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cheebuffy · 2 years

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Halloween Special

Warnings! A little angst, some negative body image talk (just know that you all are beautiful and Loki loves you <3)

Notes! This is a Loki x mid-sized reader fic, I don’t see a lot of these and as a thicc person myself I thought it was needed. Sorry for being gone so long! I’ll try to be more active!!!

Word count: 1100+

Halloween with the Avengers was always interesting, to say the least. Sometimes you would be off on missions and miss the holiday entirely or there would be a small gathering somewhere to treat little kids. This year, everyone had agreed that each member would have to play as another avenger and have a party between the avengers and Tony’s other friends. Everyone drew names out of a hat and you got Natasha’s costume.

At first, you were ecstatic. Natasha was a complete badass, and not to mention her suit was stunning on her. Loki was also excited to see you in such attire, a tight form fitting suit with cleavage? He was practically bouncing up and down at the idea. But once Halloween night came, and you had finally put on the costume of her suit. You sat in front of the mirror and looked at yourself. Your excitement slowly melted away. The longer you stared at the mirror, the more flaws you spotted. Too tight at the thighs and stomach but too loose at the calves? Bit of fat here and there that wasn’t even possible for Natasha. She was perfect in every way. You could feel your eyes get watery as you poked and prodded at your body in the tight black suit. As you tried to wipe your tears away, you heard a soft knock on the bathroom door.

“Are you almost ready, Love? I am absolutely dying to see you.” Loki charmed on the other side of the door. Hearing his excitement made you feel even worse about the way you looked. He was so ready to see you come out looking like a supermodel when, in reality, you weren’t. You sniffled and furiously tried to dry your face off.

“I don’t know if we should go honey,” you paused and looked yourself over. “I don’t think I really should be there at the party.” Your voice was breaking as you spoke. Loki’s tone had changed completely.

“What do you mean, darling?”

You covered your face now with your hands as you cried harder into them. Your breath shaking as you tried to make words.

“I look huge… I can’t be seen like this, I’m disgusting.” You heard the door handle jiggle a little.

“Please let me in Love, I want to help you.” Loki only ever got this serious when he was truly upset. The thought of him being upset made you feel worse about your situation, like you were dragging him down with you. Nevertheless you pulled your hands away from your now red, tear-stained face and unlocked and opened the bathroom door. Loki was standing outside the door, in his costume as Captain America, looking great as ever.

“I’m sorry…” Your voice was quiet and small.

“What are you sorry for?“ Loki stepped forward, towering over you completely as he put both of his large hands on either side of your face and wiped the tears away. Your eyes immediately darted towards the ground, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

“For looking so bad. I know you were excited to see me in this and clearly it’s disappointing.” You broke down instantly.

“You look far from disappointing, putting that black widow to shame with this costume.” Loki spoke, his hands now moving down to your waist and pulling you closer to him.

“You’re just saying that. Natasha is perfect and curvy and I’m just, well, me.” You huffed. Loki smiled and backed up a bit to look you over with his sharp blue eyes. You glanced up at him and looked back down just as quickly.

“That’s precisely why you put her to shame. Look at you, you’re gorgeous, my little minx. So plump and soft. With how tight this suit is, it’s hugging you so dearly I can barely contain myself. Your thighs, my goodness, if we didn’t have a party to go to, I would certainly be buried between them right now. Not that it’s ever stopped me before..” Loki went off, a proud devious smile plastered on his face. You playfully hit his arm and tried not to giggle.

“Come on, you don’t mean that. I look so weird. These bits of fat right at my hips just pop out. I look horrible.”

“You do realize that if you were all skin and bone, there would be nothing for me to touch, to hold and to bite, right? And we simply cannot have that, can we, my dear?” Loki smiled, placing a finger under your chin and lifted your face to look at him.

“But don’t you think I need to be skinnier. I just feel like I stand out so much because I’m not some supermodel like everyone else.” Your words made Loki frown, his once playful face turned to a serious expression.

“I don’t think you quite understand. Everyone else is some sort of magical being and you are just you. Just your wonderful, enduring, and magnificent self. Just because they all have some sort of special ability doesn’t mean that they are any more important or better than you. Whether that comes to abilities or to looks. One thing that I’ve had to learn in the hardest ways possible is that you are who you are. “Loki paused to place a kiss on your forehead, his cold lips relieving on your warm skin.

“You are so ungodly, beautiful. Inside and out, my dear. I promise you, my dear. Please do not let another mere mortal let you feel inferior to them. What does it matter that you’re not skinny? Look at this.” Loki paused once again and moved your arms, wrapping them around his neck, and placing his arms around your waist. You were having trouble not crying from his words as you watched his actions.

“See how perfectly we fit together? Surely you’re not blind enough to miss that. We’re a perfect pair, you and I. Nothing can change that. So let’s go to that party, show everyone how perfect you really are. Everyone will see how truly beautiful my Y/n is.”

“I swear you’re too good for me sometimes. I’m about to cry right now.” You smiled, feeling much better than before.

“I mean it, you’re mine. I fully intend on showing you off to everyone tonight before we leave plenty early to continue on my plans with you.” Loki spoke, his voice deep and dangerous. It was back to its normal playful tone, but you knew mischief was coming. But at least you would get lots of fun out of it. After all, he was your Loki.

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brw · 3 years

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Here’s a tough one for you. Which comics characters got the most fucked up by the mcu? Who did they do the most dirty?

WELL, the obvious answer for me is mcu wanda maximoff. she's been whitewashed to the point of being unrecognisable (why does she have bright orange hair?? who fuckin knows!!), her powers are basically jean grey's but redder?? even her magic that wanda learned later seems to be an extension of telekinesis and telepathy and not, ya know, actual magic shit. her costume looks like it's been made of cheap plastic, it's ugly and anyone calling it "comic accurate" (you guys care more abt a comic accurate suit than... whitewashing....) owes me £300.

HOWEVER. this has been talked about extensively by a lot of people who have covered it in far more detail and depth than i ever have. so i'm gonna talk abt some other characters fucked up mcu adaptions, half because it's important to here and half because i was already considering writing posts abt these guys so thank you for enabling me anon!

MONICA RAMBEAU - monica, you know, first person to take on the captain marvel mantle?? one of the most powerful characters in marvel comics, lead the avengers for years, travelled to a satallite in space and back in less than a second, etc etc? faster than quicksilver, basically a immortal, could take carol if it came down to it? what was she in the movies oh yeah a child at first and then a character's who's sole motivation was to defend a white woman's mental breakdown that took the lives of an entire town away from them yup okay.

JANET VAN DYNE - founding member of the avengers person who convinced them to stay together the one who gave them their name who has lead them on more than one occassion, that janet van dyne. who's the founding lady in the mcu, uhh, fucking black widow??? like... what?????? and when it came to the actual ant-man movie she'd been replaced by an au daughter! not even her actual adopted daughter, nadia, a weird au character that is essentially jan but make her a little meaner. janet is, if you ask me, the most important of the first avenger. she's vital to the whole thing and they sidelined her for scarjo. you can imagine my fucking rage!

HANK PYM - like jan, he was replaced, by hawkeye's really boring abled imposter. maybe they thought it'd be too much for them to have TWO neurodiverse scientists on the same team, but his erasure was very prominent to me, ESPECIALLY in age of ultron. ultron without the family drama does not work! the whole thing was that ultron had his brainwaves too, it was an incredibly uncomfortable, sobering reflection of hank as a villain. without that it was just??? where is the interesting dynamics of this! what also rlly pissed me off is that mcu aou is based, obviously, off the comic event age of ultron two years prior. you know what the final message of this comic was? that hank pym, a deeply flawed person who'd made so many mistakes was still important and vital to the world. when he was taken out of the world, everything went to shit. when he came back, he decided to life life without regrets, because he realised his own worth in the world. hank has been... deeply suicidal at points, and as someone who's been there and is neurodiverse like hank this story was one that meant so much to me. and they changed that so tony stark could feel bad, maybe. you can imagine my fucking anger.

THE VISION - listen i do think mcu vision had potential to be an interesting portrayal of the character. vision by nature is a very negative character who has a lot of self hate and conflict based around their own personhood and trying to be human. mcu vision had none of that, and was a more cosmic being. i was interested to see how it worked! and instead of expanding on that, vision's only personality traits seemed to be "dies a lot" and "whitewashed wendy's love interest". like, comic vision is MEAN, that's the thing. i love the vision because they are RUDE, because they openly say that they hate humans, because they're oftentimes violent when allowed and very melodramatic and drama driven. they are a character marked by sad purple prose. mcu vision is just... so nice. where's their unbridled aggression? there was a hint of them being snarky in aou and then it never came up again. mcu vision started out so strong and then immediately fell flat into the mud. i am so incredibly tired.

MANTIS - oh lord, what did they do to her. mantis in comics is a half vietnamese, half cotai/kree experiment empath trained in martial arts who took out thor in her first appearance. this, to be fair, has some not great racial stereotypes. but making her a meek wallflower who delighted in being called ugly and disturbing by drax is just... like, what??? steve englehart at least also made her surprisingly nuanced; despite being interested in wanda's lover, vision, she never once was cruel or mean or showed anything other than kindness to wanda, she stood up for her fellow women, and he also loved her so much he put her in dc when he wrote there for a moment, which honstly, based as fuck. gunn just wrote a gross infantilised version of her, like honestly the difference between her and comic mantis is vast. they kept her powerful, i guess, but the personality she has is honestly so disrespectful to mantis. makes zero sense, either.

there's honestly way more if i was to think on it for a bit, but i'm pretty tired and i feel like this is enough for now. like i said, wanda (and pietro, but i guess he got out early by. dying.) is definitely the worst adapted, but i have problems with a lot of others.

#asks #anonymous #anti mcu #mcu critical #mcu wanda maximoff

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thevindicativevordan · 2 years

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What do you think of Tony Stark/Iron Man and what's your opinion on him?

Never really liked him that much, every time I try to get into his comics I usually find them boring. Odd I know, given how big a fan I am of Steel, but Marvel's never succeeded at their attempts to replicate the success of the MCU in getting people to care about Iron Man.

Weird because on paper? Iron Man is probably the most "Marvel" character you can get besides Spider-Man himself. Marvel's gimmick is "heroes with feet of clay" and nobody has bigger feet of clay than Tony. Spider-Man beats himself up over one act of selfishness getting his uncle killed, but Tony was a selfish douchebag for much longer, and many more people died as a result. Heroes in Marvel tend to fight internal foes as often as external ones, and Tony's inner demons (arrogance, lust, alcoholism, etc) are far more dangerous traditionally than his lackluster Rogues Gallery has been. Stan Lee claimed that with Tony he wanted to see just how flawed a hero could be made and still be accepted as a hero. Old Uncle Stan was prone to making claims about his original intentions with characters that were generous to himself at best, but in this case I believe him. We want Tony to succeed because he shows us the worst side of ourselves, but also shows us that we can overcome those negative traits and still be heroes regardless.

In a world where people are constantly complaining about capitalism and the military-industrial complex, it's a testament to RDJ's acting that he was able to take a character whose connection to both is central to who he is, and make him the heart of the MCU. Like everyone else on the planet I enjoyed MCU Iron Man greatly, and I consider RDJ to Tony what Christopher Reeve was to Superman. I thought he got pretty much the perfect ending in Endgame. Tony went out sacrificing himself to save others, the ultimate selfless act finally balancing the scales of his early selfish life. In death he saved more people than his weapons ever killed, thematically it was the best way to wrap up his arc. While MCU Tony is my favorite take on Tony specifically, the best take on the Iron Man Mythos as a whole however? That would be the Iron Man: Armored Adventures cartoon.

youtube

That show was so much fun to watch growing up. Killer theme song as well, man do I miss cartoons having theme songs with lyrics. Had great revamps of Iron Man's villains as well, the Mandarin has never looked cooler than he did there. Why the 616 comics haven't copied that shows redesigns for Iron Man's villains I'll never understand. Bluntly I also don't understand what the hell Marvel is doing with 616 Tony. They completely wasted the opportunity to make him a big deal that the MCU offered, and the creative choices that have been done with 616 Iron Man seem completely counterproductive to what made him popular in the MCU. RDJ's Tony has a massive complex concerning his father Howard? Well 616 Tony is adopted and we're going to double down on that even though everyone hates it. Baffling choice after baffling choice has been made with the character, what's the point of so blatantly trying to copy some aspects of RDJ's take on Tony, while also veering off so far from his portrayal in others?

If I'm Marvel I'm driving a truck full of cash to Hickman's house and paying him whatever the hell he wants to write the character. He seems to be the only one who can write Iron Man in a way that gets people excited, and Hickman's interests pretty naturally mesh well with the kinds of topics Iron Man should explore. I can't be the only one who would love to see Hickman explore the Homo novissima concept through an Iron Man run right? Iron Man in Hickman's Ultimates and Avengers runs were my favorite takes on the character in comics, and I'd love to read an entire run with Hickman writing Tony.

#iron man #tony stark #marvel #marvel comics #iron man armored adventures #mcu

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the-desolated-quill · 3 years

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WandaVision: ‘Subverting’ Good Television - Quill’s Scribbles

(Spoilers for the first five episodes)

Hey everyone! Well... it’s been a while, hasn’t it? The last time I wrote a proper review or Scribble, people still thought the COVID crisis would be over within a month. The poor saps. But I thought that as a special way to mark this year’s Valentines Day, we could take a closer look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s shittiest power couple in their new Disney+ show WandaVision.

The first of many MCU spin-off shows that nobody asked for, broadcast exclusively on Disney’s totally unnecessary streaming platform, WandaVision is about everybody’s favourite whitewashed Nazi experiment and her red sexbot boyfriend as they try to fit into a suburban sitcom neighbourhood without arousing suspicion.

Yes, you read that correctly. The MCU has a sitcom now. My life is now complete.

Sarcasm aside, I was legitimately curious about WandaVision because of its unusual setting. And considering one of my most common criticisms of the MCU is its total lack of creativity, anything that’s even a little bit subversive is bound to attract my attention. Of course ‘subversive’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good.’ I could hand you a canvas smeared with my own shit and call it subversive. That doesn’t necessarily make it good art. And that’s exactly what WandaVision is. A canvas smeared with shit.

So lets split this critical analysis/review/angry bitter rant into two distinct chapters. The first focusing on the plot and setting, and the second focusing on the characters. Okay? Okay.

Chapter 1: Bewitched

Critics seem to be utterly enamoured with the whole sitcom gimmick, and it is a gimmick. As far as I can tell from the episodes I’ve seen, the sitcom setting serves no real purpose whatsoever other than to make the show ‘quirky.’ Which I wouldn’t mind, believe it or not, if the show was actually funny. There’s just one problem. It’s not.

Now in some ways describing why a sitcom doesn’t work is often futile because comedy is largely subjective. What I find funny, you won’t necessarily find funny and vice versa. With WandaVision, however, I won’t have that problem. I can demonstrate to you precisely why WandaVision, objectively, isn’t funny. And it all comes down to one simple thing. The stakes. Or rather the complete and total absence of stakes.

The show makes it very clear from the beginning that none of what we’re seeing is real. The cheesy theme song, the era appropriate special effects (mostly. It’s actually very inconsistent), the joke commercials, and, in the case of the first two episodes, which are in black and white, the appearance of red lights and objects in Scarlet Witch’s general vicinity. (Gee, what a mystery this is).

Basically Wanda has brought Vision back from the dead and created this sitcom world for them to inhabit. I’ll explain the stupidity of this in Chapter 2. The point is none of this is real, and that has a negative effect on the comedy because the very nature of comedy is suffering. Take the plot of the first episode. Wanda and Vision have to prepare a dinner to impress Vision’s boss. If they fail, Vision could lose his job and the couple could be exposed as superheroes. If this were a normal sitcom, it would work. The stakes are clear and it would be satisfying to see the two struggle and overcome the odds. But here, we know it’s not real. If it’s not real, it means there’s no stakes. If there’s no stakes, it means there’s no suffering. If there’s no suffering, there’s no comedy.

It would be one thing if the unfunny sitcom stuff lasted for like the first ten minutes or so before making way for the actual plot, but it doesn’t. Oh no. It doesn’t even last for the first episode. Out of the five episodes I’ve watched, four of them are almost entirely about these unfunny, objectively flawed sitcom homages, each set in a different time period. The fifties, the sixties, and so on. And what’s worse is that nothing that happens in them is plot-relevant. That gets relegated to the last five minutes of an episode. So you’re forced to sit through twenty five minutes of boring slapstick and puns in order to catch even a whiff of actual story. Which begs the question... who is this for exactly? It can’t be entertaining to Marvel fans, who have to slog through all this pointless shit so they can figure out what the fuck is going on. Comedy fans may get a kick out of the sitcom pastiche at first, but after four episodes, surely the joke would wear thin. So why is it in here? Clearly someone in the writer’s room absolutely fell in love with the idea of doing a Marvel sitcom, but nobody put in any time or effort to figure out how it would work in context.

I cannot stress enough how bad the plotting of this series is. As I said, the vast majority of a thirty minute episode is about shitty sitcom plots that aren’t funny and don’t have any impact on the story, only to then tease you with a crumb of actual plot in order to keep you coming back for the next instalment. Admittedly it’s an effective strategy. I was more than ready to quit after Episode 2 until that beekeeper showed up out of the sewer (don’t ask. It’s not important). WandaVision essentially follows the Steven Moffat school of bad writing. String your audience along with the promise that things might get more interesting later on and that all the bullshit that came before will retroactively make sense by the end. Except, as demonstrated with BBC’s Sherlock, that doesn’t work. And even if it did, it wouldn’t justify wasting the audience’s fucking time. And that’s what the majority of WandaVision is. A waste of time.

The only episode that doesn��t follow the sitcom format is the fourth episode. Instead it basically exists to explain all the shit that happened before. The shit that the audience, frankly, are smart enough to figure out for themselves. Wanda created the sitcom world as a way of coping with the loss of Vision, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we got it. Thanks. It doesn’t advance the plot or anything. It’s just a massive info-dump. But by far the lowest point was when Darcy (by far the most annoying character in the first Thor film and is just as obnoxious here) was sat in front of the TV, watching the sitcom and asking the same questions we were. Not even attempting to look for answers. Just reiterating what the audience is thinking. Like this is an episode of fucking Gogglebox.

In the end it becomes apparent why the series is structured the way that it is. It’s to hoodwink people into subscribing to Disney’s stupid streaming service. If you think about it, there was no reason for WandaVision to be a TV series other than to lure gullible fans in with a piece-meal story buried in a mountain of crap. This isn’t a TV show. It’s what is cynically known in the world of big business executives as ‘content.’ They’re not interested in entertaining the audience. Instead they crave ‘engagement’, which isn’t the same thing. Watching WandaVision is like staring into the void, waiting for something to happen, while Disney charge you for the privilege.

Chapter 2: I Love Lucy

So the plot sucks balls. What about the characters? Surely if Wanda and Vision are likeable at least, it’ll give us something to cling onto.

Well as I was watching the first episode, it suddenly hit me that I couldn’t remember anything that happened to them in previous films. I knew Vision died, but other than that, I couldn’t tell you significant plot details or their personalities or anything. Not a great start.

See, up until now, Vision and Scarlet Witch have been little more than background characters. So already there’s an uphill struggle to get us invested in their relationship, especially considering we haven’t actually seen that relationship develop. In Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Scarlet Witch is killing people because she’s pissed off about Tony Stark killing people (you work that one out) until all of a sudden she stops and joins the good guys because the script said so. Vision meanwhile is introduced as a convenient deus ex machina to beat Ultron and gets no real personality other than he’s a robot. Captain America: Civil War comes the closest to giving Wanda a story and personality of her own as it’s her actions that cause the Sokovia Accords to come into effect, but she never gets any real growth or payoff as the film is heavily focused on Cap and Iron Man’s penis measuring contest. And as for Vision, all he does in the film is accidentally cripple War Machine. No real character or arc there as such. And then we have Avengers: Infinity War, where Wanda and Vision are now sporadically in love and on the run until that pesky Josh Brolin, looking like a CGI cross between Joss Whedon and a grumpy grape, comes along and rips out Vision’s Infinity Stone to power up his golden glove of doom, and the film treats this like a tragic moment, except... it isn’t. Because we haven’t really had the time to properly get to know these characters and see their romance blossom. So instead it just comes off as hollow and forced.

WandaVision has the exact same problem. Apparently Wanda was so distraught about Vision’s death that she broke into a SWORD base, stole his corpse, brought it back from the dead... somehow, and then enslaved an entire town of people to create an idyllic lifestyle for her and her hubby while broadcasting it as a sitcom to the outside world... for some reason. Putting aside the dubious morality of it all, it’s impossible to really sympathise with Wanda or her supposed grief because we’ve barely spent any time with her. Had the Marvel movies taken the time to properly explore the characters and show us their relationship grow and develop, this might have had more emotional resonance. But no, it just happens. In one film they barely speak to each other and in the next they’re a couple. No effort to explore how they feel about each other or any of the problems that may arise trying to date a robot. It just happens and we’re just supposed to care. Well I’m sorry, but I don’t care. You’re going to have to try a little bit harder than that I’m afraid. What’s worse is that, thanks to the whole fake sitcom thing, it’s impossible to really become invested in Wanda and her plight because the show has to constantly keep us at arms length at all times in order to keep up the pretence that this bullshit is somehow mysterious.

Looking through the WandaVision tag, it amuses me how many people say that she’s acting out of character. And yeah, her actions are a bit of a head scratcher. Why would an Eastern European’s ideal life be an American sitcom? Why a sitcom? Why kidnap an entire town? Why keep changing the decade? None of it makes sense, but you’re wrong for thinking that Wanda is behaving out of character for the simple reason that Wanda has never actually had a character. In fact, ironically, Wanda mind controlling an entire town and forcing them to do her bidding is probably the one consistent thing about her as she did this in Age Of Ultron. In interviews, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany described how they used actors like Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick Van Dyke as influences, which is really funny because they’re straight up admitting they don’t have characters and even now they’re still not playing the characters, instead emulating the work of far better actors.

As I was watching the show, it became abundantly clear that not only do Marvel not have the faintest idea what they wanted to do with these characters, but they also straight up don’t give a shit about these characters. Wanda in particular has had a rough time under the tyrannical regime of the House of Mouse. First they cast Elizabeth Olsen, a white woman, to play a Romani character, then systematically erasing her Jewish roots, even going so far as to put a cross in her bedroom in Civil War, and now the character is being butchered even more by forcing her into an American sitcom housewife role that she apparently willingly chose for herself, which is laughable. I mean say what you like about Magneto in the X-Men films, at least they actually depicted his Jewish culture. At least they recognised his Jewish background was important (though not important enough to cast a Jewish actor apparently). Wanda’s steady cultural erasure over the years is incredibly insidious and judging by Olsen’s comments in interviews, where she called Wanda’s comic book outfit a quote ‘gypsy thing’ unquote, it seems nobody has an ounce of fucking respect for the character or the culture she’s supposed to be representing. (and to all those kissing her arse saying it was a slip of the tongue, she has been repeatedly called out for using the slur in the past, so at this point I’d describe her behaviour as wilful ignorance)

If you want further proof of how much Marvel doesn’t seem to care about Wanda, look no further than her brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver. At the end of Episode 5, Wanda brings Pietro back from the dead, except it’s not Pietro. It’s Peter Maximoff, the Quicksilver from the X-Men films played by Peter Evans, who coincidentally is not Jewish or Romani either. So Quicksilver has the dubious honour of not only being whitewashed three times, but also twice within the same franchise. But should we really be surprised at this point? It’s Marvel after all. The same company that whitewashed the Ancient One in Doctor Yellowface and claimed it wasn’t racist because Tilda Swinton is ‘Celtic’. But now I’m going off topic. My point is that this isn’t a simple case of recasting an actor like Mark Ruffalo replacing Edward Norton as the Hulk. WandaVision actually acknowledges the recast in-universe, which makes no sense. Why would Wanda bring back her brother, only to make him look like a different person? We the audience may be familiar with this version of Quicksilver, but she isn’t. That would be like me bringing my Grandad back to life and making him look like Ian McKellen. He’d be perfectly charming, I’m sure, but he wouldn’t be my Grandad.

If Marvel really cared about the characters or narrative consistency, they would have brought Aaron Taylor Johnson back. Instead, now they have absorbed 20th Century Fox into the hellish Disney abyss, they use X-Men’s Quicksilver as a means to keep viewers from switching off and so that people will write stupid articles and think pieces about whether the rest of the X-Men will show up in the MCU. It’s like dangling your keys in front of a toddler’s face to distract them from the rotting corpse of a raccoon lying face down in the corner of the room.

And it’s here where I decided to stop watching the show because fuck Disney.

Epilogue: One Foot In The Grave

You know, I am sick and tired of the so called ‘professional’ critics bending over backwards to praise these god awful films and shows when it’s so clear to anyone with a functioning brain cell how bad they truly are. WandaVision is without a doubt one of the most cynically produced and poorly structured TV shows I’ve ever seen. Its riffs on classic sitcoms are pointless and self-indulgent, the writing is terrible, the characters are unlikable and unsympathetic, and it’s entirely emblematic of what the entire MCU has become of late. And it’s only going to get worse as Disney drowns us with more ‘content’ to keep the plebs ‘engaged’. In short; pathetic.

#anti wandavision #anti marvel #anti mcu #anti disney #quill's scribbles

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seek--rest · 3 years

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for the salty asks: 5 and 13 about tony stark??

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I mentioned st*cky before which is something that has all the makings of something I should enjoy (and have!!) but stay largely away because the characterizations of anyone not the white men are not a vibe.

Can I also say that I enjoyed IronDad a lot more before I realized just how blatantly racist and sexist it can be— and worse yet, how defensive and aggressive the same people who reblog BLM and diversity and protect POC!!! will be when actual POC call this shit out within the IronDad fandom because they’re more angry about being called racist than dealing with racism, more concerned with making fandom a fun and safe place to be for white people, and more concerned about white feelings and the bonkers attachment to protecting comfort characters above all else with the excuse “people are so mean and aggressive about their headcanons when ALL interpretations are valid” then idk... asking themselves why the most popular stories, tropes & trends focus on solely on white men and do the extra step of demonizing, abusing or killing off anyone who isn’t + asking themselves why they’re so mad that POC talking about this?

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

I feel like all my opinions about Tony are unpopular 😂

I guess I never really vibed with this widespread “Tony Stark Defense Squad” thing that IronDad has, or the idea that Tony LOVED PETER LIKE A SON!!!!!! from the moment he met him paired with this absurd woobification that I genuinely do not understand. Like Tony Stark in the MCU seems deeply aware of his own flaws (unhealthily so) and in canon has made a lot of shitty decisions that he doesn’t always reconcile, but tries to. It’s like, the key component of his character arc throughout the entirety of the MCU to consistently make terrible decisions and do his best to do better.

I don’t understand how saying “Tony Stark was not actually interested in or cared about Peter Parker other than for how much of an asset he could be to him + his own self-projection of issues with his own father, as shown in his treatment in both CW and HOCO” is seen as this massively controversial, negative statement and it not just being a description of what happened. Like sure, everything is up for interpretation and the jump from HOCO to Infinity War makes for a more interesting conversation re: Tony attempting to make amends and closeness that we never saw on screen and yet is somehow made more valid than spideychelle to large swaths of irondad... make it make sense.

But like.... did we all see the same movies? Is this not just another example of Tony Stark and how he is with people? That we... like this dude... because he is flawed and makes those kind of mistakes? I genuinely don’t understand how anyone can see CW + HOCO and not see how put off and negligent that Tony Stark was or think that he “loved Peter like a SON” after blackmailing him into coming with him to Germany. “Making a suit shows he cares!!!” Yeah, maybe to Tony but certainly not to Peter, who doesn’t actually know this man aside from the parasocial celebrity relationship that Tony takes advantage of and Peter— being sixteen— willfully follows along with because of it.

tl;dr Tony in canon didn’t “care” about Peter Parker to the extent people want to believe he did— yes even after HOCO considering it was Happy that talked to him the most after Vulture and Tony’s “amendment” was played, on-screen as a joke that was still inappropriate— and it’s my personal belief that he didn’t realize how much he cared about Peter until Peter died in his arms on Titan. He saw him as an asset, then a mistake to be fixed and then finally as a person— as is consistent with his character arc and how Tony treated people throughout the entirety of the MCU.

Salty asks

#seek speaks #Luna gonna get me sniped

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oimoi-op · 3 years

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It’s kind of weird to me that some (though obvs not all and honestly not the majority of) MCU Tony stans will literally say any stupid shit to make any criticisms against his character somehow seem ingenuine or meritless. I saw a post comparing Tony’s and Wanda’s traumas as well as their different responses to said traumas that has gained a little traction, and honestly I was kind of pissed off about the assumptions made about people who criticize Tony??? At one point the OP literally said that most people who “won’t forgive” Tony only dislike him because he’s a man and a billionaire but will forgive Wanda because she’s poor and a woman.

Um, okay then.

Folks, we are talking about fictional characters. They are not real people. Perhaps they may mean a lot to you, but these people are not and have never been real. That being said, Tony, in the context of the MCU in particular, is one of the most privileged characters in the films. He is a white American man who also happens to be a billionaire. He established his personal success by selling weapons to the US military which he knew were being used on villages overseas. Yes, it was Stane who made deals with the Ten Rings specifically, but Tony actively and enthusiastically did business with the military up until he became a victim of his own weapons. I’m not trying to diminish Tony’s arc or attempt to demonize him as he is a well-developed and complex character, but I’m rehashing his origins for the people who have apparently forgotten what he was like pre-Avengers. The point is, the man has a shit ton of privilege that he both actively and passively benefits from in literally every movie he’s in.

Wanda was born in Sokovia which I honestly dislike for various reasons, mainly because the MCU has (as of now) erased Wanda’s longstanding identity as both a Romani and Jewish woman in the comics while also portraying her and Pietro’s MCU identities as Eastern Europeans in a negative and offensive light, but that’s something for a different time and lost her parents to weapons sold by Stark Industries at the age of ten. Ten. She and her brother were apparently in such a bad situation that they grew susceptible to Hydra’s rhetoric and volunteered for a program that no one else survived. Does that excuse what she does in AoU? No. Does shit like Pietro and Vision dying excuse what she does in WandaVision? Also no. That being said, her circumstances are vastly different from Tony’s, and I’m not going to say that Wanda, who has not mastered her abilities in Civil War, being unable to stop an explosion that she didn’t cause from hurting people is just as bad as Tony, who has access to a shit ton of money and advanced tech as well as his 500 doctorates, in AoU deciding to experiment with alien tech that was used to mindfuck people (including Clint, whom Tony seems to be on friendly terms with as of AoU) to create ‘a suit of armor around the world’ that the rest of the world had literally no say in (examples of “collateral damage” on both parties’ parts that the Tony stan post gave 🙄) because it’s not. It’s not the same at all.

They both have severe trauma and survivor’s guilt, and they both react poorly and out of grief and fear (Tony creating Ultron/siding with the Accords without considering individuals who can’t just “stop” their powers like he can take off his armor and I’m not saying Cap was right either but Tony was definitely in the wrong as well/Tony attacking and trying to kill Bucky, Wanda joining Hydra/using her powers on the Avengers/creating the Hex). Hell, they could even be foils in some way. However, their situations are so different that it’s not fair to minimize criticisms of Tony’s actions because they acknowledge the privilege the character has in-universe. We’re kind of supposed to be critical of people with privilege, y’know, not ignore it. Tony isn’t supposed to be a perfect character without flaws; in fact, his MCU version was created to intentionally show development over a period of time instead of instantaneously so as to not jar the viewer. His development mitigates but does not erase his flaws. I actually like that about his character a lot. Because he is one of the smartest and richest and most privileged people in the MCU, however, I’m going to be much more critical of him than I am of other characters, just like I’m more critical of Doctor Strange, or Hank Pym, or even Danny fucking Rand. I’m not going to ignore the fact that the character is a fucking billionaire who made money off of weapons used by the US military for the war in Afghanistan just because he said a funny thing that I can relate to lmao

I do think a lot of viewers are writing off Wanda’s actions because of her trauma, and I don’t agree with that. Wanda being hurt does not give her the right to hurt innocent people. She, like Tony, is a very flawed yet very complex and interesting character, and I’m glad she’s starting to get a larger role within the MCU. I also think it’s dumb how some viewers are trying to blame everything that has happened in WandaVision on Tony (especially in regards to Vision’s body because there’s no way Tony had any say over what happened there, Tony is not Vision’s creator, Vision is not Tony’s creation). However, I don’t see why this is a reason to compare everything about her, including her criticisms, to Tony Stark because not everything about their respective situations is equivalent mainly due to their different circumstances and privilege in-universe.

And you know what, if people don’t like Tony just because he’s a billionaire white American man who once made a fortune off the US military bombing villages overseas, then they’re completely fucking valid. I personally wish they could look past that and instead focus on his evolution as a character, but, like, profiting from war is pretty fucking awful, so I don’t see how getting hung up on that is a problem on the part of the audience 🤷

#why do i even bother with this shit lol #there's like two people who actually know what post i'm talking about but i don't want to link it #my intention is not to start a flame war or some shit #and i'm not attacking tony stans #or tony stark really #i don't hate him i am just very critical of his character mainly for the reasons i listed in this post #fandom #marvel #mcu #wandavision #tony stark #iron man #wanda maximoff #scarlet witch #oimoi rants about pointless fandom bullshit #long post

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agentem · 3 years

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I can’t sleep so let’s shout about IROM MAN 3.

Screencrush just posted a video about it that got me thinking.

I don’t think the film is as successful as Ryan Arey makes it out. It TRIES to do all these things. If you are a Shane Black fan, then you could say this is because Disney messed with his initial vision. Or maybe the vision was flawed.

I do think it’s interesting that the film is about PTSD, fear and perception. Trevor turning out to be just an actor is that age-old truism that your fears just aren’t as scary when you look at them in the light of day. It’s all in your head.

That would’ve worked better if Killian didn’t go around screaming that he “was” the guy Tony was afraid of at the end, suggesting it was real. (The original idea, of Rebecca Hall being the main bad guy, would have played with gender roles and society’s influence on our perception of reality.)

It’s interesting that I have been seeing a lot of negativity toward IRON MAN 3 and it’s portrayal of that guy around the premiere of SHANG CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS. Because I think online reaction is a bit skewed. Fans who were disappointed that Trevor wasn’t that guy seem to have an outsized voice in this. But Trevor was never supposed to be that guy. Nor is Killian (despite his claims) actually at all associated with Tony’s first trauma—his kidnappoing and inprisonment.

I don’t think the general population cared about the Twist that much? I recall IRON MAN 3 having a very high Rotten Tomatoes score when it first came out. Am I misremembering? Now it is down to 79%, which seems fair, but not what I remember. What were your initial feelings on IRON MAN 3? I remember being relieved because there is so much Orientalism around “The M— “, and honestly a lot of Iron Man’s origin.

I was worried about the casting of Sir Ben Kingsley too. I think he is a very good actor. But, as most of you know, he won his Oscar for playing Gandhi, and at the time it was well-received but now there is criticism around the darkening of his face and such for the role. Sir Ben is part Indian, but part white. (One bit of trivia I read recently that chilled me to my core is that the role was originally offered to Anthony Hopkins, who played Odin obviously, but he turned it down so they “found” Sir Ben.)

Anyway, the original “The M—“ is half-white and half-Chinese and I thought they were actually going to do the problematic origin.

So yeah, I was relieved they didn’t do it in IRON MAN 3. I stand by that. And I love them giving Wenwu the mantle but not the title in SHANG CHI. Now I can tell the fanboys to shut up about it. They saw the guy.

#iron man 3 #trevor slattery #ben kingsley #shane black

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thisbibitch · 5 years

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Tony and Steve’s ends

ENDGAME SPOILERS

I’ve seen so much negativity about Tony and Steve’s endings in Endgame that I sort of wanna address because I think a lot of it is misplaced.

Steve:

* It is perfectly within his character for him to go back to the love of his life. The MCU, with both all three Captain America films and some of the Avengers films, have signalled this for literally eight years now.

* The timelines are not, as some people think, fucked up, nor does this mean that Steve will allow his best friend to suffer. The time travel in this movie creates alternate timelines. There’s a timeline where Loki escaped in 2012. A timeline where Thanos disappears in 2014. There’s also a timeline where Peggy Carter marries Steve Rodgers rather than her husband in the main timeline. In that timeline, Steve presumably blows Hydra’s cover in SHIELD and saves his best friend.

Tony:

* I get why people are upset about Tony dying after he has a family at last. But I think it’s probably the most realistic and accurate to the character of any of the ends. Tony Stark survived hell in Afghanistan and now wants to protect the world. He succeeded a few times and then failed in the most ultimate fashion, losing someone who was like a son to him.

* He then spends five years rebuilding his life, has a daughter etc. Presumably, Thanos’ snap has really killed off anyone’s interest in significantly conquering the Earth, so there aren’t really any threats.

* Then Tony sees an opportunity to actually save the world and his ‘son’. It’s absolutely within his character to go back and try. Hell, Pepper even broke up with him at one point in their relationship because she knew he’d never let go.

* And that’s exactly the point. Tony has tried to let go, but he always gets sucked back in. It’s a flaw or perhaps a positive in his character. It’s something he knows, that Pepper knows, that most people know. The inevitable outcome of that character trait was his death. Even if he survived this conflict, then he’d go with the Avengers on the next battle, and the next, until he died in battle. He was never going to retire and live till old age. That just wasn’t him after Afghanistan and New York.

* The most wonderful part of Tony’s arc is that even though his death was inevitable, he still spent five years being somewhat happy. He had a family. He had a kid. It was beautiful, and while it’s heartbreaking that they lost him, that was always an inevitability.

#avengers #endgame #avengers endgame #endgame spoilers #avengers spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #tony stark #tony #steve rodgers #steve #iron man #captain america #peggy carter #pepper potts #morgan stark #tony stark deserves a hug

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dracwife · 3 years

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Dex, I'm in love with a slasher character, what do I do? You're one of the few community members I know that loves slasher-esque/violent characters. It's... complicated though cause they're morally reprehensible but really pretty too?? I have never been in this position before cause the character is really complicated and my thoughts/feelings for them are complicated. So I'm just looking for advice if you can give any if that's okay.

Absolutely!!!!!

I do have quite a few slasher/violent f/os (read: Hannibal, Eddie, Nathan, Amanda, Anton, and Dandy who is probably the Worst™ offender) and honestly? My advice is to roll with it! It depends on how you read and choose to portray the character but don't feel bad about liking them!! You can always consume media critically and while you shouldn't simply excuse an f/o's negative traits, in cases of my f/os with rather violent tendencies, I try to work around it -- take for example Hannibal, he is violent, he is a murderer and a cannibal obviously, but it's also canon that he was in love with Clarice and I'm pretty sure Tony Hopkins himself even said he'd never actually hurt her; In short I take this quote and I just...project it onto my s/i, honestly! And there's nothing wrong with that. A LOT of people who have suffered abuse or trauma of some sort use selfshipping with characters that have similar trauma (as many slashers do, as per sad-backstory trope with a few exceptions) as a coping mechanism, and I'm one of them: It helps me process my feelings much better than it would had I tried to on my own without complicating things, in my mind it's something my f/o's and myself can sympathize with about each other and bond over, if that makes sense?

In another sense, there are the exceptions: I'll use Anton for this one. I felt almost exactly how you're describing when I first read the book. He's also one of cinema's most famous psychopaths, and according to psychologists, the most accurate. I've done a bit of looking into things on top of some psych classes I've taken (Another point I'd make is I'm attracted to slasher-like characters bc I find the psychology behind them and horror as a genre extremely fascinating, and I don't think there's any harm in that if I can make the distinction between fictional slashers and the glorifying of true crime...which is a whole other can of worms but just know it's disgusting and being able to draw the like between fiction and reality is crucial when referring to violent or slasher f/os in particular -- but I digress) and psychopathy as Anton is characterized is more-so exhibited by him through a lack of guilt and empathy. In that sense, he can't exactly 'love' someone in the typical way, but nonetheless I believe he wouldn't want to see me hurt as he knows how I feel about him and though he doesn't reciprocate it in the way I do he "cares" about me in his own way, and is particularly fond of my company.

tl;dr, The heart wants what it wants. There is nothing wrong with falling for a slasher or slasher-like character. While you shouldn't try to excuse their actions, we are all flawed human beings (some more than others, obviously) there is undoubtedly a strange attraction many feel towards villains in particular, and slashers are no exception -- so why not have fun with it? Just...be smart. Don't go f/oing My Friend Dahmer or Zac Efron Bundy but Michael Myers? The power in shipping with him. Thomas Hewitt? That bad boy can fit so much love in him. Candyman??? A SPECIAL LITTLE BEE BOY!!! SO so good,,

Besides, in my honest opinion, slasher-related f/os are far more interesting when you're their "I murder everyone" exceptionand that's just self care babey!!!!!! :^]

#I HOPE THIS WASN'T TOO LONG A RESPONSE #i just wanted to relate my thought process!!!#BUT HONESTLY IF YOU EVER WANT TO TALK AB SLASHER FOS!!! my dms are open!!#and i can clarify anything if need be :3 #dex.ask #kirasgxddess

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murfeelee · 4 years

Video

youtube

Ranking ALL the Sims 3 Expansion Packs - tonitalks

WOW, Tonitalks and I have a lot of similar ideas about the TS3 EPs! ❤️

It’s like, on one hand, every TS3 EP is amazing (especially when compared to the pittance being sold in TS4′s EPs). But on the other hand, EA really dropped the ball in areas where it should have really gone further to expand core gameplay. Even the best EPs had glaring flaws, and tend to fall short of things TS1/TS2 did better. But on the whole, what we got was just enough to keep the TS3 fandom alive even 11 years later. Bless.

MY THOUGHTS (under the cut):

(Unless Tumblr’s flagged it, I could’ve sworn I made an updated Best/Worst post ranking all the TS3 EPs. But the only one still on my blog is my old one I made before I bought all the EPs, though it mostly still aligns with how I feel.)

Toni S A B C D F ranking system is mostly based on which packs have the most content and varied things things to do. Toni’s S A B ranks are her must-owns, while the C D F ranks are her most disappointing games.

S: Generations, Supernatural

Toni’s only complaint about GEN is the Imaginary Friends lifestate, which: same. Frikkin creepy. But the rest of GEN is a MUST-OWN for kids & elders.

And finally! A reviewer giving Supernatural the respect it DESERVES! ^0^ SN was stuffed to the brim; SO much content! Granted, it’s no Makin Magic, and I personally was underwhelmed by Moonlit Falls, as I like Midnight Hollow and Dragon Valley WAY more, but SN is still my favorite TS3 EP, regardless. Anyone who loves the “weird, wonderful and magic“ side of The Sims NEEDS SN. 💯💯💯 (Just make sure to mod the Zombies out or adjust your lifestate settings; whatever works to get rid of them.)

A: Seasons, University

Seasons is an excellent pack--Toni wanted a new world, which: same, but there’s just an ungodly amount of new content in SSNS, it’s the best and most well-made TS3 EP, period.

To this day I’ve NEVER sent my sims to UNI. I hate school IRL, so unless my sims are going to effing Hogwarts I have no desire to ever bother with the school crap. Toni doesn’t like the 3 social groups, but I actually LOVE them. Almost all of my sims are either Rebels or Nerds. Crazy enough, I love the amount of new content UNI added, I just never use it for my sims’ schooling. I love the radio station, weather machine, whiteboard, skeleton set, etc etc.

B: World Adventures, Pets

For Toni, the main complaint for WA is basically the repetitiveness of the tombs, and their lack of replayability. Yes, technically this is true, as WA veers dangerously close to where TS4 went wrong with all the storyline GPs, as if they’re Castaways or The Sims Medieval. The main difference though is that we can create/download as many new tombs as we want, which 100% keeps WA fresh and interesting for me. But yes, It’s an excellent pack, which is crazy considering it’s the first one for TS3.

Toni's biggest criticism for Pets is how high maintenance horses are, which YES. Unless your sims are rich and own a lot of property, horses are almost impossible to own...but that’s how horses are IRL anyway, so IMO I don’t see that as a negative. The only problem is when you want horses in CC worlds that are too small, where you can't fit in enough 64x64 lots. (So it’s no surprise TS4 didn’t even bother. 🙄 )

C: Ambitions

Toni felt that more could’ve been done with the professions & careers, which, YES! Too many rabbithole careers, and not enough interactions. I freaking love that they added professions with playable firehouses and private investigators, but I too wish that every career could just be opened up; I hate rabbitholes. And she thought Twinbrook was meh, but I think Twinbrook’s one of the better EP worlds. (The Store worlds are where it’s at, though -- eff most of the EP worlds, tbh.) Overall I really really like AMB; it was headed in the right direction, though I can see where it could’ve easily let people down who were expecting a lot more from the professions/careers. (EA obviously learned NOTHING from AMB’s feedback, considering what Get to Work did....)

D: Showtime, Island Paradise, Into the Future

Showtime: Toni said “what was this game?“ 😂The Genies were a poor fit, the professions should’ve given us WAY more, there’s no acting career in “Hollywood,“ etc. Exactly. Not to mention the dumpster fire that was Simport. But I have a love/hate relationship with SHT. I actually treat SHT the way I do UNI & IP -- I really like the side content it added; I just never bother with the core game mechanic: superstardom, schools, and underwater. That makes 50% of the game useless for me, which is why I always get EPs on sale. ^_^

I agree with Toni that Island Paradise should’ve been like World Adventures, with different vacation locations. It could’ve been more like Castaways, with Tiki/Polynesian/Melanesian islands, Asian islands, Caribbean islands, Mediterranean Islands, etc. Plus, both of us didn’t like the mermaid system. Making them requires too much effort for them to not do all that much underwater. But to be fair, IP added A LOT Of new content. For what it did add, there is an impressive amount. Island Living sure can't say the same! 🤣

Into the Future however.... I understand why Toni was so hard with this pack. Trust: I ran the main thread at the officials that asked for a Time Travel expansion, so ITF holds a very special place in my heart, cuz EA for the most part kinda listened? ITF is awesome. It added some super cool content that I use religiously; ITF’s one of my top 3 EPs. But yeah, choices were made that had me like WTF?? Toni wanted ITF to be more hi-tech, which SAME! I wanted more of a Star Wars Blade Runner cyberpunk neon metropolis, and a steampunk/dieselpunk industrial dystopia. I have no idea where TF that “utopian” Willy Wonka zany Hunger Games nonsense came from. It was kinda retro-futuristic Jetsons Star Trek TOS in a way, which I like, but...? Choices. EA definitely could’ve done more with ITF, for sure. IMO itr needed to be more like WA, too. U_U

F: Late Night - I hollered! 😭

Y’all know I effing hate Late Night. Only reason I keep it installed is for the musical instruments & highrises. It’s certainly no Apartment Life, and it’s definitely no Night Life, but it’ll do in a pinch. The obnoxious Celebrities/Paparazzi, Twilight vampires, cramped Bridgeport...no thanks. Especially with Boroughsburg out here just SHAMING EA. SHAME! I wish someone would remake Bridgeport as a cyberpunk world, that would be awesome. Otherwise most of LN is useless to me. :\

_________________________________________________________

TL;DR

So basically, if I were to follow Toni’s S A B C D F ranking system, and classify TS3′s EPs based on its content quantity, and EA’s dedication to thematic cohesion, my list would be as follows:

S: Generations, Seasons, Supernatural

All radically overhaul the core mechanics of the game/world itself: age states, weather, and lifestates/occults.

A: World Adventures, Pets

World Adventures added 3 new worlds and cultures; and Pets added animals. It’s just arguable whether EA should’ve done more with them all or not.

B: University, Island Paradise, Into the Future

Chock-full of new activities & skills, but your mileage may vary.

C: Ambitions (AMB didn’t really come with as much as it should have)

D: Showtime (SHT included a lot, but not much of it made thematic sense)

F: Late Night (LN needed to commit to what makes a celebrity--music/movie/fashion/etc CAREERS--rather than the hollow lifestyle of a celeb)

#simblr #ts3 #the sims 3 #videos

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doomonfilm · 3 years

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Ranking : Marvel Cinematic Universe - The Infinity Saga (2008 - 2019)

Outside of the Star Wars or James Bond franchises (or maybe even the longstanding BBC series Dr. Who), I am hard pressed to think of a bigger, more intricately connected set of films than those created by Kevin Feige for his Marvel Cinematic Universe (better known as the MCU to most people). With the help of numerous established and upcoming stars, a vast range of directors, and a rich history of characters and events the studio could play fast and loose with, Marvel Studios spent roughly a decade transforming “comic book” films from gimmicks into legitimized artistic storytelling, forcing many studios to attempt and emulate the success of a connected “cinematic universe” without laying the groundwork needed to do so.

With WandaVision in motion on Disney+, and the release future of Black Widow still up in the air, the trajectory in which the MCU will move forward is still a mystery, but these properties firmly close the door on the initial three phases of Marvel Studios releases, collectively known as The Infinity Saga due to their connection to Thanos and the six Infinity Stones. Individually, many of these pieces had impact, but as a whole, the overarching story that they tell is an epic feat yet to be matched.

But enough preamble, I know what everybody came here for. So, based solely on my opinion and nothing else, here is The Infinity Saga, as presented by Marvel Studios, ranked from least to most favorite...

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008) It’s a shame that my favorite Marvel character seems to be a conundrum when it comes to giving him a solo movie. With a decent slice of these characters, it’s about casting the “normal” version of the character, and in the case of this film, as great of an actor as Edward Norton is, I am not sure if he can play enough self-sabotaging behaviors to believably provide us with a Bruce Banner that audiences can connect with. As a result, The Incredible Hulk left us with an isolated protagonist (literally and figuratively) forced to carry audiences between long stretches absent of Hulk in his green glory.

22. Thor (2011) For a time, it seemed as if Thor was going to be the realm of the MCU where gravitas resided. The Shakespearean approach to mythic heroes adapted by Marvel was fresh at the time, as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were around, but certainly more relatable. Bringing Thor, Odin, Loki and a host of other legendary Asgardians into the fold broadened the world, but with the entire picture of this stretch now laid out in front of us, it is clear that Chris Hemsworth had not yet found his voice as Thor. We knew he would have to earn his worthiness and his title as King of Asgard, but I doubt anyone anticipated Thor would become one of the consistently funniest aspects of the MCU... sadly, that was not yet developed in his first film, and as a result, his introduction falls to the lower realms of the list.

21. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

20. Ant-Man (2015) It was not my intention to lump the Ant-Man movies together, but in all honestly, they do work best in that capacity. The events of both movies, for the most part, seem to satellite around the bigger nucleus narrative, and up until Avengers : Endgame, and appearance made by Ant-Man in the other films was cursory or meant to “balance the scales” (as in the case of Captain America : Civil War). Don’t get me wrong... Paul Rudd is a fabulous addition to the MCU family, and listening to Michael Peña tell stories never gets old, but when it comes down to the big picture, Ant-Man and his two films are not the largest puzzle pieces on the table.

19. Captain Marvel (2019) The possibilities for an epic film were all there... Krees and Skrulls would finally get a chance at the spotlight, we were being teased going back in time without realizing how it would play into the resolution of our Infinity Saga storyline, and the final moments of the film made us question everything we’d been presented with up until that point. Sadly, however, Carol Danvers turned out to be an extremely overpowered and dangerously self-unaware character, resulting in a lack of stakes or emotional connection ever really being established. While Captain Marvel does have fun elements to it, much of the work that managed to stick was undone by her forced and underwhelming appearance in Avengers : Endgame. Of all the properties in the MCU, this one seems to have the most whispers and rumors surrounding it in regards to its production and future within the MCU moving forward, but I will be curious to see how time treats this film.

18. Iron Man 3 (2013) Up through Phase Two of The Infinity Saga, Tony Stark was always positioned as the loner of the group. With that in mind, it does seem a bit strange to me that his final solo film, and the first solo film after Marvel’s The Avengers, would find Tony back in isolation mode so vigorously. In all fairness, War Machine is there (during his brief stint as The Patriot), and Pepper Potts is given the most room to play out of all three films, but as interesting as the antagonist structure for the film is, the convoluted nature of having at least three tiers of villainy almost begs the inclusion of at least one more Avenger. Ultimately, the film does move Tony closer to the rest of the camp, but it’s odd that more Avengers weren’t involved in the actual film.

17. Captain America : The First Avenger (2011) Of all the characters fans were presented with in the MCU, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Captain America received the most rewarding arc of any character in The Infinity Saga. Every journey needs a starting point, and simply because it was the origin story, Captain America : The First Avenger was never destined to be the best of the MCU. Visually, the MCU was still figuring a few things out, so some of the scrawny Cap scenes look awkward, but by the time this film is all said and done, all of the honor, character and heart needed to propel Cap forward was present and accounted for.

16. Thor : The Dark World (2013)

15. Iron Man 2 (2010) Maybe it’s a recencey bias thing, but I really enjoyed Thor : The Dark World and Iron Man 2. Up until deciding to make this list, I’d not seen either of these films, and it was largely due to the negative reactions I’d heard from most fans and critics. Thor : The Dark World gave us brief glimpses of where the Thor character was headed, it was a great look for Jane Foster (who is seemingly on her way back into the mix), it opened up some mystic doors that we will likely be exploring moving forward in the MCU, and due to these mystic elements, we may have seen the beginnings of S.W.O.R.D., who is already making its presence felt in Phase Four. As for Iron Man 2, we are given the polar opposite Tony Stark from his introductory movie, and due to his seemingly unstoppable mission to erase himself, War Machine is given autonomy, and the beginnings of the Iron Legion are built. Perhaps its a bit of a revisionist lens as well, hence these two being grouped together, but time seems to have been very kind to these two films, despite their flaws.

14. Spider-Man : Far From Home (2019) Avengers : Endgame would have been a perfect place to close the door on The Infinity Saga, but that monumental task was appointed to Spider-Man : Far From Home. Perhaps it was that implied burden that made the film feel a bit buried under the weight of expectations. There are certainly calls to a post-Tony Stark snap present throughout the film, but Mysterio’s plan runs seemingly independent of any previous events shown. The mid and post-credit scenes certainly tease big things for the future, but even before COVID-19 flipped the script on the industry, it was uncertain where things where headed as the new phase unrolled. This film was enjoyable, but almost feels like a stand-alone trapped on a bridge between two worlds of narrative.

13. Iron Man (2008) The one that started it all. I’ve never been the biggest Iron Man fan, but I can certainly respect the large risk that Kevin Feige took by kickstarting his empire with a character seemingly caught between fame and obscurity. Tony Stark has enough Bruce Wayne in him to make him an intriguing character, but Iron Man and Batman could not be more different from one another, which immediately gave the MCU a fresh feel in light of them using a Silver Age character. The pool of household name talent was limited, as Sony was sitting on Spider-Man, the X-men and the Fantastic Four in 2008, but ultimately, Iron Man was a roll of the dice that paid off in a major way.

12. Spider-Man : Homecoming (2017) Spider-Man is such an iconic character that it is sometimes hard to believe that he was not always involved in The Infinity Saga. Tobey Maguire was the definitive Spider-Man to many fans, and Andrew Garfield was starting to build a cult following, but after a bit of legal ping-pong, Captain America : Civil War went from being an anticipated mess to possibly a shadow of its comic book counterpart when Spider-Man appeared in the trailer. Tom Holland brought a pitch-perfect voice and sensibility to the character, and Spider-Man : Homecoming drove those feelings home (no pun intended). It wasn’t like Spider-Man needed a boost in tandem with his entry into the MCU, but his introductory movie did most everything right (including assuming we were WELL AWARE of his often repeated origin story).

11. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Out of everyone that the MCU has introduced to the masses, it is safe to say that I knew the least about the Guardians of the Galaxy... in fact, my closest tie to knowledge of their existence came in the form of Howard the Duck, who shares that section of the Marvel comic universe with them. Marvel Studios had already made me enjoy films about Thor and Iron Man, two characters I did not consider myself a fan of prior to their films, so I went out on a limb in hopes that Marvel could sell me on characters I had zero connection to. Guardians of the Galaxy did provide another set of colors in the Marvel spectrum, and it helped open the door to Marvel’s space-centered stories, but it wasn’t until the sequel that I went back and really found an appreciation for Guardians of the Galaxy, which I will expound later. That being said, Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel film that has been benefited by time and revisitation.

10. Marvel's The Avengers (2012) The main pieces had found their way to the board by the time Captain America : The First Avenger was released, and it only seemed like a matter of time before the big players would cross paths. Rather than build to a mass collaboration via smaller duos and groupings, Marvel went all in to close Phase One by locking in The Avengers as the collective stars of The Infinity Saga. Loki found new agency as their protagonist, but he was really just a smokescreen for the big bad of the entire saga, Thanos. The entire run of 23 movies can be summed up or represented by the iconic shot that rotates around our heroes when they stand shoulder to shoulder for the first time, staring up at their enemy emerging from the sky. There was no turning back at this point, and this is largely due to the wonderful execution of one of the MCU’s key films.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) I’m really not sure why Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t connect for me initially, but after watching Vol. 2, I felt a deeper understanding of Peter Quill, the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, and I came to love Groot and Drax even more (who didn’t immediately love Rocket Racoon?). Kurt Russell was the evolved mirror to Chris Pratt that I didn’t know I needed, and the soundtrack contained more songs that spoke directly to me than the first film. Some of the set pieces were downright beautiful in this film, I lowkey became a big fan of Mantis, and Yondu’s story culmination may have been the first time the MCU brought a tear to my eye. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may deceptively be the most emotionally powerful of all the MCU films, short of Avengers : Infinity War, and for that, it must be respected, considering it all came from a little known band of upstarts.

8. Captain America : Civil War (2016) While Marvel’s The Avengers may be the first true “event” film in the MCU, the first major “event” attempted in terms of historic Marvel stories was the infamous Civil War run. A weird mix of anticipation and fear existed in the time preceding the film’s release, as a number of key players from the comic book storyline were either not available to the MCU or had not yet been introduced into the MCU. Speculation between who would be emerging, omitted and adjusted flew back and forth, but in the end, we were not only presented with a riveting triangle of emotion between Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Bucky, but Spider-Man and Black Panther stepped into the spotlight (with a little dose of Ant-Man thrown in for good measure). Had the MCU waited for a different phase, there’s no telling how many heroes and villains could have ultimately been involved, but considering what they had at the time, the MCU definitely exceeded expectations and created their own iconic version of a Marvel narrative hallmark.

7. Black Panther (2018) Outside of the final two Avenger’s, there wasn’t a more anticipated or well-received release (to my knowledge) than Black Panther. After bursting onto the scene in Captain America : Civil War, it seemed everyone was ready for more of King T'Challa, Black Panther and Wakanda. Chadwick Boseman became even more of a fan favorite than he already was, and Black Panther became the first MCU film to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards. Marvel presented Wakanda, and Africa in turn, with the utmost cultural, historical and social respect, and short of a slightly underwhelming finale in terms of visual effects, it was hard to hang a complaint on Black Panther. If the MCU had to pick a single film that they were most proud of, I would not be surprised if this was the one that was chosen.

6. Doctor Strange (2016) As a fan of science fiction, mysticism and overall weirdness, I was incredibly hype for the announcement and release of Doctor Strange. Of all the active characters in the MCU at the time, Doctor Strange was the most obscure that I was already familiar with, and his introductory film did not disappoint. The visual representation of the mystic arts was brilliant, casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One was a stroke of genius (despite many that voiced reservation to the choice), and the introduction of different dimensions and realms to the MCU hinted at the future that was to come. With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness coming in sooner than later, it is almost certain that I will be revisiting this film, and I hope that as time goes by, it finds a bigger audience with a deeper appreciation for it.

5. Thor : Ragnarok (2017) If I think about it hard enough, I can probably find a character that will contradict this statement, but I’m hard pressed to think of a character than took a bigger personality jump between individual films than Thor did between The Dark World and Ragnarok. We got shades of a new Thor in The Dark World, and he was really starting to come out of his shell in Avengers : Age of Ultron, but I’m not sure if anyone expected for Taika Waititi to not only turn Thor into possibly the most loveable Avenger, but make his third film a psychedelic masterpiece of fun. Thor and Loki have never had better chemistry, Cate Blanchett was surprisingly well cast as Hela, and most everyone’s favorite MCU iteration of the Hulk came to life (not to mention a brief nod to Beta Ray Bill being present for keen viewers). It may not be the best film in the MCU, but Thor : Ragnarok is almost certainly the one viewers gravitate towards if they make a quick selection.

4. Avengers : Endgame (2019) How do you end a story arc that spans more than 20 films? Well, for starters, you bring every character to the table, collect every expectation that fans have for them, and then kick all of those expectations to the side and forge a completely wild, new and unexpected path. For a large portion of Endgame’s runtime, it is tonally and stylistically different than any other Avengers film, but near the end, when the rubber hits the road, Thanos and his legions of followers take part in one of the most epically satisfying stands against our heroes already present, only for the world of the MCU to open up and rain the most enjoyable and acceptable fan service ever to be captured to film, including the most iconic Captain America moment of all time.

3. Avengers : Age of Ultron (2015) For a long while, this film stood as my clear-cut favorite in the MCU. I didn’t even know I was a Vision fan until he emerged from his chamber, and the introduction of Scarlet Witch has brought me nothing but joy. David Spader brought some of the best antagonist personality in his powerful portrayal of Ultron, and the party scene provided one of my favorite non-action sequences in all of the MCU. The interactions between the Avengers had the best balance of all their collaborative films during Age of Ultron, and Scarlet Witch took each of our heroes to the darkest corners of their mind. Perhaps people had other ideas in mind when they learned that Tony and Bruce’s murderbot was due for a screen appearance, but for my money’s worth, Age of Ultron was the first Avengers film that blew my mind, and still stands as my personal favorite of the Avengers movies.

2. Avengers : Infinity War (2018) Easily the most epic of all the MCU films, Infinity War set the stage for a truly iconic struggle between the Earth’s mightiest heroes and the seemingly unstoppable Thanos that had been promised over many, many films, and in the opening rounds, Infinity War delivered. For all of the combinations of characters we’d been provided, we’d yet to see Tony interact with Doctor Strange or Star-Lord, and each of those meetings yielded hilarious results. The stakes had never been higher prior to Infinity War, and the costs had not been greater up to this point. I personally remember people in theaters being nearly moved to tears when their favorite heroes (especially Spider-Man) began turning into dust, like they were watching Schindler’s List. If the MCU collectively raised the bar for comic book movies, then Infinity War raised the bar for the MCU.

1. Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014) The MCU has more than a handful of classic films under their belt, but Captain America : The Winter Soldier is probably the sole film of the MCU that feels like a proper action/adventure suspense-thriller, like it was penned by John Grisham. The connection between Bucky and Cap is kinetic in its swings between impending hope and tragedy, and the level of combat and action in the film is second to none. This was the film where the Cap that the masses know and love stepped into his own as a hero and a leader. Of all the directors that Marvel Studios has tapped, the Russo Brothers seem to have the secrets unlocked to make a great MCU film, and Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the pound for pound best they’ve offered yet.

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rabidfirefoxfan · 3 years

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When you responded, I started thinking back to when I first got into Loki. I am ashamed to say, that yes it was from gagnarok. but because I love the truth, I went out seeking it (so my love for gagnarok only lasted a few months) anyways, I do remember loving how great it was after watching it and spreading the word about it; ready to take down any YouTuber with a negative response towards the movie, even though I REALLY didn't want to see it twice. It just stayed in my brain for some reason. I still don't fully understand why, but I think you def hit the nail on the coffin 💜

You enjoyed something, you wanted to Keep enjoying that thing. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. You Subjective reaction to the Movie can be “I though it was a good film” and the Objective reality “This films has MAJOR Problems with it” are two different things.

For example, Michael Bay’s Transformers is objectively a Bad Film: Bad characterization, bad plot, dumb action, over-sexualization, really terrible main character. However, many people Subjective reaction to the Movie is “It was a pretty good movie.” The action scenes were entertaining enough to keep you interested and the character work well enough for ONE watch through. Ragnorak is Similar, your first subjective reaction to the movie was to say it was good.

Your reaction to the movie is also, in some ways, artificial. After all, with big releases like Marvel Movies are is a lot of Fanfare trying to hype you up to go to the Movie. Trailers like to “Your going to have a great time watching this film. It has all the stuff you want.” And then there is the Disney Press Tour trying to encourage media outlets to say the same thing. Finally, when you are all excited to watch the movie, you watch the movie and before you can really process what you watch, you talk with your friends. Now, you had a fairly happy experience, so when you asked your friends they will say “Yeah that was a good Movie,” re-enforcing the Idea that it actualy was a good movie.

Without realizing it, there are 3 forces trying to convince you that watch you actually watched was Good, and not Crap in any meaningful way. Reason 1: You don’t want to have wasted you time and money, so what you spent you time and money on MUST be Good. Reason 2: Your Friends want to feed off you energy and have the same Reason1 working on them. These direct friends will again tell you that the movie is Good. Reason 3: Disney has a strong incentive to want you to think the movie is good, so they promote articles and Social Media pieces that say that the Movie is Good so they continue to Make MONEY off of it for as long as it’s in the Box Office. (Let’s not forget, Ragnorak made just as much as The Justice league did)

Because of all of these Factors, when you are going to talk about the movie a week after you watch, you are STRONGLY encouraged to say how awesome it was. And the People who said it sucked, well, they must just be no-good haters who want to ruin your happiness, RIGHT? There is no way the thing that you watched ONCE can be bad, it must be something else. There is no way I was wrong, that what I liked is bad, that my reasoning can be flawed. It must be those Haters.

And this Line of thinking Works .... for a little bit. The thing is, movie last forever (at least with the internet) and the internet LOVES to over-analysis everything. Piece by Piece, more and more voices start to voice some little things they didn’t like, and than those little things start to pile up, and more and more little things pile up, and OMG This Movie is horrible how did I ever like it in the first place.

You want to see this in Action. Watch Mauler’s A Critique of Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Introduction. Mauler has a whole playlist talking about the Sequel Star Wars movies, and it’s like 24 hours long when you include all 3 movies and like 5 parts of it (Each on like 2 hours long). You don’t have to watch the whole thing, just Watch the first 5 minutes of this specific video. You’ll see this EXACT thing happening to Everyone when it came to The Force Awakens.

One other Problem with the Thor IP that should be address though. IMO, the biggest problem with Thor, is honestly Thor. I don’t think Chris Hemsworth every capture that spirit of Thor, as Least in comparison to the other 3 major character for Avengers (2012). So, arguably the 4 most important characters of the Avengers was Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Loki. Iron Man was the character to get the MCU kicked off, but Thor and Captain America Movies were there to build up momentum and build up to the Avengers. Chris Evans did a great job capturing Cap down-to-earth persona and how he really does want to be a good leader, a good man. RDJ did a FANTASTIC Job capture both the Light and Dark elements of Tony Stark. I don’t think I need explain with Hiddleston did a good Job capturing the spirit of Loki. So, that Leaves Thor.

In the Comics, the basic Idea of Thor is that Thor is an Arrogant Superman. Like Superman, Thor is really strong, nearly invincible, and just Loves Humans and the Earth while not actually begin Human (his mom is the Earth Though). Unlike Superman Though, Thor often thinks too Highly of Himself and can act like a Total Dick at times. In most versions of the Humbling of Thor, Thor often does a really Dick move that causes his banishment. However, even with his arrogant Nature, Thor still loves cute things and still wants to protect stuff.

Hemsworth, although doing a Great Job bringing the Body of Thor (look at those muscles), IMO never did an excellent job bring the warmth of Thor. Or, at least wasn’t as Good at doing Thor as Hiddleston was at doing Loki. Hiddleston, through just trying to do a Good job on his character, ultimately brought all the focus away from Thor and onto Loki. This ended up with the reaction, Thor was bad, but Loki was Good. Because the Main focus, Thor, wasn’t done well, both Thor and TDW suffered. Add to that that Marvel really never knew what to do with the Thor IP and you have a general atmosphere of “The Thor Movies sucked, but I like the Loki scenes,” a sentiment that I honestly agree with.

Hiddleston NAILS every scenes he’s in with Both Movies, but everyone else ... eh? Both Odin and Jane’s actors are phone it in, it’s not their worst performances, but it’s hardly their best. Humbling of Thor is Interesting, but Loki’s side of the story is Far more interesting. I mean, Thor gets banished and immediately gets a girlfriend and a nice life. If Loki didn’t go Mad and attack the Town, it’s likely Thor would have gotten married to Jane, been an amazing Trophy Husband and had 3 kids while Loki would have been miserable on the Throne. That’s not an interesting story for Thor.

TDW suffered from production problems. A director for the movie pulled out last minute and the movie was crap, then they noticed that Loki was popular and they did some Last minute re-shoots with Joss Whedon and Tom Hiddleston. Now it’s a crap movie with sprinkles of Great scenes. Honestly, cut out a lot of the Earth stuff, bring the Focus onto to Loki and I swear there is a great movie in the TDW, I just know it.

So, with the First two Thor movies having ?Eh? Thor content, fans wished for a new better thing and they wanted Ragnorak to be that new better movie. These Fans also ignored anything that said otherwise.

However, because of Taika’s habit of attacking Fans, it’s likely that it’s going to be hard for him to keep his fanbase. Bad movies can work for a time, but eventually People will move on to better thing. Transformers was able to make 3-4 somewhat successful movies but the 5 bombed. The same thing will happen to Taika if he’s not careful. If his next movie doesn’t scratch the same itch that the First movie does, people will re-examine Ragnorak with a critical lens and then it will be popular to bash on his movie.

There is a reason why Tom Hiddleston’s Loki Fans have endured for so Long. It’s because Loki in Thor and TDW really resonated with us, far more than most other Marvel Properties. Because of it, Loki’s personality, his strength and his stories are far more relatable and resonate and any other Marvel Characters. It on Marvel to make us products we are willing to support, not attack us when we don’t want to buy their crap.

For me, I have don’t like how Marvel (and Disney in general) is treating their characters and their fans. Until their general atmosphere improves (or they die in hell) I am going to read Through Loki Comic until I find those few Great one (I have fund like 5-10 out of 60 that are worth anything), continue to read fanfics from authors who give a crap and continue to promote and make Fan-based stuff that encourages Loki stuff I do like.

Um.... Thanks for reading my long answer. Thanks for sending asks.

PS: Do you have any good Loki work to recommend?

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staroflightning · 5 years

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Omg I love No Good Nick! I think it's interesting from a psychological standpoint, seeing Nick easily manipulate the other characters. Also the way her character grows and changes as she finds security and realizes she has s loving family.

It’s such a good show!! I absolutely know what to mean. I love how it’s presented as just a typical sitcom at first, but the more you watch, the more the characters are presented as actual complex human beings with flaws and mistakes and strengths and emotions (both good and bad), and the deeper the story gets. No one character on the show is perfect. Nick isn’t a bad person, she was manipulated, but she isn’t a purely good person either, because she’s done some pretty bad things. Molly does her best to help people, but her poor reviews on Franzelli’s restaurant drove a single dad out of business, and in s2 she held onto her pride and refused to admit she was wrong and ended up making the problem worse, when all it would’ve taken was a “I’m sorry, I was wrong”. Jeremy is my favorite character, but even he has his flaws, because he was honestly a prick to Nick in s1 and he’s very prideful (a little too much sometimes), and he has a habit of trying to plan everything out and not knowing what to do when his plans fall through. He had his entire life planned out with his “resume from the future”, but it all went away when Nick got him expelled, and he had to learn how to live spontaneously and not rely on plans. Liz is a great mother, but her competitive nature causes problems, both for her and for others. Ed is loving and caring, but he’s also naive, and his blind trust in Nick got him hurt in the end. Alternatively, Ed’s first priority is his family, but that’s what caused him to turn down Tony Franzelli’s loan, and that’s what led to the Franzellis wanting revenge. Even Tony Franzelli is complex. For the longest time, I had mixed feelings over Nick’s dad, because at first, he seems like a loving father. He calls Nick “Nicky”, uses a loving tone of voice with her, frequently talks to her, and she has loads of happy memories with him from her childhood. But as the show goes on, Tony Franzelli seems less and less like a good father, until Tony is straight-up manipulating Nick into hurting the Thompsons even after she has deliberately expressed that doing so makes her feel like a monster. Besides, Nick is right when she says that the Thompsons never made Tony go to the mob for money or rob a convenience store.

Every single bad deed on the show has a reason. Even if the reason isn’t always right. The Thompsons working together to take down Franzelli’s was bad, but they did it for their family. They justified it in their own heads. Nick scamming the Thompsons was bad, but she did it for revenge / for her dad / for the Harbaughs. Nick sabotaging Molly, Liz, and Jeremy was bad, but she did it out of anger for what they did to her and her dad.

No one character on this show is without fault, and no one character on the show does bad things just for the sake of doing bad things.

What I love about the season two finale is that Jeremy points this out. When the rest of the Thompsons are angry at Nick for what she did, Jeremy reminds them of what they did to make Nick want revenge on them in the first place, and he reminds them that they aren’t any more perfect than she is. Yes, what she did was wrong, but they drove her dad out of business and essentially ruined her life.

I love this show because it’s so complex, and it’s realistic. Everyone is flawed and complicated, and everyone does bad things that will negatively affect other people, but they always do it for a reason. It’s always justified in their own head. This show really puts into perspective who is a “bad person” and what it even means to be a “bad person”. It’s amazing writing.

This post got pretty long, but anon, if you want to DM me, I’d love to talk more about No Good Nick with someone who watches the show!! I have a lot of feelings about this show

#no good nick #ngn #anon

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jianandjeonghu · 4 years

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Itaewon Class review :))

So I think I can finally put into words why I loved Itaewon Class so much. The main reason is its message: Don’t Be An Asshole. Judge People By Their Character, not their background, power and wealth.

What’s been bugging me the most among the negative aspects is how Saeroyi had a 15-year plan to succeed and he did succeed after 15 years. But everything that gave him this success was luck that could not be planned. So I thought that was a major flaw of the story. Because what did his plan even look like?! Thinking more about this helped^^ (long rant following including more spoilers, read only when you’ve seen the drama :D)

First of all, he would NOT have gotten anywhere at all without Yiseo, who was actually a selfish, arrogant kid who just happened to like him for some reason. The Best Pub contest was won by Hyunyi, who wasn’t even a cook at the beginning. He was lucky she trained so hard and did so well on the show, which started the whole investors thing. He was lucky the grandma (Soonrye) who ended up being the first investor liked him and was also the grandma of his employee. He was ‘lucky’ Geunwon was such an idiot who fucked up so much it brought his company down and he was lucky that Sooah decided to stab Daehee and Jangga group in the back in the end. If only one of these four women had not been there, he most likely would not have succeeded that quickly. Oh and there’s Hojin, who actually started everything with Saeroyi together and just happened to want to do that, visit him in prison and everything. None of this could be planned, it just happened.

BUT

If you look more closely at why these people helped him, the answer becomes clearer. All their motivations were either based on their friendship with Saeroyi or his good character or on Jangga group being assholes. Yiseo becomes interested in Saeroyi after he saved her (ok basic drama story) but really starts to like him after she learns about his story and determination. He hires her because he needs her. But Hyunyi? He hires her even though she’s not even a cook, she’s actually bad at cooking in the beginning. When the others want him to fire her because she’s trans, he just points out how good her character is compared to everybody else’s and motivates her to improve her cooking. He hires Toni for his English skills but when he finds out he doesn’t have any, he doesn’t fire him. He even works hard to help Toni find his dad. He also helps out all the other pubs in the neighborhood and completely overworks himself with all of that. Soonrye sees all these things and that’s why she decides to support Saeroyi and his plan and invests all that money. And Sooah is constantly torn between Saeroyi who she likes and Jangga group who provides her paycheck. Yes you would say any normal person should choose love, and I also thought she should have quit as soon as Saeroyi started his pub. She should have helped him build his business instead of Yiseo. That is definitely a weakness of her character. What makes her change her mind is when Daehee finally explains clearly to her that she is worth nothing to him and yes, in this situation Saeroyi is again lucky that he showed his bad character that clearly just like Geunwon. And Hojin, well he kind of needed Saeroyi to get revenge, too. They helped each other and became friends, but it started with Saeroyi standing up for Hojin.

For most characters it shows that you should look at the person’s character and value them for that instead of things like money, skin color, sexual identity, prestige/education or criminal background. And that people who have faced discrimination because of these things might actually be better people because they know what it’s like not being given a chance. If you look at the DanBam staff, Yiseo discriminates against Hyunyi and Toni the most because she is privileged. Geunsoo with a bad family (as his family is perceived by DanBam staff) and Seungkwon, an ex-con, don’t really mind. (btw My theory about Seungkwon is that he likes Hyunyi but thinks he’s not good enough because of his background (having been to jail and having done bad things) while she is very pretty (maybe he thinks too pretty for him?) and self-confident and has a good character. He might be a bit of a sidekick next to Saeroyi but I really liked this character and his determination to be a better person.)

For me, I think that was the point the creators wanted to bring across. Saeroyi not looking down on others, being open to everyone’s opinions, with his principle of people before business, achieves his goals. Maybe that was his plan? Daehee, who only cares about profit and not even his own family, is going down. Sadly, this is probably usually not the case in the real world, but it’s nice to see and something to think about.

Some of us might have been shocked at how openly transphobic and racist Yiseo and the general public were portrayed (when they want to go to a club and Toni isn’t let in because of his skin color, and when Hyunyi is “exposed” as being trans and these women tell her it’s not her bathroom) but this is sadly still the case in Korea and many other countries who think they’re oh-so-well developed and great and everything. I hope the drama was a small and friendly lesson for people who still think that way and I hope some of the people who watched it will change their minds a little.

Yup that’s the main reason why I loved it. Then there’s the outstanding soundtrack, and how everything was made in general I could go oooon but yeah.

youtube

#itaewon class #kdrama #kdrama review

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