#nttd spoilers

[ageofgeek]

Bond falls victim to what I am now calling "Steve Rogers Syndrome," where a main character throws away his found family (which the audience has become much more attached to) in favor of a bland, boring, nuclear/heterosexual life. Just because Bond doesn't get his "happy ending" doesn't mean that he doesn't fall into this trope.

I think a lot of people would agree with me when I say that Bond & Madeline have no chemistry. They had no chemistry in Spectre and they continue to have none in NTTD. And yet, we're supposed to care about their relationship because 1) the narrative (i.e. Bond) tells us, instead of shows us, that he loves her, and 2) there is a child (which the narrative also tells us that we should care about).

But the truth is that Bond doesn't trust Madeline. Not really. The second he's attacked by Spectre, he immediately blames her and doesn't even question if he's wrong (and she doesn't really try to convince him otherwise). Now, you may chalk this up to Bond not trusting anybody, but here's where we get to the found family: because he does trust his MI6 family, implicitly, immediately.

He trusts Eve enough to tell her about the scientist, Feliks, what happened in Cuba, etc., and to ask for her help. He trusts Q so much that he gives him the flashdrive he recovered in Cuba, he stays with Q in his apt while he's in London, he places his life in Q's hands multiple times throughout Skyfall, Spectre, and NTTD. He trusts Mallory - even after knowing his shadiness with Herakles, he still trusts him enough to go back under his command. He even trusts Nomi after only a few days of meeting her - enough to trust her to have his back on the island, enough to trust her with Madeline and his child.

So the fact that Bond doesn't trust Madeline is a huge, huge red flag. To me, the "trilogy" of Skyfall, Spectre, and NTTD were all about establishing Bond's support system and family within MI6. In Casino Royale and QoS, he really only had M, and no other connections to MI6 beyond her. But starting with Skyfall, he begins to build a support network of people he does trust in MI6, and the audience begins to trust them (and love them) along with Bond.

This simply doesn't apply to Madeline, because Bond doesn't trust her, and so the audience is never shown why we should trust her or love her.

#this rant has been in my drafts for months since i saw NTTD and you know what??? #i'm posting it #b/c it's true af #still bitter #james bond #no time to die #nttd #nttd spoilers #skyfall #spectre #quartermaster #eve moneypenny #gareth mallory #mine #meta #rant

[eleanor-is-fine]

At the end of this episode of Torchwood, Owen is in a lethal situation and says over the comms, “It’s all right. Really Tosh. It’s all right.”

Just like James to Q.

So I had to stop and write this.

…

Now it’s over, and it was sad.

But it’s all right.

#torchwood #torchwood spoilers #torchwood s2 #torchwood x james bond #nttd #nttd spoilers #00q

[josilverdragon]

Bond calling Nomi 007 T_T

goddamn it

Q on a plane! lol

THE TEA SET

I love Q so much omg

#nttd #no time to die spoilers #nttd spoilers #james bond

[sams-fluffadise]

NTTD Fix-It Day!

Okay, hear me out... what if Bond had been shot by Safin or one of his minions early on. In the leg, so he won't die of blood loss but he also can't run.

Instead of helping Madeline and Mathilde into the boat to escape, Madeline puts Bond and her daughter into the boat and stays back to open the hatch herself. She is convinced she can do it and still find a way out.

That is, until the nanobots enter her blood stream. Never being able to touch or be close to her daughter again devastates her to the point that she is willing to sacrifice herself, making Bond promise to take care of Mathilde beforehand.

This leaves Bond alive, with a child on his hands, he has no idea to take care of. Enter Q.

A short story on this will follow.

#007 fest 2022 #teambondvillains #not writing #james bond #00q #fix it #nttd spoilers

[patrice-bergerons]

Thinking about Bond being nothing more than a ghost when Q becomes quartermaster (joins MI6?)--a legacy and a ruggedly handsome picture in an obituary.  Only to defy odds and come back.  To insult him and surprise him and pull him into something so much bigger than himself.

Thinking about Q not for a second believing that Bond is dead when he fucks off after what happens with Madeleine, no matter how far off he falls the grid.  And thinking about Q actively choosing not to look too hard.  Because it may sting--and sting is such a casual, simple word for how it actually feels--that Bond doesn’t come back, doesn’t so much as call once in all those years after everything, but it’s his clean break and if Bond wants to be dead Q will make sure that he can be.  Will tell M- there is no sign of him, sir and not blink once.

And I am thinking about Q telling himself after the island- it’s real this time.  Bond is gone.  He watched the island get blown up to bits; he watched Bond’s signal, his vitals, disappear from his screen.  He even attended (another) bloody memorial.  And yet, part of him can’t believe it no matter how hard he tries.  And maybe I am thinking about Q saying to hell with it this time and looking, and looking, and looking.  And part of him still whispers, it’s Bond; he’s done this before. 

Part of him, months, years later, still whispers- he can’t be gone.

#00q #james bond #no time to die #nttd spoilers #007 #its me *im* whispering he cant really be gone lol #having thoroughly failed to process the ending #but! then Bond shows up at MI6 like 3 months later Q goes ha! i knew it and all is well #no angst

[reallyneedsalife]

the acceptance of death pt 1/?

a spy's goodbye - gifset

#my gifs #q #nttd spoilers #james bond #gifset #movie gifs #nttd #someone needs to take James' death scene away from me #the 00Q slack can testify #i make too much angst with it

[tentacletenshi]

Some Q centric shots from the Bond charity auction catalog (link at end of post)

#james bond #ben whishaw #nttd #nttd spoilers

[notesofbergamot]

0017 End of Fest Poetry Report :

I Loved My Friend

(600 words) by notesofbergamot

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Relationships: James Bond/Q

Characters: Q (James Bond)

Additional Tags: No Time to Die (2021) Spoilers, No Time to Die (2021) Compliant, One-Sided Attraction, Alcohol, Q is in mourning, Pining, Angst

Summary:

Inspired by "Poem" by Langston Hughes. Q spends a night drinking and thinking about what he lost and what he could have had.

#007 fest 2022 #team 00 #00Q #angst #just sad Q #nttd spoilers

[safinsscars]

#team safin #teamsafin #lyutsifer safin #rami malek #madeleine swann #lea sedoux #Nttd #nttd spoilers

[bluberry-boy]

watching no time to die broke me emotionally thank you for listening go watch it right tf now also the 00Q tension is STRONG in this one

#james bond #bond movies #agent 007 #00q #Q #bond #daniel craig #no time to die #nttd spoilers #kinda? idk im bad at tagging #nttd

[wearebackbagels]

Just watched No time to die and I can gladly admit that I haven’t once cried this hard during a movie, screw Titanic this one takes the cake

#nttd spoilers #nttd #no time to die #00q fanfiction #james bond 007 #james bond #what an epic end to an epic era #im gonna go read 00q fics now #Forever in denial

[josilverdragon]

I knew it was coming but I'm bawling

dammit

#no time to die spoilers #nttd spoilers #nttd #no time to die #james bond

[chiropteracupola]

What is your opinion on every Daniel Craig era James Bond movie in release order

alright, here goes! (although I will admit I had to go and check the proper release order, as in typical fashion I went and watched them in reverse...)

casino royale: a fascinating setup for this entire era of movies, given that it inexplicably feels the most soulless of all of them.  the men have not yet acquired texture, if that’s a sentence that makes any sense.  tension and release of various plot points (particularly the torturing and the elevator) do not hit quite right for me.  the self-defibrillation was kind of cool though.

quantum of solace: I Did Not Like Any Part of It.  by the end I was unable to relish things exploding, which is atypical for me.  I watch these as a treat in order to watch something explode and then say ‘haha, explosions’.  scenery boring, plot worse.  unfortunate that one of my worst childhood nightmares involves being suffocated by oozing tar, given that that. uh. happens in this one.

skyfall: a real mixed bag! first half is typical early-Daniel-Craig-era fare, gunfights and explosions and uncomfortable dalliances with women with no personalities.  in the second half, though, we transfer over to the style we see much more often in the rest of the movies, and things start to flow much better.  my view might be a little distorted by the fact that I enjoy Foggy Mountainous Landscapes, Shadowy Manor Houses, and Cool Old-Fashioned Guns more than I enjoy most of the usual players in a james bond thing.  mildly interesting villain, which was a fun change!

spectre: the only instance where my awkward reverse-order experience actually messed with my understanding of the plot.  not my favorite overall, but fun as a through-thread between two that I mostly liked.  aesthetically, plot-wise, character-wise, all kind of ...ehhhh. it was a movie, they exploded a large building, 148 minutes of my life I won’t be getting back.

no time to die: my favorite of all of them, as it’s a perfect balance of I Enjoy James Bond and I Detest James Bond, since I do both those things in approximately equal measure.  contains the vague suggestion of something resembling an enjoyable romance rather than the endless whatever-it-is-ness of most of the previous movies, which was refreshing!  bizarrely aesthetically pleasing in unexpected ways - the location title cards are lovely and the scenic norwegian landscapes are very pleasant to behold.  the final environments are vaguely star-wars-y but I found it suitable enough.  plot is convoluted in ...a nice way?  although most of the side characters are still, as usual, lacking in arcs that satisfy me.  and he dies at the end, which brings a wonderful end to this whole tormented series of films!  love it when he finally experiences consequences so thick you could stand a spoon in them!  I spent a good five minutes post-nttd chortling all the air from my lungs while my family stared at me in horror.  it was great.

thank you for asking, this was great fun, I love to complain about james bond movies for having the things that james bond movies are known for in them, and it’s been rather a while since I’ve gotten to do so! 

ah jimmy b, I’m glad you’ve been freed at last from the endless spiral of sequels. ...for now.

#answers from the cupola #james bond spoilers #...I guess? #reading people's reviews for nttd again and starting to think that a lot of what people find Fun about the early-series movies #is exactly the stuff I find Uncomfy about them - it fascinates!

[thestalwartheart]

An interesting aside to the Bond's morality discussion, and him trying to find solace by leaving MI6, is how much MI6 doesn't want him to be a more healthy, well adjusted person. They want him to be an effective weapon. It's a feature of agent training, not a side effect/glitch.

I remember there's a classic book quote that I can't find atm, where M to Bond says something along the lines of, "It's good you like people, it gives you something to fight for. But don't like any TOO much, or we'll lose our fine weapon."

It's an attitude that's reasserted in the recently released book Double or Nothing. I find that intriguing too, because they have a new M that used to be a Double-O and they have promoted Moneypenny to oversee the Double-Os. So they had the chance to make MI6 softer and more supportive of their agents, and they didn't. (Not a criticism, just intriguing).

One instance that I'd love to talk about, I won't mention because of spoilers.

But one that's spoiler safe is an agent going through a psychological evaluation after a mission. She thinks about how it'd be easy to be tricked into thinking the psychologist was there to help her with her mental health, but she's not. She's there to evaluate if she's ready to still be an effective Double-O. It's a very interesting exchange and I really reccomend the book.

It got me thinking back to Bond in Skyfall with the MI6 psychologist. It can come off as Bond being an arse, Bond not taking care of himself, Bond refusing helpful therapy. But Bond knows MI6 and their methods and refuses to play their game there.

*rubs my silly little hands together* Let's talk about COUNSELLING, baby, and how agents don't have access to it!!!

It got me thinking back to Bond in Skyfall with the MI6 psychologist. It can come off as Bond being an arse, Bond not taking care of himself, Bond refusing helpful therapy. But Bond knows MI6 and their methods and refuses to play their game there.

This, this all of this. Bond knows exactly what it is and he has such disdain for it. Forgive me for saying it, but I don't think you can have a mentally healthy Double-0. They have to be able to compartmentalise their trauma and their moral compass so intensely that eventually it'll take it's toll. Arguably, no well-adjusted person kills and lives easily with it. I think the psychologists at MI6 know that, as do all the agents, and everyone recognises what a fool's errand those psychological evaluations are.

It's interesting you say they had a chance for MI6 to become softer. I haven't read the recent books, but I think Mallory is a great case study for this in the films. I always see him as someone who was willing to take the agency through a bit of change in order to modernise it a bit, but he got dragged under as well. That's so clear by the time NTTD rolls around. It makes you wonder if an organisation like MI6 could ever be a little bit softer and more human. I don't think it can, at least not in the Double-0 department. There's no getting around the fact that they're launching humans as weapons out into the world, who will be met with even more brutal weapons from the enemy and then return bent, broken, or never return at all.

Every part of MI6 lends itself to that cause, including its psychology department which specialises in evaluations rather than trauma counselling.

Oddly enough, for all its deadly weaponry, the only place I see a bit of humanity at MI6 is Q Branch. I'm very attached to the idea that it has two sides: developing tech that kills more efficiently, but also giving agents the means to survive. Having an exploding watch on them, or a key to unlock any door, is probably more comforting to them than any thought of a psychology appointment on their return. Even the idea that their tech is more efficient and deadly than ever before probably gives them a bit of solace.

My unpopular opinion re: counselling is that I think Bond would actually be relatively open to it (at least in a post-retirement, maybe post-NTTD world). Generally, I think he has quite a good sense of himself and his own mind, but I don't think that means he would shirk an excellent therapist if he came across one. PTSD is a fucking bitch, and it'll drive you over the edge if you don't take steps to manage it. I can see Bond getting to a point where he might need to talk to someone.

Okay, time for other peoples' opinions on this! I'll shut up now 😂 Thank you so much for the ask! 💕

By the way, for anyone reading this who has read Double or Nothing, go and slide into @slimysuckers' DMs.

#ask box #unpopular opinion #double or nothing #james bond

[reallyneedsalife]

be prepared for an influx of edits because I'm sad and this is how I cope

NTTD spoiler warning btw

#nttd spoilers #qb-x8 #007 fest 2022 #team q branch #video editing

[crewman-penelope]

#safin sunday #lyutsifer safin #rami malek #Nttd #Link