#Ilsa Faust deserved better

[ilsaafaust]

Thoughts on Ilsa Faust in DR. Spoilers.

Thinking about Ilsa Faust's fate in Dead Reckoning and director Christopher McQuarrie's comments about it in the Empire Podcast. As a fan of the franchise and with Ilsa being my favourite character, I feel like I had to write a little something based on the movie and his reason for it. A lot of fans are upset (including me) and I want to write something properly, not just the angry tweets and posts. 

To start off, they wanted Ilsa to die already back when they were making TGM. And his reasoning seems to be that he didn't want Ilsa and Ethan to be romantic. Just that baffles me, if you don't want romance, how can you not just write a script where Ilsa and Ethan stay platonic? They handled it well in Rogue Nation and Fallout, you can see they care for each other deeply, but they don't act on it. We could have had Ilsa on the team, she could have gotten out of the game but was brought back in for some reason, she could have had literally any other story. But the fact that the only thing that seemed to come to mind if he didn't want to make them romantic was to kill her off seems very odd. 

He also talked about wanting to work with Hayley Atwell for over ten years and this fact seems a little too convenient when thinking about why he had to kill Ilsa off. But we'll come back to Grace later. 

He explains that they killed Ilsa off before they even knew the reason why. They killed off one of the most popular characters of this franchise without even having made up the reason behind it. We know that they work without a script, but making such a huge and impactful decision (he says he knew the fans would be upset) without even knowing why baffles me. 

I also need to point out, I would have been fine if she had been given a decent, meaningful death. Yes, I would have been sad, but had it felt worthy it would have been one thing. With how they handled her death in this, I can't be sad. I am just mad. Frustrated. Confused. 

Let's talk about Ilsa's storyline in this film. At the end of Fallout, she got out. In this film, she is disavowed for some unknown reason, and she is brought back into the game with the whole thing about the key. Kittridge says some weird comments about Ethan and Ilsa's relationship, that Ethan has saved Ilsa over and over when it is clearly the other way around. Let's go with this just being Kittridge getting it all wrong and not McQ but.. what do I know.

Ethan finds her in the desert and the whole scene is very rushed, they barely even talk, and.. she just hands him the key? What was Ilsa's plan? Ilsa's purpose? We don't know and we never find out (at least not in part one). Maybe there was more to it, more to Ilsa's story, we know they cut a lot of the movie, and we know for sure they cut at least two of Ilsa's scenes. 

Then she just shows up in the van in Rome before they end up in Venice. 

In Venice, we have Ilsa and Ethan hugging on a rooftop and holding hands on the gondola on their way to the party. For someone who claims that they didn't want Ilsa and Ethan to be romantic, I have a lot of questions. Especially since we also had the desert hug where she is literally on top of him. She is clearly a romantic interest, there's no questioning that. And to be honest, that is basically her only purpose in this movie. 

Now things get a little messy because we arrive at the party. I have always been a fan of McQ's writing of female characters. He did absolutely fantastic in Rogue Nation, Fallout and Edge of Tomorrow. At the party, the villain gives Ethan the choice between Ilsa or Grace. One of them has to die. 

Now, we know Ethan cares about Ilsa a lot, so the choice should be simple, her compared to this woman he just met who kept running away from him over and over and left him to die on a train track handcuffed to a car. The thing is, Ethan Hunt can't make that choice. He cares about each and every individual. 

We've now arrived at the reason why Ilsa dies. And I cannot begin to express my distaste for the cliché writing of having a male character choose between two women, one who is a love interest and the other who is so obviously made out to be the new female lead (and potentially, a new love interest, Ethan/Grace share some suspiciously weird longing looks but the fans are divided if it is romantic or not). 

Ilsa or Grace. Apparently, there can only be one woman on the team, which the previous films have shown us, too. 

I just need to add that they're working against an all-knowing AI, so why isn't "the choice" between Luther or Benji? Ethan's two very best friends, two brilliant tech minds who must be a bigger threat to the entity as well?

In the end, it all comes back to that it's not people that Ethan loses - it's women. And there is only space for one brunette woman on that team. 

So let's talk about the bridge scene. First of all, Grace has been running the entire movie, why would she suddenly stop running when there is a man literally trying to kill her? 

Anyways, she holds him off surprisingly long considering she's just a thief and with how in the previous action sequences she kind of came off as a damsel in distress. Eventually, Gabriel knocks her down the stairs. 

Enter Ilsa Faust. Highly capable spy, Ethan Hunt's equal, a woman who we know is lethal in hand-to-hand combat. We saw her take down Janik Vinter in a knife fight at the end of Rogue Nation and we saw her take down Solomon Lane in Fallout (tied to a bloody chair). 

She even has the advantage of a sword compared to the villain who has a tiny knife. They fight. For some reason, Ilsa manages to get in way too close several times (watch the choreography for the RN knife fight - she's quick, get in, slash, get out, you can't linger in a knife fight) and she somehow doesn't seem to be able to hold off the old villain longer than Grace. 

She gets stabbed in the chest. Ethan finds her dead on the bridge. In the next scene, Ethan looks sad on a rooftop for a few moments. Benji wipes a tear. They never talk about Ilsa again. It's underwhelming in every sense. 

But what makes it worse, is the fact that in the next scene, the team asks Grace to join the team. Not going to get into the writing of that whole scene, but the thing is, they do it in a way that is basically "look what happened to Ilsa." and the things they say honestly make the team seem very cold-hearted considering Ilsa just died. And we know the team is not cold-hearted. Yes, there's a mission and they need to focus on the job, but they really didn't have to do it like that.

When I tell you I have a bad taste in my mouth, boy, do I mean it. Ilsa dies and in literally the next scene she is replaced by Grace. 

Now comes the talk about her death which McQ describes as "very heroic". I'll admit, in one way, I get why he thinks it is a heroic death. Ilsa sacrificed herself to save someone else, that would be a worthy ending for someone who dedicated their whole life to saving the world, saving people. 

What baffles me is how he doesn't see how poorly executed the whole ordeal was, which is what fans and a lot of critics are upset about (see list of articles criticizing it here:  https://www.tumblr.com/rebeccalouisaferguson/723559978545414144/list-of-articles-criticizing-ilsa-fausts?source=share ) 

Is it fridging? In one way it is; Ilsa is Ethan's love interest and we know "the choice" between Ilsa and Grace happens because Ethan cares about her. McQ also mentioned it happening to up the stakes, so..

Yes, she also died because she decided to save Grace, but there's more than one reason for her death.

I feel like what also needs to be mentioned is that article with editor Eddie Hamilton who said they cut a "badass" line from Ilsa when she arrived at the bridge. They cut it because it lowered the audience's expectations for what they were about to see. "In the audience's mind, you know that Ilsa is going to kick some serious ass. She kicks a bit of ass, but not a lot. It's not a complete, devastating, ass-kicking, which you hope Ilsa is going to give at some point." They later removed this bit from the article because of backlash. We, the audience, know that Ilsa is better than and so do they. 

We know they're doing damage control, a lot was cut from the delayed Empire part two podcast. Somehow, the more they talk about it, it gets worse.

I know this movie is only part one and there might be more explanations for all of this in part two. But with what we've seen in this film, they fumbled her death so badly that the one thing that would make sense is that it is all a trick and she comes back in part two. There are many theories on that, but I'm not going into details or speculating on that here. 

A testament to how badly they executed her death is that people literally can't believe they'd fail her character this badly. McQ who we all thought was a brilliant writer. McQ who wrote one of the best female characters we've seen in years only to throw her out as if she was garbage. No matter what happens in part two, one thing is for sure. 

Ilsa Faust deserved better.

[frenchpuppycormier]

Mission Impossible SPOILER AHEAD

THIS. 100% THIS. What utter bullshit and a complete copout.

[ozarkthedog]

ILSA FAUST DESERVED BETTER

[bridgertonbee1814]

If anyone else is as devastated as I am about Ilsa's totally unnecessary and brushed over death, please read the petition in the link below. I'm an emotional mess about the whole thing but I articulate it a lot better in the petition link. If you've already signed, thank you and please spread it wherever you can as I don't have a huge platform and I'm hoping to get it as much exposure as possible🙏❤️ Ilsa Faust Deserves Better.

[chieftyphoonchaos]

How Christopher McQuarrie treats his own created character when he no longer needs them

😡👎

[rebeccalouisaferguson]

It’s a tough gig to be a female lead in the Mission Impossible franchise. The box office juggernaut has chugged along for two decades, delivering top-of-the line thrills and pusle-pounding heist sequences along the way, but with sequel after sequel, it’s become increasingly clear the iconic franchise has one sticking point it still isn’t quite sure how to figure out: its female characters. As far back as Emmanuelle Beart’s doe-eyed Claire in the first Mission Impossible, the majority of female characters Ethan Hunt encounters fit a very specific mold: capable in combat, drop-dead gorgeous (often donning slinky dresses or skimpy, skin-tight outfits), and in desperate need of saving, despite their supposed prowess in espionage.

It’s a frustrating blind spot in a series of films that otherwise represent some of the best action flicks of the 21st century, and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One continues the unfortunate trend with its rather unceremonious dispatching of (until now) the series’ most prominent female character, Ilsa Faust, played by Rebecca Ferguson.

**This article contains major spoilers for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One**

Prior to Ilsa’s introduction in Rogue Nation, the women of Mission: Impossible operated like a revolving door: They’d show up, look stunning, then either die tragically to give Ethan (Tom Cruise) further motivation, end up betraying him, or simply be cast aside by the franchise in favor of a newer, shinier, more scantily-clad female character for the next film. While the introduction of Ethan’s wife Julia (Michelle Monaghan) certainly made for a refreshing reprieve from this trend, even she falls squarely into the “damsel in distress” category, and doesn’t get screen time unless she’s being used as leverage against Ethan. So, when Ilsa came on the scene in Rogue Nation it seemed like at long last, the Mission Impossible films had finally cracked the code on how to write female characters that might actually stick around for more than one movie.

And to the franchise’s credit, that’s exactly what Ilsa was—the series even went so far to explicitly bill her as “the female Ethan Hunt.” To paraphrase Ginger Rogers, Ilsa can do everything Ethan can do, but backwards, and in heels and that stunning, high-slitted opera dress. Like the women before her, she’s physically stunning and more than capable in combat, but unlike the rest, she’s given narrative agency. She grapples with her own allegiances, forced to either succumb to her fear of Solomon Lane or take the leap of trusting Ethan and his IMF team, and watching her open up and learn to trust others is a high point of Rogue Nation.

In Fallout, too, she’s given plenty to do. While the White Widow fills the arbitrary role of sexy femme fatale, Ilsa once again gets to be the mysterious wildcard. We the audience and the IMF team have grown to know and love her, but she’s still allowed to have her own crisis of faith as she (like Ethan in the early films) begins to try and re-learn what it’s like to trust your team after having been backstabbed.

Heading into Dead Reckoning, Ilsa was a shining beacon of what a well-written female character could look like in an otherwise extraordinarily male-dominated franchise: but if you’ve seen the latest Mission: Impossible, you already know it all comes crumbling down with a single bridge fight. Of course, the stakes were always going to be high with Dead Reckoning— it’s a sort of swan song for the McQuarrie/Cruise Mission: Impossible era, and though we’ve gotten confirmation the franchise will continue, there’s a distinct sense of gravity and finality engrained in the Dead Reckoning two-parter.

And, with a franchise as twist-filled as Mission: Impossible, a penultimate entry in a two-parter means the stakes have to be upped somehow. TLDR, there needed to be a major character death, and it had to be one that would hurt. Of course, the pool of characters whose deaths would leave a lasting impact on both Ethan and the audience is relatively slim: only Benji (Simon Pegg), Luther (Ving Rhames), and Ilsa have been around for more than one film, and killing off Julia (though undoubtedly devastating for Ethan) would lack punch, considering she’s already been killed off and resurrected earlier in the franchise.

So, it ends up being Ilsa who draws the unlucky “sacrificed so Ethan can be motivated into act three” card. After one desert action sequence and a ruminative moment with Ethan above the canals of Venice, she meets her demise at the hand of Esai Morales’ Gabriel, sacrificing herself in an attempt to save Hayley Atwell’s newly-introduced Grace. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not that Ilsa was killed off that I have an issue with, it’s the fact that the film did so so unceremoniously. Ilsa has been a franchise mainstay for three films now. She has the loyalty and affection of the entire IMF team, and a deep, sibling-like bond with Ethan that feels distinct and unique from the cut-and-dry romances he’s dabbled with in previous entries.

She’s a crucial part of what makes the recent Mission: Impossible entries so great, but Dead Reckoning doesn’t seem interested in honoring this or respecting the significance of her role in the franchise. Typically, if you’re killing off a major character, you’d spend every moment prior to their departure emphasizing just how key a part of the group they are—so that when the death does eventually come, we get maximum emotional impact for both the characters and the audience. But that’s the trouble with Ilsa’s departure in Dead Reckoning— the film is so interesting in setting up Grace as the next big mystery for Ethan to solve that Ilsa falls to the wayside, and her death ends up feeling like a tertiary motivation for Ethan as opposed to a major, earth-shattering revelation for the franchise.

Ilsa isn’t given any significant story of her own in Dead Reckoning, either—she’s after the same MacGuffin as Ethan, trying to protect the same woman (Grace) as Ethan, and ends up falling to the same villain Ethan has been trying to bring down—a villain she has virtually no personal connection to. Admittedly, if there was anyone Ilsa would lose her life trying to save, it’s gratifying that it’s Grace, another prominent female character. On the other side of that coin, though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that the early franchise revolving door is once again in operation—Ilsa’s body is barely cold before the film begins teeing Grace up as Ethan’s next big partner in crime.

Sure, she gets a few cool action set pieces, but in the grand scheme of the hustle and bustle of Dead Reckoning, Ilsa’s death (especially because it comes at such an odd, early point in the film) feels under-emphasized and like a grave betrayal of how powerful of a woman she was in life. Though she may have gone out fighting, at the end of the day, Ilsa still ends up another female casualty of the Mission: Impossible franchise killed so Ethan can be motivated into action—a reductive and lackluster ending for a one-of-a-kind ass-kicker.

[rollforjackass]

WHOOOOOO MISSION IMPOSSIBLE!!! dead reckoning spoilers under the cut

what mission impossible does in terms of fucking with my PTSD, it makes up for with hot women. amen

VERY funny chase sequences, 2 new characters who pulled their weight in gold from the second they stepped onscreen. the airport scene was immaculate, from luther & benji trying to solve shit on their own and roping ethan in in the most cryptic way possible (the bomb scene with benji broke my fucking heart) to the constant sleight of hand that reminded me of the first movie. kittridge and the white widow's semi-familial relationship was very unexpected and sweet

also, AI AS A VILLAIN!!!!!!! bitch i did not have my brain chemistry rewired by person of interest and a warforged dnd character i made just to not enjoy that. benji's voice being used to misdirect ethan fucked me up in so many ways, and its insistence on stories was very fun because as we all know, there are many different stories out in the world, and many different versions of each one. i loved that pom fulfilled the AI's prophecy that she would betray gabriel NOT BECAUSE OF THE REASON IT THOUGHT, but because it betrayed HER over a possible course she hadn't even taken yet

i AM very worried about benji for the second part, they made a point of showing him on EVERY line of that epilogue that referenced death. "the closer someone is to you, the harder to keep them alive" > benji's face (watching ethan, which says as much about benji as it could foreshadow for ethan); "should your agents be captured or killed" > benji's face. it also showed his face on a line similar to "do it alone", which makes me TERRIFIED that he'll take on the entity in the sevastapol sphere by himself and have to make a grand heroic sacrifice in the process, at which point i'll fill my pockets with stones and toss myself bodily into the nearest lake

that said, dead reckoning might be my least favorite of the franchise, and not just because it was overblown and grandiose and a two-parter. it feels like they saw the john wick movies and went 'That's what the people want', when the reason people love mission impossible in the first place is because of its rock solid ensemble cast and the elaborate deceptions that make it a Spy franchise, not just an Action one.

now the big issue. ilsa my love. i don't think ilsa is actually dead - she simply would Not lose to gabriel, she has been fighting to stay alive every second of her life - but i do think her sacrifice was necessary to get grace on their side. so i think that's a plan that we'll see pay out in the second movie.

but if it's Not a plan and they just killed her like that........girl what the fuck is happening on this day

(also the way that benji reacted to her death, and the way he hid it from the team and slapped the tears away to get back to work, thanks i hate it)

like i won't be generous with the franchise and say it's always done its female characters right - in fact i feel like 90% of the praise i see for characters like jane carter and ilsa faust comes from the fact that we as a fandom scooped them up and said 'you deserve better' and created art and fics and meta that fleshed out the parts of them that weren't created to add sex appeal/romance tom cruise. but the franchise has at least done Better for them than dead reckoning did. they didn't even give pom's character a name, dude (EDIT YES THEY DID I’M A FOOL HER NAME IS PARIS)

i think their problem is that they are Very Very good at creating wonderfully complex and obviously flawed female characters, but when they don't know what to do with them anymore, they fall into a box that says Ethan's Love Interest. and by god i will wrest grace from that box so long as i am breathing i can tell you that

that said, i can see why they made the creative choices that come across to me as bad faith. pom being a nameless henchman but ethan Still goes out of his way to save her life hammers home the ways that humans are different from AI, and how unique ethan is as an agent. grace's name being a random throwaway alias that she is then trapped with bc she keeps being chased by the people she used it with is reminiscent of her stealing the key and then being trapped in an epic struggle she never wanted. even ilsa dying is a way for her to take her story into her own hands: after so long of being treated as dispensable by MI-6 and the syndicate, she is the one who decides when and who she dies for, and why she dies. (even though she's not dead)

anyway, complaints aside, always a fun movie. extremely funny car chase. women are hot. pom klementieff is feral and i adore her. i have thoughts for days and that mission impossible fic i've got going is about to take OFF

[douxreviews]

Mission: Impossible 1-6 Review

"Your mission, should you chose to accept it..."

Your enjoyment of this series will most likely depend on how much you can tolerate Tom Cruise, as he is the dominant feature of the entire franchise. There's barely a scene in any of the six films produced so far that doesn't feature him. I'm indifferent to the man, I neither love nor loathe him, but will admit that, as an action star, he rarely ever puts a foot wrong (probably because it would cost him his life, crazy stunt lover that he is).

For the uninitiated, here's a brief overview of what the franchise is about. Cruise stars as Ethan Hunt, a Tom Cruise-ish international superspy who isn't as cool as Bond or as interesting as Bourne but is the equal of both when it comes to running from his own government and performing outrageously over the top stunts (all without the aid of stuntmen). Watch as he is forced to relive the same plotline over and over again, wherein he is framed by a one dimensional villain played by an actor who deserves better, and forced to go rogue so he can chase after the one dimensional villain played by an actor who deserves better and stop him from getting his hands on some vaguely defined MacGuffin and prove his innocence all with the aid of a team of interchangeable IMF agents, but mainly Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames.

What the Mission: Impossible series lacks in originality it makes up for in thrills. This is one of the most dependable, consistently good action franchises going. Out of the six films released there has only been one true failure. That is an impressive track record for any franchise as old as this one. One of the things that has helped keep the franchise fresh over the decades is the revolving door of talented directors, hand-picked by Cruise himself, who have all brought their own distinctive style to each instalment.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Unlike most films in the series, Briann de Palma's original is a spy thriller first, action film second. There is really only one big action set piece (the final fight on top on the Eurostar) and it has not dated well. What has stood the test of time, however, is Hunt's iconic CIA break in, a sequence that is just as tense today as it was 22 years ago. What lets the film down is a plot that isn't nearly as clever as it thinks it is, clumsily handled twist, and some poor underwritten supporting characters. Mission: Impossible is a perfectly decent thriller, with its leading man on top form, but the more you watch it the harder it becomes to ignore its faults.

Mission: Impossible 2 (2000)

For all its faults, the first Mission: Impossible is a absolute masterpiece compared to the film that followed it. Mission Impossible 2 is like someone decided to do a parody of OTT action films, but forgot to include any jokes. They then gave that film to John Woo and told him to make the most John Woo-ish film he could. The result is, unsurprisingly, a complete mess on every level. Worse still, someone thought it would be a good idea to get Limp Bizkit on the soundtrack. For that alone, this film deserves to be banished to cinema purgatory for all time.

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

J.J. Abrams took over directing duties for the franchise's third outing and produced what is essentially a big budget episode of Alias (the opening scenes of this movie and the pilot are almost exactly the same). This is not a bad thing, as Mission: Impossible III is one of the series' best films, but a lot of the time it does feel like you are watching a J.J. Abrams greatest hits package, which also means enduring many of the director's more annoying traits (Yes, that means you, pointless lens flares). The film is also plagued by many of series' recurring problems. The villain, although the series' best, is still weak, the supporting characters are mostly forgettable (I can't for the life of me remember the names of Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Maggie Q's characters), and I'm not sure if the film was being clever or incredibly lazy in not revelling what the MacGuffin actually is.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

From its opening jailbreak, set to the sweet sounds of Dean Martin, it is clear that Ghost Protocol is going to be fun. Brad Bird brings some Pixar sensibilities to proceedings, such as solid story structure, creative set pieces and strong character work. Ghost Protocol is the franchise in its purest form, bringing together everything that worked about the first three films, although still struggling to fix everything that didn't. The film's villain is almost an afterthought, and Mrs Ethan Hunt is hastily written out, although mercifully the series has abandoned any further attempts to make Hunt another Bond by saddling him with a new love interest. Now in his 50s, Cruise shows no sign of slowing down, or being tied down as he once again battles Ethan Hunt's true arch nemesis, gravity, and scales the tallest building in the world in a sequence that would give Spider-Man vertigo.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

In terms of style, Christopher McQuarrie's Rogue Nation is the least distinctive of the six Mission: Impossible films. It feels very much like it was cut from the same cloth as Ghost Protocol. Again, this isn't a negative, as Rogue Nation is one of the series' best films. The structure mirrors that of the first film, but without all those silly twists. The first act is a game of cat and mouse in a Vienna opera house that is pure Cold War thriller. The second act features a tense, elaborate break-in followed by a high speed bike chase that puts Woo to shame. And a third act showdown with the bad guy is okay, but feels like a letdown after everything that came before it. The film's trump card is without a doubt Rebecca Ferguson's Ilsa Faust, a mysterious double agent who spends almost the entire film saving Hunt's ass.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)

Fallout breaks from tradition by bringing back the entire Rogue Nation team (minus Jeremy Renner, who was too busy not being in Avengers: Infinity War) for an encore. The first direct sequel in the franchise's history, Fallout sees the definitive Team Hunt line-up (Ethan, Ilsa, Benji and Luther) forced to work with CIA “hammer” August Walker (Henry Cavil and his dastardly moustache of doom) to stop the followers of Rogue Nation baddie Solomon Lane (Sean Harris) from getting their hands on nuclear weapons. It's not often you get to say this about the sixth installment in a 22-year-old franchise, but Fallout is the best Mission: Impossible film yet and my vote for the best action film of 2018. Some have even proclaimed it to be one of the greatest action films ever made. I'm not sure I would go that far, but there is no question that this is an exceptional work of action cinema. While the previous Mission: Impossible films had about one or two standout set-pieces, Fallout has nothing but standout set-pieces, all of which will leave you breathless.

Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011.

[why-am-i-pluto]

this one should be obvious but mission impossible movies. if someone beat me to it then doctor who series 11 so far specifically!

send me a fandom and i will name a character…@ineverhadadoubt

who i will protect at all costs: Well, everyone, but mainly Benji. Protect that poor boy.

who deserves better: Ilsa fucking Faust. She deserved better than shoehorning her into a forced romance that was unjustified and unnatural. But hopeful now that Queen Rebecca has spoken out against the romance.

who was killed off too early: Lots of people, if I’m honest. But Trevor Hanaway is up there. I wish him and Jane could have been happy.

who i used to hate but now i love:  Uhhhhh I dunno tbh. I don’t think that there’s any character who I’ve ever particularly hated.

who i used to love but now i hate: I don’t think I hate anyone now either. I did go off Brandt for a while because of the way the stanners would treat the other characters

who needs to be killed off asap: Lane. If not for Benji’s sake, for Sean Harris’ sake. He didn’t want to survive Rogue Nation but he did. Just let the poor bastard die. 

who is unfairly hated: I don’t know if anyone is actually hated? I fortunately remain in a blessed part of the fandom where there is no hate - and any that I’ve seen has been blocked.

who is unfairly loved: I don’t think the loving of the character is so much unfairly given, but the reasons why August is loved piss me off. He’s a fantastic villain, but people seem to love him because Henry is hot. And that leads to all kinds of bullshit that is common in larger fandoms. Love the character, yes. Don’t talk about how you want him to fuck you because that is seriously messed up, guys.

who needs to sort out their priorities: Ethan for one. He needs to focus more on, y’know, actually staying alive. Also Lane. Find a new hobby that doesn’t involve hurting my boy please. Learn to fucking knit or something dude.

who needs a hug: BENJI FUCKING DUNN

who needs to get out of their current relationship: If we’re talking about it as how McQ tried to make it, Ilsa and Ethan. They both deserve better.

who the writers love: Ethan. I mean, it’s Tom’s baby. He’s bound to get the spotlight. But it is nice that everyone else does get their time to shine.

who needs a better storyline: Ilsa in Fallout. But also bring back Nyah and give her the good closure. Show me a Nyah who was inspired and joined the IMF officially, who was trained by Ethan, who mutually decided that their relationship wasn’t working, who still remains a good friend with Ethan as she leads her own team in IMF.

who has an amazing redemption arc: Not a villain being redeemed, but I’m gonna say Hunley. He was a right bastard in Rogue Nation, interrogating Benji weekly, sending the CIA to kill Ethan and Benji, hunting them down, but then he realised he was wrong, accepted that, and changed his outlook on the team. The things he spoke to Ethan about at the start of the film, praising him - god I loved that.

who is hot af: Like… everyone? But have you seen the White Widow?

who belongs in jail: Lane and August. One is sort of there, and the other is dead, so there’s that.

who needs to be revived from the dead: Hunley, Lindsay, Jack, Hanaway, just about everyone

[fyeahbatcat]

I actually want Joëlle Jones to give Selina a new background story. I feel like none of the last stories have made her justice, either it being rather sexist or ridiculous. I feel like they never explain where she gets her fighting skills, diamond/jewel knowledge and ability to break into the highest security from. I think she deserves a better beginning story. I know rebirth isn't a "reboot" but do you think it could happen?

I’m perfectly okay calling Rebirth a reboot. DC doesn’t like to call it a reboot because that would akin to admitting defeat about New 52, and as Geoff Johns explained in the industry reboot is a dirty word. But it’s like you can call a tail a leg, you know?

We’ve only heard a little bit about Selina’s background in Rebirth, but from the bits and pieces Tom King has written it’s already vastly different from what they did during New 52, particularly her parentage. I wrote about it here. So I think the door is wide open if they wanted to give Selina a new definitive backstory. I’ve always wanted a strong and consistent backstory arc/mini series for Selina. One that is free of the abuse as a backstory trope. I physically cannot stand to see abuse being used as Selina’s phoenix moment again. 

In my mind it would be something like a cross between the movies Focus and Misson Impossible V. Initially it would be about a young Selina falling in with a group of grifters and honing her skills as a thief and eventually pulling one over on them in an elaborate, double-crossing heist. Then it would transition into her early days as Catwoman where she’s kind of an enigmatic Ilsa Faust character who is constantly outsmarting Batman and you’re not really sure if she should be trusted or whose side she’s really on. That would be my ideal Catwoman backstory thing. 

[ofmusingsxandmayhem-a]

Ilsa Faust deserved better than a bullshit shoehorned romance and that’s the tea.

[bridgertonbee1814]

I just got out of the cinema after seeing Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, and I am totally and utterly devastated.

I had known via a spoiler I stumbled across on Twitter about Ilsa's fate, and it took me just over a week to muster up the courage to go and see it for myself.

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR DEAD RECKONING BELOW, DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT KNOW

Firstly, I want to establish that this is not a hate post against the film. The first half was really enjoyable, well-paced, full of action and insane stunts, and I was really invested in the plot, especially the emphasis on how much Ethan's friends, particularly Ilsa, mean to him.

But after Ilsa "died" (I'm using quotations here because I'm nothing if not a perpetual optimist I'm praying she's alive, also I'm in major denial), I felt like the plot lost its legs a bit. Ilsa sacrificed herself for the sake of Grace, a character who we have only just been introduced to in this movie. While it is in line with her character's morals, I'm honestly shocked at how quickly Ethan and the team, who are extremely tight-knit and don't easily trust outsiders, are willing to replace her with Grace. It's like her death gets brushed over, pushed under the rug and the gaping wound felt by all of us Ilsa lovers is hastily covered with a Hayley Atwell branded plaster.

Because, above a lot of things, I feel that Mission Impossible films are about Ethan and the people he cares about - his team, who are basically like family to him. And when you take away one of that team, a character who, I might add, took three films of storyline to be trusted and gain her seat at the table, is blithely killed off for "mission impossible stakes", as McQuarrie puts it, it just doesn't feel like the franchise I know and love anymore.

The ending to Dead Reckoning Part Two still hasn't been written or filmed, and the writers' and actor's strike currently going underway in Hollywood just might be the perfect time to act. If you hate Ilsa's death as much as I do, I am urging you, begging you to speak up. Make noise on every single platform you have and let McQuarrie and Tom Cruise know you don't want Ilsa replaced or killed off, that she doesn't deserve such a fate unworthy of her. Spread the hashtag #IlsaFaustDeservesBetter everywhere you can, in every place you see Mission Impossible content. Make them listen. Make them see. Make them bring back Ilsa Faust.

[bridgertonbee1814]

This petition has reached 100 signatures in just over a week!!!🤯🎉 I wrote this in a depressed state after seeing Ilsa's fate in Dead Reckoning as a way to soothe myself and honestly didn't think it would get any attention. I'm so glad I was proved wrong and I would like to thank each and every one of you who signed and shared. Please keep it up and keep spreading this petition and the hashtag #IlsaFaustDeservesBetter to get it the exposure it needs❤️

[chieftyphoonchaos]

I will wait to officially declare Ilsa Faust dead until in "Mission Imbossible Dead Reckonink part 2"!!! Because until we have seen that one, the possibility still exists that she is still alive and they have been fooling the ALL programme and its accomplice all along.I keep hoping for that anyway because Ferguson and her ilsa deserve a much better ending than what it looks like now

Ethan : So you're not dead?

Ilsa : hello Ethan , I've missed you.