#anti mcu for ts

[ntshastark]

X-Men: Evolution is nothing like the comics

But still a better adaptation than the MCU

So, this tweet kind of really annoyed me. It’s in portuguese, but it says:

Good thing X-Men Evolution came out at a time when there wasn't much access to the internet, if this cartoon had come out now in 2022, even though it's a VERY GOOD cartoon, it would be massacred by the internet for not being faithful to the comics

My problem with it is how it implies that comic stans will tear any adaptation down if it’s not “faithful” enough. I won’t deny some people are like this, but I’d actually say (most) comic fans are actually more likely to enjoy an adaptation that’s nothing like the source material than most people. Under the right circumstances.

(Disclaimer: Whenever I say ‘comic’, assume I mean Marvel/DC comics unless stated otherwise; and whenever I say ‘film’ or ‘TV series’, I’m including both live-action and animation)

First, I want to make it clear that I’ve loved few cartoons in my childhood as much as I’ve loved XMEvo. It was HUGE in Brazil, as popular as XMTAS is in the USA. It was literally my first superhero obsession, and it actually, still to this day, colour a lot of the things I feel about the X-Men.

Second, I want to defend the right to not like an adaptation for not being faithful. I’m a fan of The Princess Diaries (book series), so that’s a pain I know all too well. It sucks to see a character or story that you love be turned into something completely different, and it’s a thousand times worse when this twisted version becomes the most popular one.

But anyway. How to be a good adaptation without “being faithful”?

1. Being its own, separate thing

Comics are basically the most adaptable stories there are. Those who read them are familiar with the multiverse, likely have several different versions of the same characters that they like, and sometimes even prefer an elseworld than the main universe. If you make a film or a TV series based on a comic and, from the start, treats it as just another different universe, it’s unlikely that a lot of people won’t like it just because it’s different. Maybe they won’t like those specific changes, but just the fact that there are changes is completely understandable.

(XMEvo never tried to be like 616, or even Ults, it always made it clear that it was an AU)

2. Not claiming to adapt directly if you’re not going to

Another thing about comics is that they’re old as balls. By this point, literally everything’s happened at least once, probably twice, maybe three times but with a different name now. It’s not like a book or even a graphic novel or a mini, where there’s a linear story with beginning middle and end. So there’s a huge number of stories for adaptations to choose, or even just tap into. If the adaptation isn’t an origin story, or specifically say it’s going to be based on a certain arc, no one is even gonna be able to directly compare it to the source material.

(The name ‘X-Men: Evolution’ isn’t a callback to any specific arc - at least that I know of - and neither are any of the episode names - which tbh really surprised me. The series taps into some origin stories but none of them are really the main focus)

3. Not being the only adaptation

And, side effect of comics being old as balls, there’s adaptations to spare. Rarely a book will be adapted more than once, unless the first adaptation is a success and then the adaptation itself gets a remake. The only exceptions I can think of are Literature Classics (so even older) and Percy Jackson (exactly because the fans hated the first adaptation for not being faithful to the books). The fucking horrendous Princess Diaries adaptation is actually getting a damn sequel.

Basically, comic fans are used to adaptations. They inevitably reach a larger audience than the comics and influence their perspective on the characters, which is “dangerous”. But adaptations end, the next one happens, the general public’s perception is adjusted again. An adaptation that people know is an adaptation and treat as an adaptation is never going to annoy a fan of the source material the way an adaptation that’s treated as the main version, or, even worse, seen as an original work, will. And being less annoyed by it means you’re more likely to give it a chance, even with it being different from the original.

(XMEvo came out 3 years after XMTAS ended, lasted 3 years, and 4 years later Wolverine and the X-Men came out. It also premiered the same year as the first X-Men live-action film)

4. It’s ok if it’s not, the comics are still there

And the thing about comics is that they don’t die. Even if the adaptation is bad, the comics are still coming out and you can just focus on reading them and ignore the rest. Sometimes, however, elements from the adaptation are incorporated into the comics. You can only hope it’s done in a organic manner and doesn’t interfere much with the established characters and relationships you already love.

(XMEvo did have an effect in the comics, as it was the first appearance of Laura Kinney. Laura was introduced in the comics as a new character, after XMEvo was already finished)

And what does the MCU has to do with this?

Well, you see. The MCU does absolutely not a single one of those things.

2. It chooses specific arcs to adapt - or claim to.

The MCU isn’t adapting “vibes”. Each character besides Spider-Man has their origin story adapted. Event names show up in the actual titles. Sometimes comic panels are directly recreated on-screen. There’s no way it could pretend to not be directly using specific comic storylines as a base (and then not paying the people who made those comics).

A film based on a book is supposed to tell the same story of the book. Maybe some details change, but the story is the same. Comics usually have a lot more leeway, but if you choose to wave that, you should be prepared to have your film/TV series judged accordingly. Committing to adapt a specific comic arc is completely different than simply making a movie about a character or a team that has decades of stories to pick elements from.

3. It monopolises adaptation. 

Not only have other Marvel adaptations been based on the MCU instead of the comics for a long time now (ex.: ’Avengers Assemble’ replacing ‘Earth’s Mightiest Heroes’ in 2013), but recently every single Marvel animated project was cancelled (’Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Avengers: Black Panther’s Quest’, and the entire Marvel Rising line-up all ended in 2019. ‘Spider-Man’ ended in 2020), and projects set in the MCU were announced (’I Am Groot’ in 2020, ‘Spider-Man: Freshman Year’ and ‘Marvel Zombies’ in 2021).

[[For the sake of completion: ‘Hit-Monkey’ (2021) was cancelled and ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ (2021) is in limbo. The only non-MCU animated properties still going - besides Sony’s Spider-Verse - are ‘Baymax!’ (technically based on Marvel comics, but in practice just a Disney property), ‘Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur’ (has been in production since 2018 and keeps getting delayed) and ‘X-Men '97′, which is actually the first non-MCU project fully produced by Marvel Studios (it’s clearly being done to promote the introduction of the mutants in the MCU, but at least some good is coming out of it) (ETA: Marvel apparently can’t recast the Fox X-Men cast until 2025, so I guess the only way for them to do something not MCU-based is not being legally allowed to)]]

It’s not that bad when a comic adaptation doesn’t do your favourite character justice if another, hopefully better, one happens not too long after, or even simultaneously but in a different medium. But the MCU has been going for over 10 years and there’s no end in sight. A character you like is dead, written completely different, had some of their more meaningful relationships erased, or was whitewashed? Tough luck. Maybe in 50 years this shit will be finally over and they’ll get another shot.

And, yes, this deprives Marvel fans who don’t enjoy the MCU of content, but it also monopolises the public perception of characters. That version, inaccurate as it is, is all the general public is going to know.

4. It doesn’t leave the comics alone.

Taking over all the possible adaptations wasn’t enough. There has been countless changes to the comics so that they more closely resemble the MCU. Characters’ stories, personalities, relationships. Team rosters, teams’ existences. Events are constantly recycled so that they help promote films that are (supposedly) based on previous events. It’s all done extremely obviously and clearly under instructions from above. Nothing about it is organic, most of it barely even makes sense.

There’s nowhere left to run. Adaptations other than the films are now either based on it (if you’re lucky) or part of it. The comics are being moulded to its image, usually to their detriment. Everyone else in the world sees “Marvel” as a synonym to "MCU”. Your favourite character is now incredibly popular, but only as a whitewashed antisemitic version, and if their fans could spit on you via twitter for pointing that out they would.

1. It doesn’t stay on its lane.

The MCU straight up claimed for itself the reality number of the original comics universe (616), even when it already had a established reality number (199999). It is in no way satisfied with being an adaptation, it needs to have the center stage. The comics, the original universe, what started everything, is pushed aside in favour of it. And this was officiated when they gave it the main universe’s number. The MCU is the main universe, and comics are simply the script’s first draft.

So I think it’s fair that “the internet” “massacres” it “for not being faithful to the comics”. Your regular comic adaptation doesn’t really need to be, but we’re way past that. If the MCU is to be the main universe, then the bare minimum it should be is accurate to the main universe’s stories.

[2amtechnicolor]

not to be a snob but if your favorite artist is taylor swift or you think marvel movies are cinema i am allowed to throw your opinion on any media ever into the garbage

[summerstrash]

genuinely baffled by the level of whole-ass-showing that l*zzie *ls*n stans reach on Twitter. Like, I saw one go into the replies of people who are not talking about mcu wanda, who are explicitly talking about updating the comics character's wiki page so that it better reflects how she's currently being drawn (giving examples of recent covers she's featured on), and say that, referencing the posted covers, "the fan arts don't even look like her that's a whole other woman"

and i'm just like. dude those are official art. Wanda's finally being drawn with respect given to her Romani heritage. you're just obsessed with a literally pale imitation of the real thing. That's a whole other woman, boyo. Get out of our house.

[elisabeth-forbes]

still can’t get over the fact that he trashed the vfx artists on his own film. Like how about we talk about the fact if you did a better job maybe you wouldn’t have needed so much vfx stuff done to actually hold your shitty movie together??

Only good thing about that interview was the amount of people in the comments saying how crappy he was being about the vfx artists 

[yeamarvel]

ever since the launch of disney+ i feel like there’s been wayyyyy too many mcu projects and they all seem so rushed i mean you can literally tell that they’re prioritizing quantity over quality

im here for more marvel content but its become overwhelming and quite honestly...dare i say...boring? 

and i feel like we don’t get to appreciate nor understand characters due to this overwhelming amount of media.

 i’ll use our beloved sam wilson and wanda maximoff as examples because they were so well introduced and developed throughout the mcu. both characters appeared as supporting characters and appeared in many projects and finally got their own focused shows/movies and that is why so many fans came to love them because of how organically the characters and storyline was developed

with the influx of so many new projects, there is virtually no time to take in a character or storyline and it sucks!!!!!

[userpeggycarter]

your 'won't reblog' list is so funny imagine being a loser who hates fun that much. imagine being such a sad little butt baby you can't interact with anyone who likes things you don't. couldn't be me!

wow. i don't even know where to begin.

it's kinda hilarious that **I** am the sad little butt baby but you're the one having a meltdown in my inbox? being butthurt because a stranger has a "won't reblog" section in their about page????? do you have self awareness??? read that second to last sentence I just typed again. read it. HOW CAN YOU NOT GET IT???? 😱

second of all, the "won't reblog" section is a guideline for tagging me on posts. i don't reblog that stuff for a reason. it's not a DNI. in fact, I do interact with people who reblog and make content about (some of) that stuff listed in my blog because the morals of media consumption are complicated and very personal. some things i draw a very hard line on, some i don't. let me explain each of those "forbidden media" in my blog for you in basic terms like I'm talking to a child (because i am):

Wizarding World: JK Rowling is a TERF, an antisemite and a racist. i thought this one was self-explanatory. it's 2023 ffs

MCU!Maximoffs are white-washed, anti-romani and very antisemitic. google that stuff if you don't know. next question. (i did reblog a MCU Wanda gifset recently btw, but a mutual tagged me on it and i felt awkward ignoring it, but when that happens i tag those posts with #mcu wanda because some people blacklist that tag and for good reason. also it's a subtle way to say I'm not okay with her. i wish these awkward situations didn't happen but they do and i like to support creators, despite your allegations that i don't.

starker is a p*do ship. thorki is inc*st. duh

ngl reylo is not necessarily problematic i just think it's lame lol maybe it shouldn't be on the list because all of that other stuff has serious problems (IN MY OPINION!)

red/orange/color-washed content is racist if done with POC (and it's even a bad look if you're dealing with white people, to a lesser extent ofc)

i don't need to explain johnny depp do i? christ

henry cavill dated a teenager. google it

the last of us's creator is anti palestine and pro genocide.

elizabeth olsen said the G slur on air in the Graham Norton show AFTER he told her it was a slur!!!!!!!!!!! again google it.

gal gadot is also anti palestine. remember the IDF cunt post? iconic

taylor swift: same thing with reylo, i'm just not interested in her, even though she's not exactly a saint either... but honestly i put TS on the list mostly because most of the gifmaker community loves her and i was worried people would tag me on TS content and that would be an uncomfortable situation, because i don't like to ignore tagged posts but also i like to have boundaries/preferences, even though YOU deem them silly or stupid (like if that's your right to do so lmao alexa play toxic by britney spears)

i'm betting money it was the taylor swift thing that pissed you off lol maybe mcu wanda???? both?

stolen/reposted content is also self-explanatory right? or are you that stupid? considering the tantrum i think you are but hope springs eternal i guess...

LAST, but not least, i'm gonna end on a positive note because unlike you I'm not a cunt (derogatory). I'm gonna address your first message here:

listen, i get it. i get frustrated with notes too. the grass is always greener and there's always a bigger fish i guess. you envy me and i envy other creators bigger than me. but we shouldn't do that. first of all, it's not a competition. my "success" (it's tumblr at the end of the day... silly stuff!) is not a threat to you or anyone else. people can reblog my gifs and yours, they don't have to pick a creator. unfortunately, tumblr has been suffering from lack of interaction lately and it's just getting worse. all creators are complaining about it. creators of different sizes and different niches, btw. we complain in private and in public. and what tumblr does in return? text posts complaining about us complaining get 50k notes in a day. it's tough. we shouldn't be treated this way, even though no one is obliged to reblog stuff and we aren't owed notes. but it's natural and fair to feel sad about lack of recognition and complain about. tumblr's lack of engagement is going to kill the website, but that's a conversation to another day.

i want to end with this:

you need to create because you want to create. you need to create because you want to get better at your craft. recognition is good and it's natural to want and feel upset about the lack of it, but it shouldn't kill your creative spirit. social media has poisoned our brains. 50 notes might not sound a lot but imagine 50 people in real life complimenting you. you might be someone's favorite creator. you might be a niche creator who is carrying your community on your back and people in that niche are so grateful for you, even though they don't say that. because unfortunately, hate speaks louder than love. case in point, this hate mail. for every one of you out there, there must be 10 people who like my work. but i never hear from them and that sucks, but i must believe that they exist and be thankful for them. sometimes people will recognize my hard work and i'm very grateful for those moments. they do motivate me, but they aren't the only thing that motivates me. making posts i wanna reblog but won't exist until i make them motivates me. getting better at my craft motivates me. making friends because of my craft motivates me. knowing i'm entertaining people (even though they're very silent about their appreciation of my work) motivates me. tumblr is a social media platform and social media is made by its users. if anyone stopped posting, there wouldn't be anything to do here. my gifset might not change the trajectory of someone's day (sometimes it does!), but it's my drop of water alongside thousands of other drops of water from other users that make this ocean that we all swim in. don't give up. keep making gifs. you will get better at them. people will follow you. you will get more notes. might not be enough followers or enough notes in your opinion, but we shouldn't put a number on our value.

and let me tell you a secret: when your goal is numbers, you're never satisfied. believe me, i learned this lesson. i thought i would be happy with hundreds of followers. then i got hundreds of followers. suddenly they weren't enough, i wanted thousands of followers now. and then i got them. guess what? i still seek validation through numbers (google David Foster Wallace's This is Water btw). but it will never be enough because you are now and i was then looking at the wrong solution to the problem. i need to FEEL enough, not be told by numbers or people that I'm enough. I'm the one that decides that. and i am enough. I'm good, even. hell, I'm great. and in theory, so do you, but god that attitude... it ain't it. it will only cause you pain. and worse, it's causing you to try to cause pain in others. isn't that sad? isn't that shameful? i do say try because newsflash pussycat, it didn't work. i was baffled by your hate (thankfully i don't get a lot of hate around here!), but i wasn't hurt. because I'm not threatened by your perception of me. because it's superficial, childish, hateful, you name it. i know myself. i love myself. in the words of my beloved URL namesake, i know my value. do you know yours? it doesn't seem like you do. and that type of attitude only lessens your value, babe. this is not getting you anywhere in tumblr or worse, in life.

this would be the moment in which i would wish you the best, but you know what? fuck you. i hope you get no notes until eternity. but in case an innocent person is reading this and is also battling with their self-worth due to tumblr notes: i wish you the best. don't give up.

[catgirl-catboy]

Oooh my god Gravity Falls.... I got really into it about a year and a half ago, and I made the incredible mistake of looking at r/gravityfalls. I hadn't even thought you could hate Mabel, and certainly not that strongly, but I underestimated redditors. I've never had a gen to ship fic ratio that went this far on the gen side though, and there were some really good fics. I think the best things I've read for it were a really cool timeloop fic in which Stan and Ford patch things up and a fluffy verse with sweet feelings. Oh and there was one soulmate fic that was purely platonic, and usually I love romance but my aro heart cherishes platonic soulmates every time I stumble upon some. But the show is absolutely great, and I'm a little sad I wasn't there in its heyday, but what do you want. What I would not recommend is what I've been trying to do, ie slowly try to get into Marvel comics stuff (the same way you get into a pool a little, go up to your knees, water on your neck, don't jump in to avoid a shock). The hell of trying to figure out who's who and what comes when and are we talking about MCU verse or comics verse and who's that canon AU guy and where does blorbo appear - and all the while you see the wonderful opinions of dudebros with no taste and women who are really into Taylor Swift (one of those being worse than the other of course, liking TS isn't a crime). Almost like Star Wars but also worse :) sorry I rambled there, I don't actually think we really share fandoms? I wanted to talk a little too haha

No worries!

I am not a fan of bill/dipper in the SLIGHTEST and read mostly genfic, but all of the recent antis of it are so annoying to me. Like, learn your history! The ship has been in the fandom longer than you have,

Eh, I can kind of see where the distaste of Mabel comes from, since I feel like she gets slightly too much screen time, at the expense of Dipper. Thats more of a fault than the writing than the character. That being said, its way overblown, and a lot of people tend to forget that she's 12! If I were 12 in these situations, I'd be way worse.

Platonic soulmate fics are either the best fic known to man, or garbage, depending on how its written. (sometimes you just get the vibe that whoever wrote it is looking down on probalematic ships, yk?) If you liked this one, send me the link!

I've never been into MCU comics, they seem like they have a high barrier to entry. Glad you're having fun, but I highly doubt anything can be Star Wars, but worse. Feels like the current writers of SW hate what made it great, so I feel disconnected from anything post-TFA. Shame, since SW was my childhood.

[levyfiles]

Shane is probably trolling with r*ylo the same way he likes to rile up B*cky fans + also that recent tweet about TS new album. He clearly knows how controversial that ship is. Both Ryan and Shane follow Rahul Kohli, and Rahul got harrassed to no end by the shippers for just mentioning the ship this summer. Iirc, both of them even liked Rahul's tweet. So, it's most likely trolling on his part.

The thing is I really do think he likes Reylo (and that's fine; shipping is a neutral activity and I refuse to join a camp that says all ships must be pure and unproblematic when I've been shipping messy ships since I first read the words "enemies to lovers".

Having said that, as someone whose own inner contrarian is activated by antis quite often, I'd say that his genuinely liking Reylo and his wanting to be a troll are two features of his personality that can co-exist.

I respect wholeheartedly the energy of people in fan spaces who interact with the things they know and love with a level of trollishness. I think he and Ryan have that vibe about them where they lean in hard to really rile people up when they can which is why they're so fun to watch together but the thing that makes the opinions less insufferable to me is that I know they mean them.

So yeah, while I'm in the camp of wishing Shane would be more genuine rather than trying to be the funniest quirkiest person in the room sometimes, I hold that in this instance, he's kind of serious.

I do think it's ironic how anti-Stucky they both are by virtue of the opinion that Bucky is dull as hell and yet Shane is out here stanning Dr. Strange like man, what? Make some sense now and then.

And that's the limit of my opinion on the star war ship and a little hint of an mcu opinion.

[padfootastic]

Not an unpopular opinion at all I think but some people are very passionate about exactly the opposite thing so here goes

1. Tony Stark was the best part of MCU similar to Batman being the best part of DC

2. Killing Tony was the biggest mistake because MCU Phase 4(?) does not even hold a candle because Tony, Captain and all the amazing character are gone. The only one I can mildly tolerate watching now is Antman (and that is because Paul Rudd is so hot)

3. The last Thor movie which was released was the worst MCU movie ever made (though this might not be unpopular at all)

And I'm sorry for sending this because this is not something you post about but I have seen *some* iron man posts on your dash and I thought why not

omg an mcu ask!!!! please don’t apologise, i love this sm. and ur right, i’ve def posted some IM content bc i’m obsessed w both tony stark and rdj and tho i don’t talk about it, he owns a nice, large piece of my heart.

1. Strongly agree

can’t speak for DC but gosh, yes. tony stark is hands down the heart & soul of MCU. i literally just look at ts comps on youtube all the time bc i can’t stand the movies when they’re so anti tony :( but i also just. really like him ykno? and deeply thirst after him as well. he’s not just impeccable eye candle, but also a great muscle man AND the best brawn possible. literally the perfect package. also, u just know he fucks so hard.

2. Agree

yeah, i feel u. i’m not very invested in MCU as a whole so i don’t feel too passionate about it but amy movie without iron man automatically becomes meh to me. also just, this might be the real unpopular opinion here but i feel like they really butchered mcu spider-man?? like i adore tom holland, he’s v good in the role, but the plot is so stupid? it makes me cringe v v bad to the point i couldn’t even watch the third SM movie tbh.

3. Neutral

ooooh i’ve been v cut off from civilisation for a while so i haven’t watched it (and i’m terrible w any visual media that’s not in theatres hehe) but i’ve heard very mixed reviews about it so zero opinion from my side, friend.

Send me unpopular opinions!

[legionofpotatoes]

marvel really went like. our movies were always plot-first story-second so uhhh what if we just get rid of story altogether and it is just all plot all the time baby

[rogersstevie]

like daylight.

[ntshastark]

After today’s TFATWS episode I couldn’t stop thinking about this

AU where the MCU didn’t do us dirty:

(Which was done first - and better - here)

Original pages (from Cap v5 #25 - aka the one where Steve dies):

[laurelwinchester]

the mcu isn't anything to write home about. it's a let down, let's be honest. lots of failed potential, mediocre cgi, and bad writing. but i still think it should be against the law for people who stan the cw's dctv to drag the mcu and anything related to it.

[starklore]

cacw is the bane of my existence not just because it's boring and I don't like it but bc it made it impossible to stan both Tony and Steve on this blue hellsite

[him-e]

I don’t get the “TLJ is sexist/racist” arguments because surely you can like something while acknowledging it’s relatively diverse, especially by Hollywood standards, no? I don’t get that aspect of the criticism

Yeah, I mean surely sw doesn’t deserve to be praised for doing better than most when the bar is so low, but comparing tlj to a franchise that  

fridged the only female character in the original avengers cast (the subtext being that she was the most disposable one because she doesn’t/can’t have children and she knew it, make no mistake) after doing the same with the only female character from the original guardians of the galaxy cast

made both death scenes, if not straight up sexualized, definitely appealing to the male gaze, with their flowy hair and gracefully angled bodies lying on their backs and shit

gave all the heroes of color minimal screetime and only secondary or tertiary roles in the main battle

hyped Captain Marvel only to keep her conveniently M.I.A. for most of the movie

made a running joke of a character’s gaining weight because of depression/pstd

had self-congratulatory, heavy handed “girl power” moments like the scene where all the female heroes are gathered in the same frame (infinity war had a similar scene with Nat, Wanda and Okoje fighting together the... drum roll... female villain!, and we’re supposed to see this as peak empowerment)

is absolutely dumb, especially considering that this is the same crowd who has been virulently ant/i Rose Tico for no other reason than her existing and being Finn’s love interest instead of Rey.

and like the other anon said, the difference is that misogynists HAVE tried to make a no womenz TLJ cut and it amounted to thirty minutes or something (nevermind that HOW do you exactly erase Rey from TLJ without turning it into a whole different narrative? Like... Reylo is a central storyline in it? You know you can’t just fucking replace it with Kylo vs Luke, do you?) whereas you can absolutely do it with Endgame and leave the basic plot structure intact, you just need to find different plot devices for, say, Tony making it back to Earth (not that you need him to be stuck in space anyway) o the heroes getting the soul stone. In the end, the only heroine who had a degree of character evolution was Nebula, but she was ultimately used as a plot device too, to allow Thanos to travel back in time.

[emperorren]

Patrick (H) Willems is doing videos on the limitations o the MCU. In the first one he makes two points that I believe are relevant to SW fandom (a) in MCU films a character is formed in their origin story but then never really changes or grows in any significant way beyond that and (b) in these movies the "character stuff" (shawarma and buddy scenes) are what people are there for vs the fights. I think people came to TFA expecting it to be an origin story that set up unchanging goodies to buddy

I haven’t seen any of his videos but I will definitely check them out, thanks for the rec! I think people tend to underestimate the impact the MCU format has had on pop culture in the last decade, especially when it comes to serialized blockbusters.

in MCU films a character is formed in their origin story but then never really changes or grows in any significant way beyond that

This is so spot on (also explains why the origin-story/first chapter MCU movies are the most compelling ones, with some exceptions, like C.A. The Winter Soldier, which actually has some character development and creates new interesting dynamics between the protag and other characters—that sadly remain vastly ignored in the following movies but that’s another issue). 

To be honest, the MCU didn’t actually *invent* anything, but rather derived this format from comics. It’s similar to the equally common “Half-Arc Season”, as TV Tropes calls it—which is typical of formulaic monster-of-the-week tv shows (e.g. Supernatural, The X-Files, but also animated series like Sailor Moon). You have the main characters, premise, call to adventure and core conflict(s) all established in the first episode, which is then followed by a number of monster-of-the-week / filler episodes that don’t actually develop the overarching plot (or, if they do, they do it in excruciatingly small steps or in such an underhanded way that you have to sit down and analyze the episode closely to notice it), then you’ll probably have a mid season climax, then other filler episodes, until the end of the season where the overarching plot suddenly accelerates and the conflict reaches a final climax and is resolved. Character development is often uneven, shallow and/or poorly executed. The filler episodes might be centered around some ‘lesson’ that the main characters learn during their monster-of-the-week fight, or around highlighting a particular trait of the characters’ personality or dynamics with each other, but all tends to be flattened and made inconsequential, as each filler episode generally starts with a soft reset.

Lots of serialized works and franchises tend to default to this storytelling mode. It gets under your skin and it doesn’t surprise me that lots of people, esp. kids and young adults, expect even stories deliberately conceived as three-act narratives to behave like this.

I think people came to TFA expecting it to be an origin story that set up unchanging goodies to buddy

Definitely. It’s funny because a lot of TLJ naysayers criticized the movie because it’s supposedly a filler episode, in the sense that the plot doesn’t move forward and whatever happens is irrelevant since the status quo is reestablished at the end of the movie. But character-wise, TLJ is a HUGE leap forward, and it changes the interpersonal dynamics between the main characters in a big way. Methinks people wanted TLJ to be more of a game-changer plot-wise, but also ironically more of a standard filler middle chapter as far as character development and character dynamics are concerned? It’s definitely true that many fans were expecting the entire character arcs of the protagonists to revolve around cute feel-good bonding moments MCU style in between one big fight against the baddies and another and nothing more complex or thought provoking than that. Instead they got a) the heroine developing a bond with the villain and having a completely separate journey from that of the other two members of the so-called “heroic trio”, and b) fanbro icon Luke Skywalker never actually meeting the other good guys in person, denying them the much anticipated *reunion* and buddying moments with the new trio and stuff.