I wouldn't mind if the whole show was about that sort of stuff - Bucky interacting with the father of the man he killed was the most interesting part of the show to me so far - but it seems like they're going to be dealing with the Flag Smashers, Power Broker, Zemo, and whatever happens with the new Captain America. That feels like a lot of stuff to get through in four episodes.

 

Yep, specifically until the truck scene I was feeling good on this series.
But bucky breaks into the first truck in the caravan, while the 2nd truck is looking directly at him break into it? Like he's entering this truck with the windshield of the first truck visible in the shot behind him.

Then we have super soldiers holding him down instead of beating his face in, crushing his windpipe, or throwing him under the tires. It just doesn't make sense.

I like that the new Captain is relatively likeable, but you still just can't like him. Really balances the 'Steve can't be replaced' with a good guy.

But that kinda goes out the window when we get to the truck fight, again. Because a trained soldier just can't stand up to super soldiers. It's batruc vs Cap or Cap vs Rumlow all over again. Sure, these amateurs don't have the skills, but they should be able to knock him the fuck out with a single hit. I can buy into the shield stopping as many punches as he can block, but battlestar coming in and the two of them handling the situation at all?

Normal humans can't stand up to a punch from a guy who can hold down a helicopter. We saw these super soldiers kick a guy aireborne 20 feet into a pole. But normal soldier mcgee over here can toe-to-toe with them on the top of trucks? And the shield throw to save battlestar from the fall was too much for me.

I could buy Steve doing that, but this random guy can make that shot? No thanks.

 

New FWS episode, lots of developments.

Spoiler

I really liked the depiction of Madripoor, seems like an interesting city and a cool location for various stories.

Zemo is a badass in this and I get the feeling he'll manage to escape after the series is over.

Sharon, not being an Avenger still had to be on the run from the law and was living in Madripoor, that also sounds like a cool story to be told one day.

Also the new "cap" is such an asshole. This whole "Do you know who I am?!" made me want to punch him in his stupid face.

 

I liked this episode more than the first two, feels like things are starting to speed up.

Spoiler

Zemo was definitely one of the best parts so far, even if they’re a bit weirdly chill with him. He caused a lot of damage and it’s easily arguable that the Avengers would have done better against Thanos if not for the groundwork he laid. Seeing some reflection on this from him was definitely my most anticipated parts of the show and they haven’t really touched on it yet - does Zemo regret partially being responsible for something like what happened to Sokovia happening to the entire world/galaxy? Does he recognise that super powered alien threats necessitate super powered human defenders?

The fight choreography felt a bit better, Bucky in the club scene for example. The variance on quality with this is just pretty insane so far, it’s like the Mandalorian where some episodes action scenes are great and others they’re laughable. Might just be down to the directors/budget per episode, it just feels weirder because the MCU is usually pretty consistent.

Edit: I just read the guy that created the John Wick movies wrote this episode so that’s likely related to the better action scenes.

A guess on a figure’s identity from strong hints in the episode:

Spoiler

Sharon Carter is absolutely the Power Broker.

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

I don't think he does regret these things he's done. From what I gather he's not against defending Earth. He's against treating super-powered beings like celebrities. Putting them on pedestals, treating them almost like gods who can do no wrong.

 

Spoiler

There’s aspects of that ideology in Civil War, but it also was made out that a large motive for him was personal revenge for what happened to his family in Sokovia. He blamed the Avenger’s due to Tony and Bruce creating Ultron, and their subsequent failure to save the city.

His post-facto rationalisation about not worshipping celebrities might sound cool, but he didn’t go after the Avengers when they first appeared. Zemo only targeted them after he was personally wronged. I think if I was Sam or Bucky I’d want to hear him try to explain what he’d say to the family members of those who died from the Snap, as a result of his work splitting the Avengers up.

In my opinion if you live in the Marvel universe and you’re anti-superhuman (he helped to usher in the Sokovia accords and all the discord they caused, plus continuously destroying Super Soldier programs even if they are run by shitty people) that’s pretty close to being against the defense of Earth. Repeatedly in their universe empowered individuals have shown to be the only thing that can hold the line against alien/supernatural threats, even with all the harm they cause outside those emergencies they’re still a necessity.

 

Not sure why the topic is spoiler-tagged, it’s not a spoiler. Still, better safe than sorry.

Spoiler

I imagine Zemo’s stance on The Snap is that the world’s defense never should’ve been left up to a dozen superpowered people with basically no accountability who got torn apart by the truth of what Bucky did as the Winter Soldier. Plus the heroes all seemed to put aside the fight from Civil War the instant Thanos showed up anyway.

 

Spoiler

Guys, it’s obvious. The Power Broker is Mephisto

Also, as fun as this episode was, we’re halfway through the series and it feels like they really don’t know what they’re doing with the Flag Smashers. Not great for a group that’s being framed as the main villain even if it might end up being Walker. Hopefully they last few episodes will take care of them as they presumably take a more central focus.

 

Not sure if this is the best place to ask, but where should I start watching? I've seen Iron Man, and Guardians of the Galaxy way back when. Googling for an order to watch in gives contentious results.

 

Depends on how much free time you have and how deep a rabbit hole you want to follow. The movies are made so skipping one or two or watching out of order isn't really a big deal.

 

Absolutely go with watching in the order the movies came out.

 

A case can be made for chronological order (watching Captain America:the first avenger and and captain marvel first), but release order was epic.

 

If you're looking for the legal way to access these movies, Disney plus has them all and already curates them in timeline or release order for you, which is helpful.

It might be fun to watch them in timeline order, but release order was great for me. I've never done an MCU binge like I've done HP, LOTR, or Star Wars though.

 

I used spoiler tags because Andrela did, I wasn’t sure if the character we were discussing appearing was a spoiler. I guess they were announced to be in the show a while ago but figured better safe than sorry.

Spoiler

I get not liking Earth’s defense being dependent on a small group of individuals, but if you want to rectify that situation the best answer isn’t to just get rid of those individuals and hope for the best (assuming your goal is to stop what happened to Sokovia from happening elsewhere). The closest we’ve seen to a non-superpower based defense system for Earth was Phase 2 in the first Avengers, and that still boiled down to essentially “I guess we’ll nuke our own cities and hope it kills the aliens that are invading before we run out of cities.”

Maybe that’s preferable to Zemo to celebrity worship, but if so someone should tell him he’s not just ruthless but also an idiot.

There’s WoG from I believe one of the Russo’s that Tony wouldn’t have reacted the way he did to Bucky’s crimes if he hadn’t found out under those specific circumstances. Seeing the video footage of his parents being murdered while right next to Bucky, after all the turmoil Zemo stirred up with the UN calling a manhunt and the Avengers then turning on one another at the airport. It makes sense with the understanding we have of Tony’s character that it was an extreme reaction, and likely wouldn’t have gone down that way without Zemo doing his best to get the worst possible outcome.

The Avengers put aside their differences when Thanos came but it was still too late. It’s because they were separated that Vision was isolated and injured, and also why Iron Man had no backup (aside from Spidey and Strange) to take into space. If the Avengers had gone to fight the Black Order together - like they did in all the Avengers movies before Zemo - it’s likely they’d have a good opportunity to overwhelm Thanos between them, or at least be able to protect Vision long enough to get the mindstone out. Tony even straight out says something along these lines to Cap in Endgame when he returns to Earth, calling him out for not being there.

Also I gotta say it’s funny if Zemo’s frustration was the Avengers not being accountable, because the Sokovia Accords only made that situation worse. Before the issue was forced by the accords, the Avengers were happy to work with governments (SHIELD) and were basically taking orders from them to an extent. Afterwards half the Avengers went rogue and started operating completely outside the bounds of the law. Great job there Zemo, clearly it also worked to stop Captain America/Iron Man from being worshipped (see: People immediately needing a Cap replacement and the Iron Man mural in Far From Home).

Basically Zemo made the world less safe and thus more families like his own vulnerable, the Avengers less accountable by forcing a lot of them outside the law, and didn’t even succeed in stopping people from worshipping the Avengers. Plus he ended up in prison for the larger part of a decade. It would very much please me if Sam or Bucky pointed out what a failure his plan was at some point in this series.

Edit: Honestly the more I think about it, the more I question what the hell Bucky is thinking breaking Zemo out. Considering this situation doesn’t seem nearly desperate enough to justify that it seems like he might as well still be brainwashed. Perhaps this would be less confusing if we knew a single thing (especially by half way through the series) about the status of the Avengers as an organisation and what authority Sam and Bucky are acting under. The Flag Smashers don’t seem like a big enough threat to justify potentially becoming outlaws again like in Civil War.

 

This. To be honest I don't understand why would someone watch it differently.

 

The proper way to watch Star Wars is Episodes 1,2, 4,5, 3, 6.

and ignore the sequels

 

Just because I dug it up a while back (and I can't recall where I found it):

MCU recommended viewing order to maintain internal chronology

5 Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Marvel's Agent Carter Season 1 (2015)
Marvel's Agent Carter Season 2 (2016)
21 Captain Marvel (2019)
1 Iron Man (2008)
3 Iron Man 2 (2010)
2 The Incredible Hulk (2008)
4 Thor (2011)
6 The Avengers (2012)
7 Iron Man 3 (2013)
8 Thor: The Dark World (2013)
9 Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 1 (2013)
10 Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
15 Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
Daredevil Season 1 (2015)
11 Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 2 (2014)
12 Ant-Man (2015)
Jessica Jones Season 1 (2015)
Daredevil Season 2 (2016)
13 Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 3 (2015)
Luke Cage Season 1 (2016)
16 Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
14 Doctor Strange (2016)
18 Black Panther (2018)
Iron Fist Season 1 (2017)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 4 (2016)
The Defenders Season 1 (2017)
The Inhumans Season 1 (2017)
24 Black Widow (2021)
17 Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
The Punisher Season 1 (2017)
Jessica Jones Season 2 (2018)
Luke Cage Season 2 (2018)
Cloak and Dagger Season 1 (2018)
The Runaways Season 1 (2017)
Daredevil Season 3 (2018)
The Punisher Season 2 (2019)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 5 (2017)
Iron Fist Season 2 (2018)
20 Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018)
19 Avengers Infinity War (2018)
22 Avengers: Endgame (2019)
23 Spiderman: Far From Home (2 July 2019)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 6 (2019)
Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Season 7 (2020)

 

You can avoid most of the tv shows imo. They may not be canon anymore.

 

Its also good to avoid most of them, because many of them are really pretty bad.

 

The only canon now are the movies and the current Disney+ shows. All the rest have been declared non-canon.