I am the Kat that Walks By Itself

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 )

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.

Just started watching "Moon Knight". (yeah, yeah, late as usual.) Interesting show.

And there's a line from the first episode which has stuck in my head.

(about the goddess Ammit) "She grew weary of having to wait for sinners to commit their crime before punishing them. Would you wait to weed a garden till after the roses were dead?"

Would you wait to weed a garden till after the roses were dead?

That's pretty profound. Flawed, but profound. Because of course most people would say, "No, you wouldn't wait; you would weed the garden to protect the roses." ( BUT... )

(don't have a Black Panther icon, so I'm using Thor.)

So, I've watched The Black Panther now. It was okay, but there were points where I was bored and wondered whether I should continue watching. I think it was because none of the characters really clicked with me. I mean, they were okay, the nice ones were nice, the bad ones were bad, and so on. But none of them grabbed me by the heart.

( here be spoilers, because I'm considerate like that )

Yes, I am watching these all in the wrong order, very late. That's pretty standard for my Marvel watching. I was spoiled for the spoilery thing, but I'm glad that I listened to the people who told me it was worth watching, because it was worth watching, because there was a lot more going on than just the spoilery thing. And I am in great admiration for the way they handled the thematic structure in this one.

( I'm assuming you've already seen the movie )

Loki finale! Oh my. The problem with half-truths is trying to figure out which bit is true.

( spoilers at the end of time )

So... I guess we'll just have to wait for season 2.

OMG! OMG! I cried. !!! This show. This show. Wow. ( there be spoilers here, I'm WARNING YOU )

The plot thickens. I'm feeling all caught up in the excitement.

( here be spoilers )

So, I've been thinking more about the time travel in Endgame. So I made myself a little diagram. ( cut for images )

Yeah, this is all old hat and people all hashed it out two years ago, but I'm allowed to apply my brain, even if I am late to the party.

So what is "Amnesiac Worldbuilding" and why do I want to rant about it?

We've all seen it before -- usually in TV/movie SF, though it isn't limited to that. The author needs a quick fix, either to solve a problem or to set up a situation which they need in order for the plot to work. So they toss in some technology, or instant cure, or magic, which will solve the immediate problem, and then promptly forget about it and its implications.

There isn't a good phrase to describe the phenomenon; I'm choosing "amnesiac worldbuilding" as the least-worst I could think of. Other phrases I considered: "deus-ex-machina worldbuilding", "worldbuilding without consequences", "you can do THAT and you didn't use it earlier?", "you can do THAT and you used it for something trivial?".

( Read more... )

Have you got any juicy examples of "amnesiac worldbuilding" to suggest?