#it has many of the same issues wandavision had
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A general problem the MCU has is that while they may be good at bringing up potentially interesting and complex takes on real-world issues or things that could shake up the status quo, they're not good at commitment, and usually have the issues get solved in anticlimactic fashion, whether that be by the end of the same project they were introduced in, or have them get solved offscreen.
Like, with The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they raise a legitimate issue through bringing up the topic of how immigrants and refugees are treated. Setting aside Karli falling into the same trap as Killmonger of "villains who suddenly kill a bunch of innocent people at random because they were raising too many legitimate points, and we need the audience to not root for the", the issue is resolved through Sam effectively giving a "Do better" speech to the politicians while the deportation issue is solved offscreen.
Setting aside that they come off more like a HYDRA manifesto, the Sokovia Accords could've been the foundation for a discussion about acceptable forms of oversight for superheroes. But it really just amounted to a plot device to allow the airport battle to happen, they're pretty much forgotten once Zemo enters the picture, they're mentioned a few times in Ant-Man and the Wasp and WandaVision, and then Matt Murdock's scenes in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law reveal that the Accords were repealed offscreen.
Secret Invasion seemed to be on track to deconstruct Fury's habit of using superpowered people to help him, by having it reveal that he basically exploited alien refugees. But he doesn't actually solve that issue by the end (in fact, when it comes to defeating Gravik, he exploits G'iah having superpowers and wanting to avenge her parents to utilize her as an assassin).
I very much agree with you.
The MCU likes to bring up certain points of discussion but they seem to believe that either the audience is too stupid to understand complex storylines or they just want something easy to digest that won't upset anybody (mostly the execs).
It comes to show that while in the past the superhero movies were all about celebrating the heroes and their "otherness", nowadays we get organizations like the TVA justified by the narrative, the governments are protected and the blame is deflected towards the heroes like Bucky, or a series that could have made a fantastic story regarding Fury, Shield and their shady missions turns out to say... absolutely nothing at all.
What they did to the Flagsmashers and Karli was so utterly disgusting that I can't even begin to say how mad it made me. Hell, Secret Invasion was dealing with refugees as well (the alien-kind but, still). So why not try to connect the two somehow? We had Nick speak to Talos about racism, much in the way Sam gets to mention some of it especially when he's with Isaiah, but nothing ever comes out of it. They're short lines that can be quoted in tweets and memes but they're pointless when it comes to the story being told in the series.
And maybe that's the problem, it would seem that's all Marvel wants. It's like their "queer rep". They want something quick, short, and ambiguous that won't bother anyone too much. Probably because they're one of those who think "both sides" are equally right and wrong and so they don't want to alienate anybody.
And one of the reasons I hate this is that when it really comes to it... does the existence of heroes really change anything in the MCU universe? When it comes to external threats they're essential, but with internal affairs? They always stop the immediate threat but everything else that made it happen is left as it is (the worst offender is CW, the Accords and that damn Raft. "Oh let me break my teammates out of here but watch as I do nothing to help the other inmates or anybody else that will be sent here in the future". WTF is that?!!).
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The Marvels: Kamala as a Reflection of Young Monica
It suddenly occurred to me, watching The Marvels trailer, but Monica meeting Kamala is going to be fascinating, because Kamala is, in many ways, a lot like young Monica. And yet, isn't.
As a kid, Monica adored her Aunt Carol and wanted to be just like her and her mom, admiring her powers and all the good she was doing. Monica wanted to go to space and be a hero too, which is why she joined SWORD under her mom's leadership, and returned so quickly after she Blipped and learned her mother had passed.
But Monica's grown up now. She's a military-trained professional. And Wandavision indicates that at some point, she and Carol had a falling out and, while she's more like Carol than ever, I doubt Monica is happy about that currently. We don't really know yet how long she's had her powers, we don't know how she feels about them, yet. But it wouldn't surprise me if she only really regards them as tools, and tries not to think too hard or "marvel" too much at them.
Not to mention, Carol reminds her of the mother she lost, the family she had that is broken. And I have a feeling that whatever happened between them has something to do with Maria Rambeau's final years and death.
Meanwhile, Kamala is still young. She wants so badly to be like Captain Marvel and be an Avenger, too. And she's more like her hero than ever as well, but hasn't lost that admiration yet, which is likely going to be frustrating for Monica to deal with.
Especially because Kamala only knows Captain Marvel as a distant superhero, post-Snap. Monica knew Carol before the powers, before Thanos. She loved Captain Marvel before Captain Marvel was known on Earth. And it was that woman that let her down, not the cultural icon she became afterwards. That has to be hard for Monica- to see all these people admiring Captain Marvel for things Monica wasn't around to witness (since she was snapped), meanwhile she knows Carol is all too human. And Kamala, Ms. Marvel herself, seems like the pinnacle of that fandom that has sprung up around Carol post-snap.
At the same time, Kamala's powers come from her own cultural legacy, not from an accident like Monica's or Carol's. She's had time to make her own identity, and she has her own, supportive family unit, separate from Carol and SWORD/SABER and heroing. She's had time to work out those family issues in her own show. So in some ways, Kamala is actually in a healthier place than Monica is, despite being younger and more naive. Sure, she still admires Captain Marvel, but her identity isn't quite as based in that as it was at the beginning of Ms. Marvel.
In that sense, Kamala's perspective might be just what Monica needs, and I'm as fascinated to see those two interact as I am for Monica-Carol and Kamala-Carol.
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An Observation from an MCU fan.
Hey everyone, Korra here. I just got back from Thor Love and Thunder the other day, as well as finishing Ms. Marvel and I’ve been having these thoughts for a while now but I’m going to try to put them in words. It’s perhaps a little bit of a criticism of some of the recent MCU ventures, a little of my own personal feelings, and just some thoughts in general I suppose.
The biggest one that I’ll talk the most about is too much content in too little time. I think we all know what I’m talking about, if you’ve been a part of the MCU fandom for as long as I have been, or even if you’re a causal fan. But in the past couple of years, there has been more Phase 4 content than nearly all the other Phases put together. And I’m being real here, I think some has been fantastic while others haven’t been. Mostly the shows I think have suffered from this.
The shows are all extra long movies with a whole lotta stuffing, except for maybe WandaVision. The Falcon and Winter Soldier was just a long Captain America movie with way too much going on, yet nothing happening all at the same time. Loki wasn’t bad but it spent too much time on Loki’s “redemption”, even though we had a very satisfying one through the movies that paid off gloriously. At least the show is getting a second season. Hawkeye was a fun venture, and I think Kate’s story was well done even if I found the ending to be a bit lackluster. I didn’t love Moon Knight, but that’s mostly because I felt like the show dragged on for too long whereas it would have worked as a movie to get through some of the meandering the show did. Ms. Marvel was a very character driven show that had a pretty weak plot in my opinion. WandaVision had the most satisfying character moments and plot moments, and if you skip/ignore the post credits scene, it tells a beautiful story about accepting grief and loss as part of life. I think the largest issue for the shows stems from the lack of proper vision and focus. Kevin Feige is busy watching over ALL these projects and I personally feel like you can see it now. Most of the shows needed someone to step in and say “No that can be removed, and maybe do this instead.” I’m all for creative decision making, don’t get me wrong. But if you’re using these shows to build stories into more movies and stuff, then they need to be engaging and connect to the larger picture somehow.
Now the movies are still fun, entertaining popcorn flicks, as they should be. But I’ve found myself wondering, “Did we need an Eternals movie? Was Thor Love and Thunder and now a potential Thor 5 needed?” I thought after Endgame we’d see a switch to focus on what I thought would be the new generation of newly introduced Heroes (Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Doctor Strange) since Steve, Tony and I thought Thor’s stories were finished. But every new project is introducing us to a new hero, someone else to keep an eye on. I’m excited for the idea of the Fantastic 4, loving the comics and the cartoon since I was a kid, but on top of everyone else it’s a lot. The Eternals introduced us to at least 5 people we need to keep an eye on. There are so many new characters that I feel like I’m losing track. Also, it does suck to me that our OGs (Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, etc) got to have franchises that they didn’t share the spotlight with, but Captain Marvel and seemingly some others don’t get that same curtousy. Am I excited about Kamala and Monica showing up in the Marvels? Absolutely. Am I little bummed out that we know very little of Carol’s life since she left Earth and now have to watch her share her storytime with two other people, one who just had a nearly 5hr movie to tell her story? Yup, I am. I’d be more down if this was the third film. And I love Yelena, don’t get me wrong, she’s one of the best new characters introduced, but I would have loved if the Black Widow movie was actually about Natasha. I mean, me and every other person who wanted a BW movie only asked for a Natasha solo film for 10+ years, so it would have been nice to see her get a trilogy like the boys.
At this point, it feels like the MCU cares more about bringing in the newest hero instead of focusing on the ones we already have. And I know the Pandemic caused mass delays and they’re playing catch up now, but there is literally a new MCU project every couple of months and if you don’t watch all of them, you’ll be lost when heading into the newest project. Didn’t watch WV? Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness might not be a enjoyable if you didn’t. Didn’t watch BW? Might miss out a pretty big reason why Yelena is even in Hawkeye.
I miss the days when you could watch the movies and only be expected to watch the movies to be excited about the crossovers and team ups, but even if you missed one, that was okay. I liked watching the Defenders series and them being in their own little section of the MCU. I liked Agents of Shield just did its own thing. I liked Runaways and it having three self contained seasons that didn’t require hours and hours of prior knowledge.
Maybe there was no point in writing this post except to get my feeling out there. I still like the MCU, been a fan of it since I was 12 years old. But I’m starting to feel some fatigue from it, starting to see a dip in some quality storytelling. Not every movie needs to be CA: Winter Soldier or Thor Ragnarök level of good story telling and overall enjoyment, but I feel like we’re getting some weaker stories from the TV shows and it’s starting to show up in the movies as well because there’s too much for one man to focus his attention on. Don’t get me wrong either, Shang-Chi was probably one of the best Phase 4 movies out there so far, and probably one of the best Phase 4 properties in general, as well as being one of the better MCU movies. I absolutely loved WandaVision, I’ve watched it twice and think it’s even better the second time around. But I really thought tFatWS was boring. Thor Love and Thunder was okay, but it needed to be tonally controlled because some parts I thought were just a little cringey.
Maybe all I need from the MCU is to slow down. Focus on storytelling again, focus on the effects. Focus on the emotional impacts. And honestly, maybe not focus on churning out TV show after TV show. On average, they’re just “okay.” Anyway, guess I just wanted to get these thoughts out of my head. It’s fine if you disagree with me, it’s not going to offend me. If you read this far, thanks.
#mcu#marvel#marvel phase four#wandavision#the falcon and the winter soldier#loki#Moon Knight#ms marvel#hawkeye#Black Widow#shang chi#The Eternals#doctor strange and the multiverse of madness#thor love and thunder#what if...?#long post
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1889, 1.02- "The Boy"
Hoooo boy was I wrong about the horror vibes. Jumping right into that, Eyk's plotline this episode messed me up. Don't get me wrong, his acting was incredible, and I felt his pain and loss so strongly, but I was on pins and needles throughout the entire sequence down in the ship, when he was following Nina. Until this, the scariest thing I'd seen was the film Crimson Peak, given that horror really isn't usually my thing. I found it really interesting how Eyk also had the triangle in his eye when he first woke, and now I'm wondering if somehow this is an attempt to make these characters remember some past trauma? Maura with the mental institution and Eyk with losing his wife and daughters to that fire?
Speaking of trauma, I'm super convinced that Krester's got something. I'm sure it has something to do with the scar- that sort of thing has got to be traumatic to start with- but I noticed he really didn't respond well at all to his sister walking so quickly toward that side of his face. Was he jumped and ambushed somehow? Attacked for some reason? Not to mention how threatening Ángel has come off in each of their interactions. I could almost get the feeling that he knows something about Krester, and that's why he's so strange toward him. But then, what promise was Tove referencing, and what did Ángel's presence do to make her bring it back up?
Which, Ángel surprised me this episode a lot, to be fair. When he went into that scene with Ramiro in their quarters, I messaged a couple friends who've been getting my live reactions to these episodes, and I told them I thought Ángel was going to kill Ramiro, especially after the scene where Tove threatened him- which I also found interesting. Either that, or they were about to make out, though I figured it would be the former due to the confrontational manner of the scene. Obviously, I was beyond surprised when it was the latter! But, there's nothing in this series so far that's unimportant, and what turned into a sex scene revealed the many scars on Ángel's back. How did they get there? Are they the reason it seems Ángel and Ramiro have run away together? I still don't trust Ángel- especially not with Krester- but I do want to know more about him now.
Turning to the place now where I did suspect there was something not very heterosexual going on, I think I'm changing my mind about Clémence and Lucien. Lucien, for his part, seems to be rapidly growing an interest in Ying Li, and if that is so then the issue with Clémence isn't with his lack of interest in women, but rather something else- perhaps the revelation she does not love him. Likewise, Clémence seems to rapidly be growing an interest in Jérôme, leading me to believe she is interested in men, just not Lucien. So, this is likely still some sort of marriage of convenience, and I stand by the fact that I don't think Lucien really knew this until he tried to sleep with Clémence. Now that he knows, however, he is opening himself up to the idea of another woman. I'm very interested to see how this will play out, and what the reason for their marriage will be revealed to be.
Now... again, the elephant in the room- the mystery at large. It unfortunately appears that we've lost young Ada, Krester and Tove's little sister. Following the beetle seems to be a bad idea on this ship, as it led her straight to Daniel, who apologises to her. Later, it looks as though they've found her dead body. But this is the same beetle that lead Maura to find the Boy, and lead Eyk to his vision about his family. So perhaps the beetle is not an ill-omen, but what if it leads those who follow it to some sort of truth? I theorized above that perhaps these characters were being led to recall past traumas, and now I wonder if this beetle has something to do with it. I'm still not sure that I trust Daniel, especially given what happened to Ada when she followed the beetle to him, but I am intrigued by him- and whatever that WandaVision feeling stuff was at the end. Security cameras on a ship in 1899? We may be in for some wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff, folks. Stay tuned!
But now, I want to know what you think! Drop your thoughts in the replies below, or feel free to reblog with your own commentary :) You know I always want to hear from you, and I hope I will! Until next the next one- skål!
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ep 6
sam as captain america 😭😭😭 AND HE STILL HAS THE WINGS, for real, i needed a moment, oh my god
i am... gonna need some background on how sharon lost all her morals. she went from "gonna do what i think is right" to "idgaf about anything", like bish, what tf happened
i like the conversation between bucky and karli, that's a nice touch
bucky and his motorcycle moves 👌👀
LOVE karli just... using people dying to distract bucky because she knows he'll save them. smart move.
john w*lker is back and he has morals now i guess ew
the greatest weakness of this show is the fact that lemar died. a black man died so a white man could get some character development. so he could learn to become a better person. fuck off. and then they give walker the line "you think lemar's life didn't matter" WHO THE FUCK WROTE THIS. it's a joke. it's extremely condescending. it's so completely out of step with everything else this show is trying to do, and i'm so angry that the rest of this show's message has to be tainted because your own narrative undermines anything you want to say. fuck.
if they had addressed this in any other way, made a meta comment on it, shown us that they KNEW they were using a problematic trope and were turning it on its head, they could have salvaged it. but they didn't. it's a disgrace. i hate it.
the ONLY way to save it now is for lemar to not be dead at some point in the future.
and sam and bucky just being cool with him being there? treating him as a pal? he straight up murdered someone, come on. this is such stupid writing.
sharon as the powerbroker, no surprise, but man, they need to do some explaining. personally, i don't like it, because she's now the kind of character i despise most of all, the ones who believe in nothing. but we'll see.
sam refusing to fight karli!!!! THIS IS GOOD SHIT
also holy shit, sam has all the HOTTEST MOVES. the fact that he's not a super soldier or has any magical powers just means he has to be that much better tactically AND HE IS. i love this.
sharon "saving" sam, but in fact only saving her own ass, bc karli would reveal her identity... sharon, i hope you trip down some stairs, i can't believe you'd do peggy dirty like this, damn
SAM DESCENDING FROM HEAVEN LIKE AN ANGEL
god i almost forgive all their other transgressions just for that image alone, who ever designed this, thank you thank you thank you
bucky is so proud 😭😭 (and in love, omg, sebastian, for real, what's with the heart eyes)
fucking get these politicians' ASSES sam
i like how the final fight actually wasn't really a big boss fight at all. they were mostly rescuing hostages, and sam refused to fight karli, and now he's making clear that the politicians are just as much the problem. a better way to end it than i expected, because it keeps the moral ambivalence. it's much more interesting.
it does feel like a few scenes were missing from this? like they had to cut scenes for length and now it feels slightly off in places? kind of odd, none of the other eps had this problem quite like this
walker kills someone and gets stripped of everything. sharon kills someone and gets... a pardon... love this logic.
(i know he was doing it to someone who wasn't a threat and she was "saving" sam, so i guess it's justifiable to them, but even so, could have shot karli in the leg, so... i still hope you fall down some stairs, bye you snake (i really, REALLY hate characters who stand for nothing))
i was in the middle of saying to my brother "it's very stupid to place these super soldiers on the raft with zemo who HATES... oh" and then they got blown up, lmao. honestly a very boring way to get rid of them by the show, they deserved better.
i do like this new lady, valentina. but also... is it just me or does it feel like disney-marvel are doing a "hmmm, how do we become more progressive??? right, make all the villains women" lmao
have you tried adding a single queer person instead you fools
bucky making amends!!! sebastian is truly giving EVERYTHING and this script is giving him... not enough... the same goes for anthony. they are killing it and giving this show and these characters a depth it would not have otherwise had. doing the real work.
HMMMMMMM, not into this isaiah bradley wrap-up they're doing. the museum exhibit is not a bad thing in itself, but like, man, sam, you should've maybe asked first. "just let me live in peace" he says and you go and do THIS. and isaiah is happy, because the script tells him to be, but i'm not totally buying it. because it's not ENOUGH. it's not nothing, but it doesn't make up for what was done to him! it holds no one accountable! and if this franchise uses this as a "oh, now we don't have to speak of it again, it's solved" i'm gonna be so pissed (it's exactly what they'll do, i hate everything)
LET THERE BE CONSEQUENCES, real fucking consequences, but it's disney-marvel so lmao, it will never happen. can't get too political! we have to keep it vague and palatable! we're beyond that, come on, you need to do better
this FINAL SCENE. sam and sarah being happy ❤️ bucky playing with the kids! in his sunglasses with his silly cake!!! bucky being part of the family! AND THEN THEY FUCKING LOOK AT THE SUNSET AND WALK OFF TOGETHER???
SAM'S HAND LINGERING ON BUCKY'S SHOULDER??? THE FINGER ON THE NAPE OF HIS NECK????
they're in love and that's that, goodbye
#the falcon and the winter soldier#falcon and winter soldier#tfatws#tfatws spoilers#thoughts on tfatws#listen this show has some issues#no more than marvel usually does tho#it has many of the same issues wandavision had#except the lemar bit that is truly bad#i can't believe they included that#what a way to undermine your own fucking narrative#absolutely appalling#also they need to give me something about sharon#because what the hell happened to you girl#also i have nothing against this direction objectively#but personally i hate it because it hate that kind of character#that is all pls leave me alone
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We still doing this huh?
It's okay not to care or be invested in the franchise - it may seem overbearing or unappealing from the outside if you're looking at a 26-film franchise, but you're going to get laughed out of the room for thinking the MCU should stop.
This isn't me getting butthurt as a fan, but more of a desperate plea for journalists to take a step back before they write slow-office-day articles like this. How many times have we seen this article... but how many times has an MCU movie broken its own previous records and gained more and more fans?
I feel like a stuck record now, but the best way to look at the MCU is as a series (partly because it is); the Avengers movies are season finales, and with the Infinity Saga ending, it's time for the MCU to direct us toward the next big stories. From Iron-Man 1, to Endgame, the MCU had been an ever-growing smash hit, with the greatest cathartic ending in cinematic history. You can watch the whole Infinity Saga and check out there if you wish, but you're going to look a fool if you think they should stop after sticking their first landing.
Don't get me wrong, I would have been content if Endgame was the actual ending, and it's always a concern when a franchise/series is doing well, there must come a time when it either ends with dignity or doesn't stick the landing... but if Marvel Studios are continuing to make quality, justified, game-changing movies (which are clearly building up to something far crazier than Thanos and 6 stones), then why stop now? Do we suddenly have no faith in these clearly passionate directors/storytellers and producers that have delivered the most entertaining franchise in history yet? I'll hold my hand up honestly and confess myself: sometimes when they've announced more and more Disney+ shows, I initially think "Oh god, another one?!", but so far, they've all been great in their own ways, and my apprehension is always squashed. Because Marvel play the long game, we care about each and every character and their development, so when we reach larger ensemble movies, they're genuinely incredible to watch, due to revelations and each film before it being somewhat of a building block.
Without the 'simplistic' origins of the MCU, we wouldn't be able to have the crazy things we saw in Shang-Chi, Eternals, Loki and WandaVision for example. You don't have to like the movies or the shows... no one is asking you to watch them, but with dumb articles like this, you're turning a blind eye to millions of fans with justified passions.
Are we going to get articles like this whenever a Marvel movie doesn't perform as good as the previous one? We've got substanceless brain-candy movies like Sony's Venom 2 getting rated higher than Eternals, because Eternals delved outside of the main MCU formula and provided a great character driven sci-fi with 10 unfamiliar characters... whereas Venom 2 was a bad comic book movie but painted by numbers so got a higher score. If Eternals delivered the same generic story as Venom 2 had, would it have gotten a higher score? Subsequently, would we then not have dumb articles like this? Because right now it seems the writer is trying to capitalise on Eternals' mixed reception. If that's the case, I advise they check out the audience score, because it'll be the audience that are actually invested and care about these movies. The writer even confesses he really loved Shang-Chi, which is post Endgame, so what's his issue? It feels like they want the MCU to fail if anything.
Note: my Eternals review will be coming soon, and yes I did like it a hell of a lot. I've seen it twice now and it's just outside of my top 5 MCU movies. I'll be talking more about the mixed reception and critics' hypocrisies whenever they complain about a Marvel formula but then dissaprove of something for not feeling like a standard Marvel film.
#marvel#cinema#comics#movies#mcu#avengers#film#comic books#disney#marvel cinematic universe#disney+#tv#television#eternals#funny#marvel comics#rant
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okay ive decided that ive seen all the good posts (and some really bad takes lmao), so here's my 2 cents.
no spoilers:
the first 30ish minutes of this movie are disappointing. the only good thing that happens is meeting America
everything after that gets better and scarier and more violent
please don't take your kids to see this movie and if you do, be prepared for the nightmares
im serious, they pull very little punches this time and shit gets dark fast
this is also one of the best marvel movies imo and probably my second favourite thing they've ever produced after WandaVision (im biased bc i love Wanda but still)
this movie has some really innovative and fun scenes on top of a lot very well executed horror elements. the cinematography is gorgeous in the later acts. sadly the dialogue is often meh at best and some lines are downright cringe worthy, but the script makes up for it with a handful of pretty funny jokes at the right moments
spoilers under the cut
had a similar issue with nwh where they straight up stole the train scene from into the spiderverse, this time they just copied the demon they fight first from the Suicide Squad Film? huge one-eyed, multi-armed monster? poke its eye out with a spear? literally, it's the fucking same
America more than made up for it though, idk bout you guys but i thought she was a delight and was in love from the first second we saw her. i would die for her + her lil pride pin!! also her jacket said love is love
not much to say for the next 30 minutes tbh, they were mediocre at best and just terrible at worst. like, Wanda goes up against the full force of the sorcerers and all they do is block her and try shoot her with a cannon? marvel disease at its finest, how can make this fight that's wholly reliant on magic work like shooting guns and missiles???
i really liked this movie i swear im getting to the praise in a minute
the scene where Strange traps Wanda in that lil mirror dimension prison and the glass shatters and gets all spikey and you hear her breathing get ragged until she forced herself to calm down and reaches out to touch that one surface? yeah man that was the moment.
wanda crawling out of that gong really set the tone for the rest of this movie in hindsight
Wong was having the shittiest time out of everyone and i think he deserves a vacation and a massage
ill be honest i though the way Strange and America bonded while tripping dimensions was cute and all but not the strongest scenes? it was fine though
who was that lady who destroyed the darkhold? i was deadass more invested in her and Wong than Strange and Christine.
when Wong was telling Wanda about the original spells carved into walls i was hyping myself up to be let down but then he actually said "Mt. Wundagore" and i nearly screamed bc!! it made it into the mcu!!
now for the thing that blew this shit out the water and into my top 2 out of all the marvel stuff: meeting the 813 Illuminati
the Christine reveal ?? chef's kiss
WANDA. FUCKING. MAXIMOFF
i loved how she took control of her 838 self
never in my wildest dreams would i have imagined they actually pull through on this. Wanda not just being an actual villain but being terrifying and ruthless and deadly. "what mouth?" was the most chilling line in the entire movie and unlike many others it hit. hard.
that whole sequence is living rent free in my head. give me a "Wanda kills the Marvel Universe" movie, I'd watch the fuck out of that
they really said "men ain't shit" in that scene too, huh
Peggy's death was kinda hard to watch but also so, so awesome
Wanda limping into the room bloody and barefoot added 15 years to my life, i have never been so attracted to her ever and i have loved her since age of ultron
many thoughts on Charles Xavier that would get me anon hate but let's suffice it to say i loved that scene where she snaps his neck
the entire scene of the trio running from Wanda was peak horror film and i loved every second
okay this getting really long so here just my favourite parts from the rest of the movie:
that shot where Stephen walks up the stairs to meet the other Stephen. cinematography on point, legit the most beautiful shot i can remember from marvel ever
the Strange on Strange fight. most creative and innovative thing Marvel's done in a while, maybe ever. really liked seeing that
America going "I can't beat you. So I'll give you what you want." and Stephen then telling her "not yet" when she wants to pull Wanda out of that reality again. i can't really explain why but i really liked that ending
the third eye popping up scene was v alien-esque, nicely done
yeah so far so good. let me know what you thought, what you liked about this movie preferably, if my criticisms are invalid or just whatever you feel like as long as it's nice. have a good night
#multiverse of madness#mom spoilers#doctor strange multiverse of madness#wanda maximoff#stephen strange#america chavez#oh also i dont think she died#i dont think you can really kill her at this point yknow? she'll likely stay gone for the next few years#but when the young Avengers form fr she'll be back#not anywhere near as prominently as in this one i thinj#but wanda will show up again
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I don’t really hate S ylvie. I don’t care about her. But saying I hate her is pretty handy shorthand for “I hate everything her character stands for since she’s a microcosm of everything I hate about the show”. Namely, that she’s the main character of it. She’s the one that drives the plot! The writers were only excited about her! Everything revolves around her! Only she is important! Her pain, her motives, her tragedy her her her her. It’d be the same damn thing if she was a man or even idk, a horse.
Loki gets relegated to being a punching bag and sidekick in his own damn show. None of his issues matter, none of his pain. He’s just a pathetic narcissist loser who runs after others like a stupid puppy. It’s even explicitly stated in the narrative so many times! “This isn’t your story!” “It’s not about you!” “A flea on the back of a dragon!” What should have been thematic statements for the narrative to argue against were proven perfectly true!
So like, forgive me if I’m not enthusiastic about a character who stole the spotlight from what should’ve been Loki’s show. A show I wanted and desperately hoped to be good. But no, I just got punched in the face for 6 episodes while they told me over and over again I was pathetic for ever caring about him.
It’s not fucking “subversion of gender roles” or what the fuck ever. It would’ve been maybe if S ylvie had always supposed to have been the main character. But she wasn’t. She just completely wrenched the spotlight away from Loki for whatever reason. I’m just honestly baffled by how many Loki fans are perfectly ok with this.
It’s not being a girlboss to completely take over the protagonist role in a show that was supposed to be about one character. Like, imagine the reactions if Wandavision had ended up being all about Darcy after episode 3 and how stupid and pathetic Wanda was at magic. Or if FatWS had pivoted in the second episode to be all about Walker and his pain, with Sam and Bucky tagging along, the narrative showing how much better Walker was than them at every turn.
Like??? I don’t know how many more ways I can say this. I just...I’m tired. This fandom isn’t fun anymore and barely has been since 2017. It’s just one pile of shit from canon on one side and another pile of shit from the fandom. Both sides of fandom fighting over a dry bone while disney gloats.
#loki series critical#vaguely inspired by meta posts i've seen floating around#they're always so rage inducing#not cause they're necessarily wrong#i just refuse to accept the basic premise that the loki show has any meta validity in the first place#the rage is that people are engaging with it in that way at all#look at me#being a pile of totally healthy reactions to media#i need to go outside and touch grass#i wish i could quit this fandom#i'm sure everyone else would be much happier with me gone#another completely healthy reaction#things i do on my birthday instead of idk calling my friends and going out to do stuff#too many people outside though#life in the time of plagues
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MoM Spoiler Talk
So, I’ve only seen a few leaks so far, gonna see the movie soon hopefully... but God... I had so many issues with the Illuminati sequence.
They felt so incompetent and underwhelming. They set themselves up to act as a safeguard against multiversal threats, yet just had zero contingencies in place for an omega + level threat? Just them in a big ass hall...
I was genuinely ready for Wanda to wipe them out. But they felt so weak and feeble, rather than Wanda feeling incredibly, overwhelmingly powerful.
I mean, we have Maria (Captain Marvel) getting killed (???), or at least knocked the fuck out by a statue falling on her...?
She has the same powerset as the woman who nonchalantly flew head first into these:
Not to mention flew through exploding Kree warheads like they were nothing and yet... a statue? A statue did her in.
Really? Ffs.
What are set up as some of the smartest, wisest and most powerful humans in their universe, all sat down and set their minds towards protecting the whole multiverse and yet it just felt like they had absolutely jack shit in their backpocket.
I mean... Reed, the smartest man in the universe, literally told Wanda exactly how to defeat Black Bolt.
They really whipped out Stewart, Atwell, Mount, Lynch and Krasinski to just make them look like dogshit... the way they just attack her one at a time... no reaction to their comrades dying, just busting out quips, it all felt so... lame, hoakey and superfluous.
Oh and... was that the actual Captain Carter we know or a different variant???
And probably the worst thing was... I mean, did they just kind of nuke WandaVision? Wanda seems stone cold evil.
Really, really cruel, and I’m sorry but not in a way I can get behind at all... honestly malignant. Hope there’s more context in the movie. A lot of people had argued for it, but I really never saw Wanda as close to being this truly callous.
I think that this take on her will be extremely divisive...
#Wtf?#Please tell me there is some serious context#Did... did they just nuke Wanda's character in this movie?#MoM Spoilers#MCU Spoilers#Wanda here feels like such a non-sequitur from WV#I know there's a lot of debate around her morality#but this felt like a way deeper low than anything we've seen from her.#How does she come back from this?#Seeing that happen to them AND it being Wanda doing it gave me that nasty feeling in the pit of my stomach#Reminds me of when Sandman made Peter explode from the inside out#Bit of a ramble#Maybe there's something I'm missing but from what I've read I don't think so#Hope Krasinski returns in the sacred timeline#Bit tarnished now though#Not a good start#Scarlet Witch#Captain Carter#Reed Richards#Captain Marvel#Professor X#Black Bolt#MCU#Marvel#Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
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what died didn’t stay dead
(originally posted by vormirjumper)
dedicated to @starsvck and @artipotter hope u enjoy this <333
summary: the last thing you remember was fainting in wakanda thinking you saw your own fingertips turn to dust only to wake up in a world where natasha romanoff no longer existed. inspired by marjorie by taylor swift
content warning: natasha romanoff x fem!reader, set after endgame, angst, mentions of death, trauma, their relationship ending on a bad note, trust issues & previous steve x nat, (WANDAVISION SPOILERS AT THE END)
‘моя любовь’ = ‘my love’ in russian <3
REQUESTS ARE OPEN! (please lmk if anyone written something similar to this! & if you want more nat content lmk!)
masterlist
PART TWO
You forced your eyes open.
Pulling yourself up from the ground you glanced at your arms in confusion. You swore you saw your own hands turn to dust before fainting. You glanced around to take in your surroundings eyes widening in shock as you saw the hundreds of Wakandan's you fought beside minutes ago appearing out of dust. You stared speechless as you watched people materialise out of thin air, the dust forming into fingers, then a whole hand and eventually becoming a person who's mirroring your exact reaction.
You felt guilty about the first thought that came across your mind.
'Is Nat okay?' You panicked while rushing to look around, ignoring how you spent the last few years loathing her to hide your heartbreak.
You were an avenger since the beginning. The two of you were on the same team during the airport fight which wasn't surprising due to your history together. Despite the slight age difference between the two of you, your personalities worked well together which is why you got along well, so well in fact that those platonic feelings you thought you had for her developed into something more and somehow you found yourself in her bed many times in her arms with your bodies pressed against one another's, struggling to catch your breath, bliss written all over your face. Your legs were intertwined with hers as you embraced the warmth radiating off her. You refused to acknowledge the unspoken tension in the atmosphere due to the fear of speaking out about your feelings and end up ruining what you had. You couldn't help but let the insecurities build up as you gently caressed her cheek, her eyes met yours back in adoration, full of what could've been love.
But you knew she once looked at him in the same way.
"I love holding you in my arms моя любовь." She muttered, as she stroked your hair gently, you hummed in response, not trusting your own voice. What you both had felt right, you didn't want to ruin it, you didn't want to label what you had together due to the job you both have. Being an avenger doesn't exactly mean stability, anything could happen.
You remember the panic you felt when Ultron took her, the chance of losing her filled you with dread, but you also had faith. You knew how strong Natasha was. Your faith gave you strength and it kept you alive, Nat admired that about you.
The two of you fit together well, whether it was on the field or outside of the field. You could predict each other's moves and although telepathy isn't either of your powers, you know what the other was thinking. You made her better. You helped her wipe out the red in her ledger and when everyone's files was exposed to the globe you were right there by her side comforting her as she feared the reaction from everyone. You were there for her when nobody was and you stood by her side no matter what. Those feelings were reciprocated, you knew Natasha would've done anything for you.
She would even sacrifice herself for the possibility of you coming back.
Then the Accords happened and Nat betrayed the Accords, ending up on the run with Steve, Sam, Wanda and Vision. You were left alone at the compound with an injured Rhodey.
"How could you do this?" You spat out, voice full of hatred as you watched Natasha let Steve and Bucky get away. Your pistol shook in the palm of your hands, pointed directly at Natasha who lowered her own onto the ground, allowing herself to be defenceless.
"It's not that easy моя любовь, you out of all people should understand that." She explained, and you scoffed in response. The pet-name which once caused a flutter in your stomach now fuelling the fire that's building up. All the insecurities you felt during your relationship suddenly turned to hatred. You should've expected this, you should've expected that after all this time she would've chosen Steve over you.
"I guess you'll never change." You responded flatly, admitting defeat. You silently walked passed her and climbed out of the rubble that was created, allowing a wall to be in between the two of you not knowing you tore a piece of her heart as you did so.
That was two years ago.
You thought you'd never have to see her for a long time. You hoped you wouldn't have to see her. Clearly things never go the way you wanted it to go as you found yourself staring back at the person who once owned your heart.
"Well, you guys look like crap." Rhodey teased, wrapping the fellow avengers in his arms as you stood to the side, awkwardly watching the scene in front of you while fidgeting with your fingers. The atmosphere in the compound was comforting, it's been a long time since you've heard so much laughter in one room despite the war that's brewing.
Natasha, who was now blonde but as gorgeous as ever, hesitantly approached you. The two of you stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the next move.
"Romanoff." You nodded, greeting her before moving away to greet the other Avengers, missing the way she muttered the now bittersweet name she specifically picked you.
"моя любовь..."
Did she really love you? Or was it just for revenge? You believed that love blinded you, you managed to convince yourself that your love wasn't enough for her and that's why she left you. Your relationship with her died. It was over. You thought you buried it all, all your feelings. But you were wrong, when your eyes met her green eyes all those feelings came back to life, flowing through your veins.
After all this time you still loved her.
But your feelings for her weren't the only thing you couldn't bury.
Within an hour of reuniting with the Avengers, the team found themselves on the quinjet travelling to Wakanda. You wouldn't have said this out loud but you had faith that everything would be okay, Nat was finally by your side after all these years.
You felt as though nothing could go wrong.
That was a couple hours ago you estimated, you glance at Wanda who appeared a couple feet away from you the tears were evident on her face.
"Where is he?" Wanda cries out, clenching her fists, you saw the scarlet red energy glowing around her. You knew she must've been talking about Vsision who should've been on the ground next to her. "Wha- why does everything look different?" You realised, noticing the damages caused by the battle has disappeared. The grass was greener as ever. The corpses of the creatures you fought were no longer on the ground.
It looked as though the battle never took place.
You ran over to Wanda, helping her up from the ground when you hear someone call your name out. "That sounds like Sam." Wanda points out as the two of you held each other up.
"Wanda!" Sam called out.
"Come on, we gotta go! They need us! The fights not over yet!" He shouts from a distance, the two of you made your way to the direction you heard his voice come from, you saw all the superheroes surrounding him and a man in a red cloak. "What about Nat? Or Rhodey?" You questioned, looking for them in the crowd. You missed the sympathetic glance the man shot you before waving his hands up in the air, creating a yellow ring in the air that transformed into a portal.
"We're going to fight beside them right now." Sam confirms before flying through the portal.
The compound was completely destroyed. Your home was crumbling apart. Thor looked completely different, Tony had grey hair and Natasha was nowhere to be seen.
You wanted to finally tell her, tell her that you loved her with all of your heart.
You fought beside hundreds of Avengers that day, but you couldn't help searching for one specific Avenger. You ran over to Clint who was on the ground struggling to fight off a bunch of creatures, saving him within moments.
"Thanks kid." He pant, out of breath from all of the fighting. You smiled at him in response, reaching your hand out for him to take which he gratefully took, lifting himself up. "Have you bumped into Nat on the battlefield yet?" You asked, hopeful. There were hundreds of people fighting so you didn't expect to find her easily. The smile on Clint's face fell.
In that moment he relieved everything that happened moments ago. Flying to Vormir with Natasha, climbing the cliff with her, reminiscing about Budapest. And the way he witnessed her body hit the ground, the crack echoing so loudly he managed to hear it more than just once. He glanced down the cliff and saw her lifeless body faced towards his.
His closest friend. The person he trusted with his entire life. The person he named his son after. The Godmother of his kids.
Gone.
Just like that.
"I need to do this for her Clint, she's моя любовь." Nat whispered to him before smiling back at the oldest friend she had, pushing away from the cliff and inevitably falling to her death.
You found out what happened to Natasha, hours after.
The Avengers won, but at the cost of the lives of the people you cared the most about, the person you'd do anything for and the person who owned your heart the minute you met them. Clint broke the news to you, he felt as though you deserved to hear it from him.
"She loved you till the very end." He finished after explaining what happened on Vormir. You felt as though you couldn't breathe, like your soul was crushed and pulled away from you.
Natasha Romanoff was dead and there was nothing you could do about it.
She never got to hear that you felt the same towards her.
"I didn't think the ending to be so soon." You struggled to hold back a sob, holding the letter Clint gave you tightly in your arms. Scott somehow found a letter on the ground while trying to save Clint, it was slightly damp and covered in mud. But it was written for you in Natasha's handwriting.
You couldn't bring yourself to read the letter even nine days after the blip. You had to live in a world without her, a world where people drag her name through the mud even though she is the reason they're still standing. You adjust to a world without Natasha Romanoff and reading a letter she wrote for you months ago wouldn't help.
You regretted everything. You regret spending those last few years in anger, you should've stayed with her, you could've told her how much she meant to you. You could've told her you loved her, you could've held her in your arms once more. You would do anything to have her in your arms once again.
Sometimes it felt as though she was still there, laughing at something she saw on the TV. You always felt her presence around you after she passed away, it felt as though she never died. It felt as though a part of her lives through you.
You sat in the passenger seat of Wanda's car, staring at the Sword logo plastered on the side of the building, you could feel the letter in your back pocket, dying to be read. Wanda made her way back to the car, face flared in anger, tears threatening to spill.
"Wanda?" You called out as she got into the car, turning on the ignition but not pulling out of the car park. She sniffled quietly, wiping her eyes before glancing back to you. "I saw him." She responded, her eyes glancing to the folded paper on the backseat of the car, she could see the faint colour of red that was in the shape of a heart. "But they're not letting him have a funeral." You realised, looking back at your friend, heartbroken. "I figured at least one of them deserved a funeral, it's not fair. It's not fair that the world can just go on like nothing happened and we don't get to mourn the people we lost." Wanda rants, pulling out of the parking lot and beginning to drive.
"They both deserve a funeral." You agreed solemnly, remembering the fact that Natasha's body is at the bottom of a cliff in space in 2014.
"Where are we going now?" You asked, wanting to distract yourself from that thought. You felt as though you and Wanda were left to mourn your loved ones alone as the rest of the avengers scattered across the country.
"To the only thing I have left of him."
The two of you sat in silence as Wanda drove, you stared at the shrubbery outside the window before closing your eyes and resting your head on the window, allowing yourself to drift off.
It felt like it was only seconds later when you felt the car turn harshly, you opened your eyes and glanced around in confusion when you saw that you pulled into a quaint town, you had only just missed the town sign plastered with the words "West View." You watched the pedestrians walking by, noticing how some of them sat on their own with no one to comfort them similarly to you and Wanda.
The two of you pulled up to a plot of land with the foundation of a house on the ground, it looked at though the house never had the chance to get completed.
"Stay in the car, I won't take long." Wanda reassured you before reaching towards the back of the car to grab the folded up sheet of paper and getting out of the car. You nodded, staring at the built house next to the plot of land.
Your mind wanders as you stare at the home. You think about Natasha. You think about the future you could've had with her, living together in a quaint home like the one in front of you. No stress about being an avenger, just the two of you and your family. You softly smile as you imagine Natasha's reaction to wanting to adopt 5 cats, knowing she was more of cat person. You imagine holding her hand while walking down the street and watching movies with her in your shared bed. You wanting to stay in for the day and watch movies to ignore the real world outside and her letting you.
You think about what could've been.
A heart wrenching scream snaps you out of your thoughts, you rush out of the car and look for Wanda but is blinded by a scarlet red light that knocks you unconscious.
Your eyes open on command.
The room you stood in was black and white. It was a nicely decorated living room with a dining room connected to it, you couldn't pinpoint which decade the interior was from, too preoccupied by the woman standing in front of you.
Although the lack of colour in them, you could recognise those eyes from anywhere, that smile that you've wished to see was right in front of you. The dress she wore matched the decade and decor of the room, her hair curled up neatly. Natasha stood in front of you, reaching her hand out towards you waiting for you to take it.
You hesitantly reach out towards her, happiness flooding your emotions. She pulls you closer to her, welcoming you into a hug. The palm of her hands are warm as they rested on your back, you could feel her heartbeat as you laid your head on her chest, melting in her arms.
"Welcome home моя любовь."
#natasha romanoff#black widow#marvel#avengers#mcu#marvel fanfiction#avengers x reader#natasha romanoff x reader#natasha romanoff imagine#black widow x reader#black widow imagine#marvel imagine#natasha romanoff angst#wlw fic#natasha romanov x reader#black widow x female reader#black widow x you#natasha romanoff x you#avengers endgame#wanda maximoff#wandavision#Wanda maximoff#wandavision spoilers#wandavision episode 8#Wanda vision#Wanda vision spoilers#scarlett witch#vision#tony stark#westview
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Saw this review of MoM and compared it with Loki and thought of you.
Ugh I hate the layout of the submissions, I swear, this is so weird.
Thank you @i-sudoku! Loved it, they're so right.
I agree with most parts but I disagree that MoM is WandaVision 2. The series took the time to address her issues and her past, they even had an entire episode that tackled absolutely everything: from the murder of her parents, to Hydra experimenting on her and Pietro, to losing her brother and falling in love with Vision, then EG and seeing what Sword were doing to his body... MoM never cared about any of that, they just took the post-credit scene and ran with that.
Elizabeth Olsen does steal the show as Wanda though, I hate the story they had with her but damn if it wasn't pleasant to see her doing it.
We keep seeing that Dr. Strange and Christine Palmer don't work out in any universe, which we already knew, but they keep repeating it for some reason
Mikey might have seen DS1 many times but he didn't understand that both Stephen and Christine had already moved on in that movie. So instead of having them as friends who clearly still love each other, since he thinks the only relationship you can have is romantic, he acts like instead of a mutual understanding this was an unilateral decision from Christine who chose to dump Stephen, she even has a scene in which she tells him she didn't love him. Excuse me?!! They always loved each other, just because you love someone it doesn't mean you have to be with them. But hey, Mikey doesn't get that.
Dr. Strange realises that he's really no different from the other versions of him [...] But he also realises that he can choose to be different from the other versions of him. [...] Which one is it? What does he learn from the other versions of him?
He could have learned something from them but since he only met one of them and spent more time fighting him than talking to him... and the others were given a couple minutes each so we didn't learn anything either. He's the same but he can be different but also being him is not bad. It's perfectly not confusing!
I gotta say though, I do believe they were trying to show him as being different from them because 1) He kept rejecting Wanda's offer to move to a universe where he could be with Christine, 2) He let America save the day unlike Defender, 3) He took the Darkhold and used it only to get to America, once he was done he left it on the floor and never bothered with it again.
So he does learn, it's just that the execution of the story wasn't exactly a good one, but what do we expect, this was Mikey writing it.
There are times when it felt like the writing room had an extensive Q&A session where they tried to cover every possible viewer doubt, concern or plot hole, but instead of weaving the details in naturally, they just made the characters parrot their explanations verbatim, which sounded contrived and awkward.
This is a huge problem with Marvel these days. They got rid of "show, don't tell" and it hurts the narrative.
But this part comparing MoM with Loki is so good (purple annotations are mine):
Waldron was chosen because of his experience with multiverse stories, especially Loki. This sounds great until you realise that Waldron has already run out of ideas and just wrote the same story again:
Main tension: The powerful protagonist is put in cuffs and deprived of his powers.
He is brought before a powerful tribunal of celebrity cameos with AI assistants to account for crimes against the natural order.
[Just adding this to say that both Stephen and Loki are blamed for something a variant of them has done]
The tribunal has some heroic story for the public, but they are hiding a sinister secret. They turn out to be staffed by imbeciles who couldn't catch a shoplifter.
Main plot: A female character is being pursued because she has powerful abilities to transport herself across time and space and keeps evading everyone.
Main threat: A female character possesses the minds of other people to attack.
Lazy and blunt exposition technique: Protagonist uses a machine to bring his memories to life.
Lazy and blunt character development: Protagonist is forced to encounter an alternate version of a significant female character from his life to make him realise something about himself. She otherwise serves no story purpose.
Eventually, protagonist finds a deranged man who lives alone inside a castle in a post-apocalyptic realm. He knows more about the vaguely defined dangers of the multiverse and must be dispatched.
In short: Waldron is a terrible writer.
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My mcu favs w/ crush and relationship hcs (pt 2) (not proof read)
- gonna be honest she’s not familiar with romantic feelings, takes her awhile to even realize what she feels for you
- you make her heart all melty and soft, you make her face heat up, you make her question everything she does
- you make her feel even giddy and overly happy and it kinda annoys her tbh
- she thinks you’re out to get her or something and have casted some spell but when she asks thor he has no idea what she’s talking about until she describes what she’s feeling and he just laughs and thinks she’s joking
- she’s like no. I’m serious ?
- to which thor would tell her what it is, he has a bit of an idea because of Jane
- tbh loving somebody romantically, caring about somebody to this extent scares her
- she’s lost so many people and because of it became a raging alcoholic
- if she lost you she doesn’t know what could happen
- she tries to push you away but quickly realizes she doesn’t like doing that to herself or you
- asks you to go out drinking with her often if you’re up for that
- she’d find it funny how easily you get drunk but has no problem taking care of you, in fact she would probably drink with you more often so she can take care of you because it’s the closest to intimacy she feels she can have with you (no she is not taking advantage of you or anything, it’s more just the thought of taking care of you feels intimate to her)
- also you’re cute while you’re drunk
- trans with you so you can be tougher if you’re not that tough already
- tbh asks thor to do the same with you, whether it be cuz she’s not around or because you need the extra training
- eventually Thor’s at the point where he’s like you gotta tell em and she’s like no 🖕
- but she does eventually
- she’s kinda awkward about it but she tries to sound confident with it ^^
- dating you is very different than just being her friend tbh
- like you might’ve been surprised at her asking you out, even if it’s kinda obvious to anybody that knows her well
- to any stranger you just seemed like friends with a strange rivalry relationship but that’s really not the case
- she’s much more flirty in a relationship, since she’s confident you’re with her for a reason.. she’s not the type to doubt your relationship, you’re with her for a reason
- much more protective in battle though
- she doesn’t say she loves you enough, but she shows it through her actions
- asks thor about the romantic stuff but he has no idea really so she goes to Bruce who kinda has more of a grasp on it
- tries to take you to like normal restaurant dates... kinda awkward since she had no midgardian clothes at that point
- lotsa quick kisses on the cheek or forehead
- likes cuddling as she finds it just.. kinda intimate ?
- still likes to take care of a drunk you
- quick pecks on your lips are very often
- doesn’t like the idea of going on a lot of Thor’s saving the world shits unless you’re on board with it
- thor jokes about how she’s all badass and “I don’t give a fuck about saving the world or anyone else” until it comes to you
- she kicks his ass
- but he’s not wrong
- when she likes you she’s a bit like wtf
- like she doesn’t realize it for a moment until jane explains it
- before she was her usual talkative self but there was a lot of nervousness and stuttering at times, just unusual awkwardness that made Jane raise a brow
- it makes more sense now
- since she’s aware she likes you now she often asks you to hang out, to help her out, whatever it is
- the gal is clingy af what can she say
- lotsa hugs she loves giving you hugs often does them for a greeting
- just an excuse to hold you though tbh
- at times will get tongue tied
- she tries to flirt but it just makes you confused she’s not good at it you’re not even gonna know she’s flirting
- eventually grows impatient about it and is just like “I LIKE U DUMMY! DATE ME!”
- and now you date
- she gets into things a bit quickly so if it’s too fast tell her, hopefully not a dealbreaker
- dates are often because she’s got a lot of creative ideas for dates ^^
- still hugs you as a greeting but a lot longer and intimate and a kiss follows after
- speaking of kisses she LOVES to kiss you and she does so very often
- very needy
- big cuddler
- just like “CUDDLE ME”
- so demanding
- often talks about you and how much she loves you she can’t help it
- but if anybody did the same she like “shut up nobody cares”
- even with you though she’s blunt, but much nicer about it
- likes going on just good dates, restaurants , picnic, whatever
- she eats all the food
- tries to impress you so she might say she was best friends with thor at a point
- and that she’s helped him out before and .. yeah etc
- she likes buying you clothes tbh
- especially if you don’t dress good let her dress you up pls
- would be sad if you didn’t get along with Jane
- it would be a dealbreaker actually
- she knows she’s a bit much so she feels happy you love her anyways
- vision of course will not understand his feelings
- he understands you definitely make him feel something, that something being good
- for a moment he might think he feels like this is how best friends feel towards another, or even thinking he sees you in a familial light
- tony quickly tells him that is not the case
- once vision understands what he really feels he’s not sure how to go about it, he can be quite oblivious
- he’s aware of this but still .. what does he do?
- asks tony for advice, he tells him to flirt and see how it goes
- but tbh that doesn’t work, you don’t even realize he’s flirting gonna be honest
- he’s just bad at it
- so he tries to just simply state his affection, that doesn’t work because he doesn’t know how to word it without it sounding platonic, or getting too nervous about going too far
- he doesn’t wanna overstep boundaries
- tony is in pain watching this btw
- tony eventually is just like “he wants to know if you would like to go on a date” “w- I.. yes?”
- in a relationship he is very sweet
- kinda cliche though, since he doesn’t have a concept of romance at all
- looks up a lot of the things he should know about romance he doesn’t want to ask you that
- while he has no problem protecting you, he doesn’t feel the need to be overly protective unless needed
- he’s logical, reasonable, he only gets protective if he has to, even with how he feels towards you
- but do you distract him? Yes absolutely
- he’s okay with living comfortably and normally for once with you, unless it’s something you don’t want or are not ready for
- once you’re conditioned to a certain lifestyle, even if it isn’t a good one it can be uncomfortable to get out of and he understands that
- he loves to kiss you, often initiates kisses or forms of affection
- you were the first to kiss him, it made him so flustered but so happy and now he’s addicted to kissing you
- loves kissing your hands
- if you have any insecurity he will do anything in his power to prove you wrong and that he doesn’t see you in that light
- he understands he has responsibilities but other than that, loves spending his time with you
- he understands you’re a distraction so he tries not to fight with you, he wants to prioritize the people when it comes to this kinda thing
- which you of course understand
- once you teach him what dancing is, his love language is dancing with you
- you two just stay up talking about nothing and everything
- having kids with him isn’t an option, but he isn’t opposed to adopting children
- after all, all he’s ever wanted was to be a normal significant other to you
- do not have a huge concept on her character so forgive me 🙏
- she can be a bit flirty, not that you mind though right ?
- she just loves spending all her time with you
- probably met you before wandavision
- so you’re probably already together
- even then in wandavision you two were “roommates”
- doesn’t explain all the flirting girl .
- agathas fall would be letting Wanda find out she had a soft spot for you my god
- while she’s all confidence and flirty in general, she’s a bit softer with you
- like she genuinely means the things she says when it comes to you
- eventually asks you to date her, you don’t have much room for dates outside of wandavision
- you two are always together btw
- loves dancing with you
- she has a good grasp on romance so she has no issue with it
- she is full of confidence when it comes down to it tbh
- holds your hand often
- your relationship ain’t official till like the 70s probably
- might joke after wanda has kids that you both should have kids too
- while she’s causing her mischief you back her up to make her look less suspicious
- seriously in the mist of all this she’s grateful for you
- especially when you get her out of the hell that Wanda puts her in once again
- to which she will actually confess she loves you, and cares for you
- you aren’t just like.. some person to date
- she’s not the most vulnerable obviously
- so the fact she finally is.. it’s just a lot
- “idk I just love u a lot hun . Cant I show I love u 😊”
- she’s just so overly sweet with you
- she’s so awful to everyone else at times that she just likes being .. with you and being a softie
- likes you playing with her hair
- she loves a good cuddle
- cute nicknames like hon, or hun, or just teddy bear
- with a crush quill might try to act overly friendly
- and probably flirts a lot
- he’s very like obvious with the flirting so you’d have to be oblivious not to notice it
- he can be quite protective as well
- like not just in fighting but even with just others like even before dating he’s very jealous
- if he makes a joke you’re always in on it somehow
- he tries for form a close bond with you just cuz he likes you so much
- it’s likely he likes somebody that can easily protect themselves doe
- probably has some dumb handshake with you
- honestly he acts like a close friend to you
- people might mistake you for a sibling like relationship if it weren’t for his flirting and him staring at you like you’re his entire universe
- seriously Sam says Bucky has a staring problem, quill is fucking awful
- it’s constant and rocket is always like “you’re staring”
- and he’s like “nO” and then continues to stare
- has you listen to his favorite music of course
- especially the love songs ;D
- will just dance with you to the music he puts on
- one time you guys are dancing to the music he put on like normal but it’s a slow love song, so hes like let’s so dance bae
- and then he tells you how he feels for u
- now u date <3
- lots of forehead kisses
- cuddle bug absolutely
- still a jealous boyfriend though tbh he will try to seem all tough in front of any man he thinks might be better or something he will do anything to show off
- your relationship doesn’t change just lots of kisses and hugs now and I love yous
- you’re totally the relationship that’s like “I love you more” “nooo I love you more” and the guardians hate y’all so much
- he uses nicknames like hun, honey, love, sweetheart
- let’s just say you slow dance more often, and kiss while doing so ^^
- he flirts with you still but it’s a lot more sweet rather than before where he might’ve just flirted with you in terms of like it being kinda like calling you sexy and shit like that, now it’s more like wow u look beautiful I luv u 😊🙏
- would do anything for you, even if he wouldn’t like it
- doesn’t mean he wouldn’t hesitate tho
- going on separate dates isn’t really an option since you guys fight left and right and are always with the guardians, but he decided every once a couple months you guys go on a date together and have some fun
- Loki doesn’t get crushes, so this is a new thing for him
- and tbh he doesn’t know how to take it either, especially when he realizes how strong those feelings actually are
- he hates the idea of being vulnerable in general, especially when it comes to you
- over time it just... happens
- but if there’s any indication he likes spending time with you he will try to lie his way through it, he’s a good liar of course so it probably works
- however he shows he at the very least cares about you, he shows a sign of protectiveness when it comes to potential enemies.. enemies that happen to be dangerous for you
- plus he’s around you like constantly and claims he has nobody else to harass
- he claims he doesn’t care about you at all, but even thor can tell through this lie
- the way he looks at you makes it obvious
- the way he doesn’t try to get you involved in his more dangerous schemes
- and if you do, and you get hurt he feels guilty and tries to help you feel better
- he claims he just owes you one for getting you hurt though
- eventually thor bothers him enough to get him to confess feelings, which takes a lot for Loki to even go through with
- he acts confident, even moreso after you say yes, but deep down was extremely nervous
- the male is good at making you feel important, after trying so hard to hide his feelings he is tired of it and just wants to be more honest about how he feels about you
- no issue being vulnerable, he trusts you but sometimes it can be hard
- he goes to you for a lot of his problems, even if you cannot help, just venting and you listening helps
- he was already with you a lot but now there’s no excuses and it’s even moreso
- “what? I just wanted to visit my beautiful s/o” “we literally just saw eachother 5 minutes ago can I please go to bed”
- likes pressing your foreheads together, he finds it sweet
- jealous of thor? Absolutely. Pls comfort him and tell him you’d never leave him for thor
- he’s so used to just not being as good as him, he wants to be good enough for you
- deep down there’s just so many insecurities he has
- so it causes him to worry like all the time
- having a reassuring and patient s/o is so good for him ^^
- flirting becomes a thing in your relationship
- it makes him feel more confident pls give him this
- protective, he feels like he has to be tbh because he never gets anything good in his life and if he does he loses it, he’s scared to lose you too
- if for some reason he can’t see you he makes an illusion of you to talk to
- when he fake dies you’re the first he goes to see so you don’t think he’s dead, he loves you he wouldn’t want to do that to you =(
- finally
- gonna be honest bucky with a crush is cute
- first of all he smiles at you a lot, Steve is the first to notice how much he smiles around you, it’s the most he smiles like ever
- just has a lot of nice conversations with you about anything and everything
- also whenever you’re around even if other people are around you he’s just like “hey y/n :)”
- heart eyes for you, just can’t help but stare all the time
- he has a staring problem but with you? Yeah 10x over
- Sam always has something to say abt it also
- his idea of flirting with you is really just saying hi to you, just being overly friendly which is noticeable for a guy like Bucky
- eventually would ask you out, he tries to ease into it but he gets a bit impatient
- he was also nervous asking you out but yk
- when dating him he becomes very protective
- one of the most protective bitches on the list tbh
- he gets nightmares about you dying like all the time it breaks him everytime though
- lots of cuddles, whether it be from a rough day, he’s just tired, or had a nightmare
- he likes his hair being brushed by you and played with, even when he cuts it
- he’s scared of killing you and turning into the winter soldier again
- has dreams about when he’s hurt and fought you as the winter soldier, he keeps thinking about if Steve wasn’t there to help, he really could’ve killed you and that terrifies him
- even when you tell him it wasn’t him, he appreciates it but still feels horrible about it
- touch that metal arm, but like gently Yknow . Nobody’s ever touched that arm with such kindness and it makes him soft and feel lucky
- speaking of soft Bucky is very soft, there’s many soft moments with Bucky and vulnerability
- it’s easy to be vulnerable with you but not others
- lots of handholding
- he loves hugging you for long periods of time
- still has a staring problem but now Sam openly makes fun of him
- just big dumb smile on his face as he looks at you
- especially when you’re dealing with kids, seeing you be around them makes his heart warm
- maybe he does wanna be normal, settle down and have kids
- though the thought scares him it is something he desires
- we all know he calls you doll
#valkyrie x reader#loki x reader#peter quill x reader#mcu x reader#marvel x reader#bucky barnes x reader#james Barnes x reader#Darcy x reader#vision x reader#Agnes x reader#Agatha x reader
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The truth about Wanda's family and ScarletVision in WandaVision:
So, it has been a while since the show aired, but to this day, I think a lot of people don't quite understand the logistics of all that happened. Mainly, in regards to the existence of Vision and the twins.
A lot of people still think that they're "not real". What exactly counts as real might be a bit subjective, but they're not "fake" in the sense that a lot of people seem to think.
A lot of those misconceptions seem to come from the fact that in the comics, Wanda's twins are said to "not be real". This comes from the fact that their souls come from a shard of Mephisto's, and after Pandemonium comes to take those shards back, they're gone.
In the show however, as we know very well, there's no Mephisto. So how do the twins exist? According to Agatha in episode 9, the Scarlet Witch is a being capable of "Spontaneous creation". Right before, she says "Your children, Vision, this whole world you created... This is chaos magic, Wanda."
So how do the twins and Vision exist? Simple, Wanda created them. They're not fake. They're not "an illusion". In fact, it is established many times that everything inside the Hex is REAL, not an illusion. As per Monica, in episode 5:
"It's not an illusion, Wanda is rewriting reality"
"Wanda's twins are hers. Everything might look fake on the TV, but everything in there is real"
So why do they disappear without the hex? If they're real, shouldn't they stay alive? Again, Agatha explains:
"You tied your family to this twisted world, and now one can't exist without the other."
Wanda's mistake was that the creation of Vision and the twins was made a part of the same spell that created the Hex. So if she takes down the hex, she takes them down along with it.
It seems like a lot of people miss the fact that, Agatha explains the situation clearly to her, and then offers to make a deal with her: If Wanda gives her her power, she'll correct the flaws in Wanda's spell and allow her to live happily with her family.
The whole time that they're fighting and Wanda is shooting her power at her, Agatha thinks she's doing that as part of their deal. But we then learn that Agatha was lying, as she then tells Wanda: "About our deal... Once a spell is cast, it can never be changed. This world you created will always be broken."
Which also explains the criticism of "Why didn't Wanda just keep the hex at her house?". She can't. The spell can't be changed. She either keeps it as is, or undoes it. No in-between.
Now, more in regards to ScarletVision. I've seen some takes about their relationship in the show that are... Wrong, or at least questionable.
>"Wanda is having sex with an illusion of Vision/a mind-controlled Vision/forcing him to be with her"
Vision is not an illusion. He's a real person (synthezoid) with his own life and mind and free-will, exactly like the original Vision. The reason he disappears along with the hex is already explained above.
Wanda is not mind-controlling Vision, or forcing him to do anything. Because he and the twins were created inside the hex, they don't need to be mind-controlled to fit in on the sitcoms, and they're also straight-up immune to Wanda's powers as shown when she tries to make the twins sleep, and as said by the creators in many interviews.
In episode 5, there's the "You can't control me the way you do them" "Can't I?" which a lot of people misunderstand and take it as Wanda having control over Vision. But she doesn't. Her "Can't I?" is referring to what she does next: Rolling the credits, to end the episode. It doesn't affect Vision's mind at all.
It also just doesn't work, as Vision is able to stop the credits when he continues to argue with her. And as we find out next episode, even changing the decade doesn't take away Vision's memories and knowledge of there being something wrong in WestView.
>"Do Wanda and Vision have sex? Can they?"
This one is kind of a tangent, but, I've seen a couple arguments about the scene in episode 2 where they go under the covers in bed. First of all: Yes, they obviously had
sex. The implication of the scene is pretty clear. Vision makes a suggestive face to Wanda and tells her to turn off the lights, right after she turned their separate beds into a double bed.
The reason they have separate beds is that couples in actual 60's sitcoms did. Because them being in the same bed, implied, well, sex. There's just also no other way to interpret them going under the blanket and moving and turning off the lights especially after the faces they make at each other, so I'm not sure why there's even an argument about this.
And yes, the fact tha Wanda gets pregnant at the end of the episode DOES help with that. Yes, Wanda gets pregnants with her powers... But that's not the story she wants, she wants it to be as if she and Vision can just naturally have children. So, when she has sex with Vision that night, that should be the point where the twins are really "conceived."
>"But how can they have sex if Vision is a robot and doesn't have a-"
Just think about it... Vision, with his powers, can create his own clothes. Full-on outfits. His whole costume and a cape. He's able to change from that to his casual turtleneck outfit. He can even alter his whole body to look human. It's just logical that he's also able to create a penis.
Besides that, Paul Bettany and even Lizzie got asked about that and Vision's sex life a bunch of times. And every time they have said that, yes, Vision can change his density, Vision can create a penis, they do have sex somehow...
Note that, when Wanda does get pregnant, they don't question anything about how "But how can she be pregnant if we don't do that?", but rather just "How is she months pregnant in a matter of 12 hours?". It's true that Vision as a synthezoid shouldn't be able to impregnate her at all, but if Wanda got pregnant without them even having sex AT ALL, that would definetely be more of an issue rather than just how fast the pregnancy has advanced.
>"But that doesn't matter, cause Wanda's pregnancy is psychological".
No. How is it psychological if the children are actually born? I guess the logic here is that both the pregnancy and the twins she give birth to are fake, and "an illusion", but that has already been established as NOT being the case.
And then part of that comes from misunderstanding the storyline in the comics. Wanda's pregnancy was not psychological. She actually got pregnant and unlike the show had a normal 9 months pregnancy. The idea that the twins were fake originally came from them being shards of Mephisto (which was a retcon btw).
And then, when Bendis came to write House of M, he wanted to frame Wanda as being crazy and unstable. So he emphasized the idea of them not being real to make it seem like part of Wanda's mental issues, and also went with the narrative that a pregnancy and babies created through magic were inheretly not real.
But that's only the interpretation of one write in a couple stories. He also said "chaos magic" wasn't real, and then other comics dismissed that and said that it was. And then, they turned out to be real enough that they were able to be reincarnated into Wiccan and Speed. So, even in the comics, Wanda's pregnancy isn't exactly fake or psychological.
Even if you still see it that way though, the show is NOT like the comics. It has its own logic, which, to come back to the beginning, is that: Wanda's powers make her capable of "spontaneous creation". She fully created the twins and Vision as living people. She made the mistake of tying their existence into the hex, so when she undid the hex, which was a spell that ALTERED REALITY rather than created illusions, they were gone along with it.
#WandaVision#Wanda Maximoff#Scarlet Witch#Vision#The Vision#ScarletVision#Scarlet Vision#WandaVision Spoilers#Marvel#MCU#Marvel Comics
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A review of “Journey Into Mystery,” the penultimate Loki Season One episode on Disney+, coming up just as soon as I paper cut a giant cloud to death…
Journey Into Mystery was the title of the first Marvel comic to feature either Thor or Loki. It began as an anthology series featuring monsters and aliens, but Jack Kirby, Stan Lee, and Larry Lieber were so smitten with their adaptation of the characters of Norse myth that the Asgardians gradually took over the whole book, which was renamed after its hammer-wielding hero(*).
(*) The early Journey Into Mystery stories treated Thor’s alter ego, disabled Dr. Donald Blake, as the “real” character, while Thor was just someone Blake could magically transform into, while retaining his memories and personality. It wasn’t even clear whether Asgard itself was meant to exist at first, until Loki turned up on Earth in an early issue, caused trouble, and Blake/Thor somehow knew exactly how to get to Asgard to drop him off. Soon, the lines between Thor and Blake began to blur, and eventually Thor became the real guy, and Blake a fiction invented by Odin to humble his arrogant son. It’s a mark of just how instantly charismatic Loki was that the entire title quickly steered towards him and the other gods.
But once upon a time, anything was possible in Journey Into Mystery, which makes it an apt moniker for an absolutely wonderful episode of Loki where the same holds true. Our title characters are trapped in the Void, a place at the end of time where the TVA’s victims are banished to be devoured by a cloud monster named Alioth. And mostly they are surrounded by the wreckage of many dead timelines. Classic Loki insists that his group’s only goal is survival, and any kind of planning and scheming is doomed to kill the Loki who tries. But this ruined, hopeless world instead feels bursting with imagination and possibility.
There are the many Loki variants we see, with President Loki, among others, joining Classic, Kid, Boastful, and Alligator Loki. There are the metric ton of Easter Eggs just waiting to be screencapped by Marvel obsessives (I discuss a few of them down below), but which still suggest a much larger and weirder MCU even if you don’t immediately scream out “Is that… THROG?!?!?” at the appropriate moment. And all of that stuff is tons of fun, to be sure. But what makes this episode — and, increasingly, this series — feel so special is the way that it explores the untapped potential of Loki himself, in his many, many variations.
This is an episode that owes more than a small stylistic and thematic debt to Lost. It’s not just that Alioth looks and sounds so much like the Smoke Monster(*), that it makes a shared Wizard of Oz reference to “the man behind the curtain” (also the title of one of the very best Lost episodes), or even that the core group of Lokis are hiding in a bunker accessible via a hatch and a ladder that’s filled with recreational equipment (in this case, bowling alley lanes). It’s also that Loki, Sylvie, their counterparts, and Mobius have all been transported to a strange place that has disturbing echoes from their own lives, that operates according to strange new rules they have to learn while fleeing danger, and their presence there allows them to reflect on the many mistakes of their past and consider whether they want to, or can, transcend them.
(*) Yes, Alioth technically predates Smokey by a decade (see the notes below for more), but his look has been tweaked a bit here to seem more like smoke than a cloud, and the sounds he makes when he roars sound a lot like Smokey’s telltale taxi cab meter clicks. Given the other Lost hat tips in the episode, I have to believe Alioth was chosen specifically to evoke Smokey.
Classic Loki is aptly named. He wears the Sixties Jack Kirby costume, and he is a far more powerful magician than either Sylvie or our Loki have allowed themselves to be. He calls our Loki’s knives worthless compared to his sorcery, which feels like the show acknowledging that the movies depowered Loki a fair amount to make him seem cooler. But if Classic Loki can conjure up illusions bigger and more potent than his younger peers, he is a fundamentally weak and defeated man, convinced, like the others, that the only way to win the game into which he was born is not to play. “We cannot change,” he insists. “We’re broken. Every version of ourselves. Forever.” It is not only his sentiment — Kid Loki adds that any Loki who tries to improve inevitably winds up in the Void for their troubles — but it seems to have weighed on him longer and harder than most.
But Classic Loki takes inspiration from Loki and Sylvie to stand and fight rather than turn and run, magicking up a vision of their homeland to distract Alioth at a crucial moment in Sylvie’s plan, and getting eaten for his trouble. He was wrong: Lokis can change. (Though Kid Loki might once again argue that Classic Loki’s death is more evidence that the universe has no interest in any of them doing so.) And both Loki and Sylvie have been changing throughout their time together. Like most Lokis, they seem cursed to a life of loneliness. Sylvie learned as a child that a higher power believed she should not exist, and has spent a lifetime hiding out in places where any friends she might make will soon die in an apocalypse. Our Loki’s past isn’t quite so stark, but the knowledge that his birth father abandoned him, while his adoptive father never much liked him, have left permanent scars that govern a lot of his behavior. The defining element of Classic Loki’s backstory is that he spent a long time alone on a planet, and only got busted by the TVA when he attempted to reconnect with his brother and anyone else he once knew. This is a hard existence, for all of them. And while it does not forgive them their many sins(*), it helps contextualize them, and give them the knowledge to try to be better versions of themselves.
(*) Loki at one point even acknowledges that, for him, it’s probably only been a few days since he led an alien invasion of New York that left many dead, though due to TVA shenanigans, far more time may have passed.
For that matter, Mobius is not the stainless hero he once thought of himself as. While he and Sylvie are tooling around the Void in a pizza delivery car (because of course they are), he admits that he committed a lot of sins by believing that the ends justified the means, and was wrong. He doesn’t know who he is before the TVA stole and factory rebooted him, but he knows that he wants something better for himself and the universe, and takes the stolen TemPad to open up a portal to his own workplace in hopes of tearing down the TVA once and for all. Before he goes, though, he and Loki share a hug that feels a lot more poignant than it should, given that these characters have only spent parts of four episodes of TV together. It’s a testament to Hiddleston, Wilson, Waldron, and company (Tom Kauffman wrote this week’s script) that their friendship felt so alive and important in such a short amount of time.
The same can be said for Loki and Sylvie’s relationship, however we’re choosing to define it. Though they briefly cuddle together under a blanket that Loki conjures, they move no closer to romance than they were already. If anything, Mobius’ accusations of narcissism in last week’s episode seem to have made both of them pull back a bit from where they seemed to be heading back on Lamentis. But the connection between them is real, whatever exactly it is. And their ability to take down Alioth — to tap into the magic that Classic Loki always had, and to fulfill Loki’s belief that “I think we’re stronger than we realize” — by working together is inspiring and joyful. Without all this nuanced and engaging character work, Loki would still be an entertaining ride, but it’s the marriage of wild ideas with the human element that’s made it so great.
Of course, now comes the hard part. Endings have rarely been an MCU strength, give or take something like the climax of Endgame, and the finales of the two previous Disney+ shows were easily their weakest episodes. The strange, glorious, beautiful machine that Waldron and Herron have built doesn’t seem like it’s heading for another generic hero/villain slugfest, but then, neither did WandaVision before we got exactly that. This one feels different so far, though. The command of the story, the characters, and the tone are incredibly strong right now. There is a mystery to be solved about who is in the big castle beyond the Void (another Loki makes the most narrative and thematic sense to me, but we’ll see), and a lot to be resolved about what happens to the TVA and our heroes. And maybe there’s some heavy lifting that has to be done in service to the upcoming Dr. Strange or Ant-Man films.
It’s complicated, but on a show that has handled complexity well. Though even if the finale winds up keeping things simpler, that might work. As Loki notes while discussing his initial plan to take down Alioth, “Just because it’s not complicated doesn’t mean it’s bad.” Though as Kid Loki retorts, “It also doesn’t mean it’s good.”
Please be good, Loki finale. Everything up to this point deserves that.
Some other thoughts:
* Most of this week’s most interesting material happens in the Void. But the scenes back at the TVA clarify a few things. First, Ravonna is not the mastermind of all this, and she was very much suckered in by the Time-Keeper robots. But unlike Mobius or Hunter B-15, she’s so conditioned to the mission that even knowing it’s a lie hasn’t really swayed her from her mission. She has Miss Minutes (who herself is much craftier this week) looking into files about the creation of the TVA, but for the most part comes across as someone very happy with a status quo where she gets to be special and pass judgment on the rest of the multiverse.
* Alioth first appeared in 1993’s Avengers: The Terminatrix Objective, a miniseries (written by Mobius inspiration Mark Gruenwald, and with some extremely kewl Nineties art full of shoulder pads, studded collars, and the like) involving Ravonna, Kang, and the off-brand versions of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor (aka U.S. Agent, War Machine, and Thunderstrike, the latter of whom has yet to appear in the MCU). It’s a sequel to a Nineties crossover event called Citizen Kang. And no, I still don’t buy that Kang will be the one pulling the strings here, if only because it’s really bad storytelling for the big bad of the season to have never appeared or even been mentioned prior to the finale.
* Rather than try to identify every Easter egg visible in the Void’s terrain, I’ll instead highlight three of the most interesting. Right before the Lokis arrive at the hatch, we see a helicopter with Thanos’ name on it. This is a hat tip to an infamous — and often memed — out-of-continuity story where Thanos flies this chopper while trying to steal the Cosmic Cube (aka the Tesseract) from Hellcat. (A little kid gets his hands on it instead and, of course, uses the Cube to conjure up free ice cream.) James Gunn has been agitating for years for the Thanos Copter to be in the MCU. He finally got his wish.
* The other funny one: When the camera pans down the tunnel into Kid Loki’s headquarters, we see Mjolnir buried in the ground, and right below it is a jar containing a very annoyed frog in a Thor costume. This is either Thor himself — whom Loki cursed into amphibianhood in a memorable Walt Simonson storyline — or another character named Simon Walterston (note the backwards tribute to Walt) who later assumed the tiny mantle.
* Also, in one scene you can spot Yellowjacket’s helmet littering the landscape. This might support the theory that the TVA, the Void, etc., all exist in the Quantum Realm, since that’s where the MCU version of Yellowjacket probably went when his suit shorted out and he was crushed to subatomic size. Or it might be more trolling of the fanbase from the company that had WandaVision fans convinced that Mephisto, the X-Men, and/or Reed Richards would be appearing by the season finale.
* Honestly, I would have watched an entire episode that was just Loki, Mobius, and the others arguing about whether Alligator Loki was actually a Loki, or just a gator who ended up with the crown, presumably after eating a real Loki. The suggestion that the gator might be lying — and that this actually supports, rather than undermines, the case for him being a Loki — was just delightful. And hey, if Throg exists in the MCU now, why not Alligator Loki?
* Finally, the MCU films in general are not exactly known for their visual flair, though a few directors like Taika Waititi and Ryan Coogler have been able to craft distinctive images within the franchise’s usual template. Loki, though, is so often wonderful to look at, and particularly when our heroes are stuck in strange environments like Lamentis or the Void. Director Kate Herron and the VFX team work very well together to create dynamic and weird imagery like Sylvie running from Alioth, or the chaotic Loki battle in the bowling alley. Between this show and WandaVision, it appears the Disney+ corner of the MCU has a bit more room to expand its palette. (Falcon and the Winter Soldier, much less so.)
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Press/Gallery: How Elizabeth Olsen Brought Marvel From Mainstream to Prestige
“The thing I love about being an actor is to fully work with someone and try so hard to be at every level with them, chasing whatever it is you need or want from them.”
GALLERY LINKS
Studio Photoshoots > 2021 > Session 008
Magazine Scans > 2021 > Backstage (August 19)
Backstage: Elizabeth Olsen grins widely over video chat when recalling many such moments on set with her co-stars. Yet, she can’t bring herself to divorce such a lofty vision of film acting from the technical multitasking it requires. The camera sees all.
“But then you move your hair, and you’re in your brain, like: OK, remember that! Because I don’t want to edit myself out of a shot. I know some actors are like, ‘Continuity, shmontinuity!’ But the good thing about continuity is, if you remember it, you’re actually providing yourself with more options for the edit.”
That need to balance being both inside the scene and outside of it, fully living it and yet constantly visualizing it on a screen, feels particularly apt in light of Olsen’s most recent project, “WandaVision.”
The mysteries at the heart of the show grow with every episode, each fast-forwarding to a different decade: Could this 1950s, black-and-white, “filmed in front of a studio audience” newlyweds bit be a grief-stricken dream? Might this ’70s spoof be a powerful spell gone awry? Could this meta take on mockumentary comedies be proof that the multiverse is finally coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
The series’ structure, which branches out to include government agents intent on finding out why Westview has seemingly disappeared, calls for the entire cast to play with a mix of genres, balancing a shape-shifting tone that culminates in an epic, MCU-style conclusion. What’s key—and why the show struck a chord with audiences during its nine-episode run—is the miniseries’ commitment to grounding its initial kooky setups and its later special effects-driven spectacle in heartbreaking emotional truths. It’s no small feat, though it’s one that can often be taken for granted.
“I was thinking how hard it would have been to have shot the first ‘Lord of the Rings,’ ” Olsen muses. “Like, you’re putting all these actors [into the frame] later and at all these different levels. All the eyelines are completely unnatural. And yet the performances are fantastic! And technically, they are so hard. People forget sometimes that these things are really technically hard to shoot. And if you are moved by their performance, that took a lot of multitasking.”
As someone who has learned plenty about harnesses, wirework, fight choreography, and green screens (she’s starred in four Marvel movies, including the box office megahit “Avengers: Endgame,” after all), Olsen knows how hard it can be to wrap one’s brain around the work needed to pull off those big, splashy scenes.
“If you think about it, it’s, like, the biggest stakes in the entire world—every time. And that feels silly to act over and over again, especially when people are in silly costumes and the love of your life is purple and sparkly, and every time you kiss them, you have to worry about getting it on your hands. Those things are ridiculous. You feel ridiculous. So there is a part of your brain that has to shovel that away and just look into someone’s eyeballs—and sometimes, they don’t even have eyeballs!”
The ability to spend so much time with Wanda, albeit in the guise of sitcom parodies, was a welcome opportunity for Olsen. Not only did it allow the actor to really wrestle with the traumatic backstory that has long defined the character in the MCU, but having the chance to calibrate a performance that functions on so many different levels was a thrilling challenge.
“It was such an amazing work experience,” she says. “Kathryn [Hahn] uses the word ‘profound’—which is so sweet, because it is Marvel, and people, you know, don’t think of those experiences as profound when they watch them. But it really was such a special crew that [director] Matt Shakman and [creator] Jac Schaeffer created. It was a really healthy working environment.”
Related‘WandaVision’ Star Kathryn Hahn’s Secret to Building a Scene-Stealing Performance
‘WandaVision’ Star Kathryn Hahn’s Secret to Building a Scene-Stealing Performance
Considering that the miniseries spans several sitcom iterations, various layers of televisual reality, and a number of character reveals that needed to feel truthful and impactful in equal measure, Shakman’s decision to work closely with his actors ahead of shooting was key.
“We truly had a gorgeous amount of time together before we started filming,” Olsen remembers. “Our goal was—which is controversial in TV land—that if you wanted to change [anything], like dialogue in a scene, you had to give those notes a week before we even got there. Because sometimes you get to set, and someone had a brilliant idea while they were sleeping, and you’re like, ‘We don’t have an hour to talk about this. We have seven pages to shoot.’ And so, we were all on the same page with one another, knowing what we were shooting ahead of time.
“Matt just treated us like a troupe of actors who were about to do some regional theater shit,” she adds with a smile.
That spirit of camaraderie was, not coincidentally, at the heart of Olsen’s breakout project, Sean Durkin’s 2011 indie sensation “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” As an introduction to the process of filmmaking to a young stage-trained actor, Durkin’s quietly devastating drama was a dream—and an invaluable learning opportunity.
“It was truly just a bunch of people who loved the script, who just were doing the work. I didn’t understand lenses, so I just did the same thing all the time. I never knew if the camera would be on me or not. There was just so much purity in that experience, and you only have that once.”
The film announced Olsen as a talent to watch: a keen-eyed performer capable of deploying a stilted physicality and clipped delivery, which she used to conjure up a wounded girl learning how to shake off her time spent in a cult in upstate New York. But Olsen admits that it took her a while to figure out how to navigate her career choices afterward. In the years following “Martha,” she felt compelled to try on everything: a horror flick here, a high-profile remake there, a period piece here, an action movie there. It wasn’t until she starred in neo-Western thriller “Wind River” (alongside fellow Marvel regular Jeremy Renner) and the dark comedy “Ingrid Goes West” (opposite a deliciously deranged Aubrey Plaza) that Olsen found her groove.
“It was at that point, when I was five years into working, where I was like, Ah, I know how I want it. I know what I need from these people—from who’s involved, from producers, from directors, from the character, from the script—in order to trust that it’s going to be a fruitful experience.”
As Olsen looks back on her first decade as a working actor, she points out how far removed she is from that young girl who broke out in “Martha Marcy May Marlene.”
“I feel like a totally different person. I don’t know if everyone who’s in their early 30s feels like their early 20s self is a totally different human. But when I think about that version of myself, it feels like a long time ago; there’s a lot learned in a decade.”
Those early years were marked by a self-effacing humility that often led Olsen to defer to others when it came to key decisions about the characters she was playing. But she now feels emboldened to not only stand up for herself and her choices but for others on her sets as well.
“[Facebook Watch series] ‘Sorry for Your Loss’ I got to produce, and I really found my voice in a collaborative leadership way. And with ‘WandaVision,’ Paul [Bettany] and I really took on that feeling, as well—especially since we were introducing new characters to Marvel and wanted [those actors] to feel protected and helped,” she says. “They could ask questions and make sure they felt like they had all the things they needed because sometimes you don’t even know what you need to ask.”
It’s a lesson she learned working with filmmaker Marc Abraham on the Hank Williams biopic “I Saw the Light,” and she’s carried it with her ever since. “I really want it to feel like we’re all in this together, as a team,” Olsen says. “That was part of ‘Sorry for Your Loss’ and it was part of ‘WandaVision,’ and I hope to continue that kind of energy because those have been some of the healthiest work experiences I’ve had.”
If Olsen sounds particularly zealous about the importance of a comfortable, working set, it is because she’s well aware that therein lies an integral part of the work and the process. As an actor, she wants to feel protected and nurtured by those around her, whether she’s reacting to a telling, quiet line of dialogue about grief or donning her iconic Scarlet Witch outfit during a magic-filled mid-air action sequence.
“Sometimes you’re going to be foolish, you know? And [you need to] feel brave to be foolish. Sometimes people feel embarrassed on set and snap. But if you’re in a place where people feel like they’re allowed to be an idiot,” she says, “you’re going to feel better about being an idiot.”
This story originally appeared in the Aug. 19 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
Press/Gallery: How Elizabeth Olsen Brought Marvel From Mainstream to Prestige was originally published on Elizabeth Olsen Source • Your source for everything Elizabeth Olsen
#Elizabeth Olsen#WandaVision#Avengers#Scarlet Witch#Wanda Maximoff#Sorry For Your Loss#Avengers Infinity War#Avengers Age of Ultron#Captain America Civil War#Ingrid Goes West#Godzilla#Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness#Marvel#MCU#Candy Montgomery#Love and Death#Avengers Endgame
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TFATWS is the worst Marvel show so far, it’s made no noise either. People are still talking about and watching Wandavision, it’s still in the top viewed shows, it’s been gathering award noms and making top lists. Loki has been very popular. What If is also loved. Hawkeye teaser is the most liked trailer out of all shows so far and soon is gonna be the most viewed. TFATWS was a miss with a lame villain and boring plot, especially the domestic storyline.
Hi Anon, you really didn't have to write so many words just to tell me you are a frustrated person and that you had no taste.
(You should probably also see a doctor to check your racism too... I don’t know, just a vibe I get from your ask, with the need you felt to send an ask to a blog that mainly posts about TFATWS to praise all the shows with White leads and bring down the only show with a Black Lead and then insert some innacurate information in there too).
To be clear, you are allowed not to like the show but why are you are making a point of sending all of this to me instead of making a post on your own blog when you probably know that I’m a big fan of the show and loved everything about it (except the way they treated Lemar’s character) since the show is all I have been posting about in the past fey months.
Why would you send me this just to upset me and even go to the point where you would invent stuff like “TFATWS made no noise”?
Wandavision gathered awards nominations but so did TFATWS. And the show is very popular too, so you have to know you are lying right when you say it made no noise. Right? Anthony Mackie signed a contract for Cap 4, so I guess the show did something right. I’m sure Disney isn’t out there signong contracts for characters that don’t bring in money so at least try to be coherent with your nonsense.
I understand that you are a troll who is probably bored and wants to vent their frustration on other blogs for whatever reason but I still will adress this because I have seen other blogs doing similar comparisons.
If you really liked Wandavision, or Loki you wouldn’t feel the need to bring down other shows. And I can’t believe that you are making me write about Jeremy Bigot Renner. I have nothing against Hawkeye and I’m sure the show itself and Hailee Steinfeld will be great but it is my personal blog policy to stay away from anything related to Renner at all costs.
If you can’t compliment your show without bringing down other shows, maybe your show isn’t even that good to begin with, or you have some issues you need to check.
I LOVE absolutely love TFATWS, and when I’m praising the show, I never felt the need to compare it to Wandavision and Loki and I never feel the need to say how the other two were lame in comparision, maybe you should try that, you’d be happier. So what is keeping you from doing the same?
You don’t like the show, make a post on you own blog, and explain why.
Oh I forgot, you won’t do that because you’re too coward to do it. You know the fandom will tear you down so instead you choose to go on Anon and vent your frustation on Anon.
#Stop sending me nonsense just because you're bored#tfatws#anon asks#fandom racism#trigger warning: Jeremy Renner#sam wilson#bucky barnes#loki#wandavision#hawkeye
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