Tag: marvel cinematic universe

Daenerys Targaryen and Natasha Romanoff: Two Powerful Women Meet Demoralizing Ends

~ Metamaiden ~ 2 Comments

In the Age Old Choice for Female Characters Between Powerful or Good, Wh*re or Madonna, Modern Writers Frequently Land on a Third Choice: Insane or Suicidal, Then Dead

When Joss Whedon’s dream came true and Natalia Alianovna Romanoff willingly flung herself to her death, I felt nothing. I knew from the moment she and Clint went off for the Soul Stone that she would die, but, stupidly, I didn’t quite get to the realization that she would be the one to kill herself – one of the few decisions she’s made for herself in her time in the MCU.

There aren’t a lot of options for women and girls to look up to as role models in media – not female ones, anyway. Growing up, I was always looking for female role models in media, and I frequently ended up in love with the ones who had agency, above all else. The “powerful or good” dichotomy that I wrote about in a post in response to the Frozen musical details the struggle I’ve always found in female characters. You can be powerful or good, have agency or compassion, intelligence or charm, be sexy or moral – wh*re or madonna.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Episode 4: Code Yellow Recap

~ Metacrone

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On Agents of SHIELD S6Ep4, Deke is back, and he’s making his fortune as a tech genius, which totally makes sense for the grandchild of Fitzsimmons. The space team is still out there, recovering from their hangovers, but we don’t check in with them this week.

We spend the episode alternating between the Lighthouse centered B team, made up of Benson, Keller and Yo-Yo, and new gal Diaz, and the A team of Mack, May, Deke, plus several very welcome new guys, who visit Deke’s new company to stop NotCoulson and his team. It pains me to add Yo-Yo to the B team, but she made some serious mistakes this week. FitzSimmons were missed in the science/med lab more than ever. Yo-Yo could’ve picked up some of the slack with her powers and experience, but she didn’t.

I blame the writers and director. Yo-Yo is better than this.

Recap

The episode begins with a music cue that sounds like it’s going to be the Mission: Impossible theme song, but then it isn’t. The episode’s first visuals are of Deke and new guy Trevor Khan, who’ve gotten stuck in an ’80s scifi action movie. No worries, Deke has learned his clichés, both verbal and physical. He’s got this covered.

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Agents of Shield Season 6 Episode 3: Fear and Loathing on the Planet of Kitson Recap

~ Metacrone

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Agents of SHIELD Goes Cyberpunk

In a change of pace, this of episode Agents of SHIELD gives everyone a break from routine and goes full on space cyberpunk neo-noir, complete with robots, neon, hallucinations, breaking glass, existential desperation and the chief investigator’s voiceover narration. As befits a cyberpunk dystopia, irony and gallows humor abound. Because this is Agents of SHIELD and not Blade Runner or Altered Carbon, the result is both deadly serious and tongue in cheek.

Thematically, the episode revolves around friendships and Fitz and Simmons’ deep need to be reunited. The friendship pairings of Fitz and Enoch, and Jemma and Daisy, are closely examined in ways that are overdue. Piper and Davis also get a chance to shine both as individuals and to show their affection for each other as partners, despite their recent grumbles. There’s a glancing nod toward Jaco and Sarge, a fascinating pairing when you consider that Coulson was always drawn to talented outcasts, especially powered people.

Calling it now: Sarge/Fake Coulson is a Chronicom hunter. In episode 1, Benson said that Tinker was cybernetic. Sarge has traveled extensively through time and space and he and his team are clearly hunting for specific targets. This episode went from showing a Chromicon hunter capturing Fitz to Sarge setting off a targeting device in Earth’s sky. Otherwise, Earth wasn’t shown in this episode. That’s a pretty huge hint.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Episode 2: Window of Opportunity Recap

~ Metacrone

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In season 6, episode 2 of Agents of SHIELD, Melinda May returns to peak fighting form after an injury sidelined her for most of season 5. She single handedly takes on EvilCoulson Sarge’s team, including the Jaco the Giant and Butterfly Snowflake the dirty street fighter. She doesn’t win the fight, but she does gather important intel, free the hostage and jog Sarge’s memory of the word “Coulson”, so it’s a win for the mission.

The other main storyline this episode is Fitz and Enoch’s big space adventure. They’ve signed on to work a long haul run with a crew of xenophobic Sivians in order to get to Naro-Adzia, the planet where cryo pods are made (Jenna was right in her prediction). Fitz disguised his eye color and Enoch taught him the language so that he could blend in with the Sivians. But Enoch forgot to share some important cultural points with Fitz, which lead to them being outed as Terrans. Fitz has to think fast in order to save himself and Enoch without allowing the rest of the crew to be killed instead.

This episode allows viewers to get to know the alien culture that Fitz is involved with better, and the one that Sarge is part of. The writers also take time to further explore Marcus Benson and Agent Keller’s characters. We find out a little more about Sarge and his crew as individuals, including the fact that some teammates are disposable, a very un-Coulson-like attitude.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 6 Episode 1: Missing Pieces Recap

~ Metacrone ~ 2 Comments

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Welcome back, fellow agents! After a year long absence and the loss of Director Coulson, SHIELD has reinvented itself again. This time, they are officially headquartered in the Lighthouse, the scene of much of the action in season 5. Mack has become Director Mackenzie, standing strong and steady as he watches over operations, with Coulson’s insights, projected from Fury’s cube, guiding him.

May and Yo-Yo are at the lighthouse with Mack, along with numerous new agents. It’s been a year in SHIELD’s timeline, as well, and in that time Melinda has buried Coulson and recruited talent, mainly of the muscle/field agent variety. Two in particular stand out: Keller, who has a chiseled jawline, a flirtation with Yo-Yo and a dumb idea about their current case that proves true; and Fox, who is his nerdy sidekick and possibly a single episode red shirt.

The current case is a series of anomalies reality warps distortions [name to be determined later] which have yet to be explained. When one of these events occurs, aliens arrive on Earth through a breach. By the end of the episode, their leader arrives, a character with a very familiar face.

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New Trailers: Marvel’s Runaways, Syfy’s Deadly Class, Captain Marvel & More

~ Metacrone

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12/7/18: Added Avengers: Endgame trailer.  12/8/18: Added Umbrella Academy trailer. Also, added Emergency Awesome’s breakdowns of  the Marvel film trailers, including his ideas on the Spiderman: Far from Home trailer (no footage from trailer, but it was shown at Comic Con in Brazil).

Christmas has come early this week for trailers, with Marvel rumored to be on a spree and Syfy putting out 2 more trailers for their new show Deadly Class, which starts January 16th.

Before we get to the trailers, let’s start with the new poster for Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel. It is so exciting to see her flying around, all powerful and lit up like Thor! You never realize how much you need to see something until you get it.

Glorious.

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Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD Renewed for Season 7, with One Agent Missing

~ Metacrone

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Is This a Sign of the Effect That Avengers 3&4 Will Have on Agents of Shield?

This is good news! Disney/Marvel/ABC announced today that Agents of SHIELD has been renewed for season 7, even though season 6 won’t air until Summer 2019. Many had assumed that the shortened, 13 episode season would be the series last, so early confirmation that the network is still supporting its original foray into Marvel TV programming is very welcome.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 22: The End Recap and Season 5 Review/Analysis

~ Metacrone

Episode 22, The End, closes season 5 of Agents of SHIELD, and, as promised in the promos, not everyone makes it out alive. It’s an emotional episode that ties up the Graviton story, at least for now, and settles the question of who’ll succeed Coulson as director of SHIELD, at least for now. The season is wrapped up nicely at the end of the episode, but there’s a clear set up for season 6. I’m still reeling from everything that happened in this episode, and wondering about some of the dangling threads that were purposely left hanging.

Coulson lies unconscious in the infirmary, not dead yet, but inching ever closer. Deke listens from the hall as the team argues about whether to save Coulson or save the world. They don’t currently have a way to get the centipede serum/odium mixture into Talbot, even if they decide to use it on him. Fitz suggests that having Talbot absorb someone who has the serum might work. Mack, of course, is upset that Fitz went there. Fitz tells him it’s a hypothetical suggestion.

There Fitz goes, using big words and getting all sciencey and theoretical again. Next thing you know, he’ll try to get Mack to believe in climate change or that the earth is more than 6,000 years old.

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Agents of SHIELD Season 5 Episode 21: The Force of Gravity Recap

~ Metacrone

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After half a season of teasing variations on the choice between saving Coulson and saving the world, the choice that Future Elena predicted would be their downfall, the Agents of SHIELD have finally reached the end of the line. There’s no question that the final, life or death choice that the agents are left with at the end of episode 21 is the one that she was referring to. Up until now, the team has been split down the middle, with half the team unable to face watching anyone close to them die, no matter what repercussions it might have on the world, and half believing that sometimes a few (or one) need to be sacrificed in order to save many.

Coulson, the potential sacrifice in question, has been making his feelings on the matter clear for months. He intends to die when his time comes and doesn’t want any heroic interventions made to stop nature from taking its course. But we’ve all seen how important he is, not just to the team, but to keeping the world running smoothly. Are there times when one particular person is more important than a random group of people, because of the contribution that one person will likely make to the future? How would that even be decided? How many lives would it be reasonable to trade for Phil Coulson’s life? How many lives might he save if he lives?

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Agents of SHIELD Renewed for 13 Episode Season 6/ Moving to Summer 2019 [Updated]

~ Metacrone ~ 1 Comment

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Update 5/15/18: ABC president Channing Dungey announced today via press call that Agents of SHIELD’s shortened 6th season will air during the summer of 2019. This means it will avoid airing during the period between Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4, giving the show more flexibility in how it handles the events of the films.

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