Avengers: Endgame discussion thread [with SPOILERS]

[Ellewyn]

Well it has been a while now, so I am assuming it is viable to post this now.

If not, then the rest of you movie-slackers need to strap on your movie-watching suspenders and get your gumption on.

I am especially looking at you, Pea-Princess Bleen!


1. "Shit." -Morgan Stark ~ Obviously funny, but also meaningful to all parents because how true it is. Children soak-up EVERYTHING about their parents, both good >and< bad; thus why it is so very important for parents to work hard at making sure our little sponges soak-up more of our good natures and habits, than bad; for however much time we can give them. It was also good how Dad Tony did not yell, scold, threaten, &/or punish Morgan for use of foul language, but played it off and side-tracked the line of thought so Morgan would not give "Shit" another thought (or let it sink-in).


2. "If I tell you what happens, it won't happen." ~ As was speculated earlier with Avengers: Infinity War, it does indeed turn out that Dr. Strange purposefully surrendered the Time Stone in order to >specifically< save Stark, as part of the one future (of 14,000,605) where Thanos is vanquished.

Some may not understand "why" Strange could not reveal the specifics, but it is pretty simple. Had Stark been informed of his impending demise, he would have been distracted (or unwilling) to make that Ultimate Sacrifice to vanquish Thanos, trying instead to use his brilliance to find some alternative solution; but in the chaos of epic battle, where every second could result in a Second Snap, there is simply no time (pun intended) to try to think out every possible scenario or alternative solution. So Strange needed Stark to realize, in that moment, of what would be the only way, the one future now come to pass, to vanquish Thanos.

"Whatever it takes."


3. Callbacks ~ Certainly no shortage of callbacks to previous MCU films, but a few notables that stood out for me...

- a. "Language!" ~ I am surprised they did not callback to the "Language!" gag from Avengers: Age of Ultron for the Morgan Stark "Shit" scene. A missed oppurtunity, but a minor point. Alternatively, it could have been used with the Cap vs. Cap fight, when 2023 Rogers mutters, "Oh, you've gotta be shitting me...!" upon encountering 2012 Rogers.

- b. "Activate Instant Kill!" ~ While a good callback overall, I think it could have been even further impactful if they had gotten Jennifer Connelly to reprise her role as A.I. Karen too.

- c. "I can do this all day." ~ I thought this line was wasted with the Cap vs. Cap fight. I think they should have kept it consistent as they have throughout the MCU series; when Rogers is getting beaten down, and he says his line in defiance of what is wrong/evil. So I think they should have used this line when Cap is walking forward to face Thanos' legions, and defiantly cry out his line at the hordes (or just Thanos).

As a related point, I thought that was Cap's finest moment, even more so than the Portals rallying sequence. That even when beaten down into the ground, even when broken in body & shield, even when standing alone against overwhelming legions of Evil, even when all Hope seems lost, Rogers >still< gets back up and marches forward.


4. Head-Scratching Points...? ~ No shortage of these either, but just to list a few:

- a. Agent Carter & Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. ~ Does this mean that both the Agent Carter series and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series are no longer linked to the MCU? Especially with the time-gap between them now? Meaning between 2019 S.H.I.E.L.D (season #6) vs. 2023 Avengers: Endgame?

- b. War Machine's new armor? ~ More directly to the film, after Thanos' warship bombardment destroys Avengers Base and trapping Banner (Hulk), Rocket (Raccoon), and Rhodes (War Machine) down below with the lake-water flooding in. Rhodes' armor was completely disabled, as well as his cybernetic legs, forcing Rhodes to drag himself by his arms over to save a pinned Rocket. But later, when the Avengers' armies are assembling through the sorcerers' portals, and a giant Lang (Ant-Man) emerges with Banner, Rocket, and Rhodes, literally in-hand, Rhodes is wearing a completely NEW, and different, War Machine armor. Where did this new armor come from, amid the drowning?

- c. Captain Marvel (not America) and Time Travel ~ I suppose this is excusable due to the chaos of epic-battle and the desperate-need to keep the Infinity Gauntlet out of Thanos' hands, but still... What good would it have done for Danvers to go through Lang's Ugly Brown Van & (prototype) Quantum Tunnel device? It was a rather specific Super-Science point by Banner and Stark that one needed a protective suit AND a navigation-device to safely, and more importantly accurately, navigate Space-Time Travel through the Quantum Realm. Danvers had neither of these things. While I would wager with Danvers' high power-level, she would not need a protective suit, how would she have navigated her Time Travel? Likewise, Danvers did not know "When" or "Where" to return each past Infinity Stone to.


5. The future of the MCU? ~ So does this mean that all near-future MCU films will be "aftermath" stories (Spider-Man: Far From Home, Guardians of the Galaxy vol.3, Black Panther 2, etc.), prequels (Black Widow), &/or mini-series (Falcon & the Winter Solder, WandaVision) post-Av:Endgame? And there will be no definitively "new" MCU stories &/or overarching story-arcs until 2023?