Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame [Main Characters Edition]

I had wanted to do this around a week after I do the Avengers: Endgame review, but things got in the way, and this huge review has been sitting in my 'drafts' page for a couple of weeks now. This was originally much longer, but I split apart the secondary and supporting characters and lumped them with my huge talks about time-travel and continuity and Easter Eggs, and I'll release that later on.

Click here for my review of the movie itself. This review will be me taling more about the characters themselves, and their character arcs across the movie and, in some cases, the MCU as a whole.

IRON MAN

"And I... am Iron Man."

Iron Man is the character with the biggest focus in the movie, and it's honestly very, very interesting to go from the very plot and spectacle driven Infinity War to the far more character-driven Endgame. No, it's not fair to many of the other characters that it's the central original Avengers team that ended up receiving much of the spotlight, but on the other hand, as this movie serves as a capstone to the first three 'Phases' of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as a whole, it's honestly pretty fitting. The removal of three of the MCU's leading figures is going to be a huge, huge impact to the movies as a whole, but it is a genuinely amazing sendoff for the Man of Iron, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe's first heroes. In fact, honestly, looking back at Marvel comics' history, it's genuinely interesting how Iron Man has always consistently been a B-list hero until literally the last couple of decades.

And while his first scenes in the movie doesn't quite have the same impact to me because the farewell to Pepper is sort of underscored by the quick rescue by Captain Marvel, it is interesting that this is definitely not the first time that Iron Man's been in this sort of position, trapped in a confined situation without any hope of rescue. In fact, it's comparable to how he once was, back in his origin story. It's a very heartbreaking scene when he drags himself off of that bed and starts ranting at everyone, particularly at Captain America. Blaming him for stopping that whole Ultron thing, but mostly being angry that the whole "you said we would fall together". Age of Ultron is not a movie that most people look back fondly upon, but if there's something that Endgame excels at, it's to bring these older movies and make the moments in those movies feel like they matter much more with segments like this. I do like that this is all just Tony trying to lash out because of his own perceived failures, and he's clearly unwell and everyone from Pepper to Steve to Rhodey really understands this.

Tony's put back to sleep, and it took him the next five years to recover, and while, again, it's a bit cheating that the drama that the argument scene  is sort of brushed under the rug, it is also very much the logical step that Tony Stark would retire into a nice cabin and become a father. Perhaps it's a bit obvious to introduce a young small child for them to protect, but I really do love just how cordial Tony is towards Steve and Natasha (and Scott too, I guess), not blaming them for anything and is all happy to entertain them as guests even if he initially doesn't want to "talk shop". Everyone quickly understands and doesn't judge Tony for wanting to protect his own happiness and his own daughter, and the fact that Tony doesn't want to risk the death of his daughter, that he doesn't want to have any chance of losing this happiness that he's obtained.

But of course, he is Tony Stark, and despite his dismissal of Scott Lang's time heist proposal as the vapid imaginations of someone who doesn't understand the proper science, the sight of Peter Parker, the "son" he lost...  he ends up actually doing so, trying his best to try and make the time travel work... and, well, I do really love the symbolic bit where it's Morgan's cute arrival into the scene that ends up drawing Tony away from his work, even momentarily. After eating fruit pops and discussing the word 'shit' with little Morgan, Tony's continued conversation with Pepper, trying to make a casual conversation before confessing that he has figured it out, but he's so scared at the risks this entails, and it's Pepper that ends up telling Tony that stopping Tony Stark isn't something anyone can do.

And the subsequent scene of Tony Stark basically getting his shit together and arriving at the Avengers Compound, making up with Captain America and admitting that the shield belonged to him... it's amazingly done. Sure, the next couple of scenes Tony takes place in are basically comedy or plot-relevant stuff, but I really do appreciate this character arc of Tony Stark trying his best to protect his own happiness, but realizing that there are so many others that are far more unlucky than him, and ends up deciding that, yes, he can protect the world, and that he has the means to do so. Again, this parallels his original arc in the first Iron Man movie. After he was rescued from the Ten Rings, he could've just continued to be the dumb, irresponsible playboy millionaire and not do any of this dangerous superhero stuff, but he ends up sacrificing his own happiness in order to give the world the same second chance that he got.

And I really do love that scene where he lists his priorities to Captain America -- yes, getting everyone back is their goal, but Tony also makes it clear that beyond everything else, he wants to preserve what was created in the past five years. And maybe not die in the process, which he puts beneath the other two in his list of priorities, something that ends up being pretty damn prophetic down the line.

The 2012 time-travel bit doesn't really give us too much in terms of character moments, but when Tony asks Steve to trust him and return to the 1970's, we get perhaps one of the hugest tear-jerker moment for me. The fact that Tony, whose character arcs in Iron Man 2, The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War all hinge upon his relationship to his distant father... it's really, really poignant when Tony Stark (or, well, "Howard Potts") ends up meeting with a confused Howard Stark, and Tony finds out that his own father was just as conflicted and scared of being a father as he is. And it puts into perspective just how much Tony dotes on his daughter Morgan, as well as his earlier scenes of mentoring young Peter Parker. Parentage is really, really powerful with Tony, and it is amazing just how flustered and out of control he was in this scene. Tony Stark has almost always been in control in all of his scenes, and he always has a wise-crack or a contingency plan stashed somewhere, but faced with meeting his father in the flesh causes him to be so shaken up he forgets to bring that Tesseract-containing suitcase at one point. And his farewell to his dad, who doesn't even know Tony's real identity, and his tearful "thank you for all you've done" before quickly cutting to it being a thanks to the contributions he's done to the country... it's genuinely heartfelt.

The rest of the movie right up to the climax is pretty standard superhero fare for Iron Man. Sure, he builds the new gauntlet, and he helps to fight Thanos alongside the other two leading men of the Avengers, but it's just a lot of badass action scenes, y'know? And the huge, huge character moment, of course, was when he and Pepper have a brief team-up... before he ends up being rescued by Peter Parker. Considering how averse Tony was to Peter hugging him in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Tony just looking on in disbelief before hugging Peter hard is just another heartfelt moment for the character. It's such a small yet important moment in the chaos of that battle, with Tony Stark ending up fighting for something specific and receiving it back.

Of course, it's not quite a happy ending for Tony Stark. He reaffirms in a conversation with Dr. Strange if this is the future that they were fighting for, but Strange telling Tony that "if I told you, it won't happen" is... it's pretty telling, honestly, and I think Tony is smart enough to realize what Strange meant at this point. Which, of course, leads to his ultimate sacrifice. With Thanos taking out all of the mightiest and most powerful Avengers, it is Tony Stark that charges in, and even in his last breath he still manages to use his brains to win, stealing the Infinity Stones and snapping them in order to wipe out Thanos and his forces. "I am Iron Man" indeed.

And... and it's an amazing sacrifice, because in addition to simply how badass it is, the movie really hammers home just what Tony stands to lose. And the fact that it's the people closest to him that ends up finding him -- his best friend Rhodey, his mentor and adoptive son Peter, and the love of his life Pepper... I really do love just how tense Tony is until someone says "we won", like he's willing to stand back up and get back to fighting if needed be, and the fact that his last words is "Pep" before he passes on... it's amazing.

And I really, really love the fact that the movie ends not at the sight of Tony burning out, but on a final inspirational speech about "part of the journey is the end", before capping it off with a personal "I love you 3000" bit to Morgan. It's.... it's amazing, and I really do love that despite the fact that Morgan was only introduced in this movie, the fact that so much of Tony Stark's character development and themes -- his pride, the theme of sacrifice and legacy -- all get touched upon in this final exit for the character... They really ended up doing the character justice and it's not just "Iron Man shows up, does some badass things, then dies". They actually took the effort to craft one final arc for Iron Man, one that to some point mirrors and resolves all of his character journey since the first Iron Man movie... this is honestly just pretty amazing, and it's this sort of very personal, character-based but not quite as in-your-face storytelling in the MCU that allows the franchise to flourish as it did. It's an amazing exit for Iron Man, a very touching one, and honestly, looking at the new trailers for the Spider-Man: Far From Home movie, it's going to be one that's going to be impactful for the universe as a whole.

CAPTAIN AMERICA

"Avengers... ASSEMBLE."

The other big name that exited the MCU is Captain America, and... yeah, we do lose Black Widow as well, but let's be honest here -- it's a bit of a raw deal for the MCU's leading lady for the past decade, for sure, but as a character, Steve Rogers has had far, far more impact than Black Widow has, and, honestly, it's arguably why he was the last one to go in the movie. And thinking back over Cap's arc in Endgame, it is interesting that he doesn't quite get as many huge, life-changing moments like Tony did throughout the movie. And I think that is the point of Captain America as a character -- he's a rock. You can count on him to always keep the fight, you can count on him to be the big shining flag-wearing beacon, because that's the man Captain America is. He doesn't quite have as much of a chance to be as vulnerable as Tony did in the beginning of the movie, because he doesn't quite leave himself as vulnerable.... even if it's seemingly mostly for other people's benefit. And, because Steve Rogers is a good man, it will always be other people's benefit over his own.

And, as I mentioned, Steve doesn't really get to do much, and it is interesting because he lost both Bucky and Sam, both of his best friends, and Tony's completely broken by that point, but it's honestly to Steve's credit that he basically soldiers on. Even when a fever-haze Tony called out Captain America for being wrong and partly blames him for the lack of "Prevenging", Cap just soldiers on.

And it's genuinely interesting that five years after Thanos's snap, Steve Rogers ends up leading a support group for those who have lost their loved ones and is trying to move on. In addition to being a sweet call-back to Falcon's job pre-superhero, it's also a genuinely great way to showcase just how dedicated to being a superhero that betters the life of others Steve Rogers is. He and Natasha are the ones who seem to throw themselves into work the most, and it's not until the relative privacy of one of his closest friends, Nat, that Steve admits that a whole chunk of his confidence is an act, and that he still can't move on. Which, in retrospect, Steve's self-admission that despite the facade he's putting on, he has real trouble moving on, something that actually helps to be a neat and subtle nod to the decision he makes at the end of the movie.

And, again, for the most part, Steve and Nat sort of act as the "mission control" of the group, meeting Ant-Man, trying to get Tony back in the game, roping in the Hulk (the latter two have clearly moved on with their lives to some degree). Of course, Tony would go through his own arc and come around, and meet Steve at the compound, and that handshake as two friends-turned-adversaries return back to being friends. Honestly, as convoluted as "Civil War" might have been, it's definitely brought the best bros in cinematic history without feeling forced or artificial (hint hint BvS hint hint).

And, well, Steve sort of continues being a leader throughout the Time Heist and all of that jazz, but we do get some genuinely comedic and fan-servicey moments. Captain America's elevator "hail Hydra" scene is, I maintain, the comedic highlight of the movie and maybe even the MCU in general, but the subsequent bit with him facing off against his 2012-era self, the Loki mishap, and the subsequent "that is America's ass" remark are all genuinely stand-out moments for the good Captain as well. The bro-ing "I trust you" moment with Tony Stark is kinda cool, but I feel like their big bro moment happened back in 2019 instead of during the time-travel moments.

Instead, as Cap goes to steal the Pym particles from a young Hank Pym (and I really do love just how much Cap's loosened up over the years) this leads to the first point in this movie that I actually ended misty-eyed. And honestly... I didn't actually cry when Tony died and when Cap became old. But I definitely do here, when Steve ended up hiding in Peggy's office, and ends up seeing the love of his life, the love that he has lost so many years ago... alive, in the flesh, and only the blinds of the window separated the two of them. It's a short scene, but it is genuinely beautiful.

I love his reaction to the news that Natasha's dead, and things sort of move quickly for the good Captain. Hulk snaps the gauntlet, Thanos arrives, then it's just game time as they fight Thanos... and, of course, the good Captain ends up picking up Mjolnir in a frankly amazing twist I didn't actually see coming. The implication with Thor's "I knew it!" moment was, of course, that he knew all along since Age of Ultron that Captain America was totally worthy all along, and he was just faking not being able to lift it back in that movie... and that seems to be the consensus. But I also equally love just how selfless and completely pure and worthy that Steve Rogers have became over the past couple of movies, particularly the significant amount of soul-searching and conflict he's been through in Civil War. Either way... he's pretty damn worthy.

But Iron Man and Thor get taken out in quick succession, and even Captain America's faithful shield, which has been lost or stolen, but never broken... breaks. And Thanos summons his massive, massive alien army... and Steve Rogers, Captain America, bloody, battered and bruised, just rises from the ground, tightens the strap on his broken shield and damn well gets ready to fight again -- a resolute, silent "I can do this all day" that has far, far more impact than the actual spoken dialogue (something the movie itself makes fun of earlier). And then, of course, the rest of the goddamn Marvel world shows up, and Captain America ends up with a hundreds-strong army facing off against Thanos in his army. "Avengers Assemble", indeed.

He... he basically held the line, and while he only really fought Thanos in the opening salvo with Iron Man and Thor, and the rest of his contribution in the battle is sort of overlapping with the others, that's what the good captain does. He holds the line, he refuses to stand down, and even when he can't get the job done himself, he makes it so the others can do it.

And then, of course, came Tony Stark's funeral, and Captain America's off-screen returning of the Infinity Stones to the points in time that they were taken from... and then he doesn't return. Is it selfish? Quite the opposite, honestly. Steve's spent however many years sticking around as a superhero, as a man out of time that still fought for mankind, basically never quite finding it in his heart to settle down, constantly fighting -- for his country, for his views, for his friends, for humanity itself... and, as Tony breathed his last, Steve ended up taking a page from what Tony told him to do and ended up returning to 1940 and having that dance and living with Peggy Carter. It's... it raises all sorts of questions about the timeline, but this page's not going to discuss that whole can of worms. Instead, it's Steve Rogers, the man who gave his life -- even more -- to the service of the world, helped to defeat one of its biggest threats, and now decided to hang up the superhero tights and enjoy retirement. One real complaint about this is that his selection of Falcon as his successor felt more mandated by comic-book counterpart more than anything since Steve and Sam really didn't quite have that huge of a moment compared to their comic counterparts... but I dunno. Steve finally handing off his shield to a successor, and the final shot being Steve and Peggy enjoying that slow, slow dance... it's another beautiful scene and one that honestly I'm impressed that the movie managed to pull off. 

BLACK WIDOW

"I used to have nothing. And then I got this. This job. This family. And I was better for it."

I'm going to go a bit faster now, because there's a lot less to say after the whole bit with Tony and Steve. The third casualty the movie has is Black Widow, and it's really kind of telling just how much the movie could've served her better. As one of the original Avengers and the most prominent female character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and one of the two main deaths in this movie, Black Widow wasn't served quite as well as the others. Hell, I had debated putting Thor or Widow as the third entry in this "characters analysis" segment, which probably illustrates just how much better they could've handled Black Widow in this movie.

And... and let's be frank, Black Widow's always had a bit of a raw deal. All the members of the Avengers that didn't get their own individual movies kind of do. Black Widow's biggest moments, honestly, have always put her in relation to other characters. Tony in Iron Man 2, Hawkeye in Avengers, Steve in Winter Soldier and Bruce in Age of Ultron. Her character arc hasn't been the most stable, and while she certainly does have her moments, I really wished we could've had a lot of better Black Widow moments over the years, y'know? She mostly has fight scenes, sure, and she's badass as hell, but I really do feel she's ultimately a bit poorly-served. She does admittedly get some of the best scenes she's ever gotten in Endgame, particularly in the post-timeskip scene. We get the revelation that Black Widow's basically been coordinating all the Avengers, throwing herself into her work whole-heartedly that some others like Okoye and War Machine have to gently tell Natasha that there are some problems (like underwater earthquakes) that the Avengers aren't responsible for. Natasha's storyline throughout the MCU has always hinged heavily on "cleaning her ledger", on trying to fix some sins in her past (and it'd be nice to really get the context to those beyond "assume generic evil spy stuff"), and this seems to be a symptom of that. Sure, Natasha doesn't quite take it as hard as Thor did, but she certainly is trying to, in her way, compensate for the failures of the events of Infinity War.

That scene with Steve is also a great, great moment between the two friends, both recognizing that the two of them hasn't moved on, but ultimately Natasha basically just sort of sticks around with Steve in their little recruiting project. Which is fun and all. And I do like that her close friendship with Clint is briefly noted when she goes off to hunt down Clint doing his whole Ronin deal in Japan -- another theme in Natasha's storylines throughout the MCU has been that she's viewed this whole superhero thing as a second chance after committing some heinous crimes in her past, and her accepting Clint back after his Punisher-esque brutality without any fuss, despite the fact that Rhodey told her that "there's no coming back" from the off-screen brutality that Clint's been doing... yeah, that's a nice, little moment.

It's pretty obvious what's going to happen, though, the moment that the two best friends of Clint and Natasha are selected to head to Vormir to take the Soul Stone. Did... did they know what was going to happen? Because they selected perhaps one of the only teams that would be able to fulfill the requirements of the Soul Stone. Imagine if it was Nebula and Rhodey that went to Vormir instead.

But Natasha and Clint end up basically talking about necessary sacrifices, and they each realize that their best friend plans to sacrifice his/herself, and it's pretty heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Natasha has always viewed herself as possibly the most disposable of the Avengers -- the one without any special powers or real family, and she's just a woman that's looking for a chance to atone for her sins. That's why she so readily allowed her records to go public in Winter Soldier, because she really didn't care what happens to her. It's a genuinely heroic thing, and as darkly hilarious it is to see two best friends essentially try to have a race of "who can commit suicide first to save the other", it's heartbreaking when ultimately it's Natasha that ends up making the sacrifice, plummeting to her death.

It's just such a shame that while Natasha does get a quiet wake between the men of the Avengers right before the final battle (and that speech about how the Avengers were her family), she ends up missing out on the huge, huge final fight that involved everyone, and she even misses out on "all the ladies of the MCU" montage, despite being the most prominent one of them all. Hell, not even a "this is for Natasha!" yell from Clint or someone? I kinda wish that they made her death resonated a lot more beyond that scene on Vormir with Clint, because unlike Tony or Steve's death, I really felt like Natasha's death didn't resonate quite as well.

Still... when you look back at her character arc as someone who's willing to give her everything to support the people she has adopted as her family, it's a pretty solid storyline for one of my favourite MCU characters. I just wished her exit was handled a bit more elegantly than what we got. Tony got like a whole ten-minute epilogue or something, but Natasha got two short conversations? That said, I am curious about the fact that one of Marvel's Phase Four projects is a solo Black Widow movie... after she died. I don't really think they'll back out and resurrect her, at least not so soon, so I'm curious if it'll be a prequel, a sequel set in the Soul Stone world, an alternate-universe Black Widow (hey, that Far From Home trailer opened up the multiverse), or a search for a successor (Yelena Belova?), or an alternate-universe thing? I know Johansson is attached to that movie, so I am pretty curious.

THOR

"I'm just standing there, an idiot with an axe."

Thor is probably the more divisive characters in the movie for the simple reason of "how dare they take Thor and make him a fat slob????" But honestly, while I probably don't agree with some of the jokes they made about Thor -- particularly some bits that come off as fat-shaming, and some hahalolfortnite jokes -- the actual character work they did for Thor really ends up making sense in terms of what Thor's been through in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I had a discussion with a reader in the comments section of my old Endgame review, and, yes, I definitely admit that Thor could've gone through the same humiliation and character arc without making all of the fat gamer jokes, which is a point that I will concede.

But honestly, I really, really loved Thor's character arc. While he was treated mostly like a joke throughout the movie, I do really love the fact that this is a culmination of Thor's character arc particularly through Thor, Thor: Ragnarok and Infinity War. In the original Thor, he learned that it's not just his birthright and his battle prowess that made him worthy to be a king or a god of thunder. A good chunk of his character arc in Thor is basically a god learning some humanity and humility. And while he goes on regular hero-ing stuff in Avengers, Age of Ultron and Thor: The Dark World, it's not until Thor: Ragnarok that Thor ends up being... kind of a failure hero. He lost his mother in Dark World, he lost his relationship with his girlfriend somewhere in between movies, he lost both his father Odin and his hammer Mjolnir in Ragnarok, he lost his eye, he lost his homeland of Asgard, he lost his three buddies, hell, he even got to see that the history of Asgard is apparently riddled with some particularly un-heroic things if Hela is to be believed... and yet, as a hero, he persevered. He fought on, he forged new allies, he picked up the survivors, and is willing to go ahead and forge a new path.

And then Infinity War happened. Half of the Asgardian survivors got slaughtered. Heimdall and Loki got killed. And Thor's detached conversation with Rocket in Infinity War listing off his tragedies and the sheer amount of loss he's endured really ends up hammering home (heh) just how much the proud god of thunder has lost. And after his huge quest to reclaim an even greater power in Stormbreaker, Thor's huge, bombastic arrival on Earth ends up with his utter failure to stop Thanos in executing his plan. And it's kind of easy to make fun of Thor for not going for the head, but I really do think that the mistake -- among many others he might or might not have made over the past couple of movies -- really haunts Thor's mind.

Which is why in the prologue segment, Thor was just... brooding in the background. He did not participate when Steve and Tony had an argument, with the only real interaction he did is to just take the measure of Captain Marvel's strength or whatever.  And when they traveled to Thanos's planet, Thor just wordlessly slices off Thanos's head the moment they realize that there was absolutely no way to bring everyone back. And... and, as Thor admits later on when he met Frigga, sure, he "killed" Thanos, but it's such a hollow and Pyrrhic victory and he's just some "idiot with an axe". His killing of Thanos solves nothing, because there is nothing else that Thanos could've done. At that point, anyone present in the room with a weapon could've killed Thanos and it wouldn't have accomplished a thing. His failure from the Wakanda battle is still there, and, perhaps more than anyone, Thor blames himself for literally failing to stop half the universe's death.

And in five years, in New Asgard, Thor's turned into a fat gamer frat-boy drinking beer and developing a beer gut that would make Volstagg the Voluminous jealous. And at that point, could you blame him? Thor is a warrior-prince first and foremost, and as New Asgard itself proves, even without his assistance or interference, the Asgardians manage to make a community of their own, meaning that in addition to all of the failures in the past movies, he has also failed to be a leader or a king, the exact thing he said he would to at the end of Ragnarok.

And I really do like just how quickly easy he was to anger and how quickly he bites back to preserve whatever dignity he has left, being absolutely angry at Hulk and Rocket mentioning "Thanos" and trying to hold on to the hollow accomplishment of slicing off a weakened Thanos's head. And while his behaviour in the subsequent scenes are mostly played up for laughs, Thor self-destructing while rambling on and on about the Aether and how he lost his relationship with Jane Foster really ends up hitting effectively, showing just how much this once-bombastic god-king has sunk to. Thor ends up teaming up with his buddy Rocket back to Asgard in 2013, the time of Thor: The Dark World, to suck the Aether out of Jane... and then he pussies out and runs away, leaving Rocket to do the mission on his own.

And honestly, at this point, it's... it's not hard to feel sorry for Thor. Considering how hard he's tried and considering how each meager victory ends up with him being slapped in the face with a bigger loss, particularly throughout Ragnarok and Infinity War, it's not hard to see just why Thor's confidence is utterly and truly shattered. It's such a realistic depiction of a hero who's failed a lot of times. It truly humanizes Thor, something that many of Thor's other depictions have utterly failed to do. Throughout Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War and Endgame, Thor's character arc and story has finally turned him from "that cool Norse thunder muscle god with a hammer that speaks funny" to a character I genuinely care about.

And it's Frigga, Thor's own mother, the only person in Thor's life who can quite literally see through all of Thor's attempted bluster and isn't afraid of Thor's response, that ends up getting through to him. It's not Bruce, it's not Rocket, it's not Valkyrie or Korg or anyone else -- it's Thor's own mother that ends up causing Thor to finally admit just how much he feels like a failure for not being able to accomplish anything when he killed Thanos. What Frigga says: "you're a failure" is meant in the best, most constructive way. The fact that Thor is a failure means that he is just like everyone else, and it's a repetition of Thor's original arc in his original debut movie -- Thor might be born a god-prince, but he's also... only human, in a sense. Everyone goes through the same failures, but because of how Thor has been built up not just by his own culture but also by everyone else around him as this unstoppable God of Thunder, the sheer weight of expectations have truly bogged him down.

And this self-realization, this humility, this desire for self-improvement, is perhaps what made 2013-era Mjolnir zip back towards Thor in that scene. Other than, y'know, the obvious fanboy reason. I have a feeling that throughout the five-year timeskip, Thor kept wondering if he was still worthy of the title of the god of thunder or the king of Asgard or all that jazz thanks to his failures. Considering just how much of Thor's original concept was whether he was "worthy" of the hammer, it's no surprise he fell into such depression after the sheer amount of pressure hoisted upon him. Turns out that what made him worthy wasn't his accomplishment, but his character? Something along those lines?

I really also did like Thor's reactions during the wake the original Avengers held for Natasha. Compared to everyone else, who is morose and brooding, Thor is the only one in full denial. He tries to amp everyone else up, being all optimistic and telling the other Avengers off for not believing in miracles and what they could do with the Infinity Stones they collected... but the argument with Clint shut him down. And honestly, while in this scene my original reaction was that Thor was just kind of being a bombastic fool as he usually is... how much of it is Thor's own insecure projections? He's banking that this Time Heist will be able to allow Thor to undo his mistakes, to bring back all the other lives that was lost in the Snap. Is that why he is so desperate to be the one to hold the Infinity Gauntlet later on? Not just because of a ha-ha-strongest-avenger joke like in Ragnarok, but because Thor is genuinely grasping for any sort of redemption?

And then Thor joins Captain America and Iron Man as the three leading men of the Avengers face off against 2014-era Thanos. And I really, really loved just how he summons both Mjolnir and Stormbreaker, and the fact that his facial hair ends up being braided by the lightning into a Viking beard. I really wished they did a bit more to make him look a wee bit more badass, but... eh. I really did love Thor's "HA HA I KNEW IT!" yell when Steve wielded Mjolnir, really showing just how much Thor has outgrown his old pride and truly discarded it. In Age of Ultron, Thor was straight-up concerned when Steve was able to budge Mjolnir, and he was genuinely baffled and shocked when Vision was able to pick it up. Here, he revels and is proud for the fact that his friend was as worthy as him.

I feel like Thor got knocked down and got up the most, and just single-mindedly kept on wailing on Thanos, but eventually he wasn't the one who ended the Mad Titan's life. The eventual epilogue for Thor might not be the best, because the movie ends up focusing on Iron Man's funeral... but then we get the revelation that Thor leaves the title of "King of Asgard" (or, well, Queen) onto Valkyrie, who's been leading the Asgardians all along, before he leaves with the Guardians of the Galaxy, in what honestly feels more like a soul-searching journey more than anything. Because at the end of the movie, Thor has proven what he needed to prove to himself. And that, honestly, is the healthiest thing to do -- proving something for yourself. At the end of the day, Thor is a free man, neither a King nor a God nor an Avenger, but just... a wanderer, I guess, who's shacked up with the other 'rejects of the universe', out to find himself in the world.

HAWKEYE (a.k.a. RONIN)

"The rest of the world got Thanos... you get me."

I know, he's kind of supposedly "Ronin" in this movie, but he's never once been called by that name and they call him Clint, Barton, or Hawkeye exclusively, and I'm somewhat baffled as to why they didn't even try to sneak in the "Ronin" name. Not even when he was talking to Shingen Yashida Akihiko. Like, a simple "you're a Ronin without a cause" would've been easy to sneak in.

But still... Hawkeye's an interesting character. He's one of the original Avengers, but even moreso than Black Widow, he really, really got shafted as far as meaningful character growth goes. In The Avengers he spends half the movie mind-controlled, and the other half just being a cool action dude, with him basically being a satellite character to Black Widow. In Age of Ultron, we got an amazing little world-building bit with him and his family and how much he loves them, but the movie itself was so messy and the majority of Hawkeye's screentime is just him snarking around and the movie dicking around with a will-he-won't-he-die gag that doesn't really work. He does end up becoming a mentor to Scarlet Witch, which is pretty significant, and plays into his role in Civil War, where he... he mostly rescues Scarlet Witch from her house imprisonment and just sort of spends the movie... snarking around again. Hell, it was even a joke that he was missing in Infinity War because everyone forgot about him.

Like, I like Clint Barton, and I like Jeremy Renner for making what could've otherwise been a bland character interesting, but it's not until Endgame that there honestly feels like a point to his character beyond "we're obligated to do this because he's a major character in the comics". But honestly, Hawkeye's always been noted to basically be eager to retire to his farm life during Age of Ultron, so it could be inferred that in Infinity War, he's just... with his family, y'know? And the fact that the scene opens up with Hawkeye's family being lost in the snap -- with the dusting happening in our periphery and really genuinely beautifully shot to showcase Hawkeye's utter confusion at what's going on because he missed the exact moment that his family disappears... pretty well done.

And in the five-year timeskip, Clint Barton basically became such a broken man because he realizes that there are still so much crime in the world. In his own words, "they get Thanos. You get me." It's a lot better than the comic-book Ronin, in my opinion, where comics!Ronin was more suicidal compared to movie!Ronin, which essentially functions more like the Punisher. Overly brutal and driven by tragedy. We only really briefly touch upon this, seeing him brutalize yakuza goons in Japan before Black Widow shows up and picks Hawkeye back to the Avengers, without judgement -- compare it to War Machine's assessment of Clint earlier, where he notes that Clint might be irredeemable.

And... there's really not much to say about Clint's storyline here. After volunteering to test the time-travel thingamabobs, Clint ends up being partnered with Natasha in going to Vormir for the Soul Stone and we've sort of covered a lot of that up in the Black Widow segment. TL;DR: it's pretty sad and heartwarming at the same time, and the theme in all of this is redemption for past sins. And... and it's a pretty solid story, I suppose. It just has the unfortunate side effect of sort of making Clint somewhat of a secondary character to Black Widow, except this time around Clint's family ends up being used as context. The Ronin persona and how he's been brutalizing people don't really get touched on too much, but it does help to really make Clint's desire for redemption in sacrificing himself to save Natasha pretty touching.


After the Time Heist Clint really got a pretty damn great scene as they mourn Natasha's death, and his angry rant at Thor is pretty well done, and you get the feeling that he's angrier at himself for failing to save Natasha more than he is at Thor or at the world. The rest of the movie, Clint sort of gets reduced to a walking action scene, although he does get a whole lot of personal screentime in outrunning the Outriders in enclosed space, using both the gauntlet left by Black Widow and his own arrows to wipe out an entire horde of the Outriders, all the while running around dragging the Infinity Gauntlet. Felt like the pacing for this to be interrupted for the whole two-Nebulas thing to be a bit odd, but otherwise, Hawkeye just plays American football with the gauntlet until time came for him to pass it over to Black Panther. Afterwards, I do like that we did get a brief scene between Clint and Wanda during the funeral, reminiscing over the more 'forgotten' losses in the crisis that are Natasha and Vision. Overall, it's pretty neat stuff for Clint. He does admittedly feel like he's thrust in the spotlight a lot for this movie, and he does have a neat character arc, even if it's one shared with Natasha. 

PROFESSOR HULK

I'm of two minds about Bruce Banner and Hulk's usage in this movie. On one hand, I appreciate of what we got from this movie, and it really made me super impressed with Mark Ruffalo's performance, as well as the CGI team really making the expression of the Hulked-out Ruffalo really, really convincing. This take on "Professor Hulk", a being with both the brains of Bruce Banner and the brawn of Hulk, is also pretty damn interesting to behold, even if Valkyrie's joke of "I liked you better either of the way" might ring slightly true. It is pretty interesting, though, to see Professor Hulk apparently being beloved by the people around, being popular enough to go from the big green rage monster that just happens to be on the good guys' side to a superhero that random kids want to go up to and take photographs with. Little hints that Hulk has his own catchphrase and his own Ben 'n' Jerry's ice cream really paint a picture of how Hulk has somehow been accepted into society in the intervening years, which is definitely interesting.

It's just that... I really wished we got to see more of how Bruce and Hulk ended up co-existing, y'know? Hulk and Bruce's portrayal in Thor: Ragnarok was one of the most interesting takes I've seen of the Jekyll and Hyde bit going on, where the Hulk personality finally is given a rudimentary intelligence, personality and desires beyond just wanting to smash things. And it's been an observation throughout the movies that any time you call Hulk by "Bruce" or "Banner" he gets even more angry, whereas anytime people call him "Hulk", even in a nasty tone (an excellent bit is when Thor tells Hulk to not beat up Surtur at the end of Ragnarok) he's more amiable to listen.

And in Infinity War, when the Hulk was dealt a humiliating defeat, the first real time that the Hulk was defeated against a far superior enemy while fighting with stakes. This traumatized the Hulk so much that he refused to poke his head out and just let Bruce Banner do the majority of the fighting in Infinity War... and I dunno. The fact that we never got any real resolution to this little character arc is pretty disappointing, and we just see the resolution... and even then it raises some questions. Is this Professor Hulk form a true gestalt symbiosis between the two personalities? Is it just Bruce Banner, but he brings out the Hulk body and strength? How much of the original Hulk persona made it into Professor Hulk? I really feel that there could've been some more elaboration or hints either way, and it's just kind of disappointing.

And for the most part, Hulk is... he's just kind of there? He's like the "other science guy" other than Tony Stark, knowing enough to build a time machine, but not enough for it to properly be utilized properly. In a nice nod to Ragnarok, Hulk is part of the team they send to drag Thor out of New Asgard, and I really find it interesting that Hulk is calm enough even when Thor intentionally provokes him by grabbing the collar of his shirt. Hulk's part in the time heist is back in 2012, where we get a hilarious bit of half-hearted-raging Hulk, before he meets with the Ancient One and mostly engages in a lot of time travel rule argument until he manages to convince the Ancient One to trust him.

It is kind of neat and telling that only the Bruce soul zips out of the body, but not the Hulk persona, so I genuinely wonder what this means for the 'real' Hulk. Has he merged completely with Bruce? Was he buried? I dunno. The only time Hulk actually got angry in this entire movie is the next scene we see him in, which is the Avengers mourning Black Widow's death, where amidst the argument between Thor and Hawkeye, Hulk gets so sad and frustrated that we get a brief bit of him showing anger and tossing a bench into the sky... and then he calms down and forces himself to move on.

In a neat little callback to the first Avengers movie, Bruce talks about the purpose of him being turned into the Hulk by gamma radiation, which is something he views as something that's essentially his destiny... and ends up using the gauntlet to Snap and reverse Thanos's original Snap from Infinity War. And that's pretty badass, but the Hulk survives, even if he's taken out of commission temporarily due to the whole "trapped under rubble thing". I did find it a bit of a disappointment that after the confirmation that, yes, Hulk is alive, we didn't really get to see him all that much. Hell, we don't even get a token attempt of the Hulk rushing Thanos, which would give us a neat little conclusion to the "Hulk is afraid of Thanos" story from Infinity War. Injured he may be, but I'd still rank Hulk in the same ballpark as Captain Marvel and Thor as among the strongest of the Avengers there.

And... I dunno. Mark Ruffalo does an amazing job, and Professor Hulk is fun, but I really did feel that both in a character arc contained into this movie, as well as a character arc that builds on previous movies, Hulk ended up not being super impressive.

ANT-MAN

Ant-Man is a hero that got a whole lot of screentime, but didn't actually get a whole ton of any meaningful characterization. He's more of a walking plot device at most parts, either delivering exposition or just basically yelling at the other Avengers to do something and move the plot forwards. Or be used for gags involving babies. Which is fine, because, again, Ant-Man really doesn't have as many issues to work through as some of the other characters in the movie. After being brought back from the Quantum Realm where he was stuck after the events of the Ant-Man and the Wasp mid-credits scene, he was brought back thanks to a freak accident with a rat, Scott ends up confused as he discovers the shit that's been going on. Scott's essentially sort of the audience surrogate here. Everyone else has either moved on (Tony, Bruce), buried themselves in work and not really knowing what to do about the Snap (Natasha, Steve, the space people), let themselves be consumed by negative impulses (Thor and Clint in very different directions)... but Scott, only having experienced five hours as opposed to five years of time-skip, is the fresh mind they needed to galvanize the rest of the cast. He's a go-getter, he's happy to help, and he's very much willing to accept that, hey, maybe they can reverse this with some science mojo.

And that's mostly his role, and he also ends up filling the audience surrogate as Steve and Natasha bring Scott around to meet the other Avengers and discover what has happened to them in the five years that they've been mourning. Mostly, throughout the time heist, Scott's just there to commentate and tell jokes, and he sort of gets to skip out on the second part of the time heist, being told to return to 2023 when Steve and Tony goes back to the 70's. And... and for the most part afterwards, Scott is just... kinda there. He saves War Machine and Rocket from the rubble while running around as he's shrunken, he uses his Giant Man form to burst out of the rubble and later on beat up Cull Obsidian as well as a bunch of giant Chitauri Leviathans, but ultimately is just sort of there as a cool, easily recognizable detail in the background. It seemed like he was going to be relevant when he and Wasp are about to activate the 'other' time gate, but Thanos blew up the van. Oops! At least Scott gets one of the unambiguously happiest ending, though, being shown in a montage with T'Challa and Clint.

NEBULA

Nebula is an interesting character and I feel that this is turning into a bit of a broken record, but I am genuinely surprised at how much the movie ended up making me care for a character that I thought was neat, but never really actually, y'know, cared for. She was the angry backstory nemesis in Guardians of the Galaxy, being a cool mini-boss thanks to her backstory with Gamora, and her redemption in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 was well-acted but mostly expected. And in Infinity War she was more a plot device that helped moved things forwards and informed Gamora and the Guardians' decisions more than anything. She, like Thor, was a fun concept, and the actress playing Nebula did a fantastic job at selling the character, but I never really cared about Nebula all that much as a person, I guess?

And while Nebula does take mostly a backseat throughout the entire movie, I really do love just how much Nebula got characterized in this movie. The little spaceship scene on-board the Benatar with Tony Stark is... it's genuinely interesting. Sure, the focus on that scene is ostensibly Tony, who got to monologue and who's a character the audience has a more significant attachment to, but the two of them basically bonding as friends is genuinely neat -- particularly that bit where Tony teaches Nebula to play a game. Sure, Nebula is super-duper intense when she plays that table football or whatever that game is called, but Tony is nothing but encouraging (if slightly snarky), but actually praised her for winning. Her intense, thank-you-may-I-play-again answer to Tony seems initially just hilarious due to the stilted, alien-does-not-quite-understand-human-culture delivery, but when you look back at Nebula's history and learn just how much of an underdog she is compared to Gamora, this genuine victory, even over a game, is probably something that resonated pretty hard with Nebula. Her respecting Tony enough to move him to the captain's ship when Tony was about to die of dehydration or something is also pretty sweet.

When they returned to Earth, Nebula gets a nice, little brief bond with Rocket Raccoon over losing their mutual friends/family. She is mostly in the background for most of these scenes, other than her admission to the other Avengers that her father is many things, but not a liar. For all of Thanos's abuse towards Nebula, Thanos's dying words being that he was wrong for treating Nebula too harshly ended up seemingly touching Nebula enough to close Thanos's eyes upon his death. Nebula mostly stayed in the background in the subsequent scenes, although she and Rocket have clearly developed enough of a camaraderie with the Avengers to keep in touch with them, and even to warn War Machine of "some idiot in the landing zone". Nebula is partnered with War Machine in Morag, and I really do like the two of them bonding, however briefly, over their shared disabilities.

And what's perhaps a bit of a surprise plot twist (and arguably, a bit of an asspull) is that "our" Nebula, the one from 2023, is accessing the same... network as the flat-evil-villain Nebula from 2014? I suppose when 2023 Nebula got some orange bits out of nowhere it should be telling that it's going to be an audience clue to differentiate the two Nebulas. 2014 Nebula is basically an evil evil woman that's pretty consistent with her Guardians of the Galaxy portrayal, so eager and desperate to please Thanos. I really did like just how the movie quickly showcases how much Gamora shows up Nebula, and just how desperate Nebula is to please Thanos in the brief scenes we see of them prior to discovering the time-travelers. I did like the fact that 2014-Thanos ends up preventing 2014-Nebula from being choked to death by Ebony Maw, telling her that, yes, he totally believes that Nebula will never betray him. It's a pretty horrifying detail since Thanos is basically an abusive parent, and abusers really do rely on these seemingly touching (but rare) moments of genuine compassion and care, however fake or twisted they may be. And this is what turned the 2014-Nebula of this movie into being super-duper devoted to Thanos and unquestioningly going through the motions of masquerading as her 2023 counterpart and time-traveling into the future. Consider, for a moment, that the original timeline Nebula was full of spite at both Thanos and Gamora during the events of Guardians of the Galaxy, ready to betray Thanos as much as Ronan and Gamora are.

And it's really interesting how the movie puts into contrast the difference between 2023 and 2014 Nebula, where 2023 Nebula really does end up facing the literal worst parts of her personality running around happy to feed off of any crumbs of approval from daddy Thanos and never truly questioning Thanos. 2023 Nebula, armed with the knowledge and the sisterly bonds she has with her sister Gamora, manages to convince Gamora and appeal to the goodness in her heart. It's a bit sappy, for sure, and a bit expected, but the moment when 2023 Nebula shoots 2014 Nebula to protect her sister, quite literally getting rid of the specter of her past, is pretty well-done. 2014 Nebula in this movie is more than just "what Nebula was", but really, more of "what Nebula would've became" if she never met the Guardians and broke away from Thanos. I'm honestly not the biggest fan of the replace-your-time-traveling-doppelganger plotline, but it was handled... succintly well.

Nebula herself ends up sort of fading into the background with the other Guardians after this, other than a brief moment of snarking about Gamora and Star-Lord when they meet each other, before leaving with the Guardians. She might've gotten slightly shafted in terms of screentime and a properly satisfying resolution (shooting her past self is neat, but I kinda wanted more), and I really wished she got more screentime with Thanos... but looking back at Nebula, I really am impressed at the sheer amount of character they managed to fit into a relatively short amount of screentime.

And massive, massive props to Karen Gillan for portraying two different versions of her character at different points of her character growth and making the two iterations of Nebula obviously easy to tell apart based on body language, voice and how the two Nebulae carry themselves. Great stuff.

ROCKET RACCOON

"I lost the only family I ever had."

You know, if you told me a couple of years ago that I'd be rooting for Rocket Raccoon as something more complex than a psychopathic gun-toting character that's hilarious only because he's an alien raccoon, I probably wouldn't have believed you. As it is, though, it's amazing how the Marvel Cinematic Universe have transformed the Guardians of the Galaxy from what's a no-name C-list fodder in most people's minds into one of the core members of the Marvel universe. Like, a decade ago, I wouldn't have placed the Guardians in the same ballpark as other teams like the X-Men or the Defenders or the Inhumans or whatever. And Rocket... Rocket's honestly got a fair amount of chance to shine in this movie, for the same reason that Black Widow and Thor do -- because he's dealing with loss. The brief, quiet bonding moment he has with Nebula as the two surviving members of the Guardians really speak volumes, again, considering how Nebula used to be an angry Terminator assassin, and Rocket's a nasty, sociopathic asshole, but they really do bond over the loss of their misfit family.

Rocket mostly just sort of hung around everyone else when they went to space, and I do find it hilarious that he still kept in touch with the Earth-bound Avengers during the five-year time skip, with everyone else that hasn't met the Guardians in Infinity War lampshading how ridiculous it is for them to be "receiving emails from a raccoon". Most of Rocket's screentime in this movie is essentially devoted to hanging out Thor and becoming the Jiminy Cricket to his Pinocchio, to talk Thor out of his funk. It's no coincidence that he and Hulk were the ones that went to drag Thor out from New Asgard, being the ones that has had adventures with Thor in the past couple of movies (Ragnarok and Infinity War respectively) and when Rocket ends up going with Thor to the year 2013, and Thor basically freaks out, Rocket's sudden impassioned speech about he lost the only family he ever had -- like so many others -- and the admission that, yes, the Guardians are his family... that's pretty well done. And even when Thor basically disappears and abandons the mission, Rocket ends off basically extracting the Aether and escaping the Asgardian guards all on his own. It is pretty neat to note that thanks to the tragedy and the two GOTG movies, Rocket's matured enough to go from just an ill-natured asshole to someone who could genuinely give an inspirational speech to a friend, because he's been through a lot of loss himself.

Afterwards, Rocket really didn't get to do much, although I really do appreciate the effort it took the CGI team to constantly animate both Hulk and Rocket in basically 90% of the movie. That couldn't have been easy. I also do like how Rocket, despite being a crass gunslinger-slash-engineer in his movies, is treated as a scientist on part with Tony and Bruce, being shown to help out in a lot of the more technobabble-heavy parts of building time machines and infinity gauntlets, because, as Rocket notes, "you're only a genius on Earth". Rocket really didn't have much to do afterwards other than snarking around and being trapped briefly in the flooded basement, but I do find it neat that we do get a brief scene of Rocket protecting a reborn Groot from the napalm bombings of Thanos's ship during the final battle.

Ultimately, Rocket's perhaps not the most relevant character in the movie, but I really, really still love it that we've been having a space raccoon as a pretty important recurring character. 

WAR MACHINE

-mimes baby strangling-

War Machine is one of the survivors of the Snap, and like Nebula and Rocket, he's... he's mostly there for the ride, even moreso than Black Widow or Hulk. Which is, again, kind of a shame, but also understandable considering the sheer amount of characters already in the movie. War Machine was always just sort of there, being Tony's buddy and being just another superhero that helps to blow shit up in crowd scenes, so Rhodey is just... sort of there. Don Cheadle is a pretty great actor, particularly his fun comedic deliveries, and that's what War Machine tends to be used for in this movie. The amazing scene where he suggests going back in time to strangle baby Thanos, or the Temple of Doom gag, or the "regular sized man" quip... when he's not just being just another one of the cast, he's in his armour, beating people up and shooting missiles and shit.

That's not to say that War Machine didn't get any great moments, though, because he certainly does, if you look. His interaction with Tony prior to the mission to kill Thanos is pretty neat, showing just how close Rhodey is to Tony (something that is sort of eclipsed in the movies with the Tony/Steve bromance), how he's so used of being what's essentially Tony's brother and best friend, who helps to pull Tony out before he does something he'll regret. But for the rest of the movie he's just basically just another member of the Avengers, reporting in and being all business in his brand-new War Machine armor... up until the moment where he's partnered up with Nebula on Morag. The two of them sort of bonding, albeit briefly, for being disabled but "working with what we got", is pretty neat. It's not a scene that the movie lingers on for too long, but the reminder that the cyborg Nebula and the crippled War Machine are still fighting in spite of their injuries is pretty nice.

But he's then just sort of relegated to just hanging out around everyone else, standing tough and looking cool. He has that neat moment with Hulk and Rocket, I guess, as they're drowning during the final battle, but ultimately he's just sort of there, up until the moment when Tony dies. Rhodey's the first to meet Tony and meet his gaze, and it's kind of a neat little Bro-gaze because the huge emotional punch is the meeting with Spider-Man and Pepper. Still... for someone who could've otherwise been written out, I am still glad that Rhodey got a couple of neat character moments in the movie.

THANOS

"I am... inevitable."

Thanos is... an interesting character. He's gone from "that weird purple Darkseid-expy that has unrequited love for the personification of death" to a pretty interesting extremist. And, yes, without Josh Brolin's amazing performance, he'd be just a bland one-dimensional villain. And... and honestly, I went through Infinity War and Endgame really hoping to learn more and more about Thanos. What we got was enough to contextualize him as a powerful alien warlord who is single-minded in his desire to "bring balance to the universe", but I really kind of wished we had more, y'know? But at the same time, I do think it's neat to know his cause without his reasons. Maybe it's something we'll explore in future Guardians movies, or that Eternals project. Maybe it's something we'll never know. Regardless, they did the bulk of Thanos's character building in Infinity War, and in the beginning of Endgame, all Thanos is ends up basically being retired. Sure, the peaceful farmer life with the armour as a scarecrow is a neat visual homage to the original Infinity Gauntlet comic from way back in the 90's, but it does make sense that Thanos would just retire, considering he's not planning to rule the universe or whatever. He just wants to 'fix' what's broken with it from his own tunnel vision, and once the work was done, turns out that Thanos used the Infinity Stones to destroy the stones themselves, to both stop what he's done from being undone, and also to prevent temptation from changing the world even further. It's definitely something that someone who's so convinced of his own role as someone who has to fix the world would do, for sure. And after a brief nod of acknowledgement to Nebula, Thanos... gets killed by Thor. And it's something that I honestly am sure that 2018-era Thanos is prepared for. Someone's going to come and murder him, but in order to essentially force the world to just move on, he's willing to die as long as the work is done -- something that didn't disturb Thanos's temporal doppelganger when he saw it. It's something he expects will happen, and something he even accepts readily.

It's just really a shame, and I really wished the MCU as a whole had done a better job at building Thanos as a character over the past 20+ movies, because when 2014-era Thanos shows up and ends up becoming the primary antagonist, it feels like we're sort of getting a slightly less-interesting villain. I kinda wished we had seen a bit more of Thanos in the original Guardians of the Galaxy, to really contextualize what appears to be a bit of a character development between 2014-era Thanos and 2018-era Thanos.

2014-era Thanos ends up capturing the time-traveling Nebula, and ends up finding out that in the future, his plan ended up working out, and... and at the same time, there's also an attempt at reversing it thanks to the Avengers. And I do find it interesting -- if not properly explored -- how Thanos just goes immediately to "well, now I have to wipe the universe clean and remake it" after viewing the records of his fate in the original timeline. (I'm going to discuss the weird timeline stuff in a future article) It's also interesting to note that this Thanos ended up seemingly taking his dead future doppelganger's words to heart, praising 2014-era Nebula and earning her undying loyalty. Is that the lesson he's learned from viewing his original-timeline couterpart? That you cannot leave behind any sort of resentment, or they'll be turned against you? That seems to be what he's trying to bring upon the world at large, and in a smaller scale towards Past-Nebula. I just wish the movie devoted a couple extra lines to dissecting New!Thanos's motivations.

Thanos ends up time-traveling from 2014 to 2023 in the climax, and he just sort of monologues about his new master plan, and... and you could probably make an argument about power-scaling about how Thor and Thanos stack up, with and without Infinity Stones and backup, but I guess this is a Thanos that genuinely take things personally and isn't just detached about everything that's going on? That is admittedly a pretty badass speech of how he's going to take things personally with Earth, in contrast to Infinity War's Thanos, who is a lot more detached and sees the Avengers as more of a nuisance than an actual adversary. Throughout Infinity War, Thanos personally always fought seemingly to disable or dismissively take out his enemies and is tunnel-visioned on just getting the next stone and move on. In Endgame, Thanos is actively taking things personally and actually try-harding, which is why even without the stones he still manaegd to give such a splendid performance in battle.

Ultimately, Thanos ends up being the badass final boss for the good guys as a whole, and in that regard, he certainly was a spectacular one. It's just a shame that 2014-era Thanos is basically what the original Infinity War Thanos subverted, since 2014-era Thanos is sort of the generic space overlord that the original Thanos managed to twist into something far more interesting. It's a minor complaint, though, and even with power scaling discussions, he still manages to be such a horrifyingly powerful threat even without the Infinity Stones. Eventually he gets outwitted and killed by the snap, accepting his fate with a tired, defeated look.

From a spectacle and plot point, it's a very awesome end, but I really do feel that Thanos as a character wasn't served particularly well in this movie. The prime-timeline Thanos ended up being dispatched in a relatively decent (if abrupt) way, whereas the time-traveling Thanos honestly felt more of an afterthought and a boss we have to take down more than a properly complex character. It's just such a shame that this is essentially a Thanos without a lot of the history that he'd have. How much more epic if it was the original Thanos that was killed in Iron Man's snap, a Thanos with some personal attachment in viewing Tony Stark as a worthy opponent?

Overall... yeah, that's a bit of a longer article than I had intended this to be. We'll have a second part with the lesser characters (as well as Captain Marvel and Gamora, both of whom I had put here originally but cut out for length's sake) and some discussion about time travel and foreshadowing, and depending on the length of that, I may or may not split up the "Easter Eggs" segment.