Secret Invasion: so THAT happened.
Aug. 1st, 2023 08:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflykikiTalk about not sticking the landing. Or the middle. Or the corners. So yeah, massive annoyance and spoilers for all six episodes ahead.
Okay, so. Having seen a couple people post on the anti-Semitic undertones, and being terrible at spotting this, I am taking The Mary Sue's reaction as mine, and going, why did you have to go there? Why? Some comparisons were probably inevitable given the Skrulls are refugees, but they seemed to deliberately make it worse by the end. Ugh.
Then there's Maria Hill. I really hoped she would turn out to be alive. I admit it. I can't believe they did that. What a waste. I lived in denial for this entire series, and now I'm just stuck fuming.
That was not my Nick Fury. What the hell. They never really explained why he came back down from outer space, except I guess Tallos asked him to? And then he just goes back? After a crisis in his marriage? That is now fine? I just.. .okay. What? Oh, and apparently he's a super-spy because he had Skrulls doing all his work for him? (I do not believe this. I am annoyed that it's what kept being stated. I'm sure it helped, but still. What the hell.)
Oh, and I'm peeved about Tallos dying too. I liked that guy.
What was with Emilia Clarke's hair? It was just... weird.
You know that bit at the end of "She-Hulk," where Jen says, "Waitaminute! The powers aren't the bad guy here, Todd and his terrible attitude and his gang of bullies are!" That's how I felt about Gravik's sudden, bizarre interest in the "Harvest", Carol Danvers' blood, and super-powers. It. Was. Pointless. The only reason for it seemed to be to name-check Carol, and provide a reason for a super-powers fight near the end. But it was still stupid.
Also, Gravik killing about three of the named Skrulls we knew, on-screen, just because they questioned him publicly. Before that, he was an interesting character with some potential. After it, there was just no point. And it got more pointless as he blamed Nick for recruiting him into spy work as for why he became a terrorist. I mean, COME ON. I can't even type this without rolling my eyes.
Was the moral of this story supposed to be that you shouldn't like anyone in the spy business, or mix public policy statements about re-homing refugees with any personal feelings? Is that what we're meant to get out of that scene between Sonya and Gi'ah? Really? That's... *shrug* IDK.
Great things: Olivia Coleman as Sonya the MI-5 person. Although I had no idea the heads of agencies did so much field work. But she rocked the snark, the red coat, the accent, and getting stuff done.
I kept waiting for her to turn out to be a Skrull, though. That was a big problem with this entire series, I could not accept anything at face value, so the last three episodes were just totally devoid of any real surprise.
I loved the plotline for Nick and Varra [loved Varra, full stop], except they should have ended it in episode 3 when they shot at each other (not with anyone dying, though). I loved that little poem. The questions about her 'passing' and all were kind of on the line of creepy. Or past it...? (I thought. Let me know if I'm wrong.)
But everything after that? What was the point? REALLY. WHAT WAS THE POINT.
Always good to see Rhodey and Everett Ross, even if they were fake. NOT GOOD not to get some comfort for all the hurt of them being replaced and missing for who knows how long.
The current Marvel president is... well, just about like any other politician. Argh.
In other words: this was all set-up. With no payoff. I just. I wasted at least 3 hours of my life on this. If I'd quit at the end of episode three and written my own ending, I would've liked it a lot better.
And Maria is still dead and I'm bitter.
By comparison? I'm really looking forward to Loki Season 2, based on that stellar trailer.
Okay, so. Having seen a couple people post on the anti-Semitic undertones, and being terrible at spotting this, I am taking The Mary Sue's reaction as mine, and going, why did you have to go there? Why? Some comparisons were probably inevitable given the Skrulls are refugees, but they seemed to deliberately make it worse by the end. Ugh.
Then there's Maria Hill. I really hoped she would turn out to be alive. I admit it. I can't believe they did that. What a waste. I lived in denial for this entire series, and now I'm just stuck fuming.
That was not my Nick Fury. What the hell. They never really explained why he came back down from outer space, except I guess Tallos asked him to? And then he just goes back? After a crisis in his marriage? That is now fine? I just.. .okay. What? Oh, and apparently he's a super-spy because he had Skrulls doing all his work for him? (I do not believe this. I am annoyed that it's what kept being stated. I'm sure it helped, but still. What the hell.)
Oh, and I'm peeved about Tallos dying too. I liked that guy.
What was with Emilia Clarke's hair? It was just... weird.
You know that bit at the end of "She-Hulk," where Jen says, "Waitaminute! The powers aren't the bad guy here, Todd and his terrible attitude and his gang of bullies are!" That's how I felt about Gravik's sudden, bizarre interest in the "Harvest", Carol Danvers' blood, and super-powers. It. Was. Pointless. The only reason for it seemed to be to name-check Carol, and provide a reason for a super-powers fight near the end. But it was still stupid.
Also, Gravik killing about three of the named Skrulls we knew, on-screen, just because they questioned him publicly. Before that, he was an interesting character with some potential. After it, there was just no point. And it got more pointless as he blamed Nick for recruiting him into spy work as for why he became a terrorist. I mean, COME ON. I can't even type this without rolling my eyes.
Was the moral of this story supposed to be that you shouldn't like anyone in the spy business, or mix public policy statements about re-homing refugees with any personal feelings? Is that what we're meant to get out of that scene between Sonya and Gi'ah? Really? That's... *shrug* IDK.
Great things: Olivia Coleman as Sonya the MI-5 person. Although I had no idea the heads of agencies did so much field work. But she rocked the snark, the red coat, the accent, and getting stuff done.
I kept waiting for her to turn out to be a Skrull, though. That was a big problem with this entire series, I could not accept anything at face value, so the last three episodes were just totally devoid of any real surprise.
I loved the plotline for Nick and Varra [loved Varra, full stop], except they should have ended it in episode 3 when they shot at each other (not with anyone dying, though). I loved that little poem. The questions about her 'passing' and all were kind of on the line of creepy. Or past it...? (I thought. Let me know if I'm wrong.)
But everything after that? What was the point? REALLY. WHAT WAS THE POINT.
Always good to see Rhodey and Everett Ross, even if they were fake. NOT GOOD not to get some comfort for all the hurt of them being replaced and missing for who knows how long.
The current Marvel president is... well, just about like any other politician. Argh.
In other words: this was all set-up. With no payoff. I just. I wasted at least 3 hours of my life on this. If I'd quit at the end of episode three and written my own ending, I would've liked it a lot better.
And Maria is still dead and I'm bitter.
By comparison? I'm really looking forward to Loki Season 2, based on that stellar trailer.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-01 03:29 pm (UTC)::waves:: Hello!
I haven't watched Secret Invasion and literally everything I have heard about it has confirmed this was a good decision. I'm probably just going to stick my fingers in my ears and pretend SI isn't part of the MCU.
The Loki trailer DID look good. I enjoyed season 1 of Loki but I didn't love it the way I expected to, and I can't quite articulate why -- but I will definitely be there for season 2. And I am properly excited about The Marvels later this year, which looks awesome.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-01 03:30 pm (UTC)I mean, they made Secret Invasion when I could have had Moon Knight Season 2. I'M JUST SAYING.
no subject
Date: 2023-08-01 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-08-01 04:22 pm (UTC)I don't think you're going to miss anything in The Marvels if you haven't seen SI, or anything else that's planned for upcoming Marvel stuff, either. Like I said, it's mostly so pointless, I bet a two-minute conversation on-screen would cover the concepts just fine. :P
The Loki trailer DID look good. I enjoyed season 1 of Loki but I didn't love it the way I expected to, and I can't quite articulate why -- but I will definitely be there for season 2. And I am properly excited about The Marvels later this year, which looks awesome.
I enjoyed it a lot, even though it wasn't perfect. Mostly I think it had pacing problems; the challenge of slow reveals on different information in the TVA, plus explaining the whole multiverse mess of Kang, left a looooot of exposition too late in the game. But I had so much fun as it went along, that I mostly didn't care.
Someone said it was like a very long Doctor Who episode, so if you are sick of Doctor Who, I can see that being a challenge to liking it too. It did involve a lot of running and some tangents and dead-ends for the sake of explosions. :D Plus, some people found the whole Loki-and-Sylvie situation to be... questionable? Iffy? Weird? Unresolved? Vague? Which, yeah, but by the end I was okay with that.
My biggest problem was the way it made the whole question of the Infinity Stones and Thanos seem to be dismissible, keeping so many of them in a little drawer like tchotckes. I was still too raw from Infinity War and losing so many characters to be okay with that. But overall, I loved it. Your mileage may of course vary (kilometerage? ).
But miles and miles better than the hanging questions and unresolved issues of Secret Invastion, man. Gah!
no subject
Date: 2023-08-01 06:47 pm (UTC)I’m good! I am writing a Moon Knight/Day of the Triffids fusion fic and having way too much fun with it. Killer ambulatory plants for the win.
Yes, agree totally about the Loki season 1 pacing — it was somehow off at the beginning. OMG, yes - Doctor Who with a huge budget! That’s exactly what Loki season 1 was like in places. The episode set on the planet that was about to be destroyed had very strong Doctor Who energy. And I do like DW — I was fannish about it and wrote a bit of fic at one point — but I burned out when it started to feel like the show was constantly running on frenetic energy of stuff happening without spending enough time on building up to it or dealing with consequences. Loki/Sylvie didn’t bother me, and actually I liked where they ended up, as bittersweet as it was: “You can’t trust and I can’t be trusted”. Overall, I do like the whole concept of the TVA and its timey-wimey-ness, so I’m ready for a season 2 that digs into that.
Actually, now I think about it, probably one of my slight disappointments with Loki s1 is that (like Gamorra) the version of Loki we’d got to know in the preceding movies was erased and I’ve always strongly disliked anything where character development gets undone.