Honestly that's probably why I like it so much too. It manages to be optimistic (except for Amazons but it has Mamorou so I forgive it), genuine and... real? IDK, my thoughts are pretty scattered on this kinda stuff.

That's good to hear! It sounds like you had a completely successful day: no wasted effort, and no unused effort.

Well I already lost the podcast job.

...oh.

Man that sucks. I really hope your luck turns around soon.

Thanks I hope so too. The guy turned out to be full of shit. But I'll find something else.

I have a feeling that one day the MCU might be nigh-unwatchable.

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely among the best of superhero culture recently, but Phase 1 took like 10 years. Unless they allow Phase 2 to be watchable without needing to watch Phase 1, which could happen but with all the references to previous films I'm just not so sure how newcomers in the future will be able to handle it.

They made a massively successful Spider-Man movie (Homecoming) that never bothered to tell you Spider-Man's defining origin moments because everyone in the world already knows them. These characters and franchises are so ingrained in the pop culture that making references to past movies is largely unnecessary. I don't think they'll be doing a ton of looking backwards for the next phase of films, especially with newer franchises like The Eternals and Shang-Chi.

Just, like, anecdotally, my mom saw Guardians 2 without seeing the first one and loved it. She had a great time on just a pure entertainment level, which is something that it's easy to forget about with all of the 101 Easter Eggs videos on YouTube. These movies work great on their own!

Thanks Die, how are you holding up?

Well that sucks a lot, hope you can find more work soon.

I kind of agree with this, but also die has a point. What I'm looking forward to is the abridged version that will probably come out at some point.

Holding up good! Had to run errands for work today, but they all got done. Found an Earthrise Snapdragon at a Walmart while I was running those errands. (Being your own boss means you can do personal errands while doing work errands!) Had a box of stuff from BBTS show up that I'm just about to open. Watched a great episode of Hibiki that I just wrote up. Going to the Shedd Aquarium with a friend tomorrow. Doing pretty good!

I'd argue it's already unwatchable. It's already 20+ movies in with only a handful of solidly decent films. None of them are anything close to a Citizens Kane level of quality. Which I don't expect them to be but they could at least try once in awhile. Plus they couldn't stay away from propaganda, with Captain Marvel being perhaps the worst film in the franchise with an incredibly unlikable and highly politicized protagonist. But it goes deeper than that. The Thor films has Idris Elba playing the Norse God Heimdall, a fair skinned divine being of Asgard said in the Poetic Edda to have literally fathered the Nordic race and the direct link of ethnic Asatruar practitioners and Western Europeans as a whole to Odin the All-Father. Obviously intentional and clearly offensive (think about the outrage if an African deity was played by an Asian or European actor). I cannot watch Thor films anymore for that reason, even Ragnarok, which I did enjoy. I do not appreciate my heritage being diminished to half assed entertainment and subverted to have non-Nordic people play Norse Gods. I wasn't a fan of the comics doing it and I definitely am not a fan of the films doing it as well. Which I got to admire a film like Black Panther but at the same time be a bit envious of it too as Marvel can put all the time an attention to a fictitious African tale (as in not a legitimate African folk tale but loosely based on African folk tales) in having a nearly complete black cast, but they cannot afford the same respect to Nordic folk stories by having only Nordic actors play Norse Gods. Don't even get me started on Valkyrie. I hate these kinds of double standards and the hard push of certain topics for a desperate attempt to be "with it" in the current cultural climate.