Tag: meta

Just curious do you think Vision is really dead? I hope not.

@huntressride 
Do you think vision is really going to stay dead? My heart is exploding at the thought of Wanda living without him!

I am so biased here! I really am. I can’t get a good sense of where the narrative might go because I’m hung up on what I want to happen. Not to mention IW ends in such a dramatically upending way it’s hard to know what the next step. So do I think he will live? I say he can live.

They have to be incredibly conscious of how bringing back dead characters will cheapen loss for any truly dead character and lower the stakes of the movie. So if they decide to do it, they have to fulfill certain criteria to make it satisfying. There must be preceding justification, it must fulfill a need for the story that could not have been fulfilled otherwise, the audience must be made to feel as strongly (in a positive way) about bringing him back as they felt when he died.

For Vision, we have two routes. The first is Shuri has a backup copy. I’d even point out this bit in the Infinity War prelude comic:

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Shuri was able to digitally copy Bucky’s brain and then basically overwrite him with that copy. She did that with a living, organic being. Hell yeah she could do that with Vision.

There’s also the notion that Vision’s consciousness might reside in the Mind Stone, which I argued for here.

Though I would like to point out these two things are not mutually exclusive.

As far as story concerns, there’s plenty of ways it could go that would make Vision returning critical. You have to think about the things that are unique to Vision and perhaps unique to the way he died: he bore the Mind Stone; Wanda is in love with him; his death was reversed (natural order, as Wong would say); Wanda sacrificed what she loved most, etc. So long as it plays off of those things, it’s viable.

The last is the trickiest. I’ve said it before, but there was so much emphasis placed on his death, it does make it feel very permanent. They would have to place quite a bit of emphasis on what it means for him to come back to make up for it.

What I suspect–or perhaps I should say the most I hope for–is that Vision is not directly resurrected, but rather his consciousness comes to the fore in the Mind Stone, and Wanda perhaps has a scene (like Thanos and Gamora) with him before he’s gone for good. I don’t think the movie will fully resurrect him, but I think it will provide Wanda with closure, especially if they hope to use her in the future.

IW Theory: The Significance of “I Just Feel You”

Right after Civil War,
Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely

had an interview talking about Infinity War.

If there is one obvious hint in Civil War at what’s in store with Infinity War,
it’s when Vision says he wishes he could control the infinity stone in
his head. When we spoke with Markus and McFeely, they confirmed Vision’s
line is a tease:

Markus:
That’s the most blatant set up I can think of.

At best, you could say that Vision’s lack of control is significant, yet it’s never pointed out in the movie as such. The Stone is treated more or less the way it has since Age of Ultron–as a distinct entity from Vision.

So if that line is “blatant set up”, where’s the pay off?

Early in the movie, Wanda and Vision share a sweet exchange–Vision is feeling pain from the Stone, feels like it’s almost trying to tell him something. He asks Wanda to see what she feels, and she says–”I just feel you”.

Later Vision will comfort her in his last moments, telling her as she prepares to destroy him, “You could never hurt me. I just feel you.”

Taken at face value, the first is about how Wanda simply doesn’t have the power or experience to sense anything from the Stone. The second is a tragic callback to a happier time.

But taken literally Wanda is telling us (without realizing it herself), is there is just Vision in the Mind Stone. He is the Mind Stone. She could feel anything else because there is nothing else but him.

So Vision’s final words to her take on a new meaning: the Mind Stone only feels her, the woman he loves–even as she destroys him. Vision/the Stone can’t be hurt by Wanda because he knows her, and he knows he loves her.

What does this mean for Avengers 4?

  1. The Mind Stone is the Stone that we’re told seems to think on its own, long before anyone merges it with any sort of consciousness or protocol.
  2. Infinity War shows us the Soul Stone, capable of independent judgement and wisdom.
  3. One of the final scenes is Thanos interacting with Gamora–or something that looks like Gamora–entirely without his own will.
  4. The Gauntlet was damaged.

Taken all together, this means Thanos doesn’t have the Stones subjugated to his will anymore, if he ever fully did. And if Vision is still there–if a part of Vision is still there, then he knows her.

And he could never hurt her.

I really love your theory that Vision’s consciousness has survived within the Mind Stone and will fight Thanos from there. Just like Gamora is somehow inside the Soul Stone. But I also wonder if Shuri managed to separate his consciousness from the Mind Stone before she was interrupted and she, Bruce and Tony will reanimate him in A4. She did take the file with her when she escaped the lab.

Oh, I didn’t catch that! I’ll be seeing the movie again today, so I’ll be able to soak in details a bit better. That’s fascinating. So, with only part of Vision’s brain–the parts that canonically make up the less-sentient, less advanced side of him–and with a colorless Vision corpse lying around, and a super genius who’s the world’s expert on vibranium right nearby as well as one of his original creators…

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Wanda’s Costume Journey + the color red

The use of red in Wanda’s wardrobe is a clever and intriguing detail, and for Wanda, it’s closely associated with heroism. The more heroic her character, the more blatant and untarnished the red is in her clothes.

This is no more apparent than the fact that she’s introduced without a shred of red on her:

She’s not even wearing the red stone disc necklace that she wears in every other scene in the movie. She’s all in black here, completely separating her from any semblance of heroic identity. We don’t know anything about this character except she’s allied with known villains, and represents a dividing and disruptive force for the Avengers.

The next outfit she wears should come with a caveat–it was originally meant to be introduced in a series of deleted scenes depicting the twins distributing medicine and warm clothes to the Sokovian needy.

This sharp contrast from her prior appearance is emphasized by the sudden, intense introduction of red in her wardrobe.

However, despite the amount of red Wanda’s wearing, it’s being broken up quite a bit–her dress is patterned with another color, she wears a blue sash, a black vest, and then over that a red shawl. Her status as hero or villain is ill-defined and messy.

Also of note: Wanda wears more blue and Pietro more red in this scene–the one that portrays the strongest family connection between them–than any other in the movie.

This is actually the same outfit, sans sash and shawl. It’s also the same style as her Battle of Sokovia outfit, but with the colors inverted. The dress is still patterned, she wears black over the red, and this is the only instance of Wanda’s hair being tied back in any appearance of her to date–so while the audience might get the sense that there’s a hero here, that isn’t what’s on the surface.

Wearing a clear red as her top layer is the first and strongest symbol that Wanda is a hero, and it’s a pattern that’s repeated for her in both AoU and CW. In the scene where she realizes Ultron’s ultimate plan and helps out Cap, she wears a red shawl over a black dress (the skirt with minimal red patterns).

The shawl is loose, and only worn over one shoulder every time we see her in it (three separate places). Despite being the most prominent color, it’s not confidently and securely worn, and we get the sense it’s not integrated entirely into her identity.

So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that when we see Wanda next, she’s still wearing red as her top layer, but it’s an incredibly muted shade of it–enough that it might not even pass as red without scrutiny. Wanda in this scene is here to confront Tony with Cap over the creation of Ultron’s vision, and she once again represents a dividing force in the Avengers–hence why she’s wearing more black than in any other scene but the first one. But that heroic red is there, and though she doesn’t directly wear it, it’s tied securely around her.

With red representing so much for Wanda, it’s important then, that the red jacket she wears in the Battle of Sokovia is not only handed to her from the Avengers’ wardrobe, it actually belongs to another Avenger, Black Widow.

She wears red as the top layer, and red as the innermost layer. It’s in her jewelry, she’s even wearing red lipstick for the first time.

She’s nearly fully realized as a hero here, but she’s not yet separated from her past misdeeds–black is still a prominent color, and even her red jacket begins to fade into a darker color at the edges. Finally, after saving the people of Sokovia at the cost of her brother, she is redeemed. She joins the Avengers, and is represented fully as a hero:

…which, almost everything about the way this look is designed doesn’t work for the character at all, but I could spend way too much time talking about that. Suffice it to say, this costume symbolizes that she is the Scarlet Witch, even working in the “M” shape from her tiara into the paneling and buckle, with scarlet being the bright, unmistakably, undiminished color of her whole costume.

There’s still a bit left to say about her Civil War costumery, but for the sake of length, I’ll end this one here.

The tone and narrative of Disassembled is so wildly different once you acknowledge Billy and Tommy were always real.

If Wanda’s children were never real, then Disassembled is like a horror movie of a woman who lives a perfect, idyllic life with her husband and children. But her friends slowly start noticing something is off, and finally realize she’s been making up the existence of her perfect family, forcing her husband to play along, and even killed the nanny to cover up her lie. They try to get her help, but she ends up completely losing it, hunting them down and murdering some of them before being taken down herself.

But if Wanda’s children are real, now it’s the story of a woman whose friends slowly start trying to convince her that her children are fake, that the reality she perceives is a lie. The nanny murders her children and her friends force her into an insane asylum where the staff are in on it, until finally she breaks out and starts wreaking vengeance.

scarletheartvision:

I’ve been talking a lot with my boyfriend about Infinity War, Avengers 4 and the future of MCU. My biggest worry is Vision, of course. He is my favorite character and it is in front line of Thanos. So I’m going to prepare my heart for his death, because of the stone and the fact he is not a main character.
But I still have hope. So tell me if I’m crazy or not.

The Vision’s death is too predictable.

Everyone that knows a little about it or paid attention to Marvel films, knows that Thanos wants the stones and Vision has one. People will go to the movies waiting his death, thinking he ir already dead. I’m saying this based in my interaction in facebook groups. It is pratically unanimous, they do believe Vision will die. 

Joe Russo practically confessed that it will have some death. But I do not think it will be Vision’s death. Because is too predictable. The public know that he is the most probably to die, so why they are going to do something people are waiting for? To kill who we think will die is to give more of the same. 

Infinity War comes to change our perspective of heroes movies, to surprise us, to be unique and different. So yes, I think they will take another route and kill somebody else, because kill Vision is to follow the comfort zone. And I don’t believe this is what Marvel is looking for. 

I believe that Clint and Nebula are going to die in this first movie. Because Marvel will not escape of a death. But I don’t know, I have no idea about what to expect from this movie. I just hope my favorite character can live and find his happiness after the war. (and make some twins)

I’ve had the same thought. It’s an idea that’s kind of hard to justify to myself because I know I really want him to live so the bias is there… but I can’t help but feel that’s a valid point.

The Russos have mentioned wanting to walk the line between giving fans the moments they’re expecting and excited for while not being predictable.

I don’t think I know of a single theory more prevalent than “Vision dies”, yet that moment isn’t exactly something that fans want (except the bloodthirsty ones that want to see Thanos pulp everyone).

The Russos included Crossbones for misdirection to fans who thought that would mean Cap dies (since Crossbones killed him in the comics CW event), yet refused to kill anyone off in Civil War because they wanted the stakes to lie elsewhere. They know exactly what fans are thinking and they’ve shown they don’t want to play directly into the fan theories.

And if I can sort of toss my pet theory out there–I suspect if they both live, Wanda and Vision will become too powerful to stay in the MCU proper and I’ve always felt it’s a total cop-out (if an understandable one) to depower characters after major events to use them again. A good middle ground might be (with some considerable tweaks) for Vision and Wanda to ascend to another level and become the MCU versions of Master Order and Lord (Lady?) Chaos.

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Age Differences and Wanda and Vision

Every so often there’s a few days of arguments after someone shares that they really don’t like the idea of Vision and Scarlet Witch being in a relationship because of the age difference between the actors.

For the most part, when actor age differences becomes a point of contention, it’s about a specific issue: actors being much older than the actress who plays the love interest. This isn’t an unfair or misplaced observation: Hollywood gives their female stars a much shorter shelf life than their male stars. It is not uncommon to see a 40+ year old man play a romance with a young-20s woman. It is uncommon to see the reverse, or even like-aged actors when the male star is over 35.

This argument is a fair one, and I don’t think should be dismissed out of hand. My perspective, however, is through a pretty unique circumstance of casting, it’s not very applicable to this situation.

Paul Bettany was cast because he was the voice of JARVIS. Of course, had he looked like the Edwin Jarvis of the comics that wouldn’t have happened–but as it is, Bettany was cast through atypical means that also meant his personal age irrelevant. Almost all MCU couples are relatively like aged besides.

There’s also people who feel uncomfortable with the age difference in they feel the same way about age differences with real couples as with actors or their characters. A fair perspective, but on this front, Vision himself doesn’t really have a quantifiable age (he’s either 2 or older than the universe depending on the perspective), and the actors are, of course, acting.