Why Hulktasha needs to die (and a brief feminist rant)
(Mild spoilers warning.)
In case you are living under a rock and haven't seen Avengers 2: Age of Ultron yet, allow me to give you a quick update. Beyond a baddie trying to destroy the world yet again, the Hulk and Black Widow (AKA Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff (hence Hulktasha)) end up falling in love or whatever. This makes me mildly angry as it ruined a perfectly good movie. This ship needs to sink. (It goes to show how angry I am over this that I'm writing a post about it like two years after the movie came out.)
It came out of nowhere. Yes, Black Widow was sent to recruit the Hulk in The Avengers (it was one of my favourite scenes in the movie, actually), but just because two characters share a scene together doesn't mean they must be romantically involved. In Age of Ultron Black Widow seemed to start flirting for no apparent reason (yes, she can calm the Hulk but that mostly happens off-screen), and for a woman who's worked as a professional assassin that seemed a little too out of character for me.
She was afraid he wouldn't love her because she couldn't have children. Let's ignore the killing and lying and torture and stuff for a moment, because not being able having children is the real deal-broker here. Why is her worth stuck on her fertility? It makes for a cool backstory, of course, but come on.
This was the only movie she got kidnapped in. And had to have someone come rescue her. And by "someone" I mean her love interest. Excuse me? Since when does Black Widow, the Black Widow, need someone to come help her out? If she's going to get kidnapped, she's going to bust herself out. She's going to take down the bad guy from the inside and walk away from the burning building in slo-mo while epic music plays in the background. She is not going to stay in a cage and wait for her Prince Charming to rescue her.
I'm not saying that female characters should never fall in love. That would be epically anti-feminist of me. I am saying that when characters are shoved into romantic relationships just because, well, she's a female and she should probably fall in love at some point, then we have a problem. Female characters are allowed to fall in love. Female characters are also allowed to not fall in love. I felt the love story was confusing and didn't add anything to the plot (and oh, in The Winter Soldier and Civil War Black Widow didn't have a love interest... and didn't need rescuing).
Do you like Hulktasha? Where do you want to see this relationship go?
In case you are living under a rock and haven't seen Avengers 2: Age of Ultron yet, allow me to give you a quick update. Beyond a baddie trying to destroy the world yet again, the Hulk and Black Widow (AKA Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff (hence Hulktasha)) end up falling in love or whatever. This makes me mildly angry as it ruined a perfectly good movie. This ship needs to sink. (It goes to show how angry I am over this that I'm writing a post about it like two years after the movie came out.)
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It came out of nowhere. Yes, Black Widow was sent to recruit the Hulk in The Avengers (it was one of my favourite scenes in the movie, actually), but just because two characters share a scene together doesn't mean they must be romantically involved. In Age of Ultron Black Widow seemed to start flirting for no apparent reason (yes, she can calm the Hulk but that mostly happens off-screen), and for a woman who's worked as a professional assassin that seemed a little too out of character for me.
She was afraid he wouldn't love her because she couldn't have children. Let's ignore the killing and lying and torture and stuff for a moment, because not being able having children is the real deal-broker here. Why is her worth stuck on her fertility? It makes for a cool backstory, of course, but come on.
This was the only movie she got kidnapped in. And had to have someone come rescue her. And by "someone" I mean her love interest. Excuse me? Since when does Black Widow, the Black Widow, need someone to come help her out? If she's going to get kidnapped, she's going to bust herself out. She's going to take down the bad guy from the inside and walk away from the burning building in slo-mo while epic music plays in the background. She is not going to stay in a cage and wait for her Prince Charming to rescue her.
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I'm not saying that female characters should never fall in love. That would be epically anti-feminist of me. I am saying that when characters are shoved into romantic relationships just because, well, she's a female and she should probably fall in love at some point, then we have a problem. Female characters are allowed to fall in love. Female characters are also allowed to not fall in love. I felt the love story was confusing and didn't add anything to the plot (and oh, in The Winter Soldier and Civil War Black Widow didn't have a love interest... and didn't need rescuing).
Do you like Hulktasha? Where do you want to see this relationship go?
Gosh, yes! I have no idea what they were thinking when they did this. It didn't even make sense. It was so out of the blue that when I first saw the movie, I wondered if Natasha was playing with Bruce. And IT WAS SO WEIRD THAT SHE JUST LAY DOWN AND ROLLED OVER WHEN ULTRON CAPTURED HER. That is not Natasha Romanoff. Where is Natasha Romanoff? Sure, she contacted the others and told them of her and Ultron's location, but that was it.
ReplyDeleteI recently watched the movie a second time and realized how much stake she put in being unable to have kids. Which was just weird. Sure, not being able to have kids stinks, but why did the movie make it look like that was such a huge factor? I mean, I'd think Natasha would be worried that a guy wouldn't like her because she can beat him at arm-wrestling (now, that is something I can see happening often, her accidentally scaring off her crush). Like you said, she's assassin! Bruce is a pacifist. And she doesn't bat an eye about those differences for some reason.
Anyhow. *fixes shirt collar*
Let us think about Hawkeye instead. Like that time when he called Pietro and Wanda "punks" to his wife. I nearly started laughing because I was thinking, "Hawkeye, YOU are a punk!" I could totally see teen Hawkeye being just like Pietro.
I actually read somewhere that a theory is she's playing with him to try and control the Hulk, which would make a lot of sense. It's floating around on tumblr somewhere. I'm convinced that's the truth and I'm sticking with it. AND YES LIKE DID THE WRITERS EVEN READ ANYTHING ABOUT BLACK WIDOW BEFORE WRITING THE MOVIE?? HOW DID THIS EVEN HAPPEN??? They just wanted that moment between Natasha and Bruce and for them to find Ultron but like there was a million other ways they could have done it. It made me soooo angry.
DeleteDefinitely. Having kids is totally awesome but she acts like she's a monster because she is unable to have them, and I don't believe with anything in me that being infertile makes you a monster, whether or not it was voluntary or why you did it or anything. Besides, they were kinda just not even really dating and it was a bit weird for them to be like, well, we shouldn't continue dating because neither of us can have kids. That was a bit of a quick jump for me. I think she had bigger problems to worry about other than not being able to have kids and it made me so angry that so much emphasis was put on that.
*gets off soap box*
Yes, let us think about Hawkeye instead. Hawkeye's almost like Pietro's uncle or something :)
Eh. Brucetasha didn't do a lot for me. (Surprise there). To be honest, I mostly ignored it.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the children: I personally didn't find it that odd. As a young woman who would like to have children one day, I could see myself projecting that onto a young man and assuming that he would think it was a deal breaker. Perhaps she really has a dream of settling down a bit and she feels having children would be the ultimate mark of that? Or perhaps she feels that it makes her less feminine to be unable to have children? She's already not a stereotypical female, so maybe she feels it's the droplet that breaks the dam in making her undesirable?
As far as her liking Bruce, I know a lot of people who are attracted to what they think they lack. Perhaps she wishes she could be more like Bruce and have that inner calm.
Anyways, I had to play devil's advocate. Nice rant!
*stamps foot* HOW DARE YOU HAVE OPINIONS OF YOUR OWN?!?!
DeleteNah, you bring up some good points :) Of course not being able to have children would be awful and would be a deal-breaker in many cases, but it just surprised me that Natasha put so much weight into it considering her career. It also bothered me that she considered herself a monster because she was infertile and not because she was an assassin. She had never shown any signs of wanting kids or to settle down in previous movies, either.
That is possible, I hadn't thought of that. Thanks for bringing up those points!
I agree that it would have been more convincing if she had shown signs of wanting to settle down earlier in the series. And definitely a good point on the assassin part.
DeleteI liked it, although I think reducing Natasha to her sexual organs was a bad move. And I struggle with that, because if I were an evil spylord growing young traitors in my basement, I'd sterilize each and every one of them, because dude, that's some valid reasoning for preventing any babies from being made.
ReplyDeleteStill, as unlikable as that aspect was, I'm still curious to see where their relationship goes. I don't know. I think it could be cute. :)
Indeed :/ Although it makes sense, like you said. Th evil spy lord made the right call for once in this case.
DeleteI am excited to see where it goes. Hopefully they break up, but that's just me being cynical and non-romantic, so...