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nocek · 3 years

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Don't spare us the long rant! We want to hear your thoughts!

Oh you are going to regret this ;P

So here goes my loooooooong angry rant about Taskmaster and also the Black Widow movie in general.

Let's start with my point of comparison. Captain America the Winter Soldier was a good movie. It's still in my top 3 Marvel movies as I'm sure is for many people. And statistically speaking everybody likes Bucky. He is like the most beloved side character right after Loki. I guess.

Anyway. My point is that Taskmaster and Winter Soldier have bit for bit the exact same building blocks: hypercompetent antagonist that is a serious threat to our hero who just can't win with in one on one combat. But then plot twist: our antagonist was just a victim and puppet without free will in hands of actual villain who is bland bureaucrat.

So why did Winter Soldier worked really really well and Taskmaster was just ehh.. ok?

Well the short answer is that catws was a much tighter movie that had clearer goal (and also that goal/theme was singular: good things get corrupted with time and sometimes you get to start over) compared to black widow which had to jump through too many hoops and still somehow managed it but it wasn't as graceful as it would be if they (as in executives) resigned from one or two hoops and flips and explosions.

And I'm omitting a BIG disadvantage of making a prequel movie about a character that they killed off in shitty way. Though that created one of extra hoops for them to jump through: quickly build up Yelena as a character.

And character build they did. Because srsly Yelena is awesome and I love her. BUT. That came at a price.

Lets compare to catws. The new character there is Sam (and kiiiiiiiinda also Natasha a bit but that's a topic for a different rant) who is nowhere near as well build as Yelena. At the beginning. Because he had time to be fleshed out and naturally grow in few different movies and then we got a deep dive in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But Marvel can't give Yelena few movies because she will appear in Hawkguy an Hawkeye series and also Marvel is generally dividing their assets into: outer spaaaace, down to earth heros and magic stuff (aliens, androids and wizards ;P). But also they can only create so many things in a year.

So yeah. Yelena offtopic can be summarized that I love that we have her as we have her but it came at a cost of air time of the movie.

So comparing the movies again:

Catws had the theme of good things being corrupted with time. And the theme was underlined 3 times through Peggy, Bucky and then Shield/Hydra. Which are interconnected and also make nice scale from inner conflict of the main character to the outer conflict of the movie.

In Black Widow there is the topic of the past evil that never went away and is still taking away free will from people. And again we have it shown through 3 outlets: Yelena, Taskmaster and Black Widows. But there is also whole family subplot attached to Yelena and there is Red Room attached to Black Widows. So as you can see things are getting crowded. Which in turn make the theme a bit blurry.

I mean, sure, the Red Room should be the Shield equivalent. Even it could take smaller space because good Shield turns out to be evil Hydra is generally more time consuming to explain than Red Room bad. But still combining Red Room and Black Widows make things a bit crowded.

(There is a reason why the surprise subplot of there is more Winter Soldiers was in separate movie and was kinda handwaved and cut to minimum. But they couldn't do that here).

But it's time to stop my ranting about whole Black Widow movie and focus on comparing Taskmaster and Winter Soldier.

Because to be honest both are bare bones of character and more of an carte blanche in the movie. Both have barely any screen time yet there are colossal difference which stems out of:

first introduction: as I mentioned they are hypercompetent and unstoppable threat that you can't win with, you can only hope to run away (both done equally well)

programmable killing machine:

For Taskmaster we just get a scene with her watching other heroes fighting at the screen. For the sake of building up the mystery of character we think that "he" is just watching. Maybe learning or more likely just being creepy. The information about the chip and literal programming is given to us much later in the movie which makes this scene lose the power. idk how it will work on rewatch? Maybe better? Hopefully. right now there is too many new movies in cinemas to go for a rewatch and disney+ still isn't available here -.-

For Bucky we have literal torture scene. You just can't be more blunt than that. It also hammered the next point in.

there is human behind the mask:

Winter Soldier is introduced with full face mask which he gradually loses and then we have the big reveal of not only: that's a human but also that's a human our main hero cares about deeply.

With Taskmaster they fucked up it for chap plot twist. We are learning quite late that oh snap that's Antonia (that we don't really care about) and our main hero kinda feels guilty about her.

I think the big difference is what kind of character Steve and Nat are and also the way they reveal this secret. Steve actively recognizes Bucky by himself and is very openly shocked. Nat is passively told and shown that hey, this is Antonia. And there is no time in the movie for Nat (and for us) to be shocked because that's the 3rd act and we need time for explosions and stuff.

Besides, the problem is that all the big plot twist reveals are boring on rewatch (stil big props for Pacific Rim and giving us the monster reveal in like second minute of the movie, I will never not appreciate that).

Also on related shitty note. We the audience. Bucky is handsome and vulnerable and we can drool all over him (and oh man, we the fandom did a fair share of drooling). Antonia is disfigured and not sexualized in any way. Which I'm actually grateful for but there is no pretending that doesn't make a hell lot of difference. But that's a whole different, ugly and big topic I'm not remotely qualified to write about. I'm just angry ranting here.

they don't have free will:

For Winter Soldier we have amnesia + torture tropes which to be honest have been done over and over again and it shouldn't have worked as well as it worked. Bit it did. In context of Black Widow movie it worked because it was just one guy that actively broke through brainwashing with active help of the hero.

In Black Widow there is a lot of characters that are pasively "woken up" out of mind control over and over again by active protagonist. Unfortunately the repetition kinda cheapens it. Especially in comparison to main gut punch right in the feels scene in the other movie. Which is why it's not fair to compare the two.

So lets talk about lack of free will aspect itself. To be honest the mind control aspect in Black Widow was done really great from story perspective. Evil scientists perfected it to the point it being (bit handwavey but) completely impersonal but also completely dehumanizing to the subject. So I'm buying that it can be completely switched off in equally efficient and impersonal way. Even the way they explained it with Alexei the pig was great and terrifying... to a point. Because then kicked the main problem with this movie. Clearly some execs came and saw it and went whoa... that's too dark for pg13 blockbuster. Let's put some cheap jokes here. And it happens over and over again in this movie :S

humanizing flashback scene that ties them to main hero:

For Bucky, sure we had Captain America First Avenger but a movie needs to stand on it's own legs. That's why we have the flashback scene which shows us that Bucky cared about Steve. Leaving it at the narration in Smithsonian of "best friends since childhood" would be just telling us. And we needed to be shown and we needed a space for the "till the end of line" so it could come back and stab us right in the feels.

Also because we are ignoring previous movie Russos cleverly made us care about Winter Soldier because Steve cares about Winter Soldier. And we already know and like Steve so building up our main character gives us more mileage out of new bare bones character (because let's be honest, Winter Soldier is just that). Two birds one stone thing.

In Black Widow there is no such thing which IMHO is the main reason Taskmaster doesn't work. We just get information about cardboard cutout: insert cute little girl here (only told, not even shown actual cardboard) and all of the emotional connection to Natasha is: I know that my boss that I hate has a daughter, she got in the crossfire. Which means nobody cares.

All it would take is adding a short flashback scene. idk Dreykov is an asshole and doesn't care about Antonia but she is she cutest and most adorable little girl. She treats the Black Widows as older sisters. Hell if you want to make it more horrorish copy of the idea of Thor wanting to be a Valkyrie when he grows up or T'challa wanting to be a Dora Milaje. Little Antonia wants to be Black Widow when she grows up because they are badass and they are nice to her (and are also slightly confused by her) because she is nice to them and is only person that treats them as humans. Hell we could have short interaction between her and Nat. Just a smile between them would be enough.

You could get a lot of character buildup mileage out of such a short scene.

But it couldn't happen partially because the movie didn't have time for that but we didn't get that mostly because it would show us instead of telling that Nat killed a cute little innocent girl for her own personal gain. (well she thought she was destroying Red Room but mostly wanted to get away - vide she didn't check on Yelena or other widows. But I wouldn't hold that against her. It was put your oxygen mask first kind of situation. But still it would make her look bad)

Besides, that would take guts to actually show.

And technically they could have afforded to have that guts. That was last movie with Nat anyway. It would actually make this plotline about her feeling guilty about Dreykov's daughter and red in her ledger work. But well... It was last movie so they wanted to leave us with the most goodest and bleeding hartest and heartwarming mary sue version of Nat with just telling us without showing hey, she got dark past.

On the other hand if we had the rumored Endgame plotline of Nat running an orphanage. Damn that would tie to this plotline so well. We could tie the loose widows also. Dam we were robbed here I tell ya >.<

Ok I'm overdoing offtopic about Nat. Sorry

design

So yeah. Design wise Winter Soldier is like great. For Taskmaster, she sure looks cool but also kinda generic? If in 10 years you'd show me her and say it's antagonist from GI Joe or something I'll believe you :S (not touching the debate that in comics something something because unfortunately I don't know Taskmaster from comics. Although I hear that few recent ones were quite good so I'll check them out sooner or later)

snapping out of mind control

I mentioned before. It would be unfair and there is no point comparing main emotional scene of the movie versus means to an end that were repeated several times through a movie.

Natasha freeing Antonia even if she thought that Antonia will kill her because that would fair was great. What I'm annoyed is a cheap fakeout that went with that. It was just after the bombastic finale with explosions and all the cgi shit. Even without looking at the movie runtime it was obvious there will be no extra fight scene.

In catws it worked because the cgi pew pew extravaganza was a background noise and was part of a continuous fight. In BW helicarriers fell already, there was a second of dust settling and then Nat throws away the shield (uses that capsule). Tension just fell from highest place in a movie (quite literally lol), trying to rise it again for such a short moment just doesn't work.

But that's the general problem with Marvel movies. Bombastic CGI fest as grand finale that probably is "outsourced" and then actual director comes back and needs to end movie super quickly.

disappearing act at the end

So in catws there is mystery of what will Bucky do. We are given some hope since he dragged Steve out of river and visited the museum but thats all. I mean there is this annoying Marvel thing of skipping over the interesting ending of last movie and starting with next plot point. We were hoping for the grand roadtrip/hunt for Bucky but nope. We must run ahead with all the plotlines (same way I'm sure that the Spiderman is Peter Parker and he killed a guy thing will be already dealt with in the beginning of the next movie -.-) But that's bonus mini rant.

In BW they needed to wrap up to many plot lines too quickly so Antonia wakes up and that's all. We don't get a suggestion what she may do. The problem of the chip she still has installed is omitted. There is nothing. She just fucks off to lalaland with other Black Widows the end. Because we needed ending for Nat's actual family which was ok but also kinda rushed.

As I mentioned waaaay before (god, this rant is pretty long) too many hoops to jump through.

Which really sucks because if they added that one flashback scene just for Antonia and spared few more minutes for the overall ending it would work so much more better.

And I even know where they could have saved few minutes (besides the explosions thingies). The supply guy. One extra character in a movie with too many characters. In catws the supply problem (with wings) was solved with nbd shrug. If you wanted to show that Nat has her own web of contacts it should be more than one guy. IDK in Budapest there could be 10 second scene with neighbor saying hi nice to see you again we reinforced the walls after last time. In Norway we could see her visiting some special secret supply stash run by some rando before getting to the mobile home.

But oh she was on the run so that would be too many people. Then cut the people entirely. The shitty helicopter can be worked around with joke that I'm not on speaking terms with Stark rn and that's the best we can have on short notice.

Eh.. side rant again. Sorry.

So to wrap it up. I actually really would love to see what will happen with the loose Black Widows and Antonia because here they were really underdeveloped. And while widows were more of a group hero and we have Yelena as a representative so in a way it balances out but Taskmaster needed so little extra care to make her character so much better and I'm a tiiiiiiny bit salty about it.

#text post #long post #very long rant #black widow #black widow spoilers #black widow movie #black widow 2021 #taskmaster #antonia dreykov #i kinda doubt we will see her again #but one can hope #if anyone actually read through all of this congratz!#and thank you #let me hug you #(and I'm sorry it's so long)

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marvelslut16 · 4 years

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Even teachers can be stupid

Prompt number: 6 “that was impressive”

Fandom: Marvel

Paring: Chubby!Bucky x reader (teacher au)

Rating: T

Word count: 2.5k (this is a lot longer than I originally planned. Whoops.)

Warnings: Insecure Bucky/ self deprecation based on chub. Brock Rumlow being the grade a asshole that he is. Swearing.

A/N: I apparently only write for Bucky now, lmao. I think I liked this one more in my head.

Teaching high schoolers isn’t easy; trying to teach thirty plus rowdy students six times a day for forty-five minutes each is quite possibly the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life. As they say, the rewarding things are rarely easy. Each year you get one or two students that are truly affected by your teachings, inspiring them for life. And that makes all the late night grading and putting up with bad behavior worth it.

What helps you get through each painstakingly long day is the lunch break you share with your best friends, and fellow history teachers; Steve Rogers and James ‘Bucky’ Barnes. Steve teaches U.S. history, Bucky teaches world history, and you teach civics. Some days you talk about your students, others you talk about some tv show one of you watched the night before, and sometimes you each ask advice on questions for the tests you're writing.

“Peter Parker was attempting to flirt with MJ in the middle of my class today,” Bucky shares, making the three of you laugh. Peter Parker and MJ are both extremely smart, taking all three of your guys’ classes. Peter’s adorable, but you’ve seen how bad his flirting can be when he was into another student Liz a few years back.

“Are we surprised he was flirting?” Steve cackles at his own joke before he can even finish it. “Tony is his mentor after all.”

You and Bucky join Steve in his laughter, you glance at the brunette admiring the way his smile lights up his whole face and the cute jiggle the little bit of gut he has does. You can feel Steve’s knowing smirk as he notices your lovestruck gaze, he’s been teasing you relentlessly for the past two years about the feelings you so obviously have for his childhood best friend.

“What are you doing this weekend, (Y/N/N)?” Bucky asks, but before you can respond someone cuts in.

“She’s gonna be with me this weekend, tubby,” Brock smirks cockily, stepping behind you and resting his hand on your shoulder.

“In your dreams Rumlow,” you grit out, removing his hand from your shoulder and scooting closer to Bucky.

Brock Rumlow; gym teacher, the office flirt per say, he grew up with Steve and Bucky in Brooklyn and bullied the blonde the entire time they’ve known each other, and overall grade A asshole. He also clearly doesn’t understand the word no, you’ve rejected him at least twenty times in the two years he’s worked here with you and yet he never leaves you alone.

“You’re already in them gorgeous,” he winks at you, Bucky’s hands curl into fists under the table. He’s fighting the urge to finally let go and punch Brock in the face, like he did countless times growing up when he’d pick on Steve.

“You’re revolting,” you glare at him, turning to face Bucky you smile warmly at him. “I’m probably just going to grade some papers, drink some wine and eat some ice cream. Why, what’s up?”

“I well,” he eyes Brock, who’s hovering just behind you. “I was wondering if you wanted to go out?”

“Like a date?” your eyes light up with hope, reaching forward you grasp his forearm.

“Yeah,” he smiles bashfully at the floor, before meeting your eyes again. “I was thinking Wanda’s on Saturday, I’ll meet you there at seven?”

“Perfect,” you beam at him, squeezing his arm lightly. “It’s a date.”

Bucky excuses himself not long after the interaction, needing to go make some copies before the next period. He gives your hand a quick squeeze with the parting words, “I’ll see you later, doll.” You grin like an idiot watching him leave the breakroom, Steve watching the both of you with a large grin.

“Well, that was impressive,” Brock takes Bucky’s recently abandoned seat, grabbing the legs of your chair and pulling you into his side. “I even believed you for a second, having the poor fat ass think you actually want to go out with him. You’re totally gonna stand him up, aren’t you?”

“What are you talking about?” you stand from your seat, Brock’s hold on the chair keeping you from moving it away.

You create a fist with your hand, hiding it behind your back so Brock doesn’t see how much he riled you up. You absolutely hate how he speaks about Bucky, focusing his attention on the few pounds Bucky’s gained over the years you’ve known him. Admittedly Bucky did have abs when you met him, having done boxing almost his entire life, but work started to swamp him and he couldn’t make it to the gym like he used to putting a few pounds on. But you like the little bit of chub more than the abs, there’s something undeniably hot with his body, especially when he’s confident in it.

“You think Sam would give him some exercises to do or something,” Sam Wilson, another gym teacher and fellow friend.

The legs to Steve’s chair screech as he stands and gets ready to lunge across the circular table. You put your hand on Steve’s chest to keep him from doing something he’ll regret, or at least keep him from doing something that’ll get him arrested. You glance at the door to the breakroom thinking you hear footsteps in the hallway, but no ones there when you look.

“Shut the fuck up Rumlow,” both men’s eyes widen at you, you’re normally calm and collected when he pisses you off. The few teachers in the room with you watch on quietly, some in awe that you’re finally going to tell the asshole off, and the rest just happy that someone will finally knock Brock down a few pegs. “I can handle your constant flirting when I’ve asked you multiple times to leave me alone. But I won’t sit here and let you be an ass to James. He’s the sweetest, most considerate man I’ve ever met, and I won’t allow you to say what you want about him unchecked. He makes you feel small-”

“Yeah, cause his gut is so fucking huge,” he laughs, looking around the room to find a colleague to agree with him but no one does.

“Shut. Up. Rumlow.” with each word you take a menacing step towards him. “You’re an ass to him because you know he’s better than you in every way. He’s kind, smart, sweet, thoughtful, and handsome. Everything you aren’t. So fuck off and leave his name out of your mouth. Or next time I won’t hold Stevie back, in fact I’ll join him in beating your ass.”

You’re about to leave when you notice Bucky left his travel mug on the table, grabbing it you head to the social studies office. Upon arriving you see that the copies Bucky needed to get are sitting on his desk, which is beside yours, but there’s no Bucky in sight. You let out a small sigh, you wanted to see him one last time before class starts.

At the end of the day Bucky isn’t waiting in the office for you and Steve like normal, instead his bag and jacket are missing from his desk. Maybe he’s nervous about the date, you think to yourself. There’s no other reason he wouldn’t be waiting for you. You try texting him a few times the rest of the night, only to be met with radio silence. You text Steve and ask him if he's heard from Bucky, and apparently he’s only receiving one word answers.

The next day you start getting ready for your date at three in the afternoon, it’s way too early but you want to look perfect for him. You spend an hour and a half trying to figure out your hair, an hour on your makeup, and two hours trying on every single thing in your closet. You finally settle on a lace royal blue dress, it has a v-neck and cap sleeves. It’s Bucky’s favorite color.

You leave your house at six thirty, arriving at Wanda’s a little early. But you don’t care if you seem eager, because you are. You finally get to go out with James! Bucky’s never late, so when seven comes and goes and he’s not there you’re shocked. You sit at your table like a fool until eight-thirty, the hostess and your waiter giving you looks of pity. James stood you up.

You spend the rest of the weekend sulking and eating lots of ice cream. You fall further behind on your grading but you don’t care, Bucky hasn’t reached out to you. You refuse to text or call first, expecting him to call and apologize profusely and say there was some mix up. But he doesn’t and he won’t.

You arrive at work on Monday right before first period starts, you know it’s unprofessional but you don’t know if you can face Bucky yet. When third period rolls around, which you have off, you head to Steve’s room to talk to him. His students are taking a test that period, so you know he can step away. You lightly knock on the door, opening it so you’re half in the room and half in the hall.

“Sorry for interrupting you guys, you smile at his students who looked up from their test to see who was at the door. “I need to borrow Mr. Rogers for a minute.”

“Get back to work,” he tells his students, though his gaze remains on you. “And eyes on your own paper Flash.” You step back into the hall, Steve soon joining you and shutting the door so no nosey student can over hear.

“Have you talked to Bucky?” you ask him nervously.

“That’s why you pulled me out of class?” Steve lets out an exasperated sigh and leans on a set of lockers. “To talk about your date?”

“He stood me up Steve,” tears start to make their way to the surface, you thought you had cried all of your tears this weekend, but apparently not.

“What?” Steve’s in shock, he can’t believe that Bucky would do that. “There has to have been some mistake.”

“I looked like an idiot!” you whisper shout, mindful that Bucky’s classroom is next to Steve’s. “I was sitting there waiting for an hour and a half before the pity from the employees became too much to handle and I went home. He never called me, never texted. Stevie, I don't know what I did.”

The talking in Bucky’s classroom stops, footsteps growing near the door. Bucky opens it a crack, but you can’t bear seeing him so you stare at your feet and the gross linoleum under them. He tells his students to read ahead without him, stepping out and shutting his door behind him.

“I thought I heard voices out here, did you two need something?” Steve’s brows furrow at how cold Bucky’s being, he usually loves when you interrupt him and his class.

“No,” Steve says slowly, glancing between the two of you.

“Anyway, thanks for the help Steve,” you force a fake smile. “I should get back to the office and grade some papers I didn’t get to this weekend.”

“(Y/N/N)!” the blonde calls quietly after you, turning to Bucky with a small frown. “What the hell were you thinking standing her up?”

“I didn’t stand her up, she stood me up,” Bucky glares down at the tiles.

“What are you talking about?” Steve can’t make sense of the nonsense coming out of his best friend's mouth. “She waited over an hour for you to show, Buck. And you never did.”

“Why would she want to date me?” he gestures to himself, eyes lingering on his own gut. “I heard Rumlow say it was fake and she was going to stand me up.”

“And you believed that?” Steve lets out a humorless laugh. “She threatened to beat his ass for talking shit about you Buck. you need to fix this, she’s crushed.”

Steve walks back into his classroom, leaving Bucky alone in the hall with his racing thoughts. He has to make it up to you! How could he hurt you? How could he believe anything Rumlow said? This goes to show that even teachers can be stupid. You’re his best girl and he hurt you, how’s he supposed to make it up to you?

You and Steve sit quietly in the breakroom at lunch, he’s eating and you’re trying to make some headway in your grading. Bucky hasn’t come to lunch yet, you’d love to say you haven’t noticed, but you're painfully aware of the empty seat to your right, the one Bucky always occupies. You write a big fat C in red ink on the essay you just read, it should be a C- but Ned is a smart kid and you don’t want to drop his GPA even more because of one poorly written paper.

A body slumps in the chair beside you, you ignore it assuming it’s Brock. You don’t have the energy for him and his bullshit today. A cheesy heart shaped box of chocolates is set onto the essay you just started reading. You finally look up and see a frazzled looking Bucky in his seat, He’s holding a bouquet of your favorite flowers, a nervous grin on his face.

“I fucked up-” he starts.

“You don’t say,” you move the box of chocolates off the paper to start reading it again.

“I overheard Brock the other day saying you were going to stand me up,” he rushes out, your gaze meeting his as he continues. A proud smile on his face about the next sentence, “Steve already told me that you threatened to beat Rumlow up for me. But that’s not the point. I thought you were going to stand me up, so I didn’t want to give you that satisfaction so I never showed up.”

“Why would I stand you up?” you ask slowly, eyeing the flower stems you fear he may crush out of nerves.

“Because I look like this,” he admits quietly, using the flowers to gesture to his slightly protruding belly.

“I love how you look Bucky,” you grab the flowers and set them on the table, grabbing both his hands in yours. “It’s incredibly sexy, you’re sexy. Especially when your sleeves are rolled up and your tie is loosened. I love you James, your personality makes it impossible not to.”

“You love me?” he lets go of one hand, bringing it up to caress your cheek.

“Of course I do,” Steve leans back in his seat, a fond smile on his face, his best friends finally got their shit together.

“Let me make it up to you tonight! I can make us dinner and we can stay in. Or I can take you anywhere you want to go. We can go bowling, or see a movie-”

While his rambling is adorable, you cut him off with a soft kiss. It’s not as long or as passionate as either of you would like, but you have an audience of coworkers and you don’t want to get carried away. Brock stomps out of the breakroom like a child when he sees you and Bucky.

“I love you too, doll,” Bucky admits dreamily.

permanent tags: @crimson-knuckled-queen @rexorangecouny @mrs-malfoy-always

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winged-winter · 3 years

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episode 3 'power-broker' in my opinion really exemplifies why this show has problems and i want to talk about it. this isn't about queerbaiting or sambucky so if you're looking for that, this is not the post for you.

it seems as though sam and bucky are being sidelined yet again, but this time, it’s not for the sake of other characters, it’s for the sake of the marvel machine.

the first two episodes work because they are character-centric. you get to see how sam and bucky interact with a post-blip, post-cap world. this is fascinating, and emotional, and interesting given how quickly the mcu tends to move. third episode throws this premise completely out the window AND everything you know about sam, bucky, and zemo, with pretty much zero explanation.

some people have said it’s plot filler, and it certainly is that, but i think what’s not being discussed is how their motivations for even giving a shit about the ‘flag-smashers’ are super stupid.

okay, let’s start with sam: why does sam even care that other people have the super soldier serum?? we are told multiple times the world is "upside down." why, then, is sam’s number one priority catching a small group of people handing out vaccines? and also, the two characters he is shown as being closest with, steve and bucky, both have the serum. so why is he so hostile to the idea of anyone else having it? because they robbed a bank and communicate on internet forums?? the mere fact of someone appearing to be enhanced is what prompts sam to investigate. not because they were attacking civilians or wreaking havoc, just the awareness of their existence. that does not make sense.

then, there’s bucky. bucky’s problem isn’t that the serum exists, it’s that it’s been abused, and people have suffered from being drawn into serum experiments. he clearly believes there’s some correct use for it, because he was totally fine with steve being captain america. the flag-smashers seem to be in great health, and completely in control of their own actions, and zemo has confirmed that they have nothing to do with HYDRA whatsoever. so why does bucky care?? again, because they were handing out some food and robbed a bank??

well, why does zemo care? zemo was concerned with the empty symbolism associated with superheroes. but the flag-smashers operate in relative underground obscurity. they have some notoriety, but they’re not mainstream, or believe in a sole charismatic leader. they all wear the same mask, for a reason. why does zemo give a shit? (recall, zemo's main problem was with steve and tony being careless and decimating sokovia! not that steve had super soldier muscles! he did not care! his enemy is more so sam and bucky than the flag-smashers.)

ASIDE from no one having a good reason for caring that the flag-smashers even exist, there's the problem of too many characters being introduced, too quickly, and with zero follow-up. two of the characters who give info in this third episode were both immediately shot in the head after they were useful. and leah, yori, isaiah, john, lemar, sarah, and dr. raynor also get sidelined. the people you are told matter or mean something in the first two episodes no longer matter nor mean anything!

okay, but that's fine, if there's a compelling reason why the flag-smashers are being centered, and their ideology is being more fully explained to the audience. except! it's not! explained! at all! here is what you are being told about the flag-smashers: 1) they don't want any national borders, which could mean any number of things, 2) they want things the way they were during the blip, which could again mean any number of things, 3) they want to give people food and medicine. people have been eager to ascribe a revolutionary affect to the flag-smashers, but their political agenda is unclear, at best.

on the other hand, the show is trying to tell us the global repatriation council is bad because it created the new cap and battlestar, and....what else? because they're holding some food in an ambiguous warehouse??????? so????? what???????? (not even getting into why it doesn't make sense they wouldn't give it out, if the people guarding the place are not personally gaining anything from holding it.)

carly said, "it seems like they care more about the people who came back than the people who were here this whole time." well, right. the people who blipped back do need some kind of support? that's apparent. the flag-smashers acknowledge themselves that the resettlement camps need supplies, which they then seek to obtain. so why is it so unbelievable and offensive that the grc exists? aside from the no borders thing and the new cap thing, how are they different from the flag-smashers????????????????

if it's some kind of point about bureaucracy being slow and stupid and overreaching, okay, that's fine, but they never make that clear. if it's some kind of point that it's just a new, shiny form of law enforcement that makes life harder, not easier, okay FINE, just tell me that's what's happening.

sam said, "it's imperative we stop them." stop them from doing what, exactly? lemar hoskins points out in this episode that they're not doing anything really harmful. yes, carly blows up that building to reaffirm to the audience this is the Bad Guy, but the characters you see guarding the supplies are not sympathetic so why should you, as the audience, care at all?

here's my concern: my concern is that there are only three episodes left to knit this all neatly together, and so much of that time will be spent explaining carly's backstory, having some dumb dramatic reveal of the power-broker, and zemo doing some stupid shit. i actually would not be surprised if one of those three episodes was mostly about carly, and shunted sam and bucky off to be in a sort of holding pattern.

this is just totally classic marvel, where they don't care about writing a complete show, just moving you from giant action set piece to giant action set piece with some banter in between, dropping all the minor characters through the cracks even though TV is different, and that is not supposed to happen. leah, isaiah, sarah, and yori represent four big unanswered questions. the show will literally be narratively incomplete if these storylines are not wrapped up in some way, and right now, they have been utterly abandoned in favor of chasing after a group who none of the mains would technically give a shit about.

i don't even want to get into the fact that "uh oh, someone has the serum/blood/magic juice" was a major plot point in the agent carter television show, and they have literally already played this song. but that's deemed all irrelevant because no one remembers the show.

there's a chance this will all be resolved, but you never know!!!!!!!!!! god.

#tfatws #fatws #the falcon and the winter soldier #tfatws spoilers #fatws spoilers #sam wilson #bucky barnes #helmut zemo #tfatws discourse #marvel #sarah wilson #i m SO d o n e with marvel

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aaron-despair · 3 years

Text

In her arms (Maria Hill x Fem!Reader)

A/N: I don’t own any of the characters on this fic, they belong to Marvel.

Warnings: mentions of blood.

Request: Hello! Your writing is so good! Could you pls write a Mari Hill x fem!reader (or gn whichever you’re comfortable with!) Where they get into a pretty big argument right before R has to go on a mission and during the mission, while Maria is giving R orders through the earpiece, someone sneaks up on R and hurts them pretty bad but R fights them off and Maria had to listen to the whole thing terrified that she would lose the love of her life, when R comes back from the mission Maria clings to R and just breaks down and they apologize to each other while crying and holding each other, idk this is specific asf I’m sorry! You can do what you think is best with this prompt! Thx!

***************************************************

I hate you.

Those words seemed to haunt Maria. She didn't mean to say that, it was an absolute mistake.

The brunette couldn’t recall the reason for the argument, but she still very clearly remembered the utter shock and absolute hurt written on (Y/N)’s face. And then she stormed out of their shared apartment, leaving Maria frozen in place in the eerily silent room.

You had been dating for two years now, and it was clear to everyone how in love you were with each other. So when you left after she let the sentence out, no words leaving your mouth, it scared her.

It’s only been a day since the argument, but you two barely talked. Whenever you two were in the same room, it felt awkward and tense. Which led you to your current situation…

“A mission together? Just the two of us?”

“Yes. Is there any problem, Agent (L/N)?” Fury asked, silence his only answer. “Good, and if there aren't any more questions, I suggest you get going ladies. You know what to do. Agent Hill, you’ll be directing the whole operation from here.”

“Yes, sir.”

********************

“Where now?”

“Keep walking forward and take the second door on your right.” Maria guided, watching intently the images of the security cameras. She watched as you peeked around the next corner before walking confidently along the empty hallways. After some minutes of complete silence, Maria decided that it was enough. “So, can we talk?”

“Talk? I thought you made it clear that you didn’t want to be around me anymore…” You answered, sneaking inside the lab.

“That wasn-”

“Save it, Commander Hill.” You nearly snarled, managing to make Maria freeze. It was unsettling how cold, harsh and distant you were acting. Almost like you were a completely different person.

“Okay…” She mumbled, focusing on the task ahead. Things were going smoothly until the monitors started going black. “What- (Y/N), can you hear me? Something is messing with the signal.”

Maria waited for your reply, but the comms were also failing.

“C...de… re’s… rong…” Your words were incoherent by now, and it was getting on the brunette’s nerves. Knowing that you were alone and that you could be in danger was too much to handle for her.

Suddenly a bloodcurdling scream, the only intelligible thing that came through the comms, made Maria flinch violently.

“(Y/N)!!” She gripped the keyboard tightly, so much that it surely would break. Maria didn’t get an answer. The brunette could just hear your grunts and cries of pain. “(Y/N), can you hear me?! You need to get out of there!” But every attempt was futile. The comms went static again, this time for good it seemed, and she started to panic. “No. No, this can’t be happening!” Maria tried to focus on her breathing, knuckles white as she released her grip, letting the keyboard fall back and rattle against the desk.

She numbly stood up. Maria hoped- no, knew, that you would escape. But she needed to see it. To assess the wounds you sustained. To see you alive.

Maria ran out of the control room, desperate to find the rest of the team and praying that you would be fine.

************************

“What do you mean you didn’t find anything?!”

“Maria, calm down.” Nat squeezed her shoulder, trying to comfort her somehow. “There was nobody when we arrived there, no guards, no prisoners... nothing.”

“There were clear signs of a fight, though. I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how it could have ended.” Steve added, clearly upset about the fact that they didn't know anything.

Maria just ran a hand through her hair, and started pacing again across the room. It’s been three days since you went missing and it’s been draining her. Not only that, but it was also affecting the whole team.

“Hey…” Another voice croaked out, and they lifted their gaze to find your bloodied and exhausted form leaning against the wall.

“(Y/N)!” The brunette launched herself into your arms, backing away immediately when she heard you hiss in pain. “Are you okay?! What happened there? Are you hurt?!”

“Will you just stop fussing, please? I’m fine.” You mumbled, not sure how to react. You looked up to find Steve and Natasha watching the interaction, before he motioned to the redhead to leave you both alone.

Once you were the only ones left in the room, you let yourself relax slightly, thinking about how to approach the topic that had been on your mind these last few days. You opened your mouth, but closed it upon seeing the tears streaming down Maria’s cheeks.

“I’m sorry... “ She whispered. You noticed that she was shaking, and sobs started wracking her whole body. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry that I hurt your feelings. I’m sorry that I let my anger get the best of me. I’m sorry that I couldn’t do anything to help you get out safely. I-”

“Shhh. Come here.” You pulled her into you again, this time in a much softer embrace, holding her as she cried on your chest. “It was also my fault. It was a silly argument and I overreacted instead of talking to you. I’m sorry too, Maria.” You stroked her back soothingly, trying to calm her down. “And you couldn’t do anything about what happened at the enemy base. I don’t blame you for that.”

“Are you hurt?” Maria asked again, hearing the wince you let out when she tightened her hold a bit.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” You reassured her again, swaying a bit until you both managed to lay on the couch. “I just need you here with me right now…”

“I’m truly sorry. I love you, (Y/N/N).”

“I know, and I love you too Mar.” You smiled, kissing her forehead.

You stood there for some more minutes before going to the medbay. You only sustained some minor injuries that wouldn’t take too long to heal, which made Maria stop worrying so much.

She clung to you the whole day and through the time of your recovery, but you didn’t mind because, finally, you were back in her arms.

And that’s all that mattered.

********************************************

Taglis (let me know if you want to be added!):

@natasha-danvers @imnotasuperhero @rooskaya-yelena @marvels-writings @xxxtwilightaxelxxx @trikruismybitch @neversatisfiedwithlife

#maria hill #maria hill x reader #maria hill x fem!reader #agent hill x reader #marvel

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rianncreates · 4 years

Text

Family part 15 (end)

A/n: this is it guys! It has been fun writing this lil piece for you guys. Hope you all enjoy :) (also sorry for whoever asked me to tag them I lost the paper I wrote them down on)

You finally take a deep breath after the pain subsides. Having been trying to focus on anything else but the pain that’s been shooting through you more frequently now. You hated this part the pain and the exhaustion that came with it, but knowing that you will have your baby girl in your arms makes it all worth it. Your eyes land on Carol at the end of the bed pacing back and forth with a sleepy little boy in her arms.

“He should be in bed Carol.” You tell her as you rub at your side, trying to alleviate some of the pain. She sighs as she looks over to you, rubbing her hand up and down Nicks back. She had acted like the Captain, that she was,while on missions, when the fateful word hit her ears she was able to stay calm and get what was needed in record time. It had been a big change from when you had gone into labor with Nick.

You had been surprised by how easy it had been for her, to get Nick out of bed. That is till you learned how she did it, rolling your eyes every time it came back to the forefront of your mind.

Huffing she turns and walks towards the other side of the room “I know, but he wakes up every time I try to put him down.” She says with a pout permanent on her lips. She really wanted to be there for you, to be able to alleviate your pain and help you through it. But her son took some priority for now at least.

“Well you shouldn’t have called our daughter's birth operation Starlight.” You tell her smiling.“You know he wants to be a good little soldier, like his momma.” Though you thought it was a ridiculous name, you had to admit it was kind of cute.

Carol turns and continues “I know, but I was just trying to get him to get up, so we could get her on time.” She explains.You see some of the worry in her eyes and it’s understandable. You both agree that this pregnancy had been an eventful one for sure.

“Honey, we don’t live that far.”

“I know.” She angrily whispers causing you to raise your eyebrow.

“I am giving birth to your child, so don’t dare give me attitude.” You tell her, as you try to move in bed to get more comfortable.

“I’m sorry I’m just really anxious, and not being able to help you with the pain doesn’t help.” She says, you can see in her eyes that she means it so you let it slide instead you ask.

“I thought you called for backup?”

Just before she is able to answer, the door to your room opens revealing Nat and Steve. Both still in their pajamas. Steve’s hair sticking up in different places.

“Did someone say backup?” Nat says as she looks over to you and smiles.

Steve takes the momentary distraction to take Nick from Carol's arms. She gladly gives him over slowly, as to not wake him. Once the exchange is over, she immediately situates herself next to you and starts rubbing circles on your back. You groan, grateful for her support and warm hands that takes some of the pain away.

“How bad are they?” Asks Nat as she reaches and squeezes your hand in support. Just before you try to answer her, a new contraction hits making you shut your eyes and try to focus on breathing. You can hear Carol breathing deeply alongside you and feel her hands get warmer.

Once it subsides you open your eyes and look at Nat with a grim look and say “That bad.” She chuckles a bit and reaches her hand to your cheek. “Don’t worry hun, we are all here for you. Operation starlight is a go.”

You groan but not from the pain, as you turn a bit to face your wife. “Who else have you told that ridiculous name to?” You see her open her mouth to answer when you hear Steve reply with “There’s a group chat.”

You roll your eyes at the ridiculousness, that is earth’s mightiest heroes. Honestly, sometimes it felt like you were surrounded by children..and speaking of children.

“Where’s Tony?” You ask seconds before another contraction hits.

“He’s helping Stephen prep, you know how he is when it comes to you.” Nat tells you.

You chuckle a bit through the pain “You would think we were family by blood.”

“No you’re better, you’re my chosen family.” Tony walks over and takes over Nats spot. Nat and Steve take this as their cue to leave and they do so quietly. You sit there enjoying Carol’s administrations for a little bit longer, till you up in Tony’s direction.

“How far along are we?” You ask him hoping for good news. He smiles and moves to grab the ice he had brought along with him and hands it over.

“Don’t worry soon you will be holding the newest member of the Danvers y/l/n Stark family unit?”

“Stark?” Both you and Carol ask in unison. He gives a mock offended look “oh come on I put it after both your names!” He defends, but after a beat a smile breaks on his face. Rolling your eyes,you swat at his arm for the poorly executed joke and focus back on the breathing.

————————-12 hours later———————

Panting you look up towards Carol, her free hand comes into view, as she tries to smooth the hair out from your sweaty forehead. Closing your eyes you try to catch your breath. “I’m so tired.”you whisper.Carol leans her head over “I know honey, but she’s almost here and you are doing great.” She finishes saying those words and plants a kiss on to your head.

“Ok y/n, just one more push and she should be out.” says Stephen from where he is. You reopen your eyes, locking them with Carol’s. Her giving you a small nod in encouragement and takes both your hands in hers. Braising yourself for one more push, you squeeze her hands and summon the rest of the strength you had left.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHH”

“And she’s out.” You hear Stephen announce as you slump back into your wife. It had been hard and tedious but she was finally here. Looking up at Carol, her eyes are glued to what Stephen is doing with the baby. Her Mama Bear instinct already on overdrive, you reach up slowly and caress her cheek. She looks down at you and smiles and doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t really have to, you can see it clearly written on her face.

Hearing little newborn cries, makes you both look over and she Stephen with the smallest bundle in his arms. Slowly he puts your daughter on your chest “Congrats you two.” He says before silently making his way out, to let the other know operation Starlight was a success.

Both Carol and you marvel at the little human in your arms. She was beautiful with a cute button nose and y/h/c hair. She coos and opens her eyes for the first time, you feel Carol’s hand rest behind yours.

“Hi baby girl, it is so nice to finally meet you.” You can hear the tremble in Carol’s voice. It being the only indicator at the moment of her feelings. “She’s so perfect.” She says turning and planting a kiss on your head. “I love you so much y/n.”

—————————————————————————————

After a bit of time of you getting your daughter to nurse, for the first time and for you to be able to get clean and presentable. You sit on the bed, with your baby in your arms waiting for Carol. She had gone out to get Nick and bring him to meet his new baby sister.

“You are loved, so loved already baby girl” you whisper, as you continue to watch her nursing like a champion. It makes you chuckle a bit “I can already tell you got your mommas appetite.” You watch as her little arm comes free,from the swaddle Carol had put her in. On instinct you reach for her little fist, to your surprise she takes a strong grip on your index. Just like Nick used to do when he was a baby.

The door slowly opens, to reveal Carol and Nick close behind holding her hand. He looks a bit shy and bashful as he comes in. You smile wide not only because you are happy to see him, but to be able to ease his shyness a bit.

“Hi sweetie, are you ready to meet you baby sister?” He nods at your question and Carol picks him up and places him beside you on the bed. Of course not before reminding him, that he needed to be gentle. You pull him a bit and give him a kiss onto his blonde locks.

You and Carol watch, as he looks over the baby wide eyed. He starts to reach over, then stops and starts to pull away.

“It’s ok little man, you can touch.” Carol tells him, he looks over to you and you nod in confirmation. He reaches over again and softly pats the babies head.

“She’s tiny mommy.” He whispers, he continues to touch her hair. He then, seeing that one of the baby’s arm was out, he reached for her little hand. Just like she had done with you, she grasped his little hand. Both you and Carol tear up, as his eyes wide and a smile blooms as he says “She’s holding my hand! Look momma she’s holding my hand.”

“I see that buddy.” Looking over, you noticed Carol holding her Polaroid. You had been so focused on Nick, you hadn’t even noticed it till now. A small mountain of pictures growing on your other side of the bed.

You smile as you realize how much your life has changed since meeting Carol. You were a mother, a wife and as of recently half kree with powers of your own. It was a new chapter for you and your little family, but it was one you were all excited to see through. Watching both of your babies interact you feel Carol sitúate herself next to you. She places a kiss on your temple whispering her undying love for you. Yeah, your life has taken a lot of turns, some sharper than others but you wouldn’t change a single thing.

#carol danvers imagine #carol x reader #carol danvers x reader #carol danvers #brie larson imagine #captain marvel x reader #captain marvel imagine #captain marvel #fanfic #marvel imagine #marvel

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years

Text

Why I won't buy an Ipad: ten years later

Ten years ago, Apple released the Ipad. I was in a hotel room in Seattle, jetlagged and awake at 4AM while my wife and daughter slept.

I had been thinking about Apple's impending Ipad release and what a reversal it meant for everything I loved about tech: taking away your right to decide whose code you'd run -- even your right to change the battery! I wrote about my feelings and many people read it. It even rated a mention in Walter Isaacson's biography of Steve Jobs.

A decade later, the Ipad is ten years old and Apple has killed 20 state Right to Repair bills, in part to lock out third parties who might change you batteries for you.

I just reread that piece, and I still stand by it.

Why I won't buy an iPad (and think you shouldn't, either)

I've spent ten years now on Boing Boing, finding cool things that people have done and made and writing about them. Most of the really exciting stuff hasn't come from big corporations with enormous budgets, it's come from experimentalist amateurs. These people were able to make stuff and put it in the public's eye and even sell it without having to submit to the whims of a single company that had declared itself gatekeeper for your phone and other personal technology.

Danny O'Brien does a very good job of explaining why I'm completely uninterested in buying an iPad -- it really feels like the second coming of the CD-ROM "revolution" in which "content" people proclaimed that they were going to remake media by producing expensive (to make and to buy) products. I was a CD-ROM programmer at the start of my tech career, and I felt that excitement, too, and lived through it to see how wrong I was, how open platforms and experimental amateurs would eventually beat out the spendy, slick pros.

I remember the early days of the web -- and the last days of CD ROM -- when there was this mainstream consensus that the web and PCs were too durned geeky and difficult and unpredictable for "my mom" (it's amazing how many tech people have an incredibly low opinion of their mothers). If I had a share of AOL for every time someone told me that the web would die because AOL was so easy and the web was full of garbage, I'd have a lot of AOL shares.

And they wouldn't be worth much.

Incumbents made bad revolutionaries Relying on incumbents to produce your revolutions is not a good strategy. They're apt to take all the stuff that makes their products great and try to use technology to charge you extra for it, or prohibit it altogether.

I mean, look at that Marvel app (just look at it). I was a comic-book kid, and I'm a comic-book grownup, and the thing that made comics for me was sharing them. If there was ever a medium that relied on kids swapping their purchases around to build an audience, it was comics. And the used market for comics! It was -- and is -- huge, and vital. I can't even count how many times I've gone spelunking in the used comic-bins at a great and musty store to find back issues that I'd missed, or sample new titles on the cheap. (It's part of a multigenerational tradition in my family -- my mom's father used to take her and her sibs down to Dragon Lady Comics on Queen Street in Toronto every weekend to swap their old comics for credit and get new ones).

So what does Marvel do to "enhance" its comics? They take away the right to give, sell or loan your comics. What an improvement. Way to take the joyous, marvellous sharing and bonding experience of comic reading and turn it into a passive, lonely undertaking that isolates, rather than unites. Nice one, Misney.

Infantalizing hardware Then there's the device itself: clearly there's a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design. But there's also a palpable contempt for the owner. I believe -- really believe -- in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can't open it, you don't own it. Screws not glue. The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards, and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better. If you wanted your kid to grow up to be a confident, entrepreneurial, and firmly in the camp that believes that you should forever be rearranging the world to make it better, you bought her an Apple ][+.

But with the iPad, it seems like Apple's model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of "that's too complicated for my mom" (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn't too complicated for their poor old mothers).

The model of interaction with the iPad is to be a "consumer," what William Gibson memorably described as "something the size of a baby hippo, the color of a week-old boiled potato, that lives by itself, in the dark, in a double-wide on the outskirts of Topeka. It's covered with eyes and it sweats constantly. The sweat runs into those eyes and makes them sting. It has no mouth... no genitals, and can only express its mute extremes of murderous rage and infantile desire by changing the channels on a universal remote."

The way you improve your iPad isn't to figure out how it works and making it better. The way you improve the iPad is to buy iApps. Buying an iPad for your kids isn't a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it's a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.

Dale Dougherty's piece on Hypercard and its influence on a generation of young hackers is a must-read on this. I got my start as a Hypercard programmer, and it was Hypercard's gentle and intuitive introduction to the idea of remaking the world that made me consider a career in computers.

Wal-Martization of the software channel And let's look at the iStore. For a company whose CEO professes a hatred of DRM, Apple sure has made DRM its alpha and omega. Having gotten into business with the two industries that most believe that you shouldn't be able to modify your hardware, load your own software on it, write software for it, override instructions given to it by the mothership (the entertainment industry and the phone companies), Apple has defined its business around these principles. It uses DRM to control what can run on your devices, which means that Apple's customers can't take their "iContent" with them to competing devices, and Apple developers can't sell on their own terms.

The iStore lock-in doesn't make life better for Apple's customers or Apple's developers. As an adult, I want to be able to choose whose stuff I buy and whom I trust to evaluate that stuff. I don't want my universe of apps constrained to the stuff that the Cupertino Politburo decides to allow for its platform. And as a copyright holder and creator, I don't want a single, Wal-Mart-like channel that controls access to my audience and dictates what is and is not acceptable material for me to create. The last time I posted about this, we got a string of apologies for Apple's abusive contractual terms for developers, but the best one was, "Did you think that access to a platform where you can make a fortune would come without strings attached?" I read it in Don Corleone's voice and it sounded just right. Of course I believe in a market where competition can take place without bending my knee to a company that has erected a drawbridge between me and my customers!

Journalism is looking for a daddy figure I think that the press has been all over the iPad because Apple puts on a good show, and because everyone in journalism-land is looking for a daddy figure who'll promise them that their audience will go back to paying for their stuff. The reason people have stopped paying for a lot of "content" isn't just that they can get it for free, though: it's that they can get lots of competing stuff for free, too. The open platform has allowed for an explosion of new material, some of it rough-hewn, some of it slick as the pros, most of it targetted more narrowly than the old media ever managed. Rupert Murdoch can rattle his saber all he likes about taking his content out of Google, but I say do it, Rupert. We'll miss your fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the Web so little that we'll hardly notice it, and we'll have no trouble finding material to fill the void.

Just like the gadget press is full of devices that gadget bloggers need (and that no one else cares about), the mainstream press is full of stories that affirm the internal media consensus. Yesterday's empires do something sacred and vital and most of all grown up, and that other adults will eventually come along to move us all away from the kids' playground that is the wild web, with its amateur content and lack of proprietary channels where exclusive deals can be made. We'll move back into the walled gardens that best return shareholder value to the investors who haven't updated their portfolios since before eTrade came online.

But the real economics of iPad publishing tell a different story: even a stellar iPad sales performance isn't going to do much to stanch the bleeding from traditional publishing. Wishful thinking and a nostalgia for the good old days of lockdown won't bring customers back through the door.

Gadgets come and gadgets go Gadgets come and gadgets go. The iPad you buy today will be e-waste in a year or two (less, if you decide not to pay to have the battery changed for you). The real issue isn't the capabilities of the piece of plastic you unwrap today, but the technical and social infrastructure that accompanies it.

If you want to live in the creative universe where anyone with a cool idea can make it and give it to you to run on your hardware, the iPad isn't for you.

If you want to live in the fair world where you get to keep (or give away) the stuff you buy, the iPad isn't for you.

If you want to write code for a platform where the only thing that determines whether you're going to succeed with it is whether your audience loves it, the iPad isn't for you.

https://boingboing.net/2020/01/27/nascent-boulangism.html

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cblgblog · 4 years

Note

My point was about Steve and Sharon and the treatment she received from Marvel. It's not about Sharon and Peggy. I don't want Sharon to be shown happy by Steve to validate him, it has nothing to do with Peggy. I'm sorry, Sharon was cut off because of the fans' hatred too. If she had become popular, she would still be there, just as Peggy got a series, or Loki who has a series. There's no way Marvel would cut Sharon if she had received love from fans. The writers do what Kevin Feige wants Part 1

if he had said, keep Sharon because she's popular, she would have stayed, even if they didn't like her. Yes, the fans had a voice over her departure, not just the writers and Marvel. BTW I'm not Staron stan, I'm just not going to close my eyes about how she was treated, and she can still be treated. She doesn't deserve this. Part 2

If she had become popular, she would still be there, just as Peggy got a series, or Loki who has a series.

It has something to do with Peggy if you’re making the argument that Sharon haters (commonly treated as interchangeable with Steggy fans, though that isn’t true in all cases, at all) are the reason Sharon didn’t get more screentime. If you’re making the argument that Sharon being less popular than Peggy is the reason Sharon lost out on a storyline. And, again. I don’t think she was treated badly by Steve narratively. By the writers, yes. She was wasted, they didn’t know what to do with her, she deserved better. She should’ve had more to do, if they were going to bring her in, more character development that wasn’t centered around a possible romance that didn’t get followed through with. As for the scenes she did get with Steve? No, I’m sorry, I don’t believe Steve treated her badly. He didn’t love her and leave her. He didn’t love her that way period, it was never allowed to progress that far. He didn’t throw her aside. They both went on the run from the law. He showed gratitude, he literally thanked her, so no, he didn’t treat her badly. The writers not doing more with her and letting her just fade out? Yes. But as it pertains to how they wrote her interactions with Steve? No.

And no, sorry, I don’t agree with blaming fans for what Marvel chooses to do. If Marvel was beholden to all their fan groups, then Steve would be in a relationship with Sharon, Bucky, Peggy, Nat, Tony, Sam, and plenty I’m sure I’m missing out on. Why is Peggy so special that people who prefer her to Sharon are the ones that get listened to, if you’re assuming that fans raging on the Internet is a thing Marvel seriously pays attention to? Did they just spin a wheel and whatever it landed on, that was the rabid fan group they were going to listen to? Quite a lucky coincidence for Sharon haters, isn’t it?

Peggy did become popular, more than TPTB expected after First Avenger. But to act like that’s a bad thing, like that’s people’s fault for liking her, and that’s why Sharon got removed? If she was THAT popular, her show wouldn’t have been cancelled after 2 short seasons, something that happened right before CW hit. Her show was cancelled, she was killed off, they had Sharon in CW, and Sharon has more cred with the comics crowd. They had every excuse in the world to not pursue anything more with Peggy and focus on Sharon. They didn’t. That’s on the writers, not on the people who enjoy Peggy’s character/didn’t like Sharon because of the romance angle and how it was done.

Peggy’s not Loki. She’s not Iron Man. She’s not going to be thrown into every project possible because everyone adores her on that level. If she was as popular as you’re claiming--enough to blame that popularity on why Sharon was screwed over narratively--then her show would still be on. It would be continuing on after AoS. Maybe we’d have a Howling Commandos spinoff by now. Have any of those things happened?

Yes, she is popular, she has a devoted fanbase, that is larger than Marvel anticipated. She is NOT as popular as Loki, or Iron Man, or any other character that is such a money maker for Marvel that they get used as much as possible, sometimes to the detriment of other characters. And I love her infinitely more than Tony or Loki, but you cannot, in any credible way, compare her popularity to that of Loki. Sorry, you can’t, and I say this as her biggest defender. The argument people make when blaming Peggy’s popularity for Sharon’s sparse appearances in the MCU? No. Neither Peggy Carter or Hayley Atwell have the power to sway the MCU in such a dramatic way. Hayley Atwell was a relative unknown before First Avenger, with 2 short seasons of a relatively low rated TV show under her belt by the time of CW. Vancamp, in comparison? She had 8 seasons of continuous primetime TV by then, across 2 successful TV shows. She was perfectly positioned after CW to step in more, had the writers chosen to do that. If Marvel were as beholden to Peggy fans as you claim, they wouldn’t have killed her off 20 minutes into the film.

The writers do what Kevin Feige wants. If he had said, keep Sharon because she's popular, she would have stayed, even if they didn't like her.

Could not agree more with this. The writers do what FEIGE wants. When Emily clapped back at him during a panel, asking where her character went, she clapped back at HIM. Not the fans, She didn’t say “Why don’t more of you guys like me, why doesn’t anyone like me?” to the audience. Ultimately, it’s on Feige and Marvel, what happens and what doesn’t. Is it Stucky fans fault that Steve and Bucky haven’t had more time onscreen together, because they’re just not popular enough, people don’t want that enough? Is it Tony stans fault that he died? Were Nat and Gamora both killed because neither of them were popular enough? Because from everything on the Internet, fan reactions, none of those things are remotely true, yet all of those decisions were made. Nat and Gamora getting dead for manpain? That was bad writing. THAT was actual misogyny. Sharon wasn’t given enough material to work with as a character. Because they chose to bring her in and then wasted her, THAT is bad writing. If they’d wrote her in with a clear vision of what to do with her, she very well could have become more popular. They didn’t give her the material needed to stand out? That is bad writing. It’s not because this 60-year-old character doesn’t have a fanbase, or because Emily Vancamp, veteran of several TV shows, nominated for a long list of awards for her acting, not because she doesn’t have a fanbase.

Peggy is not that popular. Sharon/Emily is not that unpopular. Blame the writers, blame Feige. Enough with this narrative that one talented, successful woman with fans got screwed over just because another talented, successful woman also has fans. They both have fanbases. They’ve both proven that, given the right material, they can kill it. Stop pitting them and their fanbases against each other instead of blaming the people with actual decision-making power.

So yeah, I don’t agree with you, probably never going to, you’re probably never going to agree with me. Which is fine. We’re two strangers online, you saw a post I made and disagreed with it, which is fine. I don’t need to convince you, you don’t need to convince me. I’m sure that if you came off of anon and I saw your blog, there would be posts I’d disagree with too, and no amount of back and forth would change that, and that too is fine.

#Sharon Carter #Peggy Carter #pro Steve Rogers #Emily Vancamp #Hayley Atwell #Anonymous

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thorne93 · 4 years

Text

Unforeseen Chasm (Part 28)

Prompt: Two sisters fall for men that are absolute enemies. The love they have could tear all of them apart, or it could bring them together.

Word Count: 4516

Warnings: Language, fighting,arguing,jealousy,trust issues,torture flashbacks,angst

Song for this part: Time by NF

Note: This is by far the longest thing I’ve ever written (including my novels). It’s a collaboration with the amazing @mrs-dragneel-stark-solo. It started as a funny “What if…?” and it evolved and got huge. This took two years to write. We are both proud and happy and we hope you enjoy it. It follows from Thor 1 to Endgame in the MCU. Some of the timelines may be off in order to fit certain people, and some characters may show up earlier or in different ways than they have in the movie. But for the most part, it follows the MCU. It also has a bit of crossover with some other Marvel characters throughout the story.

Masterlist for Unforeseen Chasm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The day had finally come for you to leave the cell. When Shannon had told you she got all the obstacles tackled, you were in awe. How did she convince Fury to let you out? Then again, it seemed everyone did whatever Shannon asked of them.

But she had told you that you being out had to be a secret and to do your best not to be seen by anyone. This was strictly a need to know basis, and so far, only five people knew.

It was early morning when Shannon came down to receive you. She was on the phone with someone, when suddenly Kurt appeared in your cell. It made Loki jump slightly and frown. He probably wasn’t expecting it. You had to make the escape fast so no one would see it on the cameras so you kissed Loki quickly, and Kurt grabbed your hand, and you were suddenly in an SUV with pitch black tinted windows.

“Thanks, Kurt,” you said with a smile as you saw who was driving. “Hi, Steve,” you greeted with a coy smile.

“I will see you at the mansion, ya?” Kurt said, his accent heavy.

“See you there.”

And with that, he was gone.

Shannon was still in the cell room, talking to Loki. “I am not sure when we’ll be back, but if you could do your Loki thing and cast an illusion of Y/N/N while we’re gone…”

“I’m already ahead of you,” he stated with a smile as a carbon copy of you walked out of the bedroom, reading something.

“That’s… incredibly unsettling,” she commented. She shivered and shook her head, then gave him a beaming smile. “But, for our purposes, it’s great. Thank you.”

“Anything I can do to help.”

She grinned, nodded, and left, meeting you in the SUV, sitting in the passenger seat.

“Are we really supposed to trust you?” Steve asked, catching your eyes in the rearview mirror.

“No,” Shannon stated, and you started to feel disappointment run over you before she added, “You’re supposed to trust me.”

This made you smile quietly to yourself in the backseat.

Steve checked the traffic, and then pulled out. In order to alleviate some of the tension in the car, Shannon turned on the radio and the ride upstate was rather… pleasant. You stared out at the city the entire way, taking in people, the way they talked, moved, walked. It was amazing how several months without much human interaction could really make you go stir crazy. You were hungry for all the lights, the noises, the sights… Even watching people walking a dog, or grabbing coffee made you smile.

The ride upstate turned from the city, to the country and it was just as stunning as the city. Asgard was like a golden heaven, it truly was beautiful, but all you had known for nearly the past two years was one desolate, windy rock, and an isolated cell with four rooms.

As soon as you turned into the familiar drive, you were nearly like a kid arriving at Disney World. You could hardly contain the excitement. Once Steve parked the car, you jumped out, making him nervous.

“Woah,” he said, getting out and holding his hand up.

“What?” you asked, confused.

“Just...slow down,” he said, eyeing you.

“Yes, Captain,” you said with a polite smile as you folded your hands behind your back and stepped in front of him, so that he could keep an eye on you as Shannon went up to the door and knocked. Storm let the three of you inside, where you stood in the foyer, trying to remember the last time you’d come here.

In an instant, it seemed like the foyer was filled with X-Men. Kurt had appeared, Jean and Scott came up holding hands, Logan, Jubilee, and Marie were all there. Charles arrived only a second later, where he and Shannon traded a hug and he smiled to you, welcoming you back to the mansion.

“Thank you, Professor,” you said sweetly before glancing to Jean and bounding over to her. “Jean! Scott!” you greeted wrapping them both in a tight embrace.

“And just where is my hello?” A cajun drawl suddenly pulled your attention away.

Your head snapped up to the top of the stairs where Remy stood, a shit eating grin on his face.

“Remy!” you all but squealed, dashing up the stairs to greet him.

Without any warning, Steve launched into his super soldier mode and took off quickly. He hurled over the circular wooden table in the middle of the foyer, knocking over the vase full of flowers, before he bounded up the stairs and grabbed your biceps, pulling them behind you.

“What the--?” you asked calmly, looking to see what had just happened. “Steve? What the hell, man? Let me go. I’m just trying to hug my friend.”

The X-Men shared a look of strong confusion, but Charles simply waved it off.

“Steve, it’s okay, let her go,” Shannon commanded. “She’s known Remy for a long time.”

Remy gave Steve an incredulous look before Steve stepped back one step and let you go. Ignoring your perplexion over the event that just occurred, a warm smile spread on your face and you wrapped your arms around Gambit.

“How have you been?” you asked.

“Uh, Y/N/N, we need to utilize our time here,” Shannon reminded, making you turn around.

“What? Hmm, oh! Right! Point me wherever I need to go,” you said happily.

Charles spoke up. “Jean, Logan, and Remy, go with Y/N. Shannon, my dear, you can come with me and Scott.”

With that, everyone went their separate ways. Charles escorted Shannon to the large training room, while Steve, Logan, Remy, and Jean showed you to another training room underground in the backyard.

----------

When Charles got settled in, he began questioning Shannon.

“So when did this start?”

“I think it was around the time I ran into… what was that kid’s name that had the emotional power? Where he could feel what people felt?” she asked.

“Ah.. Adam, the empath,” he remembered. “And you think that’s what’s wearing on you?”

She shrugged lightly. “It’s the only thing I noticed. When I use any of my powers, I get a little weak. But it’s nothing like what’s compared to when I have an emotional high or low,” she informed.

“Interesting… so the powers themselves aren’t bothering you, but your emotions are wearing on you?”

She bobbed her head side to side.

Just then the infamous Wade Wilson comes skipping in having heard that his favorite none avenger was in the mansion.

“ Spicy Buttercup!” he stops right in front of her and lifts her off the ground in a strong hug. “It’s been way too long since the last time I saw you.” he mock pouts knowing she wouldn’t believe it.

“Too tight….Wade” she gets out feeling light headed from his surprisingly strong grip. “Hah! Wow it has been a while also you never come by I told you, you’re always welcome.” she brushes her hair back and takes a deep breath in.

Steve had moved to stand closer unaware that the man in the mask was a friend of Shannon’s. “If you could not do that, it would be very appreciative.” he said in a stern tone noticing how she was taking a moment to catch her breath. “We’re a little busy at the moment, would you mind letting us get back to it?”

“Well hello to you too star spangled man,” he snorts and bumps his shoulder with her. “What’s up his butt?” he shakes his head and looks to Shannon for an answer. “Did stark finally get you a babysitter!” he laughs at his own joke.

“Hahaha very funny Wade, and no Steve’s just a little protective of me with my powers going haywire lately.” she bumps her shoulder back into his. “And Steve has a point there’s something that we are doing that's a little more important.” She makes it to move near Charles.

“Hey wait a darn damn minute!” he playfully scowls. “How come everyone else gets to hang with you and I don’t?” he cocks his head to the side. “I thought I was the fun friend.”

“Wade.. you are the fun friend.” she giggles at his expressions behind his mask. “How about this you let me do this and we can hang out and watch a movie or something?” she offers hoping it’ll satisfy the man-child

“Alright fine! But the moment they finish I'm stealing you away!” he claims looking at everyone to let them know he was serious. “Your treat by the way I’ll be in the background letting all you guys work.” he gives Shannon a peck on the cheek and moves to give them space.

“Okay doll you get your stuff done i’m gonna go keep an eye on Y/N make sure she’s keeping out of trouble,” he hugs his friend and walks off. “Call me if you need anything.”

“I will Stevie and be nice to her would’ya?” she smiles at the Cap but he was out of earshot. She turns to the professor. “Now where were we?” she motions to the man to continue where he left off.

“Lie back and let me run some tests,” he offered. With that, Hank entered the room and they began talking to her as if she were in a doctor’s office. They hooked up electrodes to her head and placed heart monitors on her.

------------------

“So tell me about these new powers,” Jean coaxed.

“Well… Long story short, I went to Asgard,” you began explaining.

“Mhm, and what happened there?” she urged, looking at her clipboard.

“Well, we found out that the longer I was on Asgard I got the same power Remy does,” you informed, glancing to your friend. “I could take the potential energy of any object, and turn it kinetic, as well as absorb energy that’s thrown at me.”

“And that’s bad?” she inquired, perching an eyebrow.

You shook your head. “No, no, that isn’t what the problem is. That power is a part of me, but… But I got pushed into a bad situation and someone gave me another power, a dark one. This one is just straight energy, but whenever I’ve used it, I’ve felt angry. It’s just so… dark.”

She nodded, frowning, looking at her notes. “Okay, let’s do this. Let’s get your blood going, get you angry, and let’s see what triggers this power.”

You bobbed your head.

“Why don’t you and Remy do some contact training? You did say you had the same power as his, right?”

Again, you nodded.

Luckily, the training room had a few objects you could use -- yoga ball, sports balls, weights, metal rods, vases, glasses, empty cans.

“Are you okay with that, Rem?” you asked, glancing to him.

“Whatever I can do to help, cher,” he said with a lilt and a wink.

The two of you took your positions opposite of each other, getting ready to spar.

“Begin whenever you’d like,” Jean sweetly instructed as she stood off to the side with Logan and Steve.

You picked up an empty can, charged it, and threw it at Remy, who deflected it easily. A grin popped onto both of your faces. This grin suddenly sparked something very competitive in both of you and the training quickly became rapid fire shots and dodges. The two of you were throwing anything you could get your hands on. You started out small, but Remy was building up impressively quick. One second it was empty cans and vases, the next, you were lifting entire gym machines and launching them. On the very last one, Remy had to tuck and roll.

“Y/N, have you used your dark energy, at all yet?’

You turned and faced Jean, frowning. “Uh, no, I guess I haven’t.”

“Go ahead and try that for me,” she suggested.

“Um… I don’t know. On Remy it might be too much,” you said, looking to your friend and shaking your head.

“Don’t worry about me, mon cheri,” he assured, nodding towards you, encouraging you. “We gotta find out what’s eatin’ away at ya, don’t we?”

“I suppose,” you said uneasily. You lifted your hands, ready to fire the dark energy, but when you did… it didn’t reach him. The dark purple, electric looking power barely fizzled out of your hands. “What the hell?” you asked, peering down at your hands.

“Interesting,” was all Jean could say.

“All that talk and no action,” Logan mocked from the back corner. You stared back at him, an unreadable expression on your face.

“Try again,” Jean urged.

You turned back, getting ready to aim the power at Remy. You lifted your hand, felt the charge under your skin, the tingling in your hand, but when you actually pushed it from your body -- it simply fell to the floor.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” you stated, staring down at your hands with worry. What if they thought you were lying about needing help?

“When was it at its peak?” Jean asked.

Her question made you think back to months ago when you were a monster, when you were hurting everyone you loved. You flinched involuntarily, it didn’t go unnoticed by the others.

“When I… when I was trying to take over New York,” you explained, shame entangling in your voice and body language.

“How’s everything going in here?” Shannon suddenly asked, stepping into the bunker style training room.

Seeing her felt like a wave of fresh air and sunshine. You instantly straightened up and smiled.

“We’re trying to get to the bottom of exactly what makes her dark power so powerful,” Jean explained. “She said it had to do with the terrorist attack on New York and her hand in it?” she said, looking a little puzzled as she turned to Shannon.

She looked to you silently asking if she could explain what had exactly happened and how you were involved in all of it. You nodded your approval.

“Well it’s a long story but to summarize her hand was forced into helping another Asgardian open up the portal to letting the creatures in. At the time she brainwashed and was completely unable to do anything but do as told or fear losing not only her life but seeing the lives of her loved ones taken one by one before her,” she said trying to keep it as clean and with little detail possible so as not to shed a bad light on you, she knew how much their opinion of you mattered.

You looked to her and silently thanked her for not telling them of all the horrible things you had done to her and the people that you cared about. You felt as if though they were looking at you in a different light and began shrinking in on yourself and she could see that this topic was beginning to bother you.

“There is one hint I will give you as to what happens to be a part of what triggers her dark energy,” she said looking at Jean.

“Well, what is the hint Shannon?” Jean asked, wanting to figure out quickly how to help you.

“Your hint is a who, rather than a what, that goes by the name Loki,” she went on to say.

“And who might this Loki be?” Gambit asked her, looking to you curiously.

“He’s a man that she is very connected to,” was all that Shannon had said. She really had no place in telling them of who exactly Loki was to you so she kept it at that. She also realized that there was indeed a connection between the dark energy and Loki, Shannon remembered how upset you got when you two had been fighting and she kept bad mouthing him and your powers getting stronger.

—————————

The very first session of testings were out of the way. Shannon had gone off to speak to someone at the mansion and told you she’d see you back at the tower later on. Not being one to waste time, she quickly went to look for her masked friend.

“Wade? Wade Wilson if you don't appear in the next 2 minutes I'm heading home!” she giggled feeling someone’s emotions were playful. She walked closer to where he had been earlier with her. “Hmmm, I guess I’ll have to find someone else to go eat some chimichangas with.” she shrugs her shoulders and makes to leave the room.

“Woah there! Now just wait a minute no one else likes chimichangas as much as I do.” He rushed to stand in front of her.

“I got you!” She smirked. “Come on dork lets go catch up.”

“Hey no fair.” He mock pouted. “You used my weakness against me.”

“That's what happens when you have a spy as a friend.” She smiled up at him.

He pulled her close and messed with her hair. “Alright off to go watch a movie what are you in the mood for?”

The two had walked to the lounge area and spent the rest of the afternoon together. Wade had made a ton of questions about the event of New York, the issues that occured between her and you. She had left feeling a bit better about what happened, she knew she could always count on Wade to help her.

—————————

Kurt popped you back into the cell and left instantaneously, as to not be seen by Tony or any other prying eyes. Loki dismissed his illusion of you that was currently sitting on the couch with a mug.

“Was she good company?” you asked with a coy grin before sitting next to Loki on the other couch.

“She was... Didn’t talk much, but then again, isn’t that a good thing with girlfriends?” he teased and you shook your head at him. “How was it?”

“It was… good, I suppose. They don’t know what triggers my powers. Well, we might know, but they need to run more tests.”

“So...you’ll have to go back?” Loki inferred.

“Probably. We’re thinking it will be in two days. Shannon can’t exactly keep sneaking out without raising suspicion,” you informed with a shrug. “I just hope it goes a little better than it did today,” you remarked, getting up to go make a drink and make Loki something for dinner since he couldn’t cook for himself.

“Oh? Why? I thought you said it went well?” he questioned, concerned.

“It was,” you answered, “until Steve almost tackled me.”

“The soldier? What on Midgard for? What could you have possibly done?”

You turned to face him. “It’s silly really. I was running to hug my friend Remy and--”

“Your friend?” he questioned, frowning at you, the slightest tone of anger in his voice.

“Well, yes.You remember Remy. I told you about him. We kind of grew up together in the same foster home,” you explained. “He’s a character,” you said with a laugh. “You may like him.”

Loki closed his eyes and held his hands up. “Wait… So while I waste away in this cell, you went and had brunch with friends?” he asked, his voice rising dramatically.

“What? No. It’s not like that. I was exhausting myself physically and mentally trying to figure out why I feel so different. Trying to find a way to feel normal. I thought you were fine with this?” you asked. “You told me to go find answers.”

He shouted, “Yes! Answers! Not off having mimosas with some man you used to know!”

“I wasn’t off ‘having mimosas’,” you mocked in his voice. “I was trying to figure out what the hell that asshole put in my head, in my body!”

“Okay so you just think Shannon was helping you out of the kindness of her heart?” he pressed.

“Yes, I do. What else would she be doing?” you challenged.

“How do we know she wasn't just installing more surveillance when she gave you that tablet?” Loki asked as you worked on making him tomato soup in the small kitchen.

“What? Loki, there are literally cameras in every room except the bathroom. What more could they install?” you asked incredulously.

“I’m merely saying… do you trust her?” he said as he stood close to you like a shadow.

“I guess,” you answered unsure. Sure, she got you out for the day, and she helped you, and respected your privacy about New York and Loki, but both of you had a long way to go before there would be full trust again. She was still on the side of the heroes, and you on the villains afterall.

“Your level of confidence astounds me,” he mocked.

You sighed, frustrated at you laid down the stirring spoon. “I don’t know, Loki. She says she believes us, she came inside the cell--”

“Romanoff, the spy? She fooled me on that helicarrier. Shannon did the same thing to me in this tower. She pretended to be you for gods’ sake, and stabbed me in the back.”

“And I threw Tony out the window,” you reminded with a gleeful, fake smile, sarcasm behind it. “We’re pretty even.”

Loki took a deep breath before he said, “All I am saying is that she doesn't exactly stand on moral high ground. We don’t know her intentions. Coming in here, saying she believes us, all of that could’ve been a ruse. Trust me, I’m a master of trickery.”

“Moral high ground? Have you forgotten what we did?” you asked, turning to him.

“No,” he told you flatly, his eyes cold. “But she stabbed me in the back, Y/N. Not figuratively, like I do, but literally. What if she does the same to you?”

“Stab me or betray me?” you teased.

He gave you a cold look. “Neither is a joking matter,” he chastised.

You rolled your eyes. “Lok, she isn’t going to do that.”

“Oh, you’re right,” he said, putting his hand on his forehead dramatically. “I forgot that humans are so prone to forgiveness.” He gestured to the cell around you, looking at the concrete walls outside the glass cell.

You pursed your lips. “What do you want me to do?” you asked in a huff. “Send her away? You want me to say, ‘Oh, no, Shannon, that’s fine. I only spent the better part of a year trying to get you to come and see me, to forgive me. But now that you believe me, you can go’.” You crossed your arms and stared at him.

“No, I just… I want you to be cautious. I don’t want you getting hurt by her. I can't bear to watch it,” he stated.

“You know, not everyone is a fucking snake, looking how to double cross someone. That’s pretty much your department,” you snapped, shoving napkins in his chest as you started to walk to the bedroom. “Your soup is done.”

Loki stood, hurt evident on his face, sighing in frustration before he turned around. “The last I checked, that was hers. She was raised to lie, to gather information on the enemy. Or am I wrong?”

You froze.

“Look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong. That her background doesn’t lay solely in lies, betrayal, pretending…” He demanded. “I may be a snake. I may do what’s best for me, but at least all my friends and foes know that. I don’t pretend to hide behind some innocent facade,” he hissed.

You turned and slowly advanced on him, your eyes dark. “I thought you were happy for me? I thought you were happy for us? She’s on our side! Tony couldn’t care less if we rot down here. She might be our only chance at ever getting our freedom! She got me out today. She is trying to get me help! And even if she wasn’t, even if we never got our freedom, that’s okay, because we don’t deserve it. I’m lucky she even wants to look at me after what I did...Just her talking to me is just as good as freedom. Why can’t you see that?”

In low tone, he looked down at you and said, “Because I can never see the good in people. If you always expect people to betray you, you’ll never be disappointed.”

You flinched away from him. “Is that what you think about me? That one day I’ll betray you? That one day I’ll somehow leave your side?”

His wild blue eyes met yours for a long moment before looking away.

Tears sprang to your eyes. “Wow. How fantastic. Does nothing I did prove my love to you? I lost my freedom for you. I stabbed my best friend for you. I threw Iron Man out a fucking window for you. I jumped into a portal for you. I endured brainwashing and hellish conditions for you. And you still think that I could just turn on you?”

“You wouldn’t be the first,” he remarked with hatred. “If history has taught me anything, it’s that I will always end up standing on my own. Remind me again who got to leave this cell today and who didn’t.”

You pulled away from him even farther. In a whisper, you asked, “How could you even say that to me? I have been by your side through everything when no one else was. I never once said, ‘This is all Loki’s fault. I plea insanity, let me go.’”

“Ah, so there it is. You do think it’s all my fault.”

“That’s not what I said,” you argued through clenched teeth.

“It’s just a matter of time before you cast me aside like all the others. You’re already leaving without me, maybe one day you just won’t return.” A cold smile fell on his lips as he cocked his head to the side.

“Maybe this is why!” you cried. “Did you ever think of that? Maybe it’s because you expect the worst from people and eventually they’re tired of trying to show you that you’re wrong, so they just betray you anyway. It’s easier just to prove you’re right, rather than to constantly fight to prove you wrong!”

“Then it’s best I do it first, before they do it to me,” he said, his eyes narrowing as his voice got low.

You held up your finger, warning him, “Shannon is a good person. So long as she doesn’t hurt you or me, we will go on trusting her and believing her. Do you hear me?”

“Loud and clear darling,” he cooed darkly.

“Just… eat your soup,” you said finally before turning and going into the living room to read. You sat with your back to him, hoping he wouldn’t hear you crying. Of all the people you could fight with, you really didn’t want it to be the one man you were literally stuck with for the rest of your life.

Was this your life now? Constantly choosing between Loki and other people? Choosing Loki or freedom? Choosing Loki or a normal life?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tag List: @essie1876 @magpiegirl80 @letsgetfuckingsuperwholocked @iamwarrenspeace @marvel-imagines-yes-please @superwholocked527 @missinstantgratification @thejemersoninferno @rda1989 @munlis @thefridgeismybestie @bubblyanarocks3 @igiveupicantthinkofausername @kaliforniacoastalteens @feelmyroarrrr @kaelingoat @friendlyneighbourhoodweirdo @damalseer @heyitscam99 @yknott81 @sorryimacrapwriter @glitterquadricorn @xxqueenofisolationxx @little-dis-kaalista-pythonissama @bittersweetunicorm @alyssaj23 @sea040561 @princess76179 @thisismysecrethappyplace @sarahp879 @malfoysqueen14 @ellallheart @breezy1415 @marvelmayo @random-fluffy-pink-unicorn @cocosierra94 @hardcollectionworldtrash @capsmuscles @marvelloushamilton

@paintballkid711

Loki: @lostinspace33 @ultrarebelheart @lenawiinchester @esoltis280 @tngrayson @wangdeasang @harrymewmew @jayfantasyatyourservice

UC:

@lokis-high-priestess

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the--sad--hatter · 5 years

Text

Game Of Survival (Bucky x Reader)

FANDOM - MARVEL

PAIRING - BUCKY X FEM!READER

WARNINGS - SMUT, VIOLENCE, ANGST, GRAPHIC BLOOD AND GORE, SWEARING, DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

DESCRIPTION -

“If you do bad things for a good reason, they’re still bad things.”

When a serial killer decides to save the world, who can she turn to for help? You went to the people who supposed to be the professionals, the experts, the heroes. You should have guessed they would try to save you as well.

When you were a young girl, you were taught that love was a weakness, a failing of the human race, an anomaly in your biology designed to keep you weak and the only way to be strong was to train yourself to never succumb to it. It was a lesson you learned well, because you had no other choice. You were a creature incapable of love, incapable of loyalty. And on your eighteenth birthday, with a stolen gun from the top drawer of your father desk, you proved just how much you had learned. The weight of the gun in your hand was a small price to pay for the weight lifted from your soul when you pulled the trigger.

“Goodbye papa.”

You never forgot the look in his eyes as you fired the gun, nor the way it felt when his blood splattered against the pristine walls. It was freedom, and it was divine.

You never stopped pulling the trigger after that day. Your goal was righteous, your methods were not.

For a scared child who cowed at the crack of a belt, you pulled the trigger.

For a young girl ripped away from her home and stowed away in the dark, you pulled the trigger.

For the young boy enticed away from his family and his veins poisoned and soul stained, you pulled the trigger.

For the parents who would never hold their child again, you pulled the trigger.

Your price was non-negotiable, a promise. To be better. Better than the one who had hurt them, better than you.

But you weren’t a hero, no matter the good you had done for the world. Nobody ever called you a hero. They wouldn’t even call you a vigilante.

They called you what you were.

Serial killer.

Drug lords, crime lords, kidnappers, sex traffickers, abusers, rapists, murderers…. They were your victims.

Your methods were brutal, unmerciful, terrifying in their violence, downright sickening in the satisfaction you derived from the heinous acts.

Nobody felt a shred of pity for those who died by your hand. Nobody ever outright condemned you for what you did, but you were just too far over the line for anybody to defend you out loud. But behind closed doors, in hushed voices, they would say it. Whenever the news showed another monster in the world, the whispers were there.

“I hope The Executioner gets them.”

Natasha Romanov had met you only once, and not a word had been spoken between you. She had pushed open the door, gun at the ready. Her mark, the man Fury had sent her to take in, dead or alive was lying on his bed. If it weren’t for the gash along his chest, from Adams apple to groin, he might have been sleeping. Moonlight streamed through the open window, glinting off of the silver blade you carefully wiped on the edge of the bedsheet. You turned your head to look at the Russian Spy, your red lips curled into a feral smirk as you raised a blood stained hand to your face, holding a finger to your lips. ‘Shhh’ you gestured, blood dripping from your fingers.

Natasha nodded once, a short but firm tilt of her head. She knew who you were because she knew who he was. A despicable man who called himself a doctor, she had seen the pictures of his ‘patients’. Or what was left of them. You turned away from her and walked out onto the balcony, disappearing from view.

Had that interaction happened a few years earlier or later, Natasha might have reacted differently. But it didn’t, and she let you walk away. Clint understood why she’d done it.

Clint had met you as well. But he had spoken to you.

You had a gun pressed to the temple of the woman Shield wanted to speak to regarding a string of unethical and dangerous experiments. Biological warfare, her victim was a small town in France. Hundreds dead, thousands more in danger.

“Put the gun down.” He ordered.

“Give me a reason.” You demanded coolly.

He thought it over before he answered because your tone wasn’t mocking or challenging. It was genuine. If he gave you a reason, you would stand down.

“She’s the only one we can get to in time to stop the next attack.” He said.

You raised the gun and pointed it at the ceiling immediately.

“Tell them what they want to know. They will put you in a cell, you’ll be safe from me.” You told her.

You walked away, right past him as if you didn’t think he would stop you.

“Wait…” He said.

“No.” You replied firmly as you continued walking.

“You can be better than this, you just proved that. Don’t you want to be a part of something bigger than this? To actually make a difference, a real one. What you’re doing, you don’t have to do alone.” He offered.

“Not interested.” You said dismissively.

“I can’t let you leave.” He warned you.

“Then stop me.” You told him without turning around as you walked out of the door.

He wanted to, but Fury told him to stand down. Clint had always wondered how you found your victims. Now he knew.

Sometimes when Nick Fury wanted someone dead, executed, a file always found its way to you. You were smart enough to know Fury was manipulating you, he was smart enough to know you didn’t care.

Contrary to what the rumours said about you, you weren’t a vengeful ghost, you weren’t a righteous demon or a dark avenging angel. You were human, an as such, you made mistakes. You were flesh and blood, and when you were cut, you bled, when you were shot, it fucking hurt.

The steady drip of your blood splattering on the floor was loud in the otherwise silent room. It wasn’t a heavy enough flow for you to bother staunching it, you wouldn’t die from blood loss so pressing something against the wound would just be unnecessary effort and pain.

Better to let the blood flow. Words you lived by.

But even lonely serial killer sometimes needed somebody to dig out the bullets and stitch them back together. Sometimes even someone who was used to working alone knew when they were in too deep.

You didn’t bother turning around when the door whooshed open.

“You.”

“Hello Clint, nice to see you again.” You said.

“Uh, who the hell is this and why is she bleeding all over my clean floors? You, creepy lady, stop bleeding on my floor.” Tony Stark instructed you.

You turned around, smirking at various The Avengers who had all gathered to hunt down the intruder. You held up the flash drive you’d almost died obtaining and tossed it at them. Clint was the one who caught it in his fist.

“Would somebody mind digging this bullet out, I’d do it myself but I’m about four and a half minutes away from dying so I don’t really have the time.” You said sarkily.

“I’m waiting for a reason we aren’t cutting that time short, Clint?” Tony sassed back.

“What’s on the flashdrive?” Clint asked you.

“Seven and a half billion reasons not to let me die. Saving the world is your thing right? Or have I broken into the wrong place?” You asked them.

You were betting you hadn’t. You were betting your life on it.

~~~~~~~~~~The Next Day~~~~~~~~~~

When Bucky was a young man, he’d been what nowadays was referred to as a player. When the war came and he shipped out he was torn between wishing he had someone to go home to when it was over, and thankful that there was nobody he might leave behind. Then came the fall and he didn’t think about things like love anymore. When the hellicarriers went down and Bucky started to regain control of his own mind, there was no space in his fractured mind for something like love. When he was in Wakanda, relearning how to be human again, he realized that someone like him wasn’t ever going to be able to find love. Then Tony Stark reached out and brought the lost Avengers home and Stark’s forgiveness went a long way to Bucky being able to start to forgive himself, but still, there was something in him that just knew love was not in his future.

Or so he thought.

It happened in a split second, on an unremarkable day. He had just returned from a mission with Steve and Sam. He was weary, bruised and tired. All that melted away, forgotten when he heard her before he saw her. A loud, unrestrained laugh, brimming and overflowing with joy. Bucky’s feet led him towards the magical sound automatically, like a siren call. He turned the corner and it was like he’d only been seeing the world in muted colours his whole life without even realising it. She had her back to him and as she turned around, hair flying out behind her, he saw the wide smile across her face, the twinkle in her eyes and everything snapped into place with an earth-shattering finality.

She was the one.

“Buckinator, come meet this delightful creature.” Tony called, waving him over.

Bucky didn’t hesitate, it wasn’t confidence, it was desperation to speak to her.

“Hi.” He breathed out, in awe of the shining beauty who was now smiling right at him. For him.

“Hello.” She said and her voice was just as melodic as her laugh.

That was the day he fell in love.

“This is The Executioner, one of the most prolific Serial Killers in the world.” Tony announced.

Her lips curled up at the edges and like a magic trick, she went from sunshine to sinful.

Unfortunately for him, she was still the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

A/N - This is a teaser/tester. I kinda just want to write a story where the reader character is not the good guy, but she’s not the bad guy either. She’s in a very moral grey area, like Natasha would have been when Clint first found her.

However, I don’t know if it’s something worth writing or should just be one of the ones that only lives inside my mind.

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thawedpatriot · 5 years

Text

okay, my e.ndgame thoughts are below the cut. beware, they’re somewhat incoherent at times mainly just because my brain is still trying to wrap my head around some stuff. also it’s really really long. like 3k words long. major spoilers ahead!

-okay so the whole beginning felt. really rushed, if that makes sense? like, i’m glad that tony got back to earth fairly early on but that was very sudden, having carol show up and carry the ship to the compound. however, i can’t complain too much because watching steve book it to tony’s side as he was coming off the ship gave me life. the fact that he just hovered the whole time and was there to support him and show he cares just. pleased me.

- tony had every right to blow up at steve. i mean, god, the man’s been through so much. he’s lost so much and is still recovering from everything that happened. he’s frustrated and angry and hurting and steve pressed for information too callously too soon, and it set an exhausted tony off. totally valid. and tony was right, he saw all this coming and no one listened to him, even though half of that was just bc aou was a fucking mess writing wise. but steve told him ‘together’ and because they weren’t together when shit went down, they all lost. would it have killed either of them to call during the two years they had to do so? no, probably not. that probably would’ve been a step towards working back to that ‘together’ thing. because there’s years of unresolved tension and conflict between them at this point, none of it ever got resolved between them, so it’s finally coming to a head now that they’re properly in the same room again.

- that said, the ‘you weren’t there when i needed you’ bit rubbed me the wrong way. because it was bruce who ended up calling. tony never made a call, never asked for steve’s help. never let him know he needed him, even though he had that ability to. so yes, steve is at fault here too, but it’s not 100% on him that things went down the way they did, if that makes sense.

- tony shoving the arc reactor into steve’s hand???? killed me on the spot, thanks.

- the devastation steve must be feeling when they figure out the stones are gone??? gutting. he was so sure they would be able to bring everyone back wit the stones once they’d taken care of thanos. he was so ready for a fight, so ready to get his revenge and make things right, and there just. was no fight, no way to bring his friends back. he’d lost bucky all over again, and now he’s lost sam, too. sam, who he dragged into all this. that kind of guilt festers in him for those five years, no doubt.

- i wanna know what steve did for those five years. because, yes, we see him talking in that small therapy group, but not only is he giving advice he’s not taking himself, but he’s just not shown doing much of anything else. he’s holding on to all his trauma and grief and not dealing with it, just like he’s been doing since he left the ice. so what is he doing all that time??? but also seeing him in a therapy group setting made my heart swell a little bit because you know he did that for sam. he misses his friend and is doing that for him, i will not believe anything otherwise. sam was and is so important to him.

- this is unrelated to steve but is important to me as a bi: carol’s hair looked so good i made a noise when i saw it and my friend hit me in the arm

- god i wish we saw more of steve and nat interact. because clearly they’ve been in contact with one another for the past 5 years and that’s probably the longest running friendship he’s had going besides bucky so. it’s nice to know he didn’t lose everyone in one way or another for those 5 years. they just know each other so well and recognize the similarities between one another and i’m just really glad he wasn’t all alone all that time.

- steve is so done with everyone throughout this movie, including himself. it’s beautiful.

- sidenote, i could not take bruce seriously as a character the way he was and i don’t know why. also they did thor dirty. they did thor so dirty. he was a joke until they needed him to fight. the level of guilt and trauma thor is dealing with is immeasurable and they turned it into comic relief by leaning into fat-shaming and joking about alcoholism???? nah man, that’s not okay. not at all. address that he’s dealing with ptsd, show that he’s using unhealthy coping mechanisms, and help him. don’t make fun of him, don’t just let him keep doing that to himself, help him. the only scene in the whole movie i genuinely liked with him in it was his scene with frigga. because she took him seriously, she was willing to listen and offer advice and tell him what he needed to hear. that scene was so important.

- another sidenote, as much as i disliked p.epperony in the past, this movie made me appreciate them more. because i’ve always loved them both as individual characters, pepper potts owns my whole soul, but as a couple they were just written in a way that made me not love it as the movies went on. however, this movie really showed growth in their development as a couple, in pepper accepting tony for who he is and the needs he has to do good. also tony is an amazing father and it’s just so validating to see a character who grew up with an abusive parent break the cycle and become soft and kind in any interactions he has with his daughter. you can tell how much he loves his family, and it’s what he deserved.

- okay so i hope we can all agree the time travel science in this movie was fucked and they did a really bad job at explaining how it works. it was not clear, did not make sense, and following standard time travel laws there were a million paradoxes happening and it makes me angry. nebula killing her past self? bullshit bc she should not exist after that. steve’s whole ending??? also bullshit but i’ll get to that later because that’s an essay in itself.

- tony giving steve the shield back was such a big deal okay. the fact that tony has acknowledged that holding onto the resentment was detrimental to his own health and being was so important. we got a handshake and i really thought they were gonna go for a hug but noooo that’d be too much to ask for i guess. but steve hasn’t seen or held that thing in like 7 years it has to be nice to have it in his hands again, seeing as he always refers to it as an extension of his arm and all. and to be getting it back, nice and polished, from tony probably means a great deal to him as well.

- okay now let’s get to the actual time travel bit. steve and tony being the ones to zap back to 2012???? my god its like everything i ever wanted was handed to me on a platter. that movie was what got me on this marvel train and as even with its issues, it holds such a dear place in my heart. so you know the second that ‘2012′ popped onto the screen i was ready to combust. and then it just got better because it felt like an extension of the movie, like we were seeing deleted scenes, which was just. really nice??

- god okay “america’s ass” gave me so much life as dumb as the whole joke was. because tony blatantly checking out steve’s ass?? my dude thats the gayest thing i’ve ever seen with my own two eyes. but then tony commenting on how his ass looks in the suit???? i was living, okay. living. and the fact that he checked out his past self’s ass and was like ‘yeah, damn straight’ amused me greatly.

- ngl the ‘hail hydra’ bit made me uncomfy initially, but honestly i’m just gonna appreciate how clever my boy is and how stupid hydra is. his ‘i’m clever and i know it and i just outsmarted piece of shit nazis’ smile as he walked away from the elevator with the case???? priceless. i was half expecting another elevator fight but i guess that wouldn’t really make sense sfdghj

- steve fighting himself? past steve reacting to the compass appearing and getting super fucking pissed over the concept that someone might’ve taken it or something??? the fact that it was ‘bucky is alive’ that had him going full stop???? oof. also, the ‘i can do this all day’ and ‘yeah, i know’ was funny initially but oh my god is my boy exhausted. he’s so tired. he’s been fighting for decades. someone let him rest. please.

- also unrelated, i wanna know where the fuck loki fucked off to when he grabbed the tessaract. like is this where the concept for his spinoff show comes from???? what did he do????

- steve and tony being on the same wavelength and trusting each other??? steve trusting tony wholeheartedly even if he didn’t fully know what it was tony was planning?? important. so, so important.

- steve in camp lehigh. oh my god. why did no one recognize captain america???? it’s been twenty years, sure, but y’all slapped ‘birthplace of captain america’ on your sign and there’s probably pictures of his face around in more places than peggy’s desk. you’re telling me no one would recognize him standing in the middle of the military camp??? nah, i don’t buy it. y’all had poor disguises and didn’t even get him sunglasses or anything. c’mon guys, you’re better than this.

- okay look this isn’t a tony blog but what the fuck was that scene with howard,, i understand it in terms of why they included it when looking at the narrative. because of tony’s whole ‘resentment is corrosive, didn’t like it’ thing and the need for closure on that front before his story ends, but he didn’t owe howard jack shit, let alone a ‘thank you’. that man, even if he had the best intentions and wanted tony to succeed in the future because he knew he had potential, was neglectful and abusive. he was not affectionate, he did not make tony feel as though he were loved, and it deeply affected tony as a person. the fact that he doesn’t know how far along his own wife is with their firstborn child??? big red flag right there, friends. sure, it’s good to show kids with bad relationships with their parents that its possible to work through negative emotions and resentment and move on with their lives but this was not the example to give. tony did not owe his father anything at that point. he’d moved on, made himself better, became a better father than howard was to him. i’m just. so angry about it okay.

- steve looking through the glass of peggy’s office at her, believing this was the last time he was going to see her again??? broke my heart but i called it as soon as i knew time travel was involved in this movie. i knew they’d throw a ‘steve sees her while traveling and is really sad about it’ bit in there somewhere. and i would have been content if that was it, if that was all he got. if that was the closure he got, one last glimpse of her. the fact that twenty years later she still has the picture of him, before he was captain america, on her desk??? erases any of the development and growth we know she went through in her series and whatnot, but it’s a good reminder that peggy carter was one of the few people that saw steve for who he was. she saw the skinny kid from brooklyn and knew he had what it took to be a hero, she saw him for the good man he was. she loved him for who he was. that means a great deal to steve, who no doubt struggles with the line between steve and cap a lot. but by this point, peggy would have moved on. in the series, she had moved on. erasing all of that development is detrimental to her character and i refuse it.

- seeing jarvis again was a treat. i squeaked.

- what the fuck was that with natasha??? what kind of man-pain fuel was that??? and why didn’t she get the proper funeral/mourning she deserved??? she’s been around since im2, she was the one who united the avengers, she was the first female avenger (bc they swept janet van dyne under the rug but thats a whole other rant), and that’s the end of her arc??? as soon as i saw where her and hawkeye were headed i just knew. i knew what was gonna happen and i was hissing internally. because i knew there was no way she’d be like ‘yeah you’re my best friend, you have a family, you go ahead and jump’ and on behalf of all the mcu writers i wanna apologize to all c.lint.asha shippers for the mess the mcu gave y’all. i’m so sorry j*ss fucked it up for y’all bc he wanted something for two characters no one else wanted. she deserved to be mourned. she didn’t deserve to be forgotten for like the rest of the film after that initial ‘she’s gone’. she deserved a funeral, too. steve just lost one of his closest friends???? on top of everything else he’s lost, let him express that. please.

- so back on my s.tony shit, the ‘that’s my man’ when tony nudged steve awake to hand him back his shield after the compound blew up??? not heterosexual at all. y’all aren’t even trying to hide it anymore u bastards

- STEVE ROGERS USING THE HAMMER. Y’ALL. Y’ALL. MY BOY IS WORTHY AND I KNEW IT AND THIS MEANS HE SPARED THOR IN AOU BC HE’S A COMPASSIONATE LOSER WHO DIDN’T WANT TO HURT HIS FRIEND’S PRIDE AND FEELINGS. BUT GOD THAT WAS THE COOLEST GODDAMN THING I’VE SEEN ON SCREEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. HIM USING BOTH HIS SHIELD AND THE HAMMER AT THE SAME TIME, MAKING COMBO STRIKE OUT OF IT??? USING THE LIGHTING???? MAN I CAN TELL YOU WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT I HAVE NOT SCREAMED SO LOUD IN A MOVIE THEATER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. GOD I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

- all the ladies fighting together?? shielding peter???? kicking ass together??? gave me life. that was the most beautiful scene in the entire mcu,,, it made my bi heart burst,, all it was missing was nat, but it was a nice way to be like ‘this is what she started’. and seeing pepper out there as rescue was just the cherry on top okay i love her sm she’s so cool and finally fighting out there alongside tony and rhodey. my wife carol danvers is also the coolest??? not even flinching when thanos does whatever head-butt thing he was going for??? god i love my wives.

- ‘on your left’ god damn yes let sam wilson be the one to announce that they’re all back my boy deserves it. i wanted a proper reunion between steve and sam and/or bucky. we didn’t get that. we didn’t get that!!!!!! we didn’t get anything like that!!!!! steve was primarily on his own for 5 years because he lost his two best friends and we don’t get a reunion scene??? i call bullshit, marvel

- also rocket trying to shield groot with his own little body during the aerial attack??? broke my little heart??? like he just got him back and is terrified that he’ll lose him again,,,

- no one talk to me about tony stark i can’t handle it, he deserved to be happy and live a long life with his family. he deserved that happy ending, but i’m so grateful that pepper just. understood what he needed. she knew what he needed to hear and was there for him and could just ‘we’ll be okay, you can rest’. and give him that peace of mind. he did it, he saved the universe, he brought everyone back, he can rest. but god he really deserved to be able to rest with his family, happy and alive, okay.

- steve’s small exchange with bucky was like a nice reference to the first cap movie, but that was all we got. steve has spent multiple movies trying to get bucky back and help him, and we don’t even get a reunion scene and then just this one little bit of back and forth. a soft ‘i’ll miss you’, even though its technically only supposed to be seconds for them?? like,,, does that means bucky knows??? like, he has a feeling he knows what steve’s gonna do??? idk man, idk. all i do know is that they deserved better in this movie. i’m also summing up bucky’s telling sam to go talk to steve as bucky’s ‘i don’t know if i can handle that’ admission tbh.

- god bless sam wilson. between being the one to be like ‘bring him back. where is he? get him back.’ the second something seemed to go wrong with the time travel was,,, really nice. like, thank you for caring about my boy. thank you for always having his back. i love you so much sam wilson. and anyone who thinks sam shouldn’t be the one to get the shield can meet me in a back alley okay, this man has earned it, he’s the right pick for the cap mantle. the cap theme playing when he was given the shield? Iconic. did i cry whenever the cap theme played during this movie?? Absolutely.

- time travel in this movie is a fucking joke but i wanna know if steve had to see the red skull when he returned the soul stone because can you imagine??? that interaction??? like, did anyone warn him??? did anyone tell him the red skull was there or was it only implied when clint said something about a red man or whatever after coming back and being upset about natasha???? but also where did steve travel back to in order to start his new life??? were there just two caps in the universe??? one in the ice and one living his life w/ peggy???? none of it makes sense. none of it. where does the shield go/come from???? guys??? guys.

-okay now we address the end of steve’s arc. i’m gonna start by saying i see both sides of the discourse it’s stirred up. i understand the intention behind it, not wanting steve’s story to just be one big tragedy. because that’s where it was headed. if they killed him, he would have been fighting for decades on end without rest, without knowing peace, and that would’ve been it. that’s not the end people want to see for their heroes. he deserves to be able to put down the shield and rest. he deserves that ending for himself after fighting his whole life. However, the way they did it not only flattened his entire arc, but it flattened peggy’s entire character as well. she built a life in his absence, she moved on, and he knows this. he knew this, and i refuse to believe that steve would selfishly go back and disrupt that, take that away from her for the sake of his own personal happiness. that’s not steve rogers, a good and compassionate man. because think about the life he’d have to lead, knowing all he does. because if he isn’t supposed to disrupt the timeline, he has to let everything with hydra happen and infiltrate shield, something he knows peggy’s dedicated to, he has to let everything with bucky happen and be okay with not stepping in and rescuing his best friend from that horrific life/killing tony’s parents, he has to watch both tony and sharon grow up knowing everything about their lives??? (not to mention how fucking weird everything with sharon would be considering the mcu just forgot about her after they made out in the parking lot???? sharon deserved better.)

- this wasn’t an end of an arc, it was the flattening of an arc. he didn’t actually deal with anything that he’d been through. tws was all about how he needed to move on, peggy herself told him that the world was changing and he had to move with it instead of lingering in the past and what he lost. he was supposed to be building himself a new life, addressing what he lost and the trauma he’s been through and work through it all to push onward. that’s development. he got away with not working on himself or anything he went through, the group therapy was never actually beneficial because he didn’t take any of his advice, he clung to his emotions and grief and wasn’t able to move on and says as much. giving him this easy way out just feels lazy in my opinion. like they didn’t know what to do with him, wanted him to end up happy, and this was the only way they saw that happening because he wasn’t properly developed over the course of the mcu. i’m happy my boy ended up happy, don’t get me wrong, i was very close to sobbing over him finally getting that dance, but it was highly unsatisfactory in terms of a story and character arc.

#sir that is my emotional support canon divergence ( ooc )#long post #endgame spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #a4 spoilers

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trashcanakin · 5 years

Text

As I am still feelin' numb, an' full of grief after seein' Avengers: Endgame, I've decided to write down some thoughts an' feelin's.

I'm kind've a wreck, so bare with me if none'a this makes any sense.

This mostly came from the fact that someone told me I needed to "get over myself" an' that I "shouldn't be grieving over fictional characters."

But they're wrong.

They may be fictional characters, that is true, but to me an' so many others, they are so much more than that. MCU fans have dedicated 11 years of their life to Marvel, comic readers even more. Maybe they are fictional, but that doesn't mean the characters, the stories, haven't affected us, haven't changed us, haven't helped us.

They helped me, much more than anyone would know.

---

I always aspired to be like my heros, tried to be better, like them. When I look at the hardest points in my life, or times when I struggled to make the right decision, I turned to them for guidance.

Steve gave me the courage to stand up for others, even when I felt scared 'cause I hate conflict an' suck at human interaction. I knew if I saw someone bein' bullied an' I turned a blind eye, Steve Rogers wouldn't be proud of me, so I never turned away.

Tony gave me the motivation to change, to be a better me than I was yesterday. He made me realize, an' know without a doubt, that I can do better, be better, that I didn't hafta jus' sit an' wallow in my shortcomings.

Bucky helped me understand that there's always a way out, always a metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel, that my trauma doesn't define me. That no matter what I have gone through, I have the strength to push through, that I should never give up.

Whenever I'm conflicted or unsure, of myself, of a situation… I look to them, an' the other heros. Marvel gave me that, Marvel gave me a life I can be proud of, a me I can be proud of. An' honestly I can't ever thank them enough. I don't have the words.

---

Endgame was satisfyin' in a lotta ways, I suppose, but so fuckin' painful. I got Bucky & Sam back, as well as most everyone else. Steve got a happy ever after, I guess. Tony & Steve Finally made up. CAPTAIN SAM!!

But Tony's death is hittin' me too hard. I am unsure, right now, how to cope. I am grievin'', I hurt.

I've idolized Tony Stark since I was 6 years old. He's been my hero for 21 years. I'm so angry, so lost, an' confused why they would kill him off. Tony is literally the character who paved way for the MCU, without him (an' RDJ) we wouldn't have any of it.

I loved Tony Stark with every fiber of my bein'. He was what I aspired to be growin' up. I don't have many memories from my childhood, but I do remember so many times of "playin' make believe" as a child where I had a "secret lab." I pretended to be a scientist, an' inventor, an' engineer. I would doodle out blueprints of things I would want to create. I was 8 years old when I came up with the idea for a "flyin' rocket fueled skateboard" long before I ever knew what a hoverboard was. Countless random things. I knew later in life that I, in fact, am not a genius (lmao) so I knew I would never be jus' like my hero.

But I could aspire to grow an' become the best me I could be because of him. That I didn't hafta let any bad deed I did in the past ruin me. That as long as I kept tryin' to make up for what I've done, then I would be okay.

He taught me that ya ain't gotta be "perfect" to be a hero; that even the best fall sometimes, an' most importantly, that that's okay.

Tony's sacrifice, to me, jus' seemed...wrong. Tony is the futurist. He's the one to cut the wire, even though he makes the sacrifice play in every damn movie, but he always came back.

He always comes back.

But he's gone...my hero is gone. He could easily have been written to retire with his family after the battle, but they killed him instead…

It seems so wrong.

---

Marvel got me through some of the toughest an’ lowest parts of my life. Honestly, I owe my life to Marvel. At one point, in my my darkest moment, I struggled so hard with suicidal thoughts, I didn’t see any other way out, I was so fuckin’ lost, but instead of takin’ that leap, I would put a Marvel movie on instead. I knew they would keep my attention. An’ any bit of attention on a movie, or readin’ a comic, was jus’ that much more time spent not thinkin’ about killin’ myself.

That’s about the time I got into the fandom as well. Not solely settled with the MCU canon, I hopped into readin’ fanfic, an’ eventually joined a discord server. The friends I made there, an’ all the content, both canon an’ fanon, it kept me goin’, kept me strong, kept me alive.

An’ I jus’ hurt so much right now ‘cause my hero, the person I looked up to for the past 21 years, he’s gone. How am I supposta watch IM1 again, my favourite movie in the MCU, knowin’ that the man I’m watchin’ ain’t here anymore.

Marvel took him from me, but it’s okay, ‘cause it gave me so much more. An’ I know my battle with suicide is pretty much over, it’s been almost a year now that I’ve been better, but I will continue livin’ my best life. ‘Cause that’s what Tony would want.

Tony Stark died so we all could live, the fight to end the fight. He is a hero.

He is my hero.

So thank you Marvel. Thank you Avengers. An’ Thank you, Tony Stark.

I love you 3,000.

#marvel #mcu #endgame spoilers #endgame #avengers endgame #av4 #av4 spoilers #suicide mention #suicide tw #zain talks

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tomeandflickcorner · 5 years

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Jericho, Mad Beauty, and Thor for the ask

Whoa, I almost forgot about this!

Jericho-

Favorite character: Tie between Jake and Gail

Least Favorite character: Um...hard to say. There weren’t any characters that made me groan whenever they popped up. Though Gray Anderson came close, so I guess I’ll go with him

5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Jake/Emily, Johnston/Gail, Robert/Darcy, Stanley/Mimi and Heather/Beck

Character I find most attractive: Hard to say. Though I can see why people might find Jake and Emily attractive

Character I would marry: LOL. Well, all the ‘eligible’ men on the show seemed to be taken, don’t they? So there’s not much to chose from

Character I would be best friends with: I wanna say Heather. She was pretty cool

a random thought: I think, at one point, it was mentioned that one of the deputy’s kids was sick with something. I remember thinking if that was going to be relevant, but it was never brought up again

An unpopular opinion: I don’t think the show did a proper job at explaining why Johnston and Eric held such a negative opinion of Jake at the start of the show. I got that Jake was basically the town’s ‘bad boy’ back in the day, but... they way they acted towards him when he came back into town seemed a bit mean spirited to me

My Canon OTP: Jake and Emily

My Non-canon OTP: IDK. Maybe April and Russel?

Most Badass Character: Gotta go with Robert. No offence to Jake, of course. But between the two of them, Robert is the one I’d actively avoid trying to tick off

Most Epic Villain: John Gotez

Pairing I am not a fan of: Maybe Eric and Mary. While I didn’t actively hate it, I was mostly indifferent to them and pretty much fell asleep during their scenes

Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): April. hands down

Favorite Friendship: Jake and Robert.

Character I most identify with: Not sure.

Character I wish I could be: I’m drawing a blank, I’m afraid

Mad Beauty-

When I started shipping them: Hard to pinpoint the exact date. It started off when I saw a post mentioning the pairing, and I was intrigued by the concept. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized I liked it. Before I knew it, I was Mad Beauty trash

My thoughts: I just think they make the most sense. All things considered, Jefferson and Belle probably suffered the most during the course of the Dark Curse that created Storybrooke. Jefferson was forced to spend nearly three decades watching his beloved daughter from afar, knowing he couldn’t approach her because she didn’t remember him. Not to mention how he was the only one in town who remembered the truth but knew he couldn’t tell anyone on account of how nobody would believe him. As for Belle, she spent all that time confined in her cell in the psychiatric ward, where her only human contact were the orderlies who brought her food and whatnot. She never received any visitors during that time and I doubt the orderlies bothered striking up a conversation with her. To top it off, if her behavior when she was forced over the town line were any indication, she probably had absolutely no memories, either real or faked, to revisit while in confinement. While the show never addressed it, I firmly believe that Belle was probably in serious need of therapy when the curse broke. Apart from that, there’s the fact that Belle was a young woman who clearly craved adventure and wanted to see the world. Jefferson, who had spent quite a few years as a portal jumper with the use of his magic hat, has most likely visited more realms in the multiverse than anyone else in the show. So he’d be perfectly suited to be Belle’s personal guide to each and every one of those realms, giving her the world tour she’d always yearned for. And then there’s Grace. I think we all can agree that Grace is Jefferson’s top priority. Can you imagine how much Jefferson would love to see Belle and Grace interact and bond? Because it’s obvious they would. Especially since they both know what it’s like to lose their mother through tragic circumstances. Plus, both Jefferson and Belle are characters with a strong association with tea. I cannot erase the mental image of all three of them sitting down to a tea party.

What makes me happy about them: That I can write about them. Writing for this paring is almost as fun as writing about Captain Swan, my top OTP

What makes me sad about them: That this particular ship is so uncommon. It’s rare to find another Mad Beauty shipper. That and the fact that it will never be canon

Things done in fanfic that annoys me: Well, there are very few Mad Beauty fics out there, so I suppose the lack of them counts as an annoyance. Especially since most of the available ones seem more about Rumbelle, based on the fic summaries

Things I look for in fanfic: For it to actually exist (lol)

My wishlist: Don’t think I have one

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Not sure with Jefferson, since we hardly saw him interacting with anyone in canon, but Belle is my multi-ship. I’d be happy to see her with anyone who deserves her, really (Including Gold, as long as he actually got his act together first and quit being such a manipulative a-hole)

My happily ever after for them: Ah, but that would be a major spoiler for the fifth and final installment of my canon divergence series, wouldn’t it?

Thor-

How I feel about this character: Overall, I like him. While I wouldn’t say he’s my favorite character, I’ve always enjoyed his presence. He just strikes me as someone who’d be a lot of fun to be around

Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: Jane Foster. And maybe Lady Sif as a ‘we dated as kids/teenagers but then broke up amicably’ kind of deal

My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Loki and/or Valkyrie

My unpopular opinion about this character: His intelligence seemed to be a bit inconsistent at times. (Really, he knows about emails, but doesn’t know you need a computer to access them?) It’s a bit frustrating, because he is clearly an intelligent man

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: That he hadn’t broken up with Jane. Whose bright idea was that?

Favorite friendship for this character: It’s a toss-up between Steve and Darcy Lewis

My crossover ship: Does paring him with Ororo Munro/Storm count as a crossover? I mean, they’ve both technically Marvel characters, but so far, the X-Men aren’t a thing in the MCU

Send me a Number

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andthelastgreatamericandynasty · 6 years

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A Doctor Strange 2 Featuring Scarlet Witch Would Be Fucking Amazing: Here’s Why

Hello all!

So I reactivated my Twitter account the other day (you can go follow me there on @brielarsonage) and I came across a post about a potential Scarlet Witch cameo in a Doctor Strange film (pictured below).

Here are the individual pictures, too:

And, upon seeing it again AFTER watching Doctor Strange, I really warmed to the idea of Scarlet Witch featuring prominently in the second Doctor Strange film even more. And by that I mean ABSOLUTELY OBSESSING OVER IT!!

But how would Scarlet Witch fit into the Doctor Strange universe? You ask. Well, I was confused at first, too. But I did some research, and I’m ready to start discussing!!

Okay, so first of all, Kevin Feige has discussed Wanda/Scarlet Witch’s powers at length, and has confirmed that she indeed shares the same power set (maybe it’s a different wording then “power set” I’m not sure) as Doctor Strange, she’s simply untrained.

Here’s a quote:

“Her powers, she’s never had any training, I’m talking about Scarlet Witch. She never had any training; she’s figuring it out. Arguably, you could say that that’s why her powers are much more chaotic and much more loose in the way that we showcased those light effects. In [Doctor Strange], some of what you might see today, even the cover of Entertainment Weekly, it’s much tighter. It’s all about focus. It’s all about pulling energies from other dimensions in an organized and purposeful fashion, which is why they can do a lot more than she can in, at least, a much more precise way.”

So, duh, Doctor Strange could offer to help Scarlet Witch train her and develop her powers further. I see it going down like this:

After everyone has been brought back in Avengers 4 (cause DUH, of course they will), Stephen observes Wanda using her powers and says something douchey like “You’re talented. Untrained, but talented.” BECAUSE OF COURSE STEPHEN WOULD SAY THAT HE’S SUCH A FUCKING PRICK SOMETIMES.

(I say the above with all kinds of love for Dr. Stephen Strange)

So this altercation leads to Wanda and Stephen partnering up at the end of Avengers 4 and going off to train, which could lead right into you guessed it: Doctor Strange 2!

So Doctor Strange 2 has been confirmed by Kevin Feige while he was promoting Ant-Man and the Wasp. Full quote:

“Sometimes it's where do those characters pop up? [Doctor] Strange, you know, whenever we do another Strange one, which we will do, it will be a number of years from the first Strange, and yet he's a very big part of Avengers: Infinity War. So it is just a good problem to have when you have too many beloved characters that people want to see more of, whilst keeping to our core belief that we need to keep exploring nuance and keep doing different types of things."

But how would Wanda fit in? If my dream interaction between Wanda and Stephen goes down in Avengers 4, would we start right on her training or would there be a time jump and would Wanda already be partners with Stephen?

That all depends on the plot of Strange 2, which could be a number of things. We don’t have many confirmed ideas on what the plot would be, but ideas on whom the main antagonist will be have been floating around. Right now it’s a debate between Mordo and Nightmare. Doctor Strange Director Scott Derrickson said when asked about what bad guy he’d like to bring to the MCU:

“I really like the character of Nightmare and the concept that the Nightmare Realm is a dimension.”

So could it be Nightmare? Would they sideline Mordo? I don’t think so. At the end of Doctor Strange, Mordo says that there are “too many sorcerers,” so maybe he’ll being to start wiping out sorcerer’s one by one, only for Stephen and Wanda to find out and try to stop him.

That would be my preference, but maybe the first half of the film can be Wanda’s training and the second half can be about Wanda and Stephen trying to stop Mordo. That would also appeal to me.

So you’re probably also asking me: “Madeline (or Lena, whichever you refer to me as), what about Vision? Where will he be? Don’t you think he’ll come back?” My dudes, I am a big ScarletVision shipper, I mean they were what drew me into the MCU after declaring MULTIPLE TIMES I would never fall into the MCU trap.

With that said, I don’t think Vision’s coming back after Infinity War, which breaks my heart, but let’s face it guys, Vision’s time had come. His arc was pretty much done and moving forward he doesn’t serve much of a purpose in the MCU. But this has a silver lining in the way it’ll help develop Wanda’s character.

Yes, yes, the “My love interest died and it’s changed me in a very serious way” is an overused trope, but it fucking works. Plus, Wanda had to kill Vision herself, which takes the trope to a whole new level.

So let’s jump to Avengers 4, Wanda is back but Vision is not. She feels jaded, she doesn’t know what to do. She’s lost so much in this fight. Then, Doctor Strange offers her a place at his side training in the mystic arts.

I think Wanda would take this opportunity because where else does she have to go? Wanda didn’t really have a home outside of the Avengers until Vision, and now Vision’s gone. Why not move on with her life expanding her powers under Doctor Strange’s tutelage?

Plus, business-wise, this would be a great fucking opportunity for Marvel. Let’s face it, solo films do better when you add in another Avenger or two to compliment the main character.

Stephen’s a real asshole sometimes and Wanda could really balance him out. She could call him out on his bullshit and he could help her overcome her fear of her own powers. Wanda is already so powerful, imagine what how much she could accomplish if properly trained.

And, as much as I HATE to admit it because Wanda has a fucking cool origin story, we’re probably not going to get a solo Scarlet Witch film, so why not feature her in another film? She could be the Black Widow to Stephen’s Steve Rogers.

Elizabeth Olsen is also down for more Marvel films, as seen when she spoke about a potential Scarlet Witch spinoff:

“And it’s like, no, of course I would love the opportunity. It’s not about that. It’s about, is it gonna serve the universe, does it serve their larger story? I felt crazy and I was like, ‘Jesus, no, there’s never been a conversation about doing a spinoff.’ I’m not pushing one. That doesn’t mean I don’t want one.”

I could easily see Scarlet Witch fitting into Doctor Strange’s overall story and arc. Maybe he could learn more about himself and his powers through training her, and she could learn more about herself and her powers through being trained.

There’s also the romance aspect which people will obviously go to if Marvel tries the Scarlet Witch/Doctor Strange dynamic, which I’m going to leave up to you to give your input on below. Honestly, I wouldn’t care. It would be cool to explore. But it depends on whether or not Benedict and Elizabeth have that romantic chemistry. Plus, could we really move on from ScarletVision? :/

ANYWAYS, those are my thoughts on a potential Scarlet Witch role in future Doctor Strange films. What are your thoughts?! I’m dying to know if there are any others like me who LOVE this concept.**

**Sorry if this is messy, I sat down to write this at 2 A.M. so there could be typos a plenty for all I know.

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chopperpirate · 5 years

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MCU Retrospective

I've decided to, in honor of Avengers Endgame, write about my thoughts on the MCU as a whole. Well, obviously I love it, but am cautiously optimistic about its future. It's easily one of my favorite film franchises, and though I don't think it ever really reaches the highs of The Dark Knight, it's better than any other Superhero related thing in the realm of Live-Action film, with the only things like Logan and The Dark Knight surpassing it in my heart. I still think DC animated films can sometimes be better, but it shouldn't be a competition.

I've been seeing people participating in this "One Marvelous Scene" thing lately, so I'll do that as well after ranking every MCU film I've seen from best to worst. I won't bore you with too much writing, though because I know I'll get flack, I'll try to justify my top and bottom 5 with some comments. With that said, here's Chopperpirate Mun's MCU film ranking!

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 - Anyone who knows me knows how much I love things that value the connections between ragtag "nakama" who aren't related by blood, but were brought together by circumstance and are now the closest thing each member has to family. Not to mention that this film has emotional payoffs for Nebula and Gamora's heartfelt rivalry, Rocket's tsundere hangups, and Peter's heritage that I'd say are all easily the most emotional resonant things out of the MCU. The comedy in the film is probably only rivaled by Thor: Ragnarok. My two personal favorite jokes being the Mary Poppins bit, and Drax shouting "MANTIS! LOOK OUT!" mere seconds after Mantis was already hit and knocked unconscious.

The highlight for comedy is easily Drax, but his speech to Mantis about why her perceived ugliness is a good thing because if someone loves you despite your ugliness, they love you for who you are, really might be one of my favorite moments in the film. Same with Yondu's speech to Rocket about how they're the same. Believe it or not, I cried more during Yondu's death than I did for Tony Stark's in Endgame. I can't really tell you why. Something about his last line just reminded me of Whitebeard from One Piece.

Yondu's death scene aside, my favorite scene in the film is easily when he, Groot, and Rocket are slaughtering the traitor Ravengers to the tune of "Come a Little Bit Closer."

On that note, the villains of this film are some of the best. They aren't bland, generic evil points of contention for the film to have a climax! Taser Face is hilarious, The Sovereign are hilariously arrogant and I find the fact that they only engage in combat through arcade simulations to be perfect for their personalities, and Ego might be the best Marvel Villain besides Loki up until that point in the MCU. The reveal that he killed Meredith was shocking, and might very well be the best "Wham Line" in the MCU to this date. His death scene showed a lot of depth to Peter, and like a good villain, he had a lot of parallels and contrasts to the protagonist instead of just having a clone of their abilities for the sake of a final boss fight.

The Winter Soldier - Captain America at his finest. Bucky was awesome, Black Widow was finally given a lot of vulnerabilities and depth as she bonded with Steve, Falcon was alright, HYDRA as a collective is an amazing source of paranoia fuel, and this movie might have the best action out of any MCU film, or at least my personal favorite brand of action. Instead of CG magic and shit, we get to see visceral knife fights, punches, kicks, and close-quarters martial arts. It's surprisingly brutal for a PG-13 film. I recall one point where Bucky kicks a SHIELD agent into a helicopter propeller.

As for my favorite scene in this film, I'd have to say it's the Elevator sequence. The build up was perfectly suspenseful, and the payoff of the line "Before we get started, does anyone want to get off?" felt badass and perfect for the character of Captain America, who, instead of being snide or arrogant, shows that he's ready to fight, while willing to let his enemies back out if they so choose.

This film might also be Nick Fury's finest. I was very disappointed that Captain Marvel didn't enhance the character more than this film did, but oh well. The way Fury communicated words with Steve while showing him what he really meant through writing was clever while also perfectly exemplifying his character. Fury is very secretive, never showing vulnerability or letting himself get attached to others, yet we can tell from his actions and concerns that he is a good person, even if he isn't a nice person. The way he says one meaningless thing while displaying another more pressing thought really shows that the Russos understood the character.

Infinity War - The Empire Strikes Back of the MCU. Thanos is an amazing villain protagonist, and arguably the only character with a full arc in this film, Gamora is probably at her most interesting here, and a lot of the interactions between characters who never got to interact before this film are some of my favorites. I'm especially fond of the chemistry between Doctor Strange and Tony Stark.

Despite how dark and serious this film is, it understands how to keep up dramatic tension while never losing its sense of humor. The same film with Vision dying willingly and pointlessly at the hands of his lover is the film with lines like "Why is Gamora" and "I am Steve Rogers." It's probably the most perfect film in the MCU in terms of story structure and emotional stakes. It's just lower than the ot hers because it lacks the personal love from me that the above films had.

Avengers: Endgame - Now that I've had time to stew on it, this film isn't as good as Infinity War, but it's still great. To clarify, Infinity War was a better structured film and a more entertaining one for the most part. I'd say the first two acts of Endgame were somewhat weak by comparison, but the final 1/3 was so perfect that it almost tempted me to rank it above Infinity War, even if Captain Marvel's presence ruins a lot of things.

I want to remain positive for the most part here, so I won't talk about too many of my gripes, but because I know I'll get asked why I think Captain Marvel ruins the stakes, let me explain. In the MCU, Captain Marvel can canonically move at Lightspeed, and probably faster too. So... when she got the Infinity Gauntlet in the final act's little "Hot Potato" portion, why didn't she just fly to another galaxy and hide the gauntlet away with some trusted civilization, come back to help defeat Thanos' army, then bring the gauntlet back to return the stones to their timelines? Remember, because of this plot hole of MCU Carol Danvers being so overpowered and fast, yet not doing anything to help, Tony Stark is dead. � We know the meta reason is because RDJ and most of the Phase 1 actors are done, but you guys can now totally blame Captain Marvel for it In-Universe.

Positives though! This film made me genuinely love Nebula. She fits so well with The Avengers (arguably better than with the GotG), and the small details of her pity and attachment to Thanos during his early death adds a lot of pathos to her character. Thor's "Big Lebowski" phase was hilarious, Tony and Thor getting closure with their dad/mom respectively was sweet, and the final battle was one of the greatest spectacles to behold. I don't know if it's controversial or not, but I personally loved that Captain America got his happy ending (even if it creates a huge plot hole with this movie's time travel rules). It just lacked the oomph of Infinity War.

Thor Ragnarok - This film saved Thor, made him entertaining and interesting, and gave us yet another great villain in the form of The Grandmaster! It has a similar issue, villain-wise, in my opinion, to Black Panther, in that the secondary villain is far more entertaining than the main villain. Great comedy, Loki's redemption is emotionally fulfilling, and Korg is my MCU waifu. My only issue is that Hela is kind of boring, and the stuff on Sakaar is far more engaging than the "important" plot.

Guardians of the Galaxy The Avengers Spider-Man: Homecoming Iron Man Doctor Strange Captain America: Civil War Iron Man 3 Ant-Man Ant-Man and the Wasp Captain America: The First Avenger Iron Man 2 Black Panther - Very overrated. T'Challa is far less interesting here than he was in Civil War, Wakanda is far better in Infinity War... Really, it's not a "bad" movie. It's just not that special. It's more comparable to the Phase 1 films between Iron Man and Avengers than it is to, say, Wolverine Origins. Glad I saw it. Wouldn't see it again. Didn't care of Killmonger either. Sue me.

Avengers: Age of Ultron - This gets... better on rewatch, but it still sucks. It's a garbage standalone movie, but if you look at it as an in-between film that's setting up things for the Thanos arc, it's actually not so bad. Could've used more scenes like the "Trying to lift Mjolnir," or "chilling at Hawkeye's house" scenes. Just The Avengers hanging out and interacting in low-stakes environments. Instead we get empty, loud, almost Michael Bay-esque action scenes.

Thor: The Dark World - On rewatch, it was surprisingly more entertaining than Thor 1 in a lot of ways. Mostly involving Loki. The human characters, especially Jane and her friend, are horribly boring, and I think we should be thankful that Natalie Portman left the MCU out of frustration for her character being an empty love-interest! She made the right call. Thor isn't really interesting yet, but at least the death of his mother gives him and Loki some legitimate character arcs.

Thor - Eh... it's just kinda bland. Not much to comment on. Loki isn't really fun yet, the human characters are boring, and Thor is probably the least interesting Phase One Avenger aside from Edward Norton's Bruce Banner. It has its moments, but on my most recent MCU rewatch, we were most bored with this one.

Captain Marvel - The most insulting installment of the MCU. Captain Marvel insults people for having those evil Y chromosomes. It's the story of a strong, brave, powerful, beautiful, flawless, overpowered woman who just wants to... umm... be an Air Force Pilot, I guess. She's apparently never met a supportive male in her whole 30+ years of living, because all of her memories are of cartoonish archetypes of men with 1940s values telling her that she can't become a pilot. After all "You know why it's called the cockpit, right?" Ugh...

Not only is the feminist message forced, but it's one of those negative feminist messages that I hate so much. Instead of preaching equality between the two genders, women being just as good as men, it preaches that women are amazing, brave, beautiful, powerful creatures and men are pathetic morons who underestimate women at all times. There's even a scene where her father is yelling at her for crashing a Go-Kart in pure anger and disdain instead of, I dunno... calling a doctor and worrying about his injured child? This movie is... ugh...

Carol herself is either boring and unremarkable or irritatingly condescending depending on the scene's writer. If I recall there were like... 4 or 5 different writers and it really shows. But anyway, she's annoying. She constantly "Womansplains" things to Nick Fury, and her tone is just so smug that it makes me want to slap her. Listen to the way she says "I'm here to stop the shapeshifters that are infiltrating your planet. You don't have any idea what's going on, do you?" It's so demeaning to have Nick Fury, the coolest character whose presence is so demanding and badass that even god-tiers like Thor and a war veteran like Cap shut up and listen when he speaks, be talked to by an unproven character just so Kevin Feige can get some feminist brownie points.

This carries into Endgame where she basically calls Rocket "furrball" and retorts his complaint by harshly explaining why she's not around. In response to this, Rocket, who is characterized in the first film by getting so angry at being called names for his oddities that he almost attempted to murder Drax for it in the bar, simply nods, lowers his head, and says "that's a good point" in a defeated tone. WOW! YOU GO GIRL! CAPTAIN MARVE IS SO TOUGH THAT SHE CAN TALK DOWN TO NICK FURY AND ROCKET AND THEY KNOW BETTER THAN TO COMPLAIN! WOOOOW!

Speaking of feminism, the movie skims over the whole "Air Force discrimination" subplot within under a minute, so we can't really connect to that. As such, one would expect the fact that she's "the most powerful hero in the MCU" to be the big feminist selling point, but she didn't work for that power at all. She got it through sheer coincidence by standing too close to the Tesseract powered engine before it exploded. As such, I suppose the moral is, "Girls! If you wanna be a strong, brave hero, go stand next to an exploding engine!" If so, I caution all viewers to not do that.

Nick Fury is mostly okay in this movie, but he feels underutilized. The retcon of his eye being scratched out by Goose is embarrassing and infuriating. It makes the line from Winter Soldier "Last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye," meaningless and if you were to count this movie as non-canon because of it, I'd be right there with you. He just keeps getting demeaned and treated as a joke, and strangely, the eye retcon isn't even the worst part. I groaned even harder when Carol's friend's daughter says she might build a space ship some day, Fury doesn't know. And Carol replies by saying "You're right, he doesn't know." Pushing the feminist message by knocking Fury down a peg instead of by preaching equality. :\ It wasn't like he said anything misogynistic throughout this film, so I have no idea why he's often the film's punching bag.

Oh, and just a side-note. You wanna know something hilarious? That friend's daughter shows Carol some photos of them together from six years ago. Literally the same actress. Literally the same age in the photo. This child hasn't aged a day in 6 years, so I welcome you to reply with some crack theories so that we can call the writers geniuses instead of incompetence? Is the kid a watcher? A time lord?

Incredible Hulk - Boring, boring, boring. Edward Norton was always a terrible Bruce Banner, the plot is as generic a hulk story as you can imagine, and the character of "Bruce Banner" is almost nonexistent aside from turning into The Hulk when stressed. This Bruce Banner is a handsome, tall, athletic martial artist. If I had to praise it anywhere, the fight between Hulk and Abomination toward the end is actually pretty decent, but aside from that, this film is an embarrassment. It's very telling that the MCU and all its executives swept this one under the rug. It's difficult to find in your Best Buy's "Marvel Studios" section.

There. Proceed to insult my opinions. :D

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essiefreds · 6 years

Photo

Sometimes you gotta take a Tony Stark break.

Ooh, check out that rhyming sister. We love her.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18, Part 19, Part 20, Part 21, Part 22

Word Count: 2955

Tagged: @hotemotionalmess, @hufflepeople, @justtolkienabout, @uservalkyrie, @writing-for-a-chance

Days that felt like weeks passed. Weeks that felt like years passed. Eventually, an entire month had passed, and you felt like you’d aged a decade.

It was for the better, though. Although you hadn’t asked him to, Director Fury made sure that you knew how Captain Rogers was doing. You knew that it was probably a bad idea, to have such frequent updates on him, especially since the goal had been to distance yourself, but you worried. Of course you did. You’d only worked with him for about two months; even if you’d decided that you weren’t actually helping, you were not sure if he was all right to be on his own.

Which he was, because Fury hadn’t given him someone else to help.

You were pissed with him about that, by the way. You had no right, or reason, to demand to know why he hadn’t, but you had a guess. He was doing his best to convince you to take the job back yourself.

Well, the joke was on him, because that was the last thing you were going to do. You’d made a decision, and you were sticking with it. That was something that you’d always pressed upon the people you helped, and so it did not make sense for you to go against it yourself.

Still, the very helpful surveillance of Steve’s apartment was doing nothing to impress on you the idea that you needed to stay away. It seemed more and more like Steve was regressing. He was not leaving the apartment as frequently. He’d stopped cooking his own meals. He spent a lot more time in the training room.

The only thing that you thought had stuck were the movies. Whenever you checked in on the camera (which you hated yourself for every time), he was sitting on the couch, eyes on the TV. The last few times, he’d been watching Disney movies.

More than once, your entire physical form had twitched, wanting to leave your office and go upstairs, to check on him in person. That would not be helpful, however. In fact, it would only make things even worse, because as soon as you saw him in person, your desire to take your job back would grow significantly.

You hated yourself, sometimes.

Still, at least you had other things to focus on. Director Fury had granted you clearance to make contact with Tony Stark, and so you’d decided to turn every aspect of your attention that would leave Steve towards him instead.

Unsurprisingly, the first response you received from Stark after your attempt to call him had been, well, a refusal to answer the call. His famous AI had done it for him, and had informed you that Mr. Stark had no desire to speak with SHIELD lackeys at that time.

If you hadn’t been determined to find something else to work on, you might have been amused by his gall.

The next time you tried to speak with him, it was through email. Of course, emails were more easily ignored than a direct phone call, but not when you pulled a few strings, and flooded his inbox with the same one, making it impossible for him to receive anything else.

In response to that, Stark had changed his email address, and deleted the one that was listed in SHIELD’s records.

“All right,” you said after receiving an error when you’d tried to send yet another email, “that’s how you want to play this, huh?”

You decided that it was time to pay Stark an in-person visit.

However, it took some serious convincing to get Fury to agree to that.

“After we bombarded him in Malibu, I wouldn’t be surprised if he had his tech programmed to shoot SHIELD agents on sight,” the director informed you as you followed him down a hallway.

“Maybe he does, but isn’t that a chance we have to take?” you asked him. “I mean, how important is this thing that you want him in on?”

“Y/LN, we aren’t even sure if we want Stark in on it,” Fury said, signing a piece of paper that was held out in his direction by a intern. “We need his suit; we don’t need Stark. Unfortunately, Stark and the suit? Not exactly able to separate the two.”

“I get that,” you responded, “which is where I come in. I have to change his attitude about SHIELD, right?”

“How do you plan on doing that, when you’re part of SHIELD yourself?” Fury queried, entering his office.

You followed him inside, lifting your shoulders. “I’ll tell him all the best parts about us.”

Fury let out a snort as he settled down behind his desk. He looked at you, and you saw his expression change to something more serious. You immediately wanted to retreat from the office. “Rogers has been asking about you.”

Of course he has, you thought to yourself. Just another reason to make me wish I hadn’t left him alone.

“And?” you queried, doing your best to remain passive on the outside. “Am I supposed to have a response to that?”

It was Fury’s turn to lift his shoulders. “I just thought I’d let you know, considering how often you look at the surveillance of his apartment.” He eyed you. “You are allowed to speak to him.”

“I think that would kind of defeat the purpose,” you said. “So, can I go to Stark Tower or not?”

Fury sighed, and turned his gaze towards his computer. “You can go. I’d prefer it if you took some muscle with you -”

“Yeah, not gonna happen,” you replied immediately. “We’re gonna do this the respectful way, not go in guns blazing.”

“And if your way doesn’t work?” Fury asked.

“It will,” you said, grinning, and then you turned and exited his office.

Within a few hours, all the necessary plans had been made, and a car was waiting outside headquarters to drive you to Stark Tower, which was a recent addition to the New York skyline. You could have taken a jet - the tower had a helipad - but you’d decided the respectful way of arrival would be by a car, via the front entrance.

As you were preparing to head downstairs, there was a knock on the partially opened door of your office. You glanced up from Stark’s file, which you’d been skimming one final time to make sure you had everything you needed from it, and frowned at the person who stood in your office’s doorway.

“Captain Rogers. What are you doing here?”

Steve looked uneasy, with good reason. He did not enter your office, but lingered in the doorway. In order to feign casualness, he leaned against the doorframe. “I uh - I heard you were planning on visiting Howard Stark’s son,” he said.

Damn you, Fury.

“Yes, I am. Right now, actually,” you responded, closing the file. You walked around your desk until you stood in front of it, and leaned back against it, crossing your arms. “Why?”

“You said that you should ask me how to handle a Stark, sometime,” Steve explained. “I thought that you might want a few tips, before you head out.”

You stared at him for a moment. It was sweet, in an abstract way, that he’d come down to see you, to try and help you, especially after you hadn’t interacted with him for a month. Still, you knew that this was a serious step backwards from everything you’d been trying to do in terms of distancing yourself from him. Apparently, however, he had no qualms with approaching you, even now, even after you’d left him alone.

“Actually, I think I’m just going to go in with what I already know,” you told him, and you saw his expression shift from one of hopeful uncertainty to tired acceptance.

“All right,” he said, quietly. “I uh… I just thought I’d give it a shot.” He turned, starting to retreat from your office, although he was moving slowly, like he expected you to ask him to stop.

You didn’t, and he disappeared from view.

Once he was gone, you exhaled, and lowered your gaze to the floor. Why was it that every aspect of the universe was doing its best to convince you to take your previous job back?

You shook your head, and grabbed your bag. You had different things to focus on, namely billionaire geniuses that needed to be convinced that SHIELD was not the worst kid on the playground, that there were much bigger threats that needed to be dealt with.

Stark Tower was a marvel. You had to admit that, catching sight of it as the car you occupied approached it. You’d asked the driver to let you out in front of it, which he did, and then immediately pulled away, as per your instructions. On the sidewalk at the bottom of the tower, you lifted your gaze upwards towards the top of it. From your spot on the ground, looking straight up, you could not see it.

“Huh,” you said to yourself, almost in contemplation. “This is… a lot more imposing than I thought it’d be.”

Shaking out your arms, you approached the doors, and pushed your way inside.

The first floor was a long hall. Elevators line an entire side of it, and at the end was a large desk that had multiple people sitting behind it. You debated approaching them, and decided that probably would be the most respectful thing.

“Hello,” you greeted a young woman who was reading a magazine rather than actually working. “I’m here to see Mr. Stark.”

She popped the gum bubble that she’d just blown, and offered you a bored look. “Do you have an appointment?”

“No,” you said, and she returned her attention to her magazine.

“Then I can’t grant you access to his office. Sorry.”

“So he’s here?” you clarified, and her eyes lifted again. “Good to know. I’ll be on my way up, then.”

“Hey, you can’t just -”

You ignored whatever it was that she was trying to say, and headed towards one of the elevators, respect already shoved to the back of your mind. You pressed the button, and almost immediately, the doors parted open. You stepped into the elevator, just in time to see two big fellows dressed in back come out of a door on the opposite side of the hallway, clearly looking for you.

You eyed the keypad on the wall next to the elevator doors after they’d closed, and tapped the button for the top floor.

“Password locked,” a disembodied British voice said.

“Hm,” you mused. “What kind of password would Tony Stark choose?” After considering it for a moment, you leaned towards the speaker that was built into the keypad. “Fucking password.”

“Access granted,” the voice said, and the elevator began to ascend.

You smiled to yourself, and stepped back. So much for ‘genius’.

The ride to the top floor took about two minutes. When the elevator doors opened, it was to reveal a wall that had yet another passcode access attached to it, so that the doors would open. You examined it for a moment, and then peered through the small window on the door, trying to see if there was anyone on the other side.

“Uh, excuse me.” You turned at the voice, and smiled when you saw Tony Stark approaching you. “How the hell did you get up here?”

“Your elevator password wasn’t hard to guess,” you responded, and then you held out your hand towards him. “Agent Y/N Y/LN, SHIELD. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you, Mr. Stark.”

“Yeah, I know you have,” he replied, ignoring your offered handshake, “and I think I’ve been doing my best to show that I don’t want to talk.” He raised his watch upwards, closer to his mouth. “Jarvis, could you get some security up here, please?”

“Already on their way, sir,” the same British voice from before responded.

“Great.” Tony looked at you again. “So, you’re going to stay there, and not move, and my burly friends will be up here to collect you and escort you out of the building shortly. Thanks, goodbye.”

“Mr. Stark, SHIELD has been attempting to get in touch with you about a certain project we would like your expertise on,” you said, speaking to him even as he plugged the passcode into the panel on the wall, and the doors parted for him. “You might have been told of it already?”

“Yeah, I have,” Tony replied. He had not walked through the doors into the private part of the top floor, yet. “The Avengers Initiative? Kind of lame sounding, if you ask me,” he said, “and the last time I heard, your director didn’t want me, he wanted the suit.”

“Yes, and we understand that you and the suit are a package deal. As such, we are willing to negotiate,” you informed him.

“Well, I’m not,” Tony stated. You heard the elevator open behind you, and Tony waved his hand at you. “Get uh, the SHIELDie out of here.”

“Mr. Stark,” you said, and you stepped through the doors into the private part of the penthouse just before they closed, locking the two security guards out, but you and Tony in. Almost at once, Tony turned around to face you, his eyes hard. The arc reactor glowed brightly beneath his shirt, in the center of his chest, as though it were threatening you.

You put up your hands. “I’m not here to try to… I don’t know, take you by force,” you said. “I’m honestly just a messenger, and I’m here to ask you why it is you hate SHIELD so much, and to learn what it is we can do to help you hate us less.”

“Mr. Stark?” One of the security guards was knocking on the door. “We can’t get in.”

“Not gonna hurt you. I don’t even have a weapon,” you said.

Tony stared at you for a moment, without moving. You stared back. Finally, he ordered the security guards off. Something told you that they lingered outside the penthouse, but they did stop knocking at the door.

His eyes narrowed as he went back to taking you in. You lowered your hands, and smiled at him. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” Tony responded, and then he turned and walked further into the penthouse. You followed him into a kitchen, where he immediately went to the fridge and pulled it open. “So, SHIELD wants to… what, pacify me?”

You cocked your head to the side, considering the word. “We want to offer you mutual assistance,” you said. “You know, you scratch our backs, we scratch yours?”

Tony scoffed, pouring some water into a glass. “Mutually beneficial arrangements never end well when it comes to the government. Surely you know that.”

“Well, no,” you said, leaning against the counter. “I’ve worked with SHIELD for about two years, now, and uh… it hasn’t been too bad.”

“Sure, it’s fine when you work for the government,” Tony said with an eye roll. He took a drink of his water, and you watched him, head tilted.

“Mr. Stark, I have a question for you,” you finally said.

“I’m sure,” he replied.

“Why don’t you want to work with the agency your father helped found?”

Tony set the glass he’d been holding down on the counter, and leaned his hands against it. He focused on you. “Listen,” he began, “I don’t know what kind of image of a happy family you have in your head, but my dad didn’t really fit the bill of the perfect father. It was partially your agency that took him away for extended periods of time, actually. So, why don’t you let that sink in, and then ask me your question again?”

You forced yourself to stay calm, even though he was trying your patience. You supposed that the fact that he hadn’t had you hauled off by security guards was a plus, but other than that, he didn’t seem to be cooperating.

“Mr. Stark -”

“Enough,” he interrupted, waving you away. He picked up his glass and walked around the counter, plopping down on a couch in a living area nearby instead. “I’m not interested, SHIELDie. I have had a very long day, and I’d like to take a nap, so, go away.”

“Sorry, Mr. Stark,” you said, stepping up behind the couch and looking down at him, “but it’s either you talk to me, or we send in some, uh, lackeys who actually do carry weapons to deal with you instead. The way I see it, we can work together to create a contract that you like, or you can wait for another agent to come to you with a contract that you had no hand in writing.” You shrugged your shoulders. “Your choice.”

Tony continued to stare at the television that sat across the living area from the couch. You waited a few seconds for a response. When none came, you nodded your head, and started to walk away from him.

“Hang on, SHIELDie.” You paused, and looked back at him. He had sat up, and was staring at the floor. “You’ve got a way with words,” he said, and he glanced at you. “Really. You’re a lot more eloquent than any of the others that I’ve spoken to.”

“It is kind of my speciality,” you replied, turning around fully. “I like to call it finesse.”

“Mm,” Tony hummed, waving his hand for you to rejoin him. “Having a little finesse in your life is never a bad thing.”

You grinned, and walked back over to the couch.

#drabble #steve rogers drabble #marvel drabble #step by step #writing #steve rogers #nick fury #tony stark #marvel #steve rogers x reader #reader x steve rogers #this is not going to be a reader x tony stark i promise #history has its eyes on queue

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