The Falcon & Winter Soldier

[ecarden]

Okay, significantly better than last week, though still had some annoying bits.

Spoiler: Flagsmashers

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We've got enough here to actually have some understanding of what their beef is. And it's not 'Thanos was right,' thank goodness.

On the other hand, I think they've gone too far in having all the complaints coming from those who were present after the snap. Coming back after five years, no job, family maybe moved on, all money distributed, strangers living in your home, everything five years out of date...not easy either.

Bucky and Sam should be that, but ironically, both of them were in hiding before the Snap, so can't really talk that much about what they lost. The fact that no one says, 'terribly sorry I was murdered and then resurrected and that interfered with your life,' is a bit annoying to me.

Maybe in the original order this would be less bad as Wandavision deals with the consequences for the Snapped fairly directly.

Spoiler: Talking to Folks

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Okay, I found the 'Walker can't wait 10 minutes' annoying as it felt like conflict for the sake of conflict.

Because there's a legitimate conflict of interest here. Sam/Bucky want the vials and for her to stop murdering people. Nu-Cap/Battlestar want to arrest her and her group. It's just possible Sam can talk her into giving up the vials, as it takes the Power Broker's eyes off her and he can make an argument for non/less violent means.

But from a governmental perspective, she's a murderous terrorist and 'just stopping' isn't enough, she has to surrender and be arrested, or killed. Does anyone think that Sam could have talked her into that in 10 minutes? No. We had an actual conflict here, but rather than deal with it, they dodged it, again.

Spoiler: Zemo

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I'm actually really pleased with this. He's not stupid (though the Sam/Bucky can't figure out how to talk to people bit wasn't the greatest, but they're well known figures so it's forgivable). He doesn't abandon his goals for personal power. He doesn't double-cross them and only runs when it becomes clear that the Wakandans are going to take him into custody and prevent him from completing his goals.

Spoiler: Wakandans

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So, I go back and forth on this. First, I don't think there's any evidence of hypocrisy on Nu-cap's part re: jurisdiction. It's possible, but it looks like he's working with the GRC which is working with the local governments. This was most obvious in the raid earlier when he had local support (as I read the scene anyway). Now that he's gone 'off-book' maybe not, but I don't think that question is clearly answered.

I'm actually fine with, 'no we don't care about your local sovereignty, we are a world power, with dominance in this room,' as a position. But we have to recognize, that's what it was, a bald (accidental pun, which I'm keeping) appeal to force.

The fight with the Dora Milaje worked for me. Nu-cap and Battlestar are skilled combatants, but they're US military trained. Give them guns and range and they'll probably win, put them in the same room, fighting with a shield and hand-to-hand and the Dora Milaje win every time.

The fact that the Dora Milaje response to mild condescension and a pat on the shoulder was lethal force is interesting and something I hope will be picked up on in future. I also hope the folks who found the 'he spit at me, I shoved him' interaction earlier so offensive also find attempted murder for a far less aggressive action offensive.

The arm makes perfect sense to me and, frankly, I'd be pleased if the Wakandans kept a backdoor into Bucky's programming. Sensible, if ruthless. But if I'm him...I'm starting to try to figure out who I can get to check their work.

Spoiler: Guns

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Okay, between the Karli vs. Zemo scene and the Power Broker vs. Flag Smasher's scene, it's quite apparent that super-soldiers aren't bullet-proof, which does make me wonder how they defeated the guards with assault rifles back at the building they blew up. Only thing that makes sense to me is that the guards didn't shoot because they weren't trigger-happy goons.

Lesson learned. Be trigger-happy goon.

Spoiler: Last Scene

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That was brutal. Geez. Now, to turn the consistency claim around on myself, Karli killed a couple of prisoners and tried to kill more (I do wonder about the survivors, given what we saw, but sure, the MCU really likes to undercount bodies). Here Nu-cap killed the Flagsmasher. The man had not said he surrendered, but his hands were up, while he was on the ground, probably intended to indicate surrender.

Regardless, very bad move, morally, tactically and PR wise. It's also interesting that the way the building placement is, no one of the observers see the Flagsmasher rip the big chunk of concrete out and hurl it at him, which happens twenty seconds before the lethal part of the encounter. Messy.

ETA:

Spoiler: Zemo & Captain America

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Also, I'm sort of shocked by the number of folks online taking Zemo's 'exception that proves the rule' approach to Steve seriously. My read was that that was a transparent lie and attempt at manipulation of Steve's best friends.