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Comments or Questions: What Storylines Should Marvel Reset?

Did we miss any big things that Marvel really should reset? I can think of one that we didn’t touch on with the passing of Chadwick Boseman and the death of T’Challa in universe, should that be undone with a new actor playing T’Challa in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

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The Plot – Rising of the Shield Hero

Naofumi is just a normal person, well, maybe not so normal in the real world, but a quiet and reserved person. He likes to spend his time reading manga and not doing really all that much. He is off to grab another book when he finds a light novel about four heroes, the sword, bow, spear, and shield hero. But the section on the shield hero is oddly blank. With that, he is transported into another world where he and three others from their own worlds have been transported in to be the heroes this new world needs.

However, Naofumi, is as the shield hero isn’t looked up to like the other heroes. His weapon, the shield can’t really be used on offense. And the people of that land and other heroes look down on him for that. But that isn’t it that is going to make his life hard.

General Thoughts

I always repeat myself with this, but this is mainly to cover some plot things. Or some choices that you need to consider with anime that aren’t really a good or bad thing, but more a personal choice.

Mainly, what is the fan service like in the show? The fan service is actually very tame for Rising of the Shield Hero. It doesn’t mean that they won’t stoop to immature jokes, those definitely exist, or “adult” situations. But it is not a show to lean into that too heavily.

I think the last thing I want to talk about is the tone of the show. Isekai can often deal with heavier things. I don’t know that I would call Rising of the Shield Hero a heavy show, but it does deal with some heavier topics. And because of how things unfold, the main character is often “edgy”. It reminds me a bit of Kirito from Sword Art Online, where he isn’t a bad guy, but puts on a front. However, the show starts out with the feeling that he’ll be an edge lord throughout.

An edge lord being the protagonist who mainly does dark and edgy things, often times bad, who is treated just like a normal protagonist, not an anti-hero. Or from other stuff that I’ve read, it’s a character living into and fulfilling those bad tendencies, like raising an army of the dead to overthrow a land. And the book still treats it like a good thing. It often feels like the writer trying to live out a fantasy.

What Doesn’t Work?

The opening act, I think doesn’t work that well. I’m sure a lot of people would disagree on that, but it feels out of place. And, having gotten past the first episode, 40 minutes whereas others are shorter, it sets a different tone. The show, as a whole, is one thing, but the first episode implies this darker more adult show. Once you get into the show, it’s fun, but the first episode tries way to hard to make it edgy.

I also think that the incompetence of other characters doesn’t work always. Yes, sometimes it makes sense, but often times characters are more blind than they should be. They play some of it off as plot, but a lot of it is just characters ignoring what is happening to further the plot when it doesn’t make as much sense.

What Works?

The situation is interesting that the main character, Naofumi, is brought into. It is different but the same as other Isekai. It’s the same that it’s another fantasy world, but unlike most, he is summoned into it. I feel like most of the time a character is just dropped into the world. Here, Naofumi is summoned by characters in the world. Rising of the Shield Hero is different from other Isekai because of that piece of the premise.

I also think that Naofumi’s character progression works. They lean into him being an edge lord too long at the beginning. But even with that, he progresses as a character more than many other protagonists. What he wants to start is very simple, but it grows as he finds out more about the world. If he just remains as an edge lord the whole time, it’d have felt like a waste and I would have stopped.

The world is also interesting as well. Mainly how it can explore some things because it is a fantasy world. I don’t think that Rising of the Shield Hero is a more mature anime in a lot of ways. But some of the topics it covers are most definitely more deep. It takes advantage of the fact it’s fantasy to touch on some historical issues without focusing on it. Whether intentional or not, it manages it quite well.

Who Is It For?

This falls into the category that I think is for fans of the genre. Rising of the Shield Hero is not going to work as an introductory isekai, in my opinion. You likely will feel like it is a bit much and the edge lord tendencies of Naofumi will be a turn off. The whole first episode might seem like a miss when starting.

But if you enjoy isekai, I think it’s one of those step up anime. It’s for the people who know a genre and then it tries to build upon that. This doesn’t mean better, it is just an anime that expects you to have previous knowledge on how a genre works.

Final Thoughts on Rising of the Shield Hero

I have mixed feelings about season one. Mainly, I think that it is very enjoyable in some ways. As the shield hero builds up his team, it’s fun. But then they try and pull heavy drama into it punctuated with dumb jokes. The combination of the two doesn’t land a lot of the time.

But when they allow it to be some fun battles, fun adventuring, or even more serious adventuring, it works. I even think the new plot hook, enemy, for the main character works. It is just that the first one, where Naofumi is an edge lord often, it doesn’t work for a main plot nearly as well. It’s more of a convoluted mess with childishness thrown in there.

That said, I do want to continue it and watch more. There are elements that definitely work. And finding good isekai is not always the easiest. So to find an enjoyable Isekai works juts fine for me. I would give Rising of the Shield Hero a solid B- grade. Good, not great, but one that I’d definitely come back for.

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Spoilers Start Now

So, at this point in time, Marvel has put out two shows on Disney+. The first being WandaVision and now we’ve gotten The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Both of these shows focus on Avengers characters, but not the main four or so that we’ve seen a lot of. The Hulk had a movie, though it was Edward Norton, Captain America had three, Thor, three, and Iron Man had three movies. Plus they all played larger parts in the Avengers movies. We’ve only gotten to see bits and pieces of characters like Wanda Maximoff, Vison, Sam Wilson and to a less extent Bucky Barnes. So Marvel has taken an opportunity to tell us more about them.

What is the Story?

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier follows the exploits of Sam and Bucky as they both try and deal with the reality that Captain America is gone (whatever that means). For Sam it is about how he can pick up the shield that Cap gave him. And Bucky it is about making amends for his time as the Winter Soldier and growing beyond that past. Now, there is more to the story, but when you get down to it, that is the most important part of the story and the real focus. Both Sam and Bucky need to move past the shadow of Captain America and stand on their own.

What About Villains?

There are of course villains along the way. Three groups that stand out. Firstly there is the GRC and John Walker. John Walker is basically whom the US government picks to take over as Captain America when Sam gives the shield away. Needless to say that doesn’t go well and there are run ins with him. There are the Flagsmashers who like how things were before everyone came back. And there is the mysterious power broker working in the background.

The Flagsmashers are really the main villains but they are not the most interesting villain. In fact, I think that John Walker as a rival is the most interesting villianish part of the series. John Walker isn’t even truly a villain though. He is more of an anti-hero. That is who he generally is in the comics as well. He’s the person who will take things too far or lose control versus truly wanting to be bad. And I give mad props to Wyatt Russell, he played that role perfectly.

But the Flagsmashers?

So, this is starting to get out there more. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier primarily filmed in 2019. You might remember that time as being before a pandemic. And part of what was filmed was there was a virus going around the GRC camps for the people who had come back from the blip. In the current version of the show, that was completely removed. There were minor hints, the Flagsmashers had stolen a vaccine, but beyond that pretty limited.

This removal and adjustment of everything didn’t do the series any favors. The Flagsmashers kind of lost their teeth. They didn’t have a reason for doing things, and the GRC came across as a bureaucratic organization is bad just because they are a bureaucratic organization. Trying to adjust on the fly for the show really caused the main villains to be more of a mess and the GRC to feel kind of tired in what they are.

Who Is Isaiah Bradley?

One of the main storylines for Sam and Sam picking up the shield and why it was hard to pick up. It wasn’t because of the Flagsmashers. It was Isaiah Bradley. I will say, this part of the show with Sam worked the best out of anything. Isaiah Bradley, the black Captain America basically. And how his story was so much different than that of Captain America. How when he did the same thing that Cap did, he got thrown into prison. How the government tried to cover up the experiments and how his life was broken because of what had happened.

It makes the weight of the shield that much more for Sam to pick up. But it also is then more hopeful when Sam does pick up the shield. Sam is a character who wants to change what has been done wrong and help those who have been wronged or are struggling. And he is able to do that with Isaiah Bradley in a very meaningful way for the character but also just in general in the show.

Other Odds and Ends

Zemo, why was he in this show? Besides just him dancing, the main reason he should be in everything, there is another reason. Zemo, most likely, is going to be in a group called the Thunderbolts. They might also get called the Dark Avengers. Basically a group of villains or anti-heroes often headed up by the likes of Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross. You might know what name from The Edward Norton film, The Incredible Hulk, and then again in Winter Soldier and Civil War. I am guessing that Val is helping Ross to set-up a Thunderbolts like team with US Agent, John Walker’s new hero name, Zemo, and some more characters who might be on the Raft with Zemo.

Then there is the Powerbroker. Right now we believe that the Powerbroker is Sharon Carter. I think in the end that will be true. I don’t think they are going to do a misdirect after the characters lay it out so well. But what was that. That part of the storyline was hot garbage. It was a mystery who the Powerbroker was, except it was somewhat obvious who they were setting up to be the Powerbroker. But it was then more of a mystery didn’t make sense for Sharon to be the Powerbroker.

Basically Sharon Carter went on the run in Civil War, no one has reached out to her, she is maybe dusted in the snap, and now six months later, she’s running an criminal organization in Madripoor, what? Most likely they are trying to set her up as a villain for the Armor Wars show, possibly being brainwashed and a deep sleeper of Hydra? But they did it so poorly in the story that no, just get rid of the Powerbroker from the show. Or make Sharon Carter a Skrull.

How Does This Compare to WandaVision?

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was what I expected it would be. It is more of a standard super hero fare. We saw more normal villains, there was less of a WTF is going on that happened with WandaVision, and more action throughout. However, because of the vaccine storyline being removed, and less of a clear vision on the show as a whole, I don’t think it is as good as WandaVision. I think there are some interesting parts to it, but for the most part, it is just average. The Sam Wilson/Isaiah Bradley stuff is amazing, John Walker is good. Bucky in general does a really good job. But the show lacked the tension and interest that WandaVision had.

So What’s Next?

Well, there are a number of interesting things that can come out of this. Like I said, I think Sharon Carter might be the main villain in the Armor Wars show. I hope that it turns out to be she was brainwashed by Hydra as a sleeper agent and just activated. But that’s one likely thing.

Then there is John Walker, US Agent, and Zemo, I think that both will end up being on a Thunderbolts team. I would like the Thunderbolts to get a Disney+ show, but they might be movie material. I could see that team being presented as a new Avengers type team and maybe cause the formation of the Young Avengers.

And we are getting a Captain America 4. That is going to be a movie with Sam Wilson Captain America taking the starring role. I am very interested in seeing what they’ll do with that movie.

Final Thoughts

This was not as good as show as WandaVision. And I am not sure it’s much watch Marvel content. Now, it is still really enjoyable, but if you are wanting to watch a show that matters for the movies, this one isn’t it. At the end of Endgame, everyone expects Sam to become Captain America, at the end of this Sam becomes Captain America. The main great thing you get from this is the Isaiah Bradley story and the introduction of his nephew Eli Bradley who is a Young Avenger. Otherwise, I don’t know what you’ll be missing too much. Now, if you are a Marvel fanatic like I am, there is a lot of good and a lot to be mined from the show. So if you love Marvel, watch it, if you go out of your way to see all the movies in theaters, watch it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, it just isn’t as good as WandaVision.

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In my opinion, the best starting point is to look and determine if your character is a “support” or “attacker” character. Now, It’s possible to be a blend of both, and even if you lean towards being a support character, you should have at least an attack spell option, and if you’re an attacker, you should have some more support style spells for non-combat situations. It’s very tempting to go all in on either side, but there will be times when you need the other spells.

For example, if you’re a support character and you’re in combat, you’re at the point where most of the party is down but the monster is mainly dead. If you take a good hit from the monster, you’re probably dead as well, and that would end the combat with you all losing the fight. You could get someone else back on their feet with a couple of hit points, but at this point in time, you’re more apt to survive an attack than they would be. Do you just do the support thing and heal someone, watch them get knocked out again, heal them again, and keep that up until you run out of spells? That doesn’t sound like that fun at the table, and it also doesn’t really sound like it’s going to win the combat for your adventuring party. So you can attack, but you didn’t take a good attack spell or any attack spells, so you’re kind of stuck just healing.

The big thing that’s happening in the scenario is that you’re creating a prolonged and possibly stalemated battle for a chunk of time. And while attacking might not be what your character would normally do, a good attack would potentially end that stalemate. But it’s going to cause people to have more fun at the table because it isn’t a cycle of revive, monster knocks out, revive, monster knocks out, and so on and so forth. Adding in attack spell doesn’t stop you from being mainly support, but it can keep the game moving and keep it more interesting. The same goes for the flip side, maybe you’re a fire wizard and you’re up against a dragon that is resistant to fire damage. First, your DM’s a bit of a jerk if it happens all the time, but now you’re out of combat, so what do you do? You can attack, but it won’t do as much, but if you had a support spell or two, you’d be able to still interact with the combat. Or, maybe you want to be the best in combat, why not have your signature attack spell(s) but then also have the ability to support yourself so that you can truly be the best in combat and not have to rely on others for that aid.

This is all good to think about when picking your spells, but not actually picking spells. Let’s go with a Wizard as an example like I did in a previous article on magic. Our Wizard is fairly smart, 16 intelligence, so we get start with 4 spells known and 3 cantrips at first level. We have 2 first level spell slots as well, and I want to be an attacking focused Wizard. I believe in calling down the powers of the elements to smite my enemies and I might like fire a bit too much.

When I’m looking at cantrips, I know for sure that I want to get at least one, if not two attacking cantrips out of the three. These, at low levels, are going to be my go to spells (and even at higher levels), so I want something that feels like a signature ability that I can theme my character off of, or that has fire, because I’m a pyro. So the first cantrip is going to be Fire Bolt, a good attack spell with really good range, 120 ft. That allows me, since I’m a wizard and am always going to have lower armor class and hit points, to be at a safe distance for attacking and not being attacked. The other attack one I’m going to take is Thunderclap, this one is a bit of a jerk spell, because it can hit my allies, but it’s an area of affect, so that is a nice way to hit a lot of creatures if need be. Finally, a utility cantrip of light, simple spell, even if I have darkvision, that doesn’t mean I can see in pitch black, so good utility for outside of combat. Now we’re onto the first level, and with four known spells at first level, I’m going to consider a couple more attack spells, but again, we’re a pretty quishy character, so I’m going to grab shield as a spell. That is going to help keep you up. Witch Bolt is a good ranged spell that does lightning damage. Longstrider is going to be my first enhancing spell for my abilities on the combat field with an extra 10 feet of movement. Magic Missile is then my final one, a spell that doesn’t do massive damage, but it will do consistent damage.

Let’s break down what I picked, I’ve already done some why. Thunderclap and Fire Bolt both give me consistent spells to attack with. Witch Bolt and Magic Missile give me damage when I need a boost of damage. Magic Missile is the consistent damage when I need to finish everything off. The damage ones are definitely the most obvious spells, the others are just fairly obvious, but what I’m trying to create with my attacking wizard is a situation where I can keep out of range, Longstrider, boost my armor class to avoid an attack as needed, Shield, and be able to see outside of combat or even in combat if I’m fighting something with truesight or blindsight. But with so few spell slots available to me, I’m not going to use the first level spells for attacks all that often, it’ll mainly be for shield and then I’ll use my cantrips for attacking. There is a downside for that because cantrips aren’t as good for attack spells, but with a fairly high intelligence, it helps out the odds.

And, I only picked 4 of my 7 spells as attack spells. But even with that, I have a variety of damage, thunder, fire, lightning, and force, so I can get around most damage reductions. And while Fire Bolt will be my signature, the others have good utility for combat. Thunderclap has an area of affect, Magic Missile will never miss, and Witch Bolt can hang around for a while and continue to do damage. When I get to hire levels, I already have picked some utility damage spells, so I can focus in on more fire damage because I know that is going to be my signature element, but I have enough that I can still be effective if fire isn’t.

And when picking utility spells, I looked, besides the cantrip, as to what can boost my effectiveness in combat. Sure, I might want to use magic missile a one of my first level spells, but Longstrider allows me to avoid, which, again, I’m squishy, cause I’m a Wizard, and Shield is there for the same reason. I can’t be an awesome fighter if I’m constantly getting knocked out. At higher levels I’ll be able to improve upon those options as well with spells like Blur which make me even harder to hit.

I can flip this as well, and while I’d probably still keep a spell like Fire Bolt and Magic Missile (it’s kind of a signature of Dungeons and Dragons for a spell), I’d focus more on what can help other people. Longstrider on a Dwarf would allow them to charge into combat faster. Though, a Wizard probably isn’t the best support class out there, they do have some decent options as you get into higher levels. A class like Cleric would give you more support options.

When picking spells do you pick a variety of them or do you really focus in on attack spells or support? Have you every made a mistake with the spells that you’ve picked? I guess, that’s the last bit to write about for me, the mistakes and what what can mean. In Season 2 of Dungeons and Flagons the wizard picked a lot of weird attack spells, but they are were all area of affect spells, so that meant with two melee characters rounding out the party, he was always, when attacking, going to do damage to them as well. So thinking through your spells is important.

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It’s been a while since I’ve seen a lot of these films, and Captain America: First Avenger has been quite a while as well. So how did it stack up against what I had remembered and where it was in my MCU Movie Rankings that I did after Endgame came out. Obviously, I need to rewatch everything again to see if anything else is going to shift around, but the quick summary is that I enjoyed watching Captain America: First Avenger again. I don’t think it’s without it’s flaws and compared to the origins of Iron Man and Thor, I think that it’s weaker. There will be spoilers, but this movie has been out for a long time.

I think that this movie starts off strong. I like the story of Steve Rogers and how he becomes Captain America. The whole time he’s applying for army, you feel for him, and you get a good idea of how loyal he is and how strong his convictions are. And then getting stuck encouraging people to buy bonds feels like something that would legitimately happen. I think the only part of the story to that point that feels a bit odd is the Hydra Agent blowing up everything, mainly I feel like that part of the opening of the movie was a bit rushed. Beyond that though, up through rescuing Bucky and the others is great. Unfortunately the movie starts to fall apart for me there.

What really makes it feel off is the montage sequence. If you don’t remember, it’s a sequence where Captain America and the Howling Commandos, that’s what the group run by Dum Dum Dugan is called, are just running around and punching Hydra Agents again and again. For a montage sequence to work well, you need to feel like the character is progressing towards a goal or learning something, and in this case, the montage doesn’t really provide that. You’re supposed to be getting the idea that they are cornering the Red Skull, but it doesn’t feel that way. It’s just punching some anonymous bad guys and cheering because Captain America is a hero who is beating up the bad guys. This could be a bit of nod to the fact that he punched an anonymous Hitler over and over again with the War Bond shows he was putting on, but it didn’t feel that way, it just felt like rah rah hero fighting without any purpose to it.

That’s where it starts to come apart for me, and then it continues with the actual getting to the Red Skull. Again too much punching of anonymous bad guys. Then getting captured and then getting rescued. I think the issue I have is less about that, but instead because you don’t feel like by the end of the montage that the Red Skull is much of a threat at all. I mean, we all knew that Captain America was going to win anyways, but they had done a decent job building Red Skull early in the movie, but at the end, you feel almost like he’s just another anonymous bad guy for Captain America to beat up.

Now, all of this seems like a lot of a knock on the movie. And I do think it makes it one of the weaker movies, but it’s easy to pick out what you don’t like in the film. I do want to go back and talk some things that I really want to point out how good they are. Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter works so well, and you feel like she has feelings for Steve Rogers, more so after he’s Captain America and not tiny and scrawny, but she clearly respected him and liked his attitude better than any of the other large guys who they were training, and she liked the fact that his personality didn’t change. Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones were also good in their roles. I wish we could have had more time with Tucci on the screen, but when he was on the screen he was great. It makes sense why his character died and it was needed. Finally, Howard Stark, played by Dominic Cooper is really enjoyable. You feel like the confidence that he exudes and his cockiness and you can see why Tony Stark would end up the way he did based off of Howard’s portrayal.

And I realize that I forgot one, Toby Jones as Dr. Arnim Zola, I don’t think I had realized how well he played his character. I wonder if they were planning that he’d infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. from the beginning or not, but if they did, he played that out well on screen and you can see some of his quirks that I hadn’t paid that much attention to before. In particular, I like how you can see into his mind with how he has no qualms about building weapons for people to kill people with, but he doesn’t want to see them used. His character feels like he’s, in some ways, as much in control as Red Skull is, which in some ways plays out in a future movie, but I’ll save that for that review. Toby Jones just does a great job of playing that brilliant and almost scared character.

Finally, I think that the CGI and special effects hold up well in this film. I was a little bit surprised considering how much they’ve advanced or seemed to advance in the past few years. But Captain America still looks good, and putting Chris Evans head on the scrawny body works. It didn’t feel uncanny and it didn’t look like it was poor CGI. I had thought that it might not hold up with the Red Skull or something like that, but I feel like, and this was obviously when Marvel was still ramping up, it did a good job for what had to have been a pretty small budget.

So, like I said, I don’t know that this movie is going to move up. As much as I remembered how well I liked the first half of the film, the second half falls apart some for me. And I think, like we’ll see with Thor soon, Chris Evans has to grow into the role of Captain America. I also wish, with the future films, they had done a call back to something that Dr. Erskine (Stanley Tucci’s character) had said, about how the super soldier serum doesn’t just make you bigger and stronger, but it makes you more of who you were before. And I think that’s something that they could have leaned into a whole lot more, especially with Captain America: Civil War. I also think that if we were to get this film now, the film would be stronger, because they know what they are doing better, but also because they wouldn’t be as worried about leaning into a 1940’s aesthetic and tropes, which I feel like they did once in a while, but generally felt a bit out of place when they did.

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In the Marvel comics, the Secret Invasion happens as super heroes are replaced slowly by the Skrull in a secret plan to take over the world. In Dungeons and Dragons, we have different monsters who can shape shift. These monsters are going to be the focal point of the story as they try and take over the world. This even includes some ancient dragons who might be leading the charge, if you want to go big at the end.

So, how do you make this work as a game?

For me, this campaign opens at some royal event that the players are at. I’d say start the players at third level, so that they have already been doing a little adventuring and might be a folk hero or something like that. I’d then go one of two ways, and maybe even both of the ways. But I’d have some sort of attack happen at this royal event, some sort of assassination attempt or something like that, and someone dies and is revealed as a shifter. Along with that, I’d have, in the panic, someone find a dead noble, who looks like they’ve been dead for a while, but someone the players will know was at the party.

Now, this could go one of several ways, but the the big focus of the adventuring party should be finding out who are the shifters and taking them out. It might turn into the players just killing everyone to see if they are a shifter. If that happens, throw the characters in prison, it’s pretty simple, to show that you can’t just kill a noble or someone because you think that they might be a shifter or a prove that they aren’t a shifter.

When and if that happens, I’d have the players be recruited by a secret organization within the kingdom. Some sort of SHIELD type agency, but that is way more hush hush than SHIELD actually is. The characters would have to sign something, most likely in blood with the characters knowing that just randomly murdering people will end up with them dying in their sleep.

From there, investigating would take place as the characters need to trace the money and figure out who might be a shifter as well. I think it should come out at some point in time that not even all the shifters know who the other shifters are, and that there might besome infighting or at least different factions in there. But I’d have it come out that there are a lot more shifters in the government than they might have guessed.

Now, the players might have the characters just start killing randomly again, but I’d do some sort of subtle reminder, have a contact in SHIELD come to them to see what they have, something like that, and I’d have some sort of arranged meetings with SHIELD so the players are used to it. SHIELD shouldn’t trust the players themselves, we’re going a bit Suicide Squad here (also was done to Venom) with the do what we want or you die.

Eventually, the players should have to fight there way through a bunch of shifters, following the money trail back up high enough to find that there are people in SHIELD who have been compromised and replaced and that someone who is a regular contact also has been taken out. While they’ve been tracking down information, that information has been going into the hands of a shifter who is trying to tie up loose ends after what happened with the noble at the beginning.

Just after this, I’d have the players find out information that shows where the shifters are keeping the people whom they have swapped with. Most of those people should still be alive including a surprise. This will be for you to judge as the DM, but if you think there is a player you can get on your side, reveal them as a shifter with them having been replaced some time in the adventure. Again, showing that the shifters aren’t the most organized. But this will require some buy-in from that player. So figure out who in your group might be up for that, and let them know when the swap takes place, but skills shouldn’t change, personality shouldn’t change much. Or do it as a surprise, to show how good the shifters are and give the player a chance to fight themselves.

Now the players should have a force from the camp of people who have been swapped out. Once they are freed, they can generally arm themselves, and I’d have some sort of confrontation. I’d probably do this as the ancient dragon who is pulling the strings, players should have figured this out by now, if they haven’t, a NPC from the camp can tell them, is walking up to the castle or wherever the noble lived to face off with him and tell him that there are now more shifters in his court than people and that the ancient dragon will now to be ruling. The players will have to take on the ancient dragon, while the other people who were freed are going to take out the copies of themselves.

That’s how I’d run a secret Invasion. I am not sure how you’d want to level this, and I feel like you’d need to flesh out some lower and mid level encounters to bring the players up to a level where they can fight an ancient dragon. I’d maybe even start them at level five so that they can get higher faster. This is also a game that is fairly light on combat, so I’d probably have some distraction missions that the shifters send the adventuring party on. Deal with some orcs, search for clues in some spot where they are going to have to fight.

What do you think of this idea? Does it sound like a game that you’d want to run or play in?

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Quick side not before we get into what we know, what we don’t know, and what I hope, Avengers: Endgame, just as good on a second viewing. Also, this post will have spoilers, and some wild guesses that may just end up being right.

Let’s start with what we know:

Movies:
Black Widow – Probably an origin story or at least origin into S.H.I.E.L.D. We got to see the end of her redemption arc in Avengers: Endgame, I suspect we’ll see the start in a Black Widow movie.

The Eternals

Doctor Strange 2 – Facing off against Baron Mordo would make a lot of sense to me for this movie.

Black Panther 2

Shang- Chi – I don’t know anything about this character. I think with Guardians of the Galaxy, before the movie was announced I had heard of them in passing, but haven’t ever heard of Shang-Chi.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 – Or Asgardians of the Galaxy Vol 1. I’m looking forward to this one with Thor on the team.

Shows:
The Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Wandavision
Loki – Alternative timeline where he’s stolen the Tessaract I’m assuming.
Hulk/She-Hulk
Hawkeye – Rumored at this point in time.

I mention the shows because, while Marvel hasn’t done much to tie in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. to the movies, there has been some the other way around, and I think that shows on the Disney+ streaming service are going to tie in a whole lot more.

Out of all of those, I’m really looking forward to Wandavision and Doctor Strange 2. You’ll also notice that I didn’t put in Spider-Man: Far From Home, that’s because it’s technically Phase 3. Not 100% sure how that is going to work, but it’s Spider-Man and I really like Tom Holland as Spider-Man, so I’m excited for it.

What about what we don’t know?

Who will be the New Avengers?
Probably the biggest question, Cap has retired, Tony has died (more on this later). We’re not going to get rid of the Avengers, but who are going to be on the team?

I’m cutting out Thor, even though he is an original Avenger, I think that he’ll be gone for at least an Avengers movie with The Asgardians of the Galaxy Vol 3.

I think we can also write out basically anyone who is having their own show on Disney+ streaming. That would remove Falcon/Captain America, Bucky, Wanda, Hulk, She-Hulk, and Hawkeye.

So who does that leave for a team?

I have:
Falcon – I did say basically anyone from the shows
Black Panther
Wasp
Captain Marvel
Spider-Man – Provisionally, when he has time between classes

And I think we’re going to get a mystery character or two added to the list by the time the next big arc is done. I say mystery character because I’m going to say that we get Wolverine added in at some point in time as we start to add in mutants to the world. I could also see Doctor Strange joining the team at some point in time, and Shuri will probably play a decently large role as well as that Tony Stark kind of character, just not in the fight as much.

You were saying something about Tony Stark?

If you don’t know what the noise was at the end of the credits of Avengers: Endgame, it was the sound of Tony Stark making armor.

There are a lot of rumors of what might be happening because of that, but let’s talk about some of the most popular ones or the ones that I’ve thought of.

First, Tony could come back as an AI. It might cheapen Tony’s death a little bit, but still he’s resting in some ways. I don’t love this one for the reason it does make his death feel less important.

Second one is like the first, there has been in the comics Tony as a hard light hologram. So Tony is back. I think this one is more likely as I think Robert Downey Jr. likes his role as Iron Man and might want to keep it for some more movies and appearances.

Finally, there’s the teenager at Tony’s funeral whom as a fan I didn’t recognize. That teenager is the little kid from Iron Man 3 who helps Tony. Personally, this is my favorite theory, that Tony built him an Iron Man suit and now he’s going to take over as Iron Man. This would be similar to Falcon being the new Captain America. But I like, if they go with this route, that they didn’t hand off both mantles in the same movie. Bring the new Iron Man on later, possibly even in Black Panther 2.

You Mentioned Wolverine, so are we going to get X-Men?

I think the answer to that will be yes, but not as fast as we’ll want. I think we’ll get an end credit scene or two with X-Men in them, teasing at what is to come, but I don’t know that we’ll really get a stand alone X-Men movie until after we have another Avengers movie. I think that will be the direct lead in.

And with that, I think that we also might start seeing them hinted at in the Wandavision show, depending on what they do with that. Though, Wandavision could be a “What if” style show. Marvel likes their “What if” comics. It could be Wanda trying to find a timeline where Vision is still alive.

Infinity Stone still in Vision?

Yeah, let’s talk about the Infinity Stones. Thanos destroyed the stones, right?

I’m not so sure about that. He says that he did, and I’m assuming that he believes he did, but I think it’s more likely that he dispersed the stones. As he said, their atoms are floating around, I believe that was it, or something close. The Infinity Stones are 100% not gone for good though. Not just because of comic book reasons where no one and nothing is every truly gone. But because of what the Ancient One says. Time and reality do not exist without the stones, the universe would have unraveled and been destroyed had Thanos actually destroyed the stones. So it’s certainly possible that we can get Vision back, which I’d completely be up for, because the stone returns.

What Hints might there have been in the movies thus far?

I think there are two pretty large hints that have been dropped. Who knows if they will happen, but I am pretty sure that we know who the next big bad guys are going to be.

The Skrull!

First, you don’t introduce a group of aliens that can shape shift into anyone and a massive bad guys in the comics without plans of using them later.

Next, it also gives an interesting bad guy for Captain Marvel. I’ve complained a fair amount about Captain Marvel being overpowered, and generally she’s been fairly mentally tough as well. I think, because the stone that powered her has been dispersed, see above, that they have an excuse to drop her power levels. But more so than that, it is going to be a villain that would mess with her head, because she saved them before, and now they are invading Earth.

Finally, Thor’s eyes. Wait, what does that even mean? There has been a lot of eye stuff about Thor. First, he loses and eye and has an eye patch, then he gets a new eye, then in Endgame, his mother comments on his eyes. Tie that together with, in Captain Marvel, when Monica Rambeau comments on how pretty the Skrull eyes are. Thor is 100% being swapped out with a Skrull at some time on his space travels. But, won’t it be obvious he doesn’t have mjolnir… oh yeah. Just as an aside, I think this is the reason why they are doing the Asgardians of the Galaxy movie, to get Thor to a spot where he can be swapped out.

This is a slow build to this as well, and why I think for sure we’ll see the X-Men brought in completely before this is done. We’re going to hit a point where there are enough people swapped out, whether we realize it or not, that we need the X-Men to balance the powers that be.

We also might have a hint of an A-Force movie. A-Force is the all female super hero team. While I would be okay with a movie, I actually think this idea would work better as a Disney+ streaming mini-series. I think there’s a good chance it will show up there if Disney+ does well, they just don’t want to announce it yet in case Disney+ bombs (it won’t).

Final hint is tremors in the ocean. Yes, there are things such as earthquakes, but I think this is Marvel saying, Namor is down there. I would not be shocked if we get a Namor movie announced sometime soon with that. Quakes in the ocean have been used in Namor stories before.

But who might some of the lesser bad guys be?

This is really tough. I feel like we’re getting Baron Mordo in Doctor Strange 2. That seems like something that was obviously setup. There are rumors that we’ll get Killmonger back in Black Panther 2, don’t ask me how. It’s comics, so it can work, I guess and Killmonger was the best part of Black Panther. I wonder if we’ll get Hand introduced in Shang-chi. Would make sense to introduce another organization, and it is possible that Hand is highly infiltrated by Skrull if that happens with less Avengers being swapped out.

But who else would make sense? Magneto, obviously, if they jump into X-Men. Doctor Doom would be a great option in my opinion. Possibly introduce him as someone who is an up and coming bad guy or someone who is off to the side in the world before the Fantastic Four are actually brought in. Personally, with the Fantastic Four, I’d prefer to set them in the 1950’s, seems to be the correct time frame for them for some reason, and we have their children who show up in modern times? But I doubt that will happen.

Anyways, I could go on making guesses and I’d eventually get some of them right. But these are some bits of speculation that I have, and some of what I consider the most interesting talking points.

What do you think about them? Are there any that you want to happen or any that you don’t want to happen? What are some that I missed or any ideas that you have that I didn’t come up with?

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