Injury Type: Water Burns

Sam Wilson is so slept on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom

I know, I know, Sam is just a retired soldier with a set of wings and guns that Steve only seems to fully rely on. He definitely would lose a fight to even someone like Natasha, who doesn’t have serum, viking magic and/or full body armor.

I had that argument with my male cousin about how useful Sam is in the MCU team lineup. That he appears more sidekick than the first African-American superhero, which he is. T'Challa is the first Black/African superhero and Sam Wilson is the first African-American superhero. But don’t get me wrong I love me some Bucky. However, Sam Wilson is the underdog of the MCU and its fandom and I have a really soft spot for the underdogs of any fandom.

I marvel at the fact he is willing to go toe to toe with any villians the Avengers face, despite him only having wings, Redwing and guns. Someone reminded me Sam had only a gun when he first faced off with Hydra before he strapped on his wings to drop kick the Winter Soldier. The fact that he could do all that when he was a retired citizen; his only real training regiment he had before joining the team was jogging around the Mall before dawn after his retirement and he was able to handle his own against Hydra and the like.

I also, dont care much for the double-standards. I mean Bucky could render Steve Roger’s into an invalid and Steve and the fandom would defend his actions. But if Sam drinks the rest of the milk and Bucky wanted cereal that day, the MCU fandom going to give my guy Sam all the smoke.

Lol, the fact that Sam was hated on so hard just for not pulling up his seat cause he still ain’t forgive Bucky for nearly killing him three damn times.

Bruh, if you tried to kill me and totaled both my car and wings and all I do is not give you some legroom, you should be happy. Especially when Bucky still had kill commands in his head.

Lol, people keep forgetting Sam left his perfectly good 9 to 5 job with benefits at the Veterans Affairs to chase Bucky ass all across the world to give Steve some peace of mind. Bucky crew also need to stop hating on Sam’s legit concerns and need to don the Captain Petty cape every once in a while. Cause even though Sam is petty. He never tries to handle Bucky with kid gloves. He gives Bucky the same energy and short of telling him no and shut up, has been nothing but nice to the guy. I bet soon their on screen dynamics will mirror the flirty love/hate friendship of the actors who play them Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.

I also marvel at the fact that Sam Wilson is the only Avenger in Infinity War pt. 1, who managed to mend the most bridges after Civil War broke up our lovable boy band. I know, I know, what about Bruce and Thor. They werent involved in Civil War and so didnt need to choose sides and sadly hurt feelings. So they dont count. Sam was in the thick of it though.

Think about it… He was one of the first Avengers that turned down signing the Accords. It was his decision, he didnt just blindly follow Cap like some happy go lucky sidekick everyone labels him as. Rhodey, Natasha and Vision got into a heated debate on the validity of signing the Accords with him.

But Sam never signed up to be at the call of some entity ; especially after Steve came running to him after the curruptness of SHEILD. Sam had a life before he decided to help Steve and if he had wanted to be a soldier he’d have join Nick Fury instead of volunteering to help Steve find Bucky.

Sam knew Steve needed him more and the fact that Steve felt at ease leaving his second best friend to search for his first should mean something. Steve could have relied on anyone to help him with Bucky or come to Peggy’s funeral and he choose to take Sam because guy is loyal and Steve’s ride or die. Sam was actually the only one to ask if Steve was happy and if he ever thought of being something other than Captain America.

Sam might not be the strongest, but he definitely the bridge/mediator among the group. Tony went to Sam in Civil War at the end not just cause he knew where Bucky and Steve were going cause they could have told the other team before the fight in the airport; it was also because Tony knew Sam would at least hear him out instead of throwing insults like Scott did when they were in lockup. Sam could have said no simply because, despite fighting through PTSD and trying to save Rhodey, Tony blasted Sam when he couldnt dave him. But he didnt because Sam was the bigger man and knew Tony was in his feelings.

If Sam had been hit by the blast that Tony issued to Vision to make Sam ‘a glider’ he would have died. If that blast crippled Rhodey and he had full-bodied armor than someone with goggles, wings and light armor would have died if he hadn’t air rolled out of the way.

But Sam tried to save Rhodey cause at the end of the day they are friends. He apologized to Tony because he knows first hand how it feels to try to rescue a friend and risk lose them because you just weren’t fast enough. It happened with Riley and he never begrudge Steve for getting his best friend back 'despite the years and brainwashing’ after a fall that should have killed him. He is not like that.

Sam and Rhodey gave one of the warmest greetings letting you know clearly there was no hard feelings and that they were friends.

Vision and Sam clearly bear no ill will towards each other despite being initally on opposing sides and Vision nearly killing Sam. Sam even volunteered to support an injured Vision and was part of the rescue mission to save Vision.

Sam was the one who recruited Scott Lang. One of the same people that fought and beat him in Ant-Man, he was humble enough to see his worth and recruit him.

Bucky who have fought each other on sight because Bucky keep breaking Sam’s shit and trying to kill him, are even cool. By Infinity War, despite the frosty glare when Steve greets Bucky, Bucky and Sam have been in sync and have fought along side each other in both Civil War and Infinity Wars

Despite all the mistakes Sam and his friends have made since Civil War, Sam is the most, warm-hearted, forgiving, genuine guy on the team. He is someone who will stay loyal to you, but will voice his opinion when need be. Sam is still good with all the members of Team Captain America and not only is he still good with them, he is clearly friends with a lot of Team Iron Man in Infinity War when it is clear some can’t let bygones be bygones even with a threat like Thanos afoot.

So stop sleeping on my guy Sam Wilson. 'Cause everyone on the Avengers team serves a purpose and who wouldn’t want a ride or die in their pocket?

Writing great friendships

Some of the best chemistry/relationships in fiction exist between characters who are/become friends. Here are some tips for making friendships come alive on the page:

1. Banter

One of the most interesting aspects of fictional friendships is the way the characters interact with each other whilst important plot points are occurring.

If your characters have easy banter, teasing one another without missing a beat and managing to bounce off each other even in the toughest circumstances, it will be clear to the reader that these two are/should be good friends.

Friends know each other well. They know the other’s character so well that they can easily find something to tease each other over. However, this also means knowing which topics are off-limits.

If you want to write a good, healthy friendship, your characters shouldn’t use humour/sarcasm as a way to hurt the other. It should be good-natured and understood as such from both sides.

Different friendships will have different types of chemistry. Some friends may tease each other with facial expressions. Others may already anticipate a snarky remark and counter it before it’s been spoken. Others will have physical ways of goofing around. 

Some friends might not tease each other at all. Banter isn’t necessary; it’s just a good way to make your characters come alive and make their friendship one that is loved by readers.

What’s important is chemistry - the way they automatically react to each other.

Think Sam and Dean in Supernatural or Juliette and Kenji in the Shatter Me series.

2. Mutual support 

Unless you purposefully want to write an unhealthy/toxic friendship, your characters should both be supportive of the other. 

This means that, even if one is the MC and the other the side-kick, both should be cognisant of the other’s feelings and problems, and should be considerate in this regard.

Few things will make your MC as likable as remembering to check in and be there for their best friend even when they are in the thick of a crisis.

You need to show your characters being vulnerable in front of each other and being supportive in ways that are tailored to the needs of each friend.

So, if one of the characters really responds to physical comfort, the other should know to give hugs/rub their back when they’re not feeling well. Similarly, if one of them doesn’t like being touched and responds to material comfort, have the other bring them ice cream and join them for a movie marathon. Whatever works for your characters.

What gets me every time is when a character is falling apart and won’t listen to/be consoled by anyone but their best friend (but this is just personal preference).

3. Knowing the other’s past/family life

This really only applies to characters who have been friends for quite a while.

Good friends know each other’s backstory - the highs and lows and mundane details. They know they layout of their family home and they probably know their family members well.

Friends will often talk about these things, only having to mention a few words for the other to know what they’re talking about i.e. “The ‘09 Thanksgiving disaster” or “You know how Uncle Fred is”

This will instantly make it clear that your characters are close and have come a long way together. 

Perhaps there are issues at home/trauma from the past that the other character will immediately understand. So, if one character appears with a black eye, their friend might know that the father was probably drunk the night before and got violent. Or if the character has a nightmare, the friend might know that it was about childhood abuse etc.

This can also apply to good things i.e. if one of the characters gets a nice note in their lunchbox, the other might know that their grandma is in town.

Whatever works for your story should be used to indicate the level of unspoken understanding the friends have.

4. Being protective

Few things will make your readers love a friendship more than the friends being fiercely protective of each other (in a healthy, non-territorial way).

Has someone hurt one of the characters? The other should be furious and want to exact revenge. Does someone say something demeaning to one of the friends? The other should defend them immediately and vehemently.

This can also take on a humorous twist if one of the characters starts dating someone. The friend can make extra sure that said date is sincere and promise to exact vengeance if their friend is hurt.

This can also be a great plot device, since it could explain why the MC’s best friend joins the quest/goes along on the journey. Perhaps this is the main plot point: a character seeking to protect/avenge their friend.

If you want to go in a toxic direction, this can be taken too far i.e. a friend who never lets the other spend time with anyone else/stalks the other/is patronising etc.

5.  Common interest(s)

Even if the two characters are vastly different, there should be something that keeps them together besides loyalty.

This is especially important for characters who become friends throughout the course of the novel.

This doesn’t have to mean that both of them go hiking every weekend or want to become pilots one day. It could be something small, like a love of cheesy movies or a shared taste in music. Maybe they both enjoy silence/don’t like other people. Maybe they are both social justice warriors, but for different causes. 

This could also be common characteristics instead of interests. Perhaps both are very ambitious/funny/social.

There should just be some factor that ignited the friendship and brings the two of them together.

This doesn’t necessarily have to be a big part of your story, but you should at least have it mentioned to make the friendship appear more authentic.

Reblog if you found these tips useful. Comment if you would like a Part 2. Follow me for similar content.

For any people who could become pregnant in Georgia, know that the awful six-week abortion ban is NOT in effect yet. A lot of news outlets are failing to report this so I thought I would help spread the word. Don’t panic if you’re pregnant or might be pregnant and want an abortion. The ban won’t go into effect until January 1, 2020. And that’s only if it survives legal challenges.

However, with the courts and SCOTUS as they are now, it actually might survive. Get an IUD when you can, if you can. For others, if you were wanting a vasectomy, get that done soon.

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all the tips I found for drawing a fantasy map are like :) “here’s a strategy to draw the land masses! here’s how to plot islands!” :) and that’s wonderful and I love them all but ??? how? do y'all decide where to put cities/mountains/forests/towns I have my map and my land but I’m throwing darts to decide where the Main Citadel where the Action Takes Place is

every tumblr user: despite the fact that no one views or cares about my blog, i will continue to spend the majority of my life updating it

A long time ago an anon asked my thoughts about drawing backgrounds, so I finally got around to putting this together. It’s more prop-centric, but it still represents my philosophy to backgrounds. 

I’ll try to do something more about drawing actual background spaces in the future! Please let me know what you think, if anything is unclear, or if you have suggestions for other tutorials you might find helpful!

Please reblog if you think it's wrong for a 50 year old man to check out a 14 year old

My stepfather thinks it’s okay to sexualize girls my sister’s age and I’m trying to prove a point because he doesn’t seem to think that’s wrong

I’m not an expert but I like hands a lot so hopefully some of this was helpful!

Things to bring back in books:

Chapter titles

Actually having a synopsis on the back instead of reviews no one will read