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The Marvel Cinematic Universe — Page 68

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timdiggerm said:

But what is Thor looking at? What’s over there?!

The FUTURE.

Captain Marvel was fun. Venom was I dunno and isn’t in MCU at all and its own thing. Can’t wait for AVENGERS ENDGAME and SPIDER-MAN: Far From Home. The latter is movie one in Phase Four.
Expected sequels are: Black Panther II, Ant-Man 3, Doctor Strange II, Captain Marvel 2, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, and I forget.

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You can check the first post of this thread for an up to date list of the currently confirmed upcoming films.

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Tobar said:

You can check the first post of this thread for an up to date list of the currently confirmed upcoming films.

Nice. I did know about Shang Chi along with The Eternals.

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screams in the void said:

finally got around to seeing Infinity War …thought it was ok . Does anyone else think that the ground battle in Wakanda near the end ripped off the Gungan ground battle from The Phantom Menace a bit ?

No.

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screams in the void said:

finally got around to seeing Infinity War …thought it was ok . Does anyone else think that the ground battle in Wakanda near the end ripped off the Gungan ground battle from The Phantom Menace a bit ?

Steal from something lame and make it great? I’m cool with that. 😛

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Where were you in '77?

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It was brought up a few times last year when the movie came out.

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Apparently Spider-Man: Far From Home is the official end to phase 3 instead of Endgame

After being beaten and battered by prequel hate, I promise not to be that to the next generation.

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 (Edited)

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Wow. Perfectly balanced as all things should be. A true culmination of ten years of storytelling. The three hour run time went by in the blink of an eye. I need to see this again. Excelsior!

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Continuing a conversation in the Lucasfilm’s future thread
Dom, I disagree that Endgame is made of fan service. Granted there is a fair number, in particular, the plan to win sorta makes fan service to the past impossible. Nevertheless, look at what happens to the characters (names removed to avoid spoilers).

–Hawkeye goes on a murderous rampage, breaking their morals to try to cope with loss. They do this for an extended period and exit the movie happy but also with sins they hadn’t had before.
–Thor sinks into some serious depression which takes a huge toll on them emotionally and physically. Where before this hero was the most “heroic” in Infinity War, but in Endgame they must entirely restart their hero’s journey.
–Thanos, who has been seriously hyped up, is anticlimactically killed off in favor of a more compelling plot.
–Iron Man, whom we may expect will get a “rise from nothing” character arc (that was surprisingly given to #2) becomes finally happy after the opening act. This is the sort of thing you would expect their character to end on… but instead, that character leaves their happy family to do the right thing and dies. They had everything and they lost it to save the world.

Granted two of the six avengers manage to get the happy ending they deserved and one gets to have a glorious moment out. But the other three and our purple friend are intentionally broken and rebuilt for the movie. But the fans still enjoyed the movie- suggesting “subverting expectations” can be done in a way that both surprises and pleases the fans. As I am sure many who enjoyed TLJ already knew.

Maul- A Star Wars Story

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 (Edited)

OutboundFlight said:

Continuing a conversation in the Lucasfilm’s future thread
Dom, I disagree that Endgame is made of fan service. Granted there is a fair number, in particular, the plan to win sorta makes fan service to the past impossible. Nevertheless, look at what happens to the characters .

“What happens to the characters” is not just what constitutes fan service, in my mind. Yes the plan to win makes fan service impossible to avoid, and I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But so much time is spent on time travel shenanigans and winks and nods without accomplishing much. One of the most pointless parts is when Cap and Tony go back further to the seventies. Basically its an extended gag, as well as a moment for Tony’s character. Except his character progresses in no way during this sequence, and nothing about it affects his conclusion (beyond the base level 'getting closure with his dad). For Cap, we get set up for his character’s conclusion, but it’s basically just a plot-based set up (this is what gives him the idea) rather than a character one (why does he choose this?).

–Hawkeye goes on a murderous rampage, breaking their morals to try to cope with loss. They do this for an extended period and exit the movie happy but also with sins they hadn’t had before.

In terms of screen time, I’m not sure “extended period” is the right descriptor. As well, we have to understand that Hawkeye is not on the same level of belovedness as the other characters. It’s not exactly a comparable anti-fan service situation to, say, Luke in TLJ, because also Hawkeye’s turn is bad ass (even if it’s bad), and it’s at least partly a nod to the comics (Ronin). The other thing you have to consider, is the fact that basically none of the Avengers have a problem with his bloodthirst, and it ends up not being mentioned at all except on Vormir as a means to make you think that he might sacrifice himself instead of BW (otherwise the choice would have been obvious).

–Thor sinks into some serious depression which takes a huge toll on them emotionally and physically. Where before this hero was the most “heroic” in Infinity War, but in Endgame they must entirely restart their hero’s journey.

Yeah Thor gets his big fan servicey moments in IW so they didn’t feel bad making him more comic relief in this one, especially since this isn’t a conclusion for him and a lot of his character growth is kicked down the road for the next movie he’ll be in.

–Thanos, who has been seriously hyped up, is anticlimactically killed off in favor of a more compelling plot.

I loved that part. Then they went and brought him back, and made him half as interesting - he was a compelling villain who posed an interesting and challenging philosophical conflict for the heroes, but ultimately the stakes in the final battle end up just being “save the Earth.”

–Iron Man, whom we may expect will get a “rise from nothing” character arc (that was surprisingly given to #2) becomes finally happy after the opening act. This is the sort of thing you would expect their character to end on… but instead, that character leaves their happy family to do the right thing and dies. They had everything and they lost it to save the world.

A heroic sacrifice falls squarely into the bounds of fan service if you ask me, especially when he’s literally given an “it’s okay” from his wife so leaving his family behind doesn’t seem all that tragic.

Tony’s death really bothers me if I’m being honest. It’s good that we’re talking about TLJ as well because I found Luke’s death to be a great point of comparison. Their deaths are essentially the same right? They pull one last powerful trick to save the day, but it costs them their lives. Here’s the big difference. We know that both Tony and Luke are the types of guys who’d sacrifice themselves to save someone else. That’s not anything new, we’ve seen that before (Avengers 1 and ROTJ). So how do you make this feel like a poignant and satisfying conclusion to their story? You add a complication. At the start of TLJ, Luke is done being a Jedi, has cut himself off from the Force, and refuses to help. In Endgame, they actually do give Tony the complication - he has a family now, a reason to not sacrifice himself. But whereas every single scene Luke has in TLJ is building up to the moment where he makes the choice to save the Resistance, in Endgame, all we get are couple short scenes at the end of the first act where Tony decides merely to risk his life and the life of his family. Him coming to the decision to actually sacrifice himself and leave his family behind isn’t dramatized anywhere in the film.

The other thing that bothers me is the manner of their death. I will say when I first saw TLJ, Luke’s death left me a little cold, just because it wasn’t clear until that moment that this would kill him. But the thing that’s makes it okay is that this isn’t just Luke sacrificing himself, it’s him becoming one with the Force (the thing that’s he’s shut out for so long), which is nicely symbolic of his final trick securing his legacy as one of the greatest Jedi ever - he dies but he still lives on, in more ways than one.

For Tony, the cause of death is Infinity Gauntlet poisoning, which, unlike TLJ, is set up. But I personally find it a rather bland choice by the filmmakers. The Infinity Gauntlet gives its wielder an absolutely incredible amount of power, power no one person should have. Thanos fancies himself some sort of god, and believes he has a right to this power. But the power of the Gauntlet is only considered dangerous on a physical level in Endgame. First they have Hulk do it because he can withstand the gamma, and it feels like a nice moment for him because he’s struggled with gamma for so long. But that’s merely an external conflict. There’s a potential here for some challenging inner turmoil. What if Bruce didn’t think he could handle the responsibly and he had to grow towards it? On the flip side, for Tony, he’s being trying and failing for so long now to put “a suit of armor around the world.” The Gauntlet would give him the ability to finally succeed at this mission. But of course it’s always been a dangerous mission, and one that’s tapped into dark aspects of Tony’s personality. Having all the stones could have provided Tony with the ultimate internal conflict, and deciding to do the right thing and give them up would have been (in my opinion) the perfect climactic decision for his character to make. But maybe that’s just me.

Granted two of the six avengers manage to get the happy ending they deserved and one gets to have a glorious moment out. But the other three and our purple friend are intentionally broken and rebuilt for the movie. But the fans still enjoyed the movie- suggesting “subverting expectations” can be done in a way that both surprises and pleases the fans. As I am sure many who enjoyed TLJ already knew.

I’ll save my problems with how the other three are handled for another day. I’ll just end with this: I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with fan service, and I think there’s certainly some entertainment value to be had from it, which is not nothing. My problem is only when the fan service gets in the way of the story; in Endgame, I’d say specifically where I take issue is the extended time travel shenanigans, which puts a few (not all) of the character arcs on the back burner for the purpose of a good time, and especially the final battle, which is basically pure spectacle that overshadows any potential for inner character conflict or deeper philosophical/thematic conflict and comes down to a very base level all of us vs. all of them, with the stakes being merely ‘win or lose.’

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Took me a while to find this thread, but really good post by both of you.

DominicCobb said:

OutboundFlight said:

Continuing a conversation in the Lucasfilm’s future thread
Dom, I disagree that Endgame is made of fan service. Granted there is a fair number, in particular, the plan to win sorta makes fan service to the past impossible. Nevertheless, look at what happens to the characters .

“What happens to the characters” is not just what constitutes fan service, in my mind. Yes the plan to win makes fan service impossible to avoid, and I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But so much time is spent on time travel shenanigans and winks and nods without accomplishing much. One of the most pointless parts is when Cap and Tony go back further to the seventies. Basically its an extended gag, as well as a moment for Tony’s character. Except his character progresses in no way during this sequence, and nothing about it affects his conclusion (beyond the base level 'getting closure with his dad). For Cap, we get set up for his character’s conclusion, but it’s basically just a plot-based set up (this is what gives him the idea) rather than a character one (why does he choose this?).

I couldn’t disagree more that the 70s part of the film was just an extended gag. To me, hearing from his dad that he’d sacrifice everything for his kid was the ultimate thing that made Tony totally willing to sacrifice himself for Pepper and Morgan as his ultimate selfless act - he’d do anything for those 2 to live a happy life, even if it meant laying down his life and trumping every chance he had of living with the 2 loves of his life. I can totally empathize with him not wanting to do that, but I can totally see why hearing his father, a man he saw as barely more than a cold and calculist guy, saying he’d do anything for his kid, would ultimately push him over to this next step. I think that’s why we went back to the 70s. For Cap it was nice foreshadowing, because maybe casual audience members forgot about Peggy.

–Hawkeye goes on a murderous rampage, breaking their morals to try to cope with loss. They do this for an extended period and exit the movie happy but also with sins they hadn’t had before.

In terms of screen time, I’m not sure “extended period” is the right descriptor. As well, we have to understand that Hawkeye is not on the same level of belovedness as the other characters. It’s not exactly a comparable anti-fan service situation to, say, Luke in TLJ, because also Hawkeye’s turn is bad ass (even if it’s bad), and it’s at least partly a nod to the comics (Ronin). The other thing you have to consider, is the fact that basically none of the Avengers have a problem with his bloodthirst, and it ends up not being mentioned at all except on Vormir as a means to make you think that he might sacrifice himself instead of BW (otherwise the choice would have been obvious).

Yes, I feel I don’t need to add anything or counterpoint anything here. Nod to the comics + making us believe in his potential sacrifice.

–Thor sinks into some serious depression which takes a huge toll on them emotionally and physically. Where before this hero was the most “heroic” in Infinity War, but in Endgame they must entirely restart their hero’s journey.

Yeah Thor gets his big fan servicey moments in IW so they didn’t feel bad making him more comic relief in this one, especially since this isn’t a conclusion for him and a lot of his character growth is kicked down the road for the next movie he’ll be in.

I loved Thor in the film, and as OutboundFlight put it, his ‘rise from nothing’ character arc. The reset in his hero’s journey, from a certain point of view. And also the fact that most of the film’s themes are communicated through his mother’s conversation with him, despite the fact that his side mission was the comic relief one. Perfect balance throughout the whole sequence, IMO.

–Thanos, who has been seriously hyped up, is anticlimactically killed off in favor of a more compelling plot.

I loved that part. Then they went and brought him back, and made him half as interesting - he was a compelling villain who posed an interesting and challenging philosophical conflict for the heroes, but ultimately the stakes in the final battle end up just being “save the Earth.”

Agreed here.

–Iron Man, whom we may expect will get a “rise from nothing” character arc (that was surprisingly given to #2) becomes finally happy after the opening act. This is the sort of thing you would expect their character to end on… but instead, that character leaves their happy family to do the right thing and dies. They had everything and they lost it to save the world.

A heroic sacrifice falls squarely into the bounds of fan service if you ask me, especially when he’s literally given an “it’s okay” from his wife so leaving his family behind doesn’t seem all that tragic.

Tony’s death really bothers me if I’m being honest. It’s good that we’re talking about TLJ as well because I found Luke’s death to be a great point of comparison. Their deaths are essentially the same right? They pull one last powerful trick to save the day, but it costs them their lives. Here’s the big difference. We know that both Tony and Luke are the types of guys who’d sacrifice themselves to save someone else. That’s not anything new, we’ve seen that before (Avengers 1 and ROTJ). So how do you make this feel like a poignant and satisfying conclusion to their story? You add a complication. At the start of TLJ, Luke is done being a Jedi, has cut himself off from the Force, and refuses to help. In Endgame, they actually do give Tony the complication - he has a family now, a reason to not sacrifice himself. But whereas every single scene Luke has in TLJ is building up to the moment where he makes the choice to save the Resistance, in Endgame, all we get are couple short scenes at the end of the first act where Tony decides merely to risk his life and the life of his family. Him coming to the decision to actually sacrifice himself and leave his family behind isn’t dramatized anywhere in the film.

I believe I tried to counterpoint this earlier in this post but I’ll try again, going a bit more in-depth. Tony at the start of the film was given everything, as opposed to the rest of the world. In a way he had gone back to being very selfish, with a barrier probably more difficult to break (or at least as difficult) as the one Luke had in TLJ. Still, selfless Tony is still inside him and he eventually figures it all out and even volunteers to help, already a heck of a risk and a reflection that his old selfless character hadn’t gone completely even if he now had something much bigger than he ever had before. So he still wasn’t ready to go all the way through, until the travel back to the 70s. The way I interpreted it was that the talk Tony had with his father is ultimately what pushed him over the edge and that’s why that sequence is so important. So all throughout the film Tony’s character progresses from selfish to selfless, one more time, and finally, closure.

The other thing that bothers me is the manner of their death. I will say when I first saw TLJ, Luke’s death left me a little cold, just because it wasn’t clear until that moment that this would kill him. But the thing that’s makes it okay is that this isn’t just Luke sacrificing himself, it’s him becoming one with the Force (the thing that’s he’s shut out for so long), which is nicely symbolic of his final trick securing his legacy as one of the greatest Jedi ever - he dies but he still lives on, in more ways than one.

For Tony, the cause of death is Infinity Gauntlet poisoning, which, unlike TLJ, is set up. But I personally find it a rather bland choice by the filmmakers. The Infinity Gauntlet gives its wielder an absolutely incredible amount of power, power no one person should have. Thanos fancies himself some sort of god, and believes he has a right to this power. But the power of the Gauntlet is only considered dangerous on a physical level in Endgame. First they have Hulk do it because he can withstand the gamma, and it feels like a nice moment for him because he’s struggled with gamma for so long. But that’s merely an external conflict. There’s a potential here for some challenging inner turmoil. What if Bruce didn’t think he could handle the responsibly and he had to grow towards it? On the flip side, for Tony, he’s being trying and failing for so long now to put “a suit of armor around the world.” The Gauntlet would give him the ability to finally succeed at this mission. But of course it’s always been a dangerous mission, and one that’s tapped into dark aspects of Tony’s personality. Having all the stones could have provided Tony with the ultimate internal conflict, and deciding to do the right thing and give them up would have been (in my opinion) the perfect climactic decision for his character to make. But maybe that’s just me.

“deciding to do the right thing and give them up would hae been (in my opinion) the perfect climatic decision for his character to make.”

Well, he had overcome those demons a while ago, hadn’t he? Sure at the beginning when he was thin and probably suffering with PTSD not to mention depression he brought it back up, but I don’t think he meant it at all, and when he’s healthy and happy and OK again he never once mentions anything of the sort. I can see what you’re saying and yes that would’ve been pretty cool, but at the moment of his sacrifice he was at absolute peace and had already overcome every internal obstacle and conflict that had been posed to him throughout all films.

I can totally see what you’re saying and I get it and would’ve been really smart and cool, but I’m very satisfied with what actually was in the movie. I feel like that was Age of Ultron’s conflict, and that only came back in his weakest inner moment - right after getting beat up pretty bad and almost dying in space. Once again, at the time of his sacrifice, he was at absolute peace and at his strongest inside.

Granted two of the six avengers manage to get the happy ending they deserved and one gets to have a glorious moment out. But the other three and our purple friend are intentionally broken and rebuilt for the movie. But the fans still enjoyed the movie- suggesting “subverting expectations” can be done in a way that both surprises and pleases the fans. As I am sure many who enjoyed TLJ already knew.

I’ll save my problems with how the other three are handled for another day. I’ll just end with this: I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with fan service, and I think there’s certainly some entertainment value to be had from it, which is not nothing. My problem is only when the fan service gets in the way of the story; in Endgame, I’d say specifically where I take issue is the extended time travel shenanigans, which puts a few (not all) of the character arcs on the back burner for the purpose of a good time, and especially the final battle, which is basically pure spectacle that overshadows any potential for inner character conflict or deeper philosophical/thematic conflict and comes down to a very base level all of us vs. all of them, with the stakes being merely ‘win or lose.’

While I agree with you here, I think the way the Russos executed it was good enough to make me buy that all the inner and philosophical/thematic conflict had been resolved by then.

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Omni said:

Took me a while to find this thread, but really good post by both of you.

DominicCobb said:

OutboundFlight said:

Continuing a conversation in the Lucasfilm’s future thread
Dom, I disagree that Endgame is made of fan service. Granted there is a fair number, in particular, the plan to win sorta makes fan service to the past impossible. Nevertheless, look at what happens to the characters .

“What happens to the characters” is not just what constitutes fan service, in my mind. Yes the plan to win makes fan service impossible to avoid, and I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But so much time is spent on time travel shenanigans and winks and nods without accomplishing much. One of the most pointless parts is when Cap and Tony go back further to the seventies. Basically its an extended gag, as well as a moment for Tony’s character. Except his character progresses in no way during this sequence, and nothing about it affects his conclusion (beyond the base level 'getting closure with his dad). For Cap, we get set up for his character’s conclusion, but it’s basically just a plot-based set up (this is what gives him the idea) rather than a character one (why does he choose this?).

I couldn’t disagree more that the 70s part of the film was just an extended gag. To me, hearing from his dad that he’d sacrifice everything for his kid was the ultimate thing that made Tony totally willing to sacrifice himself for Pepper and Morgan as his ultimate selfless act - he’d do anything for those 2 to live a happy life, even if it meant laying down his life and trumping every chance he had of living with the 2 loves of his life. I can totally empathize with him not wanting to do that, but I can totally see why hearing his father, a man he saw as barely more than a cold and calculist guy, saying he’d do anything for his kid, would ultimately push him over to this next step. I think that’s why we went back to the 70s. For Cap it was nice foreshadowing, because maybe casual audience members forgot about Peggy.

–Iron Man, whom we may expect will get a “rise from nothing” character arc (that was surprisingly given to #2) becomes finally happy after the opening act. This is the sort of thing you would expect their character to end on… but instead, that character leaves their happy family to do the right thing and dies. They had everything and they lost it to save the world.

A heroic sacrifice falls squarely into the bounds of fan service if you ask me, especially when he’s literally given an “it’s okay” from his wife so leaving his family behind doesn’t seem all that tragic.

Tony’s death really bothers me if I’m being honest. It’s good that we’re talking about TLJ as well because I found Luke’s death to be a great point of comparison. Their deaths are essentially the same right? They pull one last powerful trick to save the day, but it costs them their lives. Here’s the big difference. We know that both Tony and Luke are the types of guys who’d sacrifice themselves to save someone else. That’s not anything new, we’ve seen that before (Avengers 1 and ROTJ). So how do you make this feel like a poignant and satisfying conclusion to their story? You add a complication. At the start of TLJ, Luke is done being a Jedi, has cut himself off from the Force, and refuses to help. In Endgame, they actually do give Tony the complication - he has a family now, a reason to not sacrifice himself. But whereas every single scene Luke has in TLJ is building up to the moment where he makes the choice to save the Resistance, in Endgame, all we get are couple short scenes at the end of the first act where Tony decides merely to risk his life and the life of his family. Him coming to the decision to actually sacrifice himself and leave his family behind isn’t dramatized anywhere in the film.

I believe I tried to counterpoint this earlier in this post but I’ll try again, going a bit more in-depth. Tony at the start of the film was given everything, as opposed to the rest of the world. In a way he had gone back to being very selfish, with a barrier probably more difficult to break (or at least as difficult) as the one Luke had in TLJ. Still, selfless Tony is still inside him and he eventually figures it all out and even volunteers to help, already a heck of a risk and a reflection that his old selfless character hadn’t gone completely even if he now had something much bigger than he ever had before. So he still wasn’t ready to go all the way through, until the travel back to the 70s. The way I interpreted it was that the talk Tony had with his father is ultimately what pushed him over the edge and that’s why that sequence is so important. So all throughout the film Tony’s character progresses from selfish to selfless, one more time, and finally, closure.

I’m sorry but personally I don’t think a single line like “he’s not even born yet, but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him,” is really enough to sell the character arc for me. It’s a little too generic and vague to be the impetus for such a specific and hugely impactful decision on Tony’s part. Obviously we know how much Tony loves his daughter. We also already basically know that he’d do anything for her - it’s the whole reason why he makes it clear that they have to keep what they got in those five years. But what pushes him past the selfishness of wanting to save his daughter but also be there for her? A single platitude from his dad doesn’t do it for me; especially when considering how complicated their relationship was - because of that my reaction isn’t so much ‘oh wow he’s cold but really does love Tony,’ so much as ‘oh wow if only he showed Tony that love while he was alive.’

The other thing that bothers me is the manner of their death. I will say when I first saw TLJ, Luke’s death left me a little cold, just because it wasn’t clear until that moment that this would kill him. But the thing that’s makes it okay is that this isn’t just Luke sacrificing himself, it’s him becoming one with the Force (the thing that’s he’s shut out for so long), which is nicely symbolic of his final trick securing his legacy as one of the greatest Jedi ever - he dies but he still lives on, in more ways than one.

For Tony, the cause of death is Infinity Gauntlet poisoning, which, unlike TLJ, is set up. But I personally find it a rather bland choice by the filmmakers. The Infinity Gauntlet gives its wielder an absolutely incredible amount of power, power no one person should have. Thanos fancies himself some sort of god, and believes he has a right to this power. But the power of the Gauntlet is only considered dangerous on a physical level in Endgame. First they have Hulk do it because he can withstand the gamma, and it feels like a nice moment for him because he’s struggled with gamma for so long. But that’s merely an external conflict. There’s a potential here for some challenging inner turmoil. What if Bruce didn’t think he could handle the responsibly and he had to grow towards it? On the flip side, for Tony, he’s being trying and failing for so long now to put “a suit of armor around the world.” The Gauntlet would give him the ability to finally succeed at this mission. But of course it’s always been a dangerous mission, and one that’s tapped into dark aspects of Tony’s personality. Having all the stones could have provided Tony with the ultimate internal conflict, and deciding to do the right thing and give them up would have been (in my opinion) the perfect climactic decision for his character to make. But maybe that’s just me.

“deciding to do the right thing and give them up would hae been (in my opinion) the perfect climatic decision for his character to make.”

Well, he had overcome those demons a while ago, hadn’t he? Sure at the beginning when he was thin and probably suffering with PTSD not to mention depression he brought it back up, but I don’t think he meant it at all, and when he’s healthy and happy and OK again he never once mentions anything of the sort. I can see what you’re saying and yes that would’ve been pretty cool, but at the moment of his sacrifice he was at absolute peace and had already overcome every internal obstacle and conflict that had been posed to him throughout all films.

I don’t think he ever really overcame those demons at all. He goes through PTSD in Iron Man 3 and creates the iron legion. At the end of the movie he seems to have overcome it and quit being Iron Man… until Age of Ultron where he thinks he’s found another solution to the problem. He goes through these cycles, he’s essentially an addict and his obsessiveness keeps drawing him back to that one thing, that he needs to control and protect that which he fears. After Infinity War, he’s given the biggest blow of all. He failed at a battle he knew was coming, and he lost a surrogate child due to his own actions. He’s at the lowest of possible lows. That demon has definitely come back to haunt him, and I think that early scene when he gets back to Avengers HQ is really powerful.

Skip ahead five years, and he’s moved on and has a new family. But the specter of that past failure is still haunting him. He still remembers that child he lost. What stops him from taking things too far this time, now that he not only has half the world to bring back but also a biological daughter to protect? This is something that has become his greatest flaw, and it should manifest most strongly in the character’s final chapter. Instead, that demon is dropped after that initial scene.

I have a similar problem with Cap’s character. The opening of the film sets up a really compelling and scary possibility. Cap’s whole philosophy “we don’t trade lives” has arguably cost them everything. His steadfast adherence to his beliefs split up the Avengers in the first place which is why Thanos was able to beat them. In every film Cap has always been a rock, but now that aspect of his personality has devastated the world to an unimaginable degree. And he says to himself, “this has to work, because I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.” And it doesn’t, but we cut to five years later and everything’s fine. Just like with Tony they set up the ultimate internal struggle for Cap’s character and then brush it under the rug so that they can have fun and games. No need for Cap to do any introspection or soul searching. No need to resolve the philosophical differences between Cap and Tony.

Granted two of the six avengers manage to get the happy ending they deserved and one gets to have a glorious moment out. But the other three and our purple friend are intentionally broken and rebuilt for the movie. But the fans still enjoyed the movie- suggesting “subverting expectations” can be done in a way that both surprises and pleases the fans. As I am sure many who enjoyed TLJ already knew.

I’ll save my problems with how the other three are handled for another day. I’ll just end with this: I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with fan service, and I think there’s certainly some entertainment value to be had from it, which is not nothing. My problem is only when the fan service gets in the way of the story; in Endgame, I’d say specifically where I take issue is the extended time travel shenanigans, which puts a few (not all) of the character arcs on the back burner for the purpose of a good time, and especially the final battle, which is basically pure spectacle that overshadows any potential for inner character conflict or deeper philosophical/thematic conflict and comes down to a very base level all of us vs. all of them, with the stakes being merely ‘win or lose.’

While I agree with you here, I think the way the Russos executed it was good enough to make me buy that all the inner and philosophical/thematic conflict had been resolved by then.

Personally, while on some level I enjoyed the sheer size of it all, ultimately I found the battle hard to engage with on an emotional level without any deeper stakes for the characters.

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I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to answer.

DominicCobb said:

Omni said:

Took me a while to find this thread, but really good post by both of you.

DominicCobb said:

OutboundFlight said:

Continuing a conversation in the Lucasfilm’s future thread
Dom, I disagree that Endgame is made of fan service. Granted there is a fair number, in particular, the plan to win sorta makes fan service to the past impossible. Nevertheless, look at what happens to the characters .

“What happens to the characters” is not just what constitutes fan service, in my mind. Yes the plan to win makes fan service impossible to avoid, and I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. But so much time is spent on time travel shenanigans and winks and nods without accomplishing much. One of the most pointless parts is when Cap and Tony go back further to the seventies. Basically its an extended gag, as well as a moment for Tony’s character. Except his character progresses in no way during this sequence, and nothing about it affects his conclusion (beyond the base level 'getting closure with his dad). For Cap, we get set up for his character’s conclusion, but it’s basically just a plot-based set up (this is what gives him the idea) rather than a character one (why does he choose this?).

I couldn’t disagree more that the 70s part of the film was just an extended gag. To me, hearing from his dad that he’d sacrifice everything for his kid was the ultimate thing that made Tony totally willing to sacrifice himself for Pepper and Morgan as his ultimate selfless act - he’d do anything for those 2 to live a happy life, even if it meant laying down his life and trumping every chance he had of living with the 2 loves of his life. I can totally empathize with him not wanting to do that, but I can totally see why hearing his father, a man he saw as barely more than a cold and calculist guy, saying he’d do anything for his kid, would ultimately push him over to this next step. I think that’s why we went back to the 70s. For Cap it was nice foreshadowing, because maybe casual audience members forgot about Peggy.

–Iron Man, whom we may expect will get a “rise from nothing” character arc (that was surprisingly given to #2) becomes finally happy after the opening act. This is the sort of thing you would expect their character to end on… but instead, that character leaves their happy family to do the right thing and dies. They had everything and they lost it to save the world.

A heroic sacrifice falls squarely into the bounds of fan service if you ask me, especially when he’s literally given an “it’s okay” from his wife so leaving his family behind doesn’t seem all that tragic.

Tony’s death really bothers me if I’m being honest. It’s good that we’re talking about TLJ as well because I found Luke’s death to be a great point of comparison. Their deaths are essentially the same right? They pull one last powerful trick to save the day, but it costs them their lives. Here’s the big difference. We know that both Tony and Luke are the types of guys who’d sacrifice themselves to save someone else. That’s not anything new, we’ve seen that before (Avengers 1 and ROTJ). So how do you make this feel like a poignant and satisfying conclusion to their story? You add a complication. At the start of TLJ, Luke is done being a Jedi, has cut himself off from the Force, and refuses to help. In Endgame, they actually do give Tony the complication - he has a family now, a reason to not sacrifice himself. But whereas every single scene Luke has in TLJ is building up to the moment where he makes the choice to save the Resistance, in Endgame, all we get are couple short scenes at the end of the first act where Tony decides merely to risk his life and the life of his family. Him coming to the decision to actually sacrifice himself and leave his family behind isn’t dramatized anywhere in the film.

I believe I tried to counterpoint this earlier in this post but I’ll try again, going a bit more in-depth. Tony at the start of the film was given everything, as opposed to the rest of the world. In a way he had gone back to being very selfish, with a barrier probably more difficult to break (or at least as difficult) as the one Luke had in TLJ. Still, selfless Tony is still inside him and he eventually figures it all out and even volunteers to help, already a heck of a risk and a reflection that his old selfless character hadn’t gone completely even if he now had something much bigger than he ever had before. So he still wasn’t ready to go all the way through, until the travel back to the 70s. The way I interpreted it was that the talk Tony had with his father is ultimately what pushed him over the edge and that’s why that sequence is so important. So all throughout the film Tony’s character progresses from selfish to selfless, one more time, and finally, closure.

I’m sorry but personally I don’t think a single line like “he’s not even born yet, but there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him,” is really enough to sell the character arc for me. It’s a little too generic and vague to be the impetus for such a specific and hugely impactful decision on Tony’s part. Obviously we know how much Tony loves his daughter. We also already basically know that he’d do anything for her - it’s the whole reason why he makes it clear that they have to keep what they got in those five years. But what pushes him past the selfishness of wanting to save his daughter but also be there for her? A single platitude from his dad doesn’t do it for me; especially when considering how complicated their relationship was - because of that my reaction isn’t so much ‘oh wow he’s cold but really does love Tony,’ so much as ‘oh wow if only he showed Tony that love while he was alive.’

It’s exactly because of how complicated their relationship was that I totally buy it. Even a man as complicated as his father would do anything for their kid. In this case, for him. Tony’s character arc in the whole MCU was leading to that moment. And from what I understand you acknowledge that that’s what the filmmakers intended, which I believe it is, but it doesn’t work for you. Fair enough.

The other thing that bothers me is the manner of their death. I will say when I first saw TLJ, Luke’s death left me a little cold, just because it wasn’t clear until that moment that this would kill him. But the thing that’s makes it okay is that this isn’t just Luke sacrificing himself, it’s him becoming one with the Force (the thing that’s he’s shut out for so long), which is nicely symbolic of his final trick securing his legacy as one of the greatest Jedi ever - he dies but he still lives on, in more ways than one.

For Tony, the cause of death is Infinity Gauntlet poisoning, which, unlike TLJ, is set up. But I personally find it a rather bland choice by the filmmakers. The Infinity Gauntlet gives its wielder an absolutely incredible amount of power, power no one person should have. Thanos fancies himself some sort of god, and believes he has a right to this power. But the power of the Gauntlet is only considered dangerous on a physical level in Endgame. First they have Hulk do it because he can withstand the gamma, and it feels like a nice moment for him because he’s struggled with gamma for so long. But that’s merely an external conflict. There’s a potential here for some challenging inner turmoil. What if Bruce didn’t think he could handle the responsibly and he had to grow towards it? On the flip side, for Tony, he’s being trying and failing for so long now to put “a suit of armor around the world.” The Gauntlet would give him the ability to finally succeed at this mission. But of course it’s always been a dangerous mission, and one that’s tapped into dark aspects of Tony’s personality. Having all the stones could have provided Tony with the ultimate internal conflict, and deciding to do the right thing and give them up would have been (in my opinion) the perfect climactic decision for his character to make. But maybe that’s just me.

“deciding to do the right thing and give them up would hae been (in my opinion) the perfect climatic decision for his character to make.”

Well, he had overcome those demons a while ago, hadn’t he? Sure at the beginning when he was thin and probably suffering with PTSD not to mention depression he brought it back up, but I don’t think he meant it at all, and when he’s healthy and happy and OK again he never once mentions anything of the sort. I can see what you’re saying and yes that would’ve been pretty cool, but at the moment of his sacrifice he was at absolute peace and had already overcome every internal obstacle and conflict that had been posed to him throughout all films.

I don’t think he ever really overcame those demons at all. He goes through PTSD in Iron Man 3 and creates the iron legion. At the end of the movie he seems to have overcome it and quit being Iron Man… until Age of Ultron where he thinks he’s found another solution to the problem. He goes through these cycles, he’s essentially an addict and his obsessiveness keeps drawing him back to that one thing, that he needs to control and protect that which he fears. After Infinity War, he’s given the biggest blow of all. He failed at a battle he knew was coming, and he lost a surrogate child due to his own actions. He’s at the lowest of possible lows. That demon has definitely come back to haunt him, and I think that early scene when he gets back to Avengers HQ is really powerful.

I agree, it’s very powerful and I too wish they’d played more on the whole “we failed” thing for the whole team instead of just for Thor.

Skip ahead five years, and he’s moved on and has a new family. But the specter of that past failure is still haunting him. He still remembers that child he lost. What stops him from taking things too far this time, now that he not only has half the world to bring back but also a biological daughter to protect? This is something that has become his greatest flaw, and it should manifest most strongly in the character’s final chapter. Instead, that demon is dropped after that initial scene.

Yes, but that’s another bit of growth in Tony’s character. He realizes he isn’t always right - exactly because he failed. So the way I see it, his ultimate loss what overcomes the whole “suit of armor” aspect of his character, because it finishes the Age of Ultron arc for him where he made mistakes and started to have self doubts. But it’s only because he was still deeply affected by the battle and the weeks in space and in an incredibly fragile state emotionally that he brings it up in the Avengers HQ scene.

I have a similar problem with Cap’s character. The opening of the film sets up a really compelling and scary possibility. Cap’s whole philosophy “we don’t trade lives” has arguably cost them everything. His steadfast adherence to his beliefs split up the Avengers in the first place which is why Thanos was able to beat them. In every film Cap has always been a rock, but now that aspect of his personality has devastated the world to an unimaginable degree. And he says to himself, “this has to work, because I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.” And it doesn’t, but we cut to five years later and everything’s fine. Just like with Tony they set up the ultimate internal struggle for Cap’s character and then brush it under the rug so that they can have fun and games. No need for Cap to do any introspection or soul searching. No need to resolve the philosophical differences between Cap and Tony.

Agreed on the portrayal of Cap. To me his character had to digress a bit in this film in order for his character arc to work, but they still throw it away. In the beginning of the film, right after the “five years later” part, he leads groups to try and help people move on, but his conclusion is to go back? I know that’s not what you’re gettting at but it’s worth pointing out.

And yes, totally agree on everything you did actually say. His character was the one that was wasted the most here.

Granted two of the six avengers manage to get the happy ending they deserved and one gets to have a glorious moment out. But the other three and our purple friend are intentionally broken and rebuilt for the movie. But the fans still enjoyed the movie- suggesting “subverting expectations” can be done in a way that both surprises and pleases the fans. As I am sure many who enjoyed TLJ already knew.

I’ll save my problems with how the other three are handled for another day. I’ll just end with this: I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with fan service, and I think there’s certainly some entertainment value to be had from it, which is not nothing. My problem is only when the fan service gets in the way of the story; in Endgame, I’d say specifically where I take issue is the extended time travel shenanigans, which puts a few (not all) of the character arcs on the back burner for the purpose of a good time, and especially the final battle, which is basically pure spectacle that overshadows any potential for inner character conflict or deeper philosophical/thematic conflict and comes down to a very base level all of us vs. all of them, with the stakes being merely ‘win or lose.’

While I agree with you here, I think the way the Russos executed it was good enough to make me buy that all the inner and philosophical/thematic conflict had been resolved by then.

Personally, while on some level I enjoyed the sheer size of it all, ultimately I found the battle hard to engage with on an emotional level without any deeper stakes for the characters.

My favorite little moment is when Star-Lord finds Gamora. Or maybe when Cap yells to Spider-Man “Hey Queens!”

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Omni said:

I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to answer.

Skip ahead five years, and he’s moved on and has a new family. But the specter of that past failure is still haunting him. He still remembers that child he lost. What stops him from taking things too far this time, now that he not only has half the world to bring back but also a biological daughter to protect? This is something that has become his greatest flaw, and it should manifest most strongly in the character’s final chapter. Instead, that demon is dropped after that initial scene.

Yes, but that’s another bit of growth in Tony’s character. He realizes he isn’t always right - exactly because he failed. So the way I see it, his ultimate loss what overcomes the whole “suit of armor” aspect of his character, because it finishes the Age of Ultron arc for him where he made mistakes and started to have self doubts. But it’s only because he was still deeply affected by the battle and the weeks in space and in an incredibly fragile state emotionally that he brings it up in the Avengers HQ scene.

I mean, I wish I could agree. Infinity War sets up that the “suit of armor” aspect of his character is very much alive in his introductory scene with Pepper where they talk about the arc reactor-looking nano suit chest piece. Now, you can look at what happens in IW and rationalize it, saying “he’s got the best Iron Man suit ever, and it matters fuck all when it comes to facing Thanos,” and you can in your mind explain why Tony would realize that his obsessiveness was all for naught. The problem is, if we are to believe that was the conclusion Tony reached and that his character grew in this way, we needed to see it on screen someway, somehow (we can’t just be forced to assume it). Instead, the primary reaction we see from Tony in response to his IW failure is shifting the blame to Cap breaking up the team, and still believing that his goal to protect the earth was right. We jump ahead five years and he’s settled down and moved on, but within two scenes he’s already back to seeing if he can save the world. The film suggests that this demon that has haunted Tony has returned with that initial scene at Avengers HQ, but never really does anything specific to suggest that Tony has changed from then, so it’s sending mixed messages at best - why have such a memorable scene at the start of the film if it isn’t going to factor into the film’s characterization of Tony? The beginning of the film should be setting up the primary character conflicts/arcs that will take shape over the rest of runtime. Instead we jump ahead five years and potential growth for many of the characters are explained to have happened offscreen (e.g. Hulk) or, worse, you are simply forced to assume happened off screen (like Tony).

Granted two of the six avengers manage to get the happy ending they deserved and one gets to have a glorious moment out. But the other three and our purple friend are intentionally broken and rebuilt for the movie. But the fans still enjoyed the movie- suggesting “subverting expectations” can be done in a way that both surprises and pleases the fans. As I am sure many who enjoyed TLJ already knew.

I’ll save my problems with how the other three are handled for another day. I’ll just end with this: I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with fan service, and I think there’s certainly some entertainment value to be had from it, which is not nothing. My problem is only when the fan service gets in the way of the story; in Endgame, I’d say specifically where I take issue is the extended time travel shenanigans, which puts a few (not all) of the character arcs on the back burner for the purpose of a good time, and especially the final battle, which is basically pure spectacle that overshadows any potential for inner character conflict or deeper philosophical/thematic conflict and comes down to a very base level all of us vs. all of them, with the stakes being merely ‘win or lose.’

While I agree with you here, I think the way the Russos executed it was good enough to make me buy that all the inner and philosophical/thematic conflict had been resolved by then.

Personally, while on some level I enjoyed the sheer size of it all, ultimately I found the battle hard to engage with on an emotional level without any deeper stakes for the characters.

My favorite little moment is when Star-Lord finds Gamora. Or maybe when Cap yells to Spider-Man “Hey Queens!”

There’s a lot of fun little moments for sure, like I said I just can’t get behind the sequence ultimately because it lacks the necessary weight that it should have.

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Wow! HUGE news over the weekend. Let’s break this down:

Marvel Studios’ Black Widow starring Scarlett Johansson reprising her MCU role. She will be joined by David Harbour as Alexei AKA The Red Guardian, Florence Pugh as Yelena, O-T Fagbenle as Mason, and Rachel Weisz as Melina. Cate Shortland is directing. Marvel Studios’ Black Widow will come to theaters May 1, 2020.

Next up was the first show coming exclusively to Disney+, Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier! Anthony Mackie (The Falcon) and Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier) came on stage to greet the fans, and it was revealed that Daniel Brühl will return as the villain, Baron Zemo. Marvel Studios’ The Falcon and The Winter Soldier will come to Disney+ in the fall of 2020.

Marvel Studios’ The Eternals starring Richard Madden as Ikaris, Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo, Lauren Ridloff as Makkari, Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos, Salma Hayek as Ajak, Lia McHugh as Sprite, Don Lee as Gilgamesh, and Angelina Jolie as Thena. The Eternals, which will be directed by Chloé Zhao, will come to theaters November 6, 2020.

Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings starring Simu Liu in the title role. Appearing alongside Liu will be Awkwafina in an undisclosed role and Tony Leung as the (real) Mandarin. Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will be directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. In theaters February 12, 2021.

Marvel Studio’s WandaVision, an original series starring Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, reprising their MCU roles as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch and Vision. Costarring with them is Teyonah Parris, whom Feige revealed would be playing the adult Monica Rambeau, who was introduced as a child in Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel. Marvel Studios’ WandaVision will arrive on Disney+ in the spring of 2021.

Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness starring Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Strange with Scott Derrickson returning as director. But joining Doctor Strange this time around will be the Scarlet Witch, played by Elizabeth Olsen. In another twist, the events of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will connect with the Disney+ series Marvel Studios’ WandaVision. Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will cast its spell in theaters May 7, 2021.

The MCU’s favorite trickster Loki will also make his way to Disney+! Marvel Studios’ Loki, an original series starring Tom Hiddleston, will see the god of mischief causing even more trouble starting in the spring of 2021.

Marvel Studios’ What If…?, the first animated series in the MCU, will star Jeffrey Wright as the voice of The Watcher – many actors from across the MCU will reprise their roles as voice talent. What If…? will present alternate realities in the Marvel Universe that are set to warp your world in the summer of 2021, exclusively on Disney+.

Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye starring Jeremy Renner, who joined Kevin Feige onstage share more details about the show, which will introduce Kate Bishop, who has been hitting her mark in Marvel Comics. Marvel Studios’ Hawkeye will come to Disney+ in the fall of 2021.

Natalie Portman will return for Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder, joining stars Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson. Taika Waititi returns as director, and he confirmed that Jane Foster will become the Mighty Thor, goddess of Thunder. Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder will arrive in theaters November 5, 2021.

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Summary of Phase 4 (2020-2021):

  • Black Widow
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (D+)
  • The Eternals
  • Shang-Chi The Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Wandavision (D+)
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
  • Loki (D+)
  • What if…? (D+)
  • hawkeye (D+)
  • THOR LOVE AND THUNDER

Also teased for Phase 5:

  • BLADE
  • Black Panther 2
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
  • Captain Marvel 2
  • Fantastic Four
  • MUTANTS
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Tobar said:
Summary of Phase 4 (2020-2021):

  • Black Widow
  • The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (D+)
  • The Eternals
  • Shang-Chi The Legend of the Ten Rings
  • Wandavision (D+)
  • Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
  • Loki (D+)
  • What if…? (D+)
  • hawkeye (D+)
  • THOR LOVE AND THUNDER

Also teased for Phase 5:

  • BLADE
  • Black Panther 2
  • Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
  • Captain Marvel 2
  • Fantastic Four
  • MUTANTS

So excited for Shang-Chi, Doctor Strange, Blade, and Mutants!

#Pro-Life

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New series announcements coming out D23!

Jumping from the pages of Marvel Comics, Kamala Khan aka Ms. Marvel will enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Marvel Studios’ Ms. Marvel exclusively on Disney+!

For years in the pages of Marvel Comics, struggling with multiple personalities and amoral inclinations, Marc Spector fights on against all odds as the cloaked avenger Moon Knight! We’ll see what adventures come on Marvel Studios’ Moon Knight!

In the comics, lawyer Jennifer Walters was transformed into a Gamma-powered Super Hero thanks to her cousin Bruce Banner, and backs up her sensational strength with her savage wit and confidence as She-Hulk! We’ll see how her story unfolds on Marvel Studios’ She-Hulk, streaming exclusively on Disney+.

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 (Edited)

I can’t wait for them to get Shulkie’s casting/characterization spectacularly, hilariously wrong. Bonus yucks if they use CG rather than makeup, too.

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 (Edited)

This was fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mbtI4uRG9I

But reminded me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8VU2GwkBtY&t=724s

Which reminded me of a thought in the theater watching the Portals scene for the first time: It would have been infinitely more rewarding if Thanos’s army had turned tail and run after seeing the entirety of the Avengers Assembled. I even half expected the movie to go that way, but then remembered that everyone would be expecting their favorite characters to punch random henchpeople for a solid five minutes without furthering the story.

But seriously, am I the only one who wanted to see this? Where the army surrenders en-masse and Thanos is handcuffed and sent to Space Prison? Just me?

I mean, he’s a genocidal maniac but he’s not actually the Thanos who killed half the universe. Seems kinda weird for our heroes to take out their anger on someone for thoughtcrime.

You probably don’t recognize me because of the red arm.
Episode 9 Rewrite, The Starlight Project (Released!) and ANH Technicolor Project (Released!)

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Arguably, he already killed millions if not billions of people before getting the stones. Gamora’s home planet for example. This is no Would you kill baby Hitler? conundrum.

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Where were you in '77?