[Quora Answer] Thanos on Xandar

Spoilers ahead...

Someone on Quora was asking how various Quorans would write a scene of Thanos's arrival on Xandar. Given that this involves writing, writing villains specifically, and Marvel, I figured this fit pretty perfectly in my wheelhouse.

Very minor spoilers for Avengers: Infinity War ahead, but this is how I would have handled such a scene.

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The Fall of Xandar

If such a thing had to be done (presumably as a Marvel one-shot), I’d do it from the perspective of an ordinary Xandarian on the ground. Have it open with Thanos’s ship having just appeared overhead. Panic in the streets. What remains of the Nova Corps fleet rushing to meet the enemy head-on, but the end is clear. Everyone knows those pilots won’t be coming back.

A PA drones in the background, echoing hauntingly through the streets, notifying residents not to panic, to retreat to their designated shelters in an orderly fashion, that the Nova Corps is prepared. The Nova Corps will save them.

No one listens. The PA fades further and further into the background the longer the film goes on. We see civilians fleeing in every direction. Even a few Nova Corps soldiers are joining them, looking terrified. Our POV character is rooted in place, staring up at the massive warship overhead. Just in time, we see Cull Obsidian kicking a Nova Corps tank away with a lazy push of his foot, seemingly unaffected by the blaster fire striking him repeatedly from all sides. He notices us. A Nova Corps fighter swings by overhead, distracting Cull Obsidian just long enough for our POV character to scramble away, but before the fighter can do anything, there is a flash of blue light as Proxima Midnight’s spear tears the fighter in half.

From our hiding place, we see Ebony Maw tearing open a set of heavy security doors from a distance, using only the power of his mind, as he gleefully announces to Xandar that the Savior of the Universe has come.

“Thanos is here, dear children! Worry not! For the Titan shall set you free!”

We get distracted by Nova Corps reinforcements arriving, but Corvus Glaive appears and makes short work of them, dispatching them with ruthless efficiency and ease. Once, he comes within inches of discovering our hiding spot, but he, too, has his attention drawn.

As we see Thanos emerging from the smoke. A terrified Nova Corpsman, just a kid, maybe a cadet, is clutching the orb, trying desperately to keep it from the Mad Titan’s grasp. The city around him is burning, and his uniform is in tatters. He must have barely escaped some sort of slaughter in the vault where the Orb was being kept. Only for Thanos to pursue him.

The Children of Thanos form up behind their leader. Corvus Glaive makes a move towards the Corpsman, but Thanos holds up a hand. His expression is soft, almost gentle. He moves slowly towards the kid.

“There now, child,” he says softly. “I don’t want to hurt you. All I want is the Orb.”

“You can’t have it! Y-you can’t! You…killed…”

“I want to save you, boy,” whispers Thanos, getting down on one knee to look the boy in the eye. “I want to save all of you.”

He reaches out, stretching forth his hand to take the Orb. For a second, it looks like the boy will relent and give it to him. But at the last second, the boy scrambles back, tears streaking down his face. He can’t back away far. There’s a wall behind him that impedes his progress. He’s trapped.

Thanos’s expression is one of regret. Mixed with respect.

“I understand,” says Thanos, reaching for the Orb. “You are a brave man.”

He crushes the boy’s head in his fist with hardly an effort, and the body crumples to the ground as Thanos scoops up the orb. As he turns, he sees us. But his expression remains soft.

“I want to save you all,” whispers Thanos. “And I promise you, I will. No matter the cost.”

As Thanos and the Children of Thanos vanish into the smoke, the camera zooms in on our terrified POV character, and pans around to show the scope of the destruction.

The screen slowly fades to black, taking all the background sound with it.

Only the endless loop of the PA remains.

“Please remain calm…The Nova Corps is on the way…the situation will be resolved soon…please remain calm…”

[Quora Answer] Was Rasputin Real?

Someone on Quora wanted to know whether Rasputin was real or fictional. Given that I am mildly obsessed with Rasputin and the Romanov family, I gave this answer a shot.

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Was Rasputin Real? Or Was He Fictional?

Rasputin was a real person, though his tale grew greatly in the telling.

Rasputin was a self-proclaimed monk (or, perhaps more accurately, pilgrim, as he had no official position in the church) active in Russia in the years leading to the Bolshevik Revolution (arriving somewhere between 1903 and 1905). Due to sheer charisma, he became a popular figure in Russia at the time, popular enough, in fact, to meet with Tsar Nicholas II. After this meeting, he became a “healer” for Empress Alexandra’s ailing son, Alexei.

Alexandra was extremely worried about her son. Alexei had a condition known as hemophilia (which could be very dangerous) and he was Nicholas’s only heir. No matter what they did, nothing seemed to help the boy. But, through unknown means, Rasputin managed to convince her that he could help. In so doing, he soothed her worried heart and managed to earn her trust.

He had a reputation as something of a charlatan, but a popular one, which irked the church greatly. So when Nicholas left the capital, leaving his wife in charge (and thus increasing Rasputin’s influence over the country, due to his influence over her), many people were understandably a bit concerned.

There is some evidence to suggest that Rasputin did whatever he could to increase his own influence. At the very least, most of his contemporaries seemed to think so, including Grand Duke Nicholas (different guy from Tsar Nicholas), who once threatened Rasputin with death if he ever dared to go to the front to bless the Russian troops.

In 1916, several nobles had had enough of Rasputin’s influence over Alexandra. They assassinated him by luring him to one of their homes and shooting him three times (one of these shots was to the head). Many legends and reports state that there were…oddities, shall we say…around his death. He had apparently been poisoned with cyanide, but seemed to be unaffected by it. He was given poisoned wine, but again was unaffected. After they had shot him once and left for dead, he apparently sprang to his feet and attacked them when they came back to make sure he was actually dead. They then threw him in a river to dispose of the body.

When the police found his body, they found evidence of the gunshot wounds, as well as several traces of trauma. But no trace of poison.

Since most of what we know about him is hearsay and rumor anyway, and this man generated many rumors, fantasy writers tend to go nuts with Rasputin’s life story. He seems to have said some deeply creepy stuff over the course of his life, and just look at him. Give that man magic powers and he could terrify anyone. Add to that the fact that he’s always been surrounded by mystery, and again, fantasy writers go wild.

We do know that Rasputin had a talent for attaining power and influence, that his hold over Empress Alexandra was incredibly strong (perhaps supernaturally so), that he apparently survived things no man should be able to survive, and that very strange things seemed to happen around him.

Coincidence? Perhaps.

Either way, it makes for a good story.

[Quora Answer] Why Marvel's Films Do Better than DC's

I was pretty active on Quora a few weeks back, and I thought it might be fun to share a few of my answers here, starting with a question of "Why Marvel's Films Do Better Than DC's".

https://www.quora.com/profile/Joseph-Rose-33

Why Do Marvel's Films Do Better than DC's?

A couple reasons.

First, Marvel was working from a position of weakness, whereas DC has been working from a position of strength. At least as far as characters go. When the MCU started, they didn’t have the movie rights to any of their top-tier characters. What they had were the B- and C-listers (as far as popularity goes, at least…Cap will always be #1 for me). This is actually pretty similar to the position Marvel was in when they created the Avengers way back in the day. Rather than choosing to take their bestsellers and stick them on a team together (like DC did with the Justice League), Marvel chose to revitalize some of their less popular characters by teaming them up. It worked like a dream back in the day.

But anyway, back to the movies. Marvel knew they wouldn’t be able to bank on brand recognition alone. They had to think, they had to plan, they had to get it right on the first try. So that’s what they did.

DC, on the other hand, had all their characters. Especially the best ones. Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman. They had the rights to everyone. They had the brand recognition that Marvel could only dream about. This meant that when it came time to make each movie, they banked a lot more on “Everyone knows Superman!” than Marvel could. Look at it this way, if you’ve got a massive arsenal of nuclear weapons, you probably won’t feel a burning need to spend time lining up your shot before you push the big red button. But if all you’ve got is a bow and a handful of arrows, you’d better make sure you make your shots count.

The only thing they didn’t have was time. Marvel had beaten them to the punch with the whole “cinematic universe” idea, and now whatever DC did, they would get compared to Marvel. So they decided to distance themselves from Marvel tonally, with…mixed success, shall we say.

However, this created another problem. DC didn’t want to risk Marvel getting further ahead of them than they already were, so they rushed a few things. Whereas Marvel released The Avengers as the sixth movie in a series, DC only really had three movies leading up to Justice League (Suicide Squad was in there too, but didn’t really contribute much to the mix).

The other main issue is that Marvel hires fans. Kevin Feige won’t bring on a director or a writer if they don’t love the source material. Look at Winter Soldier. Look at how cool the Russo brothers clearly think Captain America is. And they give him a lot of moments to show it off. Look at how cool Favreau thinks Iron Man is. Or how much James Gunn cares about the Guardians. They love these characters and want to share that love with the audience. As a result, we love them too. Even more impressive is the fact that Marvel tends to hire up-and-coming directors who love comics. The Russos, for example, had hardly done anything big budget before Winter Soldier.

DC hires people with pedigree. Zack Snyder has done some visually impressive movies before, but he clearly doesn’t get Superman. In my personal opinion, I think Snyder doesn’t even like Superman, not because of his character, but because Snyder has a hard time with what Superman stands for. This becomes pretty evident in Batman v. Superman when everyone but Superman gets to tell the audience their side of the story. But that’s another conversation for another day.

Yet another reason is more deeply ingrained in the characters. There’s a meme that goes “DC heroes are gods trying to be men; Marvel heroes are men trying to be gods.” It’s pretty close to true. Your average member of the Justice League could probably take down most of the Avengers on their best day, but this cosmic level of power tends to make DC heroes a bit harder to relate to. Effectively, DC tends to go for the power fantasy route (even Batman and Catwoman can somehow take out three Flashes at the same time nowadays), while Marvel tends to make more down-to-earth heroes (the “anyone can be a hero” route). This is a lot of the reason why DC’s big three (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) are two godlike immortals and one supergenius, while Marvel’s main heroes (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Spidey) are three mortals (one scrawny kid turned Super Soldier, one messed up recovering alcoholic supergenius, and a kid from Queens who got bit by a spider) and one godlike immortal. As a result, it’s slightly easier for Marvel to get us to relate to these characters on the big screen. I have friends who still have a hard time relating to Wonder Woman or Superman, even after seeing the movies.

Another reason is the visual effects (this is a tiny one, but it contributes). Marvel is owned by Disney, and Disney owned Industrial Light and Magic, one of the best visual effects companies in the world. As a result, Marvel and Disney get first dibs on ILM, and it shows. DC, unfortunately, tends to have to find someone else to be their main VFX company.

But the main reason, the #1 reason for Marvel finding greater success than DC…

Is this guy.

Kevin Feige. Perhaps the greatest superhero of them all.

If the MCU were a TV show, Feige would be the showrunner, the lead writer, the head honcho. He created a plan for the MCU early on (most likely he planned out Phase 1 by itself, with a few dangling plot threads, and then planned phases 2 and 3 together), and Marvel gave him the power to enforce that plan. Various directors have mentioned that Marvel gives them 2 or 3 mandates (this event needs to happen, this character needs to be introduced, this character absolutely cannot die, etc). These mandates all come from Feige. From his plan for the universe. And on top of everything else he does, he hires people who get along, so that James Gunn can work with the Russo Brothers just fine, without egos getting in the way.

After Infinity War, people are still finding bits of foreshadowing in previous Marvel movies (especially Age of Ultron). While some of this is probably the usual comics thing of one writer leaving a hint of things to come, and the next trying desperately to work out a plot that fits that hint later, but a lot of this is definitely Feige. He’s a master planner, and he’s a superfan to boot.

DC doesn’t have anyone to match Feige. Snyder was their best bet, initially, but we know how that turned out. And, later in his run, DC lost faith in Snyder and started undercutting him (again, with mixed results). Marvel has pretty much always backed Feige 100%.

[SPOILER TALK] Incredibles 2 - How I Would Have Handled Screenslaver

Just for fun, I started thinking of how I would have handled Screenslaver in Incredibles 2. This is just a fun thought-experiment, because I felt there was more potential to this villain than we wound up seeing. I'm nowhere near as good a storyteller as Brad Bird is, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.

Mostly I just really like playing around with villains, and this is a thinly veiled excuse for me to do so, disguised as some sort of critique.

Also, as the title suggests, spoilers ahead. Don't read this if you haven't seen the movie and don't want some twists spoiled for you.

...

Are they gone?

Okay, we can continue.

How They Did It

Now, The Incredibles 2 does some fun stuff with Screenslaver, but I felt like they could have done more if they went in a slightly different direction.

In the movie, Screenslaver hypnotizes people through screens, and even has a pair of goggles that can hypnotize people, so long as the goggles are on. If the screens or the goggles are broken, then Screenslaver's control is broken.

Secretly, Screenslaver is a hypnotized pizza delivery guy, being controlled by Evelyn Deavor (she literally has Evil Endeavor in her name, by the way, which as foreshadowing goes is just shy of putting up neon signs) for the purpose of making the supers illegal forever. She wants to destroy Supers because her father was killed, though he relied on Supers coming to save him.

How I Would Have Done It

Depending on what you want, you could have Evelyn or Winston turn out to be Screenslaver in my version. Personally, I'd like Winston to be the face, because that's what he does, and Evelyn to be the support, effectively making them both Screenslaver. Like the Parr family plotline revolving around how they're stronger together, you could have Winston and Evelyn be a powerful villain, but only when they're working in concert. Their motives are aligned, and neither of them can truly be effective without the other. Winston is enough of a geek to know the weak points of various heroes, and also understands human psychology well enough to be able to sell them on anything, while Evelyn is the mind behind all the tech.

Hypnotism still works through screens and goggles, providing an instant override of another person's mind. However, hypnotism works more like it does in real life, where responses and behaviors can be programmed into a person's mind, even after the hypnotism has concluded. Breaking the glasses and the screens disrupts direct control, but programmed responses still remain.

Why this change? One, it means that the problem of hypnotism isn't easily resolved. Two, it works into this new Screenslaver's master plan.

See, bitterness against superheroes is kind of bland, I think. We've already basically seen that done much more thoroughly in Captain America: Civil War. So part of my idea is a villain overhaul, an overhaul that will, hopefully, tie all the plot threads of The Incredibles 2 together in a much more satisfying way.

I'd write Screenslaver's motives as being to make sure Supers succeed. Not to take their place or supplant them like Syndrome wanted, but to make sure all Supers everywhere succeeded, became popular, became...well, marketable. With screen-based hypnotism, and a very public face of villainy, the Deavor siblings could effectively generate their own conflicts, creating the threats and then dispatching heroes to deal with those threats, all while serving as the main advocates for the supers, the only ones willing to give them a break when no one else would. A lot of power and influence would come with that. But on top of it, it gives the supers brand recognition.

The main thing we're told about Winston is that he can sell just about anything. Whatever he gets his hands on, he markets. Later in the movie, we see the Incredibile (really should have been Incredicar, just saying) in some rich guy's living room. Bob gets really upset, noting that he was told the car was destroyed, but this guy was able to buy it anyway. As it is, this is mainly used as comic relief, as well as a way to get the kids out of a messy situation later. The car is little more than a plot device.

But what if the car was on the market for a reason? What if Bob being told the car was beyond all repair actually had bearing on the plot? What if this reveal leads to someone (say Dash, he needs more to do) discovering that superhero paraphernalia is being auctioned off at insane prices. In the wake of Supers being declared illegal years before, surely all those devices and vehicles and gadgets wouldn't have been something people wanted to keep around. So Winston was able to snatch them up for pennies. Maybe he believed that Supers would come back on their own, but now he's realized he needs to take a little initiative. In the wake of Syndrome's attack, the time is perfect for Supers to make a comeback.

Whereas Syndrome did what he did for status and revenge, and Evelyn in the movie did things out of bitterness, this new Screenslaver does everything for gain, for profit, effectively, for merchandising.

This would put the Incredibles into conflict with someone who, effectively, is trying to use Supers for financial gain, effectively generating superpowered battles for popularity, merchandise, maybe even good TV somewhere down the line. Rather than someone who is trying to destroy what the Incredibles stand for, you have someone who is trying to give them everything they want, pre-packaged, but working with them would potentially corrupt the very idea of superheroes.

If behaviors programmed into people during hypnosis stick around, then they can effectively use TV coverage of heroes to program their audiences into buying more merchandise, maybe even program troublesome supers into going along with it. Effectively, it makes Screenslaver less about destruction and more about gaming the market. Less about a somewhat transparent "let's discredit heroes by having them robotically state their intention to turn evil while wearing these mysterious goggles that are identical to the ones on the supervillain that controls minds" plot, and more about manipulation, subtlety, ruthlessness.

I feel like that kind of villain could have been truly interesting, if done correctly. And when the Incredibles start to unravel Screenslaver's plot, the screens could then be used to turn everyone against them. Not just the people wearing the goggles or watching the videos at that moment, but everyone.

This would grant the Incredibles a chance to choose:

Go along with Screenslaver's plan, amass fame and fortune, be beloved by everyone...

Or be hated and hunted by the very people you're trying to protect, all in the name of doing what's right.

There's a line that Rick Dicker says early in the movie. "People in power don't understand people like you, people that do good just because it's the right thing to do." This line could have come back, even been the driving theme of the movie. The Incredibles would have to deal with real consequences for their actions, they'd have a choice to be heroes, or to become a part of the evil plan, and see exactly what the consequences of that choice would be. Effectively, they'd have a chance to prove that they're the sort of people who do good, simply because it's right. It doesn't gain them anything. In theory, they could lose everything they have. The fancy house Winston gave them, the cushy life, the adoration of the public, the middle-class existence they've grown used to...they could lose all of it. But they choose to do what's right anyway.

And Winston and Evelyn Deavor are powerful people. They could very well think that Supers are just trying to get ahead. Towards the beginning of the movie, they're effectively able to buy Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and Frozone. The only real weakness Screenslaver would have in this version, is what Agent Dicker said.

Not everyone is in it for the reward or the money. Some people do good solely because it's the right thing to do. That's not something Screenslaver would understand.

Anyway, that's just me playing around with the concept of Screenslaver. What do y'all think? How would you guys handle a villain like that, given the chance?