So this has been an idea rattling around in my head for a while, but I didn’t exactly know how to write about it, but I think Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 are drawing on some major chess metaphors.
The first hint of this is in Age of Ultron. Near the end, Thor says this:
“The Mind Stone is the fourth of the Infinity Stones to show up in the last few years. That’s not a coincidence. Someone has been playing an intricate game and has made pawns of us. But once all these pieces are in position…”
My suspicion is that this is a game between Thanos and Tony. They’re the two Kings.
Why? They’ve been referred to as the “big two.” Their conflict was the longest one in Avengers: Infinity War. The two are parallels to one another. They have an “existential connection” (per Joe Russo). They have discordant color schemes (Thanos is blue/purple, Tony is red/gold). And, what’s more, a great cost was paid to keep Tony in the game.
In chess, the king (♔,♚) is the most important piece. The object of the game is to threaten the opponent’s king in such a way that escape is not possible (checkmate). If a player’s king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate, resulting in a loss for that player. Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until a later phase, the endgame. Players cannot make any move that places their own king in check.
When Tony’s life was directly threatened (aka he was put in “check”), Strange (a player on Tony’s side) sacrificed not only himself, but several other players to keep Tony in the game.
When Tony asked why Strange did this, Strange replied, “We’re in the endgame now.”
“Endgame” is a term used to label the late stage of the game where there’s fewer pieces on the board (post-snap); and the King becomes far more powerful.
Okoye lost T’Challa twice. Yes, I’m saying twice because she doesn’t know that he survived yet in the first gif. Look at the first time and compare it to the second. She has composure during the Warrior Falls fight but completely loses it when T’Challa turns into ash. She lost her king twice. And no one is talking about it.
can we take a moment to compare these two scenes with each other?
the first one, in cacw, bucky lies there peacefully, like sleeping beauty. he consented to going back under, trusts the person out side and he’s hugged by white fog with warm light surrounding him and his glass container.
the second scene, in tws, is the exact opposite. bucky is scared, confused and he is reaching out, probably for help or answers. he is in distress, not calm and peaceful as he is in cacw. furthermore view is limited by a small bullseye, everything else is covered in metal. he can’t see the people’s faces out there and in the movie it was previously obvious, bucky didn’t trust these men.
but let’s keep focusing on his mimic.
in the first gif, his eyes are closed and he is relaxed. he has some bruises from his last fight, but other than that he seems fine. he knows what’s coming, prepares himself and gets to in- and exhale a deep breath before he gets frozen.
now back to the hydra scene. look at his face, his brows are furrowed in slight confusion, he doesn’t know what’s to come. his eyes slightly widen, he opens his mouth shortly before he gets frozen. in a matter of a second, or two. his head involuntary falls back, his breath most likely caught somewhere in his lungs on its way out. faster than he can probably comprehend what’s happening he is stone cold and shares more similarities with a white walker/ the face of literal death than a human, looks-wise.
this is the same man, going through the same procedure and yet they both are a totally different experience to watch. mostly because on the left, he has made a choice and does what he believes is best for himself.
on the right, a choice has been made for him and what happens to him is what hydra believes is best for themselves.
“We don’t trade lives”– Captain Steven Grant Rogers
That’s the thing about him. After Civil War, a lot of people argued that Steve’s actions were selfish because he acted simply out of love for his best friend rather than doing what’s right and honestly now? When someone says something like this I wonder if they know Steven Grant Rogers at all because let me tell you, he would do the same for a complete stranger who was in a tough spot and needed his help. I mean, Vision even fought against him in Civil War, and look at him.
I would actually propose that Steve’s decisions are always based on what he believes is right—even if it means standing up against the very people he loves.
I keep seeing people argue that he’s blindingly selfish when it comes to Bucky; people also seem to conveniently forget that henearly died fighting against Bucky during Winter Soldier, because even his love for Bucky couldn’t stand in the way of saving millions of lives and keeping HYDRA from taking over the world.
What’s amazing and admirable about Steve is that he somehow manages to balance his beliefs about what is right with his unconditional loyalty to all of his friends. It’s especially apparent in Civil War:
He didn’t shy away from sharing or even completely owning up to the blame for what happened in Lagos, refusing to let Wanda carry that burden on herself.
After hearing about the UN bombing, his first instinct was to call Natashato ask if she’s okay, because he didn’t take it against her that she took Tony’s side. He respected her decision and just wanted to see if she was okay.
He took Bucky’s side this time instead of fighting him not because he was his best friend—although of course that’s part of the consideration—but because Bucky just revealed that there were five more Winter Soldiers just like him, and Steve’s initial understanding of what Zemo meant by toppling an empire was taking control of these Winter Soldiers to take down a country, and that is what he couldn’t allow to happen. He didn’t even stop to consider what country it was, because his loyalty wasn’t confined to just America; he just knew that he couldn’t let any country fall if he could help it.
He owned up responsibility to what happened to his friends when Secretary Ross incarcerated them, and took the risk of breaking them out, because he could never leave behind his friends, especially not Sam, who had been completely supportive of him despite voicing his own apprehensions; but also Scott, whom he was open to about the risks from the very beginning; Clint, whom he knew had a family to protect; and Wanda.
And most of all, he owned up to the blame on the pain he caused Tony, apologised to him while respecting Tony’s anger at him—even giving back his shield when Tony asked him to, despite his shield being such a integral part of who he is, the way Mjolnir was to Thor—and willingly gave Tony the space and time away that he needed; but also—and this is the most important part—promising Tony that no matter what happened between them, no matter what will happen between them, no matter what Tony feels towards him, he will always be there for Tony. He gave Tony that phone because he wanted to give Tony the choice to contact him, wanted to let Tony have that initiative, and he wouldn’t impose himself on Tony if Tony didn’t want him to. He respected Tony’s choice to cut him off, but—this should be stressed—he made it clear that he wasn’t cutting Tony off from his life.
And on a related matter, it should also be noted that the Steve Rogers of Civil War is also the Steve Rogers who had been betrayed by both SHIELD and HYDRA in Winter Soldier, who found out that the very organization he was working for was in fact using him covertly in their mission to take over the world.
This is why he said:
“[The Sokovia Accords] just shifts the blame. [Organizations] are run by people with agendas, and agendas change. If we sign this, we surrender our right to choose. What if this panel sends us somewhere we don’t think we should go? What if there’s somewhere we need to go and they won’t let us?”
It’s simply because he doesn’t want any of his friends to be betrayed by the government the way it happened to him; which is exactly what happened by the end of the movie anyway. The point I’m trying to make is not that he’s right—the politics here is tricky and there’s no one way to do it right—but simply that he didn’t make his point out of selfish reasons and he sure as hell didn’t do it just for Bucky; he did it because he wanted to protect his friends from the agendas of organizations who might end up using them like they did to him.
And most of all, he didn’t want to undermine the safety of anyone or any country just because of the ever-changing politics and agendas of people.
Fast forward to Infinity War, and people are criticizing his choice to save Vision instead of destroying the Mind Stone immediately (and killing Vision in the process). Barring the fact that I find it highly disturbing that people are even suggesting murdering a friend(yes, I consider Vision as someone with life—but that’s a whole other issue that I’m willing to discuss another time), I also want to point out that Vision can also be considered as Tony’s son, in a much truer way than even Peter Parker.
Bruce even said it directly: there is so much of himself and Tony in Vision, making them more like family—especially because there is so much of JARVIS and Ultron in Vision, both of whom are alsoTony’s creations. In choosing to protect Vision, Steve in essence did the best he could to protect not only a friend and comrade, not only the person Wanda loves, but also Tony’s son, when Tony couldn’t be there to protect Vision himself, regardless of whether or not Tony has already forgiven Steve.
Steve did his very best to do the right thing for Vision, for Wanda, for Tony, because he unconditionally loves them all, regardless of how they felt about him.
And that moment in the Avengers compound when Steve was watching Wanda’s face crumple when Vision himself was suggesting that he should sacrifice himself, that moment was incredibly poignant too; because seeing the empathy flicker across Steve’s face, he must have been reminded of his own missed chance of a love and life with Peggy, and he didn’t want Wanda to experience that—precisely because he knew what the heartbreak felt like.
“We don’t trade lives,” Steve declared. And to the very best of his ability, he would always, always mean all of them.
Anthony Russo: Look at those character arms… Joe Russo: We were focusing so hard on his character there.
‘Captain America: Civil War’ Audio Commentary
I just want to point out the irony here—that as gratuitous as this scene is, it actually is character development. You can tell from the way Steve’s straining that he’s at his breaking point. He’s a super soldier, but there are limits to his strength and he’s teetering on the edge. Despite that, we one hundred percent believe Steve is willing to let himself get ripped in half here rather than let that helicopter go.
Why? When we all saw this scene in the first Civil War trailer, the Russos said Steve was fighting for a passionate reason. There’s only one person Steve would be fighting this hard for—Bucky. No one had any doubt. Seventy-some years ago, Steve failed to hold on to Bucky and it ruined them both. He’s not going to let him go again, and we see that internal struggle manifested here physically.
The interesting thing is—as heroically as this shot is framed—we can see this as valor or sheer, stubborn idiocy. After all, Steve is fighting a helicopter for Bucky and “Bucky,” brainwashed, just threw Steve down an elevator shaft and tried to kill most of his friends. The Bucky Steve is hanging on to here may or may not be the Bucky he actually wants to save. But Steve is taking a chance, risking it all on the belief that his friend is in there somewhere and if he can just hang on long enough, then they’ll both get through this.
It may be incidental, but the glowing lens flare here draws particular attention to Steve’s chest—assuming you’re not too entranced with his arms—and emphasizes where the core of the matter lies. Steve is being pulled in two directions and his heart is at the center of the conflict. If he’s smart and wants to save himself, it’s as easy as letting go (one hand or the other). But he’s Steve and this is Bucky and, no, he’s not going to let go.
age of ultron is The Worst Movie Ever Made in many respects but steve’s nightmare scene is really well done and like…i hate how people misinterpret it as steve not wanting to live in a world without war cus if you like…watch it it’s about him being afraid that he doesn’t know how to exist outside of fighting/being cap because since coming out of the ice it’s all that’s been expected of him which really fits in well with how lost he is in winter soldier (”what makes you happy?” “i don’t know”). also the PTSD stuff is really well done and Chris acts it so well like he’s literally jumping and dodging out of the way at camera flashes and it’s just…idk it’s one of the movie’s few saving graces
I know it’s like no you dumb idiots, he doesn’t love fighting, he’s afraid he has no place in the world except for the fighting. Ultron is the bad guy, just because he says something, doesn’t make it true. The fact that they can’t tell the PTSD stuff is beyond me, I mean he’s jumping at flashbulbs, he’s seeing spilled wine and it’s reminding him of blood and gunshot wounds. It’s classic PTSD, it’s like the woman in Sam’s support group in The Winter Soldier, who talked about mistaking a plastic bag blowing into the street while she was driving for an IED.
EXACTLY.
We see him in CA:TWS trying to figure things out, does Steve Rogers still exist when everyone (until Sam Wilson) just sees Captain America?, how exactly does Steve Rogers fit into the 21st century?, then BAM! Project Insight, taking down Hydra, finding Bucky, no time to be Steve Rogers. And AOU finds him feeling like he missed his chance (“the world’s expert in waiting too long”) and resigning himself to being Captain America forever even though that was never his plan.
And then we have Civil War:
He’s done. Not with the fight, but with the fact that Captain America has become something that Steve Rogers is not. Somehow, Captain America became the image of the perfect soldier, and even Steve’s teammates can’t see him for himself instead of an image the world constructed of what is Captain America.
Steve Rogers is not a perfect soldier, but a good man. When he drops the shield, he is taking a stand. Steve Rogers can no longer be Captain America in the 21st century if Captain America no longer stands for what Steve Rogers does.
And this is why Steve Rogers is not a flat character like so many people think, but I digress.
Listening to the Captain America theme and the Winter Soldier theme I’ve noticed that Steve’s Theme is more melodic and instrumentental and Bucky’s theme is very electronical and sounds like just a bunch of machine noices but in the end of Steve’s Theme you can hear Machines like in Bucky’s and in the end of Bucky’s theme you can hear a Piano like in Steve’s. Henry Jackman truly worked the “I’m with you ‘till the end of the line” into the soundtrack and I don’t know whether to hate or love him for that.
“The outfit Shuri is wearing in this scene features an Adinkra symbol (cultural visual symbols from the Asante/Ghana region of Africa) on it. This Adinkra symbol means ‘purpose,’ and she certainly has a purpose in Wakanda.”
the1timetraveller 