Recently I've been reading all of these articles saying "we're [x] many episodes into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I still don't know who the villain is". And I think that's kind of what is great, but also seems a bit thick for anyone to think.
Villainy has easily been Marvel's biggest issue in the MCU. You need to look no further than when they pull it off correctly: Killmonger and (to a much, much lesser extent) Thanos. What is great about how the series works is that it's clearly taking more of a Killmonger approach to antagonism. It goes through the motions of how radicalization can be rooted in a desire for positive change through questionable methods. In Black Panther, this was the MO. It was the arc of T'Challa to understand that his monarchy need not be defined by forsaking others. Here, it's using a similar technique to create another sense of tragedy. For as much as Karli's methods are straight up wrong, her ideals aren't.
All of this has been used as a bait and switch--one that a lot of us probably saw coming. Because antagonism really isn't that simple here. Karli is definitely one antagonist, but I think thematically Walker has been the villain the entire time because he actually opposes the protagonists on a thematic and moral level. It's villainy of his own making. I love this classification: there's radicalization from external factors (Karli, nearly backed into terrorism) and there's self-made villainy. A golden-boy suddenly faced with his own failures, entirely of his own doing, unable to accept that he could be wrong because he's always been put on a pedestal. It's Rittenhouse, it's Chauvin, it's Zimmerman. The antagonism here takes abstract forms because the fight isn't always external. To back up real threats it's better to have some meat on the bones. Sure, Thanos was terrifying because we saw him succeed and commit genocide, but here the evil is abstract. I'll contradict myself here: yes Walker is making himself into a villain, but it's based on morality supported by American culture. It's terrifying here because it's real. And we see it all the time. Hell, it's on trial at this moment.
Edit after finishing the season: oof I whiffed some of my predictions here.
Review by filmboicoleBlockedParentSpoilers2021-04-20T16:49:40Z— updated 2021-04-23T16:55:46Z
Recently I've been reading all of these articles saying "we're [x] many episodes into The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and I still don't know who the villain is". And I think that's kind of what is great, but also seems a bit thick for anyone to think.
Villainy has easily been Marvel's biggest issue in the MCU. You need to look no further than when they pull it off correctly: Killmonger and (to a much, much lesser extent) Thanos. What is great about how the series works is that it's clearly taking more of a Killmonger approach to antagonism. It goes through the motions of how radicalization can be rooted in a desire for positive change through questionable methods. In Black Panther, this was the MO. It was the arc of T'Challa to understand that his monarchy need not be defined by forsaking others. Here, it's using a similar technique to create another sense of tragedy. For as much as Karli's methods are straight up wrong, her ideals aren't.
All of this has been used as a bait and switch--one that a lot of us probably saw coming. Because antagonism really isn't that simple here. Karli is definitely one antagonist, but I think thematically Walker has been the villain the entire time because he actually opposes the protagonists on a thematic and moral level. It's villainy of his own making. I love this classification: there's radicalization from external factors (Karli, nearly backed into terrorism) and there's self-made villainy. A golden-boy suddenly faced with his own failures, entirely of his own doing, unable to accept that he could be wrong because he's always been put on a pedestal. It's Rittenhouse, it's Chauvin, it's Zimmerman. The antagonism here takes abstract forms because the fight isn't always external. To back up real threats it's better to have some meat on the bones. Sure, Thanos was terrifying because we saw him succeed and commit genocide, but here the evil is abstract. I'll contradict myself here: yes Walker is making himself into a villain, but it's based on morality supported by American culture. It's terrifying here because it's real. And we see it all the time. Hell, it's on trial at this moment.
Edit after finishing the season: oof I whiffed some of my predictions here.