9. Do you enjoy putting your muse through angst? What do you think would break their heart the most?
Late munday questions answered fndkfnjfdnjk adulting is hard
Do I enjoy putting Reed through angst --- to be completely honest??? nOPE. with a little bit of extra nOPE in my coffee thanks :V
All kidding aside I actually believe the Four has been through enough. Like, let’s take a summary of the big events that have really REALLY freaking traumatized them.
1) going to space and getting blasted by cosmic rays, physically being altered then having to not only work through that but also face it. Like, their NASA shuttle made it back to earth battered, probably on fire and stumbling out of the wreckage there’s Reed, who can’t probably walk or move properly cause he feels like literal silly putty, susan can’t see herself, johnny’s just ON FIRE and Ben’s this thing made of god knows what kind of astral rock and just. Yeah. I can’t even begin to process how you’d react to going through something that traumatic. anyways, somehow they do.
2) Victor. I don’t even need to compile all the stuff he’s done to Reed emotionally and physically but the fact that he’s blamed Reed, for every failure, every fuck up in his life. That’s a lot to deal with. I think probably at one point Reed might have even blamed himself. What if I did? What if I completely destroyed a person’s opportunity to be great? A person’s possibility? Man, I’ll come back to that cause yeah. It’s a huge, huge feel and aspect of my interpretation of this character.
3) Civil War. Wow, I won’t even recount the comics cause they’re pretty messed up. But basically Reed’s marriage and his team, his family, almost falls entirely apart. Sue sides with Captain America. Reed sides with Tony. It’s a mess. Poor Johnny and Ben are on the sidelines like Sue and Reed’s children like MOM DAD PLEASE DON’T FIGHT. It’s hard for Reed to talk about and he’s apologized since but he still stands by the fact anything he did, he did with the best interest of his family in mind. How people can’t see that is beyond me.
4) Though not apart of the films I’ve developed my own timelines/verses/headcanons about Reed and his family during Infinity War and Endgame. Reed and Sue basically lose their family in the snap. That’s probably the most angsty thing I’ve ever developed for his character. I took inspiration from the film A Quiet Place that John Krasinski (my faceclaim for Reed’s) in and the quote “if we can’t protect them - then who are we?” like the worst thing that could ever happen to a parent is the loss of a child. Imagine losing two. And your brother in law. And your best friend. Unlike in Civil War though I imagine Reed and Sue would gravitate towards one another fiercely because couples usually do that or distance each other from themselves completely when they lose a child.
There’s more things to happen to the team canonically wise, sure but those are my top four most dramatic/angsty in a sense?
As for what would break Reed’s heart the most, I can list it right here:
- The loss of an immediate family member. Certain issue’s of the FF have shown Reed doesn’t deal with loss well, especially one in battle he felt he should have been able to prevent.
- Failure. Although it’s cheesy, the quote failure is not an option is a quote my muse feels deeply. He’s so guilt ridden about previous colossal mistakes he’s made that he feels he has to make amends forever and prevent anything of the sort from happening again. This is where his need to fix everyone’s problems and people please comes from too.
- Keeping someone from reaching their full potential. Reed’s said so many times to people he dreams of making a better world and helping people reach their goals and dreams. That’s why he started the future foundation, to give children access to unbiased education and something to reach for. That’s why he can’t bring himself to ever really hurt or kill victor because he questions: what if something I said or did really DID hurt him? Or stop his development? What if everything that’s ever happened to my family is all MY FAULT? So he keeps cutting victor slack and hoping, maybe someday he’ll see he never meant to discourage him from greatness, he just wanted to see him become the best version of himself. Something great AND good.
