When I saw so many people angry about Gamora after Infinity War, I got it, but wasn't there yet because I thought, you know, the story's not finished yet, let's see if this isn't what it seems. I thought there'd be some elaboration or pay off or twist in how Gamora wasn't the right kind of sacrifice, that the way it went down would give her soul power over the Soul Stone rather than Thanos. Because, seriously, that wasn't a sacrifice Thanos made. It was just murder. alas, looks like I was being far too hopeful! I mean, I'm still more than willing to fanwank to my heart's content: maybe Gamora and Natasha are actually masters of the Soul Stone in there and have a way out precisely because Gamora wasn't a willing sacrifice, and because Natasha sacrificed herself for Clint to get the Stone. How much more interesting would that be, to see these two women who were made into weapons against their own will turn that around to triumphantly clear their "red ledgers"? Instead we got both of them dead at the bottom of a cliff for the sake of men's pain. Ugh.
Ultimately, I think that while I very much applaud the achievement of Infinity War and Endgame, and while I was entertained while watching them and found plenty to like or even love in the movies, I think Infinity War and Endgame are lacking a certain moral clarity. It's not like I think the MCU is incapable of moral clarity: I thought CATWS had it, and Black Panther and Captain Marvel did too. The lack of it in Infinity War and Endgame really renders the movies hollow to me.
Natasha was, I think, one of the few characters who had moral clarity in these two movies, what with how she didn't stop working to find a way to fix the Snap, and she just ended up getting unceremoniously chucked off a cliff, and was barely mourned to boot.
Steve, famously the moral center of the MCU, ends up making what, if you go with the timeloop theory, is a morally abhorrent choice to escape to the past, abandoning his friends in the present and returning to a past he cannot change to, presumably, lie to the woman he loves about all the shit that he knows is going wrong with her life's work. (Or if you go with the AU theory, he's making the morally abhorrent choice to abandon his friends in the present, get with the woman he loves and fix what he can, while leaving the AU version of himself trapped in the ice to wake up in the future with nothing.)
Endgame made a bunch of choices that have a very thin veneer of emotional resolution, but which are rotten and empty once you break past that veneer. Natasha's death was when I really realized Endgame was gonna be a soap bubble of a movie experience for me, kind of fun and pretty to experience, but empty and ultimately unsatisfying.
Ugh, sorry for going on about it, I'm just still disappointed. It could've been great! So many way more interesting and emotionally satisfying resolutions! Well, that's what fic is for I guess, and at least Endgame leaves us with plenty of fodder for that.
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Ultimately, I think that while I very much applaud the achievement of Infinity War and Endgame, and while I was entertained while watching them and found plenty to like or even love in the movies, I think Infinity War and Endgame are lacking a certain moral clarity. It's not like I think the MCU is incapable of moral clarity: I thought CATWS had it, and Black Panther and Captain Marvel did too. The lack of it in Infinity War and Endgame really renders the movies hollow to me.
Natasha was, I think, one of the few characters who had moral clarity in these two movies, what with how she didn't stop working to find a way to fix the Snap, and she just ended up getting unceremoniously chucked off a cliff, and was barely mourned to boot.
Steve, famously the moral center of the MCU, ends up making what, if you go with the timeloop theory, is a morally abhorrent choice to escape to the past, abandoning his friends in the present and returning to a past he cannot change to, presumably, lie to the woman he loves about all the shit that he knows is going wrong with her life's work. (Or if you go with the AU theory, he's making the morally abhorrent choice to abandon his friends in the present, get with the woman he loves and fix what he can, while leaving the AU version of himself trapped in the ice to wake up in the future with nothing.)
Endgame made a bunch of choices that have a very thin veneer of emotional resolution, but which are rotten and empty once you break past that veneer. Natasha's death was when I really realized Endgame was gonna be a soap bubble of a movie experience for me, kind of fun and pretty to experience, but empty and ultimately unsatisfying.
Ugh, sorry for going on about it, I'm just still disappointed. It could've been great! So many way more interesting and emotionally satisfying resolutions! Well, that's what fic is for I guess, and at least Endgame leaves us with plenty of fodder for that.