Not Always Graceful

Goodbyes aren't always graceful.

You can't always plan for them.

Sometimes we know.

Sometimes they come out of left field and sock you in the face like a baseball.

If you haven't seen Infinity War, you may want to skip this entry. I have no idea what I'm going to say, but suspect a spoiler might leap up and grab you when we least expect it.

Mostly, the movie has me thinking about goodbyes, and how we aren't always given the space or time to properly process them. This movie ends with a cliffhanger, if you want to call it that. I would call it a pause, because we know there will be more Avengers films. We know certain characters will be returning.

We can also guess about two or three who may not.

But the end of the movie puts a lot of things on hold, leaves a lot of storylines without resolution. I'm okay with that, because it made things feel more real. For all the aliens and super powers, for all the portals and witty quips, the end of the movie feels real, because there's no time to breathe or to understand what we just saw.

It doesn't make sense. Death is like that.

It isn't fair. Death is like that.

It makes you want to scream. Death is like that.

Two stories hit me hardest here -- oh hey, here come the spoilers, I can feel it.

First, Gamora. If I have to see or read about another man who said "I love you," and then killed the woman he just said that to, I'm probably going to hurl the world into the sun, It's too real. And here I was just advocating that the end of the movie was real so I was okay with that.

But watching another woman get fridged so a dude can complete his Utterly Nonsense Plan?

Were we supposed to be shocked that Thanos actually did love her? Was Gamora's surprise intended to foster ours? It only made me angry, watching him cry over her, over knowing that he was about to kill her to make the universe a "better place." Fuck that.

Second, Peter Parker. The movie opens with Tony having dreamed that he and Pepper were pregnant; the movie opens with Tony feeling it's time to be a dad. The movie ends with Peter turning to ash in Tony's arms, after Tony has, perhaps unintentionally, spent the movie being a dad to him.

I can't even with that. Even though we know Peter's coming back (hi, movie contracts). But. BUT. Even as I can't, I CAN, because apparently I contain multitudes. If time is reset, and they remember this timeline, how does that change who they are going forward? If the reset button erases memories, that will mean this film was a waste.

Goodbyes aren't always graceful. Those on screen, in a book, or in real life. I've had people vanish without warning. They may as well have turned to ash in my hands. Some of those people never came back. A few of them did and I'm never ever letting them go again.

No matter all the magic and wonder and portals and pryotechnics, goodbyes are sloppy and imperfect, and so is Infinity War. So though it makes me angry, I think I understand it.

2 thoughts on “Not Always Graceful

  1. great thoughts. I'm still recovering from the emotional ass-kicking last night.

  2. Cassie says:

    The things that got me: the relief on Wanda's face when she realizes she doesn't have to live with what's happened. And Bucky, walking back to his best friend and finally just getting to talk.

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