#anyway hawkeye^2 my beloved | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

9worldstales · 3 years

Text

MCU Loki: Why I fear they failed to deliver what they promised

At this point I’m kind of confused by who the “Loki” series is trying to reach or which is the goal/message they’re trying to pass along.

They had tried to intrigue assorted audience but, if you ask me, the series has often failed to deliver what it seemed to promise.

Of course I might be wrong. Or maybe I'm not seeing another type of audience the series aimed and managed to reach.

When the series started I wanted to keep a positive mentality and hope whatever seemed not to work would be fixed along the way or have a reason for existing that I just wasn't seeing because I hadn't seen the full story yet.

However, after 5 episodes I'm starting to lose hope the series will make a genuine effort to reach the fans at whom it seemed to aim.

PART 1 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD FANS WHO PRODUCED META SHOWING HOW HIS TRAUMA DAMAGED HIM

"I think it's the struggle with identity, who you are, who you want to be. I'm really drawn to characters who are fighting for control. Certainly you see that with Loki over the first 10 years of movies, he's out of control at pivotal parts of his life, he was adopted and everything and that manifest itself through anger and spite towards his family." [Loki's Struggle With His Identity Confirmed To Be A Focus Of His Disney+ Series]

What was it about Loki as a character that attracted you? He’s just fun, for one. He has a very playful sense of humor about him. I like how he never quite lets you know what he’s thinking. Beyond that, what I connect to about him is the same thing the legions of fans do, which is his humanity and his vulnerability. This is a guy who—yes, on the one hand, he was the prince of Asgard, seems like a nice life—but his father, in fact, killed his actual birth father, adopted him, lied to him about his heritage and parentage his entire life, he was forced to live in the shadow of his oafish older brother who was born to be king. He’s experienced a lot of trauma, and I think that what he’s looking for is just a little bit of control over his life. Which he feels like maybe he’s never quite had. That’s something I think we can all relate with. [From Loki to Doctor Strange and Star Wars, Michael Waldron Is the New Franchise Whisperer]

Let’s be honest, the audience for the “Loki” series is not really meant to be Marvel movies old time fans who enjoyed “Thor” and “The Avengers”, made countless Meta analyzing Loki’s behaviour and who wanted answers about what happened to Loki prior to “The Avengers” or wanted to see Loki’s family terrible dynamics be discussed, or at least to see explored the wrong dynamics of Loki’s interracial adoption (he’s taken away from his planet, the truth is hidden from him, his look is changed to disguise him as an Asgardian, nothing is done against the racial hate for the Jotuns at which Loki is exposed, even witnessing it from his brother) or talk how much in control of himself Loki was during “The Avengers” (okay, the web said the sceptre manipulated Loki, but what about acknowledging that in his own series? It doesn’t have to come from Loki who had no idea he was manipulated but someone could mention ‘think yourself lucky here the stones don’t work, they’ve the nasty tendency to manipulate people’).

The series has avoided digging into all that as much as they could.

Even when Loki talks with Sylvie, the most we get is a small big about how Frigga was awesome in his eyes and taught him magic, but this isn’t meant to explain any of the issues Loki had with his family, it just make Sylvie feel bad because she can’t remember her adoptive mother, as for the D.B. Cooper born out of a bet with Thor, yeah, fun but completely random. What’s meant to be the message about family dynamics here, that it was the bets between Thor and Loki that caused Loki to decide to conquer Earth? Or what about the Sif loop? Is it there to push on Loki the blame of his poor relation with Sif?

No, clearly not.

In regard to Loki the Frigga flashback is there to remark he had a loving and supportive family while the other two are there to have Loki admit he is ‘a mischievous scamp’, ‘a horrible person’ and ‘a narcissist’.

To put it in Classic Loki’s words: ‘Damn it! Animals, animals! We lie and we cheat, we cut the throat of every person who trusts us, and for what? Power. Glorious power. Glorious purpose! We cannot change. We're broken, every version of us. Forever. And whenever one of us dares try to fix themselves, they're sent here to die.’

In short it’s all Loki’s fault if he does bad, nothing happened to him that could have messed him up, he’s just a horrible person… however…

PART 2 – “LOKI” IS NOT FOR THE OLD AND NEW FANS WHO BELIEVED LOKI TO BE A DANGEROUS, EVIL, PSYCHOPATH VILLAIN EITHER

"Loki is an a**, and that makes my life as a writer, easy." ... "Due to the trauma in Loki’s life, I would even [accept a story] in which he is committed to being all bad." [Michael Waldron on Loki: He’s an a**. That makes things easy]

Considering the series is trying to pin SOLELY on Loki his wrongdoing, completely skipping the toxic way in which he was raised you might think they want to paint him as an evil, psychopath who was just born bad.

But no, that’s not the intention, we see it from the start.

Loki is given a quick briefing on how his beloved family loved him despite him hurting them, a briefing that contains false information which would work if we accept the briefing as manipulative but, at this point I’m not so sure that was the author’s intent. The Doylist purpose of the briefing is clearly to show the audience how Loki cares for his family, how he still has feelings, feels pain at the idea Frigga and Odin died and wish to make up with his brother.

It’s not just they loved him and did nothing wrong toward him, it’s also he who loved them and didn’t mean to harm them. That’s why we’re fed that damn discourse about Loki sending the Dark Elves to kill Frigga, because the series wants to remark that no, Loki didn’t want to kill his family, he loved them.

Tom Hiddleston used to say what Loki is came from a place of pain but the series didn’t explore that place of pain… it just gave him more pain and not just in episode 1. Episode 2 has him discovering Asgard is destroyed, episode 3 has him remembering Frigga, episode 4 shows him believing Sylvie die and watching Mobius being pruned. He doesn’t cry in Ep 5, episode 5 wants us to truly feel bad for Sylvie, not for him, but there’s a lot of bitterness from Classic Loki who commits a heroic suicide so you might say we get a sad Loki anyway.

And this also works as a shock to make him change his mind about his ‘glorious purposes’. Sorta, with Thor reminding us he’s not so bad and Loki explaining his behaviour as “I don't enjoy hurting people. I... I don't enjoy it. I do it because I have to, because I've had to. Because it's part of the illusion. It's the cruel, elaborate trick conjured by the weak to inspire fear.”

Plot-wise, this is completely useless.

The show will prove Sylvie is not Loki and has completely different motivations and Mobius, being an expert in Variants, should know.

What’s more why would Mobius care if Loki enjoys hurting people or not?

His goal is to capture Sylvie with Loki’s help. The most he should care about is how to keep Loki loyal to him, not if Loki has fun hurting people or not which, in fact, is a knowledge that won’t be used in his investigation.

No, this is here for the viewers, to tell them Loki isn’t a sadistic, evil villain, he’s someone weak who tries to scare others so as not to look weak. As Mobius will put in ‘a scared little boy, shivering in the cold’ who has an ‘insecure need for validation’.

What’s more?

The show will try his hardest to establish he’s not even competent.

Let’s talk of him as a fighter.

In the movies Loki is a competent fighter and side material establish he’s pretty strong, definitely much more than a human.

In “The Avengers” we see Captain America needs Iron Man’s help to beat him and, anyway, Loki’s plan was to be captured. Loki manages to walk away on his feet when Coulson hits him with that superspecial weapon and it’ll take him to be Hulk smashed after a fight with Thor and a meeting with an explosive arrow of Hawkeye before he can’t fight any longer.

This doesn’t happen in the “Loki” series.

Loki gets beaten up by various people in 4 episodes, preferably women (B-15, the people possessed by Sylvie, the guards on the train, Sif). You might say in episode 5 he’s not but actually Classic Loki is the one who gets swallowed by Alioth and our Loki instead survives because he has Sylvie supporting him as, on his own he couldn’t even distract Alioth.

Let’s talk of him as a wizard.

He can use magic, impressive magic but… it serves him mostly nothing. In the TVA his magic doesn’t work. Outside of it is mostly useless. It doesn’t help win fights. The Tempad he caused to disappear gets broken. To beat Alioth they needs enchantment, not his own magic. What’s more, when they’ve to go on the train his disguise wouldn’t have worked without Sylvie’s enchantment and, if this wasn’t enough, he got drunk, removed the disguise and wasn’t even able to make tickets appear.

Classic Loki too, with his impressive illusions is ultimately a distraction. Alioth tears easily through his illusions which aren’t even solid.

Let’s talk of him as a planner.

All Loki will accomplish is to escape from the Time theatre for a brief period in episode 1 and figure out Sylvie hides in apocalypses in episode 2. The rest of his plans fails or are not plan or are mocked over and not even put into practice.

Let’s talk about him as a manipulator with a silver tongue.

He can’t even persuade Mobius when he’s telling him the truth, Mobius dismisses it as a lie due to ‘cockroach's survival mechanism’.

And psychologically?

He’s just someone who crave attention because he’s a narcissist scared of being alone. Not a psychopath.

Loki is not meant to be a dangerous, evil, psychopath villain in this series, he’s a not serious man, a clown, a scared little boy in need of attention, a narcissist who needs to be loved.

Welcome to cartoon villain Loki, this Loki isn’t the Variant of “The Avengers” Loki, he’s the Variant of “Avengers Assemble”Loki… only he’s even less competent than him.

PART 3 – “LOKI” IS NOT EVEN HERE FOR GENERAL MARVEL MOVIE FANS

"That's a lot of Infinity Stones. That's true but they are useless there in the TVA, so I don't know. Is that gun loaded or not? We'll see..." [Loki Writer Comments On Whether TVA’s Infinity Stones Will Return In MCU]

“We had to create an insane institutional knowledge of how time travel would work within the TVA so the audience never has to think about it again. It was a lot of drawings of squiggly timelines.” Marvel already made its case for how time travel works in Avengers: Endgame, but that, Waldron points out, “is the way the Avengers understand it.” With a TV show it’s a little different. “I was always very acutely aware of the fact that there’s a week between each of our episodes and these fans are going to do exactly what I would do, which is pick this apart. We wanted to create a time-travel logic that was so airtight it could sustain over six hours. There’s some time-travel sci-fi concepts here that I’m eager for my Rick and Morty colleagues to see.” [How the Man Behind LokiIs Shaping Marvel’s Phase 4 and Beyond]

BC: The TVA is there to clean everybody up? MW: Yeah, Avengers: Endgame… that's how The Avengers understand time travel. 'Loki,' episode one, is how the TVA explains time travel to Loki and we're certainly building on what's come before us. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

It’s true “Loki” is focusing on a new corner of the MCU but it interconnects very poorly with the movies before it.

Although Loki escaped with the Tesseract... it just dismisses completely the Infinity Stones.

Despite talking a lot about timelines and creating branching realities it waved away the whole plot of "Avengers: Endgame" as apparently supposed to happen even though it should have created branching realities.

We see Renslayer wave away how the Avengers went in the past causing the Tesseract to end up in Loki’s hands... and all the other things the Avengers did that affected the past goes unmentioned.

Bruce meeting the Ancient, Thor meeting his mother and taking away Thor’s hammer, Rocket being seen as he steals the reality stone from Jane, Tony stealing a suitcase and damaging the place in which the Tesseract was kept then meeting Howard Stark, 4 flacons of Pyn particles missing, an alarm given to the military bases, how Steve managed to bring back the sceptre if that timeline was pruned, how a timeline handled being without Thanos and Co as they went in the future or how they clearly didn’t bring the orb back the second they took it as Nebula remained unconscious there and nobody came and when she woke up Thanos could get her. It didn’t even explain why Steve remaining with Peggy didn’t change anything.

It's not that the audience has all explained... it's that they were told to dismiss it as 'meant to happen' and that was it.

What's more, the TVA apparently didn't list a finger to stop 2014 Thanos from going in the future and causing Tony Stark's death.

As if this wasn't enough, “Loki” just skips any possible connection with the movies, even hands Loki false information about them (he lead the Dark Elves to his mother when Loki had no idea the Kurse was a Dark Elf and they would have found her anyway as they were searching for the Aether which Malekith could sense, he’s born solely to cause pain and suffering and death, overlooks how he saved Jane twice or helped the Asgardian escape Hela) and never discusses them again.

Even with Classic Loki, who’s a Variant of “Avengers: Infinity War” Loki, they don’t talk about what happened after Loki’s supposed dead, apparently hinting it was better if he died, nor explain how Loki knew Thor survived.

PART 4 – “LOKI” IS NOT REALLY OFFERING A GOOD REPRESENTATION FOR FEMALES EVEN THOUGH IT CLEARLY AIMS AT FEMALE AUDIENCE

Let’s make a quick experiment.

Everyone, let’s name all the characters we remember which appeared in more than 1 episode of “Loki” for more than one minute.

We’ve, of course, Loki, Mobius, B-15, Renslayer, Sylvie, C-20 and Miss Minute.

5 females versus 2 males.

What’s more, females are not sexualized, they remains completely dressed, they’re clearly not there to attract male gazes, they’re represented as strong, dangerous, in control, something archived often by showing them beating males either physically or intellectually or in rank.

It seems promising. At first.

Is there someone who’s sexualized?

The “Loki” series takes care to offer us Tom Hiddleston naked.

So since there’s an abundance of females in the cast and Tom Hiddleston is shown naked is it aiming at a female audience?

Very, very likely but… but how’s then handled all this?

When Loki is seen undressed he’s not in a situation of power, like Thor who’s twice shows half naked in his movies but because he’s changing/washing and perfectly comfortable in showing his body and once in a situation which could be a male forbidden fantasy, to have many women massage your naked body, no, he’s shown as he’s powerless while being stripped by a machine. Clearly not a male power fantasy, more like a male nightmare.

And, in a totally not surprising way, pictures of this scene were spread by many female fans because it was aimed at them… though a part of them, was also honestly appalled at seeing this scene in contest, finding the forced stripping humiliating and degrading.

Sure, a naked Tom Hiddleston makes a nice eye-candy but this wasn’t how Loki’s many fans wanted to see Loki naked.

But let’s talk of female representation here, since the show seems to be interested in female audience… only who even though this was the representation women wanted doesn’t understand much of women representation in the first place.

Why?

For start because women here are all the same type of woman.

Strong fighters who’re in control and confident, with no real characterization beyond this to speak of despite the large amount of screen time.

Renslayer is an ex-hunter who can fight one on one against Sylvie and who clearly has the position of power she has because she was good as a hunter and shows her abilities in fighting after that Sylvie had beaten 2 guards at the same time. B-15 is introduced by beating Loki and is the commander of a squad. C-20 is another commander and, albeit possessed, can dispose of a part of her squad members.

Do I need to spend words on how Sylvie is depicted as this awesome fighter who has learnt to fight by herself, can keep at bay more than 1 Minuteman, can use a sword, has learnt enchantment on her own and is feared by all the TVA? Do I?

And it’s awesome to have women who are strong fighters in positions of command/power/control… but why women has to be represented as just that?

Even when they add a female as an one episode cameo, it's Sif, beating the hell out of Loki. And what about the Lady in Lamentis 1 who was too old to be strong but managed to blast away both Loki and Sylvie seeing through their deceptions?

Even the harmless Miss Minute can avoid being hit by Loki and gets she has to pretend to do researches to stall Sylvie and save Renslayer.

Women kick asses here… but that’s all they’re good for.

And so we get to Sylvie, who is the superior Loki Variant… because she’s female.

Kid Loki: You're different. Why? Loki: No, I'm not, you see? I'm the same, really. I'm the same as all of you. Have any of you met a woman Variant of us? Classic Loki: Sounds terrifying. Loki: Oh, she is. But that's kind of what's great about her. She's different. She's not trying to take over the TVA, she's trying to take it down. And she needs me. Now, you said Alioth is what keeps us here. You said it's a living thing. You said it's a shark. Well, if it lives, it dies. So I'm gonna kill the shark. I'm gonna kill Alioth, and I could use all the help I can get.

That’s what Loki preaches to his fellow Lokis who think a woman Loki would be terrific.

I mean, they’ve an alligator Loki, a POC Loki, but the one who has to be different is the female Loki. Because being female is a character trait.

Mobius: Okay. I feel like I'm always looking up to you. I like it. It's appropriate. [Ep 1]

Basically females in the “Loki” series are all representation of the Action girl trope and aren’t even different representation of said trope. I mean, “The Avengers” have 5 actions boy who’re clearly as different as they could be. Girls can be represented as different too, if they really aim at young audience they can take good old “Sailor Moon” as an example. 5 action girls who are strong and determinate AND DIFFERENT, more than just someone who kicks the adversary away.

And it’s not like they don’t know how to characterize people in a different way.

Mobius is an analyst who shows sympathetic traits toward the Variants and a certain level or intelligence. U-92 and D-90 are hunters who are shown to held Variants in little regard (U-92 wanted to attack the boy they found in the church, D-90 mistreated the scared people in the shelter). Casey is an harmless and naïve guy who had never seen a fish. The guy who made Loki sign the papers about what he said seemed emotionless but he clearly loved cats as not only he had one but on his cup there was also the image of a cat. Martin is clearly a bossy daddy’s son, who think too high of himself to the point he can’t respect rules. The boy in the church, despite thinking Sylvie was a demon, accepted and ate food she gave him and remained in the place despite the crime. He’s clearly more brave than he looked like but he’s also naïve as he easily trusted ‘the demon’ and Mobius.

What’s C-20 character trait when she gets described by Sylvie?

Sylvie: Yeah. She was just a regular person on Earth. Loki: A regular person? Sylvie: Loved margaritas.

She’s a regular person who loves margaritas. Liking a drink is not a character trait!

There’s a more diverse female representation in “Thor” than in “Loki”.

In “Thor” we’ve Frigga, queen of Asgard, loving mother and wife who’s powerless to erase Thor’s banishment. We’ve Sif, a dangerous and loyal warrior. We’ve Jane, the amazing scientist with a lot of enthusiasm. We’ve Darcy, who’s funny and who seems focused mostly on herself but who, when the city is attacked, worried to save all the animals at the pet store.

But maybe the one who gets the worst treatment is the supposed heroine, Sylvie, because the poor girl is turned into a Mary Sue.

In case someone isn’t familiar with the term:

“The prototypical Mary Sue is an original female character in a fanfic who obviously serves as an idealized version of the author mainly for the purpose of Wish Fulfillment. She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour, and has a similarly cool and exotic name. She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting. She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing. She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story. The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting; if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal. She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc. Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series.” [tvtropes.org]

So let’s see how she fits this checklist:

1) She's exotically beautiful, often having an unusual hair or eye colour: Sylvie painted her hair blonde even though the Lokis are supposed to be black haired

2) has a similarly cool and exotic name: She is the only Loki Variant who has changed her name from Loki to Sylvie.

3) She's exceptionally talented in an implausibly wide variety of areas, and may possess skills that are rare or nonexistent in the canon setting: Awesome at fighting she can enchant people, an ability the Lokis don’t posses, that she magically learnt on her own and that is necessary in the story. Also she figured out how a Tempad worked BEFOREseeing it in action.

4) She also lacks any realistic, or at least story-relevant, character flaws — either that or her "flaws" are obviously meant to be endearing: No flaws, all her plans involve fighting and brute force is no substitute for diplomacy and guile, which could be a flaw… if it wasn’t for the fact that the series will prove Sylvie can plan just fine without using fighting and brute strength and also be successful at it.

5) She has an unusual and dramatic Back Story: She was taken by the TVA when she was younger than Kid Loki but managed to escape them and had to live alone and on the run till then.

6) The canon protagonists are all overwhelmed with admiration for her beauty, wit, courage and other virtues, and are quick to adopt her as one of their True Companions, even characters who are usually antisocial and untrusting: Loki, who has never loved anyone, falls for her, Mobius saves her and apologizes to her, B-15, who used to look down at Variants, basically asks her what should they do and is shown admiring her, the Lokis don’t criticize her plan, Classic Loki dies to save her, everyone views her as the superior Loki Variant.

7) if any character doesn't love her, that character gets an extremely unsympathetic portrayal: Renslayer, the hunter who has arrested her, is currently playing the part of the antagonist who’s fascist and believes in a murderous, lying cult.

8) She has some sort of especially close relationship to the author's favourite canon character — their love interest, illegitimate child, never-before-mentioned sister, etc.: She’s the Variant and love interest of the titular character.

9) Other than that, the canon characters are quickly reduced to awestruck cheerleaders, watching from the sidelines as Mary Sue outstrips them in their areas of expertise and solves problems that have stymied them for the entire series: Loki, the title character, has conveniently been turned into someone who’s a weak fighter and incapable of planning which Sylvie has to save by enchanting guards or giving him her sword or pruning herself or teaching him how to enchant and coming up with all the plans.

Now all she needs in order to be a perfect Mary Sue is to know how to sing well as Mary Sue usually do this as well, though I’m sure she can do it because Loki could so she surely can.

Sylvie is amazing, Loki himself said so:

Loki: No. We may lose. Sometimes painfully. But we don't die. We survive. I mean, you did. You were just a child when the TVA took you, but you nearly took down the organization that claims to govern the order of time. You did it on your own. You ran rings around them. You're amazing!

There’s nothing inherently wrong in having a new female character who’s competent, for whom the hero falls and who changes him… if all this is built around a solid plot.

Think at “Iron Man”.

Tony Stark is, to quote Tony Stark himself a “genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist”.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? But the movie shows us why he’s that.

It spends time setting up his pedigree, how he inherited the money and intelligence from his father, how he was supported as he grew and studied becoming always a greater genius. Tony shows himself to be charming before seducing his first woman onscreen so that when he does it makes sense. His philanthropic activities are, at first, just mentioned but seems rooted in how his father was a hero who helped fighting Nazi and then they became his mission. He felt guilty he was a merchant of death and tried to make up for it.

Sylvie too could have a solid plot behind herself.

Instead than magically knowing what a TemPad does and how it works and managing to escape with it, she could have escaped with, let’s say, a hunter that discovered the truth and decided to rebel to the TVA or just had pity of her. Maybe another Mobius Variant who used to work at the TVA prior to Mobius and that, instead than an analyst was a hunter. She might have learnt fighting from him and then he too died and she was left alone.

Enchantment might have been an ability she might have learnt coming in contact with a mind stone. It could have been an occasion also to talk how mind stones can influence people negatively. Or it could have been taught to her by Frigga who, with a female daughter, decided to teach her a different type of magic than Loki.

Her past could have been explored more instead than being tragic for the sake of tragic. We might have seen her fall in love and either be betrayed or have to say goodbye to her loved one because that reality got pruned. We might have seen her being interested in males and females alike as she’s supposed to be interested in both.

She could have had discussions with Loki that weren’t just about Frigga or about how the TVA kidnapped her from Asgard, she escaped and from that point on she was always on the run, or about how love didn’t feel real, but more about how they were, how they felt, what hurt them and what made them happy, what they liked and what they disliked, their ideals and their fears, things that can built up a relation.

Loki basically fall for her because she’s on a mission for revenge instead than power and seems confident. That’s his reasoning.

She falls for Loki… because apparently he’s the person who spend time with her who praised her. That’s not a solid love story, that’s desperation.

SYlvie could have flaws, she could have learnt diplomacy or persuasion from Loki or could have something she lacks and Loki has so that they would complete each other.

And since the purpose was to have Sylvie and Loki fall for each other… they could have let Loki have characteristics that can motivate the exceptional heroine to fall in love for him PRIOR to him falling in love for her. He might be shown good at something, instead than just a clown.

Even if we say the real purpose of this series was to turn Sylvie into the protagonist, the heroine, a good Loki character was still needed to explain why this awesome girl would fall for him.

So okay, there will surely still be women who can see themselves in Sylvie and imagine they got Loki… and it’s not bad really… but I think we deserved more.

Long story short, yes, “Loki” has many females in its cast and this is meant to draw the female audience… but the representation is poor as almost all of the females have no character traits and Sylvie is just a Mary Sue with no realistic characterization.

A good female representation is diverse and solid. Women don't need to be born irrealistically perfect out of nothing to be good, they can inherith and grow and learn to be as such like any human being.

Last but not least…

PART 5 – DOES “LOKI” REALLY OFFERS REPRESENTATION TO THE LGBT COMMUNITY?

BC: There is a lot of talk on social media about Loki being gender fluid. Wouldn't that actually be a natural fit for the character? MW: Yeah, I guess as, with all questions pertaining to that stuff, I think those answers, truly, are best experienced in the watching of the show, as opposed to me trying to answer them. Because it's just watching it and the way that's addressed and everything will just be more fulfilling. BC: Why do you think it's important that Loki is gender fluid? MW: I think that Loki is a character that a lot of fans see representation in. People that haven't felt represented before, and they see themselves in Loki and everything. So we want to do justice to the character, to who the character is in the comics and in Norse mythology as well. And you also … you know you want folks to feel represented, and everything. That's why it's important. It always has been. It comes from everybody on the creative team. [Loki: Michael Waldron On Gender Fluidity, Mephisto, Time Travel & More]

The series hugely spread the info that this Loki would be fluid and Bisexual. The news were welcomed with delight and it’s awesome how the series didn’t hesitate to put it on paper.

Loki being fluid was written for everyone to see, and Loki having male and female interests was spelled out for everyone to hear.

IT’S A GREAT THING!

However…

It’s all we got.

It had no relevance into the plot whatsoever, it’s just a random info we’re given.

Him being fluid was on a paper along with his other data like eye colour and birth planet.

Him being interested in males and females seems to be put there just to imply he tried a large amount of people before deciding love didn’t feel real.

Assuming the other Lokis too were fluid, they actually found terrific the idea of a woman Loki in a not positive way. They weren’t interested or asking for clarifications about what Loki meant.

Loki’s bisexuality doesn’t even get a side story, them sending Fandral to beat Loki instead than Sif because Loki cheated on him or something. I’m not upset Loki ended up with a female, this is one of the possibilities of a Bisexual person. I’m upset that this was used merely to attract the audience but then wasn’t explored. They could have said Asgard was open minded with it, or disapproved it so Loki had to keep it hidden, or it could have been Sylvie who discussed some experience in that regard.

We were told over and over it was a show about identity. We expected it to be explored instead we were just told ‘ah, by the way, Loki is bisexual, let’s move on.’ And that was all.

Having representation from an important Marvel character is always important, especially considering the shortage of representation. But honestly I expected more.

PART 7 – TO SUM IT UP

Many of the people who worked in “Loki” are fantastic actors. They worked hard for this series, I can see they tried their best.

The premises for the “Loki” series are interesting.

We get a Loki who hadn’t experienced most of what happened in the movies yet, we make him confront with someone who knows his life, the one he lived and the one he was meant to live and we also make him confront with Variations of himself.

Loki has the Tesseract and the TVA has plenty of infinity stones, we could explore them.

The TVA itself have a fascist organization that dictates people’s lives and murders whoever tries to do differently, that goes so far as to brainwash the people working in it, which mistreats and belittle the Variants and establish a manipulative cult around the Time-Keeper with elements of police brutality which could be very actual.

Time travelling was the plot of "Avengers: Endgame" they could have tied the movie to the series, esplore the why some time travels were allowed and some weren't or their effects.

There were references to plenty of awesome comics they could take inspiration from.

But unless it redeems itself with the last episode… well, so far it’s failing to deliver what it promised due to a really poor plot which doesn’t give the characters a chance to be themselves or to be characterized as they’ve no real story nor real differences to speak of.

They’re given more time than a movie as they’re a series… but that’s no good excuse for wasting said time.

I’m still hoping the last episode will be spectacular, that it’ll manage to erase the messes of the other 5… but, as of now I’m disappointed.

I’ll just keep my fingers crossed and hope they’ll surprise me.

#mcu loki #loki #loki laufeyson #loki odinson #9 worlds study

115 notes · View notes

onekisstotakewithme · 2 years

Note

PUNNIHAWK

PUNNIHAWK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! my beloved 💜

In case it's not obvious, I ship it!

1. What made you ship it?

Okay, so I had a really fun "BJ/Hawkeye are friends" to "BJ/Hawkeye are in love but I don't want to write Peg out because I love her and BJ loves her so much so I guess she approves and she and BJ stay together" to "BJ/Hawkeye/Peg forever" pipeline, which about sums it up. I ship it because i think from what we know of Hawk and BJ and Peg, they'd all be wonderfully compatible - similar sense of humour, similar sense of taste, etc. But also I started shipping it because the show told me BJ/Peg are in love but also dropped serious hints about Hawkeye/BJ so I shifted into full bisexual mode and said "both? both. both is good", so now we have a triad.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

One of my most favourite things is it means BJ gets to be with the wife he so clearly adores and also with his roomie he can't live without <33 galaxy brain take.

Also the fact that BJ and Hawk both want women who like Chinese food and walking in the rain (this is fact), BJ writes to Peg and calls Hawkeye "our Hawkeye" and basically everything I know about all three of them. THEY JUST FIT.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Honestly, sometimes I feel like just shipping them in general is an unpopular opinion 😅 and I don't know if this is unpopular but once the three of them are together, I don't really see them adding other people to the relationship/dating other people, I just think it would be the three of them (it's a fine hc, it's just not one I'll write probs 😅)

ANYWAY

thank you and I love the triad, peg hunnicutt 5ever thx 💜💜

#bj x peg x hawkeye #it's a fun pipeline #i went from 'hawk and beej are besties'#to 'the three of them are IN LOVE'#m*a*s*h

15 notes · View notes

hhawkeye · 3 years

Note

📓!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- 10:35

hiiiiii beloved i will give you the fic that haunts me and that i have parts of written but will likely never finish. but god i want to. i will keep this short bc im aware my last one was extremely long and fucked up So here are the basic points:

hawkeye is a trans guy. hawkeye is in love with trapper. trapper is in love with hawkeye. henry dies. trapper and hawkeye get very drunk and sleep together. hawkeye leaves for r&r. trapper leaves. welcome to korea happens. hawkeye... is falling hard and fast for bj 😳. bj is like haha hawkeye my beloved but also im married and straight. hawkeye starts feeling kinda sick and having Symptoms. hawkeye is like Oh No. hawkeye has to operate on radar’s rabbit to remove its ovaries. hawkeye finds out he is pregnant :(. hijinks ensue which involve hawkeye working out just how long before he Has to go home, how the hell he is going to get sent home without outing himself, etc. hawkeye goes home. radar pulls strings to contact trapper, because radar does not know that hawkeye is 1. pregnant or 2. in love with trapper and 3. extremely angry at trapper, and he’s like hello hawkeye is being sent home for medical reasons can you go check on him. trapper goes to maine! hawkeye is like oh so now you show up huh when im WITH CHILD. trapper is like When You’re What. but trapper is also like 🥺🥺🥺🥺 ur gonna have a little baaaaaby 🥺🥺🥺 and hawkeye is like 😭😭 WE’RE gonna have a little baby 🥺😭😔😖🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰 and it’s all very like. complicated but sweet and theyre hellish. anyway theres a whole thing bc its like. they cant just be like okay lets date and be dads<3 bc it doesnt work like that they both have Problems and also. beej. so bj is still in korea obviously and having a horrible time as per usual but also because yknow. little hawkeye baby. that he isnt there to see. and for whatever reason hawkeye hasnt been writing to bj and it’s like. bj doesnt want to write hawkeye bc hawkeye is out and hes home and yeah maybe they Connected but it was only a few months and they were in a war and he doesnt want to remind hawkeye of that yknow. anyway idk i think a lot of shit happens but the main take away from this is at some point trapper does send bj a photo of hawkeye and the baby and bj does keep it beside his bed and it gets worn from how much he looks at it and like maybe cries because for some reason he feels like he has two children hes missing out on watching grow up which like. god hes an insane person. anyway! anyway anyway in the end bj and hawkeye DO get together and the kid has three dads its three men and a baby thats it thats the au

6 notes · View notes

runcible-spoons · 3 years

Text

Tagged by char, @cauldronofmorning, (my beloved) to say which MASH character I relate to and why :)

well. It’s probably entirely evident by my posting on here that I relate most to hawkeye… but I’ll put it under a cut for (not explicit at all but just to be safe) mentions of abuse

aaand of course I forgot to tag people. so here's it on the second try: @thechevypickup, @debzorah, and @stupidredsuspenders if you all haven't done it already.

So yeah, what compels me most about hawkeye is also what I relate to most in him. I’ve talked a bit, usually in reference to Dr. Pierce and Mr. Hyde, about how M*A*S*H does quite well with the psychosis thing.

Anyways, when I started watching it for the first time I was dealing with a flotilla of stuff related to some pretty terrible, recently un-repressed, childhood memories… so there are evident ways in which hawkeye speaks to me (given both bless you, hawkeye and, of course, GFA). It was really important to me to watch a show where the person who experiences psychosis and trauma and memory issues is neither a “terrifying abuser” nor “irrevocably broken” and where he loves and is so soundly loved in return! Of course the queerness only adds on here… 

so all this is to say that I've found myself with two (2) hawaiian shirts in my closet and a much more overt sense of humor actually.

#about me I suppose

5 notes · View notes

minimoonstar · 5 years

Text

Avengers: Endgame

I’ve been avoiding writing down notes about this, I think, which I guess is a bad sign. When it comes to the Marvel juggernauts, there rarely seems to be anything to say that hasn’t been said or thought by everyone else on the Internet already -- unless everyone else is wrong, but that’s not really the case here. It’s hard to make something like Endgame feel crisply paced and held together, but it did. I’ve spent something like $700 on MCU flicks over the decade, not accounting for inflation, so I took the sentimental fan service bits as my due. I enjoyed it and were I to watch it again I’d enjoy it a second time, but I’m unlikely to do that except on a long flight, or if I decided to marathon the MCU as a project.

Were I to do so, I think I’d find that the centre of gravity, the animating force that extended the edges of the thing beyond the four corners of the screen and made it feel like fandom, was after all Tony Stark. Cap, to a lesser extent, because from script to script Cap’s characterization hasn’t always lined up at the edges, but Iron Man’s never struck a false note I can remember -- RDJ made sure of it. It’s a helluva Work over ten years, for an actor, even though they don’t hand out Academy Awards on a retrospective basis for embodying a character in the popular imagination such that you’ll always be that character, forever. Will I keep watching phase 4 or the Disney TV shows or whatever? Most likely. Will it feel like fandom? I doubt it. Tony’s really the only MCU character who’s had an arc that’s nuanced and deep and sustained start to end; which made it easy to see, anyway, where it was headed; I would argue since Age of Ultron. It would be ideal if all the characters did, but the nature of corporate projects is that there’s no way to maintain continuity unless you’ve always got the same boss(es) at the helm, and other than Feige’s Marvel, the studios can’t even manage timeline or plot over multiple movies, let alone characterization. They just soft-reboot and start over, like they do in the comics.

Having said that, the main fandom complaint has been that Infinity War/Endgame bollocksed up Steve’s ending, and never really knew what to do with Bucky to its satisfaction. To be honest, I’ve never thought the ideal of Steve/Bucky resided in the films, or that they were going to get there in the end: MCU Bucky is a creation of the Russos and Markus-McFeely, but fandom drew down the comics immediately such that fic Bucky was more interesting before Winter Soldier even came out. (This was also extremely true of, say, Hawkeye.) So as far as I’m concerned, Steve’s ending just reinforced two big writing rules I learnt the hard way from media fandom: 1) never use time travel to create a happy ending that erases a character’s on-screen growth (thanks, Moffat!), and 2) never write a happy ending that denies all future ambiguity or possibility of growth (thanks, JK!). That is... for anyone reading who’s wrapping up a long beloved series and willing to take my writing advice. XD;

#avengers endgame #I would imagine no one cares about endgame spoilers anymore #so I'm not cutting this #MCU #movies

11 notes · View notes

pass-the-bechdel · 5 years

Text

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain America: Civil War (2016)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

No.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Seven (30.43% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Sixteen.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Episode Quality:

Exciting and full of strong fodder for discussion and debate; by the same token, potentially frustrating.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Natasha directs comments to Wanda in Nigeria, but Wanda addresses her response to the team as a whole.

Female characters:

Wanda Maximoff.

Natasha Romanov.

Maria Stark.

Mrs Spencer.

Sharon Carter.

Mrs Zemo.

Aunt May.

Male characters:

James Buchanan Barnes.

Steve Rogers.

Sam Wilson.

Brock Rumlow.

Howard Stark.

Tony Stark.

T’Chaka.

Vision.

Thaddeus Ross.

James Rhodes.

Helmut Zemo.

T’Challa.

Everett Ross.

Peter Parker.

Clint Barton.

Scott Lang.

OTHER NOTES:

My immediate thought on the concept of the Avengers being directed by a United Nations panel is the Rwandan genocide; follow from that, any number of other major atrocities that have taken place while the rest of the world sat back umm-ing and aah-ing over whether or not they should intervene. Anyone who knows a speck of history should be very reticent about the idea of being shackled by such political whims.

Ross refers to the unknown locations of Thor and Bruce Banner as being like ‘misplacing a couple of megaton nukes’, as if they’re objects and not autonomous sentient beings who can go where they please without having to declare their intentions, and that should really be the first major red flag to everyone that this guy ain’t on the level.

Vision’s equation about causality is a false equivalence, and an irrelevant one anyway, since oversight doesn’t do anything to hamper his theory about strength inviting challenge. You’re not actually reducing your strength, you’re just making yourself less able to meet those challenges as they come. I feel like Vision should be a Hell of a lot smarter than this absence of logic (also, looking at the threats themselves in previous films, the only ones which can be considered ‘strength inviting challenge’ issues in which the actions of any Avenger characters have ‘bred catastrophe’ are the Iron Man films, and Age of Ultron, all of which are examples of Tony’s hubris coming back to bite him, specifically. The conflict of every other film stems from either 1) trouble predating Iron Man (most of it SHIELD/Hydra related), or 2) other-worldly overspill where Earth becomes the battleground for something uninvited (Asgardian and/or infinity stone bullshit). And even when Tony is the one creating his own demons, he usually doesn’t do so actively through his Iron Man tech or persona (Obadiah Stane’s villainy is what led to Iron Man’s creation, not the other way around; yes, Tony’s grandstanding did directly invite competition in Iron Man 2, but he didn’t make an adversary out of Ivan Vanko, that was his father’s legacy; and Tony’s particular cruelty may have incited Aldritch Killian, but that event predated the creation of Iron Man by nine years, so it’s not a response to that strength. Only Ultron was genuinely a catastrophic consequence of Tony’s (and Bruce’s) abuse of power, but hobbling the Avengers’ ability to operate does nothing to prevent that sort of thing from happening again, it just stymies their ability to halt the onslaught after it begins. You solve that one with legislation limiting what anyone can recklessly create and unleash (which includes Vision himself, incidentally)).

And see, Steve is right; the Sokovia Accords just shift the blame when things go wrong, functionally it makes the Avengers less accountable for their actions by allowing them to play the ‘just following orders’ game. And the point he makes about the panel still being run by people with agendas is exactly what I’m talking about in that first dot point; when decisions are being made on a political basis instead of according to need, you get atrocities, and any person working for the United Nations is a political agent by default. Sokovia is actually a great example of the kind of place that falls through the cracks on the political stage, as it was noted to be ‘nowhere special’, i.e. not politically valuable, and therefore unlikely to receive a swift response from powerful nations who have no vested interests in the good of the country.

Tony’s argument here is extremely personal and emotion-driven; it’s all his own guilt about Ultron and Sokovia and his decision to stop manufacturing weapons, etc, and none of that is relevant to the rest of the team’s situation or their choices. He’s also utterly oblivious to his own privilege here, in that it’s super easy for him to handwave the particulars of the Accords, because he’s a filthy-rich white American whose main ‘thing’ is new technologies, which are not being restricted at all by these Accords; he has the luxury of just signing on and hoping to negotiate amendments later (and also, of having the resources to be able to thwart anything he disagrees with and just do what he wants regardless if he decides he’s right). He’s not taking a moment to consider what the Accords really mean for those members of the team with powers they can’t just ‘put down’, who don’t have the kinds of options and opportunities he has, up to and including the bargaining power to have the Accords ‘fixed up’ later. I really do my best to see both sides of this situation because there IS merit in the idea of the Accords, but no one in favour of it makes a good argument for it and it’s really frustrating.

Who tells someone that a close beloved friend is dead in a fucking text message??? The real villain of this film.

It goes without saying but I’m gonna say it anyway: it’s very hypocritical of T’Challa to support the Accords while also donning his super-suit and taking matters in foreign countries into his own hands. All of the destruction that occurs in Romania after Bucky escapes from his apartment building is because of T’Challa’s involvement (because he was trying to commit a literal murder!), and that kinda gets glossed straight over here.

Tony falls for Ross’ trick by referring to Wanda as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in the process of his efforts to justify her internment. It’s all really solid writing, really, vernacular choices that highlight the dehumanisation at the rotten core of the Accords and how good people can be suckered into it without realising until it’s too late (even when things like, say, denial of legal representation should definitely be red-flagging up the wazoo right now). But honestly, it’s such a wild leap from ‘Wanda can’t go on missions anymore’ to ‘we’re going to forcibly deny her the ability to go out in public’. Keep trying to tell yourself that’s not a fucked up situation, Tony.

Steve Rogers holding down a fucking helicopter is just...peak Captain America and I’m so glad.

The part where Tony recruits an actual child who is not involved in this situation at all, spiriting him away to another continent to fight supersoldiers, that’s just...beyond, honestly. I hate this as an introduction for Spiderman because it’s so wildly irresponsible of Tony, it’s an unforgivable thing to do. He’s a kid. This has nothing to do with him. This is where Tony officially loses me in this movie. You can take your self-righteous attempts at justifying your actions and shove ‘em, buddy. You’re actively endangering a child.

We really don’t need Steve to kiss someone every Cap movie. We didn’t need him weirdly mackin’ on his recently-deceased ex-love’s niece. Seriously.

Spiderman’s particular brand of quipping while fighting really irritates me, also. It’s altogether a big no from me on the Spiderman front.

Still love Ant-Man, though. He’s delightful. I also enjoy Hawkeye so much more here than I have in the Avengers films.

C’mon, T’Challa. You can’t attack and attempt to kill a guy outright and then play the ‘you must be guilty because you ran away’ schtick. Do a brain about it.

See, everyone else knows why they’re there and what they’re fighting for, they know the stakes. Scott is the only one on Cap’s side who isn’t already part of the situation anyway, but he’s read in on why he’s being asked to get involved and he’s a grown adult person making an informed decision. Peter doesn’t have that, he’s there fighting because Tony said so, and that’s just fucked up.

Heavy sigh. And here we go with the emotional Tony thing. Yeah, he just saw how his parents were killed by the Winter Soldier. That’s rough. It’s really rough. But he doesn’t just have an immediate emotional outburst, he has a sustained homicidal rage, which includes not only trying to kill Bucky, but also beating the Hell outta Steve, who, y’know, did not kill Tony’s parents. The fight scene lasts way too long and involves too much opportunity for cooler thought to prevail (both in problem-solving and in conversational moments), and someone whose emotions can send them reeling so completely out of control - even when they actively know they’ve been manipulated into it! Zemo literally just told you to your face that this was his plan! - someone with so little impulse control should never be given the power to make decisions for others or wield anything over them. This is all just a really, really great case for why Tony is ill-equipped to be an Avenger at all.

Watching Bucky digging the repulsor out of Iron Man’s chest with his metal hand is...so exciting. Rest in peace, awesome metal arm.

Zemo’s just a regular human, but he gets locked up under utterly inhumane circumstances. Again, the Accords involved a deal with a pretty insidious devil, and they didn’t actually have to prove that Steve’s position was the correct one to such a strong degree (we could have had a more nuanced conversation about the subject of accountability if the two sides were more evenly presented), but damn, the red flags, guys. It shouldn’t have taken Tony until he was horrified seeing his friends in the raft prison to finally clue in.

Ok, so, I know I already played the ‘I’m pregnant’ card to explain away my meandering commentary for Ant-Man, but it’s still true and only getting more significant as time goes on, so I regret to announce that - despite having looked forward to disassembling this movie since I started on this Marvel adventure - we’re now only a day out from publication and I haven’t written anything yet. I know, the deadline isn’t exactly set in stone and I could just hold off publishing until I’m ready, but that’s a slippery slope and if I start telling myself to just ‘get to it when you get to it’, who the fuck knows when it’ll happen. This isn’t supposed to be stressful, so I’m just gonna ramble a bit and see what comes out. There’s a thing wriggling in my guts and I have a house to paint. I’m doing my best.

First things first: my stance re: Accords is that the best method of oversight is the one which emphasises accountability, rather than permission (with acknowledgment that this is a fictional universe with threats and powers which do not reflect the real world). The kinds of issues our Avenger characters get involved with are typically of the sort which has to be nipped in the bud right-quick before it becomes untenable, and also not infrequently, the types of problems which do not offer them bountiful evidence to present to a board for evaluation before they get the ok to counter it. Faffing about with diplomacy and bureaucratic carrying-on is a great way to, say, allow Hydra to launch the Insight helicarriers and wipe out all dissenters to their rule before you have the chance to stop them, or (if Zemo’s apparent plan with the Winter Soldiers had been his real plan after all), to be stuck mopping up the global damage as an elite death squad roams around destabilising governments. I’m not a supporter of the adage ‘it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission’ in the real world, but in a comic book universe, with the supervillains and the world domination and the plots which consistently include chronic time-sensitive action and little if any concrete evidence? The Sokovia Accords are woefully inadequate. By all means, the Avengers should be answerable to someone, and being required to submit reports justifying their actions (and face disciplinary measures or even criminal charges if they cannot explain themselves to a satisfactory degree) is a completely reasonable thing to convene a United Nations panel to oversee. Maybe Tony can hop down off his high horse and face actual consequences for the Ultron fiasco. That’s fine with me, and it’s a logical thing for the world to clamour for. Shifting responsibility to a panel of UN politicians who will then no doubt be reticent to send the Avengers into anything pre-emptively (or within any kind of useful time frame) for fear of backlash is a terrible solution, and even more so when you’re being pushed into it without any time to evaluate and amend the original document before it becomes law.

(It’s worth noting that the person most likely to appreciate how easily the UN panel could be hijacked by political machinations not in the interest of the public good is Steve, owing to his personal role in uncovering and thwarting Hydra’s plans; Sam was roped into the Avenging world through that event, and thus it’s unsurprising that he would have the same concern chief in mind when refusing to sign. While Natasha does sign on to the Accords, she explicitly does not do so because she thinks the Accords are a good idea; she’s playing the political game and ‘reading the terrain’, as she says, and that’s consistent with her character. Tony being impulsive and dangerously emotion-driven is also unfortunately consistent, as is his self-righteousness about imposing his will on others to assuage his own guilt. Vision really has no excuse for being so bad at logicking his way to signing the Accords, but it’s no surprise to me that the most clear-headed staunch Accords supporter would be Rhodey, since following orders from others and unquestioning trust in your governing body is dead-on character for him as a career military man. I think he’s categorically wrong, yes, but I’m not mad at Rhodey for being a True Believer any more than I am at Natasha for being mercurial; both are in-character choices and ones which involve evaluative thought processes, and while ‘in-character’ may still be in play for Tony, evaluative thought processes are not, and that does make me mad. As I’ve noted before, he tends to work as a likable character despite his MANY flaws when he’s in his own movies, because acknowledging those foibles and working to fix them is a core part of his personal arcs in each Iron Man film; it was an essential quality missing in Age of Ultron, and one which made a monster of the character which I AM glad this movie is addressing with fallout; still, there’s a lack of tangible self-reflection and making amends from Tony in this movie, alongside some of his worst personal decisions, and I sincerely do not love him by the end of it.)

The good thing is, despite a few lazy elements - Vision! You tool! - and despite some very frustrating decisions, the central dilemma of the film is a strong and nuanced conversation-starter (and perhaps, argument-inducer). Even though the specific scenario and the people involved (Ross (both of them) and the floating Guantanamo, et al.) skews the narrative definitively against the Accords by the end, there is still fodder there for an intelligent debate about the merits of the concept if not the execution. And, most importantly, Steve’s position on the matter is the MCU’s Captain America to a T - a political story about the appreciable and essential difference between doing one’s duty to a concept, vs adherence to a moral code. Disobedience is a core part of Steve Rogers’ dilemmas - not that disobedience IS the dilemma for him, but that it is at odds with the patriotic good-ol’-boy image he is expected to inhabit from outside. Every Captain America film carries with it the idea that to do the highest good can mean rejecting everything that the people and institutions around you try to insist is right; refusing to play a role that has been prescribed to you; always making the choice for yourself, by your ethos, no matter how hard it is. Refusing to compromise when you see the compromise as an evil; planting yourself like a tree, and saying ‘No. You move’ (a great way of keeping Peggy’s influence alive and moving in the plot, by the way, and a key demonstration of how she and Steve met on the same wavelength. Lots of strong details in this movie, tbh).

My primary complaint, however, is that this is also too much like an Avengers film; nearly all of the other major characters are there, and Tony especially gets a LOT of screen time, and since Cap and his films are my uncontested faves I am pretty salty about having to share the stage for his last outing. The tone and the subject matter are still totally on-brand, but the focus is split, and that’s particularly annoying for what it leaves behind. While Bucky is made central to the drive of the plot, Steve finally being reunited with him, bringing him in, getting the cathartic other side to what was so exquisitely set up in The Winter Soldier, it falls by the wayside a bit and comes off underdone. Sam is certainly there, being wonderful as always, but he doesn’t get a lot to actively influence, he’s mostly just That Other Guy, and it’s a real shame since he was a highlight among super-stiff competition in his introductory film. The touch of Peggy that shines through the film is poignant, but Sharon Carter gets the bad end of the stick with under-developed characterisation and a very ill-advised zero-chemistry attempt to stir a speck of romance in a story with no room for it, and altogether, the kinds of quiet character moments which added so much depth to The Winter Soldier are very much lacking here. We’ve got so many other characters on deck already, plus the introduction of two new major players (T’Challa has a solid, sombre presence which suits the film, and even his hypocrisy fits snugly into the plot so as not to be a barb against him, but as I’ve mentioned already, I am squarely against Peter Parker’s squeaky excessive comic-relief inclusion and the dire implications it has for Tony Stark’s moral compass), and we’re already spending so much time on beefing up Tony’s side of the Civil War. I don’t personally think the movie is bloated, overlong, or incoherent, but it definitely wanders close to all three and I wouldn’t be inclined to argue very strenuously with anyone who wanted to denounce it on any of those fronts. It has a lot going on, not quite too much for an ensemble movie, but more than it should as a story with a single character’s name in the title. I’m still mostly-satisfied by it, and consider it one of the stronger MCU films to date, but as a third Captain America, specifically? A bit of a let-down.

#Marvel Cinematic Universe #Captain America: Civil War #Bechdel Test #female representation #MCU #Captain America #Civil War

5 notes · View notes

lilolilyr · 2 years

Text

Tagged by @yelowjackets in this

Fanfic Review

Thank you very much! <3

Tagging any of my mutuals who want to do it :)

How many works do you have on AO3?

434 - less if we're only counting fics and not manips and such that I crosspostes to Ao3 and/or not those I put on anon, more if we're counting my WIPs I put as chapters of one fic as separate works... but yeah, def over 400

What's your total AO3 word count?

1 108 616

Yeah :D been busy last yeah, over half a Million in 2021 alone!

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

*laugs* over 60, i'll put the list last

Are there any new fandoms you want to write for?

Umm nothing I haven't already written sth for? Well, Might do sth Miss Fisher, Phryne/Jack/Doctor Mac ot3 intrigues me and there's like no content for them, but bc of that also idk whether i'd actually write it down, we'll see

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Mostly The Witcher fics

Which of your fics do you want more attention for?

Uhh I mean I wish Gunpowder Milkshake fandom got more attention in general bc the film and all the wlw ships deserve it

Other than that, tbh don't care

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I try to! I like getting comments and want that ppl know that I appreciate them, but Gosh it's sometimes just WorkTM. I'm currently at less than 200 unanswered, so... yay? XD

What sorts of things do you normally write?

Lot's of h/c and getting together... also smut, generally wlw

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Idk check the angst tag? I don't write a lot of angst anyway

What's a fic that pushed you out of your comfort zone?

The 15k Bellatrix/self insert fever dream thing I wrote in one go certainly was... something?

Other than that I honestly don't know, I just write what i feel like writing

Do you write crossovers?

Rarely long or coherent ones!

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yeah, at least 3 I can think of, plus a bunch I translated myself

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I'm co-writing a Mirandy one atm!

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

So many :(( all my multiverse ones really

What are you currently working on?

Nothing actively, I barely finished my b&w gift exchange fic that was due this week, i've been rly exhausted plus had migraines lately

Lot's of GM and some Mirandy and Milippa drafts to get back to tho!

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Technically The Hobbit but that was just 1 ficlet, so I'd say Marvel instead

Most recent?

Gunpowder Milkshake my beloved!

What's your favorite fic you've written? What fic are you most proud of?

TOG Andromaquynh In Your Stead <3

& again - How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Good Omens (TV) (116)The Old Guard (Movie 2020) (85)Star Trek (63)Star Trek: Discovery (44)Gunpowder Milkshake (2021) (32)Marvel (30)Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (22)Marvel Cinematic Universe (17)Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett (14)Hawaii Five-0 (2010) (12)Captain America (Movies) (11)Star Trek: The Original Series (10)Ocean's 8 (2018) (10)Ocean's Eleven Trilogy (Movies) (9)Hawkeye (Comics) (8)James Bond (Craig Movies) (7)Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies) (7)Original Work (7)Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types (6)Black Panther (2018) (6)Sherlock (TV) (6)Warehouse 13 (5)The Avengers (Marvel Movies) (4)Ella Schön (TV) (4)The Devil Wears Prada (2006) (4)Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms (3)Hell's Kitchen (US TV) RPF (3)Holby City (3)Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies) (3)The Hobbit (Jackson Movies) (2)Star Wars - All Media Types (2)Twilight Series - All Media Types (2)Body of Proof (TV 2011) (2)NCIS (2)Men in Black (Movies) (2)Supernatural (TV 2005) (2)Doctor Who (2)Pitch Perfect (Movies) (2)The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types (2)The Mentalist (2)Captain America - All Media Types (2)Reef Break (TV) (1)The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien (1)Venom (Marvel Movies) (1)Lie to Me (TV) (1)Star Wars Sequel Trilogy (1)Black Magician Trilogy - Trudi Canavan (1)House of Night - P. C. Cast & Kristin Cast (1)Star Trek: Voyager (1)Age of the Five Series - Trudi Canavan (1)A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett (1)Charlie's Angels (2019) (1)Venom (Comics) (1)Mako Mermaids (1)Bohemian Rhapsody (Movie 2018) (1)Eureka (TV) (1)Kyss Mig | With Every Heartbeat (2011) (1)Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020) (1)Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies) (1)Nina (2018) (1)Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy (1)The Hybrid Chronicles - Kat Zhang (1)

#tagging meme #tagged #yelowjackets #daniwouldnever #fanfic review #fanfic tag #lilo writes #lilo writes behind the scenes #x #feb'22 #17.02.22 #my post #mine #answered

1 note · View note

ramajmedia · 5 years

Text

10 MCU Tattoos That Make You Feel Like A Superhero | ScreenRant

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has amassed a pretty massive fanbase during their decade-long existence. One of the best things about the superfans is their creative ability to show their love for the material they support. Cosplay is the most popular form of fan appreciation, but some go all out with something more permanent than a costume.

RELATED: Every Confirmed Upcoming MCU Project, Ranked By Fans' Excitement

Tattoos have been around for centuries. Nevertheless, they still continue to be used as a form of symbolic body art. For some hardcore Marvel fans, tattoos are a way of showing their love for the MCU in incredibly creative ways. So without further ado, here are 10 MCU tattoos that make you feel like a superhero.

10 The Winter Soldier

The death of Steve Rogers' best friend in Captain America: The First Avenger was an unexpected, heartbreaking scene. Fortunately, fans were thrilled to see him return as the truly terrifying Winter Soldier. Since that time, Bucky returned to his normal self, was brainwashed back into an assassin, finally got rid of the Winter Soldier, started living in Wakanda as the White Wolf, died, and then came back to life.

However, throughout all that confusing mess, he never let go of his deadly cybernetic arm (not even at Rocket's request). Therefore what better way to honor the poor soldier than to tattoo his own arm on to your own? This is exactly what Tumblr's @zayacv did, with an impressive attention to detail that makes it seem as if a large chunk of metal really did replace her upper arm.

9 Marvel-ous

What simpler way to show your appreciation for a brand than sticking its logo on your back. This man definitely thought that was the best option, and, honestly, the end product does look incredible. Instead of simply recreating the minimalistic red and white logo, he went for a more creative route, similar to what we get at the start of every Marvel movie. A familiar hero's face, in gorgeous detail, fills the inside of each letter.

RELATED: Marvel May Not Release An X-Men Movie Until Phase 6

Now, it is true that this isn't exactly an MCU tattoo per se, seeing as it features two X-Men (Deadpool and Wolverine, to be exact). However, the colorful logo sprawled across this human back, created by Italian artist Daniele Maiorano, is too awesome to ignore. Also, we probably only have to wait until Phase 5 for the Fox characters to join our beloved Avengers anyway.

8 A worthy tattoo

At a certain point during Endgame, Thor tells the team that lightning is what courses through his veins. Apparently, there is someone else who suffers from a similar condition and this gentleman right here has the tattoo to prove it. The drawing itself is far from incredible. A simple depiction of Thor's mighty hammer. It's the technique behind it that grants it a place in this list.

Using a special ultraviolet ink, Long House Tattoo in Denver created what is referred to as a black-light tattoo. These are basically tattoos that are invisible to the eye unless exposed to a black-light. In this case, the black-light transforms a boring-looking hammer on a regular arm, into a lightning-fueled limb, powered by Mjolnir itself.

7 Hail Hydra

While most Hydra agents tend to infiltrate silently as spies and undercover agents, this woman seems willing to show the world exactly where her allegiances lie. This impressive depiction of the infamous symbol that led Steve Rogers to frozen waters, Bucky Barnes to becoming the Winter Soldier, and the corruption of SHIELD stands out from what could have been a bland drawing.

Instead of a simple circular design with a flat image of a squid inside, the artist, Sean Kotnik, created a truly vivid tattoo. The colors and the purposefully blotted image gives it a very three-dimensional look. It's almost as if the symbol was stamped on to the arm with red blood and black ink.

6 Excelsior!

This tattoo by Anson Eastin is unlike the previous ones. That is, it's neither 3D, glow-in-the-dark, or sprawled over someones' back. Actually, it is a very typical leg tattoo. That's not to say that it isn't impressive, seeing as the entire limb is covered in hammers, shields, arc reactors, lightning, and... Avengers in general.

RELATED: Stan Lee Gets A New York Street Named After Him

However, the one crucial detail that separates itself from the others is a simple handwritten addition to the image. A signature by no other than Stan "The Man" Lee. For a Marvel fan, especially one who enjoys showing his appreciation through his own skin, there is no greater honor than forever carrying an authentic signature by the creator himself. Even more so now that he is gone...

5 I am Iron Man

He had to come up at some point. How could one forget the MCU's central character, the one that gave birth to it all? Up until Iron Man 3, Tony Stark wasn't just bound by his suits, but he was also chained to a piece of technology that prevented the shrapnel (from the bombing in Iron Man) from entering his heart.

As is repeatedly mentioned in Far From Home, Tony Stark's death begun the search for a new Iron Man. This man looks ready to take on the job. This incredible piece of art by Chad Mcdonald looks so real, it's scary. The pulsing blue light in the center of his chest, plus the added infected veins that surround it gives it a truly vivid look. All he needs is a suit to make use of its power.

4 Comedy bugs

This tattoo (or should I say tattoos) created at Sweety Creepy Tattooatelier are, like the movie itself, funny and small in size. Unlike the serious ultra-realism of the previous entries, this one is based solely on comedy. The image itself is obviously nothing special. All it is is literally two dots, two arrows, and the title of a movie written on two arms. The concept behind it is what makes it so cool.

Not only is it a hilarious poke at the hero's sizes, but each arm actually belongs to different people. These are two friends/lovers (could be either one really) who used their combined upper limbs to create one sole MCU tattoo. Scott and Hope would love to see this.

3 Earth's Mightiest Heroes

"Hello, can I help you?". "Yes. Do you think... Would it be possible to transform my entire back into the Avengers: Age of Ultron poster?" Turns out, it is. Instead of going for a simple arm tattoo of his favorite Marvel hero, this man took off his shirt to replace his caucasian back with a mix of blues, reds, greens, and golds.

RELATED: Avengers: Endgame Contains Some 'Important,' Undiscovered Easter Eggs, Russos Say

Iron Man front and center, Captain America above him holding his iconic shield, Thor and Hulk below them, and Black Widow and Hawkeye in the background. In addition to this, the otherwise empty spaces are covered in clouds and lightning, and the subject's shoulder showcases a group of alien Leviathan arriving from a portal in the sky. No doubt this is a superfan.

2 Snap

Looks like we're back to ultra-realism again with this unusual, yet awesome tattoo. The Infinity Gauntlet was teased ever since they first mentioned Infinity Stones in the MCU. It wasn't until a post-credits scene in Age of Ultron that we finally got a quick glimpse of Thanos' glove, but we still had to wait until Infinity War to see it filled with all six colored gems.

In honor of the Mad Titan, Revelation Tattoo created its very own Infinity Gauntlet, with colored Stones and everything. The supposedly metal screws really do resemble metal screws that are popping out of the skin. The Infinity Stones (especially the Mind Stone right in the middle) bulges off the hand. It's not a complete Gauntlet, but it looks real enough to wipe out half the universe.

1 Avengers... assemble

This is the simplest, most boring tattoo on the list. Actually, there is no reason why it should even be included. Even a drawing of Groot on someone's foot is more interesting than this. However, unlike all the other entries, this one is defined, not by the drawing itself, but by its history. Around the time Infinity War was released, the original six Avengers cast each decided to get themselves inked.

All of them (except Mark Ruffalo) got the same symbol tattoed on their body by artist Joshua Lorde. The number "6" is clearly shown, as are the various symbols that represent each Avenger (although, those are a bit harder to identify). Robert Downey Jr is done, Chris Evans is unlikely to return, and the rest will soon follow. Yet, this symbol will remain with them for the rest of their lives, forever making them... The Avengers.

NEXT: Idris Elba Wants to Play Heimdall Again in the MCU

source https://screenrant.com/mcu-tattoos-marvel-superhero-art/

#screenrant

0 notes

ladynorbert · 7 years

Note

Top 3 fanfics you've ever read. Either of all time, or do 3 each for long fics and one-shots

All right, this was a TOUGH question, which is why I saved it for today instead of trying to answer it late in the night. These are not in any particular order, just three longfics and three one-shots which I especially love. These are by no means all of my favorites, of course, but I felt guilty about selecting pieces that are based on my own fanworks (e.g. To Rest in the Warmest Places).

Three One-Shots

1) Lemon Tea by Shimegami-chan. This is a Fullmetal Alchemist fic, which I think may have been based on the 2003 anime because it doesn’t quite match up to the canon of the manga. It’s extremely enjoyable; it’s about Roy, Riza, and Hughes as military cadets and how Roy manages to become the first person to get past Riza’s guarded exterior to befriend her. I’m not sure exactly why it resonated with me so much, but I have read it many times and am quite fond of it.

2) Shot Down by Janieshi. Roy/Riza, from Fullmetal Alchemist. This is a funny and also touching little piece about the Mustang unit at the Eastern Command outpost, where a new transfer takes a shine to the beautiful Hawkeye... only to find out that she’s untouchable for a very good reason.

3) The Tower of Hanoi by Meredith T. Tasaki. This is a Professor Layton story and I actually had to read it twice to fully appreciate its brilliance, because on the first read you don’t really know what’s going on. Layton and the kids are in terrible danger, but they don’t know why, or who’s trying to warn them away. The answer is a shock.

Three Longfics

1) JUST THE BEST MARY SUE EVER! by Bamfwriter. This bit of hilarity is from the heyday of the LXG fic era, when someone had published a litmus test for judging the Mary Sue levels of OCs. The author, with whom I am still Facebook friends, decided to write a story in which she could answer “yes” to every question on the test, with hysterical results. The funniest part was that somehow, some readers managed to miss the fact that it was a parody, and complained about the main character being... a Mary Sue.

2) Say It Thrice by Bookworm Gal. I admit to being somewhat biased here, because the author is a friend of mine (or rather, became one through our mutual admiration of each other’s work) and this has a one-shot prequel dedicated to me. Anyway, this is what happened when the author decided to do a crossover of Beetlejuice and Danny Phantom, with very impressive results. It’s highly respectful of both canons and a very enjoyable read.

3) Sunny Stories by, well, @roksanalyasin! This is really a series, not a longfic, but how can I help listing it among my favorites? Most if not all of the parts are or will be based on my own requests, and they’re all about my most beloved rarepair OTP from Dragon Age, Varric/Bethany. As the captain of this ship, I love this more than I can say and I’m very grateful for it.

#roksanalyasin

11 notes · View notes

poppo911 · 7 years

Text

You’ve Got Mail! (Chapter 2)

Word count : 2121

Read it on FFN here

Chapter 2 – The new teacher

To : Heymans Breda, Roy Mustang

From : Jean Havoc

Subject : No kidding, the new teacher is smokin' hot

You guys met her already? Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.

I mean look, bro. That figure. Those full lips. Most importantly, that busty torso. I am starting to question the real motive behind that old man's decision to request her here. I thought she would just be a little relieve to our school's female staff shortage, but turned out she's just… wow.

Haven't got the chance to talk to her, though. Maybe I will, during the lunch break. But from what the kids told me, she is apparently pretty stern in her lessons. Dunno if that also applies in her daily life? Meh, even if it does, real men would love a little challenge! Although I do admit that she looks pretty intimidating from afar.

Yeah, she's maybe a little elder than most of us here, but hey, still better than having a hot for one of those schoolgirls, right? It's against my morale.

P.s doesn't she look surprisingly familiar?

Jean Havoc

Coach's Aide, Physical Education

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Alex Louis Armstrong

From : Denny Brosh

Subject : Just done processing that new Dutch literature teacher's biodata

Mr. Alex,

Olivier Mira Armstrong is your elder sister?! Why didn't you tell us earlier?!

And yes, despite her rather-normal size, she still got a monstrous strength, just like you. I tried to crack a joke in order to brighten up the air during our data processing, but apparently she's not into my sense of humor.

Gotta ask Mr. Christopher to provide me a new desk.

Denny Brosh

Staff, Administrative Affairs

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Heymans Breda, Jean Havoc

From : Roy Mustang

Subject : Re: No kidding, the new teacher is smokin' hot

'Morale'? It's not something I expect from a pervert who had just described an adult female's body parts so… explicitly.

And no. Haven't met her yet. Hawkeye's going to kill me if I don't enter her class soon.

Sigh, women.

Roy Mustang

Teacher, Chemistry

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Jean Havoc, Roy Mustang

From : Heymans Breda

Subject : Re: Re: No kidding, the new teacher is smokin' hot

Jean. I have no words for this. Go see Ross, maybe she can knock some common sense into your head.

And don't be such a hypocrite, Mr. Casanova. Questioning someone's 'morale'? Think we don't know what you do in your free time?

The only one sane enough here,

Heymans Breda

Teacher, Mathematics

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Edward Elric

Cc : Maria Ross

From : Riza Hawkeye

Subject : Detention Notice

The student Edward Elric will be detained after school on March 7 from 3:30 p.m until 4:30 p.m for the following reason(s):

Intentionally drenching Mr. Roy Mustang, a chemistry teacher, in water by putting a bucket full of them above the door right before he entered the classroom.

Signed,

Riza Hawkeye

Teacher, Biology

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Riza Hawkeye

From : Maria Ross

Subject : Detention notice already? On the second day of school?

Your class, Riza, I swear. Not even Mr. Hughes' class last year can compare to this. It's allright, though, we will work things out.

Keep up our spirit,

Maria Ross

Teacher, School Guidance Counselor

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Izumi Curtis

Cc : Sig Curtis, King Bradley

From : Heracle Poarma

Subject : Re: Where are all the al dente?

Ishvalla help us, I did NOT steal your pasta, Mrs. Curtis.

Did Bradley fail to inform you? Since my class starts on Friday, I took a few days of leave right after the winter break to visit my families back in Ishval. How do you think I steal all your pasta from here? Telekinetics? Please.

And don't you dare taking back those pans. Accreditations is just a few months away and if our institution's grade goes down just because its Culinary Art Laboratory got no untensils in it, that old Grumman will surely fire me.

I'm not apologizing for this late reply. It's rather hard to get any internet signal here in my hometown, and that's hardly my fault.

(P.s Bradley, this is what happened when you don't do your job properly.)

With Ishvalan pride,

Heracle Poarma

Teacher, Cullinary Art

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

Sent from mobile

To : Heracle Poarma

From : King Bradley

Subject : Re: Re: Where are all the al dente?

Mr. Scar,

I do not recall reading 'informing staffs for their coworker's leaves or absences' on my job description. Get your facts straight.

With Amestrian spirit,

King Bradley

Staff, Head of Administrative Affairs

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Roy Mustang

From : Miles

Subject : My deep condolences

I'm sorry to hear that you got pranked by Elric, again, for the only-God-knows-th time.

But no, being soaked head-to-toe is not a valid reason to neglect works. We are still going to hold the meeting. The principal has something to say regarding the accreditation preparation, so make sure to dry yourself properly before 2:45 p.m this afternoon.

Regards,

Miles

Teacher, Physics

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Sciezka

From : Vato Falman

Subject : Book Request

Ms. Sciezka,

Could you please look up for the book titled Series of Complete History of Amestris: Amestrian Geopolitical Aspects from Time to Time? I remembered correctly that I had put it back on its original place in Section B, rack number 9, row 3, thirteen books from the left after I read it yesterday. This morning, though, I went to pick that book and it was not there. I was catching my next class, thus I had not enough time to search for it and left.

I will appreciate it if you could fetch that for me to pick up after my meeting.

Thank you in advance.

Vato Falman

Teacher, History

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Riza Hawkeye

From : Roy Mustang

Subject : To my Immortal Beloved

Take, o take those lips away

That so sweetly were forsworn,

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that di mislead the morn:

But my kisses bring again,

Bring again—

Seals of love, but seal'd in vain,

Seal in vain!

Eternally yours,

Roy Mustang

Teacher, Chemistry

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Roy Mustang

From : Riza Hawkeye

Subject : Re: To my Immortal Beloved

Mr. Roy,

Was the water really cold that it freezed your cerebral vasculatures, or did the bucket hit you hard enough it gave you brain concussion? Last time I checked, you were fluent in the language of chemistry when you were writing your thesis on applied organic chemistry under my father's advisory, and suddenly you are quoting Shakespeare.

Let me fetch you a cup of hot coffee from the pantry to make you feel better.

P.s I truly apologize for my student's behavior.

Regards,

Riza Hawkeye

Teacher, Biology

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Maes Hughes

From : Roy Mustang

Subject : (No subject)

HOLY SHIT MAES STOP MESSING AROUND WITH MY PERSONAL COMPUTER WHEN I AM AWAY FROM IT DRYING MY FCKN CLOTHES.

Roy Mustang

Teacher, Chemistry

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

Sent from mobile

To : Roy Mustang

From : Maes Hughes

Attachment : photo_0344 .jpeg

Subject : In my defense, I forgot that you got all your accounts connected to your cellphone

You are the one to talk, Roy-boy.

Thanks to me, you are now relishing a nice cup of coffee and a nice conversation with her. Don't think I can't see your suppressed smirk, you cheeky little rascal. (And yes, you owed me for that—grant my daughter's wish and spend the next Saturday with her at our home, and it'd be paid off.)

Don't bother replying to this mail—just enjoy your time.

P.s Ow silly me, who would expect you to take your eyes off hers to check on incoming e-mails when you're looking at her like this?

(Click here to display photo_0344 .jpeg)

Totally going to the school's wall bulletin.

Elysia's Loving Dad,

Maes Hughes

Teacher, English Literature

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : All contacts

From : Rebecca Catalina

Subject : URGENT NOTICE: Roy Mustang

Has anybody seen Mr. Roy Mustang? He was supposed to hold a meeting with the Principal thirty minutes ago. I've tried to reach him but all my e-mails and phonecalls got no response.

Should anybody know his whereabouts, please do ask him to go to the Principal's office ASAP.

Trust me, Roy, you won't fancy the Principal when he's in a foul mood.

Rebecca Catalina

Staff, Principal's Secretary

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Rebecca Catalina

From : Riza Hawheye

Subject : Re: URGENT NOTICE: Roy Mustang

He's dashing to Grumman's office at full speed. Clumsy boy didn't even tell me he had a meeting to attend.

Anyway Beck, please do wait for me a little before we head home? I've got something to deal with Edward after school. I'll fill you in later.

Regards,

Riza Hawkeye

Teacher, Biology

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Vato Falman

From : Sciezka

Subject : Re: Book Request

Sorry for the late reply, Mr. Falman.

I got stuck under a heap of books until Kain helped me (glad he passed by!), but at last I found you the book.

You can take it from the librarian desk anytime!

Warmest regards,

Sciezka

Staff, Head of Library and Information Services

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To : Heymans Breda, Roy Mustang

From : Jean Havoc

Subject : Abort mission. I repeat; abort mission

Guys hear me out.

Olivier Mira Armstrong went from dropdead gorgeous to downright scary in less than two minutes I talked to her.

Gonna tell you guys later. I still have to assist Alex in the Gymnasium after school.

P.s How could he forget to mention that they are siblings? And give me initial warnings, while at it?

Just got kneed right in the nuts,

Jean Havoc

Coach's Aide, Physical Education

East Amestris Senior High School | 75 Sycamore Lane, East City

To be continued

So let's just assume that the school starts on the second week of March—the transition between winter and spring, in the northern hemisphere. Class of 2017 (the year in which this fic was published) has just entered the first year of high school (tenth grade), thus class of 2016 is the sophomore, and class of 2015 has entered their senior year, ready for college. I tried to make the setting as real as possible, and since the school system in my country is not exactly the same with the one here, please tell me if there's something odd!

And from we all can infer already, I made up some names for Greed (Christopher Vinther) and Scar (Heracle Poarman), because we can't just write 'Greed' and 'Scar' in their e-mail signatures! I still retain those as their nicknames tho, for practicality. If anyone is interested on how I picked their names, just let me know in the review box and I will send you a PM!

Maybe some of you guys found it odd already why we have 'Xingese', and 'East City' here, alongside with 'real' things like 'Dutch' and 'English'. Well... I'd like to make it feel like an actual modern!AU, and writing things like 'Cretan literature' and 'Drachman classics' would still leave us impressions on the real 1900-ish FMA universe. But leaving several places 'Amestris' and 'Ishval' behind will make it seems 'wrong' as they are so connected with our characters T_T I do apologize if it made you guys uncomfortable!

Oh right, and Olivier still hasn't get much screentime yet—she's still new to her surroundings, after all. And considering she's not one to easily mingle well with everybody, I'm still troubled on how I should include her more soon T_T

This story will have its own plot, but really, that's not the main concern here. I just love to write the dynamics between each characters, how they communicate through texts, and their antics.

Do tell me if there's anyething you like, or do not like. I am open to critics and suggestions :)

Thank you for reading! Reviewreviewreview

(p.s I've got a few chapters ahead written already. Hopefully I can update this one weekly despite my hectic academic agenda!)

9 notes · View notes