It has a strong “in-group vs. out-group” vibe. And there are basically no moral choices. I’ve watched every Marvel movie and all of Agents of Shield, and outside of “Captain America: Civil War” (and spinoffs from that like the Winter Soldier series) I can hardly think of any choices that heroes made that had actual tradeoffs. Instead you get “choices” like:
Should you try hard, or try harder? (You should try harder.)
Which should we do: (a) 100% chance that one person dies, or (b) 90% chance that everyone dies and 10% chance that everyone lives? (The second one. Then you have to make it work; the only way that everyone would die is if you weren’t trying hard enough. The environment plays no role.)
Should you sacrifice yourself for the greater good? (Yes.)
Should you allow your friend to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? (No. At least not until it’s so clear there’s no alternative that it becomes a Plot Point.)
Once the Agents of Shield had a choice. They could either save the entire world, or they could save their teammate but thereby let almost everyone on Earth die a few days later, almost certainly including that teammate. So: save your friend, or save the world? There was some disagreement, but the majority of the group wanted to save their friend.
(I’m realizing now that I may be letting Agents of Shield color my impression of Marvel movies.)
Star Trek is based on mistake-theory, and Marvel is based on conflict-theory.
Oh I remember now the game we played on later seasons of Agents of Shield.
The game was looking for a character—any non-civilian character at all—that was partially aligned. A partially aligned person is someone who (i) does not work for Shield or effectively work for Shield say by obeying their orders, but (ii) whose interests are not directly opposed to Shield, say by wanting to destroy Shield or destroy humankind or otherwise being extremely and unambiguously evil. Innocent bystanders don’t count, but everyone of significance does (e.g. fighters and spies and leaders all count).
Marvel “morality” is definitely poison.
It has a strong “in-group vs. out-group” vibe. And there are basically no moral choices. I’ve watched every Marvel movie and all of Agents of Shield, and outside of “Captain America: Civil War” (and spinoffs from that like the Winter Soldier series) I can hardly think of any choices that heroes made that had actual tradeoffs. Instead you get “choices” like:
Should you try hard, or try harder? (You should try harder.)
Which should we do: (a) 100% chance that one person dies, or (b) 90% chance that everyone dies and 10% chance that everyone lives? (The second one. Then you have to make it work; the only way that everyone would die is if you weren’t trying hard enough. The environment plays no role.)
Should you sacrifice yourself for the greater good? (Yes.)
Should you allow your friend to sacrifice themselves for the greater good? (No. At least not until it’s so clear there’s no alternative that it becomes a Plot Point.)
Once the Agents of Shield had a choice. They could either save the entire world, or they could save their teammate but thereby let almost everyone on Earth die a few days later, almost certainly including that teammate. So: save your friend, or save the world? There was some disagreement, but the majority of the group wanted to save their friend.
(I’m realizing now that I may be letting Agents of Shield color my impression of Marvel movies.)
Star Trek is based on mistake-theory, and Marvel is based on conflict-theory.
Oh I remember now the game we played on later seasons of Agents of Shield.
The game was looking for a character—any non-civilian character at all—that was partially aligned. A partially aligned person is someone who (i) does not work for Shield or effectively work for Shield say by obeying their orders, but (ii) whose interests are not directly opposed to Shield, say by wanting to destroy Shield or destroy humankind or otherwise being extremely and unambiguously evil. Innocent bystanders don’t count, but everyone of significance does (e.g. fighters and spies and leaders all count).
There were very few.