Lost track of this for a while, around Chapter 16, but finally found it again and finished it! What an epic ending!
I love that while the story gets a happy ending, the characters don't suddenly have all their problems and issues solved. Pietro's still a jerk (but I love him like that), Tony and Clint are still hovering somewhere halfway between PTSD and Stockholm Syndrome, and the Argonians are still stiff-necked. Isimud and Kammani are sweet, though, and it's very cool how they interpret what they see of humans. It makes them feel very realistic. In fact, they're one of the best-designed, best-written alien races I've ever seen in sci-fi.
<3<3<3 to Hank! He's clueless, unthinkingly elitist, unthinkingly selfless, self-effacing and an effortlessly good man. I'm glad he got a moment to be badass.
Steve's showdown with the Imperator was awesome, but I can feel his frustration over the futility of it all. Part of me is disappointed that we didn't get an almighty battle once the shield went down...but then it's really for the best that the Helicarrier didn't get to rain hellfire on NYC.
Really it's a good thing for the Argonians that it all worked out the way it did. Between the Helicarrier, whatever Reed was undoubtedly up to in the Baxter Building, people like Dr. Strange presumably figuring that your standard alien invasion doesn't yet require their intervention, and....OMG, the poor unsuspecting Argonians cutting a deal with Doom, things were shaping up to be awfully grim for them in the long run.
And finally, of course, Tony. Poor self-sacrificing, hurtable Tony. No surprise they couldn't break him. He's never been afraid of death or pain (only failure), and he's not joking about how this compares to what he's survived. That man's been tortured nearly as much as Wolverine. (Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing for him that he's lost Extremis. A Tony Stark that can regenerate is just asking for all manner of BDSM scenarios.)
Anyway, thank you very much for seeing this monster of a fic through to the end! It's one of the best things I've read in a very long time.
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I love that while the story gets a happy ending, the characters don't suddenly have all their problems and issues solved. Pietro's still a jerk (but I love him like that), Tony and Clint are still hovering somewhere halfway between PTSD and Stockholm Syndrome, and the Argonians are still stiff-necked. Isimud and Kammani are sweet, though, and it's very cool how they interpret what they see of humans. It makes them feel very realistic. In fact, they're one of the best-designed, best-written alien races I've ever seen in sci-fi.
<3<3<3 to Hank! He's clueless, unthinkingly elitist, unthinkingly selfless, self-effacing and an effortlessly good man. I'm glad he got a moment to be badass.
Steve's showdown with the Imperator was awesome, but I can feel his frustration over the futility of it all. Part of me is disappointed that we didn't get an almighty battle once the shield went down...but then it's really for the best that the Helicarrier didn't get to rain hellfire on NYC.
Really it's a good thing for the Argonians that it all worked out the way it did. Between the Helicarrier, whatever Reed was undoubtedly up to in the Baxter Building, people like Dr. Strange presumably figuring that your standard alien invasion doesn't yet require their intervention, and....OMG, the poor unsuspecting Argonians cutting a deal with Doom, things were shaping up to be awfully grim for them in the long run.
And finally, of course, Tony. Poor self-sacrificing, hurtable Tony. No surprise they couldn't break him. He's never been afraid of death or pain (only failure), and he's not joking about how this compares to what he's survived. That man's been tortured nearly as much as Wolverine. (Come to think of it, it's probably a good thing for him that he's lost Extremis. A Tony Stark that can regenerate is just asking for all manner of BDSM scenarios.)
Anyway, thank you very much for seeing this monster of a fic through to the end! It's one of the best things I've read in a very long time.