FATWS ep 3 and 4

[potofsoup]

I was kinda meh about ep 3 and so didn't update, but anyway:


Ep 3 felt like a Civil War re-do, with all of this callbacks. I can't quite figure out if it's an homage or a fixit, though. Sharon is there and gets to point out how much she got screwed over by Civil War shenanigans.... but continues to be the supporting role that she complained about being. Zemo shows up and does lots of speechifying, basically taking over the thematic reins of this episode (and part of episode 4), which of course runs counter to the fact that Sam and Bucky are supposed to be keeping a hold on Zemo, dammit. It almost feels like they're trying to make the movie that Civil War would have been if Tony wasn't involved (as in, a movie around culpability and supersoldiers.) They do a callback to the carseat thing from Civil War, and even Wakanda shows up at the end.

Madripoor is one big UGH-fest. I really hate movie portrayals of lawless crime towns bye

Can we talk about the fact that Zemo is preaching about supersoldier supremacists while sitting in his private plane wearing a fur coat? I keep waiting for someone to call him out on it, but seems like Sam and Bucky mostly just want to sit on the private plane, too.

That said, I do appreciate that Zemo is (a) smart and (b) consistent with his principles. Like, I don't understand how his basic character premise shifted from "wants to take down the Avengers because his family got killed" in Civil War to "anti-supersoldiers", but at least he's consistent in that regard -- shooting Nagel, destroying the serum vials, etc. Pretty good villain character.

Speaking of villain characters, John Walker. I really liked that he decided to take the serum *after* he got beat by the non-serumed Dora Milaje. As in, his fragile white masculinity just can't accept the fact that he got beaten by non-serumed woc (especially since what he's been telling himself was that the serum was the only thing that made the others better than him.) He'd constructed this whole underdog narrative (despite being the one with the backing of the US government and have all of the political power), and when he gets beaten by the Dora, his response was to ... take the serum. Not "oh, the Dora is proof that the serum doesn't mean anything" but rather "I can't get defeated by even the Dora! I need to have the advantage that everyone else (actually not everyone else) has. I *deserve* it." That was some pretty good character beats right there.

Although I'm still frustrated that they can't decide whether to humanize John Walker or not? Like, they spend 5 minutes at the beginning of ep 2 showing his self doubts and how he sees his Cap role as a sort of redemptive/aspirational thing, and then for 2 episodes he flattens out to be Generic Turd and Petty Tyrant, and then he gets another 5 minutes of doubt and unexamined privilege while chatting with Lemar, and then he's back to smashing...

Anyways, I think episode 4 does a better job of exploring the theme of what makes Captain America -- John Walker thinks it's the shield and the serum, but clearly it's neither. I like that they brought in Karli as a potential, too, even if the Flag Smashers' politics remain completely confusing. (Why did the world become borderless during the Blip? Did Steve, Tony, Nat, et al, support that? Why would people returning from the Blip mean a return to borders? Why would people returning push out the people who lived through the Blip? Is the GRC the only law enforcement agency in the world right now? Does this mean Wakanda has been borderless too? Why does the US feel pretty lawful and well, there's clearly a US government? Does the borderlessness only apply to the Eurozone? In that case, how Eurocentric is the Flag Smashers' cry of "One World, One People"?)

Wish that Sam and Bucky didn't intervene with the Dora Milaje -- they would have dealt with Zemo and John Walker and the show could have just ended right there. XD;;;;

All that aside, I've been quite appreciative of the "fanfic"-ness of the show thus far, showing us things that seem to come straight out of fandom -- Bucky having a hard time dealing with his trauma and having self worth issues, Bucky having to pretend to the the Winter Soldier, Sam having a family, Sharon having a hint of a life outside of the narrative, etc. And a detachable metal arm! Yum.

Given the end of episode 4, I'm going to guess that he becomes the guy in one of the trailers who has the smol shield and who can copy all of the Avengers' moves???

Comments

[oracne]

Yeah, I am having to try really hard to just go with the worldbuilding about the Blip that to me just seems to be more full of holes than a fishnet.

But I did like episode four, it had a lot of good moral complexity.

[potofsoup]

a student of mine came up with a valid defense for the worldbuilding, although I think that's mostly due to her awesomeness and less to do with Marvel.

This is what she said:

post blip I don't think borders were formally dissolved, rather with everything going on border security wasn't a priority for goverments and greater international cooperation makes sense, that's what karli and the flagsmashers were talking about in terms of "people were happy to have others to help rebuild." Post blip there probably wasn't an immediate push to restore borders, I think the grc is a good example actually because it's way more international cooperation than was seen pre-blip. However, nationalism seemed to remerge, even creating walker as new cap is an example of this, though you could argue either that started or was responding to a rise in nationalism. Over the first few months post-blip, organizations were being rebuilt, so things like the fbi and sword which might have been operating less formally had time to gain prominence again like what we see in wandavision. far from home happens 8 months post blip once borders have been mostly restored, I think this puts it after both wandavision and fatws and parallel to the events of dr strange 2. That ordering makes a lot of sense to me because it implies the shift back to nationalism and strong statism happens over the course of fatws as we are seeing

[oracne]

Your student is brilliant and the MCU should hire them.

[vaysh]

I love all your questions about the world-building around the "Blip". (I hate that they call it that.) And I truly wish they would give us more about how this all was supposed to have been. Like a show-worth of stories about it.

I've been quite appreciative of the "fanfic"-ness of the show thus far,. :D Same.

[potofsoup]

frankly, the worldbuilding around it is so shoddy and varies so much from show to show that it pisses me off. In Wandavision, there's clearly an FBI and SWORD and city and town jurisdictions. In Spiderman Far From Home which is also set immediately post-Blip, they're traveling around Europe and there's passports and countries and stuff. Like, no way is that the same setting as the GRC and the Flag Smashers. I'm totally fine with having multiple alternative interpretations of how politics might bewrote:

[przed]

I really hate movie portrayals of lawless crime towns bye

Not to mention portrayals of lawless crime towns allegedly in Indonesia with almost no Asian people in them. >:(

I'm also frustrated with their worldbuilding. I get that they're maybe trying to dole out the information without giving us an infodump scene that lays it all out, but since they're doing a lousy job of it, I'd take the infodump. Assuming they've worked out a coherent structure for their world, which I'm not at all convinced they did.

Still, I'll overlook the faults for getting the scene of Bucky overcoming the codewords and Sam being empathetic with Karli.

And you're absolutely right that they've done a bang up job setting up Walker. Though I could have done without them killing his Black best friend.

[potofsoup]

Yeah I was really holding out for Lemar having a conversation with Walker being like "dude you know you're being racist right?" Or like, Lemar and Sam having a conversation. Did they put Rhodey in at the beginning just so they can say "hey look, we recognize that a lot of the movies have been white main characters with black sidekicks"?

OMG Bucky overcoming the codewords. Sebstan is just SO GOOD with his microexpressions, and cries so beautifully <3 <3 <3 And YES, I like how the show is making it clear all the reasons why Sam would be a good Captain America (while making him distinct from Steve).

I was really frustrated with the worldbuilding, but then my student came up with an explanation that I will now grudgingly accept. This is what she said:

post blip I don't think borders were formally dissolved, rather with everything going on border security wasn't a priority for goverments and greater international cooperation makes sense, that's what karli and the flagsmashers were talking about in terms of "people were happy to have others to help rebuild." Post blip there probably wasn't an immediate push to restore borders, I think the grc is a good example actually because it's way more international cooperation than was seen pre-blip. However, nationalism seemed to remerge, even creating walker as new cap is an example of this, though you could argue either that started or was responding to a rise in nationalism. Over the first few months post-blip, organizations were being rebuilt, so things like the fbi and sword which might have been operating less formally had time to gain prominence again like what we see in wandavision. far from home happens 8 months post blip once borders have been mostly restored, I think this puts it after both wandavision and fatws and parallel to the events of dr strange 2. That ordering makes a lot of sense to me because it implies the shift back to nationalism and strong statism happens over the course of fatws as we are seeing