Thoughts and Ideas

Do you think that, when he went back in time to be with Peggy, Steve Rogers ever got annoyed with people and like pre-spoiled different media for them?

Like someone would tick him off and he'd just go:

"Darth Vader is Luke's father."

First of all, I would like to say that Rise of the Guardians is an amazing movie that I regularly rewatch whenever the urge strikes me. After one such rewatch, a thought occurred to me.

Why did the Boogeyman target the Sandman first?

It could've been that he thought it was easiest to corrupt the sand and turn it into nightmares. Maybe it was because, out of the two Guardians that don't have singular days that represent them, he felt it would be better to stay under the radar by not targeting the one that relies on actual sentient beings- the tooth fairies- to operate. Any missing fairies would've probably been reported and therefore alerted the Guardians to their presence. However, I think that there's also another reason why Sandy had to go first. It's because he's the key to keeping the Guardians alive.

Sure, he keeps all of the kids asleep while they do their thing every night. He makes sure that none of them are disturbed while fairies flit around their heads to take teeth from their pillows. He makes sure that Santa and his helpers aren't caught as they sneak into houses across the planet to deliver presents. He makes sure that nobody notices when brightly decorated Easter Eggs literally walk into people's houses and yards for the good little boys and girls to find. Still, there is one component to all of this that he is solely responsible for. Something that none of the other Guardians have much of a role to play in.

The Sandman affects the adults.

Now, I am acting under the belief that, like with most movies, the parents do not believe in all of the fairy tales that they tell their kids. Except for the few people that might've witnessed the Guardians firsthand, all of them have "grown out" of waiting for Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. How then do they explain all of the things that happen at night that are caused by the Guardians?

Easy. Their dreams.

While the parents sleep, Sandman makes them dream. Both of them dream that one of them sneaks into the child's room at night to place a coin under their pillow. They just happen to misplace the tooth sometime in the coming weeks, but that isn't a big deal.

They dream that they sneak downstairs to hide colorfully decorated eggs all over the yard.

They dream that they sneak out all of the presents from their hiding spots on Christmas night, taking bites from cookies and drinking the milk left out. If there are a few more presents than they had initially counted, that's just them being forgetful. And a couple of tufts of yeti fur go unnoticed amongst the large collection of wrapping paper and ribbons.

Sandman gives the adults dreams that allow them their own comfort in their disbelief. Dreams so realistic that grown adults just believe they're real. Something that, if it wasn't there, would cause even greater panic than just simply having a couple of bad dreams.

Sandman doesn't just protect the kids' dreams. He protects the adults' as well.

Sandman is the first line of defense for protecting the humans. The vanguard of the Guardians and the one that the very personification of fear and evil fears the most.

Okay, so, stay with me on this. It’s something that I thought of after rewatching a particular movie a little while ago.

After the Snap, Rhodey decides to retire from the military and the Avengers, just like his best friend. He doesn’t necessarily cut off all contact with them, they still talk a decent amount, but he also isn’t the most active in his communication with anyone except Tony and Pepper. Still, now that he’s out of the military and heroism, he wants to find some way to help others. However, it’s when he hears that Pepper is pregnant with her and Tony’s kid that he finally realizes what he wants to do.

When the Snap occurred, so many children were displaced and became orphans. Rhodey applies to become a social worker, going through the approval process and eventually being able to help those children find places to stay. It’s not always the best conditions, but he does try his best.

Through his job, he meets a nice woman, a teacher. She doesn’t recognize him at first. He was a decorated military leader and a regular sight when it comes to the Avengers, but he was usually only ever seen in his suit, which kind of has a big metal helmet covering his face. Still, they hit it off, and she gains an interest in him as a person before she recognizes him from his past exploits. They date and then he eventually marries her. It was a small thing, not crowded. Her family was a little shocked when they saw Tony Stark standing as their new son-in-law’s best man.

They both move on with their lives together. Helping kids in the best way they know how. That is until something interesting happens.

He’s assigned to this pair of kids. Siblings. An older teenage girl with a troublemaking and headstrong attitude a mile long; and young boy who’s intelligence, inventiveness, and natural engineering abilities get help his sister with their antics. Their parents died after the Snap, two of the many casualties that occurred from the aftermath of the disappearance of half of all life on Earth.

Something about the two kind of pulled Rhodes in. He thinks it might be the fact that they remind him of a certain troublemaking genius that he had to deal with college and most of his adult life. They just happened to be split into two people this time.

They’d moved through a couple of homes before he found one that was willing. They weren’t the most caring, but Rhodey knows for a fact that the couple that he put them with weren’t abusive.

Despite this, the kids were regularly at the police station for various different misdemeanors. The officers have long since gotten used to the sight of Rhodey coming into the station to pick up the occasional troublemaker, and the man himself continues to cover for these two kids, allowing them to stay in their current foster home without their foster parents knowing.

Then, he finally finds it. A perfect home for them to live in. They’re willing to accept older kids and seem like the kindest people, from the reviews coming from the other social workers and some of their former charges. However, despite the multiple cases of the kids expressing their wish to leave their current housing situation, they actually say no when he brings this up to them. A few days later, Rhodey figures out why.

The two children had become a major part of a large animal hoarding scandal. Countless stray dogs were found in a multistory, abandoned building. Animal control took control and the police placed them under arrest for a time. They were released, but their foster parents’ refused to take them back. They kids had apparently been stealing different items in order to use in their exploits.

Rhodey, with the other family he had lined up now no longer an option, had no choice but to send the two kids to two seperate gender specific orphanages. Ones that have been overcrowded and underfunded since the Snap.

It’s not a few days later that he gets this feeling. That he wants to know a bit more about just what those kids were up to. With what is probably more than a bit of influence from hanging out with Tony Stark, he completely ignores the police tape at the building and heads inside. There, he finds out just how much work was put into this place. Just how much love and care was put into providing for the needs of the dogs that the kids brought there.

Just as suddenly, a rush of paws is heard as the dogs all run back into the building, despite supposedly being at the pound just hours before. In the entrance of the building; police, animal control, press, and citizens crowd as they follow the dogs in. He sees his wife in the crowd, as well as he two kids that he’d come to care so much about. Using the calm confidence he’s come to possess from working in the military, as a superhero, and as a social worker, he calms the crowd and manages to show them the love, compassion, and care that these kids gave each and every dog they found.

As the press and public rush inside to see the place itself, Rhodey goes to his wife. He’s about to open his mouth, but she already knows what he’s going to say. She agrees completely, but James knows there are still a few things that have to be done, and quickly.

He calls his best friend, Tony Stark, and asks for the man’s help. Tony immediately accepts without even hearing what he’s helping with, but when Rhodey explains the situation to him, the billionaire is even more enthusiastic. He claims that it’ll just be an extension on the wedding gift that he gave Rhodey. The house was a little on the cheap side for the rich business owner’s taste anyways.

So, with that funding, James and his two newly adopted children buy and refurbish the building. They make it a haven for strays and a place where people can bring their own dogs in order to be given a fine and luxurious stay.

We all talk about how the emergency services, like the police and fire departments, help the heroes with various villains. That's great, I really enjoy seeing them taking an active role in fighting against supervillains because they can help out once they get used to dealing with the more science fiction sides of their occupations.

However, what I am picturing is what happens when the citizens themselves just get tired of all of the rampant destruction some of these villains create.

In most of the neighborhoods and communities I've live in over the years, we've had something called the "neighborhood watch". It's supposed to be an organization of various members of the community that help keep crime and various other violations down in the area.

Some of the places I've been had people who just used it as an excuse to nitpick at things they didn't like about people or houses around them; but others actually did help with the health, safety, and general wellness of the community. Most of them were just a few of the more permanently housed members meeting up every few weeks to discuss things that might help the neighborhood or anything potentially dangerous they might have seen in the area. Others, though, were a lot more organized. They would have group chats and different roles. They'd discuss emergency plans in case of fire and blizzards. They'd talk with their neighbors about different things they struggled with and ways to assist. Some of them didn't even call it a neighborhood watch, it was just a good community effort to help others.

I'm not sure if New York or any of the big cities in Marvel would have things like that, although they might have something similar.

I just see the civilians in those cities hearing a crash around the block and thinking "Oh, it's Tuesday, must be Doctor Doom and the Fantastic Four." They help any new residents or tourists get somewhere safe and that's that. Then, they get together with a few of their friends and start coming up with evacuation plans and teaching ways to reinforce various places to minimize housing damage in the inevitable fallout. Eventually, they start supporting the heroes after the fight with first aid kits for injuries or tool boxes for broken tech.

Soon after that, someone sees one of the heroes break open a fire hydrant to douse an electric or fire villain in water and they start thinking. There are a lot of villains with glaring weaknesses. He gets a large pipe wrench from the hardware store and a fire hose from his friend at the station. Then, he starts talking with the other members of the watch.