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broadwaybandito · 3 years

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I wanna take a moment to appreciate Thor’s character development because it’s so good and I feel like it’s overlooked.

He starts out, in “Thor,” as an arrogant prince. Thirsting for war and power- much like Odin did before changing his ways and casting out Hela. He is reckless and stupid, getting he and his friends into trouble. Odin has enough of this and exiles him to earth. This is, of course, where his development takes place. He is humbled in his time on earth, learning to accept himself without the powers of Mjolnir, and taking time to appreciate the smaller things that life has to offer. Fulfillment isn’t granted by how many riches one owns or realms they conquer- it’s granted through love for those around you. By the end of this journey he has changed, and he is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of people that aren’t even his subjects. Once he gets back to Asgard he fights Loki not because he craves battle, but because it’s the only way to protect everyone. Thor learns to protect people that aren’t his responsibility- Jotunnheim, earthlings- and in doing so risks his own life. He sacrifices his life to protect the people of earth, and destroys the bifrost to keep the frost giants from going extinct. The Frost giants are the very people that Thor had sought to destroy at the beginning of the movie. Over the course of it, Thor became worthy. Who once was arrogant and reckless becomes became humble and selfless.

This change prepares Thor for his next big journey in “The Avengers” which brings him to save earth from Loki once again- only this time the whole planet instead of a small town. By this time Thor has already changed a lot- as I just covered. His next character improvement? Teamwork. Though Thor’s obviously fought alongside friends before- the Avengers are different. Frankly, they’re a mess. Just a bunch of broken people with powers strong enough to save the world. Thor’s completely different from all of them- he’s from a whole other planet. Now he has to join them to fight his own brother. Not to mention the fact that he has to cope with the fact that he had believed Loki to be dead, only for him to come back hellbent on taking over a planet that Thor had grown to love. Yet Thor adapts and perseveres like he always does. He befriends this chaotic group of heroes- and though it takes a while, it pays off. The all work together beautifully by the end of the movie, and have formed an alliance that will be very important to Thor’s story going further.

In “Thor: The Dark World” Thor goes through a lot of character development. Truthfully, I overlook this fact a lot, considering that out of the Thor movies it’s probably the one that I watch the least, and the one I think of last when thinking about character development. However, it is crucial to setting the stage for both “Avengers: Age of Ultron” and “Thor: Ragnarok.” In this movie Thor has to learn that sometimes the right thing to do is to disobey orders. He goes rogue a bit- even resorting to getting Loki out of prison. Yet it manages to work out in the end. Thor suffers from the guilt of not being there in time to save his mother, Frigga, from the dark elves. This guilt drives him to realize that he can’t let anyone else die like Frigga did- pushing him to take risks and disobey Odin in order to stop the dark elves. Frigga’s death is also what leads to Thor and Loki working to mend their relationship. It’s because Thor needs Loki’s help that he gets him out of jail. Yes, Loki fakes his death again. Yes, they argue a lot. But at the end of the day they’re brothers. Brothers who have just lost their mother. And this brings them back together, working to restore their bond. Trusting Loki is a huge risk for Thor. He’s sacrificing everything to go after the dark elves. He’s putting the protection of Asgard over his own needs- and he learns to bend the rules to do what’s right. Odin may have forbidden Thor from going after the dark elves, but Thor disobeys his father and commits treason to save Asgard. And it works- the dark elves are stop. Thor’s actions, disobeying Odin, freeing Loki- no matter how risky, they paid off. By the end of this movie, Thor has totally let go of his ambition for the throne. He’s offered it, but refuses. His adventures thus far have taught him that he doesn’t need the throne- only to protect those that need help. That’s his purpose. This brings us to “Age of Ultron.”

“Age of Ultron” is a an important change of direction for Thor. Wanda’s hallucinations play a key role in his story going further. We see that he fears Asgard’s destruction- and that he may be responsible for it. He decides to investigate further. He discovers the infinity stones, and thus tasks himself with finding them. This is big for Thor because moving forward, he will be spending the next two years looking for the stones. This search for the infinity stones brings Thor to his greatest time character development thus far.

”Thor: Ragnarok” is a huge turning point for Thor. After a two year search for the infinity stones, Thor learns that Asgard’s destruction may be imminent after all, despite all of his preparation. It doesn’t help that his brother had faked his death yet again, his father dies, he has an evil sister that’s just been unleashed, Mjolnir is destroyed, and he’s flung to another planet where he’s made a prisoner. Meanwhile, most of his people on Asgard are being slaughtered. This leaves Thor with a feeling of hopelessness. He feels utterly powerless- especially without the powers of Mjolnir. However, throughout this movie, Thor discovers that he doesn’t need Mjolnir to harness his powers. It was simply a tool to assist him. He is strong enough without it. He learns to better understand and wield his powers. He also learns to embrace his responsibility as king of Asgard- not because he craves the throne, but because his people need him. Finally, he learns to face the destruction of Asgard itself, something he’d been trying so hard to stop, for the sake of protecting his people. This is something incredibly difficult for him to face- something he surely blames himself for- yet he does what he has to do to protect his people.

“Avengers: Infinity War” is unfortunately much more of a downwards spiral for our hero. It starts off with Thanos wrecking Thor’s ship and leaving most of the Asgardians to die in space- as well as killing his best friend, Heimdall, and his brother, Loki. Thor makes it his mission to get Stormbreaker, a deadly weapon, so that he can avenge his people and prevent anyone else from dying. He has to- he has nothing left. However, despite all of his efforts, Thanos still wins- and Thor feels like it’s all his fault.

This guilt brings Thor to his low point in “Endgame.” He struggles with the belief that the failure in “Infinity War” is his fault, all because he didn’t “go for the head.” His entire family is dead, and so are most of his subjects considering Thanos murdered many of them, including Loki and Heimdall, even before half of the universe got wiped out. This leaves Thor in a state of self-hatred, depression, and PTSD. Not a good mental state for someone being tasked with once again saving the universe. However, as he always does, he steps up to the plate and gets the job done for the sake of his people. If he can’t bring back the ones that never made it to earth in the first place, he can at least save the people that died in the snap. And after a talk with his deceased mother(through the power of time travel) Thor is motivated to pull himself together, get the reality stone, and face Thanos. And he does. He makes it out from the rockiest place he’s ever been and plays a critical role in helping saving the universe. He’s a mess and he feels like a failure, but he still manages to push through all of his pain and suffering to protect other people- because his whole life his priorities lay with putting other people first. His guilt has dragged him down- the knowledge that he’s still alive when so many people that he had dedicated his life to protecting are dead burdens him. Yet at the end of the day, he always rises up again. Why? Because that’s what heroes do.

#marvel #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #thor god of thunder #thor #thor odinson #thor ragnarok #thor the dark world #the avengers #avengers age of ultron #avengers endgame #avengers infinity war #character analysis #writing

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irithyll123 · 5 years

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So i watched Endgame and I'm not okay

I need to get this off my chest cause its literally making me stay up at night. Here's my spoiler-ridden post-movie thoughts:

CONS:

The death of Tony Stark was honestly expected. Although I thought it could have been done a lot more tastefully.

They gave him a family, a child, and then took it away. I just...... that's just cruel after everything the character has suffered.

They choose a rather convoluted form of time-travelling mechanic. It's definitely a breath of fresh air, yet its very difficult to follow at times.

Thor's downward spiral into depression is over-the-top too. Just leaving at the alcohol and pot belly was more than enough.

Seriously, Fortnite? Really?

Bruce and Hulk's union was a missed opportunity for story telling. I get why they did it. But it took a lot out of the character's development.

Steve's decision in the end doesn't sit right with me. Both Peggy and Steve were who they eventually are because of the things they experienced while apart. Choosing to spend his time with Peggy meant taking those away from both their characters.

This also opens up a can of worms about the events in the intervening years. What about Hydra? Peggy's time in SHIELD? Did Bucky kill Tony parents?

That's the thing about time travel. Timelines are convoluted things as it is. Steve's decision makes this story's timeline mechanics even more so.

It is abundantly clear that Tom Holland did not have a full script with his scenes with RDJ. The spoiler concern is reasonable, yet i feel like it seriously caused Tom's performance to suffer. Those scenes had so much potential.

Captain Marvel had little screen time. While i understand that they dont want her overshadowing the OG team, her appearances don't have much impact to the plot. She's literally only here to blow shit up.

All that built up on her friendship with Fury, and it was barely addressed in the film.

They brought back the Black Order only for them to be useless. They were actually plot relevant threats in IW. Here, they are little more than fodder and extra pixels. I would have loved to see a rematch between Proxima and Okoye or Wanda; or Dr. Strange with Ebony.

The shot with all the Ladies (tm) were just a bit too on the nose I think. If they wanted to go for that direction at least devote some time for individual ass-kicking scenes for them. Mantis and Hope barely got to do anything!

PROS:

The special effects were amazing as usual. Its a step up from Infinity War.

Some incredible performances from the cast. Karen Gillan, RDJ, Jeremy Renner, and Paul Rudd are some of my favourites.

Cap with Mjolnir. Hell to the Y E A H. The fandom called it years ago and it was so incredibly satisfying to know we WERE RIGHT.

Thor dual wielding.

Thor's little moments with Frigga were great. He never did get closure with her death I think.

Hawkeye finally have some great moments!!!

Wanda.

"You took everything from me."

"I don't even know you."

"You will."

They did great work with her glowy eyes. Her hatred and pain and sorrow. Everything was so palpable. And she's not pulling any punches. STRONGEST AVENGER HENLO.

No kidding I'm gay as heck but seeing Elizabeth Olsen powered up like that did Things to me.

"It was either him or a tree."

ROASTED AND TOASTED QUILL BIG OOF

At the end there where Wanda and Clint talk. That was great. The both lost people outside of the snap and are forever gone. Clint has always supported Wanda. It's sweet that Wanda can try to help Clint this time and hold them both up.

SAM INHERITED THE SHIELD YAS

A part of me wanted Bucky to do so but i think this is better. Bucky had enough happened to him and he should get to be himself for a bit instead of shouldering a new identity.

#spoilers #spoiler #avengers spoilers #endgame spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #i did 5 separate tags for spoilers and if that did not work for you than the fault is not mine #marvel #mcu #avengers 4 #avengers endgame #avengers infinity war #avengers #endgame

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fathercharlesoffdensen · 5 years

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In Defense of Fat Thor

I not only enjoyed Thor’s portrayal in Endgame, but found it to be a productive and well-developed(/acted, DAMN, Chris Hemsworth) characterization that has been steadily building up across each consecutive movie. Caveat: I do not fault anyone for being skeptical that the directors, etc. had it in them, considering the clunky nature of some of their previous creations, to say nothing of some of their interviews, etc. I am also not 100% surprised to see people maligning Fat Thor, and/or saying they don’t understand his trajectory and/or that they felt some of the humor at his expense took away from the legitimacy of having a fat, depressed, anxious character able to accomplish the same feats as when he had more physical prowess, etc. I disagree with this as well, in part because Fat Thor feels very personal to me, though not exclusively, and at the very least would like to propose a reading of many of the scenes in Endgame that offers a considerably more well-intentioned and good faith portrayal of Thor, with my own caveat that at least the anti-Ragnarok people using Fat Thor to further their agenda that Thor’s characterization sucks because Chris Hemsworth and Taika Waititi spent each day on set shaking Tom Hiddleston down for his lunch money and laughing at their own fart jokes are still wrong, which balances out everything else, because balance is still important, even if Thanos’ fuckboy interpretation of it is ridiculous. Anywho, apologies in advance for how messy this ends up being, I feel like my thoughts are very roundabout right now, but getting it out of my system will really help.

Thor has been ~emotionally fat~ for a while now, folks. As far back as Thor (2011), we see him disassociating, aka spending at least a few moments staring off into space in the midst of dealing with sudden upheaval, often because his angry outbursts have failed to be satisfying or get him what he wants/needs. One of the things that made me so excited to see a physical fallout to this in the MCU is that it actually ties into a bunch of other canons, too, including a recent spell in the comics leading up to the War of the Realms, wherein Odin sort of admits to his own role in breaking Thor, as far back as being “too drunk” to be there for his birth, as well as his being dubbed the God of Thunder because baby Thor used to wail whenever there was a storm, and Odin used to make fun of him for it because you don’t get a #4 Best All-Father coffee cup from your kids for nothing. @thishereanakinguy and I are even reworking parts of our Thorki paper for publication to put forth even more evidence that the pressure on Thor to be the Golden Child was too much, and that he’s been unraveling for a long time.

Again, none of these reactions to turmoil are new for Thor, though it’s fascinating that the conversation between Frigga and Thor in Endgame is largely focused on her assuring her son that it’s okay for him to fail, and/or for him to delegate tasks (there’s a recent comic that’s gone viral where Mister Rogers visits with Thor, and it has a similar bent), or realize that he has to shift his perspective on Who He Is. In part, it’s lowkey hilarious that Frigga, aka “send Loki some soup and some library books he’ll enjoy after our big fight because I still love that little asshole, never mind that he’ll probably receive them after she has been killed omfg,” is so blatantly ignoring Odin’s decrees to basically withhold basic affection from their children so that they’ll toughen up on their own, because fuck that noise. At the same time, Frigga imparts words that Thor (and Loki) should have heard and taken to heart a long time ago, and it’s painful to realize that Thor has felt as though he hasn’t been allowed to express his feelings, but so God damned great that that’s what Frigga hones in on. Notably, Thor isn’t trying to botch his trip to 2013 Asgard, either; he has a panic attack when he and Rocket arrive, and Frigga sneaks up on him because Frigga knows her babies no matter how much they are made of pizza or in Loki’s case magical artifacts. (Sarah read something saying that in households where the Golden Child and Black Sheep co-exist, statistically it’s common for the Golden Child to turn to alcohol and food, whereas the Black Sheep is more likely to turn to drugs/more illicit substances wherein they opt not to feel their feelings as much, and I was really floored by that because that really fits a couple of different scenarios that I’m familiar with for one reason or another.)

SO ANYWAY, we see Thor disassociating in previous movies. In TDW, even Odin comments on Thor’s confused heart, which Thor assures him has nothing to do with Jane Foster, even though it would be very easy for him to pretend he’s not actively thinking about Loki a thousand times a day and spending so much time stalking Heimdall and the broken Bifrost remnants that dude is like holy fuck please talk to your kid or I am going to commit treason again so hard. Thor reaches out to Odin for guidance/arguably comfort once Frigga dies, and his inability to provide either sends Thor immediately to Loki, who at the very least can help him properly realize the revenge he seeks, while also saving Jane. In Ragnarok, we get that great moment where Loki is talking directly to Thor, and Thor simply stares straight ahead; Loki doesn’t seem all that surprised by it either - he and Thor have different triggers and whatnot, but he knows the emo fuck who ends up at his cell in a fucking black poncho and handcuffs isn’t a new creation by any means, and he is into it fwiw. Even stuff like Korg admitting at the end of Ragnarok he carried around Miek’s presumably dead body because he felt so bad that he was dead warrants a little nod of understanding from Thor. Likewise, we see Thor stress-eating a bowl of bread at the beginning of Endgame, before the focus on his weight became a thing. Thor doesn’t run outside to see Tony Stark come home; whenever possible, he’s barely there, even before his five-year hiatus.

The use of well-placed humor in a three-hour sob fest does not seem all that weird to me. Shakespeare does it in all of his tragedies; and to continue this egregious metaphor, a lot of his comedies contain tragic bits, aka loss of family identity, which is arguably something that underpins how good Ragnarok is, as well. Being able to laugh at stuff has always been very important for me personally, though I realize it’s not for everyone. Still, I think there’s an additional caveat with Endgame regarding who the ‘fat jokes’ are coming from, aka arguably all of the Avengers have their own significant traumas to work through even before The Snap, and are also just trying to survive, even if they seem to fare physically better than Thor at this particular point in time. So Tony Stark calls him “Lebowski”; but as soon as the musical cues and Hemsworth’s amazing acting switches over into Thor being triggered by thoughts of all that he’s lost only minutes later, we see Tony, who canonically has major issues with being touched, putting his hand on Thor’s shoulder and allowing himself to be grabbed and held because he knows that is what Thor needs from him. Bruce, too, has to set a boundary for his own personal safety about being grabbed, but still gives in to Thor’s need for physical touch. One of the tragic touchstones of Ragnarok is that Thor doesn’t touch Loki once, even though in the first two Thor films and Avengers 1, he is constantly pawing at him. Thor wants to make a point in Ragnarok that he has decided he must let Loki go if that’s what Loki truly wants, and so he withholds his own instinct for physical contact - which Loki gives back to him, however briefly, in Infinity War by knocking Thor out of the way of Thanos and the Tesseract, to say nothing of how all Thor can do when he arrives at Loki’s corpse is to mewl and cling and bury his head and wait for everything to explode, himself included.

In any case, the other 'fat jokes’ come from Rocket, well established as being caustic in the face of personal tragedy, and having been put in the position even back in Infinity War of sort of making sure Thor keeps going, and Rhodey, who is probably just trying to deal with all these new people hanging around, and the fact that all of the structure in his life pretty much has been upended in a really short amount of time. Regarding Frigga’s “eat a salad” remark, as his mom, she seems to understand how much his physicality comes into play for him, and how devastating it is for him to see how others react to him seeming both physically and emotionally diminished. This is why it’s so powerful for him to still be 'worthy’ of Mjolnir, I think, and why that moment book-ended Frigga’s admonishment. Likewise, we don’t get a suspiciously fast glow-up wherein Thor’s all muscley again. He has to hold his own against Thanos in his current form, and he fucking does. Sometimes, life happens, and you have to respond to it as you are because you don’t have the time or energy to get everything in order first, and so you do the best you can. IMO, Thor did a pretty fucking good job.

I also find it completely understandable that Thor went off with the Guardians at the end of the film. (P.S.: Peter Quill is still absolutely intimidated by Fat Thor.) For one thing, I don’t think he’s going to stop trying to find a way to bring Loki back, regardless of what Clint said about the Soul Stone’s magic not being able to be reversed. For another, Valkyrie deserves her own glow-up into becoming Queen of New Asgard, as much as Sam deserves to be the new Cap. I’m of the mindset that Steve likely wouldn’t have gone back in time to be with Peggy if Tony had lived, and that doing so was him honoring Tony’s legacy by taking the advice that he gives several times in the film to go and live life while you have it. Likewise, as sad as it is for Tony to have died, I’m not sure he would have been able to rest, post-Thanos. You also can’t tell me for a second he hasn’t left all sorts of little messages and trinkets and whatnot around for his loved ones to find, cough AI Tony in Peter’s next suit or something cough.

Overall, I thought Endgame was a good send-off. It was well-acted, well-scripted, beautifully scored (Thor’s Pink Panther-esque theme when he’s trying to explain the Aether is amazeballs, as well as the theme that plays when everybody gets to the battlefield), and really just surprisingly, suspiciously good. I am glad that if we have to see this leg of the MCU end that it did so in such a way as to leave character arcs open to further interpretation, and I’m legitimately excited for a lot of them. While I don’t think everybody is required to be fake-positive all of the time, I do think that in fandom spaces, if one’s sole focus is how disappointing something is all the time, it’s not a productive or soul-enhancing use of one’s energy, and it makes me sad to see it. Nuance is important; the MCU has more of it than it’s given credit for having, and I hope more people realize that as it continues into Phase 4, or at the very least, that they find something they enjoy and keep coming along for the ride.

#avengers endgame spoilers #endgame spoilers #fat thor #meta #she wants the d(iscourse)

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imagine-loki · 5 years

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The Witch’s Familiar

TITLE: The Witch’s Familiar CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: Chapter 50/? AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine getting so attached to Lokitty early on that you insist on carrying him just about everywhere. RATING: T (so far) NOTES/WARNINGS: Also on AO3 Click here

You woke early the next morning and broke your fast in the tavern attached to the inn. You’d spent the night curled in Loki’s arms. You were beyond grateful that he was on this quest with you and you didn’t have to face it alone. Especially without a familiar.

You felt Sera’s loss in your soul. You tried to ignore the hole she’d left, but it was hard. Hard wasn’t a strong enough word. There were no words for the devastation of losing part of your soul. It was beyond losing a loved one, beyond losing your mother, beyond anything someone who had never had a familiar could understand. You had lost a part of yourself.

The wound was wide open and gaping, dripping emotions.

You were only coping as well as you were because you had things you had to do. You had things to focus on, like getting the stupid mark and compulsion spells off your hand. You had to focus on the world and your tasks until then.

After that?

You had a sinking suspicions that once the emergencies were all handled that you were going to crash. The depression and darkness were already sneaking up on you, and it was only a matter of time before it overwhelmed you.

The wreckage was going to be terrible when it did.

You hoped you and the team would all be able to survive the devastation. You hoped they would be able to understand that you’d lost a piece of your soul in losing your familiar. Especially in losing as strong of a familiar as Sera. There was a reason that witches generally bonded with cats, owls, crows, and very occasionally canines. Definitely not dragons.

You were pulled from your morose thoughts by Sif coming downstairs and joining you and Loki at the table. She appeared to be in a good mood, so you risked a bit of teasing after the serving girl brought her breakfast. “So, did you make Thor sleep on the floor last night?” You asked her with a smirk while Loki groaned. He didn’t want to hear what his brother may or may not have been up to the previous evening.

Sif laughed. “No, he made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” she replied with a wink to you and a bigger laugh at the groaning Loki. You couldn’t help laughing too, especially at Loki’s discomfort.

“Please, spare me the details,” Loki groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Where is my idiot brother. I hope you didn’t kill him, that is my job,” Loki teased her.

Sif laughed again. “I didn’t kill him. I did wear him out last night. He was still getting dressed. He should be down any moment.” Loki turned purple and grumbled something under his breath about how he shouldn’t have asked and returned to his breakfast. Thor came down a couple minutes later and looked far too happy for the early hour. Plus he had that sated look that meant you knew exactly what he had been up to the night before.

At least Frigga would be pleased with the development.

Sex counted as them getting together, right?

Right?

You hoped there was more to the relationship than just sex. There seemed to be as Thor and Sif were laughing and joking together over breakfast. Maybe Frigga had been right to ship them after all. You saw how they’d make a good couple. Hopefully they’d see it too. You didn’t want Frigga to be disappointed.

After breakfast and after the boys paid for everything, you mounted your horses again to continue your trip to the cursemonger’s. You chatted with the others along the way, though you found yourself getting more and more nervous as you approached.

What if he refused to help you?

What if the cost was too high and you couldn’t pay it?

What if the cost was too high and Loki insisted on paying it anyway?

You could see Loki insisting the cost was paid no matter what it might cost him. You didn’t expect that the cursemonger would make it easy on the prince of Asgard to get his later healed. He could insist on an inordinate cost and Loki would have to pay it, or the crown would, or you would.

You had no idea what he would request for his aid.

“Stop brooding so hard, magelet,” Loki told you from his horse. He was concerned over your emotional state without Sera and with the stupid mark and compulsion spells on your skin. You knew if he had his way, you’d be riding double with him just so he could make sure you were ok.

You gave him a small smile. “I’m alright, princeling,” you teased gently. He relaxed at your teasing, accepting you were at least mostly alright for now. “Do you think your mother will be happy with their progress?” you gestured to where Thor and Sif were riding ahead of you talking.

Loki groaned. “Unfortunately. I just hope we do not have to spend the rest of the trip putting up with them being… intimate where we can hear and see them,” he made a face at that prospect.

“Shut up, Loki!” Thor called back to him. You couldn’t help giggling at that prospect.

“This is not the first time Thor and Sif have attempted relations,” Loki started while Thor turned back in his saddle to glare at his brother.

“Loki…” he said warningly.

Loki smirked and continued. “There was one time when we were scarcely older than teenagers when he somehow convinced the much more sensible Lady Sif to have sex with him on the Allfather’s throne,”

“Shut up, Loki. No one needs to hear this story,” Thor growled the warning.

You were too busy laughing, so Loki continued. “They were caught mid act by Odin and a group of foreign dignitaries. And were both grounded for a year for that stunt,” Loki laughed while Thor turned beet red.

You nearly fell off your horse you were laughing so hard.

“Loki, remind me to kill you when we next stop,” Sif said too pleasantly, though you could tell she wasn’t really upset with Loki telling the story.

“Will do, Lady,” Loki smirked and you realized then just how long they’d known each other and just how close they were, even if Loki claimed he had no friends.

You laughed right along with them

The laughter and jokes and conversation continued until you arrived at the cursemonger’s mansion.

It was time to make a deal with the devil.

You just hoped the price wasn’t too steep.

#Loki #Lover #Submitted fic #submission #the witch's familiar #chapter 50 #Nekoamamori

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sneakronicity · 5 years

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A few Endgame thoughts under the cut. SPOILERS!

SPOILERS!

ALL THE SPOILERS!

LOTS OF SPOILERS!

I’ve been trying to sit down and put my feelings about Endgame into words, like work through all I’m feeling and going through, but I just can’t seem to do it. I’ve had some good conversations about it, but to try to make a post about it is too hard. But here goes,

There were a lot of parts I enjoyed:

~Natasha leading what was left of the Avengers, finally letting her guard down, calling them her family. That scene hurt my heart ~ Tony finally having peace with Pepper and their daughter ~ Scott. Just everything to do with Scott ~ The team shenanigans were fun ~ The final battle was well done. When the dusted people returned the whole theatre went crazy ~ Steve weilding Mjolnir also got a huge cheer, and it was pretty wicked ~ And as if I even have to say it, but the Clintasha scenes. omg the Clintasha scenes. This is what has been missing from these movies, and I’m so glad they finally reestablished their bond, that these two broken people love each other more than anyone or anything else in the world, that they would give their lives so the other could live. Just everything was so beautiful and heart wrenching and I will never be over this. There was more intimacy and chemistry in that forehead touch than anything else. Don’t try to sell me “he loves his wife!” after that shit, sorry. He might as well have been kissing cardboard at the end.

There’s more I’m sure, but that’s what’s jumping out now. Unfortunately, there was a lot of bad as well. When I left the theatre Thursday night, I was mostly okay. The hype of the audience had be pumped up, but the more I think about the movie the angrier and more disappointed I get. Friday I was in bad shape, I literally cried all day, so much I had a massive headache that lasted into Saturday. It’s a little better today, but not much. I never got over my hatred and anger at AoU, how am I supposed to get past this?

So that brings us to the bad:

~ Thor. At first I was okay with his story, because Bruce clearly really cared, and Thor was obviously going through so much, but when the took him back to the base his depression was turned into a joke. Like oh, look how he let himself go! and he keeps going off topic about the people he lost but it’s funny! And in the end it just felt like he went nowhere. They tore him completely down and then just left him there. No building him back up, nothing that felt hopeful. It felt like a huge disservice to his character. ~ I don’t really care about Bruce, but fixing his Hulk problem off screen was kinda weird, and he continued to feel dumbed down in this film. I swear the Bruce from the first Avengers film was a fluke and has never been the same since. ~ Steve. Civil War really put me off Steve as a character, and other fandom reasons as well, but when he picked up Mjolnir man I was rooting for him again. Then we got his ending, and it felt so selfish and counterproductive to his entire character. Even Peggy herself moved on and had along, happy life, and told him to do the same, but no. He couldn’t let go of this brief romance he had all those years ago despite her living a full life without him and had to go back, had to abandon his new friends, and live the life he was robbed of. I mean I get it, but it made me dislike him all over again. ~ Clint. Where do I even start? Y’all know my feelings on how dirty Clint has been done in the MCU, but this... they had the opportunity to fix him. There were so many ways they could have done his story in this film, so many unique and interesting directions they could have taken him, and they literally picked the more boring and predictable one possible. Who honestly didn’t believe his family was going to get dusted and then returned at the end? Everyone saw that coming. And he remains a completely undeveloped character, no different now than he was when first introduced, because yet again all the important character development was done entirely off screen. He had some great moments, don’t get me wrong, and Renner freaking knocked the acting out fo the park, but Clint is still so one dimensional and he never will be a fully developed character as long as the family exists, as they’re used as a magic fix it for everything. This is the third time there was a huge character altering moment that will be brushed aside off screen. Mind fucked by Loki? Fixed off screen. Lost the organization he trusted and devoted his life to, discovering some of his missions may have been for HYDRA? Fixed off screen. Spent five years on a murder spree? Fixed off screen. All fixed by spending time with his magic plot device family. I’m so angry, I hate everything about this, and I will never ever understand how anyone who loves Clint Barton can support that plot when all it has done is damage his character. ~ Natasha. Oh, my sweet baby girl, you deserved so much better. There is a great article out there by Vanity Fair that sums up a lot of what I’ve been raging about for years in regards to how Natasha has been handled in the MCU. I’ll link it at the end here. But basically I don’t feel like any writer has ever gotten her, has ever known what to do with her as her own character, and has always used her to service a dude’s plot. This is why I will always feel making her part of Cap’s supporting cast was a huge mistake. I’ve been saying for years that the Russo’s and M&M don’t really care about her character further than how he relates to Steve, and she basically became little more than an extension of Steve, his right hand, there to support him. He got to have deep relationships with other characters, while her most important relationship was stripped way and she only had Steve. Finally this movie we got away from that, but it became painfully obvious that he never cared about her as much as she did him. This team, this family, meant everything to her, but she didn’t mean everything to them, and that breaks my heart. Then we come to the end, and it’s clear Clint loves her with everything he is, and would have traded anything for her, but the narrative makes it feel like somehow he deserves to live more because of his stupid family and I hate that. I hate that she died so early, the final battle was lacking so much from her absence, and in the end Tony gets a whole ass funeral and nobody has anything for her. This was not a satisfying conclusion to her arc at all and I will be forever pissed. You know what would have been amazing? If her arc concluded with her weilding Mjolnir, therefore proving she was the best person she could be and worthy as all get out.

I know I didn’t mention Tony, but that’s the one arc I don’t know how to feel about. In some ways I count it in the good column because I always felt he was going to go out in a blaze of glory like that, and he got so much love and respect at the end, getting to die surrounded by everyone he loved, but at the same time he had found love and peace and lost it all. Why couldn’t he have a happy ending?

I should probably wrap this up now and save all my questions for another post, because man do I have a lot of questions and think a lot of this shit just didn’t make sense. Like honestly, just go back and grab Natasha from right before she died and bring her to the present. If changing the past doesn’t affect the future, and Past!Gamora can be running around and Nebula can kill her past self with no consequences then why isn’t this a no brainer? My head hurts, I hate time travel.

Anyways, more rambling some day when I can think again. If you read this whole thing I applaud you.

Edit: whoops, forgot the article I said I’d link: https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/04/avengers-endgame-black-widow-death-scarlett-johansson

#endgame spoilers #spoilers #I am fangirl see me rant #avengers endgame spoilers

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emeraldspiral · 5 years

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Endgame thoughts

My initial reaction was that it’s surprisingly really slow paced and has very few action scenes. I was going to say it was all ultimately worth it for the big climactic battle at the end. But then it really lost me on almost all the endings for our heroes.

Pretty much everything I dreaded came to pass. Tony had five years with his wife and kid, but he had to live those years in a super-depressed world where he felt like a failure, then when he had the chance to fix everything and settle down and finally enjoy life, they ripped it away from him. Also, kinda selfish of him to insist that they don’t erase the last five years on the off chance that it causes Tony to not get married and have a kid with Pepper. Like, fuck all the people who didn’t get dusted but died as a result of pilots and drivers and doctors suddenly disappearing or who became depressed and were driven to suicide and fuck Loki, Heimdall, Vision, Gamora, and half of Asgard I guess?

Similar to how they ended Tony’s story about PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and the overbearing burden of feeling like he has to be responsible for everything in the worst way possible, I feel like Steve’s ending was also antithetical to his entire arc. He spent the whole series trying to acclimate to life in the future and he was doing a pretty good job of it. He got caught up on tech, pop culture, and even found a new love, bland and underdeveloped as she was. Then he just goes back in time to live in the past? Also, the whole point of sending Steve back to return all the stones was to ensure the timeline didn’t get fucked and things would play out as they had originally, so Tony’s daughter wouldn’t be unborn. But then Steve goes and hooks up with Peggy, who got married to someone else in the original timeline. Also, no one noticed Captain America returning after being presumed dead in a time where memories of him and what he looked like would still be fresh? Also, also Peggy founded SHIELD. Did she have to hide Steve’s existence from everyone who knew him every day that she worked with them? Did Steve not warn her about HYDRA infiltrating her organization? What about in the future when those HYDRA agents were tricked into thinking Steve was one of them? Any consequences to that?

I think the biggest tragedy of Steve’s ending is that it could’ve been the most beautiful, perfect, satisfying, sentimental ending to another story. Like, if they’d done this at the end of Avengers 1, or even Winter Soldier, I could get on board with the idea that Peggy was Steve’s one true love that he could never move on from. But after so many movies showing Steve acclimating to living in the future, making new friends and getting an old one back, (He seriously didn’t get to spend any time with Bucky outside the battlefield after they finally fixed his brainwashing. How bullshit is that?) establishing himself as the leader and moral center of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and making out with Peggy’s grandniece it feels like character regression to have him throw all that away to literally live in the past.

Also, he passes on the mantle of Captain America to Falcon, who already has a perfectly good superhero identity, instead of Bucky, who could actually use a new identity to start over with.

I felt cheated by the fact that they emphasized Loki being important to Thor in the marketing, but then Thor just walks right past him in his cell. Present Thor never interacts with or even mentions Loki and all of his emotional moments are with his mom, who I never cared about, in a callback to one of the worst movies in the franchise. Which isn’t to say those scenes weren’t well-done. Well, I mean, except for the fact that Thor’s fake hair and beard and beer-belly were terrible and distracting and took me out of the moment, though props to the actress playing Frigga for managing to be so sincere acting opposite Chris Hemsworth in that getup. I really don’t know what they were thinking with that. Like, they could’ve written the movie’s timeline so that they went to see Thor when he’s sad and fat to get their cheap laughs and then have them take another year or so to put together their time-travel setup so Thor could get back into shape. But no, they really decided to commit to that bit and have him spend the entire movie, his character’s swan song, as a damn clown. Like, they couldn’t have at least switched out the cheap ugly unkempt hair and beard for a better set that looks more realistic so he could look just a smidge more dignified in the finale battle?

And that’s not even getting into Thor’s ending. I was already peeved by Infinity War giving Thor his eye back immediately after he lost it but I think the ending they gave him somehow managed to be even more insulting than Tony’s. Like, his dad dies and he finally ascends the throne and takes on the responsibility of being a king and then he just gets fat and drunk and then abdicates and puts Valkyrie in charge so he can run off aimlessly looking for a new purpose with the GotG? Like, what sense does that make? Also, he justifies putting Valkyrie in charge by saying she’s got leadership qualities, but when did she ever demonstrate any? Ragnarok was all about Thor demonstrating HIS leadership abilities by recruiting Valkyrie, Hulk, Loki, and the Sakaar rebels to fight for his cause. Valkyrie didn’t do any leading in that film, she just learned to start giving a shit and be a team player again. In Endgame, all she does is point Rocket and Hulk in Thor’s direction and then show up on the battlefield. They don’t even imply that Valkyrie was taking charge while Thor was wasting away.

She looked fucking great on her horse though. But where did she get it? I don’t remember seeing her herding one onto the refugee ship at the end of Ragnarok. I’d say I’m surprised that Thor and Valkyrie didn’t become an official couple offscreen like Peter and Gamora did, but after they threw away Jane, Sharon, and Betty and aborted Nat and Bruce’s romance, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised that Thorkyrie went nowhere. If they hadn’t gone with making Thor a joke for the whole movie though, it could’ve worked really well since in their last film together, Thor was the one who pulled Valkyrie out of a funk where she was drinking and wasting her life on Sakaar to cope with her trauma and she had the opportunity to do the same here. Oh well. Maybe with Thor out of the picture and Loki possibly alive the ship I really wanted to see take off might actually stand a chance.

The big girl ensemble scene kinda made me laugh because they really wanted all the girls (sans Nat) together and it was already kinda forced and corny when they did it in Infinity War when there were only three, but when you’ve got a huge battlefield full of mostly male heroes and random male soldiers and grunts it stops being a believable coincidence that all the women and only the women would end up in the same spot and just becomes transparently “we deliberately flocked together just for the sake of forming a girl group with no regard for strategy”. But that’s not even what made it funny. What made it funny was that they stuck Mantis in there and then as soon as everyone charged she disappears because Mantis isn’t a fighter, so there was no reason for her to join that group, which makes the whole thing even more transparently like, not a thing that would happen organically in real life.

I totally didn’t even notice that Lady Sif didn’t appear because the actress had left the franchise long ago, so I just never expected her to show up, anymore than I expected Jane to. In fact, I was so sure that Natalie Portman was only going to appear in archive footage or in faraway shots with a body double that it shocked me when they had like, a whole five seconds of her waking up and then Rocket walking into the room and it didn’t look like it could’ve been from the original movie because they never would’ve shot the scene to linger after Natalie walked off with the camera angled to frame a two-foot tall character. So I guess they got Natalie back just for that.

I’ve expressed before that I’m not a fan of dealing with story and character problems by throwing them away instead of fixing them, and Jane’s a pretty good example of why. The first two Thor movies feel like a complete waste now since they spent so much time developing her and Thor’s relationship and Thor having to choose between his obligations to Asgard and his love for her. Her dumping him in Ragnarok doesn’t inform his character at all, unlike Tony and Pepper’s break-up in Civil War. It’s just an excuse to make him single so they can set up Valkyrie as his new love interest. But then Thor and Valkyrie don’t get together, nor does he reconcile with Jane. The movie indicated he was still heartbroken over Jane, and they had the perfect setup for a reconciliation. Thor lost his both his parents, his siblings, his best friend, his eye, his hammer, his home planet, and half his people, but Jane was snapped by Thanos, which means she came back to life at the end. It was such a blatant missed opportunity to not have him either get pulled out of his funk by Valkyrie or reconcile with Jane in the end it almost feels like maybe they were going to in an earlier draft but then decided it was too similar to Steve's happy ending so they just decided fuck anything respectful or satisfying for Thor and just dumped him on the GotG for no other reason than to make his different.

When Valkyrie said she liked either Bruce or Hulk apart better than both of them together I was like “hard same”. Like, the CGI on Hulk was never that convincing, but it gets really deep into the uncanny valley in this film. It just feels wrong to see the big green guy emoting and gesturing like Bruce and hearing Bruce’s normal soft-spoken voice coming out of Hulk’s mouth. Nothing about it is okay. I would’ve liked it better if they hadn’t skipped over the character arc too. Like, instead of just “Oh, we reconciled our differences and merged into one during the timeskip” Bruce was still unable to Hulk out for five years and didn’t know why and then finally figured it out for the final battle in a big triumphant moment.

I was hoping there’d be some kind of a twist to the soul stone get scene. Like, because Nat sacrificed herself instead of being pushed in, she’d get the stone instead of Clint and then they’d both live, or they’d both fall and be resurrected. Kinda like in Yu Yu Hakusho when Yusuke and Kurama both tried to sacrifice themselves to the magic mirror to save Kurama’s mom so it let them both live.

They should’ve just cut Clint’s storyline and swapped it for Hulk’s story. Cause like, the whole Ronin thing doesn’t really impact the plot in any way. The only purpose it serves is to give him a reason to fight with Nat over who should sacrifice themselves despite Nat being the obvious choice since Clint has a wife and kids he’s trying to get back. The scene at the beginning where he loses them is all we really need to be emotionally invested in him. Scott only had the one scene with his daughter and that was enough for him.

If they’d had Hulk’s reconciliation happen over the course of the movie instead of during the timeskip then they could’ve sent Clint to New York and Bruce to Vormir, since an active battlefield wouldn’t have been a good place for Bruce to be while unable to Hulk out. It could’ve been Bruce and Nat fighting over who should sacrifice themselves as a resolution to the feelings of guilt and self-loathing they discussed in Age of Ultron. Nat could’ve sacrificed herself, not out of shame for her past or the future she doesn’t think she can have, but out of love for Bruce. Her sacrifice could’ve been the key to unlocking Bruce’s ability to reconcile the two halves of himself, which would've been a nice payoff to her being able to snap Bruce out of Hulk mode in AoU and Ragnarok instead of just a thing that happens to make you sad for no reason.

I thought Captain Marvel in her solo movie was just okay. Not unlikable by any stretch, but not particularly funny or charming or otherwise possessing any kind of engaging character traits strongly enough to give me something to latch onto. But I found her quite unlikable in this film. She’s barely in it and every time she is, she’s copping a real attitude. Like, everyone else is grieving and wracked with guilt because they’re actual empathetic characters who’s natural reaction is to feel bad about the situation even though they tried their hardest, and many of them couldn’t have done much anyway. But Carol just seems really defensive. Like, if this were any other hero, she’d be sorry she wasn’t around to stop Thanos. She’d be haunted by all the people who suddenly, inexplicably turned to dust, knowing she was the one hero powerful enough to stop him, but she wasn’t where she needed to be. Instead, she comes across as being more bothered by the idea that other people might blame her for not stopping Thanos than by what Thanos did.

I kept thinking that maybe since Loki got the the space stone the timeline was messed up and he was going to pop up in the final battle and I actually played myself into thinking it was him moving Mjolnir for a sec before it turned out to be Steve and then I was disappointed he didn’t show up later when everyone else did.

Nebula at the start of GotG 1 was already hoping that Ronan would help her kill Thanos, so it’s OoC for past Nebula to be his loyal servant in this movie.

How did Clint and Natasha go to Vormir not knowing about the sacrifice? Nebula was able to figure out what happened to Gamora in Infinity War, so why didn’t she warn them?

Loki disappeared with the space stone in Avengers 1 but he was still in his cell during the events of TDW, but then they went further back in time to get the space stone in the 70s. But when did Steve return the space stone? If he sent it back to the 70s, does Loki still get it in 2012, or did Steve stop him from getting it?

Also, why did they even need to go to the 70s to get more Pym particles? Bruce already had the time stone. They could’ve just used it to fix their flub with Loki.

I can’t believe they finally put explicit gay rep in the movies but like, in the weirdest way. Like, it wasn’t like they hyped it up and then only vaguely implied it with stereotyping, like some other movies. They did have like, an outright unmistakable declaration of a character’s sexuality, and it wasn’t even saved for the very end. It’s in like, the first half-hour. But, they did it with a random no-name extra. So it’s like, they now acknowledge that gay people exist in these movies, but there’s still no explicit unambiguous LGBT representation among the heroes, or even the supporting cast.

I remember in Tony’s funeral scene, seeing a teenage boy and thinking “Who the hell is that? That’s not Peter, and that’s not one of Clint’s kids”. Like, I’m not great with faces, especially when they’ve drastically changed due to puberty, so of course I wasn’t going to recognize the kid from Iron Man 3. Now that I know that that’s who that is, I think it’s a pretty nice touch, even though it’s still bullshit that Tony died.

Kinda confused about Gamora. We’re never shown that she goes back to her time, but I guess we have to infer that she did because she’s not with the other Guardians at the end and Peter has an image of her on a screen implying that he plans to somehow find her and bring her back to life in his time. Also, how is Nebula alive if her past self died?

Everyone who got snapped was brought back to life, but the five years they were gone wasn’t erased. So Peter is still 15, even though he’d be 20 if he hadn’t died, unlike Cassie who is now a 13 instead of 8 (I think that’s her age, don’t quote me on that). But we see Peter hug Ned, who looks the same age, and Flash and MJ also appear to be the same age in the Far From Home trailer. So, I guess it’s a coincidence that everyone in Peter’s circle just happened to also get snapped so there’s no awkwardness with Peter being in high school while all of his friends are college-aged now.

#avengers #avengers spoilers #endgame spoilers #spoilers #avengers endgame spoilers #avengers 4 spoilers #marvel #marvel comics #mcu #endgame #mcu spoilers #avengers endgame

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astudyinsarcasm9 · 5 years

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Avengers: Endgame (2019) - Review - Spoilers Ahead

Later edit: I saw the movie again and Thanos says he destroyed the stones using the stones. First things first: Imma put a ”keep reading” below just in case someone stumbles upon this review and hasn’t seen the movie yet.

I was gonna wait until I saw it a second time, as I did with Infinity War, but because I am sick with a cold and low on money I am just gonna gather all my opinions and feelings about the movie and just get it over with.

Off the bat I have to say that I have been looking forward to this movie for a year (everyone has been), and while the constant news about it started to become quite annoying the hype was still there. So, naturally I went to see it as soon as it premiered in my country.

If i were to compare this to Infinity War, which, again, most people do, I’d say that Infinity War is more consistent when it comes to its plot and the rules it establishes or has established before in other MCU movies. BUT Endgame just feels like it has more stakes, that it is not as predictable as the first one. I mean, come on, we all knew part of our heroes were gonna be dusted and we knew they were gonna come back because it happens in the comics as well. Obviously they wouldn’t have killed a big character in IW because they needed them for Endgame. As such we were left with the OG Avengers plus a couple of other supporting cast members. I feel as if even though Endgame was, in part predictable, its stakes were higher. We knew they’d find a way to reverse the snap we just didn’t know how. We speculated it would be time travel months ago but again we weren’t sure how that’d go.

And while I appreciate that they tried to establish some rules prior to the time travel I feel that as soon as it was convenient they threw them out the window, more or less. More on that later.

What I liked about this movie?

I confess: I wanted the movie to start with this scene above. No music, no nothing just this scene that we also saw in the trailer. It just conveys so well how Infinity War ended, how our heroes feel. It’s tragic, no shred of hope. And yeah the trailers spoiled it because they also showed Tony back on Earth ( which I hated) it still would’ve been nice to start with this but I admit the scene with Clint and his family was heartbreaking but not surprising.

Ok so what did I like in Endgame?

Cap’s determination to move forward, his willingness to help others do so and adapt to the new world post snap. it really shows the core qualities of Cap and why Steve is truly worthy to be Cap.

I really liked Ant Man, Paul Rudd is just a delight to watch. I loved all of his reactions and I feel like he mirrored the audience pretty well. I mean he is a hero in his own right yet he is still an outsider reacting to everything around him and to the other more well known characters.

The way the movie brought many things full-circle, it was like an ongoing thing. Staring with Thor killing Thanos and saying that this time he aimed for the head to Tony ending 11 years of MCU with the same line that he started it.

Black Widow - she is not really one of my favourites. There’s nothing wrong with her it’s just I couldn’t invest in her as a character, but that’s a me problem not a problem with the character as is. But in this movie Black Widow was amazing and not because of the sacrifice she made but because she endured and basically took on Nick Fury’s mantle, so to speak, and tried to guide everyone and be that shinning light at the end of a very dark tunnel. Also, her friendship with Clint is amazing and I love that throughout all of the MCU the writers did not feel compelled to make them have a romantic relationship. There are other types of relationships in this world and I am glad Marvel understands that and showed us how beautiful her and Clint’s relationship is and how she supports him and loves him and vice versa.

Everything with Rocket is amazing because he is amazing.

I liked how they used time travel to give a nod to a lot of Marvel Movies, kinda paying homage to what was before while at the same time showing where we are now and how far our characters have evolved since this whole MCU started. It was beautifully done. And yes Tony talking to his father was nothing out of the ordinary, in terms of dialogue, the moment was heartfelt and it really caught me off guard. Steve seeing Peggy was a nice touch too even though we know it was there to kind of explain the ending but more on that later.

Clint being badass. He is one of my favourite MCU characters.

The fact that Thor had a panic attack and pretty much got depressed after the events of Infinity War. I know many consider his character development that he got during Ragnarok was ruined, but I think what happened to him was a normal response. Think about it: Thor was the closest to killing Thanos, and because he aimed for the chest Thanos snapped his fingers. It was a matter of seconds. Thanos even teases him about it in IW. ANYONE in Thor’s shoes would feel like crap, like a failure because to him it feels like the faith of everyone who got dusted was in his hands and he was sloppy and missed and so because of him half of everyone on the planet disappeared. It didn’t matter that it was a team effort to try to bring Thanos down. The fact that in the last seconds before the snap it was just Thor and Thanos looking at each other with the latter teasing the former about not aiming right was enough for Thor to send him into depression. We could still see that it is the same Thor from Ragnarok but Thor lost so much and bottled up so many emotions that it was only natural that he’đ either have a full outburst of anger, wich he did in Infinity War or go into depression, which he also did in Endgame. So, yeah, in my opinion Thor was written pretty good. Ok, the fat jokes were kinda on the nose, but it did give us one of the best jokes in the movie when Tony called him Lebowski.

The final battle was freaking amazing even though I wanted Doctor Strange to have more screen time, but I guess he had his time in IW. Yet the moment he raised his finger and looked at Tony to let him know that was the one chance where they win was heartbreaking and utterly beautiful. Like this is it no screwing up. Now or never.

CAPTAIN AMERICA WIELDING FREAKING MJOLNIR!

What I didn’t like or had doubts about:

When Thanos mentioned that he destroyed the Infinity stones he said that they were basically atoms at the point when the Avengers came to fight him about it on the farm planet. If I remember correctly 2 or 3 days passed between the snap and them going on the farm planet after Thanos so I really wanted the avengers to try and have Scott go into the quantum realm to have him reassemble the stones at an atom level. It would have been harder, sure, but it was an option. wasn’t it?I guess it could have taken longer.

I think it was already established in prior movies that the Gauntlet was the only item that could hold the infinity stones and harness their power. To me it was a bit off how Tony was able to make his own gauntlet, just because. It would have been a little bit better if they used the original gauntlet. It was still cool to see yet it took me out of the moment for a split second.

Steve’s ending. Thematically I don’t think it works. Now, don’t get me wrong I want Steve to be happy but we’ve spend so many movies establishing that Steve was, at least, partially ok with the fact that he couldn’t go back to his own time. Sure he hold on to Peggy and what she meant to him but he accepted that he had a duty, that he couldn’t live a normal life even if he wanted to and in Endgame he even was the one to urge people to move on in the post snap world. Steve is a selfless, kind person and he couldn’t and wouldn’t sit on the sidelines while others suffer. It’s just not him. He also kinda fucked up the timeline. As far as I understood (feel free to correct me on this) because he returned the stones to their original locations the timeline stayed the same, it didn’t branch like the Ancient One said it would if even one stone would be removed. So, that means that the Peggy he went back to is the Peggy from the main timeline but we were told they can’t change the past so how can he go back and be with her if it is the main timeline while also doing what he did post coming out of the ice? It boggles my mind. But putting that aside, it’s just not Steve. His whole ark was moving on. And sure when he went to the 70s with Tony he saw Peggy and maybe thought to himself that there was a chance to be with her BUT our Steve, present Steve is not the same with the one who just came out of the ice 70 years ago. Yes he’d long for and miss her and want to go back but ultimately he wouldn’t because he moved on. He had a reunion with Peggy when she was old and it was bittersweet but he had closure, in a sense.

The fact that he passed on his shield to Falcon. I know that is what happens in the comics but here we are talking about the MCU and in the MCU it does not make sense. Falcon had no ark in these movies (if I am not mistaken), and he does not have any powers of his own. He is just a guy with wings. in the comics he has powers so it makes sense to take on the mantle of Cap. In the MCU giving him the shield doesn’t mean added powers as well. Having a black captain america is an amazing concept and i’m 100% for it just not Falcon.

I found it hilarious yet awful how Banner first said that time travel is not his area of expertise only to have him later on explaining time travel to everyone. Like, you could have made Tony do it after he came back and cracked time travel. I get Banner could know some stuff but if you establish he doesn’t know then he doesn’t know.

While the CGi on Hulk was great for me it looked like uncanny valley for some reason. I know Professor Hulk is a thing in the comics but it looked so awkward and weird and it showed how the writers had no idea what to do with him like that. Banner shined when he was in his astral projection form while talking with the Ancient One but looked awkward for the rest of the movie.

Captain Marvel - yeah she had the cool cool scene at the end which I loved but I dislike her character a lot.

The plot point with Nebula being the means Thanos finds out about time travelling.

The joke at the end with Thor and Star Lord dragged on for so long and it really wasn’t funny. Except the Asgardians of the Galaxy part, that was hilarious.

Questions I had:

How did Steve return the soul stone?

If past Gamora came to the future and assuming it was the same timeline why couldn’t they go and grab Black Widow? Sure it would cheapen her sacrifice and I don’t want that to happen but it is a question that you have to wonder about.

Nebula kills her past self…and nothing happens? I mean I know Hulk said your past becomes your future and all that but it doesn’t make sense however you look at it. Except if that Nebula was from a different branch, a different reality.

If past Thanos came into the future and got killed there does that mean that the snap does not happen, assuming it is the same timeline? and if it’s not then does that mean there’s a timeline out there where the snap outright didn’t happen?

How did Thanos destroy the Infinity stones in the first place? He is the most powerful being in the MCU so far but you gotta wonder how did he accomplish such a thing.

The movie was incredibly enjoyable, it didn’t feel like 3 hours at all. It was darker than Infinity War but less solid than the former. At least in my opinion. It is truly emotional to see all of the MCU movies leading up to these 2 which are by all means masterpieces of the genre. I mean sure they have flaws but we’ve got to admit they did raise the bar a lot. Many of the MCU movies did. Some titles were bland, sure but most were not.

I’d give this movie a 9,5 out 10 which is almost perfect in my book. It was a perfect conclusion, all the time travel shenanigans and plot holes aside.

#endgame #avengers #avengers endgame #infinity war #spoilers #tony stark #steve rogers #iron man #thanos #captain america #black widow #doctor strange

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staytiny-angel · 5 years

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Avengers: Endgame

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

Endgame is a lot.

A LOT

I need that John Mulaney gif that says "Now we don't have time to unpack all that"

I'm not gonna get to everything so I'll probably edit this post a bunch over the next few days. Especially after I see it again Sunday.

I don't know how I feel about some of this. There were parts I adored, there were parts that I hate so much i can't see straight.

NATASHA GOT DONE DIRTY.

whew, now that I've go that off my chest. I hate that scene so goddamn much poor Clint, Poor Nat, Poor Us?

Fuck Vormir

How are they doing Wanda and Vision's Show? Since Vision is very much still Dead as a doornail.

After spending 11 years teasing Cap saying Avengers Assemble, I didn't think the moment would live up to the hype. IT DID! Holy Cow, even the callback to Sam and Steve in TWS with Sam saying "On your Left" when Cap thinks all hope is lost that sets off that entire sequence was absolute perfection.

Everything about that it, the music, just EVERYTHING took my breath away. For me that felt like the culmination of the last 11 years. I cannot say enough about how the Russos did those two words and that moment justice.

My theater was doing the BP War Chant and then it went silent, he said the thing and the roof blew off. It was the best moments I've ever had watching a movie in the theatre

One of my favorite little moments was Doc Strange and Wong at the final battle.

"You brought Everyone?"

"You wanted MORE"

That cracked me up.

I don't know how I feel about them, for all intents and purposes resetting both Loki and Gamora? 2012 Loki Escapes with the Tesseract when they try to steal it at the end of Avengers 1. So From what I gather there IS a Loki bouncing around the MCU but he's not the Loki that died in IW. He's really dead.

THE LOKI STAN IN ME IS FURIOUS

More timey wimey BS happens and we get a pre GOTG Vol. 1 Gamora in 2023 which is when most of the movie takes place.

So we kinda get them back but it's 2012 Loki and 2014 Gamora. That's....odd. Especially since both those characters pretty much lost their entire character development. It's kinda depressing that the Gamora Quill is looking for at the end of Endgame isn't the Gamora that fell in love with him.

Thor makes Val Queen of New Asgard and joins the GOTG.

Can James Gunn and Taika Watiti handle Vol. 3 together?!

Please?

I guess this does explain the description of Loki's show though: From what I've read it sounds like he's going to be a Chaotic Evil Dr. Who? Bouncing around time, which makes a hell of a lot more sense if it's this (old) new Loki that has the Tesseract.

I dislike Steve's ending a LOT.

SO F***ING MUCH.

Cap should have used the Gauntlet.

Tony should have got the ride off into the sunset ending with his family.

I'm gonna need something saying Steve didn't just go into this alternate past he created and not change anything? Then I might feel better about it.

Like are you telling me Steve "I'm with you till the end of the Line" Rogers just LEFT BUCKY WITH HYDRA?! Didn't tell Peggy that Zola wasn't shit? Sat across from Peirce and dinner and didn't punch him in the face?! Sounds fake but okay.

I'm glad Sam is gonna be Cap. I know people are disappointed we aren't getting Bucky!Cap but MCU Bucky is TIRED. He needs to rest.

I'm a mess

#avengers endgame spoilers #avengere: endgame #avengers 4 #avengers: endgame #avengers spoilers #avengers #avengers endgame #avenge the fallen #mcu spoilers #spoilers #Marvel

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1wngdngl · 5 years

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Avengers: Endgame - final thoughts

So, I saw Avengers: Endgame for the second time on July 1. And ever since then, I’ve been meaning to post my full review. You might be wondering, what took so long? Well, I had a review all ready the night I came back from the theater, but Tumblr ate it, and it took a while for me to regain the motivation to type it up again. And then I wanted to make sure it was a really good, super-detailed review, so it took even longer. End result being that it’s now two months later later, so who knows if anyone even cares anymore ;) But I’m sharing it anyway, so it doesn’t feel like a complete waste of time.

(Keep in mind this review was largely written before Spider-Man: Far From Home and the SDCC came around to muddy the waters, so nothing past Endgame is mentioned.)

I think I actually liked this movie better the second time I saw it. I enjoyed it the first time, certainly, but the first time I was so concerned about what the movie might be like, what might happen next, who would live or die, how the whole saga would be concluded, that I wasn’t fully able to be in the moment. And when you go into a movie with that attitude, and with a wishlist of things you want to see, it’s easy to feel slightly disappointed when an item doesn’t get checked off your list.

But when I saw Endgame the second time, I already knew what was going to happen, so I was able to relax more and just appreciate everything – the action, the humor, the music, the characters, everything. To quote Thor, I was able to appreciate the movie for what it was, not for what it was “supposed” to be.

One thing I especially appreciated this time was the sheer variety the movie presented, in the tone, the characters, and the settings. Both Infinity War and Endgame are long movies that feel much shorter, but they achieve that in different ways. Infinity War was near non-stop action and dramatic reversals, so you never had time to get bored. In contrast, Endgame has a lot more quiet moments and mundane interactions. It’s almost like a mini-series of half-hour episodes, each with its own tone and setting.

I really like how Endgame opens, with something as simple as Clint spending time with his family. It really cut me when he looked away for a moment and all his family disappeared. The opening emphasizes that, however long it may have been for the audience since seeing Infinity War, for the characters it’s a fresh tragedy. The “Porch” musical theme from the end of Infinity War shows up here too, linking the two movies together (it’d be amazing to watch them back-to-back sometime).

The somber mood continues with Tony out in space, desperately trying to get home. When he finally does, he’s relieved to find Pepper still alive, but that doesn’t make everything better (and of course, he hasn’t exactly forgiven Steve yet either). With the help of Nebula and Captain Marvel, a group goes to hunt down Thanos, hoping they can use the Stones themselves to bring back the Snapped. But of course, Thanos has already destroyed the Stones, and there’s no getting them back, ever.

When Thor chopped off Thanos’s head mid-sentence, it was very satisfying, but of course that didn’t actually fix anything – even Thor realizes this within five seconds. This whole section of the movie is like a delayed climax from Infinity War, and has an even greater sense of finality and failure than the dusting itself.

When I first saw the words “Five…Years…Later” appear on screen, I was really startled. That the writers would let this world and the Avengers spend five years wallowing in their failure. It probably shouldn’t be surprising that most of them stepped down from hero business in the interim. Out of everyone, I actually think Bruce handled the post-apocalypse the best, finally able to achieve self-acceptance and inner peace. On the flip side is Thor, who seems to feel the most personally responsible for the tragedy – if only he had gone for the head the first time! – and who spends every day drinking himself senseless so he doesn’t have to think about it. Tony seems content to hide out in his lake cabin with his wife and daughter, not getting involved in the problems of the larger world. Natasha buries herself in work, and Steve seems to just drift aimlessly. And Clint…His despair sends him into darkness and violence, and I wonder if his previous crimes when he was being mind-controlled made it the tiniest bit easier to fall into that darkness.

If you look at the “going after Thanos in the garden” part as a prologue, then the whole “living with failure” is the start of the first act. Everyone is just trying to make do, carry on the best way they know how. This part of the movie is very subdued, almost mundane, and mostly consists of characters exchanging dialogue, absent of action, of music, of life. But the whole of the MCU has done so much work in developing these characters that even just watching them interact is interesting. They no longer feel like actors, just people playing off each other in the most natural way. They feel like old friends, both to each other and the audience, friends who are going through a tough time.

The inciting incident, the moment things start to change, is when Ant-Man arrives. He’s the one who brings hope and humor back into the movie. He hasn’t had to live through years in this ruined world, so he still has optimism that they can fix things. You know, when he first suggested time travel, I was a bit nervous since a lot of movies don’t handle time travel very well. But the “time heist”, as it’s called, may be my favorite part of the movie.

So we move into the second act, where the Avengers split up and go after the Infinity Stones in different time periods. This section is a lot more “fun” than the previous scenes, as the characters re-visit moments from past movies, making the heist into a sort of “MCU in Review”. But these scenes aren’t just cut-and-pasted from their original movies – instead we get to look at them from different angles, see what was happening just offscreen, and see characters who wouldn’t even make their first appearance until later, like seeing the Ancient One and Brock Rumlow during the Battle in New York.

With multiple time-travel groups, the movie cuts quickly between them, so you’re never quite sure where or when you’ll get to see next. Again, the sheer number of characters in this movie is amazing – nearly everyone from Infinity War, plus time travel allows even more characters to show up. Sure, many appearances are just cameos, but the level of logistical planning that all these scenes must’ve involved just boggles the mind.

Not only does the time travel let viewers revisit parts of the MCU, it also allows the main three Avengers (Tony, Steve, and Thor) to reach some closure with their past. Tony and Thor get to have proper goodbyes with their parents; Steve’s closure has to wait until the end of the movie, but is worth the wait.

The time heist is mostly just fun at first, but slowly things start to go wrong. First Natasha dies, then Nebula is captured and replaced by her own past self, who finds a way to bring the nightmare of Thanos back into everyone’s lives. To be honest I wasn’t sure if or how he would be relevant to the movie again after being killed right at the start, so this twist really caught me off-guard. The moment Thanos’s ship opens fire and destroys the Avengers Compound is one of the most startling in the movie, jolting events right into the third act.

The final battle is very complex and would take a long time to properly break down. Seeing Thanos’s army of Leviathans, Outriders, the Black Order, and more as a single unified force – it’s almost as exciting as seeing the heroes all assembled. The moment where all the dusted heroes show up on the battlefield, to the “Portals” theme, may be the most emotionally stirring moment in the series. The power level on each side is unfathomable; and when it all ends and the bad guys fade away into dust – first the legion, and then finally, finally Thanos himself – I felt a real vindictive satisfaction that he got what he deserved, that this time it was the Avengers who had the last laugh.

I know some people were angry about how Tony Stark died, but really, what better end for a character can you ask for? He saved the whole universe, and had a grand funeral with many attendees – many of whom didn’t even like him personally, but recognized the debt they owe him. The part at the end where Happy is trying to comfort Tony’s cute daughter, who is too young to completely understand what’s going on…Priceless. In the very first Iron Man movie, Yinsen told Tony “Don’t waste your life”, and I think he’d be proud.

The first time I saw Endgame, I wasn’t sure how I felt about Steve and Thor’s endings, but on a second viewing I felt much better about them. Steve, after all his sacrifice, living the superhero life non-stop, finally got to have the life he wanted with Peggy. Thor wasn’t able to get back any of the friends or family he lost, but he finally got over his guilt and depression, and left with the Guardians to have a new adventure. I think they will all get along well ;)

[another thing that made this second viewing fun – I sat next to a family who was seeing it for the first time, and the kids were very animated in their reactions to all the big moments, action, and jokes, so that made it more special for me too. I love seeing other people react to something I already know and enjoy.]

Addendum:

Like I said, all of the above was written several months ago, and I haven’t yet seen Spider-Man: Far From Home and have generally not looked into any Marvel news since then. Truth is, I’m extremely nervous about the future of the MCU. I know the studio can’t rest on their laurels, and so have to keep making movies, but personally I’d be happy if the MCU was truly done with Endgame. Not that I think everything after that will be junk, but because Endgame provided such a satisfying conclusion that I’m afraid future entries will just confuse things, or reduce that sense of closure. “Stop when things are at their best,” is what I believe. Otherwise you risk undoing the specialness of the story by repeating yourself, making accidental (or deliberate) retcons, or by losing the thread of a character’s arc and treating them more as a marketable commodity than a person.

But! I have a strategy prepared – if future entries after the Infinity Saga don’t capture that same wonder, don’t spark the same interest in me, I’m prepared to view them as expensive fanfiction, and be satisfied with the perfect, complete story that Marvel already gave us :)

#movies #marvel #mcu #avengers #avengers: endgame #reviews

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shreddedparchment · 6 years

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The End of the World Pt.21

Thor, Steve, and the Caller

Pairing: Thor x Reader

Word Count: 4,190

Masterpost

Warnings: Language

A/N: So, something happened while I was writing this chapter. My computer decided to push an update and closed out everything without warning. Which corrupted my file so that I could no longer access it. Needless to say, I sat staring at my computer for a bit, annoyed, and wondering if I wanted to begin again. I did and I think it helped me create a smoother beginning. I hope you all like this one, lots of development between the characters and a bit of insight into a relationship that we I hadn’t explored yet. I hope you like it! xoxo

Flying isn’t as fun as it looks. You’ve seen Thor and Tony take off many times. Though, sheltered in his suit, you’re sure that for Tony maybe it is as fun as it looks. For you, soaring through the sky at speeds and altitudes that you had yet to reach is a pain in the ass.

It’s cold. Someone smarter than you would have known that flying high up in the sky would mean that it would be colder. Silly of you not to think of that. You’ve always been nestled in Thor’s arms, warm and shielded so how were you supposed to know that doing it alone would suck? Apart from the temperature, the flight seems to take a lot of your strength. Your focus is not so much a problem. You’re still so angry that you channel that into your flying and find that a small tilt to the left or right alters your flight easily. But the effort it takes to change directions at this speed is larger than at slower speeds. Your control needs to be more precise.

You just need practice. You’ll get better at it. You’ve been flying for about an hour when you begin to feel strange. You’re still focused but you find it harder to keep your body moving at the speed with which it moves. You stop suddenly, hovering for a second before your body suddenly dips five feet. You scream in surprise. Your stomach bottoms out with the sudden lurch downwards.

“What the hell?” You look around and you’re sure that you’re nowhere near home. This would be a terrible place to stop.

A strange pain hits your stomach and you begin to realize that you might be running out of energy. You haven’t eaten since breakfast and with the sun to your left already dipping down along the horizon, you’re sure your body is expecting dinner. “Damn it.”

You push yourself forward again, focusing as much of your energy into propelling you through the air. Despite this, you still begin to fly at an incline, unintentionally as your body begins to lose its stamina.

“Shit.” Your body begins to fall. As your stomach turns over and then clenches painfully again to remind you you’re hungry, you watch as the world begins to come closer and into fast focus. Below you is a large lake surrounded by green trees. Thanks to your keen, serum enhanced eyes, you can see that there are several docks around the lake that jut out from the shore. A thousand feet up and you try to focus again. You need to land in the water. Landing on the ground from this height would result in injuries that you have no training to deal with. Even with the serum you know that at this distance a fall would hurt. Would it kill you?

Eight hundred feet up and the people around the lake begin to come into focus. There’s a group of teens to the left of the lake, a family having a party straight ahead, and to your right, as you reach three hundred feet, you can see a small girl—a toddler—wrapped in an oversized towel. Her soft brown hair is pulled up high into a palm tree ponytail and the only other thing you can see are her chubby little legs peeking out from the bottom of her towel. She’s bathed in the golden orange light of the sunset and can’t be more than three years old. She stares at you, watching you fall with a gaze so stoic that it puts Steve’s to shame.

A hundred feet and then suddenly, as the water seems to rise to meet you, you crash through the surface of the water. The pain and sudden warm temperatures of the water shocks you. You were freezing up in that sky. Next time, you’ll definitely change into your uniform. For several minutes you simply sink as your body registers the change in gravity and atmosphere. The pain begins to subside only when the ache of your stomach and lungs becomes more demanding. Your mind clears a bit as you struggle to breathe. You swim upwards, weak strokes at first, but as the oxygen levels in your body begin to seriously fall your arms and legs pump faster against the water.

You break the surface, greedily gulping in the air around you and lean back so that you can relax and allow your body to float as your lungs fill. The more oxygen your body consumes the clearer your mind gets. With your senses returning your sense of smell seems to take priority. You smell hot dogs to your right!

You push yourself up so that you can look towards the small girl who still watches you from her dock. Behind her, two men—one with blonde hair and one with black hair wearing a chef’s hat—stand mid embrace, staring out at you as well. Though the girl is unimpressed, the two men watch you with mouths agape.

With your stomach in command you swim towards the trio and watch as the blonde headed man rushes forward to scoop up his little girl. He moves aside as you climb up onto the dock, clutching his daughter close as he watches you with wary eyes. You’re dripping, tired, and so damn hungry. You give the man a smile, a small wave to the girl, and over to the chef you move.

“I’m sorry to bother you and I know the last thing you expected to do today was to feed some chick that just fell from the sky, but can I have one of those? I’m starving.” You stare at the steaming dogs, the sizzle so mouth watering it makes you swallow hard.

The chef holds the tongs out for you to take, his hand shaking slightly. You smile, ecstatic at his generosity, and move to the grill to make yourself a hotdog, ignoring all condiments in favor of getting the food into your stomach as quickly as possible.

“Thank you so much. Seriously. You’re a life saver.” You said one but as you devour the hotdog in three bites you make yourself another one.

The man takes a step back and as you swallow a large bite you shake your head. “I won’t hurt you, I promise.”

“Wh-wh-who are you?” The man asks, his eyes boring into yours.

“Are you an alien?” The blonde man says.

You turn your gaze on him and he sways back as if you lunged at him. “Do I look like an alien?”

Oh, that’s right, the hair.

“No. I’m…human. My name is…uh…Vex.” Which is true. You had been about to tell him your real name but that probably wasn’t a good idea.

“How did you fall from the sky and survive?”

You chew quickly and swallow. You take another bite as you consider how to answer him and then begin to make another hotdog as you decide that the truth is the best policy. “I’m an Avenger.”

The two men exchange a look and they seem to relax a little. The magic word! “I’ve never heard of you.” The chef says.

“I’m kinda new? I’m still learning how to…do things. I was flying home and I sorta fell.” You admit with a straight face. You’re too busy making another hot dog to care how it comes off.

The blonde man smiles nervous, amused by the idea of an Avenger falling from the sky because they don’t know how to fly. Well, at least they no longer seem threatened by you.

“Do you want a burger?” The chef suddenly asks, and he opens a second grill that you hadn’t noticed because you were so invested in the hotdogs.

You swallow hard again, your mouth watering. “Please?”

The next half hour, as the sun fully sets covering the lake in beautiful bright moonlight, is spent being fed by the chef, his husband, and their three-year-old little girl whose name you discover is Diana. The conversation is mostly lighthearted. You find out you’re in Kansas, which you’ve also never visited. However, the conversation doesn’t remain lighthearted. You do spend about ten minutes listening to them talk about how lucky they were when the world ended. Neither of their parents were still alive and they were both only children. They’d lost a friend but otherwise they were largely unaffected by the end.

“You were very lucky, and I’m glad that you three are together.” You can just imagine the number of children now orphaned or the parents left without their children, all because of Thanos. It’s a depressing spot to leave the conversation but since you’re fed, it’s time to go. You rise slowly and the men, August and Tim, rise with you. Tim, the blonde man, carefully cradles Diana who fell asleep halfway through your meal.

“Do you have a long way to go?” August asks. “Want a burger for the road?”

You laugh and shake your head. “No, thank you, I think I’ve eaten my fill. I’m so grateful for your generosity. I won’t forget this.”

“It was our pleasure.” Tim smiles.

You turn to leave but think better and turn back quickly. “It’s probably best that you don’t tell anyone I was here. If anyone asks about me, just tell them I stole some of your food and ran away, okay?”

“Why?” Tim asks, his eyes wide in his confusion.

“There are some people after me and I’d hate for something to happen to you three because of me. Please, promise me that you’ll lie about my being here. Can you do that?” You add, influencing them is not on your agenda today. Though you could just force them to lie.

Tim and August exchange a quick look and nod. “We promise.”

You smile again and nod. “Good. Take care.”

You turn and decide that maybe for a little bit, running might be better. You reach the tree line and as soon as you’re somewhat sheltered you push yourself to full speed. You continue like this for only a few minutes because you’re so curious as to whether being fed and not being fed will affect how far you can fly. Up in the air, the world disappears and you’re able to focus on pushing your limits.

“I’m not saying it’s not good to see you, bud, but you show up here, take Y/N, and then have the audacity to come back without her?” Tony’s voice is hard, upset, his temper close to exploding.

“I did try and bring her back, but she would not let me.” Thor replies. “She flew away after kicking me.”

“Good.” Steve says.

“Tony, you know Y/N, if she wanted to go with Thor none of us were going to be able to stop her.” Bruce interjects.

“He’s right, babe.” Pepper says weakly.

“I understand your anger, Stark, but that is why I came, to assure that she arrived safely.”

“No!” Tony snaps, his snarky tone dropped for a shorter more staccato inflection. “No, you don’t understand. There are people after her. Okay? She’s not safe out there, on her own. If she doesn’t come back, then what? Hm? You go back to Jane and we’re left to pick up the pieces.”

“Danger?” Thor repeats. He’s confused but suddenly very interested and worried. “What people? Why haven’t you told me about this?”

“We had it handled.” Steve replies.

When Tony speaks again, his voice is quiet but intense, like he’s standing close to whomever he’s speaking to. “You brought her here. You brought her into this life and then you passed off that responsibility. Now you have the nerve to show up, take her, and let her leave on her own?”

You don’t want to hear anymore. You move inside finally, clearing the doorway from the balcony into the atrium. The sight is one to behold. Thor stands closest to you, facing everyone else. Tony is indeed standing right beside Thor. Even though Thor is massive and towers over Tony, the look on Tony’s face is severe and threatening. Pepper sits on one of the sofas by the chess set on the coffee table, Bruce stands leaning against the back of that same sofa, and behind Tony and Thor, furthest from you, is Steve. He stands with his arms crossed over his chest, his gaze glued to the floor in what you recognize as his worried expression when he’s trying to keep everyone from seeing just how worried he is.

“Er, guys?” Bruce is the first one to see you. He stares at you with wary eyes. Pepper sees you next, her eyes filled with relief. Then Tony looks over and his faces seems to relax instantly as he sets eyes on you.

“Son of a bitch.” He mutters somewhat quietly. It’s so still in the room however that everyone hears him. “I thought I said you were grounded?”

In the same moment, Steve races around Tony and Thor until he’s at your side his hands finding your shoulders as he looks you over, the worry on his face finally showing through. “Are you alright?”

“Sorry.” You reply, both to Tony and Steve. “I’m okay. A little tired.”

Tony moves over to Pepper and plants himself beside her. “How did you get here?”

“I flew.” You look away from Steve to Tony who exchanges a look with Bruce in their excitement. Why are they so excited about your flying? It’s funny but also annoying. You don’t like those tests they like putting you through.

“How fast did you go?” Bruce inquires, eagerly.

“Arizona to Kansas in a little over an hour? Another two hours from there to here?” However the hell fast that was.

“Mach 1?” Bruce says as he turns to Tony who seems as pleased as Bruce. “That’s impressive.”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous it was for you to just up and fly away by yourself?” Steve asks you, his hands grip your arms more tightly as his anger seems to seep through.

“I know. I’m sorry, I just…” You needed to get out of that desert. You weren’t thinking. You were reacting. You turn your eyes to Thor finally and the ache in your chest angers you so much, you glare. “Why are you here?”

“Welp, that’s our cue. How about we go have dinner in the den, honey?” Tony helps Pepper to her feet.

“Good idea.” She replies.

“I’ll join you.” Bruce says as he scurries after Pepper and Tony.

Thor looks as relieved as Steve had just a minute ago before he’d switched to being angry. He takes a few steps towards the two of you and you see his eyes land on Steve’s hands around your arms then move back up to your face.

“I only came to ensure your safe arrival. I did not know you could fly.” He says, sounding somewhat impressed.

“Well, I’m here, so you can go.” You’re trying not to be angry and hurt but it’s seeping out and you can’t help it. You don’t want Steve to see it. You shift your focus on him.

“Where were you?” You demand. It’s his turn to look apologetic. He takes back his hands, looks up at Thor quickly, then turns his gaze on you but doesn’t meet your eyes.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have stayed away for so long. I had something to take care of.”

You’ve never seen Steve not tell you the truth intentionally. It’s very easy to see the difference between him refusing to tell you the truth and him almost outwardly lying.

“Something so urgent you left me alone in your room in the middle of the night?” You forget for a second that Thor is there as your curiosity takes priority.

Steve doesn’t, and he glances up at Thor. “I think we should talk about this later.” Steve reaches out for you again, but you take a step away from him, hating the way this feels.

“Steve, what’s going on?”

Steve frowns and shakes his head. “Not now.”

This is stupid. You scoff as you look away from him and then look up at Thor who stands trying to blend into the room, avoiding looking at the two of you. You’ve never seen that particular look on his face before and you’re sure he’s feeling uncomfortable. Well, now he knows how it kind of felt to watch him and Jane in the desert. Though you and Steve fighting might not be as jealousy inducing as watching him fuss over Jane. Thor gives you a wide, toothless grin. With another glare you turn and move towards the hallway that leads down to your room.

“Damn it.” Steve mutters.

You freeze, here in the hallway, out of sight, you can still hear him.

“Y/N does not like to be lied to.” Thor says.

“Yeah, I know.” Steve replies.

You know that eavesdropping is wrong but they’re talking about you! The temptation is too great, so you press yourself against the wall by your door, trying to lay as flat as possible so that they cannot see you.

“Is the secret you are keeping from her really so important to keep? It would be better if you were honest with her. She is not a woman to trifle with when she is lied to.”

“I just don’t know how to tell her. It’s complicated.” Steve sighs.

“Complicated how?” Thor asks, curious it sounds like.

“I got a phone call the other night.”

“Yes.” Thor urges him on.

“It was a call from Sharon.”

“Sharon?” Thor asks, unsure of who Steve is talking about.

“She’s a girl I sort of had a thing with. We were never really official. She used to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. and then she worked for the C.I.A. When I went on the run we lost contact and then when Wakanda happened I was too afraid to find out if she’d survived or not. It turns out she did. She was on a plane when it happened, and the plane went down when the pilot and co-pilot disappeared. She and a few other people survived, and they were only recently picked up. I went to see her. If I tell Y/N that,”

“She will murder you. With her bare hands. Judging from the strength of her kick which I surmise was only part of her strength, she is more than capable of really strangling you. And after what I put her through with Jane, she cannot take another instance of being pushed aside for a former lover. You say that your courtship with this Sharon was never official?”

“No.” Steve assures him. “But I’d be lying if I said that things weren’t still…complicated.”

You shut your eyes, regretting your decision to eavesdrop. You feel them begin to sting and shut them even more tightly. Very gently but in your frustration, you bang the back of your head against the wall, biting down hard on your lower lip to keep from making any noise. Why was this happening to you?

“So, what will you do?” Thor asks Steve. “This was not part of our agreement.”

Agreement?!

“Agreement? Thor, it wasn’t like we signed a contract. You said that your leaving would be best, and I assured you that I would keep her safe.”

“Is breaking her heart not the opposite of keeping her safe?” Thor asks. “Contract or no, you are breaking your word.”

“I’m not going to break her heart.” Steve assures Thor. “I can’t do that to her. Whatever there might be…whatever there was between Sharon and I, I won’t leave her.”

The room is suddenly quiet for several minutes. You wonder if maybe they’ve left.

“I am sorry for taking her to look for Jane. I was unaware of the dangers to her life or I would have never let her leave the compound.”

“I appreciate that. But if I’m honest, we can’t keep her locked up here like some prisoner. She’s going to have to get out there and fight.” Steve sighs.

“You could not stop her even if you were to try.” Thor says with a smile in his voice. “She’s so strong now. She’s changed so much.”

“Only in strength. She’s still as vulnerable as she’s always been.”

“Yes.” Thor says, remembering your fight this afternoon, maybe? “I should go, Jane will be wondering where I am.”

“How’s that going?” Steve asks, genuinely curious.

“Oh, you know, it is what it is.” When Steve doesn’t reply Thor speaks up again. “Things are fine.”

“Good.” Steve replies. “See you around.”

You quickly sneak into your room, shutting the door carefully behind you before moving to sit on your bed with your back to the door and begin to strip off your shoes, socks, and then reach behind you to try and unzip your dress. Your mind is racing with new information. Your heart is aching again, this time because once again, you’re in the way. This time it’s Steve and Sharon? How lame! Their names start with the same letter.

You huff as you find your unreasonable panic ridiculous and funny. You place both of your hands on either side of your lap and lean forward as you try to steady your breathing. You’re not going to cry again. Not today. You’ve shed enough tears today. A knock on your door makes you sit up straight. You swallow the knot in your throat and reach back towards your zipper again.

“Come in.” Your voice is steady, thank goodness.

“You still awake?” Steve asks. He moves in and shuts the door behind him.

“Yeah. I can’t,” You stretch harder, trying to grasp the little clasp on the back of your dress. “Reach.”

“Let me.” Steve climbs onto the bed and moves up behind you, kneeling on your bed, then slowly slides the zipper down to your waist. “There.”

He pushes the dress open a bit, his fingers grazing the skin of your back. You shut your eyes and fight the wave of sadness that threatens to overcome you. Suddenly you feel his lips between your shoulders and you stand up quickly. It’s a sudden reaction, like you’ve been shocked.

“Thanks.” You say and quickly peel the dress off, throwing it into the small hamper by your dresser. You reach for the same grey robe you wore the first night you arrived with Thor and slip it on before turning to look at Steve. He’s sitting on the edge of your bed, looking at you with worried storm blue eyes. “What was the call about, Steve?”

Steve sighs, his expression serious. He knows you’re not going to drop it. “It…” He swallows, and you know he’s warring with himself. Whether being honest with you is worth the pain it might cause you.

Please be honest with me. Please don’t lie to me.

“You remember I told you that I wasn’t sure if Sharon was alive or dead?” He gets to his feet, rubs at his chin and moves to look at a few of the books you’ve been reading on the dresser.

“Yeah?”

“Well, she’s alive. That was her on the phone the other night. And I left…to go meet her. They found her on a small island, stranded with a few other people after their plane crashed. I was her first call.” This was his way of saying that she’d wanted to see him and because he’d left in such a damn hurry, he most definitely wanted to see her too.

“And you wanted to see her?”

Steve looks at you, knowing exactly where your thoughts are. He frowns and moves towards you his hands coming up to grab you by your waist and pull you towards him. “Y/N, there’s something about Sharon that I haven’t told you. There’s a reason she’s important to me.”

“You two were into each other, I get it.” You reply. You don’t pull away from him because right now, after losing Thor, you don’t want to lose Steve too. You’re not going to let this one go without a fight. Not this time. You’re done giving their ex-girlfriends a chance to steal them away. And though his touch makes your heart ache, it also makes your desire to have him be yours more intense. You reach down and run your hands along his forearms and stop only when you’ve reached his biceps. Your fingers caress his muscles gently, relishing in the way they feel underneath your hands.

“It’s more than that. You see Sharon’s last name is Carter.”

“Okay?” You bring your hands up to his chest, resting them there, reminding him of what your touch feels like. You won’t let him forget it. You’ll make him want it more than he’s ever wanted anything in his life.

“And her aunt was Margaret Carter,” Steve continues.

“Right?” You reply, your voice quiet and close to a whisper.

“Who we both know as Peggy Carter.”

Your hands freeze, and you let that sink in for a minute, eyes glued on Steve’s. “Oh.”

@bionic-buckyb @mdgrdians @ulired @biawol @markusstraya @queenof-wakanda @just-amarvelfan @slice-of-thunder @clockworkherondale

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havocphilosopher · 5 years

Text

Endgame

So I saw Avengers: Endgame the Sunday after it came out and after about 3ish weeks of mulling things over I have my own review. So I did cry at parts and such but overall, I was disappointed in the entirety of the movie. The cinematics were really cool and the scene with all the female avengers was awesome (but I still have issues with it). But there was a LOT I didn’t like. Overall I wish the Russo brothers didn’t direct it. They truly treated it as a product and not a story to be told to a loving audience. The whole thing with them not telling the actors what was happening in the scene or who they were fighting (in Tom Holland’s case if I can remember correctly) just hindered the actors from really telling their characters story and performance. They didn’t care.

The plot of this film is hard because I was expecting something with time travel or whatnot but the whole thing just felt weird to me. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy parts like when the two Steve’s interact or well... I honestly can’t remember because I am bad at remember things. In all honesty they could have gone back to Thor and just told him to go for the head but you know, no need for a sequel and no extra money made.

Moving on. I didn’t mind that Tony died but I also don’t think he deserved it. Like I know he started the MCU and now he ends with it. (I guess) but I do like the though of his consciousness returning in a robot body or whatever. I honestly felt bad because what about Friday? He also has a family! Come on Russos! Fuck! (Pepper was amazing in her suit btw)

Anyway. I HATED what they did with Steve. Going back and spending the rest of his life with Peggy. Like I can understand why that would be sweet and all but if you think about it, how can Steve live with knowing all of the things happening. With Bucky, with Hydra, with everything he just left behind. What would he say to explain how he got back from the plane crash into the ice?! Like I get the whole thing of him wanting to step down and such but what about helping Sam become the next Captain America? Does he know what to do? Just all of that felt so out of character. I feel like he should have been the one to die. I don’t know why. (Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want anyone to die but eh)

I was miffed with the other Gamora. It felt weird. That’s the best I can describe it.

They should have done more with Captain Marvel (that may be personal bias). They should have given her more weight and speaking lines.

I understand why Hawkeye just slipped after the snap, but I wish they did more with him in the entire MCU in general (he is supposed to be deaf as he is in a lot of the comics (I believe)).

The Hulk/Bruce thing made me uneasy but okay.

With Thor, okay, so I get that he is blaming himself for failing. I loved the fact that he was able to get a conversation with his mother again but I felt like his character was sorta thrown out the window. First, he is Asgardian and mortal beer probs wouldn’t get him wasted. But honestly I feel conflicted so much about his character portrayal in this movie. He’s depressed, hating himself, he failed. And yes his people were slaughtered, lost all his family, lost an eye, and all of that shit but his development was just thrown. He should have been the one to snap but oh well.

RIP Nat. Was sad about that.

Unpopular opinion maybe but I actually liked Vision so... They just literally swept him under the rug. He is an amalgamation of the Mind Stone, AI, robotics, organics (I think...???) and all of these incredible things that make him so unique. I have a lot of things about Vision but that is a whole different post that you probs don’t care for. He was never mentioned or mourned.

I really wanted something between Nick Fury and Carol but Nick didn’t even get a speaking line as far as I remember.

The funeral gave me so many mixed things. They focused solely on Tony but what about those that we also lost. Natasha. They had Clint and Wanda just discussing about it but that is all.

The thing with “This is the first movie in the MCU with the first confirmed gay character!” Like bitch, they were a throwaway character with the line of “I think I will see HIM again.” or whatever it was. Fuck off.

There is probably more that I have opinions on, if I think about things I will add them under and edit.

This is a lot and I am sorry for the long post, I just needed to get my thoughts out. And now the thing is that I did like Infinity War. And the other Avengers movies. (They are with their flaws I know) but this is the first one to really disappoint me. Even after the whole forced romantic feelings between Nat and Bruce in Age of Ultron and saying that they are monsters for turning into the Hulk and being sterile respectively. I wish I could have enjoyed this more but I really just didn’t. If you enjoyed the movie, nice! My respects to all of the actors portraying amazing characters and I am sorry you had to have Endgame directed by the Russo Brothers.

This is all simply my opinion.

#endgame spoilers #avengers endgame #long post #review

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academyxrpg · 6 years

Photo

GENERAL STATS:

CHARACTER NAME: Desmond Nathaniel Coulson

FC: Matthew Daddario

STATUS AT ACADEMY X: Head of Campus Security / Recruiter

NICKNAME: Des, Desi

OTHER ALIAS: None

BIRTHDAY: September 20, 2004

AGE: 25

SPECIES: Human

ABILITIES: Basic Human Abilities, Skilled Martial Artist, Skilled Marksman, Skilled Archer, Skilled in Melee Weapons

NOTABLE FEATURE(S): Thick Southern drawl

BIO:

Desmond Coulson, also known as Des, was born on September 20, 2004 in Shreveport, Louisiana to Paul and Isabella Coulson and was an only child. Both his mother and father were SHIELD agents and were often sent out of town on business, during which times he would go to New York to spend time with his uncle Phil. Due to the fact that he had to take time off during his parents’ deployments, he was unable to attend traditional schooling and homeschooled, taking classes online with teachers appointed by SHIELD due to his parents being well respected within the organization. When he wasn’t schooling, he spent a lot of his time outdoors learning how to shoot guns, archery and martial arts to keep himself grounded. He aspired to one day follow in his parents and uncle’s footsteps and become a SHIELD agent.

Des had a close and loving relationship with his parents. So much so that when he told them at age 13 that he thought he was gay, they fully supported him as he explored his sexuality. He came out of the closet at 14 but was met with prejudice within his neighborhood in Shreveport which was made up of predominantly older religious people who were taught, and in turn taught their children, that being gay was an abomination and to be gay you had a disease that needed to be cleansed. They tried to push for him to be sent to “straight” camps to which his parents, ever the outspoken couple, told them exactly where they could shove those conversion camps. Needless to say, Des didn’t have many friends growing up which made for a lonely life considering he didn’t have any siblings or cousins that he could hang out with. This only motivated him to focus on his studies so that he could get out of Louisiana and join his uncle in New York.

Two weeks before Des’s 16th birthday, tragedy struck. His parents took a mission down in Brazil apprehending former Hydra operatives spotted in the Amazon. After taking the men into custody they flew home only for their jet to get shot down by unknown Hydra operatives, wanting to ensure that the captured operatives didn’t get a chance to expose the whereabouts of the remaining members of Hydra. Their plane crash landed somewhere near Florida, killing everyone onboard, and it took a while before officials could sift through the wreckage to identify the bodies. Des was in New York with his uncle when they got the call that forever changed his life. Des was orphaned at the age of 15 and forced to start over with his uncle Phil as his legal guardian in New York. Des mourned took the loss of his parents hard, resorting to cutting to help deal with the pain of their loss. When he cut a little too deep once and nearly lost his life from blood loss, his uncle stepped in and took on a more active role of helping him get back to himself so the he could move on with his life. Phil told him that his parents would have wanted him to be happy and live, not wallow and cut. Des started taking martial arts and meditating to help cope with his negative emotions and eventually, with his uncle’s help, pulled himself out of his lowest point.

At the age of 18, Des became one of the youngest students to graduate from the SHIELD Academy with top marks in all of his classes. Due to his skills and dedication to the organization, Des quickly rose in the ranks of SHIELD. After the death of Nick Fury, his uncle took over as Director of SHIELD and he was assigned Phil’s old job of liaison and recruiter for the organization in its attempts to rebuild after the fall of SHIELD under Director Fury’s leadership following his death. Needing a new place to train future agents of SHIELD, Des helped his uncle find a new Academy for aspiring agents. It was upon hearing of the new Academy and safe haven for mutants, future heroes, and Asgardian refugees started by Tony and Pepper Stark, that Des convinced his uncle to strike up a deal with his friends to also include SHIELD training as part of the academy for those aged out of the general education classes. Thus the new SHIELD Academy was born inside of Academy X.

Des met Adam Fandralson when he first arrived to Earth, being sent by his uncle with a team to investigate a disturbance in the countryside near Syracuse, New York upon the Asgardian’s arrival in their realm. He and Adam immediately hit it off and due to his status as a Warrior and prior training in Asgard, he was welcomed into the SHIELD organization and became Des’s partner. When Adam took a job at Academy X as a hand to hand instructor under James “Bucky” Barnes, Des was assigned the job of working at the Academy alongside his partner as a recruiter for SHIELD and the Academy as a whole. Des was also hired as Head of Security at the Academy and is in charge of maintaining security at the Academy with the help of his appointed security staff.

PERSONALITY:

Desmond can be described as a very friendly person, often getting along with nearly anyone and everyone he meets. He can be very charming and flirtatious at times, often confusing the females he unintentionally flirts with due to the fact that he has been openly gay since he was 14 years old. He is very dedicated when it comes to his job and maintaining the safety of all of the students within the campus of Academy X. He is loyal to a fault, often risking his life for those he cares about most. He can be a little moody at times, often a bit sarcastic with a dry sense of humor. On the flip side, Des likes to have fun and will often go out with friends when he isn’t working or trolling bars after work. Though he has never had a serious boyfriend, Des considers himself a hopeless romantic and looks forward to the day he can find that special someone. After moving out of his depression as a teenager, Des developed a live life to the fullest philosophy, living every day as if it were his last. He tends to get a little awkward around men he finds attractive because of nerves but once he warms up to a person he likes to talk and joke around with people.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Adam Fandralson - Best Friend / Partner - Des met Adam when he first teleported into Midgard/Earth and they became fast friends to the point of being nearly inseparable. He would do anything for the Asgardian and vice versa. They both consider themselves like brothers and would do anything for one another to make sure that they are both happy and safe.

Jian Hogunson - Close Friend / Romantic Interest - Des met Jian when he moved to New York following the death of his mother when he showed up at the SHIELD headquarters attempting to find a way to get to Asgard to find his father, Hogun since SHIELD knew how to get into contact with Thor. Upon hearing that his father at been killed in Asgard prior to Thor moving what was left of his people to Midgard, Des helped him cope with the deaths of both of his parents as he had been through it himself. Des found him attractive from the very beginning but considering the circumstances surrounding the beginning of their friendship, he chose to not say anything about his attraction to the half Asgardian. He really likes Jian and wants to ask him out to see where things lead upon hearing that the Asian man was bisexual, he just hasn’t gotten up the nerve to ask him out. Maybe now that Jian joined the Academy on the SHIELD track, he will finally make his move.

Torunn Thorsdottir - Close Friend - When Torunn crossed over into their reality from an alternate reality upon the destruction of the world she once lived in, Des was with Adam and one of the first people she met. Though he knows that his best friend is attracted to the blonde, he doesn’t say anything to her hoping that one day they will end up together since he thinks they would be good for each other. He and Torunn, however, have a very close and almost sibling like relationship. Like with Adam and Jian, he would do anything for her.

Cassie Lang - Friend - Des met Cassie when he moved in with his uncle and they hit it off. She would often come to him for advice about what it was like being gay as he was the first gay person she had met around her age and she didn’t feel comfortable talking about stuff like sexuality with the adults they lived around. She knows he has a thing for her best friend, Jian, and she constantly tries to get him to tell him how he feels.

#all #allmale #allstaff #takenmale #takenstaff #taken #desmondcoulson #gay #takengay

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