Looking Back at the Hulk

Welcome to Part 2 of my analysis of the MCU from a Christian perspective. Today, we’re looking at the second superhero introduced in the series: the Hulk.

The Incredible Hulk is probably one of the weakest movies in the MCU, but I still like it. You just have to stop thinking about it as a superhero movie. It’s a monster movie, like Godzilla… or like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde if Jekyll went on the run from the military and then fought the Wolfman in the end. 

In the quest to find Christian-compatible morals in the things I like… the story of Bruce Banner is a story about self-control. The Bible tells us to be careful not to use our anger as an excuse to sin. Banner works very hard to ensure that he only releases his violent urges against people and things that he thinks deserve his anger, such as the Abomination or a giant flying centipede from space. 

Even beyond that, Banner tries to filter the consequences of his out-of-control anger. He doesn’t want his blood out in the world, and he’s willing to lose control in order to stop a monster created by his blood. A lesser man would deny responsibility for these indirect effects of his past sins, but Banner acts a bit like Tony Stark in that area.

In Age of Ultron, we see Banner lose control – more specifically we see him give in to the manipulation of the Scarlet Witch. Someone succeeds in taking control of the Hulk away from Banner, which has been his greatest fear ever since he started running away from the military. 

But in the same movie, we see the Hulk surrendering some control to Black Widow. Banner apparently trusts Natasha enough to give her the Hulk’s leash. Unfortunately, we don’t get to see the full extent of that connection because it never comes up again after that movie, like so many other Hulk-related dropped threads. 

The takeaway from all this is that self-control isn’t just resisting temptation. It means taking responsibility for your actions – because you will mess up – and their effects on other people. It also means being careful with who is affecting you in positive and negative ways. 

Self-control is one of the Fruits of the Spirit listed in Galatians; if we stay connected to the True Vine, we’ll develop control over the monsters inside us. 

What are your thoughts on this topic? Let’s Connect!

Looking Back at Iron Man

Christian nerds, I present for your consideration: Holden Hardman. If you haven’t heard of this guy, go look him up on YouTube. He spent his quarantine showing his friends the MCU and getting their opinions. If that’s not nerd cred, I don’t know what is. 

Holden recently began a series called God in the MCU in which he analyzes Christian (or Christian-adjacent) imagery in Marvel movies. He does it with Scripture, good ol’ common sense, and a good-natured attitude. It’s pretty good. 

Watching this series made me realize I never got around to completing my own contemplation of Christian-compatible themes in the MCU. I’ve been inspired, so let’s jump into this, starting with Iron Man. 

The story of Tony Stark is a story of redemption and forgiveness. In the beginning of his story, he’s about as worldly as it gets, complete with the selfish ego that often comes from a life with very few consequences. When the consequences do come, he almost dies. 

After Tony survives, he spends his entire life – right until the end – trying to make the most of the second chance he’s received. No, he doesn’t give his life to Jesus, but in many ways, he’s a great model of the redemption process. 

And it is a process. Christians often emphasize the fact that we don’t need to do anything to earn God’s forgiveness. We just need to ask for it and accept it. God’s forgiveness is the easy part. Dealing with people is usually harder. Even after we’ve received God’s grace, we probably still need to do something about our past mistakes as far as people are concerned. 

Most of the bad things that happen to Tony Stark/Iron Man is because of something he did – someone he hurt – back when he was a more terrible person. Some of the people he hurt – Whiplash, Justin Hammer, the Mandarin – have no interest in reconciliation, so he has to rocket-punch them in the face. But he needs to swallow his pride over and over again to navigate his relationships with Rhodey, Pepper, Peter Parker, and Steve Rogers. 

He keeps making mistakes, but he keeps trying to be better than he was before. That’s what we can learn from him. 

What are your thoughts on this topic? Let’s Connect! 

@noahspud on Twitter

And in the comments below. 

Fan Theories: Pixar, Inception, and Revelation

In the nerd world, there are basically three kinds of fan theories. All three use details from canon (what’s actually in the book/movie/TV show/franchise/story) to come to conclusions. These conclusions aren’t confirmed or denied in canon, but fans like to believe they’re happening between the lines and behind the scenes.

The three kinds of fan theories are Past, Present, and Future.

Past: this is where fans guess what happened before the story happened. These theories may explain why things are the way they are in the Present.
For example, in the Toy Story movies, Andy’s father doesn’t seem to be in the picture. Evidence suggests that he and Andy’s mother divorced shortly before the first movie. There is also evidence that Andy’s mom is Emily, the original owner of the Jessie cowgirl doll in Toy Story 2.
Fan theories concerning the Past are not likely to be confirmed or denied by the canon storytellers. They’re just fun to speculate about.

Present: this is where fans try to figure out what’s happening behind the scenes of the story as it’s happening. If there’s a mystery in the TV show you’re watching, for example, you may be able to find the clues and figure out what’s going on before the characters in the show do.
Sometimes fans make Present theories because of something the storytellers intentionally aren’t telling us. For example, Christopher Nolan’s Inception is intentionally confusing about what’s real and what’s not. Fans watch the movie very closely multiple times searching for clues, and Nolan may never directly confirm which theories are true.
Whether Present fan theories are confirmed or not, they make for fun discussions and debates. If they are confirmed, fans can rejoice that they followed the clues and found the secrets. Well done, nerds. And if they’re debunked by the canon storytellers, at least the fans got to play in the game, even if they lost.

Future: this is where fans use the “clues” in trailers and movie posters to theorize about what’s going to happen in a movie or TV show that hasn’t come out yet. Unlike the first two, I don’t like these kinds of theories. I think they take the fun out of being excited for coming attractions.

*And now, the Segue…*
“Fans” of the Bible theorize about the book of Revelation – essentially a “sneak peek” trailer for the real future of the real world – all the time. They’ve been doing it even more often these days, with the *gestures wildly* going on outside.
Speculating about the end times is 1) an irresponsible use of Scripture, 2) more likely to cause fear and anger than hope and joy, and 3) pointless. The Great Storyteller knows what He’s doing, and the story is going to end exactly the way He intends it to.
The only thing that matters is the good guys are going to win and the bad guys are going to lose. It’s up to us to join the good guys’ team before the curtain rises.

Nerds find great enjoyment in speculating about fictional stories because it gives us chances to use our clever minds without pressure or high stakes. It’s good fun. Just keep your theories to the behind-the-scenes, between-the-lines bits of the Past and Present and let us anticipate the future in peace.

Let’s Connect!
Twitter: @CorrelationBlog and @noahspud

Can Bad Guys Be Redeemed?

I’m a little late for the blog’s 4-year anniversary, but this week I saw a conversation on Twitter that got me thinking about Star Wars. (I’ll try not to spoil Rise of Skywalker, in case any of you haven’t seen it yet.)

Star Wars became the codifier, the prime example, of a lot of tropes, including the Join the Dark Side trope and the Join the Light Side trope. This is where the bad guy is trying to corrupt the hero while someone, usually the hero, is trying to redeem the bad guy, despite others saying the bad guy can’t be saved.
The question that makes this trope interesting is, what if the bad guy can’t be redeemed? Is there a point of no return, an act so villainous no one can come back from it? Are there some people who just don’t deserve redemption?

For Christians, the answers seem like they should be obvious, at least in real life. Anyone can be redeemed by Jesus, and God’s will is for everyone to be redeemed. There’s nothing so bad you can’t be forgiven (except apostasy, but that’s so rare you probably don’t need to worry about it).
Then again, the truth is no one deserves redemption, not even the “good guys.” That’s one of the great things about God’s grace: we all need redemption, and God loves us, so He gives it to us even though we don’t deserve it and could never earn it.
However, that fact is the very thing that makes forgiveness so difficult for people. Deep down, we know that no one deserves mercy, grace, forgiveness, or redemption. Often blind to the fact that we have received those things when we didn’t deserve them, we feel justified in staying mad at others, especially when they don’t even feel bad about what they’re doing.

We could all learn from Padme Amidala, Luke Skywalker, and Rey. They never stop believing that Anakin, Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren can be redeemed, even after seeing the terrible things they do and losing friends, mentors, and hands. They even put themselves at risk in their attempts to reach and redeem these villains. Sounds like some other heroes I know… Jesus, the disciples, Paul, etc.

The only problem is as soon as Darth Vader is redeemed, he dies in a heroic sacrifice. We don’t get to see him reunite with his family or use his powers for good. Imagine what episodes 7-9 would have looked like – Ben Solo probably couldn’t have become obsessed with Darth Vader’s legacy if Grandpa Anakin was still around.
When we’re redeemed and saved from our sinful past, we usually have a whole life of doing great works for the Light Side to look forward to.

Let’s Connect!

Twitter: @CorrelationBlog and @noahspud

What Actually Happened in Frozen II?

I’m trying to figure out the plot to Frozen II. 

*Small spoiler warning for this first part; the spoilers get bigger as I go on.*

You know how Indiana Jones doesn’t have any real impact on the plot of Raiders of the Lost Ark? He fails to prevent the Nazis from taking the Ark of the Covenant, and they would have all died by the wrath of God whether Indy was there or not. All he does is save Marian from being tortured and get the Ark to a safe place in the end. 

Point is, I think Frozen II might have a similar problem. Elsa’s Call to Adventure is a mysterious singing from… Something. Her fantastic song “Into the Unknown” is both her Refusal of the Call and her eventual Acceptance. It turns out singing is the key to getting the Something to reveal its secrets, but the side effect is some nature spirits going haywire.

Everyone assumes Elsa and her friends have to go to the Enchanted Forest to fix… something. (Are they right? We’ll come back to that.) They soon come to a magic barrier between their Normal World and the Fantastic World, the barrier no one else has ever been able to get through. And they’re literally pushed Across the Threshold. 

This is where I started to get worried. The Something and the nature spirits want something, but they can’t communicate with the main characters very well. So they’re just pushing and pulling the characters along their journey, hoping they eventually arrive at the point. 

*Larger Spoilers from here on out!*

The Something wants the main characters to learn the truth of what happened in the Forest 34 years ago. The nature spirits want the mistakes of the past to be put right. If these things happen, the spirits will remove the magic barrier so people can go in and out of the Forest. But if this doesn’t happen… nothing bad will happen. It’s the Indiana Jones conundrum: the only reason the main characters are there is to watch what happens. 

If Elsa had just refused the Call to Adventure, Kristoff would have eventually proposed to Anna, Olaf would have grown older and wiser at a normal pace, and the spirits would have stayed in the Forest. Sure, some humans would have stayed trapped in the Forest, but I think the Something and the spirits probably could have explained things to them somehow, or they could have figured it out after spending 34 years stuck in the place where it happened. 

But there’s actually one other reason Elsa is there. The Something has something important for her at the end of her Hero’s Journey. What is it? I still have no idea. All I know is this: Elsa was the Something all along.

What?

Sorry, that doesn’t make sense. The Something  calling Elsa out of her comfort zone and ultimately convincing her to send her sister away for her safety… was Elsa? The Something that seemingly created the magic barrier around the Enchanted Forest when Elsa’s parents were kids… was Elsa? 

No, the plot to Frozen II doesn’t really work. But I still loved it. And the morals of the story are blooming brilliant. 

It’s true that Elsa could have refused the Call to Adventure without anything bad happening. But then she would have stayed in the same place and never found the development on the other side of her fear. Throughout the story, everyone learns to be okay with change and the unknown future. 

The ultimate moral of the movie is when you don’t know what to do or what’s going to happen next, all you can do is the Next Right Thing. That’s pretty good, and Christian-compatible, too. 

Other things: Disney clearly understands that the fans of the first movie have gotten older, so they made a grown-up story for those people. It even gets dark in some parts; not for kids as much as the first one. 

The music is also more grown-up, meaning not quite as catchy but just as good quality. Fun fact: Kristoff can sing. I mean, he’s played by Jonathan Groff of Hamilton fame, so I should have known he could sing. But I was impressed.

Verdict: 7 Idina Menzel power solos out of 10. 

What did you think of the movie? Let’s Connect!

Twitter: @noahspud and @CorrelationBlog

On Queerbaiting

“Queerbaiting” is a phenomenon in fandoms where two characters of the same gender have good chemistry together but don’t date each other, instead forming heteronormative relationships with other characters. Sometimes there are references or jokes about the idea that they could date, but it does not become a canon relationship. 

Some fans, particularly ones who identify as LGBTQWXYZ+ themselves, call queerbaiting offensive. They complain that there should be more diverse representations of sexuality and relationships in fandoms, and not doing it is just teasing. This idea is applied to Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, Q and Eliot from The Magicians, Dean and Cas in Supernatural, Xena the Warrior Princess, and many others.

Four things. 

One: from a Biblical perspective, this is like saying there are too many liars and murderers in fandoms, and there should be more diverse representation of sin. Throw in some pagan idol worship while you’re at it! 

I’ve mentioned before that non-straight characters and ships are more forgivable in fictional universes where the rules are different, but they should never be seen as something to emulate. Diversity is great in terms of role models and acceptance, but crying for diverse sexuality is pretty much asking for the celebration of sin, which I cannot get behind. 

Two: in Stranger Things Season 3, we meet Robin the Ice Cream Girl, who seems like a great love interest for Steve Harrington. But then it turns out Robin is into girls, and even if she’s also into guys, she’s not in a rush to date Steve, so they’re just good friends. Am I supposed to call “straight bait”?

“No,” the other side yells. “There’s an overwhelming number of straight relationships in fandom, so you don’t get to complain when you don’t get another one.” Why not? I would have gotten the same satisfaction as you, and I felt the same disappointment you would. 

This happens all the time. Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. The Doctor and most of his companions. Barry Allen and Felicity Smoak. The thing we expect to happen or wish would happen doesn’t happen… and it’s actually really clever. Subverting expectations is a very powerful storytelling tool. But apparently, when fans’ expectations include gay stuff, they can’t appreciate the narrative power of platonic chemistry.

Three: on that note, Platonic Chemistry! It’s a thing! Not all chemistry needs to be romantic! If you were automatically expected to date any person you got along with, I doubt you’d be too happy about it. And your life is no less interesting, exciting, or important with platonic friends of both genders. Why must you take that away from these characters? 

Four: I scanned through the search results for “queerbaiting,” and I saw multiple sources say – in the very first sentence – “queerbaiting is a marketing technique.” Yeah, these content creators know what they’re doing. If they can make the fans feel upset, at least they’re feeling something. If fans complain about a show, at least they’re talking about it. And the reason it’s called “baiting” is it keeps people watching, hoping for another hint that their favorite ship will become canon. 

There are better things to complain about than your favorite characters not getting together. Fandoms are supposed to make you feel happy things. Chill out.

Once again tiptoeing around landmines. Let’s connect!

Twitter: @noahspud and @CorrelationBlog

Christianity and RPG’s (An Observation from Noah)

This is kind of related to Isaac’s brief series about role playing games… not really, but kinda.

Critical Role is a livestream show where a bunch of nerdy professional voice actors sit around and play Dungeons and Dragons every Thursday night. It’s delightful nerdy fun. 

D&D has a tenuous history with Christianity. It’s a game where people pretend to be fantasy creatures performing magic and interacting with polytheistic fantasy gods and devils. Many Christians worry that, if people blur the lines between make-believe and reality, they can go from this game to real occult activities or real violence. Isaac and I have said our respective pieces about all that. 

Potential problems with the context aside, live-streamed D&D shows provide exciting fantasy epics. Critical Role has the advantage of experienced actors who have been friends playing together for years. And recently, there was a moment that really made me think. 

In the show, a character named Cadeucus is a follower of a nature goddess. He’s said some things about prayer and following his deity’s will that are very applicable to real-life followers of the real-life God. When asked why someone might agree to be a “champion,” an instrument of a deity’s will, Cadeucus said, “Someday, someone is going to pray for a miracle, and that prayer will be answered because… you showed up.” 

Truth! We talk about God answering prayers and doing miracles, but far too often we forget that we can be someone’s answered prayer and someone’s miracle. We can ask to be His hands and feet, and while not all of us will get fantastic power to heal with a touch, and we won’t need to go find a monster to smite, we can be champions of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Good to be back. Any questions or suggestions for future posts? Let’s Connect!

Twitter: @noahspud and @CorrelationBlog

Endgame and Expectations

“The Ancient One is supposed to be an Oriental guy.”
“Scarlet Witch is supposed to be way more powerful.”
“Aunt May is supposed to be old.”
“The Mandarin is supposed to be cool.”
“Bucky was supposed to be a kid.”
“Captain Marvel is supposed to be different.”
Marvel fans complain about these sorts of things, and I agree with some of them. But in Avengers: Endgame, a smart lady said, “We all fail at who we’re supposed to be. The mark of a hero is how we handle being who we are.”

Unpopular opinion: Endgame was very disappointing. There’s no way it could have lived up to all the hype, but even adjusting my expectations, it was ultimately meh. There were parts I liked, though. For example, the moral.
A few characters didn’t live out the role they were supposed to be in the movie. I can’t tell you who, because Thanos Still Demands Your Silence. But I can talk about why the moral is important.

God made people to be in community with him. As we’re created in His image, we’re supposed to be good, loving, faithful, etc. But we fail at that. A lot. We miss the mark, and even if God isn’t mad, He’s disappointed. We need the salvation and forgiveness of Jesus to repair the relationship.
But even when we’re forgiven, we still fail at who we’re supposed to be. The wonderful thing is God loved us with his pure and powerful love before we were born, before we failed, and before we were forgiven, and he still loves us through all our failures.
God loves who we are as well as who we’re supposed to be. And there’s still a chance we can become who we’re supposed to be. All our gifts and talents and dreams are glimpses of that ideal person God created inside us. As we try to bring that person to the surface, we can be just as heroic as the Avengers.

But not the version of them we got in Endgame. Again, those are the ones who’ve already failed, and they’re pretty meh.
The more I think about Endgame, the lower it gets on my MCU ranking list (which I’m still working on). Here’s hoping I don’t get flamed for daring to dislike it.

Westeros, Asgard, and Wakanda

One of my classmates in City First Leadership College recently started watching Game of Thrones. She acknowledged that it’s one of the most secular shows on TV, but she also said she’s been learning a lot about how kingdoms work. Considering Christians and Christ-followers call ourselves citizens of God’s kingdom, it’s interesting how limited our understanding of kingdoms is or how tainted it is by the American mentality.
I haven’t seen Game of Thrones, so I can’t expand on that specific concept. But when Isaac posted his MCU rankings, it got me thinking about the concept from another perspective. So before I get to my own MCU rankings (that’s going to take a lot of thought), let’s talk about the kings of Asgard and Wakanda.

Asgard is a kingdom of god-like aliens. Thor is in line for the throne, but he’d rather be a warrior-hero than king. He must learn lessons about humility and selflessness before he’s worthy to rule, and then a better understanding of his leadership responsibilities helps him become a better hero. As soon as he reaches that point, his planet explodes. He no longer has a place to rule, but he still has people to lead.
Loki, meanwhile, wants to be king but doesn’t have a real right to rule. As Odin says, his birthright was to die, so any power he does have is already the grace of god. He’s too proud and selfish to be content with that, so he tries using subterfuge and other people’s magic rocks and armies to take power from others. When he fails, he falls lower than before.

Wakanda has had a strict non-interference policy of global affairs for a very long time. Killmonger disagrees with that, and because he didn’t grow up in Wakanda, he’s not part of the culture that follows the king without question. When he becomes king, he tries to use the country’s resources to “help” descendants of Africa around the world by attacking Caucasian people with extreme prejudice. The kingdom has no choice but to go along with it.
T’Challa also disagrees with his dad’s philosophy, but he wants to actually help people. It takes him confronting the truth of what his traditional predecessors have done and almost dying to get to a place where he, like Thor, can lead heroically and do better than those who came before him.

The lessons to take from these stories are especially applicable to me as a student of City First Leadership College. They also remind me of the book A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. Isn’t it cool how we can find morals applicable to following God in even the weirdest stories?

Let’s Connect!
Twitter: @CorrelationBlog and @noahspud

On Self-Sacrifice, re: The Magicians Season 4 Finale

The Season 4 Finale of the Magicians made a lot of people angry. Many threatened to stop watching the show, claiming it couldn’t have ended worse. Their complaints are misguided, and I’m going to address them. That means I’m going to discuss the ending, so Spoiler Warning for anyone who cares.
Also Content Warning, same one the Magicians should have. The show goes to some dark places: drug abuse, alcoholism, rape, depresssion, and discussions of suicide. That last one is what we’re talking about now.

Quentin Coldwater, the show’s Harry Potter (even his friends consider him their Harry), has struggled with suicidal thoughts for quite some time, and even attempted suicide before. Using the magical world of the show to get over that depression has been one of his major story arcs. Then, at the end of Season 4, Quentin dies. He is responsible for his own death. And the fans went nuts.
Not only do they claim Quentin “killing himself” was insensitive, but they’re upset that he didn’t end up in a gay relationship and instead got back together with his ex-girlfriend just before the end. “Queerbaiting,” they say. That’s a topic for another day, though.

Here’s the thing they’re all forgetting: there’s a HUGE difference between suicide and self-sacrifice. Suicide is what happens when someone believes the best way to end the pain they feel is to leave this world. Self-sacrifice is when someone chooses a negative outcome for themselves – often death – in order to ensure a positive outcome for others.
Quentin did a dangerous thing, knowing there was a high probability he would die as a result. He also knew the entire universe would be saved from a threat if he did the thing. Calling that suicide is kind of insensitive, not to people who do struggle with this kind of depression and pain but to every hero, both fictional and real, who has laid down his/her life for others.
A couple days after this finale aired, many of us are celebrating the greatest self-sacrifice of all time. Jesus could have avoided his death – he’s God, after all – but he chose to let it happen because he knew the entire human race would be saved from an eternity of torture and separation from God. He also knew he’d beat death and rise again, but that doesn’t make what he went through any less significant. As I’ve said before, don’t let fandoms ruin death for you.

Happy Easter.
And because I brought it up, I’ll also add this. National Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273-8255.

I really hope I’m not stepping on a landmine here. Let’s Connect!

Twitter: @CorrelationBlog and @noahspud