I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are two special categories of character for whom the normal rules do not apply. I don't know if this also applies to the Marvel comics, but I've certainly seen it in the movies. I call them the "Favoured" and the "Disfavoured" characters.

A Favoured character can do no wrong.

I don't mean that they don't do anything wrong, I mean that the wrong things (or mistakes) they do are dismissed, ignored, rationalised, or made out to be good things.

A Disfavoured character can do no right.

It isn't that they never do anything right, but every single wrong thing (or mistake) they have ever done is thrown in their faces forever, and the right things they do are dismissed, ignored, rationalised, or made out to be bad things. They are everyone's favourite scapegoat, also.

( Signs of a Favoured Character )

( Signs of a Disfavoured Character )

When you have a Favoured character interacting with a Disfavoured character, because of these biases, every Favoured character comes across as a flaming hypocrite. Which means that the writers who are desperately trying to enforce the view that their Favoured characters are spotless heroes, have done the exact opposite of what they intended. Ooops.

I would even go so far as to say that out of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, and Loki, the only mature, responsible adult is... Tony Stark. He's the only one of the four who actually takes responsibility for his actions, and not only for his actions, but for his inaction. Steve Rogers seems to think that because he meant well, he can't be blamed for the harm he caused. Thor has a similar attitude. Guess what? Tony Stark meant well, too; he meant to protect American soldiers. And what does he do when he discovers that harm came of it? He tries to make amends. Steve Rogers doesn't. Thor doesn't. Loki is a wild mixture of blaming other people for his problems, trying to fix his mistakes, and trying to fix other people's mistakes, badly. Interestingly enough, both Tony Stark and Loki were betrayed by people they considered family. But Tony had support (Yinsen, Pepper) and Loki had absolutely nobody.

The more I ponder "Avengers: Age of Ultron", the more it feels like an escapee from a Mirror Universe. Sure, the Doylist explanation is that it was directed by Joss Wheadon, who would consider himself a coward if he didn't destroy continuity, but I have no ideas about what a Watsonian explanation for this would be.

( rambly spoilery discussion )

The Marvel Trumps Hate auction is live. Bid on me for charity and I will make you stealth-fannish Marvel-themed jewellery!
Here is my auction listing
Auction ends on Saturday, or is it Sunday?

BID FOR CHARITY.

A band of rebels fighting against the evil Federation:

• The alien spaceship "Avenger", run by the artificial intelligence Jar-Vis.
• Steve Rogers - political activist and legend, he supposedly died seventy years ago, but was found, resurrected, mind-wiped, caught at a political rally (where the protesters were massacred), framed for child-molestation, and sentenced to Transportation to Cygnus Alpha.
• Tony Stark - businessman, engineer, computer tech, convicted of embezzling billions of credits; but he was framed by his business partner, Obadiah Stane, who was the real embezzler. Stark maintains that if he'd actually wanted to steal billions of credits, he would never have been caught.
• Bruce Banner - government experiment gone wrong, most of the time he's just a mild-mannered scientist, but if he gets angry, he turns into a raging berserker. Convicted of murdering a guard who was threatening to rape his girlfriend Betty Ross.
• Natasha Romanov - smuggler, pirate, free trader, pilot of the infamous "Black Widow"
• Clint Barton - co-pilot and partner of Romanov, between them there isn't any place they can't infiltrate and steal from.
• Loki - a genderfluid alien shapeshifter, they have their own reasons for hating the Federation, but they aren't saying.

Yeah, I put Loki in the "Cally" slot rather than Thor, because IMHO he fits better. Though I suppose Sylvie would fit even better.

Yeah. I've been pretty silent for a while. Why? I think I got out of the habit of keeping up with Dreamwidth, and then I felt so overwhelmed that I then avoided it out of guilt for not keeping up. So, my apologies everyone, I have no idea what you have been doing. Let me know if there's anything you want me to know...

We've been busy (before Easter) distributing my father's Estate, which means that I now have two office chairs, a replacement sofa, some boxes of crockery, linen, photos, artefacts etc, and of course books. And two new bookcases for said books. And a chest of drawers which is definitely not going to have clothing put in it.

( Read more... )

Well, I just watched Avengers: Infinity War. (Yes, yes, many years late I know). I'm glad I already knew how it ended, because I think I would have felt betrayed, otherwise. Talk about pulling out your heart and stomping on it... over and over again. Like, angst amped up to eleven. As it was, I was prepared for it, and more able to cope, because I also know what happens in Endgame (which I expect will upset me more when I see it, because Tony.) But there will always be fix-it fic!

( cut for rambling spoilers )

I feel a bit smug that I already know what the end-credit scene means, since I actually saw Captain Marvel in the cinema when it came out. Yes, I am watching stuff out of order...

Superhero origin stories are the most interesting, because they are the only ones where there is any character development. All the rest are Boys Own Adventure and Soap Opera.

Why do I say that?

Origins:( Read more... )

Adventures:( Read more... )

Soap Opera:( Read more... )

Things Can Be Better in Fanfic:

I've been reading a lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe stories lately, even though I haven't actually seen very many of the movies. It's one of the few universes where I don't mind spoilers because I don't really intend to watch all the movies -- there are too many of them to catch up on, anyway. And I've been reading mostly Alternate Universe stories, which means it doesn't matter that much if I don't know all the details. So... I've been reading a bunch of Tony-Stark-centric and Loki-centric stories, and I have a few recommendations. ( Read more... )

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So, any recs for more Tony-centric or Loki-centric character-full stories (that are NOT SLASH)?