Thread by @IWriteAllDay_

Aight. Now that I'm up, this is my official *SPOILER THREAD* for #InfinityWar.

I'll discuss all that I can/remember here and will try to answer questions as they come up!

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So. Some preliminary thoughts on #InfinityWar:

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1. The movie's GREATEST WEAKNESS is that it relies on romances that are undercooked af. This hampers all of the pathos that we're supposed to feel due to those relationships.

These relationships in question are Quill and Gamora and Vision and Wanda.

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2. When both couples kissed at the beginning of the film, I gagged. Not even to be petty either. I gagged because I was confused and didn't think it was earned. To make matters worse, the explanation was that it had been two years...

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3. ...(gotta love time skips) and we're supposed to believe all these folx fell in love...even though we didn't get to see none of it.

...This is not how you build convincing romances lol

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4. Like seriously. The last we saw, Wanda and Vision were making [BLAND] paprika soup and Gamora deadass was still curving-ish Quill as he was dealing with daddy AND mommy issues.

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(4b. The former I still have an issue with because he was in his thirties and had a father figure who gave a fuck about him the whole time but I digress.)

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5. Now, remember this romance shit because I'm coming back to it.

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6. I know this is "Thanos's movie" and supposed to be about him and his arc (which I still don't think good, but I'll get to that), but let's talk about the fact that Thor is basically the only other character here w/ a semblance of an arc.

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7. And this is only possible because of the HUGE overhaul that Taika gave that character. If this was the same Thor from The Dark World or AOU, he would have been shafted again.

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8. Tony is a close second in this movie--and only because he's well-developed by like 38929202 other movies. Everyone else is just...here? I guess.

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9. .@ubeempress mentioned this, but the rogue team--comprised of Cap, Widow, and Falcon--the doo doo end of the development stick very BAD. Like oh my fuck. Between ALL three of them, I don't know if they got more than 10-12 lines off. It was so bad.

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10. These mofos haven't gotten any further development since WINTER SOLDIER. We got BITS of PTSD & survior's remorse from Cap & Falcon in WS & that was IT. Falcon then turned into Cap's acorn holder & Cap turned into a vehicle to tell team-up stories.

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11. Widow...I just. We got a great speech from her in WS about thinking she had went w/ the good guys and then finding out it was all a lie. After that, AoU shat on her with that monster shit & nobody wants to fix it. And this movie surely didn't 🤷🏾‍♀️

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12. Widow, Falcon, and [especially] Cap are extremely forgettable in this movie. Even what looked like it was gonna be Cap's big Thanos moments came and went and was...unremarkable.

I am extremely disappointed by this as a big Cap fan. But w/e!

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13. Speaking of unremarkable:

Thanos is simply an "aight" villain to me. And I mean that sincerely.

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14. I don't know WHO made the decision to switch up his motivation. I don't know WHY it happened either. But lemme just say that it was an extreme disservice to his character and nearly took me out of the movie 🤷🏾‍♀️

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15. Listen to me: making this Periwinkle bastard a SYMPATHETIC proponent of GENOCIDE was not the move. AT ALL. AT ALL.

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16. Chiefly because I don't need EVERY goddamn villain to be sympathetic. I don't. Sometimes I just want a villain to show up, be evil, do bad shit, kill all my faves, ask them where there God is now as an insult and LEAVE. Dassit.

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17. I didn't need Space Deebo telling me he grew up in the Titan hood, crying all alone on the bedroom floor, 'cause he was hungry and the only way to feed him was for his mom's to sleep with a man for a little bit of money 😒

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18. Like what was wrong with the Thanos trying to boo up Death? And if that's not what were going to get to begin with, why fake us out with that cheap "to court death" line from The Avengers??? Que???

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19. But...let's say I do attempt to buy his motivation in #InfinityWar. Even if I accept it (which I don't), his advocacy for genocide is based on a lie:

Overpopulation.

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20. Overpopulation is a myth that has been pushed for centuries by colonizers who go into Black/Brown countries, leech resources, & lie that these same countries don't have shit because these Brown/Black peasants have procreated too much & need to stop.

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21. Nah. All lies. The issue is resources being stolen, hogged, and not fairly distributed. And depending on your political/economic system, hierachy, and etc (and planet, in Thanos's case), those systems in place could be why.

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22. But even if overpopulation was really a thing on Thanos's planet Titan (I'm not convinced), he had no way of knowing if it was the same on Gamora's planet. Or Drax's planet. Or Earth.

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23. He took his own personal history, & without ANY FACTS, decided to blow the half of the universe to hell.

And I guess THAT is supposed to make him evil, but all I see is lazy characterization & a shitty attempt at making me try to see his point.

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24. I am really disappointed, y'all. He was built up to be this menace & tbh I was expecting something akin to Darkseid & all we get is a purple sad boi who thinks genocide is mercy & has an abusive father/daughter relationship with a kid he stole.

lol

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25. Speaking of that relationship, it was YET ANOTHER relationship that failed the movie and took away from it's pathos.

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26. Yeah, yeah Nebula and everyone in the galaxy done told us Gamora was Space Deebo's favorite (because she is useful I guess) but until NOW, this is the first I am hearing that "he loves" her. Like fr fr.

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27. And that useful part is undermined by the fact that everyone keeps calling her "the deadliest woman in the galaxy" ....but I have yet to see that in action 😐.

Which is because she has been POORLY DEVELOPED 😩

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28. She was nerfed in GOTG and GOTG2 and we get seconds of her taking down Thanos here only to find out, again, it's a lie. We also get a scene where she meets Thanos and her people are being genocided but it's like 378393993 movies too late.

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29. I'm just mad because all the time that went into telling us all about Quill's parental woes & trying to convince us these 2 were in love (no) could've went to making her a 3D character. So that when she finally ate it here (a mistake), I would care 😐

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30. And speaking of non-3D characters, that's exactly my issue with Wanda. I have seen her in three movies now. Three. And I know nothing of her and her powers have been inconsistent (but this is a general MCU issue more so than just her).

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31. And she got Gamora'd here in that instead of further character development for her, her relationship with Vision takes precedence.

Oh and her accent was gone. IDK how or why but I guess 🤷🏾‍♀️

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32. Wakanda and the BP roster--besides Okoye--was not used very well at all. I am okay (not really but w/e) with Wakanda being the last defense against Thanos. But I just want it to be done well.

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33. And this is a nitpick, I know, but @DisYoGrandPappy pointed out that as isolationist & advanced as Wakanda was & as folx who have staved off invasions before, why wasn't that field booby-trapped to help thin out the number of faceless goons?

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34. No trenches. No wires. No mines. No gun turrets. No spikes. I just find that all odd because we're not dealing with inexperienced war people here.

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35. And tbh, if I am the King of Wakanda (T'Challa) and a general (Okoye and I guess Cap? Idk), I feel like I should be the last line of defense? Not running all to the front to fight an oogly moogly. But again, it's a nitpick.

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36. And while I'm here speaking on these Black characters:

A Black character (Heimdall), who is apparently Thor's BEST friend (...okayyyyyyyy) is the first person to eat it onscreen.

I am not okay with that.

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37. IDC that it was "noble". I don't care that he & his sorrow locs were probably ready to die after all this. I think it's played out. And frankly I'm tired of Black/Brown folx having to be the vehicle for contrived & underdeveloped pathos in the MCU

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38. That's all I am gonna say on that because I have written on this before 🤷🏾‍♀️

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39. Mantis. Mantis being a glorified, baby-like mood ring is a trifling disservice to a character who is and can be way MORE than that. I am appalled that this is the most we've gotten from her.

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40. On the plus side, Dr. Strange is better both here and in the one scene we see him in Thor: Ragnarok and he is AT HIS BEST when he can play off a group of people. I hope future films take note from this.

Because I really enjoyed his character here.

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41. Which brings me to one of my biggest issues with the film:

Who exactly got *dusted* at the end of #InfinityWar

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42. Bucky was tragic, but expected. Falcon being underdeveloped meant that I shrugged when he disappeared. Mantis? Shrugs. Quill? Shrugs.

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43. Drax? That's bullshit because his entire arc is avenging his family by killing Thanos & you dust him. T'Challa & Peter? Well, that's bullshit because they just got here & you KNOW we love them. But it's also a cop out because they are getting sequels.

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44. There is also no way THAT BOTH WANDA AND DR. STRANGE should have been dusted. That was just too much for me. Strange I can accept because he probably saw that in the one odd where they "win". But Wanda too? With no chance for further development???

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45. Groot? Trifling, unexpected, and I know he (and Rocket) are sick of this shit. I'm personally just mad because there's no Stormbreaker without him. Thor does not MAKE IT to WAKANDA without him and yet everyone is ignoring that. And he gets dusted.

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46. But, conveniently, the WHOLE ORIGINAL LINEUP, assuming Hawkeye ain't get dusted, (plus thankfully Okoye, Rhodey, Rocket, and Nebula) somehow make it out? Both TONY AND STEVE make it out?

Seriously?

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47. There's no way. One of them should've eaten it. Thanos talmbout this was "random" and looking at this Wonderbread list of survivors, it don't seem all that random to me tbh.

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48. This is also how I know Thanos ain't serious because if I was a petty Periwinkle bastard, I would instantly dust whoever landed hits on me. That means Thor & Tony are GONE. Yep. I would've taken that time stone and still dusted Tony 🤷🏾‍♀️

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49. Just pausing here to say that what Thanos did to Vision? Killing him twice? That is truly the thing that made him incredibly trifling and as terrifying as he should have been. I will have nightmares about that forever.

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50. And finally, there is that pesky theme of love & sacrifice. This theme is tricky because it is rarely done well or effectively. And in this case, because this theme rested on undercooked couples like Quillmora and Scarlet Vision, it fell flat 🤷🏾‍♀️

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51. This theme is also tricky because there's always one person who KNOWS what needs to be done (Vision and Gamora), and KNOWS the cost, and they are always conveniently in a position where they can't do it themselves.

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52. This puts the onus on their lovers (😒 - Wanda and Quill) to do it for them. And the lovers dance around the issue because the idea is that Vision and Gamora wouldn't ask them to do something so terrible if they REALLY loved them.

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53. But conversely, Wanda and Quill would also NOT hesitate if they really loved them as well. Because they know the alternative would be seeing their lovers brutally murdered by Space Deebo. Which isn't a fate that they deserve.

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54. And all of this is aggravated by the fact that in this theme if you hesitate to make the decision, it is made for you. Choice is taken away. Which is what happened because Wanda & Quill don't attempt to do the thing until Thanos is already RIGHT THERE

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55. But still. The theme, while imperfect, is all about struggle. The struggle of love vs duty. And the struggle of giving up the ONE for the MANY.

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56. It's not my favorite theme, clearly, but this struggle would have meant more if not for the sheer underdevelopment of the individuals involved. And that's the sad part.

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57. I'm respectfully gonna park this thread right here because my phone is freezing up and my mentions are in shambles 😂. I don't know if I'll comment anymore tbh, but I just wanna say that these thoughts are MINE and are not the be all end all for #InfinityWar.

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58. Still, I wanted to say these things because if the MCU wants to survive another decade, it MUST learn how to make better villains. It MUST learn how to develop its female characters besides exposition. And it MUST treat its Black/POC characters better.

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59. Here's to hoping Captain Marvel washes out the incredibly bitter taste this movie has put in my mouth. Because having to wait a whole year after that? Good God.

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Cc @threadreaderapp, unroll this please.