Avengers

[seraya7]

So I've had a few thoughts, but mostly I've just worked through what makes the Hulk tick. Consider this an all-purpose Avengers discussion post; feel free to bring up other topics. This is just all I got right now because, as my icon indicates, I am tired. Also, I wrote it a bit dis-jointedly in between reading stuff online.

Comments

[seshathawk]

OMG that is soooooooooo interesting! Obviously my heart lies and always will lie with Tony Stark (because I like arrogant super-powered science nerd selfish badass jerks), but there isn't really much to discuss about him. I can't even really sum Tony Stark up in words. Except that he is really badass and also really selfish and I like both of those things. Selfish is interesting because then it's so cool to see where people draw the line

[seshathawk]

PS: In what was clearly a moment of concussion, I got Bring It On confused with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and maybe 13 Going on 30 (which I saw like a quarter of on cable once). Mark Ruffalo wasn't in Bring It On! That was Jesse Bradford, who also played Jesse on BTVS. Although he looks kind of like Mark Ruffalo, he looks more like Nicholas Brendan so...yeah.

[seraya7]

Okay, I don't have much actual response, but after having seen it again, I have concluded the following

[seraya7]

Oh, yes. 4. While Tony has all the most visible and elegant character development, I find that I also love the way Banner is portrayed, and how all this is presented and resolved within the movie, subtly. I texted about the "exposed, like a raw nerve" line (let's note that Tony is the only one with whom he was the closest to being comfortable discussing how his alter ego works), but it's in the acting and not just the dialogue: Banner is constantly turned inward on himself, folding his arms, fidgeting with his hands--as I remember it, like he's constantly uncomfortable or trying to make himself appear smaller/more mild-mannered or unconsciously restraining himself. But combine that with his sort of snarky tone of voice, and there's this air of... kind of tranquil annoyance/irritation? I don't know, maybe I was seeing it because I wanted to. And the first transformation we see, after the explosion on the carrier? When Black Widow looks over and he appears at first glance to be freaking out? It's really more like he's failing at

[seshathawk]

Unfortunately, I don't have much to say about Loki; to me, he just is, and he is hilarious. Then I saw The Avengers again (over a month ago) and wrote down a few thoughts about it, and yesterday couldn't find the paper so I typed them out instead, and here they are. They are on Tony and Bruce (duh, why would I write about anyone else?)

They both have a notice me/don't notice me vibe going, but kind of in opposite ways. To start with Bruce (who despite all his beautiful nuances is fairly straightforward): in almost every scene he's in, he tries to squeeze into the background, avoiding people's eyes, trying to be invisible. He doesn't want to be noticed. I think deep down he craves it, but he's been through so much with so many people that his desire to survive and/or keep the Hulk from getting out overwhelms every other desire/craving he might have.

I think what really appealed to me about Bruce in The Avengers as opposed to The Incredible Hulk was the rigid self-control. I realized yesterday (while reading due South fanfic) I have a

[seshathawk]

Despite having a somewhat repulsive personality (due to his towering arrogance), he gets people to like him by buying them drinks, inviting them to his parties, and generally playing around with them. People go in and out of phases of like and dislike with him (case in point: the reporter from the first movie who slept with him--although she may have done so not out of real attraction to him but out of a wish to get a real story out of him--and also Rhodes in the first movie, who genuinely cares about Tony and yet has to put up with all of Tony's shit constantly) but he very casually spends all his time winning people over

[seshathawk]

More evidence, and what really brought this to light for me: B) in The Avengers when he is carting that bomb off to the sky and it's just him and the suit and the bomb and the AI of Jarvis, Jarvis asks him, "Shall I get Ms. Potts on the line?" And Tony says, after a long pause, "Might as well." It isn't in Tony's nature to be gushy about anything, but in that moment, when no one can hear him but the AI (this is an assumption; maybe I'm wrong and he's still patched in to the team), he still tries to pretend he really doesn't care that much about Pepper, that it's not that important to him to talk to her. (And of course he doesn't get through to her--what a JOSS thing to happen.) I mean, there are any number of reasons behind this--maybe it's not about him but about her, maybe he's trying to protect her, or maybe he's pretending not to care because he doesn't really want to admit out loud that he probably won't be coming back and this is his last chance to talk to Pepper

[seraya7]

This, just all of this, 100%. I can't think of responses to most of it because you nailed it.

One thing though--I think that sometimes Tony is also trying to protect the people around him, because sometimes he is a human train wreck and he is aware of that sometimes. So sometimes, just like Bruce, he pushes people away because he actually does care about them. To be fair though, I may have gotten this entire characterization from that fanfic I read, which was post-Civil War and post-alcoholism problems and things.

Some day I will have more and better Avengers thoughts.