Welp

[gwyn]

So that was a thing that I saw.



Because I am petty and small and vindictive, I loved the fact that when Tony (and anyone else) first appeared on screen it was quiet, but when Steve appeared on screen our nearly sold-out theatre erupted into cheers and applause. Marvel has this idea that people only care about Iron Man and Spider-Man, and I loved hearing the audience prove them wrong, even if Marvel and especially Feige never listen. (Also loved the cheers for Thor and his axe.)

I leaned over at one point and said to minim calibre, who loves Cumberbatch and tolerates my intense hatred of him as an actor and Sherlock as a character he plays, "I am absolutely loving him in this. What is happening to me?" Every time he dragged Tony I wanted to high five him, he was freaking hilarious. I…the universe is unsettled. I not only liked Crumplesnatch, I liked freaking Dr. Strange, a character I have never cared one molecule for.

Totally called Red Skull. No one believed me when I said that.

I don't see this as producing a lot of fic, or at least, what I want to read. I see this as the fandom I've known and loved for four years, Steve/Bucky and the Cap Family (with Sam and Nat), either rage-quitting or just drifting away in sadness. I've watched this happen before to open canon fandoms with deaths or cast culling. I'm feeling very sad about this. I'd love it if fandom proved me wrong, but I've been in fandom a damn long time… And I'm already hearing from people that seeing Bucky die in front of Steve's eyes again was a bridge too far, even with comic-book rules.



I'm going to have to see it again just to process things. Plus catch all the lines I didn't hear!

Comments

[hypertwink]

Two words: Time Stone. I have hope.

But yes, I am heartbroken over Bucky (& Steve), but the heartbreak also came from areas I wasn't expecting: T'Challa & Okoye, Peter & Gamora in Knowhere, Peter & Tony, Fury & Hill.

p.s. I was surprised by Red Skull. Also, it's not Hugo Weaving, it's Ross Marquand who does great imitations/mimicry of actors and of Hugo Weaving apparently.

[kore]

AND SAM. Sam dies alone! He looks like he's waking up from an awful injury or something! And then Rhodey is calling out and just missed him....that seemed super cruel.

[hypertwink]

I forgot about Sam. And Heimdall. I've disliked Loki and Tony since forever but seriously, Loki dying and Tony seeing Peter turn to ash was so sad as well.

[kore]

THEY KILLED IDRIS ELBA! HOW DO YOU EVEN DO THAT

Thanos neck-snapping Loki right in front of Thor was just brutal. (I saw a truckload of clips before they all got snatched off reddit, hah.) It was like a foreshadowing of how he killed Vision too. Just tossed them aside like trash once he got what he wanted.

I thought RDJ acted the hell out of that scene (under-acted, really, his eyes are so huge and communicative!) but I just don't like Holland, he's way too young for me. I also thought if we got a long operatic farewell for Peter dying in Tony's arms, Steve and Bucky could have gotten longer than ten seconds. (I also really, really could have done without the prolonged slo-mo Wanda-and-Thanos-paired "I kill the person I loooooove!" bits.)

But Sam really hurt because I hadn't read the comics when I saw TWS and so didn't know anything about Falcon, and I spent like half the movie chanting "No killing Sam! No killing Sam!" because I was so sure as the brother, he would go out -- something like Bucky killing him and then Steve felt Bad, whatever. And I was so totally pleased and surprised when he didn't (and Fury didn't either). And it was like they wiped that away in five seconds. Nobody saw him, he didn't have anybody, it was like he didn't matter.

[hypertwink]

Iron Man 4: Avengers Disassembled [with Special Guest Star, Captain America] taught me that Steve (and Bucky) will never be given importance as long as Tony is anywhere in the vicinity.

I'm actually happy that they even get to hug this time and get a bit of banter -- talk about setting the bar really really low.

[kore]

I told my husband I felt like I got pwned by the Monkey's Paw. "All I want is one hug, Marvel! Just one fucking damned hug!"

FEIGE: ....granted.
//EVIL SMILE AS HE PLOTS BUCKY COLLAPSING IN A PILE OF DIRT AS STEVE STARES BLANKLY FROM LIKE 30 FEET AWAY

[hypertwink]

My mom was the one who noted that basically, we're down to the original Avengers now (unless Clint also disapparated on his farm). Talk about saying goodbye to the old...

[kore]

I think (this is my speculation, not spoilage) Clint's family went poof and that's what's going to drive him to become Ronin and he'll show up and super help save the day. So it'll be the original six, just like it was in the first Avengers movie. (Someone made the suggestion MAYBE THEY WILL EACH USE A STONE, but omg, that would be so cartoony.) Probably Linda Cardinelli will go poof and we'll see Manpain, then near the end of the movie the 4400 50% will return and family hug!

....part of why I'm so salty is Marvel got me back INTO fandom. I started writing again after years and years of not writing anything. And now I'm just like "Seriously, you raptured a ton of the cast? And murdered more? What do I do with THIS?"

[hypertwink]

That's why I just read modern Bucky/Steve AUs these days, or post-CAWS/CACW. Less angst, more fluff lol

[gwyn]

Yeah, I mean, I've seen the set photos from 4 with the 1940s car and Steve in his Avengers uniform (ptui!), so I assume there will be time-trippin' for Steve. But…I just left the theatre feeling way, way worse than Rogue One. Weirdly that movie made me feel far more hopeful. Maybe because I felt it was a better movie qua movie, and far tighter script writing.

ETA: Also meant to say that it was very hard to watch Okoye watch her king and her friend die, that would just destroy her. I also really thought it would be either Fury or Hill, but not both, which was a gut punch.

[hypertwink]

Rogue One is weird because it's not the end. We have the luxury of knowing what happens even when they all died. We know that their deaths are not in vain. I mean, it's a better story that they lucked into by the time they premiered it but Tony Gilroy (I think) took most of the fat away and left us with that.

Here, for one thing, it's a lot of story or stories, actually, that almost coalesced -- but I really have to comment the Russos for accomplishing that feat. And aside from that, we are in limbo for one year and 1 month. We don't know who's coming back, who dies again and who among the ones who didn't die now will die most likely permanently a year from now. I think for me, that's where the anxiety and unrest comes from.

[kore]

I said this elsewhere but I thought R1 was hopeful. That's the whole thing with that movie -- they don't know the message will get out, they don't know they will win, it doesn't matter. They looked at the cost and they said "It's worth it" and did what they wanted to do. With this, it felt....hopeless. Everybody went up against Thanos, repeatedly, and had plans, and the plans fell apart and Thanos just swatted them all aside and at the end he won. It was like if Vader had scooped up the message at the very end.

I also wasn't thrilled with the whole Malthusian thing and "the good of the many outweighs the good of the one" but those were almost incidental compared to how fucking grim it was.