#askstrange

1. So right near the beginning of the story, someone asked Dr. Strange for any spoilers we could get about how things would eventually end up. And the one I almost shared and didn’t was that I knew almost the entire time I was writing this verse that the last word (not counting the post-credits scene!) would be ‘dust.’ I didn’t share that then because, well, I didn’t want to scare the pants off folks who might assume we would get some kind of Infinity War redux. But I really loved the idea of ending on the image of Tony conceptualizing his marriage and his collaring and all of the positive and hopeful things about his future through a kind of re-materializing. The guy is, after all, a builder.

2. I also made a kind of throw-away comment in the notes that I should probably clarify regarding weddings. I’ve read a lot of great fics featuring weddings  (@deehellcat​ has one that is absolutely brilliant), but it’s never something I imagined writing, in some ways for very personal reasons. My long-term partner and I have never gotten married, and have no real desire to change that. It’s just not a personal milestone/marker that I ever really connected with.

But when I first sat down and considered the ending of this story many moons ago, I kept coming back to the classical distinction between tragic (everyone dies) versus comedic (ends in a marriage) literature. Part of the case superhero movies seem to be trying to make for their seriousness or respectability these days often seems to be by aligning themselves with the tropes and archetypes associated with tragedy. And I don’t have anything against this per se. Personally, though, I came to love the superhero genre because these characters fundamentally embodied hope for me.

So I loved the idea of a Tony that assumed almost the entire time that he was doomed to be a tragic archetype of a hero coming to realize that actually, he might just have a shot at the other option, at ending on hope and love and belonging.

3. I have a huge, huge love for people getting to retire from professions they normally expect to die doing. Retired James Bond? Superheroes? Gimme all of ‘em.

And now, some notes on future stuff in this verse and beyond (there’ll be some repetition here with the notes on the actual chapter, so feel free to skip if you’d like.)

4. Ask Strange will still be open for a few more weeks, so feel free to send in any last prompts/questions. I’ll also be catching up on some of the ones that I currently have outstanding!

5. The Peter-centric side adventure should start in about a month.

6. I...I think I might do Marvel Trumps Hate this year? I’m kinda terrified, and definitely would be in the company of people waaaaay better at this than I am, but why not try, right?