it's a party
May. 11th, 2012 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
harborshoreI just realized I haven't actually told the internet at large just how much I loved The Avengers. Which, I've spent the last two weeks talking about nothing else in email and writing fic about no other characters--yes.
So these notes are short, but in no particular order:
Basically I love everything, I want the Black Widow prequel YESTERDAY, gimme Bucky Barnes to add to this and I will be your forever.
ETA: And I forgot (clearly a reason I need to see it again soon): "There are always men like you." That moment makes me cry, every time. Such poignancy, in the middle of a really bombastic superhero movie. Well done, Joss.
So these notes are short, but in no particular order:
- Bruce Banner! I had never ever previously had feelings about the Hulk or his Dr Jekyll alter ego, but my god, Mark Ruffalo did so well in this role. He's self-deprecating, he has gravitas like--there's a scene, you know the one, where it would have been so easy for him to play the yes-I-was-seriously-depressed card for laughs, but he doesn't and it's heartbreaking, and at other times he's funny as hell and he gets Tony (Tony/Pepper/Bruce, you guys, I ship it). Favorite.
- Actually, they're all my favorites. Tony and Pepper and their warmth, I love it so much, and Tony not being afraid of Bruce, and Tony making fun of Loki and Thor and their Asgardian drama (I can admit it, our myths are pretty histrionic in places), and and and so great. SO great. The way he learned to work with Steve!
- STEEEEVE. Steve. Man. I have feelings about Steve Rogers and his sincerity and his fucking shield and his everything. The way he watches Natasha fly after giving her a boost with this absolute joy on his face. The way his first thought is for the civilians. Fuck.
- Phil Coulson is fine. I don't care who the director is, I don't care if I'm being an idiot about it, Phil Coulson is FINE. Because I love him. Okay?
Now that we've established that: "You lack conviction." Best line. Also, the phone call to Natasha in the beginning made me ship him/her/Clint like burning and it doesn't look like I'll be stopping any time soon. OT-fucking-3. "Honey, our boyfriend is in serious trouble. Please come be your competent self so we can get him home." - Speaking of Natasha, how great is she? How is she the best every time she's on screen? Good goddamn, she's my favorite. "Let me put you on hold." And then taking everyone out, barefoot, weaponless, tied to a fucking chair. Pulling up Clint on screen every time she's near a computer. Using Loki's assumptions against him and reading him like a BOOK, god, I love her. The way she tells both Clint and Selvig right away that it wasn't their fault, what they did when they were brainwashed, it wasn't their fault. The compassion in that. ♥ SHE IS MY FAVORITE.
- Thor! Still love Thor. "You people are so petty. And so short." Ridiculous, larger-than-life, the kind of happy that they all need, even as he has a much more serious side. LOVE HIM. Did not love his brother, except as a very good villain--I love Loki-the-character from the myths, but he's also the guy who causes the end of the world and I can believe that, here, which just--makes him less compelling, for me. Armageddon, genocide, wanting to destroy for the sake of destroying--"You kill because it's fun" as Fury puts it.
- CLIIIINT. Competent as FUCK, I loved that he just never missed, that he calculated for the fact that Loki would catch the arrow and made it an exploding one, his relationship with Natasha, his post-brainwashing scene of vulnerability and then desire to go do something violent, his everything. Clint/Natasha/Coulson forever (so says my fic, which is 5K and growing fast).
- The way this movie problematized and distrusted authority. The way it pointed out that someone can be in the right most of the time and still be a manipulative fucker--Fury, lying about the weapons. The way the Council was incredibly troubling, even though they're in charge of SHIELD, which is on the side of the angels. Supposedly. SO INTERESTING.
Basically I love everything, I want the Black Widow prequel YESTERDAY, gimme Bucky Barnes to add to this and I will be your forever.
ETA: And I forgot (clearly a reason I need to see it again soon): "There are always men like you." That moment makes me cry, every time. Such poignancy, in the middle of a really bombastic superhero movie. Well done, Joss.
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Date: 2012-05-11 09:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 04:44 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-11 09:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 04:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 06:57 am (UTC)“Or you installed a hidden camera somewhere,” Natasha says drily.
“Or that,” Clint agrees.
“Ah, romance,” Phil says. “Surveillance cameras and remote recordings.”
“You would know,” Clint says, smiling at him. And yes, yes he would. Natasha will never ever forget the time when she came in late to Phil’s office to turn in a form and caught him watching a video of her and Clint on a mission. He turned to look at her when she came in and that’s when she knew.
It took them another year to get their act together, because Natasha didn’t really think love was a good idea for any of them. Or any kind of a relationship, and let’s not even talk about what it took to get them to cohabitate (Clint bleeding out under her hands, ignoring the ominous pain in her ribs, fucking broken, why did they have to be broken so she couldn’t carry Clint out, Phil practically screaming over the comms and then deciding on his own to be their backup because the actual backup was taking too long to get there). But the way he looked at her when she caught him in his office, that’s when she knew.
“Nothing says love like stalking,” Natasha agrees, and lets herself smile at them both. Clint ruffles her hair and she doesn’t know when she stopped slapping his hand away when he did that, and he gets up to get their plates and load the dishwasher.
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Date: 2012-05-12 01:48 pm (UTC)oh my goodness, their FACES. <3
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Date: 2012-05-11 09:35 pm (UTC)I mean what, wait, oh have I already mentioned that a time or trillion?
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Date: 2012-05-12 04:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-05-12 04:46 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 04:53 am (UTC)Also: OT33333333333333333333333333333 of super-spies and fake-deaths.
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Date: 2012-05-12 05:15 am (UTC)They are SO GREAT. Here, a snippet of why they are so great:
“I don’t know how you always know when the food is ready,” Phil says, teasing.
Clint grins. “It’s based on a very complicated behavioral analysis,” he says loftily. “Part of my job as a sniper.”
“Or you installed a hidden camera somewhere,” Natasha says drily.
“Or that,” Clint agrees.
“Ah, romance,” Phil says. “Surveillance cameras and remote recordings.”
“You would know,” Clint says, smiling at him. And yes, yes he would. Natasha will never ever forget the time when she came in late to Phil’s office to turn in a form and caught him watching a video of her and Clint on a mission. He turned to look at her when she came in and that’s when she knew.
It took them another year to get their act together, because Natasha didn’t really think love was a good idea for any of them. Or any kind of a relationship, and let’s not even talk about what it took to get them to cohabitate (Clint bleeding out under her hands, ignoring the ominous pain in her ribs, fucking broken, why did they have to be broken so she couldn’t carry Clint out, Phil practically screaming over the comms and then deciding on his own to be their backup because the actual backup was taking too long to get there). But the way he looked at her when she caught him in his office, that’s when she knew.
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Date: 2012-05-12 05:21 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 06:28 am (UTC)“So why’d you agree to the move then?”
Good question. “I don’t know,” she says slowly. Stark offered the mansion almost right away, looking as earnest as she ever saw him (he still gleefully created a mountain of paperwork for Phil, but that’s different). Bruce looked cautiously happy, especially after asking about labs and Tony promising to reopen his dad’s old one, which made Pepper’s face soften. Clint didn’t protest, but she knows he hates the thought of that many people around. She makes a note to work out all the escape routes with him.
“Steve’s moving too?” Bucky looks down at their hands.
“He’ll be over here every day,” Natasha says.
“He worries,” Bucky says, like that should mean something besides the immediate fact of it.
“Yes,” Natasha agrees, because she knows what Bucky means. Love can be exhausting in its concern. “I’ll see if I can distract him a little,” she adds.
“Thanks,” Bucky says. The circles under his eyes are dark enough to look like bruises.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 06:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 06:42 am (UTC)(Eventually there will be a kidnapping and they will need to fight their way back to their concerned boyfriends, despite Bucky not being entirely recovered yet.)
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Date: 2012-05-12 06:46 am (UTC)In other words: I APPROVE OF THIS STORY IN EVERY WAY. Even if those kidnappers are making a terrible life decision.
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Date: 2012-05-12 06:54 am (UTC)(Right? BAD IDEA. REALLY REALLY BAD IDEA.)
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Date: 2012-05-12 07:01 am (UTC)"I dunno, our plans for world domination haven't been going so well lately. Let's go steal a couple of the world's most infamous assassins from their superhero boyfriends!"
"Cool! Sounds fun!"
...I cannot WAIT to find out how badly they regret it. \o/
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Date: 2012-05-12 07:18 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 07:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 08:09 am (UTC)Natasha isn’t called in when they find Bucky Barnes. It stands to reason; she’s half a world away and his best friend is living in SHIELD’s headquarters.
Also, it’s not like their shared history is common knowledge.
So she doesn’t know he’s been brought in until she walks into the infirmary and Steve’s there, arguing with a doctor and all she hears is “sedation” and “possible amnesia” and “Barnes”, before she ducks behind them and goes through the door.
Sure enough, Bucky’s in the bed, pale as anything, one--fuck, one arm, obviously asleep. Sedated, like the doctor said.
“You can’t be in here,” someone says from behind her, sounding timid enough that she’d laugh if Bucky wasn’t right here.
“What did they do to you?” she murmurs, but doesn’t get any closer. The restraints they have on him turns her stomach, even if she understands why they might be necessary. But.
“He shouldn’t be restrained,” she says, turning to the doctor.
“Ma’m, with all due respect, he took down three SHIELD agents before collapsing on his own with, well. One arm.”
“Restraints will make it worse,” she says. “Make someone sit here to guard him. Captain America out there might do it. I will, if he won’t.”
“Of course I’ll sit here with Bucky,” Steve says, and he’s come through the door while they were both talking. “What do you mean, though, Natasha, about restraints making it worse?”
“If he doesn’t know where he is and he’s tied down,” she says, trailing off. The tightening of Steve’s jaw lets her know he takes her point. “If you want to start, captain, I’ll take second watch. Unless SHIELD has something else for me, of course.”
“Of course,” Steve says, and she can tell he wants to ask why she cares about this soldier, but she also sort of thinks he probably assumes she’d do that out of friendship, caring for a stranger because her teammate does. Because he would do that. Natasha wouldn’t, really, but Bucky isn’t a stranger.
As it turns out, Coulson agrees with her assessment of the situation and she’s assigned to monitor Bucky while he recovers.
He tells her to take it easy, but doesn’t say anything else, because Phil knows her very well.
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Date: 2012-05-12 03:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 05:30 am (UTC)But she had thought there were only two of them, not three, right up until she had turned a corner into the third. Big man, black hair, broad shoulders. Kokoris's hired muscle. He'd gotten in one lucky punch--her jaw ached when she opened her mouth, but she had all of her teeth--and he had drawn back for another while she was regaining her balance, raised his fist and--
Footsteps creaked on floorboards outside the door, and Natasha bit back on the laugh threatening to bubble out of her. It wasn't funny. Oh, it wasn't funny, but she had a bruise on her face and a hole in her shoulder that hadn't come from a bullet, and somewhere near the market there was a bloodstain on the pavement where Kokoris's man had bled out thanks to an arrow through the neck.
There was an operative in South Africa who used a polished ivory knife for every hit. An Irish freelancer who used a plastic bag over the face every single time. Ex-CIA-turned-mercenary now based in Naples who never carried any weapon besides a Smith & Wesson Model 29. A Japanese woman everybody called "the botanist" because she used only obscure poisons derived from rare plants she presumably cultivated herself.
Assassins were a peculiar group of people. Fussy and particular. Everybody had their favorite tools of the trade, their favorite methods, their signature.
But there was only one who used a bow and arrow. Everybody in the business laughed about it until they learned how rarely he missed.
And now he was right outside the door. He wasn't even trying to be quiet. He said something, clumsy and imprecise; he didn't know Uyghur any better than she did. A woman's voice answered, he thanked her, and footsteps retreated.
Natasha closed her eyes and steadied her breath and listened to the key rattle in the lock, the door creak open and click shut again. Faint light danced over her face, but she kept her eyes closed.
"If you pretend to sleep through dinner," he said, "I'm not saving you any."
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Date: 2012-05-12 05:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-05-12 06:35 am (UTC)Aaaaaaaaaaaaah, yes! Exactly! Kills me dead. Not only does he obviously know what she went through, but they're at a point where she can bring it up to help him, with what little comfort it is to tell him it's not his fault. GAH THAT SCENE. It's just one short little scene but there's so much in it.
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Date: 2012-05-12 06:50 am (UTC)Right? In what, two minutes, we get so much about them and their history and the way they know each other and interact. "Don't do that to yourself" the way she says that right away because she DOES know what he's thinking, both because she went through it and she knows him that well. MY HEART.
(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 07:41 am (UTC)The sun is rising in Malibu. Tony Stark's spiraling self-destruction is splashed all over the gossip columns online and off, Colonel Rhodes has flown off with one of the suits and landed straight into the hands of the military, Fury is eating Tums like they're candy and has made three seasoned agents cry in the last twenty-four hours, and UFOs are falling out of the sky in New Mexico.
"Seriously?" Natasha says. "A UFO?"
Phil is wearing sunglasses and his expression is convincingly impassive, but she sees the faint lines around his eyes that means he's almost smiling. "It's unidentified, it's an object, and it either flew or fell, depending on who you ask. It's an accurate name."
She can't argue with that, but that's hardly the point. "I can't believe you're pulling out to go find a UFO." She lifts her coffee cup to take a sip, then pauses, narrows her eyes and fixes him with her best interrogator's gaze. "You don't care about the UFO at all, do you? You're leaving because you're afraid that whatever Stark is building in his basement is going to turn all of southern California into a smoking crater."
"Don't be ridiculous, Agent Romanoff," Phil says, and this time he's smiling for real, not even trying to hide it. "I'm sure Mr. Stark only has humanity's best interests at heart."
Natasha snorts into her coffee cup, but Phil's smile fades, and she tilts her head. "What?"
He's quiet a moment before answering. "You know, I didn't before, but I might actually be starting to believe that."
Natasha opens her mouth, reconsiders, closes it again. She thinks about Stark asking her what she would do if she knew she would never have another birthday, and how, for just a second, for that same second she saw what he was saying and how scared he was, she had considered giving him an honest answer.
"No," she says. "I'm going with the smoking crater. All of southern California."
Phil says, "We can bet on it, if you want."
"You want to bet on the quality Tony Stark's moral character?" Natasha asks. "That is the very definition of a sucker bet."
"I don't think so," Phil says. And when Natasha just looks at him, one eyebrow raised skeptically, he said, "I'm an excellent judge of character. You're here, aren't you?"
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Date: 2012-05-12 08:06 am (UTC)"I don't think so," Phil says. And when Natasha just looks at him, one eyebrow raised skeptically, he said, "I'm an excellent judge of character. You're here, aren't you?"
MY HEART. MY FEELINGS. THEMMMMM.
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Date: 2012-05-12 03:35 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-05-12 04:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 02:58 am (UTC)I just returned from viewing #3.
I HAS ALL THE FEELS. AND PHEELS.
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Date: 2012-05-12 04:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 04:29 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2012-05-12 04:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 05:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-05-12 06:48 am (UTC)Also I agree we needs a Black Widow movie immediately. She was just so awesome!
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Date: 2012-05-12 06:59 am (UTC)SO GREAT. Fucking hell. MORE OF HER.
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Date: 2012-05-13 01:39 pm (UTC)I'm still not over how awesome Natasha was, just everything about her. Ugh, so much love. And yes, the pulling up Clint on screens thing kind of killed me. <3 The movie gave me feelings for every member, but yeah, most of all for Natasha. They'd better get to work on her movie soon, as well as the next Avengers movie - I can't wait!
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Date: 2012-05-19 06:58 pm (UTC)Right? NATASHA. I can't get over her at all. Everything about her warmth, her competence, her humanity, her I-will-do-my-job-no-matter-what, her relationship with Clint, her EVERYTHING. I want her movie yesterday.
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Date: 2012-05-19 08:33 pm (UTC)