2d ago

Disney sells us imaginary heroes while supporting real world villains.

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Wakanda is a monarchist enthnostate that tortures outsiders and even shows outright hostility to those helping them. Their leadership is determined by the most violent among them. And this society is presented a utopia.
I fucking hate these movies.
- I tried watching the animated show recently, and its basically Wakanda throughout history stealing vibranium from other civilisations because they feel entitled to complete control over the element, usually with large amounts of colateral damage and theft of deeply important cultural artifacts in the process. I assume there's some alegory I'm missing but they just come off as assholes.
  
  Are they bad guys in that?
  
  The framing suggests they're meant to be the good guys?
  
  Nah, they're morally grey/bad in Eyes of Wakanda. The point of the show is to explore how messed up their isolationism was. That's why the last episode is about ::: spoiler spoiler a time Traveller making sure that Killmonger spurs T'challa to finally end their isolationist policy so they don't doom themselves and the world. :::
- The country is threatened by a villainous black liberation agitator and saved with the help of the CIA.
  They might as well have had Abdel Fattah El-Sisi play the lead role.
  
  Don't need to jump all the way to Wakanda. Thanos is an eco terrorist. Ultron is a peace activist. Magneto is patterned after Malcolm X.
  The Marvel universe is the story of how a billionaire arms dealer and the US military save the world from deranged leftists. Disney heroes always fight for the status quo and the villains want to make things better (but also they're written to be crazy and violent). It's a billion dollar "I drew you as Soyjak and me as the chad" franchise.
  Walt Disney was a major force behind the Red Scare in Hollywood, turning in his own animators for unionizing, and they've been terrible ever since.
  
  Thanos is an eco terrorist. Ultron is a peace activist. Magneto is patterned after Malcolm X.
  So much of this is modern to the MCU as well. What gets me about X-Men is how much racial profiling, ethic ghettos, and a hyper-militant police force played a roll in the original comic books (and 90s cartoon). Modem iterations boiled all that away and just made Magneto some angry asshole [survived the Holocaust].
  I will say... Magneto as a Zionist worked disturbingly well. But they'll never do that arc under the Disney brand.

156 comments