15 May 2015 @ 12:22 pm
ATTF: Headcanons  
Greetings, Lovelies!

I’m glad I was stalking the community today because I completely forgot I offered to take over ATTF. Which would have been a bad thing because I’m 95% sure [livejournal.com profile] enigma731 is actually training attack birds. I don’t know how long it would take them to fly north and come after me, but I don’t want to risk it, SO.

Today’s discussion: headcanons! \o/

Now, headcanons are great things. For those of you who haven’t come across this amazing term, headcanons are the things we privately and not-so-privately muse about our characters until it’s either confirmed or denied by canon. Ways to fill in the gaps, as you do. I’ve been making them up for every movie character I find interesting for years (and books and TV, too!). They can be huge, life-altering events, or they can simply be how the character prefers their coffee (Clint: black; Natasha: enough sugar to make an elephant dance).

The great thing about headcanons is that canon sometimes comes along and confirms these and it’s a great feeling. The worst thing about headcanons is that sometimes canon comes along and stomps them into iiiiiiiitty bitty little pieces and you’re left with a broken heart and a broken headcanon. Each installment lives on that knife’s edge of thrill and terror.

Recently, we got a huge installment in our canon—aka one of our characters actually showed up on screen for the first time in three years and he got backstory. So I want to check in with everybody about how your headcanons came through.

Today’s discussion points:

  • What were your headcanons prior to Age of Ultron? How’d they fare? How do you feel about that?

  • Did Age of Ultron give you new headcanons?

  • What, in your opinion, is the best headcanon you’ve seen somebody else post? Did you decide to adopt it?

  • What do you feel are the most common headcanons about Clint and Natasha?

  • And—please keep this positive, please!—but which headcanons don’t you agree with?


And as always, here are your ATTF guidelines:
Things to remember:
1) Always label NSFW (Not Safe For Work) stuff in the title and post under a cut.
2) Fic and artwork needs to have a rating and warnings (or you can say that you’ve chosen not to use warnings).
3) For people with annoying internet connections, say in the title if a comment is graphic/images/gif-heavy and post picspams under a cut.
4) Have a damn good time! (Because if that’s not happening then this post has clearly failed.)
5) There are going to be Age of Ultron spoilers in this post, so if you haven’t seen it yet, probably best to skip it unless you don’t mind getting spoiled!
 
 
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[identity profile] cybermathwitch.livejournal.com on May 16th, 2015 03:40 am (UTC)
Now, here are the key things to point out about this situation. First, TWS makes some compelling (not necessarily right or accurate, but compelling) points about the Red Room being the best place for someone like Rudmilla, that they'll have the best chance of directing her impulses and giving her a life, versus a life spent in institutions or prisons otherwise. Second, there may or may not be some residual triggers and/or conditioning going on in Natasha's head in regards to listening to him. Third, they're in a position where TWS really could - and would - kill Clint before she could stop him. She's already - literally - got Clint's blood on her hands right then and she remembers what it was like thinking he was going to die in Bulgaria.

So she lets him take the girl.

Now, all Clint knows or sees of this, having just gotten to the party (as it were) is that Natasha trades this kid for their lives. And he is infuriated by it. Natasha sort of tries to explain what's going on, and that the girl isn't just an innocent child, but he's not really listening, and she's too angry to push it. And so they go back and let it sit.

It's the first real fight they've ever had. Natasha is turning a lot of her anger about what's happening inward, because she hates herself for that moment of weakness (she sees it that way) and what she did, and maybe a little bit for letting herself get to where she cares enough about someone else (Clint) that she's got a weak spot. And the overwhelming feeling of being back in the Room even for an instant, she's furious about that. And Clint is mad because there was a child involved and also because he can't help but wonder if he actually knows what he thought he did about the type of person Natasha is and if he made the right decision when he brought her in, and he'd always thought that he was the person who could see through her covers, and who knew her inside and out (and he is, and he does) but he can't help but worry that maybe he really doesn't and that she's been playing him this whole time, too, that she's really that good of an actress and spy (she is, of course, but not with him).

They still work together, and get the job done, and in the process they're driving Coulson absolutely insane because there's so much tension he feels like he's about to break, let alone them. And it's not the fun kind of "will they or won't they" tension that legendary SHIELD betting pools are born from, no, this is the kind that he knows from past experience will lead to someone making a potentially fatal mistake on an op someday. He's not going to let that happen to his best team, dammit.

So he hands them packs and shoves them onto a transport and dumps them out in the middle of the Mexican jungle and basically leaves them there on trumped up stake-out duty until they either work it out or kill one another. He's really not sure which is more likely when he drops them off.

It takes them a solid month before they start talking again.

He leaves them there another three weeks just to be on the safe side.

(The end(ish) of the Mexican op is here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/498628/chapters/988531).)
[identity profile] happilydancing.livejournal.com on May 23rd, 2015 09:06 pm (UTC)
Meaning to respond to this!!! This is amazing!!! I am entralled. I can't wait to read the entire fic.

The psychology of Natasha during their first fight is insanely fascinating to me.
[identity profile] cybermathwitch.livejournal.com on June 29th, 2015 03:14 am (UTC)
Thank you!