back.” Scott shook his head, a sadness in his eyes.

“I didn’t go in the snap Steve, I was in the quantum realm.” Scott said and Steve shook his head.

“I don’t understand.”

“I didn’t come back from the dead.” Scott said and Steve shook his head, his brain couldn’t process that.

“No but you, you were gone and-“ Scott cut him off.

“I was in the quantum realm. I’d explain it to you but I doubt you’d actually hear anything I said and, are you okay?” Steve felt like he was being crushed by disappointment.

“I’m uh, fine. Just go talk to Nat.” he could feel her watchful eyes on his back, but Steve didn’t care. He needed a moment to process. To understand that once again, he didn’t have Peter.

“I spoke to my daughter Cassie and she told me everything, and while I didn’t die in the snap, I think I have a solution for it.” and there it was, a spark of hope that flickered to life in Steve’s chest. He whirled around, eyes wide and heart hammering.

“The stones were destroyed, we can’t use them to bring everyone back.” Scott nodded his head, but he didn’t look disappointed.

“Yeah I know, but that’s not my solution.” A new idea, Scott had an idea-a theory and it was the biggest breakthrough Steve had.

“And what is it that you’re suggesting?” Steve asked and Scott scratched the back of his head, suddenly seeming nervous.

“Time travel?”

-

Morgan was perfect in every way imaginable. She was adorable and sweet and so so smart and Tony fell in love with his little girl instantaneously. She stared up at the cabin with wide eyes and Tony’s heart leapt up into his throat. He would protect her at all costs.

“so I really get to live here?” she asked and Tony nodded his head.

“Yeah kiddo, you get to live here.” He murmured and she grinned her big toothy grin.

“Yay!” she began to run, dodging in and out of rooms and jumping up and down on pieces of furniture. Tony smiled and his mind flashed back to little baby Peter, who had run around in their new house in a similar manner. No, stop. Tony shook his head, wishing the memory away. He didn’t want to think of Peter and of all the sad memories that came with thoughts about Peter. God, what was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he move on? Why couldn’t he let go? Steve would love her, he’d adore Morgan-Tony just knew it. but he also knew that Steve would never forgive him for this. this would be a slap in Steve’s face, but Tony had done this for Pepper. So Pepper’s daughter could grow up feeling loved. This wasn’t to get back at Steve.

“Mr Stark?” she called and Tony followed the sound of her voice, she stood before the fireplace and was staring up at the pictures.

“Yeah Morgan?” Tony asked and she tilted her head.

“Who are they?” and she pointed at an old family photo. Back when things were good, Peter and Wade were twelve, and Steve hadn’t had his mind under Thanos’ control. Back when they’d all been alive and happy.

“Nobody important.” Tony said and she frowned.

“They look important.” Tony sighed, unsure on how to proceed.

“They’re just some people I knew.”

“Did something happen?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you see them anymore?” Tony’s eyes focused in on Steve’s face, smiling and happy. Not the haunted look he’d worn for the last year they’d been together.

“No.” There was a finality in Tony’s voice that stung, but it was the truth. He hadn’t spoken to Steve in years, and he only saw Wade a couple times a year. And Peter was gone, so Morgan would never meet him. Which really sucked because Tony just knew that Peter would be the best big brother. But Peter wasn’t here anymore, so Tony just picked up Morgan and carried her to her room.

-

Wade slumped down into a chair at the bar, his mind foggy.He hadn’t spoken to any of the Avengers-apart from Tony-since they’d failed to bring everyone back. He’d dropped off the map, unable to look at Steve or any of the others, it was too painful. He still saw Tony though, a couple times every year. Just to check in with him, make sure he was doing alright-for Peter. Everything Wade did these days was for Peter, he tried to make the world a better place because the world had lost Peter and that was absolutely devastating. But when Wade wasn’t busy helping other people and being a good citizen of New York, he drank. A lot.

“Whiskey.” He said to the bartender who rose a brow.

“Do you want me to call you a cab buddy?” Wade sighed and shook his head.

“No, I’m fine.” He was about three drinks away from passing out, and he was so so desperate to pass out. The bartender set down the whiskey and Wade downed it in one large gulp. It burned his throat but he didn’t care. The world spun and he tapped the glass. The bartender hesitantly refilled it and then Wade tipped the amber liquid back.He was supposed to go visit Tony tomorrow, Wade was hoping he’d never wake up. Next thing he knew, he was sliding off his seat and body crashing to the floor.

-

“What are you doing?” Wade spun around and there was Peter, sitting on the bottom bunk in May’s apartment and scowling.

“Trying to see you.” Wade said and Peter shook his head.

“You can’t keep doing this Wade.” Peter snapped and Wade shrugged.

“it takes the edge off, seeing you.”

“I don’t care, you can’t waste your life away for me.” Peter said and crossed his arms. Wade wished he could touch Peter, wished he could hold him.

“Steve is still trying to figure out a way to bring you back.” Wade told him and Peter groaned.

“You both need to stop, I’m serious. He’s not allowed to keep this up, it’s been what-five years?” Wade nodded and Peter shook his head, mostly looking disappointed.

“it’s all we have Peter. Looking for a way to bring you and everyone back, it’s all that’s left.”

“No it isn’t. you could move on and be happy and and-“ he was panicking and Wade tried to go to him but was stopped by some invisible barrier. Peter shuddered and glared at Wade, but the room was getting blurrier. Peter was becoming translucent-Wade was waking up.

“Petey?” he asked and Peter spoke but Wade didn’t hear it. the real world came rushing back to him and Peter was gone.

-

Steve took a steadying breath as Natasha parked the car in Tony’s driveway.

“You alright?” she asked and Steve found himself nodding.

“Yeah, it’s just-what do I say?”

“Sorry?” She suggested and Steve snorted. Like that would make up for it.

“This is going to work Steve, but only if we have Tony’s brain to help us.” She murmured and Steve sighed.

“What if he says no?”

“Then we figure out a way to persuade him.” Steve got out of the car and saw a little girl with brown hair and a tutu running around.

“Who’s that?” Steve asked and Natasha frowned.

“I don’t know.” Steve spotted Wade, chasing the little girl and both Wade and the girl fell silent and stopped once they had spotted Steve.

“Steve?” Wade’s brows rose and Steve forced a smile.

“Hey Wade.” And then Tony stepped outside, a smile on his face.

-

Tony stepped outside expecting to see Wade and Morgan playing, instead they were looking at the driveway. When Tony turned he saw Steve who was in a leather jacket and looking as gorgeous as ever. Once again Tony was overcome with all the love and desire he felt for the blonde man, who was forcing a smile and looked extremely uncomfortable.

“what are you doing here?” Tony asked and Steve’s blue eyes snapped to Tony. Tony saw his face soften and felt relieved to know that Steve was still in love with Tony.

“I need to talk to you about something.” Steve said and Tony heard nerves in his voice. For a second, Tony thought Steve was asking for another chance. A chance Tony would give in a heartbeat, but then he spotted Natasha and knew that that wasn’t what Steve was here for.

“What?” he asked and made his way to Morgan, scooping her up in his arms. Steve clenched his jaw at that, clearly putting two and two together.

-

Steve’s brain was short circuiting at the sight of Tony with what Steve presumed to be his daughter. She was adorable, and Tony’s face lit up when he looked at her. Steve wondered if there was someone else? Had Tony completely moved on? Found a new partner and adopted a new child, completely started life from scratch?

“We’ve got a lead.” Wade reacted first, a flinch and Tony stared at Steve.

“No.”

“Tony I need your help.” Steve pleaded and Tony shook his head.

“I told you once and I didn’t think that I’d need to repeat myself when I said that I didn’t want to be disappointed again. Steve you can’t just show up here and say you have a lead.”

“Think about Peter, I can’t do this without you.” Steve said and Tony shook his head.

“shouldn’t we let him rest in peace?” Tony asked and Steve shook his head.

“He shouldn’t have died and we can bring him back. I just need you to trust me, do you still trust me?” Steve’s voice shook with each word and he hated how desperate he sounded. Tony didn’t need Steve, but Steve needed Tony and that fact terrified him. But he couldn’t focus on that, he had the opportunity to bring back Peter, and he fully intended on taking advantage of that opportunity.

“Of course I still trust you Steve.” Tony said, and Steve smiled gently.

“Just hear us out, alright?” Steve asked and Tony nodded his head, his hair had gotten longer and Steve was filled with longing. It had been a long five years without him.

“alright.” And then Tony was leading them inside, and Steve’s heart filled with hope.

[magicmastered]

Loki Was Trying to Lose

The theory that Loki was subtly trying to lose to the Avengers is quite a popular one, for good reason. There’s quite a chunk of evidence to support it. Loki’s actions—and lack thereof— throughout Avengers (2012) make very little sense otherwise; they certainly don’t make sense if he was trying to actually take over the planet.

Loki can mind-control people with his scepter. He could turn anyone to his side at all. You’d think this would provide an incredible advantage. If he wanted to win, he would’ve pressed this advantage wherever possible. However....

Based on his spying, Loki would know that Fury would be the head of any effort to stop him from stealing the Tesseract or taking over Earth. But he doesn’t do anything to prevent Fury from getting that far. He doesn’t kill or mind-control Fury. If he’d done the former, he could’ve stopped the Avengers from forming at all. If he’d done the latter, he could’ve had Fury send the Avengers in all the wrong directions, made them look terrible, destroy their heroic image, and tear them apart. It’d be a wonderful opportunity, and all but insure his victory. Yet, he doesn’t.

He has the opportunity to mind-control Steve when they fight. He could pin Steve down in Stuttgart and use the scepter. He could’ve tried mind-controlling Thor when Thor was still down from the stab on Stark Tower. He could’ve tried a different angle with the scepter on Tony to bypass the arc reactor, or use whatever he did to Erik Selvig in the credits scene from Thor (2011). Any one of those could’ve significantly influenced the outcome of his invasion. They would’ve been smart moves; with any one of them fighting for him, Loki would’ve won the Battle of New York. But he doesn’t add them to his own forces.

Actually, there’s more about the scepter than that. The gem in the scepter, the thing that provides the whole ability to mind-control, is the Mind Stone. An Infinity Stone. One of the six cosmic entities that’s been around longer than the universe. These things are a BIG DEAL.

And yet, apparently a non-enhanced, non-mutant human can defy it. I’m talking about Erik Selvig. When he’s making the portal to let in the Chitauri, he apparently resists the control of an Infinity Stone enough to make a back-door way to shut the portal down. That makes approximately no sense. An ordinary human should not be able to resist one of the six most powerful forces in the universe. Even if he did, wouldn’t the guy using the Infinity Stone notice? So, how did he do it? It’d be a lot easier if Loki wanted a quick way to shut the portal down, or wasn’t opposed to it at the very least.

Additionally, why would Loki just drop the scepter so close to the portal generator? Why would he leave it there after that? He could just steer the Chitauri skiff/whatever it’s called back to the tower and pick it up again. It’s not like him to panic and then completely forget that his main weapon exists for the rest of the battle. It makes a lot more sense if that’s where he wanted the scepter to be—right where it was needed most.

Loki canonically has the ability to teleport. It’s stated in Thor: Heroes and Villains in his list of powers and abilities. It’s kind of implied in Thor (2011) as his method of getting to Earth, seeing as no one else seems to know about that visit. Yet he never uses it in this movie. He could’ve escaped Steve and Tony in Stuttgart. He could’ve made off while Thor, Tony, and Steve were fighting in the woods. He could’ve gotten out of his cell in the Helicarrier easily. He wouldn’t have needed Clint and his more voluntary underlings to let him out. (I’ll get back to this later.) He could’ve seriously teleported around to every single Avenger (except Bruce) and killed them on the spot if he so chose. He could’ve even done it publicly, like in the Battle of New York. Why doesn’t he use one of his most powerful abilities? Doesn’t he want to win?

Actually, Loki hardly uses any of his non-physical powers to his advantage. All we get of them are illusions in Stuttgart and the Helicarrier. He also has the following magical abilities:

Teleporting (as I just mentioned)

Shape-shifting

Mind manipulation without directly using the scepter

Telekinesis

Enough other magic to overpower Odin single-handedly

And he uses none of it. None! Shapeshifting alone would be a very powerful tool. He could stand in as anyone. He could fake being an Avenger to further drive them apart. Wasn’t splitting them up from the inside the sort of thing he was going for anyway? Why wouldn’t he use something like this? The non-scepter mind manipulation would also be helpful for dividing the Avengers. If they can’t tell who’s on their side and who’s not, how can they stick together enough to make a coherent plan to stop him? Wouldn’t his other magic be helpful as well? If his other powers are enough to overpower Odin, why wouldn’t he use them in the physical battles with Tony, Thor, or the Hulk? Does he want to get knocked around or something? No way would he spontaneously forget all his powers. Is he deliberately holding back? He kind of has to be....Why would he do that if he actually wanted to win, take over Earth, and give Thanos the Tesseract?

That’s not even the only way he’s holding back. He had the opportunity to kill three Avengers with the abilities he did display. First it’s in Stuttgart. When he’s fighting Steve, he puts the blunt end of the scepter to the back of Steve’s neck to hold him down. If he’d used the blade end right there, or even used one of his knives, he could’ve killed Steve. One less member of the opposition. Next, in Stark Tower, he grabs Tony by the neck and throws him out of the window, leaving Tony enough air and time to deploy his suit to save him. Loki’s far stronger than any human; he could’ve simply broken Tony’s neck or stabbed him, and Tony would’ve had no time to call his suit. Finally, when he’s fighting Thor on the tower, he sticks Thor in the gut with a tiny knife. Thor doubles over for several seconds. Loki has more than enough time to move in with the scepter’s longer blade and stab him again in the back, or shove him over and get to his heart. And yet he simply stands there and waits for Thor to recover. He stands there, letting Thor rush him and body-slam him. Without even one of those three the Battle of New York would’ve been far harder to win, if it was still possible at all.

Loki personalized all of his attacks. He gives every single one of the Avengers a personal reason to fight him. Every single one of them. If he wanted to demoralize them, why would he give them more reason to fight him than before?

I said I’d get back to Clint going to the Helicarrier to get Loki out. We’ve already established that Loki’s perfectly capable of getting out himself via teleportation. So why would he need Clint (or anyone) to come inside the Helicarrier? It’d make perfect sense to have Clint and his other underlings wreak havoc from outside the Helicarrier and destroy the propellers. That wouldn’t risk anyone on his side getting killed, or captured and turned against him. Which is exactly what happens to Clint. Nat knocks him in the head, freeing him from the scepter’s influence and leaving Clint with a very personal reason to join the fight against Loki.

Next there’s Steve. Loki knows about Steve through Clint. He knows that Steve just recently (in Steve’s perception) fought a war with Germany, mostly against someone who made deluded speeches—someone who wanted to take over the world. That’s Steve’s idea of people who want to take over the world, people he needs to stop. What does Loki do in Germany? He makes a deluded speech, which so happens to follow Thanos’ minions values (thus further convincing the Other of his loyalty) publicly, so it’ll be seen—so Steve will notice. When Steve shows up, he smiles.

Next there’s Nat. Loki knows about Nat through Clint as well. He knows what she’s done. He also knows how she operates—by allowing men to underestimate her. That’s her vision of someone who she needs to fight. He fulfills this vision. He manipulates her guilt about her crimes. He threatens someone she cares about. He uses a gendered slur.*

Then it’s Bruce. Clint’s told Loki about him. Bruce hates to be manipulated. He hates and fears losing control of the Hulk. What does Loki do? He manipulates events around Bruce. He makes it as obvious as possible—when the SHIELD agents escort him past the room Bruce is in, he turns and smirks dramatically in Bruce’s direction. He brings up Bruce in his conversation with Fury. And then Nat catches him referring to Bruce during their talk. This stresses Bruce out enough on its own; things get worse when Loki’s rescue part attack, which triggers a Hulk-out.

And then there’s Thor. Loki waits by the Hulk-cage. Obviously Thor would come for him; Thor doesn’t want any more humans to get hurt. Loki traps Thor inside the Hulk-cage. He moves to drop Thor out of the Helicarrier. That might do it. But it then he realizes Coulson’s there. We know Loki could see/hear some of what the Destroyer saw/heard back in Thor (2011) (otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to respond to Thor’s blanket apology). He presumably recognizes that Coulson is someone Thor’s had contact with. What more certain way to turn Thor more fully against him than killing someone Thor’s met in front of him?

Finally it’s Tony, who Clint also told Loki about. Tony’s about as tolerant of being manipulated as Loki’s become in recent years; that is to say, not at all. So Loki goes for a strike where Tony lives. He may or may not know that Tony’s had contact with Coulson as well. If not, it certainly wouldn’t hurt Tony’s drive to fight. If so, it’d be excellent fuel. But anyway, out of all the places he could’ve chosen—out of all the power sources in the world—he chooses Tony’s tower. He strikes right at Tony’s home.

Actually, it’s not just Tony’s home. Steve lives in the area as well. That’s a third of the Avengers. Why New York? NYC isn’t the capitol of any state or country. Wouldn’t it make more sense to go for a capitol—if it has to be in America, Washington D.C., or something. Anything that’d at least have a government to surrender, which could spare him the effort of having to invade the rest of the country. A “surrender or the city gets leveled” would certainly be more effective than trying to invade every single city on the planet. Given his reaction when he finally seems to really see the damage being done...

...we can pretty safely assume that he doesn’t want to invade every city on the planet. And yet Loki attacks NYC with no attempt to figure out if he’s actually making any headway in taking over Earth. That does not sound like the strategy of someone who’s even trying to win.

But why would he betray Thanos? That’s a huge risk. Why would he do it?

There are a couple reasons. Either or both would be viable.

1. Because Thanos and the Black Order were utter sadists to him, and he’s getting back at them by getting their army destroyed, losing their most powerful resource, and having the thing they sent him for in the first place taken out of reach while being dragged off to what’s probably the safest place for him in the universe.

2. Because Thanos and co. want the Tesseract to help kill half the universe, and so giving Thanos what he wants is a terrible idea. Loki wouldn’t want half the universe getting killed—odds are, that’d include Thor or Frigga—and so he does what he can to stop it right under Thanos and the Others’ noses.

So, besides the fact that Marvel will confirm this about never, this theory has a lot going for it.

(*that’s my in-universe interpretation, anyway.)

Any thoughts?

@fyrecrafted @blueeyedjaguar @lokiloveforever

@alstee I think you said you were interested?

[to-be-a-dreamer]

How to Predict the Villan in an MCU Movie

So I’ve been watching every movie in the MCU for the first time and was discussing it on discord with some friends (because yay social distancing). 

Anyway, we were discussing how the colors of the infinity stones don’t really make sense. Like, the reality stone should have been white, or a light color, space should have been dark purple or blue, etc. Then I suggested that maybe it was just to set the tone. Like, the reality stone was red, which feels like something menacing and dark, as well as foreshadowing all the bloodshed that occurs in Thor: The Dark World. 

Which led to this thought in my brain: 

You can predict the villain with almost 100% accuracy based on their color scheme. Heroes have primary colors and villains have secondary colors.

Hear me out. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are rules/exceptions, which I will address as we go along. 

Iron Man (2008) The Iron Man suits are red and yellow/gold, which are primary colors. Iron Monger was blue in the comics, but this is where the first rule comes in.  Rule #1: If a character is introduced with storytelling elements that show that they are very obviously a bad guy, they may have primary colors.  Obadiah Shane is introduced as the typical “Number Two to a very powerful person who dies and doesn’t become CEO because the powerful person has a playboy son who doesn’t deserve it in Number Two’s mind” guy. He’s got the fake-somber look at Howard’s Stark’s death and is quite literally in Tony’s shadow while giving him a not-so-subtle evil glare.

The Incredible Hulk (2008) This is a fun one because Hulk is Green, which is a secondary color, but it’s symbolic in a couple ways. (This is one of those exceptions) 1) Banner sees the Hulk as a disease, a monster. To him, Hulk IS the villain of his story. It’s also a hint towards the real villain. 2) The actual villain is Abomination, who is basically just a large Hulk and also green. 

Iron Man 2 (2010) The main villain is Ivan Vanko/Whiplash, who’s big entrance is in an orange jumpsuit. You could argue that Justin Hammer is the bad guy, but we know him from Iron Man 1.

Thor (2011) Thor gets red and Loki gets green. Enough said. I know it could be argued that Loki is a good guy, but I’m talking about just this movie. You see Loki in an all-green outfit, you know he’s going to do a bad. (Also, Hawkeye is introduced in this movie. His color scheme in the comic books is purple, but he’s on the “other side” in Thor, so it checks out.)

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Cap’s suit is red and blue. I know Red Skull is, well, red, but this goes back to rule number one. Very obviously a villain. He’s a Nazi. Even the Joker doesn’t like working with the Nazis.

Marvel’s The Avengers (2012) Loki’s the villain again, and Thanos, who is purple, is behind it. We also introduce Black Widow here and her colors are RED and black. ALSO ALSO, who is the only Avenger who gets mind-controlled? Hawkeye, who is purple in the comics, black the entire time he’s with Loki, and gets maroon (dark red) accents once he’s back with the Avengers.

Iron Man 3 (2013) Killian’s power makes orangey fire.

Thor: The Dark World (2013) Kurse has a mostly black and white thing going on, but he does get some red here and there. But... Rule 1. The red looks like blood smears...

Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) We get introduced to Falcon! Who’s main color besides silver is red.  Also, I think Pierce falls under Rule 1.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Oh boy, this should be a fun one Okay: Star-Lord is red, he’s the main character, we’re supposed to like him, we’re supposed to root for him, cut and dry. Rocket is introduced with an orange outfit, Groot is greenish, and Gamora is Green. But they’re all introduced as Peter’s foes. They all become friends later on, but we’re supposed to be rooting for Peter right now. (Also Gamora’s hair is redish) Drax is grayish with red. Once they become a real team and wear matching outfits THEY. WEAR. RED. Yondu is blue, which may be a nod to the fact that he’s not really a bad guy. Ronan is blue, but this is where Rule Two comes into play! Rule #2: If a character truly believes they’re the good guys, they may have primary colors. (Based on self-awareness.) Ronan was finishing a 1,000 year war, upholding the traditions of his people, and avenging his family. Think’s he’s the good guy. Nebula being blue could be a nod to her loyalty shift later on in the story. I probably missed some, but let’s move on.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) Scarlett Witch has red, Quicksilver has blue, Vision is red, blue, AND yellow. All of the primary colors. Ultron is red, but Rule #2: Ultron was fighting for his idea of peace. 

Ant-Man (2015) 

Ant-Man and Wasp suits are both red. Darren Cross mostly falls under Rule 1, but I think he was wearing a green tie.

Captain America: Civil War (2016) So, Zemo’s an interesting one. In the comics, he’s got a purple thing going on, but the MCU movie has him mostly wearing black. Maybe he had a Rule 1 kind of entrance, but I don’t really remember. Black Panther is also weird because his aesthetic is purple, but he’s kind of trying to kill Bucky in this movie so.... Maybe misdirect? Maybe? Spiderman is red and blue, nothing new there. Doctor Strange (2016) Doctor Strange is red and blue. (The Eye of Afamotto is green, but I think it represents how it could cause evil if in the wrong hands, as well as the choice Stephen has to make to consciously do something good with such a powerful item. Kaecillius is a combination of Rules one and two. We are directly told he’s a villain and there’s no doubt with the way he is introduced. He’s also doing what he’s doing in order to learn more about the mystic arts and all that good stuff. Aaaaand Dormammu is purple. Yeah, ‘nuff said.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) Ego’s outfit has greenish undertones, especially when he reveals he killed Peter’s mother. He also sees nothing wrong with his actions and is allowed to have touches of primary colors, but everything has touches of green here and there. (Again with the Yondu is blue thing.) Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) Vulture is green! I know that’s short, but there’s not much else to it.

Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Guess what? Hela has a green color scheme.

Black Panther (2018) Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Okay, yeah, Black Panther is one of the exceptions to this rule. You could say that since T’Chaka and Erik are both the Black Panther and make mistakes for the greater good, it’s a symbol of the mistakes past Black Panthers have made. And T’Challa has to overcome those mistakes with the same name? They also both believe they’re doing the right thing? I dunno, Black Panther is just an exception movie since everything in it is just SO colorful.

Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Yeah, Thanos is Purple. That’s about it. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) Ghost is white with red eyes but mostly falls under rule one. (I think the energy blast that created her was orange, but don’t quote me on that.) Captain Marvel (2019) Despite the fact that I can never decide if I like this movie or not, this one is the most fun with this theory.  The Kree uniforms are green while the Skrulls are blue, which gives you a hint that the Kree are actually the bad guys.  And when Carol changes her uniform SHE CHANGES IT TO RED, BLUE, AND YELLOW/GOLD. Avengers: Endgame (2019) Oh, this one’s really hard no it isn’t, Thanos is still purple. Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) So, Mysterio’s costume is red and blue because he’s trying to look heroic. BUT his magic smoke stuff is green. This is the first movie I watched after figuring this out and I immediately did not trust Mysterio. (I’m a sheltered preacher’s kid and these movies are my only experience with Marvel.)

This mostly works with the MCU, but a few other series as well.

One my friend brought up was the Grinch. He’s green, obviously. But! He does start out as the villain and only becomes a good guy when his heart grows. What color is his heart? RED.

Only Harry Potter house with a reputation for being evil? SLYTHERIN. Only Hogwarts house who’s color ISN’T a primary color? SLYTHERIN.

So.... yeah, don’t trust characters who’s outfits are mostly secondary colors.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk: An Introduction to Color Theory in Modern Film

[elisaphoenix13]

Just Another Day

It was calm in the tower. Well, as calm as it could get when Peter was home. The teen was currently sitting on the ceiling, flicking cat treats down to the floor, and confusing the hell out of Tibbs. The cat ate them as fast as they appeared, but he would always look around trying to figure out where they were coming from. He came up short when he pawwed at both Tony and Stephen in the kitchen, Cassie (who was watching tv in the living room) was a dead end too. He just wasn't used to humans being on the ceiling so he never looked up.

While all of this was taking place, amusing Peter's parents to no end, Carol had entered the penthouse, and Tony had never moved so fast in his life when he saw what she brought. He practically jumped across the island to use Stephen as a body shield when he saw Goose tucked under one of her arms, and Carol laughed as she set the Flerken down.

"Danvers! What is that thing doing here?!" Tony says as he points around Stephen at Goose.

"He wanted to come with me." Carol says simply, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

It was not.

Peter, in his precious ignorance, flicked a cat treat at Goose and literally scurried away when he opens his mouth and tentacles come out to snatch up the treats. "OH MY GOD! WHAT IS THAT THING?!" The teen shouts as he unconsciously flips down to the floor to step in front of Cassie.

Goose scared the crap out of him (and interested him at the same time) but he wasn't about to leave the other teen vulnerable. He vaguely catches an unreadable look on Tony's face when he glances toward his father but thinks nothing of it as he turns his attention back to the alien cat. The alien cat that Tibbs seemed to suddenly be completely fascinated with. Peter shouldn't really be surprised. Tibbs was the chillest cat he had ever met, so him not being bothered by some very uncatlike behavior from Goose was pretty normal for him.

Carol just grins as Cassie looks around Peter to look at Goose with some interest if her own. "He's a Flerken."

"A rather tame one at that." Stephen says as he approaches Goose and crouches down to scratch behind the cat's ears.

"Carol, if that thing eats my wife or my kid, I'm holding you responsible!" Tony says.

"Relax Stark. Just treat him like you treat your cat." The woman says as she waves a flippant hand in his direction.

Peter laughs half-heartedly. "Probably not a good idea. Tibbs is kind of special in his own way." As if to prove his point, Tibbs walks right up to Goose and sniffs his mouth curiously.

"Anyway, I was told this is where to go when I want a place to hang out for a bit." Carol says. "Clint was very specific about the 'family floor'."

Tony puffs out an affronted, but defeated sigh. "Stephanie, remind me to put Barton at the top of the cleaning list."

"Noted." Stephen replies dryly as he stands and takes a seat on one of the couches.

To everyone's relief, Goose seemed content to keep Tibbs company, and Tony joined Stephen on his couch after giving the two cats a wide berth. Although he wouldn't admit it out loud, Goose was one thing Tony was afraid of, but his earlier actions probably gave that away. Peter was taking it all in stride after his initial shock and relaxed out of his defensive position to take the empty spot next to Cassie, and Carol walks over to sit on his other side.

She asked to be caught up on what had happened while she was gone, and also what she had missed,  and they all delivered. Tony told her most of the Avenger history such as Thanos's first invasion of Earth, SHIELD's fall, or anything related to the Avengers. Stephen caught her up on the more magical side of things, and the teens? Movies. Cassie recommended a few chick flicks and offered to have a movie night with Carol, who accepted whole-heartedly, but everyone groaned when Peter opened his mouth and starting making Star Wars references.

Of course it all went over Carol's head, so when she asked what he was talking about, Peter stopped nerding out and gave the woman a surprised look.

"What?"

"You keep talking about Star Wars. What is that?" Carol asks, not knowing about the nuke that was currently exploding in Peter's mind.

Cue the most offended gasp the teen had ever made. Even more offended when Bruce had asked all that time ago if Peter ever got tired of watching Disney movies and Star Wars. As if.

"You haven't seen Star Wars?!"

Tony sighs as he stands. "You've done it now Danvers. Don't expect to leave that couch anytime soon."

"Cassie, would you help me make dinner?" Stephen asks as he follows Tony's example.

"Sure." She replies and follows the couple into the kitchen, leaving behind Peter asking FRIDAY to start the first Star Wars movie. To her credit, Carol didn't look like she was regretting anything. That would probably change soon.

"To think you like him." Tony teases Cassie and she blushes bright red. "Okay, I had some doubts, but that right there?" He motions toward her face. "That just confirms my theory."

Stephen stops grabbing things out of the fridge and stares at Cassie. "Wait. You like--"

Cassie shushes them loudly and grabs the food from Stephen. "Shut up! He has enhanced hearing!"

Tony snorts. "Not when he's nerding out over Star Wars."

He reaches around Stephen and grabs the container of blueberries, ignoring the sorcerer's quip of 'You're going to turn into one of those one of these days', as he pops a handful into his mouth. The engineer was close to teasing her some more by asking Cassie when her crush started, but decided to leave it alone when Stephen distracted her with a few cooking tasks.

Her mom and step-father decided to travel after the events of the Snap, and Cassie moved into the tower permanently with Scott. She was usually only up in the penthouse with them whenever her father was at work or just because (meaning to ogle Peter, even if the boy was completely oblivious to it), or if everyone got together for some thing or another like movie night. This was definitely not a movie night though. If any of the Avengers stepped off the elevator from now on, they would immediately turn around and leave once they saw that Peter took over the living room with Star Wars movies. Again.

Of course there had been times when Cassie had been sick and didn't want to be alone when Scott had to go to work, so she would come up for Mama Bear cuddles. Stephen spoiled all of the kids and they all adored him because of his attentiveness as a parent figure and as a doctor. Clint once had to bring Lila up so Stephen could tell her that, yes, you do need to sleep when you're sick so you can get better faster, because she thought her father was trying to scam her into sleeping. Once Stephen had confirmed Clint's words, Lila went back to Barton's floor without a fuss and slept like she was supposed to.

Peter would always be the favorite though.

Tony pours himself a glass of water and looks toward Goose and Tibbs, and finds the cat's lying next to each other, purring contentedly. The engineer didn't even bat an eye at the scene. In fact, he expected Tibbs to befriend the alien cat. It was just a feline version of Peter and the Hulk, and that had been interesting. Of course, it gave both Tony and Stephen temporary heart attacks when Peter approached the Hulk after a battle, but then the teen just fist bumped the big guy and told him he did a good job. The Hulk gave Bruce control willingly after Peter did that, and after a couple more tests, they discovered that Hulk liked Peter because the boy treated him like a friend. He was even able to ask the big guy if they could have Bruce back so he could help Sam when he had gotten hurt, and again, the Hulk gave Banner control.

"Just when I think that this group can't get any weirder, someone has to go and prove me wrong." Tony says and looks over at the sorcerer as the man hands some vegetables over to Cassie to chop. 

Stephen smirks. "Someone has to."

"Why do you think I married you?"

Cassie raises an eyebrow. "I swear your reasons for marrying each other changes all the time."

"It doesn't change. It's just a growing list. You'll understand when you and Underoos tie the knot." Tony moves away with a laugh when the teen points her knife at him, and then throws another handful of blueberries into his mouth with a wink. "Then again that will never happen at this rate because our kid is incredibly stupid when it comes to picking up signals from girls."

Cassie sighs heavily as she throws her chopped vegetables into the boiling water on the stove. "I noticed."

"When is your father supposed to get back?" Stephen asks her.

"Late."

"You might as well stay for dinner." Tony says and looks toward the living room when Peter and Carol start arguing about something that happened in the movie.

Today was just full of surprises. Carol actually looked to be enjoying the movie with Peter and the billionaire half-expected them to binge watch the entire collection. That meant Cassie would either have to endure the torture or they could direct her to the guest room where there was another tv. Peter's room was available but that was a can if worms he didn't want to open if Scott saw her in there. Knowing Peter, if he actually went to sleep tonight, he would change in his bathroom and just get into bed and go to sleep if Cassie was in there watching movies. He was used to friends taking over his tv and one half of his bed. Cassie was a whole new situation for obvious reasons though. Scott didn't seem to know about her crush on Peter but it wouldn't matter, she was a teenager now. It also didn't matter that Peter would never take advantage of her whether he knew about her feelings or not, and Tony couldn't fault Scott for worrying. If he and Stephen had a daughter, he would worry too.

"Can I make something for dessert?" Cassie asks, interrupting the engineer's thoughts.

"Depends on what you're thinking." Tony replies, ignoring Stephen's eye roll.

"Cheesecake?"

Tony blinks and motions at the counter in front of him with exaggeration. "Explain why it isn't in front of me at this very moment."

Cassie laughs and both Tony and Stephen share a look when it briefly pulls Peter's attention from the movie.This mutual pining thing was starting to amuse Tony. Especially the fact that Peter wasn't even aware he was pining.

[thelightofthingshopedfor]

@kiwimeringue replied to your post “I know it’s generally rude and very unwise to reply to a fandom...”

ok I'm super curious now, feel free to message me if you want to talk about it all stealthy-like~

@veliseraptor replied to your post “I know it’s generally rude and very unwise to reply to a fandom...”

i'm so curious

apparently I did want to talk about it, because this got looooong (also please do not add more discourse to this post, it’s probably kind of shitty of me but I don’t super want to have a dialogue about it, I just want to barf out my thoughts and defend my own faves on my own post, so if you want to argue with me I would really rather you didn’t and just made your own post instead)

(I also only just realized that I only put “tony stark negative” and “tony stark critical” in the tags, not anywhere before the cut, so here’s your warning now if you didn’t see the tags that this is me being frustrated with a lot things about how Tony is written)

I can't find the actual post now to screenshot or link because I just came across it on my dash, got annoyed, scrolled past, and then made my post when I couldn't stop grumpily thinking about it (so at this point I also don't remember who the OP was or who reblogged it onto my dash, which is probably just as well), but the gist was that almost all MCU title characters have storylines establishing that they're wrong about something and they show growth by accepting that and working to improve...except Steve, who never acknowledges that he might ever be wrong about anything, with the implication that this makes him a bad, self-righteous character who is basically incapable of growth. several other characters--Tony, Thor, Dr. Strange, Peter Parker--were mentioned, but the state of fandom discourse makes me assume any Steve-negative post exists at least in part to show how much better Tony is, which...may not always be a fair assumption on my part, but I do think it's fair to say that's still a relevant context. and of course Steve is one of my favorite characters, so anything even mildly Steve-negative puts me at least somewhat on the defensive right away, which again is not necessarily fair. (the other post that’s already sitting in my notes is about Ragnarok, which is probably even less surprising.)

anyway the post made me grumpy to begin with and then doubly so because I couldn't think of a good way to refute it aside from "yeah well maybe Steve's just a better person than your faves and he doesn't need a whole character arc about realizing he's been an asshole and needs to change because he didn't start out as an asshole to begin with, bet you didn't think of that huh" which is of course VERY unhelpful. but then I started thinking about how I don't think OP is right about the changed characters to begin with, given that a) it's not really fair to compare a character who's only had one solo movie (Dr. Strange) with characters who've had more, b) Spider-Man is kind of an edge case because he's a teenager and a lot of the problems in his movies stem from a combination of him being a fucking teenager and Tony dumping him with tons of dangerous tech that he doesn't have the training or adult impulse control to use safely and then blaming him when disaster inevitably results, and c) the characters who have had multiple movies and arcs focused on realizing they were wrong about something (just Thor and Tony, really) are...maybe not actually great examples because like 75% of that character development seems to reset after each movie and, actually, the narrative still operates under the premise that these characters are basically right even if some other characters don't agree. like...I mean, the only lessons Thor really, consistently seems to learn are "humans are at least not totally worthless (but lbr they're mostly silly and cute)" and "Odin is extremely wise and probably right about almost everything despite mountains of evidence--that grow with every single film he's in--to the contrary". 

and Tony, well--yeah, that's his arc, in theory, and in theory I don't have a problem with flawed characters who keep making the same mistakes because let's face it, that's a very human thing to do. but with posts like this, it's like...you're effectively arguing that he doesn't really make mistakes overall, though, because it’s really just an opportunity for growth? and that when he does, the narrative shows he's wrong, he admits he's wrong, and he makes consistent efforts to change? which...again, obviously I have my own biases, but I have to see this as a weird interpretation because he's basically been the main character of the entire MCU thus far, which means he's likely to get sympathetic treatment and justification from the narrative even if he's ostensibly being called out for fucking up, and that's something I've definitely seen. his entire first movie is about him realizing how wrong he was and working to do better, definitely, but he ends up being his own worst enemy half the time and other people suffer for it. like...he wants to protect the world, okay, that's a reasonable goal. you can argue that the vision Wanda gave him made things worse, and that's possible, but I don't know how much that might be true given that I'm pretty sure he was working on Ultron before that too (and her mind-magic mostly seemed to work by emphasizing something that was already there, not planting new ideas). so he ends up creating a murderbot, with good intentions but he still does it and he keeps it secret from the other Avengers, and now-sentient murderbot immediately reaches the conclusion that humanity is awful and they won't need protecting if they're all gone, and everything breaks very bad, and then Tony...basically does the exact same thing again, without telling anybody else, in hopes that it'll work out better this time because JARVIS? and it does but that seems like mostly luck? and everybody manages to defeat the murderbot, barely, but a not-insignificant number of civilians die anyway because that tends to happen when a sentient murderbot goes on a rampage, and Tony feels really guilty about this when it's shoved in his face, so he deals with his guilt by kind of...spreading it around and allowing the possibility of other major problems down the line so they can hand over some of that responsibility and he can feel less guilty. (that’s not the most charitable interpretation, yeah, but I also don’t think it’s an unreasonable one, based on what’s there in the text.) and then of course things blow up and other problems get dragged in and it's a huge mess and half the Avengers are fugitives, and the general consensus sort of seems to be that nobody was completely right or completely wrong but Steve is the only one who actually apologizes for any of it (no wait, I guess Wanda and Vision apologized but just to each other) and Rhodey reinforces the idea that the Accords were a good idea with no major drawbacks...and then Thanos shows up and things get SO VERY MUCH worse.

and Tony is once again stricken with grief and guilt (not to mention half dead), so lashing out at Steve is understandable, but what he actually says is basically that this is all Steve's fault because he wasn't there (even though he immediately sent Tony that phone, which means Tony could have contacted him at any time but hesitated to do so even when monsters were basically falling from the sky), and he was right about the Accords and Ultron even if the latter didn't work out so well in ways that probably could have been predicted, and...that's what we're left with. nobody else has a meaningful opportunity to say "now hold on a second, you cannot possibly be arguing both for accountability and for your right to decide for the entire world that exchanging some freedom for some potential security is a good trade, and also how are you saying you were essentially right about Ultron when Ultron is what kicked off the desire for the Accords" or, like, anything. (does the world need a security blanket? going by the evidence...yeah, probably? but again. Tony. you tried that and you made a sentient murderbot instead so like, your track record is not great!!)

and then it all culminates with Tony sacrificing himself to save the universe, which I do at least think was a climactic, thematically resonant send-off for such a major character--for the final time, in the most final possible of ways, he reaches a point where there's no more clever tricks and he reacts by selflessly taking the entirety of the consequences onto himself. I can't say I'm happy with it, because I'm not a fan of character death in general even when it doesn't involve my top faves, and it absolutely would have been possible for the filmmakers to keep him alive if they hadn't gone into this with the specific intention of ending Tony's arc with his death. (ditto on all the other major character deaths, which is a big part about why they make me mad--none of them really, honestly had to happen, some even less than others.) but regardless of my feelings on whether it had to happen, it's inarguable that his entire arc from Iron Man to Endgame is that of a brilliant but selfish manchild who changes and grows until he doesn't hesitate to make the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of the entire universe.

BUT THEN THERE'S SPIDER-MAN AGAIN.

spoilers if you haven't seen Spider-Man: Far From Home but like, the entire conflict of that movie was based on two major things: a bunch of disgruntled Stark Industries employees, at least some of whom had to have legitimate, recent grievances (and frankly that whole mess demonstrates--among other things--that Stark Industries must have unforgivably lax security around its arsenal of world-ending weapons); and Tony's decision at some point to essentially REMAKE ULTRON AND THEN DUMP THAT RESPONSIBILITY ON A FUCKING TEENAGER WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING IN THE WAY OF WARNINGS, TRAINING, OVERSIGHT, OR EVEN BASIC FAILSAFES, like holy shit my computer spends more time making sure I definitely want to delete that file than EDITH does about confirming that yes this random teenager is a legitimate target for IMMEDIATE DEATH. all the other adults involved in this clusterfuck bear a good share of the responsibility for this too, given that not one of them ever seemed to think either "hey, maybe saddling a smart and very good but basically normal sixteen-year-old boy with the power and responsibility (but not the resources or experience) of a grown-ass adult with unlimited resources is not the smartest move here, and yelling at him when he inevitably fucks up this power and responsibility we dumped on him with no training whatsoever is not actually fair or reasonable" or even "maybe before giving a piece of massively powerful and dangerous tech to a sixteen-year-old boy, we should spend at least 15 minutes going over the device's major functions and how to not accidentally kill someone, even if we figure things like ethics and privacy rights and knowing when not to use this tech aren't that important".

but, but, Tony still made the decision to give it to him, and he did so without building in any precautions at all, which is the exact same thing he did in CW/Homecoming with Peter's new suit (yes, the Training Wheels protocol was a good step, but the fact that it could just be turned off that easily--and that Tony isn't shown even trying to tell Peter to use the training programs or safely practice with the suit--shows that it really, really wasn't good enough) except even worse because EDITH is about 100 times more invasive and destructive than the suit. and he pretty much scolded Peter in Homecoming for getting ahead of himself, but then the second Peter did well in a bad situation Tony was right back to making this teenager an official Avenger and giving him all this power and responsibility he'd just decided Peter hadn't really earned, and Peter turned him down because at that point he had a better idea of his own limits and need for growth than Tony did, and then!! in what must have been one of his last acts alive!! Tony dumped an even bigger, more dangerous power/responsibility combo on him!!! way way bigger than the one he'd already turned down and maturely decided he wasn't yet experienced enough to handle!!! without even giving him a chance to say no!!!! and did not take any of that (or the mess with Ultron and the lessons he theoretically learned there, or the mess with the Accords and the lessons he theoretically learned there, or for that matter the lessons he theoretically learned in his three solo movies about treating his employees well and making sure he knows exactly what his company is doing at all times) into account when designing it, handing it off to other adults who also should have been more responsible about it, and leaving it to a teenager against that teenager's stated wishes, thereby ensuring that this teenager will follow Tony's footsteps in being unable to have a normal life!!!!!

...................but, okay, the point of the original post was that Steve is generally deemed to be Always Right and therefore he never has to change, and that makes him unrelatable at best and also not a great character. which...well, that's part of the point, that's why he was picked for Project Rebirth in the first place because he's a good dude dedicated to doing what's right; even before the serum, he was literally willing to die to protect a few people he barely knew (the grenade scene, remember). he was already starting from a point of selflessness and an understanding of responsibility that the others lacked, so it would be tough to give him a similar character arc without undermining or ignoring the whole point of the character. sure, though, even a character like Steve is imperfect and human and bound to be wrong sometimes, and when that happens he should acknowledge he was wrong and take steps to make amends, and if he's never shown doing any of that, it's true that it's not great even if part of the issue is that he's never really put in a position to do so. 

except, except DID YOU ALL COMPLETELY FORGET THE ENDING OF CIVIL WAR

like, sure, if what you wanted was to hear Steve say "I was wrong about everything and Tony was right about everything, and I will humbly submit to whatever you think is best regardless of my own convictions, my very good reasons for having those convictions, and my personal concerns for my friends, or at the very least I will humbly ask for forgiveness and accept whatever you throw at me, because Tony Was Right About Everything," then...yeah, I'm sure it was a disappointment, especially if you figure Tony was right about the Accords and at least the intentions behind Ultron. it's true Steve doesn't really address any of that, which indicates he definitely still believes he’s right about those parts. but...look, the last time he saw Tony, he was fighting to save his lifelong friend from being murdered from a crime he didn't necessarily remember and really wasn't responsible for. once again I don't blame Tony for reacting emotionally and lashing out at the nearest targets instead of the people who were really at fault, but that doesn't change the facts of the situation, which are, Steve was fighting to save Bucky's life. and when he did that by incapacitating Tony, he didn't go any further; he took Bucky and left. and then he almost immediately sent Tony a letter of apology and a means of contacting him in return if an emergency comes up--and again, yes, his apology wasn't "I'm sorry for everything because I was wrong about everything," but it was a genuine, compassionate apology for the ways he'd hurt Tony even if his intentions were basically good. (this of course assumes that he really did know for a fact that Bucky killed the Starks and consciously chose to hide the knowledge from Tony, and frankly I'm not convinced that's true, but it's not really the issue here.) honestly, I thought his letter was kind of funny because it so closely followed the format of the apology-note meme--you know, "I was trying to do X, but I see now that I hurt you because Y" and everything. he didn't apologize for opposing the Accords or protecting Bucky or fighting in Germany so he could get to Siberia in time to stop what he had every reason to believe was a much bigger threat, because all those actions stemmed directly from his convictions and sense of morality and he wouldn't be Steve Rogers or Captain America if he was willing to compromise his most foundational convictions--but he absolutely did apologize for hurting Tony and recognized that he'd made at least one big mistake where Tony was concerned. 

Tony...didn't. even before doubling down on the Accords and Ultron, I don't think he ever really said, hey, at least some of this was my bad; most of what he said boiled down to "okay this situation isn't ideal but I'm sure if I throw more money at it things will work out fine, more or less". in the Raft and in Siberia he got close to saying that maybe he'd been wrong about a few things, but that all went out the window pretty quick, and I don't think there's ever a point where he--just for instance--at least apologizes for trying very very hard to kill Bucky. and by Endgame, apparently he’s pretty much walked back what little he did kinda sorta think he was maybe wrong about. so.

that's...basically what I've got, OP’s interpretation is wrong because their facts are actually wrong and I was apparently annoyed enough to barf out all these words when I could’ve been doing anything else, the end

[anonthenullifier]

Some Possibilities of Bringing Vision Back

So...I’m at a loss for what to write post-Endgame. My mind is overwhelmed with theories and each one leads down a potentially negative (i.e. White Vision-y) path because there are serious repercussions no matter the solution to bringing Vision back. Raising the dead is never consequence free. So I figured I would channel that towards a post that, once WandaVision comes out, I will look back on and laugh at myself for being so damn wrong at every step. 

Buckle on in, this is going to be a long ride through the (not at all exhaustive) ways Marvel might bring Vision back and the issues each one could create.

Option 1: Shuri, with the help of Bruce and Helen, reconstructs Vision’s brain, neural networks, and skull, and bring him back. 

Pros: This has been alluded to in Infinity War. It was the entire basis of removing the Mind Stone from Vision. It is our Vision, just reconstructed.

Cons: We actually have no proof that removing the Mind Stone still leaves the best of Vision. Bruce very well could have been desperate and absolutely full of shit. Though its powers are not fully explained, based on past movies, the Mind Stone seems to do several things (shout out to @my-name-stitch for watching A1 recently and providing a thorough rundown of what the Mind Stone did). 

It can control people’s minds -- Loki uses it for this, Wanda can mentally manipulate people, it is the mind stone. 

It seems to have the propensity to greatly increase the mental ability and knowledge of individuals under its influence. This is seen in the first Avengers movie with both Clint and Dr. Selvig. 

It can subtly manipulate and control people on its own -- in Avengers it increased the negative emotions of the team as they argued, and it impacted Loki’s decision making as well.

It also has a certain level of sentience itself, as seen in Age of Ultron. Not only does it possess a neural-like network that appears to be thinking, but it also granted sentience to Ultron and, arguably, to Vision. 

It can be used to physically manipulate things and to manifest power that can be used to harm things -- think VIsion’s beam and phasing abilities. Plus Loki uses it to power his scepter. 

All of that taken together means that they, first of all, likely need to find another way to kickstart Vision into sentience. Perhaps Shuri can craft a solar gem (a popular device I’ve seen in fics and theories, and what Vision has in the comics). Even if this does work, it assumes that Vision’s consciousness is derived from more than the Mind stone. It is entirely possible that without the Mind Stone he simply becomes a fleshy conduit for J.A.R.V.I.S.. Even if J.A.R.V.I.S. is a very nice AI, he is still an AI, not a sentient being. We could end up with a rather empty Vision who just is really good at surfing the internet and files to provide answers. That doesn’t really allow for much emotional connection or independent thought. 

But let’s be hopeful and say that doesn’t happen, it could still leave Vision with some deficits compared to what he had before. One, unless Shuri can recreate the extremely powerful, otherworldly organicity of the Mind Stone, Vision likely won’t have the sheer level of intelligence and increased mental abilities. Which is fine, he can learn, but I imagine it would be difficult to go from obscenely intelligent to not having that sort of mental acumen. Two, as far as we know, vibranium does not have properties that inherently allow someone to fly or shift their density or manipulate their molecules. Vision would still be mostly indestructible, but he is going to have to learn a new power set and actually shop for some clothes. It is possible Shuri can figure out a way to do some of that, probably at least fly and some level of molecular manipulation like the Black Panther suit that stores impact energy. These aren’t awful things, but it is going to impact Vision because he is going to have to learn to cope with his very different way of existing and the potential feelings of being a sort of new person. This potential loss of identity could lead to brooding, doubts about himself, listlessness, and might strain his relationships.

Another thing to keep in mind with this approach (and really most of these) is that we don’t know how repairing his brain will work. Will he have some level of traumatic brain injury? He essentially had a full lobotomy. If they don’t reconnect the neurons correctly, or if it is different in some way, if anything was irrevocably destroyed, you have to deal with what comes of harming the frontal lobe. Some options include: 

Hindering working memory, which impacts attention and the ability to retrieve information from your secondary memory. 

Increases in impulsivity and decreases in thoughtful decision making 

Potential declines in emotional control and increases in aggression

Loss of intelligence and reasoning abilities

Loss of social skills and responding to social stimuli

Loss of empathetic reasoning 

All of that sounds suspiciously like White Vision.

It’s also possible that, due to his synthetic nature, none of this manifests, but it would be surprising for there to be no effects whatsoever from getting your frontal lobe violently torn out. 

Option 2: Now that we have the multiverse, let’s grab an alternate timeline Vision.

Pros: We get a fully functioning, uninjured Vision. 

Cons: This one is a bit of an ethical mess. First of all, what about the alternate timeline Wanda? Are we really just going to leave her high and dry? I doubt our Wanda would be willing to do that. Unlike Steve who was able to go into an alternate timeline where he knew the other Steve didn’t exist for Peggy (because he was frozen), they would have to search high and low for some timeline where Wanda wasn’t there, and if she wasn’t there, then Vision doesn’t love her. Second, this Vision might not be the same as our Vision. In the multiverse there are infinite possibilities, he could be a very different person, or even a subtly different person. It would be a gamble whether he and our timeline’s Wanda would even mesh. Third, not only does this impact the Wanda of that timeline, but I imagine taking an entire person from a timeline is going to splinter it into a darker reality, especially because you are taking an infinity stone with it, something the Ancient One warned Bruce not to do. This seems like the least likely and the most ethically dubious. 

Option 3: Now that we have the multiverse, let’s grab a new Mind Stone

I posted this theory before, but here’s a shortened run down. They could use the multiverse to go to a timeline right before Thanos destroys the stones for good. Instead of destroying all the stones, Wanda (with help) manages to get the Mind Stone and bring it back for our timeline’s Vision.

Pros: We get a Mind Stone. Since the Mind Stone of that alternate timeline was about to be destroyed, we don’t have to worry about splintering that reality because we aren’t taking something that was going to keep influencing it. It was going to be destroyed. So long as the other stones are destroyed, it also shouldn’t impact that reality when the unsnapped Avengers go to confront Thanos and realize the stones are gone. We maintain the consciousness aspect of the Mind Stone which was at issue with the first option of a new gem. 

Cons: This is very dangerous. This is sending Wanda and whoever goes with her against a Thanos who has all the stones. Even though we know Wanda can take him, it is still a big risk. The biggest con, however, is that we are assuming this Mind Stone 1. works the same as our timeline’s Mind Stone and 2. That it really only gives Vision his consciousness and powers. It is entirely possible that it could impact Vision’s behaviors or his emotions or even his memory. We now have our Vision who has both his own memories and emotions while also potentially having the reverberations of this other Vision. He’s going to feel like two people living in the same body with Wanda flickering in and out of being who she is in our timeline and who she was in this other Vision’s timeline. It could be disorienting and cause a rift in their relationship. I think they could overcome it, learn to love each other, but it would take time and a lot of couple’s therapy. 

Option 4: Wanda discovers her reality warping powers and crafts a reality where Vision exists. 

Pros: We get Vision back (sort of)!

Cons: This really can only end in tragedy. Eventually the reality will crumble, someone will make her aware that Vision isn’t actually there, and we might get a House of M style breakdown. Arguably this would be the most in line with Wanda’s comic storyline, but it would come at the detriment of likely never getting Vision back again and Wanda becoming a villain/not trusted by everyone else. 

Option 5: Shuri reconstructs Vision and Wanda discovers her ability to do interdimensional magic and gets Vision’s consciousness from another dimension

Pros: We get to see Wanda learn magic, preferably from Agatha Harkness. This is similar to getting the Mind Stone from an alternate timeline, but maybe it is  possible that Wanda could actually reach back into our timeline and somehow get Vision’s consciousness from his actual Mind Stone. Then we get Vision, we get his consciousness, the only thing he might not have are the powers from the Mind Stone itself (and that whole lobotomy thing). 

Cons: This is a high risk-high reward path. Entering into interdimensional magic also introduces the possibility of getting Chthon or some darker force that comes in to inhabit Vision - in line with the leaks from however many months ago. It doesn’t fix any of the anatomical issues Vision experiences with Option 1 and Shuri bringing him back, but it does solve the issue of getting whatever consciousness of his resides in the Mind Stone back to our Vision. It, again, could also unleash elder gods and dark spirits, but then at least they have a villain to fight together!

Option 6: It’s all in Vision or Wanda’s head (not necessarily a warped reality). 

Pros: We get to see them happy, in love, and living out a life they wanted. 

Cons: It’s not real. This I do think has the possibility of being a deeply emotional and nuanced look at grief and accepting the death of a loved one (or yourself...I guess, if it’s Vision). If they went this route I would be surprised if Vision actually came back. So it could be an ephemeral, slightly trippy (because the illusion has to fade) love letter to their relationship that leaves us with a sense of longing for what could be but also, potentially, a sense of peace because Wanda won’t go down the mentally unstable House of M route. 

There are other theories and deviations from these, especially, I assume, if we draw on more from the comics. But that’s where I’m at for now. 

[dicecast]

The Problem with Thanos Part 1

(Note I wrote this after Infinity Wars but before Endgame) 

So I have some very complicated feelings about Thanos, and this isn’t helped by the fact that he is the first majorly popular villain from the most popular media franchise in history, so the pressure is on in regards to him.  So I feel compelled to have a few disclaimers off the bat.  

Firstly, yes, Thanos deserves his title as the best Marvel villain, though that isn’t saying much (I’m not really counting Loki cause by this point he is as much an anti-hero rather than a full antagonist) and his presence basically made Infinity Wars the one of better overall marvel movie thus far.  He is a good character, a good actor, and a good villain.  So calm down fans, I’m not saying Thanos himself is bad

Secondly, I don’t think anybody is bad for liking the character, Infinity Wars is a fine movie, you aren’t bad, don’t get defensive of your big purple mass murderer ok children?

Third, and most importantly, the actual dynamics of the character….aren’t bad.  At least they aren’t bad necessarily.  Everything about Thanos works, if you give Marvel a lot more credit than they deserve.  But 

Ok so for those who have managed to avoid the marvel franchise, let me just say, good life choice, keep it up, but here is the beat.

Thanos is an alien Titan Demigod thing who realizes that as life expands across the universe, we are using up the natural resources.   So, like the world’s most ambitious Druid, he proposes to solve the problem of overpopulation in the most literal way possible.  To wit he wants to get all the Infinity Stones, basically these all powerful magical items, and wipe out 50% of the universe’s population with a snap of his fingers.  The heroes attempt to defeat him and…they fail.  He snaps his fingers, 50% of everyone in the universe dies, movie over, sucks to be you. Literally 50% of everybody just turns to dust, including fucking baby Face Spider Man.  

(wait....)

Which was a pretty shocking ending, well played Disney.   I really do think the final death sequence was the most impressive overall sequence in any of the marvel movies.   Unlike most Marvel villain, he has a clear motive, distinct personality, and is actually you know…a challenge for the protagonists, and as I said, he is a good character. Cause he had like feelings and shit.  But I see a lot of people talking about Thanos like he is the real hero or he has some reasonable points or he is an anti-hero and…no he really isn’t. He isn’t just evil cause he wants to kill trillions of people, he is also objectively wrong about pretty much everything.  

     Now this isn’t actually a bad thing.  THanos is the villain, I’m ok with the villain being flawed, I mean that is kind of the point.  In fact what makes Thanos a good character (maybe, kinda, sort of, its complicated) is the fact that he is the exact type of person who would fall for this reductive thinking, because his greatest personal flaw is his inflexibility, so again his following a wrong value system makes sense 

 What makes Thanos interesting is that he is an extremely proud person who doesn’t have the normal conventions of pride, in that he really isn’t making it all about him.  Thanos genuinely isn’t a glory hound, he doesn’t want attention, he isn’t seeking recognition, he doesn’t want glory or fame and seems to be pretty happy living as melon farmer. Its more the arrogance of thinking he knows the answer everybody else doesn’t rather than wanting something actively from others.  Which is at least the foundations for an interesting character. Thanos’ perception of self is one of the guy who makes the necessary sacrifices so others won’t have too, he is the guy who stoically dirties his own hands on behalf of the collective good.  Basically is the moral equivalent of the humblebrag, he doesn’t ask for praise or glorify himself directly, but it is a core part of who he is, like the most passive aggressive utilitarian. 

 And because he firmly believes he knows exactly how things should be done and what steps ought to be taken, he is utterly without imagination. He basically is like ‘oh this is how the thing needs to be done’ and does it, it never occurs to him to challenge his preexisting perceptions or think outside the box.  Which is why, when he has a know, Infinity Stones he sticks to the 50% mass death plan rather than…I don’t know…use the infinity stones.

Sorry, maybe I didn’t empathizes that enough

Thanos wants to solve a problem of limited resources with…infinity stones. Seriously do you not see a problem of imagination here?  

And again, all of that would be fine, if this was on purpose, again Thanos is the Villain and villains being wrong  The problem is how the movie frames it, specifically as a moral issue.

Cause they seem to think this is an ethical debate, throughout the movie, the protagonists present the argument as one of morality.

“Oh no, Thanos, don’t kill 50% of the universe that would be wrong”, which of course Thanos doesn’t respond to.  The dynamic being presented here is ‘idealistic good guys’ vs. ‘practical bad guy’ but that is just the absolute wrong argument to make.

          But the argument that should be made is “Oh no Thanos don’t kill 50% of the universe, that is a horribly ineffectively and ultimately flawed way to solve the problem of overpopulation and limited resources”.  Cause like…this isn’t a moral debate, it’s a basic practical debate. Why bother arguing about the merits of utilitarian morality when the act in question isn’t even utilitarian, it’s just dumb.  The movie presents this as “efficiency vs. morality” but in practice is actually “flawed methodology vs. a ,theory which isn’t fundamentally stupid.”  Cause guess what people, murdering 50% of all life in an instance doesn’t actually fix limited resources, especially when many of those living things are resources.  

      This is a horrible way to solve the problem of overpopulation.  Even ignoring the whole “Infinity” thing, killing 50% of the population simply doesn’t work because

1) Its utterly clumsy. See actual conservationists have to be extremely careful about population control, because reducing biodiversity risks weakening the overall eco system.  The universe losing half its population would cause a massive shock to every ecosystem simultaneously, causing further damage which actually would make things worse.  

2) While overpopulation is a problem, it isn’t really the major problem in terms of the environment, over consumption is a much larger issue. If you killed 50% of America, most of that would be India and China, but the US consumes far more resources than your population numbers would suggest.   And the largest environmental issue on our planet, namely the whole “We are all going to die of Climate change bit” is actually not a population issue or even a resource issue so much as a “the world is literally getting hotter” issue,  reduce the population all you want that doesn’t really reduce our Carbon foot print as long as we still use fossil fuels.   If the earth had only 3 billion people, but all of those people lived in first world countries, we would still be facing the problem of climate change.  

3) You will have to do it again in a few centuries anyways, remember its more than 50%, cause you have the inevitable deaths caused when planes don’t have pilots, doctors cease to exist, infants who die due to abandonment, and the panic as society changes in the blink of an eye, which risks war and worse, which doesn’t just reduce the population it also cause more environmental damage.  Which impedes you know…actual conservationist efforts.  Its not like anybody learns their lesion from this, unless Thanos plans to make himself immortal, he is going to have to do this on a regular basis.  Its like trying to solve the Baltimore crime issues by nuking the Eastern Seaboard, it doesn’t work.  And what is depressing is that I know some people in the comments will totally try advocating that.

See its not actually “Idealistic vs practical” its “Practical vs. impartial” or rather ‘simple vs. complicated”.  Thanos is faced with a complicated nuanced multi-dimensional problem and his solution to it is the most literal minded simplistic one imaginable, snapping his fingers and hoping that somehow works.  And you hear certain people (douchbags) advocate this sort of thing all the time, presenting ‘simple solutions that people would do if they only had the guts” like

“IF you want to solve homelessness, just kill them all”

“If you want to solve terrorism, just nuke the middle east”

“IF you want to solve immigration, just build a wall”

See these solutions aren’t just ethically wrong they…don’t work. And it imagines a narrative that our leaders aren’t doing these things because they are pussies rather than because the problems actually aren’t easily solve.  Trust me if there was a simple and unethical way to solve any of the world problems, our leaders would have done so by now.  

(Look politics)

Which again, isn’t necessarily bad, again, Thanos is the bad guy and he is the exact type of person who is going to think the problem with the world is that nobody is strong willed enough to solve the simple problem rather than you know..research the issue. But that isn’t actually the problem.  The Problem is a 19th century pseudo scientist named Thomas Malthus

Thomas Malthus was an English Victor (imagine a Catholic priest bit without the dignity) who noticed that when it came to rabbits, once their natural predators went extinct, they population exploded, they overconsumed the resources around them and then they were left without any population.  Malthus theorized that as war, famine and pestilence decreased, the human population grew and resources would grow scarce and then we would all die.  Thus we need to have some degree of hardship to keep the population in check.  Because humans can double their population every 20 years, we are all screwed, which is what he calls the “Cycle of Misery”.  And this theory is…entirely wrong.

(Absolutely full of shit) 

To quote John Greene 

“And what is amazing about the persistence of this theory is its complete lack of connection to actual human history”.  Thomas Malthus hasn’t just been debunked, he was debunked in his own life time.  Cause in reality, population does grow as industrialization reduces infant mortality and disease, but then it goes down once the standard of living raises to a certain rate.  As people get a better standard of living, they get a greater choice in having kids, how many kids they want and how frequently they wish to have them, to say nothing about increased access to contraceptives and sex education.  Which is why Western Europe has a lower birthrate than India.  The over population problem of the modern world not because life in undevolped countries isn’t hard enough, its because it is too hard, people in bad circumstances have more kids, better educated people living comfortable lives have less kids, which is why assuming we don’t all die from climate change, the population will eventually start to decrease over time.  See Thomas Malthus’s theories played a major role in the English response to the Irish Potato Famine, and the man most responsible for the suffering Charles Trevelyan, justified much of his policies by saying he was preventing a future cycle of misery.  That the Famine was not the fault of poor English economic planning or the long standing poverty of Ireland, or you know…everything else about the English occupation, but was instead the Irish’ fault for having more kids, and the Famine was a good thing for keeping the population down to reasonable levels.  To quote Trevelyan

“The judgement of god sent the calamity to teach the Irish a lesson and that Calamity must not be too much mitigated…the real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse, and turbulent character of the people”

1.5 million Irish people died as a result of this policy and another million emigrated to America, and Ireland is still pretty pissed off about it to this day.  See Malthius thought the world population boom was a very recent thing, when in fact that has been a constant in human history, and with the exception of the Black Death, no amount of hardship has every reduce human population growth. 

Thanos is drawing on Malthusian theories and it just…isn’t a good theory, it wasn’t then and it wasn’t now (and yes I know it did jump start a lot of other much more valid theories, here is your token acknowledgment of the good Malthus did here, I hope it was worth 1.5 million people).  It’s a theory which sounds good but doesn’t really work in reality, because you know…the world is complicated, and a tiny amount of land can grow more than enough food to feed everybody on the planet. We have right now, the capacity to make the entire planet run on renewable energy and end starvation, it’s actually utilizing what we have which is the problem, one that doesn’t have a simple solution.  

And I have to reiterate this again, none of this is necessarily a bad thing, Thanos is after all the  villain, having a villain who is inspired by Malthusian ideology makes sense, after all its something the heroes of the movies can oppose and overcome, you know like in a story.  And not only is Thanos a realistic depiction of the exact type of person who would take Malthusian theory seriously, he also is a nuanced complicated and interesting character in his own right.  All of this would be perfectly fine except…lets be honest, Disney isn’t actually going to refute Malthusian economics.  Maybe the next movie will surprise me, but what is most likely going to happen is that the heroes will use the power of love, friendship or just general idealism to basically argue that “The ends don’t’ justify the means” and defeat Thanos by punching him really hard in his big purple face.  And while yes, the ends don’t necessarily justify the means, that isn’t the argument worth having here, because guess what?  You don’t need to, weather or not the ends justify the means is ultimately irrelevant because…the ends don’t even work in the first place.  

I see a lot of people walking away from Infinity Wars acting like this is a complicated issue when it really isn’t, and that gets to why Malthusian economics conintune to be believed when they really aren’t true.  To again quote John Greene “I think there is a very seductive logic to the idea that resources, especially food is finite.”  And this movie contributes to a very false understanding to population and resources, and it’s the worse form of a false understanding, not that presents itself as wise (See also the Population Bomb).  Again, despite having far more people on earth today than we did 500 years ago, fewer people will die of starvation this year than any other period in human life, and that isn’t by %, that is the total number. Human existence is not a zero sum game, it is possible for me to have my life improved and yours as well, this all or nothing mentality Thanos advocates presents itself as selfishness but instead it is simply diluted.

This is not even getting into the other nonsense regarding population numbers which we will cover next time, or Why Thanos not being a racist makes his character weaker.