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welcome back to New rockstars I'm Eric

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Voss and Marvel's secret Invasion
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reached its finale with the lowest score
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from critics in Marvel Studios history
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with episode 6 receiving only 13 on
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Rotten Tomatoes now yes I am no fan of
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the way Rotten Tomatoes calculates these
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scores but from a qualitative
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temperature check in the days since the
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finale secret Invasion just seems to
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have left a universally sour taste in
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the mouths of viewers which seems to
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come from a disappointment over
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characters like Maria Hill Talos and
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sorin killed off with really no sense of
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resolution to those deaths in the finale
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questions left unanswered with how long
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exactly Roadie has been a scroll some
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inconsistency with the characters of
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graphic and gaia's decision making and
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gaia's new insane power set at the end
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of the series and really just what we're
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supposed to take away from the focus on
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Nick Fury's marriage and in general all
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these missed opportunities to do a live
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action secret Invasion and a squirrel
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storyline over four years of MCU history
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that just ends like this look I'm not
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here to do a hate video overall I
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enjoyed watching this series and I had a
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pretty good time with it for a more
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specific review you can check check out
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me and mod Garrett's criticisms in our
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finale review on the break room and I
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did a deeper analysis of each scene in
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my Easter egg breakdown but here in this
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video I want to look back on the whole
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series and analyze what went wrong with
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secret Invasion the challenges it faced
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the real reason I think we feel
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disappointed and I really want to try to
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clear up some of the bad takes going
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around about how the sausage is really
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made like for example the strike said
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nothing to do with this and yes there is
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a strike from sag-aftra in the wga right
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now and sag has informed us that
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entertainment journalists like new
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rockstars are allowed to cover movies
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and TV shows we just want to appreciate
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how hard it is for writers and actors to
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work under these conditions and how they
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deserve Fair pay there were some great
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moments of artistry and secret evasion
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let's not Overlook those specifically
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the acting of Olivia Coleman Don Cheadle
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Samuel L Jackson Charlene Woodard and
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everyone else in the cast and ultimately
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I do think some amazing bits of dialogue
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were written it was just a context
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around that dialogue that didn't hit
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with us and let's start by saying that
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secret Invasion has not disappointed
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fans out of a sense of Marvel fatigue in
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my opinion I'm not even so that there is
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a Marvel fatigue or a superhero fatigue
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after two of the big biggest movies this
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summer regarding to the Galaxy vol 3 and
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Spider-Man across the spider-verse and
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Marvel fans from what I can tell still
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seem pretty excited about the upcoming
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titles I'm also hesitant to blame the
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writing now I know a lot of you are like
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come on dude and I will admit that yeah
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there were some major issues with secret
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invasions episode structure it's
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internal logic and the character arcs
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like it's probably a weird sign how the
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episode run times vary so much in length
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some people say that they wish that they
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had more episodes I honestly think they
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could have done with less like in the
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six episodes of the series you could
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have made one killer two hour film but
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talk about some of the specific choices
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in the scripts this season yeah it does
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not feel great that Maria Hill was
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killed off and didn't at all motivate
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the final Conflict of the series or that
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Soren was killed off off screen or that
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the real Nick Fury the hero of the
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series had less of a relationship with
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the villain than did Gaia who's a
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two-tier protagonist who spent the
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season waffling with her stances and
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suddenly took over in the final battle
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and it doesn't feel great that the big
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twist of the series that Roadie was a
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scroll was learned by Nick Fury at some
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point off screen between episodes it
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doesn't feel great that the best moments
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of die log of the Season occurred
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between two known characters we thought
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Fury and Rhodey Fury and gravic but then
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we learned just really occurred between
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Scrolls bullshitting about their
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histories but here's the deal I wasn't
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in the writer's room of the series I
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wouldn't be surprised with a lot of the
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people who wrote on the show would feel
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the same way I think TV writers often
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have to make sacrifices and surrender
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battles to a bigger Studio vision and
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notes so instead I just want to focus on
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some more external evidence-based
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reasons that the studio struggled with
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secret invasion in particular at the
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very least think about it secret
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Invasion could have been Marvel's Andor
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or Marvel's Peacemaker both of them less
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reviewed but well liked and extremely
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well executed seasons of Television
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Espionage story set in heavily IP driven
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worlds Peacemaker was a better secret
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Invasion storyline than secret invasion
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was so to this end I think Marvel
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Studios struggled to overcome three
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challenges in particular when it came to
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secret Invasion number one we've talked
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about before what I call the scale
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dilemma in an investigation I did on the
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Deep dive Channel I broke down how in
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2019 when Marvel only made two to three
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movies a year there was only 7 hours and
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14 minutes total of MCU content to
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account for in 2021 that expanded to 34
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hours and 42 minutes across four films
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and five Disney plus streaming series
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and then in 2022 22 hours and 42 minutes
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across three films three Disney plus
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series and two special presentations now
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to be clear I don't think any of us are
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complaining about having too much
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content but since Marvel in particular
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depends on all of these storylines
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interconnecting in the same universe
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it's just harder and harder to do that
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when you want all these titles to also
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have distinct tonal variety and unique
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Stakes secret Invasion has to take place
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in a world where Tiamat is poking out of
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the ozone layer and Captain Marvel's
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power set is supposed to be uniquely
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tied to an upcoming plot making it
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pretty hard for a fourth character to
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suddenly get her powers furthermore
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Marvel's approach to rely on reshoots
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there were apparently extensive reshoots
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or secret Invasion and Marvel's tendency
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to reconfigure plot lights during
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post-production sometimes you can pull
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that off like the rooster brothers did
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that for Infinity war and end game and
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pulled it off but I think it's
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especially damaging to the Espionage
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genre in which audiences expect
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characters to be a up ahead of us and
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outsmart each other and keep us guessing
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about their plans and to be brilliant
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Master tacticians secret Invasion really
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just played out as a battle of idiots
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who could fumble the least like Fury and
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gaia's Avenger DNA plan that was so
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dangerously stupid and Nick Fury is
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supposed to be one of the cleverest
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people in the MCU if you're the kind of
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the second issue that I think Marvel
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struggled with is sacred Invasion needs
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Avengers the reason Brian Michael
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bennis's Comet crossover storyline is so
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beloved is that it seemed like every
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Marvel hero could tie in with it and
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indeed everyone pretty much does but in
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the MCU in Phase five on Disney plus
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it's just really really hard to pull
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that off so that it retroactively fits
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in perfectly with 15 years of an
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interconnected Cinematic Universe and
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still stay on budget like at the end of
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the day they couldn't afford to bring in
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Chris Hemsworth or Robert Downey Jr or
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Chris Evans or even Mark Ruffalo to show
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up I think I'd pay Julie Louis-Dreyfus
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to do this but uh I guess not the series
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instead provided two solutions reveal
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one long-time Avenger is a scroll in
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this case James Rhodes war machine but
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gave no answers on when that swap
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occurred and even had the gal to ask the
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question but not answer it so we're just
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kind of left guessing how much of a
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beloved character storyline was made up
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of Lies there's no catharsis the second
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solution they offered was this Final
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Super scroll battle between Gaia and
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gravic which did feature nods to over 2
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20 MCU characters and I'll admit it was
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fun to watch but ultimately it was two
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characters we cared less about
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cosplaying with literal arm sleeves of
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more interesting characters it's not the
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powers of those characters that we love
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it's the faces and the personalities of
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Drax and Groot and mantis and Bruce
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Banner and Thanos and the rest that
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really matter to the fans that plus the
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goofy bfx of drax's arm being way too
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small for gaia's body it just kind of
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left us feeling Hollow but the third
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thing that Marvel's really struggling
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with is a central vision and really an
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identity crisis ultimately what secret
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invasion was missing the most and I
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think what the MCU desperately needs
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right now is a strong central vision for
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all of these titles and what identity an
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espionage-filled secret Invasion series
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would occupy in the overall MCU slate
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like when you look at Star Wars Tony
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Gilroy was able to outline his vision
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for Andor and its Rogue one prequel
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timeline with dark grounded spycraft
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themes because he was able to pitch that
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as a contrast to the Dave filoni side of
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Star Wars because filoni has done such
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an effective job defining that side of
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the brand the fact that Lucas saw that
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in Gilroy's pitch document and believed
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in him led to Andor being equality if
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underwatched title and yes there was
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just some amazing goddamn writing on
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that show because when characters were
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killed off it mattered before Marvel
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phase 4 Kevin feige described it as a
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response to end game and kind of a reset
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okay but for Phase 5 with quantumania
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guardians volume 3 and secret evasion
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and the Marvel's coming we do not know
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what the central vision of Marvel is and
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what identity each of these titles is
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striving to hit other than I suppose
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what She-Hulk made fun of Marvel for CGI
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filled unfulfilling final acts but
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Marvel has an identity crisis right now
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which means some titles are going to be
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great if the director has a strong
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central vision for it and the studio
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didn't interfere with that like as was
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the case with guardians volume 3 but
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other titles are just gonna feel weird
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and confusing as is the case with
9:12
quantumania secret Invasion just did not
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have its own strong vision for what this
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show was going to be about it started as
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a show about political conspiracies and
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xenophobia really Ended as a show about
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American overreactionism and married
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life like imagine what secret Invasion
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would have looked like if it opened with
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President ritzen's address and then a
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montage of news anchors and world
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leaders getting assassinated some scroll
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some human what would happen next that
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is what secret Invasion should feel like
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that should have been the tone for the
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entire series but instead Marvel left us
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once again thinking well maybe the next
9:44
one will be better I want to know your
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thoughts on secret Invasion as a whole
9:47
in the comments below if you like what
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we're doing at new rockstars please
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subscribe to all three of our channels
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you can follow me on all social
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platforms at eavos thank you for
9:55
watching and I'll see you next time bye
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[Music]
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thank you