#but nothing is done with that 'morgan came from an alternate timeline' plot and it doesn't really. serve anything thematically

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

So when it comes to FE: Awakening I said once I hoped that Pokemon Mystery Dungeon time travel mechanics were in play - averting the bad future means that everyone from that future world disappears from existence - so that the game could emotionally ruin me as much as Explorers of Time did. That did not happen - I should have expected that from my experience with Three Houses, Fire Emblem games end quick and there’s not much time for wrapping things up, so they couldn’t/wouldn’t take the time to explain that and unpack that. Because that would kind of be a huge thing to deal with.

But I had these tags on that post

#you know that if this isn't how the game works itself out then an AU of that will be the first thing i do #bc man. pmd explorers. few games have ruined me more than i was playing Explorers of Time 

and now that I know that the game doesn’t work itself out that way, I just said to myself "listen how fucked up would this concept be. And also how thematically interesting and complicated!” and then I wrote 2000 words thinking about it.

-

Naga told them that Robin was going to disappear with Grima’s death. Okay, fine - I mean, not fine, but they know that. Robin and Chrom are fighting over who makes the final strike against Grima because of that. Everyone is anticipating that.

What they’re not anticipating is when Lucina, Morgan, and the other kids to start fading away the same as Robin did, like the way the Risen crumble into dust, dissipating in bright light

“What’s happening?!” Chrom demands of Naga, because again, obviously, not expecting this. 

“They are children born of a future that no longer happened,” Naga explains. “How can they continue to exist when the world that they came from, the times that bore them and shaped them, no longer happen?”

The cost of victory is this: Robin’s life (it is unlikely she will return, Naga says, but Chrom has faith, he always does in Robin), and these particular lives of the children of Shepherds, children who wrote themselves out of existence so that another self would have a better future.

The cost of victory is this: Chrom has seen almost all of his family fall away from him. His wife, and his son and daughter, his nephew, and other comrades-in-arms and friends, are gone.

He still has a daughter, Lucina, back at the palace in Ylisstol, Lucina who is a child who has grown without her parents around - how old is she now? How long has this war in Valm and with the Grimleal lasted? Has Lucina learned how to walk and speak her first word while her father and mother were away at war? She was two months old when they left her; does she recognize Chrom when he returns?

This is Lucina and it is not Lucina and it will be Lucina and it will never be that Lucina. Chrom had a grown daughter who was strong and clever and beautiful and determined, who saved his life and saved the world, who inherited a Brand and a sword and the deepest grief of loss from him. Chrom has a baby daughter who will grow up with a Brand and someday a sword and never that grief from his death at her mother’s hand. She will have the life and the world that her other self fought for. Is this the same Lucina, or is it not? Did Lucina who went by Marth die just as she achieved everything she fought for? Or is there only one Lucina, one who will be happy now for never needing to fight a war and lose her parents, one who assured herself a better future and now gets to grow up in it?

Chrom is a firm believer in the future never being written in stone, in destiny being thwartable.

But what does it mean to write a new future when there are parts of the old that you miss so dearly and want back?

The Shepherds’ children from the future were their children and also, because of the unnatural time-travel-wrought closeness in age, their friends and comrades. And the Shepherds will someday have children again, but they will not be friends or allies in a war that was already fought.

What does it mean to miss a version of someone who will not truly exist like that again?

Miriel works on her experiments, refining techniques that she developed with help from Laurent, and she misses her son even though he is toddling around at her heels, chubby little hands turning pages of her notebooks. She can teach Laurent all that she knows and all that she learned from a him that no longer exists, but it will be decades before she can consult with him in the same way.

Sully knows why her future self, the self that she is becoming, stopped training Kjelle in mounted combat. Sully’s recent past self continued training Kjelle as the closeness in age meant Sully could always be right there in battle to protect her daughter - that she wouldn’t grow old enough to be sidelined while Kjelle was still fighting. “We can fight side-by-side for the rest of our lives,” Sully told a Kjelle that no longer exists, because she didn’t know or expect then, none of them did, that these children of the future would write themselves out of history. And the Kjelle who now exists is too small to put on horseback, and Sully wonders if someday there will come a war that Kjelle fights without Sully at her side, and she wonders if or when she would stop training Kjelle to fight on horseback.

Cherche has to explain to a confused wyvern what has happened to her “twin” and her other new, dear friend - dear family, in fact. But there’s a spark of familiarity in Minerva’s eyes when she sniffs newborn Gerome for the first time, like she knows before Cherche says it who this is, like they both know that one day this will come full-circle. Wyverns live for a long time. Perhaps one day Gerome will inherit Minerva as his mount, without Cherche’s death as the catalyst.

These children of a terrible future were precious and cherished comrades-in-arms, friends, and of course beloved children. It feels wrong to act as if they never existed. It feels wrong to try to keep them a secret talked about only among the adults behind closed doors. But does telling the children of the Shepherds when they are young about the people they in a different timeline became cast a long shadow?

What is it like to grow up in a shadow, trying to live up to someone else, when the shadow is that of your own self, and the someone else is you, but from a darker future that will never be?

How do their parents balance dwelling on a future that will never be, when they knew its inhabitants in the past that was.

Chrom carries his baby girl around the grounds of the palace at Ylisstol, showing her the hole he years ago broke in the wall where a Lady Marth once made her entrance. He shows her where she saved him from assassins, where he saw her face for the first time, not knowing then, of course, who she was to him. Not knowing then who she was to Robin, who was with him. (Not knowing then who Robin would be to him.) And then he wonders if he shouldn’t. If it will hurt Lucina down the road to be compared to a different version of herself. If it’s better that she’s so young that she won’t remember what he’s telling her now.

In averting the future that Lucina knew was written, Chrom and Robin were still following a sort of script. They knew what they needed to do, or not do. The future is open now, an empty expanse. Chrom does not believe in the strength of destiny; Chrom believes in the strength of people and the love that ties them together. Love, not destiny. Morgan is not destined to exist. Chrom wants Morgan to exist, because he loves him, because Lucina loved him and will love him again when he exists again for her to.

But there’s a certain fear that dwells within the blank slate of the future. Chrom believes in Robin, always and forever, and he will search the world over for her if she does not return to him first, because they are two halves of a whole and they will not let each other go. Robin will come back to him. He believes in that with his whole heart and everything he is, but it creeps up on him in the dark of some sleepless nights, with his young daughter cradled close, of what it would be like for Lucina to grow up without a little brother. For Chrom to never see his wife and son again.

Robin does return. Of course she does.

But how long was she gone? A week, a month, a year? 

She destroyed herself and Grima for the sake of everyone’s future. But the children of that future in some way destroyed themselves, too, for the sake of their own futures already past. To change their pasts in the future.

What it means is that Robin returns to a smaller family than she left. To no son at all, and a young daughter who looks at her and sees not her mother but a total stranger. And Robin barely knows her own daughter, either. The Lucina she knows was an adult, and is gone, and a memory.

The Shepherds’ children might grow up beneath the shadow of memories. And not just their parents’ memories of the person they were in a future that will never come to pass.

Robin dreamed memories of her other self, because they shared the same heart. 

And maybe that was because it was Grima’s heart, the heart of a nigh-godly creature, but hearts are strange things. Robin’s heart is made up of pieces of everyone she loves, now; it isn’t Grima’s. 

Maybe human hearts share memories - dreams - of a life that is past and future and will never be.

Robin doesn’t dream of new memories, anymore, because Grima is dead and her other self no longer exists. But the memories she saw before still haunt her in her nightmares. She saw them enough to remember them, burned into her mind like they are her own memories. Of a life that could’ve been and almost was and already was and is no longer where she killed Chrom. She herself knows the feeling of what it was like to strike at him; she pulled the (metaphorical) punch, but it would’ve been all to easy not to. Whether she made a mistake, or whether Validar made her.

All the Shepherds have nightmares about the war. That happens, because of a war. But Robin alone knows what it was like to have someone else’s memories as dreams. 

Robin alone can realize why it might be that Lucina wakes up crying so often in the night. Lucina doesn’t yet have all the words necessary to explain, not yet, still too young to comprehend the horrors that she lived in another time, but it becomes clear to Robin after she observes on several occasions that if Chrom wakes Lucina and sits with her, she’ll immediately calm down and drift back to sleep. But if Robin is the parent that she first sees upon waking, she’ll only continue to scream and cry.

“One of her last memories from her future self was of someone who looks like me possessed by Grima and trying to kill us all,” Robin says quietly, when Chrom has finally gotten their little girl back to sleep, held safely in his arms and her head against his chest so that she never saw that Robin was here, behind him. “And who knows if Grima in my body ever attacked her in her future. Of course she’s scared; she has those memories, and she’s too young again now to truly understand any of that.”

“To understand that it isn’t you she’s seeing,” Chrom says.

“But it was me,” Robin says. “I was her. She was me. I killed you. I was Grima. I killed Grima. It’s always me.”

“Not this you,” Chrom says. “Not this life. Not this time.”

Robin, too, knows what it’s like to be haunted by the shadow and memory of someone you could have been and once were and never will be.

#roddy plays fe:a #fire emblem chatter tag #this is 2000 words of me just spitballing BUT WHAT IF AND WHAT IF AND WHAT IF-- #i know that morgan is from another alternate timeline and not lucina's future so like technically he doesn't have to disappear? #but nothing is done with that 'morgan came from an alternate timeline' plot and it doesn't really. serve anything thematically #and doesn't really build on anything so i'm just not going to concern myself with that one #and i'm just gonna have morgan be like the rest of the kids here #anyway i'm just really fascinated by the thought of what it would be like to raise your children having already met their adult selves #but knowing that they won't/can't become those exact adult selves because of such different circumstances #what is it like to miss someone who is still with you but it will be decades before they are almost the person that you miss #almost but never that person exactly. and what's it like growing up knowing that your parents love you with their whole hearts #even while missing a you that they knew and loved first who you will never quite be #i tend to hate time travel plots bc they bend my brain and i hate tripping over paradoxes when i think too long #and so i present this AU as me getting rid of the 'there's going to be two of the same people running around just 20 years apart in age' #'that's weird as hell honestly. that's super fucking weird what the fuck the writers just let that happen' #i loved the game but that's super fucking weird right??? i don't like that. #so thus i am thinking about a situation that would do away with that while also just being. weird but in a good interesting way to me #i might mess around and write something set in this AU today. or maybe one of the 12 other fea story ideas i have

[zmediaoutlet]

you saw endgame! please share with the class! assemble!

haha, okay, well–here’s some thoughts, since we’re far enough out that I don’t think this will be too spoilery for people – but it’s gonna be super long, so it’s under a cut, either way:

Well, it was–spectacular! In that it was literally a spectacle, for one thing. I had pretty lowered expectations after not particularly enjoying Captain Marvel (it was fine, but boring) or Infinity War for that matter (better-made, but the stakes were obviously nonexistent because we knew something was going to be done). Here, though… I just really, thoroughly enjoyed it. It was thoughtfully done, well-executed, and just as a moment of payoff for those of us who have been here all ten years… It was just really something. I saw Iron Man on opening weekend in 2008 and fell in love, and even if I haven’t loved every single movie since then, I feel like Marvel just sent me a love letter, and I was so–glad. What a good movie-going experience it was.

I say all that having seen SO MUCH rending of garments and gnashing of teeth from the !stans and shippers, but all of that’s so very much missing the point. This is the story of *this series*, this great arc that led to this point. The thing to remember is that the MCU is fanfiction itself–it’s based off of characters who are based off of characters from a canon that’s been rebooted and re-blended about a billion times. This is the story this group of fic-writers, essentially, chose to tell, and I think they did it pretty damn well. You can write your own fic where Steve weeps into Bucky’s hair for 70 years if you want to. This story isn’t that, and that’s okay. (Genuinely, if fandomites could take like half a step back they’d be much happier people. I know it’s hard–I’ve been in a process of letting go with SPN that I haven’t really managed to do well–but c’mon. Don’t get so het up about it.)

Some things:

1) I was genuinely impressed with the time travel mechanism, especially as it bounced meta-ly off of other examples we’ve seen in pop culture. Finally, a story that allows ACTUAL alternate-universe time travel instead of boring-ass time loops. I’ve always thought it was spectacularly dumb when the worry is “but if I kill myself in the past, I’ll die now!” Nope! Avoided! Thank you, folks. It’s kind of weirding me out that so many people online seem confused about how the time travel worked, but it was incredibly clean and I just want to high five the people involved. The one thing that seemed like a plot hole was Old Steve at the end, with the implication that he was co-existent in this timeline for 70 years (and did nothing about Hydra??)–but then the Russos said that they assume he went to an alternate timeline, and then came back to this one to give Sam the shield. It wasn’t on screen either way so you can make your own headcanon, but I’m good with that. So: successful time travel. Hoo-fucking-rah.

2) Thor. This was the one real spoiler I had going in, that Thor Got Fat. All this weeping about how he’d been mistreated by the narrative. So, I was pre-emptively worried… and then ended up not thinking it was that bad. Look, I’m a chubster, I’m well-aware of how sensitive that can be for people. What I found interesting about it was that it was, yes, kind of a visual joke, just because The God of Abs was a pudge, but it was actually treated remarkably kindly by every character for whom that would be in-character. Meaning, sure, Rocket makes fun of him, and Rhodey’s kind of a dick (because Rhodey’s like that with Tony, even)–but Bruce, Steve, and even Tony all deal with him quite gently. That scene where he tries to volunteer for the gauntlet and Tony carefully holds him back was so sweet and sad. Poor guy. It was a good exploration of the depths that the last ~10 years of his life have pummeled him into. It wasn’t that he was fat, it’s that he was broken. People will make up their own minds about the equivalencies there and what’s being implied, but it was a good visual metaphor as far as I was concerned. If he were “just” a sad drunk no one would have believed that he wasn’t ready for what was coming, and he wasn’t. But he got better, because his friends really were there for him. (Also, Korg was wearing Taika’s pineapple shirt! I hope there are nice fics where Korg and Maik gently just play XBox with Thor because that’s all they can do for him.) 

Also on Thor, re: Thor/Loki – more rending of garments about how he didn’t go see Loki. Let’s think about this: you’re on a top-secret time mission to save the universe (Time Heist!), and you go see your trickster god little brother who, yes, you miss, but who also hates you at this point in his life. That’ll go well. I completely understand why there wasn’t a scene. The scene with Frigga was all I needed there.

3) Steeb: I’ve never been the… biggest fan of Steve. I mean, he’s fine. His character is caught awkwardly between the man, Steve Rogers, who abhors bullies and will break rules to do what’s right, and between The Man, Captain America, who kinda Is Rules and needs to do what’s right but also represents an idea greater than himself. There’s a lot of wonderful tension there, but the movies haven’t particularly capitalized on it, and when they’ve tried it’s been in a lip-servicey way.

That said, this movie deals with it really, really well, I think. At the beginning he’s trying to live, and isn’t doing a great job of it. The plan they come up with is simple, perfect heroism – he’s not representing an Ideal, but he is one: he’s the man and the ideal simultaneously, that striving toward right will eventually create a more just, fairer world. If sacrifice is required he’s willing to make it. That scene of him standing alone against the massed forces of Thanos with his broken shield strapped tight to his arm is like a distillation of who Captain America should be. I’m so glad we got that, at the end.

As someone who doesn’t invest in Steve/Bucky but who completely understands it, I also see no issue with the thing where he goes back to Peggy. Bucky understands, too. That moment where they hug and he tells Steve, so-softly, “I’ll miss you,” oh man, oof. Bucky knows. I hope there’s a lot of pining!Bucky in that fandom, y’all are missing out on a STELLAR opportunity if not. Especially pining!Bucky where Steve knows and can only do his best to be Bucky’s friend. Steve going back isn’t out of character, either, despite the clamoring. He misses Peggy, he misses peace. Who knows what they got up to in that alternate timeline–maybe he and Peg went and routed Hydra early, maybe they saved Bucky, maybe they had a WWThreesome with Buck, whatever. But Natasha and Tony both told Steve to “get a life,” and he finally got to. He’d done enough. He earned it.

4) OH MY GOD, NATASHA. What a character arc. I friggin’ adore the mirroring of her and Clint’s stories. The brutal assassin who gained a family and learned what it meant to love something so much she wanted to sacrifice herself for it–those scenes on Vormire were heartbreaking. I’m also super glad that the movie paused, after that. Someone called her death “fridging” – wow. No. She was a hero, as much as Tony was. Whatever it takes.

5) Tony. Holy shit. In a lot of ways this was his movie–in a more meta way, it was RDJ’s movie, and Favreau’s, and Feige’s. It all started with Iron Man, and that’s where it ended. There wasn’t a stinger scene because we got that funeral and then the moment in the credits with the originals signing the screen, and of course they saved Robert for last. The success of this movie is really a testament to the risk everyone took, way back then. It sure as hell paid off.

“You wouldn’t lay down on a grenade to save your men,” Steve said. How many different ways can Tony prove him wrong? At least once more. ;-;  I’m just super emotional about the whole thing. So many good moments all leading up to what happened. Little Morgan in his helmet, Pepper’s faith. Steve’s faith, for that matter. (I still have a tiny pocket of my heart reserved for Steve/Tony, no matter how non-canon it is. What a great relationship they have.) The panic and misery when Carol brought them back, calling Steve a liar, and Steve just–gentle with him, again, and how there was no anger there anymore. Argh. 

That’s the thing that I think I appreciated about the movie most, in the end. Despite all the craziness, the spectacle, the easter eggs slinging at you left and right (”Hail Hydra.” !!!!!!!!!!!!!), what I loved most is that in the face of this ultimate goal, this literally universe-saving moment, the stakes were actually felt because the characters (and actors, and script) sold how unimaginably important it was. Interpersonal bickering fell by the wayside; any dumb conflicts just washed away. No drama for its own sake, or manufactured arguments. Just–working together. The Avengers we hoped to get in the aftermath of the first team movie. We got ‘em, finally, even if we lost a lot too.

This all sounds super elegiac, I guess. It sort of is. It wasn’t a perfect movie by any means, but it might be perfect for what it meant to do, and what it set out to do. There were a couple of little nitpicky things that I might change, but they’re so small so as not even to be mentioned. And so many more tiny moments that I loved, loved, loved. It’s the first one of these movies that I’ve wanted to rewatch in literal years, and that’s making me really happy all on its own. I’m just left with this utter… satisfaction. Not sad, just happy that they made it worth my while.

Put another way: when I was leaving Shazam I felt like I’d spent about 4 hours wasting my time. When I was leaving Endgame, I felt like it had been an instant. Just yay, all ‘round. I loved it three thousand.

What did you think?

#ombrecoeur #avengers #endgame spoilers #...i have a sneaking feeling i could get hate for this #pls note that the views above are the sole property of etc etc #i just really liked it is all #just a lot #i keep thinking about it #keep thinking about little moments that were great #and if that isn't a satisfying movie experience idk what is

[w-m-blake]

I’m very proud of the writing I’ve done this week! Mortal Truth; and You Wish You Didn’t Ask the Question came out on Sunday; You Are Dead, My Life, and I Still Breathe came out yesterday; and I just posted the fifth chapter of The Sands of Titan! This week has been very productive! To celebrate (and because I want to know what people are interested in reading next), under the cut I’m putting the titles and short synopses of fics I’ve got on my to-do list. Message me if you want more information/want to weigh in on what to write next.

If Even Death Were Grace: “we begin in the dark/and birth is the death of us,” Anne Carson, “antigonick.” Anthony Stark, son of Howard Stark, Titan of the Forge, and Maria Carbonell, Titaness of Family and the Hearth, God of Invention, finds himself like Iphigenia, a sacrifice—a pawn—to placate the furies of other deities, for transgressions he didn’t commit. Nevertheless, he holds his chin up and walks the path to Hel, averting a war and agreeing to a marriage both. Better this than the alternative. Frostiron, retelling of Persephone and Hades (at least inspired by) with Tony in the place of Persephone and Loki as Hades.

I’m Not Playing God: (All this time, I’ve been playing human.) Frostiron, ThorBruce. Tony Stark walks out of the abandoned bunker in Siberia having awakened, realizing he was a god born to walk with humans. Rewriting from about the end of Ragnarok to Endgame.

I Hear You Whisper underneath Your Breath/I Hear You Whisper You Have Nothing Left: Tony wakes from nightmares of a life he can hardly imagine, a life where he’s left behind in a freezing bunker by an enemy wearing Steve Rogers’ face. Loki tries to comfort him, to distract him from these visions, but they become harder and harder to ignore—until something has to give. Frostiron.

Desiring More Yet: Harley Keener is always hungry, always starving, always looking for the next thing to drive his teeth into. He burns through ideas, through petty lovers, through inventions and motivations and addictions, looking for something—anything—that will satisfy him. He was hungry before leaving Rose Hill, his hunger driving him to New York, and he's still hungry even now, even cared for and loved by Tony and Pepper, even in this place that was supposed to be everything that he wanted. Perhaps it was some kind of idle dream, expecting thing new place to be all that he wanted, all that he needed.It did, at least, provide more distractions from his hunger than Rose Hill, Tennessee did. Peter Parker is content with what he has. Most of the time, at least. Sure, sometimes he's a little lonely—but Aunt May, Ned, MJ, Tony, Pepper, they're all there for him, just a phone call or a text away at their farthest. Sure, sometimes he carries this guilt from not doing enough, not being enough, failing people—but he's Spiderman, and he can't afford to get too down, because he's got other people counting on him. He pulls through. Sure, sometimes, the night is so big and dark and he feels like it's so empty it's going to swallow him whole, but Karen's in his ear all night, keeping him going. He's fine. Really. Maybe he's not as fine as he wants to be. Parkner.

One-Part Sadness, Two-Parts Tragedy: a Harley Keener character study told in three parts: the first is his time in Rose Hill, the second his transition from Rose Hill to NYC with Tony and Pepper’s help, and the third NYC post-Endgame. Major character death, no happy ending.

Warfare and a Man at War: a Tony Stark character study that will be a series, beginning with Warfare and a Man at War, followed by Of Gods and Men and concluding with In Hope and Fear. Warfare and a Man at War will focus on human conflict, the struggles of human war and its effects. Of Gods and Men will be the introduction of aliens and Other threats, justified paranoia, and how one fights an outmatched battle to win. In Hope and Fear will conclude the series; it will be the end results, the conclusion, what happens to civilians once the threat is “gone.”

Brinesoaked Bodies: mermaid!au. Chapter titles: “Left Broadside onto Breaking Seas;” “The Black Hurricane;” “Worn by Winds on Every Sea;” “The Whole Uproar of the Great Sea Fell Silent;” “Serenity that Calms the Weather;” “Brinesoaked Bodies.”

Insensible Shades: a Rapunzel/Tangled au meets Orpheus/Eurydice. Harley is the stolen child of King Anthony and Queen Virginia. Peter, a thief/vigilante dubbed “Spiderman,” is on the run from the kingdom’s guards—a misunderstanding, he insists—and comes across a tower. He takes Harley to see the lanterns, initially rather unwillingly, only to accidentally drag Harley into the mess of his non-legal affairs. Peter sacrifices himself to save Harley; Harley, in turn, becomes like Orpheus and travels to Hel to trade for Peter. Parkner, angst with a happy ending.

Boyfriend Clothes: Harley Keener lives in the same dorm as his friend, Peter Parker. They aren’t the closest—Ned Leeds and Michelle Jones definitely take up more of Peter’s time than Harley does—but they share physics and engineering courses, and both work as personal interns for Tony Stark—which is kind of code for Tony pseudo-adopting the young geniuses. Harley’s best friend is Shuri. She laughs at how Harley gushes over Peter—so long as he isn’t around. In turn, Harley teases Shuri for how she stammers around MJ. They’re both disaster gays. One night, Harley sees Peter walking to/from the bathroom (or something similar in the dorm) in pajama bottoms (shorts, which barely come past the shirt he’s wearing over them) and a giant fleece button down. It reached down almost to his mid-thigh and hung off his shoulder a little, the top button undone so the shirt was open to about his mid-sternum. Harley took this as obvious evidence that Peter now had a boyfriend (maybe even staying in his room that very night) and had to get to the bottom of it; he had to at least know who Peter was with—if only for the purposes of moving on. Parkner, college!au, no powers, silly fluff & humor, shenanigans.

Untitled #1: In order to keep the Time Stone from Thanos, Stephen Strange liquefies it (the way that the Reality Stone becomes Aether) and places it inside the only one on Titan who has withstood an infinity stone before: Tony. Thanos retreats temporarily to plan again; Tony must learn to use his newly-gained magic before he returns in order to save the universe.

Untitled #2: Disturbances occurring in the magical “ley lines” or Circumstances lead to Stephen investigating the multiverse; the disturbances aren’t coming from within this universe, or perhaps even any specific universe. They seem to be coming from all universes and none of them at the same time; it’s the roots of Yggdrasil, shaking with anticipation for whatever is on its way. A horror lurks in the void between Yggdrasil’s roots, and Stephen has to locate and banish it. Frostironstrange, Ironstrange, multiple universes, alternate timelines, horror/lovecraftian horror.

Untitled #3: Space pirates. The Ironfam (Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce, Peter, Harley, Morgan) are on the run from the imperial rule of the SHIELD system upon Tony, Rhodey, and Bruce discovering the way their military employers maintain and gain power. They’re pursued by a small task-force (Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Sam; Phil is their handler) from SHIELD and the Winter Soldier, a ship from the HYDRA system (once a colony of SHIELD which revolted and is now in the throes of a Reign of Terror, French revolution style) commandeered by a (brain-washed) captain proficient at hiding his ship using comets and ice rock fields. (The Winter Soldier is captained by James Barnes, a spy sent by SHIELD to keep an eye on HYDRA, only to fall into their hands.) The Winter Soldier has commands to capture Tony, Rhodey, and Bruce for their military & scientific knowledge. Yggdrasil is a system far enough from SHIELD and HYDRA that neither know of it; it’s ruled by Odin, king of Asgard and conqueror of Jotunheimr, Vanaheimr, Alfheim, Muspell, Svartalfheim, Niflheim, and Nidavellir. Loki was taken from Jotunheimr when it was the last planet to be subdued by Asgard, being the furthest planet from the system’s star; Odin intends on making Loki the ambassador for the Jotuns, knowing that they still mourn the loss of their prince. Loki doesn’t take this well when he finds out; his mother Freyja helps him to flee. Odin sends Thor after him to capture him “on grounds of treason.” Stephen Strange flees the Sanctum Sanctorum System when his planet, Kamar-Taj, is invaded by the rapidly-spreading empire Dormammu. The Ancient One had been grooming Stephen for taking her position as the protector of Kamar-Taj once she had stepped down, but Kaecilius, a jealous pupil of hers, aided Dormammu in infiltrating Kamar-Taj’s defenses as what he saw as retribution for being looked over for the position. The Ancient One, worried for the fate of the people she protects (not necessarily governs, though almost every government on Kamar-Taj recognized her as an influential power), sent Stephen away, having one of her trusted advisers, Wong, take him from the system. Kaecilius hears of the plot to sneak Stephen off the planet before the Dormammu forces could invade, and he attempts to prevent their escape. This fails, but Stephen does gain the favor of the Cloak of Levitation in this fight. Stephen and Wong escape, bringing the Cloak. Stephen intends on someday returning to rid Kamar-Taj of Dormammu rule, but he has a lot to learn from Wong and the universe first. All of these plotlines intersect, threading through, around, and with one another. Polycule: Tony, Pepper, Rhodey, Bruce. Eventual additions of Frostironstrange and ThorBruce

Untitled #4: sick!fic; I have the list of headcanons/ideas here. Parkner. Cute & fluffy, featuring trans Peter with an unidentified but minor sickness and Harley being a good boyfriend.

Untitled #5: Stardust!au. Part One: Tony Stark leaves Wall to explore the land beyond it which beckons him, but only for a short time, with people depending on him back home. He falls for an imprisoned fae, attempts to free him, but ultimately fails and must return to Wall. Not long after, the watcher of the wall brings him a child in a wicker basket named Harley. Part Two: Eighteen years later, Harley Keener is infatuated with a girl named Victoria. He, trying to win her hand over her other suitor, E.J., promises to bring her a star that they see falling from the sky. He expects something like a precious stone; he, instead, meets Peter. They get dragged into an adventure running from star-eating warlocks, meeting lightning-catching pirates—who always make sure to dock frequently, so their captain can see his alchemist spouse—and a wild scramble for a throne that seems to have no viable heir. (Whether the fae is Loki or Stephen, I haven’t yet decided. Weigh in if you have a preference.) Parkner, ThorBruce, either Frostiron or Ironstrange.

Beyond these, I have my NaNoWriMo story (rough hands//soft hearts) and my Clint Barton Bingo card.

#my work #update #okay I'm rlly happy about the SoT chapter ?? so i wanted to celebrate #& I also rlly like talking about what I'm working on #partially because it makes me think about it so I'm more likely to get it done sooner #but I also am just rlly excited to write them #!!

[metalgearkong]

Avengers: Endgame - Review

5/6/19 **SPOILERS**

Directed by Joe & Anthony Russo (Marvel Studios/Disney)

The original Iron Man came out a year after I turned 18 and graduated high school. Effectively, the Marvel Cinematic Universe began as soon as I started my adult life, each film acting like 2 or 3 checkpoints every year, always giving me something to look forward to. While I haven’t loved or liked every movie so far, the MCU has been incredibly consistent, slowly increasing in quality on average as time goes on, not to mention having that sentimental factor of facing the world along side it. Scale has also increased in these films over time, seeing more and more team-up movies with larger and larger casts crammed on screen. Endgame is the biggest super hero movie of all time, and not just based on box office earnings, but based on fan expectations, concluding such an incredible saga.

The Russo brothers have been a godsend to the MCU, directing what are most of the top tier entries so far, including The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Infinity War, and now Endgame. While Infinity War was essentially Thanos’ story, Endgame shifts perspective back to the heroes, picking up the pieces and desperately trying to undo what Thanos accomplished. Endgame is sometimes overwhelming (in a good way), with several instances catching myself holding my breath. One of the best things about this film is the level of pay-off it gives for those who have followed the series since the beginning. While I don’t think I enjoyed it more than Infinity War, Endgame is certainly one of the biggest super hero movies of all time, but sometimes the logic of the story detracts from the emotion and memorable moments of the film.

The movie picks up 5 years after Thanos’ genocide. The remaining Avengers discover a possibility to use the quantum realm (Ant-Man’s shrinking machines) to go back in time and collect the infinity jewels before Thanos does. While this is a “time travel” movie, I like the explanation that Bruce Banner gives that you simply cannot just go back to an earlier time and change the current present; going back in time is like visiting an alternate dimension where what you do does affect that timeline, but yours when you go back continues as its been. This essentially takes care of the “grandfather paradox” of why you couldn’t just go to the past, kill Hitler, changing history for the better. You could tell the writers of this film anticipated question most theater-goers would ask, like “why not just go back and kill Thanos as a baby?” and things like that. 

After being rescued from space by Captain Marvel, Tony Stark has officially retired from being an Avenger. He understandably has lost the battle, and resides to live his life with Pepper Potts and their 5 year old Morgan. Tony’s home life and dynamics with his daughter are some of my favorite moments in the movie, as it further humanizes Tony, and offers even more deconstruction of super heroes this series is known for. When the other Avengers think of a possible way to fix everything, I actively wanted them to leave Tony alone and let him have his earned life of peace, even if half the universe was killed off. But, being the guilty genius he is, he can’t fully let it go, and works with quantum tech to make a time machine for the heroes to use. Quickly, they develop a plan to split off and go to different teams and time periods, and retrieve the infinity jewels from their original known locations.

Seeing the current Avengers physically revisit famous scenes from prior movies was incredibly satisfying and felt like an appropriate use of fan service. Some of the best scenes of the entire movie are current heroes accidentally meeting up with themselves in the past, or accidentally coming across people they miss dearly. One of the scenes that come to mind are Steve Rogers meeting his younger self during the events of The Avengers (2012), and the ensuing duel. It instantly reminded me of playing a fighting game with your friend, but you’ve both picked the same character. It was one of the most and creative and clever moments of the movie. The other best time travel moment easily goes to Tony revisiting the 1940′s and having a hear to heart with his unwitting father, getting closure and a feeling for full circle his character didn’t even know he needed.

One one the complaints I do have about the story is that Thanos is no longer the same Thanos from Infinity War. When problems emerge during Nebula’s trip to the past, Thanos from that time period learns that someday he is successful in using the infinity jewels to wipe out half the universe. Through convoluted events, he is able to travel to the future (Endgame’s present) where he faces the Avengers head-on for trying to spoil his plans. This means the Thanos of this film (B) isn’t the same Thanos as in Infinity War (A), as he hasn’t done anything from those events yet, nor has any history with the heroes. Thanos B also seems to have a more malevolent and less complex attitude about using the infinity jewels, and comes off more as a typical bad guy, and less of a complex emotional psychopathic environmentalist, which is what made his character so interesting in the first place.

The other major issue I have with the film is its seemed to shoot itself in the foot with all the time travel multiverses. The movie feels like it breaks its own rules for the sake of the big emotional character scene at the very end. I’m of course referring to “Old Cap” and how he somehow went back to the past to live out his life with Peggy Carter, yet was able to show up back in Endgame’s timeline as an aged man to pass off his shield to Falcon. Once he went into the past, he, by this movie’s own rules, cannot appear back in the regular timeline because visiting the past is basically a parallel universe. What makes it doubly bad is that it’s not in Cap’s character to simply allow the world to go through the turmoil it did while standing aside through all of it. Don’t even get me started on how this would have affected Peggy’s life and the entire conception of SHIELD. If someone can explain to me how this was all possible, please do, otherwise, it felt like either a genuine mistake, or more likely, the movie bending its own rules for the sake of a payoff (which left me scratching my head and took the emotional impact completely out of the final scene of the movie).

However, I’m extremely happy with the rest of Captain America’s scenes. Aside from the scene mentioned earlier (Cap vs. Cap), his use of Thor’s hammer in the end battle was incredibly satisfying and cathartic. I’ve always felt that if anyone was “worthy” of being a good person and warrior, it was always Captain America. Why he could barely budge Thor’s hammer in Avengers: Age of Ultron is beyond me (unless he was faking it to protect Thor’s feelings). Hell, if Vision could lift the hammer, why couldn’t Cap before now? Cap also gets a lot more time on screen in general, which was nice after barely having any lines or presence in Infinity War. Hawkeye, Black Widow, and other side characters also get their best moments of the entire series combined, and it was nice to see the regular people among the Avengers still have emotionally and plot poignant scenes as good as the super heroes.

Thor’s story arch could be seen as criticisms of the film as well. While the universe in its throws of coping with half of all life disintegrated, and how that would affect hugely every aspect of life, Thor meanwhile settles for comically getting fat and doing absolutely nothing. While I still found Thor in-character and funny in this film, upon further speculation, I really wish Thor continued the high he rode after passing what was his darkest chapter in Infinity War. I thought Thor finally settled into his own, and was confused why he regressed into a gag, even if I found it humorous at first. But, I was thankful certain other characters didn’t steal the limelight, especially Captain Marvel. I still find her way too powerful and her personality wildly unlikable and inconsistent. I tried to defend her character in her own movie back in March, but seeing Brie Larson once again strutting her ego made it impossible to root for a supposed underdog. One of my greatest fears of Endgame is she’d use her power to steal the show, and overshadow the legacy of the original characters in their fight against Thanos.

Summing up every great scene or character moment in this review is impossible, and they certainly outnumber the scenes or concepts I disliked. Almost every character gets some resolution or moment in the spotlight by the end of the movie. The final words of Tony Stark, “I am Iron Man,” was a triumphant moment as it capped off the entire series so far, further establishing Tony Stark as the heart and soul of the MCU. While Tony has never been my favorite Avenger, Endgame pays huge respects to him and his accomplishments, and I was a bigger fan of him than I ever was before. Its too bad that the plot raises so many questions in my mind, especially related to time travel and alternate dimensions. Endgame has too many conveniences for the sake of a big bombastic super hero climax, and I wish some of the logical issues with the plot or characters could have been executed differently. If you have any affinity for this series, you owe it to yourself to see Endgame, and while it has many moments of pay-off and awe, it isn’t the series’ most airtight film.

8/10

#endgame #avengersendgame #thanos #joshbrolin #scarlettjohansson #blackwidow #hawkeye #jeremyrenner #incrediblehulk #brucebanner #markruffalo #tonystark #ironman #robertdowneyjr #captainamerica #chrisevans #steverogers #rocketraccoon #groot #doctorstrange #drax #gamora #loki #starlord #chrispratt #thor #chrishemsworth #fatthor #mcu #marvelcinematicuniverse

[aspiestvmusings]

THE PROBLEM WITH ENDGAME

SPOILERS, BEWARE 

This is, in my opinion, the problem with the whole plot of Endgame. And I will focus on Planet Earth in my example, even though the same was happening everywhere...on all planets of the universe...as they stated in the film. 

Including time Travel & Multi-verses & all those things in your film make me automatically find “issues” in your film. The choice leads to “problems”: 

 As the film established their one rule about “undoing the snap” - on how the time travel works in MCU & what was Tony’s condition for agreeing to make this happen... they created so many new issues. 

The film’s only rule says that they cannot change the past, and hence cannot change their “future” (nothing that happens until the snap or between the snap and that moment). There is a causality. Cause & Effect. Snap & snap aftermath. You cannot re-write history, but you can write a new future history. They cannot undo the snap, but they can do their own snap. They cannot stop Thanos making his wish, but they can make their own wish that basically undos the purple evil’s wish...from that point on. 

So... the  2018 snap happens & 50% of all living creatures (humans, animals, plants...) are gone... Thanos cuts everything in half. Randomly. 

So...the 2018 second snap (23 days later) happens. Thanos destroys the stones (but wait...what’s this the writers/directors are claiming in some interviews... Gamora is gone-gone, because with destroying the soul stone the mad titan also destroyed the soul world within it...and hence no resurrections for Gamora. This makes me ask: where were the dusted during all this time? Where did they go? How were they able to been brought back...from wherever they were? And where did Tony go in the end? Into the now atom-sized pieces of the soul stone? And since the stones still...exist...even if they’re “dust”, therefore Tony still exists within?...cause strangely enough they filmed a scene with Tony inside the soul world in the soul stone. Tony, not Nat in there. Or instead of Tony visiting Nat in there & telling her they won...it was something else they filmed?!? I think it’s good they cut that, cause it should’ve been Nat shown in there, not Morgan. Tony seeing Nat in there after he snaps... would’ve made more sense IMO)  

Everything that happens between that moment & their heist plan...happens: Pepperony married, Morgan born, Hulk + Bruce joined as one, Clint turning to Ronin, the world in ruins... before slowly trying to move on and rebuild “life”. But as we see not everyone is able to move on. We see that within our group (avengers), but the same applies to population/world as general. We are witnesses to the 5 STAGES OF GRIEF...within the team + within the whole population (via the boy on the bike & the support group members + Nat’s summary of past 5 years events - cause those are the only moments where we see/hear about the impact to the general public...) 

Some people move on and start new relationships, jobs, lives. Some can't get over it and remain stuck in the past. All in the aftermath of the 2018 Thanos snap. Also... 

Since it is basically established in the film that everyone returns to the exact place they disappeared 5 years ago (5 seconds or so for them)... it’s even more awkward. Cause things have changed...landscapes have changed since then. And since the one condition was that everything that happened in the past 5 years...doesn’t change, then that means some people find that new people are living in their home...the house they re-appeared to. Some people find out that their spouse re-married. Some find out that people close to them didn’t cope with the loss and are not there anymore. Younger siblings are now older siblings (kids...with age difference less than 5 years pre-first-snap). Jobs: missing peoples positions are placed with new people. And so on & so on... 

And let’s not even consider the circumstances of the return of the snapped ones. Of those, who were on operating tables, in airplanes (and other vehicles which had their drivers/pilots dusted)...and such situations. Unless the unsnap wish was for everyone to return not only to the exact place they were gone, but also safely (so instead of mid-air... on ground...at the same spot on Earth), it’s all kinds of...not good. Unless the unsnap wish was for the returned not to return to the exact moment they left, but just the same place (in general...so same room, but different spot, so they would not return and find themselves sitting on the lap of someone else occupying that armchair they were sitting on 5 years ago), it’s all kinds of awkward. 

Every change made...every things happening during the 5-year period happened... while the dusted were taking a 5-second/5-year nap. They return to a completely new, futuristic, world. They will find it hard to cope with the new reality. Nothing’s the same... since “original snap”. And as much as the ones who had been mourning the lost ones are happy to get them back, the return is another drastic change for them, too. The unsnapping does not fix anything besides bring back the people who disappeared. And as much as the fairytale fictional film wants to sell the disney story... that simply getting your loved ones back heals all wounds & sadness & problems.... it actually doesn’t. Nothing except turning back time... to a moment before the original snap...would fix the MCU world. But that, according to their own time-travel rules is not possible. And while they do “break” (bend) their own rules... kinda... at times... in general the rule is that nothing they do will un-do what’s already happened - any changes just create parallel timelines, in the main MCU timeline everything happens as we’ve seen in the films so far. 

Now there are about 3,7 billion people in 2023, who have the same issue in the MCU as Steve Rogers did in the MCU canon timeline in the past decade. Sure, he was "asleep” for 70 years, not just 5, and the changes he “wakes up to” are bigger than the ones that half of the population from 2018 wake up to five years later, in 2023. But... the “cultural shock” is similar - half of the population will have “Steve syndrome” in MCU. If they’d want to be honest about the snap & unsnap effects on humans. So... will the solution be...to have the returned ones, who can’t move on (some will be able to, bbut not everyone)... do what Steve did..and go live in the past of a new/different timeline), because they can’t adapt to the “present” future? 

Or in other words: (and this might sound cruel, but it’s the canon...sadly) The unsnapping did nothing else than to somewhat ease the heartbreak of those left behind. While creating new, different heartbreak. And it only served the people who were not able to move on & go through all stages of grief and move on. And yes, Tony could help them, and he did, and it’s great that they brought everyone back. But the whole reason behind the operation was some characters inability to see death as part of life. Accept that however unfair & painful... what’s done is done. They only acted because they missed their loved ones. Without taking anything else into consideration. They fixed nothing...except physically bring back those who were gone. The emotional toll...for both sides... still existed and exists. The remained ones won’t un-remember anything. The gone ones will remain unaware of the missing time. 

I keep remembering the TXF episode 7x21 “Je souhaite” (I wish...), where characters, who find a genie (in this film “who gathers the stones”), get three wishes (in this film “one wish per snap”). But if you don’t word/phrase the wish correctly, you don’t get your wish. Wishing for a boat  gets you a boat in your backyard...with no means to get it to water...hundreds of miles away. Wishing for a deceased loved ones return gives you a zombie, not the sibling you remember....cause you get them back in the condition they are now, not who they were when they were before “death”. So.. I keep thinking that unless the snap “wishes” were very specific & very selfless, they can manifest differently that the wish-maker intends to.  

Their plan was conceived & action taken only considering the emotional side of things. Their motivation came from just missing the people gone. And though they were aware of the actual ramifications & they did say “whatever it takes” (meaning they realized what’s at stake & what it might/will cost them), it was essentially a plan considering only the emotions, Even though I agree with Pepper . Tony (and the Team) could help, so he/they did. But still... 

The 2018!Thanos-snap created the first chaos within the film & the 2023!Avengers-Unsnap created the second chaos within the film. Both had huge impacts on the world. Yes, the people who were “gone”, returned, so loved ones were “returned”, physically, but while everyone got everyone else back... the film did not portray the reality of it - it isn’t the same - it’s “awkward” (to put it mildly) either way. Plus... the 2018!Thanos 2nd Snap possibly also created an issue in the MCU Main Timeline (the stones keep the reality & timeline in check...removing them can lead to all kinds of issues & imbalance... so destroying them/reducing them to “small bits” (atoms) could create more issues for the timeline (maybe this caused that the FFH trailer claims happened...  -- multiverse...) 

Based on their own rules they could not have returned to the past...before the Infinity War events... cause nothing that they could have done would have changed anything in their timeline... cause you can’t change the past... going back will just create an alternate timeline where they make those changes, while things stay as they were in their own past...cause you can’t go into your own past to make changes... They also can’t go to a time between the two Thanos snaps in 2018 (that were 23 days apart)...because of the films time travel rules. And these rules are also why they can’t ”turn back time” using the time stone... at the end of Endgame... cause doing what Thanos did with Vision in A3 for Tony in A4 would’ve meant that by saving Tony they would also undo his snap & their victory over the bad guys. So the end result was a constant... and the story to get there was crafted to fit that one ending they had in mind. The writers had decided that one thing had to happen (Tony’s sacrifice) - everything else was written to get us there, everything else was done so that there’d be no other options. This was all clear and well explained in the film. 

Thanos plan in general was silly/stupid - his intention was obviously not noble (save the resources so that the remaining living beings could strive), but just to destroy. Cause otherwise he'd doubled the resources instead....for example. Also... by cutting earth’s population to half... he only took the planet back to 1970s or so... (current population: 7.5 billion VS 3,7 billion then). He totally didn’t count for reproduction... (sure, for endangered species...it doesn’t matter, but all other species, including humans... life continues... with new generations & population growth) His plan was only changing the scales for that one particular moment. He would have been in the same situation soon. If he really was the genius he’s supposed to be, then he’d figured that one out before the snap. Population regrowth. It’s a thing. So his plan was always stupid. It made no sense to me... not real-world sense, not superhero fiction sense. 

Same with his second plan - destroying the stones. If the stones are necessary to keep the universe “functioning”,  then destroying them would mean destroying the Universe. Which was against the A3 Thanos motto - balance. I didn’t believe his  claims & always saw him as a destroyer, but if we’d take his words as the truth.. But if they are just turned to “dust” (reduced to atoms), then they still exists, therefore can still be used. Someone just has to invent the technology to collect the stone “atoms” & recretate the stones and/or use them in their current state (since thsi is fiction, you can write anything you want...) So since the main timeline still seems to exist, and you need the stones to do that...it means they work even when they’re reduced to atoms. So... for me the whole premise of the infinity saga falls apart... because it makes no sense (and I am aware that I’m thinking & expecting things to make sense, while watching some superhero fiction, but I can’t help myself)

And what some don’t realize from the film is that in the end Thanos did manage to do exactly what he said he’d do. Cause while Tony might’ve won..and turned him into dust in return... the purple evil really was inevitable..in some ways. Because while the whole universe isn’t 50% smaller, he managed to cut the Team Avengers into half - 3 original characters gone (Tony, Nat, Steve), 3 remaining (Clint, Bruce, Thor) And on top of that...he managed to take the team apart - Thor went to travel the universe with GotG, Clint went back to “retirement” with his family & Bruce is just enjoying eating ice-cream & taking selfies with kids, while being injured..probably forever. So... he managed to reduce the Avengers universe in half... seemingly, while really taking it completely apart. 

Yes, everyone who was dust turned back to humans, but at what cost? It cost...everything. It cost Tony’s life. It cost Nat’s life. It cost the team (though they were never a team...because they never got to really turn into a united family...for more than a few moments during battles). It cost them everything. High price to pay...to be able to have your friends back. (Not that anyone wouldn’t do the same to save their kid, parent, spouse, friend... But still...) 

ETA: And based on “Spiderman: Far From Home” trailer the new chaos created by the unsnap (5 years after the original chaos created by the original snap) isn’t the only issue. Either the infinity stones “missing” (turned/reduced into atoms..therefore making them useless for any future snapping...but apparently still making it possible for them to keep the main timeline in order... but maybe not as well as in their original form) or in the wrong form (atoms/cosmic dust instead of stones/gems) or just simply messing with time & space during their time travels... they have created more issues (between the universes created). << this only applies if the FFH trailer isn’t misleading. 

#SPOILER #endgamespoiler #endgamespoilers #endgame spoiler #endgame spoilers #ffhspoiler #ffh spoiler #Avengers 4 #Avengers: Endgame #Avengers Endgame #MY THOUGHTS #LIST POST #LONG POST