Spoilers, obviously.
Disney+'s the Falcon and the Winter Soldier
- Thread starter Gul Damar
- Start date
- TV
Spoilers, obviously.
Telamon
A corvid.
- Location
- Texas
I mean yes, at the end of the day the only reason Karli blows up those guards or threatens Sam's family for zero reason or turns into a Blood Knight at seemingly random points is because otherwise she'd be the good guy and Sam and Bucky wouldn't care/interfere
. There are at least a couple points in the show where I feel like some Disney exec said "make her less sympathetic".Big "Bane in TDKR having a nuke for no reason because otherwise he's not that crazy" energy.
- Location
- Ether
I think Bane had a nuke because the thing Christopher Nolan loves most after nonlinear chronology and wooden characters who are vessels for exposition is the inclusion of some sort of advanced physics MacGuffin.
gyrobot
Castro-Federalist/One China One Nation
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I mean yes, at the end of the day the only reason Karli blows up those guards or threatens Sam's family for zero reason or turns into a Blood Knight at seemingly random points is because otherwise she'd be the good guy and Sam and Bucky wouldn't care/interfere
Big "Bane in TDKR having a nuke for no reason because otherwise he's not that crazy" energy.
They could have done so by also not genderbending Flag Smasher, easier to make the leader of the cause less sympathetic by taking influences from Fight Club and Wanted except aimed at the Blipped because he believed they were returning to the same system that robbed him and his fellow followers out of their future instead of adapting. The same can be said for Power Broker since it is also easier to write a corrupt white executive who benefitted during the Snap and plans to do the same thing with the Blip.
But I think Karli's fall from grace is meant to show how at the end of the day she is still just a young adult girl who didn't bother to learn how to play the game of politics and inciting change. Disney once again fail their women.
How Falcon & The Winter Soldier Undermined Its Characters
The characters were all done a disservice.
screenrant.com
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tankdrop24
Tread First into Hell
- Location
- The Center of the Universe: Toronto, Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If there was actual criticism to be made of the Flagsmashers, it would be more along the lines of the criticism Fred Hampton made of the Weather underground. They're focused on short term feel good objectives that just gives the people in power all the excuse they need to use lethal force against the movement, and aren't actually building the strength and endurance of the movement and people itself.
Of course, portraying nuance in revolutionary forms would probably among the last thing Disney would be interested in doing.
Of course, portraying nuance in revolutionary forms would probably among the last thing Disney would be interested in doing.
Telamon
A corvid.
- Location
- Texas
It's worse than that though.
The Flagsmashers have actually constructed a global organization with international support and have access to perhaps the greatest force equalizer in human history: the Super Soldier serum. They even have an app that is somehow not trackable and has not been taken down. What's more, the state is moving to actively harm what we are told are millions of people who are thus sympathetic to the Flag Smasher's cause.They have a power base, situation, reach, and opportunity that most historic revolutionaries would have creamed their pants at. This is the sort of revolutionary situation from which empires fall and rise.
They decide to, in order: blow up some guys for no reason, kill a single soldier, and then fail to kidnap some people (whose authority they supposedly reject) to stop them from having a vote (that they reject their authority to have in the first place). I would say this is a revolutionary failure because they should be recruiting and building their cause instead of doing this pointless stuff, but as the show repeatedly tells us, their cause is built and is international. They just suck at using it (and the literal superpowers they have) preferring instead to have fistfights with like four guys in a warehouse.
Bolsheviks these guys are not.
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- Pronouns
- She/Her
Which I kind of feel is fine? Like, I'd have preffered it if the Flagsmashers where competant and won but that was never in the cards and as foils for Captain America, USAgent and the Power Broker they do their job well enough and don't hurt the themes around racism the show actually cares about. If all we get out of this is Sharon Carter as a badass super spy criminal and Sam WIlson as Captain America then the show has done as good a job as it could I think.
tankdrop24
Tread First into Hell
- Location
- The Center of the Universe: Toronto, Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Pretty much, I'd rather they just not touch it but evil criminal mastermind Agent Carter is more than I was expecting to get out of this.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
I mean, it clearly is trackable, given that Bucky uses it to send them right to himself in the finale. So the reason it hasn't been shut down is because it makes it ridiculously easy to anticipate where the Flagsmashers are going to strike next, as Sam and his tech guy do several times.
Given that it must have been written long before Jan 6th, I'd say that it's a remarkably prescient demonstration of why livestreaming your terrorism on social media is a bad idea.
Hykal94
Orange Estus Kitteh
- Location
- Firelink Shrine
I mean, even despite the whole Covid plotline that supposedly exists, there's the fact Karli is kinda boring?
She spouts the most basic anarchist lines and that's it. She's sad girl throughout. It falls flat in comparison to Sugar Daddy Zemo and Captain America with PTSD.
She spouts the most basic anarchist lines and that's it. She's sad girl throughout. It falls flat in comparison to Sugar Daddy Zemo and Captain America with PTSD.
Arthur Frayn
Fake God by Occupation, Magician by Inclination
- Location
- Land of Do As You Please
- Pronouns
- They/Him
Without tipping into full on MMQ'ing the show/judging it against the Platonic ideal fan fiction in my head, I feel like the writer's left money on the table with regards to Zemo's (presumably sincere) belief that Super Soldiers inevitably will adopt a supremacist attitude. The show sort-of goes there, with the serum turning Walker into (even more) of a hair trigger human missile (before they drop that plot for the finale), and low key (IMO almost certainly unintentionally) backs the idea that Steve's martyr complex was the "best case" version of that .
The things is, though, that Karli (or anyones else besides Walker) never once tips into that territory or even feints in that direction (not to mention that Isaiah and Bucky show no signs of, well, anything), so the whole idea is just kind've...there. Just spitballing, but they probably could have tied that into Karli's progression from sympathetic underdog to tragic villain - she starts out genuinely wanting to help people, but by the end has slipped into Killmonger territory where her goal is basically "same power structures, but now I'm in charge".
I will say, after having thought about it and talked about it with a friend of mine, saying that Sam's final speech is just "Call your representatives!" was unfair on my part. I think it ends up basically being that (because this is Disney and you're not going to see Captain America start lecturing people on the concept of Dual Power), but the run up of him saying "Man this lady hated you so much she literally died trying to kill you, and a shitload of people were very on board with that. Maybe think about what you've done to piss people off that much?" is pretty nuanced for the MCU.
*EDIT* Still goofy as shit that Isaiah explicitly says "I hate America and what it did to me, it's all bullshit, and there is literally nothing anyone can do to change my mind", but then he's all smiles because he got an annex at the Smithsonian?
The things is, though, that Karli (or anyones else besides Walker) never once tips into that territory or even feints in that direction (not to mention that Isaiah and Bucky show no signs of, well, anything), so the whole idea is just kind've...there. Just spitballing, but they probably could have tied that into Karli's progression from sympathetic underdog to tragic villain - she starts out genuinely wanting to help people, but by the end has slipped into Killmonger territory where her goal is basically "same power structures, but now I'm in charge".
I will say, after having thought about it and talked about it with a friend of mine, saying that Sam's final speech is just "Call your representatives!" was unfair on my part. I think it ends up basically being that (because this is Disney and you're not going to see Captain America start lecturing people on the concept of Dual Power), but the run up of him saying "Man this lady hated you so much she literally died trying to kill you, and a shitload of people were very on board with that. Maybe think about what you've done to piss people off that much?" is pretty nuanced for the MCU.
*EDIT* Still goofy as shit that Isaiah explicitly says "I hate America and what it did to me, it's all bullshit, and there is literally nothing anyone can do to change my mind", but then he's all smiles because he got an annex at the Smithsonian?
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gyrobot
Castro-Federalist/One China One Nation
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
For Zemo it's all about being a classist the most dangerous enemy to the established power structure is Karli's brand of superpower empowered
Anti nationalism as with the right training she could have actually toppled the current state of the world to start a revolution to push the world to a borderless state but Karli made the fatal decision to go too fast which led to her downfall. Zemo was smart enough to know where does the gaps in Karli's support base lie and doomed them which made her fast track her schedule. If she didn't got shot because someone squealed about where she is holding the memorial service she would have stopped to think. Sharon makes it clear, Karli wants the entitlement of being the one to start a worldwide revolution without getting her troops in place. It was one feel good attack to another like @tankdrop24 said, she did not built her movement to last.
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Regarding your edit, basically all the major characters except Sam, Sharon and Zemo are acting in almost complete opposition to their earlier characterization for no reason during the finale.
Bucky suddenly being all smiles with Walker at the end, Walker dropping his vendetta after five seconds of fighting to save some random elites, the point you mentioned about Isiah, Karli's sudden turn to 100% blood knight. None of it is explained or a reasonable outgrowth of what we had previously seen from any of them.
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I agree that the characterization was .. not handled well. Unfortunately I don't think it is implausible that with another episode they could have handled this. Say, just for example, Walker spent some time with his wife and / or some decent people from his support network. Someone asking the question "What kind of super soldier do you want to be?" could have been the start of Walker getting his head on straight. (Especially if this was an intervention during his making the knockoff shield which lead to him putting his medal on the inside so he'd have a visible reminder to be better.)
Also what happens if Karli discovers, much to her horror, that her movement is starting to fall apart? Say she's losing people because her actions have been "too extreme." Killing innocent people in the bombing earlier in the series is coming back to haunt her - complete with showing how the media is distorting things to hurt her cause. That could explain why she was so desperate to make a big difference in the last episode. (Or to martyr herself, thus inspiring others to step up.)
Given the budget and obvious investment that Disney / Marvel put into the series I'm not sure why they couldn't spare a little cash for some quiet talking scenes here or there.
Also what happens if Karli discovers, much to her horror, that her movement is starting to fall apart? Say she's losing people because her actions have been "too extreme." Killing innocent people in the bombing earlier in the series is coming back to haunt her - complete with showing how the media is distorting things to hurt her cause. That could explain why she was so desperate to make a big difference in the last episode. (Or to martyr herself, thus inspiring others to step up.)
Given the budget and obvious investment that Disney / Marvel put into the series I'm not sure why they couldn't spare a little cash for some quiet talking scenes here or there.
I agree that a couple of short scenes to bridge what we saw in earlier episodes to what we got at the end would have been able to clear up most of my characterization gripes with the last episode.
- Location
- Ether
They had six episodes to Wandavision's nine! I'm sure the budget required for this show was much greater, but they could've had like, an episode or two of bridging with low-production fights or investigation stuff that would be cheaper to film.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Yeah, it seems like most of these prestige streaming series these days have eight episodes per season, so I was surprised as hell when episode six was the finale.
tankdrop24
Tread First into Hell
- Location
- The Center of the Universe: Toronto, Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You know, we really should keep a count how many people end up dying because Sam wasn't several seconds too late to stop Karli from icing Sharon, or let's be fair here, Karli forgetting to bring that up when Sam confronts him.
As always, these guys have an interesting take:
gyrobot
Castro-Federalist/One China One Nation
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
One parallel I didn't notice about the Flag Smashers is that they were similar to the Red Army Faction given how a majority of the Flag Smasher attacks were in Europe and that Karli drew parallels between Ulrike Meinhof. Their chain of actions share a similar path as the Red army faction, taking training/super soldier serum to go back to Europe to wage an anti imperialism campaign that escalate from Bank Robberies to the kidnapping and murder attempt of government officials and faces of the regime and dying in custody under suspicious circumstances.
Bravo Marvel, bravo.
Bravo Marvel, bravo.
gyrobot
Castro-Federalist/One China One Nation
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's the one year anniversary of Falcon and Winter Soldier, and as someone who bought a subscription just to watch the series I am going to revisit my thoughts from my first impression of the series that was inspired partially by @Kei Cyberpunk article. While most talking points are already been tread on, I wanted to take do a personal take from the span of what happened a year after it's premiere with spoiler warning.
My first encounter with Sam Wilson was through the Nick Spencer's Secret Empire run where under the influence of an anthropomorphic version of the cosmic cube, Captain America became a Hydra agent and later leader of the organization. Among the struggle was Sam Wilson and being given the mantle of Captain America as he was given the shield to wield against a politically divided nation as both Cap and Sam were fighting people such a broken man with no aspirations and dreams and joining the serpent society, students inspired by Bombshell (No, not Hawkeye's Bombshell) to attempt to assassinate an anti immigrant speaker at a campus or more infamously the Americops, a political projection of Spencer's previous stance on tough on crime politics. Combined with Na Tahesi Coates writing, such works were my primer for Falcon and Winter Soldier before it premiered and I had high hopes for it
The story of how we treat our veterans, the displaced and the future of a divided world
Falcon and the Winter Soldier had expectations it was going to be a political work. After all it's a story about the aftermath of the Blip once the celebration was over. The world never stopped turning after the Snap, wars happened, social revolutions and uprisings happened as Rhodey tried to get Sam to become Captain America to help serve as a symbol. But Sam wasn't Steve not just for a lack of a super soldier serum but he has family and trying to live the American Dream of having his own family business and the failure of financing it through legal channels and not relying on his situation as a Blipped as we later learn about the GRC was trying to ensure the Blipped population the resources required to regain what they have lost. Part of Sam's scenario was his duty to serve as a symbol of America and his expectations and having to see the injustice personally on all fronts especially when it comes his field of dealing with Veteran PTSD as part of his counselling. For me, Sam's struggle was in l
Speaking of Veteran PTSD, the series covers heavily into this subject as much as the idea of who should wield the shield. American society does not have a great track record with dealing with war veterans and Falcon and the Winter Soldier explore this with the supersoldiers, Bucky, Isaiah and Walker. Bucky's situation was dealing with subject of making amends for his role as Hydra's unwilling agent as he tries to reconnect with the community rather than doing what Steve did and buried it behind working for Shield as he did was what he was only allowed to do as a discharged veteran with a conditional Pardon, bound by his wish to honor his Friend's legacy but also to live a life he never had. It was here we learn Bucky wasn't your typical roaring 20's jarhead, he bought books straight from Britain (Also an inside joke about the fact many of Hydra's villains are LOTR alumni) and went to the Stark Expo for a date instead of some cabaret in NYC's red light district. He wants to get back to that life but struggles to, unable to move on from his life as the Winter Soldier, then we have Isiah Bradley, the Korean War veteran was who put in a black ops facility, made a widow as his wife died after he was released and his bitter resentment at how he wasn't able to represent America as Captain America. The American dream denied to him and countless other African Americans and his golden opportunity of being a symbol of the civil rights moment as his voice will give any man who he supports a huge PR boost. And finally we have Walker/US Agent, the symbol of modern American policy of taking people as symbols of sacrifice to make the politicians look good supporting or condemning them. When I was first introduced to walker I expected him to be a symbol of racism but instead got a tragic figure of the failed War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq where Walker likely saw the evacuation of US forces in Afghanistan as the remnants of the Ten rings and Taliban took over the country in the worst day of his life and being given multiple medals of Honor for this "sacrifice" he made to the country even though he could have done more. We see the War on Terror brand of American Policy during his raid on a safehouse belonging to a Flag Smasher sympathizer where he attempts to intimidate the owner before arresting him and others for supporting the Flag Smashers. And for me the Flag Smashers represent a bleak reality that we live in today.
Aristocrats, Millennial rebellions and Genderswapped Antagonists
Modern MCU is a symbol of Hollywood progressive media and Phase 4 was an attempt to push for more progressive content. One common thing they did was genderswapping antagonists lIke Ghost in AntMan and the Wasp and Taskmaster in Black Widow. Here we see Flag Smashers led by a young millennial woman who combines Greta Thurnberg and Ulrike Madoff into one united identity of an overly idealistic rebellion against the GRC as she fights to stop the displaced refugees from being sent back to their home countries where they will face retribution from the government for abandoning their country during the Blip. We need to look at the modern world politics to think of who would support the Flag Smashers, we need to think of the student in Hong Kong who saw their city's democratic values get destroyed and they are marked for arrest, we need to think of the Ukrainian and Russian who fled their country in the wake of the war or fearing getting arrested for protesting against it, we need to think of the Hungarian suffering under the Enabling Act as the Pandemic is used by some governments to exploit the population. These people would have been persuaded by Karli to support the Flag Smasher Cause. For Karli, the reason why the Blip was a positive event was seeing people come together in either solidarity or rebelling against despotic governments who would use the premise of half of the world disappearing to oppress the population. Yet because of the political sensibilities of executives this would be omitted like the aborted pandemic plot. The Flag Smashers were made to be this dangerous threat yet in the end they were nothing more than naive millennials like me who failed to fight for a better future. It was for the better they Genderswapped her as if the leader was a male, they would have made the Flag Smashers less sympathetic on the virtue it is easier to make a rebellious young male leader Tyler Durden in all but name or in the Marvel Universe's case Robbie Tamlin in Secret Empire.
Then we have Zemo, in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we see the reason why he is called Baron Zemo as when we are reunited with the first villain to emerge victorious in the MCU he was considerably more relaxed than in Civil War where he was a vengeful man out to destroy the Avengers even after the Blip. The Blip for Zemo was not a tragic event, but an example of his privilege of being part of the entrenched nobility and aristocrats that Karli would oppose. A writ he wrote the first draft of that would be passed to serve as judgment on a world that believed in superheroes and super humans as a form of retribution. No power is more intoxicating than to order billions to their deaths for a man like Zemo who served in death squads and family had held positions of authority where they condemn people to death. He once again must take up his mantle as an aristocrat and put an end to a popular uprising that is the Flag Smashers under the guise of ridding the world of supersoldiers as we see Bucky was spared from the coming retribution of killing the surviving Flag Smashers because his desire to reintegrate to society means he won't help the Flag Smashers out and can be controlled with promise of normalcy, normalcy that is represented by our unfair capitalist and classism system. This is what Zemo represents, the thousand years of reign of terror carried about the wealth elite who still to this day is untouchable but his antics in the shows overshadowed the implications of his politics at hand.
Sharon's return to the MCU was also a commentary on the intelligence agency and it's effect on their agents as Sharon went from the idealistic upholder of justice to being a ruthless CIA type black ops agent working in Madripoor as the Power Broker and serving as the major antagonist for Karli to serve as a ticking time bomb as the Patch Act is being rushed to pass by the GRC and she works with Sam and Bucky to track down Karli so she can kill her for her betrayal in stealing the serum. This was no different from CIA propping up fake uprising for disgruntled people to rally around only for the CIA assisted government forces to crush them as these rebellions are nothing more than release valves. Sharon's actions also serve as a contrast to her aunt Peggy, where as Peggy was an intelligence agent who was open with Steve about her information, Sharon hid her true nature from Sam as she manipulated him and none of them realize what Sharon done and was indirectly responsible for Karli's actions and ultimately her downfall.
The GRC can also count as antagonists, being your bog standard greedy civilized powers that banded together to help the Blip get back what is there yet from the first episode we know this isn't the case as Sam was denied his loan and the GRC did nothing to help Sam, showing the priorities of the GRC was to make sure their closest friends got their share first then the rest can what they have. The Senator was also a wholly unsympathetic figure, taking on the likes of many minor human antagonists during the arc where Sam become Captain America. He had the political status of Senator Hauser, the anti displaced population agenda of Ariella Connor and how her appearance led to an attack by the Bombshells (and the ungratefulness of being rescued by Sam and doubling down on his agenda) and the ulterior motives of Keane as the success of the Patch Act will mean he can run for president under an anti immigration Plattform and even if he dies, other politicians will follow in his footsteps, arguing that the Flag Smashers have gone too far in murdering a politician and not realize how the world works. To me, the GRC represented the worst aspects of government bureaucracy that does little to help the poor but yet ensure the rich got what they wanted after five years since their disappearance
The Social revolution that never came: my final thoughts on the series
Perhaps one thing I took away from this was how Falcon and Winter Soldier like many mainstream works, could not give the Flag Smashers the appropriate platform to be worthwhile antagonists as the greatest criticism of the series was how unconvincing the Flag Smashers were. For me the biggest problem they had was they were ultimately an ineffectual anti government group who was more of a threat to themselves than the people they hurt. Karli's bombing didn't send the intended message as the GRC twisted the deaths of the few casualties to their advantage and they were manipulated at every moment they tried to use force to get what they want. Even Nico's death at the hands of Walker could not give the Flag Smashers the chance to rally together the people about the true nature of the GRC's symbol as they just conveniently other than honorable discharged him and then went back to work on sending the displaced people back to their countries at gunpoint with the implication more John Walkers would be made from this. Likewise the final fight shows the weakness of the Flag Smasher as there was no protestors shielding Karli and the Flag Smashers from Sam, Bucky and Walker as they are forced to confront disenfranchised youth and people who would support Karli's cause because they know they would never receive the benefits of the GRC even if they got Blipped. Instead all Karli had for help was a mercenary planted by Sharon to bring her down
Still if there was one message that persuaded me was Falcon's message to Bucky about making amends vs avenging. Perhaps it was the elephant in the room no one ever talked about but Tony never really did got any real sense of closure from his 15 years of Avenging. From the day he left the cave to his final moment in wiping out Thanos army at the cost of his life. Tony never really made people "feel good", yes he helped undo the damage he caused, repaid for the damage he cant undo. But Falcon knew Tony was never going to make amends as an Avenger. All he can do is avenge others for the actions he had done and Bucky has a chance to make people actually feel good by giving people closure and becoming a part of the community Sam was in rather than trying to punish wrongdoers who benefited from his action. In a way it offers Bucky closure for a man who's parents he had killed and died before he can apologize is by making Tony feel good knowing that Steve and Sam made Bucky a better person than the one he fought to arrest to stand for his crimes.
If they ever make a second season, I hope that Coates' brand of politics will be in the focus as we are heading toward a more difficult time as war in Ukraine, the approaching storm of resource shortages from conflicts and the death of democracy looms around the corner at the same the the timeline of Endgame and Real Life will soon meet.
My first encounter with Sam Wilson was through the Nick Spencer's Secret Empire run where under the influence of an anthropomorphic version of the cosmic cube, Captain America became a Hydra agent and later leader of the organization. Among the struggle was Sam Wilson and being given the mantle of Captain America as he was given the shield to wield against a politically divided nation as both Cap and Sam were fighting people such a broken man with no aspirations and dreams and joining the serpent society, students inspired by Bombshell (No, not Hawkeye's Bombshell) to attempt to assassinate an anti immigrant speaker at a campus or more infamously the Americops, a political projection of Spencer's previous stance on tough on crime politics. Combined with Na Tahesi Coates writing, such works were my primer for Falcon and Winter Soldier before it premiered and I had high hopes for it
The story of how we treat our veterans, the displaced and the future of a divided world
Falcon and the Winter Soldier had expectations it was going to be a political work. After all it's a story about the aftermath of the Blip once the celebration was over. The world never stopped turning after the Snap, wars happened, social revolutions and uprisings happened as Rhodey tried to get Sam to become Captain America to help serve as a symbol. But Sam wasn't Steve not just for a lack of a super soldier serum but he has family and trying to live the American Dream of having his own family business and the failure of financing it through legal channels and not relying on his situation as a Blipped as we later learn about the GRC was trying to ensure the Blipped population the resources required to regain what they have lost. Part of Sam's scenario was his duty to serve as a symbol of America and his expectations and having to see the injustice personally on all fronts especially when it comes his field of dealing with Veteran PTSD as part of his counselling. For me, Sam's struggle was in l
Speaking of Veteran PTSD, the series covers heavily into this subject as much as the idea of who should wield the shield. American society does not have a great track record with dealing with war veterans and Falcon and the Winter Soldier explore this with the supersoldiers, Bucky, Isaiah and Walker. Bucky's situation was dealing with subject of making amends for his role as Hydra's unwilling agent as he tries to reconnect with the community rather than doing what Steve did and buried it behind working for Shield as he did was what he was only allowed to do as a discharged veteran with a conditional Pardon, bound by his wish to honor his Friend's legacy but also to live a life he never had. It was here we learn Bucky wasn't your typical roaring 20's jarhead, he bought books straight from Britain (Also an inside joke about the fact many of Hydra's villains are LOTR alumni) and went to the Stark Expo for a date instead of some cabaret in NYC's red light district. He wants to get back to that life but struggles to, unable to move on from his life as the Winter Soldier, then we have Isiah Bradley, the Korean War veteran was who put in a black ops facility, made a widow as his wife died after he was released and his bitter resentment at how he wasn't able to represent America as Captain America. The American dream denied to him and countless other African Americans and his golden opportunity of being a symbol of the civil rights moment as his voice will give any man who he supports a huge PR boost. And finally we have Walker/US Agent, the symbol of modern American policy of taking people as symbols of sacrifice to make the politicians look good supporting or condemning them. When I was first introduced to walker I expected him to be a symbol of racism but instead got a tragic figure of the failed War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq where Walker likely saw the evacuation of US forces in Afghanistan as the remnants of the Ten rings and Taliban took over the country in the worst day of his life and being given multiple medals of Honor for this "sacrifice" he made to the country even though he could have done more. We see the War on Terror brand of American Policy during his raid on a safehouse belonging to a Flag Smasher sympathizer where he attempts to intimidate the owner before arresting him and others for supporting the Flag Smashers. And for me the Flag Smashers represent a bleak reality that we live in today.
Aristocrats, Millennial rebellions and Genderswapped Antagonists
Modern MCU is a symbol of Hollywood progressive media and Phase 4 was an attempt to push for more progressive content. One common thing they did was genderswapping antagonists lIke Ghost in AntMan and the Wasp and Taskmaster in Black Widow. Here we see Flag Smashers led by a young millennial woman who combines Greta Thurnberg and Ulrike Madoff into one united identity of an overly idealistic rebellion against the GRC as she fights to stop the displaced refugees from being sent back to their home countries where they will face retribution from the government for abandoning their country during the Blip. We need to look at the modern world politics to think of who would support the Flag Smashers, we need to think of the student in Hong Kong who saw their city's democratic values get destroyed and they are marked for arrest, we need to think of the Ukrainian and Russian who fled their country in the wake of the war or fearing getting arrested for protesting against it, we need to think of the Hungarian suffering under the Enabling Act as the Pandemic is used by some governments to exploit the population. These people would have been persuaded by Karli to support the Flag Smasher Cause. For Karli, the reason why the Blip was a positive event was seeing people come together in either solidarity or rebelling against despotic governments who would use the premise of half of the world disappearing to oppress the population. Yet because of the political sensibilities of executives this would be omitted like the aborted pandemic plot. The Flag Smashers were made to be this dangerous threat yet in the end they were nothing more than naive millennials like me who failed to fight for a better future. It was for the better they Genderswapped her as if the leader was a male, they would have made the Flag Smashers less sympathetic on the virtue it is easier to make a rebellious young male leader Tyler Durden in all but name or in the Marvel Universe's case Robbie Tamlin in Secret Empire.
Then we have Zemo, in Falcon and the Winter Soldier, we see the reason why he is called Baron Zemo as when we are reunited with the first villain to emerge victorious in the MCU he was considerably more relaxed than in Civil War where he was a vengeful man out to destroy the Avengers even after the Blip. The Blip for Zemo was not a tragic event, but an example of his privilege of being part of the entrenched nobility and aristocrats that Karli would oppose. A writ he wrote the first draft of that would be passed to serve as judgment on a world that believed in superheroes and super humans as a form of retribution. No power is more intoxicating than to order billions to their deaths for a man like Zemo who served in death squads and family had held positions of authority where they condemn people to death. He once again must take up his mantle as an aristocrat and put an end to a popular uprising that is the Flag Smashers under the guise of ridding the world of supersoldiers as we see Bucky was spared from the coming retribution of killing the surviving Flag Smashers because his desire to reintegrate to society means he won't help the Flag Smashers out and can be controlled with promise of normalcy, normalcy that is represented by our unfair capitalist and classism system. This is what Zemo represents, the thousand years of reign of terror carried about the wealth elite who still to this day is untouchable but his antics in the shows overshadowed the implications of his politics at hand.
Sharon's return to the MCU was also a commentary on the intelligence agency and it's effect on their agents as Sharon went from the idealistic upholder of justice to being a ruthless CIA type black ops agent working in Madripoor as the Power Broker and serving as the major antagonist for Karli to serve as a ticking time bomb as the Patch Act is being rushed to pass by the GRC and she works with Sam and Bucky to track down Karli so she can kill her for her betrayal in stealing the serum. This was no different from CIA propping up fake uprising for disgruntled people to rally around only for the CIA assisted government forces to crush them as these rebellions are nothing more than release valves. Sharon's actions also serve as a contrast to her aunt Peggy, where as Peggy was an intelligence agent who was open with Steve about her information, Sharon hid her true nature from Sam as she manipulated him and none of them realize what Sharon done and was indirectly responsible for Karli's actions and ultimately her downfall.
The GRC can also count as antagonists, being your bog standard greedy civilized powers that banded together to help the Blip get back what is there yet from the first episode we know this isn't the case as Sam was denied his loan and the GRC did nothing to help Sam, showing the priorities of the GRC was to make sure their closest friends got their share first then the rest can what they have. The Senator was also a wholly unsympathetic figure, taking on the likes of many minor human antagonists during the arc where Sam become Captain America. He had the political status of Senator Hauser, the anti displaced population agenda of Ariella Connor and how her appearance led to an attack by the Bombshells (and the ungratefulness of being rescued by Sam and doubling down on his agenda) and the ulterior motives of Keane as the success of the Patch Act will mean he can run for president under an anti immigration Plattform and even if he dies, other politicians will follow in his footsteps, arguing that the Flag Smashers have gone too far in murdering a politician and not realize how the world works. To me, the GRC represented the worst aspects of government bureaucracy that does little to help the poor but yet ensure the rich got what they wanted after five years since their disappearance
The Social revolution that never came: my final thoughts on the series
Perhaps one thing I took away from this was how Falcon and Winter Soldier like many mainstream works, could not give the Flag Smashers the appropriate platform to be worthwhile antagonists as the greatest criticism of the series was how unconvincing the Flag Smashers were. For me the biggest problem they had was they were ultimately an ineffectual anti government group who was more of a threat to themselves than the people they hurt. Karli's bombing didn't send the intended message as the GRC twisted the deaths of the few casualties to their advantage and they were manipulated at every moment they tried to use force to get what they want. Even Nico's death at the hands of Walker could not give the Flag Smashers the chance to rally together the people about the true nature of the GRC's symbol as they just conveniently other than honorable discharged him and then went back to work on sending the displaced people back to their countries at gunpoint with the implication more John Walkers would be made from this. Likewise the final fight shows the weakness of the Flag Smasher as there was no protestors shielding Karli and the Flag Smashers from Sam, Bucky and Walker as they are forced to confront disenfranchised youth and people who would support Karli's cause because they know they would never receive the benefits of the GRC even if they got Blipped. Instead all Karli had for help was a mercenary planted by Sharon to bring her down
Still if there was one message that persuaded me was Falcon's message to Bucky about making amends vs avenging. Perhaps it was the elephant in the room no one ever talked about but Tony never really did got any real sense of closure from his 15 years of Avenging. From the day he left the cave to his final moment in wiping out Thanos army at the cost of his life. Tony never really made people "feel good", yes he helped undo the damage he caused, repaid for the damage he cant undo. But Falcon knew Tony was never going to make amends as an Avenger. All he can do is avenge others for the actions he had done and Bucky has a chance to make people actually feel good by giving people closure and becoming a part of the community Sam was in rather than trying to punish wrongdoers who benefited from his action. In a way it offers Bucky closure for a man who's parents he had killed and died before he can apologize is by making Tony feel good knowing that Steve and Sam made Bucky a better person than the one he fought to arrest to stand for his crimes.
If they ever make a second season, I hope that Coates' brand of politics will be in the focus as we are heading toward a more difficult time as war in Ukraine, the approaching storm of resource shortages from conflicts and the death of democracy looms around the corner at the same the the timeline of Endgame and Real Life will soon meet.