Marvel Cinematic Universe general stuff

I'd argue that the first 10 years, or everything up to the infinity saga, set an unfortunate precedent, that everything must now feed into a big event or be connected to everything else / result in a big screen outing for every Z tier hero.

Mandalorian is a good example, it was going great as a standalone story, a look at another aspect of the SW universe, and then they ruined it by once again tying it into the skywalkers.

say what you will about the Netflix run with the defenders characters & punisher, at least for the most part, the stories stood on their own, with only an occasional cameo, rather than the sense that everything was being done in service of the inevitable team-up.

Echo is adapting that approach.

to be fair, thats more likely due to a lack of confidence in it having the 'hook' to keep people tuning back in week after week if its underwhelming.

personally, I'd be much more inclined to try and get through 8 episodes in a week rather than in dribs and drabs. - at the moment I'm waiting on secret invasion to run its course before bingeing.

I imagine a lot of that output in recent years was also to try and get subsribers to Disney+

Disney+ really hasn't taken off the way they would have wanted so slowing down is also another way of not spending money for content that the world isn't signing up for.

The narrative implies they are releasing decent content just a little too quickly. Thats not it as all

This just isn't true at all, what a nonsense statement. The best heroes lose. The best heroes have to make sacrifices. The Dark Knight is so great because Batman loses. In TDKR, Batman loses to both Bane and later is outsmarted by Miranda. In Spiderman 2 Peter repeatedly faces personal hardships because he selflessly prioritises his superhero life over his personal life - culminating in a mental crisis where he no longer has powers. He is humbled in the fire when he tries to rescue the little girl and she ends up rescuing him. He literally suffers every single kind of personal defeat imaginable. Empire is the best Star Wars movie because Han Solo and Luke Skywalker both lose. In WOK Kirk and Spock are completely outsmarted by Khan. Virtually every single iconic male character loses.

Like, Luke Skywalker actually has to train to get better at being a Jedi - he can't do everything immediately. He loses. He faces the main villain after a lengthy period of training in Dagobah and is humiliated, toyed with, embarassed.

Anakin Skywalker is completely outclassed by Count Dooku who cuts his hand off. He is beaten by Obi Wan. He consistently loses.

Compare that to Rey who is capable of just about everything from minute one with zero training. She defeats Kylo, she can force control, continuing on to the 2nd movie where she is clearly more powerful than Luke. Is it just Snoak that shes outmatched by? A miracle.

Usually with the female characters in these atrocities, they are great at everything immediately - inexplicably so, no training required, and if they actually manage to have a character arc - it's literally that they need to believe in themselves more, because they are just the bestest. They rarely if ever fail. There is no growth, no learning, no improvement, no defeats. There is no humbling, none of that.

You have a catalogue of characters who fulfill this criteria in Disney/Marvel/Lucasfilm at the moment. It's boring, bland rubbish.

Completely agree. The clearest way to look at it is Luke training with the lightsaber on the Millenium Falcon. Obi-Wan tells him to trust in the Force, to feel it, to let it guide him, and he's able to block blaster shots with the lightsaber without being able to see them.

Now, you still have to take into account what Luke is still able to do after that; he helps rescue Leia, manages to hit an access panel with a blaster shot from long range to close the door on Vader (not bad for a teenage farmer), becomes a rebel pilot (well, he did bullseye womp rats in a T-16 back home), and is able to hit the killing shot on the Death Star without the guidance system, just by trusting in the Force.

He did all that, with a few days training at best.

Rey is great at machinery because she's a scavenger; she had to learn about engines, machinery etc. She's a decent-ish fighter because she grew up on her own in a dangerous enough town. But above all else, she's an avatar for the Force.

She doesn't know how to use the Force, but she knows it exists, believes in it, and trusts in it, probably because she grew up so alone. She allows the Force to act through her. She allows the Force to guide her actions, just like Luke did in ANH. The Force is acting through her because the Force seeks balance, and she's currently the one who can achieve that, just like Anakin (the genius 10 year old slave who could fly a fighter jet, podrace, build C3PO etc) could. Anakin was the Chosen One, but that doesn't mean he was the only one the Force acted through.

She was being beaten by Ren in their fight, even though Ren was heavily injured, until he mentioned the Force. Then she closed her eyes and let the Force start to guide her actions. And even then she didn't beat him, just held him off for a bit.

And she wasn't more powerful than Luke in TLJ, Luke had shut himself off from the Force for many years and didn't want to use the Force. At the end he literally force-projects himself across the galaxy to where even Leia and Ren can't tell it's not him and becomes one with Force at the end. The most Rey does is lift the rocks away from the back of the cave.

Anyway, probably a bit of a tangent for the thread. But yeah I don't see how Rey did anything much more than Luke and Anakin did.

Not to mention Tony, the weapons designer and engineer, manages to solve time travel through quantum physics. Skills and knowledge between fields which are in no way comparable. Steve and Bucky are able to throw and catch the shield (which is strong enough to damage whatever it hits due to the metal it's made from) through their super-solider serum abilities, whereas Sam learns to do it bare-handed through his training-montage abilities.

All movie characters can do everything the writers need them to do. It's not a male or female thing.