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rogersstevie · 3 years

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i wanna preface this by saying im a fan of bucky but christ bucky is the manic pixie dream 2015 wattpad self insert protagonist type character of the mcu cap fandom and i 100% think its bc hes a hot white cis man who's enough of a blank slate for ppl to both obsessively over analyze every little moment he's in and to fill in all the blanks with whatever they want. im not bashing anyone or saying its necessarily wrong to have a blank slate but i wish ppl would just. calm down abt him a bit lmao

(also as a continuation of the bucky anon i just wanna say that this is like something ive noticed over years of being in the stevebucky fandom with how many ppl esp in fic and stuff just make steve play second fiddle in his own relationship and either dumb him down and mischaracterize him so bucky can be the Smartest Best Special Boy or make him an all forgiving saint with no needs or desires so he can be bucky's crutch)

oh my god that last bit about mischaracterizing steve and bucky being a saint sdfks YEAH it happens a lot, i think especially when there's some sort of steve/bucky/peggy love triangle in the mix

but yeah it did get frustrating at a point bc it was understandable post catws when ppl were writing fics and all they really had to draw from was catfa and the flashback in catws to draw from, and post catws bucky wasn't gonna be exactly like that version of himself, even if he was getting his memories back. but post cacw it's like, okay bucky HAS a personality - and fandom has been saying for years that he doesn't, like you are right that he's just enough of a blank slate to take some liberties, but he DOES have a personality in cw, the problem is more that bc it wasn't actually a captain america movie, steve himself didn't get as much focus so bucky especially didn't get as much as he might have if we'd gotten an ACTUAL cap 3 - so it's like. come on y'all can write him as a real person, you don't have to write him as being more in love with steve, you don't have to write him as a perfect angel who's So Good for loving steve despite whenever steve fucks up, which like, again, in fic are often kinda like, would steve be dumb in that way bc i don't think he would! obvs there are different ways to be smart but steve IS smart

i think part of it also has to do with sebastian and that's another thing that does kinda bug me. like let me be clear i do like sebastian and he is a fantastic actor, but he's one of those ones where ppl just yell about how he's the best actor and i don't think it's actually that he's performing better than most of the actors around him in the mcu, it's just that the character he's playing has all the trauma - as if the other characters don't, we just don't see much of it onscreen lmao - so ppl think that makes him more talented than everyone else (kinda think it was the same thing with dylan o'brien on teen wolf he'd shed a tear and ppl would yell about how he's the best actor in the world and fandom used that to push the main character of color to the side and forget about him in favor of the white sidekick ANYWAY that's bugged me forever though i can acknowledge my fave teen wolf ship is half dylan o'brien's character)

but yeah i think it's gotten somewhat worse since endgame bc fandom really loves the narrative that steve is terrible and selfish and bucky is an angel now, even though......y'all like bucky bc you were fans of the captain america trilogy so how can you buy into the idea that steve would do anything he did endgame. but like so many of those supposed fix it fics? would have steve going back to peggy for a WHILE and coming back to be with bucky - i skimmed one bc i was wary of the summary or tags or both and it was like steve came back as an old man and was like "yeah i spent my life with peggy and now i wanna start over and do it with you, you guys can just de-age me like you did with scott in the time machine :)" (as if that wasn't an accident would they even have been able to figure out how to do it on purpose??) that one was horrible - it's like, at that point, if you think steve sucks and bucky is a baby angel with no spine, why do you even want them to end up together? why on earth WOULD bucky be with steve after these kinds of actions? i don't get it

another thing, like i know sebastian outright said he played it like steve and bucky had had a conversation about going back in time - i think he said the directors told him they did like it's not onscreen! come on! i know you don't have to see everything onscreen but...actors/directors saying it doesn't make it canon - so like yeah obvs watching it, it looks like bucky knows about steve's plan before it's revealed to the audience - and hello, endgame steve straight up lied to everyone else about coming back after he returns the stones like how do y'all think it would be okay for him to ONLY tell bucky and not sam, his other best friend - but like idk, my thing is, just bc they said steve and bucky had a conversation, does not mean it's true, you could just make the argument that bucky knew what steve wanted enough to know what he would do - though let's be clear, the endgame ending is NOT what steve ever wanted in mcu canon lmao - it doesn't mean this conversation actually happened because why else would they re-exchange the "don't do anything stupid till i get back" thing if they both knew steve wasn't going to come back unless it was just for show, which still, like, they're the only ones who knew what they said to each other before bucky shipped out in catfa? anyway this bit probs wasn't relevant to anything you said but it BUGS me

anyway yeah i love bucky but you're exactly right about how fandom interprets him and his relationship with steve it's all just Annoying

#Anonymous #ask #bucky barnes #steve x bucky #mcu #anti endgame #as always #anyway endgame steve is not steve in any way whatsoever #and steve deserves a lot better from fandom across all sides tbh

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hyunjilicious · 3 years

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I just read what is and what should never be and it was PHENOMENAL! I love everything you write anyway so I was wondering if you could do a small one where Bucky is alone and depressed and he calls yn because he feels lost and she is just there for him? No worries if you can't! I love you anyway 💕

Omg!! You’re too sweet! I really wanted to do this one justice, but I suck at angst... I love you too!! and I’m sorry if this sucks!

Summary: after the events of Endgame, you and Bucky part ways. Even though you haven’t spoken in months, when he needs you, you’re there ANGST 2.2k

Warnings: overall angsty vibes. Sad Bucky. Idk depictions of depression I guess? shitty writing!

“You came” Bucky's surprised tone pulled you out of your thoughts.

Before saying anything else, you shook your head in disbelief. From certain points of view, he looked exactly the same as when you last saw him months ago, but if you looked past his rugged exterior, it was very easy to tell something was truly eating away at his heart.

“Of course I came” you frowned, “You called me”

“Thought you didn’t want anything to do with me anymore” Bucky mumbled.

You looked him up and down, thoroughly confused by his statement, but decided to keep the tone of the conversation from going too dark too fast. “Shut up, Barnes” you scoffed, “Don’t even joke about that.” A hint of a smile appeared at the corner of his lips, but it was forced, you could easily tell he wasn’t truly being himself. “What’s up?”

Bucky took a deep breath as if gathering the courage to word his thoughts. When his eyes met yours he flinched, the pain clouding his otherwise bright blue eyes. He started with a long sigh and a shake of his head but then, cringed as he finally spoke up. “I need help”

His confession went directly to the pit of your stomach. “What happened? Whatever it is, you got it, but what-”

“Nothing happened” Bucky stopped you, “I need help”

“I don’t understand”

“I need someone to-” he sighed, closing his eyes as his head fell forward in what could only be described as shame, “I need someone to talk to” and it was funny, considering he just walked out of his psychiatrist’s office. “Someone that’s not paid to listen to me” he added, “Someone who understands”

It was moments like these that you truly wished Steve was still here. Or Nat. Your best friends, yes, but they were the glue that held you all together, and now in their absence, you were all threatening to fall apart.

But of course you’d be there for Bucky. Whatever he needed you were more than eager to provide, but at the same time, you were fully aware that your capabilities were limited. You didn’t lack the understanding or the experience, but you lacked the words. You had the sympathy, but not the advice he needed. But you were there. Like you have always been and always will be, so, that afternoon you ended up on his living room floor.

Surrounded by empty bottles of alcohol that had no effect on either of you whatsoever, you sat and listened to him rant his heart out until his throat couldn’t take it anymore. And then he broke down - completely. A full on mess, tears staining his cheeks as the temperature dropped in the room with every other pained groan he’d release. But he let it all out and the weight he had been carrying on his shoulder was unimaginable. There were too many things eating away at his heart, but the guilt was what kept him under its spell, what kept him up for the last months, what was physically destroying him.

“Y/n... “ he called for you, face hidden in his hands as he spoke, “I know you’re gonna say no, but-”

“No,” you stopped him, “Then don’t ask me”

“Please”

“No, Bucky” you sighed, grabbing his wrist so you could look him in the eyes, “If you already know it’s a bad idea, please don’t tell me because I’m afraid I’ll actually go through with it right now”

“But i can’t fucking sleep!” he cried out loud, falling back against the couch, arms propped up on his knees, “I keep having the same nightmares over and over again, and I can’t take it anymore”

“You don’t-” you took a deep breath, “You don’t want me to erase your mind, do you?”

The look in his eyes proved that that was exactly what he wanted. And the unshed tears that coated the otherwise pure and radiant blue of his eyes was almost enough to convince you.

“Please-” he begged, “I-”

“No, Buck” you shook your head and shuffled to face him properly, “As time passes, it’s only gonna get worse. The past will eventually catch up to you. You’ll want to know what you did”

He didn’t have it in him to fight you, so silence settled for a while. “You know sedatives don’t work on me?”

“I… never thought about it, but that makes sense”

Bucky gathered his lips into a tight line and nodded his head.

“Lady shrink isn’t of any help?” you asked.

“I have no clue what she’s doing” he shrugged, “Maybe it’s good in the long run, but fuck if I know how she expects me to make any kind of progress right now”

“You are, tho” you reassured him, “Making progress I mean”

“Am I?” Bucky laughed incredulously.

“Yes! You’re almost completely on your own feet. You really pushed through”

“Or maybe I’m just ignoring all of my problems”

“You just told me about them” you chuckled, and threw an arm over his shoulders.

Hesitatingly at first, he eventually leaned in into your hold, allowing himself to completely fall against your chest. “I hate this”

“I think that’s a given” you laughed, curling your fingers around the roots of his way too short hair. “A wise man once said that whenever someone acts like they have their shit together, they’re either lying or delusional”

“Who said that?”

“I don’t know” you confessed, “I saw that on the internet”

For the first time that night, you actually heard him laugh, and it sounded so good - it was short and weak, but it was sweet and honest. “That’s a pathetic attempt at cheering me up, but I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it” Bucky said as he pushed himself up.

“I wish I could do more” you mumbled, “But I don’t know what, or how, but-”

“Thank you”

“You don’t have to thank me, you know that” you smiled.

He didn’t know that. He’d never stop thanking you for even the smallest gestures. The day where Bucky would understand that kindness, in some cases, is a given, was far away, but you had the patience and determination to work for it.

As you talked and talked, and the topic of conversation kept shifting from one area to the other, the sun set, night settling outside his small windows. It was time for you to leave, and you would’ve done it, had he asked you not to at the last second.

You had your shoes on and one hand on the door handle, when he stumbled over his words, obviously too shy to properly hold his ground. “Actually can you- can you-” he mumbled, pointing to his couch, “Can you stay here tonight?”

And of course you did. The night didn’t last much longer after that, with Bucky settling on the floor, only a blanket to keep him company, and you sprawled out on the couch as silence settled.

But your mind was too busy to drift off. You knew his’ was too, but decided to refrain from speaking up, hoping to let him fall asleep, even for a short while.

It was loud inside your head. You always promised yourself you’d never intrude on someone’s thoughts and read through them without their approval, but you physically felt Bucky radiate energy, and your mind just slipped. But then, your heart almost stopped.

You saw yourself. You saw yourself slapping him back in Wakanda when he decided to go under ice again, you saw yourself moving a car out of his way back in Bucharest, when you risked your life for his because you trusted Steve that much, and because you were that good of a friend. You saw yourself at Tony’s funeral, eyes shiny with tears and then felt an almost uncontrollable urge to hug yourself - and then realised it wasn’t your urge, it was Bucky’s. At this point, your heart beat so fast you were actually afraid he’d hear it. But when goosebumps appeared all over your skin, you realised he couldn’t hear you, that he was asleep and that the nightmares started materializing.

What convinced you to act on it was the sudden jerk of his body and the way to fully tensed instantly after. So, unable to just sit and watch, you rolled over to the side and allowed your hand to fall by his temple, little specks of light rolling off the tips of your fingers as you forced the thoughts away. Seconds later, you saw him relax and shift around, gathering the blanket he laid on to his chest as he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

His relaxed form and the steady pace of his breathing put a smile on your face. But you made the mistake of thinking this was a one time thing, however, before you realised, you found yourself leaning over him again, ushering yet another wave of nightmares away. And it kept being an ongoing process until the sun rose, and you cursed yourself as you did not get one second of shut eye. But it was worth it. The sight of him finally resting, knowing he spent his night in his happy place that you this time did not intrude on, made up for your tiredness.

When Bucky drifted out of his deep sleep, you figured it was safe to relax too. But knowing that if you went to sleep right now you wouldn’t wake up until noon, you stood up, determined to give him the full best friend experience.

But all you found in his kitchen was a box of stale cereal, a soft cucumber and candy wrappers. Had he not looked so adorable sleeping shirtless and curled into a ball on the floor, you would have woken him up yelling. But instead, you decided to order some food, and the simple fact that the sound of the delivery guy ringing the doorbell didn’t wake him up, actually terrified you. With a life like yours, no one sleeps that deeply, but then there he was, snoring away the late hours of the morning.

By the time he finally stirred awake, the food was already cold, and you were bored out of your mind. “What- what time is it?” he mumbled, voice rich with sleep.

“A little bit past 2” you yawned from your spot on the couch.

“2 pm?” Bucky huffed, sitting up in a hurry and rushing to grab his phone. “What the-” he turned to you confused, “It’s 2pm…”

“Yeah” you sighed, “And the food is cold”

“Food?” Bucky gawked, looking over at the small table by the window, “You got food?”

“You didn’t have any” you defended yourself. You wanted to scold him for not taking better care of himself, but he looked so homey and cozy and vulnerable, that you couldn’t bring yourself to.

Eventually, you stood up and walked over to him. “I’ll let you eat, Buck, but I gotta go” you sighed, giving him a hug, “Got some stuff to do” you lied, by stuff meaning sleep, since you were exhausted.

“Yeah, of course” he mumbled in agreement, wrapping his arms around your frame, and bringing you closer. He sank his head into the crook of your neck, holding you to his chest for a moment longer than you would have considered friendly. But you didn’t complain, his hold was stern and loving, and you really needed that right now. “Thank you” Bucky added when he finally let you go. His right palm cupped your cheek as he looked down at you, awe and admiration in his eyes.

“Nothing to thank me for, Buck” you smiled, and then pulled away.

He silently watched you get ready to leave, following you around until you reached the door and turned around to say goodbye. And it was weird. Your heart boomed against your ribcage, and you didn’t have to read his thoughts to know he was feeling the same kind of nervous. And it may have been the one too many stories you read but you actually feared something was going to happen. Thankfully, it didn’t. Instead you shared another hug, and parted ways.

However, all you managed to do was reach the staircase before you heard his door open, followed by the sound of his bare feet sprinting down the hallway. “What are you-”

“Can you stay?” he asked, shaking from head to toe, “In New York I mean, can you please stay? Just a few more days”

“Well, I- yeah, I guess I can” you mumbled.

“I just, I need a few more days. You’re screwing my head back on, I just need you now. Steve is gone, and Sam is all the way in Louisiana and I hate phones and I-”

“Wow-” you laughed, “I’m not even the second choice, I’m the third?”

“Shut up, Y/n” Bucky frowned, “Stop being a smartass for a second”

“I’m sorry” you rolled your eyes, but he didn’t care.

In the blink of an eye, Bucky threw his arms around your shoulders and hugged you close, and you weren’t sure if the ‘I love you’ that echoed inside your mind had actually been spoken or just thought, but it was everything you never knew you needed.

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes angst #sebastian stan x reader #sebastian stan imagine

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not-close-to-straight · 3 years

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I agree with you completely about mcu. I feel totally the same way. Before iw and endgame i watched almost every mcu movies religiously like those movies were just amazing and each new character felt like it's woven so carefully into the mcu, but then they hit us with those endings.. I might be biased af as a Tony stan but endgame is truly traumatic for me. I truly went into the theatre feeling very excited and super happy watching it until nat's scene then i just felt oh ok Nat's dead ok ok they're not gonna kill anyone anymore right? And the ending happened like, if you're gonna hype us, excite us for 12 full years of journey you surely can do better than killing him as a wrap up to his whole story. So yea after endgame i have no more interest in mcu whatsoever. Didn't watch spiderman ffh, wandavision, tfatws and have no plans on watching any of their new releases. I'm just gonna be in fanfic land where everyone lives and everyone is happy :)

It's such a relief to realize so many people feel the same way about this, I honestly thought 2020 had just sucked all the joy of it right from my soul.

And yeah okay, I'll admit I'm biased as a Tony fan, but it wasn't just HIS death that felt cheap to me. I cried harder watching Nat go because it was just.so.fucking.pointless. Like, slight deviation here-- but I legit booo'd in the theater during AOU when shes like "oh I'm a monster" because she can't have kids. Absolutely boo'd and then it made me sick to my stomach to have her sacrifice herself in EG because Clint had a family to get back to. EXCUSE ME? Which one of them spent five years killing POC in some ridiculous vengeance based "my family is gone but you're here because the completely random Blip left you behind so you deserve to die" and WHICH ONE of them spent five years monitoring the entire world and trying to cope with losing half of everyone she loved? HM?? HMMM?

Anyway, yeah. At first glance I loved EG because yay, twelve years and so much emotions etc but on subsequent watches its so clear to me that at no point did they expect to get this far with the MCU with such a dedicated fan base and intricate story lines because half the movie is pointless fan service and the other half is literally "oh shit, we didn't expect people to care about this on a deeper level, what now". I feel like they literally didn't expect people to care about Nat's death or Clint's rampage or Stucky's ridiculously transparent "no homo" moment or how Tony finally got his happiness and then died. They really thought "well that's what's supposed to happen-- the woman dies so Clint becomes a hero. Steve gets the girl. Tony sacrifices himself no matter what. Thor goes off to have fun. Isn't that what you guys wanted?"

And its like, sure, in 2010 that's what we wanted for our heroes (minus Nat dying of course). We wanted Clint to be a badass, we wanted Steve to dance wiht Peggy, we wanted Tony to save the world and for Thor to be able to not feel the weight of Odin's parenting at his shoulders. BUT IN 2019 WE WANT DIFFERENT THINGS and they not only 100% failed to deliver but then decided to keep the stories GOING and yeah, I'm having a hard time mustering up the energy to care.

AND (i'm ranting, I'm sorry, I have a lot of feels about this)-- post EG, alot of the characters and the movies feel... unnecessary.

I realize cramming Spiderman into CACW was literal product placement for his movie, but also, you can remove his movie(s) from the verse and the only thing we miss are a few moments of Tony acting like a dad pre-Morgan. I never saw FFH and I won't see the next one either, zero interest.

Ant Man's story was important for the quantum tunnel thing, right? Great. Why do we need it post EG? Do we need another Captain Marvel? She showed up to rain hell on Thanos and now we're done. Same with Dr. Strange. Same with Guardians of the Galaxy. They introduced all these (for the most part) cool characters and they were important for HOW they wove into the Thanos story but now that the Thanos story is done... we don't need them??

GIVE US NEW STORIES not extensions of the same story that we already feel like is finishing. You called it "EndGame." let it end.

What I DO NEED is a 1980's era MIT sitcom featuring Rhodey and absolute disaster!Tony being roomies and the very beginnings of their friendship. Give me robot building competition hijinks or give me death.

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billpottsismygf · 2 years

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Wow, so that’s Flux all finished. I have to say, while I definitely had fun for most of the episodes, the end result is kind of messy. I was hoping this final episode would clarify everything, but instead it just sort of weakly wrapped things up, with no real satisfying conclusion to what the hell’s been going on.

Some questions!

What’s happened to the rest of the universe that was destroyed to such an extent by the initial flux event? How has humanity reacted to another Sontaran invasion, and presumably sunlight being blocked off for quite a while when the Lupari shield was in place? These aren’t plot holes or anything, it’s just that the impact of everything that’s happened feels muted because we haven’t been given any tangible consequences from the aftermath (yet, anyway).

What was Grand Serpent’s actual endgame? He seemed like a really important villain, but actually had no impact on the story whatsoever. I loved Craig Parkinson’s performance, but why include him in an already overfilled story?

If Time is a sentient entity, why did they want Azure and Swarm to utilise the flux for destruction? Had they communicated such a desire to them somehow? Where do Azure and Swarm come from? Why did they bother with anything, since Division were about to do the exact same thing anyway? I guess because they wanted to gift it to the “saviour”, Time, but we’re given no indication of what that means, why they want to serve Time, who/what Time really is or how they would benefit from such destruction...

Other thoughts

It was a very bloodthirsty ending. I’m not necessarily against the Doctor doing morally questionable things, but it really should be interrogated more by the characters and the narrative, particularly by the Doctor themselves. You have Ten yelling at Tentoo for destroying all the Daleks when they were on the back foot already, as well as Thirteen herself yelling at the general a few episodes ago for doing the same thing with the Sontarans, and now you have Thirteen gleefully throwing (supposedly) every single Cyberman, Sontaran and Dalek into the flux. There’s also a strong indication that the Passenger forms are in some way sentient, but she just goes ahead and throws them in with no question too.

Again, I’m not saying that the Doctor can’t commit little a genocide every now and then, but it completely contravenes their very nature for that not to fuck them up both before and after.

Some things I liked, since this has been all negative so far!

Performances in general were all great - I love Swarm and Azure mainly for the pure camp and fun they bring.

Joseph Williamson is an incredibly fun character. I think it’s mostly down to such a brilliant performance (side note, I happened to find out he’s played by Steve Oram the other day, and I absolutely would not have recognised him - I still continued to forget even though I now know), but he definitely brightened up every single scene he was in.

Kate Stewart is always awesome, though definitely underutilised. From their discussion at the end, and also set spoilers, it looks like we’ll be getting more of her, so hopefully she’ll have more to do next time!

I continue to adore Jericho, and am absolutely gutted by his death. Although he didn’t get official companion status, honestly I ended up caring for him more than Dan and would have loved to see him either travel with the Doctor or pop up occasionally in future.

I loved Yaz and the Doctor reuniting. Finally a proper hug for them! There was also a really charged moment at the end there. I’m not personally a shipper, just because my preference is for the Doctor to be pretty much asexual, but I am very much here for it if anything actually happens. All the other modern Doctors have got to snog a woman, so it would only be right for Thirteen to do so too. (Side note, the Doctor talking about having a crush on herself was great. Again, not usually a fan of that sort of thing, but I can’t deny having enjoyed it in this instance.)

I did really like the storytelling device of the Doctor being split across three different versions of herself. It was satisfying that that’s what allowed her to overcome the Grand Serpent’s powers, as well.

Final thoughts

Idk, I’m sure I have other things to say, but this is so long already so I may leave it there for now. Overall, Flux has been good fun and a great visual spectacle. There have been some really cool high concept ideas and characters thrown into the mix, but I do feel like it ended up lacking. I will reserve final judgement until I’ve rewatched the whole thing, though. I may end up changing my mind on some things if I’ve forgotten important details, but for now I am a little disappointed.

#doctor who #mine #the vanquishers #doctor who flux #dwmine #reactions #dw #doctor who spoilers

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midrashic · 3 years

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fandom meme, any/all: X, Y, Z?

it’s been an age & a half since i requested asks so PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE TIMESTAMP IN THE CORNER. i love & appreciate everyone who sent me an ask and am slowly getting around to it now that real life is slowly settling back into something approaching normal! 💛

X / TOP 5-10 CHARACTERS WHO YOU WILL DIE DEFENDING. well, i answered a "top ten characters" a while ago here but the phrasing of this question makes me go in a slightly different direction! so here's five characters that fandom/canon has made me fiercely protective over, either because they got a raw deal from the writers or because fandom-at-large mischaracterizes them. (for example, in every universe matt murdock is a Very Good Boy, but because he's the pov character of a long-running title & the fandom woobie, i don't think he necessarily needs defending in a way that some other characters might.)

aki izayoi of yu-gi-oh! 5d's. i literally think the first online catfight i got into was someone on a yu-gi-oh forum claiming that aki hadn't faced any hardship in comparison to yuusei. anyway aki is my alive girl, my role model and my first crush, the best female character in the ycu (yu-gi-oh! cinematic universe) as of the time i stopped watching, an angel that has never done anything wrong in her life, and half of the only valid het couple (with yuusei). i will not be taking questions at this time.

erik lehnsherr of marvel (all verses but especially xmcu). ok in fairness he did do pretty well for himself canon-wise (original trilogy is NOT canon in this house, we don't stand for that nonsense here) but when i first got into cherik i found that overwhelmingly he was cast in the role of the oblivious asshole across from long-suffering saint charles. & there's nothing wrong with that! it just started to get a little stale when every fic i read was like that. i mean, i adore charles, he is my son, but like, he can be a saint and a trashbag!! let charles drink from a volumetric flask and say the wrong things at the worst moments. so i uh. made a tag. #Erik Lehnsherr Defense Squad, if you're curious.

steve rogers of marvel (mcu). okay this is like. half a fanon thing and half a canon thing which adds up to a whole injustice. that's how that works, right? so the canon thing is endgame & all the articles that were written by mainstream news sources about how steve choosing to live in a timeline branch with peggy made no sense whatsoever. and i even adore steggy!! the fanon thing is that both of the main steve pairings, stony & stucky, had a... tendency, shall we say, to only care about steve inasmuch as he could heal his love interest's emotional wounds & also fuck them. not all stucky/stony fans! not even most. but i think someone once said that steve was more like a glorified walking dildo than a character for certain writers of these tendencies, and... yeah. that was apt. i don't know if it's like that now, i haven't read mcu fic in a long time (except for whatever sabre has going on), but the two moderate irritations combine to make me massively defensive over him.

samuel chung / blindspot of marvel (616). WHY IS HE NOT A MAJOR CHARACTER IN ZDARSKYDEVIL? RACISM. THAT IS WHY.

mary winchester née campbell of supernatural. the fact that she was NOT immediately embraced by the fandom upon her resurrection is absolute garbage. i was writing garbage mary meta in like, season eight pushing back against the perception that if mary had raised sam & dean instead of john, everything would've been perfect and wonderful and canon would be solved, as though she wasn't a deeply fucked up person just from the glimpses we saw of her in seasons 4 and 5!! as though she didn't pioneer the issues that made sam girls cry over him!! anyway mary got resurrected and turned out to be kind of selfish, but still no one beats carver-era sam and dean for selfishness, and also her children were grown, how was she supposed to demonstrate unconditional love? anyway mary DID effectively utilize girl power by betraying her sons and hooking up with Bad Ianto.

honorable mentions:

wanda maximoff (616 and the good mcu version that lives in my head) & jean grey (all realities), who i love in theory but have also never had a storyline that i liked. whitney frost (agent carter), raina (agents of shield), & melinda may (agents of shield), who i straightforwardly adore but haven't engaged in enough discourse around them to like. be mad about it. they all want what izayoi aki has, which is well-written redemptive character arcs. 😔

if this looks comics/marvel-heavy to you... you're right. 😔 no one knows how to abuse a character like marvel comics/studios. even if they do right by one version of a character (xmcu erik) they will make up for it by raking another version of them over the coals (ults erik. i love him but also i love the cw show supernatural. my taste is questionable in the extreme).

Y / YOUR SECONDHAND FANDOMS in order of my personal familiarity with the source material: she-ra, various marvel runs i personally don't vibe with (avengers vol 3, new mutants, & venom come to mind), the witcher, london spy, various parts of fassbender's and mcavoy's ouevres 😔, bts (NO ONE CANCEL ME I JUST LOVE A WOMAN WITH BAD TASTE), dc comics & related fandoms, star wars esp. the mandalorian, [this is the point at which i stop enjoying the fanart and posts i don't understand], good omens, hades the game, the old guard, the magnus archives, mdzs / the untamed.

but honestly if something comes up on my dash enough that i have no familiarity with, i'll block it? there was a period of time right after the old guard came out where i couldn't throw a stone on my dash without hitting an old guard post, and i was really seriously avoiding any information for fear i might get sucked into it. so i blocked it. no shade on whatever i've blocked or its fans whatsoever (sometimes i still read the posts, for example i block "star wars" but read most of the posts anyway--what can i say i am not immune to space himbo/cgi mark hamill) & in fact i hope my use of unique tags encourages people to block my fandoms that they're not into!

Z / JUST RAMBLE this has been less of an issue lately, but one thing i used to see a lot was posts going around encouraging people not to complain that they didn't like a certain trope, or wished a fandom generally wrote a character differently, etc. the reasoning was usually "a writer--fragile beings that they are!--who does write that trope/that characterization will see it and feel bad." & while i understand that, and i have come around to the idea of erring on the side of not leaving criticism on fic when no guidelines are given, i really think that there needs to be room in fandom for people to complain about it for comletely trivial reasons without being met with snide responses of "if you want to see it, write it yourself."

it's not that i don't completely believe that it will make writers feel bad--i was a particularly sensitive writer for years and seeing those "i hate when writers ______" posts absolutely didmake me feel awful--& it's not about thinking that writers need to "grow a thicker skin" or anything like that. it's more of an appreciation that sometimes these people are also writers, & that a general "i don't like when" post is very different from going onto someone's fic and saying "fuck you specifically" in the comments. it's about the way nowhere else do we say to people with petty complaints "hey you shouldn't make this post on your blog about how you hate the sound of trumpets, it could make beginning trumpet-players really sad!" it's about the way that a rule of "only positivity in fandom please!" can quickly stifle criticism of actually important things, like racism & ableism. not to mention that, well, complaining about shared pet peeves is the foundation for many a fandom friendship.

anyway. just let me be crotchety. get off my lawn, etc.

[ the meme in question ]

#how's my driving #hyperfixation: semiprofessional fangirlism #kayanem #sometimes i actually do talk to people

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romionestinyballoflight · 4 years

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Okay fellow Romione shippers, I have something I need to get off of my chest. A rant, if you will.

Just a quick disclaimer, this post is going to be long and I’m going to be unleashing thoughts and feelings I’ve had built up for six years now, so I’m going to insert a handy dandy Read More here for those who are not interested in seeing six years worth of pent up thoughts and feelings.

For those of you still with me, let’s jump into this.

Since I’ve been making strict Romione posts lately, I’ve obviously been thinking about the dynamic of their relationship and why they do work as a couple and why they definitely should’ve been endgame. But I’ve also been thinking about people who argue against Romione, specifically those who ship Harmione and Dramione.

This is something I’ve touched on before, but when I first became a Potterhead I was a Harmione shipper. Mainly because I was only ten or eleven when I first started the books, and I didn’t understand how adult relationships actually work. I didn’t fully understand that people are going to get heated with each other, people are going to argue, and there is nothing wrong with that. So, knowing that, I saw how Ron and Hermione interacted at first glance, thought it was wrong, and my late elementary/early middle school brain wanted Hermione with Harry. It also had to do with the fact that I saw a lot of myself in Hermione, and at the time, I would’ve crushed on someone like Harry over someone like Ron (I still see a lot of myself in Hermione, and as I’ve grown up I’ve realized I actually would fall for someone like Ron and would actually need someone like Ron, but more on that later). It’s also not hard to ship the main guy with the main girl, because that’s a trope a lot of authors use. So believe me, I understand the appeal of the Harmione relationship.

However, the same can’t be said about the Dramione ship. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with the good girl/bad boy relationship and I can even kind of see the appeal of it. But I’m also very leery about it because there’s a fine line between respectful good girl/bad boy relationships and disrespectful good girl/bad boy relationships, and it’s very easy to cross that line. With the Dramione ship, it goes beyond just crossing the line. Granted, Draco Malfoy was raised in a hateful environment, but this is also someone who literally wished death on Hermione just because she was of different magic blood status. Dramione shippers can say all they want that Draco didn’t know how to manage his feelings and had to maintain his status quo or whatever by openly bullying Hermione and throwing racial slurs at Hermione and literally wanting Hermione dead and it’s the classic “he’s bullying her, so that means he likes her!”, but wishing death on someone is not something anyone should be saying in any kind of context and it’s definitely not something I would say about anyone I had feelings for, so I’ll never excuse that alone. That one example of wishing Hermione was dead is my number one argument against Dramione every time I argue with someone about it. I don’t even touch on the fact that he just bullied the absolute shit out of her or threw racial slurs at her constantly, I just go directly to the fact that he literally said he wanted her dead.

Anyway, sorry for the tangent, back to what I originally wanted to rant about.

The thing that I consider the “catalyst” for all this bullshit is the infamous Wonderland interview J.K. Rowling did with Emma Watson in 2014. At the time it came out, it left a huge pit in my stomach. And it honestly still leaves a huge pit in my stomach whenever I think about it.

Yes, I know this interview is six years old, but like I said, this shit still gets under my skin even after all these years, and I’ve never really been able to coherently rant about it, so I’m doing it now.

And also before I continue, I just want to say that I know there have always been shipping wars. They didn’t just come about in 2014 when this interview was released. But it definitely fueled the fire for those who argue against Romione (especially Harmione shippers). Because let’s be real here, what better fuel is there than the actual author of the series and the creator of these characters going back on her written word and saying Hermione actually should’ve ended up with Harry instead of Ron? I’m getting ahead of myself here, back to it.

At the time the Wonderland interview was leaked, only a portion of it was leaked. And the portion that was leaked was the portion that completely made it sound like J.K. Rowling was going against Ron and Hermione’s relationship completely because it mainly centered around her saying she should have put Hermione with Harry in the end and her reason for putting Hermione with Ron instead was “wish fulfillment.” So obviously, an uproar resulted from this and my Romione heart was broken (for reasons I’ll touch more on in a minute). However, sometime later, the full interview was released, which means full context of what J.K. Rowling was talking about was released. And the full context should’ve made me feel better, but it really didn’t. Because while she did admit that Ron and Hermione were ultimately still endgame, she also said that they would most likely need counseling at some point and “they will probably fine.”

There’s a lot to unpack here, and I could honestly run through this interview with a fine-tooth comb and pick apart literally everything wrong with it because I’m a feisty protective bitch when it comes to Romione, but for the sake of time, I’m only going to touch on three main points.

To be quite honest, after all these years, I still really can’t decide what I have a bigger problem with -- J.K. Rowling going back on her own written word and saying she should’ve put Hermione with Harry, or J.K. Rowling saying Ron and Hermione would need outside help to manage their relationship. So let’s go through it in the order this bullshit was put out into the world, because I think that’s the easier thing to do right now.

Like I said earlier, I see the appeal with the Harmione relationship. But ultimately, it just doesn’t work. For one thing, there are seven whole books where Harry and Hermione’s relationship is developed into something quite platonic and even sibling-like. I really could just leave it at that, but I won’t. I’ll do kind of a deep dive because I’m in that kind of mood and I have the time today. I’ve said this before, but one of my favorite things about the Harry and Hermione relationship is the fact that they are, for all intents and purposes, the sibling that the other never had. They are comfortable enough confiding in each other, but they also don’t always know how to react to how the other is acting or how to comfort the other when they’re upset without it blowing up in their faces or how to comfort the other at all.

The other thing I want to touch on with the Harry and Hermione relationship, is the fact that neither one of them reacts in a negative way when one of them has a love interest. Which is kind of a big deal. The only time I can think of where there was a bad reaction to a love interest, is when Hermione reveals she asked Cormac McLaggen to Slughorn’s Christmas party. Which wasn’t even really a love interest, it was just something Hermione did to piss Ron off. And the negative reaction to it wasn’t at all motivated by jealousy but just by pure dislike. Other than that, there really are no reactions to love interests. Harry doesn’t care that Hermione is at the Yule Ball with Viktor Krum, because he’s too busy lusting over Cho Chang and thinking about the fact that she is there with someone else. Harry doesn’t really think about the fact that Cormac McLaggen is making Hermione uncomfortable at Slughorn’s Christmas party, because he’s too busy lusting over Ginny and thinking about the fact that she is with someone else.

And perhaps the best and most important example I can think of to prove the point that they absolutely do not have any romantic feelings for each other whatsoever, is this -- after Ron left in Deathly Hallows, not only did Harry and Hermione barely interact with each other, but Harry was way too busy focusing on Ginny and worrying if she was okay or not to even attempt to comfort Hermione, who was crying all the time over Ron’s departure. As much as Steve Kloves wanted to imply that Harry and Hermione were carrying on fine for the most part after Ron left and they could have given into “urges” one night, that’s simply not how it happened.

Since I feel like I’ve made my point with that, that’s enough of Harry and Hermione relationship dissection. Moving on to the next order of bullshit.

Obviously I am a shameless Romione shipper. I would scream it from the rooftops if I could. So the fact that J.K. Rowling herself said that Ron and Hermione’s relationship would need outside help and they would “probably” be fine is upsetting in and of itself, but there are a lot of other issues here. For one thing, just like with Harry and Hermione’s relationship development, there are seven whole books where Ron and Hermione’s relationship is developed into friendship and gradually into something more. If anything, to me it’s a great example of a slow burn relationship. I absolutely don’t believe that the attraction was immediate for either one of them. It was very much a “who the fuck is this” introduction for them. But over time, you see how they warm up to each other.

Anyway, back to what I was originally saying. Ron and Hermione’s relationship was very well developed, and it was clear that they were always going to be endgame. Over the course of seven books, we see Ron and Hermione getting to know each other, becoming comfortable with each other, learning how to comfort each other, among many other things. And I feel like I need to address this, because this is always the main argument for people who dislike the Romione ship -- yes, Ron and Hermione have arguments. But the important thing to know about the way they argue, is the intent is almost never malicious. For one thing, it’s just how they communicate sometimes. For another thing, it’s intellectual stimulation on Hermione’s part. Hermione’s the class brainiac, no one really bothers to challenge her except for Ron. In both of these instances, the arguing isn’t necessarily a negative thing. @owlpostagain wrote an entire post explaining why Ron and Hermione argue, and it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. I reblog it every single time I see it on my dashboard. If you haven’t read it, I would highly encourage it.

I also really want to touch on the argument that they’re too different. That Hermione is too uptight and too much of a rule follower, and Ron is too much of a goofball and a little bit of a slacker compared to Hermione. And to those people who present that as an argument against their relationship, I just simply say that’s exactly why they work so well. Hermione needs someone like Ron, and Ron needs someone like Hermione. Hermione needs Ron to help loosen her up, and Ron needs Hermione to remind him that there are times when he needs to be serious. It’s a healthy balance. And remember how I said earlier that I see a lot of myself in Hermione, and I can admit that I need someone like Ron? Well, this is why. I’m a type A stress bean, and I need someone who will not only know how to comfort me but also helps me relax and loosen up when needed. Because, just like Hermione, it’s a struggle for me to relax. There are times when I don’t even know how to relax.

And while I’m at it, here’s another gripe I have with people who argue against Ron and Hermione’s relationship (this wasn’t really talked about in the Wonderland interview, but we’re already in this far, so why not? I’ll make it super quick, I promise) -- For some reason, a lot of anti-Romione’s like to argue that Hermione deserved so much better than Ron because she is smart and he is dumb. Now, here is my rebuttal to that argument -- Number one, book smart is not the only kind of smart. Number two, yes, Hermione is smart. So do you really think she would actually fall in love with someone who is genuinely dumb? Please make it make sense.

I could honestly go into Ron and Hermione’s relationship beat by beat and explain exactly why they’re perfect together, but that’s not the focus of today’s post. So let’s keep going.

The last thing I want to go over, is just the interview overall. Because it really bothered me how J.K. Rowling just essentially ripped the rug out from under our feet and went against her own written word. I understand that J.K. Rowling is the author of the series, she is the creator of these characters, so she’s technically allowed to say and do what she wants regarding the series. However, it doesn’t really fly with me. Because let’s think about this -- J.K. Rowling is very meticulous with her notes and timeline planning and everything that goes into writing. Especially when it came to the Harry Potter series. So we all know that what eventually ended up happening had been planned for years. Therefore, I’m of the opinion that if she really felt so strongly about Hermione being better with Harry, then it should have been executed that way. Point blank period. Don’t spend seven books laying the groundwork for Ron and Hermione to end up together and actually put them together, only to come out years later and say “actually I kind of think Hermione should’ve ended up with Harry, but I guess Ron and Hermione are fine.” Because it’s bullshit. I understand that opinions can change over time, but it’s not like she can go back and change the entire series (because that’s exactly what she would have to do in order to make Harmione make sense as a romantic couple; the entire series would have to be rewritten), so why even stir the pot with this? To say I have beef with J.K. Rowling over this whole situation would be the understatement of the century.

At the end of the day, all I really need to do is remind myself that Ron and Hermione do start out as friends, they do fall in love with each other, they do end up together, and they do have children together. It’s in writing from J.K. Rowling herself. It is canon. And that can’t ever be taken away or unwritten.

If you made it this far in this post, mad props to you because I really went in on this and I truly did not mean to get this worked up. When I finally start rereading the books, I’ll dissect the Ron and Hermione relationship even more and I’ll make posts about that if you guys are interested. If anyone would like more of a deep dive on what I think of the Harmione or Dramione dynamics, let me know because I would definitely be up for doing posts about that as well.

#Personal #Rant #Long rant #Romione #Ron and Hermione #Ron + Hermione #Ron x Hermione #Ron Weasley #Hermione Granger

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captainscanadian · 5 years

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Happy Endings | Steve Rogers x OFC Marilyn Jarvis

My Masterlist

Summary: Marilyn Jarvis was not only Tony Stark’s goddaughter but also the love of Steve Rogers’ life.

Word Count: 4995

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Marilyn Jarvis (and a bunch of others as minor characters!)

Warnings: Endgame References (set 2 years after), Mentions of Death

A/N: I usually don’t write fics with an OFC but since @artisticrogers1972 was having a bad day, I had to write this one! This is my first ever Steve Rogers fic but I hope there’s more where that came from. Also, this is my first non-AU so that’s exciting! I hope you all like it... if you don’t I’m so sorry it’s shit! I don’t own any of the gifs or pics!

Hey Marilyn, did ya have an affair with JFK or not?!

This had been her whole life. Being named after a Hollywood sex symbol was bad enough as it is, but it was the constant teasing that she had had to endure during her teens to her adulthood that she could not bear. It was as though her name came with a certain blueprint that she had to live her life by. Her petite frame was nothing compared to the body type that her namesake had made famous and with all the boys in high school making fun of her for her name and her body, she found herself become rather quiet and reserved over the years. But she could care less about whether she was popular in high school or not. It did not matter to her.

Marilyn Jarvis often wondered if her grandfather had secretly loathed her when he had decided to give her that name. Had Edwin Jarvis even considered the legacy behind her name or that his adoptive son’s only child would eventually go on to live in the twenty-first century? If anything, Mari believed that the man had cursed her by naming her after the actress. But why he did it? She had no idea.

But there was one thing that she was grateful for. While her first name had caused her a hell of a lot of distress, her family name meant a great deal to her. She knew that she was not a Jarvis by blood, as her father had been adopted by Edwin and Ana Jarvis as a young boy. But being a Jarvis meant that her family’s ties with the Starks had been strong enough to withstand any threat in the world.

Her grandfather took extreme pride in his loyalty to Howard Stark and the Starks had always kept him in high regard. When Mari was born, her father had made Tony Stark her godfather. She was an honorary Stark as much as she was a Jarvis, but she was a lot different from the two families who had raised her.

While Tony Stark had certainly fulfilled his duties as a godfather after her parents had tragically passed away, ensuring that Mari had a large amount of money deposited into her college fund by the time she was only in middle school, and had bought her a car for her birthday when she was old enough to drive, she had always been hesitant about accepting the privilege that came with being his goddaughter. She preferred to live a simple life, compared to the lavish life that he had to offer. She had certainly accepted Tony’s gracious offer to pay for her to go to college though. After all, she was a studious kid and she certainly took after her Uncle Tony in that.

She had been at MIT when Tony had left to Afghanistan, just a few months from graduating when she had heard the news that her godfather had been kidnapped. By the time he had built himself that suit and busted out of that cave, Mari had convinced Happy Hogan to fly her home in time to see him. She had cried the whole night before Tony had convinced her to fly back to school to take her final exams.

“I’m alright, Little Jarvis. Go and sit your exams and you can come back home right after you graduate.” He had told her and taking his word for it, she had left for Boston after spending barely a day with him.

Once she had graduated from MIT, Tony had offered Mari a job at Stark Industries. But of course, wanting a simple life and steering as far away from nepotism as she possibly could, she had chosen to find herself a job on her own in New York. She wanted nothing more than a simple life, a life away from war and villainy, a nine-to-five job, maybe a family of her own and a suburban home, white picket fence and all. But nothing about Marilyn Jarvis’ life could ever be that normal. After all, she was Iron Man’s goddaughter.

“Welcome home, Mari.” Happy Hogan greeted the young women as she exited the Stark Industries Private Jet.

“It’s good to see you, Happy.” She gave him a polite smile as she raised her eyebrow slightly at him. “I must say, I really love the blip beard. Giving Tony a run for his money, are you?”

The man chuckled softly as he took her bags and loaded them into the truck. “Something like that.”

“Does this something have to do with a certain young superhero’s aunt?” Mari asked him cheekily, to which he rolled his eyes.

“Tony can’t keep his mouth shut, can he?”

“I’m happy for you.” She told him as she got into the limo. “I think everyone deserves to have their happy endings after everything that they’ve been through.” Except for Marilyn Jarvis, apparently it seemed. The world had changed so much since Thanos had showed up and going back to how things were before him was just not plausible.

Marilyn had suffered just as much as anyone else, having almost lost her godfather for the umpteenth time in her life in that final battle. How Tony had managed to sustain his injuries was a miracle but she was grateful for it. After all, he was the only family that she had left.

When he had woken up in the hospital, having suffered permanent arm damage due to the impact of the Infinity Stones, he had still put on a brave face for her and given her a weak smile, the same way he had done that night when he had come home from Afghanistan. “Hey, Little Jarvis... you’re not gonna believe it. When I went back in time, I saw my dad, your great-uncle Howard. I mean, I don’t think you would remember much of him because you were quite little when he passed away but... I also... happened to... see your granddad Jarvis. I mean, I didn’t get to speak to him because I was running low on time... okay, not the best moment for a joke but... anyways, I saw him... and all I could think of was... God, how proud he would have been... if he got to see his little Marilyn grow up to be this... smart, kind, beautiful young woman. He would have been so proud of you, Mari.”

That was the moment when she had broken down in tears, pulling his weak body into a tight embrace as she cried. “You’re not almost dying on me again, you hear me? I can’t live with the fear of losing you again, Tony. I’ve lost everyone and I can’t lose you too.” And that had been the end of Iron Man.

Two years had passed since that dreadful day. Tony had recovered and moved onto training a newer generation of Avengers. The rest of the heroes had returned to their respective lives. Marilyn had found herself in California with a job promotion and no social life whatsoever. The only instances she ever took time away from work was during the holidays, as Tony had given her a strict order that she must drop whatever she was doing and return to the Avengers’ Base in New York to celebrate Christmas. She could never say no to that.

So, there she was, in the back of a Stark Industries limo that was driving to Upstate New York. It had started to snow as Happy was pulling up through the gates of the compound. As Mari stepped out of the limo, she held out her hand as a fuzzy little snowflake landed on her palm. One thing sunny California could never give her was the joy of being able to play in the snowfalls of New York.

As she entered the base, FRIDAY the AI had informed Tony of her arrival.

“Just in time for Christmas Eve lunch.” The man had beamed as his beloved goddaughter had made her way towards the common kitchen.

With Pepper and May Parker keeping busy with the cooking, Tony and Rhodey were seated at the table, sharing a drink and chatting away. On the other side of the room, Peter Parker and Harley Keener were playing around with Little Morgan Stark. These people were her family now, even though none of them were related to her by blood. It was not blood that ever determined family though. It was the people who choose to be a part of her life. Tony had really made sure Mari had a family after she had lost hers.

Morgan wiggled out of Peter and Harley’s grip as she noticed her arrival and ran over to Marilyn in excitement. “Mari!” She exclaimed as she jumped into her arms.

“Hey, kiddo!” Marilyn let out a hearty laugh as she hugged the young Stark before waving over at the boys. “How’s MIT treating you boys?”

“Don’t even ask.” Peter let out a groan, making Harley roll his eyes.

“We’re handling it, Mar.”

Mari couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh as she set Morgan down and walked over to give Tony a kiss on the cheek. “I missed you, old man.” She told him with a playful grin before greeting Rhodey as well.

“Missed you too, Little Jarvis.”

“How’s California treating you, Mari?” Rhodey asked as he took a sip of his drink.

Marilyn thought for a moment before responding with a shrug. “Well, it’s a lot warmer... and it’s where my grandparents used to live so, I can’t really complain.”

“But it’s not home, is it?” May asked her as she pulled the roast out of the oven and set it on the counter.

“No.” She replied, shrugging once more. “But the job’s great. At least, I’m getting paid a lot more than I used.”

Pepper turned around to look at her niece with an eye roll. “Honey, you do realize that I’m waiting for the day you would walk into my office and tell me that you’re ready for me to sign over my company. Just say the word and Stark Industries is all yours. You don’t have to worry about living alone in the other side of the country for the sake of making money.”

“And why would I do that when you’re a much better CEO than I could ever be, Pep?” She asked her, chuckling. “Honestly, Cali’s great. I really love it there.”

Marilyn wasn’t sure if she was being honest with herself when she had said that. Sure, California had always held a very special place in her heart. Her grandparents had lived at the Stark residence there for years. It was where her father had been born and adopted. There was a lot of significance to where she lived. But did it make her happy? She could not be so sure about that. After all, she did not know what made her happy anymore.

Long before the events of the Infinity War and Thanos, she had once envisioned a future with a man she had met at one of her uncle’s parties. But there was no way that this future would even be possible. He was a man of every woman’s dreams, a true gentleman at heart. Anyone would have fallen for the charms of Steven Grant Rogers if they had met him. Marily was no exception to that. Their relationship had been a short-lived one, perhaps some sort of a summer fling before all hell had broken loose.

Marilyn knew it was wrong but she could not help it. She had been drunk and he had been a gentleman, trying to drag her to the guest bedroom after a party. A drunken kiss should not have meant anything, right? But her confession of having a crush on him had led to a completely different story. They had gone behind Tony’s back to pursue a relationship, fearing that the knowledge of the two of them together would ever cause a drift between Tony and Steve. But said drift had been caused either way, thanks to the Accords. Even Mari had been put in a place where she had to decide where her allegiance was. As she had chosen her godfather’s side in a heartbeat, the star spangled man had retaliated by ending their relationship just as quickly.

A heartbroken Marilyn had found herself sitting by her great-aunt Peggy’s grave in London before Tony had found her and flew her back to New York. Even then she hadn’t told him about what Steve had done. She had known that it would only make things worse between the two of them.

While Captain America and his allies were on the run, Marilyn had continued to live at the compound with Tony. Not even once did the man whom she had fallen in love with try to contact her during those two years. She hadn’t even seen him again until after the events of the Infinity War, while Tony had been lost in space for three weeks. Not even then did Steve speak to her or try to offer her some comfort in the absence of her godfather. Mari understood why though, after all he had lost his best friends during the snap. But either of them could look at each other. Perhaps things could never get better between the two of them.

After Tony and Pepper moved out of the compound, Mari had found herself a new job in California and made the move as well. The next five years had been rather dull for her, but for once she hadn’t been the only one who was going through it. The entire universe had been left in ruins. At one point, she had been so depressed to the point where she had gotten Tony on the phone and told him the truth.

Of course, her godfather hadn’t been mad about it. After all, she was human and was bound to her emotions and desires. But was he pissed at Captain America for breaking his Little Jarvis’ heart? Most definitely! Yet Tony also felt responsible for the part he had indirectly played in their break up. Perhaps that was why he had ensured that Steve Rogers would also be attending Christmas Eve lunch while Marilyn was also in attendance.

“Lunch is served.” May announced as she turned over to Harley and Peter. “Boys, would you please help set the table?”

As the boys whined and groaned at her words, Marilyn stood up from her seat to help as well.

“FRIDAY, tell Cap, Wilson and Barnes that lunch is served.” Tony announced, knowing very well that his goddaughter could hear him.

The young Jarvis’ eyes grew wide as she realized what her godfather had just said and she gave Tony a look of disbelief, mouthing a ‘what’ as she crossed her arms against her chest.

“Oh did I forget to mention that Cap, Wilson and Barnes are spending Christmas with us at the compound? Oops!”

***

Bucky Barnes would forever be grateful that Tony Stark had forgiven him for what he had done during his days under HYDRA’s control. But what he had not expected from Tony was an invite to spend Christmas at the compound with him and his family. After all, he had just gotten used to living with Steve and Sam in Brooklyn. When Steve and Sam were not going on missions or training the young Avengers at the compound, he had found himself becoming familiar with his hometown. He had become tired of fighting throughout his whole life so it felt nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the holidays. The last time he had been able to do that was long before The Great Depression, and that too was a century ago.

Bucky had learned from Sam about his friend’s brief romance with Stark’s goddaughter and that was why he had been hesitant about spending the holidays at the compound.

“Mari always spends the holidays with Tony and Cap can’t get himself to see her.” He had told him.

He did not think much of it at first, though the two of them had somehow managed to convince Steve to come to the compound with them. But the moment Bucky had witnessed Steve come face to face with the woman whose heart he had broken, he truly understood that things just did not seem right.

Bucky had always wanted for Steve to settle down and have a family of his own, even then and even now. Steve had been alone his whole life after all, and while he would always say that he could get by on his own, it was always Bucky who had to remind him that he did not have to. Bucky was determined to convince Steve and his former girlfriend to get back together, even if it meant that he would have to deal with Tony’s wrath once more. His best friend deserved a happy ending and Bucky was going to get it for him.

He had noticed the way the two of them had looked at each other during lunch, even though neither of them had acknowledged each other’s presence or made the effort to have a conversation. Sam had taken it upon himself to formally introduce Marilyn to Bucky, as there was no way Steve could have even thought of it.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sergeant Barnes.” The woman had told him politely, making him chuckle softly.

“You can call me Bucky.” He had told her. “It’s good to meet you too, Marilyn.”

“And you can call me Mari, actually.” She told him as she laughed softly. “It’s not easy being named after a Hollywood sex symbol.”

Bucky nodded. “I understand. I mean, I was named after a president.”

“Not the one that was linked with my namesake, I- wait, forget that I even said that.”

He gave her a confused look. “What?”

“N-Nothing...” She shrugged her shoulders before she took a sip of her eggnog. Her eyes kept darting towards Steve, who was talking to Rhodey and Tony. But all she could do was steal glances every now and then. She did not have the courage to go up and talk to him.

He shrugged off her words before shaking his head, noticing the woman constantly stealing a glance at his friend. “I’m sorry if you feel like I’m intruding... into your personal life. I know you just met me and you don’t know me much... or from what you know, you might probably resent me. But Sam happened to tell me that you and Steve used to...” He did not know how to start the conversation. But he knew that if he could did not get involved, no one else would.

Marilyn bit down on her bottom lip as he brought up her past with Steve and she let out a sigh. “Well, the past is in the past so...”

“I can’t tell you how to live your life, Mari. But I know Steve and I know how bad he feels about what happened between the two of you. I can see the way you look at him too and you can’t deny that you don’t have any feelings for him either.” He spoke in a hushed tone, hoping that no one could hear him.

“Bucky, I...”

“Tony built a time machine and Steve had access to it.” Bucky reminded her. “He could have gone back to the forties if he wanted to but he didn’t do that... You know, I thought he would have. He stayed, Mari. I often wondered why he had chosen to stay in this timeline when he could have gotten the life that he had always wanted with Peggy. But I know now that he had a reason to stay. It’s you. You’re the reason he stayed.”

Marilyn knew that Bucky was making sense. But her heart still refused to accept it. There was no way Steve could have chosen to stay in the present for her when he did have a chance to go back to the past and make himself a life for himself. How could have Steve chosen her over the woman who had once been the love of his life? How could have Steve chosen her over her Aunt Peggy, the woman whom Marilyn had heard stories of from her grandparents, the woman whom she had always looked up to when she was growing up, the woman who was much more brave, kind and confident than she could ever be. She found that hard to believe.

“If Tony could forgive me for what I did, why shouldn’t the two of you just forgive each other for whatever happened in the past?”

***

Christmas morning at the compound had always consisted of Pepper and Tony handing out presents to the kids. While Marilyn was not a kid anymore and was certainly not as materialistic as the rest of them, that had never stopped Tony for spoiling her with gifts every year. But that particular year, he had chosen not to buy her a present himself. Instead he had managed to find something that he knew that she would value a lot more than any expensive gift he could get her.

“This was actually from your parents. I was supposed to give this to you when you graduated from MIT but you know how crazy things were back then. I forgot and then... things got lost when I was moving around. But I found this a couple months ago and thought that this could be a perfect Christmas present for you. Of course, I had Pepper alter it first so that it could fit you. Make sure you’re alone when you open this, okay?” Tony had told her as he handed her a rectangle shaped box that was wrapped up nicely and tied up with a bow on top. “Merry Christmas, Little Jarvis.”

She gave him a confused look as she took it from him and leaned in to place a kiss on his cheek. “Merry Christmas, Tony.”

After everyone else had opened their present, Peter had left the compound to meet up with his girlfriend MJ and Harley had found himself helping Tony set up for the party that night.

Just as her godfather had instructed, Mari had found herself alone in her bedroom when she decided to open her present. Untying the bow and tearing off the wrapping paper, she opened the box to reveal a bright red dress that had been pressed and folded neatly.

When she picked it up and admired the fabric, she noticed an old photograph that had fallen out of it. She crouched down to pick it up from the tiled floor of the bedroom, only to see that it was a photo of her grandfather Edwin Jarvis with the incomparable founder of SHIELD herself, Peggy Carter. Mari noticed that the dress that she was wearing in the photo was the same one that she was now holding.

Marilyn could not help but remember the stories that she had heard from her father countless times. This dress had once belonged to her grandmother, who had lent it to her great-aunt Peggy for a mission. God, she had to give Tony some props. The man really was a genius for holding onto this present until he had found the right for to give it to her.

***

As the Christmas party was finally in full swing, Steve found himself seated by the bar with Bucky. With a beer in his hand, he watched a drunken Sam drag Natasha onto the dance floor. He’d realized that a beer was not as strong a drink to numb the thoughts that were now clouding his mind. But he was not planning on drinking the night away either. Despite Tony’ s invite, Steve had been hesitant about coming here, just because he knew that he would have to run into her. Perhaps it was his guilt that had been eating him alive right now. But Steve was miserable.

Steve was not an idiot. He knew that he was the reason why Marilyn Jarvis had left her entire family in New York to move across the country and he could not face her. He knew that he had screwed up by letting her go. He should not have given her an ultimatum where she had to choose between him and Tony. Of course, Mari had chosen Tony over him, just as he had chosen Bucky over Tony. Breaking her heart had certainly not been the right way to respond to that situation.

But he could not deny it either. He had fallen in love with her years ago. Steve knew that he loved Mari a lot more than he had loved Peggy. That was why he had chosen to stay in the present when he could have went back in time to make himself a life. He had wanted a future with her; even though he knew that she might not want the same with him.

Bucky’s eyes grew wide as he saw something behind Steve and he nudged his arm before standing up. “If this is what déjà vu feels like, then help me God...”

Steve gave him a confused look before he turned around to see Marilyn walking up to him, wearing a bright red dress was a lot more 1940s than what she was used to wearing. The knee length dress was a little loose around her petite frame and its vintage style was reason enough for Steve to assume that the dress had not belonged to her. Yet for a moment when he took in the sight of her, he could not help but think of Peggy - the same Peggy whom he had once in love with, the same Peggy whom Marilyn had also lost almost a decade ago.

The woman ignored the gaze of the entire party, giving Tony a smile on the way.

“Captain.” The young Jarvis greeted him and Steve had almost forgotten how to speak.

His friend nudged him once more, causing him to snap out of his trance. “Mar-” He paused, biting down on his bottom lip as he looked down at his feet and clearing hi throat. “Ms. Jarvis.”

“M-May I... have this dance?” She asked him as she held out her hand. “Please.”

Steve would have thought that she resented him to his core. But the way she had approached him and asked him to dance had been quite surprising to him. As he took her hand and led her towards the dance floor, there were a thousand things that he wanted to say to her. But instead, he wrapped his arms around her waist and swayed gently along to the music.

“I see that you haven’t forgotten what I’d taught you, Rogers.”

He gave her a nod, followed by a nervous chuckle. “Well, you did teach me how to dance, m’lady.”

Mari couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “The years have been kind to you, Steve.”

“The super-soldier serum does help with the aging...” He reminded her before letting out a sigh. “I like the dress, by the way.”

She blushed slightly at his compliment. “Thank you. It used to belong to my grandmother... and Aunt Peggy.”

“Oh...” Steve looked down once more before looking back up at her.

“Steve, why didn’t you go back to her?” Marilyn asked as she looked up at him. “Tony told me that you saw her when you went back in time for the stones. Why didn’t you... why didn’t you just stay when you went back to return the stones?”

“Because she’d moved on from me, Mar. She lived a long life without me and I couldn’t go back and take that away from her.” He replied as he sighed. “Besides, the life that I wanted was... right here... right now.”

“But you loved her, Steve-”

“I love you more, Mar.” He cut her off. “I know I haven’t been honest with you or myself but I can’t take it anymore. So, here’s the truth. It’s you who I love, it’s always been. I’m sorry I put you in a place where you had to choose between me and Tony. But I think the last nine years without you have taught me how stupid I had been... and how much I love you, Marilyn Jarvis.”

Mari could not help but tear up at that. “But Steve... I’m not... right for you. You said so yourself.”

“And I was wrong, I admit it.”

“Steve... I... I love you too.” She finally confessed what she had been holding onto for years now, her eyes glossing over with tears as they met Steve’s blue ones. “I’ve loved you since the day I first saw you.”

Steve then reached into his pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it before turning it over to her, revealing a pencil sketch of her face. “I’ve been wanting to give this to you for a while now, Mar. A portrait of you that you’ve always wanted me to draw.”

“You drew this... for me? Steve, it’s beautiful.”

“And so are you.” He could not help but smile at that and he pulled her into a tight hug. “Marry me. First thing in the morning, right here in front of our family and friends. We’ll find ourselves a home in the suburbs, white picket fence and all. That’s where we’ll raise our children. We’ll grow old together too, because I’m not doing that with anyone else but you.”

“I...” She looked over at Tony for a moment before turning back to him. “I think that would be perfect.” Perhaps Marilyn Jarvis had been wrong about one thing. She deserved to have her own happy ending after all.

#aj writes #happy endings #steve rogers x original female character #steve rogers x oc #steve rogers x ofc #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #steve rogers fic #bucky barnes fanfiction #bucky barnes fanfic #bucky barnes fic #tony stark fanfiction #tony stark fanfic #marvel fanfiction #marvel fanfic

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iamanartichoke · 5 years

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Someone on Reddit linked to a copy of Endgame streaming online, so I went ahead and watched it while I had the chance, so I could judge for myself. My thoughts, entirely about Thor and Loki, under the cut.

ENDGAME SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT.

My honest, unbiased opinion is that this is a fantastic movie ... for the general audience. This is a movie for the masses, for the average movie-goers who will pay their money to be entertained for three hours by visual effects, heroic music, some comic relief, and callbacks to earlier movies.

If you’re not invested, or if your fave character was treated right, then it’s easy to enjoy this movie without thinking too critically about it. I have no doubt that this movie will make a ton of money and people will enjoy it, which kind of takes some of the wind out of my schadenfreude sails, in regards to people finally seeing the Russos for the hacks they are, but whatever.

However.

First, Loki. It is very true that Loki has next to no screen time in the film, but there were a few little gems that I wasn’t expecting.

So here’s all the Loki we get: Current Tony Stark drops in right as Loki is delivering his “I’ll have that drink now” line. Then SHIELD swarms into Stark Tower to confiscate the scepter and take Loki into custody. Loki snarks at everyone and shapeshifts into Cap, and then back to himself, at which point Thor puts the muzzle over his mouth. I think he says “shut up” but I’m not sure (the audio wasn’t that great, I missed a lot of dialogue tbh).

They go down to the main floor and Thor, Loki, and Tony get stopped by Alexander Pierce, who insists that SHIELD take custody of Loki. Tony and Thor argue that Thor is taking him back to Asgard. Loki rolls his eyes rather dramatically at all the fuss.

Then, Tony’s ARC reactor starts acting up and he collapses. At the same time, Hulk bursts onto the scene. There’s a bit of chaos - Thor, Pierce, and some agents are trying to help Tony while a bunch of other people are running from Hulk. I think Current Tony, who was trying to get the Tesseract, is knocked aside or something - I can’t remember. Anyway, Loki sees his opportunity, grabs the Tesseract, and vanishes. Current Tony watches him do it. Thor starts yelling for Loki when he realizes Loki is gone, and then it cuts to Current Tony and that’s the last we see of the 2012 Brodinsons.

So, is the 2012 Loki alive somewhere? I’m not sure. The movie really left it ambiguous. It’s just as possible that Steve returned the stones and prevented any alternate timelines from occurring, meaning that Loki never steals the Tesseract, and Avengers - and TDW - play out as normal. I guess YMMV.

The only other Loki we see is the scene in TDW where Loki is laying in bed, tossing the little cup up in the air, and we see Thor sneak past his cell. It’s true, Thor doesn’t even look at Loki, or mention Loki at all in the present.

(New thought, but the fact that TDW still existed for Thor to go back to can imply that that movie’s events never changed and Loki did make it back to Asgard eventually. As the Avengers are going to their different time periods, the dates display on screen, and it’s clear that Tony goes back to 2012 and Thor goes back to 2013. So I think the timeline is intact? My brain hurts.)

Anyway, Loki isn’t shown or mentioned again.

So, Thor. The first 20 minutes of the film are great for Thor. He doesn’t really say much of anything, but it’s clear that he’s upset and guilty. When the Avengers track down Thanos and Thor kills him, someone says, “What did you do?” Thor replies, sounding absolutely wrecked, “I went for the head.” He turns and walks away.

if they had followed this portrayal of Thor’s guilt and depression throughout the film, it would have been much, much better.

They don’t, though. After that, I cringed every time Thor was on-screen. The secondhand embarrassment was so real. Thor was stumbling around drunk most of the time. It’s very obvious to everyone else that there’s something very wrong with him, but it’s hard for us to take this seriously because the narrative doesn’t take it seriously. It really is played up for comic relief.

When they ask Thor about the Aether, for example, he rambled on nonsensically about Jane and the Dark Elves, while everyone else gave each other these “what the actual fuck” looks. (Cue giggling from the audience.)

His weight gain and overall unkempt appearance was definitely played for laughs, which I thought was gross, especially at how his costumes and camera shots were done in such a way that it really focused on how much weight he’d gained. Several times the camera specifically focused on his stomach. It’s very much “haha Thor is fat now.” It’s very embarrassing and cringe-worthy and disappointing.

I will say, there were a few moments where Thor did well - when the narrative dropped the comic relief aspect and showed Thor’s PTSD. In his first scene after the time jump, Hulk mentions Thanos, and Thor gets very quiet and very angry and says, “Do not mention that name.” His entire demeanor changes. He withdraws, he looks like he’s on the verge of tears, and he says he isn’t going anywhere and he wants nothing to do with their plan.

Unfortunately, that part of the scene is undermined when Rocket says, “There’s beer on the ship,” and that makes Thor go with them.

His conversation with Frigga was okay. It didn’t have the emotional impact I thought it would, but to be fair, I missed a lot of what was said between them, because the audio wasn’t good.

She kind of talks some sense into him, though, and they get to hug and say they love each other. But he calls her “Mom,” which, o-kay, and the entire interaction was tinged with bitterness on my part because Loki is the one who should have gotten to have a talk and a hug and an “I love you” from Frigga.

Neither of them even mentioned Loki, from what I could hear anyway, which was just an extra slap in the face.

Once the final battle rolls around, Thor fights well. He seems more like his Ragnarok self and less like a drunken idiot by the time he gives Asgard to Valkyrie, and he was also Ragnarok-y when he and Peter Quill quibble over who’s in charge. Ragnarok Thor is still OOC, but is an improvement from Endgame Thor (or maybe it just seemed that way because he was sober).

So ... there we are. I won’t be paying money to see this in the theatre, but at least I did see it so that I could make a fair first-hand judgement. (Btw, if anyone else wants to watch it, I’m afraid to post the link bc copyright and whatnot, but it’s on a site called “Fmovies,” just Google it and it’ll pop up.)

This movie treated Loki terribly, in absentia. His 2012 self was fine, I suppose, but as far as our Loki goes, there was literally no payoff whatsoever when it comes to things like Loki disappearing for five minutes, saying “the sun will shine on us again,” or even being remembered by his brother (or Val, for that matter). That first scene in IW really was just full of plot holes and there was nothing more going on. This is such a bitter disappointment on so many levels, and I really, really hate it.

This movie treated Thor terribly, too, for all the aforementioned reasons.

I’m pretty much going to ignore this film’s canon, the same way I mostly ignore IW’s canon. I really do suspect that 2012 Loki’s escape will be addressed or followed in the TV show, but who really knows. I’m tired, I’m disappointed, and I just want Thor and Loki’s relationship to go back and reboot from TDW, where Loki doesn’t die and he and Thor reconcile and sort out their differences and understand one another. I guess that’s what fanfic is for.

Sorry for such a long, rambling post. To end this on a positive note, I will say that Valkyrie’s hair looked AMAZING and pretty much how I picture it in Sea. So there was that.

#endgame #endgame spoilers #charlotte bitches about endgame #avengers endgame spoilers #spoilers #loki spoilers #thor spoilers #there are massive spoilers in this post #i can't make that any more clear

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ohmygoodnessgraciouss · 5 years

Text

Heist (Loki x Reader) Pt. VII - END

Masterlist

Let’s celebrate the release of Endgame on digital tonight with the final chapter to Heist.

Taglist:

@angelofasgard16 @it-jinxed-us @dark-night-sky-99 @pyrowolfgirl1408 @heartsxhoney @twhgirl @xavierwoodsxkofikingston @panda-duuu @nonsensicalobsessions @marisayouass

Loki jumped out of the way, hiding behind some parts from the ship. You took this as your chance to run over to him while everyone was distracted. "Loki!" You yelled at him.

He turned around, shocked to see you. He had millions of questions about all of this. "Y/N! How are you here?"

"It's a long story, and you're in big trouble, so listen. You can make illusions talk, right?"

He was confused by your question but answered anyway. "Yes, of course. I've learned to make them feel as real as possible. Why?"

Your eyes darted to where Thanos was quickly defeating Hulk. You didn't have a lot of time left. "Make an illusion of yourself. I'm not letting you face Thanos. Your illusion will delay him enough. Heimdall can get Hulk back to Earth so he can alert the Avengers."

It was like you were reading his mind. He knew Heimdall would at least try to get Banner back to Earth. He was planning on sacrificing himself so the others would stand a fighting chance. "What if it doesn't work?"

"Listen, do you trust me?"

"I trust you."

"Great. I know what happens. We don't win. Thanos snaps, and everyone you know dies. Everyone. So make the illusion and come with me if you want them to stand a fighting chance." You held your hand out for him to grab. Out of the corner of your eye, you could see Ebony Maw grabbing the Tesseract and handing it to Thanos.

Loki's eyes widened as you finished your final sentence. He couldn't believe it. Could he trust you? The way you talked made him assume you were from the future. He wanted to trust you on this. Knowing it wouldn't end well for him anyway, he made his decision.

He took your hand in his, creating an illusion quickly. You pressed buttons on what looked like a watch to him. Lights lit up as a year was presented on it. 2023. Before he could even yell out, he was sent into a realm he did not know. "If I might interject," Would be the last thing the god would hear from 2018.

When you arrived back in 2023 with Loki, Bruce immediately turned to yell at you. "Where have you been?!"

"What do you mean where have I been? I was gone for maybe ten minutes," You calmly responded.

"You were supposed to return two and a half minutes ago."

"What?!"

"And Steve never made it back. He decided to stay in the past," He motioned towards where Sam and Steve were talking. It looked like Sam was holding the shield.

"It must've been because I brought Loki here." Loki was examining his surroundings. He didn't know what to make of it all. Bruce was the Hulk, but at the same time not the Hulk, and he was on Earth now. Captain America looked much older than he probably should, and who was the guy standing next to him?

"Where am I?" Loki decided to ask.

"Loki, welcome to the year 2023. Five years ago Thanos was able to find all six infinity stones and took out half of the universe. We killed him only a couple days after that. About a month ago we found a way to reverse the effects of the snap. Time travel. We brought back everyone and had to kill Thanos again." You shortly summarized it all.

Needless to say, the god had a lot of questions.

When you explained it all in detail to him, you had tears in your eyes. Recounting it all in great detail from the first snap to watching everyone take a knee as you lost Tony made it all real. Five years without Loki and having to admit everyone that you've lost was hard. Loki gripped your hand tightly as you told him the story, squeezing it every once in a while to try and comfort you.

"So, that's basically what you've missed," Your voice was shaky as you finished, "Or, what you wouldn't have seen if you stayed there."

Loki nodded, still trying to come to terms with all that happened. "What if this is how it was supposed to be all along?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I remember seeing you, five years ago. Well, now it would be ten years ago. You approached me the day my mother died. It was you from 2023. I wrote a letter to you that I gave to Thor. I remember seeing Thor back in 2013 as well. What if... what if in the other timelines, this same exact thing happens? In this timeline we're in right now, I didn't die."

"But that's not what Bruce said. His calculations and science was all correct, and it showed what the other timelines looked like." You were still trying to imagine it in your head anyway.

"No offense, love, but your science once believed that everything revolved around your planet."

"Fair enough," You admitted. "I guess it could be possible. It really doesn't matter though. There's someone who really needs to see you." You stood up from your chair on the porch of the lakehouse, holding your hand out.

Loki, understanding immediately, took your hand and stood. You led him through the house, passing a confused Pepper and Morgan, and going into the kitchen. There, Bruce and Thor were talking. Tony sat in a wheelchair with several wires connected to him. Not even harnessing enough energy to easily kill a single man thirty times over could stop him. Thor was chuckling at something Tony said and looked up to greet you. Before he could say anything, he noticed Loki and his smile dissipated. "Brother," Tears quickly filled his eyes as Loki smiled warmly.

Thor pulled him into a hug, nearly cutting off Loki's breathing. Loki, being his melodramatic self, used this to his advantage. "Brother, I can't breathe!" He choked out.

Thor loosened his grip ever so slightly, not caring if his brother didn't want any part of it. That didn't matter at all right now. He slowly felt Loki's arms wrap around his torso and awkwardly pat his back. "It's good to see you too, brother," Loki commented. "However, what in the nine realms happened to you?!"

"I'm sorry," Thor quietly (eerily quiet for Thor) said, not even listening to what Loki was saying.

"For what?"

"Failing you."

"You never failed me. I told you the sun would rise on us yet again. I'm only sorry I missed seeing Thanos die."

Tony watched the interaction with shock in his eyes. He had heard stories from both you and Thor, but this seemed insane. "Is this seriously the same Reindeer Games that destroyed most of New York ten years ago with an alien army?"

"I wouldn't say that, Tony," You replied, "It's more like a free Loki. A Loki who isn't controlled by Thanos. It's the Loki I've wanted you to see for several years." A smile grew on your face as you watched the brothers talk to each other. For the first time in five years, everything was simply okay.

"Are you sure you have everything, Thor? You don't want to forget the messenger in case something happens up in space. Especially since Carol got it and Tony fixed it up just for you and the guardians. Plus, you need to let me know how it goes with Gamora. I know Nebula said she was going to talk to her, but I want to know how everything ends up in the next few weeks." You were constantly pestering Thor to make sure he had everything he needed before leaving.

Thor was clearly annoyed by it, but he appreciated the sentiment. He recently left Asgard in charge of Valkyrie. He didn't know if he should leave it up to Loki instead, but you told him not to, knowing Valkyrie knew Asgard well enough and understood how the world worked here. Loki didn't know how anything worked here because he wasn't present. You'd teach him in due time, of course.

"Yes, I have it all, Y/N. Don't worry. You're worse than how my mother was sometimes. She could still put you to shame sometimes, but you're worse at the moment."

You rolled your eyes at the statement. "Whatever, Thor. And remember, no beer, whatsoever. The next time I see you, I don't want to see you with a beer belly."

"I can promise you that much, Y/N. And thank you."

"For what?"

"For bringing my brother back. And for not yelling at him yet. I haven't seen my brother that happy since our mother died. Even when he got to see me electrocuted, he was never as happy as he is with you."

"Well, that may be ending soon. I have a lot to discuss with him. As for now, I'm just grateful he's around. I'll yell at him when the dust settles a bit," You tried cracking a joke.

Rocket walked up to the two of you, telling you he finished preparing the ship. Thor said his final goodbyes to you and you watched them leave. Of course, you already told Rocket to keep the beer away from the Asgardian. The raccoon told you it was already taken care of.

When the ship took off, you walked over to Loki. He was looking out to the pond, deep in thought. "Want some company?" You asked him.

"Be my guest," He smiled as you sat down and let your feet swing out above the pond that was near the recently finished Avengers Compound.

"Is it strange to see everybody not trying to kill you?" You asked him, trying to lighten the mood.

"A little. I think the most peculiar thing about it all is just trying to adjust to the idea of there being many more Avengers while Thanos is dead."

"Would you believe me if I told you that the Stephen Strange is a part of the Avengers now?"

"Is he the witch doctor that sent me flying through portals?"

"That'd be the very one," You grinned.

"I can't believe he was allowed onto this team of yours."

"It's not really my team. It's more like Sam's team."

"Is he the one that has the robotic wings?"

"Yeah, and Steve gave him the shield."

"I feel bad that he has to carry that around now." You laughed at his remark.

"I missed this, so much," You leaned your head onto his shoulder. You felt his arm sneak around your waist to bring you closer to him. You two were like puzzle pieces, easily connecting together.

"So, may I ask when I have to hear about how angry you are for not telling you I'm alive?" He asked nervously. Loki was not eager to have to hear about it. He knew it'd be coming up at some point, but a part of him wanted it to be delayed while another part wanted it done and over with.

"Whenever I'm done being happy that you're here again, out of a cell, alive and well." You smiled while trying to bite back some laughter. He almost sounded like a child that was trying to figure out whether or not he was in trouble.

"When could that be?"

"It could be in a month, two months, or never. I haven't decided yet. I don't think there's a point in yelling about it right now. I just want to show you something since you're going to be here for a while." You continued your thought by asking him to come to your room in the compound.

When Fury heard the news of Loki being back, he immediately asked you to watch him during the day. That meant the god would stay at the compound at all times under watch by someone. Since you were close to him, it'd only make things easier for you to watch Loki. You agreed immediately.

Because of that, you had your own room in the place. It was large, nearly taking up an entire floor. It was practically an apartment. You didn't complain, loving the idea of never having to worry about rent. The best part about your "room" was the one part you specifically asked for.

"Well, remember how I'd give you books all the time?" You asked him, standing in front of the door to the room. Loki was slightly confused but nodded anyway. "Since I have to watch you, I figured I wouldn't give you any more books and just give you access to my little collection."

When you opened the door, it led into a room with several bookshelves. To say it was a small collection would be a complete understatement. There were easily hundreds of books ranging from science-fiction to autobiographies. It could keep someone busy for years.

Loki looked around, admiring all of the books. He pulled out one of the books, staring at its cover as if it was as old as he was. When you saw the title, you understood why it caught his eye. It was your collection of Shakespeare's work. You forgot you still had that book even after all of these years.

"You still have the book?" Loki asked, flipping through the pages.

"Of course I do. Torn pages, tea stains, and all," You smiled.

When he reached a page, he noticed something fall out. Your quick reflexes led to your powers catching it only inches before it fell to the marble floor. A light blue aura surrounded the object as you lifted it into your hand. The necklace Loki gave you was shining in all of its glory. The stone looked like it had never been touched.

Loki slowly took the necklace from your hand, twisting the stone around between his fingers. A small smile appeared on his face. "When I first gave this to you, I thought you'd keep it for only a few months at most. I can't believe you still have it after all this time."

"It was the day I realized how much I love you, Loki. There was no way I could get rid of it. Besides, I was waiting for the day I'd have to explain to Tony how I got a priceless necklace without his money," You joked.

Loki didn't miss how you didn't use the past tense. "Does this mean you still love me?" He asked.

"Loki, I have never loved anyone as I love you. Despite all that has happened, I don't think I could stop loving you. At the very least, you'd have to really piss me off."

Loki chuckled at your words before placing a kiss on the top of your head. You didn't realize that he had started to place the necklace on around your neck. He gently pulled your hair out and smiled.

"I love you too."

#loki x reader #loki #marvel #endgame #avengers #avengers 4 #tony stark #iron man #thor #odinson #laufeyson #tom hiddleston #bruce banner #hulk #fanfic #fanfiction #comics #mcu

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starkerdayss · 5 years

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ENDGAME THOUGHTS

I’ve seen it, and I have things to say...

Okay, so, let’s start with the light-hearted stuff first:

Bruce Banner finally accepting the Hulk as a whole ??? yes

America’s Ass

WHY IS STEVE WORTHY OF MJOLNIR

Steve winning the battle with his other self by naming Bucky ?? marvel cant resist the gay tm even if they tried

Carol Danvers and her lesbian haircut can fuck me up with a rake

There was a brief moment where I shipped Natasha and Carol, but that just fell off a cliff ;)

Peter Parker emerging from that portal looking FiNNER than ever. my poor starker heart

WE FINALLY GOT TONY AND PETER HUGGING

i like the way Steve said “avengers... assemble” meaning everyone on their side was an avenger, even the smallest of them all. they just... thats the perfect fucking ending. theyre all avengers.

loki just randomly grabbing his cube and disappearing

is gamora like... alive? why is gamora

tony stark being the motherfucking hero agAIN literally just proves that without him marvel is and will be nothing. he invented time traveling... it doesnt get better than that, folks

every single character together on the same planet fighting the same evil

my relieved ass when thanos got dusted

“this is the one?” “the options were him or a tree”

Tony fucking Stark lived happy for five years with his daughter okay

Now, onto the sadded stuff:

Thor, as far as I know, was written that way for this movie to add some commedy, but it just literally broke my heart to see him like that after losing everything.

Continuing with Thor, the encounter with his mother. She’s just really wise, and understanding and I’m so glad Thor got the closure he needed on that department.

I’m going to express how insanely mad I am about Steve’s ending. First of all, I feel like the happy ending that Tony deserved they gave to Steve. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have ended happy as well, but common. I understand that he wanted to live a life with Peggy, but even if it was six seconds for the others, he left Bucky alone. He doesn’t have Steve, Tony, Natasha. Anyone, and he didn’t even get the shield? catch me on CNN news hitting marvel writers with a frying pan.

What the fuck was Natasha’s ending? It felt flat and it was really... quick. I just... don’t like it.

Tony dying. I cried so hard that my little sobbing stopped me from watching the whole scene. Peter finally got his hug, and then he was calling for him saying “mr. stark... we won! mr. stark, do you hear me? we won... tony?” just... breaks my heart. Pepper calming him down, telling him that he could rest in peace... it just, also breaks my heart. Peter has no mentor, Pepper has no husband and Morgan has no father. I love you 3000. im crying as i write this, obviously. he deserved so much better. “proof that tony stark has a heart”. fucking hell, my heart is so sad. the fucking funeral is just,,, the worst thing that has ever happened to me

i love that peter reconnected with his friends and all but you could see the sadness in his eyes. specially in the funeral, when aunt may was holding him.

happy is just such a good person, and i know he’s going to miss his boss. hes going to take care of that little girl like it was his own daughter

we didnt get enough groot/rocket and im pissed.

we also didn’t get bucky/steve recognition aT ALL and if anyone wants to talk about this pls come to my dm’s

BUCKY KNEW WHAT STEVE WAS GOING TO DO AND HE LET HIM DO IT ANYWAY BECAUSE HE LOVES HIM

i truly dont know how im going to get passed this

my starker heart was going to explode “i lost the kid” and the hug and “tony...” and fucking hell

peter sorrounded for women. which isnt sad but i remembered now

doctor strange telling tony that it was the only way literally just fucks up everything

i didnt see doctor strange in the funeral ?? i might have been crying too hard to notice tho,, but if any of u did can u let me know. where my boy at

tony got closure with his dad as well and that simultaneously breaks my heart and leaves me a little calmer

loki had no respectful ending whatsoever and im mad

im happy for clint and scott but they did my man stark wrong

was that rando at tony’s funeral harley? i thought i was going to see much more tbh

they better not leave sam and black panther in nothing just cuz theyre black cuz everybody a racist nowadays. im watching marvel.

Conclusions:

I have a bunch of theories, which im not telling right now cuz i have to get them together.

you can all bET your fucking asses that im rewriting the end and im making it both starker and stucky

beyond being a heartless movie, it has been the best one yet. the time traveling thing was a little confusing but the effects, the whole steve meeting steve was super well done and it kept me on the edge of my sit the three fucking hours. this has definitely been the best movie marvel has ever done.

tony will forever remain in my heart, and my page is not going to acknowledge his death.

tony stark was one of the few happy things i had left from my childhood and now its gone. my heart aches tremendously. I will never comprehend whats the reasoning behind it because tony is the whole foundation of marvel, and without him, theyre nothing. i cant believe hes dead. i cant believe it and i just... that should not have been his ending. i love him, i loved him and i will always love him. Rest In Peace, my love.

“And I’m... Iron Man”

#starker #tony stark #peter parker #infinity war #marvel #mcu #Iron Man #marvel actors #Robert Downey Jr

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paperstorm · 5 years

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soooo your thoughts on endgame?

[spoilers ahead]

I have very conflicting thoughts as I’m sure you can imagine lol. 95% of it was utterly fantastic. Such a fun and exciting and intense end to the story they’ve been telling for 10 years. Most of it was SO good. Steve being able to summon the hammer was insane, my theatre screamed its head off when that happened. His perfectly growled “Avengers!!! …assemble” was just. That moment made my whole entire life. Still riding on that high. Obviously I’m so happy they got everyone back. The “On your left” from Sam UGH. MY HEART. I am SO happy he gave the shield to Sam. There’s been debate for a year over whether it would go to Sam or Bucky and I always hoped it would be Sam. Bucky deserves to rest. He is still healing from incredible trauma and trying to figure out where he fits in this world, he doesn’t need that pressure on his shoulders on top of everything else. Sam as Cap is utterly perfect.

So many funny moments, Scott Lang is a gift that we do not deserve, he absolutely killed me. Bruce too, omg he was so funny in this one, give Mark Ruffalo all the comedic roles from here on out he has FANTASTIC comedic timing. Natasha. Ugh. My heart will never be healed from that one. I didn’t see her death coming at all until they got to Vormir and I remembered the soul stone requires a sacrifice and my heart just sunk because of course she wouldn’t let it be Clint, not when he has kids to get back to that she loves like they’re her own. Her death was so intense and tragic (and is there grievance to be had for the fact that they killed the first female superhero so she could further the redemption arc of a male character who has always been a less important character than her?? Absolutely. That is a valid criticism and one that I fully agree with, but, some things we just have to make our peace with).

Tony. Didn’t see that one coming either, and although I’m so sad, it was perfect. Tony Stark started this story, it was so fitting that he ended it. The genre of super hero movies changed forever the minute he uttered “I am Iron Man” in the first movie, so it was beautiful writing that they had it be the words he repeated as he sacrificed himself to save the world. Absolutely heartbreaking and perfect.

I have issues with what they did with Thor, as I know lots of people do. He was hilarious, as he always is. And he was a hero at the end, as he also always is. Making a punch-line out of his trauma, was not the most enlightened place they could have gone to with his character. I have mixed feelings about it.

The Battle of New York thing honestly is one of the best scenes in the entire MCU in my opinion. It’s up there with the elevator scene and the bridge fight from Winter Soldier in terms of perfect execution. And so damn creative, the way they integrated this new plot into that old one. Whoever wrote that part gets endless props from me, that was SO clever. And I mean … Steve knocking his past self out, checking out his own ass, “That IS America’s ass”, fucking hysterical. Also give Chris all the comedic roles in the future. That and “I can do this all day!” “Yeahhh I know.” He delivered those lines so perfectly.

(this got longer than I expected is anyone still reading lmao)

So, Steve. Obviously no one will be shocked that the ending is among the 5% of the movie that I didn’t like. I’m not even going to bother going into heavy detail about exactly why, because we all know why. Other people have articulated it better than I could anyway. It was out of character. It was not a choice that the Steve Rogers from the other 6 movies would have made, to the point that imo it borders on being canon divergent. You would really have to throw the entire Cap trilogy in the garbage for his decision to make any sense whatsoever. The Steve Rogers we know would not have fought and fought and fought to get his family back, only to ditch them three days later to go live out a fantasy that he himself admitted (in Age of Ultron) that he didn’t really want anymore. He would not have chosen Bucky time and time again even when it meant giving up EVERYTHING else, just to leave him alone the second he finally got him back. Its not even about Stucky, from a purely platonic standpoint he wouldn’t have done that. It made no narrative or thematic sense. Chris Evans and Steve Rogers both deserved better than that ending. SO, I’ve honestly just head!canoned it out, lol. The Steve of the Cap trilogy and the Steve of the last three minutes of Endgame can’t both exist at the same time because they are in direct opposition to each other, so they don’t. In my mind, Endgame’s ending is not canon. And that probably makes no sense to anyone else but it makes sense to me, so that’s what I’m going with.

All in all I fucking loved it. The time travel stuff was not very well explained and there are a bunch of plot holes, and a bunch of places where they didn’t follow their own time travel rules lmao (sooo many of those have been pointed out and I just have to laugh. The Avengers movies are honestly more enjoyable if you don’t spend too much time thinking about them). It was still a fantastic, epic, gorgeous end to an incredible story and a magical decade, and I can pretty easily scrub away the ending and create my own better ending. I’m good with it.

As a last thought, Chris. Chris motherfucking Evans, guys. Can we just. I want to send him endless thank you cards and fruit baskets. This wonderful, beautiful man took on this HUGE, important, wildly intimidating role, knowing it would be hard and terrifying and so much pressure, having a lot of anxiety about it but having the courage to do it anyway. No other actor could have brought Steve to life quite like he did. No other actor could have embodied the spirit of Steve so perfectly. Steve Rogers is such an amazing, amazing character, originally created for such incredibly powerful reasons, and god we just owe Chris so much for giving us Steve in the way he did. I’m gonna be in my feelings about THAT for the rest of my dumb life. Steve Rogers in the way Chris portrayed him is absolutely worthy of wielding the Mjolnir. I hope he goes to sleep every night for the rest of his life super proud of himself, because he deserves it. The heavy lifting he got to do in Endgame was fully earned and deserved, and Steve’s scenes were definitely the best parts.

If RDJ is the face of the MCU, Chris Evans is the heart. He gave us the absolute most incredible portrayal of Steve Rogers we ever could have hoped for.

#anon asks #avengers endgame spoilers #andie rambles for like 27 minutes WHY do people ask my opinions on things don't you know i have no ability to shut the hell up

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rogersstevie · 3 years

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ya know i’ve always thought about peggy being fucked over by endgame as well as steve, but as of late, when i see people bring it up, it’s like.........it’s not the same at all

sure, endgame essentially reduces peggy to a trophy for steve, no agency, not even a single bit of dialogue. they reduce steve to being the man out of time and nothing else, despite the fact that the mcu was WELL past that narrative by iw, so it was clearly a regression that made zero narrative sense

but anyway like, unless you buy into the idea that “steve” going back to be with peggy has him living in the same timeline, which most people don’t as far as i can tell, she still had the same arc we saw in agent carter that showed her moving on and growing and actually falling in love with someone else, not just having a wartime crush, but that’s besides the point.

so assuming “steve” did in fact create a new timeline, that would just mean a different peggy had a different arc in another timeline, it doesn’t erase all the important things she lived through, so like?? she’s fine??

it doesn’t fuck over her narrative, it really solely fucks over steve’s. i don’t know how people think it makes ANY sense whatsoever for him to want to go back to the past, especially after a decade in the present, when he has so many more people he loves now than he did back then, he has a HOME with his teammates who he just got back.

y’all know at the very least if you believe steve’s been pining for peggy this whole time (which you know he wasn’t, he literally hooked up with her niece lmao), he could at least have waited to go back? he could’ve spent time with his friends after they’ve been GONE for five fucking years. he didn’t even interact with wanda or anyone else they brought back, barely with sam and bucky, his best friends, you know it makes no sense!

and look, people love to pull the “technically he did come back right away”, because old “steve” is sitting on that bench. but there was no guarantee that would work, he couldn’t have known he would be able to get back there, so it was absolutely a lie telling sam and bucky and bruce that he would come right back after returning the stones (i don’t care about the “bucky and steve had a conversation first” idea, that doesn’t mean shit because it didn’t happen on screen), like do you really think steve is that kind of person??

i hate the “you’re not a real fan if” thing, but idk how you can be a fan of steve and think so low of him that you think anything about endgame made sense for him, ESPECIALLY his ending

the entire three hours showed a version of steve we’ve never seen before, and not in a way that made sense after such huge losses, it’s not like grief changing him?? it just showed a steve who was selfish and unwilling to fight for what he cares about, two things steve rogers has never been

#anyway marvel didn't need any endings to begin with they didn't need to kill anyone off it's not like the mcu is OVER it's not even close #steve rogers #anti endgame #he deserves better i really will rage about it forever!

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 5 years

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Infinity Thoughts

So I have something of a tradition of reading comics that will in some way tie into upcoming Marvel live action films. To this end with Avengers: Endgame approaching I read through, among other things, the TPBs ‘Avengers vs. Thanos’. ‘Rebirth of Thanos’, ‘Infinity Gauntlet’ and ‘Infinity’ volumes 1-2.

For the most part I rather enjoyed them. My respect for Jim Stalin grew and I’d argue Infinity Gauntlet may well be Marvel’s finest ever crossover event story of all time...Then I got to Infinity.

Hooooooooo-boy.

This was a lame story.

To be crystal clear the trades I read through collected the main issues of the event plus the tie-in issues of Avengers and New Avengers. Since all were written by Jonathan Hickman the tie-ins are actually essential to the reading experience and I was never exactly lost reading the story. There was a brief but well done reference to the Guardians of the Galaxy tie in issues that weren’t collected but that was it.

You know how I said my respect for Stalin grew through reading this stuff? Ell my respect for Hickman sunk...even lower than it already was.

First off reading Infinity seems to have been a waste of time for my personal purposes. Whilst I do not know what Endgame has in store Infinity War took precious little from this story. It just borrowed 4/5 of Thanos’ inner circle of henchmen (Corvus Glaive, Prixima Midnight, Ebony Maw) and also the Outriders, those four limbed footsoldiers Thanos uses to invade Wakanda. Speakin of which the mere idea of Thanos invading Wakanda was also borrowed from this story but it plays out drastically differently.

That’s not really a problem with the story just a personal complaint I had.

On the flipside something I can’t really complain about but will point to as a problem is that to follow the main story of Infinity you HAD to pick up the tie-ins I mentioned. A well written event shouldn’t price gouge you like that. Noticeably Infinity Gauntlet didn’t. Reading all 6 issues was a satisfying experience unto itself, I never felt like I was missing anything.

But saying Stalin is a better cosmic writer than Hickman would be redundant.

Another problem I discovered after the fact with this story was how the first 15 pages of Infinity #1 are literally just reprints of New Avengers #6 and the Free Comic book day Infinity issue. So 15/54 pages were stuff you’d either read before or could read for free.

This isn’t even getting into the writing problems in general. First of all Hickman had this insufferable habit of within issues themselves having like chapter breaks in the for of entirely blank pages with a grey title and symbol at the top. So you know...nice that you are paying for nearly blank pages amidst your £4+ comic books.

Second of all Hickman has this habit of like throwing meaningless lore at you.

In Infinity #1 for example he throws at you the brief backstory of this planet you have never seen before nor will see again as though it means something, complete with flashbacks and exposition about this planet’s great champion who’s already dead courtesy of the guy delivering the narration. And when I say it’s meaningless lore I mean Hickman has the guy say “Whatever happened to your proud champion to won the Water Wars and untied the tribes by defeating the Great Beast of Pol?”

Like...who gives a shit no one knows where or what Pol is or what the Water Wars were. The best part is that this is all adding up to this planet giving Thanos’ henchmen a tribute of several dead people.

Basically it stretched out 11 pages with meaningless lore to communicate Thanos is bad, Thanos has bad henchmen, Thanos’ demands defeated planets pay him tribute in dead people. Seems like you could accomplish that in maybe 4 pages at a push, especially for a villain everyone knows about already.

What makes this all the more confusing is that Thanos isn’t even really the central plot or threat in the story. This is in spite of being on the covers, mentioned in the solicits, the story’s name referencing stories that explicitly involve him and the story frankly existing because of his post-credits scene in Avengers 2012.

The story’s central conceit I guess is that it’s a war on two fronts.

Captain America leads most of the Avengers into space to join the Kree, Shi’ar, Skrulls, Annihilus and other alien races in a war against the army of the Builders. Meanwhile the remaining heroes (including Iron Man and the Illuminati) have to contend with Thanos who has invaded Earth looking for the sole remaining Infinity Gem and the last of his children, the half-Inhuman Thane.*

Essentially in spite of the advertisement Thanos is really just one of two antagonists in this story. And frankly clearly the one Hickman is less interested in compared to the Builders, whom shockingly, just so happen to be his own creations.

What follows is essentially a cosmic war story all about military strategy and game theory and so on, with very smart people doing very smart things.

Now in fairness conceptually this isn’t a bad idea whatsoever.

So what if Thanos is just one of two antagonistic forces. So what if it’s a war story. Those are ideas that can be done great right?

Yep...except...they aren’t.

Let’s talk about Thanos first.

His central motivation to kill his half Inhuman son is contrived and whilst it COULD have worked it just doesn’t.

As the lead in issues to Infinity Gauntlet make clear with Nebula, who claimed to be Thanos’ granddaughter, Thanos finds the idea of reproducing an affront to his nihilistic beliefs.

Thnos of course is in love with Death. As in he sees Death as a woman he’d like to make out with. To this end he committed his life to mass slaughter to win her love.

Thus entirely logically his creator Jim Stalin established that Thanos would not seek to have any offspring because, duh, if your goal is to kill as many people as possible you aren’t going to create MORE life.

So on the most basic of levels, Thanos even having any children seems out of character.

But it could have worked because the story does establish Thanos has killed his other children too. So it is entirely possible to argue that Thanos, whilst no celibate, made a point of killing his off spring to balance the scales, possibly even seeing his kids as mistakes of his youth before he’d entirely committed himself to Death.

Except the story doesn’t say anything like that. Thanos simply states the idea of Thane existing keeps him awake at night. In other words one of the 2 central antagonists has at best vague motivations.

To make matters worse Thanos is defeated via a total dues ex machina. Basically Thane undergoes a mutation as a result of Black Bolt unleashing a Terrigen mist throughout Earth, this causes him to inadvertently and instantly murder everyone within a certain radius by waving his left hand. He can only control this with the help of a containment suit one of Thanos’ inner circle, Ebony Maw provides. Maw acts as a kind of evil mentor/advisor to Thane, think Wormtongue from the Two Towers but more powerful and sinister, but we’ll get to him in a minute.

Anyway Thane is captured by Maw and presented to Thanos and whilst Thanos and his last surviving inner circle (they’re called the Black Order btw) Proxima Midnight are beating the shit out of the Avengers. Maw then says some shit about wanting to see if Thane has evolved and how he’s the only one who can beat Thanos. So Thane waves his right hand and encases Thanos and Proxima in a great big amber cube.

Oh and this comes out of exactly nowhere!

That’s the resolution to the final issue by the way. THAT is how this 2 volume event friggin ends. Pathetic.

More pathetic even than the already pretty pathetic motives and characterization given over to Ebony Maw and the entirety of the Black Order.

Look, the idea of Thanos having an elite entourage as opposed to just hordes of gneric nameless thralls** is a good one.

The idea of them worshipping him and/or Death is fine.

But beyond their looks we get little characterization from any of them. Glaive and Midnight are offhandily established as married. Black Dwarf is just a big dumb warrior thug. We get a mini-monologue about Supergiant’s childhood and why she follows Thanos in the pages just prior to hear death towards the end of the story. And Ebony Maw...nothing. We have no reason for why he acts against his master or what the fuck his agenda is.

What little we know of the Black Order comes from I kid you not a mini Marvel Handbook segment randomly inserted into the story that gives you like a short paragraph on each member and their abilities.

So you know...literally telling us instead of showing us who these people are and to boot it’s not even actually part of the story.

Then the story has the audacity to say that Thane, Hickman’s new underdeveloped character has and will become even worse than his Dad. His Dad who I will remind you literally caused universal genocide when he snapped his fingers and killed half the universe’s population...and THEN murdered all the cosmic beings. Oh but Thane is worse because he...can trap people in amber...?????

There is also precious little characterization or development lent to Thanos in the entire story, whereas the events its trading off of (Infinity Gauntlet, etc) absolutely did. Here Thanos is the big bad villain and little else. He isn’t even the biggest threat nor does he comprise the majority of the panel time.

That distinction goes to the Builders.

Oh lord...the builders. Who also count among their ranks the Gardners known as the Ex Nihili, the Alephs robot soldiers and exist in the superflow of the multiverse having created the Starbrand and other cosmic tools to shape the evolution of species across the universe.

Did any of that sound bland, boring, meaningless and simply pretentious mastabatory science fiction talk?

Well that’s only because it is.

Marvel has a robust cosmic lore to them. The first generation of that was really installed by Lee and Steve Ditko in Doctor Strange and to a much greater extent Lee and Jack Kirby in Thor, Fantastic Four, Avengers and other titles. That’s where we of course get guys like Galactus.

The second generation I’d argue was Jim Stalin who set up Thanos, Drax the Destroyer Adam Warlock, the Infinity Gems and also Chris Claremont along with his collaborators who birthed the Phoenix Force and the Shi’ar and so on.

The third generation was Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Keith Giffen. These guys added a few things to Marvel Cosmic but really their forte was more adopting stuff already in the Marvel universe and expanding it or using it in interesting ways. The best examples of this being their Magnum Opus, Annihilation which made Annihilus a Big Bad for the Marvel Universe, and ESTABLISHING the Guardians of the Galaxy that the movies took inspiration from. Whilst they didn’t necessarily create any of the Guardians they were the guys who essentially made them the space Avengers.

Hickman is essentially the headliner for the fourth generation and by far and away the most creative.

And by creative I mean he is very good at dreaming up ideas. He’s a classic ‘Big Concepts’ science fiction writer.

Where he falls down is in executing said concepts.

Whilst the past generation of Marvel Cosmic creators vacillated between going for something sweepingly epic or else fun and bombastic or something in between, Hickman’s work is devoid of the fun bombast of a Silver dude riding a surfboard in space but is also if anything trying way too hard to be ‘Epic Cosmic’ than anything the older creators did. And they at least were doing it at a different time when standards for comics were different.

Let’s take the Galactus Trilogy and Infinity Gauntlet as an example. In the 1960s presenting us a science fiction comic book antagonist who was an allegory for God was really impressive and him engaging in a debate with the Watcher about the nature of humanity was deep stuff.***

Similarly the Infinity Gauntlet was concerned with the burden of Godhood and acted as something of a bizarre love story between Thanos and death, the ultimate character study of the Mad Titan.

Hickman in Infinity though mostly just throws Big Science Fiction Concepts (tm) at you and expects you to be impressed by their mere existence, as though ‘the Avengers fight a big space war’ is something to be impressed by in 2013 when we’ve had how many stories like that?

Worse his Big Concepts aren’t just expected to be impressive via their mere existence but are also just...rather dull. There is little personality to the boringly named Builders and only slightly more in the pretentiously named Ex Nihili (Hickman loves throwing around very impressive big nonsense words for his science fiction crap, God forbid they be something simple and/or silly but memorable like ‘Galactus’, ‘the Infinity Gauntlet’, ‘Annihilus’, etc). The Gardners/Ex Nihili kind of look interesting but the Builders themselves are just the most boringly designed aliens ever.

When you see the Watchers or the Celestials you BUY that they are the oldest race in the universe, you buy they are cosmic beings on a higher plane than mere mortals. The Builders are just grey vaguely buggish dudes. Their footsoldiers the Alephs are worse. They’re generic Terminator rip off robots.

The art throughout the story looks pretty but it’s design sense is lame at best and it has the eternal problem of so many 2000s/early 2010s comics that the art looks beautiful panel to panel but is also stiff and looks like a series of very pretty portraits that lack life or the illusion of movement. Comic book art shouldn’t be a series if paintings next to one another conveying the highlights of a scene but an organic flow from one panel to the next creating the illusion of movement. Want to see this done well in a big event story? Check out Mike Zeck on Secret Wars or Perez/Lim on Infinity Gauntlet. Or hell anything Ron Frenz draws.

Okay, they look boring, they sound boring, their concepts aren’t used that effectively BUT...surely the Builders storyline has merit? Surely this cosmic war story is at least a good war story.

Well...yes and no.

The military strategy used in the story is pretty realistic and well thought out, speaking as someone who isn’t familiar with military strategy history or stories rooted in that stuff.

If nothing else the core concept of Thanos attacking Earth whilst the Avengers are off fighting on another front and the X-Men are divided (because of Schism) is basic and interesting use of strategy.

And the space warfare for the most part seemed reminiscent of Star Trek, speaking as someone who’s got novice knowledge at best of that franchise.

Here is the problem though...it’s also painfully dull for anyone who isn’t hyper into that stuff.

Which would be fine...if the story was solely contained within the main Infinity book.

I’ve long defended Secret Wars 1984 on the grounds that as it’s own mini-series it wasn’t obliged to follow thematic conventions or writing conventions of the solo or team titles, it could be it’s own sandbox. So if it wanted to be a light war story/series of fun action set pieces, fine.

So if Infinity wanted to be an Avengers space military strategy comic book for 6 issues okay fine. Except it wasn’t, it roped in Avengers and New Avengers into it too.

And at that point the tie-ins at the very least needed to have something more. You know like...personality.

The single biggest problem with pretty much any Hickman story I’ve read is that far too often the characters talk stiffly and unrealistically, with a coldness to them, a functionality. There is precious little personality or emotion to them. Even when the art is showing us emotion you simply see it as opposed to actually connecting with it.

There are only the briefest of smatterings of truly emotional or personable moments in the entire story and as a consequence they kind of stick out like a sore thumb. Smasher and Cannonball hooking up (out of nowhere in the story like there was no inclination they had the hots for one another earlier) and Sunspot quipping about it is the most human moment in the entire story closely followed by Manifold expressing exhaustion over constantly fighting.

The closest thing to a charismatic character in the entire story is friggin Maximus the Mad!

How do you do that in a story with Captain America, Captain Marvel, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Reed Richards, Namor and friggin Thanos!!!!

All this and the story exists for anything but a genuine creative drive. It exists because

a) Marvel needed to make bank off of Thanos’ cameo in Avengers 2012

b) Marvel needed to remind people Thanos exists after his cameo

c) Marvel needed to workshop some possible concepts for the then inevitable Thanos movie on the horizon

d) Marvel needed to amp up the Inhumans via their stupid cloud unleashed in this story so they could begin their dastardly master plan to supplant the X-Men with them

Ugh. I recommend you simply skip this story wholesale.

*The other 5 Infinity Gems were destroyed

**By the way in Stalin’s stories Thanos’ armies comprised of a diverse group of alien baddies. Here...there are different kinds of aliens but they seem to be a few species who all look the same. Hardly what Stalin and other artists rendered, which gave you an idea of the scope of Thanos’ travels.

If we’re going to be paying more money for comics nowdays could they maybe put in at minimum the same effort as cheaper comics from 40 years ago!

***The Watchers and Celestials by the way, Jack Kirby creations, get supplanted by Hickman as the oldest and most powerful race in the universe for the sake of his boringly named ‘Builders’

#Thanos #Infinity #Marvel Infinity #Avengers #The Avengers #Jonathan Hickman #jim stalin #Jack Kirby #black order

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storychecker-blog · 5 years

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The Fatal Flaws of Avengers: Endgame

No doubt, Endgame will be a financial success for Disney, and people are quick to sing praises to the (latest) swan song of the MCU. Is it an emotional good-bye? Sure. But it is also a movie that severely influences the reading of the MCU in its entirety. This essay focuses on two major narrative flaws introduced by Avengers: Endgame, and on how they undo important character development from the previous phases.

Here be spoilers.

1. Crushing Tony Stark’s Character Arc

The biggest issue I have with Endgame is Tony Stark’s death. There was always a good chance that Stark would die, especially since Downey’s contract was up, the Iron Man trilogy was finished some time ago, and his character arc was nearly complete. This particular death, though, just screams “economically driven” rather than natural conclusion.

Tony Stark started out as an egocentric billionaire who lived day to day, because he had no motivation and no vision. His pastimes were without a clear goal, without focus. As Yinsen puts it, the original Tony Stark is “a man who has everything and nothing.” As a billionaire, he has the money to finance every imaginable project: Yet, he is stumbling through life, drunk aimless, and ultimately, too scared to face the past or the future. This is a man without plans for the future.

Then, Afghanistan happens. The close encounter with death and the realization that he wants to live triggers his development arc: He yearns to find “loved ones” and to not waste his second chance, knowing that he has cheated death. This drives his relationship with Pepper, and later on, Peter Parker and his daughter. The secondary goal is to atone for his past negligence that hurt so many people: Now that Tony appreciates life, he internally struggles with the realisation that his careless behaviour had lasting, sometimes fatal consequences for others. This secondary struggle is about identity. Tony has to come to terms with his own past. Iron Man allows him to save the people in Gulmira, and it allows him to save the world from future threats. The suit does not allow him to go back to undo his mistakes. He also cannot find penance, because dead people cannot “forgive” anybody, even if they would. Therefore, Tony has to forgive himself, otherwise he cannot learn to let go of the nagging guilt that forces him into the armor again and again. Iron Man is a curse to him, because this superhero identity was born out of the desire to make up for his past actions. The culmination of his story, therefore, would be to retire for good, preferably to become a family man.

Now, Endgame does offer this as a solution for Tony Stark. However, he willingly decides to go back into battle, risk his future for the past, and subsequently dies. This destroys his character development, because it is exactly what happened in Civil War. As Tony pointed out to Steve, he had promised to give up the suit, to retire, but then another fight happened, and then another one, and he just didn’t settle down. Tony Stark, and that is what Endgame is saying, failed those that he loved. He leaves Pepper to fend for herself, breaking the one promise that she sought from him. Pepper did not want to have a child, unless he truly stayed and concentrated on the future rather than the past. He also failed his daughter, because he is an absentee father who merely leaves a message. Ultimately, he does not break away from his own father’s path: Howard also was absent from his son’s life by choice, and he left him a message, too little, too late.

Is it selfish to choose individuals over half of the universe? Yes. But it was not his duty to do so. It is a bleak picture indeed, to see him haunted by his past without redemption, forced to die to break the curse that being a hero was for him. Overall, it begs the question: Wasn’t Tony Stark happier without his conscience? If so, it was cruel to offer him a second chance, seeing as that he was cursed to have a bad ending without happiness, even if he ticked all the right boxes and made an effort to be better.

As it stands, his second chance was pointless. He had no choice to not waste his life, because his life was not his own. He was destined to die anyway.

Going back to save half the universe, that was a heroic thing to do. Him dying for that half of the universe, that is a good end for Endgame. But turning his back on those that he had a responsibility for, Pepper and Morgan, that just makes him into somebody who is still too afraid to face the future. He ran away from his family duties. And that is a terrible, a stunted ending for his character development.

2. Steve Rogers’ is a Greedy and Selfish Man

Steve Rogers’ Happy End is an incredibly selfish and disturbing development. First, it goes against everything that his trilogy was about. Steve had to come to terms with loss, he had to adapt to the “future” and to find purpose in said future. The reunion with his friend Bucky Barnes is the turning point of this character development, because they are both men out of their time, perpetually changed, and forced to face a new life. Essentially, following their reunion, there were two paths available, from a narrative point of view. The bad development has him become stuck in memories, in the past, with Bucky as a perpetual reminder of not belonging into the future. He would break and not cope with his grief. The good development would have him find closure now that he was able to speak to Bucky, the only person able to share his pain. He becomes the master of his grief.

Sending him back is a cheap way to deal with Steve Rogers. It does not resolve his arc, because we were denied the answer whether somebody can find happiness after such a dramatic loss or not. The movie evades the answer by throwing him into the past. It renders all previous installments pointless. Why have him adapt to the future anyway? It’s not a skill he really needed. It just goes down the drain: We are not shown that he struggled to adapt the past, either. And, most importantly, his relationship with Peggy Carter is incredibly selfish. She “had a good life”, according to herself, and she had found love in Daniel Sousa. Maybe it was not her first choice, but she was content. Steve decides to rob her of the decision what kind of future she prefers. He robs Daniel Sousa of his love, of his family. With which right? It makes Peggy into a prize to be won rather than a woman who made a life for herself.Did she deserve the pain of losing Steve Rogers in the first place? Certainly not. But she deserves to not have her fate be toyed with in such a way. He knows that Peggy was happy. The decision to approach her, to meddle with her future to satisfy his own emotional needs is incredibly selfish. The Cap I know would have pined from the sidelines.

And yes, some may claim that the time loop means Cap was the original husband. Well, he was not. I highly doubt Sharon would have made out with him if she knew they were related. Besides, Peggy’s speech about how “her only regret is that he didn’t get to live his life”, makes no sense whatsoever. Just like her comment on how “the world has changed and none of us can go back.” Peggy is telling him to live in the future, to let go of the past. I am sorry, but Civil War did not set up Steve as Peggy’s husband. This was retconned, and it takes away any sort of agency from Peggy. Worst of all, it is Steve who claims her like some sort of prize.

3. Conclusion

The infuriating, the frustrating thing is that there were easy solutions to resolve the narrative flaws. Assuming they wanted Steve to be an aged-up Cap and Tony dead, then just have Steve watch from the sidelines, and have Tony take the gauntlet from Pepper, thus “protecting the future” rather than the past. The current end, for both of the heavy hitters, is just disturbing and stupid and it takes away so much joy and character development from the MCU.

I am so done with the MCU right now. And both ends are not fixable. They screwed it up, like literally any of the big cinematic franchises that go down the time travel road. Yeah, Endgame may be a good movie, but as an installment to the MCU, it is sore disappointment. It just works against everything that has been established, and it tears it down. For what? For nothing, because both characters will not have another chance to get a satisfying conclusion to their character development.

#avengers endgame #avengers spoilers #tony stark #Steve Rogers #mcu #meta

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