63) MCU: Phase Four

[00:00:01] In this episode, I was a little sick, so that's why my voice sounds the way it does, so just bear with me.

[00:00:14] I'm doing my seasonal tradition of covering another phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or the MCU.

[00:00:58] This time, I'm covering Phase Four. It is actually, I guess it's a good thing that I took a two-year hiatus, because when I took the break, MCU was in the middle of Phase Four, and it would have been really hard to do an episode on Phase Four, in the middle of Phase Four. Next season, I'll be doing Phase Five, and they're currently in the middle of Phase Five.

[00:01:25] I think they'll be in Phase Six by next year? I don't remember, I haven't looked. Eventually, I will have to not do a phase in the middle of the season, because I don't want to cover a phase in the middle of the phase. But, for the present, I will say I am glad Phase Four is over, so that I can cover it here.

[00:01:52] With the end of the Infinity Saga, at the end of Phase Three, with Endgame. And, for some reason, Spider-Way No Way Home, you would think that, you know, Endgame was the perfect ending. But, at the same time, it was kind of a good thing that they did that, and they put No Way Home right there, and then they said, Okay, this is the end of Phase Three. It's a good thing they didn't say that was the beginning of Phase Four, because right after that, they had to take a long break because of COVID.

[00:02:22] So, yeah, that was kind of good. That, um, I mean, not COVID. COVID wasn't good. But, it was a good thing that they paused when they did. Actually, I just realized something. Every, um, so like, I started this podcast in 2020. And, Phase Three ended in 2019. So, this is the first phase that I started since after I started the podcast.

[00:02:51] I've pretty much caught up to where I began. Except, you know, not, because they're in Phase Five. Anyway, I'm stalling. Okay, so, with Phase Four, they officially introduced TV shows. I say officially because there were shows in the past, but they weren't officially connected. I think now they are.

[00:03:20] But, that's, it gets complicated. With the introduction of Disney Plus, they were able to do official MCU shows. So, this one contains films and shows. And, I'm not going to talk about both in order. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to split them in between films and then I'm going to talk about the shows. And, there were more shows than there were movies.

[00:03:51] So, yeah, let's get started. Also, since, um, I'm doing, this show is shorter now instead of, because before I would, um, in the, uh, in the previous MCU episodes here, I would try to cover like every single aspect as I could. Like, you know, that directed by, starring, da-da-da. Since these episodes are shorter, and also since, um, well, when I did these other ones, I had a lot more time.

[00:04:18] And so, before I would record the, the, the phase episodes, I would actually re-watch the whole phase. Because at the time, it was much easier. It was like, it was like six movies. Or, or like seven movies. Or, it's a few movies. Now, it's, um, well, it's seven movies. But, it's also, I, hang on how many shows? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten shows. So, that's, that's 17 things to watch. And some of them are really long, because they're shows.

[00:04:48] Um, yeah, I'm, I'm, I don't have time for that. I'm working full-time! I barely have time for things outside of work! I am not, okay, so I've seen everything on this list. But, I saw them when they released three of the movies I saw in theaters. And then, all the shows I caught up with as they were coming out. Because I keep up with the MCU. Even if I have no interest in watching it, as we'll get to in one of the movies. I still watch it because it's MCU. And I don't want to be left out.

[00:05:18] I have FOMO when it comes to, to the MCU. Anyway, let's get started! Starting with Black Widow. Oh yeah, what I was talking, what I was getting to. Since it's a short of format, I'm not going to go into like, all the little details about like, behind the scenes and the making of, and who's directing it and who's starring. I'm just going to talk about the movie and, you know, basically touch on each title. Basically, this will just be a list of what was there. Because these are shorter. There's a lot here.

[00:05:48] And I've already spent five minutes, wait. Yes, five minutes doing this. I am going to just start. Black Widow. That was supposed to be theatrically released. And instead, it was released on Disney Plus. They did the, you know, you purchased it. I watched it. I watched it with my friend's mom.

[00:06:15] Which sounds random when I word it like that. But it made sense in context. I know a lot of people didn't like this one. I thought it was good. I, so like, when they say they're doing a Black Widow movie, it's like, well, this doesn't make sense because she died in the other one. And she died in Endgame. But, and they said it was a prequel. And so we thought we were finally getting the origin story of Black Widow.

[00:06:44] But no, it takes place earlier. But like after, I think it takes place like after Winter Soldier. I forgot where it takes place in the timeline. But it makes sense. It made sense for the context of the story they set up. And a lot of people are just like, it doesn't make sense. The context and the plot line and the timeline and the story. And I just go with it.

[00:07:11] At this point, any plot holes in the MCU, they'll explain later down the line. Just go with it at this point. The next movie is Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Tin Rings. Now this one, I was excited for. Like I'd never heard of Shang-Chi. I didn't know anything about it. But I saw, you know, I saw the trailer. And I'm like, oh, that looks really interesting. Also, I'm a fan of Awkwafina. I know a lot of people don't like Awkwafina.

[00:07:39] Like, I think she's hilarious. Like, I literally saw Migration. Because she was, she's featured prominently in the trailer. I'm like, oh, I'm gonna go see this movie. It's an Awkwafina movie. Yeah! I saw it. You know, all of the parts in the trailer that have Awkwafina. That's literally how long she's in the movie. She's in the movie for like five minutes. She's in one scene. That's it. I watched a whole movie in theaters for a five minute scene.

[00:08:08] Anyway, um, so I watched Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. Not in theaters. But I saw it on Disney Plus when it came out. And I liked it. I know. Okay, so like, I liked most of these. So I'm not going to keep saying, I liked it. Um, just know that I liked most of these. There's one in particular that I did not like. And I will say which one it is when we get there. Okay, we are there. Eternals. I did not want to watch the Eternals.

[00:08:37] I had no interest in it. I did not want to see it. This is the one time I forced myself to watch an MCU movie just because it's an MCU movie. And I watched, because like, like I had no interest in watching it. All the reviews were bad. My, all, like all my friends who were big into MCU were like, don't waste your time. So that's some of them that goes, they went to the theaters and saw it and they were like, it was a waste of time. And so like, I had no interest in seeing it.

[00:09:07] And so my, I literally, when it came to Disney plus, I was like, okay, it's MCU. I'm sure it'll be important. Let's watch this. Let's get this over with. I watched it. Honestly, I feel like Eternals probably would have been better served as a TV show on Disney plus because I think the main issue is that they try to cram so much into a movie.

[00:09:38] There are so many characters. It's not like, like a Justice League thing where like, oh, we already know, we know Wonder Woman. We know Superman. We know Batman, Aquaman, Flash. We know all these characters. You don't really have to set them up. We know them. So you can just kind of throw them together. But like Eternals, I don't know any of these characters. And they just like throw them on screen. And it was like, oh, look, it's Icarus. That's the only name I remember because it's from like, it's like ancient history and mythology.

[00:10:08] And then he ends flying too close to the sun. So it's like, oh, I didn't see that coming. But like, I feel like Eternals would have been better served as a show. Like spread it out. Let us get to know the characters. And it's like they like they they jump around too much. Jump around. Jump up, jump up and get down. No, because it takes place throughout all human history. And so they'll spend five minutes in one time period and they'll jump ahead a few hundred years. And oh, again, now they're in the 1800s or whatever. I don't remember.

[00:10:38] Haven't seen it. I saw it when it came out. I haven't seen it in forever. But I do remember that it kept jumping around. And then one of the characters dies. And it's played like this really sad, tragic moment in it. Oh, they're all going to suffer. I have no idea who she was. I could tell she was supposed to be important. I don't know who it was like. Like everyone's sad in the movie and like the music, the sad music's playing and it's supposed to be dramatic. But I was like, who was that?

[00:11:07] Was she like their leader? Was she their mother? What? Who was she? I feel like if this I would have. I feel like I would have liked Eternals had it been spread out across like eight seasons. It's one of those rare times where I know a lot of people complain about, oh, they're throwing everything. There's like Obi-Wan Kenobi. That could have been a movie. It was originally going to be a movie. They spread it out across eight episodes, I think six, six to eight episodes.

[00:11:40] And then like they didn't need to do that, really. They fleshed it out in ways they didn't need to. It could have been a movie. Eternals? Opposite problem. It could have been a show. Spread it out. Let us care about these characters so that when she dies, it's like, oh, no, that one. Her name. I don't remember her name. I probably would have cared if it was spread out across eight episodes.

[00:12:11] So they need to figure out when to do a show and when to not do a show. I think they're getting better at that. They said they're going to scale back the shows. So like Eternals is like the one that I really don't like if you can't tell. It's my least favorite MCU movie. And it's like there is. OK, there's a lot of story there. You know, give me a good story. Give me good characters. And it's probably here. But they go through it too quickly.

[00:12:42] And, you know, it could have been a good story if they spread it out. I can't stress that enough. Spread it out. I mean, it's too late now if they try to go back and like spread it out. Like, oh, well, we've seen this. We know it's going to happen. We know she's going to die. Anyway, the movie after that is Spider-Man No Way Home, which I. OK, I like I really like this one. Everyone was like, oh, fan service. OK, fan service isn't necessarily bad.

[00:13:09] We got we got three Spider-Man in this one and everyone kind of knew even with Angie Garfield going, oh, no, I wasn't in that. You liar. I we knew they were going to be in there, like even with them denying it. But like a lot of people thought it would just be like a cameo, like, oh, look, there's the other Spider-Man. And like, oh, I'm in this universe. I got to go back to my own.

[00:13:39] But no, they're like characters in this movie. And not only that, it kind of serves as like an epilogue to Toby and Andrew's Garfield Spider-Man. And I like what they did with it to the point where like it's I don't see. OK, so like I know it was meant to be like an epilogue kind of like kind of wrapping up their story. Like, oh, yeah, Andrew went down a dark path.

[00:14:08] He stopped pulling punches and then he had to like find himself again. And then Toby him and MJ got married and have a kid and dadada dadada. And but like I see it as a teaser for a Spider-Man for an amazing Spider-Man three. I hope I really hope it. I don't think it's going to happen, but that'd be cool. It's not going to happen. I don't think it should. It really needs to because it's really cool.

[00:14:36] There are theory, there's rumors and it's probably going to happen that they will return for Secret Wars. And I really hope so. But also, I hope that it's not one of those things are like they bring them back frequently. There's rumors that they're going to come back for Spider-Man four, which no.

[00:15:05] Okay, if you start bringing them back like every other movie, then it just it won't be as fun. It's like, oh, they're here. Like I remember because I saw. Okay, the first movie in season four, MCU season four phase four that I saw in theaters was no way home. I saw it the day it came out. So I had got the theater experience when that portal open and Andrew Garford comes out. Everyone went wild.

[00:15:32] You know, if you bring them out for like every Spider-Man movie or like every if they bring them out all the time, that won't happen. They're like, oh, okay. This is the part where they come in. Oh, it's funny, though, is no. When the when the Andrew Garfield movies are coming out, people are like, this is lackluster. This isn't as good. And I know for a long time people hated the Andrew Garfield ones. Andrew Garfield got the biggest cheers. Everyone went wild when he stepped out and then Toby came out. And, you know, people went wild.

[00:16:01] But it was like it was I noticed it was a little quieter. Granted, that was like, like, okay, well, he came out and then the other one's going to come out up. Yep. There he is. So that's probably what it was. And I'm sure if Toby came out first, it probably would have been the same. But I like to think that Andrew got the most likes because likes was a social media. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. Yeah. Anyways, you know, we're going with that.

[00:16:30] I thought it was good. I liked it. I really liked it. I've been seeing videos lately. I haven't actually watched it, but I saw the thumbnails and the titles. It says why no way home gets worse every time you see it. And I'd rather not ruin it for myself. So I'm not watching that video. Like, I don't want to like see it and be like, oh, actually, you know what? It is. It's kind of bad. One of my favorite parts of no way home is something I've noticed in the MCU Spider-Man.

[00:16:56] And they haven't really done much with the, well, up to this point, they hadn't done much with the Spider-Sense, which they do this time. They, uh, they have like a whole, cause usually when, you know, in Spider-Man movies, when there's like the Spider-Sense, he like, it does like a sense. It's really quick. Like, oh, I sent something.

[00:17:27] But this time there's like a whole scene where like everything's on edge and you can feel it in this, it's so tense. And he's like walking around the apartment and it's, I saw it in theaters and that was really tense. It's, it was really well done. And I liked it. Whole movie was good though. Anyway, second movie that I saw in theaters was Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. That one got a lot of hate for some reason.

[00:17:56] Like a lot of like, this is the point when I noticed that like people just want to complain about everything. And so I watched it and I thought that was very well done. That was really good. And there's no way anyone's not gonna like this. I can't wait to go online and see all the reviews. And I come on, I know, I leave the theater. I saw it opening day. I go home. I turn on YouTube and it's, oh, oh, MCU's done. This movie sucks. It's the worst. You know, MCU, they should just cancel it now.

[00:18:23] Cause like this, this Doctor Strange movie, it's garbage. Absolute trash. I was like, what? Did we see the same movie? That was clever. It's like, it had like the X-Men in it and Charles Xavier. And we finally got Jim from the office as, as, as Mr. Fantastic. I mean, it, it was a fan service thing for sure. It was fan casted. They're not gonna, you know, that's, he's not gonna be the Fantastic Four. But like, we got him for one movie.

[00:18:52] He died very, uh, dramatically. That was, those, that, the whole, that whole scene was very graphic. I mean, that's, this is the MCU. They never did graphic. And like, like his head exploded. And then like, um, I want to say Black Fork. Um, Black, I don't forgot that guy's name. Or he can't speak because it like, blows things up. Like, if you sealed his mouth and he like, screamed and his head exploded.

[00:19:22] Or like, his brain, like, that was, that was intense. Uh, anyway, so moving on. Thor Love and Thunder. The third movie of the Phase Four that I saw in theaters. The Phase Four. Uh, so this one, I actually got an advanced screening too. A friend of mine got us free tickets. We saw it, it's the first movie I saw in IMAX. We got advanced tickets to see it. Uh, two and a half weeks before it released, I think.

[00:19:52] Maybe two weeks, I don't know. It was before it released. And so we saw it. And again, I thought, ah, I thought it was good. I liked it. I did, I did start, I did have complaints about this one. I wish. Uh, okay, so this one I do agree with the fans on for the most part. Uh, again, people were like, this is absolutely garbage. It's trash. Blah, blah, blah. No, it's not that bad.

[00:20:19] However, I do agree that the, you know, the MCU humor, uh, kind of needs to be reined in a little bit. Like, I like the humor. But there are times when you don't need it. Like this, the Love and Thunder story, that, that should have been a dark story. You know, you got the God Slayer, the God Killer. And then you got Jane Foster with cancer.

[00:20:46] You literally have a scene with her in the chemo chair, hooked up to the chemo. And the crack of jokes, making, making light of it. And, and then when she dies, it's like, it's like, oh, she dead. Uh, you know? It, the whole thing, like, mmm. And, um, the Kristen Bell character, uh, he was funny. He shouldn't have been funny. That was not a funny character.

[00:21:17] He, he, he, he, um, overall I did like it. Like, if I were to rate it, I think, um, cause like, this is a confused people. Cause like, I had the same complaints as everyone else, but I didn't hate it. I give it a six out of ten. Simply because the humor could have been reined in a little bit. Yeah, put humor in it to kind of, you know, soften the blow of the dark stuff.

[00:21:43] But, keep the dark stuff and kind of, cause like, don't make it dark world dark. That, I, dark world is one of my least favorite MCU movies. Uh, yeah. Um, overall I liked it. Just, hmm. Humor was not quite there. And then the last movie of the MCU. I mean, the last movie of the four or five. No, I mean the five, four, four, phase four.

[00:22:12] I can't words. The last movie of MCU phase four. Black Panther Wakanda forever. This one I wanted to see in theaters, but like, I, cause I had, the way I see movies in theaters, I have AMCA list. And so you can see up to three movies a week. But they have this weird thing where if your subscription expires, you, you can't resubscribe for six months. And that's what happened.

[00:22:41] Um, it expired and I couldn't renew for six months. And so I missed out on a lot of movies. And that was one of them. I couldn't watch it in theaters. As soon as it came to Disney Plus, I watched it. So, like, I know there's been some debate. Like, why didn't they cast T'Challa? And I don't, I can't think of anyone who could replace Chadwick Boseman. Because I don't think anybody could.

[00:23:08] It's not, I think, okay, if, if he had like, if he hadn't passed away, if he just was like, I don't want to do this character anymore. Yeah, I think it would have been okay to, to replace him. I mean, not replace him, but recast the character. Because like, like, he's like, oh, I just don't want to do the character anymore. Like, you know, like Bruce Benner, like when, you know, Edward Norton, he, he quit. Or was fired out, I remember what happened. It was a payment dispute. And then he got, they got Mark Ruffalo to do the character.

[00:23:36] But then they also got like with Rhodey, then they like changed the character out, leaving the actor out. After one movie. That's the difference. It was one movie for both those characters. For Rhodey, and for Bruce Benner, they did one movie, and then they changed the character, they changed the actor. Chadwick Boseman had been T'Challa for a few movies now. It had been Black Panther, he was in The Winners. So, no, um, Civil War, I believe.

[00:24:05] I think Civil War is the movie he was introduced in. And then he was in Infinity War, and, um, Endgame, I was gonna say Eternity War. I'm like, wait, no, that's not right. So like, he'd been to T'Challa for a while. So that's different than the other ones. So like, he passed away. And it would have been wrong to re- I feel like it would have been wrong to recast the character.

[00:24:34] Because, you- People would just be like, it's not the same! And, yeah. So, I think it might have been best just to kill the character off. In my opinion. It makes sense in the story. Kind of, I don't know. Because like, they- He didn't tell anybody. I don't think he even told the people there. So like, they didn't- Like, they weren't able to build up to it.

[00:25:02] Like in the previous time you saw him, he's like, mm, I'm feeling sick. No, they just- The movies- If you don't know any of the background stuff, like, say like 50 years from now, you're- No, you're watching this MCU thing that used to come on. It ran for 10- It ran for 10 phases and then they gave up. And you go back and watch it. And then you're watching- Oh, my favorite character is this Black Panther! Yeah, he's really good! And then you go to the second Black Panther movie and they start talking- He's dead. What? He-

[00:25:32] He died?! So like, it just kinda happens out of nowhere. They- But like, outside the- Like, you know, real world context it makes sense. We know why. So like, no one- I hope- I don't- Haven't seen anybody complain about that. That it comes out of nowhere. Cause they're not gonna like- Like recreate T'Challa and like have him do like one final battle and have him killed.

[00:26:01] They have him like, killed off screen at the beginning through like, uh, sickness. Which- It's fading. That's how, you know, he died in real life. But I like the things they set up in it for like, the future of- Well, the franchise and the future of the MCU. And- Yeah. That was the end of- The movies of Phase 4. I'm-

[00:26:31] Currently 27 minutes into this. This is currently the longest episode of the season. And I haven't done any editing yet. So it's probably- You're probably not at 27 minutes. Well, I don't know. Cause there's also the- The opening music that I'm- I'm not accounting for here. When I'm recording, um, obviously I don't have the music. There. I add that later. So like, that adds like 40 seconds. But anyway, um, on to the shows.

[00:27:00] There's more of them. I'll go see them quickly. Because like I said, we're running along here. And I- I'll see this quickly. The first show was WandaVision. I'm gonna try to avoid- I'm gonna try to avoid being- That one was good. That one was good. That one was good. That one was- Yeah, it's not good. So, um, WandaVision. It was a very interesting concept. When I heard they were going to do it, I was like, that doesn't make sense.

[00:27:27] I thought maybe the shows were gonna be, um, like non-canon. Like, I don't see how, you know, cause like, the- The premise was, you know, like Wanda and Vision. And like, like different, like sitcom settings, different eras throughout time. And it's like, that doesn't make sense. I guess they're just taking these characters and putting them in different non-canon scenarios. That's what my thought was. Like, there's no way this is gonna be canon. Like, I don't see- But then I watched it.

[00:27:56] And then I was pleasantly surprised. It was very well done. And very creative. And it was very strong. It was a very strong introduction to the Disney Plus Marvel shows. And it was followed by The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which again, is very good. That one was, um, uh, it was like a good, like connecting storyline

[00:28:22] between, um, Cap giving Sam Wilson the- The shield at the end of Endgame to the- The new Captain America movie that just came out. I know I've heard some people say that, you know, Captain- Um, Captain- A Falcon and the Winter Soldier should have been the- The fourth Captain America movie. They should have just put that together into a movie. No! No, it's good. Cause like, that one, they actually-

[00:28:51] They slowed down, they took the time to like, tell a better story. That one did work as a show. Cause it felt- Like, I feel like when I- When I watch these shows, I do come in like- Like, like- Like with Eternals. Like, I come in thinking like, with Eternals, like, would this work better as a show? Or would this show work better as a movie? And like with WandaVision and with Falcon, those work as shows. Like, I can't imagine those working as movies.

[00:29:20] So, yeah. No good place there. Uh, and Loki also, that works as a show. That one is probably my favorite of the shows that they did. WandaVision and Loki were like, tied. Um, well no, there was one other one further down. Um, three- I have three favorite MCU shows. And I can't tell which one I like more. But Loki also would work better as a show. So, no good points there.

[00:29:50] Uh, what if? Actually, funny thing about that. I- And I said, I watched all of these as they came out. There are two ex- uh, exemptions. What if? I didn't watch right away. I thought, okay, this is definitely not canon. There's no way this is- And so, I didn't watch it. I didn't watch it at first. I know that it had rave reviews, but I was like, eh, okay, yeah. I'll- maybe I'll watch it someday.

[00:30:17] And then, uh, the trailer- like the trailer for Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness came out. And people were saying, oh, what if it's canon? And I was like, what? How? And then someone explained to me how. And I was like, oh, okay. So, I went back and watched it. I was like, oh, these aren't- these aren't, um, separate self-contained stories. These are all interconnected. Because, you know, multiverse. That- that makes sense.

[00:30:46] And now there's a season two and I haven't watched it. And I have a feeling that I'm gonna be missing out. Because that- what- what happened in what ifs somehow plays a part into the movies. And this whole- this is the start of it becoming this big convoluted mess that's so confusing. That- I'm- I- I keep up with all the MCU stuff and I'm getting confused. Imagine just like a casual fan who just is like, oh, I like- I like Spider-Man.

[00:31:15] So, I watch the Spider-Man movies. And I like Black Panther. So, I watch the Black Panther movies. And I don't watch anything else. And then you watch No Way Home and you're like, wait, he's been to space? What? Um, anyway. Um, Hawkeye. Okay. That one I- I- I thought wouldn't work as- I was like, what- why would they give Hawkeye a show? Because he's- let's say the weakest Avenger.

[00:31:44] But then he also had a really interesting storyline in Endgame, which I forgot. I forgot about Ronan. And then that played a major part in the show. And then, um, he trains Kate Bishop. And that's set- that's a setup for that. That one, I think, does work as a show. I feel like it would have failed as a movie. So, there's that. Moon Knight. That one.

[00:32:13] Uh, okay. Moon Knight is the show version of Eternals. I- I forced myself to watch this every week. Every week, I would- you know, I'd go to watch like, New Rock Stars and- and all that. And everyone- they were always like, oh, this show is getting better. This is so good. It's one of the best things that they- I- pfff. Every episode, I was like, waiting for it to get good. Waiting for it to get good. Nothing happened. That- that was interesting.

[00:32:42] Like, okay, yeah, stuff happened. But, this did not interest me. Like, it was just boring. And I literally forced myself to watch it. And I think- I feel like it's worse than Eternals. Because at least Eternals was a movie. And, you know, you sit and watch it for a couple hours and it's done. Moon Knight was every week. For like- I think it was six- six to eight episodes. I don't remember. It went on for too long. And like, not enough happened. And then there was that sequel bait at the end.

[00:33:12] A season two. And then they announced that there's not going to be a second season. So, what was the point of that? I think my- that my least favorite part of the show was- You know how like- Oh, this is all one big connected universe. And, you know- Yeah, they'll- Something will happen in one movie. They reference it in another movie. Something major happened. And it's not mentioned anywhere. Ever. In anything else. There's that scene when he like-

[00:33:42] He like- Goes like- I'm doing that motion and you can't see me. He- Basically, he- He turns- He spins the sky. He like- He like- I forgot what he was doing. I forgot why. It doesn't matter why he was doing it. He was like- Spinning the sky. So, the- The stars were streaking across the sky. Making lines. And it was- It was- It was a cool visual, but- Something like that would have been- Because like-

[00:34:11] You know, it wasn't just like something that- The characters there were watching. Because it was referenced by other people. Like- That- That happened. And why- Why did that happen? It's not mentioned anywhere else in any other Marvel thing. And on another show. Like- That was weird when the sky did that, right? We all saw that, right? I- I thought- That's weird. But like- That's- Okay, that is- One of the most visually- I mean- There were things- Okay, so like-

[00:34:41] I just- I did not like this show. There was a few positives. Like when they were on like- This- Sea of Re- Not the Sea of Reads. Um- They were at the- The death- World thing. I thought the visuals were like- Pretty cool. And then there was that like- Death hippo thing. I- I don't remember- I did not care about this show at all. So like- I was like half paying attention. And-

[00:35:11] I was like- Okay, that's really interesting. I like when she was like- The ghost hippo. She was like- Oh, yeah. And there's different- There's different forms of death. Like- Like- And they were talking about like- Basically like the Black Panther death thing. And then like- It explains how like- All these other properties have like different death- Places they go to. And it explains it here in the show. So like- It's not completely pointless.

[00:35:39] There are a few things in Moon Knight that connect to the MCU. And I'm like- Okay. And like cherry pick a few specific things out of it. But it's not worth watching the entire show for these few nitpicked things. And I don't feel like Moon Knight's gonna show back up. And like Secret Wars or something. This- Watch- This- This episode's not gonna age well. They're gonna come back in a few years and be like- Um, Moon Knight was like a major pivotal character in Secret Wars. Thank you very much. Like, I don't know.

[00:36:09] I haven't seen it yet. It's not even out. I don't think they've even made it. The Russo brothers are gonna listen to this and be like- We're gonna make them a major character. Yeah. Uh, Ms. Marvel. That one was the one that's tied- There's WandaVision, Loki, and Ms. Marvel. I loved Ms. Marvel so much. It was such a fun show. And like, I didn't know anything about Ms. Marvel going in.

[00:36:36] I knew she was a major fan of Captain Marvel. And I know that- Ymeen Vellani, I think that's her name. She- She's basically not doing a character because she's a major fan in real life. I saw- I remember when they made the announcement and they played the- They had- They played the Zoom call of her getting the thing. And she's so adorable! Like, she's such a fan. And that's cool. They- They got a- Basically a no-name actor. Like, they did-

[00:37:05] I love that they got- They did that. That she's a fan in the comics. And then she's a fan in real life. And she's a creator. She did a lot of art. She like, made up her own thing. I saw in the interview, she was like- I got to basically do my own hand gestures. Like, whatever I did on set that became canon. And she was like, I can do this. And she like, did a hand gesture. And she was like, that becomes the thing. That becomes canon. And she was like-

[00:37:33] Like, I love like, the relationship between her and Kevin Feige. And that she talks about like- Like, she basically like, chewed him out. And like, got him to change things on the show. Cause like, it wasn't right with what the character would do. And she actually wrote this Marvel comic that was published. And I was like, this is amazing. This is like a fan dream come true. And I love it. That was like, one of the main reasons I love it. Because of her. She made the show lovable. But then I watched the show.

[00:38:03] And it itself is amazing. Like, I love it. It's like, the stylistically, it's so different from like, pretty much anything else in the MCU. When they have like, um, like when they send texts. It's like, interacts with like, the background. And like, the wall art comes to life. And like, just like, it's like a comic book come to life. Like, literally. And it's so fun to watch.

[00:38:31] And, and of course there's that, that thing at the end. Where the first mention of the word mutant. And then, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. It's like, oh, oh, oh! And, I was like, so like, this is such a fun show. I know a lot of people hated it. Because, again, it's, Marvel's becoming like Star Wars. In the sense that no one hates Star Wars more than Star Wars fans. No one hates Marvel like Marvel fans. Because, nowadays, it's like, it seems like no matter what. People are just gonna hate.

[00:39:02] And, that's, I saw a lot of love for this show. So, I, I will say that like, I did notice that even the people that hated this show. Loved to mean Vellani. So, it was like, okay, this show sucks. It sucks. It's garbage. But, she is cute though. She probably didn't, they probably didn't mean it the same way I mean it. Because, you know, people suck online. Um, but, yeah, okay. Three more shows. Um, after Ms. Marvel with She-Hulk.

[00:39:32] That one got a lot of hate. It's mostly by misogynists. Because, they're like, they just want to complain. Other than to say that, people just want to complain. The show was fine. And, they, they suck. The people that hate it suck. Um, I thought the ending was creative. And, um, I wasn't really that surprised that it ended like that.

[00:39:58] But, you know, um, because the original comics of Ms. Marvel, of She-Hulk. They're force wall breaking too. I think there was even a comic once on there where like, she did the same thing. Where she left the comic and was like, hey, uh, Stan Lee. Um, why, why are you ending it like this? Or whatever. Well, this time, she left the show. Like, entered Disney Plus into another show.

[00:40:28] And talked to K-E-V-I-N. Which, in this case, Kevin was a robot AI algorithm thing. And, I thought that was so brilliant. That they actually took something from... I thought that was so brilliant. That they took something from the comics. And like, adapted it like this. That was so clever. But so many people were like, that's stupid. It's a cop out.

[00:40:56] Like, you can't trust anything anymore. Everything in the MCU is fake. Um, I literally heard that complaint. Everything in the MCU is fake now. Um, I hope you realize... It was always fake. This is... This is a work of fiction. This isn't real. It didn't actually happen. I hope... I hope you're not learning this from me.

[00:41:26] Anyway, two more. Really quick. I'm just gonna go through it really quick. You know how I said... When I said What If, there was two shows that I didn't watch right away. What If was one. The second one, Wolf at Night. It was a... It was a Halloween episode of... It was like a Hollywood... I mean it was a... Holly... It was a Halloween one-off special event thing. I didn't watch it because I didn't think it mattered. It was like, whatever.

[00:41:57] I actually didn't watch it until a few nights ago because people were like, oh no, it's really important. It references this other thing and then it becomes a major thing of this other thing and I'm like, okay, fine, I'll watch it. And I watched it and... No, I didn't get anything out of it. It was boring. I didn't like it. And then the last one, Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas special. That was fun. That one... Even if it wasn't canon... I mean, it was canon but...

[00:42:26] Even if it wasn't canon, I would still watch it. And I liked the... The... Kevin Bacon thing. It was fun. And like, of course, the major development from the show, from that special is... Mantis being... Peter's sister. And then... Like, it did carry over into Guardians 3. And... Yeah.

[00:42:55] But yeah, that was Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 4. And... This is already... As long as the old episodes. Uh... Currently, I'm sitting at 43 minutes. Um... I don't know how long it's gonna be. This is currently my longest episode of this season. So... Even me trying to get this through as quickly as I can... Is a pretty long episode.

[00:43:26] But I digress.

[00:44:03] The Rambler Network. The Rambler Network.