i want to do a rewatch of some mcu movies but i worry that i am at risk of remembering how fundamentally aggressively incurious those movies were abt everything & anything that happened in them and it will make me temporarily insane

as someone who loves the sam raimi spider-man movies... i honestly DON'T want a spider-man 4.

so many spider-man fans wholeheartedly believe they're going to get a fourth raimi film, or TASM 3. to be fair, i'm not against andrew's spidey coming back. his films had a lot of potential (and the first one is great!), and he's a great peter parker imo.

but even then, i'm just... why? why can't ppl move on? the fun about spider-man is that it has so many different adaptations and different spider-people - especially miles who's finally getting the spotlight on the big screen. as much as i like tobey and andrew, i'm sick of ppl demanding their return. AGAIN. they got no way home and they still aren't satisfied with it.

and although i will always hate nwh, i also have the impression that tobey's and andrew's roles were more of a homage to the old days, so they came back one last time to help tom. i mean, i think the concept on paper is cool, too bad it pushes tom aside. still, it's been so many years, why does everyone insist tobey and/or andrew are the "only true spider-men"? there's not a PERFECT spider-man. they're all unique in their own ways. if you personally resonate with tobey and/or andrew, that's cool. but you have to respect that things change and spider-man is a hero that means different things to many ppl. that's what spider-verse explores.

when i was a kid, i did want spider-man 4 to happen. i get why some ppl don't want their childhood hero to be played by someone else. i remember being disappointed when TASM was first announced. but i think spider-man homecoming helped me accept other versions, ones that are fresh and more relatable to younger audiences. and spider-verse then opened my mind. i didn't even know miles before i saw the teaser. i was so excited! and i was not disappointed.

i mean, i think spider-verse is universally beloved in the spidey fandom, but mcu peter still gets the short end of the stick, which sucks. i'm so tired of ppl pitting the live action spideys against each other, especially to shit on mcu peter. it just feels too mean-spirited to me and it frustrates me that ppl have an unhealthy attachment to the older films.

besides, with all the bad reboots we've been getting, do you REALLY want them to ruin your childhood films? i think it's best to just let them go. or just watch the movies when you miss them.

if you're still doing the character ask game: mcu loki - 2, 3, 7, 8? (i know that's a lot, but i feel like they go together. you can just pick one pair if you like)

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

My love for Loki is because he is a schemer (I even love the pre-reincarnation evil old man comic book version). I just love sneaky, scheming characters that are disliked by those around them for either unfair or fair reasons. It's the trait I am drawn towards (see my love for SkekSil). I love how contradictory his traits are. His self-hatred and grandiosity. I love that he even loses when he wins. I also find him very projectable/relatable? Maybe because I also have difficulty maintaining relationships. I definitely think a part of me is so attached to the concept of Loki due to how Christianity demonized him, the most notable aspect in the MCU being Loki's horned helm that made my very Catholic mom scream at the fucking TV.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

This is hard because I feel like the flaws add onto him. My least favorite thing is his tendency to resign to shitty conditions. On relationships and plans. This can be shown by his sabotage of relationships (e.g. Sif). And his sabotage of plans that might prove too risky (e.g. trying to betray Thor in Sakaar so he won't leave to fight Hela and potentially die). Loki's a very pessimistic character, I'd say. While I am glad in the series he didn't become a Time cop, he still shows strong signs of that pessimistic streak by going at fixing the problem on his own without really talking things out.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

My favorite HC (by 100indecisions) is that he has mental scar tissue from the mind stone's influence that makes him difficult to enchant. I think I've claimed that I forgot it was a HC when S2 aired and people were wondering why he didn't just let Sylvie enchant him. I also like to see how people HC his magical abilities.

I love psychological analyses that don't denigrate mental illnesses. And I love analyses on motifs and symbolism, or interpretations of the character as metaphor for neurodivergence. I also love trauma HCs as the angsty bitch that I am.

Although I am a grimdark bitch, I enjoy GOTG + Asgard mashups where Loki didn't die in IW. He's a fun character to have interact with the GOTG, and there's the question of whether he'd know Gamora and Nebula.

And there's some cool TVA fics like pantiara's "Trapped in Time."

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I dislike HCs where he's this gentle bookish prince that has NEVER touched a blade nor killed anything before Thor (2011). Did you all not see him display combat skills in pretty much everything he's been on?

I loathe the way most people talk about Loki. Either he deserves eternal suffering, was evil from birth, "pretended" to kill himself, and has evil personality disorder, or he's "too good" to have the personality disorder and it's actually evil Odin that has the personality disorder.

And my least favorite kind of Loki fic is Frostiron where it's revealed Loki is actually as nice as freaking Jesus. Loki should be messy and not some waifish victim, especially if he comes from Asgard, land of "We don't talk about our feelings". And lol, I just don't like Tony.

I guess I also think ship wars are pointless and obnoxious.

Thanks for the ask!! ^_^

*I'm back with more thoughts, this time about my Lovely(GN), Sam and their responses to trauma as I've personally put it around in my head (also a reason for me to talk about how I've written Lovely).

So there's no denying that Sam and Lovely have very similar parallels and contrasts involving their respective turning and I think there is room for an interesting thought experiment in the idea of how people internalise and externalise their trauma especially those with trauma of similar happenings(because no one responds to trauma–even if similar trauma–the same way).

In Sam's case, we know how he has adressed his trauma, he has cut off all interactions with Alexis(his former sneaky link) and has chosen to pretty much exist in defiance of and within the limits of his circumstances. Basically, he views his turning as a bad thing due to the loss of his abilities' innate potential as well as the circumstances surrounding the turning (ie. Alexis turning him regardless of his denial).

Tldr; Sam has repressed and unresolved trauma from that night

Lovely on the othe hand is an interesting case because we are made to project onto Lovely how they feel about being turned as they don't present negative feelings about visibly. While this has brought us a lot of angst, I wanna introduce a concept:

Lovely isn't as upset as Sam is about their turning.

Hear me out and remember this is just my variation of things, you don't have to agree with it, but I am personally interested in the dynamic this presents. To better illustrate my point, I'll set the stage and use Sam and my Lovely, Logan Varney.

*To get you up to speed, Logan is a Navajo ex-foster kid and college dropout that pretty much was going around getting odd jobs in Dahlia before wandering into Wonderworld and meeting Vincent which leads us into the current canon of things.

Now imagine with me if you will, a scenario in which Sam approaches Logan and attempts to talk to them of his own volition, about their turning and how he presumes they must feel about it, however he comes to learn that Logan isn't as upset about it as he had initially assumed. Instead, Logan views it in the same light of a videogame's reset function–sure, they have to start over with their progress in electro magic and may never get the same results they once did in their previous try at their life but they still have a chance to go about learning magic even if it looks different for them as a vampire

Now, we cannot deny that there are two very different backgrounds to consider in this little clash of trauma responses. Sam is coming at their turning from the perspective of an assumably magic-born freelancer background with the mindset that Lovely is experiencing a major loss after working incredibly hard, whilst Logan is taking it from the perspective of a latent electro energeric who is so used to turbulent change that this is simply just another step back that they can overcome. They also have never had the length of experience they do with their magic that Sam has and as such have chosen to view it otherwise as they don't see loss but an alternative route. One also can't deny that Lovely sees a therapist whilst Sam does not (to our knowledge anyways).

This also opens for me to talk about the mental process I've basically theorised in Sam's approach to his view of trauma, in which it mirrors Stephen Strange from the MCU. When I say that, I should be specific and say that it falls under the idea of a "fall from grace". Both Sam and Stephen are at the height of their prime before tragedy strikes (coincidentally a car crash) and leaves them both unable to perform as they're accustomed to. Additionally, they mourn the incident in a way that moreso derives sadness from the percieved outlook of the loss of their former capabilities (Sam being coded as a disabled man really coming in clutch here). Meaning that the biggest gripe they have in their shared view of their circumstances is that they will both never be the same (which is valid).

Where am I going with this?

Well, welcome to my agenda of "Everyone with similar traumas to Sam is going to be a narrative parallel that will make him face an aspect of his trauma" aka "Sam gets therapy"; Logan's role in that is the facet of accepting the lingering effects of said trauma.

Here, lovely challenges the notion that Sam hasn't addressed how he views the outcome of that night. They've had support and chances to understand how the inversion has affected them which has allowed them to comprehend their feelings about their turning and their circumstances so they know what they're specifically sad about and how they've come to counteract that sadness by seeing their vampirism not as a curse but as a different way they now have to live.

Sam has not done that. Thus, this is a foreign concept because he's held in almost three decades of resentment for the way he now lives, meanwhile Lovely is vibing and processing their experience.

The most important part of it, is that Lovely's reaction now places Sam in the position to recognize that he's unwittingly projected his feelings about his turning onto them, seeking validation from them through someone who doesn't feel that. There's of course nothing wrong with that and I intend to emphasize that people do that regardless of intention to or not, but the absolute best part of this perspective I wish to explore in my current WIP is that Lovely takes it so casually that Sam now has to understand that despite their similar circumstances, Logan doesn't feel the same about their turning and its effects which now makes him consider the way he addresses his trauma*.

*As is normal for people, we challenge our own thoughts and ideas when we get new information, in some cases that means we change our mind about previous subjects and in other cases, we don't. Depends

Frankly I'm excited to finally get done with this WIP especially since this is Logan's first proper fic that I'm doing for them but it's also just interesting to explore how they feel about their turning outside of the normal view of it.

Anyways, laters ✌️

what are your top 5 ships for your characters? any ships you wanna write?

oh, okay. hello. i guess to preface this; these are my opinions, partly formed from hcs and rps, fanfic, personal thoughts, fun ideas.

and like i mean. most of these i would write. i love to pre-establish / plot ooc before i ship in rp normally

im gonna preface this ask as romantic ships

CLINT BARTON -> i have a dozen of these way more and its hard to do a top 5, like there are so many things i ship with clint, like so many (and so many non canon ships; actually their are probbaly non cnaon ship i ship way more than clintasha but ssshh)

Hawkingbird (Bobbi M. + Clint) -> that's my heart and soul right here, barbie and ken of marvel, number one, would kill for

Ironhawk (Tony S. + Clint) -> look look this is my second most shipped thing, and like oh man the thread w/ mts giving me brainrot about them

Winterhawk (Bucky B. + Clint) -> they just make me giggle in recent canon, but even back in CW1, while there wasn't a lot; there is something to be said about the two "trained by captain amercia" boys, and candidates to be the next cap boys (yes clint was in the running for that)

Spiderhawk (Jessica D. + Clint) -> hear me out, they were very cute, they had a lot of fun together; there was real potential; jess just happened at a huge transitional period for clint, and like than he goes and cheats, can't communicate, but like they really are cute and they brought out the fun in each other

Clintasha (Natasha R. + Clint) -> look i love that, clint will always love and be in love w/ natasha; they aren't my highest rated ship, actually im mentioning them here to put out; that like she is his best friend, and i really love them platonically like oh boy i could go on about that ( but i do ship them romantically too just not as much as platonic ) also natasha is always the one he ends up trying for chance and chance again with her

HONORABLE MENTION -> WinterWidowHawkingbird -> Okay, but Bobbi, Bucky, Natasha, and Clint polycule/foursome/OT4 for real. it combines all the good ships. anytime these four appear on panel together? I go wild. also Clint and the Superspies, should be their band name. // spiderhawk, peter + clint, they are both disasters and we love it // clint + wanda, god he has such a big crush on her and just that's a best friend, they have being the first gen of new avengers together // deadpool and clint, i kill for wade and clint ship, cause just ask me later i love these two // bruce and clint, an factor in civil war 2, but also the amount of times clint specifically has either shot bruce to save him or shot bruce cause he asked is more than a few times. but yee. hulkeye good ship. // steve and clint is a ship i could go off about // and so many more

I'LL DO THE REST UNDER THE CUT.

PEPPER POTTS -> oh boy pepper ships are a special something, because pepper is special to me you see

Happy Hogan + Pepper -> THIS RIGHT HERE. THE MOST IMPORTANT SHIP. Loves of each other's lives. The one. Soulmates. Love at First Fight. That's Pepper's two times husband. That's her ex-pug! My heart aches for Pepper that he's been dead in-universe timeline for probably longer than they were married; i have many headcanons about pepper and happy, especially in terms of my pepper; and just them. the iron family babes. tony's married friends. and just I would weep for comic/616 happy to write ahh

Pepperony (Tony S. + Pepper) -> look they may have never dated, or done more than kiss and sleep together like once or twice in 616/comic canon; whereas mcu did put them romantically which could have been done so much better (but i like the concept). NOW I love them Platonically. SO MUCH. They are best friends, and I have a lot of hcs about them just based in platonics and friendship, and actual canon... but yeah, i'd be so for them to actually explore a romantic relationship, and ship them romantically, as lovers.

Maria Hill/Pepper -> Ship Pepper with women. Look you know, hear me out. Just yes. Like YES? Before both being burned by Tony. To Maria just being shocked that Pepper Potts of all people /saved her/ to them just both being workaholics with /problems/ to bonding over stress, and drinks, and just Maria and Pepper finding common ground; and pepper plus woman makes my lesbian soul happy

Steve R. / Pepper -> self indulgent. self indulgent thoughts. headcanons of when steve is woken from the ice and tony is talking about that; and what his "bodyguard" tells him about steve; to pepper meeting steve, cause she's tony's PA/EA rolled into one, and getting to know steve/captain america cause of that through the early years of avengers, and just being friends with all the first avengers cause of her proximity to tony/iron man... to romance with captain america, steve rogers, and its so self indulgent. let her date a hero she just looks up and thinks is dreamy.

Natasha R/ Pepper -> same reasons as Maria. Don't have much to say, but boy would i ship it

HONORABLE MENTION -> look I'd be down for Rhodey and Pepper, they tick my /they are so platonic, almost too platonic/ friendship box to ship romantically, but i mean they could cute. tony's two best friend having a thing. // Bethany Cabe and Pepper hate fuck. that's it. that's the ship. it's toxic. neither of them like each other. but they hate fuck. // mj and pepper you know that could be something. // ship pepper with women ship pepper with women // and open to rp spawned ships

GREER NELSON -> oh boy this girl. okay. let just ship her with everyone. there done.

Marc / Greer -> i think they are cuties and hope that current canon does something with them a lot more and better

Hank / Greer -> first you are unpack all of hank pym, acknowledge all his issues; but there is something about them, with this canon, and what could be

Bobbi / Greer -> YES. JUST YES. Let girls kiss, and just these two. TBH Greer would date every single WCA but Bobbi makes top of the list

Jessica D. / Greer -> i just think when girls are friends and save each other's lives thy should kiss

Bruce Banner / Greer -> self indulgent ship from scraps and inspired from roleplays, but i think it's pretty cool ship

HONORABLE MENTION -> all the other WCA members, so janet & greer, tony & greer, clint & greer, simon & greer (its a canon ship), and then let's throw out there Jessica Jones & Greer (she did kiss her), wanda & greer and many more

GRACE THE MUSE -> i haven't seen the other three romances yet; but take this as my predictions for faves

Freddie / Grace -> PLAY THE GAME. THIS IS GONNA BE NUMBER ONE. First romance, only one I've seen so far. it was incredible

Peresphone / Grace -> i just think she is SO hot and what i know from her, her romance has gotta be good

Apollo / Grace -> GOD I NEED TO ROMANCE THIS MAN ! I loved Apollo !

Pan / Grace -> i am also looking forward to this romance from the spoiler images I've seen; i love pan

Hermes / Grace -> hear me out, them would be cute; the new idols dating :3

HONORABLE MENTION -> ships with grace, all. all good. polycule and polyships. calliope and grace.

I'M GONNA CUT IT HERE.

ALL Nyx ships good. Very good. Give Mom Love.

ALL ships with Liandra good (spicy).

Romantic shipping not applicable to Nadia or Singularity who are both very aroace.

Season 3 of Ducktales17 was very intriguing to me. I really did like it but I felt it needed a bit more thought and work in some areas. So the big questions are What did I like about this season? What did I not like about it? What would I keep the same? and What would I change? I’ll start with what I liked and would keep the same. Episodes like Astro Boyd and Let’s Get Dangerous really nailed what they were going for in terms of story and characters. With Let’s Get Dangerous it was a bright glimpse into the future for Darkwing Duck, Gosalyn’s intro, and the dynamic she’d share with Darkwing and Launchpad. It was fan service done extremely well that added a fresh new take on the character’s relationships and their goals such as not having Darkwing adopt Gosalyn, just simply taking her under his wing so to speak, and trying to rebuild the Ramrod to find her missing grandpa. Bradford’s reveal of being a part of Fowl was a nice change of pace as opposed to the usual villain arc the show did for the past 2 seasons, where the villains are kept secret from the family until the season finale, so they’re caught off guard and are surprised by the villains showing up. Astro Boyd is the embodiment of a perfect episode in my opinion. I really love that they decided to dive into Gyro’s character and his past to show just how wildly misunderstood he is. When I first saw Gyro’s intro episode I really thought they were setting him up to be a potential villain who’d end up betraying the McDuck family with the ending of the episode having Gyro sound menacing while talking about Project Blatherskite. I do realize that was him planning on making the Gizmoduck armor but there were other instances where they made it seem like he was secretly evil like trying to conquer the newly discovered Gyropuddlians, planning a GyroBotApocalypse, and cloning an army for goodness knows what purposes in Timephoon. Astro Boyd though showed how he became the man he is today and he as well as Boyd were wildly misunderstood and mistreated by others. By finally knowing the truth they were able to overcome all the struggles they went through and come together as a family. Speaking of which, I absolutely adore the father and son relationship between Gyro and Boyd, it’s without a doubt one of the most heartwarming relationships I’ve ever seen, they deserved so much more attention and love.

Now for the things this season did that I wasn’t a huge fan of. This season tried to do so much that it lacks focus. It’s trying to be the Huey season as well as Webby’s since they wouldn’t have a season 4 for her to be the focus in, trying to have a cartoon version of the MCU by having some unnecessary crossover episodes like the Tailspin one, trying to give almost every character a spotlight episode like Lena with The Phantom and the Sorceress, Penny with They Put a Moonlander on the Earth, and Goldie with The Forbidden Fountain of the Foreverglades to name a few. While there were good intentions behind doing that the biggest problem is that there are way too many characters in this show and it doesn’t help that in some of these cases this would be the last time these characters play a major part in the season or not much was done with the concepts in those episodes. Like with Lena finally having her own powers and Magica getting hers back, essentially all they did was have Lena use her power to stop time in the Swanstantine episode and have her face off with Blot in the finale but even then you don’t see how she defeats him so at the end of the day it kind of left me going what was even the point in doing that if it didn’t lead into anything worthwhile in the overall story. The same can be said about Magica and her getting her powers, not much came of that as well. I really love Astro Boyd but the show didn’t do much with the concepts in that episode either, there was little to no father and son moments between Gyro and Boyd, both of them barely showed up in the season or in Boyd’s case until the finale, and they never brought Akita back as a possible Fowl agent, a real missed opportunity there. Other problems I had were the lack of arcs for Huey and Gandra, how they handled the Fowl agents, the missing mysteries, and the Webby twist. So here’s how I would fix that, the Ramrod would be the only missing mystery that plays a big part in Fowl’s plan being the out of control vortex they have to shut down or else Fowl will throw everyone the McDuck family loves in there. I would also have the season focus solely on Huey and not Webby since I felt she got her chance to shine in season 1 and that was just as much her season as Dewey’s. There would also be no Papyrus of Binding, May and June, and Webby twist. Characters like Gyro, Boyd, Fenton, and Gandra would have more episodes focused around them and I would have Gandra either go through a proper redemption arc or just keep her evil all the way through considering the redemption arc of the villain’s lackeys were already done in the previous 2 seasons anyway. I’d have Fowl start out as Bradford and Black Heron being the leaders that each have their own pupil, Gandra with Bradford and Steelbeak with Black Heron. Then in the ImpossiBin episode instead of the phone call being about the stolen items have it be about people connected to the McDuck family going missing and Fowl bringing in 2 more agents, Akita who they broke out of jail and Magica who recently got her powers back seeking revenge. Finally, I would of course have more Gyro and Boyd father and son moments and episodes then what the actual show did. Those are my thoughts on what I liked, disliked, would keep the same, and would change about season 3. What about you? What did you like and dislike? What would you keep the same and change?

There has been something annoying me about the MCU for a while, but I never knew what exactly what it was. Now, I’m a big fan of the MCU, and honestly, their strengths outweighs their flaws—and they DO have flaws. But I think what’s been bugging me is how they dealt with Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff.

People tend to forget how skilled Natasha really is. She was trained since she practically a toddler to become a trained killer. She learned everything from manipulation to how to kill you in 99 ways with just using her hands. And instead of utlizing that type of strength in the MCU, she was mostly tossed aside for either becoming a meaningless love interest (*cough cough* brutasha *cough*) or being sexualized. And you know WHY this happened.

It’s because she didn’t get her own damn movie till after she fucking died.

If there was a black widow movie either in Phase 1 or early Phase 2, things would have been different because her strength would’ve been established and along with her core character. Like it bothers me to my core that people always joke about how Nat should’ve been already dead because she’s only fighting with a gun and she’s falling from buildings without a scratch. Yk, MAYBE if she had a movie explaining that she was injected with a different version of the super soldier serum than nobody would’ve had to joke or question about that. MAYBE if the MCU had more than one braincell when it came to Natasha Romanoff, then her movie—that should’ve been a sequel—WOULD’VE BEEN BETTER.

I’m sorry, this isn’t an educated essay, this is a rant from someone who hasn’t ate a decent meal in the last 42 hours, so take what I say with a grain of salt, or run with it, I don’t care. But I do know one thing that they did my girl Nat wrong, and her character had SO MUCH potential.

LIKE THE RED ROOM???? THAT WHOLE AESTHETIC AND CONCEPT?? THAT’S GOLD. THEY WERE SITTING ON GOLD.

More Headcannons from the MCU Clea’s a Fugitive AU;

Okay, gonna be putting up some more headcannons cause I feel like. Also, I need a short break from crocheting. Some of these are my attempts at bringing in elements from Multiverse into this AU, as much of it was conceived and written before that film even came out. And some of these are ideas I have but have not placed them in a proper fic or concept yet.

Either way, this going to be a long post. Enjoy!

.........................

- Christine actually gets married during the five year-gap. She invites Stephen to a Christmas party she and her husband are holding, which is where they have the conversation about Stephen always needing to “hold the knife” as it were.

- Stephen and Christine remain friends, but it’s on a casual basis, though she’s still the first person he and/or Wong go to for patching up life threatening injuries.

- Stephen actually keeps his initial robes for the first year or so of this AU, and doesn’t upgrade to his Multiverse costume until after he and Clea become a couple. Long story short, everyone forgot about cleaning Stephen’s outfit the week he was in the hospital recovering from being nearly killed at the hands of Dormammu. He’s initially upset about it...until he decides to take the “make lemonade out of lemons” approach and makes himself a new costume with Clea’s help.

- Victor Strange (Stephen’s younger brother) exists in the MCU, but has not spoken to Stephen since their parents both passed away. This frustrates Stephen, but he’s not (at all) surprised, either, since Victor always blamed him for what happened to Donna.

- Clea’s parentage is the same in this AU; daughter of Orini and Umar, the Unrelenting. The difference is that because Umar was so repulsed at being forced to carry Clea to term, she has not seen her since birth, meaning Clea has never met her own mother. Orini was too busy with his duties as Head of the Guard, leaving Dormammu to be her primary caretaker. While Orini has never said he blames Clea for Umar leaving, in her heart, she’s always knew he did. Since if he really loved and cared for her, he wouldn’t have kept avoiding her at every opportunity.

- Stephen slowly overcomes his trust issues during the first year he meets Clea, allowing her to explore her potential as a sorceress. He still has problems trusting, but they’re more from a place of fear and anxiety than anything else which he learns to reign in being in a relationship with Clea.

- Stephen has nightmares about what he did in Infinity War; with people blaming him for what he did and assaulting him over it.

- Clea does not care much for Earth coffee...except for cappuccinos. She LOVES cappuccinos.

- Stephen keeps his CD and vinyl collection (as well as pictures of his family) on a seperate desk in his inner sanctum, in case he wants to listen to music while reading or meditating.

- While Stephen has a few Carpenters CDs, they’re not actually his. They were keepsakes from Donna he “inherited” upon her death. He still listens to them, but has learned to disassociate the memories of Donna from the music, as even mentioning her is enough to get him choked up.

- Clea grows to love reading Shojo manga.

- Once Stephen and Clea become an item, Wong and the other Sanctum Masters start betting on how long it’ll take for them to get to third base. Stephen knows and is a bit perplexed by it, but doesn’t stop them. Clea thinks it’s amusing when he tells her.

- Rintrah befriends Stephen at the Karmar-Taj one day, so he starts hanging around the Sanctum more during his off time. He’s still a himbo, though.

- Nightmare becomes a reoccurring foe of Stephen’s during this time.

- Stephen often accompanies Wong to karaoke nights with Shang and Katy.

- Clea also suffers from PTSD nightmares and will often eat ice cream on nights where she’s awoken by her dreams. She wants to go to Stephen, but fears he will reject her if she tells him the atrocities she committed (no thanks to Dormammu gaslighting her). She starts waking him up after she works up the courage to tell him the truth and the opposite happens; he’s actually more concerned for her well being and mental health than he’d been before.

- The Flames of the Faltine are actually ancient magics lost to the Masters of the Mystic Arts for centuries. Partially due to their unpredictability; that prolonged exposure to the flames leaves the user mad and power hungry. Clea eventually teaches these magics to Stephen and Wong under more controllable circumstances.

- Wong actually cooks but doesn’t have the time he used to, being Sorcerer Supreme now, leaving Stephen and Clea to their own devices. Stephen, not having cooked a lot since the accident or his childhood, actually becomes quite a good chef and becomes proud to learn a new skill, whereas Clea just likes learning new things and growing more independent. Wong is a food snob, though and always micromanages the kitchen whenever he’s home.

- One of the things that makes Stephen slowly accept he’s falling in love with Clea is when she gets him a new watch (she’d seen his old one, but was unaware of the inscription on the back) with an inscription that says “I believe in you.” for Christmas.

- Stephen was a closet Britney Spears fan in the 90s.

- Clea finds his old Britney CD and, upon seeing how much she likes it, tells her she can keep it.

- Stephen’s primary conflict throughout the AU (when it begins) is love vs. duty. He’s not forbidden from falling in love with Clea, but because she won’t talk much about her past, and because he doesn’t know how much he can trust her, he fears what will happen to if it turns out she was an enemy agent, or simply a threat to his universe. He’s so sick of loosing everyone he loves (he may not remember Peter, but the wound it left on his heart is still fresh) and the lack of control he’d have over such things, makes him fear he may turn his back on the Mystic Arts and TAO’s teachings altogether if that were the case. He learns to overcome this through embracing trust and love, but it’s a slow journey and one that (he knows) will never (truly) be over.

- He’s so distraught over his feelings for Clea, he actually goes to Christine for advice. This would be where she tells him to “face his fears” something he takes to heart.

- Clea ends up becoming friends with Christine and (eventually) meets her one, true bestie, Valkyrie when she and Stephen visit New Asgard to help with a haunting.

- Once Clea starts making friends, Stephen starts to realize how few close friends he truly has. So he decides to call up Scott (who’d asked him to hang out sometime ago) and they begin forming a friendship, though Clint only tags along for shits and giggles (at first).

................................

And that’s all I got so far. 

Still not sure where America fits into this AU, but I definitely want to include her, so maybe it’ll come to me soon. Who knows.

Rereading The God Who Fell to Earth again, because for some reason I cannot remember much of this comic no matter how many times I read it

Not a huge fan of this comic overall. Spoilers for The God Who Fell to Earth. And a little spoiler for the end of Loki.

Now knowing that you technically know who Santa is...SIR.

Has the Bifrost been broken THIS WHOLE TIME, or has it broken multiple times?

If I ever play the Marvel Role-Playing Game, I'm creating Drrf. I love him so much. (Though I think my friends will only play with me if I DM, so he might have to be an NPC.)

Sometimes my reaction cannot be translated into words. My reaction to this quote was a full-bodied, groaning sigh. Yes, let's mention the love of your life LIKE IT'S NOTHING and not mention her again. He implies this shit has happened to him but doesn't talk about her again.

You know me. And you know your narrative. Even though this one really picks and chooses what it wants to recall from the AoA canon, it's very clear that Loki is at least on some level the God of Stories in this one, since he's so self-aware of the arc.

Oh my GOD I forgot about "Forsooth, I thought we were bros!" Lololololol I'm making a Quotes That Make Me Feral post now.

How is it that I don't remember much of anything about this comic and yet some of its voice for Loki I've internalized and put into fics? Like this trope of him thinking something and then saying that exact thing in dialogue. Like I know that's a thing that happens, that's not something this writer invented, but I don't think Ewing does it much for Loki. But I do.

"And what did your father say?" (Dad: Absolutely not.) "He said ask Mom." I'm dying.

Oh. Oh yes. Now I remember why I never remember this comic. It's the entire b-plot with Nightmare, and the fucking shit they did to the gay rep.

This is BLATANT Verity erasure, and I take issue with it.

You reference this story mere pages ago when mentioning Sigyn, and now that you relive it, SHE'S NOT EVEN THERE.

And yes, cropping Vote Loki out of this page was very much intentional. Fuck that comic, fuck President Loki, fuck the entire concept, fuck the real-life "politician" he was a stand-in for.

Listen, this comic just goes to show Nights on the Roof has the potential to be comic canon. No I will not elaborate.

Absolutely FERAL over this proof that Scarlet Witch #8 is not the first time Loki has (maybe) referenced Batman.

Hmm...that outfit looks vaguely familiar....

I don't know how or when MCU Loki saw this movie, but he's seen this movie.

and also like, am high still processing thor love and thunder i miss when comic book villians were like “I want to fuck death so i’m going to kill half the universe to do so” which you can’t really argue against the logic and in itself kind of a power move. But Gorr (Despite Christian bale doing the most for it) is like………. stupid? He was going to Marvel’s God (or embodiement of the universe whatever i’m sure theres ANOTHER God god) and like….. “oh the Gods have to die because there’s no afterlife…” 1- They’ve pulled this exestenial crisis crap with like 5 villians now when there clearly is an afterlife in marvel (Or Only Wakandans and Asgardians have an immortal soul) and 2- HE LITERALLY WAS AT GOD TO MAKE A UNIVERSAL SCALE WISH JUST FUCKING WISH FOR AN AFTERLIFE AND THEN DIE ABOUT IT TO BE WITH HIS DAUGHTER (which honestly would of been a better twist if his whole plan was to die to see her again) just embrace the comic book bs taika jesus fucking christ a zombie superhero invaded heaven and started eating people in one of the marvel zombies runs do whatever fuck but take it seriously enough if you want a serious villain GOD

this is what i've been saying all along: if the movie had been put in the hands of someone who understand the assignment (aka, understands who thor is, and what his mythos is about), it could have been a great movie. there is the POTENTIAL for a great movie!

like you have thor, who lost his entire family and his home, you have valkyrie who's trapped between her duties as king and her desire for combat, you have jane's cancer, you have gorr... if they have played it straight, it could have been the greatest marvel movie since black panther.

but t//aika is a comedy guy! he doesn't know - or at least hasn't made the effort - of actually pulling through with ANY of the heavy moments of thor, both ragnarok and love&thunder. every moment of character development is immediately undercut by a joke, usually by his grating self-insert. people like to worship ragnarok, but it takes the exact same cheap shots of the average marvel movie, and love&thunder doubled-down on it

also i love that there is this mcguffin with eternity now. i love that it's apparently something they all knew, but it never occurred them to investigate? oh there's a well at the center of the universe that can GRANT WISHES. this couldn't have been useful AT ALL during endgame!

mcu writers have been toning down all the cool shit that makes the comics interesting since the first movie's conception. thor has always taken the brunt of it. he used to be a cool god, and now he's a space alien... who's also a god? and that's really never explained lmfao the strive for hyperrealism with the mcu killed any chance of them doing anything interesting with it

speaking of how much the mcu is a failure, reminder that y'all should check out the rewriting i did of the first three mcu movies. it's just *chef's kiss*

Every Single Issue I Have With S*lki (It’s Not Just The Selfcest)

Here goes. I threatened to post this a few days ago and never did, but I just saw a s*lki stan Twitter account claim that Loki caring about Sylvie more than the whole multiverse was a Good And Romantic thing and it pushed me over the fucking edge, so now you all have to read this. I’ve divided it into categories cause there’s just THAT much.

OOC Bullshit

• First and foremost, no amount of mental gymnastics you do will ever make me believe that this specific Loki- the one that just invaded New York, that just came off a year of Thanos Torture, that just got done being influenced by the sceptre, that was literally in the middle of a crisis already, and then on top of that went through all the trauma of Ep 1- would even be worried about a romantic relationship. That would be the furthest thing from his mind. Go back and watch how he acted in Avengers- you think that guy would abandon his previous mission to become a snivelling simp for a girl he’d just met 3 days prior? Yeah, there’s no universe in which that makes sense.

• “It’s very in character for Loki to fall in love with himself lololol-“ NO, it’s literally not. Out of all the characters in the mcu, I don’t think I can think of anyone that genuinely hates themselves more than Loki. He even referred to all his other male variants as “monsters” and said meeting them was “a nightmare” in this series. He’s got so much self-loathing, plus the fact that he genuinely thinks himself to be an evil backstabbing scourge- so there’s no evidence at all suggesting that he would ever develop a fondness for, or even be inclined to trust, another version of himself, after only knowing them for 3 days.

• Building on that, the whole concept of Loki falling in love with a version of himself just feeds into the annoying ass misconception that he’s a narcissist. No matter which way you stack it, he’s not. If you’re referring to NPD, he doesn’t fit the criteria, and if you’re saying “narcissist” just as a slang term meaning “selfish and arrogant”, that still doesn’t accurately describe him. But when creators like Waldron and Herron do things like having him fall in love with himself, it makes it so much easier for casual viewers to think that he is.

Shitty LGBT Rep

• It’s kinda sus that Loki’s are allegedly genderfluid and yet the only female-presenting variant we see (and apparently the only female-presenting variant there is, cause the male Loki’s all seemed unfamiliar with the concept) is treated as some kind of mind-bogglingly special paradox. Also very sus that, out of all the Loki variants, the one our Loki falls in love with just so happens to be the only female one. What a coincidence.

• The fact that the creators of the show went around bragging about Loki’s bisexuality and Marvel purposefully (lbr) allowed stories about Loki possibly having a male love interest to circulate, specifically enticing queer viewers to watch the show (you know, the definition of queerbaiting), and then instead of having a male love interest (Loki was the first queer main character, so it was the perfect opportunity) they gave us *gestures to this dumpster fire* this… it’s just a middle finger to LGBT fans. The fact that they would rather have this relationship with all its myriad of problems than have a gay relationship is just……. Very telling.

• While him being with a woman obviously doesn’t refute his bisexuality, the fact that they showed/talked about him being interested in 3 different women (flight attendant, Sylvie, Sif) and never even hinted at him being attracted to a man, definitely makes it seem like they were trying to cover up his bisexuality to smooth things over with the more homophobic viewers. You know? It’s like “I know you’re pissed that we sorta confirmed Loki as bi, so we promise we’ll never mention it again! Or even hint at it! As a matter of fact, we’ll give him lots of female lovies and make him seem as straight as possible! That’ll take your mind off of that horrible crumb of queer rep, right? Please please please keep giving us your money!!!”

• Aside from all the other issues, at its core, the biggest reason why I think I’m so irritated with s*lki is that it took one of the most interesting, complex, and diverse characters in cinema atm and squished him into a tired ass unnecessary heteronormative subplot…. Like literally every. single. other. protagonist. ever. Loki is such a unique character, and it’s so so so incredibly disappointing that they stuck him into that same boring cookie cutter romance that happens to every other character in every other movie I’ve ever seen. It’s a disservice, and it’s honestly just not compelling or entertaining at all.

Thematic Issues Galore

• His arc didn’t need a romance. With anyone. It was unnecessary and it didn’t make sense plot-wise. In fact, one of the reasons he was my fav prior to this was because he was the only big-name mcu character whose story wasn’t muddied-up by a romance that didn’t need to be there. So much for that.

• He wasn’t emotionally ready for a romantic relationship with anyone. Hell, just a genuine friendship would’ve been pushing it for him at this point. He was in such a bad state that any relationship he got into would’ve been toxic and unhealthy for both him and the other person, and it doesn’t make sense why the writers would want to put him in one when there were so many cons and essentially no pros (other than “Uwu aren’t they cute together”).

• Sylvie’s character in general was unnecessary and Loki’s character was robbed just by her being there. The whole show became about her post-Ep 2. They spent most of the time giving her backstory, building her up, telling us how awesome she is, trying to convince us to like her, etc when what they really needed to be doing was building Loki up- cause I gotta say, if I had to describe TVA!Loki in a few words, they would be Flat, Boring, and Weak.

• The romance overtakes the plot. They spend time portraying their supposed connection that could’ve been spent adding depth and complexity to literally any of the characters. They make the big Nexus Event them giving each other googly eyes on Lamentis when it could’ve been so many other way more profound things that speak to the fundamental nature of Loki’s. They have the climax of the finale be “oh no she betrayed him to kill He Who Remains” when it could’ve been something way more compelling (Loki having a moral crisis over whether or not to kill HWR, Loki contemplating the state of the multiverse and weighing the pros and cons of freedom vs order, Loki looking into some What If situations and getting emotional about what could’ve been regarding his family, Loki realising the gravity of HWR’s offer and finally coming to terms with how important he is to the universal cycle, etc etc). The entire plot suffered in favour of a romance that half of us didn’t even want.

• It essentially reduced all of Loki’s potential character growth down to “He did it for his crush.” He seemed to at least have some motivations of his own in Ep 1-2 (feeble as they were) but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, literally every action he took was just him being a simp for her. Why did he lie in the interrogation? To try to protect Sylvie. Why did he fight the minutemen and Timekeepers? To survive kinda, but mostly cause it was important to Sylvie. Why did he get pruned? Cause he got distracted trying to confess his crush to Sylvie. Why did he try to get out of The Void? Cause he thought Sylvie needed him. Why did he stay in The Void? Cause Sylvie was staying. Why did he try to enchant Alioth? Cause Sylvie told him to. Why did the multiverse get cracked open, leading to an infinite number of Kangs waging war on all of existence? Cause Loki didn’t wanna hurt Sylvie in their fight at the Citadel and then get distracted by her kissing him. It’s uninteresting and honestly pretty embarrassing.

• Throughout their “relationship arc” the writers do their absolute damndest to convince us that we should like Sylvie more than Loki. And you know what? It’s the most hypocritical shit I’ve ever seen. They preach and preach about how Sylvie’s life has been so difficult/we should feel bad for her/she had it so bad/poor poor sylvie/she had it SO much worse than pampered prince Loki…. But then they never even touch on any of Loki’s trauma of hardships (the ones that have been ignored for literally 3 movies now). They frame Sylvie as a good person and a Freedom Fighter after she spent literal decades/centuries mass-murdering brainwashed TVA agents and showing exactly zero remorse for it….. but then they make it their mission to constantly remind us that Loki is a terrible person and constantly put him in situations where he’s forced to acknowledge his wrongdoings/show remorse/admit to how “evil” he is for being a mass murderer for like 2 years. They show him on-screen having a wider range of powers than her, and perpetuate his whole shtick of being a “master manipulator” or whatever….. But then they make Sylvie “the brawn” more competent, intelligent, and physically capable than him. Tell me how it’s a good thing for a ship to be so narratively biased toward one character.

Missed Opportunities

• If they absolutely had to have a romance subplot, then they could’ve paired Loki with one of the characters that have already been established OR one of the characters that were a big part of the whole TVA storyline anyway. It would’ve been so interesting if they’d revealed that Loki had a history with some of the players from previous films (Sif and Fandral both come to mind). It also would’ve been really interesting if they’d given Loki a love interest that actually had some allegiance to the TVA as a whole (Mobius maybe, but not necessarily. It also could’ve been Renslayer or B-15). Hell, imo it would’ve been cool if they’d followed through with that “See you again someday” line that he said to the flight attendant in Ep 1. ALL of these characters have way more chemistry with him than Sylvie, and they were also already relevant to the plot without wasting half the show to give background info on them.

• If they absolutely had to have a hetero-presenting love story involving an enchantress-type figure, then there’s a whole Enchantress (Amora) that was actually Loki’s love interest in the comics. Plus, fans have been screaming for Amora to appear in the mcu for years. Plus, Tom literally pitched an Amora/Loki storyline way back in 2012-13. Also, Lorelei (another enchantress) is also one of Loki’s love interests in the comics, and she already exists in the mcu (she was on Agents of SHIELD). There were several different established characters for them to choose from. Creating a whole knew amalgamation of a character and going with the “she’s a Loki variant” storyline was just completely unnecessary and made no sense.

• They completely robbed us of a Chaos Twins dynamic. Had they handled Sylvie better and not forced her and Loki to smooch, the two of them could’ve had a really really complex and interesting sibling relationship. Loki could’ve stepped into Thor’s shoes and sort of used that new role to gain some self importance, and Sylvie could’ve finally had somebody to look out for her/teach her magic/be there for her. It would’ve been very aesthetically pleasing, the vibes would’ve been out of this world, it would’ve been way more profound than this bs, and frankly it would’ve been much more entertaining to watch.

• Loki’s relationship (read: obsession) with Sylvie completely overshadows all Loki’s other relationships in the show. Loki and Mobius were literally the focal point of the series in Ep 1-2, but after Sylvie showed up in Ep 3, they barely had any interactions with each other, and Mobius pretty much faded to the background entirely. Loki had the beginnings of a pretty interesting antagonistic relationship with Renslayer (with her wanting him pruned, then arguing with Mobius that he couldn’t be trusted), but after Sylvie showed up the dynamic shifted to focus on the history between her and Ravonna. Loki and B-15 started off very badly and openly disliked each other throughout Ep 1-2, and then in the end of Ep 2, Loki showed a little bit of concern for her when she was possessed, hinting that they might be inching toward a reconciliation- especially considering how obvious it was that Loki was gonna uncover the TVA’s sins eventually. There was so much potential for him to be the one to give her her memories back and convince her to change sides, but no, of course that honor went to Sylvie. In fact, after Sylvie showed up, Loki and B-15 never even spoke to each other again.

Various S*lki Fails

• If they were trying to convince us that this affection was mutual, they completely failed. There’s nothing I’ve seen that even hints at Sylvie feeling the same way about Loki that he does about her. At most, I’d say she has a slight endearment to him. She finds him likeable and she’s grudgingly fond of him, but she definitely isn’t in love with the guy. Maybe she thinks he’s cute and hopes that he gets out of this mess alright, but her mission obviously comes before him- whereas, it’s been confirmed multiple times that Loki cares about her above anything else. She doesn’t trust him, she looks at him like he’s an incompetent fool half the time, she shows little to no reaction during most of his confession moments, and she kissed him as a means to distract him so that she could get him out of her way. Look, all I’m saying is, when you get into a relationship where one of you is way more invested than the other, it never ends well.

• This goes without saying for a lot of us, but the selfcest is just straight up odd and cringey. If you’re cool with that sort of thing, fine! People can ship what they want! But don’t pretend it’s not at least a little bit uncomfortable. Yes, I know they’re not technically siblings so it’s not technically incest, and they’re also not technically the exact same person, but they’re similar enough that it makes things weird. And yes I know selfcest can’t happen in real life, so there’s no way to judge it morally, but neither can most of the other stuff that happens in these shows/movies (the Snap, Loki destroying jotunheim, superhero with powers being held accountable, mind control) and yet we still find ways to judge their morality, because they all mirror real-world events. (The snap= genocide; Loki destroying Jotunheim= bombing other countries; superhero accountability= weapons accountability; mind control= grooming and coercion). And lbr the closest real-world mirror to two versions of the same person (who may or may not share DNA, family, backgrounds, physical and emotion characteristics) being romantically involved with one another is incest. And you can be ok with that if you want- that’s your prerogative- but don’t get pissy just cause a lot of us are squicked out by it.

• The whole mirror metaphor (learning self love via each other) thing just fell completely flat. First of all, having Loki learn to love himself by looking at someone who mirrors him did not, in any way shape or form, require them to be romantically involved. But they were. Of course. Secondly, the creators have contradicted themselves so many times on whether Loki and Sylvie are the same or not, that it doesn’t even really register to the viewer that the mirroring thing was what they were going for. Finally, Loki and Sylvie are shown to have so little in common- and to have only the most bare minimum of similarities personality-wise- that it doesn’t even make sense that Loki would “learn to love himself through loving her”. Like? They’re nothing alike. So how would he make the connection that he himself is actually pretty cool, based on her alone? There’s virtually nothing in her that reflects him.

• I know the objective of the entire show was to convince us of how awesome and unique Sylvie is, but honestly her relationship with Loki just did the opposite. A hallmark of a Mary Sue is having her constantly upstage the male lead, and then having him instantly fall madly in love with her anyway. And that’s.. exactly what happened here. Everything they’re doing to try to force her character to be more stan-able is really just forcing her to look more like their self-insert OC. Which is exactly what she is. It would’ve been so much more satisfying if she didn’t have to try so hard to look cool, if they didn’t have to try so hard to make her backstory tear-inducing, if they didn’t have to turn our protagonist into a snivelling simp just to prove how incredible she supposedly is. Very much #GirlBoss energy and we all know how performative and cheap that is.

• The entire thing was too rushed, there was too little build-up, and it was nowhere near believable. As stated above, it’s ridiculously unlikely that Loki would canonically even be interested in Sylvie, and this show did nothing to explain why he was. He just suddenly was. There was nothing they showed us as viewers that would justify a guy as closed-off and preoccupied as Loki falling head-over-heels for a girl he just met. Their was no explanation, no big revelation, no reasoning, it just… kinda happened. And I’m also severely skeptical of any love story that has the characters go in this deep after only 3 45-minute episodes of exposition.

I’m sure there’s other stuff, so if anyone thinks of anything, let me know and I’ll be more than happy to add it. Tagging @janetsnakehole02 @raifenlf @natures-marvel and @brightredsunset800 for expressing interest. This is all your faults.

A Review of Loki (2021)

[The following is an exact transcription of Twitter user @/diolesbian ‘s thread linked here . They gave me permission to cross-post their thread on my Tumblr. Keep in mind that this review is fairly long and quite critical of the series. I agree with this review wholeheartedly, and would be welcome to discuss it with anyone else.] 

Loki is a character who has died many times, but his own series may be his most brutal character assassination yet.

1.  Loki’s role in the series. Instead of tackling Loki's most villainous state of mind in Avengers 1, the series literally speedran through his development in the subsequent films, after which they almost entirely halted his character progression.

Because this series was set right after Avengers 1 it had the responsibility of developing Loki further in place of The Dark World and Ragnarok. In Episode 1, this development was kicked off by having Loki watch a reel of some of his defining moments in the MCU, allowing him to see his future all the way up to his death in Infinity War. Sadly, this scene ended up being the most development he received in the entire series. And arguably, this isn’t even true development but more like a speedrun of his character up until that point, serving as a simple tactic to explain why he wouldn’t be acting all dictatorial and murderous during his own series. As soon as he had been made “good” (read: docile) enough to follow along with the plot, his agency was completely thrown out. From that point on, the series wasn’t about Loki making things happen but about things happening to Loki.

Loki was supposed to be the main character, but he wasn't the protagonist in this story. In fact, he was more of a side character than we’ve ever seen him be in the MCU before, perhaps excepting IW and Endgame.

A protagonist is by definition someone whose important decisions affect the plot, whose development is followed most closely by the audience, and who is opposed by an antagonist. Loki exhibited none of these traits in this series. Especially the latter half of the story, he was reduced to simply reacting to the revelations around him, such as the reveal that the TVA members were all variants and that Kang was the true mastermind behind everything. He never truly involved himself or acted based on any of these plot points, and hardly played a key role in what was supposed to be his own story. Even in the films, where Loki is a side character, he makes choices which impact the plot to a larger extent. He almost seems more like a background character in the role of protagonist than in the parts he plays in the films.

2. The antagonist. The TVA could have worked as the perfect setting for Loki to have a new arc. It’s a thematic antithesis to who we know Loki to be. But when this Loki turns out to not be who the audience thought he was the TVA’s thematic significance falls apart as well.

In Episode 1, the TVA’s Agent Mobius enlists the help of Loki the Variant to pin down a greater foe who we are told is another, more malicious version of Loki. Order and chaos meeting in the middle, teaming up to take down an enemy, who even happens to be the protagonists’ literal evil self: that works, it sounds promising. But this dynamic is soon undermined when Loki leaves with Sylvie. Still, the benefit of the doubt is easy to grant here: a story about tricksters is bound to contain twists. But by Episode 3 the series is halfway done and the TVA has been appointed as the main antagonist again: we’ve now established villains three different times. And then the Cloud Monster At The End Of Time is introduced, and finally Kang. In other words, the Loki series has no consistent antagonist, no one to pit its main character against. And this is where we once again miss out on an enormous aspect of Loki’s potential characterization.

Protagonists are always defined by an antagonist, whether a purple Titan, a flat tire, or themself. Loki is not given anything to define his morals, motivations, or development in opposition to and this is a huge oversight. Especially given the fact that Loki has taken on the villain’s role in the past: how is the audience supposed to know that the “bad guy” is now a “good guy” if there’s no “even worse guy” to stand up against?

3. The plot. A plot should show off its MC’s strengths and match their personality. The Loki plot hardly relied on his presence at all, he didn't play a key role. The story had so little to do with Loki that it seemed as though he has barely any impact on “his” narrative.

One of the most central conflicts in the Loki series doesn’t involve him at all: it’s between Sylvie and the TVA. This plotline was a good concept overall, but its main problem is that it’s practically the only conflict in the series. Loki himself, as mentioned before, isn’t set in opposition to anything or anyone. And thanks to his relationships with Sylvie and Mobius being weakened by conflicting storytelling devices, he appears to be in a bubble by himself away from the rest of the cast for much of the story. First he follows Mobius around, then Sylvie, then he wanders aimlessly in the void before following Sylvie once again and learning that Kang is a Really Bad Guy who he should be opposed to even though by this point he has interacted so little with the story unfolding around him that the audience doesn’t even understand why he should be choosing to play the hero.

The plot and the characters both suffer by being so incredibly unrelated to each other. A series, especially an MCU one, should tell an overarching narrative through the perspective of its main character.

In the beginning of the series, when Loki was still getting his bearings in the TVA, this lack of decision-making was more understandable, especially since some of his skills were still being shown-- he discovered Sylvie was hiding in nexus events, and he made the choice to leave Mobius and follow her. But by the latter half of the series he still hasn’t had much impact on the story or taken any actions of his own, and simply allows plot points to happen to him. Just because the Loki series had to introduce the TVA and Kang didn’t mean it had to forgo telling a story about its protagonist. If Loki’s story had been intrinsically tied to the overarching plot points, if his choices had been some of the primary factors determining how events ended up taking place, the series would have succeeded in every aspect. But instead Loki is pushed aside by the plot of his own series, a plot which subsequently ends up coming across as largely hollow and pointless due to its lack of character drive.

4. Loki’s arc. One of the main reasons MCU Loki is loved is for his excellent character development across his films. TVA Loki was extremely lacking in that aspect and chances to take his character in interesting new self-aware directions were thrown away without much thought.

Throughout the MCU, Loki is on a journey with many highs and lows. He goes from a bitter and disheartened prince standing in the shadow of his brother, to a self-loathing Jotun bent on destroying his own people in a desperate attempt to win his father’s love, to a half-mad partially mind-controlled dictator with delusions of grandeur fueled by his own insecurity, to a prisoner wondering what there is left for him to lose, to a savior of Asgard’s people finally coming to accept his place in what is left of his family, to a tragic sacrificial victim who knew he had to die so the true hero might live on. That’s a hell of a journey, incidentally shown in less than TWO HOURS of screen time, and the prospect of TVA Loki embarking on an equally stimulating one, this time told over the course of over four hours and shown from his own perspective the entire way through, was exciting. But as it turned out, this relatively simple expectation went completely unmet.

For a story trying to say so much about individuality and self-acceptance, the Loki series seemed to pass by every obvious opportunity to tackle those questions.

Sylvie’s introduction seemed like a good idea at first: Loki would be able to literally bond with himself and learn to accept who he is that way, and forays could be made to explore what Loki’s personality could have been like if he grew up under different circumstances! But aside from a scene or two in Episode 3, this was not how things ended up going. Loki didn’t come to any grand or important conclusions about his identity, he didn’t choose to act differently, all that happened was a vaguely-worded confession of pseudo-romantic feelings which was cut off in the middle, made no sense, and weakened the narrative in a whole host of other ways explained elsewhere. Loki’s encounter with other versions of themself in the Void was similarly meaningless: Loki didn’t end up expressing or demonstrating a single thing he learned from meeting all of those alternate selves, despite the fact that there was potential for massive self-discovery there.

Less than 2 hours of MCU screen time portrayed Loki more coherently than this entire series. Loki is loved because of how much he changes, and it felt like he didn’t in this series. He started off lost and stayed that way throughout the entire plot.

By the end of the series, it was impossible to identify who Loki had become. He said he didn’t want a throne, but it was not obvious why not. He looked sad to be betrayed by Sylvie, but never expressed what that meant to him. He seemed afraid once Kang was unleashed, but why? Why did he care about the Sacred Timeline? What were his motivations? Throughout the series the answers to these questions became less and less obvious, culminating in the final episode which ended without a single moment of reflection or explanation as to who Loki had become. He wasn’t a villain, but only because he wasn’t murdering people. He was in some capacity a hero, for… being against Kang, probably, but once again with no explanation as to why Loki had decided to feel that way. He never seemed self-assured in his heroism, as if he hadn’t chosen the role for himself. Again, making one’s own choices that shape the narrative are what differentiates a protagonist from a side character, but Loki did not do that in this series.

5. Loki and Sylvie’s relationship. Loki and Sylvie had the potential to be a powerful duo representing the process of self-acceptance but instead they were reduced to a strange pseudo-romance.

Despite Loki’s many developments in the films, he never truly liked himself. He has been known to act extremely confident and self-righteous at times, but this is merely the opposite side of the coin containing his self-loathing and insecurity. Having him literally meet and subsequently befriend himself in Episode 3 was a move towards developing this aspect of him and potentially teaching him to finally accept himself as he truly is, but this buildup was all shattered in Episode 4 when the relationship is portrayed to have romantic undertones. Instead of a powerful struggle to accept oneself, the relationship between Loki and Sylvie becomes a twisted thing which is memeable at best (selfcest LOL amirite?) and outright damaging to both characters and the very concept of loving oneself at worst.

Ultimately, Loki and Sylvie's relationship didn’t add anything to either character’s development and actively detracted from what could have been a touching story.

Romantic love is extremely different from self love; romantic love has connotations including dating conventions and sexuality which are impossible to ignore and in this case serve as a distraction. And on top of ruining a potentially powerful storyline, this strange relationship makes both Loki and Sylvie seem out of character. Loki is once again one thousand years old and he has never even had a true friend, so why would he possibly fall for someone after knowing them for only two days? Meanwhile in Sylvie’s case, Loki’s “feelings” for her cause the audience to pay more attention to her romantic life and gestures rather than her actual character and motivations.

6. Loki’s Sexuality and Gender Fluidity. Loki’s sexuality and gender has been shown in several comic runs, and the series was advertised as featuring this representation as well. But due to several fundamental errors and problematic storytelling this also fell flat.

Sylvie’s introduction filled many fans with hope regarding the portrayal of Loki’s identity. In the MCU neither of their LGBT identities had ever been touched upon, while the series introduced a female variant of Loki and explicitly stated their sexuality. But this portrayal soon unraveled, most notably in Episode 5, in which many other Loki variants were shown but not a single one besides Sylvie was non-male. On top of that, when TVA Loki mentioned Sylvie and referred to her as “a woman Variant of us”, the other Lokis agreed that that sounded “terrifying”. Why should a genderfluid being be afraid of a version of themselves presenting as a different gender? It read as both fluidphobic not to mention strangely sexist.

The pseudo-romance between Loki and Sylvie only aggravated the situation. Not only did the nature of the “relationship” seem to follow heteronormative storytelling tropes (falling in love after a couple days of knowing each other, one party being reduced to a love interest, valuing romantic love above any other type, etc) but it also seemed distressing and offensive to many genderfluid people. A romance between a male and a female Loki, one of which doesn’t even call herself by that name, seems to be implying that an individual becomes someone else when merely presenting as a different gender, which of course isn’t at all the case. The writing wasn’t necessarily malicious here, but it was certainly ignorant and potentially even harmful. The opportunity was there to translate Loki’s powerful comic representation into the framework of the MCU, but this attempt did not succeed.

7. Loki’s characterization. Loki is a chameleon, but there are certain traits fundamental to his character. These traits were either ignored or actively mocked in the series. The audience already knew “what makes a Loki a Loki", but the series threw that knowledge away.

Episode 1’s premise of stripping Loki of everything he is used to was an intriguing setup to ensure the discovery of the core of who Loki truly is. The only problem was that this truth didn’t end up being found at all. Mobius made fun of Loki’s most defining traits, such as his habits of lying to manipulate people and acting out of a place of insecurity, which seemed to be a signal for the narrative to forbid Loki from exhibiting any of those traits from that point on in any way. This reduction in Loki’s character was reflected in everything, from his lack of humor (in the films he’s even funny while he’s taking over the world!), the underpowered way in which he fought against Sylvie (he’ll use magic to dry his clothes, but fight with a damn vacuum cleaner?) to the way that he wore the same boring outfit in every single episode-- it may sound shallow, but clothes are important when presenting a character. Every one of Loki’s looks in the films said something about him and his state of mind, and sadly that bland TVA outfit seemed to convey that Loki really was nothing more than a subservient pawn in what was supposed to be his own story. Ironically, the writing stripped Loki of everything that made him Loki, and left us with nothing but a Jotun-shaped void to be swayed by the whims and wills of the characters and plot devices surrounding him.

8. Loki’s past and abilities. This series could have elaborated on aspects of his character which had been teased at in the films and theorized about by fans, but ended up being a disappointment in this aspect as well.

Aside from Loki’s characterization and development, something else the series ignores is much of his canon story in the films. Since Thor 1, a truth that always overshadowed Loki was his Jotun heritage. He struggled with it up until the time of his death, clearly visible in his relationship with his foster family. It’s understandable that Loki was supposed to be independent from Thor in his series, but that’s no excuse for completely ignoring this central part of who Loki is. It doesn’t matter how much he goes through or how much his circumstances change, this feeling of unbelonging sits deep in Loki’s core and should have been both explored and explicitly discussed in the series. A series all about Loki was the perfect opportunity for him to finally confront and explain his relationship with his heritage, and potentially come to terms with it as well. And this isn’t even to say how cool some more insight on Loki’s Jotun inheritance could have been-- hypotheticals aren’t the point of this review, but it would have been fascinating to see Loki reacting adversely to heat like he has been hinted to in the past or even using his ice powers like he did in Thor 1.

Loki's magic was tragically underused. It felt like he was stripped of all of his magical powers even after his TVA chains had been removed, and this was never explained.

A second huge oversight is his magic. His powers are all over the place in this series. They were always a bit vague in the films, but this series was the opportunity to set that right and explain exactly what Loki was capable of as a sorcerer, especially now that the MCU has embraced magic more than it had ten years ago. But instead, Loki showcased an inexplicable lack of magic use-- again, the vacuum cleaner fight can be presented as evidence. There is a single scene in which Loki says that he learned his magic from Frigga, but no information is given as to how much he learned or why he doesn’t always favor spells. His power levels are incredibly inconsistent (he forgoes using magic when first confronted by the TVA, but is later shown using telekinesis to save himself from being literally crushed to death). And, strangest of all, there is a scene in which he tells Sylvie that he “can’t” enchant living beings. Loki, the millennium year old Trickster sorcerer god, who can hold an Infinity Stone with his bare hands, reanimate Surtur in the Eternal Flame, and trick the average person using illusions with ease, can’t cast a little enchantment? And if so, why not? The series offered precious few explanations concerning Loki’s magical abilities and instead only raised more questions. And in this way, Loki is once again relegated into the background and left with not a single shred of any new characterization or development. 

Loki contains multitudes, but the series reduced him to two dimensions.

This isn’t to mention every other facet of Loki’s story that could have potentially been explored to great success in this series-- his torture and subsequent partial mental influence at the hands of Thanos just before the events of Avengers 1 is one obvious example, as is his youth on Asgard, as are his suicidal tendencies (people don’t tend to survive falling off the Bifrost, and he knew that when he threw himself off of it), plus infinite other facets of him. Of course, it was both necessary and more interesting for this series to be its own story rather than one which lingered on past films-- but that’s not to say that none of these plot points should have come back, at least subtly, to play a role in this story. Plot points exist to be brought back later, not completely ignored. Otherwise a story may as well be written about a completely original character.

[please blacklist spoiler tags: #loki tv series spoilers, #loki series spoilers, #loki spoilers]

I need to talk about the Avengers. 

I just want to express how much I hate that the Avengers aren’t on the hook for all their time travel nonsense bc they were “supposed to” do it and Loki is on the hook bc he wasn’t. 

I mean, I am glad that they addressed it right away - that Loki was inadvertantly caught up in the Avengers' time meddling, and that apparently they were doing what they were supposed to and that's why none of them were on trial, but - there are two things going on here that I have issue with. One is, of course, the scapegoating of Loki once a-fucking-gain, but the other is that there's a legitimate problem inherent in framing the Avengers' deeds as The Right Thing So There Are No Consequences, especially because it directly leads to Loki (and only Loki) being scapegoated since, apparently, someone's got to answer for all of this. 

Why Were The Avengers Supposed to Undo the Snap?? 

Of all the possible options they could have gone with (such as reversing time back to just before the Snap happened), going back through time to gather the stones and use them to undo things five years later is, like, one of the worst?? Best case scenario, it implies that the TVA is ridiculously incompetent in managing the sacred timeline and worst case scenario, it implies that the TVA is ridiculously adept in managing the sacred timeline, if their goal is to have it be the worst possible timeline anyone could end up in. 

The Avengers may have done an arguably good thing in undoing the Snap - I don't disagree that those people should've lived - but they also royally fucked over a lot of things in the process and left Earth (and presumably many many other worlds) in total post-Snap chaos while fucking off to die be with their families and/or start new lives. 

This goes back to the plan itself. One of my many issues with Endgame is that not only is the plan convoluted and, frankly, stupid, but also I have a real problem with the concept of the Avengers just saving the world as they see fit, regardless of whether or not that's actually the best thing to do. (If the Russos hadn't done such a shit job with explaining what the Accords were actually supposed to do, then maybe this could have been addressed somehow - like, okay, together we may have the brains and resources to carry off this plan but does that mean we're the ultimate authority on whether or not we should? Maybe we should check with, like, the UN or something about this? [and it’s entirely possible the UN was mentioned and I have forgotten it bc I’ll be honest, I watched Endgame once and have bitched about it ever since.] I digress.) 

The narrative in Endgame and into the MCU beyond plays like the Avengers only care about saving the world when they stand to personally gain from it (they want their friends and family back, they want to feel like they didn't fail, they have unilaterally decided that what they want is the Best Thing for everyone) and once the Good Deed is done and the smoke clears from the battlefield, there's no concern with saving the mess of the world they created. 

TFatWS addressed so many of the problems with the post-reverse-Snap, which implies that the MCU (both in-universe and out) is aware that things are fucked up now. People's lives were literally ruined by what the Avengers did. Refugees are displaced. Humans are coming back to a world where they've been dead for five years and their loved ones have moved on and their homes have been sold and their bank accounts have been closed and they have no jobs. And that’s just on Earth. Yet no one (again, both in-universe and out) feels the need to hold the Avengers accountable for any of this. 

Plus, what about the people who died as a result of the Snap but not from the Snap directly? What about the planes that fell from the sky when the pilots turned to dust? The cars that crashed and collided when the drivers poofed? Etc. Like, fuck all of those people I guess? 

And who, exactly, is "supposed to" clean up the Avengers' mess now that the actual Avengers are either dead, old and living on the moon, or retired? Is it on Sam's shoulders alone (or, rather, Sam and Bucky's)? Is Peter Parker (yknow, the 15 year old Nick Fury went and recruited bc there was no one else) supposed to be fixing things? 

The TVA takes responsibility for none of this. They sit back in their nightmare DMV-esque office and claim that all is as it should be but my question remains: please explain to me how the outcome of the post-Snap universe is ultimately satisfactory to anyone besides the Avengers? 

There's also the fact that Loki figures out right away that the Avengers were engaging in some time travel shenanigans ("the cologne of two Tony Starks is hard to miss” lmfao Loki you snarky shit). Loki recognizes that there's been an opportunity created of which he can take advantage, but he isn't responsible for creating it. The Avengers messed up and created that opportunity so, even if they were supposed to be doing what they were doing, there are still no consequences for the fact that they made a mistake that allowed Loki to then branch off and create a new timeline. 

Let's also say that we accept that the Avengers were supposed to undo the Snap exactly as they did. Okay, sure. BUT: 

- Was Steve, then, also supposed to decide to fuck back off to the 1940s and marry Peggy (which created two Steves, right? The one who was married to Peggy all along and the one who was in the ice?? The TVA is just okay with two Steves?)? 

- What is the actual point of Stephen Strange having the time stone and using the time stone both to gain the advantage over Darmammushumuuyourmom (I’m sorry, I can’t remember his real name) and to look at all the possible timelines to figure out how to defeat Thanos? 

- How is it possible that there are 14 million potential timelines in which the Avengers failed if the TVA’s entire thing is that there can only be one true ring timeline to rule them all? The fact that Stephen can look ahead and determine so many outcomes based on the choices they're making would mean that people do have free will and that their actions aren't automatically dictated by what's “supposed to” happen. They had to make the right choices in order to get to the one timeline in which Thanos failed. 

- What’s the point of Stephen having to protect the time stone, anyway, if there are presumably a few others in Casey’s drawer?

- On that note, if there are a lot of infinity stones hanging around in the TVA’s desk drawers, what makes the original six the specific, correct ones that Thanos had to collect in order to pull off the Snap and why is it then those specific six the ones that the Avengers had permission to go back through time to get in order to undo the Snap as the Timekeepers intended?

- And actually, in fact, if there’s only one sacred timeline and anyone who fucks it up without permission gets “reset” (aka made nonexistent, along with their timeline branch) then, again, why does Stephen have to protect the time stone? Either anyone who steals it was supposed to, or their timeline gets eliminated and the theft ceases to matter. 

- Less significant but also still kinda significant is how Agents of SHIELD figures into all of this. The TVA knows that Loki killed Coulson but they don't know (or don't care?) that Coulson was brought back to life and proceeded, with his team, to go on and get heavily involved in time travel and going back and forth and bringing people from the past into the present? So the TVA is okay with Daniel Sousa leaving his timeline but not with Loki leaving his? 

... I have literally confused myself with all of this, so if anyone followed my train of thought here, congratulations and maybe you can explain it to me lmao. 

But here's my ultimate point: the sacred timeline that the TVA is tasked with maintaining is not sensical or linear. It's full of gaps and holes and people taking matters into their own hands to determine both their own fates and the fates of others. As a result, a lot of people suffer kinda needlessly based on the events in said timeline, and apparently it's perfectly fine for all of this nonsense to occur so that everyone else has some element of control - 

- but Loki is literally the only one who is told uh, actually, no, you are supposed to live a shitty life and die a pointless death and there's not a goddamn thing you can do about it bc it's supposed to happen. 

What in the actual fuck kind of logic is that??? 

Thus, either the TVA (and the Timekeepers) are grossly incompetent, or else they're extremely competent and also really fucking shitty beings who just enjoy the needless suffering of others. 

And somehow this is all Loki's fault!!

And then Mobius has the fucking audacity to say, to Loki's face, “you only exist to prop up everyone else and you, Loki Odinsonson Laufeyson mischief god and king of space lol, do not have any inherent worth or value as your own person. You were born to be a scapegoat and you will die a scapegoat and there's no getting around that, if we have anything to say about it.”

To quote Loki, in a very twisted way - yes, it's funny. It's absurd. 

Does, uh, does this make sense? At some point I crossed over from meta-writing into straight up ranting and so, well, here we are. 

Big Hero 6 The Series: It could have been better

Hello, friends. Today, I will be analyzing a TV series based on a movie that I fell in love with for its colourful themes, deep plot, compelling characters, great CGI and memorable messages. Before I get into it, I want to take a moment to say that I have quit doing videos. They are too big of a pain in the petunia to make and I write better than I speak, so I will stick to writing essays, reviews and more. Anyway, onto the analysis.

All I can say about Big Hero 6 the series is that it had a great concept, it presented some great ideas and tried hard to be a cartoon of the times, but it could have and should have been a lot better. The show’s downfall all centers around trying too hard to be kid friendly which makes the shame sting all the more because Big Hero 6 was already kid friendly even with its dark themes, sharp edges and intelligent writing. If anything, even the brightest kid friendly cartoons (Steven Universe, She-Ra, etc.) had those things and actually benefitted from them. By needlessly trying too hard, character development got scrapped, the edges were all smoothed out, storytelling was subpar, the humour was too silly and the executive meddling in the end produced a dismal final season. However, I don’t want this analysis to be one lengthy negative rant about how awful the series was because in its defense, awful is an unfair word. It did have potential and ideas which are worth carrying over to a reboot that I hope will be done someday in the future. Also, we should root for a reboot because Big Hero 6 would not be the first story that needs it before striking gold. Just look at how many times Spider-Man was rebooted in film before MCU found the version that worked. Anyway, I will list all the things in Big Hero 6 that could have been better in my opinion;

1- Go easy on the laughs and be more generous with the action. - I love adding comedy to my own writing because I think a good sense of humour makes everything better, but Big Hero 6 is not a stand up comedy routine. It is a superhero story where we expect action, suspense and life or death situations that are to be taken seriously first. The comedy should be for relief and with the right timing. Also, the chibi cutscenes and having characters act like fools aren’t funny. Ren and Stimpy are the exception not the standard and their way of making you laugh doesn’t fit an action series. In a show as big as Big Hero 6, real life physics and danger matters.

2- Make the villains menacing and gritty. - I admit that after having a movie villain like Yokai who was the stuff of nightmares, it is going to be a challenging act to follow, but it was obvious that the writers were trying especially with some villains who could have easily gone into some dark relatable territory. For example, Mr. Sparkles (the gentleman in the photo above) embodies social media and Internet personalities. Right off the bat, you have a long list of things which embody the dark side of that like scams, fraud, using social media to dox or harass, driving people to suicide, online predators, the Internet personalities being very depressed people in real life, and much more horrifying things. When you stop and look at it, Mr. Sparkles even looks like the Joker which hints how dark and scary he could have been if the stops were removed. The same goes for enemies like Hardlight who embodies online gaming, Liv with cloning, Obake an amoral and insane scientist, and Trina and Noodle Burger Boy (more on him later) being evil robots. Globby especially should have been painted and written in much darker colours rather being played off for laughs because he has many parallels with Clay Face. The only two villains who I can say were supposed to be campy, charming and comical were Baron Von Steamer and Supersonic Sue because they were a satire of the Adam West style villains.

The rest of them needed to be dark and threatening including Mr. Sparkles. In fact, I would love a rebooted version of Mr. Sparkles who gives me the heebie-jeebies. Going back to Noodle Burger Boy, I must confess that I was actually excited when I heard that he was going to be the main villain of the final season because I thought he was going to fulfill his master’s final wish and as a reminder, Noodle Burger Boy was based on a super robot for military purposes.

It would have been fantastic if Noodle Burger Boy was upgraded into a full military war machine with a new threatening look. For that, I think all of the villains deserve to be rebooted and have their full potential unlocked for better or for worse.

3- A show about geniuses merits genius level art quality. - I am usually forgiving towards art styles, but in the case of Big Hero 6, the oversimplified style with minimal details and lack of textures did not suit the show. The characters blend in with the background which makes them look flat and the special effects were extremely dulled down. I also know for a fact that Disney can do a lot better than this because I saw how superbly Tangled the Series was drawn.

You can see and almost feel the difference in quality, the number of layers and level of detail between the two styles. I think there was no excuse Big Hero 6 was not done in the same style and at the same level if not better as Tangled.

3- Don’t dumb down or flanderize amazing characters. - I absolutely detest it when characters are flanderized because it makes them one dimensional and grating. For example, Go Go is tough as nails and extremely calm, but she is not cold or hesitant towards helping her friends. She doesn’t require very special episodes for us to know that. If anything, the movie version of Go Go reminded me a lot of Garnet in how she deconstructed the broody character. She isn’t cold or emotionless. Just calm and mature. Another good example was how Honey Lemon was rewritten to be overly positive to the point of toxicity, naïve and oblivious with a juvenile obsession with stickers. Then you have poor Fred who was rewritten to be an incompetent fool. The spark that makes Big Hero 6 shine is that they are a team of geniuses meaning they are all intelligent. Even Fred is genius in his own way just not a scientific one. He has a vivid imagination, he is resourceful and can get himself out of tight spots. Please, don’t turn characters into dummies especially if their intelligence is a part of them. It doesn’t make them better or funnier. It ruins them.

4- Tadashi needs closure and honour. - I am all for Hiro making peace with the loss of his brother, but Tadashi is to the Big Hero 6 team what Uncle Ben was to Spider-Man. His loss was the catalyst if not the reason. He should never be forgotten. Moreover, there was never any true closure to him especially with the possibility that he may still be alive up in the air. After all, like Callaghan, his body was never found and it turned out that Callaghan was still alive.

With that said, who is to say that Tadashi was not secretly still alive and just hiding or being hidden? This is something that Disney really needed to clear up if not for the fans, then at least as a service to such an important character. Never just forget about them.

5- The format can only be episodic with a deep plots, continuity and character development. - Random episodes with a mere monster of the day is an outdated format which doesn’t fit Big Hero 6′s modern and bright setting. In seasons 1 and 2, when the episodes were plot heavy with character development, the series shined brightest. It also helped move the story along, but with the final season, plot was removed, closure was abandoned or poorly written if any was given, and characters were disallowed from growing. A good example at how plot and character development could have made this series and its characters better was the relationship between Hiro and Megan. Would it have truly survived or would they have broken up?

Would Richardson Mole have eventually lost interest in his obsession with besting and bullying Fred or would his obsession consume him compelling him to become a super villain? I do see quite a few similarities between Mole and Reverse Flash.

Then you have Karmi who is in my opinion, the biggest wild card of the bunch. She was intentionally introduced as an arrogant, prickly and unlikable yet complex character who rivaled Hiro bitterly.

Yet had a huge crush on his alter ego and as time went on, started to grow up and even form a friendship with Hiro. What would have happened further down the road with her? Would she have become a super hero herself? Or maybe even another love interest for Hiro kind of like how Black Cat is for Spider-Man?

Is Obake really gone?

What does the future hold Diana (Liv’s clone), Liv herself or the Sycorax the genetics company?

Is Alistair Krei going to become an ally to Big Hero 6 or an antagonist? There is also the issue at how little we know about the other Big Hero 6 characters other than Fred, Hiro and Baymax. What are Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Go Go’s backstories? These questions matter and while not every mystery can be solved, leaving none of them solved is lazy writing.

6- Executives, kindly stay out of the writing and any other part of the creative process. - I’m sorry, execs, but there is no nice way to say it. History itself proves that every time executives got involved in the creative process of any media, it got worse not better. Leave the writing to the creative team and the execs should only handle the legal stuff. Please. We understand that TV is a business, but writing itself is not. It is an art which you just don’t have a talent for. Let the creative people do their thing with the freedom necessary and you do your thing, deal? Deal.

7- Focus on Hiro and Baymax. - The are the main characters so keep them at the heart of the series no matter what happens around them. That is all I can say.

And that sums up all the things that could have made Big Hero 6 the series better, but this is all just my opinion. What is yours?

PS: I am well aware that the Big Hero 6 series is being retconned because a new series called Baymax is in the works as well as the long awaited sequel to the first movie. I am looking forward to both with an open mind. PPS: I also am aware that some people liked this show the way it was including the art style and I am cool with that. An analysis for art that includes cartoons is never right or wrong. It is solely based on opinion. I may have thought this series could have been better, but there are people who make arguments that it could have been worse.

Loki & the Throne (Part 1)

I'm not sure why people spend so much energy trying to prove that Loki either wants or doesn't want a throne. Is it wrong for him to want one, considering he's been the son of two kings? And if he doesn't want one how does that really change anything, since he's certainly behaved like a would-be king? Couldn't he have conflicted feelings about it?

And anyway, if you watch the movies the real answer is obvious: he doesn't know what the hell he wants. He does want the throne because that would mean that everyone loves and respects him, and that he has the same status as Thor. He also doesn't want it because he knows he's nowhere ready for that kind of responsibility and isn't sure if he ever will be. He vacillates between the two feelings constantly. But what he definitely does want is control, as he's had no control over his own life from the beginning. A throne can both grant that and take it away.

But back to the debate. People seem to want to disprove Loki's desire for a throne because they think it's evidence that the writers who say that he does want one are laughably ignorant and wrong...especially if they wrote for any of the tv shows or Ragnarok. This even though Loki's MCU character history is complex and hard to solidly interpret, especially since every writer has written him differently. Writing for MCU Loki requires taking a part from previous films, a part from the comics, a part from the myths, and a part from personal invention. Very few people see him exactly the same way.

What is impossible to do though is to separate MCU Loki from classic Marvel comics Loki, despite the fact that they are two very different people. Comics Loki knows exactly what he is and always has, along with everyone else. He hates Odin and Thor (sometimes it's a hateful version of love) and unquestionably wants to get revenge on them and rule over everything he can. Eventually he dies and gets replaced by a much softer reincarnation, the mischievous scamp version of Loki who likes to cause trouble but usually wants to be helpful and appreciated.

MCU Loki exists as an echo of the comics history, mostly in the sense of what his potential to become is. He's not an arch-villain, but he often acts like he's definitely considering it. The main difference between him and comics Loki is that we meet Loki in the comics fully grown and knowing exactly who he is and what he wants. Meanwhile MCU Loki is a younger, more complicated person and still in the process of figuring himself out, even at the beginning Infinity War and in the tv series.

There's two things that the "Loki's never been a villain" fandom camp clings to: the line in Thor 2011 when Loki says he never wanted the throne, only to be Thor's equal, and the little blurb that the MCU put out about Loki being influenced by the Mind Stone in The Avengers. This has been chosen as the incontrovertible proof that Loki never intended to take the throne away from Thor and that he was completely mind controlled to do everything he did in The Avengers. Which, I'm sorry, is just such bullshit since Loki contradicts himself constantly, and if he had absolutely no personal agency in The Avengers it would have certainly come up on screen by now.

The thing that fandom generally lacks understanding about is the many nuances of the character, the fact that he's an unreliable narrator and often says things that he doesn't mean. If there's a tear in his eye you can interpret it as sadness or regret, or it could mean rage and pain. There's not really any absolutes with Loki, only shades of gray.

People can, and often do, create elaborate headcanons to explain everything Loki says and does to fit whatever idea of his character they want to believe in. I've certainly got my own favorite concept of who Loki is, I just try not to twist things an unreasonable amount to fit that concept. Instead I listen to what Tom Hiddleston says about Loki to fill in the gaps in the canon as he's the only person who truly knows. But he doesn't give truly specific answers to the question of who Loki is, because he understands that the character is a puzzle and he respects the different aspects of Loki that people individually relate to. Which unfortunately the fandom doesn't get as they're too busy pushing their own Loki agendas.

Putting aside the issues with Thor; what else about the MCU turns you off?

Ugh, right now? Almost everything xD I admit I've been pleasantly surprised by WandaVision and Hawkeye, recently watched the latter and I'd heard suuuuch awful things about it from people who generally love MCU content, only to find myself mystified by how they could hate it if it's really not that distant from other MCU content they did enjoy in the past...

But anyway, Thor definitely was what caused my initial debacle and part of the issue is that Thor, Loki and their particular cast were what I loved most about the MCU altogether, a concept that isn't all that rare but that, nowadays, might come off really strange to a lot of people. Still, it's the truth. My detachment from the MCU isn't all that different from my gradual detachment from ATLA's comics, to the point where I only read one issue of North & South and haven't even touched anything Faith Erin Hicks has done. It's not even that I've decided she must have done a TERRIBLE job without reading her comics, but the truth is that things have been deteriorating so badly on a narrative level in the franchise in general that most canon content these days appears fated to let me down :'D so I avoid being let down by just... ignoring XD

In the case of the MCU, I really was never a huge fan of a lot of the characters people adored. I never fawned over Steve Rogers all that much, I actually used to dislike Tony Stark a lot but ironically Civil War changed my take on the man and I grew to enjoy him a lot better xD Black Widow was cool but heh, now she's dead and while her sister is a surprisingly good addition to the MCU, the knowledge that there's just no chance she's coming back isn't exactly encouraging, since it would have been very interesting to see her interacting some more with other people.

Now, then... people may call me a purist or so xD but Phase One, with whatever weirdness it committed to, is ultimately the best one for me. Marvel perfected origin stories for superheroes where others (like DC) haven't really cracked the formula properly (I watched three of the DC TV shows and... no. They had potential, but they just went down the absolute worst paths they could have and were miswritten like heck, even without factoring in the disrespect to the original content it's based on). So Marvel did a pretty solid job at establishing the first Avengers line-up, and the occasional expansion on that content wasn't really unpleasant...

But then Phase Two started to get wobbly when stuff like Ultron happened and things just started to feel soooo repetitive. "Oh, no! Ultron is trying to take us out from within! Wanda is manipulating us so we fight each other, just...! J-just like... like Loki did in Avengers...?" I've also written a few posts explaining why I just... despise Thanos as a character in the MCU. It's just beyond me how a character could be done so dirty to a point where he's a goddamn joke and then THAT is what our final boss is? Remember how many people poked fun at Voldemort for feeling really pathetic as a villain in the end, as opposed to villains like Sauron or so? Well, that's really how I ended up feeling about Thanos even if he was a little more interesting in Endgame. But his story just doesn't make sense, and that all we had watched was supposed to lead up to this massive confrontation with this guy is very anticlimactic when the guy just isn't a character you want to see defeated because you have all these strong, adverse emotions against him inside you, but that you want to see defeated because you're just flat-out tired of him (literally how I felt in Endgame).

Lastly, I'm particularly irked by the ridiculous "Well this new character is just SUPER EPIC but they weren't around when the whole world was burning down because, um, well, they were given orders NOT to interfere! Or, you know, they were dealing with very bad things ELSEWHERE!" (despite, you know, we've had movies set elsewhere, not on Earth, and there wasn't even the slightest suggestion that said character (as in, Cap. Marvel) was busy saving the universe from threats other than Ronan in GOTG, or anything of the sort). I haven't even watched Loki and I don't even want to, but the concept that this TVA organization could NOT interfere at any point in time until Loki steals a Tesseract he "wasn't supposed to", and they ONLY do something at that point? It's so convenient and so farfetched that I just can't buy it. It's 100% fine to feature new characters with growing powers the same way they were brought into the fold in the past. You didn't need Ironman to explain to us why he wasn't saving the world before he developed his suit. You didn't need Captain America telling us he couldn't save the world as a scrawny guy and that he could only truly make a difference on a battlefield after the super soldier serum changed him. Hell, even Antman features a completely ordinary guy who ends up in one hell of a crazy situation when he's sought out by someone with a certain tech who requires his help for a very delicate mission... and there's no "WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THE CHITAURI ATTACKED, HANK PYM?!?!?" situation, because it's just not needed! Because you DON'T have to constantly explain this unless you want to say that EVERYTHING you're bringing up was already established forever ago and that you just forgot to bring it up before.

Honestly, say the TVA came into place BECAUSE the Avengers fucked up the timelines as they did in Endgame and they're trying to prevent that from ever happening again, and it WORKS. Have the Eternals and Captain Marvel mentioned occasionally in previous films and, if they're not, bring them in as NEW elements that just got here, don't just say "oh yeah they were always here but they couldn't help save the world ever because they were busy/weren't allowed to!", because that just feels... so lazy. So dumb. So lazy. Really, though, think about the kind of shit Nick Fury was willing to let slide and to accept in the world (as in, the events of both the first Avengers films, at the very least, and Winter Soldier too, probably, with SHIELD falling to shit), and that he wasn't ready to call Cap. Marvel for: there was a NUKE heading to New York that he wanted to see stopped and we don't even see him fuddling with the pager just before Ironman swings in and saves the day. There was a WHOLE CITY about to collapse violently with a massive death count... and the guy didn't even seem to think to call her to help. It's plain absurd in retrospect, and it can't be explained away with "she was just too busy because there's more things going on out there". Like I said above, we saw TWO GOTG movies where Captain Marvel, savior of the universe, doesn't even get name-dropped as an entity of righteousness and justice fixing all that's wrong everywhere. Thus... it's an excuse. And a particularly stupid one, at that. Make her a modern-era character and this nonsense wouldn't be an issue in the slightest. Make her someone who was "always there", and it just feels lazy and wrong.

*SIIIIIGH* I just am jaded with the MCU all around. It feels increasingly lazy, increasingly aimless, and the writing quality is in constant decay for the sake of easy, quick and cheap laughs from an audience that will assign value and depth to so many things that just DON'T have them, while pretending that the original movies lacked that depth and complexity when the whole reason why they were successful is because they didn't. The new ones constantly disregard whatever previous lore was established, cause retcons and then "solve them" by making them worse, they weaponize representation in order to gain viewers by pretending they care about certain social issues but the representation they usually provide is just so shallow and weak that it's hard to believe so many people buy it... all in all, it feels like people are happy to watch and consume everything the MCU makes because that's the norm.

Fortunately, there's been more criticism to it recently (such as criticism of their narrative formulas being so trite and repetitive, criticism of their cinematography always looking more or less the same, criticism even of their color palette x'D) that I feel a little less lonesome in my "I am done with the MCU" corner than I used to. But, all in all, I don't think the MCU can recover or do better without pulling what the comics often do, as in, restarting from scratch and trying to tell the same story all over again while attempting to remediate their misfires... but I doubt they'll do that, and I doubt they'll get better as they are right now. Thus... I'm basically resigned to not enjoy the MCU the way I did in the past, because I absolutely did... but it has become something I just can barely enjoy at this point. Like I said, Hawkeye and WandaVision were surprisingly better than I expected (especially the latter), because they really didn't feel like a spit in the face of everything that came before them... but the more characters the MCU brings in, the more their scripts are all over the place as far as narrative coherence is concerned, the more they disregard what came before and pretend that excuses can justify a plethora of new characters taking roles in the later content, the less I want anything to do with the MCU.