#we are shown that wanda CAN be good (in so many timelines she is shown happy and fine with her familly) while stephen keeps finding out

[fountainpenguin]

Riddle watches New Wish - Post #14

Lost and Founder's Day

I do really like how the theme song flows, especially at the end where Cosmo and Wanda jump from their human disguises into fairy form.

Ooh, Founder's Day came back from "A New Dev-elopment." Continuity! I like how the title card shows us the hat that Dev and Hazel saw during their treasure hunt.

I'm gonna throw my money down on the Dimmadomes founding Dimmadelphia (or an ancestor).

skdfj, Hazel's so cute when she steals her teacher's hat.

-> Yes, it was the Dimmadomes.

I like how Dev's shades are still gone, but he's still got that smug tone of voice. But today, he has a good reason to be a bit smug for a festival his family is hosting (that his dad had to work over the weekend to pull together). This is gonna be interesting.

I don't trust any of this tech to be good (in the moral sense). Dale literally tried to promote pollution a few episodes ago.

LKSDJFSD, Dev giving out watches that do a bunch of cool technical things and this is the face he makes when he's asked if the watches tell time:

(They do not).

This is the first time Hazel's shown interest in anything related to Dimmadomes' tech (She has a phone case covering any logo and didn't know how to do the dance they apparently made) and now she's gushing over the gift Dev gave her so I'm... hm. Where ya going with this, Hazel?

Okay, so... what the HECK is going on with Dimmadelphia? I'm sure we'll get to learn the real founder soon, but all I can assume right now is that it was Doug himself, hence the hat logo. If that's true, he was BUSY during the 50 years of frozen time.

-> That WOULD justify my Buxaplenty overlap seeing as the train lines would've been crucial for this.

It's gotta be a different ancestor. There's no way Doug would be in Dimmsdale if he'd founded another city. This city's huge. I'll be watching for any indications of "established X year."

Aww, Hazel adores Dev now and is blatantly gushing over him. That's really cute. Local #1 Dev fan:

[cnt'd under the cut - #long post]

I can't believe we didn't get a "Hazel has a bone in her hair" gag when she got shocked by the tech.

omfg, Dev is so desperate to interact with his dad that he's begging to "organize merchandise by tossing boxes back and forth to each other." He's smart. Goober.

Diagnosed child who would play Catch with active TNT minecarts in Limited Life SMP. He would just do it...

Dale, you shouldn't tell your son to "Eat a lizard." That's mean.

Oh noooo, are we about to get "My dreams were crushed many years ago... How old are you?" version 2.0?

-> Note to self, Dev's birthday is 9 years, 7 months, and 14 days before Founder's Day (give or take since he says "pretty much exactly my birthday to the day, which I think implies he's doing math and decides it's the day).

Dev is 9? Lol. Didn't we already have end of the year tests in like, Episode 2? And our implied end of school year dance? Baby.

-> I double-checked and Sadie Hawkins is in November. There were Sneezy Hawkins Dance posters in Episode 1 when Hazel walked in. Those posters hung in school for multiple episodes (I'll keep my eyes out for them in future episodes), which would imply she started school in September or October (Probably not August since she was specially introduced to the class as a new student).

-> If we keep seeing the posters throughout the whole year, I'm willing to wave them off, but while planning the timeline, it's worth noting they exist, we know we're post-2019, but probably not too many years later since that was the most recent date on the gym's championship banner for a school that clearly wins sports games often ("Fearless"), and we've seen multiple waning crescent moons.

-> No snow, but not unreasonable since Dimmsdale was in California.

... I gotta say, I'm really enjoying these recent episodes, but D: Where was this early in the series when I was confused in Post #10 as to where all the underlying trauma vibes were?

We've absolutely shifted vibes from where we were when I wrote that post. Which is fantastic, but I'm surprised we didn't get this earlier. THIS is FOP vibes. THIS is what I wanted and why I was super confused by this show's tone earlier. Yeah, of course I like Dev now... He's shifting the tone back to the OG show's vibes.

I'm wary, but I've approached to eat out of the hand.

Oh no, we scene shifted before Dale could reveal the statue under the cloth. Either he's broken and we're going to see the aftereffects (following Hazel's POV where she's confused as to why he's gone off the rails and turned snappy) or he's gonna find out during the event and he'll break down in front of the crowd. Uh-oh...

...... Okay, now they're just taunting me with the moon. It can't always be a waning crescent!!

The stage looks like Doug Dimmadome.

Please tell me Dale didn't forget to add Dev's info to the ID-scanning robot.

Every time Angela is onscreen she has a new therapy book and I support her.

Wanda: Parenting never gets easier.

-> Please tell me Hazel's parents are about to ask about that and they're going to have to either backpedal or they're going to imply they've raised like 100 kids.

sdlkfj, they only cite Poof. BRUTAL.

-> Cosmo one again giving me "First fairy baby born in 1000 years." Yeah yeah, Westley Periwinkle held the title first, we all know him (/fanfic joke).

Seriously though, it's very funny to me that Poof is never, ever referred to as "first baby born after Cosmo" or "first baby born in tens of thousands of years, or hundreds of thousands." Only first in hundreds OR first in thousands. I can't believe that DANG KID is still haunting me in the new show.

-> Cosmo still confirmed to have been the pregnant parent. I'm glad that wasn't retconned (despite Cosmo's best efforts to scramble and cover up what he said by claiming Wanda was the pregnant one).

Cracking up. Cosmo, I think the neighbors think you're trans but not out about it.

Angela: Where's your son now? :) Wanda: Eh, we don't know. I mean, we forget because we were on vacation for 10k years.

Wanda, WHAT did I say in Post 11 about how you cannot leave that clingy child alone immediately after tearing him away from Timmy?? If Poof shows up and he has abandonment issues and/or clingy vibes, I'm gonna shake you both so hard.

-> Why is Marcus not calling them out for being paranormal creatures? ... That's kind of funny since Crocker would've lost his mind.

I like how Cosmo and Wanda turned their wands into lollipops for the carnival. That's cute.

Uh-oh, the statue's not been revealed yet. I hope Dev isn't onstage when this happens. (I want him to be onstage and suffer).

-> I should note that "Stanky Danky" and "Lost and Founder" are the episodes Dale lists the companies he's in charge of, and I'm pretty sure they're different. I want to make a coherent list throughout the series.

Marcus is reading his wife's book at the party, aww. They're so cute.

OH MY GOSH, their ancestor IS surnamed Dimm! I am once again thinking this implies Dale Dimm from "Which Witch Is Which?" - who founded Dimmsdale - is probably also in this family tree.

Wanda's glowing wand is adorable. They're both cute.

So, Hazel has been here long enough she agrees she hasn't "just" moved here anymore, so I'll allow the waning crescents.

Doug Dimmadome struck gold in 1953? I'll be making a note of that. I know that's after both Dimmsdale and Dimmsdale Flats were founded. This doesn't do much for me right now, but it's good to note.

-> This implies he was a teen or adult in 1953, so he's definitely not close to the age of Timmy's parents, who were 10 in the '70s. This checks out; he's got the white hair.

-> Let's say this is 2020 for the purpose of "We know we're after 2019." (2020 - 1953) is 67, and the youngest I'd be okay letting him strike gold is 10, since 10-year-olds do a lot in this show. So, he's at minimum 77 years old during this show, and could very easily be 87 or more years older (87 if he struck gold at 20), if I'm doing my math right.

And again, that's off the assumption it's 2020, which is a little earlier than I'd been brainstorming. I'm okay with this since he had white hair in the OG series, but I'm gonna have to plot out a timeline for Dale's age at some point.

Dale: /evil monologues about his plan to monitor kids' heartrates to figure out exactly what a child want. Me: Dale, have you tried... talking to a kid? Maybe YOUR kid? Standing behind you? Dev, clearly uneasy: Dad, that's so great! You get to help kids right away!! Dale: ... Help kids?

^ Me

Wait, so the drones can waste products and not get yelled at? Dale, maybe you should focus your attention in that area of your business- I think you're losing product.

Why do the drones sound so sad? They're talking like all their friends just ditched them. They're so cute.

I love how he's still wearing the big boots:

Oh no, Dev's on stage and Dale's talking about how the statue "isn't just him" under the tarp and "he can remember when this bundle of joy arrived." Yeah, Dev's about to shatter.

Okay, Wanda's clearly startled that the statue doesn't depict Dev and even Cosmo's starting to sense that something's going on in that family. You two are going to report this, right?

Aww, Cosmo misses his son.

The contrast of Dev crashing and burning while Hazel is enjoying her new hat is very funny to me. Like, we get this sequence of how happy she is and you just know Dev's having the worst day.

Dev: It's Hazel! Of course... Her well-known love of hats! /said not long after Wanda was like "Hazel, I've literally never seen you wear a hat before yesterday, what do you mean you like hats?

That's actually very funny. And cute? When did Hazel and Dev talk about liking hats? Logically, that must've been while they were montaging on the treasure hunt and posing next to those hat-shaped objects for photos.

With Dev talking about the Dimmadomes running a family business, I'd really like to see what Dev's relationship with his grandfather is. Doug was also careless about destroying childhood memories and I don't trust him to be a good dad either, but I'm curious.

-> I actually have no proof Doug Dimmadome is still alive. I wonder if he's out of the picture and if that had a negative effect on Dale, which may be why he's throwing everything into the business right now, and why he loves his boots.

-> I should check if those boots are similar to his dad's. Like, what if he saw his dad die on the day Dev was born and the boots were left to him, so that's why the boots are so important to him that he dedicated a statue to them?

POV, the dad who (presumably) pampered you for life after you'd spent 7 years of torment underground - and you don't seem to have a mother in your life so this is your only parent and only known connection to a world that isn't full of suffering - is dying on the same day your wife is in labor. What do you do?

Aww, Hazel knows Dev well enough to sense that something's up and ask if he's okay, implying they seem to have grown closer from "A New Dev-elopment" when she saw his father scoff at him and opted to change the subject instead of asking about his feelings. They seem to be doing well as friends and I like that.

-> All these crescent moons make me wonder how long it's been since that episode, though since Dale was working on the Founder's Day event on the weekend, I assume we're still in that range of time.

Dev, holding his arm when Hazel asks if he's okay: I... don't have time to get into it.

They're so cute. I love them.

-> I love the focus on Dev right now, but I hope we don't go full steam ahead into Hazel's friendship with him and she sidelines Jasmine and Winn for her new buddy and/or potential crush.

She hasn't seen her friends this whole carnival, which surprises me. Don't do it, Hazel.

What, where did Dev get those shades. He didn't have those .4 seconds ago.

Dev's going to complete his task and give Hazel's hat back to his dad and still get rejected.

OH NO, Dev is trying to lure the scanner drones away from Hazel, but he didn't tell her that so she thinks he just called her a name, mugged her, and ran off. That's hilarious. #You tried.

Dev, you have to talk to people. You can't just assume she knows what's going on. Fool.

I like how Dale also has special eyewear (VR glasses).

I like how Cosmo inexplicably thinks all the Dimmadomes have "Pickle" as a middle name. I think he said that to Dev in an earlier episode, right?

I like how Hazel saved the day by "doing what Cosmo would do" and pressing all the buttons randomly. That's hilarious.

Barry the dinosaur was at the carnival... That's great.

HAZEL'S MAD!!

As she deserves to be- that's the second time Dev regressed to calling her names. She thought they went through this, but now she's like "He's not changing and also I literally just caught his dad in an evil plot of shocking children's brains with electricity. And Dev seems to have been helping."

Yeah... This is gonna go great. Also, his cute little poses:

Oh thank goodness... We are SO BACK, baby! The fluffy episodes were fine, but NOW we're gettin' somewhere!! Time to break some hearts.

"I would hug you, but I do not have human arms or warmth." I love them.

Aww, he likes her so much. Best buddies...

I didn't know this was his phone, I thought it was a retro video game console.

Oh, it's an iPad parallel. It's got a stand and that's why it's big.

I like how my extremely specific "Ed Leadly as Dev's other grandpa" situation just keeps getting worse the more I think about it.

Little Dev: Grandpa Leadly, I learned to write my name! :) Leadly sitting among his pencils as Dev hands him a tablet he typed on instead of pencil and paper: Buddy, rising star, apple of my eye, my little angel... I will pay you 17 million dollars to never do this in front of me again.

Dad who likes flashy and long-lasting things to remind himself how far he's come vs. grandpa who's willing to massively overpay for anything he took interest in for 5 seconds; what arguments will they endure?

OHHH BOY, it's fairy assignment time! LET'S FREAKIN' GO!

It's Poof!! That is not the voice I expected out of him, but maybe I should've because he did love deep voices back in "Certifiable Super Sitter." I accept it.

Aw, he's so ready to play! This makes me so happy... That's exactly what a fairy godparent is here for- Finding miserable kids and turning that around so they get happier memories of their childhoods. That's exciting!

-> Oh, NOW I see why you guys were all messaging me about my "Poof adores his hero Westley Periwinkle and likes naming things after him" lore, sdkjfl. Ahahaha... I'm in danger.

-> "Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Pixies" Poof-Westley interactions looming on the horizon

Interesting choice to change his name? I wonder if that was done for stylistic reasons like the script. I seem to remember the OG show's scripts would say POOF in them for special effects, and I can see how that would be confusing.

Is... is this because he's trying to lie low so he can dodge the attention he was always getting as a celebrity kid? That feels right, seeing as if it was a true deadname to him, he probably wouldn't have introduced himself as Poof before saying "I changed it to Peri, like Periwinkle."

Either that or he's unclear if Dev's heard anything about him from Cosmo, Wanda, or Hazel and he wanted to clarify who he is, though that doesn't seem likely.

Huh. I'm kinda surprised Poof showed up. I know in the past, he was a controversial addition to the show and I half-expected him to be swept under the rug, though I did wonder about it when Cosmo and Wanda were talking about him earlier.

I've always loved him though and I'm excited to have him back. Return of my other OTHER son.

I'm really excited to hear him talk since his talking was limited to "School of Crock" (only at the end), "Fairly Odd Fairy Tales" (which he mostly slept through), and "Certifiable Super Sitter" (which is... unique). I've had to make up his entire personality for 'fics based on what limited understanding we had of his interests. I look forward to learning more about this version of him!

My established version of him in 'fics will take priority over new information. I'm currently still on the line of "Do I want to ignore New Wish in my canon or try to incorporate what I can?"

That said, I'm leaning a little towards incorporating, since I think I can work with most of it so far, especially if we're throwing in "Fairywinkle-Cosma family aren't strangers to time travel right now."

-> I'm not committing by any means, so don't hold me to that, and even if I do, it'll be cherry-picky.

-> One of my canons for Cloudlands AU Poof is that he's a fanfic writer, mainly for a series called Ninja Cowboy (which he chronically leaves unfinished, to Foop's distress since as Poof's opposite, he's addicted to finding out their endings). He also writes Anti-Cosmo x H.P. fanfics because it's the only thing that makes them back off when they show up to bother him.

Point being, I hope he gets to engage in Prime Meridian with Dev. I feel like they'd enjoy writing 'fics together and it would be funny to me :)

-> I'm wheezing on the floor. Poof's early concept name was Dusty. Even though the writers wouldn't have reason to know that was his concept name, it's funny to me that his name was changed to something that's also not that. The man of as many names as voices he can mimic...

That works really well for me since I named his younger brother Dusty, so that would've caused me problems.

I also gave Poof a mullet / ponytail in my teen design, so that makes me laugh. Lemme see if I have his ref sheet...

I do! Plus a bunch more from my files:

Looks like I gave him a tuft kinda close to his extra hair strand! That's fun. I wonder if New Wish Poof also likes sports. Hmm...

I'm gonna have to look up what era suspenders were popular. I specifically designed my teen/adult Poof with a late 60s / early 70s vibe since Cosmo was said to have been designed for the 50s, which is the time period parallel I was treating Fairy World in during that era too (hence Poof's blog tag being #purple hippie dragonfly, which I'm not planning to change because it's for me).

Exciting! I like Poof's staff. I've seen people do adulthood designs for Foop with a staff, but Poof's a new one. That's fun.

Alas, no freckles... but that's not gonna change in his Cloudlands AU design. We are "biological queen bee" all the way here.

Hmm. Foop has freckles, but... we'll see if he ever shows up in this series. I do not expect the artists to remember his freckles since they only showed up when he puffed his cheeks or flushed, but... if Foop shows up without his mustache and goatee, I'mma have questions.

Actually, this is perfectly fine because I always draw gyne fairies with pale freckles unless they're at their peak, and I already set Finley up as more dominant than Poof at school (with Finley suppressing his pheromones so Poof's "locked down" anyway). It looks like they're pretty faint in his ref sheet too. I'm satisfied with this.

No promises I'll work the Peri arc into my canon. I think I have room for it to exist and I don't think I've seen anything in New Wish that directly conflicts with Cloudlands AU in a way I can't work around, but I'm not likely to write 'fics for New Wish right now.

-> I'm not opposed to incorporating New Wish prompts into the 130 Prompts series IF I find any old drafts I end up not liking, but I did a deep clean in early 2023 and got rid of ones I didn't like, so I'm not sure.

I did sketch Hazel for a potential arc cover though, so I can use that if I have reason to.

So far, as long as I can find a satisfying way for Poof to age, I think I can swing New Wish around to fit with Cloudlands AU... unless we get something super specific like Poof-Peri already graduating high school or Cosmo and Wanda confirming they won't have godkids after Hazel, in which case I'll have to ignore that.

I can even work things around if Peri's not with Goldie, because their whole thing in Cloudlands AU is celebrity drama and dating life struggles anyway (iirc, Foop even told readers that Poof and Goldie keep splitting up and getting back together).

-> I've always suspected Poof would get special advance godkid permissions seeing as, y'know... Jorgen literally made him trial test Crocker's Mom as his "godperson assignment" in "Fairly Old Parent," plus Poof was getting on-the-job training his whole life. It's neat to see him!

I hope Poof's better at not burning himself out now. He looks like he's doing okay. He's grown out of his shell!

-> According to my timeline, Erg was Cosmo and Wanda's trial kid while they were still in high school, so it would totally work for me if Dev is Poof's high school assignment.

I'm not expecting that to be stated, but I can work with it.

Thanks for joining me in this liveblog! Looking forward to more episodes :)

[midnightdemonhunter]

like looking in a mirror

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

I think there's something some people don't fully grasp about the Loki show.

There are many things that can happen in the series, good and bad, the problem comes when the framing is there to convince you that the bad things that happen are good.

The session with Mobius is bad but it's framed in a way we're supposed to think it's good for Loki. We see the title character being lied to and gaslighted. Can the title character of a show be lied to and emotionally abused? Yes, of course. As long as you make it very clear it's wrong. The Loki series does not do that, it does the exact opposite in fact.

Ep1 ends with Loki fully cooperating after he's told he's responsible for his mother's death (that's a lie) and is told by someone who has the power and authority over him that Loki's only purpose in life is to cause pain, death and suffering while those around him achieve greatness.

Would that have been acceptable if by the end it's shown that Mobius has lied to Loki, gaslighted him and tortured him? Yes. But the very second you frame that session as good you're justifying the abuse.

Now the basis of the show has been made clear: you can abuse Loki all you want, until he's fully cooperative and submissive he will be blamed and called names. And the rest of the show is the same shit.

In ep2 when Loki leaves Mobius to go after Sylvie that action is framed as a betrayal. You'd think that after ep1 and the way he was treated it makes all the sense in the world for him to want to escape, and yet it is framed as bad. He runs after a villain, he betrays his friend (the fact that Loki's and Mobius' relationship is framed as a friendship is yet another problem in and on itself), he's wrong again for running away from the people who have kidnapped, lied to and gaslighted him - and threatened with killing him.

Again, framing is the issue. We're suggested working for the TVA is good (despite these people kidnapping innocents, pruning realities, etc) they're still hero-coded. Loki is deemed a villain for escaping them.

In ep4 we hear Mobius talk about Loki 'softening' in the time loop with Sif when the truth is she's physically hurting him over and over again and he's only allowed to leave when he's kneeling on the ground and begging Sif to stop while calling himself a horrible person. This whole scene is framed as good because Loki's state (humiliated, beaten down, submissive, self-loathing) is shown to be a moment for growth.

"You are alone and you always will be". Only after Sif says that Mobius appears "Okay Loki, are you ready to talk?".

Mobius could have sat with Loki in that room and talked, asked him what happened. And yet what he does is send him off straight into that loop until he's submissive. None of this is framed as bad. If anything we're led to feel Mobius' pain, he feels betrayed (some people read it as jealous, I don't but it's up for interpretation) and we feel it's justified of him to trap Loki into yet another moment of physical and emotional torture - because he's bad, you see. He needs to change.

Then here comes the last episode and at the end, even though we have seen everything that transpires towards the end of ep5 and the whole ep6, when Loki runs for Mobius he says "we". "We made a mistake", "we freed the timeline". Even though it was Sylvie who did that, he's taking blame for it. And now the writers and Tom are giving interviews saying he made a mistake, he's trying to make it right, he's the direct responsible for the multiverse.

Again, he's framed as the bad guy and the one to blame for the end result even though he did nothing.

If the writers had been willing to frame all this shit as bad I'm sure most of us wouldn't be so mad and upset at the show. But they didn't, in fact they double down every time there's any criticism and I'm sick of reading the damn "he deserved it because he was bad".

Sylvie murders countless minutemen in the first two episodes and enchants people whenever it suits her (some of them survive it, some don't, she doesn't care). The TVA kidnap, torture and/or murder innocents - and keep whatever variants they want as mind-wiped slaves. Those agents torture the variants as they please to try and get whatever they want out of them.

And even though we're shown all of this in the show, at no point in time it's made clear all this is bad. The framing chooses to swift the focus to something else (or rather, someone else) just so they can gloss over the fact that these people are far more villainous than Loki while making it quite clear that he deserves all the shit thrown at him because he's bad.

Personally that's the thing that I hate most about the series and I find it hard to understand when the first Disney+ show we saw was WandaVision and Wanda was treated with dignity and respect, we're shown her past and all the shit she's gone through, and we understand her pain and grief - even though she's never justified in what she does to Westview.

If only they had done that with Loki...

[fandom-mix-16]

I still believe it's too early to give up and say goodbye to PalmerStrange

Why? Because if Marvel only wants Stephen to have closure, they could've done that in 10 minutes. They didn't need an entire movie (esp. how almost non-existent Christine has been in the first movie and the MCU in general). The wedding scene would've sufficed with a couple more lines.

But that's not what's happened.

They spent the entire movie proving to us of just how much he loves her, of how every Strange in every universe has always been in love with Palmer regardless of whichever universe she's from. If they only wanted an emotional reaction from us, Wanda has got that covered. I'm sure he has a lot of arcs from the comics that can be explored to develop his character in this movie. Using Christine for that sole purpose is unnecessary and in fact weightless in the grand scheme of things.

Instead of leaving behind Christine, we were introduced to a version of her who's technically a new character. She's someone who knows a lot about the multiverse and who could potentially keep up well with Strange's ever expanding role as a superhero. And she's someone who knew a version of Strange and had the same complicated relationship. She lost her Strange just as MCU Strange lost MCU Christine to Charles. If it's only closure they need, 838 Christine could've also been married to 838 Charles emphasizing that in the multiverse, Stephen always loses Christine to someone else.

More importantly, Stephen doesn’t lose Christine because she eventually falls in love with someone else. She falls in love with someone else because he “always has to hold the knife” which always ends up estranging her from him. In the first movie, the Ancient One said, “You cannot beat a river into submission; you have to surrender to its current, and use its power as your own.” While this was said in a different context, I think it can very well apply to Strange’s relationship with Christine. Every Stephen in every universe that we know of had lost Christine because he kept refusing to surrender control in his life, his universe and his relationship with her. All of his variants keep getting the same result because he’s true to character in the beginning and keeps reacting to her loss in the end in the same way. What if all he has to do is to give up on Christine in order to end up with her? (Maybe not 616 but 838 is still a possibility). None of the variants had shown that kind of development, only MCU Strange. That divergence from the recurring character flaw of all the other Stephens can create a new timeline where there is no existing blueprint for what comes next (i.e. “a love that will transcend time and universes”).

The 'multiverse' concept made all of these possible. Six years ago, we thought we were gonna get more Palmer in scrubs aiding Stephen in his adventures. Now, we have her variant from a different universe who’s evermore critical in Stephen’s success. At this point, I’d quote Rachel McAdams and say “anything is possible.” Sometime in the future, we might be introduced into a new concept that would wipe away the “incursion” side effect that is essentially the only thing getting in the way of MCU Strange and 838 Christine. 

As theorized by many, Secret Wars is what’s coming next to the MCU and this might be our solution. (screenshot below: comicbook.com, “Doctor Strange 2: What Are Incursions?”)

PalmerStrange may seem unlikely right now, but even Cap figured out a way to end up with Peggy, and Tony Stark ended up with Pepper even if her comic version ended up with Happy. There’s always hope until it isn’t the end.

P.S. "Time will tell how much I love you" and "I love you in every universe" are iconic lines that are too meaningful to be given to a couple whose singular purpose is to serve as a lesson to the superhero so that he can "get the girl" next time around. Marvel doesn't get everything right, but they're good enough to avoid a basic mistake.

[plasticnightmaredoll]

How about that WandaVision finale?

I have been MCU trash pretty much since 2008's "Iron Man," and it's currently a great time to be MCU trash. "WandaVision" is one of the few series that not only kept me coming back week after week, but actually amounted to much more than just a gimmicky twist (I'm looking at you, "Behind Her Eyes." Seriously, that show is soap opera drivel with a shocking double twist as its only captivating trait...and the double twist wasn't handled very well anyway)

In the end "WandaVision" was about overcoming grief and accepting reality.

Spoilers ahead!

The "WandaVision" finale was quite good overall, but there were a few disappointments. I'll address the latter first:

We never found out who was in witness protection. At the beginning of the series, Jimmy Woo stated there was someone trapped in West View who was in the witness protection program, and it seemed like it would be a key subplot but ultimately, it didn't lead anywhere. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be seen as anything more than some...random bit of information, but it is odd that they put such a specific detail into the story in the first place if it wasn't going to lead anywhere. Then again, supposedly we may get more questions answered in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," so this subplot may not have been wasted after all.

There were so many theories floating around hinting at who the true villain was behind the scenes, including Mephisto, Nightmare, Grim Reaper, and Chthon. All seemed like valid enemy choices, especially Mephisto as many clues appeared to lead to him, and Grim Reaper due to his helmet making an appearance in the opening credits of episode two. However, there wasn't a big baddie hiding in the shadows, and Agatha Harkness and Tyler Hayward were the only villains. Then again, that doesn't mean there isn't an ultimate villain lurking out there who could appear in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," but it kind of sucks we have to wait until 2022 to find out.

I wanted White Vision to go to Wanda and get together with her since Hex Vision restored his memories. But White Vision just flew off and wasn't seen again for the rest of the episode. I guess he needed time to process all the memories that had just flooded his high advanced robot mind, which is understandable because it was a lot to take in. I would have liked to see him make another appearance in the episode, though, even if it was at the very end with Wanda in her secluded cabin. I just want them to be happy together, ok?

Evan Peters wasn't actually Quicksilver/Peter Maximoff from the "X-Men" movies but someone named Ralph Bohner. This must be the Ralph Agatha referred to numerous times throughout the series but was never shown (not until the later episodes, that is). It does seem a bit weird -- off-putting, really -- that Evan wasn't Quicksilver from an alternate timeline. It would have made sense, and would have been a nice sampling of the "Multiverse of Madness," but in the end, he was just...Ralph. I honestly, don't get it, though: Why choose Evan Peters for such a random role when he was Quicksilver in the "X-Men" movies, and we are getting into the Multiverse part of the MCU storyline? Also, what happened to him in the end? After Monica freed him from Agatha's magic, we never saw him again. So....? What gives?

Although this is more of a personal gripe than anything, I was seriously hoping Doctor Strange would appear in the finale, even if it was in a post-credits scene. It would have been an excellent lead in for "Multiverse of Madness," and I just really love Benedict Cumberbatch's portrayal of the character. But again, this isn't really a flaw with the "WandaVision" series and is more of a pet peeve.

Also another peeve: What happened to Señor Scratchy?

I can't even say that there was a lot to be disappointed in with the finale, though. The lack of an "ultimate big bad meanie" isn't so bad. The series was more focused on Wanda running from her grief, having it smother her, and then earning her acceptance. Agatha and Hayward were sufficient as "true villains" of the series.

The only big issues are Evan Peters being a random dude named Ralph, and the weird subplot of a missing witness that ended up leading nowhere (for now?)

There was plenty of good in the "WandaVision" finale!

Wanda finally donning a scarlet outfit and crow reminiscent of what she wears in the comics was totally bad ass. It looked fantastic, and it shows she's now understanding herself and her powers much more. She isn't naïve about any of it, and is ready to learn how to control and enhance her abilities. Initially, she didn't want to be seen as a witch but ultimately, it is her destiny, and she chose to accept it without fear.

The second and final post-credits scene with Wanda making tea in her secret cabin in the mountains was interesting to say the least. Physical(?) Wanda was doing daily task while her astral projection -- which featured her in her costume -- was studying the book of dark spells (or "Book of the Damned," as Agatha called it). This is a funny nod to 2016's "Doctor Strange" considering Doctor Strange's physical form would sleep while his astral form would study magic. The difference, though, is Wanda is reading from the Book of the Damned, which can't be a good thing. Also, it almost indicates she has two personalities: Wanda Maximoff and Scarlet Witch, and I like that idea. She may have to wrestle with herself internally in the near future.

I was so glad that White Vision was able to regain his memories of his past -- and true? -- self thanks to Hex Vision. I hope White Vision will go to Wanda and reunite with her, but I'm not sure when that will happen. Paul Bettany isn't listed in the cast for "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" so...I'm really confused. White Vision still exists and is somewhere but...where? When? How? The cast list for "Multiverse of Madness" is very short, though, and Paul's upcoming films and series list ends in 2020 so...maybe it's meant to be a secret? The movie isn't due out until next year so it COULD be the case. Otherwise, it seems like a huge oversight on the MCU's part to just forget about White Vision. It would be a pleasant surprise if he shows up in "Multiverse of Madness" to help Wanda from doing bad things, losing control, or whatever?

Scarlet Witch is supposedly stronger than the Sorcerer Supreme, which is kind of awesome but kind of troubling because Doctor Strange may not have the best time in "Multiverse of Madness" is he is to confront her. This is why I hold on to the theory that White Vision may appear in the movie to aid Doctor Strange by calming Wanda down. Either way, knowing she is so powerful and at the same time, a very emotional person, hints at an epic fight in the near future.

I really liked how Wanda tricked Agatha into stealing her chaos magic. I was wondering why Wanda was missing with some of her chaos magic spheres, but assumed she was just growing tired and weak and was losing focus. Then it's revealed that she wasn't missing her shots -- she was placing large runes on the Hex's walls to prevent Agatha from using her magic. Then this allowed Wanda to take back her powers and steal some of Agatha's, which, in turn, made her accept her role as the Scarlet Witch. Agatha is punished by being trapped as nosy neighbor Agnes in West View, but I don't think it's the last we'll see of her.

I'm glad Wanda was able to finally accept Vision's death as that was what had caused all this mess in the first place. Despite what she did, she was a sympathetic "villain," if you can even consider her one. She was overwhelmed by grief and found a way to cope...she just happened to drag a small town into her world. Oops.

Monica's powers continuing to evolve was amazing, like how she managed to stop the bullets Hayward attempted to fire at Billy and Tommy. I really like Monica's character and the actress, Teyonah Parris, is very talented, so I'm excited to see more of her in Phase Four.

While it was expected, it was ultimately the right decision to let the people of West View go free. Even if they still resent Wanda for trapping them previously, they are given the chance to return to their normal lives without any harm done to them (well, maybe some mental and emotional trauma but, hey, who doesn't deal with these things in life, right?)

Some things I want to make note of:

Paul Bettany is a fucking troll and I love it! He had hinted at a surprise cameo later in the "WandaVision" series, which would involve working with an actor he's always wanted to work with. This caused a lot of speculation as to who it would be, although, Benedict Cumberbatch was the top choice since Doctor Strange and Vision never had screen time together, and Benedict is a great actor (then again, so is Paul, although, he's underrated, I think). Then there were rumors of Al Pacino being the surprise cameo since he was a major influence on Paul, and there were theories Al would show up as a secret villain like Nightmare. Turns out the secret surprise cameo was Paul Bettany himself since he played both Hex Vision and White Vision, and the two did fight for a bit before having a philosophical chat which led to White Vision regaining his memories. So, yeah, Paul Bettany is Troll of the Year. I guess I was initially disappointed that the big reveal wasn't really a big reveal, but I quickly realized how hilarious it was that Paul played us all so well. He's probably laughing his ass off right now at everyone's "WTFFF?" reactions.

I know Elizabeth Olsen was criticized for her poor Russian accent, but I think she's a very good actress and love her portrayal of Wanda. I mean, accents can be a bitch to master, I get it, and sometimes, I think if the performance is still impressive, we can learn to be unbothered if the accent is off.

I noticed that Chiwetel Ejiofor is returning as Karl Mordo in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," so perhaps he will be the main villain or a secondary villain? He has to be a villain since he is hunting down sorcerers to take their powers. Maybe he wants to take Wanda's powers, too? I mean, she's a sorcerer of sorts, so...maybe that is going to be a plot point? Although, Mordo is probably way out of his depth against her but we shall see.

I kind of still want Mephisto or Nightmare to appear in Phase Four since they have been hyped so much due to clues in "WandaVision." I don't think Wanda will be the big baddie for Phase Four, I just don't see it. Also, I don't see Mordo as being the big baddie, either. Both are very single-minded in their goals, and yeah, Thanos was, too, but he dragged the entire universe into his insane and devastating goal. I don't think Wanda or Mordo have such grand and deadly intentions. Wanda just wants her kids back and Mordo wants to get rid of sorcerers as...revenge against the Ancient One's "betrayal?" I don't know...but I don't think he wants to take over the universe. I never read the comics, though, so I could be wrong.

In the second post-credits scene of the "WandaVision" finale," we see Wanda's astral self studying dark magic from the Book of the Damned, and Billy and Tommy suddenly call out to her. I am guessing she could have been studying spells to see if there was anything that could bring them back since, unlike Vision, they were a creation unique to her from the start. Vision was initially a new, more powerful, more durable body for Ultron, then he was given Jarvis' AI and became, uh, the Vision, so, he never "belonged" to her. Getting her kids back, however, may prove to be a problem for the universe because it could lead to multiverse madness. I'm so funny, I know.

As disappointing as it was for Evan Peters to presumably be some dude named Ralph Bohner and not the "X-Men" movieverse Quicksilver/Peter Maximoff, maybe it makes sense when you really think about it. Marvel owns the rights to the X-Men now because Disney owns Marvel and Disney purchased the rights through their merger with 21st Century Fox. Marvel plans to reboot the X-Men with "The Mutants" movie sometime soon, and that means characters will be recast. They kind of have to because the current cast's movie series has hit a dead end with "Apocalypse" and "Dark Phoenix" proving to be underwhelming. I do wonder how Marvel will breathe fresh life into the X-Men in the movieverse because I feel like there is X-Men fatigue right now? Or maybe it's just me. I've grown disappointed with the franchise and am sort of annoyed at a reboot because it may be too soon. But, hey, hopefully I'm proven wrong!

Marvel also has rights to the Fantastic Four, which means we may actually finally get a good Fantastic Four movie! Three attempts have been made so far (yes, three), and they all failed to impress with the last attempt being an embarrassment. I mean, it was a disaster as nearly everyone hated how boring and bland and choppy it was, and that is reflected in its pitiful earnings. On a budge of $120-155 million, the 2015 "Fantastic Four" movie only grossed $167.9 million globally. OOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFF.

Phew, that was a huge post, but got all my thoughts out. Considering how shitty things have been since the abomination of 2020 was born, and with little hope for things to improve anytime soon (I have my own problems as well, which aren't going away anytime soon, either, hahaha T__T), it's refreshing to have some stuff to be happy about. Some people hate the MCU, some people have lost interest, and some people may just be indifferent, but I'm definitely and MCU fan and it makes me feel excited and giddy, two things I don't experience often anymore :\

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments or in a reblog, but no hate and no "cancel culture" talk. I want to keep this post positive.

[sairenharia]

Wandavision: Why Westview

So this is my own theory on why Westview in particular is the town in Wandavision and also the answer to the question presented in episode 5.

Spoilers ahead!

I don’t know if anyone else has thought of this, but I recently binged the whole series and I know there’s a lot of talk of who is IN Westview, who started this, how in control is Wanda, but I haven’t heard rumblings of why Westview in particular.

And then there is that question: Where are the children?

Now one idea is maybe all the kids got shunted out of town, but it seems suspect SWORD wouldn’t notice a bunch of orphans even with selective amnesia going on. It also wouldn’t be an entirely satisfying answer to an apparently very important question.

Now the answer could be Horror, where they have been exiled to the void, or locked up somewhere, but while there is satisfaction in horror, it could also be a clue as to why Westview is the town.

Westview is a small town. It doesn’t even have four thousand people. But population signs aren’t updated regularly. They seem to be usually updated after the census.

Now obviously after Infinity War, they might have done the census early, but timeline wise, the census would happen two years after Infinite War. Three years before the Snapped returned.

A number we saw with Monica.

Half the population of all existence disappeared.

What if Westview’s population was hit hard? What if most families lost someone?

Imagine you live in a small town, this disaster has hit, you’re trying to put your life together, and you hear the population of the town has dramatically decreased, where the amount of loss has a number you can understand. Do you stay?

Do you stay if you lost your spouse here?

Do you stay if you lost your kid?

What if there are no kids in Westview because by the time Wandavision, there just wasn’t anymore kids? The kids who survived the snap may have lost their parents, and be in the foster care system. The kids who survived with a parent, but a lost spouse, they probably left sometime in the following years to escape the half ghost town and the feeling of loss. And three weeks, three weeks is enough time for any children who came back to be picked up by the government.

If Wandavision wants to go dark, then the devil really might be in the details. Dottie is involved in some way the town operates. The devil may be in the details in the snap, and the pop quiz.

How to get blood out of white linen? What is the first detail we see of the snap’s aftereffects?

We see a crashing car with no driver. We see a helicopter hit a building with no driver.

What if the Snap happened when the children were being driven home on a bus, and the driver was the one who went? Dottie could be a mother, coming home, only see the stored after effects of her child, with blood stained clothing?

Admittedly, that’s my darkest thought, but it would certainly be a foreshadowed shock.

Westview with a low population because so many people just left if they survived the snap, the perfect place to hide a witness. No one is going to look for you in a near ghost town.

It would also explain episode two. Why there was such a focus on children, and also establishing this is the one fundraiser for the school. It says the school is small, made more so because even at the show itself, the sold out show, not all the seats are filled.  It shows the population is truly missing a lot of people. That there weren’t a lot of children in the first place.

But they still do things For The Children.

Because so many of them are parents, who either lost kids to death, or because they have to get their kid out of the system because there’s just not enough time to. They’re parents who just want their families back.

Westview is a town of the snapped. Westview is a town of mourning.

Shown even more thanks to Monica. When Norm is freed, he has to call his sister, his father is sick. The same questions people were asking in the hospital Monica was in.

Monica realizes a drone that fits in will continue to work in the town. Monica was allowed inside the town because she fit in.

She was in mourning thanks to the Snap.

Westview is the town because its a town full of people like Wanda. Who are fresh to the pain of loss. And that’s why there’s so many people who seem, on some level, aware of what’s going on, but continue to go along, and others who are suffering immensely.

Its not the mind control hurting them.

Its because everytime they start to break through, all their own pain is mixed in with the disorientation and mental strain.

Those willing to go along with the lie are relatively stable because they want to buy into it, they want to escape. Others, even if they hurt, don’t want to run, and are still fighting.

Now why it seems like there’s three powered ladies involved with Wanda, near certainty of Anges and Dottie, hard to say. It might be one had a psychic cry of anguish that pulled the others in. It might be a darker turn. I don’t know, but I think I have a good guess for why Westview is the setting.

[kainetestament]

Pietro, no Fietro could still possibly be Peter from X-Men Universe… Maybe?

So as revealed in Episode 9 of WandaVision, the identity of Fietro is none other than Ralph Bohner, the husband Agness always mention, and a possible real resident of Westview. WV director Matt Shakman already clarified that the “Bohner” is actually a reference to his 80’s sitcom Growing Pains. But for many fans of Evan Peters, this “Bohner” joke didn’t play well and at the same time, let us breakdown everything that is wrong with this identity of Ralph Bohner and why he’s suspicious despite the claim of WandaVision writers/director that Evan Peters has nothing to do with the mutants or X-Men Universe, after all they always deny everything. They even mentioned that they had no idea that Evan Peters appearance will cause so many theories and everything, which I highly doubt, I mean come on, they made him play QuickSilver in WandaVision when he is QuickSilver himself only of another universe. I don’t dissed ATJ, I love this guy too from his Kickass, Godzilla movie (this is where I first encounter ATJ before his QS role in Avengers), but as a QS, Evan Peters top him, on my opinion at least, he even has his own QS commercials. Also, Evan Peters have more cool QS moments, the Kitchen scene VS the Age of Ultron overall, at least for me, I prefer the kitchen scene and the whiplash part. Anyhow, let us begin:

 Note: I edited this post to make this article more easier to read and added additional info.

1. Speculations roaming around that Ralph Bohner could be an aspiring actor because the picture is actually his headshot (which actually looks like his earlier AHS photos). I’m not going to debunk this possibility, but I do not believe it’s a headshot nor he’s an aspiring actor. Although true enough, the image does looks like of Evan Peters early AHS photos (kind of like Tate Langdon) – which is probably a reference to that, who knows.

2. The pile of papers on the side table. It is questionable why would your papers, a bill (a very old bill even - not folded or inside one of those envelopes) and your photos in plain sight where Monica – an outsider can see it? Almost as if you planned it all along and he wanted Monica to see it.

3. Necromancy vs Crystallum Possession. Necromancy is a dark arts of when the person (the Necromancer) can manipulate the dead body of the person, or summoning their spirit. Crystallum Possession however is also part of the dark arts but this time you are using an object (like crystals, gems, stones etc) that is embodied with the user’s spells to manipulate the wearer.

Agatha had told Wanda that what she does is a crystallum possession since necromancy is a no-no due to his brother’s body is on another continent, and since this Pietro died in 2014, it should now be bones, I think the “full of holes” remark is nothing more than a mocking remark, because if it’s not, then Marvel will probably have their own interpretation of Necromancy and Crystallum Possession, and this could probably go darker. And Ralph is wearing a bead necklace that is embedded with Agatha’s power. But is Agatha really in full control of Ralph? Honestly, I don’t think so. Why? Because in Episode 6, Peter said about Wanda’s costume “Worse than the costume mom made us the year we got typhus”, then she reminisced “that year”, and told him  “That’s not exactly how I remember it.” because in her universe, she isn’t wearing Halloween costume she thinks is worse and she didn’t deny about them getting typhus, so what are the odds of Agatha/Fietro getting that info if he is not Peter? Also, we don’t know how MARVEL will tell the story multiverse/alternate timelines (the Russo Brothers already claimed that they have their own way of telling this story), but if we are looking for a one generic rule, major life events will occur but will be told uniquely as per their universe, on this case Peter and Wanda did had a typhus, but in Peter’s world, his Wanda and him are probably wearing whatever cosplay outfit their mom made and in Wanda and Pietro are just wearing something simple, or it could be that Peter really just have a weird sense of style.

4. The WATER BILL. Now, this is a real bill, it is not part of Wanda’s illusion, this is Ralph’s actual water bill, because Ralph’s house was under Agatha’s spell, which makes it exempted from Wanda’s spell.  Also, if you go frame by frame, you can actually see the word “Water”, “PAST DUE” on the right column part of the bill, before it totally goes out of focus and you can only read the left side part, that also says “YOUR MONTHLY USAGE (1,000 GAL INCREMENTS)”, which further validates it’s a water bill, not a phone bill nor electricity bill as others actually claim. And here is the tricky part, the bill’s date. On the right side under the STATEMENT is the Account Information (using Arial font), it’s a bit hard to make out of it, but it’s actually an old bill. Before it becomes totally blurry, you can read the right part of the bill that says:

STATEMENT

ACCOUNT INFORMATION

ACCOUNT:                      09-3476-12

SERVICE ADDRESS:     2804 SHERWOOD DRIVE

BILL DATE:                     10/01/2020

DUE DATE:                     10/31/2020

If we go back to Infinity War, it takes place in June 2018. So that means that this Ralph Bohner survived the SNAP, but what could happen to him in year 2019-2020? Who knows, I don’t even know if I should care or not.

If we check on the usage chart – which is “not blurred” (it’s also in increments of 12 – 12/24/36/48/60), and I’ll just speculate on the numbers on the meter chart, so don’t take my word for it. Also, I don’t know what Marvel is planning or hinting by showing this insignificant 2020 bill, which also has confusing usage. (I’ll just use term like pcm – per cubic meter, so that it won’t just be plain numbers beside the month).

January - 6 pcm

February – 18 pcm

March – 6 pcm

April – 6 pcm

June – 6 pcm

July – 9 pcm

August – 13 pcm

September – 22 pcm

October – 34 pcm

(November and December have gray shade - similar to the one in month of Jan-May).

Again, I don’t know what’s the significance of not blurring this part of the bill while the right side column is properly blurred. And the confusing part of this bill, is the bill date is of 10/01/2020 – meaning Ralph had received this bill during the first week of October, but why is there already a usage for the full month of October, when usage should be only show up to the month of September? After the Account Information, there’s the

METER INFORMATION (WATER)

USAGE   PREVIOUS   DATE      CURRENT       DATE

4             1963 (?)        09/01/20      *- - - -*          *- - - -*

The PREVIOUS actually looks like either 1063 or 1963, and oddly enough the first Avengers Comics was published on September 1, 1963, I don’t know if that’s a reference to that, but from my pov, it shouldn’t be because this series is inspired of House of M and a bit touch of West Coast Avengers, which was already reference by the SUV plate number in Episode 7. The CURRENT and DATE are both unreadable, I can only identify _ _ _ 2 in CURRENT and 0_/_ _/20 for the DATE after.

And let’s also not forget that outside the HEX, it is August 2023 and as per Episode 8, inside the HEX is currently year 2013 as shown in the auditorium behind the lighting after it explained how Wanda created Vision. I don’t know if this is a reference to something from the past MCU projects (X-Men even) or future franchise like Falcon and Winter Soldier, who knows, really. I just find it weird why they didn’t blurry the meter chart while the rest are. But why year 2020? Why isn’t this bill thrown out yet? Didn’t Monica notice that billing date of the bill?

5. The man-cave. The staff really transformed Fietro’s man-cave into very, very Peter-like (if he really is not Peter). I will list thing that are present and similar to what Peter of X-Men Universe room have. I’ll reference * (single asterisk) for Days of Future Past, ** (double asterisk) for Apocalypse, and *** (triple asterisk) for both films.

❀ comfortable couch***

❀ guitar*** 

❀ headphones***

❀ balls*

❀ lots of posters***

❀ bike***

❀ a bar**

❀ shoes on the floor**

❀ different types of drinks (non alcoholic)***

Also, lots of silver/metallic items such as:

❀ silver lamp**

❀ silver TV

❀ silver house ventilation tubes

❀ silver pillowcases (looks gray on other angles)

❀ silver mini fridge

❀ silver microwave oven

❀ silver rack (where TV and speaker stands)    

❀ silver wristwatch*

❀ video games*** (both PS & XBox)

and even something that looks like a stolen goods like the Tiki Bar plaque, Tiger head.

This Fietro is basically just missing the goggles, I did my best to look for it (like on those detective games that instructs you to find this and that *lol*), but there’s really none *laugh*. Also, I just noticed the arrangement of his man-cave – single-seat couch** > small side table with a lamp** > 3-seater couch (the Apocalypse has an L-shape couch though) > a middle coffee table**, this arrangement is similar to Peter’s man-cave in Apocalypse which can be slightly seen when his mom came down saying “Just checking on you” (you can watch it at starting point 1:02:55, at least on my copy), you just need to look for proper timing because a few of those shots are out of focus probably due to her obviously looking somewhere reading her lines that are raised besides the camera, which became even more obvious  when she did a close up shot when she told him “But trust me, this won’t end well. Nothing does with him.” 

Also, in Episode 5, when Peter first made an appearance, the leather jacket he’s wearing is eerily similar to the one he’s wearing in his cameo appearance in Deadpool 2 (we only got the glimpse of the front of the jacket in Deadpool but the front side of his jacket in WandaVision is identical). Though I find it weird too that his hair color switch from silver to light ash blonde.

6. Ralph is the guy under witness protection? I doubt it, although honestly at first I considered maybe he is, but after a few thinking, it doesn’t lead to it, because if he’s in witness protection, and the person who is managing him forgets him because of Wanda, FBI database should still at least have a photo of him to be able to identify him, and Jimmy in episode 7 saw Peter and never commented about him being their missing guy. As we all know, the house is under the name Ralph Bohner, who we can assume survived the SNAP and possibly left that house in September 2020. If he had left the house way back in 2020, why does Agent Woo or FBI rather only checked it now? Also, if Ralph Boner is indeed the guy under witness protection, it is the FBI that pays off their bill, on this case, the Water Bill was past due even if it was an old bill, so I don’t think he is.

7. Does Ralph Boner really exist? This is actually something that I have given some thought. Because if we think of QuickSilver, one of his abilities as per comics is his Quick Intelligence. His mind process a lot of things much faster than an average person. Peter spying on everyone and pretending to be someone else in an unknown world is not surprising, let alone using everything he can take advantage of. It can be that the bill is fake and there is really no Ralph Bohner, or just like what I mentioned in #7, he could’ve possibly left in September 2020 and hasn’t returned yet, and Peter assumes this identity to avoid suspicion.

If we are to assume he really is Peter Maximoff of X-Men Universe (Earth-TRN414) and crossed over to Earth-616, I did consider this could also be the house where he lives as per his universe and just so happens that Ralph Bohner is the current owner of the house in this MCU. Also, Xavier Institute is located in NY and in Days of Future Past, they only drove from NY to his house via rental car, which we can assume that he doesn’t live that far from NY, after all NY and NJ are neighbors.

8. Also this has nothing to do with Ralph/Fietro, but something I noticed, that the outside anomaly or outside of Westview – about the selective amnesia has yet to be answered. It only explained that Wanda is manipulating the people INSIDE, but not the ones outside the HEX. What actually come to mind when I think about it is that it can be a work by a TELEPATH which can be either Charles Xavier or Emma Frost (no Jean Grey? Yes I excluded her). What I am actually thinking is that the person under witness protection is a spy sent by Charles or possibly working with him. He could have implanted false memory to the so called “family and friends”, so when the HEX was established, the strings got cut off hence no one could remember this “missing person” anymore, and Jimmy who has nothing to do with this “missing person” is not affected by the selective amnesia and assumes the responsibility of looking for him. And assuming Charles is the telepath who altered their memories of the people outside of Westview, he probably has done it as a precaution since he couldn’t contact his spy or “missing person” and wouldn’t take the risk of endangering the resident who were happened to be outside the HEX when Wanda establishes it.

These are just some of the things I find that doesn’t make sense with Ralph’s identity. But we’ll just leave it at that. I still really want James McAvoy back as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Magneto, since both Sir Ian McKKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart did mention they’re done with their role. And I feel that it’s too risky to use them since they are in their 80’s now, I don’t know them personally but it gives me some sorts of paranoia *laughs* thinking they might get injured.

[fablesrose]

Of Kings and Shadows XXII

Description: Y/n, a girl who seems to have found her calling. Being a SHIELD agent is like a dream come true. With a friendship starting to form with the Avengers, she’s the Queen of the world! What could go wrong?

Pairings: Avengers x reader, Loki x reader (eventually)

Notes: On Wattpad –> Here

Masterlist

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Usually, the team goes to Nick for missions and debriefs. This time, however, Nick came to the compound.

Thor and Bruce looked sympathetically at the four sporting bruises and holding ice packs to black eyes. Thor and Bruce didn't go into the compound and Loki was a bit more durable and healed faster than the others. One thing that everyone had in common that went on that mission was the shock.

The twins, Rhodey, Vision, Sam, and Bucky had all gotten the day off. It was kind of cruel irony, the ones who knew her, laughed with her, got to discover her previously unknown fate.

"And you're sure about this?" Nick sat at the front of the room trying to wrap his head around what they had told him.

The five all voiced their own "yes."

"You're positive?"

"Unless Y/n has a twin sister that looks exactly like her that you don't know about, then yeah, pretty positive." Tony gingerly reapplied his ice pack to the back of his skull where his head hits his helmet. "Friday, throw up the footage."

A screen opened up to show what was recorded from Tony's helmet. The feed was fast-forwarded to where Y/n walked into view amid the Hydra agents. Once her full face was shown the footage stopped and zoomed in close.

"Unless I'm mistaken,  I believe Y/n's eyes are very much black."

"Right you are my favorite android." Tony waved his finger haphazardly at Vision across the table.

Nick sat down and swiveled his chair to face the screen, "It looks like we found our missing Queen."

"Are we sure it's even her?" Sam looked apologetic for even suggesting such a thing, but skeptical all the same, "Could she be some sort of evil twin or somethin'?" Everyone couldn't help but flick their eyes to Wanda and Pietro at the mention of twins.

"No, Sam, it's her," Nick was looking at the screen.

"How can you tell?"

"There are stretch marks on her neck. Those are extremely hard to mimic and are in an unusual place."

Everyone was a bit freaked out.

Tony was squinting at the screen, "How can you even see that?"

Nick didn't answer so Tony looked to Natasha for an answer since she knew everything, but she didn't even acknowledge him.

Pietro looked more puzzled than the others, "Why would she have stretch marks on her neck?"

"Hey, Loki," Clint had a barely noticeable smirk on his face, "why don't you explain."

"That is a long story that does not need to be explained at the moment."

Bruce started the video again and watched it play through for a couple of minutes, studying Y/n's face. "There isn't even a hint of recognition in her face," he turned to look at the others in the room, "what could they have done to her?"

Rhodey started counting on his fingers, "She's been missing for what? Six years?"

Vision finished for him, "And The Queen has surfaced a little under four years ago."

"She must have seen many horrors in those two years." Thor looked solemn, not wanting to look at the screen.

"Good to see you can do basic math, brother." Loki tried to sneer, but it turned more into a wince than anything.

Thor sent a half-hearted glare back at him.

"They must be doing something a lot harder and faster to cut down the time table that quickly from when I was in there." Bucky swallowed while he had his eyes locked on the table.

Steve had a hand on Bucky's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze to show that he was safe there. Bucky nodded back at him to show he appreciated it.

"Maybe she's weak." Pietro was snapping his gum rather loudly but soon started to shrink back into his seat when he felt the glares.

"Or she could have gone with them willingly." Everyone froze as they looked over at Wanda. At first, she didn't notice the stares, but her magic tapped into the overall vibe of the room and she became a little uneasy.

"I would watch what you say about Ms. Y/n, Wanda." Vision had a look of warning when he looked at her, but she could tell that he wasn't excluding himself from it. "She is well respected not only by the people in this room but many outside of it as well."

Wanda's eyes wandered to see what exactly Vision was talking about. She noticed that Bruce had hints of green peeking out of his shirt collar. Loki had wisps and sparks of green winding around his fingers. Everyone else had twitching fingers or were flexing their jaws, struggling to stay calm. Or in Natasha's case, she was deadly still. What really drew her attention was everyone's hair sticking up at the static electricity. The source of which was the glow from Thor's eyes and the lines of lightning running up and down the space in between his fingers.

She mumbled out an apology and tucked her head down, not speaking a word more.

Steve was the first to speak again as he turned to face Nick, "How do you want to proceed, Fury?"

Nick sighed and leaned forward, templing his hands on the table. "We continue on missions as usual, but I want to adjust one thing on the teams. I want Loki on all the missions from now on." Nick focused on Loki, "You can get a break once we catch her. I want you to focus on getting in her head, try to communicate with her, find a weakness so we can take her down, anything."

"I can do that Fury," Wanda carefully peeked at him, tilting her head towards him.

"I know Wanda, but I still want Loki to supervise even when you're there. He has a lot more practice than you." He turned his attention to everyone else in the room, "She's an asset, and I would prefer if she was undamaged."

'Any more than she already is.'

Wanda read the thought from someone's head, but as everyone stood to leave, the commotion caused her to lose the link with whose ever mind she was reading before she could identify exactly who it was.  

Wanda didn't enjoy invading people's privacy by reading their minds... That was a lie. She knew she wasn't supposed to enjoy invading privacy, at least, that's what they keep telling her every time she lets it slip that she's doing it. Honestly, she didn't really see a reason not to, if they can't tell she's doing it, why bother to stop. (If only she could keep her mouth shut.)

She asked Loki once if he was reading everyone's minds since she knew he was more than capable of doing so. He told her, no, his reason being "Why would you do that when there other ways of obtaining information that are far more fun."

She didn't ask what those were.

Wanda only tried to read his mind once but it was heavily shielded. She couldn't get past them and the look he gave her and the gleam in his eye made her not want to know what was in his head.

The team rarely, if ever, talked about Y/n as a group. As stated before they would talk about her more in pairs on a particularly hard day.

Wanda didn't know much about her, but with this new revelation coming to light there was no way she was going to leave anything in the dark.  The Avengers were growing soft and sentimental. Wanda didn't have any biases about this chick and if no one was going to tell her about her, well, Wanda was just going to have to play a little dirty.

She wandered through the compound, drifting just close enough to rooms where members of the team resided to be able to skim their thoughts and memories.

The more she drifted, the more frustrated she got. Wanda wasn't sure what she was expecting, some dirty little secret or maybe, hopefully, some sort of weakness. Instead, all she was getting was waves of sadness, confusion, and fond memories. There was no useful information in everything she skimmed through, just inconsequential things, like what she would have wanted her superpower to be, surprise surprise, she didn't get anywhere close, or that she had impressive karaoke skills.

Wanda's frustration caused her to not be so subtle in her investigating and she began to dive deeper into the minds of those around her. She finally made her way around to Bucky's room and instantly dove into his mind to see what the scoop was from him.

She regretted it quickly.

Bucky was trying to figure out what exactly they could have done to Y/n in the space of two years to have that much control over her. In order to do that he had to go over what exactly they did to him. Bucky lasted for nearly twenty years before breaking. He thought over all the types of torture and brainwashing they put him through, not without a flinch or two. What in the world could they have done to this agent that he hadn't even met, to make her not have a shred of recognition in the span of two years?

Pietro's comment did cross his mind a time or two, 'What if she's weak?' It didn't say for long, however, from what he's heard about her from Steve, Natasha, Clint, even Tony a few times, she was strong-willed. And to be a Shield agent? That job isn't for the weak of heart.

He tried to stop thinking about it, but his heart ached for another soul crushed, just like his. He only hoped he could maybe help her. If they ever found her again.

Wanda found it hard to tear herself away from such thoughts. She tried, but they just kept drawing her into the heartbreak, the pain. By the time she was able to detach herself from the web of horrors that was Bucky's thoughts, Wanda was emotionally exhausted.

She had finally found a consequence of reading someone's mind: sometimes you really don't want to know.  

She had to retire to her own room and sort out all the stuff she had learned, but she had also decided that maybe she shouldn't be using her powers so liberally. Maybe learning about this Y/n wasn't worth it. Maybe she should just leave it alone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a confession to make. I had stopped being really proactive in my head for the past couple of months (I'm assuming a timeline here).  Due to that, I could feel the dark walls around me becoming soft and pliable. They weren't pliable to me, but Noxy started to invade the little space I had. It was almost like I was being eaten. The part of my body's consciousness that was me was slowly disappearing. I didn't fight back either. What was the point?

I had never allowed myself to make up scenarios about meeting the Avengers again, about them saving me, helping me, beating me. It only made my helplessness feel worse. But now? Despite everything I tried, it was the only thing I could think about. Over and over again, different options, conversations, deaths came to mind about how this could end.

'What if I could talk to them?'

'What if I somehow gained control and could join them in the middle of battle?'

'What song could be playing to somehow give them a clue of how to beat Noxy?'

That was the one I chose to entertain the most. I tried to sort through my music library but with music as my natural defense system, the lyrics seemed to be slipping away from my grasp into the dark expanses of my mind. I could only hope that the melodies were also engraved on my heart so that they could never be taken from me.

The song that I chose that could maybe give them the best clue was Blinded by the Light by what's-his-face-that-starts-with-an-m.

I became obsessed with it. Its words were one of the songs that were slipping away, and I could only mumble a few of the lines, but by heaven did I sing them.

Over.

And over.

And over.

Again.

And again.

And then maybe once more.

Blinded by the light... revekjsmed up like a dochewekf. Ansldkjthor rumner in the night!

'Please find me. Take me down. Kill me, I don't care. I need out.'

The more I thought about it, the more I became a slave to the song, to myself, to the darkness keeping me imprisoned...

Maybe I wasn't as sane as I would like to believe.

Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ptulhhQPg

[bonesingerofyme-loc]

Endgame is a movie about payoffs

An incomplete list of all the great ‘payoffs’ in this movie.

Hulk’s character arc/story is resolved offscreen and Hulk as a character is killed off. Shh no tears, only Banner now.

Loki’s death was meaningless

Thor’s character arc/story wasn’t even regressed, it was reset

Tony and Nebula’s relationship went nowhere

Vision’s body was shoved in a closet for five years I guess

Doctor Strange’s 14 million futures and 1 solution relied on a fucking rat

The main six avengers never got to be on screen fighting together

Natasha was killed off and her death is barely mentioned

Red Skull’s presence was revealed to simply be the writers going wOuLdN’t iT Be CoOl rather than having any deeper meaning or reason for it. Boy would it have made sense for the Avengers to maybe talk to the Stonekeeper since they know next to fuck all about the infinity stones. Or maybe resolve the whole ‘Steve and Red Skull’ thing, because it’s not like that was formative conflict for Steve Rogers.

Loki’s death was seriously fucking meaningless

Rocket sort of just existed. What did he do? Nothing. Who did he interact with? Barely anyone.

Gamora’s character arc/story is reset to a blank slate because she is a new person.

Drax’s whole reason for living was revenge and to strike back at Thanos. Never see Drax in Endgame except as part of the exhaustively long checklist of ‘HEY LOOK X PERSON IS HERE’

Clint going on a murderspree doesn’t matter at all except to give a reason why he isn’t in the first part of the movie. It has no bearing on the events and no one ever speaks to Clint about it. He doesn’t even act any differently from the mostly serious and broody Clint of the previous films. There isn’t even any tension about him coming back, Nat just says ‘Hi Clint come back’ and he’s like ‘k’.

Peter Quill, who I don’t even like, has only a single scene in the movie where his entire growth as a character and relationship with Gamora is reduced to stupid physical humor and a joke.

Carol Danvers was pointless. She exists to save Tony and Nebula, which Thor could’ve done with bifrost and to blow up Sanctuary, which could’ve been done far more interestingly. And yet the movie tried to weave her in pretty well by making her part of Natasha’s galactic avengers and then...did nothing with that idea. Was it too hard to consider maybe she shows up with whats left of NovaCorps or some Kree battleships?

Thanos proves that he was jobbing hard in Infinity War. What’s that, Thanos without any infinity stones could easily beat Tony in Mk85, Thor with both his weapons and Steve Rogers? I guess the entire fight on Titan was him just pissing around. It steals all the weight and strength that Infinity War gave the Avengers by showing that Thanos could’ve squashed any of them at any time and was never actually in danger.

‘Stark. You’re not the only one cursed with knowledge.’ What does that mean? Why does Thanos seem to respect him? Fucking who knows, since we see that in the past Thanos only vaguely knew about the Avengers and thought they were dumb nerds. I guess he read about Tony underneath a Snapple lid. 

Back to Natasha’s death - she dies and the movie decides it needs to focus on fucking Bruce of all people, when she and Steve had become very close friends over the past seven years, and from the implications Steve was the only one that actually kept in contact with her post-Snap when the Avengers all retired or fucked off. Fucking Bruce. 

Hey while we’re here, let’s keep up with Steve and his relationships. How about the fact he and Bucky never reunite on screen? How about the fact that all we have gotten between Steve and Bucky since Steve got his best friend back was what, three lines total between Infinity War and Endgame? 

Or how about Steve and Sam! You know, Sam the therapist that helped break Steve out of his shell. Sam the loyal friend who stood by Steve through thick and thin. Sam, who kind of was Steve’s first ‘real’ friend in the modern day. Sam, who only shows up at the end so old Steve who abandoned his friends can chuck him a shield. No reunion. No real meaningful moment. Just hey I’m old take my shield.

Or Steve and Wanda! Did you guys forget that the secret Avengers adopted her? How they were kind of like a family for that time after Civil War, with Steve the Dad and Natasha the Mom and Wanda their adopted weird magical girl? You know, how they took Wanda under their wing and started teaching her and treating her like a real person? Guess they did forget!

What about Valkyrie too, by the way. Valkyrie who spent a thousand years as a cynical drunk and then Thor helped her out of her self-loathing funk in Ragnarok. And then she I guess just said ‘sucks to be you’ and didn’t even try to help him? Or how about that Thor just kind of chucks her the throne like a party favor. Not even like he recognized she earned it or anything, Thor just said ‘hey, fuck my responsibilities I want to go be a failure in space, so take my job lmao’. Nice. I hate Ragnarok with a passion, but for fuck’s sake. 

Nidavellir. Establishes that Eitri is the last of the dwarven forgemasters left, and still has all his knowledge and skill. And that he forged the Gauntlet. And the plans for the Gauntlet are still there. Clearly, that means Tony should just whip together a nanite gauntlet in his basement overnight.

Carol Danvers and Nick Fury. You know, how Captain Marvel set them up as good friends, and then she allegedly shows up wanting to know where he is. Oops. That didn’t make the cut. Or her seeing Fury again after so many years. Double oops. Shit, this is even from the stinger of the last movie these yucks wrote, and they couldn’t even do it. Again - like Gagnarok and others, Cpt. Marvel is not even a movie I liked but COME ON NOW.

The intelligence/wisdom of the infinity stones. The space stone ‘judged’ Red Skull and cast him out. The soul stone has a ‘certain wisdom’. Ultron was made from the intelligence that lurked in the mind stone. Vision was linked to all the other stones and could sense almost a distress from each other stone as Thanos claimed them. NVM, stones destroyed lmao.

Infinity War went out of it’s way to make visually striking and different battle sequences and pulled out all the stops to really showcase powers. We got to see smart and interesting uses of all the stones during the battle on titan. Thanos actually had a wizard duel with Strange, showing that he is so much more than just a brute brawler. He blended caster and bruiser seemlessly. The color palatte was bright and arid, full of reds and oranges and blues and greens, well lit and extremely well choreographed. Tony showcases the amazing functionality of his Mk50 experimental armor. The battle at Avengers compound is dark, a color palette of grey, dark grey, light grey, and brown-grey. The choreography of the fight consisted of ‘surround Thanos and hit him with sticks’. We saw none of the MK85 suit. You know. The LAST suit Tony Stark would ever make. We saw none of Stormbreaker or Mjolnir’s power in Thor’s hands, only the most basic ‘fwoosh lightning’ from when Steve holds it. Where was Thor and his flying, his glowing eyes, Mjolnir-as-a-character that was present in all his fights in the past? Where was Steve’s mixed martial arts and his really acrobatic and distinct fighting style? Where was Tony constantly pulling new weapons and tricks out of his suit? The final fight of the Infinity Saga with the big three, and it’s as inspiring as a mid-aughties superhero duel. Just kind of slamming together and grunting. (I guess all the good fight choreographers were stolen by Alita)

‘I can do this all day’. The iconic line of Steve Rogers in the MCU, a touchstone for his character that is emblematic of his entire life and his drive, that says in six syllables the sum total meaning of what it is to be Captain America. Is played As A Joke.

Pepper Potts, whose character and relationship with Tony Stark to date can be summed up succinctly as ‘Tony no’ while he shouts ‘TONY YES’ now totally agrees with Tony and is all gung-ho about him deciding to risk his life, his daughter’s life, their lives, and the fucking universe to go a-time-travelling. What.

Steven Strange, whose movie was about him struggling to become a sorcerer and let go of his past and his preconceptions as well as the Ancient One seeing potential in him despite his roughness is shown to all be a charade. She actually knew all along he was going to be an OG badass and is so enamored with him that she’s willing to hand away the infinity stone she and her order have protected for millennia at the simple mention of his name.

Acausal time travel. Instead of enriching the previous movies by seamlessly blending into them for the time heist, Endgame goes out of it’s way to say ‘HAHA YEAH NO, THIS IS A BRANCHING TIMELINE’ so when you watch Dark World, Avengers, etc, there’s no intrigue of like ‘oh man, such and such is going on just around the corner’ because they so thoroughly bungled time travel and everything we saw in Endgame breaks the timelines. I can’t believe JK Rowling did a better job creating consistent and coherent time travel that carried narrative weight and tension in a children’s book.

Undoing the snap. All the speculation and theory about how, why, when, what, and it turns out all you have to do is just snap to bring everyone back and then act like the intervening five years of social decay and collapse never happened. 

Theodore Ross is very specifically shown in Infinity War to be the Secretary of State. Hm. A character who’s always been an antagonist, always against the avengers...in a high ranking government position...right before 50% of the population is dusted...right, yeah, nothing. Not the President after the snap. 

The snap itself. Smash cut to 5 years later, show some quick flybys and pay a bit of lip service to ‘oh yeah things are bad’ but that’s it. Don’t investigate it. Don’t show us how bad things are. Don’t explore it. In fact, everything seems pretty ok. People are still playing Fortnite five years later and cheerfully dabbing and taking selfies, so it’s all good right? Not like half of all life vanished instantly over night and the world is supposed to be falling apart. Nah.

Tony Stark’s death. Did he die to bring back the universe? Did he die to save his friends? Did he die to save his daughter or his family? Nope, he killed himself to kill the already beaten Thanos and his final words were all about himself. bUt ThE cAlLbAcK

Thanos. Killed off. Replaced by a cartoon villain version of himself. The Thanos that is the main antagonist that the Avengers beat? Not the Thanos who we got to know and who starred as the center of Infinity War.

Nebula. Best character in the film. Has no conclusion. No catharsis or reaction to Thanos’ death.

Groot. Split second shot of him and Rocket. No reunion.

Groot, again, and the rest of the Guardians. No chance to see Rocket’s reaction to the realization his entire family is gone or the effect it has on him. What was that scene in Infinity War? “Me? I got a lot to lose. I got a lot.” No relevance.

Stormbreaker. Major plotpoint of Infinity War. OP axe forged by Thor nearly sacrificing his life to a star. Yeets through a blast from a full-stone gauntlet. Is just a beatstick in Endgame, does nothing.

Infinity stones, again. Infinity War made them front and center, showing their many uses and delving deeper into the lore of them. Endgame makes them paperweights that can only snap.

I could go on and on and on. This is just off the top of my head, right now. Payoffs? I guess if you count the writers violently elbowing you in the ribs and shouting HEY ITS THAT SCENE FROM THAT OTHER MOVIE like you’re a drooling idiot as a ‘payoff’ it’s ripe with them, but actual meaningful payoff for a decade of characters and storytelling? Hah. No.

Edit: I will continue to update this as I think of/recall more examples

[artemisegeria]

A Formula, A Phrase Remains (6/7)

Title: A Formula, A Phrase Remains (6/7)

Rating: T

Word count: 1393

Warnings: None

Summary: Endgame spoilers. Wanda Maximoff has known so much grief in her life that it moves with her like a second skin. But she is a survivor. Moving on is what she does. So she tries to put the latest tragedy behind her by putting all her focus into Avenging and forming a new family for herself.

Meanwhile, Princess Shuri is gathering her own team to bring back someone who was lost far too soon.

Available from the beginning here.

 A/N: This quick update is brought to you by my renewed anger over Endgame. This chapter is one of the reasons I used the “Shameless Wish Fulfillment” tag. I think we were robbed of a conversation like this in Endgame, so I made it myself, time travel mechanics aside. I wrote this with the assumption that Old Steve did not stick around in the main timeline after giving the shield to Sam.

There is a brief reference to Spider-Man: Far From Home spoilers, but this story is not compliant with the movie and ignores the timeline.

 Wanda sat in Central Park on a warm summer afternoon, as she was wont to do. Golden light flowed through the leafy shade like syrup. She let the peaceful atmosphere and warbling of nearby birds wash over her when her solitude was interrupted by an old man joining her on her bench.

It took her a moment to recognize who it was, but she could feel the familiar mind without using her powers. “I never expected to see you again, Steve.”

“I didn’t expect to come back, but I regret not speaking to you before I left.” He smiled at her, something tentative in the same boyishly charming expression he’d always had. “How are you, Wanda?”

“I am well, as much as can be expected.” It was not a lie, precisely. She had a home. She had those she considered friends and those she considered family. Very few people hated her, at least openly. She had a purpose. It was a good life, far better than most were granted. But she could not escape the holes in her soul that were the deaths of her parents and brother, her lost teammates, and Vision.

“I read the newspaper before I came to meet you. I read about how you and Bucky brought down that group of former SI employees that was trying to fool people into believing they were heroes. Good work.”

“Thank you.” She did smirk a bit at Steve’s obvious pride; she did consider it one of her finest achievements as an Avenger. She and Bucky had worked as a great sleuthing team and discovered the entire network on their own. Untold damage was saved when Wanda and Bucky stopped them before their plan could come to fruition.

A new thought came to her, and she crossed her arms, staring Steve down. “How did you even know to find me here?”

“Oh, a little birdie told me.” Wanda groaned at the old pun. That was one of the great joys of the new team, they had moved onto other teasing insults. Steve immediately turned more serious. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“You too.” She was glad to see her old friend, even though she could feel resentment bubbling up within her. “Where are you going next?”

“I don’t know myself. I was more worried about finding you now that I built up the courage to face you.”

Wanda bit her lip. She never expected to be able to ask Steve about this. With Tony and Natasha gone, there was no one she felt she could talk to. She could interact with Bruce and Rhodey, but she couldn’t face them with this. Besides, it was all over, but Steve, who had fought almost as hard as she had, was now right here. She just had to ask him. “Why didn’t you even try?” Her voice broke into a sob and he handed her a cloth handkerchief.

Steve looked down at his hands before meeting her stare directly. He clearly knew exactly what she was talking about, judging by the pain in his eyes. “I don’t know what to tell you, Wanda. That’s part of the reason I avoided you after everyone came back. At first, we talked about trying to bring him back, but Bruce was shaken after his fight with the Hulk. Shuri was gone and we thought Tony was dead; he just didn’t think he could do it without them.” He paused at that, clearly lost in the memories of the aftermath of the first fight with Thanos.

Wanda wanted to urge him to continue. Now that the answers were so close, she needed to know. But she waited for him to go on. With a deep breath, he finally pressed on. “Then, we came back to New York. Everything was a mess and we were trying to put out as many fires as we could. When Tony came back a few weeks later, he wanted nothing to do with any of us, except Bruce. Eventually, Tony asked about Vision, and Bruce told him that the body was still in Wakanda. They argued a little bit about trying to bring him back, but Bruce wouldn’t do it. He retreated to his new lab and started working on his Hulk problem.”

Steve paused again. Wanda felt for what they had all suffered, she truly did, but something still didn’t sit right with her. “That explains why you didn’t try to bring him back immediately, but what about the next few years?” Steve looked away from her. She followed his gaze to where he was studying some children who were playing with a frisbee nearby.

“I was a coward. I couldn’t face the constant reminder of all the people we lost. I guess I was relieved when Tony and Bruce didn’t try to revive him. I left the Avengers to Nat and retreated into leading my group sessions. It just seemed more manageable trying to comfort people than trying to put the world back together. I failed, completely and utterly.”

Wanda felt torn between reassuring him that it must have been a difficult time and confirming that he was a terrible friend and a betrayal of his Captain America ideals. So she said nothing. The words stopped in her throat. She had worked so hard to move on over the last year and a half. When she finally accepted that Vision was not coming back ever, she renewed her efforts to move forward. Wanda built new relationships with her friends, did her best to mentor the younger would-be Avengers, and fought to rebuild the world. She did not think she would ever have room in her heart for romantic love again, but she had a rich life. Enduring this conversation revealed how fragile her healing was.

“I’m sorry, Wanda.”

Wanda still struggled to speak. She went through several quick meditation exercises that Stephen had shown while Steve sat silently by her side. After several minutes, she was finally able to get the words out. “I accept your apology for not talking to me, for just leaving to live your own alternate life, but I’m not the one you really owe an apology.”

Steve sighed. “I know.” He pulled out an envelope from his jacket pocket. “It doesn’t do much good now, but I wanted to go some way to make amends. This is a letter I wrote to Vision.” She accepted it with shaking hands.

“I’ll send it on to Shuri.” She considered that this would give her an excuse to travel to Wakanda to see Vision’s memorial. However, her careful façade of recovery was already compromised. She couldn’t think of going to see his grave right now. She had attempted to make her peace with him when she had visited Wakanda soon after she returned. She knew revisiting that wound would only make it bleed anew.

“Thank you.” They fell into a brief, contemplative silence until Steve cleared his throat. “Would it be alright if I stayed for dinner?”

Wanda brought out her most polite smile that Natasha had taught her for dealing with the press. “Of course.” She knew the others would want to see him. She tamped down her lingering negative feelings in the name of harmony.

When they arrived back at the mansion, Bucky hugged Steve and Carol clapped him on the shoulder. Dinner was spent with everyone talking over each other to explain their latest exploits. Bucky teased Steve about missing modern conveniences all those years. Carol compared basic training stories with him. Sam joked that Steve should take Bucky off his hands. Wanda excused herself as soon as she was able. Fortunately, they all let her go without complaint or question.

She spent the rest of the evening wrapped in a blanket in her room, despite the muggy late summer air. She listened to Vision’s favorite soft jazz to drown out the laughter from downstairs. Wanda decided that if she was going to wallow, which she had not allowed herself to do in months, she might as well do it properly. She pulled out a book that Vision had recommended to her from her drawer and enveloped herself in his sweater, one of his few pieces of actual clothing that she had stolen from him during one of their visits.

She let the tears pour down her face.

 A/N2: Ah, catharsis! I don’t hold it against the team for not mentioning Vision. I hold it against the writers who ignored the actions the team likely would have at least attempted based on their attitudes in IW and earlier movies, but damn it, everyone will acknowledge how they failed Vision in my stories.

This also turned a little angstier than I intended, but Wanda is going through a tough time.

Only one chapter left in the first part! I’m excited to move on to the next part of the story.  

[rhetorical-ink]

Rhetorical Ink: Avengers - Endgame Review

**AVENGING SPOILERS BELOW**

I had to wait nearly a week to see the film, since we saw it for my brother’s birthday -- it was surprisingly a packed theater for a week after a movie’s come out...and with all the hype, here are

My Top FIFTEEN Thoughts of Avengers: Endgame:

In all honesty, with a movie this big, and with my somewhat torn opinion of the film, I have to do a list of likes and dislikes. Let’s start with:

THE GREAT

10. Rocket the Racoon DELIVERS in every scene he’s in -- making for a great balance of humor and drama; clearly, he’s lost a lot from Infinity War, and I honestly could not tell it was Bradley Cooper in this role -- that’s how good the character is (more on the not-quite-that below).

9. I’ve never been a huge fan of Ant Man in the Marvel Universe, but I really, really liked Paul Rudd in this movie -- his levity was much-needed, but at times, especially in the beginning, his acting is just SPOT ON. He’s a major player in this movie and his role carries weight and makes sense. Just a great character that I didn’t think I would want to focus on in this film!

8. Speaking of characters I didn’t think I would care about, War Machine is oddly relatable and has a bigger role in this film too, and I really liked Don Cheadle’s performance in the film!

And I couldn’t mention surprises without mentioning Nebula -- her entire arc in this movie is just fantastic -- Karen Gillian did a helluva job acting and working with this character and I just LOVED it throughout the film! Her character gets a meaty role and she knocks it out of the park.

7. Spoilers, Wanda Maximoff aka The Scarlet Witch returns by the end, and her battle against Thanos was just wonderful -- I was rooting for her and her powers the whole end battle! More on that end battle below!

6. The premise of time travel and how they explain it and work through it in the movie was clever, fun, and a great source of humor and creativity -- I loved the idea of going through various timelines and into the past and seeing bits and pieces of scenes from previous Marvel films -- it just was a great premise and execution, throughout the film!

5. Of course, there is a final battle with The Avengers vs. Thanos, and while some parts (mentioned below) are awkward, I really loved just how COMIC BOOK like the entire end battle was, incorporating elements from the past several films and new elements we’re sure to see in future installments -- it was definitely a moment in film history that was a culmination of a decade of build up and it paid off!

THE INTRIGUING

5. Similar to Rocket, Thor has a BIG part in this film and his appearance when he first reappears after the time skip in the movie was HILARIOUS -- seriously, I never thought Fortnite would make it into a Marvel film, but I loved it nonetheless.

However, Thor is highly unstable throughout and goes from being hilariously like “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski to being unhinged and nearly insane with his mood swings and emo nature. It was a hit and miss performance and parts seemed more like Chris Hemsworth being funny than Thor being funny; but I am intrigued to see where his character goes after this film!

4. I would be lying if I said I didn’t connect with Hawkeye and find his storyline powerful; hell, the opening scene with him had my jaw dropped. That being said, I was disappointed that when we get to him and Natasha going after the Soul Stone...and it’s Natasha that’s sacrificed. Especially the shot of her at the bottom of the stone basin; it really took away from Gamora’s sacrifice in a way. I really thought it should have been Hawkeye sacrificing himself, but I guess it makes sense since he got to be with his family again after they come back.

I guess I wanted more Hawkeye in the past films so that his character’s actions would have more payoff here...but...how does that Rolling Stones song go again?

3. The appearance of Tilda Swinton was SO welcomed and I loved her interactions with Bruce -- I really wish we’d had more of those moments with characters interacting with those they’re not normally paired with. Yes, we do get Thor and his mother reuniting and Tony Stark and his father -- but I wish they’d shown Rocket getting the reality stone from Jane, or see Paul Rudd run into a character from Avengers, etc.

2. So...Loki? We see him get an infinity stone and run off -- to where? Clearly it means we’re going to see him in the future and I need that in my life!

1. Speaking of hypothetical situations, there was so much that could have been done with Tony Stark and Pepper Pott’s daughter, Morgan. I really hope that she becomes Iron Man in the future! I just thought there would be more of a conflict with changing the past and altering the future -- it would have been a compelling part to mention...maybe it would have been too much more to add to the many storylines happening throughout the film -- I just wanted to see Tony’s decision to help change the past have more weight on his future, I suppose...but then, Tony ends up dying, so I guess it really did have weight! I don’t know what’s what anymore. In any case...we love you Tony Stark, we love you 3000.

THE ERRRRM.....because no film is perfect.

-5. When we are reunited with The Hulk, he’s become a perfect blend of Bruce and The Hulk -- I realize we’ve been slowly building towards this, especially with Thor Ragnarok and how The Hulk is portray...

...but I just couldn’t get behind it. I’m not sure if it’s the CGI or some other factor, but The Hulk just wasn’t...The Hulk in this. Granted, the scene where Bruce puts on the Hulk-buster Gauntlet and notes the Gamma Radiation being how he can handle it was cool and clever as all get out -- I still felt like I wanted to see The Hulk be more like himself throughout this movie.

-4. Captain Marvel. I will admit that I haven’t seen Captain Marvel, but I just can’t get behind Carol Danvers. She’s kind of a wet towel, and she just disappears for most of the film to only show up at the very end when it’s very convenient. I just couldn’t get behind her character and she seemed super overly arrogant and just hyped. I’m glad her character could stand up to Thanos, but didn’t just kick his butt instantly -- I don’t know...maybe seeing her own movie will make me get it more...

-3. The whole female characters get together and run into battle scene was a little...much. I get showing these characters fighting and winning, and I’m all for it! But I felt the scene where ONLY the ladies get together to fight was a little on the nose...I just couldn’t get behind it for the moment.

-2.  I really loved that Captain America could wield Thor’s hammer -- such a good call back and payoff in the movie! What wasn’t a good payoff was his “staying in the past,” aging, and passing his shield down to Falcon. I realize the connection to the comic -- but it just seemed shoe-horned in the end and a bit ham-fisted. Those fight scenes, though? KILLER! And that “American Ass?” MORE KILLER.

-1. I think going into the film over-hyped was a detriment -- it’s a good film, and I teared up with Tony died. But the over hype did leave me with a smidgen of disappointment.

I liked the film, but I feel I liked Infinity War better. At least we have wild antics to look forward to in Guardians of the Galaxy 3! If you’re a comic fan, you won’t want to miss this film, but if you’ve not read the comics, you might be a little lost!

[ninewheels]

All right, let’s do some Wild Guessing and Drastically Over-Reading this fucking poster because I’ve had an ambien and this is just the kind of person I am.

So, the gradual build of information has led to this as our core cast for Endgame: the Original Six Avengers (this being their swan song, as a group and for most of them as individuals too probably), Rhodey, Nebula, Rocket, and Scott--all the headliners who survived the snap--plus Carol.

Toward the end of the trailer we see Steve, Tony, Nat, Clint, Nebula, Rhodey, and Scott in those white suits, presumably designed for travel in the Quantum Realm based on their similarity to Hank’s suit from Ant-Man and the Wasp, and based on the fact that their party now has a member (Scott) who knows about  the Quantum Realm, previously established to be very wibbly-wobbly and timey-wimey, and therefore possibly useful for our heroes’ almost-certain plan, to save the day by going back in time to stop the snap from happening in the first place. (There’s a million little bits of evidence hinting that it’s time travel, I won’t talk about all the sources.) We don’t see Thor, Bruce/Hulk, and Rocket in those suits, but toybox art leaks reveal all three of them suited up, so we know that happens at some point. We don’t see Carol in that scene at all, and there’s no photo evidence of her putting on a Quantum Suit, so maybe she’s getting through the Quantum Realm with her cosmic space radiation powers, or maybe she’s just not going. Either way, the other 10 characters are suited up and ready to go on some mission that we don’t see any of because, as was mentioned months ago by Feige, the marketing for this film is restricting itself mostly to footage from the first 15 minutes of the film; if we accept the informed guess that the main plot of the film will be the Avengers traveling through space and time to find a way to stop Thanos before the snap happens, the more concrete cut-off point could just be the end of the first act, when the mission actually begins. However exactly it shakes out, it seems pretty certain that this is our core team. That’s our current Avengers lineup, featuring Special Guest Star Party Member Carol to some extent or another.

This is reinforced by the poster. The characters featured on this poster are those 11 heroes, Thanos himself... and one other conspicuous inclusion: Okoye. The original poster featured her on it, but did not list Danai Gurira’s name at the top, an oddity that Marvel was quick to remedy when people started protesting. But for my part, I’m still wondering what it means that she gets to be on the poster, even though only the 12 obvious leads got credited above the title at first. Could her inclusion be a nod to the fact that she is one of only two supporting characters to be shown surviving the snap at the end of Infinity War? It’s just her and M’Baku, although I would not personally think much of him in this context as he is a decidedly less important character than Okoye in the grand scheme of the MCU.

While on the first draft of this poster Danai Gurira’s name was not at the top, it was (and is) listed in the credits at the bottom of the poster. See for yourself: Danai Gurira, Benedict Wong, Jon Favreau, then it lists Bradley Cooper as Rocket, and then “with Gwyneth Paltrow” right before “with Josh Brolin”. First of all, note than Josh Brolin still has the “with” billing he had on the Infinity War poster (where Chris Pratt got the “and” for some baffling reason). Aside from brief archive footage shots from Infinity War of Sam and Wanda dusting away, the characters who have been dusted have been completely absent from marketing so far. Though it’s far from a secret that the dusted characters are going to come back and appear in some form in this film, I think the idea that the marketing is sticking to the first act of the film might be more than just “no footage from after a certain timestamp”, it might actually be an overall philosophy that guides details of what appears on the posters.

Side note: I firmly believe that this film will end with everyone dusted in Infinity War coming back to life in exchange for the sacrifice of some (maybe many) of the surviving characters, based on who Marvel is ready to put to rest for good and willing to let die as opposed to retire from superhero-ing. I subsequently firmly believe that the first portion of the end credits will not only list the actors listed on the poster, but also restore to their Infinity War billing all of the actors whose characters got dusted last time, as a symbolic thing.

Okoye is definitely alive at the end of Infinity War. I’m gonna guess that Shuri is dead because if she isn’t, then Shuri is Queen of Wakanda, and that’s a plot point Marvel doesn’t want to bring up only for it to become a glorified easter egg in a film about completely different things. Meanwhile, Shuri being dead means there is no clear heir to the throne of Wakanda, putting the country in disarray, adding to the Darkest Timeline vibe that Endgame is starting with, and also giving Okoye a pretty compelling reason to not leave Wakanda to help the gang on their mission. Not that I ever thought she was going to be a part of the team, but the question now is why is she important enough to get her face on the poster as a thirteenth-wheel? And why are Pepper, Happy, and Wong important enough to have their actors listed after the headliners in the bottom credits? Could it be that they and Okoye are the only supporting characters still alive in post-snap world? Pepper, Wong, and Okoye would be the only other surviving major characters from Infinity War, and Happy wasn’t in Infinity War but he’s been around a lot since the beginning of the MCU, so he’s still relevant enough. Maybe that’s all there is to it. Maybe these are simply the only other major characters we’re going to see before whatever story cut-off point they’ve picked to dictate the marketing strategy. I definitely don’t think all four are all going to have a lot of screen-time or much to do. That still leaves the mystery of why, out of those four, Okoye was singled out to be on the poster. The most logical theory is also the most boring and cynical, which is that they wanted to add some variety to a mostly-male, almost all-white cast ensemble, and picked the only WOC left for the optics. That said, I would like to think there is a real reason for her to be up there based on the content of her role in the film. I’d like to think Okoye’s going to do at least one plot-relevant thing, but damned if I can figure out what it is. After all, whether Shuri is alive or not, I cannot see her abandoning her post at Wakanda. Maybe she’ll have a beefed up role on the other end of the film when they (will probably) have to revisit the Battle of Wakanda to keep Thanos from snapping.

Final note: I know I’m not the first person to point this out, but this is the first time that Mark Ruffalo has gotten to have his own real face on a main poster. He got a character single for the first Avengers with his own face on it, but every appearance he’s made on the primary poster for a given film has been in Hulk form. As far as I see it, this could be either a case of “let Mark show his real face because this is his last time” OR “Mark has to show his real face because Hulk doesn’t show up until later in the movie”.

[aion-rsa]

WandaVision: What Does Agnes Really Want?

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This article contains WandaVision spoilers.

Pulling off twists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe means playing with what comics fans think they know. To those who read Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run, there was no surprise in Bucky’s unmasking during the movie Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but then you get the Skrulls in Captain Marvel, who were played much more sympathetically than their comics portrayals.

That’s what has kept us guessing with WandaVision’s Agnes, otherwise known as Agatha Harkness. Kathryn Hahn’s been playing the hell out of the character, but for much of the season, she’s had us second-guessing everything. The reveal that Agnes is Agatha Harkness was something many fans had figured out from the very beginning, but what did that mean in the grand scheme of things? What was her role? In the comics, Agatha was more of an ally than anything else, so it wasn’t exactly clear what she was up to. While the show even tried to make her true identity less obvious by treating her as helpless in the face of Wanda’s powers as fellow neighbors Herb and Norm, it wasn’t until the latter half of the seventh episode that we were sure she was up to no good.

Accompanied by the Munsters-like theme “Agatha All Along,” we got to see Agnes throughout the show, working her magic in the shadows. But just how “guilty” is Agatha? Let’s take a look at all of Agnes’ scenes on the show so far and see what we can figure out about what’s going on.

Agatha Makes Her Entrance

The “Agatha All Along” segment shows Agatha appearing in Westview as a witch and transforming into a black-and-white 1950s character seconds before making her first actual appearance on the WandaVision show-within-a-show.

“Agnes” appears and greets Wanda for the first time, talking up her mother-in-law’s visit as the reason she was out of town. At first, this is a throwaway line, but it’s also Agnes’ way of showing up after Wanda and Vision had settled in while having a cover story for being a longtime local. It was also really suspect by the third episode when it was established that exiting and entering Westview isn’t the easiest task.

As the first episode is fairly straightforward as outside of the Lynchian dinner moment and the “SWORD is watching” color cliffhanger, there isn’t too much to really grab onto, even with Agnes’ heavy screentime. She simply builds a rapport with Wanda as her new best friend for the sake of building trust.

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Fittingly, the Glamourous magazine she insists on reading to Wanda has an ad on the back cover for a detergent called “Coy.”

Agnes shows up later for the dinner date with lots of food to help Wanda. She comes off as seemingly too well-prepared. Regardless, Wanda doesn’t want her to see her superhero secrets and kicks her out. Notably, Wanda does so while calling Agnes out as being “naughty,” which will get a neat callback several episodes later.

The big elephant in the room is Agnes’ husband Ralph. She brings him up three times, talking about his love for beer and beans while jokingly lamenting that he hasn’t been very hands-on with her lately. Ralph has yet to appear on the show yet, raising the question of whether he exists and, if he does exist, in what form?

Another interesting question to wonder in this episode is whether Agatha was behind Mr. Hart choking on his food. With Mrs. Hart (who curiously asks about their lack of kids considering what follows) pleading with Wanda like an emotional broken record, we’re meant to think that Wanda is trying to silence him, but as I’ll get to in a second, Wanda might not be aware enough to do that just yet.

Agatha Secretly Uses Magic at the Talent Show

Not counting her cartoon counterpart, Agnes first appears in the second episode when Wanda is checking out the colorized helicopter toy in her bushes. Agnes excitedly calls her “the star of the show,” only to cover by claiming that she was talking about her pet rabbit Señor Scratchy, prepared to be part of Wanda and Vision’s magic act.

One notable thing here is that there’s a brief moment of Agnes interacting with Dennis the mailman, giving us the only non-commercial sitcom moment in the first few episodes that doesn’t include Wanda or Vision. Dennis himself – the first character to have any interaction with our protagonists – seems to be a riddle himself, but time will tell on that one. Agnes jokes with Dennis, checks him out from the back, and waits for Wanda to return so she can drag her away from the lawn and distract her from the helicopter situation.

Once they get to Dottie’s place, Agnes is very much about getting Wanda to conform with the timeline and the neighborhood. She also talks up Wanda’s future children by saying that befriending Dottie can help with her children’s schooling.

At the scene with the housewives hanging out, Agnes is mostly in the background. Her money line is how Dottie claims, “The devil is in the details,” and Agnes notes, “That’s not the only place he is!” On paper, it’s a jab at Dottie, but it’s also an obvious tie in to Agnes connection to the occult, further fueling the rumors that Mephisto might be involved in the show’s plot.

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One other note about this is when the women all say, “FOR THE CHILDREN,” in unison, they make sure to obscure Geraldine’s face. She’s likely not saying it or is looking confused, but we’re spared from that little crack in the narrative.

Agnes appears at the big talent show in the audience, cracking a joke about making Ralph disappear. This is the first time we, the viewer, notice something is up because why wouldn’t Ralph be at this function? Anyway, the “Agatha All Along” sequence shows that Agatha was using her magic to cause a bit of havoc with the magic act, not like she was needed. Of all the snippets in that reveal, this is the one that seems the most open-ended. What exactly did she get out of Señor Scratchy running off?

What appears to be the important part is how the cast conveys the cult-like, “FOR THE CHILDREN,” to our heroes a few times over. Not only that, but it’s during the brief stretch of time in-between our couple having sex within Westview and Wanda realizing she’s pregnant. If anything, that appears to be part of Agatha’s grand plan.

Was she hammily applauding because everything was going according to her plan or in spite of Wanda and Vision succeeding? It’s hard to say.

An important detail to note is how the flustered Wanda greets Vision at the talent show. After the third and fourth episodes, it’s easy to see the helicopter toy scene as Wanda realizing that someone’s infiltrated her fantasy world and is out to stop her, but that’s not what’s going on. She’s genuinely confused. She actually tries to tell Vision about it, as well as the exploding radio incident, but never gets around to it.

Wanda doesn’t fully give in to this world until she discovers she’s pregnant. After that, she’s hooked in.

Is Agatha Controlling Herb’s Mind?

The third episode is when we start to question if Agnes is really in on what’s going on, when in reality it’s the first time we truly see her messing with our heroes for the sake of keeping Wanda on track.

Agnes takes a backseat initially, only appearing very briefly in the opening credits. It comes off like Geraldine is starting to usurp her position as Wanda’s best friend and confidant and it is easy to see Agatha as feeling threatened by that. It’s especially threatening if Geraldine can successfully get through to Wanda.

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It seems clear that Agatha messes with Herb’s mind. Did she momentarily wake him up? Did she simply take over his mind? It’s hard to say, but they’re able to lay the seeds of doubt in Vision…all while keeping Vision away from Wanda lashing out at Geraldine. Agnes and Herb make Wanda come off as something truly horrifying in front of Vision and damn if Hahn’s performance isn’t convincing. That rapid, scared shake of the head at Herb is so good.

What’s certain here is that Agatha wants Vision to think of Wanda as a monster. Considering that nervous smile Vision gives Wanda a minute later (as shown in the next episode), she has succeeded.

“Agnes” Doesn’t Have a Real Name

The focus is outside Westview this time around, but there’s a big moment that puts Agnes into question once again: of all the players in the WandaVision sitcom world, she’s one of the only “actors” who doesn’t have a true identity. The plot thickens.

Agatha “Directs” Wanda

Agnes appears to help out with Wanda and Vision’s crying babies. As she’s about to get started, Vision gets a bit too neurotic and stops her from getting near the kids. Suddenly, things get tense as Agnes appears lost and breaks the fourth wall. At first glance, she appears to fear Wanda, but it now appears that she’s more about insisting to Wanda to let her continue with the “script” and help the babies despite Vision’s reluctance. You can almost read this as Agatha giving Wanda direction.

A major part of this scene is how Agnes doesn’t bat an eye at Billy and Tommy suddenly aging several years. She just shrugs it off and talks about how hard it is to control children.

In terms of directing fiction, children and animals are infamously hard to deal with, which is what Agnes might be referencing here. This could be connected to Wanda’s inability to use her powers on the stork from the third episode.

She returns later on with a convenient doghouse for Billy and Tommy’s newly-found dog. Wanda has become lax with giving into the “hidden powers” part of their status quo and barely hides her magic abilities in front of Agnes. After all, if Wanda is giving into her fantasy more and more, why should she hide herself?

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But she is right that Agnes isn’t second-guessing any of the weird stuff going on, especially when Billy and Tommy age themselves up once more.

Wanda and the kids later find Agnes with the dead, wrapped-up body of Sparky the dog. Agnes claims that the dog ate some toxic leaves, but we now know that she’s directly responsible for the dog’s death (at least that’s what she claims in the song). She sheds some crocodile tears and watches as Billy and Tommy ask Wanda to bring Sparky back from the dead. Agnes asks if that’s possible for Wanda and Wanda doesn’t really answer.

Even if she can reverse death, Wanda knows that she shouldn’t. Agnes lets out a sigh and, sad scene or not, it seems in retrospect that Wanda’s goodness and sense of responsibility inadvertently foiled Agatha’s scheme.

Fake Pietro’s appearance has always come off as being there to prevent Vision from convincing Wanda to reject the fantasy world they live in now that we know that Agnes is the puppet master here. Of course, that brings us back to square one with Pietro because right now it’s up in the air whether he’s evil, if he’s just being controlled, or if he’s the X-Men version of Quicksilver at all.

Agatha Fakes Out Vision

So yeah, in the first episode, Wanda calls Agnes naughty. Now she has “NAUGHTY” bedazzled on the back of her sweatpants. And, of course, the theme song refers to her as “naughty Agatha.”

Whatever Pietro’s deal is, he’s either under Agatha’s control or he’s in league with her for this episode. That means he’s trying to get Wanda’s trust and figure out her secrets. He’s getting more intel about taking over the town and answer any lingering questions Agnes has. All in all, he isn’t very successful and completely blows it with that crack about Vision being dead.

Agnes’ big scene is Vision coming across her car and waking her up. Even on the first watch, it shows that she’s from out of town due to her non-New Jersey license plates and her confusion over directions of a town she claims to have grown up in. Her reaction to Vision is comparable to that of Norm in the previous episode, so we once again have reason to question her role in everything.

Maybe she is a red herring.

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Now it seems likely that Agnes was merely playing with Vision. With that knowledge, comparing that to Vision’s scene with Norm and the reveal that Agatha was messing with Herb’s mind, it’s notable that although Agnes claims Wanda won’t let them think of escaping, Norm doesn’t actually name his tormentor. He just says “her” and “she.” That puts into question who is torturing everyone’s minds. Is it Wanda or has it been “Agatha all along?”

So what is Agatha’s play by lying to Vision? Other than hiding her guilt, she could be doing one of two things. It’s possible that she’s out to take Vision off the board by pushing him towards his inevitable, painful death outside of the Hex. It’s also possible that she’s hoping Vision will die so that Wanda will resurrect him again and Agnes can take notes.

Agatha Harkness Revealed

And so, we get the big reveal. Before Agnes reveals herself as Agatha Harkness, Vision spends the whole episode unable to get closer to his wife due to the current sitcom narrative rejecting it. Agnes convinces Wanda to let her take the twins away for the day. Billy, overwhelmed by all the psychic screams in Westview, notes that Agnes is “quiet.” Soon the twins go missing and we’re left to wonder their fates.

Wanda is left alone as the world around her starts to glitch. Due to the mockumentary gimmick of the episode, Agatha “the director” is still there to gaslight her into feeling like the villain in her own story. And, yes, she is a villain, but the question is whether or not she is THE villain.

When Monica breaks into Westview to confront Wanda and talk sense into her, Agnes steps in to prevent that conversation from reaching a rational conclusion. Soon enough, she’s able to trick Wanda into going to her creepy basement, introduces her true self as Agatha Harkness, and overwhelms her with purple energy. Cue catchy theme song.

All that, plus “Pietro” catches Monica snooping. Are they going to fight it out or work together?

Now that we’re caught up, what exactly is Agatha Harkness’ plan? What does she actually want?

Other than simply using Wanda’s powers as sustenance (as hinted at in the Yo-Magic commercial from episode 6), Agatha’s interest seems to be in learning from certain abilities Wanda has that go against the natural order of things. Wanda’s powers aren’t magic in the traditional sense, but essentially cosmic due to her connection to the Mind Stone and the universe itself.

Wanda apparently used her powers to bring Vision back to life. Not only did she bring someone back to life (robotic as he is), but she did it by recreating the Mind Stone in some way. Even when Vision is being torn apart from being outside of the Hex, the new Mind Stone seems to stay intact. If Wanda wants to, she probably could bring her brother back the way she remembers. What else could she bring back?

Similarly, it appears she willed those twins into existence. I don’t expect a Disney property to go into detail, but Vision’s not exactly equipped to sire children. They exist because Wanda insists on it. With a little prodding from the neighborhood at Agatha’s behest, Wanda has been able to create life.

You better believe Agatha wants that kind of power. Maybe we’ll find out that Ralph was once real and he’ll be resurrected. Maybe Agatha is going to summon something far, far worse.

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We’ve got two more episodes of WandaVision to get the answers.

The post WandaVision: What Does Agnes Really Want? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[bluueejay]

mcu wanda is an adult, she is not “just a kid.”

She’s in her late teens (18+) in AoU, that is not a child. Yes, she’s young. Yes, she grew up in a small country that, from her childhood on, was brimming w civil war and chaos. Yes, her childhood and young life were filled to the brim with horrors and destruction. She’s young and unsure, afraid even, but she’s not a child. The ‘borderline’ infantilization of her throughout the movies, though it’s mostly prominent in CW (and hell, if ya wanna get specific about it, AoU too) is fucking weird. It’s odd. She’s old enough to be in the field, fighting, and training w the others. She’s old enough to be a legit, living-on-the-avengers-compound-property, avenger. She’s old enough to be going into other countries on missions, she’s old enough to be mentored by The Black Widow and Captain America, she’s old enough to fight battles, she’s old enough for all of that: but the minute something goes wrong or she’s faced w something less than pleasant, it’s a bout of “oh come on, she’s a kid! How dare you, she’s a kid!” When absolutely no? No, she’s not? She’s young, traumatized, and learning, absolutely. but not a child.

Let’s get technical for a sec, aight? When you go to the mcu maximoff’s wiki and scroll down to their AoU section, it reads as such, quote,

“When the twins reached adulthood, (....) Wanda and her brother took part in various riots to drive the foreign forces out of their streets. (....) The Maximoffs were approached by List who offered them a way to achieve the power needed to drive war out of Sokovia. Although she was initially skeptical, Wanda was convinced by Pietro to agree to the experiments to gain new powers.”

When they reached adulthood, (read: 18+) Sokovia had fully fallen into its civil war and that’s when the Twins were approached by List. (Idc if you want to argue about them thinking it was SHIELD/if they knew it was hydra, I don’t care. The main point being presented is that they underwent voluntary human experimentation. Another thing, because this was mentioned in AoU by I think Steve? A civil war is not the same as an external war. A civil war is not typically where you are fighting for your country, more you’re fighting for who controls your contry. Got it? Cool, moving on.)

She is not a child.

Treating her as such within the movies and then having certain chunks of the fandom push that belief only snowballs the iffy as fuck storytelling mistake that is the ‘as long as my intentions are good, any mistakes made are excusable’ mentality present within the MCU, but especially so in cacw. It’s fucking weird.

Take Clint’s line durint the compound, where after she’s said she’s caused enough problems and that it’s likely better for her to stay (content, not dialogue) he casually manipulates asks her into joining the fight by insinuating that the only way for her to make amends is to fight more, but he refers to their age difference w that high school comment. I can’t remember it word for word but paraphrased it’s essentially ‘if you want to make amends, you get off your ass. You wanna stay here and mope, you can go back to high school.’ Now obviously, we’ve learned thru mcu Clint’s meegar character development that he’s absolutely the type to refer to anyone significantly younger than him as a ‘kid’, he’s presented as that type of a character, that kind of a guy. Many people allege that his words are in reference to their pseudo familial connection but ehh, that’s up to personal speculation.

My longwinded point is that Clint and Steve have shown a repeated habit of infantalizing her, despite her adult age. Idc if it’s because she’s younger or bc of a sentimental connection between the lot, she’s in her early 20’s come cacw, the repeated comments about her being w kid (I know the high school moping comment was made more in reference to her behavior, rather than her age, but the phrasing is absolutely off for what they were going for and it’s still weird so)

Whether that be bc of their age differences, their sentimental affections, the mentor ship relationships towards her; whatever, it doesn’t really matter, because in the end: they’re still treating this then 18+ now 20+ year old woman like she’s a 14 year old. That’s,, that’s weird. It’s weird.

If you follow the mcu timeline and the information present, she and pietro are already 18, if not older, in the end credits scene for TWS. There’s about a year jump between TWS and AoU, putting her at about 19 in AoU, if you want to be a bit handwavy. (I’m personally of the idea that because the twins were already adults before list approached them about the experiments, they’re likely closer to 19 in the TWS end credits scene where it’s apparent that they’ve been with List long enough for their powers to manifest/start manifesting but it’s eh) That may be a little on the nose but for the sake of this, we’re gonna be a little on the nose. Alright? So she and pietro are at about 19 in AoU, young but by no stretch of the imagination are they children. Then, we jump from AoU to CW. There’s another year jump between AoU and CW, which is putting her in her early 20’s, let’s say 20 exactly for semantics sake.

CW specifically is where a lot of the infantilization and weird shit comes into play, which is even weirder to me specifically bc in this film, she’s absolutely not a child? She’s not a teenager or a weak-willed infant, she’s 20! And then again, we jump from CW to IW, where there’s a 2 year jump in time. That puts her at 22. 22! (On the nose again, I know, it’s likely not exactly year by year, but still) We jump again from IW and endgame, w the 5 year jump and even more semantics, she’s in her late 20’s. 27ish, to be a bit more specific. From her introduction to the latest film presented, she’s isn’t nor has she ever been a child.

So why are people (specifically Clint and Steve lmfao) so fucking insistent that she’s a kid?

(The time jump confirmations I’m using are coming from interviews and statements Joe Russo has given in the last year plus or so lmao, so don’t @ me about my stretching the timeline to fit my agenda or some shit)

Just all around, it’s a fucking weird story aspect to have at play, especially for as long as it was (mostly between AoU and CACW with contextual stuff scattered in IW, not much of note but it’s kinda there). It infantilizes this (currently) 20+ year old character to a near dangerous state, which brings us all the way back to that childish as fuck statement made in CW, the ‘you locked me in my room’ one. Your room.. you mean the several multi-million dollar facility with hundreds of amenities and your robo-boyfriend? And yes, her situation should have been explained to her much more throughouly, that’s something I absolutely stand by but also.. she was watching the news. She knows people are angry, going for the jugular, Steve’s little ‘we can’t save everyone’ speech absolutely doesn’t change the fact that the public is afraid and that they know her face. “Mr. Stark would like to prevent the possibility of another public incident” yeah, like say if she had gone to the store and had people come after her, something like that? She wasn’t even under official house arrest, she was making dinner with her boyfriend and hanging around. That “you locked me in my room” Comment is something I’d expect to hear from my 11 year old niece, an actual child, not a 20-something year old woman who also happens to be the mcu’s Scarlet Witch. It’s.. weird and iffy as fuck, a really bad writing choice, and something that shouldn’t have been done but oops it was and now we’re left w all this shit to pick and poke at while we cry about other shit. Nice.

[thats-a-real-mood]

loki episode 1x01

Im loving the green/gold marvel logo. 

mega spoilers under cut! 

Ngl not sure why the tesserect threw him like that in mongolia. Is there a reason that thanos had better control? (Other than him being a giant grape) Is this what happened with red skull?

Tva introduced. Very mysterious

Aw loki is just done with the avengers and everything else

Why did they have loki’s lips do that for so long? And in 1/16 speed

Reset the timeline? What does that do?

Zooming in on the device on the ground assuming that is going to reset the timeline. Okay so but reseting does that mean that there is now another loki? Our loki we are watching and a different loki who is continuing one the timeline?

A variant skrull?

Loki trying to run and then getting timelooped back to the lady is slightly funny

Aw that poor guy is cheerful and shes all like no i have a job

Deadly consequences huh? Is that gonna come back later? I have a feeling they will never like each other

Aw happy robot

Aw fashionista drama queen loki. I love it

Okay i may be ace but loki looks good!

-honestly in the gray suit he doesnt look that muscular but he is. Its just hidden. It hints at it with his shoulders but he in fine!

I did a get picture of the end credits where it shows what he said

“if it’s all the same yo you know i’ll have that drink now.

“tva? friend i think there has been a mistake. I am Loki,- You will regret this. I am burddened with glororius purpose. I stand on the right side of thanos- pleased to learn you’ve- my father is-”

is all i could read from this

A cat and a cat mug. I like it. This dude must be so tired. And everyone gives him extra work with everything they say even in his room. -does it do this even after they leave? And honestly i thought lokis stack would be bigger

“Do alot of people not know if they are robots?”Hun im sorry but you didnt know you were frost giant..

Now at first glance the whole “what if i was a robot and didnt know it?” Line is funny but you gotta like deeper. Like i said right above he didnt know he was a frost giant for almost the whole time 2012! Loki has been alive.

Ok but why does it look like giant scratch marks in the red rectangle. I think it’s supposed to be like dried blood or whatever but more like scratch’s.

His temporal aura..lots of red,maybe purple and yellow followed by green and blue at the top. I wanna know what it mean. Do more colors get added with more temporal stuff?

That looks like the guy who died in the trailers

He was insistent that he take a ticket. Lokis staring contest with the guy. Passive aggressive loki

Is that PA sound activated by a specific phrase? I think it would be since it probably would have turned on sooner than when loki shouted otherwise

I dont like miss minutes.

Who are the timekeepers? How are they all knowing? Can we get some more lore on them?

Branching off the nexus? That showed in a scene in the trailer..

So do the tva not want a multiverse? But it was canonized in dr strange. And wandavision. Or do they just not want a multiverse war?

Created the TVA and its workers? What do they mean by creating the workers as well?

Wait what that the reset charge i saw in the cartoon? So does that mean that there is a loki that is continuing on the timeline?

Is that how we kept the “sacred timeline”? But how? The avengers dropped the cube and loki got it and left. So how did they fix the timeline to keep him from picking it up again?

The guy doesnt have a ticket and is throwing a karen tantrum. Oop-

Okay now loki is scared.

Is it bad that i saw him hold up his ticket and found it funny? Like see boom i have it totally not gonna get destroyed now

Okay so i wrote the cool “runes” i put them in quotations because i dont know if that is what they are. Ill try to look them up later and post them.

Five dead in france..1549

Sombody got the jump? Its him? Who?

Stab wounds? Reset charge is gone. Sixth attack? That they know of?

Nice satan imagery in the background. First (assuming) micheal first with light shining in this guy and now satan..

I saw her eyes look to the satan and then upwards so assuming she means the horns but it could also be mephisto. But does mephisto stab people? Those horns look loki style

Afraid of them?

Kablooie? Blue gum? Blooeberrie?

-Why was it given away? Is it a sign? Do i need to look deeper into this? It does have that whole look that fits with the tva but im gonna hold on.

Devil bearing gifts?

-What happens when it hits the red line?

They have a FILE? On loki? Where did they get that photo? And HE IS GENDER FLUID

Judges room has the workers mural and the timekeeper mural. So the cut off the branchs to keep it in a orderly timeline?

Push t to those avengers! STEVE👏ROGERS👏IS👏A👏VARIANT

Hun..hun no thats not why they traveled.

Pffrt two tony starks! So he knew tony was there… did thor not smell him as well??

Gods to gods

Is..is this what it looks like when he tries to do magic??

Who are the people watching who isnt the guy from earlier?

So is this gonna be a show of freewill? Like wanda was grief and depression? Or the winter soldier was of —-

If my theory is right about loki being the guy killing the agents and that guy is investigating and has his file then it makes sense that he knows what loki is capable of. I would also like to point out that is it loki killing them, then they are greatly underestimating him. He should use that to his advantage

Chasing a hunch? Going sideways? Bad idea?

And this guy is flirting (i think) but also drinking his respecting woman juice.

Burn down his desk? Ok so ngl its cool outside the window but idk what it is but i can tell its greenscreen. The architecture is great. I love the scene.

A nightmare department??

I wanna know what the buttons in the elevator mean.

Created by the timekeepers? So possibly not human. Can they leave? are they aloud to? What do they mean created? Is there a process? Or are they just never kids?

Trust is for children and dogs? Oka i get the dos. But children? Does this mean that he hasnt trusted anyone since he was a kid? What happened that made him stop trusting people? Does he trust his mother?

Living in his set path? Okay i was part of the son fandom so im getting team free will vibes from loki insisting that he chooses what he does

Wooing someone powerful you intended to betray? Thanos? (Ew giant grape face guy) You, agent mobius? The Grandmaster?!

Are they flirting? I genuinely cant tell? Is this what flirting looks like?

Pursuit in Dangerous variants? So not loki. My theory holds strong for me but maybe its not?Hes a hissing cat? So born to be king?

A fan? Okay..i wanna saw how are you a fan? But you have the file.

Oh

Loki

The wrong path always taken…

“I am smart.” I know

What do u know mobius? Time passes differently…has loki been here before? Have u met him before? How do u know he his smart? Yes you have a file but that doesnt tell me why u are saying for certainty that u know he is smart. And he looks serious. Like he knew something. What are you hiding??

Okay so he heals fast. This couldnt have been hat long since then?

Okay so they bring in phil but they dont even acknowledge that he is still alive (as far as im aware)

The uncomfortable shifting and keeping his gaze away from the screen as new york was shown was kinda telling cause of what he said earlier…

Deflecting to keep from talking..

The FLASHBACK

Why does he need money?

Young..lost a bet to thor… what was the bet???

You just used reverse psychology on loki and it worked

Why do you wanna know about why he does what he does? Are you using him for your other case? (Assuming hat he is killing the guards somehow)

Did his voice crack when he saw his adventure in germany? Anyone else catch that? And the past tense after that. His masks are starting to fall. I think he is gonna lash out soon

Oh

Oh his mother

This is gonna get painful. Im crying already.

Oh frigga. He is tearing up. He is getting agitated now. Dude you just accused him of killing his mother

Okay stop. So others can achieve better versions of themself?

U mean when nat yeeted herself on vormir? Or when clint went around killing people during the blip? Or when cap stayed behind with peggy when he had bucky to come back to?

I can see him planning something but idk what yet

Ok so i already watched this earlier but now that i watch this part carefully i can see his hand pickpocket

Another unit? So thats six units now?

Loki escaped??

Prune? Is that what the stick thing is?

Ok he asked the guys name. I like that. Polite.

I saw him take a breath to get ready for another performance

U..u dont know what a fish is?

Lived entire life behind a desk? How old are you?

Okay thats practical to know what your being threatened with. Informed choices my dude.

Ok is this the room that loki has a desk at in the previews? Also i like casey. He is now my new fav

Whats is the desk? INFINITY STONES?? are you kidding me? So other people have tried to get them but werent aloud because of the timeline with thanos and the avengers???? Why do you have so many of the same stones? And the fact that the time stones as well means something attempted to happen to earth to get them..

They dont work at the tva? You USE INFINITY STONES? AS PAPER WEIGHTS? INGOT OF IMMENSE POWER THAT WERE CREATED SUPPOSEDLY AT THE BIG BANG??

This is giving me (another show that used something important as paperwieghts) vibes

Coming to the realization that this place is powerful? Ok so that is pruning.

His mother, he is crying i cant deal

Oh god im crying again

He just want his parents love and they are dead. He just wanted family to love him. He wanted to so much and didnt ever feel like he had it. But he did.

Oh no

Please dont make him watch his death

Please

The immediate falling of his face, his tormentor, i wanna know what he is thinking when he sees thanos

Oh the bone sound

And loki watched

Not making light of this but they speedrun his trauma and his redemption. He didnt get to see the good parts of what he has done. Just the bad.

Oh his laughing and the bitter glorious purpose

The fight was short but cool

He is being his petty self and i love it

See, don’t underestimate him

That nose scrunch

He looked emotionally drained

Wait why cant he go back? Cause he saw his future? Isnt that the reset? Oh wait if he goes back, he dies and he knows that but he couldnt be able to stop it without ending back up here

Hes opening up. The masks he had are falling around mobius. He sees himself as a villian.

Fugitive variant?

I KNEW IT IT WAS LOKI!

but hold on. If this fugitive is loki, then how? What part of the timeline is they from? Are they a future loki? So the future loki is a dangerous variant and this loki is a cat? What makes the future one more dangerous? We just heard him say he doesnt like to kill?

Okay now oklahoma 1858, if this is loki then how is he goin across time? And what for?

Wait third millenium? When is that?

Okay so we got a 1500 deaths and pieces of gum? And now third millennium thing in the 1800?

Oil? In a field…i get that u would think that but please think about where u are and the fact that other units have been killed in what i assume are regular calls like this as well.

Hooded figure? In a foggy night?with different background lights? I like it.

Told you oil plus field equals fire

Oh big spots of oil and oil leading places

Okay there is the reset charge? Is this important like i said earlier i thought it would be?

Ok if this is loki then what’s with the get up? Where is the drama? The showmanship? And why do you need the reset charges? Assuming this person took them from each scene that is at least six or seven? Or is this eight? Would this be the one that they said earlier with the captain lady interrupting or is this another one after that?

Ok so i took some pictures of the end credits that i think are important. I want to look closer at them before i post them.

[theemichelleb]

Avengers: Endgame - Movie Review

I actually saw this movie opening weekend and decided to give everyone a chance to watch before publishing because I know just how important this film was for my generation and those Marvel fans before us. I definitely do not want to ruin anything for anyone so if you have not seen the movie yet DO NOT READ THIS and don’t watch the trailer for the new Spiderman Movie. It will truly ruin your day, LOL.

That was your warning….

Now, for those of you that are not HUGE Marvel fans, if you’re wondering… Yes, I did sit through the 3 hours and 2 minutes of awesomeness known as Avengers: Endgame. Would I do it again? ABSOLUTELY! The movie was awesome and everything I imagined it would be. It didn’t even feel like I was sitting there for 3 hours.

I think it was only right for the writers to end the story line with Tony Stark the same way they started this decade of awesomeness with him, and he deserved that spotlight. We have waited 10 years for the powerhouse that was Thanos to come and conquer or be conquered, I had no idea Infinity War and Endgame would play out they way they did, but I think it was genius. I love movies that don’t have the fairy tale happy ending and leave us with scars because that’s how real life is; it hurts, makes us cry, and makes us question how we’re going to move forward after this. I mean, I didn’t cry or anything, and I definitely can’t wait for whatever Marvel has next in our heroes respective story lines, but life isn’t perfect and I admire movies that show these worlds in a more realistic light.

Leaving out of Infinity War, I knew Gamora was gone… although they’ve found a way to bring her back to close out the Guardians franchise without a missing piece. I also knew Thanos had to die and our beloved heroes would need to be brought back to life… there was too much money and too many franchises riding on their main characters being brought back from the dead; especially T-Challa because the black community was going to have a riot if our beloved Black Panther was knocked out of the MCU after ONE self titled film of cinematic genius.

But here is where I have to acknowledge Stan Lee’s amazingness and how I almost dropped a tear to see he actually got to end the game with Endgame… truly iconic and he will be missed.

So! Avenger’s: Endgame… where to start? It’s definitely clear to say if you did not follow the entire franchise with all of the individual story lines that tie into the Avenger’s, you’re going to be lost at some parts during the movie. We took trips back to the first Guardians of the Galaxy, the first Avenger’s movie, Doctor Strange, Thor: The Dark World, Avenger’s: Infinity War, and I know I’m missing a few others but those were the big ones for me that were traveled back to. But honestly, just watch all of the movies to get the entire experience and learn who each character is, there are 22 movies included in the Avenger’s MCU, although I don’t really count the Incredible Hulk (2008)… Bruce Banner/The Hulk isn’t even portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in that movie and I personally don’t think it has anything to do with the series other than it’s an origin story for The Hulk; but, watch at your own discretion and choose if you agree on your own.

Now, don’t be confused. I completely 100% believe that the movies are corny and cheesy, some more than others, but that’s the beauty of taking your childhood comic book characters and making them real; just take a look at the Transformer’s dynasty… Optimus Prime is about as corny as it gets but we still love him on film! Let me not get off topic, though. My least favorite films from the Avenger’s universe are the first two Thor movies (although Ragnorak was absolutely amazing and saved Thor’s story line in my eyes), Iron Man 3 was okay I could have done without it, Spiderman: Homecoming, and Ant-Man… I know those last two may make some people unhappy, but you can definitely share your views in the comments below! I’d love a good conversation on this. My faves, however, consisted of Black Panther, all 3 of the Captain America Movies, Guardians of the Galaxy 1, Thor: Ragnorak, and all of the Avenger’s movies. All the rest were good for what was needed to move the story along, including those that I didn’t care for much.

Only thing I don’t care for are how the movies end with plot holes that are later “filled” in future movies, I think that’s Marvel’s attempt to cover their tracks, but those holes could be left purposely to leave space for flexibility in upcoming movies. There were a couple holes in the plot for Endgame that I’m just not convinced of, however.

If Thanos’ past self is killed, shouldn’t the affects of Infinity War be erased? If he’s dead before he can snap his fingers the first time, technically he never erased half of the universe’s population, which then means Endgame didn’t occur and we should be sent back 5 years prior as though nothing ever happened. I could believe that only those heroes that participated in fixing the timeline would remember what actually happened.

If Gamora died in Infinity War, but her past self was brought forward when Thanos came to the future in Endgame, technically Thanos could not have killed her to get the Death Stone in Infinity War, which also means he never erased half of the universe’s population. I guess they could spin this as since she’s still alive it doesn’t make a difference… still a plot hole to me.

Where did Loki go? He got hold of the tesseract when the team went back to 2012 to get it and the staff, but of course things did not go as planned and he disappeared. I just want to know when we are going to discuss how that throws off the time line, because if he disappears he technically never winds up in jail in Asgard.

I’m sure there’s some round about way to explain all of these, but I’m just letting it be known that it doesn’t completely make sense. Time travel is a complicated nonexistent thing to understand as is, so I won’t sit too much on what was off about it because there was so much more that was right about it.

I was talking to somebody about the movie and appreciated just how amazing the women were in this film, yet again, displaying just how D.O.P.E. we are in real life and the way we always come through in the clutch. Okoye, Shuri, Valkyrie, Wanda/Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Pepper Potts, and our beloved Black Widow, may she rest in peace, kill the game in the movie and aren’t just side kicks. This goes back to my excitement about Black Panther… I don’t care what anybody says or who chooses to believe that movie wasn’t a big deal, it was a HUGE deal to me and the emphasis of D.O.P.E. black women was truly out of this world. They seriously carried that trend through the end of the Avenger’s story.

In particular, let’s highlight Black Widow and her sacrifice to save the world. There truly was no question about who would have to die between her and Hawkeye, unfortunately. They were quite the pair but he had something tangible to gain from saving the world, his family; she, on the other hand, was able to save all of her friends and give his family back to him by sacrificing herself. She had waited and obsessed over how to save the world for FIVE years and this was it; Hawkeye went through the world killing bad guys to remedy the curse that was Thanos. I think it was a beautiful second chance for him. He not only got his family back but his best friend gave her life so he could find his way again and become the hero she knew he was.

This is why I’m so hooked on how D.O.P.E. we are as women!

Captain America also got a loving ending to his story and I appreciate how the baton was passed to Sam Wilson, a glorious black man. Could this be foreshadowing to a branch off for Captain America movies?? I tell you one thing, these crazies in the world today better not start ANY NONSENSE about there being a black Captain America the way they did about Idris Elba being the black James Bond…. and that’s that on that.

For my dear Iron Man… Tony Stark you have truly achieved the level of acknowledgment and heroism that you chased after with your escape from captivity in 2009 and we appreciate you for your sacrifice and getting that 1 in 14,000,605 chance to beat Thanos right! Tony Stark’s path has taken many turns that I didn’t expect it to take following him through the years, but I’m glad he reached the goal he was fighting for in the movie primarily; to save his family. The procession shown at his funeral to close out the movie was so beautifully laid out the only thing that could have made it better was if Stan Lee had made a cameo. I think it was genius how the pan through all of the characters at the funeral was a parallel of the comic book opening for all of the Marvel movies. I think the best part about how Tony is honored is that Pepper was by his side in the fight against Thanos and he had daughter that I’m most certain is going to follow in his footsteps in both brains and courage. His legacy will definitely live on into new movies and through the characters that we got back.

There are truly so many other things that can be said about the movie. Overall, it was the best ending for this struggle to survive than I could have imagined. It truly made the last 10 years worth while, and I appreciate the growth of Marvel over the years in their execution of all of these movies. They sought out to tell an amazing story and ended up with an epic playing field that has provided a ridiculous amount of growth and development for the company. The casting has definitely been A-1, the plots are intriguing, the scripts have gotten more believable, and execution was always pretty on point but have gotten even more intense and engaging for the audience.

The movie is a must see. If you haven’t gotten into Superhero movies, it’s okay but if you want to give something new a chance now’s the time. You can watch the entire story be told from beginning to end and there are so many ways to find the order to watch all 22 movies so the story flows and you’re not lost.

Happy Binge Watching!