#why are you not mad with us that there's a high likelihood the MCU will go the queer erasure route?

[styrofauxm]

(this was back on my dash and I have thoughts again, sorry)

"it's just shipping"

uh huh, that's why people lose their shit when you say Peridot (Steven Universe) is canonically aroace

and why people call for Yelena Belova's (Marvel) orientation to be switched to lesbian for the MCU. Despite rightfully being mad about the erasure of many other identities (queer or otherwise)

and why people complained until the end of the series that Nita and Kovit (Not Even Bones) were aspec and not dating

and why people practically celebrate the backtracking of the confirmation that Alastor (Hazbin Hotel) is aromantic

and why people with non-canon gay ships get really upset at non-canon aspec headcanons

and why there is a massive gap in the amount of people who ship gay/lesbian characters with women/men and the amount of people who ship aroace characters

It's not shipping, it's not discourse. It's aphobia.

[langxue]

Avengers Endgame Initial Thoughts

Okay. I have some Thoughts about Endgame, most of them fairly critical. Also highly subjective. So here goes. Spoilers abound, for Endgame and other MCU content.

1. OMFG they completely wasted Captain Marvel.* In her own movie, Carol is a fairly laid back, adaptable, competent, and Silly person. She has a wonderfully casual charm and sarcasm that’s really fun to watch. She’s also a powerhouse, and by the end she definitely knows it. (Like seriously, she destroyed multiple of Ronan’s ships in under a minute. In GotG, it took a whole fleet just to slow one of them down, plus a team on the inside to blow it up. And then Carol’s just like “nah, you’re done now.”) And then you hit Endgame. And we have a stoic, closed off Captain Marvel, who shows up, talks a lot about how awesome she is, and then spends fucking 80% of the movie on a shelf on the justification that she’s helping other worlds that are also in trouble. Which is a fine justification to keep her away for some of the setup. But the heroes’ main plan is time travel. Which means it’s not time sensitive, and they keep making a big deal about only having one shot. Why, in that case, wouldn’t you wait until you could get Carol on your team?? Thor is a psychological mess. Keep him on the bench and bring in Carol. OR have her on hand to use the gauntlet after all the stones are collected. But no, they just went with “eh, we’re not sure how to contact her, so we’ll just skip over that option entirely.” So they wasted her character as a character with minimal interactions with the others, and zero of those interactions actually being in character (except maaaybe with Peter at the end, but that very much felt like two actors trying very hard with very little to work with), and then also wasted her as far as plot impact, opting for a heroic re-entrance most of the way through the movie.

2. The time travel felt extremely poorly explained, which is really bad when your plot completely hinges on it, and is especially bad if you’re gonna rag on other movies with time travel. Back to the Future is paradoxical nonsense, but it’s self-consistent paradoxical nonsense. Endgame was some kind of multiverse with zero clear understanding of how different timelines/realities could and could not interact with each other. I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of the possibilities and whether there actually is an internal logic, but at the very least, while watching the movie, it entirely felt like they were doing whatever they wanted to suit the plot. Which is a bad sign when dealing with time travel. (My general approach to time travel is that you either have to completely handwave it or completely explain it. And that explanation doesn’t have to be an info dump! It can just be apparent in the story itself, such as with Time-Turners. Though I personally don’t mind time travel info dump tbh.)

3. Relatedly, the secret to time travel is to model an inverted Möbius strip and get the eigenvector of that one particle there. I don’t think I’ve been that annoyed but technobabble in a long time. That’s math word salad, as far as I can tell (though I’m admittedly not a mathematician. If any mathematicians can clarify how this makes any sense, I’d appreciate it, but in the mean time, I’m going to assume it’s garbled nonsense.)

4. Still on time travel but I’m having one hell of a time figuring out Steve’s ending. Like, how can he do that within the confines of the time travel mechanics? Why wouldn’t he come back and spend that time with Bucky?? Since, you know, they’ve like barely spoken being reunited?? For Pete’s sake, don’t set up their bond like that, spend two full movies on the turmoil cause by Bucky’s return, and then just fucking drop the plot line on the floor because you wanted to stick Steve back with Peggy. What in the fuck.

5. IM. SO. MAD. ABOUT. GAMORA. (And also Natasha, though that’s a slightly different anger.) GAMORA’S DEATH WAS THE MOST BS THING IN INFINITY WAR AND WAS ALSO THE DEATH I WAS MOST CONCERNED THEY WOULDN’T CORRECT. AND GUESS WHAT. THEY DIDN’T. SHE’S STILL DEAD.** The soulstone mechanic can get Fucked, because Thanos should never have been able to get it like that (and relatedly, should Hawkeye have gotten it, since Natasha threw herself, rather than being sacrificed? I’m undecided, but mad either way).

6. Is Loki still dead? Was he ever dead? We just don’t know. If he is dead, that was an amazingly dumb end and I object. If he’s not dead, that is a dumb cliffhanger and I object.

7. I don’t love Thor + Guardians’ dynamic? It feels very off, and I can’t tell if that’s just because it’s Avengers and therefore all the characters have gotten slightly flattened or if it’s just an unappealing dynamic to me. But we already had Quill vs Rocket leadership tension. I don’t was more of that but with Thor. That’s dumb. I’m hoping that it gets more nuance/resolution going forward, but I’m not holding my breath.

8. Relatedly, why would you put Valkyrie in charge of Anything but a battle plan? Nothing I’ve seen of her makes me think she’s well suited to general leadership, and I think she’d chafe under it just as much as Thor does. She’s not the Responsible One to take things over so Thor can go have another finding himself adventure. Ffs.

9. Probably no one’s fault because actor contracts are complicated, but I’m still salty about Lady Sif being 100% absent and unacknowledged for this whole thing. Largely because I haven’t gotten to see her interact with Valkyrie OR Carol and I feel cheated.

10. Some quick minor things before I go on a big rant. It bothered me that Thor’s depression and poor coping was just a joke, basically just “Oh look he’s fat and scared now, isn’t that funny?” I’m so tired of Tony vs. Steve, and I hate that they waited until the last fucking movie to sort of kind of resolve it. You don’t get to pull on found family heartstrings and tropes when you’ve done such a bullshit job of actually showing us a family. You’ve had 20-odd movies to do so. Do better.

11. Okay. I like battle scenes. They’re fun! They’re dramatic! If done correctly, they can give a very tangible sense of odds and stakes. But. Not every movie with high stakes needs a big final battle.

Okay, to clarify a bit, I’m specifically referring to army vs. army battle scenes here. Big punch outs between titans, or scrambling to minimize damage from a disaster are different, and have their own applications and pitfalls. All clear? Great.

Battles, with two armies facing off against each other in fronts, look cool, but fundamentally make no sense in the context of Endgame. Battle lines exist so that you have not very many people actively fighting at once, and so that you can protect the people next to them. When the frontline gets tired, they rotate back and others take over. Battles are not the same thing as skirmishes and they are not mass melees. If a battle turns into a mass melee, something has gone very wrong and you should in all likelihood pull back immediately to regroup.

All of this breaks down when you have an opponent who can break up or ignore your battle lines. Historically, this was artillery and guns—things that forced battles into a cover-based issue. In superhero movies, it’s... pretty much every character of note.

Thor’s lightning —> broken battle line

Black Panther’s suit discharge —> broken battle line

Falcon attacking from above —> pointless battle line

Wanda or Carol doing... anything —> pointless battle line

All of Thanos’ many flying troops —> pointless battle line

Thanos’ warship overhead —> what are you doing pls stop this

All of which is to say that traditional battle tactics don’t apply to this conflict. But the battle we’re shown doesn’t reflect that, and it feels very... weird as a result. Where who’s winning is entirely arbitrary, rather than any kind of steady build.

This tends to lead to a very episodic battle, where you show off individual characters or small groups of characters fighting. Which is fine, though contributes to battle progress being unclear. But there’s a temptation then to give everyone equal levels of badassery in their vignettes, and I think that’s a mistake. The avengers et all are a complementary group. They have members suited to a battle field and members that aren’t. That isn’t to say that Hawkeye and Black Widow can’t hold their own, but their skill sets aren’t specialized for something like this, and so any attempt to make them seem equal in this way is going to either fall flat or cheapen the battle suited heroes’ specialty.

And this tendency to level the field of badassery can also lead to situations where Okoye is backing up Carol for a charge, and I just.... gah. I love Okoye. So much. Carol does not need her help to rush a group of enemies. Carol doesn’t need help from any of the women who showed up behind her except for maybe Scarlet Witch. I get what they were going for. I get that it was supposed to be a Girl PowerTM moment. It wasn’t. It was dumb. It was so very much the wrong time for that moment, because this was not a context where Carol needed help. She just flew through a spaceship. She can fly through some enemies no problem. And it’s probably easier if she’s not worried about her allies getting caught in the blast. And then they had to make the backup team useful, so they made Carol struggle in a moment where she just shouldn’t have. You don’t get points for Girl PowerTM if you have to de-power one of your women just to make it make sense. Give me more scenes with Gamora and Nebula helping each other through Thanos’ abuse. Give me scenes with Carol and Okoye bonding over putting up with impractical people. Don’t give me this battle scene bullshit, I don’t want it.

11. I remain pissed off that there are no actually articulated arguments against Thanos’ fucking stupid plan. What the actual fuck, this is not that hard. 

Okay. Now that I’ve gotten that out of my system, some things I actually really liked.

1. Steve wielding Mjolnir was fucking amazing and I’m so pleased.

2. Any time Scott was on screen.

3. Peter Parker is a precious child and he needs to be protected.

4. I actually really like the set up for the time travel nonsense, and I liked that they seemed to be doing something other than a mass melee battle. That the group was divided into manageable teams, and sent on different kinds of missions that required them to be clever and play to their different strengths and help each other through. And then they shoved in a giant battle anyway, because fuck you that’s why.

5. I can appreciate what they were trying to do in giving all of the non-returning Avengers decent send-offs, even if I didn’t like some of those conclusions.

6. There were some genuinely funny moments, but I’m struggling to recall them right now.

7. Oh wait! “It’s an earthquake in the middle of the ocean. We handle it by not handling it.” That one was great.

Okay, that’s all for now. I might have more later, once I’ve picked apart the time travel a bit more and dined some processing.

I think it’s also worth noting that like... ensemble movies with a cast this big are *hard.* character are going to end up feeling confined, and there’s less time to grow because there’s just less time per character. But I think we could’ve had better, and I think if they focused more on group growth in the group movies instead of just drama, then they would’ve been in a better place and had a better story.

It’s probably also worth noting that I really liked Thor: Ragnarok, really like Captain Marvel and really didn’t like Infinity War. So I sort of went into Endgame feeling like it had to make up for Infinity War and live up to the higher at from the recent solo movies. And I really wanted to like it. I really wanted them to pull it off. But those are high and fairly specific standards, and so they fell quite short.

*This should be taken with a grain of salt, because I’d been dreading Endgame as an obligation to watch, and the Captain Marvel movie was the only thing that sparked my interest again. And then Endgame massively dropped the ball as far as I’m concerned.

** there was some stuff at the very end that makes me wonder if there’re plans to still bring her back in a later movie. But it doesn’t change me call bullshit on everything that Infinity War/Endgame has done to her.

[athenaleighjinn]

WandaVision theories

I couldn’t keep it in anymore and had to write up all the possible villains/theories I’ve read or thought up as to who is in control in WandaVision. I’ve put the name, a ranking of how likely I think it is to be the ultimate Big Bad, and description/reasons. I’m a huge nerd so this got really long. Also, it is likely to be some combination of the following so don’t be surprised if multiple theories turn out right somehow. Updated 2/11.

 Wanda – 8/10 – The likelihood of Wanda being the villain of her own story increases after the most recent episode, seeing Wanda actually exit the Hex and roll credits, etc. I still don’t think she’s actually the overall big bad, but she obviously has a lot of control over this situation. Whether she actually initiated this scenario is still up for debate, regardless of what Monica says. And why sitcoms? Possibly that’s all they got on the tv in Sokovia growing up and now she’s idealized it for herself. What I want to know is who is censoring the broadcasts? And why, if it’s just Wanda, would she even broadcast it at all? As Wanda realizes the power she has over Westview, she seems to become more menacing. But if she created this, why wasn’t she in full control from the beginning?

Mephisto – 7/10 – The Marvel comic universe’s devil. A popular theory, even crossing over to the Loki trailer. I still don’t think it’s him, here or in that trailer shot, but there’s definitely been hints. Big Red, Señor Scratchy, “devil in the details,” but I think they’re either nothing, intentional misdirects, or will tie into whoever the villain will turn out to be. Notably, there was a big comic storyline involving Mephisto, Wanda, and her children, which is why the ranking is as high as it is.

Nightmare – 4/10 – Wanda and Vision aren’t exactly trapped in a nightmare, but the situation is becoming increasingly less ideal for Vision, at least. Rumored to appear in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which WandaVision is confirmed to lead into, Nightmare might be manipulating Wanda for his own ends. Seems far less likely now that we see Wanda appears to be awake and not dreaming this.

Mojo – 3/10 – I think it unlikely Marvel would introduce Mojo in this manner, since he is such an X-men related character. It also doesn’t feel quite his style; his characters usually know they’re on tv, but Marvel has done a good job adapting comic characters in unexpected ways, so Mojo can’t be totally ruled out. Also, I hope it’s not him cause he’s kinda gross.

Agnes as Agatha Harkness – 7/10 – Another popular theory. While plausible, it’s also possible that she is Agnes but not the villain, especially if it turns out to be Mephisto. A big part of this theory is the brooch that she wears is similar to one Agatha wears in the comics. Agatha is listed on the SWORD board of Westview residents but with no photo id/driver’s license, nor do they mention her outloud during the IDing process. Even if she is Agatha, I feel like she hasn’t been all that scary. When she stops Herb telling Vision whatever it was that he was going to say, she seems more scared than anything else, as if they’d get in trouble for letting the secret out.

Agnes as another character – 8/10 – Enchantress? Lilith? Agnes could be another comic character, perhaps part of a duo. Who is Ralph? Is he even real? Are they in this together? Is Ralph the missing witness protection person?

Dottie – 3/10 – Dottie seems kind of menacing, but mostly just within the sitcom scenario. Also, she hasn’t appeared all that much so her potential danger doesn’t seem very high. She was not on the board SWORD setup identifying the residents of Westview.

Doctor Strange – 3/10 – We already know Wanda is going to appear in his sequel, and since it is called and the Multiverse of Madness, and since Wanda/somebody might have pulled a parallel Pietro from another dimension, he might somehow become involved. Still, unlikely that he is the big bad, or otherwise having stuck Wanda in this situation.

Swarm – 1/10 – Literal swarm, also a Nazi (comics are so weird). Highly unlikely, basically proven not to be now that we know the “beekeeper” is just another SWORD agent trying to break into the anomaly. But then again, now that he has those bees, and is potentially stuck inside the barrier, could he become dangerous?

AIM – 2/10 – We’ve already seen this organization in the movies (Iron Man 3), and even without the beekeeper (who had a SWORD logo anyway), could still somehow be involved, but it is very unlikely. The hexagons do have a honeycomb feel to them though.

SWORD – 3/10 – As a whole, it seems unlikely the organization is after Wanda. With the exception of Monica, it seems to be comprised of by-the-book soldier types.

Hydra – 6/10 – Strongly hinted at by some of the in-show commercial breaks, but it seems they more reflect Wanda’s trauma than setup anything menacing. They could very possibly want to recover such a strong asset as Wanda though.

Grim Reaper – 3/10 – Brother of Simon Williams, Eric caused trouble for Vision’s family in the comics. Simon’s personality engrams were the basis for Vision’s original creation, so they’re all family, sorta. Not very likely since Simon has nothing to do with the MCU version of Vision.

Pleasant Hill – 2/10 – In the comics, Pleasant Hill is a SHIELD prison where supervillains are mind controlled to live in, well, exactly the sort of place you imagine when you hear the name Pleasant Hill. Learning of the other regular citizens seems to rule this out, though we still don’t know who exactly Jimmy’s missing witness might turn out to be. Wanda could very possibly break out of this situation, but seems unlikely they would use this sitcom format.

Director Hayward – 5/10 – Seems to have it in for Wanda. Could just be his strict SWORD training, soldier type business. Or maybe he has an agenda, maybe he isn’t what he appears. Could he be somebody on this list in disguise?

Somebody else not mentioned – 2/10 – Seems unlikely but Marvel could surprise us. There is a lot of cosmic energy coming out of the anomaly. Is this because of Wanda’s infinity stone-based powers or is a cosmic being emanating them? Korvac? Would be super random but they’ve still got 4 episodes left to set something up, but seems like we’re going to look back and realize it’s already been setup from the beginning.

I warned you it was a bit much. I can’t wait for the new clues in the next episode! I will be updating this each week.