#we finally GOT IT AND IT’S PHENOMENAL and people/supposed fans are posting bad faith takes

[notallthosewho-wanderarelost]

I keep seeing very salty posts that are like “what’s the point of a Black Widow movie now that we know she dies in Endgame” or complaining that the movie is an attempt to replace with Natasha with a younger, hotter model in Yelena, or saying that it’s basically beating a dead horse for the money and I just. The point is that it’s a Black Widow movie. The point is that it’s exploring Natasha’s character on her own, putting her in the spotlight and diving into her psyche and her character and her story, instead of putting her in a secondary role next to someone else. Do you also complain about the existence of the Star Wars prequels because you already know Anakin becomes Darth Vader and dies 23 years later? Because if not then that’s a bit of a double standard.

Yes it’s late, and yes it totally sucks that it only happened after she died stupidly in Endgame, and that we’re not going to get more of this for a very long time if ever, but that doesn’t change the fact that the movie is actually phenomenal. Maybe watch the movie before you complain about problems that it doesn’t have.

And that also goes for people preemptively saying that it sexualizes all the female characters. It absolutely does not. You can even see that in the posters and trailers if you actually bother to look at them instead of just assuming the worst because that’s what you’re used to. I’m not going to go into specific details here because I don’t want to spoil anything for people who haven’t seen it, but you can absolutely tell this movie was made by women. There’s a thing about a certain piece of clothing having pockets. All the women have their hair pulled back when going into fights. This movie takes Whedon’s “Natasha is a monster because she can’t have children” and turns that on its head in such a great way that tells us something about the characters and their trauma and is a hilarious scene to boot. Actually, it’s multiple scenes and they’re both great.

Yelena is not being set up as a “younger, hotter, better version of Natasha” or whatever. (Though ironically that IS explicitly her goal in her early comic appearances, and it makes her a really interesting foil to Natasha.) She’s her own character. She has a great arc and she’s an amazing character, but this movie is about Natasha. You can’t talk about Yelena as a character in this movie and therefore in the wider MCU without talking about Natasha and their relationship and how it impacts her, because it’s Natasha’s movie.

Lastly, because this post was made in response to a specific post I just saw on my dash that was just the last straw for me but I didn’t want to respond directly to because I don’t feel like wading into that drama, can we please stop equating actors with the characters they play? If you don’t like Scarlett Johansson that’s fine, but don’t slam Natasha because of who plays her. And the same for Jeremy Renner and Clint. Also, stop blaming Clint for Natasha’s death. He wanted to sacrifice himself for Nat too; he didn’t think her life was less valuable than his just because he had a wife and kids. Blame the writers and directors of Endgame for Natasha’s crummy death and all its implications, not her best friend who she loved and sacrificed herself for. It’s M&M and the Russos who did Natasha dirty, not Clint.

PS: I hate to tell you this, but if you thought Natasha’s braid in Endgame was ugly, you might want to know ahead of time that everyone in Black Widow wears braids. There are so many braids. Braids are good and there was nothing wrong with Nat’s Endgame braid or with any of the braided hairstyles in Black Widow. You’re fully welcome to your opinion on braids, but I’m not sure why Nat’s braid is being dragged into the way Endgame mistreated her.