Disclaimer: this is merely my personal view on the first watch of this show. Perhaps you had a better or worse experience.
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It's not the worst I've seen but it feels incredibly rushed. They're spewing out all the info at you without giving time to allow the watcher to take it in.
Though I loved the extra time given to see the first attack of the Fire Nation against the Southern Air Temple.
Some of the actors are better than others and it's unfortunately obvious. Though everything seems incredibly cheesy. Which I can mostly ignore since it's a live action from a cartoon.
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I adore the name of the Southern Water Tribe Village. Wolf Cove :)
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I'm incredibly sad that Sokka didn't put on his war paint and helmet before approaching Zuko :(
They're fight seen is way more dramatic than the cartoon lmao
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I notice that Aang already has some hair growing in as he's being taken to Zuko's ship. Nice touch. I like that detail.
Kinda stinks they didn't take the time to check out the old war ship
Sokka: "let's go save the weird kid"
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GASP, Uncle Iroh and Aang talk in the jail cells!!!! :D.
Aang: "Is that what you believe?"
Iroh: *ah shi- I'm blabbering too much* oh hey, fam, gotta go- I'll send you some tea
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The Force is strong with Aang. That jail key scene is air fire.
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AANG IN ZUKOS ROOM. HEY STOP READING HIS DIARY PUNK
He took the staff in Zuko's room, instead of already having one. I'm okay with this difference actually. I like that, it's funny.
Zuko's hinted at obsession with Airbender artifacts is gonna help the Airbender. Gotta love it.
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Aang escape
Zuko angy o.O
BUT YEAH GO KATARRA!
But are we gonna see some Avatar State?? ...Nope, guess not.
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The way that they show that nature has been taking over the S Air Temple over the course of 100 years is making me very happy. That's a great addition.
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OH NO, ARE WE GONNA SEE THE REMAINS OF GYATSO AND THE KIDS OH NO
Oh geez, there he is oh geez. Ouch ouch ouch
THE FLASHBACK IT HURTS
Oh here we go :/. Avatar State time
"you will always be my friend." Dang. New phrase to torture myself over.
The hug 😭
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Is he gonna keep Gyatso's necklace?
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Ending with some deep truths and Zuko slightly going nuts. Good 1st EP end, ngl.
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OH YEAH THE MUSIC
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Despite some things that I wish could have been done a little better.... I'm truly enjoying it.
Do you think in the future iterations of The Batman we are going to see emo Bruce slowly come out of his shell and try and do more good for Gotham as Bruce Wayne. Not quite playboy but certainly a bit more confident, even if it is just a facade. The mayor made that comment about him not doing anything for the city, unlike his parents, and of course the fund his parents set up was used by criminals for money laundering and never helped anymore. Could be interesting to see.
Ok I’m two minutes into Happiest Season and this is already unrealistic. The montage shows two lesbians beginning to date in December and not moving in together until nine months later. Ahem??? Have you met a lesbian?
My Very Spoilery Endgame Review - What I Liked, What Annoyed Me, and Two Questions I Am Left With
I was very satisfied and enjoyed it very much. The theater burst into applause in several instances and it was great to celebrate the end of an era with fellow fans.
Now for the spoilery critiques and praise.
My favorite moments were:
Thor reconciling his self-image and self-worth with his mother
“I’m still worthy.”
Loki escaping and (hopefully) living in at least one timeline - because if Steve went back to “trim the branches” then this means he returned the Tesseract to 1970. Which means the branch where Loki snagged the Tesseract and was not imprisoned on Asgard may have endured*.
Ken Jeong’s cameo.
Stan Lee’s cameo.
Banner coming to terms with who and what he is and living comfortably with the Hulk.
Basically everyone really leaning into the self-love and self-value by the end of the film.
“That is America’s Ass”.
“I could do this all day.” “Yeah, I know.”
“How can I? You’re taking all the stupid with you.”
“Ha! I knew it!”
“I am Iron Man.”
Scott finding Cassie alive.
Wong’s exasperated reply to Strange’s “Is that everyone?”
Nebula’s redemption. This is a princess (as Squidward calls Thanos “sire”) who saves her own damn self.
How the thing that gave the game away to Thanos was actually really clever and well executed; this wasn’t a “heroes are just stupid this one time” (like how Quill screwed the pooch in Infinity War when they had the damn glove). It was something that I genuinely hadn’t thought of, and I assume no one, not even Nebula, would have thought of. It worked. And it worked well.
All the ladies supporting Carol in the final battle - which was awesome but also felt a bit like the moment was added only so the Russos could check it off a “don’t piss off the feminists” list.
How the final battle set it up well for the next phase - I liked how the Glove Relay was from an OG Avenger (Hawkeye) to the new Avengers - Black Panther, Spider-man, and Captain Marvel.
“I love you 3000″.
Falcon!Cap - finally! Yay!
The sound of the armor that started it all being forged as the endcap of the credits.
However.
I wish Bucky and Steve had also had a meaningful moment at the end, like Steve and Sam, something that made it clear that even though Steve was older now, he was no less Bucky’s best pal.
I'm very, very annoyed that they Fridged Natasha. I mean, I get it. Someone had to die. And we all knew Hawkeye was going to go back to his family, so it wouldn’t be him. And I do love how they did the death, how Nat and Clint fought with one another to the be the one to make the sacrifice. And her death would have been especially cheap if Bruce had just Snapped her Back. I get it.
And if there wasn’t a long history of Fridging female character to ensure the male ones have enough Man-Pain to have a character arc and impetus to be a hero, then you know what? This would have been a really moving sacrifice. It would have really worked.
But there is. And in light of that, it’s left me... itchy. Uncomfortable. Because in the context of the film alone it was a great death. But in the context of the history of comic book narratives, it sucked.
Also, what does this mean for the Black Widow movie? Will it actually be a prequel? Will it be Budapest? And if it is Budapest, will they use the same actors, or cast new, younger ones?
I also don't understand the narrative reason why they had to make so many fat jokes around Thor.
I mean, yeah, it makes sense he was depressed and stopped taking care of his heath, and self-medicated with booze and food. This was a strong and meaningful narrative and I really liked that he was given the opportunity to mourn, to question his purpose, to become more than just muscles and a hammer in terms of character construction. That he could grieve and struggle, and be filled with crippling regret that kept him indoors and hiding, and filled self-loathing.
As a character choice it made sense. And I liked that he was still a powerful warrior while chubby, and that he didn’t magically become slim again when he suited up. It was wonderful to see him be no less powerful, dangerous, dedicated, and no less kick ass while sporting a keg instead of a sixpack.
But they leaned awfully hard on that “fat joke” button and by the time Rhodey said “Cheez Whiz?” I was over it. Its got tedious and frankly a bit insulting.
Teasing someone for suffering because he lost literally everyone he loved is not cool. The jokes fell flat, for good reason. They were cruel.
And when the Russos announced that they had included the MCU's first openly gay character I was hoping that it would be a main character, not some rando dude in a talk therapy meeting. I wanted Bucky and Sam to confess feelings, or Bucky to Steve even if Steve couldn’t return them, or Valkyrie to at least have a wife in New Asgard, or something.
But TBH it didn't surprise me that they made it some nameless dude in group support. Like J.K. Rowling, the Russos are happy to queerbait but too cowardly to commit, and they always have been. I’d be annoyed but it’s not worth the energy.
At least when the guy mentioned his boyfriend it was a “no big deal” mention, and nobody made a “are you cool with this, Cap?” thing to really point out that ooooo, this dude is queer.
But those are my only gripes. The rest of it was thoroughly enjoyable and satisfying.
Especially all the little call backs. The "I am Iron Man" and “I could do this all day” stuff - it felt like little gifts to the fandom.
However, I have two questions.
1) When people were Snapped Back, were they Snapped to their previous exact geographical location? Because if so, what about people who had been in transit? Did people who were Snapped Away while in a plane just... appear mid-sky and plummet to their deaths? Were people on spaceships Snapped Back into the void of cold space? We saw in Infinity War that helicopters crashed into city streets - the pilot, that means, was Snapped Away. When that pilot came back, where did he come back? Did Bruce think to Snap them all into safe places? (I mean, I assume the Stones accounted for Spacial Drift and the location of planets in orbit... maybe it accounted for people who would have Snapped Back into deadly situations?)
2) I do love that Steve and Peggy got their life together At that point Pegs would have been like... at least 10 years older than Steve? Maybe 15? What would her neighbors think of Sugar Momma Peggy Carter and her Very Much Younger (Looking) Husband?
Did she introduce him to anyone? Did they have neighborhood BBQs? At that point everyone would have known who Captain America/Steve Rogers was so did no one recognize him? What did they say? (Did we get Beardy Steve back???) They had kids, canonically, so was Steve able to attend their T-BAll games and school plays?
One assumes that Sugar Baby Steve would have been the House Husband, because Pegs was running Shield and Steve was out of the game. He’d never be able to show his face at SHIELD because Howard would recognize him, and so would Arnim Zola, so HYDRA would have known that Captain America survived and I imagine they would have given anything to get him into the Chair.
It makes me think that Sugar Baby House Husband Steve would have been very isolated and possibly lonely. Maybe he had a few neighbor friends, but can you image how torturous it must have been to live so privately? To know that Bucky was out there suffering and being tortured and brainwashed and that he couldn’t do anything about it? He couldn’t go save his best pal?
That Peggy could never bring him to the SHIELD Christmas party, to visit her new baby godson Anthony, never attend anything with him.
And it makes me think Steve had to vanish from her life right when his earlier self entered it so like... as soon as she started getting sick enough with Alzheimer's he had to leave.
Because that’s when younger Steve came into her life, and started visiting her in the nursing home.
But he had to abandon her when she needed him most, and that is very tragic. How did Steve reconcile that with himself? Especially with returning to a future where she was dead and his friends were alive and he didn’t need to be the Secret Sugar Baby House Husband any more?
All in all, it was very enjoyable and I will watch it again.
And I look forward to the FanFic.
* This means that Loki in that branch also likely did not participate in the battle against the Dark Elves. His character growth in that moment was likely delayed, but I believe he ultimately would have processed his extreme confusion, self-loathing, and hatred of his betrayal by his “family” Thor enough to join forces with him against the destruction of the universe when it mattered. Perhaps having the extra time to do so might have even served him better.
I don’t know if this means Odin chose to die and Hela was released, thus triggering the destruction of Asgard. I don’t know what this would have meant for Ragnarock - possibly with Odin as the King when he died the defenses would have been better (though I argue the culture and peace of Asgard thrived under Loki, especially with his dismantling of the Empire and the valuing of the Arts) and they would have saved Asgard or at least not lost so many.
And if Asgard had not survived, perhaps in this version something different may have happened, and Loki wouldn’t on the survivor ship. Perhaps he was on a different ship. Perhaps he wasn’t present for the battle at all and in a completely different part of the universe.
If he was elsewhere this means
a) The Asgardian survivors would have lived because Thanos wouldn’t have targeted the ship, and Thor would have been less self-loathing.
b) When Thanos found Loki with the Tesseract in this branch, it’s likely Loki was able to ingratiate himself to Thanos and gave the Stone to him without Thor there to tip his hand toward an immediate betrayal murder attempt. I subscribe to the theory that Loki was just as mind-controlled during The Avengers and the Battle of New York as Barton (though I wouldn’t call Loki totally innocent in everything) and that he had been suffering from extreme mental health issues following his unsuccessful attempted suicide. In this case, he would be willing to play the long game to get his revenge on his abuser Thanos.
Then, later, hopefully, he joins Thor’s side to save the universe against Thanos (as he did against the Dark Elves)- betraying Thanos and perhaps stopping the Snap before it happened in that timeline. Or if not stopping the Snap, perhaps being a part of the new Avengers if he survived it, or joining in the final battle if he was Snapped Away.
Anyway - I have lots of Loki Thoughts. Feel free to adopt any Plot Bunnies this may have generated in reading this.
I’ve cheated a bit so I already know that a certain character is trans but honestly that doesn’t ruin it for me it just makes me want to read it even more.
