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As the subject says, I just finished watching Avengers: Age of Ultron for the first time. Yes, yes, I am years behind on this fandom. Whatever, I don't care, though I must care enough to mention it, so I suppose I care a bit. Anyway, it means I've approached this fandom a bit differently than I usually do. Normally, I avoid spoilers like they were a species-jumping infectious disease. But this time, I have not avoided spoilers, and for some of the movies, I've looked for them because I have no intention of watching ALL the MCU movies. I've also read a LOT of fanfic, which means I've also got a bunch of fanon jostling around in my head (and half the fanon comes from extracanonical sources such as Norse Myth and Marvel-616) so my grasp of what is canon and what is not... is not very firm. And I've watched vids. Which have had scenes from movies I hadn't yet seen.
So watching Age of Ultron has been rather odd, because I've been going "oh, so that's where that scene came from" and "oh, that's where that oft-repeated quote actually happened". In a way, a bit like when I saw Hamlet for the first time -- I had no idea how many lines from that play were part of everyday English idiom. Context! Context!
I had been reluctant, very reluctant, to see Age of Ultron, because of certain things I'd been spoiled about (a) the death of a favourite character, and (b) everyone apparently slagging on Tony... and I admit, there was one point where I seriously considered stopping watching because I couldn't bear what was going on. But I persevered and I'm glad I did, because, yeah, there was some serious epic stuff going on. And epic character stuff, because, like, what is more epic than being confronted with one's fears? (And go Hawkeye for his moves in that bit, yay)
But one thing that is really weird is that I'm now looking back at some of the fanfic I've read that was set later than this movie, and wow, some of the fans seem to have taken certain things way out of proportion. For example, the ones who have a grudge against Captain America, take his line "and if you die, walk it off" as an example of how much of a jerk he is. But in context, no, it wasn't that at all, it was just a... pep talk. Which just goes to show the truth of the epigram -- darn it, I wish I could remember how it goes -- something along the lines of "if you like someone, you don't mind what he does, but if you hate someone, you find even the way he drinks soup to be irritating".
In other words, for those who feel Captain America to be a jerk, they see his jerk-ness everywhere, even where it isn't.
Another thing that's interesting about fannish interpretation of the movies is where fans put the line between "teasing" and "dislike". Such as the exchange in the first scene where Tony swears and Steve says "Language!" and Tony doesn't let it go. My take on that is that it is teasing. Others might take that as either Steve or Tony being a jerk (or both of them being jerks). Interpretation.......
Given the end of this and the end of Iron Man 3, is there a pattern here, that Tony keeps on retiring from superheroing and then he keeps coming back?
(Hooray to Robert Downey Jr. for making Iron Man popular, that's all I'll say with my Doylist hat on)
Mmm, love this exchange:
"They are doomed."
"Yes. But just because something isn't permanent doesn't make it less beautiful."
So watching Age of Ultron has been rather odd, because I've been going "oh, so that's where that scene came from" and "oh, that's where that oft-repeated quote actually happened". In a way, a bit like when I saw Hamlet for the first time -- I had no idea how many lines from that play were part of everyday English idiom. Context! Context!
I had been reluctant, very reluctant, to see Age of Ultron, because of certain things I'd been spoiled about (a) the death of a favourite character, and (b) everyone apparently slagging on Tony... and I admit, there was one point where I seriously considered stopping watching because I couldn't bear what was going on. But I persevered and I'm glad I did, because, yeah, there was some serious epic stuff going on. And epic character stuff, because, like, what is more epic than being confronted with one's fears? (And go Hawkeye for his moves in that bit, yay)
But one thing that is really weird is that I'm now looking back at some of the fanfic I've read that was set later than this movie, and wow, some of the fans seem to have taken certain things way out of proportion. For example, the ones who have a grudge against Captain America, take his line "and if you die, walk it off" as an example of how much of a jerk he is. But in context, no, it wasn't that at all, it was just a... pep talk. Which just goes to show the truth of the epigram -- darn it, I wish I could remember how it goes -- something along the lines of "if you like someone, you don't mind what he does, but if you hate someone, you find even the way he drinks soup to be irritating".
In other words, for those who feel Captain America to be a jerk, they see his jerk-ness everywhere, even where it isn't.
Another thing that's interesting about fannish interpretation of the movies is where fans put the line between "teasing" and "dislike". Such as the exchange in the first scene where Tony swears and Steve says "Language!" and Tony doesn't let it go. My take on that is that it is teasing. Others might take that as either Steve or Tony being a jerk (or both of them being jerks). Interpretation.......
Given the end of this and the end of Iron Man 3, is there a pattern here, that Tony keeps on retiring from superheroing and then he keeps coming back?
(Hooray to Robert Downey Jr. for making Iron Man popular, that's all I'll say with my Doylist hat on)
Mmm, love this exchange:
"They are doomed."
"Yes. But just because something isn't permanent doesn't make it less beautiful."
