personal musings and fic

[tielan]

I think the worst part of the next few days will be watching the rest of MCU fandom getting exactly what they want, while knowing that, good as the movie was, I didn't get what I really wanted. And will continue to get nothing but the worst of platitudes for the next few years at best.

No, I know you have no space for sympathy. It's okay. Go and enjoy the movie. It really is a good movie and you'll love it.

--

And because I came home from CACW and promptly started writing, I already have fic out giving some explanation for where Maria was, and why.

To The End Of Love
James "Bucky" Barnes & Maria Hill, Maria Hill & Pepper Potts, Steve Rogers & Pepper Potts, Maria Hill & Steve Rogers, Maria Hill & Clint Barton, Maria Hill & Natasha Romanoff, Maria Hill & Sam Wilson, Maria Hill & Yukio, Maria Hill/Steve Rogers, Maria Hill, Bucky Barnes, Steve Rogers, Akela Amador (cameo), Sam Wilson, Scott Lang, Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, Pepper Potts, Natasha Romanoff, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Missing Scene, Minor Character(s), Missing in Action, Work In Progress, Spoilers, Post-Movie.
Drop the idea that attachment and love are one thing. They are enemies. It is attachment that destroys all love.

3 of 5 parts posted so far, and I'm starting on Part 4 today.

Comments

[kore]

watching the rest of MCU fandom getting exactly what they want,

heh while for me that movie was a giant DNW on nearly every level, including Seb's hair, except I now like Black Panther a lot.

[tielan]

including Seb's hair

*snortgiggles*

I'm curious as to what you would have liked to have seen.

I mean, I liked quite a bit of what they did for all the other characters, I just wanted it done for MARIA. (This is why my f-list doesn't comment on my posts anymore. I've been on about Maria for three years now...)

And yes, T'Challa!

[kore]

Basically Cap 3, not CW....I hated CW in the comics, I don't think it fit into the MCU storyline, AND it means they're also doing CW in the comics. AGAIN. That's just way too much CW for me, I was around when it happened the first time and it sucked way back then too, I just don't think it's very well thought-out. -- What I would've liked to have seen would have been Sam and Steve going after Bucky, maybe Fury going after Bucky too, Nat going after Bucky and Winterwindow backstory maybe leading to Nat's solo movie. I mean, that's what seemed to be set up at the end of TWS. Doubt we would have ever gotten that, though.

[tielan]

CW as it happened in the comics wasn't very well thought-out - big suspension of reality, and even practicality there. (Haha, comics and reality. Hm.)

Having just come back from a 2nd viewing, I think they couldn't resist it for the angst factor of everyone choosing differently and going their separate ways. But it really felt like it should have been an Avengers movie, not a CA movie.

[kore]

(Haha, comics and reality. Hm.)

SERIOUSLY. I was trying to explain the original plotline to my husband, who does not do comics at all, and oh man. "So then Steve dies on the steps of the courthouse after he's been arrested. A sniper kills him. They think it's Crossbones, but it was really Sharon because she was brainwashed. And Sam tries to find out who did it, and Bucky blames Tony and goes off to kill him. And...." He says it reminds him of opera, but with aliens.

I think they couldn't resist it for the angst factor of everyone choosing differently and going their separate ways. But it really felt like it should have been an Avengers movie, not a CA movie.

Yeah, the other problem I have with the CW plot is that all the conflict is manufactured because it depends on adults not talking to each other, which I LOATHE. It doesn't sound like the movie is much better.

[everbright]

I think I'm a grump, but I'm just so done with the MCU I'm going to watch the movie in self defense and then try to block out as much of it as I can on tumblr. I'm just so over it!

[tielan]

It's settling into mediocre.

They're making choices that are going to lock them into a limited range of options, and they won't consider where they could have opened up the universe to more possibilities of character development.

eg.

Natasha makes a connection with T'Challa, in addition to the connections she already has with Tony, Clint, Steve, and Sam. So now she's the natural go-to addition for the Black Panther in addition to everyone else, and the possible Russian link back to Bucky.

Rather than introduce Miles Morales as Spiderman, they introduced a very white Peter Parker.

They brought in more white guys to balance it out, with the exception of T'Challa, rather than bringing in women, non-white and otherwise.

I remember this from Stargate Atlantis, Season 5. Storylines that could have gone to more interesting characters went to the white males, and became a self-involved circle because there was nothing new - neither emotional investment, nor suspense, nor crisis. And then when they wanted to build on 'past character development', they went back to the white males because "they already had a history in this area".

[everbright]

Huh. Nice analysis! I mean, that's a much more erudite explanation rather than me whining about how I'm BORED.

[tielan]

Well, I first noticed it in Age of Ultron, where Tony was dreaming about failing the world during the New York invasion. Which, okay.

But the reason they could focus on him was because the audience already knew what was going on with Tony – he’d had three movies of his own and Avengers (Assemble) at that point.

Except that focus meant we got shorted on a) Natasha, b) Bruce, and, to a lesser extent c) Clint.

And it becomes extremely evident in this movie – where Steve is the title character but so much of the emotional beats are given to Tony.

To they that have, more shall be given.

It's an old saw, and we protest it when it applies to, say, money and resources. But we don't protest it when it applies to storytelling, even when the stories we tell are old and re-hashed.