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Spoilers Marvel Cinematic Universe spoiler-heavy speculation thread

What grade would you give the Marvel Cinematic Universe? (Ever-Changing Question)


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    185
Sure, but you'd be the first one to say something if the check box wasn't ticked.

Yes, because it's not even remotely symmetrical. There's already a profound overabundance of stories from a white perspective and a profound overabundance of opportunities for white and male creators. And that means everyone else has been excluded for a long, long time. Taking away the barriers that have kept everyone else from participating is a good thing, and white males have no business complaining about it, because we still have plenty of other opportunities. We are not being oppressed just because other people are finally getting a fair shot too. We haven't lost anything; rather, other people have gained something that we still have too. It's not a zero-sum game, because it means there's a larger number of talented people being allowed to play it. It's like the saying goes: "When you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a higher fence."

And it's not a goddamn "check box." It's simple, everyday common sense that if you want to make a story about a Pakistani-American Muslim superhero, it's a good thing if you can find creators who understand that perspective. There is no reason to paint that as some kind of a negative.


I'm not crazy that each and every single time it's not the case that it's attacked not because of the actual qualifications, skill or interest of the people involved but because the check box wasn't ticked.

That is a contradictory and illogical thing to say. How is it not a matter of qualifications to pick someone whose cultural background gives them a better insight into the characters and story? Good grief, the one rule of writing that everyone knows is "write what you know." Personal experience with a subject is a qualification for telling a story about it. How is that not immediately obvious?

And the ugly aspect of phrasing it that way is that it implicitly assumes that any nonwhite person chosen for a job is automatically less qualified or skillful than the white person who didn't get the job. The truth is the reverse -- that countless qualified and skilled filmmakers used to be shut out because they weren't white or male, and now they're finally getting a fair shot at the jobs they are equally qualified for, if not more qualified based on life experience.
 
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And the ugly aspect of phrasing it that way is that it implicitly assumes that any nonwhite person chosen for a job is automatically less qualified or skillful than the white person who didn't get the job. The truth is the reverse -- that countless qualified and skilled filmmakers used to be shut out because they weren't white or male, and now they're finally getting a fair shot at the jobs they are equally qualified for, if not more qualified based on life experience.

I never said it wasn't a factor but I could take the same tactic and read it as if you're saying as if it is the only factor. Everyone is interchangeable so all that matters *is* their life experience.

When I say checkbox I am thinking of those times when some people's opinion comes purely from googling the background of the person behind the scenes and making judgment. And yes, that does happen. I already said that wasn't the case here.

I don't want to take this thread any more off topic so the last word is yours if you want it.
 
I never said it wasn't a factor but I could take the same tactic and read it as if you're saying as if it is the only factor. Everyone is interchangeable so all that matters *is* their life experience.

Obviously everyone is not interchangeable. That's not what equality means. It means that everyone is different, but everyone gets an equal chance to use their different skills and knowledge in a meaningful way, rather than being deprived of the chance in the first place. The only people imposing quotas and checking boxes are the ones who've been keeping so many categories of people out of the running for so long. Now that the barriers they put up are being torn down at last, they're pretending that it's the opposite, that it's the erection of barriers against them. Which is hypocritical, twisted, and self-serving.


When I say checkbox I am thinking of those times when some people's opinion comes purely from googling the background of the person behind the scenes and making judgment. And yes, that does happen. I already said that wasn't the case here.

Then you shouldn't have insinuated that it was in the first place.
 
They could have various size She-Hulks depending on how angry or in control she was, ranging from just the actress but green, the actress larger using forced perspective tricks, an even larger stand-in coupled with the actress for close up face shots, and finally fully a CG "Hulked out" transformation.

Three quarters of those wouldn't be expensive.
 
an even larger stand-in coupled with the actress for close up face shots

In that case, they'd probably matte Maslany's face onto her double's head, as they did routinely with Maslany and her Orphan Black double Kathryn Alexandre when two Leda clones had to interact physically, or as Captain America did with Chris Evans and his "Skinny Steve" double Leander Deeny.
 
In that case, they'd probably matte Maslany's face onto her double's head, as they did routinely with Maslany and her Orphan Black double Kathryn Alexandre when two Leda clones had to interact physically, or as Captain America did with Chris Evans and his "Skinny Steve" double Leander Deeny.
Seems likely.

It would allow them to economise and bank some budget for later in the show too, when they could go all out.
 
I never said it wasn't a factor but I could take the same tactic and read it as if you're saying as if it is the only factor. Everyone is interchangeable so all that matters *is* their life experience.

That's not really true. It is about equability not equality--how many talented people have never had the opportunity to build life experience that is acceptable in a traditionally white male dominated industry. The idea behind the Oscar's new diversity initiatives is to provide a greater range of people an opportunity to be employed in the industry with the goal that, over time, those who used to be excluded can develop their experience and talent.
 
Okay, I found some trades of the Dan Slott She-Hulk run on the Hoopla online library, and it definitely seems like a more plausible model for the show to be based on than the John Byrne run that was my previous main exposure to the character. For one thing, the premise is that the law firm that hires Jen wants her to avoid being She-Hulk at the office, so she spends a lot of time un-Hulked. And it manages a lot of self-referential Marvel Universe humor without breaking the fourth wall. (I just finished the issue where she helps Spider-Man sue J. Jonah Jameson for libel.) Plus the emphasis on her work at the law firm is a good model for an "office"-format TV series. It's sort of like what WB's Powerless sitcom tried to do, examining what life in a superhero universe is like from the perspective of employees at a business, except with more of a lawyer-show angle.

Meanwhile, Slott agrees with Byrne that She-Hulk is seven feet tall. So I wonder why the Marvel Database has her down as 6'7". But then, there doesn't seem to be a lot of consistency with character heights in the artwork. Byrne drew Shulkie as a head taller than The Thing, but Juan Bobillo has it the other way around.
 
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