mcumeta

[mcumeta]

My word, it’s been a while since I updated, hasn’t it? But here - have some vaguely meta-ish thoughts :)

I keep coming back to the thought that Gamora’s line “This isn’t love” in Infinity War is important in a film about multiple people being made to decide to sacrifice themselves/the people they love.

I’ve only seen it once, so my memory might be shoogly, but it’s everywhere and I can’t help lingering on it. The fact that Gamora asked Peter to kill her to save her from Thanos was only part of it. The fact that he - belatedly - tried to fulfil her wishes was an act of love.

Likewise with Vision and Wanda. Wanda and Peter both tried to find the loophole that would save them from the worst action they could see themselves taking. In the end, when there are no choices left and the world is burning, they both do what their loved ones want and it devastates them.

Then look at what Thanos does: he’s asked to sacrifice the person he loves. He doesn’t look for a loophole or say no or even hesitate. The minute he turns around, he’s willing to murder the child he professes to love. Love is fighting every step of the way to protect the person you love even at the risk of losing everything - Peter Q, Wanda, Steve, Tony, Peter P etc. Love is not going T_T and then bouncing them off a cliff.

I’m curious whether this will come back to bite Thanos in the bum because to claim that particular stone, you had to sacrifice the one you loved. The fact that the choice between killing someone you love and the struggle of trying to prevent it was such a focal point, I really don’t think it was accidental.

So here’s my thinking: Wanda actually did it. Vision died and she did it and I can’t help wondering if that’s going to be important when it comes to the gauntlet getting broken up again. After all, if someone’s going to hold onto the stone, she’s got the power and the capacity to do so and has paid the price it demands.

Of course, there’s every chance I’m anticipating more thought-out parallels than I have any right to, but hey :) It’s what I do.

[mcumeta]

This isn't a specific theme but how about something to do with Civil War, how Steve's choices could only be made because him and his crew had superpowers/ had skills. I'm comparison to Tony who made the real world choice and it seems the movie narrative punished him for it.

Sorry it’s taken a while for me to get back to you on this one.

The power element is a tricky one, because without Steve having any of these powers, none of these problems would have occurred. Causality and all that. If Steve didn’t have powers, he and Bucky would both be long dead.It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario. 

I don’t think the choices he makes could only be made because he has powers/skills. It’s because he has the powers and skills that the conflict happens. Before Bucky even shows up, there is conflict because of the Accords and even if it wasn’t really handled that well as the running thread of conflict (supplemented by “robot-armed assassin who kills peoples’ parents”), that’s what I want to look at because it’s the heart of everything in this film.

I’ve made an argument before that the difference between Tony’s powers and Steve or Wanda’s is that Tony has the ability to take them off. He can remove his suit and step back from everything. He can put down the thing that makes him a weapon - a nuclear deterrent as he called himself back in Iron Man 2. He can lock them up, put them away, and be a normal human being.

Steve and Wanda don’t have that luxury. They have these powers but they can’t just toss them in the basement. Steve will always be the powerful super-soldier. Wanda is infused with these powers and as Steve said “she’s just a kid” but the whole world sees her as this living weapon and no matter what she does, she can’t stop being that weapon.

Tony is making the pragmatic choice as a weapons designer and creator. He is seeing the repercussions of his actions and his creations. It’s the sensible choice and for him, it is certainly the right one. He knows he needs to have limits put on him and that’s fine for him. The trouble is that the accords is that they treat people like weapons. Ross describes Thor and Banner as “a couple of 30 megaton nukes…” and Tony describes Wanda as a “weapon of mass destruction”.

For Steve and Wanda, the accords mean that they will be treated as a commodity rather than a person, and worse than that, they’ll be weapons who have no say in who/what/where they are allocated: “we surrender our right to choose”. There could be conflicts they could help in, but if they tried, they would be considered criminals. They outright say that if the non-normals don’t comply, “they will come for me”.

There’s no right position here. The military were correct to suggest that the Avengers needed oversight, but then they treated some of the Avengers as tools and objects to be shelved until needed instead of people who have no choice about the powers they have. They were telling a man who repeatedly defied orders and went behind enemy lines and risked a medical super trial all so he could save as many people as he could that he might be prevented from saving people. They were telling a young woman that she was too dangerous to be given her freedom.

I do want to feel bad for Tony for everything that happened to him, but his weapons and his choices are his own. Wanda, Steve, Natasha, Bucky - those people don’t have the choice anymore. They are what they are and what has been done to all of them can’t be undone by signing a bit of paper. They can’t simply be closed up - “internment” as Steve puts it - because they’re deemed inconveniently powerful.

So back to the point. Steve is already at odds with Tony because of the accords, particularly because neither of them can understand the other’s experiences and why they feel so strongly about it. If it wasn’t for the tension rising over the accords and Peggy’s death, Steve wouldn’t have been pulling back so hard. The accords exist because of his powers, ergo, the choices are only made because he has those powers.

Look at their confrontation about Wanda and the way Tony talks about her like a weapon. Steve is increasingly angry and justifiably so, because if Wanda - a genetically enhanced human being  - is a dangerous weapon in Tony’s eyes, what does that make Steve to him? Tony doesn’t see it that way - he sees the simple clean-cut world of dangerous things being controlled. He’s been trying to do it since the first film, when he saw what his weapons can do. This miscommunication is what drives the wedge more firmly between them. Steve says himself “Every time I think you see things the right way…” and Tony clearly believes he does.

Powered or non-powered, they both have different experiences, see the world in different ways and neither of them can see the others’ perspective. Tony believes he’s doing what need to be done “to stave off something worse” and Steve sees it as a form of captivity.

As for Tony being punished, I can’t really comment on that because I have bias for the poor bastard who was abducted, tortured, brainwashed, forced to murder a ton of people and had just escaped it all and found a stable life, only to have it all go boom. (There does seem to be an excess of Tony angst in a film called Captain America, though…)

(And I apologise in advance if this is rambling and makes no sense. I am very tired and it is late)

[mcumeta]

what are your thoughts about buckynat and the line "you could at least recognize me"?

Oh lord, if they made my comic ship come true, I would weep buckets, but I suspect it’ll never happen, especially after the chaotic trainwreck that was Brutasha on the back of the abandoned potential of Clintasha.

In the case of MCU, it could just be referring back to that time she rode him like a bull and tazed his arm with one of her stingers, but if they went with the comics and the fact that Nat was the reason he was put into cryo for so long, I think it would ruin me. Sadly, I think we’re too far into their MCU development to wedge it in there.

[mcumeta]

The first time I saw Guardians of the Galaxy, I was curious about Peter's mix-tape that he's constantly listening to (not least because dude? You have a casette that didn't wear out or snap after 20 years? Where the frilly frick did your mother buy her cassettes?).

Mix-tapes were generally put together for a particular person by someone who liked/loved etc them. What struck me is that this mix-tape definitely wasn't made for Peter. Some of the songs are completely inappropriate for a mother to direct at their child.

However, as I recall, mix-tapes often were used to tell a narrative with songs put in a specific order. If you listen to the tracks as parts of a story, you get so much information about Peter's mother, who clearly made this mix-tape. If she made it for Peter, it's to tell him where he came from.

"Hooked on a Feeling" - a guy telling a woman about how he can't resist her and the fact he believes she's in love with him.

"Go All the Way" - ... well, the title really says it all, doesn't it? SEXY TIMES.

"Spirit in the Sky" - I can't help feeling this is much more literal to her than it would be to us, because something has definitely come out of the sky.

"Moonage Daydream" - Basically "I know you're an alien, but I don't care"

"Fooled Around and Fell in Love" - the crush and fooling around has turned into something serious

"I'm Not in Love" - the ultimate break-up song, where someone is sitting in a dark room and having a good cry over all the little trinkets and tokens.

"I Want You Back" - does exactly what it says on the tin.

"Come and Get Your Love" - Again, self-explanatory, with a note of "ffs, will you get your butt back here, because I'm waiting".

"Cherry Bomb" - It took me a couple of listens, but this is about someone who isn't who she's expected to be, a "wild girl". I'm assuming this would be when she found out she was about to be a single mother in the 80s.

"Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" - ...I'll let you figure out what a song about a jaded person planning to cheat on his/her long-term lover means in the context of this story.

"O-o-h Child" - Someone had a baaaaaaaaaaaaaby.

"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - And even after all of that, she's still ready and willing to be there for the man she loves, no matter what comes between them.

So in conclusion, Peter's mother had a swept-off-her-feet kind of romance with this man, who shortly thereafter revealed he was an alien. He wasn't meant to fall in love with a human, but these things happen. When he had to leave, he had to leave her behind. The break-up was hard and she never got over it, but despite everything and the way people judged her for her behaviour, she didn't care. She had a child, whom she loved, and if her lover came back, she was ready and waiting for him.

Or I could be completely misinterpreting it :D

[mcumeta]

As you say he didn’t define himself as poor and sickly, that’s what other people did (although read the mid-panel in the parachuting scene in the comic) and that’s still where his issues lie: that people treated him like he was helpless and fragile, even though he felt capable and it still bothers him no matter how things have changed. Look at all the times Bucky tries to step in and help him and Steve is like “I WAS FINE!”

That’s why he kept signing up for the draft, because he knew he was capable of doing something even when no one else thought he could and he felt useless because they kept rejecting him and turning him away. People treating him like he was useless and incapable depressed the hell out of him. Look at his bitterness at being told he can still be useful like “little Timmy collecting scrap metal”. That’s why he’s so ready and willing to throw himself into an experimental medical procedure despite all the risks.

His issues arise entirely from the way he was treated. There’s frustration pushing back against that and feeling he needs to show everyone that FFS I CAN DO THIS OKAY? He stood up for himself repeatedly against bullies, even though it would end the same way because Steve hates injustice, because he’s been judged on so many things for so long and hates seeing other people on the receiving end of the same thing.

I agree on the empathy thing. He cares a lot. Too much in some cases. He fights for justice and the moral right and all that, but Steve’s got a tendency to self-sacrifice, even when he has no need to do it. He puts himself in danger and lets himself get hurt to save others. He loves other people waaaaaaay more than he loves himself. He will give up his life for the safety and sake of other people. Hell, he lay back and was about to let Bucky beat him to death because he would rather die himself than kill his friend, without knowing that Bucky would remember and save him.

You mention that Steve's got social anxiety in some of your posts. That's super interesting to me bc he seems so independent and confident otherwise like he'll tell you exactly what he thinks of your moral stance. and do you think any of his isolation comes from that anxiety or is it simply just one of his coping mechanisms for his ptsd?

Oh, Steve’s anxiety has been there from day one, especially when he’s in a situation where he is very uncomfortable. He fidgets, he fake-laughs, he - when tiny - has a habit of smoothing his fringe, he babbles around women he likes (that whole “I got beat up there, there, there” conversation. Oh Steve, sweetie, no).

In many cases, anxiety can be triggered by your surroundings and the way people treat you. First big trigger is the fact that Steve would have grown up during the Great Depression, in a time when the poorest got poorer and were shafted time and time again. They would be struggling for work, for money, even for food, especially in New York with such a huge population, which is bound to be a high-pressure environment.

And then there’s the fact that Steve was disabled. He had so many illnesses that would have marked him out as different. He was used to being considered weak and helpless. Look at all the times he tells Bucky he can fend for himself and that he doesn’t need help, something he has clearly said over and over again. He doesn’t want to be the burden that he considers himself. There’s a lot of self-loathing wrapped up in it. He doesn’t feel like he’s worth anything unless he can be useful and do something.

It was much clearer when he was skinny!Steve, the stubborn little mook from Brooklyn, before he ended up a superhero. Watch the scene before he goes out on the stage as Cap for the first time, his uncertainty and expressing his nervousness and looking fearful. Watch his expression when he gets on the stage for the first time.

That’s where the change happened: Cap is a role for him. Cap is big and strong and no-nonsense. Cap punched Hitler. Cap is a hero. Cap will call you out when he thinks your morals are in question.

The trouble is that while Cap has some of Steve’s traits, Cap isn’t Steve. Cap is the idealised version. Cap is what Steve aspires to be and he wears the name like his mask. Cap is how he thinks he should be and what he wanted to be. Cap will never be treated like he’s fragile. Cap can survive anything you can throw at him. Cap can get smashed off buildings and get up and keep going without complaint (even if he’s probably bleeding internally). Cap can stand up to anyone and not end up bleeding in a back alley.

Steve, on the other hand, is the man who goes and hides in a bombed out pub to cry about his dead friend, so no one can see him being weak. Steve is the man who, when confronted with someone asking about the ice, retreats behind his mask again.  He does it time and again and he only lets people see the real him when he trusts them. Peggy and Bucky could see right through him, but they knew him before the serum and they knew exactly where his issues stemmed from. Sam and Nat definitely got there in CA:TWS, along with Wanda in CA:CW.

Tony, though… I feel bad for Tony, because he’s friends with Cap, but he just doesn’t get Steve at all. He doesn’t see that so many of Steve’s issues come down to his past, who he was, what he lived through before the serum. There’s a degree of privilege going on there (Manhattan millionaire versus a poorly sick Irish son of the Great Depression), plus there’s probably the fact Howard Stark never bothered to mention much about Steve’s backstory aside from “small and skinny and I made him sexy”.

But back to Steve: it all stems from the fact that Steve remembers when he was considered (and more specifically considered himself) useless and worthless and no matter that he’s now a superhero, that’s not something he can forget. He holds onto the Cap mantle so fiercely because it let him feel worthwhile and useful. Steve isolates himself by hiding himself and his many, many issues. The PTSD definitely doesn’t help, because of his tendency to hide when he’s hurting because of that whole “don’t need help” self-loathing issue he’s had since day one.

[mcumeta]

You mention that Steve's got social anxiety in some of your posts. That's super interesting to me bc he seems so independent and confident otherwise like he'll tell you exactly what he thinks of your moral stance. and do you think any of his isolation comes from that anxiety or is it simply just one of his coping mechanisms for his ptsd?

Oh, Steve’s anxiety has been there from day one, especially when he’s in a situation where he is very uncomfortable. He fidgets, he fake-laughs, he - when tiny - has a habit of smoothing his fringe, he babbles around women he likes (that whole “I got beat up there, there, there” conversation. Oh Steve, sweetie, no).

In many cases, anxiety can be triggered by your surroundings and the way people treat you. First big trigger is the fact that Steve would have grown up during the Great Depression, in a time when the poorest got poorer and were shafted time and time again. They would be struggling for work, for money, even for food, especially in New York with such a huge population, which is bound to be a high-pressure environment.

And then there’s the fact that Steve was disabled. He had so many illnesses that would have marked him out as different. He was used to being considered weak and helpless. Look at all the times he tells Bucky he can fend for himself and that he doesn’t need help, something he has clearly said over and over again. He doesn’t want to be the burden that he considers himself. There’s a lot of self-loathing wrapped up in it. He doesn’t feel like he’s worth anything unless he can be useful and do something.

It was much clearer when he was skinny!Steve, the stubborn little mook from Brooklyn, before he ended up a superhero. Watch the scene before he goes out on the stage as Cap for the first time, his uncertainty and expressing his nervousness and looking fearful. Watch his expression when he gets on the stage for the first time.

That’s where the change happened: Cap is a role for him. Cap is big and strong and no-nonsense. Cap punched Hitler. Cap is a hero. Cap will call you out when he thinks your morals are in question.

The trouble is that while Cap has some of Steve’s traits, Cap isn’t Steve. Cap is the idealised version. Cap is what Steve aspires to be and he wears the name like his mask. Cap is how he thinks he should be and what he wanted to be. Cap will never be treated like he’s fragile. Cap can survive anything you can throw at him. Cap can get smashed off buildings and get up and keep going without complaint (even if he’s probably bleeding internally). Cap can stand up to anyone and not end up bleeding in a back alley.

Steve, on the other hand, is the man who goes and hides in a bombed out pub to cry about his dead friend, so no one can see him being weak. Steve is the man who, when confronted with someone asking about the ice, retreats behind his mask again.  He does it time and again and he only lets people see the real him when he trusts them. Peggy and Bucky could see right through him, but they knew him before the serum and they knew exactly where his issues stemmed from. Sam and Nat definitely got there in CA:TWS, along with Wanda in CA:CW.

Tony, though… I feel bad for Tony, because he’s friends with Cap, but he just doesn’t get Steve at all. He doesn’t see that so many of Steve’s issues come down to his past, who he was, what he lived through before the serum. There’s a degree of privilege going on there (Manhattan millionaire versus a poorly sick Irish son of the Great Depression), plus there’s probably the fact Howard Stark never bothered to mention much about Steve’s backstory aside from “small and skinny and I made him sexy”.

But back to Steve: it all stems from the fact that Steve remembers when he was considered (and more specifically considered himself) useless and worthless and no matter that he’s now a superhero, that’s not something he can forget. He holds onto the Cap mantle so fiercely because it let him feel worthwhile and useful. Steve isolates himself by hiding himself and his many, many issues. The PTSD definitely doesn’t help, because of his tendency to hide when he’s hurting because of that whole “don’t need help” self-loathing issue he’s had since day one.

[mcumeta]

First off, thank you :) I’ve been a bit behind on my posting, but that’s mostly down to not watching much Marvel lately and being caught up with writing.

Now, as for Steve...

The simple answer is that he really, really doesn’t. You have to bear in mind that Steve Rogers had and still has the self-preservation skills of a snowball in hell. He picked fights with people far bigger than him and regularly got beaten for it. He put himself into dangerous situations without regard or concern for his own well-being. Steve Rogers is not good at taking care of himself. Not physically and definitely not emotionally.

We see the first hints of it at the beginning of Avengers, when he's at the gym with the punchbag. He's there in the middle of the night, which suggests he's not sleeping, which isn't unusual at all for people with PTSD. It's a distraction technique, rather than dealing with how he's actually feeling.

The fact he is having flashbacks is also a major, major sign that he's not dealing well with his new situation, especially since he's been out of the ice for less than a fortnight at this point. Re-experiencing is one of the most typical symptoms of PTSD.

When Fury shows up, Steve is civil, but when Fury brings up one of the parts of his trauma - aka the tesseract - Steve's whole expression and body language completely tenses up. He also avoids Fury’s questions about whether he’s having trouble sleeping, being evasive and turning the topic away to other matters. You'll notice he becomes curter, more hostile, and turns and walks away.

He remains pretty much in a constant state of tense and irritable throughout the duration of Avengers, even if he's trying his best not to let it show. But it shows in the way he snaps at Tony and the way he turns on Nick re. the HYDRA tech in the basement. It's just when he's had a chance to punch some aliens and be back in the front line that he starts to feel a bit better. There's something familiar and maybe even comforting about being in a war zone.

This comes up again at the beginning of Winter Soldier, when he and Sam cross paths. Sam, who works with veterans, recognises the way Steve shuts down on him the moment Sam brings up the ice. He can see that Steve still has major issues with it, so he offers the hand of friendship as a fellow veteran, someone who knows the same hardships and has been in battle zones before.

That's what gets Steve to actually approach the VA and almost maybe perhaps possibly think about getting help. Sam's a fellow soldier. Sam has fought like he did. Sam has lost people like he did. They can understand each other, and for the first time, Steve doesn't feel so adrift in a world of spies and superhero billionaires and Gods and monsters.

It's one thing to try and get help for your PTSD. It's another thing entirely when one of the faces of your PTSD walks back into your life and beats the seven shades of hell out of you. Any thought of self-care that Steve might have had goes straight out the window.

And then we get to Civil War and Steve is ALL BUCKY ALL THE TIME. And hey, look at this list of symptoms of people suffering from PTSD and tell me who they describe:

persistent, distorted blame of self about the cause or consequences of the traumatic events

persistent fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame

markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities

feelings of detachment or estrangement from others

persistent inability to experience positive emotions

irritable or aggressive behavior

reckless or self-destructive behavior

hypervigilance

exaggerated startle response

I think it's safe to say that Steve is dealing with a lot. The trouble is that since he's Captain America, he's never had the chance to really leave the war zone and get the help that he needs. He's still a soldier and he's still fighting and until he steps back and stops fighting, he's never going to be able to take care of himself.

[mcumeta]

Hello! I just found ur tumblr and it is amazing!! Thoughts on Sharon Carter pls? :)

Wow, it’s been an awfully long while since I posted here, hasn’t it?

My main thought about Sharon Carter is that she was woefully underused in both films that she appeared in. We know she’s related to Peggy and we know she’s a SHIELD agent that Fury trusted to watch out for Steve, but beyond that, she’s little more than a cypher, almost an echo of who Peggy was back in The Olde Days. Oh, and she’s “nice”.

I know there was a lot going on throughout both films, but it really did feel like she had been shoe-horned into the story simply because Sharon Carter is Steve’s love interest in the comics. Yes, she got a couple of good action moments, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that her primary role in Civil War was to be ‘the love interest’.

And let’s take a moment to bask in the relationship that had all of zero set-up. The last time we saw them interact in TWS, Steve was clearly not happy about being lied to and was curt to the point of rudeness when he crossed paths with her in the hall. And suddenly, almost as soon as Peggy is in the dirt, they’re making moon eyes at each other?

No. Not Sharon, who clearly respected and loved her aunt. And definitely not Steve. Not the man who was so thoroughly in love with Peggy, even after all that time. Just look at him in TWS and the love and grief he feels for her. I could see him bonding with her then, but really, going as far as The Most Awkward Kiss Ever Committed To Screen Because It Was Too Soon?

Plus it really diminishes Sharon’s role as go-between and stealth operative, stealing stuff for them under her bosses’ nose when some people might see it as her only doing this out of a crush on Steve Rogers. Having them as friends in this film would have been much more effective, with an obvious and growing affection, rather than ramming them together so quickly. And let’s be honest, they had to wedge in a female love interest because otherwise, they would have to acknowledge the Steve and Bucky relationship shares tropes that are borderline vintage war movie romance.

And here’s something that has always bothered me: allegedly, no one knows where Steve and Co. are, but Tony says he “knows someone” who knows. This someone is never named, but moments later, Sharon is meeting the Beetle Boys under a bridge. Is Sharon playing both sides? Is that how she managed to get the uniforms out with no one questioning it? Or did Tony suspect her all along and plant a tracker? All these questions! If anyone can explain, please let me know.

So in conclusion, after this rambling train of thought, Sharon Carter has potential to be a great character, if the writers didn’t frame her first as ‘love interest’ and second as 'badass’. Badass should come first. Love interest? Well, that should develop and not happen immediately over her aunt’s coffin.

(I’m staying away from the question of how she’s actually related, because good sweet heaven. Peggy has one brother and he’s dead and yet here’s a Carter child? What even is continuity in this universe where Peggy’s age and military career changed several times and Bucky died in two different years according to the Smithsonian…)

[mcumeta]

Based on your desire for Clint to have been TAHITIed: Do you now consider TAHITI as a form of mind rape since it alters memories, thoughts, emotions, and can drive the recipients insane, and as a result all sexual relationships decided by SHIELD as rape, which would mean that Fury and Natasha condone rape since they chose to TAHITI Clint and are letting him have sex with someone he would not have had sex with a person that in his real state of mind would not have sex with?

Let me clarify your statement there - I did not want Clint to be TAHITI’d as my first choice for his story arc. I indicated that it would have made some kind of sense to explain the ridiculous and badly-written introduction to this cluster of familial plot points that go absolutely nowhere and do not look like they will appear again except in snarky one-liners. 

It makes no sense for them to exist in the context of him being an Avenger with no one knowing about them. I mean, he has time to have a wife and three kids while being a full-time Avenger, and no one notices him nipping off to the middle of nowhere? Especially in the wake of the whole oh, by the way, SHIELD has been corrupted by HYDRA for a long, long, long time. I could honestly buy into the family-as-a-created-memory-to-deal-with-trauma thing much more than the way they were brought into the narrative.

My actual preference would be that the family wasn’t written in for no reason other than to make it clear that Barton and Nat are only friends. Which was why it happened. Oh, and don’t forget, to give Nat angst about the fact she is an incapable baby-mama which is one of the reasons I will never, ever, ever watch this film again. I may or may not have some rage there. Ask my friends. They have heard it all.

I have also seen a rather horrific theory that Joss intended to use Clint’s family as they appeared in Ultimates - basically brought in for the purposes of being killed in horrible ways. And given Joss’s history for doing dramatic death scenes for people, I could believe that.

There were so many more significant things going on, and I can’t help but thinking that Thor’s vision relating to the Infinity Stones is somewhat more crucial than lol Clint can’t finish building things and Aunt Nat is brooding on his babies.

I realise I have veered somewhat off the topic of the ask, but to be honest, what I wanted was Clint scenes that actually give him a personality. Thanks to Civil War I have that, and the Russos kindly dealt with the SEKRIT FAMILY by going “and then we put them back on the shelf and we shall not speak of it again”.

[mcumeta]

Importing this, because I haven’t posted anything here for ages :D

I just had a thought on Steve’s initial argument against the Accords.

What if they send us somewhere we don’t wanna go?

What if they don’t send us somewhere we think we should be?

He already had a point in his life when he knew he could be helping the people who needed it, but was limited to a star-spangled costume and jaunty theme tune. He’s been put on the bench before, and he’s seen people he cared about suffer because of it. If they’d let him out sooner, maybe Bucky and his unit would never have been captured. Maybe Bucky would never have been tortured and hurt and made into Zola’s plaything.

Given the war that Steve fought in, and given that he saw how America hung back until Pearl Harbour happened, I don’t imagine he’s ignorant about how they could end up being put on the shelf while conflicts raged, until they were absolutely necessary. On top of that, he has watched his identity as Cap be used for politicking, to sell war bonds, to encourage patriotism and all that jazz, even after his death.

And here’s a thought: Tony was the one who created and unleashed his weapons on the world. Steve was one of those weapons. It’s the difference between being the seller and being the product. Tony sees it as a quality control. Steve sees it as losing his autonomy and becoming that dancing monkey again.

[mcumeta]

I have a head cannon about Civil War and I wanted to know what you thought. A lot of people think that the reason Tony is working with the government is because of Ultron guilt. While I agree, I think it also has to do with Ross. I think Tony is working with Ross because Ross has Bruce, the founding Avenger closest to Tony, held hostage as leverage. Tony will eventually disobey Ross's orders and that will lead to Bruce ending up where he needs to be for Thor 3. Why else is Ross there?

Sorry for the delay on this one. Turns out writing a novel can be a bit of a distraction :)

Regarding Ross, my theory is that they needed a viable military ‘villain’ who was already familiar through the MCU canon, even if a lot of people never actually watched the Hulk films. It was easier to bring in someone with canon backstory, rather than having to develop a whole mess of new military characters. The only other option would have been Major Talbot from Agents of SHIELD (who was also a Bruce-related military character), but since a lot of people don’t watch the films, it wouldn’t have made much sense.

It also makes sense to use Ross because they need someone who basically is the living incarnation of the negative elements of the US military structure: the shoot first, ask questions later: the blunt instrument instead of precision weapon mentality. For example: the man who will drive a whole load of tanks across an open school field to subdue a runaway man.

I don’t think Bruce is going to factor into any part of Tony’s storyline, I’m afraid. Off the back of the Ultron fiasco (and the mutters that Bruce was meant to shoot himself into space to protect everyone - I don’t even know…), I suspect Tony is pretty much forced to cede some authority given that he almost destroyed the world. Letting him do whatever he wanted is the reason Ultron came into being in the first place.

It’s less to do with guilt (although there is likely to be plenty of that, if we actually get decent Tony characterisation this film around) and more to do with the fact they have this one guy who basically refers to himself as a nuclear deterrent (IM2) and has the capacity to build ultimate AI weapons of mass destruction without anyone to stop him (AoU). He has to be put under some controls for the safety of the world, and I think that’s what Steve and Sam are talking about when they mention him being restricted.

I suspect the military aren’t the ones restricting Tony. It feels like it’s the NSA who are holding all Tony’s strings because he is the biggest threat to national security that they have. Meanwhile I suspect the military ones are the ones putting the shackles on Steve, because above all else, he was the US Army’s ultimate soldier. The army see him as theirs, and therefore, as one of their soldiers, he should do what they want him to do.

And this is where I think/hope the conflict arises from. Not only do we have Tony and Steve both dealing with the fact they have very different perspective of where they stand personally. You have their conflict, then you have the larger conflict of when do you say “screw orders” and do the right thing. And then you have the even larger and more topical conflict of politicking and bureaucracy facing off against the combat mentality of the army.

To say that I’m hopeful and excited about this film may be an understatement.

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For those who may have seen the 3rd episode of Agent Carter's second season ("Better Angels" aired January 26 2016), there's a shot, about 35-36 minutes in, shortly after Howard announces his trip to Peru, when the camera seems to linger on a stained glass window in the background, that bears a symbol similar to Iron Man's arc reactor. Mere coincidence or intentional foreshadowing? And do you think Whitney Frost's background may have been (very loosely) inspired by Hedy Lamarr?

The window in question is this one:

This definitely isn’t a coincidence, especially since this is one of the windows of Howard’s lab and he was the original designer of the Arc reactor. On this copy of the blueprint from Iron Man 2, you can see the window’s resemblance to the Arc reactor:

It’s something of a chicken and egg scenario: did Howard get the idea for the shape for the reactor from something in his room, or did he have the idea for the shape and stabilising elements of the Arc reactor at the back of his mind all the time and have the incorporated into his home so he wouldn’t forget about them. Call it mental stimulation, a memory trigger or what you will.

Knowing Howard’s tendency to hide his scientific inventions in plain sight (see the design for Tony’s new element hidden in the layout of the Stark Expo model), I suspect he had the windows decorated like that to keep that particular project in mind for a time when he was able to build it.

As he said to Tony in the video reel “I’m limited by the technology of my time”. I suspect that was a problem he had his whole life. The Arc reactor was achievable in his lifetime, but before he was able to build it, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d left the shape of it all over his home as a constant reminder of the work he still had to do.

Now as for the Frost-Lamarr parallels, I will leave you with a quote from Tara Butters in an interview in August 2015:

We’ve made her an actress, which is very Hedy Lamarr. She was a ‘40s siren actress who was also a scientific genius, so that’s part of what we’re mining with this character.”

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This is a "What if" scenario I'm giving you here so, with that said, here goes. What if Tony Stark never revealed his alter ego to the public? What would happen if the billionaire playboy didn't admit to being Iron Man to the press and instead, made up a lie that'll have them take his word for it?

I’m afraid this is Alternative Universe speculation which is more commonly dealt with in fanfiction, rather than meta analysing what is presented in the films. This blog is only for analysing what is in the MCU. Sorry :(

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Bringing this over here, because I just realised today that it’s been an age since I posted anything :)

The “Nice Guy” as Villain

I’ve been rewatching Jessica Jones, and Kilgrave as a villain is more terrifying than most Marvel villains for the simple reason that - for women especially - he is so real. He is what we deal with every day.

Whether it’s your own father saying “you shouldn’t dress like that” or a boyfriend saying “when you’re with me you can’t talk to other men” or random men in the street telling you “you’d be prettier if you smile”, Kilgrave is the kind of villain we spend our lives surrounded by.

Personally, I had one such fellow who liked to list all the ways he was going to dress me up and the places he would take me and more and more graphic stuff and how much I was going to like it all, without ever asking me my opinion on the matter. One line from Kilgrave brought that chap screaming back to me: “you’ll love it”. Actually, no, pal, I don’t think I will.

And that’s the most realistic part of Kilgrave as a villain. He seems charming, and he looks smart, and he can be polite and amiable, but there’s still this creeping insidiousness as he tells you what you can and can’t do. He is the living incarnation of what we fear: a man who can actually completely control you, taking away every part of your identity and dressing you up like his living doll, there to satisfy and entertain him.

He is the kind of man who would shoot up a town because the girl he liked wouldn’t go on a date with him. He’s the ‘nice guy’. This show has blatantly and openly made the ‘nice guy’ the villain and made it absolutely clear that when a man thinks a woman is just an object there for his satisfaction, he is a bad guy and should be hated and feared.

I want to give them a standing ovation for it.

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Hey! I read a lot of your meta essays and while I don't agree with every little thing I really really love how you got to the conclusions you did. So as a Massive Shipper On Deck for the science bros I'm just as disappointed in the AoU OOC-ness as you are. I read in one of your essays that you believed Natasha and Bruce's characterisations were bad and I was wondering what you thought of it without the shipper mindset? I'm so disappointed Tony went from looking to Bruce for help in IM3 to this.

Oh boy, this is a big can of worms for you to open. Bruce Banner is one of my favourite Marvel characters, so I’ll start with him and how Hulk-smash his characterisation made me:

First off, him agreeing to go along with the development of this AI without taking all reasonable precautions and agreeing to keep it from the rest of the Avengers made me twitch. According to the MCU-verse (Norton!Hulk is MCU, since General Ross from that film is showing up in Civil War), Bruce was turned into the Hulk by experimentation that went wrong, because protocols weren’t followed.

Bruce would not ever let a science experiment go ahead so sloppily, knowing what it did to him. He would never lie about it and hide it from members of his team, who he is meant to trust. Most of all, he would not just roll over and take it when Tony says so, because we’ve seen he’s pushed back at Tony more than once before. He clearly thinks it’s a bad idea, and I don’t believe Bruce Banner, victim of extremely bad ideas designed to save the world, would EVER EVER stand by and let it just happen because Tony says so.

Then we have Bruce’s whole arc in the first Avengers film, where we see how screwed up he is by everything that happened to him: he doesn’t trust the military or anyone like them because of what they did to him (see turning him into the hulk/being hunted and chased for his life across South America, and even tracked down to India) but through the course of the Avengers, comes to see that the Hulk is a useful weapon that can be unleashed.

Instead, he is taken back several steps to the hand-wringing, uneasy version who hides at the edge of the battlefield until needed. Where is my Bruce who walks the hell up to a giant flying alien beastie and punches it in the face? Where is the man who smiled and said “I’m always angry”. No, thank you. Do not undo the fine character development that was there.

Then we have how he treats his team mates. Quite aside from being cowed by Tony re. the experiment, where’s the Bruce who sassed everyone? Where’s the Bruce who is snarky and dry and eyerolls at them all like he did while they hunted the tesseract? And most importantly, where is the man who worries about his friends? Where is the man who, when Natasha tells him her deepest ad most heart-wrenching secrets, does nothing. Says nothing. Does not even react to it or offer her some kind of emotional support?

Nat has seen him at his worst. She has been attacked by him and she reassured him that they were okay afterwards (see Avengers 1). And when she offers her most private secrets, he just stares at her. (I could go into a rant about Betty here, since she has been casually erased from the MCU, but then this would turn into a novel) I get that he’s coping with horrendous and awful stuff, but seriously, when someone you’re meant to care about is clearly having a hard time to, you could at least say “I’m sorry”.

We also have his confrontation with Wanda. By this point, I’m pretty sure they’re all meant to know what the Maximoff kids have been through and what they have lost. And yet he says to a teenage girl that he would strangle her. Bruce Banner. The man who hates to hurt people. The man who - if you include comic backstory - was an abused and traumatised child. Would strangle a clearly-traumatised and grieving angry child, especially when she’s trying to make things right. Yep. So in character.

And lastly on the Bruce front, the gun. Bruce Banner carrying a gun. Bruce, as set up in these films is incredibly bad with weaponry. He avoids it for the most part. He knows he’s far more dangerous than any gun. That whole scene with the cage could have been improved so much (if we’re going with a shipper perspective here), if he had arrived to help her, and she just shakes her head and says “I want you, but I need the Hulk”. It would have been much more impressive to see him rip the bars open to get her out.

Now as for Natasha, it’s pretty much her Mommy-Natasha thing that is her arc through the whole film: she’s the one who does the lullaby for the Hulk, she’s the one who gets broody over Clint’s kids, she’s the one who had a graduation ceremony that sterilised her, and she’s the one moping on her own in the dark over baby photos in her second-last scene.

If this had been foreshadowed anywhere in the previous films, okay, fine. Nat wants to be a mother, but can’t be biologically. Fair enough. However, the last time we saw Nat, she was with Steve and she had just blown every one of her covers open, and pretty much bared her true self to the world for the first time.

For the first time in her life, she had a chance to go and do what she wanted to do and be who she wanted to be, and it would have been fantastic to see her learning to be herself for the first time. More dork Natasha with her smiley emoticons, and casual clothes, showing up to fight with the Avengers “because you boys need all the help you can get”.

Instead, her arc in Ultron keeps coming back to one of two things: romance with Bruce or babies. Sure, she fights from time to time and does have some pretty shiny combat moments, but still, Bruce or babies. She’s supposed to be best friends with Clint and/or Steve at this point, but we don’t get more than a couple of moments with them as parts of a group, because hey! Romance and babies. And don’t even start me on the fact that her major interaction with Fury, her mentor, friend and ally, comes down to “dude, did you matchmake me with greeny?”

She deserved so much more from this film. They both did.

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I've read that there's a Captain American: The First Avenger tie-in comic that shows Red Skull and Hydra as a whole as not being white supremacists in the MCU. Is this true? If so, that's really gross. I'll still hate Hydra and its members with all my heart because they are Nazis. Modern Marvel can ignore and erase what Old Marvel originally intended so they can make Hydra cool and relevant these days, but that's just gross.

Marvel has always and will always make their villains relevant based on current events. Captain America was written during WWII (by Jewish gentlemen no less) to basically get the public riled up about what was going on in Germany. It didn’t just stop with the Nazis being villains. The Isaiah Bradley arc of the Captain America stories dealt with the fact the US Government experimented on (and killed) African Americans as part of their tests for vaccination medications.

In which case, I’m not surprised that they’re doing the same for white supremacy. Also, I find it interesting that the current villains we’ve had in the latest run of films have been bureaucracy (Cap 2) and corporate greed (Ant Man, especially relevant since this film was in development when the economy crashed). And from the sounds of it, this time around in Cap3 the villain is the National Security Agency.

All the way through their history, Marvel took current and true events and used them as a springboard for their stories. They would tell stories that often got them in trouble, because they held a mirror up to the world, reminding people that “Yes, this is happening and it’s happening right in front of you”. Whether it’s white supremacy, Government control, race issues, Marvel has been getting in trouble for it for years.

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What are your feelings on Tony's characterization between IM3 and AoU? I know it feels like most of phase 2 was thrown out for everyone, but for Tony it was as if his character growth was erased completely.

Tony felt incredibly out of character, especially after his massive arcs through the Iron Man films and The Avengers.

IM1 was about him discovering him, IM2 was the repercussions of him discovering himself and the first step to playing nicely with other, The Avengers was meant to be increasing his play-with-other ethic, while IM3 was processing the scale of his involvement in the Avengers and proving to himself that he is still capable of being a hero without his suit.

So much of his journey has also been about learning to openly depend on people, and admit his vulnerabilities to them. By the time you get to the end of IM3, he trusts Bruce and talks to him. He trusts his judgement enough to basically unload all his emotional issues on the man.

And then, in Ultron, every bit of his character that his been built up - teamwork, friendship and trusting the other Avengers, talking to people, not bulldozing his way through life without taking a moment to think of the consequences - is forgotten.

I don’t know what annoyed me more: the way he strong-armed a clearly unhappy Bruce into pushing forward the AI development (and don’t even get me going on how OOC it would be for Bruce to sanction the development of something with that potential risk on a networked machine, because GOOD GOD! Do not create an AI on a machine that is connected to the bloody internet!) or the way his past acknowledgements of his part in war crimes was completely glossed over.

IM1 was so much about him trying to come to terms with being a weapons dealer. He said himself he had to see Americans killed by the weapons he had built to protect them. And suddenly, in AoU, he’s all “that was never my life”. I’m sorry, but at the time when the Maximoff twins lost their family, that was completely your line of business. Saying “lalala, wasn’t me” doesn’t change the fact that you were actively encouraging the purchase of Jericho Missiles at the beginning of your arc.

It’s downright sloppy storytelling as well, because that plot point was never resolved. Tony never had to face the twins with the knowledge that his weapons killed their parents. He just knows he was accused of making weapons and denied it. Which is BS.

If Tony knew he had even remotely been connected to their parents’ death, it would have been a great arc, with both them and him trying to resolve exactly what to feel about the other. Tony saying he was trying to make amends for things done in the past in his name would have been so much more bearable than “that was never my life”. Yes, Wanda planted horrific images in his mind (incidentally, the one moment in the film where Tony apparently gives a damn about the rest of the gang that isn’t involving combat or The Banter), but he cannot deny what his origin story was and his origin story was that life.

I’ll stop now, because I have a feeling this could get even longer and rantier, but for now, yes. Tony was not handled at all well in this film.