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mcu_cosmic2019-09-15 10:24 am
lynnenne) wrote in mcu_cosmic2019-09-15 10:24 am
Entry tags:
Abusive Parents in the MCU (trigger warning)
Hello friends! I apologize for my recent absence... I've been travelling and then there was a hurricane and my power was out for 3 days, so I've been preoccupied. Thank you to snickfic for last week's discussion topic about Thor at university learning to speak Groot.
I'm still travelling, and I watched Infinity War on the plane yesterday, so this week's topic is about that big purple dude we all hate.
The scene where Thanos kills Gamora, whom he claims is his favorite child, is one of the most gut-wrenching and infuriating moments in the MCU. I've read criticism from some fans that the directors tried to make us feel sorry for Thanos by showing his tears and his grief.
I took something different from the scene. Thanos' grief might make him more human than your average child abuser, but he's still an abuser. The fact that he hurts and kills those he loves doesn't make me, as a viewer, sympathize with him more. It only makes him more of a monster.
Others might have a different view. Hollywood does have a history of prioritizing manpain over the real suffering of women and children. And some of those cinematic tricks (e.g. close-up on Thanos' face after he throws Gamora off the cliff) are used in this movie.
What's your opinion? Were the directors trying to make the audience feel sorry for Thanos? Or were they merely emphasizing that he's a killer who feels more sorry for himself than for the children he abused?
snickfic for last week's discussion topic about Thor at university learning to speak Groot. I'm still travelling, and I watched Infinity War on the plane yesterday, so this week's topic is about that big purple dude we all hate.
The scene where Thanos kills Gamora, whom he claims is his favorite child, is one of the most gut-wrenching and infuriating moments in the MCU. I've read criticism from some fans that the directors tried to make us feel sorry for Thanos by showing his tears and his grief.
I took something different from the scene. Thanos' grief might make him more human than your average child abuser, but he's still an abuser. The fact that he hurts and kills those he loves doesn't make me, as a viewer, sympathize with him more. It only makes him more of a monster.
Others might have a different view. Hollywood does have a history of prioritizing manpain over the real suffering of women and children. And some of those cinematic tricks (e.g. close-up on Thanos' face after he throws Gamora off the cliff) are used in this movie.
What's your opinion? Were the directors trying to make the audience feel sorry for Thanos? Or were they merely emphasizing that he's a killer who feels more sorry for himself than for the children he abused?
no subject
Many of the villains in MCU were fine--they weren't often explored with any nuance. Erik is an exception in Black Panther, because his backstory is intensely connected with T'Challa's. Aldrich in Iron Man 3, and even Vanko in Iron Man 2 have interesting reasons for why.
"Feelings" isn't what makes for three dimensionality. Acknowledging consequences is what pushes narrative 'heft'. CA:CW left me pretty meh because it was so chock full of certain things that it couldn't have even a wisp of others. It had some stuff that worked for me. That Spider-Man & Captain America Borough Boys moment-That's the Marvel Magic (tm), where the world continues to exist out of frame and is sold by little kisses of overlap just Happening. Drawing Peter Parker doing his job somewhere in a crowd scene, no fanfare just he's there, people that find him get a little boost.
There's in my mind no way to make Thanos sympathetic. His ends and means are antithetical to that. How he came to such a warped program, would certainly inject depth, but it couldn't be told in the shock and awe style.