What If…1x05: What If Zombies
Nov. 3rd, 2021 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jedi_of_urth posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tori_reviewsWhat If…1x05: What If Zombies
That one was…a lot. There are some good moments, but they have no room to breathe. It’s a dumb concept and the characters make a lot of dumb decisions, but it’s not necessarily badly written. There is kind of a feel of this just being ridiculous and wanting to do a zombie story with Marvel characters. I don’t like it exactly, but it’s fine fanfic.
I suppose it's not quite right to say that this story has no room to breathe, as it does have some fine character scenes sprinkled in it, but it does sort of pick weird ones to focus on. Like, I liked Peter’s speech about hope and all that; but I also would have expected there to be more weight put on Bucky and Steve’s fight, in particular Bucky taking up the shield. And none of them really feel like they’re grieving or overwhelmed…or really feeling anything. I was partially willing to go with it in an idea that this isn’t day one of the zombie apocalypse where they don’t know what’s going on and they’re presently watching people they care about die; on the other hand this seems pretty new (with it only being a couple of weeks) for them to be this relaxed about it.
It’s also the wrong time for them to be this dumb about how they approach things. Why does Bruce forget about Thanos as soon as he’s on Earth? Why hasn’t Okoye adapted her approach to combat to account for the kind of battles they’re fighting? Why aren’t they all more stressed about her not having very good plans for zombie fighting? They have to have been losing people for days, it seems like there ought to be some inner-squad conflict over how things are happening.
My brain almost can’t come up with anything to say about this one, which is a shame after I had so many things to say on the last one that’s pretty sure I forgot at least as much as I put in. I guess this one was just so solidly positioned at ‘okay from a certain point of view’ that I don’t have a lot to comment on.
But I do want to make a comment about how this is another episode that decides to show some of the characters as really emotionally unstable. Which is weird when I spent so much of the story with characters underreacting to everything; but why is Vision being an idiot? The mission of this show is starting to seem like we’re supposed to think regular-Wanda isn’t so bad, anyone could have done something that messed up if they lost someone they love. But if that’s true, why isn’t Scott doing stupid stuff in the end? Also, why a Futurama head in a jar setup? I found it too weird to buy.
But just because the MCU seems to think people go crazy when people they love die…I don’t love that as a consistent trait for them to share. So I’m not letting Strange last ep off the hook; I’m not letting Vision here off the hook; I’m not letting regular-Wanda off the hook; and I’m not letting fuck you Steve off the hook either. I can think they’re all wrong.
That said, my brain seems to like the idea of seeing if there’s a way to combine what happens here with AoS s5. Like maybe they have to quake the world apart to stop the zombies. I don’t have interest to write it, but I’d be curious.
I’m am however really bothered by the fact that the don’t take Hope out of the damn suit after she’s infected. These people have seen how bad it goes when super-powered people join the zombie horde, so maybe don’t put Hope on the other side with all the tech. Put Peter in the suit if he’s the only one left that will fit (assuming it can’t shift sizes a little), or Hope should have self-destructed the suit once she’d gotten the others past the horde. Just don’t be so dumb guys. Or if the writers think they should be this dumb, give me more reason why they’re making those kind of mistakes.
That one was…a lot. There are some good moments, but they have no room to breathe. It’s a dumb concept and the characters make a lot of dumb decisions, but it’s not necessarily badly written. There is kind of a feel of this just being ridiculous and wanting to do a zombie story with Marvel characters. I don’t like it exactly, but it’s fine fanfic.
I suppose it's not quite right to say that this story has no room to breathe, as it does have some fine character scenes sprinkled in it, but it does sort of pick weird ones to focus on. Like, I liked Peter’s speech about hope and all that; but I also would have expected there to be more weight put on Bucky and Steve’s fight, in particular Bucky taking up the shield. And none of them really feel like they’re grieving or overwhelmed…or really feeling anything. I was partially willing to go with it in an idea that this isn’t day one of the zombie apocalypse where they don’t know what’s going on and they’re presently watching people they care about die; on the other hand this seems pretty new (with it only being a couple of weeks) for them to be this relaxed about it.
It’s also the wrong time for them to be this dumb about how they approach things. Why does Bruce forget about Thanos as soon as he’s on Earth? Why hasn’t Okoye adapted her approach to combat to account for the kind of battles they’re fighting? Why aren’t they all more stressed about her not having very good plans for zombie fighting? They have to have been losing people for days, it seems like there ought to be some inner-squad conflict over how things are happening.
My brain almost can’t come up with anything to say about this one, which is a shame after I had so many things to say on the last one that’s pretty sure I forgot at least as much as I put in. I guess this one was just so solidly positioned at ‘okay from a certain point of view’ that I don’t have a lot to comment on.
But I do want to make a comment about how this is another episode that decides to show some of the characters as really emotionally unstable. Which is weird when I spent so much of the story with characters underreacting to everything; but why is Vision being an idiot? The mission of this show is starting to seem like we’re supposed to think regular-Wanda isn’t so bad, anyone could have done something that messed up if they lost someone they love. But if that’s true, why isn’t Scott doing stupid stuff in the end? Also, why a Futurama head in a jar setup? I found it too weird to buy.
But just because the MCU seems to think people go crazy when people they love die…I don’t love that as a consistent trait for them to share. So I’m not letting Strange last ep off the hook; I’m not letting Vision here off the hook; I’m not letting regular-Wanda off the hook; and I’m not letting fuck you Steve off the hook either. I can think they’re all wrong.
That said, my brain seems to like the idea of seeing if there’s a way to combine what happens here with AoS s5. Like maybe they have to quake the world apart to stop the zombies. I don’t have interest to write it, but I’d be curious.
I’m am however really bothered by the fact that the don’t take Hope out of the damn suit after she’s infected. These people have seen how bad it goes when super-powered people join the zombie horde, so maybe don’t put Hope on the other side with all the tech. Put Peter in the suit if he’s the only one left that will fit (assuming it can’t shift sizes a little), or Hope should have self-destructed the suit once she’d gotten the others past the horde. Just don’t be so dumb guys. Or if the writers think they should be this dumb, give me more reason why they’re making those kind of mistakes.
