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blood-and-winter-buckynat · 11 months

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Note: The show notes and the story synopsis are not final, this is just currently what I have in mind. Just not that I thought that Rogers: The Musical in Hawkeye was cringe and I want this to be an Avengers musical with a much higher quality.

Assassins In Love (An Avengers Musical)

Production Notes:

The story and the production design will incorporate elements from the comics, in particular the 616 timeline, but there will be references to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. References to the Avengers Assemble and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes cartoons are very welcome. The goal of the production is to be fan service in good taste, but in such a way that non-fans can also enjoy it. Action scenes/language/sensuality will be kept at the PG-13 level.

The songs will be in the style of classic Broadway and Disney musical numbers, with touches of hip-hop and big band jazz. The superheroes and villains in their fight scenes will wear bright, colorful costumes based on their comic book and film counterparts.

The majority of the story takes place in 2010s New York City. Scenes with flashbacks and travel to other places can be depicted with lighting and stage effects.

Genres: Action, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Suspense, Spy thriller

Characters:

Starring Characters: Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier and Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow

Supporting female characters: Sharon Carter/Agent 13, Maria Hill, Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch

Pepper Potts appears at the party in Act I and in the Finale

Supporting Male characters: Steve Rogers/Captain America and Sam Wilson/Falcon; Tony Stark/Iron Man, Nick Fury, Phil Coulson, and of course Clint Barton/Hawkeye

Villains: Alexander Pierce/Red Skull and Madame B from the Red Room; Kingpin also appears briefly in Act II

Avengers Chorus: Vision, Thor, Bruce Banner/Hulk, Scott Lang/Ant-man and Hope Van Dyne/Wasp; Doctor Strange; Peter Parker/Spider-man, Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver; Rhodey/War Machine

Villain Chorus (for opening Avengers battle): Including but not limited to Loki, Baron Mordo, Mysterio, Doc Ock, Whiplash, and Zemo

Extras: NYC Civilians, SHIELD/Hydra agents

Clint Barton’s family from the MCU will be mentioned throughout the play and appear in the finale

Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter will have a romance that parallels and foils Bucky and Natasha’s relationship; they will be a couple by the end of the show.

Story Synopsis

ACT I:

Prologue—(The prologue will be depicted in a montage of scenes and dances with minimal dialogue).

Steve Rogers/Captain America and Bucky Barnes were best friends and fought side-by-side in World War II. At the end of the war, Captain America goes missing and Bucky is captured by Hydra. Red Skull turns Bucky into the Winter Soldier and uses him as an assassin to enforce Hydra’s agenda.

Meanwhile in Russia, the Red Room headed by Madame B trains young girls to be assassins but incorporates ballet into their program. Young Natasha Romanoff is one of the best pupils in the Red Room. Red Skull and Madame B arrange to have the Winter Soldier train with teenaged Natasha.

In modern times, Captain America returns. He fights the Winter Soldier only to discover that his opponent is his long-lost friend Bucky. Bucky goes into hiding.

Present Day

The Avengers save New York City from a team of supervillains. After the battle, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff have a personal chat. Steve is adjusting to the modern world. However, ever since his encounter with the Winter Soldier he suspects that Hydra could be building in secret. He is also looking for Bucky but so far the search is fruitless. Natasha Romanoff is content with her existence as an Avenger, but she wonders if she can ever have a normal life and do something besides be an assassin. Sam Wilson arrives to tell Steve that Bucky has turned up.

At the headquarters of SHIELD, Director Nick Fury suspects that Hydra is rising again and warns Phil Coulson and Maria Hill to be on the lookout. Hydra is, in fact, operating under Fury’s nose, led by the Red Skull disguised as Alexander Pierce. Pierce works in a high-profile position at SHIELD. Madame B pays Pierce a visit, and together they plot to destroy the Avengers and help Hydra take over the world. Throughout the play, Madame B is in the background of various crowded scenes, spying on the characters.

After spending months in hiding, Bucky Barnes is in Brooklyn, his and Steve’s childhood home. Bucky is living in the streets while trying to remember his past and put his Winter Soldier days behind him. Steve Rogers finds Bucky and offers him material help. After some persuasion and argument, Steve gets Bucky to move in with him and Sam. Steve also invites Bucky to a party that night being thrown by Tony Stark.

Tony Stark throws a party at the Avengers Tower in Manhattan. While the other guests enjoy the party, Bucky sees Natasha Romanoff from across the crowded room. He remembers her from the Red Room. Natasha sees Bucky also, and she recognizes him. They meet and they talk briefly.

A few days after the party, she goes to Central Park and she sees Bucky again. They discuss their shared past.

Steve gets Bucky a job at SHIELD as a super-agent. For his first assignment, Bucky is sent out with Natasha Romanoff. It is at this point that Bucky recognizes that he has a growing romantic attraction to her.

ACT II:

Bucky has a hard time hiding his feelings for Natasha from the other Avengers. The Avengers and their coworkers at SHIELD believe that Natasha might like him back, but she is in denial. Nick Fury sends Bucky and Natasha undercover to a party in Manhattan hosted by Kingpin. Natasha and Bucky dance together at the party, and then they fight Kingpin’s thugs and arrest the crime magnate.

After the party, Natasha and Bucky frequently go on assignments together, but they also start seeing each other outside of work. Bucky is unsure about where to take his relationship with Natasha. He goes to Steve for advice, and as they reminisce about old times, they rekindle their former friendship. Later, Bucky summons up his personal courage and he tells Natasha that he loves her. They start ‘officially’ dating as a couple, but Madame B is spying on them. Maria Hill, however, is in turn spying on Madame B. Hill tips off Fury that Hydra is going to make their move.

Natasha rented an apartment in Manhattan (furnished by SHIELD) for an ongoing assignment and she is staying there while she and Bucky are dating. Madame B breaks into Natasha’s apartment while she is getting ready for a date with Bucky. Natasha is overpowered and tied to a chair. Then Madame B disguises herself as Natasha and she goes out and captures Bucky.

The Avengers receive Nick Fury’s call for help and they ‘Assemble’ to take out Hydra. Sharon Carter makes a phone call to Natasha and learns that Natasha has been captured and that Bucky is being lured into a trap. While the Avengers go to save Bucky, Natasha attacks her guards and frees herself to go join the Avengers.

When the Avengers come to rescue Bucky, Alexander Pierce reveals himself to them as Red Skull. There is a battle between the Avengers and the Hydra sleeper agents. Natasha arrives, and during the combat she and Bucky steal several moments to ask each other if they are all right. Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes take turns fighting the Red Skull. Red Skull attempts to set off a bomb, but Natasha disables it. Bucky kills Red Skull. Madame B and the other Hydra agents are arrested. Bucky asks Natasha to marry him and she says yes.

Finale: The Avengers throw a big wedding for Bucky and Natasha.

@sharingsharoncarter @burninblood @bolshoiromanova @agentxthirteen

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unpassive-viewer · 2 years

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Prey

Hey y’all I’m back. I know I said I’d get to the Northman review, but I wanted to watch it like... three more times because I want this to be a well assembled essay instead of just a review, but I was having too good a time neglecting my responsibilities to want to watch a three hour movie that many times. I’m sure my handful of followers will understand.

Anyways, let’s get into it. I watched Prey this weekend, and I’m really impressed! While I’d also like to give this one a second watch, it was really good in the initial viewing. It felt like a pretty simple action movie, but it was actually interesting because - and thank god for this - Hollywood actually managed to give us something new for a change. I’ll preface what I’m about to say next with this: I have never seen the original Predator movies. It never struck my fancy. I think alien movies are very often the same - you’ve seen one and you’ve seen them all. This one felt genuinely different, though!

First of all, the movie isn’t set in an era where humans have some insane military tech to fight off said alien. The protagonist isn’t some poorly-veiled product placement for the US government or military (*cough* Transformers, The Avengers, Godzilla, etc). Even better, it’s a new story. Never in a million years did I expect an action movie like this to surround an Indigenous story, let alone one of an Indigenous woman. What the movie lacks in production value, it absolutely makes up for with originality. Prey was interesting to watch first and foremost because it was different.

Next! The fight scenes. If you’ve seen Prey, there’s one sequence in particular that I think everyone jumps to when fight choreo is mentioned. The last 30 or so minutes is just edge-of-your-seat action. I sincerely don’t know if I blinked in that time. The utilization of the Indigenous weaponry plus the utilization of the horses was SO COOL. The visual effects were super neat, too. If you’ve not seen any of the behind the scenes footage, it turns out the Predator’s face was animatronic, not done with CGI!

Next, the acting was pretty damned good for a bunch of newbie actors. Dakota Beavers (who plays Taabe) hadn’t acted before this! I love seeing some up-and-comers in bigger films. Amber Midthunder (who plays Naru) is also cast as Yue for the upcoming Avatar live action series! After this performance, I’m more than excited to see what she brings to the role.

Finally, the movie comes with a Comanche dub! I’ve heard it’s quite unique to watch with the dub, but I didn’t know it had one until after the first viewing.

Now, onto my gripes.

1) simplistic writing. 100 minutes is not long to establish good character arcs for every single character. I wish we had been afforded a little more insight into the people we were supposed to be rooting for, though. I was rooting for them by the end, but for the first 2/3 of the movie I was not entirely interested. That said, I’ve seen a few people mention that they liked how straightforward the narrative was, because it was an action movie. Some people would rather watch lots of effects and big-picture fights than interpersonal battles and complex narrative. Different strokes, I suppose. Hence why I was never attracted much to action movies.

2) adding onto this - playing up the “unstoppable female hero” trope. I love love love that they chose to make an Indigenous woman the protagonist of this movie. However, I detest when writers attempt to make strong women invincible. I want character flaws, I want brushes with death, I want DRAMA. However I did like the eventual achievement of the warriors right of passage, I felt the pride of the group was well communicated. And the end shot of her face painted with the glowing alien blood? Incredible.

3) clunky directing. The area the movie was shot in is so beautiful that it almost made up for it, but for a movie that went straight to streaming services, the shots weren’t something that translated well to a laptop screen. I’d be interested to learn about the logistics surrounding attempting to make the mountains look like they were close based on the filming locations, because some of the wide shots were just so awkward. This is mostly because I felt the director was trying to fit too many things into both the foreground and the background.

So there’s my take! Overall it’s not the most artistic, amazing film that I’ve ever seen, but I think it understood what it was. No one went into it expecting a grandiose narrative. I was just happy to see something new. Indigenous stories have really been gaining traction in Hollywood recently, which is exciting. And with Prey, we aren’t just seeing stories that highlight Indigenous pain and suffering. Between this and Reservation Dogs, I’m excited to see what’s next.

As an aside, and this will sound nerdy, but I have a sleeve of movie-inspired tattoos and this film was cool enough that I’m considering adding it.

I’m hesitant to continue using any kind of rating anymore, as I’ve discovered I have absolutely 0 objective criteria with which to rate films. Just know I liked Prey and I highly recommending watching it if you have Disney+ or Hulu and an hour and a half to spare.

Did you like Prey? Tell me what you think!

#prey #prey spoilers #amber midthunder #dakota beavers #action movies #movie review #writing #review #predator

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laststandx3 · 3 years

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it’s been 3 years now and I think it’s time someone says it: that scene in endgame where all the female avengers align it’s totally fanservice BUT it’s also aesthetically pleasing (lowest bar for a movie to be aesthetically pleasing i know) and I liked it and yeah i also found that empowering.

yeah i know that marvel had that scene ONLY to pat themselves on the back to say “look how much we care about women” and i know it’s an empty statement not followed by any concrete gender oriented policy BUT I sTILL LIKED THAT SCENE.

90% of the movie is fan service but if you are only bothered by that one scene, or only notice the fan service there then maybe it’s because you’re used to a fan service that was only for you and maybe that one scene that was not aimed at you stands out because you’re not used to movie acknowledging a different fan base than yours

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madlori · 3 years

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Non-performative inclusion and “The Mandalorian”

This post contains minor spoilers. Proceed with caution.

In the season two finale of “The Mandalorian” there is a scene near the beginning of the episode in which a strike team (minus Mando himself) storms onto an Imperial ship, blasts stormtroopers, etc. It’s an extended action sequence. Two of the characters are helmeted.

I was well into the scene before it hit me that all four of the characters on this strike team were women.

The fact that there was this all-female action team wasn’t new. I’ve seen that before. What was new about it was that this was the first time I’d seen a team of women that didn’t feel performative.

Remember that scene in “Avengers: Endgame”, the “she’s not alone” scene where All The Lady Characters Assembled, and you could tell the filmmakers were getting some kind of weird boner of “looooook at how many Strong Female Characters we have, let’s put them all together and have them be Strong Female Characters at the same time” and it felt super gross? That was performative.

I’ve heard and used that term before but I’m not sure I really grokked what it meant until I saw what its absence looked like, in “The Mandalorian.”

It didn’t feel performative because each of those characters had been part of the narrative in their own time over the previous two seasons, with their own agencies and backstories. They were characters in the story as it needed to be told, they weren’t Strong Female Characters introduced for the purpose of being that (in a sexy way, of course). There was never a sense of ticking off the “kickass lady character” boxes. When Cara Dune is introduced, or Fennec Shand, or Bo-Katan, there was never that subtext of “Okay here is our Lady Character, isn’t she such a great Lady Character, look look we’re Doing the Thing you want us to do with having Womens in our Boy Stuff.”

No. It was, here’s a Rebel soldier. Here’s an assassin. Here’s a Mandalorian exile. Here’s a Jedi. Here’s a magistrate. They have functions to perform and stories to tell in this narrative. Those functions and stories happen while these characters are women, not because they are women.

And it’s so, so subtle, the difference. It’s hard to put your finger on how it’s usually done wrong until you see it done right. It’s not just the writing although that’s a big part of it. It’s in how they were filmed, framed, shot, costumed, and lit. It’s in how they were directed, how the camera treated them - i.e. no differently than the male characters. None of these women were sexified, either. Not that they weren’t being portrayed by attractive women, but that wasn’t remotely played up or displayed in how they were styled, costumed, and made up.

Unfortunately now that we’ve all seen how non-performative inclusion of women into a narrative can be done right, everything else is going to seem that much more insufferable.

#the mandalorian #feminism #female characters #star wars #cara dune #fennec shand #bo-katan #ahsoka tano

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heliads · 3 years

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Wanda Maximoff Masterlist

Horror Movie Night - Based on this request: “fem!reader x wanda. it’s avengers movie night and nat's turn to pick a movie. she chooses a horror one. reader is terrified of horror but if the other avengers find out she'll never have peace again. wanda notices that she's almost crying and just hold her tight and reader feels so safe″ Imagine

Manipulation - Based on this request: “Wanda x Fem!Reader where they have been dating. Fury assembled a bunch of SHIELD agents to help on a mission and reader's ex is one of them. Their relationship was bad, and Wanda reacts to seeing her girlfriend so sad and vulnerable. Also, what would she do when she realizes this ex is trying to manipulate reader all over again.” Imagine

Ridiculous - Based on this request: “reader and wanda are in high school. reader is a huge disney/musicals fan. one night they're watching descendants and reader keeps talking about the "did i mention" scene and how having someone singing to her like that is her biggest dream. wanda surprises her by doing the descendants scene and singing to her at a school game.” Imagine

Shared Past, Shared Future - Based on this request: “reader was an hydra experiment and the avengers found her when she was around 10 years old. the avengers are reader's family, but nat always was her favorite. wanda wants to ask reader to be her girlfriend and has to talk to both reader and nat at the same time" Imagine

Once and Future - Based on this request: “Wanda and y/n married in 1800. The villagers think Wanda has sold y/n soul to the devil. The priest tells them to burn y/n alive. Wanda turn to dark wanda. One family gets out of the town and meet a powerful witch Agatha. She took pity on them and she gives them a blessing saying their great grandchildren will be y/n and she will save the village. Y/n is born and has dreams about her past life.” Imagine

Good Time Baby - Based on this request: “female reader is a lesbian and a local musician. Wanda crushes on her, the crush is mutual? Wanda goes to one of her gigs. she announces she’s taking requests, and someone requests Nothin’ But A Good Time by Poison. She acts super flirty to Wanda at the line “I spend my money on women and wine”, and Wanda is a blushing mess. Imagine

A Green-Eyed Witch - Based on this request: “a one shot of Wanda and the reader married and Dottie keeps on flirting with the reader and Wanda becomes jealous” Imagine

Oblivious - Based on this request: “a wanda x reader, when reader is very obvious about her feelings but wanda is oblivious and the whole team tries dropping hints” Imagine

Grief and Love - Wanda Maximoff meets Agent Y/N L/N when they’re both fighting to survive in Sokovia. She can only hope that their paths will cross as they both work to live as Avengers. Imagine

The College Experience - Based on this request: “Tony decides to send Wanda to college to help her with an education. While there she meets the (f) reader, the lead singer of a rock band that performs in underground clubs. Reader brings Wanda to all her shows and Wanda introduces her gf to the Avengers.” Imagine

Over the Edge - Based on this request: “One shot of reader getting shot and hides from everybody including Wanda. She ignores it and continues to fight sword agents. At the end reader faint due to the injuries she has and Wanda take him and goes to the cabin where she cries.” Imagine

If I Can’t Have You - Based on this request: “one shot of Wanda and the reader are married and Agatha likes the reader and creates problem in their relationship. one day the reader and Wanda were fighting, the reader leaves to find Agatha who controls the reader to fall in love with her. Wanda finds the reader and removes the mind control.” Imagine

A Matter of Metal - Based on this request: “an alternate version of magneto’s son and been in shield and been really close to hill and fury so sword has sent him to investigate the hex with the trio and he has the same powers of magneto and basically wants what agatha wants wanda powers and basically betrays sword/shield” Imagine

Daughter of the Storm (Part One) (Part Two)- Based on this request: “The reader is Wanda daughter but separated from Wanda because of hydra. reader gets called by sword to rescue Monica because she has similar power to Wanda. in the hex she is Agnes daughter and Wanda realizes that is her daughter and tries to get her back but Agatha does want to leave reader because the reader reminds Agatha of her dead daughter who her mother killed.” Imagine

Best Kept Secrets (Part One) (Part Two) - Based on this request: “Wanda and the reader are married and the reader mom is Agatha but the reader does not know that…Then Agatha watches the reader having a good time with her family and Agatha is happy but sad because we get another flashback of the reader snapping their finger in order to destroy thanos and his army.” Multi-Part Imagine

Some Things Have To Be Said (Part One) (Part Two) (Part Three) - When S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Y/N L/N is called to the S.W.O.R.D. encampment outside Westview because of her history working alongside Wanda Maximoff, she’ll have to face her past with Wanda and even a confrontation with the woman she loved. Multi-Part Imagine

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polizwrites · 2 years

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PoliZ’s 300th Fic Fest!

In celebration of posting my 300th fic on Ao3 ( Part One: Avengers Assemble - a WinterHawk Harry Potter AU collab with @psychiccatpanda) - I’m letting my inner numbers nerd do her thing & sharing some stats with you, as well as offer peek behind the curtain.

But first, if I had to choose five fics that are the best examples of who I am as a writer (and are more or less my personal favorites) it would probably be the following - at least as of this moment. 😁 And yes, even though WinterIron is the flagship of my armada, I’m choosing 3 Stony fics for this Top Five.

The Lengths That I Will Go To (Tony/Steve, Teen with Explicit outtakes) - I’m still astonished that I wrote a full-length novel, plus this actually has a plot besides “two idiots fall in love” (and possibly my favorite version of Pepper that I’ve written to date!)

Sometimes a Fantasy - (Steve/Tony, Explicit) this is another one that surprised me in terms of plot and length; and I’m quite pleased with how I pulled in canon elements and made them fit in this alternate universe.

So Open Up, I'm Climbin' In (Tony/Bucky, Mature) - I really like the way Tony and Bucky’s relationship developed, and the whole road trip concept worked well, I think.

Home of the Brave (Tony & Steve, Tony/Pepper, General). This took a TON of research both in terms of American history and dragon facts (a huge thank you to everyone who contributed to the Temeraire Wiki!) and I can’t tell you how much I adore how dragon!Steve turned out - he’s so straightforward and earnest!

Shifting Alliances (Peggy & Bucky, Steve/Peggy, Bucky/OFC|Fem!Howard) Another fic I did a ton of geographic research for - I really like the way Peggy interacts with recovering!Bucky and Maria Stark (female version of Howard) demanded much more time on the page than I’d originally intended!

Keep reading to see general stats, as well my Top 10 Characters, Top Ten Relationships, Top Ten Additional Tags and breakdown of ratings, all with links to the search results for each. And to encourage my muse, I’m asking my mutuals to pick one of my fics (see links below cut) and I’ll do my best to provide one of the following

1) A behind the scenes peek - what inspired me, what kind of research I did, etc.

2) A prequel or sequel summary/sketch (5-ish sentences minimum)

3) A summary of the fic from a different character’s POV (or if someone else was in the same situation, if applicable) -- you choose who!

General Stats

All of my fics fall somewhere in the Marvel/MCU fandoms - with 293 specifically tagged as “Marvel Cinematic Universe”.

Total words written (somewhat inflated due to Round Robin & collabs): 931,880

Total Hits: 449,339 Total Kudos: 38,398 Total Comment Threads: 3,349

Total Bookmarks: 6,486 Total Subscriptions: 4,122

Longest Fic: The Lengths That I Will Go To = 92,739 words

Shortest Fic: A Triplet of Hero Haikus = 77 words

Fic with most Kudos: Sometimes a Fantasy = 1461

Fic with most Comment Threads: The Lengths That I Will Go To = 394

Fics by Character - Top 10 (may not be main character)

Tony Stark - 204

James “Bucky” Barnes - 188

Steve Rogers - 129

Clint Barton - 52

Natasha Romanov - 46

Sam Wilson - 39

Pepper Potts - 38

James “Rhodey” Rhodes - 37

Bruce Banner - 18

Peggy Carter - 18

Fics by Relationships - Top 10 (may not be main pairing)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Tony Stark (65)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (36)

Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (29)

Pepper Potts/Tony Stark (23)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton (22)

James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers (19)

James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark (16)

James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark (9)

James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Tony Stark (8)

Steve Rogers & Tony Stark (7)

Fics by Additional Tags - Top 10

Drabble (31)

Oral Sex (26)

Anal Sex (20)

Fluff (14)

Established Relationship (14)

Alternate Universe - No Powers (14)

Eventual Smut (13)

Mutual Pining (13)

POV Bucky Barnes (13)

Missing Scene (12)

Fics By Rating

General Audiences (149)

Teen And Up Audiences (84)

Explicit (37)

Mature (30)

#writing stuff #all about me #shameless self promo #celebration

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duuhrayliegh · 3 years

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Fuck Misogyny

request: Bucky uses his newly gained knowledge of feminism to squash misogynistic interview questions. @ptrs-prkrs

warnings: language, creepy men, feminist!bucky

a/n: hey babes!! i hope this lived up to what you wanted! i couldn’t find the exact video you were referencing but i know what you’re talking about, so i drew inspiration from a few others.

p.s.: my requests and tag lists are open!!

xoxo ray

full m.list

The set up was simple. A long row of fold out tables covered in black fabric, microphones in front of each seat. Black papers were taped to the backs of the microphones with each team member's name. Bucky had told Evie that he wasn’t going to be able to work out with her today because of this so it better be worth it. The PR manager for the team, Amanda, had set everything up. Hired the mediator, notified the press, everything. Ever since they announced that they were going to be hosting an Avenger’s Q&A Panel, the internet quite literally broke.

Of course Bucky had been doing lives on TikTok with the group of five for the past couple of weeks now, so he was becoming quite comfortable in this format. He’s become increasingly active on his social media accounts, gaining more and more followers everyday. Granted, there were still haters, as Freddie called them, but Bucky ignored them for the most part.

Bucky was actually excited for this press meeting. He was finally gaining traction in the media and he knew how to correctly answer their questions. As Amanda had explained, there was going to be several questions from the mediator, tons from the press that they had invited, and then some fan questions as well. They apparently were going to be live streaming the conference on YouTube allowing them to read the comments and questions as it went on.

“Okay, everyone. You have two minutes until we start.” The team was in an empty board room in the Hilton hotel. Tony didn’t want everyone on the compound’s grass because he just had it fixed. Bucky scanned his fellow teammates. It was impossible for everyone to dress for the same event. Steve was wearing a shirt that was almost bursting at the seams with a pair of jeans and sneakers.

Tony was wearing a lovely Tom Ford, three piece, two-button, of course. Natasha and Wanda were wearing ripped jeans and casual tops. Vision was wearing a sweater vest and slacks, Bruce was clad in slacks as well a jacket covering his shoulders. Sam was wearing a button-up shirt and pressed jeans and he couldn’t find Clint anywhere, probably hiding in the rafters again.

Bucky had his iconic leather jacket donning his shoulders, a pair of slightly ripped jeans. His outfit was picked out by Cassie and Penny. “You need to look like you care but like you don’t at the same time.” Is what they said, the phrase made Bucky shake his head. His hair had finally started growing back and he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about it.

He had gotten help from Evie before he left Cassie’s apartment. She had pulled back the top half, braiding back two sections into the bun at the back of his head. There were pieces dangling in front of his eyes, “to accentuate the facial features, trust me they’ll love it.” Was Evie’s explanation as they pushed him out of the apartment, so he wouldn’t be late.

“Alright guys! They’re calling your names!” The team filed out of the board room and into a large ballroom. Bottles of water were placed beside each placemat. Tony went out first, followed by Steve, then Bruce, Natasha, Clint, Wanda, Vision, Sam and ending with Bucky. They all settled into their seats, Bucky peeled his jacket off himself, placing it on the back of his chair. His black short sleeved shirt highlighted the gold inlays of his vibranium arm.

“Oh, I see we’re showing some muscle today huh, Buck?” Sam teased as Bucky took his seat next to him. Bucky groaned in realization, covering his microphone so it didn’t pick up what he planned to say.

“Good God, is this what it’s going to be like the entire panel? You just bugging the shit outta me?” They shared a laugh making the rest of the members look at the pair. The audience clapped as they were introduced and continued clapping as they assembled before them.

“Thank you. We would like to welcome everyone to the first, of hopefully many, Avenger’s Q&A Panel.” The female mediator, Stacey, read the assigned lines off the sheet on her podium. “We are going to start with questions we curated for the team and then open it up to the members of the press. After that we will turn to our live stream and answer some viewer questions.” The press rustled in their seats, pulling out pens and journals as well as their phones to record. “Okay, starting off with a question directed at the Avengers in general. How are you feeling about coming before the media in this type of format?” Glances were exchanged between the members, not sure on who was going to start.

“I feel that this is a great way for the general public to learn a little bit more about each individual team member.” Vision was the first to respond and Steve added on.

“Yeah, I definitely think that there’s a common misconception that we don’t want to engage with the media or the general public. We do, unfortunately due to the amount of research and training that we are doing behind the scenes, it just goes to the back of our minds.”

“Right. So Tony and Bruce, we all know that you two are geniuses. What are your feelings on expanding the teachings of STEM courses to not only high school, but as far back as elementary school or even kindergarten?” The pair thought about the question before answering.

“Well, I definitely think that offering STEM-based classes at a younger age would be beneficial, especially if we were to allow the kids to continue to switch what they want to focus on.” Bruce started. “It’s incredibly anxiety-inducing for teenagers to have to decide what they’re going to do with their life right before they are thrust into an unforgiving world.”

“Yeah, I’ll never understand why we do that to our future leaders, it’s honestly baffling. Why do American schools wait until high school to require our children to learn foriegn languages, they aren’t going to retain that information. The same applies for such comprehensive courses like STEM-based ones. If you wait until their brains are already developed so far, then they’ve already decided what they think is interesting and if they don’t find those courses interesting then they aren’t going to pay attention.” Tony finished Bruce's thought before nodding to each other smugly, obviously proud of themselves for answering the question so well.

“Interesting that you see it that way. This last one goes out to everyone and then we’ll open it up to the reporters. How do you deal with the stress and anxiety that comes with being an Avenger? Do you feel a certain amount of pressure to always do the right thing?” Stacey shuffled her papers, tapping them twice on the podium.

“We all have our own routines and ways that we decompress after missions so that really just depends on the person. Like I think that Bruce listens to opera music, and Wanda mediatates, Tony tinkers. It depends on the person.” Natasha answered concisely, making Bucky nod his head. He could recall all of those things to be true.

“Oh definitely, and it doesn’t hurt that we have a former VA Trauma Counselor on board to help us work through the harder stuff.” Steve added a gesture of his head to Sam.

“Speaking of that Sam, just a quick question before we open it up. How difficult was it for you to transition from regular Air Force missions to Avenger level missions?” Sam made a face at Stacey before answering.

“Um, I mean, it’s not that different. You’re always fighting one of the Big Three-- aliens, androids, or wizards, no matter what department you’re working with. The only transition I had to deal with was the Tony Stark-erized suits. Now that I think of it, Tony, can we make it tighter?” Sam quipped making the room laugh with ease.

“Alright, well now we’re going to open it up to the reporters. Starting with this gentleman in the front and then if we could also give a microphone to someone on that side of the room. Okay, thank you.” The first reporter stood up, holding the microphone in one hand and his phone in the other.

“Hello. John from Huffington Post. The Avengers inspire almost everyone around the world, so we would like to know who inspires you? Who do you look up to in terms of your idols?” He sat back down as the team contemplated their answers.

“Gandhi.” Bruce said, Tony snapped his fingers and pointed at him then added. “Pepper, she’s so amazing.” Steve looked down to Bucky, who shrugged.

“I would probably have to say that my sister, Sarah, inspires me. She raised her two sons, Cas and AJ, by herself after the Blip and was able to keep the family business going.” Sam’s answer made Bucky smile. Sam had brought him to their house in Delacroix, he remembered waking up to Cas and AJ playing in the kitchen, happy giggles filtering through reminding him of his time in Wakanda. By the time that Bucky had refocused on the conversation they had moved on without his answer. Several different questions went by, all directed to the team at large, until Chad.

“Hi, I’m Chad for the Daily Mail. My question is for Wanda and Natasha.” The pair of women perked up, excited to have a specific question. “Do you find that your equipment hinders you in doing your job as well as your male counterparts?” Stunned expressions settled over the womens faces, then annoyance. Bucky’s brows shot up to his hairline, appalled that someone had the balls to ask that. Wanda and Natasha handled the question with grace and much more restraint than Bucky would have.

“Well for me, I am able to move things with my mind so I can throw things randomly at people even if I’m not in the room. I’ve been very fortunate to work with Natasha who has Widow training, so my hand to hand combat is improving immensely. And being able to work with Princess Shuri in Wakanda to learn how to fully control my powers. It’s an ever evolving process that I’m always excited to take on.” Bucky nodded and turned his attention to Natasha.

“My favorite thing is training with either Steve or Bucky because they push me to do my best. We all have our specialties here and it’s nice to learn new skills or improve old ones with people who support you.” Natasha sat back in her chair, crossing her arms over her chest, throwing daggers with her eyes at Chad in the audience, waiting for him to say something else. Chad stood again, yelling so he could be heard over the crowd’s commotion.

“That’s great, ladies, but forgive me, you didn’t answer the question I asked.” Bucky pushed forward in his seat, leaning into his microphone.

“I’m sorry, I think I misunderstood what you asked them then. I would like for you to clarify what you mean by equipment.” Chad balked, not expecting a male’s voice to respond.

“You know what’s implied by equipment, sir.” Bucky’s jaw clenched at the man.

“Did you just ask two of the most capable women that I’ve ever known, if their equipment, which I’m assuming you’re referring their breasts, made it to where they couldn’t do their job as good as the rest of their male counterparts. Just to be clear, that’s what you’re asking?” Chad stuttered as he answered yes.

“Right, well first off that’s disgusting. Just a bit of background for you, Wanda is the strongest Avenger here, plain and simple. As for Natasha, she’s the smartest woman I’ve ever met and she can take down every single male here.” Bucky took a breath before continuing. “So, what I think you really want to know is how they encourage their teammates to keep up with them.” He dropped his head to look at the two women down the line.

“Don’t worry Chad, I’ll ask them the right question, since you can’t quite seem to understand how to respect women.” The team was holding back snickers at Chad’s reaction. “Wanda, Natasha. Chad wants to know how the hell you push your male teammates to be just as good as you are. What are your strategies to keep us on our toes while training?” Claps sounded from the women press members and Bucky awaited the pair's response. The next press member stood and asked a question.

“Hi, I’m Chloe from Vanity Fair. This question goes to everyone on the panel.” Bucky settled in for another question that didn’t matter. “How do you continue to be aware of things happening in our society today? Do you keep up-to-date through new channels, or social media?” The answers were rather generic from the team, all of them rather uncomfortable from the tension that Bucky and Chad had created. Stacey interrupted after Chloe’s question.

“Okay, we’re going to open it up to viewer questions from our live stream.” An iPad was placed on the podium in front of Stacey and her eyebrows rose. “Okay, there’s quite a variety here. Here’s one for Steve and Bucky.” Bucky perked up, nervous to answer because his adrenaline had worn off.

“One viewer asks, ‘Steve and Bucky, being from the 40’s, women were treated like second thoughts and were talked about like objects. Now, you’re in the 21st century, not much has changed. What have you been doing to support feminist causes?’”

“I just want to say that everyone should be answering this. It’s true that during the 40’s women were not treated the right way, and they still aren’t today. An 18 year old can’t walk down the street at nine o’clock at night without being catcalled. I am a proud feminist, as everyone should be. I think that as a team we are doing pretty well in that department. As far as what I’m doing to support feminist causes, I’m doing as much as I can. I actually recently enrolled in online classes to expand my knowledge on many subjects, seeing as how I am from the 40’s and all.” The crowd laughed along with Bucky.

“Almost all of my classes have to do with either psychology or gender studies, it’s a fascinatingly haunting subject. One book that I’m reading right now was suggested to me by my friend Cassie, it’s called Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women that a Movement Forgot. The author doesn’t let up and I’m only halfway through it. Look, I’m still educating myself, but I’m a strong believer in doing what is right for everyone, so I’m trying. Thankfully I have a few people keeping me in check as far as my actions.” Bucky thought his response was well thought out for being an on the fly question. He was new to the concept of feminism but that didn’t change the fact that it made total sense.

“I’m with Bucky on this. The 40’s were a rough time. I remember the first time I met Peggy Carter, I was astonished that a woman could be in such a powerful position. One of the first things she did after I met her was punch out someone who made a sexual comment to her. I’ve been supporting feminist causes ever since working with Peggy.” Steve added, a sad smile spreading on his face reminiscing Peggy.

“This one says, ‘As a total fan of all of you, I love seeing what you post on your social media accounts. When are the rest of the Avengers going to follow Bucky’s lead and download TikTok?’” Bucky’s head flew back into a full body laugh. Tony shifted forward in his seat, pointing his finger at the laughing man down the table.

“I would just like to say he didn’t get that approved before doing it. However, it did go over really well, so we’ll consider it.” Wanda’s mouth rolled inwards, stifling her laughter.

“We’ll consider it, you’re such an old man. Most of us have TikTok already, we just don’t make content on it like Barnes over here.” Sam said, tossing his head in Bucky’s direction.

“I’ve got like three videos on there!” Bucky and Sam began bantering back and forth.

“Yeah and one of them is dancing to a Cardi B song! Who even showed you that? I thought you only like 40’s music?” Bucky made a face at the man.

“Uh, just because I didn’t like your suggestions for music doesn’t mean I don’t have taste. My Spotify playlist is filling out quite nicely, Wilson.” Bucky and Sam didn’t quit fighting from then on, just little jabs at each other under the table.

“Here’s a good one,” Stacey had a smile on her face, “Are you allies of the LGBTQ+ community?” Bucky responded quickly with no hesitation.

“Yes, many of my friends are members of the Alphabet Mafia. Why wouldn’t we be?” Wanda nodded at his question, laughing at his use of the phrase Alphabet Mafia.

“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’m dating a fucking android, I’d be pretty hypocrictal if I wasn’t an ally. Nat, Clint what about you?” Clint bobbed his head in response.

“Oh yeah. We all are, even the Star Spangled Man with a Plan.” Steve’s shoulders shook with laughter at Clint’s nickname for him. The team broke out into laughter, joining Steve. Stacey cleared her throat, commanding the attention of the room again.

“Alright, everybody! That’s it for today.” She glanced down at her papers. “We would like to thank everyone for coming out today and joining the Avengers Q&A Panel. At this time we are unaware, if we will be conducting another one of these, but the odds look good based on the response.” The team filed out of the ballroom and into the empty boardroom. Bucky was the last to get into the room and he was approached by Natasha and Wanda immediately. Wanda wrapped her arms around him in a bear hug.

“That was so sick, Bucky!” She stepped back and Natasha offered him a side hug as well. “Where’d you learn all that? And since when are you taking online classes?”

“That guy was being an asshole, he needed to be put in his place. I hope you guys didn’t feel like I overstepped or anything.” Bucky hung his arm over Wanda’s shoulder, leaning his weight on her. “And I started about two months ago. They’re going really well, I’m learning a lot and enjoying it surprisingly. It’s a good thing to do in my free time since I’m not always on missions.”

“I’m proud of you James, that was impressive.” Natasha complimented him, she wasn’t usually a woman of many words so that was a lot. Bucky smiled at her, nodding his head. His phone began buzzing in his back pocket, so he excused himself from their conversation. His screen displayed one of Evie’s senior pictures, signalling that she was calling him. He pushed the green button and brought the phone to his ear to answer her call.

“Hello?” She ignored his greeting with a squeal.

“Check your Twitter! Bucky, you’re trending! Here I’m putting you on speaker, we’re all here Buck!” Shuffling noises were heard through the speaker as Evie began reading the tweets to Bucky. Laughs from Cassie, Freddie and Penny could be heard behind Evie’s voice.

“Oh my gosh Eve! Just let the man get back to what he was doing!” Freddie yelled at an excited Evie, who retaliated with a scoff.

“Okay, okay! Just remember we have a movie night tomorrow! It’s Penny’s turn to pick so we don’t know what to expect.” Evie mumbled the last part into her phone speaker. Bucky heard the impact of a pillow hit Evie, causing her to grunt in pain. “Okay! We’ll talk to you later, Buck! See you soon!” She hung up the phone before he could get a word in edgewise. Bucky shook his head as he shoved his phone back into his pocket. Amanda approached Bucky asking to speak with him privately.

“So we’re getting a flood of interview requests from networks and papers. We would like to start running with this. We’ll have to go over everything with our PR guy, Ryan, but it should work out. As long as you’re comfortable with all of this.” Bucky smiled and nodded, following after Amanda as she continued explaining what would happen going forward.

He was nervous, of course, but he could tell these nerves were coming from a place of excitement instead of fear, which was a new sensation for the man. It wasn’t unwelcome, it was the same as when he first started hanging out with Cassie, Penny, Freddie and Evie. It was the same when he went on his first mission with the team. Bucky was ready to tackle this next adventure, whatever it would entail.

138 notes · View notes

nikkoliferous · 3 years

Text

Phase One: Avengers (Part One)

With everything being about the LOKI series right now and me dreading it, I figured I'd distract myself by finally posting my thoughts on the Phase One: Avengers novel, which I seem to recall somehow being way worse than the Thor novel? I'm not completely convinced this thing wasn't ghostwritten by Taika Waititi; that's all I'm saying. Anyways, here we go.

(Quick note: please be aware that this overview is significantly Thor-critical. If that sort of thing bothers you, I do not recommend proceeding. You've been warned. Lol)

Let's start off with a friendly reminder that SHIELD had four hours to evacuate before Loki showed up, shall we?

Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the Tesseract four hours ago,” Coulson was saying.

“I didn’t approve going to testing,” Fury said.

Coulson nodded. “He wasn’t testing it. He wasn’t even in the room. Spontaneous event.”

So either they're grossly incompetent or grossly negligent, but either way those deaths are on them at least as much as they're on Loki. If not more so.

“It just turned itself on?” Hill sounded skeptical. Fury, as usual, was less interested in how they’d gotten there than in what they were going to do next.

[...]

Selvig acknowledged him briefly and then returned his attention to the monitoring equipment. “Director, the Tesseract is misbehaving.”

“Is that supposed to be funny?”

“No, it’s not funny at all. The Tesseract is not only active, she’s… behaving.”

Fury didn’t comment on the doctor characterizing the Tesseract as female. He also wasn’t interested in Selvig’s notions about its personality. It didn’t have a personality. It was a cube containing energy, and all Nick Fury wanted was to know how to control that energy. “I assume you pulled the plug.”

Fury having no intellectual curiosity explains a lot, tbh. Like how he thinks Loki "kills because it's fun", even though nothing about their prior interaction indicates that. Like, at all. Loki killed only the agents who were attacking him. Because he felt threatened. If he indeed killed for the fun of it, he would have taken them all out and been done with it. Doing so would have both entertained him and made for a much smoother getaway.

“She’s an energy source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If she reaches peak level—”

“We prepared for this, Doctor. Harnessing energy from space.”

“We’re not ready. My calculations are far from complete. And she’s throwing off interference radiation.”

Fury watched the Tesseract in its circular containment shell. Eight separate energy sensors built into a frame supporting that shell were designed to measure and conduct that energy. Those sensors in turn rested on stainless-steel support scaffolding. The whole setup sprouted cables and conduits. These were there to supply energy to the Tesseract in a controlled fashion so Dr. Selvig could analyze its reactions. Now they were all shut down, as Dr. Selvig had said, but even so, the Tesseract glowed with a fierce blue energy. It was starting to spill onto the sensors, arcing like electricity. But it wasn’t electricity. It was something much more exotic.

I also find it curious/amusing/something that Fury later accuses Loki of "stealing a force [he] can't hope to control". YOU'RE DESCRIBING YOURSELF, NICK. YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CAN'T CONTROL IT AND HAS BEEN ARROGANTLY PRETENDING YOU CAN.

The man looked up at them and smiled as he stood. He was not a large man, not remarkable in any particular way. He had long black hair and wore black leather clothing, similar to what Fury was wearing. However, he wasn’t a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Fury didn’t know where he had come from.

I beg to fucking differ lmao

Fury had the Tesseract in a steel carrying case and was taking a step toward the door when the stranger turned to him and said, “Please don’t. I still need that.”

Kudos to Loki for not forgetting his princely manners even while completely off his rocker. Lol

“This doesn’t have to get any messier,” Fury said. He glanced quickly around, trying to figure the fastest way out.

“Of course it does,” the stranger said. “I’ve come too far for anything else.”

TELL US WHAT YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH, LOKI. INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW.

“Loki?” Dr. Selvig said. He stood up from helping one of his fellow doctors, who was barely conscious. “Brother of Thor?”

“We have no quarrel with your people,” Fury said.

Loki acknowledged Selvig and then returned his attention to Fury.

By "acknowledged", the author means he rolled his eyes so hard he saw his own brain lmao

“I come with glad tidings,” Loki said. “Of a world made free.”

“Free from what?” Fury asked.

Turning back to him, Loki said simply, “Freedom. Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that in your heart…” As he spoke the word “heart,” he turned and touched Selvig’s chest with the tip of his scepter, just as he had with Hawkeye. Selvig gasped, and the same change came over his face that Fury had seen in Hawkeye’s. “You will know peace.”

He's not simply deranged, you know. For Loki, this is actually true. He has never been free in his entire life, and won't be at any point after this either. Yes, there was also the torture and the mind control at play, but even underneath all that, is it any wonder he was vulnerable to the Thanos cult's brainwashing?

Hawkeye had been looking around the complex. Now he stepped up to Loki. “Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is about to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us.”

Loki looked back at Fury, who said, “Like the pharaohs of old.”

“He’s right, the portal is collapsing in on itself!” Selvig called out from the monitors. “We’ve got maybe two minutes before this goes critical.”

Friendly reminder, once again, that Loki wasn't even aware the PEGASUS facility was on the verge of collapsing—let alone the cause of it.

“Well then,” Loki said. He glanced over at Hawkeye.

Without a word, Hawkeye drew his gun and shot Nick Fury once, dead center in the chest.

Two things:

1) Every time I see this scene in gifs, all I can think of is, "Pull the lever, Kronk." 🤣

2) So how does the direct mind control of the sceptre work anyway? Because Loki never actually gives Barton a command here. So does he sometimes communicate with his minions telepathically (sort of like The Other does with him), or does Barton just intuit his intent here, or what?

Maria Hill saw Hawkeye come out of the lab into the garage with Selvig, a liaison officer, and a stranger carrying a spear. He looked more like one of the people they’d been recruiting into the Avengers Initiative than an ordinary technician or S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. “Who's that?” she asked.

*sigh* In a just MCU, this would have been foreshadowing.

She jumped into a jeep and headed after them. Other S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles followed, filled with agents. They roared along the underground access road that led up to the surface in the New Mexico desert. She was gaining on them and firing as she drove. Sooner or later, she’d be close enough to have a good shot at the stranger.

He had other ideas, though. When he saw the pursuing convoy get too close, he pointed his scepter at them. The tip of it flared bright blue, and a bolt of energy lashed out from it, striking the vehicle in front of Hill and shattering the right side of its passenger compartment. The vehicle slewed around and flipped, rolling and landing sideways across the road. They were blocked.

Interesting of Loki to go for the passenger compartment instead of the driver. Was anyone even sitting there? Just one more example in a long string of Loki being inexplicably merciful to his enemies, I guess. 🤷

They got around ahead of the truck, and Fury leaned out of the helicopter’s side door. He fired, emptying his clip. He could tell from the sparks that some of the bullets had hit, but he was too far away to see if they’d done any damage.

His real target was Loki, but he was protected by the cab of the truck. Fury couldn’t get a good shot at him.

Did Fury already forget that Loki is bulletproof, or...? I mean, I guess that's fair. Earlier, Hawkeye goes to draw his sidearm only minutes after the narration points out that the bullets already fired at Loki had bounced away harmlessly.

Leaning over the truck’s roof and keeping low, however, Loki could get a good shot at the helicopter. A blue bolt lanced out and struck the helicopter’s rotor assembly. All the control mechanisms went haywire, and the helicopter spiraled down out of the sky. The truck drove underneath them as they were about to crash, close enough that Fury could see the gloating expression on Loki’s face.

Haha, good for him.

“Coulson, you know that Stark trusts me about as far as he can throw me,” she said.

“Oh, I’ve got Stark,” Coulson said. “You’ve got the big guy.”

Oh, Natasha thought. That big guy. She said something in Russian. It wasn’t polite.

This has nothing to do with Loki. It just made me laugh.

Nick Fury had called an emergency meeting of the World Security Council. They needed to know what had happened with the Tesseract, and they needed to know what he planned to do about it. He brought up holographic images of all the WSC members, with their faces and locations hidden. He did not know who they were, but S.H.I.E.L.D. reported to them.

Well, that doesn't sound problematic at all, does it?

“The Avengers Initiative was shut down.”

“This isn’t about the Avengers.” That wasn’t strictly true, but Nick Fury was no idiot. He wasn’t going to show all his cards to the World Security Council when he didn’t even know who they were.

I'm glad he at least recognizes the stupidity of working for people he doesn't know, but uh... debatable, otherwise. Lol

“This isn’t about personality profiles anymore,” Coulson said. He wasn’t giving up, and that irritated Tony even more than the fact he’d showed up right when the celebration of Stark Tower was supposed to be starting.

*cough*DIVA*cough*

Loki watched Dr. Erik Selvig work, preparing the Tesseract for the next phase of his plan. Technicians and soldiers scurried about on various errands. Loki did not know the details and did not care. They were beneath him. He had his eye solely on the greater prize. It was time to consult with the Chitauri and begin the next phase of the preparations.

Really? You expect me to believe that Loki, the master tactician with "a cunning mind far exceeding Thor and Odin’s", couldn't be bothered to know the details of his own plan? Um, how about no?

Deep space and a field of stars surrounded this rocky world. Pale blue lights glowed where the Chitauri had built their fortress. They gleamed in a set of stairs that climbed to the topmost tower. That was where Loki had made his bargain with the Chitauri: They would be his army and he would open a path to Earth for them. Once Earth was his, and Asgard as well, he would turn the Tesseract over to them.

At least that was what he had promised.

1) Who said anything about Asgard...?

2) Indicator that Loki never planned on actually turning over the Tesseract? I don't know why you'd include this line otherwise.

“Let them gird themselves,” he said. “I will lead them in glorious battle.”

“Battle?” the Chitauri warrior snorted. “Against the meager might of Earth?”

“Glorious,” Loki repeated. “Not lengthy. If your force is as formidable as you claim.”

He had intended to anger the Chitauri, and he had succeeded.

Personally, I saw this less as intending to anger and more as "Loki has no self-preservation instinct and literally cannot help himself". What's to be gained by intentionally pissing off The Other here?

“You don’t have the Tesseract yet.” The Chitauri leader rushed at Loki and stopped just short of him, claws raised. Loki did not move.

“I don’t threaten,” he said, though he was doing exactly that.

LOL

The Chitauri leader backed down but only a step. “You will have your war, Asgardian,” he growled. Then he too decided to make a threat. “If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no realm, no barren moon, no crevice where he cannot find you. You think you know pain? He will make you long for something as sweet as pain.”

Loki flashed back into his awareness of Earth. He took a deep breath. The Chitauri did not frighten him… but he would have been a fool if he had not possessed a healthy respect for their leader, the mad Titan known as Thanos. For it was Thanos who had given Loki the scepter, and Thanos who had rallied the Chitauri to Loki’s cause… and Thanos who wished to possess the Tesseract for his own monstrous ends. One did not bargain lightly with Thanos—and one certainly did not fail to meet the terms of such a bargain.

Love how this book just repeatedly glosses over the obvious fact that Loki was tortured. In the first chapter, it makes zero mention of his stumbling or other signs of being weakened. Here, it completely omits the pain WE ALL SAW The Other inflict on him. Fuck this narrator, seriously.

Steve had a moment to look around. The commanding officer appeared to be a woman with short dark hair reeling off orders from near the center of the bridge. “S.H.I.E.L.D. Emergency Protocol 193.6 in effect,” she was saying after a series of status orders and acknowledgments. Steve didn’t know what protocol that was. At the moment, all he knew was that he was on a flying aircraft carrier… and wasn’t that enough? Amazing.

[....]

The Helicarrier disappeared from view. From the inside, it didn’t look any different, but Steve saw monitors from satellite feeds, and on those, the Helicarrier had simply become invisible. He corrected himself: He wasn’t just on a flying aircraft carrier. He was on an invisible flying aircraft carrier. The future was pretty… cool, was the word everyone used now.

I'm not the biggest Steve fan, but I will admit to finding his childlike awe over the Helicarrier slightly adorable. Lol

Side note: is someone on this thing coordinating with Air Traffic Control? I... really hope so.

“What did it show you, Agent Barton?”

Barton turned to look at Loki. “My next target,” he said.

Loki nodded. “Tell me what you need.”

Barton took one his bows out of a case and snapped it into shape with a flick of his arm. “I need a distraction,” he said. “And a biometric ID.”

Why the change from "eyeball", I wonder? Seems random. Lol

Inside, Loki had been mingling with the crowd, taking on the appearance of an ordinary man with a walking stick. But as the president of the museum, one Doktor Heinrich Schäfer, began his welcoming speech, Loki decided it was time to make a dramatic entrance. He tapped the walking stick on the floor and it became his scepter. Immediately, to get the crowd’s attention, he aimed it at the nearest museum security guard and fired.

This... didn't happen?? At all??

Loki strode the rest of the way down the stairs and manhandled Schäfer over to a stone altar that was one of the museum’s prized ancient Norse relics. He slammed Schäfer onto his back, forcing a machine over his face. Schäfer cried out in pain and surprise as the machine shone blinding light into his face, holding his eyes open.

On the one hand, confirmation that Loki did not actually shred this dude's eye and he's probably fine. On the other hand, the author completely made up what just happened literally two sentences ago, so their credibility is a little suspect at the moment. Lol

A police car, alerted by the commotion, raced toward him. He blasted it with his scepter, and it spun out of control and crashed.

ACAB!

The crowd froze. Slowly the crowd knelt, and Loki reveled in their submission. “There,” he said. “Is this not simpler? Is this not your natural state? It’s the unspoken truth of humanity, that you crave subjugation. The bright lure of freedom diminishes your life’s joy in a mad scramble for power, for identity. You were made to be ruled. In the end, you will always kneel.”

He's talking about himself here. We all get that, right?

An old man in the middle of the crowd stood. Loki paused in his speech to regard this individual. Around him, all the copies of himself also looked at this old man.

“Not to men like you,” the old man said.

“There are no men like me,” Loki said.

No lies detected.

But Loki was tougher than he looked. He struck back with the scepter, forcing Captain America to parry until Loki found an opening and slammed the butt of the scepter into Captain America’s midsection, knocking him down. Captain America threw the shield again, but this time Loki was ready. He knocked it aside. It fell ringing to the stones of the plaza, and Loki had the tip of the scepter against the back of Captain America’s neck before the soldier could get back to his feet.

Correction: If he'd actually been trying to win, he would have used the tip. (Narrator: he was not trying to win).

A sudden storm rose around the Quinjet. Natasha looked at the instrument panel. There’d been no warning of heavy weather. “Where’s this coming from?” she wondered out loud.

At first, she thought that Loki was responsible. But that didn’t appear to be the case. He looked more nervous than anyone else on the jet.

Loki has Thor-induced PTSD. Understandable, tbh.

Thor let Loki fall well before they got to the ground.

Because Thor is an asshole.

So hey, as long as we're here, let's review how each member of Loki's family responds to the realisation that he's survived his suicide attempt.

Thor- manhandles him, angrily demands to know where the Tesseract is

Odin- refuses to even use his name, implies he should have either slaughtered him as an infant or left him to die

Frigga- tells him not to make things worse (fucking rich coming from the woman who exacerbated his trauma immeasurably by thrusting the throne upon him when he was at his most vulnerable)

Wild, man. I wonder why Loki's convinced his family doesn't give a shit about him. They seem like such loving people to me.

“I remember a shadow,” Loki said bitterly. “Living in the shade of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss. I who was and should be king!”

Because you would have destroyed Asgard, Thor thought. Just to impress our father, you would have annihilated all the Nine Realms. “So you took the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights? No. The Earth is under my protection, Loki.”

1) Actually, he was trying to save Asgard... from a war that YOU started, numbnuts. He went about it all wrong because he was having a fucking mental breakdown, but at no stage did he even really endanger Asgard, let alone come close to destroying it.

2) Um, what? Where the fuck in Loki's plan was annihilating anything other than Jötunheim? I see Thor shares his friends' impressive conclusion-jumping skills. Not surprising.

3) Thor, I mean this truly and without reservation: go fuck yourself.

Loki chuckled. “And you’re doing a marvelous job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves while you idly fret. I mean to rule them, and why should I not?”

He... has a point.

“You think yourself above them?”

“Well, yes.”

At least Loki is honest about his condescension, Thor. You should try it sometime.

Suddenly furious, Loki raged at Thor. “I’ve seen worlds you’ve never known about! I have grown, Odinson, in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract, and when I wield it—”

“Who showed you this power?” Thor interrupted. “Who controls the would-be king?”

And he will never bring this up again. Ever.

Stepping right up to his brother, Thor shouted back. “Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!” Then he softened. “You come home.”

“I don’t have it,” Loki said. Furious, Thor brought Mjolnir to his hand, ready for battle.

Thor's sort of a one-solution kind of guy, huh? Somebody help me out here, because he's "changed" but his first instinct when he's not getting his way is still to react with intimidation and violence. Funny how that works.

Tony braked and skidded to a halt as the Asgardian rolled away from him, tearing up trees and brush as he went. He got to his feet and extended a warning hand. “Do not touch me again,” he said.

Oh, what's the matter, Thor? Do you not like being manhandled? That's weird because you sure do seem to enjoy doing the manhandling. 😕

“If he gives up the cube, he’s all yours. Until then…” Tony’s faceplate clamped back down. “Stay out of the way.”

He turned to walk back to a place where he could make a clean takeoff. “Tourist,” he muttered.

That was the last straw, apparently, because the next thing Tony knew, the Asgardian’s hammer had hit him about as hard as he’d ever been hit in his life. The force of the blow carried him through the trunk of a tree and laid him out flat in the dirt.

Please note that Thor was not being attacked. He once again used offensive violence against someone who hurt his feelbads. "Changed", my rear.

“Then prove it,” Cap said. “Put that hammer down.”

“Uh, no, bad call,” Iron Man said. “He loves his hammer—”

The Asgardian interrupted Tony by smashing him out of the way with a backhand swing. “You want me to put the hammer down?” he roared, and leaped high into the air, bringing his hammer down toward Captain America.

And again—not in any immediate danger, simply reacting with violence to something that made him angry.

“Oh, I’ve heard. A mindless beast. Makes play he’s still a man. How desperate are you, that you call on such lost creatures to defend you?”

“How desperate am I?” Fury echoed. He walked slowly over the catwalk to stand in front of Loki. “You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can’t hope to control. You talk about peace, but you kill because it’s fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”

This is called 'projection', kids. Projection, and making up stories about your enemies so they're easier to hate. Fury needs to show his work.

Loki knew he had been heard throughout the ship. He could hear the echoes of the speakers, and even if he had not, he always knew when people were listening to him. That was part of his power, to make them listen… and to make each of them hear something just a little different. Just what he wanted them to hear.

This doesn’t mean anything, does it??

Perhaps he was in a cage right now, but he had been in cages before. Not once had one been able to hold him for long.

This... has to be a reference to his time with the Black Order, right? There's certainly no basis for such a statement pre-2011.

Or the author is just on crack. That's very possible.

Thor took a step toward Bruce. “Have a care how you speak,” he warned. “Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard… and he is my brother.”

“He killed eighty people in two days,” Natasha pointed out.

Citation needed, please.

“Well, I promise a stress-free environment. No tension, no surprises…” As he spoke, Tony walked behind Bruce and gave him a little zap with an electrical instrument.

“Ow!” Bruce said.

Tony looked closely at him. “Nothing?” He’d been testing Bruce to see how well he controlled the Hulk. The little shock hadn’t provoked any kind of unusual reaction, which Tony seemed to find a little disappointing.

Ok, but what exactly was Tony's plan if Bruce had Hulked out here? lmao

“Steve,” Bruce said, “tell me none of this smells a little funky to you.”

Cap looked back and forth between the two scientists. Bruce could tell he was struggling with something… but he also wasn’t going to share it. He was too much of a good soldier for that.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

“Yeah. I’ll read all about it.”

“Or you’ll be suiting up with the rest of us.”

Bruce shook his head with a regretful smile. “No, see, I don’t get a suit of armor. I’m exposed. Like a nerve. It’s a nightmare.”

Bruce has BPD. Lol

No, you guys don't understand. That's literally what it feels like.

Thor watched over Coulson’s shoulder as the agent showed him S.H.I.E.L.D.’s current files on Jane Foster. When he had learned that Loki had captured Erik Selvig, his first thought had been of Jane. Thor had destroyed the Bifrost to save the Nine Realms, but he had also cut himself off from her… or so he had thought. It was a terrible decision to make, sacrificing love for duty—yet Thor had done it. If necessary, he would do it again. He hoped it would not be necessary, though, and that was one reason why he had asked Coulson about Jane.

Oh my god, Thor. You spent like, three days with her, max. And people call Loki the dramatic one...

Thor looked out into the sky, gathering his thoughts. “When I first came to Earth,” he went on, “Loki’s rage followed me here, and your people paid the price. Now, again. In my youth, I courted war.”

“War hasn’t started yet,” Fury said.

1) Correction: when your daddy threw you to Earth like a sack of trash down a cosmic garbage chute. You were not here on vacation, bro.

2) No, Loki's rage followed your treasonous friends.

3) LAST YEAR. YOUR 'YOUTH' WAS LAST YEAR.

4) *committed mass murder over an insult

“You think you could make Loki tell us where the Tesseract is?”

This possibility hadn’t occurred to Thor. “I do not know,” he said. “Loki’s mind is far afield. It’s not just power he craves. It’s vengeance, upon me. There’s no pain that would pry that need from him.”

1) Opposing Thor = being crazy. Noted.

2) Not everything is about you, buddy. At the risk of repeating myself, this is the guy I'm supposed to believe learned humility? Really? Where?

3) Please note that Thor does not object to torturing Loki because it's immoral or because the thought of hurting Loki pains him. He objects because he doesn't believe it will work.

Thor held Fury’s gaze. It was not the first time he had looked at a one-eyed man who posed him a difficult question. “What are you asking me to do?” he asked, wanting Fury to be clear and to own his words.

“I’m asking what you are prepared to do,” Fury said quietly.

“Loki is a prisoner,” Thor said. He thought Fury was testing him, seeing if he would violate his ideals to find out something they all needed to know. But Thor would not.

"I'm okay with physically assaulting prisoners if they make me mad, but I suddenly draw the line at torture. Even though my 'ideals' didn't appear to be a concern two sentences ago."

If I feel like being generous to Thor, maybe he initially hoped Fury would back off if he just said torture wouldn't work, and then Thor wouldn't have to risk appearing... soft? Weak? I don't know.

“But you figured I’d come,” she said.

“After,” Loki said. “After whatever tortures Fury can concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.” It was a typical approach. Cause misery, and then let someone appear as a friendly face. The miserable person would say anything to keep this friend. Loki had seen strong men break this way, many times.

I'm not sure why the author felt the need to depersonalize this by talking about other men. Loki knows this experience intimately. It's what he's endured his entire life at the hands of his "loving" family. The torture just wasn't physical then as far as we know.

An interesting story, Loki thought. She has much to atone for. He could hear some of her memories, from before her first encounter with Barton. Little girl, he thought, you’ve done some very bad things. And now you think you owe Clint Barton your life… but there is more to it. Loki could tell there was something in her mind that he was not quite uncovering. He pushed a little more.

Is... is this text implying that Loki can read people's minds/memories even without touching them?

“Can you?” he asked. “Can you wipe out that much red?” He listed for her some of the things he knew she had done. “Dreykov’s daughter… São Paulo… the hospital fire? Barton told me everything.” This was a lie. Barton had told Loki certain things about Romanoff, but he was also guessing some others.

He... guessed the details of these very specific incidents? What? lmao

He pushed ahead. Now that he understood her, he could break her. “Your ledger is dripping, it’s gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything? Pathetic. You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors, but they are part of you and they will never go away.”

He's talking about himself again. 🥺

For some reason, this book skips right over the part where Loki threatens both Barton's and Natasha's lives. Not sure why; the author clearly has no problem depicting Loki as an unhinged psychopath most of the time. Oh well, whatevs.

Loki couldn’t understand how she had gathered her composure so quickly—and then he did understand. She was a superb actress! Or not even an actress, for he could see through a conscious performance. She was something else. She had been broken down and remade so many times, with so many identities, that she could put them on and take them off at will. And Loki had gotten lost in those emotional costume changes.

He had been outwitted by a mortal. Unthinkable.

Yeah, phew, it's a good thing Natasha figured it out in time. Otherwise, something terrible might have happened—like Bruce Hulking out and rampaging through the Helicarrier. Oh, wait...

“I was wrong, Director,” Cap said. “The world hasn’t changed a bit.” He looked angry and disappointed. Captain America was a big believer in shooting straight and telling the truth. He didn’t like spies and he didn’t like lies, and now he saw he was knee-deep in both.

This novel's hero worship of Steve Rogers is going to kill me. 🙄

“I’d like to know why S.H.I.E.L.D. is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction,” Bruce finished.

“Because of him,” Fury said, pointing at Thor.

“Me?”

“Last year, Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town,” Fury said. “We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”

Has anyone figured out yet how this line doesn't conflict with Captain Marvel? Is Fury lying to hide her existence for some reason? Or is this just one of those things that we're supposed to shrug and pretend wasn't retconned?

“A nuclear deterrent,” Tony said. “Because that always calms everything right down.”

“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark,” Fury said coldly.

On the one hand, yes, good point. But on the other hand, he... stopped making them? So clearly, he no longer thinks they are a good thing?

And also, not to gloss over his past sins, but wasn't Tony born rich? Lol

“I thought humans were more evolved than this,” Thor commented.

Tony turned on Thor. “Excuse me, did we come to your planet and blow stuff up?”

Didn't Fury say this in the movie? Why did the author give the line to Tony instead? There are all these... weird changes in the story that are so minor I have no idea why the author made them. Very confusing.

Just like that, all of them were arguing. Cap and Tony were nose to nose, while Bruce and Natasha fired remarks back and forth. Thor stood off to the side, contempt plain on his face.

'Cause he also thinks he's superior to humans. 🙃

Tony and Cap squared off over an argument that they couldn’t even remember starting. Tony was still mad about the last thing Cap had said to him… whatever it was.

In case there was any doubt about the sceptre being the reason everyone starts losing their shit with one another.

Cap stood his ground. “Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?”

Tony had an answer ready for this one. “Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist.”

Hey Steve? You know he invented the suit, right? Like. The suit is literally him.

“Put on the suit,” Cap said. “Let’s go a few rounds.”

Steve putting out big Joe Biden, "listen, fat..." energy here lmao

Thor laughed. “You people are so petty… and tiny.”

Thor, my dude. You literally started a war over being emasculated in front of your friends. I don't think you get to judge other people for being petty.

Fury could see things were spiraling out of control. He started trying to get them all back on track. “Agent Romanoff,” he said, “would you escort Dr. Banner back to—”

“Where?” Bruce interrupted. “My room? You rented my room.”

Nobody had said it out loud, but they all knew the cell currently holding Loki was designed for the Hulk.

What was their plan for containing the Hulk if necessary after sticking Loki in his cage, anyway? Did they even have one?

“Dr. Banner,” Cap said. “Put down the scepter.”

Bruce looked down. He hadn’t even known he’d picked it up.

Why does that sound familiar...?

Even though he could see what was going on, the hostility in the air was still thick enough that Bruce didn’t know whether he could back everyone down… or whether he could back himself down. He could feel tension rising inside him. He could feel the monster trying to get loose.

And yet none of them so much as considers the idea that the sceptre might be having a similar effect on Loki? Ok then.

But even though he was now refocused on the mission, the others still bickered. Loki had gotten into their heads, sowing discord and setting them against each other.

lmao I'd just like to note that Loki didn't actually do anything. This was all them and the effects of just being near the sceptre. #ThanksLoki

“The Tesseract belongs to Asgard,” Thor said.

Why, though?

“I’ll go after it,” Tony said.

“No you don’t,” Cap said, stepping into his way. He wasn’t ready to forget the way Tony had insulted him.

Ok, first of all, you started it. But also, seriously, Steve, that's your number one priority right now? Earth's mightiest heroes, ladies and gentlemen... lol

I have apparently managed to hit the paragraph limit, so we'll return after this short break, I guess. 🙈

↪️ On to Part Two

#there is a lot of salt here please remember to drink plenty of water #loki meta #loki #thor #tony stark #steve rogers #bruce banner #natasha romanoff #clint barton #nick fury #avengers assemble #mcu #phase one: avengers #thor critical

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disappointingyet · 2 years

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Jesus De Montreal (Jesus Of Montreal)

Director Denys Arcand Stars Lothaire Bluteau, Johanne-Marie Tremblay, Catherine Wilkening, Robert Lepage, Rémy Girard Canada/France 1989 Language French (with English subtitles), English, a couple of sentences of Italian 1hr 58mins Colour

Actor loses the plot during The Passion

The bit where they put together the team is one of the big pleasures of heist movies. It’s one of the things that saves the first season of The Wire from its ponderousness. The simple idea is clearly appealing enough that we got Avengers Assemble as the UK title of Marvel’s first collective film. In short, it’s a reliable, endlessly repeatable storytelling element. And yet I had forgotten how crucial it is to the momentum of this stylish, ambitious satirical drama.

The basic idea is very simple (and signalled by the title): an actor/director is hired to update the annual Passion play at a Montreal shrine and (fairly quickly) over-identifies with the role. But before we get to that, we have Daniel (Lothaire Bluteau) looking for collaborators. He starts with his generous-minded former stage-school classmate Constance (Johanne-Marie Tremblay), who is volunteering at a soup kitchen and has been in previous productions. Martin (Rémy Girard) is dubbing dirty movies. René (Robert Lepage), by contrast, is doing a voiceover for a film on the origins of the universe – his main request is that gets to incorporate Hamlet’s soliloquy into their script. Finally, they go to see Mireille (Catherine Wilkening), who is shooting a vacuous perfume ad (which would be no different in 2022).

During the central section of the film, we get fairly big chunks of their production, in a dramatic hill-top setting over the town. It’s a compelling mixture of historical research and chunks of Christ’s teaching (just don’t let yourself get caught up – as I do – trying to figure out how they would do the costume changes etc…)

The ambiguity of the film is how seriously we are meant to take Daniel’s rebellion in the spirit of Christ. This is a movie that otherwise is busy taking the piss out of the Montreal theatre scene, advertising, the showbiz media, the church etc. From the start, Daniel’s ever-present ecru linen not-quite-suit has him set up as a character who feels he is above this world but in a suspiciously chic way. At what point does an inspiring idealist become an unhelpfully self-deluded prick? I think the film always leans towards the former, but both interpretations are in there.

And that ambiguity helps carry the ending – no spoilers, but this has an early version of a trope that has been used by far crasser movies and TV shows in the years since.

This is a gorgeous-looking film – the BFIplayer version is impeccably HD. Much as it mocks advertising and what passes for the glamorous world in Montreal (again, the idea that this isn’t LA or New York is something the characters are acutely aware of), there is plenty of attention to beautiful spaces and costumes and to a charismatic cast. My only big quibble with the production is the score: there are horrible chunks of wailing guitar that feel like 1980s-European-movies-doing-Pink-Floyd.

I saw this film when it came out – I was in my first year of university and I was blown away. It was a foreign-language film (pretentious plus points) that seemed to be saying something weighty (likewise) but also had jokes (crucial for me), looked super-cool (important) and had a pretty female lead.

I’d like to think that my appreciation of films might be a bit deeper these days, but that could be self-delusion. There are certainly elements of the story that feel a little obvious to me, bits of the satire that are quite crude, but overall? I think this stands up – it’s an excellent film.

#jesus de montreal #jesus of montreal

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yourwakingnightmares · 4 years

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So lemme tell you my problem with the whole ‘Female Heroes Assemble!’ moment in Avengers: Endgame. Obviously, there be spoilers ahead.

So here’s the thing: this moment was nothing more than a nod towards the feminists. It was jarring in how obvious, and tone-deaf those forty seconds were. How had all the female heroes managed to end up in the same place to drop perfectly? Why were they needed against Captain ‘I Can Do Anything Because I Am Strongest Person Ever’ Marvel? Why did Oyoke leave her king, and the rest of the Kingsguard? How did she even traverse that far that quickly? How the hell did Shuri -who can’t fly, and has none of the Black Panther powers -even get there? Hell, with no other heirs, why didn’t Oyoke immediately send Shuri away from the heaviest of the fighting, the most dangerous location on the battlefield at that moment? Wasn’t Wasp helping Ant-Man get the time machine going again? Didn’t Valkyrie’s horse take a massive hit and crash land? Mantis has shown no real initiative in combat before, usually following Drax’s lead, or other members of the team if he’s not there; why did she show up there at random?

There were so many ways Disney could’ve gotten their ‘good ally’ tokens here; why not have the Kingsguard escort Peter? How cool would that have been? POC women, with no superpowers, only years of intense training, escorting Spiderman across the battlefield? Not only would it have given Disney those good ally tokens, but it would’ve been amazingly kick-ass, and fit in better with the scene as a whole. This is personally what I would’ve liked to see the most, with T’Challa telling Oyoke that the gauntlet is more important than he is, the Kingsguard needs to protect it at all costs. So Okoye gathers up her remaining warriors, and they fight their way to Peter. Peter makes some quirky quip about how cool their tech is or something, then says they can’t get through all that. Oyoke smirks, calls out a Wakandan war cry, the Kingsguard lines up, and tears across the field, leaving blood and destruction behind them. This would’ve been the best -in my opinion -but there are others.

Now, Wanda, Pepper, and Valkyrie have already had their moments, so we can sort of leave them out of this (I suppose, although I think Wanda is one of the baddest of bad asses and I would’ve loved her moving Peter through).

But what about Shuri with all her tech toys? She shows up with some sort of flying capabilities, and her and Peter -the two kids, the next generation of the Avengers -deliver the gauntlet through? Shuri driving/flying something, blasting away while Peter batters away enemies? How nifty would that have been? We get to see these two young heroes start their relationship as the next generation of heroes, allowing the two quippers of the movies to have some great dialogue. Peter goes on about how nifty the tech is, while Shuri claims that this is nothing; Peter responds by asking her something about how it works with ‘x law/rule’, and Shuri laughs, asking if the Colonizers are still adhering to that ‘old’ principle, then tells him he’ll have to come and see her lab some day. Peter says its a deal, before taking off to the van, leaving Shuri to make her way back to T’Challa or Oyoke to make a comment, and her saying something along the lines of he actually seems intelligent. This also gives us something to work with later, when these two presumably become heroes in their own right, apart from the ‘adults’ or older generation -the foundations of a working relationship, or a friendship even, have been set.

Or Gamora and Nebula could’ve done it; these two show up, and simply take it -Nebula pushing Peter back down as she takes the gauntlet, Gamora telling him to stay down, and let the adults handle things. Peter -who has no idea who they are -debates on fighting them, before seeing Quill or Rocket nodding, and he lays back down, watching as Gamora and Nebula hack and slash their way across the field -this also has the added benefit of having the Daughters of Thanos using everything he taught them, everything he made them, against him as they shred through his armies.

Or, in the worst alternative, but still better than what they did, Captain Marvel simply shows up, does her little ‘hi, Peter Park’, and flies it away.

The problem was it was so obvious. Everything about that scene was so out of touch, and so different, from the rest of the fight. The timing was horrifically jarring, just pulling you out of the fantasy for a moment, out of the epicness of the fight going on, and just... Look! Here’s all our female heroes who aren’t dead! See them? All the female heroes? See them standing heroically? Because they’re female? They’re gonna take the gauntlet to the time machine heroically because they are our female heroes! Isn’t it great, all our female heroes? See, because they’re female heroes!

#Avengers #avengers: endgame #feminism #Black Panther #Oyoke #wanda maximoff #Shuri #Gamora #Nebula

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movie-magic · 2 years

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Marvel Studios Announces Mystery Project With Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson ended her MCU journey during Black Widow , but it seems that the actress is not done with Marvel Studios just yet.

The award-winning star made her Marvel debut as Natasha Romanoff during 2010's Iron Man 2 , helping out Tony Stark against Justin Hammer and Whiplash. After her impressive stint in the sequel, Johansson assembled with the rest of Earth's Mightiest Heroes in 2012's The Avengers .

Johansson continued her MCU tenure after the Joss Whedon-directed movie, starring in Avengers: Age of Ultron , Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: Civil War , Avengers: Infinity War , and Avengers: Endgame . Romanoff's in-universe time ended in Endgame , with the character sacrificing herself for the Soul Stone to save the universe.

As the MCU moves forward with a new chapter, a new report confirmed that Johansson is back with Marvel Studios for another project.

Scarlett Johansson Rejoins Marvel Studios

During the American Cinematheque Awards Night held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige paid tribute to Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson after the actress became the 35th recipient of the said award.

Feige, via Deadline , praised Johansson for her "talent," "vision," intelligence, and savvy as an actress and producer. Feige also teased that the MCU veteran has a "top secret Marvel Studios project" down the line, confirming that it has nothing to do with Natasha Romanoff.

Feige also mentioned that Johansson will serve as one of the producers of the upcoming project.

Scarlett Johansson's Future MCU Project (Explained)

After a messy legal battle with Disney over Black Widow 's hybrid release, Scarlett Johansson appears to have moved on from the fiasco due to Feige's latest confirmation.

Details about the "top secret" project are still being kept under wraps, but many would agree that Johansson's lengthy tenure in the MCU should serve as an advantage for her future Marvel endeavors.

Given that the project is not Black Widow -related, it's reasonable to assume that Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova will not be involved. That said, it's possible that her next MCU project could include a female lead character.

One running theory could be the long-rumored A-Force movie. Considering that Endgame delivered a memorable scene involving the female Avengers during the final battle, Marvel could finally be moving forward with the project.

It is also fitting that Johansson would be attached to a potential A-Force project since she is the female Avenger that started it all during the Infinity Saga.

On the flip side, other potential projects that Johansson could produce are Thunderbolts or even Avengers 5 . There is also a chance that the actress could explore opportunities in Marvel Studios' animated branch as well.

At this stage, the MCU's Phase 4 is stacked, but it's good to know that a franchise mainstay like Johansson will be involved in more projects in the future.

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tvandfilmconfessions · 3 years

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While the God of Mischief may be bisexual and gender fluid, it turns out there’s a limit to the expression of Loki’s sexuality on the Disney+ show. A new behind-the-scenes special, “Assembled: The Making of Loki,” reveals some insight into the writers’ process, including a sexy sequence that didn’t make it into the final series.

One scene in the special offers viewers a glimpse into the writers room, which is anchored by a large white board filled with notes and diagrams the writers used in their process of scripting “Loki.” Included on the board is an eight-point outline of a montage that didn’t make it into the final show, transcribed below by the close-watching eyes at /Film:

The series’ third episode brought a poetic acknowledgment of Loki’s bisexuality, where Loki says he enjoys “a little bit of both” princes and princesses. That’s a far cry from the kind of “crazy mischief” and alien sex that the writers had brainstormed about.

That tasteful bit of dialogue fits in with the “Mad Men” meets “Blade Runner” aesthetic that head writer Michael Waldron said he was going for in a recent interview with IndieWire.

The series’ first season aired its final episode last week. It stars Tom Hiddleston as Loki, the Avengers nemesis/ally who was killed by Thanos in “Infinity War.” The Disney+ series focuses on an earlier version of the character, one who escapes the Battle of New York, causing a branch in the timeline. The escape gets him in trouble with the Time Variant Authority, which enlists him to help catch a female “variant” Loki who has been disregarding other timelines’ rules.

More behind the scenes tidbits are streaming now on “Assembled: The Making of Loki” on Disney+.

#Loki #Tom Hiddleston #MCU Loki #Loki Laufeyson #Mobius

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marvelsdc22 · 3 years

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The Deleted Scene

Intro: Hello, lovelies!! What’s this?? Two stories in one week?? Whatttttttt? Anyways, I hope you guys are having a good day/night and I hope you all enjoy!! :)

Note: Y/N Stark has lost a lot over the past five years, first a good portion of their family when the snap happened, then Natasha sacrificing herself, what more could they lose? Wait... (Based off the Endgame deleted scene) Major Character Death(canon)

Word Count: 1581

The battle started out slow, with Steve, Thor, Clint, and your father trying to get as many shots on Thanos as they could, you trying your best to help, but you were still hurting from the lose of your aunt Natasha, everything felt like it was crumbling and Carol wasn’t there to help you pick up the pieces, you hadn’t seen her in almost two years, she was your best friend and crush, had been since the day she barged in on you guys when Thanos created this chaos five years ago, but you didn’t have time to think of any of that, you had to fight back.

Falling to the ground for the third time in a row, you felt your energy draining, your powers were starting to get less and less powerful the more you tried to use them, the most you were getting were wisps of black that barely even did anything to him, you tried as hard as you could to push yourself back up, but your arms were shaking, finally just letting yourself collapse, you couldn’t keep going, you couldn’t.

Closing your eyes, you started to accept reality, you guys had lost, and you were all dead, your eyes opening when Thor shouted “I knew it!” and seeing Steve holding Thor’s hammer, watching as Steve gave Thanos a run for his money, until he wasn’t, you trying once more to get up to help him, to do something only to hear “On your left!” Causing you to look up, seeing one of Strange’s portals open up and see Sam step out, causing you to let out a cry of relief, seeing as more opened up and you pushing yourself up, seeing everyone else do the same “Avengers” Steve said, you smiling at him and getting yourself ready “Assemble”.

As the battle went on, you found yourself helping your parents as they flew around in the suits that your father had made them, you having one of your own, but it wasn’t as… metal as theirs “Peter!” You shouted, seeing him trying to get away with the gauntlet “Go help him! We’re fine!” Tony shouted, looking at you and you nodded before taking off, your energy having increased tenfold when everyone had come back and you trying to form a black cloud around Peter to protect him, only to be thrown to the side by a large laser from the ship above, taking all your concentration and leaving Peter unprotected “No!” You shouted, pushing yourself up as you saw the lasers shooting all around him, freezing when you saw a certain blonde smash through the ship before landing in front of Peter.

“Hi, I’m Peter… Peter Parker” Peter said from the hole he was hiding in, clutching the gauntlet for dear life “Hey Peter Parker, got something for me?” She asked, giving him a small smirk as you ran up and stood a few paces behind her, watching as Peter stood up and looked around “Don’t know how you’re gonna get it through all that” he said, handing it to her just as Wanda landed beside her “Don’t worry” she said, looking at Carol “She’s got help” Okoye said, standing in front of them as your mother lands beside her, you walking up with Mantis and locking eyes with Carol, you giving her a small smile which she returned before you all focused on what was ahead of you “Lets do this” you said, smiling as you cracked your knuckles before walking with the other females of the group, creating a black cloud around you all to protect you as the forces charged.

After a bit, you watched as Carol was thrown to the side “Carol!” You shouted, rushing over to her as she rolled over “Are you okay?” You asked, kneeling down next to her and checking her over while she laughed “I’m fine, Y/N… Don’t worry” she promised, looking at you and you couldn’t help but smile, wanting to hug her but you knew this wasn’t the time or place, so you just helped her up instead “Together?” You asked, holding your hand out to her and smiling when she took your hand “Together” she said, giving your hand a squeeze before you dropped her hand and charged into battle with her.

“No… No, no, no, no, NO!” You cried, seeing your father on his knees and seeing the stones on his hand, trying to rush over to him to stop him, he wouldn’t survive that type of power “Dad, stop!” You shouted, getting stopped by Carol who wrapped her arms around you and held you back as you fought her grip, her knowing you’d get yourself killed if you had tried to go up there and keeping a firm grip on you as you collapsed in her arms, sobbing and begging her to let you go as you watched Tony snap his fingers, feeling your heart shatter as he did and watching as Thanos and his army started to disappear around you guys until the only thing that could be heard was your sobs.

After a moment, Carol let you go and you ran over to where Tony was resting back against some rubble, Pepper already there and holding his hand “Dad, why? Why’d you do it?” You cried, knowing he wouldn’t be able to answer you with the damage that was done to his body, hearing you mother say something before she kissed his cheek, her resting her head on his chest as the life vanished from his eyes and pulling you into her side as you sobbed, neither of you seeing the scene behind you as you mourned the loss of your father.

Clint watched as the two of you cried, thinking of everything and everyone that was lost in this battle, thinking of Natasha who didn’t deserve her death before he dropped to one knee and bowed his head, resting it on his hand and shortly after T’Challa looked back at him before he dropped to one knee as well, Carol watched sadly as you cried, she wanted to help you, to hold you and tell you that everything was going to be okay, but instead she saw T’Challa take a knee before doing the same, deciding that paying respects for your father was more important to you right now and watching as everyone else did the same, you only looking up when you heard Steve’s knees hit the ground and you felt your heart swell as you saw everyone kneeling for your father, but it didn’t help the hole that was now in your heart, you had lost the man that you had looked up to, the man who would wipe your tears away, the man who could make you laugh when you were upset… You had lost the one who had taken you in when you had nothing and you could never repay him for that, he was gone and there was nothing you could do to change that, no matter how much you wanted to.

A few days later, it was the day of Tony’s funeral, you stood to the side with your mother and little sister, watching as the wreath sailed away in the water, tears burning your eyes once more as Pepper wrapped an arm around you and Morgan “We’ll get through this” she promised, the three of you standing there for a moment before you guys headed to chat with some guests, most of them sharing stories of Tony and his many adventures, some you had heard plenty of times, but others not so much.

Later that night, you were sitting on the edge of the dock, your feet in the water and the moonlight shining on the water ahead of you “Hey” Carol said softly, pulling you from your thoughts as she sat down beside you, you unable to keep the thoughts of how handsome she looked in that suit at bay “Hey” you said, looking at her before looking back out at the water “I’m sorry” Carol said after a moment of silence “If you’re saying you’re sorry because of me losing my dad, I don’t-“ “No, I’m sorry for not being here for you… You needed me, but I just ran” she said, looking at you and you looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

“Ran? Why would you need to run?” You asked, looking at her and watching as she bit her lip “I had to run because I was falling for you, I didn’t want to ruin anything, especially with all that’s been going on and-“ she said, you cutting her off from her rambling by capturing her lips with yours “You’re talking too much” you said, looking at her and giving her a small smile before you turned back to the water “Can we take it slow though? So much has happened and I don’t know if I can handle a full relationship right now” you said, the lose of your father really taking a toll on you and looking down when Carol reached over and took your hand “Of course, take whatever time you need… I’ll wait for you as long as I have to” she said, giving your hand a squeeze and you smiling slightly before the two of you fell into a comfortable silence, knowing that you had a long journey ahead, but you had the greatest support system out there and nothing could change that.

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