#endgame positivity

[thefanficfaerie]

This is an Endgame positivity post.

Only thing to exist here is positive Endgame responses. So what is one thing you liked about Endgame.

I liked Steve’s ending and when Pepper told Tony he could rest now.

[theonceoverthinker]

I know this is some first world BS on my part, but I am really excited and borderline invested in “Endgame” taking down “Avatar” as the highest grossing film of all time. Like again, I know it is so stupid to care about the box office returns of one multi-million dollar company over another, but I’m regularly checking that Wikipedia box office page in something of a state of anticipation for the moment that “Endgame” might claim the top spot and hopefully, own it for some time.

Now why would I do that?

I guess to me, at least, “Endgame” is more meaningful in the grand scheme of things than “Avatar” ever was. Even as someone who only really jumped into the MCU following “Infinity War,” it’s impossible to ignore how big these movies are in the buildup to this release.

“Endgame” was more than a movie -- it was a cultural moment. Regardless of what you thought of the movie itself, it was the product of over ten years of organic buildup and makes up a big part of our collective consciousness. It was something that united so many filmgoers in the anticipation of this giant franchise reaching an ending over twenty films in the making. It’s something that’s never been done before. The characters are memorable and numerous and the bittersweet twists they endured in this film alone, for better or worse, had us feeling things so intensely on theirs and our own behalfs. How many of us cried at the various reunions, reconciliations, goodbyes, and deaths? How many of us are still joking about tacos, “America’s ass,” and the Hulk dabbing? How many of us are thinking about the implications of the world Thanos created via that snap? And even if you didn’t like the movie, the emotions that it stirred are strong and gonna last. You’re gonna think about this movie for a long time as you continue to explore what went wrong or lukewarm with its execution. “Endgame” even launched a grander discussion about the relative importance of spoilers as they pertain to how actors are treated, how fans treat each other, why fans feel the way they do about spoilers, and how spoilers impact fans of films. Either way (for me, pretty positively), it’s a movie worth going back to for the impact that it left behind in its wake and I think that if a movie’s gonna make a become the highest grossing of all time, it should do at the very least that. “Titanic” did back in ‘97 and I’m happy to see that after a long wait, “Endgame” will likely reclaim the title and bring that feeling back.

So why do I not consider “Avatar” to be in that group alongside “Titanic” and “Endgame?” Honestly, it’s because “Avatar” is little more than a really pretty punch line. Had it not been for the Pandora world in Animal Kingdom, I can’t help but feel like the movie as a whole would’ve just faded into obscurity. And let’s face it, “Avatar’s” presence in the larger pop culture space is more based on its world than its characters and while worlds can definitely be important (It’s why I love the book version of “Ready Player One”), there’s not all that much there otherwise. I can’t be the only one who would think that if not for that Disney park adaptation, this film’s legacy would’ve been a reverse “Pluto Nash” situation where the cost and box office impact of the movie matters more than anything else. I won’t doubt that the movie looks beautiful -- a lot of work went into the technical aspects of the film and it deserves all the acclaim and Oscars it got for that, but the writing hardly matched that level of quality, with most of the conversation about that film these days only touching upon its incredible box office earnings, said technological achievements, and some variant on the joke of “Pocahontas meets intergalactic Smurfs” that many of us make these days. And I'm not looking to shit on “Avatar” or the movie’s fans -- the execution of the movie’s story is fine, as I said before, it’s beautiful, and there’s nothing insulting about it -- but in terms of the comparative impact, the strength of the characters and narrative, and the long-term relevance of these two films, I’m sorry, but one is far grander than the other and that one’s only blue-skinned character is named Nebula.

[weebeestie]

PRE- FINAL 2 EPISODES THOUGHTS & ENDGAME SPEC! :)

Okay, I know nerves are running high and especially so among the crowd considering stuff like PR around Misha/Cas and “script adjustments” but having spent the past 24 hours re-watching the post-hiatus eps I am feeling pretty secure and positive going into the endgame! This is just my personal speculation based on my reading of the episodes themselves, just for fun and for me to check back with later as we near the end! So, here is what I’m expecting/hoping for by the finale (under the cut since this is kinda long):

General Spec

All of them live in the end (not counting stuff like death/resurrection or if in the last episode we get like a many-years-later-in-heaven kinda thing)

Cas comes back, probably human or close to human

Dean and Sam separate in the end--not estranged, just resolving into healthy independence while still loving each other and being in each other’s lives; no longer trapped in eternal tragic codependency

Endgame Sam and Eileen (a big part of the former point)

Endgame Dean and Cas -- *see below for notes

Even if Jack’s still a cosmic entity he will 1) survive, and 2) be allowed to live life as a kid and not be constantly chained to cosmic duty

Monsters and magic and stuff will remain; the afterlife/cosmic order will just be rebalanced like Amara’s wanted all along. I care less about the mytharc stuff than the characters so I haven’t thought much about this beyond the point that I think the guys will still hunt, just without the constant Apocalypse threats (Dean likes hunting, Sam likes magic, both of them love helping people, there are good ‘monsters’ like Garth or even Jack--they just need more than that and they need to have peace and happiness of their own, without constant impending cosmic doom)

The ending will be happy and I will c r y !!

The show will at long last spring for Zepp for the final scene bonus points if it’s on the mixtape!

The Biggie: Cas Was Right All Along and What That Means for Dean

The biggest thing that strikes me on this re-watch is Dean’s ongoing anger issues and struggle with truth. The root of Dean’s anger is that he feels trapped and oppressed by his life--highlighted by his conversations with Sam, Cas, Jack, and even Amara. As Dean repeatedly states, he believes that this oppression has been created by Chuck controlling them, pulling the strings. He fails to accept that they do have free will, and that the basis of free will is love. Chuck may be omniscient and control time and space, but he doesn’t control the feelings they have for each other (same as he didn’t orchestrate Amara’s thing with Dean). He is able to manipulate them to the extent that he can introduce obstacles through his powers and (as writer/creator) his deep understanding of their flaws. He is adept at playing on the weaknesses created by the trauma in their lives to push them toward outcomes he desires. However, Team Free Will’s proven ability to repeatedly thwart his narrative is based on the love that they have for each other, which is the true driver of their actions. It’s no accident that right before Cas tells Dean that he’s the embodiment of love, Billie tells him that he’s the embodiment of chaos. Love is what breaks the divine order of the system. LIKE CAS SAYS IN 15x02, Chuck may have built the maze, but they are the ones running it. They are real. So why does Dean feel so oppressed? Because he cannot, like Amara says in Gimme Shelter, accept his life. He can’t accept his truth. His self-hatred is the opposite of the love with which he breaks the bonds of the system to save others; and until he sheds this he can never be free, Chuck or no Chuck. Chuck isn’t the one oppressing Dean; Dean is. Because he has not given himself permission to fully shed the rest of John Winchester’s ghost, fully shed the scars of his time as a torturer in Hell (brought up by Belphagor just this season), fully shed the idea that he can never have the kinds of relationships with his loved ones that he truly desires, Dean is still trapped. He should take what Sam and Cas have each told him about himself in the previous two episodes to heart if he is to release himself.

*Dean and Cas

I am fully endgame positive, but not 100% sure where we’ll land in terms of like the...definition?...of their relationship? At the bare minimum I expect it to be made explicit, as in not just left implied or in the subtext, that what Dean feels for Cas is not just love as a brother or love as a best friend, but something more than that, even if the show ends at a place where Dean is like, still coming to terms with everything and they’re gonna take it slow. I do expect them to be together in the end though and do not think they’ll go with love-declaration-to-permanent-separation or anything like that as the final chapter of their relationship. I expect we’ll have a better idea what their endgame will look like post-15x19.

PR and Covid Stuff

The PR about Cas being permadead is just that...PR. If anything, it strengthens my feeling that when we get Cas back, it’ll be as a human (which has always been my ideal ending for him--which I think is the ideal ending for him!), so that has me kinda pumped!

Re: covid--the kind of script adjustments that they would have made to accommodate shooting restrictions would imo have no impact on what they intended for Cas. This kind of thing would be more relevant to stuff like bringing back a bunch of old guest stars for a final appearance--think things like a memory or vision of all the people they saved (or their souls), or if they wanted to resurrect a bunch of familiar angels and demons from the empty to fight Chuck or whatever. Like a big montage group scene kinda thing. There are limits on the number of people you can cram into a set at once under the new restrictions. It would absolutely not effect anything essential like the conclusion of the storyline of a beloved main character (and also they are not giving Cas a tragic ending that is also bury your gays, c’mon friends! they just aren’t). If you are someone who is worried bc you pay attention to PR/what actors say/etc, I would suggest you consider reports that Misha told people he had five days of shooting left post- wrapping 15x18. That is a substantial amount of shooting that suggests real story content, not some single random shot of Cas smiling beatifically at Dean when he reaches heaven or something that could non-meaningfully be cut without changing the main story. As far as I know, kissing is still allowed given proper safety and testing procedures are followed. I would love to see a deancas kiss (tho imo it’s only ‘necessary’ insofar as shutting up the idiots who are still claiming the confession was platonic) and I think a saileen reunion without one would feel weird--but these are not endgame requirements for me for either ship and I mention it only because I’ve seen people speculating about whether it’s allowed or whatever.

[weebeestie]

I can’t believe that in the midst of this utterly cursed and wretched year, the thing I feel most positive about is fucking supernatural!

I can’t believe that my biggest worry for the ending isn’t that we’ll get the worst case scenario, but that we won’t get the best case scenario out of a range of options that are already better than what I always expected!

truly wild!

[sparklypurplerock]

The Subversion of Morgan Stark

As heartbreaking as Tony Stark's story was in Endgame, here's why I love his daughter Morgan's place in it.

As soon as I "met" Morgan, I thought I knew how Tony's story was going to end. Tony was going to find some way to put the world right, but it would require sacrificing the life he created with Pepper in wake of the Decimation. The life that brought Morgan into being. The world would go on, but Tony's happiness and the child that gave it to him would be gone. Because that's why a man has a daughter in movies like this. So we can empathize with him later when he loses her.

Morgan was there, I was sure, for Tony to sacrifice, and so we could mourn her sacrifice with him.

But, no. That wasn't Morgan's story. In the end, Tony sacrificed himself for Morgan and the world he had brought her into. And in the end, Morgan is the one we're empathizing with as we all mourn Iron Dad and consider what a future without him will be.

Because in this story, good men don't sacrifice their daughters for the greater good. That's reserved for the villains. Good men protect their daughters and leave their world better than they found it.

Whatever it takes.

[sparklypurplerock]

Steve and Peggy's daughter is a new SHIELD trainee. She works up the courage to tell her dad she wants to specialize as an assassin.

“Natasha Nebula,” Steve says, “you are named for two veterans of the Infinity War. Both of them were assassins, and they were two of the bravest people I ever knew.”

[sparklypurplerock]

Prepare for a deluge of MCU stuff from this blog

I saw Endgame last Sunday. I've spent all week processing my feels, looking up other fandom stuff, and finding new Marvel content to follow.

I will be sure to tag Endgame Spoilers, but since the mobile app is my main form of access, I can't do Keep Reading cuts.

My overall opinion of Endgame was positive, and I'm satisfied with where the characters I'm most invested in ended up and what possibilities are left open for them in canon and fanon. I can't say more than that without major spoilers.

Stay tuned for my ramblings, headcanons, and shipper trash if you'd like, mute if you need to. I love y'all 3000.