Favoured and Disfavoured Characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

[kerravonsen]

In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are two special categories of character for whom the normal rules do not apply. I don't know if this also applies to the Marvel comics, but I've certainly seen it in the movies. I call them the "Favoured" and the "Disfavoured" characters.

A Favoured character can do no wrong.

I don't mean that they don't do anything wrong, I mean that the wrong things (or mistakes) they do are dismissed, ignored, rationalised, or made out to be good things.

A Disfavoured character can do no right.

It isn't that they never do anything right, but every single wrong thing (or mistake) they have ever done is thrown in their faces forever, and the right things they do are dismissed, ignored, rationalised, or made out to be bad things. They are everyone's favourite scapegoat, also.

Signs of a Favoured Character:

• They break the law and there are no consequences (or very few).
  • Heimdall: In Thor-1, he commits treason on multiple occasions and is never punished for it. Before you say "but Loki was a usurper", Heimdall disobeyed Odin's orders first. (And Loki was not a usurper)
  • Sif and the Warriors Three: Likewise, in Thor-1, they commit treason and are never even called to justify their actions.
  • Steve Rogers: In The First Avenger, he keeps on giving false information to the army and instead of being arrested, he gets what he wants.
• They do bad things and nobody cares.
  • Valkyrie: She was a literal slave trader and yet nobody calls her on it.
  • Wanda Maximoff: She joined HYDRA, she's a Nazi terrorist, and they invited her to join the Avengers. She has never shown any sign of remorse for the wrongs she has done. Instead, she keeps on playing the victim, and everyone buys it.
  • Steve Rogers: In Age of Ultron, Steve accuses Tony of "keeping secrets" when there are important secrets which Steve is keeping from Tony.
  • Thor: In Age of Ultron, Thor choked Tony and nobody said a single word of protest.
• The wrong they do is considered noble.
  • Steve Rogers: In The First Avenger, him repeatedly trying to enlist is portrayed as something noble, even though someone with his weaknesses would be a liability to any soldiers around him, putting them in danger just by being there.
  • Steve Rogers: Civil War. No, I'm not going to get into an argument about whether the Accords are good or bad (and anyone who brings up the Superhuman Registration Act is going to be banned). I'd just like to point out that he attacks and injures civilians in his crusade to protect Bucky and nobody cares.
• They themselves never apologise for the wrong they have done.
  • Wanda Maximof: Heck, she never even apologised to Vision for attacking him, and she was supposed to be in love with him.
  • Steve Rogers: No, that letter he sent Tony was not an apology. It was a litany of excuses and justifications.
• Nobody questions their actions, or if they do, they are considered to be a Bad Guy.
  • Thor: In Thor-1, Sif and the Warriors Three don't ever question Thor's actions. When Loki does, well...
  • Steve Rogers: In Civil War, all Steve has to do is say "I need your help" and Sam Wilson, Clint Barton etc leap to do his bidding without asking any questions.

Signs of a Disfavoured Character:

• They are accused of crimes they didn't commit, and everyone believes it.
  • Loki: He did not usurp the throne in Thor-1, and even as BAMF as he is, he could not have arranged all the circumstances which conspired to put him on the throne. Sure, he tempted Thor to consider going to Jotunheim, but seriously, are you saying that Loki mind-controlled Heimdall to make Heimdall disobey Odin's orders, and then mind-controlled Odin in order to make Odin banish Thor, and then further attacked Odin to force him into the Odinsleep? Nope. It's amazing what miracles they will attribute to Loki in order to pin blame onto him.
  • Loki: In Avengers, Loki is declared to have "killed 80 people". Unless he was doing massacres off-screen, he did not kill that many people, therefore I surmise that Loki is being blamed for the deaths at the PEGASUS facility, which really ought to be put at the feet of SHIELD, for negligence in not implementing a better evacuation plan.
• They are blamed for things they had little or nothing to do with.
  • Tony Stark: Wanda Maximoff blames Tony Stark for her parents death because it was a Stark weapon which killed them, never mind that it was likely Obadiah Stane who sold the weapon and someone else completely who fired it. Nobody attempts to dissuade her obsession, because Tony Stark is "The Merchant of Death".
  • Tony Stark: In Age of Ultron, Tony is blamed for "creating Ultron" when he did not; the Ultron entity came from the sceptre and decided to call itself Ultron. Bruce was standing right there too, yet nobody was putting any blame on him.
  • Tony Stark: Numerous villains blame Tony Stark for things which had very little to do with him. Ivan Vanko, for something which Howard Stark did. Killian, for Tony playing a prank on him. (And Wanda, see above)
• They are accused of lying when they did not lie.
  • Loki: He may be the "God of Lies" but that doesn't mean that every word out of his mouth is a lie.
  • Tony Stark: In Iron Man 1, Christine Everhart accuses Tony of lying, because she found evidence that Stark Weaponry was being used in Gulmira. Excuse me? Just because Tony stopped weapons production now doesn't mean that all existing Stark weaponry that was already out there suddenly, magically, vanished.
  • Tony Stark: In Age of Ultron, Tony is accused of "keeping secrets" when he clearly had permission from Thor to study the sceptre. And studying the sceptre was his intent. Yes, he was going to use what he learned to build his "armour around the world", but he hadn't done that yet.
• They are treated with scorn and contempt out of proportion to what they deserve.
  • Tony Stark: In Iron Man 2, Fury treats Tony as if he's a misbehaving teenager. And Coulson threatens to tase Tony when he asks for some assistance.
  • Tony Stark: In Avengers, why on earth did Steve Rogers have such utter contempt for Tony Stark? The briefing he was given must have been very selective.
  • Loki: In Avengers, Loki was muzzled before being taken back to Asgard. Is Asgard that barbaric, or was this a special rule only for Loki?
• The good things they do are belittled or ignored.
  • Loki: In Thor, Thor says "Some do battle, others do tricks." Completely discounting the many times Loki has saved their lives with his "tricks".
  • Tony Stark: Tony has, at minimum, provided housing for the Avengers (the Avengers Compound). But likely he's provided equipment and food also. Have any of them ever thanked him, or do they just take it for granted?
• Their completely valid anger is dismissed as egotism or oversensitivity.
  • Tony Stark: Natasha bringing up Tony's "ego" when he gets angry at her betrayal in Civil War.
  • Loki: Thor calling Loki's grievances "imagined slights".

When you have a Favoured character interacting with a Disfavoured character, because of these biases, every Favoured character comes across as a flaming hypocrite. Which means that the writers who are desperately trying to enforce the view that their Favoured characters are spotless heroes, have done the exact opposite of what they intended. Ooops.

I would even go so far as to say that out of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Thor, and Loki, the only mature, responsible adult is... Tony Stark. He's the only one of the four who actually takes responsibility for his actions, and not only for his actions, but for his inaction. Steve Rogers seems to think that because he meant well, he can't be blamed for the harm he caused. Thor has a similar attitude. Guess what? Tony Stark meant well, too; he meant to protect American soldiers. And what does he do when he discovers that harm came of it? He tries to make amends. Steve Rogers doesn't. Thor doesn't. Loki is a wild mixture of blaming other people for his problems, trying to fix his mistakes, and trying to fix other people's mistakes, badly. Interestingly enough, both Tony Stark and Loki were betrayed by people they considered family. But Tony had support (Yinsen, Pepper) and Loki had absolutely nobody.

Comments

[fred_mouse]

Fabulously put together. But I'm also Team Stark after CA:CW, so you are speaking to my bias.

I thought at first about suggesting you link on meta_warehouse, but ah, there are a lot of people out there who would see your selection of characters as a reason to get nasty, and I have no idea whether that would happen in that comm.

[kerravonsen]

Thank you! I've been putting together the pieces of this post for quite a while.

As for linking, well, it wasn't meta-warehouse, but some other similar com that someone linked one of my posts, and I got invaded by all manner of angry and rude people. Not an experience I want to repeat. And given how utterly divisive Team Cap versus Team Iron Man has been and continues to be, linking this post would be as sensible as kicking a Bilgesnipe.

[fred_mouse]

That sucks that you've been harassed previously. I would like to be able to say I'm surprised, but as my previous comment hopefully communicated, I don't actually trust the wider internet.

[vera_j]

Well, this is great. I have never thought about it from this point of view!