Resilience | ✔

Author's Note

Well hello, all!

"Why, Eliza?" you ask. "Why wouldn't you just stop the story at the end of Chapter Thirty-Three? Why would you write Marley into Infinity War and Endgame?"

Hubris, dear reader.

Okay, no, that's not it. Not entirely it. Do I think I could have written Endgame better? Absolutely. But that's a whole nother can of worms, and not why I rewrote it. I rewrote it because ever since seeing Endgame over a year ago, I couldn't stop thinking about how its events would affect Marley. I'm often surprised by what she does - she tends to write herself - but it doesn't take a genius, I think, to know that her father dying would break her. I couldn't just give her this life with Tony, this finally-okay life with Tony, and let the events of Endgame play out as they do in the canon. After everything I put her through, I couldn't do that to her. I wouldn't. So I sat down and did some thinking and got to work.

Did I have qualms about this? Of course. I have to admit I'm not a huge fan of fanfiction where authors put their own character into the events of a movie. I have nothing against it - simply isn't my cup of tea. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that. But I watched Endgame again a few days ago - Wednesday - to get a feeling for the events of the movie, so I could write Marley in, and holy shit, I cried like a baby when Tony died. I cried almost as hard as I did when I saw it in theaters for the first time (lol back when you could see things in theaters amiright). I was a wreck for the rest of the movie. And if I felt like that - yeah, Marley would break. And thus my pride-filled plan was solidified.

So there we have it. A sneak peek into my thought process. Do I think the writers of Endgame fucked up pretty much everyone's writing? Absolutely. Did I change it to what I thought should have happened? Again - absolutely. Add me to the ever-growing list of people who think the ending 20~ minutes of that movie should be burned in the driveway.

This is a very long author's note. I'm not done yet. The day I got home from seeing Endgame I wrote two scenes with Marley in them, both of them aligning with Endgame canon. They are very angsty. I kinda really like them, and I'm a little disappointed I didn't get to use them, but I think I've been sadistic enough. I did pull some elements of them into the last two chapters. Maybe I'll publish them someday just to watch everyone suffer - characters and readers.

Okay, now on to the sappy stuff. 

This is, that I can think of, the fourth chaptered, non-one-shot fanfiction I've ever finished. For perspective - I've been writing regularly for around nine years. It's also the longest fanfiction I've ever written, by far. 207 pages in Word and 101,485 words. 

I would be nowhere near that without my readers. 

You guys are absolutely amazing. Every time I see someone's added Resilience to a reading list, or voted on a chapter, it truly makes my day. I'm so happy you read my writing and enjoy it and find this a story worth following. Whether you are a new reader or one who's been with me from the beginning, thank you. Thank you for connecting with Marley, for commenting and voting and reading. For showing you are invested in her story. She is one of the few characters I've consistently (okay, consistently-ish) written, and she will stay near to my heart for the rest of my life. So will each and every single one of you. 

Thank you for encouraging me. Even if you haven't been asking me to update, you've still been holding me accountable, just by reading, and that has been my greatest motivation to keep writing, to continue updating. Oh my God, updating. Thank you so much for being patient with me and my lack of update schedule. If it makes you feel any better, I really did try to stay on top of things.

Special thanks to sixteenthes, Decisi0n, and iamsporty657. You all know why.

I published this story exactly two years ago, to this day (July 12). Consider this an anniversary or birthday present to you guys, this six-chapter update. Thank you for sticking by my side. I love you all, always.

~Eliza

P.S. I tried to officially tag but Wattpad wouldn't let me  : (