House Special: Nick Jobe's Snap Judgements

GUEST WRITER ALERT! Joining us at the House of Nolahn today is my old friend, Nick Jobe. Some of you might remember Nick from his various blogs and podcasts or as a fellow co-founder of Your Face!. Nick has written a couple of books that you can -- and should -- check out over at Ye Olde Amazon. 

Today, Nick talks about managing expectations in storytelling and digs into Avengers: Infinity Wars as his Exhibit A. He'll warn you that there are spoilers ahead when you get close to 'em, but consider this a pre-warning warning.

One of my favorite aspects of fiction, outside of meta-fiction (my favorite), is the twist. I know twist endings have been talkedabout here in the past, including earning it, but there’s a certain aspect of the twist that needs to be discussed here: expectations. When it comes down to it, a twist works because it plays with expectations. You expect the story to go one way and it goes another. Boom, twist. What you don’t expect is that the storyteller is going to mess with those expectations in a way that is overtly manipulative and outside the realm of storytelling, in an almost meta-cognitive fashion, as it were. In Dungeons & Dragons speak, you’d call this “player knowledge.”

You see, when “player knowledge” can interfere with “character knowledge,” the story suffers, the characters suffer, and—ultimately—the twist suffers. This is why the Saw series worked: everyone expected some kind of twist, and each movie even retconned things you learned before, but it did it in a way that worked for the series and built on successfully for the continuity and lore, never damaging the characters or story for the sake of the twist.

In Harry Potter, characters died (especially Deathly Hallows) and it sucked. But there was never a notion that death, or the reader, could be cheated. In fact, the series brought this up a handful of times. The Mirror of Erised in the first book only shows what you want, yet it doesn’t bring it back. In Prisoner of Azkaban, time travel was introduced, but so were rules. When Buckbeak the Hippogriff and Sirius Black could have been killed, Harry had to go back to save them—but because of time travel, they were never really in danger to begin with. They were always going to be saved. In Order of the Phoenix (the book, not the movie), the time turners are destroyed, and so they are out of the picture for the rest of the series. In Deathly Hallows, the Resurrection Stone gives a false hope of life after death. And none of the book twists negate anything learned about previously in any negative manner. As a reader, or viewer, our expectations are never tampered with.

Enter the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Oh, Infinity War. A lot of things have been said about this movie: it’s a hallmark in cinema, being the cultivation of a universe of characters and stories over 10 years; it’s loud and not much more; it… that ending… that ending. Let’s talk about that ending. Needless to say, there are spoilers ahoy, so if you’re one of the few people who has yet to see Part 1 of the cinematic season finale that is Infinity War, and are lucky enough not to know what happens, step away now.

You have been warned.

Infinity War is a gut-punch of action, humor, and loads of death. But what most people don’t give it credit for is its writing. “What? What do you mean writing? It’s a bunch of action set pieces, one-liners, and a cheap emotional grab.” Sure… but what if it isn’t? What if it’s something… I don’t know… more? The problem with Infinity War isn’t Infinity War. It’s that people are assuming they know what happens after Infinity War. Why do they assume this? Well, let’s go through the thought process:

1. The bad guy wins.
2. Peter Parker, T’Challa, Dr. Strange, virtually all of the Guardians of the Galaxy and a bunch of others all die.
3. Spider-Man, Black Panther, and Dr. Strange were all well acclaimed films, the first in their franchise. Spider-Man Homecoming 2 has been announced, as has Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
4. There is no way Marvel is going to waste cash-grabs like that. They are business first, story-tellers second.
5. Most of the original cast, particularly Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr., have fulfilled their contracts.
6. They will just use the Time Stone or have soul-for-soul transactions of the original Avengers for the new Avengers via Soul Stone.

Well, yes, they’re a business and in it for the money. This is where that aforementioned “player knowledge” comes in. We have these built-in expectations that a story is going to go a certain way not because of story tropes or writing… but because of the film business, money, and marketing. It’s not fair to Marvel to use this against them and their storytelling… though it kind of is. But is it really? Let’s also take a look at some of Marvel’s biggest criticisms over the last 10 years:

1. Almost no good or memorable villains.
2. There are no stakes. Nobody really ever dies. Why should we care what happens?
3. The MCU doesn't take big enough storytelling risks.

As far as #3 is concerned, that has slowly been changing. Guardians of the Galaxy and Black Panther are good examples. The common chant for #1 was “Loki… who else?” Recently, we had Hela and Killmonger, and now Thanos is added to that list. What did these villains have in common? They weren’t entirely wrong. You could see where they were coming from, particularly concerning Thanos and Killmonger. And while Hela was insane, she was kind of erased from everybody’s memories over time, which is kind of messed up. Also… all three more or less win, just not as expected. Hela brings Ragnarok. Killmonger gets T’Challa to share the wealth. Thanos snaps his fingers. The first two didn’t exactly get what they wanted in the way they wanted it, however. So what makes us think Thanos will? Expectations dictate he will, in the end, lose. Player knowledge backs this up. Yet there is a lingering issue, and it’s everybody’s main issue.

That is Reason #2. It's the biggest criticism in all of the MCU. There are no stakes because nobody important ever dies (or stays dead). The writers have said the entire time that there would be stakes to Infinity War. People will die, and they will stay dead, and people will be upset about that. And Avengers 4 is not what you think it's going to be. 

This is the issue people are having with Infinity War: they believe they know what is going to happen in Avengers 4, which will bring most of the characters back to life, nullifying the stakes of the film and just making it a cheap ploy at an emotional gut-punch rather than any staying storytelling device. Even if Steve and Tony (and Thor, et al) sacrifice themselves to save the others, it won’t have the emotional impact of losing Peter Parker. It won’t have the same shock as losing T’Challa. It’s not the same. 

This is, however, why I believe everyone is wrong. 

What if... and hear me out... what if they are really dead? I know, right?! "You're wrong, though. The Spider-Man and Guardians sequels are already in the works, and there's no way there won't be another Black Panther after that success."

True. But I have a counter for you. This might be a stretch, but it would be a stretch of genius and it could garner Marvel an insane amount of respect (or hatred, depending on who you are). Check this out:

1. First of all, what if they either put the sequels out there as a decoy, or they just cancel them altogether. It wouldn’t be entirely unheard of. “Nope. Not gonna happen. They’re still a business, remember?” Okay, fine. (But you said the same thing about Deadpool for certain not getting an R rating. It wouldn’t be good for business!) 
2. Spider-Man: Homecoming introduced the reality of Miles Morales into the MCU. What if the sequel switches gears? They already set it up and have an established character connection with Donald Glover. And with the success of Black Panther, the diversity could be beneficial—there has already been introduced a race-swapped MJ, after all.
3. Other characters have often taken up the mantle in the comics, such as Bucky becoming the new Cap. It has come to my attention that Shuri, the most popular character from Black Panther—far more well received than even T’Challa—has taken up that mantle herself. With a push toward more female heroes in future Phases (Captain Marvel, finally a Black Widow movie, the Wasp), who is to say Shuri can’t become one of the most likeable leading ladies in the new MCU?
4. Guardians Vol. 2 wasn’t insanely well received (outside of box office), though it wasn’t terrible by any means. But I also recall that film briefly setting up a new team of its own including Stallone’s character, bringing together some of the original Guardians. Chris Pratt has himself spoken about Vol. 3, including very recently where he said they will be filming soon. It has been also confirmed by director James Gunn, who also said it won’t be a prequel to Infinity War despite the 4-year gap between Vol. 2 and Infinity War. It has not been confirmed by Marvel, however, and it’s odd to announce this merely a week after Infinity War, which would not be great marketing on Marvel’s part… and it’s the only wrench in this theory. 
5. Dr. Strange 2 has strangely (see what I did there?) not been announced, so every character might not make it back alive.

If any of this is true, and they decided to keep these characters dead, just imagine the impact this film will retroactively have. Just imagine the masterclass of tragic storytelling Marvel just smacked us with. Do I believe it, though? Well, partly. I don’t believe Avengers 4 will retcon that ending entirely. But I do think it might be more final than everyone is expecting.