#‹ arc → civil war › ❛ everything i do i do to protect this world ❜ | 616/mcu

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Weeks in Review (March 31-April 13, 2024)

It took forever (maybe they were waiting on the returns for Godzilla x Kong), but Apple TV+ has finally greenlit season 2 of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. According to its listing on the WGA site, it'll run from 2024 to 2025. Multiple spinoffs are also in development at Apple; no details on those yet.

Speaking of Godzilla x Kong, it continues to do well, staying #1 at the domestic box office in its second weekend and falling to #2 (behind Civil War) in its third. Current totals are $158 million domestic and $437 million worldwide. It'll soon pass the domestic gross of Kong: Skull Island and the total gross of Godzilla vs. Kong.

Godzilla vs. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers II #1 promises more of everything: more heroes (the White Ranger joins our heroes from the first comic), more villains (including Psycho Ranger Ghidora up there), and more alternate universes. Godzilla gets a bit buried in all the Ranger antics though.

A couple of kaiju series debuted on TV too: Kaiju No. 8 and Season 2 of Chibi Godzilla Raids Again. The former followed the manga very closely, and as such didn't really keep my attention; hopefully it innovates a bit more going forward. Chibi Godzilla's as irreverent as ever.

Tsuburaya Productions has released preliminary information on the next installment of the Ultra Series, Ultraman Arc. The logline:

A town called Hoshimoto City... On Mt. Shishio, there is a gigantic object towering above the city. Named "Monohorn," (モノホーン, Monohōn) it is actually a kaiju’s horn stuck in the ground since an incident 16 years ago. After the incident known as "K-DAY" in which kaiju appeared all over the world at the same time, monster disasters have become commonplace. In Japan, the Global Defense Force (GDF) uses force to deal with them, while SKIP works closely with the community in scientific investigations and evacuation guidance to prevent the occurrence and aggravation of kaiju disasters. SKIP has also been investigating the Monohorn, the horn of the galactic beast Monogelos (モノゲロス, Monogerosu) that appeared on K-DAY. Yuma, then only 7 years old, was camping with his parents in Mt. Shishio when Monogelos attacked. After miraculously surviving unscathed, he decided to pursue research into monster biology. Despite his traumatic past, he has not lost his “power of imagination” to dream. As a rookie investigator, Yuma joined SKIP and was assigned to the Hoshimoto City Branch. Not long after, another large-scale monster disaster occurs in Hoshimoto City. As Yuma sees the desperate people in front of him, a strong will springs into his mind — “I want to protect them!” At the moment when this strong and straightforward desire welled up from the bottom of his heart, Yuma hears the voice of Rution  (ルティオン,  Rution) a being of light that he once saw as a child: “You and I are one and the same… Unleash your imagination!” When a mysterious light appears in Yuma's hand and envelops his body, the unleashed power of imagination unites light and man and he transforms into Ultraman Arc, the Giant of Light who protects the future! Alongside his precious friends, Yuma, as well as Ultraman Arc, races towards his everlasting dream!

Yuma is played by Yuki Totsuka, while Takanori Tsujimoto is the lead director. He's directed for the series since Ultraman X, but this is his biggest assignment to date.

After beginning to release select Movie Monster Series figures in the States, Bandai America is now fully back in the Godzilla game, with articulated figures, 5-inch vinyls, blind box figures, and transforming eggs all up for preorder at the Godzilla Store and other toy sites. The eggs come from the 2014 Godzilla-E.G. line and the rest is all-new. Not much of a selection so far, but with how big Godzilla is right now, I'm sure there'll be more to come.

SRS Cinema has opened preorders for its War of the Ninja Monsters: Jaron vs. Goura Blu-ray, due in late July or August. Shinpei Hayashiya's latest epic, it'll come with behind-the-scenes footage and maybe a commentary track, which would be nice given how little information is available about his films online.

#kaiju week in review #godzilla #monarch legacy of monsters #war of the ninja monsters jaron vs. goura #toys #ultraman arc #Youtube

[goblins-riddles-or-frocks]

If Leigh hadn't given Zoya Alina's storyline what role do you think she would've played in the next books? Right now she kinda fills in the gap that Alina left as the chosen one 2.0 but if it wasn't that what do you think would've been her story?

I mean that’s really hard to say because then what is the story going to be about? So much of KoS and RoW hinge on that rehashing. Removing it results in a completely different story— which is something I’d be fine with lol but it’s definitely not a case of like what would have happened instead.

Anyway, I personally love Zoya as more of a foil to the Darkling and filling that role of institutional power vs being placed as an Alina type who’s suddenly come into abilities she does not understand. With how much the original trilogy was about the threat of corruption inherent to power, the KoS duology did not engage with it… at all. I think partially because LB wanted to put the conflict to rest as something Alina like… fixed… to uphold the R&R ending. But it’s too neat, and just uninteresting? And Zoya and Nikolai were Team Morally Dubious from the literal beginning! Bizarre to have them refitted to Lawful Good with zero quandaries whatsoever. And it’s just more meaningful imo to see them working to uphold any sort of greater good, that the choices are taxing and dubious and sometimes very morally compromising.

I think Zoya and Nikolai are really interesting and can be super complimentary in how they operate on different sides of a gray morality spectrum. Zoya is ruthless and selfish, she has limits but she’s somewhat just out for herself and the people she cares about. Nikolai is greater good focused but he operates on a means to an end style of morality that’s literally presented as the starting point to where the Darkling ended up. That is bound to result in many ethical clashes! They have very different values!

Anyway I basically just wanted to see Zoya as the new scary power behind the throne. I wanted her as the new Darkling essentially in terms of being the shadowy figure who is doing the dirty work, and willing to get her hands way dirtier because her limits are different from Nikolai’s and she’s willing to go some fucked up places for her convictions. (The Alina to her Darkling lmao)

Like it’s not expanded on in KoS at all, but I see Zoya as something of a zealot tbh? She starts out as the Darkling’s devout follower, then somewhat grudgingly switches her allegiance to Alina. With both of them out of the way, I think Nikolai would fill that role for her. But not necessarily Nikolai the person, vs Nikolai the king and all of the hopes she’s placed on his rule making a difference. Which is to say, I think her devotion would mean she’s perfectly happy to go behind his back or hurt him in some way to protect him or help his rule. Like she is absolutely the person who would order fucked up assassinations that he might have qualms about without telling him because it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Arc-wise I also just wanted to see her struggle way more with the Darkling’s ghost and the values he instilled in her. Navigating the aftermath of that kind of disillusionment, and just trying to figure out what she believes in at all.

Anyway in the version of KoS that exists in my head, there is no new magic or world ending stuff. They’ve fully exited the fairy tale. It’s just politics and the miserable business of piecing a country back together after a civil war, and also recovering from the trauma of everything that happened. But while Nikolai’s come out of it determined to Fix Ravka and Deserve being king and to be nothing like his father, Zoya has come out the other side determined to be efficient. And I’d just love to see them hurt each other a lot on the path to understanding each other and trying to grapple with the above questions of morality, and where to draw the line re: selfishness or destroying oneself for a cause. And most importantly shfhff I do not want an answer!

They’re team Morally Dubious! They live on a precipice! There’s no easy answer beyond just trying to do their best at any given moment and make some ethical trade offs and just hope really hard that overall they’re going in the right direction.

#grishaverse #KoS pissed me off so bad with constantly being like ‘Zoya is ruthless’ [Zoya is just mildly snarky sometimes] #let her kill!!! #i ramble sometimes #all the bendy punctuations #a mysterious stranger has appeared #meta #zoya nazyalensky #zoyalai #king of scars #tagging these last for reasons

[kiramarien]

“Why is the “beskar” so important for the Mandalorians?”

This is actually a question that was asked in universe. There was a moment in Star Wars where the future of beskar (and the future of Mandalore) was called into question.

Throughout The Mandalorian series we are shown over and over again just how powerful beskar armor is. Especially pure beskar alloy.

It easily deflects blaster bolts, and it has even been shown to deflect lightsaber blades, something very few metals have been able to do. The purer the beskar, the stronger the armor becomes.

But beskar is not only one of the strongest metals in Star Wars; it also has enormous cultural significance to the Mandalorian people. This is best explained through the events that happen in Season 4 Episodes 1 and 2 of the animated series Star Wars Rebels, titled "Heroes of Mandalore." This happens before the Purge of Mandalore, a few years before Rogue One and A New Hope.

After years of civil war, Mandalore has fallen into Imperial rule.

Some factions have chosen to accept this, and others have even chosen to join the empire. But we all know Mandalorians. Most of them will never go down without a fight.

Hoping to subdue the rebellious factions fighting against them on their planet, the Empire tried to find some kind of tool they could use to subdue the people of Mandalore. And they did. They developed a prototype of a weapon that not only overpassed the protections of their beskar armor, but used it against them.

“(The) Arc Generator's energy pulse is drawn to the beskar alloy in the Mandalorians' armor, superheating it and instantly vaporizing the target,”

The weapon was used, and- well…

… It was devastating.

“You miss the true artistry of this weapon, Governor Saxon. It turns an armor legendary for its strength into a crippling weakness, and it strikes at the very heart of your people's tradition.“ - Grand Admiral Thrawn.

When the weapon is used, and they see the extent of the damage it can do, the Mandalorians we see are shattered.

Because of this, the Empire may just turn their world into a wasteland.

In this moment, the characters are mourning their dead and questioning the future of their entire people. Hoping to find a way to help, Ezra Bridger asks what seems to be an obvious question:

“Okay, so this weapon only targets Mandalorian armor, right? So why not make your armor out of something different?”

Silence is his response. After a very tense moment, and some very angry faces from the Mandalorians with him, Sabine slowly responds:

“Ezra… the armor I wear is 500 years old. I reforged it to my liking, but the battles, the history, the blood, all lives within it, and the same goes for every Mandalorian.”

“This armor is part of our identity. It makes us Mandalorians who we are.” - Aldrich Wren.

“And now it's going to make us dead.” - Bo Katan Kryse.

Beskar is clearly one if the strongest and most resilient metal alloys in the galaxy. But to the people of Mandalore it is so much more than that. It is culture. It is history. It is religion.

It is identity.

It doesn’t matter if wearing their armor will destroy them. After everything their people had been through, beskar had come to represent everything they were. And even as they stare death in the face, they would sooner die wearing it than give it up.

(Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Holy crap this took a while but it was a lot of fun. I answered this question on another site but liked it so much I decided to post here too. Thank you for reading!)

#Star wars #the mandalorian #beskar #mandalore #Star Wars rebels #bo katan kryze #star wars rant #sabine wren #The empire #kira rambles #rant post #lore rant #Mandalorians

[dowagersqueen]

They're basically turning this show into Rh*enicent vs the Patriarchy if all those rumors turn out to be true. So you've got these two women on two opposing sides fighting a civil war but instead of trying to win the war for their side all they want is to be with each other again but oh no they won't be able to succeed because all the evil men around them want to fight and will ruin their peace attempts. It's just nonsensical storytelling! Now of course like you've been pointing out Alicent is going to be the one to fully blame herself and her own side for everything and will be much, much more inclined to go to Rhaenyra and ask for forgiveness rather than the opposite but still. Even from Rhaenyra's POV it's just stupid is she's allowing Alicent to come and go to Dragonstone without taking her hostage so she can use her as a bargaining chip against the greens. And I can't imagine Rhaenyra asking for forgiveness at all, maybe except for B&C since she can fully blame Daemon for it by saying she never knew what he had intended to do.

Istg if they make Alicent throw Aemond under the bus…imagine if she tells Rhaenyra she will agree, in the name of peace, with whatever punishment she deems necessary for him as long as it does not involve his death? Maybe send him to the wall as punishment for kinslaying? I know it's stupid but surely Aemond and Alicent's relationship will deteriorate post Storm's End and B&C and with all this Rh*enicent bs I truly expect something like this from the writers because they can also use this as one of the excuses behind Aemond's future Riverlands arc & his madness, it will all hit him VERY hard if he knows his own mother is willing to sacrifice him for Rhaenyra in some half-assed attempt at peace.

You're also totally right about the Alicent poisoning Aegon theory. They're fully capable of doing it! I'm also thinking they're going to have Alicent at Dragonstone so she can witness, along with Aegon the Younger, when Aegon will order his dragon to burn and eat Rhaenyra so she'll be even more motivated to poison him in the future.

these writers are annoying because the actual first crack in aemond & alicent relationship should have been alicent toasting rhaenyra, saying she will make a fine queen despite still no consequences for what happened to him and even ewan underlined this, that a crime went unpunished and that aemond's world became unbalanced because of this and then you have alicent being like 'forget all that, rhaenyra you will make a fine queen'. and if the trouble was only between aemond and luke, you could make a case for it but rhaenyra further tried to gaslight everyone in the room, tried to make viserys hurt alicent and her kids for 'treason' and asked for aemond to be interrogated as he lay there, eye sitting on the goddamn table. i always said this, but if i was aemond... that would have not sat well with me at all.

and while we don't know exactly what will happen, i do agree that this rhaen*cent agenda will continue to be pushed in more stupid ways. i do hope it's nothing as ridiculous as you've described because i do not want to see that but who knows atp. they certainly have a different vision than me so what do i know?

i could understand much of alicent's actions from the pov of a woman who was wronged and who cares for her children and does what she can to protect them, (after all, she was fully aware a war will start the moment she crowns aegon, book page or not, because she knew neither rhaenyra nor daemon will publicly bend the knee to aegon). so to then turn on your own children like that? for what? that would be something i could not defend. especially for a woman who was only a bad friend to her.

#asks #anti rhaenicent

[artist-issues]

I have to get out of the Marvel tag. Guardians Vol. 3 took me back to the Marvel tag. But I remember now that I hate it here.

People I thought were on the same Marvel Cinematic Universe ride with me since Phase 1 suddenly revealed themselves to not understand the main characters, like, at all, and now that a solid finale to a superhero group (Guardians Vol. 3) has come out, they’re just…saying all the same stuff again.

Please let me just say it again.

Steve Rogers leaving Bucky Barnes in the present while he put down to shield and chose to have a normal life was the resolution of character growth. He went from “The Man Who Doesn’t Know Who He Is Without a Fight” to “A Good Man With a Life.” And guess what? By doing that, he took the pressure of the fight away from Bucky, who would always have followed Steve into every battle if he’d stayed or inherited the Shield.

Tony Stark sacrificing himself to save the world was the resolution of all his character growth. He was taking the consequences he started and ending it. And if you have any other character take that glove and snap those fingers, Tony Stark doesn’t resolve the character arc that started when he tested the Jericho missiles in Iron Man 1. He was the man who always almost sacrificed everything to make up for his past mistakes. “Always a way out.” Always planning to stop the next problem before it starts. In this moment of decision where he snaps his fingers, he finally has to choose not just to sacrifice himself, but effectively sacrifice control over protecting the world. That’s why Pepper says “you can rest” when he dies. Jeez.

Natasha Romanoff sacrificing herself to save the world, and more immediately Clint, was the resolution to all her character growth. She was a character who thought only of self-preservation thanks to her upbringing, turned penance-warrior, turned loving family member. In Civil War her motivation was to keep the Avengers family united, but it cost them all the safety of the world anyway. All she had left was to sacrifice everything for everyone—that proves that she’s moved on from needing herself, to needing others for herself, to giving for others regardless of herself. It might make you sad and it might make you foam at the mouth about feminism, but there was no alternative narrative to wrap up her character growth.

Go back and watch Phase 1 and 2 again and ask yourself, “where did these characters start, and how else could they have ended?” I think you’ll find Endgame ws pretty perfect all around.

#Guardians of the galaxy #MCU #Natasha romanoff #Steve rogers #Tony stark #the hulk #Thor #Hawkeye #Jeremy runner #Chris evans #Bucky Barnes #the winter soldier #marvel cinematic universe #endgame #MCU endgame #endgame hate #avengers endgame #thanks

[multi-lefaiye]

kennedy playlist essay

ok here we go, gamers

so the kennedy playlist isn't long. it's one of my shortest playlists. but i wanted to explain every song in it <3 some of these explanations will be redacted for spoiler reasons. anyway.

for each song i'll explain why it's in there, and then share some of my favorite/most fitting lyrics.

so i'm just gonna go in order <3 starting under the cut!

fire - kimya dawson

so this song just really vibes with the themes i have planned for kennedy, centering around like. forcing down your depression and pain in the face of all the darkness in the world. kennedy is the kind of person who wants to spread light and joy, but he very much struggles to accept any of that for himself. half the reason he runs an advice blog is because he wants to help others more than anything else, but he doesn't think he deserves the same in kind.

this is further exacerbated by the problems mounting in kennedy's hometown, which are just a small snapshot of much larger issues. i also think this song works well with kennedy's growing bitterness and anger, especially towards those in power who are abandoning the people under their care! something something direct comparisons between kennedy fighting to care for their younger brother vs politicians abandoning their people! it's a lot.

the lyrics i want to highlight:

My heart will stop if I put out the fire As long as I'm burning I'll keep on yearning To save the world Not sure how but I'm learning

my mom - kimya dawson

this song i take a bit less literally in terms of what it's actually meant to be about, but i relate this song so so much to kennedy's family. the first verse is literally just kennedy's terror at losing owen, the only family he has left and the one person he would die to protect.

i also actually still haven't decided what happened to their parents, but their parents are gone. kennedy is the only adult left in this household and they never processed their grief. and they're going to do everything they can for their brother. owen won't go through the same pain kennedy is. not if they have anything to say about it.

also the imagery just vibes with some plans i have for later.

the lyrics i want to highlight:

All the people's mouths are moving All you hear are car alarms And you wake up and start to cry I will lose my shit if even one more person I know dies So please don't die

runs in the family - amanda palmer

this one i don't have a lot in mind for deep analysis for, but yeah kennedy has a lot of mental health issues they are straight up not receiving any care or support for. it's killing them, but they won't take care of themself the way they take care of others if it means they have to *stop* taking care of those around them.

not to say that no one is trying, but kennedy is determinedly like "no i'm fine, other people have it worse, and there are bigger issues than me."

the lyrics i want to highlight:

My friend's depressed, she's a wreck, she's a mess They've done all sorts of tests and they guess it has something to do With her grandmother's grandfather's grandmother Civil war soldiers who prob'ly infected her

the daughter of the fish and the ram - the scary jokes

so this is kind of a funky weird song, but i relate it to kennedy's self-image issues. this isn't something that's going to be obvious b/c kennedy doesn't dwell on it, but yeah. they do not like themself. like i think in a different story, kennedy's arc would center a lot around learning to accept and love himself. unfortunately, though, that's not the world he lives in.

i actually was thinking about like. writing a different/au story with kennedy going on that arc. we'll see though! but yeah for a variety of reasons, kennedy feels like a fundamentally broken person and that's just. how it is.

the lyrics i want to highlight:

"Sadly, you were doomed from the start There's an incurable longing in your heart And not even magic Can fix that"

the spine song - cake bake betty

i would explain this one in a bit more depth, but uh. well. you see. it's mostly vibes. and a little bit Spoilers. but this relates very much to kennedy towards the end of his arc, when he's hopeless and anguished.

the lyrics i want to highlight (b/c i know they'll make at least bat scream):

On your birthday you woke up The snow was on the ground You opened books and peeked inside They kissed you on your crown

a deer mistaking candles for headlights - crywank

so i relate this song a lot to kennedy's relationship to some of his friends. i have a whole list of them and little blurbs about their relationships saved in my personal server. i think this especially relates to his friend franklin, who he'll refer to as 'turtle' at first on his blog. (kennedy uses fake names for everyone to protect their privacy.)

so i'll say right now. romance is not the endgame for kennedy's canon storyline. BUT i do love the tragedy of "maybe in another time, in another place, we could've been beautiful." and that's kinda how i sum up franklin and kennedy in my mind.

i won't go into it more than that rn though <3

the lyrics i want to highlight:

Does the blank stare scare you more than the frown? Am I the reason that you feel down? Distant but rational, bringer of rage To get to a level where I will engage

ghost story - charming disaster

franklin and kennedy <3 i won't say anything else because if i do i'm gonna start tearing up.

i'm just gonna highlight these lyrics:

Since the day they told me he was gone Haunts me faithfully from dusk till dawn Hear him whisper sweetly in my ear Can’t you see we got a good thing here

a complete list of fears ages 5-28 - the yellow dress

this one's pretty straightforward. kennedy has been through a Lot they don't talk about, and they've had a lot to be afraid of in their life. at heart, kennedy is an anxious, stressed person, struggling to keep a tight lid on that anxiety. however. lately, most of kennedy's fears relate to owen.

will owen be safe? will owen be happy? will owen have enough to eat? if anything happens to kennedy, what happens to owen?

kennedy is terrified he won't be able to protect and care for his brother, and that impacts everything he does. he'd do anything for owen, and that's a big driving force for him.

also yeah i know this song is more about romance but it's my house and this is about someone providing for and being terrified that something might happen to their younger sibling <3

the lyrics i wanna highlight:

And here's a picture of the house I'd like to build for us someday This may seem unrealistic, I'm not very good with my hands If we had to we could buy it, or keep renting like we do Borrow money from our parents, pool our money me and you

never love an anchor - the crane wives

well if i explain this one in any depth i'll be spoiling the climax for kennedy's arc won't i-

i'll just say. kennedy would never willingly leave owen behind or abandon him. that's just not in the cards. but uh. well. sometimes you don't always get a choice.

anyway highlighting these lyrics:

There are times where I still wonder about you You are someone I have loved but never known And you’ll never see the reasons I had For keeping my claws away when they were close enough to hurt you

we will commit wolf murder - of montreal

so i relate this song a lot to like. kennedy's outlook and attitude towards humanity as a whole and the people around him. because kennedy sees the darkness in the world, all the pain and suffering people are forced through. and it kills him, because at heart he believes humanity *is* inherently good.

i heard a quote once, idk where it's from, but it was like. "you love humanity so much that you hate them for what they do to each other." that's a big vibe with kennedy as a character. i do want there to be a lot of hope in this story, even amid the hopelessness. because, yes, the world has terrible people in it, but it also has so so many good people. that's something kennedy wholeheartedly believes in.

anyway <3 highlighting these lyrics:

I tried to understand his logic But there's just no pattern there No sympathetic voices anywhere There's blood in my hair

angel eyes and basketball - foot ox

once again i relate this song a lot to kennedy's hope for the world around him, and his belief that things can and will get better--we just need to work for them to happen. the same goes for people--people can and will get better, but that requires effort. it also requires community: no one person can change things for the better without help or without cooperation. and that's what kennedy strives for.

also the imagery in the first few lines makes me think so much of [redacted for spoilers].

lyrics to highlight:

And you have to believe me when I say I understand that no one around here seems to understand But you have got to make an effort Yeah you have got to make an effort

community gardens - the scary jokes & louie zong

so apparently this song may be part of a larger storyline? i'm taking it out of context, though.

but anyway <3 this relates pretty directly to the themes in kennedy's story relating to the environment and the local politics of that. like the lines i'm highlighting i relate very directly to how things get worse and worse due to [redacted] [redacted] [redacted]

highlighting thees lyrics:

The culmination of man's mistakes came the day The sun ran so hot, it turned the desert to glass If there's something to be learned from all these losers It's that the price that you pay For arrogance and a false sense of immunity Is to face the wrath of a dying star

es - crying

i relate this song a lot to kennedy feeling like an outcast among people, even among those he's closest to. he has friends and he has people he loves, but is he *really* part of the group? also this feels like a very trans song to me for reasons that idk how to explain rn, so i associate it with a lot of trans characters. kennedy is certainly Trans Of Gender. do i have anything to back that up? not off the top of my head. but here we go.

i do also wanna go ahead and say that i very much recognize that this song draws on at least the lead singer's experiences as an east asian person (tentatively saying person b/c i'm not actually sure on their gender and finding conflicting sources), and kennedy as a white character is not going to reflect a lot of those experiences. however, i think this song still vibes with him in a lot of ways.

anyway the lyrics i want to highlight:

Mom doesn't think I fit into the darling archetype But that's an ancient pair of jeans And my thighs are crafted holy rolling thunder Forget the numbers, forget the numbers please

my r - specifically the lollia cover

SO HERE WE ARE. THIS SONG. god this song. big big cw for suicide if you're not familiar with it.

so this song is essentially about a suicidal girl trying to talk other people out of suicide. and y'know what. that vibes with kennedy. he is suffering but has devoted himself entirely to helping others who are suffering, while not accepting any of that help for himself. and WELL if i keep going i'll get into spoilers <3

so anyway here's the lyrics i'm highlighting:

And like that, there was someone every day I listened to their tale I made them turn away And yet there was no one who would do this for me No way I could let out all this pain

st bernard - lincoln

i mean this is truly the angsty blorbo song of all time. very multipurpose.

so i tie this song a little bit into some of the more. for lack of a better term. the bummer themes in kennedy's storyline. because while i want this story to be very hopeful in a lot of ways, it's also a bummer. specifically the idea that like... kennedy is full of love and hope and light, but ultimately he's just one person, and one person can't stop all the problems in the world. this is something that weighs on them quite a bit.

and yeah i also think a lot about like. ghgh i wanna talk about The Ending but i can't </3 spoilers </3 but i will say the ending is going to intentionally be very ambiguous. and i'm just gonna... highlight some lyrics for it.

Saint Calvin told me not to worry about you But he's got his own things to deal with There's really just one thing that we have in common: Neither of us will be missed

#multi makes text posts #kennedy johnston #writeblr #playlist analysis #ok finally jesus christ #that took so long to type #pls read this thanks <3 #oc playlist

[firelordgrantham]

instead of having 20-and-counting movies and a dozen series, you know what would have been great for the MCU?

series all the way through.

First season, we see Tony Stark's, Bruce Banner's, Natasha Romanoff's and somehow, through flash-backs, Steve Rogers' and Thor's arcs unfold. Then in the season finale, it's revealed all of this was Nick Fury explaining to the UN/Shield's safety council what had happened in his ''big week'', and we learn Captain America's and Black Widow's scenes were digressions/questions from congressmembers about previous ''supers''. Someone asks about the weapons Stark Industries sold to an armed militia in Sokovia (hinting at the Maximoff's) and Fury tells them it's not the point and it's in the past.

Second season, Loki comes back, this time with an army of Chitauris. That's the beginning of the ''Assembly'' arc, which sees this and also part of the events of Avengers 2. Tony Stark and Bruce ride into the sunset at the end of the first movie's contents and start immediately talking about an armor that would protect the world. Thor has to go back to Asgard to bring Loki there. Jane calls him to the rescue. Captain, Nat and Sam discovers the Shield was wormed by Hydra (although it would be better if we've been used to the Shield being a reassuring constant for more than one season and a half before). As everything collapses, the worlds start to blimp together and Ultron escapes. End of season 2 as the helicarriers are shooting each other. Bucky is alive. Jane might not be anymore if nothing's done. Maria Hill arrives with footage of Strucker's bunker and tells them their next mission is going to be dangerous.

Third season, the Maximoff twins are found in the bunker but flee away after the defeat. Strucker laughs that anyway he knows their biological parents even if they don't and he did not intend to be around when they discovered he lied about them being orphans. Hints that the mutants will, one day, join the MCU. Soon after they are recruted by Ultron. We get their backstory without having it dumped by Wanda, through flash-backs. As the worlds keep blimping together, the battle of Sokovia happens. Now bear in mind it's been far longer for the fans since the Shield was dissolved and so that's a much better effect when helicarriers reappear with remnants of shield agents and Fury. Same ending as Age of Ultron except that 1) Pietro doesn't die and 2) Hulk's disappearance is explained by losing the quinnjet's GPS signal next to a huge blimp. The scientific team (Jane Foster, Darcy, and Stellan Skarskard) closes the breaches before a counterorder can be issued. Thor swears to explore all of the universe until he finds Hulk. Fury basically hints at Carol Danvers' existence by saying something along the lines of ''I've got a friend who could help you... be on the lookout for a girl on fire wearing blue and red".

Season 4 starts with Doctor Strange's movie's beginning. However, he is specified to work in close contact with the Xavier institute for young gifted and has apparently help Warren Warrington III (the guy with wings) go there when his father brought him to the hospital to have the wings cut out. Strange pretended to agree but then called Xavier because he didn't want to help an abuser or something. Instead of the basketball player, it's Professor X he goes to see, because the guy is apparently happy in his wheelchair and Christine suggested he learns to accept his disability. Professor Xavier recommands he goes to Kamar-Taj. As he leaves, we see Malicia run away from her home. The plot of X-Men 1 happens and we see Captain, Natasha and Hawkeye who are, at the same time, training Wanda and Pietro. As Kaecilius and Magneto are each defeated, Ross demands the Avengers and Xmen are stopped.

Season 5 is the Civil War arc, and has much more content than just the movie.

Season 6 is the House of M arc. Magneto's actor's back, the fans are flabbergasted, the actor is like ''I was glad to be able to do a movie in between the seasons but I like the sense of community of turning a series like this one''. Chris Evans' father is asked to play an old Colonel America who never got frozen and kept getting promoted before finally being the first man to walk on the moon...

Season 7? "No more mutants".

Etc. I don't know enough of the comics universe to have a clearer plan, but a long-running series would have been much better, imo, than so many movies.

Obviously, it's even better if it does follow the comics rather than the movies, so the original avengers would be Iron Man, Antman, the Whasp, Hulk and Thor (I think? again, I've read comics a while ago but don't remember much of the oldest).

#anti mcu #marvel comics #a bit

[cringecompanionapologist]

Cradle of the Snake Part ???: A Break to Talk About Turlough Headcanons and It'll Make Sense Later I Swear

Once again, I took a lot of screenshots. I've decided to avoid some of the tangents I could go on and try to focus primarily on Turlough stuff, though I might get sidetracked along the way anyway.

I'm actually going to start with a bit of a tangent about Turlough's arc. Turlough is one of the few classic companions with a clear arc, but most of the televised arc is confined to the Black Guardian Trilogy and Planet of Fire. The writers didn't know what to do with him, so they kind of stalled on his arc until they needed to wrap it up.

Big Finish audios have since done what Big Finish audios often do, expanding on the arc, but the audios don't always follow a clear chronological order like the TV episodes do. You know for certain, even if there's room between stories, that Warriors of the Deep occurs sometime after The King's Demons and sometime before The Awakening, for example.

A lot of Big Finish audios come in trilogies, allowing for a brief period of time when things are clear. The Nyssa/Tegan/Turlough stories are a series of trilogies that all take place one after the other. This means that pretty much everything between Mawdryn Undead and The Entropy Plague can be placed in order. After that, things get more vague. If a story has Kamelion in it, it would have to be after The King's Demons, but plenty of stories without Kamelion take place after The King's Demons. So, it gets confusing.

When you can't put a character's stories in order, it's difficult to give them an arc. Sometimes characters seem to go backwards. After Freakshow, Tegan's attitude towards Turlough resets for Cobwebs. For this reason, even though Turlough's arc is fleshed out, it's still a bit vague.

Turlough's arc is also hindered by the fact that his backstory, which has a lot to unpack, isn't revealed until his last story, leaving a lot of interesting material off-limits. Kiss of Death tries to play with Turlough's backstory but has to add on awkward "Turlough decides to never mention this again" at the end, to avoid contradicting Planet of Fire. The only way to really resolve this would be to do something with Turlough similar to what was done with Nyssa: Have him come back for a while for some adventures post-Planet of Fire, where the Doctor knows his backstory and it can be discussed openly. There's an old Choose Your Own Adventure type of book that features 6 and Peri, and Turlough is with them without explanation. Some actual 6/Peri/Turlough adventures could actually be fun.

See? I got sidetracked.

Anyway, because Turlough's arc is so vague and inconsistent, pretty much by necessity, you can kind of interpret it however you like. I'm going to have to sort of explain my take on Turlough's arc, because it affects my take on The Cradle of the Snake.

I'll try to keep things short under the cut.

So, what I consider to be my version of Turlough's arc. It's probably not what was intended, but what was intended was intended by many different people. There are no rules and I can do what I want.

Turlough had a pretty sheltered childhood before the civil war. He never really had to be afraid of anything. He didn't know much about the world outside whatever palace he was living in. He had servants to do everything for him and guards to protect him. He also had his family, his mom and dad and at least one older sibling that he could also turn to for comfort and support.

Then the war happened. His mom died and his family was scattered. The war was a revolution against the Imperial Clans, so many working class people who served the Imperial Clansmen probably turned against them to pursue a better life. Fair enough. Good for them. But from the perspective of a sheltered child, his mother was murdered and the people who were supposed to protect him joined the side of the murderers. In all the chaos, with all the adults focused on getting out of the war alive, nobody tries to comfort the grieving child. The guards and servants are gone. Parents, teachers, family friends, all either dead or too busy with the war effort to spend any time on him. Turlough suddenly finds himself completely alone.

So, he learns to take care of himself. He learns to fight, joining the military even. He has to take care of himself because no one else will. It's not easy. Everywhere he turns, it feels like someone wants to hurt him. He's from an Imperial Clan and that alone means that people want him dead. The Imperial Clans are apparently scientists. He's an intellectual who probably never expected to have to fight. That's what guards are for. People fight for the Imperial Clans. Not anymore. They have to defend themselves now and they really don't stand a chance. The violence is scary. Turlough finds himself running away a lot. He keeps letting people down, so they reject him.

Turlough gets taken prisoner at the end of the war. The prison guards probably aren't very nice to their former oppressors. There's violence, abuse of power, it's ugly. Eventually, Turlough lashes out, speaks out against the revolutionaries, and is sentenced to exile. He's exiled to a school instead of a penal colony because whoever judged his case decided that he was too young to really know any better and can be reeducated. They send him to a primitive planet where the name Turlough means nothing. He'll have to learn to live without privilege, like the common Trion people.

Of course, since an English public school is a place full of privileged kids, this doesn't exactly work. Turlough's met with the opposite extreme. He's nobody and his classmates are his superiors. Furthermore, the culture of the school is a bad fit for Turlough. Sports are mandatory and he's still not used to doing anything physical. He also struggles with Earth's atmosphere, so he's weaker than he was on Trion. He's bad at sports and doesn't like them. He doesn't fit in with his peers and goes against the school's values. He's bullied and the adults do nothing to stop it. Suffering builds character, in their minds, and Turlough has a bad attitude that needs to be "corrected". Turlough already had a mindset that he had to look out for himself because no one else would, but Brendon makes him double down on that.

After a few years of this, Turlough is worn down, becoming severely depressed. He can't escape the school. He realizes that he probably wouldn't mind being dead. He doesn't hurt himself. His self-preservation instincts probably won't let him, but it's getting to around that point.

This is when the Black Guardian shows up. He's a Guardian, able to pass himself off as a guardian angel, in a sense. He can get Turlough away from Brendon, away from Earth, possibly even home. He has the power to protect him from every conceivable threat. There's just one catch...

Having fought in a war, Turlough was probably involved in someone's death at some point, but it was kill or be killed. Now he's being asked to kill someone who isn't a threat to him. He soon realizes that his "protector", by being the sort of person to demand coldblooded murder, doesn't have his best interests at heart. He even lets him get taken back to Brendon.

In the process of following the Black Guardians orders, Turlough starts traveling in the TARDIS with the Doctor, who continues to be nice to him no matter how suspicious he is. When the Black Guardian decides to do away with him, the Doctor saves his life, appearing on Wrack's ship seemingly out of nowhere. He'd seen Turlough jump off the other ship and he'd gone after him. Now the Doctor seems like the guardian angel and Turlough chooses him over the potential to gain wealth and power, the power to protect himself, because no one else will. That's not true anymore. The Doctor will protect him.

But, this is the beginning of Turlough's arc, not the end. He hasn't really become a "good guy" in a conventional sense. He was never a villain, but he's not quite a hero yet. He's still scared, expecting to be bullied and attacked. He's also scared of being abandoned. His former protectors had abandoned him. He's still scared that if he doesn't became a "good guy" quickly, the Doctor might lose patience with him and he'd be alone again.

The Cradle of the Snake is still early on in Turlough's arc. He's starting to act more "heroic" at times, but that's mainly because, with the Doctor protecting him, he's not as scared as he was before. He's also formed a bit of a bond with Tegan and Nyssa, so he's capable of being brave for their sake. But, they're his fellow companions, all connected to the Doctor. The Doctor is the center of their universe. The Cradle of the Snake, with the Mara possessing the Doctor, removes that stability. Turlough is losing the Doctor. Like the Black Guardian, his protector attacked him.

That's where we are by Part 3.

#vislor turlough #the cradle of the snake #big dramatic headcanon stuff #as i've said before #the fifth doctor who is known for being the vulnerable one #who faints in every other story #is turlough's big strong protector #this doesn't always work out well for either of them

[the-nysh]

I am pretty sure that Garou becoming a hero is going to be the one thing that begins the arc of the neo heroes.

As a way of keeping him in the main cast and keep developing his story, since it would be "his fault" that a hero civil war began.

I just keep wondering what he is going to play in all of this, besides being the one who is the last straw for the heroes to move to the neo heroes and look for better opportunities.

I also hope he is not that nerfed up after losing the power of his god slayer fist, even in the webcomic that happened after not being a monster anymore.

At least he should be able to fight againt dragon threat monsters or something.

What do you think of this?

So because manga Garou didn't face the entire S Class (most of them were defeated/demoralized by the monster cadres instead of him), they'd need a different reason to be legitimately upset and feel ‘wronged’ by him. For it to still count as ‘his fault’ like in the wc, for many heroes to retire or defect to the Neo Heroes in their dissatisfaction with the HA. (And we’re talking S Class, not the other lower ranked heroes who already have beef with him.) So Garou hypothetically allowed to join their ranks and welcomed with ‘special’ S Class treatment right off the bat, could definitely be the spark that splits them apart, depending on how they individually feel about him.

However I also agree with other sentiments that Garou shouldn’t be the heroes’ only reason for being upset with the HA (more reasonably yeah, as their last straw of patience) - as it would distract them from other legitimate problems/corruption going on behind the scenes (and make them turn a blind eye to other bad apples - like McCoy).....and thus of course would make them that much more vulnerable to being swindled/tricked by the Neos’ sweet ‘too good to be true~’ offerings. The heroes wouldn’t just be weeding themselves out voluntarily (without knowing any better), they’d only condemn themselves right into a trap. D: aaaa!

But the biggest ironic thing though, is that during the whole arc, when Garou’s shown putting his heart & mind into it, he's proven to be a far more proactive & effective hero than many of the ‘pros’ are. :O Here's all the various hero 'work' he achieved doing their job for them, primarily saving people (including other heroes) and destroying the baddest monsters:

Infiltrated the MA base alone (while injured) to rescue Tareo from Royal Ripper (Monster: destroyed) (Bonus: escorted and protected a child til they got separated by Rover)

Faced their boss (Gyoro + Orochi) and declared war on the Monster Association

Saved Bang from V. Fuhrer Ugly (Monster: destroyed)

Saved King from Platinum + Evil Natural Water (as King's combo attack! literal Ultimate Wave Motion Cannon)

'Avenged' Flash from Platinum (Monster: destroyed)

Saved two helicopters (both the civilian news crew & Tareo’s rescue squad) from Sage Centipede (Monster: destroyed) (Bonus qualities: showed budding leadership and cooperation/strength amplification with another hero - Metal Bat)

‘Accidentally’ saved trapped civilians, an entire town from an erupting volcano, AND a stranded airplane on the other side of the globe (lmao)

Self-sacrificed himself to send Saitama back in time to save the world (Ominous future: destroyed) (Bonus qualities: leadership, planning, teaching and cooperation with another hero)

So holy damn! Give this man a salary! Cause he naturally has all the makings, and even the experience under his belt already, to become a fine, leading top hero - based on no one else’s criteria/rules but his own. (Meaning, he doesn’t have to change that part of himself or conform to anyone else’s ideal image of a ‘hero’ for him to succeed; he can still independently ‘be himself’ and strive for his core values, despite what the HA or any other heroes say or think of him.)

But....it’s unknown how strong he still is. :P I figured after all the ‘god’ nonsense was punched out of him, he’d keep everything he still grew/earned on his own. But apparently he still lost ‘his fist’ (god-slayer fist) that he perfected while fighting Sage Centipede even at his peak moral best. So everything after ‘turning into a monster’ (appearing at the surface) probably no longer applies? Then that means he’s at the same level when he fought Darkshine underground? Spiral Garou what happened to you~ But if anything, he’s still overpowered enough to escape everyone’s line of sight (but Saitama’s) and evade Metal Knight’s huge robotic army sweeping the sky in the aftermath. :O And he remembers enough to want to learn back everything he lost - legitimately this time. Whether that’s training all over again or competitively fighting the other S Class (all the strongest monsters he evolved against are gone) to determine his ranking. :P

#opm #garou #racoon-puppy #replies #speculation #the best thing is when garou's already shown he's a better hero than many #that it'll be bonus irony if they weed themselves out from the HA because of him D: #not even knowing the neos are actually evil aaaa

[diana-prince-s]

"Suggest how you might resolve the staging difficulties inherent in a production of Ibsen’s Peer Gynt." if you get the reference I'd love you forever, but it's not the question for this week. Here it is: If you could change the way any movie/play/book was made, which one would you change? how?

Funny you should ask because I have been agonizing over the fate of the DCEU since they announced Batgirl was cut and I’m thinking of putting together my own hand-planned DCEU and a way they could compete with Marvel while also delivering really good films.

But since I haven’t done that yet, I’ll talk about Wonder Woman 1984, which was such a tragedy that it hurts me to talk about. For one, Wonder Woman should have never been introduced in BVS. Actually, I don’t think BVS should have happened (if they wanted to compete with Civil War they should have established their own universe and then did Injustice, which is literally the perfect set up for a Civil War-esque fight between Batman and Superman????). It is utterly unbelievable that Wonder Woman, the most good, true, kind, caring, and fiercely protective superhero in the entire universe, just disappeared for like 100 years. That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. But in terms of the universe, that’s what we’re working with, fine. So why would the second Wonder Woman film take place in the 80s when canonically she wasn’t doing any heroism then?

That is the least of my problems with WW84. I love the 80s. Like, what a backdrop for a superhero film, and what a way to infuse character into the story via setting. Well, not to be— that film feels like it was set in some sort of futuristic, bright white and neon landscape without any sociopolitical turmoil mentioned except that the villain is a Hispanic man disadvantaged in a “harsh world” (read: neo-conservative, white, Christian nationalist Reagan era, but they didn’t want to go there) who is a bad businessman and an okay swindler.

Next— and the most important thing I would change— Patty Jenkins should not have written the script, in fact, she should never write a script again. It’s disappointing when a woman-centered, Woman-led film written by a man is wholly un-feminist to the point of being regressive and conservative, but it is heartbreaking when that film is written by a woman. Between the stupid arc that Diana had in Justice League where she “couldn’t” be a leader and she couldn’t be a hero because the last time she did that Steve died or whatever, to the entirety of WW84– what a fucking disservice to a character who was supposed to be a beacon of hope for women and girls in a superhero film landscape that has been totally male since it’s inception and a character that has been proven time and again in the comics to be above stupid shit like men and heartbreak to get the job done with compassion and strength. I could write a paper about how, if the first Wonder Woman film was a feminist film and established Diana as a feminist character in ways that Marvel films and other DC films have not with their female heroes, then Justice League and WW84 completely undid everything that the first film did, and thus stripped Diana of her weight and feminist power.

When Steve died in the first film, I was sad for a little because I thought “poor Diana, her first love died” but then I was happy because she is immortal and he was not, so she didn’t have to watch him grow old and die and move on. (Personally I don’t know which is worse.) But also, eliminating Steve paved the way for a Wonder Woman who was seasoned in the world of man, a little cynical but only so much that she wouldn’t be taken advantage of or fooled, a Diana who was fiercely independent and could have a solo mission before finding love in the modern era unrelated to her mission.

But of course they let Patty Jenkins write the script for WW84, and Patty Jenkins, while proclaiming that she loves Wonder Woman and has always been obsessed with her, truly has a crush on Steve Trevor (and Chris Pine) and instead used this film as an opportunity to write self-insert Patty x Steve fanfic with Diana as a placeholder for herself. It was as though Steve died almost 80 years before the movie but Diana didn’t emotionally progress even a day past his death. And in the beginning she carried with her the type of independence, strength, and light cynicism that I believe is integral to Wonder Woman’s character — not only because Steve died, but because she has literally never been allowed to return home with no community and only transient friends who die every generation while she lives on, leaving her to carry the burden of protecting others without an emotional support system or sisterhood that she grew up with — and instead of considering any of those things as motivation for her protective aloofness and independence, she just is weepy over a dude she knew for a week.

And not only that, but WW84 actually depowers her so that Steve is on her level. Steve was self-admittedly not the most athletic man back in the 1910s and while he was a spy and a soldier, I’m pretty sure the US military didn’t train their soldiers to do the things that Steve could magically do in WW84, all the while saving Diana, the strongest hero in the Justice League and perhaps in the whole DCEU who canonically doesn’t have any weakness, at almost every turn. Alongside this, Barbara Ann gets her powers from a man — which is technically canon but not in this way — and on the whole it feels like, while Wonder Woman was about a hero rising above the men around her because of her immense power, WW84 is about two women’s powers being given/taken away at the whims of men who they are obviously attracted to, because how could they not have sex with the strong, handsome men who are better than them?

Also, the grand Amazonian Warrior suit that came absolutely out of nowhere (with another Amazon who left Themyscira before Diana ???? Just to give Lynda Carter a random cameo i don’t even know dude) which was supposed to be this really cool moment of Diana receiving indestructible armor, literally falling apart as soon as Cheetah touched it was so pathetic and another way to strip Diana/the amazons of their canon power.

In all, I would change everything about WW84. I don’t get this apparent rule that superhero films cannot borrow anything from the comics but small Easter eggs to toss in so the supposed “nerd bro” market is satisfied. There were so many Wonder Woman stories to choose from in the comics that would have been more Woman-centered and compelling than whatever Patty came up with. I’m praying that one day they’ll adapt Greg Rucka’s Hikketea or his original run in which she fights Medusa or has Veronica Cale and Cheetah to contend with. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening, since Patty and other DCEU writer/directors and executives literally do not read comic books and instead are only fans of the DC IP in other mediums.

#sorry that this was a ramble and incoherent #and also niche #wonder woman #ww84

[malicemuffin]

I had chapters 1-10 all planned out, but now I'm looking at it again and everything needs to change.

I think I'll talk about my problems out loud on here, even if they are spoilers. Maybe it'll help me push into where I need to go?

This is going to go all over the place, it's mostly for me to think out loud and not for people to actually read lmao.

So I want the first 10 or so chapters to have only Nicoe and Remi in them-- Kaja (the third protag) doesn't show up until chapter 11ish and she is going to change their dynamic majorly. The number of chapters isn't set, it can change if needed.

I'm hoping that the first ten chapters will introduce the readers to the world and also to who Nicoe/Remi are as people.

For the world, I want to introduce:

The idea of the moon cult and how they work. Moon Cult is basically the enemy of arcs 1 and 2, so I'd like them to be introduced early on but not so introduced that they aren't still a mystery. I also want to make it clear by the end of the first encounter with them that the problem isn't the protag being too weak to fight them-- the problem is that the leader is abusing her own people and her people think that this leader is saving them. You can't solve that with fists.

I want to introduce the brewings of the celestial civil war. Orion (and maybe two other constellations) want to either take control or split with the celestial organization as a whole. I don't want to introduce everything going on and why they want to split just yet, but I do want the reader to know this is something happening in the background.

There should be mention of the wider issue with the Planets. It's Celestials versus Planets and the Planets have been winning for most of earth's history and we currently live in a very narrow range of time where it's celestials who finally have the upper hand. However, the Celestials are struggling and buckling over this, and the wars with the planets have also lead to a lot of mass death.

Other stuff:

I'd like the reader to see how Nicoe's powers work and their strengths and limitations.

The reader to see how other Celestials work and just how strong they are.

I don't think I need to introduce my mythology on how the sun, earth, and moon work? But I do want readers to know that the monsters/demons/shards are fragments of a dead moon god (with it sounding natural).

Introduce how infections and lunatics work.

what happens when a celestial's stargem/soulstone/whatever breaks.

I want it to be hinted at that Nicoe isn't a "normal" celestial and that something is clearly wrong with her. For example, it might be introduced at some point that celestials tend to awaken between ages 11-17, but if you do the math you'd realize that Nicoe awoke at the age of 23. Or every other celestial retains their unnatural eye coloring even when out of transformation, but Nicoe's go back to brown. Things that don't pop out but start to add up.

I want the reader to see that Nicoe hides her emotions beneath a veil of professionalism, and also that she has some suicidal tendencies that she masks as heroism. Her desire to be a perfect Celestial often leads her to overextending her limits, getting herself (and the people she wants to protect) into trouble. Her strongest aspect is her compassion and that compassion is often what wins people over.

Remi might seem like a good girlfriend at first but it starts to become clear that she also has like, passive suicidal tendencies, but unlike Nicoe she doesn't actually want to die, she just. Doesn't care about her life all that much. The way she sacrifices herself for Nicoe should come across as unnerving. It should be clear that she's hiding something big too.

--

Okay so like... Originally, this is how it was going to go: First chapter we meet Nicoe who defeats a monster and saves some idiot hikers who got cornered by the thing. Nicoe goes home and gets a letter that Remi and the reader don't get to read most of-- her demeaner will subtly change from excited to very very reserved. Last page will be a small snippet of the letter where we get the hook (?) that she's basically on Disciplinary Probation and if she doesn't clean her act up, she'll be put "back into the cycle". The reader might not know what exactly that means, but judging by Nicoe's reaction it's not good (It's a way of saying "die so that your next reincarnation isn't so terrible") (this sounds pretty harsh but death doesn't mean much to celestials when they just reincarnate all the time anyways).

I think? This is a good setup? The fact that she's hiding this information from her girlfriend, friends, and colleagues should help show her pessimistic attitude (Nicoe doesn't think it's worth trying to work past this because she assumes she's going to fail anyways). Kaja is the one to assess Nicoe later, so it helps to introduce why Kaja comes into play at all. I think also it gives a good mystery-- Nicoe has a month to get the things she wants to get done accomplished until this specific date and time, and hopefully the reader will want to see how she accomplishes everything beforehand.

My problem is that there are a couple of things that I want to do that don't really feel like they take advantage of the setup, but I want to accomplish them before Kaja comes into the picture.

For example-- the moon cult. Remi can't be in the same place as the moon cult for spoiler reasons, so if Nicoe interacts with them, she'll need to do it on her own. I have a storyline that would cover two chapters... But is this really a smart idea to do in the begining where this is like our only chance to see Nicoe and Remi be alone? Shouldn't I be taking advantage of having this dynamic as much as I can?

But I don't feel like I can do these two chapters anywhere else-- Kaja can't be involved, and I want the moon cult to be introduced early on before Kaja comes into play.

There's also the missing girl storyline (for Pandora) that I want to setup, but should Nicoe really be taking time out of her schedule to look at someone right now when she's so close to (what she thinks is) the end...?

...I think I might be able to solve that by making it personal to Nicoe. Pandora has two younger siblings who miss her, and Nicoe can relate to that as someone who watched her youngest sister die to cancer. I think actually it might be a good way to help hint some of that information in early without outright saying anything...

But yeah, basically I want to make sure I'm actually using my time wisely and I dunno if I am OTL

[c-h-stevens]

I think it's time for me to make an intro post.

Hi. C.H. Stevens is my pen name. You can call me whatever. I'm also broccolifloret at AO3 and other sites.

I was going to use this pen name to publish m/m romance exclusively, but then I realized the line between dark spooky gay romance and horror that happens to feature men in love with each other is pretty thin and sometimes hard to find, and also many people interested in reading one will also be interested in the other, and also who am I to deny the inherent romance of cannibalistic body horror, so I might just chuck everything under this pen name.

Ahem. After that paragraph, fun & improved bullet list:

If that wasn't clear, horror is my favorite genre. I tag for #blood, #gore and #body horror, but feel free to ask for any further tags. My ask box is open to anons right now.

All I'll say about me for now: he/him, thirties.

A lot of my WIPs are fantasy romance though I don't read Western fantasy novels very often these days. I find this slightly frustrating.

I write only adult fiction. I almost exclusively read that, too.

I might also write fanfic. I definitely rant about the olden days of fandom and how we wrote our WIPs uphill in the snow.

I love my cat, Dani. You'll probably see photos of her (in terrible quality because old phone with crappy camera) if you stick long enough.

My current project is an ongoing serial that'll take me the next two-plus years... if everything goes well. The first story arc, King of the Dying Sun, can be found here.

(More about it under the readmore.)

Genres: M/M romance, gothic horror, fantasy

Warnings: Child abuse and its ensuing trauma are at the core of the story, so please don't read if that's not something you'd want to deal with.

Elevator pitch: Bratty sub determined to commit tyrannicide even if it kills him meets brat tamer determined to protect him or die trying. They get into politics.

Longer blurb:

Azul Mamani is just another young mixed-race farmer and a great-grandson of the Megarchon, the tyrant ruling the entire world. Nobody cares, until he’s hastily summoned to the capital. For the first time since there’s been a Megarchon, no successor can wield the Imperium, the mysterious source of the Megarchon's power. Civil war looms in the horizon. But Azul has no power and no allies—except for a dangerous man known as Vanth Umbra, King of the Dying Sun. Born to protect the living from the creatures of the Underworld. It’s good that he wants Azul—sex is his one bargaining chip. Vanth shouldn’t be trusted, especially not when he appoints himself as Azul's protector. Caught between a murderous necromancer, an elite guard sworn to the Megarchon, and a dissenter faction with their own plans, however, binding himself to Vanth might be Azul’s only chance to survive.

Slightly obnoxious repeat of the link (please do mind the tags and author's notes for more content notes)

That's it for now.

#about me #writers on tumblr #writeblr #writeblr intro

[nightcoremoon]

I rewatched iron man recently.

I am flabbergasted by how fucking phenomenal his character arc was over the course of the 9 movies.

(IM1, IM2, Avengers, IM3, Age of Ultron, Civil War, Infinity War, Spiderman, and finally Endgame, I don’t think I missed any of them)

quick recap. rich spoiled bratty pretentious asshole responsible for the rich and powerful (the ten rings) oppressing the ethnic minorities of the world (like the sokovians and afghans and PRESUMABLY armenians and ukrainians too) through weaponry- STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM! that’s already incorrect. stark’s weapons were intended by him to be used by AND ONLY BY the US military, which in the real world would be BAD but in the fictional comic book universe full of eldritch monsters, space aliens, and norse gods, financed by The Mouse, we can clearly assume that it’s noble intentions because Obviously The US Military Which Stopped HITLER Are The Good Guys, Okay?™️ because it’s fiction. anyway, to recap, Stark made the designs for the weapons that the US military uses to Protect The World From Devastation and so on. he did it because he has DADDY ISSUES and wanted to be just as good as Howard Stark was made up to be to replace the love and affection Howard ACTUALLY gave to Popsicle Rogers, who is ALSO a WMD used by the US military. wow golly gee whiz it’s almost like there’s depth of characterization among a team of a dozen amazing directors (and also joss whedon was there too). so that’s Tony Stark. genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.

except uh oh what’s that I smell? CAPITALISM???

stane was the one who was selling Stark weaponry to the ten rings, WITHOUT TONY’S KNOWLEDGE!!! stane is the reason why wanda & pietro joined hydra. stane is the reason why the multiverse is fracturing. everything is stane’s fault. so it’s a very good thing he died to death.

so when tony realized that the nukes he was making were killing innocent people,

HE STOPS MAKING NUKES.

but stane keeps doing it anyway because he’s a liar, a thief, and a fucking pig for profiting off of genocide.

so tony BECOMES the nuke, and he spends his life and limbs fighting for freedom in sokovia and afghanistan, not by standing idly by like the us military were doing, watching it happen from the sidelines. tony had the great power and the great responsibility and he single handedly saved gulmira from extermination. he took a traumatic experience that would break anyone, and he turned it around and made it his drive and ambition. he wanted to save innocent lives. he was willing to throw away his life and his love and all of his money for this. but there’s one problem. he’s still a spoiled fucking brat.

iron man 2 hits him like a sack of bricks and his life falls apart and he almost fucking dies because the ten rings is pissed that he dared to stand against them and stop their genocides. luckily shield saves his ass so he’s like ok fine I’ll work with you in the avengers initiative which operates separately from the us military to directly intervene with foreign policy. except oh wait a second SHIELD IS JUST A VEHICLE FOR HYDRA’S SCHEMES. WHOOPSIE DOODLE, ITS ALMOST LIKE HAVING A PMC CONTROL THE GOVERNMENT IS A BAD IDEA, IT’S ALMOST LIKE THE POINT OF CAPTAIN AMERICA IS THAT FASCISM IS BAD BUT NEEDS TO BE FOUGHT THE CORRECT WAY and not just governmenting at it. wow it’s almost like all of the films are cohesively tied together by characterization, theme, and- oh yeah- plot.

ok ok ok avengers 1 happens and he’s like ok yeah I can vibe with this. oh wait my daddy issues make me dislike steve, my arrogance and ego make me dislike thor, and my obsession with direct physical conflict makes me dislike banner. tony is still an asshole but he wants to do good, as evident by the fact that he STEERS THE NUKE INTO SPACE TO SAVE THE LIVES OF MILLIONS OF NEW YORKERS AT THE EXPENSE OF HIS OWN LIFE. YAY MORE TRAUMA.

iron man 3 happened and… shane black isn’t a great director. lethal weapon is a great movie, last action hero is a great movie, predator is one of the best movies ever made, but he didn’t direct those. he wrote two and acted in one. the predator was atrocious. iron man 3 was… ok. I liked it but it was definitely a massive disappointment and probably the weakest movie with iron man in it. but that was necessary. tony stark died, and finally lost all of the things that made him a flawed character. he became a hero through one last traumatic event. and that made the rest of the movies make sense given the continuity. except they never touched on pepper’s powers again. 😡

anyway we hit age of ultron and see that hydra is still being evil nazi bastards but at least shield is free of them (hey it’s a good thing that natasha exists and is a good… person, if not a good character... because male writers). tony has a positive rapport with his buddies. everything is great. except oh no his trauma lottery and wanda’s mind control giving him even more trauma made him finally snap. there’s fucking aliens man. there’s gods. there’s eldritch monsters. there’s who knows what’s out there. maybe even someone who wants to genocide half the universe and there’s be nobody there to stop him!!! WE DON’T KNOW WHAT’S OUT THERE! so we have to press the Big Red Button™️. and activate ultron. except OOPSIE DOODLE, SENTIENT SELF-AWARE AI CAN’T NOT GO CORRUPT AND EVIL, YOU STUPID BASTARD. tony done fucked up. but hey at least they saved the world, they just had to dropkick sokovia into the sun. also we adopted wanda into the avengers. there is no possible way that this can be a bad idea or go wrong.

adopting wanda was a bad idea that went very wrong. she killed a bunch of innocent people because she’s a dumbass kid as filled to the brim with trauma as tony himself; she fucked up. but you know who else fucked up and killed innocent people? tony goddamn stark. he is just a foil for wanda on her path to becoming… sigh. a supervillain. I guess. god, what a huge waste of potential. anyway whatever the US government is mad and now that shield can’t interfere with them anymore they have gone mad with power. this is an ideological clusterfuck that fucked up what the movies previously established as the status quo concerning who was good and who was evil but that’s a good thing because it’s important to muddy the waters of ethics when it comes to political dramas because all politics is unethical and immoral. or amoral. whatever. the point is, tony agreed with them and thinks that the avengers are just another dangerous nuke that can’t just be used willy nilly. wanda is just the jericho missile but way more dangerous. she’s a ticking time bomb. the avengers need to be regulated. stopped. moderated. controlled. prevented from hurting people. you can’t just let a PMC interfere with foreign policy and expect things to always be hunky dory. especially when the PMC is best friends with a known terrorist. he was brainwashed by commies but regardless, barnes was a threat. steve was like no my boyfriend is innocent of blowing up the king of wakanda it was actually zemo! so steve is willing to fight the entire government over this. tony knows the government will kill steve so he wants to stop him and turn in barnes for the greater good at the expense of one man. tony would’ve gotten barnes the best lawyer and gotten him assigned to a facility and not prison, but steve was blinded by his attachment to the one thing left from his past that was still alive now that peggy was dead (and sloppy seconds sharon just wasn’t good enough to sate him). one problem. barnes killed tony’s parents. tony bluescreens. not only is steve going to throw away everything they ever worked together for, for one man, it’s for the man who killed his beloved mom and the dad he was always so desperate for the approval of. tony makes the biggest fuckup of his life because he was weak, because he is flawed, because he is human. because he is a well written character.

so we can add betrayal to the list of trauma, just in time for him to become the adopted father to spiderman. he wants to keep this dumbass kid safe because there’s nothing else left in his life anymore. his body is broken, his mind is broken, his life’s work is in shambles, and he’s just trying to do the best he can with the time and resources he has left after the government takes over. tony has given up on the greater good and is focusing instead on the people directly impacting his own life. and that’s okay. I think tony has done enough for the world at this point in time. he saved new york, he saved america, and he has saved the literal entire world. he deserves a hero’s respite, and to pass the mantel. and this would have been a perfect sendoff so he could go spend the rest of his days in peace, knowing that he did enough. he accomplished his mission. now the united states government has the power and resources they need to protect the world from evil invaders. …right?

thanos and crew then show up to try to kill literally half the universe for no good goddamn reason other than he is a power-mad megalomaniacal tyrant with a huge god complex. the biggest threat the universe has ever and will ever see. ronin and the kree were nothing, defeatable by a dude from the 1980s and a lady with magic fists. dormammu was nothing, beaten by a sarcastic doctor. the ten rings essentially fell apart on their own hubris and inability to factor in Florida Man. hydra was dead five times over. ragnarok happened already. everything else was manageable, but the infinity stones are the most powerful items in the universe ALONE. and thanos was on the warpath to getting all six of them at once. like the dragon balls but less… bad. (I don’t like dragon ball z)

every single thing that happened in tony’s life lead up to the moment that he could have- should have- called steve the MOMENT banner told him that asgard was destroyed. steve could have prepared wakanda faster, or contacted fury WHO WOULD HAVE CONTACTED CAROL WHO WOULD HAVE BEATEN THANOS’ ASS IN. shuri could have had the few extra minutes she’d have needed to prevent the snap. vision could have survived. wanda could have NOT gone evil. the only casualties could have been the asgardians and gamora: but no. tony decided to take care of things himself. and strange got kidnapped. and peter went along with him. so quill drax mantis and nebula managed to be in exactly the right amount of people to FUCK UP ROYALLY. quill is directly responsible for not controlling his anger, mantis is directly responsible for not waiting to interrogate him until AFTER the gauntlet was removed. but ultimately the reason why thanos was there was for the time stone. why was the time stone there? because strange was there. why was strange there? why, because he got kidnapped. why did he get kidnapped? because it was only him, wong, tony, a combat-useless banner, and peter. alternatively what could have happened, what should have happened, is tony calls steve and tells him shit’s fucked, THEN STRANGE OR WONG OPENS A PORTAL TO HIS LOCATION, so then rather than four people in a fighting force, they could’ve also had steve, natasha, sam, WANDA AND VISION. but tony was salty that steve betrayed him. tony was hurt. tony was upset. tony’s emotional fragility and fallibility because his downfall. he was no longer an emotionless asshole. he opened his heart, and it was stabbed. mercilessly. tony fucked up, and it caused a domino effect that ruined the last vestiges of his ability to give a shit anymore. he saw half the universe die. he saw his adoptive son die in his arms, apologizing and crying because he thought that he failed and it was his fault. but it wasn’t peter’s fault.

it was tony’s fault. and he knew it.

and now he was stranded in the middle of space.

luckily carol exists and pressed the “I fixed it” button.

tony comes back and is PISSED at steve (because he still has that pride and he can’t admit that it was his fault). he decides, fuck it. the apocalypse happened. I give up. I’m gonna marry the love of my life and have a baby and make the most of my life because fuck helping people. he helped them enough. why should he give up his happiness for them when they don’t even appreciate him? never mind all of New York owes their lives to him, never mind all of America owes their lives to him, never mind all of the Afghans and Sokovians who revere him. never mind the entire fucking world probably owes him a debt of gratitude (except for all the nitpicky assholes), tony isn’t thinking of that right now. he’s still thinking of steve, one of his best friends, LITERALLY STABBING HIM IN THE HEART, WITH THE SYMBOL OF THE LOVE HIS FATHER NEVER GAVE HIM, TO PROTECT THE MAN WHO KILLED TONY’S PARENTS. he’s bitter and angry, and honestly? he has a right to those feelings.

so what happens five years later? scott lang- ironically enough the only other man who ever fought with the ten rings and won- shows up with a plan to save everyone. to reverse the snap. to bring back to life half of the entire goddamn universe. all they need to do is a time travel heist. okay, tony says, but I don’t have the technology to do that and I’m not gonna waste my life on this because I have a family now. good luck with whatever on your own bitches~ he said like a liar as he thought about the plan. because deep down tony will do anything he can to bring those people back to life. it’s the right thing to do. it’s all he knows how to do. his conscience won’t leave him alone and he wants to help. he wants to care. he does it. he comes up with the technology. he helps to recover the infinity stones from their places in the past. he does his part. natasha dies for it, nebula gets fucked for it, and frigga stays dead knowing her fate is coming. but that’s okay. oh wait it’s not okay, a different thanos from their own timeline shows up WHICH SHOULD BY ITS OWN LOGIC MEAN THAT THANOS NEVER DID THE SNAP IN THE FIRST PLACE BUT WHATEVER I’m still mad about that plot hole but anyway, they all fight. and they’re about to win. and tony has the gauntlet. but wait.

oh.

oh.

oh no.

this isn’t fair! I have a life now! I have a family! I have to give my life now? like, for real? for real for real? after all this work, after how far I’ve come, after sacrificing so much… then as he said once before a long time ago.

I. Am. Iron Man.

and tony sacrifices his life to save- not just yinsen. not just pepper and coulson. not just gulmira. not just sokovia. not just the world. not just half of the universe. because that thanos is dead. and he would never live. the thanos who snapped away half the universe succeeded and lived peacefully. and died when thor chopped his head off. THIS thanos is an earlier version, blessed and cursed with the gift of knowledge. he isn’t looking to save the universe- he’s looking to commit genocide against all the dissenters. he’s going to do to the entire universe what the ten rings were doing in afghanistan. thematically it’s all connected. tony goes from giving his life for one person to a couple dozen people to a couple thousand to a couple million to numbers unfathomable by the human mind. tony gives his life to save more people than he could ever count. it’s not an especially difficult feat. most humans would probably do that if they saw definitive proof that their actions would win out. but tony had the most to lose, and the most reason to refuse, and the most rights by any account to say no. but he did it anyway.

the rich pampered spoiled brat, the traumatized kid who never felt daddy’s love, the arrogant asshole with a PMC in his back pocket, the alcoholic hermit, the loving father

the hero to end all heroes

tony

goddamn

stark

the franchise started with him hammering away in that little cave in afghanistan. and that’s the sound that plays at the end of endgame.

I’ve got ISSUES and PROBLEMS and GRIPS about a lot of infinity war and endgame. the way it treated its female characters. the way it spit in the face of a lot of plot lines especially thor barnes gamora natasha wanda steve and a whole lot and set them all on a path to unfulfilling story developments. how poorly the time travel was handled. nearly everything that the mcu crapped out afterwards.

but the tony stark chronicles remain a highlight of CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT in all of fiction to me.

robert downey jr did amazing work and he expressed dedication to his craft and made a graceful exit and then just quietly did his own thing to the point that I don’t even know what he’s up to. more sherlock hopefully.

I think this portrayal of iron man has got to be one of my favorite long term character studies, full stop.

fuck disney and fuck marvel oversaturation but I will defend the constitution of tony stark’s characterization. because he wasn’t a perfect man. he was flawed. he made mistakes. he was ~problematic~. but that’s good. characters don’t have to be mary sues to be enjoyable. they don’t have to be literally jesus to become beloved.

they don’t have to be perfect for me to like them.

[rayshippouuchiha]

Yeah MCU really just grabbed random bits of storyline from everywhere. I think it's probably the worst with Iron Man because like in the early movies Tony refuse to give the military the suit because he doesn't trust what they'll do with it. But in Civil War he's all for governmental control and no one ever really addresses that shift. It's just "the storyline demands".

I was also of this mind when it was first announced that Civil War was gonna happen in the MCU because all I could think was comic era Civil War and the Registration Act. I wasn't sure what direction the MCU would/could take a Civil War story line because, in my opinion, there wasn't enough of a basis for it.

But after seeing CW in theater when it came out (5 times might I add) I didn't and still don't think Tony's stance comes out of nowhere in the MCU.

At the time the film was released all we knew of the Sokovia Accords was the fact that they would start regulating the actions of super heroes and enhanced individuals and that it was a United Nations backed/developed piece of legislation. That's it, that's all that the film itself told us on screen.

It opened with a scene of a bunch of people getting killed on "foreign soil" (which is an entirely different issue) and then immediately tossed the Accords at us and said that over 117 countries agreed with the proposed legislation. Even Wakanda (a nation with an enhanced individual built in as one of their key leadership/spiritual roles) backed and spoke out in favor of it.

Tony's entire story arc in the MCU revolves around him taking accountability for the harm his negligence/naivety has put out into the world. (We can argue about the levels of blame that are actually his to carry vs what fandom/his guilt complex/others believe it to be but that's a separate issue.) He saw that his actions/inactions directly/indirectly put harm into the world and he attempted to fix that harm as best he could. Over and over again.

Tony's entire story arc is one mentally ill man attempting desperately to protect everything around him while outside forces and his own issues cause him to spiral.

So with everything that's happened to and around Tony since Iron Man I can absolutely understand him listening to the will of the UN, to the will of so many nations, and agreeing that enhanced people who act as the Avengers do need to have some degree of regulation.

Just, that's not ridiculous, that makes sense.

Again, especially considering the events you see in the opening of the film.

There's also a bit of a difference between Tony not wanting to hand over his actual suit to the US government and what the Sokovia Accords were talking about. (Again, at the time of the film's release and disregarding whatever walk-backs were made post release.)

The Avengers were a US based super hero group, they didn't have the right to run rough shod over other nation's borders without any sort of protocol in place. They were leaving notable casualties in their wake and the UN responded to that issue with proposed regulatory action.

As a business man who has experience in the corporate world and knows how things work on a large scale, a genius who is able to forward think enough to tell how things will likely develop, and someone desperately attempting to not fall into the same trap of compliance he was in pre-Iron Man, of course Tony would support that.

#RayRambles #MCU #Tony Stark #PROTECT TONY STARK #I WILL FIGHT YOU OVER MY SAD TRASH BABY

[martelldoran]

WHAT'S THE CAUSALITY LOOP THEORY

Why Emma, thank you so much for asking. I’m not going to waste time before jumping into this because this is gonna get long so without further ado...

Steve Rogers’ Ending and How Endgame Doesn’t Support a Causality Loop and other such rambles

Last month, I came across a TikTok that proposed that Steve’s ending made sense because it existed within a causality loop. I would link the TikTok but I didn’t save it at the time and trying to find videos on that app is impossible. You think Tumblr’s search function is bad? 🙄 But I digress. The TL;DR of the video is that due to time travel and Steve choosing to go back in time to be Peggy’s husband, it created a causality loop where he was always meant to be her husband because he went back in time and stayed there. The TikToker supported his argument by using Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (PoA), another film that uses time travel and has a clearly defined example of a causality loop. However, his argument is fundamentally flawed so I’m going to combine my knowledge of my two biggest fandoms to tell you why.

Continued under the cut because I have no chill. Beware, it's long.

To first tell you how Endgame (EG) doesn’t support a causality loop, we must establish how PoA does establish one and does it successfully. The TikToker specifically mentions the scenes that take place at Hagrid’s Hut surrounding Buckbeak the hippogriff’s execution, so we’ll look at those first. What the film does really well is establish early on that there is something weird going on well before anyone actually goes back in time. There are three things that happen in quick succession during this scene which sets up the causality loop we see later in the film. First, a rock flies through the window and breaks a jar. Second, another rock hits Harry in the back of the head. Third, once outside, Hermione hears a branch snap and thinks she sees ‘something’. There are also two additional moments later on in the film once the Harry, Ron, and Hermione have come out of the Shrieking Shack which should also be noted: a wolf howl that distracts Remus Lupin in werewolf form from attacking the group and somebody casting a full-bodied stag patronus at the edge of the lake to save Harry and Sirius from the Dementors.

Of these occurrences, the first is arguably the most important because it does the most to establish that there is something going on outside of the Trio’s current understanding of their situation. The film makes a point to frame the jar breaking as Important Information the Audience Must Remember because it shows a visibly confused Hermione reacting to it as she picks up the rock for closer inspection and we the audience are given close up of it in her hand. Not only is it framed front and centre in the shot but the rock itself is very distinctive. It’s almost wholly smooth but for a swirl of fossil, thus marking it as not just any rock but An Important Rock To Be Remembered. This was an intentional choice by director Alfonso Curon because he uses this rock to connect this moment to its mirrored scene later on once Harry and Hermione use the Time Turner.

The audience and the characters find out about the causality loop at the same time. There are clearly stated rules of time travel that say that they aren’t to meddle with time but when Harry and Hermione see that Dumbledore, the Minister for Magic, and the executioner are on their way to Hagrid’s hut they panic because their counterparts aren’t leaving. Then, we see Hermione notice something in the pumpkin patch: a distinctive rock, smooth with a swirl of fossil. Again, we see have a close up shot with the rock centred to show its importance. Stylistically, it’s very similar to the shot we saw earlier in the film which gives the audience an emotional pay off for noticing the connection. When Hermione throws the rock and breaks the jar, it sets the causality loop in motion. The jar was always going to break because they went back in time to throw the rock that breaks it.

And it’s the same with all the other instances. Hermione throws the second rock that hits Harry in the back of the head to alert him to the fact they need to get out of the hut. Hermione snaps the branch and is almost seen by her counterpart in the past. Hermione makes the wolf call to distract Lupin from attacking. Harry, and not his father as he had assumed, casts the patronus to save himself and Sirius from the Dementors. But each of these moments are set up clearly in the ‘first run through’ to set up their payoff when the characters realise, ‘Oh, I did these things. They were always meant to happen.’ From a narrative standpoint, these are planned out moments to clue the audience into the fact that there’s something bigger at play. It keeps them ‘in the loop’ as it were.

This doesn’t happen in EG.

To successfully have set up a causality loop that made sense and had the same kind of set up and pay off as we see in PoA, it would have had to have been established as early as 2014 in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (CA:TWS). This does not happen. One of the main themes of CA:TWS is moving on from the past. Peggy Carter herself even says, “I’ve lived my life, my only regret is that you didn’t get to live yours.” Then saying soon after, “Sometimes the best thing we can do is to start over.” Peggy’s character in Captain America: The First Avenger is set up as someone who acts as the backup/back bone of Steve’s own moral compass. When Steve falters at Azzano about what to about the captured 107th, Peggy is there to remind him of what is right. She serves a similar narrative function in CA:TWS. Steve is struggling with life in the present. He’s just seen the helecarriers and argued with Nick Fury about protection vs fear after the botched Lumerian Star mission. Morally, he’s in turmoil and has turned to Peggy for council because he’s trying to find purpose in world where his rigid morality seems to have no place.

From the point of view of creating a causality loop, one would think that this scene in the hospital would be the place where an initial set-up could be made and alert the audience to the long term plan for Steve’s character. Instead, we have Peggy mourning the fact that Steve didn’t get to live his life the way it should have played out, and why would a woman who has supposedly been married to another version of Steve tell him to move on? In addition, when Steve visits the Smithsonian, he watches a video where he sees Peggy talking about how he influenced her life and how during one of his missions, he saved the man that would go on to become her husband. This is the only mention of Peggy’s husband in the entire franchise until Steve reappears as an old man at the end of EG.

Captain America: Civil War (CA:CW) also offers an opportunity to set up the causality loop at Peggy’s funeral but again, this does not happen. The only family we are introduced to is Sharon Carter, Peggy’s grand-niece. When it comes to filmmaking, every choice made is intentional. From the hair and makeup to the clothes, to the music used, everything in a film means something whether it is to further character development, world-building, or the plot. Filmmakers have a limited amount of time to convey a story and anything that doesn’t matter isn’t shown. Therefore, we can conclude from the text of the film that Peggy’s husband doesn’t matter to the narrative. The person in Peggy’s family who matters to the narrative is Sharon Carter which is why she is given prominence during CA:CW’s funeral scene. Had the causality loop been set up here, there would have been a defining moment like in PoA where the audience is clued into the larger story arc. Maybe someone says something, or he meets his older self, but that doesn’t happen. It should also be noted that apart from a small scene in Ant Man, Peggy isn’t mentioned again until EG.

In Endgame itself, the film still fails to set up a causality loop. It could be argued that this is the most important film for the set-up because this is when the audience gets the payoff. The first thing we see after the 5-yer time jump is Steve in a group therapy session for those that survived Thanos’ snap. Survivors share their stories and Steve talks about Peggy, a woman who has been dead in canon for 7-years and who died of old age. It’s incongruous and sticks out because narratively it doesn’t make sense for him to talk about her and not someone he watched disintegrate in front of his eyes. Steve watches his best friend and hundreds of others turn to ash around him and that film ends on his horrified face as he sits by his best friend’s ashes. Narratively, this is the thread that should carry through to EG but instead, he talks about missing his chance with Peggy. However, unlike PoA, there is no indication whether through dialogue or framing that clues the audience into Steve’s eventual ending at the end of the film.

Even when he goes back to the 70s, we see him looking mournfully at Peggy through the blinds in her office and a picture of him, pre-serum, on her desk. Steve and Peggy’s relationship prior to Endgame is supposed to represent the bittersweet loss of the life he could have had had he not sacrificed himself to the cause in CA:TFA. Then, since the audience knows from Steve and Peggy’s conversation in the hospital in CA:TWS that she moved on from Steve to live a happy life, we can assume that this picture is meant as nothing more than a fond memento of someone that meant a lot to her. Once more, there is no indication that Steve is ever meant to be her husband.

It’s impossible to infer a causality loop here in the same way as we saw in PoA. In PoA, there is a payoff for every single unusual or weird moment the story presents the audience before and after the use of time travel but this is something that’s completely absent from Endgame’s narrative. Steve himself doesn’t even vocalise a desire to go back in time at any point in EG nor at any point during the other films he appears in. In fact, when questioned by Tony Stark about the possibility of ‘going home’ in Avengers: Age of Ulton, he says, “The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out.” While it is indicative of his unhappiness in the modern-day, it does indicate a level of acceptance of the fact that this is his life and he has to make his peace with it. He’s taken what Peggy said in CA:TWS on board. He’s starting over and moving on.

With time travel, and Steve choosing to stay in the past came the fan theory that one of the pallbearers carrying Peggy’s casket in CA:CW is Old Man Steve, her husband. When presented with this fan theory, writer Christopher Markus said during an interview with the LA Times at SDCC 2019,

“I would very much like that. There is no set explanation for Cap’s time travel . . .I mean, we’ve had public disagreements with [directors Anthony and Joe Russo] about what it [time travel] necessarily means, but I love the idea of there being two Steve Rogers in the timeline. One who lived a long life with Peggy and is in the background of that funeral scene watching his young self carry his wife’s coffin up. Not just for the time travel mumbo jumbo of it, but for the just weird, personal pain and satisfaction that would be happening between two Steve Rogers there. I kind of love it.” [emphasis mine]

This shows that unlike in PoA there was no intention of creating a causality loop prior to Markus writing EG with his writing partner Stephen McFeely. In fact, it makes clear that the actual rules of time travel were in contention and that even those making the film didn’t have a unified idea of what they wanted to create in the first place. The fact that there is confusion surrounding EG's time travel is due to the fact that the people behind it, didn't seem to know what they were writing or consider the consequences of it.

What all of this shows is that an argument of a PoA style causality loop doesn’t hold water. The film doesn’t support it, nor do any of the previous films, because there aren’t any indicators for the audience to latch onto. There is no moment of the rock breaking the jar, or the patronus chasing away the dementors, no moment where that the audience is told to hold into this information for later because there’s some timey wimey stuff going on. Ultimately, when examined, there is no set-up for a causality loop that supports the theory he was always supposed to go back and be Peggy’s husband, particularly when examined against a film that successfully lays it out from the start.

Right, the more academic (lol) part of this post is done. I just want to address one more TikTok that bothered me because I have opinions and MCU Captain America is my Mastermind specialist subject.

The TL;DR of this one was that Steve’s ending made sense because he got out of the fight and was at peace and that that has been the ultimate goal of his character arc. This person argued that Steve used the Avengers to distract himself from the fact that he’s this man out of time and he can’t find peace without a fight which to some extent, I agree with. I don’t deny that that is a major driving force to his story. We see that in Age of Ultron with his WandaNightmare. I don’t deny that that is key to his character. However, this creator then made a comment at the end of this video to the tune of, ‘bUt BuCkY iS hIs StOrY aRc’ and tried to play it off like this wasn’t true or that people were wrong to think that this is the case.

These two things aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re both true. They’re intertwined. But you cannot say that Bucky Barnes isn’t at the heart of Steve Rogers’ story. Bucky was the catalyst for every single one of Steve’s movies. He becomes CA because of Bucky. He goes against SHIELD because of Bucky. He defies 107 countries and the Sokovia Accords because of Bucky. You take Bucky out of the equation and what do you have? What happens in those films if you take Bucky Barnes out of the equation? Viewing it objectively, and even without shipper goggles on, you simply cannot sit there and claim that Bucky Barnes isn't a defining component to Steve’s story. Steve Rogers is motivated by Bucky Barnes. Steve Rogers is motivated by the depth of their relationship and the fact that Bucky Barnes is one of the few things connecting his new present to his old life.

You can definitely see the fact that Steve is uncomfortable in the modern world. He doesn’t address any of his trauma but he still attempts to move on. However, if they wanted him getting out of the fight and finding life as a civilian to be the natural end to his story arc then there was a way to do it which didn’t require him going back to Peggy. It would have been a better and more satisfying ending if he’d actively chosen to retire because I often see the argument that him going back to Peggy is him finally allowing him to be selfish after shouldering so much over the past decade or more. If Steve chose to retire and put himself first, then that sends a better message. He’s still getting the chance to ‘be selfish’ but he’s not throwing the life he’s built away. At this point in EG, he’s spent a huge portion of his adult life in the modern-day. This isn’t the future for him anymore, it’s the present and he’s lived a life and made real connections with people. The MCU does a piss poor job of showing the interpersonal relationships between the Avengers but he is at least shown to be friends with Sam, Nat, and Bucky.

But he goes back to a delusion. Or an idea of something that was never his in the first place.

When I see people make these videos and share their opinions, I can see their points but it’s like they’re taking EG on its own when that's impossible. Endgame only ‘works’ if you have the context of 10 years’ worth of films. You have to at least be somewhat familiar with the characters, who they are and what they’ve done up until now to be able to make sense of it.

However, in saying that, they wrote and filmed the movie in a way to make you think you didn’t have to take into account anything you’ve seen in the past ten years. If you only watch Endgame, you only see a grieving man mourning the love he never had. You see a man, regretful that he didn’t get to be with woman he loved. So at the end, of course it would make sense that he goes back to her. But you can only do that if you completely divorce Endgame from its ten-year canon and in a franchise like this where they make a big deal about everything being interconnected, it simply doesn’t work. Steve’s story arc in Endgame is incongruous to the narrative arc we’ve been presented in previous films.

Ultimately, Endgame is a movie you’re supposed to watch once and then not think about again. It’s made for that first viewing when everything is shocking and exciting because if you stop to think about it even a little bit, it falls apart under scrutiny.

Finally, I think that the downfall of a lot of these ‘Steve’s ending makes sense’ posts is that made by people who are most certainly MCU fans but not Steve Rogers fans and it shows.

#in this essay i will #endgame wank #anti endgame #for the filters #steve rogers #my writing #because this i didn't spend my afternoon on this for nothing #marvel #stevie #angelblue007

[evercelle]

What are your feelings towards 2.1 genshin? You mentioned having a lot of lukewarm ones in some tags :O

hm... short version: i feel mhy had a list of cool moments/story beats they wanted to hit in 2.1 archon quest, and rushed through cramming all of those into a single update at the cost of literally any good writing/character development/pacing.

long version: i'll cut this to avoid too many spoilers for folks/contain my complaining under a cut:

EVER'S LIST OF GRIEVANCES, 2.1 EDITION:

1) the pacing is super whacked out. i get that mhy wants to make each region wrap in 3 chapters (consistent with mondstadt and liyue), but the pacing for Inazuma as a whole was incredibly rushed at the end. the first 2 chapters did a great job of setting up the context for the vision hunt decree, introducing the toll it takes on Inazuma's citizens/visitors to the nation, and the introducing the resistance as well. the world quests available with 2.0 also went to great lengths to develop the theme of how the war & civil unrest created problems caused both by the shogunate and the resistance. then, in the climactic ending... it went almost entirely unaddressed? after the decree is repealed, vision holders are given their visions back and state they completely recovered their memories, but neither the main storyline nor raiden's quest address the rest of the human cost (lost time, lost lives, displaced populations). it feels like everything wrapped up too neatly.

2) there's a serious gap between raiden's ideals and the way her actions are written. raiden suffered great loss (her twin, her friends, even her subjects) throughout her reign, which is a reasonable (if whacked out) logic to base her pursuit of eternity upon. what i wanted to see (and mhy did not deliver) was the depth of her conviction that caused her to enforce something as drastic as the vision hunt decree. the fact that she flatly stated she was fully aware of its human cost even in the plane of euthymia substantiates how deeply she believed in her ideals... only for it to be effectively overturned by (1) conversation with yae/traveler? all the emotion in raiden's character trailer never makes a single appearance in the main line game (other than the animated sequence in which you’re very quickly told, not otherwise shown by raiden’s dialogue or choices, what she suffered), which is absolutely boggling.

3) no accountability for raiden's action = shallow character development: to that end, the lack of depth in her individual character quest is also disappointing... i get that she's the eternal god-ruler of inazuma which would present a very different public reaction than, say, a president doing the same thing, but the fact that the human cost of the decree isn't addressed at ALL is ridiculous. her character quest being... a shopping trip... lacks the development that other archons (venti, zhongli) had in their respective quests. i think raiden truly wants to protect her living subjects through her pursuit of eternity, yet the inner conflict between "a god's devotion to their subjects vs. an immortal struggling to grasp mortal experiences" was only vaguely implied instead of actively explored.

4) key NPCs were severely underutilized: acts 1+2 of the inazuma arc set up the resistance as key figures, only for them to do... absolutely nothing in act 3. kokomi is billed as a genius strategist. the notion that she'll accept unknown donations of supplies from an unidentifiable benefactor, no questions asked, is INSANE. frankly, i would've found the plot much more interesting if the resistance was actively colluding with the fatui to destabilize the shogunate, but no... the resistance's presence in act 3 is solely to introduce the delusions/tie the fatui back into the plot/create the emotional attachment to teppei to galvanize the traveler into confronting raiden again. the part with teppei was fine and in fact one of the highlights in the patch to me (legitimately!! heartbroken!! AT HIS LAST LINE ABOUT THE UNIFORMS!!!), but kokomi and gorou were such a non-presence... sigh. i acknowledge my pipe dream about kokomi doing sus shit with the fatui was wishful thinking, but mhy's decision to essentially lay the blame for everything on the established villains the fatui in order effectively absolve raiden of any emotional culpability/make her redeemable so players will like & roll for her is WEAK.

5) the pacing, again... (head in hands) i feel like all of the problems i complained about could have been addressed if mhy just let their story content breath a little more. i know game developers have schedules they need to stick to, but considering the complexity they introduced into inazuma and different factions present, trying to tie up all the loose strings in a single patch was a fool's errand... though it's possible that some of these things may be addressed in 2.2.

on one hand, genshin is a game designed to be played in short bursts, so it's not surprising to me that the narrative choices they make tends towards "tell, don't show" and lots of background reading (a LOT of character stories/depth/lore is only available in item descriptions), but it's still rather disappointing when you compare it to what it could be...

at the end of it, the cutscenes were beautifully animated and there were a few parts i did enjoy (sara had a nice spotlight, i stan for teppei, SCARAMOUCHE, and kazuha's moment was incredibly moving), but on the whole 2.1 felt very rushed, and the writing for raiden shogun is so all over the place it's really put a damper on my personal enjoyment for inazuma ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

#ASK EVER #did you want me to write an essay about my beef with 2.1? no? oops sorry