Well that was okay.

My wife was like “I don’t understand Sharon’s character development at all. And I hate the Flag Smasher storyline.” I have to agree.

Spoiler

Sharon is a Skrull, the character development just made no sense and she isn’t carrying it off well.

Spoiler

Why didn’t they team Sharon up with Val? It would have made so much more sense

I like Anthony Mackie. I think it’s interesting to present a hero who tries to resolve problems. I think the story did a great job tying up loose ends and moving characters forward. But fuck I wish the bad guys were a little badder. The whole thing was a bit of a life lecture at the end and I still prefer a shield to the head and an actual bad guy. I feel like they could have had Mackie kick more ass, US Agent too. But they really didn’t set up a lot of fights you wanted to see happen cause the Flag Smashers just weren’t thought through all that well and they weren’t compelling bad guys. I hope Mackie gets more of a fight next time, cause the counseling might be necessary but it’s not that compelling to watch.

Right now I more interested in seeing.

What happens to Zemo

The further adventures of John Walker...and Elijah Bradley.

 

Iron Patriot was a one off not seen again after Iron Man 3 and just one of many titles cycled around for Rhodey's character in a suit of armour let us remember that he and by extension the US government stole from Tony Stark. His mantle does not carry remotely the weight of the mantle of Captain America. Its not an inconvenient barrier because its irrelevant; it was a title thought up at a meeting of rank officers and bestowed upon someone who was already kicking ass. The mantle of Captain America may have started as the kind of jingoistic bullshit expected of the time and place, but was forged into a legend by a man of good character doing heroic things and became a symbol revered and respected in universe for closer than not to a century. Iron Patriot has no such thematic weight or gravitas. In universe or out. Not in the MCU at least.

 

Rewatch Endgame

 

It’s a flash moment and not really developed on screen.

 

The response was to if he was never seen again after Iron Man 3, which he clearly was, not if his other appearance was amazing.

 

You know I’ll confess that since they never refer to him by that name in Endgame or Infinity War, I honestly thought they’d reverted to calling him War Machine again.

 

Also I don’t know if I’ve said it yet but I hate the Contessa character. Feels like the director told the actress “okay, be funny and quippy” without any other direction, like how Jon Favreau lets Amy Sedaris and Horatio Saenz run wild on The Mandalorian. She’s really grating and ugh I don’t want to see more of her even though we will.

 

"I can't help get a loan for my family's boat, but I can get a whole metal statue and wing for Isaiah Bradley in the Captain America Museum funded somehow."
Did Sam call in family favors for that, too?

 

I can't achieve something at the beginning, but I can do a thing at the end is pretty basic story structure.

 

Well he is the new Captain America, he probably has more clout now.

 

Very good finale to a very good series. Everything with Sam, Bucky, Zemo and Walker was excellent throughout (though the latter's arc may have flowed a bit better with more episodes, I still loved his story though and can't wait to see where he goes next after the interesting spot he was left in).

The Flag Smashers were subpar antagonists. I understood their motives and thought they were a good example of "the path to hell is paved with good intentions" but I felt they were flat - we never got to find out anything about Karli or her associates that told us about each of them as people or gave them actual faces. I wish her all the best, she is really young after all so she has plenty of time to grow, but I don't think Kellyman is a good actress; someone else in that role would have elevated it I feel.

Spoiler

Sam's Captain America outfit is class. Looks a little loose around his abdominal, costuming should fix that for CA4.

Walker proving to us all - and himself - that he's a good-hearted man at this core was really, really unexpected after last week. I loved that development though. His US Agent suit looks awesome.

Bucky saving the hostages was another cool moment - that looks like the first time in 8 decades he's been thanked for saving people, and it clearly meant so much to him. Bucky telling Yori the truth was sad; it was a bitter resolution for that corner of the story, but it allowed both of them to move on.

In the end, Zemo always gets what he aimed for, even when he's already behind bars.

Sharon as the Power Broker was beyond predictable but it could lead to great things later. However, how it was introduced here was quite poor - the constant texting and reminders of "Power Broker is coming" were just a drag on the plot that never amounted to anything, which in turn made Sharon look more like an ineffective middle-manager type than a dangerous crime lord to be feared. That has to have been the most underwhelming mid-credits to a MCU project ever - it wouldn't have mattered if there was a second, more hype-inducing one, but as the only mid-credits scene it really fell flat. Still, I will re-iterate that this could pay off in a gripping way down the line.

A step down after the superb WandaVision, but still a very strong effort. Ultimately it either needed at least 8, if not 10, episodes to tell everything or if it had to be 6 episodes, a lot of stuff needed to be left on the cutting room floor. Absolutely can't knock the thematic resonance and confidence of the storytelling though. I'm anticipating where our main 4 go next.

 

This feels true, but who knows: Why Was Falcon’s Flag-Smashers Storyline So Weird? Blame A Possibly Cut Pandemic Plotline

 

I’d forgot he’s using the Iron Patriot colors in Infinity War and Endgame.

As for why Sam is a bigger deal in the MCU, Sam’s taking on the title of Captain America, taking on the legacy, and taking up the shield. In the MCU Cap’a shield is practically the American version of Excalibur. The show itself talks about what a big deal that shield is.

Rhodey is different. He’s the first modern US supported hero, but again, he doesn’t have the title of Captain America, the very first public superhero of the MCU.

I think if Armor Wars ends with Rhodey taking the title of Iron Man, that’ll be a different and very momentous thing.

 

That would be cool. I really think they should bring Tony back as an AI. You could get Don as Iron-Man and that Robert Downey Jr. banter. And look, look, look I know, I KNOW it would diminish his death a little but let’s be realistic (in comics) if anyone was going to transfer their brain into a computer and become an AI it’s Tony Stark. It’s a logical evolution of Tony Stark as a character how is the tech genius not going to do this?

 

Off topic, but the world probably would have been a better place if all those people stayed gone. Overpopulation is a (maybe THE) major issue on Earth- and it was resolved. The next generation would have benefited and moved on. That has been bugging me ever since they started showing how many problems bringing them back has caused.

Call me evil - they should have left them all gone. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

 

so they changed it because it hit to close to home? I can understand that but then why go and bring more politics that relate to current world problems in?

 

I have a math question I assign on the Malthus Tragedy. The hidden conclusion I’ve yet to have a student realize is that even if you have the Thanos snap, you just buy time. Civilizations have a natural doubling time while they’re undergoing exponential growth. Snap away half the population, and at the doubling time you’re back to the same population.

I will say that how things played out in Endgame is about the worst case scenario. At the start of the five years a lot of systems would have just collapsed. At the end of the five years when the system started to adjust to the new normal everyone comes back and swamps the worlds resources. I’m surprised the world isn’t in worse shape in the MCU.

 

Agreed! Isn't Iron Heart's onboard computer also Tony Stark in the comics?

We need RDJ back!

 

the first AI was the second was based on someone else.

 

You would collapse the world economy and thrust it into an unimaginable depression if you snapped away 50% of people. Every nation on earth would almost immediately collapse under its debt load as half its tax-base disappeared. Forgot about the complete collapse of infrastructure and any historical precedent for dealing with this type of event. You think it was hard to get toilet paper in the pandemic? A complete collapse of the global financial system that would immediately domino into governments and private industry. It would guarantee several wars as countries either sought to take advantage of their neighbors or they were immediately in such a severe decline that war became the best option. The MCU doesn’t even come close to dealing with the ramifications. It would change the globe into something unrecognizable.