As we continue our rambles on the Marvel saga (although this pod comes a month after the last one), this specific discussion gets interesting since it’s the second and final half. While the first saga of ours concluded with the first all-out battle in the Avengers saga, the second saga begins with a whole lot of human truth.
Funny yeah? You must be wondering what the heck is ‘human truth’ doing in a world full of superheroes? That’s the beauty of it all! The most interesting thing that I take away from the MCU and the second half of the movie saga is the fact that the entire team at Marvel shows us how vulnerable we all are to base-human truths. Emotions of rage, jealousy, a false sense of self-righteousness, and much more are inescapable. Even gods are privy to those (Looking at you Ego) and I guess that tells me so much without saying a whole lot.
A fantastic display of vulnerability is Iron Man 3 where Tony Stark very evidently has textbook symptoms of PTSD. The first battle has taken away so much from him and we see that crystal clear. In Thor: The Dark World, we watch two gods, who also happen to be a father and a son, grapple with the untimely loss of their queen. A husband loses a wife and his son loses his mother. Thor’s heart-piercing cry as he watches his mother fall can bring tears in anyone’s eyes. The realization that he was just seconds away to prevent the incident and the fact that his action of bringing Jane to Asgard set into motion the chain of events that leads to his loss is a beast of guilt that might forever weigh down upon him. This broke the illusion for me since I had never thought gods could lose anything, let alone long for an alternate version of the past.
Captain America’s fight and constant belief in the good of his friend Bucky never ceases to amaze me. He fights against the entire world with the kind of set-in-stone belief that our age has never witnessed.
But the real human emotion that’s been missing in the MCU, and is added on with GoG is that of humor. Having the ability to make the lamest joke and chuckling to it 30,0000 light-years away from the planet you were born in is unimaginable for most of us. But the quad-o of the four and the light-hearted exchanges between them all are IMO the biggest success to keeping audiences reeled in and not detaching from the MCU (a risk that often occurs when fiction goes on the other end of reality, alienating their audience)
But before you know it, the schbang is back with the age of Ultron in an all-out battle. The beauty of this movie is that almost every character is operating on a sense of ‘self-righteousness’. This to me is so intriguing because no one’s belief is misplaced. The rage of the Zakovian twins, Ultron, or even the avengers is justified. But in the end, it’s a classic case of majority wins bringing back something I once read on the line’s of “One man’s terrorist, is another man’s martyr’
The final 10 movies for me were honestly akin to a blur. A case of ‘sum of their parts’ as more and more meaning is added to the story for the viewer. Each movie makes the one before it and the one after it more engaging to watch and fans started appreciating the depth of the plot and how ‘rich’ the narrative became.
The world of Doctor Strange tells an entirely new tale of a vain man, losing his pride and rediscovering it with a new purpose. A sense of empathy is invoked and that synergized with pride is such an interesting tale to watch as it unfolds. The spiderman saga helps to reinforce the innocence of a teenage boy wonder who rubs shoulders with giants (remember the large ant man in the airfield scene?) and yet manages to turn in his math assignment on time. Forever riddled with the guilt of his uncle’s death, his story gives a whole new spin to a person’s journey in grappling with loss.
And of course, there’s the Endgame. Where it all comes to an end. (Not quite, the MCU is far from done with the Avengers). The epic battle where right avenges wrong. I mean the battle couldn’t get any more grand as every single character we’ve witnessed is resurrected and goes all-out against their arch-nemesis. (This battle would have been waaaay more fun if all the other antagonists would have been resurrected too and every superhero had a supervillain to fight!)
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While I’ve tried my best to summarise the entire sequence of movies, many have been left out. We want all you Sheeples to tune in and join the pod along with us as we reminisce this 12-year journey that has moved us in many ways. I promise it’s nothing but a fun-filled hour of nostalgia that you would love to embrace. If it’s been a while since you’ve rewatched the movies, this pod is the perfect way to do it!
Hope to see you on the pod.
Until next time.
-Zee
Link to the pod: http://bit.ly/marvelling-at-marvel-2