Avengers Endgame’s problems
BE WARNED MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Every grand entrance had me clapping along, every sad line had me nearly in tears and every reunion or joke had me smiling and laughing because I was genuinely happy to be there.
But, as much as I loved it, this movie had SERIOUS issues.
I won’t even go into the giant unexplained plot holes this time travel mechanism created, I just want to talk about some decisions I wasn’t happy with regarding some characters.
I’m talking mostly about what they did to Thor, Loki, Steve, Peggy, Bucky and most of all Tony.
Let’s start with the easy one to unpack- Thor.
The whole movie everyone laughed about how bad of a shape Thor was in without giving it any serious thought. The man lost everything and was so clearly experiencing some form of depression, PTSD or survivor’s trauma.
This serious issue so many struggle with was reduced to a comic relief made by a cheap shot centering his huge belly, fat shaming him and invalidating what he’s going through.
Thor has made great character development over the years, especially in Thor: Ragnarok and it was devastating to watch it completly reversed, and to watch countless of people’s experience with mental disorders caused by trauma be played for laughs. What they did to Thor was character assassination at its worst.
Now let’s say a few words about Loki.
Loki is one of the most loved MCU characters and it shows how much Marvel was afraid to make him the center of attention, by how little he was given.
At the first scene of infinity war he attacked Thanos, an enemy he knew well from his time in the void being tortured by him, with a simple knife, not using ANY of his powers (teleportation, illusions, telekinesis, Jotun powers…) and making himself look like a weak idiot he is certainly not. In fact, this was so absurd that it had people just straight up assuming he wasn’t actually dead and that he had a plan- a reasonable assumption given the fact that Loki’s character is known for being incredibly powerful, mischievous and cunning. After all the speculations, what was he given in endgame? Nothing. Thor, despite being in a terrible state mostly because he lost Loki doesn’t mention Loki’s name even ONCE, instead he has the short pep talk with their mother that Loki so obviously needed and no one seems to even acknowledge it when Loki escapes with the Tesseract in a timeline we don’t even know still exists.
Now let’s move on to team Cap.
I really loved Steve’s moments throughout the film save for one major thing- the ending.
Captain America- the person who stated he can't ever retire because he just can't stand aside when injustices are done around him, the person who gave up everything to help his best friend Bucky, the person who knows he can’t ever stop fighting- THIS PERSON just abandons everyone, including his best friend who needs him more than ever now, and goes to live in the past with a girl he knew for a pretty short period. That was maybe the most out of character thing he could possibly do: Steve Rogers would not have stood by and watched Hydra take over S.H.I.E.L.D, He would not have done nothing to help his best friend who he knew was being brainwashed at the time and he would have most certainly not left everyone in the future alone when they needed him there.
And then, when he comes back, he doesn’t even so much as look at Bucky, the person was the most important thing in the world for him 2 minutes ago, and lets a guy he knows but a few years the mantle of being Captain America, and not to the one who deserved it- Bucky Barnes.
All of this without even mentioning that Peggy already had an established husband and children in her tv series and wasn’t just a blank love interest. Where does that leave Peggy? Does she just never meet her show husband? Didn’t they say you can’t change anything in the past? The movie doesn’t care enough to explain.
What they made Cap do was done purely to go against the fans’ expectations without any regard to the fact that this action is on another level of out of character behavior for him. Doing things purely to go against expectations is a concept that makes a comeback with Tony Stark as well.
And now we’re getting to the thing that I am most angry about- Tony Stark’s death.
Tony Stark’s arc was not meant to end with him dying so early. Tony’s whole arc over the past films, including the beginning of Endgame, was about him finding his peace and retiring to be with his family.
He became a mentor to Peter Parker, He settled down with Pepper and had a kid, so many times he said he was only fighting to be able to go back home to the people he loved.
Tony deserved a happy ending more than anyone ever did.
This man was the base of the MCU. He has been through so much and still survived and managed to live the life he wanted- a family life.
So many people look up to him and to his story. So many people who struggle with anxiety attacks or PTSD relate to his experience and need that representation to be positive. He didn’t deserve to get a “you can only be free of your trauma once you’re dead” ending.
Let’s say you really wanted to kill Tony in this film, why did you give him a kid then?? It has been an issue for a long time that Tony didn’t want to be like his father, that he wanted to be there for his kid no matter what, he didn’t deserve dying and not getting to raise her, knowing she will have to grow up without a father, what is basically his worst fear.
Tony carried the MCU since day one, His story has been going to a “retire and raise a family” place for a long time now and he has already been through a lot of traumatic events- HE DESERVED TO LIVE.
