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Captain Marvel, postmodernist paradox


 Captain Marvel recapitulates stock-standard postmodern storytelling.


To understand this, let us consider that, traditionally, the centre of society is ordered and that the identity ordering it is masculine. This is the structure at the start of the film: the Kree civilisation is clearly masculine, having hyper-organised cities of light. The orderliness hints at a 666 level of organisation (for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM_kQjpAK6g) and the hexagon space portals echo this also. The main representative of the Kree civilisation we encounter is a white male. In the beginning of the film, the Kree are presented as good.


Opposite this centre of ordered identity, we have the Skrull, who are shape-shifting green aliens. Typically, you expect trouble from such characters, and that is exactly how the film presents them at the beginning.


But then the story turns both these ideas on their heads. It turns out that Captain Marvel has had her memory suppressed by the Kree, as she holds a power they want to use. Not only that, it is an oppressive 'patriarchal' structure personified in Yon-Rogg that keeps her down. It also transpires that the Kree are oppressing the Skrull and essentially trying to eliminate them.


Of course we expect from a massive blockbuster film where the main point is a female superhero to hear all about female empowerment etc. So we get the stereotype of the incompetent male sidekick, flanked by an oppressive male antagonist, and the obligatory omnicompetent female. But the subversions mentioned above also support the main point, which is not just female empowerment, but about ending the masculine (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soh-3jiHq4s). The marginal becomes the centre of empathy and good in the world, which, due to its chaotic nature, tends to be associated with the feminine. Meanwhile, the centre from which identity comes is masculine, and becomes the centre of evil. We thus see Captain Marvel transformed into an angel of light to replace the Kree light city. 

Postmodernism is parastic, because it poses a question to the system, but without the system, there is nothing to question (https://thesymbolicworld.com/videos/parasitic-storytelling/). This opens up the possibility of a weird contradiction: Captain Marvel appears masculine even as she destroys it...


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