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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Marvel’s What If? Trailer Breakdown and MCU Easter Eggs Explained

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Lost in the shuffle of Marvel’s live action TV slate and its implications for the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe (like DOOM being the secret bad guy of Loki CHANGE MY MIND) is the impending release of Marvel’s first animated series. What If…? follows the theme of the comic of the same name, which explores far-fetched alternate versions of big moments in Marvel history. As you can see from the show’s new trailer, things get very weird when you start messing with the sacred timeline.

The first season of the animated show is going to run for 10 episodes, but it seems we only got a look at four or five possible stories from the trailer. We’re going to try and take it one story at a time. If you haven’t seen the trailer yet, take a look below:

Okay, here’s everything we found:

Uatu the Watcher

The framing sequence for every issue of the comic was Uatu the Watcher telling readers how if one thing changed, the whole world might have turned out differently. Uatu is a member of a race of extremely powerful, nigh-immortal beings committed to watching (or “monitoring” if you’re a DC head) the universe, but never interfering. Among his gadgets and gizmos that enabled him to perform those duties were machines that would let him see alternate possible realities. It looks like that framing sequence will make its way to the animated series, with Uatu played by Jeffrey Wright.

Killmonger and Iron Man

The first big change we see is Eric Killmonger, the Black Panther villain, saving Tony Stark from a bomb at what would have been the beginning of the first Iron Man movie.

It looks like this one wraps up with a big battle, with Killmonger and Ramonda (T’Challa’s stepmother and queen of Wakanda) each leading forces. What’s potentially interesting about this would be how it ties the motivations of Tony Stark and Killmonger together – Tony, saved from the attack, would not be forced to create Iron Man armor and could potentially give Killmonger a different outlet for his anger at Wakanda.

Thor vs. Ultrons in Madripoor

This next shot looks like a bunch of Ultrons circling a brightly lit building. The color scheme makes me immediately think Madripoor, the southeast Asian island nation introduced to the MCU in The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, but it’s entirely possible that this is just some garishly lit Stark holding.

The Ultrons swarm the building and Thor is there to meet them.

Captain Carter

The second big story teased in the trailer looks to be along the lines of “What if Peggy Carter got the super soldier serum?” The answer is apparently “ride an Iron Man into battle.”

Peggy obviously isn’t going to become Captain America, but her becoming Captain Britain would be a bit of a big deal. Captain Britain is typically an X-Men thing – the original 616 Captain was Brian Braddock, created by legendary X-writer Chris Claremont and Herb Trimpe. Brian headlined his own title for a bit, flourishing under Alan Moore and Alan Davis before fading away, only to have Claremont salvage his character family, including his sister Betsy, for his massive, seminal X-Men run.

Brian became Captain Britain when he was approached by Merlin and his daughter Roma and asked to choose between the Amulet of Right and the Sword of Might to see what kind of protector he would be. Interesting that we see Peggy carrying a sword here…

We also get a quick glimpse of Arnim Zola, the Hydra scientist who eventually uploaded his consciousness into a series of televisions to become one of the big bads of Captain America: Winter Soldier.

Here’s where this story starts to take a turn: Dr. Strange meets up with Captain Carter, and presumably from here shit gets real weird.

Like when Peggy Carter has to fight Shuma Gorath. Shuma was created in the ‘70s by Steve Englehart and Frank Brunner as an amalgamation of a bunch of different, evil, mystical beings: he’s an eye surrounded by toothy tentacles whose name was taken from an old Conan story, while his backstory has a lot of Chthulu in it.

Comics fans might recognize him as the dark god of the Cancerverse from the climax of the excellent Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning Marvel cosmic run, but real fans know him as the only character worth playing in the Capcom Marvel fighting games.

Guardians

Marvel’s What If will also feature the late Chadwick Boseman’s final performance as T’Challa. This time, though, he’s also Star Lord. It looks like T’Challa was picked up at some point by Yondu and raised in space as part of Yondu’s Ravager team.

This is a really interesting swap: the cinematic T’Challa has been largely defined by his relationship to his parents, and to his father especially. He’s swapping one strong father figure for another here, and it’s going to be fascinating to see how much his temperament changes because of Yondu, and how much his temperament changes what Star Lord would do.

One change is front and center in the trailer: T’Challa somehow gets the Guardians of the Galaxy pulled into the battle of New York from the first Avengers movie.

Loki

We know Tom Hiddleston is reprising his role as Loki for the animated series. It looks like Loki’s somehow gathered an army of Asgardians, including Volstagg? Looks like he’s facing off against Fury, too.

It looks like this story might branch off from the events of Thor – we get a peek at Hawkeye pointing his bow and arrow in the rain, just like his introduction in the first Thor movie.

Loki also gets his hands on the Casket of Ancient Winters again. You’ll recall that he used this weapon to try and destroy Jotunheim in the first movie, but was stopped by Thor destroying the Bifrost.

Zombies

The biggest performance draw is almost certainly going to be Boseman’s return, but the biggest story draw is going to be the MCU debut of the Marvel Zombies. This is a concept ripped straight from the comics.

The extremely popular series was penned by Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and drawn by Criminal artist Sean Phillips in 2005 as an extended riff on a What If story arc in Ultimate Fantastic Four. It introduced a world where all the Marvel heroes and villains were turned into flesh eating zombies who then went on to eat their way through the galaxy. It was followed by a PROFOUNDLY disturbing prequel comic by Kirkman and Phillips, Dead Days, and later by five (5) sequel miniseries.

Don’t be surprised if this Marvel’s What If…? episode spawns its own series.

Howard the Duck

After a few cameos in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies and Avengers: Endgame, our favorite comic book duck is back, hopefully in a meatier role in Marvel’s What If…?

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artist-issues · 3 years

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are you ready for my unpopular opinion?

Read it and respond, if you could make me see differently, because I’m a loyal MCU fan and I genuinely want to see the best in all their films, but...

I’m a woman who’s been here since 2008 and I don’t like Captain Marvel.

I feel like the film was lazy, especially if compared to other MCU films, and her character doesn’t develop. Like, hardly at all. She starts out the film with amazing powers but no memory, and ends the film with even more amazing powers and memories...of being amazing.

It’s like...okay...but what did she have to sacrifice? “Her parents’ love!! Society’s belief in her!! Her memories and time with her best friend!” Okay but Natasha Romanoff didn’t even know her parents and her parental figures sterilized her and taught her to ignore all morality, forget loving her. Not a single Guardian of the Galaxy is believed in by the societies of any world at the beginning of their debut film; they have to earn that. So does Steve. Just look at AGENT PEGGY CARTER. And sacrificing a few years with her best friend? Big freakin’ whoop. Have you seen Steve Rogers’ entire character arc? Or, again, Peggy’s? Our other heroes wrote the book on “time lost;” Captain Marvel just ripped it off for a few years.

What did you she learn? “That she doesn’t have to control her emotions of smile for everybody or be who others want her to be!! She’s a strong, empowered woman and she doesn’t have to prove it to anybody!” Really? Which is it? That she’s a strong empowered woman, or that it’s okay to just be human? Pick one. Both contradicts. Toward the end of the film when she blasts Yon-Rogg she’s all like “I have nothing to prove to you.” Really? Is that supposed to be your character development? That you’ve spent your whole life disobeying your sexist parents, choosing your own family, playing baseball and driving go-karts and working your way into the USAF, all to prove you can be anything you want to be...only to learn that hey, I didn’t have to prove anything? You know what? It’s really easy to say “I have nothing to prove to you” when you’re glowing and capable of flight and unmeasured blasting superpowers. Now, Peggy Carter? Superpowerless, fighting her way into a position of respect in the 1940s and caring more about building a safe world than her own status? Maybe that line would’ve meant something coming from her. Oh wait, it did. “I know my value. Anyone else’s opinion doesn’t really matter.” Steve Rogers? Fighting even when he’s powerless? Standing up for the little guy even when he can’t defend himself as Skinny Steve? It means something, coming from him. But you give me a superwoman who was talented and powerful before she got superpowers and then talented and powerful after she got superpowers, and I’m not inspired. I don’t emulate her; I don’t want to be better. I’m just...bored.

What challenges is she getting ready to face from here on out in this Marvel Universe? “Finding the Skrulls a new home! Leaving behind her best friend to go on a selfless mission!” Yeah? Show me THAT. Show me how she sacrifices for others! I mean, she’s not even given two seconds to feel bad about how she was manipulated by the Kree before they’re assuring her it wasn’t her fault—and by the way, that’s not a strong story either. Tony Stark was a bad guy selling weapons to criminals and had to LEARN the error of his ways through fire. He didn’t start out doing everything right and then continue doing everything right. He has to pay for his past mistakes and struggle to do better from that moment on. I mean, look at Bucky! Bucky was manipulated by his handlers in HYDRA. Talk about a guy controlled into doing horrible things. And does everyone he hurt pat him on the back and say “look, it’s war, we all have things we’re not proud of.” Does Bucky himself hold his head up and declare “I have nothing to apologize for! It’s not my fault!” No. He struggles to understand how to handle what he’s done, fault or no fault. But Captain Marvel? Though she DOES move forward and try to find the Skrulls a new home, they don’t display any apparent bitterness toward her that she has to deal with (other than the one mama-Skrull-and-kids-flinching moment) and she gets to beat up on the race that manipulated her and look cool while doing it. Meanwhile Tony deals with anxiety, relationship trauma with his mentor, his best friend, the love of his life, and eventually his superhero team all because of his past mistakes. Meanwhile Bucky has PTSD, a scrambled brain, and fits in nowhere. That’s not a good STORY, guys. That’s not a relatable role model. She’s not struggling with anything. All the blame is put on her manipulators for sticking that chip on her neck and lying to her—she doesn’t even have to have harsh consequences for that.

And you know what...?

She only has a smidgen of screen time to fly in and save everybody, easy-peasy, sacrifice-less, in Endgame. Endgame is the climax and culmination of 10 years of filmmaking. Why isn’t Captain Marvel a bigger part of it? I’d like to submit that it’s because I’m not the only one who doesn’t care about or connect with Captain Marvel, because her movie was flat.

#Captain marvel #brie larson #avengers: endgame #endgame #marvel #mcu #marvel Cinematic universe #unpopular opinion #captain america #iron man #tony stark #steve rogers #marvel fandom #marvel fan

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ironxkid · 3 years

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why don't you like endgame or civil war

((hoo buddy, idk what brought this up but salt under the cut!! Like... a lot of salt - specifically regarding Endgame lmao

I’m gonna start off with CACW because it’s a short response lol

I don’t like it simply because I was done with the infighting between the Avengers. The found family crumbs we were given in Endgame was something I really wanted to see, and them just... ripping them apart frustrated me lol

honestly, the movie was... fine? Idk, I found it to be a lil slow for my taste (it felt like it just dragged on when I watched it in theaters), and I just don’t care for it in general ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Also, ngl, I’m really bummed that Captain America: Serpent Society was a joke announcement because that sounds dope as hell and I really wanted to see that before I realized it’d been a joke dfgjhdsfhj

but, yeah, literally just because CACW is specifically an infighting movie annoys me to no end so I just won’t watch it again dgsfjhsfdhj

now, Endgame?

fuck Endgame

I. have a lot of issues with it, all of which are major grievances throughout the fandom. I’m pissed they killed Natasha and didn’t even bother giving her a fucking funeral because, I quote from Joe Russo, “Well, Tony does not have another movie. Tony is done. And Natasha has another film. And Marvel Universe obviously does not have to move forward linearly anymore. But that character still has more screen time coming.” (see here) and that annoys the hell out of me. She’s getting another movie - great! So you killed one of the few characters doing her fucking best to keep everything together at the compound, the one who was taking charge, give her a big role, and then murk her and... give her nothing but a brief mention at the end. Like... what the fuck? Natasha deserved so much better than what she was given. Tony’s funeral could’ve (and, frankly, should’ve) been a funeral for him, Natasha, and Vision because god forbid we see anyone mourn Vision other than Wanda

(actually this post covers how Endgame fucked over the MCU women perfectly, though Wanda’s not mentioned :c )

plus... Tony’s not done lol - he’s still a massive figure in the films/shows despite RDJ not acting in them, so his character has left shockwaves that aren’t dying any time soon. Natasha... basically disappeared, and I believe she would’ve been dropped completely if it wasn’t for the fact she does have a film coming out soon. Which, frankly, seems awesome and all, but it’s a film that goes back to post-CACW pre-IW and... frankly doesn’t give me any reason to understand why that means she didn’t get a funeral. She’s not coming back in future movies/shows that are in present MCU timeline - her movie is set in the past. She could’ve gotten a decent sendoff

now, Clint’s arc as Ronin rubs me the wrong way. I know it’s a huge thing in the comics, and it’s not him taking a different mantle that I have an issue with. It’s the fact he, a white man, went around murdering people and got off scot-free. Yes, he was targeting genuinely bad people, but... to show that, they specifically singled out Mexican cartels and the yakuza (Japanese mafia, essentially) - so, in other words, the bad guys were people of color! I feel like I don’t need to explain how fucked up that is. And, to clarify, I love Clint! Clint is honestly one of my favorite characters, and the whole thing was just handled... poorly in the film

Tony’s arc genuinely hurts. This is a man who has suffered for years and has tried to make things right, and finally got a chance to settle down. He finally retired from the Avengers, finally settled down, and had a fucking life he could enjoy despite his ghosts, and yet... His arc ends with a message of “tortured soul finally gets rest by dying”. Because, y’know, it’s great seeing yet another long-suffering character only reaching peace through death, because god forbid they let characters heal! He could’ve still caused the second Snap, and he could’ve survived. He could’ve finally been able to step away for good and focus on his family, focus on recovering, and be truly happy. What’s so wrong with letting him stay alive so he can rest and be with his family? What’s so wrong with letting a long-suffering character finally find peace after one last bang?

plus it pisses me off that they’re now using him as a reasoning as to why bad things are still happening. Why is this person the bad guy? Because Tony Stark somehow may or may not have done something that hurt them! Even though most of that really stems from Howard or Obadiah. Tony just ends up getting the blame in their place. He’s just an easy target to use, much like the tesseract seems to be the go-to answer for why things go wrong. But this is a different train of thought

Steve’s ending pisses me off just as much as the next person lmao. You take a character who has acknowledged he no longer belongs in the past (which, funnily enough, was written by the Russos), aaaaaaand have him go back to the past while ignoring two important people in his life that were still right there. He got Bucky and Sam back, and he leaves them. His arc is ruined within a matter of minutes, and it paints a hella bad picture of him in the process. He goes back in time to stay with Peggy (which ultimately destroys her own arc, and the fact she’s a person outside of her relationship (or lack thereof) with him because, y’know, why have her be able to move on and be her own person?), and we’re supposed to believe he’s fine with everything he knows from the future? Fine with knowing Bucky’s trapped with HYDRA and is suffering as the Winter Soldier? Fine with knowing HYDRA has infested SHIELD from day one? Fine with knowing Howard and Maria are going to die? Fine with royally fucking up the timelines? We’re supposed to believe he sat back and did nothing with all of that? They could’ve had him still hand the shield over to Sam - they could’ve let Steve stay an Avenger without the mantle

also the fact the Russos said he didn’t recognize Red Skull when he returned to Vormir to return the soul stone? Like... what the fuck?? Not to mention he literally returns the stone to Vormir, which “soul for a soul”, and they didn’t bring Nat back that way??

and now onto Thor. Thor... holy fuck is this hitting something personal for me. Thor was ridden with guilt - he was furious with himself, hated himself, and blamed himself for failing to stop the Snap. He fell into a massive depression, and... was promptly danced around as laughing stock. Like, “oh! look at Thor! he’s fat and drunk because he’s depressed haha!” - like fuck off. It’s not funny in any form. His suffering was made into a joke and it pisses me off because I suffer from depression. A lot of people suffer from depression. It’s not funny. It’s fucking terrifying at times. I wasted a shit ton of money on a stupid online sim game because it was a distraction - it gave me... god, I wouldn’t even say temporary happiness, but it gave me something to temporarily help, and I still hate myself for doing it. It was a poor decision on my part, and I wish I could change it. And, during that time, I was scared because I couldn’t see myself pulling out of it. I thought I was gonna feel that way forever. I called out of work multiple times because there were days I couldn’t stop crying (something I still feel horrible for doing), I couldn’t get myself to contact any of my friends for months, and it was all because the medication I was on at the time... stopped working. Thankfully, my depression doesn’t work in a way that makes me a danger to myself, so that wasn’t an issue, but it still fucking sucked. And to see a character that I could relate to on such a personal level treated as laughing stock fucking hurt. I’m not sharing this for sympathy - I’m sharing this because it Thor’s arc hit home and it’s literally the main reason why I will not watch Endgame again

this is more of a nitpick than anything else, but... I didn’t really care for Carol in it tbh? Which is unfortunately because Captain Marvel is one of my absolute favorite movies! And I’m well aware she was introduced in Endgame while CM was being drafted, but that in itself is annoying?? Because Carol was originally going to be introduced in AoU, but was cut because it wasn’t going to introduce her character properly. And yet they decide to introduce her character in a clusterfuck of a movie before her movie is in the final stages, and proceed to release her movie first and then give a complete different characterization in her following appearance

honestly I just wanna cover this now to clarify some things regarding Carter and her backstory: the only reason I keep Endgame as is is because it felt easier for me to do so for the purpose of bending canon for specific threads. I wanted to stay as true to the given plots as possible to help with fudging of both the movies and her background, and also because I didn’t want anyone to feel like I was trying to force my own headcanons onto them, y’know?

I’m just gonna plug this here because fuck it lol, but I did start a fix-it fic regarding Endgame that you can read here! I... probably won’t finish it tbh, and I haven’t gone over it in a hot minute so it might be riddled with errors ahah - plus I’m not sure about how I wrote the characters! I get nervous when writing canon characters because I feel like I’ll miss their characterization completely, which is actually why I,,, rarely rp canon characters dgfjhgsfdhj

also the image in the doc was created by @/archervale!!

#ooc #((I think I covered what I wanted and I hope it makes sense dgjhdfh #I'm pretty tired but I'm doing laundry so I figured I'd answer this while I wait #but yeah I don't care for CACW and I honest to god hate Endgame #the potential is there and it just never reached it))#((I'm not even gonna touch the Russos directing style #'hey guys we're gonna film a wedding sIKE IT'S A FUNERAL'#like?? MAJORLY different event fellas #also I'm literally going off what I remember from Endgame so I'm sure there's QUITE a bit I'm missing #but I'm not watching it to make a bigger salt post lol #I don't hate watch things because I would much rather watch something I'd enjoy #tbh I don't understand hate watching at all but that's a different conversation gsdfjhdfhj))#death mention tw #depression tw

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portraitoftheoddity · 5 years

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“Some people move on... but not us.”

I mentioned Steve’s inability to move on in an answer to an ask about the Steggy ending, and while I want to make clear that I think many criticisms of that ending have validity and that Steve and Bucky should have had an actual reunion and goodbye -- for the MCU version of Steve Rogers (not 616!Steve; he’s a whole different bag of issues)-- I think his choice to go back to reunite with Peggy makes sense in terms of his overall arc.

MCU!Steve Rogers doesn’t move on.

That’s sort of the thesis of his journey in Endgame (his trailer line “Some people move on, but not us” being hammered home), but it’s been built up throughout the series.

Peggy wasn’t just someone he “kissed once” -- she was one of the few people in his life who saw the value in him back before he was Cap, looking at him as a person back in 1943 in boot camp. They bonded over being pushed to the margins and overlooked. She treated him like a human instead of a lab rat when he was selected for Project Rebirth. And after Erskine died and Steve was reduced to a dancing monkey, Peggy believed in him. She had his back and helped him go AWOL to rescue Bucky, she was working with him the whole time he and the howlies were laying waste to HYDRA in Europe. That’s nearly 2 years of knowing one another, before the ice.

Waking up in the 20th century is traumatizing for Steve. He goes down ready to die and survives, but loses his life all the same. His last words of CA:TFA, are “I had a date.” His whole existence and everyone he’s ever known is ripped away from him, and the distillation of that for him is his date with Peggy.

Then in CA:TWS, we see he’s been visiting Peggy. It’s presumably something he’s been doing for a while, even if she doesn’t remember. Steve flirts a little with Sharon, and he’s trying to let go and move on, but it’s obvious he hasn’t really been able to. He doesn’t date. He doesn’t really have much of a life outside of SHIELD, despite Natasha’s efforts. Then Bucky comes back, and Steve is once again confronted with the past. A past that doesn’t let him move on.

Except... Bucky does move on. Bucky leaves and goes to find himself and his memories over the next few couple without Steve. I know everyone and their aunt has fanfiction about Steve helping Bucky find himself, and I love those fics too, but in canon, Bucky goes it alone. He isn’t interested in having Steve on that journey. And when Steve chases after him, Bucky makes it clear he isn’t that man anymore. He might remember flashes of him, but too much has been done to him. Too much has changed. Steve is never getting back the Bucky from his past, however much he tries to treat him the same.

In AOU, Steve’s nightmare is that he can never go home. That he’s changed too much-- that he’s too broken and too traumatized. He longs to go dance with Peggy, but he can’t. He tries to convince himself that he’s okay with letting go of that life he wanted. He says: "I don't know. Family, stability... The guy who wanted all that went in the ice 75 years ago. I think someone else came out." -- He convinces himself it’s impossible, but it doesn’t feel like the triumph of moving forward. When Steve calls the Avengers compound home at the end, there’s a sorrow in it -- a surrender. This is the only home Steve gets. The only one he’s allowed to have. He’s made peace with it, but he hasn’t embraced it, not the way Natasha has looked at it as her family and home.

Steve is a walking open wound, and while he’s staunched the bleeding, it’s never healed.

Steve longs for that past; for the man Bucky used to be; for the life after the war that he never got to live. He carries Peggy’s picture in his compass throughout the series, pulling it out over and over again like a talisman, and even in the modern day, keeps up with her until her death, where he is absolutely devastated. And Peggy carried the scars of that loss too, enough to leave weeping when she saw Steve and thought it was for the first time in seventy years, over and over again.

Steve loves Bucky, but he loves Peggy too. His time with both of them was stolen.

And Bucky wants to move on. Wants to be someone new. He can’t be that smiling guy from Brooklyn anymore, but he can reinvent himself, maybe, and heal.

Steve can’t.

That talisman -- that compass -- is the embodiment of Steve’s loss. In times of crisis, he always turns to Peggy’s face, frozen in time, a reminder of the man he was when she loved him and who he’s always tried to continue to be -- the part of himself he’s tried to keep, instead of changing. He never throws it away to look forward. He carries it with him. Just like he carries every death, every grief from his past on his shoulders until the weight of it verges on the unbearable.

So while yes, it sucks that Steve’s other relationships are pushed to the wayside in that last scene and he absolutely should have had better goodbyes and more of a reunion and parting with Bucky -- he’s lived the last five years of his life without Sam or Bucky, and his only meaningful and consistent relationship over those five years was Natasha, who is now dead. He now has the option to go back and be with Peggy, to rescue the version Bucky he lost, and to live out the life that he sacrificed. He has a chance to find peace -- and as a soldier, peace is what he’s wanted.

Also, without Steve constantly wishing for Bucky to be the man he used to be, to follow him into some replica of the past, Bucky can move forward and be someone different -- someone new.

It hurts, and it’s bittersweet. But it makes sense to me.

(And if you disagree -- that’s fine! Everyone’s going to have a different analysis and a different emotional response as to whether the ending was personally satisfying or not. My only request is that you please, at the very least, don’t devalue Peggy as a character or her importance to Steve when expressing your dismay. She deserves better than that.)

#avengers: endgame spoilers #meta #long post #lena has thoughts #steggy #steve rogers #endgame spoilers #endgame analysis #peggy carter #mcu

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shakespeareanqueer · 4 years

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The Oracle - Chapter 4 [Navi Plans Their Next Steps]

Series Summary: Navi walks out of the shower one day and right into Avengers: Age of Ultron. What!? Suddenly immersed in the MCU with the forbidden knowledge of future movies, they make it their mission to change the future

Chapter Summary: Navi settles into the compound, and begins to set out a plan

Contents: Not much in this one 🔮 Word count: 926 words (drabble chap)

A/N: And here’s the last little chapter for the Age of Ultron section! I may not start the next section for a bit, unless this series starts to generate more interest. Anywho, enjoy!

I’ll reblog with links to my masterlist and the series masterlist, my taglist (which is open!) and citing the header photos.

Over the next few days, Navi focused more on settling in than on anything else. Tony was kind enough to lend them one of his credit cards to shop online for some clothing and anything else they wanted to fill their room with. In addition to selecting a whole new wardrobe, they picked out some plants to liven the space and art to line the walls. They had just gone through the process of unpacking and decorating a new apartment back home, but with significantly less money and time at their disposal, so this was a much more enjoyable experience.

For the most part, people were immensely kind. They met Pepper and Fury and Happy and Dr. Cho, all of whom were gracious and understanding. Fury was a little gruff, but Navi didn’t take it personally.

Steve was the exception to the general affability of those in the tower, both those who lived there and those who just worked there. The Captain avoided Navi completely, exiting a room abruptly whenever they entered and refusing to speak more than a few words to them at a time. He didn’t like the idea of a stranger knowing as much about him as they did, and resented the fact that they refused to divulge information about the future, or ‘what they’ve seen,’ as they preferred to call it. Even that vague and evasive language they used to talk about it got on his nerves, so he just avoided the topic entirely, avoided Navi entirely.

The person to give Navi the warmest reception was Pietro. He was beyond grateful that they had saved his life, and extremely effusive in his display of that gratitude. Navi liked spending time with Pietro the most out of everyone, because it was easiest. Their mind wasn’t constantly swirling with the possible futures like it was around everyone else.

For example, Navi couldn’t spend more than a few minutes with Tony before the images of the life draining out of him and the arc reactor fading out, his funeral, his daughter in a black dress on the porch… it all started swirling through their head. With Vision, it was the stone being ripped out of his head, or Wanda blasting it to pieces. Rhodey falling out of the sky in Civil War. Clint as Ronin, driven into darkness by devastating loss. Natasha at the bottom of the cliff on Vormir. And of course Wanda, Sam, Maria, Fury— all fading into dust.

Steve didn’t give Navi much of a chance to get lost in images of his future, since he rarely interacted with them long enough for their mind to wander. But when it did, they saw him as an old man passing the shield off to Sam, saw him hugging Bucky goodbye before mounting the time-travel platform one last time. They saw the dance with Peggy. And even though those were meant to be positive images, indications of Steve’s happy ending, it made their stomach churn. They were never a fan of that plot point; they felt it erased his character arc.

But with Pietro, there was none of that. None of the guilt of not sharing the future with him, or the weight of the knowledge of it. Because they didn’t know. Pietro’s future was clean and fresh and open and full of possibility. For all they knew, they themself were a big part of it.

He was bubbly and flirtatious. He, Navi and Wanda baked challah on Friday and shared a little shabbat dinner in the common kitchen while everyone else ate in their own apartments. Pietro’s hand came to rest on Navi’s knee under the table at some point while they ate, never inching any higher, just sitting patiently and kindly and enticingly. And Navi enjoyed his attentions; it was nice to feel wanted.

They started training immediately. Navi spent a few hours every morning with either Natasha or Maria running laps, lifting weights, and learning fighting stances and how to shoot various types of guns. Most afternoons, they spent at least a little time with Wanda as they both worked on harnessing their powers. They were very different powers, but it seemed the technique was similar; mindfulness was required for control. Wanda practiced moving things with her mind, and Navi practiced affecting how objects interacted with time. They did the trick with the apple from Doctor Strange, and found it could work on locked doors and clocks and ticking (dummy) bombs. They hoped to master exercising their powers without utilizing any movement of their hands, and much, much faster, working towards using it against things like constraints and even thrown punches and fired bullets. They had a ways to go, but they were learning fast.

When all that they had ordered online had arrived and been unpacked—the clothes in drawers and the closet and the art on the walls arranged just so— Navi finally set to work on their Plan. They had ordered some pretty journals and colorful pens, and one morning after a post-workout shower, they sat down at the desk in their bedroom with a heavy sigh.

They began by listing out the titles of all the movies from memory, in chronological order. They lightly crossed out the ones that had already occurred, through Age of Ultron. Ant-Man they weren’t too worried about since it has a happy ending, but they underlined Captain America: Civil War and simply stared at the words long and hard.

Then on a fresh page, they began listing out steps.

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musette22 · 4 years

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Hearing that people are bashing Chris for not speaking up about the ending that Steve had because, look whether or not Chris likes the ending ( and I think he does like romantic aspect of it- getting that dance I mean the meatball) I don't think he's happy with how the Steve/Bucky relationship. There's a reason he said one of the panels, that he would have liked to see more of Steve and Bucky's life back in the 40's and this was in 2018 so presumably they had filmed the ending already but 1/?

he’s not stupid. He knows that Steve and Bucky should have had more of a relationship. That being said, given how much he's ripped to shreds on twitter for basically everything, I can kinda understand him not speaking up. 2/2

You’re right. Look, assuming Chris is actually as skeptical of that ending (and I mean what it meant for Steve’s character arc more than the romantic aspect of it, although I’m sure he can see how wrong it was to reduce Peggy to a trophy wife, too) as Sebastian is, there are plenty of valid reasons that could explain why he hasn’t spoken up (yet). Personally I think it’s a combination of him not wanting to end an overall good working relationship of ten years on a sour note; him being aware that if he, as one of the major original characters, spoke up, the entire thing would blow up to a much higher degree than even Sebastian’s post did; and his political ambitions. He’s worked long and hard on A Starting Point, and understandably wants to be taken seriously by the folks on the Hill, ergo, now is not the time to make a spectacle of himself with something that will make everyone focus more than they already do on his original career in the entertainment industry. I’m sure plenty of people already think he should just stay in his lane, and making a fuss about his role as Cap is not going to help his case. So I don’t think we should expect him to speak up anytime soon, but that’s not to say he won’t do so sometime in the future!

And for anyone who thinks those aren’t good enough reasons for him to stay quiet: in my opinion he’s given plenty of indication that he’s not as happy with that ending as he’s said. Remember his evasive answers at Ace Comic Con last year? The fact that he basically spoiled the ending during that press event in Shanghai? The pre-recorded question he sent in for the Russos at that con? I think he’s done as much as he’s been able to do, and been comfortable with, and that should be enough. It’s wonderful that Sebastian chose to speak up and I will forever appreciate that, but we’re not entitled to anything from Chris, and, more importantly, not bashing the ending does not make him a bad person 🤷🏻‍♀️

#chris evans #sebastian stan #a starting point #anti endgame #minnie answers

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romanogers-lyrics · 4 years

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Why do you ship Romanogers? What do you see that makes you go "yes these two people work great as a couple"? What are their commonalities? How are they compatable? Basically, what makes Steve and Nat — in your opinion — tick as a couple?

Duality ☀️ 🌙

Natasha thinks she’s a monster and she’s constantly haunted by her past. She learns to lean on the Avengers and redeem herself. In a lot of ways, the avengers meant more to her than anyone else. Her arc ends with her being the emotional center of Endgame and the soul (rip) of the team.

Steve was always the hero of his own story and he feels the pressure to always be the hero even when it’s not what he wants. Opposite to Nat, Steve is complicated by the events in TWS and Civil War and becomes more independent and self thinking.

Both characters have light and dark and they compliment each other so beautifully. I noticed this first in TWS when Steve’s image and way of doing things are threatened. Natasha is used to being an enigma and supports him. In turn, he supports her to reveal her secrets to the world and to trust 🥰

Protection 🛡

Both of them protect each other even when it goes against everything. Take Nat in Civil War, letting Steve escape. Steve automatically protecting Natasha with his shield. But he also protects her emotionally in Endgame. Even though he’s trying to live a life beyond the Avengers he comes back for her.

Companionship

Natasha is his closest and best friend. Since coming out of the ice, Steve did not have any connection to the modern world. Bucky was presumed dead, and Peggy was dying. Natasha showed him it was possible to move forward and live in the present. For Natasha, Steve is her constant. She had a partner in Clint but he had his own family that took priority. Steve was her person until the very end. The romantic companionship goes along with that naturally.

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rayshippouuchiha · 5 years

Text

I came out of Endgame with tears in my eyes and my heart filled up to the brim with absolute seething rage.

Even as I write this now my hands shake with some sick mixture of sadness, rage, and bitter disappointment.

So I preface this by saying that I am emotionally compromised and some of my views might shift with time and distance.

But, for better or for worse, this is my first rage flushed take:

I am so disappointed and so angry that after all of the tension, all of the build, all of the time and sweat and tears, all of the loyalty, we were rewarded with this.

Endgame had its high points, I’m not saying that it didn’t. There were some genuinely funny moments and some heart rending ones as well.

Every single second Tony Stark was on screen was flawless as always. Robert Downey Jr. once again proved why he and he alone was suited for the role of Tony Stark and the task of carrying the majority of the MCU for the past 10+ years.

That’s not to say that the rest of the cast wasn’t good. All of the actors all obviously brought their A game and then some when they were allowed to by what I loosely call a script.

So yeah, there were some highs.

But when its comes to Endgame’s low points?

Its low points were subterranean.

They lowered the bar and then they dug underneath it.

Again I’m writing this basically fresh from the theater and with my emotions still high so do forgive me if this is a bit jumbled around or if I ramble a bit as I cover some of the real issues I had with the film.

So, first thing to address was the overall tone of the film.

For this to be the much glorified Endgame, the “battle of our lives”, there was, in my opinion, a distinct lack of true tension in this film. Instead of a fraught, nail biting, tension filled ride, Endgame is more of a ... brisk jog through some vaguely sticky situations.

Instead of playing the story straight and giving the situation the gravity it deserved, the narrative went out of its way to put humor that served no other purpose than to ruin what tension had been previously built. And, in my opinion, the tone of the film suffered for it.

The humor and jokes were humorous, I’m not saying they wasn’t. I genuinely laughed out loud in the moment. But I also feel that, with the majority of the comedy that was wedged into the narrative, the film suffered for it.

Now let’s move on a bit to the actual plot of the film. Again, forgive me if I bounce a bit:

Jeremy Renner was breathtakingly heartbreaking as Clint Barton. Renner was finally allowed to stretch his legs a bit in this film and he proved that, had he been given the chance, he would have given us a Clint Barton to take our breath away.

Watching with Clint as his family died helped to set what should have been the tone for the majority of the film from there on while reminding us of just what was lost and just what was at stake all at the same time.

Chris Evans brought heart to his portrayal of a Steve Rogers who seems both lighter and more weighted down in this film than ever before.

Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha finally showed more emotion than “head tilt”, “lip purse”, and “arched brow” and it was beautiful.

The brief flash of friendship and affection between Nebula and Tony was perfect and heartwarming as well. Nebula was magnificent as the “feral space cat desperately in need of softness and a friendly hand” when placed side by side with a slowly withering Tony Stark who is, even at his lowest moments, still kind to this alien cyborg he doesn’t know but to who he owes his life. They flowed together with an onscreen chemistry in their few moments side by side that felt organic and aching.

Together Tony and Nebula embodied a truly important life/plot point of “meet kindness with kindness and kindness will be your reward”.

Moving forward in time hearing Tony vent his anger and his pain and his distrust at Steve was cathartic in a lot of ways.

As was watching Tony rip the arc reactor from his chest and slap it into Steve’s hand.

In this moment Tony is handing Steve his metaphorical broken heart and leaving someone else to, for once, try and pick up the pieces.

But then, unfortunately, things go rather steeply down hill from there.

With Tony out for the count in a hospital bed the others hunt down and execute Thanos with basically a hand wave and all hope for the stones is lost.

Until deus ex rat-ina unleashes Scott Lang from the quantum realm and the logic of the film takes a sharp left turn.

Scott Lang was missing for 5 years.

To him it was 5 hours.

To which I say, why did Janet van Dyne, age during her stay in the quantum realm? If, according to the MCU canon, every year in our world was roughly only an hour for Scott Lang, then why didn’t Janet come out of the quantum realm only 30 hours older instead of 30 years?

I feel like the answer is probably “because” but yeah maybe I’m just fuzzy on my Ant Man so if I’m wrong then just ignore that bit please.

Also, just a side note, I adore how it’s been 5 years, Wakanda is very much an ally and still up and running, and yet Rhodey still don’t have working legs. But alas, racism.

Moving on.

So with the main villain dead and Tony Stark having solved time travel in his living room, because I stan legends only, we’re now subjected, and that is the very word I’d use to describe what happens next, to what is called a Time Heist.

Cute.

Also Bruce Banner and Hulk have now merged Steven Universe style despite Hulk being scared green-less 5 years ago. But that’s all good, Bruce smoked a ton of weed, they meditated, went on a cleanse or whatever.

Either way Bruce finally did that character development that everyone had been shouting at him since Avengers 2012 and accepted Hulk as part of him and they’re now Dr. Hulk which was … something that happened?

A thing that they chose to do. The direction in which they set their narrative wheels and then powered full steam ahead and plowed us right over in the process.

But yeah, Time Heist! That’s the way to go, the only way apparently.

Because going back in time to stop the Snappening isn’t an option due to reasons that are explained and still look and feel paper thin but probably just honestly boils down to “Russos”

Our intrepid heroes will now split up and surf through time Bill and Ted style to collect the Stones from different points in history.

Yay.

So the rest of the film is basically that, a big old jewel hunt through space and history where the Russos attempt to fool us into thinking their plot points are cohesive and cool by donkey punching us repeatedly in our nostalgia-sacks.

We’re treated to, in no particular order, such hits as:

“Ah 2012 and the invasion of New York only not as interesting but Tony Stark is very much an ass man, but then we been done known that.”

“The Ancient One and her still very distracting skull vein coming at you right now”

“LOKI YOU LITTLE SHIT”

“The one time I envied Scott Lang because, for a split second, he got to be inside Tony Stark”

“Let’s watch Tony Stark simultaneous take a Hulk to the face and have a small cardiac event all at the same time but from different angles”

And let us not forget

“Tee Hee Hee us white bois just had to find a way to make sure Captain America say “Hail HYDRA” but it was for “spy reasons” so weren’t we clever???????”

Yeah boys, great job.

So edgy.

(Although as a side note I do agree, Steve Roger’s ass really is America’s ass and I’d like to thank him for that. Personally.)

But then, of course, Endgame would not have been complete without:

“Steve Rogers stares longingly and creepily at Peggy Carter from behind a window, further backing up his one defining character trait in the MCU which is the inability to move on. Also she doesn’t look up at all despite being a trained spy and all around badass who probably should have noticed the 6 foot slab of American Beef staring at her from less than a foot away, dark room or no dark room.”

And then my personal favorite:

“Tony Stark sees Howard Stark, the father he described as “calculating, cold, he never told me he was proud of me, never even told me he loved me” but it’s all good cause Tony’s a dad now so looking back all he sees are the good times with his emotionally neglectful and abusive father who says there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for his unborn kid and now they awkwardly hug while I try not to scream “FOOTAGE NOT FUCKING FOUND HOWARD AND NO THAT ONE 3 MINUTE VIDEO DOESN’T COUNT YOU SHIT” at the screen and explode in pure rage.”

Joy.

Truly a scene that was necessary and fit the narrative of Howard Stark’s personality and was needed for Tony to uh get closure or grow as a man and a father or something …

It totally wasn’t yet another excuse to give a canonically abusive father screen time in a way that seems genial and sweet in an attempt to give them a bit of redemption that they neither earned nor deserve.

But yeah, whatever, moving on.

Also Rhodey remains an absolute gem and he and Nebula get shit done.

Only oops, not so fast.

Because apparently the only one who is going to run into the whole “two of you can’t exist in one place at one time without consequences” rule is Nebula who, despite her bitchin orange stripe/badge of character development, managed to like synch up with her past self?

Because she didn’t turn her bluetooth/quantum entanglement function off I guess.

Either way Orange Stripe Nebula, O’Snebula as I call her, has accidentally air dropped all her files into OG Nebula’s mental iPhone.

So yeah now big old Past Grimace knows what’s up.

Ooops??

So shit goes down and then Past Grimace is like “you need to Trogan horse this shit, least favorite daughter” so OG Nebula does because “daddy issues”.

Dr. Hulk puts on the gauntlet and Kentucky fires his arm bringing all the people lost in the Snappening back to life now, 5 years after they got dusted.

Which is … honestly a recipe for disaster in so many ways. What about the people, like the guy in Steve’s support group, who have started to move on?

What about the people who have remarried, have built new lives?

All of that’s ruined now.

It’s fantastic all those people are alive again but jobs, housing, food, healthcare, government, all of it is back in massive disarray across the universe.

And bringing those people back does nothing to bring back the people who didn’t die in the Snappening but died from causality instead. All the deaths caused by suicides, by car/bus/train/plane/ship/etc crashes, by a lack of first responders, by the civil/world/interplanetary wars that probably raged across the universe due to entire governments disappearing?

All of those people are still dead.

The Snappening killed half of all life in the universe. Causality probably killed another good ¼ after that.

And Dr. Hulk’s Un-Snappening saves none of them.

This isn’t a true solution, it’s a shitty band-aid.

But yeah, Russos so….

Moving on.

Yadda Yadda Yadda, plot plot plot. OG Nebula goes undercover, Past Grimace ends up in the future, there’s some fighting (which was admittedly BAD ASS), shit happens, and Tony saves the day like we all knew he would.

YAY!

Despite the massive rambling up above I’m not gonna plot out the entire movie right here though a lot will probably get covered coming up because here’s where I get down and start talking about the various character arcs too.

Because what a wild fucking ride those were.

Okay to take it from the top Scott Lang’s arc was fine. Beyond my questions about the quantum realm his was clear cut and fine although I do wonder at his luck at being, apparently, the only Scott Lang in San Fran to go missing. Well either that or he was staring at some other Scott Lang’s name instead of his own and in that case “awkward”.

Bruce’s arc was … look I could have done without all of the cringy Dr. Hulk stuff that they played up for laughs. If they were gonna brush Hulk being terrified under the rug they could have found a better way to do it besides just erasing the duality between Hulk and Banner with a hand wave.

But yeah, Russos.

Carol Danvers was beautiful and magnificent and completely brushed aside. Yes she was out in the universe handling shit, yes I know they did that so they could focus on the core Avengers, etc etc etc.

But it’s a damn shame that Carol Danvers, and her glorious haircut, was reduced to being the sorely needed and totally badass cavalry and last minute ace in the hole when she should have, logically, been a part of the vanguard. Honestly I have thoughts on why Carol’s entire character should have been saved completely for the next phase of the MCU instead of introduced so late in this one but I digress.

O’Snebula was a perfect shining bionic light and I love her.

Gamora is now alive in the future but at what cost? Not that her life isn’t worth something on its own, it totally is and she deserved the loophole resurrection 10000%.

Shit’s gonna be awkward though cause she doesn’t love Quill, she doesn’t love the Guardians, doesn’t really know O’Snebula or the universe she’s been thrown into. She doesn’t have the memories or the experiences or the character growth and even if she does go back to her family she’ll never be the same person.

Now her and Quill’s relationship, if they ever have one again, will be reduced down to Quill going “you fell in love with me once you could do it again despite us no longer having the shared experiences that bonded us together”. Same can be said for the rest of the Guardians as well.

Guess we all know what the plot of GotG 3 is gonna be about.

And that brings us to the story lines that really and truly upset me.

Which is basically all the rest of them.

Natasha/Clint’s combined story-line, Thor’s everything, Steve’s … Steve, and then finally Tony.

Now the Natasha/Clint story-line started out promising.

Clint’s rage and pain was obvious, his heartbreak poignant. His decision to use all of those to cut a bloody swathe through the criminal underworld was both Dramatic(™) and understandable.

Natasha’s love and grief for him, her desperate attempts to hold onto what she has left by throwing herself into her new job, was a perfect demonstration that Natasha Romanoff is very much not a robot. She was exhausted, frayed at the edges, and she had tears in her eyes, over Clint. And then she pulled herself together, slipped her mask back on, and pushed her way forward. This was all excellent.

It was also a nice narrative callback/parallel to have Natasha be the one to go out and bring Clint in from the cold.

Natasha plays touch stone, plays stability, for Clint and for many of the others. For the first time Natasha is truly portrayed as a person all the way down to the core instead of some witty quips in a catsuit. Plus her eyebrows finally came back from the war and her hair looked good again. So there was that.

Clint and Natasha’s arc comes to a climax on Vormir as they search for the Soul Stone and Red Skull, the Nazi cockroach that he is, gives them the same spiel he gave Thanos.

To get the Soul Stone you must give up the life of the one you love the most. A soul for a soul.

Narrative wise this is consistent, we all knew this would happen as soon as they started searching for the Stones again. It was obvious.

It was also obvious that Clint was the perfect sacrifice.

He’s got nothing left, his family is dead, he’s already lost the people he loves the most, he’s spent five years being a borderline monster.

And he is also, without a doubt, the thing that Natasha loves the most.

Clint was ready and willing to go, ready to die for the blood on his hands, ready to sacrifice himself for the chance that his family would be saved.

Ready to lay down on the wire and let Natasha walk over him for the sake of everything.

Clint dying made sense, was narratively sound, and heartbreaking.

All of which are only a few of the reasons why Natasha’s death was such a goddamn betrayal.

Instead of following along with the narratively sound death of Clint Barton, an Avenger that’s been ignored for most of the films as is, the Russo brothers instead chose to fridge Natasha.

Clint dying would have been the perfect mirror to Gamora’s death.

Gamora was a daughter unwillingly sacrificed by her father to destroy half of all life in the universe.

Clint would have been a father willingly sacrificed by a friend to save half of all life in the universe, his own sons and daughter included.

But no, we didn’t get that, instead we got a gratuitous scene of Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, splayed angel like and bloody on the rocks below.

Instead they fridged the Black Widow, the only woman of the original Big Six, because they couldn’t bring themselves to fridge a man.

So Clint gets the Soul Stone.

Such a fitting end for the Black Widow right? Dying in a man’s place, mourned on screen by a circle of men, but ultimately set aside rather quickly.

I understand why Natasha wanted to be the one to go, I understand that she didn’t want Clint’s family to lose their husband/father and that her true family was the Avengers. I get that. It doesn’t mean I enjoy or agree with the decision they made any more.

It doesn’t make me any less tired of watching female characters die for the sake of men and their families.

Natasha Romanoff sacrificed herself for the universe and her family and that deserves respect even if I absolutely hate it as a narrative choice.

Oh and what about the absolute NERVE of the Russos to have that awesome Lady Power Battle Strut happen but only after they killed Natasha, one of the Big Six?

Bitter? Me? Nooo.

Now, moving on to Thor.

Thor.

Oh my actual God, Thor.

The levels of disrespect Thor, Chris Hemsworth, and the fans were shown with this character arc/story-line in Endgame is breathtaking.

The absolute, shameless disrespect.

They turned Thor into a cowardly, drunken slob who has spent the last 5 years ignoring his responsibilities to what’s left of his people and instead has spent his time drinking, sulking, and literally yelling at kids over PSN??

Endgame’s Thor has the bullshit reasoning that he needs to stop trying to be who he thinks he should be and instead be who he is.

Which flies completely in the face of literally all of his character development from Thor all the way to Thor 3 and then Infinity War.

The entirety of Thor 3 was Thor’s hero’s journey culminating in him finally being the king he was always meant to be. Finally maturing and stepping forward to lead his people.

I am supposed to believe that Thor, depressed and guilty or not for not killing Thanos when he had the chance the first time, just abandoned his people like that?

I’m supposed to believe that Thor would piss all over everything the majority of his family and friends died for?

I’m supposed to believe that Heimdall, Loki, countless soldiers, and The Warrior’s Three and Lady Sif (I guess), all died to protect Asgard, died for the people and for Thor, and Thor just what? Turns his back on all of that to become a drunk?

No, Thor wouldn’t do that. Thor should have been down there beside Valkyrie working those fishing vessels when Bruce and Rocket came calling. If Thor had any hesitance to join them it should have been, “I can’t abandon my people, I am needed here.” He should have been fiercely guarding the tiny fraction of Asgard that’s left.

Thor’s depression and guilt was valid. Don’t mistake me on that. But they played it for jokes. They made him a caricature of depression, made him “gross” and incompetent and the butt of the jokes, and in the process diminished what should have been a painful and poignant arc for Thor.

Instead we got Big Lebowski Thor, bathrobe included, who does stand up and fight yes but, in the end, gives up his crown and just fucks off to space to have petty pissing competitions with Peter Quill so he can?? find himself?? despite finding himself in Ragnarok already???

Thor’s entire arc in Endgame was shallow, mishandled, and disrespectful to the character, to Chris Hemsworth, and to the fans.

You, we, he, all deserved better than this.

Now we get to Steve.

Steve Rogers, Captain America himself.

I’ve had a lot of salt about Steve’s character and actions in the MCU but, all of that aside, he deserved so much more than what the Russo’s did to him in Endgame.

Hell he’s deserved so much more than what’s been done to him since post-CA:TFA.

But this is about Endgame specifically soooo….

Steve’s shown leading a support group in the beginning of Endgame, is shown talking about moving on and moving forward and learning to let go. Which is wonderful. It sounds like the exact character development we’ve all been waiting for for Steve.

Which is, of course, the exact moment when Steve goes “nah just kidding, we don’t ever move on”.

Which, given the circumstances, is pretty fair. If Steve was only thinking/talking about Thanos and the events of Infinity War.

But of course he wasn’t.

CA:CW should have been the end of the Peggy Carter saga for Steve. He mourned her, he was finally moving forward, he’d kissed Sharon, he threw everything away to save Bucky, he gave up his shield, etc etc.

But no. Endgame finds him right back there, clutching that goddamn compass, and making moon eyes at a woman who we all thought went on and lived a life without him, got married, had kids, and generally existed outside of Steve Rogers.

But no. The Russo’s had to take that away from us too.

And yes yes I know I know multiverse or whatever but still.

Steve steamrolls his way through Endgame with skill and determination. He picks up Thor’s hammer, finally worthy, which how??? Why??? (perhaps because he’s no longer keeping secrets??? Or maybe that’s just my salt talking? Who knows? Not me?)

And then he fights Thanos head to head.

(Although him wielding the hammer brought up an entire separate set of issues cause I’m pretty sure Mjolnir doesn’t actually summon lightning. Ragnarok pretty much said that the lightning has always been within Thor. Mjolnir was just a control accessory. But, you know, Russos *jazzhands*)

And then, in the end, he insists on returning the Stones on his own.

Only he doesn’t come back like he was supposed to.

Instead we’re given old Steve Rogers.

Because Steve returned the Stones and then ….went and found Peggy Carter and got married and lived an entire life with her ignoring everything he would have known was going to happen to her and around the both of them or something???

Or maybe not if the multiverse thing holds up but then who knows any more???

But then how did Old Steve end up right there by that lake on that day at that right time if he’s technically from a different multiverse???

Either way Sam gets his shield and the mantle of Captain America, which was fantastic, and Bucky more than likely knew Steve’s plan all along but the best read I really got on him was basically “eh” so he might well have been happy for Steve too.

But still, instead of finally achieving peace and continuing to learn to live in the future with Bucky and Sam and the remnants of the Avengers, his family and the life he’s built there over the past years, instead of putting the shield down because he’s learned to let go in the now, Steve only puts the shield down because he chooses the past.

He chooses the past over all of that and all of the people left who love him. Sure the argument could be said that he knew they’d be alright but still.

There is a deep well of dissatisfaction inside of me as to how Steve’s entire ending arc was handled. Why did peace only come to Steve after Tony and Natasha were both dead and then was only found in the past?

No disrespect to Peggy Carter, I adore her, but were the relationships he had in the future worth so little that the past was the only place he could find happiness? A past with a woman that he knows loved him but still moved on and found happiness outside of him, lived a full and happy life without him?

Steve didn’t get a character arc so much as he got a character circle. A character loop. He went right back to where he started.

Endgame erases all of the character development Steve underwent post-Avengers. Just brushes it all under the rug.

The Russo’s stole the character development Steve Rogers spent a decade undergoing to give him their version of a happy ending.

They robbed him and us both of every bit of growth and forward motion Steve has underwent and I will never forgive them for that.

And now we get to Tony Stark.

Anthony Edward Stark.

The Iron Man.

Tony’s arc is, was, the longest and best developed arc in the entirety of the MCU.

It’s spanned 10+ years and has been nurtured and hand fed by Robert Downey Jr.

If Endgame got one thing right, one thing at all, it’s how they handled the majority of Tony’s arc.

From him laying the smack down on Steve once he was home, finally venting his emotions and his anger, all the way to him solving time travel before tucking his kid into bed, and then building an Infinity Gauntlet on his own even though Thanos committed genocide to get the one he had.

Tony Stark’s arc was glorious and expected and sad.

I think that my one almost complaint is that Tony stopped for 5 years. On one hand he deserved the rest, deserved the chance to find happiness. He was hurt and tired and he’d faced his demons and been left bleeding out with the death of half the universe weighing on his shoulders.

He deserved to just stop for a while.

On the other hand stopping is not something Tony has ever been good at, just like Pepper said. A part of me thought Tony would be working, frantically, to find something, anything, to turn back the hands of time. To track Thanos down. To get the Stones and then to get everything else back.

To get Peter and all of the others back.

But that’s not the route they went and I’m … okay? I guess, with that.

Tony was validated and vindicated and everyone would have finally listened to him. It only took the death of half of the universe to do it. But he was too tired, too hurt and untrusting to keep pushing. I can respect that.

But of course once an idea worms its way inside Tony can’t let it go. So he solves time travel on the fly and sets out to save the world.

Again.

His one stipulation is that he will do anything, everything, he has to in order to keep what he has now. His wife Pepper and Morgan, his sweet little daughter.

So of course he doesn’t get to do that either.

After all of the blood, sweat, suffering, and mental illnesses, Tony doesn’t get his happy ending. Not really.

He gets to rest, yes, but he loses out on everything he wanted to do with his kid. In the process of saving the universe he becomes the one thing he never wanted to be for Morgan, a distant father.

A face on a screen, stories, memories other people have.

No matter how many holograms or inventions or whatever Tony left to Morgan, it’ll never replace him.

Morgan got 5 years with her father. She’ll spend the rest of her life hearing stories about him, about how much of a hero he was. And hopefully, with Pepper and all the others behind her, Tony will remain a hero to her and will not, instead, become her version of Captain America. An untouchable symbol that Morgan will never live up to.

So, in the end, Tony sacrifices once again.

Watches the future he wanted crumble to dust in his fingers, lightning scorching him from the inside out as infinity rips him apart.

And he dies there, surrounded by some of the people who love him best.

His best friend.

His wife.

The son he almost had.

And, despite all of that, it is very very fitting that his death was at his own hands.

Thanos could take out half the universe, he could traverse time and space, he could humble Thor, terrorize the Hulk, rip Steve Roger’s up, survive shield and hammer and so much more, but the one thing he couldn’t do?

He couldn’t kill Tony Stark.

The only thing that could kill Iron Man, could kill Tony Stark, was his own heart.

Tony Stark takes the Infinity Stones in hand knowing how this is going to end, knowing that Stephen Strange set him on this path years ago.

Because didn’t Strange warn him? Didn’t Strange tell him outright “I’ll let the kid and you both die to protect the Time Stone”?

Tony just never expected it to take a few hours and then 5 more years for Strange’s promise to finally be fulfilled.

So Tony does it knowing that after everything he’s been through, all of the pain and the suffering and the battles, it was only enough to have earned 5 years of happiness, 5 years of his dream.

5 years of being the father he always swore he’d be.

Tony Stark takes the Infinity Stones and dies for the entire universe, for his family, for his daughter. Dies knowing that he’ll be doing the one thing he didn’t want to do, swore he would never do.

Leaving them behind.

Tony Stark brings us full circle as he stands as both equal and mirror of Thanos once again.

Man to Titan. Good Father to Bad Father. Life to Death.

Tony Stark picks up the weight of the universe and then he dies making sure that it has a future free from the same fear that has haunted him for a decade.

A warm light for all mankind, sent to sleep, to rest, knowing that finally everything will be okay.

And all he had to do was die for it.

So, I’ll close this out saying this:

This was written in one solid push after my first viewing and Endgame was dissatisfying for me as you might have guessed. I am disappointed and angry at so much they chose to do to end out this iconic decade of cinema and to close out these character’s arcs.

There were a lot of points and little details I didn’t get to cover in this and perhaps a lot of points you might not agree with me on.

That’s okay.

Because, no matter what, there is one thing I know for sure.

We, I, will always have Tony Stark and the lessons he taught me. The pain he endured and shared with all of us. The bravery and strength he inspired in so many of us as we watched him struggle with physical and mental illnesses on screen. As we watched him obsess and stress and love and grow.

I have never loved a character more than I love Tony Stark.

I have never been impacted by a character as much as I have been by Tony Stark.

I’m not sure if I ever will again.

So, Tony Stark is Iron Man.

He always will be.

And he saved more than just some fictional universe.

He saved a lot of us along the way too.

And we’ll always love him for that.

#MCU wank #Avengers Endgame #avengers 4 #Avengers #Endgame #A:4

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nellie-elizabeth · 4 years

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Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Adapt or Die (7x06)

Oh my gosh, poor Mack!! I'm going to rush my way through this one, sorry.

Cons: Are they setting up a Sousa/Daisy thing? I'm going to be honest, I'm not mad about it if so. I know I keep griping about this, and it's cool to see Sousa and I love his character... but I guess I'm still bitter about the fact that Agent Carter, an excellent show (better than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. honestly) has been done so dirty by the MCU. So there's this part of me that's salty that the setup and care given to Peggy and Sousa's relationship in that show has been tossed aside and can't even really be properly deconstructed here, as to say anything unfavorable about Steve/Peggy would be anathema to the brand or whatever. I'm gonna grump about it even as I'm glad to have Daniel Sousa along for the journey.

This episode wasn't as "fun" as the other ones, and it wasn't meant to be, which is fine - but I felt less immersed in the time period, less like I was seeing anything essential or specific about the decade. Hopefully '80s shenanigans come back in for next week's installment. That should be lovely.

Also - still missing Fitz big-time.

Pros:

Oh my god. Mack... this was heartbreaking. Honestly, his character hasn't been gripping me all that much this season, because he's basically just been being the boss and doing a decent job of it. I didn't really know what his arc was. But here, seeing him fight so hard to save his parents, seeing him succeed, and then having it all ripped away... pushing the Chronicom wearing his mother's face out of the plane... this was straight-up devastating. It really put a more concrete, personal evil on the villains of the season, too. Sure, we all know why our team of good guys want to stop the Chronicoms, but now it's very personal for Mack, and I'm excited to see how that's going to shift things moving forward.

Also, the team is splintering! Oh no! But also - yay, exciting! Deke and Mack have been sort of chafing against each other this whole season, and after Deke's decision to disobey Mack's orders and take out Malick (an understandable decision, frankly), Mack is pretty pissed off. When Mack goes off to be alone to process the death of his parents, Deke follows. And then... the ship makes another unexpected time jump, stranding Mack and Deke in the '80s while the rest of the team (minus Coulson which I'll get to in a minute), zooms off to destinations unknown. I'm excited to see Mack and Deke paired up for a whole episode. That dynamic has a lot of promise.

As I mentioned above, I wouldn't be mad if Sousa/Daisy became a thing! It was sweet how worried about her he was, and Sousa is certainly attracted to women who could straight-up kick his ass, so no issues there. This is still early-stages, but the moment at the end when Sousa had the opportunity to leave and decided to stay was really sweet. He says "I'm where I'm supposed to be" while looking at Daisy. Aww!

The mystery with Simmons continues, but we do get some answers - she's having parts of her memory blocked for safety reasons... nobody can know where Fitz is or the Chronicoms will kill him, and he's "steering" them in some way through time, in order to guide the team on their quest. This is all fine, or whatever, as an excuse for why Fitz hasn't been around all season, even if I'm still sad about that. What I really liked about this development was Deke turning on Enoch and then the apology later. It's fun to have Enoch as a part of the crew, and to see how people react to him.

Finally, Coulson. So, he appears to have "died" again but I'm sure it won't stick. They even make comments about how he always comes back. There are a couple of different ways that fantasy/sci-fi shows can handle characters coming back from the dead, and I tend to think that they are doing a good job in this instance of exploring death and what it means to be alive - if Coulson does return again, his consciousness in another robot body, or maybe as a Chronicom, is he really still Coulson? How far removed does a person have to be from their original flesh-and-bone self to still be the same individual? In Supernatural, the characters die so frequently that trips to hell have become like making a milk run. And while there's something problematic in that, in trying to make death seem like a realistic threat after so many fake-outs, it's also a chance to think about life and death in a way that isn't possible in a genre without the literal capability for people to come back. That's all a long way of saying that while I was kind of bummed that Coulson returned as Sarge, and now as an LMD, because I thought his send-off was so perfect, I'm not mad that we're getting the opportunity to explore the very concept of death a little more closely with his character.

And May! I liked the banter with Coulson, and how it felt in some ways like the May we once knew. But it's all filtered through this reality where she's really just feeding off of how other people feel, and mirroring the emotions of the people around her. Once again the performance is excellent, as we see that just because May can't feel, doesn't mean that she lacks all sense of empathy or care. She remembers that she loves her friends, her chosen family, even if she can't really access the depth of that right now. It's why she touches Mack to feel his grief, to commiserate with it. She's not shying away from the opportunity to experience emotion when it presents itself, and she's handling it both strategically and compassionately.

Wow, I said I was going to rush through this one and I ended up rambling on. Typical! Point being, this probably wasn't my favorite episode this season, in terms of stand-alone stuff. But it's setting up plot elements and character arcs that I'm desperate to learn more about, so that makes it a win in my book!

8/10

#review #agents of s.h.i.e.l.d.#agents of s.h.i.e.l.d. review #agents of shield #agents of shield review #aos #marvel

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captainevans · 5 years

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Could you go into more detail re: your last post? I've been seeing so many reactions to what Steve did at the end of the movie and would love to hear your take on it because I'm desperate to hear from someone more level headed (and it seems like you definitely are). I've just seen a lot of people upset with/at Steve/Chris and need some reassurance lol. You can keep this private if you want or just make a separate post. Also hi, nice to meet you :)

I have been thinking about this all day, so I would be more than happy to elaborate for you! It’ll be under the cut.

It appears that the general arguments regarding Steve being out of character and not liking his ending is that he struggled for so long to put his past behind him, to find a place in the future with the family and friends he made, and by sending him back it compromised their future as well as Peggy’s and reduced her to simply a woman who stole Cap’s heart as opposed to this formidable force to be reckoned with and one of the founding members of S.H.I.E.L.D.

I don’t see it that way though. If anything, this is a Steve who failed and saw half of the universe snapped due to circumstances beyond his control and more importantly this is the first time we truly see Steve for the human he is, and not just the soldier out of time.

Two constant threads in Steve’s individual arc has been dealing with one never-ending battle after another and his struggle to acclimate to the times he’s in. I don’t mean in an ‘old man deals with newfangled technology’ sense, but Steve’s few years out of the ice pales in comparison to the seventy plus years it’s been for everyone else. Also keep in mind the era in which Steve comes from, because he deals with things internally or not at all (mostly not at all) and a therapy goer the man is not.

In TFA, pre-serum Steve has a myriad of health problems and is known to get into fights frequently. He’s tried several times to get enlisted; longing for that one chance to do something right, to do something good because he doesn’t like bullies and he doesn’t care where they come from. He meets Peggy and she sees the man he is way before he became Captain America. Keep in mind though that between post Project Rebirth and the crash, more time has passed than people tend to think about. Their feelings for one another have deepened, even if they’re not acted upon, which is why their final conversation over the comms is even more heartbreaking. They had something, they knew they had something, and now it was lost seemingly forever. Who could come back from that? Who honestly would want to?

The Avengers finds him a mere two weeks after the man was defrosted, in which he was learning that almost everyone he knew and loved was dead and that the Tesseract he crashed a plane to try and destroy was found and used by SHIELD to create weapons and had to push that into the back of his mind so he could fight aliens in the Battle of New York.

In TWS, he’s still struggling to find his footing between his past and and present. He visits Peggy and is happy that at least she was able to move on and have a life for herself, but every visit is melancholy and ends the same way - she slips out because of her dementia and he has to relive her finding out that he’s real and in front of her every time. I wouldn’t want to wish that experience on anyone, but do you know what that’s like to deal with a person who has that? To think you’re finally getting somewhere with someone for a moment and then the lucidness wears off and suddenly your heart is ripped out of your chest because you’re back at square one? To do that every single time you see them? Sam asking him what makes him happy breaks my heart every single time because he’s never been given the opportunity to figure that out, and once he learns that Hydra, again going with the whole “I crashed my fucking plane into the ocean and this shit is STILL happening” arc, has been entangled with SHIELD from its infancy, he knows the mission to take it down takes precedence over trying to take the time and figure that out for himself. Now, this movie is the Winter Soldier, and there’s Bucky to cover. At this point, Steve knows he doesn’t have much time with Peggy left when he uncovers the identity of The Winter Soldier. These two pillars are the last remaining ties to his past, which is why he tries so hard to try to joggle Bucky’s programming with not fighting back and the “I’m with you til the end of the line”. Steve knows he’s in there, he just had to get him out. He’s successful, and then that jump-starts the search post TWS leading into Age of Ultron and ending in Civil War.

Age of Ultron..is…well, okay it has more problems than anything else however, at this point it’s been three years since he’s been living in the future, and it would make sense that Peggy is still on his mind in Wanda’s dream sequence for him. He confirms it in Endgame for the first time by saying it aloud, but Peggy was the love of his life. It’s normal to dream about lost loves. He’s a man from that older era though, which is why we only have a stolen moment of him trying to remain stoic because he has to be a leader and appear unaffected for the sake of his team and the mission. I really wish the deleted scene where he comes out of the quintet with his coal to see the image of Captain America with the words “Fascist” above spray-painted on a building wall before he throws the helmet back inside was kept in because it shows SO MUCH without saying anything at all. This is where we see that break between who is he and what his superhero persona is supposed to represent. It’s not Captain America who makes Steve Rogers Steve Rogers, it is Steve Rogers who makes Captain America Captain America. And once again, we find him trying to make the sacrifice play if they aren’t successful and can’t get all Sokovian citizens as well as themselves out in time. Now all while this is happening, Sam is still trying to look for Bucky for Steve.

Which brings us to Civil War. Never has that line between his past and present been more apparent because it’s literally the plot to this movie. That’s it. That’s the whole thing. Bucky is deprogrammed but broken and more importantly to Steve - alive- and he knows that Bucky has that blood on his hands that Hydra used and abused him into spilling and that’s why if he could just get Tony to see that with these accords the powers at be, along with every country who signs, can dangle their help for political gain like they’re puppets on strings just like he was. Do they need to be put in check? Perhaps, but not by people with an agenda. It’s a dangerous game they’d be playing with no winners which is why Steve doesn’t sign them. And during that meeting with all of them discussing this, Steve learns that Peggy dies so his stake in this fight to preserve the last tether to his past increases tenfold. He’s not just fighting for Bucky, Steve is fighting for himself. By the time he’s dropped that shield, we’re shown that Steve has lost faith in his government, he’s lost faith in his friends, and he’s lost faith in himself.

He’s in Infinity War for six minutes and forty five seconds is screen time so there’s not much content wise to go on, but when we see Steve he is clearly not the man he was and you can tell something is broken inside him, but it’s not explored until Endgame.

I’m just going to focus on Steve’s arc in Endgame because while I really liked most of it, Thor and Natasha deserved better than that so here we go. If you have not watched Endgame, don’t go any further.

Between waking up and immediately having to fight post defrosting and uncovering the truth about SHIELD using the Tesseract to make weapons, Hydra being an entangled part of shield, the events of Civil War, and by the time we see him in Infinity War he’s a shell of whatever former self he was trying to grasp at straws with, and it wasn’t until we had this film that we actually see to what extent that was.

Endgame opens three weeks after the snap, in a time where they’re still desperately clinging to hope with trying to find a way to reverse things. Carol saves Tony and Nebula while he’s on the very brink of death in the Benatar, and tensions between the Steve and Tony are at an all time high. They lost. Everyone. They’re the Avengers, how could they lose?

Time jumps five years. Tony is living on a lake and has a young daughter with Pepper, and Steve has now taken over for Sam in leading group therapy meetings. Joe Russo’s character says he went on a date the night before and that his date cried before the salad and he cried after the dessert and there was nothing they could truly talk about because what could you talk about if half of the universe, including people you knew and loved, vanished in an instant and where you’re borderline living in some version of Lord of the Flies? He offers words of comfort, but he and half the people in that session don’t fully believe them. He lost the love of his life in ‘45 and woke up seventy years later and he hasn’t had a single moment of rest to do so. It weighs on him, on all of them. Natasha is at Avengers HQ still trying to find ways to help, and because of the nature of their work and who they are as individuals they can’t truly move on, him especially. But seeing Tony with his daughter I think was a catalyst of sorts for Steve, even if it didn’t fully register for him at first. One of the themes through Age of Ultron was this notion of “home”, and being an Avenger was something they all pretty much had to put first. Tony got his family, he got his home, and for someone who thought that the man who went into the ice seventy years couldn’t have that himself, there came a small burst of a what if. What if he could have that as well? If it happened for Tony…

Seeing Peggy in 1970, seeing his photo on her desk…that did something to him as well. After all those years, he’s still on her mind just seemingly as much as she’s on his. He gets that moment of seeing her again, and that longing was heartbreaking. Just one more look before he had to go back - something just for him because the mission came first, it always comes first, and he didn’t want to screw anything up so he buries it like he does everything else. Steve’s an intelligent little shit though and we’ll come back to that later.

Now here’s where I also need for you to keep in mind the conversation Banner had with the Ancient One in 2012. The Ancient One is hesitant on giving him the Infinity Stone because it will disrupt the pre-determined timeline, but Banner explains that the past is cemented in time and forever exists to allow for a subject to jump through time. Reality is experiential for individuals, meaning a person’s perception of time is linear, regardless of how they jump around the timeline. In layman’s terms, you travel to the past, that past becomes your future and your former present becomes the past which then cant be changed by the new future.

We’ve always known Steve is worthy of wielding Mjolnir so let’s just skip to the ending now shall we?

At the end, Steve goes alone to return the stones to their proper place in time, but also has become well versed in time travel for someone who’s not Banner or Tony. He sees this as a chance to have something that’s been unattainable to him for so long - to live the life Tony wanted for him. To be happy. To not have to fight for once in his life. So he goes to the right place in while in the quantum realm as to not disrupt the main timeline, and that’s when he doesn’t return we see that he’s become an old man finally at peace, handing Captain America’s shield over to Sam, who more than deserves the mantle, not exactly telling him that he got his happy ending with Peggy, choosing to keep it to himself and yet smiling wistfully all the same.

He never changed anything about Peggy’s future either. SHIELD clearly still exists, and do some people honestly think he wouldn’t give her the choice? If he didn’t think there was a strong enough of a chance or had she turned him down someway he would have respected her and returned to the main present timeline. Nothing changed about that, it was just an alternative path. By going back, Peggy’s life without Steve still exists and that Peggy who gets her reunion with Steve now represents a branch timeline.

I get not everyone liked the ending, I do, but to be fair, just because they didn’t like Steve’s ending because it doesn’t fit what they wanted doesn’t mean it wasn’t a fitting end for Steve. He can rest now. Finally.

#i have a lot of feelings about steve rogers okay #jensenwuvzhugz #becka answers things #a4 spoilers #long post for ts

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