hypertwink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hypertwink) wrote2014-04-09 03:22 am
hypertwink) wrote2014-04-09 03:22 am
MCU Phase II
Maybe, I'm grasping at straws but I was reading some people on my flist who theorized that Captain America: Winter Soldier is all about identity - finding who you are, what it means to be who and what you are, rejecting labels that try to define your existence.
When you think about it, all three Phase II movies are all about that:
1) For most of Iron Man III, Tony Stark is not in his suit (which for the most part, has become a prison for him because of what happened during Avengers). He is also for a span of time not Tony Stark, but The Mechanic. While Harley knows that this weirdo asshole with PTSD who's squatting in his garage is TS/IM, while everyone after him knows who and what he is, Tony Stark is forced to spend most of the movie trying to find who he is apart from his public image, his wealth, and his suit.
In many ways, identity is in play for most of the movie. The protection of a public persona (good and bad), the internalized prejudices we hold after 9/11, even the changes in our life -- like the disabled vets used in the Extremis experiments or even Happy's promotion from personal driver/bodyguard to SI Head of Security -- can make us question the who and why of our existence.
2) Thor has some form of identity-crisis but not as much as seen in the other two movies. The first Thor was all about him trying to regain his status as the heir prince to Asgard. When we arrive at the second movie, we see him being constrained by it. And by the end, he knows enough about himself that he is not suited to become King.
Now that I come to think about it, a few more characters have issues of identity as well: Erik Selveig, traumatized after New York, is experiencing some identity crisis/nervous breakdown, and finding himself through work (interestingly enough, the very thing that made him Loki's target in the first place). Frigga is wife, mother, warrior-queen All these come into play when she chooses to lay her life down to protect Jane (and the Nine Realms).
3) And then, we have Captain America: Winter Soldier. Among all the Avengers (except probably Bruce), Steve is probably the Avenger who experienced the most change. From sickly army reject to super soldier, from dancing monkey to war hero, from national icon to...what, enemy of the state? Steve learns, no, reaffirms in CAWS that he is more than The Shield or The Uniform. That for whatever enhancements he has had, he is still the 98 lb weakling whose heart was bigger than his whole body, a man who makes his choices to become good, to become a hero, to become more than what he or others think he is.
I actually find it an inspired choice to pair him with someone who is a master...well, mistress of transformation; seriously, I wish they had used the Red Room backstory for Natasha because that is totally in line with this discussion. But even if you take that out, Natasha's real identity/humanity has always taken a backseat to her ability to become a chameleon, to become any one of her identities in a blink of the eye. So after everything has been said and done, with all of her covers blown and burned to the ground, she has the difficult task of finding herself underneath all the lies and compromises.
Not unlike Fury himself. It's interesting to see someone who seems to be bulletproof for most of MCU Phase I & II, be shot up to hell and appear human. It's an interesting reversal for the audience and probably the character. Even he becomes more than what we've seen of him, and more than Nick Fury the persona.
And lastly, Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier. Changes were inflicted upon him but unlike Steve, there was no consent in his transformation. For the most part, he is a robot -- a killing machine who is rebooted every time to sow death and chaos, with no hesitation or question. To have that silent certainty shattered by someone who calls you by a name and is adamant in their knowledge of you -- it's probably a paradigm shift of epic proportions.
It's easy to go on being something when your self-image and what people think of you are in sync, that's why it took Steve for the Winter Soldier to actually fracture apart and not be really put back together again. I agree with some who noted that for someone who is basically silent and emotionless for most of his scenes, he speaks for the very 1st time when he encounters Captain America and from then on, he becomes more and more emotional. Even after being wiped clean again.
He may not know who he is by the end of the movie and he may not be who Steve thinks he is, but he knows he is more than what Hydra thinks he is or can do.
And like some of the characters, he is now on the road to finding that out.
ETA: More thoughts after watching most of Phase I and Phase II again.
When you think about it, all three Phase II movies are all about that:
1) For most of Iron Man III, Tony Stark is not in his suit (which for the most part, has become a prison for him because of what happened during Avengers). He is also for a span of time not Tony Stark, but The Mechanic. While Harley knows that this weirdo asshole with PTSD who's squatting in his garage is TS/IM, while everyone after him knows who and what he is, Tony Stark is forced to spend most of the movie trying to find who he is apart from his public image, his wealth, and his suit.
In many ways, identity is in play for most of the movie. The protection of a public persona (good and bad), the internalized prejudices we hold after 9/11, even the changes in our life -- like the disabled vets used in the Extremis experiments or even Happy's promotion from personal driver/bodyguard to SI Head of Security -- can make us question the who and why of our existence.
2) Thor has some form of identity-crisis but not as much as seen in the other two movies. The first Thor was all about him trying to regain his status as the heir prince to Asgard. When we arrive at the second movie, we see him being constrained by it. And by the end, he knows enough about himself that he is not suited to become King.
Now that I come to think about it, a few more characters have issues of identity as well: Erik Selveig, traumatized after New York, is experiencing some identity crisis/nervous breakdown, and finding himself through work (interestingly enough, the very thing that made him Loki's target in the first place). Frigga is wife, mother, warrior-queen All these come into play when she chooses to lay her life down to protect Jane (and the Nine Realms).
3) And then, we have Captain America: Winter Soldier. Among all the Avengers (except probably Bruce), Steve is probably the Avenger who experienced the most change. From sickly army reject to super soldier, from dancing monkey to war hero, from national icon to...what, enemy of the state? Steve learns, no, reaffirms in CAWS that he is more than The Shield or The Uniform. That for whatever enhancements he has had, he is still the 98 lb weakling whose heart was bigger than his whole body, a man who makes his choices to become good, to become a hero, to become more than what he or others think he is.
I actually find it an inspired choice to pair him with someone who is a master...well, mistress of transformation; seriously, I wish they had used the Red Room backstory for Natasha because that is totally in line with this discussion. But even if you take that out, Natasha's real identity/humanity has always taken a backseat to her ability to become a chameleon, to become any one of her identities in a blink of the eye. So after everything has been said and done, with all of her covers blown and burned to the ground, she has the difficult task of finding herself underneath all the lies and compromises.
Not unlike Fury himself. It's interesting to see someone who seems to be bulletproof for most of MCU Phase I & II, be shot up to hell and appear human. It's an interesting reversal for the audience and probably the character. Even he becomes more than what we've seen of him, and more than Nick Fury the persona.
And lastly, Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier. Changes were inflicted upon him but unlike Steve, there was no consent in his transformation. For the most part, he is a robot -- a killing machine who is rebooted every time to sow death and chaos, with no hesitation or question. To have that silent certainty shattered by someone who calls you by a name and is adamant in their knowledge of you -- it's probably a paradigm shift of epic proportions.
It's easy to go on being something when your self-image and what people think of you are in sync, that's why it took Steve for the Winter Soldier to actually fracture apart and not be really put back together again. I agree with some who noted that for someone who is basically silent and emotionless for most of his scenes, he speaks for the very 1st time when he encounters Captain America and from then on, he becomes more and more emotional. Even after being wiped clean again.
He may not know who he is by the end of the movie and he may not be who Steve thinks he is, but he knows he is more than what Hydra thinks he is or can do.
And like some of the characters, he is now on the road to finding that out.
ETA: More thoughts after watching most of Phase I and Phase II again.
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But, you could say IM1 and 2 were about Tony shedding his playboy persona and becoming someone better. Hulk is literally Bruce becoming something new. Thor becomes a person worthy of the crown. Cap 1, like Hulk, gets a literal transformation, but also on the personal, from a starry eyed recruit, to a soldier who has suffered losses in war. And the Avengers itself is about taking these disparate people and becoming a team.
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It's interesting how they each (Tony, Thor and Cap) go to such lengths to gain the thing in Phase 1 (Iron Man, Crown, Army) and then they each reject it in Phase 2. I mean, the only one gaining and settling into power is... Loki? (I mean, not really xP. But still, none of them went for a straightforward power-gain/strength to strength progression).