Recently Marvel Studios released an extended uncut version of a short scene in the movie Captain Marvel, which has made the rounds, with pretty much everybody commenting on it.
In the original movie at one point at the earlier parts of it Captain Marvel is shown to somehow get a motorbike and riding away with it. The deleted portion shows exactly how she gets it.
You might already know how the scene goes, but here's a short summary just in case: Captain Marvel is checking a map when some douche on a motorcycle approaches her and acts in an extremely stereotypical Hollywood asshole manly way, asking if she needs a ride, and for her to smile. She then steals his jacket, helmet and motorcycle by threatening to destroy his hand. She has a very smug expression on her face while doing this.
It would be interesting to know why they deleted this portion of the scene, as it only takes less than a minute. It could just be what happens to most movies: The original rough cut is way too long, and they simply have to cut it down to a reasonable length, and thus some things just have to go, and this is achieved sometimes by cutting entire scenes and subplots, but most often by just cutting small snippets from here and there (which, while each one being very short individually, add up to a considerable length). Or it could be that even they thought this was too on-the-nose and too egregiously and overtly feminist.
Whatever the reason, however, it was still in the script, and it was still filmed and edited into its final form, surely going through numerous steps of acceptance and execution, meaning the filmmakers were completely A-ok with it. In other words, one can perfectly well say that according to the filmmakers, and the studio (which had to accept everything in the film), this is part of the character of Captain Marvel.
Many have, rightly, pointed out that this makes her a villain, not a hero. And not a cool villain, but a really petty and unlikeable one.
Let me analyze this in more detail.
There are many types of heros. Most of them are what you would classify as "lawful good", which means they would never, ever succumb to stealing someone's property, especially if that someone has not committed any sort of crime or injustice, and most especially not because of selfish reasons and personal grievances and distaste against that person.
You would never, ever see for example Superman encounter some douchebag and steal his cellphone by the threat of bodily harm, not even if that douchebag is in the act of committing a crime, much less if he isn't. Most certainly he wouldn't do that if the only "crime" that's being committed is the douchebag acting inappropriately towards Superman himself. This would be incredibly petty and pretty much unthinkable. A superhero like Superman would never, in a million years, succumb to this kind of pettiness. Not to talk about stealing just being outright a crime and an injustice that Superman would never commit.
Of course there are also less scrupulous superheros. Maybe what you would call "anti-heros". These are superheros who fight for good, but are less concerned about breaking the law and using dirty tactics to achieve the ultimate goal of defeating evil. If threatening people, even harming people, destroying or stealing their property, or doing other kind of acts that are not completely ethically or legally acceptable helps them in their ultimate goal of defeating the main villain, then so be it.
However, a well-written anti-hero is never petty. They fight criminals, those who are clearly on the wrong side of the law, are committing crimes, or harming the innocent. A good anti-hero very rarely, if ever, sidesteps the law or moral values for petty personal reasons. An anti-hero would seldom steal somebody's property just because that someone personally pisses him off. He might confront the douchebag and put him in his place, but if he is not an actual criminal, or standing in his way to defeat the villains, the anti-hero would never just outright steal his stuff. Abusing his power to steal someone's stuff would just make him an unlikeable bully, not a cool anti-hero. The Punisher would be a good example of this.
There's also of course the possibility of a form of "hero's journey". A "fish out of water" story, where a person either suddenly gains superpowers, or encounters himself in a new environment (such as having just arrived to Earth from a different planet and completely different alien culture). This person might at first use his superpowers for selfish personal gain, either out of greed and getting drunk on power, or because of ignorance. However, he eventually learns that this is not right, and redeems himself and stops doing things like that.
Spiderman's, ie. Peter Parker's original origin story is exactly like that: He gains his superpowers, and becomes greedy and selfish. He uses his powers to go to fighting rings for personal monetary gain. He then witnesses someone getting robbed, but doesn't care, even though the victim asks for his help. That same robber later mugs and ends up killing Peter's uncle, who was his father figure (as Peter's own parents were dead). The realization that his uncle was killed because he didn't bother stopping that robber causes him such a shock that it straightens him right away, he learns from his horrible selfishness, and swears to never let such a thing happen again.
But this is not what happens in the Captain Marvel movie. This is not her being petty and selfish, and making mistakes in the beginning, because she doesn't know better, and then learning her lesson, regretting her past mistakes, and becoming a better person. No, this is who she is, period. No lessons learned. She is a selfish and petty criminal, who will just steal someone's property because she personally dislikes him, even when he has committed no crime or injustice.
In other words, she is precisely the type of petty criminal who is an unlikeable unsympathetic bully.
In the original movie at one point at the earlier parts of it Captain Marvel is shown to somehow get a motorbike and riding away with it. The deleted portion shows exactly how she gets it.
You might already know how the scene goes, but here's a short summary just in case: Captain Marvel is checking a map when some douche on a motorcycle approaches her and acts in an extremely stereotypical Hollywood asshole manly way, asking if she needs a ride, and for her to smile. She then steals his jacket, helmet and motorcycle by threatening to destroy his hand. She has a very smug expression on her face while doing this.
It would be interesting to know why they deleted this portion of the scene, as it only takes less than a minute. It could just be what happens to most movies: The original rough cut is way too long, and they simply have to cut it down to a reasonable length, and thus some things just have to go, and this is achieved sometimes by cutting entire scenes and subplots, but most often by just cutting small snippets from here and there (which, while each one being very short individually, add up to a considerable length). Or it could be that even they thought this was too on-the-nose and too egregiously and overtly feminist.
Whatever the reason, however, it was still in the script, and it was still filmed and edited into its final form, surely going through numerous steps of acceptance and execution, meaning the filmmakers were completely A-ok with it. In other words, one can perfectly well say that according to the filmmakers, and the studio (which had to accept everything in the film), this is part of the character of Captain Marvel.
Many have, rightly, pointed out that this makes her a villain, not a hero. And not a cool villain, but a really petty and unlikeable one.
Let me analyze this in more detail.
There are many types of heros. Most of them are what you would classify as "lawful good", which means they would never, ever succumb to stealing someone's property, especially if that someone has not committed any sort of crime or injustice, and most especially not because of selfish reasons and personal grievances and distaste against that person.
You would never, ever see for example Superman encounter some douchebag and steal his cellphone by the threat of bodily harm, not even if that douchebag is in the act of committing a crime, much less if he isn't. Most certainly he wouldn't do that if the only "crime" that's being committed is the douchebag acting inappropriately towards Superman himself. This would be incredibly petty and pretty much unthinkable. A superhero like Superman would never, in a million years, succumb to this kind of pettiness. Not to talk about stealing just being outright a crime and an injustice that Superman would never commit.
Of course there are also less scrupulous superheros. Maybe what you would call "anti-heros". These are superheros who fight for good, but are less concerned about breaking the law and using dirty tactics to achieve the ultimate goal of defeating evil. If threatening people, even harming people, destroying or stealing their property, or doing other kind of acts that are not completely ethically or legally acceptable helps them in their ultimate goal of defeating the main villain, then so be it.
However, a well-written anti-hero is never petty. They fight criminals, those who are clearly on the wrong side of the law, are committing crimes, or harming the innocent. A good anti-hero very rarely, if ever, sidesteps the law or moral values for petty personal reasons. An anti-hero would seldom steal somebody's property just because that someone personally pisses him off. He might confront the douchebag and put him in his place, but if he is not an actual criminal, or standing in his way to defeat the villains, the anti-hero would never just outright steal his stuff. Abusing his power to steal someone's stuff would just make him an unlikeable bully, not a cool anti-hero. The Punisher would be a good example of this.
There's also of course the possibility of a form of "hero's journey". A "fish out of water" story, where a person either suddenly gains superpowers, or encounters himself in a new environment (such as having just arrived to Earth from a different planet and completely different alien culture). This person might at first use his superpowers for selfish personal gain, either out of greed and getting drunk on power, or because of ignorance. However, he eventually learns that this is not right, and redeems himself and stops doing things like that.
Spiderman's, ie. Peter Parker's original origin story is exactly like that: He gains his superpowers, and becomes greedy and selfish. He uses his powers to go to fighting rings for personal monetary gain. He then witnesses someone getting robbed, but doesn't care, even though the victim asks for his help. That same robber later mugs and ends up killing Peter's uncle, who was his father figure (as Peter's own parents were dead). The realization that his uncle was killed because he didn't bother stopping that robber causes him such a shock that it straightens him right away, he learns from his horrible selfishness, and swears to never let such a thing happen again.
But this is not what happens in the Captain Marvel movie. This is not her being petty and selfish, and making mistakes in the beginning, because she doesn't know better, and then learning her lesson, regretting her past mistakes, and becoming a better person. No, this is who she is, period. No lessons learned. She is a selfish and petty criminal, who will just steal someone's property because she personally dislikes him, even when he has committed no crime or injustice.
In other words, she is precisely the type of petty criminal who is an unlikeable unsympathetic bully.
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