Spoilers for Thunderbolts* ahead
As I'm sitting in my screening of Thunderbolts* having the time of my life watching the four way battle between Yelena, Ava, Antonia, and Walker, a shot rings out though the theater's sound system. Antonia falls to the floor on the screen, a bullet hole through her head. My jaw drops open in shock. Is this real? Surely not. Antonia has been on all the posters, all of the marketing, she is a main character of this movie... right? The scene that follows her death is incredibly well made and funny and one of my favorite scenes in the film, but I spend the entirety of it willing Antonia to get up, hoping this is a fakeout, in complete disbelief that this is an actual plot point of the movie. It's only when the incinerator goes off and the room fills with fire that I accept that yes, this is happening. She's really gone.
I enjoy the rest of the film. I grin when Bucky shows up to save/capture them; I cry during Yelena's speech to Alexei; I hold my breath as they all help Bob fight the Void; I roll my eyes at Walker a lot. But through it all, I think of Antonia. And I think of the lost potential of her story.
I do not know Antonia Dreykov. None of us do (except maybe Olga Kurylenko). In Black Widow she is silent; more of an obstacle than a character. She serves as a wonderful distillation of Natasha's past crimes still haunting her, only defeated when she is accepted and embraced, but she is not a person. She is a tool for the writers to explore thematic ideas. I suppose that's what all characters are, but most hide the inner workings of their narrative function behind a veil of personality and dimension. Antonia has no veil. She is voiceless and she is faceless, any life she might've had hidden behind her mask and the fact that she only speaks two lines across both of the films she features in. Perhaps I should have expected this, was she not marked for death from her very first appearance? A little girl, sent to the slaughter of other people's character arcs. It's an old tale, far from a surprising one at this point, but still; I had hoped we were past this by now. I do not know Antonia, but I wanted to learn about her.
My thoughts go to the others---the ones whose deaths served others more than their own character arcs, or worse, were completely pointless. Gamora and Natasha, sacrificed for a set of mcguffins; Frigga and May, victims to the age-old 'Dead Mom Curse'; Jane, brought back into the MCU seemingly just to die; and of course Wanda, unnecessarily villainized and unceremoniously killed. And outside of the MCU, Jean Grey, who can never be trusted to live with her power. I also think of the ones who live, but are pushed aside by the narrative. Sharon and America, who feel like afterthoughts in stories where they are supposed to be major characters.
Maybe it was naïve, but I thought we were past this. I can't express how excited I was to see a team that was evenly split between women and men. That is so rare in this genre of stories, and has been almost unheard of in the MCU. I was excited to see more of Antonia and Ava, to see them get to be people instead of mysterious antagonists. And I got nothing. Antonia is dead and Ava got nothing to do but offer the occasional snarky comment. I am so tired of being disappointed like this.
Is it too much to ask? That every woman in a story feel like a multidimensional character? That every member of a team has time to shine and show their personality? Thunderbolts* is not a bad movie! It's not even a bad movie for female characters! Yelena is the main character and Valentina is the main antagonist and both are layered and interesting characters (although I personally can't stand Val). And then there's Mel, who has so much potential bubbling just under the surface! This is not Avengers 1, where Natasha is the only woman with significant screen time, we have come so far since those days (more MCU projects have been woman-led than not since phase 4 started) and that is amazing and so many of those projects have made me very happy. And yet. There always seems to be another senseless death, whether it's for shock, or stakes, or another character's arc.
"To him we are just things." Yelena said in Black Widow. I hate how true it is.
