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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
You are acting is if a movie without a villain wouldn't be good. I'm not talking about having a bad or uninteresting villain — I'm talking about having no villain. The conflict comes from something else entirely. (Yes, I know this is hard to imagine with a superhero movie, but there are films without villains.)
Funnily enough, the graphic novel The Death of Captain Marvel is one of the few comic books that has no villain — the entire thing is about Mar-Vell learning that he has cancer, unable to cure or even halt the spread of that cancer, everybody (even his enemies the Skrulls) coming to pay their last respects to him before he dies, and then him dying. Hell, Thanos appears, but not as a villain: he shows Mar-Vell the path to the afterlife and then gives him an illusion of a final battle, so he could die fighting rather than in bed. It is genuinely one of the most melancholy stories that Marvel has ever published and is one of the biggest reasons why Mar-Vell has never returned to life, as everyone saw this as a fitting end for him.
You know, people say that too many people love villains.
I disagree. I think the success of the MCU proves that people at large DON'T care that much about villains.
It's kind of upsetting for someone like me who loves them (note I'm not saying those who focus more on heroes are wrong, it just means I'm catered to a lot less often). They aren't always needed for a story, but I do think there's something of a dearth of decent villains in modern cinema and tv
Kaze ni Nare!I love villains so I'd definitely prefer we get some good ones.
Phase 3 gave us Ego, Killmonger, Vulture, Thanos, and Ghost, who were all pretty great.
Still hoping for a Thunderbolts movie centered around Abomination, Vulture, Ghost, newly-introduced Mockingbird, and Zemo, with the latter betraying them to become the movie's real villain.
Edited by Anomalocaris20 on May 4th 2019 at 11:07:35 AM
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!Actually, pretty unpopular opinion. Killmonger didn't click for me at all and I don't really know why.
It felt like everything that people loved about him I just didn't see. I didn't think his performance was anything special, I didn't believe a single one of his lines about slavery and all that. He just felt like a guy who wanted revenge. Which is an acceptable villain motive, but it didnt' stand out particularly.
Kaze ni Nare!The appeal of Killmonger is that beneath his violent methods, he DID have a decent point obfuscated beneath all that about how Wakanda COULD be sharing their tech with the world, but does not yet choose to and comes off to him at least as neglecting black individuals worldwide. I've always liked how T'Challa clearly kept his ideology in mind and did indeed open up Wakanda to the world, albeit peacefully. That and MBJ just absolutely nails the role.
Edited by AyyItsMidnight on May 4th 2019 at 8:15:05 AM
Self-serious autistic trans gal who loves rock/metal and animation with all her heart. (she/her)![]()
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You're right, my bad. Damn birds.
Re: Killmonger, he really clicked for me when he openly admitted that he knew his plan would backfire on Wakanda and the people he sought to arm, and didn't care because he just wanted the whole world to burn. There's just an angry, inextinguishable flame inside him that I find interesting.
Edited by Anomalocaris20 on May 4th 2019 at 11:21:42 AM
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!So this redesign of Carol's Warbird/swimsuit outsuit was recommended to me, shout out to troper @Guy 01 for finding it.
Thoughts, does it work, does it look good for a live-action movie?
Edited by slimcoder on May 4th 2019 at 9:15:46 AM
"I am Alpharius. This is a lie."Count me in as someone for whom Killmonger didn't click.
Anyway, I don't think that villains are strictly needed, but I prefer the smart ones - Zemo, Alexander Pierce via Hydra (who also has the most badass weapon in The Winter Soldier and the Vulture (who also has what might be the most interesting relationship to the hero) springs to mind, the complex but unpredictable ones - Hello Loki. Hello Grand Ward. Hello Aida - and the ones which are thematically strong and threatening, see Ego or Thanos or Killgrave
I also liked how Captain Marvel handled the villain.
But I also like villains like Ronan which are more serviceable than the centre of the movie. They will never be the best of the best, but if they work for the story the movie tries to tell, I gladly take them.
And, btw, I think that Marvel's so called "villain problem" is greatly overstated.
Btw, Ant-man and the Wasp technically didn't have a villain. Unless you count some small time gangster as villain.
Ronan is surprisingly good for a villain who had to share his film with five heroes' origin stories; it's bad enough when it's just one, as we see with Kaecillius, Cross, Red Skull, Yon-Rogg, and Stane all being various degrees of serviceable-but-somewhat-underdeveloped.
It helps that Ronan's a single-minded space terrorist who doesn't need much development or backstory. He has his crusade he's devoted his life to, and said crusade makes him the obstacle in our heroes' journey.
Edited by Anomalocaris20 on May 5th 2019 at 3:14:11 PM
You cannot firmly grasp the true form of Squidward's technique!

I just hope marvel can continue with having good villains. Phase 3 was a lot better than the other phases for that, but it was still eeeeeeh in a lot of places.
Kaze ni Nare!