#you know how hard it is to write Kate Bishop hating someone?

[cherlawa-panna]

So first of all you’re like permanently associated with Barney Barton in my brain now so just FYI on that lol

and you reblogged the Aunt May thing and that got me thinking like could you imagine just each family member of a superhero going absolutely FERAL in their own unique way about how their superhero family member gets treated by the public or the press or whatever??

and then they make a little support group to trade ideas and tips and commiserate cause like “relative of a superhero” is a tragically small group lol we’ve got what, May, Barney, Hope Lang (who would absolutely organize a school walkout for her dad at the age of like 8 lol) and maybe Sam Wilson’s family?

and they name the group something super sappy that none of them take credit for but secretly they all love it lol

BESTIE, you won't believe how HARD it was to write this post. At first because of my exams, but then my internet stopped working at least five times during writing this and I lost my progress. I swear, this post is cursed 💀 I'M SO SORRY FOR MAKING YOU WAIT. Everything was against me, I swear. I hate tumblr. Also I didn't proof read this because I was too close to strangle someone so bon appetit.

(We're talking about this reblog)

Okay, but let's forget about my misery. And instead let's start with the fact that this is the best compliment I've ever heard in my life. Being associated with this stupid pathetic man is amazing and I am very happy about it 💕 Maybe when I get my shit together I would write something more about him.

But anyway, YOU HAVE AN AMAZING MIND. Want to kiss you so much, this is so incredible. This idea of a support group of superhero's family members is perfect. I will definitely write more posts about it because you opened my mind and I have too many ideas with it right now. I know something like that already existed in comics but I don't remember them trying to fix heroes' images and they were more like a therapy group if I remember correctly.

WE NEED ALSO ADD KATE'S SISTER TO THIS GROUP. After what happened in Hawkeye: Kate Bishop (2021) I am pretty sure Susan would join them. Maybe not immediately because let's be real, she and Kate really had shitty relationship before the Hawkeye (2021) and after all, for a long time she did not even wanted to accept Kate being a hero lol (she literally ended their relationship because of that). Love to imagine that after what happened in Hawkeye (2021) she decided to "Okay. I'll try to being more supportive. Let's fix her shitty image in media" but then she realized how shitty Kate's reputation is and got mad. She's rich lady, I am pretty sure she would try to bribe people to stop talking shit about Kate.

I need her interact with Barney SO BADLY. They always seemed too much alike to me because they both had to grow up faster because of their stupid fathers (I have even post about it in my drafts, maybe I will public it when I wouldn't be too shy) and I'm just so hopeless about POTENTIAL with their friendship. Just older siblings of Hawkeyes who has enough of their little siblings bullshit but also has enough with media bullshit.

And I'm sure they would be TERRIBLE at fixing their sibling's image in the beginning. She would want bribe and he would want to blackmail or intimate (read: beat the shit of people). Even if they tried to solve this normally like May do, it probably wouldn't work well and they would go back to their old ways. Unknowingly more damaging to their siblings' reputation because they're idiots. Because no, bribing and blackmail the press wouldn't help change anything.

They're like those awkward parents who want to support you, but they do it in the worst possible way, embarrassing you in front of others and making you look like a loser. And Susan is the most awkward because she understands absolutely NOTHING about being a superhero. Barney know some things because y'know, he was a"""villain""" (he was so terrible in this to even call him a villain) and had his weird adventure with trying to kill Clint because of Zemo, then Thunderbolts and Dark Avengers with travelling across the multiverse etc. You know the deal. But Susan? Yeah, she helped her sister in Hawkeye (2021) but it was something not normal for her, like she said in #5 issue.

Anyway, Susan would most likely try to pay press to stop talking bad things about Kate but I'm pretty sure it would end badly anyway. I don't really see her writing to magazines, even if she did, she would probably prefer to call editors directly or even invited them for coffee or something like that. She would do it in the most "professional" way.

I can see Sarah being also feral about people talking shit about Sam but I know she would try to fix it in May way. Ya know, writing letters to magazines, giving bad reviews etc. But I know Sarah would send her neighbors and family friends to help her as well. Unfortunately, I didn't read a lot of comics with Sam so I don't know Sarah's personality or Sam's background well, so I can't talk a lot about Sarah. But based on Sarah's reaction when the newspaper wrote article about Sam's "shady past":

Barney however... Let's start with why I think he would be violent. While I like to think that he would try get a redemption after the shit what happened to him when Zemo got his hands on him, he wouldn't be able to live as normal citizen. Since he is still a wanting criminal and public will always connect him with people like Osborn no matter what he would do. So I know he wouldn't try hard to change his usual ways to fix problems since he'll be always see as a criminal. And we know how it works, why change your ways when people will always see you as bad guy? That's why I can see him using violent ways to help "improve" Clint's image. But I think he would try to it do in May way someday, because after all, he is just a tired guy who wants to have a peaceful life BUT we're talking about Barney, c'mon. Maybe he would try to find a balance, I can see him trying so hard to do it in peaceful way, maybe May or Sarah would help him in that lol. He would definitely subscribe to newspapers who wrote good articles about Clint (and if they also has a good crosswords) but he would be (almost) the most casual one in this group. Yeah, sometimes he would beat some random journalist but I like to imagine him joining this group more to find more non-villains friends and try to learn how to support his brother. It's just a weird type of therapy for him.

(Captain America (1968) #276)

... we can say that the way how public perceives Sam definitely affects her emotionally. So if there was ever a situation where suddenly a lot of the press started talking badly about her brother, she would definitely want to do something about it.

I like to imagine that the community where Sam is from (at least the one in the MCU) would definitely be pissed at the media's stupid talk about their Sammy. I'm not even sorry, but they would be his the biggest supporters. I think the media should be afraid to talk badly about Sam because I'm sure Sam's friends/neighbours would destroy them lol.

While Scott's daughter, Cassie is a superhero herself, I honestly think she'd love to join that group anyway. And like you say, Cassie definitely organized a school walkout for her father when she was a little kiddo. She loves her father and we know it make her furious when people call him a criminal.

I can also imagine that Sarah would be the one who started this group. However, I see May more as a "leader" than Sarah, mainly because she treats it more seriously (and I bet she call them "heroes who fight with press" or something like that). But maybe Sarah and May could run it together somehow. Honestly, there's definitely no official leader here, but since Sarah and May would take it the most seriously, they'd probably be the ones leading the group in a way.

(Young Avengers Special Vol 1 #1)

She would probably argue so hard on the internet with assholes insulting her dad, especially after his death. I imagine one day she suddenly popped at Sarah's house where the meetings take place and just like she did with the Young Avengers, announced that from now on she will be part of their group 💀.

My girl just wants to have other people around her who understand how hard it is when their loved ones are treated like a shit by the public. Let her be. Cassie has always been the kind of person to me who didn't care what other people thought about her, ya know? But at he same time when someone suddenly started talking bad about her dad or her friends, she suddenly became aggressive.

As I began to wonder, why don't we add Bucky's sister to the group? Honestly, I think it would be funny. Especially considering what's been going on with Bucky in the comics lately. Poor Becca trying to fix Bucky's image in the media, which is impossible because sometimes I think Bucky's secret hobby is to ruin his reputation as much as possible lmao.

I see her joining this group after her father's death, because Scott, despite sacrificing his life, was still judged by society because of his past. Which isn't fair since Scott turned back to crime to earn money to pay for his daughter's treatment while she was sick. And he actually became Antman to save her. Cassie is one of my favorite female characters, even though she annoys me more often because some authors write her too childishly, but she still has her charm. She's my girl trying her best.

Rebecca is an old woman, ya know, her children live their own lives, her grandchildren do too, maybe we'll kill her husband in this au, so she's also a widow. So it shouldn't be surprise if she started doing it partly out of boredom and partly to get closer to her stupid brother. To her, this whole group would be such a fun hobby, better than playing bingo 💀

I like to imagine she likes to buy gossip magazines, highlights the negative articles about her brother while doing her normal activities, like I don't know, going to church or taking care of her grandchildren. And if she sees an article about someone else, she sends it to the other members of group. While May would take this whole thing seriously, Becca would take it more as fun. BECAUSE HER EFFORTS ARE IN VAIN ANYWAY. SHE WOULDN'T NEVER BE ABLE TO FIX BUCKY'S IMAGE. The media will always talk badly about him because this guy has no intention of acting like a decent citizen. She would fight with the press and lose every time. And even if one (1) newspaper wrote something good about him, suddenly there would be four more newspapers writing the worst things about Bucky.

"and they name the group something super sappy that none of them take credit for but secretly they all love it lol" tbh I tried SO HARD to imagine what name would be, BUT I'M SO UNCREATIVE. But I love this concept. I see Clint making fun of Barney because of that lmaoo. But at the same time, Clint would be happy because it means HIS BROTHER IS CARING ABOUT HIM. Clint has such low expectations of his brother, he'll accept ANYTHING AT THIS POINT.

(This gave me an idea for a winterhawk fanfic where Becca and Barney knew each other from this group and Becca suddenly tries to get even closer to Barney because "our brothers are dating, WE'LL BE FAMILY SOON, WE SHOULD SPEND MORE TIME TOGETHER". Imagine one day Bucky finally visits his sister and finds Barney and Becca (and maybe the rest of the group) playing bingo or crosswords together. And Buck is "YOU KNOW EACH OTHER???" and Becca would be "Oh yes. He keeps me company, unlike SOMEBODY WHO WON'T EVEN ANSWER MY CALLS".)

I'm sure Susan would be against such a sappy name for a very long time because she's a SERIOUS businesswoman and she takes this whole group SERIOUSLY. But I know she would love it after some time, she has such a vibe of corny mom.

Cassie would think this name is super non-cool and try to find better name but her names would be WORSE. I'm so sorry Cassie, but you're sometimes personification of embarrassment.

Somehow it's funny to me that everyone here has a slightly different approach to this whole group. It could be the perfect idea for some fanfic series, because their dynamic would definitely be chaotic.

Barney Barton: Joined because he wanted to make friends fix his relationship with Clint and to do something good with his life. His ways are brutal (and illegal), but maybe in the future he will change it.

May Parker: Takes it very very seriously. She's also the most supportive of other members and most likely will give you the best advice.

Sarah Wilson: Also takes it seriously but not in the extreme way as May. She has "army" of neighbors and friends who are always happy to help her with "fixing" Sam's image.

Susan Bishop: She wants to support her sister and show that she accepts her as a superhero now. She treats it like a job and she prefer to call/invite editors directly for a talk or try to bribe them.

Cassie Lang: The most aggressive of them all. I would call her a combination of May and Barney tbh. Mostly probably arguing on forums or elsewhere on the internet.

Rebbeca Proctor: She treats it as a hobby and a nice way to spend time. She knows her efforts are in vain so she's here just for the ride.

Anyway, that's my thoughts about this concept! Thanks again for ask it was such fun to think about it! 💕💕 I'm again very sorry for a long wait, I swear it wouldn't happen again. I'll probably make another post if I come up with something else with this concept lool.

#my posts #oh my god it was so hard to write my thoughts in english it was too chaotic

[blitznut]

T, U, and W for the alphabet thing

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

Yoketron and Bludgeon are brothers. They look just like each other, so therefore, they must be brothers! Even the TFwiki says they look alike. See?

It must be canon!

/sarcasm

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

I don't like when people pair the 'spares'. I've hated ever since I read Harry Potter, I hated it when I read Percy Jackson, I hated it in the Marvel and DC fandoms, and I hate it to this day. This sounds bizarre coming from a shipping-centered blog, but not everybody needs a love interest.

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

No Transformers talk this time!

Guilty Gear:

Ky Kiske was a sleeper hit for me. I didn't realize how much I liked him until I wrote a whole wall of text about why his haters are wrong in someone's inbox. He's been through so much - losing his parents, becoming a child soldier, and being forced to appease a puppet government who threatened to hurt the love of his life and his young son - but he still finds hope for future. He still manages to find love in his heart for everyone.

I like Testament very much. Their story deeply resonates with me - a story of a hurt person who believes themselves to be unlovable and irredeemable, but who still tries their best to help the others in their life, and who finds redemption in the people who's they've helped.

I think Dizzy is amazing. I love her story, I love her theme music, and I love her designs. She's just a normal woman who happens to be able to produce nuclear explosions, and who has two weird apparitions (that happen to be married) protecting her. She's been through so much in her life - being forced to bear the sins of her mother, being persecuted and rejected by everyone from the day she was born, and having the family she wanted desperately taken away from her - and she still stays nice, kind, and humble.

Marvel Comics:

I love the Hawkeyes. They're fun characters, but they have enough darkness to play with. Hawkeye (2012) is an amazing comic, and I could not have asked for a better introduction to the Marvel Comics universe. I think that Hawkeye (2012) did a great job at humanizing both Kate Bishop and Clint Barton. It made them feel like people first, and superheroes second.

I am a Deadpool apologist. I think he deserves so much better than what he's given. I think that even fandom gives him the short end of the stick a lot. Wade often gets misunderstood as being someone who intentionally goes out of his way to cross boundaries. He also gets misunderstood as being child-like. I think that Deadpool understands boundaries, and knows what he is doing and saying. However, I think he greatly misunderstands social cues, and has a very immature sense of humor.

Kind of cheaty, but I love the Great Lakes Avengers. Their outlandish origins drew me to comics in the first place. The fact that someone thought they were called the GLA because they were a Gay-Lesbian Alliance is just comedic gold to me. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for them...despite all of the very questionable shenanigans they get up to.

Ducktales:

Penumbra was my gay awakening. I love her so much. I think she deserves so much more love than she gets. I pray to whoever rules our Earthly domain to give me or someone else the strength and will to write write a 80k word Penumbra character study with a slow burn Dellumbra love story.

I love Gyro Gearloose. He's an middle-aged divorced dad who doesn't have custody of his kids trapped inside of a 32-year old gay chicken's body.

Fenton deserves so much better what both the fandom and the writers gave him. I think that most of the problems in Ducktales could have been solved a lot faster if they gave him a gun.

#meta

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

canNOT decide which version of “Harry Wilson actually already knows Kate Bishop, thanks anyway” i like more:

Harry was one of Derek Bishop’s attorneys and he’s actually the one who cut Kate off

variations on “Harry worked for Derek”

he calls her now that he’s a good guy to talk to her about her dad’s company, he’s thinking of seeing if Leverage will go after Derek next, and he asks her to meet up with him

at like, an abandoned warehouse or something super sketch like that

and Kate says sure, but she’s ALSO not stupid, so she calls David and asks if he’ll go with her

David Hardison says yeah, his babes are going to be in New York that week so he’ll be able to spend time with them!! 

They meet in the super sketchy warehouse and Harry’s all “Hardison? What are you doing here?” and Hardison is all “why the hell are you calling my friend Kate,” and Kate’s all “David why the hell do you know my dad’s asshole lawyer”

a hiLARious misunderstanding

Harry finds out Kate is Hawkeye and he’s like. okay. okay. i need a minute. i need to find someplace to sit down. you’re saying you could have sniped me at any moment, i just, i need a minute

if this is KateQuinn then Quinn goes with her, OBVIOUSLY

and Eliot goes with Harry because Harry lets slip he’s meeting up with someone who probably doesn’t like him very much

Eliot and Quinn are both checking the perimeter and run into each other. they start fighting before they realize who they are

and then it’s lots of back slapping and “dude!”

Eliot rolls his eyes so hard when he finds out Harry is here to see Kate

if he’d been less secrety, they could have had this meeting somewhere with less water damage

harry has a lil crush on quinn

PERHAPS Kate goes to meet Harry, but this time she’s bringing her OWN lawyers, Matt and Foggy, who Harry ALSO knows

and he’s just like, fuck, fuck, i CANNOT catch a break

OR. Leverage is working an unrelated gig and Kate just happens to be at the party they are at to work the mark

Harry and Kate lock eyes and she. the look she gives him. it’s a MURDER look.

and harry’s just like shit shit shit. i think she knows i helped her dad put a hit on an avenger. how does she know. 

Eliot intercepts her before she gets to Harry because Kate can legitimize the con and she’s helped them before

Kate realizing Harry is on the earbuds and straight up threatening him with murder when she’s done

MattKate version where they’re at the party and Matt can tell Harry has the earbud in and tells Kate it’s David’s team

Kate stalks up to Harry and says something to the effect of “say hi to david for me” and Eliot and Parker start freAKIng out because yay!!! kate!!!

they tell Harry what to say so Kate doesn’t deck him and ruin the con

at some point Eliot goes “i think Kate’s lawyer boyfriend is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen”

“the BLIND LAWYER?”

“it’s a very distinctive stance!”

Harry realizes he not only helped Derek put a hit on an avenger but also his own daughter and harry has a meltdown

OR

they’re running the info on their next job, which is bishop publishing, and Kate walks in, sees Harry, LAUNCHES herself at him, and decks him

cut to harry with a bag of frozen peas against his face while Eliot tries not to laugh

Harry put together the prenup for Derek and wife #5 and went to the wedding. He had the good fortune to sit next to Kate who was guessing how long the marriage would last and how much everything cost like “these super ugly floral arrangements could have funded the meal programs in three schools”

kate kind of hates everything, so harry asks why she even came?

she wanted to glare at her dad the whole night. just enough to make him and the bride uncomfortable

“she’s my age. that’s very ew.” 

“to be fair, she’s almost thirty, once you hit thirty age differences are less--”

“i know how old she is, we graduated high school together.”

“ah, yep. ew.”

the wedding was held at an art museum or something

kate: i know someone who stole this painting once.

harry: ha. ha. ok.

somehow convinced harry to steal some champagne and go into an off limits area to play beer pong with champagne

“i didn’t go to college right after high school, this is what college is like, yeah?”

“it is absolutely not”

he says something about her inheritance and she snorts. she’s not in the will.

harry thinks he could probably write her back into it and no one would know

he’s impressed she has her own business

she’s not impressed he works for her dad

he humblebrags about his daughter

kate: u know what would piss my dad off

harry: i do not.

kate:

harry: no. absolutely no. nope. 

kate: :(

they keep running into each other

kate sneaks into her dad’s new year’s eve party (she was not invited)

she’s planning on stealing some data from him. like crime data

harry has no idea she wasn’t invited, he’s just like “thank fuck someone fun”

at midnight they do the “should we?” awkward shoulder bob thing and give each other a respectful lil smooch

people start to leave and Kate has to bounce before her dad notices her

Harry of course is all “i should walk you home or to a cab, it’s late, who knows what could happen”

which to Kate is the equivalent of a puppy barking at a vacuum

anyway at some point they probably make out

and then Kate realizes Harry’s a sketchy kind of lawyer and nopes out immediately

cut to a year later, Eliot’s telling the team that Hawkeye is going to be joining them on this job for some unspecified reason

everyone is mildly insulted at how surprised Harry is that they know an Avenger

Breanna is SO EXCITE. She temped for Kate one time and they accidentally blew up some dickbag’s bitcoin mining operation because he was stealing electricity from a poor neighborhood

to clarify, FINDING the guy was an accident, the explosion was planned

Alec had given them his “i’m very disappointed” face when he found out. apparently Kate is immune to that face

but the whole point of working with kate was to not do crime so alec was all “no more temp for you”

but basically everyone knows which Hawkeye Eliot is talking about and they’re all really excited and don’t worry, Harry, Hawkeye is cool

and in comes Kate

she and Harry see each other and freeze all YOU

and of course EVERyone in that room either knows how to read people or is being trained to read people so they’re all going oH WHAT. WHAT. SOMETHING HAPPENED WITH THE TWO OF YOU OH OHHHHH

“what are you doing here, sketchy-ass lawyer man?”

“it’s mr. sketchy ass lawyer man to you, and what do you mean what am i doing here, what are you doing here?”

“so i guess you two know each other,” Eliot says

“yeah???” goes kate “he’s one of my dad’s douchebag lawyers!”

“ex douchebag lawyer.”

eventually it gets to harry going “wait, I thought hawkeye was coming?” and all of the rest of leverage going “she’s Here!” and waving in Kate’s direction

Harry is quiet for a minute and then is like “i guess that’s why you laughed at me when i offered to walk you home on new year’s”

“i didn’t MEAN to laugh”

OR Harry represented Derek against Kate

OR Harry was originally Kate’s council as part of Derek Bishop’s team of lawyers, and then when Kate realized her dad was a criminal it became Harry’s job to make her go away and stop causing a ruckus so Kate’s only reason for agreeing to help is on the off chance she gets to punch him

or

harry comes in to meet their newest client and is all ???? the fuck is that vapid heiress doing here, how does someone like her warrant our help

and of course kate is like, tf is that asshole doing here, mr hey-derek-let’s-hide-some-of-your-money-offshore like THAT’s not super sus

at some point he sees her and eliot sparring and harry just. bluescreens. does not compute.

he never had to deal with kate personally but stories about her are legendary, she’s the WORST kind of young money. reckless spending. drinks like the world is going to end. will snort anything.

and here she is. an actual superhero. who apparently uses partying as a cover for vigilantism. and knows how to fool a breathalyzer into thinking she’s drunk when she’s not

he feels bad for whoever her legal council is now. imagine having to deal with that.

turns out he’s her legal council now. whoops.

someone points out that they’re all sort of vigilantes

and someone--either Parker or Kate--goes, “we’re not vigilantes, we’re a vigilanTEAM”

harry has the most profound moment of “were it not for the laws of this land i would have slaughtered you where you stand” he’s ever had in his life

#leverage #leverage redemption #kate bishop #hawkeye #young avengers #harry wilson #our mr. wilson #david alleyne #alec hardison #eliot spencer #mr. quinn #obsessed with this idea

[pocketmouse18]

Thank you so much to @herosofmarvelanddc @cloudypaws and @mtab2260 for the tag! This was so much fun to think about :)

(fair warning, I wrote too much for many of these...)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Just 2 :)

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

450,577 if I did my math right!

3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

Officially? Just 1 - Agents of Shield (two, I guess, if you count MCU as separate, since I use characters from both...). Off the record, many more than that! I have lots of bits and bobs from other fandoms that I tinkered with when I was younger, still getting the hang of writing, not brave enough to post things, etc. etc. Some of those include X-Men, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the Fosters, Star Wars, the Hunger Games, the 39 Clues, and a few others I can’t remember. None of those will likely see the light of day, mostly because they’re unfinished, not very good, and just not reflective of who I am as a writer anymore, but they were fun to play around with at the time :)

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I just have the two, but The Important Thing is to Try wins, hands down, with 1227. Shoulder to Shoulder has 95, though, which I’m also very proud of! Important Thing has a definite advantage, being as long as it is, so I don’t know if that’s really a fair comparison between them.

5. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Yes! Or at least, I always try to! I just can’t believe someone would be kind enough to take the time to tell me what they thought of my story, so I always want to take the time to thank them and return the favor :) Plus, as I’ve learned, it’s a fantastic way to get to know some really lovely people!

6. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Well... I technically only have one story that has an ending, at least on Ao3, and it’s not an especially angsty one, since it ends in Phil and Melinda getting married :) I have some angsty chapter endings in Important Thing, if that counts? I’m not even sure if any of my unpublished fiddlings have angsty endings (most don’t have endings at all lol)... I don’t mind writing angst, but I don’t know if I’m capable of making something without a happy (or at least hopeful) ending.

7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've ever written?

Not really, unless you count AoS/MCU crossovers (which I guess technically count, but also I would argue it’s not a true crossover since (and I will die on this hill) AoS is a part of MCU canon). When I was younger I was a fan of playing around with crossover AUs more so than the actual characters crossing paths (so like, what if these characters from XYZ were demigods or went to Hogwarts or what have you, and not so much what would happen if the X-Men met Luke, Leia, and Han on one of their space adventures). I started writing a crossover between AoS and the Marvel Rising cartoon once (which again, not sure if that’s a true crossover, since Daisy was in Marvel Rising, but I digress), where Coulson tasks Daisy to work with Kate Bishop and Rayshaun Lucas to collect and train a team of young Inhumans, starting with Kamala Khan, but I ran out of steam pretty quickly when it got too plot heavy.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I don’t think so. I’ve had some people not understand some choices that I made, but they asked it in a way that I thought was perfectly nice, and I was happy to talk about it with them. Sometimes people get “mad” at me when I cause pain and suffering, but I know that’s all in good fun :)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Nope, not for me. I don’t read it or write it, personally. Writing a kiss is hard enough!

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge! Important Thing is probably too long and unwieldy to ever steal :P

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Someone once asked me on FFN if they could translate Important Thing to Russian, which was basically the coolest thing I’ve ever been asked!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

A fic, no. I’d love to try sometime! I had a friend in college who I co-wrote with A LOT, though, so I know I enjoy that process, given the right partner. We wrote several short plays together (ranging from ~15-50 minutes in length, including one that we wrote in a single afternoon!), selected scenes from a larger (unfinished) play inspired by historical letters we found in an archive that were sent between a man from Massachusetts serving in the American Civil War, his wife, and his 8-year-old son, and several scripts for TV sitcoms (2 pilots for 2 different shows, plus additional eps for those pilots, and a couple of later eps for a different show that a classmate of ours wrote the pilot for - we were trying to practice what it would be like to be on a staff with a showrunner haha). The sitcom scripts in particular I’m very proud of, and could talk somebody’s ear off about if asked (one’s about ghost hunters and one’s about a DnD party!), but maybe that’s better saved for another post ;)

13. What's your all-time favorite ship?

That’s a very hard question for me! Mostly because shipping stuff is usually one of the last things to register for me when I’m thinking about shows/books/movies I like haha... I’m always a sucker for Philinda, and younger me was rather taken with Percabeth, I suppose.

14. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Hmm, several, really. The aforementioned AoS/Marvel Rising crossover I think could be really cool if I got it to work, but I don’t think that’ll ever happen. I also have a WIP that’s like an angstier version of a Hallmark Christmas movie AU where Daisy has to come home to her small town right before Christmas and figure out what she wants out of life, but I’m a little stalled out on that one, mostly because I’m waffling on who the charming love interest should be and because I don’t have enough of a plot, just lots of feelings about coming back home to a place you thought you had left behind lol.

I’d put Important Thing and it’s (as of yet) untitled sequel on here as things I want to finish, but I’m much more determined to see those through, so I don’t think they qualify for the “never will actually write” part of this question :)

15. What are your writing strengths?

I don’t know if other people agree with this, but I think I write pretty decent dialogue. My “training” (if you can call it that) is in, as you might have figured out by now, script and screenplay writing (those were the only creative writing classes I took in college). So having a sense of the rhythm a conversation needs to have and how to write dialogue that sounds mostly like how people really talk (but shined and tightened up enough so that it’s not actually like verbatim dialogue, which is far less interesting to read!) is something that I feel like comes pretty easily. I also think I do okay with similes and metaphors - my brain tends to work in that way. It’s easier for me to think of stuff (feelings, especially) in terms of comparing it to more familiar things than to just think of the thing directly, if that makes sense?

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

If I was being honest, this would be a very long section, but I know it’s not fun to read a big ol’ paragraph of someone self-criticizing, so I’ll keep it to one or two items ;) A big one for me is pacing, I think. I tend to write more than I need to and to over-explain things, so my chapters get very long and sometimes don’t really go anywhere? Until all of the sudden, they DO, because things need to HAPPEN! I’m a pretty rigorous self-editor, but I do have a really hard time cutting out sections (unless they’re really just not working), so even if it would help the pacing to leave out this conversation between character A and character B, I often can’t make myself cut it. I also think I struggle sometimes with balancing my ‘showing’ and my ‘telling,’ especially in the sense of me over-explaining certain things - like when it comes to feelings/facial expressions/etc, for example. I compensate for that in Important Thing by making it a part of a few people’s POV, but it’s not really a good habit to have in general. Also spelling! I’m really bad at spelling and run my stuff through robust spellchecks and text-to-speech before I post anything to make up for it :)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I do it with some regularity, although I always get nervous about doing it wrong! It’s hard to avoid in AoS, where characters are spies and should (in theory, at least) have a working knowledge of multiple languages (”We’re spies, I thought we all learned languages?!”). Even in an AU, where characters aren’t spies, I like to try and pay homage to that, plus pay homage to certain characters’ native languages or just general multilingualism. I’ve spent a fair amount of time around people who speak more than one language, so I feel like it’s a natural part of groups of people to have more than one language spoken. I have a pretty good handle on written Spanish, a patchy idea of French, plus I know some Russian phrases from my dad and some German words from my grandfather, but I do rely on internet translation a lot. I usually run stuff through google, then run it backwards to see just how far off the initial translation was, then consult some actual, like, language learning sites to see if there’s particular idioms or common phrases that use different words than what google will give me, then run those words through backwards in the place of the original words to see if I can massage the whole thing to sound reasonably competent. Languages like Russian or Mandarin (which have their own alphabets/characters) are the hardest, since I have to also try and do a transliteration. I always try to put an apology/disclaimer in the notes any time I write in a language that isn’t English, because I’m sure I make lots of mistakes.

Also, I tend not to italicize words that are in other languages, because it looks weird on the page to me to set the other language apart like that (and because I italicize mainly for internal thoughts or emphasis, and usually what’s being said in another language isn’t internal or being emphasized). I put a rough translation at the end so we don’t have to pause the story for a parenthetical translation, but because the translation’s not right there, I try to either put in enough context clues that a person can still understand what’s going on, or I make sure that what’s written in another language isn’t critical to the overall understanding of the scene.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Officially, it’s AoS, since that’s the only fandom I’ve published for. I think the first true fandom I wrote fic for was probably either Harry Potter (entirely populated with OCs lol, I just liked using the world/setting), Percy Jackson (a mix of OCs and canon characters), or X-Men (all canon characters). I was a bit of a latecomer to fanfiction, though, like, I wrote a ton as a kid, but mostly original stuff, because I didn’t know that fanfiction in its current form was even allowed until I was in high school lol.

Oh! I almost forgot one! I’m not sure if this really counts as a fandom, but it’s definitely the earliest version of fanfic I wrote haha... I was like 12 and I wrote more than one story of an OC joining Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men, and then also one of that same OC becoming a knight of the Round Table, so like... do what you will with that information haha.

19. What's you're favorite fic you've written?

I can’t choose between my two darlings :( I mean, okay, technically it’s probably Important Thing. That story’s my baby. It’s huge and I’ve been working on it for almost 2 years, and I’ve poured a lot of my heart and soul into it. I’ve fallen in love with the universe I built in it, so much so that I wrote an entire prequel and have very concrete plans for a lengthy sequel. But I can’t not crow about Shoulder to Shoulder (the aforementioned prequel!), too... I’m just really proud of that one - it has a lot of firsts for me. First completed story. First romance-focused story. First foray into expanding the Important Thing universe. But yes, if I have to choose, then Important Thing wins. That’s a story that I started writing exclusively for myself - to give myself characters I could relate to and to explore a style of AoS fic that I loved reading - and that’s a story I will always and forever be proud of.

I think most people have probably answered this tag game at this point, so I don’t want to accidentally retag anyone! If you haven’t yet, and would like to join in, please do! This is your invitation <3

[thecorteztwins]

I totally hear you on the Sebastian Marauders depiction - it really does feel like Duggan dislikes him, beyond just a villain for Emma to smack down. I like how Duggan is writing characters like Calisto, Bishop and Forge, but I'm getting a little tired of Emma dominating the book being clever and cool and sexy. She IS all of those things, but we can see Emma being awesome in almost any X-Book. Meanwhile, I don't know when/if we'll ever see Shinobi or Pyro again after this book ends.

Yup. I am totally here for Emma being the star, but the problem is, it’s not just that everyone else is merely secondary to her, they’re barely tertiary. Whether it’s D-listers like Shinobi and Pyro or A-listers like Storm and Iceman, everyone else is a very, very small satellite to Emma. Kate used to be a pretty solid secondary lead, but now she’s dead (for the time being) and I almost wonder if that was so Duggan can focus on Emma EVEN MORE. And the thing is...Emma is not a character who needs help being a cool clever sexy lead. We don’t need it emphasized to the point Duggan does. Similarly, Shaw is not a character that needs help being a detestable villain. He’s likewise already there, you don’t need to shove in additional bits just for him to be shitty and get dumped on. No one needs it spoon-fed to them that Emma is amazing or that Shaw is an awful person, and it’s getting increasingly obnoxious. And I’m someone who LIKES IT when my awful faves are awful, you KNOW this. I’m also just, like, a contrarian who hates being told what to think. All writing is manipulation, of course, but if it’s blatant enough that I can SEE a writer is pushing me REALLY HARD to love this character and hate that one, if it just comes off TOO heavy-handed, I just bridle and go the opposite direction. So even if I weren’t one of like three Sebastian fans on the planet, I think I’d still be annoyed. Also: Since when does Emma need to show her tits to mass mind-control people? Like she has controlled WAY more minds before this without having to “distract” them this way. FFS, Duggan.

[thoughtprovider]

Is Spider-Man: No Way Home a Good Movie or Just Nostalgia-Bait?

It’s hard to tell, in the throes of its still-active record setting, how Spider-Man: No Way Home will be most remembered. After all, unqualified box-office records are essentially made to be broken, and their existence is most useful when shouted by a studio rep during the victory lap that is a theatrical run with strong legs, but less useful as a thing you can depend on to last. It won’t be the third-biggest worldwide opening of all time forever, but it is right now; it possibly won’t be the biggest worldwide opening of all time for Sony’s Columbia Pictures forever, but it is right now; true too with the record for second-biggest domestic debut of all time. Ask James Cameron’s heartstrings, the best a record-breaker can hope for is that they will themselves do the breaking.

With a name that can be easily confused in the IP-filled mind with its recent predecessors, No Way Home might not even be remembered by its own name in the mind of the general moviegoer. But in a spoiler-filled world, there is little doubt that it will at the very least be remembered as “the one with all the other Spider-Men in it”. That is, until we get a Clone Saga adaptation, or a big-budget Ben Reilly arc. That’s not a bad thing to settle for,

although, in a world of inevitable backlash, and people loving things then getting ashamed, cold feet and deciding they actually hate that thing, the only armor a piece of cinema art has is the strength of its quality over time. Will a person growing up outside of a hype cycle like it? A person who did not grow up with either a Toby Maguire Spidey or an Andrew Garfield one (or

even a Tom Holland?). Can the powerful rush of well-deployed nostalgia work on someone who doesn’t know the thing being referenced? Ultimately—is Spider-Man: No Way Home actually a great movie, or simply a well-liked okay movie, buoyed by its fan-friendly attitude?

It’s easy to have doubts. Avengers: Endgame was a narrative flex that broke the ankles of alleged imitators at the time (an IP-gathering that began in Avengers: Infinity War, it could be argued that the lamentable closing episodes of HBO’s temporary fan-favorite Game of Thrones wanted to execute a similar family reunion, as well as the divisive Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker). Often imitated, not-yet duplicated, if there’s a textbook case on how to bypass cognition and stab a rolled-up comic book right at the pleasure sensors, it is Avengers: Endgame. On paper it’s a no-brainer, and when sitting through it, the brain is beside the point. It is a film that feels great to watch, and to re-watch. It’s all over the place in all the best ways. It just works, and it might be luck, but it happened, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe has still not really recovered from that well-executed climax.

Black Widow, Shang-Chi, and Eternals can be viewed, in a way, as extended walks of shame, the world’s favorite superhero stable shuffling in its Uggs back to the drawing board after a ribald decade that is now just a blur. It’s characters still can’t help but talk about plot points that happened back when Joss Whedon was doing the writing, like it can’t believe it actually did that. The Hawkeye series on Disney+ opens with an Avengers musical (and Kate Bishop- featuring flashbacks) that mines moments from Marvel’s Avengers that were already mined in Endgame and elsewhere (like on Loki, also on the Disney streamer). The characters in these new offerings—many of them new to this universe—can’t help but wonder, where do we go from here, how do we get butts in seats? And there was a threat that nobody actually knew.

The answer, it seems, is to go back into the arms of a more familiar love, one who knows us. Right now, as we wait for an X-Man, those arms belong to a Spider-Man.

Jon Watts, the director of all our Tom Holland Spider-Man films, was given a tremendous golden goose by that very name—Tom Holland. An inarguably gifted actor who need do naught more than flatten his British accent to make us see not him but Peter Parker. But his two previous Spider-Man movies (Homecoming and Far From Home, 2017 and 2019 respectively), while great in all of their Spider-Man ways, were also saddled with existing in the run-up to, and immediate aftermath of, that pleasure-sensor dominating flex that was the MCU’s first-decade conclusion. They had to fit a lot of MCU stuff into his space, as a result. A ground-level, New York hero with global, intergalactic potential, the Peter Parker of previous comics and cartoons often had similar stakes to a character like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Protect your neighborhood, protect your family and friends, fight monsters that both represent your anxieties and prevent you from just being a kid.

Prior to his most recent film, the MCU Peter Parker has been able to engage at this ground-level in spurts with his movies being very much big, Tony Stark-level affairs. In Far From Home, he barely spends time in the city that informs him at all. They move quickly, and are fun, and Tom Holland prevents them from becoming disorienting, but one can feel the hand of Kevin Feige trying to get as much use out of Spider-Man while he still can, as Disney’s tentative alliance with Sony could be destroyed at any time, especially as Tom Hardy’s Venom started to become a genuine hit in its own right, proving Sony could do crowd-pleasing on their own, even if they still hadn’t quite cracked how to please a critic.

Going into No Way Home, one could be excused for expecting more of the same. With Holland speaking plainly about his ending contract in the weeks leading up to its release, the mindset during the production phase could easily be one of, Won’t it be sad you won’t see Tom Holland play with your friends anymore?

But that is not what happened. Maybe a craven acquiescence to Amy Pascal and Sony, maybe more low-key Kevin Feige masterminding, No Way Home is not here to do big narrative lifts for the MCU. It’s not even really here to change the game for Sony’s own Spidey- villain/Venom franchise (despite a Let There Be Carnage stinger teasing as much, and an impending, now-delayed, Mobius feature on the horizon). Don’t call it a love-letter, but the third Tom Holland Peter Parker movie manages to, finally, be very much about Peter Parker and his relationships. The very important inclusion of Benedict Cumberbatch’s Dr. Strange manages to not really pull attention away from Holland, but toward him. It hits the beat of another male figure to guide Peter, but the real emotional guidance is given, finally, to Marissa Tomei’s Aunt May. Holland gets to display his very-real chemistry with Zendaya’s MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned Leeds. In the film’s early goings, we can feel it wresting itself from the globe-trotting as it plops Holland right back into high-school via time jump, as if aware that something would be lost and hard to get back if the audience isn’t reminded that Peter Parker is just a boy, with a lot of stories that work best while that is still the case.

It’s not even completely sensical! Him just going back to school in this scenario. But it is necessary and so works for the forgiving because it could be no other way. Dr. Strange barely putting up a fight as this kid wants to alter a condition of human existence (memory) for personal gain is not totally reasonable either, but it too works because it too needs to.

These are the conditions that a future generation watching this movie might find quibble with. To its credit today, the film introduces no new characters, and proves how powerful a film can be by digging into the characters its established in previous entries. That alone will hurt a film’s chances of being loved a generation later, if that generation hasn’t spend the requisite time with those characters already. The classic original Star Wars films successively introduce new characters, but does that add to their aging well or is it beside the point? Does a piece of art have to age well in order to be of powerful value now?

At any rate—enter the Spider-Men. Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield, having played Peter Parker for directors Sam Raimi and Marc Webb, respectively, more than its villains help bring No Way Home up to the level of must-see viewing for a modern audience. Garfield especially. A charismatic actor with a twitchy take on Peter Parker, Garfield has thus far played the role in films that are honestly hard to watch. Not unlike Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four or *checks credits* Ron Howard’s Solo: A Star Wars Story (and, to a lesser extent, Rise of Skywalker) there is something almost soul-crushing about watching a film visibly held together by studio notes and test-screening-negotiated reshoots. For an empathetic viewer, it’s written all over the actors’ faces. Announced as a reboot that would be penned by Zodiac writer James Vanderbilt, Garfield’s trilogy was mired by exec cold-feet almost from the very beginning. With Garfield coming from Fincher-land via the Social Network, it was genuinely exciting—to movie fans and the actor himself—to imagine what the writer of one of David Fincher’s best movies might bring to one of Marvel’s most iconic characters. Instead we got a trilogy Sony deemed not worth completing, in part because audiences had deemed it not quite worth shelling out money to see.

To witness Garfield finally getting to do his thing in a movie helmed with a sure hand is an aspect of this movie that packs a punch, even, it seems, for those who liked the Amazing Spider-Man films. Maguire, with at least one classic under his belt in Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, has less of this immediately-cathartic baggage, but still has a Spider-Man 3-shaped dint in his armor. With Venom already rehabbed-ish in public opinion after his shoe-horning into that latter film, this left only Maguire’s strutting Parker to be given the MCU quality-control treatment. It too works, on a different level. Their collective chemistry works, and will likely work upon looking back. Garfield plays wounded well, and to see the pain in the eyes of his Peter is to have a conversation, as an audience, with the actor about what he went through with his Webb films, both textually and meta-textually. That alone would have been brilliant enough, and, as such, has initiated a desire in the audience for more. Perhaps Tom Hardy’s character might exist in the same universe as Garfield-Spidey?

Anyway: Will these bits age well? There is a good chance not! The fact that actors deliver and that we believe them will never not age well, and so the movie may not actually need this extra-text nostalgia bump to be effective in the long run. But it might. Maguire’s Peter functions ultimately at face-value. He’s got a bad back, he’s the oldest, and he slips quickly into a mentor role and we buy it, and we don’t need a previous relationship with this character for that to work. Garfield-Spidey saving MJ? This need not be explained to a modern audience who gets the reference, but does it still work with just the set-up of the character mentioning Gwen once just a few scenes prior? I don’t know if it does. I hope it does, because I love it, but it might not.

Then there’s all the villains, which means only more talent, and more reasons for the movie to age well. Willem Dafoe’s scene-stealing, I’d argue, needs no study guide to get. He comes through and is playing a character explained well by the film. The fact that the other bad guys (with the theoretical exception of Alfred Molina’s Otto Octavius) do not get as painstaking a rendering as the Green Goblin is a gift to the film. They do cool superpowered stuff, and are bad, but Holland-Peter still has empathy for them. This is all the audience needs to know for their inclusion and elevation to work. Willem Dafoe chewing-scenery is the same in every language.

In the end, time will do what it always does and unmercifully bare truth. Maybe in fifty years, movies featuring an amnesiac Gwyneth Paltrow will go down as the best movies ever made actually, making Homecoming the crowning achievement of this Spider-era. And movies that tickle the nostalgia-bone will be looked down on as the navel-gazing of a population facing down various forms of apocalypse—like going through old photo albums while cleaning out a childhood home on the verge of demolition. Bearing this in mind, I think No Way Home will still be considered, full stop, the best of these first three Holland-starring films. It stays in his home town, it’s in conversation with its source material, and it’s stacked with an awards-caliber cast that makes its fantasies believable. In the end, if your script is being fundamentally honest with itself, a human face will be able to sell it, and its context’s import will diminish, as will the piece’s reliance on it.

Whether those fantasies are of a world where a multi-verse can be tampered with by a wizard who’s old enough to know better, or of a world where past artistic highs and lows matter as much as what’s happening in the moment, sprinkle a teary-eyed Tom Holland on top of your make-believe and human beings will recognize themselves in that work, helping it to age well, as the truth always does.