{"id":3989,"date":"2019-05-07T13:02:21","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T19:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/?p=3989"},"modified":"2019-05-07T13:02:21","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T19:02:21","slug":"endgame-is-all-about-colossal-failure-and-second-chances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/watchinggod\/2019\/05\/endgame-is-all-about-colossal-failure-and-second-chances\/","title":{"rendered":"Endgame is All About Colossal Failure\u2014and Second Chances"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
Robert Downey Jr. in Avengers: Endgame, photo courtesy Disney\/Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The dust is settling, the ash has blown away. And, inescapably, the internet is roaring with people praising<\/a> and picking apart<\/a> Avengers: Endgame<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I thought Endgame<\/em> was eminently satisfying. It closed the book on a marvelous (Marvel-ous?) 22-movie story arc (even as it set the table for others). And while it was about Thanos and Captain America and the Infinity Gauntlet and the Snap and what might\u2019ve been the end of the world, Endgame\u2019<\/em>s really about second chances. It\u2019s about redemption.<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s what the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe was about, too. (Caution: Many, many MANY spoilers ahead<\/strong>.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chris Hemsworth from Avengers: Endgame, photo courtesy Disney\/Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You wouldn\u2019t think that a bunch of heroes and demigods would need second chances or salvation. Who\u2019d throw, say, Thor on a scrap heap? Why would the blond God of Thunder be in need of a little mercy? In the universe\u2019s cosmic lottery, Thor was a Powerball winner, gifted with almost everything imaginable.<\/p>\n

But when we first meet him, he\u2019s playing Fortnite<\/em> with his old pals from Thor: Ragnarok<\/a><\/em>. The Norse demigod is flabby and drunk and cursing about how he prepubescent online opponent keeps calling him names. Rocket says he looks like melted ice cream<\/p>\n

He\u2019s no hero: He\u2019s a clown. Only reluctantly does he agree to help his old Avengers pals. And when he tries to slip back into the hero mold again, he can\u2019t. Thor\u2014mighty, fearless Thor who when we first meet him is attacking a whole planet filled with frost giants\u2014has an attack of his own. A panic attack.<\/p>\n

It takes a little pep-talk from Mom to cheer him up.<\/p>\n

When he and his mates zap themselves into the past to undo their dark, Thanos-filled future, Thor runs into his mother Frigga, who technically died in Thor: The Dark World<\/em>. She looks him over and sees the changes in him. \u201cThe future has not been kind to you, has it?\u201d<\/p>\n

It has not. And, given this unexpected gift of time with his mother, he pours out his misery. How he feels like he failed in the first fight against Thanos. How he tried to find some measure of peace by killing the titan later, only to find that the death was completely empty of meaning. \u201cI was just standing there,\u201d he says. \u201cSome idiot with an axe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIdiot? No,\u201d Frigga tells him. \u201cA failure? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSeems a little harsh,\u201d Thor says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you know what that makes you? Like everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

That theme of failure is, in some ways, the thread that runs through the whole MCU\u2014a more consistent presence than even the Infinity Stones.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Mark Ruffalo from Avengers: Endgame, photo courtesy Disney\/Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We see that theme of failure from the moment Tony Stark crawls out of that cave in 2008 to become Iron Man. His newfound status as a superhero is a quest for redemption.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction,\u201d he tells his then assistant, Pepper Potts. \u201cNow that I\u2019m trying to protect the people I\u2019ve put in harm\u2019s way, you\u2019re going to walk out?<\/p>\n

\u201cI shouldn\u2019t be alive,\u201d he adds, \u201cunless it was for a reason. I\u2019m not crazy, Pepper. I just finally know what I have to do. And I know in my heart that it\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stark was given a second chance. He was, in a sense, born again\u2014dying to his old life and finding new purpose. Same with Steve Rogers when he went from scrawny weakling to U.S. super soldier. Or Captain Marvel when she came to grips with who the Kree made her and took a different path. Or Nebula, Thanos\u2019 cyborg daughter whose story arc may be the most powerful and poignant second chance of them all. We can look at each superhero\u2019s journey and find the failure they feel\u2014and the chance at redemption they\u2019re given. Each has been reclaimed. Remade. Reborn.<\/p>\n

In Endgame<\/em>, we see that arc of rebirth especially boldly in Bruce Banner. For years, he struggled with the useful green monster inside of him. And when Bruce needed Hulk the most, the big guy refused to come out\u2014afraid of the bigger guy; broken by Thanos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was worst for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI lost twice. First Hulk lost. Then Banner lost. Then we all lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, we hear about failure\u2014the angsty shame that Bruce feels for Thanos\u2019 Infinity War<\/a><\/em> victory. (\u201cNo one blamed you,\u201d Natasha Romanoff tells him; \u201cI did,\u201d Bruce says.) But that failure led to another reclamation of sorts\u2014the blending of Bruce and Hulk into one unified person that doesn\u2019t cause quite so many ripped shirts.<\/p>\n

But if Bruce\/Hulk\u2019s second chance is the most obvious, the most poignant features Natasha (Black Widow) and Clint Barton (Hawkeye).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner in Avengers: Endgame, photo courtesy Disney\/Marvel <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vets of the MCU series know that Natasha was once a ruthless Soviet assassin who was apparently turned by Clint some time before the original Iron Man. The two became fast friends despite Natasha\u2019s bloody past, and Black Widow is always trying to make up for her past sins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got red in my ledger,\u201d she admits in The Avengers<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019d like to wipe it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

By Endgame<\/em>, the script has been flipped\u00ad in a big, bad way. Clint, who lost his family to the events in Infinity War<\/em>, has become the despicably lethal Ronin\u2014a blade-wielding freelancer who leaves behind a mangled mess of bodies in his wake. He\u2019s failed too, morphing from a do-gooding husband and father to a near nihilistic vigilante, one closer to villain than hero. His work\u2019s turned so bloody that James \u201cWar Machine\u201d Rhodes admits that part of him doesn\u2019t even want to find him again.<\/p>\n

But Natasha does<\/em> find him, and she brings him back to the Avengers\u2014both physically and, in part, spiritually. It\u2019s fitting that, when the Avengers split up to reclaim those pesky Infinity Stones, Natasha and Clint are paired up again, \u201cjust like Bucharest,\u201d Clint jokes. They must pocket the Soul Stone.<\/p>\n

They soon discover that the stone, unlike all the rest, demands a sacrifice: To earn it, the claimant must lose what he or she loves.<\/p>\n

Clint and Natasha argue at the edge of an extraterrestrial cliff as to who will make the ultimate sacrifice. Clint says it\u2019s only fitting that it should be him. \u201cNatasha, you know what I\u2019ve done. You know what I\u2019ve become.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I don\u2019t judge people on their worst mistakes,\u201d Natasha tells him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe you should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Natasha looks at him. \u201cYou<\/em> didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second chances. Years before, Clint gave Natasha a second chance\u2014one that she admits changed her life for the better. And, in a gut-wrenching struggle at that cliff, Natasha gives Clint his own second chance. A chance at redemption.<\/p>\n

Clint\u2014always the Avengers\u2019 everyman\u2014could be any of us in that moment on the cliff, standing at the MCU\u2019s version of the pearly gates. You know what I\u2019ve done. You know what I\u2019ve become<\/em>. We\u2019ve failed and we know it. We\u2019re racked by guilt and shame. But, because of a selfless sacrifice, we\u2019re given a second chance. And a third. And a 14 millionth. We can be reborn.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the only ultimate sacrifice we see in Endgame<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
From Avengers: Endgame, photo courtesy Disney\/Marvel<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the MCU\u2019s litany of imperfect heroes, Tony Stark is perhaps the most imperfect and, in his own billionaire-genius-playboy way, the most human. The film series is festooned with his hubris and littered with his failures. And in the wake of Infinity War<\/em>, he\u2014like every other Avenger\u2014blames himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t stop him,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither could I,\u201d Steve Rogers tells him.<\/p>\n

But unlike Clint, who lost everything to the Infinity War<\/em> Snap, Tony kept what he loved, and even grew it. He has a family now. \u201cWe got really lucky,\u201d his wife, Pepper, tells him. Can you blame him for wanting to protect what he has? Who among us wouldn\u2019t? When it looks like the Snap might be reversible, Tony initially refuses to sign up. And when he does, it\u2019s under the stipulation that he won\u2019t lose what he has.<\/p>\n

Which means, of course, he has to lose it, and lose it willingly. When Doctor Strange holds up his one finger, Tony knows what he has to do.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Stark is the least Christ-like guy on the Avengers team. But his ultimate sacrifice is an echo of Good Friday: \u201cFor even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many,\u201d we read in Mark 10:45.<\/p>\n

I shouldn\u2019t be alive unless it\u2019s for a reason<\/em>, Tony said. That reason became his life, and he made good on his second chance until the very end.<\/p>\n

May we all be able to say the same.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dust is settling, the ash has blown away. And, inescapably, the internet is roaring with people praising and picking apart Avengers: Endgame. I thought Endgame was eminently satisfying. It closed the book on a marvelous (Marvel-ous?) 22-movie story arc (even as it set the table for others). And while it was about Thanos and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2036,"featured_media":4004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,3,10],"tags":[165,806,48,12,332],"class_list":["post-3989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-choice","category-movies","category-superheroes","tag-avengers","tag-avengers-endgame","tag-hope","tag-marvel","tag-superheroes"],"yoast_head":"\nEndgame is All About Colossal Failure\u2014and Second Chances<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We can look at each superhero\u2019s journey and find the failure they feel\u2014and the chance at redemption they\u2019re given. 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